Luke - Acts 1

Series: The King & the Kingdom
Sermon: Luke-Acts

The word “gospel” means “good news,” and even more than that, it means a proclamation of good news. Not only do Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John have something good to share, they can’t help but share it!
Jesus is the promised Messiah! He died for our sins! He rose from the grave and defeated death forever! Life is found in him! 
This is the message echoing through all four gospel books and all of the New Testament.

In his gospel, Luke tells us about Jesus. In Acts, Luke tells us how the church gets started.

In Luke, Jesus saves the world. In Acts, Jesus’s followers tell the world about its savior.
In Luke, God saves. In Acts, God sends.

At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them.
But he said, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.” And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea. (Luke 4:43-44)

In Luke’s gospel we learn what that good news was really all about. When we read Luke, we see a picture of Jesus the redeemer. We hear the words of Jesus, a friend to sinners. We feel the heartbeat of Jesus, who seeks and saves the lost.
Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.”
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Peter answered, “God’s Messiah.” (Luke 9:18-20)      
               
God saves.

Jesus’s preaching and teaching focused on the coming Kingdom of God and the rescue of creation and the restoration of all things, and he provided real-life, tangible examples of what that restoration would look like by healing the sick, comforting the afflicted, challenging the comfortable.  

And he tells his followers to do likewise. Jesus’s instructions to his disciples are to proclaim and to heal. They are to bring good news and cure diseases. As disciples of the Messiah, we are to proclaim the good news and do good for those who most need it.
 
We’re to provide the world a glimpse of what the Kingdom of God looks like so others will want to be included in it.

God saves. And God sends.
 
He saves us from sin, from destruction, from brokenness, from death…he saves us from ourselves. He sends us to do his good work and bring others into the family of God. He sends us to make disciples, and this expectation implies that we are becoming disciples too. It takes one to make one.

Followers of Jesus care for the poor, do not make idols out of wealth and possessions, love those who don’t love us back, persevere in prayer, testify to the truth of the gospel, engage in authentic worship of our Holy God, and don’t call Jesus “Lord” without doing what he says.
 
We set aside what we want so God can give us what we need, and so that we can participate in the plan and purpose of God to bring his kingdom to fruition on earth through the church.

One definition of the purpose of God is his ongoing and active work to redeem and restore all things for his glory.
 
If that’s God’s purpose, what, then, is the purpose of his church? 
My favorite summary is this one: the purpose of the church is to know God and to make Him known. To know Him, and to make Him known.

In the book of Acts, we see those who knew Jesus best beginning the work of figuring out what it looked like to make him known.  

Bible scholar Mike Bird makes the point that Luke’s narrative lays out the story of how “God’s son proclaims and implements God’s kingdom in order to achieve God’s purposes for making salvation a reality” for both Jews and Gentiles.
Luke’s gospel is about “all that Jesus began to do and teach” (1:1), so Acts can be seen as a window into what the risen and ascended Jesus continues to do through his spirit in his followers from his heavenly throne.

The Spirit founded the church and the Spirit sustains the church through adversity and opposition because the Spirit moves in the souls of believers.  
In the first part of Acts, the Apostle Peter delivers a sermon about the resurrected Jesus right after the gift of the Holy Spirit is given to the apostles. Luke says Peter’s audience was moved to action by Peter’s proclamation.

“When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and all who are far off - for all whom the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2:37-39)

Repent and be baptized. Turn from your old way of living, abandon your old way of thinking.

Profess your faith and wage war against sin and be baptized in Christ Jesus and receive his Holy Spirit so you can join the church and its people empowered by mission to share the gospel and make disciples.  

Luke-Acts tells the redemption story about how God’s plan and purpose for Israel is worked out in Jesus, through the church, to all the tribes and nations of the world.
Luke-Acts is about how the church took up Jesus’s gospel and continued his message with him as the centerpiece of the kingdom of God, and as God’s agent of salvation. 
Luke’s Jesus was a missional Jesus, and his mission is to offer salvation for the world and unify the people of God through the work of the Holy Spirit.  
Our mission is to proclaim his mission. God saves. God sends.

Know Him and make Him known!

           Pastor Brady