The Story Isn't Over

Acts 1:1–3 CSB

I wrote the first narrative, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up, after he had given instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 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.

Please stand and honor the reading of God’s word with me today, after repeating our mission: Our mission: From Him, Through Him, and To Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen

Introduction

From the 1970’s until 2009, there was a voice that could not be mistaken coming from radio’s and televisions everywhere. It was the voice of a master story-teller. It was a voice of great insight that would provoke thought even in the mind of someone only paying minimal attention. It was a voice created pictures in your mind, emotions in your heart, and often peace in your soul. The iconic voice belonged to a gentleman by the name of Paul Harvey. He was a man who would simply tell you, “The Rest of the Story.”

Today, we read from the book of Acts, whose author, Luke the physician, plays the role of Paul Harvey generations earlier.

Luke begins to unfold for us the Rest of The Story, the birth of the church....the people of God, not the institution that seems to overwhelmingly dominate the conversation of today.

I have heard so many pastors crucify, condemn and berate their congregations for not being the church that God wants them to be. Instead of spending time placing everything under the Lordship of Christ and the instruction of Scripture, they take the membership to the woodshed reminding them of their lack of faith, poor stewardship and overall poor Kingdom performance.

I favor a different approach....I would rather hear what the Word of God says, submit the realities/shortcomings of who we are versus what God desires for us to be, and move forward. You guys ok with that? If not, I can yell and scream haha

I say this with a great love and appreciation for our community of faith here at State Line but we are not unlike many others in our demographic. Our buildings all look the same, our ministry offerings are the same, our church polity all the same, issues that are divisive the are same, ....just separate little cookie cutter kingdoms all doing the same thing for the same reasons the same way and all finding the same results; declining numbers, preferrential participation, disengaged worship, transactional giving rather than tranformational offerings, maintaining status quo for the membership rather than obedience-driven faith meant to honor God....and we are asking the question, “WHY?”

As the normal pattern seems to go, when God designs something for the good that mankind steals from him, it doesn’t take too long for that which was created for His glory is easily ruined by man’s selfishness. For example, the gifts of:

As we read in Ch1, v.1, the books of Acts is part 2, with part 1 being the gospel of Luke.

The pattern is there folks....

Sexuality/Marriage-- within the biblical parameters—blessing and mulitplication, even as the church is the bride of Christ....outside of those biblical parameters, a relative and perverted train-wreck waiting to happen

Luke writes to

Worship—designed for His glory, hijacked by man, it becomes idolatry.

Wealth—blessed to be a blessing, stolen from God, it becomes greed and an acceptance of the prosperity gospel as God’s realy desire is that we should be rich and happy

His Word---given as truth for freedom, manipulated by man, becomes relative and restrictive

Church—the people of God doing the will of God, overtaken by man, a place, an institution, a habit, a fraternity or sorority of social interaction absent of any real fellowship

Did you ever ask yourself how the church that God intentioned became the church of today? I have…and there is only one explanation for it, and none of us will like it....the answer is us.

It did not take long for God to intervene when the early church derailed, and his intervention was drastic, illogical, and quite frankly, unbelievable…exactly what needed to be done to right the course (that’s coming in a few weeks)

But today, we are going to look at the beginning....before things got all messed up. Before even the “church (the people)” was the church.

It’s quite interesting to note that Jesus only uses the word for church--”ekkleisia”—twice in his ministry---and neither of those refer to the institution of church but rather to the assembly of those following him in and after Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Messiah in —that upon that confession, that Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus would build his “church”---people, not place.

That’s borderline heretical for any number of reasons…but that’s not on the menu today

Luke’s short introduction is full of things to consider for us today as we begin to rebuild our understanding of what God desires desired for His true church to be, to know, and to do.

Verse 1-2 “all that Jesus began to do and teach..”---Say this with me, “The story isn’t over....”

Luke wrote in the gospel about all that Jesus had done and taught until a certain point—the ascension.

Now, Luke’s intentions are to tell us “the rest of the story”.

We cannot miss Luke’s intention....Luke is not finished telling Jesus’ story.

There is more to be taught…there is a next step, there is a task not yet completed. God’s story of redemption has another chapter..maybe it starts and ends with Jesus, but the middle is important

There is more for God’s people to learn....sure, people of the day had been in the presence of Jesus but a new part of the story is about to begin. All that Jesus taught on the mountain sides and from the boats pushed out to the waters’ edges, and in the synagouges was the launching pad. All the healings, all the miracels, the dead raised to life, all the demons cast out, all the unexplainable stories, every moral teaching and every OT passage cited.....all pointed to a bigger story. There was still so much to learn!

Not only was there still so much to learn but there was so much left to be done! Having the Gospel was only part of the equation....the call was to go make disciples with the Gospel! And we have a bunch of uneducated, social outcasts, most of whom still barely realized what had happened the last three years of their lives, as the start-up group for transformation of the world through the message of Jesus Christ. As if somehow, God’s story of redemption and deliverance ended with their leader floating up to heaven on a cloud.

Imagine if the ascension of Jesus was the end.....Jesus floating up into heaven, waving goodbye, and that was that!

Sometimes we need to be reminded that the One who started something good is not going to stop until He finishes it! ()

There is nothing more frustrating starting something and not finishing it! It lingers in potential…in what could have been, in a purpose that “could” be served, a puzzle “almost” finished because you are missing a piece or two....There is no satisfaction in something unfinished!

That’s where a lot of the problem actually lies....we know the ending whereas they did not. It was still a mystery to them…it was still a place of uncertainty and messiness…we have lost the excitement and anticipation, the mystery and the messiness of it all because we knowthe ending…we feel like we don’t need to know the middle because we read the end of the book.

There is no satisfaction in something unfinished

There is a certain kind of personality in the church universal that really bothers me....it’s the personality that is content knowing the beginning and ending of the story of God with no regard to what God does in the middle.....they have convinced themselves that Heaven in the blessing when it is actually the reward…the blessing is in the living…that’s the middle.....and people in the church are miserable because they are skipped to the ending without living in the middle. Why bother with the mess and the details when, “Hey, all that matters in the end is that we win.”

You ever record an event that you cannot watch until later only to have it ruined by someone giving away the result? Now that you know you won or lost, you do not get to experience the rush, the ups/downs, the great plays, the costly turnovers ..you cannot celebrate the victory or agonize in the defeat because you did not encounter the moments!

So many people today are not celebrating the victories of God in their lives or growing closer to Him through the agonizing losses because knowing the end has desensitized us from livng the life---the middle.

In , Jesus said, “It is finished.” He did not mean the story was over. Sin was defeated, yes. Man set free, yes. God’s wrath placed on the Son and not man, yes. But the story wasnt ‘over....but for so many people in the church today, “it is finished” meant nothing more had to be done and they settled and live there today with no passion for stewardship, discipleship, fellowship, worship, evangelism because “hey, it doesn’t matter because we win in the end”. I am thankful God has shared with us the end....however, I believe if we did not know the end, our middle would be lived more faithfully, more prayerfully, with more concern for the lost, with a greater desire to worship God for who He is, with our hearts yearning to for discipleship and a true ache for those lost and facing hell without Jesus Christ.

I do not know about you but I am so glad there is more left to the story....more left to our story....more left to be done by the church universal, and more to be done in this specific body.

How do we know—Jesus keeps showing up

Over a period of forty days, Jesus appears to different groups of people at different intervals

The Road to Emmaus (), to Peter (), the disciples (24:36-43)

He appearances to the women at the tomb, to ten of them, then 11 of them, then 7 of them, and then to James, his brother.

Jesus keeps setting the stage. By showing up, he lets them know that when he said, “It is finished”, he didn’t mean everything was done!

His appearances are preparing and affirming his continued work which was getting ready to go the next level…the next chapter…the next purpose

His appearances were absolutely essential for their role as witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection in the book of Acts

Here’s what both crazy and exciting to me at the same time....despite what we the people, the church, have allowed the institution of the church to become, JESUS KEEPS SHOWING UP. And if he keeps showing up, there is still much to be done. The key is that whatever must be done, MUST BE DONE GOD”S WAY!!!!

The transition of the presence of the Son was about to give way to work of the Holy Spirit through the apostles…the foundation of the church....the kingdom of God on earth.

This kingdom of

What happens next will set events in motion that have literally affected history as we know it.

But today....the story isn’t over. There is more left to be done.

I want to close with an illustration that Bishop T.D. Jakes shared in one of his messages entitled, ‘Chainbreaker”. T.D. Jakes was born and raised in Charleston, WV, close to my old stomping ground. He was raised on the side of a mountain....the back part of his house was built into the mountain and the front part supported by 4x4’s in the ground. One day, he got a puppy whom he aptly named, “Pup” Pup grew to be a pretty big dog and they would keep him chained to the 4x4’s out front. Every day, cars would pass....the mail would come…people on bicycles would pedal by. But Pup was chained to the house and as much as he tried, he never could break free from that chain. TD Jakes then shared the following: one day, not sure exactly what it was that passed by, but Pup started throwing a fit. And we knew he could throw a fit all he wanted, but he was chained to the house. About that time, we heard the chain give way and Pup took off, finally breaking free. As I got older, I began to realize exactly what had happened. When Pup finally decided that he wanted what was in front of him more than he did what was behind him, he was able to break free.....chainbreaker.

While I believe deeply in the faithfulness of the past, my ultimate beliefe for the church is the same: when we want what is in front of us, more than what is behind us, we will chainbreakers. We will become the church, the people, that God intended for us to be.

There were many proofs