Participating in the Mission of the Risen Jesus

Just a reminder that next week we'll begin our series looking at the themes of the Apostles'

Creed. So next week we believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth. How does

that help us to understand our faith? How will that help us to share our faith? We're going to

read now Acts chapter 10 from verse 34 to verse 43. That's on page 1104 if you're using a church Bible.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

Again we have Peter, again a very different context. Now he's in Cornelius' house, a Roman

soldier. Then Peter began to speak. I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism,

but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.

You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through

Jesus Christ who is Lord of all. You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea,

beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with

the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who are under the power

of the devil because God was with him. We are witnesses of everything he did in the country

of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, but God raised him from

the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. He was not seen by all the people, but by

witnesses whom God had already chosen, by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as

judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him

receives forgiveness of sins through his name. Amen. Three texts, different settings, very similar themes. So we're

thinking about our third privilege. We thought about the privilege of hearing God's words together.

Thinking about preaching, we've thought about the privilege of praying to God together. Now we're

thinking about being on the mission of the risen Jesus together. And to help us to get into this topic,

I want to introduce a figure who will be familiar to some of us, others not so much, perhaps.

Count Nikolaus von Zinzendor. At least one person will have heard. Zach is away preaching. I'm glad. He knows

church history. I have to know it. But von Zinzendorff is associated with the Moravian missionary

movement. Listen to this. This is what Zinzendorff said. He was a very wealthy man. He was a king.

This is what he said. He said, I have but one passion. It is he. It is he alone. The world is the field,

and the field is the world. And henceforth, that country shall be my home where I can be most used

in winning souls for Christ. So, Zinzendorff was connected to this 18th century Moravian

missions movement. And to read their history is amazing. If you track it down on the internet,

find out about the Moravian missionaries. Amazing. So, it began with a community of about 300 Christian

refugees who gathered around von Zinzendorff. He obviously had a big house. And after a time,

they established a pattern that would last for 10 years of praying around the clock. So,

everybody had a shift. So, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For 10 years, they were praying

together, concerned for the glory of the Lord Jesus. And that time of those refugees gathering

and of prayer happening became the launching pad for a remarkable mission to the nations. This was a

group that went to extremes. I didn't know this until this week, but 29 of them sold themselves

into slavery. In the U.S. Virgin Islands, they knew that the white slave owners, they'd heard about

Jesus, but the black slaves hadn't. And so, 29 of these white guys went and became slaves on plantations.

22 of them died to make Jesus known. By the time Zinzendorff died in 1760, 226 missionaries had been sent

into 10 different countries. Back to King von Zinzendorff, very wealthy man, very influential man. Why did he

prioritize mission? We heard it. I've got one passion. It's Jesus. He knew it was all about Jesus. He wanted to

make Jesus known to proclaim salvation in Christ, to go into the world wherever God would send him in order to extend

the kingdom of Christ. And it seemed like that whole Moravian mission movement, they got it together.

And that's why it made such an impact. A single concern for the glory of God and for people to hear

about salvation through Jesus. That's our great privilege, for the glory of God to bring the good

news of salvation to be on mission for the risen and exalted Jesus. Like the church in Acts, our message

focuses on Christ, Christ crucified and risen. We go in the power of the Spirit sent by the risen Christ.

And like those Moravians, our movement is to go into the world, recognizing it is his mission field.

So as we close up our little reflections at the start of the year on our privileges as the church,

my prayer would be that we would capture something of the spirit of those Moravians,

something of the spirit of Peter and the apostles, so that we too might embrace and enjoy the privilege

of being called into Christ's mission. Let's think a little bit more about that in Acts chapter 4.

Acts 4 · chapter mention

That's going to be the text that we're going to spend a bit of time on just now. Thinking about the

message as the message spoke of the risen Lord Jesus. Just to set the scene within the book of Acts,

we understand that Luke has many different themes, but a key theme as Luke writes this book is the

resurrection. Our first scene, Acts chapter 1, begins with the risen Lord Jesus teaching His disciples

Acts 1 · chapter mention

before He ascends to heaven. He promises He would send the Spirit, and the church would then spread

the witness about Christ through the world. We are led to understand that as much as the book of Acts is

about the church, and it's about the Spirit, the mission director, we can use that terminology,

the mission director of the church continues to be Jesus by His Spirit through His apostles and followers.

Peter Stuhlmacher, New Testament scholar, writes that the movement of Christianity spreads only by

experiencing that Jesus has been raised by God and exalted to His right hand. This is the wonderful

news that the apostles and the church shared, the only way to be saved through discovering the risen Lord

Jesus as Savior. So, how did they speak about the risen Jesus, and how does that help to inform our

mission? Well, look with me at verse 10. As Peter, before the hostile religious leaders, begins to

explain his understanding of Jesus, he says,

Then know this, you and all the people of Israel, it's by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you

crucified, but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. So, he connects

resurrection with a great reversal. So, Peter, filled with the Spirit, records the truth that God overrides

the decision of those leaders. The verdict that was placed on Jesus by those who crucified Him has been

overridden through the resurrection. So, that while they wanted to heap shame on Jesus as a false Messiah,

by God's design, He is honored. They meant nothing but death for Jesus, but He was righteous and didn't

deserve to stay in the place of death, and so God raises Him to life again. While His enemies would call

Him a blasphemer, His Father said, this is my Son, and I love Him. Listen to Him. This idea of God

reversing their verdict is a common theme, actually, as Peter and the apostles teach. So, we heard it at

Pentecost. In verse 23, this man was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge,

and you, with the help of wicked men, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross, but God raised

Him from the dead. So, part of God's plan. And so, Peter stands before a variety of different crowds in

the book of Acts, and he will say, I'm an eyewitness. I'm an eyewitness to the risen Lord Jesus. I'm an

eyewitness to the fact that He was ascended into glory, and that speaks to the fact that God has a

different verdict on Jesus than the religious leaders. We often say, don't we, that God's verdict

on our lives is the one that matters, and that's true. We should live before the audience of one.

But here we need to understand, when it comes to the resurrection, it's God's verdict on Jesus

is the one that matters. And of course, our response to that determines the verdict God has on our lives.

So, when they speak of resurrection, they often bring in this idea of reversal.

Coupled with that, verse 11 helps us to see that resurrection is connected with the idea of

necessity. Jesus is, quoting from Psalm 118, the stone you builders rejected, which has become

the cornerstone. So, one of the wonderful things that Jesus helps His followers to understand is that

as they read their Old Testament Scriptures, they will find foreshadowings of the person, the work,

the ministry of Jesus, including the resurrection. They're taught by Jesus Himself to know that the

cross is necessary and the resurrection is necessary to God's plan of salvation. So, Peter, as we've just

heard in Acts chapter 2, can see God's hand in it. Listen to His language again. This man was handed over

Acts 2 · chapter mention

to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge. Essential to salvation, that Jesus be handed over,

that He be killed, and then be raised to life. It's anticipated in Psalm 16.

And again, Peter quoted from that,

you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead. You will not let your Holy One see decay.

Now, whenever Peter hears the words of that Psalm, he understands that that truth is applied to the

lips of Jesus. He is the Holy One who was not abandoned to the place of the dead. Indeed, it's

unthinkable that the author of life should ever be permanently subjected to death,

rather having gone into battle against sin and death and the devil. He was raised in victory.

So, the resurrection is reversal, and it's necessary. And then to go back to chapter 4 and verse 12,

Peter wants to connect the resurrection with salvation. Because Jesus is risen, salvation is found

in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.

Acts' speeches from Peter, from Paul, often end with a call to repent. Why do they end with a call to

repent? Because as they understand the truth of the resurrection, they understand that Jesus is the

one who has overcome sin and death. There is forgiveness, there is victory in Him, there is peace with God,

through faith in the risen Christ. They understand that He has been appointed by God as the end-time

judge. And to hear the judgment of being declared righteous, you need to have faith in the one crucified and now risen.

And so, they emphasize that the resurrection has significance for salvation. Indeed, we didn't read it,

but Acts chapter 4 verse 2, we read this, they were greatly disturbed, that's the opponents of the

Acts 4:2

apostles, because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the

dead. So, they're beginning even at this stage to make a connection. Jesus rose from the dead. If we have

faith in, we too will rise from the dead, that where Jesus goes, we too will go. So, salvation then

becomes tied up with the hope of a new heaven and a new earth for the people of God. So, the resurrection

is crucial for the apostles as they teach, regardless of their context, friendly or otherwise. Now,

how can all this thinking about the resurrection help the church on mission today? Well, to take a step

back, we read three different scenes, but in each we see Peter publicly testifying that Jesus died and

rose again. And I think we have in the book of Acts an encouragement to public faith, that part of our

mission is to live our mission is to live out our faith before a watching world. Now, the context for

them, often hostility, often opposition. Definitely, they were a tiny minority, both within Judaism and

within the Roman Empire at this stage, but yet they publicly testified. What might that look like for us?

Allowing Jesus and his teaching to impact our daily lives? Certainly, he's Lord of all. Look like

obedience to Jesus as Lord, being ready to bear the cost of that, that makes life difficult in

our family setting, in our workplace, in our workplace, or in our place of education.

As we see from Peter and others, taking risks with the help and the power of the Holy Spirit to

communicate our faith to others when we have opportunity to love the local church as an expression

of the kingdom of Jesus. So, we're encouraged to public faith.

I think this also encourages us to recognize, all this talk about the resurrection, to recognize the

interest that there is today in the afterlife. What happens after we die? It's interesting to see that

there's still a great interest. People are still asking those questions. Popular culture.

You've got TV shows like The Good Place or Russian Doll. You've got novels like The Lovely Bones.

You've got so many stories that always sell well about people, you know, traveling into the light

and going to heaven for a few minutes and then coming back. And they can always get on telly and

they can always sell books. People are interested in the idea of the afterlife. And there was a survey

recently done by King's College down in London called the World Values Study, looking at different

countries and what different countries think about religious questions. It revealed that in the UK,

46% of people still say they believe in life after death. It seems fairly high. Interestingly,

younger people are recognized to be more likely to believe in life after death, more likely to believe

both in heaven and in hell. 16 to 24 year olds are far more likely to believe in heaven and hell than

60 year olds and 70 year olds, according to that survey. The survey director made the observation,

it seems like those young people who are less attached to formal religion actually have a greater sense and

need of, there must be more than this. There must be something bigger than this.

And so when we see it in our culture and we hear it in our surveys and we hear it in conversation,

we need to talk about the resurrection as a crucial part of the whole gospel. You know,

we can't stop with, you know, Jesus lived and Jesus died for our sins. To remind people about the

resurrection, about the return of Christ, about the new heavens and the new earth and what that looks

like for the believer. Because Christianity promises to meet so many deep longings that people have.

People love this earth. People love friendships and family and a love that, want a love that lasts.

Jesus promises it in the new heaven and the new earth.

Jesus meets deep longings as people come to him by faith. The third thing that we see from

Peter and the apostles throughout the book of Acts is a reminder again to take a step back,

to read the Bible in a Jesus-centered way. We thought about that a little bit this morning.

You know, after teaching, after listening to Jesus, it becomes instinct for these believers,

for these apostles to read their Old Testament and to see Christ on every page. Again, a plug for the

Rooted Women's Bible Study. It's going to be a good time of seeing in those great stories of Ruth and

Joseph themes that connect to Jesus and the gospel. Our mission is to help people to know our God,

to help people to come to know Jesus. He is the great hero in the storyline of all of Scripture.

Jesus risen and exalted is the one that we proclaim.

Andreas Kostenberger said this,

The dynamic that drives the dynamic that drives the irresistible spread of the gospel in Acts is clearly

the apostolic proclamation of the risen Christ. Nobody saw it coming that God's Messiah would die

in shame and be raised in glory, but they proclaimed it, and the world was turned upside down,

and it will always be the same. So that's the message of the risen Christ that we need to proclaim.

Now let's turn to Acts chapter 10 just for a few minutes to think about the movement of the risen

Acts 10 · chapter mention

Christ as the church goes on mission. So we're here in Acts chapter 10. Peter is at Cornelius' house.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

It's one of these great moments in the book of Acts where the gospel jumps barriers,

because Cornelius is a Roman soldier. He is a Gentile, would be regarded to an outsider as an enemy

of the people of Israel. But we know that God is working in his heart. He's described in verse 2 of

chapter 10 as a devout and God-fearing man along with his family. God is drawing him.

And God works through two visions. Cornelius gets a vision. Go and send for this man Peter. Peter

gets a vision while he's praying and is led to come to Cornelius' house. And when he arrives,

what's his message about Jesus? Well, here that he stays on topic. He tells Cornelius,

Jesus is God's message of good news. You know the message God sent to the people of Israel,

announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. He declares in verse

38, Jesus is God's anointed, anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power. And he declares that Jesus

was raised by God. Verse 39 and 40, they killed him by hanging him on a cross, but God raised him from

the dead on the third day. And after speaking about Jesus, Peter also wants to tell Cornelius something

of himself. In verse 41, he makes the point that he saw Jesus. He's one of the eyewitnesses that Jesus

appeared to. In verse 42, he makes the point that he was sent by Jesus. He commanded us to preach to

the people. And he makes plain his message. All the prophets testify about him, that everyone who

believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. Wherever Peter goes, he is sharing the same

kind of message about the risen Lord Jesus as good news, bringing salvation and forgiveness of sins.

And as he goes, we see the Spirit is at work. The risen Lord Jesus who sends the Spirit,

and the Spirit is then directing mission.

And listen to how Peter understands the mission movement. So again, in verse 34, we hear the language,

I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism, but accepts from every nation the one

who fears him and does what is right. This is not good news just for some people. This is good news for

all people. Verse 36, you know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of

peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. The supremacy of Christ and salvation through Christ for all.

All the prophets, verse 43, testify about him, that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins

through his name. Making the point in so many different ways that the risen and exalted Lord Jesus Christ seeks to gather

his people from all nations. And he continues to do so as his people bring the gospel message.

And so as we think about our ongoing mission to make Jesus known here in Edinburgh, wherever we happen to find

ourselves, again, some implications for us to consider, borrowed from the website of Overseas Missionary Fellowship,

OMF, and some headings for us to consider. As we think about what will it look like

for us to be involved in the mission of the risen Lord Jesus? And we begin, as we were thinking about

this morning, with the idea of giving. One of the ways that we can be involved in mission is by

supporting financially. So just to flag up, we made this decision, I guess, last year, maybe even two

years ago as a deacon score, that every penny that comes into our offering on a Sunday evening will go

to support mission. Mission in our church plant in Galaxias, the new church plant in Leith, and to

support the Reannos working in Columbia. So whenever you give on a Sunday evening, that's where the money

will go. Perhaps giving might look like supporting the Bible Society. Bible Society last year completed

181 translations of the Bible used by 723 million people, but they reckon there's still 1.15 billion

people who still have no access to Scripture. So Bible Society, Bible translation work is a wonderful

way to support the kingdom work as we think about how would God have me use my finances to invest in

the kingdom of God. So we give. We're called, of course, to pray. We see it in the book of Acts, the early

church so often praying together, praying for the glory of God, praying for the spread of the good news of

salvation. We saw it in the Moravian mission movement, praying for the glory of Christ in the world as

his mission field. So we have the chance to pray individually. We have the chance to pray as we come

together, to pray knowing that everyone who believes in Jesus receives forgiveness of sins through his

name, knowing that we have the best news that people really need to hear. And so we pray for our

preaching here. We pray for every opportunity that we have to teach the Bible formally and informally.

We pray for our plans for a new kids' club in our community, for evangelistic Bible studies for our

students and young workers. We pray for the sake of ongoing mission. For some of us, perhaps we'll hear the

call from God to go. Historians estimated that one in every 92 people connected to the Moravian movement

they left home on mission. That's striking, isn't it? One of the things I've been praying in the last

year or so is to pray that God would put it on the heart of one person or one family in our church to

think about mission here or abroad. I include myself in that. We all need to be open, I think. David Platt

puts it so well when he says, we are called to be ready for mission wherever we are. It could be in our

families, in our neighborhood, in our office or our school, and we need to be open to wherever God leads.

Remember Isaiah, having seen the glory of God, ready to say, here am I, send me. As we see and

appreciate the glory of the risen Lord Jesus, are we ready to say, here am I, send me. Maybe the last

implication, OMF recognising the shift of people movements, they talk about welcome, reminding us of

the mission field on our doorstep, reminding us of the opportunities that we have of nations, people

from different nations coming to us. And many people who in their home countries wouldn't have easy

access or any access to a church or to a Bible, to a place to ask questions or to explore Christianity.

So we have amazing opportunities, a chance to share the gospel, to make disciples, to send people home

as believers of the Lord Jesus. And so again, that leads us to pray and seek opportunities, and maybe

especially to pray for things like Connect on a Monday, where people from different nations gather,

some of whom are Christians, many of whom are not.

So we see in the book of Acts, here are the apostles sent on this amazing mission for the

risen Lord Jesus. And we understand that we have that same mission as the people of God.

Luke, as he writes his book of the Acts, he wants us to see that the rapid growth and spread of the

gospel. The mission of the gospel, the mission of the church doesn't come because of finely tuned

strategies. It comes because Jesus sends the Spirit, and the Spirit directs men and women,

ordinary believers, as well as the apostles, to speak and act for the living God.

And that's what God still wants to do, to equip us, to empower us, ordinary Christians,

that we might make Jesus known. And that's good news. It's good news as we think about our mission.

It's good news as we think about our Monday morning. And where will we be? Where will our mission field

be this week? Perhaps in the school? Perhaps on our street? Perhaps it'll be in the hospital? Or in our

office? But we have that promise that Jesus will be there with us by His Spirit, giving us that

wonderful privilege of representing Him, of serving Him, so that we might make it known that Jesus is the

risen Savior of the world. Let's pray together briefly. Lord,