Acts: Why do you stand here staring into the sky?

Well, friends, after spending a year in

his gospel, we now turn to Luke's

sequel, the book of Acts, which really

serves kind of as a bridge document in

the New Testament, a bridge between the

Gospels, those stories from Matthew,

Mark, Luke, and John that tell the

stories of Jesus, and the epistles,

these letters that are written by a

handful of disciples explaining how we

are to try and follow Christ in our

everyday lives. Um, but the book of

Acts, it's this bridge. It's how these

followers of Jesus came to develop their

faith and develop community. How the

message of Jesus spread to such a degree

that we sit here 2,000 years

later. Now, to begin with, I want to

remind you again like we did a year ago

that Luke in both this gospel and in

Acts, he's writing to someone he calls

Theophilos. Theophilles. And this could

be a real person. There's like a couple

arguments about who it might be, but

actually most scholars think that this

is Luke's like clever way of telling us

that this book and his gospel, they're

intended for all who consider themselves

the friend of God. Because Theophilus

literally means friend of God, one who

loves

God. Theo in the Greek means God. And

fileo is brotherly love. the love we

experience between brothers and sisters

and

friends. And so it's intended for all of

us, all of us who consider ourselves

friends of God. Luke wants us to know

this message has been written for us,

for you. And so, friends of God, you're

about to jump into the fascinating story

of what happens after Jesus leaves, when

he ascends to the father, returns uh to

God the Father, and how the disciples

are just left now, now, not on their own

with the power of the Holy Spirit, but

they're left to try and figure out what

does it mean to actually follow Jesus

now when he's not here. How do we

develop community? What are we supposed

to do? Who are we supposed to be? It's

the really wild and incredible story of

the birth of the

church. Now, I have heard a number of

people preach through the book of Acts

and sometimes what they argue is that we

should look back on this book and and we

should just try and emulate the church

as it's described in the book of Acts

because it's our first historical

record, right, of the church starting.

And so if we want to get rid of like all

the problems in the modern day church,

all we really need to do is just copy

the church from the first century book

of

Acts and then all our problems will go

away. We can just fix everything wrong

with the modern day church. Easy peasy.

Solve it. Um the problem is is we're not

in the first

century. We're in the 21st century and

we actually can't go back. Time does

indeed march on. uh going back it's

impossible. Um and even more do you

really want to go

back? Do you really want to go

back? I mean '9s grunge is somehow back

in fashion. Have you noticed? And that's

not serving us, is

it? I mean, my son back there is

convinced he looks great.

Um but I'm not so

sure. And I swear that if low-rise jeans

return, I'm giving up on us

altogether. Um, going back isn't always

good for us. It's also not always

possible because of just how quickly

time marches on, right? How quickly even

tech advance advances. I thought I would

illustrate this for us today. Um, just

how quickly time moves. I sat down with

my middle school daughter, Mila, to see

if she could identify some well-known

items from the 80s and the 90s. Um, and

it uh turned out hilarious, to say the

least. You guys are going to enjoy this.

Okay, Mila, I'm just going to ask you um

some questions about things from the

'8s, and you just tell me what you think

they are. Uh, I'm just go through them

pretty quick. Okay. Okay. Okay. The

yellow pages. Pages that are yellow.

Do you know what that is though? No.

You're just What would you guess it is?

Pages that are yellow. It's a book that

is yellow. Okay. What's a rolodex?

A phone. A phone. A type of phone. A

type of phone. Okay. Um, what is a

collect call?

Spam call. A spam call. Something like

that. No. Okay. Okay. What does it mean

to burn a CD?

You light a fire and burn a CD.

Okay. What is dial up?

Something like lock in. Something where

to And what do you mean by lock in? Lock

in is like you're in the zone. Okay. So,

that's what dialup means.

Okay. Um, what does be

kind mean? Always be be kind or and you

can never go back and change it. Okay.

Interesting.

Do you know what a fax machine is?

I have a machine that tells facts.

Perfect.

What is AOL?

LOL. No. A O.

A. Uh, olive

oil. Oh.

Never mind. Um, do you know what a view

master is?

A video game. A video game. That's a

good guess. View master. Yeah.

Okay.

Um, what is microfich?

Microscopic little bugs.

Okay. Okay. Mila, I'm just going to ask

you um some questions about things from

the8s. You just tell me what you We're

done, Laura.

Oh man, she's took one for the team for

me. And just think that's only what

we've lost in like 30 to 40 years. So

imagine adding, you know, 2,000 years to

the experience of what the church was

like. I mean, we can't go back. Um,

we're living in an entirely different

world than the early church.

an entirely different world. So let's

remember as we move through this book as

compelling a witness of God that its

stories are going to offer

us. One of the foundational aspects that

are woven into this text really the

experience of those first disciples is

this commitment to an idea that faith is

fundamentally forward-f facing. We're

moving forward. We're heading somewhere

new.

you can't go back. You don't really want

to go back because Christ is actually

always out in front of us inviting us

somewhere

new. So, as we explore this book, I do

want you to notice that you are going to

see a number of parallels to our modern

world. We're going to find some

experiences that feel really on the

nose. We we'll have one this morning,

actually. Um, there's going to be all

sorts of examples of how Jesus's message

was made real and tangible in the lives

and experiences of those first century

disciples. But what we're not looking

for is to go back there. We're not

trying to go back there. What we're

looking for is courage and conviction

and

clarity to move forward into new

challenges, new experiences, new life

here in the 21st century in Salt Lake

City.

in your

home, in your relationships, in your

workplace, in school, and most

especially here in our church at First

Press. And so with that in mind, let's

hear the word of the Lord from Acts 1:es

1-1.

In the first book,

Theophilles, I wrote about all that

Jesus began to do and to teach until the

day when he was taken up to heaven after

giving instructions through the Holy

Spirit to the apostles whom he had

chosen. And after his suffering, he

presented himself alive to them by many

convincing proofs, appearing to them

during 40 days and speaking about the

kingdom of God. And while staying with

them, he ordered them not to leave

Jerusalem, but to wait there for the

promise of the father. This, he said, is

what you have heard from me. For John

baptized with water, but you will be

baptized with the Holy Spirit not many

days from now. So when they had come

together, they asked him, "Lord, is this

the time when you will restore the

kingdom to Israel?" And he replied, "It

is not for you to know the times or

periods that the Father has set by his

own authority. But you will receive

power when the Holy Spirit has come upon

you, and you will be my witnesses in

Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and

to the ends of the earth." And when he

had said this, as they were watching, he

was lifted up, and a cloud took him out

of their sight. While he was going and

they were gazing up toward heaven,

suddenly two men in white robes stood by

them, and they said, "Men of Galilee,

why do you stand looking up toward

heaven? This Jesus who has been taken up

from you into heaven will come in the

same way as you saw him go into heaven.

This is the word of the Lord.

Okay, friends. Well, the disciples have

just spent over a month hanging out with

the crucified and risen Lord. Okay, so

they've been sharing meals and asking

questions and trying to make sense of

his teachings in light of the

crucifixion and

resurrection. And and you would think

that maybe that 40 days had given them

some sense of what this kingdom was

going to be about. But we see here in

Acts 1 that they're still super fuzzy on

the

details because as Jesus is about to go

return to the father, they're still

asking the wrong question. They're

asking, "Lord, is this the time that

you're going to restore the kingdom to

Israel?" That's the question they're

asking as he ascends to the father. I

mean, even with all they've witnessed,

all they've learned from Jesus over

three years, all they've borne witness

to in just the last 40 days with the

cross and resurrection, they're so

fixated on their messianic expectations

of what Jesus is supposed to do for

their

nation that that's where they're

focused. They're focused on national

politics. They want Jesus to restore

their nation to power. or or to put it

in terms we might understand very well,

they want Jesus to make Israel great

again. That's really what they're

they're

asking. And you need to understand that

this theme, it is all throughout Jesus's

ministry. The disciples are misreading

his mission as nationalistic rather than

holistic, right? As political rather

than

relational. Now, to be fair, you you

cannot dismiss Jesus's Jewishness. Not

if you want to take him seriously. um

the the nation of Israel is central to

the biblical plot. However, you have to

remember that Jesus makes it explicitly

clear over and over and over again that

the kingdom of God that's being ushered

in it it is bigger. It is so much bigger

than anything they can imagine. It will

not be bound by ethnic, cultural,

religious or political politics.

Politics. It's not about nations. Not at

all. God's kingdom has always been

bigger than tribe or tongue or

nation. So, I imagine that as we go

through this, feeling that tension that

the people of Acts experience that we

might see ourselves reflected in the

story in light of our own political

climate. I think so. It'll be quite

timely for us. Um because what we're

going to find is that these early

Christian followers of Christ, they had

to wrestle with all the same issues

we're wrestling with. I mean, are we

going to be Jewish? Or are we something

different

now? What do we call

ourselves when the terms that used to

work no longer do it for us or they've

been taken and hijacked and used by

extremists?

Am I Jewish or am I

Christian? Am I

Roman or am I Christian? Or in our case,

am I

American or am I

Christian? or or should we try and

conflate the two and instead create a

nationalistic

monstrosity that'll ruin both our faith

and our patriotism, which by the way the

church has done many times throughout

history. Now, the truth, friends, is

that you can be a lot of different

things at once.

Not only is that just like the reality

of being a

human, but we live in this world. We

were many of us born into this country

or we came to this country,

right? However, we do have to decide

which identity takes priority in our

life. Whose king and kingdom are we

ultimately loyal

to? because we can be both American and

Christian. I mean, Jesus's response to

his disciples is really fascinating here

when they ask, "Are you going to restore

Israel now?" He was restoring

Israel. It was never about that.

Never. In fact, that's the wrong

question entirely.

If you go back and you look at the

message of Jesus Christ, what you're

going to find is that over and over and

over again, Jesus has said the real

kingdom, it's already arrived and it's

arrived in

him in the person of Christ. And so to

this group of confused disciples like

still hoping their nation can take

power, he says, "You don't need to worry

about that right now.

That's actually not on the

agenda because you're going to receive

power, but it's not going to be for

political gain. It's not

about

nationalism. This power is about helping

you be my

witnesses here in Jerusalem and in Judea

and Samaria and to the very ends of the

earth. There will be power. All right?

But it's not for

consolidating. It's for

sharing. It's not for controlling

others, but for freeing them. And this

power that you're about to receive, it's

going to enable you to go and love

everyone everywhere. And Jesus seems to

mean like actually everyone, even the

people we hate, because he says, "You're

going to go to Jerusalem, Judea,

Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

or for us our translation where you are

right now everyone near you even the

folks you

hate and everyone else you can't

possibly imagine

yet Jerusalem is where they happen to be

right

now but Judea and Samaria those are the

nearby regions for these disciples and

do you all remember how they felt about

each other the Jews and the

Samaritans yet not

Great. Not great. It's why his disciples

were always trying to convince him,

"Yeah, can we not take the road through

Samaria Jesus this time?" It's why they

were absolutely like shocked and

offended when they showed up and he was

talking to the woman at the well, the

Samaritan. It's why the story of the

good Samaritan was so deeply offensive

to the Jewish audience. Yeah. Samaritans

and Jews, they hate each other. Yep.

Jesus's point here is that the Holy

Spirit is going to empower his disciples

to go and share the love of God not just

with those they happen to like and agree

with and look like and vote like, but

also with the folks they'd historically

judged and cursed and dehumanized and

even

despised. Jesus tells them, "I'm going

to empower you to tell my story of

unexpected inclusion and embrace. Not

just where you feel comfortable and safe

and familiar, but with everybody who's

around you, the folks you think you love

and the folks you think you

hate. And you're going to come to

understand that these

categories of us versus them, of in

versus

out, those are not real

categories. A and you created them, not

God. God's spirit would tear down every

cultural, religious, social, and

political barrier. And I think this is

easy for us to skim over because we read

Samaria and Judea and it means nothing

to us. Jews and Samaritans, that's not

where we've d like drawn our line in the

sand against those we disagree with,

those we dehumanize. But we're not

easily off the hook, friends. I mean,

really think about it for a second. Who

is it you judge?

I mean, who is it you

exclude? You know, is there a group of

people that you think they might just be

like just a little bit outside the reach

of God's

love? Who is it we've

decided that the barriers of inclusion

should

stand, that we should keep those

religious litmus

tests? Because if you and I want to take

the message of this book seriously,

we're going to have to allow all those

different categories that we have, we're

going to have to let the spirit tear

them down as well, so that we can be

people that live and tell the story of

God's expansive love for all people,

even in our own

Samaras, which is really convicting to

start off the book this

way. It I I didn't really want to preach

this text to be honest.

Well, if we've got Jerusalem and Judea

and Samaria, we still have the ends of

the earth to talk

about all the people we've yet to

imagine. All the places we've yet to

go. And here again, I want us to circle

back around this all too important truth

that our faith, it's forwardf facing.

We're moving somewhere.

God's God is doing something new and

we're going to have to make room for it.

Verse 11 tells us that as the disciples

are standing there staring up at the

sky, two angels show up and go, "What

are you

doing? Why are you staring up at the

sky?" Pretty sure Jesus told you what

you're supposed to be doing and where

you're supposed to be

going. So, get to

it. Get to it.

But I have so much compassion for these

guys. I really do. I mean, think about

how I mean, their heads must have just

been

spinning. Think about what the last two

months has been like for them,

particularly, right? Their Messiah, who

they've given up everything to follow,

has just been brutally murdered. And so,

they have this span of time where

they're literally like, "Well, what was

all that for? It's over now. He's dead.

what were we

doing? And and then all of a sudden, he

appears resurrected and they're like,

"Oh, thank God." Like, you're back.

Perfect. We can go back. We can get

right back to what we were

doing. We can go to Jerusalem. We can go

back to Galilee. We can go back to

spending all of our time with Jesus.

we can go

back and he'll probably restore the

kingdom of Israel just like we want him

to. But instead of doing that, what is

what happens to them? Jesus instead

tells them, "This isn't about Israel. In

fact, I'd like you to pack your bags for

Samaria." And then he

disappears. He's

gone. So much compassion for them. That

was a whole lot more information, a

whole lot more new and unexpected than I

think they were bargaining

for. They probably just really wanted to

go back to the way things were. But here

is the thing, you know, it can be easy

for us to just assume that resurrection

is the same thing as

resuscitation. That really what happened

on

Easter was Jesus

just turning the clock back, just

rewinding the tape on all the horrific

pain that had gone

before. But that's not quite right. That

does not go far enough because

resurrection isn't about what

was. It's about what could be and would

be and will

be. And that's what's so compelling

about Acts is that the Christian faith,

it's like facing all sorts of new

dilemmas, all sorts of new challenges

and experiences and

opportunities. I mean, it's about the

church learning how to grow and be agile

and evolve and be alive in a changing

culture, rapidly changing

culture. It's about moving forward into

uncharted waters that they were not

prepared for. And they were going to

have to trust the Holy Spirit. they were

going to have to lean on their faith to

be able to pull it

off. And if you've ever had to launch

into something new and scary, then you

know it requires leaning on the Holy

Spirit and relying on your faith,

doesn't

it? Because new stuff, new paths, they

can be deeply unsettling. It can be

pretty terrifying to step into a future

that you can't control.

Sometimes all we want is to just go back

to the way things

were. And if there's anyone who has the

right to want to go back, I think it's

these

guys. I mean, they spent years walking

around with the incarnate word of God in

their world, but you can't go

back. You can't go back.

Sometimes we want to go back to an old

job that we

loved or to an old

relationship, back to when she still

loved us or he was still

here. Back into a season maybe where we

felt the presence of God in a real

pronounced way and it's been a really,

really, really long time since we felt

like that.

Maybe we want to go back to a season

where, you know, we had a lot less

doubts and we felt a lot more

certain. And and you know, hear me, it's

appropriate to grieve the past and

remember, you know, we can celebrate

what was what came before that was worth

honoring.

But if we really want to experience the

story of resurrection, then there

inevitably comes a time that we have to

ask

ourselves, why are we standing around

staring at the sky, waiting to go

back, waiting for something that

was, hanging on to how things used to

be instead of trusting that there is

still something really beautiful out

ahead of us.

that God is still actually

alive and calling us into a future

filled with

hope. Friends, Christ is not back there

somewhere. Christ is with you now and he

is out ahead of you calling you

forward.

Forward. And so we are invited as the

church in our own day to continue this

movement we see in the book of

Acts to explore and to become and to

evolve as the Holy Spirit calls us into

something new and

faithful all at the same time. All at

the same

time. And so as we begin this book, as

we dive into it, I'd encourage you to

start reading it. There's some crazy

stuff that happens in there. You will

have

questions. I probably won't have

answers, but we can talk about it.

But as you start diving into the book,

as you start

imagining what it was like to be a

disciple, having to figure it out on the

fly, which I imagine you can relate

with, I do pray that these stories might

inspire you for what lies ahead in your

own

life. For maybe a power that you don't

yet fully

understand, and maybe for people that

you uh don't yet know how to love.

and for places that you don't yet

imagine yourself

being. God is going to take you

somewhere new because ours is a faith

that pulls us

forward. It

is into a good

future, one that is thankfully free of

dialup internet also.

But whatever it is holding you back, I'd

invite you over these next few weeks to

unclench your

fists and think about what tomorrow

holds. Amen.