"Acts: The First Thirty Years”..... Easter Monday - Creative Waiting Series

In Jesus Holy Name May 15, 2022

Text: Acts 1:3 Redeemer Lutheran

“Acts: The First Thirty Years”

Easter Monday - Creative Waiting

• Did you ever wonder what the disciples were doing and thinking on Easter Monday?

• The book of Acts is a letter written by Luke to a friend named Theophilus. It is a great history of the first 30 years for this new Jewish “sect”, called: “Followers of the Way.”

• Have you ever wondered if there was just a bit more to some of the lessons your learned in Sunday School? For example: Some think that Samson’s weakness was his hair, but it was really wine and women.

• Ever wonder why God would tell his prophet Hosea to marry a prostitute?

• Why did the disciples on Easter Monday believe Jesus was going to replace the Roman Empire with the Empire of Israel?

Shipwrecks, snakes, murder, offering plate theft, beatings, imprisonments, miracles, argument in church meetings, dealing with prejudices, the conversion of a man who persecuted the followers of Jesus. How could the new “church” survive?

This is the story before us in the book of Acts. The Book of Acts will be our Sermon series and Sunday Morning Bible Class discussions for the next several months. As we enter this journey may God bless our study and lives.

Have you ever heard yourself speaking to your computer saying: “I just don’t get it.” This happened several times to me these past few days. Once while trying to create a slide show for Sunday morning bible class and then this week I was trying to buy tickets for the CIF Baseball Sections in which our grandson was playing.

Normally you drive to the game, park the car and pay at the entrance gate and walk in. Oh No…..you now have to download the “GoFan” App on your phone. Then you have to find the correct CIF Sections for Central California, not tennis, not swimming, but baseball to purchase the tickets.

Then, following directions, you are told tickets can not be purchased at the

gate, but they must be visible on your mobile device. You can not print out your tickets. So now you must transfer you tickets from the “GoFan” app to your email or One Drive to be viewed. After about 40 minutes I said: “I just don’t get it.”

Well I did find them on my mobile device, under Duck Duck Go, and we were able to attend the game in Modesto.

I think you can use this same phrase “I just don’t get it” to describe the disciples reaction to Jesus on Easter Monday. They did not get it. They did not understand what the resurrected glorified body of Jesus meant. They were shocked when the Jesus they knew was no longer limited by stone walls. He just appeared in their midst.

Acts is the 2nd volume of a two volume set of letters that Luke is writing to Theophilus. (Read Acts 1:1-3)

Read Acts 1:6 They just don’t get it. The disciples are still looking for Jesus to make Israel a world power. They are looking for their new office space in Jerusalem.

Read Acts 1:7 This is the outline for the Book of Acts. Jerusalem, Samaria and finally Rome. Read Acts 1:9

The physical presence of Jesus dominates the Four Gospels. The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity dominates the book of Acts. In the Gospel of John Jesus had talked extensively about the Holy Spirit. Now the disciples will experience the power of the same Holy Spirit that dwelt in Jesus.

They will soon tell the “story of Jesus”, His substitutionary death on the cross that removes the fear of God’s wrath against our broken commandments. They will tell how we will be “justified” and have our broken commandments totally erased. They will tell that all who put their trust in Jesus will experience the gift of eternal life.

But at the moment Jerusalem is not safe.

Acts 1:4 says that Jesus commanded the disciples to stay in Jerusalem. I imagine that was the last place many of them wanted to be. After all, this was the city where Jesus had been crucified. The men who put him death a few days earlier were still in power. If they killed Jesus, why wouldn’t they kill His followers? Jerusalem was no longer a safe city. They were hiding some place in the City. If you were a follower of Jesus, anyplace on earth was safer than Jerusalem. Getting out of town was not a bad idea.

But Jesus commanded them to stay. If they left, it would show a lack of courage and reveal a fear of what man might do to them. It would also show a lack of faith—as if they could not trust the Risen Savior, sometimes invisible… to help them. By staying in Jerusalem Jesus forces them to confront their fears and quells their budding enthusiasm.