Abounding Grace

Pastor Ed Taylor: Pastor Ed says prepare to be stretched and challenged as you study the Book of Acts with us. As we examine the Book of Acts, the Holy Spirit's going to be examining you. He's going to be doing that internal work. There might even be a little disappointment after a Bible study in your heart about what we read and where your life is. Actually, I hope there is.

I hope you are stirred. I hope there is a little bit of, "Man, what am I missing? What's going on? Why?" I hope you are asking those questions. The Holy Spirit would love to answer them.

Guest (Male): From Calvary Church in Aurora, Colorado, this is Abounding Grace. We're in the early going of a brand new series in Acts called Be the Church. As we'll learn today, part of being the church involves taking the message of Christ out to our neighborhood, surrounding communities, and the world. We're to be making disciples and not consumers. That's the main thrust of today's message from Pastor Ed Taylor in Acts chapter one.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Now, the Book of Acts is a bridge. It's a very important bridge. I want you to understand that if we didn't have the Book of Acts, if you just finished reading the Gospel of John—remember the New Testament starts Matthew, Mark, Luke, John—those are all known as the Gospels. The word gospel means good news. Those four books of the Bible look at in depth the life of Jesus, and they each have their own purposes.

If you were to end at the end of the Gospel of John and then open up your Bible to the Book of Romans, you'd have a lot of questions. After you watch the life and death and resurrection, the ascension of Jesus, and then you open up to this letter that Paul wrote to the Romans, you'd have a lot of unanswered questions. One of them would be: who are the Romans? What are they doing there? What happened? How did the message of Jesus get from Jerusalem to Rome? And who are these people?

You can look back in chapter 16 of all the people that Paul knew personally. You'd have all these unanswered questions. What happens after the ascension of Jesus? What happens next? Will the story even continue? How does the church develop? How does it spread? How did these 11 simple, fallible people take the gospel all the way to Rome? The Book of Acts answers and builds a bridge from the Gospels to the rest of the New Testament.

It's Volume 2, you could say, of Luke. So if you put Luke and Acts together, then you have the fullness of what Luke chose to write, inspired by the Holy Spirit. It's interesting, in just this first chapter, each of the Gospels ended with an event that's included in the first chapter. That's the bridge. It's the connection point. For example, Matthew's Gospel ends with the resurrection. That's here in chapter one. Mark's ends with the ascension, Jesus going up into heaven. That's in chapter one. Luke ends with the promise of the Holy Spirit. That's here in chapter one, as well as John ends with His second coming. You'll see that as well here in chapter one.

So it's a bridge. Don't forget that. Let me give you the key verse. This is all preparatory in our studies coming up. Let me give you the key verse. It's chapter one, verse eight. I want to encourage you to memorize this. This will be the pattern of the Book of Acts. Notice, for those of you that have a Bible with red letters, verse eight is in red. That's because these are some of the final words of Jesus.

He says in verse eight, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the end of the earth." I want you to memorize that because this is the outline for the rest of the Book of Acts. I want you to notice sometimes we quote this verse and we have the words backwards. Sometimes you'll remember it as: you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit's come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses. But it doesn't say that. It just says witnesses to me.

The Greek word for witnesses is martyrus, and we get our English word martyr. This isn't an easy task as you become a witness. Notice you become a witness connected to the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. It's not something you just take upon yourself. The empowerment of the Holy Spirit gives you what's needed to be a witness. This isn't in a verb form. You don't go witnessing; you are a witness.

So you don't relegate evangelism to an event. You don't just say, "Well, I shared the gospel today." Your whole life shares the gospel. The question is: are you sharing it well or not so well? The real question is that in your life, witnessing to the power of Jesus Christ in your life, is it provoking questions that are going to lead somebody to talk to them about their life, their sin, their issues, the separation they have from God? We are witnesses. You don't go witnessing, although I'm not opposed to that language, certainly you can go witnessing. But you are a witness. That's what Jesus said.

Now, let me show you how this breaks down for the rest of the Book of Acts. Chapters 1 through 8 in the Book of Acts is the ministry of the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem. This is where you see the power of the Holy Spirit, the birth of the church. You see the preaching of Peter. You see 3,000 people get saved. The church expands rapidly. John and Peter get thrown in prison. They're commanded not to preach anymore. It ends with persecution.

It's interesting, Jesus was very clear. I don't think verse eight can be mistaken. It's super clear even in the English. Clear in the Greek, clear in the English. You're going to be witnesses, and you're going to do it this way: Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, uttermost parts of the earth. That's how you're going to do it. You are going to take this message around the world, but you're going to do it first in Jerusalem.

Judea and Samaria were regions. Judea would be the regions around Jerusalem. Samaria refers not only to the regions around, but the people that were neglected, the people that people had prejudice against, the people that were avoided. The gospel is to go to them, too. Not just to the people you want, but to everyone, including Samaria, which would be startling. That was a startling part of the message of Jesus, that the gospel is for everyone, especially for the ones that you despise, the Samaritans.

There's no room for prejudice in the body of Christ. None. It is a sin. It is a sin against a holy, righteous God who created that person you don't like, or you judge by the color of their skin, or by the country they were born in, or by the language that they speak, or the behavior of their life. They were created in the image of God just like you. You're no better than them or worse than them.

Did you hear that? I didn't hear a lot of amens there because this is an area of our life where culture has conditioned us to look down on people. It's not new. It's not a USA thing, although certainly we have our own issues. It's been this way from the fall of man. You might think, "Well, I'm better." Really? What makes you better? "I have more money." Okay. "I do more. I was born in this. I speak this language." Whatever it might be. The gospel's to go to Samaria, too.

The gospel doesn't go without people taking it, witnesses. It's an amazing thing when you and I understand that when we follow the simple teaching of Jesus, it's dynamic. It's otherworldly. It's different than what we may have accustomed ourselves to what we call Christianity. It's just so different and it's so beautiful. So Jerusalem. Now, the problem as you read through the Book of Acts is there was no indication in the first few chapters of Acts that anybody's leaving Jerusalem or even wanted to leave Jerusalem.

You know what happened at the end of chapter 8? Persecution. You want to know how they got to Judea and Samaria? Persecution. Trouble, trials. You don't need to answer this, but consider: has a trial ever moved you? Has it ever moved you physically, spiritually, emotionally? Has it ever changed you? Are you a different person now because of the trial you went through last year? Yes. You can say that out loud. Yes, you're a different person. God uses things that we have no control over to move us, to change us for His glory.

So what happened? Chapters 9 through 12, the gospel goes to Judea and Samaria. Why? Because it was heavy-duty persecution in Jerusalem and they couldn't stay. They had to go. So in chapters 9 through 12, Judea, Samaria, you've got Philip's ministry, you have Saul's conversion. Without persecution, chapter 9, that's when Saul of Tarsus got saved. The guy that everybody wrote off and tried to avoid, he got saved and became the prominent person God used in the New Testament.

You have Peter's ministry coming to a close. You have James martyred and dying for his faith in chapters 9 through 12. You have Herod blaspheming God and then he dies. Finally, in chapters 13 through 28, again, you can see this all. God had put this all together for us. From chapter 13 to the end of the book, you know what you have? You have that saved guy, Saul. His name's Paul now. Missionary journey number one, number two, and number three.

Within about 30 years, the gospel went around the world. 30 years. They didn't have technology. They didn't have the internet. They didn't have YouTube. They didn't have radio. They didn't have television. They didn't have VeggieTales. They had nothing. You know what they had? The Holy Spirit. They had the Holy Spirit. That's all they had. You really know when the value and beauty of your relationship with Jesus is when He's all you've got.

That's it. You can't lean on anyone. I know it's painful. Don't misunderstand me. Somebody abandons you, betrays you, that's painful. But you know what God's showing you? Even if your mother and father forsake you, I will not forsake you, God says. How would you ever learn that unless you felt being forsaken? How would you ever learn of the abundance of God if you haven't lived in poverty? Even in our own country, God's been so gracious to us that poverty here compared to around the world is very different.

That word is very, very different. You have to use it differently. It's very challenging. We measure poverty in our country by the amount of comfort and ease that we have. Other people measure poverty like Jesus taught: pray for your daily bread. We really have to adjust our lives to understand that the gospel's for the world. So Paul's got first, second, and third missionary journeys. He ends up in Rome.

So by the time he writes to the Romans in about 57 AD, it says this: "First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world." That's a powerful thing. A few years later, he writes a letter to the church in Colossae. We know it as Colossians. He says this in chapter one, verse 23: "If indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister."

So this is a phrase to every known world. Just like today, there's unknown parts of the world. This is to the ability that we had. The gospel started in this little city in Jerusalem and literally spanned the globe of the known population at the time. And we get to be a part of that. This is not a closed, done deal. God is still reaching people. But it's different. We're not in Jerusalem. So we have to take this model and we have to use it where we are.

This is how we apply this in our own lives. We have a responsibility in Jerusalem, except our Jerusalem is Aurora and the surrounding cities. That's our Jerusalem. I know many of you come from all around town. You're watching from even different states, different countries. I get that. But for us as a church family, this is it. This is our home base. We need to be faithful in our city.

We need to care about what's happening south and north, east and west, and then extending into the Denver metro area and just owning this area for the sake of the gospel. We need to care about every part of this city, every part of the neighborhood, everywhere as God takes us around. We have our own Jerusalem. Then we're also to go beyond Jerusalem. We're to go to Judea and Samaria. Judea and Samaria would refer to our state.

Colorado, we have a responsibility for our state. I remember some of the feedback, some of the pushback we got when we wanted to move in to get a radio station, and our goal was to reach the state. People were upset about that. "Why are you reaching the state? What about your own backyard?" No, we do reach our own backyard, but we also have a heart for the state. We want to support every church in this state, not just our church.

We didn't do radio for us. We did radio for the city, for the state. Did you know 80% of the population in Colorado is covered by the signals of Grace FM? 80%. That's not anything we planned. But that means 80% of the population live within a place where they can flip it on. And of course, online, you can get it anywhere with online. But that's the teaching of the Word of God from faithful men that are gifted in teaching.

Why? Because we have a responsibility to Colorado. We have a responsibility to support other churches, to co-labor together, to encourage church plants around the United States and then finally, of course, around the world. We have world missions. It's not backwards. It doesn't start world missions; it starts at home. So we send Jeff up north and now we had one apartment, now it's two apartments, ministering to kids, ministering to kids that are here as immigrants.

They don't even speak English yet. So we use pictures and we use things to communicate the gospel to them until they learn English. Why? Because they're in our city. They're right up the street. This is where they're landing. And they're here. So we're faithful here, then we're faithful there, then we're faithful around the world. So when you pray for Italy, you pray for Aurora.

And when you pray for Aurora, you pray for Virginia, like I was just up in Virginia. So Virginia's on my mind. Praying for Virginia. This city that I was in is a suburb of Washington D.C. Reminds me to pray for my leaders. It reminds me to pray that God would establish churches all throughout the country and around the world to change lives. Once we cover home, then we continue to circle around and that just gets repeated over and over again. What gets repeated? What Jesus began both to do and to teach. It's His message. It's not our message. It can't be our opinion.

Something you'll notice in the Book of Acts is that Jesus works in and through His disciples through the miraculous. There's so much miraculous, just amazing things happening in the church that people will say today, "Well, I don't see the miraculous today." Somebody will walk into a service like this and they'll leave and they'll email me, "I can't believe it. The Spirit just wasn't there. The Spirit just wasn't there." What? What do you mean the Spirit wasn't there?

Well, I know what they mean. We weren't flipping around, yelling at each other, throwing things, swinging on the lights up here. It wasn't out of control. Some of you know what I'm talking about. You came from a church like that. It was just out of control. And then they blame the Spirit for things that are not decent and in order. Right now, I'm telling you right now, the Spirit of God is at work right now. And if you're willing to receive, you can be changed.

You're going to leave stronger than when you came in. You're going to learn something about yourself, you're going to learn first of all about God, about yourself, and about this world. And if you allow it, it's going to move you and change you. It's going to give you new perspective about your work, about your wife, about your husband, about your kids, about everything about you. "Spirit's not working here." Silliness. Don't send me those emails. Calm your church down for a while and teach the Bible. I bet you something happens. Sorry.

But here's the thing about the miraculous. I want to teach you this so you understand. There will be people that will appeal to the Book of Acts and then say the church isn't doing what they're supposed to be doing because they're not seeing the miraculous. Now, you have to admit we live in a pretty logical, rational culture, so part of that we just explain things away that God was actually doing. We take credit for things far more than we should.

We take credit for things God's doing. We just need to stop that. I was convicted of that recently when I was in Virginia ministering. A pastor there was sharing a testimony with me and they had prayed with a brother, and God answered the prayer. As the brother was giving his testimony to the pastor, he was saying, "Yeah," and he started explaining all the changes he made and all the things that he did that led to this change.

And the pastor said, "No. No. We're going to give God the glory for the thing He did in your life, not all the decisions you made." We can be like that. "Well, I did this and I did that, and look at me now." Yeah, but you forgot where you were before that, where God has done that work. So you go to the Book of Acts and you think, "Okay, we're in a rational, logical culture." I get that.

But also I think we have overemphasized the miraculous by misreading the Book of Acts. Because if you read carefully the Book of Acts, you will find about 30 miraculous episodes among the church believers. About 30. Now, if you're reading the Book of Acts like today this afternoon, it takes about a half hour to read it. You read 30 miracles in a half hour, it feels like it's boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Everywhere it's happening. And if it's not happening everywhere, then something's wrong.

But you'd be mistaken. Because the Book of Acts actually covers 30 years of history. Not 30 minutes of reading. 30 years of church history. So if you average it out, God reserved for us about a miracle a year to highlight His presence in the church. Just to give a highlight of when He showed up. Now, I don't think that's exclusive. I think there was a lot more miraculous. But in the Bible, it's not happening every day. Boom, boom, boom.

Healing here, situation there. Although yesterday, we had a brother who's been very, very sick, just got out of the ER. Doctors don't know what to do with him. His wife texted one of the pastors and said, "I don't think my husband can sit through the service. We'll just come to the parking lot. Can you pray for us, anoint him with oil, like the Bible says?" The Bible says if anyone's sick among you, in James, let them call for the elders, anoint with oil. I said, "Yes, bring him here." Pastor said yes.

So we met him out there right before service, 5:30. He sat on the sidewalk out there. We anointed him with oil, prayed with him, prayed for his family. And then this morning, his wife texted me. What did she say? "Thank you for the prayers. His speech is a lot better today, no longer feeling like he's falling backwards. Pass this on to Pastor Roy and Pastor Everett." That's where God gets the glory!

That wasn't us. We don't have any special oil from Jerusalem that was touched by Jesus. We get our oil at King Soopers just like you do. And we put it on his head and we say this in the power of Jesus, we pray according to the will of God. And even if she would have texted this morning, "He sicker today," what are we going to do? We're going to pray more. God gets the glory. That's the Book of Acts.

If you want to stick around for a couple years and study the Book of Acts, you will be changed. Maybe the Lord will come back before then, but I'm telling you, the Book of Acts will change your life. Here's the big thing. This is the bigger thing before we head out. You're going to be on the operating table in the Book of Acts. Not that church, not that church, not that. You are. God's going to be doing surgery in your life spiritually.

He's going to be cutting away and adding in your life. He's going to be shaping. The Holy Spirit's going to examine my heart and motive. We're going to be tested and we're going to be stretched and we're going to be challenged as we study the Book of Acts. As we examine the Book of Acts, the Holy Spirit's going to be examining you. He's going to be doing that internal work. There might even be a little disappointment after a Bible study in your heart about what we read and where your life is.

Actually, I hope there is. I hope you are stirred. I hope there is a little bit of, "Man, what am I missing? What's going on? Why?" I hope you are asking those questions. The Holy Spirit would love to answer them. For us, we have to ask why is the church so weak today? For a lot of different reasons. But one of them is we just haven't really surrendered ourselves to the work of the Spirit.

Or like Greg Laurie said, and I quote, "In the long run, if we train people to be consumers instead of communers, we end up with customers instead of disciples." Imagine that if that's our goal. And pastors do have those goals: fill the chairs, get the budget, all of those things. They just get off track. The track that Jesus came to do, He came to—it says right here at the end of verse three—speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.

There is a kingdom coming that is not of this world. There is a King that's coming, the King of kings and the Lord of lords that's not of this world. This world's not going to be rescued and salvaged; it's going to be replaced and redeemed for a better-suited purpose for the rule and reign of Jesus Christ. Right now, we are the people of God. We're not going to be rehabbed. We're not going to be reformed.

We are new creations in Christ. Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. He's not trying to improve your flesh; He's wanting you to kill the flesh. Die to it. Let me tell you, on that call with that pastor yesterday, I am so glad I was driving into the mountains because it could have come out of my mouth what was already in my head. You see, I sin far more in my head than I do with my mouth. Don't you guys look at me like that! So do you. So do we. Let's surrender to Him. Let's just be ready, put our seatbelts on spiritually, and learn how to follow Him.

Guest (Male): Hey, thanks for listening to Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor. If you joined us late or would just like to give this a second listen, go online to aboundinggraceradio.com or listen to Abounding Grace wherever you get your podcasts and at oneplace.com. By the way, have you had a chance to download our app? This is another great way to take in the teaching of God's Word.

Download it for free today by searching for Ed Taylor. Well, we enjoy hearing from our listeners, even just a quick hello telling us the station you listen to means a lot. Maybe you don't realize it, but Pastor Ed reads these. Let us know how we can pray for you too. You can email us through the website at aboundinggraceradio.com. And please remember, Abounding Grace is made possible through the support of our listeners.

We look to the Lord to guide and provide. And when you give a donation of $25 or more to Abounding Grace, you're invited to request a copy of Anger is a Choice by Tim LaHaye and Bob Phillips. This is a must-read for anyone who struggles with anger or is dealing with someone who does. You'll come to understand where anger comes from, how it does or doesn't show up, and what you can do about it.

You'll go through an anger inventory and other helpful exercises that offer healing for damaged relationships. To order a copy today, call 877-30-GRACE. That's 877-30-GRACE. Ordering resources like this is also super easy through our online store. Check it out at calvaryco.store. Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church, Colorado, here in Aurora.