What is Easter 4
What is Easter? • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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NCAA
NCAA
9th: 31 points - Braxton and Montgomery
8th: 36 points - Carson, Cora, and Addison
7th: 41 points - Aydan
6th: 42 points - Matthew and Emry
5th: 43 points - Jamie
4th: 44 points - Libby, Kate, and Brayden
3rd: 45 points - Rylan
2nd: 46 points - Mallory and KayMarie
1st: 48 points - Sarah, CK, Kasey, Jonah
Fun facts!
Only people to get Clemson in sweet sixteen: Mallory, KayMarie, Matthew, Addison, Montgomery, and Braxton
Only people to have entire elite eight still in: CK, Mallory, KayMarie, Rylan
Predicted champs: Purdue 5, UNC 3, UConn 3, NC State 3, Houston 2, Duke 1, Tennessee 1
Sorry Emry: Baylor (RIP) 1
Announcements
Announcements
Good Friday! It’s on Good Friday! It’s the 29th at 7 PM at our South Fork campus! This is a chance to come and worship Jesus and all that He did for us on the cross
Easter services! We have a sunrise service here at North at 6:30 AM! This is time to celebrate the fact that our Savior isn’t dead, but He rose! We also have our regular 11 AM services!
No Students on April 3rd! Instead we are going to Horizon Park to play some kickball and hangout as a student group! This is from 6 PM to 7:30 PM!
Our church is having a united serve day on April 13th! We are serving with the Winston Salem Rescue Mission! If you are interested in serving and being a part let me know and I’ll help you get signed up!
Intro
Intro
We are continuing in our series called “What is Easter?”
This is where we are looking at Jesus post-resurrection to see what He is calling His disciples (and us) to do!
So far we looked at Mary and Thomas and Peter, and the disciples on Emmaus
To Mary Jesus told her that she needs to change her perspective! that she is looking for the wrong Jesus
For Thomas Jesus reminded Him of how much He loved Him - reminding him of all that He did for Him - the sacrifice on the cross
For Peter Jesus comes to him offering a second chance - it doesn’t matter how much you’ve screwed up Jesus offers second chances
And to the two disciples He explains how He came to save us. Challenging us to not keep silent
The reason we are looking at this is because the resurrection is so important when it comes to Christianity
John Stott put it this way:
Christianity is in its very essence a resurrection religion. The concept of the resurrection lies at its heart. If you remove it, Christianity is destroyed.
John Stott
Without the resurrection - Christianity is no different than any other religion
The resurrection shows that Jesus defeated sin and death - crushing the head of Satan
Today we are going to look at Jesus speaking to us
Body
Body
Acts
Acts
See not only did Jesus speak to His disciples, but He also made sure to let them, and us, have a command as well
He spoke to them, giving them direction that applies to us
6 So when they had gathered together, they began to ask him, “Lord, is this the time when you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He told them, “You are not permitted to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. 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 farthest parts of the earth.” 9 After he had said this, while they were watching, he was lifted up and a cloud hid him from their sight.
This is the last thing that Jesus tells His disciples before he ascends back into Heaven
What I want to do today is hone in on one key verse, verse 8
See verses 6-7 have some great insight into them, we don’t know everything, but God has a plan for us
This verse right here is a direct command that Jesus gave the disciples, and He is giving it to us
That means that if Jesus is giving you a direct command, it’s probably wise to pay attention and know what He is saying
Power
Power
The first part of the verse tells us
“you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you”
The word for power here in the Greek is “δυναμυις”
The word is translated quite literally as power or powerful and is the same root word we get dynamite from
What Jesus is telling us then is that when he departs and goes up into Heaven we will receive His Spirit which will give us power
This Spirit (the Holy Spirit) will give us power the likes of which we cannot comprehend
The Spirit of God gives us power to be strong and courageous
The Spirit allows us to be bold in the face of people who go against us
But I want you to notice something
He doesn’t say you will have power to do whatever you want
Jesus tells us we receive power when we are relying on the Spirit to do what God wants
Here’s the first takeaway from verse 8
Rely on God’s Spirit, not yours
We need to rely on God’s Spirit and His power
Jesus is telling us that He is sending His Spirit to us so that we can have explosive power to share His Gospel
Stop trying to rely on your own power
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me—and I in him—bears much fruit, because apart from me you can accomplish nothing.
Jesus tells us here that we can do nothing apart from Him
Apart from Jesus everything that we try to do is useless
Our power is nothing compared to what Jesus is giving us
That means when we are trying to share the gospel, invite our friends, even if we are simply trying to connect with God — if we are doing it on our own we will never succeed
Instead we must rely on Him
We must trust that Jesus can do great things through us and let Him be the one to lead
He is the one sending us out, He is the one that will give us power to perserve and reach our friends, so we need to trust and rely on Him
Jesus gives us power to be bold in the face of danger, the Spirit allows us to go and do amazing things for God
The Spirits power isn’t meant to make us “strong” or hit homeruns, instead it’s meant to give us the ability to go into dangers situations where we can be persecuted and share the Gospel of Jesus boldly
To rely on the Spirit’s power means that we are being sensitive to the situations and places that God puts us, and we are seeking to further His Kingdom in all areas
That’s the first thing Jesus is telling us in verse 8, we must rely on His power not our own
Witnesses
Witnesses
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 farthest parts of the earth.”
The next bit of Acts 1:8 is telling us that we will be His witnesses
This is the command that Jesus is giving, to be His witnesses
The power that He is giving us is so that we can accomplish this mission — to be His witnesses
Here’s the second thing, not only do we need to rely on His power
Be His witness
Jesu sis telling us that we are to be His witness
So often I think we fall into the trap that we don’t know enough — that we will never know enough
So we stay silent
But that isn’t what Jesus is telling us — He doesn’t say wait until you know everything then go and tell
He simply says to be His witness
John 4 gives us a perfect example of this
The story is of a women that is at a well in Samaria
Jesus goes out of His way to go and talk to the women — even though Jews and Samaritans don’t get along
Talking to the women He ends up explaining to her how she needs living water — her sins forgiven
She believes in Jesus and listen to what she does
28 Then the woman left her water jar, went off into the town and said to the people,29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Surely he can’t be the Messiah, can he?”30 So they left the town and began coming to him.
The women left everything and went to go tell people about Jesus
She didn’t know everything about Him, His ministry, or anything else — she simply went and said: you got to come and hear about Jesus!
You got to experience the man that changed my life
That is what Jesus means in Acts 1:8 when He says we are to be His witnesses
It doesn’t mean we know everything about Him, that we are super smart, or anything else
It simply means we were changed by Him and we are not meant to keep it silent
To be a witness means to go to people and tell them what happened
We all have a story of lifechange
We are meant to go and be His witnesses
Share everywhere
Share everywhere
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 farthest parts of the earth.”
The last part of the verse has Jesus telling us that we are to be His witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and the ends of the earth
What Jesus is doing here is giving us the scope of who we are to be telling, and where they will be
Here’s the last takeaway
Share everywhere
We are called to share and be His witnesses everywhere we go
When Jesus is talking about Jerusalem, that's the immediate place that they are living
Jerusalem was the home base for the disciples and Jesus is telling us and them that we are meant to share and be a witness for Him in our immediate local locations
He tells them to share and be a witness to Judea and Samaria
Judea and Samaria were the two cities beside Jerusalem, but with distinct differences
Judea was part of Israel — where the Jews lived
This was the people that they were friends with and close too
Samaria was the other city — it was the one that was often hated by Jews and would be constantly rejected.
They would never go to or talk to Samaritans
What Jesus is telling us is that we are to be His witnesses to our friends, and to our enemies
We are go to go and share with those near and far
And then Jesus tells them to be His witness to the ends of the earth
This is everywhere outside of their normal area of influence
For us today we are to be a witness for Jesus in every place, location, and around all people
We are not meant to have distinctions, but instead we are to always been His witness and living an example for Him
We are to be His examples in every place we live, work, eat, play, study, and shop.
Why?
Why?
Listen to how this section of Acts 1 ends
10 As they were still staring into the sky while he was going, suddenly two men in white clothing stood near them 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking up into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come back in the same way you saw him go into heaven.”
Two angels come down to the disciples and say “why are you standing here?”
Why are you still waiting for Jesus to come back?
In essence they are asking them: why are you still here? Jesus gave you a job!
That’s the same thing for us today
I believe that we so often sit back and wait as if something or someone else will do something for us
Yet the reality is this: Jesus gave us a job!
Go and be His witness!
Go and share about what He did for you!
Don’t just it there, but go and share!
Conclusion
Conclusion
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 farthest parts of the earth.”
Acts 1:8 is a powerful verse!
Jesus tells us that He gives us power! The Spirit enables us to do great things! Have courage and strength!
So we need to rely on His power, be His witnesses, and share everywhere!
Jesus gave us a job! Stop standing around!