Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
What is a healthy church?
24 Plays30 days ago
Acts 1:1-11
Captivated by Christ
Centered on Christ
Controlled by the Spirit
Recommended
Transcript
What is God's Dream for First Baptist Church Cameron?
00:00:01
Speaker
I'd like to begin this morning with a big question. So I hope you've had your coffee this morning. Maybe you need to sit up in your pew. Maybe you need to look over to your neighbor, shake them, wake them up. Here's the big question I want to ask you this morning.
Envisioning God's Dream: A Reflection on MLK's Vision
00:00:23
Speaker
What is God's dream, his desire for First Baptist Church Cameron?
00:00:32
Speaker
And as we think about this question, I want to take you back to the events of 1963, the inspiring events of 1963. Come with me to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial Building, where Martin Luther King climbed those steps, and he approached the Bay of Microphones, and with the entire watching world listening, he said these famous words, I have a dream.
00:01:02
Speaker
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and of sons of former slave owners will sit down together around the table of brotherhood. I have a dream. I have a dream that one day the great state of Mississippi, the state sweltering with the heat of oppression and sweltering with the heat of injustice will one day be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice, I have a dream. I have a dream that one day my four children will grow up in a country where they will no longer be judged by the color of their skin, but rather by the content of their character. This is my dream, and I have a dream today. And friends, it's in that moment that the world sat up and took notice.
00:01:56
Speaker
They took notice of one man who had a dream. One man who believed that the world would simply catch this dream that it could be changed forever. So here's the question I want to ask you this morning.
God's Dream: Forming a Mission-Driven Community
00:02:11
Speaker
If we could have God climb up these steps here this morning and approach this microphone here and speak to his people about his dream for his church, what would he say?
00:02:26
Speaker
Here's what I'm convinced that he'd say based upon the study of the New Testament that we're going to look at today in the book of Acts. Here's what God's dream, his passionate dream for his people would be this. would It would be to form a community of Christ-centered, spirit-filled worshippers of the triune God.
00:02:50
Speaker
who would be formed as disciples in the image of Christ and mobilized for mission, not just here in Cameron, but out to Milam County. Not just to Milam County, but beyond to the ends of the earth. For God knows that if our church were to grasp that dream, our world could be changed forever. Who doesn't want a dream like that?
00:03:17
Speaker
What a better time of year at the end of 2024 just on the cusp of 2025 that we can look at what our church can become this upcoming year. I want to show you quite intimately from Acts chapter 1 today what the Apostle will have us look at when it talks about the ideal healthy church.
Signs of a Healthy Church
00:03:42
Speaker
We're going to look at three things. We're going to look at A healthy church is first captivated by Christ. Second, it is centered on Christ. And third, it is led or controlled by the Spirit. These are the three healthy signs of a church captivated by Christ, meaning you just can't get enough of him.
00:04:08
Speaker
centered on Christ, meaning the whole world that you live in revolves around Him and only Him. And third, being controlled by the Spirit, meaning every decision that we make, every encounter that we have is led by the Spirit. So I want us to look today at Acts chapter one if you have your Bible's New Testament right after John. Acts chapter one, one through 11,
00:04:37
Speaker
this introductory section here of the book of Acts, written by Dr. Luke, who wrote the Gospel of Luke, and this is now his second volume, Acts.
Jesus' Post-Resurrection Instructions
00:04:50
Speaker
Acts, chapter 1, verse 1 and following says,
00:04:54
Speaker
In my first book, I told you Theophilus about everything Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up to heaven after giving his chosen apostles further instructions through the Holy Spirit. During the 40 days after he suffered and died, he appeared to the apostles from time to time, and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive. And he talked to them about the kingdom of God.
00:05:24
Speaker
Once, when he was eating with them, he commanded them, saying, do not leave Jerusalem until the father sends you the gift he promised. As I told you before, John baptized with water, but in just a few days, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?
00:05:52
Speaker
to which he replied, the Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses telling people about me everywhere, in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Sumerian, to the ends of the earth. And after saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him.
00:06:19
Speaker
As they strained to see Him rising into heaven, two white-robed men subtly stood next to them. Men of Galilee, they said, why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday He will return from heaven in the same way you saw Him go." What I want you to see, friends, here at these very first beginning verses is an early church, the very first church. It's a congregation who is utterly captivated by Christ and whose entire world revolves around Him. Why is that? What is it that led them to be utterly captivated by Christ? Well, it tells us here after these first introductory verses 1 and 2,
00:07:14
Speaker
Luke tells us here, he records the first gospel. He says of Luke, he speaks about these things that Jesus began to do.
00:07:25
Speaker
But you'll notice here, he says, but and I think this is just, he says, Jesus is everything I've told you in my first book, meaning the very first book he wrote, he says, I wanna tell you everything Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up. but So Acts, y'all, for this very first early church is a continuation of what Jesus is doing, and he's going to radically transform the world. And the reason why I think they're so utterly captivated by him, look at verse 3 with me. It says, during the 40 days after he suffered,
00:08:13
Speaker
So he suffered and he died and he appeared. So there's this suffering this this in in the Greek, this is Pascho, right? This is where we get our word passion from, the passion of Christ. So not only everything that he did in his suffering that they were witness to says not only did he suffer, but he died. Not only did he die, it says what?
00:08:42
Speaker
He appeared again to them. So he's not only suffered, he's died, he's now risen. And it says, I like this, that he, your translation may say, he has proven to them in many different ways. Right? Friends, this is a... I'm trying to think, ah this is a tech tech marion is this word, right? This is not a logical belief. This is not, hey, I'm going to reason with you that Jesus had suffered and was alive again. This is, I want you to put your hands in his side
00:09:16
Speaker
and in and see that he is alive. That's this that's this word right here. it And it would captivate this early church. Here's Jesus that we walked with, that we ate with, who suffered a brutal death. And if you've ever seen The Passion of Christ in that movie, um and I will recommend that movie, ah maybe not for super young kids, but if you've ever witnessed that,
00:09:46
Speaker
whipping of Jesus and the tearing of the flesh and the beating and then to carry that cross with the crown of thorn on his head, to be nailed to the cross, to be lifted up, to be dropped into the hole with all of your body weight supported by the nails and your wrists and your feet for him to suffer that death. And then it says to then come out and be among them again and appeared among them over a 40-day period, and they were captivated by this. They were able to see him up close and personal for 40 days.
The Overlooked Importance of Jesus' Ascension
00:10:26
Speaker
It's not just that he suffered and died and was buried and he rose from the grave, but it goes on saying that he was ascended. Look here, verse 2, it says, he taught everything until the day that he was taken up into heaven. And then if you jump down to verse 9, verse 9 says, after saying this, he was
00:10:46
Speaker
taken up. He was taken up into a cloud while they were watching and they could no longer see Him.
00:11:04
Speaker
he wants to Luke wants to make a point right up front that this Jesus is the Son of God who ascended to the right hand of the Father. Why is that important for us to know?
00:11:15
Speaker
Friends, I think oftentimes what we do is we have this understanding of Jesus's death. We have that theology in our mind of what that death represented. We often look and we go, he also rose from the grave. We understand what the resurrection means. But quite frankly, I think sometimes we don't spend enough time with the ascension. The ascension, it tells us here that he was lifted up Exalted high. And He's taken into the clouds. Why is that important? I've kind of taught this before in one of our Wednesday night classes, so if you've heard this before, I apologize. Why is that important for us to know how He left? Because it tells us right here, if you look back down here to verse 11, it says, someday He will want
00:12:11
Speaker
He will return the exact same way. So if you're waiting for some alien ship to come up out of the ocean and you think Jesus is somehow going to be on that ship, my friends, you are sadly mistaken. He is going to return the exact same he went exact same way in the clouds.
00:12:33
Speaker
He's lifted up, he's exalted high. On one side we have the lifting up and on the other side of this ascension he said he he's sitting down there. He's the King of King, the Lord of Lords. He's made payment on the cross. He's risen up, he's exalted and he sits down and he is received at the right hand of the Father where he rules and reigns today. This reminds me of our reading today. That's why I wanted to read Philippians 2 and I will jump back over that if you would like to join me. Otherwise, it's going to be on your screen there, Philippians 2. This is the same exaltation that we see here. It's as though he was God. He did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges. He took the humble position of a slave and was born of a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in a beast to God and died a criminal's death on the cross. Therefore, God elevated him.
00:13:33
Speaker
exalted him to the place of the highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that the name of Jesus every knee shall bow in heaven on earth and under the earth and every tongue shall declare that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father." Friends, the early church was captivated by Christ because he suffered, he rose again, he ascended on high,
00:14:00
Speaker
But it doesn't stop there. It says that He will return. He will come back one day. And when He comes back, everybody, every eye all over the place will see Him returning. And they will be captivated by Him. Every eye will see, every ear will hear, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
00:14:27
Speaker
The beauty of that, if I could just pause for one second, everybody will make that declaration at some point in your life. It's either beforehand or after him. Before it's too late or after it's too late. But everybody will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. So my question this morning for you, my friends, is are you captivated by Jesus? So much so that you will place him at the center of your life.
00:14:56
Speaker
whatever your world is revolving around, if it isn't Jesus, will you consider recentering that in 2025? And I can, I put down just a note to myself, we can have our lives revolve around a lot of really good things. It can be our kids, it can be our grandkids, it can be our grandkids sports that they're in, it can be new jobs,
00:15:24
Speaker
It could be trying to save up for a new car. We could put all sorts of great things in that spot. But the one thing that should captivate us is Jesus. And when we are captivated by him, we want to center our lives around him. I still remember the first time I met my beautiful bride, Kim, and she's going, oh, no, not this story.
00:15:51
Speaker
A mutual friend of ours tried to set us up. And I believe at that point neither one of us were very interested. But I saw a picture of her. And man, you know what it's like when you see something beautiful that you're just captivated by. And I just i couldn't stop thinking. I couldn't stop thinking. All I kept thinking about was Kim, Kim Kim, Kim Kim.
00:16:19
Speaker
my my my entire world began to revolve around Kim. We do this. Fellas, you know ah when you find that special person in your life that you're just captivated by her. You can't get enough. And ladies, the same is true for you. Remember the very first time you laid your eyes on those new pair of shoes. Or that purse.
00:16:51
Speaker
You were captivated, and all you could think about were those shoes. How am I gonna get those shoes? We all know what it's like being captivated by somebody or something, but my question for you this morning is, when was the last time you were captivated by Christ? I mean, when you lay your eyes on Him in the pages of Scripture, are you captivated by Him? Can you not get enough of Him?
00:17:18
Speaker
Or when you come in here to worship on Sundays, can you not get enough of him? Or when you meet in your small groups, which start in January, can you not get enough of him? Or when you sit under the preaching of his word, are you captivated by him? Is he the center of everything that you do? Does your entire world revolve around him? And so my prayer for us as we step out into 2025 that First Baptist Church from the top down, from the pulpit, to the teachers, to the small group leaders, that we would be captivated by Christ and that we would center our lives around Him. And I just put a note here, I mean everything. Everything must revolve around Christ.
00:18:06
Speaker
From our preaching to the teaching to the worship to how we handle finances going into the new year to how we address missions both locally and globally all need to be centered on Christ because he alone is worthy. And the early church friends got this.
The Call to be Spirit-Led
00:18:25
Speaker
They understood exactly how captivating Christ was and they wanted to center their entire lives around him but it didn't stop there says that they were constantly or consistently controlled by the Spirit. Look with me here, Acts 1, verse 4, it says, and once they were eating with them, He commanded them, and if your Bible has the red letters, you know this is Jesus speaking, He says, do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift that He has promised, as I told you before. John baptized with water, but in just a few days, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
00:19:03
Speaker
Right, the the the actual probably not so cleaned up translation is really stop going and coming outside of Jerusalem. Stop all the day trips. You're making too many day trips, he tells them. Stay where you're at because the Holy Spirit is getting ready to be poured out on you.
00:19:29
Speaker
the beginning here of the early church in the book of Acts. I want to make it super clear for you, the Holy Spirit is central to this church. The church was never designed to be a group of people just simply trying their best or motivating themselves to their best efforts to follow Jesus. No, the church, my friends, is distinctively set apart to be controlled by or led by the Spirit. Now, I know some of you here sitting in your pews, non-apostolic, have a problem when we start talking about Spirit-led. Rest assured, the early church never confused this.
00:20:18
Speaker
they never and They never confused what it meant to have Christ at the center of your life and to be captivated by him and be led or controlled by the moving of the Spirit. What does that look like for you and I today? That's what I put as a question. I just put, I think our prayer life, moving into 2025, needs to revolve around Christ and it needs to be Spirit led.
00:20:48
Speaker
means that when we get together as a church and we talk about business of the church, that needs to be spirit-led. When it comes to the direction of the church for 2025, that means that we are spirit-led. When we gather together in small groups or in homes for worship, that that that's all spirit-led. Our prayer life should be saturated with the Holy Spirit.
00:21:21
Speaker
I put just as a note for myself, I don't think we spend enough time talking about the Holy Spirit. I'm going to take that as a personal challenge this year, and I think we're going to teach a course on the Holy Spirit and what that looks like here for you and I in 2025. The Spirit, y'all, is given to us at conversion.
00:21:44
Speaker
You are indwelt with the Holy Spirit, but I do believe in the history of the church from time to time, there is an extra pouring out of the Holy Spirit on particular churches at particular time as a means of revival or renewal. And and I'm hoping and I'm praying fervently that 2025 will be that for First Baptist Church, Cameron.
Power of the Holy Spirit: An Analogy with Electricity
00:22:09
Speaker
I remember the story of a small town in East Texas ah many, many, many years ago ah that didn't have electricity. And when the power company came out to this small town, they met with the town leaders and they said, um we understand this is something different, but we would love to bring electricity to this small town. And so the town leaders voted on it and they indeed decided we're going to bring electricity. And so this big, huge company from Dallas, and they brought in this electricity to this small town,
00:22:42
Speaker
And they they told the neighbors, this is how it's going to work. It's going to connect up to each individual house. You are not going to believe what electricity is going to do for your life. It's going to radically change how you live your life. And the electric guy, he left.
00:22:58
Speaker
and went back to Dallas, and about three months later, he he checked on this community, and he checked on the usage of electricity for this community, and he was shocked to find out that on average, every household only used about five minutes of electricity a day. And he thought, surely, something is wrong. Maybe the meters are wrong. And so he traveled back out to this small east town, and he met with the leaders, and he said, is everything working fine with electricity? Because I noticed you're only using it five minutes a day.
00:23:28
Speaker
And the church leaders said, oh, or the the the town leaders said, well, yes, sir, it's all hooked up exactly like you said. And we we turn it on, we light our candles, then we turn it back off.
00:23:45
Speaker
And I think to myself, how many churches have been given the promise of being connected to the ultimate source, the ultimate power source of the Holy Spirit? that supernatural power, and yet we only tap into that power a few minutes, maybe just here on Sundays, maybe on Wednesdays. And then we go back to operating in our human fashion. First Baptist Church, would we be connected?
00:24:15
Speaker
this year in 2025 to that ultimate power, to the Holy Spirit. Would we allow him to empower us, to change us, to make us comfortable being uncomfortable so that his dream would be become a reality for us?
A Vision for 2025: Captivated, Centered, and Spirit-Led
00:24:32
Speaker
Let me wrap this up simply by saying we can have all the planning, all the programs, all the small groups, all the Bible studies,
00:24:39
Speaker
all the perfect facilities, all the perfect buildings, all the perfect decorations, all the new ACs that we could ever possibly want at this church. We could be packed Sunday after Sunday here, but if we do not have the Holy Spirit, and if we do not pray that the Holy Spirit floods this place, nothing that we're going to accomplish in 2025 will amount to anything that gives glory to God.
00:25:06
Speaker
My prayer for us this year is that we are a people that is captivated by Christ, that we are centered on Christ, and that we are led by the Spirit.