Acts 1:1-8

Discussion Questions

• As we dive into the book of Acts, what do we know about its scope and context? What is the genre, geographical setting, and general timeline? What do we know about the author, and what evidence does he give us about the veracity and validity of his account of Luke/Acts of the Apostles? What is the purpose of his
  writing?
• When we find ourselves in seasons of waiting, how do we remain faithfully engaged in our work, worship, and witness? Are we trusting that no waiting is ever wasted while God actively works in our circumstances and in our hearts? How do we learn to wait well?
• Are we living on mission? Do we act like the fearful disciples or the faithful apostles? Do we share the gospel only when it’s convenient and comfortable, or are we boldly proclaiming it to the watching world? Are we ready and eager to join the risen Christ’s global calling to proclaim the Gospel of grace?

Transcript

We study the books of the Bible here at The Village Chapel. We have extra copies. If you didn’t bring one with you, if somebody would get over here and just to grab a few to distribute. Anybody need a copy? Just raise your hand. If you do. There’s somebody coming up that aisle there, and maybe we can get somebody to go down the center aisle here. Thank you. By the way, a couple side roads: Yes. I’m not wearing a jacket today, and I’m not trying to start a church split or anything like that. It’s hot up here and I thought, well, maybe if I go sweater, you know, that’d be okay. And maybe I’d sound a little more like Alastair Bag without the Scottish accent. You know?

I’m so glad that we are starting today a brand-new book study, the book of Acts, if you will turn there in your Bibles. And, before we get started in the text, I want to thank the folks from around the world, actually, who joined us online last week. Some folks from London, I’m not sure that might be my friends in Southampton. But London, UK; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Sydney, Australia; and Fort Lee, New Jersey. So really glad to have had those folks join us sometime last week for either Bible study or the worship service. Let me pray for us before we get into the text: Holy spirit, as we now give attention to the Scriptures, come be our teacher, we pray. We place our minds under its truth, our wills under its authority, our hearts under its transforming power. Give us, we pray, a clearer vision of Your truth, a greater faith in Your power and a more confident assurance of Your love to us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen and Amen.

So, Acts, Chapter 1. Let’s look at verses one through eight first, and then I’ll come back and make some comments, give a little introduction to the book as well. Just want to read these first eight verses: “The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when He was taken up into heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles, whom He had chosen. To these He also presented Himself alive, after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. And gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, ‘Which,’ He said, ‘you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’

And so when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, ‘Lord, is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?’ He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or epochs which the father has fixed by his own authority; but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.’”

And that will be our reading for today. This is the Word of the Lord. And then you typically would say, “Thanks be to God.” Excellent, wonderful. When I was a teenager, I ran the half mile. You might not ever have guessed that looking at me, but I did run the half mile in Falls Church High School, track team in Northern Virginia. It was two laps around our school’s track course. I never won a race. I was small and ready. I had learned to run fast, though, because other people were big and strong. Eager runners like myself knew that the most embarrassing moment of a competition wasn’t really losing the race. It was just the beginning of the race. If you false start, it’s really embarrassing. It’s almost race time. You’ve trained, you’ve stretched, you’ve warmed up, you’ve centered and focused your mind. You stand in the blocks, your body leaning forward. Your heart is pounding inside you. You’re just. Everything is alive. And then you hear those words. On your marks. Get set. And every nerve in your body is screaming. Yeah.

But something happens to some people. Some of those times, if you jump out before the signal, you get disqualified. Not for being lazy, but for being overeager. And that’s so humiliating. Something similar occurred at the Olympics. Some of you may have seen this, but in the, 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, a 22-year-old swimmer named Eric Moussambani, he was nicknamed Eric the Eel as a swimmer. And he was from Equatorial Guinea, which is a little small country on the, western coast of Africa and sort of the middle of the continent. He famously won a 100-meter freestyle qualifying heat at the Sydney one, a Sydney 2000 Olympics. Here’s what happened on the other two swimmers in that heat. One from Niger, one from Tajikistan. And both of them jumped the gun and false started. Samba was the only one to swim in that qualifying heat of the race. Big irony is that he had just learned to swim at all. And he practiced at a hotel pool, had never even seen an Olympic pool. And there he was. He didn’t even have the full, tight skin suit thing. He just had on a pair of trunks. And there he was. But he waited for just the right time. The others, two disqualified swimmers, sulked away in defeat because they had been over eager.

The opening of Acts to me feels a little bit like that kind of moment. You could have jumped the gun, jump the start, if you will. And Jesus walks with the disciples for three-and-a-half years, and Jesus was arrested. Jesus died on the cross. He was buried. But three days later He was resurrected. He appeared to more than 500 people, teaching them and preparing them for what we read today. And his disciples are there with Him, likely on the Mount of Olives, because, as we’ll see in two Sundays, they come back from the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem. But Jesus walked with them all of that time and walked with them for 40 more days after He had resurrected, and He still felt like they weren’t quite ready. They still needed something else. He told them they wouldn’t be able to know everything, to understand everything. And I don’t know about you, but I relate to that. I want to know everything. I want all my questions answered. My last name is Thomas. I live up to that name. I question why really. All the time the disciples were emboldened, though, and they were eager and bold. And why? Well, because Jesus had gone from being a carpenter-turned-rabbi-turned-healer and preacher. He was that. That’s true. But he now had turned from all of that into someone who had actually risen from the dead. And for them, there’s a big difference. And of course, for us there is to if we stop and think about it.

And they knew their Old Testament in ways that we don’t. And they saw in Jesus the fulfillment of all of those messianic prophecies once He rose from the dead, His suffering, His cross, all of that made so much more sense to them. And it’s the only explanation we could ever have for this kind of command. From Jesus. “On your marks. Get set. Wait.” So, we’ll call the message that today, because that’s really essentially what Jesus says to them. Now, just a little bit of background on the book of Acts before we get going. We’re going to be in here for a while, 28 chapters. And we’ll be rotating our different pastors in to teach different sections. But who is the author of this book? It’s Luke. We know he’s a Gentile. How do we know that his name is not Jewish? So, to Jewish people, everybody who’s not a Jew is a Gentile, right? Whether you’re from Rome or whether you’re from the Far East or whether you’re from the north in Syria or wherever you’re from, you’re a Gentile. You’re not a Jew.

He’s a physician. We know that from Colossians, Chapter 4, verse 14, where the apostle Paul actually says that Luke is a physician. He writes, if you read the book and I’ve read it many times myself, I’ve taught it 2 or 3 times. He writes like a historian, a theologian, and so a physician, a historian. I feel there’s this guy who is like an ancient polymath. He really has knowledge, vast knowledge, working knowledge, in a lot of different categories. And so, I love Luke. I love that we’re getting to study his second volume here. And evidently, he’s a traveling companion of the apostle Paul. How do we know that? Well, in chapter 16, we’ll all see that instead of talking about “them” traveling, he will start saying “we” and “us.” As if he was on board the ship. As if he were going out with the apostle Paul on that trip. And so that’s really insightful. It helps us know just a little bit about it. According to most scholars, Luke is indeed the author of the book of Acts. Part of that you can see in the opening to Luke’s Gospel and compare it to the opening that we just read.

Here’s the opening to Luke’s Gospel: “Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the Word, it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus.” Interestingly, it’s addressed to the same person. The intro is addressed “so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.” Now that sounds like a doctor, a physician, a historian, a theologian who wants to explore and study and make sure he gets the facts right before he begins to compose whatever book it is he is writing back then in their time, ancient scrolls, papyri, or however they put it together. But the ancient scrolls could be as they found them, as long as like 32, 33ft long, but still not enough to get all of Luke’s gospel and all of the book of the Acts of the Apostles onto one scroll. As a matter of fact, those two books alone, if indeed Luke is the author of both of them, mean that Luke the Gentile is actually the author of the greatest volume of material in the New Testament.

Isn’t that interesting? As we come to a book that’s about the gospel spreading out into Gentile territory, that God would choose someone who is indeed a Gentile to write that? What else do we have here? What kind of literary genre is the book of Acts? Well, it’s historical narrative. See, the Bible is 66 books, but they are not all the same literary genre. Book of Psalms, for instance, is ancient Hebrew poetry. We have books like Exodus that contain a lot of commandments. We have books like Revelation that we would call apocalyptic literature. We have the four Gospels, which are their own category. They are, sort of the summary of the teachings and the actions and the ministry, the earthly ministry, of Jesus. But here we have a historical narrative. As you read it, you’ll see that it is more descriptive than prescriptive. What I mean by that is it is describing certain events that happened in space/time, history and geographical region, rather than something prescriptive, which is basically telling us, everyone see if you can’t get a mighty rushing wind going here in this room and make sure that there’s tongues of fire on every head.

No, it’s more descriptive of something that happened in space/time history in a geographical region at the church as it gets off the ground and it’s first started. It’s less prescriptive. Do this. Do this exactly this way, do this. Hey, we have other material that is prescriptive. So, I’m not saying there’s not such a thing as prescriptive material. It’s just Acts is descriptive. It’s more indicative than imperative. It indicates what happened. It’s not commanding us to do the exact same thing. In other words, I should, you know, Jim should now go and go around the Mediterranean and preach the Gospel in certain cities, but not in others. And we’ll even see that happen where the Spirit of Jesus tells the apostle Paul, don’t go into that region just yet. And so, it’s fascinating to see the Lord lead and guide in this beautiful, wonderful book that we call the book of Acts. And I don’t have my laser pointer with me, but I’m putting up on the screen here some of the geographical territory that we’ll cover as we study the book of Acts.

There are three of Paul’s missionary journeys that we will be reading about, but we’ll also be reading about some of the churches that he established, as you can see, on the bottom, sort of, center that Jerusalem is there. You can see it says, in that big blue mass there. And that’s really what they used to call the Mediterranean Sea. Okay. Some of you have been over there. Those of you who’ve been to Israel with us before understand what that means. You’ll see Syria and Antioch due north, up on the sort of, sort of before the land curves around to the left there. And you see the isle there as well. And in his first missionary journey, he’s going to go there. So, we’re going to read about a lot of these places, reminding us again that the Bible is not a fairy book about imaginary places. The Bible is a historical book. It’s a record that God has preserved for us about the actions of God. It’s really about God more than it is about us, but it’s about a God who’s in search of a people He can call His own. And this God that the Bible is describing, and this book where God reveals Himself to us, is actually Him saying, I want you. I’m calling to you, come to Me, all who are weary, all who are laboring, and you’ll find rest in Me.

And that’s all this striving, all this trying to balance out the moral scale stuff sets that aside, that symbols of the Christian faith are not a set of scales. Symbol of the Christian faith is the cross where Christ died for us, what we could never do for ourselves. And so that’s great news. And this book is all about the spread of the Gospel. You’ll see that. So let me summarize, if you don’t mind, five extraordinary events that take place in the book of Acts. We have the coming of the Holy Spirit. We’ll read about that in short order. We have the transformation of the fearful disciples into the faithful apostles. We have the birth and dramatic growth of the church in chapter two; 3000 souls will be added to the church right there in Jerusalem. In chapter four, we’ll actually read of either 2000 more or 5000 more, depending on how you read it and interpret it. But I mean, that’s explosive growth in the midst of the city. That is largely the context wherein Jesus was arrested, was tortured and put to death, and the religious authority authorities were against Him. And in that same context, you see, there is this explosive growth of the church itself. And then in addition to that, as we study through the book of Acts, we see the internal tension and external opposition to the church.

And that opposition is not just in Jerusalem, it’s around all around the Mediterranean Sea. Apostle Paul goes on these different missionary journeys, he literally gets run out of town. He starts preaching in the synagogues. And then the some of the folks in those synagogues get upset at him. They literally run him out of town, throw stones at him, hoping to kill him. And they’re seriously trying to oppose what he’s doing. He gets around into Gentile territory as well. And in Athens, he’s publicly mocked, even though they’re on Mars Hill, which is an amazing site to visit sometime if you ever get to go. He holds his own, does a great job as an apologist of the Christian faith. So, there’s also internal tension there. That internal tension will show up in the Ananias and Sapphira account in Acts, Chapter five. It’ll show up also when, for instance, Paul and Barnabas disagree about John Mark, which I found really interesting, and they end up dividing and going separate ways in the church in Syria, Syria and Antioch, which I showed you on the map there. They actually send them out as two different missionary teams. So, what the devil meant for bad, in splitting Paul and Barnabas a little bit on the subject of John Mark, ends up in two missionary teams going out and we, all of us here, know, while all of what you see up on the map there is, is over in the Mediterranean, all that sort of thing.

The call of Jesus that we read there in verse eight is to go to preach the Gospel in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the Earth. And that’s Nashville right over there on that screen. Okay. That’s us. And so, we’re recipients of that. That’s really beautiful. So, the other events in the book of Acts that are quite amazing or would be just a general wildfire like spread of the Gospel around the Roman Empire. Christianity sweeps the Roman Empire without drawing a sword, without shooting a bow and arrow. It’s remarkable how fast this message spreads. So, what do we learn from verses one through eight? I’m going to summarize it this way: They have a new master. It’s the risen Savior. He’s new in a way. They didn’t ever understand Him. And so, if you’re here today and you’ve been you’ve been in the West for a long, long time. You’ve heard the story of Christianity in general or spirituality in general, or Christian-like spirituality or whatever. I want to just turn the light on as the book of Acts will do. The resurrected Christ. And the reason I say that this is because there are 24 sermons, or some of them will call sermon. That’s because they’re really brief, but all 24 of them mention the resurrection of Jesus.

You see, this is what one of the things about the Christian faith that is so different from any other religion. Our Savior came. He was the Son of God. He chose to. He didn’t owe it to us. We didn’t deserve it. We don’t have a claim on Him. He came for us. He invaded part of His own creation and came for us. And that’s mind blowing in and of itself. But that He died for us in our place. And then mind blowing further, and this is one of the reasons I think this Gospel spread like it did, He got back up from the grave, defeating our last and greatest enemy, death itself. So, Jesus, they’re seeing Jesus in a brand-new light after the resurrection. Nothing else can explain what happened. The apostle Paul would write about it in Colossians one. He said, “He [Jesus] is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent.” That’s awesome. Maybe it sounds like legalese to you. Maybe it sounds like religious terminology. Jesus first, Jesus first, above all other things in our lives. Right? And His resurrection qualifies and puts Him in a different category from everything else sui generis.

He is. There’s none, there’s nobody else like Him. And when we put Him first, it makes us better husbands, wives, neighbors, citizens, sons, daughters, mothers, fathers. Why? Because of what? Jesus first and all of who He is. His life starting to blossom inside of us. Really beautiful, wonderful thing. The resurrection was not just an appendix to the apostles preaching. It really was central to their preaching. And so, you have, I think there are nine sermons by Paul, eight by the apostle Peter. But the first one we read in a week or a couple weeks, actually, is the apostle Peter. And it’s really powerful. And the response to it is certainly quite amazing. So, they have this new look at their Savior. Secondly, they have a new mission, and their mission is no longer just Israel, just here in and around Jerusalem. As a matter of fact, it would have been quite shocking to them in verse eight when Jesus says, you’re going to be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea. That all sounds great, because, you know, Jerusalem, man, that’s like the capital city of their religion.

That’s a “We get to work in downtown?” You know, that’s awesome. In the big city where everything’s happening. Yeah, yeah. You do. Yeah, yeah. But then take it out into the suburbs as well. You know, Judea, you know, going on long around there. And you see, the Judea is the southern third of Israel in that time. In the middle was this place called Samaria, where all the Samaritans live, and the Samaritans and the Jews hated each other. This was like the other side of the railroad tracks up north, the north. The third is Galilee. Those of you who have been over there, you understand what this is, right? The Sea of Galilee. And Tiberius is up there. And if you visit, you’ve stayed there in Tiberias, and you’ve driven all around there where Jesus had His ministry, His earthly ministry, out of there in large part. But Samaria was a place Jews would walk around it just to not get their feet dirty with Samaritan dirt, you know. And Samaritans hated them as well. There was this animosity, religious prejudice, racial prejudice, all that stuff.

That’s true for Jesus to say you’re going to be my witnesses in Jerusalem. Yes. Did you hear? Yes. It’s Samaria that would have fallen flat to them. And we would know that we’re not the people that would be aware of that kind of animosity between those groups. But you got to see that here in verse eight. And then He went even further. He went not just because the Samaritans were essentially half Jewish, half Gentile, okay? They were they were sort of the remnant of what happened after 722 BC when the when the Assyrians literally captured all the northern ten tribes and took them all away. And then some of them trickled back in, but they had intermarried with all these Gentiles, and they came back in and formed what’s what we call or what was called Samaria back then. And so, for the Jews, they weren’t pure blooded Jewish. And for Jesus to say let’s include them would have been shocking to these disciples. But now he goes a step further. Jerusalem. Yes. Judea. Yes, Samaria. You’re the past, and the uttermost parts of the Earth. No, this would really have been quite offensive in some people’s minds back then.

He wants them, as Sinclair Fergusson points out, to go from being centric, centripetal, that is where everything moves to the center, to be more centrifugal, where everything moves out. So that’s just a come-and-see faith. It’s a go-and-tell faith now, see, just like at the tomb, right? “Come and see where He lay. Then go and tell His disciples.” And then it kind of goes on from there. So, the new mission, it’s global. It’s global. I love that we’re a part, a little tiny, tiny, teensy weensy little part, of that in our in our giving, our financial giving. We have 40 missionaries and missions organizations that we support that are out on the mission field all around the world. Some of them are local. Yes. They’re about 15 local ones or so. Then the rest are just all over the globe – justice, mercy, and evangelism. But the work that they do in all parts of the world, some parts of the world that are really, really hard, difficult places to live as a Christian. And I’m so glad that when I put my money in the offering or make a contribution to the ministry. This church goes to help in those areas and mercy work where it’s providing food, clothing, medicine, essential needs to people right?

I’m so glad to be a part of that myself. I encourage you to be a part of it as well. But this is what the Lord wants us to do. Not just sit around navel gazing and not just come in here and congratulate each other on the new sweater I’m wearing or whatever. That’s really wonderful, isn’t it? Somebody came in and said to me, yeah, how nice it was. And did you dress yourself? Today is what they said. And it is true that I often take my outfits to my consultant. And I say to my consultant, who has been with me for 47 years, you like this? Is this okay? But this work and, Tony and I were talking earlier, you usually love it. She’s so gracious, so nice, so kind of help me when she’s got her own thing to take care of and all that sort of thing. But every now and then, I don’t consult her. And those are the fun times when it’s like, more like her coaching is put in the form of a question: “You going to wear that?” Or if she’s really trying to stop me, it’s “You’re really going to wear on that? Is that really what you’re going to wear?” You know, but I love and appreciate so much that she does all of that. And I have no idea why I got off on that tangent there. So, forgive me. New mission, global calling.

And we want to go and reach the world for the Gospel. And I tell you what, I’ll tell you this is so true. If I had to wear a clown suit to reach the world, I would do it. That’s what’s important to me. We have life giving messages in the Gospel. Why would we not want to? If you really love your family members, your coworkers, your neighbors that aren’t believers, if you really love them, why wouldn’t you want them to know Jesus? Your calling is now global. It’s not just to Nashville only. And thirdly, new message, which is the gospel of grace. So, here’s the message. You’re all sinners and Jesus has come and done everything necessary for you to be reconciled to a holy and righteous God, and not just you’re all sinners. We’re all sinners. And Jesus has done everything necessary to reconcile us to a holy and righteous God. That’s such great news. It’s so much better than thinking first in terms of the scales, thinking first in terms of unfurling the religious rulebook, you know, and thinking first about do you did you get your life together before you come to Jesus? You know what? He is so gracious. His arms are open wide. He does not have wagging fingers. He has open arms to welcome you in. But you must come. You must respond. You must, as the Bible puts it, you must repent and believe. That’s how Jesus actually put it. That’s how John the Baptist actually put it. Repent and believe the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

In other words, the time is now. God is bringing in His new kingdom. It’s going to unfold over time, through the church period of time. And then one day we’re so excited about the Lord returning. The New Testament talks about that over 200 times. So, there’s references all over the place to Jesus returning to set the world right. Is there something wrong with the world? Yes, there is. You’re hiding under a rock if you don’t think there is. I look in the mirror, and I know something’s wrong in the world. But I listen to the news. And I know stuff’s wrong in the world. I drive on the highway. And I know stuff is wrong in the world. It’s easy. It’s the most provable aspect of the Christian faith that something is wrong in this world. What will set it right? More education, more money, the right political party? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. A work where our hearts are transformed and changed. We humble ourselves before a gracious God who hasn’t just unfurled the rules for us to follow, but who has come Himself and put salvation on offer as a free gift. Who wouldn’t want that? And that’s good news. That’s the message we have to share, right?

Just a little bit more. I’m going to go right to this because the importance of the Holy Spirit in this passage is so true. If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95% of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference if the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church that we’re about to read about the study, about 95% of what they did would stop and everybody would know the difference. Now, I couldn’t find the original source on that quote, but it has been attributed to Tozer for years and years, and it sounds a lot like Tozer. But whoever said it’s a little sobering, isn’t it? 95% of what we do in modern churchianity would just keep on rolling, because to some extent, we’ve reduced ourselves to social clubs and to sort of another entertainment venue. Nothing wrong with having social events, nothing wrong with being entertained. I’m not saying that, but what makes the church? What is distinct about the church? And what is our mission and our message?

Those are important things. Tozer is right on it there, but some of us aren’t equipped with that. We haven’t actually stopped like these disciples. They spent three-and-a-half years walking with Jesus. They spent 40 days, post-resurrection, with Jesus. And they’re still not ready. Why? Because they have to wait for the Holy Spirit to move upon them and in them and through them. And that’s where we see, these three Greek prepositions describing the work of the Holy Spirit, “para” the Spirit with us, comforting, guiding, convicting, leading in the spirit in us. New life, new heart, new identity. I need all of that, especially in an era where identity is so confused. See, identity is, in biblical terms, a gift given, not something that the burden, the onus is on us to discover a gift given. You see how that takes all the pressure off of you? Takes all the pressure off of me. It’s a gift given by God, and the Holy Spirit comes upon us. The Holy Spirit works in us, and then the Holy Spirit also works as it says there at that last one, up there the spirit upon us, and with boldness, witness power for mission. So, it’s the Spirit with us, the Spirit in us, and the Spirit upon us. And we’ll see that throughout the book of Acts, all three of those come into play. Paul Tripp says you need to wait some. Sometimes we need to wait on the Lord. Be quiet and wait on the Lord. Be still. Let Him minister.

It’s vital to understand that waiting isn’t an interruption of God’s plan. It is His plan. And you can know this as well. The Lord has called you to wait. Is with you in your wait. Raise your hand if you hate waiting. And my hands are both up. Okay? Do you hate waiting? I hate waiting, you know, I gotta go to have my car worked on. The guy says, “I’ll call you in two hours, let you know what’s up.” The day goes by. Nothing. The next day I call at the opening hour. “Hey, can you just give me an update? What’s up?” And I had to leave a voice message and was promised he’d get right back to me. Waiting, waiting. Wait. A week goes by. Yeah, and I finally get the car back. Is that frustrating to you? Maybe you get in line at Costco in the short express lane at a grocery store or something, and the person in front of you, instead of ten items, only has 30 items and a fistful of coupons, and you’re all of a sudden going to be waiting for like, an hour in line behind somebody that’s causing you to wait. I hate waiting, but sometimes the Lord wants to do stuff in us and through us as we’re waiting. And we need to not waste our waiting.

The quiet. Oh, listen to this. The quiet obedience of these disciples in Chapter one leads to the explosive evangelism of Acts. Chapter two. As a matter of fact, every time God moves in really big ways, it’s usually preceded by people who have given themselves to the quietness of prayer. And we’re going to see that throughout Acts as well. “God is both the goal of our journey,” McGrath says, “and the means by which we find Him. We come to the Father through the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit.” That’s why we pray prayers of illumination with each of our sermons. Here at The Village Chapel, we know that we can open this book and we can get some information, but we want more than that. We want inspiration. We want more than that too, we want transformation, and see, only the Holy Spirit can do that. And so, we need the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is mentioned almost 60 times in the book of Acts, and all the charismatics said? We don’t have very many charismatics here. Maybe we need some, you know. But I mean that that’s awesome that He’s mentioned so much there.

All right. Let me close with this little story here. And by the way, this is one of those books. Please read ahead every week. Just go on ahead. Pastor Tommy is up next week, and he’ll be doing just the next three verses, so I know you can do it. I know, c’mon kids. I know you can do it. Yeah. It’s such an amazing book. I’m so excited that we’re studying it. And I know it will inform, inspire and encourage you in your faith as it has me and many millions of other students. C.T. Studd, some of you have heard of him, was converted as a young man through the preaching of D.L. Moody, and I know probably a few more of you have heard of D.L. Moody, big preacher in the 19th century. C.T. Studd became one of the legendary Cambridge Seven, a young a group of young men from, some of the elite universities who gave up promising careers to serve as missionaries in China with Hudson Taylor’s China Inland Mission. Their decision shocked Victorian England inspired a generation of missionary candidates. So, as we begin our study of the book of Acts, which is all about the missionary movement of the Gospel spreading around the Mediterranean, I wanted to close with this quote from C.T Studd, and it’s lengthy so we put it into two slides.

Okay. “Christ’s call is to save the lost, not the stiff-necked; He came not to call scoffers but sinners to repentance; not to build and furnish comfortable chapels, churches, and cathedrals at home in which to rock Christian professors to sleep by means of clever essays, stereotyped prayers, and artistic musical performances, but to capture men [I love this] from the devil’s clutches and the very jaws of Hell. This can be accomplished only by a red-hot, unconventional, unfettered devotion, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to the Lord Jesus Christ.” Can we do that? Yeah, I think we can, because this same Jesus is still reigning. You know, there’s several titles for this book. Lot of theologians call it different books. You know, the Acts of the Apostles. And then some people call it the Acts of the Holy Spirit, actually, the Holy Spirit in the apostles.

And it’s there’s all kinds of different titles. I like John Stott’s: “Since this is all about what Jesus began to do and teach, Acts is about what Jesus continued to do and teach through the power of the Holy Spirit and in the lives of the apostles and the church.” So, we want to do that. This same Jesus is still reigning. His same spirit is still empowering us, and it’s the same mission ahead of us, isn’t it? Not to innovate a new gospel, but to bear faithful witness to our Savior and King, the resurrected Jesus carrying the message to the ends of the Earth in humble dependance on the Holy Spirit in obedience to Christ. With love in our hearts for everyone, we go and speak with a man. Let’s pray: Lord, thank You for this passage. So excited to study this book. I pray, Holy Spirit, that You’ll be with us in it and that You will be transforming us in it. And Lord, that some parts of Nashville will be impacted by our studying this book and perhaps some parts of England that we mentioned earlier, and perhaps some parts of Canada, some parts of Australia, some parts of Fort Lee, New Jersey will be impacted as we study the book of the Acts of the Apostles over the next few months. I pray this in Jesus’ name for His sake, for his glory. Amen and amen.

Songs, Readings & Prayer

Songs:

“A Mighty Fortress Is Our God“ by A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
“Rejoice“ Words and Music by Keith Getty, Kristyn Getty, Ben Shive, Skye Peterson, and Bryan Fowler
“Speak O Lord“ by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend
“I Will Wait For You (Psalm 130)“ by Jordan Kauflin, Keith Getty, Matthew Merker, and Stuart Townend
“Doxology” by Thomas Ken and Louis Bourgeois
All songs are used by Permission. CCLI License #2003690

Call To Worship: To God Be the Glory

Leader: To our God and Father be glory forever and ever!
People: My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.

Leader: To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever.
People: I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

All: To our God and Father be glory forever and ever! Amen!

Classic Prayer: John Bailie

O Thou in whose boundless being are laid up all treasures of wisdom and truth and holiness, grant that through constant fellowship with Thee the true graces of Christian character may more and more take shape within my soul: The grace of a thankful and uncomplaining heart: The grace to await Thy leisure patiently and to answer Thy call promptly: The grace of courage, whether in suffering or in danger: The grace of boldness in standing for what is right: The grace of silence, that I may refrain from hasty speech: The grace of forgiveness towards all who have wronged me: And now, O God, give me a quiet mind. Dwell in my thoughts. Let me not be fretted by any anxiety over the lesser interests of life. And in my tasks of each day, to Thy Name be all the glory.

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