"A Study of the book of Acts" by Hiram Kemp - Part 1

Okay. We'll talk about it. All right.

Well, good morning. Getting ready to start our Bible class.

As you can see from the slide,

this quarter there'll only be one adult option,

and Neil and I will be teaching together from the Book of Acts,

and we'll be talking about the challenges the church will always

face as we walk through the Book of Acts

and learn some lessons from the early church.

The church in the past and the church in the present has always had struggles,

always had difficulties and hardship.

Some people, the way they approach a church situation,

the way they approach congregational life is they're hunters.

They're people that bounce around looking,

hoping they can find the perfect church.

No problems. Everything goes just the way they like it and things go just their way.

Of course, there is no perfect church.

If there was one,

when you get there,

it'll be messed up because you'll attain it.

There won't be a perfect church.

Then there are other people, they see problems with the church.

When they find issues in the congregation or with the people of God,

they just throw up their hands and quit altogether.

But rather than causing problems or allowing problems to cause us to turn away from God,

we should be the kind of people that say,

you know what, we're part of the problem,

we have shortcomings and weaknesses,

and because of that, our problems and difficulties are going to turn

us toward each other and ultimately toward the Lord.

When you think about the church,

always keep in mind there are two elements to the church,

or you could say two sides to the church.

On the one hand, there's the divine side.

That's God's involvement in the church.

There'd be no church outside of his prophesying it in the Old Testament,

bringing about through Jesus in the new.

That side of the church is completely perfect.

Then there's the human side of the church and that's us,

and there's always going to be weaknesses and shortcomings

in human beings until we see God,

and so the church is always going to be imperfect.

Add to that a third thing,

the church exists in the world,

and because we exist in the world,

there's this opposition from the outside that makes it difficult to do God's will.

The devil's not interested in giving us fair weather conditions

to carry out the will of God,

so the church is perfect from God's standpoint,

imperfect from the human standpoint,

and still dealing with this opposition from the outside,

so there's always going to be challenges.

When you think about the church,

what are some of the challenges you think the church is facing today?

Like, what are some of the hardships that the church is currently facing,

needs to be prepared for,

needs to be prepared to engage with?

What are some of the difficulties that come to your mind?

What do you think about?

Division?

Yeah, unity is something God's always been concerned about.

If you think about Jesus' prayer in John 17, 20 through 21,

I want you all to be one.

Somebody said unity, what else?

False doctrine, always going to be a problem.

Jesus, in that same prayer, actually, John 17 and verse 17,

sanctified them in the truth, your word is truth.

Paul told Timothy, hold fast.

It's a pattern of sound words and faith and love,

which you've heard of me, 2 Timothy 1, 13.

Okay, unity is a problem.

False doctrine is a problem.

Anything else?

Societal pressure.

There's always going to be pressure from the outside

to cave and behave the way the world's behaving

or to give up our convictions and beliefs altogether.

Shadonah?

Status within the body.

That's a problem.

There'll be division sometimes among membership

because of status or those sorts of things.

Anybody else, anything else?

All right, well, when me and my preacher friends talk,

we normally come up with a longer list than that,

but y'all are pretty good people.

All right, so here we go.

Here's some of the challenges, I think.

The challenge of knowing God's word, that's a challenge.

That's always going to be a challenge the church faces.

Obeying God's word, you can know God's word,

but you also have to what?

You also have to do it and put it into practice.

Loving God above the world,

and that kind of goes with that societal pressure.

I mean, you can read the list,

and maybe you think about the current age

in which we live, and some of these things in your mind

are things, okay, people have dealt with that before,

and then there are other things

that maybe nobody has ever faced,

but on the whole, the essence of the challenges

that the church faces have always been true.

Tonight, I'm preaching a sermon on what AI can't do.

I don't think that was ever in Paul's sermon outline, right?

There are things that we face that are somewhat unique,

but then there's another sense in which none of it

really is, and so what Neil and I want to do this quarter,

we'll be taking turns teaching,

is to go through the book of Acts,

not necessarily covering every verse all the time,

but touching every chapter and saying,

here are challenges the church faced in the first century,

and here are challenges we face today,

and ultimately, here's how to overcome.

There are three reasons why I think we need to do this,

the purpose of this approach.

Number one, to relieve us.

This approach relieves us because it says

we're not the first people to have these kinds of problems.

In 1 Corinthians 10, 13, Paul says,

there's no temptation that's overtaking you,

but that which is common to man.

But God is faithful.

He won't allow you to be tempted beyond your ability,

but with every temptation, he'll make a way of escape

so you can endure it or bear it.

So we need to study the book of Acts in this fashion

to relieve ourselves and say,

you know we're not the first people

to have these kinds of problems.

This goes all the way back to the dawn of Christianity,

and if they survive, then what?

We can survive.

Second, purpose of this approach reminds us.

It reminds us when the church has challenges,

start looking for divine solutions.

Look to the Bible for our approach, for what God says,

and how God wants us to go about fixing it.

So 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17, all scripture is God-breed

and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction,

instruction, and righteousness.

Let the word of God remind us.

It has all of the answers.

And then the third thing is to resolve us.

As we study through these challenges in the book of Acts,

and we'll look at several, or at least two

in the book of Acts in chapter one this morning,

we should have this kind of resolve.

There are going to be challenges,

but I don't intend on quitting.

I'm not going anywhere, I'm not giving up.

Paul says in 2 Timothy 1 and verse 12,

for this reason I also suffer these things.

Nevertheless, I'm not ashamed,

for I know the one in whom I believe,

and I'm persuaded he's able to keep that

which I've committed to him against that day.

Paul says, I'm holding fast to Jesus no matter what,

and a study like this reminds us.

If Paul, Peter, James, and John

endured all the things they did as individuals,

collectively, and even at times congregationally,

every member of the Cumberland Church of Christ

should just be reminded, be relieved, and then be resolved.

No matter what happens, we won't quit loving one another

and doing God's will, and we'll do that all the way

till we get across the finish line

into God's kingdom in heaven.

All right, so that's the purpose of this approach.

So let's do a brief introduction to Acts.

I don't want to spend a lot of time on this,

but I just want to walk you up

to what's going on in the book of Acts

so as we work through it, you'll appreciate more of this.

Maybe you already know some of this,

but Acts is the follow-up to Luke's gospel.

It's a two-part book or the second part

of a two-part volume.

Go to Luke chapter one.

Luke chapter one, and this is how Luke begins his gospel,

and he tells us who he's writing to and why he wrote,

and Acts is the follow-up.

I know in your copy of the Bible and mine,

there's a book in between these two.

There's the gospel of John, but when Luke wrote Luke,

he then followed that up with Acts,

and these two books go together.

So in Luke chapter one, the first four verses, it says,

inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative

of the things that have been accomplished among us,

just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses

and ministers of the word have delivered them to us,

it seemed good to me also,

having followed all things closely for some time past,

to write an orderly account for you,

most excellent Theophilus,

that you may have certainty

concerning the things you've been taught.

So he says he wrote the gospel of Luke

to let Theophilus know Theophilus means lover of God.

He's writing to a man named Theophilus

or possibly any lover of God in general,

to say, hey, this is the story of Jesus's life.

Now go to Acts chapter one.

In Acts chapter one, he picks right back up

where he left off in the beginning of Luke,

and he's writing to the same man.

In Acts one, verses one and two,

he says in the first book, question, which book is that?

Luke, yeah, so far so good.

In the first book, oh, Theophilus,

I dealt with all that Jesus began both to do and to teach

until the day he was taken up

after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit

to the apostles who he has chosen.

So the book of Acts is a follow-up to the gospel of Luke,

and it's a reminder of this is what Luke

was trying to communicate to a man named Theophilus.

And the book of Acts is also about a perfect God.

When we say we wanna be like the early church,

what we mean is we wanna be like them in practice

and in the teaching and in the doctrine that they espouse.

But the book of Acts is not about a church

that did everything right all the time.

As far as the people, remember,

the church is comprised of those two parts.

There's God's part, human part.

God's part is perfect.

Humanity often fails and falls short,

and you see some of that even in the book of Acts.

The book of Acts is about how perfect God is,

and no matter what happens,

God is able to accomplish his will and succeed.

No matter how many times the people fail or disappoint,

no matter what the Jews do in the early part of Acts

or the Romans at the latter part of the book,

God's purposes are able to succeed.

And if you're on God's side, then you're a winner.

And the book of Acts is also about the triune God.

God is made up of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Look at Acts chapter one, and right out of the gate,

Luke mentions all three members of the Godhead.

He talks about Jesus in verse one.

He talks about the Holy Spirit in verse two.

And then the kingdom that belongs to God in verse three.

It's the same idea in verses four and five.

In verse four, he talks about the Father.

He has Jesus saying these words.

And then in verse five, he mentions the Holy Spirit.

Everything that's gonna be accomplished

in the book of Acts that's worthwhile,

everything that's gonna get the early church

through their problems is surrounded by God.

So let me ask you a question.

When we face challenges,

who is gonna be the one to get us through ours?

The same solution that they had

is the same solution we have.

We ought to be looking to God to get us through.

All right, now let me ask you a question

about the characters in Acts

before we get into Acts chapter one.

Outside of the Godhead, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit,

Luke makes it clear that they're the ones leading the charge

is God's plans throughout the book of Acts.

Luke would talk about things that God planned

before the foundation of the world.

It's God's plans and foreknowledge, Jesus's lordship,

the Holy Spirit empowering people,

and the people complying with that

that makes everything a success in the book of Acts.

God plans it, Jesus's lordship ensures it,

the Holy Spirit empowers the people,

and then the people comply.

But outside of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,

who would you say are the main characters

in the book of Acts?

Who do you think, like when I read the book of Acts,

here are the people that jump out to me as the main players.

Peter first, yeah, the first 12 chapters of the book of Acts

deal largely with Peter and his preaching.

Acts one through 12, there's Peter and John,

but it's mostly Peter.

And then who else?

Paul.

Acts 13 through 28 is really the gospel

going to the Gentile world,

and the person primarily doing that is the apostle Paul.

But here's what Luke also shows us,

and I think it's important for everybody in this room.

You have Peter, you have Paul,

but tucked in throughout the book of Acts

are all of these what we might call

unknown or lesser-known people,

like Dorcas, Philip, and Stephen,

and all of these individuals that,

sometimes like Agabus, we only know their name.

And the point of that is,

the church overcomes their challenges

not because we have the best and the brightest

and the most talented people,

but the church is ultimately successful

because we have the best and most talented and awesome God.

And God's saying in the book of Acts,

I really don't need an all-star team to accomplish my will.

I'll work through Peter, and I'll work through Paul,

and I'll work through James,

but I'll work through anybody in any group of people

that are willing to do what I would have them to do.

There'll always be challenges,

but the book of Acts is designed,

I know, we talk about the book of Acts,

it's the history book of the church,

and it's the book of conversions.

It is that, but these 28 chapters

are actually more about the triumphant God

that no matter what happens in the book of Acts,

God gets his will accomplished,

and nothing can thwart or stop his plans.

All right, first one for the quarter, Acts chapter one,

the challenge of waiting and replacing leaders.

Go ahead and look at Acts chapter one,

and let's just read the first five verses.

The first challenge that the church faces

is the challenge of waiting.

All right, in verse one, it says,

in the first book, O Theophilus,

I dealt with all that Jesus began both to do and to teach

until the day when he was taken up

after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit

to the apostles who he had chosen.

He presented himself alive to them

after his suffering by many proofs,

appearing to them during 40 days

and speaking about the kingdom of God.

And while staying with them,

he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem,

but to wait for the promise of the Father,

which he said, you've heard from me,

for John baptized with water,

but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit

not many days from now.

Let's just go down through verse eight.

So when they had come together, they asked him,

Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

He said to them, it's not for you

to know the times or the seasons

that the Father has fixed by his own authority,

but you will receive power

when the Holy Spirit has come upon you

and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem

and in all Judea, Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

All right, so Luke starts out reviewing

what he already accomplished

or what he already talked about with Jesus.

He says all the things that Jesus began to do and to teach.

Here's a question, in the gospel of Luke,

in Jesus's lifetime, in the gospel accounts,

what did Jesus start it to do?

He says, I wrote to you first

about everything Jesus started to do and started to teach.

What kind of stuff had Jesus done before?

Starts with Myrrh, ends with coals.

Yeah, miracles, yeah, he did miracles at the first, right?

Matthew 4, 23 through 25 says,

Jesus healed people that were lame and blind,

epileptics, individuals that were maimed,

misembodied parts, they came as far away from Syria

to be healed by Jesus.

Then his preaching, his teaching is heavily documented.

Think about the Sermon on the Mount,

Matthew 5, 6, and 7, or Matthew 13,

these long kingdom teaching sections.

Essentially, Luke says in his gospel,

Jesus came into the world,

he made every single thing better.

Peter's gonna preach in Acts 10 in verse 38.

He'll say, Jesus went about doing good

and healing all kinds of people that were demon-possessed

because God was with them.

Luke starts this off by saying,

hey, here's everything Jesus began both to do and to teach,

but the way Luke says this, it's as if he's saying,

and this is what he's trying to communicate,

Jesus started doing these things,

but Jesus isn't done doing these things.

So here's the question.

If Jesus started teaching and doing miracles,

casting out demons and making the world a better place,

but you already know this, in the book of Acts,

Jesus ascends and goes back to heaven,

how is Jesus gonna keep doing those things?

Through the people.

Luke is saying, the same Jesus that worked

in the gospel of Luke is working in the book of Acts,

albeit through human people.

What Jesus started is our responsibility to finish.

Maybe we can't cast out demons,

the miraculous age has ceased,

but it's still our responsibility

to continue the work that Jesus did

and thoughts and words and deeds

in making the world a better place.

And he starts out by saying,

hey, here's what Jesus began both to do and to teach.

He says, he gave them commands

about the kingdom of God in verse three,

and then in verses four and five,

he tells them, I want you to stay.

Stay in Jerusalem and wait for the promise of the Father,

which he said you heard from me,

for John baptized with water,

but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit

not many days from now.

Here's their first challenge.

Jesus has taught things,

Jesus has begun to instruct them about things,

and then he tells them, I want you to wait in Jerusalem.

Based on these verses,

why do the apostles have to wait in Jerusalem?

Why do they have to wait?

Why can't they just go out and start doing the work already?

Why does he tell them in Acts one, four and five,

you stay in Jerusalem?

They had to wait for the Holy Spirit.

This goes back to the gospel of Luke

and Luke chapter three in verse 16,

John said, I'm baptizing you with water,

but one's coming after me

and he'll baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

Look at Luke chapter 24.

Luke 24 · chapter mention

Go to the end of the gospel of Luke.

Luke 24, and I'll just start in verse 44

at the end of this chapter.

Luke 24 and verse 44.

This is Jesus after he's been raised from the dead.

He said, these are my words that I spoke to you

while I was with you.

Everything written about me in the law of Moses

and the prophets and in the Psalms must be fulfilled.

And then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures.

And he said to them,

thus it is written that the Christ should suffer

and on the third day rise from the dead

and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins

should be proclaimed in his name

to all nations beginning from Jerusalem.

And you are my witnesses of these things.

And here it is in verse 49.

Behold, I'm sending the promise of my father upon you,

but you stay in the city

until you are clothed with power from on high.

Jesus doubles down on this in Acts one,

don't go anywhere until you receive

the power of the Holy Spirit.

And the New Testament in the Gospel of John

highlights why they would need the Holy Spirit.

Go to the Gospel of John.

Go to John and notice, I'm not gonna read all of these,

but just notice some of the things

that the Holy Spirit's presence

would provide for the apostles

as they waited to receive this power

so they could do these things.

John 14 and verse 16 first.

John 14 and verse 16, he says,

I will ask the father and he will give you another helper

to be with you forever,

even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive

because it neither sees him nor knows him,

but you know him for he dwells with you

and he'll be in you.

Look at John 14 and verse 26.

John 14, 26, but the helper, the Holy Spirit,

who the father will send in my name,

he'll teach you all things and bring to your remembrance

all the things that I've said to you.

Look at John 15 and verse 26.

But when the helper comes

who I will send to you from the father,

the spirit of truth who proceeds from the father,

he will bear witness about me

and then you will bear witness about me

because you've been with me from the beginning.

And then go to John 16, verses 13 down through 15.

John 16:13

John 16, starting in verse 13,

he says, when the spirit of truth comes,

that's the Holy Spirit,

he'll guide you into all the truth.

He won't speak on his own authority,

but whatever he hears, he will speak.

He will declare to you the things that are to come.

He will glorify me,

for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

All that the father has is mine

and therefore I said he will take what is mine

and declare it to you.

They're gonna receive the Holy Spirit.

He's gonna remind them of things that Jesus taught them,

empower them to do the work,

but first they've got to wait.

And I think this is the difficulty.

I was telling Brittany yesterday,

Neil and I have carved out these lessons.

We got these chapters that we're gonna cover.

I'm working on Acts chapter one

and I mean this with all reverence.

I was thinking to myself,

this is the most boring chapter in the whole book of Acts.

I mean, the book of Acts is pretty exciting.

There are people that are dropping dead in Acts chapter five.

There are demon possessed people.

The Holy Spirit's baptizing people.

There's a shipwreck in Acts 27.

Paul's bitten by a snake.

I mean, there's a lot of exciting things.

There's internal strife.

There's a church split.

In Acts chapter one, all you get is just wait.

And I think that's our problem.

I think a lot of churches wanna do a lot of good work.

We wanna get busy.

We wanna hit the ground running.

We wanna do a lot of things for God,

but sometimes God says, first things first,

can you wait for divine power

before you try to do divine work?

We've got our plans.

We've got our purposes.

These men probably had one or two ideas

going on in their mind.

Either they were very nervous or very excited.

We can't wait to go out and teach the gospel.

What did Jesus told them to do?

Go out and preach the gospel to all creation.

But the first thing Jesus tells them to do is

don't go anywhere, don't do anything, just wait.

Because a few days after this,

you'll receive power from on high,

and then you'll be able to go out

and do what I'm commanding you to do.

And we'll be preparing them, basically saying,

look guys, the spirit is gonna replace my body.

For sure, for sure.

The Holy Spirit is gonna be with you.

Great point, yeah.

So the Holy Spirit replaces Jesus' physical presence.

He says in John 14, I won't leave you as orphans.

But here's the thing, that's great, but when's he coming?

That's what they're thinking.

We've got stuff to do.

We wanna get busy.

We wanna hit the ground running, but they've gotta wait.

Russell?

For sure, yeah, Acts 2.38 on the Holy Spirit.

Let me just briefly say, then we'll,

if you have a follow-up, we can get to that.

But Acts 2.38 says we receive the Holy Spirit

when we're baptized.

Acts 5.32 says the Holy Spirit is given

to all those that obey him.

The Holy Spirit's a person,

so everybody receives his presence.

That's a Christian.

Romans 8, Paul says you're not a Christian

without his presence.

However, he doesn't function or operate

in everybody's life in the same way.

So in the ancient world, in the first century world,

he gave them gifts and miracles

and the ability to do various things,

but that doesn't change the fact that he dwells in us.

Yes.

So if we allow him in our lives.

Absolutely.

Each one, we allow him.

Absolutely, yes.

He's active and alive in our lives.

Again, not maybe in the same direct way

that he was with them, but still active and alive,

and, Russell, and I think this may be where you're going,

and empowering all the same, though.

Still allowing us to do things if we submit, yes.

Is that when we're instructed

not to acquaint the Holy Spirit?

Yeah, yeah.

And Paul says that.

Don't quench the Holy Spirit in 1 Thessalonians 5, 19.

He says all these things because he's saying

the Holy Spirit's supposed to produce fruit in your life,

evidence that God's present in your life.

And yes, he does all those things to the degree

that we submit to his word and allow him to do it.

But first, wait.

That's the first thing they've gotta do, and wait.

Okay, think about X, then just think about your own life.

And I'm talking about specifically in relation to God.

Why is it hard to wait?

We want it now.

That's one reason.

We want it right now.

Whatever God's gonna do in our lives

and whatever he wants for us, that's right.

What else?

What makes it hard for you to wait, Joey?

Yeah.

I think we read the Bible like this.

We read about people like Abraham, right?

So you start in Genesis 12.

I mean, if you're a fast reader, you flip four or five pages.

You're in Genesis 21.

Abraham had a baby.

25 years is a long time.

Have you ever waited on God for 25 years for something?

25 minutes?

25 seconds?

We flipped the Bible the next page.

We're like, well, Acts 2, the Holy Spirit came.

The Bible tells us nothing indirect

about how much time it was.

There were some 50 days in between Passover and Pentecost.

They had to wait, and sometimes we don't know

what time it is.

One of the things to remember about the book of Acts

is this, you're not reading about church experts.

They're living this out in real time.

They can't flip back to book of Acts part one

and say, oh yeah, the first time.

No, they're it.

And so they're waiting, and I think a part of our waiting

is we don't always know when.

Why is it hard for you to wait?

Why is it hard?

Yeah, yeah, there's always something else we gotta do.

Things push us, and because of that,

we feel like we've gotta get things done

or we're gonna miss out.

Anybody else, what makes it hard to wait?

We're human, we're human, and we wanna be in a hurry.

Here's some of the things I thought of,

and if you think of others, you can raise your hand

and interrupt me, feel free.

But number one, we live in a fast-paced world.

The Israelites are brought out of Egyptian captivity.

They're on their way to the Red Sea.

What's God gonna do for them when they get to the Red Sea?

He's gonna part it so they can walk through on dry ground.

You know what they start saying

as they get close to the Red Sea

and they see the Egyptians?

You know what they basically say to Moses?

Were there no graves in Egypt

that you brought us out here to die?

Essentially, they say, God better hurry up.

The Egyptians are coming.

And how many times have you said that in your own life?

The Egyptians are coming.

God's moving too slow.

My Egyptians are coming.

Whether that's bills or burdens or health,

we're often yelling at God in our frustration.

We can't wait on him

because we think the Egyptians are coming.

Doesn't he see them beating down on us?

God already had a plan.

The Red Sea, water's no problem for God.

But in their mind, the world's so fast-paced.

You see their chariots and their horses,

and they're right on our heels,

and you might be praying to God for things.

I'm sure these men wanted to get busy

with the work of the Lord.

And we're thinking, God, can't you tell time?

Don't you see how fast these things are happening?

Rachel mentioned this idea that there's always more to do.

And we say, just like ancient Israel,

whatever our Egyptians are, God, the Egyptians are coming.

Moses told them the same thing

that the apostles are told in Acts 1.

He says, be still and wait

and see the salvation of the Lord.

These Egyptians you see today, you'll see them no more.

But sometimes it's the fast-paced world.

Sometimes we feel behind.

Everybody else is doing stuff.

If I wait, it feels like inactivity.

If I wait, then I won't get anything accomplished.

Like waiting on God doesn't, go to any bookstore,

go to any church seminar.

Everybody talks about getting busy and doing stuff.

Everybody talks about their plans, and we need that.

There's a time for that.

But it's, hey, if we don't get on top of it,

this church across the street is gonna,

hey, this group, you know, everybody else is already.

God tells these men right out of the gate,

I don't care what the pagan Romans are doing

in their temples.

I don't care what the Jews are doing in the synagogues.

I need you to wait for divine power

before you can actually get going.

In 1 Samuel 13, Samuel told Saul,

seven days are now coming off of the sacrifice.

As soon as Saul offers it in defiance,

Samuel shows up and Saul says, I was waiting on you, man,

but you didn't come in time.

It was still the seventh day, but we sometimes feel behind.

Here's the other thing.

We think he might not come.

I could wait on God if I was sure he was gonna come through,

but sometimes he don't show,

or at least it doesn't feel like he will.

Habakkuk says in Habakkuk two and verse three,

tarry and wait for the vision.

He will come and he won't delay.

Do you believe him?

Can you wait on him?

Sometimes it's hard to wait on God

because if we're being honest,

we just don't feel like he's gonna actually show up

and do the things that he says he's gonna do.

We lack faith and patience.

Go to Psalm 27.

Let's just read this one.

Psalm 27, 13 and 14.

And David is a man that knew a lot about waiting.

He was anointed to be the king of Israel

decades before it actually came to fruition for him.

And in Psalm 27, he talks about difficulty and hardship

and God being his light and his salvation.

And notice what he says in the last two verses.

He says, I believe that I will look upon the goodness

of the Lord in the land of the living.

He says, I believe this is gonna happen.

David, when is it gonna happen for you?

Look at verse 14.

Wait for the Lord and be strong

and let your heart take courage.

And then what's the last line?

Wait for the Lord.

If verse 13 is true for you, you can do verse 14.

I believe that I will see the goodness of the Lord

in the land of the living.

David says, I'm gonna see it.

I believe that.

And sometimes it's hard to wait

because we lack faith and we just lack patience.

Other times we think we're okay on our own.

Yep, go ahead, Chuck.

And then Kevin, sorry.

Yeah.

Great point, Chuck.

And we're gonna come back to that.

I'm glad you brought that up.

We'll come back to the whole why you wait,

what should you be doing?

But I think you're right.

God is doing something with us in the waiting room.

And the question is, are we gonna get the lesson?

But remind me, we'll come back to that.

Great point.

Go ahead.

Yeah.

That I will see the goodness of the Lord.

Yeah, so there's this idea of I would have given up

unless I believe.

Without this hope, you really can't.

God, this is a big deal in the Bible.

We're gonna make some more progress in Acts.

But listen, waiting on God is a major idea in scripture

and in the Christian life.

So you might be thinking to yourself

about your own personality.

I'm pretty impatient.

That is a thing to put to the top of the list

and to work on because God's never in a hurry.

And if you struggle with waiting,

I struggle with it.

If you struggle with being patient,

it's gonna be a hard life with God

because God isn't often on our time schedule,

on our timetable.

As Chuck mentioned,

there are seasons where God puts us in the waiting room

and wants to do things with us and in us.

And sometimes it just takes time.

You just have to wait.

Sometimes it's hard though

because we think we're okay on our own.

Moses is up on Mount Sinai receiving the law from God.

The people were at the foot of the mountain with Aaron

and in Exodus 32, they say,

as for this Moses, we don't know what's become of him.

Don't worry about it though.

We've got it.

We can make our own gods.

Moses, Aaron says, give me the gold.

And they just built their own God

and they start worshiping.

And sometimes it's hard to wait

because we think I'm really okay.

I really can get it done without God.

And then last, we think God needs our help.

God tells Abraham and Sarah gonna have a son.

They say, great.

They bring in Hagar and create problems, Genesis 16.

So it makes it hard to wait

for all of these and other reasons,

but he still tells these men in Acts chapter one,

don't go anywhere.

Just wait in Jerusalem until you receive power from on high.

Why did they need power?

What were they gonna need the Holy Spirit for?

Why do they have to wait?

Why would it have been a colossal mistake

for these guys just to pick up

and just start doing the great commission on their own?

What did they need the Holy Spirit for

in the book of Acts specifically

that they couldn't move a muscle until he came?

Roger.

No Rosetta Stone.

How are you gonna learn all these languages?

You gotta preach to these people on Pentecost.

You need Holy Spirit power to do it.

You're gonna have to speak in all these various tongues

and only through the Holy Spirit

could they instantaneously have all the languages

they would need to cover the known world.

So you've gotta wait.

Why else?

Knowledge.

Yeah, you read the gospels

and if you don't have the whole gospel memorized

like Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,

I mean whole books, neither did these men.

That's why Jesus says the Holy Spirit's gonna bring

to your remembrance all the things I taught you.

They are gonna need that ability

and so the knowledge is gonna be a thing.

Mike.

Yeah, he's gonna make them remember.

Any other reason why they would need to wait

for the Holy Spirit before they did anything?

Miracles, to confirm the word.

Hebrews two and verse four says,

they receive the power to do miracles

because the miracles will confirm their message is true.

Harold.

Sometimes, yes, I think that's right.

Sometimes Peter did get out of hand.

This time though, he waited, but you're right.

You could add that to the list of examples

in our problems with waiting.

Peter saying things before the time

or thinking he's gonna help Jesus avoid the cross.

Yeah, that's just another aspect of our waiting problem.

Yeah.

I agree.

Matt.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And they saw him raised and so there's probably some,

you know, excitement, some fear,

I guess a mixture of emotions.

Okay, when you go to the doctor's office,

it's your time to be seen.

Well, it's not your time to be seen yet, you get in there.

When you get in that waiting room,

what's in the waiting room at the doctor's office typically?

I mean, other patients and stuff for sure,

but at the doctor's office or the dentist's office,

what do they typically have in there while you're waiting?

Magazines, yep, what else?

TV, what's the point of all that?

What is all that for?

Distracts you that they're about to do

a root canal on you, right?

They want you to not be afraid.

Yeah, they're about to poke and prod you.

Yes, a distraction.

It's to say, while you wait,

you should be doing other things.

Here's why I think we struggle with waiting.

It sounds soft, it sounds passive, like we're go-getters.

Let's go do stuff in the Bible, waiting.

That's why David says, and Chuck mentioned this

and Kevin as well, be of good courage.

It takes some backbone to wait in the biblical way.

So the question is, waiting in the Bible

isn't just sit back, be lazy and do nothing.

I'm just waiting on the Lord.

No, waiting is actually an active

and a progressive virtue in scripture

because it's this strong expectation and hope.

But here's the question,

what should we be doing while we wait?

Or just scan Acts chapter one and let me ask you this,

what did they do while they waited?

They prayed.

Look at Acts 1, 12 through 14.

It says, then they returned to Jerusalem

from the Mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem,

a Sabbath day's journey, and they entered the upper room

where they were staying.

Peter and John and James and Andrew and Philip

and Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew,

James, the son of Alphaeus, Simon the zealot,

and Judas, the son of James.

All of these with one accord were devoting themselves

to prayer together with the women

and marry the mother of Jesus and his brothers.

Until God showed up the way he promised that he would,

they were praying.

Praying's not passive, it's active and engaging.

And while you wait for whatever it is you're waiting for,

and as a congregation, we do the Lord's work,

we sow the seed, we try to cultivate the ground,

we plant, we water, but only God can make it rain

and give the increase.

While you wait though,

what are you gonna do with all that time?

And Chuck is right, God's doing something to us

in the waiting room.

And what we should be saying when God's making us wait

is I wonder what kind of lessons

that God is trying to teach me.

So many times we go from one trial to the next

and we always miss the blessing in the waiting.

Soon as God delivers us out,

the next time we have a difficulty or a hardship

or we have to wait, we've completely lost the blessing

of what he tried to teach us

because we didn't sit still long enough to say,

okay, what is Hiram supposed to be learning

in this waiting period?

What kind of work has God,

God's gonna get me to where I need to be

or give me the strength to endure

whatever it is I need to endure.

That's not really the lesson.

The lesson is who is God trying to form you

and make you into as you wait?

What kind of things is he trying to teach you

about your inability to save yourself?

Your lack of power, your need to trust him.

If we get those lessons,

the waiting becomes just the byproduct of what he's doing.

Shadona and then Kevin.

Yeah, I think there's a physical aspect

in which that's true,

like carrying the physical Bible around

and reading it in those times of waiting.

But I think, as you mentioned, along with that,

apart from just the physical copy

is having the Bible in heart and mind,

a confidence in God that says,

as I go about my daily life,

I've still got to work and do all these things.

And as I'm waiting, still holding fast and trusting.

Kevin.

So operating room.

Yeah, that's right.

God's waiting room is also the operating room.

God's operating on us.

And in that time, I mean, if somebody's operating on you,

you start fidgeting and wiggling around,

that's why they put you to sleep, right?

You might hurt yourself.

And I think in God's waiting room sometimes,

when he's operating on us,

we start fidgeting and wiggling around

and we might hurt ourselves.

I think this had to have been

what happened with Abraham and Sarah.

They come out of this on the other side,

25 years later, here's Isaac.

But now we got issues.

If we had just waited,

how many times have you said that in life?

Well, these men, they had to wait.

One more question.

What do we need God's power to do today?

Russell talked about the Holy Spirit

and his involvement in our lives today.

Okay, they needed it.

They needed his presence for languages, for miracles.

What about us?

God wants us to do much of the same

that he wanted them to do.

What do we need God's power to accomplish today?

Chuck.

I think I answered that.

Mm-hmm.

Now I'm in the God of the One Piece.

Now I'm in the God of Pope Francis.

It's the leading.

Mm-hmm.

In your own way, the Holy Spirit.

For sure, yeah.

So God's hope.

Yeah, joy and peace and hope.

For sure, what else?

What else does God want us to do

that we need his power to do?

One at a time, don't overwhelm me.

Serve other people.

We're gonna need God's power to do that, Ms. Diane.

Yes, serve other people, yes.

Other people, yeah.

Paul says that.

In 2 Corinthians 1, three through four, he says,

God's brought you out of trial and difficulty

so that the same comfort that God's given you,

you can lavish on other people.

And so that's a part of it.

Just think, evangelism, staying faithful to God,

encouraging others, all of this involves God's power.

All right, here's the second thing

they have to wait for in Acts chapter one.

That is Jesus' return.

Look at Acts 1, nine through 11.

Acts 1, nine says, when he said these things,

that's Jesus, after he told them,

you're gonna be witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea

and in Samaria once the Holy Spirit comes.

After he said these things, they were looking on.

And he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight

and while they were gazing into heaven,

as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes

and said, men of Galilee,

why do you stand looking into heaven?

This Jesus who was taken from you into heaven

will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.

So they have questions about Jesus and the kingdom.

He tells them in verse eight,

once you get the power from the Holy Spirit,

you'll be witnesses.

You'll go to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria,

the uttermost parts of the earth.

Just right next to verse eight, if you mark in your Bible,

this is the blueprint for the book of Acts.

This is exactly what they do.

They start in Jerusalem, then in Acts eight,

they're in Judea and Samaria,

and then they go to the ends of the earth

once you get the power.

So that's what they asked Jesus about, he tells them.

And then Jesus says, I'm going back to heaven.

He ascends back to heaven.

They stand there gazing up

and there are these angels that are standing there

and they ask them, why are you standing up?

This Jesus standing gazing up,

this Jesus who's gone into heaven,

he'll come back in the same way

in which you've seen him go into heaven.

Here's the second challenge that they have for waiting

is waiting on Jesus's return.

I think sometimes we can think about the world

from this vantage point.

We can think the world's here,

I can't wait to go to heaven and be with Jesus.

I just have got to eke out my existence here

and then I'm flying away to be with Jesus.

But in the meantime,

I've got to stay away from these people

that kind of have the spiritual cooties.

I don't really want to get down and dirty with people.

I don't want anything to do with this world.

And they're looking up,

but I think they've got to change their gaze and look out

until Jesus comes back waiting for his return.

It's a challenge for us to say, okay,

instead of just standing looking up,

sometimes this is people's Christianity.

They're just kind of wringing their hands,

shaking their head.

They're like the old man on the porch,

you know, kids these days, you know,

and we look at the world that way.

Oh, the news and we're just kind of wringing our hands

and the apostles are told,

don't stand gazing up into heaven.

Jesus has gone back to heaven to do his work,

but you and I've got work to do while we live here.

And these passages on the screen are about,

it's our responsibility to engage the world

for Jesus's sake.

And that's what Jesus prayed in John 17 and verse 15.

God, don't take them out of the world,

but keep them from the wicked one

or let your light so shine before men.

You're the what of the earth.

What does Jesus say in John Matthew 5, 13?

You're the what of the earth.

Jesus used two illustrations.

First he says salt,

and then he says you're the what of the world.

Light, okay.

Light can make a difference from a distance.

Light can just shine and illuminate from a distance,

but salt only makes a difference upon impact.

And Jesus says, we've got to be both.

We've got to be an example from a distance,

but then we actually have to make contact.

Waiting for Jesus's return, I think is a challenge for us,

because in the meantime,

we've got to be serious about Jesus's business.

Kim?

Okay, so I guess I'm confused about,

you know, we miss opportunities.

And so I'm wondering, I mean, are we ever done waiting?

Or how do we know when we are ready?

For?

Like to do the things that Jesus wants.

Like he tells them to wait.

And where do we know opportunities

that maybe we miss or don't miss?

I think it's a good question.

It's a little bit different for them

than it is for us in the sense that

they were waiting for the Holy Spirit.

When he arrived in Acts two,

there'd be no question that he had come.

In our lives, we're waiting for God to do things,

or waiting on God's power and that sort of thing.

And there is no light bulb moment when we know for sure,

but there's a spirit of waiting and patience

that doesn't try to get out ahead of God.

We pray, we plan, and then we engage.

I don't think we just consistently stay disengaged.

There is a time to actually get involved.

And I think some of that is trial and error.

I think some of that is trying to exercise and figure out,

okay, does God want me to do this?

And trust in that as God opens the doors,

he's letting us know what he wants out of us.

So they needed to wait for that.

They needed to work in Jesus's absence.

The challenge of waiting for Jesus's return is to say,

until Jesus returns, what are we gonna do?

And the balance that we ultimately need to strike.

I think Christians, we need to strike a balance between,

I wanna go to heaven and be with God.

I can't wait, can't wait long to do that,

gonna be with God forever and ever.

But also in the meantime, I'm gonna work for God

and do everything that God wants me to do.

And I won't stand gazing up into heaven like these men.

I'll be gazing out and do whatever God wants me to do.

And when he calls me, then I'll go.

And I think this is a challenge for these guys.

They wanna go to heaven.

They wanna be with Jesus.

Throughout the New Testament,

one of the watchwords is our Lord come.

John ends the book of Revelation with that

in Revelation 22, 20.

Even so, come Lord Jesus.

But what are you gonna do in the meantime?

When you go to work tomorrow,

if you go to work on Monday morning

and when you get there, you look at the clock first thing

and you just start watching the clock

and you say, oh, it's gonna be a long day.

What's gonna happen?

It's gonna be a long day, it's gonna be uncomfortable.

What makes time go fast when you're at work?

Busy, time doesn't go fast though, you go fast.

Time always moves at the same speed.

And if you live your Christian life

just looking at the clock, when's he coming?

When's he coming?

When am I getting out of here?

This is gonna be a long life.

But if you get busy, see,

time always moves at the same pace.

A day with the Lord is a thousand years,

second Peter three, a thousand years is a day

when you get busy, you move fast through time

and you'll see him before you know it.

That's what these men did.

It's called the book of Acts

because they practiced and they got busy.

We can sing about heaven,

but one of the songs we sing

that we really need to take to heart is

we will work till Jesus comes

and just get busy doing it.

Don't stand gazing up to heaven.

Don't watch the clocks and the calendars.

Say, I wanna do God's will.

Here's the last thing from Acts chapter one

that was a challenge and that's replacing leaders.

We know about Judas and his fall.

Peter mentions that in Acts 1, 15 through 20.

Judas fell by transgression.

This was to fulfill some prophecy.

Judas fell away and then Peter gives the requirements

for who's gonna replace him.

This was a challenge.

Real quick, give me the adjectives you think about

when you think about Judas.

That comes to mind.

What do you think about when you think about Judas?

Greedy, traitor, sneaky, what else?

Sad.

I think these men had other adjectives though.

I think we don't think about the challenge

that it was for them to replace Judas.

I think we forget that Judas was their friend.

Oh, we read the gospels and right out of the gate,

every time the apostles are listed,

he has the epitaph attached to his name,

the one that betrayed Jesus, but they had no idea.

They were heartbroken.

Think about the news.

Think about internal and external.

When a leader falls in any religious group,

how devastating it is.

From the outside, people make up their minds

about the church.

From the inside, people scatter.

You know people who've given up on Christianity altogether

because somebody they loved and esteemed disappointed them

or once upon a time, they were faithful,

but this elder left, so they're leaving

or this preacher left, so they,

I mean, a leader falling, it's devastating.

Psalm 55, 12 through 14 says,

if it was an enemy, I could deal with it.

If it was an opponent, I could bear it,

but it was you, my friend.

We once enjoyed sweet counsel together

as we walked into the kingdom of God.

I think Peter, James, and John are heartbroken

about this with Judas.

It's not, we forget that these were real men

and that Judas was among the 12, he was their friend

and replacing leaders is difficult.

And it was a challenge that they had to overcome.

So what do they do?

They cast lots, the Lord decides,

they bathe their decision in prayer and Matthias is chosen.

And we have to replace leaders.

People move, people die, people fall, there are changes.

And I think one of our challenges

is learning how to do this very same thing.

The Lord decides.

The men that serve as elders and deacons,

if they meet the biblical qualifications,

it's just as good as God picking them.

Acts 20 and verse 28 says,

the Holy Spirit makes them overseers.

The decision needs to always be bathed in prayer

and then we need to do God's will.

Say one last thing before we dismiss,

they replaced Judas with Matthias.

But you know, there was another man that day

that wasn't selected.

He still had to serve and be a faithful Christian.

And I think sometimes in the local church,

oh, I really think I should be an elder.

I think this person should be a deacon.

You know, I think he should have been our preacher.

And we forget, they dealt with the same thing.

And you know what they had to do?

Keep going, because here's the bottom line

for God's people as the church.

Leaders and preachers and teachers and servants come and go,

but the Lord is here to stay.

And that's the one we should be focused on

no matter what comes.

They had challenges, they overcame, they waited,

they replaced leaders.

We'll have the same challenges

and we can overcome if we do the same thing.

Thanks for your attention

and thanks for the participation in the Bible class.