SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Sermons from the Way Church KC, a community of licensing saints in Kansas City following the way of Jesus and pushing back darkness together.
SPEAKER_01: Good morning, Way Fan.
SPEAKER_01: If we haven't had the pleasure to meet, my name is Zach Fulcher.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I'd love to meet with you after the service and give you a hug.
SPEAKER_01: I love hugs.
SPEAKER_01: Uh so if we would, please stand for the reading of the scripture.
SPEAKER_01: I'll be reading out of Acts.
SPEAKER_01: Acts 1, 6 through 11, the ascension.
SPEAKER_01: So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?
SPEAKER_01: He said to them, It is not for you to know times or seasons 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 witness in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: 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?
SPEAKER_01: This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.
SPEAKER_01: This is the reading of God's Word.
SPEAKER_02: Amen, amen.
SPEAKER_02: Well, go ahead and grab a seat.
SPEAKER_02: Uh we are glad you're here.
SPEAKER_02: Is it working, Glenn?
SPEAKER_02: Heck yeah, we'll talk about it later.
SPEAKER_02: Um, well, anyway, my name is Zach.
SPEAKER_02: Um, I'm the lead pastor here at the Way Church KC, and we exist to follow the way of Jesus and push back darkness together.
SPEAKER_02: So that's uh the mission of our church.
SPEAKER_02: We are a new church.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, for those of you that are new, we just launched the last year, Easter Sunday of 2024, and it's been a fun journey.
SPEAKER_02: It's uh such a joy to plant a church with your best friends, with family, that uh there's nothing sweeter than it.
SPEAKER_02: And um, I'm just grateful for each of you and just grateful for the opportunity that we have to do this thing.
SPEAKER_02: Um if you're new here, if you're a guest here, we're glad you're here.
SPEAKER_02: You are welcome here.
SPEAKER_02: This is a a church where you can be a part of a family.
SPEAKER_02: Um, that's what we're all about.
SPEAKER_02: We're doing this life together.
SPEAKER_02: We're celebrating on the mountaintop moments, like five years of sobriety.
SPEAKER_02: And we also cry together in the valley, you know.
SPEAKER_02: We and when when the going gets tough, we lean on each other.
SPEAKER_02: I know Chelsea and I have have leaned on so many of you as we've gone through um tough days and then celebrated you with you, rejoiced with you, as we had our little daughter Louie, who is sleeping in the back.
SPEAKER_02: Look at her.
SPEAKER_02: Everybody look back at her.
SPEAKER_02: Isn't she precious?
SPEAKER_02: And that's my father-in-law and mother-in-law back there.
SPEAKER_02: So they're in from Oklahoma.
SPEAKER_02: Um but yeah, we're glad you're here.
SPEAKER_02: Let's dig in.
SPEAKER_02: Um last week we began our sermon series through the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_02: Um, what we're doing here is we're taking a deep dive into this book.
SPEAKER_02: And we're really trying to look at it as the church planting playbook.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: Acts is the story of the inception of the church, the beginning of the church after Jesus' death, resurrection, and ascension.
SPEAKER_02: And we're looking at it as the prototypical church planting playbook.
SPEAKER_02: Last week we began and looked at Acts chapter 1, verses 1 through 5, and we saw how the apostles were to wait on the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: They were to wait on the promise of the Father, which is the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: And in the same way, what we saw, in the same way, we must wait on the Lord as we plant this church.
SPEAKER_02: We do not move, family.
SPEAKER_02: We do not move unless it is in the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: So that's what we talked about last week.
SPEAKER_02: This week, we're gonna look at Acts chapter 1, verses 6 through 11.
SPEAKER_02: Like I said, we're gonna take a slow crawl through this book.
SPEAKER_02: So if you've got a Bible, you can open it to Acts chapter 1, verses 6 through 11.
SPEAKER_02: And if you don't have a Bible, we'd love to give one to you right outside of the sanctuary doors in the nook.
SPEAKER_02: We have Bibles that you can have, you can mark up, Romans standing right by them, you can highlight them, tat them up, do all the things.
SPEAKER_02: Um, those are our gift to you.
SPEAKER_02: Um But in addition, I have something new for you today.
SPEAKER_02: Um, a new way for you to follow along with our sermons.
SPEAKER_02: Um not sure if this is gonna be a value add or not yet, but if it is, cool, we'll keep doing it.
SPEAKER_02: Um but if you have your smartphone, you can go to the waykc.church slash sermon notes.
SPEAKER_02: The way kc.church slash sermon notes.
SPEAKER_02: And you can take notes as you follow along with the sermon.
SPEAKER_02: It has the scripture, it has each point, and it has a space for you to take notes in.
SPEAKER_02: Um that's just kind of a way that we want to kind of dig in together.
SPEAKER_02: Um and if it's a value add, sweet, we'll keep doing it.
SPEAKER_02: If it's not, you know, we'll throw it out.
SPEAKER_02: That's kind of how this thing goes as we plant a church.
SPEAKER_02: We're figuring out what works and what doesn't.
SPEAKER_02: Um and as you take those notes on there, you can save those notes.
SPEAKER_02: You can take a screenshot or you can click print and then save the files.
SPEAKER_02: So that's just a little aside there.
SPEAKER_02: Um before we begin today, as we dig in, I want to share a story with you guys about my first pair of glasses.
SPEAKER_02: When did you get your first pair of glasses, Jevin?
SPEAKER_02: When you were little?
SPEAKER_02: Well, I didn't get my first pair of glasses until I was an adult, right?
SPEAKER_02: I lived the most of my life not knowing that I had bad eyesight, bad vision.
SPEAKER_02: You I didn't start wearing glasses until I was well into my twenties.
SPEAKER_02: Um I'd been operating as though I didn't need them, but the the signs were there, right?
SPEAKER_02: I'd be sitting with friends watching a basketball or a football game, and I'd be squinting really hard just to see the score.
SPEAKER_02: Or I remember this one time I was um at a church gathering early on in my walk with Christ, and there was all these books on this bookshelf, and a friend pointed at a book and was talking about it, and I was having to squint really hard just to see what the title on the spine of this book was.
SPEAKER_02: I'd have headaches when I would read.
SPEAKER_02: Um and then one time I was hanging out with some friends, and it was one of those deals where I'm squinting to see the score or something like that.
SPEAKER_02: And this one friend, she's like, dude, you need glasses.
SPEAKER_02: Dude, you need glasses.
SPEAKER_02: And that was all I needed to hear.
SPEAKER_02: So I scheduled an appointment with the eye doctor, and I got my first pair of glasses.
SPEAKER_02: As I put on this new pair of glasses, it was as though a whole new world had opened up to me.
SPEAKER_02: I remember driving to a staff meeting at my last job, and um I remember driving there and seeing the leaves on the trees in the most detail that I'd ever seen them before.
SPEAKER_02: I remember sitting in this staff meeting, have crossing my legs and looking at my leg hair and being like, oh my goodness, I didn't realize how many leg hairs I had.
SPEAKER_02: I was blown away.
SPEAKER_02: It was, to say the least, an eye-opening experience.
SPEAKER_02: And here it is.
SPEAKER_02: What I think that we see today in this text is that Jesus, through his Holy Spirit, he provides his disciples, and I think he's providing us today a new pair of glasses.
SPEAKER_02: In this section of the book of Acts, the disciples begin to see clearly.
SPEAKER_02: They begin to see God's vision and mission for the church, and they begin to see his coming kingdom that Jesus had been talking about.
SPEAKER_02: So here's our big idea this morning.
SPEAKER_02: Our big idea.
SPEAKER_02: As followers of the way of Jesus, we are called to be Holy Spirit, empowered witnesses of Jesus Christ, carrying out his mission in Rosedale, Kansas City, the Midwest, the U.S., and the world.
SPEAKER_02: With this, what I hope we see today are three things.
SPEAKER_02: Three things that Jesus leaves his people with as he ascends to the right hand of the Father.
SPEAKER_02: First, we see a greater vision for a greater kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: Second, we see greater power for a greater witness.
SPEAKER_02: And thirdly, we see anticipation for a greater return.
SPEAKER_02: Crystal, I love it when you're here.
unknown: I love being here.
unknown: I miss you.
SPEAKER_02: I miss you.
SPEAKER_02: All right, let's pray and then we'll dig in.
SPEAKER_02: Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing us here today, Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Friends, family, people who've been coming each week, and people who haven't seen in ages, people who are new today, Lord.
SPEAKER_02: I thank you for bringing us all here to sit under the preaching of your word.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, I pray that today you move me out of the way and you let your word, your name, be made clear, Lord.
SPEAKER_02: God, I pray that we see your design, your vision, your mission for the church.
SPEAKER_02: That we are to be witnesses of the risen Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, I thank you for all that there is to celebrate, for five years of sobriety, for new babies, for children being raised in the ways of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: For friends who've who've moved here recently, Lord.
SPEAKER_02: I just praise you for that.
SPEAKER_02: Holy Spirit, you are welcome here.
SPEAKER_02: God, thank you for sending your son Jesus to this earth.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you for the death that he paid on the cross.
SPEAKER_02: Will we see your son Jesus clearly today?
SPEAKER_02: We love you.
SPEAKER_02: It's in your son Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_02: And all God's people said.
SPEAKER_02: Amen, amen.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, so point number one this morning is a greater vision for a greater kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: A greater vision for a greater kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: Acts chapter 1, verses 6 and 7.
SPEAKER_02: The word of God says, So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?
SPEAKER_02: He said to them, It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.
SPEAKER_02: So what we see here in these two verses is the disciples' concern for restoring the kingdom to Israel.
SPEAKER_02: And what this shows us is that they still have the wrong picture.
SPEAKER_02: They still have the wrong vision of Jesus' mission.
SPEAKER_02: What they need is a new pair of Holy Spirit glasses.
SPEAKER_02: As a refresher from our Luke sermon series that we preached a year ago, the picture that many of Jesus' disciples had of the coming Messiah was this like militant sort of leader that was coming to rule with might and establish his kingdom by force.
SPEAKER_02: And if you remember anything from as we studied the gospel of Luke, that was not how Jesus the Messiah came.
SPEAKER_02: No, he came and instilled an upside-down sort of kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: And the Greek word used in these verses for restore suggests like a political, nationalistic restoration.
SPEAKER_02: That's what the disciples had in mind.
SPEAKER_02: This shows us kind of how they viewed the coming kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: And what Jesus does is he's like, nah, you are incorrect.
SPEAKER_02: You see, the disciples, they are focused on their own vision of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: And if we can just be real, guys, like, how often do we do the same?
SPEAKER_02: Oftentimes, like we're out here trying to build our own little personal kingdoms and castles apart from the power of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: We may do this in our own personal lives.
SPEAKER_02: I think we can even do it in the live our familial lives.
SPEAKER_02: And I think if we're truly honest with ourselves, I think that the Western church can be guilty of this as well.
SPEAKER_02: But family, I never, ever want that to be the case here at the Way Church.
SPEAKER_02: So for us as a church plant, as we're trying, are are we trying to build the little kingdom of the Way Church KC, or are we partnering with God in building the kingdom of God?
SPEAKER_02: As it was for the early church, so it is for us.
SPEAKER_02: What Jesus is doing here in these verses is he is pointing them to his vision for God's kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: He's offering them a new pair of glasses.
SPEAKER_02: He's offering them greater vision for a greater kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: Kingdom vision.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus here, he redefines the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_02: It's not a political sort of kingdom, but it is a spiritual kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: It is a global kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: And I think that just like the disciples, so often we can limit God's plans, we can limit God's vision, we can limit God's mission to our own limited understanding.
SPEAKER_02: That's what the disciples are doing here, and it's what we are still so prone to do today.
SPEAKER_02: So, church, the question for us this morning is are we willing?
SPEAKER_02: Are we willing to surrender our vision of comfort?
SPEAKER_02: To surrender our vision of the picture perfect life, to surrender of our vision of being one-track-minded towards our individual success.
SPEAKER_02: Will we surrender those things in light of God's mission?
SPEAKER_02: I think that that's what Jesus is calling his disciples to do in this text, and I think that it's what Jesus is calling us to do today.
SPEAKER_02: In these verses, we see Jesus shift from chronology, the when, to missiology, the what now.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is redirecting their attention to God's mission, to the Great Commission.
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to read a couple of different versions of the Great Commission to you.
SPEAKER_02: In the Gospel of Luke, verses chapter 24, verses 46 through 49, the word says, And Jesus said to them, Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and the repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_02: You are witnesses.
SPEAKER_02: There it is, witnesses.
SPEAKER_02: You are witnesses of these things.
SPEAKER_02: And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you, but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.
SPEAKER_02: The perhaps the most common commonly quoted version of the Great Commission is found in Matthew, Matthew chapter 28, verse 18 through 20.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus says, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
SPEAKER_02: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
SPEAKER_02: And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: So to put it simply, this might be an oversimplification, but maybe not.
SPEAKER_02: To put it simply, the great commission is to be witnesses of King Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: So just as Jesus redirects the disciples to God's greater vision, he is redirecting us to do the same today.
SPEAKER_02: Family, my hope is that we are putting ourselves in submission to the God of the universe and coming to a place of complete and utter reliance on God's power, God's purpose, and God's greater vision for your life.
SPEAKER_02: Because what I believe, family, is that God has a greater vision for you personally.
SPEAKER_02: That God has a greater vision for our church plant.
SPEAKER_02: That God has a greater vision for this world.
SPEAKER_02: Like we know how the story ends.
SPEAKER_02: New heavens, new earth.
SPEAKER_02: That's the greater vision that we're looking towards.
SPEAKER_02: A greater vision for a greater kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: Brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ is and was our guiding authority.
SPEAKER_02: The triune God knows the full plan.
SPEAKER_02: We simply don't.
SPEAKER_02: Is there anybody here who knows the full plan?
SPEAKER_02: No?
SPEAKER_02: Okay, good, good.
SPEAKER_02: We simply don't.
SPEAKER_02: So what are we striving after?
SPEAKER_02: Where, where are we operating apart from a move of the spirit?
SPEAKER_02: Today, may we reframe our personal goals, our vision for this church plant.
SPEAKER_02: Like, that's a tough truth.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, we're gonna reframe our vision for this church plant to be sitting under the power of the spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Like, that's bold.
SPEAKER_02: No, that's the only way to go forward.
SPEAKER_02: So may we reframe even our ambitions individually.
SPEAKER_02: May we reframe it all under the context of God's greater vision and greater mission.
SPEAKER_02: Guys, the story that we are a part of is so much bigger than ourselves.
SPEAKER_02: It's so much bigger.
SPEAKER_02: What a blessing that we get to play a part in this great story.
SPEAKER_02: So, family, let's put on kingdom glasses.
SPEAKER_02: Let's put our Holy Ghost glasses on.
SPEAKER_02: And as we do, let's all realize that we're part of a bigger story.
SPEAKER_02: And with this, I think what we'll see is point number two that we have greater power for a greater witness.
SPEAKER_02: Point two, greater power for a greater witness.
SPEAKER_02: Acts chapter 1, verse 8.
SPEAKER_02: This is, I was telling the team this morning, this is one of my favorite verses in the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: This here is the central verse of this passage.
SPEAKER_02: And like I said, it's one of my favorites.
SPEAKER_02: In it we see the great power that comes from the Holy Spirit, and we see how that creates a greater witness for the disciples.
SPEAKER_02: We see to the point greater power for a greater witness.
SPEAKER_02: And just to zoom out for a second, what I think is so interesting about this verse is like Acts 1.8, it's not just a call in one verse in this book.
SPEAKER_02: No, it's like the outline for the entire book of Acts.
SPEAKER_02: So in Acts chapter 1, verse, or Acts chapter 1 through 7, the focus is on the disciples being witnesses in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_02: Acts chapter 8 through 12, the focus is on the disciples being witnesses in Judea and Samaria.
SPEAKER_02: Acts chapter 13 through 28, the focus is on the disciples being witnesses to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_02: So this verse here, Acts 1.8, is providing the outline for the entirety of this book.
SPEAKER_02: So I think with that, it's important that we dig into it.
SPEAKER_02: So let's do that.
SPEAKER_02: As believers who are indwelt with the Holy Spirit, you have power.
SPEAKER_02: And that power, it equips us for a greater witness.
SPEAKER_02: I think that if we're honest, some of us have too small of a vision, too little of belief in the power that we all, all who have called on the name of Jesus, have access to.
SPEAKER_02: We have access to great power for what God desires to do in and through us.
SPEAKER_02: But at times it's as though we are living as though we don't have access to that power.
SPEAKER_02: Like how often do we try to live life?
SPEAKER_02: Do we try to operate in our own strength, in our own power, in our own might?
SPEAKER_02: And ultimately, that ends in nothing.
SPEAKER_02: And to help illustrate this, I've got a story that I think illustrates it well.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe it doesn't, but I think it does.
SPEAKER_02: We'll see.
SPEAKER_02: So Friday evening.
SPEAKER_02: The in-laws are in town.
SPEAKER_02: They're at the back there.
SPEAKER_02: And we're all hanging out at the house.
SPEAKER_02: But as the evening went on, it started getting hot.
SPEAKER_02: And I mean really hot.
SPEAKER_02: Chelsea's like fanning herself.
SPEAKER_02: She's got her little uh like battery-operated fan.
SPEAKER_02: Um Louie has a heat rash.
SPEAKER_02: That's not good.
SPEAKER_02: Um it's not it's not looking good.
SPEAKER_02: Circumstances aren't looking too great.
SPEAKER_02: And turns out the AC has gone out.
SPEAKER_02: So I call my guy and he says, hey, I'm already done for the day.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not coming out there unless you pay me like 800 bucks.
SPEAKER_02: That's literally what he said.
SPEAKER_02: He's like, but my guess is it's just the capacitor.
SPEAKER_02: You can come grab one and you guys can install it yourself.
SPEAKER_02: You can swap it out and install it yourself.
SPEAKER_02: So my father-in-law, Nate, and I, we we hop in the car, we drive down to Stillwell, Kansas, and we pick up the part.
SPEAKER_02: And Stillwell's not that far, it's like 20, 30 minutes.
SPEAKER_02: But still.
SPEAKER_02: So we get we get back to the house, and um, Nate and I get to work installing the capacitor.
SPEAKER_02: Well, mostly Nate's, right?
SPEAKER_02: You guys know I'm not very handy, so I'm observing, watching Nate do his thing, offering encouragement, offering a few prayers.
SPEAKER_02: Held the flashlight really well.
SPEAKER_02: Amen, amen.
SPEAKER_02: And so we we install this new capacitor, and nothing.
SPEAKER_02: Oof, oof is right.
SPEAKER_02: The unit still won't kick on.
SPEAKER_02: So now, oh, do you think that was funny, Louie?
SPEAKER_02: So now we're thinking maybe it's not the capacitor, maybe it's the power source.
SPEAKER_02: We we have this old school kind of disconnect box that's on the side of our house, and inside it are these two little fuses.
SPEAKER_02: Nate takes a closer look and he says, Hey, I think these are probably shot.
SPEAKER_02: So 9.30 at night, off we go to Home Depot.
SPEAKER_02: We grab some new fuses.
SPEAKER_02: Nate plugs them in, and the moment we put those new fuses in, the moment we reconnect the power, you know, the little humming, cold air.
SPEAKER_02: The AC roars to life.
SPEAKER_02: Happy wife, happy life.
SPEAKER_02: All is well in the shimmer house.
SPEAKER_02: So that's a story just from this past Friday.
SPEAKER_02: But here's the point everything else was in place.
SPEAKER_02: The unit was connected, the switch was flipped, we had the right parts, we drove down the still wall to get the right parts.
SPEAKER_02: But without those fuses, the power couldn't flow.
SPEAKER_02: No power, no cooling.
SPEAKER_02: Guys, how many of us live the Christian life this way?
SPEAKER_02: We're going to church, we're showing up on Sundays.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe we read our Bible a couple times a week.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe we're trying to do all the right things.
SPEAKER_02: We're living that prim and proper Christian life.
SPEAKER_02: But in reality, within, in our heart of hearts, we're spiritually overheated.
SPEAKER_02: We're dry.
SPEAKER_02: We're discouraged.
SPEAKER_02: We're ineffective.
SPEAKER_02: Because somewhere along the line, we've lost connection to the true source of the power in our lives, the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Guys, the Spirit isn't a bonus feature for super Christians.
SPEAKER_02: Like, oh, River got the Spirit, but I don't.
SPEAKER_02: Like, no, that's not how it works.
SPEAKER_02: Like, the Holy Spirit is the fuse through which the living power of God flows into your life.
SPEAKER_02: If we're not relying on Him, if we're not daily walking in the Spirit's strength, we're just spiritual appliances, humming without purpose, connected but powerless.
SPEAKER_02: So check yourself, right?
SPEAKER_02: Are you truly depending on the Spirit, Jeremy?
SPEAKER_02: Or are you just going through the motions?
SPEAKER_02: You like that, Devin?
SPEAKER_02: We are empowered by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: As believers, as those who have called on the name of Jesus, we are empowered by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: We have the living God living within us.
SPEAKER_02: And with that, Christ's Spirit empowers us to fulfill his mission.
SPEAKER_02: And I think that this should show us undeniably that the Christian life and the Christian mission are utterly impossible without complete reliance on the Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: So I think that the encouragement for us this morning is that we should be a people who seek and depend on the divine empowerment on a daily.
SPEAKER_02: As the Way KC, let's be a people who are in daily dependence on the Spirit through prayer, through boldness, through saturating our lives with Scripture, with the living word of God.
SPEAKER_02: And I think that with the Holy Spirit within us, we see the greater power for a greater witness.
SPEAKER_02: This greater power and greater witness, they serve as a powerful motivator for intentionality, for mission-focused living.
SPEAKER_02: Not just like for a few moments, though, because we have a promise from Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Matthew 28, 20, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.
SPEAKER_02: It's not like, hey, we have the promise today, but it's gone tomorrow.
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: The Lord promises it promises for it to stay with us.
SPEAKER_02: So what does this greater power for a greater witness look like?
SPEAKER_02: Well, the author Luke shows us just that in Acts 1.8.
SPEAKER_02: We see this witnesses in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_02: So for us, what's our Jerusalem?
SPEAKER_02: Well, I think it's to get hyper-localized, it's the community of Rosedale.
SPEAKER_02: Our Jerusalem is Rosedale.
SPEAKER_02: We are to be witnesses in Rosedale.
SPEAKER_02: And we've been living that out throughout the past year and a half through partnering with the Rosedale Development Association, through partnering with Frank Russian Elementary School, which we're going to be providing them with backpacks and school supplies again here in a few weeks, through partnering with Rosedale Middle School, through partnering with the Frank Russian Neighborhood Association.
SPEAKER_02: Like this past uh Tuesday, we had we we allowed uh the Neighborhood Association to host one of their meetings in our conference room.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm standing here talking to this lady, and she's like, I was like, so are you the church going type?
SPEAKER_02: And she's like, uh, well, no, I'm Buddhist.
SPEAKER_02: So, like, we're to be witnesses in Rosedale to our neighbor who practices Buddhism.
SPEAKER_02: And I was thinking about this last night as Dolly and I were mowing the lawn.
SPEAKER_02: Like, that's a tangible way we can be witnesses as we're pushing the mower and Dolly's um edging the sidewalks.
SPEAKER_02: As a neighbor walks by and we offer a friendly smile and a wave, that's a way that we can be witnesses, right?
SPEAKER_02: We've talked about this in the past, but like we want, as we're witnesses, what we want it to look like is that if our church were to leave Rosedale, we'd be missed.
SPEAKER_02: People would know we're gone.
SPEAKER_02: That's our hope.
SPEAKER_02: That's what we want to be about as we're witnesses in our Jerusalem, in Rosedale.
SPEAKER_02: But the author Luke, he doesn't end there.
SPEAKER_02: He talks about being witnesses in Judea and Samaria.
SPEAKER_02: That's a more like regionalized sort of witness.
SPEAKER_02: For us, I think it's this idea of being witnesses in KC, the Midwest, and the U.S.
SPEAKER_02: You know, we've we've begun to live this out as we partner with uh Hope is Alive and Be Free KC.
SPEAKER_02: But really, like more so than that, since we launched, our dream has been to partner with a church plant, to get behind a church plant somewhere in the region or somewhere across the U.S.
SPEAKER_02: So we can put wind behind their sales just like people have done for us.
SPEAKER_02: But the author, Luke, he doesn't stop there.
SPEAKER_02: We're also to be witnesses to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_02: That's the world, that's the globe, right?
SPEAKER_02: The ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_02: And I think it's so amazing, so beautiful, because we're we're kind of seeing the first fruits of what our witness to the ends of the earth can look like.
SPEAKER_02: Um, through through Rachel going on a vision trip to Indonesia, through uh Glenn's time on the mission field in Mexico and potential mission trips that we can take there, to Dali, moving here a year ago from Malawi.
SPEAKER_02: Like, I don't know, it just gets me jacked up to think about uh going to Malawi with Dali and partnering with his nonprofit there and planting churches in Malawi alongside um Dali.
SPEAKER_02: Like that, that gets me pumped up.
SPEAKER_02: So I think we're seeing the first fruits of what our witnesses to the end of the earth, ends of the earth can look like.
SPEAKER_02: So, within these contexts, how are we to be bold witnesses?
SPEAKER_02: Well, just to give you like a few things, we we can offer radical hospitality.
SPEAKER_02: That's one of our core values as a church plant, uh, through sharing our testimony.
SPEAKER_02: Like we all got a testimony, right?
SPEAKER_02: A story of what God's done in our lives.
SPEAKER_02: And Jeremy got to tell his, and Bo's got to tell his, because Bose can impact lives that Jeremy's can't, and Rachel's can impact lives that Bose can't, and so on and so forth around the room to the entirety of the room.
SPEAKER_02: Being involved in the community, we're living that out.
SPEAKER_02: We're being bold witnesses through being involved in our community, through supporting missions, hands and feet sort of ministry where we're on the front lines, sharing hope, sharing what God's doing.
SPEAKER_02: I think another one that's a dream, that's our hope, is to be a multiplying church.
SPEAKER_02: Like we don't want to start a bunch of services here.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if you knew that.
SPEAKER_02: If you're looking for a church that has uh four services and a Saturday day night service, you might be in the wrong place.
SPEAKER_02: What we're gonna do is we're gonna plant more churches.
SPEAKER_02: I feel like that is what the book of Acts calls us to do.
SPEAKER_02: So as this room fills up and we got a bunch of people coming from Raytown, Missouri, let's go plant a church in Raytown.
SPEAKER_02: I think that's just a few ways.
SPEAKER_02: Like that's not an exhaustive list of what we can do to be witnesses, but that's just a few ways that we can live with power for a greater witness.
SPEAKER_02: And ultimately, guys, as we are witnesses, what we are doing is we are anticipating.
SPEAKER_02: We are anticipating.
SPEAKER_02: Which brings us to point number three, our last point, anticipation for a greater return.
SPEAKER_02: Anticipation for a greater return.
SPEAKER_02: Acts chapter one, verse nine through eleven.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: 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?
SPEAKER_02: This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.
SPEAKER_02: What we see in these verses is the ascension of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: It's a little bit of a review, because uh the author Luke, he discussed the ascension at the end of Luke.
SPEAKER_02: So it's as though he's like, you know, kind of hammering home that point.
SPEAKER_02: He's reiterating his point.
SPEAKER_02: But what's the point?
SPEAKER_02: I think the point is this.
SPEAKER_02: As Christians, as followers of the way of Jesus, we hold to the ascension as truth.
SPEAKER_02: There are many truths that we believe about Jesus that are kind of like primary doctrine.
SPEAKER_02: I'm just going to give you kind of a flyover.
SPEAKER_02: We believe that Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, was born of a virgin, fully God and fully man.
SPEAKER_02: He lived a perfectly righteous and sinless life, revealing the kingdom of God through his teaching, through his miracles, and through his compassion.
SPEAKER_02: He was rejected, he was unjustly tried, he was beaten, and he was crucified at Golgotha, bearing the wrath of God for our sins.
SPEAKER_02: He was buried in a tomb, and on the third day he rose bodily from the dead, defeating death, sin, and the grave.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: After this, after his resurrection, for 40 days, he appeared to his disciples, teaching them how all of the scriptures, all of the scriptures points to him as the fulfillment of God's redemptive purposes.
SPEAKER_02: And then, in glory, what we're reading about right here in Acts chapter 1, verse 9 through 11, is how Jesus in glory ascended to the right hand of God the Father, where today he reigns as Lord, where he intercedes for his people, and where he will one day return in power and glory.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: That is what we believe, and Christ's ascension is a critical part of that.
SPEAKER_02: Just a couple of things to kind of pull out of these verses.
SPEAKER_02: The cloud discussed in these verses, it's a reference to the Shekinah glory of God that's found in Exodus and Daniel.
SPEAKER_02: And what this does for us is it links Jesus' ascension to divine enthronement, to the truth that Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God the Father.
SPEAKER_02: Like that's important.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus sitting at the right hand of God the Father is important.
SPEAKER_02: It implies his sovereignty, it implies his intercession, that he is interceding on your behalf.
SPEAKER_02: And it also implies his mission control for the church.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is in lordship over the church.
SPEAKER_02: Not just our church, but all churches that are in submission to him.
SPEAKER_02: And his continued presence through the Holy Spirit is a gift that he leaves for us.
SPEAKER_02: And so as we look to this, what it did for the disciples is that it provided assurance for his return.
SPEAKER_02: And it should do the same for us today.
SPEAKER_02: It should create in us an anticipation for a greater return.
SPEAKER_02: It points to the second coming.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus will return, bodily, visible, and in glory.
SPEAKER_02: It is imminent and it is glorious.
SPEAKER_02: So as we look expectantly to Christ's return, it should motivate us.
SPEAKER_02: It shouldn't cause us to stand idly by.
SPEAKER_02: No, it should motivate us to action.
SPEAKER_02: It should motivate us towards holiness.
SPEAKER_02: It should motivate us towards hope.
SPEAKER_02: And really, where we're leaning in in this series is it should motivate us towards mission.
SPEAKER_02: We're not a group of country club Christians, right?
SPEAKER_02: This isn't a little club that we're hanging out with at on Sundays.
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: Like we're trying to live this out day by day, moment by moment, as we share the good news of the coming kingdom of God and the good news of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: With this, we should have great anticipation for his return and urgency.
SPEAKER_02: Urgency for the mission of the church.
SPEAKER_02: The mission of the church that he left us with.
SPEAKER_02: And so we're kind of right now, the church, each of us as believers, we're in the in-between, right?
SPEAKER_02: We live in the already and the not yet.
SPEAKER_02: The already, dash, not yet.
SPEAKER_02: The Christ has already been victorious and not yet, and that he hasn't returned.
SPEAKER_02: And it's in this dash that the church exists.
SPEAKER_02: It's in this dash that all the churches found in the New Testament existed.
SPEAKER_02: The church at Ephesus, the church at Philippi, the church in Corinth, the church at Colossae.
SPEAKER_02: All of these churches that we read about in the New Testament existed in this dash.
SPEAKER_02: It's in this dash that your grandma and grandpa's church existed or exists today.
SPEAKER_02: It's in this dash that God has ordained for the way church KC to exist.
SPEAKER_02: And so as we anticipate the greater return of Christ, we have through the power of the Holy Spirit an active role to play.
SPEAKER_02: The dash, the in-between, the all, the in-between the already and not yet is our part to play.
SPEAKER_02: But praise God that we don't have to go at it alone.
SPEAKER_02: We have the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: I know if I was left to my own devices, I'd fall flat on my face.
SPEAKER_02: But by the grace of God, I've been indwelt with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: And the Holy Spirit is not a force, but a person.
SPEAKER_02: The third person of the Trinity who empowers, indwells, and commissions us.
SPEAKER_02: Zach Fulcher?
SPEAKER_02: The Holy Spirit indwells, empowers, and commissions you.
SPEAKER_02: Steve, the Holy Spirit empowers, indwells, and commissions you.
SPEAKER_02: Chris, the Holy Spirit empowers, indwells, and commissions you.
SPEAKER_02: Rachel Kelly, the Holy Spirit empowers, indwells, and commissions you.
SPEAKER_02: And that's the truth for each of us here today who have called on the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: He empowers and dwells and commissions you through the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: In Rosedale, in KC, the Midwest, the U.S., and the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_02: I'll go ahead and invite Ashton up.
SPEAKER_02: And we'll close.
SPEAKER_02: But to close, let's just kind of recap and think about where we've been today as we've looked at Acts chapter 1, verses 6 through 11.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus, he presents for us a greater reality.
SPEAKER_02: He presents for us a greater vision.
SPEAKER_02: He presents for us a new pair of glasses to put on.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus, he provides greater power for a greater witness.
SPEAKER_02: And ultimately, what we have, what he left us with as he ascended, was an anticipation for a greater return.
SPEAKER_02: Family, we anticipate the day in which Christ will return in glory to this earth and make all things new.
SPEAKER_02: No pain, no tears, no heartache.
SPEAKER_02: All things new.
SPEAKER_02: New heavens, new earth.
SPEAKER_02: So our prayer until then is your kingdom come, your will be done in Rosedale, as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_02: Your kingdom come, your will be done in Kansas City as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_02: Your kingdom come, your will be done in Crystal's home as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_02: Your kingdom come, your will be done in the United States as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_02: Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_02: And so we wait.
SPEAKER_02: We wait.
SPEAKER_02: But while we wait, we live.
SPEAKER_02: We live as witnesses of the good news of Jesus Christ until kingdom come.
SPEAKER_02: Church family.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus didn't ascend to leave us behind.
SPEAKER_02: He ascended to reign, to send his spirit, and to commission you.
SPEAKER_02: But no, Jesus calls us to lift our eyes, not in idle gazing, but in spirit-filled, mission-driven living.
SPEAKER_02: The same Jesus, the same Jesus, Ryan, who walked out of the grave and ascended into glory is coming back.
SPEAKER_02: The question is, will he find us waiting passively or witnessing boldly?
SPEAKER_02: So, so the encouragement today is this week in your homes, at your jobs, in your schools, at your favorite coffee shop, on your neighborhood street, wherever you may live, go in power.
SPEAKER_02: Live with purpose, speak his name, the mighty name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Love boldly and witness with joy.
SPEAKER_02: Because the king is coming.
SPEAKER_02: The king is coming, and he brings with him a kingdom that is greater than any that we can imagine in our own feeble thinking.
SPEAKER_02: And church, when he comes, may he find the way, Church KC, faithfully living by the Spirit and following the way of Jesus until kingdom come.
SPEAKER_02: And today, if you've if you've not yet trusted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, I'm as always I'll be down at the front.
SPEAKER_02: I'm here to pray with you, to talk with you, to do my best to answer any questions you may have.
SPEAKER_02: I know for me, 10 years ago, as I accepted Jesus Christ, it changed the entire trajectory of my life, and I believe it can do the same for you.
SPEAKER_02: So let's pray, and then we'll close in worship.
SPEAKER_02: Heavenly Father, we love you, we praise you, we thank you for being here today in the room among us through the power of your Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: God, I just I simply pray that we can be witnesses, that we can be bold, spirit-filled witnesses of what you've done and what you desire to still do.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, would you send us today, send us out to do the work of the ministry, to share with men and women across this city who you are, what you've done in our lives, and what you can do for theirs.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus, we love you.
SPEAKER_02: It's in your name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening.
SPEAKER_00: Join us Sundays at 10 30 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: in the Rosedale neighborhood of Kansas City.
SPEAKER_00: Or find us anytime at thewakeac.church.