Acts 1:1-8

Morning. Did y'all stand with me? I want to welcome you this morning to Calvary Chapel. And those of you who are joining us online, we welcome you this morning. Would you join me in prayer? Father, we thank you for this opportunity this Sunday morning to come and worship in song and study your word. We want to lift up our service. We want to lift up Children's Church at the other end of the hall.

That you would bless each teacher as they teach your word. Bless each youngster as they hear it. I pray that you would bless the nursery workers as they looked after the babies. That that would just be a blessed time for them. And that you would just bless those little youngsters. We thank you, Lord, for your grace, your mercy, your sovereignty, Lord. Your loving kindness, Lord.

And we would ask that you would now order our service, Lord. Give us hearts to worship this morning. No matter not how we feel, but by faith we're going to worship and sing unto you, Lord. We ask for your blessing on our time.

And to sing whatever is made.

We worship you.

We come to you this morning to worship your holy name. Purse and sin.

Trinity. Oh, Father, we give you thanks this morning. We thank you for your love. We thank you for the peace that you give us.

Oh, sovereign, the saints adore your name.

We praise you. It has been wasted.

You're an artist and a potter.

It has been staked. You're in the first service as long as we're on topside this earth. Whatever position we're in, we can serve you. We thank you so much. Would you all stand? For the sun is. For my song, my strength. My song and my treasure.

Yes, Lord, that's our prayer. We draw close to you. Truly, for our daily breath. Our waking breath, our daily bread. For the sun to rise in our sleep at night. All these things, Lord. As we walk in the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Those victories that are still ahead, Lord. As we face each time, day to day. And there will be a day that we will all, if not raptured first.

Pass through death and enter rest and we'll rise with you, Lord, in glory. We praise you, Lord Jesus. Bless now our service as we continue as Lewis comes up, Lord, and teaches your word. Give us open ears to hear, eyes to see, hearts to perceive, a willingness to obey as we look to you to be our strength in Jesus name. Amen. The Lord bless you. Let's have some fellowship.

All righty, guys. Welcome in. Welcome in. Happy Father's Day to all the handsome papas in here. You guys don't get told enough, but you guys are all handsome. Welcome in. By the way, also for you dads, we have a gift for you. Just stop by one of the ushers and they got you. They'll hook you up. But we just want you to know that you guys are loved and you guys are appreciated.

We got no announcements, really. Everything's going. Everything's going as planned, other than the fact that Ryan's not here and I'm subbing in. Woo! Yeah. We have, for our responsive reading this morning, we're going to be doing Psalm 128. So we have New American Standard Bibles in the rows. Feel free to grab one. And once you turn there, if you could, stand in the honor of reading God's word together.

I'll be reading the odd number verse. And Pastor Alan will be reading the even numbers. If you want to follow along with him, that would be amazing.

Blessedness of the fear of the Lord. A song of a sense. How blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways. When you shall eat of the fruit of your hands, you will be happy and it will be well with you. Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine within your house. Your children like olive plants. Behold, for thus shall the man be blessed, who fears the Lord.

The Lord bless you from Zion, and may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life. Indeed, may you see your children's children. Peace be upon Israel. And Heavenly Father, as we open up your word and we choose to see you, Lord, we ask that you would reveal yourself to us, Lord. We set our hearts and our minds upon you. And you alone, Lord.

We give you control. We ask that you would, Lord, lead us by your spirit into whatever truths that you have for us, Lord. And give us willing hearts to receive whatever it is you have. We love you in Jesus' name. Amen. If you guys want to open up your Bibles to Acts chapter 1. Acts chapter 1. We're going to be reading verses 1 through 8. The book of Acts was written by a man named...

Luke. Luke was a Gentile, believed to be a Gentile. He was a doctor. He was... or a physician. I don't know if that is the difference, but he's one of the two. And he's very detail-oriented. He wrote two books. We got the book of Luke, obviously, and then the book of Acts, here. He wrote it to a man named Theophilus, who was believed and believed to be his master at the time.

And oftentimes, in that culture, doctors were servants to another. And if you were wealthy enough, you could afford your own position, which would be kind of sweet, right? But nonetheless, it seems to be through the reading of the book of Luke and the book of Acts that this Theophilus has sent Luke off on a journey to find out about this man called Jesus. Find out about who this guy is, if he's real, what the stories on the ground are of him.

And then, in the book of Acts, it becomes, what's the story of the remnants of this man and his disciples who he left behind? Because it goes from a small group of frightened people whose Savior was just murdered and resurrected to taking over the world. I mean, look, we're all here, because of what the early church did. And so, my goal, as we're reading this particular portion of text in the book of Acts, is that it would spur your heart to continue on in the book of Acts.

But also, that it shows us how the early church started. How the Lord used these flawed, flawed individuals and built up His church. The cool thing was, is it wasn't like now, where their goal was to build a big church and have multiple campuses where they could have one pastor teach at seven locations and have all of these sweet coffee shops, although we have a sweet coffee shop, in the back, right? It's not about that.

Their goal was simply to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit in whatever way that was for them there. And we see that the church blew up. And so, I hope that as we go through this, that it would spur your desire to be used by the Lord and to build His church now. To get involved in whatever ministry God has for us. And whatever kind of ministry God wants to use you in.

And that He would give you a willing heart to jump on in with the work. Because apart from the Holy Spirit, no matter what work you do for the Lord, it means nothing. The only way it means anything is if you hop in the passenger seat while He drives. And you let the Holy Spirit empower you. You let the Holy Spirit guide you. You let the Holy Spirit lead you.

And inspire you.

And so, once again, this is written by Luke. Verse 1, I'll read 1 through 3. And we'll go back over. It says, The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach. And so the day in which He was taken up, after He, through the Holy Spirit, had given the commandments to the apostles, whom He had chosen, to whom He also presented Himself,

alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. So, this little portion is basically a clear, concise recap of the book of Luke and what happened in the book of Luke. It was written from the time of John the Baptist being born all the way up until, the time that Jesus ascends into heaven. Once again, He's writing to this man, Theophilus.

His name means a friend of God. And it's such a beautiful name for anyone who's seeking to follow God. And my question to you, just with that name, is are you really a friend of God? Are you really a friend of God? What does it mean to be a friend? Well, a friend spends quality time. Really, the biggest thing you can get out of a friend, the biggest thing you can give a friend is time.

The most important thing you can give a friend. I have a lot of friends, but the friends that I look to the most are the ones that have spent the most time with me. And my question to you is, if you are a friend of God, what kind of friend of God are you? How much time do you give Him? Is it the first fifteen minutes? Or is it all your day? You, invite Him into everything?

Or just this little portion of your life? Of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach. So, one cool thing about this little portion is that He records not just what Jesus taught. Because we can all agree that Jesus says some pretty fire things. Really good teachings. Super good. Even just from, I guess from, not necessarily, from just a moral standpoint,

but in general, if you apply His principles to your life, they're really good. But, it was also what He did. The miracles that He performed and the life that He lived with the disciples. He was the same person. Right? His teachings didn't disqualify the things that He did and His, the things that He did didn't disqualify the teachings that He did. Right? Right?

Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? He brought. Often times, we can be good talkers and not good walkers. Or we don't always practice what we preach. We say one thing and do a whole nother. Was it, like parents tell their kids, do what I say, not what I do. Right? And often times we can live lives that way, but that wasn't the way in Jesus.

and if we are to follow jesus our lives should match that and oftentimes i find um within myself and uh amongst uh i would say a group of people this size uh i often have a different hat for different people i'm around you know when i'm around my christian friends i make sure to clean off my christian hat really nice take all the lint off and put it on and i fit right in with the best of them i can talk the christian talk i can say all the amens and the holy holies i want and i can fit in and oftentimes when i'm at work with unbelievers i i kind of take my christian hat off and jump on in with the jokes and all the inappropriate jokes and and try to be just like them

when when jesus he was he practiced what's called i don't know if you've ever done sports you've heard this word uh integrity same person no matter who's around right i remember my coach is always preaching integrity integrity that's how jesus lived um and the big thing is that he was filled with the spirit oh robbie was teaching on wednesday night about uh when jesus was filled with the spirit in john chapter uh is it not matthew matthew chapter four um he's filled the spirit and led into the wilderness uh for temptation but the key thing is that he was filled with the spirit and empowered by the spirit to get through it and might i add if the savior of the world our savior the son of god our lord

god in the flesh if he needed to be filled with the spirit or if he wasn't filled with the spirit rather because he didn't necessarily need it but if he was filled with the spirit and obedient to the spirit how much more so should we now real quick side note who is the spirit it's not some it's not an it i keep saying it but he's not an it he's a third person of the godhead the trinity we just sang about it him but he's a he's a person and as such he's a someone to be acknowledged someone to be um experienced and have a relationship with and to be filled with um now what is he not gonna do what is he going to do first and foremost he brings glory to jesus first and foremost he points people to jesus um

a litmus test if you can tell if you're walking in the spirit or not is who are you pointing to ask yourself am i pointing people to me or am i pointing people to jesus and so um he was filled with spirit and he was yeah until the day in which he was taken up uh after he through the spirit had given commandments to the apostles so after this he gave uh before he ascended he gave commandments to the disciples he gave them a few uh uh not necessarily words of encouragement just commands i like the word command i don't know if you guys like like the word command personally i like the word command um i was in the army and for me when i hear a command it makes my life easier because i know exactly what i'm supposed to do if someone's

like you know what figure it out yeah i just i don't really care what you do just get it done my mind kind of goes haywire uh because that's not how i'm programmed i need to know exactly what you want me to do otherwise i will not do what you want me to do um and so he gives them this command why because he has the authority to do so but the cool thing is he gave the gave the commands with the holy spirit so through the holy spirit he gives these commands he has the authority to give them these commands but next question what is what are these commands i want you guys to flip with me uh first or you don't have to flip but i'll read it to you uh write it down if you want the end of uh luke verses uh chapter 24 verses 46 to 49 you you

this is the last command he gave thus it is written and thus it was necessary for christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations beginning at jerusalem and you are witnesses of these things behold i send the promise of my father upon you but tarry in the city of jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high so this command was to uh bear witness to jesus and preach uh that that it was necessary for christ to suffer the repentance and remission of sins and to preach his name um in all of the nations starting in jerusalem but before you can get started with that i want you to wait in jerusalem for the power uh that i want to give you and then

the last commandment or the first commandment rather uh first to last commandment that he gives can be found in matthew 28 verses 18 to 20 it says all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth go therefore and make disciples of all the nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit teaching them to observe all things that i have commanded you and lo i am with you always even to the end of the age so he gives them this great commission after he comes uh reveals himself to be alive after the resurrection but this command is that they would go out and make disciples what does it mean to make a disciple it means to make a follower of christ we're not making disciples of ourselves um but it's

an important thing uh in the body of christ my question is what does that look like in your life have you made a disciple of christ are you out there mission-minded and mission focused and seeking to be used by the lord and in your community to bring people to jesus the the big thing uh one of the big things for me this is the one i take i take to heart uh personally is verse 20 that last part that says teaching them to observe all things that i've commanded you excuse me the big thing is pointing them to god's word and letting the word of god teach them because the only thing i can teach someone is what god's already taught me and i can give them and lead them into the word of god but this command the great commission that jesus gave to them

was given and before they could get started on that he told him to tarry a while in jerusalem to wait um he gave them pretty specific commands right there right go everywhere make disciples baptize them teach them right get after it this is the command i want you to do and for me that's music to my ears that means all right once we get back we're just gonna get started we're gonna leave this place we're gonna go make disciples let's get after it but he told him to wait first and i don't know about you but when i know what i'm supposed to do and then i'm told to wait first before i can get started it's it's it's very difficult um but the question is why does he want them to wait what is the point of him asking them what is the point for them to wait

because they know what they're supposed to do and i think we could all agree that none of the commands that he gave were too complicated right bringing people to jesus like uh reading the word with them that's too complicated we could do that i could do that if i could do that shoot i know you guys can it's not complicated but why didn't he want them to get started because he wanted them to have the power of the holy spirit with them he wanted them to be filled with that power so these were the commands that he gave him first to this is what i want you to do and then go wait in jerusalem verse three to whom he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many infallible proofs being seen by them during 40 days and

speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of god this is one of the biggest parts of our our faith the fact that jesus presented himself revealed himself to be alive so if we see that it says alive that means we can say okay he wasn't a zombie he wasn't a ghost wasn't in a okay well let me back up i don't know if you guys know about coachella at all anyone know about coachella such a pretty popular music event that happens in coachella valley in california every year but a few years ago everyone was super hyped that they had a hologram of tupac performing it was pretty cool it looked realistic um but it was like ah tupac's a lot tupac's alive he never died but it was just a hologram right that's not how jesus came back or returned he wasn't

just a hologram it was a flesh and blood he was flesh and blood he was a A real man with the apostles. We see first that Thomas doubted that he even was resurrected. Thomas is like, unless I see, touch the wounds in his hand and the scar on his side, I won't believe you. Jesus pops in and says, what up, my boy? Go ahead. Touched it. Feel the wounds. And revealed himself to be flesh and blood.

That Thomas could tangibly touch and look at. The man he spent three years with. He's able to see that he's actually alive. He's a real person. Like, imagine the mind-boggling nature of that event. Because you just saw this dude pass away on the cross. And now he's walking in front of me. Further. Furthermore, he actually ate fish and I believe a honeycomb with the people.

I don't know if you know this, but ghosts can't eat. Spirits can't put physical things in. I don't know. I've never seen a spirit. Maybe not. Maybe they can. But nonetheless, he could. He revealed himself to be actually alive. And my question to you is, do you actually know that Jesus is really alive? Because I think that shapes the way that we. View our daily lives.

This is a question that I had to wrestle with for myself. Do I actually believe that Jesus is alive right now? Do I actually believe that he died on the cross, rose again on the third day? Do I actually believe this? Obviously, I could say with my mind, yeah, the Bible says so, blah, blah, blah, right? But I think that shapes the way I live my life if I actually believe that.

Because if the power of the Holy Spirit can raise Christ from the dead, which I don't know if you know, like, I don't know if you guys see people getting raised from the dead all the time. So it's maybe not that big of a deal to you or me, man. You know, I don't see anyone. So it's pretty big deal. But if that power of the Holy Spirit raised him from the dead is willing,

to come into me and empower me. God can use me from crazy things. And he wants to join you guys. He wants to join, join us in the work that he wants to do. He wants to partner with us and empower us to do so. So he presented himself alive. After his suffering and then during 40 days, he spent time with them talking about. The things of God, the kingdom of God.

Verse four. And being assembled together with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the father, which he said, you have heard from me. Once again, the command to wait. I told you what I want you to do. But first, I want you to wait so that you can be given the promise of the father. And he describes this, this promise of the father in verse five.

For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Not many days from now. So what is. How is John's baptism with water identified? Usually. In scripture, you'll see identified as a baptism of repentance. Now, what is a baptism of repentance? It's the acknowledgement that. I'm not right. And God is. And I'm going this way now.

It's the acknowledgement of saying. God revealing. Realizing how much of a sinner that I am a sinner rather than I am a sinner. And that I need a savior and that I no longer want to live that way. So I repent and turn the other way. Then it says, but what is the sorry. But what is the being baptized with the Holy Spirit? If we go back to the word baptism baptized, it means full immersion.

So it's just the being fully immersed in the Holy Spirit. It's the Holy Spirit. Giving us the power now. Like I said, one of the. The things it's the Holy Spirit is not going to be weird when he gives you the power, right? Like. He's going to point people to Jesus. If I could just put it in simple terms, it's he points people to Jesus.

Have you been baptized with the Holy Spirit? In a way. That. You know that, you know, that, you know, he's using you to point people to him. That looks like what that looks like and how that plays out. Well, the Holy Spirit. Has many different gifts to bestow upon people. And he, he plays it out in different ways. But the big thing is that it's the same spirit.

And he points people to Jesus. Have you been baptized in the spirit and have. Or has he used you to point people to him? And do you know, if not. Don't want to get too weird, but. We want to pray for you. And we want. If you want to be filled with a baptized in the spirit. All you have to do is. You don't even need anyone. Ask the Lord to do it. He got you.

He's got you more than anyone else. So he tells them, yo. John baptized with water, but you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit. Not many days from now. And then verse six. Therefore, when they said they had come together, they asked him saying, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? So they're still focused on the here and the now, the physical sense.

They're like, but bro, Israel is still oppressed by Rome. You going to come fix that now? Like, we're going to start a campaign. He came back. You got the power. We know you can do it. Is this what you're going to do? And he tells them. That it's not for you to know the times of the seasons, which the father has put in his own authority. So what he's not saying is that he's not.

He's not going to come and do that. Right. He's not saying that he's not going to come and conquer the world. He's just saying, hey, don't worry about it. It's going to happen, but it's up to the Lord, up to God. So we know that God is victorious, that Jesus is going to come back and that we don't have to worry about it. Like. There's a lot of, uh, sorry, quick side note.

There's a lot of, uh, debate on eschatology, which is like the study of end times and all that stuff. And it's cool, I guess. But oftentimes I think people miss out on just knowing that Jesus is coming to return and he's taking over. Like, that's the big thing. And the big thing is that before, between now and then. We need to either join his team or not.

And anyways, he tells them, don't worry about it. It's going to happen, but it's up to the Lord. And then verse eight. But this is what I want you to do. This is what I want for you. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria. And to the end of the earth. And to the end of the earth.

So this is one of my favorite verses in general. When I first got saved, I, I had a lot of questions. Because God revealed to me how screwed up I was. And how much I need him. And I realized that there's nothing I could do to earn his love or even do the right thing. Because of how screwed up I was, I could not do the right thing if you, I don't know, put it on my phone.

I couldn't do it. I was so screwed up. But as I was reading his word. And realizing that that same Holy Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is willing to come and give me the power to live a successful life. Daily Christian life. And not just live a successful daily Christian life. But to be used further. Not just, not just live. Because if you knew me before, you wouldn't want to know me before.

And God gave me the ability to live a productive life in general. Because before I was just take, take, take. And I'm not saying I'm overly productive now. But it's a lot better than where I was. And he is willing to give me the power to do so. But he's telling these guys, sorry. He's letting them know that in this time, the power is, the power of the Holy Spirit is going to come upon you.

And then this is what's going to happen. And then you shall be witnesses to me. Or in other texts it says, you will be my witnesses. In Jerusalem and in all Jerusalem. Judea and Samaria. And to the end of the, end of the earth. So the, the purpose of the power of the Holy Spirit. The purpose of the infilling and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Is that the believer, specifically this early church, these early church members.

Would be witnesses of Jesus Christ. What does it mean to be a witness? Well, it means to say. Right? I, I'll say it for, for me personally. Like, before Jesus entered into my life. This is who I was. A wretched, wretched man. Now, that Jesus has entered my life. I want to do the right thing. I want to serve him. And there has been many moments in my life since then.

That he has pulled me through. Last year. Was a particularly pretty hard year for me. And.

Yeah, God got me through it. But. The idea is that. If God can fix me. I'm bearing witness that he can fix you. If God can work and use me. I'm bearing witness that he can use you. And Jesus is saying. The only way that that can take place. Is if you have the power of the Holy Spirit in you.

And I'm going to leave. With that. With one question. Two questions. Maybe, maybe it's a two question. One. Do you. Are you spirit led? Are you spirit inspired? Are you spirit empowered? In your everyday life. Are you spirit led? Spirit inspired? Or spirit empowered?

He's not going to lead you to do anything weird. He's going to lead you to bring people to Jesus.

Heavenly Father. We thank you so much for who you are. Thank you that you. You have promised to give us your spirit Lord. That you have. Given us a new birth in your spirit Lord. That you've made us new creations in Christ. Lord that you. Have created those good works for us to follow. To walk in. We thank you that you. By your spirit want to partner with us.

And father just lift up my brothers and sisters here. That you would fill them afresh with your spirit. Lord that you would. Lord that you would use them this week. To boldly proclaim your name Lord. To boldly be your witness. In our city. Lord would you give them the courage. To stand. For you Lord. Stand in you. Stand with you. Would you give them the wisdom and the words that they need to use.

And Lord would you lead us this week. In Jesus name. Amen. And as we join in this last song. I would encourage you all. To just take some time between you and the Lord. And ask him.

To fill you. To help you out. Because I know I need it. I'm sure you guys do too.

You all stand. For there is none like you.

Shout to the king.

And the sea. At the sound.

At the words. To the strength.

At the sea. Power just be praised. To the king. And the sea. At the sound.

I sing for joy.

Unless I have.

Nothing compares to the promise I have.