3
Acts
Introduction:
In
our text last Sunday Jesus arose up into the air and went away to
heaven from which He had come. In our text today we see the church following
the instructions to tarry at
high.
I. The
desire of the disciples for Jesus to rule
Before
we get into our text I want to remind you of the desire which the
disciples of Jesus had for Him to
establish Himself on the throne of David in
remained earth for forty days. During those forty days He made several
appearances to His disciples. During these appearances He showed unto them
many
infallible proofs that He had in fact
arisen bodily from the grave. On His
last
appearance to them He led them out of
nearby
The
disciples seemed to sense that something unusual was about to happen.
They
asked Jesus if He was about to establish Himself on the throne of King
David.
All of their lives they had been taught that when the Christ would come
He would establish Himself on the throne
of David in
out the Gentile powers which ruled over
Earlier
when they had left
Passover Supper they had expected that on
this very trip He would proclaim
Himself to be the King of
them that after they would arrive at
crucified.
Their hopes were crushed. put to
death by crucifixion. Their hopes
had been revived, however, when Jesus rode
into
several thousand people proclaiming Him to
be king of
perhaps, He had changed His mind or
perhaps they had misunderstood. But
instead
of wearing a golden crown at
they were disappointed again when He was
crucified would be putting it mildly.
They were devastated.
However, now that He had risen from the grave
and had shown them such
abundant proof of His resurrection, their
hopes of Him establishing Himself as
king of
apparently wanted to happen and now that
He was risen from the grave, they
thought that surely He is now ready to
proclaim Himself king and drive out the
Romans.
They were getting very anxious for Him to show Himself to the general
public and prove to them that He had, indeed,
risen from the grave. They felt
confident that the people would now accept
Him as their king.
However,
instead of proclaiming Himself to be king, Jesus gave His
disciples some last instructions and then
arose and went away to heaven. He did
not go back to
throne of heaven and to rule over the
entire universe.
After
Jesus had disappeared in the clouds the disciples just stood there
gazing into heaven. They stood in awe at the splendor of the occasion. They
really did not know just what to make
of this turn of events. Even though they
had wanted Him to stay and to establish
Himself as King of
stunned by the splendor of the event to
given in to their disappointment.
Before their disappointment could return
two angels appeared and gave them a
promised that He would return. He would return to earth in like manner as
they
had seen Him go away. They would think that surely He would
establish His
throne when He returns. And this time they were right. He will!
He will
establish His throne in
He will rule the entire world. At that time they did not know that He will
rule
the whole world, but they would be told
that in due time.
II.
The return of the disciples to
V.
12, ?Then returned they unto
which is from
which Jesus had given to them on this
occasion was that they were to tarry at
Jerusalem until they were endued with
power from on high. Then after receiving
power from on high, they were to launch
into a mission campaign that would lead
them into all the world preaching the
gospel, baptizing believers, establishing
churches and teaching those churches to
obey all the commands which Jesus had
given to His church.
Now
actually Jerusalem had been the last place they would want to go.
Jerusalem had been a hotbed of opposition
to Jesus. It would now become a
hotbed of opposition to them because they
were followers of Jesus.
It had
been the Jewish leaders at Jerusalem who
had brought about the death of Jesus.
They would not hesitate to seek to put His
followers to death. To them it must
have seemed a good idea to go the opposite
direction from Jerusalem. It would
seem wise to them to never set foot in
Jerusalem again.
Yet
it was to Jerusalem that Jesus had instructed them to go and it was at
Jerusalem that Jesus had instructed them
to stay. That is, they were to stay
there at least until they were endued with
the power from on high.
I
cannot help but feel that those disciples might think, ?Lord, if we are
to go back into that city and stay there
among our greatest enemies then we
would like to have that power from high
right now. If we are going to risk our
very lives by going back into Jerusalem,
it would suit us well if you would give
that Almighty power before we go back into
that city.? As long as Jesus had
been making His appearances among them,
they had felt somewhat safe even at
Jerusalem.
But with Jesus gone they would feel the danger all the more and
would feel all the more the need for power
from on high.
But
Jesus had said for them to tarry at Jerusalem and Jerusalem was the
place where Jesus had promise that the
power from on high would come and so they
obediently went back to Jerusalem. They went there and they would stay there at
least until they were endued with that
power from on high.
III.
Waiting in an upper room
V.
13, ?And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room...?
Luke does not tell us where this upper
room was located except that it was in
the city of Jerusalem. Neither does he tell us to whom this house
belonged.
But it is apparent that it belonged to one
of His disciples. Very likely it the
very room in which Jesus had eaten the
Passover Supper with His disciples just
prior to His crucifixion. It was also very likely the place where
Jesus and
His disciples had gathered when He made
His first appearance to the church as a
whole following His resurrection. It is likely the same place where a week
later Jesus showed Himself to doubting
Thomas. It was likely the place where
most of the Galilean disciples had lived
since the crucifixion of Jesus. They
must have felt somewhat a sense of
security there as long as they were together
in this house and all the doors were
locked to the outsiders.
(V.
13), ?...where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew,
Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and
Matthew, James [the son] of Alphaeus, and
Simon Zelotes, and Judas [the brother] of
James.? Luke makes special mention
that all of the apostles were present with
the exception of Judas Iscariot who
had betrayed the Lord and who, by this
time had committed suicide. These men
had been appointedd by Jesus to a special
place of leadership in the church. It
was not only important for them to be
present as they waited for the church to
be endued with power from on high, but it
was important that a record of their
presence be made and preserved. All of God?s people ought to be faithful to
be
present at the appointed time of worship,
but it is especially important for the
church leaders to be present. Their presence sets a worthy example for
others
to follow.
IV.
Continuing together in one accord and in prayer
V.
14, ?These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication,
with the women, and Mary the mother of
Jesus, and with his brethren.? Luke also
makes special mention that the women also
tarried in this home and assembled in
this upper room with the apostles waiting
for the church to be endued with power
from God.
These were godly women. Many of
them, perhaps most of them had
traveled from Galilee with Jesus and other
disciples. They had seen Jesus
crucified.
They had seen Him after He was resurrected. They had seen Him when
He ascended back to heaven. They, too, were faithful to tarry at
Jerusalem
until the church would be endued with
power.
Luke
calls special attention to the fact that Mary, the mother of Jesus
was in the group. Luke says nothing about her husband,
Joseph, being present.
In fact, none of the gospel writers have
said anything about Joseph being
present in any of the activities of
the adult life of Jesus.
This is a strong
indication that Joseph died long before the
public ministry of Jesus began.
There
is, however, the mention of the brothers of Jesus being present.
This is a very interesting fact. There is strong indication in the gospel
records that His brothers did not actually
believe in Him as the Christ until
after the crucifixion and resurrection of
Jesus. But once they did believe,
they were staunch Christians. They were faithful followers in the cause of
Jesus Christ.
In
this verse, Luke makes no mention of other men --- only the 11 apostles
and the brothers of Jesus. However, in verse 15 he says that there were
about
120 people who gathered in the upper room
and who tarried until the power from
heaven came upon them. This means that there were both men and women
who were
not specifically mentioned in our
text.
In
verse 15 Luke says that they all continued.
That is, they were all
faithful to wait as Jesus had
instructed. This does not necessarily
that all
120 of them were present at all times day
and night. Some of them, no doubt,
went to the market from time to time to
get food and supplies. Perhaps they
went other places also. Some of those who tarried there may have
lived in other
houses in Jerusalem or perhaps in some of
the villages near Jerusalem, but who
came to this house daily. In all likely Mary and Martha and their
brother,
Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the
dead, spent some of their time at their
home in
Bethany, which was about 2 miles from Jerusalem. They may have spent
all their nights in their own home. But it does mean that they spent virtually
all of their daytime right there in that
home where the upper room was located.
They all wanted to be present when the
church was endued with power and nobody
knew just exactly when that would take
place. Nobody wanted to be absent when
the power was poured out upon them. Not even Thomas who had been absent when
Jesus made His first appearance to the
church after His resurrection.
V.
Lessons for us
The
lesson in this for us is that it is important for all church members
to be present at all times that it is
possible for them to be present. Not
every member can attend every
service. Some will be ill. Some will be away.
But we can be sure of one thing. Whatever the reason four our absence, we miss
a blessing when we are not present. We miss out on a blessing whether we miss
Sunday morning or evening or Wednesday or
whenever.
It
is also important to note that Luke says that they all continued in one
accord.
There were instances prior to the death of Jesus when the disciples
were not in one accord. They had
bickered among themselves about who would be
the greatest in the kingdom when Jesus
took over the throne. Even after the
crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, the
Apostle Peter had become somewhat
jealous of the Apostle John. At one point he was afraid he might have to
do
more work than John would have to do. He was afraid he might have to suffer for
Jesus more than John would suffer. But by the grace of God they had finally
laid aside all of their petty differences
and now they were fully in harmony.
They were not divided. They were in one accord.
Let
me say that if any church wants the greater blessings of God it is
vital that they be in one accord. This is true even here at Pleasant
Hill.
God is not going to pour out His greater blessings on this church just
because
we are in the membership. God calls upon us to love one another and to
be
bonded together in that love. God wants us to lay aside all petty
jealousies.
God wants us to lay aside petty
differences. What does it matter if one
person
does more for Jesus than somebody else
does? What does it matter if one of us
gets a little more recognition and praise
than we get? What does it matter if
somebody has done us wrong?
What
really matters is that we all forgive one another. What counts is
that we all make a genuine effort to treat
everybody else the way we ourselves
would like to be treated. What counts the most is that we all give our
very
best of service to the Lord Jesus Christ
who has saved our souls. If we all
love Jesus as we should and if we all love
one another as we should we are all
going to be trying to serve our Lord and
Savior. We are all going to be willing
to overlook a fault in a brother or sister
in Christ and join together with them
in service to the Lord. We are going to forgive the brother or sister
who
offends us and hope they will be big
enough to forgive us when we offend them.
Furthermore, we will not deliberately do
things or say things that will offend
somebody else. Christians ought to learn to hold their
tongues and to think
before they speak. We are all guilty of saying something
sometime that we wish
that we could take back. Let us learn from our mistakes and seek
forgiveness
and try to do better.
We
as a church are not waiting to be endued with power from on high. The
power has already been bestowed upon the
New Testament church there at Jerusalem
and as new church congregations were
organized in different parts of the world,
that same power has rested upon each of
them. But we do meet together and we do
wait for the blessings of God upon
us. May God give us the grace to meet
together and to tarry together in one
accord.
Let
us note one other especially important thing in this text. Luke said
that they continued in prayer. Brethren the power is not in us. The power is
in God.
But we do have the privilege of
talking to the One who does have the
power.
We have the privilege of praying to Almighty God. Let us not miss a day
without prayer. Let us not miss an hour without prayer. Let us never forget
that God is the One who is able to bless and
help us accomplish what needs to be
accomplished in His cause. Let us pray earnestly for His blessings upon
our
lives and upon our church and that He will
use us to His great glory.