Word of Salvation – Vol.33 No.12 – March 1988
Christ, The Reigning King
Sermon by Rev. D. J. Groenenboom on Acts 1:1-3
Reading: Luke 1:1-4; Acts 1:1-3
Singing: BoW.H.9; BoW.H.15; BoW.H.20; BoW.H.13.
Brothers and Sisters in the Risen Lord,
I think that when we dwell on the topic of the ministry of Christ, we naturally think of His ministry in Palestine and Judea. After all, the first four gospels deal with that theme. And perhaps some are under the impression that when Christ ascended, it was the end of His activity for the Church. When we talk about the “finished work of Christ”, is that what we mean by it?
And so it’s good that we’re beginning a journey through the book of Acts. For it shows us more than the beginnings of the Church and the great missionary works of the early Church leaders. It also shows, and perhaps more importantly, that Christ is alive! He is the Living Word! It shows us that Christ’s work in and for the Kingdom continues after He left this earth. In fact the more you read the book of Acts, the more you are impressed with the fact that the exalted Christ is the main character in the book, and that the ongoing and unstoppable growth of His Kingdom is its theme.
“Acts” is an interesting name for a book in the Bible. It is often called by the lengthened name “The Acts of the Apostles. But we could just as easily call it, “The Acts of the Exalted Christ” or “The Acts of the Holy Spirit.” Because in it we see the Lord Jesus – in the face of every sort of evil – gathering, ruling and protecting His Church through the Holy Spirit.
- A Credible piece of Work.
We find that Acts is written by Luke. And before he goes on to his next piece of work, Luke wants to recap what he said in his last volume, the Gospel of Luke. In the opening verses of that Gospel, Luke describes his purpose in writing it. He wanted to write an orderly account so that his friend, Theophilus, would know the certainty of the things he had been taught. That’s what we read in Luke 1:3, 4.
Luke is said to have been a doctor. Whilst he was a pagan, he was a man, says Dr. Nederhood, “who had drunk deeply from the fountain of the finest heathen culture. His Greek was superb, literary and artistic. Luke was a noble representative of the best of the pagan world… but somewhere along the way, the power of the gospel touched his life and changed him.” And this very well-educated man saw the necessity to examine the evidence and testimony handed down by the first apostles to the rest of the church. His one concern was that the truth was passed on to Theophilus and others.
It is important that we realise that. For many have said and many continue to say that the authors of the New Testament were spiritual quacks and mystics. People who really wouldn’t be concerned with truth and accuracy.
But here we have evidence that it is not so. Luke was a well-educated man with a scientific mind. He was not only a Christian, but was also concerned to write an orderly account to encourage others in the certainty of the Gospel. His research came from others who were eyewitnesses to Christ’s resurrection, and from those who were first servants of the Word.
So let us not be fooled by those who profess to be wise; for in their statements, they show the glaring extent of their own ignorance of the Scriptures. If we want seriously to discover what the Bible has to say, let us look at the Bible; let us seek the guidance of the Primary Author, the Holy Spirit, who breathed out those Scriptures and moved men to write them.
Luke’s first work then, his Gospel, sets out all that Jesus began to do and teach; it was the beginning of his ministry. It traces Jesus’ birth; how he grew up with Joseph and Mary as His parents. It demonstrates the signs and wonders which displayed His awesome power as the Son of God. It shows this Almighty Son apprehended by a mob of Jewish leaders, nailed to a cross, and killed. It follows through to the time when he was resurrected from the dead after His death on the cross.
In Acts 3:1ff, Luke picks up that same theme. He shows that the cross did not spell the end for the Christ. Luke says that the execution of Jesus Christ on Calvary did not have the last say. Death was not the victor over Him. He was the Victor over death and sin! Even though he bore the terrible weight of the wrath of God for sin, death had no claim on Him. Proved!, says Luke, by the fact that he was raised from the dead.
You see, Christ’s resurrection is not something people merely talked about or wrote about. Those people actually heard Him, they saw Him with their own eyes – eyewitnesses in the truest sense of the word!
Now just imagine that someone came up to you later on today and said that they had seen Lionel Murphy walking down the street. I suspect you would doubt both their words and their sanity. We all know that Justice Murphy died in October 1986, and because of that your friend couldn’t have seen him. And even if your friend continued to maintain his point, you would have to assume that it was a case of mistaken identity, someone else who merely looked like him. But you would begin to think very differently if 5 or 10 others had also seen him; if 100 people reported seeing him you would find that evidence compelling indeed. You would have to agree that Justice Murphy was still alive.
Now with that in mind, we see the opening of the book of Acts. Luke mentions that after His suffering, Jesus showed Himself to His Apostles, and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of 40 days. In another book, we read that He first appeared to Peter, just one man, and perhaps biased? Ah, but then he appeared to the 12 including the most sceptical of them all, Thomas, who said he would not believe until he actually felt the marks left by the nails and the spear. And after that, Christ appeared in living and breathing reality to more than 500 at the same time. Then he appeared to James, and then to Paul on the road to Damascus.
People, there is no “strings and mirrors stuff” in the Bible! It is not some sort of confidence trick! It is not made up by people who just thought they had seen Jesus risen from the dead! They did see Him. They did touch Him. They did speak with Him, and eat with Him!
And God’s Word confronts us all today and proclaims to all of us that Jesus, the Eternal Son of God and True Man DID rise from the dead by the power of God! He is Victor over sin and death. He has been taken up to heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father.
Luke’s continual point is that when this Jesus went to heaven He did not stop ruling His Kingdom or working for its eventual consummation. For now as the exalted King He preserves and builds His Church.
- It Concerns Christ and His Kingdom
That’s what Luke is saying in the book of Acts. Jesus is alive! He is the Living Lord! And not only has He paid for the sins of His people, but He protects His people, His Church, as well.
The Christian Church, and therefore everyone who confesses Christ as Lord, has not been left alone. They are not orphans without a parent. Christ rules them, protects them and causes them to grow through the presence of the Holy Spirit; the Counsellor, the Comforter.
That thought is picked up in the Heidelberg Catechism. In its explanation of the words of the Lord’s Prayer in Q.A.123 we read:
“Thy Kingdom come” means Rule us by your Word and Spirit in such a way that more and more we submit to you. Keep your Church strong and add to it. Destroy the devil’s work; destroy every force which revolts against you and every conspiracy against your Word. Do this until your Kingdom is so perfect and complete that in it you are all in all.”
Therefore the comfort of the Gospel – that Christ has redeemed those who believe from all their wrongs – would collapse in a heap if He did not speak from Heaven to His people by the Holy Spirit through the Word.
But, because of sinful blindness, natural man cannot see the truth of that. The truth is that for years people have been saying that there is no such person as God. Nevertheless, they still search the universe for signs of intelligent life; signs that there is someone like us; signs that perhaps we can pull ourselves out of the horrific wasteland we are in. And yet they go right past the Living and Eternal God who reveals Himself to us in the Scriptures! They go right past the God Who alone can give hope and meaning to our crazy mixed-up world.
Don’t you see?? The only hope for any one today, the only hope for this world is found in God! And God speaks to us through the Scriptures and calls out to all who can hear and says:
Do you want hope!? Do you really search for meaning, purpose, forgiveness – the promise of an eternity without nuclear threats, cancer, murder and all evil? Then believe in My Son Jesus Christ! He is the door to that eternal life! You enter the Kingdom only through Him.
People of God, the message of the Kingdom of Christ is that we are not alone! We are not abandoned! That’s what the Spirit proclaims to us through the book of Acts!
CHRIST LIVES FOREVER!!
And his Kingdom will never end! That message of the Victory of the Kingdom; the overall rule of God over the Church and the World and all the people in it, was the message of Christ before the crucifixion, and it continues to be His message after His resurrection. It is the central theme of the book of Acts, and it must be the central priority in our hearts as well. Our Lord Himself has said, “Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness…!” Let us be sure that we do it! Let us see to it that nothing stands between us and the Kingdom of God. Not our career, our families, our interests in life, our leisure, nothing! For nothing is worthy of such honour! We say Christ has given His life for us, and so we will live our lives to His glory and praise. His self-giving leads us to thanksgiving.
It has been the same all along. The message of the exalted Christ has not changed one bit. He says: “Come to me all who are tired, and I will give you rest!” That does not mean that He will turn us into spiritual bludgers; it’s not that sort of rest. Not rest from physical labour. But rest from the most demeaning, tiresome, depressing labour of all. That form of striving which leaves us aghast to realise that all our efforts are getting us nowhere! For every one step forward we are forced five steps back. That labour, that work is man’s own struggle against his own sin and spiritual estrangement.
The message of the Christ is that there is only one way to be free from that labour, that useless passion. And that is not through self-effort, good behaviour, hard work, and a fine, upstanding life. That gives us Hell for our life’s duration, and keeps us there for eternity. The message of the Cross to us who seek life is that life eternal comes only through faith in Christ. Jesus Christ is the door to the Kingdom of God. We may enter only through Him.
All the other alternatives, all the other and often more popular ways of salvation and deliverance are ways of death and unremitted agony. Purely because they do nothing about the sin of our nature and our lives of rebellion against God. But the beauty and wonder of the Gospel is that Christ has hung on the cross as the substitute for all who look to Him in faith. He has died their death, put their sin to death forever, and has been raised again by the Father to show the reality of that redemption.
That is the great news of the Kingdom. Jesus is King! Victor over death and evil. And to you who believe He has not only taken away all your sin, but you also have been given life in His name!
The book of Acts, and the Spirit who moved Luke to write it, call you to faith today. Acts challenges you to see Christ as He really is. The exalted Lord and Saviour of all. It calls you to cease trusting in yourself, and to place your trust completely in Him.
Listen to the Christ as He speaks through the book of Acts, and you will be driven to the conclusion that He was not only a good man, but that He is living today and lives forever, and that He is indeed Lord and Saviour of all who believe.
AMEN