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Witnesses to the Uttermost! Series: He is Risen! You better look fast, for Acts 1 is the last look you will get of two things: One, of the Apostles before Pentecost power, and two, of Jesus present bodily among the disciples. The book of Acts is the last book of the Penteteuch of the New Testament; it is not a complete history of the apostles, but a fragmented history. This book is the continued doing and teaching of the living Lord Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit, through His body of believers, which is the church. The last words of great people are treasured because they speak of what is really important. Great people speak of great things that are of eternal import when they speak their last words. The word witness appears 13 times in Acts and is the word MARTUS. We are not spectators of the resurrection, but participators in it, we are witnesses of His resurrection as if we also have seen Him risen from the dead! We are called to be witnesses; not philosophers, not intellectuals, not discoverers; we are first witnesses, not secretaries, doctors, lawyers, computer programmers, or even pastors. Witnessing is better than: A. Going HOME! They should not depart from Jerusalem. What? Not return to Galilee? They were not “City Slickers;” they were “Galilean Guys. This may grate against our natural inclination. The disciples were from Galilee. Jerusalem was a big city to them that they visited for special feast days. The Lord tells them to stay in Jerusalem and wait, and then to stay in Jerusalem and work. This would go against their natural desire to return to Galilee. Jesus ministry was centered in Galilee, so this was a definite change in location for them. Jesus says, "Witness unto me in Jerusalem," even though Jerusalem was not their home. It was the center of the nation, culturally, religiously, and politically. B. Knowing THE FUTURE! When we come to these last words of Jesus we see that the disciples are more concerned with the future than with their duty. We are not to be people of curiosity but of duty. What confidence the disciples have of Jesus’ LORDSHIP and COMING KINGDOM. Jesus did not correct their hope of a coming Kingdom. It is my conviction there will be an earthly millennial reign of Jesus on the earth. If this was not the case, Jesus does not say, restore again the kingdom? No, you are mistaken! On the other hand, he does not answer their question! They had questions without answers. Jesus reminds them that the future is under the AUTHORITY (exousia) of the Father; and power is their promise for the present. Look at that phrase, “It is not for you to know…!” Some things just belong to God. It is not PROPER for us to know everything, it is not PROFITABLE for us to know everything, it is not POSSIBLE for us to know everything! We are not prognosticators about the future, but preachers in the present moment, preaching the Word already revealed; witnessing unto Jesus to a lost world. We are not to be date-setters. Do not get hung up on DATES and PREDICTIONS. This is how CULTS start. Setting a date for the coming of Christ is setting yourself up as a false teacher. We do not have to have all the answers before we get involved in service. We will never have all the answers. I cannot answer all of your WHY’S to your or my satisfaction. We do not have to have all the answers to be involved in effective service. It is not our work to make a precise map of the future, getting our Lord’s return down to the very second. No. What John 3:16 is to the lost sinner, Acts 1:8 is to the LABORING SAINT. What John 3:16 is to the sinner, Acts 1:8 is to the saint. John 3:16 summarizes salvation into a NUTSHELL; Acts 1:8 condenses our SERVICE into a nutshell. Whereas John 3:16 challenges the LOST concerning their utmost priority, salvation; Acts 1:8 challenges LABORERS in Christ’s harvest field concerning the priority of our duty, to GO into all the world with the Gospel. Acts 1:8 outlines this book: Acts 1-7: Jerusalem Acts 8-9: Samaria and Judaea Acts 10-28: The Ends of the Earth. 1. EXPERIENCE the Power of the Holy Spirit A. This involves everyone! Who would receive the Holy Spirit? All who call upon the name of the Lord. The fulness of the Holy Spirit is not for a favored few for a limited time! God’s power is FOR ALL, FOREVER. His indwelling is permanent. Christianity is not some dead thing, but it is a personal experience with the living God. It is a living encounter with the God of the Ages! It is a NEW BIRTH. In order to experience the power of the Spirit, you must be saved. In order to be saved, you must realize you are lost. If you are ever going to realize you are lost, you must realize that you have sinned against God. You are a sinner; you have sinned BY CHOICE, by CONDUCT, and are under the very condemnation of God. Your sin has alienated you from God, separated you from life, and the work of the Holy Spirit is to first convince you of your sin, of God’s righteousness, and of a coming judgment. Now some people say, I am not that bad. Let me ask you, have you ever lied? You are a sinner. Have you ever had a hateful thought? Have you ever had a lustful thought? Have you ever cursed or used the name of God in vain? Coveted? Jealousy? Bitterness? Unforgiveness? The good news is that Jesus Christ has come to save sinners. If you do not realize you are saved, Jesus can never save you. If you do not realize that you are hell bound and dead in trespass in sin, Jesus cannot save you. You must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ! B. This leads to a change in their BEING. The Holy Spirit would cause them to BE WITNESSES. Witnessing is more a matter of BEING than DOING. Follow me, and I will make you to BECOME fishers of men. Not just DOING it, but BEING it. Being a Witness becomes part of the nature and character of a Christian. How can you receive eternal life and not desire to tell others? How can you have your sins forgiven and the burden of sin lifted and not tell others about it? We need the Holy Spirit. This is not luxury, but necessity. C. This was a promise, John the Baptist foretold of this baptism. John 7; 14,16. Remember what John the Baptist had said: There comes one after me mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you WITH the Holy Ghost, and with fire… By the way, the recent miniseries movie about Jesus on CBS again blasphemed the Jesus of the Bible and sought to bring him down to the level of a mere man. Leave it to Hollywood to mess it up! Do not be deceived. They do have an agenda to validate any religion or lifestyle. Anyway, we are told to anticipate a baptism WITH the Holy Ghost. In John 7:38, 39, Jesus said, He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the SPIRIT, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given: because that Jesus was not yet glorified. John 14:17, the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. So what will the Holy Spirit do? He will glorify Christ in all things! (John 16:8-14) 2. ESTABLISH a Base in the City What a sight this is that stirs my soul! Here is Jesus commanding His disciples just before He ascends to heaven to not depart from Jerusalem but wait. “Some people want to live beside the church bell, I want to run a rescue ship within a yard of hell.” I want to share a little of my urban burden with you today. Why am I in New York City? Why would anyone want to be in New York City? I am going to point you to some scriptural principles about the city which continually motivate and challenge me to stay in the city and reach people for Christ. A. Cities are the population centers of a society from which culture grows and national destiny is shaped. Fierce battles for human hearts have always taken place in the city. Throughout Scripture, the city is on center stage in the great drama of redemption. It is my conviction that we must seek to reach cities. Let me share a few reasons why. When I was in High School, we had a whole language we made up. One of our code words was “PITH.” We would say to someone, “I have a pith for you” or “Pit for you, dude!” It stood for PLACE IN THE HEART. We should have a real PITH for our cities, and for all without Jesus Christ! B. Cities are the HEART (Hub and headquarters) of a nation’s culture. That is why I am in a place like New York City. It is the heart of the world. It is where national destiny will be determined and cultural direction will be established. Go to Jerusalem, then to Samaria, and they went to the city of Samaria, and then to the uttermost part of the earth. We must not retreat from the city; we must reach the city. RETREAT is what evangelicals did in the 1950-70’s. White flight led many evangelical churches to empty out and some of these ministries were not able to reach the changing dynamic of their community. Some left for the “burbs.” You see, cities are places of change. People come and go. The church must be committed to reaching people, not holding on to their property, position, and power. It is easy to get centered around PROPERTY, and not the PERSON of Jesus and the need of lost PEOPLE. Paul unashamedly desired to bring the Gospel to Rome, the most influential, powerful city on earth in his day (Acts 19:21). He understood that the city was a great vehicle to get the gospel to the world. He also realized that the Gospel of Christ was greater than the power of sin within the city. Paul knew the Gospel of Jesus Christ was the power of God for the Jew first and also to the Greek, and he wrote that to the city of Rome. Rome! A city of great political power, a city of great military power, a city of great sin and false religion. Paul was not afraid to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ into the heart of the world. Power of the city is great. There are many powers in the city. Power of economics, of corporations, of religions, of sin, of politics. God’s power is greater than them all! Because he was convinced the Gospel of Christ was the power of God that leads one to salvation, his heart was ready for Rome (Romans 1:14-16). Paul realized that if the Gospel could break into this mighty urban center it could break out from Rome and many would hear the news of salvation in Christ throughout the world. Paul thought it better to go to Rome in chains than not at all! C. The Lord has a great heart for cities, Micah 6:9 God tells us that His voice cries out to the city. “The Lord’s voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name” (Micah 6:9a). Wisdom hath thy name in its eye! God’s voice cries compellingly and urgently to the city because His heart loves the people of the city. Jonah 4:11 God has compassion for the city because He is the creator of every soul within that city and God loves the world. I think about the book of Jonah as God asks his unwilling prophet Jonah, “And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city?” (Jonah 4:11a) Acts 18:10 God tells Paul to sit down in the sinful and diverse city of Corinth. D. Reaching the city is at the heart of world evangelism. Urban ministry is strategic to world evangelization. The missionary movement of the New Testament was primarily urban church planting. Jesus tells the disciples “that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father” which was the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4). Jesus then commanded them to “be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). To the disciples, Jerusalem was not their hometown; rather it was the religious, economic, and political heart of the nation that was most hostile to the message they were commissioned to proclaim. Nevertheless, Jesus commands them to establish a base of operation in Jerusalem that would ultimately extend throughout the world. Judaea, the nation, could be reached only by reaching Jerusalem, the city, first. The Good News of Christ spread to the uttermost part of the earth as the early apostles focused upon those areas teeming with eternal souls. May God raise up those who will not fear to stand, to speak, and to stay in the great urban areas of our world today in order to proclaim the glorious message of redemption through the Lord Jesus Christ. 3. EXPAND Out to the Ends of the Earth The church must ever be content but never be satisfied. We are content because we are complete in Christ and filled with the Holy Ghost. Out of our belly flows rivers of living water. We are never satisfied however that we have done all we should, or that we have done all we could. Judaea, Samaria, and the uttermost part of the earth, or the very ends of the earth. No stone is to be left unturned. We are to witness to the extreme points of the world, as far as the ends of the earth. 1. Experience the power 2. Establish a base in the city 3. Expand to the Uttermost |