Be My Witnesses

So we're going to be, how many of you know where we're going this morning? I know a couple of you know. It was on, might have seen it online. We're going to be in the book of Acts.

Acts is a big book, 28 chapters. I don't know how long that's going to take to get through, but what I think we'll probably do is maybe break it up into some sections and maybe study some other scripture in between. But I'm really excited about being in the book of Acts.

And so if you have your Bibles with you, I encourage you to turn there and be ready to look in there. And I'm just going to open our time together with a word of prayer. Father, thank you for today.

Thank you for this gathering. Thank you that we do have salvation in the name of Jesus. Thank you for Josh, who has found that salvation this week as you revealed yourself to him and he accepted the gift that you offered.

Lord, we praise your name for the work that you're doing in our lives. Lord, thank you that we have this place to come and to worship you. Lord, thank you that we can worship you, not just through the songs that we sing, but even as we study your word, that's worship.

It's giving, it's acknowledging you and who you are and that you're worthy to spend the time in your word, understanding what you've given to us in it. And so, Lord, I ask that you would help us in that today. In Jesus name.

Amen. So the book of Acts, written by Luke, he's the same Luke that wrote the gospel of Luke. He was a Greek man, I say probably from the city of Antioch.

He was a traveling companion of the apostle Paul. So a lot of the places that Paul went, Luke was with him. And in his own words, he sought to provide a narrative of things that had been accomplished.

And so we're going to, more on that in just a couple of minutes. But before we just start in the book of Acts, where does it fit in the Bible overall? Like the big picture of the Bible. So let's remind ourselves of the grand narrative of the Bible.

Starts with creation in Genesis. God created the world and it was good. In fact, it was very good.

Adam and Eve were in the garden and God was dwelling with them in the garden. And the ladies on Wednesday night just recently looked at this theme of God dwelling with his people that's threaded all through the scripture. So as we see in Genesis, God is with Adam and Eve, but Adam and Eve sinned and they were separated from God.

And so now you see this separation, sin separates us from God. And as we read through the Old Testament, we see that God provided a means for them to interact with him. And so his dwelling place was in the tabernacle and then it was in the temple.

And the law was a means for the people by faith to approach God so that they could be with him. And then, of course, with Christ's arrival on earth, he was Emmanuel, God with us. And so he walked on this earth with us.

He went to the cross as a payment for our sins. Our sin had separated us from God. Jesus died to pay for our sins.

Now we can be reconciled with God and Jesus ascended into heaven. And then we will come to hear in the book of Acts that God now dwells within those who put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. And so we're going to see that in the book of Acts and we're going to see the spread of the church in the book of Acts.

And one day we have this promise in the new heavens and the new earth that God will once again dwell with his people. And so we look forward to that day. So that's the big picture of the Bible.

And in the book of Acts, where's the book of Acts? Well, Jesus here in this first chapter, we're going to see this morning ascends into heaven and we see the beginning of the church and we see the gospel spreading from Jerusalem all the way to Rome. You could say that we see in the book of Acts, the gospel spreading from the Jews, predominantly Jewish, Jews that had faith in Christ initially. And we see that spreading to the Gentiles, which is good news because that includes us here this morning.

You could say that we see the gospel spreading through the apostle Peter and then on to the apostle Paul. We see that sort of transition in the book of Acts. So we'll see what I'm going to say is the outline for the book of Acts this morning in Acts chapter 1 verse 8. So the grand narrative of the Bible is that God desires to dwell with man and so that the dwelling was perfect in the garden, then it was broken from sin.

We're in this period of reconciliation and once again we'll dwell with God. In the book of Acts, so we're getting a little smaller, we're going to see the beginning of the church and the beginning of where God dwells within his people and asks his people to be witnesses throughout the world. And then within this book of Acts we'll see these individual narratives of how that takes place.

So we'll see the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. We'll see an interaction between Peter and Cornelius. We'll see some of Paul's journey.

So we have the grand narrative, then we have the narrative of Acts. We'll have these smaller narratives within it that all building blocks to this big story of God's redemption for us. So as we read the book of Acts, there's different types of writings in the Bible.

Much of the Old Testament we would say is historical narrative. So it's like it's telling us what happened. And Acts for the most part is considered a historical narrative.

So you have the book of Romans, Acts and then Romans. Romans is largely a theological book, which is a little bit different than the way that Acts was written. And so one of the things that we're going to do as we go through the book is distinguish between what is descriptive and what is prescriptive.

So in other words, what is described as something that happened and what is prescribed as something we must do. So not everything that happens in the book is something that we must do. There are clear places where we're told what to do and sometimes we're just told what happened.

And if you're studying your Bible and you're in the book of Judges or you're in the book of 1 and 2 Samuel, it's like you understand that. You're reading those books through that lens. But a lot of times when we're reading the book of Acts, we see it's in the New Testament.

And so we want to read it like it's a theological book. And there is theology in Acts and it is important, but we have to remember that there is a lot of just narrative. This is what happened.

And so we're going to look at one case of that, a good example of that today. So before we start in the book of Acts, I said Luke is the author of both the book of Luke and the book of Acts. We're actually going to start in Luke and then come here to Acts chapter 1. So Luke chapter 1, I should have told you to turn to Luke chapter 1. It's going to be on the screen.

This is how Luke starts his gospel. "'In so much as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.'" So Luke is writing the gospel of Luke to this man named Theophilus, and he actually says to him, most excellent Theophilus. So a lot of people think he's some sort of a Roman official, which makes sense because other Roman officials in the scriptures are referred to as being most excellent.

Some have speculated that he was wealthy and that he actually funded Luke and Paul on their journeys. We don't know that, but that's what some people like to think. Theophilus does mean loved by God or friend of God, and I just think that's kind of cool because if you're loved by God or a friend of God this morning, in a sense this is for us as well, even though it really was written to this guy named Theophilus.

So this is what Luke's doing. He's writing a narrative or he's writing a history of the things that have happened through eyewitness accounts, through the accounts of those who were doing the ministry. He's been watching this, he's been following this, he's been putting it all together, and he's writing this to this guy named Theophilus.

All right, so let's go to Acts chapter 1 because that's what we're really starting this morning. But notice what he says in verse 1, in the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 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.

So the first book was Luke, and Luke says, just like I began to tell you about Jesus and what he began to do, this is a continuation of what Jesus is doing, and it really continues today. This is what Jesus is doing in the world today, but specifically what happened after Jesus went back up into heaven. This is where we arrive in the book of Acts.

So Luke was an account of what happened until Jesus was taken up, and then Acts begins where Luke left off. So let's just go back to Luke again and just see, where did Luke leave off? Well, in the last chapter of Luke, these are the last verses, Luke 22. That's not right, that's what I wrote down.

Is it Luke 22? It's not Luke 24? Okay, the last chapter of Luke. He said to them, thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sin should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.

Behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you, but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven.

They worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple, blessing God. All right, so that's the end of the gospel of Luke. So Jesus died on the cross, he rose from the dead on the third day, he had about 40 days of interactions with his followers, his disciples, with a variety of people, and he said to them at the end, forgiveness has come through his death on the cross, and that you need to proclaim that to all nations.

You're going to be my witnesses, starting in Jerusalem. And so this is what Luke wrote at the end of the gospel of Luke, sort of describing the close of that chapter, and it says they watched him ascend up into heaven. And so there's a little bit of overlap here in the two accounts, back to Acts chapter 1, verse 3 summarizes those last couple chapters of Luke this way, he says, 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.

And so the apostle Paul echoes that Jesus really did rise from the dead, and he really did interact with people after his death, and he says this in 1 Corinthians 15, verses 4 through 7, this is the apostle Paul writing, I deliver to you as of first importance what I also received. I wonder who he received this from? Maybe from his traveling companion Luke, maybe he received this from the Lord, we don't know. But this is what he received, Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, or Peter, then to the 12, then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time.

Most of them are still alive, although some of them have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, and then to all the apostles. So Jesus really did rise from the dead, he really did walk on the earth, he ate with his disciples, he interacted with them, he appeared to 500 at one time, and then he ascended up into heaven.

And so here's Luke's account in the gospel of Acts, not the gospel, the book of Acts, this last interaction between Jesus and his disciples. So keep reading with me in Acts 1, verse 4, it says, while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, and we saw that in Luke already, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, you heard from me. And again, we saw that in Luke, he says this, for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.

So the disciples were to wait in Jerusalem, Jesus has promised them something. If we look in the gospels, in the book of Luke, it's a helper, he's a comforter, he's an advocate, it's the Holy Spirit. They're to stay in Jerusalem and wait for the Holy Spirit.

So up until this point, the Holy Spirit is at work in the world. On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit is going to indwell individual believers and be at work in believers in the world, and that's still how he's working today. So it says that when this would happen is when they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

So we'll talk more about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but for now, baptism of the Holy Spirit is something that happens when we receive Christ as our Savior. First Corinthians chapter 12 puts it this way, verses 12 and 13, for just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. So we just jumped right into the chapter where Paul is explaining that the body of Christ, or the church, is much like a human body.

Many parts, but one body. A variety of uses, very different, and yet one together. And he says in verse 13, for in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.

Well, when did we join the body of Christ? At salvation. So as we accept Christ as our Savior, we are baptized by the Spirit into one body. Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, we're all made to drink of one Spirit.

So everyone who accepts Christ as their Savior, they're baptized into the body of Christ, and through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we become one with Christ, we become one with each other. That's why it's important to take care of each other. We are one body.

So Jesus said to his disciples before he goes back up into heaven, this is what's coming. Wait in Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit is coming. So they have questions about that.

Well, not about that, but they have their own questions. So they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said to them, it's not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. It's a legitimate question for the disciples.

They're coming to an understanding. They thought that Jesus, as the Messiah, was coming to earth to restore rule and power and authority to the Jewish nation, that somehow they would overthrow Rome and they would be the ruling nation in the world. And that's not what Christ came to do.

He came to establish his spiritual kingdom. They're understanding this and they're saying, well, OK, you died, you rose again, you have power over death. Now, is this it? What greater miracle than you coming back from the dead? Are you here now as the risen Savior to establish your kingdom? They know the prophecy.

Peter actually says, because now Jesus is saying, I'm going to send you the Holy Spirit. And they know from Joel chapter two, because Peter's going to preach on it on the day of Pentecost, that Joel prophesied that there'd be an outpouring of the Spirit on the day of the Lord. So they're thinking Jesus has risen from the dead.

He said that the Spirit's coming. Is it now? Like, are you going to restore the kingdom now? And what did Jesus say to them? It's not for you to know the times or the seasons. And I think that's a great message for us today as we get excited about Christ's return and we see things happening in our world and we look at history and think, man, the day of the Lord must be getting closer.

His return must be getting closer. And it is getting closer. We still don't know the time or the season, even though we can see things, we can observe things.

At the end of the day, we're not going to know. But Jesus says, I've got something for you to do. I've got something for you to do.

Verse eight. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, just like Joel prophesied. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

I said I was going to read the table of contents for the book of Acts. This is it. The spread of the gospel from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of the earth.

That's what we're going to see as we go through the book of Acts, as the church is established and as the church grows. It's the spread of the gospel through the power of the Holy Spirit, through ordinary men and women. We're going to see it all through the book of Acts.

But Jesus says to his disciples in that moment, don't worry about when the kingdom is coming. Just be my witness. Just be my witness.

Isn't this a revolutionary thought? You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. The Holy Spirit comes upon us or indwells us at salvation. So if you profess to know Jesus as your Savior, you believe he died on the cross for your sins, you have the Spirit of God in you and you have the power of God in you.

Isn't that something? Jesus rose from the dead through the power of the Spirit and now we have the power of the Spirit in us. It's the Greek word dunamis and that's the word we get our word dynamite from. So we're not talking about like a little nine volt battery.

We've got the power of God. So you might be here and thinking, well I don't feel like I got that kind of power. What does it mean that we have the power of God? We're not talking about superhero power that lets us do amazing things and everyone says, oh look at him, isn't he great? We're talking about a supernatural power like Adam was talking about that turns us into a new creation.

The old is gone, the new has come. We're talking about a power that allows us to respond in a situation different than how we used to respond in a situation as we become more and more like Christ. We have this capability to say yes to God and to say no to sin.

It's supernatural but doesn't mean we're going to be flying home today, right? Or moving mountains when we, you know, like I don't know what your supernatural, whatever your supernatural power that you wish you had when you were a kid. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about something better than that.

Something that actually changes lives. That moves us from death to life. That moves us from an eternal damnation to eternal life with our Lord and our Savior.

Through our dependence on God we become more and more like Christ. That's supernatural. Only by the power of God.

So we receive this power. It's changing us and there's a reason we get the power. It says you will be my witness.

It doesn't say if you like you can be my witness. You will be my witness. So if you have received the Holy Spirit because you've given your life to Christ, you are a witness of Christ.

You are God's witness in your world. What kind of witness am I? What kind of witness are you? You are, a-r-e, a witness. It's not an option.

It's not something you can opt in or opt out of. It's just reality. So the question is what kind of witness are we? We're a witness of God.

It says you're starting in Jerusalem and then moving to Judea and Samaria to the uttermost ends of the world. So you are a witness. Let's just say, apply it to each of us personally, we're a witness in our home.

We're a witness to the one we drove to church with this morning. We're a witness to our neighbors. We're a witness to our extended family.

We're a witness. It starts with the people right beside you and you're a witness no matter where you are, what you're doing, or who you're with. As a church, we're located in Blairsville.

So we're a witness in Blairsville first. And then we're a witness to the larger North Georgia area. And then we're a witness to the world.

That's why missions is important here. And we emphasize that and we commit finances to that because we've got the gospel here, don't we? And we need to make sure the gospel continues to go out to places that it has not been heard. So we are his witnesses.

And then this is what happened. Jesus said that to his disciples. It says, 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, he went and behold, two men stood by them in white robes. And they 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. Wouldn't it be cool to just watch Jesus? I don't know if it was cool or sad.

Like, come back. We still want you around. But there he went.

And these two guys in white robes, you know, angels showed up and said, look, he's coming back. He's going to come back the same way that he went up. He's going to return on the clouds.

And of course, Revelations chapter one tells us that he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him and all the tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.

He is coming with the clouds. Jesus will return. He will establish a new kingdom on this earth.

That is the future of the world. But until then. We're to be his witnesses.

We are his witnesses, good ones or bad ones. We are his witnesses. So we're going to look at the book of Acts and the first witnesses of the of the church, the first witnesses of the gospel of Christ as the gospel spread from Jerusalem to Rome.

And we're going to try to pull from it. So I said we're going to this morning an example of description and prescription. So the description this morning was that Jesus was with his disciples.

He gave him some final instructions and then he went up into heaven. And what did he prescribe to each one of us? We're his witnesses. So we have the historical narrative.

We have the account of what happened and we have something we're told we need to do. We need to be his witnesses. So there is this reality that we are his witnesses no matter what we are doing.

But there's also I think embedded in this command is that we should intentionally seek to be good witnesses for Christ. Right. So the reality is we are we're all witnesses.

Our potential is that we could be good witnesses for Christ. And I think that's what Jesus is asking his disciples to do. You're going to have the power of the Holy Spirit, he says.

Go out and be witnesses. Tell people what you've seen. Tell people what you've heard.

Tell people the difference it's made in your life. Tell people the hope that there is in a relationship in Jesus. That's what we're called to do.

To me, it's a reminder of the Great Commission. And Matthew tells them, he says, go, therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And lo, I am with you.

Because what did he promise? You're going to receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. He's going to be with us through his spirit to be his witness and make disciples of all nations. So if you have received salvation through Christ's death on the cross, be intentional about how you're going to be a witness to that.

Show your love for God and your love for people by being committed to be making disciples of people through evangelism and discipleship. And the promise is, God will give you the power or God will give you the ability to do it. So for all of us here this morning who have accepted this free gift of salvation, the book of Acts is exciting because we see the gospel going out and we see it making a difference in the world.

And that's what we're going to see in the book of Acts. But if you're this morning and you're like, I'm not a witness of Christ because I haven't given my life to Christ, then the greatest thing you could do this morning is to receive the gospel. It's the gospel message in the book of Luke, in the book of Acts that goes out and makes a difference in people's lives.

And it's the message of the gospel that still makes a difference in our lives this morning. So I just challenge you, if you've never accepted Jesus as your savior, this morning's the time to do it. It's the simple acknowledgement that I'm a sinner, my sin has separated me from God.

The payment for that sin is death, but instead of me having to pay it, Jesus died on the cross as a payment for my sins, offering me eternal life if I believe that he did it for me. And so my invitation this morning is if you have not received this gospel message that's making a difference here in the book of Acts, that can make a difference in your life, today's the day to do it. Today's the day to do it.

Lord, thank you for this time that we've had together. Lord, help us not to just be excited about what you did 2,000 years ago as the gospel began to spread and it began to make a difference in people's lives. And it made enough of a difference in their lives and carried on because we're here today as witnesses of you, as witnesses of your death and your resurrection, as witnesses of the difference that it can make in a person's life when we believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins.

And I just pray, Lord, if there's someone here this morning that has never received the salvation that's available through your work on the cross, Lord, they would do that now. They would just say, Lord, I know that I'm a sinner. I know that I've rebelled against you.

I know that you died on the cross as a payment for my sin, that I would be able to have everlasting life. I believe that you died for me. Lord, I pray that that prayer would be prayed this morning, if there's someone here that's never done that, that they would experience the forgiveness that comes through a relationship with you.

Lord, for those of us who have received your forgiveness and we've received your grace, we've received your mercy, Lord, I pray that that would be constantly changing us, renewing us, making us new, making us more and more like you, so that when people look at our lives, that we really are a testimony of who Christ is, that we would reflect you. We would be a good reflection of who you are and your love and your care. So, Lord, I pray that this morning that we really understand we are your witnesses.

By the power of the Holy Spirit, we can be good witnesses for you. So, Lord, we ask that you would work in us. Lord, I ask that we would be yielded to you, that we would be responsive to you, and we would be excited to see the work that you do in us and through us as we determine to be witnesses for you in our world.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.