Mission Sunday – Dan Arthur

Introduction

Guys, thank you so much for having me today. Like I said, it’s such a privilege to be able to speak from God’s word. And hello online, if you’re watching online as well. Well, for there to be a new beginning, there has to be the end of something, doesn’t it? So to begin university, you have to end your time at high school. To become a parent, you have to end the freedom of not being a parent. To be an adult, or at least to be seen as an adult, you have to end the flippant ways of youth. To begin retirement, you have to end your working career.

Now, we all have major milestones in life, whatever they may be. I’m sure you could think of a few yourselves where something has ended, but out of that ending, there’s been a new phase or a new phase of life has begun. Now, as we’ve just read Acts 2, and thank you so much for reading it, I know it’s quite a long passage, but a great one. But what we see happening in Acts 2 is the disciples’ lives which are taking a dramatic turn where they will never be the same again. Now, there’s a lot happening in this chapter, but this morning there’s going to be three things that I want to point out and focus on. The first one is the birth of the church, the second one is the message of salvation, and then the third one is the global outreach. So the birth of the church, the message of salvation, and global outreach.

The Birth of the Church

The Holy Spirit Empowers Believers

But firstly, let’s quickly set the scene. Now, throughout the Old Testament, as you may know, or throughout Israel’s history, the Holy Spirit played a crucial role in empowering specific individuals for specific tasks. So you may be familiar with people like Moses, Joshua, the judges, prophets, and some of the kings who were anointed with God’s spirit to guide and lead God’s people, the Israelites. But only usually for a specific time. The spirit would descend on that leader and then not necessarily guide them for the rest of their lives. It was for a specific time. But what we see here in Acts is the outpouring of the spirit which transcended ethnicity, language, social status, and it marked the birth of the church, the birth of the New Testament Church. The Holy Spirit was no longer limited just to individuals for specific tasks.

Now, he was made available for all believers, empowering them for service and equipping them to be able to be bold witnesses of Jesus. So it’s through the spirit that the early church was actually empowered to carry mission out in the name of Jesus. And it’s through the same spirit that we as followers of Jesus, just like those first disciples, are also called to continue that mission to the ends of the Earth. So firstly, the birth of the church. If you still got your, if you’ve got your Bibles or your phone apps or whatever you use, have a look at Verses 1-4. What we see is the Holy Spirit actually turning up in a very dramatic way. Firstly, there’s sound and sight.

Sound and Sight

So have you ever had someone show up when you really didn’t expect them to? It’s quite, it kind of takes you by surprise. When I was younger, I actually hid in my younger brothers, I’ve got two younger brothers and a little sister, but I hid in my younger one of my younger brother’s cupboard just while he was brushing his teeth, just before he was going to go to bed. And I could hear through the cupboard waiting for him to, you know, flick his light off, do all the things, wait a couple minutes, then jumped out and surprised him dramatically. It was very mean thing to do, but I can guarantee you that he wasn’t expecting it. And then the next day he was so angry at me because he said he couldn’t get to sleep for like 2 hours after that. But he, it was a shock, he wasn’t expecting it.

And in the same way, we know that the disciples, they were waiting in Jerusalem. Jesus had said, wait in Jerusalem. There is no way they were expecting what they were about to experience. And we know they were, had been timid, they were in the upper room. What an all inspiring scene in these short four verses though, the sound of violent wind that filled the house, the sight of what looked like fire descending on each person. So here in Acts 2, God’s spirit isn’t just present leading them collectively as a group like it did with the nation of Israel, leading them as a pillar of fire in the desert. Rather, now each individual believer gathered that day in Jerusalem received God’s holy spirit, both men and women, both apostles and ordinary believers. It’s a new age where God dwells intimately with his people. What a privilege though for us to know for a follower of Jesus that that very same holy spirit is indwelling us also, working in our lives, convicting us of our sin, spurring us on to live as disciples of Jesus. This is something that people in the Old Testament couldn’t comprehend.

Speaking in Other Tongues

But if you have a look at verses 4-13, we see them speaking in other tongues. Now, we’ll talk about this briefly, but from chapter early in chapter 1, we know that there’s probably around about 120 believers at this point gathered together. But as the, what it says is that as the 120, they were filled with the spirit enabling them to speak in other tongues and other languages. Great version though, other tongues and other languages. There would have also been at the time more than double the normal population in Jerusalem at that point in time due to the Festival of Pentecost. So people from all around the region, some would have spent days traveling to gather in Jerusalem for the Festival of Pentecost, which the Israelites had been celebrating for a thousand years.

Now though, what we see here is quite different from what is typically labeled as tongue speaking in some Christian circles today. So often so-called tongue speaking is an indiscernible language that isn’t translated or interpreted. But what the passage today makes clear is that this tongue speaking was the Holy Spirit enabling each believer to speak a language without having learned it. It wasn’t just unintelligible goblook, they spoke a discernable language that those around who had gathered to see what was going on could understand in their own tongue. And what do we see? How does the crowd that’s gathered now and saying what is happening, how do they respond? Well, verse six, in bewilderment, they literally stopped in their tracks to see this sight. They were utterly amazed, verse seven, they were swept off their feet, verse 12, they were amazed and perplexed, and verse 13, some also mocked saying, ah, they’re obviously drunk. But this all leads to our next point, the message of salvation.

The Message of Salvation

Jesus is Still the Hero

That Jesus is still the hero of this story. The Holy Spirit shows up, but he points us to Jesus. Pentecost, Acts 2, is all about Jesus. Now, in Acts, preaching and crowds go together almost like a horse and a carriage. Here, Peter is the preacher, the crowd the one that witnessed the miracle. Now, Peter, who had previously denied Jesus, now proclaims him. What does he do? He firstly deals with their response of mockery that the disciples were drunk, says they’re not drunk, it’s way too early in the morning for that. Then he interprets the event. His point, this event is a fulfillment of scripture. Everything has been leading up to this point. Peter then shows that the event is all about Jesus.

Now, we might expect him to explain what has just gone on when you think about what has just happened to the disciples or even explain the new reality of the spirit for believers. But what does Peter actually focus on? It’s all about Jesus, isn’t it? Peter affirms the following about Jesus in verse 22, he was accredited by God through miracles, signs, and wonders. That he was in verse 23, handed over to you, the Israelites at that point, with the help of wicked men, you nailed him to the cross. But this was what the fulfillment of God’s purposes. Verse 24, there was a clearing stark contrast between what they did and what God did. They put him to death, but it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. Verse 31, he wasn’t abandoned to the grave. Verse 32, the apostles were eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Jesus. They saw him risen from the dead. Verse 33, Jesus is now exalted at the right hand of God, pouring out the Holy Spirit as proof that he’s actually there. And verse 36, God has made Jesus both Lord and Messiah.

Repent and Be Baptized

And what happens? Luke describes their reaction as being cut to the heart. In response to their deep conviction, Peter boldly calls on them to repent of their sin and their opposition to Jesus and be baptized as a sign of repentance. So what an amazing scene. 3,000 people gathered hear and see what’s going on. Peter preaches to them about Jesus and people are converted. And this is like, this is the first New Testament sermon in one sense. But the question is, is Pentecost, is Acts 2 all about the spirit? Because when we think of Acts 2, I know a lot of Christians do, that’s what you think of is the descent of the spirit. But this timid group of believers, they receive the spirit, they boldly go out from this point with the message of Jesus to the rest of the world. Here is the miraculous symbolic sign of the Holy Spirit’s descent on believers on the day of Pentecost, but in relation to Acts chapter 2, it’s actually so brief. It’s three verses. Three verses is the scene in the upper room, spirit descending. We read from verses 1 to 41. The rest is about Peter preaching the gospel, telling people about Jesus. And that’s the point. That’s the point to the key role of the spirit to convict and remind us of who Jesus is, namely the Lord of all.

So whenever we encounter a miraculous event in the Bible, there’s always something that that event points to. Here we have the reality that God now dwells with his people through his spirit. And now his spirit empowered messengers, ordinary everyday Christians just like you and me, are to take the gospel to those who don’t know it. So for you guys, rejoice, rejoice in the fullness of what it means to be a follower of Jesus, forgiveness of sins, but also being empowered for life and witness through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit who indwells you, you are a supernaturally enabled person. What happened to those we read about in Acts 2, Jesus’s disciples, is also our experience. The same spirit indwells us.

Global Outreach

Rely on God and Step Out

So how, what do we think about when we think of global outreach though? Again, it’s the work of the spirit that changes people. And on that day, on that morning, God used 120 believers and specifically Peter to reach 3,000. So we need to rely on God to be the one working in us and through us, but at the same time be willing to step out and speak the gospel to those around us who don’t know it. And as we think about what transpired in Acts 2, what we see is such a pivotal moment in the early Christian Church where the spirit descended on those gathered believers and those 3,000 who heard, what did they do? They didn’t just stay there, but they went back to their towns, they went back to their villages to tell others about what they had seen and heard. They took the gospel with them.

So this extraordinary event symbolizes the inclusive nature of the gospel and the universal message of salvation. It transcends cultural and linguistic barriers. I sometimes wonder if Peter had any comprehension of what was happening at that moment when he proclaimed the gospel. So those 3,000 and even the 120 disciples as they left at that day, the gospel has continued to spread and we are beneficiaries of that, aren’t we? Acts 2 highlights the transformative power of the spirit and the early Christians’ commitment to spreading the message of Jesus. So the passage today, it highlights the fulfillment of God’s promises to his people. Jesus came to break the hold of sin and conquer death, enabling a restored relationship between God and humanity, between God and yourself. He promises to return and we wait eagerly for that day. But until that day, as followers of Jesus, we actively share the gospel worldwide.

Partnering Enables Mission

But we also, we need to continue to pray for, we need to support and partner with those who go and cross cultures. In one sense, we are so blessed here in Sydney, aren’t we, with great Bible teachers, great ministers like Dan and Miles, great Bible colleges, great churches that love and serve our communities, which is a wonderful, wonderful thing which we need to be extremely thankful for. But there are places around the world, we often refer to them as gospel zero locations where someone can grow up, spend their life, have a family and die without ever meeting another person who has actually heard about Jesus, without ever coming across another person who has heard about the Bible, never coming across another church or anyone that’s visited a church. There are places around the world where people have no opportunity to meet Jesus and we want to see a world that knows Jesus, don’t we? Here in Sydney, here in France, in Africa, in Asia, in the Middle East, everywhere in sat shells. This is why we need to continue to send people to the nations who engage in long-term cross-cultural mission so that those who have little or absolutely no opportunity to hear about Jesus do have the opportunity because we long for a world that knows Jesus and proclaiming Jesus and making more disciples is part of our DNA both as just everyday Christians but as the church also.

At CS, one of the core principles is partnership. So CS believes that cross-cultural global mission is best done, is best supported by bodies of believers who will pray, who will give to, who will care for those missionaries, those gospel ministry workers who cross cultures. Those who are sent then can have confidence of a committed fellowship who are praying for them, who are enabling them to be where they are. And in one sense, we all don’t have the opportunity to go to the Middle East or Africa or Asia or the other side of the world, but some people do, don’t they? Just like Ryan and Lynn, they have that opportunity. And guys, thank you for your support for them because you enable CMS to send them. Without your support, CMS could not send Ryan and Lynn. And like I mentioned, they are an extension of Life Anglican in sat shells. People are hearing the gospel there because of your support, which is a beautiful image, isn’t it? But the people, the world is going to know about Jesus as we partner with missionaries and partnering enables them to go to places we can’t. So thank you so much for your continued partnership with the vas.

But the main thing that we need to keep doing as followers of Jesus as individuals is to keep giving people Jesus, to presenting Jesus to whoever we meet. How will a world know Jesus? Well, when everyday Christians engage with proclaiming Jesus to the nations. And like I said, we can’t all physically go, but we all can be involved, we all can partner, we all can pray, we all can give so that those who can go do go and those that can’t hear about the gospel of the Risen Lord Jesus can. Let me pray for us as I finish up. Dear heavenly father, I thank you for Riverstone Anglican and for Life Anglican Church, Lord, and the whole network of Quakers Hills churches. Heavenly father, I thank you for the vas. I thank you for the work that they are doing in sells. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your spirit. We thank you that your spirit points us to Jesus, that he convicts us of our sin. Heavenly Father, help us to be bold in situations where we have the opportunity to share Jesus with others. Help us to be Winsome, help us to love others. And Heavenly Father, we pray that the gospel continues to go out here at Riverstone, but also to the ends of the Earth in Jesus name, amen.