the book of Acts Week 1 | February 16, 2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey morning everyone. Morning cool, Hey what thanks, good to
see you too. Hey. Today, we're starting a new sermon
series where we are exploring the Book of Acts together.
This is going to take us the better part of
the year twenty twenty five. We're going to study this

(00:20):
book verse by verse. It's my hope that as we
study this book about the formation and the mission of
the Early Church, that we together as this spiritual community
known as Indie Metro, that we gather insights and how
the Lord is leading us to know and follow Jesus
even better ourselves. I want us to discover how God
is at work in our lives today by witnessing how

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all the various ways that He was at work in
the lives of the people will meet throughout this book.
It's no secret that the world that we live in
now is much much different than the world of the
Early Church. But what we need to keep in mind
is that God's Kingdom hasn't changed. That the principles, the
values God's Kingdom is identical. Our worlds are different, God's

(01:05):
Kingdom is identical. Our goal in this series is really
to just discover the timeless truths of God's Kingdom and
to discern how we can live out these given the
specific details of who we are, the time period that
we live, the cultural pressures that we face, how can

(01:26):
we know and follow Jesus? That's the goal as we
study the Book of Acts together, how can we grow
to know and follow Jesus as a church. And our
text today is we're launching this sermon series. I want
us to notice and zoom in on just two words
from the opening these opening verses, the words proof and wait. Proof, Wait.

(01:53):
I'm going to use these two words as an outline
for our time together this morning. Proof and wait. So
maybe we discover the timeless truths of God's Kingdom and
learn to live them out together as this spiritual community
known as Indie Metro. So, as we're preparing to launch
this sermon series applying it to our lives, using these

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two words as a jumping off point, let's first pause
and pray, Heavenly Father, thank you, as Matt was talking about,
just thank you for all of the various ways that
you continue to show up and be good and faithful
and generous to us. Certainly an expression of that is
just to people sitting in this room that we get
to do life together with thank you for this community

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in which we get to live. Lord, to teach us
to have a creative vision for what you might be doing,
not just as our individual lives, but in our collective
lives and the lives of this city. Use us as
your hands and feet of mercy and grace and compassion.
Help us to be people who are about the Gospel,

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not just that we know it, but that we're about it.
Precious and Holy Name, I pray Amen. So years ago,
when we're still meeting downtown as at church, we had
an intern. His name was Andy, and Andy's story how
he came to faith was fairly dramatic and bumpy. He
came out of drug addiction, and he found a relationship

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with God during his time of recovery. I remember having
a conversation with Andy once where he told me that
people would sometimes say to him, man, your testimony is
so cool, like, I wish my story was as powerful
as that. I remember Andy kind of relaying to me

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that that sentiment always sort of left him feeling speechless.
It saddened him that people were basically saying that they
wish that the Lord had to rescue them out of
a horrible destructive addiction, and that that would somehow make
their relationship with God more powerful, or more tangible or
easier even me like, they just never stopped to consider

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all the additional challenges that these life experiences, these mistakes,
these choices present me as I'm like on my own
spiritual journey. See here's the point when we look at
the original disciples. I think, whether we realize it or not,
we're all kind of like those people interacting with Andy,

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You and I. We have the temptation to look at
the original disciples and say, man, your testimony is so cool.
I wish my story was like that. If we aren't careful,
we can find ourselves nurturing false assumptions that if we
were in the shoes of the early Church, then our
faith would come easier, it'd be more powerful. If we

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walked and talked with Jesus, seeing it with our own
eyes touching him, then we would place our hope and
trust in Him more firmly, easier. We falsely believed that
the original disciples were able to have faith more easily
than we are. With that being said, let's zoom in

(05:09):
on the first word from this morning, the word proof
verse three after his suffering, Jesus presented himself to the
disciples and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive.
He appeared to them over a period of forty days
and spoke about the Kingdom of God. Something that we
easily overlook is just like just like you and me.

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The disciples, they struggled with big questions regarding their faith.
For them believing the good news that Jesus had risen
from the dead forever, defeating sin and death, that wasn't
easier for them to believe than for you and I,
As our tech said, Jesus had to give them many

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convincing proofs. See there are multiple accounts in the scripture
of Jesus resuscitating people. John chapter eleven, we see Jesus
raising Lazarus from the dead, Mark chapter five, Jesus brings
Gyrus's daughter back to life. Luke chapter seven, Christ brings

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a widow's son back from the dead. But friends, something
that we may have never thought about is when Jesus
defeated sin and death, he wasn't resuscitated, he was resurrected.
His resurrected body was something altogether new. With his new

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resurrected body he could just enter a locked room without
opening the door. John twenty nineteen that Sunday evening, the
disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid
of the Jewish leader. Suddenly Jesus was standing there among them.
Peace be with you, he said. Luke tells us that
after his resurrection, Jesus disappeared from the sight of two disciples.

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That he'd been walking on the road to Amaeis with
Luke twenty four thirty through thirty one, and as they
sat down to eat, he took a small loaf of bread,
asked God's blessing on it, broke it, and Jesus gave
it to them. Suddenly the eyes, the eyes of these
disciples were open and they recognized Jesus, and at that
moment he just disappeared. It's crazy, even in our text today, Jesus,

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with this new resurrected body just ascends into Heaven right
in front of his disciples. The point is Jesus's body
was something all together different and new. After his resurrection.
It was still a physical body. He still ate, people
still touched him, but it was something altogether new. Jesus

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resuscitated Lazarus and Jiverus's daughter and the widow's son. But
these people all died again. But Jesus's resurrected body was
no longer subject to death at all. It had become
glorified and perfected. Nothing like the resurrection had ever occurred

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the disciples, they had no framework, they had no life
experience to understand what had happened. They had seen Jesus
resuscitate people, they had never witnessed a resurrection, and because
of it, they legitimately struggled to believe. It seems that
people even struggle to recognize Christ in his resurrected form.

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John chapter twenty, Mary goes to visit the tomb to
anoint his body to weep, and he says that Mary
thought that Jesus when the approached was the gardener. She
didn't recognize him right away. In the passes that we
just read about these disciples on the road to Amais,
Jesus had to open their eyes so that they could
recognize him. The point is, these people had additional challenges

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in accepting Jesus's resurrection that you and I maybe have
never considered. They have additional challenges that maybe you and
I have never considered. The last words of Matthew's gospel.
Listen to how Matthew just ends his gospel Matthew twenty
eight sixteen through twenty Then the eleven Disciples went to Galilee,

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to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.
When they saw him, they worshiped him. But some doubted
that some of the original Eleven. They struggled to believe
what they were witnessing with their own eyes. They doubted
they had. They struggled to believe. And Jesus came to

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them and said, all authority in heaven and on earth
has been given to me. Therefore go make disciples of
all nation. Baptize them in the name of the Father,
the Son, the Holy Spirit. Teach them to obey everything
I've commanded you, and surely I'm with you always to
the very end of the age. We think about the
Original Disciples in doubting, sometimes we tend to like lump
that and throw that all onto the shoulders of Thomas.

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Like we think about the Original Disciples and doubting, we think, well,
Thomas is the checkbox for that. But we don't understand
is like all of them struggled. They all needed the
Lord to intervene so that they could understand what had
really happened. In other words, what I want us to

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realize is that faith is not easier for some people
than others. Each of us have our own unique paths
to walk. We all come to faith differently, but it's
not like some paths are easier than others. All followers
of Jesus need the Lord to intervene so that they

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can understand who he truly is. Every follower of Jesus
has needed the Lord to intervene in their life so
that they can understand who He really is. Your life
circumstances they are uniquely yours. You have specific challenges, struggles, woundedness,

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sinful tendencies. Each of us have different upbringings, different socio economics,
as his, different health concerns, different stages of life. And
despite all of our differences, the Lord has made sure
that we all have access to exactly what we need
to place our hope, our trust, our allegiance in him.

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After his suffering, Jesus presented himself to the disciples and
gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He gave
them many convincing proofs he had to convince them that
he was alive. He appeared to them over a period
of forty days and spoke about the Kingdom of God.
Scripture really doesn't tell us exactly what he said and

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doesn't give us all the specifics, but we know that
Christ gave them everything that they needed to know and
follow Jesus and friends, I think that's what we have
to understand about our own story as well. Today. God
has given you everything that you need to know and
follow Jesus. God has given you everything that you need

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to know and follow Jesus. Tewod Peter one three says,
by his divine power, God has given us everything that
we need for living a godly life. We've received all
this by coming to know him, the one who called
us to himself, by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.
God has made us all unique. We're all different, but

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at the same time, He's intervened on each of our
lives in specific ways so that we have exactly what
we need to know that Jesus is alive. God has
given you many convincing proofs to know that Jesus is alive.

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Please don't misunderstand. I'm not saying that God has given
us everything that we need to never be confused as
we follow him. I'm not saying that following Jesus the
right way means that all those unanswered questions just go away.
In fact, look at our text today. Verse six. The
disciples gathered around Jesus and asked him, Lord, are you

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this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel? He
said to them, it's not for you to know the
times or the dates the Father has set by his
own authority. Right, the disciples, they did not receive an
answer to every one of their questions. They didn't get
like an unlimited amount of explanation by Christ for everything.
They received what they needed to believe that Jesus was
the son of God, that he defeated sin and death.

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That's what they got. Friends, So have we right. Our
stories are different, our circumstances aren't the same, but the
same Lord is at work in our lives. He's giving
us many convincing proofs that he is alive, and that's
the foundational peace for everything that we're going to we're

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going to discover in this sermon series. That's the foundational peace.
Jesus is alive, and he has given us everything that
we need to know and follow him regardless of our
circumstances in life. Jesus is alive, and he has given
you everything that you need to know and follow him
regardless of your circumstances in life. We're not the same,

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but the same God is at work in us well.
The second word from our text today that I want
us to zoom in on is the word wait, verse four.
On one occasion, while he's eating with them, Jesus gave
them this command, don't leave Jerusalem, but wait for the
gift my father promised, which you have heard me speak about.

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For John baptized with water, but in a few days
you'll be baptized with the Holy Spirit. So God has
given us everything that we need to know and follow him.
But he has also given each of us seasons. Sometimes
they're long, sometimes they're short, but each of us have
seasons where we have to just patiently wait. We know

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this well, and we despise these sees. We do not
like these seasons. Just like we spoke about before, these
aren't identical for everyone. Your season of waiting doesn't necessarily
look like other people's seasons of waiting. But we know
that everyone has them. We all have parts on our

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spiritual journey where God says to us wait. Every one
of us has a part of our spiritual journey where
God just says wait. I think the best time to
remember that is when we're wrestling in prayer about something.
Throughout the scripture, we find the Lord responding in different

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ways at different speeds to the prayers of his people.
There doesn't necessarily seem to be a rhyme or reason.
There certainly isn't a magic formula. If someone prays something
a certain way, they get an answer, and if they
don't pray it that way, they don't. One of my
favorite stories from the entire Bible is about the prophet
Elisha as he's being pursued and hunted down by the
King of Aram Second King six eight through seventeen. We

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read this. When the King of Aram was at war
with Israel. He would confer with his officers and say,
we will mobilize our forces at such and such place.
But immediately Elisha, the man of God, would warn the
King of Israel, don't go near that place where the
Aramians are planning to mobilize their troops there. So the
King of Israel would send word to the place, and
indicated by the Man of God. Time and time again,

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Elishah warned the king so that he would be on
alert there. The King of Aram become very upset over this.
He called his officers together and demanded, which one of
you is a traitor who has been informing the King
of Israel of our plans. It's not us, my lord
the king. One of the officers replied, Elisha, the prophet
in Israel tells the King of Israel even the words
you speak in the privacy of your bedroom. Go and

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find out where he is. The king commanded, so I
can send troops to seize him, and the report came
back Elisha's at Dothan. So one night the King of
Aram sent a great army with many chariots and horses
around that city. When the servant of the Man of
God got up early the next morning, went outside where
the troops and horses and chariots were. Oh, sir, what
do we two now, the young man cried to Elisha.

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Don't be afraid, Elisha told him, for there are more
on our side than on theirs. That Elishah prayed, Oh
Lord opened his eyes, let him see that the Lord
opened the young man's eyes, and he looked up and
saw the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and
chariots of fire. So we put ourselves into the shoes
of this servant of the prophet Elisha. It's easy to

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empathize with the panic and the anxiety that this person
has to feel. Right, they get up doing their chores
or whatever, they see that there's an army that's surrounding
the city, an army that's coming for them. There's a
very real problem that has to be addressed. They're surrounded
by the enemy. And the next thing we see is
that Elisha praise, and the solution to what God is

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doing is immediately revealed. Elisha praise and the solution is
immediately revealed. Let's contrast that with the story of Joseph.
So Joseph is the son of Jacob. We're told that
it's like Jacob's favorite son. So all the rest of
Joseph's brothers get a little envious, little jealous of him,
so they decide, hey, let's kill him. And then they

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kind of come to their sense. They're like, now, we
can't get away with that, so instead they sell him
to some slave traders that are heading to Egypt. So
Joseph gets sold into slavery and he goes to Egypt.
He does a great job, he's like doing He's killing
it as as the servant of Potiphar. And then Potiphar's
wife she has eyes for Joseph. She's like, I'm attracted
to this guy, and jose like, I'm not gonna do

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anything with you. So she falsely accuses him of sexual
assault and Potiphar throws him in prison. So Joseph goes
from being a slave to now he is in prison,
like the wheels are coming off of his life. Throughout
his time in prison, we find Joseph an a posture
of prayer, just petitioning the Lord about his very real problem.

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He prayed and he prayed, but God didn't immediately show
up and change his situation at all. We don't know
the exact length of time, but Joseph was in prison
for at least two years, but most theologians sake is
probably closer to ten. So he's falsely in prison for
ten years because during that time of waiting, the unbeknownst

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to Joseph that the Lord is positioning him to become
the prime Minister of Egypt. Is through Joseph's leadership as
the Prime Minister, that his brothers, that the patriarchs of
the twelve Tribes of Israel, that they would survive a famine.
It's because of Joseph's wisdom that the patriarchs of Israel
would survive a famine. The Lord was at work of

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Joseph's life. He had forgotten or abandoned him. He was
making him wait. So here's the deal. Like, our stories
are probably not gonna be as dramatic as these two examples,
but nonetheless we have to see ourselves in these So
you and I, each of us in this room, we've
had experiences. We've prayed about something and it seems like

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almost instantaneously, some sort of solution presents itself. Something happens,
we prayed and then something almost immediately happens like this
is amazing. Maybe it's something about something really big, maybe
it's just something small. The point is, I'm pretty sure
that everyone in here has the experience of you've prayed
and then something happens. But we've also experienced things where

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we've prayed, and we've prayed, and we've prayed and it
seems like the Lord is like radio silent, like we're
looking for the right words, Like God, am I not
petitioning you? Strong enough? Is my posture? Not humble enough? Lord? Please?
But we just simply had to wait. Maybe you're in

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a situation like that right now. Maybe you're in a
season of waiting right now that you're struggling in prayer
about something, and it just seems like that God is
just He's just not showing up now. In all transparency,
I have no idea why God does this. I don't know.
I don't know why He responds immediately in some instances

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but chooses to make us wait in others. I know
it's for our own good, But I don't know the
specifics of why God is doing the things that he does,
why he acts the way that he does. But we
know that the Lord will never leave you, he will
never forsake you. He's working out all things for the
good of those who love him. In those season of waiting,

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we know that God is actually at work in our life.
He's doing something we just don't know what. See in
our Textaday, the disciples were told to wait, but just
because they heard that out of the mouth of Jesus, himself.
That doesn't necessarily give them any more clarity than you
and I have sometimes in our own seasons of waiting.
They're told to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit.

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They have no idea who or what the Holy Spirit
even is. We're told to wait for something that I
have no experience, no framework for understanding what I'm waiting for.
I know it's just to wait, But how would I
know if I've waited long enough? How would I know
if it's if it's come. See here's the point. No

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matter where you are in your spiritual journey, you will
have seasons of waiting, and those seasons will be necessarily confusing.
Your seasons of waiting will always have confusion baked in.
Our circumstances will be different. But that experience of waiting,
that experience of wringing our hands, just crying out to
the Lord, that is universal. I also want us to

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know something from the text that God telling them the
wait wasn't the same thing as him telling you I
want you to passively stand around and do nothing. Verse nine.
After Jesus said these things, he was taken up before
their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
The disciples were looking intently up into the sky as
he was going, and suddenly two men dressed in white

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stood beside them, Mimigali. They said, why do you stand
here looking into the sky? This same Jesus who have
been taken from you into the heaven will come back
in the same way you've seen him go into heaven.
As followers of Christ, we have to be patient but
not stationary. We have to be patient but not stationary,
even in the middle of the seasons of waiting, maybe

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a season that you're in right now. Even in that season,
you have to continue to find ways to join with
God's kingdom. That's breaking in God's kingdom is breaking in
all around us. We have to find ways to join
with that as we wait. Even in our waiting, we
must actively glorify God as we bless other people. We

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must tune ourselves into God's purposes for us instead of
just simply standing around waiting for the kingdom to come.
Waiting is not the same thing as standing still. Being
patient is not the same thing as being passive. We're
to be busy serving the Lord as we wait for

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his kingdom to be revealed. So as you start to
transition to a time of communion. What about us as
a church, what can we be doing together as we're
waiting for Jesus to come again, to join with the
Lord and what he's doing in this community. How can
we encourage each other with the truth that the Lord
has given you everything that you need to know and

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follow him as we study the Book of Acts together.
I hope that these two questions are one that we
come back and we ponder often, how can we actively
join God as we're waiting for His kingdom to come?
How do we actively join God and what He is
doing in this neighborhood, in this community, in the lives
of our friends, of our coworkers. How do we join

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with God as we wait for His kingdom? And how
can we encourage each other with the truth that, regardless
of your circumstances, God has given you everything that you
need to know that He's alive. So maybe maybe we
ponder those things as we consider what it looks like
for us to know and follow Jesus as a church.

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Let's pray so Heavenly Father, thank you for your generosity,
your attentiveness, for how you you cater yourself to every
person so that they know who you are who. May

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we realize that you doing that doesn't mean that we're
the sitter of the universe. Lord, you have made sure
that we know that you're alive, but that doesn't mean
that you must cater yourself to us in all instances. Lord,
May we bend our knee and humble ourselves as we

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learn to cater ourselves. Our preference is our desires to
your kingdom. May we submit ourselves to your kingdom. So, Lord,
thank you for giving us to knowledge that you have
defeated sin and death by raising from the dead, that
you've resurrected from the grave. Maybe long for the glorification

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and the purification of our own bodies when your kingdom
is fully revealed on the day that you come again.
We love you, We thank you. It's in your precious
and holy name we pray Amen.