Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] And all of a sudden, this group of people that had spent the last three years following Jesus and going, jesus, do great and mighty things. We'll watch, Were now the ones that everyone was watching. And they had to do the great and mighty things. And God was working through them rather than for them, who sort of goes, oh, yeah, that's nice, but you're starting to make me feel a little uncomfortable because the next step comes down to us, doesn't it?
[00:00:32] That God wants to work through us.
[00:00:37] He wants to use us to reach a lost and struggling world.
[00:00:42] He wants to use all of us.
[00:00:45] You see, the church was birthed and it was given a mission. Mark put it this way, go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.
[00:00:54] Matthew said, therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything. I have commanded you, and surely I am with you to the very end of the age.
[00:01:11] And those words were spoken to a 12.
[00:01:13] But guess what? They applied to everyone.
[00:01:18] Because we know from that point forward, God called other people into that mix.
[00:01:26] Who's ever heard of a guy named Paul?
[00:01:28] He wasn't part of the original 11 and 12, was he? But he got called in. And then there was Barnabas and Mark and James.
[00:01:38] And on and on and on it goes through history as God keeps calling people in. And you and I are part of that group that have now been called in.
[00:01:49] We are part of God's mission team to here, to Mongolia, to Summerhill, to Longford, to all around the place. We have been called to show people that Jesus who died is still alive and he wants to live in each and every one of us.
[00:02:15] Now, who knows that we don't all do what Peter did?
[00:02:20] Isn't that good?
[00:02:22] You know, I'm reasonably comfortable standing up the front talking a lot.
[00:02:26] And most people are comfortable at throwing things at me for talking too much.
[00:02:31] But not everybody likes to stand at the front and talk.
[00:02:36] So some people stay at home quietly and pray.
[00:02:42] Some people make cups of tea and feed the people that are at the front.
[00:02:46] Some people do all sorts of different roles around the place. But we all have a place and a purpose and a function that we can do.
[00:02:55] Corinthians talks a little bit about us being a body.
[00:03:00] And as part of that body, we're not all the same thing. We're not all a mouth. Some of us are hands, some of us are fingers, some of us are big toes.
[00:03:11] And some of us are perhaps a little Bit lump over here that we're trying to figure out what does that do?
[00:03:16] I have those great big lumps here on my arm. Yuck. But they're there.
[00:03:21] We all have a purpose, don't we? We're all part of the system.
[00:03:26] It's not that this one over here can do everything on their own.
[00:03:31] It's that we all need to work together to achieve things.
[00:03:39] 1 Corinthians 12, 15. Suppose the foot says, I am not a hand, so I don't belong to the body.
[00:03:46] By saying this, can it stop being part of the body?
[00:03:50] Suppose the ear says, I'm not an I, so I don't belong to the body.
[00:03:55] By saying this, can it stop being part of the body?
[00:03:58] If the whole body were an eye, how could it hear? If the whole body were an ear, I, how could it smell?
[00:04:06] God has placed each part in the body just as he wanted it to be.
[00:04:10] If all the parts were the same, how could there be a body?
[00:04:15] It is. There are many parts, but there's one body, one church altogether.
[00:04:22] Isn't that good?
[00:04:24] That means God has designed this so that we can all be unique, different, weird, in our own wonderful ways and still work together.
[00:04:36] And that means that we combined can reach people that individually we can't.
[00:04:45] Because I don't know about you, you might relate perfectly to everybody, but I don't.
[00:04:51] There are people that I get along with really well, and there are people that I just find annoying.
[00:04:59] And I work better with the people I get along with, and they probably will listen to me a whole lot better than the people I find annoying.
[00:05:08] And the beauty about us all being different is that we're going to relate differently to different people.
[00:05:13] And the ones that one person can connect with, somebody else will just go, they're my annoying group.
[00:05:23] And God brings us together so that together we can reach a wide range.
[00:05:30] And it's true on many levels, isn't it?
[00:05:32] Because it's not just about us as a church here today, but it's also the churches of Launceston working together, that when we work together as a group, we can achieve things that you can't do just as one church.
[00:05:47] Likewise, if you spread it out and go, not just Baptist churches, but all churches, then that can do things that just Baptist churches can't do. And on and on. You can go through state, national, and even global.
[00:06:02] There are things we can achieve when we come together that we cannot do just on our own.
[00:06:10] But yes, it's important to deal with the things that are on our own.
[00:06:14] But. But are we also working together?
[00:06:17] Are we also teaming it?
[00:06:19] Because at the end of Acts 2, we've heard it twice now, and I'm going to say it for a third time to really get the point across.
[00:06:28] The group came together.
[00:06:30] They were filled with awe, with the wonders of the apostles. And the believers were together and had everything in common.
[00:06:38] They worked as a team, they cared for one another.
[00:06:42] They didn't go, oh, you're just that little bit too strange. You stay over there.
[00:06:48] They went, come on, let's work together.
[00:06:51] Even the annoying one, come on, you can be part of the team too.
[00:06:57] And together we will care for each other. And they made sure that everybody had enough to eat, everybody had a place to sleep, and that everybody understood what the Gospel was.
[00:07:11] Yes, it was an environment where the Christians were being persecuted. Yes, it was an environment where if they stepped outside of the group, they were going to cop a lot of difficulty. So they had to stick together. But it taught them something about the community that Christ wanted to build.
[00:07:29] It was a community that said, there's no outsiders.
[00:07:33] Everyone is loved here.
[00:07:35] Everyone is cared for here.
[00:07:37] Everyone is respected here.
[00:07:41] The safest place in the world for somebody to walk into should be a church.
[00:07:47] This should be the spot where people can walk in regardless of what difficulties they are going through in life and feel safe and feel that they are loved and surrounded by people that care for them.
[00:08:00] That should be the experience of everyone who walks into a church.
[00:08:06] And that was what this community had brought.
[00:08:09] A spot where people could just come together and go, yes, we're here for each other.
[00:08:16] What a wonderful society.
[00:08:20] I wish there would be lots of societies like that.
[00:08:24] As you look in the next few chapters After Acts 2, there's a whole lot of stories about these fellows, Peter and John. They seem to dominate the airwaves. Everything is about what they went out and did, and they did this and they did that, and they achieved all these great things.
[00:08:40] But you know what?
[00:08:42] The other disciples were there, the 3,000 people that just got saved on that day. They were all there. They all played their part.
[00:08:54] Quite often in Scripture, we just get the highlights of the people at the front.
[00:08:59] We don't see all of the background stuff that went on that made it happen.
[00:09:05] And I wonder how many people there are here this morning that do a whole lot of background stuff that no one notices.
[00:09:12] The people that sit and carefully make sure everything's arranged, put the chairs out, get this sound stuff working, that make sure there's tea and coffee out there, and there's biscuits. And there's other things that on Monday put together this, that and everything else and do bankings and all weird and wonderful things. Do you know how much stuff goes on to make a church work?
[00:09:38] A lot.
[00:09:41] And people all over the place are doing things.
[00:09:45] I wonder whether we notice sometimes or whether we just take stuff for granted that it just happens.
[00:09:52] They were all doing different things.
[00:09:55] They were all different parts of the body, but they all function together as a unit.
[00:10:04] And, you know, the fact that I stand at the front and talk a lot does not make me any more important than anybody else.
[00:10:14] It doesn't matter what function we have.
[00:10:18] It's just one of the many roles.
[00:10:21] None of them are up here and others are down here. They're all here.
[00:10:26] God sees it that way and looks at us that way.
[00:10:32] And you know, the most fun thing that happened on this day in Acts 2 is that God showed them that, don't do this alone.
[00:10:43] My spirit is with you.
[00:10:47] God poured out his spirit upon the disciples in that place.
[00:10:52] And all of a sudden they started to speak in tongues.
[00:10:56] They started to have the boldness, the passion. And they went from the timid people over here to. To the bold. Radio let's go. Come on, we can do this.
[00:11:07] Have you ever had one of those little moments where you've sort of been going, I don't want to do this. I really don't want to do this. And suddenly something switches and you go, radio, let's go, let's get on with it.
[00:11:18] They hit that moment, the Holy Spirit stirred inside them. They stood up and they went, right, let's go. Look, let's make a difference.
[00:11:33] This church is at that place.
[00:11:35] You're in transition. You're working through things.
[00:11:39] This is a moment for us to stand up and say, yes, we are going to make things different. We're going to make things happen. We're going to see this church not just survive, but thrive and grow and reach this area.
[00:11:55] That's an opportunity we've got, isn't it? Well, I say you've got we. I'm sort of, you know, sort of here, sort of not here.
[00:12:03] You see, Jesus is going to build his church, but he's going to use us to do the building.
[00:12:10] That's the lesson that's being taught here, that it wasn't now Jesus walking around doing stuff. It was Jesus in us doing stuff.
[00:12:22] And the call is for each and every one of us to be empowered by God's spirit, to work together and to go out and to change the world.
[00:12:33] In Romans chapter 8, there's a few little examples of what Spirit filled people do.
[00:12:41] Verse 26, it says, in the same way the Spirit helps in our weakness when we don't know how we ought to pray. The Spirit himself intercedes for us with wordless groans, and he searches our hearts and knows the mind of the Spirit. Because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God.
[00:13:03] The Holy Spirit in us helps us to pray, prompts us, gives us words and inklings that we might not have thought about before, and we go, ah, that's a really good thing to pray for. Why didn't I think of that before? Now.
[00:13:24] The Holy Spirit helps us with life.
[00:13:27] Verse 28.
[00:13:29] And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
[00:13:40] Hello, called ones.
[00:13:44] Every one of us is called, aren't we?
[00:13:47] Every one of us has the seal of God upon us. And God says, you're mine. I've called you, I've made you for a purpose. I've set you in this place for such a time as this that you can go and do things that nobody else can do because you're in a unique position.
[00:14:06] Isn't it amazing when you stop and you think of it like that, that God has put each one of us in a unique position to achieve things that no one else can do.
[00:14:23] Verse 31.
[00:14:25] What then shall we say in response to these things?
[00:14:28] If God is for us, who can be against us?
[00:14:35] Isn't it nice?
[00:14:37] If God's on my team, I wouldn't want to be on the opposition team.
[00:14:42] Could you imagine playing any sports team with God as your center, half back, or whatever position on the field you want to put Him? There's God. And you sort of go, yeah, well, I'll just step back here, you can go up the front row and everyone else will just clear out.
[00:14:58] That's the side we're on.
[00:15:01] God is leading, directing his mission through us.
[00:15:07] Ain't that awesome?
[00:15:12] Verse 37.
[00:15:14] No. In all of these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
[00:15:19] For I am convinced that neither death nor, nor life, nor angels, nor demons, neither the present, nor the future, nor any powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
[00:15:40] The Holy Spirit in us reminds us of these things and says, we don't do stuff alone.
[00:15:48] We never face stuff alone.
[00:15:53] He never abandons us, never Forsakes us, is always with us, is always working in us, and always working through us.
[00:16:04] These things are true for all of us.
[00:16:10] This is the church God birthed.
[00:16:13] This is the movement he started.
[00:16:16] And over the next six weeks of sermons, we're going to look in Acts 2 in a bit more depth and keep looking at different parts of this and keep building it and keep understanding it. And each of the different pastors that come through, they'll bring their own little spins and their own points of view and all of this sort of stuff.
[00:16:37] But the whole summary that I'm giving the overview is simply this.
[00:16:44] There's a lost world that needs Jesus.
[00:16:49] You and I know Jesus share.
[00:16:56] It's as simple as that.
[00:16:59] And we need to find the right language, the right skills, the right way to reach the people around us.
[00:17:07] But it's an investment in learning that's worth having.
[00:17:11] Because one of the things that I am really looking forward to is the day when we get to eternity and we look around and we see all these people that are there that come up to us and say, in my journey in, you helped me in this way.
[00:17:36] Won't that be amazing?
[00:17:39] And I suspect on that day there will be people that will come up to us and say that, that we never ever knew that we helped in any way at all.
[00:17:49] But through God, we did.
[00:17:54] A simple illustration to close.
[00:17:58] I stand at the front quite often and talk at the end of sermons. I have had people come up to me and say, you know, in your sermon when you said, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, that really struck me and it was really helpful.
[00:18:15] And I go, that's great, I'm glad. And then I walk away and go, I never said that.
[00:18:25] But somewhere between my mouth and their ears, the Holy Spirit took my words and made it something impactful for them.
[00:18:36] So many times we spend our lives wondering, have I got the right words? Have I got the right this, the right whatever trust that God can take what you've got, and when you give it with all of your heart, he can make it into what is needed.
[00:18:55] See, if God can make our entire planet and us, surely he can help our feeble attempts at missions to work trust in our God because He is greater and more powerful than we think.
