What Difference Does It Make that Jesus is Alive? (Acts 1)

The Book of Acts can be approached from numerous angles and no doubt you can think of some of them. Yet I would suggest that the title of this sermon is as good an approach as any. It is good for us to know why we do things, and one of the reasons for doing them must be that Jesus is alive. From the first chapter of the Book of Acts, we can consider four ways in which the fact that Jesus is alive is important.

1. The kingdom has come

The first detail to observe is that the fact that Jesus is alive means that the kingdom of God has come. We can see that from verse 3: the Saviour had spoken about the kingdom during the previous forty days. What can we say about this kingdom? First, it is not the only kingdom that will exist. Second, it will exist over those other kingdoms. Third, it will exist within those other kingdoms. Fourth, its ruler will be invisible. Fifth, it will be a kingdom of grace. We can expand on those points briefly.

The kingdom of God is not the only kingdom. Indeed, when Jesus spoke about it in verse 3, it was probably the smallest kingdom in the world since it was composed of his disciples, and they would not have reached a thousand at that time, probably. Yet it will be higher than all other kingdoms because it has the best King, the God/Man Jesus Christ. And he has a plan to infiltrate all other kingdoms and take people from them into his kingdom through the gospel. His plan involves him remaining out of sight, in heaven, and instead leaving the advance to his servants who will speak to sinners about the grace of God. Even although he is in heaven, he will be with his servants as they spread his message.

John Stott mention three features of the kingdom of Jesus: it is spiritual in its character, it is international in its membership, and it is gradual in its expansion. All that can only happen because Jesus is alive. If Jesus were not alive, there would not be a continuing kingdom of God.

2. The Holy Spirit has come

The second detail that will happen because Jesus is alive is that the Holy Spirit will come in a manner that he had not done previously. Here in this chapter, his arrival is still ten days away. In order to work out what he will do when he comes, we need to see what he was doing already, and then see if we can add any details to the list of his actions.

In the past, we know that the Holy Spirit enabled men to write the Old Testament. We know that he guided Moses, David, Solomon, Isaiah and others to produce the books that carry their names, but he had not done so for several hundred years. We know that the Holy Spirit was striving with sinners, as is said of him and his work before the flood came. We know that the Holy Spirit could bring sinners to spiritual life as was illustrated in the vision of the valley of dry bones revealed to Ezekiel. The Holy Spirit helped Zerubbabel and Joshua as they rebuilt the country and the temple after the exile in Babylon was over. These were all amazing acts, and it would have been wonderful to have experienced them. What could be better?

Jesus told the disciples that the Father had promised to send the Holy Spirit in a different way, but in a manner that would be connected to what had been done by him previously. Because Jesus is alive, the Holy Spirit will guide men to write further books for the Bible. Because Jesus is alive, the Holy Spirit will come and strive with sinners about their need of mercy. Because Jesus is alive, the Holy Spirit will bring spiritual life to dead sinners, but he will not limit his actions to Israel. Because Jesus is alive, the Holy Spirit will enable a new temple to be built.

Because Jesus is alive, the Holy Spirit is going to come in peace, in power and with a purpose. In Old Testament times, he had met his people with those blessings. But there were now new ways in which to reveal them through the gospel as he worked in the hearts of sinners to bring them into the kingdom.

Are you glad that the Comforter has come? Are you glad that, because Jesus is alive, the Holy Spirit has come in a greater degree that how he did before Jesus was raised? It was a great day in the history of redemption when the Holy Spirit came. And he has not gone away!

3. The church can do things

In verse 11, it looks as if the disciples were so stunned by what they witnessed with regard to the ascension of Jesus that they had forgotten where they were. It is not every day that we see someone ascend into heaven. But because Jesus is alive they were not to stand gazing into the sky. Instead, as the angel told them, Jesus would one day return. They would see him coming in glory. And we can easily imagine that in the meantime they would want to do what pleased him, which is what they did.

What did they do? They replaced Judas with another apostle. But they would not have engaged in this activity if Jesus had not risen from the dead. Indeed, one of the qualifications for deciding who could be an apostle was that he had seen Jesus after he had risen from the dead. The other qualification was that the individual had to have been with the disciples since the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. Isn’t it amazing that the Gospels don’t mention the two men that fitted the requirements? None of the Gospel writers say that Matthias was present at any gathering with Jesus, not even after the resurrection. But he was there often, and he had heard the teachings of Jesus and seen some of the miracles of Jesus.

Peter speaks in a beautiful way about how Jesus was with them – ‘he went in and out among us.’ Is that not what Jesus still does with his people? They did things because Jesus was with them, and the reason we do things is because Jesus is with us – he is alive and has sent his Spirit to enable us to work for the kingdom.

Sometimes the church will find itself in a predicament, as the disciples did on this occasion. What did they do? They prayed to Jesus (v. 24), but they could only do that because he was alive. Sometimes, someone in the church will find himself or herself picked by Jesus for a special task. When that happens, they should do it. Sometimes, someone in the church is prevented by Jesus from doing a special task. When that happens, they should accept it. There is only one King in the church.

Here we are, a long time after that meeting in Jerusalem and a long way geographically from that location as well. Yet we are the same church, and we have the same reason for our activities – the fact that Jesus is alive. He has roles for us to do and he expects us to do them. He also has roles that he does not want us to do, and we should not do them.

4. The church can pray

Before they did anything, they devoted themselves to prayer. They did not devote themselves to private prayer, although no doubt they would have had their times of doing that. Rather they devoted themselves to corporate prayer.

They prayed even although they knew that Jesus had promised them that the Spirit would come shortly. Indeed, it is probably the case that the reality of his soon arrival caused them to pray. His arrival would be something totally knew for them, but they knew that since Jesus was alive they could bring such an important matter to him. And they could do so with confidence knowing that he would be willing to help them.

There are three groups identified as praying together: the apostles, the women, and the brothers of Jesus. We could describe them as the failures who had been restored, the devoted women who had done their best for Jesus, and the brothers who were new converts. At the very least, they had spiritual needs because each of them had misunderstood the mission of Jesus. The apostles had imagined an earthly kingdom, the women had not expected Jesus to rise from the dead, and his brothers had never once believed in him despite having lived in the same home as him for over two decades (depending on how old they were). Despite their previous history, they could meet together to pray because Jesus was alive.

Two features are said to mark their times of prayer: unity and dedication. True, they did not have to travel far since they were staying in the upper room where they also prayed. But since they were all now servants of the risen King, what better way to spend their time, seemingly a lot of time. No doubt, questions can arise when we think about this focus on prayer.

The apostles wanted to be ready for witnessing to Jesus when the Spirit came. They did not wait until the Spirit came before beginning their preparation. The coming of the Spirit was a unique occasion, but prayer to be ready is a regular way of preparing to do anything for the Lord, whether that activity is big or small.

They had learned that they could not do anything without prayer. Previously, Jesus had asked them to pray when in the Garden of Gethsemane. There is no evidence that they did, which indicates that they had not prayed. The outcome had been disastrous. But they had learned the importance of prayer.

They also learned that effective prayer does not require a minimum amount of time but a maximum amount of time. The coming of the Spirit was ten days away, but we are not told if the disciples knew that he would come on the Day of Pentecost. They would pray together until the blessing came. Calvin wrote about spending little time in prayer: ‘The hastiness of our petitions is a corrupt, yea a hurtful plague.’

Jesus had told them to wait in Jerusalem. Waiting indicates awareness of something. We speak of waiting for a bus or a train. They were waiting for the next stage in the history of redemption. Waiting implies anticipation of something that is going to affect us, and they knew they were to be involved. Waiting implies authority to do so, and Jesus had told them to wait. Waiting implies asking, which is what they did. They waited because the kingdom had begun, the Spirit was coming, the church had tasks, and prayer was a privilege. They did it all because they knew that Jesus was risen from the dead.