"In the Beginning...the Church was Commissioned"

There.

Starting the book of Acts.

Obviously starting in chapter 1.

This is the Word of God.

In reverence of the reading of the Word of God, would you stand if you are able?

Acts 1, verses 1 through 11.

Acts 1:1–11

The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after he had after he had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom he had chosen.

To these he also presented himself alive after his suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.

Gathering them together he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, which he said, You heard of 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 together, they were asking him, saying, Lord, is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?

He said to them, It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.

And after he had said these things, he was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received him out of their sight.

And as they were gazing intently into the sky while he was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them.

They also said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky?

This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched him go into heaven.

This is the word of God.

You may be seated.

Brian, would you please come.

So good to jump into the book of Acts.

What a joy I pray these months bring all of us together.

Father, lead and guide our time, be glorified in it, guide my mouth, my heart, that I would only speak that which you would have.

And we ask that all of us, all of us, would be able to cloud out the tyranny of the urgent in our lives and focus on Christ and his word.

Be glorified in it, we pray in Christ's name.

Amen.

Well, once again, as we come to the a new study, a new book of the Bible, as we uh come to the book of Acts, I just want to say thank you once again for allowing me to come and to preach the word.

Uh for me to be able to do this week in and week out is an absolute gift.

And I just say thank you.

Um in and as a charge, may we always, as a church, seek to glorify our Lord together through the preaching of the word.

It's worship for me, for you, for all of us to do this work.

As I pondered and prayed about what book of the Bible we would go to next, it kind of became clear to me that what is needed is what is always needed.

And that is that we study the object of our common faith together.

And that, of course, is none other than Jesus the Christ.

Amen.

Along with that, one of the things that's very important for us to know as a church are our roots.

What are our roots?

We have to know where we came from and how it all got started.

And then, of course, that goes on to inform us of uh who we are today and how we are to live as a church.

So, this book, the book of Acts, is a wonderful book that is just full of the events and actions of the early days of the church, the bride of Christ.

As we go through this book, we're gonna see many things that take place in the church.

We get to see the inauguration of the church.

We're gonna see so many come to the faith.

We get to see that what the early church looked like in terms of who was a part of it and how often they met and what did they do when they met.

From this book, we also get a sizable portion of our church polity and structure.

That's the exciting part, right?

We also get to see uh some really awesome, miraculous signs, miraculous things that take place, and really the even the beginning of the ministry of the great apostle Paul, who we love, among others.

I mean, think of it this way: we read of a shipwreck, right?

Stoning, fighting, sacrifice, fearless faith, faith in the face of certain death, rulers being challenged and called out, a snake bite, dark magic, book burnings, and even people being stranded on an island.

Interesting, huh?

You ever think of the Book of Acts that way?

It's just chocked full of amazing accounts of what God was doing early on, so much so that I say Hollywood has nothing on what Luke wrote here.

Especially because we get something else in this book that becomes truly transformative.

This book, this historical account is full, as we're gonna see going through it, is full of wonderful God-glorifying sermons by Stephen and by Paul and by Peter.

Now, with all that said, though, what you've heard for many years, no doubt, if you've been in the church for a while, is that this is called the book of the Acts of the Apostles.

And it may say that in the title heading on your Bible right now.

And while that is absolutely true, it's a good description in one sense.

I want to interject that behind that all, and maybe what we should actually seek to change that to, is this is a book of the Acts of Jesus Christ.

Remember, while Jesus may have ascended into heaven, which is what we get to see today to some extent, he is ever present.

Okay?

He is completely in charge of and sovereign over his bride and the whole world.

And so, just because Jesus ascends into heaven, that doesn't mean he has relinquished ultimate control over the earth or his newly formed bride.

You see, the main point of the Bible is a focus on God's redemptive plan.

And the book of Acts is no different.

And so we see in this book that God's amazing work of grace and his purposes for creation, they don't end at the cross.

Which is why we have the book of Acts.

Therefore, again, the main character, the main point, the hero, if you will, is Jesus Christ.

The eternally reigning and risen Lord Jesus the Christ.

He's not a hero like what we see on TV, though.

He doesn't just save the day and walk away and go back to his secret layer in the shadows.

He has no kryptonite.

He doesn't thrive on having the bad attitude.

He doesn't just arrive at the last minute.

This hero, this eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ, he's intimately active in his world and especially with his bride in every way.

He's in control.

Bible says he upholds all things by the word of his power, and he cares deeply for us, not just in times of peril, but at all times.

He's compassionate.

He's faithful and true, he's full of grace and wrath.

He is the all-powerful one that's gained the victory over evil, and the outcome was never in question.

So as we go through this book, as we come to it week after week for the next handful of months, I want us to never forget that Jesus is the star of the show, so to speak.

He's the reason for the faith.

He's the one who sends the gift, the Holy Spirit that we get to talk about.

He is the one who empowers his people to live for him and preach the gospel.

He is the one who is behind all of the events that take place, and he is the one who is giving the church, the early church, its strength and its guidance and his job.

He's all over the pages of this wonderful book that speaks of his bride and the ones that he chose to lead this mission of establishing this church.

Also, what is helpful to know in this book is that it's really the, you could call it the pivot or the hinge between the gospel accounts and then what we see after is the epistles or other letters of the New Testament.

This is also a book that explains who we are as saints of the living Lord on this side of the cross.

We should never come to our uh come to this book and our reading of the Bible and think that this book is just simply, maybe you've heard it's just, oh, that's kind of about the church and its gifts.

Right?

Which ones do I have, or why don't I have this one?

We'll come and talk about that kind of stuff later in the series.

Nor should we come to this book and just reduce it down to a model of evangelism as some have done.

It is those things in part.

But it's so much more.

It's where we get our identity as saints as a part of the bride of Christ.

It tells us what life is to look like as a church and just so much more.

But again, most importantly, it is a book about Jesus Christ and his continuing work through his bride on the earth.

Through his bride.

We're the church.

So as we go through this today, we're just gonna kind of take it mostly verse by verse.

And I hope we understand what the theme is here as we do that.

But for starters, as we do that, I think it's good for us to start with who wrote it?

Who wrote it?

We're diving into a new book.

So who wrote this thing?

It's Luke.

The great man Luke, who is with Paul so often, the companion of Paul.

He is the one who's always been universally recognized, or mostly by the one who wrote this book for many reasons.

One is that he opens it almost the same way he begins his gospel account, the gospel of Luke.

And he does it by addressing this guy named Theophilus.

Theophilus, for any of you young folks who are thinking of having a child, that's a great name.

Theophilus, okay?

But what we can assume is that Luke knew him well.

Okay, he wrote two things to him.

And he knew it would be advantageous for him, Luke was a smart man, for him to be listed as the recipient of this book.

Maybe it's through financial support.

Or maybe it's by using his position in life to be able to advance its writing.

Okay, something in that effect.

He's some sort of leader in society.

So Luke begins by addressing his immediate recipient, on down to us today, and then he goes on to tell us that this is part two, so to speak.

A lot of times you may hear Luke wrote Luke Acts, like with a hyphen, not just two different books.

He says that his first account, his first writing, was really to tell all about what Jesus began to do and teach.

As I've already said, Jesus is the main focus of the book of Acts.

His ministry is not done now that he's ascended.

And so Luke says here about the first book that he wrote, the gospel, is where Jesus began to do and teach.

And so I believe he's telling us Jesus isn't done yet.

He's not done.

He's continuing his work with his people.

Therefore, we have this book.

So it gives us a setting right here and a background for what Jesus is continuing to do and teach through his spirit.

So what was Jesus teaching them?

What are we meant to come to know?

As we read Luke or Acts.

Was Jesus teaching them some secret thing that only apostles and disciples could know?

Was he teaching them how to go to war with the Romans?

How to live and hide in the shadows out of fear?

No.

Essentially, Jesus taught them how to read their Bibles.

That's what he did.

I love Luke 24.

In two different spots, it tells us that Jesus appeared to the apostles after the resurrection, and he goes on to teach them all about what the Old Testament taught.

Okay?

So verse 27 of Luke 24 says, beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself and all of the scriptures.

Okay?

A few verses later in Luke 24, verse 44, it says, These are my words which I spoke to you while I was with you.

Luke 24:44

He's in his resurrected state.

And all the things that are written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms, they must be fulfilled.

Okay, so do you see it?

Do you realize what he's saying to them?

In verse 3 of our text for today, it says that he spoke to them about the kingdom of God.

And so Jesus is saying, Hey, everything in your Bible is about me.

What Moses taught, he says, the prophets, the Psalms, he's covering the Bible.

See, Moses wrote the first five books, then we have the Psalms, and then the rest were written by prophets.

Not just the ones that bear their names, those are prophets, but also the historical accounts that we have, those are also written by the prophets.

And so he's saying, all of what you have, because the New Testament is still being written when he says that, all of what you have points to me.

And Luke is telling us that what's happening right now, beginning in the book of Acts here, is, and even what's still to come is about Jesus.

He's it.

And so he's teaching them about the kingdom, his kingdom, and in doing this, he's telling them it's always been about my kingdom.

And it will always be about my kingdom.

It's always about the king.

The suffering king of kings, the glorious king of kings, the all-powerful king of kings, the majestic king of kings who will come again.

You see, the world and even some Christian communities tell us our faith is about 2,000 years old, right?

Since the cross.

Jesus would disagree with that.

The inauguration of the church after the resurrection is that old, but in reality, it's always been the only true religion of the earth.

See, both Old and New Testaments, Jesus, it's all about Jesus, about his redemptive plan, about this Messiah who was to come to the earth and the consummation of all things in the end by the returning king.

And so what we realize, it was never supposed to just be about the Jewish people as they thought.

Or about any other people, and it still isn't.

It's all about God and his glory.

It's all about his kingdom, it's all about his greatness, it's all about his sovereign plan of redemption that brings glory to himself as he saves the people for his own possession.

So the Bible, including the book of Acts, is wonderfully, wonderfully God-glorifying.

God-centered.

And that is great news, by the way.

Great news.

Because it is right for all the earth and heaven to be centered on God and not man.

Even though we like to do that.

This is why we can see verse 2 in our text is kind of a therefore almost.

It says by the Holy Spirit.

We see Jesus giving orders, and these are specific to the apostles initially.

And specifically in verse 3, we read that these are the ones He presented himself to alive.

Again, validating his kingship.

The end of Luke's gospel account, we read Jesus visited them after his resurrection.

I already read some of what he said.

And so to believe this is true, to trust the eyewitness accounts of these men and all those who saw Jesus, it is vital to our faith, isn't it?

Think about it.

We know that Jesus was born in a humble way as we celebrate at Christmas time.

Really, year-round if you're a Christian.

We know that he then lived as the God man and he lived that perfect life that we cannot.

We know that he was sentenced to die, to be tortured and killed on the cross for what the chief priests and the scribes of the day called blasphemy.

Because he told them who he really was.

The Son of God.

He's God.

Accused of blasphemy by blasphemers.

We know that on the cross he endured the wrath that you and I deserve, the wrath of the Father.

But if that's it, you see, if that's it, if he died and we never heard from him again, if we didn't have this passage here, then our faith is in vain, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15.

Meaning we're still doomed to hell.

The apostles are foolish and they're insane, and we have no eternal purpose if Jesus didn't raise.

If Jesus didn't continue his plan.

Paul also says in 1 Corinthians 15, if Jesus did not raise, we might as well live for ourselves.

Not that we don't, but we would have our sinful permission.

He said, simply eat and drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.

You've heard that.

What he means is living is meaningless if Christ didn't raise.

See, the resurrection of Christ is of vital importance to our faith.

Without it, there is no faith.

Therefore, proof of it by eyewitness accounts that are listed here in the Bible are vitally important, aren't they?

Luke speaks of them in the end of his gospel account, and then in verse 3, he does it again.

And he says, And Jesus added so many convincing proofs for 40 days.

He didn't just show up in a blip to one person, like, ah, I think we're good.

No.

It was time and time again for over a month.

So again, he's given these disciples their orders right before he's taken up, and this is where we get the mission.

And here's where he describes exactly what his purpose and plan was and telling them they're to go out and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, as we read at the end of Matthew's account.

But just imagine being his disciples and especially his chosen apostles at this time.

Just think about that.

Jesus had just conquered the grave some 40 days earlier.

He's now appearing to them.

And not just appearing to them like a ghost or something paranormal.

No, it's it's actually meaningful.

He's eating with them, he's teaching, he's comforting them, he's truly with them.

Isn't that awesome?

What a gracious God.

He cares so much.

He didn't have to do that.

I mean, he didn't have to appear to him.

He's God.

What does he have to prove to us?

What does God ever have to prove to his creation?

Yet in compassion and gentleness, he chooses to show himself, as Luke records here, chooses to show himself to aid them in their faith.

Comfort them in their fears.

And so that's really the backdrop.

It's a long backdrop, I know, but that's the backdrop for what we read next in verse 4.

Here we have Jesus' final words recorded.

Well, on the earth after his resurrection.

His final instruction, his parting words, if you will.

And this consists of three things primarily.

And so as we reflect on the mission of the church laid out for us, that's really important for us to know today.

The mission of the church has not changed.

Okay?

So as we reflect on the mission of the church held out for us, laid out for us in these verses of Acts, these first verses, we're going to go over these three things with the early disciples in mind, okay?

As well as how it impacts us here at Prairie Baptist.

First thing he says here.

Okay?

First thing, my words don't go anywhere.

Don't go run and hide.

Don't go home to Galilee.

Don't go anywhere.

In a very short matter of days, I'm gonna send you that promised gift I told you about.

The gift of the Holy Spirit.

He actually says they're gonna be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

They're gonna have this amazing ability to inaugurate the church and cause many people to believe.

Not that they're saving anybody, but that the Spirit of God is gonna work mightily through them.

He'd already promised them prior to the resurrection that he's gonna send a comforter after he was gone when he told them he was gonna die and be taken from them.

But in that he encouraged them, hey guys, it's way better.

It's exactly what needs to happen.

It's better for you to have the Holy Spirit than me in the flesh.

We see this in the book of John, chapter 14 is one place.

John 14 · chapter mention

Now, I don't know about you, but at first read that almost sounds contradictory, doesn't it?

I want Jesus with me.

But once we realize that while being in the presence of Jesus on this earth would be awesome and amazing, God has so ordained it that we need the Holy Spirit to actually live in us.

I.e.

the baptism of the Holy Spirit at salvation.

Not later, as some people teach, at salvation.

Now that is supernaturally glorious for humanity, isn't it?

God actually, the one who spoke, we talked about this in Sunday school, the one who spoke all of creation into existence indwells his people.

Be awestruck again, even if you've heard that a thousand times.

Now we can be saved and live for his glory and not our own.

What a wonderful reality that really does change everything about who we are and what we live for.

That's what he says first.

The second thing he says to them is really a response to their questioning from verse 6.

Now the content of this question that those guys give to him is what we kind of remember our study through the book of Mark last year?

Something that they've already asked, something they've already said.

On one hand, that's a desire of the things or to know things that they ought not know.

So they ask, hey Jesus, is this a time when the kingdom will be complete and fulfilled?

Are you restoring the kingdom to Israel?

This tells us they still had in their minds, even after the resurrection, that these occupying Romans, they gotta be gone.

That's what they're on.

They know of his power and glory.

He's been raised from the dead.

And so while chomping at the bit, they're hoping that he's speaking to, okay, is it coming out?

Is it coming out?

Can we get the kingdom now?

When the Holy Spirit comes?

But in asking this, they are completely missing the point.

They're completely missing something huge.

And that is they are missing what real power is.

They didn't understand that the gospel is power.

Romans 1.16 says it is a power of God unto salvation.

They are thinking once again, way too small, when contemplating being part of something that's powerful and transformative.

They are thinking in temporary terms when they ought to be thinking in divine realities.

You see, the gospel, it doesn't matter, it doesn't conquer with mere human violence or treaties.

Okay?

It is the power of the Holy Spirit to conquer the sinful hearts of man so there can be peace with God.

And they'll come to know this more, and we'll see some solid faithfulness through the book of Acts.

It's awesome.

And so Jesus doesn't even really directly address that, but he does say this.

He goes on to say this in verse 7.

He says, It is not for you.

Okay?

It is not for you to know times or epochs, which is seasons or dates, which the Father has fixed by his own authority.

It's kind of back to that Job statement.

Who are you, O man?

And then he blesses them again in his grace, even though they're still off thinking wrongly.

He goes on to say that they're gonna get power.

Don't worry.

You're gonna get real heavenly power through the Spirit of God, power that is for witnessing.

Not merely to be earthly soldiers.

Instead, they become soldiers of Christ with the sword of the word in their hands.

Remember, Jesus in Mark 13 says that even at that time when he's on the earth before the cross, he says, I don't even know the date or the time in his humanity, reinforcing the Father only knew.

The reason I bring that up is because in our day and age there are many, many churches and organizations that do that very thing.

Or at least they tend to focus and double down on these things on the end and exactly when it's gonna happen and exactly what it's gonna look like.

For many years now, the evangelical church has had this unhealthy obsession with the end times and what it's gonna look like exactly.

There's tons and tons of books written on it that try to fill the void that the scripture leaves blank.

Don't ever do that.

There's conferences year-round about this theme, movies that insert extra-biblical content.

Now we should talk about the coming of our Lord.

We should rejoice in it daily.

But the details cannot consume our ministry nor our gospel witness.

This is why, when speaking to the end, I'll typically say two key and important truths, unless I'm preaching intentionally through a passage that speaks of it.

One, Jesus is coming back.

He's coming again.

He's coming for his bride one day in his timing.

Okay?

Two, we need to be prepared by living holy lives.

Those are by far the two most important things to know and apply when thinking about the end of all creation.

Jesus is coming again for his bride.

Be prepared, people.

That's what's ultimately important.

That's kind of what Jesus is indicating here.

You have a job to do, don't worry about that.

We never want to be falling into the trap of being consumed with the details that Scripture leaves out.

Like this one.

And so Jesus is essentially saying, it's not even for you to know, okay?

I'm telling you what's really important to know.

Don't worry, you're gonna get this awesome gift.

You're gonna be baptized by the Holy Spirit.

Go and pray and be blown away about that.

You get to have the indwelling presence of God, and you get some amazing gifts to be witnesses for his glory.

Focus on that.

Which, of course, leads to the third thing that Jesus speaks of here.

And these are his last words to him.

Or to his guys, to anybody, really, on the earth.

And last words are important, aren't they?

We hear all the time.

So-and-so's final words were final wishes.

Family members, friends, loved ones, they cling to those words if they're impactful and intentionally directed.

We never forget and we do all we can to make sure they're kept with us.

Well, Jesus' final words here before he ascends to the earth are these.

He ends with, You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

And here, listen to this.

And you shall be my witnesses, both in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.

Essentially ends with, You have work to do for my sake.

His final words are, you're gonna go tell the world about me.

With love and the power of the Holy Spirit Himself.

And so what Jesus gives to them, and I believe us here today, in his final words, is our commission to be witnesses for the kingdom.

Not that we're gonna go on and further the kingdom, that's not our job, but we are going to speak about it.

We're gonna be witnesses of it.

Witnesses of the cross, witnesses of the resurrection, witnesses of the risen Lord, witnesses of the forgiveness of sins.

By witnesses, I don't mean eyewitnesses.

I mean instead proclaimers, testifiers of the truth.

We are witnesses because the Spirit has regenerated our hearts to truly know him, and therefore we proclaim we're we're we're gospel truthsayers now.

Gospel heralders, gospel proclaimers.

We have a job to do.

We're to proclaim Christ and his gospel with power.

And here in this verse, verse 8, I love what Jesus does here is he also really gives us an outline for the whole book of Acts in the church.

Follow me.

Chapters 1 to 7 speak of the witness of the gospel in Jerusalem.

We could look forward to seeing that for seven chapters.

Chapters 8 to 12 speak of the gospel being proclaimed in Judea and Samaria.

It's happening.

So they originally went north to the place where uh the kingdom of Israel was, where the Samaritans and Jews lived.

And then in verses, or excuse me, chapters 13 to 28, it is the ends of the earth.

And we continue that today.

So that's what it's going to look like.

And so, in this, in this call, in this command, we need to know the church is to be militant.

Not with earthly weapons, but militant in its love, in its godly living, and in its witness for the king who came and died that we may live.

We have an account, we have a story to tell, don't we?

A burden to share with others.

I love what Piper says.

He calls it a broken-hearted boldness.

We have the keys to eternal life.

I must get this out.

I must tell others.

I see that so-and-so is headed for eternal destruction in their sin.

I must ensure that others know of Christ.

The real Christ, by the way.

Not the one shown in movies.

Most movies.

Not the one in false religions who claim the name of Jesus, and even in the lives of those who blaspheme him, but yet say they love him.

I must clear up even the misconceptions and teach them all about this Jesus, this Christ.

Why?

Because I am commanded to be a person of love.

Because I love my God and I love those around me, that's my commission.

That's our commission.

That's our job as a local church before a dying world.

So that's how he begins.

That's the commission.

That's our job.

And as we move forward in this passage, we see in verses 9 to 11 this great event that I think often gets overlooked.

We always say the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

What about the ascension?

It's vital.

It's vital.

We get to see today the ascension of Jesus into heaven to be seated at his rightful placement at the right hand of the Father.

It says he was lifted up in this passage and a cloud received him.

Okay.

That's different.

But this is no rain cloud, is it?

This is not the big white fluffy cumulus cloud that you and your kids lay on the front lawn looking at and making shapes out of.

It's not that.

This is a cloud which represented glory.

You could say it was the representative of the Shekinah glory of God.

It is an amazing event because Jesus is there on this Mount of Olives.

And then the text goes on to say, hey, he's going to come back in the same way.

Meaning he will come in glory from the sky.

Two men in white garments, obviously angels, that had been sent by the Father to comfort the group, they stood beside him and they say, hey, don't fear.

He's going to come back, and he's going to come in the same way.

I don't know about.

This is an absolutely amazing event for so many reasons.

I'm just going to try to focus on two today in this last portion of our text.

From this, by the way, historical event.

It's not fairy tale, it's not made up.

It's not just trying to encourage people who are sad.

This is a historical event.

So the first thing I want to look at is that it is actually essential that this happened.

Because again, Jesus cannot stay on the earth forever after his resurrection.

It was essentially go back to being with the Father in glory at his right hand, his proper place, and from the place where he controls all things and even intercedes for his people.

The God of the universe, the one who was slain by sinful humans, willingly slain, is still interceding for us.

In and through his accomplishments and his obedience.

Second, he needed to go so that he could bless us with a comforter.

Now you're maybe asking yourselves, or maybe you're thinking, okay, tell us.

Why did Jesus have to go for the comforter to come?

Why did Jesus need to be ascended back into heaven before the Holy Spirit could come?

And I will confidently tell you, in answer to that question, I don't have all the answers to that question.

Is that helpful?

John 16, 7, Jesus tells us the Spirit will not come if he doesn't ascend.

Which tells us it isn't that he couldn't have come, but that within the roles and relationship and the triune God and their ministry to believers, Jesus was to go, the Spirit was to come.

That's what God ordained to be so.

But I want to say this in regards to Jesus sending the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is a gift to the people from the King at his enthronement.

This point in history when Jesus is taken back up into his eternal dwelling is a pivotal point in the history of not only all the world, but of all of eternity.

Jesus is now highly exalted on high in this by the Spirit and the Father.

It is this picture, okay?

As Jesus returns to sit at the right hand of the Father in heaven, there is this eternal celebration going on.

And therefore, the King of Kings, who is a good king, a merciful king, a gracious and all-powerful and majestic king, at his enthronement, he decides to shower his people with the best thing they could ever have.

Here's your gift.

Here's the Holy Spirit.

He showered us with what we needed to be saved with.

And he blesses us for eternity.

See, the ascension where he goes up to be with the Father is necessary for the universe to now be right again.

And Jesus to be where he belongs.

His rightful place.

It's necessary for him to be enthroned in this way, and it was necessary if any human being was ever to be saved from their sins by the indwelling presence of the Spirit.

Which then, in turn, allows us to now be witnesses to the remotest parts of the earth.

See, this passage speaks of the mission or commission given to the apostles and down onto us.

But that could have never been successful if Jesus had not ascended and the Spirit had not come.

That's how he ordained the plan.

Why he ordained it that way?

Be in heaven and ask that question of God.

Because nobody's going to be able to answer it specifically here.

But we know that it was for our good, the best good ever, that we could be saved.

And you know what?

There's also something else absolutely beautiful to note today when looking at this passage and especially the prophecy given by Jesus right before his ascension, and that's this.

It worked.

Didn't it?

It worked.

It is and has been successful.

Jesus ascended to his rightful place, the Holy Spirit came, the apostles are baptized with the Spirit and given the task of spreading the gospel, and they were successful.

And if you look around the room right now, you'll see evidence.

You will see proof that the book of Acts is the word of God if you turn and look at your neighbor right now.

If they're in Christ.

It worked.

The Spirit is successful in his ministry to humanity.

The message did go out to Jerusalem.

We're going to see that again.

Then to Judea and Samaria and even to the remotest parts of the earth.

And guess what?

Right here in Grant County, we're them.

Not just because it's rural in Oregon.

But we're the remotest part of the earth.

The ministry of the gospel has been and continues to be successful.

How far are we from Jerusalem right now?

That's a long drive.

The gospel has gone out and it's borne fruit.

Jesus' mission is successful, and it is successful each day that people profess Christ as their Lord and Savior.

It has gone to Russia.

It has gone to China.

It has gone to Brazil.

It's gone to Vietnam.

It's gone to Poland.

Our brother that we talked about earlier.

It's gone to Canada.

It's gone to Malawi, it's gone to Mongolia.

It is even in the Antarctic continent for most of the year or part of the year.

There's seven churches in Antarctica.

God has done exactly as he's promised through his people.

Praise his name.

At this time in the sermon, I would normally ask all of us, how are we doing?

How are we doing at being witnesses?

If Prairie City is the remotest part of the earth that Jesus is speaking of here, how are we doing individually and corporately as a church at being witnesses?

It's a great question, isn't it, for us to ponder daily.

But I want to say to you instead something comforting in our thought of working at being witnesses for Christ.

And that's that Christ gave the apostles at his ascension recorded here, he gave them something awesome.

He gave them authority.

He gave them authority to go out and be a witness.

He gave them ability and he gave them the words through his spirit and the work.

You and I today have the same.

We have the same command, the same ability, the same words through the spirit.

We've been given the same charge with the same message.

We are Christ's witnesses if we've repented, if we've confessed, if we're saved.

Now we have authority given by God Himself through the Spirit to preach, teach, proclaim the gospel to the whole world.

And we don't have to reinvent the wheel.

Actually, if we try, we'll destroy it.

We only need to proclaim the same gospel message that these men spoke back then.

We preach Christ and Him crucified, no matter if the world thinks you're nuts or even wants to harm you for it.

They did back in Paul's day.

They thought he was nuts.

He said, You're foolish, you're offensive.

Nothing has changed with the world's response, therefore, neither should our message for their sake.

And so I just encourage us for their sake, with what we've been given, let's take this message to the remotest parts of the earth, which includes your next door neighbor.

And I just want to encourage you in this.

If you're kind of apprehensive about that, and maybe you you haven't seen a lot of converts in your life with you, I want to encourage you never measure your faithfulness or fruitfulness of being a gospel proclaimer or witness by what some have told you to measure it by.

Some say measure it by the amount of converts you've seen.

Don't do that.

Unless you're God.

Let us instead measure our witness by our faithfulness to just proclaim it.

That's how we measure it.

The message that says, Jesus comes to the earth to rescue, to ransom a people for himself.

The message that says that humanity was created to be perfect in communion with God, the God of all creation, but chose to rebel and are therefore under the curse and totally depraved in desperate need of a savior.

The message that says Jesus is the Savior both then and now.

The message that hinges around the cross, the resurrection, and what we see today, the ascension, because Jesus is now enthroned on high at the right hand of the Father, and yet still intimately involved in all of creation and in control.

The apostles were given their marching orders here and their commission.

The church from then on has been handed down these same instructions.

These are Jesus' final words.

These are our marching orders today.

Jesus is still in charge.

And he still speaks to us through his word.

As we close, I want to go back to Jesus' ascension for just a moment.

I want to say that.

You know Jesus Christ is amazing.

The understatement of the year.

Jesus Christ is God who came in the flesh, and that's a fact.

Not only do we know this by our factual faith, but you have more than a dozen eyewitnesses.

What does that make in our courtroom?

Jesus commands the clouds, brothers and sisters.

The angels are subject to his authority, and they love to bow down and do his bidding.

Men here are blown away at his power.

Jesus is God.

And he's coming back.

He's going to come triumphantly as the judge.

And like it says here, it's going to be a visible and glorious return.

The trumpets are going to blow.

The whole world's going to know.

And all bow down.

Philippians 2.

It won't just be the apostles that see him come again.

It's going to be millions.

The human race will fall on its face at his glory.

The clouds that hid him will now be his chariot.

A blazing chariot that gets to host the Lord of hosts as he comes in splendor and majesty.

You see, I don't think that we're meant to read that it's going to be on the same cloud on the same mountain to the same few guys with those couple of angels there.

No.

In the same way in this passage means in the same universe subjecting glory, in the same heavenly vision, the same all-powerful way.

He will descend.

There will be a shout, and the world will know.

Whether they like it or not, they will know that Jesus is God and He's come.

Fall on your faces, O inhabitants of the earth.

Fall down, bow down, cry out, or hide, depending on what you did with the gospel before he came.

It's Him who's come.

He's the Lord of Lords, the King of kings, the sovereign and reigning ruler of all.

Praise the name of Jesus.

He is coming again in power and victory.

And here's the thing that's awesome.

Not quite that awesome, but still awesome.

In between the two advents of Christ, where Jesus comes to be the atoning sacrifice, as has already happened on the cross, in between that and his coming again to judge and rule and reign and vanquish sin and death forever, in between there, we have the church age.

The beginning of which we're going to study for the next few months, but it also includes today in us living for him.

And so the question is this: when he comes again in glory, what will he find you doing?

What will he find when he comes and he surveys Prairie Baptist Church?

Will we be seen as a faithful bride who is living out his commands and proclaiming his deeds?

Will we be found as a bride who lives for this day with our eyes on that day?

Will we be found as a virtuous, beautiful bride adorned for the king at his return?

We have the Spirit in us.

We know he's coming one day.

What does your day-to-day to day look like as you prepare for this?

Hebrews chapter 1, verse 3.

Hebrews 1:3

He's the radiance of the glory of God and the exact representation of his nature.

And upholds all things by the word of his power.

And listen, when he made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

He's interceding for us right now at the right hand of the Father, in and through his completed work on the cross.

But here's the thing: Jesus won't be seated there forever.

He's coming again, and when he stands and he comes to claim what is rightfully his, it's going to be the most glorious day that you could ever imagine.

That is why I think the angels almost surprisingly look at the men and they say to the men in verse 11, why do you stand looking into the sky?

This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you have watched him go.

Why are you sad?

He's coming again.

He's alive.

Why are you just standing there?

Didn't he just give you a job to do?

Why are you not worshiping over this event?

Why are you not on your faces?

Your Savior goes to intercede for you and send your gift.

Men of Galilee, they say.

Men, women, and children here today.

Do you have Christ?

Are you in dwell with the Spirit?

Do you long for his appearance?

Are you working for him now?

Do you worship him always, especially with the people, the church?

There's much to be done, isn't there?

I was found to be a faithful people.

Faithful servants ministering the gospel here at church and to those who are in need in our community.

He is coming again.

It will be glorious.

What will he find you doing when he comes?

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for this historical account that reveals to us more and more of the splendor and grandeur of Jesus Christ.

We thank you that you, by your word, have promised not only those eleven guys, but us here today, your coming to reclaim your bride.

Cause to be faithful, to walk in holiness.

Cause to cherish and honor our King every single day.

With our mouths and with our laps.

And cause us to proclaim this truth to those who are dying.

Those who need life.

Amen.