Sermon for MHBC (10 January 2021). You can listen on Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, or our website. Live at 11:00am on Sundays.
Today, we are starting a new series, but this isn’t just a series. This is a campaign—a church-wide project in seeking the Lord. You may be familiar with the passage in Prov 29:18, traditionally translated as, “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (KJV). And you’ve likely heard people talk about the need for vision and direction. These discussions usually sound like ones that occur in a corporate board meeting. And to be sure, at some point we must clarify mission, vision, and core values. But this word vision in Prov 29 has a much different sense than a business vision. Notice how the ESV translates it: “Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint.” The idea of this word vision is a reference to a prophetic vision. So, in other words, where there is not a word from God, the people perish or cast off restraint. That last part seems to mean that the people become wayward. They are distracted and confused and begin to fall away. According to this Proverb, then, what we need for renewal and revival and life is a prophetic vision. We need an encounter with the living God. We need a clear and decisive word from the living God.
First Samuel 3 is instructive for us. In that verse we read: “Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the LORD in the presence of Eli. And the word of the LORD was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.” There’s our word vision at the end. And notice it is equated with the word of the LORD. But it is rare. I don’t know about you, but I sometimes read about the Christianity of the NT, and then I look at the current state of Christianity in our culture, and I see a huge gap. Why don’t we see the sort of movement of God and outpouring of God that we see in the Bible? Or that has been seen in various points in church history?
First Samuel 3 seems to begin in a similar place. There is little encounter with God. But this verse is also setting up a transition. Something new is about to break in. This chapter is all about an experience Samuel will have. He will hear the audible voice of the LORD calling to him and giving him fresh revelation.
Now you may be wondering where I’m going with all of this. I’m glad you asked. In church revitalization, we talk a lot about vision, and I recognize that one of my primary tasks is to cast vision. I intend to do that. But first, we must recognize that we are a church and our vision must be prophetic not corporate. We need an encounter with the Lord not just a good business model. For renewal to take place, we need a conviction that the Lord has spoken. So for the first quarter of this year, I’m calling us to seek this prophetic word from God. I’ll share some more details in a moment, but first let’s begin by going to the book of Acts. For guidance, we are going to spend the next two months or so in the first part of Acts. What we are doing here is seeing what it means to be the church, what it means to be the community of this new thing God is doing in Christ.
Let’s just begin in Acts 1:1: “In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach.” You may remember that Luke is the author of Acts. We know his first book as the Gospel according to Luke. There he set forth the teachings of Christ and his work. And he included his death, resurrection, and ascension. Verse 2: “until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.” Taken up refers to his ascension into heaven. Notice he left his apostles with commands. And these commands were given through the Holy Spirit. So there’s this encounter with the Spirit of God. The first followers of Jesus have guidance and direction from the Spirit. This is the nature of the ongoing task of the followers of Jesus.
Verse 3: “He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.” So following his resurrection, he spends time instructing them and issuing directives. And then Luke highlights the key directive in vv. 4–5: “And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, ‘you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’” Notice the command. “He ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father.” Don’t rush ahead. Wait. Don’t take matters into your own hands. Wait. Don’t think the power is in you. Wait. Wait on the promise of the Father. Now the promise of the Father is the promise of the Holy Spirit. See that in v. 5?
In the OT, God promised to do something completely new. He promised to put his own Spirit into his people. He promised to remake them and empower them from the inside out. Jesus says the moment has come. Now you must wait.
Then in v. 8, Jesus tells them what to expect: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, then you receive power. It’s a supernatural empowerment. For what purpose? For witness. You will receive power and then you will be my witnesses. So wait for the power. If you don’t wait, you will fail. But if you wait, you will have power to carry out the task.
This is important for us. A church must be a Spirit-empowered community. If we rush ahead and do things within our own power, using our own wisdom and skill, with no reliance on the power of the Spirit, we will be ineffective, even if people show up and we meet the budget.
And so these first followers of Jesus wait. They return to the upper room and they pray. Look at v. 14: “All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.” They pray together. The text says “with one accord.” And it’s intentional. Luke uses this word frequently—they were devoting themselves to prayer. They do this because they need guidance. They need to know what’s’ next.
One thing they must do is replace Judas. Remember he betrayed Jesus. Look at vv. 15–16: “In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said, ‘Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.’” How do they determine what to do? They propose two people that fit the criteria and then they ask God. Look at vv. 24–26: “And they prayed and said, ‘You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.’ And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.”
Now this procedure may seem odd to us, but what they’ve done is given themselves to prayer and then trusted God to move. That’s exactly what we will need to do. We must give ourselves to prayer, waiting and seeking, and then we will trust God to give us clear direction.
Next week we will see what happens when the Holy Spirit falls upon them, but how does this work for us? Do we really need to wait and seek the Spirit? After all, on this side of Pentecost haven’t we received the Spirit? The answer is, “Yes, we have received the Spirit if we are in Christ, but that doesn’t negate the need for us to wait on the Spirit.” Consider some of these biblical injunctions. Galatians 5:16: “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” It is possible not to walk by the Spirit.” And Ephesians 4:30: “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” We can be out of step with the Spirit, which is exactly what Paul says in Gal 5:25: “If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.”
So it is imperative that we wait upon the word of the Lord. What does this mean practically? First, it means each individual needs to devote themselves to prayer. Now we are going to be providing resources to help you with this, but here’s what you can do. I want you to think right now about scheduling your prayer time.
Second, it means praying intentionally at and for this church. You can walk the building and pray. You can use the prayer room. You could arrange to use the sanctuary. We need people to commit to praying for God’s power to be unleashed in this church. That also means you can expect some type of prayer meeting to be coming in the future (though with rising COVID numbers, we may have to get creative).
Third, it means being bold in our prayers. It means asking God to do the impossible. It means asking for signs and wonders, miracles and healings. Sometimes we are timid in our prayers, and it reveals a lack of faith. We are afraid to ask for big things because we are afraid of being disappointed.
Fourth, it means giving ourselves to times of fasting and retreat, silence and solitude. We will be calling the church to periods of fasting, so that we can abstain from food to focus on our real nourishment.
Fifth, and finally, it means waiting on clear direction from the Spirit. It means experiencing those inexplicable instances where multiple people, without any prior consultation, agree that God is saying the same thing.
This is a matter of life and death. Without a clear word from God, we will never experience renewal and life. Where there is no vision, the church will disintegrate.