Chapter 1, I've titled my message
this evening, Witnesses Unto Me. Witnesses Unto Me, out of
verse 8. But ye shall receive power after
that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses
unto me. Witnesses Unto Me. Our Savior, before He went back
to glory and ascended back to His Father, He gave some instructions
to His people. In fact, it says there in verse
4, He commanded them. He commanded them. People don't
like a Savior that makes commandments, but a sovereign commands. He
commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem. until
they received the promise of the Father, the spirit that the
Father had promised to send through the Son. And some call it the
Great Commission, but it isn't that. It isn't that, because
we all are witnesses. We're all the witnesses. I was
with a couple, two or three preachers preaching one time, in one of the highlands and a
man who teaches preaching at Duke University got up and preached
on the Great Commission out of Matthew 28. And when he got through, I told
him, I said, you didn't give a spitting distance to the gospel.
You never honored Christ. You didn't say anything about
His blood, His righteousness or substitution. And I took Him
to task. And then I had to get up and
preach after Him. But I took Him to task over that. He was
making more people to go out and start witnessing for Jesus. And that's the kind of teachers
they got teaching people to preach now. But I'll tell you what,
when He says this to the Great Commission, our Lord says, You're
witnesses. You're witnesses. If you was
called into a courtroom, you know, and you raised your right
hand, put your hand on a Bible, and say, I swear to tell the
truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth, so help me God,
yes. You become a witness. You become a witness then. Well,
we are witnesses. And we didn't have to raise our
right hand, we'd have to swear on the Bible. We are witnesses. Of who? The Lord Jesus Christ. Witnesses of who He is, what
he did, who he did it for, and where he is now, and what he
accomplished by that death. He first tells them to wait for
the promise of the Holy Spirit, the teacher, the comforter, the
one who will give them the power to do his will, to be his witness
after he went back to glory. And so let's go start here in
verse four. and go down through these verses
and see what they have to say to us right now. And being assembled
together with them, with his disciples, being assembled with
them, together with them. And it says in the margin, eating
together with them. And this may have been after
our Lord Jesus Christ appeared to them there in the upper room
and they were all gathered together, he commanded them that they should
not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father,
which saith he, ye shall heard of him. For John truly baptized
with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many
days hence. Well, he's talking about here
when the Holy Spirit comes. You stay in Jerusalem until the
Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost of God comes down on you and gives
you the power to be a witness for me. And this is the thing,
you know, when our Lord Jesus Christ, John said it this way. He said, I'll indeed baptize
you with water. Matthew 3.11 says, I indeed baptize
you with water. But there's coming one after
me. There's coming one after you. He'll baptize you with the
Holy Ghost and he'll baptize you with fire. And that's what
he said talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. Now Christ died
for our sins, and then He was raised again for our justification. And then He ascended back to
glory. He ascended back to heaven. And
there He sits with the promise that God said that He would give
baptize to His people with the Holy Ghost. And he says he'll
send the Holy Ghost and he will undo them with the power of the
Holy Ghost. Now He's the only one, He's the
only one who gives us the power to believe from first to last. You know if the Holy Ghost didn't
come, and Christ didn't give us the power, and the Holy Spirit
didn't give us the power, we would not have any faith. We
would not believe the first thing about Christ. We would not believe
anything. But so He gives us the power
to believe from the first time we believe till we enter into
glory. And He's the only one that can
do that. And I'll tell you what it is, the Holy Ghost when He's
talking about here and doing us with power and doing His disciples
with power, it's Christ in us is what it amounts to, Christ
in us. Now I want you to look with me over here in 1 Corinthians
chapter 12. Look with me in 1 Corinthians
chapter 12. Couple things to look at over
here talking about this. He said, you'll be given power
after, after. You know, our Lord said, while
I was with you, I'm going away from you. But I'm not going to
leave you as orphan. I'm not going to leave you comfortless.
I'm going to pray the Father, and He's going to send you the
Spirit. He's going to send the Holy Spirit down upon you. But
look what it said in verse 3, 1 Corinthians 12, 3. Wherefore I give you to understand
that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed,
and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the
Holy Ghost. You can't acknowledge Christ
as being Lord. I mean really Lord, you know.
Say, may Christ Lord of your life. He's Lord whether you ever
say you're ever saved by Him or not. He's always been Lord
and always will be. Then look what else it says down
in verse 13. For by one Spirit are we all
baptized into one body, immersed, put into one body. Whether we
be Jews or whether we be Gentiles, whether we be a slave or in bondage
to somebody or free, we've all been made to drink under one
spirit. So the Holy Spirit's the one
that puts us in Christ, makes us believers, makes us endure,
and does things for us. And the gospel, when it talks
about the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and then we receive the
power after that comes upon us. That word power is the same word
as dynamo, dynamite. And you know who is the first
fellow, you know where dynamite come from? Call it dynamo, the
gospels, the power of God. The Holy Ghost, when he comes,
he'll give you power. He'll give you dynamous. A fellow
named Alfred Nobel. He is the one that invented nitroglycerin,
and then he's the one that made Dynamite, dynamous, and that's
the same word that comes from power. He's the one that gives
all these Nobel Prizes away and makes people millionaires and
gives them all away, because he made so much money making
dynamite and inventing dynamite. That's just a little fact, a
little history there, you know. But anyway, the Holy Ghost, He
says when He comes, He said, you wait, in verse 5, for John
truly baptized you with water. And this one thing, well thank
God we got people want to be baptized with water, identify
with Christ. But He says the Holy Ghost, when
He comes, what's He gonna do? He's gonna baptize you. What
is He gonna do? What is He gonna baptize you
with? With the Holy Ghost, not many
days hence. You see, He's the Holy Ghost,
is the one who enables us. to be a faithful witness to the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one who enables us to
be a witness about the crucifixion and the death of our Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the one who witnesses that
we know that he was buried, that he's the risen one, the ascended
one, and it tells us there in verse 11, the one that's gonna
come again in like manner, have you seen him go? So when we talk
about the baptism of the Holy Ghost, you know this one, you
know, here's the thing about it. When the Holy Spirit comes
to a believer, when He comes to a believer, the first thing
He does is He gives you life. That's the first thing He does,
gives you life. He gives you power. Power to what? To believe. Power to understand. Power to rejoice, assurance. The only reason we have any power
right now to believe anything is because He came and baptized
us into the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'll tell you
what He goes on to say, you know, for John baptized, you know.
The Lord Jesus, when His death on the cross, what it did, it
obtained our salvation. His death on the cross bought
our salvation, obtained it for us. But what the Holy Ghost does
is He comes and He works in us, works in us what Christ worked
out for us. We wouldn't know anything that
Christ did and who He did it for unless the Holy Spirit comes
and makes us understand. That's exactly what happens.
He works in us what Christ worked out on us. Christ accomplished
salvation, He works that salvation in us. Christ bought our faith,
He works that faith in us. And oh, without baptism of the
Holy Ghost, we wouldn't know a thing in the world about sin.
No, we wouldn't know nothing about sin. We certainly wouldn't
know nothing about righteousness. We wouldn't know anything about
our inability. We wouldn't know anything about
how sinful we really are and how desperately we need the Lord
Jesus Christ. Without that Spirit, without
the Holy Ghost in us, coming to us and working in us while
Christ worked out for us, we wouldn't know anything, nothing.
And then the next question shows you why they had to have the
Holy Ghost. Look at the next question, when
they asked him a question here. When therefore they were come
together, and they're all together now, they're all together, him
and the 12, the 120, there's a whole bunch of them with the
Lord Jesus. They've eaten together. And when they therefore were
come together, they asked of him saying, they asked him a
question. And this is a question. Lord, will thou at this time
restore again the kingdom to Israel? Why in the world would
they ask such a question? You know why they ask that question?
Because they thought when the Messiah come, when the Christ
came, that what he would do, he would come as a king, sit
on David's throne, and get rid of all the enemies, and restore
Israel as a great power that it once was. set a king over
it, expel all the enemies, and restore all the territory. That's
what they expected. And then he restored Israel's
political sovereignty. You know, under David is Solomon. David, he ruled Israel and Judah. He ruled all of them. Great king. In fact, God said that the Messiah,
the Lord Jesus Christ, was going to be of the seed of David. That he is going to be born a
king and he is the only one rightful to the throne. And oh, they thought,
well, he's going to restore the political sovereignty of Israel.
He's going to set up the kingdom of God here on this earth. That's
what they truly expected our Lord Jesus Christ to do. It would
be an earthly kingdom, it'd be a political kingdom, and it'd
be a spiritual kingdom. And that's why they said, Lord,
will you restore the kingdom again to Israel? You gonna bring
us back to the way we were? Back when Solomon reigned and
they come from all over the world to hear the wisdom of Solomon?
To see his glory, to see his majesty, to see the wealth? You hear his wisdom? You gonna
restore us like when Hezekiah ruled? When Josiah ruled and
destroyed all the idols and tore down all the high places and
brought back the Word of God? Oh, will you restore? You know,
they'd been under a foreign rule for 63 years before Christ was
born. And then they spent 70 years
in Babylonian captivity for their sin. And they were looking for
David's son to set up David's kingdom. Now let me show you
something in Matthew 20. Look at this over here in Matthew
20. And you know it's sad to say that there's a lot of people,
a lot of people, I was reading something today that some people
that I really have a lot of confidence in, as I'm reading after them,
Matthew 20, 20. And they mention something about
a rapture. And what that means is, it says,
you know, and there's people that honestly believe that Christ
is going to come for a thousand years reign. He's going to set
up a throne in Israel. He's going to sit on that throne.
And they're going to go back to offering sacrifices again.
And the Jews are going to rule the world. from Israel, from
Jerusalem. And they honestly teach that
and believe that. Now when you talk about a rapture,
that means that when Christ comes, he's gonna come and get all his
people and rapture them out of here. But he's gonna leave everybody
else here. And they gotta stay here and
endure seven years of tribulation. And those that didn't live for
Jesus real good, and never made Christ Lord in their life, and
never dedicated and devoted to Him, and they just played, they
say that Matthew 24, He that endureth to the end, the same
shall be saved. So they got to endure seven years' tribulation,
and if they endure that seven years' tribulation, then they'll
be saved. You say, how do you know that?
Because I used to sit under those fellows' ministry. And every
time one of them would preach it, I'd ask them a question and
they'd get so aggravated they couldn't stand it. I said, you
mean to tell me that the King of Kings is going to come back
down here and get off of the heavenly throne and come to an
earthly throne? You mean He that put away sin
by the sacrifice of Himself once and for all, the Lamb of God,
is going to go back and offer lambs again? And that's what these fellows
are asking. You're going to restore the kingdom. You're going to restore Solomon
and David and their glory and their power and their majesty.
You're going to do that? And look what he said here. Look
in Matthew 20, 20. Then came to him the mother of
Zebedee, as John and James, the brothers, sons of thunder they're
called. worshiping him and design a certain thing of him. He said,
under what wilt thou? What do you want? She said, under
them grant that these my two sons may set the one on thy right
hand and the other on the left in thy kingdom. She said, you're
going to be a king. Listen, when you get on your
throne, restore Israel, I want John to sit over here and I want
James to sit right here. I want my sons to be in two positions
of power. I want them to be right hand
and left hand men. But look what our Lord said.
Look what our Lord said. He answered and said, you don't
know what you're asking. You do not know what you're asking.
Are you not able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of?
What cup is he talking about? That cup that he's drinking,
that cup of wrath and judgment and justice he's going to drink
for us. He said, Oh, my father, if it be possible, let this cup
pass for me. And he said, and drink and to
be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized into fire
and the wrath and the judgment of God Almighty. And they said,
we're able. He said, yep, you're gonna indeed
drink of my cup. And every believer's drunk of
that cup. When he did it, we did it with
him. Then look what it says, be baptized with the baptism
I'm baptized with. When he went to the cross, we
went with him. Everything said, yes, we're able. We weren't able
in ourselves, but everything he did, we was involved in, and
that's what he's talking about. But oh, he said, on my right
hand and on my left, that's not mine to give. That's not mine
to give. We're not talking about an earthly
kingdom here, but my father who hath prepared it for him. And
oh my, he said, we were a great power. Will you restore our territory
again? And look what it says there,
getting back over here in Acts. They said, Lord, wilt thou at
this time, at this time, And you know why they said at this
time? Right now. Today, you're gonna start today? That's what they said at this
time. At this time. You're gonna do it right now?
At this time? Oh, restore again the kingdom
to Israel. Oh my, let me tell you, you know
that dying thief that was on the cross beside our Lord Jesus
Christ? Do you think he saw an earthly
king when he looked at Christ? You think he saw an earthly throne?
He saw a spiritual king with a spiritual kingdom and a savior
and a redeemer and he said, remember me when you come into your kingdom
up there. I want to be in your kingdom.
And that's what we are, we're in His kingdom right now. Not
a coming kingdom, we're in His kingdom right now. And our son,
let me tell you something about our Savior's work. Our Savior's
work is not done in a political way. No, no, no, no. It's not done in the world's
way. Trying to set up Christ's kingdoms by passing laws, getting
Christians into high offices, imposing our view upon the world,
I was looking in the paper today. They've got a constitutional
amendment that they want us to vote on on November the 4th. And that constitutes one of the
constitutional amendments that the state of Tennessee is doing
is that they want to make a constitutional amendment in the Constitution
now that a preacher or a priest can't hold any office in the
state of Tennessee. So they're gonna pass a constitutional
amendment to vote on it so that preachers and priests can hold
office in the state of Tennessee. I'll tell you one thing, I'd
have to step down to be the President of the United States. I'd have
to step down to be the greatest leader in this world. I'd have
to step down from an office that God himself set up. There's not
a greater office that God can put a man in than in the ministry
and the gospel. Not a greater office God can
put a man in. You'd have to step down for anything
else. And that's what our Lord's talking about here. I tell you,
when men have new hearts, God gives them new hearts, gives
them new will, gives them new natures, they'll change. His
kingdom is a kingdom of truth. There was one time in John 6.15,
they come to take Christ to make Him a king. They come to get
Him to make Him a king. You know what our Lord did? He
just eased out among them. They didn't even see Him leave.
You know, He can do that. He can come and let everybody
see Him, then He can just disappear and nobody see Him no where He
went. That's our Lord. Oh, but look what our Lord answered
them. I got to hurry. Look what our Lord said to them
now. He said unto them, verse 7. He said, It's not for you to
know. It's none of your business. That's what he's telling. It's
not for you to know. It's not for you to know. It's
not for you to know the times. It's not for you to know the
seasons. Which the Father is putting His own power. It's not
for you to know when He talks about times. You know, there
was a time that Christ came into the world. He was here for a
time. He was here for a season. And
a time is a space of time. And a season is a period, a time
of period. You know, we have seasons in
the... He said there are seasons that God has set up on this earth.
And there's times for things to happen. And that's what Ecclesiastes
men said, when there's a time and a purpose, a time and a season
for every purpose under the heaven. A time to be born, a time to
die, a time to gather, a time to cast away, a time to sow,
a time to laugh, a time to mourn, all these things. And that's
what he said. He said, it's none of your business. It's God's
time. And I come when it's time for
me to come, and I leave when it's time for me to leave. And there's a season that's going
to happen in everybody's life, and God said, I'll give you a
season. And I tell you what, He says
God's time to do His will on this earth and in this world.
Our season is the time of an event. God's going to do His
pleasure. It's His world. It's His world. Belongs to Him. It's His world. There was a time and a season
for Christ to come. There's a time and season for
Him to come again. And He says, God put all this
in His own power. You surely wouldn't want God
to do anything that He didn't will to do. And that's what they're
saying. And then He not only did He give
them, that's the first answer He gave them. It's none of your
business. That's what He's really saying. It's not for you to know. It's
not for you to know. Why do you even ask Him? It's
not for you to know. Then look what else he says.
Here's the second answer he gives him after he talked about restoring
Israel and the kingdom. But you shall receive power that
the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you shall be witnesses
unto me both in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to
the uttermost parts of the earth. That's the second answer. What
about the kingdom? He said, listen, it's not for
you to know. But this is what I want you to
know. And I command you to stay in Jerusalem until this happens.
After the Holy Ghost comes upon you, you shall be witnesses unto
me. That's what I like, unto me.
You're going to be a witness unto me. And that word witness
also means to testify. What are you going to be a witness
to? What you've seen, what you've heard, what you've experienced,
and what you know to be truth. And oh my, they're gonna witness
what they've seen, what they've heard, what they know of him.
They had seen the Lord Jesus Christ. They had heard his words. They knew him. John leaned on
his breast. They ate with him after his resurrection. And he said, but you'll be witnesses
unto me. What do we have to witness to?
What do we have to testify to? I can testify when God saved
me. I can testify when God gave me a new heart. I can testify
that Christ was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the
world. I can be a witness to how God saves a sinner. I can
be a witness of the Holy Spirit and His work, be a witness of
the power of the gospel. There's lots of things we can
be witnesses to. But let me tell you something,
we believe and we witness the things that we can't see. We've never seen God. We've never
seen God. But we leave Him, don't we? We're
going to witness to Him. We're going to witness that He's
God. That He's Creator of Heaven and Earth. That He upholds the
world by the word of His power. Christ, we've not seen Christ.
Christ, whom we love, we have not seen. So how in the world
do we see Him? By faith. By faith. And I'm going
to witness to Christ. I've never seen Him, but I'm
going to witness of Him. I'm going to witness of Him. And
I tell you what, if we preach and talk about His redemption,
His blood shedding for us, talk about His regenerating power,
that He gives us a new birth, That He gives us a new heart,
gives us a new nature. He justified us by His blessed
blood, freely by His grace. And who can see these things
and witness to these things without the Holy Ghost in power? Who
can do it? Who can do it? And then look
what He said. He says, now you start in Jerusalem. You start witnessing about Me
in Jerusalem. Right where you are. Stay in
Jerusalem. There in verse 8. You stay in Jerusalem. And then
I want you to go all over Judea. I want you to go over the whole
country. I want you to go over all Judea, that's the southern
part of Israel. Then I want you to go up to Samaria,
that's the northern part of Israel, where the Samaritans are. Where
that woman said, you're a Jew and I'm a Samaritan. You know
Jews don't have nothing to do with the Samaritans. He said,
I want you to go preach to the Samaritans. And oh my. Then he said, listen to this.
Then I want you, after you do all that done, I want you to
go all over the world. I want you to go all over the
world with the gospel. And you know, we are believers
right now because somebody started in the Bible with the apostles,
then the disciples, and somebody preached. And our Lord says that
we will believe because of their word. Somebody took the gospel
and went all over the world, and every time somebody preached,
somebody got converted. And that's exactly the way God's
doing today. We believe because God starts
sending preachers. And then, oh, look at this glorious
hope. I want you to see this. Look in verse 9 now. A glorious
hope. And when He hath spoken these
things, while they beheld, He was taken up, and a cloud received
Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly
toward heaven as He went up, Behold, two men stood by them
in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why
stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken
up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner, as ye
seen him go into heaven. Now, you know, this goes into
great detail, but look in Luke chapter 24, and you'll see what
actually happened when our Lord ascended back to glory. This
is what happened in Luke 24, verse 46. And he said unto them, this is
where he was in the upper room with them, and they ate with
them. And he said unto them, it is written that it behoove
Christ to suffer and rise from the dead on the third day. And
you preach repentance and the remission of sins in my name
among all nations, but you started Jerusalem. And you are witnesses
of these things. Witnesses of these things, my
suffering, my death, my resurrection. And behold, I send the promise
of my Father upon you, but now listen again, this is what he
said, but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you be endued
with power from on high. And now watch what happens. And
he led them as far out as Bethany. Bethany was Mary and Martha and
Lazarus, that's where they was from. That's where he raised
Lazarus from the dead, in Bethany. And he lifted up his hands and
he blessed them. Now, what kind of blessings do
you have? Well, you find it in Numbers chapter six, verse 24
through 26, I think. But anyway, he blessed them,
the priestly blessing. And it came to pass while he
blessed them, he was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned
to Jerusalem with great joy. So see, they was out in Bethany
when this happened. And so Luke's going into great
detail of what took place in Luke chapter 24. And while they
was looking at him, we could get our polar little brain
around this. While they stand looking at him, He started going
up. You know, anybody that can raise
herself from the dead, you know, he said, I'll go back to my father.
And after 40 days and 40 nights, they're standing there talking
to him. He lifted up his hands and he blessed them. And then
while his hands was lifted up, he started going up. And up,
and up, and up, and up, and up. And they looked at him. They
was watching him go. They were just watching him go,
what is going on? The scripture said he was taken
up, taken up. And then he got in this cloud
and they couldn't see him anymore. Got in a cloud, went through
a cloud, couldn't see him anymore. And you know what that tells
us? No more walking by sight, but walking by faith. Walking
by faith. And that's what they have to
do. And oh, listen, it says here, a cloud received him out of the
sight. He's going to, where's he going? He's going to his rightful
place at the right hand of God. Exalted to be at God's right
hand. Oh, listen. God said, I've anointed
thee with oil above all thy fellows. He said, who shall ascend into
the hill of the Lord? Who shall ascend into this holy
place? He that's got clean hands. He that's got a pure heart. He
that's not lifted his soul up to vanity. Oh boy, who in the world could
that be that was received up and ascended into that hill of
God? Has to be the Lord Jesus Christ. Him and all. This is
the one who ascended. But look what it says now. He
said, I've seen him go away, and look what our master, what
it says now about him. And while they looked steadfastly
toward heaven, as he went up, two men, just exactly like they
was at his graveside, when two men were sitting there when they
come to look at his grave. Two men sitting there, who you
looking for? Jesus and Nazareth? Look in there, he's not there.
He's risen. So these same two fellows, so
they're there. And they was in white apparel. And they said, you men of Galilee,
why stand ye gazing, gazing up into heaven? My you know how
many people has been deceived to say Christ is gonna come a
certain time And they all that was a fell out in California.
He had people sell their houses sell their property Get that
rid of everything they had because Christ supposed to come at a
certain day And they lost everything And the old man died he died
way up in his 90s and he said them folks he fooled them half
a dozen times But look what he said, stand gazing up into heaven. What good would it do us to stand
up into heaven? You know, I'm going to tell you
a little pet peeve of mine, just a little one, not much. But you
know, you see these religious people, you know, they got album
covers, and you know, they want a picture taken, and they're
always standing looking up into heaven like, you know, oh, I'm
so spiritual, I'm so, you know. Gotta look like I'm just gazing
up to Jesus and I'm so dedicated, committed. But he said, you men of Galilee,
why stand ye up gazing into heaven? Now this is what I like. This
same Jesus, which was taken up from you into heaven, shall come
back just like he left. His return, he's gonna come up
just like he went. Lord Jesus Christ he told me
says he said are you the king of Israel said our next time
you see me you'll see me coming in power and in glory and Coming
in the clouds and in the glory. They said why do we need any
more witnesses? We've heard him blaspheme ourself Oh my, this
same Jesus, the one who has the nail prints in his hand, the
one who has the rip in his side, the one who saved us by his blood,
the one who sits at God's right hand, he's coming back just like
he said. He's coming back as our Redeemer,
our Savior, our Shepherd, and he's coming back to get all his
sheep. And he's going to put them on the right, and put the
goats over here. Huh? He's coming back. Oh my. Our Father, oh blessed be your
name. Praise be to your holy name.
Thank you for allowing us to meet here tonight. Oh Lord, your
word is so powerful, so rich. And Lord, bless it to our understandings,
to our heart, to our faith. Thank you for the good attention
given tonight. Bless these dear saints as they
go about their way. And again, we pray for those
among us whose bodies are weak or frail and sickly. God, please be with them, be
merciful, be gracious, and uphold them by your precious power.
For Christ's sake, I pray. Amen. Amen.