[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the Fort Collins Bible Church Sermon Audio Broadcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is our prayer that these messages will spur you on to growth in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you have any questions or would like to hear more, please access our website at www.Fort CollinsBibleChurch.com and now a word from Pastor Brad Maston.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hi, thanks for tuning in this week.
[SPEAKER_01]: This week we have a wonderful study really kicking off our time in the text of the book of Acts.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm confident that we will see continually the incredible provision that the Lord has made for us as believers in His Son Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_03]: And with that, we'll begin our study with the Word of Prayer.
[SPEAKER_03]: Father, we're so thankful, we're so thankful for your endless provision on our lives, Lord, for your spirit which in dwells us, for your Word which reveals you, for your son, our Lord and Savior.
[SPEAKER_03]: Lord, please bless our time of study this morning.
[SPEAKER_03]: May we be united and fellowship with you.
[SPEAKER_03]: maybe take advantage of your wonderful grace gift of forgiveness, that you may use this time in your word.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's an opportunity to grow us both corporately and individually in your image and Christening we pray.
[SPEAKER_03]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_03]: All right.
[SPEAKER_03]: So we continue on in our study of the book of Acts.
[SPEAKER_03]: You got to read all the verses we're going to study, so hopefully your
[SPEAKER_03]: And we're going to be looking at the sentient of Jesus, but we're going to see is all the events leading up to that ascension give us some amazing doctrinal clarity.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're going to actually have to in order to make this, are we clipping it out?
[SPEAKER_03]: In order to make this service go, we're going to, are this, this book lasts less than 10 years.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're going to have to move very quickly through some other passages that I'd love to spend more time on.
[SPEAKER_03]: But as we opened it up, this book begins with such a power pact.
[SPEAKER_03]: spiritually valuable section, and so important for us to see that I didn't want us to skimp for one moment.
[SPEAKER_03]: So we're going to do 11 verses, and again we'll pick up the paces we go forward in this study, but understanding that getting things right at the very beginning is of the most or the utmost importance.
[SPEAKER_03]: So that's where we pick up.
[SPEAKER_03]: Luke is telling his readers and we talked about the awfulest last week about how he's addressing it to the fellow who's very likely funding the printing project or relations a printing project but the copying project and the distribution of this book because it was very expensive to make book so while he's addressing the awfulest in some ways also addressing just his readers generically
[SPEAKER_03]: and he's telling them kind of a quick recap just in case this is the first book they got letting them know that this isn't that that Christ's resurrection and ascension wasn't the end of the story in fact in a manner of speaking when it comes to what's happened what's going to happen and what we're going to see in just a few weeks time the birthday of the church this is really the beginning of our story as the story of Christ and the
[SPEAKER_03]: became a back burnered issue in God's plan and the church moves to the forefront.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're going to see that these early chapters are a part of that bridge.
[SPEAKER_03]: In fact, they're probably the steep part of the bridge.
[SPEAKER_03]: There was a really tough part to get over.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, once you get kind of onto the other side of the bridge, you just coast down.
[SPEAKER_03]: Once we get to Paul, he just kind of coast down and everything feels like it's just domino setting up.
[SPEAKER_03]: But he set up already and just falling one over another.
[SPEAKER_03]: But now, at the beginning of the book, we see a long difficult uphill battle that we see.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, or that we get to behold through his word.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, Jesus presented Himself a life to the disciples to whom He appeared.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is something that would be easy to go past quickly.
[SPEAKER_03]: But the scripture is very clear.
[SPEAKER_03]: He says, he gives many convincing proof.
[SPEAKER_03]: And this wonderful word, technarius, is technarius.
[SPEAKER_03]: Say, is a great Greek word that fully gives the idea of the kind of evidence, the kind of proof that you just can't disagree with.
[SPEAKER_03]: You just can't argue with.
[SPEAKER_03]: When Jesus presented Himself as a live to them, there was no question left in their mind that this was some sort of trick or hallucination or some sort of confusion on their part or on the part of others.
[SPEAKER_03]: And in fact, what we see throughout Scripture is that the apostles, the disciples, were actually among the slowest to believe.
[SPEAKER_03]: The slowest to trust that this might be the case.
[SPEAKER_03]: And so what we see is over this period of 40 days, Jesus is presenting Himself to them in multiple ways, in a group of different fashions.
[SPEAKER_03]: And we have these recorded in Scripture.
[SPEAKER_03]: If Jesus recorded his eating things, showing them.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm not just a ghost.
[SPEAKER_03]: I eat things.
[SPEAKER_03]: I can still eat things.
[SPEAKER_03]: He presents himself to Thomas and says, you can touch my body, you can touch my wounds.
[SPEAKER_03]: You can physically come and contact with me, interestingly, we don't have any record that Thomas did touch his wounds at all.
[SPEAKER_03]: But it's possible that he did, and even maybe even likely.
[SPEAKER_03]: But the reality is, is that Christ had fully convinced them.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was indesputable.
[SPEAKER_03]: None of them could come back and say,
[SPEAKER_03]: 30 years later or 40 years later, you know, maybe we got that wrong.
[SPEAKER_03]: Maybe we were confused.
[SPEAKER_03]: Maybe we just had a little bit too much coffee.
[SPEAKER_03]: Maybe we were a little bit jittery and excited.
[SPEAKER_03]: It had all been approved again and again very clearly and very convincingly.
[SPEAKER_03]: Again, we've talked a little bit about this in the idea of argumentation.
[SPEAKER_03]: There is no way that you can make a complete and final argument that God exists.
[SPEAKER_03]: It cannot be made.
[SPEAKER_03]: You cannot, by argument or by evidence, prove beyond a shadow of a doubt to a non-believer that God exists.
[SPEAKER_03]: Because you can't just reach out and touch him, and that just isn't in our available repertoire.
[SPEAKER_03]: I believe God designed it that way for a very specific reason, even though all humans are built with an innate knowledge of his existence.
[SPEAKER_03]: What this is saying is that Jesus did prove to them on this level.
[SPEAKER_03]: On the, I'll never question it again, level.
[SPEAKER_03]: I didn't believe that I saw, then I spoke to him, and then I felt his body, and then I saw him eat, and again, and again, went through all of these different situations so that they were 110% sure.
[SPEAKER_03]: that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead.
[SPEAKER_03]: The proof or evidence of their sureness is that all but one of those men and many others died tragic and violent painful deaths for their witness or for their testimony.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know about you.
[SPEAKER_03]: Most days, I'm a little too cowardly to die for the things that I know are true.
[SPEAKER_03]: And yet these men were so convinced of Christ the reality and the importance of Christ's resurrection that all of one of them went to a gruesome and physical painful death for that.
[SPEAKER_03]: All right.
[SPEAKER_03]: So now Luke moves on from the proofs and he tells them that these disciples, they're going to get a 40 day intensive course, they're going to take a class.
[SPEAKER_03]: Now I want to ask you a question.
[SPEAKER_03]: ever taken that intensive class, maybe it was for your job, maybe it was for your just some interest or perhaps for any other purpose.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was back when you were in school.
[SPEAKER_03]: It would take a class or a really interested in.
[SPEAKER_03]: You were so interested in you, you made sure you got to bed on time and you made sure that you were ready and you always did your reading beforehand and you did your homework and you wanted to get the most you just wanted to drink the life out of this class.
[SPEAKER_03]: Can you imagine that these guys were listening?
[SPEAKER_03]: Do you think they were attentive students at this point?
[SPEAKER_03]: I would suggest that they were very, very attentive.
[SPEAKER_03]: Here they are with the risen Son of God.
[SPEAKER_03]: They're going to be listening to hanging on every word because they know that something's coming and they want to find out what.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it says here that they got this 40-day intensive course concerning the kingdom of God.
[SPEAKER_03]: God, Jesus wanted to let them know if that was important as they got into this transition from Israel to the church that they got additional information about the kingdom of God.
[SPEAKER_03]: Now it's pretty interesting because much of Christ and dumb sometimes known as replacement theology or the like would suggest
[SPEAKER_03]: that these disciples were either still not understanding, or maybe even not paying attention in this.
[SPEAKER_03]: But let's talk about what they expected when comes to the kingdom of God.
[SPEAKER_03]: Here's Isaiah 3, 2-4, it reads, now it will come about in the last days, the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it will be raised above the hills, and all the nations will stream to it, and many people will come and say, Come, let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us concerning His ways, and that we may walk in His paths.
[SPEAKER_03]: for the law will go forth from Zion and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
[SPEAKER_03]: He will judge between the nations and He will render decisions for many people's and they will hammer their swords into plowshars and their spears into pruning hooks.
[SPEAKER_03]: Nation will not lift up sword against nation and never again will they learn war.
[SPEAKER_03]: That was the time that everyone was expecting.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's when everybody wanted out of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's pretty interesting, again, because we oftentimes look so condescendingly back on, well, they wanted a physical kingdom, but that's not what Jesus came to offer, weren't they stupid?
[SPEAKER_03]: No, they weren't stupid.
[SPEAKER_03]: They were great Bible students.
[SPEAKER_03]: They listened to the promises and they actually trusted to them, and like them, we shouldn't be, we should be able to not wait, we should look and with great anticipation for this amazing time.
[SPEAKER_03]: That isn't yet a part.
[SPEAKER_03]: of the future history and it's pretty fascinating that with all that the disciples were going to go through this was the information that Jesus wanted to give them.
[SPEAKER_03]: One, he wanted to clarify some of their understandings about the kingdom and two seemingly would enforce their expectation of a physical kingdom.
[SPEAKER_03]: Jeremiah 31, 31 through 34, also talks about this times.
[SPEAKER_03]: His behold days are coming to clears the Lord when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day that I took, but them by the hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
[SPEAKER_03]: My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them, declares the Lord.
[SPEAKER_03]: But this is the covenant which I will make with the House of Israel after those days, declares the Lord.
[SPEAKER_03]: I will put my law within them, and on their heart I will write it.
[SPEAKER_03]: I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
[SPEAKER_03]: They will not teach again each man is neighbor, and each man is brother, saying, no, the Lord, for they will all know me.
[SPEAKER_03]: From the least of them to the greatest of them declares the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sins I will remember, no, more.
[SPEAKER_03]: Here's the kingdom that they were anticipating this new covenant that we know is sealed in the blood of Christ But not yet instituted until the kingdom comes to earth.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's a lot of things that are very different from what's going on now for instance The he puts his law within them
[SPEAKER_03]: We have the spirit of Christ within them, but we're us now in the church.
[SPEAKER_03]: But at that time, Israel will have his law placed with them in other supernatural ability to keep their law.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oftentimes, a misuse or abuse this God's written in their law and his heart talking of people in their conscience, but that's a misapplication of this passage.
[SPEAKER_03]: That is a promise that's coming.
[SPEAKER_03]: God is promising them.
[SPEAKER_03]: In this time, you have supernatural, you have Holy Spirit, ability to keep the law.
[SPEAKER_03]: And not only that, he says that you will not know when we'll teach his brother anymore.
[SPEAKER_03]: They will all have such an innate and perfect knowledge of the law of God and also of the character of God that they'll be no need for rabbis.
[SPEAKER_03]: They'll be no need for teachers in that economy.
[SPEAKER_03]: But what do we see in the church?
[SPEAKER_03]: We're actually given the gift of teaching and the gift of pastoral leadership, teaching is a big part of what the church is meant to be about.
[SPEAKER_03]: So do we fit this new covenant and kingdom pattern?
[SPEAKER_03]: No, no, not at all.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's similarities because the same God is bought with the same blood, but this is a different issue.
[SPEAKER_03]: And they will not teach each other again, know the Lord.
[SPEAKER_03]: They will all know him.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is the time that they're looking forward to.
[SPEAKER_03]: The time in the Lord forgives all of the iniquity and all the sin of Israel and fulfills all of his promises to them.
[SPEAKER_03]: One last passage, Ezekiel 36, 28 through 32, actually in the interest of time, I'll move fast that, but please take some time and look at that at home.
[SPEAKER_03]: The reason why I say this is worth your time is that the kingdom is not what's going on right now and that's great news
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, the kingdom chiefly and primarily has to do with Israel, but here's the thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: It is the source of our hope as well because we will be there with him, reigning with him.
[SPEAKER_03]: We will witness this time when the earth is ruled justly, when there's peace on earth.
[SPEAKER_03]: We will witness this time when wrong doing and evil are punished and dealt with.
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll see it with our eyes.
[SPEAKER_03]: And we're meant to hold that hope in front of us, even though, again, it's chiefly to do with Israel and God's plan for the world and his glory for the world.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not what we're building right now, but it's still meant to be exciting in our vision.
[SPEAKER_03]: That encouraged you, I'd invite you, I'd even challenge you to spend some time and know in some of these passages and there are many, many, many more.
[SPEAKER_03]: In fact, when we get to the book of Revelation, John reveals almost nothing about the nature of the kingdom.
[SPEAKER_03]: Why?
[SPEAKER_03]: Because the Bible had already revealed so much about it already, it could only be totally redundant.
[SPEAKER_03]: So anyway, I'll invite you to look at those passages throughout the course of the week.
[SPEAKER_03]: Here he is coming to his after 40 days of teaching.
[SPEAKER_03]: We have Matthew 28, which records a different time.
[SPEAKER_03]: We have a very small handful of the actual words of what he said to the disciples.
[SPEAKER_03]: Again, I think it was because most of what he had to say to the disciples was chiefly concerning the kingdom, explaining what had happened to him at the cross and explaining what was going to happen in the future as to his promises to Israel, which is not of primary importance
[SPEAKER_03]: So they didn't spend a bunch of airtime, they didn't spend a bunch of ink talking about how Jesus explained the kingdom, that much was clear.
[SPEAKER_03]: He focuses on those final orders that are going to bring him forward.
[SPEAKER_03]: So here's final order number one.
[SPEAKER_03]: Do not leave Jerusalem.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's pretty interesting on a previous occasion, so at some other point in Matthew 28, he gave him a great commission, which will not look at now, but he said, as you are going, as you're going, make disciples of all nations.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it given them the information that you're going to be going all over the earth.
[SPEAKER_03]: But he starts, but I say, but don't leave yet.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're going to see why that's so important.
[SPEAKER_03]: Don't leave until you've received what the Father has promised.
[SPEAKER_03]: Let's look at this promise.
[SPEAKER_03]: John 14, 16 through seven describes the promise of the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_03]: Here's Jesus speaking.
[SPEAKER_03]: Now this is him.
[SPEAKER_03]: In the upper room discourse, this is him preparing them for his departure and he's telling them about what's going to come in their future.
[SPEAKER_03]: He says, I will ask the father and he will give you another helper that he may be with you forever.
[SPEAKER_03]: That is the spirit of truth.
[SPEAKER_03]: From the world cannot receive because it does not see him or know him, but you know him because he abides with you and he will be in you.
[SPEAKER_03]: Jesus is here talking about a massive change in the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's saying right now he abides with you.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's amongst you.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're all in Dude by the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's why you've been able to do these miracles.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's why you've seen what you've seen.
[SPEAKER_03]: and done what you've done in my name, but something else is coming, and he will be within you.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're going to talk about that as we go forward.
[SPEAKER_03]: He mentions it later in that chapter again, and then on in 17, he starts to talk about the Holy Spirit yet more, but John 1426 reads, but the helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.
[SPEAKER_03]: So what we see now is that the Holy Spirit is promised to be a new mode of learning for them.
[SPEAKER_03]: They have learned up to this point at Jesus' lips and at Jesus' feet.
[SPEAKER_03]: and then Christ spends the 40 days after his resurrection showing them who and what he is and instructing them peripherally.
[SPEAKER_03]: But interestingly, Jesus allows them a whole mother's set of knowledge that he said, hey, I'm not going to be the one to open the door and teach you all this.
[SPEAKER_03]: The Holy Spirit's going to take a special and unique role in this, even ensuring that they are able to remember the words just as Christ spoke them as they go about their mission.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, then we get to the big million dollar question, why should they wait?
[SPEAKER_03]: Jesus has told them that they were going to go, Jesus has told them that they were going to go make disciples in his name, he told them that they were going to go and do great, great miracles in his name and on and on, he promised them that there was a mission ahead.
[SPEAKER_03]: Why should they wait?
[SPEAKER_03]: Think about what they had already done.
[SPEAKER_03]: in his name or through his ministry, they've led this or been a part of leading this amazing movement that brought crowds of people up to Jerusalem.
[SPEAKER_03]: They had done miracles with their own hands.
[SPEAKER_03]: They cast out demons with their own words just as they were, but before the coming of the Holy Spirit, but now they're being told, wait, don't do anything until you receive the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's something to note here.
[SPEAKER_03]: From a human perspective, we'd say, oh, come on, they could get a start on things, couldn't they?
[SPEAKER_03]: No.
[SPEAKER_03]: No, you can't even get a start on things until you have the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_03]: You can't even begin this work.
[SPEAKER_03]: You can't even lay the foundation for this work.
[SPEAKER_03]: In fact, hang out here until you have this special new relationship, this gift of the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_03]: Any references, the baptism of John saying that just as John baptized with water, that was the instrument, so you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit, not many days from now.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, John's baptism was dunking people or dipping people with water, with the water was the if you like the instrument of the immersion.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay?
[SPEAKER_03]: Simple, easy, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: And what that meant was a change of identification.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're identified with John now, and whoever he would point out to be the Messiah, you would theoretically follow that person.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit, instead of being baptized in water, you're going to be baptized not many days hence.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're going to be immersed in the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're going to take just a brief moment to look at the doctor, the teaching and the Bible of Holy Spirit baptism, because it is sadly missing, even amongst churches that, and maybe I'd say especially among churches that claim to advertise the Holy Spirit's power and miracles, they actually very frequently, totally ignore the real provision that the Holy Spirit is for the believer in our life.
[SPEAKER_03]: in favor of the emotional or visual concomitants that may or may not be totally imaginary.
[SPEAKER_03]: So we're going to talk about the Holy Spirit in our life and keep in mind that it was so important that they couldn't even start this work until they'd received this new relationship to the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, we've talked about this before baptism was to be immersed in something.
[SPEAKER_03]: Unfortunately, and there's a lot of reason throughout church history that we're not going to go into this morning Is the why we even use the word baptism instead of just translating it as a mercy dip or dunk at any given point Which actually anytime you see baptized in your English Bible If you just read a mercy all the sudden it becomes terribly plain.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're gonna look at some passages about this, but
[SPEAKER_03]: The idea of baptism was that something was dipped dunked or immersed in something in order to be changed permanently.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was used of a sword that was superheated and pounded out to its shape and then would be dunked or dipped in the cold water in order to change the nature of the steel and hardened.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was used of a piece of cloth that would be a white cloth that would be dunked or dipped into a dye and would come out forever changed,
[SPEAKER_03]: It was used of a ship that was out at sea, that was baptized into the water, at some to the bottom.
[SPEAKER_03]: That ship would never be the same, it wouldn't sail again.
[SPEAKER_03]: So the idea of baptism is being immersed into something, some, again, fluid, according to the image, but immersed into something with an idea of permanent change or change of identification being in view.
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, we see some interesting things in Acts, remember we talked about how Acts was a bridge and we don't use the book of Acts to to give us our doctor.
[SPEAKER_03]: In other words, we don't look at it to say to say, like, oh, well that happens then once and so that's the way it's going to happen every time.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's again, the fancy little word, the narrative normative fallacy, saying that God did it this way once, therefore he's going to do it this way every time, or we can expect him to do it this way again.
[SPEAKER_03]: But what we see when it comes to Holy Spirit baptism, at this bridge idea takes place.
[SPEAKER_03]: She, the disciples of promise, they're already believers at this point.
[SPEAKER_03]: In fact, they are very much believers.
[SPEAKER_03]: They've seen all Christ convincing proofs.
[SPEAKER_03]: They are on the level.
[SPEAKER_03]: They believe Jesus is the Messiah, they believe He's died for sin, they believe He's risen again, they're there and yet they have to wait another 10 days in order for the Spirit to come to them.
[SPEAKER_03]: What we're going to see in Acts chapter 8 is that the Samaritans receive the gospel, they believe but what happens is it's not until Peter comes down.
[SPEAKER_03]: that they received the spirit.
[SPEAKER_03]: So they had to wait for a period two between believing and receiving the spirit.
[SPEAKER_03]: Why?
[SPEAKER_03]: I think it was for the sake of the Jerusalem church, so they would realize that Samaritan's two could be saved.
[SPEAKER_03]: What we see in 10 at the House of Cornelius, Gentiles received the Spirit instantly, even before Peter's done talking.
[SPEAKER_03]: Why?
[SPEAKER_03]: Peter's there.
[SPEAKER_03]: Peter's going to be the one who represents this to the Jerusalem church.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then John's disciples as soon as they come to understand the gospel received the Spirit instantly.
[SPEAKER_03]: So what we see is really no clear pattern, but what we do know is that as we go forward in Scripture, there's a tendency to, in the narrative of Acts, there's a tendency to see the spirit coming upon the moment of belief.
[SPEAKER_03]: So we start to view that pattern, but that's not how we build a dock, and we don't say, oh, well, we'll win this way, therefore, dogmaticly, the spirit comes the moment you believe.
[SPEAKER_03]: We look to the propositional statements of Scripture to make a statement like that.
[SPEAKER_03]: So do we have any of those?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, we do.
[SPEAKER_03]: Roman 6, 1 through 11, says, what shall we say then?
[SPEAKER_03]: Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase, may it never be?
[SPEAKER_03]: How shall we who died to sin live in it?
[SPEAKER_03]: Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized, all of us who have been immersed in the Christ Jesus have been immersed into His death?
[SPEAKER_03]: Therefore we have been buried with Him through immersion into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
[SPEAKER_03]: But if we have become united with him and the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowingness that our old self was crucified, was crucified with him.
[SPEAKER_03]: In order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin, but he who has died is freed from sin.
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ having been raised from the dead is never so died again, does there's no longer master over Him.
[SPEAKER_03]: For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
[SPEAKER_03]: Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God, and Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_03]: You are immersed.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's not telling a waterbap to me.
[SPEAKER_03]: He said, when you believe you were immersed into the death of Jesus Christ, God accounted you as being permanently placed in the death burial resurrection, ascension and seeding of Jesus Christ when God looks at you.
[SPEAKER_03]: He sees the perfected work and total righteousness of His Son Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_03]: And as the application for this, he says, it's just an expense for you to live in sin anymore.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not who you are.
[SPEAKER_03]: That was all taking care of.
[SPEAKER_03]: And in fact, our victory over sin is based on here, the very faith that we choose to place in that fact.
[SPEAKER_03]: When we are not having victory over sin, it's because we're not believing that we have been truly separated from sin.
[SPEAKER_03]: Permanently separated from sin.
[SPEAKER_03]: It doesn't mean that God has done away with our sin nature.
[SPEAKER_03]: It means that we are never again obliged or in a point where we need to do what it says.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's again just faith in the spiritual facts.
[SPEAKER_03]: God has immersed you into Christ.
[SPEAKER_03]: And you are forever changed if you're a believer here this morning.
[SPEAKER_03]: Ephesians 1, 13 through 14, tells us a little bit more about this in a slightly different way.
[SPEAKER_03]: Here he says, in him, you also, listen carefully, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation,
[SPEAKER_03]: you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise who is given as a pledge for our inheritance.
[SPEAKER_03]: With a new view to the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of His glory.
[SPEAKER_03]: So here, this is fascinating because it tells us another thing that the Holy Spirit does in the believer.
[SPEAKER_03]: It says, one after you heard the message and then you believed you were instantly
[SPEAKER_03]: sealed with the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're in a new relationship with God.
[SPEAKER_03]: Again, this baptism picture being one.
[SPEAKER_03]: Now we get the picture of ceiling.
[SPEAKER_03]: It has the idea of protection and permanence.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was a done fact.
[SPEAKER_03]: You don't have to seal and then reseal and then seal and then reseal.
[SPEAKER_03]: No, no, no, no, no, one time at the moment of your faith in Christ.
[SPEAKER_03]: You hear the picture is of an official seal placed to protect.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is a matter of your condition, the Holy Spirit has sealed every person who places their faith in Christ.
[SPEAKER_03]: Titus 3-5 tells us, gives us a slightly different picture of the same concept.
[SPEAKER_03]: He saved us.
[SPEAKER_03]: Not on the basis of the deeds which we had done in righteousness, but in according to his mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_03]: He saved us, by the work of the Holy Spirit, the washing which he gave, there's a kind of another good water baptism picture at some level for us, of regeneration that's the invigoration or the addition of spiritual life.
[SPEAKER_03]: and renewing of the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_03]: Again, a past tense action that occurred to every person who places their faith and his gospel.
[SPEAKER_03]: Finally, Romans 8-11 says, but if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead, dwells in you, in the sense of this passage, the whole message of it is, is if and as a believer it does.
[SPEAKER_03]: But if the Spirit, or we could even say, but since the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead, dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, again, who dwells in you.
[SPEAKER_03]: the Holy Spirit is within every believer all the time.
[SPEAKER_03]: We can get confused about this and think that the Holy Spirit is only here when I'm really in a great place with God or that the Holy Spirit flees and then comes back and then sadly in many churches and movements throughout the world.
[SPEAKER_03]: In fact, one that I was very personally involved with, we'd constantly pray for the Holy Spirit to come, even our hymn this morning, the original words which we've adjusted, say,
[SPEAKER_03]: That it's all useless unless the Holy Spirit comes down.
[SPEAKER_03]: The Holy Spirit doesn't need to come down.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're going to witness that event in a few weeks of studying.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's now within every single believer.
[SPEAKER_03]: And this is why I want to point this out.
[SPEAKER_03]: The apostles had done and seen some amazing things.
[SPEAKER_03]: They'd received three years of full-time training from the very best teacher that ever walked this globe.
[SPEAKER_03]: And yet, apart from the reliance on the Holy Spirit, because they couldn't rely on him yet, because they didn't have him yet, they were told, do nothing.
[SPEAKER_03]: Wait.
[SPEAKER_03]: How insane!
[SPEAKER_03]: Do we have to be?
[SPEAKER_03]: to try to live even a moment of our lives in any other state of being.
[SPEAKER_03]: Then a reliance upon the permanent gift, the end-welling Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_03]: He is meant to be the motivation, the power through which every believer lives and sadly, we hardly ever, while we do more here, but we hardly ever hear this spoken about in Christian circles.
[SPEAKER_03]: It is the Holy Spirit's work within you that's going to bring you to greater growth than maturity.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's going to use the body.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's going to use the word, but the Holy Spirit is the source of empowerment.
[SPEAKER_03]: And just as disciples were told, don't even start yet.
[SPEAKER_03]: Wait until the Spirit comes.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I would say to you, don't even start until you know you're in fellowship with him.
[SPEAKER_03]: Don't even start until you know that you're in right standing with you.
[SPEAKER_03]: Don't even get out of your bed until you've spent a moment in prayer, connecting to your life source, your powerful power source, don't start a moment of your day, a part or separated from fellowship in the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_03]: because nothing good can come out of it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Even if we can think that maybe something good might come out of it, or we can fool ourselves into thinking, well yeah, I was way out of line.
[SPEAKER_03]: I wasn't walking with the Lord, but it all worked out, okay?
[SPEAKER_03]: Nothing good came out of it in the sense that what would have occurred if you've been walking in the spirit.
[SPEAKER_03]: So,
[SPEAKER_03]: That little rant aside, we see that the disciples are now asking their next natural question, is now the time.
[SPEAKER_03]: Is now the time that you're going to restore the kingdom of Israel?
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, this is where it comes important to realize what they first expected.
[SPEAKER_03]: We saw this throughout Christ's ministry.
[SPEAKER_03]: Everyone expected the Messiah to come and bring in the physical kingdom.
[SPEAKER_03]: They were all hoping on that.
[SPEAKER_03]: They were all waiting on that.
[SPEAKER_03]: They were expecting that.
[SPEAKER_03]: And they didn't realize that the cross had to come before the crown.
[SPEAKER_03]: a Christ never rebuked them in their expectation of a physical coming kingdom.
[SPEAKER_03]: Now they've gone through 40 days of the most intense and probably the class that no human has ever taken as seriously as this moment, these moments of Jesus talking about the kingdom of God and they're asking now is the time.
[SPEAKER_03]: Is it even possible that they misunderstood?
[SPEAKER_03]: For all that he talked about the kingdom of God,
[SPEAKER_03]: When is it going to be now?
[SPEAKER_03]: Is it going to be now?
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, I think, and again, I am reading a little bit into the text here, or at least taking a stab, a guess at what might have been there, I like in this to, again, kids approaching Christmas morning.
[SPEAKER_03]: That kingdom period that Christ had explained so well to them was so exciting and so appealing that it will it be now will it be today can it be now is it going to be now that you're going to do that that we're going to see this piece on earth that we're going to finally not have to deal with the the tyranny of Rome that we're going to and on and on and on.
[SPEAKER_03]: And yet interestingly.
[SPEAKER_03]: We still, we see that the disciples seem to have been mostly cured of this problem by Christ's response.
[SPEAKER_03]: We don't see this as being, well, the early church had to deal with it a lot, as we will see it.
[SPEAKER_03]: But we still have people today.
[SPEAKER_03]: who are trying to figure out and we're going to come back to them and I'm going to try to figure out when is he going to come, when is he going to come, people are still, believers are still overly obsessed with God's time scale.
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll work on that.
[SPEAKER_03]: But before we talk about what Jesus did say, I'd like to talk about what Jesus did not say.
[SPEAKER_03]: Jesus did not say, no, no, you've got it all wrong.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not a physical kingdom, it's a spiritual kingdom.
[SPEAKER_03]: He did not say, hey, no, you've got the wrong idea.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's actually this.
[SPEAKER_03]: You've misunderstood me for the last 40 days.
[SPEAKER_03]: He didn't say that.
[SPEAKER_03]: They expected a physical kingdom coming at a future time and they hoped it would be right then.
[SPEAKER_03]: And Jesus again, just prior to ascending, that says no word of correction.
[SPEAKER_03]: But what he does say is not for you to know the time.
[SPEAKER_03]: Now this is something that's uncomfortable because as much as we understand hopefully as Bible believing Christians that we are not God, we still like the idea of having a little bit more Godhood than he's been given to us.
[SPEAKER_03]: Jesus here tells them you don't get to know.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is a big pattern of God, especially in dealing with prophetic issues.
[SPEAKER_03]: Daniel 12, 12 through our 12, 4 through 9 reads and stick with me.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is a bit of a longer one.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is, but as for you, the angel speaking to Daniel.
[SPEAKER_03]: But as for you, Daniel conceal these words and seal up the book until the end of time.
[SPEAKER_03]: Many will go back and forth and knowledge will increase, then I, Daniel, looked and behold.
[SPEAKER_03]: Two others were standing one on this bank of the river, and the other on that bank of the river.
[SPEAKER_03]: And one man said to the, to the, to the man dressed in linen, who is above the waters of the river, how long will it be until the end of these wonders?
[SPEAKER_03]: I heard the man dressed in linen who was above the waters of the river as he raised his right hand and his left toward heaven and swore by him who lives forever that it would be for all a time times and half a time as soon as they finished scatter it shattering the power of the holy people all these events will be completed but as for me I heard
[SPEAKER_03]: But could not understand, so I said, my Lord, what will the outcome of these events?
[SPEAKER_03]: What will be the outcome of these events?
[SPEAKER_03]: He said, go your way, Daniel, for these words are concealed and sealed up to the end of time.
[SPEAKER_03]: So we can see that here Daniel has been revealed, a great deal is revealed to him about the, particularly the second half of the tribulation, time, times and half a time, three and a half years.
[SPEAKER_03]: But as far as the very specific wins and why force, even though he got to see so much, God says, that's as much as I need you to know.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's as much as you need to know in order to go about what I have for you because you're not God.
[SPEAKER_03]: You've got the information that you need to go about what I've designed for you to do.
[SPEAKER_03]: We see the same pattern in Revelation 10, one through four.
[SPEAKER_03]: As I saw another strong angel coming down out of heaven, closed with a cloud in the rainbow, was upon his head, and his faith, face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire, and his in his hand, a little book which was open.
[SPEAKER_03]: He placed as right foot on the sea and his left on the land and he cried out with a loud voice.
[SPEAKER_03]: And as when a lion roars and when he had cried out, the seven peels of thunder uttered their voices.
[SPEAKER_03]: When the seven peels of thunder had spoken, I was about to write, and I heard a voice from heaven saying, seal up the things which the seven peels of thunder have spoken and do not write them.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's always funny reading commentaries because commentators aren't any smarter than the rest of us, and they actually make guesses.
[SPEAKER_03]: You dummy, if you're actually going to guess what God told him not to reveal, that's a bad idea.
[SPEAKER_03]: But the reality is it's because of our intellectual humorous, hubris, our pride, our desire to know everything, our desire to know more than has been revealed to us.
[SPEAKER_03]: So that doesn't come about in some of the same ways that we're talking about.
[SPEAKER_03]: Hopefully, we're intelligent enough if God said, I'm not going to tell you what.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't want you to write what the thunder said.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're not going to make guesses and stabs at it.
[SPEAKER_03]: This comes today in terms of various rapture calls.
[SPEAKER_03]: We know that the next step in unfulfilled prophecy is Christ's coming for the church.
[SPEAKER_03]: And we know that it's imminent, it could happen at any time.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's no sign that needs to proceed it.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're meant to live in that understanding that Christ could come before the end of the service and I very much hope he does.
[SPEAKER_03]: or not meant to try to sit around spending endless hours figuring out when the season but not the day when the day might be but not the hour when the and on and on and believe me you can spend more time than you ever need to watching I'm just going to be very frank with you garbage on television about the blood moon and about all the other crap that's going on in the universe forgive me.
[SPEAKER_03]: and get yourself all wrapped around the axle about what prophetic event is going to or what thing that happened in today's newspaper that's going to know it's not for us to know and if God tells us it's not for us to know how dare we even try.
[SPEAKER_03]: But this goes to even a step further because there are other things in your life that it's not for us to know about.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're told that God, the God of the universe, is going to work all things together for good for those who love us and yet we go through situations where we can't even imagine how this is the best thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: We go through interpersonal difficulties.
[SPEAKER_03]: We see situations on the world seeing that there's no way we can imagine that God could work that together for good for anyone.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's at that moment that we need to step back and realize there are times in this world and it is the great comfort of a believer to say I am only a sheep and the care of a good shepherd and it is not for me to know how he will work altogether for good.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not for me to know how or when he's going to
[SPEAKER_03]: but I trust in what he has revealed for me to know.
[SPEAKER_03]: So what does he expressly say is not for them to know.
[SPEAKER_03]: He says the times and the seasons, Kronos and Karas, a lot is made of this distinction, but I think it's really simply understood as the season that is the larger movement of things as well as the specific dates and times and moments of events.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's saying don't trouble yourself with these things.
[SPEAKER_03]: It is interesting to look at how the Lord seems to possibly be lining things up for the end times.
[SPEAKER_03]: I believe that we, more than any generation before, can look at things and go, wow, the Lord really could come back.
[SPEAKER_03]: Any moment now and do everything, complete fulfill everything that He's put forth in Daniel and Revelation and Isaiah and Jeremiah, wow.
[SPEAKER_03]: We have more insight into that than ever before.
[SPEAKER_03]: But it doesn't mean that we go around saying, well, I think it's going to be soon.
[SPEAKER_03]: Even great wonderful writers with our cancer, I'm pretty sure it's going to be within my lifetime because of these five events, because of these three things, silliness.
[SPEAKER_03]: The Lord could come right now.
[SPEAKER_03]: He could wait another thousand years.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's bound by nothing.
[SPEAKER_03]: And there's not for us to know the times and the seasons.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not to say that we're not to invest in what it is for us to know.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's revealed so much about his prophetic plan.
[SPEAKER_03]: He told us so much about his return and his coming as we're going to see.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're meant to live in that.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're meant to anticipate that.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's what I mean by living that.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're meant to enjoy and spend our time desiring that moment when Christ reigns on earth.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're meant to long and comfort one another with the fact that Christ could return for us at any moment.
[SPEAKER_03]: But always with that in check with the humility or by the humility that we're not to know the times in the seasons.
[SPEAKER_03]: And if he says we're not to know it, we may as well stop looking at it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Since these times in the seasons, the Father has fixed.
[SPEAKER_03]: The Father has fixed these times and seasons.
[SPEAKER_03]: They are set out and this is important because it has to do with God's authority and God's sovereign to He exists outside of time, whereas we go through time and think of yesterday and tomorrow we have the history and the past and where everything touches kind of right here at the present.
[SPEAKER_03]: And we think about all of that in terms of what has happened and what is done and what is yet to happen, but God existing outside of that looks at the entire thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: as a completed item, as a completed unit, and he's fixed the exact right perfect time to start this whole next phase that begins with the tribulation and goes into the kingdom.
[SPEAKER_03]: I just like to give you this picture that I made a couple of years ago for the Romans elective, and it has the idea of sovereignty.
[SPEAKER_03]: As we oftentimes get confused, and we start to think of sovereignty as sort of God having us all in a chessboard and making all the micro-discisions and God's micro-managing, or we go the other side and suggest that maybe man is sovereign and we're the ones controlling everything, and the Bible presents neither of those options, those are both.
[SPEAKER_03]: And sadly, they're frequently held in false dichotomacy to this or that, but neither of those
[SPEAKER_03]: are accurate.
[SPEAKER_03]: What we have is God is authoritative or sovereign over everything.
[SPEAKER_03]: In other words, God has the final say on everything regardless.
[SPEAKER_03]: But in his perfection and power, that leaves room for other authorities as well, such as human governments or parents and families and on and on and on.
[SPEAKER_03]: And finally, the bottom line being man's authority or responsibility over himself and taking the responsibility ultimately for his choices and decisions.
[SPEAKER_03]: And what Jesus is saying here is that the end times event, those are part of the sovereign will or the decree of God.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're not going to make it come any faster, you're not going to slow it down anymore.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's set in time, it's not your problem, it's not something you have to worry about on this side, and it's not something that you're going to affect on that side.
[SPEAKER_03]: we're going to bring any closer.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's a part of God's sovereign will that is so far above our paygrade that we need not worry about it.
[SPEAKER_03]: So that's what he tells them.
[SPEAKER_03]: Inticipate this time, look forward to this time, think about what it's going to be like to live under the generous and benevolent reign of Jesus Christ, the only justified and legitimate ruler of the earth.
[SPEAKER_03]: But don't spend a bunch of time trying to figure out the wins because that's not our job.
[SPEAKER_03]: So moving away from the kingdom, he's telling me there's something else that's going to happen.
[SPEAKER_03]: So the Holy Spirit is going to come.
[SPEAKER_03]: He keeps going back.
[SPEAKER_03]: He said it before and then he said it again here.
[SPEAKER_03]: The Holy Spirit is going to come upon you and that's going to be the game changer.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's going to be your power source for life going forward.
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, I want to ask you how often are you relying on your power source?
[SPEAKER_03]: The Holy Spirit is what God has given you, enabled you placed within you to live the Christian life to go through it.
[SPEAKER_03]: How often are you resting or relying upon his resources?
[SPEAKER_03]: And how often are we trying to do it ourselves?
[SPEAKER_03]: It'd be a shame.
[SPEAKER_03]: to show you the pie chart of even what I can imagine my moments of truly resting on his resources and trying to work for my own would be.
[SPEAKER_03]: And yet here it is.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's highlighting to them again that they're going to receive power, denomace, potential energy, the full power necessary for the task.
[SPEAKER_03]: when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.
[SPEAKER_03]: Then he says something interesting.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're going to be my witness, smart to marches, which is kind of the root word.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's where we get our English word martyr.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it actually is a really natural progression, because a martyr is one who dies for their testimony or for their witness.
[SPEAKER_03]: So here Jesus says, in regard to their task,
[SPEAKER_03]: You are going to be my witness.
[SPEAKER_03]: Witnesses are now, it can be used as a verb, but just specifically it's a noun.
[SPEAKER_03]: A witness is someone who has seen something else.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is something very powerful about your life with Christ.
[SPEAKER_03]: One, when is a witness talk, when they're called to the stand?
[SPEAKER_03]: What does a witness do?
[SPEAKER_03]: Nothing.
[SPEAKER_03]: A witness just tells about what someone else did.
[SPEAKER_03]: What they saw, what they witnessed.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's what our work is as a vangelist.
[SPEAKER_03]: it's not about you and how great your arguments are it's not about how fantastic you can come up and how attractive you can make it and it's not about how much you can gussy and polish up the gospel and it's with special effects or no it's being a witness to what you have personally seen in scripture in your life Christ tells them you're gonna be my witnesses you're
[SPEAKER_02]: And you're going to point to me.
[SPEAKER_03]: In Jerusalem, Judean, Samaria, and even to the remotest parts of the earth.
[SPEAKER_03]: We talked about this is kind of we can structure the whole book around this idea of Jerusalem, Judean, Samaria, and the earth, but I think it's worth noting that he begins in Jerusalem.
[SPEAKER_03]: He starts where they already are, and he works out to protect Judean, Samaria, the next outlying regions as we saw it last week.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm the very remotest part of the earth that we talked a little bit about how the gospel got at least as far as England and what we now call England, the British Isles, within the space of the first century.
[SPEAKER_03]: But I'd like to give us a little indirect application out of this.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is not dogmatically what the scripture is saying.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is a departure from that, but I think it's a good application.
[SPEAKER_03]: Your ministry starts.
[SPEAKER_03]: in between here and here.
[SPEAKER_03]: Your ministry starts with your relationship with Christ.
[SPEAKER_03]: The next place it goes is to your family, to your people and your household.
[SPEAKER_03]: Just as Jesus said, you know, it's starting Jerusalem, get that face, and then I'll move you out from there as time goes on.
[SPEAKER_03]: Move out from there.
[SPEAKER_03]: It is the most tragic thing in the world that many, many countless lines and faiths have been destroyed.
[SPEAKER_03]: Because someone decided that their ministry outside of their house was more important than their ministry inside their house.
[SPEAKER_03]: And sadly, people have run to churches just to escape bad situations at home because they actually know who I am.
[SPEAKER_03]: I've already kind of lost and ruined the ship, you know, the ship has sailed on that one.
[SPEAKER_03]: But I can still kind of be a hero at church.
[SPEAKER_03]: People at church still think I'm doing okay because I did the host of the Baba of Cook that whatever it was.
[SPEAKER_03]: Who you are in Christ?
[SPEAKER_03]: displays itself first to your ministry at home to the people you work with through people around and if the Lord chooses to call you to the very ends of the earth then that's wonderful but let it be because you succeeded in your Jerusalem and your Judea and your Samaria not because you want to do a scape them because of your own lack of humility or our own pride.
[SPEAKER_03]: Jesus was raised, you imagine that this was also eye-catching, I mean they might have been a little bit worth used to miracles and shocking things happen.
[SPEAKER_03]: Ephesians 2, 6 through or 4 through 7 gives us some interesting information about this.
[SPEAKER_03]: So as the disciples watched Jesus raised up, here's what Ephesians 2, 4 through 7 says about this.
[SPEAKER_03]: being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our transgressions made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved and raised up raised us up with him that's all one Greek word he'd together raised us had lots of hyphens doesn't have the same effect
[SPEAKER_03]: He raised us up with him and seeded us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come, He might show the surpassing riches of His grace and kindness in kindest towards us in Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're looking at this event as history.
[SPEAKER_03]: Hopefully, you're imagining in your minds, I wouldn't look like the sea Jesus raised from the Mount of Olives.
[SPEAKER_03]: And what I hope that we realize is that by God's grace, what he's done for you in immersing you into Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, is that you were spiritually speaking there, being raised up from the earth.
[SPEAKER_03]: Can you imagine, maybe there's some shepherd at some part, somewhere else, not too far away looking going, what if I could hit that with a rock?
[SPEAKER_03]: He couldn't, because Jesus kept going
[SPEAKER_03]: That's where your place, that's where your position, that's where your life is and it is Paul wrote again in Colossians 3 said therefore, since you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, set your mind on things above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
[SPEAKER_03]: Your life is hidden with Christ in God, where
[SPEAKER_03]: Not that you will be there one day.
[SPEAKER_03]: You are spiritually there.
[SPEAKER_03]: Now all of your resources are there with him in your position.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is a cloud received him up.
[SPEAKER_03]: You could do a whole study on the Chicago glory, but I don't know there might be a Broncos game today.
[SPEAKER_03]: So we'll do that later.
[SPEAKER_03]: And they kept on getting there.
[SPEAKER_03]: There is.
[SPEAKER_03]: When is it?
[SPEAKER_03]: Two or 20 minutes from now.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're going to be all right.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're going to make it.
[SPEAKER_03]: And they kept on gazing.
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, we a lot of people have guessed why they kept on gazing.
[SPEAKER_03]: They could have been that they were expecting to come right down.
[SPEAKER_03]: Because that's certainly what they hope for.
[SPEAKER_03]: But I think it's probably more likely that they just, I mean, have you ever seen this happen?
[SPEAKER_03]: I'd be staring too.
[SPEAKER_03]: So here they are, gazing up like on, that is weird.
[SPEAKER_03]: I've never seen that happen.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then two messengers appear to them and they give them a very important message.
[SPEAKER_03]: Man of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward into the sky?
[SPEAKER_03]: This Jesus who has been taken up from you and to heaven will come in just the same way as you have watched him go into heaven.
[SPEAKER_03]: Jesus will return in just the same way.
[SPEAKER_03]: There are those who want to try to spiritualize or somehow get rid of
[SPEAKER_03]: the physical return of Christ.
[SPEAKER_03]: But this is what he's told.
[SPEAKER_03]: That he's going to return.
[SPEAKER_03]: Bottily, visibly, personally, just as he left them that day.
[SPEAKER_03]: There will be a difference though.
[SPEAKER_03]: When he went up, bodily, visibly, personally.
[SPEAKER_03]: The crowd that was with him, that's you and I, were invisible.
[SPEAKER_03]: We could not be seen.
[SPEAKER_03]: We were there, we were identified with him, spiritually it is the reality of our lives, but it was an unseen crowd.
[SPEAKER_03]: When he returns, we have described in Revelation 19, 11 through 16, it's a different story.
[SPEAKER_03]: It says, and I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse, and he was sat on it, it's called faithful and true.
[SPEAKER_03]: And in righteousness, he judges and wages war.
[SPEAKER_03]: His eyes are a flame of fire and on his head.
[SPEAKER_03]: are many diadoms, and he has a name written on him which no one knows except himself.
[SPEAKER_03]: He is clothed with a robe, dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God.
[SPEAKER_03]: And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white, and clean, were following him on white horses.
[SPEAKER_03]: and from his mouth comes a sharp sword so that he may with it he may strike down the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron and he treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty and on his robe and on his thigh he has a name written king of kings and lord of lords that's Christ's return and guess what when he comes back the crowd
[SPEAKER_03]: of which you and I, if you're a believer here this morning, will be a part, will be visible.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it will be the terror to those who have chosen to oppose him and will be the joy of those who have trusted in him.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's the return of Christ.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's a moment in your personal history that you're going to have that you're going to remember that we can look forward to.
[SPEAKER_03]: Can you imagine the God of the universe?
[SPEAKER_03]: and us behind them on our white chargers.
[SPEAKER_03]: All by his grace, that's something.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's our future.
[SPEAKER_02]: You're looking at.
[SPEAKER_03]: Take that personally, because as he went, bodily, visibly, personally, so he'll return, bodily, visibly, personally, and you and I with him.
[SPEAKER_03]: So we've gone far over.
[SPEAKER_03]: Here's a wrap up for our study this morning, Christ is risen, Christ is raised from the dead and ascended and seated at the right hand of the Father and is a believer.
[SPEAKER_03]: You are immersed permanently and permanently changed by the work and the power of the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_03]: You are empowered every moment of every day should you only rely upon what has been given to you.
[SPEAKER_03]: The power of the Holy Spirit is at work in the believer and available to the believer act all times.
[SPEAKER_03]: The only reason we're not taking advantage of is because of our failures and our shortcomings never His shortcoming in ability, power or willingness to give.
[SPEAKER_03]: That power, and we don't take time to look at it today, but which surpasses and succeeds, exceeds all, imagining all that we can even imagine.
[SPEAKER_03]: That power which God used in raising Jesus Christ from the dead, 24 hours available, and useful in the life of the belief.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's something.
[SPEAKER_03]: By Him, each of us will be witnesses of what He's done, as we go out in the life.
[SPEAKER_03]: It could be silent witnesses, or we could have the boldness to speak, and I hope we are.
[SPEAKER_03]: I hope we have the boldness when asked when the opportunity comes up to speak of the amazing things which he has done.
[SPEAKER_03]: Your position in Christ and see it with him and make no mistake.
[SPEAKER_03]: Jesus Christ is returning.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's going to return for us.
[SPEAKER_03]: We don't know the day, we don't know the hour.
[SPEAKER_03]: We don't know the season, we don't know the month, we don't know the year, but our beloved is coming for us.
[SPEAKER_03]: that will be hold him, and will return with him, and we'll see this world set to rights.
[SPEAKER_03]: Let's close and pray.
[SPEAKER_03]: Father, we thank you and we praise you for the wonderful blessing of your Word, the truth, for the provision of your Holy Spirit, we pray in all things in all moments.
[SPEAKER_03]: You would be glorified in our lives, that by the power of your Spirit, we would be your witnesses,