You Will Be My Witnesses (Acts 1:1-11) | 1/9/22
Acts 1:1-11 | 1/9/22 | Wil DuVal
But I AM very excited this morning to launch our new sermon series for 2022 in the Book of ACTS. We’re subtitling this series, “You Will Be My Witnesses”, and I’ve titled this morning’s MESSAGE “You Will Be My Witnesses”, because as we’re going to see, the author of Acts, Luke, he gives us the THESIS for this book, its MISSION statement, if you will, right off the bat here in ch1, v8, when the risen Lord Jesus, in his final words before leaving earth and ascending back into Heaven, turns to his disciples NOW-TURNED-APOSTLES – that’s an important shift in title, by the way: Jesus’ inner circle, his 12 closest friends, were almost exclusively called “DISCIPLES” throughout Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the 4 Gospels (‘disciple’ means “FOLLOWER”; they had followed Jesus around during his time on earth); but nowtheir title in the Book of Acts shifts to “APOSTLES”, which means “sent ones”. Because as Jesus himself will commission them, here in v8: I’m SENDING you out, and “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
And as we’ll see, that commission serves not only as the thesis for the book of Acts, but it actually provides us with an OUTLINEof the book as well; chs1-7 of Acts will focus on the apostles’ witness in JERUSALEM; chs8-11 record the expansion of their witness into Judea and Samaria, and then chs12-28 detail the beginnings of the spread of the gospel into ALL the ends of the earth, as far as ROME, by ch28!
Your Bibles may tell you the FULL title traditionally ascribed to this book: “The Acts of the APOSTLES”. But that’s a BAD title. Because if you know anything about the Book of Acts – and by the way, if you don’t, that’s okay too; I’m especially excited to have YOU join us on this journey through Acts this year, if it’s gonna be your first time studying through it; how exciting! – but if you ARE familiar with the book, you’ll know that VERY little of what we’re gonna see unfold over the course of the next 28 chapters can be attributed in any way to the APOSTLES. I count 30 miracles in these 28 chapters; that’s more than one per chapter. And by the way, we should ALSO note that this book spans a period of time of about 30 years, from AD 33 to AD 63; so that’s about one miracle per YEAR, in these first 3 decades of the early church.
But I point that out to you up front, because you may be temptedover the next year to put the early church up on a PEDESTAL. Like, “Man! Look at all the amazing things that were happening in the life of the early church! We need to get back to THAT!”
And to be sure, God DID accomplish some really remarkable, praise-worthy “acts” through these apostles. But that’s just the thing we’ve gotta remember, Church:
GOD was the one who accomplished these “acts”, through the apostles! Our study of Acts shouldn’t so much inspire us to revere the early church, as it inspires us to revere the GOD of the early church!
And guess what: the God of the first century, miracle-working Church, is the SAME God of the 21st c. American Church! Amen? Do you believe that?
The same Holy Spirit who empowered the miracles that we’re gonna witness on these pages of Scripture over this next year, is the same Holy Spirit who lives in YOU, and in ME, who empowers the miracles that we STILL see happening all around us in the world today. And if you don’t think God still works miracles – at least a miracle a year! – in the life of His Church, then you reallyneed to pay more attention. To what God is doing all around us. God is still at work, in and through His Church.
And we know the greatest miracle of ALL occurs every time the Lord regenerates a sinner’s dead heart, and causes them to be born again through the power of the gospel; THAT is a miracle He is still working every single day, all around the world.
And YET – and I wanna be totally transparent with you about my OWN motives in selecting the Book of Acts for us to walk through together in 2022, and my OWN deepest desire and prayer for THIS church, West Hills: we have NOT witnessed God work THATmiracle – the miracle of SALVATION – at OUR church NEARLY as often as we ought to WANT Him to, ASK Him to, BEG Him to; we ought to be BEGGING the Lord, collectively, as a Church, to see lost people saved by the power of the gospel, through the work of the Holy Spirit, every single WEEK here, every DAY, all throughoutthe week, through our individual ministries to those within our personal scope of influence, as WE are sent out, Monday – Saturday, as witnesses to the good news of Jesus Christ in the greater St. Louis area.
For ALL the reasons we have to celebrate 2021 together as a church – and there were many WINS, to be sure – but I can only think of ONE person that I personally know of, who came to saving faith through the ministry of West Hills last year. Praise God, for that one soul, who now has a saving relationship with Jesus, and the hope of eternal life. But brothers and sisters, I don’t think I’m setting the bar too high for us when I say: THAT CANNOT BE OKAY WITH US. As a church, we have GOT to be praying, to be PLEADING with God, to use the ministry of this church to save more people. Listen: there’s not a problem with DEMAND. We’re all worried about the world’s “Supply chain” issues right now – you want new windows for your home? It’s gonna take 6 months because the supply chain is so screwed up. Listen: We oughta be more worried about the GOSPEL supply chain. The DEMAND is there – people need the hope of Jesus now more than EVER! But we’ve got a SUPPLY chain problem in this country: are we GIVING them the gospel? Are we BEING his witnesses? Forget about Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth; are we even faithfully witnessing in our Jerusalems? In our own backyards? Our offices? With our extended families and friends?
As a church, we need prayer and WORK in this area; what we NEED, is a work of the HOLY SPIRIT! Cuz we can’t change peoples’ hearts; only GOD can. But in His Providence, God USES us as His vessels, to CARRY His good news of salvation to those who need to hear it. May WE be those vessels, in 2022, West Hills!
So that’s all the sermon BEFORE the sermon. The reason we’re studying Acts this year, and what I’m asking you to join me in PRAYER for this year: that God would save sinners through the ministry of this church. Through YOU, and through ME, being sentas His witnesses.
But to finish my thought on the TITLE: the better title of this book isn’t “The Acts of the Apostles,” but rather, as Alan Thompson puts it: “The Acts of the Lord Jesus, through his people, by the Holy Spirit, for the accomplishment of the Father’s [mission].” You got all that? In case you want to put a big “X” through your Bible’s Table of Contents, and instead of “Acts of the Apostles,” write in: “The Acts of the Lord Jesus, through his people, by the Holy Spirit, for the accomplishment of the Father’s [mission].”
So let’s dive into the book itself; would you stand with me… SCRIPTURE: Acts 1:1-11
“In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. 4 And while staying[a] 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; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with[b] the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 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.” 9 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. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 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.””
This is the word of the Lord… Let’s pray…
I already told you the thesis of the Book of Acts, the Cliff’s notes SUMMARY: it is ALL about God’s MISSION to send His people, in the power of His Spirit, to proclaim His gospel, to the ends of the earth. And we’re gonna see ALL of that right up front, in these first 11 verses for this morning. Specifically, Luke reveals here FIVE features of this mission that Jesus left us with, following his death, resurrection, and ascension.
#1 – The first aspect of the mission, that we’ll spend the BULK of our time together on this morning, is its ENVIRONMENT. The Mission’s environment. The context into which Jesus delivers His marching orders to his apostles, and the context for the Book of ACTS itself. Luke tells us FOUR important details about this book right up front. To best understand anything that you read, you really need to know its genre, author, audience and the purpose for which it was written. And Luke gives us ALL FOUR, here in vv1-5.
First, he tells us Acts’ GENRE. Acts is a book of HISTORY. In fact, it’s the ONLY book in the New Testament that is classified as history. 4 Gospels (biographies), 1 Historical book (Acts), 13 Pauline epistles (or “letters”), 8 NON-Pauline epistles, and 1 Apocalypsis (Revelation). Of course, other books of the NT contain history (the whole BIBLE is non-fiction!), but Luke specifically tells us that his expressed purpose in writing was to give us a historical account of events. Actually, he refers us BACKto his FIRST book, where he opens that way; here’s how he opens the book of ACTS; he says, “In my FIRST book… I dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach”.
So first off, we need to note that Acts is a SEQUEL. Luke immediately refers us back to his FIRST book, namely, the GOSPEL of Luke. He tells us that he’s writing Acts as a SEQUEL. As a matter of fact, those two books were originally combined by the early church and considered to be just one BIG book, the book of “Luke-Acts”, for the entire first century of church history.
Now let’s pause and reflect on that for just a minute: I want you to think about the most POWERFUL movie you’ve ever seen… a movie that when you reached the end, and the credits started rolling, you were left dumbfounded – you couldn’t move, you were probably in tears, you just had the overwhelming sense that you had just witnessed something utterly transcendent and transformative. Holy ground, cinematically speaking. A few films come to mind for me: Braveheart. The Shawshank Redemption. Good Will Hunting.
Now imagine you’re a movie producer and someone came to you pitching an idea for a SEQUEL to that movie.
Like: “Hey, you know how Braveheart ends climactically with William Wallace yelling “Freedom!” before getting beheaded and then Robert the Bruce leads the remaining Scottish rebels into battle against the English forces who finally win their freedom?” Well, what if we picked the story up there, and made a Braveheart 2 about the establishment and growth of that new Scottish kingdom? Eh?”
OR “You know how Shawshank ends with Andy Dufresne escaping out of the prison and meeting up with Morgan Freeman on the beach in Zihuatanejo? Well what if we made a SEQUELabout the little resort they started together down in Mexico, and we’ll follow their budding business partnership?”
You’d say, “HARD PASS!”, right? “Terrible idea!”, right? Why? Because the movies that most DESERVE a sequel, don’t NEED a sequel, do they? They stand on their own. You don’t mess with perfection.
I think of that beautiful line from one of my favorite hymns we sing here – “Yet Not I But through Christ in Me” – that says, “What gift of grace is Jesus, my Redeemer / There is no more for heaven now to give.” Sometimes I think of SEQUELS in that way: what a GIFT Braveheart was; there is no more for Mel Gibson now to give. Mel: you don’t NEED to make a Braveheart 2; actually, please DON’T – you’re gonna RUIN the first one!
But speaking of Mel Gibson, let’s talk The Passion of the Christnow. Imagine, just for the sake of analogy, that Mel Gibson had just come up with the screenplay for The Passion of the Christ ALL on his own; there was NO Bible; Mel just dreamed up this POWERFUL story, about this Savior, who died for the sins of the world. And people turned out in droves to watch it.
NOW imagine that Mel – maybe like a lot of sequels, he wanted to capitalize on the success of The Passion; still the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time in this country – but imagine Mel had an idea for a SEQUEL, that picked up where The Passion left off, with Jesus triumphantly coming BACK from the dead, but then this sequel, opens with him LEAVING to go back to Heaven, and NOW we’re gonna follow the story of his DISCIPLES who he left behind here.
You would say: “Box office FLOP! You’re gonna get rid of the hero, Jesus, who moved us all to tears in the first film, and center the SEQUEL around his so-called ‘friends’ whose big role in the original movie was DENYING Jesus at his trial, FLEEING from his crucifixion… THOSE guys?! Seriously?”
But THEN Mel smiles and says: “Yeah, yeah, yeah, but here’s the kicker: Jesus isn’t REALLY gone. In the sequel, he lives INSIDE his followers. Eh?!” [**Mind: blown!**]
Friends: THAT’S the Book of Acts! And here’s the craziest part about it: according to JESUS HIMSELF, the sequel, is BETTER than the original! Jesus says in John 14:12 ““Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” Wrap your mind around that: Jesus just said, “Hey, if you liked the original, where I walked on water and fed 5,000 people with a couple loaves and fishes, and brought people back from the DEAD; just wait: you ain’t seen NOTHING yet! The sequel is about to get LIT!”
So, Genre: Acts is a sequel, a historical sequel. Here’s how Luke opened his FIRST book, the GOSPEL of Luke: “Many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us; it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely… to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.” (1:1-4) Luke’s Gospel was an orderly, narrative, historical account on the basis of eyewitness testimony. And so too is the book of Acts.
Luke also gives us the book’s AUDIENCE here, namely, a man named Theophilus. He is only known from these two verses, Acts 1:1 and Luke 1:3; nowhere else in Scripture or church history. His name means “God-lover”, Theos = God / philus = lover, like “philadelphia”. So some scholars speculate that Theophilus isn’t an actual person but rather a title Luke uses to address ALL God-loving Christians. Others suggest that because we know Luke was a doctor and most doctors in the 1st c. were SLAVES that Theophilus could have been Luke’s master, his owner, who commissioned the book of Acts to be written. We don’t know for sure. What we DO know is that all Scripture is God-breathed and intended for our OWN sanctification as well. So Luke may have been writing TO Theophilus, but he’s writing FOR us, the Church today, 2,000 years later as well. We are ALSO his audience.
Genre, Audience, Author – I’ve already divulged the identity of the “I” in v1 there: it’s LUKE. We know from Colossians 4:14 that he was a physician. We ALSO conclude from that passage that Luke was a Gentile; in fact, he’s the ONLY known Gentile author of a book of the Bible. We know from the high-brow language and complex sentence structure Luke uses that he was clearly well-educated. But most importantly, we know from the apostle Paul’sletters, that Luke was his traveling companion, who accompanied him on many of his missionary journeys. So Luke had a front-row seat for MUCH of the narrative that he records for us here, especially later in the book; in ch16, Luke shifts from using THIRDperson pronouns – THEY, the apostles, did such and such – to FIRST person pronouns – WE, me and Paul, we went to Macedonia.
Genre, Audience, Author, and finally, Luke’s PURPOSE in writing: he subtly slips it into v1 there, with that one little but MASSIVELY important word: “BEGAN”. Luke writes: “In my first book… I dealt with all that Jesus BEGAN to do and teach”. In other words: “Theophilus, I’m writing you AGAIN, this time to assure you all that amazing stuff that Jesus did in the time he spent BODILY here on earth – that was only just the BEGINNING. I’m writing to assure you that THIS story didn’t END with the cross… it didn’t endwith the empty tomb… it didn’t even end with Jesus’ ascension back into Heaven… no, THIS story, GOD’S story, it’s only just BEGUN! So buckle up!
And in v2, Luke picks UP the story there, with Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, where he left off in Luke ch24, and he recalls that, “after [Jesus] had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.” Luke had recounted a few of those resurrection appearances for us at the end of His Gospel.
v4: “And while staying[a] with them [Jesus] ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with[b] the Holy Spirit not many days from now.””
So that all sets the stage, the ENVIRONMENT, for this MISSION that Christ is about to assign them.
#2 – But the SECOND facet of the mission Luke records here is its Empowerment, in vv6-8:
“So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.”
Now, remember v3: what’s Jesus been doing for the past 40 days? He’s been PRESENTING himself to them, to prove he’s really ALIVE, risen from the dead; but v3: he’s also been “speaking[to them] about the kingdom of God.”
The kingdom of God was Jesus’ favorite topic of conversation in the Gospels. In fact, he called it “the gospel”; he said, “I must preach the good news, this gospel, OF the kingdom of God… I was sent for this very purpose” (Lk 4:43). In Mark 1, Jesus put it this way: ““The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand;[e] repent and believe in the gospel.”” (v15) Without diving into all 2,000+ years of BC (before Christ) Israelite history, suffice it to say, God had called a people unto Himself, Israel, and promised to be their King, but time and time again, they REJECTED Him as their king, so God let them be enslaved to other, fallen, foreignkings instead, in Assyria, and Babylon, now in ROME in Jesus’ day, but the Israelites, now called “Jews,” they LONGED to be FREE. And God had PROMISED in the OT to do just that: to free them and regather all his people back once again under his own Sovereign, Benevolent rule. And the good news that JESUS came proclaiming was that “the kingdom of God is at hand”, i.e., right under your NOSES… TALKING to you… I’M YOUR KING! King Jesus!
So consider this exchange, then, between the risen King Jesus and his apostles: THEY ask, “Jesus, now that you’re back from the dead, are you gonna stick around and rule the whole world from David’s throne, like the prophets said you would?” And Jesus’ response is: “I can’t tell you when THAT part of the Father’s plan – my Second Coming – will be. BUT… here’s what I can tell you: that YOU are all about to receive the power of the Holy Spirit to go and be my witnesses.”
Now, we’re gonna talk a LOT more about the Holy Spirit in 2 weeks when He shows up in a POWERFUL way at Pentecost. But please don’t MISS this connection here, this SIGNIFICANTconnection, between the coming of the kingdom of God in all its fullest, most glorious expression at the Second Coming of Christ, and Jesus’ Great Commission of His Church. In Matthew 24:14, Jesus instructed his disciples that “this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” So it might not be for us to know the times and seasons that the Father has appointed for Jesus’ return, but I can ALMOST guarantee you that it won’t be later this afternoon; why? Because the gospel hasn’t been proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to ALL the nations yet. So according to Jesus, the end CAN’T come yet. Of the 17,431 “nations”, ethne, in the world today, 7,399 of them are STILL considered “unreached” by the gospel. They haven’t yet heard the good news about Jesus. Don’t miss this: that is the CONTEXT and the PURPOSE for which Jesus says He is sending His Spirit: it’s to empower His people to take His message to the ends of the earth.
Now, that’s a pretty big job! That is a MASSIVE mission! To take a message, no matter how simple, how GOOD, how IMPORTANT it might be – you’re a sinner; you need a Savior; Jesus died and rose for your sins; trust in Him and you can have eternal life! It took me 5 seconds to share the gospel with you – but how are you gonna get that message to the thousands of ethnes that live in the most remote, dangerous places on earth, places that are HOSTILE to that news – North Korea, Afghanistan, Somalia. And keep in mind, Jesus assigned them this mission before SOCIAL MEDIA; the apostles couldn’t just bang out a Twitter or Facebook post that read “Jesus is King” and set it to “public” and then just wait for it to go viral.
Jesus commanded them to go to ALL the nations; Magellan wouldn’t even sail around the WORLD for another 1500 years! This is a massive mission. If we didn’t know any better, we’d say it’s Mission: IMPOSSIBLE.
And in their own strength and power, it would have been. In OURown strength, fulfilling the still-unfinished work of the Great Commission – even IN our technologically advanced, globalized world – it will be utterly impossible. We will fail miserably.
But brothers and sisters, God has not SENT us in our own power; He has filled us with HIS power. His Holy Spirit. For a PURPOSE, a Mission: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses.” Which brings us to…
#3 – The Mission’s Emissaries (v8b). An emissary is “a representative sent on a mission”. So who is Jesus sending here?
Can I be so bold as to suggest to you that if you are a Christian here this morning, your entire life’s CALLING and PURPOSE hinges on how you interpret a single word here in v8 and Acts ch1: “Y’all”, hymas, in Greek; you plural, you all, for y’all Yankees. Listen: you’ve gotta make a decision this morning: when Jesus says, “YOU” here in v8, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses…” Listen: YOU have to decide whether he was just talking to a group of 120 people in a room in Jerusalem some 2,000 years ago, and you just show up to church today for an interesting history lesson every Sunday, OR whether Jesus’ “YOU” was meant to include YOU TOO.
And let me just offer you 2 quick CLUES, to try and help you answer that all-important, life-defining question:
1) If you want to be included in the “Y’ALL” of SALVATION – like when Ephesians 2:8 declares “It is by grace that Y’ALL have been saved through faith!” – if you want in on THAT y’all, the “y’all of salvation”, then you are ALSO included in the “y’all” of the COMMISSION. It’s the same y’all.
And #2) The mission’s not DONE, friends. So either Jesus was MISTAKEN, when he said to the apostles: “you WILL be my witnesses… to the ends of the earth”; it’s GONNA happen. Either Jesus was just talking to THEM, back THEN, and He THOUGHTthese first generation followers were capable of the task, but He was WRONG, because by ch28, they only made it as far as ROME…
OR… the mission’s not done yet, West Hills, and WE’RE the Y’ALL!
Please don’t settle for a history lesson every Sunday this next year; come to get reminded, to be inspired, to be RE-empowered, for the Mission that Jesus has called you to. We’re gonna read OURSELVES into the story of Acts this year, ALL the “y’alls”.
Say what you want about the church-planting organization “Acts 29” – I know they’ve had their issues with leadership – but it’s a GREAT name! We are living out “the rest of the story”.
#4 – Luke outlines the Mission’s Extent (8b).
The mission must go, Jesus’ WITNESSES must go to “Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”” I’ve already told you, that outlines the book of Acts, chs1-7 (Jerusalem), chs8-11 (Judea & Samaria), chs12-28 (the ends of the earth).
But since we’re reading OURSELVES into the story, I’d just encourage you to ponder on your OWN, as you leave today: who is YOUR “Jerusalem”, and Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth? It’s important to identify YOUR mission field. Maybe your“Jerusalem” is Boeing, Express Scripts, Maryville, SLU… who’s your Judea & Samaria, in what ways are you impacting even the ends of the earth for the sake of the gospel?
#5 – Lastly, because Jesus knows how HUGE the job is, he leaves them not ONLY with His empowerment for the mission, but with some Encouragement (vv9-11) as well.
Vv9-11: “And when [Jesus] had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.” Jesus could’ve just teleported, apparated, back into Heaven; but I think he knew that would have freaked the apostles out, if he just disappeared all of a sudden. So as SAD as they must have been, watching Him GO, they had to be encouraged to be visibly reminded that Jesus was going to Heaven, to intercedefor them with the Father (Heb 7:25), until he returned again. And that’s the even bigger encouragement, in v11:
“ 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come [again] in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.””
Be encouraged; it’s not “goodbye”; it’s just “see you later”.
But at the same time, be EXHORTED! “Don’t just stand there!”, the angels said; you’ve got a JOB to do, a BIG one! No time to waste! Get witnessing!
Because, Church, when Jesus returns, in the same way he left, riding that same cloud once again, according to Revelation 1:7, He’s coming back as a JUDGE. He ascended as a King, but He’s coming back as a JUDGE. And when he does, your time will be UP for witnessing, to your lost loved ones.
So be encouraged – Jesus is coming back! – but be exhorted – we’ve got work to do, until He returns.
Let’s pray.