Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ. Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church, located in Kernersville, North Carolina. Today, we're going to be looking at Acts chapter number one, and we're going to be reading just three verses: six, seven. and eight here.
And in this passage, Jesus gives his disciples And he gives us also a job to do, a responsibility to do. He gives his disciples complete and clear. Instructions, and I love the way that Jesus describes this, but before we get into this, I want to maybe just kind of talk about the background. Of the book of Acts. I don't ever want to just assume that everyone knows what the book of Acts is about or what the Bible is all about.
You know, you may have somebody visiting here this morning that maybe you don't know all the lingo and things. And so I want to describe and give you the background a little bit of the book of Acts. You know how we have 2 Corinthians, we have 2 Timothy. You know, Acts could literally be called 2 Luke. Luke is the writer, the same Luke that wrote the Gospel of Luke, the physician.
He writes this book, and it's the same audience. In Luke chapter number one, verse number three, we are given the audience to who Luke wrote this book to. It was to a man, a new convert in Christ. His name was Theophilus. And he wrote this to Theophilus so that he could be sure of some things.
He wrote this letter, the Gospel of Luke, so that he wouldn't be led astray. He was a new convert, and there was a lot of teaching going around, a lot of false teaching going around. And Luke wrote the Gospel of Luke so that he would be able to describe, hey, this is who Jesus was. This is what Jesus did. Don't believe any of the other stuff that you hear.
And in verse number four of Luke chapter number... One, it tells us kind of the theme. He says, that thou mightest, in verse 3, it says, most excellent Theophilus, and then it starts, that thou mightest know the certainty of those things. He says, I want you to know the truth. And the book of Acts kind of picks up right where this left off.
The book of Luke ends with Jesus ascending back into heaven. And the book of Acts kind of begins at that place. In verse number one of Acts, chapter number one, he continues the book of Luke. He says, The former treatise have I made, O Theopolis, of all that Jesus began. both to do And to teach.
Here in verse number 6, 7, and 8, we have the final words. of Jesus here on earth. He gives his disciples final instruction before he is going back to heaven. You can imagine with me if you knew that this was going to be your last words to somebody that you loved or that you cared about, you would want to give them some words that had some weight. I wouldn't tell one of my dumb dad jokes if I knew this were my last words on earth.
I would want to impart some sort of wisdom if I had any, to give some sort of instruction or guidance. And Jesus uses this opportunity to talk to his disciples for the final time. He says, I want to give you some instruction. I want to give you some guidance. I want to help you.
Because Jesus was about to say some things and he was about to do something that was going to confuse the disciples. And as we read these verses, we're going to read these verses in just a moment here. If you could think with me for a moment about the disciples' journey. Three and a half years they spent with Jesus. Everywhere that Jesus went, they went.
Everything that Jesus did, they were a part of. Every miracle that he did, they saw those miracles. Everything that he taught, they were a part of that. In fact, a lot of times when Jesus would teach large groups and large crowds of people, Jesus would pull them aside and he would give them deeper insight into what he had taught them. And so the disciples, man, they physically were with Jesus for three and a half years.
And when Jesus was crucified, it rocked their world. As you can imagine, some of these men had given up everything to follow Jesus. We think about Peter who left it all and followed him. James and John left their dad, left the business, left everything and followed Jesus.
Some of them have given it all, and now this man that they had committed to follow is dead, and now what? This absolutely rocked their world and we can imagine how confused the disciples were in this moment. Jesus had predicted his death. He had told them that this was coming, but it still caught them off guard. And we know that Jesus was buried, he rose from the dead, and that seemed to confuse the disciples even more.
You know how we know that the disciples weren't expecting Jesus to rise from the dead on the third day? It's because they weren't at the tomb when it happened. You can imagine, we saw that big thing of Pepsi there, right? We'd be sitting there with a cooler full of Pepsi, just waiting for Jesus to come out of the tomb because we're expecting it. They weren't expecting it.
This confused them, this surprised them. And so they're almost left with more questions than they had answers when Jesus rose from the dead. And so Jesus spends about 40 days with the disciples after his resurrection, I'm sure, teaching them and guiding them and telling them, hey, this is what's coming next. And we can assume that the disciples here in Acts chapter number one, before Jesus ascends back into heaven, they're no longer confused, right?
Well wrong. They are still confused. Here in verse number 6, I want you to see the confusion of the disciples. They still don't get it quite. Look at verse number six with me of Acts chapter number.
One, it says, When they were therefore come together, this is the disciples and Jesus, they have come together. It says they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom of Israel? See, the disciples here, after Jesus rises from the dead, they begin to draw their own conclusions. These people that opposed you, these people that didn't believe in you, certainly now that they watched you die, they watched your body be broken and crushed and put into a grave, certainly now that they see you rise from the dead, they'll believe you.
Now you can set up your kingdom. This has to be the time where you're going to drive out the Roman Empire and you're going to set up your earthly kingdom. And they thought that, hey, this just makes sense to us. Like, we can add this up, and this makes sense. And so, Jesus addresses this question.
Now I want you to notice Jesus doesn't make them feel stupid. for this question. Jesus doesn't dismiss the question, Jesus answers the question that they have. I want you to see in verse number seven what Jesus said. This is his answer.
And this answer is applicable to us today. All right, look at what it says. Acts chapter 1, verse 7. Jesus addressing the question: Will you now set up your kingdom? Are we going to get to reign with you now?
Is this when it happens? Jesus says unto them, It is not for you to know. The times or the seasons. That's Jesus' answer. You don't need to know.
This doesn't really concern you. You don't need to know the answer to this question. I want you to see number one this morning. is that there are certain things in this life that you and I are not meant to know. I don't know if that hits you as hard as it hit me, but there are certain things in this life that we are not privy to.
We don't have all the information on certain things. There are some things that God has decided not to reveal to us.
Now, I don't know about you, but I like to know the answers to things. I like to know what's going on. I like to have all of the information. Before I proceed with something, I want to know what the information is. Like some of these guys will tell you that when they buy something from IKEA and they open it up and they get the instructions, they throw it away.
I don't do that. That's just stupid, in my opinion. Have you ever put together anything from IKEA? I want the instructions. Give me the instructions.
That's the first thing that I look for when I open it. When my wife bought something online the other day, and I get the instructions out, I'm looking at it. It's like this shelf. They didn't send me eight pieces. Not one, not two, eight.
Pieces of this equipment.
Now, if I hadn't had the instructions, I'd have been really, really confused, but I had the instructions and I knew, hey, I'm supposed to have six of those, I've got one. I'm supposed to have four of these shelves, or of six of these shelves, I have four of them.
So I'm missing several pieces to this. The instructions told me that. I understand that. And you know, as a kid, we all asked this question. Right a parent, an adult would tell us to do something.
They would tell us, hey, you need to do this, you need to do that, clean your room, go take a shower, brush your teeth. What's the question we always ask? Why? I'm in that phase right now, not me personally, but I have kids right now. I have a seven-year-old.
And I have a little girl, she's going to be five in a couple of weeks. And they are in that mode right now. Hey, go pick up your toys. Why? Go clean your room.
Why? Go put your pajamas on. Why? And I'm telling you guys, you could answer that question. The best anybody could ever answer.
You could give every detail, you could get every piece of information in there, and it will always 100% of the time lead to another question: why? I just explained it to you, and it always leads to that answer that every parent's got in their tool belt. Right? You already got it. Because I said so.
Just go do it. I pay the bills here. I put a roof over your head. I feed you. I clothe you.
Go do it. Why? Because I said so. Right, and Jesus here in this question, they're asked, Hey, are you gonna set up the kingdom? And Jesus said, Hey, it's not for you to know the times and the seasons.
It's not for you to know what God's going to do. Jesus here says that, hey, there's some things that you and I may never understand. There's some things that you and I may never have all of the information and all of the answers to. Things we may never know. Man, we ask God questions like, God, why did that happen?
Why did that happen to me? Why is this a part of my life? Why did this person say that? Why did that person do this? Why is this circumstance in my life?
Why did that person have to get sick? Why did that person have to die, Lord? Anyone else super non-spiritual want to admit, hey, we ask God questions sometimes. And I'm going to be honest with you, you know, growing up, well-meaning people, I don't think they ever meant to kind of teach us, but they kind of gave you this idea that, hey, you don't ever question God. You'll never ask God why.
I don't know that I can really find that. In Scripture? You read the book of Psalms, David had a lot of questions. Asaph had a lot of questions. John the Baptist had a lot of questions.
Hey, are you really the Messiah, or should we seek for someone else? Jesus himself hanging on a cross, why have you forsaken me? When he was in the garden, right? Asked the father, is there any other way? I think it's okay for us to have questions.
We're human. That's human nature for us to want to know why. Here's the problem: when we question God's sovereignty. When we question his authority, that's when it becomes a problem. I want to read you a couple of verses here.
Psalm chapter 115, verse 3 says, But our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Isaiah 46, verse 9 and 10: Remember the former things of old, for I am God. Notice that I am God, not me. Not us, not you, God's God.
Right, notice verse number 10, declaring the end from the beginning. God, why did you let this happen? Why? Because he sees the end. We see right now.
We see what's in front of us. We see today, maybe tomorrow. But we don't see what's down the line. Why am I allowing this to show up? Because I see the end of it.
Because I know what this is doing for you. I know how this is affecting you. I know what this is doing in your life. This is making you more like Jesus. I see the end.
Proverbs chapter 19, verse 21. I love this word. There are many devices in a man's heart. We all have plans. We all have things that we want to do, all things that we want to accomplish, but notice first.
Nevertheless, the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand. That's all that matters. Right? Isaiah chapter 55, verses 8 and 9: For my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Man, I know a lot of us have questions for God. I know a lot of us have things, well, why did this happen? What is this circumstance for? Why is this going on?
The disciples had questions too. And can I give you kind of a super frustrating answer this morning? Why are these things going on? Because he's God and He said so. Right that that's really what we have to lean on is God said this was good for me God said that this is what he wanted for my life.
This was his plan. And maybe one of those days we'll get answers to our questions. But today is not that day. Today we have to lean on the words of Jesus that he said to his disciples, and that was, hey, the times and the seasons, they're not in our control. How many of us have things in our life that, man, if we had control of it, we would change it just like that?
We all do. We all have those things that we would change. But Jesus said that control is not in your hands. The times and the seasons, that is not for you to know and to control. I want you to see what.
Jesus here says next in verse number seven. He says, he said unto them, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power.
So there are certain things that we don't know. Number two is the answers that we seek are in God's power. They're in God's control. I know this is an elementary teaching this morning, but if we could ever grasp this, this would help us tremendously in our Christian life, knowing that, hey, God is in control. There's never been a moment where He wasn't.
Jesus finishes the statement, it's not meant for you to know the times and the seasons. Things in life are not in your control, and then he says they are in God's power. Those answers that you and I desperately seek, God has those answers. God's not frantically behind the scenes trying to tie up loose ends, making sure everything works out. He's already figured all that out.
Right? He already is in control. He knows the end from the beginning, as we just read in that verse. He knows he's worked it all out. And I know having unanswered questions can be frustrating for us, but this right here was not meant to cause anxiety for us.
I don't know if you're like me and I don't have all the information. That creates anxiety for me. I want to know. I want to know what's next. I want to know what I need to do next.
And this right here was meant for Jesus to give his disciples peace and comfort and security by saying, hey, this is not in your control. God's got this. You know what? I don't have to worry about my kids. I don't have to worry about their health.
I don't have to worry about my next meal. I don't have to worry about a roof over my head. I don't have to worry about clothes I'm going to wear. God's taking care of all of that. That should take some of the pressure off of us.
Hey, things in our life, we're trying to control different things in our life, and God never set it up that way. He said, I've got it in my power. I've got it in my control. I'm going to talk to you about what this word power here means. He says, the times and the seasons are not in your hands, that's in God's power.
What's that word power mean? It's the Greek word exousia. And here's what it means. It means liberty.
Alright, it's super liberating. It's ironic that it means liberty because it is liberating when we get this idea that you and I are not in control. You and I don't have to fix everything. You and I don't have to be in charge of it all. God's taking care of that.
And Jesus is going to tell us what God expects from us here in just a second, but it means liberty. It means power of choice. It means doing as one pleases. It means void of needing permission. Here's the interesting thing.
About this word exusia is, we don't really have an English word that fully describes it. I know the word power here is used, but power doesn't even really begin to describe what this word means. It means authority. And it doesn't just mean authority. Here's the great thing: it means authority over authority or power over power, if that makes sense to us.
God doesn't just have power. God has power over power itself. We know that God has power over nature. We know that God has power over seasons, power over time, power over your circumstance and my circumstance, power over mankind, power over time, power over power itself. And so it leads us to another question here.
And Jesus says, you know what? There are certain things that you and I aren't supposed to know. Certain things that you and I are not privy to. God has all of that in His power.
Now I want you to see verse number 8 with me.
Alright, verse number 8, Acts chapter 1, verse 8, very familiar verse. To us, Jesus just got done saying that, hey, the power or the times and the season, that's in God's power. Look what he says in verse 8: but ye shall receive power.
Alright, now we're getting somewhere.
Now we're getting to somewhere that I like to be. I want you to notice: number three: God gives us power. And not only does he have power, he's giving us power. And so that leads us to the natural conclusion: well, if God has power and he has control over situations, then where do I get the power so that I can control my situations? Where do I stand in line for that power?
Where do we get that? How do I end up with that where I know questions and I know answers and I know how to control things? All right, let me say this to you: is that those two words, power, are two different Greek words. And that's what we have to understand. I know here as we read the King James Version, it says in verse number 7 that the Father hath put in his power, and then it says, But ye shall receive power.
But what we have to understand are these are two different words in the Greek. The word here in verse 7 is exousia, it means authority. The word here in verse number eight, many of you know, is the word dunamis. Which means something totally different than authority. Right?
It means. Strength. It means ability. It means being capable of doing something.
So we have one word that means authority, and we have another word that means strength. And there's a difference between authority and a difference between strength and power. Exusia refers to a position. A position of authority. Right?
And this word dunamis here refers to power or strength or ability. If I could explain it to you this way, if I tell you that a police officer has the power to stop traffic, what does that mean? Does that mean that he's going to go out here in the middle of the road out here and he's going to get down in a four-point stance and he's going to physically stop a car at 55 miles an hour? Is that what that means? No, it means that he has the position of authority.
He holds an office that has an authority, that has the power to stop traffic.
So when I say things like this, for example, you and I have power over Satan, what does that mean? Does that mean we're stronger than him? Smarter than him? Wiser than him? Does that what that means?
No, it means we have a position in Jesus Christ where we have authority over him.
So we see verse number seven here sets up the authority of God in our lives, he's in control. He's the one running the show. There are certain things God doesn't have to tell us about. He doesn't owe us an explanation. That's in His power.
But in verse number 8, he says that I'm going to give you an ability, though. I'm not just going to leave you out here meandering around or floundering around not knowing what to do. And when you and I don't have all the information, a lot of times that's what we do. We just sit still. We don't do anything.
But Jesus here says: listen, the control of your life, circumstances, things in your life, that's in God's power. But I'm going to give you a capability. I'm going to give you. Strength. And I want you to notice what he says here in verse number 8.
He tells us where that strength comes from. Look at this. But ye shall receive power as. After that, the Holy Ghost. is come upon you.
This power, I want you to see number four, has nothing to do with us. This this power has nothing to do with our personality. Nothing to do with how much we know the Bible. Nothing to do with how much we come to church or serve or do any of those things. This power has nothing to do with you or me.
Jesus here says that ye shall receive power. When do we receive this power? The Bible says when the Holy Ghost comes upon you, when he indwells you, and he says here a couple of verses later, that not many days after this, this is going to happen for you. After the Holy Spirit has come upon you.
So I want you to see that this power is supernatural. This is something that's beyond what we can do.
Something that is beyond what we know about. And he says that the Holy Spirit of God is what brings this power. This isn't a new teaching for Jesus. This isn't something that he hasn't talked about before. In fact, for hundreds of years, it had been talked about that the Holy Spirit was going to indwell believers.
Look at Ezekiel chapter number 36 with me. Look at verse number 26. It says, A new heart also will I give you. And a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. This is Jesus God talking about the Holy Spirit coming.
Look at verse 27. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments and do them. He says here that the Holy Spirit's gonna indwell believers at some point, and it's gonna help them to live for me. It's going to help them. He's going to teach them.
Look at verse number 28 of Joel chapter number 2. It says, And it shall come to pass afterward that I will, look at this, pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your old men shall dream dreams. Your young men shall see visions. I love verse 29.
And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. You know what I love about this is that the Holy Spirit is not just reserved for the powerful. It's not just reserved for royalty. It's not just reserved for people who would say, culture would say, hey, they deserve that. It says here that the handmaids, the servants, you know what that tells me?
Is that the Holy Spirit of God is available to anyone that wants it. Yeah, that that's awesome. That God's spirit, he says, I'm going to pour it out. I'm going to give it to anybody that wants it. Jesus talked about the Holy Spirit, John chapter 14.
Verses 16 to 17, I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever. Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him. For he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. Verse number 26 of John chapter 15. But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify me.
Verse number 27 is a key verse. For us this morning, as we talk about this, and ye also shall bear witness. Because ye have been with me from the beginning. God says, I'm going to give you strength. I'm going to give you an ability.
I'm going to make you capable of doing something. He said, I'm giving you a power that is above any other power this world has ever seen. Look at verse number 10 of Romans chapter number 8. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives inside of you this morning. If you're a Christian this morning, this power that we're talking about, you already have it living inside of you.
Look at Romans 8, chapter, Romans 8, 10. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life. because of righteousness. Here it is, but if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken or make alive your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. This is the greatest power the world has ever seen.
Now, we've done great things in power and energy and things like that in our world. But there's one power they don't have, and that's the power to raise up a dead body. That's all-time great power. That's kind of where we're talking about power over power. The power of death, God has power over that.
And the Bible here says that that same spirit lives inside of you, which begs the question: what are we supposed to do with all of this power? What are we supposed to do with all this strength and ability that God has given us? I want you to notice verse number eight: Jesus tells his disciples, he says in verse 6, or they ask the question, Lord, are you going to set up your kingdom? Jesus said, Listen, there's some things you're not meant to know. There's some things you're not in control of.
God has all that under control, but He gave you the ability to do something else. He gave you strength. He's called you for a purpose. And look at verse number 8. Jesus tells us what it is: but ye shall receive power.
After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you. And here it is: ye shall be witnesses. Unto me. That's the one job. Jesus, before he left this world, he gave his disciples one job.
He says, I want you to be a witness. to me. This job that we have can be wrapped up in the word. Witness. It begs the question, what is a witness?
What what does it mean? A witness is someone who shares what they have seen. or what they have heard. Here's the thing about a witness: a witness must give first-hand account of an experience that they've had.
Something that they have seen, something that they have heard. Not somebody else saw it. You know, if you were to call someone up on a witness stand in a trial, your requirement is you have to testify of what you personally saw, what you personally heard. If they begin to say something like, well, this person told me this, or that person said they heard this, that lawyer is going to stand up and say, oh, objection, that's hearsay. You didn't experience that.
That has to be thrown out. This witness is no good. You have to get off the stand. That's the thing about a witness for Jesus Christ, that it has to be a personal experience with Jesus Christ, which brings us to the point this morning is, man, if you've never had a personal experience and begin a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, you don't have this power this morning. You don't have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
You can't be a witness for Jesus. It's impossible for you to do. And we want to invite you at Kirwan Baptist Church today. If you've never given your heart to Jesus, today is a great day. To do that.
That's why we do what we do. Right? We don't just do this to waste our time. We want you to have a personal relationship with Jesus, and that's what it takes. In order to be a witness for Jesus, you must first have a personal experience with Jesus.
And this word witness here shows up in Acts about 39 times. And what we see from here on out is these disciples taking this job seriously. You read through the book of Acts and you see how they took this job and they took these words of Jesus. And in black and white, we can see them act on this and they build the first church through the power of the Holy Spirit. God, these disciples continued to do and to teach what Jesus had done.
Here's the thing about being a witness: being a witness is making known what Jesus did and what Jesus taught. And as we look at the pages of the Gospels, as we look at the pages of the Bible, we see that Jesus did a lot of things. He healed sick people. He healed lame people. He raised the dead.
He fed 5,000 people with a couple of fish. He walked on water. Jesus. The greatest news that anyone can receive is the news of the free gift of salvation found in Jesus Christ. It is our desire for you to know him personally.
Would you take a moment to hear this to-day? Every man is born with a sin nature. Romans 3:23 says, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. No matter how hard we try, We're not good enough to obtain God's glory. or to get to heaven.
Because of that sin carries the penalty of death. Romans 6.23 says, For the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life for the through Jesus Christ our Lord. The wages of our sin, or the payment of our sin, only equals death and separation from God. But it's only through God's gift salvation through Jesus Christ that we can accept Him as our Savior.
Jesus Christ paid for your sin debt. The Bible says in Romans 5:8, But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. All you have to do is receive Christ. by faith as your Saviour. Romans 10.9 says That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Verse 13 continues, For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. It's as simple as admitting that you're a sinner believing that Jesus is the only way. and calling upon his name. Bible says whosoever that's anyone can call upon the name of the Lord to be saved. Have you accepted Christ as your personal Savior?
There is no greater day than today to take care of this. Would you accept Christ as your Saviour? If you have any questions, please give us a call at 336-993-5192 or visit our website at Crowin Baptist Church. Dot com. or visits that person at one of our three service times.
We hope you have a great rest of your day. God bless you. Mm-hmm.
