Who Are We at First Church?

Acts 1:6–14 NRSV

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set 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, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away. When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.

There is something deeply human about wanting clarity before commitment.

We want to know the plan before we take the step. We want certainty before sacrifice. We want guarantees before obedience. And spiritually, we often do the same thing. We want Jesus to explain everything first. We want timelines. Strategies. Outcomes. We want to know exactly what God is doing in the world, exactly when he is going to fix everything, exactly how all of this is going to turn out.

And honestly, that instinct is not new.

It is sitting right there in Acts 1.

Jesus has risen from the dead. The disciples have seen the resurrected Christ. The kingdom of God feels close enough to touch. So naturally they ask the question everybody wants answered:

“Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” —Acts 1:6

In other words:

“Is this finally the moment?”

“Are we about to win?”

“Is everything about to be fixed?”

And I love Jesus’ response because he doesn’t really answer the question they asked.

Instead, he redirects them.

“It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses…” —Acts 1:7–8

Notice the movement.

The disciples want a roadmap for history.

Jesus gives them a mission.

They want certainty about the future.

Jesus gives them responsibility in the present.

They want to know what God is going to do.

Jesus tells them who they are supposed to become.

And I think that matters deeply for the church today because Christians can spend an enormous amount of time gazing at the sky.

Obsessing over timelines. Arguing about the future. Fighting culture wars. Panicking about the state of the world. Trying to preserve institutions. Trying to “win.”

Or we spend a lot of time navel gazing. Looking at what God can do for us. Looking to preserve our church, our building, our history, our legacy.

When we do both — its then that we are really in danger of completely missing the point of being the church — which is to live into the mission that Jesus gives us. But when we look at these words of Jesus in Acts we see something important:

Jesus keeps bringing his people back to a much simpler call:

“Be my witnesses.”

Not conquerors.

Not spectators.

Not consumers.

Witnesses.

People whose lives point toward the reality of the risen Jesus.

And honestly, I think that question sits underneath everything we’ve been doing in this Got Questions? series.

Because after wrestling with doubt and suffering and scripture and faith, eventually another question emerges:

“Okay… so who are we supposed to be?”

Not just as individual Christians.

But as a church.

Who are we at First Church?

And I think Acts 1 gives us the answer.

We are a people called to bear witness to the risen Jesus on the Treasure Coast.

That’s who we are.

Or as we say it here:

We exist for “flooding the Treasure Coast with the transformational love of Jesus.”

And that mission is not just branding language. It is deeply rooted in the movement Jesus describes in Acts 1:8:

“in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Jesus gives them concentric circles of mission.

Start where you are.

Then move outward.

Jerusalem was home. Judea was neighboring territory. Samaria was uncomfortable territory where “those people” lived. And the ends of the earth meant crossing every boundary they thought existed.

The mission of Jesus was always supposed to overflow outward.

And honestly, that image of flooding is a beautiful image for the gospel when understood rightly.

Not flooding through fear.

Not flooding through power.

Not flooding through coercion.

But flooding like water moving into dry places.

Flooding through mercy.

Flooding through compassion.

Flooding through ordinary Spirit-filled people who embody the love of Jesus where they already are.

For most of us, flooding is almost always a destructive image. We think of hurricanes and rising water and homes destroyed. But in the ancient world, flooding could also mean life. Every year the Nile River would overflow its banks and flood the surrounding land. And while that sounds dangerous to us, those floodwaters carried rich soil and nutrients that transformed dry ground into fertile fields. Entire civilizations depended on it. The same was true around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia. Without those floods, the land stayed dry and barren. But when the waters came, life followed. Crops grew. Communities flourished. People survived. And I think that is actually a beautiful picture of the mission of Jesus. We want to flood the Treasure Coast not with noise or power or fear, but with the transformational love of Jesus — a love that moves into dry places and brings life where people thought nothing could grow anymore.

And church, I want us to stop for a moment and recognize something:

That is already happening here.

This past year and the beginning of this year have not been perfect. Ministry never is. But the Spirit of God is moving among us in ways worth celebrating.

Last year we welcomed 3 persons through baptism, 17 through professions of faith, and 20 into full church membership.

And now this year alone, we have already welcomed 28 new members and celebrated 22 baptisms.

Church… that matters.

That is not just church growth.

That is resurrection life.

That is witness.

That is people encountering the grace of Jesus and saying yes to a new way of living in the world.

And when we step back and look at the bigger picture, we can actually see our vision beginning to take shape.

A few years ago, we discerned a vision together:

“We will create, equip, and mobilize 610 disciples by the year 2030 so that Heaven and Earth collide on the Treasure Coast.”

And I love that phrase:

“So that Heaven and Earth collide.”

Because that is really what Acts is about.

The ascension is not Jesus abandoning the earth.

It is Jesus enthroned over it.

The kingdom of heaven begins breaking into ordinary places through ordinary people filled with the Holy Spirit.

That collision happens when hungry people are fed.

When lonely people find community.

When addicts find healing.

When children encounter Jesus.

When people who thought they were too far gone discover grace.

When baptismal waters become signs of new creation.

That is Heaven and Earth colliding.

And what I love about our vision is that it is not merely about attendance numbers. We said that clearly from the beginning. We are not trying to build a crowd for the sake of building a crowd. We are trying to become a people transformed by Jesus and mobilized into the world around us.

And that is why our core values matter so deeply.

Because values shape culture.

They answer the question: What kind of people are we becoming together?

One of our core values is Passionate Worship.

We believe worship is more than singing songs on Sunday morning. Worship is the reorientation of our lives around the presence of God. It is why we strive for meaningful worship experiences, why we pursue excellence, why we gather together expecting God to actually move among us.

Another core value is Faithful Development.

We believe people should not just attend church but grow in Christ. That discipleship matters. That formation matters. That following Jesus is not instant but lifelong. That is why we invest in children and students and Bible studies and classes and small groups and spiritual practices that help people actually become more like Jesus.

We also value Radical Generosity.

Because generosity is at the center of the gospel itself. God is generous toward us, and so we become generous people. We give financially. We give our time. We give our energy. We give ourselves away for the sake of others because that is what love does.

We value Missional Outreach.

Because the church was never meant to exist only inside its walls.

Acts 1 pushes the disciples outward.

And so we go outward too.

We pack food bags for students. We serve meals. We offer showers and dignity and prayer and friendship to our unhoused neighbors. We grow produce in the garden. We seek out people on the margins because that is exactly where Jesus always seemed to go.

And finally, we value Unwavering Inclusivity.

Because we believe every person bears the image of God and matters deeply to Jesus.

We are committed to being a place where all means all.

A place where people do not have to have their lives perfectly together before they walk through the doors.

A place where grace is real.

A place where transformation is possible.

And honestly, when I read Acts 1, I think those values make sense because the church was born as a Spirit-filled community moving outward toward people.

Not inward toward self-preservation.

The disciples stand there staring upward after Jesus ascends, and finally the angels basically say:

Why are you standing here looking into heaven?

In other words:

The mission is in front of you now.

Go.

And church, I think that is the invitation for us too.

Not to become obsessed with preserving the past.

Not to become paralyzed by fear about the future.

Not to become consumers of religious goods and services.

But to become witnesses.

To become the kind of community where people can actually glimpse the kingdom of God breaking into the world.

And I think we are already seeing signs of it.

Not perfectly.

But genuinely.

The Spirit is moving.

Lives are changing.

People are finding hope.

And that should lead us not toward pride, but toward gratitude.

Because none of this happens without the Spirit.

Notice how Acts 1 ends:

“All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer…” —Acts 1:14 NRSV

Before Pentecost.

Before the movement explodes outward.

Before the sermons and miracles and baptisms.

There is prayer.

Dependence.

Waiting.

Trust.

The church begins not with hype but with surrender.

And maybe that is how we continue forward too.

Who are we at First Church?

We are not a perfect church.

We are not a church pretending to have all the answers.

We are not a church trying to win power.

We are a people trying to witness to the risen Jesus together.

A people committed to flooding the Treasure Coast with the transformational love of Jesus.

A people seeking to create, equip, and mobilize disciples so that Heaven and Earth collide right here in our city.

And by the grace of God…

May we continue becoming that kind of church.