On a Mission

Abundant Life Sermon Series

We’ve been talking about how we experience the abundant life of Jesus through who we are, our identity. Baptism is where we claim our identity...

I am baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit

To be baptized in name of the Father is to know that I really am a part of the family of God, a son of God, a daughter of our Heavenly Father

I am baptized in the name of the Son, of the King. Like him, I am a servant.

Today we’re going to focus on the third person - what it means to be baptized in the name of the Holy Spirit.

When John the Baptist came, he said - I baptize with water, but one who comes after me (Jesus) will baptize with the Holy Spirit.

As we come to trust in Jesus, Jesus baptizes us, immerses us, fills us, with the Holy Spirit

So, what does that mean? Who does that makes us, when we are baptized in the name of the Holy Spirit.

It means that we are missionaries - we are empowered and sent by the Holy Spirit to proclaim the good news of Jesus…that’s what we’re going to look at this morning.

Prayer / Scripture - Acts 1:1-9

Instructions

What if someone wrote a biography about you - the Life of (insert your name), the Deeds of Rob Laukoter

Or, they wrote it about our church…The Doings of the Presbyterian Church of the Covenant?

Would that book be a worthwhile read (maybe, if they were a really good writer!)

More importantly, what would it reveal about our life, how we live and what we did with our lives?

That’s exactly what Luke’s book, Acts, is all about. The full title is the Acts of the Apostles.

Luke begins by referencing his first book, the Gospel of Luke, where he “wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven.”

Then, instead of telling Theophilus (and us) what this book, Acts, is all about, he just jumps right into it.

By telling us about the instructions that Jesus gives his followers.

Jesus tells his disciples, “I’m leaving now, this is all in your hands.”

The book of Acts is exactly that - the Apostles doing what Jesus had left them to do. It could be translated as, “The deeds of the sent ones”, that’s what an apostle is, a sent one.

Here’s thing - this book could easily have been named, the Acts of the Holy Spirit.

Because entire book of Acts is story of first followers of Jesus receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, being empowered by the Holy Spirit, and in that power, going and telling people near and far the story of Jesus of Nazereth, who was crucified on our behalf, dying for our sins but is now alive, having risen from the dead three days later. This Jesus of Nazareth is now Lord of all.

Which is exactly what Jesus told them would happen…But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

It’s exactly how it’s happened for the last two thousand years - and it’s exactly how God intends to use his followers today. We are baptized in the name of the Holy Spirit to be missionaries. Jeff Vanderstelt says, Jesus intends to saturate the world his presence through his Spirit in his people - his sent ones.

I want to walk us through this a bit - what Jesus means by telling us

One, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you

And two, what it means that we are his witnesses

The Power of the Spirit

Our role as missionaries always begins with Holy Spirit - he fills us, he empower us, he sends us.

You’ll notice Jesus was very clear in his instructions - don’t leave, but wait. Don’t go anywhere, because you’re going to receive gift my Father promised to give you…and you don’t want to do anything until you have received that gift. Gift, of course, is the Holy Spirit.

Jesus was not kidding, it was well worth the wait. 10 days later, on Feast of Pentecost, while 120 disciples were gathered together, waiting, praying - Spirit came in power.

That’s scene in Acts 2, when a violent wind blows into house! And then tongues of flame came to rest on each of them and they were filled with the Spirit.

Immediately, power of Spirit was put on broad display. Those first Jesus followers started speaking in tongues, in languages none of them knew, so that everyone gathered in city of Jerusalem in festival could understand.

Then Peter preached to all of them. On that one day, 3,000 people repented and believed. They came to trust that Jesus truly is the Savior, and they surrendered their lives to him.

Here’s thing - it’s not that Peter was so eloquent - later on in Acts Peter is described as an “unschooled fisherman”. It’s not like he had spendthours studying and preparing his speech to get it just right.

Crowds showed up, Peter just started telling them - off the cuff - about Jesus. It was power of the Holy Spirit.

This empowerd by Holy Spirit wasn’t just true for first disciples, it was true for Jesus.

Jesus’ ministry is launched by power of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus was baptized by John, as he came up out of water, Holy Spirit descended upon him, filling him with power.

Later, when Jesus was teaching in synagogue of his hometown, Nazareth - he’s handed scroll to read, opens it up to passage in Isaiah, and he reads…The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor; He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.

Did you hear that? Jesus himself is telling us that his very own ministry comes out of being filled with, empowered by and sent by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of the Lord is on me, he has anointed me to...

Why would we think that we could do it any differently? Why would we want to?!?

Notice that in all of this, we can’t force this to happen. We can’t fill ourselves with Spirit. We can’t take his power. We can go off without him, but Spirit is not ours to control.

As Jesus says in John 3:8, “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

Spirit blows where he pleases. You cannot tell where he comes from or where he is going.

Years ago, when I was in college, I did a summer internship in Los Angeles. One of the guys that I worked with invited me to try to windsurfing.

Windsurfing involves a surfboard, except surfboard has a small mast with a sail attached - and you stand on the board, holding crossbeam of sail - and the idea is that you maneuver the sail to catch the wind and you’ll just streak across water. At least, that’s idea.

Before I tried it, I watched my friend do it, and he just stood there and took off, turning, jumping waves, it looked awesome.

So, I get on board, stand there holding sail, trying to get it in just right position. It was so much harder than he made it look. I must have fallen into water 20 times. Climb back on board, and either I would hold sail out too far and it would catch too much wind and I’d fall over or the wind would rip it out of my hands and then I’d fall over. Or I’d hold it in too close and all of a sudden, wind would catch it and pull it to the other side - and I’d fall over. I was terrible. Never got a hold of it.

I never could get a sense of how to work with wind. There was a subtle art, being attentive to wind, holding sail just right, and I couldn’t get it. Didn’t help that I have a terrible sense of balance.

Likewise, as followers of Jesus, we don’t control the Spirit. We can’t make Spirit blow the way we want to (in particular direction, with just right amount of force). We have to learn to be responsive to where Spirit is moving.

It’s very telling that very first thing Jesus tells disciples they must do…is wait.

We hate waiting. It kills us. Waiting in line at store, stuck in traffic, when our internet is slow. We want to move, see things happen.

But Jesus is teaching his disciples something crucial by instructing them to wait. This is not up to you. You are not in control here. You need what I’m going to give you. This is not your work, it is mine - a work that I’m inviting you to be a part of.

Waiting requires patience. Humility. Surrender. Being attentive to.

Judy Brown makes the amazing analogy of building a fire - that fire requires not just fuel (wood), but oxygen, flow of air. If you don’t arrange your wood with breathing space, fire will not burn. We have to create breathing space in our lives for Spirit.

Times of quiet. Of surrender. Of waiting - if we are going to experience his fire, his power, in our lives.

This is so much of what we’re learning in our spiritual formation groups. Engaging in practice of silence and solitude. Of slowing down. Of Sabbath rest.

We’re creating that openness, that breathing space, in our lives for the Spirit to fill us, empower us, send us.

You see, God will not just give his power to us. Power is so easily misused and abused.

We must become kind of people he can entrust with power of his Spirit.

We must become like Jesus. To be, like we talked about last week, a servant. One who looks to good of others. Serves their needs. Uses power out of a love for others.

And it’s not just learning to become those kind of people, becoming like Jesus - but trusting that God really can and does fill us with his Holy Spirit - and the power of His Spirit! You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.

Do we trust the words of Jesus? Do we hear them and put them into practice?

That as we continue to come toward Jesus, opening our lives in humble surrender, with a prayerful posture of waiting, that he will empower us with his Holy Spirit?

That he will guide and lead us - putting us in right place at the right time - to be involved in his work in the lives of those around us?

That he will give us words to speak -even when we don’t think we have anything worth saying? Or we don’t think we know enough about the Bible to have answers we think we need?

Or conversely, that Spirit will give us wisdom to know when to shut up and listen!

Do we trust that God will use us in his transforming work in lives of others? To experience his healing? That they would repent and believe and experience his grace and forgiveness for first time?

If we go about day to day never expecting these things to happen - will God really use us? What would it look like for us to trust and believe and we really have been baptized in name of Holy Spirit - that there really is power here, available to us?

Jesus himself said in John 14:12, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do.”

Bear Witness

So, now the second part of Jesus amazing claim to his disciples: You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

You will be my witnesses…to be a witness, is to be person who testifies to the truth of what they have seen or heard or know.

Think about a trial - you have eyewitnesses, those who actually saw the crime, witnesses who may testify to what they heard the defendant say. Other witnesses may be expert witnesses, those who tell truth about given subject matter.

In all these cases, their role is same - to speak to what they know to be true.

Last week, we talked about ways that we serve the Gospel - we give people a taste of who God is, his goodness, his love, by serving them.

But that’s only half story - we are baptized in the name of the Holy Spirit to share the gospel, to speak to what we know to be true. To tell others story of Jesus.

Here’s thing - what a story this is!

Think how important it is in our legal system today for the truth to be told - for all facts about case to come out. The court has authority to subpeona witnesses, to compel people to come and tell what they know about case.

Because it has critical consequences -those who are innocent would not be wrongly punished - and that the guilty would receive justice.

Jesus never compels by force - always by love. His loving command to us is that we would go and tell his story - because it is THE story - it impacts every single person on earth.

Why he wants his story told everywhere! You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. To go everywhere so everyone has a chance to hear about Jesus.

Our sin is root problem of everything that’s wrong with world. Everything. Our greed for more. Our hubris, thinking we know better than God. Our desire to have power, to be in control - to lord it over others.

Man in India who beheaded his own teenage daughter, 12 year old in Washington D.C. who carjacked four different cars, in NIgeria, Boko Harem kidnapped over 300 hundred school age girls, reporter in San Francisco doing a story on robberies in city - got robbed, video camera taken

There’s no shortage of examples…we could talk about drug abuse, fraud, bullying, domestic abuse

We have opportunity to tell world the truth about Jesus - who came not to condemn world, but to save it. To save us. To give us a way out of our mess.

I was listening to an interview with a professor from Biola University, Thaddeus Williams, who just wrote a book, entitled - “Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth”

Racial justice has become issue so fraught with contention, book tries to make sense of how we as followers of Christ should approach it.

One of the things in book he does - he tells stories. Well, really, The Story. Jesus’ story - how Jesus transformed lives.

Tells story of Edwin Ramirez, young hispanic man who’d become so convinced of prevailing racism that he became convinced that every white person was racist. Held hatred in his heart.

Until, worshipping at a small rural predominantly white church, watched an elderly woman sing her heart out in worship. And it dawned on him…that’s my sister, my sister in Christ. Absolutely changed way he looked at others.

Williams tells about student he had who was abrasive, hardened. He suspected he was Neonazi. Over the course of three years student was there, Williams noticed change in that student, softening, a genuine love for Jesus.

After student graduated, Williams sent him an email, with great trepidation, asked him if he had been Neonazi.

Young man responded that same day. Yes I was, a white supremacist. But as I began to be confronted with the universality of sin (we all sin), and grace and love of Jesus, I couldn’t hold those views anymore.

Finally, Williams tells story of his friend and mentor, John Perkins, 91 years old. Perkins, who’s black, has endured terrible racism. His brother, a WWII veteran, was gunned down by racist town marshall. Perkins himself has been beaten within inches of his life.

But John Perkins says unmistakably…you can’t answer hate with hate. Love, redemptive love, coming through the crosswork of Jesus is the only way through the mess we’re in.

That’s our story. That’s THE story. The story we get to be witnesses of.

We have been baptized in the name of the Holy Spirit, he is filling us, empowering us, sending us to tell that story.

Closing - Session is working on Ministry Plan - invitation to join in praying for our Mission field - to whom would God send us?