Sent to The World (Acts 1:6-11) Myles Holmes | Sept 14, 2025

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you have our Bibles, you can open them up to Acts chapter 1.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

We're going to be in verses 6 to 11.

You're going to need a copy of God's word this morning.

So if you don't have one, the ushers are coming to the front of the aisles, they're making their way down.

You can flag one of them down.

They would love to get a copy into your hands, which you can keep as our gift to you.

While you're opening to Acts chapter 1, verse 6, I'm sure you can resonate with me when I say this.

Acts 1:6

We love a good, foolproof plan, don't we?

In fact, one of the times, you know, I'm not a real planner, but one of the times that I find myself planning the most is when I'm preparing to go to a restaurant.

I do graduate level research on these restaurants.

Now part of this is because the cost of going to a restaurant now is the equivalent, I gotta take out a second mortgage on my house to do it.

So it's very important.

Precision is required.

But I also want to plan for the experience, and so I'm on, you know, Google reviews, I'm on Reddit, which is a little secret for you.

That's probably the better place to go to find the best restaurants, to experience the best food, to know that this is gonna be worth it.

We're all like that.

We check the weather, we check Google Maps because at the end of the day, we wanna be in control as of as much as we can be.

We want the future to be clear.

Now you can imagine then what the disciples felt after Jesus' resurrection.

Jesus, at this point in Acts, where we are this morning, had been with them in his resurrected body for 40 days, teaching them about the kingdom.

They knew the mission.

They knew that this was the king here to establish the kingdom.

They knew that they had a part in it, that they were to make disciples of all nations.

But what they wanted was a calendar of when that was gonna happen and how that was gonna happen.

They wanted a sense of comfort, knowing that Jesus had a way and a plan to establish his kingdom.

We can relate to that, can't we?

You know, especially as we think about evangelism in this miniseries we were doing called Scent, we can relate to wanting to know the plan.

You know, it was Spurgeon who pointed out you know, if God just put an X on everyone's back who would believe, it would be really easy to do evangelism, wouldn't it?

Maybe a little creepy, but you just go and you lift up the person's shirt, and there's an X.

Wouldn't it be nice to have an Excel document?

Some of you are really listening now.

You know, here's the people that will say yes when you share your testimony.

Here's the people who will reject you.

And to know the plan, to know that sharing the gospel will be comfortable.

And so we say with the disciples, Lord, give us clarity and then we'll give you courage.

But what we find is that Jesus doesn't give that.

Jesus isn't interested in handing us a map.

He isn't interested in guaranteeing us comfort.

Instead, what Jesus promises us is something better, not a calendar, but his Holy Spirit.

Not comfort, but but his resurrection power surging through us as we have these conversations.

Not control, but participation in a mission that is far bigger than what we could ever accomplish in our lifetime.

Now, this is what I want you to see this morning.

This is our main takeaway from Acts chapter 1, verses 6 to 11.

Acts 1:6–11

And that is this that the Holy Spirit empowers ordinary people to carry the extraordinary message of Jesus to the ends of the earth.

This is the plan of God.

Let's read it together.

Would you stand with me as we read from Acts chapter 1?

Acts 1 · chapter mention

So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

He said to them, It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and at the end of the earth.

And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

While they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?

This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.

This is the word of the Lord.

You can grab your seat.

Here are the disciples.

There is anticipation in the air after all this time spent with the resurrected king.

There is a kingdom coming.

And yet, having spent 40 days with Jesus hearing about the establishment of this kingdom, the disciples cannot shake their craving for comfort, their desire for clarity, their need for control.

And so they turn to Jesus in verse 6 and they ask for this political kingdom.

Now Jesus responds to them very quickly and says, Listen, the timing of my kingdom is not for you to know.

But I want you to see what Jesus is doing here.

The disciples are looking for a kingdom they can see on a map.

We do the same thing today.

God, show me the way.

God, show me the five-year plan of my life.

Show me a clear career path that I am to take.

Show me, Lord, that my kids will end up following you, that they'll turn out okay.

We want certainty from the Lord, but Jesus this morning, he redirects our eyes from this control and certainty that we crave from God.

He redirects it to a calling that we have received from Christ.

In other words, they want to know how.

We want to know how.

We want to know how is the kingdom, like in Canada, right now, in Newmarket, how is the kingdom of Christ going to meet earth?

And Jesus points, instead of how, to who, it will be established through.

His kingdom is not coming by political power.

He tells us his kingdom is coming by his spirit, by his spirit empowering ordinary people with an extraordinary message that goes to the ends of the earth.

I want you to see that this morning, that it's the spirit.

And the first thing I want you to see is that when we are in the spirit, our focus is corrected.

Our focus is corrected.

Notice what the disciples again ask in verse 6.

Look at the text with me.

It says, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

They had spent 40 days with the risen Christ.

Luke tells us in verse 3, you can look at it there, it says, the resurrected Jesus, he presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

Now, after spending time with Jesus hearing about the kingdom of God, they're still craving the wrong kingdom.

They're craving a political kingdom.

Now, this gives me great comfort as a teacher.

You know, sometimes you can be as clear as possible and still be misunderstood.

And clearly Jesus was.

Now, this word restore, it has this meaning of bring back what once was.

Bring back the glory days.

We know what that's like.

My wife and I drove by what used to be a blockbuster.

We lamented.

Our kids will never have the inconvenient experience of going to a blockbuster and picking up the movie you know nothing about and investing two and a half hours into it, the worst movie.

It had a great cover, but it did not, I mean, it just did not deliver.

Long for the glory days when gas was under a dollar.

Amen.

Am I right?

Am I right?

We long for the days when the leafs were winning Stanley Cups.

We we want to go back.

Now the disciples are looking back to the days of Solomon and David, where the kingdom of Israel was making real ground in the world.

And these were the glory days of power and prosperity.

But notice how Jesus answers in verse 7.

He says, it is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.

The timing of the kingdom is not in their control.

They're worrying about something that's not under their job description.

And we do the same thing.

We want certainty.

We want God to give us certainty about the future before we're willing to obey in the present.

Lord, show me how this conversation will go, and then I'll talk with my neighbor.

Notice the problem.

The disciples are demanding God's timing, but Jesus isn't concerned with timing.

He's concerned with our obedience.

Jesus wants us to step into God's calling, even when we don't have the perfect pictures of all the details of what that might look like, of what rejection we might experience when we step into that calling, of what reception we might receive when we declare the gospel, or when we step forward in obedience.

You know what it is?

You know, this is the time where we really gotta search our hearts and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal it to us.

You know, we we face this in parenting all the time.

Anytime I ask my kids to do anything, parents, you're gonna resonate with me here.

They have a list of details they need before they'll do that thing.

You know, go clean your room.

Well, you know, is my is my sibling gonna help?

Do I have to fold the laundry?

Well, what about this?

What about this?

What about this?

What about that?

They want the details before they want obedience.

And we tell them, delayed obedience is disobedience.

The expectation here is that you trust me when I say that you should do something, that it's for your good, that it's for our family's good.

The expectation here is obedience.

And so, loved one, let me ask you, what in your relationship with the Lord are you looking to him and saying, listen, I'll go, I'll follow, just give me this first.

Is it comfort?

You bargain with God.

You know, once life settles down, once the stress eases, once things get easier at work, easier in the home, then I'll obey.

We want the Lord to make it a little less awkward, a little less costly, a little less risky, then we'll step up.

Maybe it's not comfort, maybe it's clarity you want from God.

God, show me exactly how this will go.

Map out the next five years for me so I know where this leads, then I'll follow you.

Maybe it's control.

God, once I'm in a better financial spot, once I have a handle on my schedule, then I'll go.

Once I'm confident in my knowledge of the Bible, you know, once I'm ready to control the situation, then I will go for you.

Maybe it's comfort, maybe it's clarity, maybe it's control, maybe it's a change in your circumstances.

Lord, fix my health first.

Get my kids through this stage.

Let me get to retirement, and then I'll serve you, whatever it is.

We're longing for the Lord to give us something first.

But Jesus looks at us just like he looked at the disciples, and he says, That's not for you right now.

And so we hit the pause button to take a step back and look at our faith and say this: that waiting for God to remove risk from our lives, waiting for God to guarantee the outcome before we step forward in obedience is actually not faith at all.

You understand that?

Faith exists because clarity in the calling doesn't.

The disciples wanted certainty.

Jesus gave them a calling, and I want you to see, loved one, he does the same for us this morning.

What does that mean?

It means that obedience can't wait until life feels manageable.

Faith steps forward without all the details in place, trusting the one who has called us forward.

When our faith says, Lord, give me a little more clarity, give me a little more comfort, give me a little more control, just change my circumstances.

The Lord says, Trust me, obey me now.

Now, this is the good news.

I want you to understand that Jesus knows that we are like this.

Jesus knows that our faith is weak.

And sometimes the reason that he withholds comfort or clarity or control or changing our circumstances is because if we had it, then we'd be so distracted from the mission, we just wouldn't do it.

You see, we seem to think if I could just get this, then I'll go.

But what happens so often is we get that thing and it just does not drive us to anything but apathy.

With no crutch to lean on, often the only thing we have to lean on is the Lord.

You find yourself at a place in life, I trust Christian, probably right now, where you're just like, Lord, I have nothing but you here.

Man, that is a sweet place to be.

That is where the Lord wants us.

That's why Jesus calls ordinary people to this extraordinary mission, because it requires an extraordinary God.

It drives us to prayer, it drives us to desperation, it drives us to dependence on his power so that look what happens immediately after Jesus says this to the disciples.

Look at verse 14 with me.

We're not gonna get there this morning, but you notice what they do?

All these, with one accord, were devoting themselves to what?

To prayer, to the language of dependence, to crying out because they had realized they had this mission that was too big for them, to crying out to say, Lord, if we're gonna do this, if we're gonna reach the ends of the earth, we're gonna need you to work.

Mark read from Acts 4, and again we find the church carries this on.

When they prayed, the place was shaken, the gospel was received.

It is the prayers of the people, knowing that the mission is too big for them, knowing that they are just ordinary people, called to an extraordinary mission that drives them to prayer.

Now, loved one, you need this in your life.

You need to embrace a calling that is too big for you.

Christianity, it does not work on comfort.

I'm sorry, it does not.

That's why, left, right, and center, every time Jesus talked to his disciples, what did he say to them?

Hey, listen, follow me, and everything's gonna be okay.

No, he said, listen, follow me, you're gonna have to take up your cross.

It's not about comfort.

Christianity is about taking up a cross.

And that is what the spirit does for us.

When our eyes are consumed with comfort and clarity and control and a change in circumstances, the the Spirit of God through Jesus Christ pryes our hands off of those and fixes our eyes on a power that is beyond us.

Love one, is is your focus on your calling?

Is your focus in life on the calling that Jesus has given to you to make disciples of all nations?

Is that the mission that best summarizes your life?

It's the mission Jesus has given you.

And you know, one of the ways that you know that mission has consumed your life is that you're just driven constantly to prayer.

It's what happened in the disciples, it's what happens in us when we have embraced this calling.

We realize I can't do this, Lord.

I I cannot save a single soul.

Only you can.

And so I'm driven to my knees in prayer.

I'm driven to link my arms with the church and pray for our city and for our nation and for our world.

That's exactly what the disciples did.

Jesus redirected their focus away from themselves to their calling, and their immediate response was prayer.

You know, the good news is that Jesus never intended us to do this in our own power.

You know, this calling he gave us by design is intended to be too big for us to handle.

What Jesus did for us was in the ways that we would fail to obey the calling he gave us.

He obeyed the Father.

Jesus obeyed the Father with no comfort, with no control, with no clarity, with no change in circumstances.

He obeyed the Father all the way to the point of the cross.

And because he was faithful, you and I, now walking in Christ, can be obedient in his power to his call.

So that leads us to our second point.

The second thing I want you to see is that in the Holy Spirit, our power is supplied.

In the Holy Spirit, our power is supplied.

Notice how Jesus answers the desire of our hearts for control and comfort.

He answers it with a promise of power.

Look at the pages of scripture with me, and notice in verse 8, it says, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

The word power here doesn't mean a boost to their natural ability.

It doesn't mean that they would receive this supernatural charisma and people would actually start liking them.

It's not natural talent that's just, you know, turned from a two to a three to a four.

It is a supernatural enablement.

It is the spirit of God supplying in an ordinary people what they completely lack in themselves.

And it was what the prophets had long awaited for.

It's what Joel said, the prophets said, I will pour out my spirit on all flesh.

In Ezekiel, he said, I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my ways.

God had always planned that there would be a day where that his spirit was planted in his people so that through his power they could accomplish extraordinary purposes.

Now, as we look through Acts, and I want to do this with you for a moment, this is exactly what we see unfold.

What we see is the power of the Holy Spirit enabling the people of God.

And so we call this book, you know, the Acts of the Apostles.

I think that that's a title that might be misleading to us.

We may begin to believe that this is the Acts of some supernatural human beings who established the church.

I want you to know that it's not that.

When you read it closely, you actually don't find any superheroes.

You find a bunch of ordinary, maybe subordinary people.

You find tax collectors, you find fishermen, you find tent makers, you find these ordinary men and women who, at a time in history, are infused with this extraordinary power to lead the greatest revolution that ever happened in the history of human human race.

And so I believe that a better name for this might be the acts of the Holy Spirit, because the thread that runs through every chapter is that the extraordinary mission of God is advancing through an extraordinary message in the mouths of an ordinary people.

And it is doing that because the Holy Spirit is filling them with power.

Notice that immediately after this, in verse two, it is the Spirit who fills the disciples and fills Peter, the one who had denied Jesus Christ, becomes a proclaimer, and in the power of the Spirit on that day, 3,000 people are.

Are added to the numbers of the church, and the church is created.

In Acts 4, which we just read with Mark, the church is threatened, and it is the spirit that shakes the place when they pray and fills them again, so that they speak the word with boldness.

And again, the church expands.

In Acts 6 and 7, it is the Holy Spirit who speaks through Stephen with a wisdom that his enemies cannot resist.

And it is Stephen who is full of the Holy Spirit in Acts 7 as he sees the risen Christ and is crushed with stones.

In Acts chapter 8, it's the Spirit that tells Philip, go to that chariot.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

That's the Ethiopian official who takes the gospel to Africa.

In Acts chapter 9, it is Saul the persecutor who is filled with the Holy Spirit and becomes Paul the missionary in Acts 13.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

It's the spirit that sets apart Paul and Barnabas for the first missionary journey in Acts chapter 16.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

It's the Holy Spirit we're told that closes the doors in Asia and opens them in Macedonia and guides the gospel to Europe.

In Acts 28, it is Paul in Rome proclaiming Christ, we are told, with all boldness and without hindrance, proof that it is the Holy Spirit working through the people of God to reach the ends of the earth.

What is the driving power of the church through the book of Acts and all throughout time until now?

It is the Holy Spirit.

And if God were to open his secret will to us this morning, you and I could look throughout all the history of the New Testament church from today until the day of Acts 2 and see that the secret thread running through it all is the power of the Holy Spirit.

So, loved one, what do you need this morning?

You don't need a better argument.

What you need is the power of the Holy Spirit surging through your life.

John Ortberg once said that the difference between human effort and spirit power is like the difference between a motorboat and a sailboat.

A motorboat runs on fuel.

Our effort, our control, our steering.

A sailboat does something entirely different.

It depends on wind.

And without wind, a sailboat can go nowhere.

No matter how frantic you act, no matter how much you try, you just cannot make the boat move.

Now, when the wind blows, everything changes for the sailboat.

And loved one, I want you to understand that our life in Jesus Christ, living in the power of the Holy Spirit, is the sailboat.

We often try to make it the motorboat where we act frantically, trying to access the power of God.

And loved one, I want you to know what we need is the power of the Spirit.

And so the application here for us is this: Are you hoisting the sails in your life by which the Spirit sends his power?

Are you putting in the work?

You gotta hoist the sails.

I mean, I don't know much about sailing.

I don't even know if hoist is the right word to be using.

Can a sailor help me?

I mean, I think that's probably what it means.

But you gotta do the work.

You gotta make sure when the power, promised power of the spirit blows, that you are there to catch the wind.

You know, the promise of verse eight is astounding.

It's a promise to the sailor that there will be wind, but you will receive the Holy Spirit.

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.

And in evangelism, I want you to believe that promised loved one, that there are simple steps of obedience that catch the wind of the spirit.

Can I ask you?

I mean, some some very simple things.

Are you praying for the lost?

That is an act of hoisting the sail, asking for the spirit to catch wind.

In fact, do it faithfully, and I promise you, I promise you that opportunity will be given to you.

Are you speaking to your neighbors, looking for opportunity to share the gospel with them?

To ask them how they're really doing, to get beneath the surface of surface-level conversation and you know, see how they're really doing and apply the message of hope to their lives.

Love them, that those conversations are hoisting the sail.

You can't save them, but you can pray for the wind of the Holy Spirit to catch the sail.

Are you inviting the coworker, the neighbor, the friend to church?

Or are you sharing the testimony of the work that God has done in you?

That is hoisting the sail.

That is lifting the sail.

And the promise that is given to us is that the Spirit gives us power.

Now, notice none of these things, none of these actions that are in our control save people.

It's not us.

That's why Jesus shares this parable of the kingdom growing.

It's like a farmer who goes out and sows seed.

And you know what he does?

You're gonna love this.

He goes to sleep.

Why does he go to sleep?

Because beyond sowing the seed, there's nothing else you can do.

You cannot yell at the seed.

And I mean, you can if you want, but you're just a crazy person at that point.

There's nothing else, it's not in your control.

It is God who gives the growth.

Now, notice though that the Spirit does not just give power.

What the Spirit is giving to our lives is direction.

He says, You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

The Spirit's not just empowering us, the Spirit is expanding our vision of how the gospel will influence the world through us.

And I want you to see that thirdly, that in the Holy Spirit, our vision is expanded.

In the Holy Spirit, our vision is expanded.

When the disciples ask for a plan, Jesus gives them something different.

You will receive the Spirit, and you will be my witnesses.

You will be my witnesses.

Notice that this is not a task, it is an identity.

Jesus does not say you will do the witnessing.

Jesus says your very identity will be that of a witness.

When the Spirit fills you, witnessing is not just something you do, it is who you become.

You become a witness.

Now, we know some facts about witnesses, don't we?

Witnesses don't invent the story.

Witnesses in the legal courtroom, now I have some lawyers here, so I'm going to be really careful here.

But I've watched enough TV to know, okay?

Witnesses simply testify to what they've seen and heard.

And that is what you are.

You are a witness.

Your power, your obligation doesn't move on from there.

And so Jesus doesn't say you will go witnessing as though evangelism were an optional activity.

He says your place in this world will be that of a witness.

You will be my witness.

This is where we get the word martyr.

It is an identity that runs so deep through your whole life that it is, that your whole life is so bound up in testifying to Christ that you are even willing to give your life for it.

It's your identity, it's who you are.

At the end of the day, you are a witness, and nothing can change that.

That's why those who have been consumed with the gospel have been unwilling to stop witnessing, because it's not just an action they do.

It's not like if someone would tell you to stop walking.

It is who they are at the very core.

They are a witness to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And I want you to see this that all through Scripture, God has tied our mission to our identity.

In Exodus 19, when he saved Israel from Exodus, from Egypt, he called Israel his treasured possession and a kingdom of priests.

And the reason was that as his treasured possession, as a kingdom of priests, they would display God's glory to the nations.

In 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 15, Paul says, we are the aroma of Christ.

2 Corinthians 2:15

Again, an identity.

I mean, let me finish this.

We are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.

What Paul is saying here is that if you are a Christian, you stink.

You smell either bad or either good.

You are an aroma of death.

Are you comforted to hear this?

Some of you guys doing the sniff check right now.

As you talking physically, as he's talking spiritually, I'm getting distracted.

It's kind of warm in here.

I'm sweating.

I got the dinner plate.

Anyways, let's stop.

Christ is in you, his fragrance will be on you, Paul is saying.

Through your life, through your actions, through your message, you will either be a fragrance of life or a fragrance of death.

1 Peter 2.9, Peter says, You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

You know, Matthew 5, you are the light of the world.

You are the light of the world.

So let your light shine.

It is identity that drives our mission.

God never gives his people an identity without attaching to it a mission.

Israel was chosen to proclaim.

The church is saved to declare.

We are witnesses, we are light, we are the aroma of Christ, so that to follow Christ is to carry Christ to the nations.

Last week we put it like this: that we are saved to be sent.

That the transformation that happens when the gospel meets our life is a transformation that changes our identity and changes our impact.

Now I want you to notice how this practically informs what we are to do.

Notice that Jesus doesn't say, you are to be my lawyers.

It's a good time.

Don't applaud at that point, because again, we got some lawyers in the house, right?

Jesus does not say, you are to be my salesman.

He says, you are to be my witnesses.

What does a witness do?

I mean, a witness's role is simple.

They testify and verify the facts of what is true.

Let me illustrate for you.

There's a great controversy happening in our church right now.

I don't know if you're aware of it.

Yesterday we had our men's ministry.

It was a great time.

The men were meeting together.

We had a great morning of ministry, but something profoundly painful happened in my life.

I mentioned that I had a really good round of golf to them.

Which immediately there's laughing and cackling, and that hurts.

I didn't even mention the score, but yet no one believed me.

All I said was, hey, I shot a really good round at golf, and people were like, no, there's absolutely no way that you did that.

Now, I'm just kidding, this isn't really a controversy.

Some of you guys are looking at me like, what happened at Men's Ministry?

Was there a wrestling match?

Are you okay?

I'm okay, all right.

Apparently I've golfed with enough of the men in this church to know that me having a good round at golf is not a credible story, but I do have a witness.

I'm gonna call him to the stand right now, actually.

We're gonna take a little detail.

I'm just kidding, we won't do that.

I do have a witness, though, and this witness does something great for me.

The witness was there.

They don't invent the story, but they can confirm what actually happened.

Now, loved one, this is what we do for the gospel.

The gospel is a supernatural story of a man from a small town named Jesus of Nazareth, who lived a perfect life and died an atoning death and was resurrected from life to death.

It is a supernatural story.

But if you are in Christ, you have witnessed to the truth of it.

You have read of the story in the pages of scripture, and you experience the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ surging through your life.

You have a testimony that tells you it is true.

So what are you now?

Just as my friend who I golfed with is now implicated in this story and has to be a witness to it, you are a witness to the reality of what Jesus Christ has done for you if you are in Christ.

That's what a witness does.

A witness testifies, a witness verifies.

They don't need to dress it up, they don't need to sell it like a product.

It's what we are called to do with the gospel.

This is what God has done in Christ, and this is what he's done in me.

Now, let's press this into our lives of what it means to be a witness.

Let's press it into our lives for some application.

First, let me ask you this: do you know the gospel well enough to say it?

Given a minute of uninterrupted speaking time.

Some of the mothers in the room, I'm talking that it's that's it's like heaven right now.

A whole minute?

That's amazing.

Given a minute, could you declare the truth of the gospel?

I'm talking beyond, like, okay, Jesus died for my sins.

Could you declare what Jesus actually did on the cross?

Could you witness to the perfect life that Jesus lived?

Could you witness to the reality of his death on the cross and what that means for our sin?

Could you witness to the fact of his resurrection, that he was resurrected from death to life, and what that means for our lives?

Could you witness to his ascension?

Can you be a witness?

Do you know the details of the gospel?

And I think we would be hard pressed to take that opportunity today, take a minute to just in the mirror at home.

Speak the gospel.

On the car ride home, ask your spouse, hey, tell me the gospel in one minute.

This is the message we carry.

The second thing I want you to remember is this what happens with your testimony is not up to you.

See, what keeps us from bold evangelism so often is just this fear of what might happen, that we might be rejected.

And I want you to know a witness simply tells the truth.

The verdict is in the judge's hands.

That should free you.

Love one, you're not a salesman.

You know, when you get to heaven, they're not gonna have the uh whiteboard up there where it says, like, oh, Timmy had 14 conversions, but you only had three.

Did you not try to upsell them on church?

Didn't you tell them about how good the coffee was, you know?

We're not salesmen, we are witnesses.

Now, notice the power of this witness.

Jesus says it will go from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

Now that is speaking to geography, and this is exactly how Acts unfolds.

But it but it's also giving us a vision of the kind of people that you and I are to reach in our life.

Jerusalem was the home base.

You you could think of that as your family and your co-workers and your neighbors.

Judea is the effort that you put in to reach the community that is beyond that home base.

Samaria was the place of opposition.

Those were the enemies.

Those were those with different political viewpoints, the cultural outsiders, the personal enemies and loved ones.

I need to ask you this question in this great time of political divide, what is your heart for the Samaritans?

What is your heart for those who oppose your political views or uphold what you believe to be abhorrent in culture?

What's your heart for them?

Jesus tells you very plainly what it should be.

It should be to reach them with the gospel.

What breaks our heart so much should not be what's happening in our culture.

It should be what's happening spiritually to a people who are lost and without Jesus Christ, for which there will be eternal implications for.

Long beyond Canada as a nation.

That partaking in this mission is partaking in a mission that not a single person, not a single church can accomplish alone.

But together, together through our involvement in the church, we accomplish what Jesus is talking about here.

We see the gospel reach places that we may never step afoot.

And one of the things we're really excited about is next week, as we wrap up this series, we're going to be talking about some ways that we are seeing the gospel planted through our involvement in the collection of churches that we are a part of called the GCC.

Loved one, I want you to remember right now, you are a witness.

And Jesus does not call you to anything that he has not done himself.

Do you know who the ultimate witness is?

Revelation 1.5, John calls Jesus the faithful witness.

You know, Jesus has called you very practically from go to go from your home to the end of the earth.

But uh Jesus has gone so much farther.

Jesus went from the end of heaven to your home.

He came with a witness.

He stood before rulers and crowds.

He testified to the truth of the kingdom he was bringing, and he was faithful all the way to the cross, giving his very life to be a witness.

Now, you and I, what we do, it's just a microcosm of what Jesus has done for us.

I mean, we will never witness to the extent and capacity that Jesus had to witness just so that we today could sit here and know the gospel.

Now Jesus has shown us in this passage if we're gonna be witnesses, we need to know who we are.

That we are witnesses, we need to know who we're speaking to, that we're speaking to Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and all the ends of the earth.

But in verses 9 to 11, he really presses this home so that we'd understand when to speak.

And I want you to understand the time is now.

This is what we see fourthly.

In the Holy Spirit, we are given urgency in our mission.

We're given urgency in our mission.

Look what happens in verse 9.

When he said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight.

Now we need to like ignite our biblical imagination sometimes because I think this is probably like one of the coolest points in scripture that Jesus sort of just, I mean, it's got to be the coolest exit.

If I could plan that every Sunday morning for me to exit from the pulpit in a cloud, I would totally do that.

But this is more than just like a cool exit.

This is a theological event.

The cloud is the cloud of God's glory.

It's the same cloud that led Israel through the wilderness.

It was the cloud of his presence.

Jesus isn't just vanishing into mid-air like you've seen some magicians do.

Jesus is ascending to heaven.

He is enthroned at the right hand of the Father.

He is now reigning as king over all.

So that in verse 10, while the disciples, we are told, are gazing into heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white robes.

I mean, picture this.

The disciples are staring up at the sky as Jesus descends into heaven.

The only way I can imagine this is like, have you ever accidentally dropped a helium balloon and it goes into the sky?

What do you have to do for the next like 10 minutes after that?

Don't you have to look at the helium balloon?

And you're like, where is it gonna go?

And there's only one answer, it's just gonna go up.

But you've got to see, you know, where it goes until it vanishes.

And I think that's maybe what the disciples are doing here until they're surprised by these two men standing beside them.

And these angels interrupt their sort of heavenward gaze, and they say, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?

This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go.

Now I love this because you remember in verse 6, the disciples were really interested.

Hey, Jesus, how are you gonna come back?

Now in verse 11, hey, stop standing around.

Jesus is gonna come back.

Get out there and go.

Now, Jesus had given them something crucial.

He had given them a knowledge of their identity, that he they would be his witnesses.

They had a knowledge of what they would receive, the spirit's power.

They had a knowledge of where they were to go to the ends of the earth.

And now they are given this urgent motivation.

Jesus is coming back.

Now, the point of this is that the return of Christ isn't meant to be kept in the classroom for theory.

Some, you know, some of us fear to think about eschatology and the return of Christ because it's clouded in all this confusion.

When's he gonna come back?

Is it all millennial?

Is it premillennial?

Are we gonna vanish up into the air?

What's gonna happen?

I want you to see that the heartbeat, the most important thing about your eschatology is not that you've worked out all the timing of the events, as important as that is, it's that you believe in the immediacy of Christ's return.

Do you believe that the return of Jesus Christ is imminent?

There is a reason why, no matter your eschatological position, all positions believe, man, it's gotta be soon.

You know, after the fall of Rome, I'm sure that the Christians were saying, okay, now it's all up.

Jesus is definitely returning.

I know that during World War II, everyone thought that the world was at Jesus has got to come soon.

And now we are in this political landscape.

Things are happening every week where we're just saying, Lord, I mean, it's gotta be soon.

Why does the church always live on the edge of their seat as though Christ is gonna return, not knowing the timing?

Because, loved one, there is an urgency that is required in your life, not knowing the time.

All they knew was that the time was short and that the king was returning.

In one sense, the time was for them was it was time for them to go because at Christ's ascension, at the theological moment of Christ ascending into heaven, there was a shift in the age of church history.

A new age had begun.

That's why it wasn't long after the ascension of Christ that the Holy Spirit fell at Pentecost and the church was born.

It was because at Christ's ascension, everything that needed to be witnessed had been witnessed.

You remember through the Gospels, whenever someone said, Jesus, let's go tell everyone about what you're doing, what did he say?

No.

Don't tell anyone.

Don't tell anyone.

Why?

Why is it that Jesus is keeping his role as Messiah as a secret through the gospels?

It's because the death and resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ has not happened yet.

But what happens immediately after the ascension?

Now go! Now go! Why?

Because this is the message that will save the nations.

Apart from this message, you have no salvation.

The gospel was complete.

And now they had embraced it, they were ready to proclaim it.

Loved one, gospel belief is the doorway to gospel mission.

If you are truly called to salvation in Christ, then you are called to bear witness in Christ.

The two of these cannot be separated.

The king who saves you is the king who sends you.

But can I ask you this?

Do you believe the gospel?

Can you testify to the reality of what Christ has accomplished, not for someone else, but for you?

Is Christ's life and his righteousness covering you now?

Is your sin atoned for by the death of Jesus Christ?

Are you living in the new resurrected life that he has purchased for you?

If you don't have that, you cannot be a witness.

You cannot.

You cannot be used in the hands of God.

The first piece is that you are transformed and loved one.

I want you to know that by faith, right now, you place your faith in Jesus Christ, and you will be safe.

He will be your savior and he will be your king, and he will send you for the greatest mission that the uh history of the human race has ever seen.

The advance of his gospel.

We're going to take communion this morning as we wrap up our time.

And it's incredibly fascinating that Paul says as he institutes the Lord's Supper, he says, For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

Until he comes.

In communion, we really do two things.

We look back to the blood and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and we look forward, longing for his return.

And right here, in the middle of those two points, in this moment, we are proclaiming something.

We're proclaiming that we believe.

We're proclaiming that we belong.

We're proclaiming that we are waiting for our King.

We're proclaiming for that we are awaiting the day where we will have the final communion supper with Jesus Christ Himself in heaven before we are ushered into eternal life with him.

If you didn't receive the elements on your way in, the ushers are making their way to the front of the worship center now, and you can flag them down and they will get the elements into your hands.

And if you're here and you haven't trusted in Christ, I would just ask that you let this pass you by.

This meal is a declaration of our faith until the Lord returns.

Scripture also warns us that we are not to take this if there is unrepentant sin in our life.

And so I'd ask you just to take this moment maybe to bow your heads and take a moment of reflection to think about your life, to think about your sin, and to bring it to the Lord.

Receiving this cup as forgiveness.

Let's take that moment now.

On the night when he was betrayed, Jesus took bread, gave thanks, and broke it.

He said, This is my body which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

Let's eat this together.

Taking the cup.

In the same way, after supper, he took the cup.

Saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

Let's drink it together.

Let's pray.

Father, every time we take this cup, we are proclaiming the Lord's death until he comes.

And Father, we take this time to praise you for reconciling us through the blood of Jesus Christ to yourself.

We thank you for the body of Christ that was broken, the blood of Christ that was shed.

We thank you that through his death we found victory over the grave, witnessing it in his resurrection, experiencing it in our life, and looking forward to the day that we will experience it physically, when the voice of Jesus calls us from the grave to eternal life.

God, thank you for the gift of your spirit that flowed through your church on that first day of Pentecost when the gospel was proclaimed, and you fell in power, and God, you gave to your people the power that was required to see the gospel carried to the nations.

And Father, we stand here 2,000 years later having been a product of the courageous, bold evangelism of your people.

God, we confess how often we've turned to comfort, how often we've turned to clarity, how often we've turned to control, to a desire for our circumstances to be changed.

Lord, we ask that you'd help us to turn our heart to you and surrender.

How do we do that now?

We ask you to send us.

Lord, because we know that you are returning soon.

We want to declare, Lord, we want to declare that even as in a time of response as we sing these truths, Lord, to declare that until you return, Lord, you will find in this room your witnesses.

We are your witnesses.

Amen.

Let's stand and declare that together.