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Good morning.
This is a reading from the Acts of the Apostles.
In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven.
After giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.
After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive.
He appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke about the kingdom of God.
On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command.
Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift.
My father promised, which you have heard me speak about.
For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
Then they gathered around him and asked him, Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel?
He said to them, it is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.
And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes and a cloud hid him from their sight.
They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.
Men of Galilee, they said, why do you stand here looking into the sky?
This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.
Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day's walk from the city.
When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying.
Those present were Peter, John, James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James, son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas, the son of James.
They all joined together constantly in prayer along with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
This is the word of the Lord.
Amen.
Thank you for that scripture reading, Emily.
Good morning, Christ Church.
My name is Andrew.
I'm the director of pastoral care here.
And just to let you know, Jonathan had spring break this week.
And his family's here, but he wanted to visit one of our friend churches in Oakland.
And that's where he is.
He might show up later if he can make it on time.
So we're glad that our pastor can rest and rejuvenate.
And we hope that that happened this week, you guys.
Will you join me in prayer as we come and listen to God's word?
Father, like I asked earlier, what are we doing?
Show us what it means to be the church as we open up this series in the book of Acts.
To be a provocative church that's filled with your spirit, that bears witness to the kingdom of God that is here, and yet that we also await.
We give you praise this morning and ask that you would accomplish much in the preaching of your word.
And we pray these things in the name of Jesus.
Amen.
So again, today is the third Sunday of Easter, and we're here to continue celebrating that Christ is risen.
But I imagine that for many of us coming into worship today, we feel this tension, right?
The tension of celebrating the resurrection as the first fruits of new creation,
while also acknowledging the rotten fruits of fallen creation that we still taste here.
Christ is risen, and Dante Wright and Adam Toledo, two more people of color have just been killed.
By law enforcement officers.
And then there was that mass shooting in Indianapolis as well this week.
And many of us probably feel like the disciples in this text, right?
Who witnessed this amazing resurrection, this amazing ascension.
They believed that Jesus was their king, and yet they still found themselves wondering.
And overwhelmed and just staring into the sky, unsure about what to do next.
Like Christ's disciples, many of us are probably wondering, Christ has risen great.
But now what?
What now?
Talking to many of you here at Christ Church, I know many of us, even as we believe this gospel truth with all of our hearts,
that Christ has risen, we also feel rather helpless, don't we?
And limited in light of this world's injustices, and frustrated with ourselves, and with our society,
and with the broader American church, and maybe even frustrated with Christ Church in particular.
And we're perplexed and looking for answers to the question of what are we supposed to be doing as the church
in response to all this brokenness.
What are we doing to fight racial and economic and environmental, gender inequality and injustice?
What are we doing to defend and support and uplift the unsheltered, and the orphans, and the widows,
and the foster children, and immigrants, and this or that marginalized or minority people group?
Well, today we're going to continue to follow Luke's orderly account of Jesus,
into his orderly account of the earliest followers of Jesus,
as we open up this new series in the book of Acts.
We're titling this series, The Provocative Church,
and it's our prayer that we would be that provocative church,
that in the months ahead, as we give our attention to the acts of the Holy Spirit in and through the early church,
that this same Spirit would give us a clearer vision for how we,
how Christ's church East Bay might be the provocative and Spirit-empowered church that God wants us to be.
And it's going to start with an acceptance that God's plan for us,
it might be different and better than ours, and it definitely is better than ours.
And it also starts with prayer, as we will see here.
It's going to be covered in prayer, and we also want to be led by the Spirit with clarity
about how exactly, how concretely are we going to be witnesses of Christ in this season ahead.
So let's take a look at this text.
Luke kicks off this account in verses 1 to 3 by mentioning that in this surreal 40 days
between Jesus' resurrection and his ascension,
one thing in particular that he spoke to them about was his kingdom, it says in verse 3.
He spoke to them about his kingdom.
But now try to imagine those 40 days as one of his Jewish disciples.
Yes, you've just witnessed the most amazing thing that you've ever seen in your life,
the resurrection of the Messiah, the one who was to fulfill all the promises of God to Israel
and to establish the everlasting kingdom.
But then imagine waiting for over a month, right?
40 days as this Messiah speaks about the kingdom of God,
and yet King Herod is still sitting on his throne, right?
Pontius Pilate's authority is still intact.
You're still paying taxes to Caesar,
and you, a follower of the risen Lord,
still find yourself hiding behind closed doors from the Roman soldiers
and from the Jewish religious establishment.
So imagine the expectation, the anticipation,
even the confusion and frustration that these Jewish disciples probably felt
over a month, for over a month after the resurrection.
Jesus the Christ is risen, but now what?
And so what if I'm still subjected to the oppressive forces of this world?
Now they're waiting, and they're waiting, right?
But toward the end of this 40-day period,
Jesus says something quite interesting that Luke wants us to pay attention to
in verses 4 and 5.
They're gathered together, they're eating,
and then Jesus issues this command.
He says,
And in this moment, Jesus' disciples probably started to perk up,
maybe even grin and rub their hands in excited anticipation,
this is it.
This is it.
All right, here we go.
Here comes the revolution starting in the holy city, Jerusalem.
In just a few days, Jesus says, we'll receive the ultimate gift,
the ultimate power, the baptism of the Holy Spirit of God.
See, throughout the Old Testament prophets,
God had foretold of a time and a day when His Spirit,
His personal divine power would be poured out upon His servant Israel.
It would be poured out upon their barren land and their people and their offspring,
even on their young and their old and their daughters,
and even their servants in Israel.
Upon their barren land and it would bring fruit.
It would make their land fruitful and their enemies would be defeated
and their sins forgiven and their shame removed,
and ultimately their kingdom would be restored.
So you can imagine how much they longed for God to pour the Spirit out upon them,
to receive that power.
Oh boy, right?
I can't wait.
Oh, what I'm going to do when I finally get that power.
Roman soldiers, Roman Empire, watch out.
The revolution is coming.
And so imagine them all leaning in, as it says in verse 6,
maybe putting down their pita bread and falafels
and huddling even closer to Jesus to hear more.
And they ask, Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?
They want to know if this time has come,
because in their minds, the time has not yet come.
The kingdom has not yet come in their minds.
They look around and they see the resurrected king,
but they don't see the kingdom of Israel.
And so with butterflies in their stomachs,
they eagerly lean in to hear Jesus tell them
what they'd long been waiting for him to say,
ever since the day he said to them,
come, follow me.
They longed to hear that they,
endowed with the Spirit's divine power,
would lead a triumphant political revolution
like the world has never seen,
restoring the everlasting kingdom of Israel
to its glory and to its splendor and prosperity.
And with all their Gentile enemies subjected underneath them.
But of course, as we've seen time and time again from Jesus in the Gospel of Luke,
he has an answer for them that they never would have expected, right?
First, he replies in verse 7,
He basically says,
He says,
Verse 8,
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.
But he even says,
This power though,
even this power, guys,
I'm not empowering you to be the warriors that you wanted to be.
I'm empowering you to be my witnesses.
Witnesses,
not warriors, he says.
And then notice,
he says in verse 8,
Witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea,
they're cool with that.
But then he says what?
And Samaria,
even to those half-breed Samaritans you so hate,
you will bear witness to them about me and my kingdom.
And not only to the mixed-race Samaritans,
but also to the ends of the earth.
Yes,
even to India and to Spain and Africa
and even in the very hearts of the Roman Empire,
to those who hate and oppress you
and persecute me and you and all of Israel,
those godless, unclean people
who you want nothing to do with,
whose destruction you probably even pray for,
yes,
even to them,
you will be my witnesses.
So in response to the disciples' question
about whether Jesus would at this time
restore the kingdom to Israel,
Jesus responds by revealing to them
just how off-base their whole conception
of the kingdom of God really was.
He says,
you're missing the point, guys.
You're missing the point
with your nationalistic preoccupation
with the timing of Israel's restoration.
You're missing the point
about the Spirit's power on you
and you're missing the point
about the scope of my kingdom
and your role in it.
You will be my witnesses,
not your own warriors, he says.
He says,
guys,
this isn't gonna be the kingdom you envisioned.
It's gonna be even better.
It's gonna be the kingdom
I envisioned.
And the question the disciples
are forced to reckon with here,
the question that we are forced
to reckon with
as we observe the words of Jesus,
as we all consider what he said to them,
is could it be,
could it be that God's kingdom plan
is both different and better
than the kingdom plans
that we've set our hearts upon?
Could it be that God's kingdom plan
is better and different
than the kingdom plans
we've set our hearts upon?
You know, these kingdom plans
that we have for the world
and for this nation
and for this church
and for our families
and for ourselves.
These made-up kingdoms, right?
These made-up kingdoms
that we've all idealized,
that we've all pictured
and planned for,
about how we would like
our world and our lives
and our families
to turn out.
This idealized vision
of serenity and bliss
and paradise
and this sense of safety
and security.
I mean, call it the American dream.
I talk about it in my PhD.
I talk about the Asian-American dream, right?
You know, complete with degrees
from respectable universities,
high-paying and secure careers,
homeownership in a nice
upper-middle-class suburb,
and then the ability to honor,
treat, and care for our immigrant parents
or grandparents,
and then to have that consumer lifestyle
where you can have boba dates
whenever you want, right?
And you can go on that destination vacation
and you can have that Tesla
or at least a Prius,
and then your children
just follow that same pattern
over and over again
but to even greater heights
of advancement.
And maybe for you,
the crown of your kingdom dream
is something else.
Maybe it's a certain professional
or economic status, right?
You're longing for that promotion
or that financial independence
so you can retire early,
that fire life, right?
Or maybe it's a certain relational
or familial or marital status,
longing for that romantic partner,
longing for that child,
that marriage, that nuclear family
with two and a half prodigy children, right?
Or maybe I'm just showing my cards.
That's kind of what I want, right?
Or maybe for some of us,
you know, maybe for some of us,
it's bigger.
It's a certain vision
of a public justice and peace
where this or that political
or religious tribe
is finally dominant and in control
where certain kinds of people
who believe and behave differently than us
are shut up and humiliated
and put in their place, right?
And certain policies and laws and values
that we think will make for a better world
are finally reinforced.
Well, again, Jesus' question to us today
is what if my kingdom,
what if my kingdom is even better
than all of that?
And this is not to say
that we shouldn't pursue that promotion
or pursue that family
or that political legislation
or act in ways that we truly believe
will make for a better world,
but Jesus wanted his disciples to know
and he wants us to know
that his glorious and his perfect kingdom
is not dependent upon the arrival
of whatever myopic visions of the kingdom
we may have conjured up on our own.
See, the disciples,
they thought that they had it all figured out.
They thought that they had it all figured out.
They thought that they knew
exactly what kind of kingdom the world needed.
And they gladly called Jesus Lord
of these small kingdoms
that they imagined in their minds.
He was the risen king to them, no doubt.
And they loved the idea
of this risen Jesus from Galilee
conquering the Romans for them
and restoring their nation to power.
But the true test came
when their king revealed
a different kind of kingdom
than the nationalistic one
that they'd envisioned.
When he revealed a different purpose
for the power he was about to give them
with the spirit, yes,
the resurrection power of the spirit
was indeed about to come upon them
and it was the mightiest power
the world had ever seen.
But it wasn't for them
to just do whatever they wanted with it.
It wasn't for them to manipulate.
I love how a Yale professor
of systematic theology,
Africana Studies,
Willie James Jennings,
he says this,
Jesus, Jesus will define
resurrection's meaning
and resurrection's purpose.
It will not be used by these disciples
as a tool for statecraft,
nor will it constitute them
the winner's circle.
Such ways of thinking
produces disciples
who follow Jesus
only because
they actually worship power.
And what he's saying
is that the kingdom of God
and the lordship of Christ
and the power of the Holy Spirit
that raised him from the dead,
it will not be manipulated.
It will not be appropriated.
It will not be weaponized
for our small
and short-sighted purposes.
So the hard question
for Jesus' disciples,
the hard question
for all of us today
is will we still follow Jesus
as lord and king
when the messianic kingdom's arrival
does not conform
to our myopic kingdom's aims?
Can we accept a king
who empowers us
not as warriors
on our way
to a victory
of our own design,
but as his witnesses,
witnesses of his victory
that's already been won?
Are we willing
to resign ourselves
to witness
rather than to war?
But now you may be wondering,
what does that even mean?
What does that look like
to be witnesses,
to be Christ's witnesses?
As you might imagine
and gather from this episode,
after Jesus confounded
his disciples' expectations
with his answer
to their question
about the kingdom,
and then he kind of,
you know,
just dropped the mic
and then he, you know,
said peace out
and he bounced
or he floated, right,
up into heaven.
The disciples were just
kind of stunned, right?
Left there quite stunned
and gazing into the heavens
and kind of like,
oh, wait,
what just happened?
He said we're going
to receive power
from the Spirit
but not to be warriors
of Israel
but to simply be witnesses
of Christ
and then to the ends
of the earth?
That's all he said?
What does that mean?
What are we supposed
to do now?
And paralyzed in astonishment,
they had to be shaken up,
shaken up from their stupor.
Men of Galilee,
why do you stand here
looking into the sky?
So there they were
with, you know,
a mix of emotions.
The one they believed
to be the Messiah
had just risen from the dead
and they'd seen him
ascend into heaven
right before their eyes
and they knew
that their lives
would never be the same
and they were filled
with joy and excitement
and yet in another sense,
not much had changed
in Israel.
The Roman Empire
was still intact.
They still paid taxes
to Caesar
and the threat of death
upon their lives
was still very real to them.
And so not knowing
exactly when the Spirit's
power would come
or what that would
even mean for them
or what it meant
to be witnesses
of this king
who wasn't there anymore,
witnesses of this kingdom
which seemed to be
imaginary, right,
compared to all the other
kingdoms that they'd ever seen,
what did they do?
What did they do?
Verse 13 and 14 says,
they all joined together
constantly, it says,
and devoted themselves
to prayer.
They got together
and they prayed.
Christ Church,
what do we do
when we don't know
what to do?
We get together
in community
and we pray
and we ask God
what to do
until he tells us
what to do.
The disciples
couldn't have known
what lay ahead for them
and the church.
Like us,
they didn't have
a clear sense
of how to answer
that now what question
facing them.
But what the disciples
did know
was that God
was up to something
and it was only
a matter of time.
So in the meantime,
they devoted themselves
to prayer
and they prayed
for clarity
and direction
and this power
that God promised them
because they trusted
that this would come
when they were baptized
in the power
of the Holy Spirit.
And as they say,
the rest is history, right?
And you and I
are here today,
2,000 years later,
sitting halfway
across the world
from where
the early church's
first prayer meeting
took place in Jerusalem.
And we are all here
along with the countless
multitude that's gone
before us
as an answer
to these prayers
right here
in Acts chapter 1.
They're prayers
that the Spirit
would come
and empower them
as witnesses
to the ends of the earth
and to make Jesus
and His kingdom known.
So my question
for us Christ churches,
do we believe
that God will answer
our prayers too?
In this season
where we ourselves
are discerning
as a church,
what now?
What's next?
What do we do now
in the season ahead?
Are we praying?
Are we a praying church?
Are we gathering
with our families?
Or as a church body
like we did last night
with Tonya,
Maria,
Leanne,
we prayed
on our third Saturday
prayers for justice.
Are we lifting up prayers
like this to God?
Lord,
fill us with Your Spirit
and let us be powerful
witnesses
of Your kingdom.
And show us,
God,
this has been my prayer,
show us concretely,
concretely
what this looks like.
Show us
what we can do
with the resources
that we have here
as Christ Church East Bay
with our Berkeley
and our Oakland
and our Albany,
you know,
our Richmond communities,
me and Castro Valley.
Show us what it looks like
to be the church,
to be witnesses
of the kingdom of God.
Today,
Christ Church,
I just want to invite you
to join me in this prayer.
Join me in this prayer.
There's a Sri Lankan commentator
that I'm reading
for this series in Acts.
His name is Ajit Fernando.
And he would remind us of this.
He says,
often great prayer movements
start with one
or more individuals
with simply a burden to pray,
who share this burden
with others
and then keep on praying
with them
until the blessing comes.
Simple,
but we need this.
We need this,
Christ Church.
We need to hear from God
and to be led
by His Spirit
because, you know,
we are in a significant
and complicated moment
in the history of our church
and in the history
of our world.
For our church,
we've gone from one
to two to three
and now back to one
location and congregation.
You know,
we've gone from six pastors
and 17 staff
to two pastors
and six staff
and having seen
even more turnover
and transition
than already,
you know,
the already huge amount
that we typically see
in the Bay,
we just are trying
to keep going, right?
And then, you know,
with our church family
slowly trying to figure out
how to come back
to worship in person
after a global pandemic
that's kept us apart.
And then you also have
the injustice
and the heartbreak
and the division
that we see multiplying,
it seems like,
in our society
and our nation
and our world.
Christ Church,
we are at a huge
now what moment
in the history
of the world
and particularly
in the history
of Christ Church East Bay.
And to be honest
with everyone here,
it's incredibly intimidating
to lead at a time
like this,
to lead this church
at a time like this.
But you know,
I'm also absolutely convinced
that it's also a time
that's pregnant
with opportunity
to see
and to experience
the Spirit of God
in and through
our church
as witnesses
of Christ.
But again,
what does that mean?
How are we to
bear witness to Christ
in the season ahead?
And to be honest,
I don't have
all the answers.
Our session of elders,
they don't have
all the answers.
And Jonathan St. Clair,
even Jonathan
doesn't have
all the answers.
You might be surprised.
So we gotta be in prayer.
And what I wanna do today
is I wanna share
a couple guidelines
for us
as we consider
what it means
to be witnesses
as we go through
this book of Acts
to hang our hats on
and to really consider
for our own lives
and for our own church body,
how are we gonna be witnesses
Christ Church East Bay?
In addition to accepting
that God's kingdom plan
can and may
very well be different
than ours,
and in addition to
our constant
and devoted prayers,
I think Jesus' words
here today
offer a lot of
helpful guidelines
as we seek to
bear witness
to the kingdom of God.
And the first thing
I want you to notice
is that Jesus says,
He says,
you will be
my witnesses.
You will be
my witnesses.
And this means
that our witness,
our witness,
it has to be
thoroughly
Christ-centered,
Christ-oriented,
Christ-motivated,
and Christ-exalting.
See, because
if our witness
isn't tightly bound
with Christ,
if we aren't
Christ's witnesses,
but someone else
or something else's
witnesses,
we will always
end up pursuing
a vision
of a kingdom
that isn't
actually Christ's.
And we'll be doomed
and disappointed
and we'll become
failures.
I also want us
to notice that
He says,
you will be
my witnesses.
It's plural.
See,
this is a huge
calling,
Christ-church.
This calling
to be Christ's
witness is,
it's a huge
calling.
It's not an
individualistic
endeavor,
but it's something
to be done
in community
with each other.
And no one
witness can do
it all
and bear witness
to all the
glorious richness
of the kingdom
of God
to the ends
of the earth,
especially not
in a single
lifetime.
I also want you
to notice that
the plurality
of witnesses
spanning,
you know,
church history even,
it implies
also a diversity
of witness
bearing amongst
Christians and
churches.
Some people,
some churches
will be doing
very different
things than us
and that's okay
and that's good.
And others even
who are trying
to do the same
things might go
about it in
very,
very different
ways.
And what we need
to hear is,
that's okay,
we need to accept
that that's good
and that that's
right and it's
according to God's
sovereign plan.
You know,
some will bear
especially powerful
witness to Christ's
heart for racial
justice,
others to his
heart for the
fatherless,
others to his
heart for the
unborn or the
sick or the
poor or for
creation care
and the list,
it goes on,
guys.
It goes on
because God's
heart is huge
and his kingdom
is expansive
and yes,
we want to be
about all those
things as much
as we can.
We must always
strive to pursue
God's heart
and to bear witness
to his intentions
for this world
to the fullest
extent that we
can but we
also need to
be humble.
We need to
humbly accept
that none of
us will equal,
you know,
with equal strength
and with just
as loud of a
voice and with
just as much
influence do
every single
thing that God
wants all of
us, all witnesses
across the history
of the church
to do.
So right now,
that's why I say
we've got to pray
Christ's church.
Right now,
it's so important
for us as this
one little local
church in the
East Bay to pray
and discern the
ways God is calling
us to serve him
as witnesses in
this particular
season now.
You know,
and that may have
been different,
that may be
different than what
it was in the
past for Christ's
church and it
probably will change
later in the future
of Christ's church
but that's good
and that's okay
and that's part of
God's intricate plan.
I also want you
to notice when
Jesus tells us to
be witnesses,
he says you're to
be witnesses from
Jerusalem to all
Judea to Samaria
and even to the
ends of the earth
and I see two
things here.
The first thing I
mentioned earlier is
that we're to bear
witness to everyone,
to everyone,
not just the people
we want to,
even those we don't
like, even those we
wouldn't expect to
appreciate our
testimony about Christ.
He says to the
ends of the earth,
to the ends of the
earth.
But the other thing I
see here is that,
well, yes, we want to
bear witness to
Christ's power and
his liberation and
his abundance and
his compassion and
we want to change the
world with this
witness and we want
to do it, you know,
by ending world
poverty, right, and
by ending international
human trafficking and
then securing clean
water for the entire
world.
But if you're like me,
you probably feel quite
overwhelmed by these
demands, by all the
things that need to
happen in this world
and if you're like me,
you probably have been
struggling with where
do we start?
Well, I want us to
look at Jesus' blueprint.
He says, Jerusalem, to
Judea, to Samaria, to
the ends of the earth,
Christchurch.
He's saying it's okay to
start local, but keep
going.
Start local, but keep
going.
Keep making your way
out.
Consider what spheres of
influence has God gifted
me with right now and how
can I leverage my influence
to be a witness for
Christ?
Before feeling like we
have to change the world,
maybe think about what it
means to bear witness to
Christ in our home, in
our family, in our
neighborhood, in our
workplace.
Let's not underestimate,
Christchurch, let's not
underestimate the power of
incremental local
witness bearing even as we
pursue and pray for large,
large-scale ways to bear
witness for the sake of
systemic change.
Another thing I want to
mention is that to be a
witness also implies
testimony.
When you are a witness, you
are showing and telling.
You are communicating a
message.
You're giving a verbal
account.
And as we will see in the
book of Acts, the book of
Acts does indeed contain a
lot of crazy amazing acts
that bear witness to the
kingdom of God and the
power of God.
And they wonderfully
demonstrate that.
But the primary witness
bearing activity that we
will see in the book of
Acts is highlighted in the
messages and the speeches
and the sermons that are
given.
In Acts, there's a strong
theme of the word of God
increasing and going out
and moving and stirring
this whole world up and
provoking cities and then
being confirmed by the
mighty acts of the
Spirit.
Our witness, Christchurch,
it has to be in word and
deed.
It's not simply enough to do
justice, but we must also
preach.
We must preach justice and
preach the basis of
justice, which is the
kingdom of God in Christ.
And lastly, lastly, what it's
going to take for us to be
these witnesses, I want us
to see how liberating this
call is to be a witness
rather than a warrior.
I'm also reading this
Cuban-American commentator,
Justo Gonzalez, and he
reminds us that the call to
be a witness is not a call
to be just a peddler of
ideas, but simply to provide
testimony regarding an event
that's already occurred.
See, witnesses aren't
people who have to go and
make the victory happen or
people who have to go and
actualize the kingdom.
To be a witness means that
we've already witnessed,
we've already experienced
the victorious establishment
of the kingdom.
In Christ's church, this is
the gospel.
This is the gospel that we
don't have to be the
warriors of God, but simply
spirit-empowered witnesses
of a victory that's already
been won by Christ in the
resurrection.
This is the gospel that the
establishment and the full
and actualization, the final
realization of God's kingdom
kingdom is neither limited by
our finite imaginations nor
dependent upon us winning on
behalf of Christ.
Rather, the kingdom of God has
already been inaugurated in the
resurrection of Christ.
And our job is simply to bear
witness to this present
reality.
You know, to those of us who
are tempted to go warrior mode,
right, in pursuit of fulfilling
our own self-imagined kingdom
visions, Jesus' word to us, just
like it was to his disciples, is
no, you're actually thinking far
too small.
He said to his disciples, you're
just thinking about a political,
material, and earthly kingdom,
but that's not the whole of my
kingdom.
I'm talking something much
bigger, much wider, much
deeper.
You're just thinking about the
shalom of this little land and
this little nation of Israel, but
I'm talking about the shalom of
the entire cosmos and all the
nations, every tribe, tongue, and
language to the ends of the
earth.
You thought that this power was
going to help you destroy the
nations and conquer the world, but
I'm giving you an even better
power, he says.
A power that will include and
engraft the nations rather than
destroy and dominate.
Think about that kind of power, a
power that wins and persuades
rather than wars and punishes.
What is the greater power?
Think about this.
What is the greater power?
What is the greater challenge?
Dominating and destroying one's
enemies like all the world
empires that have gone before, or
winning them as friends and
family with extravagant compassion
and love, sacrificial love, divine
forgiveness secured by the blood of
Christ's cross.
What's the greater power?
The power of destruction or the
power of resurrection?
What is the greater miracle?
The death of our enemies or the
death of death and the death of
Christ?
See, from the get-go in the book of
Acts, Jesus says to us, Jesus says,
don't you see?
The powerful kingdom of heaven is
already upon us because I've come
and I'm risen and the beauty of my
kingdom is that it doesn't need
warriors.
That's the true power.
This is the sovereign grace of God.
We don't have to be his warriors.
We can simply be his witnesses,
witnesses of the only story, the
only king, the only kingdom really
worth bearing witness about to the
ends of the earth, Christ.
So will you join me in prayer and
being these witnesses to the glory
of God and for the good of our
cities?
Let's pray.
God, we're here seeking clarity
from you.
We want to be your witnesses.
We know that you have woven into
history the greatest story ever
told and we ask that you would show
us how to embody that story, how to
live that story out, to bear witness
to the beauty of this story.
For the glory of your name and for
the good of our neighbors, we pray.
Amen.
Christ Church, part of bearing
witness, part of showing forth the
incredible value of the kingdom of
God is by offering our lives and our
gifts to him.
So will you join me in this
offertory prayer?
Mighty God of resurrection power, we
know that you have been with us through
all that the past year has brought us.
And we have seen you in the generosity
of heart that has brought us through
these days.
As we offer ourselves back to you now,
may we do so as those convinced that
light will always wash away darkness and
life will always defeat death.
In the name of our risen Savior, we pray.
Amen.