North Center Baptist Church
Brooklyn Park, Minnesota
A diverse church for all ages
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February 07, 2010 Acts 1 by Pastor Stan Audio ‘“THE CALL TO FOLLOW CHRIST” SERIES #6, WITNESS TO THE WORLD ACTS 1:1-8 (P.770) FEBRUARY 7, 2010 INTRODUCTION Here at North Center our vision is to be and make disciples. Every believer is a disciple, called both to know and to follow Christ. That’s why we’re starting this New Year with a discipleship emphasis on the theme “The Call to Follow Christ.” Along with the sermon series on Sunday mornings we’re using a workbook through the week that’s based on a diagram called “The Disciple’s Cross.” At the center of the Cross is Christ, emphasizing that being a Christian means having a real, life-transforming relationship with Christ. Following Christ, being His disciple, means abiding in Christ, living a Christ-centered life. Our relationship with Christ is not just one part of our lives—it’s the central reality of our lives. Our relationship with Christ connects to and directs everything about our lives. The arms of the Cross are means God employs to enable us to live this kind of a life. Each week we’re examining a different arm of the cross. We’ve looked at the “Word,” referring, of course, to the Word of God, the Bible. We can’t grow spiritually without the discipline of Living in the Word, spending time in the Bible, not just on Sundays but every day, reading, studying, and meditating in it and living by it. Then we looked at prayer. Praying in faith is an essential discipline for the lives of those who are seeking to follow Christ. Like God’s Word, prayer needs to be a daily spiritual discipline in the life of the believer. We need to have a time each day when we commune with God by reading the Bible and by praying. The vertical arms of the Cross are spiritual disciplines that are primarily connected to our relationship with God. The horizontal arms of the Cross are about the disciple’s relationship with other people. Last week we looked at the arm labeled “Fellowship,” referring to fellowship with other believers. Having meaningful relationships with other believers is essential to discipleship; if you’re going to abide in Christ (keep your life focused on Him and keep on following Him) you have to have fellowship with other believers who are doing the same. This week we’re dealing with the other horizontal arm, labeled “Witness.” All those called to know and follow Christ are to witness to the world, to those who are not yet believers. Jesus makes this clear in the final words that he spoke to His disciples here on earth before ascending back to Heaven. Those words are recorded in Acts 1. I. THE BACKGROUND (VV. 1-5) The author of Acts was Luke, the same man who wrote the third book in the NT, the Gospel of Luke. In the opening verses of Acts Luke tells about Jesus’ post-Resurrection ministry, the 40 days between Jesus’ Resurrection and Ascension back to Heaven. What we see here in verses 1-5 is that Jesus had 3 main reasons for remaining on earth for those 40 days after the Resurrection: A. TO DEMONSTRATE THE REALITY OF THE RESURRECTION First, Jesus wanted to demonstrate conclusively to His disciples the reality of His Resurrection. During that 40-day period Jesus appeared repeatedly to a large number of His followers in a wide variety of settings. The disciples saw Jesus, touched Him, talked with Him and ate meals with Him—over and over and over, again and again. By the end of those 40 days Jesus’ followers knew for sure He was alive, so much so that they were willing to stake their lives on it. B. TO INSTRUCT ABOUT THE KINGDOM OF GOD A second objective that Jesus carried out during those 40 days was giving the disciples further instruction in the matter of “the kingdom of God,” the reign of God over the hearts and lives of those who turn to Christ, what it means to know God as heavenly Father and to serve Him obediently as Lord and Master. C. TO PREPARE FOR THE COMING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT Finally, Jesus used this time to prepare the disciples for the coming of the |
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