Live Sent: Acts 1:6-11

Intro

In our live sent series, theme for the year

Blessed to grow up in a community where I was trained to Live Sent

But Why?

Why are we sent?

How could God trust such broken and sinful pieces of his creation to carry his message?

Why doesn’t God reveal himself?

To answer this question, we turn to Acts 1 - When the disciples were sent

We are part of a heritage of people who were sent, beginning with this moment.

Jesus sent his disciples specifically

We’ll see why that is

We’ll see two different responses based on the disciples misunderstandings of the mission and what those look like today

And we’ll discuss what it looks like to live sent now

English Standard Version Chapter 1

6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Cultivate Eternal Life

As we see the disciples questions we can’t help but relate

Story of the football team - so easy to forget the long game

Pastor Kevin has to constantly remind me of the long game

BUT WHY THE LONG GAME??

Why didn’t God just end it there?

The answer to that is in our very design

We are made in the image of God and that has major implications on our role in the story of the gospel

English Standard Version Chapter 1

27  So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.

28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

We worship a God who desires to share his capacity to rule

Rarely does God do anything on this earth apart from human hands

From the beginning of the story he creates us to share

His image is that of life and love

He gave Adam and Eve the task of cultivating that life. “Fill the Earth and Subdue it” is not language of Lording over, but of creating and cultivating.

He created us to cultivate life, but we chose and we still choose to cultivate death by overstepping our authority surrendering our delegated authority to the forces of the enemy

The story of the Bible is the story of redemption of that image of authority through the hands of humans

The Old Testament is the story of covenant after covenant (in other words Partnership) promising to restore that authority

Jesus then comes and as the ultimate picture of God and Man in unity Redeems humanity, and reclaims authority

The first thing he does with it is share it back.

English Standard Version Chapter 28

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

We see this further in that he shares his Spirit with his followers, both here in Acts 1:8 and in the context of our theme verse in John 20, the gospel writers record Jesus promising his Spirit.

This harkens back to the Garden in which God fills Adam with his Spirit

But how to these ideas relate?

Adam’s job in the garden was to cultivate the garden, to fill the earth and to cultivate life.

Once the authority has been given back to us, our job now is still to cultivate life, but now life eternal.

In other words, God allows us to experience the story of redemption allowing us to share that story with others

C.S. Lewis - “delight is incomplete till it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not to be able to tell anyone how good he is; to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with. . . In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him.”

So to live sent is to live in our design

To bear God’s image by cultivating eternal life through discipleship - To Live Sent

And now instead of a Garden, we cultivate that life inside of a kingdom, which brings me to my next point. To live sent is to 1. Cultivate eternal Life and 2. Cultivate the Kingdom

Cultivate the Kingdom

English Standard Version Chapter 1

6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

verse 6 introduces the theological question we just addressed but also shows the Disciple’s misunderstanding

Notice what their primary concern was - “Restore the Kingdom of Israel”

They had hopes, desires, and agendas, for what was immediately in front of them. And they skewed their understanding of the very message Jesus embodied. (I’m glad this is only a problem with the disciples)

How often do we confuse the message of the gospel with what’s right in front of us?

The Disciples sought a political liberation (And a valid one) but that wasn’t the point

For some of us there is a direct parallel

For some we tie the gospel to our politics so tightly that our politics actually shape the way we see the life and work of Christ.

For others of us, it may not be political, but we still incorrectly prioritize our immediate needs over the gospel

Lord, is this the time where you will restore my bank account, reputation, relationships, physical health, etc.?

Not that these needs are bad, but we often put them in the wrong place which the Scripture call Idolatry

But read Jesus’ kind instruction in (vv. 7-8)

“It’s not for you to know, God’s got that figured out”

Reminding us both of our place and his sovereignty

God’s ultimate plan is redemption - He covers the timing, you job is to share the story

He doesn’t leave us waiting though. He takes their hopes beyond their small world of Israel and describes an new Kingdom

This Kingdom of God is so much bigger than what we even could hope for

English Standard Version Chapter 1

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth

Jesus describes this kingdom in three main ways

first it will be Spirit filled

Not relying on the power of us but the power of the Spirit of God

not just referring to a Spiritual Gift Supernatural Experience

We see it all throughout Acts that the Spirit fills the apostles every time they prepare to witness

That same Life-Giving and Empowering Spirit fills the Church Today

Second, it will be based on the witness of the Truth

Notice the role of apostles - witness

Not saviors, not Idea creators, not even just those who are rescued, but witnesses

Those who are filled with the Spirit are those that testify to the Truth

We worship in Spirit and in Truth

And their witness is based on the resurrection

He didn’t say go and tell your story, he said go tell mine.

Every sermon in Acts is the story of Christ’s Life, Death, and Resurrection

Your story only serves to retell that story of redemption

Thirdly, while the disciples sought restoration for their own people Jesus showed the Kingdom of Heaven to be in International Community where all are welcome

He affirms the love of their own people by saying that they will be his witnesses there in Jerusalem

The people in your own communities are desperate for the story of the gospel

Mission fields are not only across the ocean, they are here in Fayetteville (discuss not being home, but on mission)

Cultivate Eternal Life in your own back yards

Jesus then spreads the boarders to the culture around them, including their enemies (Judea/Samaria)

Samaria???? Really???? but they’re gross, they refuse to see the truth, they aren’t… and they won’t…

And then he says keep going to the ends of the earth

the Kingdom of Heaven will rest with its capital in Jerusalem, but God’s Kingdom and God’s Church is open to all who seek it

Eternal Life is not just for the one who was trained in it, but it is for all who will receive it

The Kingdom of God is a Spirit filled, Gospel-based, Global community of those who have found life and can’t not share it with others.

And with that promise, Jesus disappears

English Standard Version Chapter 1

And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

But that’s not the end of the story. This is merely Chapter one of the Acts of the Apostles. After Jesus reminded us that to live sent is to Cultivate life and to Cultivate the Kingdom, we see one more reminder and that is to Continue the Mission

Continue the mission

Although the story was just beginning, the disciples didn’t get that

English Standard Version Chapter 1

And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Understandably, the disciples were amazed, and wanted to stay there forever and stare at the sky

When we read in sequence we get frustrated

“you were just given a command by the risen Lord and you are stuck looking at the cloud”

This isn’t the first time it happened either

Mark’s Gospel records the story of the Transfiguration in Chapter 9

Peter wants to build a tabernacle and stay there

The disciples experience these heavenly moments and they just want to live in them

And if I’m honest; I can’t blame them

Maybe you have experienced a powerful time of worship, or a fruitful time of prayer and you never want it to end

There are some who love to experience the gifts the Spirit and chase the Supernatural moments (Don’t get me wrong, there our times where the Spirit moves, and it is powerful and filling and phenomenal), but we can’t stay there

A similar story happens in Luke 10

Some of the very first evangelists are sent by Jesus

English Standard Version Chapter 10

17 The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” 18 And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

He acknowledges that A Spiritual battle is being waged and people are turning their allegiance from death to life

But he warns them not to get caught up in the experience of it, to focus on what matters

Eternal life is being shared

Maybe you haven’t had a moment or experience like this but all of us still find ourselves staring at the clouds

What does that look like today?

Francis Chan described it like this

Imagine if you were at a football game and you see your team running onto the field, and its the first play and you don’t know what they’re going to run. And the Quarterback runs into the huddle and calls the play, and there’s a lot of emotion going on and everyone is fired up. They call the play, the break the huddle. And what if after they broke they just run to the sidelines and sit on the bench? (It happens again). After a while, you’d think this is really weird. - This is the Church

Stop staring at the sky! What will you do with it this week?

Some of you say “Oh, I’ve been doing my Bible Study”

John Stott, says this

The Message of Acts c. What Is the Permanent Value of the Ascension Story?

The vision they were to cultivate was not upwards in nostalgia to the heaven which had received Jesus, but outwards in compassion to a lost world which needed him. It is the same for us. Curiosity about heaven and its occupants, speculation about prophecy and its fulfilment, an obsession with ‘times and seasons’—these are aberrations which distract us from our God-given mission. Christ will come personally, visibly, gloriously. Of that we have been assured. Other details can wait. Meanwhile, we have work to do in the power of the Spirit.

In other words, stop getting so worked up about whether we are in the end times. Realize that we are and Do something about it!

What good is it to warn a dying world about death? Let’s stop staring at the sky and cultivate eternal Life!

Study your word with the question of how does this show me and others life eternal?

Response

It’s time for the Church to stop staring at the sky and Live sent. Cultivate Eternal Life, Cultivate the Kingdom, Continue the Mission

So what does that mean?

Let’s live in the Spirit’s power

Some of us need to be active in prayer and fasting and be more aware of the needs around us

Be moved by the Spirit to love and to lead

Let’s be a witness

Understand the truth’s of the gospel and share them

Stop being so obsessed with our own stories and share the one that all of heaven and earth is involved in

Love our neighbors

Care for the broken around us no matter what they look like, vote like, act like

So Life in our communities

Maybe you’re feeling called to be Sent elsewhere in the world, Pastor Kevin would love to talk with you about that

Whether you’re called to Africa, Europe, California, or Fayetteville, You’re called. Now let’s live like it.

Pray with me...