Acts: We are this people

Here is a part of script of a sermon I wrote. It is part of a series that me and Josh Mitchell are taking a group of youth and young adults at our local church. This is an attempt at an introduction. I say attempt because it turned out to be quite long and the subject matter calls for a series in and of itself. The reason I want it to be an introduction though, is because I feel it is of utmost importance for the church to continue to see itself in the context of the full revelation of God to his people. A revelation that connects Creation, Fall, the call of Israel, the Life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, the Sending of the Holy Spirit and the Sending of the Church.

Narrative of Redemption in broad strokes:

• Last week Josh talked about the bigger picture. In introducing the book of Acts he moved further and further back until we came to the beginning of the narrative. The premise from which all the rest of the scriptures derive. “In the beginning there was God” . And this God is a loving God, Three in One, eternal community, eternal love.  This God creates a creation which would reflect his glory, and a creature who would be like him, who would dwell with Him and in Him. This is the groundwork for the rest of the narrative. Until we grasp the love of the Triune God, the desire for a creation to love, create, and live with we cannot understand truly what God has done and is doing in the world.

• Then there is the turn… where the creatures who were intended to love God, who were intended to live with him, determine that they are better suited with out God, they are better suited if they would not listen to God, better off deciding what is good and evil without him.

• This is the great conflict: Humanity refuses to acknowledge that it is creature, not creator. Thus, humanity refuses the offer of God, to live as his people and in his community. And yet, God will not capitulate to humanities attempts to construct their own community. Communities constructed on distorted versions of truth, versions of truth that begin with ‘did God really say?’

• The people of Israel can be seen as a microcosm of this great conflict. Even the people God calls and covenants with, turn to reject his offer, his kingdom.In 1 Sam. 8, “it is me that they have rejected as their king. Just as they have done from the day that I brought them up from Egypt until this very day, they have rejected me and have served other gods” (1 Sam. 8: 7-8).Yet he continues to offer himself, “Although it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it will be said to them, “You are children of the living God!” (Hos. 1: 10).

God calls a people

• How will this loving, creative, mysterious God bring his creation back to it’s intended mode of existence? He will call a people, a people which would be a glimpse, a picture of the hope for God’s restored community. The Kingdom of God manifests particularly in this community. Thus he speaks to show a people a way of life that will bear the image of the Triune community, the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit. He calls a people and he forgives this people, he washes this people and bestows his holiness upon them. Dwelling with this people is his intent. This people display a relationship between humanity and Trinity that God desires for all of humanity. A people called out of sin and idolatry and in to holiness and worship, life with and in reverence to, the Triune God.

God sends a people to all people

• God then sends this people in to the world. To declare his love for all people, for all nations. To pronounce his covenant to all of humanity. The king has issued a decree, “come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden, come to me and have life, eternal life, abundant life, true life, whole life, full and everlasting life. Away from evil, away from lies, away from these fallacies, those unfounded claims of peace and prosperity” and this people are to be the heralds. By word and deed, they are heralds.

• Life is offered to this people in the light of the cross, offered in the light of the suffering servant, the one who defines love as giving up life for others. It is in the light of Easter morning that this people receive life. This is a king who has defeated the last of his enemies, death itself has been destroyed. This kingdom knows no end, life here does not stop at death. This is a kingdom that will reign in grace and truth, it is kingdom that does not defeat and conquer by the sword, but rather, one which overcomes by love. They, like their God, will not relent, will not capitulate to the false kingdoms of humanity. Assured of their position, they do not declare themselves ‘lords’ or ‘kings’, but servants. In this there is a combination of confidence and humility that allows for this people to display the love of the Triune God.

Acts shows us this people:

• The community that we encounter in Acts is a community who have received by faith in Jesus of Nazareth, life in this kingdom of God, life witnessed by the presence and reality of God dwelling with them.

• At Pentecost, the day when God fulfills his promises to his people, God establishes himself with this community by sending the promised Holy Spirit, who will guide them in to all truth, who will come with power, who will come as a comforter.

• Pentecost represents the initiation of a new age. This is why Peter quotes from the prophet Joel in Acts chapter 2.

• In the light of this understanding, this people become a people driven by faith in the power of God which brought Jesus back from the tomb.

• They are a people who live with a faith that expects imminent actions from a living God.

• They are a people driven by a hope that this Jesus brought the first fruit of the eternal kingdom which was still to come.

• They expect this kingdom to come at any moment. Every present moment is a moment that carries the potential to become a moment where God interrupts the line of history. This develops this people into a people who love and cherish God, who love and cherish one another, and who love and cherish Others.

• This people are a sent people. God has created them for a purpose, that the world may know that it is ‘world’, that it might by way of contrast, and sometimes by way of conflict, understand that God lives. It is important, therefore that this people understand and know their identity in Christ. Not only individually, but also collectively.

• They strive to continue to teach one another that they are God’s people, sent to this world that it might be saved. Equipped with the Good News, directed and instructed by the Holy Spirit of God himself, this people know and act on the basis that God is King, and that he is coming.

This introduction to the people in the book of Acts functions to introduce us, the present day church, to ourselves. This story is our story. We are this people.

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