Acts: All That Jesus Continues to Do | Associate Pastor: Matt Armstrong

Well, happy new year.

That's not that's not rhetorical.

That's not rhetorical.

We're a small group.

We can we can have a conversation here.

Happy New Year.

I hope you had a good celebration.

Some of you celebrated by going to bed by 10 o'clock, and I salute you.

That's wonderful.

As I think about the new year, there's just this sense of freshness.

I don't know.

I think most people are like this.

Whether you have given up New Year's resolutions or not, there's just something about, you know, January 1st, the first day of the year.

There's something fresh, something clean about it that makes us yearn for things.

New Year's resolutions, they come into and fall out of favor all the time.

I don't know where you are this year, but I think it just reflects something in the human condition that we we need refreshment.

We need reinvigoration.

And there's nothing wrong with that.

We can get it with the changing of the seasons, we can get it with the changing of the calendar.

We can get it with a new job or a move.

We like fresh starts in different ways.

But I think the reason we often become, or I become, cynical about New Year's resolutions isn't the resolutions themselves, it's my inability to keep them.

I lacked the resolve.

I can't stay on the diet.

I can't keep the morning routine that I so staunchly resolved at the beginning of the year.

The problem, as always, is us.

And that can be really discouraging, right?

Even with the hope of the new year, pretty quickly we can be discouraged in ourselves.

Well, today we're beginning a new series, preaching series in the book of Acts.

And Acts is about new beginnings, right?

It is the birth of the church.

It's the transition where Jesus ascends to the right hand of the Father, the sending of the Spirit, and this leadership transition, right?

As Jesus is now physically absent, the human apostles are now leading the church on a daily basis.

We see prayer, we see preaching, evangelism, the explosive growth of the church.

But as much as this book really is about the acts of the apostles, we get ourselves in trouble when we solely focus on them.

You see, this is what Luke wanted us to see.

Let's read verse one again.

He says, In the first book, and that's he's talking about the gospel of Luke, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and to teach.

And that's what I want us to see together this morning as we begin preaching through this new book of the Bible, as we begin a new year, that as much as the apostles will do through this book, and as much as we will do in this new year, Jesus is the one who continues to be at work in his church.

Loving, caring, maturing, providing for.

And that is very good news.

So let's jump in.

I've broken this chapter.

We're looking at the whole of chapter one, but we'll we'll uh we will move through it quickly.

I've broken it into three sections before, during, and after Jesus' ascension.

We'll see how he cares for his church throughout.

So first, Jesus cares for his church before the ascension.

Let's look at verses uh one through five again.

In the first book, Otheophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.

To them he presented himself alive after his sufferings by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

Luke tells us that Jesus stayed with his disciples after the resurrection, right?

He knew that he was going to the Father.

In fact, when you read the gospels themselves, it almost looks like Jesus ascends to the Father immediately after the resurrection.

But it's here in Acts that Luke tells us that Jesus stayed with his disciples for 40 days.

Initially giving proofs, right?

We read about that with doubting Thomas, the disciple, that he wanted proof that this really was Jesus risen from the dead, not just a ghost, not an apparition, but literally a risen living body of the Lord.

And then he spent time teaching them about the kingdom of God.

He spent time with them.

In fact, 40 days were told, and that number is significant.

If you know the scriptures, the Old and the New Testament, this number 40 appears in a number of places.

It's the number of days of the flood, it's the days Jesus spent fasting in the wilderness.

But perhaps more relevant to Luke and to us in this passage, it's the number of days that Moses and the elders of Israel spent in the presence of God on top of Mount Sinai before the giving of the Ten Commandments.

Luke is signaling, and the Lord is signaling through this time frame of 40 days to these Jewish Christians that they are in the presence of God.

And he's giving them a new law, the law of love.

So here at the beginning of Acts, we see Jesus' heart for his disciples.

He doesn't move too quickly to ascension.

He spends time with them.

He is with them to teach them, to love them, and to prepare them for what is to come because he knows it will be very difficult.

All right, second, Jesus cares for his church at his ascension.

Let's look at verses six through eleven.

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 the 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 ends 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.

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 that you saw him go into heaven.

Here at the day of Jesus' ascension, the disciples who have been being taught about the kingdom of heaven ask the question that has been nagging them, literally nagging them since the beginning of Jesus' ministry, not just these 40 days, but the last three years.

Is it time now for the kingdom to be restored to Israel?

If you know the Old Testament, if you know the story, if you know the longing of Israel, you know that this was paramount to them.

It was a good question, and it was a good desire for them to know, Lord, are you restoring things to the way they're supposed to be?

The way you've promised in the prophets that they will be again.

But we know now, after the teachings of the New Testament, seeing what happens, that the answer to their question was complicated and so complicated that they couldn't receive the answer in that moment.

Jesus decided to take his time to reveal what was going to happen with the kingdom, that it wasn't just for Israel.

The kingdom wasn't just going to be restored to this one nation, but it was going to be restored to the whole earth, and the whole earth was going to be renewed.

But Jesus here cares for them, addressing that concern by setting limits to what they'll what they are to know.

He says, God's timing for his kingdom coming is not for you to know.

Jesus' words echoed Deuteronomy 29, 29.

This is one of my favorite verses in the Bible.

It says, the secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children.

You see, God acknowledges I can't reveal everything to you.

There are some things you can't know, some things you can't understand, but there is much that I do reveal to you, and that is for your comfort.

And so Jesus here reassures his disciples and he says, there are things you can't know, you won't know, but know this that the Father knows.

And he knows what he's doing.

And so he encourages them to trust in him.

But Jesus does reveal some very significant things.

What does he say?

He tells them that they will be his witnesses in Judea and Samaria and to the very ends of the earth.

And he tells them that they will receive power when the Holy Spirit is sent to them.

So he's telling them two incredibly significant things.

First, his mission isn't complete.

His mission isn't just to the nation of Israel, but they will be his witnesses carrying his message, carrying his announcement of the kingdom of God to the farthest reaches of the world.

But not only that, not only will they have an important role to play, he is giving them his spirit to do the work.

And so you see this beautiful picture of inclusion, as God has always worked, right?

He always works through his imperfect people to bring about his kingdom ends.

And yet he says, You will not do this in your own strength.

You will not do this in your own power.

You will do this in my power.

In fact, I'm the one who will be doing it through you.

And so Jesus reveals this incredible news to them.

Yes, slightly disappointing, right?

We would love for the kingdom come today, Jesus.

Can it come today?

Have you ever prayed that, Jesus?

Could you just come back today?

Amen.

Am I the only one?

Okay.

This announcement that the kingdom goes far beyond the borders of Israel.

But he is working through his people, right?

Just as since the time of Abraham, God has worked through sinful, imperfect people to bring about his kingdom ends.

And we see this same pattern at work today, beloved.

Do we not?

God continues to work in and through his church.

Very imperfect people like you and like me.

And yet God is with us through the power of his spirit.

If you have put your faith in Christ, then the power of God, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jesus, dwells inside of you.

Now you may not always feel powerful, but that's Jesus' upside down kingdom.

Jesus' power is often and almost always revealed in weakness.

So often the times when we feel the most weak is when the Holy Spirit is most powerfully working through us.

And so the pattern that we see through the gospels and Jesus' own ministry and through the pattern of Acts, as we will see in the weeks to come, is the same pattern at work in us, in you, beloved.

And it's this amazing uh picture, two sides of the same coin.

One, God is absolutely working through this church, absolutely working through you in ways to change lives for eternity.

And yet it's his work, it's his power.

It's not a weight he's put upon our back, something that we have to carry out, but it's something that he is doing, that we get to enjoy and work with him through the power of his spirit.

It's like a child who goes with his mom or his dad into the workshop, right?

And and the parent, the mom, helps the little kid to hold the hammer in his hand and helps nail it in and helps sand down the wood.

And after hours, you know, depending on the kid's attention span, they look at this table they've built together, right?

And the kid has this great pride.

Look what look what mom and I made together.

Right?

Mom didn't need their child's help, and yet they truly made it together.

But it's the love of the parent, including the child, including them in the work to produce this beautiful object.

This is what God is doing through us.

And it's the joy in this gift that he's given us to participate.

All right, third and finally, Jesus cares for his church after his ascension.

We won't read this section because it's rather long and detailed, but after Jesus ascends into heaven, they return to Jerusalem, they go to the upper room, they're spending time praying, and through the Holy Spirit, he reveals that it's time to bring the number of the apostles back to twelve.

Familiar with Judas Iscariot?

Betrayed the Lord, committed suicide, reduced the number of disciples or apostles from twelve to eleven.

Peter says it's time to bring that number back up.

Because again, here's another significant number the twelve disciples, the twelve apostles correlating to the twelve tribes of Israel.

And so what do they do?

Peter lays out the requirements.

There needs to be someone who has been with us from the very beginning, from the time Jesus was baptized by John through Jesus' death on the cross and his resurrection, a witness to Jesus' resurrection.

And that that leaves only two candidates who are named here in our passage.

And so they they cast lots, which was an ancient practice for a way to see who God would choose.

And that's what's going on in this passage.

The one named Matthew, he is chosen to be the twelfth apostle.

An incredible honor, probably a lot of work, but an incredible honor for Matthew.

And he's named here in the scriptures.

But guess what?

He is never named again.

Do you know why?

Because Matthew isn't the point.

Matthew went about his work, I'm sure, with faithfulness and diligence with the other apostles.

The point here is that Jesus remains at work.

Through the casting of lots, Jesus provides leadership for his church.

And so we see in this passage, the way Luke writes it, that Jesus is caring for the needs of his church.

He knows they need leadership.

He provides it.

He cares about these details.

Before, during, and after the ascension, Jesus is taking care of his bride, the church.

Even as we see them pray, even as we see their faith at work, even as we see them preach and proclaim the gospel, doing very important work.

What Luke wants us to see is this foundation that Jesus continues to do his missionary work through the church.

Even as Jesus promised at the end of Matthew, that he is with us always, even to the very end of the age.

And so, beloved, as we step into a new year, by all means, start the diet.

Go to the gym.

Begin that new routine you have been dreaming of.

But don't rest your well-being in how well you stick to that plan.

Because we all fall short.

Rather, rest in this, the knowledge that Jesus remains at the right hand of the Father, leading, loving, caring for, providing for his church.

And by that I mean you.

He knows every hair on your head.

He knows your past.

He knows what you're going through now.

And he knows your future.

And he is with you.

Let that shape and form your identity for 2023, even as he works through you.

Keep your eyes open to see all that Jesus will continue to do in and through you and through Christ the Redeemer.

Amen.

Let's pray.

Our Father and our God, Lord, what a glorious truth that you have never left us.

You have not forsaken us.

And even to this very day, from the day you ascended, that we read here in Acts chapter 1, you have been at work caring for, leading, providing for your church, continuing your mission to proclaim the gospel in Judea and Samaria and to the outermost reaches of the earth.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

We love you and we thank you.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.