Speaker 1: 0:07

Well, in case you are new here, in the last 10 months and I hope some of you are my name is Stephen Clark. I'm a retired pastor and it's always been my joy to be here and to speak with you. I just have to say, paul, listening and going through the worship service for a second time, I was even more blessed than the first. Just singing those songs of the Lord being with us is just awesome. Since last I was with you, the Lord has been with me. I went in for a routine surgical procedure and ended up having two blood transfusions and, according to the medical report, had to be resuscitated between the two of them. That I don't remember because I had to be resuscitated, but I'm very grateful to the Lord to be here, to be feeling well and to be invited by you and to speak to you this morning. It's a joy and it's a privilege for me.

Speaker 1: 1:03

If you've been a Christian for a while, or maybe even if you're just thinking about becoming a Christian, you know that the cross and the resurrection are central to the Christian faith. But it mightn't really have dawned upon you, at least recently, just how radical that is. My favorite story in the New Testament of the resurrection is the one in the last chapter of John. The New Testament of the resurrection is the one in the last chapter of John where and I'm going to paraphrase now, I'm going to interpret it, even to help it sort of come alive, so you can realize how radical it is the disciples have seen Jesus crucified, dead and buried. And Peter turns to his friends they're named for us. There's all kinds of historical detail in this passage, so you know it's not a vision or some crazy guy going off and thinking he saw Elvis Presley or something like that. And and we, paul, and Peter turns to his friends, they're named for us. And he says guys, I'm going to go fishing. I mean, I take that to mean that that's what I love to do, that's what I know how to do and that's what I've got to go back to do. And they go fishing and the fishing is not going well. They've toiled all night and they've caught nothing, which is why I never go fishing.

Speaker 1: 2:18

And then towards morning listen to all the details Again there's a voice from the side of the shore, about 100 yards off, we're told, and it calls out hey guys, have you caught anything? And they're embarrassed to say no. And then he says cast the net on the other side of the boat. And they must have been thinking who's this guy and why doesn't he think we know what we're doing? But for some reason his voice compels him to do it. And they cast the net on the other side and then they begin to pull in this massive haul of fish I think we're told 156 large fish and then we're given the details the net should break. But the net doesn't break. And as they pull it in, john, the beloved disciple of Jesus, suddenly exclaimed that's got to be the Lord. He must really be risen, like the ladies told us they saw.

Speaker 1: 3:18

And Peter being the impetuous guy that he is. And again, the details, the historical details. He's stripped down for fishing, he throws on a cloak, he jumps into the water and he swims to the shore. And then, when they do finally come in with all the fish, jesus says I want you to come and have breakfast with me and he's got a little bed of coals there and he's cooking fish for them and he also has bread. Can you imagine your best friend, the one you love, the one you hope would be the king, can you imagine, after seeing him crucified, dead and buried, saying, hey guys, come and have breakfast with me, would you? I mean, that is so radical.

Speaker 1: 4:03

And then there's the ascension into heaven. And again, you know I'm paraphrasing even your and my responses. Well, yeah, he had to be ascended into heaven. He's not here, is he? And if you have been given a little theology or been listening to sermons, you know well, he's raised, he's seated at the right hand of the Father and he prays for us. And you go yeah, that's nice, that's cool, but you don't realize how radical the ascension is Between his death and his resurrection, and his ascension Paul tells us this into the Colossians having forgiveness of all of our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. That's part I get, lord. I love the forgiveness you've given me, thank you.

Speaker 1: 4:46

But then listen to this he disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to shame by triumphing over them. In him, paul says between the crucifixion, the resurrection and the ascension, you understand that Jesus has disarmed the authorities, the powers. He has broken the power of sin, satan, death and hell. He is victorious, he is king, he is Lord. It's not Lord. I hope you come back soon and become king and reign. It's. He is coming back as king because he already is king and he is reigning and ruling right now. In 1 Corinthians 15, paul is explaining the resurrection and he says in verse 25, he must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet. And that's what he's doing right now.

Speaker 1: 5:44

And Jesus picks up on this theme and this is where the ascension becomes all so radical. He says all authority in heaven and earth has already I put in the word already has already been given to me. I am king, I'm reigning. I am king, I'm reigning, I am ruling. And here's how this applies to you Go now into all the world and preach the gospel to every nation. This is so wonderful that I just want to read to you our text, which is the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, and it's written by Luke, who was a doctor, but it's written in formal historical style of the time, and he's going to start with the resurrection and the ascension as historical events and then, in the Acts of the Apostles, he's going to start telling us the historical story of Jesus's reign and rule in the world. Here's what he says on Acts, volume two of Luke.

Speaker 1: 6:50

In my first book, o Theophilus, I have dealt with all that. Jesus began to do and to teach until the day when he was ascended, after he had given command through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen, he presented himself alive to them after his suffering, by many proofs appearing to them during 40 days, and speaking about the kingdom of God, he said but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses, beginning in Jerusalem, then in all Judea and Samaria and then to all the ends of the earth. And when he had said these things, after he had said these things as they were looking on, he was lifted up to heaven. Now Luke begins to tell us the story, the continuing historical story of how Jesus is reigning and ruling the world right now and our part in it. And it has been said that the Acts of the Apostles.

Speaker 1: 7:52

There are six distinct movements or phases, and you can know when each one ends because it changes geographical location. But you can know how each one ends, or where it ends, because there's always a characteristic, exuberant, almost over-the-top statement. And so it begins in Jerusalem, of course, and there's persecution. But then we read in chapter 6 and verse 7, the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith, and that some reverse then becomes the introduction to the second movement, which is into Judea and Samaria, the surrounding provinces, and there's persecution. That takes place, of course, during this time, and Saul Paul was a key person in it, but he gets converted. And at the end of their spreading out into Judea and Samaria, here comes our verse and the church throughout Judea, galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened and encouraged by the Holy Spirit. It grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord.

Speaker 1: 9:05

And then the Jews can't believe what happens next, because the gospel goes out to the Gentiles. I mean the Gentiles. They were known for their immorality, they were known for their idolatry. Jews called them dogs, and the dogs are getting converted. And the way they know that the Gentiles are getting converted is because the Holy Spirit has been given to them. And the way they know that the Gentiles are getting converted is because the Holy Spirit has been given to them. And this is so radical they have to call what we call a general assembly. They all come together to discuss what is taking place.

Speaker 1: 9:35

And then at the end of this section we read but the word of God continued to increase and spread. So next it is to Asia, to the major cities of the world, in that time to the cities where always there was a temple in the center of the city and a god or goddess who is supposed to rule over them. And Paul takes his ministry through there and he's planting churches. And then in 16.5, here's our summary statement so the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers. And Paul wasn't planning to go over into Europe, but you remember he had something called the Macedonian vision, where he was called to come over into Europe, and any fair-minded historian will tell you this had massive implications for Western civilization, of which we are a part. And so he goes into Europe.

Speaker 1: 10:28

And at the end of that section we read in this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power, but Paul was really headed to Rome. Rome was the capital of the world. All roads led to Rome. You've heard that phrase. 250,000 miles of Roman roads led to Rome, if you can believe that, but it's true.

Speaker 1: 10:55

And so then in Rome, at the end of the Acts of the Apostles and the sixth great movement. We read he, paul, proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus with all boldness and with all hindrance Notice the word without hindrance. Through six distinct movements, the word of God has gone out and it is unstoppable. And it is unstoppable. I had a wonderful New Testament professor who's now with the Lord I hope it wasn't him checking in on me there and this is what he said. I got to read it to you.

Speaker 1: 11:40

Luke's purpose in the Acts of the Apostles is to narrate the triumphal progression of the gospel, best seen in its march from Jerusalem to Rome. In the process, no force, neither external nor internal, can hinder it. As God fulfills his purpose to Jew and Gentile, neither problems in the church, opposition from unbelievers, nor empire can stop it. Whatever the Lord pleases he does, the key seems to be movement. Jesus of Nazareth is let loose in the world and nothing can stop him. At almost every single turn, the gospel goes forth with power and nothing can stop it. Acts is programmatic for the church. Expansion is to be open-ended and unhindered, even if we die in the process.

Speaker 1: 12:30

Now, if you're sharp and you have to be really sharp because I didn't get it Someone who was sharp had to point it out to me. We've only had six movements and you know, for a Jewish person to have six movements it needs to be seven to be perfect. You know, the seven days of creation, 666 is the imperfect number coming up over and over again. And so the question is where is the seventh movement? And you see, that's where we come in in. We are the seventh movement and the gospel is going to the ends of the earth, no-transcript.

Speaker 1: 13:17

Well, you say, pastor, that's fine, but I just have to tell you I don't see it happening In my personal life. Half the time I seem to be limping along, and in our church, from time to time we're stumbling along, and certainly in our nation and our world, things seem to be going backward. I just don't see it. And my answer to you is this the kingdom of God is entirely different. In fact it's absolutely opposite to everything we understand about the kingdoms of the world. The kingdom of the world come with trillionaires. The kingdoms of the world come with power and guns and boats and might and celebrities, but the kingdom of God is the kingdom of God and God is the one who gets the credit. And we've got to look at the way in which God is working.

Speaker 1: 14:14

So when you see that Jesus is reigning and his king and he's sending out his people to the ends of the earth, in the Acts of the Apostles, it comes in ways that we wouldn't expect. I mean, it's just got going and two practiced hypocrites by the name of Ananias and Sapphira threatened to destroy and derail the church and all that is going on in it, and the Lord strikes them down dead and the text tells us that no one dared join the church because they were afraid. I mean, you know that doesn't sound too good, does it? And then, two verses later, this is what we read and more than ever, believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women. And things are really going well now. And the two key leaders, barnabas and Paul, have taken a young man by the name of Mark along with them. And we read not that there was a misunderstanding between Barnabas and Paul, that's how we would cover it over, right? Luke says there was a sharp dispute between them, between the two key guys. Everything appears to about to collapse, and I just have to add this later on, john Mark will write a gospel and Paul will talk about him as his dear friend, et cetera. So it will work out, but right now it's going down. The two key people can't agree on what is to happen with John Mark.

Speaker 1: 15:55

And then who's getting converted? Where are the celebrities? I love what I hear football players talking about their faith in the Lord, so don't get me wrong. But where are the celebrities who are celebrated in the Acts of the Apostles? A single mom by the name of Lydia is held up for us all to see. That's who is important in the kingdom of God. And then there's a jailer in Philippi. We don't even get to go hear his name, but there's a long story given to us about this jailer in Philippi who comes to the Lord. Can you believe that? That's who you're going to celebrate in the kingdom of God? And you can go on and on.

Speaker 1: 16:44

Paul is left languishing in jail in Caesarea for two whole years. Lord, what on earth are you thinking? I mean that he's key to the spread of the kingdom of God, mean that he's key to the spread of the kingdom of God, and you put him in jail for two years and he can't do anything. I don't get that and I don't get why we have to spend over a million dollars on a bridge either. This is the kingdom of God. Things are entirely different in it. Things are entirely different in it, and one can go on and on.

Speaker 1: 17:22

Paul, it is said, preached too long. I mean, listen to what the text says. And a young man quote sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked still longer. He fell from the third story window. I checked, but we're on the first floor so we should be okay. But you understand, that's not how you build kingdoms. But this is the kingdom of God, and everything gets turned upside down. And Paul, unlike the movers and shakers and the kingdoms of this world who travel in private jets and with designer suits to impress us, paul walks. And Paul not only walks, paul is shipwrecked three times. And Paul is not in designer suits. In fact, he tells the Corinthians about being ragged from having been beaten up.

Speaker 1: 18:23

This is the kingdom of God, and so the way Paul explains it all to us in 2 Corinthians is this the Lord was teaching him my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. You get that personally. You get that, weston. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why I, for Christ's sake, delight in weakness and insults and hardships and persecutions and difficulties, for when I am weak, then am I strong. Oh, every value in our life and in our church gets turned upside down and, you know, here's part of the reason why we can't see the unstoppable nature of the kingdom of God.

Speaker 1: 19:22

For those of us who are now in the seventh movement, because we're in the West, who largely want to turn away from the Lord although the power of the Lord's hand is not shortened. But to start picking on us Presbyterians, there are more Presbyterians today in Ghana than there are in Scotland. There are more Presbyterians today in Ghana than there are in Scotland. Listen to this there are more Lutherans in Nigeria than in Germany. There are more Baptists in the Congo, where over 70 of our brothers and sisters were just lost their heads literally. There are more Baptists in Congo than in Britain. There are more Anglicans that's the conservative international branch of what we call Episcopalians generally here. There are more Anglicans in Nigeria than in the United Kingdom and the USA put together.

Speaker 1: 20:19

The Lord works through weakness and when we're looking for power and might and celebrities and guns and drones. He is at work in ways we don't get Because we forget. His power is made perfect in weakness. It's the kingdom of God and he gets the glory, not us. And then, you see, I just want to make some comments, using those exuberant verses that ended each of this section, showing us that the kingdom of God is unstoppable. And the first comment I want to make is that this is about the power of the word of God. Here are three of the statement verses concluding but the word of God continued to increase and spread. And then another section in this way, the Lord, the word of the Lord, spread widely and grew in power. And then how the whole book ends boldly and without hindrance he preached the kingdom of God. Paul did and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in the power of the word.

Speaker 1: 21:26

When I ministered in Maryland, just inside the DC Beltway, there was a Chinese lady who started coming to church and she came up to me and she says, pastor, I want to get baptized and I asked her where she's from. She said I'm from mainland China. I said how did you come to Christ? And here was her answer when I was a little girl, this would be under the height of communism. My ear, she had to whisper it. Okay, she whispered the story of Jesus into my ear and when I came to the States to do graduate study I decided I've got to find out about Jesus, who my grandma whispered into my ear, and I have come to Christ. Grandma didn't know that she would die before, knowing that Grandma wouldn't know. You can check this out on the internet, because I know you're not going to believe me, even though I am a pastor. Grandma could never dream that today there are 100 million Christians in China. Please check it out when you go home.

Speaker 1: 22:50

It's the power of the word of God. No slight intended on any famous Christian people. It's not about being able to preach like Billy Graham. It's even about just dropping a seed in your family or in work or in the office place or just somewhere. Dropping a seed, but dropping it with pathos, with a certain passion, so that, although grandma had to whisper, her granddaughter knew that this thing was important. That's the power of the word of God and that's why God's action in history are absolutely unstoppable. And the second thing that comes up in our summary verses is the power of the Holy Spirit. We read in 931, the church was strengthened and encouraged by the Holy Spirit. It grew in numbers living in the fear of the Lord.

Speaker 1: 23:48

When you get invited to speak from time to time somewhere, you have a tendency to tell the same stories over and over again. So please don't tell me afterwards you heard it before. I was going to check all the sermons I preached here before, but that would have taken too long. Besides, the story is just way too good. I was asked by a young man in our congregation in Miami to please go and visit with his dying father in Baptist Hospital, and I knew it was going to take a lot because he told me his whole family were non-Christians and I figured he sort of overdid it when he tried to share the gospel with his dad. And so I go to the hospital and I get to the door and I look in and his entire family of non-Christians are there.

Speaker 1: 24:39

And I'm not saying this for the sake of being humble. I panicked, I said Lord, I don't know what to say or do in this situation, and I specifically said Holy Spirit, please help me. And I walked into the room and you know what do you do when the gentleman is lying on the bed with his eyes closed and he can't communicate anymore. You start talking with the family and building bridges with them and talking with them and about what he meant to them, et cetera. And at the end of that I said, if you don't mind, I'm going to go and preach with dad now. Go and pray with dad now.

Speaker 1: 25:21

And I went over and I held his hand and I hadn't got this planned. But this is what I said, lord, you know that when we go down to the river, there is no way that we can cross over, no matter how strongly we think we can swim. But there is a boat there. It's called Jesus, who died for our sins and was raised on the third day to give us eternal life. And you know, lord, that if we trust in him and get into that boat, he will take us safely over to the other side. You know what he did? The man lying there, unable to speak and his eyes closed. He squeezed my hand. The Holy Spirit, rely on him in our lives, because his strength, you see, is made perfect, indeed, in our weakness. So here's what I want you to know this morning, and that is we are now a part of a great people movement called the kingdom of God, and it's a movement which is absolutely unstoppable.

Speaker 1: 26:40

I also prayed with a dying man once who had been a great missionary to what is now Iran, and he lay dying and I remember thinking what a wonderful, magnificent man this is, who spent his life in what is now called Iran. His kids were raised there, for heaven's sake, and now he is dying and he hasn't seen any great fruit to his ministry. But he's been faithful to you, o Lord. But he's been faithful to you, o Lord. And then I read the other day that Iran's intelligence minister Intelligence minister, you know, the guy who gets information on everybody, his name is Mahmoud Alavi Admitted to calling in Christians to find out what is going on. And in his speech he said and now I am quoting the intelligence minister mass conversions are happening right under our eyes. Whole families are converting. Such conversion are far from rare. Even Rather, they are happening in mass and across the country. That's the intelligence minister. You see, it's the kingdom of God. When the Spirit moves, he just moves, and he moves among the people of God, among weak people like you and me, like you and me Sources say that in 1979, that was about when this great minister, missionary, came home, there were 500 known Christians in Iran. It is now estimated by Iranian Christian leaders that there are between 500,000 and 1 million Christians secret Christians in Iran.

Speaker 1: 28:39

Today. We are a part of a magnificent people movement in history where Jesus is reigning and ruling and taking his kingdom to the very ends of the earth. And please, I got something in the mail the other day. I said to myself I didn't know, this stuff is still going around when you know they have all these secret signs of the end which are about to happen at any moment. So you better all give up and go into your caves and keep in touch with us as we document how everything is falling apart. Jesus gave us one sign of his coming. This is what he said, for the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached to the ends of the earth, and then I shall come. It's unstoppable and guess what? Unstoppable. And guess what? We, believe it or not, are a part of it. And so Jesus calls us to invest in his kingdom. Yeah, it's his kingdom, but we are called to be a part of it, His reign and his rule. We invest in his kingdom in our lives. We say Lord, please control. Give me self-control, teach me your love and the strength of your spirit. In my life we extend it out into our families in the way we try to raise our kids, the way in which we try to care for our parents and the way in which, in difficult social situations, we try to be a blessing in our family, even if all we can do is just drop a little seed out there. And then, in our nation and in our world, we're called to invest our lives in the kingdom.

Speaker 1: 30:28

Jesus has a very powerful parable. It gives you goosebumps when you read it. It's about I'm paraphrasing, but this is faithful to the text. It's about a manager who works for the mob and the mob, through the manager, has its way of getting around income taxes in the ancient world, of getting around income taxes in the ancient world. And then the mob bosses find out that their man on the ground has been siphoning off money and he's about to be fired. So he calls in everybody who he has somehow invested in through the mob money and he says I'm going to reduce your debt because I'm about to lose my job, and when I lose my job you're going to have to help take care of me, okay.

Speaker 1: 31:17

And then Jesus says this if you can believe this, the master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness, for the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light, in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, you make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth so that, when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. That's what we're about Investing our lives, investing our resources, saying here, lord, I'm weak, but please use me by the strength of your spirit and being a part of a great, unstoppable movement, because Jesus reigns and rules and his kingdom will go to the ends of the earth and then finally, guess what? He will come fully and we will enter into the final, awesome kingdom of peace and of joy. All glory be to the Lord.