Sermon Transcript
The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.
- Opening, and the Two Commissions
- Jesus, Our High Priest and King
- Up and Down: Pentecost
- The Spirit Came Down to Convict and Empower
- So the Church Would Go Out
Opening, and the Two Commissions
Let’s stand one more time, get a morning exercise. We’re going to pray and let the kids go to class. Father, we thank You for our time together today. We do thank You for just those that serve faithfully. We want to honor them and we want to honor Your work in them. We do acknowledge, Lord, that ultimately all the glory goes to You. We thank You for using Diane in so many lives, and we thank You for using Hannah. We know You continue to use them in our midst as well as elsewhere. We just pray that we would be encouraged today, just due to their testimony, to be faithful servants in the different areas You’ve called us to. We ask Your blessing on the Word. We know that, Lord, apart from Your Spirit, we can’t profit from it. So we do ask Your Holy Spirit to lead and guide us. We ask Your anointing on the teachers that instruct our children today. We ask it in Christ’s name, Amen.
All right, open your Bibles to Acts chapter one. No, open your Bibles to Luke 24. We’re going to read two passages which are linked together. Now, you know what next Sunday is? Everybody know? Pentecost. What happened at Pentecost? The Holy Ghost came down. Amen. Well, we have a unique service with a baptism and dedication and ordination and celebration and all these other “-tions” we’re going to do on that day. So I do want to talk today really about Pentecost and what happened that day. But it really begins in Luke 24.
Luke 24. You know, who wrote the book of Luke? This isn’t a trick, come on. Luke, right? All right, just kind of get you guys awake, you know. All right, who wrote the book of Acts? Luke. Luke, right. So we got Luke 1 and Luke 2, right? Or Acts 1 and Acts 2, depending on how you look at it. So here in Luke, we get a version of what’s called the Great Commission. The Great Commission is usually the text in Matthew 28, “Go ye therefore” and all that, you know, make disciples. That’s called the Great Commission, but there are actually five versions of the Great Commission. One in each Gospel and then one in Acts. So Luke wrote the one in Luke and Luke wrote the one in Acts. So we’re going to look at both of the commissions, and I think they’re really the same commission but with different details.
Starting in Luke 24, he says, “Then He said to them”—He’s talking to His disciples. This is obviously after His resurrection. “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day”—and now I’m reading the New King James; if you’re reading an ESV or an NIV, it may read a little bit differently. Mine’s the right version. Verse 47: “and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.” And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and He blessed them. And it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen.
My version says amen. See what you’re missing in your version? You’re missing an amen.
Now Acts chapter one, verse one. “The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” Notice he says in verse one he alludes to his Gospel. He alludes to the text we just read. Okay? “In my former account,” which means in what we call the Gospel of Luke. “And being assembled together with them,” verse 4, “He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, ’which,’ He said, ’you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’ Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, ’Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to America?’ Oh wait a minute, Israel. Oh, sorry.” And He said to them—we have Fourth of July coming, right? So, rah rah America. “And He said to them, ’It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me’—or for Me—’in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.’ Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, ’Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.’”
So it says that they returned, they gathered together for prayer. And then we know in Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost, they were all together, verse 1, “of one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues.” [audio unclear]
Jesus, Our High Priest and King
[audio unclear] many over 40 days, He commissions His apostles and disciples. [audio unclear] the presence of God in the whole earth. Why did He go in? Because He was to sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice on what was called the mercy seat in heaven. It was made according to the pattern in heaven, we’re told in the book of Hebrews. So in heaven around the throne, we have seraphim and cherubim, right? And Jesus, the high priest, went into the Holy of Holies. Jesus went into the true Holy of Holies. The one on earth was a copy of the true. Jesus went into the presence of God as both the priest and the offering. Right? He was the Lamb that was slain, but He was also the priest offering His own blood on our behalf. So Jesus went into the presence of God and He sprinkles Jesus’ blood there as an atonement for our sin. And this He did once for all, we’re told. The blood of Jesus covers our sins once for all. So when we take communion, we’re not having another sacrifice of Jesus. There is no more sacrifice for sin, because the atonement for sin was accomplished once and for all by Jesus Christ. So He goes in and He presents His blood before the Father as an atonement for sin, but He doesn’t leave, He stays. And He stays in heaven because He is now there as our interceding high priest.
Look at Hebrews 4. We’re going to look at some different texts, but in Hebrews 4—really, if you want to learn about the priesthood of Jesus, Hebrews is the book, right? So in Hebrews chapter 4, it says in verse 14, “Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.” He’s passed through the heavens. Well, that’s what happened in the book of Acts, right? He was ascended and He went through the heavens all the way into what we call heaven, the presence of God, the Holy of Holies. “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
Go to Hebrews 7. There’s a pattern in Hebrews. It’s to show the superiority of Jesus. He was superior to the angels. He was superior to the priesthood. He was superior. Jesus is superior, amen? The supreme one. He is to have preeminence in all things. In Hebrews 7, he’s comparing Jesus to the priesthood of Melchizedek, then he compared Him to the priesthood of Aaron. The Aaronic—not ironic—the Aaronic priesthood. Verse 23: “Also there were many priests, because they were prevented by death from continuing. But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints the Son who has been perfected forever.”
The offering was made once and for all, but Jesus, being resurrected from the dead and ascended into the Holy of Holies, lives forever in the presence of God to intercede. Forever. This is why in Romans 8 it says, who’s going to condemn you if God justifies you? Who’s going to condemn you if the Son of God not only died for you, but that He lives now and makes intercession for you? So when you sin, you know what happens in heaven? Jesus is there and He presents His blood to the Father for your sins. That’s why in 1 John 2, John says, if we say we have no sin, we basically deceive ourselves, right? Even as believers, yes, we still sin. But what does the believer do with his sin? Does he have to get saved again? No, the believer’s saved. Why? It says, because we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who is the propitiation for our sins. It’s the same blood, the same atonement. Jesus stands by His blood. He pleads His blood for the believer and He ever lives to do that on our behalf. Amen? So, Jesus is our high priest, not only pleading His blood, but also interceding for us, interceding through us, and basically ministering for His church.
But He’s also ascended because He is now reigning as King. He is now reigning as King. Look at—there’s many, many passages. Just go to 1 Corinthians 15 quickly. 1 Corinthians 15. Now you know Acts if you’ve been a Christian for a fair amount of time. Paul is dealing with a problem in the Corinthian church where some in the church, based upon philosophical reasons, were arguing that the notion of a resurrection from the dead was not possible, okay? But they still believed in Jesus. How do you do that? So they’re believing in Jesus, but they were denying the resurrection. So how do you get to that point? Well, you can do things like, well, He was resurrected in spirit, right? And you see this in liberal Christianity. They talk about, they’ll celebrate Easter and they’ll talk about how the resurrection story is symbolic of our future hope and how you get all these life lessons out of it. But the body of Jesus never really came out of the ground. Well, we don’t believe that, do we? No. He literally came out of the ground. He literally ascended. He literally is seated at God’s right hand. And Paul is arguing that if the resurrection wasn’t a literal physical fact, then our faith is in vain. Their preaching is in vain. The whole thing is a charade. He says, we are, of all men, the most miserable—or I love the King James, the most pitiable, the most pitiable. Verse 20: “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.” Jesus ascended—Jesus was first resurrected, then Jesus ascended into heaven, and Paul tells us that He did this so that He must reign in heaven, working to destroy all the enemies of God, and the last enemy to be destroyed is death. So Jesus is now ascended, He’s now serving His church as high priest, He’s now governing the world as the King or the Lord. The word “Lord,” by the way, in the New Testament is often not a religious word. It’s a word that we would say like a ruler. He’s the ruler of rulers, amen? The Lord of lords.
Up and Down: Pentecost
So, what does this have to do with Pentecost? Well, in order for the Spirit to come down, Jesus had to go up. And the two are intimately connected. Now go back to Acts where we started, except this time not Acts 1, go to Acts 2. So in Acts 2, the Holy Spirit is given to the church. There’s these physical manifestations, these visual manifestations of divided tongues. There’s a manifestation of them speaking in tongues. And people are going, wow, what is going on? And Peter stands up and he says in verse 15, “For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ’And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath: blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’”
So he quotes Joel, in other words, saying that what you’re seeing happening is a literal fulfillment of a prophecy given hundreds of years ago in Joel. And then he goes on and he explains this. And he explains the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus. Jesus going up with the Spirit’s coming down. He says this—I don’t want to read the whole thing because of time, but in verse 32 of chapter 2: “This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself: ’The Lord said to my Lord, ”Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool.“’ Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
So what Peter is saying is that what they were observing at Pentecost with the descent of the Holy Spirit was a physical public manifestation of what was happening in heaven. It was a proof, if you will, or a demonstration. So when Jesus was ascended into heaven and He was seated at the right hand of the Father, Jesus was anointed by the Father. Say, well that sounds weird. Well, you have to understand when you read the Old Testament, you see that both priests and kings were anointed in a public ceremony. Okay, we’ll just look at one text. So in Leviticus 8, this is where we have the Old Testament priesthood being established, where the Lord Jehovah is laying out guidelines. In Exodus He tells them how to build a tabernacle, then in Leviticus He explains the sacrificial system that He’s setting up, the priesthood, the garments, all of these things that He wanted them to observe. Why? Because all of these things ultimately speak of Christ and His work. And they were important to be observed according to the pattern in heaven because they spoke of Christ. So here in chapter 8 we have the consecration or the anointing of Aaron and his sons. Look at verse 10: “Also Moses took the anointing oil, and anointed the tabernacle and all that was in it, and consecrated them. He sprinkled some of it on the altar seven times, anointed the altar and all its utensils, and the laver and its base, to consecrate them. And he poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron’s head and anointed him, to consecrate him.” Aaron was a high priest and Aaron was anointed with a special oil. If you read—we won’t take the time, but you read in Scripture a certain recipe for this oil that God specified, and this oil was to be used only on the anointing in the temple and on the priest. So Aaron is anointed.
Now go to Psalm 133. You’re going to love this. Psalm 133. It says in verse 1, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” What is it like? Look: “It is like the precious oil upon the head, running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down on the edge of his garments.” He’s saying that in God’s sight, when His people are united, it’s so precious to Him that it’s like this consecrating oil that was poured on Aaron when he was consecrated as a priest. Poured on his head. So much poured on his head that it ran all the way down his beard. Oil poured on—not even down his beard, it ran down his garment. All the way to his garment. That’s a lot of oil. Am I right? That’s a lot of oil. The oil that was poured on Aaron’s head covered his body. You hear me? The oil anointing on Aaron came down not only on Aaron’s head, it came down on Aaron’s body. The same is true of Jesus Christ. The anointing on Jesus Christ, who is the Head, came not only on Jesus Christ, it came on His body. Pentecost is the public manifestation of the consecration of Jesus in heaven. And when God poured the Spirit on Jesus, that Spirit flowed on the Head and it flowed on His body. Glorious thing. It’s a glorious thing. So being part of, being connected to the Head, we receive that anointing of Jesus. Although He is the high priest, we are priests, right? Yes we are. Scripture tells us we’re priests. We are priests unto our God. And so we have to be consecrated too, right? And we’re consecrated through that anointing oil that was poured out first on the high priest.
So Jesus had to go up into heaven to make the presentation of His atonement, to take His place as King, to take His place as the high priest, but after Jesus went up, then the Spirit came down. And Pentecost was the public manifestation of the coronation of Jesus Christ as King and high priest. Jesus received the Holy Spirit from God, and He now pours His Spirit on His church. Amen?
The Spirit Came Down to Convict and Empower
Why did He give us the Holy Spirit? Well, when you read the Bible there are many, many ministries of the Holy Spirit, and we don’t have time to go into it now. I’ll just mention a few. Clearly the Holy Spirit is the one who regenerates or gives the new birth to a person, right? If you read John 3, Jesus talks about the Spirit blowing where it wills, right? He says a man must be born again, meaning by that Spirit. The Spirit must grant the new birth. The Spirit baptizes us into the body of Christ, 1 Corinthians 12, where we become one with the body and thus one with the Head. In Ephesians 1, we’re told that the Holy Spirit seals us with the seal of ownership, that God owns us and God will then reclaim us in the last day. The Holy Spirit illuminates truth. He reveals Jesus to us, amen? However, as it pertains to the individual, not the church at large, but the individual, the work of the Holy Spirit begins with His convicting work. His convicting work.
Look at John 16. I know we’re jumping around, I hope you don’t mind. We’ll go through a few verses in 15, then we’ll look at 16. Verse 15:26, Jesus is telling the disciples to abide in Him that they would bear fruit. He’s saying the world’s going to hate you because they hated Me. Then He says in verse 26, “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.” Then He says in verse 7 of chapter 16, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away”—meaning that I go up. “For if I do not go away, the Helper will not come” down. I go up, Spirit comes down. “But if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come,” what is He going to do? “He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.”
Now, the Holy Spirit has many ministries, as I’ve already mentioned, but as it pertains to the individual soul, it must begin here. The Spirit is sent by Jesus, not just so we can have fun on Sunday mornings. Now, well, I’ll get to that in a minute. It must begin with the conviction of the Spirit. When we are called to fulfill the Great Commission, which we are, this is a task which is humanly impossible. Now you can go to work tomorrow—well, no you can’t, because it’s Memorial Day. Okay, you can go to work Tuesday and you can share the gospel with the person next to you. But if the Holy Spirit is not convicting them, your work is in vain. It’s utterly in vain. Anytime I stand up here to open the Word, if the Holy Spirit is not speaking to you, I’m wasting my time. It doesn’t matter how great a preacher is. If the Holy Spirit is not working, the work’s in vain. Right?
I remember reading Spurgeon recently, and he said—I made sure of this because I’ve read it before, but, you know, I think of Spurgeon and I think of, like, you know, the man, you know what I mean? The man. If you haven’t read any of his sermons, read some of the sermons, then you’ll never—like, you won’t want to hear me preach again ever, because he’s like the man. And I remember reading where he said that the most important meeting in his church is the prayer meeting. The prayer meeting. And it relates to this story. Now Spurgeon, if you don’t know, when he was like 17, was preaching to 25,000 people a week. He had the anointing, you know what I’m saying? He led hundreds of thousands to Christ. They printed his sermons, they sent them around the world, and people read them and got saved. It’s amazing, okay? And he said that in spite of all the great things God was doing through his preaching ministry, he said, there are places that I go to and I can’t preach. I mean, I can preach, but I can’t preach. He says the atmosphere is so cold, it’s like preaching in an icebox, he said, because the people don’t pray. That’s what he said. And it, of course, makes you think in Mark 6, where Jesus—I mean, you talk about, if anybody has the anointing, it’s Jesus, right? The Christ—Christ means anointed. He’s got the anointing. Jesus, it says in Mark, well, and He couldn’t do much work there because of their unbelief. I don’t understand it, but the connection with God’s sovereign activity and man’s will—but clearly we can hinder God. And so Spurgeon says there’s places he’d go to preach and he couldn’t do any good, because the people didn’t pray. And he claimed that the success of his ministry, his preaching ministry, was in the fact that he had a praying people. He had a praying people. He said people pray, they pray in faith, they come believing God will speak to them, and then guess what happens? God speaks to them because God honors their prayer and their faith. So I don’t know why I said all that. Oh, I know why I said it, because the Spirit’s work begins in the soul of the individual with conviction. Some of you might say it’s a drawing, whatever. The Spirit is working in the world, and even before you knew Jesus Christ and surrendered to His call, He was working in your life. He had to be, or you wouldn’t be saved. He was convicting you. That’s why the Spirit came down. Now, He came down to do a lot of things.
But when Jesus said to them, “You will receive power,” it was this power. It was this power. It wasn’t primarily the power to be holy, although that’s important. It wasn’t primarily the power to be able to understand the Bible, although that’s important. The power He was promising was the power to be witnesses. Because the Spirit would go before them and the Spirit would work through them and the Spirit would convict people of sin, righteousness, and judgment. So as far as the individual goes, the work begins there. And for the church, as the church, He does all of these ministries for us. I mean, the Holy Spirit is so good to us. Amen. All the things that He does for us. But He was given on Pentecost to empower us, to make us witnesses.
Jesus said—well, let’s go back to Acts chapter one, so you can read it for yourselves. Acts chapter 1, verse 8: “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” Okay? Well, that’s good. Stop there. You’re going to get power, that’s awesome, but what’s the power for? What’s it for? He says, “and you shall be witnesses to Me,” or for Me. That’s what the power is for. Jesus went up and the Spirit came down so that the church would go out.
So the Church Would Go Out
Jesus went up and the Spirit came down so the church would go out. The Holy Spirit empowers the church for witness, that we may go out with the gospel and lead others to Jesus Christ. And it’s only by the Spirit’s power that others will come to Christ. But we must go. We must go. I had a conversation with Lauren the other day, and we were talking about how if you set your heart to share Christ with others, and if you would just set your heart to be open to it, it’s amazing the impact it has on your walk with Jesus. Truly. As you go about your day, you go to work, and you’re praying, “Lord, to whom shall I speak today? Lord, who are You convicting? Who, who, who?” And all of a sudden, you see opportunities. Right? Not that they weren’t there before, but now you see them. Because you’re seeing. But it’s not just you thinking, it’s the Spirit. It’s your openness and surrender to the Holy Spirit as the Spirit then leads and guides you. Now, you read the book of Acts, you see all these amazing things happening where the Holy Spirit tells Paul to go here, or tells him to do this. And they were on a mission. They were on a mission. And when you’re on a mission, your antennas are up, right? You’re looking for opportunities. You’re alert. You’re vigilant. And it’s amazing how when you are, when you just set your heart to be used, how you will see the Holy Spirit operating in your life.
I could tell you so many stories where I’ve shared the gospel with people and it’s like the Holy Spirit’s like, man, He gives you wisdom you wouldn’t believe. I know so many Christians like, “Well, I don’t know if I know enough to witness, or what if they ask me about evolution, or what if they ask me about this, or what if they ask me about that?” Do you know Jesus? Tell them about Jesus. Tell them what you know. And if you would just open your mouth and tell them what you know, what you find out is that you know more than you know. It’s true. I remember the first times I ever witnessed, I was in college, I was witnessing to a professor after class. Well, I should have been intimidated, right? This guy’s a crusty old guy, kind of like me now. I don’t know if I’m crusty, but anyway. So I don’t remember what led into the discussion, but after class we were walking in the hall, somehow we ended up back in his office and here I am preaching Jesus to this guy. And he’s an old-school—it’s hard to explain this guy. He was from Germany and he had this—I can’t do a German accent—he had a deep German accent. A real prim and proper guy, just really old school, old school. Here I am, some dude in blue jeans, you know. The Holy Spirit gave me so much wisdom. I was quoting Bible verses I didn’t even know, I don’t even know if I ever read them. I mean, it was amazing what was—it was almost like I was watching myself: “Man, you’re doing awesome. I’m like, preach it, brother, preach it.” It was like the Holy Spirit was just convicting of sin, righteousness, and judgment. It’s amazing. And that’s happened to me hundreds of times, and that can happen to you. You can go to work Tuesday and be filled with the Holy Ghost. True. It’s true. We just have to be available. We have to be willing. And if you’ll begin to pray, “God, give me souls. God, I want to be a witness.” Well, you can’t be if you don’t have the Spirit. You can’t just pray for power. Say, “God, give me power, give me power, give me power.” And God says, “What for?” “I don’t know, I just like power. It sounds good.” No, give me power to witness. And He will, He will.
Now, my time’s up, but I want to make a few more comments about up, down, and out. We can explore this text more at a future date. But as I was reading the book of Acts, a couple things struck me. One of the things that struck me is how much the church is the same. What do I mean? Like, oh, wait a minute. You read Acts, like all kinds of miracles are happening. I don’t see miracles happening. Yeah, but when you read the book of Acts, number one, in the first chapter, the apostles aren’t even thinking about the Great Commission. They’re thinking about Israel, right? So they’re already starting off with the wrong focus. Secondly, they get anointed and begin to preach. They still think the gospel is only for Israel. Even though Jesus said, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth, right? What you see is that even though Jesus said, I’m going to give you power that you can be My witnesses—in other words, I’m going to go up, the Spirit’s going to come down, and you’re going to go out. Even though He said that, what you see in the book of Acts is they didn’t go out. It is true. Now, they stayed in Jerusalem. And you know why they eventually went out? Persecution. That’s exactly it. They went out after they were persecuted. God had to push them out. How much are we like them? How much are we like them?
Now in Acts 2 is one of my favorite texts. It says that Peter preached this first sermon. They say, “What must we do to be saved?” He says believe, repent, get baptized. And it says that 3,000 got saved that day and they gathered together and they prayed and they broke bread. They were in the apostles’ doctrine and all that, right? That sounds like an awesome church service. I want to go there. I want to go to this worship service. This is awesome. And then it says, “and the Lord added” to the church. [audio unclear] heal people and touch people and to speak through people and do whatever He wants to do. But if we go to church because it’s all about me receiving blessing, then we’re not understanding what it means to be part of the church. We are called to gather and we are called to worship and pray and minister and build up the body of Christ, for sure. But we are supposed to be a channel of blessing to the world. A channel of blessing to the world. And the reason churches die is because they become stagnant, because God pours in, but they never let it pour out.
I was meditating on the manna. I shared this with Lauren recently. In the Old Testament, you know about the manna, right? When God gave them the manna, He said, just take enough for today. Don’t store it up. If you store it up, yeah, not good. Enough for today. And Jesus in John says He’s the manna. He’s the bread of heaven. So I was thinking, hmm, can you get too much of Jesus? Now, this is a trick question. Well, this might sound like [audio unclear] daily dependent on His provision. Jesus is the manna that we feed on, right? You think, well, why not enough of Jesus? Well, let me say this. When they stored up the manna, what happened to the manna? It became rotten, there were worms, and it was bad. We can get so filled with the Bible and church and religion that it turns into rotten manna. In other words, church becomes all about me and what I can get and what I can grab and what I can take, and I want a blessing and I want healing and I want a word. And church becomes about me. I’m trying to hoard Jesus. I want to get more Jesus and more Jesus, so I can store Jesus up, and then whenever I need Jesus, I can pull a little bit of Jesus out. That’s what I mean by too much Jesus. You can’t get Jesus that way. You know why? Because Jesus isn’t about the business of simply saving. He’s about the business of empowering you, empowering you. Remember, the Christian life is about being like Christ, right? I mean, give me a basic definition. What’s it like to be a Christian? Well, we should be like Jesus. Well, read the Gospels. What did Jesus do? He says, “I came to give My life a ransom for many. I came to seek and save the lost. I came to speak the truth. I came to lay it down. I came to give it out. I came on a mission for others.”
You can’t hoard Jesus because He’s not going to stay in the box. You can’t store up your refrigerator with a whole bunch of Jesus because He’s going to blow the door off like He did the tomb. And if we try to keep Jesus to ourselves, it becomes rotten. No, I didn’t say He becomes rotten. It becomes rotten because it ceases to be the biblical Jesus. It becomes the American Jesus or the evangelical Jesus or the white Jesus or the middle-class Jesus, but it’s not the Bible Jesus. Because the Bible Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. The Bible Jesus came to lay His life down for the ransom of many. The Bible Jesus delighted to do the will of the Father. The Bible Jesus said that His food was to do the will of God. That’s the Bible Jesus. Are we like that Jesus? I want to go to church where there’s awesome worship. But why? So I can be filled for myself, so I feel good, or so that rather, that through my nearness to God, I now go out more equipped to be a witness for Him. If our worship does not transform us into witnesses, it’s not true worship. We should come and worship with all of our hearts, with all of our souls, and we should be like Moses, that when he came down from the mount, his face was so bright he had to put a veil on it. I want that shining, don’t you? I want that testimony. Oh man, we need to be serious about worship. We need to be serious about prayer. We need to be serious about the Word, but not simply for ourselves, but for our calling and mission as the body of Christ. Jesus went up and the Spirit came down so that we would go out.
Let’s stand and pray. Lord, we thank You for Your place now on the throne. We thank You, Lord, that You are intercessor, a high priest, our anchor beyond the veil. We thank You, Lord, that You govern all things. [audio unclear] Thank You, Lord Jesus, that You have given us the Holy Ghost, that we have all things. [audio unclear] It would not be about us, but it would be about others. So God, have Your way and Your will for Your glory. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.