SPEAKER_00: We studied through books of the Bible here at the village chapel.
SPEAKER_00: We have extra copies.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, if you didn't bring one with you, if somebody would get over here and just to grab a few to distribute.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody need a copy?
SPEAKER_00: Just raise your hand if you do.
SPEAKER_00: There's somebody coming up that aisle there.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe we can get somebody to get down the center aisle here.
SPEAKER_00: Is there anybody willing?
SPEAKER_00: Anyone available?
SPEAKER_00: Nobody is listening to me.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway.
SPEAKER_00: There we go.
SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: So please go ahead.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: I thought we had uh, yeah, guys.
SPEAKER_00: And so glad, by the way, a couple side roads.
SPEAKER_00: Um, yes, I'm not wearing a jacket today.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and uh, I'm not trying to start a church split or anything like that.
SPEAKER_00: Not try, you know, not looking to do that.
SPEAKER_00: It's uh hot up here.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and and I thought, well, maybe if I go sweater, you know, that'd be okay.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe I'd sound a little more like Alistair Begg without the Scottish accent, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but uh thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00: And look at three people handing out Bibles.
SPEAKER_00: That was really awesome.
SPEAKER_00: You just have to ask, that's all.
SPEAKER_00: So glad that uh we're starting today a brand new book study, the book of Acts, if you'll turn there in your Bibles.
SPEAKER_00: And um, before we get started in the text, I want to thank the folks from uh around the world actually that joined us online last week.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, some folks from London.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure that might be my friends in Southampton, um, but London, UK, uh, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Sydney, Australia, and Fort Lee, New Jersey.
SPEAKER_00: So really glad to have had those folks join us uh around sometime around last week for either a Bible study or the worship service.
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray for us before we get into the text, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, as we now give attention to the scriptures, come be our teacher, we pray.
SPEAKER_00: We place our minds under its truth, our wills under its authority, our hearts under its transforming power.
SPEAKER_00: Give us, we pray, a clearer vision of your truth, a greater faith in your power, and a more confident assurance of your love to us.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray, amen and amen.
SPEAKER_00: So Acts chapter 1, let's look at verses 1 through 8 first, and then I'll come back and make some comments, uh, give a little introduction to the book as well.
SPEAKER_00: Just want to read these first eight verses.
SPEAKER_00: The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up into heaven, after he had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom he had chosen.
SPEAKER_00: To these he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: Gathering them together, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, which, he said, You heard of from me, for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.
SPEAKER_00: So when they had come together, they were asking him, saying, Lord, isn't it this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?
SPEAKER_00: He said to them, It is not for you to know times or epochs, which the Father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses, both in Jerusalem, in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the remotest parts of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And that will be our reading for today.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the Lord, and then you typically would say, Thanks be to God.
SPEAKER_00: Excellent, wonderful.
SPEAKER_00: When I was a teenager, I ran the half mile.
SPEAKER_00: You might not ever have guessed that looking at me, but I did run the half mile in False Church High School, uh, track team in Northern Virginia.
SPEAKER_00: It was two laps around our school's track course.
SPEAKER_00: I never won a race.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I was small and ruddy.
SPEAKER_00: I had learned to run fast, though, because other people were big and strong.
SPEAKER_00: Uh eager runners like myself knew that the most embarrassing moment of a competition wasn't really losing the race.
SPEAKER_00: It was at the beginning of the race.
SPEAKER_00: If you false start, really embarrassing.
SPEAKER_00: It's almost uh race time.
SPEAKER_00: You've trained, you've stretched, you've warmed up, you've centered and focused your mind.
SPEAKER_00: You stand in the blocks, your body leaning forward, your heart is pounding.
SPEAKER_00: Inside you, you you're just everything is alive, and then you hear those words on your marks, get set, and every nerve in your body is screaming.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: But uh something happens to some people some of those times.
SPEAKER_00: If you jump out before the signal, you get disqualified, not for being lazy, but for being over-eager.
SPEAKER_00: And that's so humiliating.
SPEAKER_00: Something similar occurred at the Olympics.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you may have seen this, but in the uh 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, a 22-year-old swimmer named Eric Musambani.
SPEAKER_00: He was nicknamed Eric the Eel as a swimmer, and he was from Equatorial Guinea, which is a uh a little small country on the uh western coast of Africa, and sort of in the middle of the of the continent.
SPEAKER_00: He famously won a 100-meter freestyle qualifying heat at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what happened, though.
SPEAKER_00: The other two swimmers in that heat were one from Niger, one from Tajikistan, and both of them jumped the gun and false started.
SPEAKER_00: Moussambi was the only one to swim in that qualifying heat of the race.
SPEAKER_00: Big irony is that he had just learned to swim at all.
SPEAKER_00: And he practiced at a hotel pool.
SPEAKER_00: Had never even seen an Olympic pool.
SPEAKER_00: And there he was, he didn't even have the full, you know, tight skin suit thing.
SPEAKER_00: He just had on a pair of trunks.
SPEAKER_00: And uh there he was, but he waited for just the right time.
SPEAKER_00: The others, uh, two disqualified swimmers sulked away in defeat because they had been overeager.
SPEAKER_00: The opening of Acts to me feels a little bit like that kind of moment.
SPEAKER_00: You could have jumped the gun, jumped the start, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus walks with the disciples for three and a half years, and Jesus was arrested.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus died on a cross.
SPEAKER_00: He was buried, but three days later he was resurrected.
SPEAKER_00: He appeared to more than 500 people over, uh, teaching them and preparing them for what we read today.
SPEAKER_00: And his disciples are there with him, likely on the Mount of Olives, because, as we'll see in two Sundays, they come back from the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus walked with them all of that time and walked with them for 40 more days after he had resurrected, and he still felt like they weren't quite ready.
SPEAKER_00: They still needed something else.
SPEAKER_00: He told them they wouldn't be able to know everything, to understand everything.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know about you, but I relate to that.
SPEAKER_00: I want to know everything.
SPEAKER_00: I want all my questions answered.
SPEAKER_00: My last name is Thomas.
SPEAKER_00: I live up to that name.
SPEAKER_00: I question why.
SPEAKER_00: Really?
SPEAKER_00: All the time.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples were emboldened, though, and they were eager.
SPEAKER_00: Emboldened why?
SPEAKER_00: Well, because Jesus had gone from being a carpenter, turned rabbi, turned healer and preacher.
SPEAKER_00: He was that, that's true.
SPEAKER_00: But he now had turned from all of that into someone who had actually risen from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: And for them, there's a big difference, and of course, for us there is too if we stop and think about it.
SPEAKER_00: And they knew their Old Testament in ways that we don't, and they saw in Jesus the fulfillment of all of those messianic prophecies.
SPEAKER_00: Once he rose from the dead, his suffering, his cross, all of that made so much more sense to them.
SPEAKER_00: And it's the only explanation we could ever have for this kind of command from Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: On your marks, get set, wait.
SPEAKER_00: So we'll call the message that today, because that's really essentially what uh Jesus says to them.
SPEAKER_00: Now, just a little bit of background on the book of Acts before we get going.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be here for a while, 28 chapters, and uh and we'll we'll be rotating our different pastors in to teach different sections.
SPEAKER_00: But who is the author of this book?
SPEAKER_00: It's Luke.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we know he's a Gentile.
SPEAKER_00: How we know that?
SPEAKER_00: His name is not Jewish.
SPEAKER_00: So everybody to Jewish people, everybody who's not a Jew is a Gentile.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Whether you're from Rome or whether you're from the Far East or whether you're from the north in Syria or wherever you're from, you're a Gentile.
SPEAKER_00: You're not a Jew.
SPEAKER_00: He's a physician.
SPEAKER_00: We know that from Colossians chapter 4, verse 14, where the Apostle Paul actually says that Luke is a physician.
SPEAKER_00: He writes, if you read the book, and I've read it many times myself, I've taught it two or three times.
SPEAKER_00: He writes like a historian, a theologian, and so, a physician, a historian, a theologian?
SPEAKER_00: This guy's he's like an ancient polymath.
SPEAKER_00: He really has knowledge, vast knowledge, working knowledge in a lot of different categories.
SPEAKER_00: And so I love Luke.
SPEAKER_00: I I love that we're getting to study his second volume here.
SPEAKER_00: And evidently he's a traveling companion of the Apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_00: How do we know that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, along about in chapter 16, we'll all see that instead of talking about they and them traveling, he will start saying, we and us.
SPEAKER_00: As if he was on board the ship, as if he were going out with the Apostle Paul on that trip.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's really insightful.
SPEAKER_00: It helps us know just a little bit about it.
SPEAKER_00: According to most scholars, Luke is indeed the author of the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_00: Part of that you can see in the opening to Luke's gospel and compare it to the opening that we just read.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the opening to Luke's gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the Word, it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent, Theophilus, interestingly, uh addressed to the same person.
SPEAKER_00: The intro to Acts is addressed to, right?
SPEAKER_00: So that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.
SPEAKER_00: Now that sounds like a doctor, a physician, a historian, a theologian who wants to explore and study and make sure he gets the facts right before he begins to compose whatever book it is he is writing.
SPEAKER_00: Back then, in their time, ancient scrolls, papyri, or however they put together, but the ancient scrolls could be as many, they found them as long as like 32, 33 feet long.
SPEAKER_00: But still not enough to get all of Luke's gospel and all of the book of the Acts of the Apostles onto one scroll.
SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, those two books alone, if indeed Luke is the author of both of them, mean that Luke the Gentile is actually the author of the greatest volume of material in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that interesting?
SPEAKER_00: As we come to a book that's about the gospel spreading out into Gentile territory, that God would choose someone who is indeed a Gentile to write that.
SPEAKER_00: What else do we have here?
SPEAKER_00: What kind of literary genre is the book of Acts?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's historical narrative.
SPEAKER_00: See, the Bible is 66 books, but they are not all the same literary genre.
SPEAKER_00: Book of Psalms, for instance, is ancient Hebrew poetry.
SPEAKER_00: We have books like Exodus that contain a lot of commandments.
SPEAKER_00: We have books like Revelation that we would call apocalyptic literature.
SPEAKER_00: We have the four gospels, which are their own category.
SPEAKER_00: They are sort of the summary of the teachings and the actions and the ministry, the earthly ministry of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But here we have a historical narrative.
SPEAKER_00: As you read it, you'll see that it is more descriptive than prescriptive.
SPEAKER_00: What I mean by that, it is describing certain events that happened in space-time history and geographical region, rather than it's something prescriptive, which is basically telling us, everyone, see if you can't get a mighty rushing wind going here in this room.
SPEAKER_00: And make sure that there's tongues of fire on every head.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's more descriptive of something that happened in space-time history in a geographical region at the church as it gets off the ground and it's first started.
SPEAKER_00: And it's less prescriptive, do this, do this exactly this way, do this.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, we have other material that is prescriptive.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm not saying there's not such a thing as prescriptive material.
SPEAKER_00: It's just acts is descriptive.
SPEAKER_00: It's more indicative than imperative.
SPEAKER_00: It indicates what happened.
SPEAKER_00: It's not commanding us to do the exact same thing.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, I should, you know, Jim should now go and go around the Mediterranean and preach the gospel in certain cities, but not in others.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll even see that happen.
SPEAKER_00: Where the Spirit of Jesus tells the Apostle Paul, don't go into that region just yet.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's fascinating to see the Lord lead and guide in this beautiful, wonderful book that we call the Book of Acts.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't have my laser pointer with me, but I'm putting up on the screen here some of the geographical territory that we'll cover as we study the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_00: There are three of Paul's missionary journeys that we'll be reading about, but we'll also be reading about some of the churches that he establishes.
SPEAKER_00: You can see on the bottom sort of center that Jerusalem is there.
SPEAKER_00: You can see it says Great Sea in that big blue mass there.
SPEAKER_00: And that's really what they used to call the Mediterranean Sea, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have been over there.
SPEAKER_00: Those of you who've been to Israel with us before understand what that means.
SPEAKER_00: You'll see Syrian Antioch due north, up on the sort of sort of before the land curves around to the left there.
SPEAKER_00: And you see the isle there as well.
SPEAKER_00: And in his first missionary journey, he's gonna go there.
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna read about a lot of these places, reminding us again that the Bible is not a fairy book about imaginary places.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible is a historical book, it's a record that God has preserved for us about the actions of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's really about God more than it is about us.
SPEAKER_00: But it's about a God who's in search of a people he can call his own.
SPEAKER_00: And this God that the Bible is describing, and this book where God reveals himself to us, is actually him saying, I want you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm calling to you.
SPEAKER_00: Come to me, all who are weary, all who are laboring.
SPEAKER_00: And you'll find rest in me.
SPEAKER_00: And this, all this striving, all this trying to balance out the moral scale stuff sets that aside.
SPEAKER_00: The symbols of the Christian faith are not a set of scales.
SPEAKER_00: The symbol of the Christian faith is the cross, where Christ did for us what we could never do for ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's great news.
SPEAKER_00: And this book is all about the spread of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: You'll see that.
SPEAKER_00: So let me summarize, if you don't mind, five extraordinary events that take place in the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_00: We have the coming of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We'll read about that in short order.
SPEAKER_00: We have the transformation of the fearful disciples into the faithful apostles.
SPEAKER_00: We have the birth and dramatic growth of the church.
SPEAKER_00: In chapter two, 3,000 souls will be added to the church right there in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: In chapter 4, we'll actually read of either 2,000 more or 5,000 more, depending on how you read it and interpret it.
SPEAKER_00: But I mean, that's explosive growth in the midst of the city that is largely the context wherein Jesus was arrested, was tortured and put to death, and the religious authorities were against him.
SPEAKER_00: And in that same context, you see, there is this explosive growth of the church itself.
SPEAKER_00: And then in addition to that, we study through the book of Acts, and we see the internal tension and external opposition to the church.
SPEAKER_00: And that opposition is not just in Jerusalem, it's around, all around the Mediterranean, as the Apostle Paul goes on these different missionary journeys.
SPEAKER_00: He literally gets run, he starts preaching in these synagogues.
SPEAKER_00: Then some of the folks in those synagogues get upset at him.
SPEAKER_00: They literally run him out of town, throw stones at him, hoping to kill him, and they're seriously trying to oppose what he's doing.
SPEAKER_00: He gets around into Gentile territory as well.
SPEAKER_00: And in Athens, he's publicly mocked.
SPEAKER_00: Even though they're on Mars Hill, which is an amazing site to visit sometime if you ever get to go.
SPEAKER_00: He holds his own, does a great job as an apologist of the Christian faith.
SPEAKER_00: So there's internal tension.
SPEAKER_00: That internal tension will show up in the Ananias and Sapphira account in Acts chapter 5.
SPEAKER_00: It'll show up also when, for instance, Paul and Barnabas disagree about John Mark, which I found it really interesting.
SPEAKER_00: And they end up dividing and going separate ways.
SPEAKER_00: And the church in Syria, Syria and Antioch, which I showed you on the map there, they actually send them out as two different missionary teams.
SPEAKER_00: So what the devil meant for bad, in splitting Paul and Barnabas a little on the subject of John Mark, ends up in two missionary teams going out.
SPEAKER_00: And we, you know, all of us here, you know, while all of what you see up on the map there is over in the Mediterranean, all that sort of thing, the call of Jesus that we read there in verse 8 is to go to preach the gospel in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And that's Nashville right over there on that screen, okay?
SPEAKER_00: That's us.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're recipients of that.
SPEAKER_00: It's really beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: So the other events in the book of Acts that are quite amazing would be just the general wildfire-like spread of the gospel around the Roman Empire.
SPEAKER_00: Christianity sweeps the Roman Empire without drawing a sword, without shooting a bow and arrow.
SPEAKER_00: It's remarkable how fast this message spreads.
SPEAKER_00: So, what do we learn from verses one through eight?
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to summarize it this way.
SPEAKER_00: They have a new master.
SPEAKER_00: It's the risen Savior.
SPEAKER_00: He's new in a way they didn't ever understand him.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you're here today and you've been in the West for a long, long time, and you've heard the story of Christianity in general, or spirituality in general, or Christian-like spirituality, or whatever, I want to just turn the light on, as the book of Acts will do.
SPEAKER_00: The resurrected Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason I say that is because there are 24 sermons, or some of them we'll call sermonettes, because they're really brief.
SPEAKER_00: But all 24 of them mention the resurrection of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You see, this is what one of the things about the Christian faith that is so different from any other religion.
SPEAKER_00: Our Savior came.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't deserve it.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't have a claim on him.
SPEAKER_00: He came for us.
SPEAKER_00: He invaded part of his own creation and came for us.
SPEAKER_00: And that's mind-blowing in and of itself.
SPEAKER_00: But that he died for us in our place.
SPEAKER_00: And then, mind-blowing further, and this is one of the reasons I think this gospel spread like it did, got back up from the grave, defeating our last and greatest enemy, death itself.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus, they're seeing Jesus in a brand new light after the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing else can explain, really, what happened.
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Paul would write about it in Colossians 1.
SPEAKER_00: He said, He, Jesus, is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it sounds like legalese to you.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it sounds like religious terminology.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus first.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus first above all other things in our lives, right?
SPEAKER_00: And his resurrection qualifies him, puts him in a different category from everything else.
SPEAKER_00: So we generis.
SPEAKER_00: He is, there's none, there's nobody else like him.
SPEAKER_00: And when we put him first, it makes us better husbands, wives, neighbors, citizens, sons, daughters, mothers, fathers.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because we would put Jesus first.
SPEAKER_00: And all of who he is, his life is starting to blossom inside of us really beautiful, wonderful thing.
SPEAKER_00: The resurrection was not just an appendix to the apostles' preaching.
SPEAKER_00: It really was central to their preaching.
SPEAKER_00: And so you have, I think there are nine sermons by Paul, eight by the Apostle Peter.
SPEAKER_00: The first one we'll read in a week or a couple weeks, actually, is the Apostle Peter, and it's really powerful in the response to it.
SPEAKER_00: It's certainly quite amazing.
SPEAKER_00: So they have this new look at their Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, they have a new mission.
SPEAKER_00: Their mission is no longer just Israel, just here in and around Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, it would have been quite shocking to them in verse 8 when Jesus says, You're going to be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea.
SPEAKER_00: That all sounds great because, you know, Jerusalem, man, that's like the capital city of their religion.
SPEAKER_00: That's a we get, you mean we get to work in downtown.
SPEAKER_00: You know, that's awesome in the big city where everything's happening.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, you do, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: But then take it out into the suburbs as well.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Judea, you know, go on on, go on around there.
SPEAKER_00: And you see, the Judea is the southern third of Israel in that time.
SPEAKER_00: In the middle was this place called Samaria where all the Samaritans live, and the Samaritans and the Jews hated each other.
SPEAKER_00: This was like the other side of the railroad tracks.
SPEAKER_00: Up north, the northern third, is Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: Those of you have been over there, you understand what this is, right?
SPEAKER_00: The Sea of Galilee and uh Tiberias is up there, and if you've visited, you've stayed there in Tiberias, and you've driven all around there where Jesus hubbed his ministry, his earthly ministry out of there in large part.
SPEAKER_00: But Samaria was a place Jews would walk around it just to not get their feet dirty with Samaritan dirt, you know?
SPEAKER_00: And Samaritans hated them as well.
SPEAKER_00: There was this animosity, religious prejudice, uh, racial prejudice, all that stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And so for Jesus to say, you're gonna be my witnesses in Jerusalem, yes.
SPEAKER_00: In Judea, yes.
SPEAKER_00: In Samaria, boy, that would have fallen flat to them.
SPEAKER_00: And we wouldn't know that.
SPEAKER_00: We we're not the people that would be aware of that kind of animosity between those groups.
SPEAKER_00: But you gotta see that here in verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: And then he went even further.
SPEAKER_00: He went not just because the Samaritans were essentially half Jewish, half Gentile, okay?
SPEAKER_00: They were sort of the remnant of what happened after in in 722 BC when the Assyrians literally captured all the northern ten tribes and took them all away.
SPEAKER_00: And then some of them trickled back in, but they had intermarried with all these Gentiles, and they came back in and formed what's what we call Samaria, or what was called Samaria back then.
SPEAKER_00: And so for the Jews, they weren't pureblood Jewish.
SPEAKER_00: And for Jesus to say, let's include them, would have been shocking to these disciples.
SPEAKER_00: But now he goes a step further.
SPEAKER_00: Jerusalem, yes, Judea, yes, Samaria, uh-uh, uh, you're the boss.
SPEAKER_00: And the uttermost parts of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: This would really have been quite offensive in some people's minds back then.
SPEAKER_00: He wants them, as Sinclair Ferguson points out, to go from being centripetal, that is, where where everything moves to the center, to be more centrifugal where everything moves out.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just a come and see faith, it's a go and tell faith now, see?
SPEAKER_00: Just like at the tomb, right?
SPEAKER_00: Come and see where he lay, then go and tell his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: And then it kind of goes on from there.
SPEAKER_00: So the new mission, it's global.
SPEAKER_00: It's global.
SPEAKER_00: I love that we're a part, a little tiny, tiny, teensy weetsy little part of that in our in our giving, our financial giving.
SPEAKER_00: We have 40 missionaries and missions organizations that we support that are out on the mission field all around the world.
SPEAKER_00: Some of them are local, yes, there are about 15 local ones or so.
SPEAKER_00: Then the rest are just all over the globe.
SPEAKER_00: Justice, mercy, and evangelism are the work that they do in all parts of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Some parts of the world that are really, really hard, difficult places to live as a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm so glad that when I put my money in the offering or make a contribution to the ministry of this church, it goes to do help in those areas.
SPEAKER_00: And mercy work, where it's providing food, clothing, medicine, essential needs to people, right?
SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad to be a part of that myself and encourage you to be a part of it as well.
SPEAKER_00: But this is what the Lord wants us to do.
SPEAKER_00: Not just sit around navel gazing and not just come in here and congratulate each other on the new sweater I'm wearing, which you know, it's like or the new shirt that I'm wearing or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: That's really wonderful, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Somebody came in and said to me, Yeah, how nice that was.
SPEAKER_00: And did you dress yourself today is what they said.
SPEAKER_00: And it is true that I often take my outfits to my consultant.
SPEAKER_00: And I say to my consultant who's been with me for 47 years, you like this?
SPEAKER_00: Is this okay?
SPEAKER_00: Would this work?
SPEAKER_00: And uh Tony and I were talking earlier.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you usually, usually I love, although she's so gracious, so nice, so kind to help me when she's got her own thing to take care of and all that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_00: But every now and then I don't consult her.
SPEAKER_00: And then that's those are the fun times when when it's like more like her coaching is put in the form of a question.
SPEAKER_00: You gonna wear that?
SPEAKER_00: Or if she's like really trying to stop me, it's you really gonna wear that?
SPEAKER_00: Is that really what you're gonna wear?
SPEAKER_00: But I love and appreciate so much that she does all of that.
SPEAKER_00: And I have no idea why I got off on that tangent there, so forgive me.
SPEAKER_00: New mission, global calling, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And we want to go and reach the world for the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And and I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what, this is so true.
SPEAKER_00: If I had to wear a clown suit to reach the world, I would do it.
SPEAKER_00: That's what's important to me.
SPEAKER_00: We have life-giving messages in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Why would we not want to share?
SPEAKER_00: If you really love your family members, your coworkers, your neighbors that aren't believers, if you really love them, why wouldn't you want them to know Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: So our calling is now global, it's not just to Nashville only.
SPEAKER_00: And thirdly, uh, new message, which is the gospel of grace.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the message we have, guys.
SPEAKER_00: You're all sinners, and Jesus has come and done, He's done everything necessary for you to be reconciled to a holy and righteous God.
SPEAKER_00: And not just you're all sinners, we're all sinners.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus has done everything necessary to reconcile us to a holy and righteous God.
SPEAKER_00: That's such great news.
SPEAKER_00: It's so much better than thinking first in terms of the scales, thinking first in terms of unfurling the religious rule book.
SPEAKER_00: You know, and thinking first about do you do did you get your life together before you come to Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: You know what?
SPEAKER_00: He is so gracious.
SPEAKER_00: His arms are open wide, he does not have wagging fingers, he has open arms to welcome you in.
SPEAKER_00: But you must come.
SPEAKER_00: You must respond.
SPEAKER_00: You must, as the Bible puts it, you must repent and believe.
SPEAKER_00: That's how Jesus actually put it.
SPEAKER_00: That's how John the Baptist actually put it.
SPEAKER_00: Repent and believe, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, the time is now.
SPEAKER_00: God is bringing in his new kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to unfold over time through the church period of time.
SPEAKER_00: And then one day we're we're so excited about the Lord returning.
SPEAKER_00: The New Testament talks about that over 200 times.
SPEAKER_00: So there's references all over the place to Jesus returning to set the world right.
SPEAKER_00: Is there something wrong with the world?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, there is.
SPEAKER_00: You're hiding under a rock if you don't think there is.
SPEAKER_00: I look in the mirror and I know something's wrong in the world.
SPEAKER_00: But I listen to the news and I know stuff's wrong in the world.
SPEAKER_00: I drive on the highway and I know stuff is wrong in the world.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy.
SPEAKER_00: It's the most provable aspect of the Christian faith that something is wrong in this world.
SPEAKER_00: What will set it right?
SPEAKER_00: More education, more money, the right political party?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no, no.
unknown: No.
SPEAKER_00: A work where our hearts are transformed and changed.
SPEAKER_00: We humble ourselves before a gracious God who hasn't just unfurled the rules for us to follow, but who has come Himself and put salvation on an offer as a free gift.
SPEAKER_00: Who wouldn't want that?
SPEAKER_00: And that's good news.
SPEAKER_00: That's the message we have to share.
SPEAKER_00: All right, just a little bit more.
SPEAKER_00: Um I want to I'm gonna I'm gonna go right to this because the importance of the Holy Spirit in this passage is so true.
SPEAKER_00: If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95% of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference.
SPEAKER_00: If the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church that we're about to read about and study about, 95% of what they did would stop, and everybody would know the difference.
SPEAKER_00: Now I couldn't find the original source on that quote, but it has been attributed to Tozer for years and years, and it sounds a lot like Tozer.
SPEAKER_00: But whoever said it, it's a little sobering, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: 95% of what we do in modern churchianity would just keep on rolling because to some extent we've reduced ourselves to social clubs and to sort of another entertainment venue.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing wrong with having social events, nothing wrong with being entertained.
SPEAKER_00: Not saying that.
SPEAKER_00: But what marks the church?
SPEAKER_00: What is distinct about the church and what is our mission and our message?
SPEAKER_00: Those are important things.
SPEAKER_00: Tozer's right on it there.
SPEAKER_00: But some of us aren't equipped with that.
SPEAKER_00: We haven't actually stopped like these disciples.
SPEAKER_00: They spent three and a half years walking with Jesus, they spent 40 days uh post-resurrection with Jesus, and they're still not ready.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because they have to wait for the Holy Spirit to move upon them and in them and through them.
SPEAKER_00: And that's where we see these three Greek prepositions describing the work of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Para, the Spirit with us, comforting, guiding, convicting, leading, and the Spirit in us, new life, new heart, new identity.
SPEAKER_00: I need all of that.
SPEAKER_00: Especially in an era where identity is so confused.
SPEAKER_00: See, identity is in biblical terms, identity is a gift given, not something that the burden, the onus is on us to discover.
SPEAKER_00: A gift given.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see how that takes all the pressure off of you?
SPEAKER_00: Takes all the pressure off of me.
SPEAKER_00: It's a gift given by God.
SPEAKER_00: And the Holy Spirit comes upon us, the Holy Spirit works in us, and then the Holy Spirit also works, as he says there, Epi, that last one up there, the Spirit upon us with boldness, witness, power for mission.
SPEAKER_00: So it's the Spirit with us, the Spirit in us, and the Spirit upon us.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll see that throughout the book of Acts, all three of those come into play.
SPEAKER_00: Paul Tripp says you need to wait some.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we need to wait on the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Be quiet and wait on the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Be still and minister to you.
SPEAKER_00: It's vital to understand that waiting isn't an interruption of God's plan, it is his plan.
SPEAKER_00: And you can know this as well.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord who's called you to wait is with you in your wait.
SPEAKER_00: Raise your hand if you hate waiting.
SPEAKER_00: And my hands are both up, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Do you hate waiting?
SPEAKER_00: I hate waiting.
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: Gotta go to have my car worked on.
SPEAKER_00: The guy says, I'll call you in two hours and let you know what's up.
SPEAKER_00: The day goes by.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing.
SPEAKER_00: The next day I call and right at the opening hour.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, what's up?
SPEAKER_00: Can you just give me an update?
SPEAKER_00: What's up?
SPEAKER_00: And I had to leave a voice message.
SPEAKER_00: And was promised he'd get right back to me.
SPEAKER_00: Waiting, waiting, waiting.
SPEAKER_00: A week goes by.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And I finally get the car back.
SPEAKER_00: Does that frustrate you?
SPEAKER_00: I you maybe you get in line at Costco in the short express lane at a grocery store or something, and the person in front of you, instead of 10 items only, has 30 items and a fist full of coupons.
SPEAKER_00: And you're all of a sudden going to be waiting for like an hour in line behind somebody that's causing you to wait.
SPEAKER_00: I hate waiting.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes the Lord wants to do stuff in us and through us as we're waiting, and we need to not waste our waiting.
SPEAKER_00: The quiet listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: The quiet obedience of these disciples in chapter one leads to the explosive evangelism of Acts chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, every time God moves in really big ways, it's usually preceded by people who have given themselves to the quietness of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to see that throughout Acts as well.
SPEAKER_00: God is both the goal of our journey, McGrath says, and the means by which we find him.
SPEAKER_00: We come to the Father through the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we pray prayers of illumination with each of our sermons here at the village chapel.
SPEAKER_00: We know that we can open this book and we can kind of get, maybe we can get some information.
SPEAKER_00: But we want more than that.
SPEAKER_00: We want inspiration.
SPEAKER_00: We want more than that, too.
SPEAKER_00: We want transformation.
SPEAKER_00: And see, only the Holy Spirit can do that stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And so we need the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: You know what the Holy Spirit is mentioned almost 60 times in the book of Acts and all the charismatics said.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have very many charismatics here.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we need some.
SPEAKER_00: You know, but I mean that that's awesome that he's mentioned so much there.
SPEAKER_00: All right, let me close with this little story here.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, this is one of those books, please read ahead.
SPEAKER_00: Every week.
SPEAKER_00: Just just go on ahead.
SPEAKER_00: Pastor Tommy's up next week, and he'll be doing just the next three verses, so I know you can do it.
SPEAKER_00: I know, call kids, I know you can do it.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: It's such an amazing book.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so excited that we're studying it, and I know it will inform, inspire, and encourage you in your faith, as it has me and many millions of others.
SPEAKER_00: C.T.
SPEAKER_00: Studd, some of you have heard of him, was converted as a young man through the preaching of D.
SPEAKER_00: L.
SPEAKER_00: Moody, and I know probably a few more of you have heard of D.
SPEAKER_00: L.
SPEAKER_00: Moody, big preacher in the 19th century.
SPEAKER_00: C.
SPEAKER_00: T.
SPEAKER_00: Studd became one of the legendary Cambridge Seven, a young, a group of young men from some of the elite universities who gave up promising careers to serve as missionaries in China with Hudson Taylor's China Inland Mission.
SPEAKER_00: Their decision shocked Victorian England and inspired a generation of missionary candidates.
SPEAKER_00: So as we begin our study of the Book of Acts, which is all about the missionary movement of the gospel spreading around the Mediterranean, I wanted to close with this quote from C.T.
SPEAKER_00: Study, and it's lengthy, so I'm gonna put it in two slides, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Christ's call is to save the lost, not the stiff-necked.
SPEAKER_00: He came not to call scoffers, but sinners to repentance.
SPEAKER_00: Not to build and furnish comfortable chapels, churches, and cathedrals at home in which to rock Christian professors to sleep by means of clever essays, stereotyped prayers, and artistic musical performances.
SPEAKER_00: But to capture men, I love this, to capture men from the devil's clutches and the very jaws of hell.
SPEAKER_00: This can be accomplished only by a red-hot, unconventional, unfettered devotion in the power of the Holy Spirit to the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Can we do that?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think we can.
SPEAKER_00: Because this same Jesus, you know, there are several titles for this book.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of theologians call it different books.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the Acts, the Acts of the Apostles, and then some people call it the Acts of the Holy Spirit, the Acts of the Holy Spirit in the Apostles.
SPEAKER_00: There's all kinds of different titles.
SPEAKER_00: I like John Stott's, it does.
SPEAKER_00: The Acts, since this is all about what Luke's gospel was all about Jesus began to do and teach.
SPEAKER_00: Acts is about what Jesus continued to do and teach through the power of the Holy Spirit and in the lives of the apostles and the church.
SPEAKER_00: So we want to do that.
SPEAKER_00: This same Jesus is still reigning.
SPEAKER_00: His same Spirit is still empowering us.
SPEAKER_00: And it's the same mission ahead of us, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Not to innovate a new gospel, but to bear faithful witness to our Savior and King, the resurrected Jesus, carrying the message to the ends of the earth in humble dependence on the Holy Spirit, in obedience to Christ, with love in our hearts for everyone we go and speak with.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, thank you for this passage.
SPEAKER_00: So excited to study this book.
SPEAKER_00: I pray, Holy Spirit, that you'll be with us in it, and that you will be transforming us in it.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, that some parts of Nashville will be impacted by our studying this book.
SPEAKER_00: And perhaps some parts of England that we mentioned earlier, and perhaps some parts of Canada, some parts of Australia, some parts of Fort Lee, New Jersey will be impacted as we study the book of the Acts of the Apostles over the next few months.
SPEAKER_00: Pray this in Jesus' name for his sake, for his glory.
SPEAKER_00: Amen and amen.