Kingdom Restoration
Notes
Transcript
In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.
And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
Scripture: Acts 1:1-11
Sermon Title: Kingdom Restoration
I’ve been wrestling with what to preach as I begin my ministry here in Baldwin. I consider this a ministry to you and with you as well as hopefully to and for and with the community of Baldwin. As I’ve wrestled in thought and prayer and conversations, I’ve found myself turning to our church’s mission statement. Baldwin CRC—this church as a building and institution that people have seen for well over 100 years in this town and have been touched by or involved in its ministries, Baldwin CRC—as a people, a family, a body of believers—each person who makes this body up is gifted by the Holy Spirit as the other Pastor Dan talked about last week, we have a purpose. God has a reason for us being here. That mission, that purpose as I’ve seen it in the bulletin weekly is “Rooted in God’s Word, Growing in the Faith, Bearing Fruit in the World.” Colossians 2 verse 7 has been part of what that sprouts out of, and I want to start in verse 6, “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him.” How do we do that—how do we live in Christ Jesus? “Rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” We remain rooted, we grow, strengthened, maturing, of the same root and stem or trunk, and it flows out in thankfulness, in gratitude to God. Life starts with him and returns to him.
That is who you’ve said as a church you want to be, who we want to be. As your new pastor, I don’t replace Pastor Anson. I don’t presume that he did okay, but since I come after him, I succeed him, that must make me better. No. I believe that pastors who are new to a church do often enter a new season, a new chapter. I hope to build on not just Pastor Anson’s work but the other pastors who have come before me, and to also learn and grow from and with your ministry.
That being said, the ministry I join here and that you all are involved in didn’t start in Baldwin, Wisconsin. It didn’t start in the Netherlands or whatever country you or your ancestors came from either. It started way back in the Middle East, in the city of Jerusalem and the surrounding mountains and countryside. What we know as the church of Jesus Christ has a history rooted in that place. The church is rooted also in what our Lord and Savior provided men who he called to ministry—the apostles, the sent ones is what “apostle” means. That history brings us to the book of Acts. This is where I begin, and where we continue together. As we go through the summer months, Lord willing, we’ll work through the first 9 chapters of this book.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, something we notice in the gospels is no matter how many times Jesus told his disciples that he would be killed and rise again, it doesn’t seem like they really got it. They knew his life was in danger. We see that for sure in John 10 and 11. There we’re told how the Jews had intended to stone Jesus, but he escaped. When he wanted to go back there a short time later, the disciples cautioned him against going. It was too dangerous. Yet it’s difficult to say, even on the night prior to his death, that the disciples really thought he would be executed. Even though he had told them before he was going to die at the hands of men, they didn’t want to believe him. So too, when the women went to his tomb with their spices and the disciples gathered in fear behind locked doors on that first Easter morning, they expected Jesus to remain dead.
Yet we know the story. He came back to life! He left the tomb! Jesus showed himself to the women and to the disciples and to more than 500 others. If you think about someone who has passed away, if they were to come back to life, that likely seems too good to be true. Even if when you touched them, they were really there, it would take some time to wrap your mind around it. That doesn’t ordinarily happen. But we believe, because Scripture tells us, it did happen with Jesus, and having come back to life, he and his followers spent time together.
40 more days went by—not that long when you think about it. Most of us can probably recall what we did on Easter, where we were, who we were with. On that 40th day, though, Jesus ascended into heaven. Acts 1 tells us he literally went up into the sky until he was seen no longer. Can you picture it happening? It wasn’t an illusion or trick; there were no strings or harnesses. A group of his followers watched and then they waited. They stood there looking up to see what was going to happen. Would he come back in a couple minutes? Was something else extraordinary about to happen? Well, something did happen. These 2 men showed up and told them, he’ll come back “in the same way,” and had we read one verse further, this group then returned to Jerusalem.
There’s a lot that could be focused on in this passage, but the theme that we turn our attention to today is that of kingdoms, and begin by asking the question, what is being restored? We don’t find a lot of information or more than a few events of what happened between Easter and Ascension Day in the gospels. But here, in verse 3, Luke, the likely author of Acts, tells us “he spoke to them about the kingdom of God.” Yet down in verse 6, the disciples voiced their interest in another kingdom, “‘Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’”
In their minds, it seemed like the kingdom of God was one and the same with the Jewish nation, the people of Israel. For good reason—these disciples knew their history. They knew how God had spoken to Abraham and promised him that his descendants would be blessed by God and all people of the world would be blessed through them. Abraham’s descendants were promised the land of Canaan as their future homeland. God fulfilled that at Mt. Sinai after leading the Israelites, the Hebrews, out of Egypt, using Moses, Aaron, and the plagues. He continued the fulfillment through Joshua’s leading. When David was called by God to be the second king of Israel and anointed by Samuel, we hear that the throne would remain in his family forever. The disciples knew all this, and they knew how God’s people, despite his calls for repentance and the prophets’ messages, were eventually taken captive. Since then, they had never returned to pre-captivity prosperity. Could it be that now, in the disciples’ day, post-crucifixion and resurrection, could it be that now was the time for the kingdom of Israel, God’s chosen people, to rise again?
People, throughout history and in a variety of places, have yearned to go back to how things once were. Whether there’s been a change in morality, changes in preferred lifestyles, or changes due to a loss of freedom or war or invasion—people hope for the same thing that the disciples hoped for—that how things once were can be restored. If we look at how that word in verse 6 is used in Scripture, it’s not a frequently used word. Most of it’s uses are with Jesus healing something that was sick or unusable. Jesus restored a person’s hand. He restored another person’s sight. He made it to be and be healthy and having life again. Would Jesus do that now for Israel?
No, Jesus’ ministry, Christianity, the church, isn’t just about Israel. It’s about faith in the living God who redeems all who repent and believe! James Montgomery Boice writes in his commentary on Acts what the disciples were looking for from Jesus. “They were looking for a political kingdom…an ethnically restricted kingdom…and a geographically restricted kingdom.” A kind of kingdom that if asked, “What about the Greeks [or] Romans,” and we could add, “What about the Dutch or Germans or Americans or Brazilians?” the disciples might say “‘They are welcome to come to Jerusalem any time they want to.’”
Jesus doesn’t flat out say, “No, I’m not restoring Israel.” But Luke has already made clear that the kingdom of God is separate from just that. The kingdom of God that is to be restored, and it’s an ongoing restoration that God knows exactly what the final restoration looks like, the kingdom of God is perfect, redeemed communion with him. The ascension of Jesus points to a day and a time in the future when Jesus returns, and then the kingdom will come in full. He will restore what has not been seen since before the fall, but this time there will be no sin.
We believe that while full restoration is in the future, it has begun. It is both now and not yet as you may have heard that before. But we ask the question that is our second point, what is Jesus doing now? I said in the children’s message that he is king, he is alive, and he is preparing a place for us. The Heidelberg Catechism Lord’s Days 18 and 19 build on that a bit. Questions 49 and 50 are on the screen. I’ll read the questions; I invite you to join me with the answers.
How does Christ’s ascension to heaven benefit us? First, he pleads our cause in heaven in the presence of his Father. Second, we have our own flesh in heaven—a guarantee that Christ our head will take us, his members, to himself in heaven. Third, he sends his Spirit to us on earth as a further guarantee. By the Spirit’s power we make the goal of our lives, not earthly things, but the things above where Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand. Why the next words: “and is seated at the right hand of God”? Christ ascended to heaven, there to show that he is head of his church, and that the Father rules all things through him.
That third part of question 49 is especially rooted in our passage, and also connects to what we’ll be looking at next week with Pentecost. Jesus ascending to heaven provides for his sending “his Spirit [the Holy Spirit] to us on earth as a further guarantee [a further guarantee that he is with us and will take us to himself; we’re not left behind and forgotten]. By the Spirit’s power we make the goal of our lives, not earthly things, but the things above where Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand.” We look to Acts 1 verses 4 and 5 and verse 11, Jesus told them, “Wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about…In a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit…This same Jesus…will come back.”
I say this cautiously: Jesus as a human was finite, limited, in his presence. In his humanity, Jesus could not be everywhere at once. There are times when he could get away from those who looked for him, and it appears he never cloned himself to be here, there, and anywhere else. In his body, he was present where he was present. I bring that up because the disciples and crowds and followers of Jesus could take his message, in memory or written down, they could share it with others, but while he was alive, they didn’t always have the person Jesus to drag along.
Jesus’ ascension gives way for his Spirit to come and live in each person who believes, though. God is omnipresent, “present everywhere at the same time.” In the divinity of the Holy Spirit, he can dwell in each person who calls on the name of the Lord. This is incredible and has major implications for our mission. Again, Baldwin CRC—the church, her members, and her ministries, are rooted in God’s Word, growing in the faith, and bearing fruit in the world. Where does this rootedness, growth, and ability to bear fruit come from? It’s not just intellectual knowledge of the events in history recorded in the Bible. It’s not just memorization of key passages which proclaim the gospel or encourage people in difficult times. No, our rootedness and growth and our gratitude all come only if the Holy Spirit is living inside of us. Because Jesus ascended, because he left this earth, God gives us the continuing gift of Jesus’ Spirit.
This brings us to our final point and question: what were the disciples to do and what are we to do? We take our cue from Jesus’ final words, verses 7 and 8, “‘It’s not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’”
Because they would be given the Holy Spirit, the disciples could go boldly—boldly to witness, to teach, to minister about who this Jesus was that many had seen or heard about. Their task was to take his message, a message of conviction and grace, of love rooted in truth and hope, and to share that. It was not to twist the message. It was not to water it down. Jesus was not among them anymore; it was their time to step up to the plate. Sometimes as parents we tell our kids to do something, and if they ask why, we simply tell them, “Because I’m the parent, and I told you to.” How much stronger and authoritative should the message be if Jesus, the Son of God, says “You go and tell others about me. Why should you do it? Because I said so, I want you to, I give you the ability to.”
It’s easy and comfortable to wait for someone to ask us to share what we believe and what we know. We may not like doing that, but at least we get to answer someone who we know is interested. But Jesus’ command to his disciples is what we are to still be doing today. Having the Spirit in us, having incredible access to read and study God’s word, having a community of believers around us to sharpen our faith and for us to sharpen each other for the purpose of growth, we now are to go and bear fruit.
Maybe you’ve heard this before, but if so, I trust God is having us hear it again. I think about the images of a tree that are connected with our church. A tree that bears fruit is not just good for itself and is itself desirable. A tree that bears fruit is also able to share with other trees—it produces seeds by which new trees might sprout up. That is part of our mission, our purpose, a purpose rooted in Jesus’ commission here in Acts chapter 1. If the Holy Spirit is in us as believers, then we continue to have a mission here in Baldwin and to the ends of the earth. There is no one that we should judge or determine whether or not they are worth getting to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is the one who restores sinners and sinful world to the perfect kingdom of God. Let us together take up the task we’ve been called and empowered to do until Christ returns. Amen.