Kingdom
Acts 1:1-11
Preacher: David Williams
Acts 1.1-11 Kingdom. Sermon by David Williams.
Strathalbyn Church of Christ. 23 April 2023.
James asked me to complete a small task – can I have it by Thursday? No worries I said. And then forgot all about it until Friday. James is gracious and patient. Fortunately, Jesus is also gracious and patient. For he’s given us a task and most of us spend most of our lives forgetting all about it. The task is his kingdom. Today’s passage is about his kingdom. That is, the King, his power and his servants. It is about the kingdom promised, the promise fulfilled and the kingdom that is to come.
4 parts
King’s witnesses, 1-3
Kingdom power, 4-5
King’s plan, 6-8
Kingdom come, 9-10
His kingdom should be our focus. Yet this passage also throws up issues which Bible believing Christians fight about. Baptism in the Spirit, prophecy and Israel. Yet these are secondary issues – differences of opinion. No one will be saved or damned by their view on any of them. We should not, dare not break fellowship over them. And yet we do. So they will get some attention – in the hope that it will help us to keep our focus on the King and his kingdom and not get side-tracked. Sometimes I’ll express my opinion – feel free to disagree and take it up with me.
**1.** **King’s witnesses**
Luke wants us to be certain of what we believe. How can I have faith? By struggling to create faith in my mind? By fasting for 7 days? By ignoring everything I hear from science and friends who ridicule my faith? None of these will help. Faith is not some special gift that only sainted monks can have. Faith is simply trusting. You trust a good car to get you to town. You may not trust a beaten-up old thing that should have gone to the wreckers. But you will trust a car that has been cleared by a reliable mechanic. So it is with Jesus. We trust not by some leap of faith – against all reason. We trust because there is very good evidence. Evidence from reliable witnesses.
Luke was a physician. What do you notice about doctors? They notice things. They are good at observing signs and symptoms. They tell you things that you’d rather not be noticed – you’ve put a bit of weight on since I last saw you David. They can be very rude can’t they! Luke applied his medical skills when it came to his writing. He carefully observed. He took detailed histories from others. He wrote it all down in a careful and orderly way.
Acts is Luke volume 2. Luke wrote both the gospel of Luke and Acts – and at the beginning of both books we see he wrote them for a chap called Theophilus.
In both introductions, he stressed both the orderly care taken and the eyewitness accounts he relied upon.
Many people have set out to write accounts about the events that have been fulfilled among us. It has been handed down to us by the original eyewitnesses and servants of the word.It also seemed good to me, since I have carefully investigated everything from the very first, to write an orderly account for you, most honorable Theophilus. I did this so that you can be sure that what you have been taught is true, Luke 1:1-4.
I wrote the first book, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up, after he had given orders to his chosen apostles through the Holy Spirit. After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over forty days…, Acts 1:1-3.
Jesus Christ was a real person. The evidence is clear that he lived, was crucified and rose again. Part of the evidence is from eyewitness accounts. People who had been present at the time of his miraculous birth. His mother, brothers and sisters and others who had known him in his early years. Those who travelled with him on the road that led to the cross. And as Paul explains, over 500 people who saw him alive after death (1 Cor 15).
Jesus spent 40 days on earth after his resurrection. Apart from proving he was truly alive – people saw, heard, ate with and touched him – what else did he do? He
spoke about the kingdom of God.
This was nothing new for Jesus, it was how he began his ministry
preaching the good news of the kingdom of God (Lk 4:43, cf Mk 1:15).
Now this ministry was to continue – but in a new way. Not Jesus directly, but his disciples were to proclaim the kingdom of God. And based on the reliable accounts that Luke has handed down, we too can confidently proclaim the kingdom. But we need more than confidence that this story is true. We need power.
**2.** **Kingdom power**
Volume 1 is what Jesus began to do and teach.
I wrote the first book, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach …
Volume 2 is what he continued to do and teach. But how did he do this, given that he was about to be taken up? He carried on his work through two means:
- His Spirit - His followers.
In John he promised to send another so that his mission would continue.
But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you … he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness …, Jn 15:26-27.
The Spirit will dwell within his followers and together they will witness to Jesus. What does this indwelling mean? It involves power and baptism.
you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit
you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you …
It involves power and baptism – and we have these so that we can witness to Jesus.
you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses …
What is baptism with the Spirit? John the Baptist said that while he baptised with water, the one who came after him would baptise with the Spirit and fire (Luke 3:16-17). Baptising – whether by water or fire – is about cleansing. Think of metal ore that has the dross burnt away leaving only the pure metal behind. This cleansing has to do with forgiveness. In the words of Jeremiah,
I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts … for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more, Jer 31:33-34.
Forgiveness is being radically cleansed, baptised, from all impurity, all sin – by Jesus’ death. To God it is as though we never sinned. As his forgiven people, we have new hearts. We obey him not as a guilty burden but from sheer gratitude at being forgiven. This is the baptism in the Spirit that Jesus brings. And this too is the power we have – the power to live a life free of sin, guilt and shame, the power of the risen life, the power of the heart set free to follow Jesus.
When does baptism in the Spirit happen? Christians differ on this. Those first disciples were unique. They were like those people in a cinema during intermission. They had the first part of the story and were expecting the second part. The disciples had the teaching of Jesus. They had seen him risen. They believed in him. But they had not yet received the Spirit. As Jesus had told them,
it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. Jn 16:7.
Jesus needed to go so that the Spirit could come. That is why those first disciples were unique. Some received the Spirit after they had first believed – those in Acts 2, 8 & 19 (Acts 8:12, 14-16; 19:2-6). For them, it was a 2-stage process. But for every other Christian in the Bible and since, the Spirit comes when we believe. Spirit baptism = conversion.
You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God lives in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him, Rom 8:9 (also Acts 2:38; 11:17; 1 Cor 12:12-13).
If you believe in Christ you have the Spirit. Does this mean that believers today should seek a second baptism? This is what many Pentecostals teach? No, as I’ve explained, you cannot believe in Christ yet lack his Spirit. I’m not disputing spiritual experiences. Some have had dramatic experiences of being filled with the Spirit. We should all pray to be filled and go on being filled with the Spirit. We should all seek greater understanding of God’s grace.
So we have the reliable evidence that our King is risen, we have the Spirit’s power within us. What more do we have? We have God’s plan.
**3.** **Kingdom plan**
The OT can be summed up in one word – promise. The promise of God to establish his kingdom. God’s people living under God’s rule in God’s place for all time. The NT is about fulfilment. God’s promise is fulfilled in Jesus. As Jesus said,
I have not come to do away with the Law or the Prophets (meaning, that is, the OT). I have not come to do away with them but to fulfill them, Mt 5:17.
Luke at the end of volume one picked up this same idea when Jesus said,
Everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled, Lk 24:44.
What does this mean? It means the stuff in the OT – the events, the prophecies, the institutions – they all point to Jesus. They were all a promise of something better. As Hebrews says – the law, the temple, the priests and sacrifices (and we could add the exodus and the exile) – they were a pattern, a shadow of something better, more enduring, and more effective (Heb 8:5, 9:23, 10:1; Col 2:17). Even Jerusalem itself is a promise of something better (Heb 12:18-24). The Hebrew Christians were reminded that the promise of old Mt Sinai had now been fulfilled. In Jesus they have come to a new mountain:
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem… Heb 12:22.
Jewish Christians and Gentile ones too – forget the earthly Jerusalem because we now look to the heavenly one! That is where our eyes should be looking, not at a patch of earth.
Jesus is the new Israel – the faithful son called out of Egypt (Hos 11:1; Mt 2:15). The faithful son who passed through the waters and who resisted temptation in the Wilderness (Mt 2:13–15; 3:13–4:11; Ex. 12:40–42; 14:1–31; 16:4). The one who fulfilled the role that Israel failed to do – as light to the Gentiles (Isa 42:6; 60:3; Mt 4:16; Lk 1:79; 2:32; Jn 1:4, 8:12; 9:5).
So God had a plan. A plan for Israel to be light to the nations. A plan that was fulfilled by Jesus as the new Israel. But these first Jewish Christians – they were still stuck in OT mode.
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
The disciples were still expecting a national kingdom with a political manifesto in a geographic location. Throughout church history, many have focussed on building a kingdom here on earth by changing political structures, often with racial overtones. But Jesus reset the agenda. His Kingdom’s focus was no longer on one plot of land but the whole world.
you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
He did not say, if you don’t have much on, would you mind doing a spot of witnessing. He issued a decree, You will be my witnesses. Whether we like it or not. Whether the church in the West heads into all out apostasy. Whether our governments ban scripture and instal gay activists to head up Bible colleges and Christian schools. Whatever happens, the King’s decree will be fulfilled:
you will be my witnesses
And it is happening. Samuel Crowther was a Yoruba tribesman from Nigeria. He was sold as a slave when only 12 years old. Later he was freed and came under the care of CMS missionaries. He was bright lad and eventually received a doctorate from Oxford University. He returned to his homeland as one of the first missionaries to Nigeria and Niger – where Ruth Perkins has been serving. When he arrived in 1843, there were no Christians. Move forward 180 years. Last week, the Anglican church in Nigeria had a youth conference. The Anglican church is just one of many denominations. How many do you think showed up? 300? 3000? No. 30,000 youth attended the weeklong conference. Jesus said, You will be my witnesses. And so it is happening. He is sending his people to the ends of the earth as his witnesses.
Yet some Christians are like those disciples – they are still stuck in the plot of land called Israel. There is a guy called Chuck Missler. He is breeding red heifers. Why? Because he thinks the temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem and when that happens, they will need lots of red heifers for the sacrifices. We used to have some on the farm at Meningie. Oh well, maybe I’ve got it all wrong. I should give up preaching and take up breeding red heifers again!
But Jesus is sending his witnesses – both to Jerusalem and to the ends of the earth. Are you on board? This is what Jesus will continue to do until he returns. Neither his mission or his return are in any doubt. They will come to pass. And so we come to his return.
**4.** **Kingdom come**
This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.
There are three stages in God’s kingdom. I’ve already mentioned the first two:
1. Kingdom Promised (OT) 2. Kingdom Fulfilled (NT) 3. Kingdom Consummated (Second coming)The final stage comes when Jesus will return.
So what should we do in the meantime? We are in the Last Days now – scripture calls the Last Days those that fall between his first and second coming. Some cults shut themselves off from the world to await his return. Others have given up on this world and are trying to bring about Armageddon by encouraging conflict in the Middle East. Others go to great lengths in working out when the end is coming. There is a long and best forgotten history of those who have attempted to nail the end of history. It is a favourite hobby of Jehovah Witnesses, Christadelphians and Adventists. But there are some surprising names too – like Luther, Wesley and James Ussher. Modern prophets who got it wrong include Pat Robertson, Hal Lindsey, Tim LaHaye and Jerry Falwell (cf., Dt 18:22!)[[1]](#_ftn1)
But is that what we should be investing our time and energy in? Reading The Late Great Planet Earth or Left Behind? Let us hear the words of Jesus:
It is not for you to know the the specific times or the time periods that the Father has fixed by his own authority
It is not for you to know. We are not to second guess his plan. And why should we need to? For whatever else may happen when Jesus returns is not important. If there was anything else of importance, I expect we would see much more in the Bible about these other things. The Millennium, for instance, only occurs in Revelation 20. Nowhere else. Yet people fill books on it. Armageddon has a single reference in Revelation 16:16. There are only two texts that say much on the rapture but from these Christians have come up with four different positions. These things may be literally true, or not. Bible believers come up with many conflicting theories. There are Amillennial, Post-millennial and two varieties of Pre-millennial theories. You may be a pan-millennialist – You know what that is? It will all pan out in the end! But whatever your view, or if you have no view, the vital thing is that our King is coming! Jesus will return. And will you be ready? That is what 1st century Christians had to ask themselves and it is what we in the 21st century must ask – and if Jesus hasn’t returned – it is what Christians will need to ask in the 31st century. Let’s heed the angel’s advice.
Hey guys, why are you still hanging about and gawking at the clouds? You know what to do. So why don’t you get of your backsides and do it?!
Sorry, that’s the Aussie Bible version!
Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus … will come …
Jesus will come, so what are you now doing about it? Our task, friends, is not to get embroiled in controversies but to proclaim his kingdom.
Conclusion
The King has come and conquered. He conquered our greatest enemies: Satan, sin and death. The King has now returned to his throne where he reigns over heaven and earth forever. And we have been given a task - to witness to the King
- We witness by speaking the Word of God – telling all that Jesus has done and taught - We witness in the power of the Holy Spirit. When we speak truly and faithfully, God’s Spirit is speaking through us. - We do so according to his plan – taking his good news to the ends of the earth - We witness knowing that our King will return.Source:
· William Taylor on Acts 1:1-11,
[[1]](#_ftnref1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dates_predicted_for_apocalyptic_events
https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4790&context=pubs
Series: Acts
Topics: #Acts; Israel; Eyewitnesses; SpiritBaptism; EndTimes