SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: It's Acts chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: If you found your way to the Gospel of John earlier, it's just the next book after that.
SPEAKER_01: If you're unfamiliar with your Bible, if you need help, just look to somebody around you.
SPEAKER_01: Someone will help you find it.
SPEAKER_01: As we begin a study, probably for about the next 10 to 12 months through the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_01: This morning our text is the first 14 verses.
SPEAKER_01: So if you have your Bible, I'll begin reading in Acts chapter 1, verse 1, and I'll continue through verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: So we have to remember that this is Luke's second book, right?
SPEAKER_01: Luke is the author of Luke and Acts.
SPEAKER_01: And so he says, In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day that he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
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.
SPEAKER_01: 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_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: Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away.
SPEAKER_01: And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room where they were staying.
SPEAKER_01: Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the zealot, and Judas, the son of James.
SPEAKER_01: All of these, with one mind or one accord, were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: A couple of elements just as we start here.
SPEAKER_01: At the very end, it says that Jesus is leaving, and all of the disciples are going to an upper room.
SPEAKER_01: We have the twelve disciples plus more.
SPEAKER_01: It may be the 120 disciples that are mentioned in the next verse in verse 15.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know.
SPEAKER_01: But what's interesting is that very last phrase of verse 14, and his brothers.
SPEAKER_01: It seems that at this point, after the 40 days after the resurrection, Jesus' brothers have come to faith in him.
SPEAKER_01: Because you remember in the gospel accounts, they didn't believe in him.
SPEAKER_01: So maybe it seems as though they're now a part of the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: That's one interesting thing.
SPEAKER_01: The other interesting thing is the different person at the beginning of the chapter, Theophilus.
SPEAKER_01: Great name, we don't know who he is.
SPEAKER_01: Could be a general name that refers in general to all believers.
SPEAKER_01: It's simply a generic kind of name that means someone who loves God.
SPEAKER_01: So some people think that this is a reference to the whole church, so that it's directed to every believer in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I don't take that route.
SPEAKER_01: I think that this is Luke's specific supporter, who is actually supporting financially the writings of both the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_01: And so Luke is writing, especially at the beginning of his gospel, to grant certainty to his supporter of the things of the faith.
SPEAKER_01: But last Sunday, we saw at the end of Luke's gospel that our history as Christ followers is firmly rooted in the empty tomb.
SPEAKER_01: Now, most of us know and readily accept that truth.
SPEAKER_01: That's where our faith is rooted.
SPEAKER_01: I intentionally didn't speak much about the second event at the end of Luke's gospel.
SPEAKER_01: That's the ascension into heaven.
SPEAKER_01: That's because Luke shifts his focus primarily from the resurrection now to the ascension in Acts.
SPEAKER_01: You can picture it this way, the way that Luke emphasizes these different elements.
SPEAKER_01: In the gospel record, he wants to emphasize above all, at the end of his book, the resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus rose from the dead, and so there's proof after proof after proof after proof.
SPEAKER_01: And oh, by the way, he ascended into heaven.
SPEAKER_01: In the book of Acts now, that emphasis sort of flips.
SPEAKER_01: Don't forget the resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: Now I want you to know all about the ascension.
SPEAKER_01: Luke's gospel uses the resurrection sort of to just introduce the ascension.
SPEAKER_01: That's reversed in Acts, where the resurrection is now assumed, it's put out there, don't forget about this, because the ascension of Christ is going to become the primary reality.
SPEAKER_01: And the narrative of the book of Acts will reveal how important the ascension of Christ is.
SPEAKER_01: Not just for the first century church, but for faith evangelical free church in the 21st century.
SPEAKER_01: So the book of Acts recounts God's acts.
SPEAKER_01: The acts of the triune God.
SPEAKER_01: God the Father ordains all things.
SPEAKER_01: God the Son reigns and rules.
SPEAKER_01: And God the Spirit brings about the results of the Father's plan through the Son's command.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus is gone.
SPEAKER_01: He's ascended into heaven.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus' absence in the book of Acts heightens the importance of understanding this pattern of resurrection, ascension, resurrection, ascension.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is gone.
SPEAKER_01: He's in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: We looked at the end of Matthew several months ago at the Great Commission.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says there that he has been granted all authority in heaven and on earth.
SPEAKER_01: And in that authority, he commissions his disciples to go and to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey.
SPEAKER_01: At the end of the Gospel of Luke, we saw that they too, again, were commissioned to proclaim Christ's resurrection from the dead, the good news of his resurrection, of his life, and of forgiveness to be found in faith in him.
SPEAKER_01: They were to take that to the ends of the world, Luke wrote.
SPEAKER_01: As long as Jesus is around.
SPEAKER_01: But what about when Jesus leaves?
SPEAKER_01: He's gone.
SPEAKER_01: What happens to his work in his absence?
SPEAKER_01: Well, the book of Acts answers that question.
SPEAKER_01: It keeps on going.
SPEAKER_01: It's the ultimate energizer money.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to change the batteries.
SPEAKER_01: Just keeps going and going and going.
SPEAKER_01: The work of Christ keeps on going.
SPEAKER_01: Notice that Luke emphasizes this.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Hey, Theophilus, don't forget, in the first book, I told you all that Jesus began to do.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't finish it.
SPEAKER_01: He's still working until he brings all things, all of his work to completion.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus had to go to the Father for the Spirit to be sent.
SPEAKER_01: And it's through the Spirit's work that the king's commands are going to be fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: And so these first 14 verses are a summary of all of that.
SPEAKER_01: And now that I've summarized it, let's dig into it a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: The first unit here, the first five verses or so, introduce for us all the surrounding elements that we need to be reminded of.
SPEAKER_01: That Theophilus needed to be reminded of.
SPEAKER_01: It picks up where Luke left off and sort of recounts some of the same elements, introduces some new things.
SPEAKER_01: So we need to understand where we're going in this book.
SPEAKER_01: How are we going to make our way from the resurrection and the ascension to where we are today?
SPEAKER_01: And so we begin to observe here that Luke shows us that all the acts of God that we are about to encounter in this book are part of his kingdom work.
SPEAKER_01: The first few verses naturally remind us of the end of Luke.
SPEAKER_01: We have the resurrection and proving the resurrection, just like we saw last Sunday at the end of Luke.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, we're told, stuck around for about 40 days for a purpose that went beyond confirming the resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, he confirmed it.
SPEAKER_01: Luke says, by many proofs.
SPEAKER_01: But it wasn't just that.
SPEAKER_01: These details reveal Luke's intentions.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, he wants to orient Jesus' work within the storyline of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: And he wants to remind us, secondly, of Jesus' purpose in God's ordained plan.
SPEAKER_01: First, the 40 days remind us of their importance in Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: 40 days.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus rose from the dead and he spent 40 days teaching his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: If you think a little bit, you're reminded that 40 days is an important number in Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus was in the wilderness being tempted for 40 days.
SPEAKER_01: Moses was up on Mount Sinai for 40 days.
SPEAKER_01: Similarly, Jesus now gives instructions for 40 days.
SPEAKER_01: So we're orienting this element, these 40 days, as an important section that falls in line with all of the other patterns that God has had throughout his history.
SPEAKER_01: But secondly, God's in the process of establishing his kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Notice that the book of Acts ends with the exact same theme.
SPEAKER_01: In Acts chapter 28 and verses 30 and 31, just the last two verses of the book, it says that Paul is in Rome here, living two whole years at his own expense.
SPEAKER_01: He welcomes all who came to him.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says he's proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.
SPEAKER_01: Luke wants us to know God's acts are about God's kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: From beginning of the book to the very last words, everything that God is doing is about his kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: And here, too, Luke picks up where he left off.
SPEAKER_01: Luke's gospel relates what Jesus began to do and teach.
SPEAKER_01: So what did Jesus begin to do and teach?
SPEAKER_01: The answer is pretty simple if we flip back.
SPEAKER_01: Luke chapter 1, verse 33, the angel Gabriel told Mary that there would be no end to Jesus' kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: So, right from the very beginning of the announcement of his birth, there's this announcement of his kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Then in Luke chapter 4, verse 43, Jesus said, I proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: I was sent for this purpose.
SPEAKER_01: Later in Luke 11, verse 20, Jesus was challenged about how he cast out demons.
SPEAKER_01: And they said, You do it by the power of Satan.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, No, no, no, no, no, no, that's not right.
SPEAKER_01: He said, If I do it by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
SPEAKER_01: God's Acts in the book of Acts are about Jesus completing the work of building his kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Now I believe that we sometimes overthink the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: What is it?
SPEAKER_01: How would you define it?
SPEAKER_01: Well, at its core, the kingdom of God is the rule of God over his people.
SPEAKER_01: Or as one author put it, it's it's the king's power over the king's people in the king's place.
SPEAKER_01: Pretty simple.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus now proclaims the kingdom because the king is present.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew says that Jesus' first sermon was repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because the king is present.
SPEAKER_01: As the new and greater Moses, Jesus began his kingdom work by establishing a kind of renewed Israel with twelve Jewish men.
SPEAKER_01: But the promise of God's eternal kingdom wasn't limited to Jewish people.
SPEAKER_01: As the new and greater David, this king is going to bless all nations by sending his people to the nations.
SPEAKER_01: To bring in all of his kingdom people so that he will rule over them.
SPEAKER_01: So the book of Acts represents the continuation of Christ's work of building his kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: He's extending his rule over a larger number of faithful subjects that extends further and further from the king's royal city, Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: That's something that's really important to think about as a local church.
SPEAKER_01: Since this is our history, we're reminded that we need to think in terms of kingdom work.
SPEAKER_01: Our thoughts and our plans and our intentions should not be concerned with what we hope to have happen or what we desire to accomplish, but with what the Father has already planned to do through his son's rule and reign over his people in his world.
SPEAKER_01: You know, churches and promoters make a great deal of a church's vision.
SPEAKER_01: You have to set a vision for your church.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody brought rotten eggs or tomatoes, did you?
SPEAKER_01: That's a waste of time and effort, folks.
SPEAKER_01: The church's vision is not out there for our determination.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have the freedom to choose our vision because it's not our kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: We are part of an already existing kingdom, and our king has already determined the end from the beginning, and he's also determined the means to reach the end.
SPEAKER_01: Our King, Jesus, has already established the vision for his church.
SPEAKER_01: That vision is making and maturing disciples through the proclamation of his death, burial, and resurrection and teaching them to be faithful, loyal subjects.
SPEAKER_01: That's not ours to change.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if we want to talk about vision, we need to limit our discussion to how we might seek the Lord's enablement to accomplish what He's already decided is going to be done.
SPEAKER_01: The kingdom work of both individual Christians and local churches is to faithfully witness to our sovereign king both by what we say and by how we live.
SPEAKER_01: Now put that into the context of someone who came to trust in Christ, let's say 50 AD.
SPEAKER_01: And think about how Caesar would hear the news of this growing group of people who call this person named Christ Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Caesar is Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Caesar demands submission.
SPEAKER_01: But Christians are turning from the world's demands to submit to a new Lord, a Lord who has demonstrated his authority and his sovereign rule by rising from the dead and ascending to the throne of God above.
SPEAKER_01: We love, we serve, and we follow Christ, and we call on everyone else to do the same.
SPEAKER_01: We don't bow to Caesar or to any other so-called king.
SPEAKER_01: Yet we honor the emperor.
SPEAKER_01: We submit to the proper authority of human rulers for our good because God put them there.
SPEAKER_01: And so we see that it's a subversive kind of politics.
SPEAKER_01: We don't march against the emperor's palace in Rome.
SPEAKER_01: But by speaking and living, we make disciples who trust in Christ, and we turn more and more people away from bowing the knee to Caesar and who instead honor Christ as Lord.
SPEAKER_01: That is Jesus' kingdom work.
SPEAKER_01: Now all that kingdom talk confused the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: They wondered if Jesus had gathered them together to fulfill God's promises to re-establish a Davidic kingdom and to bring glory back to Jerusalem and to throw off the might and authority of Rome.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus' answer is veiled.
SPEAKER_01: It isn't a no.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not a yes.
SPEAKER_01: It's sort of both.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus doesn't deny their hopes of a glorious rule by a messianic king, but he also doesn't say, yes, now is the time.
SPEAKER_01: Gather up everybody together.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to have a royal coronation.
SPEAKER_01: No, he doesn't say that.
SPEAKER_01: He says, in essence, the timing is all in the Father's plans.
SPEAKER_01: That's not for the subjects to know.
SPEAKER_01: That's for God to know.
SPEAKER_01: The time will come to establish a kingdom on earth and fulfill God's promises to ethnic Israel.
SPEAKER_01: But in the meantime, God's plan is to draw in people from all languages and nations and to graft them into a spiritual people to be his house, to be his temple.
SPEAKER_01: To accomplish that, God's acts now begin to shift from Jesus to being through empowered disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Do you remember when Jesus promised to never leave his disciples?
SPEAKER_01: In the upper room, the Last Supper.
SPEAKER_01: Before the crucifixion?
SPEAKER_01: He promised to send the Spirit to be with them and in them.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus is renewing that promise here in verse 8 with two additional notes.
SPEAKER_01: Not only is that spirit going to be with them, he's going to empower them, and that empowerment will have a purpose: to empower them to witness.
SPEAKER_01: And this verse acts sort of as an outline for the rest of God's acts.
SPEAKER_01: The book shows us how the good news of Jesus and this movement goes from Jerusalem and Jewish people outward in stages, from Jerusalem to Samaria to Judea to the rest of the world.
SPEAKER_01: But that isn't the primary emphasis of this well-known declaration.
SPEAKER_01: The emphasis is that what Jesus began to do in his earthly ministry continues through empowered disciples.
SPEAKER_01: As the Spirit of God empowers them, the disciples also are empowered by the Spirit to do God's will.
SPEAKER_01: God empowered Jesus in his earthly ministry.
SPEAKER_01: You can look at Luke chapter 4 for that.
SPEAKER_01: The Spirit empowers Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Now the Spirit is empowering Jesus' followers to do the will of God so that his kingdom work will be expanded.
SPEAKER_01: But we see another critical element of functioning as disciples and churches under the rule of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We don't determine the work.
SPEAKER_01: We don't decide what needs to be done.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, we aren't even really the ones doing the work.
SPEAKER_01: We merely function as vessels through whom the Lord does his work.
SPEAKER_01: We are sanctified, empowered tools that God graciously uses to fulfill his purpose.
SPEAKER_01: The Spirit's presence and the Spirit's power are benefits of belonging to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That's a great thing.
SPEAKER_01: He hasn't left us alone, he's given us his spirit to empower us, and he's given us a job to do, to witness.
SPEAKER_01: But that's all secondary.
SPEAKER_01: We, in fact, are secondary.
SPEAKER_01: We are privileged to be vessels for the King's service.
SPEAKER_01: Because he has determined to build his kingdom by drawing in people from all over the world of different ethnicities, different languages, to himself through the message of Christ crucified, buried, risen, and ascended.
SPEAKER_01: And we get to be the ones through whom he does that work.
SPEAKER_01: And not only that, he gives everything that you need to do that work.
SPEAKER_01: All we need is his spirit.
SPEAKER_01: You see, that served as an encouragement to the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, Jesus is gone, but that's okay.
SPEAKER_01: He's given us everything we need.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus would leave the earth to be at the throne of God, but he would not utterly leave his people.
SPEAKER_01: He would send his spirit to be with his people and to empower them to do his will.
SPEAKER_01: So we have to ask, what does that do with our excuses?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I just I don't I'm just not a very good speaker.
SPEAKER_01: I don't I don't know what to say.
SPEAKER_01: I've heard that before.
SPEAKER_01: Moses said it.
SPEAKER_01: And you remember what God said to Moses?
SPEAKER_01: Hey, dude, who made your mouth?
SPEAKER_01: I did.
SPEAKER_01: If I made your mouth and I'm telling you to do this, do you think I'm not gonna give you what you need to do it?
SPEAKER_01: Moses came up with excuse after excuse after excuse until he just made God mad and said, Fine, I'm gonna give you Aaron.
SPEAKER_01: That wasn't a good thing, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: God has given you his spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So what does that make of our excuses?
SPEAKER_01: If he's given us himself, his presence, and his empowering nature to do the work of witnessing, what does that make of our excuses?
SPEAKER_01: You aren't bold enough?
SPEAKER_01: That's great.
SPEAKER_01: God loves to work through weak vessels.
SPEAKER_01: You're scared, wonderful, he empowers.
SPEAKER_01: That's what God does.
SPEAKER_01: He takes fishermen and he makes them preachers.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus rules and works from heaven through the agency of his spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Through weak, uncertain, but empowered vessels.
SPEAKER_01: Now, with good reason, we we focus on the Holy Spirit when we come to this passage of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: But if we do that, if we focus on the Holy Spirit, we miss an integral component of Luke's account.
SPEAKER_01: Because in full view of the disciples, Jesus suddenly began lifting up into the sky surrounded by clouds.
SPEAKER_01: I'm glad we're not one of those churches that tries to replicate that here and lifts me up.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is lifted up, a cloud surrounds him, and he disappears from view.
SPEAKER_01: What is that about?
SPEAKER_01: What is going on?
SPEAKER_01: Well, what's going on is that it shows us that God acts through a living, reigning Lord.
SPEAKER_01: So first it reminds us that Jesus lives.
SPEAKER_01: We know, we've been reminded the tomb cannot hold him.
SPEAKER_01: He proved it, Luke says, with many proofs.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus then left no uncertainties about his resurrection life over 40 days.
SPEAKER_01: And now the ascension proves that his absence is not because he died.
SPEAKER_01: His absence is because he now resides in a different realm.
SPEAKER_01: And even there, he lives.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus told the apostle John in Revelation chapter 1, fear not, I am the first, and I am the last, and the living one.
SPEAKER_01: I died, but behold, I am alive forevermore.
SPEAKER_01: He said that from his place in God's throne room.
SPEAKER_01: The ascension demonstrates that Jesus is gone, not because he died, but because he's in a different place.
SPEAKER_01: But secondly, the ascension proves that Jesus reigns as Lord of all.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus ascended to reign and to rule as Lord of all.
SPEAKER_01: So verse 11 reveals to us where Jesus ascended to.
SPEAKER_01: Heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: What do we do with that?
SPEAKER_01: Well, if you flip over to chapter 2 and verse 32, Anton will be preaching on this in a couple of weeks.
SPEAKER_01: Acts chapter 2, verse 32, Peter's preaching, and he says, This Jesus God raised up, and of all of that we are all witnesses.
SPEAKER_01: Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, now we have a definition of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: At the right hand of God.
SPEAKER_01: And now having received from the Father the promise of the Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing on the day of Pentecost.
SPEAKER_01: Now he explains it by pointing to Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: For David did not ascend into the heavens, but David himself says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has ascended to heaven, defined as the right hand of God, specifically the right hand of God's place of rule and authority.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has risen from the dead, has ascended into heaven in fulfillment of Scripture, seated on the throne of God as the vice regent of the universe.
SPEAKER_01: If you doubt that, you can flip over to chapter 7.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 7, we see this long, long speech by a deacon named Stephen.
SPEAKER_01: Stephen's sermon isn't well received.
SPEAKER_01: They didn't so much throw rotten eggs and tomatoes, but stones at Stephen, because they were enraged in verse 54 of chapter 7.
SPEAKER_01: Then in verse 55 it says, But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.
SPEAKER_01: This is the present reality, friends.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is alive.
SPEAKER_01: He is not dead.
SPEAKER_01: We know the tomb is empty, but more than that, he is very much the living one at the right hand of God today, reigning and ruling over the universe.
SPEAKER_01: He is the enthroned Son of Man, which is the reality that Daniel saw in his vision in Daniel chapter 7.
SPEAKER_01: In Daniel chapter 7, he said, I saw in my night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man.
SPEAKER_01: And he came to the ancient of days and presented before him.
SPEAKER_01: And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Sounds like the end of Matthew and the end of Luke.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: So that all peoples, all nations, and all languages should serve him.
SPEAKER_01: And his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom is one that shall not be destroyed.
SPEAKER_01: Notice the parallels.
SPEAKER_01: One coming with the clouds of heaven, a son of man coming to the throne room of God Himself, all authority given to him, all dominion.
SPEAKER_01: And so the disciples' question in Acts chapter 1 is a good one.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, is now the time?
SPEAKER_01: But they struggled to understand the entire divine program.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, that the kingdom is now because the king is present.
SPEAKER_01: The kingdom is now in the sense that God is, Jesus is reigning and ruling from heaven.
SPEAKER_01: He has redeemed his people, he's drawing them in, but the kingdom is not yet because God's promise is to bring in all from the nations that belong to him.
SPEAKER_01: That work to move from Israel beyond to other ethnic groups and to all of the world is still to be done.
SPEAKER_01: And so the ascension reveals Jesus' position until he returns to wrap things up, to restore Israel fully.
SPEAKER_01: He is at the Father's right hand.
SPEAKER_01: And because of that, the ascension reveals Jesus' identity.
SPEAKER_01: He's Yahweh incarnated.
SPEAKER_01: He is the promised Son of David, who is David's Lord.
SPEAKER_01: He rules and reigns from heaven over his expanding kingdom, and neither Caesar nor hell itself will stop his work of building his assembled people over whom he will rule.
SPEAKER_01: And that work continues even today because Jesus has not returned.
SPEAKER_01: The rest of Acts reveals how true that is.
SPEAKER_01: That spirit has all of the authority and the power of Christ Himself.
SPEAKER_01: That Spirit kills and makes alive.
SPEAKER_01: That Spirit opens gates and yet prohibits people from going to certain places.
SPEAKER_01: Because Christ rules and reigns, and his agent is his spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So that leads to the practical element of the local church today.
SPEAKER_01: If Jesus is alive and ruling and reigning and working through his spirit, are we as a local church seeking to know his will?
SPEAKER_01: Or are we just wanting to do our own thing?
SPEAKER_01: Are we seeking his will and his ways, or our will and our ways?
SPEAKER_01: Are we willing to submit to his direction?
SPEAKER_01: Are we seeking to expand our kingdom or his?
SPEAKER_01: Do we attempt our ways or his ways?
SPEAKER_01: Do we resist him or do we serve him?
SPEAKER_01: These questions point to the final way in which God acts, and that is he acts to fulfill his word.
SPEAKER_01: So we've already seen that there are some Old Testament parallels that meet their fulfilled reality, their ultimate reality in the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_01: So I've touched on some.
SPEAKER_01: In Exodus, recounted in Deuteronomy, Moses ascends to Mount Sinai for 40 days.
SPEAKER_01: During those 40 days, he's receiving God's instruction, God's Torah.
SPEAKER_01: Later on in Numbers chapter 11, we see that Moses prays that God would give his people his Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And then before he dies, he promises that there's going to be a greater prophet like him, but a greater prophet, and it's to him you shall listen.
SPEAKER_01: And now we have that greater prophet who for 40 days is instructing his disciples, his people, in his Torah, in his law.
SPEAKER_01: We may even have an allusion here to the prophet Elijah.
SPEAKER_01: Elijah was caught up into heaven in a chariot of fire.
SPEAKER_01: And upon leaving, a double portion of his spirit, which was God's Spirit, was given to Elijah.
SPEAKER_01: A leaving and a departing and a giving of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So the ultimate reality of these ancient parallels is revealed in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: God is acting.
SPEAKER_01: Daniel's vision of the Son of Man finds fulfillment, later confirmed by Stephen's vision.
SPEAKER_01: So God's promise, long, long ago to Abraham, finds fulfillment in twelve apostles representing the twelve tribes being sent to proclaim the king and his kingdom to all nations.
SPEAKER_01: So that through Abraham all nations will be blessed.
SPEAKER_01: In a way, this is a new kind of exodus.
SPEAKER_01: Christ has redeemed his people by paying for their sins on the cross, bringing them out of slavery, and commissioning and empowering them to take the good news to all people.
SPEAKER_01: That work creates a new kind of Israel, one that isn't based on ethnicity, but on faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And so all who receive Christ through faith in him become sons and daughters of Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: It's a spiritual rebirth into a new kingdom of priests and kings.
SPEAKER_01: Notice what John says in Revelation chapter 1, verses 5 and 6.
SPEAKER_01: To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that Exodus language, Passover kind of language?
SPEAKER_01: And made us a kingdom, priest to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: We don't replace ethnic Israel.
SPEAKER_01: We are grafted into what God is doing.
SPEAKER_01: God will keep his promises, all of them to the very end, to ethnic Israel.
SPEAKER_01: But along the way, his promise was also to redeem his creation by creating a multi-ethnic people to glorify his name.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is fulfilling Scripture in Acts chapter one by establishing that work.
SPEAKER_01: And his disciples obeyed by remaining in Jerusalem, praying that God would fulfill his promise of sending the Spirit and seeing its fulfillment.
SPEAKER_01: The Spirit empowers them to be witnesses.
SPEAKER_01: And you and I, as his kingdom people, are empowered similarly.
SPEAKER_01: Notice that it's not something they asked for.
SPEAKER_01: It's not something you have to ask for, to seek for, to ask Jesus to do for you.
SPEAKER_01: It's something that he promised, and he does.
SPEAKER_01: He fulfills that.
SPEAKER_01: Moses asked for this for Israel, and it's something God promised through the prophets, and we find its fulfillment in these works of God.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus is alive.
SPEAKER_01: And he uses broken vessels like us who submit to him.
SPEAKER_01: And through his spirit, he strengthens us to be his kingdom people in a lost world.
SPEAKER_01: It's God's work.
SPEAKER_01: It's Jesus' work.
SPEAKER_01: Will we join him?
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, may you continue your work until the end.
SPEAKER_01: We look forward to that day, Lord Jesus, when, as the scriptures say, that you will return in just the same way that you left.
SPEAKER_01: Direct our eyes to the heavens, Lord, looking for your return.
SPEAKER_01: But in the meantime, fulfill your work through us, weak and broken vessels who look to you for our ability, for our power, for our words to speak, for the love that we need for others, for all of those things that go into witnessing to the resurrected and ascended Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, would you be gracious to us?
SPEAKER_01: Would you be gracious to Faith Evangelical Free Church and enable us to play a part in that work so that all would know here is a place of Christ's people gathered together.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.