Referenced as a call to remember, God saying he is God and there is no other
1 Bel bows down. Nebo stoops. Their idols are carried by animals, and on the livestock. The things that you carried around are heavy loads, a burden for the weary.
2 They stoop and they bow down together. They could not deliver the burden, but they have gone into captivity.
3 “Listen to me, house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, that have been carried from their birth, that have been carried from the womb.
4 Even to old age I am he, and even to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear. Yes, I will carry, and will deliver.
5 “To whom will you compare me, and consider my equal, and compare me, as if we were the same?
6 Some pour out gold from the bag, and weigh silver in the balance. They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god. They fall down— yes, they worship.
7 They bear it on their shoulder. They carry it, and set it in its place, and it stands there. It cannot move from its place. Yes, one may cry to it, yet it can not answer. It cannot save him out of his trouble.
8 “Remember this, and show yourselves men. Bring it to mind again, you transgressors.
9 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is no other. I am God, and there is none like me.
10 I declare the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done. I say: My counsel will stand, and I will do all that I please.
11 I call a ravenous bird from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. Yes, I have spoken. I will also bring it to pass. I have planned. I will also do it.
12 Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted, who are far from righteousness!
13 I bring my righteousness near. It is not far off, and my salvation will not wait. I will grant salvation to Zion, my glory to Israel.
During forty days after resurrection Jesus appeared and proved by many convincing proofs he was actually alive
3 To these he also showed himself alive after he suffered, by many proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking about God’s Kingdom.
Jesus commanded them not to leave Jerusalem until the Father sends the gift he promised
4 Being assembled together with them, he commanded them, “Don’t depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which you heard from me.
You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.”
Two white-robed men told the apostles Jesus would return from heaven the same way he went
10 While they were looking steadfastly into the sky as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white clothing,
11 who also said, “You men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who was received up from you into the sky, will come back in the same way as you saw him going into the sky.”
Names of those present in the upper room, constantly united in prayer with Mary and others
13 When they had come in, they went up into the upper room, where they were staying; that is Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.
14 All these with one accord continued steadfastly in prayer and supplication, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
Peter stood among 120 believers and said scripture had to be fulfilled concerning Judas Iscariot
15 In these days, Peter stood up in the middle of the disciples (and the number of names was about one hundred twenty), and said,
16 “Brothers, it was necessary that this Scripture should be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who was guide to those who took Jesus.
David crying out about waters threatening his life, enemies hating him without cause
1 Save me, God, for the waters have come up to my neck!
2 I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
3 I am weary with my crying. My throat is dry. My eyes fail, looking for my God.
4 Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head. Those who want to cut me off, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty. I have to restore what I didn’t take away.
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
This message opened a new series walking through the book of Acts, with the pastor connecting it to the 12-step series the church just finished. The big idea was that the church is not a museum of what Jesus once did but the continuing body through which he is still doing it. Acts chapter one shows what it looks like to be ready when the Holy Spirit moves.
What was said
Luke wrote two volumes, not one. His gospel is volume one, Acts is volume two, and they overlap at the same hinge point: the ascension. Acts opens by saying the gospel recorded "everything that Jesus began to do and teach," and that word "began" matters, because Acts is the story of what Jesus kept on doing through his people after he rose and ascended.
During the forty days between resurrection and ascension, Jesus kept showing up to eat with the disciples and talk with them about the kingdom of God. They still had their old question on their lips, asking whether he would now restore Israel's political power. His answer was direct: the Father alone holds that authority, and it is not for them to know. What they are for is this, they will receive the Holy Spirit and they will be his witnesses.
That promise in Acts 1:8 is also an outline for the whole book. Jerusalem covers chapters one through seven, Judea and Samaria chapters eight through twelve, and the ends of the earth chapters thirteen through twenty-eight. Luke the careful historian is also Luke the deliberate architect, and the pastor leaned on the commentary of his own seminary professor, Dr. William Larkin, who gave his life to studying Luke and Acts together.
The disciples returned to Jerusalem, gathered in the upper room, and devoted themselves to prayer. About a hundred and twenty people were present. Peter stood up and, drawing on the Psalms, made the case that Judas's betrayal was foretold and that his place among the twelve needed to be filled. Two men were nominated and the group cast lots, the last time that method appears in scripture for believers. The Holy Spirit had not yet been poured out, and once he was, at Pentecost in the very next chapter, there would be no more need for it.
The quote Dr. Larkin's commentary closes with was read aloud near the end: the great commission is not an optional ministry activity for people with cross-cultural interests. It is the primary task the Lord left for his church, and every Christian is called to be a world Christian.
The pastor pulled those threads together as a practical question for the congregation. If the church genuinely wants to see the Holy Spirit move, Acts one shows the posture that precedes it: obedience to what Jesus has already said, staying together rather than going it alone, persistent and united prayer, steady study and proclamation of God's word, and the prayerful appointment of leaders so that when God moves there is a team in place to move with him.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
The pastor pointed out that Luke wrote Acts as a second volume so that Theophilus could 'be certain of the truth of everything you were taught.' What doubts or challenges have you faced about things you were taught growing up in the faith, and how have you worked through them?
Even after the resurrection, the disciples were still asking Jesus whether he was about to restore Israel's political kingdom. Why do you think it is so hard to let go of our own picture of what God should be doing, and where do you see that tendency in your own life?
Good morning, everybody. Hey. Would you would you stand with me and join us in song? It's a I've got an encouraging word here from second Corinthians one to lead us in a worship, and it says this, for all of God's promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding yes, and through Christ, our amen ascends to God for his glory. Would you join us in singing, yes and amen.
Father of kindness, a father of kindness, you have poured out grace. You brought me out of darkness and filled me with peace. Give her a mercy or my help in time alone. Lord, I can't tell but sing. I'll sing of his faithfulness.
All your promises are yes and amen. All your promises are yes and amen. And I will All your promises are yes amen. All your promises are yes and amen.
Carl, what's happening?
Yep. Iwana is on tomorrow, 05:45, and it's a theme night.
And Theme night?
Yeah. What's up? It's costume night. So bring your favorite fun costume. We we air on the on the side of fun rather than gory.
Okay. But And it's yeah. 05:45, and we'll be here.
Fun costume night at Awana. That looks pretty fun up there with Brian McCooey. Hey. And speaking of McCooey's, there's a McCooey right there for Operation Christmas Child.
Hello? There we go. Okay. So it's that time again for the Samaritan's Purse shoe boxes. This is filling a shoe box with Christmas items for kids who probably would not get a gift for the year.
And so this is just a special way for us to show them God's love. There are boxes in the back foyer. There's a whole list on the wall that talks about gift ideas and how to do this. There is a gift tag in every box that you put on the top that states it's for a boy or a girl and what age. They said that the youngest age and the oldest age are the ones that are always most in need.
A lot of people fill out the middle age group. It costs $10 to shop to ship one of these boxes, so put $10 in an envelope or a check-in the box on top of your gift. There will not be a packing party. You're gonna go out with your family or with yourself and buy all the items for this person. Pray over this person.
A great touch is to put a Christmas card in there with maybe your family's name or a picture, which is awesome. We need all these boxes back by November 17. Again, all the information is in the back. And if you have questions, you can ask me today or call Diane in the office. That's it.
Thanks, Keith. Thank you. Thank you, Casey. Appreciate that. The next one.
Oh, the directory. I have right here kind of a a pre copy of a copy of our directory. If you would look through it and see if you're in there and you have your information in there, make sure it's correct and kinda sign off with that. And if you're not in there and you wanna be, would you include your information on the back page somewhere? Nick and Diane are compiling these, putting them together.
A good picture is a horizontal picture. Don't make Nick have to add shoulders. Okay? Don't don't make him Photoshop you in with a horizontal picture. The horizontal picture is a better one for the format instead of vertical.
And I think that's enough about that. Today, after the second service, there is a memorial, kind of a celebration of life gathering rather informal after the second service down in the fellowship hall. Casual dress, food will be provided. Virgil boss, Laurie boss's husband who passed early in COVID. So if you would join us, that'd be great.
Old Bills Fund Run. Y'all know what Old Bills is? I say this all through the giving season. So Old Bills had their their party, their gathering, their check distribution. So the grand total for this year of what came in through Old Bills for use for First Bees local benevolence fund, building suspense, building suspense, was a lot.
Thank you. Thank you. It's so great to be able to say yes to people in need. So thank you. $131,948.72.
Wow. I'm kinda blown away. I don't know if there are any more announcements. Fall afresh. There is another one though.
Would you all pray with me? And then we'll you can stand now, And we'll sing. But God, I'm overwhelmed by your goodness, and at the same time that I'm overwhelmed by your goodness, lord, and it's filling up filling up all of the folks here who are responsible for helping folks who are in need. Lord, you are the one who gives and you give freely, freely, freely, and we are given freely, lord. I'm thankful for that but there are people that are hurting and there are people that do not know how to connect to you nor the body of Christ, the continuing body of Christ.
Lord, would you would you do that work? I'm praying specifically for a young man I heard about this morning who has been on heroin, has been completely inebriated for years, and is at the point of suicide this morning. Would you help connect that young man to the body of Christ in a way that means something real, that he receives healing touch, good counsel, love, straight, Lord, from you through this continuing body. In Jesus name, I pray, Lord, that you would use these sent out ones, these folks from right here that you'd use us. In Jesus name to be doing your work on earth as it is in heaven.
Show us your way, Lord, and give us the peace and the comfort and the joy and the grace and the mercy that abounds to the point where other people recognize it and lord then, see it from you. In Jesus name, would you follow Fresh Armis this morning? Amen. Amen.
To overflow. Say, spirit, come and fill this place. Spirit, come and and fill this place. Let your glory now in there.
This is a psalm psalm of David, Psalm 61, and he's literally in a desert place. And he says this, God, you're my God, and I earnestly seek you, and my soul thirsts for you, and I long for you in a dry and parched land where there is no water. I was just thinking as we sang that song that sometimes we gotta fight for for worship, for praise, because it's not always naturally just there. And yet when we lift our voices, it well, praise for one, just an act of obedience and love for God. But also as we do so, it fills us up too.
It does. And sometimes, I'm just thinking of it as as we were singing is we gotta work for it. We gotta fight for it. And, God, would you help us? God, would you encourage encourage us as we as we worship, Lord, as we lift our voices to you, God, would you strengthen each spirit here, God.
In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen.
May you call the sun to rise, and you lay in town to rest. May you hold this hard up mine, and you hold my evergreen bread. Such an awesome God, so mighty, so full, so wonderful, such an awesome God. So selfless, so generous, so mighty, nothing as sweet as he is. And mercy, nothing comes close to the Lord.
Jesus, the son of God. A hung on cross to die, but not even that hand cell could hold you down before you rose to the line. Such an so holy, so wonderful. Such an awesome God, so selfish, so generous, so faithful you are. Than the mountains everybody face.
You're stronger than the power of the gray. And constant in the trial and the change, thing remains. Let's sing that again. Higher than. You're higher than the mountains never gives never out on And your love never fails and never gives up, never runs out on me.
Your love never fails and never gives up, never never runs out on me. You're love. You're love.
You can have a seat for a moment here. This is the worship through giving part of the service. I'll invite our ushers to come on forward. We'll sing only a holy God, and and from Isaiah 46. It's a call to remember.
God says, remember the things that I've done in the past. I am God. There is no other. There's none like me. Before we sing, Graham, may ask you to pray?
God, thank you for this for this morning. Thank you for this morning and this gathered crowd. Lord, thank you that we come together to sing your praises. We come together to to beg your mercy, not just for ourselves, Lord, but for others. Lord God almighty, would you please do what only you can do?
May we be willing and obedient, Lord, and empowered by that same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. Lord, but may we live expectant lives expecting for you to do what only you can do. Would you make those connections, Lord, that we just can't even see. In Jesus name, we ask you that you do your will and your way among us this morning and through us. Going from here, Lord, with this offering, I pray that you would that you do whatever it is that you wanna do with it.
In Jesus name, we wanna see him lifted up. We wanna see you glorified. We wanna see you, Lord. We wanna see your face. We wanna see who you are.
We wanna show others too. Would you show who you are reflecting off of us? In Jesus name, amen. And there they go. How are you all this morning?
How's everybody? Good. Alright. Good. We are starting another series.
Starting another book series, actually. And the clicker will click in a minute, I'm sure. There it is. We finished up the 12 steps last week. And so there's a tie in with the 12 steps.
And I I didn't make slides on this, and I'm not gonna make you repeat all the steps again right now, maybe in a few weeks. But the 12 step tie in. So last week when I spoke and and when Stoney spoke, we didn't emphasize as much the carrying out day by day of the steps as often would be the case in a 12 step talk. Right? It's an everyday, day by day, daily walking close to thee, Lord.
Right? It's that sort of life that we're talking about. And the book of Acts is what we're going into next. And the 12 step tie out is seeing on earth the things of heaven carried out. And it's really, really good for the soul.
It's really good for the soul to see this and think about it and see what happened. Now, as we are going forward, I wanna think about how is it that we practice these principles in all of our affairs. Right? That's the first chapter of the book of acts is beautiful for how we do that. And so that's where we're going.
Jeff, I don't know what the deal is with this, but it's it's clicky clicking. It's not clicky clicking like it usually does. So introducing Acts. So the the book of Acts or the Acts of the Apostles. If you had to name it, what would you name it?
Just about every commentator that you read on the book of Acts. I don't know why they called it the acts of the apostles. The acts, it is of the apostles. They're the ones that Jesus sent out. Yes.
And they're doing it, but see Peter Wagner calls it the acts of the Holy Spirit. You can't read this book and not think Holy Spirit is all over this. James Montgomery Boice, one of my favorites, calls it the acts of the Holy Spirit in the Church of Jesus Christ through God's people, which is good. It's a lot simpler to just call it acts. John Scott calls it the continuing words and deeds because he didn't wanna say acts.
Continuing words and deeds of Jesus by his spirit through the apostles. If you're familiar with the terminology that we say the church, capital c church, is the body of Christ. We we sometimes really divorce that from actually being the body of Christ. Christ is at work still and one of the primary ways that he's at work is in the body of Christ, the capital c church. All believers throughout all ages.
Introducing Acts. So this is what we're going into today. We're gonna cover the first chapter of the book of Acts. This guy, I'm going introduce him to you. Doctor William j Larkin junior was Tanya's Sunday school teacher when we were in seminary.
So when we went to seminary, we're coming off the mission field, and we decided we just kind of bounced for a while. You all know how you do. People scout churches. Right? Sometimes when I'm a little scared, I'd go by myself, and then come back and take Tanya and Paschal if it was a little okay.
Well, we bounced for the first couple of years and we looked and looked. There's a church on every corner in Columbia, South Carolina and two between. Right? And so when we're we're going and bouncing and some of them, they'd see us and I was only about 35 when I started seminary. But outside of some of them, they'd hand you earplugs and say, here's some earplugs.
It's going be a little loud. You know, dark in middle school with drapes and whatever, church plant. We tried a few of those. We went to one church for a while and it was just a little bit to this and a little bit to that and it felt sort of like the old old hat, new hat, red hat, blue hat book. Well, we ended up and we stuck for the last three and a half years.
We stuck at First Pres of Columbia, South Carolina, where Sinclair Ferguson was a pastor. And some of you all know that and go, oh, that's great. Well, we went because this was the Sunday school teacher. Doctor Larkin was my Greek professor, my New Testament theology professor. Is a theologically, he's dead now.
I can say this about him. He's a theologically, he's a giant, but he's built like Barney Fife. The tiny little guy, didn't weigh a hundred pounds. He was he was actually in my latter years there. He was suffering from pancreatic cancer, but was going every day to the office, every day to the classes.
Beautiful soul, resting with the Lord, doctor Larkin. He wrote a book actually. I looked and looked and looked because I knew I was starting this series. I looked and looked and looked and looked and looked to find this book. I'm like, I can't go through this book without having through this acts without having this book.
And I thought that, and last night, Tanya found it. Pascal had swiped it for some reason. And it was if you find that in your teenager's room, there's something weird going on. She's off at college and I found this book there. He actually was asked to write the New Living Translation of the book of Acts.
It's his primary field of study, Luke, Acts, they call them because Luke is volume one, Acts is volume two. If you're wondering why why do it that way? If you'd noticed most of the gospels are about the same length, Mark is a little shorter, But the norm for the time was a scroll is about 35 feet long. And Luke is a scroll is about 35 feet long. And Acts as a scroll is about 35 feet long.
If I were to take one and just go right here, it would reach back to right almost to the back wall. From from here, it's 36 feet from here to the back wall. So that's what the scroll would look like. And it's two volumes. As we go into it, acts one one says this.
In my first book, I told you, my first scroll, I told you Theophilus. If you're wondering, Theophilus means lover of God. Someone who has brotherly love for God. And some people think that that's just kind of anybody, Theophilus, anybody who's a friend of God. But I think it was actually a guy named Theophilus.
The first book I told you Theophilus, about everything that Jesus began to do and teach in the beginning is kind of emphatic there because it's not over. What Jesus is doing, he's still doing and he said he was gonna build his church. He said that you would be my continuing body just as the father sent me, I'm sending you. And so the first book I told you, Theophilus, about everything that Jesus began to do and teach. And if you look back to Luke one first volume, it says this, many people have set out to write accounts about the events that have been fulfilled among us and they used the they used the eyewitness report circulating among us from the early disciples and having carefully investigated everything from the beginning.
Luke, Gentile, physician, historian, really good historian actually. Really good with geography, really good with cultures. He understands that Jerusalem does not look the same as Rome, does not look the same as Ephesus, and all of the different You can pick up the flavor of the missionary journeys because Luke is really good at recording this. Having carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I also have decided to write a careful account for you, most honorable Theophilus, so that you can be certain of the truth of everything you were taught. Some of you all were taught Bible and Christianity, let's say.
Some of you were taught it from the cradle and you don't remember a time when you didn't know about it. You didn't you don't remember a time when you didn't know the answers to the questions in Sunday school. You don't remember a time, but in the modern day, when constantly people are throwing up doubt, and they're constantly throwing up philosophical doubt, and they're trying to get you to not hold on to the things that you know and believe, Luke even then was saying, you can hold on to that because it's true. I've thoroughly investigated it. I'm gonna bring it to you straight.
Here we go. Good historian. Also, wanna mention this and I probably will come up again at intervals, but you can't divorce Christianity from Christ. If you do, you've missed the point. Buddhism survives without the Buddha.
Okay? Buddhism is a philosophy. Most religions come down to being philosophies. But Christianity is not that. Christianity is about Christ.
He took on the sins and paid the penalty, the price, and promises to cleanse and redeem all who put their trust in him. And he's real and he's active. In my first book, I told you Theophilus about everything Jesus began to do and teach because he's still doing it until the day that he was taken up to heaven because Luke ends with the ascension. Well, Acts is going to start off with the ascension. It's the tie in.
It's the recap when you're watching on Netflix and it says, do you want to skip this recap or you already know all this stuff? Luke ends the same place that Acts begins, until the day was taken up to heaven after giving his chosen apostles further instructions through the Holy Spirit. During the forty days after he suffered and died, so this is forty days after the resurrection, he appeared to the apostles from time to time. And he proved to them by many convincing proofs is what most translations say. He proved to them in many ways.
I am using the New Living Translation for this too. I almost always use New American Standard. What I like about doctor Larkin is though he was AARP, not which is that the retired people? AAO. No.
He was ARP, Associated Reform Presbyterian, PCA. Alright. That was his backing. Yeah. That's the retired people.
I'm old enough for that now. Not to retire though. He
he
threw it straight down the center of the plate. I knew him to be very faithful to exactly what it said. And one thing that I took away from him and actually doctor Ferguson is just say what it says. It's good enough without embellishing it. If you can add an accessible little instrument that helps you hold on to it, fine.
But don't add anything to it and don't take anything away from it. If it sounds Calvinistic this week, just wait around. Okay? If it sounds Armenian next week, just wait around. Get it and get the whole counsel of God's word.
Drop the isms as much as you can. Pay attention to what it is that God has said. During the forty days after Jesus suffered and died, he appeared to the apostles from time to time and he proved them by many convincing proofs in many ways that he was actually alive. And we saw some of those ways demonstrated in John. We saw some of them demonstrated in the other gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
But it said he just show up from time to time. Isn't that great? Can you imagine you're hanging out and Jesus kind of just shows up from time to time for forty days? You know those disciples, apostles that had heard him say, hey, I'm going. I'm gonna leave the Holy Spirit, but I'm going.
And they'd heard him say it, and then from time to time he just shows up. This is even better than it was before. But then, he really was preparing them during that time, showing them that he was alive, showing them that he's still active. He proved to him in many ways he's actually alive and he talked to them about the kingdom of God. And so, kingdom of God is always present in Jesus's teaching, but our understanding of the kingdom of God.
For me, the most helpful way to think about the kingdom of God is this, God is the king. Am I or am I not a willing, humble, and obedient subject of that king? If I'm gonna bring heaven to earth, it's gotta start with me. It's gotta start right here in my own individual heart, humbling myself before God and seeking through prayer and meditation to improve my conscious contact with him. Right?
He talked to them about the kingdom of God. And once when he was eating with them, that's a proof right there, dead men don't eat. Once he was eating with them, he commanded them, y'all don't leave Jerusalem until the father sends you the gift he promised. As I told you before, he's already told them about this. He's told them for four chapters in the gospel of John, the Holy Spirit would become in the comforter paraclete, all that stuff you've heard lots of sermons about.
Once he was eaten with them, he commanded, don't leave Jerusalem till the father sends you the gift he promised as I told you before, you know what I'm talking about. John baptized with water, you all remember that, but in just a few days, you're gonna be baptized with the Holy Spirit. What's that gonna look like? They couldn't imagine. But just once while he was eating with them, it sounds like pass pass the biscuits.
Oh, yeah. This is gonna happen. It's normal that Jesus is alive. He's eating with them and he says, y'all don't leave Jerusalem until this happens. I want you to be together when this happens.
So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept on asking him and it's kept on emphatically continual verb. They kept on asking, Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore her kingdom? They're still not getting it. Do you all recognize that this is post resurrection and they still aren't getting it? It's about us and them still to the disciples at this point.
Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel? We know death can't even conquer you. Now, we're gonna whip those Romans just like we should have already and you're gonna restore our kingdom. Right? Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?
They still have political power in mind. They still have their dreams of Messiah conquering their oppressors just like they did in all of the gospels. And Jesus replied, the father alone has the authority to set those dates and times. If you're reading the King James version, says the father alone has the power and the next verse is gonna say power again. It's two different words.
I like that he used different words here. He replied, the father alone has the authority, the power. Authority is he's the one that's in charge of that. The father alone has authority to set those dates and times. He doesn't say it's not gonna happen.
He doesn't say that Israel's not going be restored. He doesn't say all that, but he does recognize in their question is they still don't get it. The father alone has authority to set those dates and times and they're not for you to know. It's as plain spoken as it can be. If you're trying to figure out the eschatological end of time and you're trying to nail it down, this is another place where Jesus says, it's not for you to know.
It it what what would it what would you do if you figured it out? Right? If you live your life like this might be your last day, okay. That's fine. But not the last day, the great mighty day of the Lord, and you're forecasting it on billboards and whatnot.
It doesn't do anybody any good. The father alone has authority to set those dates and times. They're not for you to know, but I can tell you this. You will receive power. And this type of power is not just the authority.
This is the ability to be able to do it. This is dunamis, dynamite. Dunamis, power. Untold power. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead.
You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. You will receive power and you will be what? My witnesses. I love I don't know where I heard it years ago, but what we're called to be as witnesses, we're not called to be judges. We're not called we're not called to be judges.
We're not called to be lawyers. Some of you are called to be lawyers. You don't know. You know what I mean. We're not called to be witnesses and we're not called to be lawyers.
We are called to be witnesses and what does a witness say? What a witness says is what has happened that they have seen with their own eyes that they understand to be true. You will be my witnesses and you will be telling people about me everywhere in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria. So Jerusalem is a city, Judea is an area, Samaria is further flung down Judea and to the ends of the earth. If you're looking at the Greek, think that this is a great translation.
Be smirching of doctor Larkin in the NIV, which I don't agree with nearly as often as other translations. It says this, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Comma, and in all Judea and Samaria, there's no definite article in between the two in the Greek, and to the ends of the earth. And the reason I like this is because this is an outline for Acts, for the whole book of Acts right here. We're gonna see, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem for the first seven chapters of the book of Acts. We're gonna see what God is doing through his apostles, disciples, believers, new body.
Every Christian that comes will be as they'll be as witnesses for chapters one through seven. In all Judea and Samaria from chapters eight to 12 and to the ends of the earth. The known inhabited earth at that time was chapters 13 to 28. You're gonna be my witnesses telling people about me everywhere in Jerusalem throughout Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. And after saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching him, and they could no longer see him.
They were watching and he ascended and disappeared. And as they strained to see him rising into heaven, you think about a balloon that you let go, and you keep on looking and you keep on looking. That's what I imagine them straining their eyes. That's what it says. They strained to see him rising into heaven.
Two white robed men stood suddenly on the ground among them and men of Galilee they said, why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he'll return from heaven in the same way you saw him go. Jesus said, you don't need to know when that is, but these guys say he's coming back. Don't worry about that part. Someday he'll return from heaven the same way you saw him go.
And then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the Mount Of Olives, a distance half a mile. You have seen the map over and over and over again. That from the Mount Of Olives, you could actually see the temple half a mile walk, not a big deal, mostly downhill. When they arrived, they went to the upper room of the house where they were staying. Just staying the upstairs room or the upper room kind of brings you back to the upper room discourse for four chapters in John.
There is no room for them in the upper room at Bethlehem when they were giving birth in the stable. Right? They arrived. They went to the upstairs room of the house. They were together where they were all staying.
And here are the names of those who are present. The historian. I love it. If you don't believe me, check with these guys. Right?
Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James, the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, as opposed to Simon Peter, but Peter's first in the list. And Judas, the son of James, not to be confused with Judas, Iscariot. And they all met together and they were constantly united in prayer. Along with Mary, mother of Jesus, several other women, and the brothers of Jesus. So that's who was present.
During this time when about a 120 believers were together in one place, Peter stood up and addressed them all and he said, brothers, the scriptures had to be fulfilled concerning Judas Iscariot, not Judas, this other guy, who guided those who arrested Jesus. He was the betrayer and Peter recognizes him as such as the betrayer. This was predicted long ago by the Holy Spirit speaking through King David and basically saying, I never have really understood what this meant until now. But this is what it was pointing to. Judas was one of us and he shared in this ministry with us.
Now, we go into a parenthetic expression right here. Some manuscripts have it, some don't. It's always included, but here it is. Judas had brought a field, little backstory, with the money that he received for his treachery and falling head first there, his body split open, spilling out all his intestines. Lovely.
The news of his death spread to all the people of Jerusalem, and they gave the place the Aramaic name Hakodama, which means field of blood. That little parenthesis is a historical note. Whether it belongs in there or not, I'll let you arm wrestle over. But when you see the parenthesis in this version, that's the same thing as brackets in the New American Standard. Peter continued though.
This was written in the book of Psalms where it says, let his home become desolate with no one living in it. This is one of those imprecatory Psalms that I mentioned a couple weeks ago. Imprecatory Psalms is where someone on earth is pleading to God to take care of their enemies the way that they deserve. Now from our perspective, we think that our enemies deserve pretty bad stuff. And so this is one of those.
That's Psalm 69 is the first part of that. And Psalm one zero nine is the second part there. So Psalm 69, this was written in the book of Psalms where it says, let his home become desolate with no one living in it. It also says, let someone else take his position. So Psalm sixty nine twenty five, boy, if you read it later on in the day, you think, wow, David was a feisty one.
Save me God for the waters have threatened my life. I've sunk deep in the mud. There's no foothold. I've come into deep waters. The flood flows over me.
I'm weary and I'm crying out. My throat is parched. My eyes fail while I wait for my God. I feel like you don't do anything, God. That's I added that last part.
Those who hate me without cause are more than the hairs of my head. Those who would destroy me are powerful. Those who oppose me with lies. What I did not steal, I then have to restore. He goes on and on.
And then, zeal for your house has consumed me. That's about Jesus. We know that's about Jesus. We know that's about Jesus. We hear that multiple times.
And the taunts of those who taunt you have fallen on me. When I wept in my soul with fasting, it goes on. And then it turns back around towards the enemies. May their table before them become a snare. And when they're at peace, may it become a trap.
May their eyes grow dim so they cannot see. May their hips shake continually. Pour out your indignation on them Lord. May your burning anger overtake them. This is the way that the disciples felt about the betrayer.
May their camp become desolate. May none be living in their tents. That's Psalm sixty nine twenty five. It's very very close to the heart and close to emotions. And Peter, when going through his log of memories of scripture and going through everything that he's memorized, he sees Judas as the ultimate betrayer because he betrayed Christ.
Now, he knows that that's a part of God's plan, but it's still, it's a betrayer of Christ. And this is what he feels so so close to his heart. In one zero nine eight, it says, may his days be few and may another take his office. He says, he applies scripture to their situation. And there are lots of commentators that say that's not a real good use of scripture, but it's in scripture.
Peter recognized it and he said it. So now, we must choose a replacement for Judas for from among the men. I don't know why Jesus chose 12, basically, Peter is saying, but there were 12 of us and there need to still be 12 of us. And so, we're gonna choose a replacement for Judas from among the men who were with us the entire time we were traveling with the Lord Jesus. It's gotta be somebody that knew him just like we knew him, somebody knew him well.
From the time he was baptized by John until the day that he was taken from us, it needs to be somebody that was with us this whole time. Whoever's chosen will join us as a witness of Jesus' resurrection, sort of the official band because all of the people had been around. There were a 120 of them present when he was saying this. Know, it wasn't just the 12, they're more than that. That was the band that were traveling together.
And whoever's chosen is gonna join this official body. Here at first b, we have an elder board. And the elder board, there are a lot of y'all in here who are elders of the church. There are some of you in here who are officially the elders for this three year period. Right?
And so this is kind of the official replacement. So they nominated two men. Hey, nominating committee. There you are in scripture. They nominated two men.
Joseph called Barsabbas also known as Justice and Matthias. And then they all prayed, oh Lord, you know every heart. They trust that God knows us. Show us which one of these men you have chosen. Okay.
That sounds good. That sounds like a prayer we might pray here. Right? Lord, we don't know exactly the way forward, but we trust that you're gonna show us. Would you show us how to go about your will and your way?
As an apostle to replace Judas in the ministry for he has deserted us and he's gone where he belongs. Okay. I I still feel sorry for Judas sometimes, but I've got plenty of scriptural reasons to know how they felt. Right? And then they cast lots.
What? Does that sound weird to you all? It sounds weird to me. You know the last place that we see casting lots to determine what the will of God is or flipping a coin, you know, some random game of chance we would call it to determine it. You know where the last place we see that happen in scripture is?
Jesus is closed. Oh, I'm I'm sorry. For the disciples. Yes. But for the disciples, Jesus is closed has been that's now fifty or forty five days past probably at this point.
But Jesus' clothes, they cast through dice for his garments. But the last place we see believers, last place we see disciples do it is right here. And what happens in the next chapter? Anybody? Anybody?
Spoiler alert. The coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, right, is the next thing. And they don't have to cast lots to determine what God wants anymore. When the Holy Spirit descends on the hearts of the believers and allows something that in the Old Testament, David David didn't take the Holy Spirit just for granted. Whenever he found himself in serious straits or whenever he realized his own sin, he would pray and it would be a pleading prayer of Lord, don't remove your Holy Spirit from me.
I know that not everybody has it. When we see that John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit while still in his mother's womb. When we see that he walked in the power of the Holy Spirit in Jesus' life, that was not normal. And for believers now, it's normal. It's normative to have the Holy Spirit in our lives.
It's normal to see the Holy Spirit move in people to do what God wants them to do. But this, they just cast lots. And Matthias was selected. Everybody trusted the outcome. Nobody argued over.
But I thought justice was better. There's no democracy here. We're going to flip for it. They cast lots and Matthias was selected to become an apostle with other leavening. So there he was.
And Justice was fine with that, Matthias was fine with that. I'm gonna go back now and pull out just a few things. I think if you since we had this tie in with the I feel like the Holy Spirit's already working. The 12 steps, I have had more folks respond probably than any time in a long time. And I feel like the Holy Spirit is working with humble hearts and he's working the way that he does.
And if we are as a church to be preparing for a great move of the Holy Spirit, know, praying for revival is kind of thing. When I got here this morning, Carl and I were going back and forth about revival. You can't schedule it. We did every summer in August in Georgia. Paper fans, get them, print the date on them.
We're doing this, we're doing a revival. You can make the conditions favorable though. And so there's no great revival that's ever happened without serious Well, I'll just stick with the text. This is what it says. Preparing for any great move of the spirit is a time to obey.
It's a time to be together. We're not islands. We're not separated. We're not individuals only just out there fighting the battle alone. It's a time to pray.
It's a time to study. So a time to obey. Y'all don't leave Jerusalem until the father sends you the gift he promised. After the guys told him, hey, why are you still standing around? First thing they did was get back to Jerusalem.
Okay. They're obedient to that command. Don't leave Jerusalem until you get the spirit he promised. Boom. They go back to Jerusalem and next chapter, we'll see they stayed there until they got the gift he promised.
Time to be together. Here they are. These are the people that were present. They were together. And then after it says that it says, they all met together and the next line we see says, there were a 120 of them there and they were constantly united in prayer.
Constantly united in prayer is really, really important. It is a time to obey, a time to pray, a time to be together, and they all met together and they were constantly united in prayer. This cannot be overstated. When somebody says, I'm so I'm struggling. I'm struggling.
I have a son who's going through this difficulty. The best thing we can do is, can I pray for him right now? God for that young man that I prayed for earlier, I pray that you would grab hold of his life through the people that already know you, that the body of Christ would be very active in pulling him into your kingdom of marvelous light. Would you lead him out of darkness? Amen.
Time to study and proclaim God's word. So during this time, there are about a 120 on present script Peter just says, hey, scriptures had to be fulfilled. He has it in here and it's predicted long ago. He's studying it and he's recognizing the very unique position that he's in and they're in speaking through King David. This was written in the book of Psalms.
He knows his word and he applies it to his situation. So it's time to study. And there's one more thing. It's a time for recognizing and appointing leaders. Now we do this by the calendar.
We actually do this one by the calendar, but recognizing and appointing, they recognize the people that fit the criteria. We made up the criteria right there and then recognized it. And I know that there are a bunch of you all out there that fit the criteria, and then there's a process, a nominating process of going through within the boards to get new members coming on, and they did it. They're just preparing for what the spirit will do. So here's the so what.
Do we really wanna see a great move of the Holy Spirit? And I know this is a baptist church. And I know that when we hear see a great move of the Holy Spirit, y'all some of y'all are thinking about rolling around on the floor, barking like dogs, standing and jumping, and doing all kinds of crazy. The Holy Spirit works to stop us from being ugly to one another too. Okay?
The Holy Spirit works for convicting us of our sin, convincing us of his righteousness, leading us into the truth and showing us the way that we should go. And so do we wanna see a great move of the Holy Spirit? I do. I do. I just wanna see him do it.
I want to see him do it through y'all. I want to see him do it through us. So if we really want to see a great move of the Holy Spirit, we need to take time to be obedient to Jesus' instructions. What is it that you know Jesus has told you to do that you're not doing? Step one, I can't do this on my own.
Step two, God can. And step three is I'm gonna let him. Doing what it is that he leads you to do is the way you turn your will and your life over to God as you understand him. We need to take the time to be obedient to Jesus' instructions. We need to take the time to fellowship with one another.
We need each other. We need each other. We cannot do this alone. God does use individuals, but he surrounds those individuals with people who will keep them accountable and encouraged. We need to take the time to unite ourselves in persistent prayer.
In your small group, in your family, in this office, in prayer. Constantly in prayer. There was something doctor Larkin wrote about that. I probably can't find it, but I'm gonna look for it anyway. I didn't even start the points until twelve.
So here we are. Never mind. I'll tell you next week. Take time or the week after. Take time to unite ourselves in persistent prayer.
It's important. There's no move of the spirit that's ever happened that wasn't first predicated by humble people asking for God to move. And if they stop praying for it, it tends to lull. Praying only for his will for us and the power to carry it out, that's what we're praying for. What would you have us do?
And I didn't individualize this from this time because I'm praying about what he would have us do as the body of Christ. Take time to be studying and proclaiming God's word. I had another seminary professor who used to say, we ought to continuously be gospeling one another. Telling each other the good news over and over and over again. We need to be studying it, we need to be proclaiming it, all of us.
Normative. Applying it to our situation and lastly, we need to take time to prayerfully recognize and appoint some leadership to be in place when God should by his spirit move. It's really nice to have a team of people working together. I do have one thing I wanna read. The great commission in the book of Acts.
Right? It is the disciples doing what he told them to do. The fact that the great commission is the last instruction of the risen and now ascended and imminently returning Lord gives it great weight. He's not mentioning an optional ministry activity for individuals with cross cultural interests and churches with surplus funds. The great commission is the primary task that the Lord left for his church.
The church must always be a missionary church. The Christian must always be a world Christian. Would y'all stand with me? I'm gonna ask Carl and Lisa to come back up and we're gonna finish in a song. Can I call an audible?
Yeah, call an audible. Sounds good.
I'm about to sing Fall Afresh.
Fall Afresh is what we're gonna sing.
Speaking of the spirit,
I'd like to
make this our prayer and our song as we close here. Awaken my soul. Come awake.
Amen. And now, benediction. Wait for it. Romans fifteen thirteen, and now may the God of all hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing what you have been taught is accurate and true. May the God of all hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Lord God Almighty for those who are leaving this valley this week to move on to different fields of service. I pray that you would bless them with your hope, with your joy, and with your peace. And for those of us who will remain, Lord, I pray that you would fill us with your hope, with your joy, and with your peace. May it abound in each and everyone present here this morning, fill their families and overflow into the community around. In Jesus name, I pray.
