Our Vision is: To Make Jesus Known to Everyone Everywhere
We break things down into four priorities, which you can see behind me. Today I want to speak about Mission: Reaching out with the Good News, both home and away.
We are a very generous church and send money to projects and missionaries overseas, and locally to (in fact we send more to local causes and UK initiatives than we do overseas). Last year we gave away 16.3% of our income (second offering of the month). Slightly more went locally than overseas.
But sending money, whilst important is not mission. Mission is people and people are the mission.
Rick Warren famously said: “The greatness of a church is not in her seating capacity, but in her sending capacity.”
Our God is a sending God. He sent his best into the world to save us. Jesus is referred to as “sent” forty-four times in the New Testament. After his resurrection, Jesus passed his identity on to his disciples: “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20:21).
To follow Jesus is to be sent.
In the book of Acts we see some prerequisites for mission.
Howard Marshall:“...(the) essence of the entire book (is) outward-moving evangelism that results in the growth of the church.”
What led to such growth? I want to say five things that we need in ANCC today!
1. The Believers Knew The Risen Jesus!
Acts 1: 3-4: After his suffering, he presented himself to them 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. 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.
These disciples had the benefit of actually seeing the resurrected Jesus in his glorious, resurrected body on many occasions. We do not have that particular benefit, but actually, in a strange way, we are more blessed!
You will remember that Jesus said to Thomas:
John 20:29:Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
A key question for us might be: what are the ‘many convincing proofs’ we have that Jesus Christ is alive today? For us, our journey with the Lord is a walk of faith, not sight, but even so we can have what philosophers would call a ‘subjective certainty’ about Jesus and, as a result of our experiences of Him and His working in and through our lives, we have personal proof.
I am concerned that as believers our faith is based mainly on head knowledge. Now, sound doctrine and correct biblical theology is immensely important, but the danger can be that we know the Truth but have not known the Truth of the Truth.
When it comes to living missionally we will struggle to reach out with the Gospel if all we have is some objective facts in our minds concerning the resurrection. I would suggest we also need to continually look to Jesus for those evidences in our everyday lives of his ‘aliveness’.
The apostle Paul prayed for the Ephesian Christians in this way:
Ephesians 1:17: I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
He prays that the Holy Spirit will give them a deep experiential knowledge of the living Lord Jesus. Similarly, if we seek to live in this reality, it will breed in us a confidence in sharing faith and a boldness which otherwise would not be there.
Perhaps you and I should be regularly praying and asking for this kind of wisdom and revelation to invade our own lives!
2. The Believers Knew The King of the Kingdom
Acts 1:3b: …He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.
Can you imagine a 40-day seminar from the risen Lord on the subject of the Kingdom? I wonder what he told them? Just imagine that you had been there and at the end of the seminar, Jesus ascended back to the right hand of the Father.
Question: How would that teaching impact your life?
If then we look at the missional practice of the Church through the next twenty-seven chapters of the book of Acts, we should be able to deduce at least the main things that Jesus taught them and told them to do.
One thing worth noting at this point is that in the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke), Jesus’s main theme was the Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven and here in Acts1 this is what he teaches the disciples, and yet going forwards, the main theme of the Apostolic preaching is not the Kingdom.
In fact, the word is only mentioned six more times in Acts. The focus of their proclamation and teaching was on the person and work of Jesus: his name is used over seventy times.
“The Kingdom has a face and a name” (Gary Gibbs).
So often in Acts, the emphasis is on the fact that God raised Jesus from the dead and he is now clearly Lord, meaning king or ruler.
His ‘Kingdom teaching’ in Acts1 prepared them to move in the miraculous. Jesus performed 37 recorded miracles (depending upon how one counts). In the book of Acts there are twenty recorded miracles and a further nine clusters of them, where they are not specifically named or numbered.(See Blog Bonus)
Therefore, we can say that the Kingdom is manifested in Acts through the proclamation of Jesus as Lord and the demonstration of that reality in healings, miracles and deliverances.
Is the Kingdom manifested this way in and through our church too?
3. The Believers Knew The Holy Spirit!
Acts 1:4b-8: On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptised with water, but in a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.” 6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Are we a powerless church?
What is clear is that the mission of God through his people is dependent on being filled with the Holy Spirit.
The nature of this experience seems to be made clear by Luke when he describes in the next chapter that: “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” (Acts 2:4).
It was only after this experience of empowerment that Peter was able to stand and address the gathered Jewish pilgrims (Acts 2:14-41).
This enduement of boldness and ability to speak is seen again in Acts 4:8 after Peter and John are arrested for healing the disabled man at the Beautiful Gate: “Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit said to them...” (that is, the Sanhedrin)
Once more, after the two disciples return to the company of believers and a prayer meeting ensued, we read: “After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.” (Acts 4:31)
The Holy Spirit is the One who:
- Enables us to preach the Gospel (Acts 2 and Acts 4).
- Enables Gospel boldness. On seven occasions we read of them speaking boldly (Acts 4:31; 9:28; 13:46; 14:3; 18:26; 19:8; 28:31).
- Enables signs and wonders to be manifest.
My friends we need more boldness. Boldness is not brashness! Boldness enables us to overcome our cultural fears, our insecurities, and speak up!
4. The Believers Knew the Power of Concerted Prayer
Now that he had ascended and as they waited for ‘the Father’s Promise’:
Acts 1:13-14: When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. 14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
It is almost certainly the case that any significant outbreak of mission is preceded by a period of earnest prayer.
You will have heard about the 100-year prayer meeting begun among the Moravians at Herrnhut in 1727 which many see as a catalyst for missions to the nations and the birth of Methodism, since John Wesley was converted through Moravian influence.
Another example is the revival which came to the Hebridean Isles in the mid 20th century after two women in the eighties became burdened to pray for God to reveal himself in the community. They prayed and prayed and eventually managed to gather a small number to pray on two evenings a week in a barn. After around a month and a half these people had a God encounter which eventually spilled out into the whole community.
When the evangelist Billy Graham came to the UK in 1984 for a series of meetings in football stadiums entitled ‘Mission England’ he said before he came there were three important things that believers needed to do: “Pray. Pray. Pray!” As a result, thousands of people were saved,
So, prayer precedes the missional activity of God and is critical moving forward.
5. The Believers Knew Intimacy with Jesus
It is slightly tenuous to draw this from the text, but I will take the risk! In Acts 1:4:“On one occasion, while he was eating with them...”
In the New Testament you will discover the context of eating a meal together says something about friendship, acceptance, transparency and even intimacy.
Remember that when Jesus reinstated Peter it was after the Lord had prepared breakfast for him and his friends.
In this Acts story, Jesus speaks to them about the most significant event they could possibly experience, but it is not during a religious service but as they eat together.
So, my simple point is that we need to be disciples who crave intimacy with Jesus if we are going to experience fruitful mission. If we do not stay close to him in the secret place of our hearts, we will resort to trying to make things happen through our own efforts rather than being channels for the grace of Jesus to flow out from.
Psalm 91: 1-2: Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
Wrapping This Up:
I really want to see us move from a seating capacity to a sending capacity!
What do we lack? Heart that burn!
Jeremiah 20:9: But if I say, “I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name,” his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones.I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.”
How do we get some burning bones in this church?
Through:
Knowing the RISEN Jesus
Knowing the KING of the Kingdom
Knowing the Holy Spirit
Knowing the power of CONCERTED Prayer
Knowing Jesus INTIMATELY.
------
Blog Bonus:
The Frequency Of Miracles.
The book of Acts records at least 20 specific miracles and tells of 9 times when clusters of them occurred.
SPECIFIC MIRACLES
Sound of rushing wind (2:2).
Tongues of fire (2:3).
Miraculous speech (2:4).
Lame man healed (3:1-10).
Building shaken (4:31).
Sudden death of Ananias and Sapphira (5:1-11).
Imprisoned apostles freed by angel (5:17-21).
Philip transported from desert to Azotus (8:40).
Light and voice at Saul’s conversion (9:1-9).
Saul blinded and healed (9:8-19).
Aeneas healed of paralysis (9:32-35).
Dorcas restored to life (9:36-41).
Herod’s violent death (12:20-23).
Elymas the sorcerer blinded (13:6-11).
Cripple at Lystra healed (14:8-10).
Demons cast out of a slave girl (16:16-18).
Paul freed from prison by earthquake (16:25-27).
Eutychus raised from death (20:7-12).
Paul unaffected by viper’s bite (28:3-5).
Father of Publius healed (28:8).
CLUSTERS OF MIRACLES
“Many wonders and signs” (2:43).
“Many signs and wonders” (5:12).
“The shadow of Peter” apparently healed some, and “a multitude gathered… and they were all healed” (5:15-16).
“Stephen… did great wonders and signs” (6:8).
“The multitudes… heeded…, hearing and seeing the miracles which [Philip] did” (8:6).
“The Lord… [granted] signs and wonders to be done by their hands” (14:3).
“Barnabas and Paul [declared] how many miracles and wonders God had worked through them” (15:12).
“God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul… even handkerchiefs or aprons” (19:11-12).
“The rest of those on the island who had diseases also came and were healed” (28:9).
-----
I am grateful to Gary Gibbs and his lecture at TNIU that gave the general outline and insights for this message.
Comments
Post a Comment