The Rest of The Story

[00:00:00] Okay, well, Easter's a couple weeks ago. Why are we still talking about that? Well, well, we've been in this series where we started looking at Jesus' trial, his crucifixion, uh, then coming back and celebrating his resurrection on Easter Sunday a couple weeks ago. But I wanted to finish it up through Luke and, and look at how does Luke end Jesus' story and the gospel there and, and uh, and so that's what we're gonna be finishing this morning.

Looking at the end, and actually surprisingly, we're gonna see that it's not in Luke, and I'll explain why. But it's actually gonna be in the book of Acts that we're gonna look at this kind of closing picture. And, uh, so if you have a Bible, I'd invite you to turn with me to Acts chapter one and the first 11 verses.

If you don't have one, we'd invite you to use the one in front of you, but I always encourage you to open it up and to keep it open throughout our time so you could follow along with me as we, as we dive into this passage. But let me begin by reading the passage we're looking at Acts one starting in verse one.

Luke writes In the first book, O Theophilus, I [00:01:00] dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day that he was taken up after he had given the commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering, by many proofs, appealing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

And while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, you heard from me for John baptized with water, but you'll be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

And he said to them, it is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. And when they, he, he had said these things as they were looking on, he was lifted up and a cloud took 'em out of their sight.

And while they were [00:02:00] gazing into heaven as he went, behold two men stood beside them in white robes and he said, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. What a great promise. Hey, God bless the reading of his word.

Let me pray. Father, I thank you for the privilege that we do have to come together this morning, father, to look at this great passage, this great promise, this great challenge. Father, I thank you for you, the fact that you continue to teach me and I pray now that you would speak through me. Father that.

That your word would speak forth. That my I, my ideas if they're in there would get lost. And Father, that you would communicate your truth through your power of your spirit. And Father, I pray that each one of us would have hearts that are open and receptive to what the Holy Spirit have for may have for each one of us.

I pray now your blessing. In Jesus' name. Amen. And over these past few months, we've been looking at these last chapters of the Gospel of Luke. Leading up to Easter. Again, we spent time [00:03:00] looking at the, the trial and the crucifixion and uh, and then, and then two weeks ago we looked in and looked 24 in the, the, the resurrection account.

And what a great idea of the empty tomb. But even as we look at this, I wanna ask you the question, how does Jesus' story end? You know, if someone were to come and ask you, how does it end? Does it end with a resurrection? Let, let me kind of take a little side note for, for those, those of you who are, how many are Star Wars fans here?

We've got some Star Wars fans. You know, today's a special day, right? Star Wars Day, you know, and some of you're wondering what isn't. Star Wars may the fourth be with you. I mean, it's Star Wars Day and, and uh, you know, because it's interesting because Star Wars Day is on a Sunday this year. Some churches are even doing special Star Wars themed sermons facing the dark side, or you know, and some are even doing a Star Wars themed series for a period of time.

You know, some have made it a little more simple. They just, you know, they're scrolling the scripture reading kind of like Star Wars style and, and, um, you know, I, I ran across the pastor who said he was gonna [00:04:00] dress up in a Star Wars theme. I'm, we're not going there, not gonna do that. I trip over the ropes Dangerous idea.

Um, but I will use a Star Wars illustration for those who love Star Wars. Most people would say that the best movie of the whole series was the Empire Strikes Back. And, uh, now, while most fans consider it the best movie out of the whole bunch. When it came out, it wasn't the most well received, it wasn't the most popular, and the main reason was that it didn't seem to have a great ending.

I mean, at the end of the movie, Darth Vader had just beat Luke and, and, um, Hans was frozen and the good guys all had won. The bad guys were, or the good guys were lost and were in hiding. The bad guys had won. I mean, that's not an exciting ending. Now, the first Star Wars movie. And then the one that came after that Return of the Jedi.

I mean, those were great endings. The good guys blow up the death stars and it ends with celebrations and, and every story needs a good ending. Right. Well, let's go and say we look now at the story of Jesus. How does [00:05:00] it end? How does Jesus' story end? You know, if someone were to ask you that, what would you say?

I, I think ma, many of us might say, well, well it's the resurrection. I mean, that's the ultimate victory, right? I mean, he defeated sin and death and he rose from the grave and, and I mean, you know, that's great cause of celebration. What is, but you know, it's interesting is for those of us with this last week, we saw.

That in the Gospel of Luke, that's not where the gospel ends. It actually, their story after that, we would expect it to be the tomb is empty and the angels proclaim him, have risen, and, and everybody, they come back. They, they, they say, oh, remember 'em saying that there's a celebration. But we saw last week that that's not what happened.

Actually, what happened is most of the people didn't believe the women and there was a struggle. In fact, what we see is that all the gospels have a significant part of the story After. The tomb is found empty. So how does this story end? Well, some people might say, well, we [00:06:00] just read acts. It's the ascension.

I mean, he's ascends into heaven, right? And, and, and, okay, that's, that's a clear ending. Well, you know, it's interesting even in that if we look like, say in gospel Matthew, which many of us know, I mean, it has him on the the Mount where, where he ascends. But the last words aren't about the ascension. The last words are what we often call the great commission.

And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

Now, over the last few months, we've been looking at the Gospel of Luke, and so this morning what I wanna do is look at Luke's account of the end of Jesus life. On one hand, you might look to the gospel of Luke and you say, well, at the end it talks about the ascension. It has a short account, Luke 24, and he led them out as far as Bethany and lifting up his hands.

He blessed them and while he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried into heaven [00:07:00] and there they worshiped and him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. But what's interesting is that's not the whole story, even in Luke, and the reason this, this is that the Gospel of Luke is actually part one of a two book set, I.

Part two is actually the Book of Acts. In fact, if you go to the beginning of the gospel of Luke, Luke tells us that he's writing to this guy called Dioli and, and he's saying that he's writing this gospel as a, an orderly and researched account of Jesus' life. Now, keeping that in mind, look at how he begins the Book of Acts and the first book, ooph, same guy, the first book, which is.

Luke in the first book. This is now part two. In the first book I dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day that he was taken up. And so the second book here is Luke is his acts. It's a continuation. Now, here's what's really interesting is that even though Luke concluded his gospel with a short account of the [00:08:00] ascension we read a moment ago, how does he begin now this second book acts.

Actually with a much longer account of Jesus' ascension. And, and that's what seemed to be a little strange. You know, why we, we would expect the ascension to be the end of Jesus' story. I mean, Jesus was there, he ascends powerful conclusion. And then we go to, you know, this, this new story and we have to ask why.

And I think part of the organization here is that Luke is trying to make us make it clear that the Book of Acts is all about the continuing ongoing ministry of Jesus. I. In fact, let's go back to Acts one again, and, and you're gonna see this clearly TATed by what? By what Luke says. Look at what he says about what the purpose of the book, his understanding of the book.

It's introduction verse one. It's all introduction. It's easy to skim over it because we don't expect much to be there. But I want you to point out something in the first book of the Olis, I've dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he's taken up. [00:09:00] What is the purpose here?

It's a continuation of what of all that Jesus began to do and teach of all that Jesus began and the first book is about what Jesus began. So what's the second book about? It's about what Jesus continued to do. It clearly implies that the Book of Acts be is, uh, begins the story of what Jesus now continues to do.

It's a continuation. It's a point that Lucas deliberate in trying to make. It. So when we studied the Gospel of Luke and we see the ascension, if it concludes there, and then we go on, we kind of expect, and in the acts we have start with the Holy Spirit. And then we would say, well, here's Jesus. And he's, you know, he's taken up and it's done.

And now it's part two of what the, of what the apostles are doing. But the Book of Acts isn't about the apostles after Jesus was done. The Book of Acts is about the continuing ministry of Jesus here on earth. In fact, some, some of you might [00:10:00] look in your Bible and some of 'em might say, you know, the, the title of the book is The Acts of the Apostles.

Luke did not give the book that name. In fact, throughout Biblical or Christian history, that has not been a common name of the book. Some of the more mons modern translators have called it that It's actually a terrible title because it doesn't say what Luke is saying here. See, that title gives the idea, well, the first book is about Jesus and then Jesus ascended, and the second book is about what the apostles did.

It and, and, and actually Luke's making it clear, no, that's not the case. It's not that you look back and wonder and you say, well, man, Jesus did all this. What he's saying really clearly is that no, the first book was about Jesus and what he began to do. The second book is about Jesus and what he continues to do through to the disciples.

See, the important thing is to realize it's not just a story about Jesus where he died and he rose, he goes to heaven. He's. Yeah. But as he's there, he ascended into heaven. He's at the right hand of God. He ascended not to get away from us, not to close his ministry, but he ascended to continue [00:11:00] the ministry that he began, that help you understand this.

Let me look at a promise in the gospel of, of, uh, of, of, of John, where he makes this perplexing promise. It seems to not make sense until we see what actually happens. It's in the gospel of John, the night of the last supper, the night before Jesus died. Jesus told his disciples that he would be leaving them soon, and it's clear that he's not talking just about his death, but he's speaking about his ascension after his resurrection.

And at the time they didn't understand what he was saying. And um, you know, they're confused, but they're also discouraged and he's leaving. And look what he says in John 16, verse five. He says, behold, but now I'm going to him who sent me. And none of you asked me, where are you going? But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.

Here's the promise. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away for if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when we [00:12:00] read this, the question that I'm sure that came to all their minds still comes to our mind. How in the world is Jesus leaving for our good?

You know, Jesus is saying, you should be happy that I'm leaving. It's your good, he's you're gonna be better off when, when I'm gone. And that doesn't seem right to me. I mean, 'cause I look at it and I say, what could be better than having the physical presence of Jesus Christ with us? You know, how could we have anything better than Jesus being right beside us?

And, and his answer is, okay, I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna send the Holy Spirit. And there's a sense that when I leave and send the Holy Spirit, I'm going to be more with you then than I am now. See, again, what this means is the ascension doesn't, teaching that Jesus is no longer with us, it means that he's with us in a, in a way that's more real.

He's all over, he's, he's not physically present, but he's expanded his presence. Again, he hasn't gone to heaven to get away from us. He's gone to heaven to be with us and to continue [00:13:00] the work that he's done. Now, this is hard for us to understand, so let's look at how does he expand his presence? How is it better for us?

Because he expands his presence. It's in the pre, pre-incarnate state. Before Jesus came and took on human flesh, the virgin birth, he existed for all eternity outside of time and space with the father. But when he took on human flesh, he took on the limits of human flesh. He took on the limits of time and space that meant before the ascension.

Jesus was a man who lived within the confines of time and space, meaning he could only be at one place at one time. If you wanted to be near Jesus, if you wanted to be in the presence of Jesus, if you wanted to ask him a question, if you wanted to be healed by Jesus, you needed to go where Jesus was. So specifically is usually around Jerusalem or Galilee and where he was doing his physical ministry.

But when he ascended into heaven, while he kept his physical resurrected body, he stepped outside of time and [00:14:00] space and all the limitations that come with that. He now sits at the right hand of the father and, and reigns and rules in a cosmic way that's no, no longer limited by one place and one time friends.

That's why as Christians, we don't have a mecca. We don't believe that there is a place that we go to where, where God resides in this supernatural way, that we meet God more in a more real way than is available to us here and now. We don't believe we have to go to Jerusalem or pray to a certain way and, and God meets us in a way that's more real.

That is, that is presence in there. No, in the ascension. This time space continuum has been broken, has been removed so that God is with us in a very real way no matter where we're at. And he sends us to the Holy Spirit. So we literally have God's presence in us. Now, that's why Jesus could say in Matthew 28, in the Great Commission, I am with you always to the end of the age.

It's why he could say in Hebrews 13, I will never leave you or forsake you. Think [00:15:00] about this, in the Old Testament, God's presence was in the temple. And so if you wanted to go with be with God, you'd go to Jerusalem, to the temple and, and, and only in the Holy of Holies. That's where his presence really was.

Well, the temple's been destroyed. Well then in Jesus' ministry, well, God's presence was with Jesus. But again, his presence was limited in time and space. But now what happens to us now after the ascension, which is one Corinthians six, say, do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you?

With whom you have, with whom you have from God? Literally saying you wanna know where the temple is. You wanna know where God's presence is. He's in you. He's living in you. Do you wanna go where God is? He's there. We, we don't need to go find him. And that's incredible what that means. And if we understand it, it should make a huge impact in our lives.

When you come to church, what do you expect? When you pray what you expect? When you ask God to use you, what do you expect? You know, when you open the Bible and you come to worship, what do you [00:16:00] expect? The, the problem is that that too often we expect this little bit of inspiration. We expect. We, we expect, you know, maybe God will kind of meet us and, but we don't expect his transformative power.

If Jesus was right here with you, what would you expect? And he is, he is right here with us and we have a hard time believing that. And so if we understand that we, the, the small things that we expect, we should stop looking at our bad habits as things we can never get over and well, it's just bigger. No, God's power is in you.

We stop looking at the problems in our culture and our world, and man, there's mountains that can never be moved. Can Jesus move him? He's here. We should stop. Wonder if God could ever use us. Now, each one of us has the presence of God living within us, but that leads us to this next point, because if Jesus presence is really with us, that means that he also not has expanded his presence, but also his ministry.

Again, when Jesus was here, he was the perfect manifestation of God [00:17:00] on Earth. He was, and he is God. He took on human body, but when he took on that body, he was limited to a single place and time and taking on, on, on human body in a sense, set aside his omnipresence. Now, it was great to have Jesus here on earth as long as you were physically with Jesus, but if the goal was this worldwide ministry.

How do we spread God's presence to the whole world? And that's what John is or Jesus is talking about here. And in John 16, for example, when he says it's to our advantage that he's going away. He's saying, I'm going to the Father and I'm gonna ask the Father to give each the Holy Spirit and he comes upon you, then every one of you is going to have my presence so you can do my ministry.

And that's what happened. That's what we see in Acts chapter two. They're there and they're praying, and suddenly the Holy Spirit comes upon them, and each one of them suddenly has the power of God in us, and we all have that who are believers in Jesus Christ. You see, during Jesus earthly ministry, his, again, his [00:18:00] presence was limited to his physical body.

He could only be at one place at one time, but after the ascension, he sent the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, who is now living inside of us. And what that means is that Jesus, it, it isn't limited to Jerusalem or to one place wherever there are believers right now. Jesus is there. Jesus' presence is there.

In fact, the Bible talks about this idea that we are the body of Christ. That's what it means. It's not that any of us has the power to do all that Jesus did. Jesus was the fullness of God and none of us are that. But you know what? We each have some of God's spirit. We each have some of God's power. Some of Jesus, we represent him in part.

And what happens is when we all work together, we're all a small part of this body. When we work together, we are the body as a whole. And the body isn't that now limited to the one place. It's everywhere. And so it's, that's the idea that we see that God's giving us this, this not only this promise, [00:19:00] but this call of, of this enduring mission of Jesus Christ.

Of continuing what he has begun again. Now look at Acts one, six. We read that after the resurrection, the disciples gathered together with Jesus and asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? Now, what happened? They believed he was the Messiah. They had looked at all these scripture and that prophesied about the Messiah establishing the kingdom.

Jesus talked about the kingdom, and so they're sitting there saying, okay, are you gonna establish this political kingdom? The question is, what is the nature of the kingdom? They misunderstood this. See, after the resurrection, they figured it was time for him to come establish a, a political kingdom, an earthly kingdom.

They thought he was gonna call the angels down and, and you know, they're gonna, you know, come and might look at that. Even their question, will you at time restore? What's the restoring? You remember David, he had, you know, are you gonna restore what David had? And then this king, are you gonna restore the kingdom of Israel?

Are you gonna re return [00:20:00] this national political thing centered in Jerusalem? And are you gonna do it now at this time that we expect you to come and do that? Now they're asking, Jesus is now the time you're gonna restore the political kingdom of Israel and make yourself king over the earth? They expect that Jesus to come with military might lead army of warriors and, and, and to conquer by force.

Look at how Jesus responds in verse seven. He said, it is not for you to know the times or seasons that the father's fixed bound his authority. And they're basically saying, yeah, I am going to eventually establish a kingdom that that full reign kingdom, but not until my second coming and, and it's not for you to know the time of that.

That's gonna happen sometime in the future, but this is what I want you to do now. He continues, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth. And he's saying, you guys got all wrong. I am going to establish a kingdom, but it's not a political earthly kingdom.

It's a [00:21:00] spiritual kingdom. And, and you're not gonna be observers watching me, but nor are you gonna be soldiers of conquering by force. You're going to rep represent me as witnesses, as ambassadors, fighting for the kingdom through, not force, but through truth. And yes, my kingdom is gonna come in power 'cause kingdoms are defined by power.

But, but I'm giving you the power and, and you're gonna have that power again as witnesses. It's a kingdom that seeks to not by force, establish the rules and the halls of government, but through truth and by persuasion, seeks to establish God's rule in the hearts of individuals. And look at the scope.

You'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea, and then Samaria in the ends of the earth. And the scope is worldwide. It's eventually to get to the ends of the earth. But I also want you to know where does he start? See, were in Jerusalem at that time. I want you to start in Jerusalem. I want you to start where you're at, and then Judea, kind of the state, and then Samaria, the state next door [00:22:00] and, and then go to the ends of the earth.

And I think what God is calling us to do is to not just see the big, but to start with a small. I wanna tell you, as a church, one of the things that I believe, and we have tried to build our ministry in large part on this. I look at a map, I look at a map of this area, and in my mind I've got a three mile circle around our church.

And I feel like God has called us to say, you are responsible for that. You know, we need to be responsible to try to specifically to try to, that's our Jerusalem. Let's start there. And I'm thankful, especially when you look at, if you just do a half mile, quarter mile circle. What do we have? We have, we have all the schools.

They're right here, right in the middle, and I'm so blessed to see how God is opening up doors to do ministry within the schools and so that we have a, a bible club that is at the elementary school and have, you know, 40, 50 kids that are there every week to see Joseph in the middle school and I coaching and building relationships or, and his Bible study in the high school.

We're praying for more. There's opportunities we're so excited [00:23:00] about. We're praying that God is gonna continue to open up in the next year, but that is wonderful. Even personally, I, I'm involved in, um, pre pregnancy solutions. Why? Because it's a ministry that's a mile away. That's a ministry that's within my circle, and I wanna spend more time investing in what God has called me to do.

But that's not only true for us as a church, you see that's true for each individually. It, all of us should have a circle. Not necessarily mileage, but, but when you look at who are the people in that little sphere of influence, it's a small area. The people that are in your neighborhood, the people at your school, the people that at your workplace, the people that are in your family, the people that you interact with, he said, God has called you to be a missionary there.

He's given you opportunities to reach people there that are unique and he's called us to, to do that. And specifically not only doing the work as witnesses, but but embracing that identity. Look again what he says, the que the disciples ask in one six, uh, when they come together, they ask the [00:24:00] Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel?

Will you now establish in verse eight? What does he say? But you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria. You see what he's saying? They're saying, will you, will you establish? And he turns around and says, no, you. You're my witnesses. Yes, I'm gonna establish my kingdom, but it's not me coming and you watching.

I'm gonna establish my kingdom by sending you out, and you are my representatives as witnesses. And some of us might say, I, I can't really call that he doesn't call us because of anything that we have to offer. He calls us by his grace and by his power. When a follower of Christ becomes a fault. When a, when the Holy Spirit comes upon a fall of Christ, what happens is the most unlikely people.

Become fountains of God's power. Think about the people that were there. These were the people in the upper room that were hiding, that ran away from Jesus, and yet God transformed them into spiritual giants. And that same powers available to me. And you [00:25:00] now want to show you one other thing. It's not only did he makes this promise or this call, but he gives a promise with it.

He gives a promise of you will receive power. Lemme show you. Acts one, eight. You receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, and at the end of the earth. Now I'm gonna have you do two things with me. I'm gonna, I'm gonna ask you to read this out loud with me, but I'm gonna make one change.

I want you to see it not in just general like you as a church, but you personally. And here's what I want you to do. Every time that it says you, I want you to state your own name to read this as a promise to you, to me. You know, so I say, but Mike will receive power, so join me. Put your own name in here.

But Mike will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon. Mike and Mike will be my witness in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. That's his [00:26:00] promise that you will, we receive power and you are now called to be as witness. That's each one of us are called to. And notice he doesn't just say, and you will do my witnessing.

He said, no, you will be my witness. It's actually changing our identity. It's something that defines who we are, defines our purpose, and that should give us something of great confidence. It should give us great hope that, does it still seem overwhelming? Yeah, it does, but, but let's go back to the scene that we saw, that we read here in Acts chapter one.

I mean, if you think about it, the scene is just incredible. I mean, here you have Jesus. He calls everybody together. He gives him, you know, this incredible calling. You know, I'm gonna call you to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judes and Mary, the ends of the earth. He says, I want you to reach every people on every continent in the world.

They don't even know what continents exist. You don't even know what exists. But I'm gonna call you to reach 'em. And after giving this incredible mission to this group of nobodies, this group of fishermen and tax collectors and carpenters, most of whom had never traveled beyond 50 miles of their [00:27:00] hometown where they were born.

You could say that there has never been a more important assignment given to a less capable group of people. And he doesn't give an explanation, no strategy. He just says, you're gonna be my witnesses. And then he leaves, he ascends into heaven and he is gone. And they're like, wait, wait, Jesus, wait, wait, wait.

Let's talk about this a little bit more. He says, Jesus, you the whole world, you know how big the world is. Yeah. I can see it from here. You know, it's like, I know how big it is. You know how big it is. But, but yeah, I want you to go reach the world. And, and, and he calls them. It's incredible calling. And here's what I want you to realize.

We are now here 2000 years later, thousands of miles away in a completely different language, a completely different culture and completely different world in a sense. And we are here because they faithfully embrace that call. And you could say there are more people who claim to be Christians in any other group in the world, that it has changed the world, that has reached the corners of the world.

And how could a group of [00:28:00] nobodies have any hope of accomplishing this great call? And here's what we need to realize. If we feel like we're noddies and we're in a hostile culture, and man, how can we do this? They were nobodies in a much more hostile culture than us. But Jesus gave them the call, but he also gave them and us his provision to actually carry out that call and see.

He doesn't just say, well, I'm gonna give you this task and go figure it out. Look at again. Acts one, eight. Look what he says before Jesus says, you will be my witnesses. Before he says that, he first says, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And then after I give you that power, then you will be my witnesses.

See and the Holy Spirit. In the beginning of Jesus, he came upon Jesus for his ministry. And now he's saying, okay, that Holy Spirit is gonna come upon you. And again, remember who he's talking to here. These are the same group of people, the same disciples. That on the night that Jesus would betrayed, they all ran.

They all deserted him. They were, they were hiding in the upper room just a few days earlier. Humanly [00:29:00] speaking, when you think about the success of the Christian Church rested upon them, pretty scary thought. And here's what you, we need to realize. If you feel like you don't have what it takes, join the club.

If you feel like you failed in the past and God could never use you because of your failure, hey, you fit in real well with all these other disciples, with all of us. If you feel like you don't have the education, the smarts, the, the courage, Hey, you fit in really well with this group of fishermen that went and hide and were hiding from everyone just a few days earlier.

God doesn't use you because of who you are. It's all grace God. God uses us by His grace. It's unmerited favor, and it's by God's great power that he takes the most unlikely people to accomplish the greatest tasks. Because when Jesus Christ sends his Holy Spirit and the Spirit comes upon us, suddenly the most unlikely mo, most incapable the most failure of people, suddenly, suddenly God uses them in great [00:30:00] power.

This part of the Great Promise in John 14, it all makes sense. It all pulls it together. Look what Jesus said. Truly I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do and greater works than these will do because I'm going to the Father. You see how that's exactly what he's been talking about in Acts?

It is the continuing work of me in ministry. Okay, I'm gonna leave and you're gonna continue the works that I'm doing. That's what we're still doing. And even greater works, right? Because now we're not limited to one time, one space. In fact, he continues, whatever you ask in my name, this, I will do that. The father may be glorified in the son.

If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. What an incredible promise. See again, this is not only great promise to the holy Church. It's a promise to all those who trust in Jesus today. It's the power that Jesus speaks of in Acts one, eight when he says, you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.

But again, still some of us, well I, I know cap the Holy Spirit, but, but I don't think I have that kind of power. I, you know, can I really make an impact? Well, here's how do we get that power? How do we [00:31:00] access it? And here's what we need to realize. We all have it. The question is, are we accessing it? Are we, are we in a sense plugged into it?

Let me, let me give an illustration to go back. Um, um, you know, in, in fact, even, lemme go. First of all, to we Acts one 14, it talks about this idea. You know, Jesus said, wait for the Holy Spirit. Look what happened when they waited with one accord. They devoted themselves to prayer together with the woman and Mary and the mother of Jesus.

That's how we plug into it. And throughout acts you see repeatedly they prayed and then the Holy Spirit comes upon them. So here's, here's the illustration can in John 19, nine, Jesus. In John nine, Jesus talked about, I am the light of the world, but yet in Matthew five, he tells his followers, you are the light of the world, and how's that work out?

Here's the idea that in a sense, Jesus is the light, but as the light, he produced his own energy and he's like a sun. You know, he's shiny, he's incredibly bright, and, and, and he, he is the source. Now when he calls us to be light, his, him being light, when he was here, he was [00:32:00] limited to one, one location, and so you had to go to where Jesus was shining.

But at the ascension, he in a sense, gives us each a light. He gives us, you know, each a, you know, a bright bulb and, okay, this thing's, you know, if I turn this on, this is gonna be pretty bright. It's, it's, it's bright work light. Now the problem is, is that I've got a bright light, but it's not shining.

Because the fact of the matter is Jesus, Jesus provided his own power. I don't provide my own power. Now. I have access to the power. I have access to the Holy Spirit. And so what he does is, okay, I'm gonna give you a plug, but, but I've gotta go find the extension cord, I've gotta plug into the power source.

It's an unlimited power source. And when I plug it and suddenly it's bright. And it's not only that, but what if we all do that? What if we're all plugged in and suddenly, man, it's overwhelming and it's brightness, but not only that, but the light of Christ is, is spread out throughout the whole world. It's shining everywhere.

Now we have the extension cord. The extension cord is prayer. It's basically saying, okay, God, I realize that I have a light. I don't have the [00:33:00] power. How do I access that man? If I ask God, if I come and I say, God, I acknowledge I don't have that. I need to plug in. Suddenly there it shines. Suddenly there it, it allows me to do what I couldn't do on my own.

And that's what they did. You know, they, they came and they, they took up the call, they prayed, and then they represented Christ as it was, as his, uh, as his witness. And it's, and it, because of that, now we are here, God has called, you know, it literally changed who we are because of their faithfulness. And now the continuation of Jesus' ministry rests upon you and me, and each one of us.

See we are each called to be a missionary again. Each one of us has a mission field. God has placed you on a mission field where, and the people that you can talk to in your neighborhood, in your workplace, in your school, I can never reach. I don't have those opportunities. You have that opportunity and if you look at it and say, well, God wants to continue the work of Jesus Christ, he does through you and he wants to make radical [00:34:00] change through you by you being faithful.

And it's not by any of us doing these incredible things, but each one of us saying, God, how can you use me to reach a few people? And I've shared this before, even through prayer, and I, I talk about it all the time. You know, we talk about, think about three people that, that in your sphere of influence, you know, not to be believers.

I encourage you to pray for them regulated, put them down and try to pray for them every day if possible. And then I talk about that. And whenever I do, I have two responses. I most people come up and say, oh, you've talked about that before. I forget to do that. I need to do that more often. And every once in a while you have somebody be saying, I've been doing that constantly for three years or for two years.

I've never had someone who's prayed consistently for two years who didn't come back and have at least one of those people come to saving faith. Prayer changes things. We plug into the power and it changes things. It establishes the kingdom. Are we willing to do that? And it, it doesn't mean that you go preach and you know, but build relationships.

Pray for people. And when you look for opportunity to talk about your faith, invited them to a [00:35:00] church event, you know, see the kids even in your community and invite them to church, invite them to things. There are so many opportunities. See the question we have to look, when we look at all this is what is our part in this?

Because if it is about the acts, book of Acts is about the rest of Jesus' story. What is our part in the rest of this story? Let me show you two things briefly. The first is looking at that last section in the book of Acts that we read this morning, uh, right after the Great Commission verse starting in verse nine.

We read, and when he had said these things as they were looking up, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight, and while they were gazing into heaven as they went, behold two men stood by them in white robes and said, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come the same way that you saw him go into the heavens.

Now here's this amazing scene, and I can understand, you know, Jesus gives this thing and suddenly he sends into heaven. I can't imagine what that's like. And they see him go into the clouds, they see him disappear, [00:36:00] and they did what I would be doing. I'd be like, wow, you know, I hope mouths open. And you we're just, man, that's incredible.

And suddenly there's two angels next to them and, and they, what do they say? Basically, what's wrong with you men of Galway? Why do you stand looking into the heavens? Did you see what I just saw? You know, just kind of like, it's kind of obvious. Now. Why are they saying that? I think they're saying it as a gentle rebuke.

What they're saying is, why are you looking in the heavens? Like that's the end of the story. It's not the end of the story. He's continuing the story. Get your eyes off of heaven and go back and now start doing the things that God has called you to do. Go there and represent Jesus Christ. You know? And if we're stuck and we're looking heaven, man, we can't wait for him to come back, then we don't understand the ascension.

We don't understand this calling. You know, that is not the end of the story. It is the continuation of the story. But even then we might say, yeah, but those were the apostles. You know, it was Peter and John and those guys. And I'm not, I'm not any of those guys. Okay. One more picture. [00:37:00] Let me take you to the very end of the Book of Acts.

How does the end of Book of the Acts end? You know what, let, let me read it. Acts 28, 31 and 30 and 31. This is how it ends. It's talking about, Paul says, and he lived there two whole years at his own expense. He's under under arrest now in Rome. He lived there two years at his own expense and he welcomed all who came to him proclaiming the Kingdom of God and teaching about the word Jesus Christ.

With all boldness and with all hindrance. Now I wanna tell you. What a terrible ending. You know, we talked in the beginning about good endings and Star Wars. That's a, if you're writing a book, that's a terrible ending. What happened after the two years? It's interesting, the way that Luke writes it. He writes, knowing that it was two years and implying he knew it was that something after.

What, what happened then was he, was he released? Was he killed? Was what happened? What goes next? We actually know from non-biblical history that Paul was released after two years. He then spent some time traveling to Spain, several other places before being rearrested and eventually [00:38:00] killed by Nero. But why doesn't Luke tell us any of that?

And part of us wants to cry out, you know, if you're gonna tell Paul's story, at least finish it. You ever think that, you know, it's really interesting. It's the first half of acts is all about Peter. Uh, one through 11, and then we just drop Peter. We'd have nothing else about him. Where did Peter go? What's the end of Peter's story?

It's weird. It doesn't finish it either. Luke was a really bad writer or under the influence of the Holy Spirit. He's of an incredible teacher. You know what a saying? I mean, what a saying is incredible what he, if we saw the end, we would think, oh, that's the end. That was about the apostles and, and their story ended, and what a great ending.

But the whole thing that he's telling us is that. It's not ended. It's it's not, you know, Peter's story hasn't ended. Paul's story hasn't ended. The gospels, the Book of Acts hasn't ended. It's basically saying the story's continuing, and now you are the character being written in there. I am, the character [00:39:00] being written in there.

The story of Jesus is continuing, and we are the apostles. We are the representatives that are doing the work of Jesus Christ. And if we didn't see that, if we just, if it ended, we'd be like, oh man, that was great what they did. It's a great story and let's look back. And what he's saying is that, no, it's not what Jesus did in the past.

It's what he's continuing to do through his church, through his followers in the present. God's power hasn't decreased. It hasn't changed. The Holy Spirit is just as much here today as it ever was. And if you ever look at it and say, but you don't know how hostile the culture is, you don't know how much of, again, you, you bring as much failure and, and, and you know, all the things, the weaknesses that they brought.

And God used them. And if we say the hostile cultures so hostile, they were in a much more hostile culture. They were killing Christians. And God used this tiny group of people who said, we're gonna believe what Jesus said and we're gonna embrace this call. Use this tiny group of [00:40:00] people that change a world, my friends.

That's what our part of the story is. Our part of the story. It isn't, you know, well the church is gonna do God, are you going to, no, you are my witnesses and our part of the story isn't to do anything great. It's just to be faithful. And if we recognize that, if we're each faithful and say, okay, God, I'm gonna believe that you could use somebody as weak and as failure as me, God.

I'm gonna bring myself and let your spirit work and I'm gonna pray, I'm gonna plug into that power. And God, what is the fear of influence? You're using me. How can I reach people around me? What is the ministry in this church that I can represent you well? As each one of us are holding up our light and plugged into that power, suddenly we're gonna find that God does amazing things.

He's continuing the work of Jesus Christ. He's building his ministry. And I want to tell you, that's not only exciting to to know, it's exciting to see. It's really exciting if we embrace it and we get to be a part of it, that's God's call upon our lives. And I hope and pray that we [00:41:00] together say, no, I wanna march forward and I wanna continue this ministry of Jesus Christ.

And I wanna be a part of it. If you have a question about the Message Community Church or Jesus Christ, send us a text to 3 3 0 432 42. You can learn more about our events and community groups at CCP Life slash connect There. You can also send in a prayer request. We would love to pray for you. Have a blessed Lord's Day, and we'll see you on Sunday.