The Great Commission

John 20:21-22; Mark 16:15-18; Luke 24:46-49; Acts 1:8; Matthew 28:18-20.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty on January 24, 2021.

Last week, we talked about the importance of making the good confession to the world around us.  In short, it is a declaration of our faith in Jesus and his teachings.  We stand with him.

Today, we are going to recognize that this confession and testimony that we should give about Jesus is part of a larger task, or commission, that Christ has given us.

Let’s look at our passage.

John’s Gospel

We will look at each of the Gospel’s version of the Great Commission.  They all highlight various things.  Ultimately, Jesus had been crucified and resurrected.  Over the course of 40 days, he appeared to them in order to prove the reality of the resurrection before he ascended into heaven, and to leave the apostles and his Church, that they would help build, with a task, a mission.  Thus, we speak of Christ commissioning his Church and call it the Great Commission.

John emphasizes sending.  We have been sent by Jesus as he was sent by God the Father.  We are sent for a purpose, to do what he tells us to do.  This is not a cultural thing.  Jesus is not trying to spread first century AD Israelite culture all around the world, much less white culture.  It is beyond culture.  In fact, if we must use the term, it is the spread of heaven’s culture.  All cultures are found wanting in the face of the Gospel and its obligation upon us all.  Christians must never confuse the Gospel with their own native culture.  Yes, some cultures have been impacted by Christianity more than others, but still, we are not representing our country, but rather Jesus and The Father.

John also shows Jesus breathing on his disciples and telling them to receive the Holy Spirit.  The receiving is emphasized, but it is not explained why.  We will save this for later.

Jesus also says that they, and we, will be a conduit to the forgiveness of sins for others.  This statement sounds like the apostles can keep some people from being forgiven, but that is a misreading.  Only Jesus can forgive sins, and thereby also refuse to forgive sins.  However, we are sent by Jesus as his ambassadors with his words.  We will be the representative of Jesus to those that we meet.  We don’t create forgiveness or deny it to those who desire it.  Rather, we announce it according to God’s Word, and the Holy Spirit’s wisdom.  Like the prophets of old, we can speak to people because of the authority of the Word of Jesus.  We can confidently tell people how to be forgiven of their sins, and how they cannot be forgiven.  The emphasis is not on their inherent ability, but in the function, they serve in being sent by Christ.

Mark’s Gospel

Mark focuses on our proclaiming the Gospel, or good news.  The NKJV uses the word “preach,” but the connotations of this word would be better translated as proclaim.  It is not about standing behind a pulpit in a church, but about sharing the Good News with anyone anywhere.  Mark’s gospel also emphasizes the scope of this mission, “all the world.”

A second aspect that we see here is the fact that powerful signs would follow Christ’s representatives.  Jesus doesn’t command them to do powerful signs.  Rather, the signs would follow them, and the signs listed are not an exhaustive list.  As God’s people commit themselves to this task of proclaiming the Gospel, signs would follow them.  Signs are not the focus, nor our job to make happen.  Our job is to be faithful to the task of sharing the Good News with people.

I will take a moment to clear up the passage about taking up serpents, due to the fact that some Christians believe they should prove their faith in Jesus by handling poisonous snakes.  Jesus is not talking about a means of proving your faith to onlookers, and neither is he talking about a test that all believers must do.  The best example of what Jesus is talking about happened to the Apostle Paul on the Island of Malta in Acts 28.  He was a prisoner on a ship going to Rome.  The ship was wrecked by a storm and they all jumped ship and swam to nearby Malta.  The natives met them on the shore and people began foraging for wood along the shore to build a fire and warm up the soaked men.  While gathering a bundle of sticks to throw on the fire, the apostle Paul was bitten by a viper on the hand and he shook it off into the fire.  The Bible tells us that the natives saw the viper hanging from Paul’s hand and figured that he would die, and that it was a punishment for some evil that he had done.  Over time, it became clear that Paul was not harmed by the poison.  This opened the people up greatly to hearing the Gospel.  The point is not invulnerability of believers to poison, but that these kinds of signs would follow them as a whole as they took the Gospel to the nations.  We too should expect that amazing things will happen from time to time as we are faithful to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Luke’s Gospel

In Luke, we have some of the content of the Gospel described.  First, Jesus had to do all of the things that he did.  They had been prophesied in Scripture, and they were functionally important for the saving of people.  Jesus lived a perfect life, and perfectly revealed the Father’s love by dying in our place, and being resurrected as proof that his sacrifice on our behalf was accepted.  It is also proof that he has the power to resurrect us at the last day.

For those who believe the message about who Jesus is and what he has done for us, repentance from sin is in order.  Those who believe and repent of their sins will have their sins remitted from them.  Luke also records that this is for all nations, not just one people group.

Lastly, Luke also records that they were to wait for the Promise from the Father to come upon them and empower them before going out to accomplish this commission.  The Promise from the Father is talking about the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon all of God’s people, instead of just a select few.  This is a task that is not intended to be done only by our power, strength, and abilities.  God Himself will work through us and assist us by His Holy Spirit.  Thus, we are not to hang back in fear, nor are we to rush forward in self-confidence.  We are to be a people who are led by the Holy Spirit, and empowered by Him.

This should remind us of Acts chapter 1 verse 8.  The book of Acts is technically Luke’s second volume.  It is not a second Gospel, but rather describes the apostles doing what Jesus told them to do.  We could think of Luke’s Gospel as the good news of what Jesus did, and his second volume as the good news that the apostles faithfully walked in his footsteps.  Another way to look at these to books is to see Luke as the acts of Jesus and the book of Acts as the acts of his apostles. 

Regardless, verse 8 emphasizes why we are to wait for the Holy Spirit and what the Holy Spirit would help us do.  The Holy Spirit would fill their whole being and enable them to be witnesses of Christ everywhere.  They would be empowered by God Himself.  A person cannot believe the Gospel without the influence of the Holy Spirit in their life.  He is the one who convicts us of the judgment that hangs over our head.  The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit takes up residence or dwells inside of those who believe on Jesus and repent of their sins.  However, we are to also open up our hearts and minds to Him through prayer so that He can fill our whole inner being.  This is not a one-time thing, but a daily empowering experience that we can have to help us in our battle against sin, and our task to proclaim the Gospel.

Matthew’s Gospel

John emphasized our being sent, but in Matthew we are shown why that is so important.  Jesus has authorized us to go to all nations and call them to repentance and faith in him.  What gives Christians the right to tell Romans that the idols they serve are lies and they need to repent?  We could ask the same question today.  Multiculturalism has some good to it.  It reminds us that we should not look down upon styles of life simply because they are different from our own.  However, Christianity is not supposed to be a cultural oppression. 

The Spirit of God started with Israel and challenged the sin in their culture.  It then moved to all other cultures.  We are authorized by the God who made and loves all people.  All of our cultures were, and still are, full of sin and ignorance.  Satan wants to make people feel that they are doing something wrong when they tell people that God commands all people everywhere to repent of their sins and believe on Jesus.  We must not give into this persuasion.

Next, we are to disciple those who believe by teaching them the commands of Jesus.  The disciple is a student who is learning to become like their master teacher.  Another image that is used in the Bible is that we are children of God.  God’s people are a family that baby Christians are born into.  We help the spiritually young to grow up and become more like our heavenly Father, which has been perfectly imaged to us by Jesus.

Lastly, Jesus tells us that he will be with us even to the end of the age.  How important it is to know that Jesus is still with us through the Spirit of God that is within us.  He hasn’t forgotten us no matter how difficult it may get at times.  We must hold onto this promise.

The Conclusion

When we put all of these things together, we end up with a lot of powerful concepts, so I have broken this up into two statements.

First, we have been authorized and sent by Jesus to proclaim the Gospel to all nations that only He can forgive and remove their sins because of his life, death, and resurrection.

Second, we are to be empowered by the Holy Spirit, which will have powerful signs as we teach people the commands of Jesus.

All of this emphasizes the task and purpose that Jesus has given us, and so it is missing an important component found elsewhere.  God so loved the world that He sent His One and Only Son that whoever believes on him shall not perish, but have eternal life.  God’s love for you, for me, and for those lost in this world, could not sit by as we destroyed ourselves through sin.  The love of God and the demonstration of its depth by Jesus on the cross are the foundation of a relationship that we can have with our Lord and invite others to join.  This is the Great Commission.

Great Comm audio

Trapping Jesus-Theology

Mark 12:18-27.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on August 16, 2020.

We continue looking at the various teachings that Jesus gave within the temple compound during the week leading up to his crucifixion.  Some of these teachings are initiated by Jesus, but some of them are initiated by the various groups that did not like Jesus.  The antagonists today are a group called the Sadducees, more on them in a bit.

The trap today has to do with theology.  What does the Bible actually teach?  As the Sadducees try to trap Jesus with his own words, we are given a proof once again that Jesus cannot be trapped by mankind.  He doesn’t just know the truth; he is the truth.  As you listen to this passage today, I pray that you will come to understand that the modern world is not any better at “trapping God” than the ancient world was.

We may have greater technology, and we may have furthered the discussion of philosophy to a finer point, but we are still fallen creatures trying to prosecute the one who is not fallen.  It won’t work.  In the end, Jesus will be proven true and all who stand against him will be proven to be liars, lying to ourselves internally, and lying to the world externally.  Trying to trap Jesus is to trap ourselves in the end.

Our only hope is to surrender to Jesus and ask him to save us because we cannot save ourselves.  Let’s look at this passage.

A question about the resurrection

Our question today has to do with whether or not there is such a thing as a bodily resurrection of those who have died.  Although it is not precisely stated that way, Mark makes it clear up front that the Sadducees do not believe that a resurrection day was promised by God, and this is the source of their question.

So, who are these Sadducees?  Let’s take about 6 minutes to look at the history that has led up to this point.  During the 500’s BC, Israel was defeated by the Babylonians (modern day Iraq).   Many of the Israelites were taken back to Babylon as captives.  Then, the Persians defeated the Babylonians (they were from modern day Iran).  The Persians allowed the Jews to return to Israel in order to rebuild their country, Jerusalem, and the temple.  This was going on from the end of the 500’s through the 400’s BC.

The next change happens as the Greek empire under Alexander the Great rises up and defeats the Persians.  From 330 BC to 167 BC, the Greeks dominate Israel and the apex of their control comes under Antiochus IV (Epiphanes) who ruled from Antioch, Syria.  Over the course of these 160 years, Israel was heavily influenced by the Greek culture, which called itself Hellas and its peoples the Helenes.  By the end of this period, many Jews had adopted Greek ways, using Greek names, refusing to circumcise their young, and adopting a Greek calendar, which changed the days on which the feasts of the Lord landed.

It is in this context that Antiochus Epiphanes lights the fuse of Israel by outlawing Jewish rituals, mandating the worship of Zeus, and slaughtering a pig to Zeus on the temple altar in Jerusalem.  The next 50 years (167 BC to 110 BC) would be a tug-of-war between the Greeks and the rebel Israelites.  It would also be a fight between Hellenized Jews who wanted a Greek government and those who wanted to stay faithful to the Old Testament and Yahweh.

During this time, a number of priests left Jerusalem and developed the Qumran community in the wilderness above the Dead Sea that we know by the Dead Sea Scrolls.  They saw Jerusalem and its priests as corrupt and so they went into the wilderness to wait for Messiah to show up and fix everything.  The priests who stayed in Jerusalem called themselves the Sadducees, which is a Greek form of the Hebrew name Zadok.  The family of Zadok was the High Priest family.  Even though the high priests were starting to compromise, the Zadokites or Sadducees felt that the High Priest should be followed without question.   They were made up of the High Priest, the priests faithful to him, and many of the upper class in Israel.  At some point, a more conservative group who had not gone into the wilderness began to separate themselves from the Sadducees, and that is the Pharisees.

The Sadducees did not believe in human spirits, or angels (see Acts 23:7), and thus they did not believe in a holding place for departed spirits (the grave) or a possible resurrection of these spirits.  They were essentially the liberal “Christians” of their day.

Now that we have established who these Sadducees were, let’s look at their approach to Jesus.  Instead of asking Jesus to prove from Scripture that there is a resurrection, they use a different strategy.  They remind Jesus of the Kinsman Redeemer law mentioned in Deuteronomy 25:5.  They then share a hypothetical story about a man who marries a woman, but dies without a child being born, i.e. no heir.  The Law of Moses required the nearest kin, like a brother, to marry the woman and father a child with her that would legally carry the name of the man who died, and inherit his estate.  This may seem strange in our modern culture, but this was very common throughout the ancient world.  Their cultures were family and tribe oriented.  Everything was done to keep the family and tribe strong, especially things having to do with offspring and inheritance.  A widow had a problem.  Who would take care of her?  However, if she was childless then she had another problem.  Who would take care of her in her old age?  The family also has a problem.  What shall we do with the dead brother’s estate, allow it to be severed and spread among the rest of the tribe, or legally supply an heir for him?  Whether or not you think this is the proper way to deal with these things, the duty of a kin was to protect the name and inheritance of his close relatives.  In fact, the whole story of Ruth centers on this law.

Now, in our hypothetical story, a second brother marries the woman, but dies before an heir is conceived.  The same thing continues happening with all of the seven brothers, until the wife dies in the end having never had a child.  This hypothetical situation sets up the absolute worse-case scenario for this law.  It is similar to what happens in the story of Judah and Tamar.  Tamar marries Judah’s firstborn, but he dies before a child is conceived.  Then, Judah’s second son is married to Tamar, but he refuses to help her become pregnant.  He dies as a judgment from God.  So now, Judah’s third son should marry Tamar, but Judah is gun-shy.  He suspects that his third son will die too, and so he creates a ruse to keep the marriage from happening.  So, most likely this story would never actually happen.  Most people would see the woman as cursed and refuse to marry her at that point.

It is important to see that the Sadducees are employing a debating technique that is called Reduction to Absurdity.  Instead of rejecting your opponents view, you pretend as if it were true and show that it leads to an absurdity.  They feel that their hypothetical creates such an absurd situation that the initial idea of resurrection should then come into question.  The absurdity comes to the surface with the question, “Which of the men will have her as their wife in the Resurrection (that they don’t believe in)?” 

I would point out two things.  First, there is an inheritance problem here that they totally blow by.  The laws of the kinsman redeemer had nothing to do with the resurrection.  They were all about a woman having security and a man’s name not being lost within the tribe.

Second, the problem is not nearly as absurd as they make it.  It would be the same problem if we ask, “Whose wife is Ruth in the Resurrection, Boaz or Mahlon?”  The presence of seven guys doesn’t change the question, but they do make it more absurd.  Ultimately, you could just say that the Bible is silent on this issue and therefore God will make the judgment then.  This would resolve the issue without giving clarity about what exactly would happen.  God is just and He can be trusted to give a wise decision.  However, this is not how Jesus responds.

The answer of Jesus

Before Jesus gives his answer, he explains in verse 24 why the Sadducees are wrong on this issue, but he does so in question form.  The NKJV says that they are “mistaken,” but the idea is that they are being led astray, or off the path of truth.  He is posing a rhetorical question, “Are you not being led astray, or deceived?”  The answer is the obvious, yes, and that they should know it.

Why are they being led astray, or better, what is their weakness that has made them susceptible to error on this point? Jesus gives us two reasons.

First, they don’t know the Scriptures.  Of course, they know the Scriptures in the sense of having read them, memorized much of them, and taught them.  However, they don’t intimately know them.  They cruise over passage after passage assuming that they have the truth without recognizing the implications in them that run counter to their philosophy.  Instead, they use Scripture to back up their positions through proof-texts and human reasoning.  If they really understood Scripture then they would not be led astray by people such as themselves who posit absurd hypotheticals, philosophies, and the reasoning of men.  So, their first problem has to do with a real ignorance of the Scriptures and the proper understanding of what God was saying in them.

Second, they don’t know the power of God.  Of course, if you were to ask them if God was all-powerful, they would have said that He was.  However, they wouldn’t apply that power to the resurrection because they have already reasoned that it can’t be.  This same problem happens with those who say that humans don’t have freedom to choose Jesus because that would mean that God is not completely sovereign.  Yet, at the same time that they say that, they are limiting God’s sovereignty by refusing to accept that God could sovereignly choose to give men a free choice.  God has the power and sovereignty to give man a real choice so that he can really choose.  Human reasoning can become a barrier to actually hearing what the Word of God is saying.

When we understand just how powerful God is, the One who created the whole universe, visible and invisible, problems like this dissipate.  Many reject the Bible because of things that sound impossible.  However, if God does exist as the Bible depicts then it is not absurd that He can do that which we cannot conceive being done.

In verse 25, Jesus finally gets to the answer.  Here, he reveals that the Sadducees are assuming something that God never said in His Word.  It doesn’t say anywhere in the Bible that our marriages will continue into the Resurrection in any way.  Now, it is a natural tendency to assume things and not question those assumptions.  Their whole argument hinges on the reality of marriage within the resurrected age.  Jesus reveals that the resurrection will not be a glorified repeat of this world.  Instead, we will be like the angels of heaven.  Angels do not need to propagate their species because God made them immortal. 

Up until now, humans have been a mortal species.  Yet, then we will not be so.  Paul speaks of this in 1 Corinthians chapter 15.  In the parallel passage of Luke 20:34, Jesus adds some more color to the statement. 

“The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage.  But those who are counted worthy to attain that age, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; nor can they die anymore, for they are equal to the angels and are sons of God; being sons of the resurrection.” 

The resurrection not only changes us as individuals, but it also changes us as a species.  We can’t properly imagine the resurrected state because we have precious little understanding of what that means.  We have only known mortality.

It is important to understand that Jesus doesn’t need chapter and verse to support what he is saying because he has come from the Father and knows the whole plan, whether it has been revealed before or not.  Thus, in a way, Jesus is revealing new truth.  He confirms the resurrection and he reveals that there will not be marriage there.  Men and women will stand side by side in glorified bodies that are no longer male and female as we know them here.  We will stand together as the adult children of God.  The image is that we as a whole are the bride of Christ.

Yet, the Old Testament does have many passages that hint at, and even declare a belief in the resurrection.  In Job 19:25-27, he says, “For I know that my redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.  My heart faints within me!”  What kind of kinsman redeemer can redeem a person from the decay of their body?  This is an amazing passage and there are others like it.

However, Jesus knows that the Sadducees do not accept doctrine that is not in the Pentateuch (the first 5 books of the Bible).  Thus, Jesus uses the Burning Bush passage in Exodus 3.  There, God tells Moses that He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  If the position of the Sadducees was correct then He would have to say that He was the God of Abraham, et al.  Yet, He says that He is, present tense.  In some way, Abraham and the other patriarchs were still very much alive.  Their spirits were held in the paradise side of She’ol, or Hades, and God was not going to leave them there forever.  In chapter 12 of his book, Daniel saw the day when multitudes who “slept in the dust of the earth,” would awake and rise “some to shame and everlasting contempt,” and others “to everlasting life.” 

We must not settle for a cultural acceptance of Christianity, but rather pursue a relationship with the Father through Jesus, and the Scriptures that reveal him.  We can only come to know them intimately by the help of God’s Holy Spirit.  Praise the Lord that we serve a powerful God who has made clear His glorious future for those who believe upon Jesus Christ!

Theology audio

The Authority of Jesus

Mark 11:27-33.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on July 26, 2020.

With the advent of this summer’s protests and the consequent actions, the question of authority is a timely one.  The First Amendment of the US Constitution recognizes the God-given right of every citizen to peaceably assemble in order to give voice to their concerns, and to ask for redress of their grievances- what the Bible would call justice.  Thus, the founding generation saw God as the one who authorizes our right to do so, not the government.

However, if God has authorized the action that you are taking then you had better do it in a way that is pleasing to him because you will be accountable to him.  This is why our founders added the word “peaceably.”  Those authorized by God must work peaceably in this age of his grace.

The same can be said for police officers who are to protect and defend the public good.  It is God who tells men that they are to uphold righteousness within their nations.  Each nation is responsible to set up the means of authorizing individuals to serve as police, and as judges, so that righteousness may flourish.  Thus, there is a divine and human aspect to their authority.  Again, let us not forget that an authorized person must act in accordance with and under the direction of that which authorizes them.  Of course, this all applies as well to protesters as well.

Today, we are going back to the week leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus, and to the question of just what authorized Jesus to do what he did.

The religious leaders question the authority of Jesus

Just the day before our passage, Jesus had driven the vendors and money changers out of the temple compound.  The chief priests, scribes, and the elders of Israel were probably in shock at the time, but they have had their private discussions overnight and they are determined to publicly confront Jesus.  Just who does he think he is?  No doubt, they were watching for him to come into the temple area that day.

When he does, they are quick to confront him with a two-pronged question that is ultimately one.  By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?  Now, the immediate context would suggest that this is not about his itinerant teaching in Israel and the working of miracles.  Rather, they are questioning him about his right to interfere in the operations of the temple and to make it his public place of teaching.  You see, they were the ones who had authorized the vendors and money changers to be there in the first place.  Jesus had not so much challenged their authority, but rather, the particular things that they were using their authority to authorize.  They legitimately sat in the seat of Moses, but they were not making legitimate judgments and decisions.  They were unwilling to receive the public rebuke and were attempting to turn the tables on Jesus, so to speak.

Just because a person holds a position that is legitimately authorized by humans, it does not mean that they are actually authorized.  In Jeremiah 23:32, God rebukes the false prophets of that day. 

‘“Behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,” says the Lord, “and tell them, and cause My people to err by their lies and by their recklessness.  Yet, I did not send them or command them; therefore, they shall not profit this people at all,” says the LORD.’ (NKJV)

Whether some of these guys falsely obtained their positions, or they held them legitimately, they were at the least misusing their authority.  God was not pleased with their judgments.  All authority in this world is ultimately answerable to God for its actions.  Those who questioned Jesus did not realize that they should have been asking themselves that question regarding each decision that they were making.  It is precisely their failure in this area that made it necessary for God to send His Son to set things right.

It can look like Jesus is avoiding the question, but notice that he actually promises to answer it, if they will answer his question first.  “Was John’s baptism from heaven or men?”  This is essentially the same question that they were asking, but regarding John the Baptist.  Who gave him the authority to do what he had done?  This is a masterful turn of the tables because they are assuming to be the proper authorities and are in judgment of him.  Jesus essentially says, “Let’s see if you can judge the case of John the Baptist before you judge mine.”

Now, John’s ministry was far less controversial than the ministry of Jesus, but it was adversarial to the religious leaders nonetheless.  They had not authorized John to baptize people in the Jordan River.  He seemed to be skipping around their domain at the temple.  John even publicly declared that they were a brood of vipers who needed to flee the wrath that was coming (Matthew 3:7).  John 1:19-28 gives us a picture of these religious leaders examining John the Baptist.  Jesus is merely asking them to publicly declare the conclusion of their investigations into John.  Was following himself, or another man, or had God sent him?

There is another aspect to this.  It was John who publicly declared that he saw the Holy Spirit come upon Jesus, and that he was the one that he had been promising would come after him, the Messiah.  If John was authorized then it was most likely that Jesus was too.

It appears that they have a sort of huddle to determine their answer.  However, they are in a predicament.  If they say that John was authorized by heaven (God) then Jesus will ask them why they didn’t believe him, and embrace his ministry.  Yet, on the other hand, if they say that John was not authorized by God then they feared what the people would say and do because it was popularly felt that John was a true prophet of God. 

Here, we see part of the problem with all authorities and their authorizing mechanisms.  They typically fear people more than they fear God.  They rely upon the power of their position, but they always realize that if enough people reject them then they will lose it.  What do powerful people who do not fear God do in such circumstances?  They operate behind the scenes and in the dark to manipulate the passions of the crowd.  O, Christian, let us not be caught up in the manipulations of wicked people, who have no fear of God, but rather, let us hear the crying of the voice in the wilderness.

“Prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.  Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill brought low; the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth…”  (Isaiah 40:3 NKJV)

There are a lot of mountains that are yet to be brought low, and a lot of crooked people, both in leadership and among the people.  God has a day of dealing with such, if they refuse to repent, but let us be about our Father’s business!

The leaders decide to say that they do not know by what authority John did what he did.  Jesus then responds that neither will he answer their question.  Those who refuse to give sound judgments do not deserve an answer because they do not seek truth, but are only serving themselves.  Very few people in our day and age are actually seeking truth.  Those who start out to do so are often hijacked by false prophets and the false wisdom of this age.  If you are hungering and thirsting after righteousness, and if you are in a daily relationship with God through prayer, studying the scriptures and doing the commands of Christ, then you will be able to navigate these times of peril in which we live.

Was Jesus authorized?  Completely!  The Scriptures foretold his coming, and it was even testified by Moses who said that a prophet would come that would be like him, raising up the house of God.  They would need to listen to him.  The prophet John had publicly revealed who Jesus was.  The Spirit of God had powerfully worked through his ministry.  He was the Son of God who had come to that which was his own.  He was the Good Shepherd seeking out the lost sheep of Israel before the wolves would come and have their way.  He is the only way to the Father by which all men must be saved!  Yes, Jesus was authorized, but they refused to accept it because they loved lies rather than truth.

How about me?  How about you?  May God help us to love truth more than lies, even when the truth publicly reveals that I have not been as good as I have pretended before the world.  Such a person will find Jesus and in him find eternal life!

Authority of Jesus Audio

You Will Receive Power

We regret that the audio for this sermon is not available.  Please enjoy the article.

Acts 1:4-8.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Pentecost Sunday, May 31, 2020.

A common theme throughout this world is that people often feel powerless.  They feel powerless to change their life, their community, their nation, and their world.  People respond to this in different ways.  Some will come to cynically give up on change and drop into a world of placebos and addictions.  Others gravitate to larger movements, political groups, and social groups thinking that this will give them the power that they seek.

You will find that there are many kinds of power in this world.  However, none of them will satisfy and make a difference like the power of God Himself working within you to affect change in you. 

Today, it is important for believers who have heard the call of God’s Spirit to salvation, also to hear His call to empowerment.  It will not be a power that looks like the world, nor will it be a power that you completely control.  Rather, it will be a relationship in which you learn to yield to the leading of the Holy Spirit, and step out by faith in ways you never would have done without Him.

We wait for the Holy Spirit

In our passage today, we have a scene that happens shortly before Jesus ascends into heaven with his disciples observing it.  Here, they are told to wait for the Holy Spirit to come upon them, whom Jesus also called “another Helper” in John 15.  Just as Jesus had been a constant help to them in various ways, so the Holy Spirit would come and take the place of Jesus in their daily lives.  This would be the same kind of help, but in a different way.  The Holy Spirit would not be a physical presence.

In verse 4, Jesus calls the Holy Spirit, “The Promise of the Father.”  Throughout the Old Testament there are many places where the prophets spoke of a time when the Spirit of God would be poured out upon all of God’s people.  It came to be specifically connected to the New Covenant that God promised to make with the remnant of Israel, and whosoever from the Gentiles that would join them.  Take time to read Joel 2:28-32.  Earlier in the chapter, they had been called to repentance, and promised a restoration that was material and yet also a restoration that was spiritual (verses 28-32).

It must have been discouraging at times waiting for this promise that seemed too good to be true.  Century after century, Israel was under the domination of world powers due to their disobedience.  Then one day, Jesus came on the scene.  A man who operated in the full power of the Spirit of God.  Now, in our passage, he is promising them that it is going to happen to them not too many days from then.

It is here that we need to stop and recognize that it was important for Jesus that the disciples be baptized with the Holy Spirit.  It was not just for his apostles.  It was for all those disciples there that day, and for all who would respond to the Gospel call to believe on Jesus in the future, even Gentiles.

There is a distinction that we should make here.  It is clear that the disciples had been drawn by the Holy Spirit to Jesus.  Also, they had believed in Jesus for salvation.  So, the Holy Spirit was clearly operating on the earth already.  However, at the Day of Pentecost, something new was going to be added to the way that the Holy Spirit operated here.  Those there that day would be the first group who would experience a changing over from the old way of the Spirit’s operation on the earth to the new way. 

Today, a person who believes in Jesus immediately has the Holy Spirit taking up residence within them.  He dwells in them.  Yet, the Holy Spirit wants to do more than just dwell in us.  Two images are used to explain this.  The first is the phrase “filled with the Holy Spirit.”  It pictures a vessel that is filled up with the Spirit.  He floods into our whole life, every nook and cranny of our mind and heart.  The second image is that of baptism.  He wants us to be immersed into the Holy Spirit like water baptism does in water.  This is called being “baptized with or in the Spirit.”

Under the old operation of the Holy Spirit, only certain prophets, kings, and high priests would be filled with the Spirit and then only sporadically as it was needed.  At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit would come upon every one who belonged to God and would be a constant presence in their life.

Ultimately, Jesus is telling us that we cannot do this mission of His, whether personally or as a group, without God’s help.  The good news is that He is more than willing to help us.  It was His plan all along.  Imagine Satan in the Garden.  He is cursed, but so are Adam and Eve.  From that time on, humans were easy targets for his schemes and machinations.  Yet, the killing of the Son of God at the cross opened the door for humans to be indwelled by God’s Spirit.  This changed the game, and has led to a global move of the Gospel to the ends of the earth, which has pulled people out of the grip of Satan, and brought them into the kingdom of Christ.  Satan is being plundered as we are enabled by the Holy Spirit to reach the lost!

In our passage here, the main reason for waiting is clearly connected to the Feast of Pentecost.  The events of the cross and the resurrection of Jesus were accomplished on the very day of each of the spring feasts.  They had been prophetic enactments of what he was going to do.  So, Pentecost was about more than a material harvest of food in Israel, but also prophetically pointing to a time when God would empower His chosen ones to go into the whole world and harvest new believers into Christ’s Kingdom.  The Holy Spirit needed to be poured out on Pentecost so that we would understand its significance.

Yet, there is another benefit to the waiting that we see here.  Throughout the Scriptures, believers are called upon to wait for God’s timing.  In our flesh, we are always ready to jump ahead, but God’s timing is not just better for Him, it is also better for us.  Like Israel in the wilderness who wanted to rush into the promised land, God takes His time so that they can grow in faith before they fight giants.  New believers today immediately have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them.  Yet, they also need to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and not just once, but every day.    There is technically no reason for them to wait in order to be filled with the Spirit.  Yet, sometimes people are timid or apprehensive towards the infilling of the Holy Spirit.  Whether it happens at the same time as salvation or months later, believers should take time to pray, to ask, and to seek God for the experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit, an experience where He floods into your being, where Christ lays you down under the waters of the Spirit.  It may take time, but let God fill your heart with confidence towards this promise until it happens.

The Holy Spirit empowers us to be witnesses to the lost

With the many movies of super heroes and the powers they have, it is easy to see that the world fantasizes about these matters.  Yet, the power of the Holy Spirit is not as the world fantasizes.  When we talk about the Holy Spirit flooding our whole being and empowering us, we should not imagine it as a kind of “good possession.”  Demons can take possession of people who have surrendered their personal sovereignty through various occult means.  When that happens, there can be a complete subduction of the person beneath the personality of the evil spirit.  The Holy Spirit is not like that.  He is not seeking to overpower you and seize control of you like some kind of marionette.  Rather, He is a helper who comes alongside of us in order to empower us as we yield to His help, but also as we step out in faith upon His leading.  You do not have to fear the Holy Spirit.  He is the pure and clean Spirit of God that has the same love for you that compelled Jesus to go to the cross for you.

In verse 8, Jesus tells them that they would be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.  Becoming a believer in Jesus was not just to be for Israel, i.e. for the Jews.  It was for the whole world.  That was a daunting mission for those early believers.

Today, Christianity is so big that we might be tempted to think that we can do it now without the Spirit of God.  It is common among certain denominations to teach that the empowering of the Spirit is not as dynamic as it was in those days, and we should not expect any such things today.  However, we cannot look at the outward structures of the Church and its institutions.  The Church is not the institutions and the numbers that each claim.  The Church is all of those who have had a true spiritual work in their hearts and are following the Spirit of God.  We still need the Holy Spirit today if we are to save people who may be in our cities right now burning cars and looting stores.  Such people will not be reached unless the Spirit of God enables us to reach them.  Even then, we must recognize that individuals who do receive a Holy Spirit-empowered witness can still reject it.  That is the sad reality.

Another part of the empowering that the Spirit gives is spiritual gifts that He gives to each believer.  These are intended to help us in the mission.  These giftings are not just natural gifts.  They are means by which the Spirit of God diversely works through each of us.  This is intended so that no one person has all of the Spirits gifts, and then has no need of other believers.  It helps us to recognize the truth that His Word tells us, we need each other, and we need the Holy Spirit working through one another. 

These giftings are things that we will have to discover, and cooperate with, by acting in faith.  I will talk about these more in next week’s sermon.

The world needs believers who are filled with the Holy Spirit and empowered to give them a witness that is spiritual and not fleshly.  Take time to daily seek the Lord that He would fill you with His Spirit and enable you to be a greater witness of who Jesus is!