Empowered For Impact

I'd like to start with a question.

What is the common thread across all of these important aspects of human society and culture and its development over time?

There's a list here I'll go through one at a time.

The value of human life, compassion and charity, healthcare and hospitals, education and literacy, science and innovation, human rights and justice, women's rights and status, democracy and freedom, art, music and literature, social reform movements.

What links all of these great developments in human history together?

They've all been heavily influenced and motivated by Christianity.

All of those.

When Jesus said, and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the outermost parts of the world, he was talking about the gospel, his life, death and resurrection.

And he was also suggesting that the witness will essentially bring with it the kingdom.

And when the kingdom of God comes in power, it comes with impact, everlasting impact in all sorts of ways.

Our thesis for the month of May, as I mentioned before, is everlasting impact.

It will not come, the gospel that is.

It will not come to a family or a tribe or a town or a city, or for that matter, a nation without impact.

The gospel has and has had extraordinary effect on human society and culture.

And if you'd like to delve more into that fascinating truth, look at Olive Tree Media's, of course, Jesus the Game Changer.

We've looked at it in previous years, but it's available.

You can have a look at it.

Jesus the Game Changer just unpacks what the witness of the gospel has done to human flourishing over the last 2,000 years.

Well, Acts 1 is our text for today, and it teaches us that world mission is about scope, timing, power, and witness.

Scope, timing, power, and witness.

In my former book, Acts 1, Luke writes, I wrote to Theophilus about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven.

After giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen, after his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive.

He appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke about the kingdom of God.

On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command, do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my father promised, which you have heard me speak about, for John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

Then they gathered around him and asked him, Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel?

This moment, the arrival of the Spirit, couldn't have happened until Jesus died and rose again.

This is the promised Spirit from the Old Testament, the presence of God who would come inside a human being after Jesus had made a way for this to happen.

And with Jesus allowing the Spirit of God to come inside a person, there would also be a unique and new level of power moving through humanity.

Colossians calls it the hope of glory, Christ in you.

Are you aware that this is the greatest event in the whole Bible that we just read about?

I think you could probably argue there's nothing more important than the glory of God throughout the story of salvation.

And that's for sure true.

But what was the glory of God pointing towards?

What was his glorious great plan?

It was this moment.

This is what the covenants were all about that Ben was unpacking last week.

This moment when God would not just come upon a place like a tent, a tabernacle, or even the temple, the Ark of the Covenant, he wouldn't just come temporarily on certain people, but he would make his home in humanity.

This is what it is all about.

Pentecost, God's big plan to take his love of the world to the whole world.

It's about multiplication, the plan that God has always been working towards.

That's what mission is, isn't it?

Multiplication.

The Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jesus, inhabits people by faith and makes them agents of the Gospel because they become spiritually, mysteriously, part of the body of Jesus.

But the disciples don't understand this.

They don't understand the scope of this plan of the Father.

So they ask, Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?

I read that, and I think it's a bit like Wozniak.

Is that the guy that was Steve Jobs' partner?

And they were in 2066 Crest Drive Los Altos, California, decades ago.

Can you imagine one of the early employees saying to Steve Jobs, Boss, do you think one day we'll be the biggest computer company in Los Altos?

Of course, they became the biggest company in the world.

The scope of God's plan was so far beyond what the disciples could imagine.

They just thought maybe, maybe God could use Israel again to usurp the Roman overlords and bring back an Israelite king.

But Jesus is like, no, you don't get it.

The scope is so much bigger than you could imagine.

It's often said that people overestimate what they can achieve in one year, but underestimate what they can achieve in ten.

The Howie Graduate Program that Hamish talked about, I think is an organization and a vision that was captivated by the big scope, the scope of God's heart to reach the nations.

He didn't mention it, but 1930, it began with the British evangelist Howard Guinness, who played a pivotal role in establishing Evangelical Student Ministries in Australia.

And they started out on an apprenticeship model, where they would train people over a period of time.

And it certainly became a two-year program, where they would teach people, like Jesus taught his disciples over a lengthy period, how to do evangelism.

When Hamish first told me about this course he wanted to do, he said, it's a two-year program.

You've got to raise all your support and you don't get paid anything by them and you get no sort of formal ticket.

There's no graduate diploma or degree or masters.

And I said to him, that sounds like maybe a bit of a waste of time.

It's two years.

That's cheeky.

That's cheeky that any organization would say, we want you to give us full-time your best.

We'll train you, but we won't give you any ticket at the end.

And I'm a convert.

I'm a convert because Hamish had seen the quality of the training.

And I think the Howie program is a fantastic example of getting a hold of scope, the scope of God's mission.

I think it was Billy Graham who said, if he had four more years to live, he'd spend three of them in training.

It was something like that.

Because we need to be trained well to do what God has called us to do in its magnitude.

So the disciples are thinking Jerusalem, and Jesus is thinking obviously the world.

So at NorthernLife, we've talked about raising our giving this year.

It's because we believe in a God who is into exponential blessing.

Now before you think, whoa, that sounds a lot like up and to the right, as though everything is always up and to the right in Christianity.

It's not at all.

But we want to be faithful stewards.

And until God actually says, it's not up and to the right, it's not sort of growing in year by year in your impact, in who you're partnering with and what you can give away, until he says that, we've always just pushed into that.

Because we believe that God has an enormous scope on what he wants to do in world mission.

Are you with me?

We have so much potential here in this little church.

And so we want to be good and faithful stewards.

When I lift our eyes out of the now and just the us and see the world for the way that God sees the world and he loves the world and he wants to reach it with his gospel.

So the disciples get the scope wrong and they also get the timing wrong.

Verse 7, he said to them, It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.

As I read that again this week, I was just struck.

That is so profound and so impacting.

Hear that again.

God speaking to us.

It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.

We talk regularly about tomorrow at NorthernLife.

We have talked about it in couching it in language of holy.

Tomorrow is, in essence, holy because we don't get to put our fingers on tomorrow, really.

We think.

We think we do.

We live our lives as though we can control tomorrow.

We plan for tomorrow as though it's in our control, but we know it isn't in our control.

It's holy.

It's unto the Lord.

We trust God and His grace for tomorrow.

And I think this passage speaks in that idea.

It's not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority.

Of course, this is in context, talking about Pentecost, but it's a recurring theme in the New Testament.

The disciples said to Jesus, Lord, if you want to make a name for yourself, there's a pathway, a marketing pathway, straight to Jerusalem.

Let's go and make a name for you.

You don't hang around in Galilee.

Let's go.

And he said, no, no, your timing is out.

You don't know what the Father's doing.

And there is another time when, on the Mount of Transfiguration, Elijah and Moses turn up and Jesus is transformed and Peter's like, I know what the timing is for now.

Let's build houses.

No, no, it's not the timing to do that.

And then it came to the cross, and Jesus is saying, it's time for me to go and suffer.

And the disciples are like, no, no, never, Lord, you don't need to do that.

They kept getting the timing wrong.

Timing is hard, isn't it, to trust God for, but God's mission goes hand in hand with waiting on his sovereign timing.

Local churches go through seasons of pruning, don't they?

It is not always a growth period.

Sometimes in God's will, he purges, he does a time where it's challenging, and you've got to learn patience.

So at a church that we were at for some years before this one, in the early days, as a pastor there, we used to pray for God to open up pathways, doors into global mission, where it would be exciting and we could partner with people, and we could also send people out.

And I would talk to other pastors and I think, wow, you guys are doing so amazing work, we can't sort of get amongst it.

And I remember talking to a guy who came to our church for a service, he was an elder from another local church, who were doing amazing things in mission.

And I said, what was the secret, mate?

What's the go?

How do we get amongst it?

And he just said, keep praying, keep stepping out in faith, keep waiting, keep believing, keep serving, and God will open doors.

And you know what happened in the next couple of years?

Exactly that.

We kept making mission, global mission a priority.

We kept asking God, we want to be used, would you use us?

And I think it's all about this timing piece.

And of course, we've had the same thing here at church.

Sometimes we think we want to push and make something happen.

And God says, no, just wait.

It's about praying, trusting, serving, pushing on doors.

And certainly at that church, I could not have believed what we were able to achieve.

And you know, when we, ten years ago, we were raising about $6,000.

I think it was something like that for the mission appeal.

So praise the Lord.

God's done a work in us, hasn't he?

And we expect him to provide.

We really do.

So God's great plan of world evangelization is of glorious scope.

It's hard sometimes, but it's glorious in its timing.

And it's certainly glorious in its power.

Jesus said, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.

This is no news to us if you know your Old Testament.

Think about the Spirit coming on people.

There was always a manifestation of power.

From Joseph being empowered in Genesis 41 to interpret dreams for Pharaoh, to Bezalel, a lesser-known person in the Old Testament, who was a craftsman, and he was empowered by the Spirit for creative work for the tabernacle in Exodus 31.

Then there was Samson.

He was filled in the Judges with supernatural strength.

King David was anointed by the Spirit for leadership.

We had prophets like Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Joel.

The Spirit brought power to all of them.

Then even Jesus, he was conceived by the Spirit and empowered by the Spirit.

He went off into the wilderness and came back to start ministry.

He says, Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit.

Everyone needs to be empowered by the Spirit.

Yet, what's interesting is you look through the occasions of the testimony of the empowering of the Spirit.

Have you noticed that often when the Spirit empowers most fully, the person is most weak?

Like, there's just this odd connection that when we are weak in the flesh, there's a very good chance we might be full and empowered in the Spirit.

But often, most likely, the two don't go together.

So there are texts that back this up, 2 Corinthians 12.

That is why, for Christ's sake, Paul writes, I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties, for when I am weak, then I am strong.

This is a connection to us when we want to step out in mission, God's global mission.

We may feel weak as we do it.

It's the cross-shaped life, often referred to as the cruciform life.

It's what mission looks like, the shape of the cross.

Jesus said in Matthew 16, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

Cross-shaped is where you find power.

Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified with Christ.

Paul writes, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

As we follow the way of the Master into the mission of the Master, it's going to look a bit like carrying a cross.

And you find this in the Sermon on the Mount, the great teaching about what followship looks like, what it looks like to be a Jesus follower.

The Sermon on the Mount says, when you follow Jesus in mission and on mission in the kingdom, there will be times where you turn the other cheek and say, hit me on that side as well.

That's carrying your cross.

Mission is cross-shaped.

When you go the extra mile, they say, would you walk for me one mile?

And say, I'm happy to walk a second mile.

That's cross-shaped mission.

When we empty our box of contempt, we've been hurt by people and we have contempt for them.

But we know that Jesus says, no, you are not to hold people in your box of contempt.

Let them off the hook.

That's a cross-carrying missional lifestyle, isn't it?

Forgiving others.

It's about cruciform living.

And so the New Testament teaches that it's this type of cross-shaped life empowered by the Spirit that over time looks questionable.

You remember we talked about living a questionable life?

Because people look at your life and go, how do you react like that to people who have treated you like that?

That's not normal.

And we say, well, it's because we follow the guidance and the example of our Lord who took up a towel, who is a servant.

Can I suggest to us that mission in the power of the Spirit is from under up rather than top down.

It's carrying the servant's towel rather than wearing the toga and sash.

And that's a great thing for us to remember.

Maybe you're lamenting your powerlessness in some area of your life.

Can I encourage you?

A powerful engagement in mission is right next to where you're at right now.

Because weakness is normally the foundation for power.

Humility, scope, timing, power, and it's all for witness.

That's what mission is.

It's witness.

And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth, witnesses.

Some years ago, quite a few years ago, I was driving on King George's Road.

Anyone know King George's Road?

Down the south, we were North people, I know.

But I was coming North, and there was this green Mitsubishi L300 with a bull bar next to me.

And we stopped at the lights, and we were about to take off, and I noticed an older lady, like quite an old lady, hobbling her way across the, I think it was six lanes, across the busy road.

And we started out, and she was about 50 meters down, and I was doing the maths and the physics, and I thought, oh, I think I'm going to miss her, but this Mitsubishi L300 with the bull bar, the green one, I think that's going to hit.

And that's exactly what happened.

We were driving off, and I probably sort of covered the guy's view a bit, and she just got in front of me, and he swerved and caught her on the right driver's side of the car.

She spun around next to me.

It was horrible.

And she ended up living.

I don't know how well she turned out, but she ended up living, because I found out.

We waited for the police.

In the next day, I was in the Rockdale or something police station.

Why do you think I would have been telling them about the green L300 Mitsubishi with the ball bar, that they said, yes, that's exactly the car that hit her?

Why would they have been asking me to say something?

Because I was a witness.

And that's what happens, isn't it?

When you're a witness of something that is extraordinary or that is impacting on your life, you tell other people about it.

That's what the evangelist is, the herald of good news.

Something has happened, and it really has, as Ben often says, Jesus went into the grave, but different to anyone else, he kicked out the back of the grave and lived forever.

And he asks us to follow him and says, I know a way out of death into eternal life.

How are you at being a good witness?

I love telling people about my exercise bike.

It's a fence, I won't start.

It's this sort of virtual screen and it moves, and it's fantastic.

I've actually, I should be on commission because I've got a few other people to buy these bikes.

I love telling people about it if I get a chance.

It's so good.

You know, I've stopped now, but I used to tell people about the Weber, our Weber.

People used to laugh, hassle me, saying, John, would you stop going on about the Weber?

I said, but that Weber is so good.

But I would much rather tell you about my Lord than the exercise bike or the Weber or whatever else is good that I've found because He died for me when I deserve to be punished.

When I deserve to be the one dying, He died in my place.

He forgives me when I continually mess up.

He really does.

I know He does.

He guides me when I'm lost.

He comforts me when I'm lonely.

He sustains me when I'm weary.

He's faithful, gentle, and He's firm when I need Him to be firm.

He's the King of my heart, and He's also the King of the cosmos.

There's no one like Him.

And I witness to you that He is alive and well and real, and He'll change your life, and He'll lead you to everlasting life.

He is humble, yet He's all-powerful.

He's completely knowable and yet beyond comprehension.

When the Spirit fills with power, He fills for witness, amen?

He fills for witness.

And that's what's been the repeatable formula throughout the last 2,000 years and beyond.

God does a work in a human being's heart, in a family, in a tribe, and everything changes.

And you just can't help but tell the kids and the neighbours and your workmates.

This is real.

Jesus has changed me.

And next week, we're going to have a guest speaker whose name won't be mentioned because of sensitivity as well, but he'll be here.

You'll see him.

And he's going to talk about boldness because he's got a great experience of boldness.

Empowering for witness gives a boldness by the Spirit.

We saw it with Peter, right?

He's once fearful, and then he preaches to so many people.

Acts 2, Stephen, empowered to speak boldly.

That guy is courageous.

They're about to stone him, and he's like, you know what?

I'm going to tell you exactly what you did to my Lord.

This is the truth.

He speaks, empowered by the Spirit, and they kill him.

He's the first martyr.

Acts 6, Paul ministered through all sorts of manifestations of the Spirit's power.

The epistles confirm that the same power is available now to all believers.

Jesus said, you will be my witnesses, and that's us too, because we experienced Pentecost when we put our faith in Christ.

You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

He's saying, wherever you live and wherever you're planted by the sovereign hand of God, you're going to be my witness there.

You're going to tell people how amazing the good news is.

God has made a way for people to live forever and to know him now.

And some of you, Jesus says, some of you are going to go a little beyond to the region of Judea.

And for them in Jerusalem, they know this is probably more northwest, the broader area, like New South Wales maybe.

You're going to go further afield.

And he says, some of you, because of the power of the Spirit causing you to witness, you are going to go to people you don't get on with, the Samaritans.

Maybe ethnic groups that you just traditionally hate, but the power of the Spirit inside of you is going to give you the Spirit of Jesus, who hung on a cross and said, Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing.

You are going to cross boundaries you could never imagine with the love of Christ.

And some of you, you're going to take this Gospel, this good news, and you're going to witness to all over the world.

And they didn't say it, but they meant to say, they're going to go to a little place called Australia.

You're going to take the Gospel to New Zealand.

You're going to go to the outermost parts of the world.

And guess what happened?

Jesus was right, hey?

The Gospel has gone to the whole world.

And we still are part of this incredible process of the unfinished task that every people group who call us us and them them would hear the Gospel.

That's what we are part of in the unfinished task of world evangelization.

So Acts 1, they gathered around him and asked him, Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?

The scope of God's plan is bigger than we can imagine.

He said to them, it's not for you to know the times or dates the father has set by his own authority.

The timing of what God wants to do through us is up to him.

And it will be perfect.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.

Yep, the power of God is part of mission and it will inevitably be cross-shaped.

So we have to have a heads up and understand that.

And we read, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth, the witness of the gospel will go to all nations before the end comes.

And it's been a while since we have raised up and seen a cross-cultural worker from our church go into the world.

So let's pray for that.

Let's pray.

Why should it be that there's only little pockets of the history of our church in 120 years, where lots of people go into world mission?

Let's pray into that.

So may we give ourselves wholeheartedly to this great endeavor of world evangelization in this generation.

Is there an amen?

May this May mission emphasis be blessed by the Lord.

That's our prayer.

And may we each be inspired to generously play our part in reaching the goals that we have set for the glory of God.

We're going to sing two songs in response, and I'll just pray first.

Thank you, Lord God, for this gospel.

It is truly glorious.

Thank you that we get to be witnesses.

Thank you that when we do witness, we so often feel powerless.

Feels like our words aren't great.

We're not making watertight arguments.

But Lord, help us to realize that the power is not in our eloquent speech, but in the power of the cross.

Lord Jesus, you have done all that was required to save the world.

And may we be inspired anew this month of May to play our part in taking that good news to the world.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

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