Word of Salvation – Vol.33 No.18 – May 1988

 

Christ’s Spirit of Victory

 

Sermon by Rev. D.J. Groenenboom on Acts 1:1-11

Scripture Reading: Acts 1:1-11

Singing:

BoW H.4; S.54; 397; BoW.H.606; 169:1,3,7,9; 493

 

Brothers and Sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ,

There are many people in the world today who have difficulty believing in God because He does not act the way they would act.  They have a long hard look at the world and conclude that if God exists, and if he were active – as the Bible portrays Him – then surely the world would be a different place.  Totally other to what it is now.  Their conception of what the world would be like under God, and their perception of what the world is actually like are two entirely different things.  And so they conclude that either God does not exist, or if He does, then He is certainly not too powerful.

Their ability to perceive and see the world for what it really is becomes their infallible standard of judgement.

But surely the testimony of the Scriptures is that man’s judgement, his ability to think, and especially his ability to appreciate the spiritual realities, is totally warped and distorted by sin.  And the very fact that man sets himself up as judge as to whether God exists or not is only an indication of his stupidity and foolish ignorance.

It’s a bit like a child who covers up its eyes and says, “Because I cannot see you, you’re not there.”  Of course, the child cannot see the other person, but it does not change the reality of the existence of that person.

In our text we see an example of man’s inability to see spiritual realities.

The disciples were with Jesus.  At this time the death of Christ on the cross, and His resurrection from the dead, were past events.  The forty day period between the resurrection and His ascent into Heaven were drawing to a close.  In vss 4 and 5, Christ reminds His disciples of the promised Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, and that they would receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Now they were still a little puzzled by all this, and rightly so.  It had never happened before.  Perhaps they remembered John the Baptist, the fire and brimstone preacher, calling all to repentance, and teaching that they should prepare for the Kingdom of God.

But in spite of Christ’s teaching, their ideas about the Kingdom of God were still clouded by what they thought it should be.  They thought it would be an earthly, temporal Kingdom in Jerusalem where Christ would reign.  They thought of it as the national independence of Israel from the Roman oppressors.

And so they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the Kingdom of Israel?” (vs.6)

Now notice that Jesus’ reply is quite non-committal; it seems as though He skirts the question, and says that it is not for them to know the “when” or the “where.”  But His reply is also a rebuke.  It’s as though He says: “Look fellows – forget all those dreams of no more Roman oppression.  Can’t you see that the Kingdom of God is not an earthly Kingdom?  Can’t you see that it’s in another league to where an earthly King rules over earthly people?  The Kingdom of God does not belong to a particular country or locality.  It is much more than the redemption of Israel from Rome; it is the redemption and resurrection of the world from sin and evil; it is the reign of God in the hearts of men and women.  No, My Kingdom is not of this world; nor does it appear in the structures the world expects to find it.  It is a spiritual Kingdom, much greater and more glorious than Israel ever was.

Dear people, the Kingdom of God is a spiritual rule.  It is Christ’s rule, beginning in the hearts and lives of men and women, but extending its influence and Christ’s Lordship into every area of life.  Because it is God’s purpose, not merely to save sinners, but to put all of created reality under Christ’s rule (cf. 1Cor.15:27), to “bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ,” as we read in Eph.1:10.

Sure, the rule of God is seen in Christians and their love and devotion to Christ.  But there is no way that that definition could exhaust the depth and totality of the Kingdom.  God’s plan of redemption is something that includes the whole universe.  And in the end that universe will be re-created and cleansed of all evil, sin will be totally eradicated and harmony will exist everywhere.

And if you are concerned by the lack of peace in this world; or a lack of a future for your children; if you’re saddened by evil and natural disasters; if your heart is torn when you see a husband and wife tear each other’s throats out; the most irrational conclusion you can draw from that is that God therefore does not exist.  Because right now you are standing face to face with His Kingdom in His Son Jesus Christ.  And He, my friend, is the only solution to this mad world!

And nothing that happens, whether on earth or in heaven, will frustrate God’s ultimate purpose, because the power of Christ’s Kingdom is so limitless that everything in the world serves His purpose.  Christ the King rules the Church and will bring her to glory, and so He orders the affairs of this world so that they conform to His ideal.

The question, of course, is “Why then is not the Church stronger than it is?  Why is the Church weak?  Why is it declining?”

In answering those questions, let’s remember that the Scriptures nowhere say that the Church will always be a majority, or infinitely strong in her every expression.

What the Scriptures do say is that when it comes to the age-old battle between evil, Satan and his followers with the Glorious Christ and the elect, then Christ will be the Victor!  The goodness of God will surely triumph over evil!  Even though it may often appear that evil has the upper hand, Christ has already won the decisive victory over Satan on Calvary.  “It is finished!” Jesus proclaimed.  He has done it.  Jesus Christ has won it…!!

Now from what we have said so far, it would appear that the Kingdom of God will triumph over evil.  But we have not really said why.

One reason the Kingdom of God will triumph is because Christ has ascended into heaven, where He now sits at the place of power.  And from there He will rule until all His enemies are defeated.  Without Christ’s ascent into the place of power, His work on the Cross will be a hollow and worthless act.  It would be a powerless act.  But God has elevated Christ to that position of power, and nothing is able to frustrate His Lordship.  The resurrection proves that Christ is King and Victor over the forces of death and evil; the ascension proves that the new order, the new age has already begun to overtake the old.  Christ’s Kingdom will be victorious because it already is!

That is really Luke’s point in writing the book of Acts.  He wants continually to show that Jesus Christ of Nazareth did not cease to exist on Good Friday.  But because God raised Him from the dead; because He has ascended into Heaven; because He sits at the right hand of the Father; He continues to lead, govern and protect His Church by His Word and Spirit.  And it is all possible because He is alive right now, and for eternity.  He is the Living God, the Living Saviour.

Another reason the Kingdom of God will triumph is because those who believe in Christ as Lord and Saviour; those who are subjects of his Kingdom, are empowered to do His will.  Christians aren’t just “garden variety” people; they are people in whom the exalted Christ rules by His Holy Spirit.

Let’s remember the disciples of Christ in our text.  Their Master has told them to wait for that promised power; that gift of the Father; that Baptism of the Holy Spirit.  And why did they have to wait?  Obviously because they were standing on the threshold of a new age; the age of the Holy Spirit.  So they had to wait until that Spirit came.

But more importantly, if it was the power of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit that would enable them to be witnesses for Christ; it would have been impossible for them to be His witnesses without it!

Today a lot is made of this Baptism of the Holy Spirit and His power, but tragically, much of it is a distortion of scriptural truth.

In the first place, the charismatic/pentecostal streams say that as the disciples were to wait for the power of the Holy Spirit, so also Christians must seek an “after conversion Baptism of the Spirit.”  But their error is clear.  They have really forgotten the unique position of these disciples.  Of course they had to wait for the Spirit, because in God’s unfolding plan of redemption, the Spirit had not yet been poured out on all the Church.

But they also forget that this is not something man can attain by his own effort.  It is a gift of God, which God has granted at His own discretion.  It is something in which man remains passive.  The Scriptures do not say “seek the gift of My Father” or “strive for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.”  It states matter of factly that they will be baptised with the Holy Spirit, and they will receive His power in the time of God’s own choosing.

But perhaps the most serious error of the pentecostal/charismatic stream is that their attention and emphasis is placed almost solely on the Spirit, His extraordinary gifts, and their effects on people.

But here in the Scriptures we find that the work of the Holy Spirit, and the sign of Baptism in the Holy Spirit is not that attention is drawn to miraculous signs, or to the power of the Holy Spirit, or even to the Person of the Holy Spirit Himself.  For the work and baptism of the Holy Spirit is seen in the fact that people become witnesses to none other than Jesus Christ.

In a town near where I live there is a lovely red-brick clock-tower.  And when you drive into that town at night, that clock-tower, now floodlit, dominates the whole scene.  Now I’m sure that very few people drive into town and think, “Hmm, what tremendous floodlights.”  Rather, I’m sure they would think, “Hmm, what a lovely clock-tower.”  I mention this because it seems that the Spirit is like a floodlight.  He does not wish to call attention to Himself or His power, or even to the effects of His power, but to Christ and His redemption.

A floodlight may be very powerful, but its role is to highlight something else, to point us to something, to show us the beauty and majesty of something other than itself.  Likewise the Holy Spirit, whose task it is to glorify Christ.

In John 14:26 Christ says, “The Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”  Further, in 15:26 Christ says, “When the Counsellor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, He will testify about Me.”  And again in 16:14, “He will bring glory to Me by taking from what is Mine and making it known to you.”  Thus, in terms of this text, the Holy Spirit’s work is to make men and women disciples of Christ and to empower them to testify to Him.

That’s the key, don’t you see?  Christ has won the victory over sin and death and hell.  Christ, who has ascended into heaven, who sits and reigns in all power; will rid this earth of every skerrick of sin, evil, of trouble and tears; and even now He has already begun to do so.

That is what Luke is getting at.  The battle is won in principle; it remains now for Christ to gather His sheep, and in His sovereign grace and in the power of the Spirit, He does that.  The Church, His Kingdom will grow.  “You will by my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  Victory is a reality, and now the message of that victory must go out through the whole earth.  God’s Kingdom will grow!

It is not a Kingdom like the nations of this world.  For to solve the problem of sin and death, we must look outside the physical and into the spiritual.  We must see that Christ, through His victory over Satan on the Cross, has death and sin licked and beaten.  And the power of the Kingdom is seen in the transforming power of the Spirit in the hearts of all people as they turn to Christ; convicted of their sin and convinced of His salvation they begin to live to His glory!

We look at the Church, that group of believers in the Book of Acts, and we see the very beginnings of Christ’s Church.  But this Church is, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Kingdom of the resurrected Lord.

And as we go through the Book of Acts we will see that no matter what, this Kingdom will triumph over all the forces of evil, for the Lord Jesus Christ is the Commander in Chief.  The Battle is won.  All that is left is the ongoing proclamation of Victory.

AMEN.