A Study of the Book of Acts
Sermon # 1
“Living Up to the Name.”
Acts 1:1-11
We have bought the idea of many around that the church is quite irrelevant, a not at all an important segment of society. That view is absolutely false. The church is the most important body in the world today -- far and away beyond every other body -- because whatever happens in the world happens as a result of something that is, or is not, happening in the church.
The story is told of “the man who lived with his wife on the old family farm for years, barely scratching out a living. All the while, beneath the barren, dusty, almost uncultivated-able land was a rich supply of oil. While digging a water well, the farmer discovered this. Thus, he and his wife enjoyed a life of rich blessings. The farmer said, ‘And to think, we lived here all these years without knowing how rich we were!’
Many Christians are like that farmer. They go through their days, barely hanging on to their spiritual lives, living in their own weak ways; while beneath the surface, the power of God is ready to break free in their lives.”
This morning I want to start a new series on the book of Acts. The book of Acts describes a transition; geographically, from Jerusalem to Rome; theologically, from Israel to the church and racially, from Jews to Gentiles. Acts is a record of power exercised in the midst of persecution; an account of life and health pouring from a living Christ into a sick society through the channel of obscure men and women, very much like you and me.
The author of the book of Acts was Luke the physician, and he begins with a reference to his already completed work on the life of Christ, which we know as the Gospel of Luke.
“The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, (2) until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen,
Obviously, then the Gospel of Luke was Volume One and Acts is Volume Two. Acts is the continued story of what to Jesus “began both do and to teach.” The book of Acts therefore is an unfinished book. It has never been ended, but is still being written. Luke picks up his account in Jerusalem with the closing hours of Jesus earthly ministry. It is the period between Jesus’ resurrection and His ascension into Heaven.
In these first eleven verses Luke gives us Five Foundational Principles around which to build the church.
I. THE BELIEVER’S MESSAGE v. 3
“CHRIST IS RISEN”
“to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.”
The Greek word for "proof" here is a word that includes the idea of being convincing -- infallible, as the King James Version has it. Luke from the very beginning established that Christianity is a religion based on the historical facts. First and foremost is the fact of the miraculous resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The resurrection will be demonstrated by many convincing proofs and once proven it is proof of everything else that matters. Four categories of proof -
A. The Disciples Saw Him
He appeared to them during forty days. In fact Luke is the only writer of Scripture who tells us that Christ’s post-resurrection ministry covered forty days. The word here is one from which we get our word, ophthalmia, i.e., the word for the eye, or literally, the eyeball. If we were to use the modern vernacular, what Dr. Luke says is, these disciples "eyeballed" him for forty days. They saw him again and again, not merely once, but many times during this period. Each time he looked exactly the same.
In fact on ten different occasions Jesus appeared to the disciples, history leaves no doubt about his resurrection. The first five sightings took place on the first day when he He arose again, the other five took place form time to time during the forty days that followed.
He appeared to Mary in the Garden (Jn 20:11-18)
Women by the Wayside (Matt 28:9-10)
Disciples on the Emmaus Road (Lk 24:13-32)
Simon Peter in the late afternoon (Lk 24:34)
Disciples in the Upper Room (Jn. 20:19-23)
Again to the Disciple so the Thomas might see and believe (Jn. 20: 24-29)
Seven on the shore of Galilee ( Jn 21:1-14)
To some 500 gathered on a hillside (1 Cor. 15:7)
To James ( 1 Cor. 15:7)
To the disciples on the Mount of Olives as he ascended (Acts 1:9-12)
B. The Disciples Heard Him
“He present Himself alive ….speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.”
Evidently Jesus appeared at intervals coming and going from Heaven at will, showing miraculous signs and instructing his disciples about “the kingdom of God.”
C. The Disciples Touched Him
In order to convince his followers of the reality of His resurrection body, Jesus allowed them to feel Him with their hands. The reality of His risen body was tried and proven by the normal means of sensory perception. Jesus reappeared to the disciples with express purpose of allowing Thomas’ doubts to be stilled (John 20: 24-29).
D. The Disciples Fed Him
The ultimate proof was, "he ate with us." They saw the food disappear. It is surely terribly hard to get an hallucination to eat! Luke says, "This is the proof; he ate with us, so we know he is alive." Peter declared in the home of Cornelius “Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly, (41) not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead.” (Acts 10:41-21 NKJV)
The end result of all of these appearances was that the apostles came to believe absolutely in the reality of the resurrection of Jesus. That assurance gave them the boldness to preach Christ to the very people who had crucified him. It a belief in the reality of the resurrection that turned the apostles from being fearful skeptics to bold powerful witnesses.
John the apostle goes even beyond this and declares that the ground of faith and life in Jesus Christ is the historical evidence that Jesus was seen, was heard, was handled during those post resurrection appearances. “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life (2) the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us” 1 John 1:1-2 (NKJV)
Throughout the centuries many attempts have been made to disprove the resurrection of Jesus, but none has ever been successful. In fact, oftentimes the ones attempting this have themselves becomes convinced by the evidence and have become Christians.
He is a living Savior! Mohammed died and is still dead - Budda died and is still dead, Confucius died and is still dead. But when you go to the tomb of Jesus we hear the glorious message, “He is not here; for he is risen, as he said.” (Matt. 28:6)
He showed himself to Saul on the Damascus Road and sent him out a flaming evangelist. He showed himself to a shoeman in Chicago named D.L. Moody and he went out shake the world for Christ. He showed himself to a Baseball player named Billy Sunday and sent him out to win millions. He is still “showing himself” alive today.
II. THE BELIEVER’S MIGHT vv. 4-5
“THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT”
“And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; (5) for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
Jesus had previously promised in John 14:16-18, “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; (17) Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. (18) I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” This now is the fulfillment of that promise.
III. THE BELIEVER’S MISSION vv. 6-7
“ESTABLISHMENT OF THE KINGDOM”
“Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (7) And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.”
The disciple’s were not at all clear about the nature of the kingdom with Jesus had come to establish. “Their idea of the Messiah was a soldier like Judas Maccabeus…, who was going to be strong enough to drive out any occupying military forces. In these days, the land was occupied by the Romans. So the Jews were looking for a Messiah who would expel the Romans and set up the earthly kingdom of David. The disciples expected to reign with him in this kingdom.”
It was this kind of expectation that gave rise to the occasion which the mother of James and John approached Jesus asking,
“Grant unto one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right hand and the other at your left hand in your kingdom.” (Matt. 20:21).
We find them again at this time asking in effect, “Are you at this time, at last, after all this waiting on our part, going to restore the kingdom?”
Jesus said, “It is not your business to know when I am going to establish my kingdom, it is your task to be my witnesses in the world.
IV. THE BELIEVER’S MANDATE v. 8
“MAKE DISCIPLES”
(8) But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Here the Lord laid down in the clearest possible terms the mandate for those who are to follow him. The mandate of the church that would dare to call itself New Testament must of necessity be a Missionary Church.
Jesus told the disciples that they must wait upon the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. The word translates “power” here is the Greek word dunamis.
“The Greek word dunamis entered the English language when the Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Bernhard Nobel (1833-96) made the discovery that became his fortune. He discovered a power stronger than anything the world had known up to that time. He asked a friend of his who was a Greek scholar what the word for ‘explosive power’ was in Greek. His friend answered, ‘Dunamis”. Nobel said. ‘Well, I am going to call my discovery by that name.’ So called his ‘explosive power dynamite.”
The disciples at this point in the book of acts were in a transitional period in the birth of the church. In this present age the baptism of the spirit or infilling of the spirit takes place for all believers at the moment of salvation. At that moment according to 1 Cor 12:13 every believer is placed into the body of Christ. At that point the Holy Spirit also takes up permanent residence, so there is no such thing as a Christian that does not yet have the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:9, 1 Cor. 6:19-20).
The early disciples had to wait for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to come. We do not!!! It is available now. It is available for all believers. Yet, the Holy Spirit and His power must be sought. It requires consecration, commitment to God. We must desire and work for it. How many of you are really seeking to be empowered by the Holy Spirit. Most Christians seem to think they are doing God a favor by showing up to church once a week on Sunday morning. How many of you have heard someone say they did not have the gift of evangelism? That’s ok because there is no “gift of evangelism!” Now listen to me carefully, so that you don’t misunderstand me. Some of you are saying to yourself, “Preacher are you sure? I think I have heard of the gift of evangelism in the Bible somewhere?” What you heard of was the gift of an evangelist, but not the gift of evangelism. In, fact the word evangelism does not appear in most modern translations at all. You may be thinking, “So what is your point.” You need to stop waiting for a gift and get serious about being a witness. Jesus said, “You are my witnesses.”
“Our English word witness comes from an Old English word we do no use very much anymore but we used it in Elizabethan times and afterwards. It is the word wit. ‘To wit’ means ‘to know’ A ‘wit’ is ‘a knowledgeable person.’ So a ‘witness’ of some who knows something and testifies to it.”
We have heard the words “you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth,” so many times that it is difficult to feel their impact. But what a shock these geographical designations must have been to the disciples. To Jerusalem where he was crucified? To Judea, where he was rejected? To Samaria, to minister to those half-breeds? To ends of the earth, the Gentiles too?
What a call to be His personal witnesses to the world. This is too much – this is too hard. And to demand to the ends of the earth, why that is impossible. That is why he first told them that they must have the empowerment of the Holy Spirit
.
V. THE BELIEVER’S MOTIVATION vv. 9-11
“JESUS IS COMING AGAIN”
“Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. (10) And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, (11) who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” (NKJV) No idle standing around waiting for the Lord’s return was sanctioned then. Surely such idleness is not profitable now either.
This becomes a compelling motivation in the life of the believer. No one knows when he will come, but everyone must live with the anticipation that he could come during their lifetime.
Conclusion
God the Father has sent God the Holy Spirit to all the disciples of God the Son so that we can have all the power necessary to meet the challenges of our lives. Isn’t time to give the Holy Spirit control. So be ready, get ready. When the Holy Spirit controls our lives, something has to happen. We need to be “like the little girl listening to her grandmother reading stories from the Bible, and the grandmother asked her what she thought of it. The little girl responded, ‘Oh, I love it. You never know what God is going to do next.’” When Holy Spirit control our lives then……..
“Discouraged folks cheer up,
Dishonest folks fes up,
Sour folks sweeten up,
Closed folks open up,
Gossipers shut up,
Conflicted folk make up,
Sleeping folk wake up,
Lukewarm folk fire up
Dry Bone shake up,
And Pew Potatoes stand up.
But most of all Christ the Savior of the world is lifted up”
