The Story Continues: Wk 1 | April 12, 2026 | Justin Huibregtse

I need a little bell to kind of say everybody, let's do it, let's do it.

We know that, you know, we are we are anticipating summer at some point.

We're we're, you know, none of the cities are they're pushing 80.

So we're close, we're close.

But the the waiting for summer and the waiting that we are experiencing is something that I am not good at.

I personally am not good at waiting.

We live in a world where waiting is not a part of our just a part of our culture.

We have everything instant.

We have instant food where we're upset when we don't have uh a burger and fries come to us in less than five minutes, or that this really beautiful handcrafted beverage does not instantly appear in our hands as soon as we get to the window.

Um my kids don't know the concept of commercials.

Uh we we watch something live once and they're like, they're like, can we just fast forward?

Why do we have to wait for the show to to start?

You know, and and so they don't they don't quite get that.

And uh and I understand that that is it's something a little bit different.

Uh I'm aging myself, but but really we we don't like it when God does not move instantly, when God is not moving us in the direction that we see fit in our timeline.

So uh, you know, when when God doesn't move instantly, I assume that something is wrong.

And I'll I'll pray about something, and if it doesn't happen by turn, I'm like, well, I guess that door is closed.

And I have closed more doors for God than I have opened.

And I don't like to admit that, but uh we we know that God is working, we know that God is allowing that waiting to happen.

Uh, Easter is one of those times in the church where everything feels really big, everything is momentous, and it is the cornerstone of where we put our faith, what we celebrate every single Sunday is Easter.

So we, you know, we we like that energy, we like that excitement, we like that hope that Easter brings to us.

And then Monday comes, right?

We we all experience Mondays, and and spiritually, Easter feels like let's go, everything's different.

Let's go, let's move.

We know we have to go in this direction, we know what we want to see, we know our mission for us.

And then Monday does show up, and we're like, all right, you know what?

I gotta get my coffee first.

I have to then then once I have my coffee, then we can go and change the world.

There's always that tension after that big moment.

Big moments in the Bible are followed by moments of tension where we're like, okay, this is really big.

Moses just saw the burning bush.

Now what?

You know, or or basically we when we were in Nehemiah, Nehemiah also had that big moment where he heard the news of the walls of his city have been destroyed.

And he prayed, and then he also waited.

Because we expect immediate action.

We think, all right, God, what's next?

What do I do?

Where do I go?

We're ready to move.

But what if God's first step isn't movement?

Ooh, I like that one.

That's a good one.

What if God's first step isn't movement?

What if God's first step is instead waiting?

We love immediate action, but God more often starts with patient formation.

Most of us don't like waiting.

We tolerate it, yes, but we don't like it.

We don't like waiting in lines, we don't like waiting for answers, we don't like waiting for God.

Because waiting feels like nothing is happening.

I'm just in a I'm just in a holding pattern.

Waiting, waiting feels like there's no progress that is actually being made.

And we want to see that progress.

Waiting is uh feels like we're falling behind.

Like we gotta catch up, we gotta get this thing done.

My microphone's being really weird today.

Bear with me.

There we go.

And spiritually, we can feel that waiting is a really difficult thing.

Because we think if God is real, shouldn't he be moving faster?

Shouldn't God be moving faster than we expect him to?

I'm following Jesus.

Shouldn't something be happening right now?

But that's where the tension is.

We want God to move quickly.

But God wants us to move deeply.

We want speed, God wants substance.

And that's where we go into this sermon series in the book of Acts.

The book of Acts is the Acts of the Apostles.

We're doing the story continues, and a lot of people, including myself at one time, thought that the Acts, the Book of Acts, was just a comma between the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament.

The words of Paul, the words of Peter, Revelation.

It was just like something that we kind of just say, you know what, we don't need to read this.

Let's just skip over it because I want to get to the real stuff.

I want to get to what's really going to help me in my spiritual walk.

When in reality, a lot of really big, important things for you, for me, for the church, happen in the book of Acts.

So that's where we're going to be today.

Uh, starting in Acts 1, verse 1, it says this.

Acts 1:1

In the first book, O Theophilus, I dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach.

Now, before we go on, he is what what the writer is saying here, this is Luke, the book of Luke.

We were in the book of Luke a lot in the road to Easter.

So what it what he is saying here is that, okay, Theophilus, this man, has commissioned Luke to figure out all about Jesus, to see what he was doing, what he was doing on this earth, why he was here.

And so Luke is commissioned, he's a follower of Christ, he is commissioned to write these things down.

He's a doctor, so he knows all these, he knows all these details.

He's a detail-oriented person.

So he is writing this book and saying, the first book was all about things that began to, what Jesus began to do and teach.

That's important.

It's important to know that.

And then he continues in verse 2, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen, he, Jesus, presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

Jesus is alive.

And he is not just alive, he is going around and showing the people in Jerusalem that he is alive by many proofs.

It says later on in 1 Corinthians 15, 6, starting in verse 3, for I delivered to you as a first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, also known as Peter, then to the twelve.

Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.

Jesus is going around proving that he is alive.

He is appearing to all these people, showing what he has done.

That he is alive, that he is not going anywhere else, that he is here on this on this earth.

And then back to Acts 1.

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 heard from me, for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

Not many days from now.

Jesus has risen from the dead.

He appeared to his disciples for over 40 days.

He taught them.

He's proven that he's alive.

And now something new is about to begin.

Something that will change the church forever.

Luke is saying essentially, the gospel was just the beginning.

The book that I wrote before was just the beginning.

The book of Acts, the Acts of the Apostles, is what is going to happen next.

Jesus is about to launch a movement, but before anything happens, he gives them a command.

Do not leave Jerusalem.

Wait.

That's the strategy.

They've seen the resurrection.

They've walked with Jesus.

They're ready.

And Jesus says, wait.

Wait.

Why is he saying that?

Verse 6.

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 is not for you to know times or 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 will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, 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 up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.

So why did Jesus tell these men to wait?

Because he promised the Holy Spirit, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

That is a promise.

That's a promise that we get to live today.

That's a promise that we get to live and changes the entire projection of what the church should do.

This is the shift.

The mission of Jesus, the mission of Jesus Christ, who has been resurrected from the dead, is about to move forward.

But not through any sort of human effort at first.

As they were probably anticipating, these apostles are anticipating, okay, you know what we need to do?

We really need to go forward and we need to do all these things.

They're probably really excited.

Just like when you get, you know, when you come back from a summer camp.

When you are so excited about what God is doing in your life that you want to go do all these Bible studies, you want to go to church, you want to read, you want to pray, you want to do all of these things.

You want to move.

God says, just wait.

Hold on.

It's through the Spirit of God that we will be moving.

God's mission is not powered by human strength, but by His Spirit that He promises to us.

He says, You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria to the ends of the world, ends of the earth.

And what's really cool about that is that it starts with something really small.

It starts out with something that that is local.

Something that is not terribly global, but something really hyper-local.

So it's like you will be my witnesses in Duluth and the Northland and America and to the end of the earth.

These concentric circles of something that is about to go global, to be spread through the entire world.

And then, right in front of them, Jesus ascends into heaven.

And they're just standing there.

They're just staring.

And honestly, I would probably do the exact same thing.

That is a confusing thing to witness.

This man has proven that he is alive.

This man has been around us for 40 days.

He's appeared to many people.

He is a public person now.

How does this happen?

And it happened in the same way that will happen in the future.

That's what those two robed men say.

Just like two robed men appeared to the women after the resurrection, they're here saying, What are you doing?

Staring.

What are you doing?

This is unrelatable.

I don't know what's going on.

Why are you still standing here?

The mission isn't in the sky, it's in your hands.

And this is why this matters so much.

Because what just happened 40 days ago, even though it feels like just last week to us, there's a time that has passed here.

They have shared meals with Jesus.

He has taught them things.

He has appeared to many people.

But Jesus during that time was proving that he lived a life that we could not live.

That he died the death that we deserved.

And he rose again.

And because of that, sin is forgiven.

Grace is available to all of us.

And mercy is real.

And now, the message of the gospel, that message is ready to move.

It's ready to be executed.

But not by perfect people, but by empowered people.

People who are empowered by the Holy Spirit.

So what does that mean for us?

Because we're not standing in Jerusalem.

We're not just standing there.

We're not standing here at that time.

But we are living in the same exact story.

I remember a time in my life when I was uh I used to be a college intern uh uh on at UW O'Claire, and uh I was uh asked to be on that college campus and and be a navigator, that's what the ministry is called, and they said, you know, okay, uh before I was placed there, I prayed about where I would be placed.

And what happened was uh was I got accepted into this internship program, and I was really excited about it, and I knew that God wanted me to be at this campus because there was going to be some new staff that was transitioning into this new role.

And I'd be the only one who would help them carry over the the ministry, the staff that was still there, and and the students that were still there as well.

So I got accepted into the program.

I was really excited to be placed, and I could have been placed anywhere in the country, but I was playing, I was praying to be placed where I had been going to college for four years, where I met my wife, where I had been invested.

I was praying that I would be there.

So for months and months and months, I'm praying to be notified about my placement.

Where, God, I want to be placed here.

I want to help these people, I want to help these students know more about you, and I don't want any sort of distraction of new staff or new anything else to get in the way of your message, of your gospel, of your kingdom being advanced.

So I was praying and praying and praying, and I knew that people were getting placed.

I I had friends who were also in the program that were being placed throughout the entire nation.

I still didn't have an answer.

So I prayed for placement.

And I was getting frustrated as I was waiting.

And finally, I said, God, whatever you're teaching me, I'll be fine with wherever I'm placed.

I'll trust you.

I'll trust you.

And it's at that moment where I've had that surrender, in that waiting, in that formation, that that God said, just go talk to the regional director.

Just go ask him where you're gonna be placed.

This is a little bit too late right now, where you should you should know where you're going to be placed because you need to make arrangements for living, for for fundraising, for all these great things that you're about to.

And I asked him, he said, Oh, no one told you?

You're you're gonna be in Eau Claire.

You're gonna stay there, you're gonna help transition this staff in, you're gonna be here to help those students.

And so it wasn't until then that I had that complete surrender to the answer that I was experiencing in my waiting that I finally felt like I was in the right spot.

I knew the answer because I wasn't rushing ahead of God.

I was waiting for Him to give me the answer.

So you don't need to rush ahead of God either.

And but some of you feel that pressure right now.

Some of you feel that pressure to figure everything out, to make something happen, to force that progress, to be really excited for it.

And I and I want you to live in that, but I also want you to understand that you might be asking yourself, why am I waiting?

Why can't I go?

Why can't I do this?

That might be the most spiritual thing you could do right now is wait.

Not passive, not being lazy, not being a sloth about it, but intentionally, prayerfully waiting, being expectant of what God will do in your life.

Waiting is not doing nothing, it is preparing for everything.

So here's two simple steps that I want you to do this week.

Set aside ten minutes a day.

For some of you, that's half a show, that's half a podcast, that's a quarter of a podcast.

That is that is something that you're just watching.

It could be your commute to work, even, where you just take ten minutes a day and sit with God.

Sit with the creator of the universe.

Sit with the sustainer of all things, sit with the author and perfecter of our faith.

Sit with him.

And bring the next thing that you want to do to him.

That means that you're asking yourself, what should I do next?

What am I going to do next?

I want to move this way.

I need to see progress.

I need to see this advance.

Instead, ask God, what are you doing in me right now?

Where would you have me go?

Where do you want me to be?

Because imagine what would happen if our church became a church that didn't rush ahead of God, but walked with him.

If we didn't rely on talent or personality or strategy, but on the Holy Spirit alone.

If we believed that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to us now.

That changes everything.

Because this isn't a story about them, as in as in the the apostles, and that the story only ends with them because they are the ones who have that Holy Spirit with them.

This story is about all of us.

The movement did not end in the book of Acts.

It did not end in Acts 28.

Jesus didn't just rise, He multiplied his mission through people like us.

And maybe the most important step that we take is not forward, but more inward.

Before God does something through us, he wants to do something inside of us.

So we wait.

We pray.

We trust because what's coming is bigger than we could ever think.

And it's powered by something greater than us.

Don't rush past the waiting.

Because that is where God creates his power.

Everything we've talked about today, the waiting, the power, the mission, it all hinges on one thing, and that is the gospel.

Because before God works through you, he wants to save you.

He loves you so much that the Bible is very clear on this that we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Every single one of us.

We all have done that.

And not just mistakes, but sin, which means that we are separated eternally from God the Father.

But God did not leave us there.

God demonstrated his own love for us, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

That grace.

Jesus lived the life that you couldn't live.

He died the death that you deserved, that I deserved, and he rose again so we could have life forever.

And here's the invitation for you, for all of us, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you will be saved.

You will be saved.

Maybe today that is your moment.

Maybe today you have to you you don't have to clean yourself up, not have everything figured out, not have your Bible memorized, but simply say, Jesus, I believe you.

Jesus, I trust in you.

Jesus, I give you my life.

Because the same Jesus who rose from the grave and appeared to so many is calling your name right now.

You don't have to earn grace.

You just have to receive it.

Let's pray.

Father God, we come before you in awe.

Not of what we can do, but of who you are.

Jesus, today we behold you, the one who stepped into our world, the one who carried our sin, the one who walked out of the grave.

And as we fix our eyes on you, we remember, you are the Lamb who was slain and the king who now reigns.

You are holy, you are worthy, you are everything we need.

Behold him, the one and only Son of God.

Let that truth settle deep into our hearts.

For those who are trusting you for the first time today, God, I give them the courage to surrender.

For those who have followed you for years, renew our wonder.

Jesus, help us not to rush past your presence in our lives, but to wait in it, to be in it, to be intentional about it.

We do not want to move ahead of your spirit.

We want to behold you, to know you, to walk with you.

And as we leave this place today, send us out as people who have seen you clearly.

People marked by grace.

People shaped by mercy.

People overflowing with your love.

Because when we see you rightly, everything changes.

We love you.

We trust you.

We worship you.

We say these things in the powerful name of Jesus.

Amen.