The Book of Acts Church

Well, it is so good to be back in God's house another year believing for great things. God is going to work in our midst and in our lives. Amen. Thankful for Bible class. Amen. for the faithful saints that are here today, guests are with us and those that join in online and we're thankful for you and ask that God will reach down and touch our hearts today.

We had been studying in the book of First Corinthians and as I said last week we got or last lesson we pretty well got to the end of that chapter. I've got another chapter we will cover later on probably right before Easter. Uh, so we're going to look in a different direction today and I'm going to read four passages of scripture. It's going to seem like a lot, but they're all covering the same thing because they're from the four gospels and from the book of Luke. So I'm going to start in Matthew. We'll read in Mark.

We'll read in Luke. And then we'll read in Acts. Matthew 28 18-20. Says, "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even into the end of the world.

Amen. Mark chapter 16, Mark's Mark remembers from Jesus last words. And he said unto them, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe in my name. They shall cast out devils.

They shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. So then, after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven and sat on the right hand of God. From Luke chap 24 verse 47, Jesus said, "And that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you're witnesses of these things.

And behold, I send the promise of my father unto you, but carry ye in the city of Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high." Then finally from Acts 1:es 8 and N, but you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you. you should be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and into the uttermost part of the earth. And while he had spoke and when he had spoken these things and while they beheld, he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight. Today is the first lesson on new series that we're going to begin. And so for the next three months, we're going to be looking at the book of Acts Church. I know uh for season last year we looked at some profiles of some individuals, some biographies, if you will, from some of the lesserk known characters in the book of Acts.

Uh but we're going to take a little bit different approach as we get into this book. Acts is probably one of the most unique books of the Bible, definitely of the New Testament. There are four gospels that all tell of the life, the ministry, the crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. talk about his teaching and his miracles and those kind of things. And there are multiple letters written of course in our New Testament through the churches to multiple authors, multiple churches around the the known world at those time. And from these letters, we can see that the gospel reached many different people and different cultures.

But what we don't see much of is the day-to-day workings of the church in either one of those. And it's only the book of acts that gives us a glimpse into the early churches and the early church in action. Now that said, that begs the question, is the book of acts really representative of the early church? Are the experiences of the teaches teachings of the book of acts typical of what happened in that first 20 to 30 years of the church? I think the conclusion we have to come to is yes, it is. There is no other act, no other book that does that.

that there's no other book that describes in detail the day-to-day actions of the church and the things that happen. And so the way I see it, since Acts is all we have, there is no other literature. We have to accept that God preserved up for us so we could understand what he expected from his church. The epistles were written for encouragement, for instruction, and sometimes correction, but they were really not written to describe the actions of the early church. And so if we are to be an apostolic church, and we are, we claim to be and we strive to be apostolic Pentecostal church, then we have to follow the only pattern we have, and that's the book of Acts. Amen.

That's what we're going to look to. And so, so we're not going to follow a strictly chapter by chapter, verse by verse study. uh throughout the 25 years we've I've taught in this class, we've done that in a couple of different ways, looking at uh the events of the book of Acts and the things that that are there. But what I want to look at and kind of point out through this series are some of our apostolic distinctives. Those things that marked out the apostolic church, the things that made them unique, the things that made them what it was. And then we will ask ourselves if if that's what we are striving to be, how do we follow that example and what how does that impact us and what so we what should we do?

So today's lesson sets the stage for the series. We're going to look at what is typically called the great commission. The book of Acts begins with the last words of Jesus on earth. We read those particularly in Acts 1:8 where he said, "You shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, uttermost part of the world." And that kind of set the agenda for the entire book of Acts. Most of us are familiar with that source, but that's getting ahead of ourselves. We want to look at the last about the last 40 days of Jesus' ministry.

And so, we're going to begin. I'm going to look at all four of these passages that we read and we're going to look at these important endings of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And then we'll look at the beginning of Acts as far as we can get to that and to give us a well-rounded perspective of what Jesus expected of his disciples and how he intended what he intended them for do. And if that's what he intended for them to do, then I believe it's what he intends for us to do, right? He intends for us to emulate what he said and that was to take this message to all nations. A commission is an authority to act as an agent for someone else.

It is authority to say you go and be commission you to work for me or do something for me. And so the disciples were to serve as Jesus' agents. They were travel into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. That was the mandate they were giving. The ending of Luke's gospel features two interesting stories that aren't necessarily shared by the other gospels. And each of these writers took what they remembered and what others had told them about what what was going on and wrote these endings.

So, you kind of have to put them all together to see a a more complete picture of everything that happened during those 40 days. I'm sure that was 40 days that were bizarre in a way to those people. I mean, they had walked with Jesus. They had watched him be crucified, saw that he'd risen again, and he appeared, and he disappeared, and he walked with him, and they didn't know it, and then he was gone. And all these different things that were happening with them during this time. I'm sure it just in some ways was probably a blur of what what in the world is is going on here.

Uh, but it set the stage for what was going to happen in the book of Acts. The first post-resurrection appearance in Luke was the Emmas road experience and we remember that story. It is significant in part because it underscored really and I think Luke chose that story and the next one that follows it to show that the disciples had a lack of understanding as Jesus had talked to them in his ministry. He had foretold of his suffering, his death, his burial, and his resurrection. He had foretold all of those things. But I don't think they grasped what he was talking about when he would go off on those tangents, if you will, and and begin to talk the son of man is going to be in the earth three days and you know, you destroy this temple and in three days I'll r raise it up again.

And all these these kind of things just just kind of went over their heads. You know, they were they were following Jesus. They were seeing the miracles, hearing the teaching, and they were expecting him to overthrow the Roman government. None of this kind of fit with the agenda they had in in their minds. And so when these things begin to happen, they really didn't know how to respond. That's why Peter could stand up in the garden or at the last supper and say, "I'm not going to deny you.

I'll stick by you no matter what. I don't care what everybody else does and then a few hours later flees the scene and denies Jesus because they just didn't grasp what was going on." on. And so the events that occurred in Jesus' life, they they weren't merely random. Here's what we know. They were a direct direct result of the fulfillment of God's written word. In other words, Jesus didn't happen by accident.

This was God's plan from the beginning. And one of the favorite themes of Luke is that he often brings this out in his his writings. Few years ago, we studied the book of Genesis. We observed this same principle. And that is this to interpret the Old Testament and to really understand its relevancy to the Christian, we have to approach it as they did in the New Testament writings. And we observe back then every major writer in the New Testament as they looked at the Old Testament, they they used it to validate what they saw in Jesus.

In other words, they had been walking with him for three and a half years. And as they reflected on that, they begin to look at the scriptures and they un begin to understand that they had to first look at Jesus and then look to the Old Testament scriptures and they would find him there. And so he became the lens, if you will, through which they viewed scripture. They looked through the lens of Jesus Christ and the gospel message to determine what the Old Testament was talking about. And when they saw something in his birth, his life, his messages, his resurrection, his death, his crucifixion, all those things, they would look to the Old Testament and sure enough, they would find things and say, "Oh, that's what it meant when he was a man of sorrows and stricken with grief and he bore our sorrows." That's what Isaiah was talking about. They looked to to David's writings and they looked to the Psalms said, "Oh, that's what it meant when there was son was going to be born and a king would reign in righteous." That's what this was talking about.

And so they begin to put all this together. And so for them, the Old Testament did not interpret Jesus. Jesus interpreted the Old Testament. He was made the sense. And so on the Emmas road episode, this is exactly what began to happen. These two disciples, they're walking along and some stranger walks up to them and they don't realize who it is.

They don't know. I don't know if Jesus had changed his appearance. I'm assuming some way that they would not know who he was. And they begin to talk and he he said, "Why are you so sad? Well, you know, you're leaving Jerusalem. Do you not know the things that have just happened around here concerning Jesus and and the things that have happened?" And Jesus looks at them and he says, "Oh, fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoke spoken.

You are foolish and you're slow to believe the things that have been spoken." And then he said, "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory." They're probably thinking, "What are you talking about? Christ should have gone through all this and to enter his glory." And they really did not know because as far as they know, he had died. Now he was missing out of the tomb. They really didn't know what had happened. He's not here. The lady said some ladies that had been to the tomb said that angel told them he's risen, but we don't know.

As the apostle said later, we don't know where what happened to him. We don't know where he's at. But what Jesus was saying, you should have realized from the Old Testament that they witnessed to the very events that just transpired. And so he went on to explain to these men that the entire to Old Testament was actually about himself. Listen to his words there. And beginning at Moses and all the prophets.

So he began way back in the first five books of the Bible. Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, those books that Moses had written. And he begins there and he goes all the way through the prophets and he expounds onto them. He said in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. So he begins to point out all these things. See, this is what Moses was talking about when the scripture said, "I shall raise up a prophet like unto thee." This is what Abraham, Isaac, this is what Jacob meant when he talked about the king that was going to reign from the tribe of Judah.

So, he begins to explain all this to him. And it was necessary that Jesus open unto them a comprehension of the scriptures. It's been argued that you can't fully understand the New Testament without knowing the Old. I've heard people say that. Well, if you don't know your Old Testament, then this stuff in the New Testament doesn't make sense. I think it works the other way.

Once you know the New Testament and you know the life of Jesus, then you can begin to understand that Old Testament. In other words, the scripture illuminated Jesus and and the things that he accomplished and he illuminates the scripture. And so this this was the first one as Jesus begins to talk of them. The second thing that Luke talks about in Matthew or Luke 24:36-53, Jesus appears to his disciples and he stood in the midst of them, tried to calm them. He tried to assure them. He he took piece of fish and ate it to show them he wasn't a ghost.

He he imparted to them instructions before he ascended into heaven. And so these passages, these things begin to point out that we need to understand this is exactly what Jesus was supposed to do and what was supposed to happen in his life. As with the Emmas road episode in this appearance, he again drew the disciples attention to the fulfillment of scripture in his life and in his work. In fact, in he pointed out the entirety of scripture witness of the Old Testament. the scripture being all they had at that time was the Old Testament pointed to Jesus himself. And so he tells them in Luke 24:44, "These are the words which I spoke unto you while I was yet with you that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me." They didn't grasp it when he said it, but he's reminding them, I told you all this before, and these are the things that had to be fulfilled that were written in those things.

They concerned me. The disciples shouldn't have been confused or baffled by his suffering, his death, and resurrection if they had truly understood the Old Testament. Here's what we know. Scripture teaches us that God is faithful. And if he said it in his word, it was going to come to pass. Isaiah 46 says, "Remember the former things of old.

I am God. There is none else. I am God. There's none like me." And then he says, "Here's why there's none like me. I'm declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, the things that are not yet done, saying, "My counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure." So what he was saying was everything written, everything you read in the Old Testament, it's going to happen in the life of Jesus Christ, that faithful God. and that the fact that he is faithful ought to encourage us, church, to know that he is going to fulfill his word.

Now, the Bible tells the last days is going to come. Scoffers, where's a sign of his coming? I've heard this all my life. Grandma believe this. You know, it's been around all it is. You know, is this ever going to happen?

Yes, God is faithful. He is not a man that he should lie. If he said it in his word, it will happen. And here's the thing he promised in Matthew. He said, "I promise to be with you until even until the end of the earth, end of the world. He is going to be there.

He is going to be with us and he is going to work in us." And so he opened the minds of these disciples on the road to Emmas and all things concerning himself. He opened to them the scriptures. And in the process of breaking bread, their eyes were opened when they realized Jesus was the one that the scriptures were talking about. Jesus imparted to them, if you will, in the book of Luke. And that's why both of these stories, I think, are in there to show us that enabled them to recognize his identity and understand his mission. when he appeared to those uh the 11 in acts 24 Bible says he opened their understanding that they might understand the scripture and he began by explaining the nature of his death.

He said thus it is written and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day. The scripture said that and he's saying and it it was important. It it was written and it was going to happen. But I'm thankful he didn't end his parting words at that point. For his total mission had not yet been accomplished. Yes, he had come to live and to die and to give his life a ransom for many and to raise himself up again to redeem us.

But then he he did not stop there, but he said this, "And you are witnesses of these things." The disciples who had witnessed his resurrection were now to proclaim the resurrection. He said, 'And that repentance and remission of sins should be taught in my name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem. So he said it's not enough just to understand and know who I am. It's not enough just to understand what happened and the fact that I rose again and I was the am the Messiah and I am the promised one to come and I am the fulfillment of all these scriptures. Here's the important thing. You're a witness.

Talk about what makes us apostolic. The world knows the claim that Jesus rose again from the dead. Whether they believe it or not, they know it. But you're a witness of it. You've You weren't there, as far as you and I weren't there to see it, but we felt his power working in our life. He has opened up our understanding of his word and we see it from scripture.

And he says because of that, he said here's what you are to do. Go out and preach. Go out and spread this gospel. We are commissioned church. We have a responsibility. And then he made this promise.

He said, "And behold, I am going to send the promise of my father upon you, and you be you will be endued with power from on high." I'm thankful he didn't just call them to be witnesses and say, "Okay, you just go out and figure it out yourself." He said, "No, I am going to give you the power." If he has given you the Holy Ghost in your life, you have the power to be a witness that all these events and experiences for foretold by scripture and and they were fulfilled in part by Jesus in the early church. It ought to bring us a sense of encouragement, but it also ought to give us a strong sense of mission. We're here for a purpose, man. And I know I know our theme is to connect with God and others. It is to reach others, to reach people. The spiritfilled apostolic church is part of God's plan to reach this world with the gospel.

And like the first disciples, we need God, help open my understanding of scripture. Help me to fully comprehend what you want us to do if we're going to be an apostolic church. Pray that God will open our eyes to that. We look to Matthew. His ending ending is it's complimentary to Luke. It it offers a different perspective.

It's much shorter. He doesn't go into much detail. He doesn't tell the the long story of the men on the road to the Emmas. He doesn't talk about all the times that Jesus met with them and and appeared and and disappeared and all those things. Uh in fact, he he says that they were told to go to Galilee and he would meet with them there. And so he talks about Jesus coming there in a mountain that Jesus had appointed them.

Significantly, Matthew's gospel often pointed out if if you read through Matthew, it's always pointing out Old Testament things. So, obviously, he took to heart what Jesus said in Luke where he told them, "Look to the scriptures and you will find me there because that's exactly what Matthew did." And you you see that over and over in Matthew's writing where he reaches back and he quotes Isaiah and he quotes the Psalms and he he makes quotes of all these things where he's found Jesus in the Old Testament. But he he didn't really do that here at the end. Rather, this this really condensed account. Matthew concludes that Jesus is the Messiah. He is the one that has all power.

All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. And so he concludes with the fact that Jesus is the Messiah. He is the one that was to come. And then he gives the commission that we know of and and we've heard so many times, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you, though I'm with you always, even to the end of the world. That familiar passage, we call it the great commission. Let's look at it here for a little bit.

First off, he said, "Go ye therefore." Therefore, first he said, "I all power is given to me in heaven and earth, and so you go." Because of that, you can go. He has given us his power. We can go in his name. And so, we must go to all nations. Do you ever notice Jesus did not instruct the world to come to us? He instructed us to go.

It's not enough that we provide a building and that we schedule services and and just sit back and say, "Well, I guess they'll come eventually." We got to go. We got to take this message to the world. He said, "Go into the world and and teach all nations." That word translated nations there is from the Greek word that is ethnos where we get our word ethnic from. And when we think of ethnic or ethnicity, we we think of race and we think of people from all over the world in different countries and different races. And to those Palestinian Jews of Jesus' day, it was almost think unthinkable to reach beyond the Jewish race. We're God's chosen people, those who he who looks at.

And so that's all they wanted to focus on. And Jesus said, "No, this gospel message is for everyone, church. We can't limit who we reach. We can't choose. It's for whosoever will. Paul said this in Galatians.

For ye all are the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you has been baptized into Christ, you've put on Christ. And there is not Jew, there's not Greek, there's not bond, there's not free, there's not male, there's not female. You're all one in Christ. In other words, it does not matter. This gospel is for everyone.

And we have to ask, how can you evangelize the world if you're never willing to go beyond the boundaries we've set for ourselves? Going requires effort. To take the gospel to the world requires us to look beyond these four walls. And it requires us to look beyond those that we're we're comfortable with and those that we're friends with and those that that that we want to see saved. This gospel is for everyone. And if it was the command for the book of Acts church, and we'll see in in future lessons how they did fulfill that command, it is the command for us.

Reach out to everyone. And then he said, "Go ye therefore and teach all nations." There's a word there that the word there that is translated teach literally translates from a word that means to make a disciple. To make disciples. Go you therefore and make followers. Make disciples. The mandate of the church involves more than just proclaiming and teaching a message.

It means to make disciples. That takes a lot more effort. You can go out and and tell somebody one time, knock their door, invite them to church, and walk away. You haven't made a disciple because not following. It takes effort to make disciples. It happens through systematic instruction.

It happens through home Bible study. It happens through day-to-day interaction with people where where you talk about what God is doing and you encourage them. A disciple is a follower, a follower of Jesus. If we were going to bring others to him, we have to make them disciples, get them interested in following after Jesus Christ. Here's the thing. I we believe everybody must experience the Holy Ghost to have salvation.

You got to have his spirit in our lives. However, having the Holy Ghost without instruction, it's kind of like giving your kid a key to a car with, you know, when he's still a young kid. No instruction. We must disciple. We must teach them to follow after Jesus. Now, that's not saying you got to understand everything before you're saved because you probably won't.

And then after you're saved, you probably still won't. And 20 years later, you're still not going to know it all. And but it does help to establish converts. Here's the thing. Too many people, if we're not careful, will experience the spirit, but they're never learned that I am to walk after the spirit. They can receive the Holy Ghost, but where are they next week and next year and the year after?

We need to make disciples follower. And and that is one of our goals here at this church. We want people to follow Jesus. We want them to commit their lives to him. And so part of this commission is do what you can to disciple people to follow after him. And then he said baptizing them.

And I want to touch on this because this this passage when we read it has caused a lot of controversy. Baptizing them in the name of the father, son, and the holy ghost. When we are go, we are to baptize them. It is essential for a person to be baptized if he is saved. Believing is the first step. We must have faith.

Without faith, it is impossible to please him. And with by grace, we are saved through faith, not of yourselves. It's it's not works but it is through grace. We can only have that rel relationship on faith. But as vital as believing is, it does not abide alone. We must be baptized.

That's why Mark 16:16 says, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." And Peter would wrote the like figure wherein to baptism doth also now save us by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So water baptism is essential to salvation. The apostle Peter observed that we are saved by water baptism. And so that is important. And not only is that important, but what is baptism? And and how should it be administered?

I I want to point two things out here before we go on. And this the whole lesson is not about baptism, but I think since we're we're here in this, we need to bring this up. First is the mode of water baptism. Water baptism is by immersion. I think one of the stronger arguments for baptism by immersion revolves around that's what the word means. The Greek word means to dip or to plunge.

And here's the thing, the word baptize in our English is really just a transliteration of the Greek. In other words, they took the Greek word and they thought, well, rather than translate it, we'll just use the Greek and we'll say baptize. We do that with some French words in our language. You know, we we sometimes throw words. Those are transliterations. They're not an actual what the word means.

They're not a translation. And so had our Bibles translated baptize, they would have said immerse. So on the day of Pentecost, Peter would have said repent and be immersed in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. It it's pretty straightforward. But unfortunately, when the King James is written and other Bibles followed after that, rather than cause a controversy, they just thought, well, we'll just say baptize and we'll just kind of leave it vague and let them figure it out. Let me give you a direct quote from the Catholic Encyclopedia.

I find this interesting. They said this quote, "The most ancient form usually employed was unquestionably immersion." This is not only evident from the writings of the fathers and the early rituals of both the Latin and oriental churches but it can be gathered from the epistles of St. Paul. In the Latin church immersion seems to have prevailed into the 12th century and at that time it is found in some places even as late as the 16th century. infusion and espersion or sprinkling if you will however were growing common in the 13th trip century and gradually prevailed in the western church. So they acknowledge originally it was immersion.

Furthermore, if you think about it, baptism is symbolic of burial. Paul said you are buried with him in baptism. Well, you don't bury somebody by throwing a handful of dirt on them, right? You put them under Second is the formula of water baptism. And this comes up because of the wording in uh Matthew 28 and 19. First off, and we could make the argument, this won't have time to go through it.

We can make the argument what that name is. Jesus said, "I come in my father's name. The holy ghost is going to come in my name." And so I think you can know who the name of the father, son, the holy ghost is. It's pretty easy to discern from those scriptures. But it is noteworthy that the scriptures do not record a single occasion of anyone being baptized using the formula in the name of the father, son, the holy ghost. In fact, this comes from the international standard bible encyclopedia.

No record of a trinitarian formula can be discovered in the acts or the epistles of the apostles. It is curious he said that the words father son and holy ghost are not given in any description of Christian baptism until the time of Justin martyr which was few hundred years after Jesus in every account of the performance of the right in apostolic times a much for shorter formula is used the 3,000 believers on the day of pentecost were baptized in the name of Jesus Paul's question to the Corinthians were you baptized in the name of Paul or into the name of Jesus. The Samaritans were baptized in Acts 8:16. In the name of the Lord Jesus. Nowhere in the New Testament is anyone baptized any other way. How are we going to baptize?

We're going to immerse you in water in Jesus' name. The obvious explanation that really if baptism is expressing our faith, who are we expressing our faith in? the one that died for us that gave his life and is able to take and cover our sins with his blood, the name of Jesus. And then he goes on and he said, "Teaching them to observe all things." This is the second time the word teaching is used. He said, "Go therefore and teach all nations." Now he said, "Which me make disciples." He said, "Teaching them to observe all thing." The second time this word comes around, it literally, it's a different word, but it means to impart instruction, to do what we're doing this morning. The second word is observe.

Teaching them to observe. And that word means to attend to carefully. To observe it, to make sure you're doing those things, to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And so he said teach them that the message of the gospel is one of change. Jesus came to change life. He is interested in reaching people with a message not just to capture your attention or or stimulate your interest and oh that's interesting and that's fascinating.

Rather he wants a change in our lives. And to only hear the gospel does not change our lives. It is necessary but it alone will not do it. We must do what the word of God has to say. Be not hearers of the word only but doers of the word and it will change our lives. How do we learn how to do the word?

It is through a consistent teaching of the word of God. Paul would say it this way in Romans 6. He said, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Just keep doing what we're doing, living the way we are. Nothing really changes.

Everything's cool. You know, I got the Holy Ghost now. I've been baptized and I'll just continue. He said, "No, God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Know ye not that if you were baptized, you were baptized into his death, were buried with him by baptism, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life." Talking about how we live, right?

We walk in the newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, talking about baptism, we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man is crucified or our old way of living, our old life, that the body of sin might be destroyed, and henceforth we do not serve sin. That's why we need teaching. And so that is our commission. make disciples, baptize them, and then teach them to live for Jesus Christ. That's a big job.

That's what Jesus asks us to do. But fortunately, Mark comes with a different viewpoint. He gives this message. While the disciples were commissioned with making disciples of all the nation, their effectiveness would be jeopardized if they just did it on their own. But I'm thankful he gave us power behind our preaching. He gave us power behind our teaching.

Those words would have no doubt fallen to the ground. Their ministry would have amounted to a dismal failure. In fact, that happened in the book of Acts. It didn't happen. It was brought up in the book of Acts when the power of God was working through the apostles and things were happening and lives were being changed and and the Pharisees and the the the council got together, the religious Jews got together and said, "What are we going to do to stop this?" And one man stands up and said, "You know what? If this is of God, you're not going to stop it.

If it's not, just leave it alone. It'll all fall apart." Well, guess what? 2,000 years later, it hasn't fallen apart. Why? because we are empowered by the spirit of God. And so Mark says this, "Go ye into the all the world.

Preach the gospel to every creature." And then he assured them and there's going to be some things that are going to follow you in my name. They're going to cast out devils in my name. They're going to speak with new tongues, take up serpents, drink deadly things that shall not hurt them, lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. What he was saying is the power of the Holy Ghost is going to enable you to comi complete that commission. The disciples knew that they would take the gospel to the whole world and they could assuredly count on the Lord's presence to be with them. I'm thankful when you go and you talk to your neighbor and you talk to your coworker, the presence of the Lord will work in and through.

You have that promise that these signs are going to follow. In fact, after briefly giving Jesus talking about his ascension, Mark says this. They went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, confirming with signs following. Amen. Now, he didn't describe those. That's what the book of Acts describes.

And we'll get into to some of that in these coming weeks. But they preached everywhere with signs following. In other words, in the power of the Holy Ghost. What an assurance. Those who faithfully serve in advancing this mission, who faithfully go out and and reach others to take that commission to heart, will understand that the spirit of God is going to follow after you. God is going to be with you.

You can rest assured these signs will continue to follow the Lord's people as they carry out his mission. the beginning of Luke's second book, the book of Acts that we read, that verse dovetales nicely with the ending of Gospel of Luke, filling in some of the details. Jesus has a little bit of a dis conversation with his disciples. And the first question they have is still, Lord, at this time, are you going to set up the kingdom? You're going to overthrow Rome? You're going to restore it to Israel?

Everything's going to be, you know, sitting on the throne. Jesus said, "No, you you still don't get it. You're still looking in the wrong place. Go to Jerusalem. Terry there till you're endued with power and on high. He said, "But you will receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you." The good news is that they have had the those who have the Holy Ghost come upon them.

We share in that same spirit and the same anointing. We can boldly witness the power of Jesus Christ. we can boldly reach into the uttermost part of the world. God's church stands on the brink of the second coming of Jesus Christ. I believe that we are so close church. We look at things that are happening.

I can't give a date. I won't give a date. We don't know. No man knows. Jesus said, but there is a challenge still to communicate this gospel to every creature. I understand we can't reach the whole world as a group right here.

Yes, we can give to missions. That helps. We give to foreign missions. We give to to North American missions to reach out and to help those things. But literally, we have a field right here in St. Louis.

We have people that he has placed us here to reach. And it is our responsibility to reach out to family members, friends, co-workers, neighbors, others, and to bring them to Jesus Christ. And part of our challenge is to return again and again. You've heard this message before. You've heard this commission before. We've heard this over and over.

But we have to return to it and be reminded and have our eyes and our ears opened back up and to look at it. This is our mission. This is our purpose. I know we come together for fellowship and we have good friends in this church and and love one another and all those things, but our purpose is to reach our world. We must pick up that mantle of the early church and we must continue to be a witness of Jesus Christ. Thankfully, we do have the promise that he said, "I am with you." I'm thankful that promise wasn't just for the apostles.

It is for every one of us. And so, I ask this morning, have you received the power of the Holy Ghost in your life? What we just read makes it clear. Ye shall receive power and you shall be witnesses. They go hand in hand. He has empowered you to reach your world.

Why can't do it? What you're saying is God can't do it. Does he live in your heart? Is he there? You can reach someone for him. Have you responded for the call to reach others with the gospel?

Are you ready to do your part to reach your You know people I will never meet unless you bring them here. I know people you will never see unless I'm able to reach them. So it's up to each and every one of us to take these words of Jesus to heart and to reach our world. Let's stand. No one is being asked in this room to reach the entire city, the entire world. We are all being asked to reach our worlds.

Let's ask for his help. Lord, you already promised it. It's there. It's in your word. Open our not just our understanding, but but help us to walk in that and to live in that, Lord Jesus, to understand what you have for us and what you will do in and through us. We pray to reach our worlds in Jesus name.

Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Let's take a break. We'll get ready for morning worship in a few.