Introduction To Acts

And I've tried to share this with all of you, but when Jesus stood there before, that's an amazing sight. He ascended up before them and he says, now go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. That had an impact upon them.

And when you read this account here in the book of Acts, they were willing to die for that thing right there. They were willing to die. And most of them did die.

Eleven of the twelve, I understand from history, did die doing the very thing that they heard Jesus say before he ascended up before them. Christianity has moved far away from that concept. You know, we've become institutionalized, as Brother Eli often says, and I'll mention here at the end of the message, having form.

Form is we're fitting into a certain mold. It's a Sunday gathering, it's hearing a sermon, it's kind of adjusting your life, but not really being fully surrendered to the Lord. So I want to preface all that we're going to share here with those things.

I don't want young people to be frustrated because, you know, they're half in, just like Brother David was saying, half in, half out, not sure they're in, not sure they're out, half surrendered and they're not experiencing the things that the Bible talks about. Well, those things that the Bible talks about are for the fully surrendered, ones who have said, it's enough, I'm done, and given God a truly blank piece of paper. Marriage or no marriage doesn't matter, from the heart, doesn't matter.

Job or no job, doesn't matter. Career or no career, doesn't matter. If it costs me my life, doesn't matter, I'm just giving up.

And so that's a good place to be. Let's turn in our Bibles here today to Acts chapter 1, and I'm going to spend a little time giving you some introductory thoughts that I had this week. There's a lot in here, and as I went down through this this morning, putting this together from all my notes this week, I realized there's so many ways, so many things we could pursue.

We're not going to pursue them. I don't want to, you know, spend a sermon on two verses. This is a long book.

We're going to take the stories, the major themes, and we're going to work through them. But I want to lay a foundation for this book, the book of Acts. And I want to show you here the plan of the Lord.

It starts off with this right here. Jesus is the head of the church. The head, He's the top.

He is the one who founded it. It is built upon Him. He is the foundation of it.

The Bible actually calls Him the cornerstone. And I understand that to be that first stone or that first corner that's set on the foundation. And everything else is to line up with the cornerstone.

The apostles and the prophets are also a part of that foundation. The Bible says in Ephesians, He built the church on the foundation of Jesus Christ and the prophets and the apostles. And so that is the foundation of this whole thing.

It's the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us here in Acts 1, if you look over, it says in Acts 1, verse 1, the former treaties have I made. By the way, this is Luke writing.

O theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after that He, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments unto the apostles whom He had chosen. So the life of Jesus is testified in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. That's the first four books of the Gospels.

That's an explanation of the cornerstone. And then the Lord gives commandments to His apostles. He gives commandments to the twelve.

And I know that's not twelve, but it's close. So He conveys, and that's why He chose out these twelve, because they were going to be a part of the foundation. And He committed His life to twelve.

And He poured Himself into twelve, because these twelve were going to take what Jesus had commanded them. And they would hear these words, Now you go and teach them what? All things I have commanded you. And so you twelve I'm going to pour myself into and teach you my commandments.

Then you twelve are going to go out and you're going to pour yourself into this next generation. And church life and the building of the church is found in this. Jesus reproducing Himself into twelve.

Those twelve reproducing themselves into a generation. That generation reproducing itself into another generation. And the church is expanding and expanding and expanding and growing and blossoming.

And personally if you don't have that vision of what church life is all about, I think you're off track. Think you're off track. And so if you don't want to participate in this, I don't think you're going to receive the blessing from the Lord.

And the book of Acts as we go through this is going to repeat this over and over again. We're going to see the testimony of these men converting these and these converting others. As churches planted, the Word of God going everywhere and people getting converted.

And so the Lord teaches the apostles and then tells them everything I taught you. Now it's your turn to go and convey the information, convey the understanding to the next generation. So we have generation after generation and we are way down here at the bottom.

And I hope we don't lose sight of what was started and just get the idea what it's time to just sit around and lay low until Jesus returns. Now we still have that responsibility. And I believe God gave us the book of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John to show us this, the person of Jesus.

And now He gives us the book of Acts and the letters of the churches to show us how this thing is going to work out and how it's going to move down to the first generation of believers. And so the Gospels give a testimony of the life of Christ and the Acts of the Apostles give us the testimony of the Apostles going forth and now teaching others what they have been taught. And this idea of reproduction, it's beautiful.

All of creation, I taught it in a children's lesson a few weeks ago. One seed turns into 12 seeds, turns into 120 in the upper room seeds, turns into 3,000 seeds, turns into 5,000 seeds in Acts chapter 5 and 6 and this thing just goes and goes and goes just like when you plant one seed you get 100 back, you plant those 100 you get 1,000, you plant those 1,000 you get 1,000,000 and it's just a process of growing and expanding. And the Lord has shown us this in Adam, Adam started out as one couple, Adam and Eve and they blossomed, they reproduced and we had a world full of people and then Noah's day and the flood and then Noah also reproduced and so Christianity at its very core, we're just using the book of Acts, is this is the main seed, this seed turns into this seed, these 12, these 12 to 120, those 120 to 3,000, then to 5,000 and the Bible says multitude.

So the book of Acts is simply a testimony of this happening and we need to be a part of that reproduction is a vision for the church, for church life. Make disciples of all nations, you know nowadays they have these seeds that won't reproduce, we call them hybrid, a lot of Christians are hybrid, they're not reproducing. I encourage you if you have no children in the faith, if you've never led someone to Christ, if you've never discipled and brought children up in the faith, we seem to be good at bringing them up in the physical realm, but children spiritually reproducing yourself in the life of other people, amen, that's the vision for the church.

Well Jesus here gave us this faith once delivered to the saints, Jude talked about, the faith once delivered, it was only once delivered, it's only going to be once delivered and it's passed down from generation to generation, it's supposed to be spread throughout the globe, throughout the world, go and bring forth. Well there's a concept here that I also want to share with you and this is a foundational concept, I noticed this a number of years ago that about every seven chapters there's a statement made in the book of Acts and if you follow the understanding of that statement, you'll see what is happening here in this entire book and I'd like to look at that statement, it's made in three little different ways, but in Acts chapter 6, let's turn there and this is kind of a story line of what is happening, the word of God has been given to these apostles, the spirit of God has been given to them on the day of Pentecost and they were told to go and to sow seed and to spread the word of God everywhere and so in Acts chapter 6, starting in verse number 7, one verse here it says, and the word of God increased, the word of God increased and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly and so this idea of the word of God increasing, that doesn't mean that the Bible got bigger, it means that the word of God was spreading, it was going to more hearts, it was filling hearts, the word of God was moving and I tell you what, when the word of God goes forth, the devil doesn't like it and you find in the book of Acts his opposition to the word of God, but the word of God is growing, it is moving forward, now jump ahead about seven more verses and these are equally spaced here in Acts chapter 12, we're adding a little bit here in Acts chapter 12, in verse 24 it says, but the word of God grew and multiplied, now we're not only growing but now we're multiplying, in other words it's moving from 1 to 2, now to 2 to 4, to 4 to 8, it's multiplying, it's, you know how it is, it's kind of spreading and those people are spreading it and those people are spreading it so it goes from 2 to 4, to 8, to 16, to 32, to 64, to 128 and it's up into the thousands now and it's going to be into the millions pretty soon, it's multiplying, that's what the testimony of the book of Acts is, these people are out spreading it and it's growing, now it's multiplying. Now let's look at another one in Acts chapter 19, verse 27 more chapters, something else is equally situated here in the book of Acts, verse 20 of Acts 19, so mightily grew the word of God and prevailed, so mightily grew it and so you have this idea of the word of God going forth and a church on the move, brothers we're talking about a church engaged here, someone's planning a conference, church engaged, I told this brother that came and wanted to share with me about this church engaged movement and what they're going to have and I said listen, if you don't deal with this idea of church engaged, this is the church engaged, this is the church on the move, this is the church taking the word of God everywhere, so the book of Acts is a testimony and this book of Acts, if you want to sum it up, is a testimony of God saying okay, apostles, here's what I've taught you, now you go and teach others and let's multiply this thing and I'm going to give you the Holy Spirit of God, we'll see this in a minute and I'm going to empower you to get the job done, but you're going to have a war, you're going to have a battle on your hands because there's an enemy that's going to stop you at every place and he's going to try to shut you down and kill you and I'm going to show you here, we're going to get it done and if you read the book of Acts in that light, God is spreading his word throughout the entire earth, he's sowing the seed and these men are filled with the spirit, powerful, bold, they're getting it done, women, men and the devil is fighting them tooth and nail, trying to stop it.

Well this expansion is a great concern for the devil and the reason why it is is because the word of God has the power to save souls, the gospel is the power of God and the salvation and the devil knows that. The word of God has the ability to sanctify those who are saved, the word of God is a sanctifier, sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth, the word of God has the potential of delivering his captives, his slaves and stealing them from his kingdom and you know we may not think it's important but the devil, he loves his slaves, he wants to keep them and he loves to damn people, he wants to destroy, he's come to steal, kill and destroy and so he is warring against this word of God spreading throughout the entire world and it's a fight and that's why I've said many, many times here in this pulpit, if you're not out preaching the gospel and sharing the word of God, you'll never face opposition from the devil in this regard because you just sit quietly, he doesn't mind you, he doesn't mind you at all. I mean he sure would like to come and damn you and deceive you and cause you one person to be put in hell but if you're not out stealing his children and causing him trouble and his kingdom trouble, you're probably not going to face much opposition and that's the story of the Bible.

So the devil fights and you can see it here, look at Acts, I'm going to have you look at a number of verses here in the book of Acts, we're laying a foundation here in Acts chapter 4 verse 17, this thing just gets started and you know the opposition that starts coming their way. In Acts chapter 4 verse 17, then the high priest, he's a lost individual, rose up and all they that were with him, which is the sect of the Sadducees and were filled with indignation and laid their hands on the apostles and put them in a common prison but the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors and brought them forth. I love this warfare, you know you go behind the scenes in the spiritual realm and you've got the devil stirring up these lost authorities to stop this thing and you people rise up and shut it down and so they shut it down and put them in prison and the Lord says, hey angels, go down and open it up and let these people get out again and start preaching and guess what the angel here says in verse 19, but the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors and brought them forth and said, go and now live a peaceable life and do your own thing.

Now he didn't say this, he said, go, stand and speak in the temple of the people all the words of this life. In other words, get back out there and get to work. And I like how it says it, and when they had heard this they entered into the temple early in the morning.

They got the message pretty good. They had set their alarm for early. And they got out there and started to go at it again.

The devil said, we'll stop them. We're going to stop them. I'm not going to let the Word of God get out of Jerusalem.

It's not going to work. Well, look at Acts chapter 5 and this battle is going on. It's behind the scenes and it's going on today.

Verse 17, then the high priest, excuse me, I'm sorry, I skipped Acts chapter 4. Look at Acts chapter 4 verse 17. This is where it started off. First of all, verse 17, but it spread no further among the people.

Let us straightly threaten them that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. And they called them and commended them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said unto them, whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than to God, judge ye, for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.

So when they had further threatened them, they let them go. They're threatening them. And again, they didn't listen.

They went out and preached and then they got put in jail. And then the angel comes and opens the door. How about this? Look at Acts 5 and verse 28.

They get them again. Verse 28, they say, did not we straightly command you that you should not teach in this name? And behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine. Again, Peter says in verse 29, we ought to obey God rather than men.

So you think of the book of Acts, you think of this clash between light and darkness. You have the Lord saying, let your light shine. Go forth and get the Word of God everywhere.

And the devil says, nothing doing. We're stopping it. So this clash occurs.

And as you read this whole book, we're going to go through, you're going to see this clash, continual clash between men who are filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking the Word of God boldly, and the opposition trying to silence them to the point of martyring them. And yet in the midst of it, people are getting converted and the church is growing and blossoming over the blood of the martyrs and the saints. You want to have a revived church? Get this vision.

You want to have purpose in life? Get the vision. Get this vision. Christianity is not, I get saved so I don't go to hell and I come to church on Sundays every once in a while and hear a sermon.

That's form. That's form. And it's going to leave you in a frustration because I read my Bible and I see this great movement and I just don't experience it.

So let's consider as we go through the book of Acts this battle. Jerusalem here is at the center. I call it the epicenter of this struggle and it's going to spread out to the ends of the earth.

The gospel of the kingdom must be preached in all the world. The epicenter is Jerusalem and the fight starts there and moves outward. So the book of Acts in essence is a testimony of the power of the Holy Spirit of God thrusting people out to spread the Word of God and the devil's attempt to stop it.

That's the book of Acts. I'm not sure. Well you know Satan's work and I don't have to go into detail here.

We're going to get to Acts 1.1 here in just a minute. But Satan's work, 1 Corinthians says, he's come to blind the minds of them that believe not the gospel. Blind them.

How can we blind? We can't stop these preachers. Let's try to blind the mind of the people. Something else, we can't stop them.

They get saved and they form groups. We'll sow tares amongst the wheat. I mean as they go forth and sow it, if we can't stop people getting converted, we'll come in behind them and as the parable says, we'll sow tares amongst the wheat and try to discourage them, try to frustrate them.

Or we'll just kick them off. Kick them off. We'll put the church to sleep.

Oh there's a lot of that going on. We'll bring in doctrines like preaching the gospel is only for the evangelist. We'll bring in doctrines like that New Testament Acts stuff is only for back there in that generation.

We'll convince the church it's not for them. That's what we'll do. We'll put them to sleep.

Right? So he's working at all fronts to try to stop conversion and the growth of God's people. I've said this many times. It's worth repeating.

God never intended us to form some closed community. Close ourselves in. He wants us to be a vibrant community that reaches out.

We're not to be afraid. Fear is not a good thing. To be afraid.

We're afraid of the world. Not to be afraid of it. We're to be challenging it and confronting it.

We're not running from it. You know in the Old Testament when the children of Israel ran from the world? That was not a good sign. When they ran in Ai, they ran from the enemies.

When they were on the run, do you know why they were on the run? Because there was spin in the camp. And they ran. But I tell you what, when God's people had the fullness of God's blessing, they sent Moses down and they knocked the major ruler of the world, knocked him right over.

Took Egypt down. Babylon. These places, you know, the Roman Empire.

So God's people, when they're running, it's not a good sign. When they're bold, it's a good sign. Fearless, it's a good sign.

So when you look at it, this wicked world, it's not time to run and hide. So let's start here in Acts chapter 1. I give you a little foundation as we go through this book. We're going to go down through verse 8, take maybe a little bit more time this morning, but I'll try to go over it briefly.

Starting in verse number 1, it says, The former treaties have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach. Now this book was written by Luke. I'll show you that here in just a minute.

Luke writes this Acts of the Apostles to an individual. It's a historical document and this individual's name is Theophilus. I did a little research.

Theophilus is not someone that you find in the Bible, only one other place, but he is a character that we don't have much information about. Some people believe he's a high up Roman authority. Some people believe he's a high up Jewish authority.

But one thing we know is from his name, Theophilo. Theophilo, you Greek students, you know what that means? God love, an affection for God, an affection for the Lord. And so Luke is writing to this individual and he says, The former treaties have I made.

That's his gospel. The gospel of Luke he made to show you Jesus, what he was teaching and what he was doing. I wrote the gospel of Luke to show you this person right here, Theophilus.

Now I'm going to write you another treaty. This is the Acts of the Apostles. We're going to look here at what happens when the apostles take this knowledge and information and the power of the Spirit and go out and share it with boldness.

So he is writing to Theophilus. Now I'm going to read to you the first few verses of the book of Luke. And Theophilus is mentioned here in Luke chapter 1. Listen as I read.

Verse 1, For as much as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things, from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, that thou mightest know the certainty of these things wherein thou hast been instructed. So this Theophilus, Luke is writing to him. He has written him twice.

Luke's gospel was to tell him about Jesus and all that he did. And then he wrote again the Acts of the Apostles to show here's what these guys did after Jesus sent them forth. And so this Theophilus must have been someone who loved the Lord.

Maybe he was converted. And Luke has a desire to share these things with him. Alright let's keep reading here in Acts chapter 1 verse number 3. To whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

He's talking about this period of time forty days after Jesus' resurrection and before his ascension that he showed himself. I like that word passion. That means the Lord had a real desire, a passion, to show His people that He's alive.

And by the way that's important because our gospel requires a resurrection. You have to have a resurrection. You have to have a risen Christ.

Paul said it this way, if Christ be not raised, our faith is vain. Isn't that right? And so why go out and preach or why be bold in a faith that's vain? So one of the most important things that Jesus did was after His resurrection. I want to show these people, many witnesses, I'm real.

And I've raised from the dead. And Luke is one who has this account of actually seeing. And so some of you young people need to realize that this Bible is a testimony.

You can go back. I saw documents that Valerie and I and my wife and a few of the young ladies went up to a museum there in Washington D.C. Documents that date back to the late 100's and early 200's. Actual documents where the Bible is written down.

And so these individuals actually wrote things and those things were preserved on the same scrolls, documents. I saw Jesus with my own eyes. He's alive.

And many have seen Him. Many of my friends have seen Him. And that's important.

So Jesus spends 40 days. He shows Himself to many individuals. Now you say, why didn't the Lord just kind of show Himself to everybody in the world? The same reason doesn't do that now.

You know, the Lord could just show, write the Gospel in the sky, you know, and just get the Gospel everywhere and everybody would see it. He doesn't do it that way. Only those who hunger and thirst after Him, He's going to show them, right? Seek the Lord that you might find Him.

So the Lord wants to show them His resurrection. Let me read to you that He was seen, Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 15, He was seen of Cephas unto the twelve. After that He was seen of about 500 brethren.

There was at least 500 people saw Jesus alive after His resurrection. Of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. Even back in Paul's day, he could say, hey, do you know Joe Smith over there? If you don't believe Jesus was alive and you don't believe my word, go talk to Joe Smith, Tom Doe, you know, all these names.

There's some people still alive. They'll tell you. They saw Him.

After that He was seen of James unto the apostles. Last of all He was seen of me also. I saw Him on the road to Damascus.

Boy, that was amazing. And so here in Acts chapter 1, the Lord is taking the time to show people that He is truly resurrected. It was His passion that people understood, I'm resurrected.

Verse 4, And being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith He, You have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. Now they have a mission, and that mission is going to begin here in Jerusalem.

And the Lord says, now I want you to stay here. It's the epicenter. We're going to start here, and I want you to wait for something.

I got a blessing for you. You know, Peter, you just, what, 30, 40, 50 days ago, you just denied me when a little damsel accused you of being a part of me. You know, you lost your courage.

I got some good news for you, Peter. I'm going to give you the Holy Spirit of God. You're going to be a bold man.

You're going to be bold. You need that, Peter, because they're going to come after you. They're going to threaten your life.

They're going to put you in prison. They're going to chain you, and you're going to shrink back in fear, but you need some boldness. I want you to tarry here, because I'm going to give you all that you need.

The promise of the Father, He says, which you have heard of Me. And of course, let's just go back to the Gospel of John, and I shared with you the connection, the day of Pentecost, the connection between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is going to connect you to Me, and you're going to be bold.

I mean, it's one thing to have Jesus in your hand when the enemy comes and He's standing right beside you. I can be bold if He's standing physically right beside me. Any enemy.

But it's another thing if He's in me. I can be bold too. And so He's telling them that you need to tarry in Jerusalem.

The promise of the Father is coming. Acts chapter 2 verse 32, not very far if you want to turn there. This Jesus hath God raised up whereof we are all witnesses, therefore being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this.

So this is after the day of Pentecost. This is what Jesus is talking about, the promise of the Father. Verse 5 says, for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.

Now, I believe in immersion. I believe John would take someone down into the Jordan and baptize them. You know, like we do.

Immersed. Underneath. Jesus said the same way John baptized people with water, you're going to be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.

Now let's look at what happened on the day they were baptized with the Holy Ghost. Look over to Acts chapter 2 here in verse number 1. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place. Here's a baptism.

And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting. Now let's just take that for an example. If we're sitting here in this room and the Holy Ghost comes and fills the whole house.

And you and I are going to be immersed in Him. You better believe we're going to be immersed. We're everywhere.

We're underneath it. We're immersed in the Spirit of God. I'm going to baptize you in the Spirit.

Verse 3, and there appeared unto them clove and tongues like as a fire and it set upon each of them and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. It filled the house and it filled each one of them. So in a sense just like John baptized with water, they were immersed in the Holy Spirit.

So this outpouring came on the day of Pentecost and I've shared this many times, but they didn't pray this down. Now people say let's go and have a Pentecostal prayer meeting. This came because it was God's will, His plan.

You see 50 days after they slaughtered the lamb in the Old Testament, 50 days they came to the Mount Sinai. 50 days they came to Mount Sinai. God came down on the mountain and He wrote the law in tables of stone.

50 days after the true Messiah was crucified, God came down again. He came down on the day of Pentecost and He didn't write it in tables of stone. Where did He write it? Tables of their heart.

He wrote it in the New Covenant in the tables of their heart. So this was 50 days after Passover, the true Passover. So the Lord says short while and they probably didn't understand this.

They didn't know what day it was coming, but in a short while He says you're going to be baptized with the Holy Spirit of God. Of course that filling had a purpose. That filling was to give them the ability to speak boldly in the name of the Lord and to prophesy.

I know that when they spoke in tongues and they prophesied that people said what is this? What is going on here? They heard people speaking in all kinds of languages and Peter tells them here's what it is. God is filling them up and they're prophesying and they're speaking forth the will of God. I was looking at a video just yesterday on YouTube of a video.

I was just scrolling down through and I saw this video, Pentecostal experience. And it showed this little church probably half the size of us. Pentecostal and I see what the Pentecostal experience really is.

And they had a bunch of instruments and they just started doing this and pretty soon people were jumping around and then all of a sudden they were shouting and they were running around and then some of them were falling on the floor. I said this is just what we did in the bars when we played the rock and roll. We did this whole thing.

And I was waiting for Pentecostal power. I was waiting for something that was a healing or a blessing of some sort. But that never came.

Look at Acts chapter 1 verse 8. But you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. We're going to look at that verse here in a minute, but this is why the power came. The power came to make them a witness.

Verse 6, this is interesting. When they therefore were come together, they asked of Him saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? The question they had. And He said unto them, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in His own power.

Now the Israelites and the apostles especially, they had a desire for a Messiah. They had a desire for a earthly kingdom. You know, they went back and read Daniel.

They saw that mountain that was cut out without hands or that stone cut out without hands from a mountain and it crushed that image which represents the kingdoms, world kingdoms throughout history. And then that stone became a great mountain. And in their mind they thought the Messiah was coming to establish an earthly kingdom that would stand forever.

They were looking for that. And it's still upon their hearts. There's another prophecy that was very familiar amongst the Jews in Jesus' day.

It was a messianic prophecy and they had a lot of hope in this one. Speaking here to David, God made a promise to David, and when thy days be fulfilled and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee which shall proceed out of thy bowels and I will establish His kingdom. He shall build a house for My name and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever.

And so in their mind they thought the Messiah was going to establish an earthly kingdom and remove the Romans and set up Israel as the great nation on the planet. And this kingdom would last forever. So they're still troubled.

Are you going to at this time then establish your kingdom? But again, they had an earthly kingdom in mind and Jesus had something else in mind. And what they failed to do, they failed to see that the Messiah must first suffer, right? That the Messiah must first suffer for the sins of the people before establishing His kingdom. And they missed Isaiah 53, He was wounded for our transgressions.

I've read this verse a number of times, but I want to read to you what the, these are some of the disciples, maybe some of the apostles, just briefly here in Luke's account, Luke 24 on the road to Emmaus. What they say to this traveler that comes up beside them, it was Jesus. They didn't know it.

They said this to Jesus. This is after the crucifixion. Luke 24 verse 18, and one of them whose name was Cleopas answering and said unto him, aren't thou only a stranger in Jerusalem and hast thou not known the things which are come to pass there in these days? And Jesus said unto them, what things? And they said unto him concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which is a prophet mighty indeed in word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death and have crucified Him.

And here's the important part, but we trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel. We were thinking this. We were thinking of an eternal physical kingdom.

We didn't realize that Jesus would first have to suffer. He would establish an inner kingdom. And then after He offered that inner kingdom to all men, He would then come and rule with a rod of iron and establish an earthly kingdom.

By the way, that's the way God works. How many of you are saved here this morning? How many of you have the Holy Spirit in your heart? How many of you have a new redeemed body? No hands went up for that one. So we are saved.

We have the Holy Spirit. We're a part of the kingdom internally, but we're still waiting for the physical manifestation. We're still waiting for God to change and do the last part, change this body.

The very same way the kingdom of God starts within men. The Pharisees said, Lord, show us, when is the kingdom of God going to come? He says, you know, it's not going to come by observation. It's not going to say, lo here, lo there.

The kingdom of God begins on the inside. And if you want to be a part of the kingdom of God, you must be born again. You start there as Brother David said.

You start at the gate. You start by coming and humbling yourself and acknowledging your sinful condition and asking God to save you according to His mercy. And then you get the kingdom of God in you.

So you're waiting for the redemption of your body. So the Israelites skipped that part. They skipped the suffering of the Messiah.

They skipped the atonement for sin and they just wanted to run to the reigning part. Remember the night of the Lord's Supper, they're fighting with each other about who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom. They had this thing all figured out.

Well, here's something I've shared before, and I think it's something we need to really be cautious of, and that is selective reading of the Scripture. The Jews read the reigning part and they memorized it and they loved it and they preached it. The suffering part, they didn't talk about.

And the people were out of balance. The people were, in a sense, they were believing a heresy and they missed the true Christ because of selective reading of the Scripture. And that's a problem with humanity.

We tend to come and exalt Scripture that we like and we put aside Scripture that we don't. We tend to exalt to reign with Christ, but this suffering stuff, let's not talk about it. And we get a perverted view of the Bible because we're selective.

Better for you to just come and say, Lord, it doesn't matter. Whatever it is, I'll just accept it and just read it and do it. So I want to encourage you in this, an earthly kingdom is coming and all these authorities and rulers are going to be taken down.

But the spiritual kingdom comes first. And if you've not entered in the kingdom of God yet, you need to because one day the King is coming and when that happens, there's no more opportunity to get into the kingdom. So you need to have Him as King in your heart and say, Lord, I'm nothing.

I want you to save me. The kingdom of God comes not with observation, neither shall they say to lo here or lo there, for the kingdom of God is within you. And praise God, the seventh trumpet one day, the kingdoms of this world are going to become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.

So from the day of Pentecost until the second coming of Christ, there is this window of opportunity. And that's why Jesus said, go out and invite them to come into the wedding. Come in, come in, come in.

Some of you haven't been invited to some weddings you wish you would have been invited to. This one you're invited to. The Bible says to invite the poor, the lame, the halt, everybody.

So there's an invitation. You're invited to a wedding. And someday there's going to be a cry.

The bridegroom is coming. Go ye out into the wedding. And all those who are ready are going to be taken up to meet the Lord in the air.

And those who are not ready, the foolish ones, are going to start saying, whoa, we better go get some oil. And our lambs are going to run to the door. Let us in.

We got some oil now. And He's going to say, I don't know where you are. Well, too late, right? So we have an opportunity to enter in.

The Lord is coming. And these disciples here, they had that question, is it going to be then? Notice how the Lord answers their question here in Acts chapter 1, verse 7. And He said unto them, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in His own power. And we don't know it even to this day.

As a matter of fact, Jesus said, I don't even know the day, the Father only, when the end will come, and I'll return for my bride. It's not for you to know the times or the seasons. And the next verse says, but, okay, fellas, listen, that's in the future, but, look at verse 8, you shall receive power.

After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. I am going, here's what you need to focus on, that kingdom out there, fine, it will get to it. It's not for you to know when, it'll come.

But, you have a responsibility, I'm going to give you power, and you are going to be my witnesses. And that's what you need to focus on. You shall receive power.

You, in the meantime, have a job to do. So, the Holy Ghost is given in large part here, Jesus says, for power to witness. The word power here comes from the Greek word dunamis, where we get our word dynamite.

We ought to be explosive people. Amen? Explosive. Dunamis.

The power to be bold in the face of opposition. This is what the Lord is offering them. Can you imagine? He, in His heart, okay, these twelve, they're going to go out, and they're going to spread my word all over Jerusalem, and they're going to get beat.

They're going to get threatened, chained. One of them is going to get martyred. They're going to face it, but I'm going to give them what they need.

God always does that, doesn't He? Gives us a task, and He gives us what we need to accomplish that task. And so, this power was given to them to face the opposition that they're about to face. The devil is a power.

He does threaten. Well, look at some of these familiar verses. Look with me to Acts chapter 4, and I'm getting close to the end here.

Acts chapter 4, verse 31. Well, let's go back to verse 29. I'm trying to stay right here in the book of Acts.

Acts 4, 29. Now behold their threatenings. Here's the devil stirring people up to threaten them, to stop them.

And grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word. God, give us the power of the Spirit of God to speak boldly, to respond to the threatening. By stretching forth thine hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.

And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together. They were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the Word of God with boldness. You just see this war going on.

Talk about wrestling, principalities. You've got the dark side trying to squelch the Word of God. You've got God giving them the power and the grace to get it out.

And the squelching, the getting it out. And this war. By the way, this war is still going on as fierce today as it was back then.

As fierce today. You go into that refugee camp and just stand up and preach Jesus, I guarantee you they're going to run you out of town. Yeah, they'll run you out of town.

And so it's a war. And so I believe rather than list as many warriors, I mean warriors, you say, well this, Brother David said, this life is easy. You're on the wrong track here.

Wait a minute. You're on the wrong track. You know, Paul made an interesting statement.

He said, if in this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. You ever thought about that? If in this life we have hope in Christ. In other words, if Christianity just made your life here a better life, we are of all men most miserable.

Why didn't he say, well that would at least be good. We'd have a good life here. What he meant is this.

If in this life we have hope in Christ, that's all we have. We're of all men most miserable because we're getting beaten. We're getting in prison.

We're suffering on a regular basis. Why would I preach Jesus if in this life I have to face this? And yet most people have a Christian life. It's easy.

Let's figure that one out. You shall receive power. Look at Acts.

One more verse here. Acts 4 verse 13. My Bible is torn here, so I don't have some of this verse.

Maybe you can read it if I forget what these verses say here. In Acts 4 verse 13, Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, I'm going to say they marveled, and they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. You know what? They saw that boldness.

And they said, Jesus is with them and around them. And they've been with him. Now that tells you what kind of person Jesus was, wasn't it? He's bold.

Bold. Bible says, or those who listen to him speak said, no man speak like this. This is different.

He speaks as one having authority and not as a scribe. Do you know what that means? He spoke believing what he spoke, what he said. He spoke with authority.

He had God's favor behind him. Now, one last thing I want to leave with you here in Acts chapter 1, and this is important. It says here in verse 8, But you shall receive power.

After that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me. Now, Brother Cleats' family knows that this word is the word martus, or martyr. And it comes from the word martyr.

And actually if you look it up, and I looked it up this morning, if you look it up in your concordance, it means this. One who bears witness by his death. Wow.

One who bears witness by his death. You're going to be, you're going to get power, but you're going to be a bearer of witness through your death. Now, I don't believe that means everybody's going to die because not everybody did die, but it does mean that you're going to bear about in your body the dying of the Lord Jesus.

And you're going to lose your life for my sake in the gospel. But everyone here you shall be witnesses, it says. And that's the word martyr.

By the way, 11 of the 12 disciples were martyred from history. And let me just make this announcement. If this is not the kind of Christianity that you're interested in, you might as well go ahead and leave because we're going to be next year talking about these examples.

This book of Acts is filled with preaching and suffering. Preaching and suffering. Building the church.

Preaching and suffering. But you're going to be frustrated. This lets you know ahead of time.

So this witness has some suffering associated with it. I've said this for many years. Suffering and martyrdom is always brought on by witness.

If you go back through history, if you go through the Bible, they suffered because of their witness. As a matter of fact, they told them, if you'll not speak or teach anymore in this name, if you'll just be quiet, form a little community over here, keep to yourself, we'll leave you alone. The devil will leave you alone.

Just let you have your little community and it's fine. Just don't talk anymore in that name. And if you do, you're going to prison.

If you do, we'll take your head off. Stephen was an example of that. James was an example of that.

Stephen rebuked those leaders. He actually preached a long sermon to them. And he rebuked them.

And he lost his life. And the martyrs throughout the book of Acts lost their lives. Peter was stoned on a pile of stones because he was witnessed.

Look at Acts chapter 4. I told you that was the last verse. This is the one more here. Acts chapter 4 verse 17.

I think we read this verse already. But that it spread no further among the people, let us straightly threaten them that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. And they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.

Now think about this. Jesus had just told them 50 days before, 100 days before to go and speak. And these people say, don't speak.

Who are they going to obey? You know, Brother Cleat and I, we've talked about this. He was over there in Serbia. But, you know, what we need is the courage for this.

A lot of countries say, you can't speak. Sorry. You can't come to this camp and speak.

Sorry. The law says you can't speak. Well, actually, it's a greater law than your law, by the way.

And Peter says it, I'm sorry, but we ought to obey God rather than men. And I believe in obeying authority, but not when authority goes directly against the king of kings, the great authority. I don't know of any situation where someone says, you can't preach Jesus here where we should say, okay, okay, we won't.

I don't think God says, oh, that's a good decision. You said no. So as the Lord looks at the task that He gives His people, He knows the opposition is great.

He knows our need of power. So He is going to supply it. This is something beautiful.

If you want to join in with it, it's fine. If not, fine. Jesus came to this earth.

He suffered in His body. He died for our sins. You and I, the body of Christ now, we take the message to the world and we suffer for it.

We follow His example. He didn't come here and die for our sins and then go and preach to everybody and suffer. He suffered for our sins and He left us the delivery of the message and in that we are going to suffer and follow His example.

And in that way you follow Jesus. And I'll just close with this. Eli's not here, but he often comes up here and he says, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.

And much of what is happening in church life is we simply are following the form. Form, you know, the mold is be a member of a church, be quiet, go about life, you know. Converts? Don't have any.

Making disciples? Nothing, I don't know anything about that. Go on through life, have the kids, have the grandkids, enjoy life. Not suffer, very little.

That's form. That's the form. And you know what? Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof, there will be very little power in that existence.

Would you agree with me on that? You shall receive power to be a martyr. You receive no power to save your life. And so I speak that from need myself.

And I know some of you have those very same needs, but just to let you know that we're going to be talking a lot about people who are going forth preaching and suffering. The book of Acts is filled with it. And so how do you work through those things? How to balance those things out? We have families, we have needs, but as Brother Cleet shared this morning, I think it's so true, and I give a testimony here, but how many of us really need to live the standard of living that we live? And have to work as much as we do, making money, right? And most of the world lives very simple.

We have such a high standard, it makes us have to spend so much time keeping up with the bills, when life could be much simpler. And we could set priority with taking the Word of God to the nations. God bless our brother here going to Serbia and different others who have gone out.

We need to take the Word to the nations. And I've found if I can't do it here, I won't do it there either. So young people, if you want to get involved in a real war, some of you like to take those guns and go out and shoot.

You know, they enlist in the military, and hey, this is great, let's do it. Well, let's get into a bigger war. If you want to really get into the grind, get out there in this world and start preaching Jesus, you'll find yourself in a real war.

So let's, with that foundation, let's walk through this book. And we have all the ammunition, we've been memorizing all these verses. We have a lot of seed, so.

And let's make us a fellowship that is reaching out.