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Sunnyside Baptist Church "The King in His Kingdom" 5 Acts 1:1-11
Alright, good morning everyone. Good to be here this morning. We have much to rejoice in today.
Much to rejoice in. We are praising the Lord for the decision on the overturning of Roe v.
Wade. That is something I know in my lifetime
I wasn't sure if I would ever see come, but we try to pray faithfully toward that. We have much work left to do though.
So we continue to ask for the Lord's favor and blessing as we go forth. A few announcements as we get started this morning.
Come back tonight for our evening service. We'll be having that at our regular time at 5 .30. After that, truth group for the young adults for the month of June.
Looking ahead to Wednesday the 29th, our regular meal time at 5 .45. And then at 6 .30
prayer meeting for the adults and children's choir for the kids. Looking ahead to a couple
Sundays and Saturdays in the future. On July 3rd, Sunnyside will celebrate their 70th birthday on that day.
So if you know people who maybe came here in the past and you still have contact with them, invite them to come out for that evening service.
We'll have a time just of fellowship that night and remembrance. And then Saturday, July 9th, the words of life women's retreat is going to be from 9am to 4pm here at the church.
We continue to try to clear out the big mission house. It's scheduled for demolition on July 9th.
So if you could just get with Hannah Hamilton, she will help you kind of if you're interested in anything that's in that house, maybe taking it home there.
Is there anything, there's plenty left in there. There's still quite a bit in there. So, okay.
Plenty of stuff in there. Get with her and try and get some of that stuff out of there in preparation for that demolition.
Any other announcements this morning? All right. Our fighter verse for this week comes from first Peter chapter five verses nine, 10 and 11.
Resist him standing firm in the faith because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings and the
God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ. After you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast to him, be the power forever and ever.
Amen. We're going to have a time to prepare our hearts in prayer. And then at the conclusion of that,
Dwight will come up and open us all in prayer. Father, what a blessing it is to be able to call you father.
You are our God. Our souls thirst for you.
Our flesh faints for you as in a dry and weary land where there's no water.
So we have come here today to this sanctuary, to your place of worship, to behold your power and your glory.
So may we put away the things of this world and focus our thoughts on you, your son, the
Lord Jesus, our savior and the forgiveness that we have through your son, the
Lord Jesus. May we worship you in spirit and in truth that is with the right attitude and according to your word.
We thank you and we praise you for who you are, for your holiness, your power, your glory, your love, your son, the
Lord Jesus. In his name I pray. Amen. Would you stand with me for our call to worship?
We're continuing in Psalms chapter 78. We'll be reading verses 40 to 45.
Read with me together. How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert.
They tested God again and again and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
They did not remember his power or the day when he redeemed them from the foe.
When he performed his signs in Egypt and his marvels in the fields of Zoan, he turned the rivers to blood so that they could not drink of their streams.
He sent among them swarms of flies which devoured them and frogs which destroyed them.
So if you would turn to your Psalms for worship hymnal page 78 G and we'll sing this very sobering song that we just read about.
He did not quench their thirst. He sent devouring swarms of flies.
With frogs their insects were destroyed.
To locusts all was lost. He killed their tender vines with hail, their sycamores with frost.
Then in our regular hymnal we'll turn to page 8. We'll sing praise to the
Lord the Almighty. Praise to the
Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the
Lord. Praise to the
Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the
Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the Lord. Praise to the
Lord. Praise to the Lord. If you have your Bibles this morning, open to the book of Isaiah, chapter 28.
Isaiah chapter 28, we're going to be reading verses 1 through 15 together. Some of you may have the heading in your
Bible, Judgment on Ephraim and Jerusalem. Isaiah chapter 28, verse 1.
This is the word of the Lord. Ah, the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim, and the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the head of the rich valley of those overcome with wine.
Behold, the Lord has one who is mighty and strong, like a storm of hail, a destroying tempest, like a storm of mighty overflowing waters he cast down to the earth with his hand.
The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trodden underfoot, and the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the head of the rich valley, will be like a first ripe fig before the summer.
When someone sees it, he swallows it as soon as it as soon as it is in his hand.
In that day, the Lord of hosts will be a crown of glory, and a diadem of beauty to the remnant of his people, and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.
These also reel with wine, and stagger with strong drink. The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink.
They are swallowed by wine. They stagger with strong drink. They reel in vision.
They stumble in giving judgment, for all tables are full of filthy vomit with no space left.
To whom will he teach knowledge, and to whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, those who are taken from the breast, for it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.
For by people of strange lips, and with a foreign tongue, the Lord will speak to his people, to whom he has said, this is rest, give rest to the weary, and this is repose.
Yet they would not hear, and the word of the Lord will be to them, precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little, that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
Therefore, hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers, who rule this people in Jerusalem, because you have said, we have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have made an agreement.
When the overwhelming whip passes through it, through it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter.
Would you pray with me? Our gracious and merciful
Heavenly Father, we come before you now, sobered by this passage, a passage of righteous judgment to a people committed to sin, committed to lies and falsehood.
Let it be a warning to us, Father, to repent and believe, to turn to the glorious face of our
Savior, put our trust in Him, put behind all selfishness, vain glory, pride, that we might bend our knee to our sovereign
King Jesus. Father, as we continue to worship this morning, grant us the ability to do so in spirit and in truth, that we with unveiled faces might behold your glory this morning, as we gather around your table and share in this sweet communion.
Thank you for Jesus. We love you.
We ask all these things in His name. Amen. You may be seated. Do you know
Christ Jesus, the King? Do you sing praise to Him, for He is worthy?
Is He your protection through the storms of life? Is He your strength when you're going through fears, failures, and disappointments?
Will He be the one that carries you when you pass from this life into eternity?
So, join with us in singing praise to the Lord forever,
Jesus. The disappointments of the past,
His constant love has held me fast.
Though the storms may rage,
He is strong to save, He hears us.
My song of joy shall be forever, Jesus, who bore my suffering, who made a way.
His life a gift, His death a precious ransom, that wipes the sinner's guilt away.
He enters my night to glorious days,
I will sing my praise. Though the storms may rage,
He is strong to save, He's the King. My final breath, church,
Jesus, when shadows cling there, before my eyes,
His hand will lead me to the light.
So, for all my days, I will sing,
He is strong to save, He's the King. In His gaze,
I will sing my praise to the Lord, Jesus, with my
King. Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and against His anointed, saying,
Let us break their bonds and pieces, and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens shall laugh, the
Lord shall hold them in derision. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, and distress them in His deep displeasure.
Yet I have set my King on my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree, the
Lord has said to me, You are my Son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel. Now, therefore, be wise,
O kings. Be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all those who place their trust in Him.
Maybe, perhaps, in the great grand history of the world, that what has happened in our lifetimes in the overthrow of Roe v.
Wade may not seem like a big deal in the grand scheme of things.
But in our generation, it has been the fight of a lifetime. And the nations are given to Christ.
He is king. The nations have been given to Christ. And when
He makes His decision, and as He rules and reigns, people rage. People rage, and they plot a vain thing.
And do you know what God does when He beholds the absurdity of those who rage against Him? He laughs.
He laughs. And what is the message for everyone? That we are to bow the knee to Christ.
For the rod of iron has been given to Him, and this whole world is filled with nothing but pottery, clay vessels.
So let us fear Him, and rejoice in Him. And can we give praise to Christ for answering our prayers?
Right? Praise be to Christ. And so we see that He answers prayer, and let us continue on to follow
Him, and to rejoice in Him, and to keep doing His will. This is not an ending point.
This is a victory launching us to even further obedience, and further repentance, and further glory for Jesus.
Let me pray for us this morning. Father, I thank You so much for this day. We do rejoice in Your work, for it is not something that we can do.
And Lord, we know that You are good, and You are righteous, and You are strong, and You are true, no matter what is done.
In the political realm, no matter what is done. In the social realm,
Lord, we know that You are still King. But we rejoice when You answer our prayers, and we ask for more answers to prayer.
And we continually, may we come to You, and ask for You to move, and do Your work, in ways that many have always bemoaned, and said that were impossible.
And yet, we see here, You do something that is impossible. So Lord, we give
You the praise. We ask now that as we turn to Your Word, and consider the necessity and the power of the
Holy Spirit, that You would bless our time in Your Word, and that You would bless our communion together, as we partake of the
Lord's table. And we pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. I invite you to open your
Bibles and turn with me to the New Testament book of Acts. And we're going to be reading verses 1 through 11 again, as we consider this introduction entitled,
The King in His Kingdom. The King in His Kingdom. Now, for three and a half years,
Jesus preached the gospel of the kingdom. In every village He came to, city by city, as He went along healing the sick,
He said His priority was to preach the gospel of the kingdom. Though many would want Him to stay, and to heal the droves of people that were gathering in,
He would say, No, my priority is to preach the gospel of the kingdom. And He would move from city to city, from village to village.
And He instructed all who would hear by parable, and by discourse, and by rebuke of religious leaders,
He would teach the gospel of the kingdom. And He centered the gospel of the kingdom on who
He was, and what He came to do. Because He's the King. And it was His person and His work that has brought about the kingdom.
Now, after He rose from the dead, for 40 days, He made a priority of, again, instructing
His apostles in the gospel of the kingdom, the kingdom of God. And this is telling us where the priority should be.
This is telling us how we should think about things. That Jesus has now risen from the dead, and that He has ascended to the right hand of the
Father, that He has been seated at the right hand of the Father, and that all authority has been given to Him in heaven and on earth.
We are to think about life in the here and now, and what comes beyond even our time, in regards to the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven.
And in this first 11 verses of Acts chapter 1, we've been seeing an exclamation point given to Christ's teaching on this kingdom.
I invite you to stand with me now as I read Acts chapter 1, verses 1 through 11.
This is the word of the Lord Jesus Christ by His Holy Spirit, through His servant, Luke.
The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, until the day in which
He was taken up, after He, through the Holy Spirit, had given commandments to the apostles whom
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 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
Father, which He said, You have heard from Me, for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the
Holy Spirit not many days from now. Therefore, when they had come together, they asked
Him, saying, Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? But 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
Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
Now, when He had spoken these things, while they watched He was taken up, 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,
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
Him go into heaven. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
You may be seated. And we just read this passage about the ascension of Jesus Christ.
How having been raised from the dead, He bodily ascends up into heaven and is taken out of the sight of the apostles by a cloud.
When people ask, well, where is Jesus Christ today? He is at the right hand of the Father. The scene here in Acts chapter 1, as He is taken out of view, the story doesn't end there.
You can pick up the other side of the cloud and where He goes by reading
Daniel chapter 7, verses 13 and 14. You can even see another perspective on it as you read
Revelation chapter 5. We know exactly where Christ ascended to, and we see the glory of Christ enthroned at the right hand of God.
And yet, here we are on this last Sunday of the month, which is our traditional time to partake in the
Lord's Supper. And we call it communion. Communion. And clearly, we have communion here in our profession of Christ, in the fellowship of the
Holy Spirit. We have communion with one another. But this is also communion with our Savior and our
Sovereign, Jesus Christ. This is His table. And our communion is incomplete if it's just with us.
It's us communing together with Christ. And Christ, who is the mediator, brings us into fellowship with God.
All of who God is, we have communion with Him through Christ by the Spirit. We are to think about how it is that we can commune with Christ whom we cannot see, who apparently is absent, but indeed
He is not absent. We are not to think about the Lord's Supper, or communion, as a kind of postcard, on the back of which we all sign our names, and in the front of it says to Jesus, Wish you were here.
This is not a postcard of saying, Too bad we're so far apart and distant.
Hope we can get together sometime soon, as we look forward to our fellowship with Him.
Now, the Lord's Supper is indeed communion. It is indeed a coming together.
Christ has given us His word, so that by and through the Holy Spirit... And my pulpit just broke.
I hit it a little too hard last week. Sorry about that.
It was already limping when I got here. I know Brother Harry hit it pretty hard before I got here, so... God bless
Brother Harry. As we look at the fact that Jesus Christ has given us
His word, so that by His Holy Spirit, we are seeing Christ in the word.
Now, we're not cut off from Him, but that we see who He is, and rejoice in His truth by His Scripture, which is given to us by His Holy Spirit.
He's also given us this sign in which we participate, and He promises us that He is present with us by His Holy Spirit.
Indeed, we are the body of Christ, and He is the head. And as we perceive the love that He has poured out in our hearts, we realize who
Christ is, again, by the power of the Spirit. By the Holy Spirit, the
Scripture tells us that we are in Christ, and Christ is in us, so that we are not to think about Christ being absent.
That just because we cannot see Him now, does not mean that He is not with us now.
Indeed, He assures us that He is. And I want us to remember that today, especially as we think about the power of the
Holy Spirit on Communion Sunday. As we've been looking at verses 1 -11 of Acts chapter 1, we are to remember this, that the
Kingdom is all about the King. If we want to understand what the Kingdom of God is about, what the
Kingdom of Heaven is about, we only have to look at the King who gives Himself to us, and reveals
God to us, and speaks to us about what it all means. We've been talking about the presentation of the
Kingdom in verses 1 -3 of Acts chapter 1. And indeed, as we look here at the elements of the bread and the cup, as we think about the elements of Communion, we are reminded that here the
Kingdom is presented to us. That it's all about the King. All about what He has done to win for Himself a bride.
Everything that He did to bring about the fulfillment of the Old Testament shadows and types, to bring about the new covenant.
And indeed, a Kingdom of which will have no end. And we've been talking about the progress of the
Kingdom in verses 4 -8. And indeed, the Kingdom is about progress.
In Matthew chapter 28, verses 18 -20, we hear something that we call the
Great Commission. And verse 18 begins this way, And Jesus came and spoke to them, talking to His apostles, spoke to them, saying,
All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Well, that's everything, right?
That is all authority. And then He says, Go therefore, meaning go.
Now that's the word for progress, right? You can't get around that. That word means advance. And therefore means on the basis of His authority.
On the basis that He is King of kings and Lord of lords. So we have Kingdom and we have progress.
All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.
That's not political. That's ethnic, tribal. God loves the tribes.
Go make disciples of all the different people groups, no matter what their language is, no matter what their culture is.
Go make disciples of all of them. And baptize them in the name of the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you even to the end of the age.
Throughout the entirety of this project, throughout the entirety of this advancement of the
Kingdom, as He rules and reigns as King of kings and Lord of lords, throughout this entire age of the
Kingdom, Jesus promises to be with us. How is that?
How is that? Well, the progress of the Kingdom, it brings us to think about the promise of the
Holy Spirit. And this is how Jesus is going to be with us throughout the entirety of this age.
So in John chapter 14, verses 15 through 20, let's refresh our memory about the promise of the
Holy Spirit. Now verse 15 says, If you love me, keep my commandments. Well, that's very simple.
And we have a really important commandment here at the end of the Gospel of Matthew, which is repeated in the first chapter of Acts, about the preaching of the
Kingdom, the proclamation of who Christ is to all the nations. And this is an important commandment. Jesus says,
If you love me, keep my commandments. Yeah, but your commandments are huge.
You just say it so quickly, Jesus, but it's so complicated. Go to all the nations, all the tribes.
I mean, we haven't even found all of them yet. I mean, the Amazon jungle in Brazil is massive.
We haven't even found all the tribes there yet. We haven't made it to all the tribes. And this is now 2 ,000 years from when he said it.
That's such a huge command. How in the world are we going to get the Gospel of the Kingdom to every tribe, tongue, people of the nation?
How in the world are we going to accomplish this? Don't you know how complicated it is? Don't you know how impossible this is?
Jesus said, If you love me, keep my commandments. But he doesn't leave us under the crushing weight of an impossible burden.
For Christ's commandments are not burdensome. And his joke is easy, and his burden is light.
And listen to what he says. I will pray the Father, and he will give you another helper. And oh, what a helper.
That he may abide with you forever. This is how we have an abiding with God forever.
This helper is named the Spirit of Truth. Verse 17 of John 14.
Whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. How does he come to us?
He comes to us by the Spirit. He will come again bodily, but he's not absent from us entirely now, is he?
Verse 19. A little while longer, and the world will see me no more. But you will see me. The world's not going to see me anymore.
I'm going to be invisible to them. But you are going to see me. Because I live, you will live also.
Meaning, based on the fact that he is risen from the dead and alive, so also we will live.
At that day, you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. And this is how there is an eternal abiding, living fellowship with God, with Christ, is by the gift of the
Holy Spirit. And it's the promise of the Holy Spirit. We've looked at that in great detail, but also we are to be reminded of the priority of the
Holy Spirit. As the disciples ask Christ about the restoration of the kingdom to Israel, and Jesus explains by using language from the
Servant Songs of Isaiah, that the kingdom is restored to Israel in the sense that he's the fulfillment of Israel, and the kingdom is indeed given to him.
The pictures that we have throughout the Old Covenant is that the restoration of the kingdom to Israel has to happen because there's a great destruction, a great judgment upon idolatrous, unjust, immoral
Israel. And there needs to be a restoration of the kingdom. And this restoration comes while the people of God, including the
Gentiles, are gathered together from the four quarters of the earth by the power of the Holy Spirit, and brought into the shadows of the
Old Covenant places, such as Zion and Jerusalem in the temple, but are brought under the rule and reign of Messiah himself.
And that picture is given time and time and time again in the Old Covenant, and when we get to the New Testament, it's interpreted in terms of the person and work of Jesus Christ.
But consider the priority of the Holy Spirit. And we didn't get to this passage last week, but we can consider the two chapters that you might want to read and meditate on,
Ezekiel chapters 36 and 37. In Ezekiel 36, there's this promise of the
New Covenant, a restoration of the kingdom of Israel. God promises to restore Israel, to restore the kingdom to Israel.
He says, here's how we're going to do it. It's going to be a new covenant, and all the members of this covenant are going to have the
Holy Spirit enlivening them. And they're not going to be dead anymore, but alive.
And then comes chapter 37 of Ezekiel, and it's a vision. A vision of a valley full of dead bones, dry bones.
Bones that have been laying out in a mass grave, thrown about, baked under the sun, so that there's not any life in them at all.
And God says to Ezekiel, he calls him son of man. He says, son of man, can these bones live?
And he says, oh Lord God, you know. And then he says to Ezekiel, prophesy, oh son of man, to the dry bones.
Do these bones prophesy to them? And he does, and he proclaims the word of God to them.
And then these dry bones begin to reassemble into their proper connections. I think there's an old spiritual about that.
And they come back together, and then the muscles come upon them, and then the skin comes upon them, and all of a sudden, all these human bodies are put back together.
But they're not breathing. The breath is not in them.
And so, God says to Ezekiel, son of man, prophesy again. Prophesy to the breath, so that the breath by the four winds will come into these and make them live and breathe again.
And so the son of man, Ezekiel, begins to prophesy again. And indeed, the breath of God comes into them like its creation all over again with Adam.
And these all stand up, and now they're alive. And in this vision of the people of God, of the restoration of the kingdom of Israel, God takes what was destroyed and under judgment, and he brings back life to these people.
And at the very end of Ezekiel 37, it says very clearly, so I will put my spirit within you, clarifying the priority of the
Holy Spirit. Indeed, we see that Israel's kingdom is not restored until the spirit by the word of the son of man is proclaimed.
So then we come to the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, when we think about the great projects of our world, we may think of maybe the
Great Wall of China. We may think of the pyramids in Giza. I remember watching a solid miniature documentary about the
Erie Canal. I mean, the Erie Canal, I mean, how important is that?
To the history of these United States. That connected the whole upper
Midwest to the Atlantic. That made New York, the empire state, as wealthy as it is today.
All because of the Erie Canal. And all the efforts that were made to move these unbelievable amounts of rock out of the way to connect the
Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. It required a great deal of TNT.
And it cost many lives as immigrant laborers died very often in trying to blow up all of this rock that stood in the way between the
Great Lakes and the Atlantic. It required a great deal of money. A lot of investment was made.
They had to pour money into that project time and time again. It required a lot deal, a great deal of political power as those who wanted to see it happen had to sweat it out.
The politicians to keep it going. It even required rhetorical power as people needed to be motivated and convinced of the need of this project.
And finally, finally, it was accomplished and all manner of flourishing came out of it.
But as we think about the commandment of Christ, as we look at the project that Christ has commissioned, it is something that is far more impactful, far greater, far more important than any kind of canal.
Erie Canal, Panama Canal, Suez Canal, doesn't matter. Whatever it is, whatever project of man that has to be planned out and so much put into is nothing compared to the project that Christ has commissioned.
For he says in verse 8, but you shall receive power when the
Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.
You lay that alongside of Matthew 28 verses 18 through 20 and you see the size of the project.
But this project is not going to be accomplished by manpower.
Manpower is not going to do it. This project is not going to be accomplished by fiscal power.
We've got to have the manpower. We've got to have the money to back it. It's not going to be accomplished by political power.
If only we could get the politics in line, then we could finally accomplish this great commission.
It's not going to be accomplished by rhetorical power, by persuasion and just convincing people of the good of it.
This is a project that can only be accomplished by spiritual power. Namely, the power of the
Holy Spirit. For Christ tells His disciples in verse 5, He says that they are to...
Verse 4, He tells them to wait, to not depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the
Father. He has a commission for them. They are to make disciples of all the nations.
They have a huge project ahead of them. And He says to them to go wait in Jerusalem, but they're not waiting around for more people to show up, and they're not waiting around for more money to show up, and they're not waiting around for the politicians to get their ducks in a row.
They're waiting for the power of the Holy Spirit. Christ says, this is what you need.
You need the promise of the Father. This is who you need. You need the Holy Spirit if you're going to keep my commandments.
If you're going to be about my work in my way. And so it is important for us then to meditate today, this morning, on the power of the
Holy Spirit. He says, you shall receive power, verse 8. You shall receive power when the
Holy Spirit has come upon you. Evidently, what they need in order to be
Christ's witnesses in all these places, evidently what they need to carry out the
Great Commission is power. They don't have it, and they need it.
They need the power of the Holy Spirit to do the work that Christ has given them to do.
And we need to reflect upon that this morning. Consider the way in which
Luke talks about this at the end of his first volume, in Luke chapter 24.
In verse 46, well, this could even begin in verse 45.
And he opened their understanding that they might comprehend the Scriptures. This is the last chapter of Luke, Luke 24.
And he opened up their understanding that they may comprehend the Scriptures. Then he said, thus it is written. Don't you understand the
Word of God? Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name.
To all nations beginning at Jerusalem. In other words, repentance, a turning unto
Christ, a submitting to Christ as king, and remission of sins, the forgiveness of sins by his blood.
That this message was written in the Scriptures, thus necessary to be preached from the
Scriptures to all the nations beginning at Jerusalem. And he says, and you are witnesses of these things.
You are going to be the ones to bring this forth. Behold, I send the power, the promise of my Father upon you.
But tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are imbued with power from on high. So the very first thing we recognize is that this commission, this great project of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of the kingdom to all the nations, requires an understanding of and a proclamation of the
Scriptures. That the Bible has to be proclaimed.
Well, the power of the Scripture is the Holy Spirit. The power of the
Scriptures is the Holy Spirit. And not how many we can publish, though that's a good thing.
Not how many we translate. That's a great thing. It's the power of the Holy Spirit at work.
And so in 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16, it says to us that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.
Inspiration, this word means to be breathed out by God. Even as Christ breathed upon his disciples and said, receive the
Holy Spirit. Just as the breath of God was called upon by Ezekiel as the son of man to call the breath to fill these dead bodies that they may live.
So also, Scripture is breathed out by God. And thus, it is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness.
This is why, over the last many generations, Christians have been involved in translating the
Word of God into the heart language of everybody who lives in the world as much as we can. Why?
Because the message of Jesus Christ is in the Word of God. And so we want to proclaim that message to the nations.
How else are we going to make them disciples and followers of Christ if we don't have this message that was breathed out by God's Holy Spirit, that holy men were born along by the
Holy Spirit to write the very words of God. And so we have to depend upon the
Holy Spirit because the power of the Scripture is in the
Holy Spirit. But also, as we preach the Word of God, we have expectations, we have desires, we have an aim to this.
And it is nothing less than the conversion of sinners, the saving of sinners, so that the lost may be found.
Jesus Christ is coming to the world to save sinners. And we proclaim the
Word of God to them that they may know who God is and their need to repent.
We want to see people born again. We want to see people who are dead and trespasses and sins alive, made alive by the grace of God and Jesus Christ.
We want to see those who are dead to come alive. We want to see those who are enslaved to be set free.
We want to see those who are servants of the enemy to become the children of God and the servants of Jesus Christ.
And how does this happen? Well, it happens by the preaching of the Word. We've already looked at that.
But it also has to happen by the power of the Holy Spirit. And it's not simply salvation by a momentary conversion.
I've made a particular decision and I've prayed a formulaic prayer. Therefore, I'm saved,
I'm good, and now I can just live the rest of my life now that I've got that squared away. Salvation is being rescued from the domain of darkness and transported into the kingdom of God's beloved
Son, where now everything is different. Hearts of stone and now hearts of flesh.
And in Titus chapter 3, verses 3 through 7, we are reminded that the power for our salvation is also in the
Holy Spirit. Verse 3 of Titus 3, for we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.
We are all, if we are born again in Christ, if we are been saved by the grace of God, we are all part of the once were some of you club.
That we refuse now in the name of Christ, by the power of the Spirit, we refuse to identify ourselves by these things.
I no longer consecrate envy and malice and lying and lust as, well, this is just me.
But that I have been born again, things are different now. I have a new sovereign. He is my
Savior, Jesus Christ. And this comes about how? Verse 4, Titus 3, but when the kindness and the love of God our
Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us.
Watch, through the washing of regeneration, being born again and renewing the new creation of the
Holy Spirit, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our
Savior, that having been justified by his grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
We are to make disciples of all the nations. We have to preach the word of God to them. The word of God is the breathing out of God's word to us by his
Holy Spirit. So we have to have the power of the Holy Spirit for the proclamation of the word of God. We have to have the power of the
Holy Spirit if we are going to see people born again and converted and changed and saved. We also need the power of the
Holy Spirit as we suffer. Look at the list of the places that they're going to be going to in verse 8.
Jesus says to his apostles, you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.
And everywhere they went in those four places, they met with great opposition. And we're going to read, look at the rest of the book of Acts.
We're going to see all manner of opposition to these apostles as they go forth and say, not
Caesar is Lord, but Jesus is Lord. As they go forth and they proclaim,
Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, the Son of the living God. They're going to take all kinds of fire.
They're going to be under all kinds of opposition and persecution and they're going to be suffering. And you know what?
It's the same way even today. It is not a neutral thing to be a Christian. And there is no neutrality in all this land, in all this world.
There is no neutrality. Christ is King and you're either for him or you're raging against him in some fashion.
That's it. So if you go forth and you proclaim that Christ is King, expect resistance.
Expect retaliation. That's the way it works. That doesn't mean something's gone wrong.
That means the situation is normal. Amen. Until Christ puts all his enemies under his feet and then we have situation glorified.
But in our suffering, we know that we are to rely upon the power of the Holy Spirit. In Matthew chapter 10 and Luke chapter 12,
Jesus gives his discipleship 101. And in there, he says to his disciples that they better be quick.
They've got to go through all the villages and cities and towns of Israel as fast as they can, preaching the gospel.
Don't stick around if a village or a town rejects you. Wipe the dust off your feet and get moving because he says you're not going to make it through all of the cities of Israel before the
Son of Man comes in judgment, which he did in A .D. 70. And all the opportunity to proclaim the gospel to these various villages and towns went away when they were invaded by the
Romans under the judgment of God. But he also said to them, you're going to be persecuted and you're going to be dragged before courts of men.
You're going to be brought before kings, and also you're going to be dragged into synagogues.
And when you're there, don't be worried too much about how to placate man, how to answer man with what man wants you to say.
The Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will teach you in the very hour what you ought to say.
So in our suffering, we have a helper. In our suffering, we have a helper, the
Holy Spirit, who will help us to give answer to those who oppose and attack.
So we have a witness in the Holy Spirit, and we also have hope in the Holy Spirit. In Romans chapter 8, verses 22 through 25, we read this, for we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.
Not only that, but we also who have the first fruits of the Spirit, those who have been born again, part of the new covenant, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly awaiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body, for we were saved in this hope.
But hope that is seen is not hope, for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.
Having the first fruits of the Spirit in us, we live in hope. We live in hope.
What makes us to continue on despite the opposition, despite the persecution, is hope.
And the hope is given to us by the Holy Spirit. Also, for our security. Given the fact of the great persecution that arises and resistance that arises against followers of Jesus Christ, what guarantee do we have that it's going to work out?
What guarantee do we have that we're going to be okay, that we're going to be able to make it through to the end?
Well, again, the power for our security is also in the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 1 tells us that we are sealed by the Holy Spirit. But also Romans 8 and verse 14.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you do not receive the spirit of bondage, again to fear, but you receive the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out,
Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
And if children and heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together.
In other words, if we're suffering with Jesus, it's an indication we're going to be glorified with Jesus.
You see that? And we are, if we're being led by the Spirit of God, we are the children of God.
And this is why we can cry out, Abba, Father, in our dire straits.
And indeed, we must call out to the Father in our dire straits. Nothing makes us feel more humble and more like a child than to be faced with great suffering and difficulty, and even brought to the brink of questioning whether we're going to make it or not, and realize that we have no resources on our own to make it through even the next day or the next hour, what do we do?
We go to our Heavenly Father. We go to our Heavenly Father who knows our needs before we even ask.
And I don't even know what to say, Father. I don't even know how to pray. Things are so bad.
Things are so complicated. I don't feel like I'm doing anything for you. I don't have any way forward.
What do I do? Well, the power of our supplication, in our supplication, is once again the
Holy Spirit. Not our accuracy, not our sincerity, not our ability, but again, the power of the
Holy Spirit. And so we see this again in Romans 8, verses 26 to 27. Likewise, the
Spirit also helps us in our weaknesses, for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought.
But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now, he who searches the heart knows what the mind of the
Spirit is because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. We don't know how to pray, but the
Spirit himself prays with groanings too deep to be uttered. And so the power in our supplication is indeed the
Holy Spirit. We could spend a lot more time meditating upon all the different aspects of the ministry of the
Holy Spirit, all the different ways in which the Holy Spirit is our helper according to the word of Jesus.
But it is safe to say that throughout any measure of success that we have experienced, any measure of success of the church in these last 2 ,000 years, in any measure of success in our own personal lives, in the history of this church, upon reflection we ought to say that the power evident throughout all of our success as Christ would define success is indeed the
Holy Spirit. Galatians chapter 5 verses 22 through 25 familiar, but the fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, long -suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control.
Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Look, if we are in the second
Adam and we are being fruitful and multiplying in the name of Christ by the great commission making disciples of all the nations, if there's fruitfulness in our lives, guess what?
It's the fruit of the Holy Spirit. In the final assessment we say it's the Lord, it's
God, it's His grace at work, His power at work in us by the Holy Spirit. Throughout our success, the power is indeed the
Holy Spirit. Now I want us to think about how this works in the whole story of the
Scriptures. Throughout the Old Testament, we keep on running into people who are selected by God to be
His servant, to help deliver Israel out of a particular problem, or to lead
Israel in a particular way. He has a chosen servant here and a chosen servant there who has a task to do that is simply impossible.
How in the world are they ever going to accomplish this commission that God has given to them?
And whether we're reading about Moses in the book of Numbers or the judges such as Othniel and Jephthah and Samson in the book of Judges, what we find again and again is that God's chosen servant is given a task and how in the world would they do it?
Well, then we read that the Holy Spirit comes upon them and the Holy Spirit anoints them and the
Holy Spirit empowers them to do this task that nobody else can do that seems utterly impossible, but because this person is
God's chosen servant, they are anointed by the Holy Spirit to accomplish what God wants them to accomplish for His people.
We read the same about the King Saul and about King David. And time would fail us to speak of Amasai and Azariah, Jehaziel and Zechariah, but all these men in the
Old Covenant tasked with particular problematic things to do in the name of God, couldn't do it on their own, but the power of the
Holy Spirit came upon them and they succeeded and they accomplished the work that God had given them to do.
But all these men are mere shadows, shadows, slight reflections of the
One who is to come, the capital C, capital S, chosen servant, God's beloved
Son, the One with whom He is well pleased. And what do we find at His baptism in the
Gospel of Luke? Luke chapter 3, verses 21 through 22, when all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized and while He prayed, the heaven was opened and the
Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him. The Holy Spirit came upon Him and a voice came from heaven which said,
You are my beloved Son and you I am well pleased. Now, this is saying
Jesus is the Christ, Christ meaning anointed
One. Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, the Hebrew word for anointed
One. Who's the anointed One? Who's the chosen One, anointed to accomplish what
God has planned? That is Jesus. He's the Christ. He's the
Messiah. He's the anointed One. And what does
He do in bringing about the new covenant? He brings about a new covenant, indeed a kingdom in which all who are
His are anointed because they are in Him. This is why it is perfectly the right word to describe ourselves, we are
Christians. I appreciate those who are saying, well,
I'm a follower of Jesus. Oh, yes, indeed, you should be. I'm a lover of Jesus.
Well, you should be. But do you realize what you're losing by failing to use the word
Christian? Christian means that you're an lowercase a, lowercase o, anointed
One in the capital a, capital o, anointed
One. That's what it means that you're a Christian. It means more than simply little
Christ. It means far more than simply being baptized. It means far more than simply having a cultural affinity.
When you are an anointed One in the anointed One, that means that God has empowered you for the calling upon your life, the commission that He has given to Christ as the second
Adam to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea. And we are in Him being fruitful and doing the work of Christ.
We are anointed for this task, enabled for this task, empowered for this task, precisely because we are in Christ.
In the New Covenant, everyone is an anointed One in the anointed One. And the anointed
One, Christ, of course, is prophet, priest, and king.
And we are called to proclaim the truth as a kingdom of priests in Him.
This is the proclamation of the good news of the kingdom in the
New Testament. Given this fact, Galatians 3 verses 1 through 3,
O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes
Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified. This only
I want to learn from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish?
Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?
Dearly beloved, we're in the kingdom. We're in the kingdom by the power of the
Holy Spirit being born again. Having begun in the Holy Spirit, we're not going to make progress by the merits of the flesh.
Let the mighty man not boast in his might. Let the rich man not boast in his riches. Let the wise man not boast in his wisdom, but let us boast in Christ.
Let us boast in the Lord that we know Him and we know Him by the ministry of the
Holy Spirit. So Jesus says to his followers, he says to his apostles, wait in Jerusalem.
Wait for the promise of the Father until you are anointed by power from on high.
In other words, the only power that you can rely upon to do the work that I've called you to do is the power of the
Holy Spirit. We are to do kingdom work by kingdom resources.
We are to wait upon the Lord, but this waiting is unto action. We are to be filled with the
Holy Spirit so that we may fill the earth with the glory of Christ.
And what does that look like? Does it look like some kind of sensationalism? Well, if we need it, then
Christ will give it to us. Let me tell you how the early church spread. We read about it in the book of Acts, and then what happened during the time of Acts and moving on.
Do you know how the kingdom spread? A lot of it happened down by the river as women did their washing.
And here is one born again woman with her laundry, and here is a woman in great anxiety and fear and needing the
Lord. And they're washing the laundry together. And the one who is empowered by the
Holy Spirit proclaims the good news of Jesus to the other one and invites her and her whole family over for dinner.
And one family has another family over. And word gets around, and men go out to work together, and the one is different from the others.
And they begin to talk about it, and the one articulates, oh, well, you know, there's the boss man, but I serve a king, and he's a greater king than any other king.
And the word begins to spread and spread and spread, and they're doing the work of the kingdom depending upon the power of the
Holy Spirit so that God ends up doing the impossible through the unlikely, bringing glory to himself by the power of the
Holy Spirit in the name of Christ. May this be true of us, and as we reflect upon the fact that, yes, indeed, this church has been in existence for now almost 70 years, we give praise to God for that.
We rejoice in the Lord for that. We give the credit to God for that, that the work that he has done that is lasting and that is true and that is pleasing to him has all been done by the power of the
Holy Spirit. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the time you've given us in your word today. And now as we turn our attention to the
Lord's table here and we celebrate communion, I pray that it would be glorifying to you, that we would recognize and know that indeed we have fellowship and communion with our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in this meal by your spirit. We pray these things in Christ's name.
Amen. Our song of communion this morning is
There's a Fountain. That's on page 196. There is a sinner's plunge beneath that floating stain.
The guilty stain and sinner deep that floats in.
The heart that sees my sins away, wash all my sins away, wash all my sins away.
As he shall never to the handsome
Church of God be saved to sin no more, be saved to sin no more.
Be saved to sin no more.
To all the ransomed Church of God, be saved to sin no more.