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We are going to kick off today a sermon series on the book of Acts. That's A-C T S, not AX. The title of the book came up actually probably two to three hundred years after it was written. It was written without a title, but it was titled by some people to be The Acts of the Spirit of God or The Acts of the Apostles. What it is, is it's an incredible narrative written by Luke, the author of the Gospel of Luke. In fact, probably the better title for it in some respects would have been Luke part two. So Luke part one talked about the birth of Jesus, his growth, his ministry, his teachings, the essence and heartbeat of the gospel. And then the book of Acts picks up effectively, there's a brief overlap and carries forward the expansion of the kingdom of God, the expansion of the church one life at a time. And there's a lot for you and for me to learn from that, to be informed, to be inspired. It's modeled for us in a really beautiful way. It's incredibly applicable. It's incredibly exciting to see it working out, and it's still happening today. 2,000 years later, the kingdom of God is growing one life at a time. And churches are continuing to be gathered and started all around the world as people continue to live this out with faith and obedience. It is exciting about what God's doing, still in the world today. The book of Acts is written in a way that we have an opportunity today to look back 2,000 years into history in order to live today in a way that's honoring to God, a blessing to you, and a blessing to the people in your life. And it also helps us move forward with our eyes on Christ, looking forward to the future of his return. I'm going to show you a quick graphic. I love Cliff Notes, and I'm very visual, so this is a graphic on the book of Acts. You'll have it in about 10 seconds, and you'll have the book of Acts memorized. Not that one. There we go. Jesus, as we learned in the book of Luke, in the Gospels, was born. God stepped out of heaven, took on flesh, literally in order to die. And I say it a lot so that we can be reminded of it. We literally have Christmas to get to Good Friday. God, a spirit, could not die, and the only thing in all of creation that existed, and the only thing that existed anywhere that was perfect was God Himself. And it required a perfect sacrifice because of your sin and my sin. And God chose to pay the penalty for that, to do something for me and for you that we couldn't do. That's you and me, by the way, believers, the church, living it out individually and collectively, sharing the good news of who he is, helping people come to a life in him, to grow into the people he's created us to be, and to share that news with other people. Not to hold on to it for ourselves, but to share that news with other people, because it is the only thing that matters forever. And it matters profoundly now, but it affects the eternal destiny for the people that have an opportunity to hear it. That's the book of Acts. First half of the book of Acts, roughly actually chapters 1 through 12, I think it is, focused predominantly on the Apostle Peter. Stephen has a little cameo appearance, as does Philip, but for the most part, it's Peter witnessing to the Jews around Jerusalem and Judea, all the way up to Antioch. It's focused on the ministry of Peter predominantly. And then in chapter 13, it picks up with the Apostle Paul, who had been had that Damascus Road conversion experience in his ministry from Antioch all the way through that part of the Mediterranean up into Rome. Covers his three missionary journeys and it covers his last journey that was really driven by his imprisonment from prison to prison to Rome and how he witnessed all the way through it. You and I, think about this. I love this. We are sitting here, I'm standing, today because of their faithfulness in sharing this gospel. We are standing on their shoulders in their faithful obedience to Christ. And whether Jesus comes back first or if he delays any longer, you and I have the opportunity of making sure other people get to hear that gospel so that they can come to that saving faith in Christ. To spend eternity with God in heaven and not separated from him forever. We are standing here because of their faithfulness, their courageous faithfulness. All those apostles that were following Jesus at that time, with the exception of the Apostle John, they gave their lives, and some of them horrifically. I'm not sure there's a good way to give your life, but they gave their lives horrifically because it was true and because it mattered. They lived with a sacrificial love so that other people could hear. That's what the book of Acts is really all about. What you're going to see along the way through Luke's writing of the Gospel of Luke into the Gospel of Acts is this encouragement, this development, this opportunity that you and I have to grow. Okay, so we come to learn about it, we come to process it, we come to respond to it, and now we get to grow into the people that God has called us to be. We do this in our culture in a bunch of different ways. And one of the places that really used to do a great job of this was the Boy Scouts. They had a little acronym called EDG, E D G E. And that's the acronym that we're going to take a look at. What they did to develop leaders, to develop people that would invest in other people and lead them forward, not just positional leaders, but people investing in people's lives, they would explain. They would teach what needs to be done, what the content would be. They would then go on to demonstrate what needed to be done. So whether it was how to erect a tent, how to build a fire, how to hike, whatever it might be, explain what's involved. They would demonstrate what was involved, they would guide the people. So this is what you need to do. Watch me. Now I'm going to come alongside you and I'm going to guide you in doing it, and then I'm going to empower you to go do it on your own. It was a reproductive methodology. It's biblical in its roots. And we practice it in our lives in all sorts of ways today. How many of you drove here today? Okay. Remember learning to drive, what that was like? I know for some of you that was a long time ago. The world was in black and white back then. What did we do? We went through teaching. We learned, right? We had to pass a test to get a permit. We went out, typically, at least most of us went and got a permit from the county DMV, and we went and we studied the manual about rules and signs and regulations, and we took a test. And eventually we would pass that test and we'd get a permit. We would strap in alongside somebody that was already licensed and cared enough about us and probably had their life insurance paid up. And they would strap in alongside us and they would teach us to go drive. Well, they didn't put us out on the three-way overnight, did they? No, we would typically drive in a safer neighborhood at less busy times, and we would progress in our driving. They would guide us and they would help us develop. And they'd say, watch out for that truck, or watch out for that sign, slow down a little more, just typically gentle encouragement until we gained confidence and we progressed up. Until we would hit that day where we got the keys and we could go solo. We got our license, we got in the car, and we'd grow, and off we would go. Biblically, that whole sequence of teaching and guiding and empowering is played out in the book of Acts as you move through it. And we're going to see that even as we move through these first five verses today. So I want to pick up in the book of Acts, chapter one, verse one. I just want to gently walk through this today. And I'd like you to see how incredibly applicable this is for your life and for my life today. So verse 1 says, In the first book, O Theophilus, well, the first book was the Gospel of Luke. Remember everything he taught us from that. Here's the teaching. In the first book, the first letter that I wrote to you, all that content, O Theophilus, he's writing to a person who's going to share it with other people. It's typically not one of the top ten names in our culture today, Theophilus. It means lover of God. Is that pretty cool? A lover of God is who he's writing to. He said, I've dealt with all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day that he was taken up after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he has chosen. So he's focusing back, he's grinding them on the teaching. Like, don't forget what I wrote to you in the Gospel of Luke, because of everything that was included there, now we're going to watch this moving forward. And now come the instructions. In verse 2, everything he began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up after he had given commands. He commanded them to do things through the Holy Spirit to the apostles that he had given. He only had a couple primary commands in his last words. So he had conducted three years of ministry, gathers his followers in what we call the upper room discourse. And you'll read that in John chapters 13 through 17. And really what he commanded them to do was to love one another, as he had loved them, so they were to love one another. The people would know that they were his followers. So love one another with agape love, giving, sacrificial, unconditional love, costly love, love one another. But he also told them something was pretty profound in the Gospel of Matthew, it's captured. It's in Matthew 28, 18 to 20. I want to read it to you and I want to explain this to you. So if we pick up Matthew 18, 18 to 20, Jesus said to them, All authority, all authority in heaven and on earth, that's a God thing, by the way, has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. There's one command in there. It doesn't come from the original language into English really well. And translators do this, they've been doing it for centuries, and nobody really understands why, except nobody wants to change it. The one command is to make disciples. The other things in there are participles. The word go should be going. As you're going through life, make disciples. Help people come to a saving faith, grow in their faith, and reproduce that in the lives of other people as you're going through life. And by the way, that's for you and for me as well. As we're going through life, we're to make disciples of other people. And yes, we're supposed to go to China. We're supposed to go to Panama. We're supposed to go to the different places that we go, but we're also supposed to do this as we're going through life on a daily basis. So as you're going, then we're baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. To be baptized means to be immersed. That's what the word literally means. You're immersed, immersed by the Spirit of God. And you'll pick that up as we move through this before we get out of here today, in verse 5. Baptizing them and teaching them to observe all I have commanded you. And remember what he's commanded them to do? Love one another, even love their enemies. He also gave them another interesting command, and I love this. This is now the risen Lord gathering with his people just before he's going to ascend into heaven, and he gives them the command to wait. You look at that and go, huh? Wait here for the promise that my father has given you that you've heard from me. Jesus' one of his last commands to his followers is to wait. We don't do that well, do we? My goodness, we're not just Americans, we're New Yorkers. We don't wait for anything. Wait. We anticipate, we go, we live life fully engaged, on the on the you know, gas pedal to the metal. We're engaged all the time. We don't wait typically. The first time I heard this, first time I heard the phrase to wait on the Lord, um, I shared this this morning at 8:30, and I hadn't been planning on it, but it was really appropriate. We used to go to a Bible conference called Harvey Cedar's Bible Conference, and there's still some people from Cross Point, uh, the meme family goes down in mass. I think they rented out a whole building for all of them. But we would go there every year, which is where we met Joe and Judy and Adam and the family, and it was just an awesome week of teaching. In the morning, teaching at night, and beach in between. It was a really special place in our lives. But I remember it was just a couple years after I had met Joe and Judy, and Joe and I were sitting on top of a fire escape, actually, um, just talking midday. I knew that God was doing something in my life. I had come to a saving faith after having missed what it was all about all those years of my life in the last couple years. I really felt I was being called into ministry or missions. I didn't know if I was going to China or to Ecuador or what we were doing, but I knew something was happening. And Joe looked at me and said, Are you waiting on the Lord? And I looked at him like he had three heads. I mean waiting on the Lord. And he had the patience and the grace and the love to slow down and to teach me what it meant to wait on the Lord. Am I seeking God's will? Am I listening to God in my life, through his word, through his spirit, even through people? But am I listening to try to discern the will of God for my life, or am I just trying to get on with it? And I was just trying to get on with it. And I thank God to this day that He's He helped me put the brakes on and to slow down and to wait on the Lord, and God has worked through that in a pretty wonderful way. But he called his original disciples to wait on the Lord, and he did it for a very special reason. My goodness, they just followed him for three years. This is the Messiah. This is God Himself, and whoa, baby, he's up from the dead. Let's get at it. But he's telling him that now he's going away. The Spirit of God's going to come down, and you're going to go out. Well, they would have been going out in their own strength, wouldn't they? And that's a pretty deadly place to go in a spiritual battle. And what he was telling him to do was to wait for the promise of the Spirit of God. Take a look because he didn't want him to miss it. In the upper room discourse in John chapters 13 to 17, three times, chapter 14, 15, and 16, he bangs that message home. Take a look at what he told him in chapter 14. I'll ask the Father, and he'll give you another helper, this is the Holy Spirit he's talking about, to be with you forever. Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. That's our job to introduce him, by the way. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. And I love that. These are the followers of Jesus Christ. Three years, death, burial, resurrection. Some of his last were actually at this point, he hadn't gone to the cross yet, but it's all coming up. He'll be with you. He's with you. He's with you. But it gets better than that, he will be in you. And that's what happens at Pentecost. Fifty days after his ascension, the Spirit of God comes down and indwelled the believers. And that's what happens to this day. As people turn to God in prayer to be saved, to be rescued from death to spiritual life, we get indwelled by the Spirit of God. He lives in us. And he didn't want to miss it. He tells him again in chapter 15. But when the helper comes, again, that's the Holy Spirit, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. The Spirit of God witnesses to Jesus. Through his word, through his spirit, he helps inform us about it. And he brings it home one more time in chapter 16. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it's to your advantage that I go away. Kind of hard for them to believe at that time, for if I do not go away, the helper, that's the Spirit of God, will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you, and when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Concerning sin because they do not believe in me, concerning righteousness because I go to the Father and he will see me no longer, concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. We preached on that verse not too long ago. It's embedded up on our Facebook page and on YouTube. It's powerful what's in there, but what he's telling him is that he needs to go so that the Spirit will come. And he's commanding them, he's telling them, he's instructing them to wait. So he teaches them, he instructs them, and now what is happening is he's building up confidence. So take a look at what happens as you continue to move forward in verse 3. Said he presented himself alive to them. Well, boy, that bolsters confidence. I could hear that he had risen, but now I'm seeing him in the flesh, in person, presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God. Many proofs. God doesn't want you to wonder. He's given us everything we need through it for life and godliness, his word tells us. Many proofs. What would be proof enough for you? Take a look at what he did. He appeared to multiple people. He appeared to Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb. He appeared to the women that were returning from the tomb. He appeared to Peter in Jerusalem, to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. This is not just one event. This is multiple people in multiple settings. To the ten disciples in the upper room, then eleven of them, then seven of them when they were fishing, eleven of them on the mountain, to James one-on-one, and then to over 500 people at one time. Lots of witnesses, lots of context spread over lots of times. This was not one and done. If Jesus had risen from the dead and he walked in and he talked to us, it'd be a pretty big wow moment. And if that was the last I saw him, about a week later, I'd be going, was that real? Or was it really Jesus? Or somebody that looked like him. Six months later, I'd really be starting to wonder. I'd be questioning at some level. There was no room for questioning because of all the people that got to see him and experience him. He left no doubt and he did it over an extended period of time. Many proofs with multiple appearances. He did it over 40 days. That 40 days is significant. And um I meant to Google this or Chat GPT it, uh, but 40 is a significant number in the Bible. It typically symbolizes or represents a period of time determined by God to accomplish a special purpose, which is typically meant to be it's typically a trial or a testing in preparation for deliverance or transformation. Fits this pretty well, doesn't it? They're about to go through an incredible transformation. Jesus is going up, the Spirit of God is coming down, and the church is going to go out. And he is preparing them over these 40 days that he's with them. 40 days ring a bell for you, or 40 in the Bible. 40 days of rain when God cleansed the earth of all the people except Noah and his family. 40 days to transition to a new beginning. 40 years in the desert with the nation of Israel. As one generation died off, and the new people stepped into the promised land. Elijah spent 40 days, and it was not an easy journey going to Mount Horob, where God did a powerful work in Elijah, one of the great prophets. 40 days that Jonah gave the Ninevehes to repent. He preached to them. 40 days. This wretched, nasty people in Nineveh, the Ninevehes. 40 days. Repent or perish. Repent or perish. And what did those Ninevites do after 40 days? They repented. Didn't make Noah, or didn't make Jonah happy. He had a bad attitude because those are lousy, messed up people and they didn't deserve God's grace. Jonah had a bad attitude, but the Nineveh's got it by the grace of God. 40 days of preparation for that. The judges, as you move through the entire book of Judges, you'll see those cycles, 40-year cycles, where the nation has turned to God. They're experiencing peace and blessing from God. They've been delivered from their oppressors. But then the people would drift from God, follow their own ways. They would turn from God, and God would bring an oppressor to bear on them. Somebody to bear on them and put pressure on them until they would cry out to God, Save us, God, and he would send another judge, another deliverer to them. Forty year cycles all through the period of judges. Periods of transition and deliverance for God's people. It was significant that Jesus spent these 40 days with them. He also had Physical interaction with the people because he'd wanted him to know. Like, hey, Tommy, stick your finger in here. It's me. This is real flesh. Leaving no doubt whatsoever. And by the way, Thomas questioned. He questioned, was it really Jesus? Because he hadn't seen him and he wanted to know. Asking questions is not a bad thing, it's a good thing. It's not a lack of faith. It's a desire to be informed. It's somebody that's seeking evidence, seeking confirmation. What he did, we we mock him in a way, but what he did is something that you and I should do, not as sport and not on an ongoing basis. Ask the questions that you need. Seek the proof and seek the assurance that you need, because if you examine the evidence, a reasonable person will get to a well-grounded faith. This is a reasoned faith that we have. This is not a leap of faith, it's a reasoned faith that we have as we examine the evidence. He ate food in their presence, he spoke to them, he taught them, and he also fulfilled prophecy. And remember, biblical prophecy is not a prediction of the future, it's a statement from God about what will be. Take a look at what it said in Luke chapter 24, verse 44. This is toward the end of the book of Luke. Remember, this is like this book, part one. Then Jesus said to them, These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets in the Psalms may be fulfilled. That's the Old Testament. Jesus is telling them, everything that was written about him is going to be fulfilled. And then he opened their mind to understand the scriptures. Boy, what I would give to have been there for that. And he said to them, Thus it's written that the Christ should suffer on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. This wasn't a surprise to Jesus. It shouldn't have been a surprise to the apostles. He's reminding them of what he had promised and how this is the fulfillment of prophecy. And we've shared some of the statistics in the past, but of the 350 primary prophecies that deal with Jesus and what was going to happen, two-thirds of them have been fulfilled already. The remaining third are fulfilled at the second coming of Christ. God has a hundred percent batting average. Everything that He has predicted, not predicted, stated that will be has been. And everything that He has stated that will still be is going to be, and He's telling you to bet your life on it. He is completely trustworthy, and it is a God thing. The seven or eight major prophecies that deal with the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the eight big ones that people talk about, mathematicians from England, atheists, did the work on this. And they looked at that statistically and they determined that the odds that these prophecies would be fulfilled in the life of one individual was effectively one to the 158th power, I think it was. I might be off a couple points there. 150. That's a lot of zeros on the end of a one. It is an absolute work of God. And it's all pointing to the person and work of Jesus Christ. And he wants you to know for certain because he wants you to be confident in your faith, confident enough to receive the life that he offers, confident enough to live that life, and confident enough to share that life with other people. It's beautiful what he's done. Adam mentioned before, I wasn't sure if I'd remember it or not. I'm at high risk of that. But I really want to encourage you to sign up to join us at that apologetics conference. It's not an apology about your faith. What apologetics means, it's a defense of your faith. What's the reason that you believe and how can you share that and articulate that with other people? Biblical proof, scientific proof, all sorts of different buckets of things. We're going to be taking a group of people up here from Cross Point up to he changed the name of the church, not Change Point, but something close to that Cross Point church up in outside of Albany. It's a Friday night. Starts at 4 o'clock. It'll go to 9.30. You can show up at 7 o'clock anytime you roll in. And the next morning it'll kick off again at 8.30. There's a whole team of people coming up from the New Orleans Baptist Seminary to teach us. Whole team of people, all sorts of different slices about why you should be confident and equip us to share our faith with other people. You will grow in your faith, you will become more grounded, more secure, more confident, more informed, and you'll be better equipped to share that with other people. So I want to encourage you, if you're able to go, to take advantage of that. So he's taught them, he's instructed them, he's helped build their confidence with these many proofs. And now, sort of like driving a car and getting the keys to the car, now he empowers them. Take a look at verse 5. For John baptized with water. That was a baptism of repentance to prepare Israel for the coming of the Messiah. Turn back to God, turn from your evil ways. But you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. That's huge. God baptizes you with his spirit. We baptize you with water symbolically to symbolize the fact that you've been come to a new saving faith in Christ because he calls us to do that. This is the baptism that saves you. This is the indwelling of the Spirit of God, immersed in the Spirit of God. He gave his life to make that possible, and all that's left for you to do is to trust him, to turn to him, and to receive that gift of forgiveness in life. It is beautiful the way that God has chosen to love you. And he doesn't, I shouldn't say doesn't just. You come to life in Christ as a child of God, and now you are perfectly secure forever, not because of your ongoing conduct, not because of your church or the things you do or anything else. You are perfectly secure as a child of God forever because of the character of God. And that's a really good thing, or we'd have no hope. You become a child of God, from a follower to a child of God forever. And in addition to that life that he offers, he gives you the power of God to do the will of God. That's empowerment. That's spirit-based power to do the will of God. We are lacking nothing as we head out into life except our will and our obedience to submit to him and to trust him. In verse 8 of this same chapter, chapter 1, verse 8, and we'll be talking about that in a couple weeks, where it gives us a framework for missions that we do, says you'll receive power when the Spirit of God comes upon you. You have the power of God to do the will of God as a child of God. That's good stuff. That is a gift of God and something that should encourage and inspire each one of us. So this morning, all I wanted to do was do a brief introduction of this book of Acts, to sort of open your eyes to what's to come. The fact that Jesus went up, the Spirit comes down in the church. That's you and that's me. We get to go out. We get to live it out, we get to share it with other people. My encouragement to you for your application today is to live. To live on mission, to live with intentionality on mission, to help people know Him and live with Him and for Him, to be a blessing to the people in your life. If you'll open your eyes to them as you move through your days and your weeks. You will be blessed, they will be blessed, and God will be glorified and honored. And for a thought trigger for you to help you bring this back to mind, teaching, the instructions, there you go. I had a blue car that I sent to Dean, but he was going to turn it into the Mini Cooper that he drives that's parked out back here. When you get in your car, when you put it into gear, remember that you're going and living on mission and be blessed as you do. So if you would join me in prayer, and we're going to ask God to speak this into each one of our lives. Father, I'm I'm grateful, Lord Jesus and Holy Spirit, um, for each all of you, our one true living God. And I um thank you for not leaving me and each one of us where we are, but for continuing to reach out to us, God, to draw us into this life that you offer. And Lord, for those that have received that forgiveness in life, I pray that you'd give us the um the love and the courage that we need to live it out increasingly. Not as duty, God, but as a uh just an incredible blessing and opportunity. And Lord, for those that are exploring their faith, God, I pray that you would make yourself increasingly clear that they could make a choice, Lord, um, to receive that forgiveness in life that you offer. I pray that you'd protect them along the way, Lord, knowing that um Satan does bring his forces to bear. So Lord, help us to live it out in your strength and for your glory. And with each step that we take, I pray that it would be just an act of worship to you. And finally, Lord, as we turn back to you, God, in song, I pray that we would be very conscious of who it is that we're worshiping and the very words that we're lifting up. And I thank you for the privilege, God, of doing that. In Jesus' name, amen.