The Call of Jesus
Welcome to lesson 18 "The Book of the Apostles".
I love talking about the Book of the Apostles, the Book of Acts,
as we see in the New Testament.
Here we have the Bible, the Old Testament, the New Testament.
And in the New Testament we start with the four gospels:
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. Amazing.
In those four gospels we read about Jesus, how He walked around here on earth.
All four gospels end up with Jesus dying and how He rose up again.
And then, after the four gospels we have the Book of Acts,
the Book of the Apostles.
It is a very special book
because the Book of the Apostles is the only historical book
we have from the early church, here in the Bible,
where we read about how they were living the life of Christ,
how they obeyed the call of Jesus.
We are now living after the cross.
We are now living in an amazing time that was prophesied about,
many, many, many years ago.
When Jesus was hanging on the cross, He said: "It is finished!"
What is finished? What was finished?
Or what has begun?
The old thing was finished and something new has begun.
We, when you understand it, we are living in an amazing time today,
a time that was prophesied about many hundreds years ago.
For example, Ezekiel and Jeremiah, 400 years BC prophesied about
the time we today are living in.
Ezekiel prophesied this in Ezekiel 11:19-20:
"I will give them an undivided heart and put a spirit in them;
I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.
Then they will follow My decrees and be careful to keep My laws.
They will be My people, and I will be their God."
Listen to these words. These words Ezekiel prophesied
400 years BC is something we today are living in.
In the time Jesus was walking on earth, in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John,
they did not experience it.
Why? Because they were still before the cross.
When Jesus walked on earth He could not give them the new spirit
Ezekiel prophesied about.
But after He ascended to Heaven, He sent His Holy Spirit down here,
and we are living in this exciting time.
We, in Christ, can be forgiven,
and we, in Christ, can get a relationship with God where we can know Him.
In the Old Testament it was only for a few.
It was only for the prophets and a few selected people.
But now, in the time we are living in, God will pour out His Spirit on all flesh.
Last time we looked at religion.
Religion tries to change a person and make a person looks nice outside.
But Jesus is giving a new heart.
Jesus is putting a new spirit in us.
Jesus is doing what we have just read about.
And one thing I really love about the Book of Acts.
In the Book of Acts we see this being fulfilled.
We see in the Book of Acts how the early church, after the cross,
was preaching the gospel.
We also see how they responded to the gospel they have heard.
We also see how they got born again.
The Book of Acts gives a lot of examples, pictures of how the early church
was obeying Christ, how the believers were obeying Christ,
how they actually went out in that harvest that was ready,
how they found that person of peace.
For example, Acts 10, with Peter and Cornelius,
or Acts 16, with Paul and Lydia.
There are clear, clear examples in the Book of Acts
how they continued the work of Christ.
The Book of Acts is like a mirror where we see how the early church was living,
how they obeyed Christ.
It is like a diary.
There was a time in my life where I looked at my life,
and I was a Christian, I loved Jesus, and I was radical,
and I went to church, and I did a lot of good things there.
But then I started to see the Book of Acts.
And my life did not, at all, looked like the Book of Acts.
I dressed up every Sunday, I went to church,
I was even doing a few preaching in the church,
and I was helping in the church,
but I was not led by the Holy Spirit like we read here,
I did not lead people to Christ, like we read here,
I did not baptize people in water and Holy Spirit, like we read here,
I did not cast out demons and heal the sick, like we read here.
So, I had religion in one hand and I had the life in the other hand.
And there was a mistake somewhere.
And I believe the mistake is not found in the Bible.
The mistake is found in our life.
So, I needed to change something.
I needed to change something, and I did it.
I changed something in my life.
And now, my life looks so much more like what we read here, in the Book of Acts.
One of the things I needed to change was obedience.
We need obedience.
Faith is obedience.
You don't have faith if you don't have obedience.
Try to imagine if I'm standing in the middle of a road here
and there is a truck coming from a side, and I don't see the truck.
The truck is coming in full speed towards me.
And you are standing there, on the side road,
and you see the truck and you shout: Torben! Move! Move! A truck is coming!
And I look at you.
I believe you.
I believe you are real.
I believe you exist.
I believe in your words.
And stand still.
No, it doesn't make sense. Why?
Because if I believe in you, in your words,
I will move.
I will not be able to believe what you are saying and stand still.
Yeah, only if I want to die.
But if I want to survive, and I believe in you -
I need to move.
Why? Because to have faith in you is not to have faith that you are real,
that you walk on earth.
No. I have to have faith in your words.
Like, to believe in Christ is not only to believe that He one time lived.
It is to believe Christ.
Believe His words.
And if we believe His words we move.
We obey His words.
That is the only way we can, actually, show that we believe.
Faith without obedience is dead.
And it's so clear. I want to read the following from the book of James.
And when you read these words here,
it's so important to understand that when we talk about works,
it's not talking about works of the law.
It's not about trying to earn our salvation, because we cannot.
It's not about trying to obey the law
and then we obey so good that we are saved. No.
It's not talking about works by the law,
but it's talking about obedience / works by faith.
And this is what we need. James 2:14-26:
"What good is it, my brothers and sisters,
if someone claims to have faith but not have deeds
(or works, or obedience)?
Can such faith save them?
Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.
If one of you say to them, 'Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,'
but does nothing about the physical needs, what good is it?
In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accomplished by action
(or obedience), is dead. But someone will say,
'You have faith, and I have deeds.'
Show me then your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.
You believe that there is one God. Good!
Even the demons believe that - and shudder.
You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?
Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did
when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?
You see that his faith and his actions were working together,
and his faith was made complete by what he did.
And the scripture was fulfilled that says, 'Abraham believed God,
and it was credited him to righteousness,' and he was called God's friend.
You see that a person is considered righteous by what he does and not by faith alone.
In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous
for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies
and sent them off in a different direction?
As the body without the spirit is dead,
so faith without (obedience, works) deeds is dead."
These were not my words.
That was the Bible.
Faith without obedience (works) is dead.
Faith alone is dead.
We are not talking about faith + works by the law,
but we are talking about real faith that leads to obedience.
If you believe in Jesus, and Jesus says: "A truck is coming! Move!"
- then you move.
Why? Unless you want to die, then you move.
Now Jesus doesn't just say: "A truck is coming!"
He said many other things.
And what we read here we need to obey.
And when we start to obey the call of Jesus
and start to step out on His words,
our life is going to look like the Book of Acts.
Why? Because Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.
But if you don't obey Jesus' words,
if you don't have true, biblical faith in Christ, and therefore don't obey,
of course your life will look like this,
while the Book of Acts will be like this.
So, take some time and really go through the Book of Acts
and see their life, how they obeyed the call of Christ.
See how they were preaching repentance, baptism in water
and baptism with the Holy Spirit.
And as we said last time, you don't see a sinner's prayer.
Many of the things we do today in the churches
we don't see in the Book of Acts.
Many of those things we do today in the churches
we don't see in the Book of Acts, and sadly,
many things that were done in the Book of Acts
many don't see in the churches.
But, there is a reason God gave us the Word.
Because it's not our religion that is the truth.
It's the Word of God.
So, I encourage you, keep it simple.
You have religion in one hand,
and you have the Book of Acts in the other hand.
What is correct?
Don't build on your own experience.
Experience can change over night.
We need to obey this.
Until now we have been talking about
how the harvest is great
and how the workers are few
and how we need to be sent out
as sheep among wolves.
And there's persecution out there.
What do we see in the Book of Acts?
We see that the harvest is great.
We also see that there is a few workers.
We even see how God used persecution one time to get the sheep out among wolves.
And we see that when they are out there, among the wolves,
they experience persecution.
They paid a price, and it was not easy.
Paul experience stoning and many other things.
He was thrown into jail.
But he could also testify that Christ was with him.
When he went out there Christ was with him.
What do we see? What have we been looking at?
We have been looking at how you find the person of peace,
and how, when you find that person, as Jesus said,
you go to their house and you sit, and eat and drink what they serve.
And then you there heal the sick and preach the gospel.
And stay there.
And this is what we see in the Book of Acts.
The Book of Acts is a confirmation of the call Jesus gave us in Luke 10.
You don't see fine, nice churches and programs in the Book of Acts,
like we do often today.
You see raw and real life,
the spirit of Christ working in His body.
And this is what we need to do. This is what we need to obey.
Next time we are going to continue and look at the gospel,
but I want to start here with the Book of Acts,
because the Book of Acts is where we really see how they were preaching.
The Book of Acts is where we really see how they responded to the preaching.
The Book of Acts is where we really see the biblical life,
like how they got born again and all of that.
So, next time, I'm going to use more time
where we are going to look at the gospel of the Kingdom,
where I will give you the big picture, from the beginning to the end,
and what people need to do to be born again.
And what you are going to see, when we show the big picture,
is what people need to be born again
maybe goes against what you have been told,
maybe goes against your church tradition.
Sadly, I think it does,
because we have come so far away from the Bible,
but it will not go against what we read in the Book of Acts.
That's why I took the time in this video
to really focus on the Book of Acts and what that life was all about.
And start, until the next time, just read through the Book of Acts,
and then see if that fits with your life today.
It should be like that.
God bless you, and see you next time
where we are going to continue looking at the gospel.
Bye-bye!
The Call of Jesus