Acts 1:1-12 The Mission Sermon preached Sept.

8, 2013 Opening Clip from movie World Trade Center Jesus gives disciples a mission You are our mission, says that retired Marine to the firefighters trapped in the rubble of the World Trade Center. And they dug down into the rubble and got those men out alive. You have a mission, the Lord Jesus Christ says to his followers at the beginning of the book of Acts. A mission to be his witnesses, a mission to bring the saving news of Jesus Christ, to the whole world. Book of Acts And the story of the beginning of that mission, is in the book of Acts. Today we begin a sermon series on the book of Acts. And we need a brief introduction to this great book. The author? Dr. Luke, who also wrote the Gospel of Luke. Acts is part two of a two-part work. Luke tells the story of Jesus Christ, the son of God, who came to saves us from the powers of sin and death and bring us back to God and inaugurate the Kingdom of God Gods saving rule over the whole world. Luke ends, with the resurrected Jesus appearing to his disciples. And that same resurrected Jesus appears here, at the beginning of Acts. And thats crucial - Jesus Christ is not a dead historical figure, a wise teacher who died tragically at the hands of the ignorant - he is the risen Son of God, Lord of all creation, who conquered sin and death. And a bit of a digression - the resurrection of Jesus was not a mass hallucination conjured up in the despairing minds of the disciples after Jesus crucifixion. Note that Luke in our reading says that Jesus gave them many convincing proofs that he was alive. Why? Because they werent expecting a resurrection, nobody was expecting a resurrection, nobody could have dreamed this up. They knew, just as much as we do, that the dead stay dead. And they needed, just as much as anyone would, for the Lord to appear to them repeatedly, to show them he really was risen from the dead. That the impossible had occurred through the power of God.

And now Luke turns to part two of his historical work. The risen Lord Jesus appears again to his disciples with a final word - and he gives them their mission. We think there were about 120 disciples there with the Lord - the eleven we know the most about (the twelve disciples minus Judas), plus the women who were the first to see the resurrected Jesus and bear witness to him, plus a number of other followers. The mission given to the disciples So the risen Jesus appears one last time to give them their mission. And those disciples, they thought they already knew what it was. They ask, arent you going to restore the Kingdom? What they meant was, Israel, little Israel, land that they loved, was finally going to be freed from having the Roman boot on their neck and they were going to rise up and conquer the world - Israels enemies would be destroyed, Jesus would rule the world, and the whole world would come before Israel on bended knee. And they, the disciples, the ones who had believed in Jesus, their mission would be to rule the world with Jesus. Sort of be in his cabinet. Wrong. Jesus had an entirely different mission for them. Instead of the world coming to them, they were going to go to the world. Instead of being masters, they would be servants, bringing the message and presence and love and compassion of Jesus. Luke does not record their reaction. I imagine, as the British say, they were gobsmacked. I imagine, they had no real idea, what this would mean. And I feel pretty sure as it sunk in, they thought, Us? Me? How are we going to do this?? The world before them To give you an idea of the enormity of their task, their mission, Ill give you a little sketch of the Roman world they lived in. It was a passionately religious world There was the official religion of emperor worship that was the civic duty of every Roman subject, kind of like a pledge of allegiance - but then there were hundreds and hundreds of different sects and cults that people were also a part of. For example, some people worshiped the old Roman gods like Jupiter and Apollo and Aphrodite. There were mystery cults that had secret initiation rituals and promised to give you special knowledge that was the key to salvation. 2

Other people worshiped local tribal gods, and in that mix were Jews and Gentile believers who worshiped the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - the one Almighty God. It was a wildly pluralistic world Rome united dozens of different peoples in one empire - there were Africans and Celts and Saxons and Jews and Egyptians and Gauls and Bedouins, all utterly different, all brought together under the rule of Rome. You went to Rome or any major city of the empire and you would hear dozens of different languages, see people in all kinds of different clothing. It was a terribly violent world Rome enforced peace through brutal violence - remember the end of the movie Spartacus, with the scene of thousands of crucified slaves lining the Appian Way? Any hint of rebellion and Rome would send its legions quick-marching down those yardstick-straight Roman roads to crush anyone who dared question Roman rule. And violence was also the top-rated form of entertainment - gladiators fighting to the death, non-conformists thrown to the lions and torn to bits while the crowd roared its delight. And it was a terribly unjust world The Roman empire was a vast pyramid - at the tippy-top were the few hugely wealthy families, then below the citizens of the empire, then subjects of the empire (who had no rights) and at the bottom were millions and millions of slaves, on whose suffering backs the Empire was built. Thats just the Roman world. But Jesus doesnt say, be by witnesses to the Roman world. He says, be my witnesses...to the ends of the earth To barbarian Europe - Germanic tribes and Picts and Celts and Russians... To the ancient civilizations of India, Persia and China.... To Africa, with its thousands of tribes and language groups And to places they didnt know about yet - like North and South America with the precursors of Inca and Aztec civilizations

Ends of the earth, baby! How did they do it? Well, I thought the best way to figure that out, would be first to look at some stories of followers of Jesus who jumped on board with the mission...and helped change the world. Telemachus His story is found in Edwards Gibbons The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Telemachus was a humble monk who lived out in the sticks in Asia, on the far frontier of the Roman empire in the late 300's. He had no great ambitions, was happy working in his little garden and loved being a monk. But one day he felt a call from God to go to Rome, the heart of the empire. He was frightened by this, but summoned up his courage and went. When he arrived in Rome, the city was in an uproar. The army had just returned after winning a great victory and there was a huge parade and people were lining the streets and cheering and the crowd then flowed like a tidal wave into the Coliseum. Down in the arena there was a gladiator contest going on. And what Telemachus saw made him sick. Men hacked at each other with swords and clubs, the crowd roared its delight at the sight of blood and cheered on their favorites to kill their opponents. Telemachus couldnt stand it. He knew this was wrong, knew this wasnt the way God wanted people to live and die. So the little monk worked his way down the stands and stood on the wall separating the seats from the arena. He raised his voice and shouted, In the name of Christ, stop this! Nobody heard him, so he shouted louder, In the name of Christ, stop this! This time a few people heard him and laughed. But Telemachus wouldnt be ignored. He jumped down into the arena and ran towards the gladiators shouting, In the name of Christ, stop! The crowd started laughing at this silly man, some threw stones at him. But Telemachus kept on going and put himself between two of the gladiators to stop them from fighting. And said again, In the name of Christ, stop! The gladiators hacked him apart. The cut his body from shoulder to stomach and fell down with the life draining out of him onto the sand floor of the arena. The gladiators were stunned by what they had done and stopped to watch him die. The 4

crowd fell into silence and for a moment no one moved. Then they slowly began to file out of the Coliseum with Telemachus words - In the name of Christ, stop! ringing in their ears. And the historian Theodoret reports that never again was a gladiator contest held in the Coliseum. Because Telemachus, became a witness to his Lord Jesus Christ. Roberto di Nobili He was born to a noble family in Italy in 1577, and trained as a Jesuit priest. And felt Gods call to bring the Gospel to India. di Nobili started working with the pearl gatherers on the coast and was grieved by their miserable existence. In those days the pearls of India were in great demand in Europe and sold for fabulous prices. But the divers who collected them, didnt share in that wealth and were among the poorest of the poor in India. di Nobili started learning their language - Tamil - but it was and is extremely difficult and there werent any textbooks or written works for him to study so he made little progress. So he went to a city named Madurai - a great cultural center - to try to learn Tamil and some other languages. And he got the idea that instead of acting like a missionary from a superior, more powerful country and talking down to the poor, ignorant natives, he would respect them and their culture by becoming one of them. So di Nobili went into seclusion for several years, studying Indian culture. He went into seclusion a European, and emerged as much as possible as an Indian. He gave up eating meat and dressed like a Hindu monk. He shaved his head, hired an Indian cook to begin eating an Indian diet and slept on the floor. He studied Sanskrit and the Hindu scriptures, and then started translating the Bible into Tamil. He opened a school and slowly started introducing Christian theology. And the people came to regard him as a local holy man because of his simple life and kindness. As a result of his sensitive, gentle witness di Nobili converted almost 4,000 Indians in an area where there was not a single Christian. He continued his work in the city of Jaffna and over 40,000 more became followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Roberto di Nobili, was a witness to the Lord Jesus Christ. Europe, 1750 In 1750 there were tremendous social inequities in both France and Great Britain. The Industrial Revolution was underway and many peasants were moving to cities and working in factories for subsistence wages. And tension between economic classes got really acute.

A few decades later, France exploded in a violent revolution where thousands of people died, then followed by the incredibly bloody Napoleonic wars. But there was no revolution, no violence in Britain. Why? The first Great Awakening, a Christian revival that swept across Britain. It started with the work of John and Charles Wesley. John was a pretty harmless Anglican priest but was converted during a sea voyage by the witness of some Moravian passengers. He felt Gods call to bring the gospel to the poor and outcast, at whom the Anglican church looked down their noses. He got kicked out of the Anglican church and started the Methodist movement. A spiritual awakening swept through the country, and as a result, one-fifth to one-sixth of the population of Great Britain was converted. Christians led social reforms that improved the lot of factory workers - and Wesley was also tireless in battling the common alcoholism of the lower classes, and in teaching practical skills like literacy and basic business principles and as a result many families were able to start businesses, get ahead in life and not stay stuck in poverty. The growth of authentic Christianity also led to other reforms - most notably, the great work of William Wilberforce that ended the slave trade in 1807. Followers of the Lord Jesus Christ who have dedicated themselves to the mission of Acts chapter 1 have changed the world. And continue to do so. Our World has Changed So can we. Lets circle back to the scene in Acts. The disciples, even though they dont understand it yet, are poised, leaning forward, about to head out into the Roman world and change the world through the power of the Gospel. And the parallels between their world, and our world, are stunning. Religious diversity? Well, there are now more Muslims than Episcopalians in the United States. Pluralism? There are more than 150 different languages spoken by students in California public schools. We are in the midst of a massive wave of immigration - movement of people around the world - that is far more diverse and numerous than immigration of the 19th and 20th centuries. Injustice? Violence? Just watch the news. The parallels between the Roman world and ours are so striking that some people have 6

started to call our time a pre-Christian era. Because we like the disciples look out on a world where vast numbers of people do not know Jesus Christ. We now live in a missionary environment, one of the largest mission fields in the world. If you want to be a missionary, you dont have to go to Africa or Tibet - your neighborhood is a mission field. All this is an astounding change. Many of you grew up in a culture that felt pretty Christian. Stores were closed on Sundays. The Bible was taught in school. There werent any sports leagues that played on Sunday mornings or even Wednesday nights. The manger was on the square here in Chambersburg. But that world, is gone. We may mourn its passing and look longingly back on a time when church and culture seemed to cooperate - but its gone. We are part of this great mission So where does Central fit into all this? I suggest we are something like the disciples were after Jesus departed and ascended into heaven. In an in-between kind of time. Youve come through a tough time over the last five years or so. The congregation is coming back together, youre enjoying one another again, trust is being rebuilt, there is energy and anticipation in the air. Jesus told the disciples before he ascended into heaven to wait for the Holy Spirit, and then theyd have power to fulfill their mission, then theyd know what to do. Well, you and I now live in the time when the Holy Spirit has come upon the church; and some of you have told me that you sense the presence of the Spirit here again. I think we are being...prepared for what God has for us next. I think the in-between time, is drawing to a close. I think we are being prepared for God to plant in our hearts and minds a vision for how we at Central fulfill the mission to be Christs witnesses, here on the Square, and the ends of the earth. Whats that going to look like? I dont know. But God does. So lets be praying that when the time is right, that God will make his will clear to us. Because its a new day for our culture, and a new day for Central. We stand poised and almost ready, to move forward in being Christs witnesses here, and to the end of the earth. Amen.