The Disciples’ Want for Instructing
Within the first chapter of Acts, throughout the transitional interval between his resurrection and his ascension into heaven, we discover Jesus concerned in a single central activity, that of educating the disciples, particularly concerning the kingdom of God.
The necessity that the disciples nonetheless have for quite a lot of instruction concerning the activity that lies forward of them might be seen from their query in Acts 1:6: “Lord, will you presently restore the dominion to Israel?”
Academics could have informed you early on in class that there isn’t any such factor as a dumb query, however that’s plainly false. Everybody who’s an skilled in something is aware of that there are some questions which might be simply plain dumb or not less than exhibit a complete lack of information of the sector. Nobody who is aware of about stitching asks, “Which finish of the needle am I supposed to make use of?” Equally, no sports activities buff asks, “Why don’t they run the soccer?” when it’s fourth and twenty-seven with eight seconds on the clock. These can be dumb questions—and this, too, is a dumb query. John Calvin feedback that there are practically as many errors within the disciples’ query as there are phrases, which is sort of an achievement.1 The verb “restore” exhibits that they’re nonetheless considering when it comes to a political kingdom, just like the previous kingdom of David. The noun “Israel” exhibits they’re nonetheless considering of a nationwide kingdom made up of Abraham’s descendants. In the meantime, the phrase “presently” means that they count on the approaching of the dominion to be an instantaneous, or not less than an imminent, occasion. Jesus corrects every of those errors in verse 7; right here we have a look at the content material of Jesus’s educating in response to every of those errors in flip as a result of it might be simple for us to fall into comparable errors at present.
On this sensible, winsome information, Iain Duguid explores the persevering with work of Jesus after the ascension in Acts 1–8, encouraging believers at present towards gospel-driven, Spirit-filled mission.
Mistake #1: Anticipating a Political Kingdom
In his reply to the disciples’ first mistake, Jesus factors the disciples to the religious nature of the dominion: “You’ll obtain energy when the Holy Spirit has stumble upon you, and you may be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8). God’s kingdom just isn’t a political kingdom that may be established by pressure or political intrigue, as most earthly kingdoms are. It is not going to come as the results of a coup or a democratic vote or an incredible advertising marketing campaign. The church just isn’t a enterprise whose operate is to maximise the variety of its clients. Quite the opposite, it’s a religious kingdom; its operate is to convey collectively these worshipers whom God is looking to himself.
There are a variety of the way wherein we’d fail to notice the religious nature of the dominion. On the one hand, we could also be overly involved about numbers. We could get excited when new folks present as much as church or discouraged if the turnout is low. However the numbers of individuals attending worship companies may very well be a poor indicator of what God is doing by the ability of his Spirit within the hearts and lives of people. Typically companies with just a few folks current could also be of essential significance within the lifetime of a person, whereas at different instances there is likely to be hundreds current however no nice work of the Spirit. Bear in mind, we serve the shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine sheep on the hillside searching for the one misplaced sheep (Matt. 18:12–13). That’s not essentially good sheep administration follow in case your curiosity is maximizing the dimensions of the flock. However it’s the approach God governs his kingdom: each single misplaced sheep issues to him and will likewise matter to us.
We’d additionally spend an excessive amount of time specializing in methods to win folks. There’s definitely nothing improper with finding out the right way to current the gospel extra clearly or excited about what questions and presuppositions our society has that make it tougher for folks to listen to the gospel. However ultimately persons are not transformed by our understanding of apologetics or our mastery of the most recent evangelistic technique, useful although these issues could also be. They’re transformed by the Holy Spirit. That ought to give us nice boldness to talk even a easy phrase to our neighbor, trusting God to make use of it as he sees match. It must also give us nice motivation to hope for the Lord to set divine appointments in our day with folks in whose lives he’s already at work. I do know that always I’m far too anxious about whether or not I’ve the fitting argument to persuade somebody and never practically assured sufficient in God’s energy to open closed ears and soften arduous hearts. In consequence, I say nothing, as an alternative of talking up and leaving the end result to the Holy Spirit.
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One other technique to lose sight of the religious nature of the dominion is to be overly obsessed by political course of and affect. Actually Christians must be accountable residents and will vote properly for the candidates who appear probably to pursue justice and righteousness as soon as elected. It’s good that Christians ought to run for workplace and serve in varied authorities positions, each regionally and nationally. However our hope doesn’t lastly relaxation in who holds the ability in Washington or Beijing or the Kremlin. Our hope rests in what Jesus is continuous to do from his exalted heavenly throne, from the place he guidelines over the affairs of males and nations. He governs the choices of unbelievers in addition to believers: as Proverbs 21:1 reminds us, “The king’s coronary heart is a stream of water within the hand of the Lord; / he turns it wherever he’ll.”
Jesus’s kingdom will likely be established right here on earth not by an ethical majority taking again our tradition however by women and men testifying about him within the energy of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit brings the church into existence and maintains her by empowering abnormal folks to testify to Christ. Actually, this work of the Spirit is a significant theme of the ebook of Acts: when the Holy Spirit comes, women and men obtain energy to witness, and the result’s {that a} neighborhood of people that acknowledge Jesus as their King is established. That’s finally at all times how actual and lasting (optimistic) cultural change happens: by the conversion of people who then dwell out their religion in all of the totally different spheres of life, together with politics. The first mark of the presence of the Spirit of God within the ebook of Acts just isn’t talking in tongues or prophecy or indicators and wonders however somewhat energy to witness. Once we pray within the Lord’s Prayer for God’s kingdom to return (Matt. 6:10), we’re praying for him to pour out his Spirit on us in order that we might be his witnesses and in order that his church could also be established and will develop.
A wholesome church has a unity that’s humanly inexplicable.
Mistake #2: Anticipating an Rapid Kingdom
Jesus additionally corrects the second mistake of his disciples by pointing to the worldwide nature of God’s kingdom: Jesus says, “You’ll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the tip of the earth” (Acts 1:8). This verse is a miniature abstract of the construction of the entire ebook of Acts: to start with, we see the apostles bearing witness in Jerusalem, then the message spreads to Judea and Samaria, then it heads to Antioch and the japanese Mediterranean, and eventually the message involves Rome itself, which was “the ends of the earth” from the angle of Jerusalem.
The worldwide character of the church could not appear to be very stunning information to us in our fashionable period, but it surely was a revolutionary thought for the apostles. It was arduous for them to know the truth that Jesus’s kingdom would come with not solely Jews but additionally Gentiles and “halfbreed” Samaritans. It has been mentioned that within the Previous Testomony, we discover concern for the nations however not the thought of a mission to the nations. Previous Testomony believers asserted that the nations would certainly come to Israel’s God (Isa. 2:2–4), however they might have been somewhat astonished by the concept that they need to go to the nations and win them for Israel’s God. But we’ve got to ask, Is that angle actually so totally different from the precise follow of many church buildings and particular person Christians at present? We consider that God will save folks from everywhere in the world, maybe, however will we count on this salvation to return via God bringing them to us right here in church somewhat than by us going out to them and sharing the excellent news about Jesus? Maybe you’re hoping that God will do a mighty work in your church, however have you ever thought-about how that can occur besides by you attending to know a few of the individuals who dwell round you in order that God can converse to them by you? Are you merely “involved” that many individuals round you don’t appear to know God, or do you see your self as a missionary empowered by God’s Spirit to convey the gospel to them?
What’s extra, how broad is your imaginative and prescient of the folks God needs to achieve? Typically we predict the church’s foremost activity it’s to make us comfy and be sure that we’re surrounded by the proper of individuals—often folks identical to us. Quite the opposite, Jesus continuously sends his disciples to those that usually are not like them, to pursue people who find themselves not simple to love. After Jerusalem and Judea, they had been to go to the hated Samaritans after which to the filthy Gentiles. Maybe that was why there wanted to be persecution within the early church, in order that the early Christians can be pressured to run for his or her lives and take the gospel out with them to new areas (Acts 8:1–4). Right this moment, too, God sends us to the outcasts and the downtrodden, to the poor and the discriminated towards, and to people who find themselves going to make us really feel uncomfortable. And he sends us each regionally and to the ends of the earth. The wholesome church doesn’t have a unity that comes from everybody being alike, with widespread backgrounds and shared pursuits; it has a unity that comes from the gospel and the widespread salvation that we share in Christ. Certainly, a wholesome church has a unity that’s humanly inexplicable, given the range of backgrounds which might be represented, but a unity that comes naturally when a physique of persons are welded collectively by the ability of the Spirit.
Notes:
- John Calvin, The Acts of the Apostles 1–13, trans. John W. Fraser and W. J. G. McDonald, Calvin’s Commentaries, ed. David W. Torrance and Thomas F. Torrance (Eerdmans; Paternoster, 1965), 29.
This text is customized from Turning the World Upside Down: Classes for the Church from Acts 1–8 by Iain M. Duguid.
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