For almost five months now we have been looking at Matthew’s gospel. The gospels are so central to our lives as Christians, because they tell us about Jesus. Jesus is central to our faith. God has revealed himself to us in Jesus. We have access to God; we have eternal life through Jesus.

Jesus is God. He is that part of the mysterious trinity that came to earth in human form. There are in fact four gospels in the bible, four different accounts of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Those first witnesses to the incarnation, those early believers leave us in no doubt that it is Jesus who is central to our faith, and it’s appropriate that we study the gospels, because it is through them that we come to know and love Jesus.

But one of those four gospel writers doesn’t put away his pen when he comes to the end of his gospel. That writer is Luke. Unlike the writers of the other gospels, Luke goes on to tell us what happened after Jesus’ earthly ministry was complete. Luke understood that in one way Jesus’ earthly ministry was just the beginning.

With Jesus ascended to heaven, his followers would continue to do the work he had begun. They would become the church. With Jesus ascending to heaven, the age of the church was about to begin. Today, we live in the age of the church. I am so glad that Luke tells us how the church began, how the gospel spread across the world in those early years.

The gospels are about Jesus, the second person of the trinity, but the book of Acts, Luke’s second volume that we will be looking at in the coming months is in a very special way about the third person of the trinity, it is about the Holy Spirit. When Jesus left his disciples, he gave promises that the Holy Spirit would come upon the disciples to enable them to continue to spread the good news of God’s love.

Luke tells us how the Holy Spirit not only initially comes upon the disciples, but how the Spirit empowers and guides the early Christians, enabling them to effectively spread the good news of Jesus. At times in history the church has neglected to teach about the Holy Spirit, sometimes it has been true to say that the Spirit has been the forgotten person of the trinity.

Sometimes as believers we can grieve the Holy Spirit, sometimes as a church can grieve the Spirit. But if we are to effectively continue to be Christ’s presence on earth, we need the reality of the Holy Spirit in our lives; only the Holy Spirit can pour God’s love into our hearts. As we reflect on the reality of the Spirit at work in the early church, may God stir up his Holy Spirit in us as individuals and as a fellowship that we might serve him better.

We will look this morning at the first chapter of Acts. Three days ago was not just Election Day, it was also Ascension Day. Luke tells us of Jesus final instructions to the disciples before he ascends to heaven. Luke tells us that Jesus spoke to the disciples about the Kingdom of God.

Their focus and thoughts were still elsewhere. They were still asking Jesus about restoring the kingdom to Israel. What they still had on their minds was old mistaken idea that the messiah’s primary role was to free Israel from Roman rule. Jesus clearly steers them away from that idea. ‘It is not for you to know’ he says. That is God’s business. The disciples task is be concerned with the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God embraces not only Jerusalem and Judea, it embraces Samaria too, and extends to the ends of the earth.

So Jesus lifts the sight of his disciples. He gives them a massive task to contemplate: taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. But he promises them they will be equipped for the task. The Holy Spirit will come upon them. Jesus tells them that in a few days they will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

Luke tells us that after Jesus had told the disciples that they would be his witnesses to the ends of the earth, Jesus was taken up, out of their sight. Some people have problems with that idea. In our modern scientific age we know what’s up there, we know about flight and space. But yet because something happened to Jesus that science cannot explain, that does not mean it cannot happen.

We have witnesses to it. Luke lists again the names of the disciples. In fact Luke gives us the special title that these men whom Jesus had called to be his disciples had been given. From the time Jesus had called the twelve, he had designated them apostles. As well as learning from Jesus, they had been given special task of bearing witness not only to the teachings of Jesus, but also to the unique events of his death, resurrection and ascension.

We know the gospel is true because the twelve apostles are witnesses to the facts. Luke tells us how vital their task was, and he tells us how important the apostles considered it was that their number should be made up after Judas had turned away to betray Jesus.
Notice the special qualifications required of an apostle; it had to be someone who had been there with Jesus from the time when John was baptizing until the ascension. It had to be a person who had seen the risen Lord and could testify to the resurrection.

It is quite important that we grasp the importance of the significance of the apostles, because they are the witnesses that the gospel is true. Jesus gave them that special task. As time went on in the church, as disputes arose about what Jesus had really said, about the things he had done, when people even questioned if Jesus’ death and resurrection had really happened, the questions were always referred back to the apostles.

They were witnesses to the truth. As the gospels were written, and there were others written besides the four we have in our New Testament, the test for them all was if they were true to what the apostles said about Jesus. The test of any church today, is still the same. Is it an apostolic church? Is our church true to the teaching of the apostles? Do we teach the truth about Jesus as it has come to us through the apostles? That’s what we have to teach. We have no authority to deviate from that.

The early church leaders posed the same question when they came to discern which writings should be in the New Testament. The question always was, ‘is this gospel, is this letter consistent with the apostles’ teaching? If the answer was yes, then the document could be included. If the answer was no, then it had to stay out.

There is something else here in chapter 1 of Acts that comes to us as part of the apostolic teaching. That is the promise that Jesus will one day return to earth. The message of the angels is clear; it is consistent with Jesus’ own teaching. Jesus did not leave his followers to a precarious uncertain future. God has a plan and a purpose for his church.

He will not leave his people on their own, his Holy Spirit will be with them, but Jesus will also one day return to rule. We do not know when, it is not for us to know, but history is not out of control, God has his plans for the good. The future is safe in his hand. His purposes will be accomplished.

Finally, there is something else to note about this chapter. There is just the mention there of others besides the apostles who were part of that infant church. There were women who were part of the group, and also Mary, Jesus mother was there. So were Jesus’ brothers.

When Jesus was involved in his ministry in Galilee, we are told that his brothers did not believe in him. We know on one occasion his brothers and mother came to take him home because they though he was demon-possessed. But now they are part of the band of believers. Jesus’ brother James was to become leader of the church in Jerusalem in future years. We must never give up on people because they don’t believe instantly. Sometimes God’s word can take a long while to germinate and grow.

Just here we see a glimpse of that wonderful truth that even sceptical people, when the come to see the truth about Jesus will come to believe. The church’s task is to testify to the truth. When we do that, when we testify to the truth about Jesus, as we know it, then people will come to believe.

We are part of that church; in its infancy there in Jerusalem there were just 120 members. The church now numbers millions across the globe, all part of that ongoing story of the church that Luke begins to tell us about in the book of the Acts of the Apostles. As we read and think about that book, may we be strengthened in our faith, may people find the reality of God’s love among us, and may they come to know for themselves the liberating truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
 

Amen.

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