The Promise of the Father
Acts 1:1-11
May 26, 1996

The Book of Acts offers 20th century Christians a glimpse of what Christianity was like in the first century. Acts does not cover everything that took place in that early church, but it does offer us a slice of the big picture of the first movements of the Spirit among the redeemed. I suppose we could spend a lot of time pointing out what the Acts does not tell us about the movement of Christianity. I am of the opinion that if such knowledge was necessary for us to go on with God in our Christian walks, He would have made it available, perhaps giving us The Book of Acts, Volume II. But He gave us this one historical book in the New Testament to help us flesh out the realities of the Christian faith.

The human author of Acts was Luke, who probably was from Antioch in Syria. He was a physician by profession and excelled in his style of Greek composition. Luke traveled with Paul on his second missionary journey and began a life-long partnership with him in his missionary labors. The book was written around 62 or 63 AD and offers us a combination of church history and theology in one volume.

Acts is actually the second volume of Luke's writings, with the Gospel of Luke being the first. He refers to it in the first couple of verses of chapter one, pointing out that Luke's Gospel was written to show "all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up." This second volume simply continues what Jesus was doing and teaching after the ascension through the Holy Spirit working in the redeemed.

For this reason, many refer to Acts as The Acts of the Holy Spirit, which certainly is not inappropriate. Ernie Reisinger calls it, The Divine Manual of Evangelism, which indeed it is since over and over we see the work of evangelism demonstrated through its pages.

I trust, as we study through Acts on Sunday mornings this summer and then continue on Sunday evenings in the fall, that the Spirit of God might move mightily upon us to be evangels of the good news of Jesus Christ to the whole world.

Our opening verses set the stage for the entire book. Acts 1:8 can aptly be considered the theme of the entire book, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth." We know, from only a glance at this verse, that it tells us something about Holy Spirit power and something about a mandate to witness to the nations concerning Jesus Christ. So, let's consider its meaning.

Christians must seek to carry the gospel to the nations in the power of the Holy Spirit. How can we fulfill such a task?

I. The Command to Wait

At the end of Luke's Gospel, as our Lord was preparing to ascend back to the Father, He told the disciples what they were to do. He had spent the forty days between His resurrection and ascension, showing up at unexpected times and teaching the disciples. Luke 24:44-49 gives a good sketch of what our Lord was teaching and commanding the disciples:

Now He said to them, "These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled." Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day; and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. "You are witnesses of these things. "And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high."

That last verse points to the fact that they were to "stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high." Now we must take a few moments to see what our Lord was doing by telling the disciples to wait in Jerusalem.

1. A unique event

The waiting time was preparation for Pentecost. Pentecost took place 50 days after the Feast of Firstfruits. Firstfruits was part of a major celebration in the month Nisan beginning with Passover, continuing the next day with the Unleavened Bread Festival and then the next day the Firstfruits. Fifty days later the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost (meaning "fifty") began as the Jews celebrated their harvest before the Lord.

"And gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, 'Which,' He said, 'you heard of from Me" (v. 4). The phrase "gathering them together," is a term that actually meant "to eat salt together." In all likelihood, this special time of instruction from the Lord took place around a meal. There Christ tells them to wait for the Father's promise of the Spirit.

It was not the waiting that caused the Holy Spirit to come. The Spirit came because of God's promise. The waiting was preparation time for the disciples so that they would be ready-vessels for the Spirit's fullness.

This event was unique in that the Spirit of God came to indwell the redeemed permanently at Pentecost. While we might pray for the power of Pentecost, Pentecost itself cannot be repeated any more than Calvary can be repeated.

The Spirit's coming was fulfillment to many prophetic promises in the Old Testament, as well as the promises our Lord made particularly in the Upper Room Discourse (John 13-16). Among the many prophetic words on the Spirit's coming in Isaiah, 44:3 represents them well: "For I will pour out water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring, and My blessing on your descendants." Ezekiel adds other promises concerning the Spirit: "Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances" (36:26-27). Such promises point us to the fact that what happened at Pentecost is an unrepeatable event, unique even as the atonement at the cross, and was expected by godly Jews for centuries.

2. A necessary event

The coming of the Spirit in power was necessary for the Church to carry out the commands of our Lord. We have seen this as we have studied the Upper Room Discourse in John 13-16, where Christ unfolded the work of the Spirit.

The Spirit's coming was necessary for knowledge and understanding of God's Word. "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" (John 14:26). Every believer needs to understand the Word of God. But apart from the Spirit's work, that is impossible! Spiritual truth can only be understood by spiritual revelation. That kind of revelation comes only from the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit's coming was necessary also for boldness in living and testifying of Christ. "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you" (John 14:16-17). These struggling disciples, facing certain persecution, would become bold, flaming witnesses for Jesus Christ in the face of all sorts of adversity. What was their secret? It was no secret! It was the Holy Spirit coming to indwell them, to take the place of Jesus Christ walking in their midst, to abide in them. He would give them fresh courage and boldness in the work before them.

The Spirit's coming was necessary for the disciples to be able to witness effectively of the good news of Jesus Christ. "When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness of Me, and you will bear witness also, because you have been with Me from the beginning" (John 15:26-27). As the Holy Spirit bore witness of Jesus Christ to the disciples, they in turn would bear witness to a waiting world. The confusion that seemed to veil their minds was lifted when the Spirit came in power.

The Spirit's coming was necessary for the disciples to carry out the work of evangelism and missions. They did not have the power to convict a sinner of his sin or to convince a sinner that God's justice had been satisfied through Christ at the cross. They could not get inside a man's heart and mind to turn him to Christ. But the Holy Spirit can...and will do all of this! "But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper shall not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you." Now, notice what He will do in relationship to the work of evangelism and missions. "And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you no longer behold Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged" (John 16:7-11). Unless the Spirit does a work in a sinner's heart, all of our finest persuasion and proclamation will be to no avail in bringing a sinner out of darkness into the light of Christ.

3. A distinguishing event

"For John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." What John did was to point to the Messiah. His baptism was temporary in that it pointed to a later fulfillment in Christ. It was external, being merely a washing in water. But the coming of the Spirit, baptizing those first Christians, was distinctly different. He would come to do a lasting work in men's lives. He would come to do an internal work of divine proportions in the hearts of men. John's baptism gave his disciples no power. The Spirit's baptism endues believers with a divine sufficiency for accomplishing the calling of God upon His people.

And so, these disciples were to wait. Their waiting did not hasten the Spirit's coming, for that was a sovereign decree. But their waiting readied the disciples to fully profit from this baptism of power.

The idea of waiting conveyed seeking, praying, resting in the Lord, and anticipating something more. They were to wait with expectancy upon the Spirit's coming (cf. Acts 10:24 for use of same Greek word). They were weak vessels, but the Spirit would come to do in them what they could never do in their own strength and power.

Now, let us consider how to apply this truth in our own lives. We do not wait for the Holy Spirit to come, for He has already come. We do not wait for Him to baptize us, for He has already done that at salvation (I Cor. 12:13). But, we must wait upon Him for His power. We can take for granted that we are saved, indwelled by the Spirit, and leave it at that. But we must instead seek the Spirit's power in our lives so that we might do the bidding of our Lord. I think John Stott's words are apt in describing this: "Just as the Spirit came upon Jesus to equip him for His public ministry, so now the Spirit was to come upon his people to equip them for theirs. The Holy Spirit would not only apply to them the salvation which Jesus had achieved by his death and resurrection but would impel them to proclaim throughout the world the good news of this salvation. Salvation is given to be shared. [The Spirit, the Church, and the World, 39]

Just as "Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit" (Luke 4:14) after His baptism and temptation in the wilderness, so we too are to seek the Lord for His power, so that we might go forth into the world proclaiming His gospel in His power.

II. The Promise of Power

The work we have to do as Christians demands divine power. We cannot rest simply upon our personalities and natural abilities to do the work of evangelism and world missions. My brethren, we must seek to live in the power of the Spirit!

1. Distraction from the focus

We can easily face distractions in our labors for our Lord. The disciples had been given a mandate to go forth as Christ's witnesses in the Spirit's power. But in verse 6 we see them side-tracked. "Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" Their interest in the typical Jewish view of Messiah had still not ebbed. The Jews were interested in a political Messiah coming to restore the throne of David with a great kingly reign and deliverance from their enemies. The disciples had still not gotten this from their minds. They still focused on Israel when they should have been focused on the nations. They were still looking for something political rather than something that is chiefly spiritual.

Our Lord essentially refuses them the answer they looked for to satisfy their curiosity. He let them know that such information is not for them to know. "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority." Times and epochs are the two common Greek words for time, with the first implying a period of time or duration and the second implying a point of time or an event. Jesus essentially told the disciples, 'Mind your own business, the business of proclaiming the gospel. The Father will take care of His business according to what He has decreed in His own timing.'

We cannot fault the disciples for asking such a question that they longed to have answered. But what we must see is that even in good things, we can be distracted from the most important things. We can give ourselves to doing worthwhile labors, helping others, improving our own understanding of truth, yet neglect the work of proclaiming the gospel. We must accept the words of Christ as a rebuke to our own loss of focus.

My brethren, do you realize that we are ambassadors for Christ to the world? Our city is hosting ambassadors from all over the world this weekend. They represent countries from all areas of the globe. Each is uniquely identified in some way as the representative of his own country. The ambassador for Kenya cannot speak for the country of Thailand. But he can speak authoritatively on behalf of Kenya! We are ambassadors for an eternal kingdom, one that is spiritual in nature, one that demands a new birth to enter into. Let us beware lest we get distracted from our focus as ambassadors for Christ and His kingdom!

2. Demand for the Work

Spiritual work demands spiritual power. If we are carrying the gospel of Christ, which is spiritual in its very nature, then how can we do it without divine power enabling us? Jesus told the disciples, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses...."

While our explanation of the gospel to an unbeliever is made up of verbs, nouns, adverbs, etc., it is not like giving a speech on the environment or a talk on planting a garden. We use words and phrases, but we are dealing with something that is eternal and supernatural. Merely having the knowledge of the gospel is not adequate for our work of witnessing.

I must hasten to point out that we need knowledge of the gospel! Luke's purpose on one hand was to give his recipient the knowledge of the gospel. He was writing to show what Jesus "began to do and teach." We must concentrate on learning the truths of the gospel, immersing ourselves in the richness of the Word of God. There is no excuse for laziness in this area. We are exhorted to "be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth" (II Tim. 2:15).

But knowledge without power still does not change lives. It is the work of the Holy Spirit that brings conviction to a sinner's heart and understanding to his mind so that he might believe the good news of Jesus Christ.

Can you think of anything anymore miserable than trying to present the gospel to an unbeliever without God's power on your life? That is like trying to swim in mud! You may have all the facts down-pat. You may be able to rehearse the gospel in front of a mirror with great clarity. And all of this is important. But you cannot leave out the power of God!

When Zerubbabel faced the seemingly impossible task of rebuilding the destroyed temple during the exile of the Jews, the prophet Zechariah gave a word to him from on high that is appropriate for all of us. "This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel saying, 'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says the Lord of hosts" (Zech. 4:6). The whole work of world evangelization requires this same word. I'm afraid that there is too much leaning in our day upon all of our great training and powerful equipment for evangelizing, while too little dependence upon the Holy Spirit.

Brethren, will you pray for the Spirit's power upon us as His witnesses? Will you pray for Him to give power to our gospel witness, our gospel preaching, our gospel teaching, our passing out tracts, our spreading God's Word?

3. Person of power

We must be reminded that spiritual power is not innate to the Christian. By this, I would stress that we don't have great spiritual power just because we are Christians. The power is not in ourselves. The power, if it is true spiritual power, comes from the Holy Spirit. "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you." There is a contrast in two words used for power in verses 7-8. The word "authority" is the Greek word, exousia, which means power that is natural to a person or power that is innate or power that is derived from the person. The word Luke uses in verse 8 for "power" is the Greek word, dunamis, which means power that is given or conveyed or conferred upon another. While God's power or authority is derived from His divine Personhood, our power is conveyed or conferred upon us by God.

Peter understood this on the day of Pentecost. When he stood before the masses in Jerusalem, knowing that these same masses crucified his Lord only seven weeks earlier, he saw that what he was doing was due to spiritual power. He spoke with a new understanding of truth, a new boldness and confidence, and a new sense of authority. In essence, Peter was saying in Acts 2:14-21, what you see happening through us is not us! "But this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel...." He had been to the bottom and had seen just how weak he really was in himself. He knew that he had no power of his own to move these masses to Christ. He understood that only the Spirit could do the work that was necessary to bring these sinners to faith in Christ.

We must live each day with a dependency upon the Spirit's power. As I think of the many doors our Lord is beginning to open for us to proclaim the gospel, we must not think that our abilities or our knowledge is adequate for the job. We must have the Spirit's power! We must yield to the Spirit's control! We must trust in the Spirit to do the real work in transforming sinners into saints!

III. The Mandate to Witness

"But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth." These words constitute the mission of the Church beyond its walls. There's not much that is complicated in what our Lord has spoken here. We can excuse what our Lord spoke as being fantasy or emotionalism related to His ascension. Or we can apply these words solely to the apostles and exclude present day Christians. Or we can apply these words to ministers and missionaries and exclude the members of the Body of Christ. But to do any of this is to do injustice to the Word of God and to show ingratitude to the Christ who redeemed us.

We cannot deny that each of the Gospels and many of the epistles leave us with a mandate to witness. We are called 'light' in a darkened world, told to 'make disciples of all nations,' asked to pray for boldness in uttering the gospel, and informed that we are ambassadors for Christ who have the ministry of reconciling men to God.

Too often we hear such exhortations to be witnesses for Christ and we turn off the preacher due to a stereo-type idea of what witnessing might be. Typically, we think that to witness we must make a "cold-call" on a house, pound on the door, confront the person who opens the door with a quick and slick gospel presentation, and press for a decision. Let me clear the air: that is not what I am referring to as witnessing.

J.I. Packer says that to evangelize is "to present Jesus Christ to sinful men, in order that they may come to put their trust in God, through Him to receive Him as their Saviour and serve Him as their King in the fellowship of His church" [Today's Evangelism, Reisinger, 1]. This may be done in an endless number of settings and ways. Some of you can knock on a door and ask to present the gospel. Others of you may have difficulty doing this, but you can tell your friend or relative about Christ in a natural way.

Witnessing implies that redeemed sinners are telling unredeemed sinners how they too can be redeemed. It is the most important message we can give to another person.

1. Every Christian's business

This is why our text makes it clear that witnessing is every Christian's business. The Lord does not leave a question mark on this exhortation to witness. He does not say, "...you might be My witnesses," but rather, "you shall be My witnesses." Every believer is indwelled by the Spirit, therefore, every believer has the capacity for Holy Spirit empowered witnessing.

We must keep in mind that the disciples who received this mandate were not all born public speakers! They had their personal hang-ups and fears just like us. They were not religious professionals like the Pharisees, but just ordinary people. Yet, it was to these ordinary people that Jesus Christ gave the most extraordinary mandate: you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."

To be "My witnesses," as Jesus calls every disciple, means that we are His emissaries representing Him before a world that is alienated from Him by sin. We go to the world with His authority and blessing. We go to the world carrying the solitary message that can deliver a sinner from eternal damnation: the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We may need to have a mentality shift at this point. It is so easy to get in our minds that witnessing is someone else's business, but not my business. Someone has said that 'the great commission is the great omission.' Ouch! But so true! Let's get it in our minds that WE ARE CHRIST'S WITNESSES. He did not call on the angels to carry on this business of evangelism, but He calls on us. He does not employ us in witnessing and give us nothing to do the job. He gives us His Word and empowers us by His Spirit. The Word and the Spirit combine to conquer sinful hearts! This is our business as a church! Let's make it our business as individuals!

2. Every person's need

The sphere of witnessing was beyond the walls of Jerusalem into the surrounding area of Judea, to the forbidden area of Samaria, and all the way to the remotest part of the earth. The disciples were still struggling with a nationalistic mentality, which is evident in their question of verse 6. Jesus pushes them beyond such a mindset and demands of them--and us--to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth. And rightly so, for every person on the globe has the need of redemption in Jesus Christ.

Too much of today's approach to evangelism is man-centered. Do you want to have joy? Do you want to have peace? Do you want to be happier in life? Many people cannot identify with such questions. But when you begin to press upon that person that as a sinner they are alienated from God and need a Redeemer, you may find a raw nerve that needs the "balm of Gilead" in Jesus Christ.

The mandate to witness demands that we cross barriers of race, culture, language, and ethnic background to carry to sinners the good news that Jesus saves. This is where all of us are missionaries. Our own city is growing in its multi-cultural composition. Our children attend school with children who are bilingual. We come in contact each day with those who may be of different races or even religious backgrounds. It is not uncommon to cross the path of a Hindu or Buddhist or Muslim while walking through the grocery store or shopping or even in the place where we work. And our city is just a tiny fraction of the world's vast population.

We cannot look at this verse and turn our heads away from the work of world missions. While people are rejecting the gospel in Memphis, they have never heard the gospel in most places in the world.

Louis DeMeo made a statement after we had spent the day in Nimes, France, that I will not soon forget. He said, 'If you want to get an idea of just how unevangelized France really is, consider that out of 100 people you saw in Nimes today, none of them has ever heard the gospel. And this is Southern France, the most evangelized part of the nation!'

Brethren, we do not realize just how lost our world really is! We do not think often on how millions of people have no idea of what Christ did at the cross. We must give ourselves to the work of carrying the good news of Jesus Christ to sinners at home and abroad. We must see that our witness is not in word only, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, as Paul expressed it. We must commit ourselves to praying for the furtherance of the gospel in our city and around the world. We must consider how we can best use the resources God has given us for the furtherance of the gospel.

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