The Kingdom Advances

After he had suffered, he also presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

While he was with them, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the Father’s promise. “Which,” he said, “you have heard me speak about; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit in a few days.”

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, are you restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time?”

He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Acts 2:41–47 (CSB)

So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added to them. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.

Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles. Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need. Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

The Legacy of the Church

If you take a step back—the story of the Church is kind of unbelievable

We live in a world where Christian values are so deeply engrained

But where did this start?

So much of the good in this world finds its root in the Legacy of the Church

This is just a list:

(SLIDES)

Orphanages and foster care

Caring for the poor and widows

Gave women greater dignity and freedom

Gave children a higher value and importance

Hospitals (4th century)

Universities (6th century)

And child education

Arts, Culture, Philosophy

Visual Arts - Renaissance - Mostly Christian-influenced art

Patronage from the Church

Music

Bach, Mozart, Beethoven — inspired Christians

Literature

The Bible is the most sold book of all time

Johannes Gutenberg was a catholic

Saw the need for easily assessable books and reading

Science

Although many today see Christianity and science at odds… this was not the case for most of the history of science

Christianity and Science worked together

Scientists came with the assumption that God had created this universe and were seeking to understand it…

Some famous scientists

Johannes Kepler — one of the first modern Astronomers

Galileo

Isaac Newton — Discovered gravity, physics, calculus

Blaise Pascal

Michael Faraday — Discovered electromagnetic induction

Gregor Mendel — Founded the science of genetics

Florence Nightingale — Transformed nursing into a respected, trained profession

Samuel Morse — Inventor of the telegraph and Morse code

Christianity provided the basis for the foundation of the USA

Christianity was the driving force in abolishing Slavery

And a huge proponent in the Civil Rights Era

And where we are today is by no means perfect—but the world we live in today—is swimming in the fruit of the Church through two thousand of years (around 80 generations)

And when we take a step back—it’s astounding

But all of this happened by God partnering with humanity

It all started with God working in and through one man, Abraham, eventually becoming a tribe, and a nation

That all of these advancements I just talked about stem from an offshoot of Judaism

That around 2,000 years ago a man named Jesus from the town of Nazareth claimed to be the Jewish messiah, he claimed to offer forgiveness of sin, he was crucified as an innocent man, and on the third day, he rose from the dead.

And these events, thousands of years ago, on the other side of the world, had changed the course of human history

And it wasn’t just people walking around with a gospel tract that spread Christianity

People were willing to die for this cause

They were willing to give up their possessions, money, time, and their lives for Jesus

And the more pressure and persecution that the world and empires would bring—Christianity would continue to spread.

Despite their suffering, these people were the light of the world

They had true joy—there was something different about them

Despite the hatred aimed at them—they loved their enemies and blessed those who persecuted them

I think MLK Jr. encapsulates this heart of loving our enemies:

(SLIDES)

And certainly when I talk about love at this point I am not talking about emotional bosh. I am not talking about some sentimental or even some affectionate emotion. I am talking about something much deeper. It would be nonsense to urge oppressed people to love their violent oppressors in an affectionate sense.

And so he can rise to the point of being able to look into the face of his most violent opponent and say in substance, do to us what you will and we will still love you. We will match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. And do to us what you will, and we will still love you.

But be assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. And one day we will win our freedom but we will not only win freedom for ourselves. We will so appeal to your heart and your conscience, that we will win you in the process. And our victory will be a double victory.

And this has been the history of the Church

A people following Jesus that are willing to suffer and absorb hardships, while pouring themselves out in love to those around them

(RESET SLIDE)

The Church in Acts

So as we open the book of Acts, we go back to the root of all of this

And I think we see two things here that we learn about God that I want to emphasize today

The Humility of God

The Faithfulness of God

The Humility of God

I don’t think we tend to think about the humility of God very often…

What are some examples of God’s humility?

The Incarnation

The Death on the Cross

The Bible is filled with it

Humility—Not thinking less of yourself; Thinking of yourself less

(SLIDES)

Philippians 2:5–8 (CSB)

Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus,

who, existing in the form of God,

did not consider equality with God

as something to be exploited.

Instead he emptied himself

by assuming the form of a servant,

taking on the likeness of humanity.

And when he had come as a man,

he humbled himself by becoming obedient

to the point of death—

even to death on a cross.

But in Acts we see God’s willingness to partner with humanity—even if it is costly to him

We read in Acts 1 6-8

(SLIDES)

Acts 1:6–8 (CSB)

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, are you restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time?”

Have you thought of this?—That God could do anything but his plan and desire is to partner with us

And we look at the history of the church—and theres some pretty bad stuff

And we even look at the church today—and theres lots of mistakes and failures

We have been given the name of God as representatives—and we’ve all tainted it and messed it up

A metaphor I like to think of is when a Dad is working on his car with his child

The child will probably slow things down

They will probably ask too many questions and make mistakes

But the father wants to include them and work with them

He wants them to learn and grow through the process

And probably more importantly than all—he wants to spend time with his child

And we get a taste of this truth in Acts—but it’s far greater than working on a car

We see that God has a mission to work in an through the world

From Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria, and the ends of the earth

And in his mission—he is seeking people that want to partner with him

People to learn and grow to become like him—to be his representatives in this world

And we get some pretty crazy stories

Riots, Jailbreaks, Shipwrecks, Demonic encounters, and more

But we see through this all, God’s deep desire to partner with humanity

Despite our weakness and failures

The second aspect of God I want to focus on is:

The Faithfulness of God

When you read the book of Acts—especially in one sitting—you cant help but sense momentum

Things are moving forward—God’s work is facing lots and lots of resistance

But it is never overcome by evil

There are times it may look like it—but God always comes through

It reminds me of Jesus’s words we find in Matthew 16:

(SLIDES)

Matthew 16:13–18 (CSB)

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”

They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others, Elijah; still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

“But you,” he asked them, “who do you say that I am?”

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus responded, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.

Gates—Not offensive

So in Acts, we see the faithfulness of God

Like we said earlier, God deeply desires to partner with humanity

But He doesn’t leave us in the dust

He is faithful to finish the work he has started

We see that partnering with God is scary at time—but Acts shows us that God will never leave or forsake his people—and the the gates of Hell cannot stop God’s plan for us and the world

We see God leading Peter, Paul, and others into riots where people want them dead, into prison cells with no way of escape, into confrontation with powerful political leaders—And God preserves and protects his followers

Listen to Paul’s account of his journeys in his letter to the Corinthians

(SLIDES)

2 Corinthians 11:24–28 (CSB)

Five times I received the forty lashes minus one from the Jews. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked. I have spent a night and a day in the open sea. On frequent journeys, I faced dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, and dangers among false brothers; toil and hardship, many sleepless nights, hunger and thirst, often without food, cold, and without clothing. Not to mention other things, there is the daily pressure on me: my concern for all the churches.

And even through all of this— at the end of Acts we still see a forward momentum

(SLIDES)

Acts 28:30–31 (CSB)

Paul stayed two whole years in his own rented house. And he welcomed all who visited him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.

God will come through

Imagine this: You’ve been called up the play in the NBA Championship on the best team

You’re probably gonna flop—and under deliver

But your team is undefeated—they can’t be beat

Will we trust—even in our weakness and embarrassment—that God will be faithful to us

He doesn’t need us because we are so great

He wants us because he loves us

(RESET SLIDES)

Conclusion

So what does all of this mean to us?

Like I started with—God is and has been working in our world

The same God we read about in Acts, is the same God we follow today

He is both humble and faithful

Humble

He is willing to work alongside you, to stoop down to meet you where you are at

He is committed to being patient with you even when we fail and misunderstand him

Even when we misrepresent him to others through our failures

He won’t forsake us and distance himself from us

He is a God that is willing to humble himself to include us in on what his mission is

So if you are here today and feel that God is so far and distant from you:

I want you to know—that is not true

If we draw near to God—He will draw near to us

He is gentle and lowly

Like the Dad and the Child working together

His desire is to spend time with you and include you in with what He’s doing

He’s not worried about your skill or competence

He wants you

Conversation with John

What might God be calling you into with him?

Difficult relationships

Anxiety over the unknown

Struggles with sin

Feeling alone and sad

God is waiting for us to come to him—so he can meet us in our weakness

Faithful

God will do what he says he will do

We are on the winning team—or as Paul says “we are more than conquerors”

(SLIDES)

Romans 8:37–39 (CSB)

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We might be facing hardships and trials—but that is not the end of the story

These words of Paul are so powerful:

(SLIDES)

Philippians 1:6 (CSB)

I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

And if we are honest, in the whirlwind of life, we often don’t feel like these verses are true

But we have to press in

So if you are here today, and you feel that God isn’t being faithful to you

You feel that he’s set you up for failure, or that he once started something in you and now he’s nowhere to be found

I want you to know that God is indeed faithful

Maybe our expectations of God aren’t in line with who he is

I mean we looked at the craziness of Pauls life

Im sure he didn’t want all of those hardships—but they came his way

Following Jesus doesn’t mean we are going to have an easy life, in fact, in some ways it is harder

But our confidence isn’t in easy circumstances or feeling comfortable

Our confidence is in the God who is by our side—the God who will see us through to the end

It reminds me of one of my favorite Psalms

(SLIDES)

Psalm 23:1–4 (CSB)

The Lord is my shepherd;

I have what I need.

He lets me lie down in green pastures;

he leads me beside quiet waters.

He renews my life;

he leads me along the right paths

for his name’s sake.

Even when I go through the darkest valley,

I fear no danger,

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff—they comfort me.

So to wrap things up, I want you to know that God, the creator of the universe, deeply desires YOU.

He longs to partner with you in this world for our good and his purposes

As we read the book of Acts it is inspiring—This is how God has worked in the past

Can’t he do it again?

I think as we read Acts we have to open ourselves up to be inspired by it

This isn’t some fictional story—this is the origins of the Church—real history

I want to end with another quote from MLK:

(SLIDES)

There was a time when the church was very powerful--in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being "disturbers of the peace" and "outside agitators."' But the Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven," called to obey God rather than man. Small in number, they were big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated." By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contests.

Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent--and often even vocal--sanction of things as they are.

Are we like MLK says, going to be a ‘colony of heaven’ and are we going to be so centered on God that we can’t be intimidated by anyone?

Are we going to be a thermostat or a thermometer?

The book of Acts continues through history and 2000 years later we are being invited to take our role in this story

Are we willing to trust God with our lives?

From my experience all I can say is: Its worth it

It is not easy, but it is worthwhile

Invitation to Baptism

In Acts and throughout history people have shown their trust in God by the act of baptism

It is necessary

It is an outward picture of an inward reality

A welcome into the family

Next week

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