Making Jesus Known

From the Love Worth Finding studios in Memphis, Tennessee, I'm Byron Tyler, here with Kerry Vaughn, the CEO of Love Worth Finding. Kerry, today Adrian Rogers' message, Making Jesus Known. We'll be looking at the first chapter of the book of Acts. All of our programs, all of our devotions, all of our articles will be centered on this same theme, God Invites You to a Closer Walk.

Well, Kerry, as part of this theme, Closer Walk, and discipleship, we have really two things we want to mention that I think can help people have that closer walk with Christ. And that is Women Living Courageously. Now, this is something I'm excited about from LWF, hosted by Melanie Red in partnership with Love Worth Finding Ministries. Absolutely.

You can find out more at womenlivingcourageously.com. Also, we want to mention the Adrian Rogers Legacy Bible, hot off the press, great discipleship tool. Get it while you can, info at LWF.org. Well, in keeping with our truism this month, God Invites You to that Closer Walk and that series we're in right now, Living Supernaturally Volume 1 and 2. The series is from the book of Acts, and it's beginning with the New Testament church. And this is really exciting because great things happened as the church moved out in the power of the Holy Spirit, and we see that in Acts. What we do in the power of the Holy Spirit gives you the confidence, and you can become courageous in sharing the love of Jesus Christ in a very unique way. Well, we talked, Kerry, about living supernaturally.

Adrian Rogers said it best this way. Well, so many people are living superficially. What I mean by that is that they are trying to live the Christian life in the strength of the flesh, and very much it's like driving a car with a brake zone. When God saved us, God gave us all that we need to live the Christian life, but so many people are living in the flesh.

And Paul had to chide the Galatians, and he said, Who with bewitched you, having begun in the Spirit, are you going to be made perfect in the flesh? And as we've said, every Christian is living either supernaturally or superficially. We are to live supernaturally. Now, I don't mean by that that we're to be performing miracles every day, but our life is to be a miracle.

The very life that we live is to be the life of the Son of God in us. And so that's my prayer for the people who will hear these messages. Well, Kerry, making Jesus known is really what our message is about today, and that is what we like to hear from our listeners and how they are making Jesus known. You know, this love we're finding is a discipleship ministry. As we share God's Word, people's lives are changed, and they in turn go and share the good news with their neighbor, with their colleague at work. And so we love hearing from those who write in and let us know how the ministry is impacting them. And Nicole from our ministry services down the hall stopped in. Nicole, you have a response from a listener.

I sure do, Byron. Thank you so much for inviting me to be here today. I am excited to share that one of our listeners wrote in and said, Years ago, my one son gave his life to the Lord after Pastor Adrian Rogers gave a powerful heartfelt sermon.

That was the greatest gift. No one my son wanted to trust Jesus as his Lord and Savior. Telling other people what we have seen and heard, nobody can rebuttal that. Well Kerry, to help us to know more about making Jesus known, here's Adrian Rogers with today's message, Making Jesus Known. Today we're going to be talking about making Jesus known. Making Jesus known. Friend, this world needs to know Jesus.

Now that's not just rhetoric. That is absolute truth. There is no answer to the problems of this world apart from the Lord Jesus Christ.

I sincerely believe that with all of my heart and I hope that you do. Making Jesus known not only to our neighbors but to the nations and not only to the nations but to our neighbors. Friends all around me are trying to find what the heart yearns for by sin undermined. I have the secret.

I know where it is found. Only true pleasures in Jesus abound. Jesus is all this world needs today. Finally men strive for sin darkens their way. Oh, to pull back the grim curtains of night. One look at Jesus and all will be light.

Now, we're going to look in the book of Acts and find out how they did it in the book of Acts. If we want to do something new, we need to study something old. We need to go back to the very fundamentals, back to the basics. I want to lay three things on your heart because this speaks to you. Number one, you need to recognize his presence in you.

We need to recognize his presence in us. Look here, verses one through three. The former treatise, Have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day in which he was taken up. After that he, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen, to whom also he showed himself alive, after his passion, by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. Now go back to verse one.

Look at it. Of all that Jesus began to do and teach. Notice it is an unfinished story. Of all that Jesus began to do. That is, Jesus had not finished. Now when the book of Acts was written, Jesus had already ascended to heaven.

He had already gone back to the glory. And Luke had written about that. He called that the former treatise, Have I written unto thee, O Theophilus. What was the former treatise that Luke had written? It was the Gospel of Luke. Luke wrote the Gospel of Luke.

And it told about all that Jesus did and taught. But Jesus said this is what he began to do. Now the emphasis is that the book of Acts is what Jesus is continuing to do. In the Gospel, Jesus began. In Acts, Jesus continues. In the Gospels, he did that through his literal body. In the book of Acts, he does that through his mystical body. Now learn this, that the church of Jesus Christ is the body of Jesus on this earth. Now listen, don't let that go over your head.

That is not incidental. That is so fundamental that Jesus Christ inhabits his church. He is alive and well. We are his body. We are his spiritual body. People talk about what would Jesus do if he were here. Friend, he is here.

He lives in us. And we need to understand that because if we don't, we will be superficial and not supernatural. God wants us to be supernatural. Anything about you or me, so far as my Christian life is concerned, that can be explained is superficial.

Anything that you can explain, apart from Jesus, is superficial. I am called upon and you're called upon to be supernatural. Our Christian life is supernatural from beginning to end. It starts with the supernatural. The new birth is supernatural. We're not just nice people.

We're new creatures. When we get finished, when God's finished with us, and we die or the rapture comes, we're going to be made like him, swept up to glory, given a glorified body. That's supernatural. So the beginning miracle is supernatural. The ending miracle is supernatural. I want to tell you something.

The middle miracle is supernatural. That is Christ in you. It'll be a great day when we learn that Jesus doesn't want us to do anything for him.

He wants to do something through us. You say you're playing with words. No, I'm not.

I am not. Listen, Paul said, I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God, not faith in the Son of God, the faith of the Son of God. He puts his faith in me. Faith is not something I conjure up. The faith of the Son of God, that is the life that we are now to live. Now, many of us start out in the Christian life, and we think it's very easy to live. Stuart Briscoe, great preacher, when I got saved, he was so wonderful, the burden of sin was gone.

Boy, I started out, I was going to live for God and be so happy. It's wonderful. I've been saved. Hallelujah, Jesus.

I'll never make another mistake. Now I've been saved. My sins are forgiven.

I have the Holy Spirit in me. And he said, I was saying, this is just wonderful. And then he said, I stumbled and fell. I realized I wasn't perfect. And I got discouraged a little bit. And I said, well, this isn't as easy as I thought.

This is difficult. And he began to strive and to try to be a better Christian. And he still failed miserably. And he stopped saying, this is easy. He stopped saying, this is difficult. He hung his head in despair and said, this is impossible. Nobody can live the way I'm supposed to. I just can't do it. And you know he was right.

It is impossible. But then he discovered that God is the God of the impossible, and that Jesus Christ was in him. And when he stopped trying and started trusting, and let the Lord Jesus Christ live his life through him, he stopped saying, this is easy, or this is difficult, or this is impossible. And he started saying, this is wonderful.

And it is wonderful when we understand that Christ is in us. Major Ian Thomas said we can. He never said we could. He can. He always said he would.

We need to let him. We need to let the Lord Jesus Christ live his life in us. What Jesus began to do in the gospels, Jesus wants to continue to do. And Jesus Christ wants to live his life through you. I've said it before, there's only one person who has ever lived the Christian life.

It's not you, and it's not Adrian. It's Jesus. And if in your home or my home or your job or my job or your school or my school, if it is lived, it'll be Jesus Christ living the life in us. And therefore, it will not be a superficial life.

It will be a supernatural life. Now, it is Christ in us. It's Christ in us. It is Jesus in you that is living the Christian life.

I'm not just playing with words. Folks, it is Christ in you, the hope of glory, Colossians 1 and verse 27. In Acts chapter 5, verse 12, the Bible says, And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders done. By the hands, actually the Greek language is, through the hands of the apostles, signs and wonders were done. One pastor used to keep a tattered old glove on his desk, and he'd pick it up and say, Lord, you fill me like my hand fills this glove. And Lord God, you use me. Now, would you say that today? Would you recognize his presence in you?

Because he wants to do something through you. Look in verse 2. Until the day he was taken up, after that he, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments unto the apostles. Now, for 40 days, Jesus had been walking, talking, teaching the apostles after his resurrection. Then he was taken up, and he gave commandments. Well, you say, I'd like to know what those commandments were and are. Good, I'm glad you asked. Put in your margin Matthew 28, verses 19 and 20.

We don't have to guess about it. Here's what Jesus said during this time from his resurrection before his ascension. Here's what Jesus said to the church, which is his body. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever. I have commanded you, and lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. I'm not going back to heaven, peering down through the clouds and telling you to do this.

I am with you always to the end of the age. And what did he command us to do? What has he commanded you to do? All right, first of all, we're to make disciples. Go ye therefore, and make disciples.

Now, he didn't say make decisions. He said make disciples. People talk about great revival crusades, and they said we have a thousand decisions. I want to know how many disciples did you get. Make disciples.

A disciple is a learner, a follower, somebody who has a new master. We are to make disciples. First of all, we're to make them, and then we're to mark them, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Did you know that baptism is a part of the Great Commission to the church? We have a lot of evangelism programs today that don't emphasize baptism.

That is wrong. It's almost heresy. Jesus said we're to baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Do you know what happens when you go up there in that baptister and get baptized?

You're saying to everybody, look, here I am. I am identifying myself with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I'm not ashamed of Jesus. I want everybody to know that I am baptized as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.

When you get baptized, you're saying, look, I'm not ashamed. I belong to Jesus Christ. I've died with him. I've risen with him.

I've ascended with him. I belong to Jesus Christ. We are to make disciples. We are to mark disciples, and then we're to mature disciples, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. We are to take people. Once we bring them to Jesus, once we baptize them, we are to move believers in Jesus toward maturity and ministry, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And therefore, the book of Acts that we're going to study ends in chapter 28, but the rest of us are going to be writing chapter 29 with our lives. As Jesus Christ is alive and well, living in this city, living not only in our church corporately, but living in you individually because the corporate body is made up of individual members.

So, what's the first thing that we need to understand? We need to recognize his presence in us. This is all that Jesus began to do and to teach, but he is continuing. He's continuing to do it.

Now, here's number two. Not only do we need to recognize his presence in us, but, friend, we need to rely upon his promise to us. Look now in verse 4. And being assembled together with them, that is, Jesus is with them after his resurrection, he commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, Ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence.

This is the promise that he made. Luke 24, verse 49 says, Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry ye in Jerusalem until ye be endued, or clothed with power from on high. That is, he said to the disciples, Don't you start out to do a thing until the promise of the Father comes. Now, the promise of the Father is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit of God was poured out upon the church on the day of Pentecost, 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. They were tarrying.

They were waiting. And then on that special day, the Holy Spirit, as we're gonna see in the next chapter, was poured out upon the infant church. And Jesus said, You wait there in Jerusalem, you tarry in Jerusalem until you are endued with power.

Don't just go out and try to do something until you have the energy of the Holy Spirit, the power, the dynamite of the Holy Spirit in you to do this. Now, what did he tell them? Well, he told them that they were to be witnesses. He told them that they were to share himself. Well, now you think about it. To whom is he speaking?

Folks, this is a motley crowd. They're tax collectors and fishermen and just ordinary people. They're unlettered. They have no finances. They have no colleges and seminaries.

They have no political clout. And yet he tells this little group, this little motley group, this small group, you're to be witnesses to me, Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, the uttermost part of the world. Mission impossible. But he said, Don't you go out and do it until you be endued with power from on high. When we look at what our Lord has commanded us to do, we are totally inadequate. But with the promise of the power of the Holy Spirit, look again in verse 8. Ye shall receive power. After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me.

You are to be consciously filled with the Holy Spirit of God. I was reading where a scientist said, There is enough power in a cube of sugar. He's talking about atomic power now. Enough power in a cube of sugar to decimate the entire city of London.

One little cube of sugar. Now, that sugar does not generate that power. All it would do would be to release it.

You might see an atomic power station. You say, Well, that generates electricity or generates power. Well, in the truest sense, if you go back to the rudiments, it is releasing the power. You see, the power in this church is there, but it's got to be released. We have been endued with power from on high.

How can we do this? Well, first of all, we need to recognize His presence in us. Jesus lives in us. Number two, we need to rely upon His promise to us. He has promised the Holy Spirit to enlighten us.

We don't have to ask for guidance, to energize us, to encourage us. The Holy Spirit is alive and well in us, and we don't have to be waiting on God anymore. He has sent the Holy Spirit.

We need to surrender. Now, here's the third and final thing. Look, recognize His presence in us. Jesus is continuing to work and to teach. Number two, rely upon His promise to us. Ye shall receive power. After that, the Holy Ghost is come upon you.

And number three, we need to respond to His program through us. Now, look again at what He says in verse 8. But ye shall receive power. After that, the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and the uttermost part of the earth.

That's His program for us. We don't have to wonder what He wants us to do. We're to be witnesses. Now, say to yourself, if I'm saved, I'm a witness. You are a witness.

You say, well, wait a minute, pastor. I don't know how to be a witness. Well, I hope you train yourself to be a better witness, but friend, if you're saved, you are a witness. You're a witness. You don't have to have a training course to be a witness. Now, I want you to take one.

If you can't. But, you see, He didn't say you should be my lawyers. What's the difference between a witness and a lawyer?

A lawyer argues a case. A witness tells what he's seen and heard. Now, you know the reason that some people are not witnesses? They haven't seen or heard anything, spiritually.

They don't know anything. If you know Jesus, you can't help but be a witness. You say, well, Pastor Rogers, if I tried to witness to somebody, they would ask me some questions about something I can't answer.

Of course they could. People can ask me questions that I can't answer. You don't have to know the answer to everything. A witness doesn't have to know the answer to everything. All they want to know in a courtroom is what have you seen and what have you heard. Just the facts, ma'am.

That's all they want to know. You see, there was a man born blind. Jesus opened his eyes. And so the enemies of Christ began to castigate and excoriate and interrogate this man. And they said, who was it that healed you?

What were his credentials? By what authority did he heal you? Well, this man had been a... He'd never even known of Jesus before until Jesus came and opened his eyes. And they said, tell us, is he a sinner? This man said, look. He said, whether he's a sinner or not, I don't know. But he said, one thing I know. Once I was blind and now I see. Dr. Vance Havner said, a Christian with a glowing testimony is worth a library full of arguments.

Once I was blind and now I see. You don't have to know the answer to every question. Let me give you a good answer you can always use.

Are you ready for it? Boy, this will take a lot of pressure off of you. Somebody ask you a question you don't understand and you can't answer? Here's the answer. Just say, I don't know.

Isn't that a great answer? You know, when you tell people you don't know what you don't know, they'll begin to believe you when you do tell them what you do know. I think it was Josh Billings who said, a man doesn't show his ignorance by not knowing so much as he does by knowing so much that ain't so.

Just say, hey, I don't know. Now let me tell you what I do know. A witness is somebody who tells what he has seen and what he has heard. You don't have to know everything to witness. Friend, if you've met Jesus, if Jesus has changed your life, you're going to want to share the Lord Jesus. Do you have a testimony? Have you seen anything?

Have you heard anything? How are we going to share Jesus Christ? How are we going to make Jesus Christ known to this world? Number one, we need to recognize his presence in us. Number two, we need to rely upon his promise to us. Number three, we need to respond to his program through us. His program through us is we are to be witnesses both in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth.

This is the Lord's call to us. Now listen to me, friend. God can use you.

Don't cop out. Age is no barrier. Education is no barrier.

Social status is no barrier. God can use you. God can use you now. God can use you with what you have, and God will supply all that you need to be a witness. We're going to be making Jesus known to our neighbors and the nations, and you're to be a part of it. God is calling you. And, friend, this is not something that's just nice.

This is a necessity. And if you call yourself a Christian and Jesus Christ says you are to do whatever I've commanded you, if you fail, you're not just merely failing. You're guilty of high treason against heaven's king. Are you going to take this gospel dynamite and do nothing with it? You shall receive power. After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you. That word power is the word we get our word dynamite from. The gospel has not failed.

It's just not yet been tried. I'm telling you, folks, if we ever really catch fire for the Lord Jesus Christ and recognize His presence in us, remember His promise to us, and rely upon His program for us to make disciples, we're going to see Jesus do something wonderful in this area. And I want you to be with me. And God's people said... Amen. Well, what a powerful message today on Love Worth Finding. And if you have questions regarding your faith in Jesus, we would love to offer you an insightful resource on our website. It's our Find God's Love page. There you'll find answers you may need about your faith.

There's also a response section. You can share how this message or others have made a difference in your life. Go to lwf.org slash radio and click the tab that says Find God's Love. We can't wait to hear from you today.

There are no barriers, no matter our age, education, or social status. God can use you right now with what you have. God will supply all that you need to make Jesus known. Adrian Rogers said, It'll be a great day when we learn that Jesus doesn't want us to do anything for Him. He wants to do something through us. We hope you'll join us next time for more timeless truth, right here on Love Worth Finding.