Introduction to Acts

May 1st 2022

Series: The Book of Acts

Sermon Title: Introduction to Acts

Topic: Journey through the book of Acts.

Key Passages: Acts 1: 1-10

Sermon Blurb: This message marks the beginning of our church’s journey through the book of Acts in our Bibles. In this message, we will give an introduction to the book and begin diving into it!

Sermon:

Family Moment

Family Church I have to admit….I am REALLY excited about today!

We are a church that is PASSIONATE about the Word of God, our Bibles, and we LOVE to help you all understand the Bible and apply it to your lives.

That is why we just sent 4 weeks talking about how you could literally transform your life in just 52 days!

If you don’t know what I am talking about….go back and listen to the messages last month, I think they will really help you make 2022 a year unlike any other!

PAUSE

But this month we are shifting gears.

I know we have a lot of people that have joined our church family over the course of the last year, which is awesome, and we are so happy you are here!

But if you are newer to Family Church we want to take a moment and explain something before we get into the book of Acts.

PAUSE

When Pastor Adam felt called to come here and go after this church plant he felt God call him to begin that journey by preaching through the life of Jesus.

That began our church on a journey in 2017 and continued into 2021!

As a church, we walked through the life of Jesus chronologically….

Chronologically meaning….we started with the birth announcement of Jesus and then walked through Jesus’ life as he grew up and all the way to Jesus death, resurrection, and ascension.

We spend years investing in growing as a church in our knowledge of Jesus.

Pastor Adam wanted us to know who Jesus really was not based on what we remembered as a kid.

Or what we learned about in college.

Or what our parents told us.

BUT based on what the Word of God, the Bible teaches us.

And the reason why we parked there for 4+ years is because of the mission statement of our church.

Family Church’s Mission Statement: Love God, Love People, Make Disciples

That first part…. Love God…

That is why we spent 4+ years diving deep into who our savior, our God, Jesus, is.

And if you are not aware Pastor Adam started his Doctoral studies in 2021 and as a church we will be really focusing in on how do we make disciples like Jesus called us to.

PAUSE

As we wrapped up the life of Jesus, Pastor Adam told us that next we would be diving into the book of Acts because in the book of Acts we learn how the early church lived out this call to Love God, Love People, and Make Disciples.

So that is where we pick up today.

We pick up after the life of Jesus and will start walking forward.

PAUSE

So because we as a church do NOT like anyone feeling like an outsider….let’s start with an overview of the book of Acts.

Grab your Bibles and open them up to the Book of Acts.

If you don’t know where that is it is about ¾ way through the Bible after Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

What I am going to do is paraphrase a lot of what you can read later today in the introduction to Acts in your study Bibles plus some other fun tidbits.

And one more side note……. Remember how we talked about how we as a church walked through the life of Jesus Chronologically?

Well if you look in the study Bible we give away…..

On the page before the Introduction to Acts, you see what is called a Harmony of the Gospels which is the guide to walking through Jesus’ life!

So, if you want to read through Jesus’ life sometime…there is a free guide right in your Bible!

PAUSE

Let start with, who wrote the book of Acts?

Almost all scholars agree that Dr. Luke, who wrote the book of Luke before this, wrote Acts as well.

And Dr. Luke is one of my favorite writers in the Bible because I think he was like a lot of us in the room…..

Dr. Luke was a SUPER logical guy who just wanted to know the truth.

Dr. Luke in his first book says this

Luke 1: 1-4 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3 With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

Keep that on the screens….

I want to start here because I think it is important that we understand who brought us the book of Acts.

Luke was a Dr.

Now I don’t know how many Dr.’s you know….

But my older brother is a Chief Medical Officer…AKA a Doctor to Doctors…..and my brother is one of the most logical and methodical people I know.

Most doctors are naturally skeptical.

Science teaches us to doubt everything and prove everything.

So Dr. Luke is commissioned by a guy called Theophilus, who was a prominent Roman, to go find out what really happened with this guy Jesus.

So Dr. Luke wrote this letter to Theophilus to let him know after in his own words HE CAREFULLY INVESTIGATED EVERYTHING

Everything they heard about Jesus.

All these crazy claims about the stuff Jesus did.

All these crazy stories about who Jesus was.

Dr. Luke did NOT just take the rumor mill for evidence.

Dr. Luke went and PERSONALLY interviewed, cross-examined, and so forth the EYE-WITNESSES.

Eye-witnesses are the people who SAW with their own two eyes all these claims…..

Luke likely spent YEARS….interviewing….. studying…. Analyzing… EVERYTHING claimed about Jesus….

And then Dr. Luke wrote the book of Luke with all his findings….

Amazing book, if you have not read it please do so later today….

PAUSE

Dr. Luke ends his book with this:

Luke 24: 50-53 The Ascension of Jesus 50 When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. 51 While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. 52 Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. 53 And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.

Jesus raised Himself from the dead!

Everyone is happy!

Everyone is praising God!

Everyone is staying at church…the temple….praising God….

But….

But write this down…..

This is something you are going to see come to life in the book of Acts….

Disciples (Christians) naturally want to stay in the church. Jesus wants His disciples to get OUT of the church!

Repeat

That is literally what you see here!

The disciples are so excited that Jesus is raised and they want to stay with their church friends and hang out!!!

BUT

BUT….that is not what Jesus designed disciples to do….

And we will see this struggle in the book of Acts.

This struggle….internal church focus…..and then God re-focusing the church on the external….

Re-focusing us church people on NOT just doing things to serve us…

The same struggle many churches have today.

So…..

Dr. Luke then went on to write a second volume to the same Roman benefactor….

That second volume is the book of Acts!

Acts shows us how these new “Christians” who are powerless in their culture and society can do the impossible through God’s power.

Acts gives us this theological vision of the power of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection and how that should manifest itself in the life of the church.

We are going to see that the book of Acts has this theology that says this….write this down.

Disciples (Christians) are obligated to always proclaim Jesus, in all places, until Jesus returns.

Repeat

PAUSE

So with the rest our time today….

Let’s dive into the first part of chapter 1.

Let’s read this and then we will do what we love to do here at Family Church!

We will slowly break down the passage and see how it applies to our lives today!

Acts 1: 1-11 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.

Pause here for just a second….

Last year we preached a series called “Resurrection Eye-witnesses.”

In that series, we walked through this and every other person who claimed to see Jesus raised from the dead.

I want to encourage you that if you missed that series to go listen to those messages because it will build your faith when you realize how many people claimed to see Jesus ALIVE and WELL after his death.

Because that is what Luke is talking about right here….

He is talking about the 14 distinct and different appearances of Jesus to hundreds of people over a period of 40 days!

Let’s keep reading…verse 4

4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

I love this part of Acts 1…

Jesus makes them this promise!

Jesus says I am going to send you My Spirit, the Holy Spirit!

And instead of getting excited about that!

Instead of asking what that means.

They do what a lot of us do….

We ignore people who aren’t talking about what we want to and try to change the subject to something we care about.

Right here they try to shift Jesus and ask about something MORE important to them!

Political freedom…

Israel’s freedom….

Their freedom….

And listen to how Jesus responds:

7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.

One sentence….

Jesus says STOP thinking about YOUR agenda and trust God’s timing….

This one point alone could be a whole sermon itself right there!

So let’s write this down:

God wants us to STOP pushing our agenda and instead TRUST God’s agenda for our lives.

Repeat

PAUSE

Far too often we want it to be all about what WE want and not what God is offering us in this moment….

They did not like the political climate of their day, just like some of you do not today or some of you did not under the last president.

They did not like the direction their nation was heading, just like some of you do not today or some of you did not under the last president.

They did not like what the culture was doing to their kids, just like some of you do not today or some of you did not under the last president.

We ALL have our pet issues.

We ALL have things we think are SUPER important.

We ALL have things we wish were different.

We ALL have things in our life that are a BIG priority….

Just like the disciples of Jesus did.

And what we will see OVER and OVER again in the book of Acts.

This call by God for us to LAY DOWN our priorities and PICK UP God’s instead.

This call to lay down our agenda….

And follow God’s agenda.

To trust what God says should happen next OVER what we think should happen next….

PAUSE

And I know how hard that is.

It is hard to trust God’s timing with your career.

It is hard to trust God’s timing with your relationships.

It is hard to trust God’s timing with your health or the health of someone you love.

It is HARD to follow God….

BUT

But I can promise you…..

Following God will be the best version of your life!

PAUSE

Let me say one last thing here…

The power they are going to receive from Jesus in the next verse is NOT a power the enables them to conquer or dominate others.

It is NOT a power to build empires or companies.

It IS a power to confront the empires around them with the TRUTH of the Gospel that Jesus is King!

They will receive this power ONLY to spread the gospel of Jesus….

Don’t miss that in their lives and your life today…..

Jesus says…Verse 8

8 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.”

Right here is one of my favorite Bible verses!!!!

Let me explain what this means….

Jerusalem is where they lived…

So, God is saying it is important to reach those around in your everyday life.

Judea was a town that was far enough way to not be home…

but still close….

So, God is saying it is important to reach those outside your everyday life.

Samaria was filled with people from a VERY different culture…

So, God is saying it is important to reach those who are different than us.

The ends of the earth is the rest of the world….

So, God is saying it is important to reach everyone on the planet.

PAUSE

Do you see what we talked about earlier today?

Jesus shifts them right back to what matters….

Not an earthly kingdom for Israel….

But God’s kingdom spreading through the entire world!

And how does Jesus say it will happen….

Look in your Bibles….…..

There is ONE word that is repeated over and over in verse 8….

Does anyone see that KEY word?

Anyone see it?

The word YOU……Next slide…..

8 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.”

Look in your sermon notes…..

Next you will notice this verse is there with blanks where the “YOU” should be….

I want you to write your name in those blanks right now.

For real….write you name in there right now….

Then we are going to read it aloud and I want you to read it with you name in the blank.

Ready…. Lets read it….

8 But _______________will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on ________________; and _____________ will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

PAUSE

Church…..hear me in this….

You and I are powerless without the Holy Spirit.

If the Spirit of God does not reside in you….you will not be successful…

But if you are following God’s direction and His Spirit is living inside you!!!

LOOK OUT!!!

You are going to do things you would NEVER imagine are possible!!!!

We are going to see that OVER and OVER again in the book of Acts!

We are going to see REGULAR, every day, ordinary, people just like YOU..

Do miracles through the power of the Holy Spirit!

PAUSE

And one side not here….

I know a lot of you grew up Reformed or Christian Reformed in this area….

And Pastor Adam, who was baptized CRC as a baby.

Pastor Adam who is ordained in the Reformed church.

He would say…..that a lot of us have this view of the Holy Spirit as like the weird uncle at Christmas….

That we avoid talking about the Holy Spirit.

That we don’t really talk about the activity of the Holy Spirit….

But in the chapters ahead we are going to get to know the Holy Spirit VERY well!

But that is for another day…..

Verse 9:

9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

Stop and think about this….

Verse 8 contains the FINAL words of Jesus before he returned to heaven…..

So we really should pay attention to them.

Look at that verse with your name in it….

That was the final call Jesus gave to you before he returned to heaven….

How are you doing at following that call?

Have you ever led someone to Jesus from your hometown?

Have you ever led someone to Jesus from another town?

Have you ever led someone to Jesus that comes from a very different culture that you?

Have you ever led someone to Jesus from another nation?

If not….why?

LONG PAUSE

Verse 10

10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

In other words….get to action!!!

Like we talked about earlier…..

Put your faith into action!

PAUSE

Let’s write down one final point for today and then we will wrap things up.

Jesus’ resurrection and ascension were not to restore Israel’s kingdom but Israel’s vocation to be a light to the world.

That is why the angel says, hey guys….why are you standing around.

Hey guys….Jesus is NOT coming right back!

Hey guys….Jesus gave you a job to do…remember verse 8?

Remember Go

And do what church????

WITNESS

And go and never share you faith in Jesus.

Not just got to church on day a week.

Not just go to church and Bible studies.

Not just even be on a church staff…..

NOPE!

We are ALL called to go and what church?

Witness……

Or as Matthew 28 says it….

We are to GO and MAKE Disciples….

By teaching them all about the ways of Jesus..

By baptizing them….

PAUSE

The book of Act is all about the people of the church in action…

Not the pastors in action.

Not the church staff in action.

ALL the people of God….

Living for God.

Following God’s will.

Fearlessly proclaiming salvation through Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone.

PAUSE

Family Church I am so excited for this journey that we are beginning today!

I honestly cannot imagine what God is going to do in and through us in the years ahead as we walk through the book of Acts.

We saw God move in such amazing ways as we walked through the life of Jesus…..

I cannot wait to reflect back on this next journey for our church!

Let’s commit to being here weekly and growing together as we learn how the early church lived out what we should be today!

PAUSE

Before I give you the Life Application for today…let me share something cool with you!

So, if you were here in February we gave you all a journal guide to help you in writing a story worth telling one day.

That went over so well that we are kicking it up a notch today!

Today as you exit we are going to give you one of these.

This is the entire book of acts broken up into small pieces with lots of note space next to it.

It also has some small devotional readings as well.

For parents, with kids that sit in service with them, we also have a kids version that looks like this.

Here is my BIG ask…..

Grab one after service if you think you will use it.

Then bring this back to church with you each week and take notes in it.

This is just a tool we are providing for you all to help you grow in your relationship with Jesus.

PAUSE

And one last note…..

Please make sure you are here next week with your mother, grandmother, and/or spiritual mother.

Next week we will celebrate the women in our lives and we will see in the book of Acts just how important women were in this early church movement!

And next week EVERY woman will get a gift and one woman each service will get a EXTRA special prize!!!!!

PAUSE

Let me give you your life application today…..

Life Application: How do you respond to times of waiting in your life? Why do you think God often calls His followers to wait before He directs them to the next step? What next step could God be calling you to take?

Let’s Pray…..