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

The Good Confession

1 Timothy 6:11-16.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on January 17, 2021.

For the next six weeks, we are going to put a pause on our study through the Gospel according to Mark.  We have reached chapter 15 which details the crucifixion and then chapter 16 details the resurrection of Jesus.  We will pick them up so as to ramp up to our Easter service.

Today, we will go to First Timothy.  I want to talk about making the good confession in the modern world.  We are in a spiritual battle that requires faith in Jesus, in his teachings, and his actions.  

Jesus came into the world to testify to the Truth.  All others before him could really only confess what the Holy Spirit had told them.  Jesus is unique in that he is the only one who is an eye-witness of the Truth and who actually came from heaven to give that witness to the world.  He has told us the truth about the world’s plight, about each of our sin, about the way that it can be fixed, and about the only one who can do the fixing (Jesus himself).

If the Christ had a true testimony that all Christians are to confess before the whole world (that is, speak the same testimony as he) then know this.  The antichrist system of this world has a false testimony that it pressures and forces all to confess.  It is the anti-confession in regards to Jesus, and it will find its climax in the whole world worshipping the Beast through taking a mark, a loyalty pledge that is just as much a confession as it is an economic choice.

Let’s look at our passage.

Our Pursuit

In this passage, we have an older minister, Paul, making sure that a younger minister, Timothy, has a full understanding of how to teach the believers in the churches that were under his care.  Paul was not sure when he would be able to visit Timothy again.

Thus, Timothy is not a new convert and most likely the words here are not new to Timothy either.  Paul actually addresses him as “man of God” in verse 11.  These words are the encouragements and commands of a general to those fellow solders under him in the midst of battle.  We too must understand that we are on a battlefield that has progressed for millennia.  What is the pursuit of my life?  If I am truly a man or woman of God then I will hear the commands of the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul and respond in kind.

Before Paul reminds Timothy of his pursuit, he reminds him of what he must flee.  It is hard to go after something when another thing, or things, has our hearts.  Thus, Satan has filled this world with philosophies and lies that seduce our hearts into false pursuits.  He leverages the desires of our flesh against the call of the Holy Spirit.  They are things such as: riches, power, pleasure, fame, pride, and the list goes on.  We must flee these things because our lives depend upon it, and the lives of those we influence.  It is not that these things should not be had, but that they can never be the pursuit of our life.

The anti-confession of this world draws us into these anti-pursuits.  In this passage, Paul has been warning against the teaching of those who think that godliness is a means of gain (vs. 5).  He says that they think this way because they are full of corrupt desires and their minds are destitute of the truth (vss. 4-5).  It is in this context that we are given the statement, “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows (vs. 10).”

Godliness is not a means of obtaining riches, it is gain in and of itself.  You cannot obtain anything greater than being more like God, like Jesus.  The Gospel is not about making us rich and powerful in this world, but rather about taking on the image of our Father in heaven.  We do not live godly in order to get salvation, or natural blessings in this life.  No, we pursue a godly life because He has already saved us, while we were yet sinners, and has blessed us beyond belief.  We just couldn’t see it before we believed in Him.  Just as we are to flee sexual immorality, so we are commanded to flee the love of riches, and those who would pervert the Gospel into a means of riches.

With our hearts free from false-pursuits, we are then enabled to pursue what is true, God Himself, His image, and His character.  In truth, we cannot accomplish this on our own.  We cannot even accomplish it with the help of well-meaning believers who come alongside of us.  Without the powerful work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we would be lost to the seduction of The Lie, the lie that we don’t need God, or Jesus, to satisfy our hearts and minds.

Paul lists righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.  These are all fruit, or evidence, of the Holy Spirit within us.  Yes, we are to pursue them, but our obtaining of them to any measure is enabled by His presence.  This world cannot obtain true righteousness because it lacks the Spirit of God.  It can only redefine righteousness to match exactly what it wants to do.  We have seen over the decades the raising up of a false-righteousness that is now being used to condemn those who cling to the righteousness of God found only in Jesus Christ.  Christian, never forget that we are not called to pursue the desires of the flesh, but rather to pursue the image of God in our life.

Our Fight

In verse 12, Paul then commands Timothy, and us, to fight the good fight.  It involves a battle in which we will face enemies and contestants that desire to defeat us.  Some of them are sentient (spirits and humans), and some of them are abstract such as our internal weaknesses.  The false pursuits are the “bad fight.”  Too many people are fighting the wrong battles, and thereby, they are being used by Satan to become useful idiots in his plan to destroy God’s people and the Truth to which they cling.

It is called in the passage, “the good fight of faith.”  Eternal life is offered to all who will fight the good fight of faith.  In fact, the fight of faith is all about “laying hold of eternal life.”  When we believe upon Jesus, eternal life takes up residence within us through the Holy Spirit.  This eternal life continues to work within us to make us fit to dwell in the direct presence of God in eternity.  However, our faith will be tested in this world.  Just like love is tested by our experiences with others, so our faith is tested by the things we face in life.  This battle, both to keep believing and to agonize over what faith should do now, does not end until we finish this life.  It is in that day of resurrection that we will once and for all lay hold of eternal life.  Each difficulty begs the question, “Will you continue to believe and follow Jesus now?”

Yes, it is a battle, but the battle is worth it.  We have been called to eternal life!  Sin has put us under a death sentence, but Jesus came that we might have eternal life, and life more abundantly.  Jesus told his disciples to take possession of their souls by faith, and in so doing, we strengthen our grip upon eternal life.  No one can take it from you, but you can surrender it by shipwrecking your faith in Jesus.  May our faith be strengthened in Jesus, and not just a redefined Jesus that the world can accept.  No.  It must be the same Jesus that this world crucified 2,000 years ago, and would crucify all over again if he appeared again.  Can the world see the true Jesus in me?

Paul reminds Timothy that he had made the good confession before many witnesses (vs. 12).  All faith is expressed and is activated through confession.  We believe in our heart and confess with our mouths (hands, and feet) that Jesus is Lord.  Paul most likely has Timothy’s initial statement of belief in Jesus.  The many witnesses were other believers who are rejoicing in his confessing the truth of Jesus.  However, life always leads us to places where we must confess before witnesses who are hostile.  Just like Jesus before Caiaphas, and Peter before the servant girl, we will be faced with the opportunity to deny or confess Jesus, and thus the Father, before all men.  We must do the spiritual work now so that we are prepared for those moments.  Otherwise, we will crash and burn just as Peter did.

In verse 13, Paul reminds Timothy and us that Jesus testified the good confession before Pilate.  Most Gospels only have the question, “Are you the King of the Jews?”  Jesus then answers, “It is as you say.”  However, John 18 adds that his kingdom is not of this world, now, which implies that it will be one day.  Jesus came from heaven to testify to the Truth so that we can confess, agree with and stand by, his testimony, and thereby participate in his victory.  This sounds wonderful until you are face to face with a hostile enemy challenging you to deny Jesus.

Our Charge

Paul ends this part with a charge, a statement of strong urging, to believers.  We must hold fast to these things.  Paul reminds Timothy that he is in the presence of God and Jesus Christ.  In fact, everything that we do and hear is in the presence of God.  The Latin phrase is, coram deo.  How careful we should be of the things we flee and the things we pursue.  He who will judge all men looks upon us now.  How will we choose and how will we respond now?  The past is important, but the present is always what matters now.  Yes, I had faith yesterday.  Praise God!  But, what will I do today, now that I face this, whatever this may be?

When Jesus testified before Pilate, he was going before us blazing the way.  Jesus testified to the Truth as in a legal witness.  He knows the truth as an eye-witness because he is from heaven.  However, he knows the truth because he is Truth and one with Truth.  He went before us as a great captain of our salvation.  And, so, we must learn to follow him and agree with his testimony with our own confession before the people and powers of this world.

Ultimately, we are to keep this command to pursue the image of God and fight the good fight of faith without spot and blameless (vs. 14).  This is not about never making a mistake, but taking responsibility for our mistakes through repentance and turning back to Christ.  The daily maintenance of faith is a daily cleansing of our lives before our Lord Jesus.

We are not released from this command until Christ appears at the Second Coming.  Paul’s description of the Lord as the Potentate, or Sovereign over all things, is to encourage us.  We are on the right side when we stand with Jesus.  It may not look like it in this world, but all other sides, even those of the “new and improved Jesus,” will fail. 

What truths of Christ are being contested today and in what way?  Over and over again, we see the Scriptures being re-interpreted and obvious meanings cast aside for more modern, acceptable ones.  Will we stand with Jesus, or will we fold like an adulterous spouse?  O friend, hang on to your faith and go to work strengthening it, because you are going to need it in the days ahead!

Good Confession Audio

What Are We Doing Here At Abundant Life? Share Part 1

Isaiah 53:6; Romans 3:9-11, 23; Ezekiel 18:20; Romans 6:23; John 3:16; Acts 4:12.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday June 14, 2020.

We have been talking about the purposes of the Church and its members.  We will now look at the last purpose, which is to passionately share Jesus with those who do not know him.  It can be seen as part of purpose #2.  In a way, we are serving those who are lost by telling them the good news.  However, since it is quite different then the ways we serve other believers, it is best to give it its own purpose.  Unbelievers have only one overwhelming need and that is Jesus.  Everything else pales.  They need to connect to the Lord of life, and only those who know Jesus can help them do that.  If you feed a person’s belly, but don’t help them connect to Christ then you have not helped them in the way that they needed.  Of course, you can do both, but we must never lose sight of our true purpose in their life.

People need Jesus whether they know it or not, and Christians must be convinced of that enough to go out of our comfort zones.  So today, let’s talk about the fact that people need to hear the good news of Jesus.

Each of us is a sinner

The first two passages that I have listed impress upon us that each person on this earth is a sinner.  Even those who are trying to keep the righteousness of God fall short.  It is interesting that people typically feel like they are doing a good enough job, and that their good outweighs their bad.  However, the revelation from God tells us that this isn’t true.

Mankind wasn’t always this way.  Back in Genesis chapters one and two, we are told that God created humans good and without sin.  Yet, in Genesis three, Adam and Eve rebel against God’s command and purposefully sin.  Sure, they were deceived, but they still knowingly broke God’s command.  At this point, Adam and Eve entered into a fallen, dying state.  This fallen state would also affect all of humanity that would come after them.  The death that God warned them about was both physical and spiritual.

All humans born after Genesis three would also be dying beings who were separated from the direct presence of God.  This may seem unfair, but there is no logical way around it.  The choice of parents always affects what a baby experiences: where it is born, how well it is taken care of, whether or not it is raised for the Lord, and the list goes on.  We can scope this out to recognize that the choice of families determines what a neighborhood experiences, and the choice of neighborhoods determines what a city experiences, and so to the state, nation, and ultimately the world.

Of course, there is more to this than just our choices.  There is also the fact that the devil and his cohorts have interfered in our relationship with God.

Given enough time, every person born on this planet will become sinners.  Isaiah is speaking about a people, Israel, who knew God’s law and yet he recognized that none of them were righteous before God.  He revealed that God would one day put our sins upon another, the Messiah.  I will talk more about that later.  In the Romans passage, Paul also emphasizes that both Jews and Greeks (basically everybody that wasn’t Jewish) fall short of God’s glory because of their sin.

We are born to sinful parents, who are in a sinful world, and we have a propensity for sin, that is, a sinful nature.  This is quite evident in each person.  You do not have to teach a child to sin.  It comes naturally.  However, you do have to teach and train them to do what is right.  This does not mean that everyone becomes as sinful as they can possibly be.  It simply means that, in the middle of all our choices, none of us measures up to complete righteousness.  It would be good for us to remember this in our social discussions and arguments.  Usually, it is the first thing we jettison.  When I am railing against someone else’s sin, I should remember that I too am a sinner.

How about the aborted baby, or the baby who dies within the first year?  Technically they are not guilty of sin before God, but they are stuck in the human condition.  They die and go into a spiritual holding place where all other humans have gone before them.  Without Jesus, they would still be stuck there.  There are some who have taught that we are born having inherited the guilt of Adam.  I don’t believe that this is a proper reading of Romans 5:12 and other passages about the effect of the original sin.  It was death and separation from God that spread to all the rest of us, not Adam’s guilt before God.  However, if they had been allowed to live, they would have eventually become sinners too.  At some point, they would become aware that they were doing something wrong and yet, would do it anyways.  It is at that point that we become guilty before God for our own sins.

The judgment of God is upon us

Yes, man is a sinner, but Ezekiel tells us the decree of God.  The soul who sins will die.  The wages of sin is death.  In Genesis 3, we see God meting out judgment.  Though we could talk about painful childbirths and the sweat of our brow, the most important part of our punishment is that we die.  Before that day, Adam and Eve were not as we are today, growing old and dying.  However, this is not only true physically, but spiritually as well.  They were kicked out of the Garden and were separated from the presence of God.  This spiritual separation is the death of a relationship, but it also leads to an eternal spiritual death if it is not fixed.  We will all be held guilty for our own sins, not the sins of our parents, or our neighbors.  The question is not, did they sin, but what did I do because of their sin?  Usually, we use it as an excuse for our own sin.

This sets up a dilemma, not in the sense that God was stumped and couldn’t figure it out, but in the sense that there is a tension between God’s love and His Righteousness.  The Old Testament emphasizes both and even posits the need of a sacrifice to cover our sins.  God is love, so He wants to save us.  However, He is also just, so He cannot overlook our sins.  It is easy for us to say, “He’s God!  He can do anything that He wants.”  However, we fail to recognize that God cannot quit being Himself.  He is fully love and yet fully just.  We can overlook sin because we are sinful humans.  However, God is not.

Let’s look at an illustration.  If someone raped and murdered a loved one of yours, and then was arrested, confessed, and proven guilty at trial, what would you think if the judge chose to overlook the case and simply let the guy go free?  Something within us would cry out, “That’s not right!”  Even if we weren’t bloodthirsty for his death, we would still think that something more than just letting him go should happen.  We easily pick and choose when to demand justice and when not to, but God cannot.  As Paul says in Romans 6:23, He must give us the wages that we deserve.  The good news is that there is a way out of this, but we must not jump ahead of ourselves.

We cannot save ourselves

So, we are sinners, and therefore are under the judgment of God.  This last point is that we cannot save ourselves.  Many people will recognize the bad stuff of the world and its need for some kind of answer.  However, God tells us that we are in a situation that no human or group of humans can fix by themselves.

The smartest and best individuals of humanity cannot fix the sinful nature that is within each of us.  Paul says in Romans 3:23 that our attempts at righteousness fall short and are unacceptable.  In fact, they are woefully short.  Imagine someone giving you a glass of water, but it only has a couple of specks of feces in it.  Is that acceptable?  But, Lord, it is better than that other glass that is half full of crud.  It doesn’t matter.  A couple of specks of feces is still too much, and unacceptable.  Another way to look at this is this.  If the best among us only sin between one to three times a day, that is still between 365 to 1,000 times a year.  Over a typical lifetime, we would amass between 25,000 to 75,000 sins, and this is the best-case scenario.  If your plan to save yourself is to be a good person then hear what God’s Word is telling you.  It won’t work.  It falls woefully short in even the best of people, and most of us are average.  If your plan is to follow the wise people of this world who can lead us into Utopia then hear what God’s Word says.  It won’t work.  It not only falls short, but always leads to a destructive end because humans are sinful. Globalism won’t solve our problem.  It will only dismantle the protections that God installed at the Tower of Babel against an evil man ruling over the entire earth.  This is exactly what the book of Revelation tells us is on the agenda for the last days.  A man of sin will take over the earth and the world will eat it up.  However, it will also bring great destruction upon the world.

No, our righteousness falls short and always will.  What we need is God to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.  Jesus was, and still is, God’s solution for the world.  Because He loved us, God sent His Son to pay the price for our sins.  All who put their faith in him can have their sins covered by His righteousness, and then be justly allowed to join His family.  Only God’s plan will work.

As we close, I want us to remember that there is a whole world of people in need of the truth before they leave this earth, which few get to know when that is.  They are in the same situation that you were in before you met Jesus.  They are lost and without hope.  Some have never really heard the good news.  Some have heard a little of it, but it is fuzzy and without resolution.  Some have heard it, but also experienced a bad witness.  Perhaps they were in a cult, or were hurt and wounded.  Some have heard the gospel and have outright rejected Christ.  Yet, God loves them.  He made them to become like Him, to reflect His image, to dwell with Him.  This is the plight of the world around us.  They are under judgment and cannot save themselves.  Oh, the need is great for laborers who will go out into the field and share the good news of who Jesus is.  May God help us to have the guts to go do it!

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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!