Acts: Forward Together
Notes
Transcript
Message
Message
Turn to Acts 1:1-11.
Today we begin our series on the Acts of the apostles. Some writers have suggested that it could be alternatively named, “The Acts of the Holy Spirit.” Or, “The Acts of the Risen Christ Through the Holy Spirit Working Through the Church.”
I mention this because each title gives us a slightly different perspective on the background and content of this book.
This book is the acts of the Holy Spirit. In Acts, He is a living, dynamic Person that is actively and intimately involved in the ministry of the local church.
This book is “The Acts of the Risen Christ Through the Holy Spirit Working Through the Church.” Acts is the continuation of the Gospels. Where the story of Jesus Christ finishes in the Gospels, it picks up in the book of Acts. In every chapter, the risen and ascended Savior is moving behind the scenes and throughout the book we will be reminded that He is always near. We will be reminded that He is alive! The book of Acts indicates what the letters to the churches prove in the book of Revelation: Jesus Christ is personally aware of the spiritual health of our church and He takes an active interest in what we are doing on His behalf.
This book is the acts of the Apostles because it was through their labor and through their converts that the Gospel was spread. One person said, “It is the sourcebook for the spread of early Christianity.”
R. Kent Hughes, Acts: The Church Afire, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1996), 13.
Let’s start digging into this book.
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Introduction to the witnesses - Acts 1:1-3.
Read Acts 1:1-11.
In a little while, we will see who the witnesses are, but there are some important questions raised by this introduction to the book of Acts.
One simple rule of Bible study: ask questions. If you’re not asking questions as you read the Bible, you’re probably not studying it either.
Six friends: “who, what, where, when, why, how”
Here’s some questions that we should ask of verse one:
What was the “former treatise” that is referred to here?
Who was “I”? In other words, who was writing this letter?
Who was Theophilus?
Theophilus: personal name meaning, “friend of God.” His identity is unknown, but he matters to us for this reason: he is mentioned twice in the Bible. In fact, two books of the Bible are addressed to him: Acts and the Gospel of Luke.
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It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.
We may not know much about Theophilus, but we know more about Luke.
In our series through Colossians we learned that Luke was a physician and a Gentile. Luke was the “I” of Acts 1:1. The “former treatise” is a reference to the Gospel according to the Luke. He wrote Luke and Acts to provide an historical record, first, of the life of Christ, and second, of the growth of Christianity into all the world. According to Luke 1:2, he was not an eyewitness of the Savior’s ministry, but we will see that he was a careful historian and a close confidant of the apostle, Paul.
There is a high measure of confidence that the book was written around AD 60 - approximately 30 years after the crucifixion of Christ. The burning and destruction of Rome happened AD 64 and the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple happened AD 70. Luke probably would have mentioned these events if they had happened before he wrote this historical account.
In Luke 1:4, Luke tells us why he was writing to Theophilus.
That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.
Luke’s purpose for writing was clear: he wanted Theophilus to know with confidence what he believed and why he believed it. Luke wanted Theophilus to be fully convinced of these things so that he could carry on the witness for Christ that was begun by the apostles. They were the first generation of witnesses for Christ. For more than three years, our Savior taught them, equipped them, and prepared them to witness and make disciples of all nations.
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Witness: someone who can affirm with confidence what he himself has seen or heard.
As we’ll see in Acts chapter two, the eleven apostles would soon become fearless witnesses of the risen Christ.
Application: Church family, that is one of the main reasons that God has given us the book of Acts! It is so that we can be convinced by many infallible proofs that Christ is alive! Therefore, we must go and witness of Christ to Enola and to this region!
That mission is the heartbeat of this letter to Theophilus! Luke wanted to pass on the baton to Theophilus and by extension, to us, so that we would witness to our generation that Jesus is alive.
One of my greatest desires for this year is that God will teach me and stretch me to be a better witness for Christ. That is my prayer for myself and for you. Church family, I challenge you: pray that God will transform you into a witness of Christ this year! You may not be a walking encyclopedia of the Bible. You may not be a brilliant apologist of the Scriptures. You may not feel ready, but if you know Christ, you can witness of Him. You have a unique story of how He has changed your life! Go tell it to someone!
That is what the eleven apostles did. Some of them were uneducated men and the unbelieving Jews saw that. But the unsaved world knew this also: that they had been with Jesus. Their transformed lives proved it! They were uneducated; they were imperfect, but those eleven men boldly witnessed of Jesus to anyone who would listen. As a result, they turned the world upside down for Christ.
Acts—The Church Afire (1: “You Shall Be My Witnesses”)
In our day one of the nicer things said about the…church is that it is “irrelevant.” The book of Acts carries the remedy.
If we follow the footsteps of the apostles and boldly, graciously, and lovingly witness of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit, our church will not be irrelevant. Christ will watch us from the throne of Heaven and He will smile at our obedience!
That is our introduction to the witnesses. Secondly…
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Final words to the witnesses - Acts 1:4-9.
For forty days after His resurrection, Jesus made multiple appearances to His disciples and to many other followers.
He appeared to several women.
He appeared to Mary Magdalene.
He appeared to Peter.
He appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus.
He appeared to all of the disciples together, including Thomas.
According to Paul, He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at once.
He appeared to James, and he had many other appearances also.
In every instance, He taught them and prepared them for the transition that was about to take place.
The book of Acts must be seen as a transitional book, for indeed it is. It marks the transition from Christ’s earthly ministry to the apostolic teaching later found in their letters. It marks the beginning of the apostles’ ministry.
To prepare them for these changes, Christ had some final commands to impart.
Read Acts 1:4-5.
Jesus may have shared many things with His disciples, but the command was simple: “don’t leave Jerusalem; just wait.”
I can just imagine Peter when he heard this, “awww, really? We have to wait again? We just waited for three days after you had been crucified!” Peter wasn’t one to sit around and wait. In John 21:3, just days after the resurrection, Peter gets restless and says to the other disciples, “I go a fishing.”
Now, just a few weeks later, Jesus tells His disciples, “don’t leave Jerusalem; just wait.”
Application: Folks, you and I may know the rest of the story, we may know what’s coming in Acts 2, but don’t miss this: there are seasons in life where God just wants us to wait.
“Pastor Tim, I don’t like that.”
Well good, that means I’m not the only one - I have a hard time waiting too.
Sometimes, I’m not sure which is harder, waiting on God or waiting in the checkout line at Walmart.
You and I may not like it, but waiting is good for us. It’s good for our faith if we respond in submission to God’s will. And usually, we’re not waiting on God. I think more often, God is waiting on us - waiting on us to be moldable.
In my experience, waiting usually involves pressure. Waiting usually involves some kind of pressure that you want to get out of but that God wants to keep you under. Faith grows under pressure, but it often weakens in prosperity.
The Lord Jesus had just told His disciples to go and teach all nations, now He was saying, “Go and wait.” What would you have done in their shoes? We’ll see later that what they did was exactly right.
So what were they going to be waiting for? The promise of the Father - the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Old Testament prophets had foretold that this unique circumstance would take place.
And it shall come to pass afterward,
That I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh;
And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your old men shall dream dreams,
Your young men shall see visions:
Jesus also had promised that the Spirit would come in an altogether unique, miraculous, powerful, and permanent way.
And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
With this command, Jesus prepares His disciples for the coming transition, but in the moment, it’s like His words go in one ear and out the other. Look at verse six.
Read Acts 1:6.
What? Hadn’t they been listening at all? They were still stuck on the kingdom! They were back to asking if Christ was finally going to overthrow the Roman Empire!
It’s easy for us to be hard on them, but don’t be. Their thinking was perfectly natural for a group of Jewish men in their day. Since they were children, they had been taught that one day Messiah would come and setup his kingdom. Today, the Jews are still waiting for the kingdom! Nothing’s changed in that regard! But Christ, like a gentle shepherd, is so kind and patient as He addresses their question and refocuses their attention on His mission, not theirs.
Read Acts 1:7-8.
It’s like the Lord graciously says, “That’s none of your business. You focus on your part of the mission. You focus on doing the Father’s will.”
The very last words Jesus spoke before He left for heaven were these: “The uttermost part of the earth." That was the Great Commission. They were to tell the story to the untold millions still untold. They were not called to be lawyers, not called to argue the case before the minds of men. That was the work of the Holy Spirit. They were called to be witnesses. A witness simply tells what he has seen and heard. He tells what happened. It is the Holy Spirit who does the pleading and who calls for the verdict. True, He uses men in the process, but it is words supplied by the Holy Spirit that make the difference (Mark 3:11). Supremely the Holy Spirit uses the Bible. - Exploring Acts, John Philipps, page 21-22.
Application: Dear Christian, you may not be a lawyer, but can’t you be a witness? Can’t you simply tell others what you have seen and heard? Some won’t listen, but others will. The Lord’s plan for world evangelism was for the disciples to begin in Jerusalem - their own community.
They were to begin with neighbors, family, friends, people all about them. - Exploring Acts, John Philipps, page 21-22.
That plan still applies to us! It hasn’t changed! But the problem in 21st century American Christianity is that we have it backwards! We have outsourced our witness. We will pay and send missionaries to reach the uttermost part of the earth, meanwhile, we are neglecting our Jerusalem. Did you know that God has sent missionaries to Enola? Yes! It’s us! It’s all of us! We are missionaries too!
"Ye shall be witnesses unto me," the Lord said. We are not sent out to spread American culture or to found colonies or to convert people to an ideology or a theological proposition. We are to introduce people to the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to be witnesses unto Him. The Holy Spirit does the rest. - Exploring Acts, John Philipps, page 21-22.
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A question to the witnesses - Acts 1:10-11.
Read Acts 1:10-11.
Maybe I’m reading into this, but when I read the angels’ question, it sounds like they are saying to the disciples, “hey, why are you still here? Jesus is coming back. In fact, He will come back in the same way that He just left. Now go. Go do as He said until He returns.”
Conclusion
Conclusion
Christ will return and when He does, it will be glorious! But will He find us being faithful to His final words? Will He find you serving as His witness? These apostles watched the Lord ascend to heaven. They obeyed Him and returned to Jerusalem. But in just a few days, they would launch out and for the rest of their lives they would do as He said. They would be His witnesses. Together, they would go forward across all boundaries. Together, they would witness of the Christ. Christian, will you?
Invitation
Invitation
Baptismal service
Baptismal service