Acts 1:12-14 While We Wait - February 16, 2025

 Acts 1:12-14 While We Wait

Good morning! Turn with me to Acts chapter one, page 909 in the pew Bibles. I think it is appropriate to remind you that the book of Acts, the Acts of the Apostles is not just a storybook, not just a description of past events but it’s a pattern for the church today, a prescription for the church to follow. This is going to be a constant and consistent theme in our study.

So this morning we are going to take a look at what the church was doing during the period of time between the day that Jesus ascended into heaven and the day the Promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples.

You may remember that the disciples are on the Mount of Olives when Jesus was taken up and a cloud hid Him from their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as He went, behold two men stood by them in white robes, 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.”

Our text picks up from there in verse 12.

12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. 13 And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. 14 All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

Let’s pray.

This was not the first time that Jesus had left His disciples. When Jesus was crucified, died and was buried the disciples were at a loss as to what they should do. Even after Mary Magdalene and some of the other women found the stone rolled away from Jesus’ tomb the disciples still didn’t understand what had happened and in John’s Gospel is says they returned to their homes. Even after Jesus appeared to the disciples in the locked room and showed them His hands and feet and side that had been pierced they still chose to go back home. John 21 says that Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, James, John, and two other disciples decided to go back to fishing on the Sea of Galilee. They went back to what they knew before.

There on the shore of the lake Jesus reinstated Peter by asking him, “Do you love me?” And when Peter confessed that he loved Him Jesus commanded him to feed His sheep and to follow Him.

The disciples didn’t respond in faith when Jesus was crucified, they responded with fear and doubt.

After appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God He commanded them to stay in Jerusalem and wait for the Promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit, who they would be baptized with not many days after Jesus ascended. Ten days to be exact.

And during those ten days the disciples waited in a very different way than they had previously.

Before, instead of waiting they wondered and they wandered. They wondered if it was all for nothing, if Jesus wasn’t really the Messiah, and they wandered back home.

This time they waited in obedience to what Jesus had told them, they waited in Jerusalem together in that upper room where they had been staying because this time they believed what He said.

Luke, in his precision, tells us exactly who was gathered together there in the upper room in Jerusalem.

Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James.

How good are you at counting? How many disciples is that? Eleven.

But the Eleven were not the only ones there. Verse 14 says, All these with one accord (The first mention of a car in the Bible!) were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

This faithful group was made up of the Eleven remaining disciples, the women who had accompanied them from Galilee, John Calvin believes that these were their wives. Not that it really matters that much, it is possible that some of them were the wives of the disciples though the Greek word just means, “females of marrying age,” otherwise known as, “women.”

Who else was there? Mary the mother of Jesus and His brothers.

“Brothers,” there is the word, adelphoi, which can also mean brothers and sisters. We know that Joseph and Mary had other children after Jesus both sons and daughters that previously did not have faith in Him but now here they are numbered among the faithful. 

This is the last mention of Mary the mother of Jesus in the New Testament. She is nowhere in the Bible referred to as the Queen of Heaven, she is nowhere in the Bible prayed to, she is nowhere in the Bible held up as anything other than she was, a chosen servant of the Lord to bear His Son Jesus. To think of her as exalted as anything other than that is idolatry.

So we have the Eleven, the women, Mary the mother of Jesus, Jesus’ siblings, gathered together, faithfully waiting, and what do they do while they wait?

Doomscroll. They just cruise through Facebook marketplace looking for deals. They watched countless Tiktok videos. Listened to podcasts and got caught up on the national news.

No, they didn’t? Maybe there’s a lesson there for us.

While they waited they prayed. “All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer…”

With one accord simply means that they were of one mind, they were united in spirit, and they prayed as such. They dwelt together in unity because of their common love for each other and for the Lord Jesus. It’s been said that, “in union there is strength.”

And united in that love, they prayed. What do you suppose they prayed for? New job, new car, new house? How about, “Help us be faithful, help us be patient as we wait for your promised Holy Spirit, help us understand the Scriptures.”

The Lord had great work in store for this little group. We’ll see in the next section that it was about 120 people there in Jerusalem. But not many days in the future thousands would be added to their number. They needed to prepare for that work, even though they might not have known exactly what it would look like.

While they waited they prayed, and while they prayed they were preparing. Because praying IS preparing. When we pray we are preparing our hearts for the Lord to work in us and through us.

Maybe you are in a season of waiting, maybe we all are, but are we praying? What are we praying for, for problems to go away and for the Lord to just fix everything and make life easy?

Of those eleven disciples, all but one would be martyred, killed for the Name of Jesus and for preaching the gospel, and even the one that died of old age would die in exile after many attempts on his life. They needed to be prepared for a life like that.

So what have you been praying for?

I’m going to keep saying it, the book of Acts is not just descriptive it’s prescriptive. It is the prescription for the church to follow.

I praise the Lord that CrossRoads Church is more of a family than any other church I’ve ever been a part of, but are we truly united, in one accord, of one mind about what we are supposed to be doing here and what we are praying for?

Maybe we ought to join that faithful group in praying, “Help us be faithful, help us be patient as we wait for your Holy Spirit, help us understand the Scriptures, help us mature as disciples, help us tell others about Jesus.”

Maybe the Lord will answer those prayers in the same way He did back then, with a powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit to do the work that the church is designed to do, to be witnesses of Jesus to a lost and dying world.

Will you pray with me?

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by Thy Name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

Acts 1:1-11 Three Central Facts of Christianity - February 9, 2025

 Acts 1:1-11 Three Central Facts of Christianity

Good morning! Turn with me in your Bibles to Acts chapter one, page 909 in the pew Bibles. So last week we began our work through the book of Acts. The book of Acts is the connection between the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament. In it we are introduced to the Apostle Paul, and in fact the whole idea of the church is described here in the book of Acts and then developed through the Epistles of the New Testament. Here in the first half of the first chapter we have outlined for us three of the central facts of Christianity itself, the fact that Jesus is alive, the fact of the promised Holy Spirit to the church, and the fact that Jesus will one day return. If that sounds like a three point sermon, it’s not, it’s a five paragraph essay like Eva has been learning about in English class just read aloud.

Let’s look at our text for today, Acts 1:1-11.

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.” 

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.”

Let’s pray.

Quick quiz: Who wrote the book of Acts? Luke. So Luke picks up right where he left of in his Gospel, on the Mount of Olives at the Ascension of Jesus into heaven.

Luke reminds us in verse one and two, that in his Gospel he dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach and so infers that in this work, the book of Acts, he will deal with all that Jesus continued to do, but in this work Jesus was working through the Apostles and the Church by His Spirit that would dwell within them.

In verse three, Luke gives us our first point, the first central fact of Christianity: Jesus is alive!

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.

The word translated, “proofs,” means, “convincing evidence,” something that causes something to be known or verified or confirmed. Jesus appeared to the Apostles over the course of forty days, speaking with them of the kingdom, and eating and sharing fellowship with them.

You may see a footnote on verse four, on the word, “staying,” the original means to have fellowship and to be eating with someone. I love the fact that Jesus eating with His disciples is a constant and consistent proof that He is alive! It gives me great hope for the kingdom!

Jesus made breakfast for the disciples on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, in the locked room in Jerusalem He asked for something to eat and was given some broiled fish that He ate in their presence. He wasn’t a ghost, nor was He a hallucination, He was really there because He is really alive.

This is so important because without the true resurrection of Jesus our faith means nothing.

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:14-24

14 …if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. 

20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. 24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.

We do not serve a dead Savior but a living one! No other world religion can make that claim. 

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow, because He lives, all fear is gone, because I know He holds the future, and life is worth the living just because he lives!

The second central fact of Christianity starts there in verse four. 

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.” 

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.”

The Promise of the Father is the Holy Spirit, and this was not a new idea that Jesus was just introducing.

Isaiah 44:2-4 says,

2 Thus says the Lord who made you, who formed you from the womb and will help you: Fear not, O Jacob my servant, Jeshurun whom I have chosen. 3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. 4 They shall spring up among the grass like willows by flowing streams.

Joel 2:28-29 says,

28  “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. 29 Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit.

Everyone will have equal access to the Holy Spirit by faith in Jesus, male, female, slave, free, Jew, and Gentile, we are all one in Christ Jesus.

Jesus had told them earlier about the coming of the Holy Spirit after His departure though they did not yet understand in John 16:5-11.

5 …now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

And also in John 14:16-17,

16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

The promised Holy Spirit that dwells in the heart of every believer in Jesus and works with what Ray Steadman called, “quiet power,” to help us know and understand God’s Word and to follow Jesus’ instructions. He gives the Church power to be witnesses to the world of what Jesus has done for us.

Remember from last week? This is the mission of the Church, to be witnesses for Jesus, and the Holy Spirit will give the power to accomplish that mission if we provide the willingness to obey Him.

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.”

The third central fact of Christianity, the hope of the imminent return of Jesus.

This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.

Jesus was raised from the dead by the power of God and by the same power of God He was taken up into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God and is, as Romans 8:34 says, interceding for us. But the day is coming when He will return in the same manner that He left and this is the great hope of the Church.

1 Thessalonians 4:14-17 says,

14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

And Revelation 21:1-4,

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” 

I pray you are encouraged by these words!

So, in conclusion, what are the three central facts of Christianity outlined in these verses? Number one, that Jesus lives! He appeared to His disciples over a period of forty days after His resurrection, He spoke with them, He ate with them, and fellowshipped with them. Number two, that the God the Father promised the Holy Spirit to live inside all who believe in Jesus in order to convict us of our sin and empower us to be obedient to Jesus’ commands, and the third central fact, the great hope of the Church, that Jesus is coming back, just like He left, with power and great glory to establish the eternal kingdom of God among His people that we might dwell forever in His presence.

Amen.

Acts – Principles and Patterns for Christ’s Church - February 2, 2025

 Acts – Principles and Patterns for Christ’s Church

Good morning! I am so excited! We are about to embark on a journey through my favorite book of the Bible, the Book of Acts!

In June of 2012 we began a journey through the letters of the Apostle Paul in the approximate order in which they were first delivered which is different to how they are ordered in the Bible. We finished Paul’s last letter in April of 2019, seven years later.

We then started on the works of the Apostle Peter, beginning with the Gospel of Mark which was Peter’s perspective on the Gospel and then through his letters, 1 & 2 Peter. That took us through to the end of 2021. 

In the beginning of 2022 we started on the works of Luke. We began with his Gospel which we just finished last week, now we are on to the Book of Acts. Hopefully after that we’ll go through the Book of Hebrews.

It has been a wonderful journey through the New Testament, one that I am excited to continue today!

Before we get any further, Let’s pray.

How many of you have a Baby Book?

Karole-Ann put in countless hours gathering pictures, designing layouts, and building the pages of baby books for each of our kids.  

The Book of Acts is the Church’s baby book, with one major difference. 

The baby books that we put together are full of pictures and details of events and memories and so is the book of Acts. However, unlike a baby book, the book of Acts does not stop with just a story of the early years of the Church it actually contains patterns and principles for what the Church is supposed to continue to do.

I’ve said it many times before, but one of the keys to understanding Scripture is to understand the author’s intent of any given book or letter, so I would like for us to work on that together. 

Let’s explore what exactly the author intended to accomplish in writing this very important book. 

First of all, who is the author? Who wrote the book? Luke. Brownie Points for saying the Holy Spirit…

Who was Luke? Greek doctor, disciple of Paul, from Troas in Asia Minor, wrote the book of Luke…

Where does the book start, where are they? Outside of Jerusalem, on the Mount of Olives.

Where does the book end? Rome in about AD 61.

Luke finished this great work between AD 62-AD 64.

So why does Luke write the book, what was his intent? He tells us in Acts 1:1 that his Gospel was written to record what Jesus began to do and teach and after reading the book of Acts we can see that Luke was recording what Jesus continued to do and teach. 

Luke gives us a great summary statement from Jesus in Acts 1:8: 

“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.”

Luke was writing to compile an accurate account of the birth, expansion, and establishment of Christ’s Church which Jesus accomplished through his Apostles as empowered by the Holy Spirit, in order to provide insight into the mission of the Church and provide a model for the Church to follow until Christ returns.

That is the purpose for the Book of Acts.

See, the Book of Acts is not just a description of events but a prescription for the Church, it provides not just true accounts of events but patterns and principles for us to follow. The Lord has written the best ever “how-to” book on church!

So our goal in this sermon series, I think, is to discover, with the Spirit’s help, what those patterns and principles are and how we can more closely follow them so we can be the kind of church He had in mind.

One of those principles can be found in Luke’s summary statement, his quote from Jesus in Chapter 1 verse 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.”

Where does the power come from? Does it come from us? Does it come from you? No, it comes from the Holy Spirit. 

Ephesians 3:13 says:

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.

Everyone who trusts in Jesus receives the same Holy Spirit that the Apostles did. 

Paul says to the church in Ephesians 5 to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Picture this as like a sail on a ship being filled with wind, the Holy Spirit gives us life, He gives us motion, He gives us direction, and He gives us power.

The power to do what? The power to be faster than a speeding bullet, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound? No!

He gives us the power to be witnesses for Jesus! 

This is the whole mission of the Church, to be witnesses, to testify to the truth, to spread the gospel, to tell people about Jesus and what He did for us all! 

Look at the end of the Gospel of Luke. 

Luke 24:45-49

45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all 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 stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

Perhaps this is all sounding a little foreign to you, this idea of power from the Holy Spirit. We don’t often see those spectacular displays of so-called “works of the Spirit” here. 

We do, however, witness the power of the Holy Spirit at work when we are obedient to Jesus, we will experience His power when we participate in His mission as His witnesses.

So the Holy Spirit gives us the power to be witnesses, but to be witnesses for Jesus where? 

Jesus said, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the ends of the earth.

Does that mean we have to move? If taken literally we would need to move to Israel, right? That’s where Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria are. I’ve been there, some of you have been there, is this really where Jesus is asking us to go? NO!

What about the ends of the earth? Where is that?

Fun Fact: According to Google Maps if you were to dig a hole straight through the earth to the exact opposite end of the Globe from Jerusalem would put you within 100 miles of Marotiri in the middle of the South Pacific.  Marotiri is a group of four uninhabited volcanic rocks protruding from the South Pacific, forming the southeastern end of the Austral Islands of French Polynesia. The rocks are part of the municipality of Rapa and are almost devoid of vegetation. They are important as a seabird rookery.

So if you like to take things hyper-literally you could rent a rowboat and be a witness to the birds on Marotiri…

But I’m not sure that’s what Jesus had in mind.

Think back to the author’s intent here for a moment, not Luke, but Jesus. He is the One authoring these words. Did Jesus know about Marotiri? Of course, He made it! Did Jesus think the world was flat and actually had an end? Of course not, He made it! 

Do you remember where Jesus was when He said these things? The Mount of Olives just outside of Jerusalem.

This expression “Jerusalem and all Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth” simply means everywhere, you are to be witnesses for Jesus everywhere! Beginning with where you’re at right now!

You have been placed within your town, your neighborhood, your job, your family, to be a missionary, right now, that is where God has sent you, placed you, and called you to be a witness. You are all in full-time ministry.

Jesus doesn’t command us to be witnesses; He states a fact: we are witnesses. 

We have witnessed what Jesus has done, because He has changed our lives!

We just need to choose what kind of witnesses we are going to be: trustworthy, credible, expert, powerful witnesses, or, uneducated, inconsistent, incognito, powerless witnesses?

So how do we tap into the power of the Holy Spirit? 

Maybe you’re thinking, “I can’t ever figure out what the Lord wants from me, I have a bunch of ideas, how do I know if any of them are from the Lord?” 

Now, we have the stock answers for discerning God’s will: Is it sinful? Is it wise? Does it bring glory to Jesus or something else?

But the real question is: Does your idea help accomplish the mission of the church? Does it bring people to Jesus?!

This is the role of the Holy Spirit: 

To help us Love God, to help us love others, and to point people to Jesus, the Centerpiece of the church, to help accomplish the mission of the church, bringing more people to faith in Jesus. To help us make and mature disciples of Jesus together as a family.

If the thing you are thinking of doing doesn’t fall into one of these categories it may just be a distraction, not necessarily bad, but not part of the mission. 

Paul said in 2 Timothy 2:4 “No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs-he wants to please his commanding officer.” We must focus our energy and effort on accomplishing the mission.

So what is the mission? What is the mission that the Apostles were working out in the book of Acts? They were the ones who had walked with Jesus; they had gotten their orders straight from His mouth. What was the order? Make disciples, share the gospel, be my witnesses.

The mission of the Church is to spread the gospel and plant new churches. 

C. Peter Wagner, former professor at Fuller Theological Seminary and founder of Global Harvest Ministries said:

"The single most effective evangelistic methodology under heaven is planting new churches."

As we work through the Book of Acts we are going to be taking a look at just how the Disciples worked out how they understood the mission that they had been given by Jesus, and by examining those patterns we should be able to find out just how we as a church family can participate in that same mission.

Amen.