Acts 20:1

And Jesus came and spoke unto them, saying, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age. Amen."

Now turn to Acts 1. Just a few books to the right. Acts 1, verse 4: "And being assembled together with them, he commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, you have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."

When they therefore were come together, they asked him, saying, "Lord, will you at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" And he said to them, "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has put in his own power, but you shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth."

Father, we come before you today expecting you to speak to us, for you promised that you would give us the Spirit of truth, who would guide us into all truth and teach us all things. We pray that you, by your Spirit, would do just that today, that you would continue to transform us by the renewing of our minds. Wash us by the washing of the water of your word.

Father, we ask that you would answer the request of your Son in John 17:17: "Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth." We pray that you would continue to sanctify, cleanse, and transform us.

That we, God, would shine forth Your glory in the world in which we live. That is what our nation needs, more than a new president, more than a new Congress, more than any political leader or any economic transformation. Our nation needs You to work through us, Your church. And so, God, we pray that You'd do that. We ask, Lord, that You'd work in our hearts, that we would get out of the way and that You would be free to move and reign in our lives. For we ask this in Jesus' name, and all God's people agreed, saying, Amen. You can be seated.

Yesterday afternoon, at about 1:20, our China team, led by Kelly Kirstead, boarded a plane at LAX to fly to Shanghai, and they're there now, in China. It's amazing how you can be on the other side of the world like that, although it doesn't seem like that when you're on the plane.

A week ago, Josh Wise, one of the guys who grew up through our children's ministry and then through our youth ministry, graduated this last June. He went up north to intern at my friend Daniel Fusco's church, Crossroads Community Church. I talked with Daniel this week, and he said, "You know, Josh is an awesome kid. Looking forward to great things from him." I also talked with Josh, asking how things were going, and he texted back, "Busy." So they've got him doing all kinds of things.

Last month, Anna Kohler, along with Leslie and her son Trevor, flew with Anna to Israel. Anna is serving with Shavet Akim there in Israel. This time last year, Shane Nelson, again one of the guys who grew up in our church and in our youth group, went on a short-term trip to China that ended up being a little bit longer than short-term. He's still serving there, and now he's actually attending a Bible college there in China, an underground Bible school. He has a passion for the Chinese people and is learning Mandarin. It's just an amazing thing. If you know Shane, he's about 6'4", skinny, a Southern California blonde-headed kid. He stands out like you can't imagine in China.

And so, God has great things planned. Although they are not directly from our church, we support them as though they were. Luke and Kristen Reiter are in Mozambique, serving the Lord there. Christina Kaiser is also serving in Israel, and has been for a while with Shavet Akim. Both Luke and Christina were a part of our church and grew up in our community for a time. It is a wonderful thing to see how God works through a church.

These are just the latest names in a long list of individuals who have been sent out to the uttermost parts from this fellowship over the 31 years that we have been a part of this community here in Escondido. The empowered church of God has been going, teaching, and baptizing in the name of Jesus for 2,000 years, continuing to fulfill the commission Jesus commanded and directed by His leading and His Spirit. We continue to follow that commission, that command from the Lord, as He leads, and we will continue to do that until He returns. That is what He has told us to do.

The church, that is to say, the body of Christ—not this building, but the body of Christ, the people of God—is the plan of God in reaching the world with His love and grace. This is how God has chosen to reach a fallen world. Paul, in one of his letters, calls it the foolishness of preaching. If you consider the methods that an almighty God could use, it is remarkable that He chooses to use what might be considered a foolish method. By His Spirit, He empowers His people who put their confidence and trust in Him to be witnesses unto Him: Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts. It is Him working through His church.

Just as in Old Testament history, Israel, in their early history, had a tabernacle, which was a meeting place for the nation to come and meet with God. God, through the church, is seeking to tabernacle with men.

Seeking to reach out to them, we are, as the Scriptures say, the temple of the Holy Spirit. Paul states this in 1 Corinthians 3:6, emphasizing that we are the dwelling place of God. Christ in us, as mentioned in Colossians 1:27, is the hope of glory. Through us, He interacts with the world, seeking to bring His love and grace. He empowers us, as we see in this text in Acts chapter 1.

This going, as Jesus commanded in Matthew chapter 28, to go into all the world, involves connecting with people and bringing them to Christ. This does not only happen in the uttermost parts of the earth. I referenced what is happening through our church in places like Israel, Mozambique, and China. We have been throughout the world, including Belize and Germany, and across Eastern and Western Europe. God has worked through our church.

We can fall into a wrong way of thinking in the modern 21st-century Western church, believing that the work of God and missions is something far away in the uttermost parts. In doing so, we fail to recognize that God wants to do something in our Jerusalem, which means right here where we live. He wants to use every single one of us. We aim to be the demonstration of God's love, grace, and mercy in the community in which we live.

Although we have been commanded by the Lord to go into the uttermost parts, we must never overlook what God wants to do right here. We are the people of God; we are the church. We are to fulfill the command of going every single day in our lives. Whether you ever get a passport or board a plane to go to another nation for the cause of Christ, you are still called to be an ambassador of Christ wherever you are, to be a representative of Him. This is so very important for the church in the West in the 21st century. We must wrestle with and recognize that ministry is to be happening through the body of Christ.

Not just the ministers, but all believers have a tendency to think that the work of the ministry is done solely by missionaries, pastors, and evangelists—people who hold titles and have it as their vocation. However, the reality is that these individuals are meant to equip and enable the body of Christ to do the work of the ministry wherever God leads and however He calls.

This understanding is one of the dynamic aspects of the ministry of Calvary Chapel as a movement. Through the work that God has done within the Calvary Chapel movement, He has imparted the responsibility back to the body of Christ to engage in ministry. While Calvary Chapel is not the only place where this is happening within the larger corporate body of Christ, it certainly stands out as a ministry that seeks to equip and empower believers to engage their world on behalf of God Himself.

The call of God extends well beyond the work of missionaries, pastors, and evangelists. The work of God is much greater than what takes place within the buildings that churches occupy. It happens in the fire station, in the police station, in the corporate office, on the college campus, at the construction site, in the coffee shop, on the tennis court, and at the baseball diamond. Wherever the people of God may be—whether in the district office, the gym, or the grocery store—that is where the work of God is taking place or should be taking place in and through each of our lives.

If you are a lawyer, you have been called by God to represent Him in the legal profession. If you are a carpenter, you are in good company. What was the occupation of Jesus before He fully engaged in the ministry that God the Father had given Him? He was a carpenter. So, you are in good company and are called to be a representative of Jesus on the construction site. If you are a teacher, you are called to be His representative in the classroom.

And boy, don't we need representatives of Christ in the classroom. We're going to talk a little bit about this next week. The same goes for the engineer, the architect, the banker, the consultant, the mechanic, the machinist, the retail clerk, the hairdresser, the handyman, the postman, the salesman, and the trashman. All of these occupations, including the secretary and the stay-at-home mom, are callings.

You see, oftentimes when we consider the call of God, we filter it through vocational ministry. We think of someone serving within the context of a building, an office owned by a church, doing daily ministry functions. However, we fail to recognize that every single individual within the body of Christ is called by God to the profession they are in, to shine the light of Christ there, and to be a witness of Him in their Jerusalem, wherever the Lord would place them, in their area of influence.

Now, oftentimes when that truth is reiterated, we find ourselves feeling completely unable to fulfill that call. We feel insufficient for that. I can't do that. That's not a bad thing. In fact, I think that recognition is actually a good thing. I'm more concerned when someone comes to me and says, "Hey, I got this," and tries to handle everything on their own. How many of you have said that to your shame before? "I can handle this." How many of you, even in your later years, have scars on your knees and elbows from thinking you had it all figured out, like riding a bike as a child? I have this endless reminder of a scar right here on my chin. I cover it up pretty well, but there are many times when we think, "I got this."

When we recognize that we cannot do anything in and of ourselves, we become more reliant upon the source of power that we truly need. I've referenced this many times before. It's a great passage of Scripture that we've been discussing a lot as we went through 2 Corinthians. In 2 Corinthians 3, verses 5 and 6, Paul says, "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as being of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God."

And then he says, "Who, God, also has made us able ministers of the new covenant. Not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." He makes us able ministers, able servants, and able representatives of Him. We are completely insufficient of ourselves. The quicker we recognize that, the more effective we will be in the ministry that God has called us to. The faster we recognize our complete dependency and need for Him, the better.

Our sufficiency is from God. He makes us able to stand. He enables us and empowers us. The Book of Acts, which we have been studying for almost five years—four and a half years, to be precise—is called the Acts of the Apostles. However, it is actually the act of God through His church. It would be more appropriately called the Acts of the Holy Spirit because God is the one who is working through His church.

Of course, there are individuals referenced in the Book of Acts, and some of those individuals are given titles like apostles. I get a little leery when I meet people who tell me they are a prophet. I often think, "Really? Has everything you've ever said come to pass?" We have a bucket of rocks outside to make sure.

As soon as someone has a title—elder, bishop, apostle—I mean, apostle seems to be the primo earthly title that someone could hold, maybe. But the reality is that the word "apostolos" in Greek simply means "one who is sent," one who is sent with a message.

We do see that there was a classification of men in the Scriptures who had seen Jesus and had been commissioned by Him. They held a position of authority within the church, an apostolic position that was greater than maybe some. However, the reality is that there are many other people in the New Testament, specifically in the Book of Acts, who are called apostles but were not eyewitnesses of the Lord or commissioned directly by Him. They were merely ones who were sent with a message. The reality is that each of us has been sent with a message.

The Great Commission is found in Matthew chapter 28. It instructs us to go into all the world and make disciples, teaching all nations and baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We are to teach them to observe all things that Christ commanded us. This is the essence of our mission: to teach people to obey the word of Christ.

What was the great initial commandment that Jesus gave to people? He said, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Therefore, the first thing we need to do is to repent. We also recognize the greatest commandment that Jesus speaks of in the Scriptures: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself." These commands are excellent starting points before we get caught up in a multitude of other things. Start with repentance and love—repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and love God and love one another. If you begin there, you will do very well.

Why is this so important? Because all the law and the prophets are contained in loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving your neighbor as yourself. You don't have to go much further than that. We will spend our entire lives following Jesus, striving to fulfill these commands, and we will find ourselves completely insufficient for the task without His enabling power through His Spirit. Amen? We need Him to work in us.

We are sent with a message and empowered from on high to be ambassadors, representatives of the kingdom of God, wherever we may be. Whether you are a lawyer, a doctor, a fireman, or hold any other position, that position is one that God has called you to.

We began a study in the book of Acts four and a half to five years ago. To be honest, I did not anticipate that it would take us this long. My good friend, David Guzik, who is the pastor of Calvary Chapel in Santa Barbara, started the book of Acts about a year ago and is almost finished. Every time we talk, he asks, "So, where are you teaching this weekend?" I respond, "Well, we're in the book of Acts." He then inquires how far we've gotten, and I mention that we took a detour to 2 Corinthians. He just laughs and says, "You're never going to finish this."

Despite the challenges, we have been going through the book of Acts and chronologically exploring the letters of the New Testament, as the bulk of the New Testament consists of letters written by the apostles.

Servants of Christ, primarily the Apostle Paul, wrote 13 letters that we have in the New Testament. Then there are the Apostle John, the Apostle Peter, James, and Jude. We are looking at these letters in their historic context and chronologically in order.

If you were here back when we started the book of Acts, particularly when we reached Acts 15, you may remember that we took our first step away from the book of Acts to look at the book of James. If you were present then, you may have received a timeline on the book of Acts that shows when the letters were written in correspondence with the events in Acts. If you don't have one of these, you can get it in the office after the service today. We have made some copies, and if we run out, we will put it on our website for you to download.

This timeline helps us to see the New Testament in its full history, and I believe it does so in a glorious way. If you read from Matthew to Revelation, just in the order they appear in your Bible, you might get a little confused about how everything fits together. You have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—the Gospels—followed by the book of Acts, which is a history. Then you have the book of Romans, which is a letter, and you might think that must have been the first letter written. However, it was actually Paul's sixth letter. His first letter was to the Galatians, addressing the first churches he planted with Barnabas during their first missionary journey. They established churches in Lystra, Derbe, Iconium, and Antioch.

After Paul left, as we have been considering, some people came in and seduced the church away from the simplicity that is in Christ. Paul wrote that bold letter to the Galatians, expressing his concern: "I am fearful for you, lest I have labored in vain for you." He nearly lost his life in the city of Lystra when, while preaching the gospel, some people became upset, carried him outside the city, and stoned him, leaving him for dead. He questioned whether he had done all that in vain. Yet, he declared, "I will labor again for you till Christ be formed in you."

Paul took an awesome responsibility for the people to whom he preached the gospel. He wanted to see Christ formed in them and to witness evidence of the gospel in their lives as the fruit began to emerge. This is why he discusses the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians.

I'm wanting to see that I have not labored in vain. He's using words like a farmer would use. If a farmer goes and sows his field, he's going to know that he labored in vain if, at the end of the harvest season, nothing comes—no fruit comes. All that hard work for nothing, no harvest. So Paul says, "I'm looking for fruit: love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, self-control." That's what I'm looking for, not the law. The law is to lead you to Christ.

To me, the book of Acts and the whole New Testament take on a whole new light when viewed through the lens of their historical setting. In fact, the whole of the Bible, the Old Testament, really starts to come together when you look at it through the historical lens. When I teach at the Bible college and go through the books of Jeremiah and Isaiah, I have the students read through 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles as homework. You can't grasp the prophetic books of the Old Testament unless you understand them in the context of their history. They just don't make sense.

There are some pretty crazy things in the prophetic books. I've been reading through Ezekiel again, and there is some trippy stuff in the book of Ezekiel. When you look through that historical lens, you begin to see why things happened as they did in the first century. You start to be able to place specifically where events were taking place when they were happening, which is an awesome thing to consider. You begin to realize that these are real stories, histories. They're not just legends.

We hear people today saying that the Bible is an archaic book of legends and myth. No, it's a history book. As you read through the book of Acts, you see a history. The names that we read in the New Testament are actual people who lived in real places and served in real places on specific dates. For example, we just finished 2 Corinthians here on Sunday mornings. Paul wrote 2 Corinthians from the city of Philippi. We know that because the book of Acts tells us that Paul went from Troas to Macedonia, where he was with Luke. He waited for Titus, who came to him, and then he wrote this letter, 2 Corinthians. He tells them, "After this letter gets to you, I'm going to come and visit you."

As you follow through that history and put all the pieces together, Paul wrote that letter in the fall of 57 AD.

And then he went to Corinth, where he spent three months at the very end of 57 AD and into the early part of 58 AD. After his time there, he traveled north to Macedonia. We are told that he was again in the city of Philippi for Passover, which we can specifically date to March 13, 58 AD. After celebrating the feast of Passover, he took a five-day journey across the Aegean Sea to Troas, where he spent seven days. He then continued on his journey until he reached Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost, which is 50 days after Passover. He celebrated Pentecost on May 27, 58 AD, and that was the day he was arrested by the Romans.

You can follow the events taking place in the world during this time and see what was happening in Rome by looking at secular histories. Consider the turmoil of the era. In the year 49, the emperor of Rome, Claudius, expelled the Jews from the city of Rome. There was already a church established in Rome, likely formed by people who heard the gospel in Acts chapter 2 when the day of Pentecost first came and the Spirit was poured out upon the people, birthing the church.

Paul wrote a letter to that church called the Book of Romans, which we will be studying in about five weeks. He wrote that letter while he was in Corinth during his visit between 57 and 58 AD. By that time, the church in Rome had become a completely Gentile church due to Claudius's expulsion of the Jews in 49 AD. This was unprecedented at the time, as there had typically been a Jewish-Gentile mix within the church. Almost every problem we have seen in the Book of Acts up to this point has been related to that cultural diversity within the church.

By the time Paul wrote the letter to the church at Rome, the door had opened for the Jews to return. However, there were significant cultural problems occurring in the church at Rome between Jews and Gentiles. So, what does Paul say in Romans chapter 1? The gospel is the power of God unto salvation for both the Jew and the Gentile. What is he trying to accomplish? What is the purpose of Romans? He is trying to show...

The importance of the Gospel for all mankind is not just for one group of people. We should not take a superior view that, as American Christians, we are somehow above others. This perspective does not fit. The Bible begins to make so much more sense when you consider it in that way. That's why we are doing this. These things actually happened. These people are real. These cities are real. These acts are real. It happened.

It shows us that just as God worked in and through real people to accomplish His work, He will do the same through you and through me. The Book of Acts is the story of God's power working through ordinary people, accomplishing extraordinary things. We are still seeing it take place 2,000 years later.

Since we have not connected with the Book of Acts for about eight months, as we have been going through 2 Corinthians, and even before that, we only spent about two weeks in the Book of Acts because we had done 1 Corinthians prior. I wanted to take a few weeks to refocus our eyes on the timeline to help us reconsider what was happening and the setting of why these letters were being written.

Paul spent the winter of A.D. 57 and 58 in the city of Corinth, nearly 28 years after the church was birthed and 28 years after Jesus rose from the dead. A lot of things have happened in those 28 years. We are 20 chapters into the Book of Acts when we discuss what took place in Corinth when Paul wrote that letter to the church at Rome.

As we come back to the Book of Acts, we will look over the next three or four weeks at some separate chunks of the Book of Acts. Today, we will consider five things that we see of God's power in His church in the first six chapters of Acts. These five things correspond with about the first six years of the church. The church started with Jesus rising from the dead and then the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2.

That's when it started. The work that was happening in and through the church, along with the events occurring in the city of Jerusalem, were tumultuous. Some crazy things were happening. There were people who were dead set against destroying those who followed Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah.

Even though there was a great expectation among the Jewish people in the first century for the coming of the Messiah, they were under Roman occupation, and conditions in the nation and the city were difficult. Then, this one comes—Jesus. He proclaims himself to be the Messiah, Christ, the anointed one. He declares himself to be the Son of God, performing powerful signs and wonders: raising people from the dead, walking on water, calming the winds and the waves of storms, and healing those who were sick. These phenomenal things that Jesus was doing led many people to believe, "This is it; this is the Messiah."

However, he didn't quite work according to their expectations of how the Messiah should operate. Have you ever felt a little jilted because God didn't work the way you expected? I certainly have. How many times have we thought, "God, you should have worked like this; you should have done that"? We meet people all the time who are upset with God because He didn't answer their prayers the way they wanted Him to. They treat God as if He were a genie in a bottle, expecting to drive through and say, "I want a double-double animal style, come on."

They get upset because God didn't work as they expected. They wanted a conquering king, someone to come in, destroy Roman occupation, and reestablish Israel as the dominant kingdom of the world. Even Jesus' closest followers wanted that; that was their hope. How do we know? What did we just read in Acts chapter 1? Jesus says, "Wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit is poured out on you, the promise of the Father which I told you is going to come."

He mentioned this in John chapter 14, John chapter 15, and John chapter 16, just before He was crucified. He promised them that the Father would send the Spirit. They then asked, "Will you now at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" This shows us that the church 2,000 years ago was inordinately focused on eschatology. What does that mean? The church...

Two thousand years ago, there was too much focus on the end times and the second coming. Things haven't changed much. What does Jesus say? It's not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has put into His power. Do you think that's changed in two thousand years?

So what does He say? You shall receive power to be witnesses unto Me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. What's He telling us? That's not for you to know. I've got work for you to do. I've got jobs for you to accomplish throughout the world, to the uttermost parts. I've got a task for you to complete, and I'm going to work it through you.

The first thing we see here is the promise of power. In Acts 1, verses 4 through 8, we have this promise. Jesus says to His disciples, who have just witnessed the most powerful demonstration of God's almighty attributes displayed in the fact that Jesus rose from the dead. He promises them power: you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. He is going to empower you to do a specific task. It's not just power for the sake of power.

There are some people in the Christian movement today who want power for the sake of power, just like Simon the magician in another story in the book of Acts. He wanted power because it was awesome. He saw that these guys laid hands on people, and they received power and were healed. He thought, "I want that power." But Jesus says, "No, you're going to receive power for a purpose."

Have you ever received a power tool for Christmas? You received that power tool to do a job, not just to marvel at its phenomenal power. A cordless drill has a purpose; it's not just meant to sit in your garage while you think, "Oh, wow, that's amazing." It's there for a reason.

You shall receive power. Why? So that you'll be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. He gives the promise of power.

In Chapter 2, we see the provision of power. Look at verse 1 of Acts 2. When the day of Pentecost had fully come, this was 50 days after Passover, the year is AD 30. They were all with one accord in one place, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind. Notice the origin. You are going to receive the promise of the Father. A sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind filled the house where they were sitting. There appeared unto them cloven tongues as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. They were filled with what? The Holy Spirit. As they were filled, there was a demonstration of power. They began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Did they just do this for nothing? Why did they do this? Well, there were dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews, devout men of every nation under heaven. When this was noised abroad, the multitudes came together, and they were confounded that every man heard them speaking in his own language. They marveled and were amazed, saying to one another, "Behold, are not all these that speak Galileans? We hear them, everyone in our own tongue, wherein we were born."

Why did they receive this demonstration of power? It was not just to say, "Whoa, that's cool. Amazing." No, they received it for a purpose.

In Chapter 1, verses 4 through 8, we see the promise of power. In Chapter 2, verses 1 through 4, we see the provision of power. Number 3, also in Chapter 2, beginning at verse 14, we see preaching with power. The church was birthed by the Spirit of God stirring a message that was preached. Don't ever neglect seeing that. People wonder, "Is preaching so out of place in the 21st century?" That's what people are saying today. God, by His power, spoke through an individual, and the church was birthed preaching with power.

Who was preaching? It's important to note who it was. He had a big mouth. Until a young girl said...

Aren't you with that guy who they just arrested? And he's being tried and he's going to be killed? Aren't you one of his followers? No, I don't even know the man. Three times the night that Jesus was betrayed, Peter swore, "I do not know him," in fulfillment of the prophetic word from Jesus, who said, "You will do this very thing."

But the same Peter who fled in fear now stands with power. Look at what we see in Acts chapter 2, verse 14. "But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and said unto them, 'You men of Judea and all that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you and hearken to my words.'" Listen up! These are not drunk as you suppose. When people heard them speaking in tongues, they said, "Well, these guys are drunken." But Peter clarified, "These are not drunk as you suppose, seeing that it is the third hour of the day." It's just nine in the morning.

But this is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel. Now he begins to speak this great message, and at the end of it, we see our fourth point:

Point number one, the promise of power. Point number two, the provision of power. Point number three, preaching with power. Point number four, the byproduct of power.

Look at verse 37, Acts 2:37. "Now when they heard this, they were all cut to the heart, and they said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, 'Men and brethren, what shall we do?'" They were cut to the heart. Powerful preaching produces a powerful response.

So the byproduct of this power, Peter then said, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is unto you and to your children, and to all that are far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call."

And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, "Save yourselves from this untoward generation." The byproduct of power is the transformation of sinners to saints, raised to new life again. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead saves sinners from their death because of sin.

Ephesians chapter 2 tells us, "For we were dead in trespasses and sins, but Christ quickened us together with himself. By grace are we saved." So the byproduct of power is evident.

The salvation of these sinful souls is evident, but we also see the byproduct continuing in verse 41. They gladly received the word and were baptized. On the same day, there were added unto them about 3,000 souls. They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers. Fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common. They sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all men as every man had need.

They continued daily with one accord in the temple, breaking bread from house to house, and ate their meals with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all people. The Lord added to the church daily those who should be saved. The byproduct of this power was the salvation of souls and the birthing of the church. This is the very thing that Jesus said He would build in Matthew chapter 16 when Peter was asked, and when all the disciples were asked, "Who do you say that I am?" Peter spoke up, declaring, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

Jesus responded, "Flesh and blood has not revealed this unto you, but my Father which is in heaven." He continued, "You are Peter, the little pebble. Upon this rock," using a different word for rock, "I will build my church." Peter is not the rock upon which Jesus builds the church; rather, the rock is that bold declaration of faith: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." The acknowledgment of that reality is the foundational cornerstone. Jesus is the cornerstone of His church. He is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

I was in Vatican City back in 2005 with a few friends, and we made our way into the back area where the necropolis is. I spoke with a couple of Catholic priests who were working there at the Vatican. They were from San Diego, and one of them was from New York. We discussed the awesome structure of the Vatican, and they told us about how they had found a tomb in their excavations, which they believe is the tomb of Peter. Of course, St. Peter's Basilica, the church, is built upon him. This reflects a misunderstanding of what Jesus was saying: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

He builds His church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Now, that's a pretty interesting statement that Jesus makes. The gates of hell will not prevail against His church, and sometimes we look at that and say, what exactly does that mean? The gates will not prevail?

The concept that's important to recognize is that in the ancient world, especially in ancient Israel, the gates were the place where strategic planning was made. The elders of the city would gather together at the gates. So, the concept being conveyed is that the strategic plans of the enemy, of hell, will not prevail against the church. He will fail; Satan has failed. When Jesus said, "It is finished," it reflects the humor of God. I imagine that at that moment, when Jesus breathes His last, Satan is thinking, "Yes!" Jesus says, "It is finished," and Satan responds, "That's right." Then, three days later, he's like, "Oh, snap. I didn't quite understand that whole 'it's finished' thing." Maybe not, but I like to think of it that way.

The promise of power is significant. Jesus promises power and provides power. From that, we see the preaching of power and then the byproduct of power. This is how the church has existed for 2,000 years, or how the church ought to exist. They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, in fellowship, in breaking of bread, and in prayers. This has been one of the key foundations for the Calvary Chapel movement. They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, teaching forth the doctrine, the teaching of the Scriptures, in fellowship, in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

Of course, we partake of communion; we do so once a month. We pray together and seek to have fellowship with one another. This is an important reality of the church. Several months ago, we took a sidestep out of 2 Corinthians, although we weren't completely out of it because we were in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, where we're told that we've been reconciled to God and now we're ambassadors of Christ who have been given the ministry of reconciliation. For three weeks, we had a series called "Reconcile," discussing how in the fall, in Genesis chapter 3, man lost communion with God and community with one another. There was separation brought by sin. But in Christ,

We have the restoration of those things: fellowship with one another and communion with God. In Christ, we have restored community, the very thing that our world is longing for. This is why, if Facebook were a nation, it would be the third largest nation in the world, with 950 million active users. People are desiring community; they are desiring oneness with one another and oneness with God. Even though they may not be able to verbalize it or clearly state that this is what they are longing for at their deep soul level, this is what humanity desires. This is what is found in Christ, and this is what the church offers to the world.

It has become an increasing conviction in my own heart that we want to see this be who we are as a church, Cross Connection Escondido. We would be those who are connected to God through the cross, connected to one another because of the cross, and seeking to connect our community to Christ through the cross as well. This is why we are who we are, Cross Connection. This conviction is shared in the hearts of many others in our leadership, all desiring to see this develop. We recognize that there is a need for close, Christ-centered community and fellowship within our church.

As a result of this conviction and much prayer, I sent out a letter to a number of people in the church at the beginning of this year, asking if they would meet with us—myself and Josh—on Wednesday nights to begin to pray towards that end. We aim to establish a ministry that seeks beyond just Sunday mornings. Let’s be serious: in the two and a half minutes when we say, "Hey, greet one another," there is not a whole lot of real Christ-centered fellowship happening. You might meet someone new and feel a little awkward, but we want to see God move in this area of fellowship.

Notice what we read in verse 46 of Acts chapter 2: "And they, this is the church, continuing daily with one accord." They gathered together daily, where? In the temple and breaking bread from house to house. They ate their meals with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all people. Through that, the Lord added to the church daily those who should be saved. The result was that people were coming to Jesus.

Why? Because the church was living in community with one another. Corporately, on the first day of the week is what we find when we read through the Book of Acts. That's what we still do 2,000 years later. We gather corporately on the first day of the week, but then from house to house. There are a few home fellowships happening in our church, and we want those to continue.

Something we've been praying for months now is for God to develop a focused ministry in our church on developing home groups that we're going to call Connect. Through a lot of prayer and time spent sitting in a circle with about 12 to 15 people on Wednesday nights, we've been praying towards this end, talking about it, planning, and putting the nuts and bolts together. These guys will tell you, we're going to have them come up in a few minutes, that it's still a little ambiguous. People have a lot of questions, but what we trust is who is the one who infuses power? God. So we're just saying, God, we want you to do a work in drawing us together.

Why? Because God wants to reach this county through His people, actively living out Christ-centered community in the county, not just in this room on a Sunday morning.

Now, point number five, turn to Acts chapter six. Acts chapter six discusses the partitioning of power. Verse one states, "And in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a complaint, a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews." There was a cultural problem. Hebrew Christians, who had a Jewish background, and Hellenistic Christians, who had a Greek background, were in dispute. The Grecian widows were neglected in daily ministry. There was a lack of ministry taking place in the church, just as it is today.

Then the twelve, these are the leaders of the church, the apostles, called the multitude of disciples unto themselves and said, "It's not reasonable that we should leave the Word of God and serve tables in this fashion. Therefore, brethren, look out among you and find seven men of honest report, of good report, full of the Holy Spirit, who have wisdom, and we will appoint them."

Over this task, this business, we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. We have the partitioning of power within the body of Christ to other able individuals who were of good report. They had a good reputation, they were honest, they were full of the Holy Spirit, and they had wisdom to be appointed to this task. As they went about doing this, God did an awesome work. You can read about it in verses five and onward. Verse six says they set them before the apostles, and they prayed and laid hands on them. The Word of God, in verse seven, increased or spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied. This is what we are praying towards through the connect ministry.

Before we have these individuals come up for prayer, I want to show you a brief video. Someone gave me this video after we had the Reconcile series. I was sharing with another pastor down in San Diego about what I have been praying for and wanting to see in our church. He said, "You need to check out this book called Community." I stumbled upon this video from the author of the book, and I thought it explains very well what the problem is and what we believe is the answer.

Community in America is broken. A recent study indicates that for the average American, there are only two people they can confide in for any meaningful conversation. For the rest of us, we don't have anyone at all. Growing up in Michigan, cars were a big deal. In fact, we used to have assemblies at school that went over the history of the automobile. In the 1950s and 60s, Detroit was the place to be. It was the Motor City in the age of the automobile. Cars were such a big deal to the city that they made an intentional choice to take out the trolley system.

For the average Joe, his only option was to own a car to get to work. In fact, most families probably needed two cars: one for mom to take the kids to school and one for dad to get into the city to work. They brought in the freeway system, and these freeways didn't go around the communities; they cut right through them. At the time, no one had any idea what the consequences of doing that would be.

Sixty years later, we have a man named Robert Putnam who conducted a study on the social fabric of America. He found that for every 10 minutes of commute, we are 10% less likely to have meaningful relationships. The average commute for Americans today is 30 minutes each way. Most of us don’t even know our neighbors. It’s hard to believe that we are that disconnected and isolated from one another. When we look around the world, we have more options for connectivity than we’ve ever had before. The average Facebook user has 314 friends and is connected to 80 community pages.

But if that community were real, authentic, and life-changing, would we have issues like depression and loneliness as such a big part of our lives? They say that by the year 2020, the second most common health issue around the world will be depression. We weren’t built for isolation; we weren’t meant to live lives disconnected from one another. In fact, we were created in the image of a God who exists in community. We were created for community.

Community for us is a declaration of the overwhelming love of God. Jesus Christ has reconciled us to the Father and to one another. Practically, we get to live life together, spurring one another on, caring for one another, and joining the mission of God. Real, authentic community is not about us; it’s about God. The church should be the most compelling expression of community in our culture. It should stand in contrast to the counterfeit community that costs us nothing.

Unfortunately, in most of our churches, we are more well-known for awkward circles than for transformational community. This feeds the skepticism of those outside the church who are hoping for something different, and we give them the same thing.

A lot of times, God, in His grace, comes in and strips away the things that keep us blind to how isolated we are, how disconnected we are from one another and from Him. That is my prayer for our churches. My prayer is that God would strip away everything that is fake about our community. I pray that God would take away everything we use to prop up and make community look like it is life-giving, and that He would replace it with the only thing that really does give life: the gospel. I hope that we would be inspired by the glory of our God and empowered by His grace.

Let's have those guys come up who I have been meeting with. If you are here, step up to the front. I would love for you to stand up here. Come on, don't be scared. Don't be afraid. As we have prayed, just stand up here, guys. This is just a number of the guys; this isn't everybody. Some of the guys will be at the next service, but as we have been praying and seeking the Lord for what He desires to do, these are some of the names that began to come to the surface: Jared Beck over here, Ron Hendricks, David Carey, Greg Danskin, Craig Warren, Steve Downs, Bob Davis, Christian Turner, and Mark Cato.

What we are going to do is pray. If you wouldn't mind, everyone, please stand with us. You will be hearing more about these Connect groups over the coming months. Our desire, and the reason why it has taken us a while to share this with the body, is that we began meeting with the initial group of people back in March, I believe. The reason we have taken a while is a conviction that this needs to be birthed in prayer and that God needs to be the one who infuses it.

Our desire is to create a new ministry within our church that really moves through the fabric of who we are. These fellowship groups that are going to be starting are not merely centered around a Bible study; they are primarily centered around fellowship, caring for one another, praying for one another, and having relationships with one another. They are also focused on engaging the community right around where they gather, so they have a missional focus, desiring to reach out.

To the community, in about three weeks, we will be sharing some specific strategies that we desire for the Lord to engage us as a church throughout Escondido and San Marcos. Our goal is to reach out to the community and demonstrate the love of Christ. Many of you know Pastor Jeff Jackson, and he will be a significant part of that initiative. You will hear from him in about two or three weeks.

Let's pray. If you are interested in being a part of one of these groups that are starting, please interact with one of these individuals after the service. They will stay up here, and some of them will likely be meeting with their friends, inviting you to the groups that will be held at their houses. We will also be posting information on our website about where some of these groups will be located if you want to visit them.

Let us lift this up to the Lord. Father, we pray that you would work in and through us, your church, to reach North County, San Diego. We seek to connect with those who are disconnected from you and to be the expression of your love, grace, and power to everyone we encounter in our neighborhood, workplace, and wherever we play. Lord, work through us to connect people with you. You have reconciled us to yourself, and we want to see others reconciled to you as well.

We pray for these individuals, just as we see in Acts chapter 6, where a group of men was brought before the multitude of disciples. They were men of good report, filled with the Holy Spirit, and possessed wisdom. Lord, they were prayed for, and so we pray for these individuals and the others you will raise up through the church to be leaders in this capacity. We ask, Lord, that you would open doors and work a great work. We desire to see you move in our day as we read of you moving in the book of Acts. We lift this into your hands, Lord, and we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.