WEBVTT 00:00:00.840 --> 00:00:06.480 So when we first planted our church, and this was a long time ago by now, feels like a long 00:00:06.480 --> 00:00:11.740 time ago, one of the first things we did was to spend about seven months preaching through 00:00:11.740 --> 00:00:12.660 the book of Acts. 00:00:13.200 --> 00:00:20.920 Our church was fairly new, and we needed desperately to set a course for the way forward to figure 00:00:20.920 --> 00:00:25.160 out who we are as a church, why we're here in D.C., and what we're called to be and to 00:00:25.160 --> 00:00:27.920 do as a result of God calling us here. 00:00:27.920 --> 00:00:33.380 So we went through the book of Acts to try to discern a vision for our own church, and 00:00:33.380 --> 00:00:42.359 coming out of the pandemic, we, like many churches around the country, feel like we're replanting 00:00:42.359 --> 00:00:43.560 this church. 00:00:44.480 --> 00:00:49.820 And luckily, we're not starting from scratch like we did last time, but there's a lot that 00:00:49.820 --> 00:00:55.120 needs to be reclarified, a lot that needs to be rebuilt after this past year. 00:00:55.119 --> 00:01:03.879 And so because of that, I feel it very appropriate to go back to the book of Acts, like we did 00:01:03.879 --> 00:01:05.060 when we first planted the church. 00:01:05.879 --> 00:01:10.840 Because once again, we need to set a course, and we need to ask God to show us who we are, 00:01:11.219 --> 00:01:16.000 why we're here as a church, and what we should hope to see in the city in the years to come 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:18.000 as a result of our presence here. 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:23.299 So that's what we're going to do starting today, starting this morning. 00:01:23.540 --> 00:01:27.599 Specifically, we're going to be in a series looking at the first half of the book of Acts, 00:01:28.040 --> 00:01:33.420 from Acts chapter 1 through Acts chapter 15, and we're going to see the story of the birth 00:01:33.420 --> 00:01:38.299 of the church and then the impact that the church had on the greater world. 00:01:38.780 --> 00:01:44.659 And as we hear the story of the birth of the church, we're going to clarify our vision 00:01:44.659 --> 00:01:46.579 for the future of our church. 00:01:46.579 --> 00:01:50.060 So this morning, we're going to be looking at the first two chapters of the book of Acts. 00:01:50.679 --> 00:01:55.579 We're going to look at where it all begins, the birth of the church, and we're going to 00:01:55.579 --> 00:02:00.719 see that three major things mark the birth of the church. 00:02:01.439 --> 00:02:07.500 So three major things mark the birth of the institution that we are a part of. 00:02:08.599 --> 00:02:10.039 And it's these three things. 00:02:10.039 --> 00:02:16.259 We see first the hope of a resurrected body that enters the world, the hope of a resurrected 00:02:16.259 --> 00:02:23.379 body, the death of a nationalist fantasy, and then the birth of a new humanity. 00:02:24.560 --> 00:02:26.000 So we're going to look at those in that order. 00:02:26.099 --> 00:02:26.519 Let's pray. 00:02:26.520 --> 00:02:31.020 Lord, we thank you for your word, and we thank you for your Holy Spirit. 00:02:32.100 --> 00:02:44.500 And right now, our desire, our hope, is that your Holy Spirit would empower and clarify our 00:02:44.500 --> 00:02:45.719 understanding of your word. 00:02:45.920 --> 00:02:46.740 Bring it to life. 00:02:46.740 --> 00:02:53.740 And that through your written word, we would come face to face with the living word, Jesus 00:02:53.740 --> 00:02:54.260 Christ. 00:02:55.200 --> 00:03:00.960 And that Jesus Christ would call us forward as a community and teach us what it means to 00:03:00.960 --> 00:03:05.020 follow as faithful disciples in this day and age. 00:03:05.100 --> 00:03:06.620 Lord, we pray this in your Son's holy name. 00:03:06.760 --> 00:03:07.020 Amen. 00:03:07.020 --> 00:03:07.180 Amen. 00:03:08.780 --> 00:03:12.000 So first of all, we see the hope of a resurrected body. 00:03:12.159 --> 00:03:18.480 In Jesus' day, many people don't know this, there were as many as a dozen people claiming 00:03:18.480 --> 00:03:19.740 to be God's Messiah. 00:03:20.760 --> 00:03:23.600 So in that regard, Jesus was not unique. 00:03:23.740 --> 00:03:27.240 There were a number of people claiming to be God's chosen Messiah. 00:03:29.100 --> 00:03:35.300 But all of those other would-be Messiahs shared roughly the same fate. 00:03:35.300 --> 00:03:37.740 They announced that they were God's chosen Messiah. 00:03:37.860 --> 00:03:39.300 They amassed a group of followers. 00:03:39.660 --> 00:03:40.939 The Romans heard about it. 00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:46.560 The Romans found them, tortured them in some cases, executed them. 00:03:46.920 --> 00:03:51.760 And then not long after the execution, the followers dispersed and the movement died. 00:03:51.820 --> 00:03:54.660 And that's why you've never heard of any of these people. 00:03:55.520 --> 00:04:03.240 When it comes to Jesus Christ, we see something entirely unique. 00:04:03.240 --> 00:04:11.840 Following the crucifixion of Jesus, Christianity exploded unlike anything the world had ever seen. 00:04:12.120 --> 00:04:18.800 What we need to understand is the church began as a tiny subculture of Judaism, 00:04:19.259 --> 00:04:23.300 a tiny subculture within the Greco-Roman world. 00:04:23.420 --> 00:04:30.360 It was about .002% of the population would have been Christian. 00:04:30.360 --> 00:04:39.020 And it was largely composed, this early gathering of slaves and women and the poor 00:04:39.020 --> 00:04:44.100 and people largely without rights in this society. 00:04:44.780 --> 00:04:49.020 And yet somehow, following the crucifixion of Jesus over the next two centuries, 00:04:49.560 --> 00:04:57.360 this movement came to span all races, all ethnicities, all socioeconomic classes in its membership. 00:04:57.360 --> 00:05:07.920 And it so radically transformed the Greco-Roman world that the Roman emperors not only ceased in their persecution of Christianity, 00:05:08.439 --> 00:05:17.199 but they began to reluctantly admit that Christians were the ones holding Roman society together as it crumbled. 00:05:17.199 --> 00:05:28.199 And so it is a profound sociological and historical mystery to try to figure out how such a thing could have happened. 00:05:28.860 --> 00:05:30.079 How is it possible? 00:05:30.920 --> 00:05:34.259 And the answer is the resurrection of Jesus. 00:05:35.259 --> 00:05:39.599 The resurrection of Jesus is the foundation of the church. 00:05:39.600 --> 00:05:45.620 This is why Luke says in the opening verses of the book of Acts, which is essentially Luke part 2, 00:05:46.580 --> 00:05:55.600 the first thing he tells us in verse 3 is that Jesus presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs. 00:05:57.360 --> 00:06:05.060 Jesus founded the church, and after he rose from death, Jesus continued to lead his church. 00:06:05.060 --> 00:06:07.360 We do not follow a dead founder. 00:06:07.819 --> 00:06:13.819 Our founder is alive and continues to lead the church that he founded. 00:06:14.139 --> 00:06:18.560 Another way to say this would be without the resurrection, there would be no church. 00:06:20.199 --> 00:06:28.000 So for churches that deny the resurrection, or rather say that the resurrection is metaphorical, not historical, 00:06:28.240 --> 00:06:30.779 they are functionally denying their own foundation. 00:06:30.779 --> 00:06:36.659 But the resurrection of Jesus is actually more than just a foundation. 00:06:36.839 --> 00:06:38.879 It's actually the essence of the church. 00:06:39.879 --> 00:06:42.459 It's the essence of what it means to be the church. 00:06:42.659 --> 00:06:49.659 All throughout the New Testament, the church is called the body of Christ, and that's not just poetry. 00:06:49.660 --> 00:06:57.660 What this tells us is that we as a church, we as Church of the Advent, if we want to know what it means to be a church in a place like D.C., 00:06:58.180 --> 00:07:03.400 we need to ask how do we function as the body of Christ in the world? 00:07:03.540 --> 00:07:06.820 And the only way to learn that is to look at the body of Christ, 00:07:07.480 --> 00:07:11.820 and to learn how to be His body by looking at His body. 00:07:11.819 --> 00:07:21.319 And we look at the risen body of Jesus, and we see first that Jesus' body proves that this world matters to God, 00:07:21.980 --> 00:07:24.480 that matter matters to God. 00:07:25.360 --> 00:07:32.980 We see that God plans to do in the world what He did in Jesus' body, which is to resurrect it and renew it. 00:07:32.980 --> 00:07:45.060 One of the most besetting tendencies in the church is to try to remain aloof from the day-in, day-out realities of the world, 00:07:45.420 --> 00:07:52.439 as though we are somehow above or beyond, as though that is somehow below us. 00:07:53.660 --> 00:07:58.620 But what we see in the resurrected body of Jesus is that the flesh-and-blood realities of this world, 00:07:58.920 --> 00:08:01.600 our day-in, day-out realities, matter to God. 00:08:01.600 --> 00:08:03.560 The world matters to God. 00:08:03.780 --> 00:08:07.840 So we can't, as a church, remain aloof or float above the problems of society. 00:08:08.060 --> 00:08:09.280 We have to be engaged. 00:08:09.379 --> 00:08:10.160 We have to be active. 00:08:10.300 --> 00:08:11.600 We have to care about this world. 00:08:11.860 --> 00:08:13.040 We have to care about our neighborhoods. 00:08:13.220 --> 00:08:14.320 We have to care about our schools. 00:08:14.480 --> 00:08:15.840 We have to care about our local leaders. 00:08:16.820 --> 00:08:21.480 This is what it means to be salt and light in the world, being in the world but not of it. 00:08:22.960 --> 00:08:27.740 We look at Jesus' body, and Jesus' body bears wounds and scars. 00:08:27.740 --> 00:08:35.180 His resurrected body bears wounds and scars because Jesus was willing to suffer for the sake of those He loves. 00:08:36.720 --> 00:08:46.779 Therefore, we as the church must be willing to suffer, laying our lives down if we must in order to bring the hope of the gospel to a world that desperately needs it. 00:08:46.779 --> 00:08:52.279 And Jesus' body has overcome sin and death, which means we as the church have nothing to fear. 00:08:53.539 --> 00:08:54.779 We have nothing to fear. 00:08:55.459 --> 00:09:01.659 No matter whose administration we sit under, no matter what direction our country takes, we have nothing to fear. 00:09:01.659 --> 00:09:10.339 Because Christ's body is the foundation and the essence of our identity as the church in the world. 00:09:11.319 --> 00:09:14.980 So this is what we see in the opening verses of Acts. 00:09:15.100 --> 00:09:16.500 Jesus is alive and well. 00:09:16.579 --> 00:09:19.299 He not only founded the church, but He is leading His church. 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:22.899 But there are obstacles that must be overcome. 00:09:22.899 --> 00:09:28.819 And we see one of those obstacles as we move forward in this account in Acts. 00:09:28.919 --> 00:09:31.179 In verse 6, chapter 1, 00:09:32.139 --> 00:09:35.039 So when they had come together, they asked Him, 00:09:35.720 --> 00:09:40.199 Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? 00:09:41.860 --> 00:09:46.059 Now, it's understandable why they would ask Jesus this for at least two reasons. 00:09:46.059 --> 00:09:54.139 First of all, there are Old Testament prophecies such as Isaiah 11 and Ezekiel 37 that promise that when the Messiah comes, 00:09:54.479 --> 00:09:56.939 He's going to reunite the tribes of Israel. 00:09:58.759 --> 00:10:00.759 It's a biblical question they're asking. 00:10:02.059 --> 00:10:11.859 Beyond that, the Jewish people had been severely oppressed and mistreated by those in power for a very long time. 00:10:11.860 --> 00:10:20.720 They had lived in a society where they didn't have a whole lot of privilege and they had an occupying presence in the form of Rome 00:10:20.720 --> 00:10:23.480 that had oppressed them and mistreated them. 00:10:23.560 --> 00:10:26.300 They had felt like second-class citizens for as long as they could remember. 00:10:27.360 --> 00:10:33.139 So no wonder this nationalist fantasy had sort of captured their imagination, right? 00:10:33.240 --> 00:10:35.480 One day the Messiah is going to come. 00:10:35.680 --> 00:10:38.120 One day the Messiah is going to vindicate us. 00:10:38.120 --> 00:10:42.279 One day we're no longer going to be under the boot of the oppressors, right? 00:10:42.399 --> 00:10:45.060 One day He's going to set us free from the Romans. 00:10:45.700 --> 00:10:48.139 And finally we're going to have power of our own. 00:10:49.060 --> 00:10:51.320 Finally we're going to have self-determination. 00:10:51.600 --> 00:10:53.820 Finally we're going to be able to control our own destiny. 00:10:54.700 --> 00:11:00.419 And finally, if need be, we'll be able to impose our will on others. 00:11:00.779 --> 00:11:03.080 Surely God wants that for us. 00:11:04.519 --> 00:11:06.139 We're His chosen people. 00:11:06.139 --> 00:11:08.419 Surely God wants that for us. 00:11:09.879 --> 00:11:17.340 And you know, basic nationalism, the organization of people into self-governing nations is neither here nor there. 00:11:17.480 --> 00:11:20.139 It's simply a very logical way of ordering society. 00:11:20.819 --> 00:11:24.199 And a certain amount of loyalty to one's nation makes a lot of sense. 00:11:24.200 --> 00:11:32.040 But there are ways that nationalism and a kind of nationalistic fantasy can become distorted. 00:11:32.920 --> 00:11:36.120 Where it starts to become a zero-sum game. 00:11:37.040 --> 00:11:40.640 Where it becomes a certain set of assumptions about power. 00:11:41.500 --> 00:11:42.480 About superiority. 00:11:43.980 --> 00:11:48.759 When it becomes about protecting your own self-interest above all else. 00:11:48.759 --> 00:11:49.240 Right? 00:11:49.240 --> 00:11:56.340 One such example of this is the current example of Christian nationalism. 00:11:57.379 --> 00:11:57.899 Right? 00:11:57.939 --> 00:11:59.899 Which is a factor in our society right now. 00:11:59.960 --> 00:12:06.059 It's a kind of conflation of American identity and Christianity. 00:12:06.059 --> 00:12:11.319 And it is largely adhered to overwhelmingly by white Americans. 00:12:12.319 --> 00:12:13.459 And it's a desire. 00:12:13.619 --> 00:12:14.679 It's very hard to define. 00:12:14.799 --> 00:12:20.000 But it's essentially a desire to define America as a Christian nation. 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:31.720 It's an expectation that the government should promote a Christian cultural template as the official culture of the country as a whole. 00:12:32.940 --> 00:12:39.320 And it's a tendency to treat those who fall outside of that cultural template as secondary citizens. 00:12:40.759 --> 00:12:42.820 And it's remarkably similar. 00:12:42.820 --> 00:12:47.600 If you look at the dynamics underlying Christian nationalism in our country right now. 00:12:47.700 --> 00:12:52.440 And you look at the Jewish nationalism that we're seeing in Acts chapter 1. 00:12:52.540 --> 00:12:53.920 They're remarkably similar. 00:12:55.400 --> 00:12:56.840 They're remarkably similar. 00:12:58.440 --> 00:13:00.520 But the thing that Acts drives home. 00:13:00.900 --> 00:13:03.600 And some would say the entire book of Acts is about this. 00:13:04.480 --> 00:13:07.500 Is that this is not the mission of Jesus. 00:13:08.740 --> 00:13:10.880 It's understandable in some ways. 00:13:10.880 --> 00:13:12.560 But it is not the mission of Jesus. 00:13:13.600 --> 00:13:16.200 Because Jesus is going to reunite Israel. 00:13:16.340 --> 00:13:17.660 But it's going to be a new Israel. 00:13:17.760 --> 00:13:20.879 It's going to be an Israel unlike anything the world has ever seen before. 00:13:21.220 --> 00:13:22.080 He says in verse 8. 00:13:22.500 --> 00:13:25.360 You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. 00:13:25.600 --> 00:13:27.060 And you will be my witnesses. 00:13:27.900 --> 00:13:31.560 In Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. 00:13:32.680 --> 00:13:36.080 What you just saw there is the table of contents for the book of Acts. 00:13:36.160 --> 00:13:38.860 This is the outline of the entire rest of the book. 00:13:39.320 --> 00:13:39.460 Right? 00:13:39.460 --> 00:13:40.840 The gospel explodes. 00:13:40.840 --> 00:13:41.320 The gospel explodes. 00:13:41.820 --> 00:13:44.280 And then the shock wave goes outward. 00:13:44.519 --> 00:13:47.420 In chapters 2 through 7 we see it in Jerusalem. 00:13:47.639 --> 00:13:50.480 Chapters 8 through 12 we see it in Judea and Samaria. 00:13:50.780 --> 00:13:53.420 Chapters 13 through 28 it goes to the ends of the earth. 00:13:53.480 --> 00:13:53.980 And guess what? 00:13:54.019 --> 00:13:54.840 It is still going. 00:13:55.840 --> 00:13:56.900 It is still going. 00:13:56.899 --> 00:14:00.199 We are still writing the book of Acts. 00:14:03.079 --> 00:14:06.980 The mission of Jesus is not limited to one nation. 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:11.340 It's about going to all the nations. 00:14:11.340 --> 00:14:16.139 The commentary by Willie James Jennings. 00:14:16.259 --> 00:14:16.960 He says this. 00:14:18.680 --> 00:14:25.720 The deepest reality of life in the spirit depicted in the book of Acts is that the disciples of Jesus, listen to this, 00:14:25.720 --> 00:14:29.139 rarely if ever go where they want to go. 00:14:30.019 --> 00:14:31.879 Or to whom they would want to go. 00:14:32.960 --> 00:14:42.540 Indeed the spirit seems to always be pressing the disciples to go to those to whom they would in fact strongly prefer never to share space or a meal. 00:14:42.540 --> 00:14:44.440 And definitely not life together. 00:14:45.720 --> 00:14:46.620 And listen to this. 00:14:46.620 --> 00:14:58.379 Listen to that. 00:14:59.220 --> 00:15:06.399 We think of a spirit filled church as a church where people are speaking in tongues and speaking words of knowledge and being slain in the spirit. 00:15:06.740 --> 00:15:07.759 And maybe that's true. 00:15:08.759 --> 00:15:09.840 I'm not denying that. 00:15:09.840 --> 00:15:23.220 But this passage shows us that a spirit filled church is one where people are filled with a divine desire to love and to serve the very kinds of people they would otherwise prefer to avoid. 00:15:24.120 --> 00:15:25.680 That's a spirit filled church. 00:15:26.960 --> 00:15:30.340 And this is setting up a choice for us as the readers. 00:15:30.560 --> 00:15:36.080 You can either be a nationalist in the distorted ways that we just talked about or you can be a witness. 00:15:36.080 --> 00:15:40.900 But you cannot be both a nationalist and a witness. 00:15:42.480 --> 00:15:55.440 You can either choose life inside the walls where you focus on power, you focus on boundaries, you focus on self-protection, you focus on rights, you focus on preserving your way of life. 00:15:56.540 --> 00:15:58.460 Or you can choose to go over the walls. 00:15:59.680 --> 00:16:01.480 You can be sent into the unknown. 00:16:01.680 --> 00:16:03.720 You can be sent into the unpredictable world. 00:16:03.720 --> 00:16:11.980 You can be sent into places where you may have no rights with no guarantee of success to tell what you have seen and heard in Jesus Christ. 00:16:13.820 --> 00:16:15.779 That means relinquishing power. 00:16:16.019 --> 00:16:17.560 It means making yourself vulnerable. 00:16:17.779 --> 00:16:28.000 It means very likely suffering for the sake of people, suffering for the sake of people who may be directly opposed to everything you stand for. 00:16:30.500 --> 00:16:31.899 That's what it means to be a witness. 00:16:31.899 --> 00:16:36.379 The death of a nationalist fantasy. 00:16:37.079 --> 00:16:48.659 What we see in Acts is, it's funny, of all the details Luke could have included in this account, he said, one thing we have to include, if people really need to understand what the church is about, is this conversation. 00:16:50.439 --> 00:16:51.879 Where Jesus said, no, no, no, no. 00:16:52.360 --> 00:16:54.299 I'm not here to fulfill your nationalist fantasy. 00:16:54.899 --> 00:16:56.799 I'm going to do something completely new and different. 00:16:56.799 --> 00:17:05.639 And this is necessary because the entire point of the coming of the Holy Spirit is that it is meant to bring about the birth of a new humanity. 00:17:06.519 --> 00:17:13.059 In Acts chapter 2, the Holy Spirit comes like a mighty rushing wind and he fills the apostles. 00:17:13.059 --> 00:17:17.559 The Spirit fills the apostles. 00:17:18.700 --> 00:17:22.960 And as he fills the apostles, they begin to speak in other languages. 00:17:23.139 --> 00:17:24.839 That is incredibly significant. 00:17:25.899 --> 00:17:35.599 God could have said, I'm going to send the Holy Spirit and he's going to make it possible for everybody to understand Hebrew or Greek or Aramaic. 00:17:35.599 --> 00:17:36.240 Right? 00:17:36.959 --> 00:17:38.319 But that's not what happens. 00:17:39.699 --> 00:17:44.899 He sends the Holy Spirit and the speakers speak in multiple languages. 00:17:47.199 --> 00:17:51.159 Now that should inform everything about the way we think about mission and evangelism. 00:17:52.099 --> 00:17:52.379 Right? 00:17:53.099 --> 00:17:55.319 The gospel is meant to be translated. 00:17:55.519 --> 00:17:57.719 Our lives are meant to be translated. 00:17:58.079 --> 00:18:02.240 This is the difference between, we said there's a difference between nationalism and witness. 00:18:02.240 --> 00:18:05.559 There's also a difference between cultural imperialism and witness. 00:18:05.599 --> 00:18:13.879 From the very beginning, the church has always been multi-ethnic, multicultural, multilingual. 00:18:14.539 --> 00:18:15.859 From the very beginning. 00:18:18.500 --> 00:18:21.480 So people are wondering, how am I possibly, how is this happening? 00:18:21.659 --> 00:18:22.439 Are they drunk? 00:18:22.500 --> 00:18:23.119 Am I drunk? 00:18:23.599 --> 00:18:24.919 Or is this mass hallucination? 00:18:25.240 --> 00:18:30.179 And Peter speaks up and says, hey, this is exactly what the prophet Joel said was going to happen. 00:18:31.459 --> 00:18:34.119 When the Spirit comes, he's like, you know, get out your scripture. 00:18:34.500 --> 00:18:35.179 Read it for yourself. 00:18:35.180 --> 00:18:36.799 This is exactly what we've been waiting for. 00:18:37.500 --> 00:18:44.759 When the Spirit comes, it means a new world order has come to overturn the old world order. 00:18:46.200 --> 00:18:47.279 What's the difference? 00:18:48.259 --> 00:18:54.560 In the old days, the Spirit of God would barely touch certain select few people. 00:18:55.620 --> 00:19:00.160 Every now and then, God would raise up a prophet and the Spirit of God would be upon him. 00:19:00.160 --> 00:19:01.620 That's the old world order. 00:19:01.620 --> 00:19:02.720 That's the old world order. 00:19:03.620 --> 00:19:09.060 But in the new world order, the Holy Spirit of God, who used to only touch a select few prophets here and there, 00:19:09.240 --> 00:19:11.779 is now going to fill all of God's people. 00:19:12.120 --> 00:19:13.320 Men and women, he says. 00:19:13.560 --> 00:19:14.940 Young and old, he says. 00:19:15.279 --> 00:19:16.700 Slaves and free, he says. 00:19:16.700 --> 00:19:21.980 Everybody that God calls is going to be filled with the Holy Spirit. 00:19:22.160 --> 00:19:25.860 Not just the Spirit being upon them, but filling them. 00:19:27.160 --> 00:19:28.360 A new humanity. 00:19:28.359 --> 00:19:30.519 And he says. 00:19:30.679 --> 00:19:36.000 Salvation is clearly not only for the Jews, but for everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord. 00:19:36.139 --> 00:19:41.240 All of the people whom God calls to himself will now be saved. 00:19:41.240 --> 00:19:45.720 Jesus has ascended to the throne of heaven. 00:19:45.839 --> 00:19:51.099 We see the ascension happen, and now he is establishing a new humanity on the earth. 00:19:51.519 --> 00:19:57.400 You know, I read Acts for so many years and never understood how unbelievably political this book is. 00:19:58.359 --> 00:20:05.480 You know, this is a world where you could believe whatever you wanted as long as you didn't threaten your ultimate allegiance to the emperor. 00:20:06.599 --> 00:20:07.980 That was the real religion. 00:20:07.980 --> 00:20:10.819 It was fidelity to the state. 00:20:12.620 --> 00:20:14.019 Politics was the real God. 00:20:15.700 --> 00:20:21.539 And this says, all of you politicians, all of you leaders of state, you all just lost your power. 00:20:22.680 --> 00:20:24.120 You all just lost your authority. 00:20:25.420 --> 00:20:29.779 We'll continue to function as though you have authority for a while, and God's going to work through that. 00:20:29.860 --> 00:20:31.380 But there's now a king in the throne. 00:20:32.839 --> 00:20:34.460 There's now the king of the world is risen. 00:20:34.460 --> 00:20:35.019 Right? 00:20:36.059 --> 00:20:42.519 And so people hear this, and they hear that the very person that you executed, God has exalted and made both Lord and Christ. 00:20:42.980 --> 00:20:45.460 And it cuts them to the heart, and they say, what shall we do? 00:20:45.519 --> 00:20:46.180 What do we do? 00:20:47.299 --> 00:20:50.200 And Peter says, repent and be baptized. 00:20:50.200 --> 00:21:09.759 Repent means to turn away from all of your old agendas, all of your old allegiances, all of your old idols, all of your substitute gods, and give yourself fully to King Jesus, who died for your sin and now sits in the throne of the world. 00:21:09.759 --> 00:21:12.720 And then he says, be baptized. 00:21:14.240 --> 00:21:21.960 Put off your old self, put that old self to death, and take on the new identity of Jesus Christ as your identity. 00:21:22.140 --> 00:21:28.720 Take on his righteousness, take his inheritance, take his priorities, take his mission as your own. 00:21:29.579 --> 00:21:33.119 You've got to understand, repent and be baptized is all about death and life. 00:21:33.119 --> 00:21:36.719 It's all about a new identity. 00:21:37.939 --> 00:21:44.459 He's saying the only way to respond to Jesus is to repent and be baptized and to become a part of this new humanity that Jesus is building in the world. 00:21:45.879 --> 00:21:50.379 And through baptism, we are reborn into this new humanity as the body of Christ. 00:21:52.039 --> 00:21:53.959 So this is the birth of the church. 00:21:53.960 --> 00:22:12.100 And these points, the hope of a resurrected body, the death of a nationalist fantasy, the birth of a new humanity, these themes really set the course for the book, but they also set a course for us as we think about what we are called to be in this city and in the world. 00:22:12.099 --> 00:22:26.119 So as we contemplate our future together as a church, as we are rebuilding, trying to get everybody back together in person, starting up our programs and ministries, we're going to be rebuilding our sense of vision as well. 00:22:27.419 --> 00:22:30.459 So we're going to be talking a lot about the ministry of the Holy Spirit. 00:22:30.460 --> 00:22:42.160 We're going to be talking a lot about the ministry of the Holy Spirit and our desire to grow a ministry of the Holy Spirit, a ministry of healing prayer at Church of the Advent. 00:22:42.480 --> 00:22:56.680 And some of you know about the class that we'll be hearing more about later in the service that's starting on May 6th, led by Rob Kretsch, that's going to be an exploratory step for us as a church in that direction. 00:22:56.680 --> 00:23:02.779 We're going to be talking a lot about the gifts of the Spirit, what it means to have a church where everybody is operating out of their gifts. 00:23:03.660 --> 00:23:08.840 We're going to be talking a lot about evangelism in the weeks, months, and years to come. 00:23:09.539 --> 00:23:20.180 And our explicit desire to reach the unchurched, the de-churched, people who maybe grew up in the church, baptized as babies, but who have since walked away from the church, 00:23:20.400 --> 00:23:26.100 to reach people in our neighborhoods, to increase the number of adult baptisms that we have here at church. 00:23:26.680 --> 00:23:34.460 We're going to be making that an explicit goal and asking and praying, how can the Holy Spirit lead us to become bold witnesses where we live and work? 00:23:35.279 --> 00:23:46.600 And we're going to be talking a lot about missions and what it looks like for us to actively and enthusiastically support and partner with other ministries and missionaries in other parts of the world, 00:23:46.700 --> 00:23:51.080 understanding that's a vital part of what it means to be a Spirit-filled church. 00:23:51.079 --> 00:24:01.299 And we're going to be talking a lot about race, and we're going to be talking about the power of the gospel to bring racial justice and healing in our society. 00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:07.379 And I think that last one is especially urgent for us as a church. 00:24:08.039 --> 00:24:14.720 It's especially urgent that the church be engaging issues of race and injustice and the need for healing. 00:24:14.720 --> 00:24:19.299 And that's a very controversial thing to bring up, but I'm just going to say a couple of things about it. 00:24:20.420 --> 00:24:25.600 We need to understand something about the conversation in our country around race and why the church has to speak up. 00:24:26.440 --> 00:24:29.120 There are a lot of people out there who are trying to make a difference. 00:24:29.740 --> 00:24:34.600 There are a lot of people out there trying to do really good work, but you need to understand the dynamics at work. 00:24:34.599 --> 00:24:36.719 Listen to this. 00:24:36.719 --> 00:24:50.459 The major institutions who are driving the national conversation around race, politicians, activist organizations, social media companies, and news outlets all share one thing in common. 00:24:51.639 --> 00:24:58.740 Despite their best intentions, they stand to benefit more when we are divided than when we are united. 00:24:59.699 --> 00:25:02.099 They benefit more from division. 00:25:02.099 --> 00:25:02.779 Right? 00:25:02.779 --> 00:25:21.439 They benefit from animosity, from hostility, from fear, from outrage, because those things produce more votes for politicians, more contributions for activist organizations, more clicks and ad revenue for internet companies, and higher ratings for news outlets. 00:25:22.519 --> 00:25:27.639 This is the outrage industrial complex, and we have to understand the implications of that. 00:25:27.639 --> 00:25:30.879 We're talking about the commodification of hostility. 00:25:32.099 --> 00:25:34.500 It's the commodification of hostility. 00:25:35.759 --> 00:25:38.339 We figured out how to monetize your negative emotions. 00:25:40.159 --> 00:25:47.079 And if churches like ours aren't speaking up, if we aren't putting the alternative of the gospel on display, 00:25:47.779 --> 00:25:53.019 then institutions like these are going to drive the entire conversation. 00:25:53.019 --> 00:25:57.779 I fear things will only get worse despite the best intentions of many who are involved. 00:25:59.779 --> 00:26:02.599 But this is a really hard conversation for churches to have. 00:26:03.599 --> 00:26:05.119 It's a really hard conversation. 00:26:06.180 --> 00:26:10.220 And I've talked to many, many, many pastors about this over the last couple of years in particular. 00:26:10.220 --> 00:26:14.440 And I've talked to many pastors at churches who are way further along than we are. 00:26:16.180 --> 00:26:18.339 And I hear the same thing from everybody. 00:26:19.140 --> 00:26:25.559 Is that pastors and church leaders hear an almost continuous stream of criticism from their people. 00:26:27.000 --> 00:26:29.220 People saying, I'm so frustrated at my pastor. 00:26:29.220 --> 00:26:32.559 I'm so frustrated at my church for all the ways they've mishandled these issues. 00:26:33.559 --> 00:26:34.920 And here's what I want to say to that. 00:26:36.600 --> 00:26:38.200 I'm not going to tell you not to be frustrated. 00:26:39.319 --> 00:26:42.039 I'm not going to tell you that because it's an incredibly frustrating issue. 00:26:42.600 --> 00:26:45.120 I think it's one of the hardest issues we as a church have faced in years. 00:26:45.680 --> 00:26:46.819 In decades, in centuries. 00:26:48.059 --> 00:26:49.539 I'm not going to tell you not to be frustrated. 00:26:50.039 --> 00:26:51.019 But here's what I'm going to tell you. 00:26:51.019 --> 00:26:57.920 Instead of being frustrated at your church, be frustrated alongside your church. 00:26:59.240 --> 00:27:02.940 Because when you're frustrated at your church, you separate yourself out. 00:27:03.819 --> 00:27:07.119 You get to pretend like you always knew the better way to handle that situation. 00:27:07.599 --> 00:27:09.500 You always knew the more appropriate thing to say. 00:27:09.940 --> 00:27:11.200 And your church is screwing it up. 00:27:12.160 --> 00:27:13.879 You get to act like you would never fail. 00:27:14.920 --> 00:27:19.660 You get to occupy this position where you're able to say all the things that you should have said and should have done. 00:27:19.660 --> 00:27:22.940 But you don't actually have to risk anything. 00:27:23.800 --> 00:27:25.019 You don't have to fail. 00:27:25.640 --> 00:27:26.480 You don't have to repent. 00:27:27.320 --> 00:27:28.940 You don't have to own your own shortcomings. 00:27:30.259 --> 00:27:36.460 So you're really missing out if you're frustrated at the people who are actually trying to do something. 00:27:37.360 --> 00:27:39.620 Instead, be frustrated alongside your church. 00:27:40.460 --> 00:27:41.240 Yeah, be frustrated. 00:27:41.360 --> 00:27:41.840 Be angry. 00:27:42.800 --> 00:27:43.840 But let's do it together. 00:27:44.860 --> 00:27:46.400 Share some of the responsibility. 00:27:47.519 --> 00:27:48.759 Share some of the load. 00:27:49.559 --> 00:27:50.440 Take some risks. 00:27:51.079 --> 00:27:52.059 Be willing to fail. 00:27:52.619 --> 00:27:53.640 Be willing to repent. 00:27:54.359 --> 00:27:56.059 Be willing to face your own shortcomings. 00:27:56.299 --> 00:27:57.900 And the good news is you're not going to do it alone. 00:27:58.240 --> 00:27:59.460 Because we can do it together. 00:28:00.259 --> 00:28:01.319 We can be frustrated. 00:28:02.359 --> 00:28:09.819 And if necessary, together, we can fail as often as we need to in order to actually make progress. 00:28:09.819 --> 00:28:15.539 You know, many of us wonder, what's our church going to look like 10 years from now? 00:28:15.919 --> 00:28:16.799 20 years from now? 00:28:17.919 --> 00:28:18.939 I can't say. 00:28:20.220 --> 00:28:27.839 But my prayer is that we are a spirit-filled, boundary-crossing, border-transgressing community of witnesses, 00:28:27.839 --> 00:28:32.619 and that like the resurrected body of Jesus, we have the scars to prove it. 00:28:34.779 --> 00:28:35.359 Let's pray. 00:28:35.359 --> 00:28:38.139 Lord, we thank you. 00:28:38.199 --> 00:28:39.259 We thank you for your spirit. 00:28:40.019 --> 00:28:41.719 And we desire to be filled with the spirit. 00:28:42.519 --> 00:28:47.939 But I really, really think that we don't know what we're asking for when we want to be spirit-filled. 00:28:47.940 --> 00:28:52.860 Because what that means is we actually have to let go of control. 00:28:53.799 --> 00:28:56.960 And we actually have to relinquish our agenda. 00:28:57.920 --> 00:28:59.580 We have to let go of our preferences. 00:28:59.820 --> 00:29:01.920 We have to let go of a lot of what makes us feel comfortable. 00:29:04.080 --> 00:29:11.460 Lord, what we see here is your Holy Spirit coming and calling your people to go in a direction that they would very much prefer not to go. 00:29:14.100 --> 00:29:17.900 Lord, so may we be a spirit-filled church in that sense of the word. 00:29:17.940 --> 00:29:27.600 Lord, may we relinquish control and preference to you and trust you to lead us. 00:29:28.920 --> 00:29:36.340 We pray this in your Son's holy name, that we might be a church not simply that exists to meet our own needs, but that exists to truly glorify you. 00:29:37.460 --> 00:29:37.900 Amen.