Acts 1:1-8

Good morning. Welcome, y'all. Would you stand with me? About that time, we want to welcome you to Calvary Chapel. And we want to welcome those online who are viewing with us and joining us. And we welcome you. Would you join me in prayer? Father, we thank you for this opportunity this Sunday morning to come and worship you in song. Father, would you prepare our hearts to just come before you, just as we are, Lord.

All that we bring, we give to you, we look to you, and we trust you, Lord. We give you thanks, Lord.

Father, that's what we're coming to do this morning, to worship you, Lord. To praise you, to honor you. Because you're worthy of our praise. And we're coming this morning to study your word, Lord, so we may draw closer, get to know you better. Give us that which we need to live this Christian walk, Lord. We thank you.

I thank you, Lord, for your love.

For the strength you give us. Each day.

And the instruction. And the power of your Holy Spirit through your word that you guide us with. The Holy Spirit who convinces us of sin, righteousness, and judgment, Lord. We give you praise. Oh, sovereign, matchless King. The saints adore. The angels sing.

These sufferings. This passing time.

We shall from tone. Now peace like water.

Father, just keep moving within our hearts. This morning. From day to day in this life, we get distracted. We get discouraged sometimes. We get weighed down. We get lifted up. We go through different emotions. Emotions we know, Lord, are just like that caboose on a train. It goes right down the road. The track wobbling and everything. But, Lord, we trust you by faith.

I'm the canvas and I see clear. Wasted. No fist and a pot of work to get.

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. I'm the canvas and the clay. Earth here. Whether or not upright, you're not finished with us yet, Lord. So may we look to you. May we trust you. May we inquire of you, Lord, day to day for direction on what you'd have us do, how to live for you, and how to serve you. And we give you thanks, Lord. Me too.

Bear the spirit.

My soul. Treasure my As I My song in the night Treasure my Teach me to To To Amen? God is good. All the time. All the time, God is good. Father, now just continue to bless our service now as we fellowship in them as Lewis comes up to teach your word by your Holy Spirit anointing him in Jesus' name. Amen? Everyone wants to make their way to their seats.

Welcome, welcome.

Take your time, take your time. No worries. Well, welcome in, guys. Happy Father's Day to all the papas in here. We have a gift for you guys. So feel free to stop by one of the ushers and they got a gift for you. We want to just show you how much you guys are appreciated. In days like today, there's more fathers missing in the home and so to know that we got some here,

we just want to show you how much we appreciate you. Is this a cigar? No. No, no. A holy one, no. Let's go ahead and... Oh, actually. All of the regular ministries that go on are happening. We have no real announcements today other than the gifts for the fathers. With that being said, if you want to stand in the honor of reading the word, we're going to open up in a responsive reading for Psalm 127.

Psalm 128. Oh, 128, sorry, rather. 128. Can't count.

I will be reading the odd numbers and Pastor Allen here will be reading the even numbers if you want to follow along with him.

Verse 1. Blessedness of the fear of the Lord. Verse 1. 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 around your table. 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. Heavenly Father, we just thank you so much for who you are. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for who you are, Lord. And Lord, as we gather here today, we just, we want to see you, Lord.

And we set our hearts upon you, Lord. We set our hearts to see you move in our hearts, to see you teach us, to see you grow us, Lord. And would you, by your spirit, have your way as we open up your word, Lord. Speak to us in Jesus' name. Amen. We're going to be in Acts chapter 1. Acts chapter 1. So, the book of Acts was written by the man Luke. He was a doctor.

And with that being said, he was very detail-oriented in the way that he wrote. There's no fluff in the way that he talks. He's not very poetic. He's not very overly descriptive. He kind of just says what it is and gets the job done. But this is the second book that he wrote in the Bible. The first one is the book of Luke. He authored. And the first book was one of the Gospels.

So it was speaking about the life and the ministry of Jesus and what he accomplished, what he did on the earth in his three years, at least in the three years of ministry as well as before. But the book of Acts speaks upon the history of the early church and how it grew from a small group of scared people whose saviour was just crucified and resurrected to taking over the known world in a spiritual sense rather than empirical or like a militaristic way. So much so that they began to be persecuted a few years down the road. So, the question I want to pose to you and hopefully this will, spur you on to read more in the book of Acts and to continue further.

But the question I want to spur to you is, what started this? How did this Jesus revolution start? How did it grow? They certainly didn't have a church growth model. You know what I mean? They didn't move into an area, research the people, research the context, figure out what's the best way to build a church in this area so I can have a megachurch with telecampuses all over the place.

They didn't have a game plan other than, Jesus, what is it that you want to do? Jesus, you love my neighbor. How can I love my neighbor? And the big thing is they were filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. Meaning they weren't, they weren't doing what they thought God wanted them to do. They were being spirit led, spirit inspired, and spirit empowered. And before we start, my question to you is,

what is your walk been like lately? Has it been spirit led? Has it been spirit inspired? Has it been spirit empowered? Regardless of how old you are in your walk with the Lord, without the power of the Holy Spirit to live our daily lives, we can't, I don't know about you, maybe you can, I can't I'm as I've been getting ready for today the Lord has definitely showed me

how much I am in desperate need of Him to just live one day at a time me personally and with that being said, my prayer and my hope after this morning would be whatever your walk with the Lord was like before today will only be better tomorrow that your dependence upon the Spirit your empowerment from the Spirit would progress would only get better from today with that being said I'm going to read it's verses 1-8 is all we're going to do right now I'm going to read 1-3 and then we'll go over it the former account I made, O Theophilus of all that Jesus began both to do and teach until the day in which He was taken up after He, through the Holy Spirit had given 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 first little portion is basically a recap of the book of Luke in the least, like I said he's very quick and concise with his words he was just trying to let them know this is just a continuation of the letter that I sent you before but notice who he's writing to in the book of Luke it says basically gives them the the the theophilus theophilus speaking to him as someone who's higher than him someone who is of a higher place or higher status in the society so it's believed that theophilus either was a man whom Luke was a servant to or the idea of well theophilus means friend of God

or it's the idea that he's writing to all friends of God but I prefer the first view that it was a person that his name was theophilus and that Luke was writing to him to give him all of the information that he received from everyone about Jesus and about the early church but his name once again friend of God my question to you is today are you a friend of God are you a someone who walks with God as a friend are you someone who looks to him as a friend of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach so the interesting thing here is it didn't say of all that Jesus taught of all that Jesus said but rather both to do and to teach his ministry came together in both his actions and his words his words didn't disqualify his actions

and his actions didn't disqualify his words all of it matched up he was the same person regardless of where he was or who he was around we see him with the Pharisees he's the same person you see him with the apostles and the disciples he was the same person he said the same things he didn't waver in how he was and often times I think that's the way it is I find that in myself and amongst a lot of us that I'm a different person in this crowd when I go to work I take my Christian hat off and I just let loose let my hair down just be like my friends here at work or when I'm at church I make sure to put my Christian hat on make sure I take the lint off and everything and make sure it looks nice and pretty and everyone knows that I'm a really sweet

believer but Jesus didn't have to do that Jesus was the same what is do you walk in the pattern of Jesus or are you like me and you have different hats but Jesus' work Luke was writing about both what he did and what he taught and then it says verse 2 until the day in which he was taken up so it was all of his life his ministry and then to when he ascended is it in the book of Luke and then after he through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom he had chosen and the big thing here in this verse that I love is it says he through the Holy Spirit Jesus is our Savior right the Son of God the one who came down from heaven to take away the sins of the world the one the son of man who came to seek and save that which is lost right this

this God gave these commands through the Holy Spirit and Robbie taught last on Wednesday about when Jesus was filled with the Spirit and led into the the wilderness for temptation but he was filled with the Spirit just like we have to be filled with the Spirit the Savior of the world who in all reality had the authority and the power the ability to overthrow the Roman government on his own do whatever it is that he wanted to do he was led and filled and inspired and obedient to the Spirit so he through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles what were these commandments what were these final commandments that Jesus gave to gave to the apostles I would like to read to you the end of chapter of chapter 24 of the book of Luke

verses 46 to 49 he says these things to them thus it is written and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and 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 the power from on high and then I have the end of 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 the Son and 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 gave them two commandments at least two commandments before he ascended the first was to make disciples and baptize them in the name of the Father and teaching them in the way that they should go but they couldn't do that one until they paid attention to the second one which was that he told them and commanded them to go to Jerusalem and to wait a while until they were given the power to do that first commandment and then it says to the apostles whom he had chosen these were the eleven men that he picked hand picked, hand selected and verse 3 to whom he had also presented himself alive after his suffering by many infallible proofs one of the big things about the Christian faith

about the Christian belief system that we hold here the biblical perspective is that Jesus is alive that Jesus is not dead you can't go to his grave anywhere right I mean you can go to what people call his the hole in the wall, the caves but you can't go to his grave you can't go to his grave you can't see his dead body because it's not there he ascended and he revealed himself to be alive to the disciples I don't know about you guys but that'd be kind of crazy you see this dude die and then he pops up you see him I remember a few years ago I don't know if you guys know much about Coachella but a few years ago everyone was freaking out because they had a hologram performance of two people Tupac performing at Coachella and everyone was like whoa yeah

Tupac's back right but Jesus wasn't a hologram Jesus wasn't a spirit Jesus was flesh and blood in front of them so much so that when he encountered Thomas Thomas doubted his very resurrection and he let Thomas touch the wounds in his body to prove to him that yo I'm here I'm a real and furthermore he ate with the disciples I don't know about you guys but I don't think a spirit can eat physical food but Jesus wasn't a spirit so he was able to eat among them but he presented himself he revealed himself to be alive with his disciples and my friends I my question to you that I I pose to you is did you know that your savior is still alive now like do you really this is something I I had to wrestle with and ask myself do I really believe that he is alive

do I really believe that he wasn't put to death or that he was but came back right because if you can believe that how is it that you can't believe him to use you because if it's the same power that brought him back from the dead that's dwelling inside me dude God can use you for mighty things if you're willing if we're willing so he reveals himself to these disciples after his suffering by many infallible proofs being seen by them for forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God so he wasn't just there popping and popping he wasn't just there popping and popping he was there hanging around for forty days but the big thing is that he's speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God

he's speaking of the things that eternally mattered he's speaking of the things that that mattered he wanted to encourage the boys before he leaves them again verse four and being assembled together with them he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise from the father which he said you have heard from me once again I gave him that last commandment to wait to wait how hard is it I don't know I'll speak from experience when I believe I know what God's called me to do the idea of waiting for the right time to take for it to come for him to want me to do it is virtually impossible um I am the most impatient person I know I mean I grew up with uh fast food you know society and fast internet I got the tail end of dial up but

for the most part my internet was always fast so I never really had to wait for much right um but often times when the Lord wants to use me he uh decides to wait before I get going and so he's telling these boys yo I'm giving you this command I want you to go into the nations I want you to go into Jerusalem uh Judea and all of the nations I want you to do all of these things I want you to bear witness of me I want you to make disciples I want you to follow in my pattern I want you to live like me but first I need you to wait I need you to wait just a little bit longer and it's for the promise of the Father which he said you have heard from me verse 5 for John truly baptized with water but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit

not many days from now um so the baptism of John uh is often categorized or identified rather as as the baptism of repentance um later on in the book of Acts uh Paul comes upon a group of people group of believers group of young men um who uh were only baptized baptized with a with a baptism of repentance baptism of John and he said have you guys heard of the Holy Spirit they're like we don't know what the heck you're talking about and he lays hands on them and they get baptized in the Holy Spirit so I'm saying this to signify that there's a difference between the two one is one is the baptism of repentance is is signifying that I'm no longer going to live how I want to live I'm going to go this way towards God and live how He wants me to live

the baptism of the Spirit is a baptism of power it's a baptism um what does baptism mean what is the definition of baptism it means full immersion fully immersed now I'm not getting a little crazy here but I am saying that it's absolutely necessary for I believe it's absolutely necessary for every believer um now what it looks like I'm not going to get into you I'm not going to get into that kind of thing but I believe every believer needs to be fully immersed in the Holy Spirit that it has to happen so that if we're not fully immersed fully overflowing with the power of the Holy Spirit He can't use us it'd be like an empty water bottle um does nothing for anybody except for waste space but when it's full it replenishes my thirst makes me feel better

it hydrates me same way you need the Holy Spirit inside uh in you and upon you uh to be used by Him to to even serve anyone um in a way that honors God um but He's letting them know um you already were baptized uh uh with the baptism of repentance but in a few days you're going to receive the Holy Spirit fully immersed full immersion in the Holy Spirit verse 6 therefore when they had come together they asked Him saying Lord will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel once again uh these guys are only looking at not at the eternal future or the eternal they don't yet have the eternal mindset but they have the immediate um desire rather their immediate um they can only think what's in front of them in the physical sense

because they're asking Him basically alright are you going to take over from Rome now are you going to free us from the oppression of the Romans are you going to come on man you just came back from the dead like it's time to get after it let's go start start a campaign against these Romans in fact just wipe them but it's interesting to see Jesus's response it says it is not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority basically the nice way of saying don't worry about it like this isn't this isn't this isn't this isn't this isn't this isn't this isn't this isn't this isn't this isn't this isn't this isn't for you to to stress about to figure out to umm struggle with it's it's not for you to worry about

don't worry about it 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 until the end of the earth the first part but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you so Alma this this power this uh in the greek it's uh dunamis dynamis dunamis it's the same word way uh the the root word that we get for dynamic or dynamite all those cool words um but the idea is they're going to receive a heavenly power from the holy spirit now what is this power for um what he doesn't say i'm what he doesn't say is it is for an outward show for everyone else it's not so that i you me we can be famous uh this is something that i've seen that is kind of

never i'll leave that one out um um but you shall receive power so um this power what is it for um not only is it for the ability for daily living uh in a way that honors and glorifies jesus but it's also for the second part the the most important part is that you shall be witnesses to me in jerusalem um in some of the texts it says i'm reading the new king james but in some of the texts it says that you shall be my witnesses um and in order to bear witness to christ or to represent christ or like the apostles be an ambassador of christ um the believer has to be filled with the spirit and that's what receive the power of the spirit and that's what he's telling the disciples hey

you're gonna wait and then in a few days you're going to receive this power and we see that power played out right in a few days and then in a few days you're going to receive this power and we see uh in literally the next chapter right we see peter what do you guys know about peter impulsive uh crazy guy animal fisherman right um who once he told jesus hey all these other dudes they're gonna they'll deny you but i'll stay with stick with you to the death right and jesus is like i'm sorry man but you're gonna deny me three times nah no way what happens he denies jesus three times he gets scared jesus is up there getting beat on and he doesn't want to identify with christ in his suffering he's scared

he doesn't have the power the courage the confidence to do so then we see him literally two three months later standing in front of is the death of jesus and he's like oh my god i'm gonna die i'm gonna die i'm gonna die i'm gonna die jesus saying guess what you guys killed killed the savior but don't worry he died for you anyways and three thousand people get saved he did it with the confidence that comes from the power of the holy spirit there's two different uh peters that we see in the scriptures there's the peter before the holy spirit the peter after the holy spirit he is two different people he wrote first and second and third and fourth and fifth and sixth and seventh and seventh and eighth and

second peter which if you haven't read is powerful equipping stuff for the for the believer all written through the power of the holy spirit who else um but the believer in order to witness to to to point people to jesus to say i'm bearing witness that before jesus this is who i was after jesus this is who i am now the goal is to go out into the world to reach people for jesus what does it mean to reach someone for jesus it means uh paul writes that uh the believer is is of the ministry of reconciliation what is reconciliation it is coming between the two parties and helping them come to an agreement now the believer has the ministry of reconciliation to go and reconcile people to the lord to to god

i'm not saying we're the ones that do it because it's not really us doing it when we're filled with the spirit but he he partners with us to do so he lets us get involved in that part of ministry now i don't know about you guys but i want to get involved with that kind of thing um regular living is cool i guess um you know what working a nine to five going home cooking some dinner watching a movie taking a nap going back to work it's cool don't get me wrong that is amazing providing for your family it's awesome it's great but getting used by god on a daily basis and waking up in the morning saying all right lord i'm going to work how can I glorify you in a way that brings people to you, that reconciles my coworker to you.

I see my coworker and where he's headed and I don't want him to be there. Lord, fill me with your spirit to help me reach him in a way that he can understand and receive. And that doesn't come from a spirit of like judgment. I mean, I've met a lot of people in this community, unfortunately, who have been harmed by the church, by different people from the church.

Not just Calvary, but like, I mean, I'm not saying not Calvary, but I'm saying not just Calvary, like all of the Christians in the area. Now, the big thing for us now is to be in prayer, be asking the Lord, how can you use me today? I need, I need your help now because I want to reach these people. But if you don't have the spirit, I don't know about you guys, but if you don't have the spirit, even if you do reach that person, it means nothing. And for me, I mean, I'm selfish and I like rewards. I'll be honest.

And if it's not partnered with God, it means nothing. Jesus said, for without me, abide in me. And that's it. And he goes on to say, for without me, you can do nothing.

Sorry. And then, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem. And, and I'm sure you've heard this application before too, as well, but you know, Jerusalem being your immediate area, Judea being a little bit further out, Samaria being a little bit further out and then into all the world. Yeah, that's, I'm not going to change the wheel, but, or reinvent the wheel, sorry.

But is this, Mike, is this something that you desire, something that you want? Do you want to be a witness to Jesus? I would, I would ask yourself that honestly, honestly, I asked my, I'm asking myself that right now, but like, do I honestly, do we honestly want to bear witness to Jesus in the community around us? Or do I want to have my little castle and protect my little life here? Have I been changed?

By God? Is there a difference between me? Uh, just like Peter before the Holy spirit and after the Holy spirit before Christ resurrection or death and resurrection. And after do I want to, uh, be used by the spirit used by the Lord, uh, in this community. He'll use you if you want to. That's the cool thing. I don't know. That still blows my mind because I know part of my French.

Uh, I know how much of a piece of crap, I am. I, I, I, the, the, the longer I've walked with the Lord, I've learned how bad I am and how much worse I see myself. Um, I don't, I don't see myself as better. Um, I see he definitely highlights a lot more as I'm growing. As I'm walking with the Lord, he's, he's highlighting a lot more of the things that need to be filtered

out. And the fact that he wants to fill me with his spirit, the fact that he wants to give me the power of his spirit and, and partner with me and let me basically just let me ride shotgun with him as he does the work blows my mind. And I know I've talked to a lot of people who have been a lot of, uh, people, um, and, uh, I have not yet to meet someone who's worse than me yet. Actually, I've met one, just kidding. Um, but if he can use me in any way, shape or form,

then I promise you, he can use you. And I hope that after today that one, he'd get into the word. You'd be washed by the water of the word. You let the word change your heart, change your desires. You let the word do his work. And two, you start asking to be used by the Lord here today. And now, um, like I said, he'll use you and he wants to use you. He has, he has the same command for them. The great commission for them is the same command,

that we have today. This is what I like telling the young ones, the college kids. You want to know what God's plan is for your life? The Great Commission. Get to work. You can do whatever you want to do. You can be a lawyer. You can be a doctor. You can be whatever. At the end of the day, the command is still the same. The Great Commission. Get out. Represent Jesus.

Win people to Christ. That's the only thing that's going to matter in the long run. Not the degrees on your wall or the accomplishments at your job.

Let me pray for you guys and we'll get finished. Heavenly Father, we just thank you so much for your word. We thank you so much for your spirit, Lord. We thank you that you even want to allow us to join you in the mission. That you want to use us. And Father, I just lift up each one of my brothers and sisters. That you would fill them afresh with your spirit, Lord.

That you would if they've been walking away from you, Lord, if they haven't been walking with you as of late, Lord, that you would soften their hearts to you, that you would turn them back to you. And Lord, that you would reconcile that relationship with them. And Father, would you encourage us as we go out this week? Would you open up opportunities for us to be used by you in the community that you've given us to?

Lord, would you empower us with the courage and the boldness of your spirit to represent you completely and fully and unashamed? We love you. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Lord, there is none like you. Wonders of your mind. Altar. Tower of refuge and strength. Let it shout to the sea. Majesty, praise to the king. Bow down in the sea. The sound is I. Lord, there is strength. Let it just be praise to the king. Mountain of the seas. The sound. I sing for joy at the work of your hand. Nothing to the problem. Nothing. Come bear this.

And Father, we thank you this morning for this time to be in your word and to worship you in song. And go before and bless our week, Lord. Strengthen us. Encourage us in our walk and witness for you. And we give you all the thanks in Jesus' name. Amen? Lord bless y'all. Have a good week.