May 22, 2000
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June 4 Lesson
Extraordinary things from ordinary people
___Acts 1:1-14
___1In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and teach 2until the day he was taken up to heaven after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3After his suffering he showed himself to these men 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.
___4On 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. 5For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."
___6So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"
___7He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
___9After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
___10They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11"Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."
___12Then they returned to Jerusalem from the hill called Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day's walk from the city. 13When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James Son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. 14They all joined constantly together in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brothers.
___By Dan Martin
___There they were, Jesus' handpicked men, the chosen ones.
___Not long before, they had been hiding, scared out of their wits.
___They were a pretty sorry lot. Not the saintly supermen we like to make of them. Afraid. Bumbling. Inept. Slow to understand. Argumentative. Quarrel-some. None of them was the kind of leader a pulpit-search committee would look at twice. Not likely to show up on any "Most Likely to Succeed" list, either.
___There is a story about a group touring famous cathedrals. In one lovely church, they gazed at the marvelous stained-glass windows, each displaying a portrait of an apostle.
___The windows pictured the apostles as handsome men, with angelic, serene expressions and beatific smiles. It was impossible to miss the halos above the heads.
___"What saints the apostles must have been," the guide told the tourists.
___The reality, however, is very different.
___There's old Peter. Not a wholesome sight. Reeking of fish, uncouth, uncultured and impetuous, perhaps now a little subdued by being brought face-to-face with his own false, grandiose notions of bravery and courage.
___Andrew, James and John also smell of fish and aren't much more inspiring.
___There they are. A rock made out of mud. Two "soon-angry" men. A turncoat tax collector. A guerrilla fighter. A dark-humored cynic who questions everything and everybody. And the rest.
___Can you name them all?
___It is a safe bet the average Sunday School class member can't name them all without peeking at the text.
___Peter. Andrew. James. John. Philip. Bartholomew (or Nathanael, as he also was known). Thomas, the twin. Matthew. Simon the radical (or Zealot, if you like). James, the less, the son of Alphaeus (just to keep him separated from the other one, the son of Zebedee). There is another Judas, not Iscariot, this one the son of James.
___I have looked at that list of disciples in Acts 1:13 again and again across the years. These 11 men intrigue me.
___Acts 1:13 is not the only place they are listed. Luke names them in his earlier treatise to Theophilus (Luke 6:14-16). Matthew does too (10:2-5). So does Mark (3:16-19). For unknown reasons, John doesn't.
___And then there were 11.
___Here, in Acts, Luke lists only 11. Judas Iscariot, the betrayer, the one some say failed because he tried to force Jesus into his--Judas'--image, is dead by his own hand at Akeldama, Murder Meadow, Bloody Acres, the Field of Blood. Hanged. Split open. Both, maybe. His was a grisly and gruesome death.
___Now, there are 11, because they have not yet selected a successor to make the circle of 12 complete again. They cast lots or drew straws or flipped a coin, and Matthias won. But that is later. Here, in our text, there are only 11.
___A look at one of them.
___Years ago, I had the opportunity to hear Major Ian Thomas. On that evening, he opened my mind about one of the Eleven, the one who never mentioned his name, but said only that Jesus loved him. John, one of the Sons of Thunder.
___He showed us from the Gospels how horribly John behaved. Do you remember some of the ways? He wanted to incinerate a Samaritan village because they didn't do what he thought they should; he tattled on another minister who did things a little differently; he was angry and vindictive.
___Jesus only half-jokingly nicknamed him a "soon-angry man, a son of thunder," because he knew John was a gunslinger--fiery, intolerant, ambitious, prejudiced, prideful.
___To my mind, the worst story about him was when John and his brother ignited an enormous argument about prestige and power and status as Jesus was headed toward his death on the final week of his earthly life. They even got their mama involved in that tawdry episode about position and status, Matthew says.
___That whole episode leads Mark to report--probably from Peter's eyewitness--that the rest of the disciples were "much displeased" with the sons of Zebedee. The 10 lost their tempers with James and John and were "very indignant" (Mark 10:41).
___Can you imagine the picture? Here is Jesus heading into Jerusalem to die. His closest friends and followers are engaged in a horrible argument about who was going to be the greatest. Does that sound a bit like today? Here people in Texas are going to hell faster than we can imagine--at least half of the population do not profess faith in Christ--and we are arguing about some arcane matters such as who believes the Bible the most. We have much in common with our brothers who marched down the hill from Bethany that Palm Sunday.
___Jesus gave them convincing proof.
___As the first chapter of Acts unfolds, Luke, a wonderful and careful reporter, gives us a few details of those 40 days when the resurrected Jesus was among them, showing himself to them "in convincing ways." Luke reports that for 40 days Jesus met with these men and women--about 120 in all. They met and ate meals together while he told them anew and afresh about the kingdom of God.
___They ask the wrong question, again.
___Jesus' followers had heard him talk about the kingdom of God time and again and describe it in many ways. He even taught them to pray about it in the model prayer.
___Did they understand? No. They consistently misunderstood, thinking restoration of the kingdom meant earthly power, glory, honor, recognition of their rightful place as God's chosen people. Our Lord knew it meant service, sacrifice, humility, self-giving love.
___They still thought Jesus was going to establish an earthly kingdom, while what he really wanted to do was to build his kingdom in them.
___So, it is fascinating Luke reports that, not long before he ascended into heaven, Jesus was teaching them, and they hit him with their old refrain: "When are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"
___That was what had been going on in the minds of James and John--and of their mama--when they asked Jesus to let them sit at his left and right hands when he came to power and threw the hated Romans out of Israel.
___The expectation of an imminent, earthly kingdom was the predominant question in the minds of the people listening that day. It was deeply imbedded in the mind and heart of the Jew of the first century. So, they asked their loaded question that reflected their nationalistic hopes for a new Davidic kingdom and showed their woeful misunderstanding of what Jesus had come to do.
___Even though they missed the point he had been making for three years that the kingdom of God was a spiritual kingdom based on obedience to God's will, Jesus didn't get exasperated with them. He was patient because he knew they didn't understand, yet.
___A restoration of the kingdom in--not to--Israel.
___But we do. In the miraculous birth, the sinless life, the atoning death, the victorious resurrection, the ascension and the promised glorious return of Jesus, God already has restored the spiritual Israel. Through God's Son, Jesus--and through the witness of his followers--the light of the Son was shining on a dark world. The promise of Isaiah 9:2, "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light, on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned," was fulfilled to them, and soon to be fulfilled through them, the church, the Body of Christ.
___Jesus quoted that passage from Isaiah when he laid out his purpose statement. Matthew tells us about it in 4:15-17. Luke does, too, in different words in Luke 4:17-21.
___The gospel has moved from the narrow confines of nationalistic Judaism to embrace the whole world with the good news that God loves us and sent his Son to die for us, restoring us to him and him to us.
___He did not leave us alone.
___Luke records two promises Jesus makes. First, he tells the 120 to wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father, which he explains is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Second, after the kingdom question, he explains the kingdom of God will be spread by them around the world through the power of the Spirit of God.
___Both answers are much the same: God is going to send his Spirit to indwell, to empower, to teach, to comfort, to heal, to guide, to fill, to immerse--to surround us, to baptize us.
___The promise of the Father (v. 4), the baptism of the Holy Spirit (v. 5) and receiving the power of the Holy Spirit (v. 6) all introduce us to the third person of the Trinity--the Holy Spirit of God.
___One of the wonderful things about being a Christian is we are not left to try to live a good life, be moral, upright, honest, full of integrity in our own power and strength. Like Paul, we cannot do it. We fail.
___We are to witness for him and what he has done in our lives, but even that is, as Paul says in Ephesians 2:8-10, "not of our own strength," but is because of the grace of God. It is he who gives us the power through his Spirit to share, to minister, to love, to care, to witness, to write.
___I am like those bumbling folks in verse 13, full of imperfections and weaknesses, lapses of memory, fear, wrong-headedness, stubbornness, prejudice, avarice, envy and all of those things.
___But the promise of the Father is his indwelling Spirit. He makes me more than I could ever be by myself.
___I mentioned earlier the sermon by Ian Thomas. After he told us about John in the flesh, he began to read from John's letters. Here the soon-angry man, the son of thunder, the hothead, the gunslinger was full of love and forgiveness and mercy.
___"Little children, love one another," says the man who wanted to napalm the Samaritan village.
___I am fascinated by how Jesus took the 11 named here in Acts 1:13, and sent them marching around the world, witnessing to the power of the risen Christ, sharing the good news of the gospel, transforming lives, healing, comforting, teaching and remaking blasted hopes.
___Acts tells how God takes ordinary human beings and, through the power of his Spirit, does extraordinary things.
___Dan Martin is a news writer for the Baptist General Conven-tion of Texas and an interim pastor of Texas Baptist churches.
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