To The End of the Earth

Acts 1:6-11

• Starting a new series in the book of Acts! (week 2)
  • Luke – In the secular, scholarly world, Luke has been esteemed as the most accurate historian of the ancient world. He enjoys a higher reputation than Heroditus, Tacitus, Pliny, Josephus, or any of the rest. His work has been checked more carefully than anybody else’s.

Last week… 

• Jesus is back on the scene giving marching orders to the disciples and His fledgling church.
• We talked about the Works and Words of Jesus, how he gave many proofs of his resurrection, and how he told them to wait for the Spirit to come.  And it is at this point in the story that the disciples ask their final question of Jesus. “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”

The Kingdom is Coming

• The phrase “kingdom of God” appears 53 times in the New Testament Gospels, almost always on the lips of Jesus. The synonymous phrase, “kingdom of heaven,” appears 32 times in the Gospel of Matthew alone.
  • But despite the frequency of Jesus teaching, The disciples didn’t really understand what He was saying.  They saw the kingdom of God, as a kingdom of Israel.  A political victory.  A freedom from Rome.  They could see nothing better or greater than the elevation of their nation above other nations.  
    • They were patriots of the kingdom of Israel, but had not realized that Jesus’ kingship extended to far more than Israel.  
    • Jesus had upended all of Israel with His ministry.  In 3 years, everyone in Israel knew of Him.  He was a household name.  But His call to the disciples was to proclaim His Kingship to the ends of the earth.  Jesus is claiming that His rightful domain includes all Creation.  Everything, Everyone, Everywhere.   Nothing is beyond his rule.  
• Apply
  • God is a God of the whole world
    • If your theology only extends to the borders of America, you don’t understand God very well.  He is bigger than Biden. His reach goes far beyond our sea to shining sea, He is the god of all nations.
      • Acts 17:26 – And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place
  • God’s Picture is Bigger than Yours 
    • Vs 7 “It is not for you to know” – You will not always be given the whole picture. God will often keep you in the dark. Illuminating too many steps at once can cause us to rush ahead, or grow afraid of what may be coming. 
    • Not to mention the fact that God’s plans often compete with our plans
      • Last week we learned that almost nobody likes change.  Deviating from our expectations can be stressful and scary.  But we must be sensitive enough to God’s will that we don’t fight Him when we disagree.  He is taking us to a better place, and what we will be given instead is much more valuable than any goal or plan we could have created for ourselves. Follow Him in the unknown!
        • 2nd Corinthians 12:9a – But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

You Will Be My Witnesses

• Who Is To Witness? – All Believers

• • • One of the great gifts of Pentecost is the indwelling spirit that lives within each one of us.  This means that we no longer need some man to speak for God.  Not a prophet, or a priest, or a bishop or a pope.  All believers can now hear from, and speak for God.  
    • And this is exactly how the gospel spread in the early church.  It was not on the backs of the apostles, but ordinary, un-ordained, and uneducated men and women were the tip of the gospel spear.   The church today desperately needs to recover this practice.  

• How Do We Witness? – Word and Witness

• • • Lifestyle Evangelism VS Gospel Proclamation – I witness with my life, I witness by being a good person, I witness by putting a smile on my face every day.
      • Here is the thing… The holy spirit shows up in the book of Acts 59 times.  In 36 of the 59 times, he is speaking.  We must remember that in order for the gospel to go, we must speak.

• Where Do We Witness? – Near AND Far

• • • WE ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO PICK JUST ONE!
      • This is so tempting for us to do! “Well God isn’t calling me to go anywhere, He isn’t calling me to sacrifice anything, He isn’t calling me to Nepal, or Indonesia, or Sudan.”
    • The Spirit comes and the good news goes to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and finally to the ends of the earth.  
      • God’s kingdom plan is not put on hiatus once Christ leaves; rather, it kicks into higher gear.   Yes, witnessing starts with your neighbor But it goes to all nations.
    • Let me ask you a tough question…Where is the greatest need?
      • America has 314,000 protestant churches, roughly 1 church for every 1000 people.
      • China – 60,000 protestant churches, Roughly 1 church for every 24,000 people.
      • India – 10,000 protestant churches, Roughly 1 church for every 140,000 people.
      • Turkey – 52 illegal protestant churches, Roughly 1 church for every 1,630,000 people.
      • 3.11 billion people who are unreached
        • 42.2% of world population. – This number is about access to the gospel.  These numbers should keep us up at night.  These numbers indicate people just like you and me who have no access to the Good news of Jesus.

• What Are We To Be Witnesses Of? – The Truth

• • • At my last church, one of my responsibilities was missions pastor…I have had the privilege to travel to more than 20 different countries.
      • I have been able to see with my own eyes the conversations being had amongst missions organizations.
      • The state of global missions in the world

• Social Justice

• • • • • • Elevating physical needs above spiritual ones

• Syncretism

• • • • • • Mysticism and Animism
        • Word of Faith Theology – Africa
          • “God will bless me if I follow Him…”
        • The last thing the nations need from us is the exportation of nominal Christianity to the world.
      • THEY NEED TO TRUE JESUS. THEY NEED SOUND DOCTRINE! THEY NEED SOMEONE WHO CAN DISCIPLE THEM. THEY NEED SOMEONE WHO WILLING WILLING TO GO BY THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT TO ADVANCE THE KINGDOM.

• When Do We Stop Witnessing? – Until the King Returns

• • Some of you may be asking, “how long? How long are we to do this? How long are we supposed to be witnesses? When will God’s mission be accomplished?  The disciples had a similar question when they asked, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel?”
    • Jesus replies, it’s not really for you to know.   That’s God’s business!  You do it until you can’t anymore.  You do it until everyone has heard.  You do it until all opportunity for the gospel to spread has been extinguished. 
      • 2nd Peter 3:9 – The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

You Will Receive Power

• The Holy Spirit Should be Experienced. 
  • How many of you come from a Pentecostal or charismatic background? Raise your hand.
  • Now, some of you didn’t grow up in Charismatic and Pentecostal church, and when I start talking about the Holy Spirit, you get a nervous eye twitch.  You think of glory runs, and reinforced chandeliers to accommodate swinging, I get it.  
    • I was a weird kid, I went to a Pentecostal school, and a Baptist Church.  Odd combination I know. 
  • While we are in the book of Acts, Our goal here is for us to understand the Spirit of God, Who he is, how he behaves, and what he does in both the big picture of history, and in the small picture of our everyday lives. 
    • Expect to be uncomfortable (both sides will be stretched in ways they may not like)
    • But the Spirit is not someone you can understand from afar.  You cannot study Him from a distance.  The Christian life always comes down to an experience
• The Holy Spirit Should Be Employed
  • Most Missional denominations 2016

1. Pentecostals
2. Southern Baptists (IMB, Piper, Platt, Together for the Gospel)
   1. Why? – Baptists focus on the greatness of the need, while Pentecostals focus on the greatness of our God to meet the need. 
      1. It is a difference between Guilt vs Glory.

• The mission of the church, the reason we exist, is to bear witness to the present reign and rule of Christ, who is at the right hand of God. If we try to do it in our own power, we will fail. The reason for the outpouring of the Spirit is not to make us feel spiritual. It is not to give us a spiritual high. It is so that we can do the job that Jesus gave the church to do.

• The Holy Spirit Should Be Obeyed
  • Each of us knows inherently when the Spirit is pulling on our hearts.  It happens through conviction, through the reading of the word, through a sermon, through a friend, or a family member who speaks a profound truth that strikes you to the core.  It happens in your prayer life, your devotions.  We have all experienced it.  The leading of God in one direction or another.  
    • It may not be audible, in fact it rarely is.  But it is clear nonetheless.  
    • This is likely how Paul felt in Acts 20:22 – And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there.
      • He often compels us and constrains us in the same way.  Be obedient to the Spirit!

Conclusion

• As we continue studying the book of Acts, we are going to see the first-century church in action, crawling over glass and pouring out blood—giving their lives—to obey Jesus’ last command to be His witnesses to the uttermost parts of the earth.