Acts the Story Continues (2)

The Ascension

I absolutely love this mornings verse. I believe it encapsulates Christianity as a whole. We are going to get into 3 things this morning that jump out at me when I read

Acts 1:

Acts 1:6–11 ESV

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 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.” 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. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 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.”

When those who surrounded Jesus ask: When are you going to rescue us? When will be back to the original garden of Eden? The first thing he states is that

It’s not for you to know the time.

So when I see something like this in the bible I first realize that two things realize is

There isn’t a point in laboring over scripture to figure out something I cannot know

I ask myself “Self, what am I to know then”

There are three things That Jesus wants us to know before he ascends and if there is anything I have realized in life it’s this

The First words a person speaks is cute—baby talk.

The Last words they speak are important.

So the three things Jesus tells them is that

They will receive Power

He directs them with how to use said power

he Gives them a time in which to use it

Jesus already told them that they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit some days from now. So when Jesus says

You will receive Power when the Holy Spirit comes my ears perk up. I begin to want to know what kind of power I am getting

POWER

The term power used here is dunamis meaning strength, might or miracles we see it used.

Acts 4:33 ESV

And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.

When their power was centered around their telling about Jesus Christ. It’s when you know God has sent you to talk to someone and you come out with boldness you aren’t used to having.

1 Thessalonians 1:5 ESV

because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.

The term power here is the same greek work, but used as the term miracles which brought full conviction. As a pastor who believes in the power of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit I get asked why everyone isn’t healed. And the truth is in this verse—God only does powerful things when people’s hearts are turning toward Him. When Jesus did Miracles he often stated afterword to go and sin no more or to take the appropriate offering to the priest. The power to show the authority of Christ later it was showing the authority of the apostles. Now this is where those who believe that the gifts aren’t for today stop, but later on we will discuss why there is evidence to the contrary.

The Holy Spirit power is not just what we argue over-the gifts, but it’s also the power to CHANGE, to stop a sinfilled lifestyle. If we have conviction and no ability to change then we are back to having just the law. It takes more than what we can muster up to stop a sin that has entangled us for a while.

And then it gives us the power to love. Without the Holy Spirit could we love everyone. Sure there are those like myself who are easy to love…just ask my wife, but then there are those life myself who are a little more difficult to love and without the Holy Spirit empowering us and filling us with love it would be near difficult to do.

Why/How

Why do have such power or how do we use such power.

The answer comes into play when JEsus says

It’s not for you to know the time.

And You Will Be My Witness

Jesus will only unleash his power when it serves his purpose and if we ever read the bible we can understand that His purpose is to create disciples. That’s one of the first things he did when he started his ministry…he gathered to himself those who believed or would believe. God is not David Copperfield. He doesn’t work just for ewws, Aws and a Saturday night TV special.

He works when the sole purpose is to spread the gospel and sometimes not getting a miracle did that more than receiving one. There are times in Paul’s life when God would break Paul out of Jail and the gospel would spread. There were other times when Paul stayed in jail, recieved a beating, and the gospel spread. What ever is used to spread the Gospel God would use.

Think about this: Jesus came back to show himself to Thomas.

God wouldn’t send the begger who sat at the gate to warn the Rich man’s family—why? Because the end result wouldn’t have been belief.

Jesus skipped over a multide of people to get to one at the pool of Bethesda. But even after he healed the one he skipped back over those same people to leave. If I were those people I would have begged for healing, but no account is made— he just left.

Jesus could have healed Lazarus before he died, but Jesus said that he waited and used the words he did so people would know that he was the Messiah.

His entire life, death, resurrection, and giving of the Holy Spirit was to bring people back to him.

When?

Now as I stated before there are many who believe the Gifts of the Holy Spirit were only to get the Ball rolling to the spreading of the gosepl. That we don’t have the same power that they did because we don’t need it to spread that gospel, but what I see is Both a decline in the use of the Powerful gifts God has given us and a decline in the spreading of the Gospel.

Notice the term used here:

And to the end of the Earth

The term end means last, final, without, extreme

Many think this is spacial, but there are also many who believe that this means the end of time itself. My main argument in this stance is why would God state end when the Earth is a circle and not a table?

He already told his disciples to go into all the world. Why would God have to specify an end.

If you follow the order of events Jesus goes up into the Heaven and people are stuck looking at the sky. I often wondered how long people would have stayed there if the angels hadn’t appeared.

Acts 1:10–11 ESV

And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 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.”

Why do you stand here Go do what he told you to do until you see him come back the same way he went and this ascention was the last time he was seen.

Church why is Satan winning the fight? I believe it’s because we, as a church collective, have taken the sting out of the gospel.

Jesus said You will receive power to what? Back to our verses from before

We cannot water down God’s word, water down God’s given power and not expect that God’s authority around the world to be watered down. We cannot expect to trade in the sword of truth that is meant to divide bone from marrow with nerf swords that hurt less and expect the same victories. The reason the gospel spread was the intesity that it ran the world with. Peter’s first sermon was a turn or burn sermon and 3000 people were saved. Jesus talked more about hell and sacrifice than he talked about heaven. If we who know Heaven and Hell are real and yet settle for less than the full power of the Holy Spirit why wouldn’t the world settle for Satan’s self gratification over Jesus’ denial of self.

The reality is when we try to lesson the impact of the Gospels we are sucking the power out of the Holy Spirit.

If we want to make an impact we have to be able to put our hand to the plow and never look back. We have to be willing to sweat and toil for our loved ones salvation. We have to be able to labor, but we must do so filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.

As we go through the book of ACTS we are going to see God’s people needed repeated fillings of the Holy Spirit and a continual hunger for the things of God. Do you get excitement and joy from spreading the gospel? Does seeing God work make you work harder? Are you truly hungry for the things of God or are you just picking because there is nothing else to do. You don’t have to live the same old life. You could do things differently. Satan doesn’t have to ravage your body with disease. You could stand in victory. You could have the power to tell him to flee not only in your life, but in the lives of those around you. AMen? Common Amen? We need to get excited about the power of the Holy Spirit church. There is no sugary substitute. There is no generaric version that’s tastes the same. IT’s the one and only true living God.

common we all know the eating habit. It’s in our mouth just because it’s at the table. Are we in church because it’s convient? What would happen if the government shut us down and had to meet at the possible expense of our own lives. I wonder how many mega churches would still exists. and how many small church would go extinct. As we get deeper into ACTS my prayer is that everyone in this church gets a new gust of wind and refreshed outlook on spreading the word of God. AMEN?