Lessons From The Early Church
Preparation For Power
Acts 1:12-26
Last week we started in a series called “Lessons From The Early Church”
Jesus had told the disciples to stay in Jerusalem and that they would be receiving the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives. God and Christ had promised them that when He was gone that a helper was coming.
That helper was the Holy Spirit.
The second half of Acts chapter 1 deals with the disciples’ waiting prior to the coming of the Holy Spirit. This period lasted 10 days because the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost.
See Pentecost refers to the Feast of Weeks, which in Jewish tradition was held Fifty days after the Passover and since the Lord was taken back forty days after the resurrection, which occurred at Passover there must have been a ten-day period in which the disciples waited in Jerusalem.
There is a lot of symbolism that is associated with the Holy Spirit coming at Pentecost or the Feast of Weeks. The Feast of Weeks was the time in the Jewish year when the first sheaves of the harvest were presented. This presentation was of the first fruits of the harvest. The symbolism being that when the Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost and thousands of people believe in Christ was only the first fruit of things to come.
We are people of action. We live in a time when we want it now. But we have to remember that our time is not God’s time.
When the children of Israel had crossed the Jordan River into the promised land in Joshua we might think they would have gone right away and moved against those living there, but God commanded them to wait and consecrate themselves and they waited four days.
But it is these days of what are periods of inactivity but periods of preparation. God is doing things in our lives that we cannot see or at least of which we are unaware.
We see in their lives and in our lives that this is a time for preparation, it is a time to practice obedience, a time for fellowship, and a time for constant prayer.
But during this time the disciples were in “Preparation For Power”
Acts 1:12-26
1) Preparation Is A Time To Practice Obedience-vs 12
a) The disciples had seen Christ ascend into the clouds
b) Luke tells us that they traveled a Sabbath’s day journey which was about ¾ of a mile
c) God had told them to stay in Jerusalem and that is what they did
d) They could have easily gone another way
e) But they did what God had called them to do
f) If we look at verse 4 the disciples were doing what Christ had told them to do.
g) I do not think it was easy for them
h) How many times have you been in a situation when not knowing what was going to happen was hard?
i) Ill.-Caleb and the phone call
i) You say what else could they have done
j) Well they could have done what they had done right after the resurrection
k) They scattered
l) We have some walking back towards Emmaus
m) Others had gone back to Galilee
n) We have some who went back to their jobs fishing
o) And why not there was nothing holding them together
p) I do not know what they were thinking but they could have been thinking what are we doing just sitting around here waiting.
q) I mean we just saw Christ go up in the clouds let’s get out there in tell everyone
r) They might have thought it utterly pointless for them to wait inactively in Jerusalem
s) But it is situations like this that we learn most about obedience
t) It is when we cannot see why we are called to do what we are doing.
u) This is not just the simple do it because I said so
v) It is more because if we can give a reason for what we are doing, then we are not necessarily learning obedience.
w) What that is really trusting our own ability and trying to reason things out
x) The disciples could have left the mountain top where they saw Christ ascend and ran into the city and started telling everyone but that would have been on their power
y) There is nothing wrong with thinking things out, but it is quite another thing to learn obedience when the proscribed course does not seem the best option
z) If you are going through a period like that in your life, when you know what you should do but do not know why you need to do it, or if you are experiencing a delay in God’s dealing with you and it seems that you are stuck in one spot and you cannot quite get out of it
aa) Learn the valuable preparation for the future work just in remaining where God has put you
bb) Preparation is a time for obedience but also a time for fellowship
2) Preparation Is A Time For Fellowship-vs. 13-14, 15
a) Verse 13
b) And they returned from the Mount of Olivet to Jerusalem and went back into the upper room
i) This could have been the same room where they met with Jesus before His crucifixion but mostly like was just a large room.
c) Many houses had a large room on the top which they rented out
d) We see the eleven disciples mentioned
e) Read disciples
f) We see a Judas listed there but this was not Judas Iscariot
g) There were two Judas’ in the original disciples
i) Can you imagine have to share your name with someone infamous like that
h) We also see in verse 14 that there were women there including Jesus’ mother and also his brothers
i) And Luke adds that when Peter stood up in the midst of them in total there were about 120 all together.
j) You have to think when Jesus went around teaching it was not always the 12 but there were others who went with them
k) In verse 21 we are going to see that the disciples are going to add one man to their group from those who had went in and out among them since the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.
l) Imagine others who might have been there
m) Maybe Nicodemus who had come to Christ at night wanting to know about Christ and learning that you must be born again
n) Maybe Joseph of Arimathea who lent the tomb that Christ borrowed
o) Maybe Mary and Martha and Lazarus
p) Maybe the Samaritan women at the well
q) Maybe Simon of Cyrene
r) Maybe others who Christ had healed were there
s) People need people
t) That is why we gather on a Sunday morning, on a Sunday night on a Wednesday night.
u) Not to say we do it but because we need each other
v) There is nothing worse than isolation from other people
w) And when we isolate ourselves from each other we isolate our fellowship
x) If we are to grow we need each other
y) Christians need Christians
z) When you become a Christian you do not become a Christian in isolation
aa) Rather you enter into a body of those who are also Christ’s disciples and you find fellowship with them
bb) Preparation is a time for obedience and fellowship but also for constant prayer
3) Preparation Is A Time For Constant Prayer-vs. 14
a) Verse 14 says they were continually in prayer
b) Verse 24 says that they prayed concerning who to put forth as the 12 man
c) We have been talking about prayer on Wednesday night
d) Prayer is one of the most important ministries a church can have
e) ILL-ACTS
f) “The popularity of a CHURCH is measured by its Sunday morning attendance and the popularity of the PREACHER by its Sunday evening attendance. However, the popularity of the LORD is measured at the prayer meeting. ”
g) Adoration
i) Certainly they gave God Adoration
ii) They had see God work among them in great ways
iii) God had sent Jesus to die for our sins and then rise again the third day from the dead
h) Confession
i) I am sure there was probably a time of confession
ii) They were getting ready to do great work for God
iii) There must have been some conscious of their sin
iv) We know Peter was there and he had denied Christ after his arrest
v) Some of the others had scattered
i) Thanksgiving
i) Thanks for forgiveness
ii) Restoration
iii) Work to do
iv) Each other
v) Life
vi) health
j) Supplication
i) Asking God for the necessary faithfulness and strength to do the task that they had before them
ii) Maybe even praying for the coming of the Holy Spirit that they and been told to expect
k) You say if God is going to do something, then why do we need to pray
l) God is sovereign
m) God does what God wills to do
n) But when God accomplishes his purposes he does it through means
o) If he is going save someone, he usually does it by leading someone else to go to him or her with the gospel
p) If God is going to send revival, he almost always does it by leading his people to pray
q) Prayer is not redundant or unnecessary
r) The disciples knew this
s) When God has done great things throughout church history it has been preceded by times of great prayer.
t) It has not always been a large number of who have prayed but mostly started by a small number gathered
u) Did you also notice in the verse that they were in one accord
v) That mean of the same mind or same spirit
w) Luke is going to tell us again that the disciples prayed in one accord in Acts 4:24
x) They were in one accord in gathering together in Acts 2:1
y) They were in one accord in daily worship in Acts 2:46 & 5:12
z) They were in one accord in obedience in Acts 8:6
aa) They were in one accord in a business meeting in Acts 15:25
bb) Paul will tell us that one accord is needed to glorify God in Romans 15:6
