Sunday Morning Worship Service May 17, 2020

Well, good morning on this soggy Lord's Day in the Sauk Valley. I hope you're doing well today and have been getting plenty of rest over the weekend.

A good day yesterday. Enjoyed the wedding of Nathan and Carissa.

It was a beautiful wedding. I hope you got to see it. If you did not get to watch the wedding just because of the timing of everything, you can still go back and see it, go back and watch it.

Church family got an email this week with directions on how to access the wedding. And you can still follow those directions and the video is recorded.

So you can go back and watch that. I hope you'll do it. It was a blessing to see them get married together.

Just a reminder about the daily devotions every day at noon and then at 6 p .m.

I hope you're not getting a little annoyed with the reminders.

I send out a remind about 15 minutes before it starts every day. I debated whether to keep doing that.

I didn't know how much of an annoyance that is. Of course, the thinking is that, you know, I know how it is.

You get involved in stuff. You want to see it. You want to watch it. But then you get involved and you say, oh, man,

I missed it. So, again, I will send those reminders. If it's a big pain in the neck to you, please let me know and I can take your name off of getting those reminders.

But that's every day, noon and 6 p .m. on the church homepage, Facebook Live, as well as my own personal website and YouTube channel,

Faith Baptist YouTube channel. We do meet together Wednesday night at 7 o 'clock. I encourage you to join that time if you can, time of Bible study, focusing the last several weeks on the

Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount. So if you can join that, I encourage you to do so. Well, I hope you've turned in today to worship the

Lord. I sure wish we could do this corporately together, but we have to do it this way.

So as we begin our worship time together, Psalm 117 says this,

Praise the Lord, all nations, extol Him, all peoples, for great is

His steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.

Praise the Lord. I want to begin this morning with the hymn, Sing Praise to God.

Sing praise to God who reigns above, the God of all creation, the

God of power, the God of love, the God of our salvation.

With healing balm my soul He fills, and every faithless murmur stills.

To God all praise and glory. What God's almighty power hath made,

His gracious mercy keepeth. By morning glow or evening shade,

His watchful eye never sleepeth. Within the kingdom of His might, lo, all is just and all is right.

To God all praise and glory. The Lord is never far away, but through all grief distressing, an ever -present help and stay, our peace and joy and blessing.

As with a mother's tender hand, He leads His own, His chosen band.

To God all praise and glory. Thus all my toilsome way along,

I sing aloud His praises. That all may hear the grateful song my voice unwearied raises.

Be joyful in the Lord, my heart, both soul and body. Bear your part.

To God all praise and glory. Let's pray together.

Our Heavenly Father, to you indeed be all praise and glory.

We're thankful, Father, today that in your kingdom all is right, all is just.

And we thank you that we can trust you in the midst of living in the earthly kingdoms where we know so much isn't.

We also praise you today that in all of our distressing grief, you are an ever -present help and stay.

And you, our Father, also care for us as a tender mother.

We thank you for your tender love, your tender kindness. And we appeal to you today, our

Father, that you would meet with us in this virtual way. Father, we know and are confident and grateful that you understand the weaknesses in which we find ourselves, the restrictions, the limitations, that so much of our gathering together and the blessing and the encouragement that we get from gathering together is prohibited.

It's not allowed for us right now. So we pray that you would overcome that governmental restriction that is placed upon us and that you would encourage your people just in knowing that even as they, in their home, wherever they might be, tuning in, watching, and worshiping through this medium today, that others in their church family are doing the same thing and that we all are missing one another and longing for our presence together again.

So we ask, Father, meet with us, we pray. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. The psalm

I've chosen today is actually the next psalm. We opened with Psalm 117 and in the Psalter.

The next psalm is Psalm 118, of course. And I want to read the first nine verses.

Psalm 118, verses 1 through 9. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever.

Let Israel say, His steadfast love endures forever. Let the house of Aaron say,

His steadfast love endures forever. Let those who fear the

Lord say, His steadfast love endures forever. Out of my distress

I called on the Lord. The Lord answered me and set me free. The Lord is on my side.

I will not fear. What can man do to me? The Lord is on my side as my helper.

I shall look in triumph on those who hate me. It is better to take refuge in the

Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.

God add His blessing to the reading of His word. Our next hymn is a prayer hymn.

It's entitled, A Triune Prayer. It's a prayer that in each stanza is expressed to a different member of the

Trinity. And then comes together at the last stanza and prays to the Triune God.

A Triune Prayer. Blessed Father, hear our cry.

Cast out sin, but draw us nigh. Not for merit we have done.

For Your mercy, for Your Son. Blessed Jesus, make our plea.

In Your name to God we flee. Through Your blood we seek His face.

By Your priesthood claim His grace. Blessed Spirit, meet our need.

In our silence intercede. Translate groans we cannot speak.

Heal the broken. Help the weak. Triune God, please grant our prayer as Your glory we declare.

May Your promised kingdom come. May on earth Your will be done.

Let's move from a prayer that is a song to a prayer together as God's people.

I want to pray this week for our missionaries in Brazil. John and Joyce Rail, serving in the city of Cuba in Brazil.

You know, we've been following their ministry for any length of time. You know, John was diagnosed a year or so ago with prostate cancer.

And we just got an update on that. He is considered an upper low level risk.

Apparently in the PSA numbers there are different levels of risk. And he's at the upper low level of that risk.

So they ask that we pray for an effective treatment to lower those

PSA levels. They've also, back in our church before the shutdown, their daughter and son -in -law were here presenting their ministry, wanting to go back to Cuba, to Brazil, to help out

John and Joyce and to be engaged in some church planning themselves. And of course their whole deputation ministry is totally suspended, put on hold.

And when they can get back to Brazil is a great unknown. So that adds some workload on John and Joyce.

And then on top of that, another missionary couple, family that they work with, they're scheduled to leave

Brazil at the end of the month and come back to the States. And so then an even greater load is placed upon the rails.

So pray for them regarding that increased workload. And then also regarding the

COVID fears, there is some COVID -19 in their area.

However, they in Brazil have the freedom to meet as a church. How blessed are they to be able to do that?

And yet John mentioned to ask prayer for some of the people who just out of fear are not gathering and just staying away.

And so he asks us to pray for the struggles of trying to get a church planted under those circumstances.

We also want to continue to pray for Bob. He has a

PET scan this Wednesday and pray that they get good results from that.

And then also if you would pray for one of the ladies in our church, won't tell you specifically who she is, sits on the second pew.

I'll just give you that much of a hint. Earlier this week she had a compression fracture in her back and is in a great deal of pain with that.

So please pray for her. And then we want to pray for our neighbors.

We're to love our neighbors as ourselves. And our neighbors are struggling in these days.

And many who own small businesses are really, really hurting. And so we want to pray for them.

And many have closed their doors. And this has been a great source of grief.

We want to pray regarding that. And then as we pray for our government, for those in authority over us, we want to pray for the

Illinois legislature that meets on Wednesday, finally. And just pray that God would graciously intervene in what the edicts that the governor has mandated that are unreasonable, that the legislature would be driven by reasonability and would overturn some of those things, and especially his grab for power and control.

And pray that that can be reined in. And then I want to give you an update on some of the court cases.

Just yesterday, the group of Romanian churches in the

Chicago area had filed suit to ask the court to grant an emergency temporary restraining order so that they can meet without feeling like they're violating the governor's edicts.

And this went to a federal court.

And the judge in the federal court denied that request. And that's like an appellate court, so it's like the only place to go from here is the

Supreme Court. So basically they denied the temporary restraining order, which means it could go to court, but the judge is saying, you're not going to win this.

And the interesting thing is that that's, I think, we're the seventh district federal appellate court, but there are other federal appellate courts that have ruled just the opposite.

So this very likely will go to the Supreme Court, and then the

Supreme Court can weigh in on these matters and decide whether the edicts and restrictions that our governor has placed upon churches are a violation of the

First Amendment rights and restricting our free exercise of our faith, of our religion.

So pray for these matters. Otherwise, if something doesn't intervene here, and the governor continues to have his way, then churches of our size would not be allowed to gather until there's a vaccination available or until there is a proven effective cure for COVID or it totally goes away, which is an incredibly indefinite period of time and an unreasonable period of time.

So we want to pray for our authorities over us. So let's look to the Lord, shall we? So our

Father and our God, we are grateful that we can come to you in prayer. We thank you for the fact that you, the triune

God, God in three persons, you have revealed to us in your word that each member of the

Trinity plays a critical role, even right this very moment as we pray together.

We're thankful that we can come right into your presence as the eternal God, our

Heavenly Father, and we can come in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We can come on his merits, and we can come through his work on the cross.

And we're thankful for the Holy Spirit who intercedes in our behalf, and he takes our feeble, uninformed, imperfect prayers, and he perfects them and brings before you the requests that are on our heart in a way that is refined and is appropriate for you, our

Father. And so on that basis, we come before you, praising you for who you are. We thank you,

Father, that you are our defender, you are our refuge, you are our help. We thank you for your steadfast love, your loyalty, your faithfulness to your people, faithfulness to your covenant.

We thank you for providing for our needs and protecting us through this past week in which we've come.

We thank you for the joy of celebrating together in the wedding yesterday and the bringing together of these two young people and the beginning of their life together.

Father, we do confess today our sin, and so easily do we become fretful, anxious, angry, irritated, and take our eyes off of you in the process.

Forgive us this sin and wash us with the cleansing blood of our

Savior. Renew a right spirit within us. Restore to us the joy of our salvation.

We continue to pray for Bob today, and we pray as he undergoes his

PET scan Wednesday that it would give clear, definitive results and direction.

We pray for this lady in our church suffering greatly with some pretty severe back pain.

We pray that you would give healing to her back and give her sustaining strength and grace.

Father, we pray for our neighbors in our community and in our state who are suffering greatly under burdensome restrictions that are preventing them from earning their income, paying their bills, keeping their businesses afloat.

Father, we pray that they might get some relief and get it soon, get it quickly. We pray that you would continue to supply our needs as individuals, as members of this local church, as a church.

Thank you, Father, for the faithfulness of your people who are giving through this time that is helping the ministry to go on and be sustained.

It's keeping the support going to the missionaries and to the work here and abroad.

Father, I pray that you would continue to protect our bodies from illness. Please, Father, protect our hearts from restless and anxious anxiety.

And please, Father, protect our minds, guard our minds from the fretful speculation that can overwhelm us in these days, as well as the wasteful obsession over unlimited information.

We pray, Father, for those in authority over us. We pray for our governor and his seemingly unreasonable demands that are placed upon people, placed upon churches, those who want to gather and worship together.

Father, even the restrictions of celebrations like we experienced yesterday in such a limited way.

Father, I pray that you would just work in his heart. The heart of the king is in your hand. We understand that.

We know that. And we pray, our desire would be, that you would turn and change his heart.

Father, I pray for our legislature as they meet this week. I pray that you would give them wisdom and you would give them courage to do the right thing, to make good decisions that are good for the state, good for the people of the state, and good for your people.

We pray for court cases that concern the freedom of our religion and what kind of freedom and how we'll be able to worship in times like this in days to come.

I pray for the Supreme Court when they will surely weigh in on these kinds of matters.

I pray that they would rule in favor of upholding the Constitution and our freedom and for the welfare of your people and the church.

You've told us to pray for those in authority over us that we might worship you and serve you in peace.

And it is that that we pray for. So, Father, we pray that your kingdom would come, that your will would be done.

And this we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Another prayer song.

It's the song, Speak, O Lord, before we open up the Word and hear what God has for us to say.

Let's pray together and ask him to speak to us. Speak, O Lord. Speak, O Lord, as we come to you to receive the food of your holy word.

Take your truth, plant it deep in us, shape and fashion us in your likeness that the light of Christ may be seen today in our acts of love and our deeds of faith.

Speak, O Lord, and fulfill in us all your purposes for your glory.

Teach us, Lord, full obedience, holy reverence, true humility.

Test our thoughts and our attitudes in the radiance of your purity. Cause our faith to rise, cause our eyes to see your majestic love and authority, words of power that can never fail, what their truth prevail over unbelief.

Speak, O Lord, and renew our minds. Help us grasp the heights of your plans for us, truths unchanged from the dawn of time that will echo down through eternity.

By grace we'll stand on your promises, and by faith we'll walk as you walk with us.

Speak, O Lord, till your church is built and the earth is filled with your glory.

I'd like to read the first five verses of Acts chapter 1. And we'll be looking at Acts 1 and also in the message today, the last few verses of Matthew chapter 28.

If you have your copy of scripture and you want to put a ribbon or something in Matthew 28, we'll be going there as well in the message.

Right now, the first five verses of Acts chapter 1. This is

Luke, the author of this book, and he writes, In the first book,

O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up after he had given commands through the

Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

And while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the

Father, which he said, You have heard from me, for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the

Holy Spirit not many days from now. Just a brief prayer. Our Father and our

God, I pray as we consider and contemplate the ministry of the Lord Jesus between the time of the resurrection and the ascension, that you would encourage us with what he did and how he ministered.

This we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Have you ever been stuck in limbo land?

You know what that is, right? It's the time period from some past really good experience, some monumental experience, to the next great thing you're looking forward to.

And it's kind of a lull period. It's kind of like a waiting time.

And you're just not sure what exactly is happening right now.

It kind of feels like what we're going through right now, doesn't it? It's kind of a period from the end of March.

I was thinking the other day, how many weeks has it been since we met together? And I had to look back in the calendar, and I think the last church gathering was

March 15th, maybe? And here it is, eight weeks later. And so that's the last church gathering, and then we look forward to the next gathering of the church.

When is that going to be? Yeah, good question, isn't it? It feels kind of like we're in limbo land, doesn't it?

Well, in a way, there was a 40 -day limbo land experience for the

Lord Jesus from the time that he rose from the grave on Resurrection Sunday until the ascension 40 days later.

Now, both of those events were tremendous and exciting and all the rest.

I mean, can you imagine the excitement of resurrection? Can you imagine the excitement of the disciples on the day of the ascension?

Jesus is taken up from them and goes into heaven. But what about in between? What was

Jesus doing? What was he engaged in in between that time? And the thing is, when you look at the

Bible, there's really not a whole lot of information on those 40 days. I mean, think about this.

In John's Gospel, he devotes the better part of 10 chapters.

Now, there are 21 chapters in the Gospel of John, and he devotes the better part of 10 of those chapters to focus on the last few days of Jesus' life,

Jesus' public ministry up through the resurrection. That's pretty significant.

And in Luke's Gospel, he invests five chapters to cover about the same period of time.

And Matthew, almost eight chapters. Mark, about six.

So when you add that all up, you've got about 29 chapters of the

Gospels, the four Gospels, that cover a little more than a week of the life of Jesus through his death and resurrection.

And from the resurrection Sunday to the ascension, well, there are parts of five chapters in the

Gospels and half of the first chapter of the Book of Acts, and that covers almost six weeks.

So the amount of information that covers this period of limbo is really rather sparse.

So what was going on all that time? Well, from the little bit of information that we have, I want us to look at three different episodes that occurred during that 40 -day period of time that tell us about Jesus' activities in limbo land.

In each of these, he's doing something that is helpful for his followers.

He's continuing to minister to those who are following him. Now remember that for them, it was a time of tremendous upheaval, of risk.

Their world had been turned upside down, and then it got partially turned right back up again when

Jesus rose from the dead. But there's still a great deal of confusion, a lot of uncertainty, and they're living in a time and period of risk.

And they, like us, need just what he provides. And so here's the point.

Even in this time of limbo, if you will, as Jesus waits for the next big thing, for the ascension, to be taken back to heaven, to be restored to that place of glory and prominence with the

Father, in the meantime, he ministers to the needs of his people.

So I want us to turn to Matthew chapter 28 and look, first of all, at episode one. And this occurs on a mountain in Galilee.

Matthew 28, look at verses 16 through 20. And what I want us to notice, first of all, here in this passage, is that the disciples are following the light.

They followed the light that they had received. Verse 16 says, Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which

Jesus had directed them. So the Lord had, before he was even crucified, given them some instructions.

Back in chapter 26, verses 31 and 32, we read what those instructions were.

Jesus said to them, and this was before his crucifixion, this is when he's about to tell of Peter's denial, this is in the time of the

Last Supper. So it's the night before he's crucified. Jesus said to them, You will all fall away because of me this night, for it is written,

I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. But, listen he says, after I am raised up,

I will go before you to Galilee. So Jesus gives them some instructions here.

They know, they're told anyway, that there's coming a time here. The time is all, they don't have a very good idea of when that time's going to be.

At least they don't think they do. But they're to go to Galilee. Well then, remember on Resurrection Sunday, the angel speaking to the women who came to the garden tomb that was empty, the angel also gave them some instructions.

Here in chapter 28 of Matthew, verse 7, the angel says to the women, he said,

Go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead and behold, he is going before you to Galilee.

There you will see him. So the disciples have received some light here as far as what they should do, where they should go.

The light that they have received is that they're to go to Galilee to a pre -appointed place.

Verse 16 tells us that Jesus was clear enough on where that place was.

It was to be this particular mountain. And the disciples followed those instructions.

They went to Galilee. Now, regarding the timing of this episode, we don't know exactly when it is.

It's apparently after that appearance to Thomas. So if you remember the sequence of events,

Jesus rose on Resurrection Sunday, so it would be the first Sunday of resurrection. And he appeared to the disciples in the upper room and Thomas wasn't there.

And the disciples told, also on that Sunday was the experience of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.

So on that Sunday, Thomas wasn't there. The disciples told Thomas, we've seen the Lord. And Thomas says, unless I see him, see the print of his hands and his side,

I'm not going to believe. And a week later, the following Sunday, they're in the same place and Jesus appears again and shows himself to Thomas.

So it seems like for that first week, the disciples had remained in Jerusalem and then after that they went up to Galilee.

And it was in that time frame that they were in Galilee, remember, we looked at this passage a couple of weeks ago, in John chapter 21, where the disciples had gone, seven of them had gone out fishing and they didn't catch anything and Jesus appeared to them on the seashore.

So at that point, that point when they went fishing, they were in Galilee. And so here we are, back in Galilee.

And this time we're on this mountain. And the point I want us to get here is that the disciples had received light, go to this place in Galilee, and they followed the light that had been given to them.

And then in verse 17, notice how the disciples exhibit a mixture, a conflicted mixture of both elation and confusion.

Verse 17 says, when they saw him, Jesus, they worshiped him, but some doubted.

They worshiped him, but some doubted. They see him, and they worshiped him.

Why did they worship? Well, they couldn't deny what they were experiencing. Here was the resurrected

Jesus, who is appearing to them yet again. This is the, well, we don't know how many times it is now that he has appeared to them, but if we just look at the one, the items

I've mentioned, there was the first Sunday, you know, in the upper room, and then there was a week later in the upper room, and then there was by the seaside in Galilee, and now this experience on the mountain with the 11 disciples.

So, this is at least the fourth time that these disciples have seen Jesus, and they can't deny what they were experiencing.

They can't deny the one whom they were seeing. This is Jesus. And they couldn't deny what he was doing.

He was appearing to them. And they worshiped. But some doubted.

Some doubted. What did they doubt? What did they doubt? Did they doubt their eyes?

Did they think their eyes were playing tricks on them? You know, you've seen this, you know, that somebody sees something, and then they take off their glasses, and they rub their eyes, and they squint, and they look again, and they put their glasses back on and look.

Were they doubting their eyes? Were they doubting what their ears were hearing?

What were they doubting? Were they doubting that this really was Jesus? We're not exactly told what they were doubting, but I wonder if a good portion of their doubt didn't center on the reality of the kingdom.

And remember, this is Matthew's gospel, and the focus in Matthew's gospel is on the kingdom and the king in the kingdom.

And we've seen indicators throughout the gospels, Matthew included, of what the expectations of the disciples were related to the kingdom.

And so what has happened? What has been their experience thus far? Jesus has died.

He's risen again. This is now at least a couple of weeks, probably, into the 40 -day limbo period.

What exactly is the nature of this kingdom? What is the future reality for this kingdom?

What is their role in this kingdom? Confusion, doubting.

Is there even going to be a kingdom? Now, I wonder how many times, how many times in the last eight weeks have you vacillated with me between what you know to be true theologically, up here and in here, and your speculations, your fears, because of the uncertainty, because of all the unknowns, because of all the horrible possibilities of the future.

Haven't you found yourself in exactly the same place as these disciples? On the one hand, here you are,

Sunday morning, 1107, the clock says back there. 1107 on a Sunday morning, and you have sung in your mind, maybe,

I don't know, followed along the words of songs that we've sung. You've read the scripture. You've prayed together.

And here we are listening to the word. And I trust that there is a sense of worship about you and in your heart and in your mind.

You have been reminded of who God is. And theologically, you're worshiping.

And then comes tomorrow. Then comes the next bit of crummy news or whatever that we're hearing in this time period.

Haven't you found yourself right where the disciples are and then you doubted what you know to be true?

What does the Lord do in response to all of this? Verses 18 and 20. He responds with both a commission and comfort.

A commission and comfort. And both of these things are very helpful, if you think about it, because one of the struggles that we have in this limbo land in which we're living is just staying focused, isn't it?

And really having a sense of purpose and what we're to do every day when our normal routine of life has been so upended.

Jesus gives a commission. And in this commission, he gives them a lifelong purpose.

He says to them in verse 18, he says to them, all authority in heaven and earth is given to me.

And then verse 19, go therefore, literally there, as you are going.

And there's no end point to that. There's no point in time to that. Like, okay, go and do this right now.

No, this is a continuous, ongoing thing. He says, as you are going, therefore, and then he gives them something to do.

Now the point I want us to get is that this is going to occupy their life for the rest of their life, wherever they go.

He gives them a lifelong purpose. And with this purpose, he gives them focus.

What am I to be doing as I am going? Jesus tells them, make disciples.

Be making disciples. So he gives them a focus on what their attention should be riveted upon.

Making disciples. And he then gives them a scope of, well, how broad am

I supposed to carry out this focus? Everywhere, everywhere you would go.

Be making disciples of all nations. And again, I would just remind you how this actually was carried out in their experience later on in life.

And we can read of that in the book of Acts. And that's exactly what they did, wherever they went, as they were going.

Outside of Jerusalem, outside of Samaria and Judea, and they went to the uttermost parts of the earth.

And the fact that you, where you're sitting today, are able to listen to the word, even through this medium in which we're using today to get this word out, is a testimony to this commission that the disciples received and the carrying out of that commission.

He furthermore gave them a methodology. Be baptizing them and teaching them.

He says, go, make disciples, and baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and the

Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have given. He gives a methodology.

How do we go about making the disciples, these disciples of all nations? Two key things.

Baptize them and teach them. And by the way, just as an aside here, and I don't want to make too much of this, but you can't baptize, we cannot fulfill this commission apart from a gathered church.

We can't fulfill this commission of baptizing and maintain social distancing, if you will.

This is a responsibility, a commission that has been given by the Lord Jesus Christ. Sooner or later, it could get to the point.

I mean, other believers in other countries have had to come to this place where the government has forbade them to gather and forbade them to worship and forbade them to baptize converts, and they said, you know what?

We have orders. We have orders from the king, and our king tells us that we make disciples by baptizing, and so we're going to baptize.

Just a thought, just an aside. Well, anyway, Jesus in this commission also gives the content of that teaching.

Teach them all things that I have commanded you. So in this limbo, in this time period when the disciples have followed the light that they've been given, but they're also conflicted.

They're also conflicted. What Jesus does is he first of all gives them a commission, and then he provides comfort, and he comforts them in verse 18 with his position.

He comforts them with his position. He says, all authority is given to me in heaven and on earth.

All authority. Jesus, the king of kings, possesses universal, total authority.

That's an authority that supersedes governmental authority. That's why later on in the book of Acts, Peter was able to stand before ruling authorities that were telling him to stop preaching the gospel, and he says, no, we're going to obey

God rather than men. Why would he say such a thing? Because Jesus has all authority, and he commanded his disciples to preach.

He also supersedes all so -called moral authority. For example, in this same episode where Peter was told to stop preaching in the name of Jesus, essentially what the authorities were saying is you're stirring people up, and that's not a good thing.

You're turning the world upside down. That's not a good thing. You need to stop this thing. So they're claiming to have the moral authority to say you need to stop this because it's upsetting people.

And Jesus says, no, I didn't come to bring peace. I came to bring a sword, the sword of the spirit that ends up dividing.

So he comforts with his position, and his position is one of universal total authority, but then he also comforts with his presence, with his presence.

He says at the end of verse 20, lo, I am with you. Behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

And now listen. Jesus was with his disciples in the first century as the gospel spread, as the church was planted and established, as persecution arose, and as the enemies of the church, inspired by the wicked ones, sought to eradicate it, to close it down, to shut it off, to destroy it.

Jesus was with the disciples. Jesus was with the true believers throughout that period that we call the dark ages when there was so much spiritual darkness, so little spiritual light, and yet Jesus was with those who were his true believers.

Jesus was with the reformers, all who sought to restore the preeminence of all things that Jesus has commanded, the revealed word and not the traditions of men.

Jesus has been with his people in house and forest churches in the former Soviet Union, in modern day

China, in Muslim nations where Christianity is outlawed. Jesus is with his people.

And listen, he is with you who are his.

Everywhere you go, in everything that you're going through, whatever it may be, always,

Jesus says, I am with you. So episode one, Jesus provides a commission and a comfort.

And now we turn to Acts chapter one. In Acts chapter one, the second episode is much more general.

And verse three, Luke describes it and it covers a great bit of time in this 40 days.

And Luke just says, he presented, Jesus presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

And so what Jesus does in this second episode that we're looking at is he provides confirmation and instruction.

Notice how he offered confirmation here. Jesus, Jesus, for his disciples in all of their struggles of this time, he offered the confirmation of the reality of the resurrection.

He confirmed in their hearts and their minds the reality of the resurrection. He presented himself alive.

He is alive. Paul writes of this in 1 Corinthians 15, verses four through seven when he says, that Jesus was buried and that he was raised on the third day according to the scripture and that he appeared to Cephas or Peter, then to the 12, then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.

Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. So on multiple occasions,

Jesus presented himself alive and in so doing, he confirmed the reality of the resurrection that he who was dead lives and lives forevermore.

He also confirmed the reality of his identity. He presented himself alive.

You remember how he did that? Remember how he did that? That second Sunday, the second

Lord's Day, the week after the resurrection, doors were shut, disciples were hunkered down inside that upper room.

This time Thomas was there. Jesus appeared. Just boom, appeared in his resurrected physical body and he presented himself alive to them and he singled out

Thomas. He said, Thomas, go ahead. Put your fingers in those hands.

Thomas, come on. That hand, go ahead. Stick it in my side. It could have been nobody else.

It had to be Jesus. He presented himself alive. So he confirmed the reality of his identity and what he confirmed, that reality that he confirmed, he confirmed it indisputably.

He did so by many proofs, by many proofs, and these proofs were many and they were varied.

There were physical appearances when he appeared to them physically. He also provided food and ate with the disciples.

He spoke with them verbally, orally. They could hear him.

They could see him. They could eat with him. They could touch him. Many and varied proofs and these proofs were convincing.

They were convincing. All who experienced these proofs of the resurrected

Jesus, they affirmed those truths steadfastly.

There was no whistleblower among the 500 plus people that Jesus presented himself to alive.

Not a single one. There wasn't one person who came out and said, hey, listen, all these things these guys are saying, they're not true.

They're not true. I'm telling you, this is what really happened. No. They all, they all affirmed those proofs and his living presence with them.

And many of those who affirmed those proofs suffered and died for them.

You remember what Jesus said to John? In my Bible, it's just the next to the page, on the other side of the page, what

Jesus said to Peter in John 21, in verse 18. He told

Peter, he says, truly I'm telling you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you were old, here's how you're going to die.

You're going to stretch out your hands and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go. You're going to die for me,

Peter. And he did, affirming the reality of the living

Savior to his death. So Jesus offered confirmation and then he also offered instruction.

Verse 3 of Acts 1 tells us that he spoke about the kingdom of God.

Remember what I said earlier about them doubting and being confused and wondering? Probably about this kingdom of God that he had spoken of, that Jesus had taught about.

And here, in this limbo period, Jesus speaks about the kingdom of God. And I'm sure what he did during this time was elaborate on earlier teaching.

In fact, we know he did because in Luke's gospel, when he appeared to those two on the road to Emmaus and then to the rest of the disciples, when those two went back and told them that they'd seen the

Lord, in Luke 24, 45, we read that he opened their minds to understand the scriptures.

So he taught them about things that had already been revealed and written in the Old Testament scriptures, elaborating on earlier teaching and then clarifying the misunderstandings that they certainly had.

Like these two disciples on the way home to Emmaus, Jesus meets up with them.

They're downcast, they're distressed, and Jesus says, what's the matter? Why are you so downcast? He says, didn't you hear?

What? What's going on? And they went on to tell Jesus how they had thought

Jesus was going to be the king, was going to redeem Israel. In fact, they said, quote,

Luke 24, 21, we had hoped, we had hoped that he was the one to redeem

Israel. And you remember how the disciples argued back and forth with one another about who would be the greatest in the kingdom, about who would get the special places and the special privileges and assignments in the kingdom?

Totally misunderstanding the nature of this kingdom. They had expected a physical, political kingdom.

Jesus needed to clarify their thinking and their understanding on the nature of the kingdom. And in so doing, he revealed to them some new insights as he spoke regarding the kingdom.

And it stuck. It stuck. I remember Paul wrote in Romans chapter 14, he wrote this.

He's not talking about a kingdom that's physical and political. Paul writes, he says, for the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking.

It's not a physical thing. But the kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the

Holy Spirit. And in chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians, in that great resurrection chapter,

Paul writes, for I tell you this, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

Now where did he get that idea? Where did he get those notions? That the kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy.

That the kingdom of God is not something inherited by flesh and blood. That the kingdom of God that you can be a part of today is not something that you're going to enter into that is going to oust the president or the governor or the king or the dictator or whatever.

No, it's a spiritual kingdom. And they needed that new insight. So here's the point.

During this meantime, Jesus not only gave his disciples a commission and comfort, but he took steps to strengthen their wavering faith.

Wavering faith. He provides confirmation and instruction. Then the third episode, here in verses four and five, occurs somewhere in Jerusalem.

We don't know exactly where it is. But in this episode, notice how Jesus provides direction and promise.

Direction and promise. And he gives them two commands that can be very hard to do for many of us.

Notice in verse four, he says, while staying with them, he ordered them. I'm not making a suggestion to you,

I'm ordering you. He ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait.

He ordered them to stay and to wait. He ordered them to stay instead of fleeing somewhere for safety and somewhere familiar.

Now remember, the majority of Jesus' disciples were Galileans. That's why when

Peter was warming his hands at the fire, one of the confrontations, he said, well surely you're a follower of his, you're a

Galilean. These disciples were primarily from Galilee. And Jerusalem is in Judea.

And they would prefer to be in familiar territory. Jesus says, stay here. Even though it isn't home.

Stay here. In spite of the potential danger. Here. Remember why they were in the upper room?

With the doors locked, doors shut. They were afraid of the Jews. Jesus says, stay.

Instead of fleeing to safety and familiarity. And then he tells them to wait. Wait. Instead of rushing headlong into the mission.

This mission had been given to them in Galilee. Now they're back in Jerusalem. Jesus had given this commission as they were going to do this.

But now he tells them to wait. He tells them to wait. Now here's the thing. And let's not miss this. That God in his sovereignty could have fulfilled the promise that he offers here in the end of verse 5.

He could have fulfilled that promise immediately. He could have fulfilled it any time he wanted to. But Jesus tells them to wait.

And sometimes that can be a great challenge to us, can it?

To wait for the promise to be fulfilled. We want to move now.

We want to get at this now. We want this to be over now.

Jesus says, stay and wait. So he provides some directions that are clear.

But they're counterintuitive. And then he also provides a promise that is reassuring.

A promise that's reassuring. He says in verse 5, or at the end of verse 4, he says, wait for the promise of the

Father. And that promise, he says, is that you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.

This promise is reassuring in the sense that when the time is right, you will know it.

You will know it. You will be baptized. Now, I don't know who all is watching right now.

I imagine that many, most if not the vast majority of our church family would be watching.

So you can remember. You can think back and you remember when you were baptized so that you become a part of a

Baptist church. That's something you'll never forget. So unless you were baptized as an infant, you don't remember that thing.

But if you were baptized as a believing adult, which we believe is a biblical approach, it's something you don't forget.

And Jesus is saying you're going to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. That's something that you are not going to forget.

In fact, we could turn over a page. It won't take the time to do it. We could turn over a page to Acts chapter 2.

Look at the first four verses. And when that time came, it was unmistakable. It was unforgettable.

It was unforgettable. So when the time is right, you'll know it. And the promise is reassuring also because he says, in essence, when the time is right, you're going to have everything you need.

You'll have everything you need. You'll be baptized with the Holy Spirit. And the

Holy Spirit has made throughout the course of church history, from the time that he came at Pentecost until this very day, the

Holy Spirit has made all the difference in the effectiveness in this mission that they were given to carry out.

The Holy Spirit. So Jesus provides commission and comfort in this limbo time.

He provides confirmation and instruction, and he provides direction and promise.

I wonder if you need this ministry of Jesus in the limbo land in which we're living.

Are you in his kingdom? Are you one of his followers? If not,

I implore you today, turn from your sin. Turn from yourself. Trust Christ.

Call upon him today to save you. Make him the king of your life, the

Lord of your life, the savior of your soul. Maybe you need this ministry of Jesus, this ministry of encouragement and comfort, of direction and confirmation, instruction, promise.

Do you need to take some cues from Jesus? In his time of limbo, of waiting, he didn't just sit by and twiddle his thumbs and wait, but he was actively engaged in the ministry of helping and encouraging, putting his time and efforts to good use in the work of the ministry.

Our Heavenly Father, I pray, encourage us with Jesus' response to this mean time for him, and I pray that you would make the most of our mean time as well.

We ask in Jesus' name, amen. I'd like to close today with a song that is, again, another prayer.

It's the song, Make Me a Blessing. Out in the highways and byways of life, many are weary and sad.

Carry the sunshine where darkness is rife, making the sorrowing glad.

Tell the sweet story of Christ and his love. Tell of his power to forgive.

Others will trust him if only you prove true every moment you live. Give as was given to you in your need.

Love as the Master loved you. Be to the helpless a helper indeed, unto your mission be true.

Now the prayer. Make me a blessing. Make me a blessing.

Out of my life may Jesus shine. Make me a blessing,

O Savior, I pray. Make me a blessing to someone today.

And now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.

This we pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, may the

Lord give you a good Lord's Day and a profitable week serving him wherever he has you in this time.