Acts: Receive Power

[podcast]http://www.revkwon.com/podcast/acts1_power.mp3[/podcast] Welcome to our summer series on the book of Acts. I’ve never once, in my ten years of preaching here at this church, have ever preached on the Book of Acts. In the next seven weeks, we’re going to do a fly-by version of Acts. We’re not going to spend two years on the Book of Acts, like we did with the Book of Luke. Rather, in the next 7 weeks, throughout the summer and right up to VBS, we’re going hit the Book of Acts and look at where the Apostles left their mission for us to pick up and continue as 21^st century Christ followers. To help us understand what their original mission was, we’re going start reading the Book of Acts from the beginning. Let’s go to Acts 1:1. In my first book I told you, Theophilus, about everything Jesus began to do and teach ² until the day he was taken up to heaven after giving his chosen apostles further instructions through the Holy Spirit. ³ During the forty days after he suffered and died, he appeared to the apostles from time to time, and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive. And he talked to them about the Kingdom of God. (Acts 1:1-3 NLT) The first book that the writer is talking about is the book of Luke. Luke, who was also a doctor, wrote both the gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts. The Book of Acts is actually called Acts of the Apostles. Luke was the personal doctor for the Apostle Paul and travelled with Paul on a lot of missionary journeys. In writing the book, Luke went and investigated what was done and how it was done. The Gospel of Luke, his first book, explains why it was done. If you don’t know why the Apostles had to act, let me give you a recap: Jesus living, dying, and resurrecting was not something that they could keep secret. Jesus tells them not to make it a secret. This is why the whole book of Acts was written in the first place. Isn’t that amazing? I want you to know that God can use any occupation, and every opportunity, if you are willing, to be an instrument for God’s purpose. It is not limited to just pastors. Luke was a doctor and he wrote most of the New Testament in terms of number of sentences, chapters and pages. There is a precision here that exists because Luke is a doctor, he surgically dissects the situations and stories and tells accurate and detailed accounts of what happens. Let’s pick up where Luke starts the story. ⁴ Once when he was eating with them, he commanded them, “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. ⁵ John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” ⁶ So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?” ⁷ He replied, “The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. (Acts 1:4-7) I want you to underline the phrase, “you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” The reason I want you to underline that is because Jesus tells them that God will baptize you with his spirit, and they aren’t even interested. They are interested in the question—so when are you going to “free Israel and restore our kingdom?” Have you ever done this? God tells you that he’s going to give you an incredible gift, and all you can think of is the box that the gift is wrapped in? It’s like getting a PlayStation and all you want to do is play with the box the PlayStation comes in. I know Styrofoam is fun to play with when you throw it at people, but come on, the video game is much more fun. The disciples should be getting excited about God baptizing them with the Holy Spirit, whatever that means to them, because they don’t know what that means yet, but they’re not interested in that. They’re interested in asking about something that doesn’t concern them. Jesus responds that by saying, it’s none of your business—stop caring because that’s not important for you. Let’s pick it up again. ⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When you are baptized with the Holy Spirit, you receive power. Write that down in your notes. The power is needed for you to be witnesses of Jesus from Jerusalem into the ends of the earth. Let me explain to you what verse 8 means. You may have never heard this before. When Jesus says the power gives you the ability to be a witness in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” he is saying that you can tell the people right around you, where you grew up, and are comfortable. He says once you tell everybody there, you can go and tell the people in your whole country. Everybody in the country is going to know because you are telling them, because you have the power to get their audience. Then you can tell the people living in the countries next your own, whether or not you like them, or if they like you, you will have the power to tell them. When you’re done with that, you should just about go anywhere and start telling people about Jesus because you got the power from the Holy Spirit. We call this the great commission in Christianity. Here Jesus says that the commission, the job, is only possible if you have the Holy Spirit. This is important to be a witness. When we are a witness, we are telling people that the God we server and love and adore gives us power that is beyond our own ability. People cannot deny who God is because of the power that is coming through you from God’s Holy Spirit will be undeniable. This means that we can be “Christian” and never have the power of the Holy Spirit, but Jesus says no, He says, if you’re here, you will receive the Holy Spirit. It is a gift that God gives if you stick around for it. You may be thinking that you don’t want the gift, but I promise you that this gift the holy spirit allows you to do things like go everywhere in the name of Jesus because it is power. This morning I want all of you to understand that when you stick around, you will receive the Holy Spirit of God as God’s gift to you. Use that gift to be a witness for Jesus. Let’s keep reading. ⁹ After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him. ¹⁰ As they strained to see him rising into heaven, two white-robed men suddenly stood among them. ¹¹ “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!” (Acts 1:9-11 NLT) I want to pick up the story now a few days later. A few days later was Pentecost. This is important because it is not only symbolic, it’s also true. Pentecost literally means 50^th day. On the 50^th day, God gave Moses the Ten Commandments to be the law for the new nation of Israel when they left Egypt. That is how God communicated with His people. For the Christian, the Pentecost brings the Christian the Holy Spirit that will intercede for each and every Christians with groanings and utterances that we don’t ever understand. This is beautiful. This is why Jesus, when he died and was resurrected said to the disciples, there is somebody greater than I who will be with you and you will do much more amazing things that I did. This is the promise Jesus is giving to the people who follow him in faith. On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place.² Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. ³ Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. ⁴ And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability. (Acts 2:1-4) Literally this happened to the disciples that were there. The Holy Spirit comes and what Luke is saying is that it will be apparent when you receive Him. Moreover, Write this down: the Holy Spirit gives ability. ⁵ At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. ⁶ When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers. ⁷ They were completely amazed. “How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, ⁸ and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages! ⁹ Here we are—Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia, ¹⁰ Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome ¹¹ (both Jews and converts to Judaism), Cretans, and Arabs. And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done!” ¹² They stood there amazed and perplexed. “What can this mean?” they asked each other. (Acts 2:5-12 NLT) When you receive power, everybody will know that it comes beyond yourself. The power of God, which is in all of us through the Holy Spirit transcends all barriers. In the story that we just read, Luke says the greatest barrier the disciples faced was one of language, and the Holy Spirit gave them the ability to overcome that obstacle so that the disciples could witness God to everybody who was present in that place. I want you to see language or tongues in two lights. Yes, it’s true that people can speak in the tongues of angels when they receive the Holy Spirit’s power. That’s amazing and wonderful. However, more often, when you receive the power of the Holy Spirit’s power and especially that of tongues or languages, you gaining the ability, perhaps not the ability to speak another language like Japanese or German or Russian. Rather, you gaining the ability to speak to a group of people whose backgrounds may or may not be similar to your own and become a witness to them for Jesus. In sum, what I mean is that there may be a group of people you can only reach because the power of the Holy Spirit is upon you in the form of tongues. That may mean spelling out the gospel in emoji, or in jock, or in fantasy sci-fi, or tech-speak or even finance. But it may also literally mean that you spell out the gospel in Spanish or French. Let me go to our memory verse for today. It comes from Job 33:4. Our memory verse says, “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” (Job 33:4). What this means is that if you are a self-professing Christian, and you don’t think you received the power of God, it means you don’t know what it means to have life. You’re not living. You can be greater in the name of Jesus for His glory. This is a gift that God is giving to you because of your belief. I want everybody in this room to receive power. The power to be God’s witness at the ends of the earth. You see that is why we were created. We were created to be God’s witnesses. We’re part of God’s greater plan and He wants to give us power so that we can live that out. Let’s pray.