November 5, 2017 Chris Dolson Series: Message: Main Idea: Purpose: Text: Ten Years I. Introduction: The Church is Not a Building.

Transcription

1 November 5, 2017 Chris Dolson Series: Love This Book God and the Church Message: Birth of the Church Main Idea: The Holy Spirit empowers God s people to reach everyone everywhere with the gospel. Purpose: To help people understand that the church is not a building, but it is the people of God who are empowered by the Holy Spirit to reach everyone everywhere with the gospel. Text: Acts 2:1-41 Ten Years (not part of the message) Today commemorates the 10 th anniversary of our moving into this building on Brader Way. Our first service in this building was on November 4, From Brader Way we have launched our Blackhawk Downtown Campus (2010) and our Blackhawk Fitchburg Campus (2013). - Without this home base site, we would not be able to launch the sites that you are in. We are all connected to each other. Blackhawk Church is a little more than 52 years old. Blackhawk Church has met at : Blackhawk Avenue : Whitney Way : Brader Way 2010: Blackhawk Downtown (Majestic Theater, then UpperHouse) 2013: Blackhawk Fitchburg (Savanah Oaks Middle School) Those of us who were a part of Blackhawk Church before 2007 had a vision of reaching people who we had never seen, who would one day join us in our mission. God has used this building to reach more and more people with the good news of Jesus Christ. - People have met Christ here; people have met friends here; lives have been transformed here. - God has used this building as a tool to help us accomplish our mission: Building a loving community that follows Christ in order to reach the community around us. REACH is about reaching more and more people with the good news of Jesus Christ for the good of the city and the sake of the world. - That is why we want to partner with Zion City Church, want to purchase land and build a building in Fitchburg, want to expand this facility, and want to dream about launching another site. - We want to reach people who are just like you. There are hundreds and thousands of people of all kinds of backgrounds and beliefs that we want to reach with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thank you to those who released resources over 10 years ago because you had the vision to not just think about yourself but to sacrifice for people you didn t even know. Thank you to those of you who have joined our REACH initiative and who long to reach more and more people with the gospel of Christ. I dream about a day 10 years from now when a whole bunch of people will be able to say that their lives have been changed because of what you are doing for them right now. I. Introduction: The Church is Not a Building. Today, the word Church is a code word for a building, or it refers to an activity. The word church in the Bible refers to people: a group of people who are empowered by God to proclaim the gospel to everyone everywhere. - In the Bible, the word church never refers to a building. 1

2 - The first time the word church started to refer to a building was about years after the days of the New Testament. - This building that we are in is a tool for the church to use. Biblically speaking, it is not a church. - The church is really located all over Dane County. Our church is not a building; it is us, people. Acts 2 defines the beginning of this new community that God empowers to reach the world with the good news of Jesus Christ. For an introduction to the book of Acts, links to the Bible Project video are in our Love this Book app on YouVersion. II. Acts 2: The Event and Reaction By the Crowd. Acts 2:1-4: The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost - The they and them in these verses refers back to Acts 1:15, the brothers and sisters who knew and traveled with Jesus. They are identified as 120 followers of Christ. Those people listed back in Acts 1: These were all Jewish followers of Jesus. - The text also tells us that they were in one place. We are not told specifically where that was, but it was not the temple. That is significant. - The text also tells us why they had gathered it was Pentecost. What is Pentecost? - Pente refers to 50: It was 50 days after Passover. For a first-century Jew, Passover reminded them of the story of the Exodus from Egypt when God fulfilled the promises made to Abraham by rescuing his people. Passover was the time when lambs were sacrificed and the Israelites emerged from Egypt saved from the avenging Angel of the Lord who slew the first born of all the Egyptians. - They all escaped to the desert, and then, 50 days after their escape, they came to Mount Sinai, where Moses received the law. When God showed up at Mount Sinai, there was a violent sound of wind and thunder and lightning and fire came down upon the mountain (Exodus 19:16ff). This was Pentecost! - For a first-century Jew, Pentecost was the fiftieth day after Passover. It was an agricultural festival. But, for the Jew, it was not simply an agricultural festival. It was the day when farmers brought the first sheaf of wheat from the crop of barley, and offered it to God, partly as a sign of gratitude and partly as a prayer that all the rest of the crop, too, would be safely gathered in. To them, Pentecost was not just about first fruits, it was about God giving to his new people a new way to live and behave. To the first century Jew, Pentecost was a very significant day it signified a new beginning. - For these people who had gathered, just 50 days prior, on Passover, Jesus the Lamb of God was crucified, on a cross. - Now, 50 days later, God is going to descend once again, and start something brand new! And, like on Sinai, it will all begin with a violent sound of wind. What happened at Pentecost? - The first thing that happened was that they heard the sound of a violent wind and rushing wind. The idea of wind is often associated with God s activity. - Second, they saw what looked like tongues of fire that came down to rest on each one of them. - Third, they began to speak in tongues they all began to speak in other languages or dialects. Each person can hear about God s work in his or her own language. These tongues allow the disciples to speak about God s activity in the foreign languages of their audience (Acts 2:4-11). These tongues function as an evangelistic enablement. - They first heard the sound of a violent wind. They first saw this distribution of fire. 2

3 Acts 2:5 13: The perplexed reaction of those who were in the area at the time - As it takes place, no one can figure out how Galileans can speak in the variety of languages that match the nationalities of the Diaspora Jews living in Jerusalem. God is taking the initiative to enable his people to explain what has taken place through Jesus. - Some watching what is happening in Jerusalem mock the event (Acts 2:13). So, Peter explains. IV. Peter First Explains the Phenomenon (Acts 2:14-21) This is one of the most famous sermons recorded in the Bible. - Peter s message looks short here it only goes to verse 36 but he said more than what is recorded here. Verse 40 makes that clear. - The most important thing to notice about this message is that he is not preaching to those of us here in Madison in He is preaching to a bunch of Jewish people. You will hear him emphasize that over and over again (e.g. Fellow Jews or Fellow Israelites ). These are Jewish people gathered in the Jewish capitol for a Jewish Holiday. This message is Jewish: Jewish people, Jewish holiday, Jewish capitol, Jewish Scripture. - Because he is speaking to a bunch of Jewish people, he is going to refer to their scriptures. He refers to three passages from their Hebrew Bibles. Those references will be confusing to most of us, but his audience would have understood perfectly what he was referring to. Some of these words were like code words to them. Too often we try to figure out how these passages apply to us without first asking what they meant to the people who first heard them. Acts 2: Peter is saying to the Jewish crowd: God has begun what we have longed for all of our lives as we have gone to the synagogues and listened to the readings from the Hebrew Scriptures. Our Hebrew Bibles confirm all of this. - Acts 2:17 The Last Days have begun. The early apostles saw themselves living in the last days. When Peter concludes his message, he ll appeal to the idea that the coming calamity of judgment might happen at any time. Pour Out is significant. The image is of a torrential downpour which is poured out on the entire earth. Joel s prophesy is about the pouring out of the Spirit on all flesh. The universality of the distribution of the Spirit. + Up to this moment, God has acted by his Spirit among his people, but it s always been by inspiring individual people kings, prophets, priests, and righteous men and women. + Now, in a sudden burst of fresh divine energy released through the death and resurrection of Jesus, God s spirit has been poured out upon a lot of people all at once. + There is no discrimination between slaves and free, male and female, young and old. People of every age and gender and class are meant. - Acts 2:18 Men and Women. This new community will bring a new freedom for women. Both men and women will prophesy and proclaim the gospel. Women were often overlooked, especially in a patriarchal culture. Now he makes sure that they are included. - Acts 2:19 A shift from the universal distribution of the Spirit to the universal activity of God. These wonders will be above and below. Blood and fire evoke the theme of judgment to come. This is all an anticipation of great judgment that will be coming on the earth. There is a reality of the coming of judgment. It will be a horrible reality. We often play this down, but this is part of the good news. There is an escape from the coming days of judgment. + We escape that by calling on the name of the Lord. What is probably most significant is something that we (as American readers) would totally ignore. - The Spirit is not coming down in the Temple or on the chief priests and other religious leaders. The Spirit is coming down on ordinary men and women who were gathered in the one place. 3

4 - It is coming down on those people who had been with Jesus. - The work of God is wonderfully inclusive. There is no age, gender, or class that is left out. - It is also wonderfully focused; it happens to those people who will call upon the name of the Lord. The Lord that Joel meant was Israel s God, Yahweh. Now that seems to be Jesus. Acts 2:22 24 Peter Links the Phenomena with Jesus of Nazareth. - Acts 2:23 Peter presents the death of Christ as having been caused by the audience, but also as being by God s set purpose and foreknowledge. - We see here the paradox between divine providence and human responsibility (Acts 4:27 28). While God planned for Christ to die on the cross, those who carried out this act were responsible for it. Jesus was delivered up according to God s plan and foreknowledge. Jesus death was no surprise to God, nor was his suffering. Nothing was outside of God s plan. - Acts 2:24 offers a play on words. The word for agony is normally used for birth pangs. Just like a baby cannot stay in the womb, Jesus the Messiah could not stay in the grave. He quotes Psalm 16. The main idea is: the future Messiah, not David, is going to rise from the dead. Acts 2:25 32 All of this is about the resurrection. - Our faith is grounded in the resurrection of Christ, a historical event. Our faith is fundamentally grounded not in an ethic or a way to behave; it is grounded in the bodily resurrection of Jesus. Acts 2:33 There are three things that happened when he rose from the dead. - Exalted to the right hand of God, he received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit; he then poured out what they are now experiencing. His point is that Jesus is responsible for everything that is happening. - Christ is Christianity. He is the center of the whole thing. - This is why he told his disciples to not leave Jerusalem until they had received the power from on High (Luke 24:45-49). Peter quotes Psalm 110, which is quoted more times in the New Testament than any other Psalm. Acts 2: Acts 2:36 Lord and Messiah. When the people looked into the face of Jesus, they were looking into the face of God himself. God raised Jesus to come directly into God s presence in heaven. The very one the Jewish leaders crucified is the unique, anointed one whom God placed at his side. Christ is the Lord himself. V. The Reaction of the Crowd: Repent and Receive the Promised Gift (Acts 2:37-41). Acts 2: Repent means to turn, or to change one s mind. They believed that Jesus was just an ordinary person. This is not true. They needed to change their mind and understand that they just killed the Lord and the Messiah. - Baptism follows. It is the sign of the new covenant. It is something that they would decide to do. It is not like circumcision. Circumcision was only for Jewish males, and it was passive. + Circumcision was something that was done to you by a priest when you were 8 days old. + Baptism is active. You have to decide: Yes, I m a follower of Jesus. They were baptized 3000 of them. This was the beginning of the new movement; it was called the Way. It is the beginning of the church, the body of Christ. VI. This Chapter Presents a Story That is the Reversal of What Happened at the Tower of Babel. Genesis 11 described a move by humans to unite the world. Acts 2 is a contrast to Genesis 11. 4

5 - Humans had their own idea about unity. They were going to unify their efforts to reach up to God. - Genesis 11, the story of the Tower of Babel, highlights one of the main plights of this world: humanity is hopelessly divided. Genesis 12 begins the story of Abraham that culminates in the story of Pentecost, the coming together of all peoples joined as one as the great reversal of the Tower of Babel. - Now God comes down and uses different languages to unite the world so that all of the world hears the good news about Jesus Christ. - Genesis 11: Languages divide people. Acts 2: Languages unite people. - Genesis 11: People trying to build something that leads them to God. Our power will unite the world. Acts 2: God comes down to all people and builds his church using people and not bricks and mortar. God s power will unite the world. - Man s plans lead to division God s plans lead to unity. Languages unite; they no longer divide. - All people hear the good news about Jesus Christ that unites a diverse world. VII. How do we respond to all of this? This passage is about the birth of the church how God empowers people to spread the good news of the gospel to everyone everywhere. This is an extremely important and unique event. - The church only had one birthday. We should not expect the same kind of things to happen again: the wind, flames of fire, and miraculous ability of ordinary people to speak in multiple languages. In a way, we all speak different languages, and God wants us to use those languages to reach other people with the gospel of Christ (e.g. some people speak accounting, engineering, or philosophy). - God wants to use your abilities to reach other people who understand your language. - You have credibility in your world. You speak the language. Some of us believe that we don t have the ability to speak to others about the message of the Gospel. - You don t have the ability or power to do that on your own. - Ephesians 5:18 20 We should be filled and controlled by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God can enable us to do things that actually seem impossible to us (e.g. the ability to forgive someone who is mean to us, to bring peace between co-workers who are constantly fighting, or to be patient with someone who drives everyone else crazy). The Fruit of the Spirit are things that just seem impossible. - Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness Do you speak that language in your home, at your work place, in your neighborhood? That is the result of being controlled by the Spirit of God. He fills us and enables us to do things that just seem impossible for us to do. 5