Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Acts: Enlarging Our Vision

Acts: An Eye Opening Introduction 06/01/08

Sermon Series: Acts: Enlarging Our Vision

Message: Acts: An Eye Opening Introduction’

Text: Proverbs 29:18; Acts

Introduction: About 350yrs ago a shipload of travelers landed on the northeast coast of America.

·       The first year they established a town site.

·       The next year they elected a town government.

·       The third year the town government planned to build a road 5 miles west into the wilderness.

·       In the fourth year the people tried to impeach their town government because they thought it was a waste of public funds to build a road 5 miles west into the wilderness. They thought ‘Who needed to go there anyway?’

Here were people who had the vision to see 3000 miles across an ocean and overcome great hardships to get there. But in just a few years they weren’t able to see 5 miles out of town. They had lost their vision.  (Lynn Anderson)

If we fail to have a vision for God that is ever increasing, ever enlarging, as God provides, we will become like the people in that illustration.

·       We’ll become ineffective, unproductive citizens of God’s Kingdom.

·       In our complacency we’ll become grumblers and fault finders.

·       We’ll be people who talk about the good old days of God’s blessing w/o daring to seek God’s face to serve him in the ever changing world around us.

Transition: And God has something to say about that.

I. What is vision?                  Proverbs 29:18

Read: Proverbs 29:18  ‘Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law.’ (NIV)

‘Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, But happy is he who keeps the law.’ (NASB)

‘Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.’ (KJV)

Without vision, without seeking a revelation of who God is, we we’ll cast off restraint, we’ll be unrestrained. That means we’ll live however we like, w/o the Law of God to guide us…and it’ll be as if we have died.

But, with vision, with a big picture of God, we’ll keep the Law of God and be happy and blessed. Sounds to me like a better alternative.

So, it’s important that we understand what vision means. According to author John Maxwell:

A. Vision is the ability to see…it’s an awareness.

Definition: Webster defines Vision as ‘The faculty of sight. The experience of the supernatural as if with the eyes.’

Biblically, vision is to see as Joshua and Caleb saw…you remember…

Read: Numbers 14:6-9 ‘Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes and said to the entire Israelite assembly, “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.”

ILL: A young boy brought home his report card with very poor grades. ‘What do you have to say for yourself?’ his father asked. ‘One thing’s for sure dad, you know I haven’t been cheating.’ (Jeffrey Richards)

Having vision is more than just looking at the bright side. It’s looking at God’s side. Joshua and Caleb saw the challenge of taking the land from the prospective of having a great big God to whom nothing is impossible. They had an awareness that God was bigger than any challenge they may face.

We need that kind of awareness of who God is. And as we travel through the Book of Acts, it will help us enlarge our vision of God.

But before we get there, I want to look a litter deeper at what it means to have a vision for God.

Vision is the ability to see…an awareness.

B. Vision is also faith to believe. It’s an attitude

ILL: Both the hummingbird and the vulture fly over our nation’s deserts. All vultures see is rotting meat because that’s what they look for. They thrive on that diet. But hummingbirds ignore the smelly flesh of dead animals. Instead they look for the colorful blossoms of desert plants. The vultures live on what was, they live on the past. They fill themselves with what is dead and gone. Hummingbirds live on what is, they seek new life, they fill themselves with freshness and life. Each bird finds what it is looking for…we all do. (Steve Goodier)

What we want, what we seek in life is affected by our attitude towards life. And Satan greatest attack on Godly vision is our attitude.

·       Nobody else cares so why should I?

·       Nobody appreciates anything I do…so I’m not doing it anymore.

·       I’m in so far over my head that even God can’t help me now.

Vision is faith to believe…it’s an attitude.

Hebrews 11:6 says ‘Without faith it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.’

Faith not only pleases God is it a prerequisite to knowing that he’s real. Vision is the food faith lives on. A big vision of God increases our faith and that changes our attitude when we face difficult situations.

Vision is the ability to see…it’s an awareness.

Vision is faith to believe…it’s an attitude. Finally,

C. Vision is the courage to do…it’s an action.

ILL: Radio host, Paul Harvey, tells the following story.

One summer morning as Ray Blankenship was preparing his breakfast, he gazed out the window, and saw a small girl being swept along in the rain-flooded drainage ditch beside his Andover, Ohio, home. Blankenship knew that farther downstream, the ditch disappeared with a roar underneath a road and then emptied into the main culvert. Ray dashed out the door and raced along the ditch, trying to get ahead of the foundering child. Then he hurled himself into the deep, churning water. Blankenship surfaced and was able to grab the child’s arm. They tumbled end over end. Within about three feet of the yawning culvert, Ray’s free hand felt something--possibly a rock-- protruding from one bank. He clung desperately, but the tremendous force of the water tried to tear him and the child away. "If I can just hang on until help comes," he thought. He did better than that. By the time fire-department rescuers arrived, Blankenship had pulled the girl to safety. Both were treated for shock. On April 12, 1989, Ray Blankenship was awarded the Coast Guard’s Silver Lifesaving Medal. The award is fitting, for this selfless person was at even greater risk to himself than most people knew. Ray Blankenship couldn’t swim.’ (Jeffrey Richards)

·       The courage of vision says ‘As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.’

·       The courage of vision says ‘You can’t stay where you are and Go with God.’

·       The courage of vision says ‘I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.’

 

‘Faith without works is dead.’ Vision w/o action is just daydreaming.

Read: God says in Proverbs 29:18 ‘Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, ...they will perish, but happy and blessed is he who keeps the Law.’

Vision is the ability to see…it’s an awareness.

Vision is faith to believe…it’s an attitude.

Vision is the courage to do…it’s an action.

Transition: Jesus’ disciples had a great vision of God. And because they did…the church was. And it’s in the Book of Acts that we discover the disciple’s vision of God and the resulting birth and growth of the church. As their vision of God enlarged….so did the church of God.

II. Enlarging our vision                 Acts

Background on the Book of Acts

Let’s take a few preliminary glimpses into the Book of Acts…just to whet our appetites for what’s to come.

·       The Book of Acts was written by Luke. Luke never actually met Jesus but he hung around the people who did. He was a physician and was capable of doing a proper examination into the life of Jesus Christ and the lives of those who followed him…in other words, he was thorough.

·       The Book of Acts was written to a man named Theophilus. More on this next week.

·       The Book of Acts holds great importance to the rest of the New Testament.

-W/o it we wouldn’t know that Paul was once called Saul and we wouldn’t know his background as one who persecuted Christians.

-W/o it we wouldn’t have the background on many of the churches mentioned in the NT.

-W/o it we wouldn’t know much about baptism.

-W/o it we wouldn’t know much about being filled with the Spirit.

·       The Book of Acts gives us a picture of life in the early church…it’s successes and it’s failures.

·       The Book of Acts is also referred to as the Acts of the Apostles, the Acts of the Holy Spirit and the Acts of the Church because of the action of all three in furthering the Kingdom of God on earth.

·       The Book of Acts fills in the historical gaps between the Gospels and the Epistles (the other NT letters).

·       The later writings of Peter would not have the effect they have on us if we did not see his life blossom and his vision of God enlarge and his faith in God increase in the Book of Acts.

·       The Book of Acts is a book of transitions

-There is a transition from a primarily Jewish church in Jerusalem to a primarily Gentile church everywhere else.

-There is a transition from an emphasis on the ‘Kingdom of God’ to the ‘church’.

-There is a transition from Peter and the Jerusalem apostles to Paul and his companions outside Israel.

-There is a geographical transition as well as prophesied in Acts 1:8 ‘But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’

·       The Book of Acts develops some of the greatest themes of the NT.

-The fulfillment of Scripture

-The life of prayer

-The sovereignty of God

-The person and work of the Holy Spirit

-The work of evangelism

-The importance of faith

-The method of salvation

·       The Book of Acts in a very real way is an unfinished book. I’m not implying that there is new revelation not found in Scripture…but that the life and work of God’s church is still happening…through us if we are found faithful.

We have 4 gospels and many Epistles, but only one inspired letter describing to us in depth, the birth and growth of God’s church, his body here on earth. May God give us an appetite, a hunger for this book.

Conclusion

The title for our sermon series in the Book of Acts is ‘Enlarging our vision.’

ILL: Noted scholar AW Tozer wrote ‘I am positively sure after many years of observation and prayer that the basis of all our trouble today, in religious circles, is that our God is too small….The problem is that we see him too small and really don’t understand his greatness and power to help us.

Here is a glimpse of some of what happens when our God is too small.

·       We live in fear and anxiety. Worry dominates our life. Because if our God is too small, then everything really depends on us.

·       We are stingy. We can’t give generously and regularly if  we don’t believe that God is able and wants to provide for our needs.

·       We are demanding. We have to have it our way. When our God is too small we can’t see and appreciate that in Christ there is great diversity in his body.

-Uniformity is the demand ‘I know what I

 like and I like what I know and you

should agree with me.’

-Unity makes room for differences.

So…how big is your God? Is there room for him to grow in your life?

Let me end with this anonymous poem.

·       I need a truer vision, Lord. A vision filled with Thee to see the needy world again with eyes willing to see.

·       A world where people are hurting and hungry every day,

·       A world that’s ready and waiting to hear what You would say.

·       I need a wider vision, Lord, a vision filled with Thee.  To see that lonely woman down the street from me. The teenager who’s all mixed up, the child who’s been abused, the day-to-day cares in my neighborhood.

·       Lord, I want to be used. Give me a new vision, Lord. A vision filled with Thee, to see the world and my neighborhood as Your eyes would see.

·       Help me use my gifts, dear Lord, in ways that glorify You,
To act with loving kindness toward those with a different view.

·       A truer, wider, new vision, Lord. That’s what I need
To carry out Your commands in word and thought and deed.
 

Lord…enlarge our vision…of you!