Not There Yet | Dave Purvis

From our Acts series

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:12

So I wanted to start with a question. What does God want? And I don't mean he probably doesn't want me to watch so many videos on YouTube during the day. Big picture. What does God want? In the Bible, more than a dozen times, starting in Genesis and all the way to Revelation, like in the last chapters of Revelation, God says things like, I will be their God and they will be my people, right? That's the desire of God's heart. And um I was really encouraged actually when Noelle shared that when she talked about God's power and love, because when you hear that, he wants to be our God and we'll be his people. You could think power trip. But another thing that he wants, see this in this is Psalm 147, verse 11. It says, But the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him. And that that doesn't mean being afraid of him, it means deep reverence for him. The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him and those who hope in his steadfast love. God really wants us to understand his steadfast love for us, and that we come into relationship with him as where he is our God and we are his people out of his love for us. So that will come up later in the message. Today we are continuing in our series on the book, The Acts of the Apostles. And it's the story of, you know, Acts comes right after the Gospels, right? Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and then Acts. And Acts is the story of how the church, which is the assembly of God's people, how they spread the good news of the salvation offered through Jesus Christ. And um so the whole whole book of Acts is talking about that stuff. Today we're gonna we've had some really good stories. Today we're gonna have some more good stories, and we're gonna have some original art. So if you pray with me. Lord, um please forgive me for bragging about the original art. Um Lord, we we invite you to come and have your way here. Lord, that you would open your scriptures to us in such a way that it draws us to you, that we see you clearly, and that our hearts would just be warmed by what we see in you. Amen. Okay, so we're starting in our story, starts in Acts 11, verse 19. Acts 11, verse 19. And it says, Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen. Do you remember that persecution? We talked about Acts 8, um, where where Philip goes to Samaria, right? Because all the people leave Jerusalem because persecution is broken out right after Stephen was stoned. This is the same persecution. Starts up again. So Philip went to Samaria, and then here it says, now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists. The Hellenists were Greek-speaking non-Jews, spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and a great many people were added to the Lord. So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and Saul is better known to us as the Apostle Paul. Saul's his Jewish name, Paul's his uh Roman name. So Barnabas goes, he looks for Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch for a whole year. They met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch and in Antioch, the disciples were first called Christians. God loved those Gentiles in Antioch, and he wanted them to know the love he had for them. He also wanted them, he wanted to be their God and that they would be his people. And God's people cared about what God cared about. Their hearts reflecting what was in God's heart. Right? Here they go out, they're being persecuted, and they go out and they're preaching the very message that is causing them to be persecuted, you know, out of their hearts having that same love that God had. And then all these people come to come to Christ, and then the leadership in Jerusalem sends Barnabas. Now, Barnabas is one of their best guys. They send Barnabas and he sees the amazing thing that God is doing. And then he goes and he gets Saul, who again we we call Noah's better as Paul. And then they come and they teach the church for a year, right? Because what God has done, it was the hand of the Lord, right? It wasn't just the people talking, it says that the hand of the Lord was on this. And what God had done was precious to him, and it's supposed to be precious to the church. So they spent a year, a year teaching these, teaching these new believers. Now I have an illustration that uh I said original art. I didn't say it was good art, did I? I didn't say a word about it being good art. So I've got this illustration to help kind of frame everything that's happening. One thing that may be surprising to you is you see Garden of Eden in the top left, but in the top right, you see Garden of Eden 2.0. And what that's about is that when you go to the end of the Bible and the last chapters of the Bible, it doesn't say Garden of Eden, but there's all this imagery from the Garden of Eden. You know, this the river of living water and just all kinds of different imagery. It's really clear that it's supposed to be like a restoration. So you think about the Bible, the whole story of the Bible, it starts with the Garden of Eden, there's the fall, and then all the stuff in between is about getting humanity back to the right relationship with God, back to the Garden of Eden. Now, some of you have seen this amazing artwork before, but for those of you who haven't, there are three differences between, oh, I gotta explain the fall, right? Probably most of you, a lot of you have heard of it, but the fall, what happens is that the serpent, who the devil comes in the form of a serpent, he goes to Adam and Eve, and he starts a conversation. Then he convinces them that actually, if you know, God had said not to eat the fruit, and and uh serpent asked him, why can't you eat the fruit? Well, if we eat the fruit, we'll die. And the serpent's like, surely you won't die. God knows that if you eat the fruit, that you will be like him, you will be like God, knowing good from evil. You're you're basically going to be your own God. And that sounded very appealing. And what happened was that Adam and Eve both chose that. They decided to go ahead and be their own God, and that was a fall from the relationship with the true God. So when you look at the original art, what are three differences that you see? And don't speak if you've seen this before. See three differences? What do you see?

unknown 9:29

Clothes.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

Clothes. It says, it says that they were naked before the fall, they were naked and unashamed. Like humanity, humanity did not feel shame. What else? Oh, wait a second. I had had somebody say that Eve grew a mustache. No, that's not a mustache. They're not holding hands. The first break in human relationship came as people turned from God. And then the last one's the easiest one, right? They're like pouting, they're they're frowning. Things had been really good. Things had been really good in the garden. Um, you know, God walked in the garden, they lived in this nice place, they were happy, they were experiencing the life that they were created to live. And now they're not. They turned away from God, choosing to be their own gods, and and now things aren't so great. Now you'll see, and by the way, choosing to be our own God is actually the fundamental sin, like everything else actually flows from that. And from my fellow Bible nerds, um, you can see that pattern in Romans chapter one. It says, although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their their uh feudal in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened, right? And then as you go through the chapter, you'll see where all these sins are listed that that mankind fell into, just a whole variety of sins. So did Adam and Eve die? Well, they didn't die physically immediately, they actually lived for hundreds of years after that. But the day, the moment that they made that decision to be their own God, they died spiritually. They broke their relationship with the true God. And that's when they felt shame, and that's when they had problems in their relationship and so forth. So you see, you see at the bottom left, it says in Adam, and you see that going forward. What that's about, if all your ancestors were groundhogs, what would you be? You'd be a groundhog. If all your ancestors were spiritually dead, separated from God, still made in the image of God, still reflecting the image of God, but now they're they're spiritually dead and separated from God. All your ancestors were that way, what would you be? You'd be spiritually dead and separated from God. So, you know, that's like Genesis chapter 3, and the Old Testament, 75% of the Bible. So I'm skipping a lot, but then Jesus comes. There's an in-breaking of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is where God reigns, where things are done his way, right? So you think of the um the Lord's Prayer, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as is in heaven, right? It's where God's will is done, things are done his way. Jesus comes and he heals people that um that are sick. Oh, I should back up a second. Every evil in the world, according to the scriptures, every evil that exists in the world stems from that fall. Even the brokenness of the creation, which frankly I don't really understand, but you read in Romans 8, it talks about how the creation was made futile and is waiting the glorification of the sons of men. Every evil in the world stems back to that break with our creator. All right. And so when Jesus comes and he heals people that are physically ill, he's like undoing the work of the evil that entered the world. When he casts out demons, people that are spiritually oppressed, he's undoing the work of that evil. And then he he comes and and he reveals the true heart of God, right? That that heart of love that God has. And you know, he's kind to the people that are the outcast, and you're revealing God in that. And then it's interesting that something happens in a garden that is opposite of what happened with Adam and Eve in the garden. Because in the garden of Gethsemane, this is when Jesus, is this a night that Jesus is going to be arrested? He's going to be crucified the next day. Jesus is not excited about being crucified. And he prays and he says, Father, if this, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me. But then he says the opposite of what Adam and Eve said. He said, Not my will, but thy will be done. And so he follows that up with he actually dies on the cross that our sins might be forgiven. Um he raises from the dead that we might raise from the dead. So, okay. I'm an old guy, old guys do cheesy things. The death and resurrection of Jesus is God's provision. But then we have to make our decision. And you can see that really clearly in Romans chapter 10, verse 9. It says, Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, right, that part is our decision. That part is when we're saying, I want God to be my God. I want to be his purpose, person. And believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, right? That's putting your faith in the work of Jesus on the cross and to his resurrection. Right? It's our decision based on his provision. Cheesy, right? But hopefully that's memorable. And then in 1 Peter 1, verse 3, he says, Peter writes, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. That's what we that's what we celebrated last week with uh when people got baptized. It's a picture of being born again of the Spirit of God into the into a new life. Why born again? Why born again? So Jesus came, he paid for your sins. Why do you need to be born again? If we could have the illustration up, please, Donna. Because you just had your sins forgiven, but you're still an Adam, you're still a groundhog. You're still spiritually dead, right? That's why we need to be born again of the Spirit. And when somebody is born again of the Spirit, then they are in Christ. And Paul uses this language of in Adam, in Christ, in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 22, just so that you know that my illustration is rooted in the scripture. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. And when he says all in the next verse, he explains those who belong to him. So it's all that are in Christ will be made alive. So we have this wonderful truth that Jesus made a way for anybody who wants to be in a relationship with God to get into that relationship with God, to be born again of the Spirit of God into relation into a right relationship with our Creator. Now there's there's uh something here that creates a question. Because you know, you see the line that says in Christ, so you're born again of the Spirit of God, you are now a child of God, but but see where it says not there yet? Because we're still not in the Garden of Eden, right? This is not heaven on earth. We're still in the in-between time. We still live in a broken world, right? This world is broken because of that original rebellion from God, where man chose to be his own God, and and we still live in the midst of that brokenness. Don't know about you, but you know, we still feel that that tug of the old person, that what we were before we came into a right relationship with God. We still feel that tug. So, how do we live in this spot? This spot of the not there yet spot. How do we live in that? Well, the the stories as we continue on in Acts actually give some insight into that. So, you know, we already read about how the people of God cared so much, they preached this message. Then there's this short little thing, uh, Acts 11, verse 27. And it says, Now in these days, prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch, and one of them named Agabas stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world. This took place in the days of Claudius. As far as I could tell, that's like you know, between one and three years after this event. So the disciples determined, everyone, according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea. Judea is the area where Jerusalem is. It's bigger. Call that the metropolitan area, I suppose. I don't know. And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. So in this passage, I see two ways in which in which the kingdom of God, through the spirit of God, mitigates the problem of being in this broken world, the consequences of the of the famine that was coming. Do you see them? The first one's pretty obvious, right? That the spirit speaks through Agabas and actually gives him a warning that there's going to be this famine. The second one is a little bit more subtle, but it's still by the Spirit of God. The people of God have hearts that are like God's heart, and they freely give. Out of love, they give to their brothers and sisters in Judea. And so you see that in the spirit. I just I think that's really cool because it's like you have this really over overt thing where where this prophet speaks, right? Then you have this, you have the the extraordinary thing, but then you have the more ordinary thing where the people of God just express the love of God and they give to their people. You might remember if You were here when uh we talked about when Stephen was stoned, how how he was filled with the Spirit, and they're killing him. They were throwing big rocks at him to stone him to death. And he does the most extraordinary thing. He says, Lord, forgive them. So they they don't know what they're doing, right? That by the Spirit of God, our our hearts can just be different, diff unnatural, you can say supernatural, right? So the Spirit of God is a way that that when we're while we're in this not not there yet place, that um the kingdom of God still makes a difference, still enters into our lives. Then the the next story Acts chapter 12. Um do I have the verses, do I have one through five? No? Well, I can read them to you because I have them right here. About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. So again, we have persecution, which by the way, at the end of the story in verse 24 it says, But the word of God increased and multiplied. I mean, that's just what you see throughout the book. Persecution, but the word of God continues to multiply. About that time, Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. He killed James, the brother of John, with the sword. Now, this with James, the brother of John, there's another James will come up later in the passage, and that's the brother of Jesus. But James was not only an apostle, he was actually part of the inner circle of Jesus. Right? So Peter, James, and John, you'll see like at the Mount of Transfiguration, they're the only three that go up the mount with Jesus. The rest are down the bottom. Um, and the Garden of Gethsemane, they all kind of go there, but then he takes those three with him. So the point is, James is like a big deal, but he's killed with the sword. And when he saw that it, and when Herod saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was the this was during the days of unleavened bread. And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. So Herod is waiting till the holidays over and he's going to kill Peter. Now, James, who was already in Christ, already in a right relationship with God, but still living in a broken world where God's will is opposed, he gets killed. Peter is taken prisoner, and the plan is for him to be killed. And then in verse 5 it says, So Peter was kept in prison, but but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church. But earnest prayer was made by by the church, to God by the church. And then what happens? Now we can have starting verse six. Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, Get up quickly, and the chains fell off his hands. And the angel said to him, Dress yourself and put on your sandals, and he did so. And he said to him, Wrap your cloak around you and follow me. And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel, isn't that crazy? He didn't know that what the was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him. When Peter came to himself, he said, Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting. Hey, just in case there's any mistake, the Jewish people are not the bad guys, right? All the apostles, all the first Christians were also Jews. It just usually, when it says those types of things, it's talking about the leaders, right? The ones that were trying to stamp out the movement. When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose other name was Mark, who wrote the Gospel of Mark. Where many were gathered together and were praying. They don't know that he got out yet, right? And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant named Rhoda came to answer. Recognizing Peter's voice, in her joy, she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. They said to her, You are out of your mind. But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, It is his angel. But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison, and he said, Tell these things to James and to the brothers. Then he departed and went to another place. They made, the people of God made earnest prayer. Oh, we don't use the word earnest, do we? Earnest means um it means like serious. Like for you teenagers, it means locked in. Locked in prayer. Right? And what happened in this situation where surely Peter is going to be dead, right? I mean, they'd even been praying, and still they didn't expect that he'd really get out, apparently, because they were like, no, that can't be him, it's got to be his ghost. The people earnestly pray, and God himself intercedes into the natural world and does the supernatural, and Peter is saved. They experienced in that instance the kingdom of God in the not there yet world, right? In this world. So here in the not there yet life, there are two things we can do to increase the impact of the kingdom on our lives right here in this life. One is by faith, we can live in fellowship with the Holy Spirit, right? When you were born again, you were born again of the Spirit. You have the Spirit of God dwelling in you, and we can live in fellowship with Him. That will impact your life in different ways. A lot of people feel the peace of God, people's hearts are conformed so that they're loving like in the same way, not to the same extent, but more and more like God loves. And then you may also experience the leading or empowering of the Spirit, like Agabus did. Did you know that the scripture actually encourages us multiple times to ask God for the gift of prophecy? Yeah, I mean, that's one of those scriptural commands that probably most of us don't really obey. But but it's in 1 Corinthians, Paul does it multiple times. So by the Spirit, by the Spirit of God, we experience the age to come. Another way is that you can earnestly, locked in, pray to God Himself and see answers to those prayers. Having the God who created everything insert his hand into your situation and change the outcome. You'll have heaven on earth. Not saying that. Church tradition says, except for maybe John, all the all the apostles died violent deaths. But why not experience as much of that life of God, the life of the kingdom? Why not experience as much of that in this life as you possibly can? Paul says, he writes this letter to Timothy and 1 Timothy 6, verse 12. It says, but Peter continued knocking. That was our pastor on vacation doing slides. That's not what it really says. I'm gonna have to turn there because I don't think, well, here's the important part. You can take that slide down because it's wrong completely. Paul writes to Timothy, he says, fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called. Now, eternal life doesn't, I used to think when I was a new Christian, I thought that eternal life just means that it keeps going on. No, eternal life is actually life from the ages. It's God's kind of life. It's the kind of life that we'll experience in the Garden 2.0, the Garden of Eden 2.0. Paul writes to Timothy, take hold of the eternal life to which you were called. And then let's see if Philippians 3 verses 13 and 14 are right. This is Paul again. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. And in the context, he's talking about taking full um possession of the resurrected life. But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Is there a reason you shouldn't do that? Would it be worth spending five to ten minutes every morning to do two things? Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you, lead you, empower you. Lock in and earnestly pray for one or two things. Things that the kind of things that you know God would want to do, that he's waiting to do, if his people would just earnestly pray and ask him to do it. Lord, we first of all we just thank you that you have offered us salvation through Jesus, and that you actually give us new life, that we're born again of your spirit, and we're fundamentally different people that we live in this broken world. What amazing grace, what amazing love. Just thank you and praise you. And Lord, I ask for myself and for everyone here that we would learn actually to pursue you, to strain, to um to press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call, your upward call in Christ Jesus for us. Thank you and praise you. Amen.