Prepare for Worship | Only the Beginning
Last Sunday, Pastor Ken Lewis closed our “Love One Another” series by encouraging us to pray for one another from James 5:13-20.
Read: Acts 1:1-3
This Sunday, Pastor Jason Finley will begin our new series: “Acts: Christ’s Reign and the Church’s Birth” with a sermon from Acts 1:1-3. As you prepare for our Sunday gathering, be encouraged by these words from John Piper.
Reflect: “Only the Beginning”
Hebrews 10:12 says, “When Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.” When Jesus cried, “It is finished,” the debt was paid, the sins were covered, the wrath was removed and Satan was mortally wounded. I don’t want to minimize the glorious once-for-allness of that in any way.
But I do want to stress what Luke says here — that what Jesus did on the earth in his tough, compassionate, loving, healing deeds and what he said on the earth in his truthful, authoritative, convicting, comforting teaching was only the beginning of his doing and his teaching. This is absolutely crucial for understanding the purpose of the book of Acts and who we are as a church and what this age is all about. Because the clear implication is that now — now that Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father — he is not finished. He is not done with his work and with his teaching. He is not dead and he is not absent. He is alive and he is present. He is doing and he is teaching.
The incarnation of the Son of God into human flesh, the once-for-all sacrifice of himself for sin on the cross, the mighty resurrection and ascension to the Father’s right hand is just the beginning of what Jesus came to do and to teach. And the rest of what he came to do, he does now in this age until the time appointed by the Father for the consummation of all things. That is the point of the book of Acts and that is why we exist as a church and that is what this age is all about. The book of Acts is not just the acts of the apostles; it is the acts of the risen, living, enthroned Jesus. He said in Matthew 16:18, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” This is Luke’s point. Jesus began his doing and teaching until he was taken up to heaven. Now he goes on completing his doing and teaching — he goes on building his church just like he said he would.
Excerpt from the sermon: “What Jesus Did After the Beginning,” September 16, 1990, by John Piper.
Sing: Song List for Sunday
1. “All the Earth,” by Vertical Worship
2. “Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery,” by Matt Boswell
3. “Come Thou Fount (Above All Else),” Arr. Shane & Shane
4. “Thank You Jesus for the Blood,” by Charity Gayle
5. “Christ Our Hope in Life and Death,” Arr. Shane & Shane