His Transforming Work
Acts of the Apostles • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 5 viewsThis is the first in a series of four. This will serve as an overview and transition into the book of Acts. We will talk about 1. His Transforming Work 2. His Empowering Work 3. His Enduring Work 4. His Returning Glory over the next four weeks.
Notes
Transcript
I. Introduction
I. Introduction
What we’re gonna find here in the book of Acts is that this is the second historical account given to us by the apostle Luke. Now, Luke is the author of Luke’s gospel.
That is the book of Luke right there in the New Testament and the four gospels. What he does is he writes his second historical account called the Acts of the Apostles.
The first thing we’re going to look at here today in the book of Acts is the transforming work of Jesus Christ
II. His Transforming Work
II. His Transforming Work
The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.
Now there are some things I want you to know about Jesus‘s transforming work.
Look in v. 2
until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen,
His Transforming Call
Why did he choose these 12 men? Of all the men He could’ve chosen, why these guys?
Now I love the way that John MacArthur describes some of these men.
He describes Peter as the apostle with the foot shaped mouth.
Any of you got a foot shaped mouth? I know that I do. Matter fact I just told some people the other day that one of these days I’m gonna have to choose between coaching little kids and pastoring. I’m not gonna be able to do both. I’ve got a foot shaped mouth.
He describes Andrew as the apostle of small things
He was the Apostle who went on to do some big things! He was the Apostle by which other Apostles were called. Andrew was the one that introduced Peter to Jesus.
Andrew was quiet, behind the scenes, barely mentioned in the gospels, but certainly one of the most effective
James he describes him as the apostle of passion
Now typically we think that passion is a good thing. But passion can also be a very bad thing. You think about the crime world. When someone commits a crime, we could call it a crime of passion. Passion will make us do things that make us seem like we are out of our minds.
Without the Holy Spirit, passion will burn out of control.
There is John the apostle of love. and John is the one that Jesus loved, he’s a good one, but he was much like his brother, out of control at certain times.
One time he asked Jesus to rain fire down and kill a whole town of people…very loving
There is Philip
John MacArthur describes him as the bean counter the bean counter. That means that Philip is Greek for El cheapo. Philip let doubt cloud his faith. He always wanted to count the beans to make sure there was enough to go around.
In the feeding of the 5,000, Philip was the one who said, “we don’t have enough money to accomplish what you are asking.” He failed Jesus’s test.
Then we get to Nathaniel the guileless one.
He just tells it like it is. His big deal is that Nathaniel is prejudice. He judges people based on where they are from, what color skin they have, and what they look like.
There’s Matthew the tax collector, the one who society hated
Thomas the doubter.
Thomas was the pessimist. He was like walking around with droopy the dog all day.
There is little James and Simon the Zealot, and Judas (Not Iscariot).
The defining mark of little James is that he offered nothing…he was second to the other James because of his lack luster ability.
Simon the Zealot was a political revolutionary before he began following Jesus. I bet he and Matthew the tax collector had an interesting relationship.
Judas the son of James was a momma’s boy. He couldn’t do anything by himself!
Judas and we know Judas Iscariot as the traitor.
What did Jesus see in these 11 men? - Nothing…
These guys were absolutely good for nothing…
Peter who had a foot shaped mouth would eventually become a great preacher.
James got under control by the Spirit. He was the one who got in trouble asking to be the greatest in Heaven, but eventually became the least here on earth, the first Apostle to die for his faith.
John went from asking to kill people with fire to being the disciple entrusted with the Revelation of the end times.
Philip went from calculating to trusting.
Nathaniel went from prejudice, to missionary of all tribes and nations.
Matthew went from thieving tax collector to compassionate and forgiving. Because Matthew was so crooked and evil…because Matthew’s only friends were liars and thieves, he came to understand that anyone can have their life transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Thomas went from doubting and pessimism to having evangelistic fire and passion.
Little James who had nothing to offer became a missionary and a powerful preacher.
Simon the Political Revolutionary went from a man who would kill his political opponents for his political cause to a man who began to seek and to save those who were lost.
Mama’s Boy Judas earned a new nickname. His new nickname was “club” because after refusing to stop preaching Christ, the men of the city that he was in beat him to death with clubs.
By the Transforming work of Jesus Christ, any body can become somebody, no matter how bad or how talentless they are.
If there is nothing they had that caused Him to select these men, then how does Jesus select people?
But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty;
If you want to be used by God. If you want to take part in His transforming call, then you have to become a nobody. You have got to understand that Jesus, in order to use you, is going to have to completely change you.
Now, that doesn’t mean to get depressed and be down on yourself. What it means is to look to Jesus as your only salvation. That there is nothing in this world, there is no part of you, there is nothing in your possession that is worth sacrificing your life with Jesus.
You see, in the beginning of the gospels, these men were successful by the world standards, but Jesus asked them to lay down their nets, to give up their jobs, and to follow Him so He could remake them.
In other words, Jesus does not see you where you are today, He sees what you can be through His strength. If you will yield yourself to Him, if you will rely on Him and trust Him, He will perform His transforming work in your life.
Judas Iscariot
Too many people are like Judas Iscariot.
Judas had every opportunity to learn from Jesus, he had every opportunity to ask Jesus to save his life. He had every opportunity to trade in his life of sin for a life of peace. Judas had every opportunity…but he would not allow Jesus to perform His transforming work.
How is it that people refuse the transforming selection of Jesus?
I want you to put yourself in the place of Judas…
Judas Chose The Pleasure of Men over the Pleasure of God
Judas is the ultimate picture of people who are going to live life for themselves here on the earth, and they are going to relish and every moment. They’re going to love their life here on the Earth, and they’re going to stand before God and they’re gonna be ashamed.
Think about who Judas was…what he did.
Judas was there with Jesus, he heard the teachings of Jesus, he spent time with Jesus, witnessed the miracles of Jesus, and yet he betrayed Jesus for a fistful of coins…a handful of silver coins…30 pieces of silver.
And after Judas betrayed Jesus, and Jesus went to the cross, guess what? Judas decided he really didn’t want those coins in the first place.
Can I tell you how people refuse the transforming call of Jesus? They have no foresight.
In our life they are living for the temporal. They’re living for the here and now. They’re seeking the praise of men in that they hold onto their degrees, and they hold onto their status. They hold onto their worldly pleasures.
They see these others in the church and they say, “I’m not going to go down there because there are too many hypocrites. I’m not going to listen to the call of God because of all the hypocrites.” They think that we’re supposed to be perfect, and the worst part about it is that I might be the most imperfect one in here.
And what they’re gonna do is they’re gonna stand before God in heaven and discover that they never wanted any of those things anyway. They’re going to discover that they allowed an imperfect person to prevent them from accepting that call of Christ in their life. That they forfeited the one thing that could’ve saved them…the transforming work of Jesus Christ.
2. His Transforming Proof
to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days.
That is, that Jesus spent 40 days with these 11 men after being risen from the dead. He did this to prove Himself. I mean, He had an assignment for each of these men, and for them to complete it, they needed to be absolutely sure of Who He was.
So now, just like Jesus transform people by His call, He transforms your life by proving to you Who He is. He does this because He wants you to be absolutely sure that He is Who He says He is.
What are the ways He does this?
Proof By His Resurrection
to whom He also presented Himself alive.
Not, only did Jesus appear to these 11, He appeared to over 500 people.
For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve.
After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep.
After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles.
Why was it so important that Jesus revealed Himself to be alive after he died and was buried in the grave?
It wasn’t good enough that He just wrote it. It wasn’t just good enough that it was an empty tomb. The reason that He appeared to His disciples, the reason that he appeared to over 500 witnesses was to prove that He had risen from the dead. He wanted to corroborate the story. He wanted to prove Himself. He wanted to prove that He is the Son of God that He has the ability over life and death. That He has the ability to change your life.
Now, what good would it be for me to worship a dead man?
Especially if that dead man said that He could raise me from dead? If I’m putting my faith and trust in a guy who says that He can bring me back from the grave, what good would it do for me to put my faith in a guy who says He can bring Himself back from the grave if He’s still in the grave?
If He were just to have an empty tomb then there would be no proof of Him living. What would that say to me?
I would say that there’s some form of conspiracy that’s taking place. It would be easy for the skeptics to say that they stole the body. It would be easy for them to say that He was carried off by a pack of wild dogs. But the reason Jesus appeared to His disciples, the reason that He showed Himself to be alive, is so that we could have faith that He is alive. Because if we can have faith that He is alive, I can have faith in that I’m going to be alive when I die. That the grave is not going to hold me. that the grave is not going to keep me.
And when I can live with assurance that the grave is not going to hold me. When I can live with assurance that I’m going to live no matter what. Then I can always press on to the next day. And it doesn’t matter how bad my life circumstances get. It doesn’t matter how bad the culture gets. It doesn’t matter how bad my life ends up, if I know without a shadow of a doubt that I am going to live with Jesus Christ.
If I know that. Then I can press on.
“but preacher, I doubt all the time, does that make me faithless?”
You listen to me, even in times when I do doubt. Even in times when doubt does creep into my life, I can always look back to the inflatable proof of Jesus Christ. I can always look back to the proof of His resurrection. I can always look back to the reality that He is alive and out of the grave, and I can know. I can know yet again that I’m going to rise out of that grave.
Not only can I look back at His resurrection, I can always look back to His transforming call.
I am not a perfect man, and I will never pretend to be perfect. But I can look back at the call on my life. I can look back to the time when I accepted Christ, and I can see every way that He has preserved me, I can see every way that He has changed me. Brother, if I’m not perfect now, I’d hate to see my life without the transforming call of Jesus.
Proof By His Suffering
to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering.
Why did Jesus come to suffer?
He suffered because this world is full of suffering. He suffered to show us that sin results in suffering. He suffered to show us that living for Him means we will experience sufferings in this life.
How do we experience suffering?
It would be too simplistic for me to say that we all suffer spiritually. However, every suffering that we encounter is rooted in spiritual warfare.
Spiritual and Emotional Suffering
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Where is says wiles of the devil…it is saying the schemings of the devil. I want you to know that every single day the devil and his minions are seeking your destruction.
What are some of the ways the devil works towards your destruction?
Accusations
the accuser (satan) of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.
What is accusation? When the devil wants to accuse you, he will bring up paid for sin. the Holy Spirit will convict of sin that is still present in your life…the devil will try to make you feel unforgiven in your life.
Persecutions
Sometimes the devil will put people and demonic influence in your path that will ultimately serve to keep you humble before God.
And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.
Satan will work to be a “thorn in the flesh to you”. Something that keeps you down and persecuted in your life.
Oppressions and Discouragement
Now, if satan cannot get you to quit from accusation and persecution, he will just work to oppress you and discourage you.
He will discourage you by using and abusing your children. He will discourage you by causing chaos at your job. He will discourage you in your service to the church. He will seek to place some circumstance or some emotional turmoil in your life to get you to turn your back on God.
These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
Satan will work to make it seem like chaos and evil reign, when all he is doing is delaying the inevitable, that he is a loser, a cheat, and a fraud.
Relational and Cultural Suffering
I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
The point is that we are called to be different. We are going to have trouble relating to the world, and that’s ok.
I have learned to be comfortable being misunderstood, being made fun of, being judged by an unfair standard.
I have also learned to be comfortable not knowing the latest songs, watching the newest movies, and not having the popular opinion. Because I cannot be like the world. I am not going to allow filth from the television and radio to invade my home. My kids may miss out on things in this life, but I am not living for this life, I am living for eternity. I have spent enough of my life in sin.
For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries.
In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you.
Jesus proves Himself by suffering to prove that He is not of this world, but He is of Heaven. For me to prove that I have been transformed by Him, I will need to prove it by these same sufferings. That I “deny myself, take up my cross, and follow Him.”
Proof by His Faithfulness
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
The Bible says that there’s no variation or shadow of turning with God, and that means that God is gonna prove himself in your life by his faithfulness to you.
If you look for God in the details of your life, you’re going to find them. You might not see the details of God in your life when you’re down in the valley. But when God brings you back up to the mountain top, I want you to look down into the valley, and I want you to see that God was guiding you every step of the way. And you won’t have to look hard, you won’t have to make it up, He is a God that is ready to reveal Himself to you.
3. His Transforming Word
to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.
The major way that Jesus transforms us is by His Word. This is what we call the Bible.
What Jesus did after His resurrection is He spent time with His disciples teaching them everything from Genesis to Malachi, opening their minds to the Word of God.
Then He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.”
And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.
How does His Word Transform us?
His Word Transforms our Faith
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
When we first came to salvation in Jesus, we did so because we heard His word. Someone gave us His word and it produced faith in us.
Now, what is faith?
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Learn to Stand on the Promises
The way that the Word of God gives us this faith is by promises. He has promised that He will save us…He has promised He will sustain us…He has promised He will never leave us. We have to learn to live by promises and allow those promises to transform how we view every day life.
His Word Transforms our Understanding
Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
The Word of God is truth. The disciples didn’t understand the Old Testament until Jesus opened the scriptures to them. If you want to understand life, if you want to understand suffering, if you want to make sense of death and calamity, then you can find it all in the Bible.
Then why don’t people see God’s word that way? Why doesn’t society love God’s truth?
There are many reason why, but the biggest reason is they are blinded by sin and cannot understand it.
But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
But, when you come to Christ in faith, and you are filled with the Holy Spirit, then you can begin to grasp the truth of the Bible. And when you grasp the truth of the Bible, you begin to grasp the reality of the world.
There again, the Holy Spirit will only give you truth and revelation from God’s word, He will not give you a new revelation.
His Word Keeps us Pure and Prepared
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
The Bible is the primary way that God equipps us for his work.
It’s the way that God communicates with us how we need to be more like Jesus Christ.
Conforming to His Image
Now if you didn’t know this, the entire purpose of your Christian walk is to become more like Jesus until you get to heaven, and you are perfected just like Jesus was perfected. When you get serious about studying God‘s word, when you want to be transformed by His words, you are going to find that it’s going to keep you pure. It’s going to keep you unfiled by the world. It is going to keep you sanctified and grounded in the truth.
But not only that, it is going to keep you prepared to do his work when the discouragement comes, when the oppression comes, when the persecution comes, you are going to be prepared to handle it because the word of God is going to be deep down in your heart.
Not having the word of God in your life is going to leave you vulnerable to the attacks of the devil.
The Bible says that it is profitable for reproof that is to make sure that you are doing what is correct. That it is for correction. That is to keep you on that straight and narrow.
That it is instruction for righteousness. To teach you how to be more like God.
And the purpose of all that is to make you complete so that you can be equipped to do the work of God to do the work of the ministry.
