Made to Make a Difference: Acts 1
Scott Bayles, pastor
Blooming Grove Christian Church: 6/19/2011
There is an old story about an elderly man walking the beach at dawn. He noticed a young man ahead of him picking up starfish and flinging them into the sea. Catching up with the youth, he asked the boy what he was doing. The youngster said that the stranded starfish would die if left in the morning sun. “But the beach goes on for miles and miles, and there are millions of starfish,” countered the man. “How can your effort make any difference?” The young man looked at the starfish in his hand and, throwing it into the safety of the waves, replied, “It makes a difference to this one!”
Life can feel a lot like that beach sometimes, can’t it? As Christians, God has called each one of us to change the world. You and I were made to make a difference. But when we look at the world we live in, it seems so impossible. Many of us look at the moral condition of our nation and it breaks our hearts. We want to do something about it, but we wonder what difference one person can make. We consider the demoralizing times in which we live. Nearly 2 billion people are desperately poor, 1 billion are hungry, 24,000 children die every day from preventable diseases. Earthquakes, tsunamis and tornadoes devastate neighborhoods and nations. And in the midst of it all, here we stand. You want your life to matter. You want to make a difference. But you take a look around you and you feel that little boy standing on the beach.
How can your effort make any difference?
I have 120 answers to that question. As we open the first pages of the Book of Acts, we find a gathering of believers huddled together on the second floor of a quaint Jerusalem building. These men and women weren’t politicians, athletes, or celebrities, or Nobel-prize winners; rather they were small town, simple folk—fishermen, tax collectors and soccer moms—120 of them in all. Yet these ordinary men and women became part of a movement that exploded like a just-opened fire-hydrant from the streets of Jerusalem and spilled into the ends of the earth. The Jewish authorities of the first-century accused them of having “turned the world upside down” (Act 17:6).
How did they do it? More importantly, can it be done again?
A wise rabbi named Gamaliel, when he heard about what was being accomplished by this small sect of Jesus-followers, warned his fellow Pharisees: “I tell you, do not take any action against these men. Leave them alone! If what they have planned and done is of human origin, it will disappear, but if it comes from God, you cannot possibly defeat them” (Acts 5:38-39 GNT).
Each and every page of the book of Acts announces: “God is afoot.”
He still is. We have to believe that. It was the disciples’ belief in God and faith in Jesus that spurred the Christian movement into the districts of Rome, the streets of Paris and ports of Athens. If we truly believe what they believed and do what they did, we can make a difference.
Throughout this summer, I’d like to invite you to ponder the stories of the Jerusalem church with me as told in the Book of Acts. This tiny movement grew into a world-changing force. How did they do it? What can we learn from their examples? Before we go any further though, I want to highlight three simple beliefs they held and how those beliefs affected their priorities and passions.
• JESUS IS RISEN
First, they believed that Jesus is risen; this gave them a message! Luke starts the first chapter of Acts with these words: “The first book I wrote was about everything Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up into heaven. Before this, with the help of the Holy Spirit, Jesus told the apostles he had chosen what they should do. After his death, he showed himself to them and proved in many ways that he was alive. The apostles saw Jesus during the forty days after he was raised from the dead, and he spoke to them about the kingdom of God.” (Acts 1:1-3 NCV).
Jesus is risen. He was crucified. He was buried. He rose from the dead. They saw it for themselves. They believed it. It changed everything. When the ground beneath the Old Rugged Cross was tinged red with the blood of God, all of Jesus’ followers were disheartened and disillusioned. I think the two disciples walking on the road to Emmaus, spoke for everyone when they said, “We had hoped that He was the one” (Luke 24:21 NIV).
Anytime you start talking about hope in the past tense, you know you’re in trouble. A soul without hope is like a body without food. But when Jesus woke up and walked out of that tomb, hope came alive. You know what the most hope-filled words of the English language are?
“God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Max Lucado calls John 3:16 “A twenty-six word parade of hope: beginning with God, ending with life, and urging us to do the same.” This is the message Jesus has given us to share with a world short on hope.
Jesus once called himself “the bright morning star.” Do you know why that is? The bright morning star actually refers to Venus—the third brightest object in the sky, beaten only by the Sun and the Moon. In ancient times, the bright morning star became a symbol of hope. Shortly after Venus appears in western sky, the birds will begin to sing, soon after that the sun will rise in the east. The bright morning star heralded the promise of a new day. Like the bright morning star, the message of Jesus brings hope to a hurting world—the hope of something better, the hope of life everlasting! Jesus is risen!
• JESUS IS RULING
Furthermore, they believed Jesus is ruling; this gave them a mission! Before Jesus ascended into heaven, Luke says, “he spoke to them about the kingdom of God” (vs. 3 NCV). And he told them, “You will be my witnesses—in Jerusalem, in all of Judea, in Samaria, and in every part of the world” (vs. 8 NCV).
Now, at first when Jesus spoke about the kingdom, his disciples assumed he meant that he was going to restore the nation of Israel to her former glory. It was only gradually the disciples began to realize that Jesus had something much bigger and more spiritual in mind. Jesus was talking about a spiritual kingdom in which God would reign in the hearts and lives of his people! But one thing the apostles understood very clearly and believed whole-heartedly was that Jesus is Lord—he is ruler over all the earth.
Again, before ascending, he told them: “All power in heaven and on earth is given to me” (Matthew 28:18 NCV). The NKJV translates it: “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.” Every ounce of power and authority in heaven and earth resides in Jesus Christ. There was power and authority in his teaching. He exorcised power and authority when healing, casting out demons, forgiving sins. He walked on water. He said, “Hush,” and the wind and waves obeyed him. He spoke and the universe leapt into existence. He’s called “the Lord Jesus” over 100 times in the New Testament.
Jesus is King of everything. Our mission is to further his kingdom.
Unfortunately, many Christians today only want to follow Jesus when it’s convenient. We say, “I’d like to help people and serve others like Jesus, but the kids have soccer practice and I’ve got house work, plus the lawn needs mowed.” There’s always some other priority that takes precedence over Jesus. Folks, that kind of half-hearted dedication just doesn’t cut it with Jesus. If Jesus is the Lord of your life, then live like it! The statement “No, Lord,” is a self-contradictory statement. If you can say no, he’s not your Lord. If he is your Lord, then you can’t possibly tell him no. The answer must always be “Yes, Lord!”
Serving Jesus isn’t a part-time job or just something we do in our spare time or whenever we feel like it; it is life encompassing! Following Jesus means enlisting in his army. He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords—he deserves our whole hearted allegiance. He demands nothing less. When we fully devote ourselves to carrying out the mission of Christ, we will make a difference. You’ll begin to impact people’s lives in ways you never before imagined. Jesus is ruling. If we believe that, then let’s live like it!
• JESUS IS RETURNING
Finally, they believed Jesus is returning; this gave them a motivation! Returning to the first chapter of Acts, Luke writes:
After he said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud hid him from their sight. As he was going, they were looking into the sky. Suddenly, two men wearing white clothes stood beside them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing here looking into the sky? Jesus, whom you saw taken up from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you saw him go.” (Acts 1:9-11 NCV)
Those disciples spent the rest of their lives with an eye on the clouds and ear for the trump. They waited anxiously for the day of his return, and it motivated them to make a difference while they still could.
Countless attempts have been made to predict when Jesus will return. The one thing you can trust when it comes to prophecy pundits who claim to have the answer is—they’ll be 100% wrong 100% of the time. Jesus may come today, tomorrow or a thousand years from now. No one knows. But whether Jesus returns before you die or you die before Jesus returns the point is the same—our time is limited! The truth is—any one of us here today could die before the end of this sermon. I could die while preaching it. Today. At any moment.
It’s so easy to wake up in the morning and think about today as just another day—an average day where you go about life concerned with your to-do list, preoccupied by appointments, thinking about your own wants and needs.
On the average day, we live caught up in ourselves. On the average day, we don’t consider death and we don’t think about God very much. We don’t think about what matters most. But there is nothing average about today or any day. The Bible says, “How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone” (James 4:14 NLT).
Each of us here today has been given this once-in-history opportunity called life—complete with summers and songs and gray skies and tears. It has a first day, a last day, and hopefully a few thousand in between. You’ve been given this one life and this one opportunity to outlive your life. You want your life to matter. So live your life in such a way that the world is glad you did!
Jesus is returning. Whether we live to see that day or not, that fact ought to motivate us to make every day count. You were made to make a difference!
Conclusion
When that young man walked out onto the beach, he could have taken one look at the myriad starfish lining the shore and shrugged, “What’s the point?” But he didn’t. And like that boy on the beach, the first followers of Jesus changed the world one life at a time. They knew that that if they could make a difference in the hearts and lives of individual people, it could change everything. They knew that what they were doing, no matter how impossible the task might have seemed, was going to make a difference for time and for eternity. Like them, you were made to make a difference.
What if you did? It’s worth a try, don’t you think?
Invitation
If you haven’t made Jesus the Lord of your life yet, if you haven’t put your faith in the fact of his resurrection and return, then I want to invite you to make that choice today; right here, right now. I dare you to do it and see what a difference Jesus makes.
