Sunday, June 5, 2022 AM

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Sunnyside Baptist Church "The King in His Kingdom" 2 Acts 1:1-11

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Good morning, everyone. Come on in, have a seat. We are ready to worship this morning.
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It's good to have you here at Sunnyside this morning. We'll start out with a few announcements today. Come back for our evening service tonight.
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That's at 530 and looking ahead to Wednesday, we'll have our regular meal at 545.
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Prayer time for the adults, and then this is the first children's choir practice for children's choir on Wednesday night, so kids be ready to sing.
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Looking ahead to the end of June, the Dodgers game. That's going to be on Saturday, June 25th, and I'll have a little bit more to say about that in just a second.
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And then the next day, Sunday, June 26th, we'll have the Lord's Supper in the morning and then Truth Group for the young adults after the evening service that evening.
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Looking ahead to Sunday, July 3rd, Sunnyside is going to be celebrating its 70th year as a church there in the evening service, so I know, right?
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The Queen of England might be having her 70th year, but Sunnyside, I think, deserves a little bit more recognition than that.
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All right, I did mention about the baseball game. Please pay whatever you owe.
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If you signed up for tickets, if you can pay that today to the church office, Patty would greatly appreciate that.
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Find her after the service. It's $5 per ticket if you haven't paid that, and you also will need to provide a mobile cell phone number in order to receive those tickets.
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Also there's a note in the bulletin. If you're not getting the weekly email preparing for Sunday, that's going to have preparations for our
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Sunday morning service, like links to songs that we might sing so you can learn those ahead of time or sermon notes or links to live stream.
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Check that link that's in the bulletin, and you can sign up for that email weekly. Also, you probably saw it as you were coming in on the tables out front, things that have come out of the mission house.
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Those are free for you to take. We're trying to prep for the demolition of that and hopefully use that property better in the future.
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Also wanted to also mention at the very back, you'll see some small manila envelopes back there for directory updates.
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Look for those, find your name on those, and put those in your little binder at home for any new address updates or phone number updates as well.
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Any other announcements that I've missed? This week's fighter verse that we can memorize together comes from the book of Philippians, chapter four, verses 11 through 13.
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Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.
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I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance,
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I've learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.
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I can do all things through him who strengthens me. We're going to prepare our hearts for worship together in a time of prayer, and then at the conclusion of that,
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Randy will come up and open us. Father, we're just thankful that we could come today, and together, and to hear your word and to sing praises to you.
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I pray that you'd encourage our hearts as we meet together this morning, and I pray that all that we do will bring glory to you.
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Father, I pray that you would just speak through your Holy Spirit, through your word, through the message that Michael is ready to share with us today.
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Father, I pray that as we go out through this week, that we will be ever mindful of who we are in Christ, and I pray that we will share the hope that we have because of Jesus.
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And I pray that you would encourage us, strengthen us, and unify our hearts today.
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In Jesus' name, amen. Would you stand with me for our call to worship?
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We'll be reading the book of Psalms. We're continuing in our passage, chapter 78.
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We'll be reading verses 26 through 29. Read with me together. He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens, and by His power
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He led out the south wind. He rained meat on them like dust, winged birds like the sands of the sea.
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He let them fall in the midst of their camp, all around their dwellings.
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And He ate and were fulfilled, for He gave them what they craved.
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And we're going to sing this very song in our Psalms for Worship hymnals, page 78E.
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Sing verses 11 and 12. In heaven
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He made the east wind blow, the south wind did command.
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He rained out meat on them like dust, and birds like ocean sand.
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He let them fall inside their camp by tents on every side.
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And so they ate till they were filled, very satisfied.
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And then our regular hymnal, page 228. Rejoice, the Lord is
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King. Rejoice, the Lord is King.
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King, your
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Lord and King adored. Rejoice, give thanks and sing.
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And triumph and rejoice again.
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I say rejoice. Rejoice, the
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Lord our Savior reigns. The God of truth and wind.
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He had purged our stains. He took His seat above.
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Lift eyes again.
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I say rejoice. He rules over earth, and He's of death, and He's of death.
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His foes shall come and serve
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Him. To their eternal home.
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Lift up, rejoice again.
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Good morning. We will be reading from the book of Isaiah, chapter 26, verses 1 through 11.
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Please turn with me there. In that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah.
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We have a strong city. He sets up salvation as walls and bulwarks. Open the gates that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in.
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You keep Him in the perfect peace, whose mind has stayed on you, because He trusts in you.
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Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. For He has humbled the inhabitants of the height, the lofty city.
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He lays it low, lays it low to the ground, casts it to the dust. The foot tramples it, the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy.
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The path of the righteous is level. You make level the way of the righteous. And the path of your judgments,
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O Lord, we wait for you. Your name and remembrance are the desire of our soul.
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My soul yearns for you in the night. My spirit within me earnestly seeks you. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
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If favor is shown to the wicked, he does not learn righteousness. In the land of uprightness he deals corruptly and does not see the majesty of the
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Lord. O Lord, your hand is lifted up, but they do not see it. Please pray with me.
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Father, we are thankful for the mercy that you have shown us, you have bestowed upon us, you have rained down upon us.
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When your righteousness is shown, it's shown in judgment, and we learn.
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Let us learn today, Father. Prepare our hearts. Continue to show us mercy. And by your
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Spirit, encourage us and lift us up to learn your righteous ways, to learn who you are and your great, majestic, and worthy character.
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Please bless the rest of our praise and the preaching of your word this morning. In Christ's name,
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Amen. You may be seated. If you would, turn in your hymnals to page 455.
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Come, all Christians, be committed. Come, all
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Christians, be committed to the service of the
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Lord. Make your lives for him more fitting to your hearts with one accord.
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Come, endure his words with gladness, each his sacred vows renew.
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Turn away from sin and sadness.
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Be transformed with life anew. Your time and your talents will be a gift from God.
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Come, all Christians, freely to God. Come again to serve the
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Savior. Tithes and offerings with you bring.
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In your work with him find favor. Then with joy his praises sing.
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God's command to love each other is required of every man.
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Showing mercy to each other mirrors his redemptive plan.
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In compassion he has given of his love and his divine.
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All sins were forgiven. Joy and peace are fully thine.
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Come in praise and adoration. All who on Christ they believe.
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Worship him with concentration. Grace and love will you receive.
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For his praise give him the glory. For the spirit repeat the gospel story.
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Till the world his name have heard. Facing a task unfinished.
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That drives us to our knees.
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A need that undiminished.
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Rebukes our slothful ease. We will rejoice to know thee.
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We kneel before thy throne. We so love thee to go and make thee known.
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Beside thee holders sway.
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Where forces that defiled thee. Defy you still today.
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With none to heed their cry. For human souls are dying.
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And pass into the night. We go to all the world.
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With kingdom hope unfurled. No other name has power to say.
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But Jesus Christ the Lord. The torch that flaming fell.
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That Jesus died and rose. Ours is the same commission.
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That same glad message ours. Fired by the same ambition.
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To thee we yield our powers. We go to all the world.
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With kingdom hope unfurled. No other name has power to say.
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But Jesus Christ the Lord. O Father who sustained them.
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O Spirit who inspired. Savior whose love constrained them.
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To toil with us, defend us.
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From lethargy away. For thou that ever sends us.
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To labor for thy sake. We go to all the world.
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With kingdom hope. Jesus Christ the
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Lord. To all the world.
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With kingdom hope unfurled. But Jesus Christ the
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Lord. Breathe on me,
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O breath of God. Breathe on me, breath of God.
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Fill me with life undisturbed.
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Breathe on me, breath of God.
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Fill me with life undisturbed.
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Let's go to the Lord together in prayer. Heavenly Father, we come before you today and we give you thanks for the love that you have poured out in our hearts by your
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Holy Spirit, whom you have given to us in the mercy and the grace that you have worked out through your
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Son in his life and death and resurrection. Our Savior, who even at your right hand mediates for us, whose righteousness is to us, our acceptance with you.
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We give you praise for the hope that you give us in Christ, the clarity with which you speak to us in your word.
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And we ask today that you would bless our time staring at the truths of your word.
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That you would warm our hearts to the text.
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Conform our lives to your Son, Jesus Christ.
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That we would truly live as the amen on earth of your will, which is declared from heaven.
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We pray these things in the name of Christ. Amen. I invite you to open your
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Bibles and turn with me to Acts chapter 1. We're going to be reading verses 1 -11 again this morning.
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Acts chapter 1, reading verses 1 -11. Last week we considered the introduction to this introduction.
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Acts chapter 1 verses 1 -11 is a splendid, very useful introduction to the entirety of the second volume of Luke's work.
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And we recognize that the first three verses do a good job of introducing that introduction.
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By putting our attention upon the king in his kingdom. The king in his kingdom.
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We considered the purpose of the book of Acts, that it is in entire agreement with the purpose of the gospel of Luke.
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As Luke addresses his same audience, namely the patron Theophilus, whom he addresses in his writing.
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And we looked back at the beginning of the gospel of Luke and saw there the purpose that this man, born along by the
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Holy Spirit, had in writing. Having, as Luke says, a perfect understanding of all that had taken place, given the first -hand account of the eyewitnesses, he set forth to put down an orderly account of all that had occurred in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
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And he continues that orderly, historical account here in the book we call
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Acts. The title that is handed down to us from church history, the
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Acts of the Apostles. And we recognize, as the apostles recognized even in this same work, that it was not really about them.
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That, as Paul would later write in a different part of the New Testament, I am what
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I am by the grace of God and that's all that I am. That truly what we see here in the book of Acts are the acts of the risen, reigning
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Lord Jesus Christ. By the power of His Holy Spirit, in the lives of His servants.
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And we witness time and again the sovereignty of King Jesus as He works
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His will in the world and the impact that that has on the people who live there.
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Now, Luke's purpose in writing both volumes, as stated there at the beginning of the
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Gospel of Luke, was so that Theophilus, and indeed any reader in the grace of God, would be firmly established in the things that we have been taught.
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That we would be all the more grounded in the truth of the Gospel. Namely, the good news, the good news of the
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Kingdom. And that's what we're going to be looking at as we go through the book of Acts, by the
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Lord's permission and by the Lord's grace. So, I invite you to stand with me as I read
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Acts chapter 1, verses 1 -11. These are the words of our
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Lord, by His Spirit, through His servant Luke. The former account
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I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which
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He was taken up, after He, through the Holy Spirit, had given commandments to the apostles whom
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He had chosen, to whom He also presented Himself alive, after His suffering, by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the
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Kingdom of God. And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the
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Father, which He said, You have heard from Me. For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the
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Holy Spirit not many days from now. Therefore, when they had come together, they asked
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Him, saying, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?
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And He said to them, It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority, but you shall receive power when the
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Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all
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Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched,
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He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said,
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Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw
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Him go into heaven. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
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You may be seated. One of my most favorite tropes in humor is when there's a well -developed conversation going on, and the two people involved in the conversation are talking about entirely different things.
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All the same words are involved, but they don't realize that they're talking about two different things.
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Oh, the fun we can have with pronouns without antecedents.
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With homonyms that have the same sound but different meanings. And the absurdity of it all leads to great laughter.
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Now, of course, when it comes to believers in Christ, when it comes to our expectations of how to follow
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Jesus, the absurdity is not so funny if we are using familiar terms but different definitions about what it means to follow
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Christ and what the good news is and what the kingdom is all about. So here at the beginning of the book of Acts, we have good opportunity to pay attention to this introduction, so providentially arranged for us, and to consider the definition of these key terms that are going to make such an impact in the way that we read the book of Acts and in the way that we understand how it is we follow after Christ and how it is that we are involved in the advance of his kingdom.
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So we have words in our passage such as the kingdom, such as a king.
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We have words such as the Holy Spirit. And we have key ideas that are introduced here that we would do well to understand before we make it too far in the book of Acts, in the story of Acts.
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Someone once said about the book of Acts that it's very fast -paced. As you begin to read through and you see one important event after another,
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I'm sure you've experienced that reading through the book of Acts in your yearly Bible reading, how exciting it is to read through this book.
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Not unlike reading through 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings. There's a lot of excitement going on.
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But we need to slow down just a little bit here at the beginning and do our best to define the key terms before we move too far lest the absurdity cloud our understanding.
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When I was reflecting upon this language of the kingdom of God, we see that in verse 3 that the 40 days that Jesus had between his resurrection and his ascension, this last leg of his discipling of his apostles, what is it that he emphasizes?
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He's only got these last few weeks before he is taken up into heaven, to glory.
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What will he spend his time on? What will he prioritize in their lives?
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Very much what he did in all the rest of his ministry. He taught about the kingdom of God.
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He instructed them about the kingdom of heaven. This is what he prioritized in their lives.
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As we think about the kingdom, we recognize there is the potential for misunderstanding.
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Many times when people think about the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven, as these are thoroughly synonymous and granted to us from the language in the book of Daniel, as we think about the kingdom, there are temptations to think of it as entirely contained to the church.
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The kingdom is only regarding those who gather together in Christ, who are saved and who are born again.
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This is the only ramification of what the kingdom means. The only impact that it has really regards the way in which
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Christians gather together and work together. There's also the thought about the kingdom in terms of it having a global impact.
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The kingdom of Christ, the authority of Jesus has an impact that is far grander than the gathering of the saints together in local expressions of his body, the church, that indeed the kingdom has an impact that reaches to the entirety of humanity, the entire human globe.
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And then there's the thought about the kingdom that it's entirely some other time for another people, that it has nothing to do with the way that we live now.
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It's only that which is yet to come, it's for another time and another place and another people.
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Although it's good news, it has nothing to do with the way we live now. And I think that these emphases, often pitted against each other, are trying to make sense of the stories that Jesus tells, his parables, the instructions that he gives, the expression of the kingdom both in prophetic parlance in the
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Old Testament and in its expression by the apostles and the epistles of the New Testament and so on.
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What's important for us to recognize is that although the church is central, it is not exhaustive to the authority of Christ.
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And although the kingdom of God has an impact that is global and impacts everybody everywhere because all must reckon with the authority of Christ, it is not restricted to the cultural impetus of the now.
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And the kingdom is not to be restricted only to the future, although there is a bright, wonderful, blessing -filled future ahead of us because of the reign of Christ.
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What we must do is listen to the emphases of the kingdom in the scripture and do our best to give it an amen, whether talking about Christ's authority among his believers,
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Christ's authority throughout all of the world, Christ's authority in glorious future.
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Now, regarding these three emphases of the kingdom, there are often errors which arise.
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When I was in seminary, I was taught many schemes about how to grow the kingdom of Christ.
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It all had to do with how to make sure that your church had a lot of people coming to it and staying there and increasing your numbers and thus your budget and thus you were advancing the kingdom of Christ by doing so.
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It was kind of a, you know, how does the pastor become the CEO, you know, of a religious organization.
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I remember reading one book that was all about growing your church through a really nifty Sunday school program and at the end of every single chapter full of mechanisms and statistics and so on, there was a little paragraph assuring you all of this is only possible through the
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Holy Spirit. Of course, you could have removed that final paragraph out of every chapter and been able to build a really nifty organization all the same.
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There is also, of course, the error that comes with thinking about the kingdom that is only about cultural engagement.
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In other words, you know, the real way to spread the kingdom is to make sure that Christianity comes in every desired flavor of human thought and life so that, you know, you need to market
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Christianity as basically, you know, the fast food religious option for everybody everywhere.
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And no matter where you go in any kind of phase of culture, whether you are somewhere in the
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Overton window way on the left or way on the right or whatever, you have a flavor of Christianity that meets people where they're at and that's really how you spread the kingdom.
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And, of course, there's the error with thinking that the kingdom has nothing to do with the way we live now. The authority in the reign of Christ is something that is, you know, far beyond the scope of our present day.
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And so all we need to do right now is hunker in our bunker and prep for the worst because the worst is yet to come.
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Now, none of these approaches concerning the kingdom and none of these errors can be sustained long in the humble study of the scripture.
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And indeed, all of these types of approaches and schemes circumvent the authority of Christ as He has been given a name which is above every name and He is sitting at the right hand of the
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Father and reigning in all authority. And also, these schemes substitute the
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Spirit's power for some other type of approach. When we look at the book of Acts, we're going to encounter the authority of Christ at work for the power of His Holy Spirit in the lives of His believers and we're going to see the church being sanctified and growing and we're going to see the world changed around the church and we're going to see many promises of blessing laid before the saints that they would live in hope.
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And it's all about the king. The kingdom is all about the king. And that is the basic thought that I see here in verses 1 through 11 of Acts chapter 1 is that the kingdom is all about the king.
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And in particular, in verses 4 through 8, the progress of the kingdom.
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The progress of the kingdom is all about the provision of the king. How does the kingdom advance?
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How does it grow stronger? How does the good news of the kingdom spread and more people enter into the kingdom by repentance and faith in the grace of God?
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How is it that the kingdom progresses? Well, it's only by the provision of the king. The nature of the kingdom demands that the king provide for its advance.
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But even in more particular, as we look at verses 4 and 5 at the promise of the Holy Spirit, we should be reminded that the hope of the progress of the kingdom is only according to the promised provision of the king.
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There is a focus upon promise here in verses 4 and 5.
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Let's read those two verses again. And being assembled together with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the
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Father, which, he said, you have heard from me. For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the
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Holy Spirit not many days from now. The promise of the
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Holy Spirit. When you read through the Bible, so often you come in anticipation of the new covenant, the anticipation of the fulfillment of the promises of God in Christ, and the outpouring of the blessings that were long foretold.
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Whether we're reading in Jeremiah 31, or Ezekiel 36, or John chapters 14 through 16, and my goodness, many, many different places in the book of Isaiah, we keep on coming across these promises about the
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Holy Spirit. That there's something ahead of these old covenant sayings. There's something ahead for these believers who are trusting in the coming of Messiah, that there is going to be a promised gift, a promised blessing upon the people of God, and he is named the
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Spirit. The Holy Spirit. And Jesus, in connection to these 40 days, at the culmination of these 40 days, the zenith of these 40 days of speaking to his disciples of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, makes a special emphasis upon the
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Holy Spirit. And we're not going to understand the nature of the kingdom, our participation in it, its progress and success, unless we understand the vital importance of the
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Holy Spirit. And so Jesus commands them to not depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the
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Father. Now, I want to put this into its context.
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At the end of the Gospel of Luke, we have a parallel account to the beginning of the book of Acts.
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The end of the Gospel of Luke is a parallel to the beginning of the book of Acts. And there,
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Jesus says to them in, after he opens their minds and their eyes to understand the scriptures, he says in verse 46 of Luke 24, then he said to them,
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Thus it is written and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and rise from the dead the third day.
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It was written and thus it was necessary. The word of God said it would happen and thus it is necessary that it should come to pass.
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But not just the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. But there's more. It was also written and thus it's also necessary that repentance and remission, meaning forgiveness by the redemption of Christ, that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name, in the name of Jesus Christ, to all nations, to all the ethnoi, to all the tribes and tongues and peoples, with all their different languages.
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And this was written and thus it was necessary that it would begin at Jerusalem. And Jesus says,
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And you are witnesses of these things, meaning you are going to be participating in the fulfillment of the
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Old Testament prophecies that the Gospel of the kingdom in the name of Christ would go forth to all the nations and you are going to be actively participating in this.
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It was written and thus it was necessary you are going to go. It's like in Matthew 28.
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Go therefore. All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth, Jesus Christ says. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.
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This word go in the Great Commission is such a vital word.
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It is such an interesting word. It's such a rich word. It captures our attention. But along with this word go, is also another word that is very arresting and it is the word wait.
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Wait. Verse 49, Behold I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry, in other words, wait in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.
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Power from on high. A direct quote from Isaiah 32 .15 talking about the
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Holy Spirit in context of a restored kingdom in the new covenant. This is undoubtedly what sparks the apostles question about is it at this time that you are going to restore the kingdom to Israel?
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And we will look more at that in a future opportunity. But Jesus says wait.
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First he says go. Look at this global task of the preaching of the gospel in the name of Christ to all the ethnoid, to all the nations and tribes and tongues.
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Look at the grandness of this scope. And then Jesus says but you are going to wait first.
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In other words, there is no point in going forth and trying to do this great task without doing so in the power that God provides.
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The provision that is given to the believers to do this job.
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So we see the centrality and importance of this promise of the Holy Spirit. Now I want us to see how the
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Holy Spirit is described in this passage. So we have the commandment to go.
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We also have the commandment to not to wait. Not to depart. But notice he says wait for the promise of the
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Father. Wait for the promise of the Father. Now in verse 4 we are immediately confronted with the glories and the mystery of the
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Trinity. For Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Son of the living
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God. He is the second person of the Godhead who humbled himself in his full divinity by taking upon himself a full humanity.
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So that in the form of a bond servant he would live and obey and suffer and even endure the death which is upon a cross.
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So that for this reason God would highly exalt him. So that as the captain of our salvation he would bring many sons to glory.
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But here is Jesus of Nazareth the Christ. God incarnate and he speaks of the promise of the
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Father. The promise meaning the Holy Spirit. And he speaks of the Father and it's all in one verse.
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Do you see the necessity of understanding the Trinity in the
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Scriptures? Someone may say something to the effect well the word Trinity is not in the Bible.
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Oh but the Trinity is in the Bible. The word may be not in the Bible but do we ever see the triune
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God in his mysterious glory operating in the text?
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The Son speaking of the Father and the Spirit. All of them co -equal in glory and divinity.
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Unified not only in their nature but also in their purpose. But there's even more to this than simply reflecting upon the fact that the
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Son relates to the Spirit and to the Father in the glorious mystery of the
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Trinity. For he is speaking to his disciples. He's speaking to his apostles. And he's not emphasizing necessarily exclusively the
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Father in terms of my Father. Jesus is not necessarily exclusively referring to God as my
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Father but he is saying the Father. And this is to remind us of how
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Jesus has been teaching his disciples and his followers about the Holy Spirit in the first place.
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Let me go back to Luke chapter 11 and verse 13. As Jesus is beginning to disciple and teach the people who are listening to him about how it works.
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I mean, how does worship of God work? He's been preaching the good news of the kingdom. He's talking about how everything is going to be changing up because of his arrival.
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And he starts teaching them about prayer. He gives them a model prayer. Here's how you approach God in prayer.
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These are the principles of prayer. And then he wants to assure his listeners about the goodness of God.
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How they should come confidently praying to God because of who God is. His nature.
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And not only that but recognizing that Jesus himself is the one mediating this nature of God to them.
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He's the one showing them who God is and how they are to relate to God. That by faith in Christ they are to know
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God as Father. And to come to their Heavenly Father with their needs.
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And they should not come to God as Heavenly Father with their needs thinking of him in erroneous ways.
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So Jesus tells a little illustration. He uses a familiar teaching technique of the lesser to the greater.
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And the lesser, of course, is earthly fathers in all of our failings. And but then consider the greater.
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The perfect Heavenly Father. And he says in Luke 11 verse 13, he says, if you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children that even though you're depraved in your very nature, you still know how to give good gifts to your children.
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When your child comes to you and asks for an egg, you don't give him a scorpion. When he comes to you for bread, you don't give him a stone.
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What do you do? You give them bread. You know how to give good gifts to your children. And look at you. I mean, you're corrupt.
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You have sinful desires that warp everything within you.
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That's the lesser. So what about the greater? He says, how much more will your Heavenly Father, watch this, give the
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Holy Spirit to those who ask him. Now this is somewhat surprising.
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Because the context of Jesus' followers and listeners is that they need another set of clothes for next year.
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And they need bread to make it through the day and the week. And there's an occupying
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Roman force. And pagans upon the thrones of power in our land.
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And they're trying to Hellenize us. And they're trying to occupy and corrupt everything around us.
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And what we really need is deliverance from our oppressors. And what we really need is more bread.
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And what we really need is to get out of this fix that we're in. And Jesus, of course, says not to worry about those things.
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And he says, God is compassionate and merciful. And you need to pray to the Lord about those things. But here in his illustration, he says what you need to be praying for from your good
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Heavenly Father is the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Holy Spirit. So what is he talking about?
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Jesus is drawing on all of the prophecies of the Old Testament which declare unanimously that the most important signal that the new covenant will have arrived is going to be the arrival of the
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Holy Spirit. That every member of the new covenant will be blessed by the
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Holy Spirit. That this is what they should be praying for, the arrival of the new covenant. They don't necessarily need deliverance from the
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Romans. They don't necessarily need a surplus of food. They don't necessarily need a little bit of an easier time in life.
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What they need is the Holy Spirit. What they need is the new covenant. That's what they need.
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And that's what Jesus was teaching them in this moment of prayer. But notice he says, how much more will your
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Heavenly Father as we relate to God through the Son, how much more will our
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Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. Similarly in the book of Romans, in the context of prayer and the ministry of the
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Holy Spirit, God has freely given us His Son. He has given us His Son. How will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
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And how preeminent in that list is the Holy Spirit? So as we see
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Jesus' instructions in Acts 1, He says that they are to wait for the promise of the Father, their mind should immediately begin to reflect that they have a
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Heavenly Father, a Good Father, who's going to provide for them in this great task that lies ahead of them.
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Do we remember that not so long ago, less than a couple of months before this event, that the disciples were confronted with the opportunity to be the witnesses of Christ before a hostile audience?
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And this was no foreign audience, this was their hometown crowd, their fellow Jews. And how did they do?
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The shepherd was struck and the sheep scattered. They fled from Him, they abandoned
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Him. Peter denied Him three times. It didn't go very well, did it?
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After all that instruction, after all of that discipleship, after all of that love, and after seeing all those miracles and everything that Jesus had invested in His disciples, when the critical moment came, when it really counted, when it really mattered, they fled.
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They shut their mouths and fled. They forgot His promises. They didn't think of His power.
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They went and barricaded themselves in the upper room. They hunkered in their bunker.
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It's over. Do we see how much need there is in the lives of these apostles for the
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Holy Spirit? For the Holy Spirit to come upon them and empower them and engage them and direct them and to aid them and to give them everything they need to do the thing that Christ has called them to do.
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Jesus says, wait for the promise of the Father. And this promise is well rooted, as I've been saying, in the
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Scriptures. Isaiah chapter 44, in the Servant Songs of Isaiah, which span from chapter 44 through chapter 54 and following.
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Isaiah 44, verses 1 -5, Yet hear now, O Jacob, my servant, and Israel, whom
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I have chosen. Thus says the Lord, who made you and formed you from the womb, who will help you.
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Fear not, O Jacob, my servant, and you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. For I will, here's the promise,
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I will pour water on him who is thirsty. Imagine that, being thirsty, parched, desirous of water, and then having it poured out upon you, the very water from God, and floods upon the dry ground.
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Water in a dry and thirsty land. Thirsty is one thing, thirsty in a dry land is another thing.
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Here's the promise of God, water, water and even floods.
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This is the metaphor that is explained immediately. He says, I will pour my spirit on your descendants, and my blessing on your offspring.
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Word in the Hebrew Zerah in the singular, it is seed. My blessing upon your seed.
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They will spring up among the grass like willows by the watercourses. One will say,
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I am the Lord's. Another will call himself by the name of Jacob. Another will write with his hand the
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Lord's, and name himself by the name of Israel. What is going on here in this promise?
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In a dry and thirsty land where there is no water, water will come. God promises to pour out
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His Holy Spirit like water, because He's keeping His promises to the seed, singular.
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And that then those who are receiving the blessing of the Holy Spirit, those who drink of this divine water of everlasting life, the same water that Jesus offered the
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Samaritan woman, they will begin to identify themselves in the
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Spirit, in this blessing as I belong to God. I belong to God.
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It is not going to be an element of circumcision. It's not going to be a matter of geography.
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It's going to be a matter of whether or not you're blessed, drinking deeply from, having been affected by this blessing that is upon the seed, and from the seed to us.
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Do you belong to the Lord? Are you the people of God? That's being defined by who has the Holy Spirit.
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Confirming this is, of course, Galatians chapter 3, and this is in the context of knowing
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God as Father. How do we know God as Father? By the blessing of the
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Holy Spirit. In Galatians chapter 3, and verse 14, or we can begin with verse 13,
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Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written,
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Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, the nations, the ethnoi, in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the
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Spirit through faith. The blessing and the cursing of Genesis 12. Blessed are those who bless
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Abraham's seed, that is Christ. Cursed are those who curse Abraham's seed, that is
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Christ. And those who bless Christ are blessed in Him with the promise of the Spirit.
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And how can we miss Galatians 3 .16? I love the 3 .16's.
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They're almost all of them good. Galatians 3 .16, Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.
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He does not say unto seeds as of many, but as of one, and to your seed who is
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Christ. At the baptism of Christ, the heavens parted and the
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Holy Spirit descended upon whom? The seed. Christ.
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The Holy Spirit descended upon Christ, the seed, and so that all who believe in Christ would also receive the blessing of the
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Holy Spirit. We continue on and we read verse 26. After the explanation that you are no longer slaves but now sons in Christ, verse 26.
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For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
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So those of you who are united to Christ in His life, death, and resurrection, you have put on Christ. There is neither
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Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.
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Meaning, that we are not to be calling ourselves by any other name than Christ.
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There is no white Christianity or black Christianity. There is no feminist
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Christianity, and there is certainly no sodomite Christianity.
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No matter what distinction that we can come up with ourselves, distinctions that the demons would have us fight over all the time, no matter what those divisions are, they are all eclipsed by the glory of Christ.
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I'm still a man. I still have my roots in England. So what?
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Whatever my ancestry or whatever my intersectionals are, everything is entirely eclipsed by the glory of Christ.
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That's what this passage is saying. It removes all reason for fighting about divisions.
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Further, verse 6, and because you are, verse 6 of chapter 4, and because you are sons,
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God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out,
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Abba, Father! Abba, Father! Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and of a son than an heir of God through Christ.
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In other words, when Jesus in Acts chapter 1 is speaking to His disciples pertaining to the kingdom of God, He is clarifying that you are the people of God within the kingdom of God, a child of God by the work of Christ applied to you by the
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Spirit of God. Wait for the promise of the Father. Wait until the
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Spirit has so come upon you in new covenant blessing that you know God is your
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Father who absolutely provides everything that you need, confidence in the Son. This is what you need to wait for.
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Before you go do this grand task, wait for the promise of the Father. He will provide everything you need.
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Further, Jesus says, this promise of the Father, He said, you have heard from Me. So the promise of the
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Father is according to the preaching of the Son. And He preached about this in John chapters 14 -16.
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An excellent read to meditate upon, but in John chapter 14,
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He simply says this, beginning in verses 16 -17, And I will pray the
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Father, and He will give you another Helper, another Paraclete, another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever, the
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Spirit of Truth. The Spirit has many designations of honor and glory. This is one of them, the
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Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows
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Him, but you know Him. For He will dwell with you, for He dwells with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans.
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I will come to you, He says in verse 18. Jesus preaches to them the promise from the
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Father, that the Holy Spirit will be given to them in a special, fulfilling way of the promises of the
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New Covenant. Christ is the author and the finisher of our faith. He's the author and the finisher of the
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Scriptures, and He's the one who, by the Spirit, through the prophets, proclaimed the
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New Covenant promises in the first place, and He's the one who has defined for us the parameters of the
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Kingdom of God. And they are centered around this gift of the
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Holy Spirit. In John chapter 7, near the end of the chapter, we find
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Jesus attending the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem. The Feast of Tabernacles reflected upon the fact that Israel was in tents, tabernacles, they were in temporary housing as they moved throughout the wilderness those 40 years until they came to the
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Promised Land. They are to reflect upon their temporary living time in the wilderness and how
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God provided for them all along the way. And Jesus goes up to Jerusalem for this
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Feast of Tabernacles, and on the last day, the great day of the Feast, Jesus has something to say.
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Now let's think about the context. It was customary in Jesus' day, in the Feast of Tabernacles, for the
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Jews to make a little bit of a parade from the Pool of Siloam to the Temple grounds, and they would take water from the
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Pool of Siloam. And they would parade it all the way to the Temple, and they would pour it out before the Lord and give
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Him praise and glory. They would rejoice in the gift of water. This only makes sense when we reflect upon the fact that all the way through the wilderness, as they were living in these tents, that God provided them water from a rock to sustain them this entire time.
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Later on, we remember that David's mighty men pushed recklessly past the lines of King Saul and captured water there from a well that tasted like home for David.
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And they brought the water back to David, and David said this was too precious. And he poured it out before the Lord as an offering of praise to Him.
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Well, here the Jews are. They are taking their water up to the Temple, and on the last day, they do it sevenfold.
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A sevenfold offering of water on the last great day of the feast. And it is at this moment it is at this moment that Jesus stood and cried out in John chapter 7.
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He stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Why?
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He is the rock. Christ is the rock.
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In the wilderness, giving water to His people. His water is the water that tastes like home for those who are in exile from God.
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He says, He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, which you've already read in Isaiah 44, out of His heart will flow rivers of living water.
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Verse 39 clarifies it all. But this He spoke concerning the Spirit whom those believing in Him would receive, for the
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Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. And the glorification of the
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Son and His ascension to the right hand of the Father to receive a kingdom which will never end, a dominion which will never pass away, is also the sending forth of the
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Holy Spirit in the fulfillment of the new covenant. And the
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Spirit is described as living water. Living water that is given for all those who believe in Christ, all those who come to the
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Father through Christ. What is the picture of the new Jerusalem? The city that in the terms of which we are described in Revelation 22.
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There is a throne. And from the throne, what flows from the throne is the water the river of life.
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The Holy Spirit, connected to this river which flows from the throne in the exact same place is called the street of gold.
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The one way to the Father and that of course is through the Son by the Holy Spirit. And either side of the river of life, what is there?
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The tree of life, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations, the ethnoi. So what is essential for the building up of the kingdom?
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What is essential for the gathering into the saints to the new Jerusalem? What is essential is this promise of the
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Father, proclaimed by the Son, the Holy Spirit who gives life and brings us to the throne and brings us to God through Christ.
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This is what Jesus proclaimed. And the Spirit's work is described both in terms of water and of course in terms of fire.
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Verse 5, for John truly baptized with water but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.
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So if you go back to Luke's first volume, Luke chapter 3, we find the background to the reference
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Jesus makes here in Acts chapter 1. John baptized with water but I say to you, you're going to be baptized with the
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Holy Spirit not too many days from now. And we go and we look at John's preaching and what is John up to?
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He is preaching a baptism promising the coming of someone else.
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In Judaism at this time, if you wanted to become a Jew but you weren't a Jew, not only did the males need to be circumcised but there was another part of it to become a proselyte, you had to baptize yourself.
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You had to be a God -fearer, you had to be a part of that synagogue culture but you had to, before everyone including your fellow
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Jews now, you were to quote the Shema Deuteronomy 6 .4 and then baptize yourself in the cleansing pool thus indicating to everybody
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I have been cleansed from all my paganism, cleansed from my idolatry. I've been completely converted over to this new way of thinking, this new religion.
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Now John the Baptist comes and he is baptizing people in the Jordan River. He's not baptizing
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Gentiles, he's baptizing Jews! He is baptizing some Gentiles but he's also baptizing the
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Jews, he's saying, you need to get ready for the coming of the messenger of the covenant,
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Malachi 3. He's the messenger, Malachi 3 .1, but there's a messenger of the covenant, an angel of the covenant who's coming and that of course is
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Messiah. Malachi 3. verses 1 -2 says, Behold I send my messenger, lowercase
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M, and he will prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple even the messenger, capital
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M of the covenant, the messenger of the covenant, the angel of the covenant who was described earlier in the
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Old Testament. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold he is coming, says the
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Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming and who can stand when he appears, for he is like a refiner's fire and like launderer's soap.
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This is what this is what John the Baptist says in Luke 3. He says, he will baptize you with the
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Holy Spirit and fire. Both of those together. Holy Spirit and fire.
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Jesus is saying, you need to wait. You need to wait for the
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Holy Spirit. And you are going to be baptized. You are going to be covered. You're going to be immersed.
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You're going to be completely caught up in the Spirit. And this is good. And we have two metaphors.
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One of water, one of fire. How do these even come together? Aren't water and fire opposites? In the
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Bible they often refer to the same thing and that's cleansing. Purification. How often do we see in the scriptures water, cleansing and purification.
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Fire, cleansing and purification. And as metal is put into a refiner's fire, immersed in the flame, and as dirty clothes are put into the water and with launderer's soap to be cleansed.
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So, those who come to Christ by faith are immersed and baptized and cleansed and sanctified and set apart unto holy purposes by the
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Holy Spirit. This is the good news of the new covenant. That no longer is
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God's presence going to be only manifest at the temple in the heart of the people but that God's people themselves are going to be immersed in the glory cloud of God.
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The Holy Spirit is going to purify them and then He is going to bring them together and build them into a temple of living stones as Peter will later say.
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So what do we see? We see that the promise of the Holy Spirit is indeed the promise of the Father. His provision for us.
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The promise of the Holy Spirit is the preaching of the Son declaring to us salvation, the water of eternal life.
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That the Spirit comes, He is a Holy Spirit purifying us, changing us, sanctifying us and making us fit instruments to God.
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This is everything we need for the commission that we've been given. To go into all the world and preach the gospel to all the nations?
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What do we need? We need the power of God's provision. We need the power of God's salvation. We need the power of God's sanctification.
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This is what we need. Well, what is our response?
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Let's think about our response to all of this. Well, certainly we're going to talk about the manner of our obedience and the direction that we should go.
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But we live in a world that is and we ourselves have the same need, a need of hope.
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I mean, things don't look too happy out there.
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Things don't look like they're going too well, do they? The more information we have in the information age, the more bleak and discouraging that information is.
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But, we have been given the promise of the Father. According to the preaching of the
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Son, we have been given the Holy Spirit, who is like fire and water from the throne of God.
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Isaiah 61 verses 1 through 3 says this, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the
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Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the
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Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.
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They may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He, that He may be glorified.
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That He may be glorified. Well, I pray that that is the case for us today.
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And though there are many reasons for us to consider ourselves disadvantaged, brokenhearted, captive or bound, that there is ashes, that there is heaviness,
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Christ has come to preach the good news. And He has come and He has given to us the
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Holy Spirit, that we may be the living, thriving, planting of the Lord, giving glory to Him.
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Let's close on that note of praise. Father, we come before you today and we ask that you would be pleased to encourage our hearts today about the gift of the
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Holy Spirit. So often, Father, we have our eyes fixated on ourselves and our limitations and our inabilities.
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Lord, I pray that you would put our attention upon the promise. Put our attention upon your provision and rejoice in the blessing of the
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Spirit from the Son. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. Would you stand with me for our song of benediction?
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We're going to sing again Facing a Task Unfinished. We'll sing the first and fourth verses.
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A task unfinished that drives us to our knees.
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A need that undiminished rebukes our sinful ease.
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We who rejoice to know thee renew before thy throne the solemn pledge we hold thee to know and make thee known.
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O Spirit Savior, whose love has healed untired from cowardice defend us from lethargy awake forth on thine errands send us to labor for thy sake.
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We go to kingdom hope unto save the
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Jesus Christ the Lord. We go to all the world his kingdom hope unfurl.
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No other name has power to save but Jesus Christ the
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Lord. May the love of the
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Father and the grace of the Son and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all. We are dismissed.