but you shall receive power after
that the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you shall be witnesses
unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and
unto the uttermost part of the earth." The Lord in the context
of this has moved the disciples away from the foolishness that
they asked about in verse six. You'll remember, they said, Lord,
is this the time that the kingdom is gonna be restored again to
Israel? They thought that earthly Israel
was gonna be restored, saved from the tyranny of Rome. and
that type of thing, and they asked about that, and the Lord
has, he said, it's not for you to know that, or the times and
the seasons, the things that belong to God, and he's directed
their thoughts and their attention away to what is important. This is not about your earthly
business, this is heavenly business that we're on now. This is not
about your interests and desires. It's about God's kingdom. It's
about the salvation of sinners. You're gonna receive power and
you're gonna be witnesses of me. That trumps everything else. It doesn't matter what happens
to Israel or anybody else. God's world is his elect, his
people. He has a universe because he
has a bride. You shall receive power. And by the way, have you ever
asked the Lord something or to do something, and it's just like
he completely ignored you? That's verses six and eight in
our text. And you know what, when he did
that, he was doing them a great favor. You think he doesn't do that
for you now? You shall receive power. What
hast thou that thou didst not receive? You're going to have
to receive if anything's going to get accomplished. You remember
when Pilate said to our Lord, he said, don't you know that
I have power to crucify you or I have power to release you?
And the Lord said, you don't have any power at all except
what my father gives you. And we love, we rejoice in that
scripture because it exalts our Lord's sovereignty, but don't
miss the fact that that's also true of you. You don't have any
power at all except what he gives you. It is God which worketh
in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Our Lord said in 2 Corinthians
12, nine, my strength is made perfect in weakness. Now you
think about that. If we exalt ourselves, then the
Lord's got to bring us down if his power is gonna go forth. If anything's gonna be accomplished
here this morning or ever, we have to realize and glory
in our infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon us. We
got to understand what we are, nothing. Neither is he that planteth
anything, nor he that watereth. He's not anything either, but
the Lord that giveth the increase. That's how this gets done now.
It's by us relying completely upon Christ Jesus for everything. And then he said this, after
that the Holy Ghost has come upon you. Remember what our Lord
said about the Holy Ghost coming to them in John 16, verses five
through 15. We will take the time again to
read that passage this morning, but jot that down if you'd like
to read it later. The Lord said, talking about
the Holy Ghost, if I go not, then the Comforter won't come.
And when he comes, what did our Lord say he's gonna do? He's
gonna take the things of mine and show them to you. He's gonna
remind you of everything I said to you. And that's what he does now.
When the Holy Ghost comes upon somebody, it's not, what happens
when we receive the power from the Holy Spirit of God? That's
what he said, you shall receive power. Are we gonna have any
power this morning? God said, when my word goes forth,
they'll go forth in power now. It'll accomplish the thing where
to I sent it. Is there going to be any power here this morning?
Is anything going to get accomplished? What's going to happen if we
receive power from the Holy Spirit of God? Well, you're going to
speak in tongues, Chris. No, that's not what our Lord said.
They did, they did speak in tongues then, but that's not how the
Lord describes what happened here in our text. Well, you're
going to be able to perform miracles. If we receive the power of the
Holy Spirit, we'll be able to make lame people walk. Nope,
they did. They could. But that's not how
our Lord described what's going to happen when the power of God
rests upon us. What did he say? You're going
to be witnesses of me. That's what's going to happen.
You're just gonna happen to do it in different languages when
you need to, which was then. Speaking in tongues, everybody
heard the gospel in their own language. They testified of Christ, that's
what happened. That's what the Lord called it.
You're gonna be witnesses, eyewitnesses, corroborating witnesses, character
witnesses? Could you be a character witness
of the Lord Jesus Christ? Could you tell people about Him
in such a way that they might just see how glorious He is?
Just get a little glimpse of it. What the miracles did was
confirm and support and promote the gospel of the Son of God.
We don't need to turn to those scriptures again. You've heard
me quote them many times. That's why he gave them the ability. Who's gonna listen to a bunch
of fishermen and an old man that has no education? Well, everybody if they can make
a lame man walk. And that's what our Lord did.
so they could hear of Christ, you'll testify of me. Why do
we harp on that every time we come together? Because that's
what we do. We testify of Christ in this world. And that's the
business that God's in. Everybody's saying, well, I just
wanna serve the Lord. Do you have any idea what he's
doing? You might wanna find that out
before you start serving him. I tell you what he's doing, he's
saving his people by the preaching of the gospel. He's glorifying
his son in this world. The Lord Jesus Christ still always
has and always will have power on earth to forgive sins. That's
what he's in the business of doing. Do you have any sins that
need forgiven this morning? This is how that happens. He said, you're gonna go and
preach what I've told you and those that listen to you and
hear you and believe you, I'm gonna save them. I'm gonna save
them. Psalm 138 to listen to this. One of these days, we're gonna
realize what's going on right here, right now. One of these
days, we're gonna realize it. One of these days, I'm gonna
preach the gospel. And one of these days, you're
gonna hear it, and you're gonna know what God is doing here right
now. Listen to David in Psalm 138
to, I will worship toward thy holy temple. The holy temple
of God is his son. Everything in that Old Testament
temple and tabernacle pictured Christ set forth Christ exalted
Christ I'm gonna worship. Is that what we're doing and
I'm gonna praise your name for your loving kindness and For
your truth, is that what we're doing? Why are we doing it "'For thou
hast magnified thy word "'above all thy name.'" The word. That truth, the truth that God
has magnified his word above all his name must inform our
entire lives. Verse nine, "'And when he had
spoken these things while they beheld, He was taken up and a
cloud received him out of their sight. Let's remember
what a beautiful thing this is. You know, there's no doubt that
this was killing the disciples. They walked with him, they left
everything and followed him. And they heard the very word
of God from his mouth. And they saw his miracles. They
saw his provision for them. They're out in the desert in
the middle of nowhere and don't have anything to eat. And he fed them with his power. Just by the word of his mouth,
he fed the multitudes. They came to depend upon him
for everything. That's a good place to be. And
they thought that was changing. He's leaving, he's going away. But what a beautiful thing. Remember
what our Lord said about that. He said, it's expedient unto
you that I go. Think about this and take this
glorious thought with you in your heart everywhere you go.
Everything that our savior has ever done or ever shall do is
expedient unto you. If you're his, if you believe
on him, if you love him, he will never do anything that
is not expedient unto you. That's the love of God. He that
spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, for his sheep."
Now, he said, I laid down my life for the sheep. Are you one
of his sheep? Maybe you're asking, am I one
of the Lord's sheep? Well, do you believe on him?
Do you follow him? He said, my sheep follow me.
That's how you can tell. They hear my voice and they follow
me. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? He said in Jeremiah 29, 11, listen
to this, for I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith
the Lord. You may not know, you may forget,
but I know the thoughts that I think toward you, thoughts
of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. It's not a crapshoot. It's not
up to you, thank God. We are predestinated to be conformed
to the image of his son, predestinated by God, an expected end. I have thoughts of peace toward
you and not of evil to give you You're not gonna earn it. You're
not gonna figure it out. You're not gonna get there without
him. I'm gonna give you an expected
end. Then shall you call upon me and
you shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you.
I'm gonna hear you. And you shall seek me and find
me when you shall search for me with all your heart. Verse 10, and while they looked
steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood
by him in white apparel. While they looked, while they
looked, while their hearts were breaking, while they were afraid, They knew their enemies were
out to kill him and them. Now he's gone. What's gonna happen
to us? While they didn't understand,
while they were hurting, the Lord immediately sends two men,
angels in the form of men, holy angels, two men in white apparel, They were able to see these angels
then. We can't see them now, but we
know they're there, don't we? The Lord said, I'll give my angels
charge over you. That was true of the Savior,
that's true of his people. He has assigned angels unto us. Our angels behold the face, he
said, of the Heavenly Father always. We can't see them like
they did, but by faith we do. So the Lord, think about this.
The Lord said he would send the Holy Ghost to comfort us. He called him
the Comforter when he said, I'm gonna send him to you. I'm gonna
send you the Comforter. And how's he gonna comfort us?
He's gonna take the things of Christ and reveal them. This is how he does that. That's
what's happening here. He may reveal him to you for
the first time this very morning. Or you may see him for the 20,000th
time. And if you do, it'll be sweeter
than it was the first time. to see him revealed in his word
by his gracious Holy Spirit. He's gonna send the Holy Ghost
to comfort and reveal, and he's assigned angels unto us. And look what they did. They
did exactly the same thing that the Lord Jesus Christ did, just
a little bit, just a couple of verses before. They gently rebuke
them as he did, and they get them looking in the right direction. What did they take their eyes
off of? Oh, he's gone, he's leaving. Our hearts are broken. What are
we gonna do now? Remember when they were on the
road to Emmaus? And the Lord said, why are you so sad? What
are you talking about that's making you so sad? Well, Jesus
of Nazareth, he was crucified. He died. That's the very thing we ought
to be rejoicing about. And look what they did, oh my
goodness. this gentle rebuke, verse 11,
which also said, you men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? They're not asking that to get
information, are they? They knew why they were gazing
up into heaven, because the Lord Jesus Christ just ascended. That's
what I would have been doing too. But they're saying this, listen,
this same Jesus, There's only one Savior in there.
There's only one God in human flesh, which is taken up from
you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen
him go into heaven. Look at the question they ask.
Why? Why stand ye gazing? Why? Why are you doing that? Here's the reason right here
that our actions are questioned by angels. Their actions were
questioned by angels. Here's the reason our inaction
is corrected. Why are you just standing there?
Did he not tell you what to do? Here's the reason that our sorrow
and our sense of loss is rebuked, though tenderly, We spend too much time looking
with these eyes. And we look at what we think
is bad. We look at what we think is loss
and sorrow and tragedy and heartache and as real as that is. As real
as that is. Look what these angels did. They
just simply reminded the disciples of what he said. Why are you so sad? Don't you
remember he told you? He said, if I go to prepare a
place for you, I'm gonna come get you. Remember what he said
when your heart's breaking. Don't stand there brokenhearted.
Remember that this same Jesus, this same Jesus that said, let
not your heart be troubled, You believe in God, believe also
in me. In my father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you. There are many places for sinners. in the house of God, in the kingdom
of God. And I'm going to see to it that
one of them is yours. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you. What are you coming back for,
Lord? To throw all your enemies in
hell? He's gonna do that. No, that's not what he said,
though. I'm gonna come back and get you. Receive you unto myself, that
where I am, there you may be also. Did he not pray that in
John 17 in his great high priestly prayer before he went to Calvary?
He said, Father, I will that those that you've given me be
with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. He's gonna
come and do that. Now, in the meantime, the Lord
had given them a commission. Why stand you there? As his ambassadors,
they were to go, wait for his power, the power of the Holy
Spirit, and then be witnesses of him. But like them, we look. with the eyes of the flesh and
we see it all wrong. Instead of looking at earthly
circumstances and what our eyes can see, we are now, even now,
to look to Him by faith in His word. Remember what He said and
rejoice that He's going to the Father. Rejoice concerning who
He is and where He is right now. Unless redemption had been accomplished,
there'd be no going to the Father. Turn with me to John 14, 25.
This is what we referred to a minute ago. I just have another thing or two
to say here. John 14, 25. These things have I spoken unto
you, being yet present with you, but the comforter, which is the
Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach
you all things. That's talking about our text.
He said, wait for the Father, wait for the promise of the Father,
that the Holy Ghost is gonna come upon you in power. He shall
teach you all things, middle of verse 26, and bring all things
to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. Those angels
were in on that. Remember what he said. You don't
need to be looking at him go and be sad about that. Think
about his promise. I'm coming back for you. If I
go, if I go, He appeared in the presence of
God the Father for us with his precious blood, like the high
priest in the Old Testament, appeared before the Shekinah
glory of God with blood, not without blood. Also, our high
priest must have somewhat to offer. And he went there with
his own precious blood and obtained eternal redemption for us. If
I go, Then I will come again and receive you unto myself. And he's gonna remind you of
that. Look at verse 27, peace I leave with you. My peace I
give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Aren't you glad for that part? Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid. That's what was happening in
our text. They were troubled, they were
afraid. He said, don't be, don't be. And he sent those angels
to remind them. You have heard how I said unto
you, I go away and come again unto you. If you loved me, you
would rejoice because I said, I go unto the father. For my
father is greater than I. You wouldn't be sad, you'd be
rejoicing about that. And now I have told you before
it come to pass, that when it has come to pass, you might believe. We look at a trial, don't we?
We look at a trial. And we've been through some things
now, going through some things. We look, though, we look like
they did at the trial, at the trouble, at the, don't be troubled,
he said, don't be afraid. That takes our hearts away from
the glorious truth that what David said, it is good for me
that I should be afflicted. That I might learn by actual
faith experience, thy statutes. Psalm 119.71. We look at a chastisement from
the Lord, and we cry and complain, and we miss the glorious realization
that it is thus that the Son of God deals with his children.
What son is he that the Lord chasteneth not? No chastening
for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless,
afterward, It yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them
that are exercised thereby. Let not your heart be troubled. Only believe. We look at the
waves and the winds and take our eyes off the Lord. The same
Lord Jesus who gave himself for us on Calvary is the one that
rules the winds and the seas right now. This same Jesus who redeemed
you on Calvary shall so come in like manner and claim his
purchased possession, he said, unto the praise of his glory,
Ephesians 114. This same Jesus that asks you,
why? What is it that you're talking
about today and why are you so sad? This same Jesus shall come and
he shall wipe away all tears from your eyes. The same Jesus whose presence
now Even now is your joy and delight and safety and comfort. Shall so come in like manner
and shall meet us in the clouds. And so shall we ever be with
the Lord. Why are you sad? Let's pray.