Missions Paul

Acts 1:17

…he was one of our number and shared in this ministry.”

Have you ever lost a friend?
Not through death though it does feel like a bereavement.
A friend who journeyed with you.
One who shared the ministry with you.
You faced challenges and celebrated successes together.
Praying together, pondering God together, dreaming, longing for what is in the future.
Then that friend walked away.
Have you ever had that experience?
If you have then you understand this verse.
2 becomes 1 or in this case 12 becomes 11.
The 12 represented the 12 tribes of Israel.
Now there is a lost tribe.
It is an experience of woeful emptiness.
Wondering if all that you shared was worth nothing to the person who walked away.
What you had is torn up and made nothing, it will never have life again.
There can be loneliness long after.
What you are reading this morning is telling you that these are ancient experiences certainly as far back as 2000 years ago but since the beginning of time actually.
And yet even in this verse I see hope not despair if you look again….
“our number” “this ministry”
Whether you were a 2 become 1 or a 12 become 11, it was not just your number, it was ‘our’ meaning they were part of that and by walking away they too have suffered the loss of what you once had. You are not only the victim and you can and will move forward. That person did not walk away from you alone but from what you were part of and who put that number together? it was God. The person walked away from what God had arranged. You are still you!
Secondly, it was again a ministry God put together. It was not yours, you don’t own it. The disappointment is real but you didn’t create what the person walked from. It belongs to HIM!
I hope that brings some comfort.

Acts 1:16

… and said, “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through the mouth of David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus …

Some things had to happen.
It is easy to accept the good things being seen and permitted by God.
Less easy if it’s a bad thing.
“Long ago”, in the ancestor generations, David said it would happen.
It didn’t have to be Judas.
But there would be a betrayal.
Why didn’t someone spot it?
Perhaps because they would have stopped it happening.
Can you imagine the 12 disciples gathering around after another incredible day with Jesus and Peter insisting again and again, “Listen guys, the Scripture says someone betrays Jesus, let’s make sure it’s not one of us!”
That just didn’t happen.
They were discovering who Jesus was and would still have doubts even as he ascended. And perhaps there are times when God just hides things from us. For they certainly only appropriated this Scripture after the event.
The cross of salvation needed the betrayal.
The good needed the bad.
It was part of the story.
This prayerful people were becoming also a people of the Scriptures.
They found that in the Psalms, the prophets and kings inspired by the Spirit prophesied of a traitor, one opposing the King of kings would come from within their own ranks.
This meant that God was in control all along.
The Word of God brings the balance when your world seems out of control.

Acts 1:15

In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty)

In those days. Days of bewilderment, perhaps confusion, certainly of disappointment in Judas’ betrayal, the church gathered.

120 people gathering regularly to worship, to pray, to wait wondering what should happen next.

Among the crowd there was a man, Peter. He stood up among them. He certainly wasn’t perfect. In fact everyone knew he would be known for his denial even though fully restored by Jesus.

You are not perfect but you are restored. People may know your past mistakes. However, you can take your stand today. You can be used by God again. In the midst of the storm you can bring peace. You can bring clarity where there is confusion. In fact even before you think of what you might bring or say, just being you, just saying “I’m here” can be all that is needed. Someone needs to stand. Will you?

Acts 1: 14

They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

The previous verse shows a list of names of disciples, it doesn’t show the pain and disappointment.
It doesn’t show Judas Iscariot who became a traitor, but it shows a depleted team where none of them were actually qualified or worthy to remain a member after their many reactions and responses through the life and death of Jesus.
Here they are in the upper room with the women who had gathered at the foot of the cross and the mother of Jesus, Mary who had experienced a sword in her heart. Also there were his brothers who had their fair share of strife with Jesus during his lifetime based upon their ignorance and misunderstanding of who he was.

In that place were people who were angry, disappointed, failures, the unworthy and the ignorant. In that place were those in grief and dealing with the trauma and loss of what they had experienced. In that place all had a sense of fear of what would happen now.

And yet, in this place they began to do what they would do throughout the years of the early Church, they would pray. And by doing so they would begin to experience the divine exchange when heaven touches earth. It would not be in the Temple as they and every Jew believed was the place for this but it would be in the ordinary places of life. In an upper room. In any place where you stay. In this place here right now as you are reading this. This is the space and the time to do what is the most important thing on earth, to pray. No matter who you are or what you have done or what you have experienced, you can pray.

Acts 1:13

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 son of James.

The band of brothers looking more like misfits are back in Jerusalem, in their room.
Do you have a place, a room, your designated space away from it all?
When the last few weeks have been a whirlwind.
When you have denied, failed and run away from your Lord.
When you have become confused and cannot explain what has just recently happened.
When you have been to the mountain top experiences of God.
When God has spoken to you and directed you but still you really don’t know what He is saying.
When you have no idea of the future.
When you cannot explain what is going on in your life.
Have you got somewhere to go to?
Can you go to a room?
Do you have a place where all you do is stay?
Stay.
Remain in that place.
Wait.
No big plans. No forward thinking. No going back. No strategies and developments.
We all need a room.

Acts 1:12

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city.

So many want to stay on the Mount of Olives, they love the mountain top experiences with God, but these don’t last.
Don’t park up on your mountain, your life begins in your Jerusalem, where your family, friends, neighbours are, that’s where He wants you to be.

On a Monday morning it is difficult to go back to Jerusalem but that’s where you should be!

Acts 1:11

“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.”

A perfect picture of worship. Standing, looking upwards.
The why is really to interject and say don’t do this.
The worship life is much more than staring into the sky.

Just as Jesus entered into the heavenlies, the realm of God, so the worship life is to be a disciple here on earth knowing that is where our power comes from.

Just as in that first century when a Roman leader died people would often say they saw his soul ascend upwards in order to deify him, Jesus’ soul didn’t ascend but his whole being did and the worship life is to live knowing He is King of Kings now.

Jesus ascended having told his disciples to Go and so the worship life must contain missions, there is no option.

Acts 1:10
They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.

Two phenomena were happening at the same time.
A strange happening in the sky and a strange happening on the earth.
Jesus was ascending but not into some outer space domain. He was moving into the realm of God. Then suddenly…
God sent messengers on to earth, into the realm of man. These two men dressed in white remind us of the resurrection tomb when perhaps the same two men were also there.

We have got to move into the realm of God, the unseen world of His kingdom and we have to give room for Him to move into our realm. God wants His messengers to stand beside you here in your world.

Here I am! Come Lord Jesus come is our prayer.

Acts 1:9
After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

After he had said what?
It was after he had told them they would be laying their life down across the world, enabled to do so by the power of the Spirit, that he left.
You will die, bye. But the Spirit will be with you.

What were they doing?
More than at any other time they were focused on Jesus not distracted in anyway. Then he left.

When did they stop seeing him?
They watched him ascend then the cloud came. The clouds always cover the sun and on this day they also covered the Son.

The point being?
At the point of their surrender He left them.
At the point of their attention on Him He left them.

When the clouds of life cover the Son, will you trust Him?

Acts 1:8
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

BUT.
Jesus hears them still locked into their idea of the kingdom being about rising to the top, of Israel overcoming Roman rule. He then sets them straight. It is a shock.
You will be my witnesses, my martyria, where we get our English word martyr from. From Jerusalem to the ends of the earth this first century church would lay their life down just as Jesus did and by so doing they would take the gospel far and wide. They would go further than Jesus.
And how would they ever be able to do this? How would they cope with this cup of suffering? It would be because of the power of the Holy Spirit.
The power of the Holy Spirit is connected to your surrender.
You surrender because of the power of the Spirit upon you.
You receive the power of the Spirit because you surrender.
Today everyday, now in fact, the nameless and faceless are dying for their faith at the hands of wicked men and they do so witnessing to the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are enabled because of the Spirits power.
Let us join the family of God and surrender our lives not before evil men but before our Lord. Let us give up our rights. Come Spirit of God empower our lives today.