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Good morning.
My name is Catherine St. Clair, and I'm reading the scripture lesson for today.
This is a reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Acts chapter 28, verses 16 to 31.
When we got to Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself with a soldier to guard him.
Three days later, he called together the local Jewish leaders.
When they had assembled, Paul said to them,
Although I have done nothing against our people or against the customs of our ancestors, I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans.
They examined me and wanted to release me because I was not guilty of any crime deserving death.
The Jews objected, so I was compelled to make an appeal to Caesar.
I certainly did not intend to bring any charge against my own people.
For this reason, I have asked to see you and talk with you.
It is because of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain.
They replied,
We have not received any letters from Judea concerning you, and none of our people who have come from there has reported or said anything bad about you.
But we want to hear what your views are, for we know that people everywhere are talking against this sect.
They arranged to meet Paul on a certain day and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying.
He witnessed to them from morning till evening, explaining about the kingdom of God and from the law of Moses and from the prophets.
He tried to persuade them about Jesus.
Some were convinced by what he said, but others would not believe.
They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement.
The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors.
When he said, through Isaiah the prophet,
Go to this people and say,
You will be ever hearing, but never understanding.
You will be ever seeing, but never perceiving.
For this people's heart has become calloused.
They hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise, they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn.
And I would heal them.
Therefore, I want you to know that God's salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen.
For two whole years, Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him.
He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
You may be seated.
Thank you for that scripture reading.
Good morning, Christ Church.
My name is Andrew.
I'm one of the pastors here.
We're so glad to be worshiping with you.
Like Jonathan said, we'd love to chat with you afterwards if you're new over coffee.
We also have a deacon, Gabriel.
He's that guy in the bright orange lanyard.
He's here to pray for you if you'd love that as well.
Jonathan and I would like to pray for you as well,
if that's something that you feel like you could use this morning.
So, welcome again to Christ Church.
Will you join me in prayer as we come to hear what God has to say to us this morning?
Our Father, the enemy would have us to disregard your word.
The enemy would have me fail in preaching your truths this morning.
The enemy would have all the people here listening, distracted from what you have to say.
But you're greater than he who is in the world.
And we give you praise for that.
So, would you bless the preaching of your word?
Would it be less of me and more of you?
And would we be amazed at the power of your holy word,
inspired by your wonderful spirit,
who longs to do amazing things in and through us,
fallible us.
We pray all these things in the name of Jesus.
Amen.
Well, Christ Church, today is the last sermon in our series in the book of Acts.
And actually, we've been in Acts since April,
so it's been quite a while.
Chelsea has been saying to me,
Andrew, your sermons are starting to sound the same.
You know, maybe we had a little bit too much of Acts.
No, it's okay.
It's just my lack of being a good preacher.
But here we are at the end of Acts.
We're going to head into Deuteronomy next,
but we're going to close it out right now.
And today, we're skipping ahead quite a bit.
We're going from last week,
where Jonathan preached from Acts 20 about Paul's farewell to the Ephesian elders.
And we're skipping ahead to his imprisonment in Rome, right?
In the last 16 verses of this book.
But in wrapping up, what I want to do is,
I want us to notice, you know,
how far we've come in this 28-chapter book known as the Acts of the Apostles,
or really what it is, is the Acts of the Holy Spirit in and through the Apostles.
All right?
So I want to take us back a little bit,
just give us a brief overview to kind of get us all the way here
to the last 16 verses of the book of Acts.
So it all began right in chapter 1 with the resurrected Jesus,
who spent 40 days of his new resurrected life doing what?
Preaching and teaching about the kingdom of God.
That's what he did right after he was resurrected for those 40 days.
He taught about the kingdom of God.
And then you have to remember what his disciples asked him
as he preached about the kingdom of God.
They asked him,
Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?
And what did he say?
He didn't directly answer the question.
He says, you guys are so preoccupied with the timing of the kingdom,
but what you really need to know is that you will receive power
when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.
And while you are so preoccupied with whether or not the kingdom
is going to be restored to Israel, to your nation,
guess what?
I have a bigger plan.
And you will be my witnesses from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria,
even to the ends of the earth.
And then boom, Jesus says, peace out.
He ascends into heaven to the right hand of his Father in heaven.
As disciples are left to figure out, okay, now what?
What's next?
He didn't even answer our question about whether or not the kingdom
was going to be restored to Israel.
So they just wait and they just pray and they stay in community.
And as Jesus said, the spirit does come upon them at Pentecost.
The spirit comes upon them and they preach the name of Jesus
and they do many signs and wonders in his name.
And the poor are lifted up.
And those who are overlooked are looked upon with compassion.
And many people begin to join this Jesus movement in Jerusalem.
But then what happens?
The Jewish establishment, they kill Stephen, right?
The first martyr in the church.
And then they send out one of their top Pharisees, Saul,
to go and persecute the church.
But what happens?
The church only scatters and spreads the news about Jesus even further.
To Samaritans and Ethiopians.
And Saul himself, this great persecutor of the church,
he is converted.
And what you have is a multi-ethnic church that is formed
and born in Antioch, the third largest city in the Roman Empire.
And so it's not the Jerusalem church,
but this Gentile populated church now in Antioch
that becomes the main headquarters,
the main benefactor for the early church's benevolence ministries
and its outreach and evangelism mission ministries.
And this church in Antioch, they send Paul even further north,
even further east into the Mediterranean world.
And the good news about Jesus is preached
in all kinds of influential international cities
like Athens and Corinth.
And yes, it's often met with resistance.
It's often met with dangerous threats.
Sometimes even whole cities are uproaring against Paul.
Sometimes there's violence and Paul is stoned
by Jewish and Gentile communities.
And yet, Christian churches continue to pop up
all over the Mediterranean world
as more than a few people are persuaded about Jesus.
Now that brings us to last week.
Last week, Paul said his farewell to the Ephesian elders,
marking the end of his third missionary journey.
And between then and now, between Acts chapter 20
and today, Acts chapter 28,
there's quite a bit that's happened.
After his Ephesian farewell, Paul, led by the Spirit,
he says, I feel like I need to go to Jerusalem.
So he goes to Jerusalem, and of course,
what does he do in Jerusalem?
He worships his God in the temple.
But what he also did when he worshiped his God in the temple
was he brought his Gentile companions with him,
his brothers in Christ who had been converted by his ministry.
He brings them into the temple to worship this God
that they all worship in the name of Jesus.
But you can imagine now how that looked, right,
to the ethnocentric Jewish establishment.
And so in Jerusalem, he is confronted by an angry Jewish mob.
They're jealous.
These religious leaders who only had eyes
for the restoration of their nation and their ethnic culture
and not the whole of Israel,
not the whole of the people of God,
they didn't have eyes to see the beauty
of this truly Jewish Jesus movement,
how this truly Jewish Jesus movement
was accomplishing an amazing thing,
extending the hope of Israel to the nations.
And so they're offended, and offended by Paul's gospel
and offended by Paul's actions, they seek to kill him.
And they stir up the whole city against him,
and it looks like he's about to get killed,
but what happens?
According to God's plan, he's saved.
He's protected by who?
Actually, he's protected from his people
by the Romans who occupied Israel, by the Romans.
And then he's taken up further north
to a town called Caesarea,
and he stays there for two years,
not able to do much other than try to talk
to his captors, his prison guards,
and even the governor there about Jesus.
That's what he's up to.
And eventually, the Jewish establishment,
they come up to Caesarea,
and they're starting to bring more charges against Paul
because they want to see this guy killed.
They really want to kill this guy
who they believe is anti-Israel.
So they come up to Caesarea,
and they bring charges against him
that he is against their law.
He's offended their law.
He's offended their temple.
He's even offended Caesar.
They're bringing all these charges
in the hopes that he will get executed.
And Paul says, all right, bet.
I appeal to Caesar.
Here, let's take it to the highest court in the world
and see whose case is stronger.
Let's take my message about Jesus
to the center stage of the empire
before the highest earthly authorities in the land,
and let's see.
So he's transported now from Caesarea to Rome on a ship,
but he almost doesn't make it.
He almost doesn't make it.
He goes through a shipwreck,
and then the prison guards are like,
oh, shoot, all the prisoners are just gonna get away,
and we're gonna get in big trouble,
so why don't we kill all the prisoners?
And then, because of Paul's reputation,
they decide not to after all,
and all the prisoners, everyone is saved.
And then he goes onto this island in Malta,
and he's bit by a poisonous snake.
And then, here we are in Acts chapter 28.
He made it to Rome, guys.
He made it to Rome.
He made it.
And through all of this, it's like,
will he make it to Rome?
Will God's witnesses truly make it
to the ends of the earth?
Well, here he is, by the hand of God,
in the heart of the Roman Empire at the end of Acts.
Now, a question I want us to consider is,
well, how might you end this story?
What kind of ending might you expect from this story?
Paul, this central missionary
in the second half of the book of Acts,
he's overcome all kinds of adversity,
and now he's in the heart of the Roman Empire.
How might you have ended this story?
Well, for me, maybe it's just because
my oldest, Cammy, is super into Cinderella
and Disney princesses right now,
but if it were up to me, with my last 16 verses,
I'd probably feel the need to vindicate this hero, right?
And write a nice, happy ending with liberty,
and victory, and finality,
to tell his triumph in Rome,
and how the whole empire turned to Jesus,
or at least of how Paul, you know,
at least avoided execution,
and launched a successful church planting movement in Rome.
But is that how this book ends?
Is that how this book ends?
Is that what we heard a moment ago,
read by Catherine St. Clair?
No.
How does Acts end?
It ends with the great apostle Paul in chains,
under house arrest.
And really, it kind of underwhelmingly ends
with him really just doing the same old thing
that he does in all those other chapters.
Chelsea was right.
He does do the same thing over and over again, right?
He goes and he preaches to the Jewish people
every single time he enters the city,
and then he preaches the same old message,
verse 23, about the kingdom of God
from the law and the prophets,
trying to persuade people about Jesus.
And then, as it says in verse 24,
like in many other places,
the results are mixed, right?
They're just mixed.
And then, as was his pattern,
he turns his attention to the Gentiles.
That's what he does in verse 28.
And then it ends, it just says,
he stayed under house arrest for two years,
and he just kept doing the same thing.
Verse 31, he proclaimed the kingdom of God
and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ
with all boldness and without hindrance.
And that's how this account ends.
Not extraordinary, but super ordinary.
Super ordinary.
And I don't know about you,
but doesn't this strike you
as kind of a bummer of an ending
to this series in the book of Acts?
Like, why does this book of Acts,
recorded by the great apostles,
inspired by the Holy Spirit,
why does it end in such an unspectacular
and even unsatisfying way?
Why is there no surprising last minute,
once and for all, final Christian triumph?
What we read that happens here in Rome,
it isn't much different, really.
Maybe it's even less impressive
than what we've seen happen
in other chapters in Acts, right?
In other cities in the Roman world.
Here, we're not even told
if there's a happy ending or a sad one.
The author of Acts isn't interested
in giving any such details to us.
So what kind of story is this?
And what's the point?
I mean, why would anyone be attracted
to the kingdom that is preached
by this missionary Apostle Paul here
who is imprisoned and unable
to even convince his own people about Jesus?
And how could anyone expect
to be inspired by a story
with such unspectacular
and even an unsatisfying ending, right?
Well, for the rest of this sermon,
what I wanna do is I wanna make the case
that in this ending of Acts,
this ending of Acts is actually
the perfect ending for expressing Christ's kingdom
and inspiring Christ's church,
the perfect way to end the book of Acts,
particularly in what it teaches us
about the kingdom of God
and also in what it calls us to do
as Christ's church.
So first, how does the unspectacular ending
we see here in the book of Acts,
how does it actually beautifully express
the nature of the kingdom of God,
of Christ's kingdom?
I mean, isn't the kingdom of God,
the sphere of God's reign,
supposed to be marked with joy
and happiness and triumph?
And yet Acts, which began with,
it began quite well, right,
with the risen Jesus preaching
about the kingdom of God,
it ends with the preaching
about the kingdom of God too,
but by this prisoner who's chained
and can't even go out.
But what kind of a king
would let his great messenger
become a prisoner?
And what kind of a kingdom
could he seriously be preaching in chains?
Where was Paul's happy ending?
You know, this week we had youth group twice,
once with the older kids
and once with the younger kids,
and when we were with the older kids,
we went over Psalm 1 this past week,
this past Wednesday.
Blessed is the man that does not walk
in the counsel of the ungodly.
You know, he's like a tree
planted by streams of water,
yielding fruit in its season,
whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers,
and so on, right?
And I challenged our youth.
I said, picture, consider
what it really means
to have a truly blessed life.
That's what I want our kids
to really pursue,
a truly blessed life.
And we ended up getting
onto the topic of happiness.
And we talked about how God
truly does want us to be blessed.
God truly does want us to be happy.
But then one of the youth said,
but isn't that impossible?
Isn't it impossible for us
to always be happy in this world?
And another one chimed in.
He said, yeah, it is impossible.
It is.
But then he thought about it
and he qualified and said,
actually, it is impossible
until heaven.
Until heaven, right?
And see, this is what the ending of Acts
confirms to us
about the kingdom of God.
Yes, the kingdom is inaugurated
by the risen and ascended Christ
who sits on the throne
at the right hand of his Father.
And because of this,
we do have an abiding hope,
a joy that can never be snuffed out.
And yet, this inaugurated kingdom
is yet to be consummated.
We still pray every week,
your kingdom, please come,
with grief and with lament.
Not without hope,
but always keeping it real with God,
keeping it real with ourselves,
keeping it real with each other.
The kingdom is already
and the kingdom is not yet.
And that's why Paul could write
while chained to a Roman prison guard
for two years,
in his prison epistles,
Colossians 4, he says,
remember my chains.
And in Philippians 4,
he says, rejoice in the Lord always.
And again, I say, rejoice,
for I have learned to be content
whatever the circumstances.
It's already and not yet.
And I know for some of us
who've been here for a while,
it might seem like we talk about this a lot,
the alreadyness and the not yetness
of Christ's kingdom,
but we return to it again and again
because it's so important.
See, the unspectacular ending of Acts
and Paul's less than ideal circumstances
in these last 16 verses
are actually quite common
to the experience of living
in this already not yet kingdom of God.
Living in this kind of kingdom,
this already not yet kingdom,
there are definitely wins for sure.
The kingdom is here.
The spirit is already at work.
Verse 16 says,
the Roman guard showed Paul kindness
and let him live in his own house
with a guard.
Verse 24 says,
some people did believe in his message.
Verse 31 says,
the gospel goes out with boldness
and without hindrance.
But again,
this isn't some ultimate final triumph in Rome.
The kingdom of God is clearly present.
God's reign is definitely on display
in Paul's preaching
and in the people who receive his message
and yet,
the final victory of God,
the final victory of God's people
in history
has yet to come.
Paul is still in Roman chains
in a Roman kingdom.
Already and not yet.
And the more we Christians
internalize this dual reality
of the kingdom of God,
the better equipped we will be
to navigate our complicated,
complicated lives.
See, to come to grips,
particularly with the not yetness
of the kingdom,
is to recognize that God doesn't need us
to win for him to win.
Amen?
God doesn't need us to win
for him to win.
God doesn't need us
to have spectacular lives
for him to accomplish
his spectacular purposes.
No disappointments in
and with our lives
need ever crush
or demoralize us.
Our life circumstances
don't need to smoothly flow
into nice, happy endings
for us to be sure
that God's kingdom will come
and that God's kingdom
will endure.
And although the not yetness
of his kingdom
can seem frustrating,
as I'm sure it was for Paul,
it is also a beautiful thing.
It's also beautiful
because implicit
in the not yetness
of the kingdom
is the promise of fulfillment.
Not yet.
Not yet doesn't mean never.
It doesn't mean maybe.
It simply means not now,
but it's definitely coming.
And that's why the book of Acts
ends not with Apostle Paul's
heroic triumph,
an ultimate happy ending,
but with a preacher
under Roman house arrest,
preaching faithfully
and seeing a mixed response.
See, the point of this ending
is not,
hey, what happened to Paul,
the hero?
How did it all turn out?
Well, surely it turned out
well for him, right?
No.
We're not told
the end of Paul's story
in the book of Acts
because the book of Acts
isn't a story
about the Apostle Paul.
It's the story
of the Holy Spirit's
movement and extension
of Christ's witness
to the ends of the earth.
And in this book,
what is so much more important
than knowing
what happened to Paul
is what it says
in verse 31,
that the kingdom of God,
the lordship of Jesus Christ,
continued to be proclaimed
with all boldness
and unhindered.
In and through unfavorable,
limited circumstances,
the kingdom of God
endures and advances
in the heart
of the Roman Empire.
And so rather than
discourage us
or leave us unsatisfied
with such a weak ending
to this story,
this should actually inspire us
to keep going
as actors
in this unfolding story.
You know,
not only does this
underwhelming ending
in Acts
point us to the often
unsatisfying experience
of Christian living
in the kingdom of God,
but it also points us
beyond itself.
Because again,
the point is not
that this story
is about Paul,
it's a story
about the work
of the Holy Spirit,
a work that is largely
unfinished.
See,
in this conclusion of Acts,
the author,
he's intentionally writing
an underwhelming ending.
He's intentionally doing this
with no details whatsoever
of what happens next
for Paul,
just ending with
the gospel was proclaimed
with all boldness
and without hindrance.
Why?
Because the author
was not intending
to write a definitive
the end
at the end of the Acts
of the Apostles.
The author was intending
to write
to be continued.
That's why it ends this way.
It's meant to make us feel,
oh,
to be continued.
And then the question is though,
to be continued
by who,
you ask?
By who?
Well,
by the rest of us,
the church,
or more accurately,
the Holy Spirit
working in and through us
his church.
See,
while the Acts account
concluded with Paul
in verses 31,
the actions of God's Spirit
continues with the church
even today
all throughout
the rest of this age
until the return of Christ
and the consummation
of his kingdom.
The story wasn't over.
The story isn't over.
It was and it is
to be continued.
Again,
see,
Christianity is not
simply a set of doctrines
or beliefs
to give your assent to
nor is it
a list of rules
to obey and follow.
It's a wonderful story.
It's a grand narrative
of what God is up to
in this world,
what God has been up to
since the creation
of the world,
since the beginning
of time.
And while God's people
have always had a role
as actors
in this divine drama,
the book of Acts,
this account
of what the earliest
followers of Jesus did
after he ascended
into heaven,
the book of Acts
marks a unique time
in the unfolding
of the drama
of God's story.
Think of it,
think of this history
as a Shakespearean
play with five acts.
You have act one,
creation and fall.
God creates the world,
yet the problem of sin
enters upon the scene.
Then act two,
Israel.
God graciously chooses
a people
and promises to establish
the kingdom that they
forfeited at the fall.
Then act three,
Christ,
the king of that kingdom,
he enters into history
and he inaugurates
the kingdom
and promises to consummate
it upon his return.
And then there are
two more acts.
The final act
is act five, right?
New creation,
that final rest
that we all long for,
the consummation
of the world,
the kingdom
that Jesus
and the prophets
and the apostles
all foretold.
This imperishable
new heavens
and new earth
where every tear
is wiped away
and justice
and shalom
reign forever and ever.
But see,
what the book of Acts
marks and kicks off,
this book,
this ending,
it kicks off
act four.
If act one
was creation and fall,
if act two
is Israel,
if act three
is Christ,
and if the last act
is new creation,
act four
is the church age.
That is the act
that we inhabit.
And what's so unique
about act four,
this church age,
is that unlike
the first four acts,
the people of God
in act four
are all uniquely filled
with the power
and the presence
of the Holy Spirit.
And we're called
to improvise
rather than just
parrot what has already
been said
in the sacred Hebrew
scriptures.
We,
as a people
from every tribe,
nation,
and tongue
are now called
in a sense
to go beyond
the sacred page
on history's way
to the fifth
and final act.
Of course,
this doesn't mean
we just do
whatever we want.
It's an age
that's guided
by the Spirit
and we're to remain
in character
and we're to act
consistently
with the first three acts
and the final act.
But even with these parameters,
act four,
this age of the church
that we presently
inhabit as Christians
between the two comings
of Jesus,
it's an age
of improvisation,
of discerning
the Spirit's way
in new
and diverse contexts,
of asking questions
of the here and now.
What does it look like
to worship Yahweh
as a woman?
A woman in the
patriarchal ancient world
or a woman today
in post-Christian world?
What does it look like
to worship Yahweh
as a slave
or a prisoner
or a migrant
or an oppressed minority?
What does it look like
to worship as someone
from Africa
or Europe
or Asia?
Just some of the
many questions
that the church
in this act four,
in this church age,
has been called
to work out
or perhaps closer to home.
What does it look like
to worship Yahweh
in this post-Christian
secular moment
as a software engineer
at Google
in the Bay Area
or as a teacher
in the Berkeley
or Oakland
public school districts
or as a PhD student
here at Cal
and not just on
an individualistic level
but also on a corporate level?
What does it mean
for Christ Church East Bay
to worship Yahweh
in the midst
of our city's
homelessness crisis?
How is the global church
to respond
to the rise
of the Taliban
in Afghanistan
or the disasters
in Haiti
or the border crisis
that we're facing?
The underwhelming ending
in the book of Acts,
see,
it's a call.
It's a call from God
to consider
how we are to act out
and how we are to improvise
our roles
in Act 4
as the church.
How will we be witnesses
of Christ
to the ends
of the earth?
Remember at the outset
of this book,
Acts chapter 1 verse 8,
Jesus said to the church,
you will be
my witnesses.
You will be
my witnesses.
He didn't say
you should be.
He didn't say
you can be.
He didn't say
do you want to be?
He said
you will be.
This is what we are.
This is what we are,
Christ's church.
Whether we play
and improvise the role
well or not,
we are witnesses
of Christ.
So the question for us
is how are we witnessing?
How are we witnessing
to Christ?
Are we giving off
an aroma
or a stench
among the various
audiences
that God
has placed us
in front of?
I want us to notice
how Paul,
he notices,
he recognizes
that he is a witness
no matter his circumstances
and he doesn't
sit on his hands,
he doesn't wait
for better life circumstances
to start serving God again.
In his two year
stint in Caesarea
when his only audience
was the governor Felix,
he said,
all right, cool.
I'm just gonna share
the gospel
with this one guy.
This must be my calling
in this season.
He doesn't try to
open up,
force open doors
that God closed.
He simply goes
through the ones
that God opens.
Same thing here in Rome,
he doesn't say,
well, my hands
are literally tied,
these chains
and this house rest
are preventing
the gospel
from going forth.
No, he says,
if I can't get out
of Rome,
let the people
come to me.
He invites the Jewish
leaders in
to hear what he has
to say,
verse 17.
Just three days
after he arrived
in Rome.
He hardly even
takes a breather
after that crazy
shipwreck
and the snake bite
and all that.
In verse 30,
it says he welcomed
many visitors,
actually.
And since he couldn't
go out,
he just had people
come to him
and he continued
to preach boldly,
even while chained
to a Roman guard
under house arrest.
And history tells us
that during this
two year stint,
what he did
was he wrote
the beautiful,
the magnificent
prison epistles.
Ephesians,
Philippians,
Colossians,
Philemon.
See, nothing,
nothing,
no circumstance
could keep Paul
from bearing witness
to Christ.
To him,
the gospel
was too important.
It was too important
to be halted
by his chains
and his circumstances.
And God's power
was,
God's power
to make much
out of our limitations
was too great
for Paul to believe
that his hands
were ultimately tied.
After all,
Paul worshipped
a king
who by being crucified
on a Roman cross
could remove
the curse
of the world.
What circumstance
was going to stop him
from preaching
that king?
So for Paul,
every circumstance
was not a hindrance
but an opportunity.
An opportunity
to play his part
in God's drama
as a faithful witness
of this crucified
and risen king.
And that is how
the gospel
was able to thrive
even under house rest
in the heart
of the Roman Empire.
For while its messengers
could be chained
and beaten
and murdered,
the gospel
cannot be chained.
The spirit
cannot be chained.
And the kingdom
that we proclaim,
it will never
stop advancing
no matter how bad
I am of a preacher,
no matter how unfaithful
we are as witnesses.
So why not join
this kingdom movement
by the spirit of God?
Christ Church,
are we waiting
for better?
Are we waiting
maybe even
for perfect circumstances
before we give
our lives fully
to bearing witness
to Christ?
Are we waiting
to just check off
a few more boxes
on our list
of things to do?
Finish my degree,
get that promotion,
find a spouse,
start a family,
buy a home,
conquer my anxiety,
wait for the delta
or lambda variants
to get figured out?
Or might it be
that God
is calling us
to bear witness
in and through
our very imperfect
circumstances?
What might that look like?
Not looking for things
to settle down,
but saying,
my life
and world
and circumstances
are far from what
I'd like them to be,
and yet God,
the kingdom
is yours.
Jesus,
the kingdom
is yours
and I'm still
going to act out
my role
as your witness.
For, you know,
to wait upon
better circumstances
is actually
to be held captive
to an alternative
kingdom.
That's exactly
what the enemy
wants.
If Paul had stopped
bearing witness
and just waited
for a better opportunity,
I'm just gonna chill
and watch Netflix
for the next two years
because I can't go out.
Even if he had never
explicitly bowed down
to a Roman god
or a Roman emperor,
it wouldn't really be
that he stopped
bearing witness.
He would actually
just have been
bearing witness
to the weakness
of the kingdom
of Christ
and the supremacy
of the kingdom
of his captors,
the kingdom
that had imprisoned him.
See, that's what's
at stake.
We are Christ's witnesses.
That is the message
of the book of Acts.
We are Christ's witnesses,
Christ's church.
So the question is,
will we bow down
and submit to the kingdoms
of this world
or will we,
like Paul,
will we,
like Christ,
insist,
even chained
under house arrest,
even hanging crucified
upon the crosses
of the powers
of this world,
will we insist upon
and bear witness
with our whole lives
to the greater
imperishable kingdom
of the crucified
and risen Christ?
Will you pray with me?
Lord, have mercy upon us
for our inaction,
our disobedient action,
for the poor witness
that we have been
to the world
concerning your kingdom,
concerning your king.
God, we need you.
We need your spirit
to empower us
to repent.
We need your spirit
to empower us
to be that bright
and shining city
on a hill
that we've so often
failed to be.
And we have no
grand illusions
that we can do this
on our own.
So that's why
we come to you.
Because we want
to be your witnesses.
We want to be
faithful witnesses,
bearing witness
to the most beautiful message,
the greatest story
ever told,
the story of redemption,
the story of King Jesus.
who is Lord.
Lord,
would you stir up
our hearts
with a passion
for your kingdom,
a zeal
for the honor
of the Lord Jesus.
Lord, would we encounter you
in that way?
And would we be glad?
And would we be like
that tree
that is planted
by streams of water,
that yields its fruit
in season
and whose leaf
does not wither.
And whatever we do,
may it prosper,
may it flourish
as we remain
and abide
in Christ,
our King.
As we seek first
in the ay
in the country
in the universe
for the honor
and the
all
fathers
and we
know
what so foram
to
to the
almost
space
and i
would
see you