Church: What does it mean to show genuine faith.

Introduction

Thanks, Grant. Last week, Wednesday, was Rapture Day. Did you know that? You missed it. Back in 2018, a pastor claimed to have a vision that September 23, 2025, was the day Jesus was going to come back and we were all going to go up to heaven to be with him. He even accounted for time zones and said it would be the 24th in Australia and the 23rd in America. He had it all worked out.

I actually didn’t see anyone who was serious about it. I just saw people reporting all these silly things they were seeing people doing, like putting post-it notes up around their house so that when they go missing, people know where they went missing to. Obviously, it wasn’t the rapture, or we have another problem going on in this church. A couple of years ago, a group of college students did a prank on their end-times pastor. They had his wife call him during the lecture, and he went outside to take the call. Then they trashed the room, took jumpers off, threw them on the ground, ran out of the building, and got a trumpet player to play a trumpet down the end of the hallway. When he came back, everyone was gone, trumpets playing, except they had an Anglo-Catholic guy in their class who said, “I’ll stay. I’ll stay, and I’ll just say I don’t know what happened.”

It can be humorous, but at the same time, the reality is it doesn’t reflect great on Christianity. It impacts what people think about our faith. It becomes a mockery of our own genuine hope for the return of Jesus when these kinds of things happen. What baffles me about this one is I’ve heard other ones where someone’s calculated it from the Bible using numbers in Daniel and things like that. This one was just a guy who had a vision. There was no evidence of it, and yet it seems like a whole bunch of people took his word for it and called it rapture day, and it wasn’t. It impacts the state of Christianity in our world, what people think of Christians, and what people think of the truth of the gospel when these sorts of things happen.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg of what’s happening at the moment. We have the Charlie Kirk thing going on, which has had a huge impact with his assassination. He claimed to be a Christian. From everything I can tell online, it seemed to be genuine that he had genuine faith. One of the real struggles with this is, particularly in America, faith and politics are so intertwined it’s almost impossible to unravel them. I think one of the most disappointing things about Charlie Kirk’s funeral is it became a political show. It’s not surprising that politicians, even in places of genuine grief, might still use that to leverage political gain. When it’s done in the name of Jesus, it becomes something that undermines people’s understanding of Christianity and where that lies. I don’t agree with everything Charlie Kirk said. I do agree with many things he said, and what I’ve seen this week is this labeling of everything he said to be hate speech.

It becomes clear, even in places where he spoke graciously about topics, that if you are to defend the rights of unborn babies, you will be declared hate speech against women’s rights. If you are to defend traditional marriage, traditional gender, and sexuality, it’ll be declared hate speech against the LGBTIQ community. This is the space we’re in. Whether you agree with all those politics or not, the reality is this is the complexity of deciphering where politics ends and Christianity starts, or the other way around. That’s just scratching the tip of the iceberg. Just this last week, a U minister in Nigeria was assassinated for his faith. They estimate that’s over 4,000 to 7,000 deaths of Christians in Nigeria this year. In the last 15 years, they say over 19,000 churches have been destroyed in Nigeria. If you average that out, that’s 100 churches a month in the last 15 or 16 years. Churches have been destroyed in Nigeria. That’s over three churches a day being destroyed. Persecution, and Nigeria has become the place of the highest number of deaths for Christian faith. More in Nigeria than the rest of the world combined in recent years.

Things like that are happening. Only this month, 70 Christians were arrested in China and fined large amounts of money for giving to a church that wasn’t an authorized church. They have to pay fines for their generosity to the church. It’s easy when you hear all these things, and this isn’t even counting the travesty of war that’s happening in our world, to ask the question, what in the world is God doing? To be fair, I don’t even think right at the moment we’re in the worst of what we’ve seen in world history. I know we kind of say, look at the things that are happening in the world. It’s clearly getting towards the end times. I honestly think if you think that, you don’t have a great picture of all the terrible things that have happened in the past and how actually some of the things that are happening now are mild in comparison. Terrible things happened in our world, and it leaves us asking the question, what in the world is God doing?

It takes us right back to the start of the early church, right back when Jesus first got things going with his people. They had great hopes of Jesus’ return right from the word go. We’ve had 2,000 years of Christians longing for the return of Jesus. We started with the early church last week, and we’re continuing with Acts chapter 4 this week. You see this journey that they have under the pressure and asking that question, what in the world is God doing? You can imagine as you read through the story of the beginning of the church in Acts, you can imagine some great excitement. We looked at last week at the spirit being poured out at Pentecost and over 3,000 people coming to faith in one day. Potentially could be 3% of the city of Jerusalem, maybe more, in one day coming to faith. You can imagine some pretty strong excitement happening when they saw that sort of thing. Yet at the same time, they would remember only two months earlier Jesus had come into Jerusalem and he had had a large following. The whole city erupted with joy at his arrival.

So they see some excitement. At the same time, they’re asking what is God doing? Jesus came into the temple and he healed the lame and the blind. Acts chapter 3, Peter and John go into the temple and they heal a lame man. People must be excited about what’s happening. Yet at the same time, they’re thinking, “Wait a second, Jesus did that.” And look what happened. Peter and John confront the religious leaders in the temple and they take them on. Jesus did that. They’re arrested and put on trial with Caiaphas and an Ananas in Acts chapter 3, the same guys who had Jesus on trial. You can imagine the church has some pretty strong PTSD going on in these months because the end of the story for Jesus that they saw in that trial was execution, not just any execution, the most brutal kind of execution. Here Peter and John are on trial in front of the same guys that wanted that same thing for Jesus. They are told at the end of the story that they’re not executed, they’re released. Just before our reading, we’re told they were released and threatened. They head back to the community of believers with this hanging over their heads. There is a very real threat on the table for them. A group of people that were willing to brutally execute their Messiah is putting them on trial and threatening them for similar things for putting their belief in the guy that they executed.

The Plans of Our Enemy Are Futile

God is going to use their very schemes for his good

Peter gets up and preaches into that space. That is the group of people he’s preaching to. They are on that edge. What in the world is God doing? We have seen this momentum, but we saw momentum before and Jesus was executed because of it. What’s he doing now? Is this going to go anywhere with Peter and John? Peter gets up and he responds and this is what he says. He says, “The plans of our enemy are futile.” He quotes King David. We read it in Acts chapter 2:2, but he’s quoting Psalm chapter 2. “Why were the nations so angry? Why did they waste their time with futile plans?” This is what he says, quoting David from centuries before. “The kings of the earth prepared for battle. The rulers gathered together against the Lord, but not just the Lord, and against his Messiah.” Peter says, “This is happening just the way God said it would happen. Our enemies are planning stuff and their plans are futile.”

He doesn’t say their plans are futile because God won’t let it happen. That’s not what he says. He doesn’t say their planning is futile because God’s just going to squash that and it’s not going to happen. They don’t say their planning is futile because God is going to punish them for what they’ve done. He doesn’t even say that. He says their plans are futile because God is going to use their very schemes for his good. It’s not just that he’s going to stop them. He’s actually going to use their own strategy against them. He says, “David said that was going to happen. We saw it happen.” That’s his words. He speaks into their post-traumatic stress and he says, “We saw this happen.” He talks about the king’s plotting. He says, “In fact, this has happened here in this very city.” Verse 27, “For Herod, Antipass, Pontius, Pilate, the governor.” He’s linking back to these rulers, the Gentiles, the people of Israel were all united against Jesus. These are the ones who were plotting their plans. He says, “We saw God’s enemies in action.”

Everything they did was determined beforehand according to your will

Then verse 28, “But everything they did was determined beforehand according to your will.” He says they planned it. They thought they were going to defeat Jesus. Not only did God not stop it from happening, God caused that very thing to be the thing that caused victory. They tried to do their worst. Peter says, “The worst in human hands turned out to be the best in God’s plan.” See what happened there? The worst they could do with their own hands was the very thing that was God’s best plan. We are secure in God’s control to the point where it’s not just he can stop things happening to the point where even the worst things that happen can be used for God’s greater glory. It is you think of the great kind of movie plot twists when you see this kind of thing. The movie Oceans 11 is a classic in this kind of scenario. If you haven’t seen it, it’s too late. Let me spoil the ending for you. As the scene goes towards the end, they send in the SWAT team to take out these, well, the heroes of the story, which happen to be thieves. I’d say it’s a rob from the rich, give to yourself kind of story. They’re robbing a casino. They send the SWAT team in to get them. That’s the moment the SWAT team is going to take it over. It turns out the SWAT team coming in is their very exit strategy because they intercepted the call. They send their own guys in as the SWAT team. The thieves in the safe can dress up as SWAT and just walk out of there. The very thing that they sent in to defeat them was the very thing that brings about their rescue.

That’s what Peter says has gone on here. The very thing that people thought was going to defeat Jesus was the very thing that brought about our rescue. We see the worst in human hands. They did their worst. In fact, the way Peter sums it up and the groups he grabs is a strong representation of everyone. He points out Herod Antipass, who is considered the king. He’s set up as a king by Rome. He’s not a Jewish man. He’s a descendant from Abraham, but he’s descended from Esau rather than Jacob. He wouldn’t be considered a true Jew, but he is part of a line that have converted to Judaism. He’s kind of got this middle ground, not loved by the Jews, but he’s the ruler, but he’s a kind of connections to Jewish ruler. We got Pontius Pilate. He’s just straight up Roman ruler, the governor. Then Peter says the Gentiles, those that weren’t Jews, plotted against Jesus. If that’s not enough to sum it up, he then says his words were the people of Israel. Often when we read the story of Jesus, we focus in on the story of the religious leaders being against Jesus. Peter doesn’t even draw it down to that. He just sums it up as the people of Israel of which remember he is one of them. In his own mind, he may be thinking of his own time that he denied Jesus. He himself didn’t plot against Jesus, but still made plans to rescue himself and abandon Jesus in that moment.

All humanity have at some point plotted against God

This is the picture Peter wants to draw. It’s not just a group of people that plotted against Jesus. God’s necessary plan here is because all humanity have at some point plotted against God. Each of us have had our moment where we say, “I want to live my way and I don’t want to live God’s way.” The plan of salvation that God is offering was one to save us from that. This is the message Peter’s saying. It’s not just something that happened here for our little movement. It’s something that should be impacting all of eternity. This is an offer for everyone who their worst doing their worst against God even in that he has found a way that he might bring about his goodness. As we think about that, the encouragement is that sometimes the things that we fear the most, the things that we are worried about, the things that we’re praying God might take away, the reality is not only he can and he does, but also he works all things to his glory even when we can’t see it. The very thing we fear may be the very thing that God is using for our greatest good, and he invites us into that.

We Are Secure in God’s Control and We Are Summoned to His Calling

God can do it without us and yet amazingly he chooses to invite us into his plan

One of the messages we get from Peter’s sermon here is that God can do it without us. He can do it despite us. He can even do his goodness through our own rebellion. God can do it without us and yet amazingly he chooses to invite us into his plan. One of the surprising things as Peter shares this story is his prayer. He says people plan with futility because God is in control. What you expect is a prayer saying God please stop these things. Don’t let their threats come against us. That’s not what he prays. This is what we’re told he prays. “And now, oh Lord, hear their threats.” He doesn’t say, “And take them away.” He says, “And give us your servants great boldness in preaching your word.” His response to that is to say, I want to be part of God’s plan. I want to be part in I want to be in on the team of the one who has that kind of control. He says, “We’re secure in God’s control and we’re summoned to his calling.” So, let’s follow that calling because being in God’s calling, being part of his plan is the best place for us. No matter how many threats might be around, no matter how much fear might be in the air, the best place for us to be is part of God’s calling.

As we’ve been doing this journey with fundraising and I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about my own attitude and a couple of weeks ago, I interviewed Matt Gibb on the platform here. Matt loaned me a book to think about fundraising and the book is titled “If God will provide why do I have to ask for money?” That is the feeling we get when we think about God’s plans all the time. If he can do it, if he owns a cattle on a thousand hills, why do we have to give him anything? He owns it all. He can do he could build he could organize the funds to build a church up there without us involved in it at all. The reality is he invites us into that and it is for our own good because the best place for us is to be part of his calling. So the answer of the book why does go why do I have to ask the answer to the book it gives is it is good for us to be giving towards God’s calling and therefore why do I have to ask if it’s good for God’s people to be giving our all to God’s causes then it’s necessary for Christian leaders to encourage God’s people to give their all and the same thing is true if we ask the question, if God can do it without us, why do I have to do anything? The answer is the best place for us to be is in God’s purposes.

All the believers were united in heart and mind and they felt what they had owned was not their own

We get this unified calling. We get this group of people that respond to that boldness and we’re told all the believers were united in heart and mind and they felt what they had owned was not their own. So they shared everything they had. When Matt and I were talking last week, I said, “I’m preaching this.” He said, “Oh, good. You’re preaching the socialism chapter,” which I think Matt will agree that’s not what’s going on here. Let me tell you two reasons why this isn’t socialism. One of them is this is a group of people that are choosing to give. This is not the church has not said to them, “Hey, here’s a plan. We’re under great opposition. Why don’t we all sell what we have? We’ll pull our money together. Let the church control everything and we will have you know it’s not a centrally controlled thing by mandate. There does come a story in the next chapter of two people who lie about what they’ve sold and given. Their consequence is not because this is mandated but because they’re lying about it and they they voluntarily said I gave you everything but actually didn’t and so they have consequences for that but this is not a mandated call this is something that they’re they’re doing will voluntarily the second reason it’s not socialism is this is not the new norm forever this is a story that’s happening at a very specific moment in history in fact We look through the rest of the New Testament, we see lots of examples of people giving generously. We never again see this kind of pattern. This is not the new world order that is being set up by Peter. This is something that’s happening under persecution in this very moment for a very specific reason.

As we finish a month of focusing on fundraising, let me walk a careful line here and say, you know, we’re not preaching this because the plan is for you all to sell all your properties and put the money into church so that we can build this new building. That’s not what’s going on here. We want to walk really carefully and say while it might be a godly thing for us to be called to give, we have this baggage that comes from many Christian leaders who have abused their spiritual influence and encourage people to give in an ungodly way. We walk this careful line to know it is godly for us to give, but there is an ungodly way to ask people to give. We walk carefully with that and yet at the same time want to be challenged in this space. If God has given us everything and we want to give our all to him, what does that look like? Something we’re going to do next term, and once again, we’re going to I’ve never done this before. We’re going to walk really carefully on it, but we’re going to spend a few weeks talking about money. I’ve been really challenged in this process that I think we need to be a little bit more transparent with that. I will preach through four sermons on money and I intend to walk as carefully as I can in that space. I think it’s healthy for us to do some thinking about where we invest our finances in a world where we live in a space in Sydney where we’re building new homes and building lives and where do we figure out where to draw the line? What is godly use of funds for ourselves? What is godly use of funds for the kingdom? We want to think about that.

We often take for granted the blessing we have from the Christians that have come before us

I also think we want to I touched on this last week. I actually jumped the gun because I’d been thinking about it for this week, but I there is a space where I think we often take for granted the blessing we have from the Christians that have come before us. This is true of the gospel message in itself. We have the gospel here because Christians in previous parts of history gave their lives for that gospel. There are people in the chain of communication of the gospel that sacrificed their life so that we might know about Jesus. In a place where we live in relative peace when it comes to sharing our faith despite the political complexities of that we can easily take for granted that actually there was great turmoil for some to get the gospel here for us. We don’t want to take that for granted. There’s other parts of Christianity that we enjoy as well from those that have sacrificed. We sit in a building that has been paid for by other people. We’ve invested in keeping it standing. We’ve invested in putting paint on the walls and saving it from termites and those sorts of things. We’ve put some sweat and effort into it. At the same time, we sit in a building that people gave towards they took loans out against, they paid those loans off. All three buildings on this property, all four buildings on that property, including the the house down the back, have that story that at some point a group gave towards that and then they I don’t know about the house, but the three buildings, they took out a loan and they paid that loan off until they had paid off. We now have the blessing of having a place to meet. Part of what we talk about with Hamilton Street is building that legacy, extending that legacy, using some of the assets we have to to see future Christians blessed by us.

God can do it without us, but he chooses to call us, and it’s for our own good because the best place for us is to be serving him in his calling. We are securing God’s control and we are summoned to his calling. Both those things are true and it was true for the early church as they got the momentum of the Christian movement happening and it’s true for us today as we receive that legacy and we continue to share the good news of Jesus because it’s the most loving thing we can do for others and it’s the best thing for us. Let me pray.