“When God Grows a Church”
(Acts 1:1-8)
Series: The Church on Fire!
Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD
First Baptist Church Henderson, KY
(6-17-07) (AM)
- Take your Bibles and open to Acts, chapter 1.
Today we are beginning a new series of messages in our morning services and I want to tell you I have been looking forward to this new study in the book of Acts. Our series is entitled “The Church on Fire!” and we’re going to make our way verse-by-verse through this exciting and electrifying book and I really believe that if we’re teachable, God is going to bless our church with a new sense of power and purpose.
I’ve printed a two-sided handout for you some of you may have gotten on the way in and others of you will get it on the way out. At each of the doors you’ll find copies. The book of Acts tells us about the birth and expansion of the church. We’re going to see that even as we read the first few verses in just a moment. The author is Luke and Acts is his second volume. The very first few verses of Acts are very similar to the first few verses of the Gospel of Luke. In the beginning of both books, Luke mentions a man named Theophilus, the person to whom he is writing these two volumes. I encourage you to read the first few verses of Luke later and compare them to the first few verses of Acts. The Gospel of Luke is volume I and the book of Acts is volume II. The date of the book of Acts is about 61-63 AD and again, Luke is writing the book to provide an accurate, historical record of the birth and expansion of the church.
Flip that handout over and you’ll see “An Overview of the Book of Acts.” The key verse to the book of Acts is a verse we’re going to be reading in just a moment; Acts 1:8. I encourage you to memorize Acts 1:8 because it is one of the succinct verses of our Lord’s Great Commission. Jesus says to us in Acts 1:8, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
I like this handout because you can see the entire book of Acts at a glance. You see how Luke records the spread of the church from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. In Acts 1-7, the church is witnessing in Jerusalem. In Acts 8-12, the church is witnessing in all Judea and Samaria. In Acts 13-28, the church is witnessing to all the earth. So you have the Gospel being proclaimed in the city (across the street), in the provinces (across the states), and in the world (across the seas). So we’re going to be reading about this expansion of the church through the “Acts” of the Apostles.
Now while the title of some translations has those very words: “Act of the Apostles,” the book records primarily the “Acts of Peter and Paul.” You can just about divide the book in half that way. Peter is the key personality in chapters 1-12. Paul is the key personality in chapters 13-28. With that brief introduction let me now invite you to stand in honor of the reading of the word of God.
- Stand in honor of the reading of the word of God.
1 The former account [that’s the Gospel of Luke] I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,
2 until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen,
3 to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.
4 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me;
5 “for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7 And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.
8 “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
- Pray.
Introduction:
As we begin this series of messages, “The Church on Fire,” we’re going to be seeing just what the church looks like when God does the growing of it; when God grows the church. Many books on church growth have so adopted popular marketing methods from the business world that they give you the impression that the church can actually run and market itself just like a business. But while the church can certainly learn from the business world, we must always remember that the church is not a business, it is a body. Man does not build the church, God builds the church.
Now I’m not going to suggest that when Luke was writing the book of Acts that he was thinking about the future church in America and writing a church growth manual for us. I don’t think that was at the forefront of his mind. At the same time, however, I do believe that if we’ll read this book carefully we will find that it teaches us so many wonderful principles about true church growth. And if we’ll apply the principles that we learn in this book God will richly bless the ministries of First Baptist Church Henderson.
So we begin our study by learning what a biblical church looks like. Three things I want us to see and learn about a biblical church. Number one, let’s look at:
I. The Main Person of the Church (1-3)
And let’s just get this very clear at the outset: the main person of the church is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is always the main person of the church. If He is not the main person of the church, then the church is not the church. The pastor is not the main person of the church. Founding family members are not the main persons of the church. The church is a body with only one head and the Bible says in Ephesians 1:22 that Jesus Christ is that head. He is the main person of the church. Luke begins this book with a focus on the main person of the book and the main person of the church. Look again at the first three verses.
1 The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,
Remember, his “former account” is the Gospel of Luke. He says, “I wrote the Gospel of Luke, recounting everything that Jesus did and taught,” verse 2:
2 until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen,
This refers to Jesus’ ascension up into heaven. We’ll be looking at that next time. Luke is simply reminding Theophilus how the Gospel of Luke ends. Jesus died on the cross, was buried, and rose the third day. He ascended up into heaven after He gave His commission to the apostles.
3 to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.
Here is a reminder of the capstone of Christianity: Jesus Christ is alive! Luke says that after Jesus Christ died—and He died on the cross for our sins—that Jesus presented Himself alive to His disciples. He presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during 40 days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. That’s how the Gospels end. Jesus Christ is alive. There was even a period of 40 days where as many as 500 people witnessed the one who had been crucified on a cross and placed in a tomb up walking around in a glorified body. Jesus Christ is alive.
And this is precisely why Jesus Christ is always the main person of the church. No one can do what Jesus did. Christianity is the only major religion founded by someone who came back from the dead. Christianity is the only major religion with an empty tomb. The tomb of Mohammed is occupied. The tomb of Buddha is occupied. The tomb of Confucius is occupied. But the tomb of Jesus is empty.
I serve a risen Savior; He is the world today,
I know that he is living, whatever men may say,
I see His hand of mercy; I hear His voice of cheer;
And just the time I need Him, He’s always near.
This is why Jesus can say emphatically, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man comes to the Father except by Me,” because He alone conquers death, hell, and the grave. We must follow Jesus because He alone does what we cannot do. He lives the perfect, sinless life we could not live. He dies for our sins, taking our punishment upon Himself and then getting up out of the grave. That’s why He’s the only Savior. No one else can do that. Jesus Christ is the main person of the church. But not only do we see the main person of the church, we see also:
II. The Mighty Power of the Church (4-5)
If the main person of the church is the Savior, then the mighty power of the church is the Spirit. The power of the church is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit figures prominently in the book of Acts, particularly in the first 12 chapters. We’re going to be reading a lot about this often-neglected third Person of the Trinity: the Holy Spirit. The Bible teaches that the mighty power of the church is always found in the mighty power of the Holy Spirit. Look at verse 4 and following:
4 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me;
5 “for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
Just before Jesus ascends up into heaven He tells the disciples to go to Jerusalem where they will be supernaturally filled with the Holy Spirit of God. Jesus says, “John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” That’s a reference to Pentecost and we’ll be studying that in a few weeks in Acts, chapter 2.
The mighty power of the church is the Holy Spirit. Jump ahead and look at verse 8. Jesus says, “You shall receive—what?—power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” What the disciples received then at Pentecost the Christian receives today the moment he believes in Jesus Christ as Personal Lord and Savior.
Ephesians 1:13 teaches that at the moment we believe in Christ Jesus as our Lord and Savior that we are “sealed with the Holy Spirit.” If you have trusted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, whether you’re 7 years old, 17 years old, or 77 years old, you have the Holy Spirit living within you. The very Spirit of God Himself takes up residence within us! It’s an awesome thing to think about.
Now remember why this is mentioned here. God doesn’t just give us the Spirit to be giving the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the mighty power of the church. The early Christians did powerful things because they were powerfully equipped to do them. The Holy Spirit within us makes us capable of doing things we cannot do without Him.
Have you not had those times when you knew the Spirit of God was working in you and through you, leading you to do things you otherwise could not do yourself? A Christian friend seeks your counsel on a matter about his job, or her relationship, or something and you begin to share with that person counsel from God and His Word. You find the words just coming out so smoothly and they’re all perfectly in harmony with Scripture. Even you are amazed how easily the words flow from your mouth. It happens in evangelism, too. That’s the Spirit of God.
In one of the towns where some of us were evangelizing in Brazil a couple weeks ago we met a young woman who was clearly under conviction for sin. We shared with her the need to turn to Christ and be saved. She felt she could not do that and “had to get some things straightened-out first,” and so forth. We continued to encourage her to come to Christ first and to trust in His perfection, etc. We shared with her all she had to do was simply say, “I want Jesus.” Aware of the guilt and weight of her sin, she resisted until finally, with tears in her eyes she cried, “Eu quero Jesus!” And when she said, “I want Jesus,” you could really sense the power of the Holy Spirit moving in that room. I mean, you could just feel His presence as He made Himself known inside the body of this new believer in Jesus Christ. It was absolutely amazing.
So when you look at verse 8, the key verse of this book, you see that the Holy Spirit is the very one who makes witnessing possible. Jesus says, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me.” How is it possible for me to be a witness to the Lord Jesus Christ? By way of the Holy Spirit. He is the mighty power of the church.
So that takes us to our third point this morning. We’ve seen the main person of the church, the mighty power of the church, look with me now and see:
III. The Major Purpose of the Church (6-8)
What is the major purpose of the church? Well, if the main person of the church is the Savior, the mighty power of the church is the Spirit, then the major purpose of the church is souls. Look again at verse 6 and following:
6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
Now that’s a reasonable question. The disciples had heard Jesus preach a lot about the kingdom of God. They’re wanting to know, “Jesus, since you’ve done what no man can do, you’ve died for our sins and risen from the grave, are we now at the end of the age? Are you going to reign here on earth now and we’re going to reign with you now? Is this the time that you restore the kingdom to Israel?” What’s Jesus’ answer? Verse 7:
7 And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.
In a word, the answer is, “No. No, now is not the time that the kingdom is restored to Israel. Now is not the time of the end of the age.” In fact, Jesus says, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.”
By the way, that’s a good reminder to us that no one knows when the end of the age will occur. Even though the Bible is so clear about this, there are always these crazy guys who start setting dates and writing books and telling us exactly when they think Jesus is going to return. Now there’s nothing wrong with studying about the end of the age. That’s in the Bible. Last year at this time we were going through the Book of Revelation. But the Christian’s major purpose for existence is not to study prophecy and try to figure out when the church will be raptured up to meet Jesus in the air and return with Him to reign.
Note carefully the context here of verse 7. Jesus says, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.” That is, “This is not your major purpose for existence.” Well if studying prophecy is not the church’s major purpose, what is?
Hey, here’s an easy question: are you ready for this? Anyone can get this: “What verse comes after verse 7?” Anybody know? Right! Verse 8. So back up again and read verse 7: “And He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.” That’s not your purpose. Keep reading, verse 8:
8 “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
There’s the church’s major purpose. You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me. That’s our primary purpose, church. That’s our primary mission. The church must be first about Acts 1:8. That’s number one. Everything else is number two, three, and so forth. Jesus tells us we must first be about the business of being and Acts 1:8 church.
Note the progression: You shall be my witnesses—where? He says, “In Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” We read about that in the book of Acts. We read of the apostles’ being the Lord’s witnesses in Jerusalem in Acts 1-7; we read about the apostles’ being the Lord’s witnesses in Judea and Samaria in Acts 8-12; and we read about the apostles’ being the Lord’s witnesses to the end of the earth in Acts 13-28 in Paul’s missionary journeys. Witnessing begins in our hometown, reaches across the states, and into the ends of the earth.
“You shall be My witnesses.” That’s an expectation of our Lord Jesus Christ. He expects every single one of us to be His witness. We’re to be His witnesses. That’s more than just coming Monday evenings to tell others about Jesus. It includes that to be sure and I hope many of you will come out tomorrow night at to tell others about Jesus. It’s also more than going to the ends of the earth to tell others about Jesus. We had an incredible time going to Bahia Brazil, telling people the Good News about Jesus Christ. We saw many saved and I look forward to sharing more about our trip in the days and weeks ahead.
But listen: being a witness begins in the home. You ought to be talking openly and frankly about Jesus with your mom, dad, son, daughter, husband, and wife. If you and I are not witnesses at home then we won’t be very good witnesses anywhere else. What’s the most important thing you can talk about today after the service is over? Jesus. What’s the most important topic today at lunch? Jesus. Talk to one another about Jesus Christ. He’s the main person of the church. How will you do it? Through the mighty power of the church; the Spirit.
The main person of the church: the savior; the mighty power of the church: the spirit; the major purpose of the church: souls.
- Stand for prayer.
I would love to tell you what I think of Jesus,
Since I found in Him a friend so strong and true.
I would tell you how He changed my life completely;
He did something no other friend could do.
No one ever cared for me like Jesus;
There’s no other friend so kind as He.
No one else could take the sin and darkness from me;
O how much He cared for me.
Turn to Jesus Christ this morning. Receive Him into your life and be forgiven of sin and powerfully transformed for the glory of God.
COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER: The text contained in this sermon is solely owned by its author. The reproduction, or distribution of this message, or any portion of it, should include the author’s name. The author intends to provide free resources in order to inspire believers and to assist preachers and teachers in Kingdom work.