At the church where I server,
we have been spending our time together unpacking the kingdom mission that we
have been given by Jesus to live our lives as missionaries
that engage and embrace the kingdom mission that we have been given as a church
to be a city in a city that reveals and reflects Christ as we love and serve
the city. Our hope and prayer is that we would answer the question “Who sent
us?” “Who are we sent to?” “What are we sent to do?” and “Where are we sent
to?” Our hope and our prayer is to answer these questions in a way that equips
and empowers us to live our day to day lives as a follower of Jesus that have
been sent on a mission to those that God has already placed in our spheres of
influence who are far from God in a way that reveals and reflects Jesus to
them.
This
week, I would like for us to answer the final question that we are going to ask
during this series, which is “Where are we sent to?” In other words, if we are
to be a sent people, who have been sent by a person, who was sent, then where
have we been sent to? Where exactly are we supposed to go in order to engage in
the kingdom mission we have been given?
To
answer this question, we are going to look at the opening section of a letter
that is recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible called the book of
Acts. And it is in the opening section of the book of Acts that we see recorded
for us an event that occurred in history that will provide us a timeless answer
to the question “Where are we sent to?” So let’s discover this answer together, beginning in Acts 1:1-3:
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. To these He also presented Himself alive after His
suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking
of the things concerning the kingdom of God.
To understand what is happening here, we need to first
understand how the book of Acts fits into the overall flow of the Bible. The
book of Acts is the second book of a two volume set. The gospel of Luke is the
first volume of this two volume set, and is what is being referred to in verses
1-3. The writer of the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts was a Gentile doctor
named Luke, who many scholars believe was from Antioch, which was a city that
is located in the southeastern corner of what is now modern day Turkey.
Luke was hired by a man named Theophilus, who was a Roman
official who hired Luke to research and to provide an accurate and orderly
account about the origins of Christianity. As a result of the generosity of
Theophilus, Luke, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, spent several years
involved in intensive research and investigation that produced this two volume
set that we now have as a part of our Bibles today.
The first volume or account that Luke composed, the
gospel of Luke, was dedicated to chronicling the life and claims of Jesus
Christ, from His birth to His resurrection from the dead and His initial
appearances to His disciples. The second volume, the book of Acts, was
dedicated to chronicling the life of Jesus early followers after the
resurrection of Jesus and traces the birth and the spread of Christianity and
the church from Jerusalem to Rome, which was the dominant political and
military power in the world during the life of Jesus and His early followers.
In verse 3, Luke transitions from a review of his first
account, the gospel of Luke, to begin chronicling the experiences that the
disciples had with the resurrected Jesus. Luke explains that Jesus was repeatedly
present, not as a ghost, or a spirit, but as one who was physically resurrected
from the dead after suffering death by crucifixion. Luke explains that Jesus
revealed His presence to the disciples and other early followers of Jesus by
many convincing proofs. In other words, Jesus physical presence after being
raised from the dead was decisive and was convincing.
In Luke’s research of talking with hundreds of people,
there was no doubt in His mind that Jesus had been raised from the dead. There
was no doubt because Jesus was visible to the disciples and others for a period
of forty days. In various locations and at various times, Jesus was physically
present speaking and reminding them of the kingdom of God. When Luke refers to
the kingdom of God, Luke is referring to God’s royal reign over the universe.
You see, God had made a promise
to the Jewish people that He would send a Messiah, a rescuer, who would come to rescue and restore the Jewish nation as His
chosen people. So the Jewish people were looking for the descendant of Abraham,
from the line of David that would be the promised Messiah who would bring the
Jewish people back to God and back to prominence in the world. So for forty
days, Jesus kept proclaiming, teaching, and reminding them that God’s kingdom
promise had been fulfilled through Him.
And after forty days of being physically present and
reminding them about His message and teachings, Jesus gathers the disciples
together for a conversation. A conversation that Luke records for us, beginning
in Acts 1:4-5:
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."
Jesus commands His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until
they received what the Father had promised, the promise that Jesus had
communicated to them in the last conversation that He had with them before His
arrest, which is recorded for us in one of the accounts of Jesus life in the
Bible called the gospel of John. In John 14, Jesus explained that while He
would be leaving them shortly, that He would not leave them as orphans. Instead
of abandoning the disciples, Jesus explained that God was going to give them
another helper, who would teach and remind the disciples of Jesus message and
teachings.
And the helper that God had promised the disciples was
that they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Jesus explained that while
John’s followers were baptized in water as a way to identify with his message
and their need of repentance, followers of Jesus would receive a different
baptism, a baptism that involved the very Spirit of God dwelling within them.
God was about to do something new; something extraordinary, which was that
everyone who had placed their confident trust in the claims of Christ and the
message of the gospel would have the Holy Spirit take up residence within them.
Y
ou see, prior to this time in history, the Holy Spirit
only was given to prophets, priests, or leaders that had a special role in God’s
kingdom mission. But here we see Jesus reminding His disciples that not many
days from now, the Holy Spirit would be given to every one of His followers.
And the fulfillment of this promise was predicted and proclaimed as being a
sign that would reveal the ushering in of the Kingdom of God and His reign here
on earth.
However, Jesus command would have also reminded the
disciples about another aspect of the last conversation that Jesus had before
He was arrested, which that He was going to leave them. So, as you might
imagine, the disciples were confused. Just imagine what was running through the
disciples minds at this point. I mean wouldn’t you be confused. “Is Jesus
leaving, or is He staying? He said He was leaving us, then He was killed, but
now He is here with us after being raised from the dead. This is not what we
expected.
And in the midst of their confusion, the disciples ask
Jesus a question. Tomorrow we will look at that question…
No comments:
Post a Comment