Future Church: Wait + Witness | Part 1

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Well, welcome to Awakening Church.

My name's Ryan, and we're absolutely thrilled to have you join us today.

Uh, we're kicking off a brand new series called Future Church.

And isn't it true?

The shape of the church has just radically changed in the last year.

And it feels like everything we thought, you know, about life, spirituality, and church has just been uh altered.

It's been um, you know, brought into question.

And we want to wrestle with this question uh what does or what is the future of the church?

Like, where is this thing headed?

And maybe to ask even perhaps a better question, how do we return to God's design for his church?

And for us to answer those questions, we actually have to go back to the early church and how the church began.

And here's what's amazing: as we look back at how the church began, it will inform and tell us what is the future for us and how we're to move forward today.

It's the future of the church.

And this is a series then that we're gonna be diving in and studying the book of Acts.

In fact, we're gonna spend uh the entire spring studying the book of Acts.

We'll do four series just out of this book.

It's an incredible book, all about the birth of the church and God's hand of movement and bringing salvation to the world.

And so before we begin and dive in into what is the church and returning, I thought let's spend some time reorienting ourselves or rather getting a brief introduction to the book of Acts.

Uh, in case you don't know or not familiar with, the book of Acts was actually written by a guy named Luke.

He was a physician, uh, he was a historian, and he was at one point a traveling companion with the Apostle Paul on these missionary journeys.

Uh, he wasn't one of the original apostles.

He wasn't there with Jesus when uh he walked this planet.

He came to faith a little bit later on, uh, and yet he was a highly educated, well-trained, uh, incredibly gifted author and writer.

Uh and Acts, actually, this book is part is a two-part volume.

Um, and so uh you notice that we have the Gospel of Luke, that's the first volume, and then the book of Acts.

And it comes from the title is The Acts of the Apostle.

However, it's not really so much the Acts of the Apostle as it is simply the continuation of all Jesus began to do and teach by the Spirit through the Apostles, namely Peter and Paul.

I love how if you take a chance uh or stop and take a look at the gospel project or the, oh my goodness, the Bible project, uh, they have these great videos, and on Acts, uh, they say this this is a story about Jesus leading his people by his spirit to go out and invite all people of the world to live under his reign.

That is what this book is about.

Well, then who is this written to?

In fact, in the very first verse of Acts, we see this that Luke says, in my former book, speaking of the gospel of Luke, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up into heaven.

And so it's written to this person named Theophilus.

Now, we don't really know who he is.

Uh some think he's perhaps, you know, a um wealthy aristocrat in Rome or a military official.

Uh, some think even that Theophilus might be a pseudonym to protect his identity from being persecuted by uh Roman authorities.

Others also think, because Theophilus means friend of God or lover of God, that this might just be a letter that Paul was writing to all people who are friends of God or lovers of God.

Now, this was written somewhere around AD 60 to 64.

The book of Acts spans about 30 years from the ascension of Christ to Paul's imprisonment in Rome in about AD 62 or so.

And the key text that sets up the structure and the book of Acts is Acts 1.8.

In fact, we'll talk about it in just a minute, but it says this but you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.

And you're gonna notice the spirit, we're gonna talk a lot about that in this uh hymn, in this series and throughout this book.

Uh, you'll be my witnesses that you have a purpose and a mission and a plan by God in Jerusalem and all Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

And this acts, uh very much like the structure of Acts.

And you'll notice that the beginning of Acts is all about in Jerusalem.

And then you notice after Acts chapter uh eight, you see uh Judea and Samaria, this expansion, and then finally, then to the ends of the earth, Paul's uh missionary journeys, and we'll just begin to travel and see how, uh, as the um Bible project writer said, how Jesus is leading his people by his spirit to go out and invite all people.

It's an incredible reality of the world to live under his reign.

Well, and so finally, the major themes is the gift of the Holy Spirit, this incredible gift that had been long prophesied and awaited, the gospel for all nations, which is a radical concept.

I can't wait until we talk about this.

The birth of the church, this movement of God and his redemptive plan in human history, and how persecution actually works with the providence of God.

You'll notice this, it's incredible that as you saw the persecution break out against the church, it actually, God used it in his providence to spread this good news.

Well, that's an introduction to the book of Acts and what we'll be spending the next several months studying together.

I'm really excited about it.

And I know for many, you're already diving in in our Bible reading plan.

If you haven't, jump on in with us, get on board and begin to read this incredible book with us.

Well, like I said, right at the top, we're asking this question today.

What is the future of the church?

Where are we headed?

What's going on?

Is there any hope for the church in this crazy, messed up, wacky world?

And then what is or how do we return to God's design for his church?

And so, if you got your Bibles, would you open up to Acts chapter one?

We'll begin in verse three as we look back and to see how the church began to discover exactly how we are to be the church today.

Begins in chapter uh verse three saying this after his suffering, speaking of Jesus, he presented himself to them.

That's the disciples, and he gave many convincing proofs that he was alive.

He appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke about the kingdom of God.

On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.

For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

Then they gathered around him and asked, Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel?

Like, like Israel that's been oppressed, Israel that Babylon conquered so long ago, that now we're under the oppressive uh regime of Rome.

Like, is Israel once more going to be the superpower?

I can only imagine 11 uh disciples sitting around thinking, is now our time to be in charge?

And then he said to them, It's not for you to know the times or dates the Father is set by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you'll be my witness in Jerusalem, in Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

And then after he said that, he literally is ascends into heaven right in front of him.

The disciples are just awestruck watching Jesus go up into heaven and he's covered by a cloud, and then suddenly two men in white angels just appear and go, Hey guys, why are you still staring up at the sky?

This same Jesus, who has been taken up into heaven, will return in the very same way again.

Translation, get on with what Jesus told you to do.

And so they go back to Jerusalem and they were told to wait.

And that's exactly what they did.

They go to the upper room, and there's about 120 total of them, a small group of people.

And they needed to replace uh Judas Iscariot and have one more apostolic leader in the church, and they appoint Matthew, who'd been with them from the beginning, from the day Jesus was baptized.

And you see that in this moment, this small group in a very obscure part of the Roman Empire had this incredibly big calling to reach the nations, to advance the kingdom of God.

And so in Acts chapter one, we actually discover and find five foundational marks, the five characteristics of the early church.

And these five marks of the early church that are so foundational and core to the movement that spread, that changed the world as we know it, they need to be foundational and core to the future church.

They need to be foundational and core to us, to awakening church.

Well, what are they?

Well, the first foundational mark of the early church is it was about using in the kingdom of God.

You notice that Jesus spent, think about this, he spent 40 days.

He rose from the grave, and then he spends 40 days, and he's talking to his disciples all about the kingdom of God.

Well, what is the kingdom of God?

The kingdom of God is the range of God's effective will.

It's wherever God's will is perfectly done as in heaven.

It's where Jesus is the king, and we go, your will be done not, my will be done.

I like how Dallas Wood says it.

It says, the kingdom of God is the natural home of the soul.

I, you know, Tim Keller writes this, and he's talking about redemption or the bringing about of the kingdom of God.

And he says this says, redemption is much more than simply saving souls.

It will ultimately entail the complete healing of creation, including social justice, the reunification of all humanity, and the end of physical decay and death.

He goes on, but even now it means bringing the health and coherence of Christ's Lordship back into every aspect of human life.

Now notice this, don't miss this.

The Christian church is to be a new society in which the world can see exhibited what family, business practices, race relations, and all of life can be under the kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The future church needs to go back to what the early church had as foundational.

It's about ushering in the kingdom of God.

Now, here's what's the problem, and it's the problem for us, and it was the problem for them, is we usher in different things, don't we?

We get sidetracked.

You know, you think about it, Jesus spent 40 days talking about the kingdom of God.

And then what did his disciples ask about the kingdom of Israel?

They were focused politically, they were focused on their agenda.

And he's like, no, no, no.

This is about the kingdom of God, not something that you're seeing in your political agenda.

See, it's about ushering in the kingdom of God, not your personal agenda.

It's about ushering in the kingdom of God, not your political point of view.

You know, um, I remember I was a youth pastor in Georgia many, many years ago.

And when I was there, it was during one of the elections, I can't really remember which, and I was uh doing a junior high event at um at a house, and they opened up their home was great.

We had like 30 junior hires out there, and at the end of the night, his parents are picking up.

We're standing on the deck, you know, on the front porch talking, and you have parents showing up, and kids are hanging and playing.

And then all of a sudden the conversation turned political, and the parents are just in in Georgia, as you can imagine, they're they're ripping apart Democrats in such a vicious way.

And I'm going, their language is shaping this generation.

And I couldn't help it in my soul.

I just said, you know, um, many of our African American brothers and sisters in Christ are Democrats.

And there's people that deeply love Jesus and are walking closely with God who are Democrats, and the conversation got quiet, and everybody stopped talking, and eventually people kind of walked away, and then I had some lady come up to me afterwards and go, You don't really believe that, do you?

Yeah.

And you know, I think maybe today we might have to have the conversation, at least in the Bay Area, the other way around.

You know, there's people who deeply love Jesus, walk with God and are Republicans too.

You see, Jesus isn't a Republican, and Jesus isn't a Democrat, and it's not about any political agenda whatsoever.

It's about the kingdom of God, and get your eyes on his kingdom and his ways and what's going on there, and just put all the other stuff behind us.

See the early church.

It was foundational, is about ushering in the kingdom of God.

In my life as it is in heaven, in my home as it is in heaven, and everywhere I go, I get to usher in the kingdom of God.

First mark, ushering in the kingdom of God.

The second mark of the early church was they operated in the power of the Holy Spirit.

They operated in the power of the Holy Spirit.

And remember, it's a theme throughout the book of Acts.

Is he said, wait, remember what it said?

Wait for the gift my Father promised.

Now think about this.

This is a promise that came from uh the prophecies of old, from Ezekiel, when he said, I'll take out that heart of stone and put a heart of flesh, and I'll put my spirit inside of you.

Like the very spirit of God will go inside of you.

In Joel chapter 2, it says, I will pour out my spirit on you and you'll you'll dream dreams and have visions.

Joel 2 · chapter mention

And then in Jesus, John 14 through John 16, he begins to promise and tell them the spirit is coming.

In fact, Jesus says this, it's amazing.

Think about this.

He tells his disciples this you will do greater things than I have done.

And then he even says this it's better for you that I go because I'm going to send the Spirit of God to you.

See, the early church and the reason this spread wasn't because of human cleverness.

It wasn't because they had some amazing marketing strategy, social media campaign.

They figured out how to get all the likes and followers.

It was because of the power of the Spirit of God.

Because we don't like waiting.

We just want to do our thing, have our vision, have our plan.

They operated, they functioned by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Well, who is the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit is a third person of the Trinity, God and very God, who alone brings new life, regeneration of the soul to the believer, and then empowers them to live out this new life.

I was talking with one of our leadership council members, Sayye, and as we're talking about uh this um uh Acts and the Spirit of God, he's like, you know, Ryan, um the Christian faith without the Spirit of God has to be the hardest one in all the world to follow.

Think about it love your enemy, pray for those who persecute you.

If somebody slaps you to turn the other cheek, not let alone be holy just as I am holy, but with the spirit of God.

See deposited the spirit, that same spirit that raised Christ from the dead, now dwells in you, empowering you to live out a new life.

You have supernatural power to be and to do what God has called you to be and to do.

And here's the problem: so many Christians, so many people walk around unaware, never operating by the power of the Spirit of God, always operating in their own strength and going, Would you wait?

Would you sit?

Would you wait on the Spirit of God?

And we're going to talk more about that in the weeks to come.

But let me just ask this question Are you doing and you fill in the blank, whatever you're doing?

Your job, you know, maybe stuff around the house with the kids in your power or in the spirit's power.

All right.

Is this you're working so hard because you have the spirit of God who wants to come alongside you, who dwells inside every single believer to empower you to do what he's called and made you to be.

First mark.

It's about ushering in the kingdom of God.

Second mark, it operates in the power of the Holy Spirit.

The third mark we saw in Acts chapter one was every believer is a minister of the gospel.

Every single person.

Not just the pastors, not just the superstar spiritual people.

What does it say in Acts chapter 1, 8?

Acts 1 · chapter mention

We already said it, but you'll receive power.

There it is.

That's the Greek word dunamis.

It's where we get our English word dynamite.

No, they didn't have dynamite, that wasn't in their mind, but but it's this power.

Not just like, oh, you got some power.

No, no, no, no, no.

It's the power of God that raised Jesus from the dead when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and then you'll be my witnesses.

What's a witness?

It's just someone that testifies to what they've seen, heard, and experienced.

Someone that just simply tells somebody else about their experience.

That's all it is.

In fact, this word uh it's martyrs, it's where we get our English word martyr.

It those who testified about Jesus so often gave their life for Jesus that then this word now became synonymous with giving your life away to be a martyr.

But every believer this is to be a witness, is to is to be a sharer of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ that you're love, that you're forgiven, that He's changed your life.

Like, think about a time when you got something that you really were excited about, or you had an experience you couldn't.

Stop.

Yeah.

You know, it just was the most amazing thing ever.

My wife's like, she's the type of person, the minute she gets excited about something, she's going to tell everyone about it.

Uh, in fact, we just got our kids some new bikes or well-used bikes.

Uh, it's from Good Karma Bikes.

And it's this great place that they, you know, take um all these donated bikes.

They they train up people who have come out of the foster care system to give help and craft.

And and so it's just this incredible business that we want to support.

And we got these great bikes.

Well, I got to tell you, when we run into neighbors, she's talking about it.

When we run, you know, having a phone call, she's talking about it.

Why?

Because this was an incredible experience and she's passionate about it.

See, it's actually not that abnormal for those whose lives have been transformed by Christ to just begin to talk about it.

Like, like my life has been changed, and I'm not trying to do an apologetic or trying to like share.

I'm just gonna tell you what Jesus did in my life.

See, that's all we're to be.

To live our life in such a way that you just go, it just overflows out of us.

Like, man, Jesus changed my life, and and I don't have to bring them to Ryan or to Christina or to Felicia or to Chris or anybody else.

I get to be the minister of the gospel.

You're fully empowered by the Spirit of God, you're equipped, and and and he wants to use you.

Think about this.

You are God's game plan for reaching the world, and there is no plan B.

You're God's game plan for reaching your world, your neighborhood, your workplace.

He has strategically placed you right where you're at to be a light and a witness for him to usher in the kingdom of God, the natural home of the soul, so that people can experience new life in Jesus.

And if that feels intimidating, you are empowered supernaturally by the Spirit of God to do just that.

And most of us don't experience it because we don't step out in faith.

So you might have had this like inkling in your heart, I need to share with someone, or maybe someone your coworker has been put on your heart, they're going through a hard time, and you just felt like maybe I should just say, I'm praying for you, or some of these, but but you just kind of shrink back and you never say it.

And so you never experience the supernatural empowerment of the Spirit of God because you got to step out in faith as he leads and as he guides, and you go, Okay, I'm gonna trust you.

Oh, this is scary.

Oh, okay.

My 40th birthday was just recently.

Um, and my wife made a whole bunch of videos for me uh of people who were just sharing things.

And one particular video was a guy named Preston.

I guess they weren't sharing things, they were sharing nice things about me, and uh it was very sweet and I loved it um and meaningful.

But one particular guy was a guy named Preston, and his thing, and I can't say it without crying, he's like, Thank you.

Thank you for sharing Jesus with me.

Back in high school, the life I have, the wife and kids I'm married to would not be a reality without Jesus.

And you introduced me to him.

I was a silly little high school senior.

So, high schoolers who are listening, this is for you, not just for it.

It's not like, hey, one day, someday I gotta, you know, get all this.

I was just a high school senior, and and God changed my life that summer.

Like, he totally radically changed my life.

I encountered Jesus.

And like, when you encounter Jesus, you can't help but just talk about him.

And so I started at school.

I mean, I was at a US gov class, and I turned, we were at these tables and turned to Preston like, has anybody told you about Jesus?

Like, that was my intro line.

I that's all I knew how to say.

That's all I had.

And he's like, What?

No, and we started talking, and then he started a Bible study in my house because he wanted to learn more about it, and then he invited his friends, and God led so many people to the Lord through that one silly question.

It's the power of the Spirit of God in us, working through us.

Okay, all right.

So let me ask you this.

Have you experienced Jesus?

If not, would you call upon him right now and say, Jesus, I need you.

Would you come and save me?

Come into my life.

Like to where you're going, like, no, I I have a testimony.

I can testify, I can tell of the Jesus who has changed my life.

Has your life been changed by the power of the Spirit of God?

And if not, would you start waiting?

Would you start waiting on him, waiting on God, getting into his word, getting with other people who are moving you towards Jesus and say, Spirit of God, have your way in me.

When you wait on God, you say, Spirit of God, have your way in me.

You see, it's not that we need to get more of the Spirit, it's that the Spirit needs to get more of us.

All right.

First mark of the early church ushered into the kingdom of God.

Second, the power, they operate in the power of the spirit of God.

Third, every believer is a minister of the gospel.

The fourth mark of the early church is they lived in anticipation of the return of Jesus.

They're standing there, they're looking up into the sky, and he disappears as he sends into heaven.

And then the text says this the same way Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.

The early church lived in anticipation of the return of Jesus.

Like they were looking forward to and living in that reality of come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.

Like he could come at any moment.

They lived with a sense of urgency as a result.

See, Jesus is returning.

And if Jesus is returning, he will judge the living and the dead.

We will stand before him as believers, and we will be uh judged and given account for all that we do.

He will also restore and make all things right.

And the reality is most of us aren't living in anticipation of the return of Jesus.

We're living in the anticipation of the return of going to the movies, of not wearing masks, of all those things.

And those are fine.

Okay, that's not a bad thing.

Yes, me too.

But let me ask you this if you knew Jesus was returning, how would you live differently?

You know, last year when um uh when the pandemic first hit, and we weren't sure if we're gonna have Easter or not, uh, you know, in person, and then we weren't.

Jenny kept saying, she's like, wouldn't it be awesome if Jesus returned this Easter?

Like, that would be the best.

Because all the hurt, all the brokenness, it would be, you know, he show up and he restore and make all things right.

Well, let me ask you this: if you knew Jesus was returning this Easter, how would you live differently?

Like there's gotta be an urgency in our souls about the friends and coworkers and family and people who do not know him, who will die apart from God and spend an eternity apart from him.

Like there's something in us where we gotta go, you know what?

We're gonna live in the anticipation that he's returning, and so we have a certain confident hope that a better tomorrow awaits us, and so we can move forward in the face of adversity, forward in the face of persecution, forward in the face of a hard and difficult and evil season, and live with urgency, saying, Okay, who can I share with?

How can I help people know this Jesus who changed my life?

And the final mark of the early church is they appointed godly leaders who faithfully walk with Jesus.

They appointed leaders who faithfully walk with Jesus.

You know, in our culture today, we promote gift over godliness, we promote charisma over character.

And in the church, tragically, we've watched it's far too many superstar celebrity pastors' fault.

And it creates such harm and pain, and it hurt.

The early church said, No, no, no, no, we're gonna appoint godly leaders.

They needed to replace Judas Iscariot, and they said, Okay, who's been with us since uh Jesus' baptism?

They found two guys, and this was before the Spirit of God.

This is actually the last time we have recorded of casting lots as a way to discern, you know, God's, you know, um uh decision in the moment.

But once you have the Spirit of God, you don't need to do that anymore.

So they between two guys, this guy, Matthews, became the the 12th disciple to take his place.

Leadership matters.

Godly leadership is needed for today, now, more than ever.

In fact, at awakening, one of the things as we are looking at, okay, future church, us, we're saying, okay, we want to raise up and we want to appoint godly leaderships.

And we uh some of you have even got an email that's called the leadership essentials.

And this is part of the process in which we want to say, how do we identify and unleash these godly leaders and that we'd be men and women of character, of integrity who walk closely with Jesus.

Not, you know, hey, I built this great platform, and it's all about me.

No, no, no, it's all about Jesus, and it's all because of him, and it's all for him.

I like the way Carl Barth said it.

He said, the church exists to set up in the world a new sign which is radically dissimilar to the world's own manner and which contradicts it in a way which is full of promise.

I love that.

See, it's this kind of church that ushers in the kingdom of God, operating the spirit of God.

Every single person, they're not a spectator in a service, a consumer, they're a contributor, they're a minister of the gospel, living, anticipating the return of Jesus and faithfully walking with God.

You see, here's what the church is the church is the spirit-empowered community of Jesus.

We're on mission to invite the entire world into new life in the kingdom of God.

That's the future of the church.

It's how it was founded, and it's what it is for us today.

And so, what do we do in the meantime?

What do we do until next week?

Until we get to Acts chapter 2 and Pentecost and the fire and the wind.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

I want you to do two things.

Would you wait and would you witness?

Would you wait this week?

Would you wait on the Spirit?

Would you get into His God God's word?

Would you say, Holy Spirit, would you have your way in me?

And would you wait?

And would you wait?

Would you wait until the Spirit of God begins to work and to move in you?

You can do it with your family, you can do it with a friend.

But would you begin to wait on the Spirit of God?

And then this week, witness look for an opportunity to share what Jesus has done in your life.

That might be with a coworker.

Man, I had this awesome school of faith class that I just went to.

I'm learning so much and growing.

It might be with a friend.

Can I tell you how hard this season has been?

And I'm just going through it.

I Jesus has been my comfort.

He's been my counselor.

And it doesn't mean everything's been great or easy, but man, there is a steadfastness and peace in my soul.

Would you wait and would you witness?

And next week, we'll dive into Acts chapter two.

We hope you are blessed by this message.

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