Mission Unstoppable

December 26, 2004 was a day that literally rocked the world. At 7:58am a fault line running over 900 miles long suddenly ruptured resulting in a 9.2 magnitude earthquake that, as one person put it, “rang the earth like a bell”. The raw energy of the earthquake, measuring both the energy released on the surface of the earth and the far greater work done underground, was the equivalent of 550 million atomic bombs like the one dropped at Hiroshima. Shock waves were felt as far away as Oklahoma, and earth wobbled on its axis for several months as a result of the power released during those 10 minutes.

What I remember most about that day, and you probably do too, are the tsunamis that were triggered by the earthquake. They rippled out in all directions from the epicenter of the quake and hit 14 different countries killing over 230,000 people. The video images that were on the web of beaches filled with unsuspecting villagers and tourists getting hit by those killer waves stayed with me for a long time afterward.

This morning we are beginning a series in the book of Acts, and I’m excited about this series because I believe it will continue to stir our hearts for the church’s mission of making disciples and remind us of the power Christ has provided for us to fulfill that mission. It’s my hope that as we see God’s power at work in the early church and know that the same God is at work in the church today that it will stretch our faith and light our prayers on fire. You see, in a strange way the book of Acts has something in common with that December morning in 2004: it opens in chapter two with a day that literally rocked the world. On the morning of Pentecost, in a small upper room in Jerusalem, the most powerful explosion of spiritual power the world has ever known occurred and the waves created by that explosion would ripple out in all directions and in ever widening circles until it covered the entire world and affected all of human history. Only instead of waves of destruction, these would be waves of salvation. Instead of lives being destroyed and communities wiped out the opposite would be true: people that were already devastated by the destruction of sin, lives that were drowning in spiritual death and darkness would be covered by waves of salvation and find their lives being swept up in forgiveness and mercy and a restored relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. The eternal destinies of millions of people would be forever changed from that explosion and the ripples that followed.

That power, of course, is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the church and the unstoppable power that was released on Pentecost, and for the next four months we’re going to be exploring the explosion together. It’s not gonna be an exhaustive, verse by verse study, but rather a fast paced series as we move through 28 chapters in just18 weeks. We want to hit the hot spots of each chapter and get a sense of the unstoppable increase and expansion that the church and the gospel enjoyed in the 30 years after Jesus ascended. So let’s buckle our seatbelts and begin reading in chapter one.

Acts 1:1-3 (pray)

I. Background of the book of Acts

Acts was written by the historian Luke, who also wrote the gospel, and he wrote both books to a guy named Theophilus as a true and accurate record of Jesus’ earthly ministry and how that ministry continued through the church after Jesus rose and ascended. Notice in verse one Luke writes how in the first book he dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach. The implication is clear: this book will tell the rest of the story: all that Jesus continued to do and teach after his ascension through the church by the Holy Spirit. The gospel of Luke tells how salvation came, Acts records how salvation spread. And if you were to flip ahead to the last chapter, chapter 28, you’d find it really doesn’t end in the sense of a resolution and conclusion. It just records what Paul was doing and stops. That’s because the ministry of Christ through the church doesn’t end with the last chapter of Acts– it continues to this very day. The church planting ministry Acts 29 gets its name from that realization that we are all living in chapter 29 of Acts – as the Lord Jesus continues his ministry through the church by the power of the Spirit. In verses 4-11 Jesus promises to give the church unstoppable power for an unstoppable mission. Let’s read.

II. Jesus promises unstoppable power for an unstoppable mission vv. 4-11

Wherever Jesus’ last words to his disciples before he ascended are recorded, he is telling them their mission is to bring the good news to all nations. Here in Acts we see the ever widening circle of that mission: They are to be Jesus’ witnesses in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and in Samaria, and to the end of the earth. This tells us that the church is about mission. We exist for mission. John Stott writes this:

The whole interim period between Pentecost and the Parousia (however long or short) is to be filled with the world-wide mission of the church in the power of the Spirit.

For the last two weeks we have been talking about the mission of the church, based on the Great Commission in Matthew 28. It is a mission we have distilled down to this short mission statement: Loving God * Growing together * Serving others * Going to the world. It is so important we keep the mission in view because when the church loses sight of the mission Christ has called us to, we drift from Christ’s command to us, and we lose sight of why we exist as the church. Church becomes a “meeting” we go to, rather than a cause and calling we live for. Churches begin to nitpick and squabble over little things. Churches have been known to split over disagreements what color their new carpet should be. But even if a church grows in love one for another, which is a good and biblical thing for the church, it’s still missing a vital component of Christ’s command to the church if it loses sight that it was born for mission.

ILL: The church I had the privilege of visiting last week is a lovely church with most of the people there having been in the church for a decade or more. They have watched their kids grow up together. You could feel the sense of love and community. But all that is not enough for them: they are aching for more outreach – several mentioned it to me, most especially their fine pastor. They are longing to make an impact on their community and see new people added and that’s something they are praying for and, I believe, are poised to see happen. I am very excited to see what the Lord is going to do with them in the coming years.

But what if they had all that closeness, but no longing to make a difference, to reach out, to touch new lives with the gospel? Does the idea of a small group of people doing life together year after year, their kids growing up together, knowing each other really well and being really comfortable with each other sound attractive to you? Is the thought of a warm, safe fellowship where everyone knows your name and there are no uncomfortable or awkward moments with strangers appealing to some part of you? That’s what many churches become – and some make it their goal to become – cause they lose sight of mission. But Jesus’ last moments with his disciples was to propel them into mission – out to the world, out to the nations, out to the lost, out to strangers, and bring them into the family of God. That’s why Jesus came, why Jesus died, and why he left the church behind – for mission.

But Jesus tells the disciples that they aren’t ready for that mission yet – they were to wait. Wait for the promise of the Father. Wait for the power of the Holy Spirit. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses…It would be the power of the Spirit that would enable them to be the kind of witnesses Jesus wanted them to be. Jesus had prepared them, soon he would empower them.

This speaks to the church today: if they needed the power of the Spirit, so do we. We must never trust in strategies or talent or buildings or programs to build the church. These things can be a good and important part of church life and the Lord can use these things, but only the Holy Spirit can save men’s souls and advance the kingdom of God. Our part is to be witnesses, but the Spirit’s part is to empower that witness for the saving of precious souls through a saving knowledge of Christ. They needed the Holy Spirit and so do we. So we'll be looking at the work and power of the Spirit over the next several months.

What’s your background?

Now we probably have a number of different religious backgrounds and beliefs about the Holy Spirit in this room. If you come from a charismatic background then you probably see Grace Community Church as charismatic “lite”. Admit it, you long to see someone get slain in the Spirit or shake or speak in tongues or something.

And if you are from a non-charismatic background, you might be feeling really uncomfortable right now. For you the Holy Spirit has always been kind of like that weird uncle that no one talks about. You know He’s a part of the Trinity, so you figure love Him, and thank God for Him – but please don’t ever talk about Him! Maybe you’ve even been taught that since the work of the Spirit is to point to Jesus, any focus on the Spirit or His work is proof that it’s not the work of the Spirit.

There’s good to both sides. It’s good to long for more of the power and presence of the Spirit AND it’s good to be careful that our experience of the Spirit’s work is guided by God’s word and is Christ-centered in its focus. But whatever our background, I believe as we go through the book of Acts we will be and should be stretched in our understanding of the work and power of the Holy Spirit.

a. Don’t be entrenched in your tradition/teaching. That’s like becoming a stretched out wineskin that can’t hold anything new – it will burst rather than stretch. We always want to be being reformed in our understanding of truth by God’s word. Never want to say, “well this is what I was taught and I’m not open to anything different, even if it’s in God’s word.” Always reforming (semper reformanda).

b. Jesus said we needed power – power from the Holy Spirit. If our view of Christianity becomes powerless teachings and structures that need no power to carry on, than we have strayed far from the dynamic, power-filled church that Jesus left behind to continue his ministry.

c. The power is primarily to be Christ’s witnesses. Not primarily to impress or bless the church or make people fall or other things that, when focused on, can turn the church into some kind of a freak show that entertains Christians but has very little effect on the world.

Here is a massive truth in Acts that can unfortunately be missed, but provides needed understanding and context for the powerful work of the Holy Spirit: the Holy Spirit is poured out on the church by the Ascended Christ. In verse 9 Jesus is taken up to heaven – he ascends to the right hand of God the Father where he rules and reigns as Lord and Sovereign over all things. Matt did a great job last week describing the absolute Lordship of Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ gave the precious Holy Spirit to His church to continue his ministry on earth. The Holy Spirit didn’t come as some cheap conjurer of tricks – He came to empower the church to continue the work and ministry of Christ on earth.

I think this gives us a helpful litmus test when we are testing and discerning what is of the Spirit and what is not. I can remember years ago going to some meetings where the things that were being done in the name of the Spirit’s work was troubling – but often for Christians the concern is: I don’t want to reject something that is of the Spirit just because it doesn’t fit with my comfort level.

One famous charismatic leader used to say, “God offends the mind to reveal the heart.” The implication is, if it seems foolish and embarrassing and outrageous, it just might be God offending your mind so your heart is revealed. The problem with that test is that nothing could fail it - the more it bothers someone, even for very good reason – the more proof that offers that it’s the Spirit. I think a better test is this: does it continue the ministry of Christ in the way Christ would do it?

Can we imagine Christ or someone he was ministering to, barking like a dog as a response to the power of the Spirit, for instance? Don’t think so. Do we see anyone acting like they were drunk due to the ministry of Christ to them? No. Acts is the record of all that Jesus continued to do and teach through the church by the power of the Holy Spirit. That helps anchor us biblically and provide some tools to discern by.

III. Prayerful waiting for the promise of unstoppable power (vv. 12-14)

So the church is given a mission and promised power. And what we see at the end of this chapter is that the disciples didn’t launch out on mission – they huddled in an upper room and prayed, just as the Lord had told them to. Jesus didn’t give them power for the mission, he gave them a promise and he told them to wait for the promise to arrive. That promise of power for the mission is just as true for us today and just as necessary but we don’t have to wait for the outpouring of the Spirit anymore because He was given to the church on the day of Pentecost.

But there is a way in which we are to imitate their example. We don’t wait for the Spirit to come – He has already come. But just as they prayed and praised together in one accord, and that pattern doesn’t end in chapter one but continues throughout the book of Acts, so today prayer and unity in the church is to be prized and protected because our spiritual power and effectiveness is dependent on it.

Unity doesn’t mean conformity. Doesn’t mean we all think exactly the same or look the same or act the same. It means that in our diversity there is a deep bond of unity over the central issues of the Christian faith. And that unity in the central issues is bound together with love and care for one another. The enemy loves to divide churches and Christians because he knows that weakens Christians and churches.

We will be looking more at these two elements as we journey through Acts – but I want us to embrace how important our unity and our prayer time together is. God moves among His people and through His people when we are in unity and in prayer. I believe the Lord is bringing us into a new season of gospel growth – but that will not be without challenge from the enemy. I don’t say that to scare us or to give attention to the enemy. We don’t focus on Satan here, we focus on Jesus. But we don’t want to be ignorant of his schemes either, and we want to be alert and vigilant and prayerful. And let’s protect and preserve the unity of our faith and church family.

So as we launch out on this journey through Acts, let’s go through it with faith and prayer and a commitment to maintain the unity of the Spirit here in Grace Community Church – believing that as we do, God is going to do great things. The book of Acts begins in chapter one, but it doesn’t end with chapter 28 – it continues to this day. We’re living in Acts 29. Let’s not only explore the explosion, let’s pray that it continues right here right now in our midst – that many might come to know Christ who don’t know him, and others come to grow in their love and knowledge of him through this local church.

Let’s pray.