Change our City and World | Acts 1:7–8

Acts 1:7–8 ESV

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

Ignore Distractions (v. 7)

We focus on things we shouldn't.

One of the biggest things that cause churches to decline and Christians to falter is they focus too much on questions of speculation and not on doing what God has called us to. There's nothing wrong with wondering about what will happen and when, but if our wondering makes us wander from God's design, then it's a sin.

Tim Yarbrough puts it when he writes, “Church culture many times focuses on what goes on inside its four walls rather than what goes on outside, nearby, and beyond… As Jesus illustrated in Acts 1:8, the mission of the church is unique, purposeful, and urgent. Perhaps never before in history has the church been in such a position to boldly embrace Jesus' challenge to take the gospel to everyone, everywhere. The words of Jesus in Acts 1:8 are just as powerful today as the day they were spoken. For today's church, Jesus' words are a "wake-up call" to be engaged in his mission on earth…to take the gospel to every community, people group, and nation in the world. Jesus' vision of the world is to break it up into manageable "fields" where churches have or can develop influence — their Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and ends of the earth. Jesus did not elevate one mission field above the others. Instead, He commanded that Christians reach out to all four.” 2

Embrace God's Power (v. 8a)

Notice, they were promised power when the Holy Spirit came. One of the reasons churches do not see change in their community is they attempt to reach their community in their own power.

The word that is translated “power” here is the Greek word, dunamis, which is where we get our English word, “dynamite.” The dynamite, explosive-power of the Holy Spirit is the only power that can bring sight to hearts that are blind in sin, hearing to hearts that are deaf in sin, and life to hearts that are dead in sin.

A prayerless church is a powerless church.

But Jesus told his disciples to wait on the Holy Spirit. Here are two questions we need to ask ourselves:

1. If our church ceased to exist on Monday, would anyone in our community miss us (other than our members.)

2. When's the last time you prayed that God would use you to accomplish his purpose of making disciples of the nations?

We are called to transform the community around us. Are we?

Church, true change begins on our knees. If we're not a prayerful church then we will have no power in us to be used by God to reach a lost and dying world.

Acknowledge Christ's Mission

I told you a disciple of Jesus knows Jesus, is being changed by Jesus, and is on mission with Jesus. Many Christians are good with the first two, but they fail when it comes to going themselves. Often what happens is churches replace being the church with sending others through our giving, and not enough on the call to go. The problem isn't our giving, it's when our giving leads to complacency. When we think the amount of money we give to missions exempts us from missions we are in dangerous territory. We should celebrate what God is doing, but if we're more excited about what God is doing over there than what God is doing here, if we're more focused on what we raise than we are on the power God is imbuing our church with and the souls God is saving in our community then we're simply attempting to bribe God into excusing us from his great commission.

Ephesians 4:11–16 ESV

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

As Mark Hallock reminds us:

“It's not an accident that you and your church are located in your community. The Lord in his sovereignty has placed you and your church right where you are, in your context as missionaries of the gospel. He's placed you there as his disciple, to be salt and light. To make disciples. But it all starts with being willing to go across the street. Meeting your neighbors. Pursuing them, serving them, caring for them with the love of Christ.” - Mark Hallock

This community is not the enemy.

This generation is not the enemy.

Millennials are not the enemy.