April 12, 2026 - The Way: This Is Greater Than That

Listen to this week's message as we begin our new sermon series on the book of Acts called The Way. 

For further information about Fort St John Alliance Church, check out our website fsjalliance.ca

Our desire is to become a community of people who practice the Way of Jesus together, and through the empowering of the Holy Spirit, live on mission to meet the social and spiritual needs of the world around us. Each week, we gather as a community to worship, learn from God’s Word, and be encouraged in our walk with Christ.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Fourth St. John Alliance Sermon Podcast. I'm Nate Perry, the youth pastor here at the church. We're so glad you've joined us today. Our desire as a church is to become a community of people who practice the way of Jesus together and, through the empowering of the Holy Spirit, live on mission to meet the social and spiritual needs of the world around us. Each week we gather as a community to worship and learn from God's Word and to be encouraged in our walk with Christ. In this podcast, you'll hear the latest message from our Sunday service. Whether you're listening from right here in Fort St. John or from afar, our prayer is that God will speak to your heart and strengthen your faith. Let's lean in together as we hear today's sermon.

SPEAKER_02 0:45

Good morning. Sure. Morning, my name is Alex Cohen. I'm gonna be reading the scripture this morning. Please join me in the honor of God's word if you are able. This is Acts 1, 1 to 11 in the ESV. In the first book of Theophilus, 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 whom he had chosen, he presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty 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. So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, It is not for you to know this time or season that the Father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

You may be seated. Thanks, Alex. Thank you, team, for leading us this morning to worship. Good morning, everybody. My name is Dan. Really, really glad you're here. If this is your first Sunday, your second Sunday, thrilled that you're here. I'm also thrilled if you've been here for a long time. So don't don't don't don't think it's just the one. Like I'm actually legit happy to see all of you. So that's it's not just that. So um just uh a quick announcement here before uh we dive into the word here this morning. Um, our uh seamless link uh partnership in the Middle East. Um of you are aware um that um life in the Middle East right now is pretty tough. Uh it's not it's not it's not easy. Um but I can tell you this last week we actually had a Zoom call with our partners over there in the Middle East. So we actually got to see them more through the screen, which was great. Um and they're doing well. Uh they uh they are excited to come back home here this summer, in particular in August when they come here to see us. So they're gonna be here for about a week with us kind of later in August. Uh the plan tentatively is for them to come uh during the camp out, actually. So they're gonna kind of be hanging out with us for the whole weekend at the campout. So so worth your time to come to that. Um but anyway, they're doing well, but they just wanted to say how much they just so appreciate you and how much they love us as a church and how they just feel really loved and supported in this season. Um, but um what they're doing as far as just I mean a ministry work, that's all going well still. Um, it's harder a little bit, uh, but it's going well. So anyway, they just wanted you to know that I wanted to give you guys a quick update as to how they were doing, so you can be praying for them in this season. Uh uh Dietrich Bonhoeffer is known as one of the greatest minds of faith in the last hundred years. Born in Germany, found himself as a young, just I mean, pastor living under the boot of the Nazi Party. And as the story goes, Bonhoeffer was once visited by a wealthy family friend at his underground seminary in a small lake town of uh uh uh Finkenwald. Um, Bonhoeffer was there to train pastors, and as there was this real growing sense within the church in Germany that they were consistently falling away from Jesus to follow what was going on in their country, and it wasn't, it was just really changing the church in just these drastic ways. And so this friend had come to persuade just Bonhoeffer to stop what he was doing, though, because it was so risky. The fact that he was so separate from the rest of the country, he was out in this small town, and the encouragement for him was to come back to where he lives, to come get married, come just, I mean, to settle down. You don't have to be doing all these things, they said to Dietrich. But rather than rather than argue, though, Bonhoeffer took him out in a rowboat. They crossed the lake that was right there, they climbed this small hill where they could see this nearby training camp, forming young boys to be Hitler youth. So he stands on top of this hill, the two of them. And then for Bonhoeffer, he looks back towards the seminary, he points to it and he says, This, and then towards the camp needs to be greater than that. Here's a question for you as we dive in this morning. In this current cultural moment that we find ourselves in, what does it mean for the church to be a faithful witness today? We are living, if you haven't noticed, in a very selfish and divisive time. And I don't know about you, but it feels exhausting some days. It feels tiring. If it's not the news sharing angry words and rhetoric and update on what's going on in the economy, how it just keeps going down and declining, costs of everything keep going up, the constant news of war in the Middle East and other parts in the world. If it's not those things, it is the bombardment of messages on our screens constantly, telling us who to be and how to think. We hear things like you are what you achieve, more will make you happy, your feelings define reality, cut people out of your life who hurt you. How many of us have heard that in the last while? As if there's something morally right about that. Or you are the center of your story. That's a big theme. It's all about you. And if we're honest, if I'm honest, as I watch and as I listen and as I hear, things feel bleak, don't they? Things feel bleak. Since 2020, the world has gotten more cynical than ever before. We are skeptical of those in authority. It's gotten angrier. Gone are the days when you can still be friends and disagree on things anymore. It's impossible to make a mistake without being completely canceled by the world around you. We are more divisive than ever. In fact, in a recent uh study, it showed that one in five people have cut a family member out of their life because of who they vote for. One of five. Meanwhile, the church is struggling to find its voice and its place in a season where leadership is wrought with scandal and moral failure, it's rampant, where the authority of scripture is moved to the side for cultural relevance and where churches are increasingly aligning with political ideologies over the way of Jesus. The harsh reality is that if it feels like what is happening right now in the Western Church is that we are drowning under a tidal wave of pagan society. So where do we go from here, right? With all of that going on, what is the next right step for the Church of Jesus in this cultural moment, in this time, in this season? You know, I often think about this question: in 10 years, what will the church look like? How will it change? What will our voice be? What will our witness look like? Because much like Bonhoeffer, I feel like I'm standing at the top of the hill with the way of the world on one side and the church of Jesus on the other, and I'm thinking to myself, this has to be greater than that. Like it has to be. It has to be greater than that. But can I tell you something though? Can I encourage you this morning? In spite of all that you and I might see, in spite of all that you are feeling, in spite of all of the things that might make us feel bleak, that might make us feel like we don't know where to turn. We need to remember the words of Jesus when he says this in Matthew 16. I will build my church. Amen. I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it. No matter what cultural moment we face, no matter what just how many opposition is in our way, Jesus will build his church. In fact, he does the heavy lifting of building his church. He does the lion's share of the work, he builds it. We have a role to play, but Jesus says, I will do the heavy lifting. I will build my church. This is the one thing that he promises that he will do despite us getting in the way at times. He will build his church. And so let me encourage you this morning, church, because that's who you are, that God is not done. He's not finished with his church. He is not concerned or worried when he looks at the news or sees what's going on in the world. And he is inviting you and I to be the church the way that he's extended it to us. To be salt and light in an otherwise dark world. That is the invitation. So this morning we are starting our series called The Way. It's a journey through the book of Acts. And I am so excited to dive into this series. I am thrilled. You might think that it makes sense to do the book of Acts right after Easter because it kind of flows in line with the gospel of Jesus, and I get that, it makes sense. But at the heart of this series, there is this deep conviction that the book of Acts is as important as a book or letter than ever right now. Throughout all of history of the church, we have gone through seasons of leaning into different parts of Scripture. While all scripture is important and matters, there have been some parts of it that have just seemed to fit the cultural moment that we find ourselves in. During the uh Reformation of the Church, uh Martin Luther believed that it was Romans was the book for his generation of that time. In the 18th century, the Psalms were seen as essential to worship for us as the church. In the 90s, the Song of Solomon and Proverbs were a highlight for the church for that season in a major way. They were staples on Sunday mornings in this cultural push of less purity. We leaned into those. The Psalms re-emerged again throughout the uh late 90s and 2000s to better inform what worship through song looks like. We have leaned in in different seasons to what the word has for us. And I believe with all of my heart that the book of Acts is the book for this cultural moment. That we need to look back to where we have been that we might see where Jesus is leading us going forward. That we wouldn't lean on nostalgia, though, either as we look back as to what we've done, but that we might become people of God who has called us into something new. So we're going to be in this book for roughly 32 weeks. I know that sounds like a long haul because it is. We're going to take breaks here and there. So the way the book is actually broken up is into three sections. So we're going to actually take the first two sections separately. We're going to have a, I think, a break in between the two. Then the third section is broken up into two other sections. So we have some gaps as we go. We're going to have a few moments of pause over summer and advent and these sorts of things, but we're going to lean in together as we study the book of Acts together. We're going to do this deep dive into this group of people who practice the way of Jesus, who fresh from this moment of the empty tomb, Jesus calls them to be something radically different than what they currently see and what they currently experience. People who are spirit-empowered, who live on mission, that would seek to do what Jesus would have them do. And so here is the hope that they had and the hope that we have that we might become together a faithful witness, like strangers in a foreign land, that we would know what it truly means to be in the world and not of the world. That we would hold that, that all throughout this book we're going to learn how to pray together, live together, disagree together, do mission together, do life together, be generous together. We're going to learn all of these things together, and then we are going to put them into practice. It is one thing to learn about them, it is another thing to do them. And so Jesus says, You're going to do what I do. So we're going to learn how to do these things together as the church. So whether you've been here for a long time, whether you've been here for a short time, maybe you're here just because a friend invited you. I'm glad you're here. Regardless of while you're why you are here, I want to invite you in. I want to invite you to lean into the word with me, to lean into all that God has to get a fresh vision of what life in the kingdom looks like as we figure this out together. Are you with me, everybody? Do this together? Okay. If you're with me, turn to the person next to you and say, we are in this together. Go ahead and do that. Awesome. Okay, good stuff. If you have your Bible, and I hope you do, turn to Acts chapter one. We are going to start from the beginning and move our way through. The first century is dominated by Rome. We need to hold on to this because this is a key theme all throughout this book. It undertones so much of what happens. Nearly 60 million people live under the Roman Empire rule. Think about that for a second. And wherever Rome went, they brought their culture with them religious customs, economy, production, government structures, daily rhythms. Everything they did was Roman and they determined to make the world Roman. Rome had a talent for using their culture to change and form and to shift the minds of those around them that they would be Roman too. And the church is born in this strong yet fragile state in the middle of this. That's difficult. It's exceptionally challenging. The majority of power and wealth is actually controlled by 2% of the people at the time. Sort of sounds like today, doesn't it? Most everyone else lives in poverty. There is no middle class in Roman society. It doesn't exist. And while you would still find those who are virtuous people within Roman culture, Roman moral standards are exceptionally low. Exceptionally low. All kinds of wrongdoing and immorality was openly practiced. We saw just, I mean a family structure is totally gone and broken down. We saw things like abortion just rampant within that time of Rome in incredible ways. To be good meant conforming to Roman ideology. War and just, I mean a domination was the norm. And your worth was summed up by what you do and what you have to offer. That is what it means to be Roman. In fact, the Roman writer Seneca captured the moral state of Rome when he said that vice no longer hides itself, it socks forth before all eyes. Does that sound familiar? Does that sound like anything that we experience today, all of these things together? You know, there have been just many, just I mean, scholars in last while that have said that our modern day society and culture looks a lot like ancient Rome. We're not too far off from the same experience as the year of the church. And while all this is going on, along comes this small band of uneducated men and women that have been following a rabbi in the middle of Israel for three years, and they find themselves now on the other side of the resurrection, surrounded by all of Rome, that is telling them who to be and how to think, and they are asking the question, what do we do next? What is the next step for the movement that Jesus has started? What are we going to do? And so this morning we're going to take the first um uh 11 verses and just see for ourselves how this movement, known as the way, that's what it was called in those days, how the way got started and what it means for us today. So let's look at verse one. In my uh uh former book, uh uh uh uh uh Theophilus, I wrote about all that uh Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was uh taken up to heaven. After giving instructions to the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen, after his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. This is the same Luke that wrote the gospel of Luke. This is the same author, the same man who wrote that is writing this. And off the get-go, he wants to be clear why he is writing. In verse 1, he says, I wrote all about what Jesus began to do. I wrote everything that he had started until the day he was taken up to heaven. But Luke does not see this second book as a separate account of the gospel that he first wrote. He doesn't see that at all. If the first book was the work that Jesus had started, then his second letter is Acts, is basically what Jesus continues to do. This is part two. This is the work that Jesus is doing now from a different place and a different way. If the first book was all about what Jesus did on earth and his earthly ministry, the second book is all about Jesus' heavenly ministry. He is describing it as two parts, but the same story. Luke goes on to say that when Jesus was here through the Holy Spirit, he chose apostles to teach them about what God's kingdom looks like, meaning God's rule and reign. He taught them and modeled to them. This is what life in the kingdom looks like. And this is what he means, in other words, is that if God had his way in you and me all the time, this is what it would be, instead of our way. If God had his way, this is what the kingdom would look like. This is how we would treat each other, this is how we would act, this is how we would treat money, this is how we would treat those that we care about, this is how we would see the world, this is God's kingdom that he's establishing. Luke says that the same Jesus suffered, meaning that he died and then he showed himself again, resurrected, right? Through all kinds of convincing proofs. For the first time in all of human history and has never happened again, a group of people are no longer following a dead teacher but a risen savior. This is deeply significant for the move of the church. They are no longer listening just to words of someone who was long gone, but their teacher, their rabbi, their king is alive. And he is still on the move. Jesus is ramping up what's to come because you see, Jesus will still build his church. He is setting the stage for what's to come. But the difference is now that his ministry is still an earthly one, but those same people that he first chose are going to join him in deeper and radical ways in living out the kingdom. Because Jesus is going to take his seat in heaven where he rightfully belongs. And in verse 4, Jesus lets them know this is the next phase of what we plan to do. It says this in verse 4. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. As Jesus is looking to essentially launch phase two, as he's eating with this diverse, immature, uneducated, and eager group of people, he says to them, Before you do anything else, before you head out, before I send you off, before I leave, kind of thing, or rather afterwards, but right now, before you do anything else, there is something that you need first. There is something the church needs first before you do anything. This is one of those, before you jump out of the plane, don't forget your parachute, kind of a moment, right? This is exactly what he's saying. He says, there is this gift that Is coming that you need to wait for. Don't do anything else yet. Just wait for this gift. The one that God has promised, this Holy Spirit that is going to come. You see, Jesus' entire ministry on earth, everything he did, everything he said, was not because he was divine. Church, do you understand that? It's not because he was divine. In fact, in early church history, as at one of the just, I mean at church councils when they met, they determined that to believe that Jesus' ministry, meaning what he said, everything he did, all of his acts and miracles, that all of that came from his divinity, meaning that he did all of that because he was God, they determined that that is heresy. It's not only error, it's heresy. We still believe that today. To believe that God did everything just because he was God, to believe that is heresy. Jesus acted out of his humanity, fully empowered by the Holy Spirit. He emptied himself. It says that in scripture. And he took on the form of man. Jesus lived a Holy Spirit-empowered life. Everything he did came from the Spirit's leading. Everything he did. His life was showing us this is what a life fully surrendered to the Spirit looks like. This is what it is. And in this moment, Jesus says, this same gift that you've heard me speak about, the ways in which you've even seen me be and do and act, everything that you think that I have done kind of thing, right? He says, you are going to get that now. You are going to get that same spirit. And you can't do anything until it comes. You need to just wait. Jesus is laying out this deep theological idea that the church then and the church today needs to get a hold of, and that is that the kingdom of God does not move forward or expand without the Spirit's leading. It never does. The Holy Spirit always goes ahead, it always comes first. That ministry will be ineffective and powerless without the Holy Spirit. That reaching the lost and sharing the good news of Jesus won't work without the Holy Spirit. We need the Spirit in all of these things. This is why Jesus says, apart from me, you can do nothing. Right? He makes that clear to us. Even for us as a church over the last, I'd say probably two years now, we have taken time to look at how this looks in our own lives. We looked at a couple years ago, the uh uh uh we looked at the uh uh fruit of the spirit and most recently the uh uh gifts of the spirit as well, just a little bit ago, because without these things, without the Holy Spirit activating and empowering the church, the church goes nowhere, actually. Without the Holy Spirit working, the church does not work. That's how it works. One of the greatest temptations the Western Church has in this moment is to abandon the empowering of the Holy Spirit for innovation of progress. This is a temptation we face all the time. Here's what I mean: the church should always be looking for new ways to bring good news to people. Am I right with that? Right? We should always be trying to find new ways to bring the good news of Jesus to different people groups all the time. This should happen. Like years and years ago, when they decided that to use the uh uh uh uh uh the uh printing press, right? When that came along, what a moment it was to mass produce the word of God and to get the good news of Jesus into the hands of so many. That was huge. And even today, look at all the possible ways that the church can expand their reach. The internet, everything going on with that, there's so much to do. We have ways to share Jesus like we never could before because of how connected we are digitally to one another. Social media, podcasts, streaming live services, even like we're doing this morning. The church is even asking how do we use AI in ways that are ethical and right, which I think is a great question, by the way. How can that be something that maybe the church can leverage in great ways? And yet, as much as all of these things have their place and they can be used in good and right ways, the temptation is to cut out the Holy Spirit and just do it ourselves. That's the temptation. That as innovation progresses, the power vanishes. That can happen. I once heard someone say that 90% of what's done in many evangelical churches can be done without the Holy Spirit. That we subtly and subconsciously believe that apart from God, we can still do this. We can get it done on our own. But Jesus is really clear right now to his church. He says, You cannot. You cannot do this without the Spirit. You can't go anywhere. There is nothing you can do, and you never will without the Holy Spirit. And this is what makes the church so distinct. We are not resting on innovation to move things forward. We are not resting on the next right thing to come along in our culture to move things forward. We're not resting on better music, we're not resting on what anyone just I mean it says from the front necessarily in a way that's right and clever or anything like that, or even better buildings to push forward the gospel. We are not leaning on any of those things. The church is built and moves forward through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. That's how it moves. And regular people like you and me who don't have what it takes. There's a story from uh Martin Lloyd Jones. He says this about a Welsh, just I mean, a preacher who was asked to preach at a convention in a small town just before the meeting got going. With everyone in the room, the preacher is nowhere to be found. That they can't find this guy anywhere. Someone went to go find him, and they found him back at the house where he was standing at, about 10 minutes away. And from outside the house, they could hear him shouting at somebody, like talking to someone in the house. And so they went back and they shared with the leader of the convention. They said, I think he's busy with someone, like he's just right because he's just, you know, almost in almost like an argument with them. He's actually saying to them out loud, I won't go and preach unless you come with me, he said. And so the leader said, We better wait then. Because we can't go unless the Spirit goes with us. We can't go. So the next right step for these followers of Jesus is to wait. They have to wait. But as they are waiting, they still have questions. You and I would still have questions as we're waiting for what's to come about how this is all gonna play out. Then in verse 6, they ask this. So when they met together, they asked him, meaning Jesus, Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? Remember, even though Jesus has risen now from the dead, and he has made it clear that his kingdom is not of this world, he has established that time and time again. Even those closest to him cannot still get out of their minds that Jesus should take an earthly throne now, that he should get rid of Rome. This is their idea. They cannot escape this need, this longing they have to see Jesus make everything around them right. It's kind of like asking him, so you're still gonna be here, though, right? Like in the midst of all these things, you're gonna be here. You're gonna pave the way for us as the church starts to move and get rid of Rome, aren't you, Jesus? You're gonna do these things for us. There is not a shred of doubt in their minds that Jesus is the Messiah. He completely is to them. They know that. So it makes perfect sense then that he would take his seat on the throne in the messianic way that they think he should. This is their expectation. But listen to what Jesus says in verse 7. He said to them, It is not for you to know the times or dates that the Father has set by his own authority. In other words, he says, That is not as important as you think it is. It is not as important as you think it is. The church has always had a curiosity and a fascination about discerning the end times, haven't we? There are books, novels, movies, theories, understanding God's redemptive plan. All of those things are not wrong, by the way. That is a good thing. There is nothing wrong with wanting to know or wanting to dig a little deeper into the word and say, Jesus, what are you up to? What is happening in the world? There is nothing wrong with that. However, and I say this in all of the pastoral love that I could possibly offer to you this morning. Some of us have focused way too much on when God is going to get us out of here, so much so that we've stopped caring about what we should be doing in the meantime. We've exchanged the great, just I mean, a commission for escapism theology. We genuinely believe that the goal is just to get out of here, just to leave. And believe me, I know that when we watch the news these days, and all depending on where you lean, though too theologically, all kinds of circles and stuff are just having all kinds of chatter around what is happening in the world and is Jesus going to come back? When is he coming back? How is he going to come back? And in no way am I going to get into end times talk today. That's for another time, for another space. But listen to Jesus' answer, though. Listen to what he says in verse 8. He says, But 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. He says this to them. He says, Do not be near as concerned about what's going to happen, about what's going to come later on. He says, I have work for you right now. I have things for you to do. I have a mission for you to pursue. This gift that they were waiting for with the gift of the Holy Spirit, he says, This is all you need. And through the power that comes from the Holy Spirit, Jesus looks on this group and he says, You will be my witnesses. In other words, from this point forward, he says, You will testify about me. You will tell people what you have seen. You will tell people about who I am and what I've done. This is all you need to worry about now. This is your goal, he says. This is what it's all about. That the good news of Jesus, his kingdom has come, and there is a new way to be human now. The word witness here in the Greek is not just a role given to them, it's not just a title. He's actually telling them this is your identity now. It is not just a part of the church that we pick up every now and then when we go off to maybe share Jesus with our friends and say, Well, that's when I was a witness. Jesus says, You are a witness all the time. That is your identity, that is who the church is. It is not a thing that we set aside in the church later on as a program that you sign up for when you go out down the street and share Jesus. He says, This is who you are. It's an identity. The church is not a club, it's not a just social gathering of those who just happen to, I mean, you think the same. It's not a building where a group of people meet once a week, sing songs, they hear a message that makes them feel good and go home. That is not the church. That's not what Jesus says. Jesus said, My church is filled with ordinary folks who do nothing in their own power but are spirit-empowered witnesses wherever they go. That's who my church is. Who are being sent out to bring the kingdom of God to bear, people who invite others to come and see what Jesus has done for me. This is our identity. This is who Jesus is calling us to be. And he goes on to even say, where you and I will be witnesses. He goes even further. He says, it is going to start right where you live. It's going to start right there, right here in this city of Jerusalem. You see, mission starts with our neighbors. Mission always starts with our neighbors, with those we work with, with our family that doesn't yet know Jesus, with our friends that are far from God. He says, you are going to start by being a witness to the people who know you best. Does that sound scary? I would be the first to say being a witness where you live feels so much harder than actually going to another country and doing it. It feels more intimidating than going somewhere else. You know why? Because you have to see your neighbor tomorrow. You have to see your coworker after you witness to them. You have to see your family. That year after year they may be telling you, I don't want to hear that stuff anymore. You've got to see them at the next family meal. It feels riskier, but it needs to start here. You know, during my time in youth ministry, we had this policy, so to speak, of mission when it came to what we wanted to see out of our students. Part of the idea was that we wanted to have local, regional, and international missional opportunities for student ministry. We thought like it needs to begin here and it starts moving out further and further. At a local level, we partnered with what was going on in our uh local uh uh uh local uh uh uh food bank in town. And then regionally we partnered with the uh mustard seed, which was in Edmonton. There was another one in Calgary that we partnered with as well, and then we had an international partnership in uh Mexico as well. And underneath all of that was equipping students to run an alpha program at their school. This was the doorway into mission. We had said, if you want to be missional, a great place is in your school. Learn how to love those that Jesus has put you around and to share who he is with them. And so we would try to equip students in doing this, and we would say, hey, we were gonna help you run alpha. We would give them everything they need, supply all the food, just show up and see if you're see if your friends show up for alpha. But as a student, the trip that you really wanted to do was Mexico, right? Every student was always like, Man, I can't wait to make it to Mexico. However, we wanted, remember, kids to be missional from the start, and that happens where you live. I still remember this one guy who had been part of the youth group for years, hadn't really participated in any missional opportunities yet. But when applications for the Mexico trip came up, he was the first one to fill his out. It was already filled out, top of the pile, already there. And when I met him about it, right, because I wanted to just have a conversation about it, I asked him, I said, you know, I noticed that you haven't helped with an alpha program at all. Because we've ran a couple in your school, and I know your friends have been a part of it, and it's gone really well. I'm just wondering, like, why haven't you signed up for the alpha stuff? He says, Yeah, he says, you know what? Honestly, I don't know if I can do mission here. Actually, it's just too hard. He says, like, man, you know, I don't think I like it. I don't think I can be a part of it. And I remember saying to him, this must have just been, I mean, you know, totally Jesus coming to me in the moment. But but I just said to him, man, you know, like I actually have to be honest with you. If you don't like mission here, you won't like mission there. That actually stands true for us today. We need to learn to love mission here. We need to learn to love our neighbors. We need to learn to be witnesses where we are. You see, Jesus knows right that being a witness where you live is hard. And it's even harder in your own power to do it. It's even harder, if not impossible. But this is why he said the spirit will give you what you need. He's talking about it in the context of mission. This is what he's establishing, starting right here. Then Jesus goes on to say, You will be my witnesses in Judea, meaning the region around you. You will spread out from there. And then to Samaria. This is significant, meaning to the people that you feel like are least deserving of the good news of Jesus. You will go to them too. You will witness to them. Because remember, Jews didn't mingle with every other group back then. But the gospel is going to cross cultural and racial lines that it never has before. It's going to start to spread to the ends of the earth post-resurrection. This is our identity now. This is who the church is. And so in verse 9, this is how it says after he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and the cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going. When suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them, men of Galilee, they said, Why do you stand here looking into the sky? The same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come back the same way that you have seen him go into heaven. Right? Just imagine this scene. Jesus says, I've got work for you, and then he's taken up in a cloud, and then he leaves. He's ascended now to the Father. He has taken his rightful place on the throne of heaven where he belongs and where he continues to build his kingdom. This is part two. Jesus is now just leading from a different space, but he is still in charge. He is still the king. And the whole crowd of them is just staring. But you know, I don't blame them. Like I think I'd be doing the same. You know, like you just going. You know, you just be staring, right? When finally two men in white show up, and in a nutshell they say, What are you still doing here? What are you still doing here? What are you waiting for? He already told you what you're gonna do. Right? You're gonna wait. And you're gonna be witnesses. They said, the same way that you saw him leave, he's gonna come back. The early church realizes in this moment that part two of Jesus' ministry is started. Right? That this is the second act now going on. And instead of just waiting for Jesus to come back, instead of just staring, just hoping that time's gonna be soon, we have work to do.

unknown 40:21

Right?

SPEAKER_00 40:21

You know, like I said before, there is nothing wrong with this longing or this, I mean a curiosity to see Jesus return. Nothing wrong with that. However, Jesus' last command should be our first concern. Jesus' last command should be our first concern. Not waiting for him to come back, not just staring at the sky, hoping one day it's gonna be now. His last command should be your first concern, should be my first concern. We need that. He says, You are now my witnesses, this is who you are. Go and be to the ends of the earth. And now here they are, the early church standing on a hillside looking down at the world around them with the same challenge that this has to be greater than that. It has to be. I'm gonna invite the band up at this time as we close this morning. You know, in many ways, we find ourselves standing on a similar hill. Throughout history, Jesus has been inviting people like you and me to be his witnesses right where they find themselves. To be salt and light. And as you look at the world we live in today, it might feel overwhelming. It might feel like, where do we even begin again? Where do we start from here? Where do we go? How do we live out what it means to be a faithful witness in this cultural moment? What does a witness even look like in this culture? How do you stand for Jesus when it looks so difficult? When there's so much failure, when there's so much heartache, when there's so many things pulling you away, trying to form you to be like someone or something completely different than what Jesus is inviting you to do. In this moment where the church is struggling to find its voice and its place, struggling to know where we are, what does it look like to be a faithful witness? Can I encourage you this morning? You know how the church grows. It's when ordinary, broken people like you and me become Holy Spirit-empowered people, and they stand on the same hill, and together they say, This has to be greater than that. We do this all together. Not solo acts, not you know, kind of off running our own thing, but we are called to run the race together, arm in arm, hand in hand. That is how the church grows. That is, we are Holy Spirit-empowered people, we see Jesus start to move and start to take shape and start to take form. Fourth ancient on alliance church, let me encourage you this morning. This right here needs to be greater than all of that out there. It has to be. It absolutely has to be. Let me encourage you this morning. The church has always thrived in the margins when we find ourselves on the outside looking in. Historically, all throughout history, the church has done its best when we feel like we are the most hurting. We have seen the church grow in incredible ways when all the culture around us does not want us to be the church. That is when the church thrives. We are sitting in a cultural moment where I believe there's a window open for the church like never before. That we might step into this moment, actually. That we might say that this needs to be greater than that, and that we would take that and run with it. And so, what would it look like if instead of trying to reclaim our voice out in the public square to fight for what is in the world, to guard our Our rights. We hear that all the time. What if instead we chose to live as strangers in a foreign land? Knowing that this is not our home, that we might testify to the goodness of Jesus, that we might be a people who practice the way of Jesus together, who live holy spirit-empowered lives, and find ourselves on a mission to seek and save the lost. This can be greater than that. Just to encourage you. And that is each day over the next week, two weeks, as long as you feel like the Lord is inviting you to do it, just to say this simple prayer. Jesus, build your church among us and start with me. Jesus, build your church among us and start with me. Because if we're honest, so often when we look at what Jesus should do, it doesn't start with us. It usually starts with others. But what if Jesus wants to start something in you? What if he wants to build faith in you? What if he wants to encourage you to raise your expectations for the church he wants to build? That you might find yourself standing on a similar hill and saying, This has to be greater than that. That we would become the kind of people that might testify to the goodness of Jesus and that it might start with you. I'm going to pray for us, and then the band's going to lead us in one last song. So let's just pray together here this morning. Yeah, so Lord Jesus, thank you for your word. And Jesus, thank you for the church. Jesus, sometimes I know when we look at the book of Acts, we can almost have on this idea that they had it perfectly figured out. And Jesus, as we just I mean, walk through this book, we will learn they did not. They had so many issues in the same way that every church does. They were not perfect. But Jesus, thank you that you invite in those who are imperfect, that we might live out the perfected work of the cross, that we might testify that our Savior is alive, that we might be transformed from the inside out, that you are in fact building a new way to be human, a new way to live. One that does not just simply wait for you to come back and long for you in such a way that keeps our eyes off of the mission you have given us. Jesus, I pray for each one in this room that even right now might be in a place in which they have said, either through action or through word, that your last command has not been their first consent. Jesus, I confess in my own heart I have had that. I have gotten caught up in other things. But Jesus, I long for you to build your church. And Jesus, might you start with me? Or would you start with each one in this room? Jesus, for those this morning who are on the fence about you today, who are just not sure about you yet, Jesus, I pray that they would catch a glimpse of the life that is free, that is meaningful, that is full of hope and just, I mean a purpose that you are inviting them into. That you would start to raise hope in their own heart, that what they see in the world and what everything in the world has to offer is nothing compared to the invitation that you invite us into. Lord, for those who have been a part of the church for a long time. Lord who feel like it just almost becomes a ritual. It just becomes something we do every week. We just go, we sing, we come home, and that is what the church is to them. Lord is, I pray that you would build in their hearts this longing to see your last command be their first concern. That it would change the way they see their neighbors, it would change the way they see they work with, it would it would change the way they see those that they know, that they love who are yet to know you. So, Lord Jesus, thank you for your church. Jesus, thank you as well for the gift those of the Holy Spirit. And so we just invite you, Holy Spirit, come that you might fall fresh on this expression of your church, that we might be a people that would say with all of our hearts that this has to be greater than that. So Lord Jesus, come have your way in us over the next while as we dive into your word together, and we ask these things in your name.

SPEAKER_03 49:30

I can ever set his fight through every trial my soul will say no turning back. I can set free sticks enough for me. No turning back the cross before me the world be on me, no turning back. No turning back. No turning back enough for me. Christ is enough for me. Everything I need is in you, everything I need Christ is enough for me. Everything I need is in you, everything I need.

SPEAKER_00 53:31

Amen. He is more than enough. Uh in just a moment here, I'm gonna send you off. But if you're here this morning and you want to come forward for prayer, please come up. I would love to pray with you. Like, really love it. Um, so anyway, this will be available to you up front. There'll be a few of us up here. Please come forward. If you have anything laid on your heart this morning, please come forward for prayer. I'm gonna pray for you and I'm gonna send us off. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, thank you that you are more than enough. And Jesus, thank you for your church, and thank you, Lord, that you have invited us in to be a part of something so meaningful, so important, something that will last all the way through eternity. And so, Jesus, may we be the church that you are inviting us to be. And Lord, would you start in our own hearts? Would you form us and shape us to look more and more like yourself? So, Lord Jesus, thank you. Lord, that you are not done yet, that there is still more to come, and thank you for inviting us in. So, Lord Jesus, I love you. And I just ask your hand of blessing on each one here today. Lord Jesus, we love you and we ask all these things in your name. Amen. Have a great week, everybody. See you next Sunday. God bless.