What Jesus Started, He Will Finish | Rob Hall | Acts The Church on the Move | New North Church

Hey, welcome to the New North Church podcast.

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With that, let's go right to this week's message.

All right, we're starting a new series today, The Book of Acts.

And as I was thinking about how to start, I thought about, like, what if we had time and I could have, you know, lunch or coffee or breakfast with every single person in that church?

That is totally impossible.

But what if I met with you and over coffee I asked you a question and I wonder how you would answer it?

And here's the question: What do you think the future of the church depends on?

Or here's maybe another question I might ask in a similar vein.

What does the church need most today?

And I want you to think about actually how you would answer that.

And I think I would hear a lot of different answers.

I would probably hear, hey, you know what?

The church today needs talented and great leaders who are called and anointed by God.

Yeah.

You might say, hey, you know, the church needs a strategic plan and a compelling vision to get outside the walls of the church.

Sure.

Maybe you might say, hey, the church needs more political influence and power.

Maybe you would say, you know what, Pastor Rob, what the church really needs is more resources, more finances, more people serving, more people giving, and you know what?

You know, you know what the church needs, Pastor Rob?

The future depends on the church that loves our neighbor, that helps the poor, that does justice.

Here's what's interesting.

The book of Acts, the birth of a church, begins with none of those things.

I mean, it's pretty wild if you step back and think about it, right?

Their movement, which was called the way, experienced first a brutal betrayal at the hands of one of their fellow leaders and closest friends, a guy named Judas.

And their primary leader is not only murdered on the cross, he comes back and then he disappears again.

And here they're left, this really small, about 120 of farmers and fishermen, men and women who are kind of confused, anxious about, man, what do we do next?

And here is what is so beautiful about the early church is that they had all that they needed.

They had none of the things, hardly any of the things, that the modern church has today, but they had everything they needed.

What did they have?

They had the risen King and Savior Jesus Christ.

They had the promised Holy Spirit, God Himself empowering them, and they were given a very clear mission to go out into all the world and make disciples.

And guess what?

That was enough for them.

And if I'm being really honest, there have been many times where I've wondered if that's enough for me.

If that's enough for you, if that's enough for our church.

Like I really wish I could stand up here and say, you know what, church, all we need is Jesus.

All we need is the Holy Spirit.

All we need is to understand our mission to share Jesus with the world.

We don't need anything else.

But I don't feel that way all the time.

Like I'm I'm embarrassed to say how often I rely over 26 years of ministry on my own experience or my own talent or my own gifts instead of the Holy Spirit.

You could do a lot of ministry without the Holy Spirit.

Did you know that?

At times I'm I've been frustrated that we don't earn a permanent worship building after almost 10 years of being an independent church.

I sometimes wish we had more resources, more finances, more people serving, more a greater impact in our communities that desperately need Jesus.

And I wonder if you're like me, if you struggle to believe that Jesus and the Holy Spirit is enough for you as well.

I mean, again, I think you have because I have.

I mean, have you ever thought, God, like, thank you for providing for me, and I appreciate it, but I need more.

I need more.

Or God, like, I know you want me to trust you, to step out in faith and serve you, but I'm so overwhelmed.

I'm really busy, so I'll do my best.

And so I say all that because the book of Acts, which we're gonna see in the months to come, it's gonna be at the same time refreshing, encouraging, inspiring, but also deeply challenging for us and our church.

And that's one of the many reasons why we're studying this book all year long.

So the guy who wrote this book is a guy named Luke, or Dr.

Luke.

He wrote both the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts.

Now, Luke, you may be surprised, he wasn't one of the first apostles.

Most likely he came to faith during the apostle Paul's ministry.

That's why he writes so much about it, because we're gonna look at his ministry and first, second, and third missionary journeys towards the end of Acts.

And I want to say this the book of Acts is not just a history lesson about the early church.

No, no, it's what Jesus continues to do in and through the church today.

And so I think about it this way the New Testament gospel, so think Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are kind of like part one or act one of the Jesus story.

The book of Acts is Act Two, what God has done and what God continues to do, and then we are living in what I would say act three of God's story.

Acts does not end in chapter 28.

That's why I've added a chapter.

I'm calling it Acts 29, because what I want us to see is that today, all over the world, Jesus is using ordinary disciples, just like you, just like me, all over the world today.

Alright, so the gospels end essentially with a couple tweaks with Jesus' resurrection.

Acts picks up on the story and really focuses on the 40 days that Jesus spent with his disciples post-resurrection.

And during this time, it's clear that he laid the foundation for his ministry.

Us, the church, the church was born.

And so if you have a Bible, go ahead and open it up to Acts chapter 1.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

And we're gonna look in the first couple verses.

Acts chapter 1, starting in verse 1.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

And could you all just stand back up, just in honor of God's word?

Acts chapter 1.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

And I'm gonna read a large chunk of this.

And this is how the book begins.

Dr.

Luke writes, he says, In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and teach, aka the Gospel of Luke, until the day he was taken up to heaven.

After giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.

After his suffering, he presented himself to them, and listen to this, and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive.

He appeared to them, that's the disciples, and many others, over a period of 40 days and spoke about the kingdom of God.

And on one occasion, while he was eating with them, let me stop and say, think about that.

Jesus in his resurrected body was eating.

So people asked me, Will there'll be food in heaven?

Of course there will be.

Because Jesus was eating.

Alright, anyway.

Um, I lost my place.

Eating with him.

He gave okay, he gave them this command.

Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father has promised, which you have heard me speak about.

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

And then they gathered around him.

They asked him, Okay, Lord, we got a question.

Lord, are you at this time gonna restore the kingdom of Israel?

And he said to them, It is not for you to know the times or the dates the Father has set by his own authority, and here it is, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses, not only here in Jerusalem, but in all Judea, and even further out to Samaria, and even further out into the ends of the earth.

And after he said this, he was taken up before their eyes.

We call this the ascension, and a cloud hid them from their sight, but there is humor here.

They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white, two angels, stood beside them.

They said, Hey, men of Galilee, they said, Why do you stand here looking up in the sky?

The same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.

This is the word of God.

You may be seated.

And as you are seated, sitting, seated, um, will you do a set, will you do me a favor or do yourself a favor?

And I want you to just pray that you would be open to God's word.

Pray for those around you, pray for me, and then I'll pray.

But why don't you take 30 seconds and just pray that your heart would be open today?

And so, Father, as we open up your word today, give us eyes to see, ears to hear, hearts and minds that are fully open to whatever it is you want to teach your people.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit, we pray, and everyone said, Amen.

All right, we're good.

So, Dr.

Luke, he begins the book of Acts by talking about the most important person in Acts and the entire Bible, Jesus Christ.

And he tells us something very significant.

He tells us that we can have hope today because Jesus is still alive.

And we know this because Luke tells us that he proved himself, showed himself with many convincing proofs.

He met with, talked with, ate with hundreds and hundreds of early disciples.

What does that mean?

If you're not yet a follower of Jesus, you need to understand that Christianity is not just good advice.

It's not just, you know, um, you know, like a plan about how to make your life better or how God wants you to be more happy.

No, no, no.

It's news, good news about something God has done in history through his son, Jesus Christ.

We call this the gospel.

The gospel, the good news is that Jesus came, God's one and only Son, into the world.

Why?

To rescue the world from three great enemies, sin, Satan, and ourselves.

And so you got to understand that the disciples were not TED talk speakers, they were not influencers, they were not gurus, they were common, ordinary folks, but they were witnesses to the life, to the death, and the resurrection.

They were called apostles because they were witnesses to all three things.

They were sent out by Jesus.

And so Luke wants to make it clear that hundreds of people encountered Jesus and physically resurrected from the dead, new bodies, scars and all, but new, and they saw him and they talked with him and they ate with him.

This was the risen Jesus.

So Luke wants you to know this is not some myth, this is not some legend.

Jesus is and was the real thing.

And he tells us that he appeared to the apostles for over 40 days, and specifically he taught them and spoke about the kingdom of God.

If you go through the Gospels, that was Jesus' number one topic, the kingdom of God.

Let me define that.

I've defined this a hundred times in our church.

The kingdom of God is simply what life is like when God is in charge, what life is like when God is ruling, when God is reigning, when God has all of your heart.

And so during this period, Jesus then told them to wait for the promised Holy Spirit.

In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit would come on people and then leave people.

But then there he says, we're gonna live in a time when the Holy Spirit's gonna come on his disciples permanently.

We'll look at that next week in what's called Pentecost.

But here, after being with the resurrected Jesus for 40 days, after all this teaching time, after all this fellowship and food, I think the disciples are like, Thank you, Jesus.

Great.

We got our marching orders, let's roll.

We got to get going.

You want us to be in Jerusalem and then Judea and then good, let us go.

Send us out.

And Jesus said, No.

Jesus said, I want you to wait.

And then Luke tells us why, and I think this is so significant.

They clearly still had questions about who's in control.

They had questions about power because they asked Jesus.

They'd say, Hey, Jesus, like, are you gonna restore the kingdom of Israel to Israel?

What was that meaning?

See, the disciples were still expecting a political kingdom.

They wanted a national kingdom.

They did not understand a spiritual kingdom.

They wanted the nation of Israel, God's people, to regain political power, to take back the government, to have control.

Just like in the days of their ancestors, seeing King Saul, King Solomon, King David.

They wanted to overthrow Roman abuse, control, and power and take it for themselves.

And Jesus says, Nope, my kingdom operates in a different way.

You will receive power.

Oh, you're gonna get power, but it's not like the power that you think you want or need when the Holy Spirit comes on you.

And so in the kingdom of God, power is radically different than earthly power.

And you see that through the life and ministry of Jesus.

Again, the kingdom of God is the rule and reign of God that comes into our lives, into the lives of his people, and then out into the world in the power of the Holy Spirit.

And Luke tells us that this power is spread by witnesses of the gospel, not soldiers or politicians.

This power is a declaration of peace, peace with God, peace with others, not a declaration of war or violence.

The kingdom of God advances through the work of the Holy Spirit, not through our own human effort, not through our own control.

This looks a hundred different ways in the church today.

Like when we love people, when we even love our enemies, the kingdom of God is expanding.

When we serve people, especially even on the margins of society, the kingdom of God has come.

When we work for the good of all people, even the people we dislike, the kingdom of God comes.

And on and on and on.

And so Luke tells us that God's power enables us to do one very important, one specific thing: to be his witnesses.

What does that mean?

To live with and for Jesus.

So Jesus confronted the disciples and said, Hey guys, you want power for control.

You want power to run things, but I'm giving you power so that you can live faithfully in this world with me and for me.

And so Jesus taught the disciples for 40 days and then he commands them, do not leave.

In fact, you need to go back to Jerusalem and wait on me.

Depend on me.

You cannot be my witnesses without power from on high.

You need to sit and wait, because I'm going to give you someone, not something, someone that you need.

And so, what's a witness?

You will be my witnesses.

It's simply someone who tells what they've seen, heard, or experienced.

To be a witness is both a proclamation, like something is said, but it's also a demonstration.

We live out our faith.

So what does this mean?

To be God's witnesses just like the disciples, yes, we need to tell the truth about Jesus to the best of our ability.

That's proclamation.

And we need to live to the best of our ability the life and character and mission of Jesus ourselves.

That's demonstration.

Ultimately, we point people to Jesus.

Now, I want you to notice that this mandate by Jesus to us, to his disciples, was never meant to be confined in one place.

And I think they were tempted to stay in Jerusalem.

And he says, No, guys, you're gonna be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

So I've always viewed that geography because that's what it is this way.

What is our Jerusalem today?

Jerusalem, I think, are the people who are closest to you.

Think family members, think friends.

That's your Jerusalem.

Be witnesses in your home.

Judea is, I would say, like the people who are familiar with you.

Think co-workers, neighbors, baristas, people that just you are around a good amount.

And then Samaria, what's that?

These are usually people you and I want to avoid.

Right?

Samaria was a place the disciples wanted to go around and not go through.

These are people we don't like.

I don't know, people who didn't vote like us, people who don't think like us, people who don't live like us or do things or say things that we don't like, whatever.

That's Samaria.

And then Jesus says, you even need to go beyond that to the ends of the earth, to people, to places that we can't even imagine God reaching.

Why is this important?

Because we care deeply as a church about what God is doing all over the world today and how we can join Him in that.

We want people who've never heard of Jesus to be given a chance to hear and respond, not just in San Francisco, not just in the Bay Area, not just in the nation, but all over the world.

That's why we send hundreds of thousands of dollars to missionaries all over the world.

Here's the point Jesus is saying, his disciples, yes, guys, your mission begins right where you are in Jerusalem, but should always expand beyond.

And this is what we're gonna see in the book of Acts.

And this is what's gonna be challenging for us.

The Church of Jesus Christ are the people of God.

It's not about a building, it's not about a website or a brand or a platform, it's the people of God assembled and then sent out on mission into all the world.

And this is one of the many reasons why.

And if you missed us last Sunday, please go on YouTube, see what we said.

This is one of the many reasons why, by God's grace, we plan to start a new church campus back on the peninsula sometime in 2027, because we need to expand beyond these walls.

Not for growth, not just to have a bigger church, because we care desperately for people who don't know Jesus.

Do you know that not one church in the past decade, in the past decade, has been planted on the upper peninsula?

Not one.

Not one.

And so that's what our plan is.

Pray for that.

Alright, and so like us, I think the disciples are like, wait a second, we like Jerusalem.

We like it here.

And so I think they're confront this is why they were confronted by two angels.

So, so so Jesus leaves them, he goes up, and I just picture, you know, so theologians call this the ascension.

It's where Jesus returned to heaven, where he sits at the right hand of the Father.

And I think the disciples were sitting there stuck in a daze, like, oh, that's amazing.

Whoa, we've never seen like this.

And then that's why the angels look down and be like, what are you guys looking at?

Get on with what Jesus told you to do.

That's essentially what they say in the Rob Hall translation.

And I think what they're doing is confronting a kind of Christianity and a spirituality that only wants to gaze upward and not move outward.

Like I call this skygazing Christianity, where Christians who love to talk about the end times or heaven and do all the Bible studies and they've never shared their faith in their entire life.

We become so fascinated with Jesus and heaven and weird theologies and all the end time stuff, we forget why Jesus saves us and sent us out.

And so, because Jesus is sitting on the throne room of heaven, ruling the universe, the whole point of this is that we can have confidence that he is with us, that he goes ahead of us into all the world to be his witnesses.

So the angels confront the disciples and say, Didn't Jesus tell you to go to Jerusalem?

Why are you still staring up?

And they get and they head to Jerusalem.

Alright, here's kind of an overarching story of the book of Acts, just so we're clear.

So what we see here is Jesus' return to heaven, the ascension.

Next week we're gonna see what happened at Pentecost.

The Holy Spirit came permanently on all the disciples.

And then all throughout the book of Acts, we're gonna see the church going out to witnesses, living what's called missionally for Jesus.

And then we are living in this time where any day Jesus can and.

And will return.

So the question, I think, is, and I think the disciples had this question is, well, you're gone.

What do we do in the meantime?

Like, like, what do we do?

Well, Jesus tells them.

Look at verse 12, you have your Bible.

It says, Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem, so they're obeying Jesus now from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath-day walk from the city.

And look what they did.

When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room.

That's why we call it the upper room where they were staying.

And those present were Peter, John, James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew, great name for a new child, and Matthew.

James, the son of Alpheus, Simon the zealot, the wild political one, and Judas, not that Judas, Judas, son of James.

Thank you, Luke.

And here's what they did, verse 14.

They all joined together.

Can you say that word next?

What did they do?

Constantly in prayer.

Along with the women, so we know there was women there, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

Verse 15 tells us there was also about 120 others.

So in this, so they go from the ascension, wow, amazing, to really a kind of just a normal church life.

Waiting, trusting, praying.

And in this normal church life, they even replaced a new apostle.

And I just was getting into the mind possibly of this of the apostles, and here they are.

Man, they gave up three years of their life, left their lucrative commercial fisting business.

They've seen Jesus heal and do miracles.

And then he's crucified and they're dejected.

Then he comes back, they're elated, and then he leaves them again.

They've already waited 40 days.

Jesus says, you need to wait 10 more days, so that's 50 days of waiting.

Let me do a test.

Raise your hand if you love to wait on God.

Yeah, not one of you.

Oh, one of you, oh, a young man.

How old are you?

That's right.

Yeah, five, of course.

Praise God.

This is why Jesus said, become like a child.

Become like a child.

Thank you.

So there's one in here who loves to wait on God.

Well, for the rest of us, young man, we don't like waiting on God.

And uh and I just want you to notice like the disciples just weren't like eating casserole dishes and talking about God.

They were praying along with 120 other people.

And that word, they did this together or constantly, they all joined together.

Verse 14, that word together is an interesting word.

It doesn't just mean they were physically together, it means they were united together.

They were praying for the same things, they were seeking the Holy Spirit, and they prayed constantly, Luke tells us, for 10 days.

Yes, 10 days.

Like that is a powerful and long prayer meeting.

But here's where the book of Acts is going to challenge us.

What would happen in our church today if we pray for 10 days straight?

Most scholars believe they pray 24-7 too.

Like, I'm hoping they took naps because I couldn't last that long.

And so when we do things like 24-7 prayer, it's an invitation.

It's an invitation to seek God.

And again, we don't have time to read the rest of the chapter, but let me just summarize.

In their waiting, in their praying, they did some church work.

They were led to add a new apostle to replace Judas, and this didn't come out of nowhere.

They were reading the scriptures.

And the apostle Peter says, Oh man, we got to replace Judas because we need 12, not 11.

And so they discussed it amongst themselves.

Hey, who do you think?

Who do you think?

They prayed some more.

And then they did a kind of a thing that happened only in the Old Testament.

It was, they casted lots.

It was a practice of allowing God to guide and make their decision.

And they casted lots, and the lot fell on a guy Matthias.

We know very little about him.

We don't hear about him after this.

And so let me just stop and say this, because I'm going to hear this over the weeks.

I know it.

Someone's going to come up to me, they're going to say, Pastor Rob, I just wish we could be a New Testament Acts chapter one and two type of church.

And I'm going to tell you, if you ask me that, what about an Acts 5, 6, and 7 church?

And they're going to look at me confused.

Yeah, that's when Ananias and Sapphire get struck down and struck down in church for cheating.

Do you want that kind of church?

No, no, no, no.

No, I just want the you're right.

Like, because the early church had flaws.

They had issues.

It wasn't perfect.

I mean, Judas' betrayal, you talk about church trauma and hurt, that must have stung the early disciples.

That must have thrown them off.

Like, wait, how could he do such a thing?

And so I just want to remind you that Jesus works through flawed people and messed up churches to accomplish his mission.

And Matthias, let me just say this, wasn't selected because he was influential or had extraordinary gifts.

Maybe he did.

We're not told that.

As far as we can tell, he was just a faithful follower of Jesus from the very beginning.

And I think that's important because one day when we get to heaven, we're going to meet all sorts of faithful men and women that you've never heard of.

Men and women like Matthias, who very few people in history remember, but God remembers and God sees.

And just by the way, because in case you want to email me, like, can I roll the dice when I make a decision today?

Or remember that?

What was that?

Um black um what was it called?

Magic eight ball.

Remember that thing?

You know you did it because I did it.

Oh, should I date this girl?

Yes.

Yes! Do they still make those things?

Did you ever bust it open and see what's inside?

I did.

Anyway, um don't do that.

Don't do that.

Actually, what this pass if you need to if you need to make a big decision, let me tell you what this passage says.

A couple things.

First, they were in community together with other Christians.

There was mutual discernment.

They were waiting on God.

They weren't rushing.

They prayed.

They fasted.

They sought the scriptures before they made a decision.

They also just used their common sense.

Who do you think?

Who do you think?

Oh, yeah, I like that guy.

I don't like that guy.

Um, they trusted in the Holy Spirit to lead them, and then finally they made a decision, they stepped out in faith.

And then one more thing, and I'll end with this in a second.

If you're in a season of waiting, man, can I just encourage you?

God does his best work in those seasons.

I hate it.

I don't like to wait.

I don't like to trust God.

I want him to answer my prayers now, quickly, and my way.

But oh man, God made the disciples wait.

He makes us wait because he does something supernatural in us as we wait.

He strengthens us, he prepares us, he teaches us, he does things often we can't see and things we can see.

Man, let me just encourage you.

Well, you can trust God in the waiting.

Is it fun?

No, it's terrible.

But you can trust that God is always good, that he's always working even in your waiting.

Well, if I could summarize Acts 1 in one sentence, here it is.

And this is what's so powerful, and this is what's so challenging.

The church of Jesus Christ begins not with strategy, not with leadership lessons, not with whiteboards, but with dependence on Jesus.

And so the book we're studying this year, it's actually titled Acts of the Apostles, but I think it really should be called Acts of Jesus through the Holy Spirit.

Because what we're gonna see and what we believe is that Jesus is still alive today.

In fact, we believe he's here right now.

That we believe that Jesus is still ruling and reigning, and we believe that Jesus is still filling ordinary people just like you, just like me with his spirit.

And Jesus is still sending out his church to be his witnesses, his witnesses to his life, his death, and his resurrection.

So here's the question that this series will consistently ask us, and it's a simple one.

Will you join Jesus on his mission?

Will you become a person dependent on prayer?

I looked at this, let's see if I remember.

There was at least seven or eight prayer gatherings in the book of Acts, and everything we see is a result of those prayer gatherings.

Third, will you be a witness?

Will you talk about Jesus and share your faith?

And then finally, will you be faithful right where God has placed you for such a time as this?

So I asked our worship team, we're gonna end with a great song of response that we've sung before called Make Room.

And during this song, I want you to worship and pray at the same time.

You can do it.

I believe in you.

But here are the questions I just want you to be thinking about.

And let's all stand as we get ready.

And I want you to come before the Lord.

And here are some questions to pray about, to talk to God about in this first chapter.

Where do I need to stop striving and instead wait on God to mood?

Where do I need just to stop taking matters in my own hand and say, God, I'm gonna trust you in this area and wait on you?

If that's not for you, who is one person in my Jerusalem or my Judea or my Samaria who needs Jesus?

And God, would you lead me to that person this week?

Or here's another one.

Who is part of a Samaria, a place I don't like, people I don't like, and maybe God is calling me to cross that border to be his witness.

Here's another question for you to pray about and think about as we worship.

Am I trying to follow Jesus without being with his people?

There is no such thing as independent or solo Christianity.

I'm telling you, if you only come to church a handful of times a year, you will wither on the vine.

You need God's people.

And watch this God's people needs you.

Yeah.

So are you in community?

Are you praying with people?

Are you gathering with some people during the week?

Man, we're start- we're kicking everything off in the next couple of weeks.

Join.

Join.

So, Holy Spirit, would you come and just speak to your people?

What is it?

Do we need to wait?

Do we need to gather?

Do we need to go?

Challenge us, Lord.

Encourage us, Lord.

Send us out today.

We refuse to be people who just stay in our Jerusalem.

So, Holy Spirit, come and lead your people today.

Speak.

Help us to make room in our lives for more of you.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we pray.

Hey, thanks for being with us, and we really pray that God spoke to you through his word today.

And we want to stay connected.

So don't forget to subscribe to this podcast, and that way you'll be notified the moment we have new content go live.

And if you'd like more resources or to donate to our ministry, just simply go to newnorth.church.

Thanks again for joining us.

God bless you, and we'll see you right here next time.