Part 2
Our Vision • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 7 viewsWe often miss what God would have for us because we can't even think about asking. Instead of giving God a list of desires, let us open our hearts, will, and faith to ask God where do you want me? What are you doing? and say yes God!
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Illustration: Saying the long good-bye and than seeing the person again before you actually leave.
In our stories, the idea used to be the happily ever after. Wrap up the story,say good-bye, and move on to the next story but now days with fan-fiction and mega-movie series there is the what happens next, what happens after the story has been told.
In Avengers: Endgame we see what happens after the end of the previous Marvel movie, how the characters deal with it. We see how they respond, how did they actually grow from the previous movies.
Good because life is like that for us. We have our stories, our adventures but if we don’t die, what happens next reveals
There is a Biblical book like that.
You guys might remember that we celebrated the resurrection happens. Easter! Yeah! But what is the next part. How do we go from Easter to right now.
Acts is the story of what happens next
Acts is the story of what happens next
We talked last week about Jesus really rising from the dead.
Jesus hung out with the disciples for 40 days.
Jesus hung out with the disciples for 40 days.
not just like hanging out all the time, that would have just proved he was alive again but in weird ways.
appeared to people and disappeared
had dinner with the
long conversations,
appeared to his family
This book of Acts sums up this time like this:
3 After he had suffered, he also presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.
We know very little about what was said in those 40 days
We know that Jesus forgave the disciple Peter who abandoned him.
He allowed Thomas to touch him
He ate with them, multiple times.
In the most not just regular dude, He could go through walls
But any more than that or what filled up all the time is completely unknown
Might lead you to ask lots of questions, and nothing wrong with that.
It’s the answers that can get you in trouble
Side note: Cult leaders and Bad teachers have an answer for every unknown in the Bible.
Side note: Cult leaders and Bad teachers have an answer for every unknown in the Bible.
The problem with answering things with our mind is that we can only understand what we know, we usually answer it in a way that we like with our own bias, we assume the more people agree with us the more it is correct
This is vital: when we search for unknowable answers we get stuck and blinded to what God is actually doing.
This is vital: when we search for unknowable answers we get stuck and blinded to what God is actually doing.
We know very little about what was said in those 40 days but the things that were said obviously must be incredibly significant.
We have a perfect example: Here is something God is doing in our world.
4 While he was with them, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the Father’s promise. “Which,” he said, “you have heard me speak about; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit in a few days.”
Jesus makes a huge promise. That the Holy Spirit will fill them. He also told us that the Holy Spirit would be with any who believe.
Jesus said that
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. 17 He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive him because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you do know him, because he remains with you and will be in you.
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. 17 He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive him because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you do know him, because he remains with you and will be in you.
John
Want to get our for a second the phrase “while he was with them” takes the place of primarily one greek word:
συναλιζόμενος
συναλιζόμενος
This is as one writer put it, a crux interpretum, because it only
Like any good Part 2. Jesus is actually summing up all of what happened in part 1 and saying now is the time. Now is when everything I was telling you that was going to happen is going to happen.
4 While he was with them, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the Father’s promise. “Which,” he said, “you have heard me speak about;
5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit in a few days.”
This statement is like any good epic story goes all the way back to the beginning. John the Baptist was the one who prepared the way for Jesus and gives us our example. It was because Jesus submitted himself to John’s baptism that we still get baptized today.
He told them about the Holy Spirit and he even took it all the
During one of the meals, meetings
This statement is like any good epic story goes all the way back to the beginning. John the Baptist was the one who prepared the way for Jesus and gives us our example.
There is a lot of wondering though about what the baptism of the Holy Spirit is.
Now some today, think the Holy Spirit is only about speaking in tongues. Yet the Bible actually says tongues are above no other gift.
29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all do miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in other tongues? Do all interpret?
Now some today, think the Holy Spirit is only about speaking in tongues. Yet the Bible actually says tongues are above no other gift.
The answer to these is a rhetorical “no.”
1 If I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.
Tongues
29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all do miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in other tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But desire the greater gifts. And I will show you an even better way.
1 If I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.
Tongues are a gift but not the baptism of the Holy Spirit. All Christians have the Holy Spirit in them.
Tongues are a gift but not the baptism of the Holy Spirit. All Christians have the Holy Spirit in them.
But Jesus said the Counselor is given to us, that is the Holy Spirit. and The Holy Spirit feels us, gives us gifts, and empowers us to serve and follow Christ. But these gifts are unique and important to what God is doing in the area and at the time. If everyone had the same gift, than vital things would be missed. These things that the Holy Spirit gives are a great strength of what it means to be a Christian.
-13:
The most important part is not the gift. The important part is what God is doing
The Holy Spirit feels us, gives us gifts, and empowers us to serve and follow Christ. These things that the Holy SPirit gives are a great strength of what it means to be a CHristian.
1 If I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.
Acts
The Holy Spirit feels us, gives us gifts, and empowers us to serve and follow Christ. These things that the Holy SPirit gives are a great strength of what it means to be a CHristian.
The Holy Spirit always brings glory to God and not to himself.
The Holy SPirit always brings glory to God and not to himself.
Holy Spirit’s gifts lead to God and Love not power and pride.
Holy Spirit’s gifts lead to God and Love not power and pride.
Pride and power can often cloud our judgement in what God really has in store for us.
We do not have political power, not fortune-telling, future forecasting.
Acts
There is a sense of self-importance to knowing a mystery that no one else knows. That doesn't appear to be part of the Christianity that was left for us.
It’s not new, the apostles had Jesus say to them that the Holy Spirit was coming upon them in a few days and there next question, at least of the ones recorded in scripture have nothing to do with the Holy Spirit. Instead it’s this:
6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, are you restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time?”
7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.
6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, are you restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time?”
7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.
Acts 1:
Restoring the kingdom of Israel: meaning the physical kigdom
A rise to political rule
Would make sense, resurrected ruler is something people could get beind
Think about all the governments that have come and gone as God had allowed humans to rule this earth.
This was from rabbinical teaching of the time and one commentator noted that ancient
Roman writers like Tacitus (History 5.13) and Suetonius (Vespasian 5.6) attributed the outbreak of the war of AD 66–70 to such Jewish expectations of world domination by their nation under the Messiah. It is against the background of such hopes that the disciples’ question is to be understood
In fact if you read some of the writing from the extra books outside of the Bible
It was completely political. They wanted to be back on top.
It was totally missing the point.
What are we focused on? what do your prayers concentrate on? What are your actions focused on?
Look at where you spend your time, money and relaxation time. Look at what your prayers are about. What are your hopes.
we have the Power of the Holy Spirit
we have the Power of the Holy Spirit
The Power of the Holy Spirit
This power of the Holy Spirit is pointing the way to the importance of the Christ and away from the concerns of the limited perspective of the political concerns of the disciples. We often have limited perspectives and concern ourselves with God working for us instead of us taking on the adventure and concerns of God.
I struggle with this nightly. My mind’s eye can be getting to the next time I can see someone relief from conflict, or becoming a better person, or getting out of debt or another problem or even just coming up with a sermon for another week but forgetting to get in on the adventure that the Holy Spirit is doing in our lives.
What does your prayer life reflect
None of the concerns of mine are evil, they are just self focused.
The disciples weren’t wrong in their question, but they were missing out on what God is doing.
Everything about our sinful lives was about us. We got addicted to help us cope. We broke relationships because they didn’t serve us. We tried things because we thought it would make us happier. And then we met Jesus.
Jesus isn’t about us. Jesus is about loving God and loving others.
It’s popular today to say “Don’t forget to treat yourself.” But I promise you that I haven’t met a person who doesn’t care about themselves most. But what are we missing?
The next verse shows it:
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Those people lived a life of high adventure, always on the edge of danger, seeing people healed, speaking in languages they didn’t know, traveling all over the known world,
God’s ways are more amazing and adventurous than we can ever imagine.
God’s ways are more amazing and adventurous than we can ever imagine.
What does it look like to live this way:
Intentionally: Ask God, Lord what are you doing today?
In 1780, a guy named Robert Raikes, whose family had some money from publishing, began getting interested in the horrible conditions of prisons. He was led to see that prevention was easier than change and the easiest way to get that to happen was education. But the poor boys worked six days a week. So he decided the easiest day to teach them was Sunday and the easiest way to teach them was not to get a pastor but another person in the church who knew how to read, a woman, by the name of Mrs. Merideth.
Boys attended. than girls. Than more places and more teachers from the church. And the Sunday school movement began. That movement continued to flow and out of it came the modern day public school. You likely know how to read because God spurred a guy name Raikes to care about the things he cares about.
It was a long, long way between you and Raikes and it came with lots of opposition against him “raising people above their station”
But I wonder my friends
What is God calling you to?
What is God calling you to?
