Before I start with the message today, I want to recognize some people at the church.

• First, can we take a moment to thank our pastors. Pastor Ken, Pastor John, and Pastor Andrew. They did a wonderful job this past year. These guys put the church on their backs and just went for it in faith. Church Family, we are incredibly blessed by having these men step in and lead as they did. From preaching and leading us in worship every week, but also caring for the family here at Cedarbrook. Wow. What an amazing job!
  • Did you know they pray for you by name? Every time you fill out that connection card or you email, or you call, they stop and pray over what you write. That’s amazing. You can fill out that connection card as often as you’d like. They’ll be praying for you.
  • Let’s give Ken, John, and Andrew a loud holler and hoot.
  • Make sure you give them a warm hug and big thank you when you see them next.
• Second, I want you to know that there is much more that goes on at church that keeps it moving. We have various staff people holding down the fort at Promiseland, the Wave, Oasis, and then our operations and administration teams. They put their heads down and just grind every single day of the week so everything is seamless when you arrive. Here’s the greatest part, once their done with that work, they turn around and serve on Sundays! What a powerful and dedicated group of men and women.
• Third, there is the leadership team, the board of directors, and the search team. These men and women are all volunteers. Not only do the individuals on these various teams serve the entire church body, their families too, sacrificing precious family time to find some random guy who was in Michigan, to get to know him, and then to bring him and his family here to join this family. What awesome work they have done and how selflessly they serve. They embody the ethos of being radical disciples of Jesus.
• Lastly, I want to bestow some honor to Pastor Paul and Sharon. About 35 years ago God placed a vision on Pastor Paul and Sharon’s heart to plant a church where the gospel was desperately needed, and they bravely and boldly pursued that vision. True to the name, Cedarbrook, has become strong, durable, graceful, beautiful, high and wide, like a Cedar of Lebanon planted by an overflowing brook. What a fragrant aroma to God. What a great ambassador to the people and community here, testifying to the majesty, strength and glory of our Christ, our Lord and Savior.

My family and I are so excited to be here with you all. We’re especially excited by what God is doing here and where God is taking us into the future. I really believe that the best is yet to come for Cedarbrook. So get ready church, we’re embarking on a brand new adventure.

Let’s pray.

Father in heaven, thank you. Thank you for this wonderful church family here in Montgomery county named Cedarbrook. I ask that you continue to bless Cedarbrook. That we can be empowered to continue to honor you by bringing the news of Jesus Christ to those who are far from you, to becoming your radical followers to do and teach as your son did, to bridging the community to your love by being servants.

Lord, thank you for giving us your son as our savior. It was his blood that paid the ransom for our lives. It was his sacrifice that allowed us to be called sons and daughters of the most high God. Lord, we know that in this uncertain life, the one thing we can be certain of is of your steadfastness. Your steadfast love and mercy to this church family is incomprehensible. How awesome your works here! Open our eyes, our hearts, and minds to your truths and feed us with your word and convict us by your Spirit now and in the future.

We love you and praise you. We lift our worship to you. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.

Pastor Paul, can I ask you to read the word of God to us this morning from Acts 1:1-11?

¹In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, 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. 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.

⁴ 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; ⁵ for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

⁶ So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” ⁷ He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. ⁸ 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.” ⁹ And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. ¹⁰ And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, ¹¹ and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Acts 1:1-11 ESV

I wrestled with what I would teach for the first time here at Cedarbrook. And after some lengthy conversations, the pastoral team and I landed with starting on a six week message series titled, “We are Family” which is about  the spiritual family we know today as the “church.” Here’s why this is relevant for all of us here today.

• First, I believe all of us have been created for a purpose. You all agree? If you don’t, I’ll see you after church.
• Second, I believe as the collective bride of Christ, we have an identity that is defined by who God is, and because of who he is, we have belonging even if we are rejected and alienated everywhere else.

What that translates into is that there is culture all of us embody, whether we recognize it or not, that is not only relevant to how we live in this world today, but also how it causes the world to be transformed by our faith.

To understand this better, over the next 6 weeks, we’re going to be doing a deep dive into Acts 1 and 2 examining this culture God gives us to unite us as one family, to empower us in living out the mission he created us for.

Every week during the series, I want us to walk away with the answer to two questions:

1. What makes our spiritual family unique?
   1. Let me caveat this, what culture or what characteristics, values, beliefs, and actions a son and daughter of God embodies?
2. How do we exercise that culture every day?
   1. The answer to this question is critical because it’s not really part of your culture if you don’t practice it. Moreover, it’s not really your culture if it doesn’t guide your actions.

So today, we’re going to talk about “Our Family’s Hope.” Hope in it’s most basic terms is a belief or confidence that something will happen.

I know the dictionary defines hope as a feeling, but it’s much more than a feeling, in hope there’s an expectation, a plan, a confidence, a conviction. In fact, because of those attributes, hope is cultural. This is how we know it’s cultural: hope forms our character and dictates our actions. If “hope” is indeed cultural then, hope is “caught and not taught.” You can quote Mister Rogers.

Other people around you will know hope or become hopeful because of how you live hopefully. That’s the nature of culture, it’s caught by the people immersed in it and exposed to it.

So, the next time you tell your kids off for misbehaving and acting unruly, you need to actually go look in the mirror because they didn’t learn that behavior from kids they go to school with. They surely didn’t get taught that from their teacher who has different political and religious views as you. They caught that from you, at home, at the restaurant, in traffic, on the way to church, on the way home out the church parking lot. Even if you think they’re not looking they’re looking and catching different things. I’m just saying.

Michelle and I were just sharing, we have two daughters, Kate, who turns 4 tomorrow and Clara whose 1. Just so you know that I also am in desperate need a savior, I was at an Easter Egg Hunt with the girls last week and man, I love their do whatever it takes to win mentality. That’s good culture. I’m just saying. Participation awards, that’s not such good culture.

But anyways, this Easter Egg hunt, you know, it’s supposed to be a family friendly event. You already know where this is going.  Before the Easter Egg MC said “go”, Kate was already starting to collect candy… I mean eggs. She knew the point wasn’t to enjoy the festivities, it was to win as many eggs as possible. Clara is one so she’s not as fast as her sister nor does she know what’s in those eggs. But after the event was over, she was watching what her sister was doing, so she started taking eggs from other kids baskets.

Just so you know I’m not totally a horrible parent. So I pull them aside and try to teach them why sometimes we can’t be disrupters. But you know what, they caught from me—the rules don’t apply to me. I know they didn’t get that from Michelle, you’ll find out she’s the much more mature and better qualified parent in our house. Moms usually are.

Back to what I was saying, if hope is an attribute of our faith culture we want others to catch, then how do we start allowing hope permeate in our lives? More fundamental question because some of us may not be there yet: where does our hope come from, if it’s supposed to be part of our culture? Hope comes from…

Big Idea: Faith in Jesus’ Life, Death, and Resurrection

That’s what I want you to walk away with if nothing else today.

• Hope doesn’t come from the things that we do.
• It’s certainly doesn’t come from our children.
• It’s not in our vacations.
• It’s not our paychecks.

Our source of hope comes from faith in Jesus’ Life, Death, and Resurrection. That’s what makes our spiritual family unique compared to all other religions and belief systems out there in the world.

The Bible says the church is characterized by hope because our Father in heaven is the God of hope.

• The Apostle Paul says in Romans 15:13.
  • “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”
• The Apostle Peter says in 1 Peter 1:3.
  • “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…”

We catch hope and it becomes part of our culture of life because Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

Let’s look at the Acts 1 again. I want to show you how God says we can embody hope in our lives.

¹In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, 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. 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.

The guy writing the book of Acts is a guy named Luke. He’s the same person that wrote the gospel of Luke. By training, we know from the Bible that he’s a doctor and that he travelled with Apostle Paul on missions throughout the Roman Empire evangelizing and starting churches.

Luke is writing to a Christian named Theophilus. Theophilus, commissioned the writing, meaning he was well off, but more importantly, we get this from context clues, that he probably had this commissioned so he could affirm his faith and make sure he was believing the right thing, placing his hope in the right king.

You see the reason he probably needed that affirmation was because the time and place Theophilus was living in wasn’t real welcoming to Christians. Christians in the first century AD were evil in the sight of Jews but also a bane to the Roman empire because they didn’t worship the emperor or the other pantheon of gods they had. Christians were bad for business. So Theophilus’ faith was most likely wavering because he was a Christ follower in a time where it wasn’t convenient or even easy.

Gee, doesn’t the Roman empire seem just like the area and times we’re living in?

I know some of us are struggling and wrestling with our faith because the hostility in the culture that we’re living in. I know that the culture of the world causes you to question what you believe, who you believe in. I want you to know, it’s okay for you to be wrestling in faith. It’s okay to be deconstructing what you believe. The Bible is written just for you.

Deconstructing faith is not something new that started as a result of COVID, it’s been happening since the first century AD. Theophilus commissioned the writing of two books because he was wrestling with his beliefs and deconstructing some things in his faith and life. The book of Acts, the gospel of Luke was written specifically to somebody who was wrestling and deconstructing so that in the deconstruction of faith, Theophilus and the rest of us beneficiaries of his work would read the accounts of Jesus and catch the hope that is found in “all the things Jesus did and taught when he lived on earth with his disciples.”

Luke actually summarizes why there is hope in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection right here in the first three verses. This is my explanation of Luke’s explanation just in case you didn’t just read the gospel of Luke or can’t remember what’s in Luke.

• Jesus, the son of God, lowered himself and took on the form of man and walked this earth and lived sinless.
• He then became the sacrificial lamb, to satisfy the atonement required by God for sin that we committed past, present, and future.
• Then God, the Father, seeing that the sacrifice of Jesus was good, resurrected Jesus to life.

Luke throws this in for us, he says, you can see if I’m lying about Jesus coming back to life—there are people who witnessed Jesus 40 days after he was supposed to have died.

When we believe and accept the truth of who Jesus is, what he did on the cross, and how he was raised from the dead, we have hope that cannot be taken away no matter what happens. You become a child of the most of high God, creator of the heavens and the earth and wherever you go, however you’re battered, you’re never alone. That is our family’s unique source of hope – God is with us.

Verse 4.

⁴ And while staying with [the disciples, Jesus] ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me…

Stop for a second. Jesus tells his disciples not to leave Jerusalem because God has a promise that he’s going to fulfill for them. This is significant because they weren’t from Jerusalem. They were from Galilee. Galilee wasn’t a day trip. It was a weeklong journey on foot. There was no reason for them to stay in Jerusalem. Obviously because the longer they stayed, the more fees they would incur, eating out all the time, lodging. But this is what Jesus told them to do.

Isn’t it funny how sometimes we feel hopeless simply because Jesus tells us to be somewhere and not depart, but we had our own plans and we’ve removed ourselves from the place God told us to expect hope from? I’m not going to get into that today. Go to verse 5.

⁵ for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” (Acts 1:4-5 ESV)

That was the promise Jesus was referring to. If you’re taking notes write this down because I want you to be rebuffed when you’re feeling hopeless:

Point 1: Disciples are given power through the Spirit (v5)

We catch the hope of God by the power of God. That is what the baptism of the Holy Spirit is in its truest sense. You are enabled to live hopefully because God pours his Spirit onto us so we can manifest hope. When we read the gospels, Jesus teaches that the gift of the Holy Spirit is a sign that the Messiah had come and fulfilled his mission to save God’s people and that a new era had begun where God would always be with his people. This was not something new. In fact, this was something God promised in the Old Testament. You can look it up in Joel 2 or Isaiah 32 or Isaiah 44. The prophets Joel and Isaiah said God would send his spirit to his people after he rescued his people in Jerusalem. God rescued his people through his son, Jesus. Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected from the dead in Jerusalem. So it was now time for God to fulfill the promise of sending his Spirit to his people.

The new era starts for us when we place our faith in Jesus Christ. At that moment, we are justified before God. When we are justified, that means we are no longer guilty of sin that separates us from an all righteous God. In justification we become adopted children of God. The Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin, comforts us, guides us, gives us spiritual gifts and the desire to obey God; and he enables us to pray and to understand God’s Word. He is the source of power for us to continually have hope. Our spiritual family is unique in hopefulness because God is actually with us and in us. The Holy Spirit is God, coeternal with the Father and the Son, and God grants him irrevocably to all who believe. Everything we do and say must be hopeful as a result.

The 17^th century Puritan theologian, John Owen, says this about how we have hope in the Holy Spirit: From this indwelling of the Spirit we have support. Our hearts are very ready to sink and fail under our trials; indeed, a little thing will cause us so to do: flesh, and heart, and all that is within us, are soon ready to fail. . . . The Spirit helps bearing up that infirmity….

If you have faith in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, you receive the Holy Spirit and so hope becomes part of your culture because our father in heaven is the God of hope.  

Let’s pick up the passage again in verse 6.

⁶ So when [the disciples] had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”  

I want to point out something that I often do: Miss the point.

Have you ever missed the point? Husbands? Is it just me? I feel like I miss the point often. The other day my family and I were eating dinner and you know, Michelle is trying to hint something at me, so that I can be more of a fun parent than I already am. Michelle says, “Dad, how many more bites of dinner does Kate need to have before she can have dessert, two or three?” I immediately say three! Because bigger is better, right?

Immediately, Michelle is shaking her head because I missed the point. I missed the point. The point was not the bigger number, the point was to choose the smaller number so I could be the dad that gives out dessert quickly.

We know the disciples missed the point of being baptized by the Holy Spirit because of how Jesus answers them in verse 7.

⁷ He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 

You see, the disciples were too concerned about nationalistic, and political establishment. That’s not the reason you have God’s power within you. God doesn’t give us his spirit to empower us for simply the establishment of some national or political system. That’s not it.

This is my second point.

Point 2. Disciples are called to be witnesses (v8)

Verse 8.

⁸ 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.” 

The point of having an everlasting hope in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is so that we can live as a witness to the hope we have, meaning that people we interact with must catch the hope we have and the reason we have that hope.

Let me tell you what being a witness entails. It means we see, hear, and know God’s work of hope through Jesus. Seems a lot like living out your culture. That’s what Jesus is telling his disciples in verse 8.  It doesn’t matter where you sit, what you do, where you live. If you received hope in the gospel, and the power of the Holy Spirit as a result, you are a witness of God’s work through Jesus. That is the culture you manifest.

At Cedarbrook, we use the acronym “BLESS” to help us see identify organic opportunities in our everyday lives to be a witness of God’s work through Jesus.

Let me go over it with you.

• BEGIN WITH PRAYER – Pray for the people in my life and the places where I go.
• LISTEN WITH CARE – Listen to and discover the needs of others where God is at work.
• EAT WITH OTHERS – Share meals and spend time with the people in my life.
• SERVE WITH LOVE – Serve the needs of others and help them in tangible ways.
• SHARE YOUR STORY – Share the story of Jesus, and what he has done, and is doing, in my life with others.

When you do these things, you embody the culture of hope in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection and people will catch that hope from you. The Holy Spirit gives you power to embody it. Verse 9.

⁹ And when [Jesus] had said these things, as [the disciples] were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.¹⁰ And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes,¹¹ and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Wouldn’t it have been awesome to see Jesus lifted right out? Man, that would be so amazing. But look at that rebuke from the two angels: “Why do you stand looking into heaven?” Family, I can’t emphasize this enough. Yes, it would have been awesome for us to witness the glory of Jesus being lifted up out to heaven waiting for him to come back. But we have work to do in spreading our culture of hope.

Point 3. Disciples work at their calling (v11)

Our spiritual family is called to engage the world, living out our faith by being a witness of Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. When we work at living out the culture of hope we receive from God through the power of the Holy Spirit:

• our households,
• our neighborhoods,
• our cities,
• our workplaces,
• our schools

will catch the hope we have in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. We will see the hope of the gospel penetrate strongholds of brokenness, sin, and hopelessness.

Family, it’s the broken, sinful, and hopeless that need to catch the hope of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection from those of us who have it. When our spiritual family lives out our unique culture, because we are given the Holy Spirit to empower us as hopeful witnesses of God’s work through Jesus, the culture we occupy will begin to manifest hope. So

• Who will you be interceding and praying for to know Christ?
• Who will you be listening and eating with so you can pray for them or serve them?
• Who will you be loving or serving people for the hope of the gospel?
• Who will you be sharing the hope of the gospel with?

Cedarbrook, we are a Family of Hope.

If you are here and in need the hope that comes from Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, make sure you come to the prayer station after the service.

Pray with me.

Father in heaven, thank you for giving us hope. You give us hope when we are hopeless. You give us your Spirit when we are weak. You give us a heart like your own, and empower us for an incredible mission of witnessing hope to a culture that is hopeless. And we know your Spirit cannot be muted.

If there are any here who are wrestling with their faith or are in the pits of hopelessness, let the hope of knowing you and experiencing your Son’s work on the cross come upon them. Let them see the glory of Jesus’ resurrection today.

Open up opportunities for us to be your witnesses this week. We want to work where you direct us so that others can catch the culture of hope that comes from the good news we have in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.  

Allow your gospel permeate our lives, and provide hope to the people we are with and places we occupy. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

Let’s stand and sing.