Acts 1 beginning at verse 1. In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God. And while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, you heard from me. For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, it is not for you to know times or seasons that the father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end. of the earth. Thus far is the reading of God's holy word. Well, I know that some of you love theory. Some of you love math. Some of you love history. You love the big picture, the big story. And then there are some of you that wish we could just get on with it. And I have sympathy, I think I know where I fall, but I think I have sympathy for all of God's people. And some of you will find the light in this book called Activities. That's the long word of what we mean when we say the acts, that is the activities of Jesus, or the acts of the apostles. I don't want to make the case today that this traditional name, while it is very true, in fact isn't a full record of what's going on in the book of Acts. Because it's not ultimately Peter or Paul or the Ethiopian eunuch who are the heroes of this story. One of the things that Luke is doing, and already in the early church, this work needed to be done, is to say, well, let's hang on a minute here, and let's think about how Jesus has in fact commissioned his apostles, the 12 apostles, and that now he's continuing on his work in them. This word, proxase, and I've written this for you there in your notes, proxase, apostolon, and notice it did come through on the bulletin, that last O is a long O. Apostolon means of the apostles, plural. So the practice or the acts or the activities of the apostles. But in particular, remember that these are the apostles who have been commissioned and sent forth now as Christ's representatives. Christ has ascended into heaven and he has now sent, Acts 1.8, he has sent them out as witnesses to his kingdom. And I want you to note that word in Acts 1.8, this word witnesses. A witness is not primarily telling somebody about Jesus. A witness is on a witness stand in a courtroom verifying certain facts. And what are the witnesses attesting to? Above all, it's to the arrival and the death and the resurrection of the Messiah of Israel. That if we can understand that there is a promise in the Bible, in the Old Testament especially, that has now been fulfilled and that the death resurrection and ascension of Jesus is in fact the verification of that promise being fulfilled. That's what we're called to be witnesses about. Witnesses, as we'll see here in this passage today, to the kingdom of God. So there is a theoretical aspect of this story. But there's also a practical aspect, and I want you to consider the activity that the apostles and the early church dedicate themselves to that needs to be normative and an example for us. So first of all, we have volume one, volume two, we have the gospel according to Luke. and we have the acts of the apostles, proxes apostolon, the activities of the apostles. So we're picking up in volume two, and I wanna remind you, and I could list off my list, but you could probably come up with one too, often movies two and three in a trilogy are bombs, all right? How many of you saw Flipper 2? I did see Flipper, but I never even found out until years later there was a Flipper 2. Well, often movies try to link up. And if you think about how they link together with movie number one, it's actually quite a complex task. And I'll just kind of play my cards here. At the end, I'm going to call you to investigate this week, in particular, how volumes one and two are both linked and also stand on their own. Because that's one of the challenges you have to have when you have of the second movie, or the third movie, or the 12th movie, is the movie has to be able to stand on its own to be a good story, but it also then has to be linked to the things that have come beforehand. Like a good sequel, the Proxace Apostolon, or the Acts of the Apostles, stands on its own. It is a self-contained story, even while the book also flawlessly connects to volume one, that is, the Gospel of Luke. This author, Luke, trains us in proper categories. And in particular today, I'm wanting us to think about this word this word truth and also this practice. These two things are going to go together. I want to call us to enter into the busy and complicated world of the first century church as they learn to live intentionally as an outpost of God's eternal kingdom. My thesis today is that there is a right sense in which the kingdom of God is yet in our future. Jesus is going to come back, he's going to raise his people from the dead, finally judge his enemies, and there will be a new world because Jesus makes all things new. That's coming. But I believe, and the thesis that I want to propose today is that the Acts of the Apostles is laying forth in all of its glory the present reign of Christ over His world. The reason He couldn't stay dead. The reason He came blasting out of the tomb. The reason why while the Apostles were watching, He ascended up and a cloud disappeared Him. is because God wants us to know that Christ reigns today. That's good news. There's hope for you in the midst of your struggles with sin. There's forgiveness for those of you who feel paralyzed by guilt. There is a full-throated faith in God that His own Holy Spirit gives to people who are just kind of blah. And I think you know what I'm talking about. In this world, the world is marketing to us. We are being affected by the sins and the struggles of those around us. And very easily, we can find ourselves in that place of just whatever. I want to remind you today that Christianity is a matter of both belief and action. That true belief issues forth in faithful action, in praxis, or in practice. We believe in Christian faith and we believe in Christian practice. And it's that practice part that the acts of the apostles is going to be pressing us toward. So point number one today, I wanna address volume one, volume two. Notice in verse one, it says, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach. The point here is what Jesus began is a reference to the gospel according to Luke. But now there's an implication here, and that is that something is continuing. So in my first book, I address that. The implication is now in the second book, what Jesus continues to do and to teach. And so, for our purposes, over the next number of months, I've laid out, there's quite a number of them here on the little book table at the back of the sanctuary. But I've pulled from the Bible Project a very helpful overview of the Book of Acts. If you don't have one of these, make sure you get one. And there are also some more poster-sized ones out at the tract rack. But I want you to look at this carefully. This takes 28 chapters of material and summarizes it onto one piece of paper. It's a tremendous tool, and it's entertaining. Very distinct humor on here. There's some remarkable theology, but also there are characters. And children, if you want to go through and see how many different times can you find the different characters, they're all through there. And the most notable one is the Apostle Paul, as he, First has a very much of a background role, but then as he comes front and center, and the book ends with him in prison, clear over in Rome. This is the ends of the earth as far as the author is concerned. And so, there's this rippling out, this radiation forth from Jerusalem. Jerusalem, the holy city of God, where the temple was, where Christ now had accomplished the redemption of God's people. And then to Judea and Samaria, those are the two states that don't like each other very much, but the gospel is going forth into both of them. And then to the ends of the earth. And so I want to encourage you to consider what Jesus began, that's volume one, Gospel of Luke, and continues what Jesus is doing now. And so here's Luke. Luke knows Paul. Luke has been discipled by Paul. Luke is probably a noted storyteller, and yet he's done research now. Interestingly, it's probably while Paul was in prison for a period of years down in Caesarea Maritima. Paul was in prison. His disciples probably could get in and see him occasionally, but they were all kind of on pause, the ministry was on pause because their leader was in jail in Caesarea Maritima. We learn about some of the encounters that Paul had with the leaders, the Roman legates there. But during that time, this is when scholars think it's likely that Luke was able to go and do the original research, go and talk to people who had been touched deeply by Christ, now are many years older, and go and interview people. It's a really interesting time to consider. So what Jesus began to do, this is what Jesus was capable of doing because he had come to earth. Because he had come, as John says, and tabernacled among us. He was tenting in our midst. He began to do His mighty acts throughout His ministry. And then He died on the cross, and He rose again. Now His rising, and particularly His ascension, is a source of great joy. If you go back and you read the last chapter of the Gospel of Luke, it actually ends rather abruptly. with God's people together in the temple rejoicing and praising God. And you're like, okay, and now what? Jesus has gone back to heaven. His people are still here up on the earth. It's a time of gladness and joy. But somewhere along the line, somebody has to begin to ask, okay guys, now what? We've traveled far from our homes, remember, most of Jesus' followers were from Galilee, down to the big city in Jerusalem. And they were probably sleeping on the floor there in that large upper room that Jesus had gotten for them. And now the consideration is here, what do we do now? And I wonder if you've had that question at times in your life when you've just felt like, I'm kind of treading water. I'm relatively comfortable, maybe, but what am I doing here? What is 2025 about? And that's where I think that volume 2, the book of Acts, has everything to do with what Jesus and the Holy Spirit will continue to do. God is not finished with us yet. God is at work in us, both to will and to work for His good pleasure, Philippians chapter 1. In fact, and here I want to refer again to the poster, and I will be referring to this over the next several weeks, so make sure you get yourself a copy of that, that rightly we can be thinking here about the activities of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. that the work that God does, the work, the ministry that Jesus does continues, albeit in a very different form. I wish we could all go and see Jesus performing His miracles. I wish we could go to Jerusalem and see the place and see the events of the people beginning to speak in foreign languages because the Holy Spirit has been poured out in a new and a unique way. Those are events of history. But consider that, albeit in a new way, the ministry of Jesus continues on everywhere where the gospel is proclaimed, everywhere where faith leads to a new life through the Holy Spirit. Everywhere where God's people are taking seriously the call to repentance and obedience. To doing what they can to advance the purposes of Christ in the world. Christ's rule in the world is not yet perfected. But it is accomplished. And that today, Christ is reigning. And where the gospel is embraced and proclaimed, there will be a level of honesty, a level of brotherhood, sisterhood, and a level of peace in the world. And in fact, if we don't go beyond what Scripture calls us to, then we don't try to become, for example, those who control the ministry of God in the world, but we take our places according to the biblical mandate of brothers and sisters, who are then choosing for themselves elders and deacons in the church. That's really about the extent of what Christ has established in the world. And then they just went and did that. over and over again. And in fact, as you read through the book of Acts, one of the things that I want to encourage you to do is notice the particular circumstances, notice the particular trials. Sometimes they're trials from persecution. Sometimes they're trials from within, with conflict. Sometimes they're trials of not enough money, other things, but the churches become, in many ways, the center point of what Jesus is continuing to do. This leads us to the second point this morning, and that is the word about Jesus' actions and teachings. We have a very interesting word here that I hadn't even thought through until I was studying this recently, but I want you to note the first part of verse one. It says, in the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach. But it's the first book. You know the word here for book? It's the word logos. In the first rendition. In the first record, there's all kinds of words that we could translate here. This is a perfectly valid use of the word logos, but I want you to note the close association between Jesus, the word, and the first book, the first record. It's the same Greek word. The case ending is different, but other than that, this is the identical word back in John chapter 1. So, in between Luke and Acts, we have John. And John chapter 1, in the beginning, was the Logos. And the Logos became flesh and dwelt among us. So this word is used in the Gospel of John to refer to Christ himself. And now this same word is being used to refer to the record that Luke has written for Theophilus of Jesus' ministry. It's really fascinating. And again, these certain ones of these Greek words are very flexible. Their context is tremendously important. But I want you to think about point two, the word about Jesus' actions and teachings. It is one thing to say, Jesus did things and taught things. It's another thing to say, here is a record of the things that Jesus did and the things that Jesus taught. And I want you to observe. that of all the four Gospels, Luke's is the only one not written directly by an apostle, if you count Mark as a secretary for Peter. And I think we have good evidence for that. that God in His grace has given us Logos after Logos after Logos, record after record after record of Jesus' public ministry. And these books have been examined, they've been challenged, and they have stood the test of time. It is a reasonable and a rational thing to study Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and come away with a clear sense that I don't know everything about Jesus' ministry, but I know true things about Jesus' ministry. The Word is critical if we are going to remember the actions and the teachings that Jesus performed while he was here upon the earth. This leads us to the third point this morning, and this is really now the application point. I want you to see that already, just in these few words, with the title, with this reference to the Logos in the first book or the first record, That what Luke is already doing is he's already laying forth a contrast between theory and practice. Between truth with a capital T and love with a lowercase l. That is love with its boots on. This week we had one of our neighbors who came over and helped us shovel our driveway. It was a very simple, very humble act of love. It was something that needed to be done. It was something that this person was in the right place at the right time, and they were more than happy to demonstrate love in that way. That's what I really think the beginning of this book is about. It's emphasizing the activities. It's a book with its sleeves rolled up and gloves on, ready to work. We're going to see that there's a tremendous amount of labor, a tremendous amount of, they had to make judgment calls. There were risks involved. There were failures involved. As the early church sought to live the way Jesus would have them to live. But now point three. The present working of Jesus. And notice I've used distinct prepositional phrases here. The present working of Jesus through the Holy Spirit. to the apostles about the kingdom of God in my life today. I think that when, and I'm going to read it here again in just a minute, and I want you to notice this, that there is a downstream flow, if you will. There is a current in this story that begins with Jesus and results in the people speaking and reflecting on the kingdom of God. In verse 4 it says, and while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart. Who's the he here? Well, this is Jesus. And it's while he's yet upon the earth that he's telling them, don't go anywhere because there's a promise of the Father that is coming to you. So I wanna read this, verses one through five, and I want you to see this descent or this flow from the heavens to the earth. Let me read it again, Acts 1 verse 1. In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up. After he, Jesus, had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles. So Jesus is giving these commands by the Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them. There's at least 12 different times when people, eyewitnesses see Jesus resurrected in the New Testament. After his sufferings by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God. Jesus is appearing again and again during this month and 10 days going from Passover for 40 days into the following month. And then it's on Pentecost, that is 50 days after Passover, that the Holy Spirit is poured out upon the church. Verse four, while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, you heard from me. For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." Here's the contrast between the physical water in the physical Jordan by John, an Old Testament prophet, contrast with the baptism of the new covenant that is with water, but also with the Spirit. This was coming. There was something going to happen in the hearts and minds and lives of these people that was going to tie the whole thing together. They weren't simply sitting around waiting for Jesus to come back. They were living in the present reality of the kingdom of God. a place where there was work to do, a place where there were risks to take, a place where there were sacrifices to be made, God would be glorified as they both lived with right theory and with right practice. Now, I don't know where you would put yourself or our denomination and our tradition, But I would just encourage you to think about both theory and practice. One of those you're probably bent a lot more toward. Well, then work on the other one during this time in the book of Acts. There's a focus here upon the activities of the apostles. And I want you to consider, Lord, how is it that you would direct me through the examples of the early Christians? to be involved in the activities that you would have me to engage with, to do what God has designed for you to do. I know it's winter. I know there's a lot of snow on the ground. I know it's easy to just kind of put another log on the fire and bundle up a little warmer. But I wanna call us to the activities that God has for us in this year. Of course we have to get the theory right. The theory is for practice. Beliefs are for service. Knowledge is for love and the building up of the body of Christ. The relating of the gospel of Christ to the whole world in which we live. Let's close together in prayer. Lord, we thank you for the ways that you love us. We thank you that, Lord, you lay before the church this record. Lord, it's a clipped and a summarized record. But I pray that you would help us to see that this really is the gospel with boots on. This is the gospel with its sleeves rolled up and its gloves on, ready to work. I pray that, Lord, you would help us to see the sometimes scary situations where the early church finds itself. I pray that, Lord, you would help us to see how, according to the word of God, the early church arranged itself and organized itself and engaged in the work that you called them to do. Lord, help us to do that as a congregation in this new year. We thank you, Lord, for the praxis, for the practices, for the activities of the apostles and ultimately of Jesus and the Holy Spirit that are on display in this book. We give you thanks for it in Jesus' name. Amen.