Last Words

Jesus’s last words.

The last words of a deceased loved one.

Acts 1:4–8 (NASB95)

4 Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me;

5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

6 So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?”

7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority;

8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

INTRODUCTION

1. Do not leave Jerusalem v4

Do not leave Jerusalem - Isaiah 2:3

3 And many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us concerning His ways And that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

2. Baptism of Holy Spirit

1. We get an idea of what will happen when the Holy Spirits comes.

2. The power of the Holy Spirit will become an endowment.

a. It will become a character trait

3. Baptize - two meanings one literal the other figurative

a. literal - to submerge

people dying fabric had to submerge it or immerse totally for the die to take.

b. figurative - to be identified with

MESSAGE

I. The Focus of the Disciples

6 So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?”

1. Old Testament scriptures refer to the kingdom with the return of the Holy Spirit.

2. Kingdom of Christ rule.

1. Jesus had died now He is back to take rule

2. Want Christ to set up earth rule and over take Rome.

II. The Redirection of the Disciples

7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority;

1. Not for them to know

1. Times - meaning the length of time before

2. Epochs - meaning specific time span / definite period or season.

2. The new Kingdom was going to come just not to be their focus.

1. There is coming a new Kingdom that is not the main concern of the disciples

2. Some want to focus on the new Kingdom end time prophesy

3. Father’s authority

1. God’s ways are higher than our ways.

Matthew 24:36

36“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.”

III. The Mission of the Disciples

8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

1. To be supernaturally Powerful

1. Filled with Holy Spirit’s power.

a. Holy Spirit was Present in creation

b. Allowed people to do what they could not do themselves

2. Holy Spirit will become permanent indwelling in the Disciples

1. Difference between baptism of Holy Spirit and filling of the Holy Spirit.

2. Baptism one time at moment of salvation

3. Filling repetitive for power.

2. To be a Witness

1. To the presences of Holy Spirit

a. We get our word Martyr from this word “witness” one who testifies, bears witness.

b. many early Christians that were witnesses were martyred.

2. That Christ really is alive.

3. That Christ can change lives.

a. Believers today can witness that Christ is alive in them

b. That Christ has changed them.

3. To spread the Gospel

1. Jersualem - Peter Acts 1-5

a. The worlds center

b. Our local area

Boy on Bus

2. Judea & Samaria - Stephen Acts 8-12

3. The ends of the earth - Paul Acts 13-28

Oswald Chambers - “The light that shines the farthest will shine the brightest at home.”