This morning, the reading of God's Word is taken from Acts chapter 1. That's found on page 1080 of your Pew Bibles, if you'd like to follow along there. Acts chapter 1, and I'll be reading from verses 1 through 11 of Acts chapter 1. Hear now the reading of God's Holy Word.
In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up. After he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen, he presented himself alive to them after his sufferings by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God. And while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, "You heard from me, for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 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." And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven." Thus far the reading of God's holy word.
Well, it's always a delight to be with you. And this morning I wanted to open up this portion of the book of Acts because in the past several months, since September or so, at Missio en Vila Nueva, we've been studying our way through the book of Acts in a sermon series. And it's been encouraging, it's been convicting, it's given us a new motivation for thinking about our part in God's mission in this community of Escondido. And so I wanted to share some of those same thoughts with you this morning from this text here.
Do you remember what the full title of Acts is? It might be there, depending on what Bible you have. It's usually given to us as what the acts of the apostles and that's true of course We see we see what peter does the apostle. peter We see how paul is converted and becomes an apostle we see what many others of the apostles are doing right through the book of Acts. But on the other hand, the Acts of the Apostles as a title is a little bit misleading. Why? Why do I say that? Because fundamentally, what is Acts about? Acts is about the acts of the risen and ascended Lord Jesus, who is continuing to be at work for his church, in his church, and through his church to take the message of his gospel and his kingdom to the ends of the earth. And so I'm not suggesting we have to change the titles in our Bibles, but I am suggesting it might be helpful to think about. After all, the book of Acts is a sequel, isn't it? I don't know about some of you boys and girls, maybe you like to read books, or maybe you've got a favorite movie, and sometimes you, have a series don't you where after the first book? there's a sequel there's a second book And sometimes, at least in our house, when we call everyone to the dinner table we have to say, "No, put the book down! We know you want to read the sequel it's so exciting but you got to come to dinner!" We we, love to keep going don't we with the story. we want to see what's next in the story well the book of Acts is a sequel. It's a sequel to the Gospels, and specifically to the Gospel of Luke. Dr. Luke is the author of both what we know as the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts. And he gives us not just that story of Jesus' life and ministry, death on the cross, resurrection in his gospel, but he gives us the sequel. He tells us what happens next, and that is what comes in the book of Acts.
And as we open up the sequel, the next part of the story, one of the big questions that's on the minds of the apostles and the others there gathered in Jerusalem, and one of the big questions that should be on our minds is this: Jesus, who is ascending to heaven, how is it possible that from heaven where we can no longer see him, where we can no longer hear his voice as he speaks to us from across the room how is it possible that the church can survive? How is it possible that we're going to be able to continue when Jesus is in heaven? That's one of the big questions right here at the beginning of the book of Acts. And that's why this morning I want to think with you about the ascended Lord Jesus in heaven and his people, the church here on earth, and what is it that we learn about that relationship at the beginning of Acts, between Jesus and his people?
And as we move our way through these first 11 verses, I want us to think about it in these terms: there are several things that we learn. First of all, in verses 1 to 5, we're going to see that the people of Jesus are a people of faith. a people of faith. And then as we move further along in verses 6 to 8, we're going to see that the people of Jesus are also a people of testimony. And then finally, as we finish out this section in verses 9 to 11, we realize that the people of Jesus Christ are a people of expectation. So those are the headings with which we'll we'll think our way through this text this morning.
And we'll begin with that first thought: a people of faith. I mentioned that Luke is the author here dr Luke. We learn in Colossians chapter 4, verse 14, Paul writes, "Luke was a doctor," and we know that doctors have to study a long time, don't they? They go to school for a long time to be able to do what they do. Well, the same was true in the ancient world. Doctors were well-trained, but not only well-trained in medicine. They knew how to write. They knew how to think. They were highly trained. We know of one of the most famous doctors of antiquity, a second century doctor by the name of Galen, who wrote reams and reams of things. That doctors were very well-trained, and they were interested not only in medicine, but they were interested in truth. They were interested in evidence. They were interested in proving claims. And the same is true for Dr. Luke.
He tells us at the beginning of his gospel, in Luke chapter 1, verses 1 to 4, that he's conducted a careful search of all these things that happened in Jesus' life and death and ministry. He's consulted eyewitnesses. He's got eyewitness testimony. He's carefully investigated, and he's arranged these things for a very important purpose, he says. And this is the purpose of his gospel: so that you might have certainty, you might know that the things you have been taught are sure, are reliable. And that purpose continues. It carries on into the book of Acts, the sequel by Dr. Luke. He's continuing to give us eyewitness testimony. In fact, he uses the language of testimony again and again and again more than 60 times in the book of acts we have these special terms that refer to a witness: one who has seen, one who testifies, who bears witness to these things. Luke is concerned to establish the reliability of all these things that have happened about Jesus. But he's not just he is a historian. He's a very good historian. But he's not just interested in bare history. It's a theological history that he writes. It's a history about Jesus and his people, and how we as the church, as the people of the Lord Jesus, ought to understand him and his present ministry, and how we ought to understand ourselves and our mission.
And he begins in the book of Acts by establishing several things as a wonderful bridge between the gospel and the sequel, the story that follows. Just look at the very first verses, if you would, with me of Acts chapter 1, and notice how many things Luke affirms as true about the historical Jesus and what he does and what he says. Verse 1: Jesus was a historical figure who performed miracles, his works, his deeds. And he taught. We start with Jesus, says Luke, the real Jesus in history. And then as he moves on in verse 3, he tells us again: Jesus suffered. That's shorthand, isn't it, for Jesus suffered and he died a death on a Roman cross. Everything that was affirmed in the Gospels is true, Luke says. Verse 3, he goes on: Jesus really rose from the dead. The resurrection is historical. It's true. And after his resurrection, Jesus appeared to many people and demonstrated with many proofs. You see the evidentiary language that he's using? The word means evidence. He presented himself alive. He proved he wasn't just a ghost. He wasn't a spirit. He wasn't some kind of hallucination. Jesus was really alive again in a true body. Verse 3, as well: there's this 40-day period between Jesus' resurrection and his ascension to heaven. And during that period, he continues to meet with people, to teach, to show himself, to prove that he is indeed alive again. Verse 2, I almost missed it. Then what happens? Jesus is received into heaven, but not before giving commands, the text says. He gave instructions. He gave commands. He commissioned his disciples. That is, he gave them a task to accomplish. And then verse 4: before the disciples go on to minister and to preach, Jesus tells them what? They have to wait. They need to wait. They've got to wait for the promise of the Father, the promise of the Holy Spirit that he would send to them.
Brothers and sisters, there's a lot here in these opening verses that Luke affirms as true and as necessary for us to understand and to believe and to embrace as Christians. And there's also a wonderful signal to us. As Luke affirms these things, as Jesus says these things, that the people of God now, post-resurrection, even as Jesus is ascending into heaven, are a people who are living in the last days. Jesus says, "The promise of the Father is what I will send to you, whom I will send to you. the promise that the prophets foretold. And we know that in chapter 2, Peter's going to get up, but he's going to make this explicit in the very first sermon. He's going to quote from the prophet Joel, chapter 2, verse 29, where we hear that God says, "In the last days I will pour out my spirit in those days." And so if we have ears to hear, along with the disciples here, we realize that's what's happening now. The people of God are living in the last days, A very special time when the kingdom of God is arriving. And we are a people of faith who live by faith in these last days.
What is this faith that characterizes the people of God? If we take into account what we learn in these verses, well, it's a faith in two senses. First of all, the people of God are a people of saving faith a faith that receives the promises of God in Christ, a faith that looks to Christ and acknowledges that he is the only Savior, a faith that rests upon him and knows that in him we have everything that we need to be accepted by God and to be one of his people. That is the kind of faith that characterizes the people of God.
And perhaps there's someone here this morning. We have lots of visitors these days. I love it. Every week I come and there are people that I've not met, and new people that I see across the way. If that's you this morning, and if perhaps you are new to these things, maybe this is a new passage for you I want you to hear this very clearly. What would Dr. Luke say to you? He would say this: that if you understand these claims about who Jesus is, and you understand yourself as a sinner in relation to the crucified, resurrected, ascended Lord Jesus, you realize that you need him, that you need to turn to him by faith and receive forgiveness of your sins. And that is the first and foremost sense of faith that characterizes the people of God, right through the Gospels, right through the book of Acts.
But there's another sense of faith here that we need to consider. And it's the sense of "the faith, the things that we believe, the content of what has been delivered to us by the apostolic testimony that we have here in Luke's book of Acts. There's so much content, isn't there, already in these early verses? It's it's almost a kind of mini creed Jesus suffered, he died, he rose again, he ascended, and he sent his spirit. That's exactly what the creeds affirm, isn't it? And we as a people of faith need to be those who embrace these truths. Ours is not a simplistic faith. It's a wonderful thing for our little ones to go to singing school and to catechism class and Sunday school and to begin to learn the ABCs of the Christian faith, and that's something we never move beyond. Nevertheless, one of the great things the book of Acts challenges us with, helps us with, is that we need to be a people of faith who are always growing in our understanding of the truth of the faith. And primarily that comes to us through the Scriptures. But wonderfully, we have summaries in our creeds. And so this morning I want to exhort you to be one who is growing in your understanding of these precious truths of the faith. And your being here is one of the best ways to do that: being here for Lord's Day worship, being here morning and evening, multiplying your opportunities to grow in the depth of your understanding of the faith. But there are so many other ways as well, aren't there?
Let me just hold out one of them for you. Recently, uh over this past semester at Westminster Seminary California, on Thursday mornings in our morning devotion series, we have been moving our way through, section by section, a meditation on the Nicene Creed. And it's been wonderful to think about the truths that are affirmed here in Acts chapter 1, the truths that are affirmed throughout the New Testament, and to really meditate on those and understand the faith that has been delivered to us more deeply. And each of those is available to you, if you like, on YouTube. You can hear our own Dr. Godfrey. You can hear Dr. Clark. You can hear Dr. Van E. You can hear others speaking about the truths of the faith. So I exhort you, brothers and sisters, to be a people of faith a people of faith like the people we see here right at the outset of the book of Acts, a people of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and all the truth that has been delivered to us.
But we're not only a people of faith. We're also, as we look at verses six to a people of testimony, a people of witness. Luke records for us a question there. Verse 6: the disciples still didn't understand exactly, did they, what Jesus meant? "Lord," they say, "at this moment, right now, are we going to receive the kingdom of glory? Is that kingdom going to be restored to Israel?" The language of restoration here is charged. It's the language of the consummate kingdom of god the restoration of all things in righteousness the renewal it it has those eschatological overtones and the disciples can be forgiven for this question, can't they? Jesus jesus has been raised from the dead. What was one of the great predictions, the great prophecies of the Old Testament? The last days would be days of resurrection. The last days would be days of the kingdom of glory coming. In the last days would be characterized by the Spirit of God being poured out. And isn't that what's happening? And so they can be forgiven for asking, "Jesus, is it now? Is it all happening right now?"
But he says, verse 7, "Not yet. Not yet." And here's the tension that we live in: we live in these last days yes already Jesus has been raised from the dead; yes, already he's poured out his spirit on his people. But not yet do we enjoy the final, perfect, full consummation of the kingdom. And he says to the disciples, "Not yet. You've got to wait." And in this period of waiting, he tells them something very specific to do. There's a task that he gives them. For the younger people here, I know you have homework at school sometimes, don't you? Homework isn't always our favorite thing, but Jesus gives his disciples some homework here. It's a task, but it's a really good one: it's go and wait. Go and wait until you receive the promise from the Father, the Holy Spirit. And he says there in verse 8: "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 ends of the earth."
"Not yet," Jesus says. "Not yet the kingdom of glory. Right now, we wait. And there's going to be a time in which we enjoy the kingdom of grace, and God's patience. And you're going to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit so that you can be my witnesses, proclaiming this gracious gospel to the ends of the earth."
You know, beloved, those of you who know your Bibles, you know this passage. You know that this verse 8 in chapter 1 is a programmatic verse, isn't it? It's programmatic for the structure of the book of Acts. Acts can really be kind of divided along these lines in many ways: Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, the ends of the earth. But it's also programmatic for us as the people of God. This is who we are. This is our identity. This is our homework. We are to be witnesses. We are to be people who have a testimony and who bear that testimony gladly and share that testimony widely. We are people meant to be called to be witnesses.
Of course, we've got to distinguish here, right? There are others who take the name Witnesses. the so-called Jehovah's Witnesses. And I don't know about you, but as I drive through town on my way to work, many times in the park I'll see these people, you know, nicely dressed, very friendly if you've ever spoken to them, very concerned with the way that we live, with our behavior. Not proclaiming that Jesus is true God and true man. You see, their doctrine about Jesus is off the mark, even though they have good intentions. They're not they're not a people who have been properly taught about the faith. So they have a zeal for witness, but it's a zeal for witness that's not grounded in the truth of the biblical faith. We, brothers and sisters, have to be a people of witness who are standing firmly on the faith that has been delivered to us in the Scriptures. But not just those who know what to say, who know that we should be bearing witness, but those who are actually bearing witness.
We've heard from Reverend Gordon over the past months, if you've been listening, that he's been very interested in this, wonderfully so, setting a good example for us in getting out and doing street evangelism. And I'm so grateful to Aniket and some of the others from the impact group and the congregation here, because last month, several weeks ago, we received an invitation at Misia Villanueva: "Hey, do you want to get together? And on a Saturday, let's go over here on the corner of Mission by Lowe's and we'll set up a prayer table and we'll just talk to people as they come by." And so there were a handful of us from Misia Villanueva. There was a nice group here from the Escondido URC. We met there at 10 a.m. And I tell you, it's not something that I normally do. Normally I'm at soccer games on a Saturday. But it was really great. And at first, I think, you know, there's a little bit of awkwardness, right? You're trying to talk to people as they come by on the sidewalk. But then pretty soon, at least a couple of us from Mision Villanueva decided, "We're going to go out and just take a walk around." And I tell you, I've driven how many times down Mission, Quince, many of you know that whole area. I saw things I've never seen from a car. I saw places that I'd never realized we're there. And I talked to people as we went along the way. And so for about two hours, we just had conversations with people. Our little group in Spanish, others who were standing there in English, and inviting them to come to church, asking if we could pray for them, and taking the opportunity then to bear witness to Jesus Christ. It was wonderful. It made me hungry for more.
And I think it's a beautiful, so thank you to Aniket and others who are interested in this. Thank you to Pastor Gordon, who's showing the way here. We are called to be witnesses. And of course, that can be as wonderfully simple as inviting someone to join us for worship. What a great way to be a witness, to invite them to come and to hear God's word proclaimed. But we are called to be witnesses wherever we go. And there are ways that we can do that.
Just one other example that is in my mind because a week and a bit ago, I was in Panama. I went down to Panama. I was invited to speak at a Reformation conference down there. There are some churches. There's a Presbyterian church plant in Panama City, other churches that got together, and they said, "We want to do a Sola Scriptura conference." And so I went down and spoke about Sola Scriptura to a group of 100-some people in Spanish. It was wonderful. It was wonderful. And there were people from Venezuela, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and even some groups who made the drive-in from the more remote areas of Panama, the jungle areas. There were some people from the Kuna tribe there. And the Gospels reached them, and they're seeking to grow in their faith. It was a wonderful picture to me of how this has happened in the Lord's grace and strength. The gospel has gone out to the ends of the earth. It is going out to the ends of the earth. And we are called to be a part of that as witnesses to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we're trying to do that at the seminary as well. Many of you may have heard about our global church initiative at the seminary. It involves several things. We had Dr. Brian DeVries giving some lectures on global mission recently. And he will be preaching this evening. So I really encourage you to come back for evening worship to hear him. He'll be in the pulpit this evening. He's from Grand Rapids area, but he has, for 20 years, been at Mukano Theological College in South Africa and knows some of our friends down that way, Antonio Coppola and Simon Yosta and others. And he is doing good work there. That's part of our global church initiative: to bring people like that so that our students can hear about God's work to the ends of the earth. We're sending groups of students. I'll take a group back down to Panama in the spring. We've taken groups in the past years to Cambodia and to Japan. Why are we doing this? Because we want chapter 1, verse 8 of Acts to be part of the DNA of all of our students who graduate. Whether they go, whether they stay and send and pray and give support, We want to be a kind of seminary that produces pastors who think about our identity: the people of God are a people of witness, a people of testimony. And it's happening. It's happening, brothers and sisters. And it is continuing to happen by the Lord's grace and the Lord's mercy.
So we're a people of faith. We're a people of testimony. But finally, there's a wonderful note here in the text that I don't want us to miss as we come to verses 9 to 11 at the end of the passage. We are also a people of expectation, a people of hope, a people who are looking forward to something.
Look at what these verses say. The time comes, at the end of those 40 days. The moment comes, and Jesus ascends to heaven in front of their very eyes. If you were there that day, you would have seen him ascending bodily into heaven. And verse 9 says: as they were looking on, he was lifted up. Verse 10: while Jesus was ascending, while they were gazing into heaven, they're watching him go and what happens? A cloud hid him. We're told this is no ordinary cloud. This is not, boys and girls Jesus didn't launch into space. He's not in orbit somewhere. He ascended into a glorious cloud and was taken into the invisible heavens, where he is now seated at the right hand of the Father, ruling and reigning over all things, and especially at work for his people, the church.
There were echoes here as well that should have gotten the disciples excited, should get us excited. Jesus and a glorious cloud. Does that language ring any kind of Old Testament prophetic bells for us? It should. It should. Daniel chapter 7, verse 13 speaks of one like the Son of Man, glorious upon the clouds. And this Son of Man has rule and dominion. He's glorious. He has a kingdom that he receives, and he exercises judgment. And that, my friends, is what Jesus is doing now. Having ascended into heaven, right now, he is exercising his glorious kingly rule and judgment from heaven. We can't see him, but he's there. He's doing it.
But on earth, on earth, we are here, continuing to be faithful as God's people, but looking for his return, because that's what these verses promise. Just as he was taken from you, in the same way, he will return. One day he will return. And if you haven't yet listened to Dr. Godfrey's chapel address on that from a month or so ago, I urge you to do so. Jesus will return. And that's the horizon that our the eyes of our faith should be fixed upon, even as we go about our lives, even as we deepen our faith as a people of faith, even as we, with the Holy Spirit's help, seek to live as a people of testimony. Our eyes are always fixed there on that horizon: that he's coming back. Because that's our hope. That's our great desire. That's our great longing to be with him.
But in the meantime, we know wonderfully that he is with us. Not visibly, but he is with us, brothers and sisters, because what does he say? He's given us his Holy Spirit. Jesus has a body, and that body is in heaven. But his presence, by his own Holy Spirit, is here with us now on earth, so that we can be the kind of church, the kind of people that we are called to be. A people of faith, trusting in him, looking to him alone for salvation; a people growing in our faith; a people who are eager for opportunities to bear witness and testimony to the God who has rescued us and who loves to rescue sinners; and a people who have a great expectation, a hope that burns in our hearts, because we can't wait for that day when he's going to return and bring us into his own glorious presence.
Is this the kind of people that you want to be? I know that it is. I know that it is. That the Escondido United Reformed Church has been, continues to be, and wants to grow to be even more this kind of a people. And our great confidence is this: that our Lord Jesus, the ascended King, is guiding us, he's guarding us, and he's giving us everything we need as we advance with the gospel as his people.
Amen. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you once again for your precious word. Thank you for this revelation of your work for us. Thank you for the assurance that we have, that although our eyes cannot see you, King Jesus, that we know that your Holy Spirit dwells within us, each one of us by faith in you, and all of us gather together as your people. And we pray that by that same Spirit, you would humble us, you would strengthen us in our faith, you would lead us forward in our witness, and you would strengthen us and deepen our longing for that day when you will return. And we know that your return will be a great day of deliverance for all those who trust in you. So we pray that you would be working in us in these ways, and we ask it in your name and for your glory.
Amen. Amen.