Called To Be Witnesses

I got the same reaction first service you're way ahead of me they were driving down a country road when all of a sudden the bus driver lost control and the bus went off of the road and slammed head on into a big oak tree out in the middle of this farmer's field and the elderly farmer was there in the field and after seeing what happened he went over to the scene and saw carnage everywhere and so he then proceeded to dig a large hole and place all of the passengers from the bus in it and buried and a few days later the sheriff from the county happened to be driving down that road and he saw the bus crashed up against this tree and the farmer was still out there working in his field and so the

sheriff stopped to investigate what happened and he came over and he asked the old gentleman if he had witnessed the accident and the sheriff wondered what had become of all the politicians that had been riding on the bus the farmer replied that he had indeed seen the accident and then buried all of the victims and the sheriff asked for all of the politicians that were riding on that bus dead and the old farmer shrugged and replied well some of them said they weren't but you know how them politicians lie so also we are called to be witnesses witnesses of the truth and i want to emphasize that we are called to be witnesses rather than called to witness talking

about witnessing and people freak they get scared they talk about all of their imperfections their inabilities to speak they don't do well with people they can't talk they're ignorant of all the things in the world they in the word and and they just clam up when you talk about witnessing but that's not what we're called to here in the book of acts we are called to be witnesses and that's going to be a theme as we go through our study in the book of acts i want you to hang on to that we're called to be witnesses it's a part of our lifestyle in the book of acts we're going to see the beginning of an organism called the church not an organization too often we make them

as if when we make mistakes in the function of the church we're going to see the beginning of the in ministry is to treat the organism like an organization and try to govern the organism like an organization and try to apply all these business principles from the world to a spiritual entity that has nothing to do with business the organism the the church is called the body of christ and the physical body we see created by god in genesis and god breathed into that physical body the breath of life and it became a living being in acts we're called to be witnesses we see the creation of the spiritual body called the church made up of believers in jesus christ into which god breathes again the breath of his spirit and it becomes a living

entity it's an organism christ is the head and as the body of christ we are called to continue what jesus began to do and to teach while he was here in the flesh we're not called to witness but to be witnesses to be witnesses of the fact of the kingdom of god of the redemption of the lost as a result of faith in the work of god through the shed blood of jesus christ his son on the cross now the book of james dovetails into this and i want you to learn to see the entire bible as an interlocking work of god it's not separate and disjointed everything in it flows together works together we've just just finished our study in james and the emphasis was on the workings of

faith the understanding that if we are truly born again if the spirit of god is truly at work within us then we will evidence the work of god in the work of god in the work of god in the work of that by the workings of faith by the things of god working themselves out through our lives we'll see that we'll know that we'll be witnesses of that now as we move from james to acts we see the practical application of james we see practically lived out what james was talking about we see in the lives of of these disciples of these apostles of the people themselves that will encounter this very activity the fact of the spirit of god working in and through these lives working out the faith that's there we are on the verge

of the imminent return of christ and we've talked about that i will continue to talk about that and emphasize that i want you ready we see the things in the world that preclude the end of the age and the coming again of jesus to this world we see a for the most part a laodicean attitude in in the lifestyle of the church apathy kind of a take it or leave it attitude among the church in general kind of a well you know i'll listen for a while but but just a leaving of the first love a moving into a vital relationship with christ into a an area where people are turning away now from the truth to seek teachers who will tickle their ears who will make them feel good about themselves who

will build up their self-esteem who while allowing them to go ahead and participate in their particular area of sin excusing sin while building up my low self-esteem and as the world becomes worse and worse as we've read several places in scripture but specifically in second timothy chapter three where paul tells timothy that it's going to wax worse and worse things are going to go from bad to worse people becoming lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of god as it becomes worse and worse many of its attitudes are finding their way into the church and the world in this hemisphere at least for the most part has a very low very wrong perspective of the church what the church is supposed to be and so we are called as believers in jesus christ to

be witnesses let's look at the first 11 verses here in acts chapter one in my former book theophilus i wrote about all that jesus began to do and to teach until the day that he was taken up to heaven after giving instructions to the holy spirit to the apostles he had chosen there's a period there after verse two in the greek it's a continuous sentence all the way through verse four so i'll try and read it that way uh through the holy spirit to the apostles he had chosen after his suffering he showed himself to these men gave many convincing proofs that he was alive and he appeared to them over a period of 40 days and he spoke about the kingdom of god and on one occasion while he was eating he was eating and he was eating and he was

eating with them he gave them this command do not leave jerusalem but wait for the gift my father promised which you have heard me speak about for john baptized with water but in a few days you will be baptized with the holy spirit and so when they met together they asked him lord are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to israel and he said to them it's not for you to know the times or dates the father is set by his own authority but you will receive power when the holy spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in jerusalem and in all judea and samaria and to the ends of the earth after he had said this he was taken up before their very eyes

and a cloud hit him from their sight and they were looking intently up into the sky as he was going when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them men of galilee they said why do you stand here looking into the sky the same jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven we are called to be witnesses and in these first 11 verses are laid out for us three areas in which we are to be witnesses in verses one through three we're called to be witnesses of the reality of the ministry of jesus we are called to be witnesses of the reality of the truth of the ministry of jesus verse one in my former book o theophilus i wrote about all that

jesus began to do and to teach the office theophilus is identified elsewhere in scripture in luke's gospel as being the recipient of that as well so as we come to the book of acts we believe that acts is written by dr luke his name is not mentioned there there are several places beginning in chapter 16 where he goes from third person to first person and as you find where those sections are where he begins to write instead of and they he starts saying and we went from here to there you can go to the different maps you can go to a chronological bible or a study bible and you can find the different areas where the missionary journeys are mentioned where the different cities are mentioned that

are mentioned in acts and you'll find where luke joined them or where he's mentioned as being part of that particular ministry team in various other sections of scripture the style of the greek that's written that the book of acts is written in is is particular it's very similar to to luke's gospel a very educated greek a very educated usage of the language luke is a doctor and as such as possibly uh was a slave the the name theophilus literally means a lover of god and can be applied to all of us who are now reading the the book of acts who are lovers of god and so this could be spiritualized to be said this is to us specifically it's not uh secondarily we're

reading it it is to the church and we can read it and glean blessings and benefits from it as god's word but specifically it was written to i believe an individual named theophilus a lover of god yes but but an individual nonetheless uh many commentaries bring out that uh that the physicians a lot of physicians during that time were slaves that slave owners would take and educate certain of their slaves uh in the skills and the medical skills of the medical field so they could have a resident doctor a doctor in-house um so that's very possible luke is a gentile uh and adds to the flavor of the book of acts as we see paul being called to the gentiles and taking dr luke with him on several occasions

but there's also the idea and i kind of lean this way that theophilus is very possibly an attorney and for once in life we get a good name for an attorney paul you remember was arrested in jerusalem at the end of his journeys seemingly starting a riot mentioning that god had sent him to the gentiles with the same gospel and the the jews in the area went nuts specifically in the temple caused a stir and paul was arrested and placed into protective custody the plot was uncovered to place paul into the open where he could be held in custody and he was arrested and could be killed and that was reported to the captain of the guard who transferred paul then to caesarea and paul remained in caesarea for a few years waiting to have his case decided by the

governors there who wanted not to get involved in a religious uprising and so they wanted to send the case back to jerusalem so paul being a roman citizen appealed his case to caesar which every roman citizen had a right to do in the areas of court cases they could appeal their final ruling to caesar just like we appeal cases to the supreme court he was subsequently sent to rome in custody where he waited for a couple of years before he was given audience to caesar and it's very possible that during this time as his attorney was preparing to come before caesar nero that luke was commissioned to write the treatises of both the gospel and the book of acts to be used in his defense in paul's defense before caesar

nero now there's nothing absolute on that but it's just something that i think is kind of interesting and very possible when you go back and read it and you can see that there's a lot of people who read luke's gospel in the light of of that particular possibility as well as uh the book of acts it kind of adds some uh i think some understanding kind of clarifies some things as we go through it so just kind of tuck that back in the back of your mind as we read through the book of acts acts is a transitional book it helps us transition between the gospels and the epistles if we did not have the book of acts it would be harder to understand several of the things written

in the epistles uh it would be hard to figure out how the disciples got to certain places why did they go to macedonia why were they in these areas of philippi and and uh and then up in antioch and over in greece why were they in these different areas and how did they get there and the book of acts helps lay that foundation for us brings a transition the last recorded fact that we have in in matthew's gospel about our lord jesus is the fact of his resurrection so also as we come to chapter one here in acts the first eleven verses contain an emphasis on the reality of the resurrection the last recorded fact about jesus in mark's gospel is the ascension and so also as we come to acts chapter one in these first eleven verses we see

the emphasis on the ascension we actually witness it here in these in verses 10 and 11 the last recorded fact about jesus in luke's gospel is the promised coming of the holy spirit and so also in chapter one of acts we see luke picking up with that same thing again here the tearing the waiting in jerusalem for the promise of the holy spirit and so also in chapter one of acts we see the last recorded fact in john's gospel was the promise of the second coming of jesus to the earth and so too here in chapter one in these first eleven verses luke begins with that emphasis on looking and anticipating the second coming of the lord so luke takes in these uh few chapters in

these 27 chapters of 28 chapters of the book of acts and brings together all the the uh the weavings of the gospels together and then fans them out so as we come to the epistles there's a there's a better understanding an easier understanding of the epistles themselves now he begins with the reality of the resurrection of jesus here in these first three verses as we are called to be ministers of the reality of the ministry of jesus the first part of that reality has to be the resurrection in my former book of theophilus i wrote about all that jesus began to do and to teach until the day was taken up to heaven after giving instructions through the apostles he had chosen and after his suffering after the cross he showed himself to these men

and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive and he appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke about the kingdom of god the reality of the resurrection is foundational to our faith and so as believers in jesus christ for us to be witnesses out there it has to be a reality in our own hearts that jesus rose again let me ask you is it is it a reality to you does it affect your life in the slightest do you think about it at all during the course of your day the fact that jesus has indeed risen from the dead and that that is a fact i took a course in college in english literature wasn't one of my most favorite courses but in that course i read a lot about julius caesar and his tenure as one of rome's emperors now most people and probably

most everybody here in this room would accept the fact that someone lived in the course of time julius caesar and he was indeed an emperor in the roman empire now let me ask you why do you believe it why do you believe it well it was in my history book said right there on page whatever it's an encyclopedia i can go to my encarta and bring it up on the computer screen and julius caesar and there's where he lived and there's the time that he lived and said all these stuff about him in the book is that right you realize that there is more factual evidence for the resurrection of jesus christ than there is for the life of julius caesar the accounts that we have that julius caesar lived and was the emperor of rome has been handed down

by eyewitnesses recorded in certain annals of history that have been passed down from generation to generation and the copies of those historical documents are what we base our belief that julius caesar lived and was a roman emperor that's what we base our belief on is the collection of these historical documents do you realize that there are more and more historical documents that are written documents of eyewitnesses from the period that confirm the resurrection of jesus christ we have more actual documents in our possession from that time eyewitness accounts of the resurrection of jesus christ than we do of the life of julius caesar and yet people go that's just religious

stuff that's just you know that's just your fairy tale that's just what you want to believe no it's recorded that same thing with evolution and creation evolution is a theory that means it's something that is proposed it's something that is proposed it's something that is proposed it's something proposed without proof it was a concept that was purported without observable evidence it was an idea for how things got to be the way that they are but there's no observable evidence that substantiates it but today in all not only of our classrooms but our entire historical structure of our function in the land is based upon the idea that evolution is a fact is a reality we just found

some bones in a digging thing out here that are you know hundreds of thousands of years old so this so they tell us millions of years of preparation in the earth billions of years of evolutionary development and people believe it most people just walk along as if that's the way that it is when in fact there is more observable evidence for the fact of creation as described in the bible spontaneous generation than there is for evolution there's a lot of evidence that there's more evidence for creation visible evidence if you ever take a trip to the grand canyon I want you to do something for me just kind of tuck this in the back of your mind and if you go to the grand canyon that god will bring it out you go oh here we are and I was asked to do

something when I came here oh yeah I remember pastor mark wanted me to come and stand at the edge of the grand canyon at the rim and just look out across it and they'll tell you at the park how this canyon was formed over several millions of years by a tiny little colorado riverway down there that just kind of etched and etched and etched and etched and etched and etched and etched and etched and etched and etched and etched and etched for millions of years, this humongous canyon out of the ground. I want you to, when you, when you, you can go through the tour and you can see all that stuff and then go to the edge of the Grand Canyon and look out the cross. When God brought the global

flood, which I believe was global, not localized, the Bible says that not only did the waters come down, I believe that there was a canopy that encircled the earth, filled with water that collapsed, but that wouldn't have been enough to globally flood the earth. The Bible says that the foundations of the deep opened up, exploded literally, and burst forth with water. And the combination of the two is what brought the water to the point where it was finally 40 feet above the highest mountain covering the earth. When you're standing there at the Grand Canyon looking out across over to the other rim, if indeed this thing was cut out by the Colorado River over

millions and millions of years, you would expect to see sediment line laid out across the canyon wall, down and down and down and down, all the way down to the river. If that indeed were the case. What you'll find when you stand there is that the striations are not horizontal, but they're vertical, coming up the sides of the wall. Very interesting when you stand there in the light of Genesis and the flood and the exploding of the foundations of the deep.

You see, there's more observable evidence for spontaneous creation, for the global flood, for the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, than for most historical facts that we claim as fact in our textbook. But does it affect your life? Are you a witness to the reality of the resurrection? Down in verse three, it says that he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs, infallible proofs that he was a lie. Hold your finger here and go with me to

2 Peter chapter one. 2 Peter chapter one. If your Bible is kind of creased open to James, because we were there so long, it's just on the other side of James. So you can go to James and keep going right and you'll come to 2 Peter. 2 Peter chapter one. Many convincing proofs. 2 Peter 1 16. Peter writes, we did not follow cleverly invented stories. We told you about the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his

majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the majestic glory saying, this is my son whom I love. With him I am well pleased. We ourselves heard this voice that came from the heavens when we were with him on the sacred mountain. Peter writes, we didn't, we didn't make this stuff up. We didn't invent this. We saw it with our

own eyes. This isn't some story that we just kind of put together at the last minute. There's a report from Duke University that's supposedly true that this past fall during finals, there were two sophomores who were taking organic chemistry and who did pretty well on the quizzes and the midterms and stuff in the class so that as they were coming into finals week, they had a good solid A. These two guys were so confident going into the finals that rather than spending the last weekend before finals week studying.

And everything before the chem final, it was on Monday. They decided to go up to the University of Virginia and party with some friends up there. And so they did and they had a great time and they were coming back and they were so hung over that they overslept all day Sunday and didn't make it back to Duke until early Monday morning. And rather than taking the final at that time, what they did was they found their professor, a professor Aldrich after the final. And they explained to him why they

missed the final. They told him that they had gone up to the University of Virginia for the weekend and had played a lot of games. And they had played a lot of games. And they had played a lot of games. And they had played a lot of games. And they had played a lot of games. And they had planned to come back in time to study, but that they had a flat tire on the way back. And they didn't have a spare and they couldn't get help for a long time. And so they were late getting back to the campus.

Their professor thought it over and then he agreed that they could go ahead and make up the final on the following morning. And the two guys were really elated. They thought, all right, you know. Came in the next day. They'd studied all that night before. Came in the next day at the time that the professor had told them to come. And he placed them in separate rooms and handed each one of them a test booklet and told them that they could go ahead and begin.

And he placed them in separate rooms and handed each one of them a test booklet and told them that they could go ahead and begin. They both looked at the first problem, which was something simple about free radical formation, and it was worth five points. Cool, they thought. This test is going to be a breeze. They finished the first problem and then they turned over the page to the next problem. But they were unprepared when they saw the next page.

For the next question said, for 95 points, which tire? We have not followed cleverly devised schemes or stories that have been made up, but we are eyewitnesses, Peter said. We saw him. These things are true. He says back in the book of Acts, it says that he appeared to them, if you're reading King James or one of the other translations, I think it says he was seen of them over a period of 40 days.

The word in the Greek that is translated into English, he was seen of them or he appeared unto them, is the word ophthalmia, from which we get our word ophthalmic. It's ophthalmia. And it has to do with seeing. It literally means they eyeball them. They see them. They scoped him out. They observed everything they could observe about him in his resurrected body to make sure he was real.

John goes further in 1 John chapter 1 saying, these things that we have heard and seen and our hands have handled, we proclaim to you. John goes on to tell us that not only did they scope him out, not only did they ask to see the nail prints in his hand and his side, the sphere in his side, but they touched him. They touched those holes. They touched him and held him.

And realized that this indeed was Jesus, the dead. All that Jesus began to do and teach, Luke says, I recorded this for you. Those things should be evident in our lives if we are truly believers. If the workings of faith indeed are working out of us, then those things should be true in our lives. The reality of the resurrection should be true and understandable and evident in our lives as we talk about the truth of the word of God.

As we talk about the truth of his love and his grace and his mercy. As we talk about the truth of his faithfulness. God is so faithful. And he demonstrates that day after day. Are we witnesses of the reality of the ministry of Jesus? Secondly, we are called to be witnesses of the reality of the power of the Holy Spirit. Verses 4 through 8. The reality of the power of the Holy Spirit.

In verse 4, Jesus tells the disciples, don't leave Jerusalem but wait for the gift my Father has promised which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized one day. John baptized with water. But in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Baptism. Baptism is a mark of identification. John the Baptist baptized unto redemption. The redemption of sin.

His baptism didn't save. Nor does baptism today save. It's a mark of identification. The same marking. When John was baptizing, the Pharisees came out to him in the wilderness. And they asked him. He was causing a stir. They weren't questioning baptism. They understood baptism. They baptized. But they wondered what he was baptizing for or unto. What he was identifying people with through his baptism.

And so first they had to clear up who he was. They said, are you the Christ? And he said, nope. And they said, well are you that prophet? That Moses talked about back in Deuteronomy. That Moses had said would come after him. That the people needed to listen to and give heed to. Or God would destroy them. And John said, nope, not him either. And so they said, well are you Elijah?

Because they knew Elijah had been taken off in a fiery chariot up to heaven. And that Malachi says that he was coming again. Elijah would be here in the last days. So are you Elijah? And John the Baptist said, nope, not Elijah either. And they said, well who are you then? And he says, quoting Isaiah, I'm the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Prepare the way of the Lord.

Make straight the path of the Lord. The Lord is coming. The Redeemer that you've read about. The Redeemer that you've heard about. He's coming. And I'm opening the way. I'm getting attention called so that people will be ready. Because he's coming. And so if you are one who is understanding that you haven't been able to keep the law that Moses gave us and you are broken and weighed down with sin,

then you come and be baptized unto repentance. Anticipating the coming of the Messiah who's going to take away the sin of the world. And that's what the people were coming for. They were identifying themselves with the coming Messiah who would take away the sin. They were coming with repentant hearts seeking to be identified with the one who would finally remove

the sin of their disobedience. And they were being baptized unto that. Identified with the Redeemer that was coming. So too, baptism today. When we are baptized, when we go out here in July, we'll be baptizing people who've asked Jesus to come into their lives. Same thing. I'm broken under sin. I'm helpless and hopeless without you, Lord. Come and save me. He has done that.

He's come into their hearts. They're identifying with that through baptism. Being obedient as he's called us to do in Matthew chapter 28. And before public eyes. Being identified with Jesus Christ through the sacrament of baptism. Through the ritual of baptism. In like manner, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a mark of identification. It identifies us as being and belonging to the Lord.

Now not just with an outward sacrament, a ritual, but with an inward transformation that becomes evident outward. From the inside out. The workings of faith now coming out. You and I cannot generate what James tells us needs to be evident in the workings of faith. You and I can't do it. We can do sort of, you know, some of it. But it can't be anything that's ongoing and consistent and growing in our lives

without the inward reality of the Holy Spirit. And so the Holy Spirit was coming upon the people. Coming upon this new entity that God was going to build called his church. And it was going to be a mark of identification. Jesus calls it here the gift. Wait in Jerusalem for the gift. My father promised. It's a gift that God gives to us when we believe. It's not something you have to beg for.

It's not something you have to tarry for and wait for. Yeah, they waited in Jerusalem because this was how the thing got started. But the minute you ask Jesus to come into your heart, you receive at that instant the gift of the Holy Spirit. He's the third person of the Godhead. He's not some force or some unnamed entity. He's not some gooey mass of energy up there that just kind of zap.

And you're changed, you know. He's the third person of the Godhead. Who comes into your life, who indwells you. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit was unknown to the Old Testament believer. Sure, some people for a while were blessed with the opportunity to be temporarily indwelt by the Spirit of God. But because man's sin had not yet been dealt with, because Jesus had not gone to the cross,

he couldn't stay there. David knew the blessing of God's dwelling within him. And in Psalm 51, he asked God not to take the Holy Spirit from him. Psalm 51 is a repentance psalm after Bathsheba. And David realizes, oh man, I've really blown at God. This is a perfect chance for you to take your spirit, but please create in me a clean heart. Don't take your Holy Spirit from me.

He knew the blessing of that fellowship with God through his Holy Spirit. But now, since Jesus has gone to the cross and been raised from the dead, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit for the believer is a given. It's a gift. It's the natural result of by faith receiving the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. At the baptism of the Holy Spirit, at the minute you receive it,

the instant you're born again, the instant you ask Jesus into your heart, he comes into your heart instantly. Ephesians 1.13 tells us that. Ephesians 1.13 tells us that at that point you and I are sealed, uses the word sealed, has the idea of being marked by God, as wood that is stamped by God. And the embossing or the stamp of the wood with a lumber miller who buys wood goes deep into the wood.

So God's Spirit goes deep into us and seals us. You and I are bought with a price. Bought and paid for by the Lord. And we are sealed with the gift of his Spirit. At that instant also, he places us into this organism. He takes us and places us into this beautiful organism called the church, the body of Christ. And you and I now function together with the other members of the body,

just as our physical body functions. Now, granted, sometimes it's kind of spastic and does some stupid things that hurts itself. But it forgives itself and likes, you know, ministers to it and, you know, takes care of it. We're growing. But we're placed into the body of Christ. And you are gifted by the Spirit to function in your particular position in the body of Christ.

And a lot of times where we have trouble in the function of the church is not only that we treat it as an organization rather than an organism, but we envy certain body parts. I want to be a nose. I don't like being a hip. I'm always covered up. I want to be a nose. You know, we start trying to function as a nose when we've been designed to be a hip and it doesn't work.

Even plastic surgery wouldn't help that. So we need to realize that God's placed us in the body through the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the particular area of function where He knows we will function the best and each part needs the other to function. Each part needs the whole to be able to function together. So the Holy Spirit indwells us. He seals us. He gifts us.

And He also, it says here, He empowers us. And we'll see that in verse 8. He empowers us. Now, Jesus has just told them, Wait in Jerusalem for the gift that My Father has promised, the Holy Spirit that My Father has promised. And then all of a sudden here comes verse 6. It's out of left field. But will you restore at this time the kingdom to Israel? That's a legitimate question.

But let me kind of give you an idea of how this came about. You remember James and John. And you remember their mom that came to Jesus and said, Hey, when you come into your kingdom, which they figured was right then, soon, you know, like as soon as they got to Jerusalem, would you let My boys sit, one on your right hand and one on your left? And Jesus said, Well, are they able to drink the cup that I'm about to drink?

And they said, Yeah, we are. And He said, Well, you're going to drink it whether you're ready for it or not. But whether or not you sit at My right hand or left, it's not mine to give. It's already been established by My Father in heaven. Well, the other guys were upset that these guys came and tried to get in front, you know, kind of button line and get up there at the front row.

So there was a dispute that arose and it went all the way to the cross. That dispute was all something that went on. And this is funny because now it's after the cross, resurrection, Jesus is ready to ascend to heaven, appeared to Him for 40 days. Now He tells them, Wait in Jerusalem for the gift that My Father is going to give. And you know what's on their mind?

What about the kingdom? Don't we get thrones yet? Isn't it time? You've already conquered death. Isn't it time for thrones? Don't we get to rule? Aren't you going to restore the kingdom now? Isn't it time? Don't we get to sit down for a while? And Jesus said, No, it's not for you to know the times or the dates the Father has set by His own authority. Not for you to know the times or the dates

that the Father has set for you by His own authority. The word for times there in the Greek is the word chronos, which means a full length of time. Literally, it means from the time that the stars began to be created to shine. In other words, the fullness of time. Is this the time now where you started it? And now it's time to end it all? Is this that time?

Is the fullness of time come? Jesus had talked to them when He was teaching in the Gospels about the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. They didn't understand that. In the fullness of time. They didn't understand. Is this the fullness of time? Are we done yet? The word dates there in the Greek is the word kairos, and it means a specific date or a specific opportunity.

In other words, are we at the end of time? Isn't this the specific time yet that you're going to set up your kingdom? And Jesus said, That's not for you to know the specific time. Now, people get confused with that and say, Well, you're a last days prophet person. You know, always talking about Jesus coming. Jesus is coming. You're not even supposed to talk about that.

Yes, you are. I mean, that's the highlight of the Gospels. That's the highlight of the book of Acts. That's the highlight of each one of the epistles. That's the hope that James is telling us that we hold on to, is that Jesus is coming again soon. The imminent return of Christ. We hang on to that. I don't know the date. I can't tell you He's coming in September.

September 4th at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. I can't tell you that. You're not supposed to know that. But we can know the times and the seasons. We're commanded to know the times and the seasons. We'll be held accountable for knowing the times and the seasons. But specific dates, Jesus said, don't worry about specific dates. You wait there for the gift. The times and the seasons, the Father is set by His own authority.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. You and us, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. Interesting. The Holy Spirit is coming upon us. Three activities of the Holy Spirit. Three words that describe His activity in Scripture. The Holy Spirit, first of all, is with us. The Holy Spirit is with us. The Greek word is para.

He is with us. Jesus told the disciples that the Holy Spirit had been with them. And the Holy Spirit draws us to Christ. Before you came to Jesus or before you come to Jesus, maybe some of you are sitting out here and you haven't made that commitment yet. You've never asked Jesus into your heart. But you're here and you're hearing this stuff and you're going, why am I here?

There's an area in your life where evidently you have seen the emptiness. You've seen the whole. You've tried to attain that position. You've tried to attain that lifestyle to bring happiness. And it just hasn't fulfilled. Or you're going through some traumatic occurrence in your life. Some area that's just got you crushed down. And you realize your own personal frailty.

And you realize there has to be something outside of me. There has to be something more than that. And your heart is open to the seeking of that. That's the Holy Spirit. He's with you. He's drawing you to that point where you realize that you need more than yourself. You need the Lord. And God has provided a way. The Holy Spirit is with us bringing that conviction.

Then once you come to that point, you say, Lord, it is You. I need You. Come into my life. Forgive me, Lord. And cleanse me and fill me. He comes in you. The Greek is en. It means in. Jesus told the disciples, the Spirit has been with you. He will be in you. And that happens again as we've seen. The instant that a person believes in Jesus. The instant that he surrenders his heart to Christ.

The Holy Spirit comes in. But here Jesus is saying that the Holy Spirit is going to come upon you. The Greek word is epi. Epi. It means to come over. To overflow. John tells us about that. In John chapter 4. And John even clarifies that Jesus was speaking of the Holy Spirit when he said it. That's when he's talking to the woman at the well about drinking water.

And he said, hey, if you only knew who was talking to you. And the water that I give is unto eternal life. And it will literally come flowing out of you. It will bubble out from your innermost being. He's talking about the filling. The baptism of the Holy Spirit. The upon experience. The overflowing. Paul tells us in Ephesians 5 that we are to be being filled with the Spirit.

The overflowing where the Spirit consumes us. I think that's the upon. I don't think it's an involuntary kind of thing. Jesus told them to go and wait. They had to voluntarily go and wait. They were waiting for the Spirit to move. For the Spirit to come. They didn't know what they were waiting for. But they were waiting. It's a voluntary activity. You and I, to be filled with the Spirit.

To have the Spirit flowing out of us. Have to voluntarily surrender to that Spirit. You and I have to willfully want to be obedient to God. And let His Spirit fill us. Let me show you why I think that's true. And why that is what the baptism of the Holy Spirit is all about. Jesus said, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. Okay, let me ask you the question.

Power to do what? Power for what? It's not just power to speak in tongues. I speak in tongues. It's not just power to do good things. It's not power to gain for yourself what you want. It's not a power to command and say this is mine in Jesus' name. It's not a power for that. He tells us what the power is for right here in that verse. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses.

It's the power to witness. It's the power to be witnesses. You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. It's a power for testifying. It's a power for being that witness of Christ unto the ends of the earth. It's the dunamis power that He gives us to be witnesses. It's a dunamis power to be what James talked about.

The workings of faith. Where the tongue is under control. Where relationships are under control. Where the hope that we have is in the Lord. Where our finances are under control. And the area of the use of finances are under control. It's the power to be witnesses. That's what the Holy Spirit comes upon us for. And we're going to talk about the gifts a little bit later in our study in the book of Acts.

Because we'll see them used especially as we come into Acts chapter 2. But that's the purpose of the power. In His telling us that we are to be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth. He gives us not only a geographical outline of what's to happen. But He gives us the outline for the book of Acts. In chapters 1 through 7 we'll see this area of the church and its beginnings in Jerusalem.

In chapters 8 and 9 we'll see Judea and Samaria. In chapters 10 then through 28 we'll see the uttermost parts of the earth. As the church explodes and the gospel is taken out to the uttermost parts of the earth. Billy Sunday. Preacher from days gone by. Used to say the Lord has called me to proclaim the gospel to the gutter most parts of the earth. To the gutter most.

You know you and I, our world is basically right here for the most part. Now maybe some of you are blessed with the opportunity to go a little bit further. Maybe some of you have even been overseas sometimes. But the main part of your earthly sphere of existence is right here in this particular area. We are to be witnesses right here in our Jerusalem. As we go out a little further and visit family it's in Judea.

And Samaria. Samaria was a foreign land. It was a land in the northern part of the north central part of Israel. That had well there's a whole history behind Samaria. But the Jews didn't like the Samaritans. And so maybe there's some areas where you're called into family relationship. Or friend relationship in the areas out of the area here that you don't particularly want to go to.

That's Samaria for you. Or maybe it's to the gutter most parts of the earth. Maybe it's where you really have no idea that God has called you to. But all of a sudden you just sense the Lord's leading you there. Let me share as we come down to closing. Briefly the summary of a letter that we've received as Calvary Chapel pastors. About a brother and a ministry team that's going in August.

From August 13th to the 28th. A brother from a Calvary Chapel in Santa Margarita, California. Is taking a team, ministry team into Sudan in Africa. I really want you to pray for this guy. His name is Gary. And I'll tell you his last name but you won't. I'll even spell it for you. But if you just remember Gary from Calvary Chapel in California. And pray for this brother and the ministry team.

His last name is Kusunoki. K-U-S-U-N-O-K-I K-U-S-U-N-O-K-I They are going into Sudan. They've been there four times already since March of 96. I don't know if you follow the news. I don't know if you open our Aidy Bidy Traveler. That little section just on the other side of the comics. That always deals with international news. But read some of that. It'll do you some good.

The Sudan is hot right now. There's tribal warfare going on. Where this particular area is. It's more than tribal. It's Islamic versus non-Islamic. I don't know if you know much about the nation. The nation of Islam. But Islam is not forgiving. Islam is not coexisting. You cannot not be Islamic. You cannot not be a Muslim. And that's okay with them. You either are a Muslim or you die.

And so all the little nice mosques we see there popping up all over this country are not just to coexist with Christianity. There is a program that is worldwide domination. And you either become a Muslim or you die. Period. That's why there's no coexistence with Israel in the Middle East. There is no peace over there. Understand that right now. There will not be a negotiated peace until the Antichrist comes in for that last seven year period.

Because they do not want to coexist with Israel. They want to annihilate Israel. That's always been on their agenda and will always be on their agenda. Well in Sudan there's a ministry team that has been going for the last year. And let me just kind of share some of his letters so that you will understand what's going on as far as being called to the uttermost parts of the earth.

And maybe God's going to lay on your heart something to this extent. He says, For you who may not be aware, Sudan is probably the most dangerous place in the world to be a Christian. The government is controlled by a Muslim cleric named Turabi who has the goal of Islamization of the whole country. If this means killing the eight million non-Muslims in the whole country, so be it.

Current estimates conservatively put the death toll at 1.5 million people that have been killed by the government of Sudan since 1983. Sudan is currently involved in wholesale slavery, taking women and children from the south and forcing them into slavery in the north and reportedly in other Muslim countries. The pastors there do not even own a Bible and have had little or no training in the word. Consequently, the Christianity that exists is one that is rife with syncretism.

In other words, they incorporate their traditional beliefs in with Catholicism. Most have never heard the true gospel. They made a trip in August of 96 and 50 of the 60 people that came were saved in that one ministry time. They're taking a medical team as well. There's a lot of cholera and all over there. They've immunized over 3,000 kids. They want to do that again as they go this next month in August.

They're taking a medical team with them. The pastors that go with them are trained on how to give immunizations as well. So if they're not teaching, they're immunizing kids as they go into this country. We have heard eyewitness accounts of torture, the crucifixion of pastors, burning of churches, rape, mutilation, and other atrocities, all because of the government's intense hatred of Christ.

We've had the opportunity to purchase and free slave children on our past trips and to see the damage they've done. And to see the damage created by the government's plan of mass extermination. Our goal is not to bring about a military or political solution to this, but to stand alongside our brothers and sisters during their darkest hour. Since I received this, I got another email this morning, and the village where they go has been bombed.

I mean, they're right on the front lines of all of this stuff. He has a nine-month-old adopted daughter from that village and is sending her testimony. So as soon as we get that, we'll go ahead and share that with you as well. So just a little more personal touch so you can be praying for the ministry that's going on. And this is just in Sudan. I mean, it's going on all over the world.

The team is going to spend approximately six days ministering in southern Sudan. It's an extremely harsh condition. They'll be sleeping in tents, eating military rations, or the local food. The temperature will probably be somewhere around 110 with 90 to 100 percent humidity. It's also extremely dangerous. Working right on the front lines of the war-torn village,

it's been bombed and raided in the past. There's a danger of being attacked by air or ground troops, and we're always ready to move out at a moment's notice. Planes have been detained due to military activity or weather. We're flying in without government permission and attempting to avoid their radar and air defenses. The areas we work in are no-fly zones, and the planes can be shot down.

The government is trying to kill everyone in these areas and do not take kindly to anyone trying to help them. We're going in during the rainy season because that's the safest time to take in a big team. The ground troops have the most difficulty moving during this time of year. If you're afraid of snakes, they have two kinds of cobras, vipers, and mambas. And the insects, they have centipedes and scorpions.

This is probably not the trip for you. Or it may be that God is calling you and will give you the strength to overcome that. He says, I hate snakes, too. And then he gives the price for this. It's like $3,500 to go. Now, I've been on mission trips that have cost about two grand, and I've slept in nice hotels, and I have had to eat the local food, but it's heated and it's nice.

You know, I've been on those kind of mission trips. But these are guys that are going right into the guts of Satan's activity. One of the things he writes close to the end of this that really gripped my heart when I got the letter. He says, this is not an inexpensive trip. It's not an easy trip. I don't think that I could ever overemphasize the danger involved.

As one pastor put it, God said to go out into all the world. He never said we would come back. The power of the Holy Spirit empowers us to be witnesses wherever God's called us to be, wherever God's called us to go. And we are to be witnesses of that fact wherever he's called us. And realize that wherever we go, we may not be coming back. That's a plus. We're with the Lord.

Either way. Either way. Thirdly and finally, we're called to be witnesses of his promised return. Called to be witnesses of his promised return. Verse 9, after he said this, Jesus was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. And they were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.

Men of Galilee, they said, why do you stand here looking into the sky? The same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven. Jesus. Is. Coming. Back. He's coming back, it says, in the same way. Literally. Visibly. Going to be seen by every eye. He is going to come, Zechariah 14, verse 4 says,

his foot will touch the Mount of Olives in Israel right outside Jerusalem. The mountain will split in two when he touches it and form a valley through which water that's going to flow from the temple will flow down into the south. Actually flow right on down into the Dead Sea and heal it. That's going to happen. That's a reality. Now there's a time coming that as we come into the epistles now,

Paul's going to talk about. That's part of the second coming scenario. Where the church is going to be removed before these last final events of human history. We call it the rapture. The removal of the church. The removal of God's body before he brings judgment because God's body has already suffered the judgment of redemption on the cross. So his body doesn't have to suffer his judgment again.

His body will be removed before that great and terrible day of the war. Corresponds with the last of the three major feasts that every Jewish male worships. Every Jewish male 20 years and older was required to come to Jerusalem to celebrate. Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. Passover was fulfilled literally when Jesus hung on the cross on Passover

to become the sin offering for the world. Pentecost was fulfilled literally here in chapter 2 of Acts when the Holy Spirit came upon the believers for the first time ever. And the church was born. Symbolizing the in-gathering, the blessing of the fruit of the harvest. The Feast of Tabernacles is still the only feast that remains to be seen. With a literal fulfillment in the area of the redemptive process of God.

Now as I understand it there are two trumpets that herald the Feast of Tabernacles. One at the beginning and the second one to call the people to go ahead and move. The first trumpet I believe is 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. The trumpet call of God. The dead in Christ will rise and those which are alive and remain. The church is going to be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air.

Then the second trumpet call at the end of the seven year period of the tribulation will herald the end of the age. The coming of Christ. The setting up and establishing of the Kingdom of God for a thousand years upon a reconstructed earth. Now we're to be witnesses of that. That should be a hope that's in us. It should be evident in our lives as we move through our daily life.

Is it? I pray that it is. Heavenly Father help us Lord. Help us to understand that you've called us to be witnesses. Witnesses of the reality of the ministry of Jesus. Witnesses of the reality of the power of the Holy Spirit. And witnesses of the reality of the fact that He's coming again. It's a strength. It's something that can't be generated on our own. It's something that only happens as we come into relationship with you through your Son.

So Father as we close I pray for any that are here that have never entered that relationship. They've been there at the door and never knocked. Never asked you to come in. Father may their hearts be moved right now to do so. To ask you to come in and sup with them.