The Church Isn't a Gathering. It's a Movement.

0:00We're going to spend a little bit of time going through the book of Acts. Because I'm trying to rev everything. I want everything to revolve around this clarity God's given us for the next year of 120 120 people alive in Christ, new disciples of Christ that are being formed and sent. And so in order to do that, I just really wanted to look at the birth of the church. What what happened when the church started? The book of Acts is a very historical book. It outlines what happens the moment Jesus ascends to heaven all the way through probably about 60 to 65 AD after Paul is going to all these Roman cities and preaching the gospel to like Felix and Caesar and all these people. So it's about 30 years of history that we have in 28 chapters. And what I want us what the thread I want to pull on and the angle that I want to take with the book of Acts is this the birth of the church was not just a new gathering place for people. It wasn't just like oh now a new place to belong. Although it was that it was a new place to belong. And we'll pull on this thread and you'll see how it was a family and all these people different ethnicities from different places. They found family in this place. But it was a family of missionaries that the church isn't just a gathering to go to but a mission to join. The church is a movement. It was a movement when it started and is continually a movement today. Even think about Jesus's command at the very or his invitation at the very beginning of Jesus's ministry.

1:35He said, "Follow me and I will make you a fisher of men." In other words, Jesus's priority for anybody who says yes to following him is to form that person into the type of person that can go catch and rescue men and women out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son. That's his priority. When you signed up and you said yes to Jesus at the start, you were signing up to be transformed by Jesus into someone who could do what Jesus did. So what did he do? He said, "Follow me." And he literally did what he did in front of them. Cast out demons, healed the sick, preached the good news. Wherever he went, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And he spent his whole ministry for three years training these 12 guys and beyond how to release the kingdom of heaven on the earth. And what that looked like tangibly was people who were far from God coming near to God by the power of the Holy Spirit and the preaching of the gospel. That's the whole story of the gospels. And eventually Jesus dies on the cross and he comes back to life which really gives fire to the whole movement because up until that time they saw some cool things. But if Jesus died and stayed dead, then the movement would have died. But it didn't. He rose again. And that's what we're going to look at. But the book of Acts is a movement. It's it's Jesus what he started when he said, "Follow me. I'll make you fisher of men." He's continuing by the power of the Holy Spirit.

3:08And it's a movement. Do you know what a movement is? A movement is not necessarily revival. When you think about a movement, it's not just converts, not just thousands, hundreds of thousands of people coming to know Jesus in a moment of time. Although, praise God for that and that's part of a movement. A movement is when that happens and then ordinary people, not pastoral staff, not key leaders, not charismatics who stand on the stage and preach, but ordinary people embody the central core convictions in such a way that they spread it naturally and organically to anybody they come across. So what marks a movement is reproduction and multiplication, not addition and gathering. And the hope is if you start a movement, the hope is that it takes on a life of its own to the point where you step back and you're seeing your influence all over the place. I'm saying your influence really, the Lord's influence all over the place and you're not having any touches with it. You're not directly or indirectly involved with it. It's just spiraling out of your control. That's what a movement is. And you know, a movement of the Holy Spirit's happening when Jesus is the center of it and he's the one that's being exalted. So when I'm talking about a church, a movement of God, I'm talking about ordinary people being infused with the power of the Holy Spirit to go and continue doing exactly what Jesus did. And yes, the signs and wonders and the miracles, but specifically the reproduction, the discipleship. I'm passing on what I've learned to somebody else by the power of the spirit and they're going to do the same and they're going to do the same.

4:43To the point where guys, we're sitting here right now because it works. You and I are sitting here because this movement that Jesus started works and now we're getting wrapped up in it. And I believe every church that's planted is truly a movement waiting to happen. The the Lord has encouraged me this last week in a lot of different ways. One of the ways he's encouraged me is that we're not just trying to start a gathering of people that come together on a Saturday night. We're trying to start a movement that goes beyond us rapidly mobilizing ordinary people by the power of the Holy Spirit to preach the word of God. Not from a stage, but at a coffee shop. Not from this stage right here, but in your neighborhood, in on walks, in restaurants, in your workplace. A movement really starts to take place when people like you, ordinary people in the places they live, work, and play are beginning to share the message of Jesus organically with those that you know. That's why I had Chloe share a story. That's why we're doing the equipping luncheon. That's why we're going to the book of Acts because we're going to see the seeds, the start of this ordinary people being infused with the power of the Holy Spirit and continuing on what Jesus started. It says the Acts of the Apostles. That's a little bit misleading. And and this is this is common knowledge. This is not just Josh having an opinion. It's it's kind of like people are like, "Why Acts of the Apostles?" Because the apostles only do like a little bit at the beginning. And then Paul kind of does a ton, right? But there's so many stories, the majority of the stories are ordinary people empowered by the Holy Spirit doing the acts of Jesus.

6:14So it should be the acts of the Holy Spirit. Give you a little statistic. This is really cool. In the book of Luke, which was also written by the same author of Acts, Luke wrote Luke and he wrote Acts. Acts is part two, the sequel to what he started in Luke. In the book of Luke, the Holy Spirit is mentioned about 17 times in 24 chapters. In Acts, in 28 chapters, the Holy Spirit is mentioned almost 60 times. So 17 to 60. There's four more chapters in Acts, but still per chapter, the Holy Spirit's mentioned more times in this book by a long shot. What does that tell you? Just simple math, simple observation before we even study the text is that one of, if not the priority. In fact, I'll say the hero of this book of Acts is the Holy Spirit. It's them learning how to partner with the spirit of Jesus to continue the mission of Jesus. And when the church surrenders collectively to the Holy Spirit, you see unity, you see fiery worship, and you see zeal on the mission field. But no one person could have just conjured that up. No one person like Peter could have just rallied the troops and used his gift of mobilization and exhortation to get people to move and do what happens in this book. It was all the Holy Spirit starting in Acts chapter 2 and carrying on as they continually were filled with the Holy Spirit to preach the gospel in the face of suffering and see many get healed, saved, and delivered in the name of Jesus. And this is the story that we are living in y'all.

7:44This is not something we look at in the past and say that's cool then but now it looks different. I would say yeah it does look different. It's not a onetoone comparison. This is Jewish. This is the first century Jewish culture right 2026 in America. Very different. It's going to look different. But there are some things that go through the book of Acts. These principles these ideals these concepts that we should grab a hold of and make true of us today. And that's why we're studying the book of Acts. And so in Acts chapter 1, let's let's go and read the first few verses should be on the screen for you if you don't have your Bible. In the first book, O Theophilos, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God. And stop there. Theophilus. We don't know anything about that dude. His name means lover of God. We don't know who he was. So perhaps maybe this book was written to all lovers of God. That that we can say that. I do believe Theophilus was a specific person. We know nothing about him. But but Luke says, "I have dealt in the first book, which is the Gospel of Luke. I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach." If he began to do and teach those things in the Gospel of Luke, that means he continued to do and teach those things in the book of Acts. But like I've already said now it's through the person of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said before he died, rose again, and ascended to heaven that he was going to send them a helper, the Paraclete.

9:15In other words, someone of the same kind, someone who was just like Jesus in substance, but distinct from Jesus in person. I like to talk about it this way. If I gave you an apple, which by the way, a cold honey crisp apple, there is none that compare. Okay, that's like the only apple you should eat. Cold honey crisp. Amanda's shaking her head. It's true. You need to repent. You're like, "What?" envy. No, just kidding. I'm sure it's great. Sounds like what Eve ate in the garden. Anyways, just kidding. Just kidding. So honey crisp apple. If I gave you honey crisp apple, Luke, and I said, "Here, eat this." You ate it. And you had the whole experience of a cold honey crisp apple. You're like, "Oh, yum." The next day, I said, "Here, have this honey crisp apple." And you ate it. Did I give you the same apple? I didn't, but I did. Same kind of apple, giving you the same experience as the first one, but it's a distinct apple from the second. There's two of them. The same thing goes with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the same as Jesus in substance and in what experience he delivers, but he's distinct from Jesus, which is a really good really good news because Jesus is one person that can be in one place at one time. And what we'll read and go in the next couple weeks, I'll talk about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and what happened really on Acts chapter 2. You don't want to miss out. It's going to be great. But what Jesus promised was that there was going to be someone else that came that's distinct from me, but it's going to deliver the same exact experience that I would if I was running around in your shoes.

10:47So if Jesus was standing right here, you would feel the same way as if the Holy Spirit descended on this room, which he is, by the way, because the Holy Spirit is where the church gathers. So this is the amazing promise that Jesus had and the Holy Spirit is the one who is beginning or continuing the teachings and actions of Jesus through the apostles. So he says in the first book I've dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up after he had been had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. Okay? In other words, Luke went all the way to the point that Jesus ascended to the right hand of the father. And in that little gap of time from his resurrection to his ascension, it says that he gave commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. The resurrected Jesus, the resurrected Lord gave commands through the Holy Spirit. You see the priority that Luke is trying to put on the book of Acts from the beginning. He's making it. Hey, even Jesus, even Jesus taught and did everything he did through and by the Holy Spirit. And then he presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs. We're going to look at that here in a second in Luke 24. Appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God. Man, I wish I was there for that. Like the resurrected Lord Jesus by the power of the spirit giving commands and teachings on the kingdom of God.

12:18Amazing. So, let's let's actually go back to Luke 24. Should have it on the screen for you. But I want to go and look at what Luke is referring to because this is going to set up the rest of the book of Acts for us because it's the last thing Jesus does and teaches them before he ascends and then sends out his apostles. We'll start in verse 36 and just kind of walk through this a little bit and then see where the Lord takes us. In in verse 36, context-wise, Jesus has risen from the dead. He has revealed himself to the guys, the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Told them to go tell them other people. And so they did. And so they're like, "Wait, here they're hearing this testimony of these guys on the road to Emmaus." They're like, "What? You saw what? Jesus did what? He broke the bed and you bread and you felt what?" And they're they're processing this testimony live. And as they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace to you." But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, "Why are you troubled and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet that it is I myself. Touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?" They gave him a piece of broiled fish.

13:4940 Oh, I was like 43. And he took it and ate before them. Then he said to them, "These are my words." Hold on, I'm going to stop right there. I'm going to stop after 43. He took it and ate before them. Okay, so here's what's happening. They've just been through this entire traumatic event where they saw Jesus die on a cross, the man they had put all their hope in, the man they had left all of their jobs for, and they see him die, and they don't know what to do with themselves. They're hearing these weird testimonies about Jesus being alive, but they clearly don't believe it. They're not believing any of it. And then Jesus stands in their midst, and they immediately think that he is a spirit. They don't believe that it's they're seeing the resurrected Lord in the flesh and they don't believe that it's him. How does Jesus prove to them that it's him? That's the question at hand because the that answer to that will lead to Jesus being so alive and real for you that you're able to do the very thing he commands you to do next, which is to go and be a witness. Spoiler alert. At the end of this, he tells them, "You will be my witnesses." And you can't witness to something you've not witnessed. In order to witness to the risen Lord, you have to have encountered the risen Lord and believe that he truly did walk out of that grave. So Jesus walks them through this little hilarious experiment where he's trying to prove to them, I'm really here. So what does he do? Let's go back to 36, please. First thing he does, he says, "Peace to you." Why?

15:21Because they're startled and frightened thinking they're seeing a ghost. So he shows up. He's like, "Hey, chill. Chill. Peace. It's okay. Shalom. It's going to be okay." And he said to them, "Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your heart? Let me just stop and say something about that." I grew up in church and I grew up doing everything that you can imagine doing for a church. I went to youth group. I went to church on Sundays and I would look around in worship most of my life and there would be people that seemed to just have something that I didn't have. And it I didn't know what it was. And it was I mean I wish I could go back in time and really experience it again. But I distinctly have a picture in my mind of me sitting at the church that I went to with my family and we're up in like the balcony and everybody's worshiping and I'm sitting there like this and I'm just watching I'm watching everybody around me like worship the Lord with zeal. Some for some people they were just singing really loud, some people were raising their hands, but they just looked alive. Like as they were worshiping Jesus, they just looked alive and joyful and at peace and like they were like they had something that like I didn't have. And it was really, it really bothered me because the knowledge I had about Jesus wasn't like connecting. And if you would have asked me like, "Do you love Jesus? Like have affection for him?" The right answer is to say yes. But if I said yes, I would have been lying. Cuz I had felt no affection for Jesus.

16:56I knew what he did for me. I knew the gospel. I grew up in church. I was hearing it preached every single weekend. But for whatever reason, it wasn't real for me. Like Jesus wasn't real. It was a concept that somehow we gather around on Sundays and do some things, but like there's no zeal in my heart for the mission of God to share the gospel and make disciples. There's no passion in me to worship unending like forever and ever. There's no desire to really be open and honest with people about my struggles. Like everything you would look for in someone who's spiritually alive was not in me. And I naturally look inward and condemn myself. And I'm like, there's something wrong with me. Blah blah. But I think the Lord right here gives us two reasons that might be the case. Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your heart? For me, there was doubts in my heart. True doubts about does God really love me? It was a faith problem. If you would have said, well, if you would asked me now like what did the others have that you didn't? I would have said faith. There was no faith in me. Like I knew all the right stuff, but the substance of faith hadn't hit my heart. And so I hear Jesus, I would him coming to high school Josh and saying, "Why do doubts arise in your heart?" For many of us, if we're not exemplifying what it should look like to be spiritually alive, which I've already kind of outlined, passionate worship, like love of God's presence and zeal for his mission, like you're sharing the gospel and trying to witness like Chloe was talking about or like confessing your sin and being open and honest and saying, "Here's what I'm struggling with.

18:27Can you please pray for me?" Those things are a sign that someone's spiritually alive. And if everything I just mentioned, maybe you got two of them, maybe you got one of them, maybe you got all three of them. There's there's there may be a trouble or a doubt in your heart that the Lord is trying to address, not to condemn and say you're missing it, but to say, "Would you come and touch me?" Just like what he says next, they go from being troubled to being invited to touch his hands. Like the truest type of encounter with flesh and bone. And so if we kept reading, he says, "See my hands and my feet." He doesn't come to them. And he's coming to people with doubts and trouble in their heart. He's not coming to expectant and eager disciples. He's not coming to people who are like, "I can't wait for Jesus to show up. I know it's coming. He told us he was going to raise from the dead, and I believe it." No one believed it. So, when he's coming to this room, he's not entering a room that has expectation and faith. He's coming into a room that has doubts and troubles, no faith. They're hearing testimonies, eyewitness testimonies of women and men encountering the risen Lord. And they're like, "No, I don't think so." And that's the room Jesus comes in and says, "Look, it's me. See my hands. See my feet. Come and touch them." This is so encouraging. Jesus doesn't look at the doubts of your heart and the troubles of your life, the things that have kept you from him.

20:00He doesn't look at those and say, "I can't believe what I can't again." No, he draws near and he shows you his wounds. This is the first thing he's saying. I'm I'm showing you my wounds. It's really me. I really did it and I'm really alive. And for good measure, give me a piece of fish. And he eats in front of them, which he had done every day with these guys for three years. You don't think they didn't recognize him when he sat down and ate that fish the same exact way he ate it for 3 years when he was with them? He does something so normal and common that it's almost like I'm having an out of body right now. As he's lifting his hand to eat the fish on the back of his hand, I'm seeing a hole right there. He comes to ones with doubts in their heart and troubles. And the invitation is to come look and touch my wounds. He does. He's not scared or hindered by your doubts and your troubles. He comes to a room full of those guys and invites them in again. Reminds me of the first invitation. Follow me. I'll make you fishers of men. And here they are still not getting it. And they're looking at the risen Lord. He's like, "Hey, come here. It's okay. I'm inviting you closer. I'm skin. I'm bones. I'm flesh. Touch my hands." This is the beginning. What Jesus is doing right now is he's beginning to stoke a fire in them. Because what's going to happen for this movement to take off is there's going to have to be a white hot center core of people that are on fire with love for Jesus and zeal for his mission.

21:32And where does it start? With a bunch of dudes who are troubled at heart and doubting despite seeing the risen Lord. And Jesus being a master disciplemaker and a master of stirring up faith. He's coming to them and be like, "It's me, guys. I'm not scared of your doubts and your troubles. It's really me." And I can just feel the faith begin to stir in their hearts as they're looking at it. And in fact, that's exactly what happens. And when he said this, oh, go back. That's okay. Getting eager. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieve for joy, have you ever had so much joy, you're like, I can't believe it. Like I feel like that's what they're saying right now. They're like, "I can't believe this." But they like believe it, but they're saying, "I can't believe it." They disbelieved for joy and they were marveling. And then he said, "Have you anything to eat?" And they give him fish. And he eats the fish. Do you just feel like the faith stirring in them? Like this dude really is alive. He pulled it off. He called it. He said he was going to die and come back and we didn't believe it. And here he is. And he's not mad we didn't believe it. He's actually coming near to show us the wounds that it really is him. Oh, the Jesus Storybook Bible is so good. Guys, go read the resurrection story in the Jesus Storybook Bible tonight. If you don't have one, I'm not even kidding. Go to Barnes & Noble and buy one and go home and read the story of when they encounter the risen Jesus. It will light you up. The language it uses and it's talking about it's like the world is being made new again.

23:04Like there's color and things are brighter than they've ever been before. It's like everything is beginning to make sense as they're seeing the risen Lord in front of them. But Jesus doesn't stop there. You know what he does? He's like, "Yeah, let's open the Bible. Let's have a Bible study." So, what does he do? Let's go. Let's keep reading. He goes from his wounds to his word. Okay, this is the progression from how we're going to get to this burning white hot center that starts a movement that goes to the ends of the earth. Then he said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. It's powerful. And he said to them, "Thus it is written." This is the risen Lord. And he's pointing to the biblical text, like what's written down, what they had in synagogues, the Old Testament. He's saying, "Hey, let's go back. We need to look at this because you need to connect this that what you're experiencing right now has been foretold from like eternity past and he's opening supernaturally opening their minds to understand the scriptures. And what does he do with this with what does he do with that? He gives them two keys to really understanding what the Old Testament is all about. The first one we talked about at length in the first year and we'll continue to as long as we're here doing this. We're going to be talking about this. Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead. The first key to understanding the Old Testament and not just understanding the Old Testament but for your heart coming alive in Jesus is that the Old Testament is all about the suffering and resurrection of Jesus.

24:36I talked about this last week, a week before. If you look, if I promise if you went to the Old Testament and you had one simple prayer and you said, "Holy Spirit, I ask that you would show me Jesus." And you went in the Old Testament and you looked for Jesus in the Old Testament. Start with Genesis 1, you're going to see things like, "And God said, "Let there be light." And there was light. And you're going to think John chapter 1, in the beginning, the word was with God and the word was God. And he was the light of the world. And you're going to connect that when Jesus spoke, "Let there be light." You're going to see that he's talking about his son Jesus. He said, "Let there be light." Before there was sun and moon and stars. How can there be light without sun and moon and stars? The priority of creation is that the son of God might be on display and that the light of Jesus would cast out the darkness. That's what Genesis is all about. So, when you look in the Old Testament and you look for Jesus, you're going to see stuff like that and your heart's just going to go. It's going to start burning and your mind's going to start understanding the scriptures. But Jesus doesn't stop there. He doesn't stop with just the suffering and resurrection of Jesus. He goes on and says, "And that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem." What's he doing? He's saying, "Hey guys, here's my role in all of redemption, the suffering lamb who makes a way for people to be right with God again. And here's your part to preach about it." And in fact, that's not a new mission.

26:09The people of God have been on that mission from the beginning. So when you think about stories, I think this is what's happening. Like when they're hearing him say this and he opens their minds to understand the scriptures, I think what's happening is that they're beginning to see stories like Abraham in a whole new light. They're seeing Abraham and Isaac going up on the mountain realizing that when Isaac isn't killed, but the ram is killed, they're starting to see Jesus was killed so that I don't have to be killed. Like I was spared and the son of God wasn't spared. And and their heart's coming alive at that. But then they're also realizing like the promise that God gave to Abraham when he says in you shall all nations be blessed. What he's realizing is that when he said in you to Abraham what's really he's talking about is in you Jesus. Jesus comes from the Abrahamic lineage and he's the one in whom when we come by faith the Gentiles are saved. They're beginning to see that not only is it all about the suffering and resurrection of Jesus, but that his plan from the beginning was not just that the Jewish people would be the people of God, but that they would become the blessing and conduit through which faith would spread to the ends of the earth. And now they are seeing that we get to play a part in that today. Like they're seeing the risen Lord and being commissioned to simply go preach repentance and forgiveness of sins in his name to all nations beginning in Jerusalem. They've seen Jesus's role in all of redemption. Now they're seeing their role in all of redemption to preach Jesus. And guess what? He's not just talking about preachers. This is not just something I read and think, "Oh, sweet." We are all witnesses to the risen Lord.

27:40And this movement that starts in the book of Acts, there's two simple rhythms that happen in this entire book that I believe are just so essential. They gathered and then they scattered. They gathered because they've encountered the risen Lord together. And in fact, you can't be a witness to the risen Lord unless he's real to you. Unless you've really encountered him cuz then what are you even witnessing to? And the gathering is encountering, loving, blessing Jesus and encouraging one another and stirring one another up onto love and good deeds. And then we scatter and we go out and we reach. This rhythm is be touched by Jesus and then preach Jesus. Those two things empowered by the Holy Spirit is what starts this movement and carries it on until here we are today. It's not complicated. I was thinking about I' well I've been thinking a lot about just equipping and how do we help people really see like what it could look like to be a witness in their everyday life. And and then I just felt like the Lord was saying to me this week when I was studying this like, "Okay, that stuff is good." But if the what if your priority was simply making space for Jesus to be more real to me, like he's more real, like he's present in this room, like he's alive, and his promise was that he is among us when two or three gathered in his name. What would a community look like if the risen Lord invaded our gatherings in such a way that we forgot about everything else and all eyes were on the risen Lord.

29:11When when it says in Acts that he presented himself alive, he is still doing that to this day. This is for the church and it's for those that don't know Jesus. We need Jesus to be more real to us than anything else. And when that happens, I truly believe the most organic natural thing is to go tell people about him. And case in point, look at any new Christian, what do new Christians do? They can't help but shut up about Jesus. They walk around and tell everybody they know about Jesus. Why? Cuz he's more real to them now than he's ever been in their entire life. And somewhere along the lines, I think we can just grow troubled and doubts can arise in our hearts. And there's no reason to be condemned by that. The invitation is for you to come and see him again. And he's giving us the window through which to see him. It's called the scripture. It's called the Bible. So this is not a revolutionary message. I'm I'm like I'm saying right now if you feel like Jesus is not real to you like you struggle to really share the gospel you struggle to be motivated to do that you're not worship is kind of coming hard prayer you feel like there's lots of resistance you just you don't feel spiritually alive the solution is to look at the wounds in the word is a portal to his wounds and when you see his wounds you see his love and his love is what breaks chains and makes your heart come alive so if you feel not spiritually alive.

30:42I have really good news. You have a book written down with pen and paper that the Holy Spirit inspired and has sustained for centuries that is a portal and a window in which we look at the one who stokes faith in us. The man with fire in his eyes can stoke a fire in your heart. This is the formula for coming spiritually alive in Jesus. Go look for him in the scriptures. Let your heart burn. Let the Holy Spirit have his way in you. Be open in community about it. Say like, "I'm struggling. I'm not spiritually alive." Tell someone that. Have them pray for you. What an amazing gift that Jesus has given us. And this is why he went and did a Bible study only a few days after he rose from the dead. He opened it up and he showed them all of it's about my suffering, what I've done for you, and also what you're going to do for the world as you preach. Those two simple things, Jesus being real and Jesus being preached by the people of God empowered by the spirit is as simple as I can put. How and why? That movement that started in Acts chapter 2 has continued to this day. Because when you truly encounter Jesus, it is a it starts a fire in you that cannot go out. And when people come around you, they feel that fire. They can't help but get lit themselves. And then they go off and they do the same. This is organic.

32:15It's it's it's not it's not organized. There's organiz there's organization that comes later as they're like trying to steward the life that the Holy Spirit is stoking, but it's not as structured and organized at the beginning. And I think that's so refreshing cuz it's just a fire that comes and burns them up. And that fire is called the Holy Spirit. So he gives them a promise. He says, "Hey, but I've done all this for you. I've opened your minds to understand the scriptures. I've done all these things for you. But you're still missing something before you go out and preach. You need to remember and wait for the power of the Holy Spirit to come upon you cuz you will be clothed with power from on high. And in Acts chapter 2, you know the story that the Holy Spirit falls on them. They get filled. They speak in tongues and prophesy. Gifts of the Holy Spirit are released and 3,000 people come to know Jesus in one moment, one sermon. Our number is 120. 3,000 in one day with one sermon empowered by the Holy Spirit. I'll take that. There's a couple of things I want to note just as we're closing this our first message on the book of Acts. There's a few connections I want us to continue to have as we move forward. Number one, the mission of God connected to the church of God, the people of God. The church was always existed for the mission. The mission didn't exist for the church. In other words, Jesus didn't give the church a mission just to keep us busy and on purpose. He has a mission that he's gathered a people to go on.

33:46Does that make some sense? It's different than just thinking, "Yeah, I should go do this, I guess." No. God is on mission seeking to save the lost across all nations to the ends of the earth. And his method of doing that is lighting up a normal ordinary group of people with the power of his holy spirit to send them to go and do that. But I think if we think of the church in any other way other than simply a group of people that become family in the process of ushering in the kingdom of heaven then we need to rethink some things. I want us to see that what we're doing is not just about a new way of doing church or a new community that we can be a belong to. Although maybe those things are true. I want us to see that we're joining a mission. God is on like a movement, a true movement that's going to go beyond us. That disciples make disciples make disciples. And that fire just catches and goes and goes and goes. The second thing is that we'll pull on. I'm not going to say much about this, but we're going to pull on this throughout the book of Acts. We need to be absolutely trusting in the sufficiency of the word of God. In the book of Acts, when you see the word of God, like in Acts 6 and Acts 12, it talks about the word of God multiplying. The word of God is not simply just to like the Bible. The word of God means the word about Jesus, his life, death, resurrection, and exaltation. That's what the word of God means in the book of Acts. And when that gospel, when that word is preached, stuff happens. It is not my gifting or your gifting that's going to move this movement forward. It is simply the power of the gospel of the word of God.

35:18And as we preach, it will do its job. It will work and it will blow our minds. Thirdly, we have to trust and be totally dependent on the power of the Holy Spirit. He's going to have to move and he's going to challenge the way we think God even does stuff. I mean, you start turning to the Holy Spirit, preaching the gospel, he's going to do something that makes you look real foolish real quick. And we're going to have to be okay with that. We're going to have to be okay with being totally surrendered and at any given moment being willing to look like a fool. That's hard for me. I don't like looking like a fool. I like looking like I kind of have some things together. But the Holy Spirit will call you to do things that challenge you, that push you beyond what you thought God would do. But it's for the sake of this movement going forward and those that are lost coming to know Jesus. And it's way is a way more fun way of doing it. I have a lot of stories, but we'll save those for another