We begin today a new study, a new series if you will, that is the book of Acts. It is a monumental task. If I thought too much ahead of time about what will be involved in preaching through Acts I would doubtless be overwhelmed by the enormity of the scope of this book. I have purposefully avoided it for almost 10 years now. But today we have come to it, and I believe we have come to it in just the right time.

One reason I believe it’s the right time is we have just finished a 2 ½ year journey through the Gospel of Luke. And Luke is the same writer of the book of Acts. It is a continuation, volume 2 if you will of what Luke set out to do. In Luke 1 he stated that “having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus; so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.” Then in Acts 1 we see Luke continue to write volume 2 to Theophilus. Vs. 1, “The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach…”

We don’t know who Theophilus was, but the title given in Luke suggests that he was a high official, perhaps even someone who was defending Paul before Rome. But I think it more likely that he was simply a Christian, however an eminent member of Roman government. The name Theophilus by the way meant lover of God.

But as we read the opening verses of Acts it is apparent that Luke overlaps some information at the beginning. When we concluded Luke we looked at the ascension of Christ and we even referenced some of the material found here. So I don’t want to strictly speak on the ascension again, since we covered it thoroughly in the past weeks.

However, what I do want to do today is to give a little bit of an introduction and overview of the book and explain the significance of what happens after the ascension of Christ. Acts is not simply history. It is an important transition between the Gospels and the Epistles. In the Gospels we see the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. His teaching, His word is presented, the gospel is proclaimed; and in the Epistles we see the gospel explained.

But what happens in between in Acts is essential to understanding our relation to the gospel. Our responsibility to the gospel. As the gospels are the account of Christ’s ministry, so Acts is the account of the disciples ministry as Jesus passes the torch to them. . It is the account of the way the Holy Spirit, coming upon the apostles, working through the church, continued what Jesus began to do, the story of how they carried on the work which was initiated during the days of his incarnation. As we will see in Acts, the Holy Spirit now begins to fulfill the designed program of God. He begins to carry on Christ’s work through the reincarnated body of Jesus Christ—the church—the body by which the Lord intends to reach out to the uttermost parts of the earth.

That work began after the ascension of Christ 2000 years ago, and it still continues today, even right here through this local body. And that is why I think it is so pertinent that we begin to study the book of Acts at this time. I believe we may be at a juncture in our history when we move from being discipled as this small group, to a time when the power of the Holy Spirit is poured out upon you and I, so that we might build His church and proclaim the gospel through each one of you in a more emboldened and effective way than we ever have before.

If you think about it that way you might see the similarities between our churches situation and the apostles. They had just finished being taught the words of Jesus for 3 years. And as well you folks have just completed almost 3 years of in depth study in the words of Christ through our study in Luke. You know as much or even more than the apostles knew at this point. And yet it is at this point that Jesus leaves them, passing the baton so to speak to them to carry on His ministry. And they would do so to a certain extent in an even greater fashion than He did. Jesus said that, didn’t He? In John 14:12 Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.” And that was certainly fulfilled by the fact that Jesus preached the gospel to the Jews only, but through His disciples the gospel has been preached throughout the whole world, to every nation, and every tongue.

So the responsibility for the proclamation of the gospel and the establishment of the church passes from Jesus to the apostles. We see the Lord now pass the baton to His disciples. You know, these apostles aren’t much different than you and I. They’re just simple working men. About seven of them were fishermen. And not only are they the most unlikely people to do this task, but they don’t seem well suited to it either. They were uneducated. They had demonstrated weak faith. They had not always been the most obedient disciples.

They weren’t exactly the greatest prayer warriors. On the night of Jesus’ trial, He asked them to pray with Him for one hour and yet they fell asleep. In fact, that very night they all ran away when Jesus was arrested. Peter, their leader publicly denied Him three times. All of them deserted Him in His greatest hour of need. But these are the very men that Jesus hands over His ministry to. He entrusts all that He had done and all that He wanted to accomplish to this ragtag band of disciples. They were the unlikely ones that He entrusted to take His gospel to the world.

And so I would challenge you folks here today to see yourselves in this same light. I believe that God has you here in this place for such a time as this. God’s plan is that you would be witnesses of His gospel to the world, starting right here in this community, through this church. There are no rock stars here nor rocket scientists. But God has chosen you, the weak things, to confound the mighty, to carry on His ministry, to build His church.

I’m sure that the disciples thought that was an overwhelming mission. I’m sure that they felt inadequate for the job. And perhaps you feel that way as well. I know I have been feeling inadequate lately as I consider the obstacles to building this church. I sometimes find myself thinking of all the failures in our progress so far. When I think of all the people who I have failed to really disciple, those that fell away after a time, or those who did not come to be saved, it is discouraging. I was looking the other day at a super market that was closing. And I have often thought that building would make a great building to convert into a church. And now just the other day I saw that it is closing and up for rent. Yet from a human standpoint it is completely out of our league. We don’t have enough people to fill a quarter of it, much less be able to afford to lease it.

But then I thought of this church that starts in Jerusalem with the 11 apostles who are basically hiding out in a room and whom Jesus leaves with instructions to wait for the power of the Holy Spirit. And I remembered how that when the Holy Spirit was poured out on them, God added 3000 people to the church in just one day. Peter stood up to preach on the day of Pentecost and before he got half way through the message, people were crying out, “what do we have to do to be saved?” Within a few days the number had swelled to 5000 or more.

So I was encouraged by that as I was reminded that with man it may seem impossible, but with God all things are possible. Yet the question is, what prompted this great revival? What caused them to go from being discouraged disciples on the brink of scattering to becoming men who were turning the world upside down? Well the short answer is that what happened was God sent them the Holy Spirit to indwell them as the church and empower them for the job of building the church.

So what we see laid out here in these first 11 verses of Acts is Christ’s last instructions He gives to the Apostles to prepare them for this great moving of the Holy Spirit, in order to effectively build His church and carry out His mission in His absence. And I believe they are instructive for us as well as we consider our mission to build this church. There are six things here in this passage which serve as a checklist for the mission we are to take up for Christ.

Number one, if you’re going to effectively build Christ’s church you need to have the right message. Vs. 1, “The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up to heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen.” Notice it says that Jesus began to do and teach. In order to effectively carry on Christ’s ministry, you have to have the right message. And that message has to be the message of Christ. It has to be the word of Christ that is preached. We can’t build a church on empty philosophy, or on men’s wisdom, or men’s strategy. If we’re going to build the church, we can only build the church on the truth of the gospel.

But not only does Luke emphasize what Jesus taught, but what Jesus did. If we are going to be used by God to build His church, we not only need the right message but to be the right messenger. A skeptic once said, “Show me your redeemed life, and I might be inclined to believe in your Redeemer.” We have to practice what we preach. That’s what discipleship is all about. Walking out what you have been taught. That’s what makes the gospel believable and attractive to the world. Not trying to attract the world by offering them a religious facsimile of the world, but by showing them the power of the gospel through a transformed life.

Secondly, if you are going to effectively carry out Christ’s mission you need the right kind of confidence. Vs. 3, “To these, he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over 40 days.” How did these scared disciples hiding out in an upper room suddenly have the confidence to do the things they did? Where did their confidence come from? Their confidence came from being witnesses of His resurrection. They now realized that Jesus had the power over death and hell. Nothing could kill Him. Nothing could hold Him. So by extension that power was given to them. And we can have that same confidence because the record of His resurrection was confirmed by over 500 people over the course of 40 days and recorded in the infallible scriptures. The confidence of the resurrection not only provides assurance that Christ is sovereign, but it provides us with the confidence that we also will endure beyond the grave. That the gates of Hell can not prevail against Christ’s church. That whatever sufferings that we might be called upon to share with Christ even though they might result in our death of our body we can have confidence that we also will be resurrected with a glorified body as was Christ.

Thirdly, if they were to effectively carry out the ministry of Christ they needed to have the right power. Verse 4. Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

Back in Luke’s gospel, chapter 24, we read that Jesus added, “And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” The Holy Spirit is given to the disciples so that they might have the power to do what God has commissioned them to do. This is such an important principle and yet I’m afraid it is so misunderstood. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is to take the Spirit of Christ and distribute it to the church, so that they might have the power of Christ available to perform the ministry of Christ.

So many people today short change the ministry of the Holy Spirit by focusing on the wrong things. As I said last week, the Holy Spirit isn’t given to us so that we might feel saved, but that we might be saved, and that we might act saved. Jesus said in John’s gospel that the Holy Spirit is given to be our helper. We cannot do the work in our own strength. He is called the Spirit of truth. He will teach us all things. He opens our minds to understand the scriptures. He brings about conviction in the hearts and minds of the world. He changes our nature. He opens our eyes. He gives the gift of repentance. He distributes the gifts of the Holy Spirit so that we will be equipped to do what is necessary to do in order to build the church. Not for our own edification. That is; not to make us feel holy or look holy. But He gives gifts to build up the church so that she might be holy.

Then notice verse 5. “John baptized you with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” Now that is not talking about water baptism. He literally says you’re going to be submerged with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.   He was talking about the day of Pentecost, which was just a few days away. Notice that He is not telling the apostles to somehow get baptized in the Holy Spirit. This isn’t telling them to seek it, pray for it, plead for it. This is a statement of fact. It’s something that happens to all believers as part of their conversion. But what it is referring to here is submersion or a filling of the Holy Spirit. To be washed by the Holy Spirit and be filled with the Holy Spirit. To have the Holy Spirit indwell us.

The word baptism signifies identification with the body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:13. “For by one Spirit, we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and we’re all made to drink of one Spirit.” As the body of Christ we are literally engulfed in the Holy Spirit. John refers to the Holy Spirit as the anointing which we have from God who teaches us all things. Another example of that is found in 1Cor. 10:1-4 “For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.”

Remember that I told you last Wednesday night that the children of Israel are a picture of the church? Well, here in that passage we see the picture of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. They were all baptized into Moses, in the cloud, that is the Shekina glory that followed them and engulfed the tabernacle. It was the presence of God in the midst of them. Jesus now says we are baptized in the Holy Spirit so that we are now the temple of the Holy Spirit. In Moses day the cloud led them by day as in our day the Holy Spirit leads us into all truth. With Moses they all ate the same spiritual food. Jesus said in John 6:63 “my words are Spirit and they are life.” The Holy Spirit feeds us with the word of God and provides us with the water of life. The Holy Spirit is the power that we need to effectively build the church of Christ. Not by human might, not by human power, but by My Spirit says the Lord. (Zec. 4:6)

Fourthly, if we are to build Christ’s church effectively we must have the right timing. Vs. 6, So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

The apostles were still looking for the physical kingdom of God to be set up on the throne of David. Their eschatology was still not in line with what Christ was doing. But Jesus doesn’t debunk their eschatology, nor does He stop and give them a detailed blow by blow of what was going to happen in the future. He did that as far as He intended to do it back in Luke 21. God doesn’t have to explain the future to us in any more detail than that. Our job is to wait on the Lord. To be about the business of being a witness. Luke 19:13. He said, “Do business with this until I come back.” He taught that we are to occupy until He comes, to , “Work, for the night is coming.” To lay up treasures in heaven while we are on earth. To invest now in the kingdom of God.

God is in charge of God’s timing. We are to be about what He has commissioned us to do. And as we see in this passage, that involves waiting on the Lord. He is the One who has the power to turn men’s hearts. At the right time God poured out His Holy Spirit and the church grew and was established. We just need to be a witness and let God take care of the results. God will build His church in His time and in His way. We just need to be found faithful witnesses when He comes.

That leads us to the fifth point if we want to be effectively building God’s church – we need the right mission. Vs. 8, “when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

The word witness in the Greek is the word “martys” which is the word we get martyrs from. The word witness came to be the word martyr because so many witnesses to the gospel died. Jesus said, “If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross.” Being a witness of Christ in those days might just cost you your life.

I think that there was a degree of commitment in the early church that we simply do not have today. They had to be willing to leave their families oftentimes if they were to accept Christ. They had to be willing to lose their jobs or even their homes. And they had to be willing to possibly be martyred for their faith. The culture at that time did not accept Christianity. The Jews wanted to silence them and the Gentile culture was completely pagan. So there was no friendship with the world whatsoever. But that level of commitment I think caused the zeal for the house of God to consume them and give everything for the cause of Christ. And that level of commitment is what the Lord will use.

I think that we are fast approaching that type of animosity towards the church today in our culture. Christianity has lost whatever social acceptance that it once had in America. Today if you preach the gospel the way the apostles did you are labeled as hateful, unloving, homophobic, intolerant and so forth. But we need to remember that the world is our mission field and not our enemy. We can build the kingdom of God the same way the early church did, through the power of the Holy Spirit by preaching the truth and being consistent in our testimony.

The final point in effective church building is we need to have the right motive. Vs. 9, And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. They also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.” Their motive for building the kingdom of Christ is that He is coming back in the clouds the same way He went away.

Our motive for being faithful in our work of the kingdom is that when we stand before God we will hear “well done good and faithful servant. You’ve been faithful in a few things, I will set you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your Master.” Christ has given us a mission, a stewardship, to carry on His ministry here on earth until the day He returns for us. I hope that you consider that mission your priority here on earth. If we have as our priority the things of God, our priority the caretaking of His church, then I believe that God will increase our stewardship corresponding to our investment. To him who has, more shall be given.

I don’t want you to be concerned about building with stone and mortar. We are not given the mission of building edifices or temples made with hands. But we are given the task of building up the body of Christ, the bride of Christ, His church. And all of us are given that task. We are all commissioned to be ministers of Christ. It’s an overwhelming task from a human point of view. But we do not strive by the flesh, but in the power of the Holy Spirit, in the timing of God, and in the strength of His might. And when we do that, then God will build His church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.