Making Jesus Known

We'll be right back. 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. Blindly 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 don't know whether it's true or not, but there's a legendary story about the great coach in Green Bay, the Green Bay Packers, Vince Lombardi. It is said that one day when the team had played so miserably, he decided he would bring them all the way back to the very rudiments, back to the absolute fundamentals, back to the basics. So he got the team together, ready to talk to them. He reached in the bag and pulled out an object, held it up and said, gentlemen, this is a football. Now, these are professional football players. Gentlemen, this is a football. Bringing them back to the absolute fundamentals.

I want to do that with you this morning. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a Bible. This is a Bible. We're going to go back and find out what the Word of God has to say about reaching our generation with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Somebody criticized Billy Graham and said he's going to set evangelism back 50 years.

He said, well, I didn't mean to do that. I wanted to set it back 2,000 years. That's what we need to do is to go back so we can start there and go forward. Now, 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 1 through 3. 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 40 days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. Now, go back to verse 1.

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, it was so wonderful, the burden of sin was gone. Why I started out, I was going to live for God and be so happy.

It's wonderful. Here I am 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, this, this is just wonderful. And then He said, I stumbled and fell. I realized I wasn't perfect. And I got, 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 person. 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 two, 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. 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. Have you been baptized? If you're a believer and you've not been baptized, you are living in sheer disobedience to our Lord. Don't think it's incidental. Some people don't want to get baptized because they're afraid to mess up a $50 hairdo.

I'm telling you folks, this is not incidental. Jesus began His public ministry by being baptized Himself to identify Himself with us and He concluded His public ministry by commanding baptism. We identify ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.

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. You see that ring? That's the only jewelry I have that I know of. I might have a few trinkets somewhere I don't wear. That's the only piece of jewelry I have right there.

You know why I wear that? That shows that I belong to a lady. She's my beloved. I'm not ashamed of her. I'm not ashamed of people who know I'm married. I want people to know I'm a one woman man.

I don't take it off when I go out of town. I belong to a lady, a special lady. Her name is Joyce. 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, then we're 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 four. 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, fifty 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 going to 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.

What do you think about it? To whom is He speaking? Folks, this is a motley crowd. They are 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, 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. They went out against the imperial iron strength of Rome. They went out against the sophisticated intellectualism of the Greeks. They went out against the stiff neck bigotry of the Jews. They turned that world upside down.

How did they do it? They had power from on high. It is so important that we understand the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Now we don't have to tarry until we're filled with the Spirit.

No, because Pentecost has come. We don't need to say, God, pour out your Spirit. He has poured out His Spirit now. What we need to do is to surrender and say, Lord, I know that you have sent your power. I know that you've sent your Spirit. I surrender myself to you. I am ready, willing and able, Lord, through your Holy Spirit to do what you want me to do.

You see, apart from the anointing of the Holy Spirit, apart from relying upon His promise to us, it is a mission impossible. I heard about some cows that were out grazing, a milk truck pass with some advertisement on the side. And it gave the name of the dairy and then said, Our milk is grade A, pasteurized, fortified, vitamin-enriched, sanitized. It comes from contented cows.

One cow looked at the other and said, it kind of makes you feel inadequate, doesn't it? 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's 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. 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 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 had 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 Habner 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, 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. A preacher went into a big department store like a Kmart back to the back. He went back there to buy some fishing tackle and he was standing there at the counter and he just happened to say this, what's a good lure for bass? When he said that, the man standing next to him, his head snapped around.

He said, man, let me tell you. And he began to talk to him about fishing lures. And from that time on he just kept talking about good places to catch bass, how to use this lure and talked about this and that. And he kept talking. The preacher bought one of the lures and started out of the, through the department store, that man followed him all the way through the department store just talking to him about bass fishing, good places to catch bass and so forth. The man finally, the preacher left, went outside to go to his car. The man followed him outside.

He's getting in his car. He's still talking to him about catching bass. Well you just have to say that was a man who loved fishing, right? And it was a man who knew something about it.

And it was very easy for him to do that. Now if you took that same man and put him in a church and said, sir, go out and share Jesus Christ, he'd say, oh, I can't talk. I don't know how to do that. I don't know how. No. You know what his problem is? Jesus Christ is not as real to him as a bass.

That's it. Jesus Christ is not as real to him as a bass. Friend, when you meet the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ has changed your life. You'll be a witness unto him.

A witness is somebody who tells what he's seen and heard. 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 outermost 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. General Patton, a great general, in World War II he had on his tanks three A's in a row. A, A, A, and then there would be a zero with a line, a bar across it. A, A, A, zero with a bar across it.

Somebody asked the great general what does that mean? He said the first A is anywhere. The second A is any time. The third A is any way. Well, what is the O with the bar across it? Bar nothing.

Anywhere, any time, any way, bar nothing. We are at war and so are we as a church. And we need to understand that God has a plan for us. 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. There's an old story that preachers tell.

I love it. A man was a fisherman. He would always come in with a boatload full of fish.

Other people might come in on a dry run. He always came in with a boatload of fish. One day a man came to him, said, stranger, would you take me fishing with you?

He said, yeah, come on, get in. They got out in the middle of the lake and this man who was this great fisherman reached under his seat, got a stick of dynamite, lit it and threw it overboard. It sank to the bottom.

Vroom, a big explosion. All these dead fish floated to the top. The man just gathered them up, hundreds of them. The stranger who was fishing with the fisherman reached into the billfold, pulled it out and showed him the badge and said, sir, I am the game warden. What you're doing is illegal. You're in serious trouble. With that the man who was the fisherman reached under the seat, took another stick of dynamite, lit it and handed it to this man.

He said, are you going to fish or just sit there and talk? What about you? 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. If you would like to learn more about how you can know Jesus or deepen your relationship with Him, simply click the Discover Jesus link on our website, lwf.org. For a copy of this message or additional resources, visit our online store at lwf.org or call 1-800-274-5683. Thank you.