New Mission

Good morning, everyone. It's great to be with you in person on this as we kick off our new series in the Book of Acts.

And if you've never met me before, either in person or here on the screen, my name is Steve Jeffers.

I'm the senior pastor here at St. Paul's.

And it's great to be regathering again for those who are able to do that.

So if you've got, as Nick had indicated, if you've got a Bible in front of you, if you've got the St. Paul's app, that would be fantastic.

I've got an outline for today's talk there in front of you, and then you help you to follow along.

So let me pray, and then we're going to launch straight into Acts chapter 1 and set the scene for us for this series.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

Gracious God, we thank you for every life and for every life that is tuned in now to your word.

We pray as we look at your word in front of us today, but also in the coming weeks, as we look at the Book of Acts, we ask that you would shape our lives.

Help us to get a big vision of what you are doing in your world.

God, the work that you have been doing for centuries and are continuing to do now in all the confusion and the chaos of our world right now,

that you are still working, transforming and changing lives.

And we pray that you would change our lives.

Align us as individuals, as a church, to your great storyline.

Amen.

So, Lord, we pray that you would mercifully send your spirit and do your work through your word.

Amen.

Edward Lorenz was a physicist working in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1960s on the computer modelling of weather systems.

He devised a program which, once you typed in certain data, it could kind of predict what the weather pattern was going to be.

However, one day in his work, he typed in the wrong data.

He made a mistake.

It wasn't a big mistake.

He meant to type in a six-digit number, 0.506127, but instead he only typed in a three-digit number, 0.506.

It's a very small error, really.

I mean, you know, my calculations with the tape measure, I wouldn't even notice it.

It's one in one thousandths of a difference, really.

He didn't think it would make that much of a difference to the outcome,

but he decided to test it anyway, what the difference would be.

This is what he went on to describe.

It's as if a tiny atmospheric disturbance in China,

no greater than the beat of a butterfly's wing,

a week or so later becoming a Force 12 hurricane in New York.

That's how big the difference was.

And his discovery became known as the butterfly effect.

When something very small, something very minute, minor,

grows and grows and grows in its impact.

Now, what could be depressing for us is that on the most part for us as people,

there's no butterfly effect in our lives magnifying the little contribution that we as individuals make to history.

Most of us have to face the fact that we will drop the little pebbles of our lives into the turbulent oceans of world events,

and in no time at all, it will bear no trace of us ever existing.

It doesn't take long.

It's kind of depressing, really.

It's kind of depressing way to start a sermon.

And it's depressing, particularly for two major areas in life or stages in life.

When you are old and you see the end realized, the fact of it ends coming sooner rather than later,

and you realize, well, will I be remembered?

But also for a younger generation that have grown up and heard consistently the words said to them,

you can make a difference.

You can change the world.

You can be who you want to be and change the world.

And there's a whole generation of young people growing up with the assumption that they are world changers

until they leave university and sit at a desk and realize that it doesn't happen so fast as they would imagine.

And so that's for most of us.

There's not a butterfly effect amplifying the contribution that we make in history.

But not so with Jesus Christ.

He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman.

He grew up in still another village.

He worked in a carpenter shop in obscurity until he was about 30 years of age.

Then for three years, he was a traveling preacher.

Never wrote a book.

Never held an office.

Never had a family.

Never owned a house.

He never went to university.

Never traveled more than 300 kilometers from the place where he was born.

He never did the things that we associate with greatness.

And he was only 33 when the tide of public opinion turned against him.

His friends ran away.

He was handed over to his enemies.

He was nailed to a cross, crucified, executed between two thieves

because he was regarded as a criminal himself and he was laid in a borrowed grave.

Wasn't needing it for very long.

2,000 years later, right across the globe, penetrating all kinds of people, groups and cultures,

this world is still enthralled by him.

All the armies that have ever marched, all the navies that have ever sailed,

all the parliaments that have ever sat, all the kings that have ever reigned,

put them all together and they're not even close to the impact on humanity

as the one solitary life of Jesus Christ.

The ripples of the life, the death, the resurrection, the ascension of Jesus Christ of Nazareth

have increased in amplitude and expanded in diameter right across the globe

in every culture and people group and nation for centuries.

That is what the book of Acts is about.

It's where we see it starting to move on.

And that is what makes Acts so relevant to us today.

The point here is that when you plug your one solitary obscure life into God's mission in Jesus Christ,

you plug yourself into eternal life and hope and value and significance and joy,

increasingly so forever.

That's the point.

So to make that point, I've got four points.

And if you've got your app in front of you, you can open it up and follow along with me.

Four points.

God's mission, power for God's mission, weakness and the advance of God's mission

and fourthly, living for God's mission.

So first of all, God's mission.

And I'll spend more time on this one than on the others.

What is God's mission?

What is his storyline?

What is his view, his worldview, if you like?

And God's worldview, his storyline has four main chapters to it.

First is creation.

In Genesis 1, right at the beginning of the Bible,

the God who stands outside of all of creation, who always existed,

created all things by speaking them into existence, such is the power of his word.

He made the first people, Adam and Eve, in his image.

And all people from Adam and Eve are bearers of the image of God,

which gives us a special dignity.

The great American theologian, Jonathan Edwards, wrote that the only reason that God would have

for creating us, humanity and all that exists,

is not in order for this God, this creator, to get cosmic love and joy and relationship with his creation,

but to impart it to his creation, that we might experience his cosmic love and joy.

And the storyline of the Bible contains the only storyline across every culture throughout all of humanity,

the history of humanity, the only storyline,

where the divine creator of all that exists creates in order to impart love and joy to his creation,

not to extract it.

That's chapter one of God's storyline.

Chapter two is the fall, Genesis three.

The first people decide to reject God's love and rule and do things their way.

And all people have followed suit in living life with no consideration with God whatsoever.

And as a result, all relationships are cosmically fractured.

Our special dignity as image bearers of God means that God holds us rightly so,

especially accountable for our rejection of him, all people.

And in his judgment in the early bits of the Bible in Genesis chapter 11,

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

is to scatter people from his presence across the earth,

confusing their languages and their cultures,

so that we as humanity cannot work together in order to collectively oppose God.

That's chapter two.

Chapter three is that God has got a plan to reverse all of that.

God's plan of redemption begins with a promise to Abraham in the very next chapter in Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

And the promise is that all the peoples of the earth are going to be blessed through Abraham

and through Abraham brought back to God in relationship with him.

And it's a plan that he's worked out through history.

So I'm fast forwarding a lot here.

Still read the Old Testament, fast forwarding a whole lot here.

This is how Galatians 3 in the New Testament puts it.

You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.

Your trust in Jesus Christ means that you inherit all of Abraham's plans and purposes,

or God's plans and purposes to bring everything blessing through Abraham.

Jesus is the one who takes the judgment of God for our sin, for rejecting God,

the punishment that we deserve.

He dies the death that we should have died,

but he rose victorious over sin.

And everyone who puts their faith in the cosmic Lord Jesus is gathered back into relationship with God.

And what Jesus does from that moment is he forms the new people of God,

forms a new community, a new humanity that lives as it's meant to live

under the rule of the cosmic Lord Jesus.

It's called the church.

The former dividing walls of hostility between people have been broken down.

As a result of his work of reconciling people to God and to each other,

Jesus calls his church to take this good news of reconciliation to the ends of the earth

and to make disciples for the cosmic Lord Jesus from every people group and nationality and culture.

And this is what we're seeing the beginning of here in the book of Acts.

We start to see that plan being unfolded in front of us.

Chapter 4 of God's storyline is not the end of the story.

It's the beginning of a chapter that has no ending.

It's a chapter where God reigns forever.

There's no longer any carnage or evil and sin.

Revelation chapter 5, we get a glimpse of how God brings history to its ultimate goal.

Revelation 5 · chapter mention

It was God's design in the death of Jesus Christ to ransom from every kind of race and language and people and nation

to make a people for himself.

And these people would have one king.

That is that they would live with Jesus as their supreme treasure and Lord.

Jesus is the one who unites all people.

God's big plan for all of time and eternity and space is for people to come under the authority of Jesus

and turn to him in faith and repentance and enjoy his cosmic love.

Forever, increasingly so.

And the book of Acts is saying, conform your life to that storyline.

Live for that storyline.

Be involved in the work that God is doing in this world.

The only work that will last forever.

So as we open up the beginning of Acts, we're in chapter 3 of God's storyline.

Chapter 4 is yet to come.

We're still in chapter 3 ever since Jesus was here and until he comes back again.

And did you notice there, as Nick read it out to us, in chapter 1, verse 1, it says,

In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach.

The word began there is the key word in understanding the relevance of this book for us right now, today.

What Luke stresses here is that what Jesus did on earth 2,000 years ago was the beginning of his doing and his teaching.

And the clear implication is that now, now that Jesus has ascended, as we are told here in Acts 1,

and sits at the right hand of the Father, ruling all that is, he's not done.

His work is not finished.

He's not dead.

He's not absent.

He's alive in his presence.

Jesus is continuing to build his church by drawing people into his cosmic love and joy as his family.

Wherever people come under the authority of his name and receive his forgiveness of sins,

trust in his power, they get their obscure lives plugged into his eternal spirit.

He's not a story line.

You see, the fact that Jesus is alive, the fact that he's ascended and he's seated and ruling all things,

gives purpose to our solitary lives.

He is the one changing the world one life at a time forever and he includes us in that.

He invites us to be part of it.

So I think that Luke's desire here is for the unfolding message of Acts to have a transforming impact on our lives.

He wants us to be part of what God is doing in the universe now as what he's always been doing in the universe.

You see, Acts is a two-part book, if you like.

It's part of a two-part book.

It's a second part of a two-volume work.

It's part of a two-part book, written by Luke, a first-century doctor.

The Gospel of Luke and this book of Acts go together as one work, one piece of literature,

and they are both addressed to a man named Theophilus.

Theophilus is most likely a Roman aristocrat because Luke addresses him as your excellency at the beginning of his gospel.

And so Luke could well be writing both Luke and Acts to inform an educated Gentile

of the extraordinary spread of the Christian faith across the Roman Empire

and to convince this man of its extraordinary truth

so that this man is drawn into it

and despite his aristocracy and the important part he might play in the Roman Empire

to show him there is something greater for his life to be included in,

something much more significant for him to give himself to.

something much more important.

See, Luke goes to enormous lengths in his gospel

to show us that Jesus Christ rose from the dead in bodily form.

Not just an idea, not just a concept, but physically rose from the dead.

It says in Acts 1 verse 3,

Acts 1:3

after his suffering, that is his trial and his death,

he showed himself to these men, his disciples,

and gave many convincing proves,

many convincing proves that he is alive.

He appeared to them over a period of 40 days

and spoke about the kingdom of God.

You see, we are called here in the book of Acts to be witnesses to the gospel,

the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ,

and you cannot be an authentic instrument in the hands of the living and the reigning Jesus Christ

if you don't think he's alive.

If you just think he's a great idea,

you cannot be an effective witness.

You must know that he is alive and he is reigning right now over everything,

even the things we don't understand.

Reigning as Lord of the universe of all time and space is in his hands.

I mean, you need to be profoundly persuaded

that Jesus has broken the power of death

and that he is alive and alive with indestructible life.

He will never die again.

He hasn't been resuscitated.

He's been resurrected.

Never to be defeated.

And his kingdom is unstoppable.

His storyline will advance.

You need to be profoundly, profoundly convicted of that.

It's so important to constantly come back again and again and again

to the death and resurrection of Jesus,

to God's mission in this world

so that our lives are constantly realigned with him and his work.

Because we get so easily distracted by our own storylines

and our own missions and agendas.

The disciples are no different.

The apostles are confused.

Verse 6.

Verse 6.

Their vision is so small.

Lord,

are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?

Like, that's it.

They're thinking of their homes and their villages and stuff.

And Jesus' mission is global.

You see, they, you know,

don't entirely blame these guys, right?

I mean, they're as narrow-minded as we are.

They knew that the Old Testament promise

of the outpouring of God's spirit

was a promise for the last days

when God would establish his kingdom on earth

and restore his people.

And so their question is,

Jesus, is this it now?

You know, is that time come?

Will Jesus bring down the final curtain of history,

beat up the Roman Empire,

re-establish the kingdom as it used to be,

take Israel to its glory days

and reign over all creation

with Israel at the top of the pile?

And Jesus corrects their thinking in verse 7

and then instructs them to basically,

guys, lift your eyes.

Lift your eyes to a much bigger storyline,

a much bigger plan.

He's saying your primary concern

is not the restoration of national Israel,

but your primary concern

is to receive the Holy Spirit,

God dwelling in you,

that you might fulfill the task

that I have given you,

my plan for all things.

Have a look at verse 8.

But you receive power

when the Holy Spirit comes on you

and you will be my witnesses.

This is the reason why you get the Holy Spirit.

You will be my witnesses

in Jerusalem,

Judea and Samaria,

the earth.

Isaiah 49 verse 6,

Isaiah 49:6

God promised that salvation would be

proclaimed to the ends of the earth

and Jesus confirms

that this promise here

with these disciples.

That's the promise.

Salvation must be proclaimed

to the ends of the earth

and these are his last words

to his disciples.

Jesus' last words to his disciples

are to be their primary concern,

their first concern.

There is more work to be done

in God's mission

before chapter 4 comes

and chapter 4 has not arrived yet.

That's what he's saying

to his disciples.

First for the apostles,

then for all who are called

to faith in Jesus Christ

through their witness

are tasked with advancing

God's mission to the ends of the earth

as our primary first concern.

It's a huge task.

And the encouraging thing is

what we see here

from verse 8

is that we have power

for God's mission

to accomplish his task.

See, this is not merely human work.

It is spirit-empowered witness.

Jesus is calling them

to a supernatural activity.

They will no longer be mere advocates,

not just mere advocates

who can prove,

like a good lawyer,

argue really well

that Jesus is risen from the dead.

Under the influence

of the Holy Spirit,

they will speak

with an unwavering assurance

of one who has tasted

and knows in their heart

the reality so immediately

that all doubt

about the resurrection of Jesus

is gone.

Under the power

of the Spirit of God,

you move from being

an advocate of Christianity

to being a witness

of the living Christ

in your own life.

You move from simply deducing

Christian truths

from valid premises

to proclaiming them

as boldly

as someone

who's experienced

the realities

in their own life.

This is the power

and the witness

that will take Christ

to the ends of the earth.

Not just mere facts,

but facts,

truths lived out

and shaping our lives.

And so the church

is not merely

a human institution.

In all that the church does,

it is to do it

in the power

of the Holy Spirit.

And the promise here

of the Spirit

in verse 8

is valid

until the Great Commission

is complete

and the witness of Christ

is planted

around the world.

In other words,

it is a promise

until chapter 4 comes.

We are told in verse 9

that after Jesus

said these things,

he was taken up

before their very eyes

and a cloud

hid them from their sight,

hid him from their sight.

At the end of his

earthly ministry,

Jesus is restored

to his rightful place.

And his rightful place

is the seated ruler

of all time

and eternity.

The one who has

the power of all things,

control of all things

in his hand.

He now rules,

occupying the highest place

as Lord of all,

and from there

he exercises

his universal reign

that goes forever

and ever

and guarantees

the success

of his mission.

It will not fail.

His storyline

cannot be altered.

It will not fail.

It's really important

that we grapple with that

because what you see

in the rest of Acts

from verse 10 onwards

is

weakness.

Weakness

at the very beginning

of God's mission.

Having been commissioned

to go

to the ends

of the earth,

we see

in verse 10

a rebuke.

Men of Galilee,

why do you stand here

looking into the sky?

Like you

bunch of

stargazers,

you've been given

a mission

and you

stand,

you've been told

the Spirit will come,

get on down to Jerusalem.

Why are you

standing here?

Get on

with the mission.

It seems

like this is

fundamentally

inconsistent.

And so

one has to ask,

why

does Luke

include

the second half

of chapter 1

of Acts?

You know,

he's on this

role

of,

you know,

Jesus ascended

on high,

going to get

the Holy Spirit,

going to take

this message

to the end

of the earth.

I mean,

it's like

gusto,

you know,

like,

whoa,

we've got

purpose in our lives.

Why doesn't he

just jump

straight from there

to Acts chapter 2

Acts 2 · chapter mention

and the day

of Pentecost

and thousands

of people

coming to Christ?

You know,

there's a logical

connection

between those

two things.

Instead,

what we have

is the details

around Judas'

betrayal,

Matthias'

selection,

why include

the lying,

the mistrust,

the betrayal,

the death?

It's not like,

you know,

he's a great

story writer here

and he's wanting

to build up

Matthias and

let's,

you know,

this guy's going

to play a key

role,

you know,

in chapter 15

of Acts,

so we need to

introduce his

character now.

So let's get

Matthias in on

the scene now

rather than

drop him in

from,

Matthias doesn't

even get

mentioned again

in the rest

of Acts.

So why

this diversion?

Now on one

important level,

we could say

that the

appointment of

Matthias

shows us

that the

pursuit of

the Spirit's

power

is not

disconnected

from the

pursuit

towards the

teaching and

the work of

the historical

Jesus.

Let me just

simplify that.

It was

absolutely

important

that the

replacement

for Judas

was himself

an eyewitness

to the life,

the teaching

and the deeds

of Jesus

Christ.

The resurrected

Jesus,

absolutely

essential

that he

himself

was an

eyewitness

to the

resurrection

of Jesus.

It is

very clear

here that

the Holy

Spirit has

an unwavering

zeal for

the glory

of the

crucified,

risen and

ascended

Jesus Christ.

They're not

disconnected.

There's not

Bible-believing,

gospel-centered

Jesus people

Christians and

the Holy Spirit-filled

Jesus Christian

people.

They're not

separated.

God's

God's

God's

God's

God's

God's

God's

God's

God's

approach.

He does

not

idolize

it at

all as

it

pursues

God's

mission in

the world.

Luke

reveals a

church of

weakness,

of frailty

and failure,

even though it

has this

astonishing

power in

the Holy

Spirit,

even as

they

supernaturally

empowered to

pursue God's

mission in

the world of

redemption across

the globe,

through cultures

to every people

group,

we are still

weak.

The power is

not us.

He records the

apostasy of

Judas, the

casting of lots

for his

replacement,

effectively the

gambling to

see who's

going to come

out the top

dog, the

hypocrisy of

Ananias and

Sapphira in

chapter 5,

the bickering

widows in

chapter 6,

Peter's

reluctance to

heed Christ's

call in

chapter 10,

and even

Paul's dispute

with John

Mark in

chapter 15.

Luke is

at least

making the

point that

even though

we have

this astonishing

power of the

Holy Spirit,

we need to

acknowledge our

sin, our

failure, our

frailty.

We need to

deal with the

sins and the

failures and

recognise our

frailty and

recognise our

total, total

dependence upon

the Holy Spirit

for the task at

hand.

And so the

pattern of the

church is

weakness and

dependence,

prayerful dependence

upon God.

That's why I love

verse 14.

They all join

together

constantly in

prayer.

Constantly in

prayer.

That's why I

love the fact

that we're

pushing the

one plus one

plus one,

that the work

of God to

supernaturally

change someone's

storyline so

that they embrace

Jesus and get

included in God's

eternal work is

a work of God in

the heart,

nothing less than

that, nothing

less.

And Acts is

written to us

to give us

certainty that

God's plans for

his church are

always fulfilled

because of his

great power,

despite our

frailty and

our failure.

And so do you

have confidence?

Do you have

confidence in

this as we move

together from this

point as a church,

as we look in

this season of

COVID-19 and

our frailty and

our weakness is

evident amongst

us, as we look

beyond 2020 for

the next stage of

vision for us as a

church here at

St. Paul's,

where is your

confidence?

Is it in strategic

planning?

Is it in, I

don't know what it

is in, your

ability to

communicate truth

or is it in

God's spirit to

bring transformation

in people's lives?

And will that

confidence lead

you to vitally,

vitally,

radically align

yourself with

God's work in

the world?

It's an important

question.

Is your life

living for God's

storyline, his

mission in the

world?

Or is it

something that you

hold out to one

side, you dip in

and out of?

You see, what

we're going to

realize is,

there's another

story that has

arisen in the

last 100 years,

another storyline,

another grand

narrative, another

vision, worldview,

if you like.

It's become the

purpose of life for

most people in the

Western world,

particularly in the

last 60 to 70

years.

It has captivated

the Western world.

The technical term

for this particular

storyline is

philosophical

naturalism.

It's the fancy

way of describing

materialism as a

worldview.

And it's worth

comparing this

worldview, which

dominates the

West, it

dominates the

culture here at

Chatswood, to

God's storyline.

Philosophical

naturalism,

materialism, is a

three-chapter

story.

First, the big

bang.

Secondly,

evolution.

thirdly, the

end.

In the big bang,

there's no

supernatural or

spiritual power that

rules the physical

universe.

It says that

everything that can

be measured,

which is the only

thing worthy,

by the way,

it's the only valid

things, the things

that can be

measured,

is a result of

an explosion that

appeared out of

nothing billions of

years ago.

Freak

accident.

chapter 2 of

the storyline is

that on the back

of that freak

accident, against

all odds, humanity

has evolved from

prehistoric soup

to become,

today, the

dominant species

on the earth.

Today.

One day, maybe

overtaken by

something else.

And despite what

people might feel

inside them,

there is no

such thing as

absolute truth

no such thing

as absolute

right, no such

thing as absolute

wrong.

Because everything

is an accident

and random,

then life,

therefore, has

no absolute

purpose,

and so,

therefore, every

individual is

free to make

of it as they

see fit.

and the goal

of life in

philosophical

naturalism is

therefore to

consume as

much as

possible of

the material

world for

your own

experiences.

Whatever it is

that makes

this moment in

your storyline

as happy and

as agreeable as

it possibly can.

that's

philosophical

naturalism.

And you

need to

pursue your

personal

happiness

because

chapter 3

is coming

at any

time.

And chapter

3 is

the end.

Humanity

will become

extinct.

There's no

form of

afterlife.

This life

is it.

that's it.

Now, where

materialism says

everything is

random and

therefore, there's

no good, there's

no evil, nothing

to ever hope

for, the

biblical story

says that we

have a loving

creator, a

loving creator

who has triumphed

over evil at

great cost to

himself in

order to love

his creatures

dearly.

And as we

look forward to

a day where

when everything

wrong will be

made right

and we

will live

with him

in blissful

joy for

all of

eternity,

increasing

joy for

all of

eternity as

he embraces

us with

his cosmic

love and

joy.

He imparts

it to us

forever.

forever.

There's a

difference between

two storylines.

Know this,

whatever

storyline you

hold to,

philosophical

naturalism, the

Bible storyline

with Jesus as

centre or any

other storyline

that you

particularly want

to grasp hold

of, every

single storyline

requires you to

surrender for

it.

Every single

storyline requires

your time, your

talents, your

treasures.

It requires

everything from

you, your

storyline.

And what we

proclaim here as

a church again

and again and

again and again

and again and

again and we

will do so right

through the book

of Acts, the

biblical storyline

is compelling.

It is

convincing.

Not just

convincingly

truth-wise but

it's also

compelling from

the heart.

It draws you

in to God's

cosmic love and

joy.

It's also

more true and

reasonable than

all the grand

storylines of

this world.

And so right

now and

throughout the

book of Acts

as we go

through in the

coming weeks,

like Theophilus,

I invite you,

as Luke did

to Theophilus,

I invite you

to jump on

board with

God's work in

this world, in

the Lord Jesus.

Start investigating

the claims and

align your life

with Jesus and

his grand plan

for all of

humanity.

Amen.