It’s fun to sell something that people really like.
Dad took off for Grinnell, Iowa this afternoon in the rain today to sell asparagus. It didn’t rain all the time he was there, but it wasn’t a pretty day.
While he was gone, I got a phone call asking if this was Sojourn Farm. I said it was. The lady asked if that was my husband selling asparagus in Grinnell and I said it was. She started talking about how she usually washes stuff before eating it, and I’m wondering what possibly she could be complaining about and all of a sudden she said, "It was wonderful! The asparagus is just wonderful and I wanted you to know." I said it was a relief to hear that because I was getting worried. She said, "I realized that possibility while I was talking so hurried to put your mind at ease." She was on the Interstate in her car and nibbling on the asparagus she had just bought.
Another car full of people stopped when I was selling and a nice lady bought some for herself and her sister. They drove away and then there she was again. "The kids were eating it raw in the car and said it was so good we decided to come back and get more!"
I am glad for mom!
Look out world, here comes an asparagus selling MACHINE!
World Domination!
It is hard not to notice that all over the world, countries, corporations, celebrities, even sports teams are out for world influence or domination
World Baseball Classic—OUR Sport, along with momma and apple pie. We didn’t even make the finals. Or semi finals!
Sony PS2/3 vs. Xbox/360 lots of money at stake
Hollywood Movies and Influence span the globe (and are being pirated in China)
Not all posers, pretenders, or pushers make it.
Some have success. My mom is.
But countries, people, businesses come and go. People die. World powers get taken over by newer, more powerful countries and alliances.
There is however, a movement afoot that will achieve world wide influence and domination. But not in a selfish or vain or immoral way, but in a way that will carry out the promise made millennia ago:
To establish a kingdom where God will reign,
where broken men and women will be transformed
where people will be loved by him and love one another,
The book of Acts continues what we have seen unfolding in the Bible: God’s reclaiming of his people and kingdom, damaged by sin and human pride.
We will see today that
Big Idea: God is Behind the Expansion of His Kingdom, Which Will Not be Limited by Anyone or Anything
Acts 5:38 if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; 39 but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them.
Six sections highlighting growth. (also add “Lord added to number” verses too)
1. 6:7--Apostles overcome a community neglect issue and devote themselves to prayer and teaching
2. 9:31--conversion of Saul
3. 12:24—Cornelius conversion
4. 16:5--1st Missionary journey and Jerusalem council
5. 19:20—at the end of two missionary journeys
6. 28:30-31—Paul’s arrival in Rome
“What gives God’s Kingdom limitless expansion?”
He Kingdom has the
1. Power to Overcome all Obstacles
Subpoint: He can’t be stopped by anybody or anything, and can turn the “weakest moment” into the most surprising gain (Paul in Jail, Jesus on Cross, persecution of Jews, etc)
Wait: for HS. Key directive of Jesus so his disciples can complete his monumental assignment.
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you,
Recitation of some obstacles:
• without (speaking in tongues/before Sanhedrin/boldness when fearful),
• within (widows, Ananias/Sapphira, Jew/Gentile and Cornelius,)
• natural (snakes, shipwrecks)
It is a big task Jesus gave his disciples: us. It is not a job we do on our own
This is why we are committed to prayer and seeking God in our leadership meetings, on Sunday nights, and why we encourage you to do what many are doing already
His Kingdom has a
2. Lord Exalted Above All Rivals
Jesus has always been the focus of our message, and He is the exalted head of our church—his body.
He has no rival
This is what Peter said, about him
22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. 33 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.
34 For David did . . . himself says,
“‘ The Lord said to my Lord,
Sit at my right hand,
35 until I make your enemies your footstool.’
36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
He doesn’t have moral failings like our congressmen
He did not get into office by bribery and lobbying
He isn’t a superstar hero who sleeps around on his wife
3. Love to Sustain Citizens in Authentic Community
Our Christian church and Church of Christ heritage has long held up Acts as a model for examples of faith and practice in the life of the modern church. And there is much good to say about that.
For, as you start reading Acts, it is hard not to let the few, brief, glimpses of the believing community (our outline refers to them as [kingdom] citizens, we might refer to them as the church)
• Startle
• Draw You
• Burn in to your mind an ideal picture of what “Christian Community” is all about
44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
Acts 4:32 Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.
Acts 9:36 [Tabitha] was [a woman] full of good works and acts of charity. 37 In those days she became ill and died, and when they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room. 38 Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him, urging him, “Please come to us without delay.” 39 So Peter rose and went with them. And when he arrived, they took him to the upper room. All the widows stood beside him weeping and showing tunics and other garments that Dorcas made while she was with them
And Aquila and Priscilla, Barnabas the eternal encourager
We are not in competition with each other! We are on the same team! We have the same goal! We are made clean by the same love and grace. We are treated with the same patience from God!
Why would we try to be anything different?
It is this mark of love, freely and sacrificially given on the Cross, blossoming inside those who are marked and filled with God’s Spirit, lived out in concrete ways that will give evidence that WHERE GOD RULES, WHEREVER HE REIGNS, there will be love.
This love, is the defining character of who we are—Jesus and 1 Cor 13
This love is to be lived out in tangible ways
This love will draw individuals together in authentic community: one where people are known, loved, forgiven, cared for, prayed for, helped out.
When we miss our mark here, with love, we deny the very work our Lord and Savior did for us, and we deny the love we profess to have for him.
To be sure, they are not perfect.
• Grumbling about favoritism and care being inconsistent over cultural barriers
• Jews are very reluctant to share their faith in Christ with Gentiles—even to associate with them
• Sharp disagreements between two loyal friends and coworkers that leads to a parting of ways for a time
• And in the epistles we read of division, sin, and dull headedness.
But these are counterbalanced with these key examples of loving community in action:
It is not about playing church. Or doing church. It is being church: the children, household, family, treasured possession, servants, assembly of saints saved by God. Not saved only for the sweet bye and bye only, but being saved/changed/loved now.
4. Vision to Include All Peoples
God has no favorites when it comes to the world.
I hope we get that: God is not American.
He is not white or black or Hispanic or Chinese. But he made ALL of us, and from the beginning of the world has been about reaching out to all of us, all of us made in his image, but broken in our sinfulness.
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
And that is exactly how the book of Acts lays it out:
Jerusalem
God got them started on a fast track when he empowered them with the Holy Spirit and they preached in different languages—not on their own skill!—to the men and women present there in Jerusalem
Judea
And Samaria—those half breeds, apostates, non-Jews
Ends of the Earth
Cornelius (Peter)
Missionary Journeys (Paul)
His kingdom has no boundaries
CONCLUSION:
God’s Kingdom is all about given something away that many people long fir
Lawrence Richards describes the tension that many people feel who have been in a tight knit community of brothers and sisters where real love is shown—and then experience change and growth:
“What’s happened to us? We were so close before. And then we started growing … and. … ” Carol’s words reflect a common experience. A little group of believers comes together, grows close, and forms a local church. There’s an exciting sense of closeness and warmth and enthusiasm.
As time passes, growth comes. We become busier and busier. New people come in whom we don’t know, and before long the closeness we felt with earlier friends is lost. Soon decisions about buildings and parking lots and programs and staffing and so many other things crowd in on us.
It’s easy then to look back at the earlier days and to long for the intimacy of that smaller group. It’s also easy, if we’ve never experienced that kind of fellowship, to doubt whether it is even possible in this day and age.
All such longing is not only useless; it is also foolish. It is in the very nature of life to reproduce. It is in the very nature of Christian faith and life to reach out, to welcome more and more people into the family of God. It may be more difficult to maintain warmth and a sense of oneness in a church when growth comes. But the solution is never to push back to the past. The solution is in finding new ways to affirm and to experience our [oneness]
It was no different in the early church. With growth and expansion came tensions. There were disagreements. There was sin. There were suspicion and misunderstanding.
But through it all the early church expected that God the Holy Spirit would enable them to experience the unity that He Himself had fashioned in that bond which knits believers to Jesus and to one another.
God IS about world domination. He is allowed to, because he is God! But don’t miss that he is motivated by love, that he wants to bring people from darkness to light
We are his partners in this.
I am excited about the message in Acts. This week, I was talking to my Aunt, who is also a minister. I told her “I am starting a short series this Sunday It opens and closes talking about the kingdom (Jesus’ words in 1:3 and Paul in 28:30-31) and in between shows what this kingdom is all about: God’s rule, foretold, spiritual, motivated by deep love, changing the lives of people (both in those that are healed—foretaste of the consummated, pain/problem free kingdom, and lived out in the positive picture we have of a community that learns to come together (Acts 2:42ff), that overcomes obstacles that want to hinder growth (from within and without), that is all about lifting up Jesus and is changed by Jesus, no matter their circumstance.) and expanding to all peoples until HE comes again. It is letting God break in to our lives, answering his call, being his witness in both word AND deed. I believe in this, and I hope you do to. . .
Will you join Him in His Work?
