Reflection and Reaction. Acts 1-9.

Introduction

Good morning church. I want to start this morning by pulling us again around the goal of our preaching for the coming months as we take a moment to pray together as a church family and reflect upon what we’ve learned so far together in our time in the book of Acts. You’ll remember that as we started off this series in Acts that will last for the foreseeable future, that our goal was to see what the church is, what it does, and ask ourselves how we as followers of Jesus can live out those goals in our time.

This is not a hard concept really when you think about it. Over the last 2000 or so years the goals and mission of the church has changed little. On top of that, we also find that as society seems to think of itself as getting more and more sophisticated and technologically superior to our ancient brothers and sisters, that some things always stay the same. In fact, wisdom and humility often have us running back to them to find they still have lessons to teach us today about priorities and worship and our relationships with the Lord and one another.

So, I wanted to take some time this morning to recap what we’ve seen and learned so far and really hone in on the application of these ideals set before the church. I want today to get in our face a little bit as we all, as a church body, ask ourselves if we have made these things more than just aspirational ideas or if we are really serious about living them out in obedience and worship to Jesus.

Tension

You see, I’ve had the blessing to spend the past two weeks with our kids at camp. Yeah, I am still tired, as well as all of our amazing leaders, many of whom took weeks of vacation from work to invest in and love our students and kiddos. Yet in the haze of coffee, sleeplessness, body odor, and classes, a theme seemed to hang over all of our kids at camp this year.

“What are you going to do about it?”

You see, the church’s goals and aspirations really bleed into one of two categories as distilled out of the great commission.

Mission (go ye therefore making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the spirit)

and Instruction (teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.)

However, if we are honest, sometimes it can be easy to turn the word “observe” into “learn” or “see”. Observe doesn’t mean just to see something or look upon it and gain knowledge about it. Observe carries with it the idea of obedience and action. That we would not only hear and learn and understand but that we would take it to heart and live it out in our own lives. That we would take Jesus’ teachings into ourselves and make them the new way we choose to live in accordance with His wishes for our life.

Easily said, easily understood, easily taught, harder still to live out. So today I want to crash course us back through the past 6 months and see if our students and kiddos can give us some insight into how we can stand toe to toe with them in seeking to live out what we’ve learned. That we as a church would devote ourselves to pulling together in this direction of devotion.

Truth

· Acts chapter 1

You’ll remember as we started this year we spoke together in the first chapter of Acts about Jesus’ ascension and his subsequent marching orders to the disciples and all disciples that would come after them.

Acts 1:8

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.”

Amazing story in the life of Christ, the arc of the disciples and their transition from learners to teachers themselves, and to the life of the church as we still continue this mission on to this day.

Remember, then, their response to this message. Jesus told them to await the falling of the Holy Spirit in a couple days, gave them this message and ascended. What was their response? They gathered in an upper room together with all the believers and prayed  to ready themselves for whatever would come. They were called out, they were called up, their fear and their reservations about all of the obstacles they were facing didn’t go away. Their enemies were still very much at work and actively seeking to snuff them out. But they didn’t fear them more than they desired to do Christ’s work.

Church do we join them? Are we too overwhelmed by a desire to see Christ’s work and will done in our lives, in our church, in our generation? Do our fears and apprehensions grow larger in our hearts and minds than the power of God that we claim we live by? Do politics and inflation and the news weigh heavy on our hearts? Perhaps heavier still than our desire to live out our part of Jesus’ commission?

· Chapter 2

God blows the top off of all of the expectations of the church when His Holy Spirit empowers them. Peter, empowered and emboldened, gets up and shares the gospel message of Jesus with over 3000 people in Jerusalem who come to see what all the commotion is about. The rest of the disciples are given the ability to translate his words in languages they are now supernaturally equipped to speak. The gospel message explodes and 3000 are saved in the first ever church service.

Not that alone. Not just responses. Not just prayers being prayed but lives being transformed. Revival had broken out and people were seeing and living out visible proof that the Spirit had changed them. They came daily to the apostles, seeking more teaching and wisdom in how to live for Jesus. They ate together with each other with gladness and fellowship as they did it. Many of these people having nothing in common but this new budding faith in Christ. Yet they gathered and prayed for each other. They paid each other’s bills. They sold things to cover cost and keep the revival going. And the sights and sounds and affects of this revival became news in Jerusalem, even amongst the unbelievers.

The recipe for church seems very easy after reading chapter 2 doesn’t it? Men and women filled with the Spirit of God and a hunger for His word gather together. They live life normally as everyone does too don’t they. They eat together, they fellowship together, they live in community and relationship. Yet, a commonality exists that keeps them bound as more than just family. They are a church of believers pulling in the same direction. They’ve been called to salvation and to mission.

· Chapter 3

Peter and John have the audacity to heal a man who had never walked in his whole life in the name of and power of Jesus. He asked them for alms like he always had but instead they told him to get up and walk and he did. The news takes off through the town like wildfire and it wasn’t too long before crowds had gathers. Peter, again, empowered by the Holy Spirit and emboldened, shares the gospel.

· Chapter 4

This time, not only receptive hearts hear the gospel, but also opponents of Christ. The ruling religious leaders hear and are irritated. Who do these men think they are telling the people about Jesus? So they arrest them and bring them before the council to answer for their actions. The same rulers to condemned Christ to death are in attendance and seek to squeeze their power and authority of Peter and John to silence them. Yet, empowered by the spirit and power of God, Peter does the opposite. He lectures them on the scriptures and the healing that had occurred. Imagine a fisherman handedly defeating a PHD in Biblical analysis. Yet the council sat in awe of the way they made sense, speaking logically and factually. Yet, instead of conceding their points they doubled down and tell them to stop teaching about Jesus anyway. Peter and John explain that they will do no such thing. They can’t. The spirit has told them too. They have seen it with their own eyes. They will keep preaching. They must.

Friends. Do we have this same commitment to sharing and teaching and living for the gospel? Do we have a compulsion under the spirit to teach others what Jesus has done for them and for us? Would we be so bold?

· Chapter 5

Chapter 5 focuses on themes of worship and obedience as the church feels the power and pain of both. Barnabas and others sell property to pay for the needs of the people. This inspires jealousy out of another couple who want the notoriety more than anything. They lie about the money they received, something they didn’t need to do at all, and bring a portion to the apostles. The Spirit of God is grieved by this self-aggrandizement, and it ends up costing both husband and wife their lives. The church learns that the Spirit is not to be messed with or lied too.

While this happens the apostles head to the city courtyards anyway, despite the threats of the Sanhedrin, and perform miracles, signs, and wonders in Jesus’ name. Many are healed and many more hear the gospel and repent, putting their faith in Jesus. This drew the ire of the rulers who had them put in the public prison. But they soon learned that you can’t stop God’s work with simple bars. An angle broke them out and they promptly went right back to the same temple they were told not to preach at to keep preaching. They are brought back in, told to stop, they again, tell them no, and they wanted to have them killed. One of them, a man named Theudas gave some insight they hadn’t considered. If this movement is of God it can’t be stopped, but since we know it is not of God, it will fall away like all the other have. They relent and have the apostles beaten and released with a threat: stop preaching about Jesus, we are serious this time.

The expectation was that they would sit down, take their lumps, and be quiet finally. Much the opposite happened. They met in front of the temple daily still and now added going door to door to their strategy.

Chapter 5 is easily wrapped up in the word: boldness. As pressure mounted and threats increased the church didn’t cower back but pressed forward in boldness. It didn’t in arrogance or entitlement. It suffered and counted the opportunity to preach and suffer for Christ a joy.

A question resonates for us to consider today in a world that is mired in strife, opposition, and threats. Will we cower back or go forward as well? More on that in a minute.

· Chapter 6

Problems start popping up in the church as some of the old racial divides and camps of thought start rearing up their heads again. But those old ways are not in keeping with Jesus’ ways and the problem has to be solved. The apostles decide to raise up a new leader within the church who can handle such matters and champion meeting the needs of the people while championing church unity. We call these guys deacons. Among the first is a couple of men named Stephen and Philip.

Stephen is living for Christ, preaching, teaching, healing, and wouldn’t you know it, some of the naysayers argued with His message and brought him in under charges for teaching blasphemy and perverting the people.

· Chapter 7

Stephen is given the chance to recant his statements and beliefs in a trial and instead of defending himself at all, He takes his shot to preach to the council how Jesus fulfills all the Old Testament and is assuredly the Messiah that has been long foretold. He does this so masterfully, inspired and led by the Holy Spriit, that no one can give a defense at all and decide that his audacity has to be stomped. So they drag him out of town and hurl rocks upon him until he dies. Before he dies, he is given a vision of Christ and prays for the people who are killing him. Stephen becomes the first martyr of the church. A man named Saul is there lending his support to the killing and his zeal kicks up into 6th gear.

· Chapter 8

Saul asks of the ruling council to ramp up this extermination of the church as men bury Stephen’s body. This persecution causes many to flee Jerusalem to the surrounding country including deacon number 2, Philip. He heads to Samaria and promptly starts sharing the gospel, healing, talking to those that jews had long held as sub-human. Prejudice against Samaritans was about to disappear as the gospel exploded in the people there. Even a magician and charlatan named Simon believed and was baptized, albeit incompletely.

The revival that overtakes the city is so large that Peter and John are sent for to help. And as they get there they are confronted with the work of God with their own eyes. These men who too would have seen Samaritans as lesser than are now seeing God save them and bring them into the fold of the church. They lay their hands on these new believers, pray for them, and the Holy Spirit envelopes them as their hearts are overwhelmed. Simon for his part wants to pay for this power and Peter has to set him straight. God’s power is not for you to have or control but to obey and submit too. This isn’t about you, its about Jesus.

The hits keep on coming as Philip takes the show on the road. The spirit leads him to a desert road where he encounters an Ethiopian on his way home. Not just any Ethiopian but the personal treasury attendance of the queen of the Nubian empire. He is reading of the prophet Isaiah who tells of a coming messiah and Philip shares with him that Jesus is the one that prophecy is talking about. The two talk, Philip shares the gospel, the man repents and believes with such enthusiasm that he asks to be baptized right there and then.

Oh church. Would that we would always be so ready. As Dakota challenged us last week to be ready always for those who need to hear.

· Chapter 9

And as we stopped last week, Saul thought he had won. Persecution was ramping up, the rulers gave him warrants to hunt down Christians, and he was on his way to Damascus to do just that. He had his mission, his mandate, his men, and his might at his disposal. But he learned, as many of us have since, that God has a way of getting what He wants. Saul is blinded on the road and Jesus himself calls him out for his evil done against his church. He is brought, blind and helpless, to Damascus, to sit in repentance for 3 days. God sends a believer named Ananias to restore his sight and lead him in his first real steps of proper discipleship. Check and mate. Saul puts his faith and hope in Jesus, is baptized, and begins to really learn about Christ as messiah for the first time, a thought he would never have even let himself consider before.

Application

So, as you can see, its been a full 6 months and a lot of the story of the early church has been told. However, as it takes a turn into how the church started exploding missionally upon the scene, I do want to take a brief pause today and really reflect on what we’ve seen and learned so far. Part of our goal in this series is to learn from the early church and put into practice, both in our own personal walk with Christ and as our corporate pursuits as a church, these things. Some of them are easy and some are not. Yet, if we are going to be a biblical, healthy, and missional church in our day, we need to do more than simply learn these lessons, we must do them as well.

1.We must devote ourselves again to prayer as a congregation to see God’s will done in and through us.

3 parts to this. Devote ourselves to prayer. The early church did this constantly. Their thoughts, their needs, their struggles, their obstacles, the lost, the miracles they saw need for, the gospel to go forward, for boldness, for grace and favor, for forgiveness of sins, for strength to persevere, for wisdom and knowledge of the scriptures. They prayed in all things all the time because they were convinced they needed God to go before them and direct them. They knew they needed power beyond what they could do. They knew the old man they used to be was always waiting at the door, ready to barge back in and they needed Christ’s power for a new day of walking in holiness. Church, we have all the power we will ever need at our fingertips to accomplish all the things God will ever call us to pursue for His glory and in His name. All we need to do with devote ourselves to asking. We must be a people of prayer.

We need to pray to see God’s will done in us. We aren’t there yet. We haven’t arrived. We still need him just as much as day one. And we need to see God’s will continue as we are awaked to the Holiness He is calling us too. We need to ask for God to show us the sin He wants to rid of us and cut its ties in our lives.

And we need to pray that God’s will would be done through us. That we would all actively find our place in the body and use the gifts he’s given to walk out the call He’s made for us. Coming up on the 25ththis month we will be talking about spiritual gifts and how to find and use yours. This would be a great first step. But believers need to find their calling in Christ and take steps to not only believe it but walk it out.

2.We must devote ourselves again to genuine community in Christ.

Covid broke some things we still haven’t recovered from if we are honest. One of them is that many have retreated from community. As churches we have lost the art of community in many ways that still feel foreign and forced. What used to be natural and seamless can feel disjointed and like an invasion of privacy. Take for example one of the central calls for community in a church: the confession of sin to one another.

James 5:16

16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.[a]

Think about the implications of this. The healing can’t happen if the confession and prayer don’t. So we stay sin sick in our lives because we don’t trust God’s word or His people enough to live this out. We don’t trust the community in actuality.

3. We must be men and women of the Gospel again.

The Gospel message has the power to save anyone and the early church knew this with every fiber of their being. We often are in danger of thinking the gospel is only for lost people. That we hear it, we repent, and we move on. No friends. We need to hear it all the time and over and over. We need to memorize its truth and be able to share it at all times. We need to love it so, that we look actively for opportunities to share it with believer and lost alike. We don’t outgrow it. Our appetite for it just grows and deepens with time and worship and appreciation. Friends, never outgrow the gospel. It is your oldest and dearest friend. Introduce him to your friends, your family, and your coworkers so they can see His greatness too.

4.We must remember what our battle is for and stay focused.

Jesus didn’t pursue political arenas, or military ones. He didn’t start a business or build fame or establish a brand. He came to seek and save the lost.

Ephesians 6:12

12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

I see the news too. I know that often it seems overwhelming.

I read the paper every day and the Bible every day; that way I know what both sides are up to.-Zig Ziglar

The church saw Jesus’ message and His kingdom as their primary goal. They met daily to hear the word then to go share it with the people in the city. They ate together and encouraged one another. They did this through a love of each other and shared vision of seeing Jesus’ kingdom grow.

Church, could we gather for those same purposes? What if we all gather weekly to pray towards the same end? Our students speant a week hearing about being called out by and for God. Last week our kids gathered around the idea of Living out the Love of Christ. Both of those call us towards the goal. To see the hostage set free and the lost be found. So, I wonder to myself if we could as a church rally behind our students? Behind our kids? To show them that we not only have their back and will encourage them to follow out their commitments to making the word heard, but that we will meet them in the endevor. We too will do our part to pray for and step out in faith, to share the gospel, to show the love of Jesus through love, kindness, forgiveness, and prayer. That we will embrace being a people of hearts and lives transformed by Christ but aimed towards mission.

Landing

Stand with me and pray together as a church if you would step to this challenge, as the early church did, and pull with us towards the cause of Chr