Cornerstone Mission Church Sunday Sermon January 13, 2008
It is fitting that today we’ve heard from Kise a mission report from the field in Guinea. Several years ago, a church began in Sambuya village. Now, a second church is being planted in a nearby village called Manya. These small and seeming insignificant villages in an equally small and insignificant nation of Guinea aren’t insignificant all. These villages are what’s called the bridgehead according to Ajith Fernando. These villages are the bridgehead, an area in hostile territory that has been captured and is held awaiting further troops and supplies.
The report from Kise confirms again to my mind that when the home church of many of these missionaries prays fervently, supports generously financially, and communicates with words of encouragements, we are in fact sending our reinforcement to this secured bridgehead to further advance the kingdom of God. When you hear that they are encouraged by your prayer, your support, your active remembrance of them, they aren’t just saying nice and customary words of thanks. They really do mean what they say.
So, when you consider the missionaries working in a remote region in a small country of Guinea, think of them as the God’s workers securing the bridgehead in a Muslim country and think of yourselves as the infrastructure that sends the kingdom reinforcement. The advancement that is made in this bridgehead is not driven by the reasons of politics, economics, or military strategies although this morning I am using the language of military. What we are talking about is the kind of bridgehead that is secured, supported, and reinforced in the realm of spiritual kingdom.
1. Enter into the Kingdom of God through Jesus Christ
If there is one thing that Jesus spoke about more than anything during his earthly ministry is this, the kingdom of God. Matter fact that was the very subject that he spoke about during the period of forty days after his suffering and the glorious resurrection. That is what we see in verse 3 of our text this morning. Jesus’ post resurrection message was a singular message about the kingdom of God.
The Old Testament scripture he read at the very onset of his earthly ministry in Luke 4:18-19 defines what this kingdom of God was all about. Upon entering the synagogue, he was invited to read the scripture; and what he read came from Isaiah 61:1, 2. He read, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
The kingdom of God Jesus spoke of so often before his resurrection and after his resurrection centers in the life of Jesus Christ. C. H. Dodd says that “The kingdom of God is conceived as coming in the events of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and to proclaim these facts, in their proper setting, is to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.”[1] One cannot envision the kingdom of God apart from the life of Jesus Christ. In the kingdom of God, in the life of Jesus Christ, there takes a miraculous and victorious transfer, a transfer from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, a transfer from the pseudo-kingdom of Satan into the true one and only kingdom of God. This transfer, this miraculous movement from belonging to Satan to now to belong to God, you cannot speak of this transfer or envision without the life of Jesus Christ.
The disciples even though they were with Jesus for three years and had witnessed the resurrection of Jesus, their understanding of the kingdom of God were not fully aligned with the understanding and the proclamation by Jesus. Acts 1:6 says, “So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel?””
Two things we see in how they understood the kingdom of God. They thought that Jesus was going to confer the leading executive powers on them. They expected Jesus to put each of them in the important ruling positions in the literal kingdom then. The restoration they envisioned was the restoration of the political power and control to Israel. But, the restoration that Jesus envisioned then for his disciples and for us is not this restoration of the political power for the nation of Israel. Now, mind you that the scripture is very clear that one day Jesus will physically return and he will literally reign over all aspects geo-political, economical, physical or spiritual, all of human existence.
But, until that day of the Lord, what matters now is this, the establishment and the advancement of the kingdom of God in the hearts and the souls of men and women.
The restoration now possible in Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of what God foretold through the prophet Ezekiel 36:26, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you’re a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” The restoration is the restoration of the spiritual riches and blessings for the poor, the restoration of the true freedom from all imprisonments and oppressions, the restoration of the spiritual sights to behold God’s glory, to behold the Son of God.
So, when we talk about the kingdom of God, we understand it as laid out in the scripture. The kingdom of God now is about God’s restoration work in you and me, among us, through the life of Jesus Christ, his suffering, death and his resurrection and by the Holy Spirit. The foundation of the kingdom of God is Jesus Christ. He is the cornerstone, the Solid Rock, in him all things hold together, Colossians 1:17.
Anytime we speak of someone becoming a Christian, we are talking about this miraculous transfer from one’s allegiance to self, to flesh, to philosophies, to ideologies, to Satan, to world, now to one’s allegiance to God, his rule, his reign, his kingdom. According to Jesus, this entering into God’s kingdom is like a camel entering into an eye of a needle, like entering through the small and narrow gate that leads to the path of life while the majority chooses the wide gate and broad road that leads to destruction. Entering into the kingdom of God, Jesus says in Matthew 7:14 only a few find it.
How do you enter this kingdom? How do you find it? Those find it find in Jesus Christ who said this about himself, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” You enter into it by believing in Jesus, trusting in Jesus as who he says he is, the God-man, God’s Son who was born in Bethlehem, who carried on the ministry of proclaiming the kingdom of God, experiencing the restoration of true freedom, riches and blessings, the spiritual eyes to see God’s glory all through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. You enter into the kingdom of God by saying yes to Jesus to reign over you, to rule over you. You enter into the kingdom of God by saying yes to Jesus who offers you forgiveness of your sins by his death and his shed blood. You enter into the kingdom of God by saying yes to his claim upon you, your thoughts, emotions, will, actions, finance, personalities, character, all that make you as who you really are. You are in the kingdom of God that is you are living in the kingdom of God when the life of Jesus Christ grips you, when Jesus rules over you, when your desire is for him.
2. What’s in your index of contents?
As important as this question of asking how one enters into the kingdom of God, here is another question that is very important for us to ask; “How do I help others enter into the kingdom of God, to find the kingdom of God? How do we as a church help non-believing visitors, friends, spouses, neighbors, co-workers, and people around us?”
We do this being Jesus’ witnesses with the empowering help of the Holy Spirit.
While in his post resurrection state, Jesus ate with the disciples. We see this in our text, verse 4. They witnessed Jesus, not as a ghost that does not have a body, but as one with the physical resurrected body who ate with, drank with them (Acts 10:41). This was Jesus not many days ago who suffered, was nailed and hung on the cross and died, who was buried in a tomb guarded by the Roman soldiers. You read a similar account of Jesus with his disciples on the road to Emmaus. Luke 24:30-32 says, “When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” And, verse 35, “Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.”
The scene of Jesus eating with them is remarkably like the scene at the communion table. At the table, Jesus breaks the bread and gives it to us. We drink the cup of wine. When you came to the table of communion this morning, were your eyes opened? Did you recognize Jesus’ presence? Have you known what it is to have your heart burning within you while he talked with you, while he opened the Scriptures to you and applied to you? Have you spoken on the way what happened to you, your experience with Jesus?
This Jesus after forty days post his resurrection, having preached the kingdom of God, having fellowship with the believers and having given them convincing proof that he was alive, was taken up before their eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.”
How do you help others to find and enter the kingdom of God? It is by being witnesses of Jesus Christ. Last week, I talked about beginning and continuing. Jesus’ life, his suffering, death, resurrection and ascension, was simply the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. His story has continued by the people who knew him as their master, their Lord, their Savior, their king.
How do you help others to find and enter the kingdom of God? You do it by telling the life story of Jesus Christ by living out the life of Jesus Christ and talking about Jesus. Jesus told the disciples in verse 8, “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” The rest of the book of Acts tells the story of how these disciples of Jesus Christ became Jesus’ witnesses. F. F. Bruce comments how the second part of verse 8 provides
a sort of “Index of Contents” for Acts; “in Jerusalem” covers the first seven chapters, “in all Judea and Samaria” covers 8:1 to 11:18, and the remainder of the book traces the progress of the gospel outside the frontiers of the Holy Land until at last reaches Rome.”[2]
Today, God wants to do the same thing with us. He wants to write the continuing story of Jesus Christ, his Son through our lives.
So, what’s in the index of contents for you and for me, for us as church? Are there stories of being witnesses in Jerusalem? Are there stories of you and me being Jesus’ witnesses in the immediate and proximal relationships we have with people, the families, the friends, the coworkers, the classmates, the church families?
Are there stories of us being witnesses in Judea and Samaria, among the strangers, among the poor, imprisoned, or oppressed, across the racial lines and ethnic lines?
Are there stories of being witnesses of our Lord Jesus Christ in Rome, where it was considered as “the end of the earth”? Well, we heard some of that story today through Kise.
3. Get to know the Holy Spirit who will help fill your index of content.
Jesus’ specific instruction to the disciples was verse 4, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
You see the index of content of the book of Acts, the witnessing story of the early disciples could only be written out with the gift of the Holy Spirit.
As we move long in few weeks, you are going to learn more about the Holy Spirit. The key is learning to get to know the Holy Spirit personally. He is the one who prompts our hearts, motivates our hearts, inspires our hearts, touches our hearts. He is he is the one who reveals Christ to us, reveals our sins, moves us to repentance. He is the one who helps us mature and to bear fruit of his Spirit. He is the one who emboldens our hearts to speak freely, confidently about what we know of Jesus Christ as the two disciples on the Emmaus did after meeting resurrected Jesus.
As believers, when you become Christians, the biblical teaching is that you are baptized into Christ’s body, meaning you become part of Christ’s body. This is the work of the Spirit. Christian life is initiated by the Spirit of God and subsequently he indwells in each Christian.
We are going to see soon this indwelling of the Holy Spirit taking place for the first time after Jesus ascended to heaven.
For now it will be suffice to say that to have the right index of content written over our lives, we need to get to know the Holy Spirit. We need to learn to cooperate with the Holy Spirit when he convicts us our sins, helps us to know Jesus to have our hearts burn within us, helps us walk with Jesus, illuminates the words of Jesus in our hearts; we need to learn to cooperate with him when he prompts us, burdens and emboldens us to be Jesus’ witness.
Conclusion
As we go move along through the book of Acts, God’s going to work deep in us. Would you join me to up your prayer for these, to walk in God’s kingdom, to invite people to find and enter the kingdom of God, to write the right index of content, to learn to fully cooperate with the Holy Spirit?
[1] C. H. Dodd, The Apostolic Preaching and its Developments, London, 1936, p. 46-47.
[2] F. F. Bruce, The New International Commentary of the New Testament: The Book of the Acts (Revised), Grand Raphids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1988, p. 36-37.
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