The Witnesses

Good morning, Good News Church.

So today we are finishing up our series. So next week we begin our Christmas series.

So I hope that you all come back next week and we're gonna do a Christmas series

called Ruth, Journey to Bethlehem.

And this week, in order to start a new series next week, we're going to finish

up the one that we have been in today.

This is the first Christmas present I think that I've gotten this season.

Someone just gave it to me.

I'm gonna show it to you because I just, I don't know. I thought this was great.

So two weeks ago, I went on a cruise. My family and I went on a cruise.

And we, yeah, it was. It was very nice. And we found out there was another family

from this church that was going on the same cruise ship right after we were,

that we were getting off as they were getting on.

So I left seven small little yellow ducks all over the cruise ship for them to find.

And I thought the cleaning staff might find them before they did.

And so I just said, if you can find three of them, that'll be a win.

Anyway, they just walked in, and they found all seven ducks.

So that has nothing to do with the sermon. I just thought that was hilarious.

I can't believe that they found them.

And some of you are now wondering, why were you on a cruise and you just had ducks with you? I did.

All right. So today, we are finishing up our series, Conversations Jesus Had. This is part 17.

So over the last 16 weeks, we have covered the life of Jesus Christ.

Since conversations was the theme, we began this series actually not with his

birth, but we began with the earliest recorded conversation that we know about

of Jesus, which is when he was 12 years old and he was in the temple and he

was talking to the teachers.

After we preached on that and

to explain that passage, we covered 15 more conversations that Jesus had.

And learning those conversations sort of served as an overview of Jesus's life and his ministry.

We covered his early ministry, the middle part of his ministry,

the final days of his ministry. Two weeks ago, we covered Jesus' death and we preached about that.

One week ago, we talked about the resurrection. Do you remember that?

Well, good.

It's kind of a big deal. So we covered the resurrection last week.

And then today we're going to end our series where Jesus's time on earth ended,

which would be the ascension. Okay.

This is important to get. Unlike most people, Jesus's life story doesn't end

at his death. Have you ever thought about that before?

Like when most of the time you read a biography, it starts with the person being

born somewhere and then it tells their life story. And then at the end of the story, they die.

And that's not the case with Jesus because his death was only temporary.

Jesus' story ends with his return trip to heaven, and that is commonly known

as the ascension. And so I'm going to read that to you today.

However, I will say the goal for today's sermon is not actually to cover the

fact of the ascension in depth or even to cover the doctrine of the ascension.

We have done that before here.

I have preached on that here at least twice before.

No, since this is conversations Jesus had, our focus today is going to be on

the things that Jesus said just before he ascended.

So I'm going to read to you three Bible passages.

We usually do one Bible passage a week, but today we're going to do three Bible passages.

I'm going to read three different places where the Bible describes a final appearance

of Jesus or a final speech that Jesus gave.

All three of these passages are a little bit different. I think they're three

different conversations.

I will not be able to teach every word of these three passages,

but I think it will be good for us to take all three of them all into one sermon,

which I've never done before.

So the three passages are going to be Luke 24, Acts 1, and Matthew 28.

Those are the three places we're going to go.

Luke and Acts were written by the same guy, Luke. And so we're going to read

two accounts, but from the same person. And then a completely different person wrote Matthew.

So I'll read that. Luke, Acts, then Matthew. So let's go with Luke.

We'll begin with there. So Luke 24.

I chose this one to start with because it picks up right where we left off last week.

So as I start reading, I'm hoping the first three or four verses that I read

to you right now sound very familiar to you. Okay, here we go.

Luke 24, starting in verse 40. Having said this, he showed them his hands and

feet, but while they were still amazed and unbelieving because of their joy,

he asked them, do you have anything here to eat?

So they gave him a piece of broiled fish and he took it and he ate it in their

presence. Do you remember that from last week?

Okay, good. We ended with that. He ate the fish. That's where we ended.

So today, we just pick up, I'm just going to read the very next verses that

come right after that. Verse 44.

Then he told them, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still

with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses,

the prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.

Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures.

He also said to them, this is what is written, the Messiah would suffer and

rise from the dead the third day, and repentance for forgiveness of sins would

be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

I want you to notice this little phrase, all the nations, that's going to come

up later. Also, the beginning at Jerusalem is going to come up later. So notice that.

Next verse, verse 48. You are witnesses of these things. That word witnesses

is also going to come up again later.

And look, I am sending you what my father promised. As for you,

stay in the city until you are empowered from on high.

The sending you what the father promised and being empowered,

all of that's going to come up later too. Verse 50.

Then he led them out as far as Bethany. Let me pause there.

So they were, I think in Jerusalem at the point of that conversation.

And now they go out to a different city, Bethany, which is a few miles away.

So obviously that conversation, like the thing, what I just read to you that

Jesus said about proclamation of sins to all the world or all the nations,

that's not the very, very last thing that Jesus said, because after that, they walked to Bethany.

I'm assuming they didn't walk in silence, right? So probably other conversations

happened as he goes to Bethany.

In fact, we will find from other places in the Bible that there are at least

one for sure in Acts, there actually was quite a bit of time between the day

that Jesus rose again and the day that he ascended, okay?

Several weeks in between there, which we will get to. But at this point, we wouldn't know that.

If all we knew was what we had in the book of Luke, we would just assume there

was the resurrection and then there's however long it took to get to Bethany.

So he led them out as far as Bethany and then lifting up his hands, he blessed them.

And while he was blessing them, he left them and was carried up into heaven.

That's the ascension from the book of Luke. If you're sitting there going,

wow, so what exactly happened?

And what are the details? And when did it happen? And how did it all happen?

Like, that's what we got. One sentence.

Luke ends the story of Jesus. In fact, this is how it ends. He was carried up into heaven.

After worshiping him, they returned to Jerusalem with great joy.

And they were continually in the temple complex praising God.

That is the way, the biography of Jesus from Luke, that's how it ends.

And the ascension is described for us in one sentence. He left.

He was carried up into heaven.

So that's the story. Now, I'm going to go to the book of Acts.

That's going to be our second passage.

I want to read to you from Acts chapter one. And I think what this one's interesting,

because Acts is the sequel to the book of Luke, if you didn't know that.

And what Luke does when he begins the book of Acts is something that is very,

very commonly done with sequels all the way to this day.

Like, I don't know if people got this idea from Luke or not,

but it definitely goes back a long ways, which is Luke begins his sequel,

like the opening scene of his sequel was the closing scene of the one before.

Like the book of Luke ends with the ascension. The book of Acts,

which tells the next part of the story, begins with the ascension.

It's the same story again, but there's different details this time.

Luke mentions some things in the book of Acts that he didn't mention in Luke.

So let me read that to you now. Acts 1, starting in verse 13.

After he had suffered, the he there is Jesus and suffered is referring to the crucifixion, right?

After Jesus was crucified, he also presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs.

Okay? Now that's just a real, like that's just a little part of a sentence that

if we had read the book of Luke, we realized, well, there was actually a lot

to that, right? Last week, we read the account about Jesus presenting himself

alive to them by many convincing proofs.

Last week, we learned this part where he ate the fish in front of them.

And we learned the part where he said, look at my hands and look at my feet.

Look that I am not a ghost.

He appeared to multiple people. He ate with them. He walked along the road with

them. He presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs. We saw that last week.

And then appearing to them, look, during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

So this is the place where we find out how much time was between the resurrection

and the ascension. It was about 40 days, it looks like, during 40 days.

So if all we had were Luke, it would look like he rose again and then it wasn't

too long later and then he ascended, and we realized, no, actually,

there was quite a bit of time in between, and there were quite a number of conversations

that took place during those 40 days.

All right, let's keep going. Verse four. While he was together with them,

he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the Father's promise.

That should sound familiar, right? Same thing he said in Luke.

This, he said, is what you heard from me, for John baptized with water,

but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. So when they had come.

That's an interesting question because it looks like Jesus' earliest followers

at this point were really focused

on a sort of a very narrow understanding of the salvation of Jesus.

As best as I can tell, Jesus had already talked about the proclamation for forgiveness

of sins to go out to all the nations at the point that this conversation's happening, I think.

And yet, they seem very narrowly focused.

They do not understand the scope of Jesus's mission, that he is the savior of the world.

And they're just asking about, like, how much longer until Israel's back on top?

Now, are you restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time? He said to them,

this is Jesus responding, it is not for you to know times or periods that the

father has set by his own authority.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you.

Remember that you will be empowered is the way it was said in the book of Luke.

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you and you will be my, what's the word?

Witnesses. It's the same word from Luke, right? You will be my witnesses.

And where's it going to begin? In where?

In Jerusalem. Same thing in Luke, right? You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem

and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. So something very

similar, not exactly the same.

In Luke, he said to all the nations. In this case, he says to the ends of the

earth, but those seem to be synonyms, right?

But very similar stuff he's saying here. Then look at this, verse 9.

After he said this, he was taken up as they were watching, and the cloud took him out of their sight.

And that's the ascension again. And Luke gives it to us again with remarkable

brevity, just like last time.

So he said all this stuff, and then he was there, and then he was taken up watching.

What was it like? There was a cloud, and then they didn't see him anymore.

Well, what else? It was Jesus and clouds, Jesus and clouds, and then one day

just clouds, and that was it, right?

At one moment, there were no clouds. There was just clouds, and they didn't

see him anymore. That's the ascension. He went up. He went up out of their sight.

While he was going, they were gazing into heaven, and suddenly two men in white clothes stood by them.

They said, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven?

This Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come in the same way

that you have seen him going into heaven.

Now, that's an interesting detail that was not in Luke's account when he said it in Luke, right?

So apparently at the ascension, there were some angels that showed up and talked

about the second coming.

Now, I say angels. The passage does not say angels, right? It says two men in white clothes.

I'm kind of thinking they're angels because they're not a part of the story.

And then suddenly these men in white clothes who have no names just show up.

They say one sort of heavenly message kind of thing, and then they're gone and

they're not in the story anymore, okay?

So I'm not, you can believe whatever you want. Maybe someday someone needs to

make a movie like Men in White and they'll, thank you.

So anyway, so I don't know, maybe they'll make a movie of this,

but for now, I think that God sent these angels down and as they're sitting

there going, whoa, what do we do now?

They go, hey, you saw him ascend into heaven and he's going to descend, he's going to come back.

They essentially say the second coming, it's happening, which Jesus had already

said that, but they say it.

And so that's the ascension from the point of view of the book of Acts.

And then the last text that I want to read to you for this morning is Matthew

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

chapter 28, starting in verse 16.

Yeah, I guess I'll just read it and I'll explain it after I read it.

So Matthew 28, this is just so you know, this is the final paragraph of the book of Matthew.

So Matthew, like Luke, wrote a biography of the life of Jesus.

And when Matthew gets to the end of the story, okay, well, how are we going

to end the story about the life of Jesus, this is how Matthew ends it.

The final paragraph of the story says this.

The 11 disciples traveled to Galilee to the mountain where Jesus had directed

them. You're gonna notice this conversation takes place on a mountain.

When they saw him, they worshiped, but some doubted.

And then Jesus came near and said to them, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.

Now notice that little phrase, all nations. It's very similar to what was said

in Luke, all the nations, right? But this time it's make disciples.

Make disciples of all nations.

Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

How cool is it that we just did that?

Teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember,

I am with you always to the end of the age.

And that's how Matthew closes out the gospel of Matthew.

Notice there is no ascension mentioned here. I think it's kind of interesting.

I was talking to somebody, I think it was earlier this week,

and they said, wow, I always pictured he said this like, as he was floating

up. But in Matthew, he just says this, and then that's it. I'm with you always to the end of the age.

And Matthew doesn't ever, like he doesn't put an ending to the story.

The ending is Jesus said this, and that's how it ends. Now we know that Jesus

ascended, and we see that in multiple places in scripture.

But Matthew just records this as the final speech. So what I'm thinking is,

this is probably not literally the final thing that Jesus said.

It's the final thing that Matthew presents Jesus saying, right, this final speech.

And then we know at some point after this, he ascended.

So this speech had to have taken place between the resurrection and the ascension,

which we know there were how many days for that to happen?

40, very good. So let's talk about the timeline here. When we look at these

different conversations, I just read you three texts.

I believe that all three of the texts I just read to you are three different

conversations. They seem to me to be.

I guess it's possible Luke and Acts is describing the same one because a lot

of the words are similar, but there's quite a bit of differences in those two accounts.

So Luke and Acts, as you see the different things that Jesus is saying,

you can see the words are different.

One thing that I noticed that I thought was interesting this week is in the

Luke version, Jesus uses the word witnesses.

And he seems to use it in a different way than the way it's used in the book of Acts.

I don't know if you caught it, but when he talks about witnesses in the book

of Luke, Jesus uses it in the present tense, right?

He says, you all are witnesses of this, right?

So it seems as though what we have is Jesus is saying to them,

you saw what you needed to see.

You heard what you needed to see. You were eyewitnesses of this.

Jesus, it was basically, I

was alive and then I was dead and I was alive again and you all saw that.

Right? You saw me alive. You saw me dead. You saw me back to life again.

And you heard, you heard my teaching. You heard me explaining what the Bible

says and how that's connected to what I have done, including rising from the dead.

You heard it. And then I died and you didn't hear it for a little bit because I was dead.

And then I was back to life and you heard me say it again today, right?

So you are witnesses. When he says in the present tense, he seems to be saying

like, you saw it. You're the people who saw it.

Then when you get to the book of Acts, he says it differently, doesn't he?

He says it in the future tense. He speaks to the people there and he says,

you will be my witnesses. Isn't that interesting?

Why does he say you will be my witnesses? Obviously that's something that's

communicating something a little different.

I think the word witnesses there, it probably means the same thing as in Luke,

which is you saw it, but it means something more than that.

Because when he says in the future, okay, you will be my witnesses,

he's not talking about seeing him rising from the dead, right?

Because he says you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria

and to the ends of the earth.

He's not saying you're going to see me rise again in Jerusalem and then you're

going to see me rise again in Judea and you're going to see me rise again at

the ends of the earth, right?

He's saying you heard what I had to say, but he's not saying you're going to

hear it through all these, but he's saying you're going to say it in all those places.

The word witnesses in the book of Acts, especially in Acts chapter one,

seems to be a word that means not just you saw it, but that you're a testifier.

The word witness means testifier. It means I'm going to say what I saw.

And we use the word witness a lot, like kind of like that too.

We use the word witness where somebody saw something, but then in a court of

law, don't we sometimes, like, have you ever watched Law and Order?

And they have the people come up and they stand in a little box and they ask

them what happened and what does the witness do?

Well, they don't like re-witness the event happening, right?

They re-say what it is that they saw happen the original time.

And that seems to be the way Jesus is using the word here when he says,

you will be my witnesses. Not you're gonna see it over and over again.

You saw it, you heard it, and now you're gonna testify about it.

You're gonna re-say what you saw and what you heard all the way to the ends of the earth.

So that's one reason why it seems like it's probably two different conversations.

Also, the timing of these conversations, when you look at what Luke wrote in

the book of Luke, it seems that the passage in Luke took place on the day of

the resurrection, that Jesus came back to life.

He appeared to Cleopas, then he appeared to Simon, then he appeared to the other disciples, right?

And he said, look at my hands, look at my feet, right? That conversation seems

to have taken place on the day of his resurrection. Then later on, he ascended.

When you look at the book of Acts, this conversation, the one that says,

you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

And the next sentence is, after he said this, he was taken up as they were watching

and a cloud took him out of their sight.

Now it just says after he said this, so I don't think it means it had to be

the split second after he said it.

But it seems to me that the conversation that's recorded in Luke probably happened

real close to his resurrection. And the conversation recorded in Acts is probably

something that happened real close to his ascension. You following me there?

And then you have the speech that I read to you from the book of Matthew that's

commonly known as the Great Commission.

And it seems to me that speech had to have happened in between these other two

speeches, the one in Luke and the one in Acts.

Why? Well, it's not the same thing. He doesn't say the same thing.

And in fact, where did it happen? It says they climbed up on a what for the conversation?

You remember? Climbed up on a mountain, right?

And up on a mountain in Galilee is not where the conversation in Luke happened,

and it's not where the conversation in Acts happened. This is a whole other

one, which is fine. There was 40 days in between.

They had 40 days to at some point climb up a mountain and have that conversation.

And so somewhere in between, the resurrection and the ascension.

We have what happened in Matthew.

So the reason I read all three of them, even though they're three different

conversations, I thought like taking all three at the same time would be like

helpful for us because the one from the book of Luke, it picks up where we left off last week.

And it shows that these people were eyewitnesses. They really saw and they really

heard what they needed to see in here.

The one from Acts shows that this witnessing is not simply a one-time event

that they did with their eyes and ears, but it is a kind of testifying that

will continue on into the future.

And then the book of Matthew helps us see what the purpose of this witnessing

is. The purpose is to get everybody to obey and follow Jesus.

If all you had was Luke and Acts, we'd go, okay, well, we know that these people

are going and they're testifying and they're telling people about Jesus,

but why? Why does everybody need to know about Jesus?

I think Matthew makes it clear because everybody needs to follow him.

Everybody needs to trust in him. Everybody needs to obey him.

And so when you put all of these three sort of final speeches together,

I think you get, I don't know, some kind of beautiful picture.

You combine them all and you go, wow, that's what happened just before Jesus ascended.

That's the stuff he was saying just before he left.

Isn't that great? All right. So I want to give you six points to consider.

All right. I'm just going to go through these very quickly. Six points in the sermon this morning.

All of these points come from one or more of these three passages. Here we go.

Number one, start with Jesus opened their minds so that they'd know what they're

talking about. I think that's good to notice.

Jesus opened their minds so that they'd know what they're talking about.

For that, we're going to look at Luke 24, verse 45.

Luke 24:45

Maybe you remember this when I read it the first time. It says this,

then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures.

That was right after he said, you need to know about what's written about me

in the law of Moses and the Psalms and the prophets.

He said this right before he said, this is what is written, the Messiah would suffer.

He opened their minds to understand the scriptures.

That's helpful. If you're someone who's ever wondered like, how did the earliest

followers of Jesus know what to say?

How did they know they were understanding this? Like these people went around

and they explained all this stuff and they said they saw him.

He was alive and then they saw him dead and then he was alive again.

But how do we know that they're interpreting that correctly?

How do we know that the message they think that Jesus' death on the cross and

his resurrection, how do we know what they got out of it is like what the world

needed to know? How do we know they interpreted it right?

How do we know when they say, oh, the Old Testament talked about this,

right? The Old Testament prophesied all this.

How do we know they're interpreting correctly?

He opened their minds to understand the scriptures. How do we know that they

got the message correct as they went out initially? The answer is because he told them.

He informed them. He opened their minds so that they'd understand.

And when they went around and started saying, oh, this is like what's in Isaiah.

Well, how'd they know? Because he told them. All right, number two.

Jesus expected them to testify. This is important.

He expected them to testify. And you can see this in Acts 1-8.

It's right in the middle of the verse.

It says, and you will be my witnesses. Can I have Acts 1-8 up?

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you and you will

be my witnesses. This is an interesting thing to say, isn't it?

So he expects them to testify. And the way he phrases it, like it's not even

a command in this verse. At least it doesn't seem to me.

In Matthew, it was a command, right? Go and make disciples. But in this case,

he doesn't say, go be my witnesses.

He says, you will be, you know, almost like it's a prediction.

This is what's going to happen. You will be my witnesses. So he expected them to testify.

That's important for us to get because Christianity is a testifying religion.

Did you know this? Christianity is a testifying religion.

The adherents of Christianity are people who are called to testify to what God

has done, testify to what Jesus has accomplished, to the whole world.

That's a big deal. And as I thought about it, there's something that came into

my mind this week that I don't know if you remember it or not,

but I'm gonna use it as an illustration.

About like 10 or maybe 12 years ago, there was a dust up in this country about

the phrases freedom of religion versus the phrase, freedom to worship.

Does anybody remember that?

Okay, wow. So you guys, more political people here, I think,

than the first service. First service was like, nope, don't know.

So about 10 or 12 years ago, I can remember, it was on the news and they wrote articles about it.

And the concern was that this older phrase, freedom of religion,

was being used less. And people started to use this phrase, the freedom to worship.

And so I'll tell you what the concern was. And I realized there was two sides

to it and they were arguing back and forth. And some people said,

you're being picky and we didn't mean it that way.

We didn't mean it the way you meant it. So I don't know who was right or wrong.

But I will tell you what the concern was at the time, because it's related to this.

The concern was the phrase freedom to worship sort of sounded like a downgrading

of the freedom that humans have in order to relate to their God compared to freedom of religion.

The freedom of religion is, hey, you are able to practice and do whatever you

want religiously, but freedom to worship sounded more like you Christians are

free. And it wasn't just Christians.

It was Muslims and Buddhists and Jewish people and whoever.

You're free to worship. you're free to gather in these little buildings,

these houses of worship, and feel free to worship whatever God you want, right?

You are free. If you wanna believe in God, you're free to believe in God.

And if you all wanna get together and discuss Jesus, like you can go into your

little buildings and discuss him all you want amongst yourselves.

Just leave the rest of us alone, right? We don't want it out here,

but what do you do in your head and what you all do in your little buildings?

Like, that's fine. Feel free to worship him in whatever ways you guys need to

do it in your little houses of worship, but leave us alone.

And there were people that when they heard that, they said, well,

I think there's more to it than that.

Humans don't just have the right to believe things in their head and just gather

and discuss Jesus privately.

No, our savior told us that we had to be witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea

and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

So it's like, well, no, it can't be. And like I said, I don't know if that's

what they meant, but that was the concern.

The concern was freedom to worship sounds like we're allowed to believe whatever

we want in private when we're just talking to each other. And the idea is no, no, no.

Following Jesus Christ does not involve merely worshiping Him amongst ourselves.

I mean, that is part of it for sure, but it's more than that.

Testifying about Him out in the real world to the real world has been a part from the beginning.

All right, number three, the testifying would eventually be worldwide, okay?

So Jesus expected them to testify, and the testifying would eventually be worldwide.

Again, we see this in Acts 1.8.

You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria,

and to the ends of the earth.

Matthew's account and Luke's accounts also say words like that to all the nations, all nations.

What's incredible is this has happened and is happening.

Have you ever thought about this? It's still happening. It's not completely done yet.

There are still people who are sharing Jesus Christ with people who don't know about him yet.

That's still happening to this day, but it has happened. It has happened quite a bit already.

And whenever I look at Acts 1-8, I think this every time. And whenever I preach

on it, I don't know, I think I probably say this every single time.

Sorry for those of you who've been to church here for a long time and you've

heard me say this before, but I just can't read this verse without pointing this out.

What a bold thing to say. You will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth.

There weren't magazines, there weren't phones, there wasn't the internet, right?

Jesus, who hadn't traveled more than a little bit around from the town that

he was born in, like he never went, like he wasn't a world traveler, right?

He stayed in one little area and then said to a few followers.

You're gonna take this to the ends of the earth.

And it happened. How do you know it happened?

We're here. We're here right now. Like you are in Ocala, Florida.

And even if you're not good at geography, you probably know.

We are nowhere near where he was

standing when he said, you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth.

We are on a piece of land that's on the other side of the world.

They didn't even know it existed at the time.

And we know about Jesus.

What a bold thing to say, and it happened. All right, number four,

the Holy Spirit would empower them to do it.

The Holy Spirit would empower them to do it. Again, Acts 1.8,

let me read the first part of it to you.

It says, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you.

So the mission to be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria to

the ends of the earth, if you go, how are they gonna pull that off?

Especially, there's no phones, internet hasn't been invented,

this is gonna go to the ends of the earth, how's that even gonna happen?

He says, you're gonna get power to do it. Now, I think the Holy Spirit empowers

us to do all sorts of things.

But in this particular verse, I think the focus is the Holy Spirit's going to

empower the people to do this particular mission.

And so they, I mean, a lot of it was pulled off even before the phone was invented.

All right, number five. The mission would be passed on to more people.

The mission would be passed on to more people. I think this is implied in Matthew

28, 20, so I'm gonna read that to you in a second.

But it's also something that you see actually happened if you read the book of Acts.

Like as the story goes on after the time of Jesus, you see that's what happened.

The original people who were witnesses testified to people who then were another

generation of people who then knew.

And then they told people, who told people, who told people.

And I think you can see this implied in Matthew 28, 20. So let's go there real quick. Matthew 28, 20.

So this is right after the part where go there, make disciples of all nations, right?

So make disciples, meaning your disciples, your followers of me.

Now go find people who aren't followers of me.

Turn them into followers of me, right? You're disciples, they're not,

so you'd make them into disciples and you baptize them.

And then he says this, these people that you baptized, these people that weren't

followers and now they are.

He says, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you.

So what is it, if someone's gonna make someone else a follower of Jesus Christ, right?

Okay, so we baptize them, they're a disciple, and now what are you supposed

to do so that they're a follower of Jesus? Well, you teach them to observe everything that Jesus commanded.

The next generation of people, how do they follow Jesus? Well,

they're supposed to do the thing that the original generation of people did, right?

They are also supposed to observe everything that I commanded you.

I commanded you, but I didn't just command it to you.

I commanded it to you so you'd tell them and then they would do it too.

Well, what is included in everything I have commanded you? Well,

obviously a lot of things.

It would be everything, right? But in particular, my point here is what he had

just said was, go make disciples.

So if the original group of people are supposed to make disciples,

and the way they do that is by teaching the next group to do what they did,

then the second group is going to do what?

They're going to make disciples, right? They're going to pass it on to the next group.

So that's what I mean by the mission would be passed on to more people,

that these people are going to not just witness one time, this is what Jesus did,

but we're gonna have the next people witness to the next group of people and

they're going to make disciples with the next group of people,

each one teaching the next group to do what the group before did.

So that, and here's point six now, so that eventually we get included into this story.

You can see point five and point six is all one sentence, but I just wanted

to give you extra points, so I broke it up.

The mission would be passed on to more people so that eventually we get included into this story.

How cool is it that we are in this story? The story of Jesus includes us. Isn't that great?

Like we get in on the tail end of the story.

Look at Luke chapter 24, verse 47.

Luke 24:47

So Jesus is there. I think this is the day of the resurrection.

This is what is written. The Messiah would suffer and rise from death for the

third day. And now look at this.

And repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations.

Okay, so somebody has the opportunity to repent and be forgiven of their sins, right?

Whose sins can be repented of and forgiven?

According to the verse, the repentance for sins is proclaimed in his name to who? To all the nations.

So we look at the story, we go, oh, it's about Jesus and his disciples.

And then you get to the end of it and you go, well, now actually,

this is something that's going to affect all of the nations.

Sins can be forgiven. Who, just the people that happen to know Jesus?

No, not just the people that happen to know Jesus.

Repentance for forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed to all the nations. Who is all the nations?

That's people like me and you. The word nations here means people groups.

Just so you know, it's not, I think it's the Greek word like ethne,

which is where we get ethnic, the name like ethnic group from,

like the different ethnic groups or the different people groups that are all along the world.

The word nations here doesn't mean like government.

Sometimes we use the word nation to mean like the nation instituted attacks

or the nation declared war.

That's not the way the word is being used here. This is talking about the people in the nation.

Forgiveness is going to be proclaimed to all of the different people groups all over the world.

All the nations is people like me and people like you on the other side of the

planet at the time he said it.

We can be a part of this story.

It's our sins that can be forgiven.

How great is that? This whole story, this whole story about the life of Jesus

Christ that we have been learning for 17 weeks now, turns out it has something to do with you.

We're not simply learning about something that happened 2,000 years ago.

Oh, and it's good to know the history of this.

No, it's connected to us right now. It's about the forgiveness of our sins right

now. So when you look back at the story, you got to see it that way.

The part of the story about the disciples following Jesus is not just for them.

You also need to follow Jesus. The part of the story about Nicodemus needing

to be born again is not just about him.

You must be born again. The part of the story about the thief on the cross being

saved by his faith, right? There weren't enough minutes left to do a lot of good deeds.

The thief on the cross being saved by his faith isn't only for you,

or sorry, isn't only for him. It's not a story that's just, well,

isn't that neat that that happened to him?

You also can be saved by faith. That's why the story's in there,

because you have a vested interest in all this.

The story about Jesus rising again isn't only about him.

You also can be saved from death forever.

This whole story applies to us.

And if you are someone who's already a follower of Jesus,

then the ending of this story, the ending of the story of Jesus Christ is a

powerful reminder that you have the privilege and the responsibility to pass

on the good news of Jesus Christ to the next set of people who need to hear it.

I'm gonna end with a quote from a guy named Votie Bauckham. I really like him a lot. He's a pastor.

He was a dean at a Christian college in Zambia, Africa for a long time.

I think he's moving back to the United States now, But anyway,

he said a lot of helpful things. I like them, and this is one of them.

So I'll end with this. He says, we exist not just to make disciples,

but to make disciple-making disciples.

When it comes to spreading the gospel and handing it down to the next generation,

you are not the last link in the chain.

You are just the next link in the chain.

Every generation is the next link in the chain. and the people who invested

in us did not do so simply for our good.

They did it so that we would pass along what was given to us and we invest in

others so that they will pass along what was given to them.

Thanks for listening. Let's pray.

Dear Lord, I thank you for this time of Lord's Supper where we can remember,

like we can look back and think about you giving your body and shedding your

blood for us and realizing that's not something you just did for them.

That's connected to us right now. So thank you for that.

I pray that you would make us into a congregation of testifiers for the good

of the people that we testify to and for the good of people that they testify

to and the good of people they testify to that we will never meet until the resurrection.

Thank you for including us in your plan. Thank you for the story of Jesus Christ.

Thank you that it matters for us.

Thank you, Jesus, for dying on the cross for our sins. Thank you for the gospel.

We love you and we praise you.

And we pray this in your name. Amen.