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Location:
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Joseph
Slife,
lay leader April 3,
2005 Main
Scripture
text:
Acts
1:1-3. "Hmm.
I wonder what that's about?" Or,
"I wish God had seen fit to give
a little more explanation about
that." Well,
for a long time I've felt that
way when I get to Acts chapter
one, verse 3. We'll look at it in
a moment. But
first, you need to know that the
Book of Acts was written by Luke,
an associate of the Apostle Paul.
It was Luke who also wrote what
we call the Gospel According to
Luke. And the Book of Acts is
actually a continuation of that
Gospel. In
fact, if Hollywood were naming
Acts, they way they name movies,
they probably would have called
it Luke-II or Luke: the
Sequel. Both
Luke and Acts were originally
written to a man named
Theophilus. We don't know who he
was. All we know is that Luke
undertook to write what he calls
"an orderly account" of the life
and ministry of Jesus.
Which
now brings us to Acts chapter
one. First verse: "In my former
book, Theophilus" -- that's a
reference to the Gospel of Luke
-- "I wrote about all that Jesus
began to do and to teach until
the day he was taken up to
heaven, after giving instructions
through the Holy Spirit to the
apostles he had chosen.
" He
says that's what I've written to
you about so far -- but now I
want you to know "the rest of the
story." Verse
three: "After his suffering" --
that's what the movie, The
Passion of the Christ, is all
about -- "After his suffering,
[Jesus] showed himself to
these men and gave many
convincing proofs that he was
alive. He appeared to them over a
period of forty days and spoke
about the kingdom of
God." There
it is -- the part where I want to
put my hand up and say, "Uh,
would you tell us a little bit
more please? What did he say
about the Kingdom of
God?" The
text doesn't tell us what he said
-- except for this interesting
detail in verse six. Jesus has
just told them to wait for the
coming of the Holy Spirit. He
says in verse five that it's
gonna happen soon -- in just "a
few days." Verse
6 -- "So when they met together,
they asked him, 'Lord, are you at
this time going to restore the
kingdom to Israel?' " "We
get it. When the Sprit comes,
that's when you're going to
restore the kingdom to Israel
right?" The
disciples were still confused
about all this. They had been
looking for an earthly king and
an earthly kingdom. They had
expected Jesus to toss the Romans
out of Israel and
set
up
that earthly kingdom, but it
didn't happen. Instead, he had
been crucified. But
now, He was back from the dead,
and He talking about the kingdom
and He says the Sprit -- "the
gift of the Father" -- is gonna
come. So,
again, they think in terms of a
physical, geographical kingdom.
"Lord, are you at this time going
to restore the kingdom to
Israel?" Jesus
doesn't answer that question
directly. He says in verse seven,
in effect, that the Father has a
plan, that He's working out the
plan, and the disciples just
don't need to know what the
timeline is. But
then He says, verse 8: "But you
will receive power when the Holy
Spirit comes on you; and you will
be witnesses in Jerusalem and in
all Judea." So far so good, but
then he adds: "...and
Samaria." Now,
wait just a minute -- they had
asked him restoring the kingdom
to Israel, and he's talking about
being witnesses in Samaria --
those aren't real Jews up there
in Samaria. They're
half-breeds. And
then here's the kicker: "You will
be my witnesses... to the ends of
the earth." I
don't know if the disciples had
any understanding of how far it
was to the ends of the earth. But
I think they got the message. The
kingdom wasn't just about the
nation of Israel and it wasn't
just about full-bloodied
Jews. The
kingdom was a lot larger than
they had ever thought. And this
is what the Book of Acts is about
-- as the Kingdom goes forward
not only to the Jews, but also to
the half-breeds, and eventually
the Gentiles, as it goes forward
to Israel and Ethiopia, to Athens
and Antioch, and even to
Rome. Listen
to these words of Jesus from
Matthew 11, "From the days of
John the Baptist, the kingdom of
heaven has been forcefully
advancing..." That's
a verse translators struggle with
because it can rendered several
different ways. But I think the
NIV has it just right. The
plan of God, a plan that existed
before the foundation of the
world, was being implemented.
Luke
16:16 has it this way -- Jesus
says, "The Law and the Prophets
were proclaimed until John.
Since
that time, the good news of the
kingdom of God is being
preached." In
other words, a new era was
underway. The full-scale invasion
of enemy territory had begun --
and there would be no stopping
it. The kingdom would advance
forcefully. What
does it mean that the kingdom is
advancing and there's no stopping
it? What does that mean for you
and me and for planet earth and
the whole cosmos? Well,
I've tried to capture what it
means in the title of this sermon
-- Extreme Makeover: Complete
Edition. You
see, we not just talking about
getting your nose fixed and your
teeth whitened. We're not just
talking about having your house
gutted and remodeled. What
we're talking about his is
nothing less than a wholesale
re-creation -- of
everything. But
I'm getting ahead of
myself. What
did Jesus tell them about the
kingdom during that 40-day period
after His resurrection? I don't
know. But I do know he said a
great deal about the kingdom up
to that point. In fact, it was
his main topic. Matthew
9:35 says, "Jesus went through
all the towns and villages ,
teaching in their synagogues,
preaching the good news of the
kingdom, and healing every
disease and sickness." Luke
8:1 says, "Jesus traveled about
from one town and village to
another, proclaiming the good
news of the kingdom of
God." The
word that we translate in English
as kingdom is basilia
--which means "realm." With
the death of Pope John Paul
yesterday, you'll be hearing a
lot this week about St. Peter's
Basilica. Comes from this same
word. A basilica is a Roman
Catholic church that's been
accorded special ceremonial
privileges by the head of the
church. By the pope's authority,
it has been deemed a special
place. Well,
this Greek word is the New
Testament is basilia,
which carries the idea of the
realm of a king -- the area of
his complete authority, and not
just his authority but also his
protection and
provision. Another
English word that we could use
instead of kingdom would be
"dominion." And
Jesus is going from town to town
proclaiming this kingdom, this
dominion. Well,
the Pharisees ask him a logical
question -- not much different
from the one the disciples ask
later in Acts chapter
one. In
Luke 17, the Pharisees ask when
this kingdom of God is going to
come. The implication is, they're
looking around and they don't see
any evidence of it. Where's the
throne? Where's the
army? And
Jesus says this: "The kingdom of
God does not come with your
careful observation, nor will
people say, 'Here it is,' or
'There it is,' because the
kingdom of God (or the reign of
God) is within you." What
Jesus was saying is that God sets
up His kingdom -- His dominion --
in the lives of those who receive
Him. When
someone says, "Jesus is Lord of
my life," this is what he or she
is talking about. The king is
reigning in their hearts and
lives. As
Dr. Ben Witherington of Asbury
Seminary puts it: "The reign of
Christ has come to the most
personal of locations: the inner
life of individual human
beings." What
better place for that reign to
begin? Because most major
problems we face -- and our
society faces -- originate in the
heart. Not the physical organ
that pumps blood, but the seat of
the human will, the place or
emotions, the inner
person. Adultery,
greed, addiction, racism -- it
all starts right here. I'm
paraphrasing Jesus -- Mark
7. He
said: "For from within, out of
men's hearts, come evil thoughts,
sexual immorality, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
lewdness, envy, slander,
arrogance and folly. All these
evils come from
inside." The
kingdom is about an extreme
makeover -- and the first thing
that gets made over is the human
heart. This is how communities
are changed, how cultures are
renewed. One heart at a time. And
from those hearts flow works of
transformation that affect
everything else. I
had never really thought about
this until the other day, but
every time we pray: "Your kingdom
come, you will be done on earth
as it is in heaven," we are -- at
least in part -- praying for
ourselves. That's not just large
prayer for "out there" -- it's a
large prayer for in
here. The
kingdom comes first to your heart
and mine -- and if God's will is
going to be done on earth as it
is in heaven, it starts with you
and me. The
"makeover" that I see in you and
you see in me -- and the
Christian-based social progress
we've witness in things like the
end of child labor, the abolition
of slavery, and the defeat of
totalitarian regimes -- these
things are only foretastes of
what's to come. The
title of this sermon is
Extreme Makeover:
Complete
Edition because reach of the
kingdom will one day be
total. I
said that when we pray: "Your
kingdom come, your will be done
on earth as it is heaven" -- we
are in part praying for
ourselves. But we're also praying
for much, much more. We're
praying for the return of Christ,
the resurrection of the dead, the
last judgment, and the life that
comes when the kingdom -- God's
Dominion -- is finally fully
manifested on earth. Do
we really believe that all that's
going to happen? Or is it just a
bunch of utopian religious
jargon? Well,
Jesus said it was going to happen
-- and he's done three things to
assure us that's it's going to
happen. First
-- and this is what we celebrated
last week --
he
rose from the
dead.
He rose -- and the Bible says
that we too will be
raised. In
this life, we are raised to new
spiritual
life. But one day we will be
raised to new
physical
life, when this corruptible body
puts on incorruption. What
the resurrection of Jesus on
Easter Sunday says to us is this:
If the Father raised the Son,
He's got the power to raise us
too. Our
faith is in an historic fact.
It's been done. It is not
theoretical. It's concrete. You
can bank on it. The
second thing Jesus did is that
he
went back to
heaven.
And before He left, he said very
clearly -- in Matthew 24 and 25
and elsewhere -- that when the
Father determines that the time
is right, that He will return to
the earth in power and
glory. The
Apostle Paul put it this way in 1
Thessalonians 4: Jesus
gone away to wait for the right
time -- then He is coming back
and the extreme makeover will be
made complete. His
ascension cleared the way for the
third thing that guarantees the
the extreme makeover of
everything -- and that third
thing was
the
pouring out of the Holy
Spirit. The
Bible says that the Spirit is
like a down payment -- earnest
money -- guaranteeing that what
Jesus told us is going to come to
pass. Again,
the Apostle Paul -- 2nd
Corinthians 5: Now,
let me ask you this: Are you
living your life in light of the
extreme makeover to
come? Those
people on the Makeover TV
programs get excited, don't they?
During that time of waiting, when
the bandages are on their faces
or that big bus is in the way so
they can't see their finished
house, they're on pins and
needles, waiting for the day when
everything is going to be
revealed. Are
living that way? Do we really
believe the kingdom is advancing
and that final victory is
assured? Do
we thank God for the foretastes
of the Kingdom we see in the here
and now? Well,
when is Jesus coming back to give
me a new body? When is he coming
back to bring an end to the
heartbreak, to dry the tears, to
destroy the evil that's all
around us? He's
been gone a long time. Is he
really coming back to do this
extreme makeover? Listen
to these words from the Apostle
Peter: Peter
is saying that everlasting
kingdom will come -- it is
guaranteed. No matter how many
people may scoff, no matter what
the devil may do, the coming of
the kingdom cannot be
stopped. Now,
the doctrine of the Second
Coming, our declaration that
there will be resurrection of the
dead and a final judgment, our
belief that there'll be a new
heavens and a new earth, probably
seems like just a bunch of
foolish talk to most
nonbelievers. We
shouldn't be surprised by that.
It does seems kinda "out there"
-- sort of escapist and other
worldly. Or may even just flat
out strange. Well,
let me give you another quote
from Ben Witherington, one of our
most prominent United Methodist
theologians. He writes: "In a
lost world, the transformed lives
of believers are the beachhead of
God's dominion on earth; they are
the tangible signs of God's
reign." My
son, Gideon, and I are reading
through the Left Behind
series of books, which are pretty
good -- just don't get your
theology from them. They're
novels, after all, not prophecy.
But I struck by this line in book
five in the series, which is
called
Apollyon. In
one scene, a non-Christian woman
who is deathly ill is reflecting
on the death of Christian woman
she had known. And she says this:
"We
disagreed about everything
important in life, yet she loved
me." That
my friends is -- in fictional
form -- about the kingdom. A
person who's heart has been
transformed to such an extent
that could love someone who's
life and values were antithetical
to her own. "In
a lost world, the transformed
lives of believers are the
beachhead of God's dominion on
earth; they are the tangible
signs of God's reign." The
kingdom of God is advancing
forcefully. If you know Christ,
you are part of the invading
force -- but our weapons are not
swords and clubs or uzzis and
hand grenades. Our
weapons are love, peace, joy. Our
weapons are prayer and
perseverance and good
works. Let
me end this way -- with a famous
quote from a missionary and a one
sentence parable from
Jesus. Missionary
Jim Elliott wrote this: "He is no
fool who gives up what he cannot
keep to gain what he cannot
lose." It's
a quote about the kingdom -- and
I believe it flows out a parable
Jesus told in Matthew 13. It's a
one verse parable. He said
this: In
other words, there is nothing
more valuable than the kingdom.
Nothing else compares. It's
worth it to get rid of anything
that keeps you from embracing the
kingdom fully. "He is no fool who
gives up what he cannot keep to
gain what he cannot
lose." And,
if we give our lives to Jesus,
what we cannot lose is the
Kingdom -- the Kingdom being
revealed even now, and that will
be revealed fully when the day
comes for the Extreme
Makeover: Complete
Edition. A
mp3 audio file of this sermon is
here
(42:00).
Gateway
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(Hwy. 129) in Athens,
Georgia.
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A
GATEWAY SERMON
Complete edition
Gateway
Church,
Athens GA
Do you ever read the Bible and
come across a verse that just
kinda puts a question mark in
your head?
The
disciples get it
wrong
He'd
been talking about the Kingdom,
and then He told about the coming
of the Spirit -- so the disciples
put 2 and 2 together and ended up
with 3.
A
full scale
invasion
When
John the Baptist came on the
scene and cried out, "Repent, for
the kingdom of heaven is at
hand," something began to
change.
The
implications of
kingdom
'We
don't see any
kingdom'
The
heart of the
matter
But
there's more
Utopian
religious jargon?For
the Lord himself will come
down from heaven, with a loud
command, with the voice of the
archangel, and the dead in
Christ will rise first.
After that, we who are still
alive and are left will be
caught up together with them
in the clouds to meet the Lord
in the air.
And so shall we be with the
Lord forever.[W]hile
we are in this tent [i.e.
this corruptible earthly
body], we groan and are
burdened, because we do not
wish to be unclothed but to be
clothed with our heavenly
dwelling, so that what is
mortal may be swallowed up by
life.
Now it is God who has made us
for this very purpose and has
given us the Spirit as a
deposit, guaranteeing what is
to come.
Do
we really believe
it?
Last
week, I heard three men give
testimony of how the Lord
delivered them from addiction --
one from alcohol, two from other
kinds of drugs. Those are
foretastes of the kingdom to
come.
First
of all, you must understand
that in the last days scoffers
will come, scoffing and
following their own evil
desires. They will say, "Where
is this 'coming' he
promised?....
But do not forget this one
thing, dear friends: With the
Lord a day is like a thousand
years, and a thousand years
are like a day....
[T]he day of the Lord
will
come
like a thief. The heavens will
disappear with a roar; the
elements will be destroyed by
fire, and the earth and
everything in it will be laid
bare.
Since everything will be
destroyed in this way, what
kind of people ought you to
be? You ought to live holy and
godly lives as you look
forward to the day of God and
speed its coming.
That day will bring about...
destruction.... But in keeping
with his promise we are
looking forward to a new
heaven and a new earth, the
home of righteousness.
(emphasis added)
Our
lives speak truth
You
see, what makes a nonbeliever sit
up and take notice is when they
see someone with a transformed
life -- someone in whom the reign
of God is very real
indeed.
Lasting
treasureThe
kingdom of heaven is like
treasure hidden in a
field.
When a man found it, he hid it
again, and then in his joy
went and sold all he had and
bought that field.
Supporting
texts: Acts
1:6-8
| Matthew
11:12
| Matthew
3:1-2
| Luke
16:16
| Matthew
9:35
| Luke
8:1
| Luke
17:20-21
| Mark
7:21-23
| 1
Thessalonians
4:16-17
| 2
Corinthians
5:4-5
| 2
Peter
3:3-13
| Matthew
13:44
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050403a: Extreme Makeover:
Complete Edition.
©
2005 Joseph M.
Slife