Acts 1:1-5
“you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
It’s a good thing. He’s the leader because none of the rest of us are, um, invite you to take your Bibles to acts chapter one. We’re going to look at verses one through five. As we continue in our new series, uh, the spirit at work. To the ends of the earth. As we were looking at the book of acts, acts chapter one verses one through five last week, we did an overview of the book set of a Panorama panoramic view of the book of acts.
Today. We’re actually climbing into the first section and I’d like to read verses one through five for you in the first book. Oh, Theopolis I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up after he had given commands through the holy spirit, to the apostles Sumia Giosan, he presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days.
And speaking about the kingdom of God and while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the father, which he said, you heard from me for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the holy spirit. Not many days from now. Let’s pray.
Lord, we echo the statement that Mike said on that video, that you are our center. We want that to be true. And every part of our lives, as we embark on this journey in this passage, as it leads us into the book of acts, surely that was what mark the early church, not their zeal, not their boldness, not their energy.
It was their whole hearted devotion to Christ being centered in their lives, thereby opening their lives to the influence of the spirit of God. So Lord come among us today here in this room. Those watching online and enable us Lord to learn and find application of truth to our own lives. As we seek to walk with you by our spirit in Jesus name, amen,
just by way of introduction this morning, you’ll notice that Luke is identifying who he’s writing to hear. He says in the first book, oh, Theopolis this guy Theopolis is the same individual that Luke writes to when he writes the gospel of Luke. And as I mentioned last time, Luke wrote two books of the new Testament, the only Gentile road writer, and in these books that comprise about a third of the new Testament.
He addresses the same individual. It’s actually him, that he’s writing to. He is providing this account first in the gospel of Luke. Secondly, in the second volume that the book of acts. To an individual and this individual Theopolis in chapter and verse one chapter chapter one, verse three of the book of Luke, he says most excellent.
Theopolis the word most excellent. Or the title most excellent is used by Paul three times in the book of acts. Every time he is addressing a Roman leader twice a governor, everyone that, that I’ve read believes that Theopolis was a Roman official who had whether he was a governor or some other leadership role.
Um, he was a man who had become a believer in Jesus Christ and Luke is addressing his writing to him. And then of course it would eventually be disseminated in days to come throughout the entire church. The beginning of the book of acts focuses on the transition between the first volume, the book of Luke to the second volume, the first series to the next series.
And as we look at this, and as we look at this passage, we find that he is particularly highlighting in this transitional moment, the 40 days that took place between the time that Jesus was resurrected from the dead and the time that he would actually ascend back to heaven. And it’s a, it’s an interesting discussion.
Luke is the only one in the book of Luke and in the book of acts chapter one that talks about the Ascension. It’s not mentioned the other gospels. He focuses on this, this, this period, particularly culminating at the end, in the Ascension, in order to pre present to us, I believe in these five verses the.
All three persons, three members of the Godhead are actively involved in this process. Now the enterprise of God’s work in, in the created cosmos is always one where there is a joyous, eternal United effort put forth, uh, among the Godhead, the members of the Godhead, but there are certain elements of. That God seems to highlight the involvement of all three members of the God had one of those, his creation.
Certainly as we, as we look at the creation accounts, it says the father spoke creation into existence. It says the spirit and in, in verse two of Genesis one, and then he gets his God created the heavens earth. talking about the father in verse two. He says the spirit was hovering over the waters in response to the fact that the, the creation was null and void.
That was, it was still chaotic. And the spirit comes in and does a work in, in, in bringing it under control. And bringing order. It says that in Colossians chapter one, Jesus is the one that is holding all of creation together. That the Godhead is clearly defined as, as having unique roles and yet also acting in oneness in new creative enterprise.
The same is true of redemption of Jesus coming to earth in Hebrews chapter 10, Jesus says this it’s an amazing passage. It’s it’s actually God, the son speaking to God, the father, as he comes to the world, and this is what he says, I come to do your will. Oh God. In the volume of the book, it is written of me.
It’s an amazing statement. He is coming. He says, father, it’s your will that I go to this little orb called earth and I’m coming to do your will. And then he says this and a body you have prepared. Well, who prepared the body? Well, that was the spirit of God who came upon, uh, Mary and, and planted in her, the seed of deity.
And we see that, that, that even in the enterprise of Jesus, coming to earth, we see it in the plan of redemption manifested in the fact that God had purposed salvation, God, the father Christ, the son who is the one who has accomplished it, but it will be the holy spirit that will be applying it to people’s lives.
We see it also here in the events of the 40 days, leading up to the Ascension in this passage, we see all three members of the triunity tri unity involved once again. And what I’d like to do this morning simply is to look at the roles of each one and then see why it matters to us. The first thing we find is we look at verses one through three of these verses and acts one is.
We find that Jesus’ work will continue. In the first book of the office we read in verse one, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up. The idea is he says that he recorded the earlier works in teaching of Jesus in his first book, but now continues to do so in the second book, if you’ll notice what he doesn’t say, he doesn’t say Jesus did and taught until all the things that Jesus did and taught until the day he was taken up.
That’s not what he says. He talked about in the book of Luke. He says this, all the things that Jesus began to do until the day that he was taken up at the essential Lucas saying Jesus began his work. And I’m recording the whole story of it when he came to the earth and, and he did his earthly ministry at the culminated in the cross and the resurrection from the grave and the 40 days.
But he says that was the beginning of Jesus’ work. He’s continuing his work while on earth was only the beginning of that work. Of course, Jesus said that Jesus said in Matthew 28, verse 19 and 22, his disciples, I will be with you always, even until the end of the age, Christianity is set apart from all other religions.
Those regard their founder as having completed his ministry during his lifetime, Luke says Jesus only began his during his orthotics earthly sojourn, the Jesus of history begins his ministry on earth. The Jesus of glory has been active through his spirit ever since the essential. Is not the loss of Christ.
The Ascension is the increased and heightened presence of Christ. It is, is not the loss of his leadership. The disciples all felt it was not the loss of his leadership has intimacy his protection, but the magnification of it, the infinite magnification of it enacts, the holy spirit is called the spirit of Jesus.
It is Jesus’ work, continuing to be done through the agency of the spirit. Jesus is still involved. It’s striking. There are certain moments where there are pictures of this where all of a sudden, Stephen as he’s being martyred looks up and he says, I see Jesus state. And heaven, Paul, a couple of chapters later in acts chapter nine.
Hey, here’s Jesus. Speaking to him. Jesus is constantly continually involved. His work is continuing. The second thing we find in verses one through three about the work of Jesus is, is found in the middle of verse two. And it said after Jesus had given commands to the holy spirit, to the apostles whom he had chosen, he presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many, by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days.
And speaking about the kingdom of God, his work in those 40 days was very intentional. If we can bring up this chart, um, during this, this chart and the blue, both at the beginning, at the end, those blue sections are all taking place in jurors. Those that are in green, took place in Galilee. Now, this is interesting for a couple of reasons.
One you see on resurrection Sunday, of course, there were, there were a number of events and we have Mary of Magdala who the first one who sees the risen Christ then immediately after her on the arrow below is the women that were at the tomb, the next ones, then Simon Peter, amazing thing that Jesus appeared to Simon.
The first of the apostles and individually, because Simon was the one that felt his own denial of Christ. So acutely, we see the two disciples of, uh, not apostles, but disciples Clovis was the name of one on the road to amass. And then on the top, there again, there are 10 disciples that gather that Sunday night and the only one not there is Thomas who apparently is just absolutely emotionally.
He can’t even gather with the boys. He’s just had it. Then we find her in the next day days that all 11 disciples were together and the following Sunday, uh, Jesus appears to them again, this time Thomas is there and Jesus said, you know, put your, put your hands into your fingers into my, uh, my hands into the nail prints.
Because Thomas, during the week in those eight days has said the disciples. I I’ll never believe in. Uh, they said we’ve seen him not, can’t be, can’t be true. We come then. And now the whole thing moves to, to Galilee the Northern province. This is all in Jerusalem, in the Northern province. Actually it’s Paul in first Corinthians tells us that the Jesus appeared to about 500 believers.
At one time, he appeared as the gospel of John tells us with seven disciples by the sea of Galilee 11 disciples. On a Mount in Galilee, he gives the great commission to where he says to them. I will be with you always. And one of the most interesting ones is we again are told by Paul in first Corinthians that Jesus appeared to his human brother, brother, of up by his same mom, Mary James, the next oldest of the brothers of Christ.
He had four brothers. He had at least two sisters that talks about the sisters of Jesus. And James had apparently along with his brothers, become believers in Christ. We hear about them later in the book of acts and James became actually the lead. Of the church of Jerusalem. He became a prominent leader.
Jesus appeared to him on the 40th day, the 11 disciples are gathered at Jesus. He brings them back to Jerusalem and they’re at the Mount of olives, which was a mountain just to the Eastern side of the city of Jerusalem. Jesus there, uh, tells them to, uh, wait, as Jesus has ascended back up into heaven. He says, wait for the promise of the father, Jesus is at work here.
And Jesus has been continuing his work among his disciples right up to the end. But the reality is the Jesus work doesn’t end at that moment, even though he continued to teach right up to the end, he is always looking forward with them in each of these teachings in Matthew 28. He’s saying guys, I’ll always be.
But now be waiting because the promise of the father is coming, which leads us to the second thing. We see the work of the Godhead during these 40 days, culminating at the day of Pentecost is the work that, that the prom of the father, the father’s promise will be fulfilled. This is the promise that the father gave.
We often see in the work of the three members of the Godhead involve this, um, division of role and it’s loose, but at least give some sense. Typically, the father is the one that orchestrates or authors the plan. The son is the one that accomplishes the plan. We sit in the course in, in the whole work of.
The spirit is the one that applies the plan, that he is the one that applies it to people, individual lives. It’s the spirit that regenerates it. It is the spirit that illuminates that we can come to understand the things of Christ that these are the different member, different roles of the Godhead, but they work in, in, in, in, in concert all of the time.
But here we’re told that the father is the one that is giving this promise in the work of kingdom building that will be presented in the book of acts the father ordains. The means of kingdom guilt building the spirit is his promised means of building the kingdom, which Jesus is guiding continually through this day.
As he says, I will build my church. Jesus said that Matthew 18, but the means of doing it will be through the promise spirit. And then the last thing we find is the work of the. The Spirit’s role in this new enterprise that will be going on beginning after Jesus ascend. The Spirit’s role will become prominent.
He’ll be prominent in the lives of the church in the same way that he had been in the life of Jesus. This is, I found this exciting. I don’t know why I never really thought about this before, but in verse two, Luke highlights something for us, which I want to just go back to. It says after he, Jesus had given commands through the holy spirit, to the apostles whom he had chosen.
Now, why did he say me? He could have just said after he had given commands to the apostles whom he had chosen, but he says after he had given commands through the holy spirit, I believe it’s intentional. And I’ll show why in a moment in some other verses, but basically it’s highlighting the fact that Jesus’ ministry was continually done through the influence.
Of the spirit of God in his life and his ministry, listen to this verse in acts chapter 10, Peter is talking to the Gentile believers at Cornelius house, a Roman Centurion. And he does know how he, Peter was just like, how did this even happen? What am I doing here? But he’s there. And he realizes that these Gentile people who he’s not even supposed to be in the home of it as a Jew, he’s not even supposed to be eating with, and yet God has compelled them to do it.
And God has made himself known to them in such a, an obvious way in the same way. The spirit had done that for the Jews at Pentecost that he summarized. And he looks back in his little talk that he gives to this bunch of Gentiles in, in, uh, Cornelius home. And here’s what he says. And what he’s talking about is the ministry of Jesus when Jesus was on earth.
And here’s how he describes it. You yourselves know what happened throughout all. Beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the holy spirit and with power, he went about doing good and healing. All who were oppressed by the devil for God, was with him.
What were, see, what he’s saying is you remember how Jesus ministered among you in the dramatic impact. It had all through the old Palestine, but here’s how it happened. He said it happened by the spirit of God being directed by God, the father to empower Jesus, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the holy spirit and with power.
When Jesus came to earth and Philippians chapter two, we have what’s known as the kenosis passage kenosis means emptying Jesus in that passage, it says emptied himself. And the sense of most theologians believe is the V in the voluntary. He voluntarily gave up the independent exercise of his attributes.
Now that’s a mouthful, but here’s what it means. Jesus, in his earthly life did not just decide. I’m going to, you know, I’m going to this, I’m gonna do this. Matter of fact, there are even times when he says, I don’t know, uh, how could the God, the son not know there was an independent, there was a voluntary submission of his, of his will to not use all of his attributes that he laid the Messiah.
He end emptied himself. Well, when did he use them? He used those miraculous attributes under the leadership of the spirit of God. The spirit of God directed him, empowered him in the use of those attributes. Here’s what, here’s what I think Luke is saying to us in the same way. But the spirit of God moved in the life of Jesus in his teaching and his ministry.
He is doing that among you in the days to come, but he is making his glory known through the spirit of God, the same way he even did it through God, this one, he’s going to do it through you. And he says, this is the promise. This is the promise in the verses following. We’re going to talk more about what that’s going to look like, but not focusing on that today.
But the idea is that the Spirit’s role will become prominent, not only in life of Christ, but in the life of all of Christ’s messengers, verse four and five, he says this, and while staying with them, Jesus ordered the disciples not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the father, which he said, you heard from me for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the holy spirit.
Not many days from now. He says. Don’t leave Jerusalem, stay right here. I want you to be right at a, in this location, in the place where I was killed in the place of what seemed to be abject defeat. I want you right here to wait for the promise of the father. As the spirit comes upon you, you will be immersed in him just as Jesus was.
So as we look at this, as we think about this,
sorry, I got my notes out of order.
Oh, I know. Sorry. I tried to turn two pages instead of one Thomas Goodwin, a Puritan pastor. Um, presses into the heart of what Jesus is saying to his disciples. Here’s what he says. This is Goodwins. Who’s a Puritan of the 16 hundreds. He says, my father, this is Jesus speaking, my father. And I have, but only one friend who lies in the bosom of us, both and proceeds from us, both the holy spirit.
And I will send him to you. He shall be a better comforter unto you than I am. He will comfort you better than I should do with my bodily presence. Here’s what he’s saying. And I believe this is exactly what Luke is saying. I believe it is what Jesus is saying. When he promises the spirit to come. The spirit in you is better than Jesus beside you.
That is a staggering thought that having the spirit within us. Is more powerful, more, life-changing more influential than having Jesus Christ walking beside us.
Garrison Keillor, the storyteller of lake Wobegon. Tales said this once. If life doesn’t break your heart, at least once a day, it shows a real lack of imagination. That’s true. Life is hard. So what are you going to do? You can kill your heart. You can numb your imagination. You can stop thinking about life or try to, to, to exit it and avoid it and, and just keep so busy.
You’re not really dealing with what is, and the pain that it causes, or you can get a source of glorious joy that does not numb your heart. Or blind you to the brokenness of the world, but lifts you up through it. This is what is promised in the presence of the spirit in people’s lives. This is what Jesus means when he says what you’re going to have in you, who you’re going to have in you is better than me alongside of you.
His Ascension says it can be yours and we must get hold of it. The Ascension says that the triune God has devised a plan that will empower and sustain God’s people in the face of their weakness, their sorrow, their exhausted, their confusion. So what are the implications of this for us, I’d like to say three quickly.
Number one, the first implications of this astonishing plan of the. Is that we must be worshipers. The whole plan is about what God will do. The father promises to send the spirit. Jesus continues his work in his people by means of the spirit coming upon them from start to finish. This plan is about God.
The most important question of our lives then is simply this, what will bring me under the influence of God’s spirit in my life. If this is the promised reality, if this is what the God had, put their energy into designing and planning for us and saying, this is even better than Jesus next to you. The most important question in my life constantly needs to be what will keep me living under the influence of this.
Not how can I take care of my family, not how can I build my financial portfolio, not how can I get myself in shape, not how I can accomplish my goals, not even what can I do for God, or how can I serve him better? No, the question is how can I bring my life under the influence of God’s spirit moment by moment, day by day,
it means we ask God to make us stunned, worshipers and are living our lives. Corum Dayo is the Latin phrase means in the presence of God that knowing him becomes the passion of our lives, because we realized this is the gift of our lives at two simple experiences this week, that just really touched my heart in talking to people.
One was, I was talking to a young man who I had actually been talking to another guy who knew him and had just been mentioning how amazed he was at the seriousness with which this first guy was following Jesus and the choices he’d made in his life. And I was talking with the guy being spoken about, and I, and I told him the story of that.
I said, you know, secondhand compliments of the best. So I’m just going to tell you, this is what somebody else was saying about you. And they were mentioning about, you know, how you, your choices regarding, um, control of alcohol in your life completely because of Christ. And we got talking and he made a statement that struck me.
He said, I’ve, I’ve, I’m learning that I don’t want to have anything mastered. Other than being mastered by Christ. And then he made, he gave an illustration. He said, for instance, he said, I, you know, I drink coffee and, and, and he said, but I, I, sometimes I I’ve drunk coffee enough that when I don’t drink it, you know, I wake up and I got a headache and he said, I I’ve been convicted and I’ve stopped drinking.
I’ve started drinking a lot less coffee. And he said, I just don’t want to be mastered by him. I don’t want to be dependent on anything. And the headache tells me, yeah, I’m probably depending on it. I was talking to another brother, an older brother in the Lord this week. And he serves with me in a ministry and it’s a ministry where we have a meal for people.
And, um, as we were doing the ministry, the, the meal, um, I noticed he wasn’t eating. Everybody else is eating. We’re all eating, happily eating. Eating. Um, and I said, have you eaten yet? And he said, uh, no, I’m not, I’m not, I’m not eating. And I said, oh, did you eat before you came? And he said, no. And I could tell you a little awkward.
So I of course plunged right in. I said, oh, why aren’t you eating? And, and I then realized he was fasting and you want to talk about, but meant a lot to me just cause me and here we all are running around. It’s big man. And I just realized the quietness of his life. He’s just, he wants Jesus. Those are just two moments for me that I just felt, Lord, these guys encourage me to ask the question, what am I doing to bring my life under the influence of the spirit of God?
So nothing else is mastering me. So th th that, that I want Christ to be glorified through his spirit in my life.
The first implication
of this astonishing plan of the Godhead is that’s consuming passionate of our lives ought to want to be worshipers. The second one is this. We must be tremendously humble. The church is Christ’s representatives in the world. Jesus is not here in bodily form. We are his hands and feet. And of course, we get asked a question, how are we doing it?
Loving and serving others, do people at the office say, yeah, that person is a Christian, but do they say, but when things go wrong, she doesn’t take responsibility for it. When there’s a hard message she needs to deliver to her worker. She doesn’t come into work that day. She tends to just shoot an email out when dealing with clients, she doesn’t show all the facts.
She’s just like all the rest of us. But if consciously living under the influence of the spirit, there is an integrity. There is a transparency. There is a humility. There is an honesty that, that captivates our hearts. Not because we’re good people or we’ve know because we know without Christ, we will not be those things.
It also speaks to our messaging. If we’re conscious that we are the recipients of God’s messaging and indeed with God’s enablement through his spirit. When we are under the Spirit’s influence, it leads to a holy and joy-filled seriousness about our calling. Um, George Whitfield was a great evangelist.
And, um, if you haven’t read about his life, uh, there’s a two volume set by Arnold dollar Maura, which is just fantastic. And in talking about George Fiskville, one of the, one of the, um, incidence of his life was George Whitfield was speaking and sharing the gospel. And, uh, um, he was the guy that just, he was a humble man, but he was deeply constrained that God was, was at work.
And, and, and, and his message was not as, anyway, he was in, uh, he was speaking one night. Uh, don’t be nervous if you’re in the front, cause I’m not going to do this, but, but he noticed a guy was asleep and he had a, it was a wooden platform. And he just stomped his foot twice. And he wasn’t, this kind of guy was a gentle spirited man, but he stomped his foot twice and the guy wake up and he said, brother, I, I did that intentionally, but here’s what he said.
He said, if I came here with my own message in my own name, listening to me would be completely unimportant.
But I come in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ. I come with his message, his truth, representing his kingdom. And because of that, I will be hurt. This is a humble man, but constraints. That he was called to, to a message. Is that how we look at our office is that we look at our school is that we look at the lives of the people around us, that we’re doing life with that.
If we have been induced with the, the, the, the spirit in our lives, there is this holy sense, born out of tremendous humility to say, God, you’ve given me what the disciples didn’t even have with Jesus, with them, that I could be your representative to my generation. The third thing we must be patient with other Christians.
This is a day, and I’m guessing it’s not uncommon. When it’s easy to struggle with people professing to be Christians, people who associate with Christ that are saying, and doing things that seem to have nothing to do with the Christian life and the Christ like life. And it can be very frustrating and it can make you feel, I want to have nothing to do with them.
I don’t want to take the name that they take. I mean, I just, there’s nothing about that. And,
but I want you to remember that nobody has had their reputation stained or maligned by his followers more than Jesus Christ. He was not afraid to say, I want you to bear my name after 40 days. These guys gathered together as Luke records it in Luke 24 and in acts chapter one and they get there and it’s clear, they still have totally screwed up an understanding of his messaging.
And if you were, I would, Jesus, we would probably say something like this, you know what guys, I’m going to have to stay here and do this myself. So this isn’t going to work. It’s not working out.
GK Chesterton said this. The main evidence against Christianity is the lives of Christians, but there is also beauty in Christians. Paul says it this way. We have this treasure in earthen vessels. The treasure is the message of Christ. The earth and vessels were cheap. Clay pot. He says there’s nothing in us that compels, that draws us, that magnetizes, the treasure is not from us.
The church has moved forward and is still expanding around the world. The ignorance and failures of Jesus’ followers is proof of the miraculous gift. Jesus gave the church in the holy spirit. It’s all of God. And so as we look and we get frustrated, remember that Christ is at work. He’s working through broken people like you and me it’s because of his spirit.
And for all these centuries, the triune God has taken broken, weak. Self-absorbed egotistical, proud followers. Who are many times awful advertisements for his kingdom, but in spite of their foibles, he continues to build his kingdom. He continues to love and to welcome and to draw to himself people in his own name, he does it in fulfilling a promise that he made of a spirit who was to come the greatest question in our lives.
How can I live under the influence of this spirit? This book is going to present people and some of them really messed up, or all of them messed up to a degree. We’re going to see in the brokenness of the church and the conflicts, even in the church and the adversarial relationship the church had with each other and people out.
That there was a spirit that was willing to work. Even in the most amazingly unworthy of followers. God doesn’t need a large opening in our lives. He needs a crack. If we are generally willing to say, God, I man, there’s so much that needs working here. I don’t even know where to begin. I hear pastor mark. I don’t know how to live under the influence of the spirit.
I mean, I got to church that’s, that’s like my first check for a month spiritually. Well, that’s great. That’s a crack, but allow the spirit of God to be at work in us as he was among these humble, scared, broken, proud followers who we molded somehow into an army of people that could glorify him in their day.
Let’s pray, Lord.
it’s an amazing thing to think that you, God, God, the father, God, the son, God, the holy spirit, you have chosen people like us to be your representatives in this world. It’s an amazing thing to imagine that you’ve planned for maternity past. How are you going to work in our lives and use our lives? Lord, humble us with that glorious.
Humble us to want to live our lives under the influence of your spirit, who is alive and willing to lead us. Now God, as we close our service today, pursue us. Draw us, deepen our love for you. That you might be glorified within us Lord, who are worthy of all glory in Jesus name. Amen. Now go in peace to love and serve.
Enjoy him.