The Anticipation of the Spirit
The Anticipation of the Spirit
Luke 24:50-53 & Acts 1:1-11
I. ME
A. I have to admit something to you…I am a sucker for cliffhangers!
B. I admit – I feed off cliffhangers because it incites within me an anticipation for what is going to happen next.
II. WE
A. I think we all need to admit it – we love the thrill of anticipation, don’t we?
B. Oh, it may not be over movies or TV shows – call me carnal.
1. But what about Christmas as a child?
a. Do you remember that feeling of anticipation?
b. Hardly being able to go to sleep Christmas Eve knowing that first thing in the morning it was present time.
c. And for those of us getting older in life, we relive that excitement as we watch our kids or grandchildren.
2. How about your wedding day?
a. I was reminded of my personal feelings as I watched Marvin Verwys pace the floor wringing his hands.
b. I remember that butterfly in your stomach feeling just as I walked out in front of all the people and looking at my bride.
C. I think if we were to admit it, most of us love a good cliffhanger, because it incites within us that feeling of anticipation and excitement for what is going to happen next.
III. GOD
A. Did you know that this is exactly what we find at the end of Luke’s Gospel?
1. Luke 24 ends like a cliffhanger
2. It leaves us hanging and ought to incite within us that feeling of anticipation for what is going to happen next.
B. Setting the Scene
1. Jesus was been raised from the dead, because sin and death could not hold Him.
2. And as we continue on through these weeks between Easter and Pentecost, we have been studying how Jesus slowly began to reveal Himself to others.
a. Private Appearances beginning with Mary at the tomb and then the two disciples walking on the road to Emmaus.
b. Last week, we saw Jesus making a Public Appearance to the disciples, saying “Peace be with you”.
- Emphasizes the new reality or new relationship based on the work of Christ.
- Christ is our Peace for He has restored our relationship with God by sacrificing Himself in our place.
3. PD said last week that because of this new relationship in Christ, the disciples were given a new assignment…
4. A reassignment to be more precise …. To be His witnesses! (READ Luke 24:45-48)
C. Now – I don’t know about you, but I have been trying this week to put myself in their shoes.
D. Allow me the opportunity to take you on the journey…
1. As committed followers of Jesus, we probably witnessed first hand the Triumphal Entry as mobs of people came to pay homage to their king by shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel!”
a. We most likely witnessed the amazing turn of events from shouts of jubilation to shouts of rage as they shouted for Barabbas and called for His crucifixion.
b. We may have watched in horror as they stripped him of his clothes, beating him with rods.
c. We may have seen his flesh torn and blood shed as they whipped him.
d. We also may have heard the pounding of the hammer as they fastened his feet and hands with rusty spikes to a wooden cross to die the death of a vile criminal.
2. I imagine plunging into despair much like Cleopas and his friend heading to Emmaus when they said, “We had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.”
3. BUT NOW – here He stands, bodily right in our midst, proclaiming our new relationship with God and giving us a new assignment as His witnesses.
4. I don’t know about you, but I would have been looking for the door.
5. He’s ALIVE – let’s get this mission started! I’m ready! Let’s get it on!
D. REVERSAL: But I would have been wrong!
1. Notice Luke 24:49 – the word “but” could be rendered “so”.
2. Jesus said, “Stay in the city and WAIT”
3. Wait for what? All Luke tells us is “to be clothed with power from on high”.
E. Luke finishes his Gospel with these words in 24:50-53 (READ)
F. Cliffhanger…Excitement…Anticipation!
1. After Jesus ascension, Luke leaves the disciples in the city waiting for this power to cloth them.
2. What a great set-up for a sequel…and you know what?
3. We have it! It is called the book of Acts. You cannot read Luke without continuing to read Acts, so turn to Acts 1
G. Note Luke’s expansion of the promised power from on high (Read Acts 1:1-5)
1. Promised Holy Spirit is a GIFT (vs 4)
a. God’s promise to send HS was not given out of compulsion or relunctance.
b. Rather, God sent His Spirit as an expression of love and joy.
c. God was not going to leave His people to accomplish this renewed mission by themselves.
d. Reminds me of the Golden Calf Incident in Ex 32-34
1) After the people’s idolatry, God says in Ex 33:3…
Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey.
But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-
Necked people and I might destroy you on the way.
2) Listen to Moses’ response (33:15)
If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us
from here.
3) Moses knew that God’s Presence was vitally important to Israel being the people of God in a hostile and foreign land.
e. That’s why God sends His Spirit - He is not going to leave His people to accomplish this renewed mission alone.
f. He graciously provides His Presence in the person of HS.
g. Just as the HS descended on Jesus Christ at His baptism specially empowering Him to begin His earthly ministry, so will the apostles be baptized in the Holy Spirit.
2. In Acts 1:3 - Luke’s reference to Jesus speaking about the kingdom of God.
a. For Luke, the kingdom of God was not so much about a physical kingdom in a particular location.
b. Luke stresses more often that the kingdom of God refers to the extension and the expression of His rule and His reign.
c. Note that the disciples were still looking for a physical kingdom in Acts 1:6
d. Jesus makes it clear that the time or date of the physical kingdom is not to be their concern.
e. Instead, he explains that when the Holy Spirit comes, they will receive power to be His witnesses starting in Jerusalem and spreading to the ends of the earth.
f. KEY POINT (read 2x)
1) When the Holy Spirit comes, these uniquely empowered Spirit-filled apostles were to be sent out as witnesses of Christ proclaiming and living out the reign and rule of God.
2) And by doing so, these apostles were extending God’s rule and reign into the world.
IV. YOU
A. Can you sense it? Can you sense the anticipation?
B. Can you imagine their anxious excitement to see what would happen when the Holy Spirit would clothe them, “this power from on high”?
C. Their excitement was rooted in …
1. New relationship with Christ
2. Gift of the Holy Spirit, giving them a renewed mission – to be His witnesses proclaiming and living out the reign and rule of God for the world.
D. Don’t you wish you could have been there to experience that joyful and energetic anticipation?
E. Oh, how I wish WE had something to anticipate that would drive us to joyfully and with reckless abandon extend the rule and reign of God to the world.
V. WE
A. Oh, but we do, don’t we?
B. Here in the 21st century, we sit as Christ’s church anticipating His imminent return.
1. He could come this very hour, this very day, this week, this month.
2. We have no clue the day or the hour …
3. But this we DO know…Jesus is coming again to establish His earthly kingdom.
C. Yet while we wait in anticipation of that day, we are called by Christ to extend His rule and reign to those who are lost.
D. The church is to be clear examples of God’s kingdom on the earth.
1. People should be able to look at the church to see what living under God’s rule and reign looks like.
2. Yet how too often, we get caught up in our agendas, our own soap boxes, our own comfort levels, our own rights, our own pettiness.
3. I would suggest that the reason the church so often mirrors the culture rather than the kingdom of God is because we no longer anticipate with excitement the imminent return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
4. And in light of this LACK OF anticipation, we have lost the renewed mission to proclaim and live out God’s rule and reign.
Conclusion: As we prepare our hearts for the Lord’s table this morning, let us recommit our lives and our hearts to living as God’s kingdom people, extending His rule and reign to the lost as we anxiously await His return.
Communion
A. The ordinance of the Lord’s table is open to everyone who has in faith, placed their full allegiance in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
B. We come today to His table as His church, surrendering our lives to His Lordship and surrendering our agendas to the final authority of His Word.
C. We come remembering His sacrificial death; we come in anticipation of His imminent return; and we come with a renewed sense of proclaiming and living out the rule and reign of God.
D. 1 Cor 11:23-26
Benediction:
Acts 1:11
11 "Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."
Hebrews 10:23-25
23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.
25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-- and all the more as you see the Day approaching.