Sermon Preached by Pastor Larry C. Brincefield on May 23, 2004.
Title: First Do…Then Teach
Text: Acts 1:1-11
Introduction
1. Many people are quite familiar with the death of Jesus Christ …
• And His resurrection…
• But people aren’t quite as familiar with the Ascension…
• The Ascension of Jesus Christ occurred 40 days after the resurrection.
• And, in fact, on the Liturgical Calendar, today is designated as Ascension Sunday…
• But last Thursday was actually the 40 day mark…
• And is considered Ascension Day…
2. Many movies that portray the life of Jesus Christ often end with the resurrection…
• And in fact, while I thought the movie “The Passion of the Christ”…
• Was a powerful movie that really spoke to my heart…
• I also wondered if perhaps they would do a sequel…
• That begins with the resurrection and covers the post-resurrection appearances of Christ…
• Including one of my favorite stories in the entire Bible…
• Where Christ appears to the 2 disciples on the road to Emmaus.
• And then ends with Pentecost…
• With another movie devoted to the evangelism efforts of those early Christians…
• But my point is, when it comes time for the Ascension…
• Most movies have already ended…
• This morning, I would like to devote some well-deserved attention to this important event in the life of Christ.
Read Text: Acts 1:1-11
1. The main message that we often focus on (rightfully so) is found in verse 11: “This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven”
A. Jesus ascended into heaven…
• To be seated at the right hand of God…
• Where He intercedes on behalf of His followers….
• And the main message of the ascension is…
• In the same way that He was taken away…
• There is coming a day when He will come back.
B. Christians are richly blessed by the promise that the ascension holds…
• And, in fact, we become so blessed in anticipation…
• That we focus so much attention on heaven…
• And sometimes, as the saying goes, “we become so heavenly minded, we are no earthly good”.
• Don’t get me wrong…we SHOULD have our thoughts on heaven…
• We should always have the realization that, as the old gospel song says, “this world is not my home, I’m just a passin’ through”
C. But, there is another message for us in the passage of Scripture…
• And this message will help us keep things in the proper perspective.
2. In verse 1, Luke writes, “In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach”
A. When we begin to study God’s Word…
• We find all kinds of meaning…
• And as we dig deeper and deeper into Scripture…
• We find that God reveals more and more truth to us.
• And as I began to study this passage of Scripture…
• I found another important message that God wants to teach us through the events surrounding the ascension.
• There is an importance to the sequence of words in the first verse… “to do…and to teach”
• That’s frequently how Jesus conducted His ministry…
• First He would DO…
• THEN He would TEACH.
B. Let me give you some examples.
• One time, a woman that was crippled and couldn’t stand…
• Jesus noticed her
• Scripture tells us When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, "Woman, you are set free from your infirmity." 13 Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God. Luke 13:12-13 (NIV)
• Then AFTER this event, He used it as an opportunity to provide teaching.
• First DO…then TEACH
• In the story of the 10 lepers…
• Jesus healed them and sent them to show themselves to the High Priest…
• And then one came back to express his thanks…
• And it gave Jesus an opportunity to teach.
• First DO…Then TEACH
• And you find this example over and over again throughout the Gospels…
• First, Jesus ACTED…
• Then, He took the opportunity to TEACH a spiritual truth.
• So, what does that have to do with the ascension?…
• And what does that have to do with us today?
2. Well, I’m glad you asked
A. Because in verse 8, we see the verse that commentators point to as the key verse for the entire book of Acts…
• you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth
• And in that verse, I see an important message for us today…
• The other message that perhaps isn’t often told…
• When we are talking about the ascension of Jesus Christ…
• And that message is none other than…
• Jesus expects us to do the same thing He did…
• First DO….Then TEACH
B. Acts 1:8 are the very last words of Jesus that we are aware of…
• Prior to His ascending unto His Father.
• Obviously, the last instruction to come verbally from the lips of Christ would be important…
• We would do well to look at them very closely…
• Because, not only were these words important to the early disciples…
• But they are extremely important to us as well.
C. Acts 1:8 contains the words that relate to our responsibility…
• What we are supposed to DO…
• Well, what ARE we supposed to do?
• Jesus said that we are to receive the power of the Holy Spirit…
• I could go into much more detail on that…
• But I don’t want to steal from my sermon next week…
• When we will be talking about Pentecost…
• The day that the Holy Spirit came upon those early followers of Jesus Christ.
• But let me just say, those disciples were a pretty ineffective bunch…
• They didn’t accomplish much for the Kingdom of God…
• UNTIL PENTECOST…
• It wasn’t until the power of the Holy Spirit came…
• That they became effective witnesses for Jesus Christ.
D. Same thing is true for us….
• We will never be very effective in our ministry…
• Until we receive the power of the Holy Spirit…
• So, the message of the Ascension…
• The last words of Jesus before He was taken away from the disciples…
• Receive the power.
• The power to receiving the power is in your hands…
• Wait and pray until the Holy Spirit comes.
• First DO…
E. And then TEACH…
• Verse 8 continues, “and you shall be My witnesses to the very ends of the earth”
• (that includes Belleview, by the way).
• What do teachers do?
• They teach you things about which they have a personal knowledge….
• In elementary school, teachers can teach a wide range of subjects, because the kids are just learning…
• But in more advanced learning, the math teacher teaches math…
• He has received his education and training in that field…
• The math teacher wouldn’t be called upon to teach English…
• Not unless he/she had received some training and instruction about English.
F. So spiritually speaking, that is what Christ intends for you to do…teach…
• Just like He did…
• He had an intimate knowledge of spiritual things…
• And He taught others about them…
• The last instruction out of Jesus’ mouth was …
• “hey, you have an intimate knowledge about spiritual things…
• You need to teach others what you know”
G. And, you know something else?...
• When we “do” evangelism…
• Perhaps we need to use the model of Jesus Christ…
• FIRST…provide the healing…
• FIRST…provide the loving touch…
• FIRST DO…
• THEN provide the spiritual instruction.
• I worry that we sometimes get those turned around…
• We expect people to receive spiritual instruction…
• We want them to get saved…
• BEFORE we will do anything to help them…
• But that is not the model that Christ portrayed…
• He touched…
• He healed…
• He loved…
• He served…
• He gave…
• THEN He was in a position to command their utmost attention…
• And they would be much more responsive to His teachings.
• FIRST DO….THEN TEACH
Conclusion
1. The ascension is often one of those events during the life of Christ that gets scant attention…
• Movies…books…magazines…
• Most of the press is about the cross…
• And the resurrection…
• But here, before we get to our celebration of Pentecost…
• We should take some time…
• And reflect upon the meaning of the ascension…
• Yes, the angels said, “stop staring at the clouds…
• Jesus is going to be coming back”…
• And the message goes for us too…
• Yes, heaven will be great…
• And I certainly love to preach about heaven…
• But, if all we do is just stand around staring into the clouds…
• We aren’t fulfilling our part of the responsibility…
• First Do—receive the power of the Holy Spirit…
• Then—don’t just hold it all in to yourself…
• Don’t just enjoy your own little spiritual utopia…
• You need to TEACH…
• You need to be Christ’s WITNESSES…
• You need to teach others about things that you have an intimate knowledge about…
2. Luke wrote, “In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach”
• The “former book” is none other than the Gospel of Luke…
• I challenge you to read the Gospel of Luke…
• And look at the number of times that Jesus followed this model…
• First DO…Then TEACH.
• What’s good for Christ…is good for us…
• First—receive the power of the Holy Spirit…
• THEN—get your head out of the clouds…
• And witness about what Christ has done for you.
• This isn’t perhaps the most popular message that we get from the ascension…
• But it so important nonetheless.
• First Do—Then Teach.
