Who do you follow?

May 19, 2024

Today is Pentecost, the birthday of the church! We’re talking about the first day of the Christian church which happened after Jesus went back to heaven, close to 2000 years ago!

What is the church? You might say it’s a building, or the people who make up the church. We’re going to see as we talk about the beginning of the church, that on the first day there were no church buildings. Jesus’ followers were in an upper room. They were filled with the spirit in a very powerful way, left the building and really amazing stuff happened outside.

“What is the church?” is a trick question. Because we might answer it according to our church situation here. We might say the church is a building with people. That answer is missing the whole point of church: who are we about? Rather than what is the church, it’s better to ask, “who” question. Who do you follow? Jesus. There is no church without God or Jesus!

These are the followers of Jesus who gathered in an upper room: the 11 disciples, Jesus’ mother Mary, other women who followed Jesus, and the brothers of Jesus,

These followers knew Jesus well. They watched him work miracles, they followed him, talked with him, and listened to him teach. They didn’t understand everything Jesus talked about. They couldn’t always heal people like Jesus did. They didn’t always understand what following Jesus meant or where he was leading them. They thought Jesus might start a revolution, freeing the Jews from the Roman empire. His mother and brothers: sometimes treated Jesus’ ministry as if he was just an embarrassment!

Jesus knew his followers were not perfect. He knew he would be crucified, die and rise. He trusted the disciples to take over what he had begun. He had confidence in them and their ability to launch the gathering or movement of God which we call the church!

In Matthew 16, before Jesus went to the cross, he asked his disciples, “Who do you say I am?” Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” Peter got it right! Jesus said to him, I tell you that you are Peter, which means a stone, and on this rock, on your confession that I am Christ, I will build my church. And the gates of death will not overcome it! The disciples would face all kinds of challenges, and the biggest challenge that they would start the church without Jesus physically present. But Jesus told them nothing will overcome the church! Not the religious leaders who didn’t like Jesus, not the roman empire. The church would prevail!

Today the Christian church is in just about every country. It is a multicultural movement throughout the whole earth! Jesus predicted us: that we would be here, following him today! The Gates of death did not overcome God’s church!

After his resurrection Jesus told his disciples, wait in Jerusalem and you will receive power, the gift of the Holy Spirit and you will be my witnesses in the city of Jerusalem, in the region of Judea, in Samaria (at this point his followers are thinking wait! that’s not our people!) Then Jesus said, and you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth (they didn’t even know where the ends of the earth were, but that’s us, the church made it to us!) Then, Jesus ascends, he goes back up to heaven.

The followers of Jesus go to the upper room where they pray. Then a sound like a rushing wind filled the place, and tongues of fire rested on each person! The Holy Spirit filled them, and they could speak in foreign languages they didn’t know.

Because of the Jewish festival taking place, there were Jews from every nation who had come to Jerusalem. When they heard Jesus’ followers, a crowd gathered because they each heard their own language being spoken.   ⁷ Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? ⁸ Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? ⁹ Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰ Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome ¹¹ (both jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” ¹² Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”

Peter stood up and told the crowd what all this meant! That Jesus had come, doing wonders and miracles. Peter even pointed at his audience and said, but you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death on a cross! But God raised him up. And we are all witnesses! This Jesus was the Messiah and Lord!

The people were cut to the heart and asked, “Brothers, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37)

Peter did not say, “Attend church regularly!” This was day one, they didn’t have details on that yet. Peter did not say, “Believe a list of truths!” They didn’t have that yet either.

Remember, this was bare bones, before anything else, church was about a who: Jesus! So, Peter talks about Jesus. How do you follow him? Repent! Be sorry for and turn from your sins. Be baptized! And you’ll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. God will be with you.

Well, 3000 people were baptized that day!

The Christian church started, day one, as an outward facing church: the disciples went out, left the building, and spoke to thousands of people! Church was for the world. The church was multicultural, for everybody. And the church was multiplying! They were not hunkering down, keeping to themselves, waiting for Jesus to return! No, the church multiplied, it grew 100 times in size that day!

The church started as and must remain an outward facing, multicultural, and multiplying movement! The church is a movement that follows Jesus wherever he leads.

We are so blessed by Jesus’ followers’ obedience to him and their efforts to start the Christian church. My challenge for you this week is to ask yourself, what kind of church do you want to provide for the next generation?

Jesus had confidence his followers would launch the church. Their mission transformed them! They were no longer followers who didn’t quite understand Jesus. Filled with the spirit they spoke boldly, healed, and took the good news of Jesus to Jews and Gentiles, to the whole world, and the church grew exponentially. The church is a movement that follows Jesus wherever he leads!  Now it is our turn! May God’s kingdom come in our lives, and through the church of Jesus. Amen.