Church on Fire
Church on the Move • Sermon • Submitted
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“Church on the Move”
“The Promise of Power”
Acts 1:4-8
I think we can all agree that Life is a pretty incredible journey! It starts out with complete and total reliance on someone else for our every need…LITERALLY! Short of breathing, our EVERY NEED is dependent on someone else. As we grow older we learn to move on our own. It starts small by rolling over in our sleep. We learn to crawl and then walk, meanwhile our parents lose their minds thinking we will get into something that will hurt us. We start talking, and those around us wonder if we’ll ever shut up. We learn to feed ourselves and everything around us becomes a choking hazard. As time goes on and we mature we get to a place where we go to school and start learning some of the basic knowledge set we need for life… the 3 R’s.
It seems to take years to gain the BASIC knowledge we need to make it through life. But then we get into Jr. High and High School. WE get into more advanced classes, and we start applying the basics we had been learning for years. We get into classes that have labs and real-life exercises. We graduate high school and go on to college, trade school, or some job where we get On The Job Training.
…Then we go on about our lives trying to do the best we can and replicate the process. We get married, have kids of our own, and try to raise them to do what we did…only better.
You hear all that and you’re asking yourself “where is he going with all of this?”
“What point is he trying to make?”
Well, if you think about it, doesn’t this all sum up the Christian walk?
Isn’t this how it starts and progresses?
In John 3:3 Jesus is having a conversation with a Pharisee by the name of Nicodemus. In verse 3 He tells Nicodemus,
Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
That kinda sums it up. We have to die to our old selves and start over relearning life.
In 2 Corinthians 5:17 Paul says,
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
It all starts with a regeneration. I would go so far as to say that this isn’t a one time event, but a daily ritual… Actually, I wouldn’t say that, the BIBLE DOES!
1 Corinthians 15:31 “I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day!”
BUT Regeneration or being born again isn’t the end of the story.
Sure, being an infant is easy. Someone feeds you, bathes you, changes your diaper…all you have to do is lay there and exist, BUT AT SOME POINT YOU HAVE TO LEARN TO CRAWL, WALK, AND RUN. YOU HAVE TO LEARN TO FEED YOURSELF, BATHE YOURSELF, CLOTHE YOURSELF.
In the same manner there is a point where we have to move beyond just being infants in the faith and feasting on spiritual milk.
1 Corinthians 3:1-3 “But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it.”
CHURCH, It’s time to become Meat Eaters!!!
Listen, I am not opposed to feeding spiritual milk. The problem is when you have to part someone’s mustache to give them the bottle. The problem is when we don’t move beyond infancy to maturity!
SO WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO MOVE TOWARDS BEING A MORE SPIRTUALLY MATURE CHRISTIAN?
It can be largely summed up in 7 words…
“TAKE UP YOUR CROSS AND FOLLOW ME”
For a year we went through elementary school and Jr. High. We read through and studied the Sermon on the Mount.
We went through a basic education of how a follower of Christ should THINK, FEEL, AND ACT!
Far a couple weeks we looked at the Sermon on the Move. We looked at just a couple examples of how Jesus acted out the mission and compassion of the Father.
I’ll be honest. I could preach the rest of the year just looking at the miracles of Jesus and not even get close to covering it.
John 21:25 “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”
Just if we looked at what was recorded it would take A LONG TIME!
The point of ALL of it is to get us to recognize His Lordship over everything.
The crux of the issue can be summed up in a paragraph I read recently in a book titled, “The Key to triumphant Living: An Adventure in Personal Discovery.” The author was talking about this very thing, the Lordship of Christ over every part of our lives. If we go back to the elementary education that we learned in the Sermon on the Mount we know that our only righteousness comes from Jesus. It is in making Him Lord of our lives that our righteousness can exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees. So the Sermon on the move would include observations of Jesus exercising and demonstrating His Lordship! Jack Taylor wrote…
Every time He manifested His Lordship, it must have been like coming to know Him all over again. They forgot quickly, but He continued to forge a chain of evidence, link by link, around His Lordship. He proved Himself Lord of the elements as He arose to rebuke the wind. He demonstrated His Lordship over death as He called the dead back to life. He asserted His Lordship over disease as He healed all sorts of human maladies. He had already proved Himself “mighty in battle” as He met the highest motivations Satan had to offer in the “lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of Life,” and soundly defeated the Subtle Saboteur.
We get saved, we learn the principles of the Sermon on the Mount, we get at least a basic grasp of the Lordship of Christ over our lives, but there is a point where we have to leave the classroom.
Even as we leave the “CLASSROOM” we have to find a way to continually remind ourselves of His Lordship over our lives and the things around us.
I spent the better part of 6 ½ years working on my associates and bachelors degrees. I am currently considering going back to finish my masters degree.
I love being in school and learning, but there is a point where we have to JUST DO IT, but even as we are “DOING IT” we have to continue learning, reminding ourselves, and intentionally stay connected to a source of power, wisdom, and strength.
Jesus never intended for us to recluse ourselves from society.
He never intended for us to do nothing more than sit in the safety of a church building and hang out together.
Obviously, coming into this building, worshipping, and fellowshipping are important, but that is only a SMALL part of it.
If you were here last Sunday, you heard me tell you that we were going to start a new series this week called “The Church on the Move,” and we would be getting into the book of Acts.
But to get there, I want to back up to where the church was first mentioned.
I. The Promised Church
a. Matthew 16:13-19
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
i. What was the Church going to be founded on?
1. “Revelation” Matthew 16:17
And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
2. “Worship” The Cave to the god Pan
3. Peter and the Apostles
a. Ephesians 2:20
b. Revelation 21:14
c. The Acts of the Apostles more appropriately “The Acts of the Holy Spirit”
4. “The Holy Spirit” (Simon Bar-Jonah)
a. Son of Dove
i. Matthew 3:16 “And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him;”
ii. Mark 1:10 “And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.”
iii. Luke 3:22 “and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.””
iv. John 1:32 “And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.”
5. Power
a. Given the Keys Matthew 16:19 “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.””
6. Purpose
a. “To build the Kingdom” Loosing Heaven on Earth
II. The Purposed Church
a. The Great Commission is the Ultimate Purpose
i. Matthew 16:18 “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
1. Storm the Gates of Hell
a. For the Lost
b. To take back what the Enemy has Stolen
2. Release Heaven on Earth
ii. Matthew 28:18-20
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
1. FELLOWSHIP
2. Action and Movement
a. GO
b. Holy Spirit is a Mover…Genesis 1:2
i. Hovering – (rah hof) literally means moving
3. Discipleship
4. Authority (binding and loosing)
5. Baptism
iii. Mark 16:15-18
And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
1. Proclamation
2. Evangelism
3. Salvation
4. Deliverance
5. Signs, Miracles, and Wonders
6. Healing
iv. Acts 1:8
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.”
1. Witnesses
2. Power
III. The Powerful Church
a. Acts 1:8
i. Promise
1. John 14:15-17
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
2. John 15:26-27
“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.
3. John 16:7-14
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
ii. Power
1. Power to witness
2. Power to live holy lives
3. Power
iii. Patience
1. The disciples were instructed to tarry, BUT the Holy Ghost has been given. The Promise is for you and, it is for Now
2. Waiting Draws us Closer to the Father Psalm 46:10
“Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!”
3. Waiting strengthens us Isaiah 40:31
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
In the coming weeks we will be looking at stories from the book of Acts that shows the Church on the Move.
As we move into those stories I want you to be in prayer this week about the Power of God in your life.
Is it there, is it missing, do you need more?