You Can't Avoid It

Intro

We’re moving forward with our summer-long series called Faith Activators.

Last week we burrowed into the core of the Christian faith and identified the most fundamental message of Jesus which has to do with Jesus revealing His identity as the Messiah, or the Christ and that interconnected to His identity is His mission which was to extend forgiveness to us.

This week we’re going to pick up in the story of the activation of faith in Jesus in the Book of Acts which is where we see the work of the Holy Spirit not only activating the faith of but also establishing the Church. And if you’re new to church or the Christian faith, the church is not a building, it is a people, it’s us. This called the body of Christ.

Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.

Jesus, in Heaven, continues to be the Head of the Church, or the Body, and just as He was empowered by the Holy Spirit of God to accomplish His earthly mission and perform miracles and signs, the Body of Christ continues to be empowered by the Holy Spirit to we continue with the mission of Christ, which again is proclaim forgiveness and reconcile people to God.

Today we’re going to look into how this unfolds as the story of Acts unfolds. We’re going to focus on three elements of Acts. And the title of today’s message You Can’t Avoid It, and we’re going to look at three elements or themes of Acts that surface throughout. The first theme is that the Faith spreads and is alive. The second theme the Building of the Church. And then that last theme is The Holy Spirit is Unstoppable. All three of these elements are interconnected, but we’re going to look at them one at a time

Spreading Faith

Our Faith has a structure

Do you guys remember tinker toys? Today, tinker toys have been usurped by K’nex, which are a plastic take on tinker toys, but back in the day tinker toys were a wooden building system for kids, There thick wooden discs that served as nodes and then there were wooden rods about the thickness of a drinking straw. and they could make an endless variety of structures out of it. Out of curiosity, I looked on Amazon to see if Tinker Toys still exist and if you could buy them, and they do, here’s the tinker toys you can get in the retro cannister, if you’re interested.

As we’re talking about activating faith, I want to ask you to imagine that our faith is like a tinker toy structure, and that each node represents a particular element of our faith, and all the nodes are connected to one another and in relationship with one another through the wooden rods. Each node represents an element of faith, each node is connected in relationship to the others. Most importantly, all nodes of our faith emanate from the core node.

Last week we burrowed into the core of the Faith to examine the the core node, which is the identity of Jesus as the Christ or the Messiah. And we also touched how there are some very real obstacles that we have to work through to get to that core, which, in part, are related to how the lens of our larger cultural worldview can filter and hide our perception of His Identity. That’s why we talk about revealing because it indicates something that is hidden, and then revealed. We also talked about his inseparable mission from His identity, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus is the eternal King, and He makes all things clean, and innocent, pure. This is what holds everything together, it establishes His identity, and then His identity, in turn, establishes our identity.

Better stated, it’s not a concept, it’s a reality, or even more accurate, it’s not a concept, or a reality, but it is reality. the bedrock of reality. Jesus is revealing the bedrock of reality when He reveals Himself.

Better stated, it’s not a concept, it’s a reality, or even more accurate, it’s not a concept, or a reality, but it is reality. the bedrock of reality. Jesus is revealing the bedrock of reality when He reveals Himself.

15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

Our Faith Structure Grows

each node is in relationship with other nodes.

The Faith is Alive and Active and it seeks to grow.

All nodes eminate from the core

The Faith is Alive and Active and it seeks to grow.

31 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32 Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”

33 He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.”

34 Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. 35 So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet:

“I will open my mouth in parables,

I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.”  Matthew 13:31

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints andmarrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Heb 4:12

17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. Romans 10:17

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints andmarrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12

Faith justifies us with God

So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”  Galations 3:6

What does righteousness and justification mean?The look me in eye test

We don’t behave in order to be right with God, there is nothing good enough we can do for God

If you’re struggling you’re better off wrestling with trying to reconcile the fact that God loves you regardless of your behavior than you are trying to change yourself.

We change in response to God’s love, not to earn God’s love

Building the Church

What They Did

The teachings of the Apostles

Prayer

Fellowship

Eating Together

I want to add to this worship, which doesn’t appear explicitly listed her but is referenced in other parts of the New Testament as a carry over from practice of Jewish religion.

How They Did It

There’s a couple things I want to do with this. One is that we can use this to scan ourselves

Devotion

Devotion is not emotion

Christianity is not an emotionless religion, but neither is it an emotional impulsive religion. In fact, the fruit of living with the Spirit is considerable an emotional fruit, love, joy, and peace. The Bible is also sensitive to negative emotion, anger, jealousy, shame, and guilt. These are all a part of our human experience, and the argument is that living empowered by the Spirit will lead to a more fulfilling emotional life.

As Mike mentioned, I’ve been working as a counselor for the past fifteen years. And over that amount of time you talk with many people and hear stories about the challenges inherent to our life. People are generally motivated by some form of emotional. I ask people tell me something you want to be different in your life, either something you would like to be in your life that isn’t, or something that is a part of your life that you would like not to be. And people generally answer that they want someone else to change or they want to feel different than they do. Ironically, counselors can’t really help, directly with either of those things. And so the bulk of my work is to encourage people to drop those goals and identify something concrete that they can do to change their life.

For example, its not uncommon for someone to come in and complain that they struggle with motivation, and they state that they want to develop more motivation, understanding that with more motivation they will accomplish whatever it is that they want to accomplish. I encourage people first to become aware of a strategic belief that they have which is motivation is the best way to accomplish things. What if being motivated is, in fact, not the best way to accomplish, and you would be better off not considering motivation. Right, so the idea is if a feel like doing something more, I will get more done, and the problem is that I don’t get things done because I don’t feel like it. Therefore, I need help feeling like doing more. This makes sense, but this is referred to as the cart leading the house. It’s essentially making the statement that our emotions are our decision makers. I do what I do based upon how I feel.

There’s a retired Navy Seal who is involved in the organzational and executive leadership circuit that

The Holy Spirit

God is unstoppable.

I was helping my son study for his history test a few weeks back, and one of his study questions said something to the effect of Christianity wouldn’t have made it as far as it did if it wasn’t for the help of the Roman empire. In 323 TTT established Christianity as the national religion of Rome, and Jesus as King and God, and it seemed . Almost like the Church was a small little tech start-up that puttered along until it was coopoted by Google, and then the product really took off from there. And this is one of those times when we can really see the worldview lens of modern culture revealing itself. And remember that lens views everything as if human reason is the highest form of being and can figure everything out, or that there is no ultimate way to figure anything out. And so what we see through that lense is a human institution, the empire of Rome, coming to the aid of a less powerful collective the Church.

But when we look through a biblical perspective, the idea that Rome helped the Church get along doesn’t make a lot sense. It makes more rational sense to come to terms with the fact that Rome was conquered by the Church, and the Emporer of Rome knelt to the King of kings. For three hundred years leading up to TTT adopting Christianity Rome persecuted the Church relentlessly, beginning with killing the leader of the Church, Jesus. But once Jesus died, of course He came back to life, but He eventually left the earth. However, when that happened, things multiplied. Scripture says that Jesus received the Holy Spirit beyond measure.

God uses the not smart to show the wise of the world???

34 For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit.

For he is sent by God. He speaks God's words, for God gives him the Spirit without limit. (NLT)

Remember that Jesus performed miracles not of His own power as God become man, but as a man empowered by the Holy Spirit. And scripture states that the dose of Spirit He received was immeasurable. When He left the Promise came. And now, instead of one man, albeit Jesus, walking around preaching the Kingdom of Heaven, there were many. Acts details many of the apostles preaching in power and working miracles through the power of the Holy Spirit, many of the same miracles that Jesus, Himself, performed. But we don’t want to be preoccupied with the supernatural, but we do want to accept that it is a normal, though unpredictable part of the Christian faith. We can’t read through Acts and avoid the supernatural.

What we do want to be preoccupied with, however, is the God’s power to activate faith in so many people and multiply the church. God enters into us personally as our faith grows, but He also enters into the world and multiplies collectively as well. Remember that Jesus is King, and once he was inagurated as King on the Cross He begins to draw people into His Kingdom, He is converting hearts and minds to a new Reality as the living and active faith activates on the earth.

God enters into us personally, but He also enters into the world collectively

He might ask you to do something uncomfortable.

The conversion of the Apostle Paul, who was originally named Saul is one of the richest stories in the Bible. Paul is persecuting the Church, at least witness and complicit in the murdering of Phillip the Apostle, and he is bent on putting the Church down. He’s given permission by religious leadership to pursue the Church to Damascus with a company of men, and on His way Jesus intervenes. The glory of Heavn falls on Paul and Jesus asks Him why He “kicking against the goads”. And this phrase, kicking against the goads is interesting because it implies a futile action that has no hope of success. Implicit in this question is the statement, “You can’t stop God from accomplishing His purpose. That is ridiculous.” Paul seems to get this immediately and Jesus asks Him why He is persecuting His Church, He reveals His identity to Him, and then Paul is blinded. He goes on to TTT and is told that he’ll be taken care of.

Meanwhile, Jesus reaches out to a man named Ananias and asks him to do something.

The New International Version Chapter 9

11 The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”

13 “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. 14 And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”

15 But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”

One thing dynamic we see throughout the Book of Acts is the Holy Spirit supernatural ways through the

22 Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah.