Sermon Tone Analysis

Acts 1:1-11

 

! Introduction

            This week a number of soldiers left from Winnipeg in order to go and help provide stability in Afghanistan.

What do you suppose their attitude is?

Is it one of looking forward to an exotic vacation or do they recognize that they are on a mission?

From the comments made at their departure - comments focusing on the importance of their task and from the tears of farewell, not knowing when they will come back, it seems to me that they take this mission very seriously.

Why do we as followers of Jesus sometimes live on this earth as if we are here on vacation?

As Jesus gathered with his disciples for the last time, he gave them a mission.

In Acts 1:1-11 we have an account of this last encounter.

In this passage, we are reminded of the resurrection and resurrection appearances of Jesus.

In the end of this passage, we read about how Jesus ascended into heaven.

This is a very significant point in history.

The Lord of all who spent 33 years walking on this earth, died on the cross and rose again was ascending into heaven.

As Jesus ascended, the promise of his return was given to the disciples by the angels.

These eleven verses focus all of history and in that context Jesus speaks about the in between time.

He speaks about what will happen between the time of his ascension and the time of his return.

Verse 8 is the verse which speaks to this time in history - to our time in history.

The first thing he says is that during this time, the disciples will be empowered by the Holy Spirit.

The second thing he says is that his disciples will be involved in the task of world-wide mission.

So in other words, we are not on vacation.

God has given us a mission.

When you filled out the survey to discern the health of our church, one of the elements you identified as the weakest was need-oriented evangelism.

This was not to say that evangelism is absent or that there is no concern for mission in this church.

It was to say that if we want to develop into a fully healthy, growing church, one of the first things we will have to work on is to develop the ministry of evangelism, to give attention to the mission God has left for us.

In response to that, I would like to challenge all of us by examining Acts 1:8 and the ministry of evangelism in the book of Acts and then to suggest a vision for mission for our church.

My hope is that as we are challenged, we will recognize the importance of the mission God has given us and take up our part in it.

!

I.

The Growth Of The Church

            In Acts 1:8, Jesus says, “you will be my witnesses.”

I have often wondered if this is a statement of promise or of command.

If it is promise, then it suggests that it is inevitable that God’s people will make the name of Jesus known.

They will not be able to help but do it.

Empowered by God, their life will be one of proclaiming Jesus.

If it is command, then there is a mandate, something that must be followed.

It really does not matter which it is because whether command or promise, we know that as Christians the most important reason why we live on this earth is to make the name of Jesus known to the world.

The passage also indicates that this gospel witness will begin in Jerusalem, spread out to Judea, to Samaria and then to the uttermost parts of the earth.

As we read Acts, we find that this is exactly what happened.

In fact, some have suggested that Acts 1:8 is an outline of the book of Acts.

The gospel was proclaimed first in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.

When the Spirit of God came upon the disciples, they began to proclaim Jesus with boldness and wisdom.

Peter’s sermon is recorded and we learn that on that first day, 3000 people were added to the church.

The gospel proclamation continued in Jerusalem in the chapters that follow and many more became God’s people.

In Acts 8:1, we read that because of the martyrdom of Stephen, a great persecution began on all the believers and they began to spread out beyond Jerusalem and proclaim the word in Judea as well.

It is likely that gospel proclamation had happened in Judea before this because many people travelled from Jerusalem to the surrounding villages.

This was a natural and easy transition because they were all the same kind of people.

The persecution, however, forced a greater movement of gospel proclamation.

We read in 8:1 that “the apostles were scattered throughout Judea…” Then we also read in Acts 8:40 that Philip traveled from Azotus to Caesarea preaching the gospel to all the towns.

The path between Azotus and Caesarea is along the coast of the Mediterranean in Judea.

The first cross cultural mission took place when Philip went to a city in Samaria and preached the gospel there.

The indication of Jesus that the gospel would also be proclaimed there began at this point.

The Samaritans were partly Jews and partly Gentiles.

They were not followers of the Jewish religion.

Crossing this cultural barrier was not easy and special mention is made that the apostles had to come from Jerusalem in order to recognize the ministry going out to the Samaritans.

The Spirit did not come upon these believers until the apostles came, but when the Spirit came, it was recognized by all that indeed it was God’s intention to have the gospel proclaimed to the Samaritans as well.

Although the mission to the uttermost parts of the earth was already implied in Acts 2:8-11, when people of all languages understood the gospel proclamation, it was not until Philip was sent to preach to the Ethiopian Eunuch that the gospel truly crossed over to the Gentiles.

In Acts 8:26ff the ministry to “the uttermost parts of the earth” truly began.

The next mission to “the uttermost parts of the earth” took place a few chapters later when God called Peter to proclaim the gospel to Cornelius who was a Roman centurion.

Here again a special manifestation of the Spirit’s coming indicated to all that God’s message of good news in Jesus was for all the people.

Just an interesting note.

We read in Acts 8:40 that Philip had preached in Caesarea earlier.

Had Cornelius heard this preaching?

Was it hearing that word that prompted in him a desire to hear the message of Jesus.

Whatever it was, he desired to know God’s way and God moved Peter to go and preach to him and the gospel made a further way into the “uttermost parts of the earth.”

The biggest move to proclaim the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth occurred when the church in Antioch sent Paul and Barnabas on the first missionary journey.

At that point, the gospel really began to spread over all the earth and it has continued to do so to this day.

The book of Acts is the story of the beginning of God’s work in building his church, proclaiming the name of Jesus and fulfilling God’s mission for his people in the world.

But the fulfillment of this mission is not completed in Acts, it goes on to our present day and so we need to ask, “What is our part in that mission?”

!

II.

The Spirit’s Work

Before we think about that, however, we need to take note of another important aspect and that is the work of the Spirit in empowering and guiding that work.

In Acts 1:8 we are told that this gospel witness would come when the Holy Spirit came.

Jesus said, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you…” This is very important.

Before I asked the question, “was the statement ‘will be my witnesses’ a promise or a command?”

What we need to realize is that if we are filled with the Spirit, it is a promise for we will not help but make the name of Jesus known.

I do not think we should push ourselves to witness out of duty, rather, we should seek to be filled with the Spirit of God and then we will witness.

This is so because witnessing must be in the power of the Holy Spirit.

William Temple has said, “Nobody can be indwelt by the Spirit of God and keep that Spirit to himself.

Where the Spirit is, he flows forth.

And where there is no flowing forth, he is not there.”

The disciples at that time were to wait because it was only in the power of the Spirit that they could do the work of witnessing.

This is certainly what we see in Acts and as we examine the work of the Spirit in gospel proclamation, we learn four principles of the work of the Spirit in this work.

!! A. The Spirit Empowers Our Words.

The first thing we need to note is that it is the Spirit who empowers the words of gospel proclamation.

In Acts 2 it was not in the wisdom and power of Peter that the gospel was proclaimed on the day of Pentecost.

Peter was a fisherman, not an orator.

He was uneducated, not a scholar of the Scriptures.

The only way in which he could so powerfully preach the gospel that day was because the Spirit of God empowered him to do so.

Nothing has changed.

The only effective gospel proclamation is that empowered by the Spirit of God.

Are we relying on the Spirit of God as we share the word about Jesus?

!! B. The Spirit Guides Our Appointments

            The second lesson regarding the ministry of the Holy Spirit is that it is the Spirit who makes the appointments for us.

Look what happened in Acts.

In Acts 8:26 we read that the angel of the Lord moved Philip to the road which was being taken by the Ethiopian.

Then in verse 29 we read that the Spirit told Philip to go to that chariot.

In this instance, it was the Spirit of God who made the appointment and created the encounter and Philip simply responded in obedience to the opportunity and made Jesus known.

The same thing happened in the encounter of Peter and Cornelius.

God’s Spirit was at work in Peter helping him to see that he had to minister to Cornelius.

Peter was reluctant to do so, but God graciously prepared his heart for this special ministry.

At the same time, God was also at work in the heart of Cornelius.