Title: Across the Street and Around the World
Text: Acts 1:1-11
Thesis: Jesus instructs us to think and go global in our mission to reach and disciple others for Christ.
Healthy Missional Churches have a global vision for sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ… Healthy Missional Churches see global as including people locally (Jerusalem), regionally (Judea and Samaria) and globally (the ends of the earth).
A church generally falls primarily into one of four categories. A church is either:
• A Healthy Missional Church
• A Stable Church
• A Critical Moment Church
• An At Risk Church
The objective of the At Risk Church is not to become a Critical Moment Church. The objective of the Critical Moment Church is not to become a Stable Church. And the objective of the Stable Church is not to remain a Stable Church. The objective is to always be moving toward Congregational Vitality, i.e., becoming a Healthy Missional Church… a church that is pursuing Christ and Christ’s priorities in the world.
In order to understand what being a Healthy Missional Church looks like, we are unpacking a series called: The Marks of a Healthy Missional Church. Researchers have found that there are at least ten marks, characteristics, traits, qualities, etc., that are consistently found in Healthy Missional Churches.
Series: The Marks of a Healthy (Pursuing Christ) Missional Church (Pursuing Christ’s Priorities in the World)
• Compelling Christian Community
• The Centrality of the Word of God
• Life Transforming Walk with Jesus
• Global Perspective and Intentional Evangelism
The first mark is Compelling Christian Community. We looked at Acts 2:42-47 as a prototype Compelling Christian Community. We then unpacked II Timothy 3:14-17 and found a second mark, The Centrality of the Word of God. The Bible is a primary way that God guides his Church and his people through life. A third mark of a Healthy Missional Church from the John 3:3, II Corinthians 5:17 and Philippians 1:6, is that people are experiencing a Life Transforming Walk with Jesus. They are growing and becoming more and more like Christ. Today we see that Healthy Missional Churches are marked by a Global Perspective and Intentional Evangelism in Acts 1:8 and Matthew 28:19-20...
So if we were to do a self evaluation as a Church and as people, are we experiencing Compelling Christian Community, is the Word of God Central in our lives and in the life of our Church and are we experiencing a Life Transforming Walk with Jesus and do we have a Global Perspective for and are we Intentional about Evangelism?
Introduction
Our text begins with a greeting to a person named Theophilus. Theophilus is a very unusual name. I’m told that when babies were born back in the day, the midwife would the baby up by his heels, smack him on the bottom and name the child. In this case when the midwife held him up and smacked him on the bottom she said, “That’s the awfulest looking baby I’ve ever seen!”
Now to the text… The first verse of our text begins, “In my first book I told you, Theophilus, about everything Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up…” So this book is the second book. There was a “first book.” A little research takes us back to the first three verses of the Gospel of Luke where Luke wrote, “Many people have set out to write accounts about the events that have been fulfilled among us from the early disciples. Having carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I also have decided to write a careful account for you, most honorable Theophilus, so you can be certain of the truth of everything you were taught.” Luke 1:1-3
In that Luke authored the Gospel of Luke which was written to Theophilus, we believe Luke also authored the Book of Acts, also addressed to Theophilus. While the Gospel of Luke is an historical account of the life and times of Jesus Christ, the Book of Acts is an historical account of the life and times of the early church. The Gospel of Luke is an account of what Jesus began to do and teach before his ascension and the Book of Acts is a continuation of Jesus did through the Holy Spirit after he was taken up.
An outline of the entire Book of Acts would begin like this…
Prologue (Acts 1:1-2)
A. Preparation for Pentecost (Acts 1:3-26)
1. Instructions Before the Ascension (Acts 1:3-8) (This is the last thing Jesus said before blast-of!)
2. The Ascension (1:9-11)
3. After the Ascension (1:12-26
B. Witness in Jerusalem (2:1 – 7:60)
1. The Day of Pentecost (2:1-47)
Our focus today is narrowed to verses 3-8 and verse 8 in particular.
Transition: Let’s begin with verses 6-7.
I. Jesus was Thinking Global from the Beginning
“The Father alone has authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know.” Acts 1:7
In verse 6 the disciples are still worried about when Jesus was planning to free Israel and restore the kingdom… they were thinking here and now but Jesus was thinking then and there. So in our text Jesus once again reminds us we needn’t be concerned about that stuff. In fact we know from other teaching that some things have to happen before Jesus comes again to establish the visible Kingdom of God.
Among those things is the little detail of global evangelism. “And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come.” Matthew 24:14
There are two important things Jesus wants us to know:
1. No one knows when Jesus will come but God the Father…
Jesus said, “No one knows the day or the hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows.” Matthew 24:36
And second…
2. The Good News must be shared with the whole world before Jesus returns…
We might assume that from what Jesus said that we can literally hasten the return of Christ by expediting the proclamation of the Gospel to the ends of the earth. For some, that is a motivation for missions, i.e., the sooner we reach every corner of the globe… then Jesus can return.
But I think the larger and primary reason Jesus said what he said was to divert the disciples’ attention from the long look into the future then and there kingdom… to their immediate task in the here and now, that is, reaching the world for Jesus Christ.
Specifically, Jesus wanted to give them instructions about what they were to do after his ascension and in the interim until he comes again.
And these are his instructions.
II. Before You Go Global You Need to Be Empowered by the Spirit
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you…” Acts 1:8a
The day and hour of Christ’s return is not for us to know. “But” this is something you need to know. Part of their preparation was to wait in Jerusalem until the Father sent the gift of the promised Holy Spirit. “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” 1:3-4
And immediately now, just before his ascension Jesus specifically promises them that they will be empowered by the Holy Spirit for the task that he is about to give them.
When I was a teenager we used to sing a ridiculous chorus… “Give me gas, let me pass, (maybe Give me gas, in my Ford) keep me going for the Lord.”
One of my memories of my dad throughout my college years and even after we were married and had kids and would make a road trip back to Ogden to see my parents was of him taking me up to the Mobil gas station and filling my gas tank before we left. It was his way of expressing appreciation for our having made the trip and helping with the expense of the trip. You could say, “He gave us the gas to get on our way…”
Similarly, Jesus promises us that he is going to give us the power we need to get on our way… The good thing about the power of the Spirit is that it is a renewable resource that will sustain us for our entire journey in life as we serve God. The bottom line here is that we engage the world for Christ not in our own power but in the power of God’s Spirit.
He told his disciples, “When you have received the Holy Spirit you can leave Jerusalem and here’s what I want you to do:”
III. Go Global with the Good News of Jesus
“And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere – in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8
A witness is a person who tells what he or she has seen or heard. A witness relates his or her experience. The followers of Christ simply tell others about Jesus… so it is ours to relate what we have heard and seen and personally experienced. It isn’t too scary to give pray and give money so others can go tell others but it is scary to realize that this telling others business, i.e., being witnesses is a word to each of us. Sharing faith with family members, fellow students, co-workers, friends and neighbors is a scary thought.
So I especially like what Jesus said to his followers in Mark 13:10-11, “For the Good News must be preached to all nations. But… don’t worry in advance about what to say. Just say what God tells you at that time, for it is not you who will be speaking, but the Holy Spirit.”
In all that Jesus taught, it seems to me, Jesus left us with two pretty directed commands:
The first we call the Great Commandment in Matthew 22:37-39:
“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself. The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
Our lives are to be about loving God, loving ourselves and loving others. So it is fitting that the Great Commandment to love others leads us directly to a second direct command:
We call the second great command the Great Commission and we find that in Matthew 28:19-20:
“Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.”
Imperative in the command to love others is the command to share Christ with everyone, everywhere… Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
Even as a little kid I took the Great Commission seriously and I understood missions as being nearby and far away. One summer I invited my neighbor, Rodney Dean to go to Vacation Bible School with me but his mother wouldn’t let him go. So one afternoon Rodney and I and my younger brother were playing in the upstairs of our house, I thought it would be a good time for Rodney to accept Jesus as his Savior. So we cornered Rodney and would not let him leave until he prayed to receive Jesus. In retrospect that probably wasn’t an appropriate means of sharing my faith.
I like the story of a classroom of missionary candidates who were attending language school. The very first day, all the candidates were seated in their places when the instructor entered the room and, without saying a word, walked down every row of students. Finally, still without saying a word, she walked out of the room. After a few moments she entered the room again and asked, “Did you notice anything special about me?”
No one could think of anything in particular… and then one student said, “I noticed that you had on a very lovely perfume.” And that was the point.
The instructor said, “It will be a long time before you will know Chinese well enough to share the Gospel with anyone in China. But before that you are able to share the sweet fragrance of Christ.”
The Bible says, “To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume.” II Corinthians 2:16
Geographically, Jesus was speaking to his disciples in the city of Jerusalem which was in Judea. Samaria was directly north of Judea and was the home of Samaritans who were regarded as half-breed Jews and despised by the Jews. And beyond Samaria were the ends of the earth… Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, South America, Antarctica, and Australia. The ends of the earth means crossing the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern and Arctic Oceans. The ends of the earth embrace the people of every nation, race, tribe and ethnicity. (Every kind of people in every kind of cultures… )
Somehow, someway, the story of Jesus made its way from Jer to a humble little country church in Madison County, Iowa where my parents became followers of Christ. Somehow the story of Jesus reached Mrs. Schafer who was my vacation bible school teacher at the Baptist Church in Winterset, Iowa where I accepted Christ as my Savior. Somehow, someway witnesses have been taking the story of Jesus to the ends of the earth for the last 2,000 years and somehow, someway that story is still the story we take across the street, around the corner and to the ends of the earth. To think Jesus was speaking of missions in any other way than nearby and far away is short-sighted.
The world has changed a lot since the early days of mission outreach…
When I was a boy missionaries would come to our church and show pictures of primitive tribal people half dressed, with crazy looking body piercings and art, who lived in huts in remote places you could reach only by dugout canoe. Now those half-naked, bone-in-their noses, discs in their lower lips people know Christ and are sending their own missionaries to reach the unreached peoples in their world. There was a time when missionaries took the Gospel to places and people who had never heard the story of Jesus. Now there are more Christians in those places than here. But there are still unreached people in unreached places... and some of them are very much nearby.
We may not like the term globalization. But the fact of the matter is… the world has gotten smaller. Time and distance are narrowed. We watch the Olympics live on our televisions. We communicate via satellite instantly. I send an email to the Ekstrands in Congo and they respond immediately. I text our grandchildren living in a Chicago suburb, “Are you watching the Bears?” And in a moments time I hear back, “Yes, are you?” I check facebook and suddenly a photo of one of my granddaughter’s volleyball team pops up.
We may not like the fact that globalization means balances and sometimes imbalances in trade. We may not like the fact that globalization means tax dollars are shaved because of Swiss and Cayman Island banking. You may not like the fact that jobs are off-shored and out sourced to third world countries that can produce goods cheaper than they can be produced here. We may not like fact that if we were to take a moment to check the labels on our clothing this morning we would find that what we are wearing was likely made somewhere else in the world and the garments we are wearing were likely held in the hands of someone very far away. So like it or not we are part of a global community.
Globalization is the interchange of ideas, philosophies, culture, art, education, languages, products and even religion. Globalization is what presents us with the opportunity to share our faith to the ends of the earth.
Globalization is also the means by which Islam, Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Buddism, Baha’I, Wicca, Universal Unitarianism, the Unification Church, Taoism and as many other false religions, cults and sects as you can bring to mind are spread to the ends of the earth. But despite the call to embrace pluralism and the possibility that Christianity does not have a corner on the truth… Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father but by me.” John 14:6
American Christians believe that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and we have long focused on the “ends of the earth.” We give money and support missionaries and missionary endeavors throughout the world. As the Apostle Paul said, “I have become all things to all men, so that by all possible means I might save some…” I Corinthians 9:22
So we go into a big global world… around the world Great Commission Christians are distributing literature, showing films, distributing food to the hungry, teaching everything from reading and writing to how to operate a sewing machine, they are teaching health and hygiene and parenting, they are starting bible studies and churches, they are developing web sites and online services to reach an increasingly sophisticated world. They are vaccinating children. They are working on community development so people have water and ways to make a living… the Great Commandment is to love people as Jesus said to love as in feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, clothing the naked, being hospitable to the stranger, visiting and caring for the sick and caring for prisoners. And working hand in hand with the Great Commandment is the Great Commission, that is, all the while sharing the story of Jesus, sharing what we have seen, heard and experienced in Christ.
But never for a moment think the Great Commission is limited to the ends of the earth. The ends of the earth is the extent of our calling. Just as we utilize whatever means possible across the pond, we utilize whatever means possible right here at home.
I read this week that 82 % of un-churched people would attend church if someone invited them. And in the same article I read that 21% is the number of church-going Christians who invited someone to church in a given year.
Conclusion:
The scope of our commission is very inclusive... it is totally global.
It’s: Across the table… The adjoining office. The gym. The marketplace. Over the fence. Around the corner.
Across town. Up and down the Front Range. New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma. The United States of America. The farthest corners of Asia, Africa, Europe, South America North America, Antarctica and Australia.
If it is our desire to be a Healthy Missional Church it is imperative that we be actively pursuing Christ and Christ’s priorities in the world… loving people and reaching out to people with the story of Jesus. Telling others what we have seen and heard and experienced in Christ.
A Healthy Missional Church is marked by a Global Perspective and Intentional Outreach and Evangelism… loving others and sharing the story of Jesus at home and around the world.
