The Movement

Reference

Acts 1:1-11

We are starting our in-person sermon series with the book of Acts because we are approaching this as a church planting project. We hope that we can all share in the vision and mission of Acts and follow how the first disciples started the first church movement.

The book of Acts can be understood as part 2 of a 2 part series written by Luke - the first part being the book of Luke. To understand the book of Acts then, one needs to understand Luke’s motive of writing the book of Luke.

Looking at the introduction to Luke (Luke 1:1-4), we can deduce that the main purpose for which Luke wrote the book was one of certainty.
Luke wanted the reader to have certainty concerning the life of Jesus.
The same purpose applies for the book of Acts, Luke desires the readers to have certainty over the first church movement.

What was the first episode that Luke records for us in the book of Acts?

He records the “last message” given by Jesus to his disciples.
“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

It would have been surprising and somewhat confusing for the disciples to receive this as the last command from Jesus. Afterall, they were imagining a political and military revolution to restore the kingdom to Israel (Acts 1:6). Not to mention the scale and difficulty of Jesus’ mission - to the end of the earth!

Yet, the disciples responded with urgency. They immediately returned to Jerusalem and asked for the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:12-14). They would then continue their witnessing movement for the rest of their lives. The next generations of disciples would pick up where they left off… which brings us to now… In the city of Vancouver, BC, we are much closer to the finish line of “end of the earth” than when the disciples started. We are entrusted with this mission - assigned to run the last part of a relay race.

Jesus’ reminder to us is: