The Wider Kingdom

Acts 1:1-11

April 5, 1998

by Dave Wilkinson

Anyone who has attended a management seminar in the last ten years or so has heard about a thing called a paradigm. But even if you haven’t heard of a paradigm, you still have one. Even if you don’t have a pair of nickels, you have a paradigm -- a little management seminar humor there.

A paradigm is simply your and my accustomed way of looking at the world. A paradigm is a perspective that causes us to focus on certain things and interpret that things we focus on in a certain way. A paradigm is the way we interact with reality -- which means that a faulty paradigm can cause us to miss what is really going on.

Let me share with you a true story that may be familiar to you. It illustrates the power of a paradigm.

The nation of Switzerland dominated the world of watchmaking for over sixty years. The Swiss made the best watches in the world. Anyone who wanted a good watch, an accurate watch, bought a Swiss watch. The Swiss didn't just rest on their laurels either. They continually worked at making better watches. They were constant innovators.

By 1968 they had done so well that they had more than 65 percent of the unit sales in the world watch market and more than 80 percent of the profits. They were the world leaders in watchmaking by an enormous stretch. No one was even a close second.

But by 1980 their market share had collapsed from 65 percent to less than 10 percent. Their profit domination had dropped to less than 20 percent. They had been dethroned as the world market leader because they had run into a change in the fundamental rules. The mechanical watch mechanism was about to give way to quartz electronics. And everything the Swiss were good at -- making gears and bearings and mainsprings -- was irrelevant to the new rules.

In less than ten years, the Swiss watchmaking future, which had seemed so secure, so profitable, so dominant, was destroyed. Between 1979 and 1981, fifty thousand of the sixty-two thousand Swiss watchmakers lost their jobs. The Japanese took over first place. Today the Japanese have about 33 percent of the market.

Now the irony of this story is that the collapse was totally avoidable. It was totally avoidable -- because it was the Swiss themselves who invented the electronic quartz movement for watches at their research institute in Neuchatel. They invented it. But when the Swiss researchers presented this revolutionary new idea to the Swiss manufacturers in 1967, it was rejected. It was rejected because it did not fit their watch making paradigm.

After all, it didn't have a mainspring, it didn't need bearings, it required almost no gears, it was battery-powered, it was electronic. It couldn't possibly be the watch of the future. The manufacturers let their researchers showcase their useless invention at the World Watch Congress that year. Seiko took one look, and the rest is history.

In our New Testament passage from Acts 1, we see Jesus disciples as they are about to enter a very profound paradigm shift -- a movement in the way they see the world. Their old way of looking at things is about to be shattered.

As we open the Book of Acts, the Disciples have gone through the experience of the Last Supper, the crucifixion, and the resurrection. They have spent forty days with the resurrected Christ. Now they are on their way to the top of the Mount of Olives where Jesus will ascend back into heaven.

They have seen it all. They have done it all. They have heard it all. But they still see things upside down. We know this by the question they ask Jesus in verse 6: "Lord, at this time are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"

What does this question mean?

It means that in spite of everything that has happened to them -- in spite of the crucifixion and in spite of the resurrection -- they are still being shaped by their old paradigm that told them what the Messiah was going to be. It is not amazing that the Disciples asked this question. But it is amazing when they asked this question -- after the resurrection. But that is the power of a paradigm to shape how we read reality -- to shape our interpretation of events.

As we open Acts 1, what is the disciple’s Messiah paradigm?

Like the rest of Israel, the Disciples are still looking for the Messiah to be the political and military leader of their one small nation -- to restore the glory that Israel had known in world affairs a thousand years before during the time of King David. With their Acts 1:6 question, it is almost like they are saying that what has just happened doesn’t matter. "This crucifixion and this resurrection were interesting -- but now its time for You to get about the important stuff. It’s time for you to get the Romans out of our land."

In asking their question, the Disciples show that they are still mentally stuck at Palm Sunday. They haven’t yet moved on to Good Friday and Easter. For their concept of the Messiah was the theme of what happened on Palm Sunday.

As Jesus entered the City of Jerusalem it became a political demonstration. The gospels tell us that the people stripped palm branches off of the trees to wave at Jesus. The cried "Hosanna to the Son of David."

Why palm branches? Why "Hosanna?"

Well the palm branches are a the symbol of the Hosmonean ruling family which was established by the Maccabees after the Syrian wars. The Hasmoneans were the last rulers of independent Israel before the coming of the Romans. You can see the symbol of the palm branch on Hasmonean coins. So the people wave palm branches to greet Jesus as their rightful ruler -- in place of the Romans and in place of the Roman puppet Herods.

Why "Hosanna?" Hosanna means "Lord save!" -- not save us from our sins but save us from our corrupt earthly rulers -- from our position of political and military weakness. "Lord, at this time will you restore the kingdom the Israel?" That’s a good Palm Sunday question. But the fact that the Disciples are still asking this same question in Acts 1 shows that even after the resurrection the Disciples are living in the paradigm of Palm Sunday. They still believe that all that has happened is for the fulfillment of their own narrow, national agenda. Even as that walk with the risen Christ, this is what they believe.

That is what they will continue to believe until God opens their eyes at Pentecost. The Disciples will only understand what really happened on Good Friday and at Easter when God opens their minds to a new way of seeing by sending them the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost as recorded in Acts 2.

And I believe that God will use his Holy Spirit in us the same way -- to give us a new way of looking at reality. For example, it is so easy for us, as believers, to start thinking that other believers in other churches who do things differently are "other than us " or "less than us" rather than one with us.

The theme if this week’s Fifty Day Adventure is learning to embrace the wider Kingdom of Jesus Christ -- which means that we are going to learn to celebrate what God is doing in the other churches of our world, our nation, and our local community. That’s a great theme, Because God is up to a lot more in this area than what we see only through our one local church -- just as God was up to much more in Jesus than ‘restoring the kingdom to Israel."

As a congregation, we don’t have to overcome a lot of barriers to closer fellowship with other congregations. We aren’t a part of the I.F.C.A. I.F.C.A. stands for Independent Fundamentalist Churches of America. But a lot of people are convinced that it stands for "I fight Christians anywhere." Our barriers aren’t theologically based but are more priority based. We don’t take the time to share with other believers in things like the CROP Walk and the concerts of prayer.

God is up to much more than just us and just here. I believe that Jesus wants His church to demonstrate a more visible unity.

Jesus said in John 12:32: "I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself."

So the question I want to ask my brothers and sisters who have a cultural, racial, denominational, or theological background different from mine is not, "What are our differences?" but "Which Jesus are you lifting up?"

Are they lifting up the Jesus who is the living Word, who was in the beginning, who was with God, who was God?

Are they lifting up the Jesus who left the glory of heaven, was born of a virgin, took upon himself the form of a man, and as a human faced every temptation and trial we will ever face and did so without once sinning?

Are they lifting up the Jesus who said, "For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life"?

Are they lifting up the Jesus who said, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep"?

Are they lifting up the Jesus who said, "I am the resurrection and the life. The person who believes in me will live, even though he dies"?

Are they lifting up the Jesus by whose wounds we are healed, who bore our sins in his body on the cross, whose blood cleanses us of all our sin, and who died, was buried, and rose on the third day with victory over sin, death, and hell?

Are they lifting up the Jesus who has been exalted far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come, before whom every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and whom every tongue will confess that he is Lord?

Are they lifting up the Jesus of whom ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands say in heaven, "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength 'and honor and glory and praise!"?

If that's the Jesus they're lifting up, then they're lifting up our Jesus.

Let's find them and stand with them.