What Now?
Sermon Notes
| ACTS 1:12-26 | 10-24-21
We are in week 3 conversation in the Book of Acts. The reason we are in Acts is that WE WANT TO TAKE A CLOSE LOOK AT WHAT A CHURCH IS. Not just any church, but a local church who is rooted in the resurrected King Jesus.
What we have been discovering along the way is that there are these core convictions the early church believed and then implemented into their lives and community.
So, as we journey through acts, I would encourage you to keep asking yourself, “How do I fit in? How can my gifts, passions, and dreams co-exist with the story of God?
What we don’t want to happen is to simply be inspired by this very first church, maybe even agree with them, but then nothing really changes within us.
What is so special about this church in Acts is that we see the body of Christ completely and utterly sold out on Jesus. They understand that it is now their responsibility to pick up where Jesus left off. To love, to serve, to preach, and to heal.
This is the whole point of Acts. Really, if we want to simplify what a local church is to be about it’s this: Love, service, preaching the Gospel, and healing.
The main purpose of Acts is to continue to show that just because Jesus left earth doesn’t mean that Jesus’ work is done.
In fact, it’s only just the beginning. Jesus’ work is going to continue and Jesus is still going to teach us many things through the power of the Holy Spirit.
This is what we will see in the coming weeks. One of the primary roles of the Holy Spirit is to take what we know about God and transform that knowledge into power within our hearts. The Holy Spirit activates our faith.
As we will see, the early church was a Spirit led people. They did things that no one had ever done before. They made such a big impact that this world still talks about it today.
Why couldn’t we approach ACTS believing that God wants to use us in similar ways?
I am picking up where Josh left off last week, Jesus has ascended into heaven after his resurrection. I am titling this message, WHAT NOW?
Jesus ascended into heaven His Apostles watched him go… what now? I will unpack that question with 3 core convictions I see in the verses we are looking at this morning.
READ ACTS 1:12-26
Can you imagine spending so much time with Jesus and all of the sudden he was just gone? I would have to believe that there were two primary reactions to Jesus' sudden departure, lostness and boredom.
If you have even felt lost and bored you know that those two realities aren’t very fun places to sit in.
There are times in life where being lost is the worst possible outcome.
When you're genuinely lost in the middle of a city that is very unfamiliar to you.
Or you feel lost in your career.
Or you lose a loved one unexpectedly.
Or a relationship that was once strong has weakened.
Maybe you lost a passion or a dream that you weren’t ready to let go of?
That feeling of loss is something we can all relate to one way or another. It is so disorienting and painful.
In the same way, there are times where boredom is one of the most frustrating places to be in. I don’t mean boredom as in you have nothing to do – (although it can mean that as well) but I am referring to boredom in the sense of living in the mundane or predictability of life.
Your days look the same and you always seem to be dealing with the same problems. Your days and weeks are like clockwork. Nothing really exciting is going on.
Maybe you’re bored at work and don’t feel like you are being challenged.
Maybe life at home with the kids is all about routine and you just wish something could change?
Maybe your relationship with Jesus is just ok and you are hungry for more but don’t have the energy to lean in?
Or maybe you are bored with the relationships you have because there is really no depth?
If you can relate to anything I just said then there is good news for you.
I have come to learn that being lost or bored are two primary spaces that Jesus does his best work.
I can’t help but think that the Apostles felt the loss of Jesus right after he left. I also think that it is possible that in the days that followed that boredom and the feeling of the mundane set in.
They were used to following Jesus from city to city. They were used to living off this high of Jesus performing miracles and casting out demons, and destroying the Pharisees in debates. Life with Jesus was exciting and unpredictable. They had such a tight knit community… and now their leader, friend, and Lord, is gone.
Maybe the question they were asking themselves was, WHAT NOW?
WHAT NOW?
What we see in this in-between season of lostness and boredom - post resurrection and pre-Pentecost - is the followers of Jesus' willingness to exercise obedience in waiting.
In other words, your ability to be obedient to God and wait with what he has given you is a mark of your maturity in Christ. Even when you feel lost or bored.
What we see in this passage is the fruit of Jesus’ life and ministry. It is a group of 120 men and Women. That’s it! They are gathered together in a community asking the question, WHAT NOW?
Father, what should we do now that you're gone?
Father, what do we do now that we only have 11 Apostles?
They are being obedient in the waiting.
Maybe you feel like you are in a season of waiting? Maybe you have dreams and goals that you think are from God and they have not come to fruition?
If you find yourself asking God the question, “what now” then I would say to you, you are being obedient in your waiting. It’s only a matter of time that God will bring some clarity to your situation. I don’t know how long you will be waiting, it could be days, weeks, months or years.
I think of the words of David in Psalms 30: “Weeping may stay overnight, but there is joy in the morning.
This is the perspective that God wants his people to have. Waiting isn’t a bad thing. It’s in our waiting that we gain new eyes, it’s in our waiting that our faith deepens, it’s I our waiting that we learn to stand a little bit taller, it’s in our waiting where our shoulders learn to carry more weight.
Waiting isn’t forever but what happens in the waiting has eternal implications.
So, if you are in a season of waiting and asking the question, WHAT NOW? I want to give you 3 core convictions that this group of 120 Jesus followers displayed in their waiting.
3 CORE CONVICTIONS
#1 FAITHFULNESS IS LIVED OUT IN THE MUNDANE.
When Jesus ascended up into heaven, the disciples went back to the very room they had the last supper.
This upper room was a sacred space for them. Some of their most intimate moments took place with Jesus and each other. This is where they wanted to be in the midst of lostness and boredom.
I can’t imagine that half day walk back to Jerusalem. It had to be quiet as everyone was processing what they just saw. I’m sure they were experiencing every emotion known to humanity. Joy, fear, anger, sadness, relief, and confusion.
All they knew to do was to go back to where it all began for them. To go seek God for what their next move was going to be, if there was even going to be one.
The adventure with Jesus was over as they knew it. They didn’t know what the future would hold.
So, we see these 11 Apostles begin their new journey of faith in the mundane. Jesus was gone and he is longer calling the shots anymore. It is up to Peter now.
I imagine Peter is becoming overwhelmed with this expectation that has been put on him. How am I supposed to lead these people each and every day? I’m not Jesus. Look at all the mistakes I’ve made, look at all my flaws! But yet, he is the guy in charge of the church now.
To me, this is where we really see Peter’s faith come alive. As we will see through Acts, Peter realizes that faith is best lived out 6 days a week. Faith is so much more than just a Sunday expression.
When I think about faithfulness in the mundane I think about faith that is activated Monday through Saturday.
Yes, it’s your prayer life, it’s your study and memorization of scripture, it’s your worship time spent in your car… but it’s also the way you treat your wife or husband, it’s the way you talk to your kids, it’s the way you love your neighbor, It’s the way you treat co-workers, it’s generosity of time and money, it’s a life lived with empathy and compassion.
Faithfulness in the mundane is everything that happens outside of church on Sundays. So, if you are waiting and asking what now? Do what the early church did. Live out your faith in the most practical ways possible. Monday through Saturday.
#2 PRAYER WITHIN COMMUNITY IS POWERFUL.
After they all got back into Jerusalem and gathered in the upper room, they immediately began to pray together. In fact, it says that they “all were continually united in prayer.”
I find that to be so compelling because not only is the power of prayer effective with one person but evidently it is even more effective when an entire community has come together crying out to God for the same thing.
To be united in prayer implies that the hearts desires of all those within the early church were the same.
We don’t know what their hearts desires were and if it mattered then we would be told so.
Maybe we are not what they were praying for because we would try to replicate it and make a program out of it or something.
Here’s the point: What was being prayed is not important. What was important is how they prayed. They prayed together continually.
Prayer within the community was their knee jerk reaction while waiting. They weren’t riding a high of any kind.
When the early church felt lost and bored they prayed together.
What could Canopy look like a year from now if this was also our knee jerk reaction to whatever may come our way?
Not just here on Sundays, but in our tables through the week and at our monthly prayer and worship nights, called seek first.
Yes, prayer is also powerful individually speaking and we ought to keep doing that but maybe a great next step for you and canopy as a whole would be to commit ourselves to prayer within the community. That we wouldn’t shy away from those opportunities or think we don’t have anything to offer. But that we would contend for one another and that our hearts desires would be the same.
That doesn’t happen overnight. It happens slowly and over time as we gather together to pray.
LASTLY, CORE CONVICTION #3. I WILL KEEP THIS ONE BRIEF.
#3 GOD ALWAYS HAS A PLAN.
It is essential for us to remember that we serve a God who is in control. Even in our seasons of waiting.
God knows what you need. He knows what is around the corner for you. God has a way of giving us what we need when we need it.
I know that can be frustrating to hear but it’s just what I have experienced and I’m sure as you look back on your life you will find it true as well.
The Apostles knew that they needed 12 to replace Judas in order to continue Jesus’ work in the world.
Their approach to replacing Judas was to cast lots to decide between two men. The man with 3 names, Joseph, and Matthias.
Casting lots was not a technique to use because of indecisiveness, but rather an old tradition that is rooted in their belief that God already knows what he wants to do so casting lots was a way to allow God’s plan to come to fruition.
The lots fell to Matthias and he was selected to replace Judas. I know this last conviction isn’t anything new to any of us. But it might be the most important reminder we hear today.
GOD ALWAYS HAS A PLAN. If anything can bring us peace and comfort in our waiting I think this can.
We can continue on in our waiting with hope, longing, and faithfulness because we know God will come through in his own way. Which will be the right way and the best way.