...AND THERE'S MORE!
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 3 viewsNotes
Transcript
We’ve just finished out some messages surrounding the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.
But we need to ask the question…why? Why did these things occur?
What was the purpose behind Him dying? What was the purpose of Him coming back to life?
We talked some about those reasons.
Death was needed to satisfy judgement…justice.
He was the Lamb of God. He was sent for our immorality, our sins, against God.
And so we see the idea of forgiveness of sin. Mercy and Grace…undeserved forgiveness.
And…then resurrection. Death no longer has a hold on us....remember Jesus’ words…The truth will set you free.
If He’s the truth…He has set us free…from…???
From the hold of death because of our sin. Our sin keeps…kept…us from fully experiencing God.
It kept us at a distance.
It kept us a slave to sin and it’s affects.
But now…forgiveness given. The space between us and God gone. The “all things new” has started. All things are being made new. So death doesn’t have what it used to have over us…we are free from it.
And this is all offered to us…but our choice to take the gift Christ gives.
Now....what’s next? Wait…there’s more?
Yes!
I always try to reference what was lost in the beginning when asking “why” questions if the Bible. Remember the story, God’s narrative through all of scripture is directed at one thing. Restoration of what was lost.
Jesus died and rose to set us free from death...
…and there’s more. The one who died and came back to life, Jesus, now has all authority in Heaven and on earth.
In the OT there was talk about a coming Kingdom, a coming King, a savior…and servant King…And we find Jesus fulfilled all of those things. But there hints at something else....or someone else.
SLIDE
28 “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.
29 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
God, through the prophet Joel…this would have been between the 4th to 9th century BC… possibly closer to the 4th because of some historic references.
Chronologically speaking he may have been one of, if not the last prophets to speak and write to God’s people in the Old Testament…but God...
…through this prophet, talks about sending His spirit on all people.
Ezekiel, years before Joel had referenced something similar
SLIDE
Ezekiel 36:24-29
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
…to live as we were created to.
The idea of God’s spirit in people wasn’t a far off weird idea...
The Israelites had heard and witnessed this before. They knew that in some way Moses had experienced God’s spirit on him/with him. Their scriptures even record that God took some of His spirit and gave it to Joshua ....the leader after Moses....as well as the 70 elders/leaders who helped Moses lead Israel…they had received some of God’s spirit …for the purpose of leading and guiding.
And…we know that God’s spirit…His presence in a very real way…was in the Holy of Holies…in the tabernacle and the Temple. God’s place where He lived among His people.
Again…not like Eden…but as close as He could be for that time.
But these prophets are fore-telling of something much bigger. God’s spirit in all who follow Him…that’s significant.
So here we are. Moving from the resurrection towards the next events in God’s narrative of bringing us back to Him.
John records some of the last conversations Jesus has with His followers while here on the planet.
He’s giving them instructions and a promise…that I’m sure…when they heard it…their eyes became wide open…at least most of them.
We’re going to read from a bit of John 14:16-17
John 14:16–17 (CSB)
16 …I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever.
17 He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive him because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you do know him, because he remains with you and will be in you.
Now…just a quick question. Does that sound familiar?
And Jesus has hinted at this in a couple of other places…but does that sound similar to what we were reading out of the OT?
God has been promising this for a long time too.
A savior…save us from our sins. One who would see suffering and death…but not stay there. A risen and victorious savior.
And then…a promise of God’s spirit.
Now remember, our reference point is …God is bringing back what we lost.
This is all leading towards that. God’s spirit not just close to us…like in the OT tabernacle or Temple…because that’s where His spirit is.
Now Jesus is hinting that it will be in us.
1 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach
2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.
3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.
4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.
5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
Jesus asked them to do one thing now…wait…and just a few days!
wait...
A man's car stalled in the heavy traffic as the light turned green. All his efforts to start the engine failed, and a chorus of honking behind him made matters worse. He finally got out of his car and walked back to the first driver and said, "I'm sorry, but I can't seem to get my car started. If you'll go up there and give it a try, I'll stay here and blow your horn for you."
Some of us don’t want to wait. Waiting is not often fun. You start watching the clock…hearing it tic tok away. You might get frustrated. You may start to think about ways to speed things up. To hurry the pace up a bit.
And....it does look like they are still “off” a bit.
6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, are you restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time?”
They are still thinking He’s taking Israel back to the glory days!
When are you going to hurry this thing up Jesus? We thought you were coming to do this…and now you’re telling us to wait again??? ....ok
Jesus just kind of passes by the full answer and just says Acts 1:7
7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.
And then he continues the conversation about the promise from long ago.
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes,
11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
Now…if you were there…what would you be thinking? Jesus is now talking about going and sending someone to be with us…and it matches what we know from the Old Testament…the spirit of God coming to us.
Ok, so lets break that last part down.
Don’t worry about the dates and the times. However…you will receive power....
When? a few days...
for???
What???
Becoming witnesses....witnesses to the truth of all of life. The truth of this one called Jesus…and why He came.
Now…we need to look at something very quickly. For the last couple of hundred years, and more, there’s been a move within the world to say that there is nothing more than what you can see and/or verify through science.
Naturalism is that there’s nothing more than what we can experience in physical nature around us.
Materialism says just a bit more … its the belief that there is nothing more than materials…atoms and such.
Some people read passages like this and kind of relate them to the ‘paranormal’ realm of things. Ghosts and spirits and weird stuff.
Ok…I get that. I’ll admit I love those conversations.
I think to the world out there…those who haven’t had a lot of exposure to God stuff…and those who’ve had a lot of exposure to the world’s messages about what is true and what’s not true…this stuff is foreign…maybe even fairy tale stuff.
In many cultures, this stuff is hardwired in…they know and understand that we’re not just flesh and bone…there’s more to this world than just material…there is a spiritual nature to us.
For us, we know we are spiritual and material…both. Created as both.
This may be weird to us…but, I guess I just want to say this…make it clear…the world (our spiritual enemy Satan)…lies. Right?
If spiritual stuff doesn’t exist…then why even consider that there may be a God …a Creator.
To the people who are reading Luke’s investigation of the beginning of the new covenant, those people reading Acts 1, they hear the words “spirit of God” and it doesn’t throw them at all…they’re thinking…Yeah..we’ve been waiting for this!
So when we read through this first part of Acts, realize that this isn’t some weird paranormal event. This is a move of God…in his story to recreate all things.
So back to our question: Why would God give us His spirit…these disciples in the book of Acts His spirit.
Well, Jesus makes it clear.
A spirit of power…for the act of witnessing…(courtroom term…to be the verify-er of or the carrier of truth).
God’s going to give the disciples His spirit…to give glory to Him.
12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, which is near Jerusalem—a Sabbath day’s journey away.
13 When they arrived, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying: Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.
14 They all were continually united in prayer, along with the women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
Now, here we see that these guys are trusting in Jesus…in what He said. They are simply obeying Him.
They know about this thing called the Spirit of God. They’ve heard Him talk about it. This doesn’t look like the way they’d save the planet…bring glory back to God’s people…but…they obey.
And how do they obey, when they don’t quite understand all that’s happening…but they know that Jesus has himself said something significant is going to happen?
They followed and prayed.
They went to the room…a familiar place where they had been for a few weeks now…since that triumphal entry.
They go and pray. A few days worth of prayer.
What about us. This spirit is available to us. Jesus and others have explained that He…the Spirit of God…is available, even waiting…to be with us..in us.
Why? To, in some way…provide what we need through God’s power to be witnesses to the truth.
The truth of what?....all of life. To expose the lies and to tell the truth about what reality is.
About Jesus’ love and grace…and how He is the way to eternity with God. About how the Spirit enables us to carry that message…the good news (the Gospel)…and how He…the spirit…begins to remake us and recreate us.
So this week…what can we focus on as individuals and as a church family?
Ask God to