An Introduction to Acts (Acts 1:1-5)

Announcements

We started Discipleship Groups this morning at 9am and I just want to remind you and encourage you to come next week if you’re able to. To those online, let me encourage you to come in-person for Discipleship Groups—because those groups are more discussion-oriented, we won’t be live-streaming them or recording them. That means, our weekly services now include:

Discipleship Groups every Sunday at 9am, which provides a time of discipleship-focused, discussion-oriented, teaching with an apologetics bent.

Our regularly scheduled Sunday AM Worship at 10:30am, which is our main worship time with singing, Scripture Reading, and expositional preaching.

And our Wednesday Bible Study & Prayer at 7pm, which includes a time of expositional preaching, but also a more concentrated time for the giving of prayer requests and prayer itself.

You’ll notice all these times now listed on our website, Facebook, signage, and even our worship guides starting from now on.

Don’t forget, next week after Sunday AM Worship, we’ll have a cookout in the field across the street—I believe we still have one or two more items to sign-up for. Please remember, that we don’t have seating for the field, so you should bring either camp chairs or a blanket to sit on—we’ll have canopies to shield from the sun and just in case it rains.

When you get here next week—if you’re bringing cold food, please feel free to store it in the refrigerator in the kitchen; and if you’re bringing in food that needs to stay hot, please bring it in a crockpot and we’ll plug it in either in the kitchen or in the Auditorium.

We’ll have the Discipleship Groups and AM Worship Service indoors and then we’ll go outside for the meal.

Let me remind you to continue worshiping the Lord through your giving. To help you give, we have three ways to do so, (1) cash and checks can be given at the offering box. Checks should be written to Grace & Peace; debit, credit, and ACH transfers can be done either by (2) texting 84321 with your $[amount] and following the text prompts or (3) by visiting us online at www.giving.gapb.church. Of course, everything you give goes to the building up of our local church and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Call to Worship (Ps 61)

Our Call to Worship is Psalm 61, which is a psalm of David in which he prays for security and then praises God for answering that prayer, he then ends the psalm with a vow to serve the Lord. Please stand and read with me Psalm 61—I’ll read the odd-numbered verses; please join me in reading the even-numbered verses.

Psalm 61 ESV

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. Of David. 1 Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer; 2 from the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, 3 for you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy. 4 Let me dwell in your tent forever! Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings! Selah 5 For you, O God, have heard my vows; you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name. 6 Prolong the life of the king; may his years endure to all generations! 7 May he be enthroned forever before God; appoint steadfast love and faithfulness to watch over him! 8 So will I ever sing praises to your name, as I perform my vows day after day.

Congregational Singing

There is a Higher Throne (119)

The Church’s One Foundation (354)

All I Have is Christ (389)

Scripture Reading (Matt 3:1-12)

Our Scripture Reading this morning is Matthew 3:1-12, which is tied to our passage for this morning just slightly, in that this morning’s passage makes mention of John the Baptist’s baptizing people as a sign of their belief. We won’t talk much about this today, but we’ll talk a bit about it in a few weeks when we talk about the Day of Pentecost. Deane, can you read Matthew 3:1-12 for us?

Matthew 3:1–12 ESV

1 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’ ” 4 Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, 6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

Preaching of God’s Word (Acts 1:1-5)

Introduction

This morning, we’re starting a new expositional series through the Acts of the Apostles. This is going to be one of our longer series (much like our series through the Gospel according to John), which means that it will be a series that will take a significant amount of time; and there will be a handful of breaks spread throughout the series during certain times of the year like when we celebrate Christmas or the Resurrection and when we typically break from our longer series during the summer.

Because its a new series through a new book, we’re going to take a little bit more time in the introduction just giving details about the book and its author. Occasionally, I think Christians today think that these sorts of details are pointless, but let me encourage you to realize that these sorts of details are important if you actually want to understand the text of the book—and unless you do understand the text of the book, you’ll never actually be able to apply the book to your life the way that it was intended to be applied. Good biblical hermeneutics requires understanding what the original author intended to say to the original audience before trying to apply it to your life today.

If you have your Bible, please feel free to turn the book of Acts. And while you turn there, I’m going to give you the introductory or background material that you need as we start this book.

Authorship and Dating—one of the first question that you should ask when you come to a new book is who wrote it?

In this case, the book itself doesn’t outrightly give us a name, which means that to determine who wrote the book of Acts, you have to look both at external evidence and internal evidence.

The external evidence is something in which we don’t typically put a lot of weight in because it relies on fallible man rather than the inerrant Word of God, but it still helps us get a better idea of who wrote the book and when it was written.

This external evidence has to do with what the early church thought of the authorship of Acts. Based on the date of Paul’s imprisonment, which is recorded at the end of Acts, most conservative scholars believe the book was written in the early 60s AD—of course, more liberal scholars date it much later than that, but up until recently, it was assumed that it was written earlier rather than later.

Very rarely has there been any disagreement with the fact that Acts and the Gospel account bearing Luke’s name were written by the same person, but who that person is is the question.

From the 60s into about 200 AD, the assumption from most people within the church was that Luke wrote both his Gospel account and the book of Acts, but neither book outrightly say it.

Rather, we have records from the early church in which the authorship and dating of Luke and Acts was clearly stated.

Irenaeus is the first early church author who attests to Luke being the author of both books and from that point on it was sort of assumed that he was correct in his assessment until recent decades when questioning the veracity of Scripture has been a more common issue amongst scholars who seek to doubt the inspiration of Scripture.

In the first few centuries of the early church, there was very little doubt that Luke wrote both the Gospel account of Luke and the book of Acts. So much so, that even those who were infamous for not accepting all the canon of Scripture, still typically assumed Luke and Acts were biblical and were both written by the physician Luke.

Internal evidence has to do with the book itself—whether it outrightly says that its written by someone, how the author writes and really, and who they’re related to.

I’ve already mentioned that this book doesn’t outrightly state who the author is, but there are other evidences within the book that helps us to induce that the author is Luke.

For instance, the relationship between the Gospel account and the book of Acts helps us make this determination—and we know that the two are connected because of its common style and vocabulary. In addition, there are multiple themes that run concurrently through both books, and the ending of the Gospel account clearly ties into the beginning of Acts.

In addition, the fact that the author utilizes the pronoun “we” in most instances when he speaks of Paul’s missionary journeys shows us that the author was a close associate of Paul’s who apparently traveled with Paul.

And some scholars have pointed to the fine quality of Greek and the medical terminology occasionally utilized in both books to make the claim that this close associate of Paul who traveled with him and wrote these books, was the physician Luke.

Despite not outrightly telling us who wrote the book, the evidence seems to point at Luke being the author of the Gospel account and the book of Acts.

Purpose—now much like the authorship issue, the book of Acts doesn’t actually tell us what the purpose of the book is, but as I explained, the book of Acts and the Gospel account bear the same author.

And the first chapter of Luke actually tells us the purpose of both books, Luke 1:1-4 “1 Since many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, 3 it seemed fitting to me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in an orderly sequence, most excellent Theophilus; 4 so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.”

The author makes it abundantly clear that the purpose of these books—both Luke and Acts, was to provide and orderly account of all that happened—the Gospel account all about Jesus’ life, death, burial, and resurrection; and the book of Acts all about the start of the church and what happened after Jesus ascended into heaven.

Really, the purpose of the book makes sense if you just think through it logically. Both Acts and Luke were written sometime in the early 60s, if you just think simply about it, you’ll understand why they were written.

Jesus died in roughly 30-33AD and at the time, everyone who followed him were adults—most of whom were about the same age as Jesus. 60AD is another 30 years, which means that all the eyewitnesses of the life of Jesus were now 60ish years old.

Why did the author decide to write out these accounts? Because all the eyewitnesses of Jesus’ life and the start of the church were aging and they were starting to die out.

He wrote these books to record eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ life and the start of the church before all the witnesses died—that is the purpose of both the Gospel account of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles.

Outline

The start of the church (1:1-2:47)

The Tension between the Jews and the Church (3:1-5:42)

The Expansion of the Church (6:1-9:31)

The Gentiles start to Believe (9:32-12:25)

Paul’s First Missionary Journey (13:1-15:35)

Paul’s Second Missionary Journey (15:36-18:17)

Paul’s Third Missionary Journey (18:18-20:38)

Paul’s Imprisonment (21:1-28:31)

Let’s read Acts 1:1-5 together and we’ll dig into Scripture.

Acts 1:1–5 ESV

1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. 4 And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

As we study this text, we’re going to break it into two parts, (1) The Literary Introduction (1-2) and (2) Jesus’ Instruction to the Disciples (3-5). The first two verses will continue in giving us some additional needed background information necessary to understand the book of Acts. The last three verses then kickstarts the historical narrative that is going to continue over the next few weeks of services. This will help finalize the introductory material for the book of Acts while whetting our appetites for what is to come. Our sermon will look at what Jesus instructs the disciples about and it will remind us that what Jesus says here is simply the fulfillment of something that Jesus had already said to the disciples. It will encourage us to remember that God always keeps His word.

Prayer for Illumination

The Literary Introduction (1-2)

The book of Acts starts with v. 1 with what we could call a literary introduction. Luke starts by stating, “In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.” Luke tells us of two important details in these two verses—he tells us who he’s writing to and why he wrote the first book.

We see the original audience in the first phrase, “in the first book [speaking of the Gospel account of Luke], O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach.”

Who is Acts written to? It’s written to Theophilus and there are two theories as to who Theophilus is:

The first theory, which I think isn’t as likely as the second, is that it was written to a group of Christians that Luke is referring to as Theophilus.

This is based on the etymology of the word itself. Theophilus literally means “lover of God.” You can see it in the breakdown of the word—theo is Greek for God; philus comes from the Greek φιλεω, which is to love as a friend or brother.

So, purely based on the word, some have taken the name to mean that Luke is writing to all the lovers of God, which are commonly referred to as Christians.

But the issue with this theory is simple, to assume that Theophilus has to be broken down etymologically neglects the simple truth that Theophilus is an actual Greek name that actually existed.

There were people named Theophilus in the Greek world; thus to assume that Luke meant Theophilus as a group of Christians rather just an individual rejects the truth that there could very well be an individual named Theophilus who simply wanted an orderly account of the truth.

The traditional theory is that Theophilus was an individual who was a sort of patron for Luke. He paid for Luke to travel and collect eyewitness accounts of all the different things that happened during Jesus’ life and the start of the early church.

This makes sense as to how Luke was able to travel so freely without worrying about work and it makes sense as to why Luke went and compiled all the different eyewitness accounts into two volumes. He did it to provide a logical, historical record for all who read the accounts he gives.

In the first book, he wrote about all that Jesus did, all that he taught, up to the point when he was crucified and had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles.

In that way, the first book is very similar to the other Gospel accounts, which were all written to give an account of not only the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but also the teachings of Jesus during his life.

And in the Gospel according to Luke, Luke ends by Jesus giving commands to the apostles and that’s what Luke is referring to in v. 2. This is how the Gospel account ends, Luke 24:44-49 “44 Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all the things that are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and He said to them, “So it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And behold, I am sending the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.””

What were the commands that he gave to the apostles? That they would go and proclaim the name of Jesus and repentance for the forgiveness of sins to all the nations, starting in Jerusalem. And that they were to be the first witnesses of this truth and the first to proclaim this message to all the nations, but they weren’t to go yet. They were to wait until something happened to them. Luke 24:49 “49 you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”” And the last three verses that we’re going to work through this morning emphasizes this promise that they were to wait for. Take a look at vv. 3-5.

Jesus’ Instruction to the Disciples (3-5)

Acts 1:3–5 ESV

3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. 4 And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

V. 3 continues speaking of Jesus’ appearance to the disciples at the end of the Gospel account of Luke. “He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.”

After Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, He came and sat and talked and ate with his disciples for forty days.

This is significant because it adds validity to the resurrection of Jesus—that Jesus’ resurrection wasn’t faked, that his disciples were eyewitnesses to His resurrection and they even spoke to Him and ate with Him—they didn’t imagine seeing Him and they didn’t hallucinate Him being in their presence.

They ate with Him, they spoke with Him, and they fellowshipped with them.

In fact, in saying that Jesus presented himself alive to them, Luke writes that he did this “by many proofs.” What exactly the proofs are, we aren’t entirely sure because Scripture doesn’t elaborate on it, but its clear that Jesus in His resurrected form made it abundantly clear that He was indeed resurrected from the grave. That He was certainly alive and that it was actually Him in the flesh.

And just as a side-note, the idea that they could’ve pretended to see the resurrected Jesus is a bit nonsensical when you consider the fact that He had eaten physical food with them, He spoke with them, He fellowshipped with Him, and He provided other proofs to them over 40 days.

Not to mention the simple truth that what we see as we continue in the New Testament is that it wasn’t just the original twelve that saw the resurrected Jesus—1 Corinthians 15:3-9 gives us a great statement concerning who all saw the resurrected Jesus. Paul writes, “3 For I handed down to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 After that He appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; 7 then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; 8 and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.”

Hundreds of people saw Jesus after His resurrection and He provided proof after proof that He was really there—this is important because many people today claim that Jesus wasn’t resurrected in the flesh, but what does Scripture actually teach? They saw Him, they talked with Him, they ate with Him, and they fellowshipped with Him—at least to 520ish people.

And as you know, its hard enough to get ten people to keep their stories straight when they’re trying to lie—just imagine if all 520 people were lying about Jesus being resurrected and how fanciful the stories would be.

The large amount of witnesses, the different proofs that Jesus Himself gave them, the fact that He ate with them and fellowshipped with them all add to the literal and physical truth of His resurrection.

Now, once you do accept the fact that this was a literal and physical resurrection, the text does lead us to another question:

What did they speak about? What were the conversations that they had?

V. 3 says that they spoke about the kingdom of God. And Luke 24 gives more details, Luke says that He talked to them about the fulfillment of the Law of Moses, the Psalms, and the prophets (what they would’ve known as the Tanakh), repentance, and the proclamation of the Gospel.

But probably, what’s emphasized most in both the end of Luke and the start of Acts is this statement about a promise from the Father—Luke 24:49 “49 And behold, I am sending the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.””

It’s emphasized so much that the last two verses are all about this promise. Acts 1:4-5 “4 Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.””

There is a promise that was given to these specific people from the Father, through Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit. Luke says that they would be “clothed with power from on high.” Acts 1:5 says that they would be “baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

We’ll talk with more detail about what exactly Jesus means by being clothed with power and being baptized by the Holy Spirit in a few weeks when we get to the Day of Pentecost, but let me give you just a few helpful facts about this text before we move on.

Note that this is a promise specific to the disciples that were physically face-to-face with the resurrected Jesus—this isn’t a promise to every believer retroactively—meaning, this isn’t something that we should assume would continuously occur and reoccur throughout all church history.

Note also, that there are many, many, many misconceptions as to what exactly this is because many, many, many people have read their own preconceived ideas into this passage and the passage about Pentecost that we’ll get to in a few weeks. Let me just say that it is vitally important when interpreting Scripture to let Scripture say what it says without your preconceived ideas influencing what Scripture teaches.

But again, I’ll go more in-depth about this in a few weeks. All I want us to focus on this morning is the fact that Jesus reminds them of this promise from God through Jesus that’s empowered by the Holy Spirit.

And I want to emphasize that despite the fact that we don’t see the fulfillment for this promise of being baptized by the Holy Spirit and being clothed with power on high, the point at this very moment in Acts is the reminder of this promise.

That Jesus made a promise concerning the baptism by the Holy Spirit and the disciples being clothed with power from God as part of His final few words with them.

That this promised baptism will be different than the baptism they experienced by John, in water.

And that when all this does actually occur, it will be a fulfillment of a promise that God has given.

This leads us this morning to our application. And if you’re like most people, you might have heard all this background information and you might have heard the introductory material that we’ve worked through, and you might be reflecting on all that we’ve worked through this morning and you might seriously be questioning how we ought to apply something such as this? How do we apply all this background information? How do we apply the few verses that we worked through this morning? And clearly because we only have a handful of verses to find application from, we aren’t going to break it into different sections as we work through the text. We’re going to take everything that we worked through and draw application for it, but before we do, I have to sort of help you to get into the shoes or sandals of the disciples whom Luke is referring to in this text.

Application

Consider all that we’ve learned in the first five verses of Acts—that Luke wrote both his Gospel account and the book of Acts for the express purpose of giving an orderly account of the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus; as well as the beginning of the church through the book of Acts. And then consider the time period and the events that Luke ended his Gospel with and started his church history book with. What happened to lead up to where we are in this passage?

Luke ended his Gospel account in Luke 23 by recording the final trials of Jesus, His crucifixion, and His death and burial.

He lays all this out logically and chronologically keeping note of the people who had traveled with Jesus—Luke 23:49 “49 And all His acquaintances and the women who accompanied Him from Galilee were standing at a distance, seeing these things.”

Luke 23:55-56 “55 Now the women who had come with Him from Galilee followed, and they saw the tomb and how His body was laid. 56 And then they returned and prepared spices and perfumes. And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.”

And even when the women go to the tomb in the morning and see that Jesus’ body was no longer in the tomb—Luke records that Luke 24:11-12 “11 But these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe the women. 12 Nevertheless, Peter got up and ran to the tomb; and when he stooped and looked in, he saw the linen wrappings only; and he went away to his home, marveling at what had happened.”

Already, I think you can almost sense or feel the emotional state of the disciples. After giving up their careers, their lives, and in many cases their families; and choosing to follow Jesus as He led them and taught the people; and then seeing Him crucified on a cross and buried in a tomb.

I think it would be an understatement to say that their emotional state was that of possibly hopelessness, fear, grave concern, and maybe even a little bit of anger.

Then they physically see Jesus face-to-face again for forty days in which He tells them all about repentance for the forgiveness of sin, their call to proclaim the Gospel and He instructs them to not leave the city until they receive the promise given by the Father.

And I think the disciples could clearly tell that despite them seeing Jesus face-to-face at that very moment; that they knew that Jesus wasn’t going to stay with them.

In fact, despite the fact that Luke says this in Acts, he’s already told us at the end of his Gospel account that Jesus had already ascended.

He just happens to rehash some details about Jesus’ last few days and His ascension in Acts 1:1-11.

They knew that Jesus wasn’t intending to stay with them, which meant that their emotional state was shifting back from the excitement of seeing Jesus’ resurrected body to that of hopelessness, fear, and grave concern.

And as they’re listening to Jesus give the few statements that He has for them, I can’t help but wonder how many of them were fearful, confused, concerned, and maybe even hopeless.

Quite honestly, I think we could all relate to these different feelings during times of great distress and it’s the times that feel like this—the times in which we are fearful, confused, concerned, and maybe even a bit hopeless that our application for this morning comes into play.

Passages such as Acts 1:1-5 teach us (besides the introductory information given) something important about God and His character that we would miss out on if we simply skipped it just because it’s filled with all this introductory information.

And it all has to do with the reminder of the promises given by God through Jesus empowered by the Holy Spirit.

There will be times in your life when you will experience the fear, the confusion, the concern, and maybe even the hopelessness that the disciples were experiencing after losing Jesus, getting Him back, and while they faced the reality that He was leaving them again.

Now, of course, the scenario in our modern-day life would be a little different, but it wouldn’t take much an effort to determine a scenario that would be similar to this in different ways.

The situation in the lives of the disciples at the end of Luke and the beginning of Acts was absolutely life-altering—they had given up their previous lives to follow Jesus, then Jesus died, then He came back, and now He’s leaving again. They’re faced with a roller coaster of emotions that are effecting how they feel about the entire scenario.

You didn’t walk face-to-face with Jesus, watch Him be crucified, and then sat speaking to His resurrected body after, only to be told that He was leaving again.

But can you think of situations in your life in which there were life-altering events taking place?

It could be a big move, getting laid off from a job, the loss of someone you loved, or anything else major like this.

It could actually be good things in life that would still alter your life and in which there is still a bit of trepidation—like getting promoted, getting married, or having a child.

Obviously, there would be a difference of what you’re feeling to some extent—I would think that all of these different situations would cause at least a little bit of fear, confusion, or concern; but hopefully getting married or having a child wouldn’t make you feel hopeless.

There could be fear in not knowing where your next paycheck is coming from, hopelessness when you lose someone that you love, confusion when thinking about having a child, or concern in just how drastic of a life change you’re about to face.

You can experience these significant life changes and wonder if there is any hope, if it’s all worth it, or you may simply sit in fear and confusion, but what Acts 1:1-5 teaches us is that even in the midst of these sorts of situations, there is still hope and there is no reason for fear.

Because in every situation in life—even the apparently hopeless, Jesus is still alive and just like He kept the promises that He gave to His disciples—both in His resurrection and later in God sending the Holy Spirit to indwell them for the first time—He will keep the promises that He made for us.

What we find when we face these situations in life is that really, we need to take a moment and breathe, we need to fellowship with Jesus through prayer, and then we need to remind ourselves of what He has promised us.

Practically, what that looks like is this:

We find ourselves in a life-altering situation that causes fear, confusion, concern, or hopelessness.

And instead of turning towards substances, people, or our other typical sources for comfort and happiness, we instead, run to Jesus.

This running to Jesus, probably will start with prayer because this is typically quicker than pulling out a hard-copy Bible or our mobile device to search out what Scripture says and its going to sound maybe a little brash or clunky in nature—its not going to sound eloquent and well thought out—it very well could sound like, “God, this stinks.”

But in that initial moment to pause, breathe, and pray, you’ve slowed yourself down enough to where you can have a conversation with God— “God, this stinks; and I don’t know what to do.” And just like David in many of his psalms, you can then be open about the fear, discomfort, confusion, or hopelessness that you’re facing. “I don’t know what to do—everything feels out of control, and I’m confused as to what happened. I’m beginning to lose hope.”

By this time, you’ve taken a deep enough breath and you’ve calmed yourself down enough that you might even be able to grab your hardcopy Bible or your mobile device and you can start reminding yourself of the promises that God has made:

Throughout the Old Testament, you can remind yourself of promises made by God to Israel:

God promised to bless Abraham and, through his descendants, the whole world (Genesis 12:2–3). This promise, called the Abrahamic Covenant, pointed to the coming Messiah for whom Abraham looked (John 8:56).

God promised Israel to be their God and make them His people (Leviticus 26:12–13). Old Testament history is teeming with examples of God fulfilling this promise.

God promised Israel that their sin could be forgiven, their prosperity restored, and their nation healed (2 Chronicles 7:14). Repentance opened the road to fellowship and blessing.

God, under the terms of the Mosaic Covenant, promised prosperity to Israel for obedience and destruction for disobedience (Deuteronomy 30:15–18). Unfortunately, Israel eventually chose to disobey, and the nation was destroyed by Assyria and Babylon.

God also gives promises to all mankind throughout the Old Testament:

God promised that if we search for Him we will find Him (Deuteronomy 4:29). He is not playing hard-to-get. “Our God is near us whenever we pray to him” (Deuteronomy 4:7).

God promised that His love will never fail (1 Chronicles 16:34). He is faithful in every way.

God promised blessing for all who will delight themselves in His Word (Psalm 1:1–3). Simple faith has its rewards.

Think of all the promises made by God that were then fulfilled in the New Testament and then think of the promises that He made in the New Testament to those who genuinely believe.

His promise of salvation to those who repent and believe, His assurance that He is conforming all who believe in Him to the image of His Son; He promises comfort, new life, and every spiritual blessing.

He’s promised to provide for our needs, He’s promised a coming Sabbath rest, and He has promised to finish the work He started within us.

What this tells us is that even when we’re faced with hopelessness, fear, discomfort, and confusion—God has made promises that He intends to keep and we can have hope because He keeps His promises.

In the case of the disciples who were faced with the loss of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus, and then the loss of Jesus again—they could have hope because He kept His promise (as seen in His resurrection) and He will keep His promise (concerning the coming Holy Spirit).

In your case, when you’re faced with life changes that are significant, you can have hope because of all the promises that He has kept thus far; and all the promises that He will keep in the future.

Put simply, passages like Acts 1:1-5, which not only gives us significant amounts of background information, can also remind us of who God is; and in this case, we’re reminded that Jesus keeps His Word; thus, even when all seems lost; you should have hope because Jesus keeps His Word.

And considering the fact that this is the start of an historical record of the church—we can rightly say that the hope that the disciples had in Jesus and His promises, resulted in the start of the church.

Pastoral Prayer

Congregational Singing

Jesus Paid it All (281)