Four Essential Beliefs that
Exploded in the Early Church
Acts 1.1-11
Opening illustration:
Someone has said ….One person with a conviction is equal to a force of
ninety-nine who only have an interest (Anonymous).
The early Church is proof
positive of the reality of that statement.
Note the impact of the early
Church in its day…
Acts 17:6
Acts 19:20
Acts 22:22
Acts 24:5
Is that the impact we are
having today, in our world, in our city? …Not to be negative, but we are not,
in our day, having the same impact….Even when numbers increase, for which we
rejoice, we do not see the impact on the moral climate of our country.
Our need in this dilemma to
compare our beliefs and the result to the early Church…our need is to measure
our condition and convictions and beliefs and the impact against the Church in
its early stages…
To do that we need to
immerse ourselves in the book of Acts.
Background of the Book of Acts..
Luke is the author of the
Book of Acts, Luke is a Medical Dr., Paul refers to him as the “..beloved Physician ..: in Col.
4:14
Luke has written another
book, one of the gospels, and that book bears his name …he makes mention of
that previous work in Vs 1 (he refers to it as ”…the former treatise...”)
Dr. Luke addresses the book
of Acts to a friend named Theophilus… many believe Theophilus was a
high-ranking Roman official.
The two books of Luke are in his mind no
doubt a set …
Volume I The Gospel of Luke was the historical account of the beginning of the
Lord’s work and teaching. Vs 1
Volume II The Book of Acts was the continuation of the Lord’s work carried out
by the Apostles as per the instruction left by Him.
Volume one would be the Book
of Luke and the Lord’s work in His body of flesh.
Volume two would be the Book
of Acts and the Lord’s work through His body, His Church.
Volume one would be the Lord
in Action personally.
Volume two would be the Lord
in action through His people.
The most noticeable and
headline difference between the two volumes is the dramatic change in the
behavior of the Disciples …between these two volumes the Disciples’ attitude,
behavior, mindset went through a dramatic transformation….
In volume one they were
argumentative and self-promoting.
In volume one they could not
seem to get the mental picture of what the Lord was teaching.
In volume one they were
often questioning and confronting the Lord.
In volume one they were a
complaining lot always concerned about being fed a meal and bothered by the
pesky people who followed the Lord.
In volume one they were
discontent, non-discerning, divisive Disciples.
In volume two the Disciples
have become a team, a unit, an army
with dedication, conviction,
discernment, humility and perseverance ….
The result was the early Church experienced an explosion.……The
explosion of the early Church appears to have been fueled by 4 qualities or
convictions: 4 realities that the
Disciples embraced with conviction… what they had been taught and knew
informationally had become real to them.
I.
The Disciples had a living faith in the living Lord. Vs 3
Follow the time line of the
Disciples’ relationship with the Lord.
They accepted and believed
in Him as they saw and experienced His miracles, and heard His message . They
were disciples of the Lord…committed to Him to the point that they understood
Him.
Then their Lord, who they
supposed was going to set up a kingdom and right the wrongs on this earth, was
crucified and buried….and that did not fit their understanding of the Lord and
His movement. Even though He had told
them of His death and resurrection,
they did not understand and the proof they did not understand is in the fact
that on the third day …none of them were waiting at the tomb……the Lord had to
eventually go find them and appear to them were He had originally found
them. They had gone back to fishing…….
They, for the most part,
abandoned Him at His trial and crucifixion.
They did not go to meet Him
on the resurrection morning.
They went back to their
former occupation prior to having met the Lord .…
But what brought these
Disciples back to faith, back to dedication, back to commitment, back to
ministry, back to loyal service was the personal encounters with the Living
Lord.
Paul listed some of these
encounters:
I Cor.15:3-8 3 For I delivered unto you first of all that
which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the
scriptures;
4 And that he was
buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
5 And that he was
seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:
6 After that, he
was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part
remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.
7 After that, he
was seen of James; then of all the apostles.
8 And last of all
he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.
Here is what we need to
learn from this ….What a difference an encounter with the Living Lord makes.
Seeing and experiencing the
Living Lord turned these Disciples into willing, cooperative, humble, yet bold
as lion servants of the Lord willing to die and gladly accept a martyr’s death
because they had seen and experienced the Living Lord.
Here is a truth ….WHAT ONE
BELIEVES DETERMINES ONES ACTIVITY ….We will follow in activity and ultimately
become what we genuinely believe.
Prov 23:7 For as
he thinketh in his heart, so is he:
If one believes nothing, he
will stand for and become nothing…
Illustration:
Steve Martin once said: It’s so hard to
believe in anything anymore. I guess I
wouldn’t believe in anything if it weren’t for my lucky Astrology Mood Watch
(Steve Martin).
Now keep in mind what we
have learned ….What you believe in determines what you stand for and ultimately
what you will become.
If the depth of your faith
is a lucky astrology mood watch, I don’t expect you to take much of a
stand. But if you genuinely believe
that Jesus, who was alive and then crucified and is resurrected and alive
today, you will ultimately, unashamedly and publicly stand with and for the
Lord.
Illustration: When
talk-show host Larry King underwent heart surgery in 1988, one of the many
thousands of letters he received from across the country particularly impacted
him. Enclosed with a Bible, it read:
Dear Larry, I’m
so glad to heart that everything went well with your surgery. I want you to know that
God was watching
over you every minute, and even though I know you question that, I also know
that
one day it will
be revealed to you. My prayer is that
you remain open and God will touch you life as he
has mine. Once I was a disbeliever. When I could not fill my life with
basketball, I would simply
substitute sex,
drugs, or material things. . . I was never satisfied. I have finally realized after 40 years
that Jesus Christ
is in me. He will reveal His truth to
you, Larry, because He lives. Pete
Maravich.
I want to repeat the
truth….If you genuinely believe that Jesus, who was alive and then crucified
and is resurrected and alive today , you will ultimately, unashamedly and
publicly stand with and for the Lord.
Could I ask you a question
…and would you answer it in your heart and mind???
Do you believe the Lord is
alive and present….????
What difference has it made
in your life…..?????
Do you accept and believe
that Jesus is risen from the dead?
I’m not asking if you think
Jesus is a good man or if His spirit lives on or if His teachings command
respect.
I’m asking, do you believe
in the depth of your soul that Jesus Christ, who claimed to be the Son of God,
actually proved His claim by defeating death and being resurrected by His
Father?
I’m asking you, do you
believe Christ is alive?
That He’s present here?
That He knows your
name?
That He cares about what you
do with your life?
That we are accountable to
Him?
Because if you do, that
belief in the life of the Apostles was the basis for a changed life….!!!!
The Disciples had faith in
the living Lord.
II. The
Disciples had faith in the dependability of the Holy Spirit Vs 4-5
Note the instruction of the
Lord to wait for “the promise of the Father”…Vs 4
The last chapter of volume
one …Luke 24:29 Luke records Jesus
telling His Disciples …. And, behold, I send the
promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye
be endued with power from on high.
The first chapter of volume
two…Acts 1:4, 8
Luke writes of the Lord’s
insistance upon the Disciples’ dependence upon the Holy Spirit.
The Disciples are taught
three truths of the Holy Spirit.
A. The assurance
of the Holy Spirit’s power …
Vs 4 “…the
promise…”
Vs 5 “..ye shall
be ..”
B. The exclusiveness
of the Holy Spirit’s power…
Vs 4 “.. of the Father….” “..ye have heard of me…”
Vs 8 “ye shall receive power
after the Holy Ghost is come upon you..”
The only divinely endorsed
power for Ministry is that of the Holy Spirit as described in the Scripture.
C. The necessity
of the Holy Spirit’s power…Vs 4 “..not
depart…” “….but wait…”
All acceptable and
accomplished spiritual ministry is only
possible by the work of the Holy Spirit.
Zec. 4:6 Not by
might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.
D. The sufficiency
of the Holy Spirit’s power…Vs 8
The promise of the Father
was the sufficient power to accomplish the remaining commission…
The Disciples believed in
the Holy Spirit’s exclusiveness, necessity and sufficiency….as evidenced
because :
They waited as instructed
..they did not seek alternative means…they did not seek alternative powers..
they were content to wait on and then courageously serve in the Holy Spirit’s
power…..
They did not seek to measure
its success or compare its success or see if there was something more effective
or if they could improve it or tweak it or master it or manipulate it ...they
just contently and with confidence waited, then went forward relying on it…
Now here is a truth made
very clear in our text…God’s Spirit in and through God’s People is God’s means
of accomplishing His purpose…God’s power in your person is God’s means of
accomplishing His purpose.
Your life and God’s Spirit
Your hands and God’s Spirit
Your lips and conversation
and God’s Spirit
Paul said …1Th 1:5 For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but
also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what
manner of men we were among you for your sake.
The Holy Spirit used Paul’s
message and manner of living to impact and convince people of the reality of
the Gospel.
We have, in the Holy Spirit,
adequacy from on high a heavenly sufficiency.
These fishermen faced the
world being assured of the exclusive presence of the sufficient Holy Spirit of
God.
Question: If we were assured
that we could not fail because of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit,
would we be better witnesses? …..Would we not put aside this endless search for
a better way and be content and aggressive in giving out the truth of God and
relying on the Holy Spirits power?
The Disciples had an
unashamed dependence upon the Holy Spirit.
And if you and I want our lives to count for God, so must we.
The Disciples had faith in
the living Lord
The Disciples had faith in
the dependability of the Holy Spirit
III. The Disciples had faith in their accountability for
their mission….Vs 6-8
They believed they were
accountable for the World….at a cost of themselves…..
It was clear in their mind
that the Lord had called them to a very specific and very significant
mission--to bear witness to His Lordship throughout the entire world.
The Living Lord was going to
place His Holy Spirit in them so they could effectively be witnesses of Him to
the world…
Everyone is not a preacher and everyone in not an Evangelist but
everyone is a witness…..you cannot help it …we are constantly, by our living,
testifying of or the lack of the presence of Christ in our lives.
Our purpose, the purpose of
every Believer, is to live a life that reveals the divine power of Christ. Our
actions, our possessions, our jobs, our families, our priorities, and our
examples should all be orchestrated to make a singular and huge statement of
the reality of the living Lord Jesus.
No one believing in the
living Lord Jesus has to live a life that lacks purpose if we will take up the
cause handed to us….
Every Christian is charged
with the serious responsibility to bring the gospel to the world, the good news
that God loves them and Christ died for them and abundant, eternal life is
available to them.
The Christian and or even
the Church that forgets its basic mission will be a listless, wandering,
unfocused group of well-meaning but ineffective people.
That is a real possibility,
as even the Disciples, hearing these instructions, had questions that could
have distracted them from the task at hand…Vs 6-7
Listen carefully, we as
Children of God have been redeemed by Christ and given to Christ as a gift …and
a good gift will fulfill its purpose, which is representing Christ on the
earth… and nothing is to distract us from that purpose…..
So many live a life short of
God’s purpose…
Illustration: As
Pancho Villa, the famous Mexican revolutionary, lay dying, his last words were:
“Don’t let it end like
this. Tell them I said something!”
What does your life
say??????
What will your life
say??????
Before your salvation we
were alive of grace that you might be saved.
Now that you are saved, we
live with the obligation to make Christ known…
Christ didn’t call you to a fuzzy mission. He called us to be His witness of Him.
The disciples believed in
the Living Lord
The disciples believed in
the dependable Holy Spirit
The Disciples believed in
their accountability for a mission.
IV. The Disciples believed their Lord was
coming back…Vs 9-11
The Disciples may have been
left sorrowful and fearful with the risen Lord departing ….but they understood
that if He did not go, the Spirit would not come, so they watched Him ascend
……and might have been there looking up still except an angel told them not to
become permanent idle cloud watchers….No lollygaging! The angel might have had the attitude or tone of voice …hey
fellows, didn’t the Lord tell you to go wait somewhere for Him? If you do not want to miss Him you better
get started…!!!!
The angel said He will come
back in the same glory and the same body and from the same Heaven you saw Him
ascend into….
The Disciples believed the
Lord was coming back…and it impacted their lives….
It comforted them when they
were weary
It gave them strength when
they had to go to the cemetery
It gave them contentment
when they had to do without
It gave them boldness when
the world was against them
Their belief in the coming
Lord sustained and comforted and motivated them in their lives.
The thought to be considered
is that in this Christian life there is a beginning, with a daily grind but an
assured rich celebration and reward.
The assured celebration at
the end sustains us during the daily grind.
It is not the coming itself
that sustains, but rather the person who is coming……and the deliverance He
brings and the company He is traveling with…
Conclusion…The Disciples
believed
Living Lord
Dependable Holy Spirit
Accountability for a purpose
Coming of the Lord
It impacted them
The question is, do you
share those beliefs?
One person with a conviction equals a force of
ninety-nine who have only an interest (Anonymous).
Has believing those things
impacted you? …if not, why? …do you really believe them, are they real to you…?
Bow before the Lord in faith
Bow before the Lord and
start living as a Believer
Bow before the Lord and seek
His help in your purpose
