[“Jesus” represented by the media – married, aquarian, self-claims, Jesus and satan brothers, Jesus a created god, etc.]
There’s so many voices giving the world the wrong impression of who Jesus really is. It’s up to us as Christians to tell the world and to show the world with our lives who Jesus really is. We’ve got to be the church to a world that needs to know the true Jesus.
And this is where being the church really starts, [2] with people who tell the truth about Jesus Christ.
Now this might seem like a principle that doesn’t need to be emphasized. That is, until you’re talking with someone about the Lord and you don’t know how they’re going to react.
Have you ever gotten nervous when sharing your faith with someone?
Have you ever gotten defensive when arguing with someone about Jesus?
Have you ever tried to make Jesus seem more ‘palatable’ when talking with someone?
It happens to the best of us. So we must remember that we need to be people who tell the truth about Jesus, no matter the response of those listening. Because when you get down to it, it’s the true Jesus that changes lives – not the politically correct one.
As we begin our studies in the book of Acts, we’re going to hear the voices of people who simply tell the truth about Jesus Christ. But in each instance, the Truth is intended to benefit the listener for a different reason. Let’s start with the author of the book itself, Luke.
[3] Turn with me to Acts 1:1 as we’re going to see Luke speaking the truth about Jesus for the purpose of discipleship.
[Read Acts 1:1-3.]
Now the key to seeing Luke’s emphasis of discipleship is in understanding who it is writing this book and who he’s writing it to. The apostle Luke wrote this book probably when he was attending to Paul when he was imprisoned in Rome around 61 a.d.
We know that Luke was a doctor and throughout the book of Acts you’ll see descriptive medical terms used by the writer.
Also, several times in the book of Acts the writer uses terms like “we” and “us” to describe who were going through the experiences written about. Much of the book describes the experiences of Paul and we know Luke was a companion of Paul from Paul’s writings in Colossians 4:14 and Philemon 24.
The most convincing evidence for Luke being the author of Acts is in his introduction to the book. He refers to having written an earlier book about Jesus to a man named Theophilus – of which he wrote the book of Luke to.
[Read Luke 1:1-4.]
Luke was writing the book of Acts as a follow-up book to his gospel that he had previously written. You see, the story didn’t end when Jesus went back to Heaven and his friend needed to know that.
This Theophilus was probably some kind of Roman official since Luke refers to him as the “most excellent Theophilus.” I also believe that he was a believer in Christ as well.
First Luke tells Theophilus that his book was to further teach, or disciple, him concerning what he had already been taught. Luke had probably helped him turn to the Lord and now wanted him to know more about his new faith.
Also, this book went from Theophilus to the church that preserved it for us today. Obviously Theophilus got the gospel of Luke, and later the book of Acts, to the local church in his town and it eventually made it to the mother church in Jerusalem. Luke trusted his eyewitness account of Jesus Christ and the early church with his friend that he was bringing along in the faith.
[Read Luke 1:4, Acts 1:1-2.]
Luke knew that if he was to help his friend progress in his faith, he needed to tell him the truth about Jesus Christ. His friend needed to know as much as he could about who Jesus is and what his teachings are.
That’s why we talk so much about Jesus here. We know that the key to growing our faith is our understanding of Jesus Christ. Man if we don’t know who Jesus is we can expect our faith to be superficial, weak and fickle. And where our faith goes, so goes our lifestyle.
So when you have opportunity to help someone grow in their faith, make sure you’re telling them the truth about Jesus Christ.
[Helping teen understand assurance of salvation at “Teen Church” story.]
If we want to help others grow in their faith, we need to teach them the truth about Jesus Christ. And that’s what Luke wanted to do here.
There’s another voice speaking the truth about Jesus here, and it’s Jesus Himself! [4] We see Him speaking the truth for the purpose of instruction.
[Read Acts 1:4-8.]
Jesus gives the apostles clear instructions concerning what He wants from them. (By the way, Luke also records this conversation in Luke 24:45-53.)
- Stay in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit comes, (church unity, mother church)
- You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit soon, (immersed, united with, as before promised)
- Don’t worry about timing, (kingdom and Spirit link, always be ready)
- Be my witnesses throughout the world, (salvation not just for Jews)
As Jesus’ modern disciples, His instructions hold fast for us today.
- We must be unified as a church
- We are filled with the Spirit when we believe in Christ, (I Corinthians 12:13)
- Be ready for Jesus’ return always
- We must be the church throughout the world
[Flags in Worship Center, be the church, emphasis.]
We need to take Jesus’ instructions seriously just like the apostles did. [5] And that’s
the next voice that we see speaking the truth about Jesus Christ. The apostles spoke the truth about Jesus Christ for the purpose of evangelism.
[Read Acts 1:8.]
The book of Acts shows how these men dedicated their lives to getting the truth about Jesus Christ out to the world. They were witnesses to the world about Jesus.
The English word “witness” that we find here was originally written in Greek as the word “martus”, where we get the modern day word martyr. You see back then being a vocal witness of Jesus Christ so often resulted in being killed that the word came to mean “one who bears witness by their death”. So to refer to someone as a witness was to imply that they believed so strongly about the reality of Jesus Christ that they’d give their life for it.
And understand this, Luke wrote the book of Acts in 61 a.d., but it covered the events from the previous thirty years. In those thirty years he had seen a lot of brothers imprisoned and beaten and even killed because they dared to be vocal about the veracity of Jesus Christ. To be a witness meant that nothing could shut you up about the true Jesus Christ.
This means a couple of things to you and I today. First of all, we need to courageously tell others about Jesus Christ. Not arrogantly, not in a condescending manner, not in a pushy way, and definitely not in a hateful way. But we can’t let fear shut our mouths when it comes to this! People are dying every day without salvation and we have the answer.
Yes, there are times when it’s scary. Yes, there’s times when we feel like we don’t even know what to say. (Hang tight, we’ll get some practical ways in which we can witness as we study through this book.) But we must not let fear stifle our voice.
Also, it’s important to remember that as we witness to people about Jesus Christ, they need the truth about Him – not some watered down, politically-correct, situational, easy-believin’, multi-faith Jesus. People need the Truth, and people want the Truth!
Too many people are trying to market Jesus to the masses. They’re trying to sell Jesus based on people’s felt-needs. But all too often they leave the truth about who He is and what He expects out of the equation. Let me give you an example.
[Time share deal story.]
Listen, when you give people a view of Jesus that isn’t complete or isn’t correct, you’re not drawing them any closer to the God. You’re actually pushing them away from God!
Why do some people think we have some things about Jesus that we’re embarrassed by or ashamed of? We’re talking about the perfect God of the universe who does everything out of love for us! People don’t get saved when they believe in a false image of Christ. They get saved when they believe in the true Jesus Christ as taught in the Bible. Let’s be people who tell the truth about Jesus when we evangelize.
So we’ve seen Luke, Jesus and the apostles simply relying on the truth of Jesus. Finally we see a couple of [6] angels relying on the truth of Jesus to encourage the apostles.
[Read Acts 1:9-11.]
First of all, wow! They got to see Jesus literally rise up into the heavens!
But secondly, what an encouragement that must have been to those men. Their Lord had just spent forty amazing days with them – showing them He was alive, fellowshipping, teaching them – but in a moment He was gone. By telling these men that He would return to earth some day in like fashion it encouraged them concerning His faithfulness and His power. And you know what, it worked! The angels encouragement concerning the truth about Jesus’ return worked!
[Read Luke 24:50-53.]
In the book of Acts Luke tells us about the angels encouragement while in his gospel Luke tells us of their reaction.
Being reminded about who Jesus is and what He does is such an encouragement to people. Even if it’s something we’ve heard a thousand times.
[Overcome during worship song story.]
That worship song wouldn’t affect me like that if it wasn’t the truth about Jesus. Let’s make sure that we encourage one another by remembering who Jesus is and what He’s done.
Church, if we’re going to be the church in this world, we need to be people who tell the truth about Jesus Christ in every situation. Be a true witness when you seek to:
- disciple
- instruct
- evangelize
- encourage
Trust the truth of Jesus to be just what people need to hear. That’s the kind of
witness we need to be in this world. [7]
