A Powerful Promis (Part B)

If this were a promise only for the apostles, then the church would have died with them. But it is not. It is a promise that we will be witnesses to Christ and the power of the Spirit because of Christ. It is for us. It is a promise for all who come to Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.

And you can't do it any other way. So what does Jesus want from my life? This is it. To be his witness.

So let's not pretend that it's something less. Today, Pastor Rick will continue his message called, A Powerful Promise, in Acts Chapter 1. And the waters, of course, are speaking of the Spirit.

And that's, you know, that experience of salvation. And then he ventured out a little deeper. And now he's knee deep, which speaks of prayer. And then he's waist deep.

And that's where the power and strength is. But ultimately, he's swimming. And the only thing you can see is the head because he's swimming.

He's immersed. And the head of every Christian is Christ. And so that's a beautiful picture of the experience that is available to us as Christian and entering into the Spirit of Christ until we are immersed. And Christ is who is most visible.

We call it Christ's likeness. The most essential element in being baptized, whether it be by water or the Spirit for the Christian, is agape, is love. Because if I have not love, the Bible says I am nothing.

That's pretty big news. And you know and I know that Satan works to keep you from loving. You know, he wants you to love those who you like. But he does not want us to love those who really get under our skin. And as a pastor, I think I've got more than you as a rule.

And so I better learn how to love. And when I feel the flesh coming up, I go, I run to the Father and I say, Lord Jesus, help me love. And he's been so faithful over the years to do it in his own subtle and powerful way. Not many days from now, he says, and if his instruction here occurs 40 days, as verse 3 sort of suggests, then in 10 days or so, they're going to have this experience with the Holy Spirit. Now verse 6, I know this is a lot of information, but nowadays we don't have to worry about it too much because you just get the recording and rewind it and listen to it again and then cross-reference the verses and do your own research as a Berean-minded Christian would. Verse 6, therefore, when they had come together, they asked him, saying, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel? Well, they were very comfortable dialoguing with him, saying, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom? Understandably, they wanted to know the future. They thought that maybe now he'll unseat the Roman authorities and give Jerusalem back to the Jews to rule. They, again, did not understand his ministry of salvation and the future ministry of his rule. And so, again, the church is evolving. Here are the apostles, and they're not ready.

There's still work that has to take place, and it will keep having to take place in them as the years go by. We know even Peter was a student of Paul's writings. He said, Paul says some hard, difficult things. The bottom line is right. It's Scripture.

It is God. And others who twist them, they do to their own harm. There's a caution here, though, for us. We can become distracted by end time lessons.

We can, to the point of missing what our mission is right now. It's all saying in Christianity, so heavenly minded of no earthly use. So just watch out for that, to where we're not so into end times we forget everything else. I like to think about, in my own life, when I first became a Christian, I loved the thought of the rapture. Woo-hoo!

Getting out of here, baby! But in time, dealing with parents who have children that are lost, my attitude has changed. It's like, Lord, I'm ready to stay, to be part of getting people saved. I'll get to heaven when I get to heaven. And the rapture is beautiful, and we should be excited about it, but that's not the entire story of our Christian experience. Once the church is taken out of here through the rapture, it's going to get very nasty here on earth.

You know, Amos the prophet said, you know, don't go around running around saying, the day of the Lord, the day of the Lord. Like, this is going to be some wonderful thing. It's going to be judgment.

It's going to be wrath. So while these are the seven years of harvest, let me do all I can do to be ready. And in that, of course, applying it to being useful to the king to save souls. What else am I here for? What are you here for?

What is your life? For me to live is Christ, said Paul, to die is gain. But it's more advantageous for me to be with you, that I can do the work of the kingdom. We should see these things, and we should embrace these things, and we should be very mindful that this is why Satan attacks the church, this is why Satan loves to attack Christians. He hates that you have this message and the power to preach it. And you should know that. There should not be any Christian walking around, well, I don't know what to say, how do I lead people.

Just tell them what you know about Jesus Christ. You're a witness, not a lawyer. Thank God. Verse 7 again, and he said to them, it is not for you to know times and seasons which the father has put in his own authority. So he's not rebuking them, nor is he saying that he doesn't know the answer to their question.

He's just saying that's not the focus right now. I'm going to give you power to stay and to preach. And you're talking to me about wanting to have the kingdom back and everything, you know, well, that's going to come. How discouraging it would have been had he said in answer to their question, you want to know when the kingdom's going to be restored?

Over 2,000 years from now. I mean, it would have been, oh man, what do you do? So he dismisses them, and they go along with it. There's no record of them fussing over this. He says in verse 7 at the bottom, which the father has put in his own authority.

In other words, some things are classified. Now, back to business, and that's exactly what he does, and Luke captures that. He says, well, let's take 7 and 8 together. He said to them, it is not for you to know times or seasons which the father has put in his own authority, but, but you shall receive power. The Holy Spirit comes upon you, epi, that's that Greek word, epi, upon you, in addition to being in you.

Another experience that we shouldn't be afraid of. It doesn't make us less Christians. You, it comes upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. Yeah, how many people, how many people are in heaven simply because some Christian along the way preached Christ, maybe very subtly? And maybe that Christian didn't even know what was, just, you know what, I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, I believe in the Bible.

If you all want to run with the culture, run with it, but I'm not going there with you. I know my Savior lives, I know I am a sinner, and then that's the end of their speech, and somebody hears that. That person may never see again in this life, and they act upon it, and they become a Christian. May we never, maybe never diminish the power of the tongue. It can start, how great a forest a little fire can kindle. Well, it works both ways. Satan can use the tongue and create big problems.

Many of you, especially at holiday time, you get these family problems because somebody just said something dumb or mean or just can't let go of the past. Okay, that's the flesh and the sin, fine. But then there's the other side. There's the preaching of the truth with fire, the tongue. But again, it's hard because as you preach from the book of Acts, you're always saying to yourself, I'm just not bringing it out.

I'm just not bringing out the truth. You know, you think that some Christian is just scratching their heads, so what is he talking about, the spirit next to you, in you, upon you? It's actually very basic, and it's all right here. You can't just want to use the Greek when you want to make your doctrine profound and forget it in other areas.

It's across the board. We go a little deeper when we go into the original languages. Anyway, having dismissed their question, he gets back to business. He says, dunamis, we get our English word dynamite from this Greek word.

He says, you're going to get dynamite, and that's going to help you blast through things. And I am, I know when I used to preach the gospel in the world, there was the power of God, and I could feel it. I knew it.

I knew it. One reason why I knew, because I never preached to anybody that God didn't open the door for me to preach to. And when he opened the door, it was like a hallway, and I could just walk right in, and I could preach Christ, and I did, and those days were wonderful. I look back with nostalgia, because now my mission is to say to Christians, you know, get out there. Don't preach a word to the Holy Spirit that says preach it, and watch what happens. I mean, you can't, how many, you can't speak but so many times in the workplace, you wear out your, you know, but God can bring you other people from other places and other experiences. Would you want your pastor to say something less? Would you want me to say, you don't really need the Holy Spirit, this is a little bit overdone here. Just make sure you read your Bible and enough, you know, reference materials and listen to sermons online, and you'll be fine.

Well, you're not going to hear me say that. What I'm going to say is, yeah, read the scriptures, of course, and study up, be ready for those years of famine, but wait, trust in the power of the Holy Spirit. Luke again, chapter 24, verse 49, behold, this is the first time Luke records this promise, Acts here is the second time, because Luke wrote Acts also. Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are, and here's why I wanted to read this verse, until you are endued with power from on high. Not a casual statement.

It's not, you know, a preposition. It just helps you get to, it is the point, to be endued with power from God Almighty, and then Christ says here in verse 8, when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, said with utter confidence that it's going to happen. I hope if, when you leave here this morning, you feel like, man, I just want to preach to somebody. That's, you know, the Spirit moving in you. That's the Holy Spirit. You don't have to go back to Pentecost.

That's not going to happen. You're going to have a personal Pentecost. John's Gospel, chapter 16, and I enjoy reading these four verses that I'm about to read. I've been reading them a few times lately.

I enjoy it. And when he has come, he will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. How's he going to do that? Through us.

There is no other vehicle. There's a scripture. There's the written word, of course, but the dispatch of angels preaching has not yet come. It's us. It's the church. That's why we are suffering the garbage in this life amongst unbelievers. It rains on the just and the unjust. Get out there.

Get excited about it. He will convict the world of sin through you and through me. Of sin because they do not believe in me.

No, that's where we come in. That's how I became a believer. Somebody preached to me.

That tongue of fire. And that is the power of the Holy Spirit and nobody else. And, of course, we talk about Christ and the Holy Spirit and the Father. We talk about the Godhead.

They're not, you can't divide them. John continues, he says, Jesus speaking, of righteousness because I go to my Father and you see me no more of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. That's our message. Satan's dealt with. Yeah, he can still cause misery here. But in the end, when I breathe my last, he's done.

I'm finished with him. I never again have to worry about Satan. He won't even come up in heaven. And that means that literally and metaphorically.

Anyway, the power of the Holy Spirit participating in my serving God, that's exactly what the scriptures are teaching. Satan, you know, you find any church in the world where they're preaching the gospel from the pulpit and trying their best to uphold it in the clock. And I promise you, Satan's going to attack. He's going to attack with enemies foreign and domestic. He's going to use people from the outside to attack and he's going to use people from the inside to attack. Don't let it be you. Don't fall for that.

Just repeated tactic that he uses all the time and pulls it off. Paul, writing to the Philippians, said, you know, Syntyche, Eurydia, you got this problem with each other. Brothers, help these two women out. Their emotions are going to mess everything up for everybody. And that's all he had to say. Well, he says, and you will be witnesses to me.

That is a guarantee. If this were a promise only for the apostles, then the church would have died with them. But it is not. It is a promise that we will be witnesses to Christ and the power of the Spirit because of Christ.

It is for us. It is a promise for all who come to Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. And you can't do it any other way. So what does Jesus want from my life? This is it, to be his witness.

So let's not pretend that it's something less or something other. Ephesians chapter 6, this is Paul, under the power of the Holy Spirit. That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ through the gospel.

Of which I became a minister according to the gift of grace of God given to me by the effective working of his power. I want that. I want every bit of that. I don't know how much of it I'll get, but I want every bit of it. And when I hear Paul speak and I hear him, I say, man, I can't serve that way. But if I could just get a portion of it, if I could just get a little bit of that, I'll be a lot better off than without it.

And if he can do it, I can grab some of it too. Judas Iscariot wanted something else. Being a witness really wasn't high up on his list of priorities.

Being a conqueror was more important to him. Mark chapter 13, Jesus says, if you are being persecuted for me, the Holy Spirit can speak to you there too. He can speak through you when you're preaching the gospel, and he can speak through you when you're being crushed for the gospel. But when they arrest and deliver you up, do not worry beforehand or premeditate what you shall speak. But whatever is given you in that hour, speak that, for it is not you who speak but the Holy Spirit. These are beautiful things.

Who else has this? Nobody. No other religion on earth comes even close. We are the people who are to tell the truth about Jesus Christ. And the first time, the first time we hear the voice of God in our Bible, it is in the creation of light. One of the most quoted verses of all the Bible. Let there be light. Jesus said of himself that he was the light of the world, and he also said that the individual believer and the church assembled of the light of the world. Matthew chapter 5 verse 14, you are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

A city is made out of a multitude. He continues in Matthew 5 16, Let your light so shine before men that they see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Don't let that become too basic to you, to be a part of your life. You say, yeah, but I'm being crushed by this and that in my life. We're still supposed to be a light. Just because hardship's not supposed to quench the Spirit, put out the light. It is one thing to be filled with the Spirit. It's quite another thing to have the Spirit flowing out of you.

And it can do that in hardship, good times, bad times. He says in Jerusalem amongst the worshippers. This is what Jesus said of Jerusalem.

The one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. That's where I want you to start preaching. Start preaching there. Beginning at Jerusalem, give them another chance to hear the truth. And that's what they did and many were saved. When we get to chapter 2, we'll see it.

By beginning in Jerusalem, the apostles gained the advantage over skeptics. Oh, he's not risen, huh? Well, the grave is right around the corner. Let's just go see. Are you telling me the fishermen stole the body from Roman soldiers? Come on.

That's just goofy. I won't be part of such a silly debate. So, Jerusalem ground zero, of course. Judea amongst their countrymen.

Judea came to include all of the Jewish areas in time. Samaria amongst their opponents, rivals. You know, the Samarians, you Jews say you worship in Jerusalem, but we worship here, you know. And Jesus is saying, listen, don't forget them. You're going to have to preach to them too.

To the end of the earth amongst foreigners. At one point, our Lord restrained his disciples. He said, I don't want you going to the Gentiles. I don't want you going to the Samaritans. Just go to the Jews.

But things change. Matthew chapter 10. These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them saying, do not go into the way of the Gentiles and do not enter the city of the Samaritans.

Well, as I said, that's changed now. We are not to use the sword but the tongue of fire to spread the gospel. Because Islam was spread with the sword and it is maintained the same way. Loyalty to Islam is kept under a threat of death. Christianity is not that way.

Never has been. And any Christians who have tried to pull it off that way are false Christians. Or outside, at the very least, what the scriptures teach. Loyalty to Christ is maintained by love and the power of Christ.

Well, that's 45 minutes. We can finish these last two verses because they kind of flow very quickly. Verse 9. Now when he had spoken these things while they watched, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight.

A grand departure in front of his people, his witnesses. They would never forget this. This is the kind of stuff that would come back to their mind when their life was miserable for them in the work of ministry.

This is the kind of stuff that they would go back to, to be recharged when they felt that ministry was just stripping them bare and leaving them with nothing. You've heard me say before, well I don't know, maybe you haven't. Maybe I just thought it in my head.

But there have been times that I felt that I was a much stronger Christian before I became a pastor. But what was really happening is you're in the arena. You're really in the arena. You don't have the luxuries you used to have. You can't just, you know what, I don't like you anymore, and don't call me. You just lose a lot of ground. You can't say, you know what, meet me outside. You can, but it's just not.

So, you know, it just comes down to you just get stripped and just beaten down, and you know, nobody likes that. But God is faithful. God is faithful. I mean, Jeremiah, when he was being pulled up by the Ethiopian from the pit that he was in, he didn't say to the Lord, what took you so long? He just continued to do what he was doing before. He continued preaching. Well, again, as I mentioned, he did not remain visible with them throughout those 40 days. He was teaching them that though he wasn't seen visibly, did not mean that he was not present or unreal. He was very much present. Christ in heaven, but not absent, and that's what Romans 10 verses 6 through 8 talk about, and we don't have time to get into that, but heaven is not far away.

It's right here in the sense of the throne of God is totally in touch with us. Verse 10, and while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel. Oh, they're awestruck as he went up.

It's interesting. Almost all the commentators like to say, we presume these were angels. Well, no, they were icy salesmen. They were selling Italian ices, and they just happened, and of course they were angels.

Who else could they be? It's just a humorous little thing, and they're very nonchalant, and while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel who also said, men of Galilee, why do you stand, verse 11, gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will also come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven. Well, they were once men of Galilee, but there are going to be a lot more by the time the Spirit gets hold of them, where the angel says, why do you stand gazing up into heaven?

Angels tend to ask in the New Testament annoying questions, and this is one of them. It's like, are you kidding me? Not that you don't see this every day. You never see this. Why are you standing up? I'm awestruck.

What do you think? Anyway, this same Jesus, the angel doesn't let them ring in. He just keeps talking. This same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will so come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven. That is another promise, and the Son of Man coming in clouds with great glory, and his earthly ministry is now ceased with the ascension. This is the ascension that he goes up into heaven. The Holy Spirit is the substitute on earth for the bodily presence of Christ. We don't have the bodily presence, and as I read from John chapter 7, that the Spirit could not be given yet until he was glorified. Well, that's what's going to happen in Acts chapter 2. I'm going to close with this verse from Revelation 7. Behold, he is coming with clouds, and every eye will see him, even they who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of him.

Even so, amen. You've been listening to Cross-Reference Radio, the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia. As we mentioned at the beginning of today's broadcast, today's teaching is available free of charge at our website. Simply visit crossreferenceradio.com. That's crossreferenceradio.com. We'd also like to encourage you to subscribe to the Cross-Reference Radio podcast. Subscribing ensures that you stay current with all the latest teachings from Pastor Rick. You can subscribe at crossreferenceradio.com, or simply search for Cross-Reference Radio in your favorite podcast app. Tune in next time as Pastor Rick continues teaching through the book of Acts, right here on Cross-Reference Radio.