Acts - Easter Evidence
Notes
Transcript
Acts - Easter Evidence
Acts - Easter Evidence
Happy Easter!
Imagine being the disciples, who have seen Jesus’s crucifixion, and watched him rise from the grave, spending about seven weeks with him…
And now he is gone, he has ascended to the heavens
Here they are.
What happens now?
Often, that is where we find ourselves…
We stand this side of the resurrection, some 2000 years ago, and we wonder how it goes for us.
Our ancestral brothers had a similar situation
Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little while longer, and then I am going to him who sent me.
They just don’t have any idea what that is going to be like…
Neither would we…
But don’t worry...you won’t be alone…
This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
You are going to have this thing called the Spirit who will be with, and in you.
Yet, please understand…they don’t know what this is going to be like
It is possible, that you, as a Christian are still trying to figure it out
Death…
Burial…
Resurrection…
After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he showed himself in this way. Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
Jesus has already appeared to the disciples…
But he keeps disappearing!
There…gone…there…gone...there
Where is the ‘with you?’
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
What we saw when we started Acts is Jesus go up on the cloud…
And the Holy Spirit came through fire…
But physical Jesus is not there.
Now, they have to figure it out…
What do we do now…
And he also said there is something else that will always be with us…
For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.
The context of this is that they just want to be with Jesus, wherever he goes, watching him do what he does.
They don’t want to be alone
They don’t want to have to do this on their own
But a time is coming when they must act
And Physical Jesus is not going to be with them
They will have to learn how to rely on the Spirit
One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, at three o’clock in the afternoon. And a man lame from birth was being carried in. People would lay him daily at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate so that he could ask for alms from those entering the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked them for alms.
You will always have the poor…
Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them.
This is OUR moment…
This is the O Crap…I think this is it
This is when we are going to test it out
We know Jesus was raise
We have the Holy Spirit
Jesus said he would be with us until the end of the age
Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.” And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong.
Is this going to work?
They did this before, when Jesus was on the earth
But now, he is in the heavens
And it seems that Jesus is with us!
Jumping up, he stood and began to walk, and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.
All the people saw him walking and praising God, and they recognized him as the one who used to sit and ask for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, and they were filled with wonder and astonishment at what had happened to him.
You know what happens next…
While he clung to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s Portico, utterly astonished.
He does what the disciples did…
They clung to Jesus
He clings to them
I think that phrase…
“Utterly Astonished”
Is what happens to each of us when we try something by faith
And it works…
Acts - Easter Evidence
Acts - Easter Evidence
