Acts 1:6-8

So thankful for this time worship the Lord has given to us, so grateful to be standing in front of you with God’s word. A warm welcome is especially to all the guests that are here for the first time; we welcome you. So good to see many who are far away from us who are back with us this afternoon. Thankful for God’s healing, protection, and provision in so many of your lives.

We started a new series last week on the book of Acts, “Church On The Rise,” and we’ve walked through verses one through five last week. I gave you a good summary of what the book of Acts is in this statement: the act of the Lord Jesus through his people by the Holy Spirit for the accomplishment of the Father’s purposes, which is what we will refer to over and over again as we go through the book of Acts. It is ordinary people doing extraordinary things by the power of the Spirit of God that came upon them, but ultimately to accomplish the purpose of the heavenly Father who had in his great sovereignty already ordained all of these things to happen. We turn to our Bibles this afternoon to the book of Acts 1:6-8.

Acts 1:6-8 ‘So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth.”’

These sightings of the Lord Jesus over a period of 40 days were mentioned to us in the first few scriptures, as he came, as we talked about last week, to encourage his disciples, to strengthen them in their faith, and, more importantly, to ask them to wait for the gift of the Holy Spirit that would come upon them. Chapter 1:6, starts telling us that they gathered together with him, and the Bible doesn’t tell exactly when it was, but there is a general consensus that this is probably one of the last conversations that Jesus would have with his disciples, and the Ascension, which we’ll talk about next week, would happen soon after. So probably this conversation happened on the Mount of Olives. They gathered around him, and they asked the question, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

They had been hearing this message of the kingdom of God all throughout the gospels. Now that he has resurrected, their hope and their great aspiration of Jesus establishing a great Kingdom in this world have now been renewed. After all, a man who had been dead for three days and buried is now alive and well in front of them. They know that the Romans cannot do anything against him anymore; they know that he is impervious again to the attack of the Jewish people. There is nothing that is stopping him; he can do anything that he wants. And naturally, their hearts are now yearning for a time when they will be set free from the shackles of these earthly kingdoms, the Romans who are ruling them, and they’re longing for the establishment of a literal Kingdom of Israel where Jesus would reign with them.

Even though he had mentioned to them many times before that “I am going to the Father; you cannot come where I’m going,” and all these things have been taught to them, they’re still in their minds thinking about the immediate Kingdom of Israel. They have this natural question of asking him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” Because that is the immediate concern of their life. They’re living in slavery, almost, under the Roman Empire’s rule, and they’re hoping that he is starting his Millennial Kingdom right then and there. If Jesus had skipped all the things about the church and just established his Kingdom of Israel right then and there and he became the king, and his Millennial Kingdom started right there at that time, can you imagine what it’d be like, what our world would be like? Of course, that’s not the plan of God.

Then Jesus answers them in verse seven. He does not tell them that he’s not going to restore the kingdom to Israel, which will happen in the later days, but he tells them something that is very, very important for all of us to understand. He said to them, “It is not for you to know the times or the dates the Father has set by his own authority.” See, this is a natural desire in the heart of every human being – to know when the end is, to know when Jesus is coming back, to know when the church is going to be raptured, and all of these things are very much naturally something that is desirable to us. And I remember even as a young man, just going to prophecy conference after prophecy conference, listening to so many people, reading all the end times books I could find and watching all the end time movies because you’re fascinated with what is going to happen at the end. But Jesus tells us one thing: It is not for you to know the times or the dates the Father has set by his own authority.

Even though Jesus has told us these things, man has always tried to predict the future, especially in the church. In fact, a lot of denominations are built upon just this act of trying to predict when Jesus is coming back. I remember getting a pamphlet earliest in 1992 that the world was going to come to an end in 1994. And I remember reading that and thinking, “I already know this guy is a false prophet because the Bible says only the heavenly Father knows when Jesus is going to come back.” That is a sure test of anyone predicting the end times. That is the easy way in which they’re communicating to those that that is not from the Lord and is not really the word of God. But there have been a lot of people that did so many things. In 960, A.D., Bernard of Trincia, a German Theologian, predicted that 992 AD was going to be the likely year of the world’s end. As the time approached, panic was widespread everywhere; people were preparing for the end time. 992 AD went by and nothing happened.

German astrologer Johann Stoffler predicted an overwhelming flood on February 20th of 1524. He said it was going to be a flood like of Noah’s time; believers even started constructing arks just like the time of Noah. One man is said to have been trampled to death by a mob attempting to board a specially constructed vessel about to escape the flooding that was going to come. The only thing that came true about that prediction was that that was the end of that man and not the end of the world. See, even the Jehovah’s Witness denomination, you very well know. Charles Russell predicted that the world would come to an end in 1914. That was his biggest prediction, so they would build homes on top of mountains because they could be closer to the coming of the Lord, and they sold their properties and all these things waiting. 1914 came by and went, and then he said, “Well, it’s going to be somewhere close to 1914.” Then even Jesus didn’t come back; they revised it and said World War One started in 1914; that is the beginning of the end.

See, all these predictions have been going on, and we even have modern prophets. Harold Camping comes to mind, the most famous of him who predicted time and time again, almost eight different times about the second coming of the Lord. He passed away a few years ago; now he fully understands when the Lord may or may not come back. See, this is what is happening in the world. But what does the Bible say to us? This curiosity was always there.

Look at First Peter 1:10-11: “Concerning this salvation, the prophets who spoke of the grace that was to come to you searched intently and with the greatest care.” So when the prophets of the Old Testament prophesied about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we read all these passages in the Old Testament, guess what is happening to their hearts? They are filled with curiosity. When is the Messiah coming? When is he coming? And so they did what? They searched intently and with the greatest care for what? Next passage, trying to find out the time and the circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing, when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. What the word of God is telling us that this insatiable curiosity to know when something important is happening was even in the mind of the Old Testament prophets who wrote about our salvation, the coming of our Lord, and the suffering of him and the glory to follow. So it is not unnatural that we are also gripped by this curiosity to know about the end.

But this is a tactic of the devil in his book. In his book, “Screwtape Letters,” which is a letter written by an older demon to a younger demon on how to tempt the Christian. It’s an imaginary book, a beautiful book; you should read it, “Screwtape Letters” by C.S. Lewis. He talks about the older demon teaching the younger demon how to tempt the Christian or to make us be ineffective Christians. You know what one of the tactics that are given, taught to the younger demon is? He says, “You should get all the Christians to focus inappropriately on the future.” He explained to him that the Christian doesn’t always realize that he cannot actually live in the future; he can only know the past, and he can only live in the present, but he cannot do anything with the future. But he’s told to the younger demon, “You should make the Christians inappropriately obsessed with the future. If you do that, they will be neglecting the duties God has given to them in the present. So make them,” =  inappropriate doesn’t mean you should not focus on the future, – “but inappropriately focused on the future.”

The Bible says to us, these times are set by our Heavenly Father. Look at Acts 17:26-27. In speaking to the people at Athens, the Apostle Paul said this, “For one man, the Father, one man, Jesus, he made all the nations that they should inhabit the whole earth, and marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.” Which means that the United States being a country today is something that came from the plan of God. India being a country today is the plan of God. Kerala being a state today when it was not a state before, what? Is the plan of God. Because the Bible says he is the one who marks out the boundaries of the nations. Not only that, God did this so that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out to Him and find Him, though He is not far from any one of us. Basically, everything that happens in our life circumstances is appointed and marked by our Heavenly Father.

We had a house dedicated yesterday, and Pastor mentioned one thing to that house. He said, “It is God who ordained that you should live in this home.” See, God is the one who appoints these things. It is God who determines these things. And at the same time, God does not tell us in His word nor through prophecy when He is coming back. Why is that? Imagine if you knew the date and the year when Jesus would come back. Some of you will not come to church because you’ll be like, “I’ll be like the thief on the cross; I’ll just come the week before.” Some of you will sell everything and will not take care of your families. Some of you will what? Have an obsession with that date; you will stop going to school. Some of you will what? Will not go to work because you don’t need to earn for another 20 years out because Jesus is coming back. See, you will do all these things that are unhealthy if you knew exactly the day when Jesus is coming back. That’s why the Bible says only the Father knows when the end will be. Why?

Here’s the reason why: God wants us to work in the present with urgency. God wants us to work in the present with urgency. Why? Jesus could come back tonight. That’s why you have to have a sense of urgency in your heart. But it could be another thousand years before Jesus comes back. That’s why we have to plan for the future with prudence as well. We have to live in the present as if Jesus could come back tonight yet have a planning in our mind for the future because we do not know how many years more until the coming of the Lord. God wants us to live to be prudent, wise people with a sense of urgency in our hearts. That is why the Bible does not tell you when he will come back. And thank God for that, that we do not know; we’ll live as such. I always quote this “live as though Christ died yesterday, that Christ rose from the grave today, and Christ is coming back tomorrow.”

Even when we plan things for the church, we have a vision for what’s to happen in this month or next month, but there are a lot of things that we put into play even in this church with the future in mind, 50, 60, 70, 80 years from now, because that is what God is asking us to do in His word and what is asking us to do. So by telling them, “I’m not going to tell you when it’s going to be,” then he tells them something very important. Even though you will not know the time when I am going to re-establish my kingdom in Israel, here is what is going to happen to you. Look at verse 8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you’ll be my Witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth.” You may not know when I’m coming back, you may not know when the end is, you may not know when I’m going to establish my kingdom in Israel again, but here’s what’s going to happen: you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. You’ll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth.

This is a verse that we quote often, and it’s rightfully so, a very important scripture in all of the book of Acts. But you know what kind of a powerful statement this is? Who is Jesus speaking this to? Seven out of 11 of them were fishermen. They had no social status, no educational background. They had nothing of the world by which they could accomplish this. The church was not established – no buildings, no structure, no bylaws, no kind of conventions, no meetings, no pastors, nothing was in place. And not only that, they were disobedient people; even after the resurrection, they had just disobeyed him. He told them, “Go to Galilee and wait for me; I will meet you there.” Guess what they did? They went fishing. Even after the resurrection, they disobeyed him. They were people of very little faith; Jesus himself told them that many times, “O ye of little faith.” Oh, they were cowardly; they had run away just a few moments ago. These were not the right men to do this job in Acts 1:8.

See, this is what’s so amazing about the Scripture. And not only that, this is not a conditional thing; it is a promise that is given to them. “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth.” There’s absolutely no speculation in this statement. He is looking at ordinary people who you and I would never choose, given to failure after failure after failure. And then it tells them what they are going to do, and he tells them with certainty and says, “Oh, I’m going to tell you in your lifetime, through you, I will accomplish all these things.” And the difference is that first sentence, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.” You will receive power, and that will make all the difference in your life, and you will be my witness.

The word “witness” that is used over there is someone who is communicating something that has been given to him, but the word “witness” comes from a Greek word “martyr,” from which we get the word “somebody who is martyred for Christ.” That’s what literally the word means because every single one of these witnesses eventually became martyrs for the Lord Jesus Christ, except for John the Apostle. Why? The message they were preaching was absolutely rubbishness and foolishness and so much offensive to the world at that time. Remember when I stand today in America and I tell somebody about Jesus, they know about Jesus; they know about the Bible. Communicating the gospel is not a difficult thing. But imagine in the first century, you are coming to a culture where there is slavery going on. You are going to them and saying, “I want you to follow Jesus and become His slave.” Can you imagine that? “I want you to follow Jesus and become His slave.” And you’re like, “I’m already in slavery; I hate it. You want me to go to and become His slave? And who is that person? A Jewish carpenter? And you want me to become his slave?” And then they tell them, “If you don’t believe in Him, you are going to hell. If you don’t believe in Him, you are going to die.” And all these things are offensive. That’s why the Apostle Paul says the message of the cross is foolishness.

But that’s what they did, and they paid a heavy price for it. But Jesus told them, “You will be my martyrs. You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth. When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you’ll receive power.” The word “power” that is used in God’s word is where the word “dunamis”; it is the word from which we get the word “Dynamite.” When the Holy Spirit comes on you, dynamite-like power will come upon you, and these ordinary people will do extraordinary things because of the power that will come upon them.

In Ephesians 3:20-21, it talks about it. It is the words that we often quote when we talk about God doing the power that is working in you and me that enables us to do exceedingly abundantly more than we ask or imagine for the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and for the glory of God. Look what Paul writes “to him who is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine.” See, if you are sitting here this afternoon, and your heart is burning and thinking, “I want to be used for the Lord. I want to do things for the Lord,” and you ask the Lord, “Lord, use me. Lord, use me.” The Bible says you have a God who is able to do immeasurably more than what you ask or imagine. How? According to His power that is at work within us. Why? “To Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

He gets all the glory. You know why? Because it is not I who did it; it is the power that is in me that did it. That immeasurable power, that unimaginable power that is able to do beyond anything that I can do humanly on my own. See, my weakness doesn’t matter anymore when the power of God comes upon me. My stuttering doesn’t matter anymore when the power of God comes upon me. My education does not matter anymore when the power of God comes upon me. My social upbringing doesn’t matter anymore when the power of God comes upon me. No matter my circumstances, no matter my past, none of those things matter because the power that is in me is greater, and it is able to accomplish anything more than I can ask or imagine because that power is exceedingly great, and it comes from the presence of God. God’s will for all of your life is that your life and my life become more than you can ask or imagine. That is not possible humanly speaking by your own human abilities, but with the power that comes upon you, it is entirely possible.

When you read the book of Acts, you know what the book of Acts is. Chapter 1:8, is a summary of the book of Acts. Chapters 1-7, they went to Jerusalem and Judea. Chapter 8, they go to Samaria. Chapter 9-28 is the rest of the Mediterranean world and finally Rome, which was considered to be the end of the Earth at that time. In chapters 1-28 of the book of Acts, God fulfills His promise that He gave to the disciples on that mountain that day. When the power will come upon you, you’ll be my witnesses first in your hometown, in Jerusalem. Then I will send you to the north and the south, to Judea and Samaria. But that’s not the end; I will send you to Europe. I will send you to Asia. I will send you to Rome and to the ends of the Earth. I will send you. Yes, you might be uneducated; you might be not obedient; you might be cowardly; you might be lacking in faith; you might be lacking in structure. But understand this: the work that you do is not your own; the work that you do is the work of God that delights to take the weak vessels and make them to be wonderful in His hands. And the power makes all the difference in the world.

You know what God wants to do in our life? He wants us to be witnesses just like this. He wants our church to be witnesses just like this. I mentioned this in my Sunday school class this afternoon. I said that in ten years’ time, by the grace of God, the sanctuary is filled. We have two or three services, a thousand people church. God can do it. But yet, we have not gone to the ends of the Earth with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our mission has failed. Our mission has failed. And I know that we are really strapped right now, financially, to do a lot of things, but you know what the story of our church is? Believing in the impossible and trusting in the providence of God.

Standing here this afternoon, by faith, I dream of a day when we will send missionaries from our church to the ends of the Earth. I dream of a time when we will support mission stations of our own church that we have planted, not only in North India, but in Africa, in Asia, in the outermost regions of the Earth. That we will have Mission Sundays when missionaries and pastors from different languages will come and worship with us because Restoration Church has supported their work. Oh, our vision needs to expand beyond what we have built in the past. God’s vision is a heart to reach the ends of the Earth with the gospel. That mission still goes on. I cannot do it on my own; Pastor PB cannot do it on his own; you cannot do it on your own. But together, us standing strong, trusting in the provisions of God, trusting in the providence of God, more importantly, from the power from on high, we will be His witnesses, starting in Rowlett, starting in Dallas-Fort Worth, to the ends of America, but to the ends of the Earth. We will be His witnesses.

We need homegrown missionary families. We need children who are committed to full-time ministry that our church is supporting. I know those kind of things, we cannot even fathom today to support an entire family for a year in missions is a lot of money, but I know we can do it because we are called to greater things by the grace of God. Yes, God wants us to be a different church. Not because we are another Pentecostal church, we have plenty of them. God wants us to be a church that fulfills a mandate that is given to us in the book of Acts, to be His witnesses to the ends of the Earth. Yes, we can do it.

As I end, what comes to my mind is this man who changed India forever, the father of modern missions, William Carey. I encourage all of you to go home and get a hold of some kind of a biography of William Carey and read it. Such an ordinary man, a poorly educated cobbler, was he, a shoemaker. As a teenager, he came to the Lord; he began to teach on his own. Oftentimes, he went hungry and saved the money to buy the books that he needed because he didn’t have any single penny to himself. Eventually, he would become a Baptist pastor at a time where missions was completely absent in the world. No one was sending missionaries anywhere. But God laid in the heart of William Carey a burden for the lost around the world. Many would tell him, “If God wants to save the heathen, God will do it Himself. William Carey, sit down.” But he continued in his own understanding of Scriptures, telling them that the greatest call for the church is a call to missions. Carey was so puzzled that multitudes sit at ease and give themselves no concern about the far greater part of their fellow sinners who, to this day, are lost in ignorance and idolatry.

On May 31, 1792, at 10 in the morning, William Carey gave the most important sermon of his life. It was a group of Baptist ministers and important influential people in the church who had assembled to hear him speak. The passage that he spoke on that day, none of us would ever pick to preach on missions. It was Isaiah chapter 54:2-3. William Carey preached this: “Enlarge the place of your tent; stretch your tent curtains wide; do not hold back; lengthen your cords; strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities.” In Isaiah 53, we see the suffering Messiah. By the time you come to Isaiah 54, we see no one able to stand before the One who is coming as the King of Kings. William Carey preached and said, “Jesus, the suffering Messiah who was crucified on the cross, raised again, now ascended into the heights, there is no power on Earth that can stand against Him. His Word and His Spirit is meant to go and dispossess the nations of the world.”

See, Jesus has already won the victory. All that we have to do is go and tell people that Jesus is King. When we do that, don’t be afraid of the demons; they’re already defeated. When we do that, don’t be afraid of the authorities; they are defeated. Jesus is the Victorious One; He goes ahead of us. All that He asks us to do is go. I would be so wonderful to tell you that as he preached his sermon, people all were excited and decided to go for missions. No, he said even before he finishes the sermon, people start walking out. Nobody wanted to even listen to what he had to say at the end. One of the most powerful sermons ever given.

But, as one man was walking out, he grabbed his hand, pulled him back, and said, “How long are you going to sit here and do nothing?” The one sentence in that sermon that would change missions forever is this: “Expect great things, attempt great things.” “Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God.” How do we know that God cannot do great things if we don’t attempt great things? How do we know that our church cannot become a revolutionary church for missions in the next century, in the next decade, unless and until we attempt by faith what God is calling us to do today? We don’t have money, but God can give us money. Today, we don’t have many resources, but God can give it to us. Unless and until we attempt, how do we know that God does not want to do that for us?

From a missions board, now we have a missions leader, now we are going to work on this, church. When we present projects before you, don’t ever say it is not possible. Believe first it is possible. We will do it. We will do it. God will give it to us. God will give it to us. Yes, we, as a church, we will expect great things from the Lord. But what first thing we’re going to do? We are going to attempt great things for the Lord. We’re going to trust in Him. We’re going to believe in Him. Our church will be a missional church. That’s what God is calling us to do.

William Carey, as you know, went to India. My goodness, what all did he do? Serampore College, started by him. A trio of missionaries translated the Bible into 34 Indian languages. 34 Indian languages. The dictionaries that are used in Bengali, Sanskrit, many of the languages, were made by this British man, William Carey. In his lifetime, he did so many things. He brought an English daisy to India, introduced the linear system of gardening in India. A type of eucalyptus found in India is still named after William Carey because he brought it from the UK to India, the carrier herbacea. He was the first Englishman to introduce the steam engine in India. He introduced the concept of savings bank to help poor farmers. He advocated humane treatment of leprosy patients. For 25 years he tirelessly worked to end the practice of Sati, by which widows were asked to jump into the fire, the burning fire of their deceased husbands. He could have just done what he wanted to, and you think his life was easy. He buried numerous children in the ground in India. His wife, Dorothy, became a mental patient. All of his works were burned away in the fire in Calcutta, everything that he was burned away. He started again and again. He started the process of lending books in libraries in India. Amazing, so much I could go on. Even today, you go to Calcutta, you ask anybody about William Carey, they may not be a believer, they will know who he is because of the tremendous influence that he brought to the land of India.

Who will be the William Carey of the 21st Century? Will they come from my home? Will they come from this pew? Or will you be the instrument by which the next William Carey is sent to the darkest parts of the world? Attempt great things for God. Expect great things from Him. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth. You will be my witnesses. That is a promise of God. Church, God is calling us for greater things, and there’s a reason God laid it on my heart to study the book of Acts. It is my prayer that by the time we have finished this book, oh, our church will be a different church. Our mindset will be different. Our vision will be different. Our focus will be different. Our young people will be different, and we will be on fire from missions like never before because we have learned what God can do through His church when we are completely devoted to Him. Hallelujah, that’s our dream. May God, by His grace, enable that to happen.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word. Lord, we are unable to do anything on our own. We thank You that we have the power, that power that is still available to work immeasurable things in us and through us. Help us, oh God, to seek Your face and Your glory and Your kingdom, oh. You have a heart for the lost like never before. Let our church, the story of our church, become the story of a missional church. Thank You, Lord. In the name of the Lord Jesus, I pray. Amen.