title="English

Foundation for a Breakthrough

Acts 1:1–11

Edward Lorenz was a physicist at MIT who was developing computer-modeled programs of weather systems in the 1950s and 60s. He devised a program in which once he had entered a set of meteorological data, he could calculate what the subsequent weather pattern was going to be. As he did his research, one day he intended to enter a piece of data consisting of 6 decimal spaces, 0.506127. But he mistakenly inserted only the first three digits, 0.506 and then ran the program. When he noticed the error, he decided to run the entire program again with the correct number in place although intuition told him that such a small error, only one part in 1,000, could not possibly change the results much. To his amazement, the result was a radically different weather pattern from the first. Lorenzo was shocked. As he later explained, it was just as if the flap of a butterfly’s wing in Beijing combined with the other conditions should soon give rise to a typhoon or tornado in Boston. In other words, the universe is interdependent in such a way that one small thing can have an enormous impact.

The name given to his discovery soon became “the butterfly effect.” It has led to a great deal of scientific investigation (and some bad movies) in the years that have passed. So, if weathercasters get forecasts wrong, don’t blame them. Perhaps we should blame a few butterflies in Asia flapping their wings!

I won’t go into the debate that has gone on about the butterfly effect among scientists and physicists. But, I do want to make the point that what seem to be small things in the eyes of the world often have great effects. And that brings us to this first message I am doing in the Book of Acts in the Bible.

Acts is the second book written by a physician named Luke. As any good author does, Luke summarized the first book to his patron, a man named Theophilus in v. 1: In my first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach…

When we go back to that first book, we discover that Jesus’ last teaching was focused on what the Scriptures said about the mission of the promised Messiah. This is found in Luke 24:45-49. Jesus opened the disciples’ minds to Three Necessary Parts of the Messiah’s Mission from Luke 24:

1. Suffering and death (v. 46a)
2. Rising from the dead (v. 46b)
3. Proclaiming the gospel to all nations (v. 47).

So, #1 happened in history culminating on Good Friday. #2 happened on Easter. The only part left is #3. And, Jesus made it clear that the mission of carrying the message from Jerusalem to the world would be done through his followers. He said, “You are my witnesses. You will carry out this task.”

This is what Acts is all about. It’s about the beginning of a new community through which God will fulfill his worldwide mission. But, when we open Acts 1, we see this huge divine mission began with something that seems not much more significant that the flap of a butterfly’s wing. Jesus met with a group of his followers, followers who had recently failed due to a lack of faith, understanding and courage. But Jesus chose to use this flawed group. What Jesus did and how he used this unlikely group to do God’s extraordinary work is what we’re going to be studying for several months here at LAC. We will see that these disciples started the work – but did not complete it. We will see that what Jesus did through these people is what he is ready to do in and through us too. Listen to the words of JB Phillips about Acts:
“It is a matter of sober historical fact that never before has any small body of ordinary people so moved the world that their enemies could say, with tears of rage in their eyes, that these people "have turned the world upside down (Acts 17:6)!” J.B. Phillips: The Young Church in Action

Sometimes I wonder if we can be a church like that. Is it possible that we can become be a church about which people would say, “That church is turning our neighborhood upside down. God must be in that place.”

You may say, “Well, we’re not as perfect as they were.” I say, “Ha!” It’s more true to say, “They were as imperfect as we are! How did God use them?” We’ll see over and over again as we read through Acts that they wrestled with problems and sins just as much as we do – and sometimes the very same ones we do!

Or you might say, “The early church in Acts didn’t face the challenges we face. “They weren’t in a pluralistic culture as antagonistic toward religion as ours is.” Or, “they didn’t have to figure out how to have young and old people worship together.” Or “they didn’t have the broken marriages and families that we have…” But I say, “Their challenges were at least as great as ours are.” I’ll mention just two:

If we sometimes find it hard to worship together, it must have been harder for them. What Scripture would they read each week? It could no longer be just the words of what we call Old Testament. Jesus had come. They had to ask, “Are Jesus’ teachings also Scripture? And what about the Apostles’ words?” Beyond that, what songs should they sing? The Jewish people loved their Psalm book and could have said, “God inspired those songs. King David wrote those songs. Psalms are the music acceptable to God.” But, the Gentiles couldn’t relate to the Psalms at all. This comes out in places like Ephesians 5:19. “Should we worship with psalms, the more contemporary songs that are being written (like Phil. 2:6-11) or spontaneous songs inspired by the Spirit?” Paul says, “Yes, all three. You have to do them all as you respect one another and sing to the Lord together. Yes, together!”

Another challenge we’ll see in Acts had to do with ethnic and socio-economic differences. Before Jesus came, people thought they knew whom they were required to love, i.e., other Jews; other Pharisees; people like themselves. But what do you do when those you used to ignore or even hate have the same Holy Spirit within them? Are they in the family too? And, what if they’re aliens in our neighborhood? Yes, they had an immigration problem too in Israel and it affected the church.

So, how did they do it? How did they become a church that “turned the world upside down”? Today, we begin with the foundations of this breakthrough.

I. Identify, Hold Onto and Pass On the Essentials of “the Faith” (1:1-3)

In these first 3 verses of Acts, Luke boils down what Jesus taught over the 40 days between his resurrection and ascension. In one sentence, we read some of the essential teachings that must understood by all and then passed on to all who would follow Jesus.

Luke’s Summary of essential doctrine includes:

• The acts of Jesus
• The teaching of Jesus
• The suffering and death of Jesus (and its meaning)
• The resurrection of Jesus

Luke used very strong language for the resurrection. As I declared on Easter Sunday, the bodily resurrection of Jesus is at the heart of our faith. It really happened.

• The promise of the Holy Spirit
• The kingdom of God

Luke summarized this list of essential teachings with the statement in verse 3b, i.e., that Jesus taught them about the kingdom of God. This is the heart of what I talked about all through our series in Mark’s gospel. The kingdom of God has to do with all that God is bringing about through the saving work of Jesus. The book of Acts will teach us that God’s rule is definitely going to be established in this world. When God’s kingdom is complete and he rules fully over all creation, our lives will be made whole, our relationships will all be reconciled and we will be with God together with people from every people group, language and nation.

So, in these three concise verses we find a summary the essential teachings that we must understand, live in the light of, and pass on to all who come to faith in Jesus. I tell you that it is the teaching, meditating on, application of, and passing on of this body of essential truth that must be at the foundation of our church too. So, let worship styles change. Let church programs come and go. But, whenever we gather we must open God’s Word, hear it, understand it, and then respond in obedience to it.

All lasting movements of the Spirit of God have been founded on sound teaching. Jesus started the church by providing sound teaching. Oh, I know that doctrine alone can numb our brains and can chill our souls. But fire in our souls based on inaccurate doctrine will lead to heresy. It always has and always will. So, I want to make sure that all who come to LAC will learn the essential matters of the faith that have been passed down to us.

This is why we worked so long and hard to clarify our church Statement of Faith. Now, we are committed to teaching what’s in that Statement. I am personally committed to making sure each one who comes to LAC will have the opportunity to learn what the faith is that we must pass on to our world and to future generations. Our high school students already are engaged in learning that faith in “The Timothy Project”. In this coming year, we are committed to making available the same kind of teaching to our children and adults. Until then, I urge all of you to read the Word faithfully. Study the Word both in our services and in small groups. And utilize the Statement of Faith resources we have available on our website.

II. Rely on the Presence, Guidance, and Work of the Holy Spirit (1:4-5, 8a)

The book of Acts is a record of how God established a church made up of people as flawed as these disciples were – and as we are. We will see that God took this group and equipped them to do carry his message and his love to the world. They could not do what God told them to do in their own power and with their own human talents. They needed something else. No, they needed Someone else.

A physicist friend once told me that the power of the sun drives the “butterfly effect” in weather systems. He said it is only because the sun heats the earth’s atmosphere, creating enormous turbulence, that minor atmospheric disturbances can lead to major events like tornados. He said, “You cannot make waves without energy.” So, what is the energy source God will use so that the little flapping that we do as Christians can make a difference? In Acts 1, we see that the power source is God himself -- coming to us by His Spirit.

We are going to be learning a lot about the Holy Spirit in the coming months. Before Acts 1, Jesus had often told his own disciples that the Holy Spirit would come into their lives after the resurrection. And, the disciples probably knew that in the Old Testament the Holy Spirit came upon significant prophets, priests, or kings at times to do God’s work. But once the task was done, the Holy Spirit would leave.

But, Jesus is teaching here in Acts 1 that the presence and work of the Holy Spirit will be different now that Jesus had died and been raised. In Acts, we will see the Holy Spirit come upon all who trust in Jesus – not just upon a few leaders. And, the Holy Spirit will stay in the lives of those He indwells.

In these opening verses of Acts, we learn from Jesus that being filled by the Holy Spirit is essential to doing the work of God. Jesus says here, “I have little time left to be with you. I know you want to run out and talk about these miraculous things. But, you don’t yet have the strength, wisdom, or courage to do eternal work. You must wait for the Holy Spirit to come.” I have found that it is when I own the fact that I cannot do what God wants to have done in my own power, only then am I ready to be used fully by God. I say, “I know what you want me to do Lord but I can’t seem to do it.” Then he says, “Spend time with me. Wait upon me and know my Spirit’s presence and filling so you can go forward in my strength.”

And let me tell you: We need to learn to wait in prayer as a church family too. We must learn that the Spirit of God – though unseen by human eyes -- dwells among us. We must take the time to acknowledge he is here and that we cannot do eternal things without him. We must learn to seek his guidance together – and then go out in his strength to be witnesses. There is nothing that we face as individuals or as a church that go beyond the knowledge, the capability and the sovereignty of the God who has given His Spirit to us.

In summary: 1) Before his ascension, Jesus taught his followers about the essentials of faith. 2) After they were taught, Jesus commanded that they wait for God’s Spirit to fill them. Then, with the truth of God's Word in their minds and the fire of God's Spirit in their hearts, the early church began “to turn the world upside down (Acts 17:6).” By God’s grace, we will follow that same pattern here at LAC.

III. Get Engaged in God’s Mission by Being Witnesses (in word and deed) (1:6-8)

The Acts 1:6 Question: We’ve just been through Mark’s gospel as a church so we know the disciples should have known better than to ask this question. Jesus had told them again and again that the end would not come until all people groups had heard the good news of salvation. And we know that this hadn’t happened by Acts 1. But, this idea that Messiah had come just for Israel was deeply ingrained in them. And we human beings don’t change easily. Their vision was too small. They thought of Israel only -- but Jesus had a vision for the world. They thought, “How will you do it Jesus?” And he said, “I will do a much bigger thing – and I will do it though you.” Jesus’ vision is the vision of Revelation 7, i.e., a redeemed people made up of every tribe and language and nation who would bring glory to His name. There was a time in which this surely had seemed far too big a task to the disciples. But by Acts 1, they knew that Jesus had risen from the dead. The should have known that anything is possible for One who has power over death.

See v. 8. Jesus is saying, “God is going to do a much bigger and more glorious thing in this world than you have ever imagined. You have the privilege of being a part of it. I will return but there is a task to be done – and you will be sent out to do it. Don’t just look up into heaven and do nothing. Wait for the Spirit. And then, move out into the world and share what God has done and will do. You are my witnesses. I will do my work through you!”

We see that the power of the Holy Spirit is specifically a power given to do God’s mission. It began with a new power to grasp the truth of God’s Word that, up to this point, the disciples had been dead to. From this point on, it would be the power to move forward in obedience to God. Power to interact with Samaritans and Gentiles and immigrants and people in the streets. Power to love those they had never loved. Power to speak the message of Jesus in ways they had never spoken.

Jesus tells them they are to be the witnesses to an unbelieving world -- and then he leaves them. He ascends to heaven. The disciples sit and stare. So, two angels in v. 11 say, “Why are you sitting here. He’ll come back.” So, they were to wait for the Holy Spirit – and then to get ready to go in his power.

The opening verses in Acts give us an outline of what will happen in the rest of the book. We will see the Gospel breaking through all sorts of barriers that had one time seemed impossible. When the Book of Acts ends, the work will not be complete but launched. The mission is still alive. And what should resound in our ears each week we gather is that we are God’s people with a mission. We who are alive and who have heard the Gospel (and been rescued by it) are to take the message and love of Jesus to the world. We are to do it with the same focus and fervor as we will see the early disciples did. They turned their world upside down. We are to do the same.

The point is not simply that the church has a mission. It is that God created the church to complete his mission. That’s why we exist. The Spirit of God was given to empower us for this mission. Our efforts and words may seem no more significant than a butterfly’s flap but the butterfly effect of something empowered by God’s Spirit can turn the world upside down! What do I want us to do? To “turn the world upside down,” we must do everything we do in the light of God’s mission:

1. Be ongoing learners of “the faith” Jesus taught and that we must pass on to others.
2. Be people of prayer who live in the power of the Spirit.
3. Figure out where people haven’t heard the gospel and get witnesses there (with a readiness to be those witnesses ourselves).
4. Be a church family in which all people – yes, all people -- are invited to be a part of God’s family through faith in Jesus.
5. Live daily with a readiness to go and be witnesses -- Intentionally extending the message and the ways of Jesus to our own neighborhood.

Two Communion Verses

After Jesus had said these things, as the disciples were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

Acts 1:9

Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised— is at the right hand of God, and indeed is interceding for us.

Romans 8:34

 

To His glory,

Dr. Greg Waybright
Senior Pastor