R1103 What Jesus Gives Us, Pt.2

We all could use some encouragement, and we'll find it together today in the Bible-based teaching of Dr. Don Wilton on this edition of The Encouraging Word. The Encouraging Word What Jesus gives us. We open God's Word together, the book of Acts with Dr. Don Wilton, and today know that we're open to connect with you as well on our website, www.tewonline.org.

That's www.tewonline.org. The Encouraging Word Now, today's teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. If you were to die today, what would the preachers be saying about you next week, or perhaps at your funeral service?

What is the legacy of your life? Don't give up, my friends. Don't stop. Don't step down. Don't keep on standing up for Jesus, doing what you do. I tell you, I wouldn't be here today without people like Dr. Alistair Walker, not because he is my human father, but because he planted a legacy of faithfulness. What you see today here at First Baptist with all that's going on, you want to know about it, go and talk to Dr. Walker. That was the foundation, the building stones. It's where all this comes from, folks. And the cornerstone is Jesus.

He's the one. We just simply come and add a few bricks. We just keep building. And we just take the joy of what God does, and I thank the Lord for you today. Now, you're going to need your Bibles this morning, so everybody get your Bibles. We're in Acts chapter 1.

Everybody needs a copy of God's Word, the power of the Gospel. We're in one of the most exciting series that I have ever done in my life and ministry. The power of the Gospel. The bottom line is that I am praying that we, you and I, would be the people of God doing the work of God by the power of God.

Everybody just look at me, and I beg your pardon for asking you to look at me. I'm praying that you're going to understand in the next several weeks and months that you are the church. Just be the church.

Christ has all the authority. All of his fullness and authority dwells in the church. This gathered church, his church that he instituted, he said, on this rock I will build what? My church.

The gates of hell will not prevail against my church. But you and I, we, those of us who have been born again of the spirit of the living God, those of us who are believers, we are the church. I am the church. And what that means is when I'm at the Nautilus Fitness Center trying to help myself become Will for Christ, I am the church.

When I'm sitting in that restaurant and I'm with my friends and my family and we're about to have great fun. And we just pause for a moment and we ask God to bless our food. I am the church. When I'm on that school campus, when I'm playing in that ball team, I am the church. When I'm standing on the tee with a golf club in my hand, I'm the church. When I go on vacation, I am the church. God has filled me with his grace.

I am born again, literally transformed by the power of the gospel. And because Jesus Christ has all the authority and because all of the authority of Christ has been conferred upon his church, the fullness of Christ. I am the church.

I don't come to church to be the church. Let me show you what he says here in this particular passage. I want to read to you the first 11 verses. Luke said that in my former book Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up to heaven after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and he gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them for over 40, a period of 40 days, and he spoke to them concerning the kingdom of God. 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 will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. So when they met together, they asked, Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, it's not for you to know the times and the dates the father has set by his own authority, but rather you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Sumerian to the ends of the earth. And after this, he was taken up before their very eyes and a cloud hit him from their sight. The apostles were looking intently up 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 have seen him go into heaven. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Now, I want to speak to you as we are during these days on what Jesus gives. It's really quite remarkable if you think about it.

It really is. Here's the Lord Jesus Christ, and he was born in Bethlehem, came down as a little baby, and that's what we celebrate at Christmas time, in obedience to the Father, grew up, began to minister. Remember him going into the temple and all the things that he did, and then he went to Capernaum and Bethany and Jerusalem all over the place, and he healed people and made them lame to walk and the blind to see, and he interacted and he called the Pharisees a bunch of vipers and snakes, and he spent all his time with sinners while teaching the 12 apostles what it was that they needed to do as his spiritual leaders. And then he went to the cross, and he was crucified in the worst kind of circumstances, taking upon himself the sin of the world. He went into the pit of hell with our sin upon him. He deposited our sin in the pit of hell. He paid the wages of sin. He conferred death upon our sin officially from the royal decree of God in his righteousness, who outrightly and completely condemns all sin. Jesus conferred that on our sin, depositing our sin in the pit of hell, confirming the wages thereunto. But by the power of God, on the third day God raised him from the dead, and he came forth from the grave, conquering sin and death and the grave, and when he came forth from the grave, he didn't go straight back to heaven. Quite frankly, I think he should have.

I think from my human understanding, we know because the Bible tells us that his work was complete. There actually was nothing more to be done for my sin. Jesus paid the penalty. That's why I'm so glad to invite you today to give your heart to Jesus. Would you give your life to Christ today?

You can do that right now. I want you to know that Jesus died for you. And then by the power of God, he was raised from the dead. You can know him. You can receive forgiveness of sin in him. His work was completely done, but his ministry was not.

He wasn't gone away, but in the flesh. And before he left in the flesh, before he took off and went back into heaven, seated at the right hand of the father, reclaiming his divine right at the right hand of God the father, taking intercession for you and me, before he did that, he spent another 40 days appearing to over 500 people, and he gave them something. So the operative question is, if you had only 40 days left, what would you give to your children? Would you tell them to practice harder so they can make the team? Would you tell them to make certain they've got a good bank balance? Would you tell them to work morning, noon, and night and make absolutely certain that their family never got in the way of their work?

What would you give to your children if you only had 40 days? Evidently, this was important in God's economy. In fact, as I've tried to search the scripture, I think these 40 days were somewhat rather drastically important. Otherwise, the Son of God would not have wasted his time. There was no need because his work was done.

Why did he stay? Well, we've already discovered the first thing Jesus did was he gave them something to say. He gave us something to say.

We looked at that last week. What he gave them to say was not concerning healing people. He'd already done that. He didn't give them something to say about how they should interact properly with people.

What did he do here? We've already discovered in verse 3 that he spoke to them about the kingdom of God. That's what he gave them to say. We've already discovered that the kingdom of God has everything to do, first of all, with God's everything kingdom because Jesus wanted us to know about God's everything kingdom. That God owns everything. That he's in charge. He's the boss. That God created the heavens and the earth and outside of him, everything that we have makes nothing because he's the God of everything.

But the second part of the kingdom is not just God's everything kingdom but God's every one kingdom. He wanted us to know that he died for all people, that he has you and me in the center of his heart. That's you. That's why I want you to know today that Jesus loves you, cares about you. So do I. I really care about you. And I just want you to know you can stop the hunt.

Stop searching. Some of you are looking for meaning in life all over the place. I present to you Jesus. He's the every one God, died for all people. And he had you in his heart. That's why he came to this earth. So he gave us something to say. But today, folks, I'm just telling you this is incredible what I'm about to share with you. He not only gave us something to say, but what Jesus gives is he gave us something to do.

This is amazing. He gave us something to do in these 40 days. Just two things.

First of all, he told them to wait. What? Well, have a look at it. I didn't say it. Steve, we sang about that in that beautiful chorus that we sang just a little while ago. Look what he said in verse four.

He says, do not leave Jerusalem. Look at that next word. But wait, that is my greatest difficulty. Folks, watch this. If I was to tell you about my life today, you'd all get giddy. And I'd get giddy listening to your life, because have you ever got to the point in your life where when you put all the things that happen in your life, everything, you're a mom, you're a dad, you've got work to do, you've got to pick up the kids, you're a taxi service, you're going to ball games, you're trying to make ends meet, you're dealing with sickness, you've got programs, ministries, and you've got all this stuff. You wake up day by day and day by day and your world is literally turning and turning and you want to just put out your foot and just stop the world for a minute. That's why we love snow days. Come on, just be honest with me right now. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Yeah, it hurts the economy, but boy, do we love it. I remember the last one we had, my wife turned to me, she said, guess what? We're not going anywhere today. I'm telling you, that's the time, folks, when you get down, man, you bake the biggest chocolate cake you've ever had and have a Diet Coke to make you feel better. And then you go to Well for Christ afterwards to make up for it. Now, just watch this. Can you just imagine what had just happened in the life of the disciples?

This is horrendous. Not only had they walked side by side with the Lord Jesus and watched and were blessed and were being taught, but the whole issue of his death. I mean, they fell asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane for crying in a bucket. Jesus said, you can't even stay awake.

I suppose in his heart, Peter might have said, yeah, well, considering what we have to do and we have to walk here, you won't let us buy motorbikes. I mean, can you imagine all the things? Then they went through the horrendous stuff of the cross, watching Jesus Christ being crucified. Peter's denial of Jesus, the hurl and the burl of everything that was going on, the hyperactivity. And Jesus gets crucified and the disciples go back and they gather together and they trying to comprehend and absorb all of this.

Jesus comes out of the grave and he walks up to them and he says to them, sit down. I don't want you to do anything. Stop.

Wait. I went through the scriptures. I mean, Psalm 40, for example, I've just turned there. Psalm 40, the Bible says, I waited patiently for the Lord. And he turned to me, heard my cry, lifted me up out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire. He set my feet on a rock. He gave me a firm place to stand.

He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. And so blessed is the one who waits upon the Lord. Incidentally, it's interesting to know in the Hebrew text that the word wait and the word trust find their same root. They are juxtaposed.

They are like Siamese twins. For example, in Isaiah 25 and verse nine, the prophet says we trusted in him and then he sent us. That little word trust there literally means we stopped and we waited on God. And because we stopped and waited on God, God did for us what we cannot do for ourselves. And when God manifested himself in our lives because we had waited on him, when we did what we did, he did it not within ourselves but within the power of the risen Christ. You're listening to Dr. Don Wilton, our teacher here on The Encouraging Word. Don't go away.

He'll be back to complete today's message in just a moment. But if you missed part of the broadcast, you can catch up on our website, www.tewonline.org. It has both video and audio versions of all these great teachings from Dr. Wilton.

Again, that's online at www.tewonline.org. Also, the place you'll find great resources like this. My book, Saturdays with Billy, is about an extraordinary relationship with a precious man who impacted lives across the world. You don't want to miss this opportunity to be inspired by his life too. Again, such a powerful resource. Order your copy by calling 866-899-9673 or discover more on our website at www.tewonline.org.

Now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don. Isaiah 26, verse 8. While walking in your ways and laws, we wait for you because your name and renown are the desires of our hearts.

Paul writing to the church at Thessalonica, 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, verse 10. He said, wait and watch for the coming of the Lord. The psalmist in 25, verse 3 says, now that we wait on you, we will not be ashamed. Evidently, when I wait on God, the shame of my circumstances gets put into a spiritual perspective to the point at which I am no longer ashamed by what I'm doing. Jesus said, wait. Wait. Every Friday night at 11 o'clock, we have a group of people meet here in the chapel to pray.

We've done it for exactly one year. It's called Midnight Cry. This past Friday night, I was over there in the Hangar Well for Christ. We had hundreds of people there.

It was just so exciting. Went home for a few hours and finally came back here at 11 o'clock at night. Walked into the chapel on Friday night, 11 o'clock at night, and there was a group of people sitting there. And as we began to pray and to seek God, all of a sudden it hit me that here is a group of people at 11 o'clock on Friday night doing nothing more than waiting on the Lord. The Psalmist said, preserve me as I wait on you. Wait on the Lord and renew your strength. They that wait on the Lord will renew their strength. Folks, there's something deeply spiritual about this. Jesus gave them something to do.

And the first thing Jesus gave them to do was amazing. He said, wait, I battle with that. I'll be perfectly honest with you. I even get just a little bit aggravated when I go through the drive-through. And I order that cup of coffee or whatever it is, and then I drive up to the window. I expect that window to open up when I drive up there.

Do they not know who they're serving? And if you want to really kill me, go to a fast food place to get a cup of coffee because if you're in well for Christ, you'd never go there to get food. And you drive up and you get up to the window and they open the window and the lovely person behind there says, would you just pull up at that line over there? Your food will be out in just a minute. And I say, God bless you.

I might as well have gone to Longhorn after all. I didn't come here to pitch my camp. Are you fast food or are you folks? Are we not like that?

I know none of you. You're also very righteous and perfect. Can we try and get a handle on this? Yes, Jesus, all of this activity has just taken place. And what he gives them to do is to wait. You see, they needed to know the difference between his physical presence and his spiritual presence. Jesus knew they had to know. He was about to lead them physically. So when he told them to wait, now folks get this, what does it mean he told them to wait?

It means three things. Number one, be obedient. Be obedient.

That's the bottom line. Obedience is the hallmark of our Christian discipleship. Jesus said wait. Jesus gathered his disciples after he came out of the grave and he said wait.

And they waited. That's obedience. That's what it means. It not only means to be obedient, it means to be subservient. You can be obedient without being subservient. Christian discipleship demands not just simple obedience. Obedience is the action we take. Subservience is the attitude we adopt. Have you ever been obedient in the flesh but disobedient in your spirit? That's the difference between obedience and subservience. Friends, look at me today. Many of you will say readily I will do what God tells me to do but you do not have a subservient heart.

Your action may be good but your attitude is not. Just remember God looks upon the outward appearance. Man looks on the outward appearance. God looks on the heart. Such powerful teaching from Dr. Wilton in the pulpit.

Now as he steps into the studio, open your heart to what he wants to share next. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today I repent of my sin and by faith I receive you into my heart in Jesus' name. My friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.

This is exciting news. If you just gave your life to Jesus, praying along with Dr. Wilton or rededicated your life, Dr. Wilton has free resources he wants you to have. He'd also love to pray for you. Give us a call at 866-899-WORD and let us know how God's stirring in your life. Our number is 866-899-9673 or you can connect online as well at www.tewonline.org.