We Are Church | Be My Witnesses - Acts 1:6-11 | March 2

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Before we get into Acts too quickly this morning, as you would crawl,

we just started the book of Acts last week.

So if you weren't here, you missed out on most of chapter 1,

but not all of chapter 1 because we didn't read like 6 verses or 7 verses.

We're going to talk about those verses today.

Before we get too far into the book of Acts, I just want to remind you of what

Luke writes at the end of his gospel account, at the end of the book of Luke,

which Jake was able to share a little bit about with you several weeks ago.

So I just want to read some of that for you. This is verse chapter 24 in Luke, verses 46 and 48.

And Jesus said to his disciples, Yes, it was written long ago that the Messiah

would suffer and die and rise from the dead on the third day.

It was also written that this message would be proclaimed in the authority of

his name to all the nations beginning in Jerusalem, that there is forgiveness

of sins for all who repent, and you are witnesses of all these things.

So Luke ends his gospel with this declarative statement, right?

That this message will be proclaimed to all nations in the power and authority of Jesus' name.

It's this message that there is forgiveness of sins for all who repent.

And that message will be proclaimed. It's a declarative statement.

Because Luke sees history.

With Jesus at the center point. Luke views his view of history.

It has Jesus at the center point that everything that happened before Jesus's

arrival is the age of promise. It's something that will happen,

something that hasn't happened yet, but it's something that is going to come.

And then everything after Jesus is coming, which inaugurates this age of the

promise, It's all one period.

It's the last days, the age of the promise. The promise has come.

So Jesus is at the middle.

Everything before him is something to come and everything after him,

the promise has now come.

And so when Luke ends this book on a declarative statement, he's not just making

this future prediction, but he's also kind of leaving us on a cliffhanger because

this is a two-part story, right?

So he's saying that this is going to happen. It will happen.

All of that you've been told will come true.

This message will spread like wildfire from Jerusalem and to the very ends of the earth.

And if we've paid attention to the news, which I don't watch the news,

so I don't pay attention to it, but I'm aware that wildfires are something that

have been in the news the last several months.

Jenny informed me today that there's one near Myrtle Beach. So they're continuing

to be in the news, but even more so in the last couple of months because of

obviously the tragedies that have happened in the L.A. fires.

And there's actually a video where Mel Gibson is leaning over to Russell Brand

at some symposium where their two paths cross. I can't imagine what that would be.

And he's leaning over and you can actually hear him say, my house is burning down right now.

And Russell Brand's like, in Australia? He says, no, in Malibu,

burning down right now. And so this is something that has affected and touched

every walk of life, especially those concentrated, obviously, in California.

But wildfires, when you get that perfect storm of eight months of drought,

low humidity, an abundance of fuel, in this case, dried trees, right?

And then you add on top of that these 100-mile Santa Ana winds,

you get this perfect storm where these wildfires are difficult to outrun.

Even by Usain Bolt, especially now though, because he's retired and he's probably

working on a gold medal belly at the moment.

But it's hard to out drive them.

That's how fast these things spread, right?

It's a dangerous thing, but the message, this message of salvation,

this message of forgiveness, of freedom, of the kingdom of heaven is so desirable

to the dry kindling of the human heart that it can't help but spread.

That there's a solution, there's an answer, there's a savior.

Tell me more. It is so desirable for our dry human hearts to realize and know

that this message is there, the message of salvation, the message of Jesus.

And Acts begins very much the same way that Luke ends his gospel.

It makes the same declarative statement. You will receive power when the Holy

Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea,

Samaria, to the ends of the earth.

It repeats this statement almost exactly, although in a different way,

right? Same, same, but different.

But this time, instead of simply making a declaration that of an unknown time,

an unknown period where someday in the future, this will be fulfilled.

Instead, it represents it still as a declarative statement. But this time what

it's doing is introducing all that's about to take place, all that will transpire.

It's introducing this as almost a thesis statement.

It's the book of Acts is the unfolding of all that the disciples had witnessed

in their time with Jesus.

It is the practical application of what it means to be the church,

of what it looks like to be disciples of Jesus, to be fishers of men.

That's what the book of Acts is it's a story of the early church continuing

the mission of Jesus here on earth, empowered by his spirit.

That's what the book of Acts is about, and we find that in this opening statement.

It's about what it means to be the church, or as I have said it,

and perhaps it might be grammatically incorrect, but it works for me. We are church.

It's making the statement that we are church. And this is this continuance of

Jesus's ministry here on earth through his people, by his spirit.

This is what it means to be church. Because as I teased a little bit last week,

a church is not somewhere we attend.

It's not a place we attend. It's not an event we sit through.

It is a people we belong to. It is a movement which we belong to.

That's what church is, a movement we belong to. So in the Bible.

Whenever we see this word church in the Bible, what the authors are doing is

using this Greek word, which you've probably heard before, ecclesia or ecclesia.

They're using this Greek word, ecclesia, whenever you see it appear.

In fact, even when Jesus refers to his called out people, his special people

who are going to be these world changers, these world transformers,

these planet shakers, he uses that word as well. He uses the word ecclesia.

Last week, we read in Matthew 16, this story where the disciples have this kind

of lowest of low moments, right?

Where Jesus is teaching at some point, they're like, he's talking about bread,

right? And he's definitely not talking about bread.

So it's this low moment that we see in the disciples where once again,

they're continuing to misunderstand.

And so this time you kind of begin to feel sorry for the guys.

They just, they're not getting it.

But directly following this story, this lowest of low, we encounter one of the highest of highs.

Jesus asked the disciples the famous question, who do people say that I am?

And they say, well, you're, people say that you're John the Baptist.

No, people say that you're Elijah.

No, people say you're a prophet. And Jesus is like, wait a second,

you just demoted me from Elijah to just any old prophet. I thought we were really building to something.

But then he comes to the more important question, who do you say that I am?

And following this low moment where the disciples misunderstood everything,

we have this beautiful confession by Peter, where he says, you are the Christ,

the Messiah, the Son, a living God.

So directly following a low moment, we have this highest of high where in some

way, the spirit empowers Peter to make this proclamation, this testimony, this witness.

And Jesus replied, you are blessed, Simon, son of John, because my father in

heaven has revealed this to you.

You did not learn this from any human being.

Now I say to you that you are Peter, which means rock, and upon this rock, I will build my church.

So God's, Jesus is a fan of puns, but upon this confession, upon this testimony,

upon this witness, I will build my ecclesia, Jesus says.

Upon this witness and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.

And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you forbid on

earth will be forbidden in heaven.

And whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.

Now, Jesus could have easily said upon this confession, upon this witness,

upon this testimony, I will build my synagogue.

But he doesn't say that. And when Jesus is saying upon this rock,

by the way, I don't think he's talking about Peter.

Not really, not mostly at least.

There's this weird thing that's happening where he uses a masculine noun with a feminine adjective.

And so the one thing's not really meant to describe the other.

So what I think he's talking about is Peter's confession.

This testimony, this witness, upon this witness, I will build my ekklesia.

Jesus could have easily said upon this confession, I will build my temple.

He could have said upon this rock, I will build an altar to the Lord.

But instead he uses a Roman word, a borrowed word, a secular word.

He uses the word ekklesia.

The church is a unique entity, separate from Israel.

The church isn't meant to replace Israel. God's not done with Israel.

But Jesus here is doing something new. He's doing a new thing.

He's building up something new. Because ecclesia at its simplest is a word that

means assembly or gathering. It's a group of people.

Which makes sense why I've been saying we are the church. It's a group of people.

We want to be real people.

I heard a pastor explain one time how in the ancient days, right?

They would have people run through the streets calling out ecclesia whenever

there was something important to be announced or a problem that needed solving.

And so these people would run out of their homes to gather together and knowing

in their hearts already, okay, there's a problem that we're going to solve together.

They've given the announcement, we're coming, we're going to do this together

because ecclesia is it's something, there's a message that needs to be shared.

There's something that needs to be proclaimed. And as we dig deeper,

there's even more specialness about this word because it means called out ones.

You've probably heard that before, which makes a lot of sense,

right? These people are called out of their homes.

They're called out of their homes to gather together in an assembly to solve

a problem for a shared purpose.

So it makes a lot of sense. They're called out of their homes to gather for a shared purpose.

It's like when Jesus himself appoints the 12 out of his disciples to come and follow him.

We read in Mark chapter 3 that he went up on the mountain and called to him

Mark 3 · chapter mention

those he desired, and they came to him.

Now, Jesus is a bit unique as a rabbi in the sense that usually disciples sought

out a rabbi to follow, but Jesus goes and finds his disciples that he wants to call to himself.

He calls them out of their professions. He calls them out of their individuality.

He calls them out of everything that once was, and he calls them into a family

to be gathered for a shared purpose.

This is ekklesia. This is church. We are the church.

So our word church doesn't come from this Greek word, as if that wasn't obvious

because they sound nothing alike.

Our word comes from the German word kirche, which does mean a building in which

you travel to for some sacred worship, sacred ceremony.

But as I've mentioned already, church isn't a place you attend.

It's not an event you sit through. It is a people, it is a movement which we belong to.

So simply put, the invisible church, the true church is composed of those who

are called by God both inwardly and outwardly, inwardly by the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus calls someone to discipleship, when Jesus calls someone to discipleship,

he's calling that person to himself, to belong to him, to follow him,

to learn from him and learn of him.

Because as we've talked about before, being a disciple means following Jesus,

someone who follows Jesus.

Jesus is calling us to himself, to be his people, not just real people,

but a real family bent on carrying out the family business.

We're called to be his people and to carry out as his family,

to carry out his family business.

So a disciple, someone who follows Jesus, who's being changed by Jesus,

who's on mission with Jesus, who is committed to the family business, right?

Because if church is a people we belong to, then those who belong to the church are Jesus' disciples.

Jesus' disciples and the disciple of Jesus, following Jesus,

going where Jesus went, doing what Jesus did, is a greater call on our lives

than sometimes we can ever imagine.

It costs us more than we can ever think of.

We know what happens when Jesus calls the 12 out of his disciples.

They immediately leave everything and follow him, right?

We also happen to know what happens when Jesus calls other people who don't leave it all behind.

In Matthew chapter eight, it tells us when Jesus saw the crowd around him,

he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake.

Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.

Jesus replied, foxes have dens

and birds have nests, but the son of man has no place to lay his head.

Another disciple said to him, Lord, first let me go bury my father.

But Jesus told him, follow me and let the dead bury their own dead.

So Jesus is laying it all out there for them. He's saying that following me

is to actively choose a life of discomfort.

Following me means that you're not guaranteed the comforts in this life that you're perhaps used to.

Following me, following him in obedience means that at times he calls us to

disconnect from the people and places of security that we have.

It means risking it all.

So what is Jesus calling you to? What is Jesus calling us to?

What has he called you to leave behind to get into the boat?

When the one guy asked Jesus to bury his father, we kind of think of that as being calloused.

And then you'll read commentaries about how they're like, well,

his father was probably still alive.

And they try and justify it that way. I don't think that's the point.

I think the point is that this guy probably had a plan.

He was waiting on an inheritance, perhaps, yes, maybe to justify leaving everything

behind and living and into this life on the road?

He was like, yeah, I mean, my dad's dead. I'm going to get an inheritance and

then I'm going to follow you. And you know, we're not gonna have to worry about where we lay our head.

Maybe he had stuff to do. Maybe he had checklists to go through.

Maybe he had to put his things in order.

We don't really know, but we know that he had his reasons.

What reasons do we have for not following Jesus? What reasons do we have for

not going down the street and meeting our neighbors, for not being involved

in our communities, for not having meaningful spiritual conversations with the

people that God has placed around us?

I'm willing to bet some of those reasons are pretty good.

They're probably pretty good, but what is our reason? And what happens when we miss the boat?

Because for some reason, the next verse that I didn't read, which directly follows

this verse, that's what happens when it's the next verse.

A lot of times we don't include it in these passages because in our English

translations, there's usually a header that separates them.

And so we just separate them as well mentally.

But it's very interesting. I think it really drives the point home.

Directly following this, it says in verse 23, Then Jesus got into the boat and

his disciples followed him.

His disciples followed him and everyone else stayed behind. Everyone else stayed on the shore.

Did those men get in the boat or did they not?

Did they answer the call? Were they filled with the spirit when it all came down?

Were they one of the 120 praying as we're finding out here in the book of Acts? We'll never know.

Interesting there's an interesting thing the story that directly follows this story,

is the story of where the disciples are so

afraid in the boat that they come and wake jesus up and jesus is like why are

you so afraid so the disciples who followed jesus are the ones who encountered

the storm just a interesting tidbit that has no relevance what we're talking

about I guess it does, but.

Oswald Chambers asks us with regard to this passage, are you prepared to let

God take you into union with himself and pay no more attention to what you call the great things?

Are you prepared to abandon entirely and let go?

The test of abandonment is refusing to say, well, what about this? Well, what about this?

Well, what about this means that you have not abandoned, that you do not really trust God.

You think no more about what God is going to do.

To abandon means to refuse yourself the luxury of asking any questions.

The reason people are tired of life is because God has not given them anything,

because they're stuck asking, what about this?

The way to get out of that state is to abandon to God.

When you do get through to abandonment to God, you will be the most surprised

and delighted creature on earth.

God has got you absolutely and has given you your life.

It's been said that in every heart, there is both a cross and a throne.

And if Jesus is on the throne, that means we are on the cross.

If Jesus is on the throne, Lord of our lives, then we are on the cross and we

lay down our lives in pursuit of him and his incredible purpose.

But if we are on the throne, we're on the throne, then Jesus is still on the cross.

And we, as Peter will accuse in the next chapter, are the ones that have put

him there, that have kept him there.

Jesus' true disciples got in the boat and they are met with not only incredible

purpose, but also the power to accomplish that purpose, the power to fulfill that purpose.

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be

my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

It doesn't matter which translation you pick up.

There's very, very little deviation in those words from one to the other.

Because Acts 1.8 is the heart and the soul of the entire book of Acts.

It is the power and purpose of Jesus's mission, continuing through his church,

empowered by his spirit, which unfolds in the next 28 chapters or 27,

I guess, because we're in chapter one right now.

It's the unpacking of this verse that happens over the lives of the apostles

as they bring God's message to the world.

This is the heart and soul of Acts. It's the unfolding, the continuation of the story.

It's been described as the key which unlocks the book of Acts and the gates

of all Christian history.

This passage, incredible purpose and an all-sufficient power.

Incredible purpose and an all-sufficient

power. Because Jesus has given authority over all things, right?

Over all things in heaven and on earth and under the earth. There's nothing

that is not under the authority of Jesus.

And it is that authority, that power, which is given through his spirit to his people.

The authority over sin, victory over sin, power over the grave,

power over death itself is given through the power of his spirit to his people.

This is not purposeless power.

It's not power that just fits the whims of those he empowers.

It's his power. It's not our power. So it's for his purpose.

Jesus' purpose is that his followers would carry his message.

They would carry his message of grace, of forgiveness, of salvation,

of the kingdom of heaven to the entire world, to the ends of the earth, to be his witnesses.

His spirit gives power for his witness. His spirit empowers us to be his witnesses.

The main task of the apostles, the mission in which Jesus left them is that

they would bear witness to his resurrection and the saving significance of it.

That they would be his witnesses. You will be my witnesses, he says.

Psalm 105 starts, give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness.

Let the whole world know what he has done.

This is not a unique phrase that happens just in this psalm.

This appears over and over again. Let the whole world know what he has done. Be my witnesses.

A witness is someone who has seen something take place, and they're there to

tell all that they saw, all that they heard, all that they experienced.

But with regard to Jesus, there is more than just being someone who sees and observe.

There is this decisive action that has severe consequences.

This is we talked about being a disciple of Jesus is a decisive action which

has severe consequences. It will change the course of your life.

In this passage, the word for witness is the word martyr.

It's the word we get our word martyr from, which probably makes a lot of sense

because what is a martyr but one who refuses to recant their witness, no matter the cost.

One who stays true involuntarily suffers death, refusing to take back their witness.

As the apostles themselves will say later in this book, whether it's right in

the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge.

But we cannot stop telling about everything we have seen.

We can't stop telling. We are his witnesses to see Jesus, to proclaim what you

see, and to accept consequences.

That's what it means to be his witnesses, to see Jesus, to talk about what we

see, and to accept the consequences.

As Christians, we are called to be witnesses of Christ who present a testimony

about the truth which we have seen, the truth which we have experiencing.

Being a witness requires two things.

Being a witness requires two things. A witness must have seen that which he

or she seeks to bear witness.

You must have experienced it. You must see Jesus. You must be changed by Jesus

or be being changed by Jesus.

I don't know what part of speech that is.

Aorist, I think, in Greek. Be being changed. A past action with continuing effect.

You have to have seen, you have to experience it. And to be a witness,

you also must tell others about what you've seen or else you're not a witness.

You must have experienced it and you must tell others about what you've seen.

If you are changed, when you are changed, your whole life begins to be about

helping other people change.

You reorder your life around it. You prioritize your life with it.

So the natural question here is, am I changed? Are we changed people?

Am I changed? How do you know?

Does your life demonstrate it? Is it observable? How would anyone know if you were changed?

You might say, well, I'm sitting here today, aren't I? It doesn't mean you're

changed. It means you just like Christian karaoke and getting yelled at for 45 minutes.

How do we know if we're changed? Does our life demonstrate it?

For the church in Acts, this is not a part-time experience.

It is their entire life. every moment of their life.

For many in the global church today, it can't help but be their entire life.

In the church's life, the Spirit provides power, and that power is demonstrated in witness.

It is the story of empowered witnesses.

Some of you are struggling to believe that there is power.

You don't see it. You haven't experienced it. The power is there for the witness.

The Spirit exists to empower God's people to be his witness.

Anytime, anytime the Spirit fills a heart in the book of Luke or the book of

Acts, every time the Spirit fills a heart, it always pours out of their mouth what they say.

It might start here, but every time the Spirit fills a heart in these books,

it always comes out of here.

It always is proclaimed by what they say.

Every time we look at it, Pentecost, Acts chapter 2, Stephen,

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 6, Philip following that, Paul, Barnabas, we go back to Luke,

Acts 6 · chapter mention

we go to John the Baptist, Jesus himself.

Every time the Spirit empowers a heart, it always pours out of their mouth every single time.

One pastor said that the fundamental meaning of being filled with the Spirit

is being filled with joy that comes from God and overflows in song.

Joy that fills the heart and pours out of the mouth.

That's what it means to be filled by the Spirit. I love Psalm 119.

In verse 54, it says this, your decrees have been the theme of my songs wherever I have lived.

Or a different version says, your statutes have been my songs in the house of my sojourning.

Joy that comes from God and overflows into song.

It's the power that enables witness to the very ends of the earth.

It's an experience that pours from the heart and is demonstrated through proclamation of the word.

We see Jesus, we proclaim what we see and we accept the consequences.

There's another very fine moment by these men, these chosen vessels of Jesus

that we experience in this passage in Acts.

After these incredible words, Acts 1.8, the heart and soul of the book,

Jesus ascends into the sky until a cloud obscures him from view.

And what are the disciples doing?

They're still staring up at him, even though they can't see him anymore.

They're stuck staring up.

Their mouths open. There were some real mouth breathers, these guys, right?

Until they are shaken awake. They're not asleep, but you know what I mean.

And it says, as they strained to see him rising into heaven,

two white robed men suddenly stood among them.

Men of Galilee, they said, why are you standing here staring into heaven?

They still didn't get it. And they still wouldn't get it until the spirit finally comes.

Why are you staring into heaven? What do you think will be gained by looking up there?

What you're looking for isn't going to be found up there. Why are you still looking?

Instead, look around you. Jesus will be found among you.

You'll see Jesus in the faces of the poor and of the helpless.

You'll see Jesus in the face of those who are downtrodden.

You'll see Jesus' face in the least of these, in the needy. you'll see Jesus's

face and the broken person sitting in the chair next to you right now.

Why are you still staring in the clouds?

It's time to look around you in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria,

in the places of discomfort to the ends of the earth.

So there's this sense, there's a sense in which this mission is accomplished at the end of Acts.

A sense where Luke is setting these parameters, Jerusalem, Judea,

Samaria, to the ends of the earth.

And at the end of the book, we find Paul bearing witness in Rome, the place where,

as the Proverbs say, all roads lead to, that the gospel witness has made its

place to where all the world comes.

So Luke is really setting up these parameters and leaving off where he does

to demonstrate the extent of the gospel witness.

He doesn't say anything about Jesus or Paul getting out of prison and coming back from Rome.

He doesn't say anything about his potential fourth missionary journey.

He doesn't say anything about him returning to Rome and being beheaded.

Doesn't talk about the death of Paul at all.

There's a lot that he leaves out because he leaves it where he does for a purpose.

It ends there not to finish the story.

It ends there to demonstrate to us how, although potentially complete in the

scope of what Luke is showing us, the task remains unfinished.

He's inviting us into the story.

I remember a creative writing assignment back in elementary school.

I don't remember a lot from yesterday, but I do remember certain things from throughout my life.

And we were reading short stories. And there was one particular short story that we had to read.

It is a story which I was able to find, luckily enough, because I remembered

one particular important detail. It was about a tiger.

It's called The Lady or the Tiger that's written by Frank Stockton,

which is, I think, a famous short story writer. I don't know.

But this story is about this ancient kingdom where those who are offenders or

violators who break the law or do something of the sorts, they are presented with two doors.

One door, when open, conceals a woman who the guy who has broken the law or

whatever has to marry regardless of his previous relational obligations.

He's committed to this person. The other door, there's a tiger,

and you can probably guess what happens if that door's opened,

which is all fine well, albeit very problematic and questionable,

until in the story, the princess's lover finds himself between and in front

of these two doors, right?

And so the story ends there with a question mark.

Quite literally, the last line of the story reads this. I quote,

and so I leave it with all of you, the reader, which came out of the open door, the lady or the tiger.

That's where the story ends. The author invites us to finish the story,

to write our own endings.

And that's what the creative assignment was. We had to write our own endings to the story.

Luke structures the book of Acts in much the same way.

Although his parameters are met at the end, Luke invites us to finish the story,

to write our own ending with the stories of our lives.

Which will we choose? Will we get in the boat or will we be left behind? Will we follow Jesus?

What stories will we write? What ending will we construct as mountainside community church?

What will we write in that spot?

Our increasingly post-Christian world is looking more and more like the pre-Christian

world that the missionary witness of Acts took place in.

We are left with a decision.

It's a decision between many good things and the best thing.

Many good, good things and the best thing?

What will grab our attention? What will we structure our lives around? And so I leave it to you.

Which will we choose? Which will you choose? Will it be many good things or

will it be the best thing?

I don't want to tip the scales, but I do want to leave you this encouragement.

Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given into you as well.

You don't get the best thing by choosing the good things, but if you choose

the best thing, you'll get a lot of good things too.

Thank you for listening to Mountainside Church's podcast. We hope you found

inspiration and encouragement in today's teaching.

To learn more about our church, stay connected or partner with us, visit mcboon.com.

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