Sermon Tone Analysis

1. Good morning.

As some of you know I spent 7 years of my life working in security and law enforcement in the Air Force.

Besides meeting my wife during that time, one of the things I enjoyed the most about my time in the service was that I got to spend roughly five years living overseas in Europe.

Italy and England are two countries I got to live in.

Italy was my favorite place...probably for the food, but I'd have to say England was the most interesting, because the history and culture of their government is fascinating...and no, I didn't get to meet the Queen.

This morning I'd like to share with you a quote I came across from one of their former Prime Ministers by the name of Harold Wilson.

“He who resists change is the architect of decay.

The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery.”

I'd be willing to bet money to say that Harold Wilson was right.

I've also heard it said that the only constant in life is change...Now, obviously we know that only true constant is God, but the point is still valid, and probably the most common type of change that occurs in life is transition, and during my time in the Air Force, transition just about became my middle name.

I had to transition from civilian life into military life; in Basic Training they transition you from being trainee int Airman; you transition in and out of each base you go to; you transition from one level of expertise in your job to another; you transition from the duties and responsibilities of one rank to that of another; and in my case I had to transition from being a Staff Sergeant, police patrolman and Law Enforcement Supervisor to being a college student, trying to transition, yet again, into a life of ministry.

2. What transitions have you made in your life?

What transitions are you making now or are you maybe waiting for in near future?

Change is constant, so how are you changing?

What phase of life are you moving out of?

What phase are you moving into?

What's ending?

What's beginning?

Some of you are preparing your kids to graduate high school and move on to a career or college.

Some of you are the high school seniors trying to figure out how you're going to make that transition...and I guarantee you that you and your parents are worried about different things.

Some of you are getting used to living with another person... some of you are getting used to living life alone.

What's your transition?

Do you ever feel uncertain about it?

Do you ever wonder what it'll really be like when the transition happens?

Maybe there's no transition happening, so what you're looking for or waiting on is something still unknown to you.

You're wondering how long it'll be until this time when life will be easier, or that day when the money won't be so tight.

“If I could just get to next year...then things will be better...” or “if I could just finish this job and move on to something else, things will be better.”

These are the same thoughts that I believe that Jesus' disciples were thinking as they were preparing for a major transition in their lives.

In Acts chapter 1 we see this huge changeover take place.

Jesus has completed His earthly ministry and was leaving his disciples to carry out His ministry without Him.

Jesus has come, ministered for three years, healing the sick and raising the dead, fulfilling all the 613 Old Testament commandments.

He's revealed Himself as the Messiah, the Savior, the Son of God, and has been betrayed, arrested, falsely accused of treason against the Roman Empire, tortured and killed, and now He's risen back from the dead proving His deity and accomplishing the task of Salvation for a fallen and wicked humanity.

At the end of Matthew's Gospel we see Jesus giving His disciples the Great Commission, the command to make disciples of all nations, taking the Gospel into all the world.

This is a time of great transition, and I want us to take a look at this passage and see if we can learn from this event how we are to handle the transitions in our own lives.

The passage is Acts 1:4-8, although I'd like us to read from verse 1.

3./The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up to heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen/...As many of you already know, Acts is really just part 2 of what was originally the one-volume Luke-Acts, written by Luke to this man named Theophilus, about whom we know virtually nothing.

So Luke is explaining that the first half dealt with Jesus' earthly ministry, and this second half deals with Jesus' continuation of His ministry from heaven through the Church.

Here in verse 2 it says He gave orders to the apostles...this is the event in Matthew 28, the Great Commission, which I already mentioned, the command to make disciples of all nations...Verse 3: /To these He also presented Himself alive after his suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking to them of the things concerning the kingdom of God/...

This is what took place during the 40 days between when Jesus rose from the dead and when He left earth to return to the Father in heaven.

He taught them about the kingdom of God, which we'll see come up again later on.

4.All right, let's look at verse 4.

This is also seen at the end of Luke in chapter 24... /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...”/ What is it that the Father promised that they have to wait for?

The coming of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit has been active among God's people since the very beginning, but this new chapter of the Church Age ushers in a new function of the Holy Spirit, the in-dwelling of believers in Christ.

The Spirit has always come on people in power, but had never took up residence in people, with the exception of John the Baptist who had the Spirit from before birth, which brings us to verse 5: /for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now./

5.So what's going on here?

What's with the different baptisms?

Probably many of you already get this, but for the rest of us let's clear this up.

I had to study and give myself a refresher course in baptism to understand this because it really can be confusing.

Baptism is a symbolic event whereby one becomes associated or identified with the one calling for it.

The word in Greek means to dip or to submerge, so we get this sense of identification by means of submersion.

The illustration I was told when I learned this is that if you throw me out of a boat into the water, you could say that I am now associated or identified with the water.

John's baptism was the first of its kind.

Up until his time the only converts to Judaism had to undergo a public symbolic cleansing.

John the Baptist's ministry was announcing the arrival of the Messiah to Israel, and by God's command he was commanding all Jews to be publicly baptized, symbolizing their repentance in preparation for the coming Messiah.

They were being “baptized into” John's ministry in preparation for the Messiah, the same way the Jews were “baptized into Moses,” identifying themselves with Moses as their leader sent from God.

So what is baptism with the Holy Spirit?

The identification of a person with the risen Christ and His ministry by having the Holy Spirit come and reside permanently within them.

This is a spiritual event, not involving water...water baptism is a symbolic, public announcement.

What really happens at physical baptism?

You get wet.

So the apostles had to become identified with the risen Jesus and His ministry to be effectively used in His ministry.

The same is true today.

The first obvious qualification for ministry is having the Holy Spirit.

6.Okay, so these disciples have followed Jesus for 3 years, been selected by Him as apostles, those commissioned to take the Gospel to the nations.

They've seen Him arrested, killed, raised from the dead, and for the last 40 days He's been teaching them about the Kingdom of God.

We now understand the Kingdom of God is whenever God's plan directly intervenes in the affairs of mankind.

Jesus said to the Pharisees in Luke 11:20, “If I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

The kingdom of God is rooted in the later prophecies of the Old Testament, such as Micah 5:2, which portrays the Messiah, the future ruler of Israel as coming from Bethlehem, and Isaiah 9:6-7, which portrays the Messiah as a king of peace ruling over Israel on the throne of King David.

Scripture paints the picture of the kingdom of God ultimately being fulfilled in Christ setting up a kingdom over the whole earth from Jerusalem for a thousand years.

This is what Jesus has just spent 40 days teaching the apostles.

If you were taught about a coming event by God Himself for 40 days, do you think you'd be apathetic?

Or would you be excited with anticipation waiting for its coming?

Especially if it's an exciting event like God reigning over the whole earth from Jerusalem.

The apostles had to pumped.

They had to be anxiously waiting for Jesus to establish His kingdom.

Naturally, they would be asking Jesus about this.

Let's look at verse 6.

7./So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?/

The grammar of the verse indicates that this is something the apostles were continually asking.

“Is it here yet?

Is it here?

Are we there yet?

Are we there yet?

Are we there yet?”

I know how I'd react to my kids...let's look at Jesus' response in verse 7. /It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has placed by His own authority.

/“What?

Oh, come on!

Just tell me already!!

You mean to tell me you just spent forty days explaining the kingdom to us, and all that time you kept us wondering when it was going to happen, and now you're not even going to tell us?” Isn't that like, if you were a kid and your parents sat you down and said, “Now Michael, we want you to know that we're taking you on a vacation to Disneyland.

We've got a week-long stay at the hotel there and you can ride all the rides and get all the snacks you want, and you can just go crazy for the whole week.”

“Really???

When do we go???”

And your parents look at each other, then back at you and...*shrug shoulders* and they say, “It's not for you to know the things we've made plans for.”

“What??? Are you kidding?...”

8.Now, I have to say here that the apostle's question is pretty much universally recognized as being misguided.

So what's misguided about it?

Some will say that the apostles got the kingdom all wrong.

They'll say they didn't understand that the kingdom is not to be taken literally, that the kingdom is Christ reigning in the hearts of believers.

Is that how we're supposed to understand this?