The Church Launch — Acts 1-2

0:00 Good morning. Good morning. So I was just singing that song, great is your faithfulness, and it was... The refrain talks about, like, it's mercy every morning. And this morning, I got up, and as usual, was, like, you know, kind of preparing last second.

0:21 And dog's barking. One's out. One's snick and go out. So I let the dog out. It's kinda dark in his room, and and I look in the room, and there's poop everywhere.

0:33 I was like, ugh. So I cleaned up the poop. I did a little bit. I left the the last part for my wife, but I did take the main poop out, and I dropped some vinegar all over it to try to do things, kinda get and find the enzymes. But, you know, it's just...

0:52 You you you have these little things, and and I was watching the dog. I let the dog back in and I was just watching this dog and that dog is just the most joyful. I mean, is just so excited to come in and eat his... The same, you know, whatever it is we give him. I don't know if it's like chopped horse or what...

1:15 You say it's beef, but, you know, here we're giving him the same thing, and I'm just thinking, how is he so excited and joyful? Right? And the Bible says his mercies are new every morning. And I thought, you know, if that dog can be that joyful, surely, that the Lord has given me, I could be just as joyful because I'm feeling a bit grumpy right now. Still a bit groggy.

1:36 So, you know, it is... Like, god gives us some of the meditations this morning were just really great, you know, thinking about his faithfulness and his power and how he demonstrates that to us. Obviously, ultimately, by the resurrection, but but even just like showing I have the power to forgive sins because I have the power to heal you. Right? And so he demonstrates his faithfulness in so many little ways to us throughout from from nature to the little things that he does, those little signs he gives us.

2:11 Just even seeing a little joyful dog prancing around like it's everything. You're thinking, how could he be so joyful? Like, he uses those things in our lives and he is indeed faithful. And so I was glad that some of the themes that we've heard already, both in the songs and everything, that that he would he would do that. So let's pray.

2:32 Lord, come to you and just ask that... I'd ask that you direct our hearts towards you, that we would love you. Pray that your spirit would use your living, breathing word to reach each of us individually here. Please block and protect us from anything that I might say that is not in your spirit, not of your spirit, or that anybody might think. And I just pray that you'd bless us as we open your word now.

3:02 And I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen. So today we're gonna go through the passage in Acts chapter one, verse 12, verses 12 through 26. So, if you could turn there or click there or otherwise be fully in the here and now while I read it. And, for ease of hearing, I'm reading in the NLT, but as usual, I typically will pull some nuances in the ESV, which is a bit more literal.

3:37 So starting in verse 12, it says, Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the Mount Of Olives a distance of half a mile, and that's NLT's translation. It really says in the more literal translations, Sabbath walk, which is, depending on who you listen to, about a half a mile to two thirds of a mile. It's it's just the amount of... It's a... It's not a day reference, but it's a reference to how long you could walk in a Sabbath without doing work.

4:12 It was a rabbinical tradition. So it was actually essentially a measurement. So between half a mile to two thirds of a mile. When they arrived, they went to the upstairs room of the house where they were staying. Here are the names of those who were present.

4:29 Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James, son of Alpheus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas, the son of James. So we don't know if the upper room that he just just mentioned there and that they named the disciples, they don't... We don't actually know if that was, like, the same upper room that they were where they met the last supper, met to celebrate the Last Supper. However, obviously in this case, there's only 11 disciples mentioned and you can figure that this was probably kind of a necessary base camp, kind of a place where we camp out and it was necessary because all of the disciples likely, with the exception of Judas who was no longer there, they they were from Judea. Not Judea.

5:32 I'm sorry. They were from Galilee. So that was Northern Judea. So most of them kind of the North of the Sea Of Galilee specifically. Some of them may have been anywhere in the Sea Of Galilee or a little bit wider in general Galilee area.

5:47 And so they needed a place to stay because Jerusalem, you you couldn't just drive a car. They were in Jerusalem. And the Lord actually said just earlier in the chapter, hey, stay in Jerusalem. So they were to be waiting for the gift promised or the Holy Spirit there. In verse 14, starting again, they all met together and we were...

6:11 And were constantly united in prayer along with Mary, the mother of Jesus, and several other women and the brothers of Jesus. So it's assumed that these extra attendants were not also staying with the 11 disciples in that room. That's my assumption. I can think that there must have been only so many people that could stay there, but there were people at least joined them, and they were constantly united in prayer. And as you will see in the next verse, there were even additional ones, and it came up to a total group of a 120.

6:47 And we know elsewhere that it says there was 500 believers that... That's first Corinthians 15. 500 believers saw Jesus between the resurrection and the ascension, but it seems like this a 120 believers might have been kind of the nucleus or smaller group that was there staying in and around Jerusalem there that could actually be there. So verse 15, during this time, when about a 120 believers were together in one place, Peter stood up and addressed them. And by the way, I assumed we were...

7:27 They were still praying in that upper room. Right? So can't be a 100% sure because that is a large jump. You're imagining if you... When I went to to Israel, the rooms and even the synagogues, meeting places weren't that big.

7:42 They... Most of... The biggest synagogue probably would not... That I saw, like in... I think we saw ruins of a synagogue in Capernaum where where Peter ended up moving to, or at least they think Peter's house was there.

7:58 And it was not... It was pretty big by their standards, but it was not even as big as this room here we're standing now, which it gets pretty full up when you start getting around that that that amount. So you'd imagine an upper room where they're camping at. Maybe they they probably might be able to crowd out if they stood around, but then you're thinking they're continuing in prayer for days. So, anyways, don't know all the particulars, but I think the key is actually what they were doing.

8:32 Then verse 16, he says... He continues. He says, brothers, scriptures had to be fulfilled concerning Judas who guided those who arrested Jesus. This was predicted long ago by the Holy Spirit speaking through King David. Judas was one of us and shared the ministry with us.

8:53 Verse 18. Judas had brought a field bought a field with the money he received for his treachery. Falling, headfirst there, his body split open, spilling out his intestines. The news of of his death spread to all the people of Jerusalem, and they gave the place the Aramaic name of Achaldemah, which means field of blood. So that's...

9:18 That that last little couple verses is actually a little addition of Luke. So he was quoting Peter, then he kinda did an aside to explain a little bit for his readers who were not really aware of everything that maybe had happened or they needed to be refreshed. Then verse 20, Peter continued. He goes back to the quote. This was written in the book of Psalms where it says, let his home become desolate with no one living there.

9:44 It also says, let someone else take his position. So now we must choose a replacement for Judas from among the men who were with us the entire time we were traveling with the Lord Jesus. From the time he was baptized by John until the day he was taken from us, Whoever is chosen will join us as a witness of the resurrection. So the requirement for this role to fill the missing twelfth disciple role. You know, there was onetwelve of the total people that were supposed to be there, that was no longer there due to disqualification and, of course, death.

10:27 So there were several requirements for this role and that was that... So one, the person had to have witnessed as a disciple, so they had to be witnessing and be a disciple following Jesus' ministry from the time of John the Baptist to Jesus' ascension. So John the... I'm sorry, John the Baptist's baptism or John's baptism. John the Baptist's baptism.

10:58 Okay. I'm getting getting confused. John the Baptist's baptisms to Jesus' ascension. So that's basically Jesus' public ministry of about three years. They needed to be witnessing that in somewhere, generally been around him, generally seeing that.

11:15 And also one clear purpose or or at least reason for needing to fill this role in addition to filling... Fulfilling the prophecy, which he he quoted from Psalms, let someone else fill his position. So that was that was in Psalms. He sit in... So here Peter is recognizing the spirits moving and showing him, hey, this prophecy applies right here.

11:36 Therefore, we must let someone else fill the position. We cannot let it go missing to do what we've been called to do, which is to go and make disciples. And so he... So the Holy Spirit shows Peter that that this is very important. Then he says, and another reason is they need to be a witness of Jesus' resurrection.

12:04 So one of the biggest actual proofs that that Christ was who he was, that he gave in his faithfulness to us was that resurrection, the showing of power. And they needed to have of the core people that were leaders and that were going to be be kind of spearheading the movement that that God was creating. They needed to be witnesses of the resurrection so that they could communicate that. And indeed that is to this day one of the things where we all look back and we think to ourselves, How do we even know all this happened? You think, Well, why would all these people that personally witnessed this?

12:51 Why would they go to their deaths willingly if they said they witnessed it, but in reality, they knew that that was a lie. They wouldn't do it on a lie. And so to this day, we look back and think how... There's no way that that would ever happen. So they nominated two men.

13:13 This is verse 23. Moving on. Jesus called Barsabbas, also known as Justice, and Matthias. I'm sorry. Joseph...

13:22 Okay. So they nominated two men. Joseph called Barsabbas, so that's one, also known as Justice, and then number two Matthias. Then they all prayed, O Lord, you know every heart. Show us which of these men you have chosen as an apostle to replace Judas in this ministry, for he has deserted us and gone where he belongs.

13:47 So they... It says that they had devoted themselves in prayer or were committed fully to prayer earlier, but this is the only... And this is apparently for days, somewhere between two most likely and ten... Up to like eight or nine ten days because the tenth day or the eleventh day after that was Pentecost. Right?

14:37 Specifically, the Lord will guide them in picking this important role that was going to be critical in doing the Lord's work. So they cast lots and Matthias was selected to become an apostle with the other 11. And so that they were able to do that. So as a note, casting lots or throwing dice like they did here in verse 26 was not typical in the New Testament. You see it...

15:04 Actually, the only other time is when the Roman soldiers were blasphemy or were were via prophecy actually. They were fulfilling prophecy in Psalms twenty-two 18 of dividing the loot of the kill. They were dividing his clothes. In the Old Testament, saw lots used, or you could call it, like, just really any method of chance, if you will, I'll put chance in quotes as a way to distribute inheritances, assign priestly roles, and judge guilt as well as other things. And in the New Testament, this is really the only time it's used by God's followers.

16:06 And I believe Denzel pointed out in a message previously that I think we could reasonably assume that this is because at this point in time they were still waiting for the helper. That's what Jesus says. So the helper, the Holy Spirit, he was the one that we would look to and depend on directly. We didn't have to use means of chance and things like that. Instead, the Holy Spirit is somebody that guides us and gives us discernment for making the important decisions in life.

16:38 So I believe that that is the real reason why you don't see that as a method and that's basically an aside, don't think that's the essential part of this section. Now Acts is a book that details the launch of the church. We've called, I think even sometimes called it Luke two, if you will, because it's written by Luke and it's a continuation of that same story with some of the same style. And so it's just, you know, the Gospels and then Acts and it talks about what happens after the Gospels. It could be called a hinge or a bridge book as it connects the Gospels to the rest of the New Testament.

17:23 Acts gives specific historical reference points to the launch and growth of the early church. Essentially, their obedience in making disciples as this is described in the Great Commission, which the Great Commission, in addition to being in each gospel, is also repeated. You can call it a recap in verse eight of this chapter. So I'll just read that version of it, verse eight. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere, in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

18:05 That's the mission. That's a big part of the church is making disciples. And so Acts is an inspiring narrative of what God can do with a small group of people who have surrendered to his spirit and are willing to partner with him in his calling to act in his power. I had an internship at NASA. I think we actually...

18:52 Rockets, and we visited the Kennedy Space Center. And it's an amazing thing to see these huge hunks of machinery launch. You you just... The the power, the the sounds, it's it's overwhelming. If you think of back in...

19:24 Well, 05/25/1961, if you remember... Does anyone remember that date? You what that... You probably can guess where I'm going with this, but that's when John F. Kennedy, he pointed his finger at the moon and he said, we're gonna go to the moon.

19:37 Right? He he had this challenge, if you will, the the space... The moon challenge. And when he did that, now some people question if we ever actually meant went to the moon. I'm not gonna talk about that.

19:49 But assuming he did, we did. Okay. Assuming he did, we did. You can look at everything that happened. Hey, even if they didn't go to them, it was a pretty amazing thing.

19:59 The rockets themselves were pretty cool. And what they had to do, so they... Eight years later, a little over eight years later, Neil Armstrong became the first person... Strong... Became the first person to step onto the moon, and he said that phrase, he said, that's one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind as he took a step onto that surface.

20:22 He said that and that's of course what many of us have heard. If we didn't remember that, we heard that. And you think during that time, the NASA budget went it had been NASA didn't start with that. They had it for a couple years. They were competing with the Soviets.

20:42 And the NASA budget went from $1,000,000,000 to about $6,000,000,000 in a very short period of time. It went from 10,000 people to 400,000 people to do this. They developed multiple new space centers, a launch center, a mission control center, different places where you'd spread the money around so that everybody could... Different areas of the country could get some of the pork. But it was a super exciting thing.

21:09 It was a group of people with a single mind and it all culminated over years of persistence, effort to a launch. And you can imagine, I don't if you've heard, it's very dramatic when you listen to it. You sit there and they're getting ready and then they're getting ready, they're going through. There's 3,000,000 plus, I think in that first one that went to the moon, Google told me it was 3,000,000 individual pieces and parts that made up the main segments of that, of everything that went up there, right? 3,000,000 parts.

21:50 So they're going through checklist after checklist. They want to make sure everything is perfect. They don't want one little part to be off that could destroy the entire mission. And they followed checklist after checklist. They stopped and started.

22:03 They restarted. And then finally came the final countdown and the whole group, everybody sat there in total and complete attention. Each person trying to do their own little thing. They would sit there and you'd hear the countdown, you know, and before the countdown, by the way, I can tell you that all the setup in that little launch space, everybody except for the people actually in the rocket had to kind of back off. You couldn't be near any of that.

22:35 They were either in the mission station or around seeing it in video or watching it or observing from afar. But the people in that rocket, they walked in and then finally they did the final countdown. They counted down, down, down, and then it launched. Right? And so I go into all that to say, you can imagine this is kind of like the launch.

23:11 In my mind, think... I was like, Lord, why did you... You're kind of the best guy for the thing. Like, why would you go away? Alright?

23:22 And he says, I I go away. So number one, to prepare a house for you. So when you come back, you know, you're... Everything's everything... When you when you come to me, I can receive you.

23:34 But but the real reason he went away, I believe, was that... Well, he says it right right earlier. He says, I... I'm leaving so that you can have the helper, the spirit. He says again, I'm reading...

23:50 Rereading verse eight. Let me... I stapled my notes on the other side, so now I keep on having to undo my flip. Let me just pull the staple out so that I can flip. So in verse eight, I just read that.

24:19 It says, but you will receive power. Okay? You imagine this huge ship, millions of pounds, all going up. Power was needed. Right?

24:34 And so Jesus may have been on this earth to set things up, to get this... Get the rocket there, you will, to set everything up, to make the church ready to to enact his will to die on the cross for us. But now that he had done that, you could say the rocket was in place. The... Everything was there and ready, but one thing was needed, the power.

25:03 And so, you know, hundreds of thousands of thousands of pounds of rocket fuel were in that in that that rocket. And when a rocket launches, most of that just goes to the launch. Only like the last little percentage actually goes to the final of the energy. Actually goes to making the full route. Going all over, going to the moon, if you will, you know, or going through outer space.

25:26 It's that launch. And so the Holy Spirit was needed for the church. There was a complete focus there among the people, the disciples first and then the others that join them, continuing in prayer, awaiting for the spirit. So the bible says, like I said, you will receive power in verse eight. And then in that same verse, it says, you will be my witnesses to the end of the earth.

26:23 You can think of the astronauts there. They went out and then they looked back at the earth. They witnessed God's work, you know. And they were able to witness about God's work afterward, the wonder of what they saw. So...

26:40 And you look at, like, the very next segment, I've already mentioned, you see something incredible where you go from that nucleus of 120 people there in Jerusalem to a day later after they had finished that ten day period, and again, we don't know exactly when Peter stood up, but the Pentecost happened that next day. You can imagine preaching so powerful. Well, I won't say it's just preaching, but the effect of that preaching in this power of the Holy Spirit. Right? It says about 3,000 souls in one day.

27:20 So you go from a few people to 3,000. That's an incredible launch. So There's a church planter and author, and his name is Neil Cole. He wrote a book, several books, Organic Church and Church three point o. But in his book, Church three point o, he He writes it.

27:57 He wants to rethink the modern church in light of New Testament principles. And he tells a story about how a young group of believers were active in witnessing in a community to start a new church. And they started to meet and do Bible studies and prayer in a coffee shop in the little community that they were looking to plant a church. And curiously, as they visited often working, started to notice there was a group of witches and wizards recruiting also in that same coffee house. And it's a little bit longer story, but the group offered their recruits...

28:33 Were evangelizing. They were this other group. They were offering power power to do spells, to in some way wield and manipulate spiritual forces to change things in the world. And that wasn't intoxicating for this group. It attractive to many of the people that they were bringing in.

29:04 But they also found, one of the things they found was, hey, know, it's a double edged sword that power that they bound was binding them. And as this group of Christians was praying and witnessing to this, They were in this coffee shop they were observing and they started to witness. They started to try to evangelize this group in the coffee shop. They prayed that God would stop any ability to do the spells or witchcraft or forsaken to work among this group. And eventually, many of the occult group actually got saved, including the leader.

29:43 And the leader mentioned that the one thing that got them, really witnessed to them, that they realized that where these Christians were praying around them, that their occult magic had no power. They realized that the power that they thought they wielded was a lesser power, and even so was binding them and enslaving them. So this lesser power that they were trying to manipulate was was, in the end, exactly the power that that enslaved them. And in Luke 10, Jesus sent out 70 disciples, two by two, to minister. And in Luke ten seventeen, it says, the 70 returned with joy saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name.

30:32 And they were thrilled because they had seen a spiritual authority and power to work through them, especially over demons. And Jesus and Jesus, in the next verse, he affirms exactly. He he says, well, that's great. I saw faith. He said he...

30:50 Jesus speaking, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. But he said, behold, I have given you authority over the power of the enemy. And then he says in Luke ten twenty, but then he he... And he redirects their joy. And he says, nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

32:04 And that God's power in us is a freeing power, but it's not one we manipulate. And that's pretty clear because of the way they had to wait. They weren't summoning it. They weren't commanding it. They were waiting on God's power.

32:21 And it is a greater power, but it's not one that we control. It's also not one that enslaves us. It's one that frees us. Okay? And it's not a domineering power.

32:34 We work with God. We surrender to him completely, which is a submission. It's a surrender. It's putting ourselves lower and yet the power He gives us elevates us to partnership in the things that He calls us to do. You see a little bit more on this in Acts.

33:00 Here is Peter. After Simon the sorcerer recently had made confession of faith, he offered to buy that power. So Simon was used to manipulating power and he got apparently saved. Okay? He made a confession at the least.

33:14 And so he said, Hey, can I buy this power? And again, we're looking at that same power. Jesus said you're gonna receive that power. And in Acts eight eight twenty to 23, he said, may your silver perish with you. This is Peter speaking to Simon.

33:31 Because you thought you could attain the gift of God with money. You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours and pray to the Lord that if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. Again, you see that theme of enslavement.

34:00 The power of evil, the power of sin enslaves us. It's a power of death. And the power of resurrection, the power of God, frees us. Right? And so if we see that sin made manifest, we ourselves need to repent, to turn away and turn to God, to His power, and and and receive his power.

34:30 The power, first of all, to be free, but also to to share in the work and the purposes that he calls of us, to witness of him and and who... And what he has done for us. Here you see Simon begging. Right after that, he says, pray for me to the Lord that nothing that you have said may come upon me. He's asking for help and I would hope that he was sincere and that he got that.

35:37 So Peter here, if you look at him, he's... He is just kind of brought up in this passage. It doesn't seem like it starts out as in he's leading in any way. He's not suggesting that they all pray. That seems to be more along the lines of Nehemiah, where in Nehemiah eight, the people came together as one with a single purpose all at the same time to seek God.

36:24 And it seems to be very similar. You don't even see earlier when he says to wait, they should be praying. But there was just a knowledge that the ones there needed to call and wait. But in that, you see Peter rising up as leader, that the Holy Spirit specifically spoke to him to do that. And if you look, Peter...

36:48 Mean, I when you really think about it, like a lot has happened just in a very short period of time. Forty days before Christ's ascension, Christ's resurrection. Three days before that, Peter has just denied the Lord. Three times, the Lord said, I'm gonna pray for you. And then after I have restored you, feed my sheep.

37:14 And Peter, of course, responds in pride. He says, I will will do anything for you. And then after that, he doesn't. He denies the Lord three times just as the Lord says Jahad predicted. And he would had...

37:28 I I would say he had been willing to go to the cross. I mean, he had been willing to go to death fighting for a physical kingdom, but not willing to go to death surrendering in order to build a spiritual kingdom. Right? That was not in his mind and he was not ready yet for the calling of the Great Commission because of that because he didn't even understand that as Christian pointed out last week. So here Peter is and the Lord restores him.

38:02 He has specific conversations which are not shared with us but he also has that conversation which we looked out when we were looking in Luke. Specifically where he's asked, Do you love me sacrificially? And Peter responds each time, yes, I love you like a brother. And I... He got...

38:19 He can get kind of a bad rap but I I believe that that he was recognizing finally his own self deception that he had just seen how he had betrayed the Lord after speaking in pride. Not betrayed, I'm sorry, denied. And now the best he could say was, Lord, yes, I promise you I like you a lot. Maybe not sacrificially. I don't know if I'm there yet.

38:52 And I imagine he was even essentially saying, Lord, I I want to love you. Please help my lack of love. Please help whatever whatever is not there yet. I think it... Think the passage seems to indicate that in his pleading on the third verse, Yes, I love you, you know it.

39:13 But he still wouldn't say, I love you sacrificially because I don't think it's because he didn't want to. I think it's because he knew his heart. There was something... He still needed the Lord's power. And there was a recognition that he couldn't speak proudly like he did previously, that he would do anything.

39:30 Because he had he had seen the failure of pride and power and his personal power to do the do the right thing. And so here you see the spirit moving in the context of continued prayer and you see how how how how God had restored Peter. He humbly gets up. He's not dictating, but the spirit is moving in this after at least, I'm believing, at least two days. It could have been later closer to Pentecost in this ten day period between Ascension and Pentecost.

40:48 If anyone has not accepted the power... His power in their life to save them and to make them free, please talk to somebody. And more importantly, talk to the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to repent of our sins and and get his forgiveness and get his power and and follow him. We'll close in prayer.

41:13 Dear Lord, I just pray that you would you would bless each one of us. We thank you for your word. We thank you for all the ways that you've shown us who you are. We thank you for the incredible purpose you have for us as your church to make disciples and to honor your name. And we just pray that you you bless this body and bless everybody that hears, about you.

41:37 And we pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.