01.04.2009 The Acts of the Apostles - Introduction

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Some facts and figures to consider:
2 Billion who consider themselves Christians
39,000 denominations -
4 Million known churches – not counting the underground/secret churches.
390 Billion dollars given to churches and mission organizations per year.
12 million people on staff.
In the US – 350,000 churches
59% have less than 100 adults.
Here is the best one that I came across
6.5 million Christian book TITLES. – Not copies – Titles.

The reason I say all this – not to impress with statistics – but, to show how immense Christianity is in the world and that it all began with a tiny band of commoners.

At the time, no one knew much about them. We will look at those believers – those first Christians – and how they changed the world and how it is still changed today.

Father, we thank You – thank You, Lord, that before us have gone many faithful believers who have sacrificed dearly and have affected the world forever. Your gospel has changed the world forever. Teach us – in a world that seems to be falling apart – we think of the Gaza strip – we ask for peace. It seems like it won’t happen; we live in a violent world. Governments won’t solve the problems of this world – we need You. We are weak, fallen people who need God – we are not adequate for this task – but You have made us adequate. You have given us what we need to accomplish what You need on this earth. Change us. May we leave here a little different today.

Today – I’ll be giving you an introduction to the Book of Acts – the Acts of the Apostles – that is the official title. This will almost take us to Easter. In the Bible – the thing about the Titles – those were added later. Luke didn’t add the title. Luke just wrote- like a letter. It has been called – the Acts of the Apostles. That is a little misleading. If you were going to your Bible for the first time – I had no Bible background until later high school years – this is not what I expected. You would think this would be about the Acts of the 12 Apostles. Except for maybe 1 or 2 – many are never mentioned again – in the rest of the book. There is a section about Peter. John is mentioned a couple of times – but it is mostly about Paul – who was later named an Apostle. Maybe the title ought to be Some Acts of a Couple of Apostles. But that wouldn’t make a great title. But what you will see – much of the foundation – the great work of the church has been accomplished by unnamed followers of Christ. People like you. That is the point Luke is trying to make. There are a lot of unnamed people who did a lot more than Paul and Peter.

Today is a lot of information – but I’ll give you an application at the end. We will look at sections – not verse by verse.
Luke is the writer of the Book of Acts.
Acts 1:1 The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach,
Luke – at the beginning of the book – Have you seen a TV show – where they say, “Previously, on ER…”
Well – this is like Luke II – the second show – the sequel. In the Bible, you can count on the sequel being just as good as the original.

The end of Luke is a mirror image of the beginning of the book of Acts.

Luke 24: 45 Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and He said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day; 47 and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 "You are witnesses of these things. 49 "And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high." 50 And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. 51 And it came about that while He was blessing them, He parted from them. 52 And they returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53 and were continually in the temple, praising God.

There are three things Jesus says – which will be repeated in acts.

1 – Jesus said these things over and over again – First – He is alive. I am not dead – I am alive.
2 - 47 – Repentance should be proclaimed – the mission of the church – the Great Commission – the preaching of forgiveness of sins to all the world.
In those 40 days – He is alive – and now you have a job.
3 – 49 – Over and over He said this – I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high."

This is the holy Spirit.
I am alive
You have a job to do
I will give you the Holy Spirit to accomplish this job.

Back to Acts 1 – 1-8 – all of the major themes of the book of Acts are given. We will look at these the rest of the way through. It is like the introduction to a book – he uses the stories of the early church and explains them.

Acts 1:1 The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when He was taken up, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen. 3 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. 4 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; 5 for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. " 6 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?" 7 He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; 8 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.

There are five themes we will look at;
Acts 1:1 The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach,

Even though Jesus is in heaven – His work has not stopped. We should probably have called Acts, “The Acts of Jesus Christ.”

This is the work of the Kingdom of God. It now includes the Gentile world. The Jews looked at the Kingdom and thought it was just for them.

Third – the theme of the Holy Spirit and how He works in our lives.

Fourth – the work the disciples are given –
you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.
First section – Jerusalem/Judea – Second Samaria – and then the remotest parts.

Theme statement for the book – The continuing work of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit through the Disciples. –
Purpose – o help us become a community empowered by the Holy Spirit to do the work of Christ in our world.

We want to become an Acts kind of church – a New Testament kind of church. This is not something new we have discovered. We need to become like them in as many ways as we can – we can develop the atmosphere, the mission – the character – of those churches in our church here. We need to become what God is teaching through the book.

God is the central character of the book – not Paul, not Peter, but God.

I will break down these passages so we have a better understanding and can move through the rest of the book.

Acts 1:4-5, Jesus talks about the coming of the Spirit.

In the Old Testament – the disciples would have recognized – when they came out of Egypt, God had promised them a kingdom – they came into Israel and it was His Kingdom for His people. That is why we have this going on today – that area has been a battleground through all history. Israel gets taken out, and Israel takes it back… at the end of the Old Testament we see them beginning to come back. But then, the Romans came in – but, they were living there. They are waiting for this Kingdom to come. With the kingdom should come an outpouring of the Holy Spirit – Ezekiel, Joel – the Spirit is coming and this kingdom will be coming. So that is why they ask this question –
Lord, is it at this time You will be restoring the Kingdom to Israel?

They were thinking of a political Kingdom – Jesus, with the power of the resurrection will drive out the Romans. That is what they were looking for. They were misguided. They were looking for an immediate kingdom. But Jesus puts it to rest –

It is not for you to know the times of epochs –
“You’ve had it wrong all along and we are not discussing it anymore.” That is what Jesus is saying – this subject is finished – it is not your business.

BUT – You will receive POWER when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…

This kingdom is first a spiritual kingdom. The power you have is not to conquer, but to witness and share the power of his resurrection. This is an international kingdom – not just to Israel. It is not an immediate kingdom, but a gradual kingdom. This gospel message takes time – and for over 2000 years it has been filling the world.

The next thing we see – the Holy Spirit is mentioned 3 times in 8 verses. That is significant. The spirit was new to these guys – they will be learning some new things about the way the spirit works.

The Holy Spirit is the One who directs and leads the church. Yes, there are human representatives – but the leader is the Holy Spirit. I am not the leader of Grace Summit Community Church – the Holy Spirit has to guide each church. The Holy Spirit was directing all along. He must be the leader of the church – the One who guides.

The next thing we see – the Holy Spirit comes to empower us – to accomplish the mission. That is the primary reason we receive power. Not just for power, but to be His witnesses.

How does that Power change us? Think of Peter – He was afraid to speak – and we’ll see next week how he becomes bold.

Third – we see how the Holy Spirit creates this community, the church.

So – Here are the issues
First – how the Church is empowered
Fulfill its mission
Life transforming community
Structure how the church should operate.
Theology in the book of Acts.

It is built around Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria – the Remotest part of the earth

There are 23 speeches in this book – Luke took each of these speeches and builds around them – in them we are given the Theology.

What I would like to do in closing – give an application
There is the ascension – and the disciples go to Jerusalem…
Acts 1: 12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away. 13 And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying; that is, 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. 14 These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with [the] women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.

Here they list all the apostles – and about the last we hear of many of them…

So what we have – a ten day period – from ascension on day 40 to Pentecost on day 50 – and these 120 people – men and women alike – devoted to prayer. To experience the power of the Holy Spirit – we need a community that is continually united in prayer. In America, there are not enough churches that are doing that. That is what you see, though, in the book of Acts. We want all the decorations of the Book of Acts – we have our meetings and teaching and fellowship – but what we see – these people were coming together with one purpose – to pray. That is convicting because that is not the heartbeat of most churches in general.

The Spiritual History of a church is written in its prayer life.
The spiritual history of our lives can be seen in our prayer life.
This book is all about what God is doing. The disciples, and the church – are driven – like this video clip – this guy is in need.
The reality for many – we are only driven to God when something goes wrong – they were driven to God for a purpose – united together – I challenge us to that.

Lord, as we look forward to becoming a church empowered by Your spirit to accomplish Your work in this world, help us to go into the new year, as a church, committed individually and corporately to change. To let You be the leader of this church and our lives in every way – in Your name we pray, amen.