Christ Commissions His Church (Acts Sermon 1)

Turn in your Bibles to Acts 1. This morning we begin a new sermon series in the Book of Acts, and as we do, my mind was led earlier this week to a vision from the prophet Ezekiel. In Ezekiel 47, the prophet has a vision of a spiritual temple that is rising up, a vision of a symbolic temple established in the restored promised land, and from that temple flows a river. Ezekiel describes it in this way, Ezekiel 47, 

As the man, an angel, went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits, and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist. He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in, a river that no one could cross.

That river flowing from that spiritual or symbolic temple is a powerful symbol for me. It is amazing because it flows fuller and deeper. The further on that it goes, and to me it represents many things. My mind and my heart go back before time and then to the end of time and beyond with this image of this river flowing. When we go to the end of time, we have in Revelation 22 a river of the water of life flowing endlessly from the throne of God, right from the throne of God flows this river of life. It’s beautiful because in Ezekiel 47, as this river flows from the temple, it results in life. It results in flourishing life, trees and fruit and fish and all kinds of life that comes [Ezekiel 47].

But my mind also goes back before the beginning of everything, when there was God and only God, the triune God existed and nothing else existed. God willed to create everything, and from the mind of God, from the heart of God flowed creation in all of its array and complexity and majesty, just flowing and flowing from the heart of God. Every spiritual being, every angel, every spiritual creature flowed from the mind of God through the Word of God, and then all the physical things as well, the earth, the sea and dry land, the cosmos with all of its stars, and with the sun and with the moon.

God made the universe out of fullness, not out of emptiness. …It was not out of neediness that God made everything, but out of fullness and generosity. Everything flowed from God.

Then the living creatures, those that teemed in the sea and those that swarmed in the air and on the earth and beasts that roamed on the earth, birds that soared through the skies, and ultimately man and his image, all of these things flowing from the creative mind of God, flowing and flowing by the Word of God. God made the universe out of fullness, not out of emptiness. God didn’t need anything. It was not out of neediness that God made everything, but out of fullness and generosity. Everything flowed from God.  Jonathan Edwards, in talking about the reason or end for which God created the universe, talked about this fountain image, and said, “Surely there’s no argument of neediness in God that he is inclined to communicate of his infinite fullness. Not out of neediness, but out of infinite fullness. It is no argument of the emptiness or deficiency of a fountain that it is inclined to overflow.” Isn’t that great? God is inclined to overflow. So God in his creativity made everything in the universe as a fountain overflows.

But how much greater is it for God to cause salvation to overflow from a limitless fountain as well? Salvation, through faith in his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to flow forth. It began in one location geographically, Jerusalem, and it began to flow forth as a mighty river. As a river begins with a tiny rivulet and just gets broader and stronger and deeper as it goes on and ends up a thousand miles away pouring into the sea, that’s the image that I have of this river of salvation, and that river flowing beginning in Jerusalem and spreading out will not stop until the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory the Lord as the waters cover the sea, deeper and fuller and richer as it goes on.

So this morning as we begin this thrilling journey through one of the most exciting books of the Bible, the Book of Acts, I want that image in your mind. Acts tells the story of the beginning of the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. This is, I believe, the purpose of human history, of all history. There’s a reason for it, a purpose for it, for the last 2000 years, far greater, far more important than the rise and fall of many nations and empires that have happened in those 2000 years. All of those things are as chaff on the scales of God. There is nothing compared to the building of the glorious kingdom of Jesus Christ, which began at that time and in that place. And we have a role to play, brothers and sisters. We have a role to play, and that’s exciting, isn’t it?

We are called by Christ to serve him while we live in this world, and to gather with him and not scatter. You’re going to do one or the other. You’re either going to scatter or you’re going to gather with him. It’s no third option. We are here to gather, and to build, not to tear down, to build a kingdom that will never be destroyed, to win the lost and to celebrate with heaven when that one sheep is recovered, when that lost coin has been found, when the prodigal son returns to celebrate with God over that. We’re positioned, now, geographically, at a place thousands of miles removed from Jerusalem physically, 2000 years removed chronologically, I would think of it 2000 years closer to the return of Christ. How awesome is that? 2000 years have passed, and the mission that Christ is entrusted to his church so long ago has now become ours in this generation. The Book of Acts is powerful to help us do that. So that’s why we’re beginning this journey.

I. Christ’s Foundation of the Church

It starts in chapter 1, verse 1 with these words, “In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach.” We see Christ’s foundation of the church here in the early stages of the Book of Acts. It starts with what Jesus did and taught. Acts is the second of a two-volume set by Luke. The first volume known as the Gospel of Luke is simply summarized here: “I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach.” That’s the Gospel of Luke, and he writes it to Theophilus. We don’t know if this is an actual person with the name of Theophilus. The name means “lover of God”. So it may just represent all of us as we love God and we read his books, Theophilus. Jesus’s ministry is summed up simply, “What he began to do and to teach,” Jesus’ mighty deeds and his mighty words.

But Luke did not write all that Jesus did and taught. That would be impossible. John himself says that in John 21:25 at the end of his gospel, “Jesus did many other things as well.” A great understatement. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. The whole world is not big enough to tell all those stories, and their ramifications and their impact. Indeed, all of eternity is not enough. That’s a lot of what we’re going to be doing in heaven is studying the infinite majesty of the person and work of Christ, what he did, all that Jesus did and taught. But it says “began”, all that Jesus “began to do and to teach.” Jesus’ life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension to heaven does not by any means stop his activity on behalf of the church. That was just the beginning of it, “began”.

The Book of Acts, often in some editions of the Bible, is written as Acts of the Apostles, Acts of the Apostles. And that’s true, we’re actually going to be following the activity of the Apostles as they lead the church to fulfill its mission at that early stage. We’re going to follow predominantly in the first part the Apostle Peter, mostly, but the other apostles as well. Then predominantly in the second portion of Acts, the Apostle Paul who is “as one born untimely,” but an apostle. So that’s a fair title, the Acts of the Apostles. Some have said really it’s the Acts of the Holy Spirit, and I think I would wholeheartedly agree, but based on Acts 1:1, the Spirit would say it’s the Acts of Jesus, by the Spirit of Jesus, in the Church of Jesus. I think that’s good, but that’s too long for a title on the page right there. So we’ll just go with Acts.

All that Jesus began to do and to teach, until verse 2 when he was taken up to heaven after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the Apostles, he had chosen. Christ’s ascension ended that phase of his ministry. He was taken up by God the Father. God the Father acted on him directly and physically, defying gravity, lifting him up off the surface of the earth up into the heavenly realms. After his resurrection, but before his ascension, there was a period of time of 40 days that he had with his church. He had one final set of works to do, and that was to give final instructions to the apostles whom he had chosen. Wouldn’t you love to have been at that seminary, sitting at Jesus’ feet… What a great professor. “Teach us the Old Testament, teach us the prophecies, teach us everything that is written about yourself in the laws of Moses and the Psalms and the prophets.” Wouldn’t you love to sit in on those seminars?

That’s what he did. He’s instructing the church. He’s giving instructions. The text says through the Holy Spirit to the Apostles whom he had chosen. Christ had to establish the Apostles and the foundational doctrines of the church. The Apostles were men that he had chosen after spending all night in prayer. He came down and chose the 12 to be his Apostles. By that point, Judas was dead. He was gone, so he was down to the 11, and in they’ll… in the next section will replace him. But these are the apostles whom he had chosen.

Throughout his ministry, Jesus had taught the apostles many things, but they often couldn’t grasp these things. Their minds were dull, their hearts were hard, we’re told often. This is especially true of the significance of his death, his atoning death, which they didn’t understand the reason for, and then of his resurrection. They did not understand these things. Peter clearly tried to talk him out of it many times. A clear example of this Luke 18, Jesus took the 12 aside and told them, “We are going up to Jerusalem.” And everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He’ll be handed over to the Gentiles, they’ll mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him, and kill him. Three days later, he’ll rise again.”

The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about. Friends, that can’t continue. They need to understand absolutely why he had to die and be raised again on the third day. So the time for their dull minds and the darkness of their understanding had to end, and so he’s pouring into them and getting them ready. It was essential for them to grasp the doctrine of Christ life, death, resurrection, and ascension. Why is that? Because Ephesians 2:20 tells us the church is built on the foundation, the apostles and prophets, with Christ, Jesus himself as chief cornerstone. They had to get it because the church was going to be built on them.

So he gave them these final instructions, and the text says through the Holy Spirit. That’s fascinating. That is before Pentecost. Don’t think that the Holy Spirit suddenly started doing things at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit was hovering over the waters of the deep at creation. He’s been active all the way through, and he was active throughout Jesus’s ministry. He was active there in the apostles before the day of Pentecost. He was active in the teaching ministry of Jesus. This is mind-blowing. Jesus didn’t do anything ever, he said, plainly, apart from the will of his father. He didn’t speak a word apart from the will of his father, but he also didn’t do it apart from the power of the Spirit.

He didn’t do any miracle or do any teaching apart from the power of the Holy Spirit. I didn’t always think that way as a Christian. It was kind of a new thing. It was like there was Jesus, and then when Jesus left the Spirit stepped in and started getting active. It wasn’t like that at all. The Spirit was always active. Everything Jesus did was a display of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit, active all the time.

What is he doing? In verse 3, he’s giving them convincing proofs of his resurrection, “After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke about the kingdom of God.” So foundational to the church that was going to be built was the doctrine of the bodily, the physical resurrection of Jesus from the dead. And as I said, the apostles are especially obtuse about Christ’s death and resurrection. They had a very hard time believing the resurrection.

Again and again in the post-resurrection accounts, there’s an element of unbelief on the part of the apostles, like right before the most famous of the great commissions, Matthew 28, in verse 17, it says, “When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted.” You get the same thing in Luke 24, you get the same thing in Mark 16. Again and again, they’re doubting the evidence of their eyes. The clearest example of this of course is the famous doubting Thomas, but he wasn’t the only doubter. Remember how Thomas said, “Look, unless I put my finger in the nail marks my hands and my… I will not believe.” So Jesus comes and establishes Thomas. He says, “Stretch out your hand. Put your finger in the nail marks. Put your hand this side, stop doubting, and belief.” That’s what he’s doing. He’s giving them many convincing proofs of his bodily resurrection. They had no doubt about it at all.  There were many convincing proofs, including eating a piece of broiled fish. “Do you have anything here to eat? They give him some fish and he ate it.” It’s amazing. So from that time on, they’re established. 

By the time that Peter and the other apostles get up on the day of Pentecost, there is no doubt in their minds at all, but the facts of Christ’s resurrection. He also, it says in verse 3, spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and this is the doctrinal center of Christ’s ministry, the center of his teaching ministry, the concept of the kingdom of God, or often in the Gospel of Matthew, the kingdom of heaven.  He’s teaching that it’s more than just the idea that almighty God is king. He is the creator of the ends of the earth rules over all things. His throne is central over everything. That is true. That would be true whether you believed it or not, but we enter the kingdom of God when we become delighted about that rule, and welcome it in our lives, and yearn for it to extend to everything we do. That’s when we’ve entered the kingdom of God. That’s why Jesus said, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, because the kingdom of God is within you.” In that sense, right now, the kingdom of God is a spiritual thing in which individual hearts are transformed by the Spirit so they delight in God and in Christ kingly reign over every area of their lives.

He’s talking to them about the kingdom of God and he’s getting this across, but it’s amazing how difficult even that concept was for the apostles to grasp. They didn’t fully understand the kingdom. It was not going to be David’s throne, politically, geopolitically, and militarily extending out and the borders and boundaries of the land extending further and further by military conquests, and that’s what they imagined, and they themselves in positions of power and pleasure and possessions and all that, that’s what they were thinking. Very earthly was their conception of the kingdom of God. No, it’s a kingdom of righteousness, joy, and peace in the Holy Spirit. That’s what the kingdom of God is we’re told in the Book of Romans. That’s what we’re talking about. Preoccupation with worldly conceptions of a rich life of power and possessions and pleasures dominated everyone’s hearts and minds including the apostles, and I still think even at this point they didn’t fully understand the nature of the kingdom, as we’ll see in a moment by their question.

They are awaiting the promise of God, the Holy Spirit, verse 4 and 5, “On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command, ‘Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my father promised, which you have heard me speak about, for John baptized with water, but in a few days you’ll be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’” So again, he’s eating with them. This is a recurring theme. He had many meals after his resurrection with them. One time in John 21, he even cooked them breakfast. So the eating thing is a marvelous image, but it wasn’t just fellowship. It was physical proof of his bodily nature, the fact that he would eat that broiled fish, but he’s also taking it as an occasion to teach them and talk to them in a beautiful way. Here he specifically commands them not to leave Jerusalem, but wait, to wait for the gift that the father had promised and that Jesus had spoken about.

It was promised by the Father in many places in the Old Testament prophets, especially Isaiah and Joel. The gift, the outpouring of the Spirit, like water on a parched land, these are regular and powerful images in the book of Isaiah, but we’re going to see at Pentecost, clearly predicted in Joel. I find it fascinating. This whole thing was predicted and clearly taught in the Old Testament, the coming of the Holy Spirit fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. It was predicted, and yet, I don’t know if that’s the right word. Maybe. So, when Jesus ascended, he asked the Father to do it. He says in John 16, “I will ask the Father and he will give you another counselor to be with you forever, the Holy Spirit.” Jesus ascends and asks the Father to send the Spirit, and this is very instructive for me in what prayer is.

Prayer is not giving God a new idea. Prayer is not persuading God to do something that he wasn’t going to do until you gave him that new idea. That’s not what prayer is. Prayer is begging God to do that which he has already before the foundation of the world determined to do but just hasn’t done yet. It’s the next thing in his sovereign plan. He’s got this whole thing worked out, and the next thing was the outpouring of the Spirit. Now ask the Father to do it. Jesus intercedes that the Holy Spirit would be poured out.

The church also has to show its physical obedience by waiting in Jerusalem until it comes. They’re waiting and they’re going to pray after the ascension that they’re waiting in Jerusalem and praying in unity and waiting for the day to come. It’s powerful. Jesus at this moment harkens back to the teaching of John the Baptist. That powerful prophet, the forerunner of Jesus, said… for John the Baptist said in Matthew 3:11, “I baptize you with water for repentance, but after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I’m not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” So with electric excitement, I wonder what it must’ve been like to hear Jesus add these words, “Not many days from now, or in a few days, or it’s coming, the baptism of the Spirit is coming.” How exciting must that have been? What does that mean, “baptism of the Spirit”, of being baptized with the Spirit? The word “baptized” means immersed or plunged as an in a vat or a huge body of water. That’s what the word means. So there’s a plunging or an immersion, and that the baptism of the Spirit is being immersed or plunged and saturated with the ministry and the power of the Spirit, so it’s kind of an analogy or word picture. We believe now that that happens at the moment of conversion. Every individual sinner that crosses over from death to life [1 Corinthians 12] we’re told are baptized by the Spirit into one body. The water baptism we just saw, and we’ve seen here in the last number of weeks is an outward invisible symbol of that already immersion that’s happened by the Holy Spirit, something we cannot do.  Only Jesus can baptize. John couldn’t do it. Jesus baptizes you in the Spirit, that immersion in the Spirit. 

Then the outpouring of the Spirit that’s pictured at Pentecost we believe… I don’t like to call that the baptism of the Spirit at that point, because I think that happens again and again. We look at that at revivals, you’re going to see it again in chapter 4 when the place where they meet is shaken, and they’re all filled with the Holy Spirit and speak the word of God boldly. That’s the filling of the Spirit. But the baptism, I think, happens just once at that moment of conversion. We’ll have lots of opportunities to talk about that through the Book of Acts, God willing. 

II. Christ’s Commission to the Church

Then Christ gives his commission to the church. It starts with the disciples asking a typical errant question. Aren’t they great at this? Swinging-missing on our behalf. If you were there, what bad question would you ask?  So here it is. When they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” It’s amazing how stubborn their conceptions of this worldly Jewish kingdom are. It’s very, very hard for them to get past it. I love John Calvin’s comment on this in his commentary. “Their stupidity is incredible.” Tell us how you really feel, John Calvin. “Their stupidity is incredible.” They had been carefully taught for three whole years, and yet were as ignorant as if they had never heard a thing. There are as many errors in this question as there are words. The apostles’ dream of an earthly kingdom rolling in wealth with every luxury.  They expect the kingdom to be restored immediately. They want a victory without a battle, they want wages without work, and they set limits to Christ’s kingdom. They mean the physical country of Israel which will extend its boundaries to the remotest part of the world.

How difficult it was for them to grasp the spiritual and inclusive nature of Christ’s kingdom. All peoples on earth will be blessed by Abraham’s seed, all nations on earth, not just the Jews. Jesus at this point doesn’t say, “All right, let’s start all over. Listen, all right?” He doesn’t do that. He just corrects them on the timing issue. Some people believe therefore the question of the apostles was appropriate. It wasn’t. But he just narrowly says, “Let’s focus on the time.  He says in verse 7, “It’s not for you to know the times or dates the Father set by his own authority.” There are some things that are given to us and some things that are not, and the exact time of the second coming of Christ is not given to us. As Jesus said in Matthew 24:36, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven nor the Son, but only the Father.” So that’s not for us. 

What is for us, the Great Commission? That’s what’s for us, and this is the fifth and final giving of the Great Commission. All four gospels have a version of the Great Commission, and they’re all interestingly different from each other, coming at the exact same mission of the church in different ways. But this is the last one.

The fifth giving of the Great Commission, Acts 1:8, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you’ll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” Our task is to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything Christ has commanded us [Matthew 28]. Only by the power of the Holy Spirit can this happen.  The immediate focus in this verse is on the job description. “You’ll be my witnesses.” “To witness” is “to give evidence”, as in a court of law, we could imagine, to give a testimony. The apostles are going to do that again and again. They’re going to be standing before tribunals and judges and courts, and they’re going to give testimony again and again, courageously, at the risk of their lives, to Jesus.

Now, beyond that, they would be eyewitnesses of physical things that they saw concerning Jesus, his life, his death, his bodily resurrection in ways none of us can be. They are unique first-level eyewitnesses to the historical reality of Jesus, and the rest of us are all dependent on that because we’re not eyewitnesses. Yet the concept of witnessing must extend to the end of the age. So we have a different kind of witness to do than they did. We cannot say we saw Jesus bodily, and put our finger in the nail marks and all. That’s not given to us. That was given to the apostles.  But their eyewitness is essential. That’s why Paul says in Ephesians 2:20, the church is based or built on the foundation of the Apostles. The New Testament came from their testimony and from their eyewitness. Our job is to witness to what God has done in our lives and to the truth of the gospel. So that’s the witnessing we do. But this concept of witness comes again and again. Peter to Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, Acts 2:32, “God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.” Even more powerfully, Peter, to Cornelius in Acts 10:39-41 sums up or finishes his gospel presentation to that Gentile, that Roman centurion. He says, “We are witnesses of everything Jesus did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree. But God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. He was not seen by all the people but by witnesses whom God had already chosen, by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.” 

You see that uniqueness of their witness that we don’t partake in. Not everyone was chosen for that, but the apostles were. Then again, Jesus’s call to Paul on the Damascus road, Acts 26:16, he said, “I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you.” What had Paul seen? Not all the things the other apostles had seen, but he had that encounter with him on the Damascus road, witnessing. What would be the extent of the witness?  The geographical extent is right here in verse 8, “to the ends of the earth.” Chronological extent is in Matthew’s Great Commission, to the end of the age. To the ends of the earth and to the end of time, that’s our role. That’s the witnessing.

I picture that Ezekiel 47 river just flowing and getting broader and deeper and more powerful as it goes on. Clearly, the kingdom of God is not going to appear at once. It’s not. There’s a journey that has to be traveled. The gospel had to start in Jerusalem, as Paul would say, to the Jew first, and after that to the Gentiles. It was going to start there in Jerusalem. But Jerusalem and Judea were vipers’ nests of enemies of Jesus, but also harvest field, ready to be harvested so beautifully. Then Samaria, filled with people who hated Jews and would not have wanted a gospel that began in the city of Jerusalem, but there would be a beautiful harvest in Acts 8 in Samaria.

Then to the ends of the earth. How could Rome be won for Jesus Christ? By the end of this Book of Acts, Paul will be there, physically there. The journey in Acts, just in the 28 chapters, is from Jerusalem to Rome. It’s already moving out and it’s a beautiful thing to see. But how could Rome, this mighty pagan empire that worships Caesar as a God come to faith in Christ? But that was the calling. Then what about the other Gentile nations beyond, like the Scythians, who are terrifying mounted archer-warriors, a very terrifying people. How could Scythians be won to Christ? The ends of the earth for Alexander the Great was the Indus River. That’s as far as from here to the Pacific ocean, further, actually. It was a long journey that they went. But then there was teeming millions beyond the Indus river into modern age China. There was just the ends of the earth, all of this, but the ends of the earth, dear brothers and sisters, have been promised to Jesus.

Psalms 2:8, “God the Father says to his Son, ‘Ask of me, and I’ll make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.'” Jesus has asked, and the Father will fulfill that promise. The ends of the earth belong to Jesus, or again, in Psalm 22, which begins with the words, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” and then clearly depicts his agonies on the cross, but then his victory, the victory of Christ to the ends of the earth, it says, “All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him for dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations.” or again Psalm 72 and verse 8, “He’ll rule from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth.”  Then finally Isaiah 66:19, “To the distant islands who have not heard of my fame or seen my glory, they will proclaim my glory among the nations.” 

That is the theme of the entire Book of Acts and of all of church history— Acts 1:8. Any chance we’re going to be hearing it again and again and again and again and again through this series in Acts? Yes, because it is the summation of what the Book of Acts is all about. “You’ll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses, in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth.” These were Jesus’s final words on earth,  the last thing he said, verse 9,  “After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes.” There’s a poignancy to the final words. He’s going to come back and see if we were faithful, like the parable of the manager.  He entrusts riches to us and he’s going to come back and see what we did with it. We’re accountable. These are his final words. 

III. Christ’s Ascension for the Church

So we have Christ’s ascension for the church, verse 9,  “After he said this, he was taken up before the very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.” The ascension is a vital doctrine. Jesus said repeatedly he would do it. “I came from the Father,” he said in John 16:28, “and entered the world. Now I’m leaving the world and going back to the Father.” It’s also a very practical issue. By him doing it physically in front of their very eyes, ascending higher and higher, they knew he was gone. You remember the story about Elijah and how a chariot of fire came down and took him up. No chariot of fire came for Jesus. The Father reached down directly by his power and lifted him up.  Part of the problem was the school of the prophets back then were worried that maybe the Spirit had left Elijah in some hill somewhere. You remember that? “Go look for him maybe somewhere else,” but Elisha said, “Don’t look. He’s gone.” Well, this time they knew this. Jesus has… He’s gone up to heaven. You don’t need to go search for him physically. And then that cloud, the cloud hiding him from their sight, it’s like the curtain is drawn to that stage of Jesus’ ministry. That’s over now. He did say that the days would come, he said this to his own apostles, “When you would long for one of the days of the Son of Man, you’re not going to see it.”

So those days are over now. But then the angels make a promise. Verse 10-11, “They were looking intently into the sky as he was going when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come back in the same way you’ve seen him go into heaven.’” I know they’re not called angels, but that’s what they were. They’re dressed in white, they have a supernatural message, and they just appear there, and they addressed them with familiarity. “Men of Galilee,” they said, and they’re going to tell them to stop standing there gawking into the sky.  You have a job to do, so don’t just continue to physically look up into the clouds. 

This is very important. We Christians should be spiritually, constantly looking up to the clouds while our feet are taking us to the mission fields that God has for us. We’ve got a job to do, but we need to be continually waiting for his Son from heaven [1 Thessalonians 1-9]. We need to be waiting for Jesus to come back. We need to be saying, “Maranatha.” We need to be thinking about the second coming of Christ all the time. John Calvin said this, “A wholehearted waiting and looking for Christ’s coming must affect the way we live, it must control physical passions, it must give patience in all troubles, and it must refresh us when we are weary. But all of that goodness only comes to those who faithfully believe Christ is their redeemer. To the wicked, his coming return will bring nothing but dread, horror, and terror.” That is true.

Christ’s ascension was predicted in many places, but probably most significant is Psalm 110: 1, “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.’” And in that very Psalm, the next verse, he said, “the Lord will extend your mighty scepter from Zion.” [Psalm 110:2] Christ ascended to heaven to sit at the right hand of God and then allow God by his sovereign power to extend his kingdom to the ends of the earth, and that he does by the power of the Holy Spirit. His ascension is not into the heavenly realms but above or beyond the heavenly realms. They are a created realm. He’s above the heavenly realms we’re told in the book of Hebrews and also Ephesians 4:10. Jesus ascended higher than all the heavens in order to fill the whole universe.

IV. Christ’s Power for the Church

Only the Spirit can guarantee the success of the gospel. And the Spirit has been very successful for 2000 years.

Finally, Christ’s power for the church. “You’ll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you’ll be my witnesses.” The power of the Spirit is essential to the spread of the gospel. There are many aspects of to the Spirit’s power I could talk about. I could talk about his sovereign control over the minds and hearts of his enemies, kings, governors, rulers orchestrating decisions they make so the gospel can spread his sovereignty over people who hate him. We could talk about that. We could talk especially, and this is important, of the power of the Spirit to convict sinners of sin. Only the Spirit can do that. Only the Spirit can give the gift of faith. Only the Spirit can take out the heart of stone and give the heart of flesh. Only the Spirit can give spiritual sight to the soul, the eyes of their hearts being enlightened, give the gift of faith to see the invisible Christ. Only the Spirit can guarantee the success of the gospel. And the Spirit has been very successful for 2000 years.

I love to consider this, that the third person of the Trinity is every bit as good at his job as the second person of the Trinity was. Jesus finished all the work the Father gave him to do and the Spirit will most certainly finish all the work that the Father gave him to do. Isn’t it beautiful? Every generation, every generation for 2000 years, from that point when the gospel started spreading, from that point on, Jesus has been the most famous human being on earth, living or dead. No one is born in the world knowing about Jesus. How is it then that hundreds of millions in every generation not just know him, but love him and worship and want to serve him? Because the Spirit is that effective and powerful.

But I want to talk about specifically two aspects of the Spirit’s power, the Spirit’s power in giving us the scripture, which gives us Christ in the gospel, and the Spirit’s power on us to deliver the message. The first we see in Romans 1:16, “I’m not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of all who believe.” The Book of Romans hadn’t been written yet, and the Holy Spirit came on the apostle Paul to write that magnificent description of the gospel doctrine that we have in the Book of Romans.  How many conversions came out of that book? The power of the Word of God. The New Testament didn’t exist when Jesus ascended. It is by the power of the Spirit on the apostles, on the authors of the 27 books in the New Testament, we have this powerful word that gives us Christ. 

So the power of the Spirit came to give us the scripture, but I also want to focus on the power that we need. Do you not feel it? Do not our hearts quail and are we not weak and do we not tremble when it comes to being witnesses? We are fearful, we’re selfish, we’re cowardly, we’re lazy. This is our nature. It’s not like God didn’t know that. He knows all that better than we do.

And so we tend to be like the priest and the Levite spiritually walking by in the parable of the Good Samitaran, by someone who’s spiritually dying by the side of the road, and we’re not concerned. We just keep walking. We just don’t care very much. We’ve proven that again and again. The church is often worldly, distracted by physical things, distracted by wealth and other things. We’re into things that will not matter on Judgment Day, but you’ll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes and you’ll be transformed from all of that, “and you will be my witnesses,” Jesus said.

It’s beautiful to see that even the greatest evangelist in history in my opinion, there’s been no greater evangelist than the apostle Paul. What did he say in 1 Corinthians 2 about his preaching mission to Corinth? He said, “I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling.” What does that tell you? We all struggle with that. But then he goes on to say, “My message and my preaching was not with wise persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power.” How is that? Paul is saying that if he has weakness and fear and much trembling, he preached anyway. He shared the gospel anyway. So the power of the Spirit comes on us weak witnesses to enable us to do it anyway, even though we’re fearful and selfish. I’m yearning for the spirit’s power in this church, that we would be faithful to the calling we have to be lights in this dark place.

V. Applications

You’re here today in a place where the gospel is being preached. You’ve heard the facts of the gospel already. I don’t assume that everyone listening to me right now was converted when you walked in here. Are you still in your sins? Flee to Christ, flee to Christ. His blood was shed for sinners like you and me. Sin is like invisible chains on your soul. Jesus can set you free. Let him set you free. He can take all of that guilt that is weighing you down and take it off of you, putting it on himself and dying under the wrath of God. Why should you die under the wrath of God when Christ already offered to free you from that? So flee to Christ. And if you already did that, you already fled to Christ, the application here is your purpose. Why are you here? Why are you alive? What is your reason for being alive on earth?

Jesus told a parable of a fig tree that hadn’t borne any fruit yet. And he said, “For three years now I’ve been coming looking for fruit and it hasn’t borne any. Cut it down. Why should it use up the soil?” All right. I don’t want in my life to use up the soil under my feet. I want to be fruitful. I want to be fruitful. So the power of God comes on us to give us a purpose. What is our purpose? The power of God coming on you to change you and make you more like Christ, that’s sanctification, and the power of God through you to witness winning lost people to faith in Christ.

We’re coming now to a time of the Lord’s supper, and by faith we get to have a meal with Jesus to feast with him. I know all of us would prefer to have been there physically, feasting with Jesus, but we get to do this now by faith. I’m going to close our time in the Word and then we’ll go to the ordnance of the Lord’s supper.

Father, thank you for the time that we’ve had to study the beginning of Acts and to understand its message. Father, I pray that you would please strengthen us by the words that we’ve heard, and we pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

These are only preliminary, unedited outlines and may differ from Andy’s final message.

The Book of Ezekiel ends with an amazing vision of a symbolic temple established in the restored Promised Land. From that temple flows a miraculous river… Ezekiel describes it this way:

Ezekiel 47:3-5  As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and then led me through water that was ankle-deep.  ⁴ He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist.  ⁵ He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in– a river that no one could cross.

This river is a powerful symbol to me. It is amazing… for it flows fuller and deeper the farther it gets on.

It represents many things… including God’s original desire to create the universe. The Triune God once existed alone before the universe or any creature had been created. When God decided to make the universe, he was the source of every created thing that exists… all angels, all physical things… the earth, the seas and dry lands, the cosmos with its myriad stars, the living creatures that flew through the air or swam in the seas or walked on the earth… thousands and thousands of different creatures, flowing and flowing and flowing from the mind of God, spoken into existence by the word of God.

God made the universe out of fullness, not emptiness. He was the fountain of all being, all existence; every attribute of every creature flowed from his mind by his Word.

Jonathan Edwards, in his dissertation on God’s ultimate purpose in creating the universe said this:

“Surely, it is no argument of [neediness] in God that he is inclined to communicate of his infinite fullness. It is no argument of the emptiness or deficiency of a fountain, that it is inclined to overflow.”

God in his creativity made everything in the universe as a fountain overflowing.

How much greater is it for God to cause salvation to overflow as from a limitless fountain as well. Salvation through faith in the only begotten Son of God started in one location at one time, the city of Jerusalem, and began to flow forth as a mighty river begins from a tiny rivulet a thousand miles from its final destination. It has flowed and it has grown infinitely deeper across the miles and across the centuries.

And that flow of the river of the water of life across the eras and across the nations will not stop until “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”

This morning, we begin a thrilling journey through one of the most exciting books of the Bible… the Book of Acts. Acts tells the story of the beginning of the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. This is the purpose of human history for the last two thousand years; all the rise and fall of countless kingdoms and empires over those twenty centuries has been as so much chaff on the scales of eternity compared to the advance of the Kingdom of Christ.

And we have a role to play, dear brothers and sisters! We are called by Christ to serve him while we live in this world, to gather with him and not scatter, to build and not tear down, to win the lost and celebrate with heaven as the prodigals come home.

We are positioned at a place thousands of miles from Jerusalem and at a time two thousand years closer to the end of the age. And the mission Christ entrusted to his church so long ago has become ours for this generation. The Book of Acts is powerful to help us fulfill our part of this magnificent worldwide work of Christ!

I. Christ’s Foundation of the Church

Acts 1:1  In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach

A. What Jesus Did and Taught

1. Acts is the second of a two-volume set by Luke

2. The first volume, known as the Gospel of Luke, he summarizes in this way: “all that Jesus began to do and to teach”

[Note: Theophilus means “Lover of God”… it may be a real person, or just a symbol of all Christian readers of his books]

3. Jesus’ ministry: “to do and to teach”… mighty words, mighty deeds

4. Not “all” that Jesus did and taught, but he wrote “about all” that Jesus did and taught

John 21:25  Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.

The whole world is not big enough to relate all of Jesus’ deeds and words… indeed, neither is the entire universe

B. Jesus “Began” to Do and Teach

1. Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension to heaven does not by any means end his activity on earth or in his church

2. Luke speaks of the BEGINNING of this work… “about all that Jesus BEGAN to do and to teach”

3. The Book of Acts is often titled, “The Acts of the Apostles”… and it is true; we are going to trace out the activities of the original Twelve Apostles, then in the second half of Acts, the activities of another Apostle, Paul

4. BUT some have said it’s more the “Acts of the Holy Spirit” and I would wholeheartedly agree… but based on Acts 1:1, the Spirit would say it’s the Acts of Jesus Christ THROUGH the power of the Spirit THROUGH the church

C. Until He Was Taken Up to Heaven

Acts 1:2  until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.

1. Christ’s ascension ended that phase of his ministry

2. He “was taken up”… God the Father acted on his resurrection body to exalt him into the heavenly realms

3. Before his ascension, he had one final set of works to do, entirely focused on INSTRUCTING his church

D. Giving Instructions Through the Holy Spirit to the Apostles

1. Christ had to establish the Apostles in the foundational doctrines of the church

2. The Apostles were the men he had chosen to lead the church; now he had to finish their doctrinal training

3. Throughout his ministry, he taught them many things, but they often couldn’t grasp these things; their minds were dull, their hearts were hard

4. That was especially true when it came to his death and resurrection

Luke 18:31-34  Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled.  ³² He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him.  ³³ On the third day he will rise again.”  ³⁴ The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about.

5. But now, the time for that had to end

6. It was ESSENTIAL for them to grasp the doctrine of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection for that would be the foundation of the church for all the centuries to come

Ephesians 2:20 [the church is] built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.

7. So he gave them final instructions, “through the Holy Spirit”

a. This is a fascinating expression; the Spirit was active in the minds and hearts of the Apostles before the Day of Pentecost

b. Also, just as Jesus never taught anything apart from the Father, so also Jesus never taught anything apart from the Holy Spirit

E. Convincing Proofs of His Resurrection

Acts 1:3  After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.

1. Foundational to the church was the doctrine of the bodily resurrection of Christ

2. As I said, the Apostles were especially obtuse about Christ’s death and resurrection

3. They had a very hard time believing it

Matthew 28:17  When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.

John 20:24-25  Thomas… said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”

4. So, Jesus appeared to them again and again over a period of FORTY DAYS, giving them convincing proofs that he was alive

5. By the time the Apostles were preaching on Pentecost, they were beyond all possible doubt

F. Speaking About the Kingdom of God

Acts 1:3  He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.

1. The doctrinal center of Jesus’ teaching ministry all along was the Kingdom of God

2. It is more than the idea of Almighty God as Sovereign King over the Universe… it is that!!

3. But it is also us as his children submitting delightfully to God’s rule in every area of our lives

4. The Apostles amazingly still did not grasp the true nature of the Kingdom of God… it was not David’s throne militarily extended over all the wicked Gentiles from the sea to the ends of the earth

5. No, it is a kingdom of righteousness, peace, joy in the Holy Spirit, including elect from Jews AND every Gentile nation on earth

6. Preoccupation with worldly conceptions of a rich life of power, possessions, and pleasures dominates everyone’s hearts and minds, including the Apostles’

7. So, they STILL did not understand the nature of the Kingdom even at this point, as we’ll see by their question in a moment

G. Awaiting the Promise of God… the Holy Spirit

Acts 1:4-5  On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.  ⁵ For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

1. Note: his “eating with them” was a recurring theme in his resurrection body… Jesus had many meals with them!

2. It was both fellowship and proof of his resurrection, as we see in Luke 24 when he eats the piece of broiled fish

3. It was also a wonderful training time, for him to speak final words of instruction about the Kingdom of God

4. Here he specifically commands them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for the gift of the Spirit

a. Jesus calls it, “The gift my Father promised…”

b. It is promised in the Old Testament, especially by the prophets Isaiah and Joel

c. Amazingly, Jesus said he would ASK the Father to send the Holy Spirit

John 14:16-17  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever–  ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth.

d. This teaches us that prayer is not giving God an idea he didn’t have but asking him to give what he has promised!

5. Also this shows the absolute necessity of the gift of the Holy Spirit for the advance of the Kingdom

6. AND the church must show its OBEDIENCE by WAITING for the Spirit to come… not moving out in their own strength following their own wisdom

7. It is the Spirit who will guide the church and empower the church to fulfill God’s plans

8. Jesus hearkens back to the teaching of John the Baptist… in which John said,

Matthew 3:11  “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”

9. With electric excitement, Jesus adds that that promise made by the Father through the Prophets and by John the Baptist will come true “IN A FEW DAYS”

10. HOW EXCITING IS THAT??!!!

H. What is the “Baptism of the Spirit?”

1. The word “baptize” means to “immerse”

2. We believe the baptism of the Spirit happens now whenever someone is born again by the Spirit and becomes a Christian

3. But the outpouring of the Spirit happens again and again (like the Day of Pentecost) to spur on gospel advance as in a revival

II. Christ’s Commission to the Church

A. The Disciples’ Errant Question

Acts 1:6  So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

1. It is amazing how stubborn their conceptions of the kingdom were

John Calvin: “Their stupidity is incredible. They had been carefully taught for three whole years yet were as ignorant as if they’d never heard a thing! There are as many errors in this question as there are words! The apostles … dream of an earthly kingdom, rolling in wealth, with every luxury…. They expect this kingdom to be restored immediately. They want a victory without a battle, wages without work. And they set limits to Christ’s kingdom. They mean the physical country of Israel, which will extend its boundaries to the remotest areas of the world.”

2. How difficult for them to grasp the worldwide SPIRITUAL implications of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection… that through Abraham’s seed “ALL PEOPLES ON EARTH would be blessed”

B. Jesus’ Mild Correction of the Apostles

Acts 1:7  He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.

1. Jesus could try again to teach them that Gentiles will be flooding into the Kingdom of God

2. Instead, Jesus focuses on their question of TIMING

3. BUT there are boundaries to our knowledge; some things have been given to us, others things have not

Matthew 24:36  “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

4. That is not for us… what IS for us? THE GREAT COMMISSION

C. The Fifth Giving of the Great Commission

Acts 1:8  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

1. Our task is to make disciples of all nations and baptize them and teach them to obey everything Christ has commanded us

2. Only by the power of the Holy Spirit can this happen!!

3. Immediately focuses on this task, this job description: “You will be MY WITNESSES”

a. To witness means to give evidence as in a court of law… to prove the truth of the matter

b. The apostles were to stand before one assembly or tribunal after another and give eyewitness evidence of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ

c. These historical facts of the gospel are essential to the salvation of sinners all over the world

d. So the concept of WITNESS, especially to the resurrection, is dominant

[Peter to Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost] Acts 2:32  God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.

[Peter to Cornelius] Acts 10:39-41  “We are witnesses of everything Jesus did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree,  ⁴⁰ but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen.  ⁴¹ He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen– by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

[Jesus’ call to Paul on the Damascus Road] Acts 26:16  I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you.

D. The Extent of the Witness

1. The geographical extent

Acts 1:8  …to the ends of the earth.

2. The chronological extent

Matthew 28:20  … to the very end of the age   TIME AND SPACE!!

3. Clearly, the Kingdom of God was not going to appear immediately, nor would it advance easily

a. The gospel HAD to start in Jerusalem! “To the Jew first…” But Jerusalem and Judea were viper’s nests of enemies to Jesus and his Kingdom… there was immediate and deadly danger there

b. Samaria was filled with people who hated Jews and would oppose any gospel that started in Jerusalem

c. The ends of the earth? How could mighty Rome be won to allegiance to King Jesus? They worshiped Caesar as a god.

d. And how could all the other distant lands be won? They knew of the nomadic Scythians from the Asian steppes, terrifying and adept at mounted warfare

e. The ends of the earth for Alexander the Great was the Indus River in India, roughly the same distance as from here to the Pacific Ocean; but there were lands and peoples beyond that… like the teeming hordes of China!

4. Ends of the Earth promised to Jesus in the Old Testament

Psalm 2:8  Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.

Psalm 22:27-28  All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him,  ²⁸ for dominion belongs to the LORD and he rules over the nations.

Psalm 72:8  He will rule from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.

Isaiah 66:19  to the distant islands that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory among the nations.

E. The Theme of the Entire Book of Acts… and of All of Church History

1. Acts 1:8 is the theme of the Book of Acts; we’ll repeat it again and again!

Acts 1:8  you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth

F. Jesus’ Final Words on Earth

Acts 1:9  After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes…

1. There is a poignancy to the last words spoken by Jesus on earth

2. He will return to confirm that we obeyed them

III. Christ’s Ascension for the Church

Acts 1:9-11  After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.  ¹⁰ They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.  ¹¹ “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

A. Ascension a Vital Doctrine

1. Jesus said repeatedly he would ascend back to where he came from

John 16:28   I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.

2. Practical issue

a. By ascending like this before their very eyes, they removed forever any burden of needing to search for him or doubts that he was really gone. If he had vanished secretly on his own, the disciples would have forever wondered what had happened to him and if he would instantly be coming back

b. He was lifted up from earth to heaven directly by the power of God; no chariot of fire needed like Elijah received

c. The clouds hiding him from their sight was like a curtain drawn across the stage ending the play

B. The Angels’ Promise

Acts 1:10-11  They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.             ¹¹ “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

1. Though they are not called angels, it’s pretty clear that’s what they were

2. They were dressed in radiant white garments, as is often seen in angels and heavenly inhabitants

3. They address them with familiarity… “Men of Galilee”; they tell them it’s time to stop looking into the sky

4. Thought we Christians SHOULD wait for the Lord from heaven, we are to be busy doing the Lord’s work until he comes!

5. They clearly predict the Second Coming of Christ

John Calvin: “A wholehearted waiting and looking for Christ’s coming must affect the way we live. It must control physical passions, give patience in all troubles, and refresh us when we are weary. But only in those who faithfully believe Christ is their Redeemer. To the wicked, his coming return will bring nothing but dread, horror and terror.”

C. Christ’s Ascent Predicted and Explained

Psalm 110:1  The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”

Next… in that very Psalm:

Psalm 110:2  The LORD will extend your mighty scepter from Zion

So, Christ ascended to heaven to sit at God’s right hand and allow God to extend his kingdom to the ends of the earth BY THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Ephesians 4:10  [Jesus] ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.

IV. Christ’s Power for the Church

Acts 1:8  you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses

A. The Power of the Spirit is ESSENTIAL to the Spread of the Gospel

1. Only by the sovereign activity of the Spirit orchestrating events on earth can Satan, demons, and wicked people (especially rulers) be OVERRULED to advance the gospel

2. Only the Spirit can convict sinners of their sins

3. Only the Spirit can reveal the invisible Christ to souls

4. Only the Spirit can remove the heart of stone and give the heart of flesh

5. Only the Spirit can give spiritual sight to the soul… faith

6. Only the Spirit can guarantee the success of the gospel

7. And the Spirit HAS been successful… he is every bit as perfect at his role as Jesus was at his

B. Also the Spirit’s direct power on the weak, fragile, sinful church

1. We are the “bruised reeds and smoldering wicks”

2. We are fearful, selfish, cowardly

3. We are the priest and Levite walking by the wounded man on the Jericho Road… we would rather let someone perish than risk sharing the gospel

4. We’ve proven that again and again

5. We the church are often worldly, distracted by earthly things

6. And fundamentally, we are fearful

7. Listen to even the greatest evangelist of all time

1 Corinthians 2:3  I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.

Paul was afraid the preach the gospel in Corinth. But he did it anyway!

1 Corinthians 2:4-5  My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,  ⁵ so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.

The Power of the Holy Spirit does not free us from trembling or feelings of fear… but he helps us do the right thing anyway!

V. Applications

A. Trust in Christ!

B. Be Witnesses to Christ!

1. I chose to preach the Book of Acts because I desire us to be faithful to our calling here in Durham; we are called to be witnesses to Christ to the lost people of Durham and this region

2. We are weak… we are like bruised reeds, not mighty oaks; we are like smoldering wicks, not raging fires of holy zeal

3. We however have all we need in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the power of the indwelling Spirit

C. Lord’s Supper: Feasting with Jesus!