The Acts of The Lord Jesus

All right, brethren, Acts chapter 1. In verse 1, Luke is referring to the gospel that he wrote that the translators titled, The Gospel According to Saint Luke. And if you notice, the subject there is all that Jesus began both to do and teach. That was the subject of the gospel that Luke wrote by the grace of God, by the spirit of God. That's the subject of the whole Bible, all that the Lord Jesus did and taught.

And the power by which we believe and by which we follow the Lord the power by which we're made righteous and accepted of God is not of us, it's of the Lord. He said there in verse eight, you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Christ is the power by which we bear witness of Him, and we bear witness only of Him. That's what the book is about, and that's what we're sent to do, is to bear witness of Him.

But it's the power of the Holy Spirit by which we do that. And the power of the Holy Spirit is Christ in you. The Spirit and the Father and the Lord Jesus are one. and the power of the Spirit in his people is the Lord Jesus in his people. And so the subject here, and what we didn't get to last time, is I wanna talk to you about the Acts of the Lord Jesus. The translators titled this the Acts of the Apostles, but it's really the Acts of the Lord Jesus because they only did what they did by the Spirit. and that's Christ in you. He was the one working in them by his power. I told you last time, what Luke wrote was one book to begin with.

And around 150 to 180 AD, somewhere in there, in Greece, they divided it into two books. And in the Graeco-Roman literature, Greece and Roman literature, whoever the hero of the book was, or they're writing about the exploits of somebody, they would call it the Acts of So-and-So. And so they called this the Acts of the Apostles. But it would better be titled the Acts of the Lord Jesus, because everything they did, they did by the power of the Lord Jesus, just like us, just like his people today.

So this book picks up right where Luke left off with his gospel, and that is the Lord had smitten, God had smitten the shepherd and the sheep scattered, and if it was not for the Lord, they wouldn't have been gathered back together, but he gathered them back together.

After he rose from the dead, he gathered them back together, he showed himself alive by many infallible proofs, and it says there, Verse nine, when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight. Now here's the first thing. Our Lord Jesus is risen and he has all power and he's ruling everything. He's risen and he is ruling. The very fact that the Lord Jesus arose and ascended to the Father and sat down at God's right hand, the very fact he did that declares that he accomplished justifying his people. He accomplished what the Father sent him to do.

Paul said in Romans 4.25, he was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification.

Now it wasn't our Lord rising again that justified us. He justified us by his obedience unto the death of the cross. That's how he justified all God's elect, made us the righteousness of God in him, by his obedience unto death. But his rising, when he rose from the dead, it testifies to us that Christ's precious blood indeed justified us from all our sin. He justified us. He completely, totally made us the righteousness of God. While men were condemning our Savior, And while he was suffering the cross in the room instead of his people, he faithfully looked to the Father, and this was what he said.

We get this from Isaiah 50 in verse eight. He said, he is near that justifieth me. That was his perfect faith in the Father. While the Father's forsaken him, he's bearing the curse for his people in order to redeem us from that curse. He's satisfying justice so that God's just to be merciful to us. And while he's bearing that, forsaken of the Father, forsaken of his people, while he's alone on that cross in that darkness, he declared, he is near the justified me.

Who is he that will condemn me, he said. Let us stand together. Who's my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord God will help me. And when our Lord arose, when he arose, It's declaring that God the Father was pleased with his son and he declares he justified him and he justified all his people in him. That's what his arising tells. Listen, I pray the Lord would make our young people and us, make us just look up and behold him with our faith and know Salvation is nowhere else.

There is no other way. We're all gonna face God. We're all gonna meet God. And there's no other way to meet God and be accepted than through faith in the Lord Jesus. And I pray the Lord would make us just, whatever it is that we put any confidence in, that he would just demolish that and make us trust the Lord Jesus only. He is the only way of salvation. The only way that God's gonna accept a sinner like us is through faith in his son.

Now, I'm showing you that he's risen and that he's ruling and that all the acts of the apostles was because of Christ's power working in them. That's what we're focusing on here now. The power ruling this world right now is the God-man. That's who's ruling everything coming to pass.

Ephesians 120 is such a wonderful, wonderful passage. He's always been all-powerful as God. The Son of God is God. As God, he's all-powerful. But now the God-man is risen and ruling. It says in verse 20, he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that's named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and hath put all things under his feet. And now, there's the fact that he's ruling everything, but here's the blessing for us, brethren. gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. So our Savior's all powerful and he's ruling all, but he's doing it all for his people, filling all in his people, in his church.

The Holy Ghost was given by our Lord Jesus. He prayed the Father and gave the Holy Spirit. He said there in verse four, When he was assembled together with them, he commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith he, you have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. He said, you heard this of me, and here's what he told them when he was with them before he went to the cross.

Our Lord said, I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever. And he said, he will dwell with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. Now get that. He said the spirit would dwell with you and be with you. And he said, and I will not leave you comfortless. I will be with you.

The spirit of of God in his people is Christ in his people. It's the spirit of Christ. Because God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are one. And so the spirit of God dwelling in you is Christ dwelling in you. The spirit abiding with you forever is Christ abiding with you forever.

Now, so he's ruling and he's reigning. He's doing everything coming to pass for his people. Now look at this next thing. This book is the acts of our Lord Jesus because it's him in spirit that is the power in his people. It's the Lord Jesus that is the power in his people.

Again, he said there in verse eight, you shall receive power. After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you And here's what you're gonna do with that power. You shall be witnesses unto me. You're gonna bear witness of me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.

So after the Holy Ghost came upon them, he gave the apostles power to do things they couldn't do before. It was by the power of the Lord that they did what they did, things they couldn't do before. And they were miracles, they were signs for that time that were needful till he finished writing the scriptures, but it was by the power of the Lord.

But this applies to every chosen, redeemed child of God. No sinner has life without the Spirit. We'll wait just a minute. So the Lord prayed the Father and he gave the Spirit. And so they did what they did by the Spirit, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, this applies to us. The Father chose, Christ redeemed, and we must be born of God or we can do absolutely nothing. Till we're born of God, everything we're doing is just in a vain form. That scripture said that God gave him all power to fill all in all his church.

And the very next word says, and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin. We have to be given the Holy Spirit just like they were. It doesn't mean that prior to that, sinners weren't born of God. Everybody that's ever been saved has been born of the Spirit of God. Before, while Christ walked this earth, and after Christ arose. God does not change. He's always saved this way. And you have to quicken who were dead in trespasses and sin. The scripture says, by grace are you saved through faith, and that's not of yourselves. We can't say we gave ourselves faith. We can't say we gave ourselves life. That's of the spirit of the Lord. It's the gift of God, not of works, because we would boast. So it has to be of the power of the spirit.

So the Lord's always regenerated his people. And that was the fulfillment of the scripture on the day of Pentecost. Him giving the spirit so that now the church is in the realm of the spirit now. and a marked change took place then. But He's God who changes not. That's how He has always saved His people is by the power of the Spirit.

Every sinner's dead and we only have life by the Holy Spirit. And when the Spirit quickens and gives us faith, Christ is dwelling in us. He's dwelling in His child and He's leading us by His Spirit in everything we're doing. that's honoring to Him is by Him, by His power. God won't share His glory. He won't let anybody glory that they did anything of themselves. It's all of Him. Now, I wanna focus on what our Savior declared the power of the Spirit would make His people do. He said, you'll receive power when the Spirit of the Lord's come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me.

What does a witness do? A witness is called to the stand in a court of law, and a witness just tells what he saw, what he heard, what he experienced. A firsthand account, because he saw it, he knows it, he heard it, he was there. And that's what we're sent to do, to bear witness. And we're bearing witness that salvation, A to Z, everything that had to do with us being saved is done by Christ, that's what we're declaring.

Go with me to Isaiah 43. Here's what we're to declare. Right here. Isaiah 43 and verse seven. God speaking right now, this is his word. He says, everyone that is called by my name, Isaiah 43, seven, everyone that is called by my name, I have created him for my glory. I have formed him, yea, I have made him.

Bring forth the blind people that have eyes and the deaf that have ears. Let all the nations be gathered together and let the people be assembled. Who among them can declare this and show us former things? Let them bring forth their witnesses that they may be justified, or let them hear and say, it is truth.

You are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant, whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord, and beside me There is no savior. I have declared and have saved and I have showed when there was no strange God among you, therefore you are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God. Yea, before the day was, I am he, and there's none that can deliver out of my hand. I will work, and who shall let it?

Brethren, Our witness, what we're bearing witness of, is that God our Father and His Son, Christ Jesus, is our salvation. We were the blind, we were the deaf, we were the dead, and it's by His power now that we see. It's by His grace that now we have life, and we know Him, and we understand Him, and we're bearing witness. We didn't choose Him. He chose us. It wasn't us choosing Him, it was Him choosing us. The Father chose us by His grace before this world was even made and chose us in Christ.

Our witness is that Christ made us righteous. We didn't make ourselves righteous by our works. We didn't. That's our witness. Our witness is that Christ's obedience is where I'm standing. I'm standing in His obedience before God, not mine, His. Our witness is that the Holy Spirit regenerated us and gave us faith to trust Him.

We couldn't do it. We didn't do the ABCs of how to be born again. The Spirit of God interrupted us. Christ and His power gave us life and faith to look to Him only. We did not, here's our witness, we didn't make ourselves holy by our works, by obeying the law, and we never have added to our holiness by obeying the law. Our witness is the Lord Jesus, God our Father, made us fit. He made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance in life with all the saints there, and he did it in his son and by his son.

That's our witness. Our witness is that it's not us preserving ourselves. We're not boasting, saying, oh, look how strong my faith is. Our witness is he's preserving us. We're kept by the power of God unto salvation that's ready, nothing to be added to it. And our witness is when we go into that grave in the Lord's time, when he comes, when he returns, he is going to raise our body fashioned like unto his glorious body, and everybody will have to say, well, that work is absolutely of God.

There's no way we could have done that. Well, every other part of it is just that real. It's all him, and we couldn't do any of the other part of it. Just like that, just like coming out of that grave. We're that helpless in this thing of salvation. Every bit of it.

If a man says that he contributed even one little part, he's not bearing witness to Christ. That's not bearing witness to Christ. If I give myself room to say I did one little thing in this thing of salvation, I'm not bearing witness of Christ anymore. I'm saying I'm bearing witness to something I did then. That's not a faithful witness.

The faithful witness says, He's Alpha and Omega. He's the author and the finisher. He's everything. He is salvation. So here's the last thing I want to show you. I've showed you now that Christ really arose and he's ruling. He has all power in heaven and earth.

I showed you that the reason that he quickened us and by his power gave us faith and we began following him. The reason he did it is for us to tell people He did it. To tell people, bear witness of Him, that's our charge in this world, is to bear witness of Him. God said, I created you for my glory, for you to bear witness of me. All right, so lastly, the acts of these apostles. This book, the title is not inspired. The title is given by the translators. And the title would be better titled, The Acts of Our Lord Jesus. because they did nothing except by the power of God.

Look, verse eight, you shall receive power after 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 other parts of the earth. That last part right there includes us today. We're in the uttermost parts of the earth and we're bearing witness of him. The apostles and faithful men today preach the same message. and we do it by the same power. They preached by the Lord Jesus, by the power of the Lord Jesus.

Paul said, we don't have any sufficiency in ourselves. Our sufficiency is of God. And neither does any preacher today. A faithful man has no sufficiency, and he'll tell you that. Our sufficiency is God, and our message is the same. We bear witness to Christ.

So they acted, everything they did was by the Lord Jesus working in them. And it's been so from then till now, and it will be so until the Lord calls the last lost sheep. This is how it will be. The only difference between then and now is our Lord bodily was in this earth until he finished the work at the cross. Now, bodily, he's in glory. That's the only difference. But he was with them then, and he's with us now, just as real now as he was then.

I'm saying, I'm pressing this point because people in this world that claim to believe Christ, they don't believe this. That's why they gotta have every kind of checking ballots on their preacher and why they gotta vote everything, because they don't believe Christ is really in the midst working. But he is, he is. I want you to think about this.

They didn't have a church history like we do now. They didn't have any church history. to go off of. The early church was Christ had just formed this church like it is there at the beginning in Acts 1. They didn't have any history to look at to copy.

You know one of the biggest problems that we have in our day? People reading about church history and trying and have this ideal of what the church ought to look like and trying to imitate it. They didn't have that. So how'd they know what to do? Christ led them. And Christ worked in them what he would have done. There's a lot of rubbish, a lot of rubbish, and folks trying to do what they've seen other people do and what they think is successful to build a church.

Christ didn't have a ministry for married folks and a ministry for single folks and a ministry for kids and a ministry for, he didn't have that. He didn't have anything to attract people whatsoever. On the day of Pentecost, you think about this, Peter stood up and preached and more people than ever was quickened and called and converted at one time, more than any other time in the world on that day. And what was it? He just preached a simple message and gave Christ all the glory. And that's how Christ formed his church. That's how he kept calling out his sheep. But it was Christ doing it.

And they knew where to go and what to do one way. Christ led them in spirit. Paul said, if you be led of the spirit, you're not under the law. If you're led of the spirit, you don't have to have a law making you do what you do. You're led of the Lord. He's leading you. He's the only power. Go to Philippians 2. He's the only power, and he's in his church, he's in his people, and he's working his will. Listen to what Paul is saying here, and really enter into what he's saying.

Philippians 2.12. He said, my beloved, as you've always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation.

Let me tell you what that means. If you've got to change some light bulbs, and you've got to plan for a conference, and you've got to get the grass cut, and you've got to put a new door on the shed, which we need a new door on the shed, and anything you're doing together, work it out. Work it all out together with fear and trembling. Why?

Because Christ is present. For it's God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Do all things without murmuring and disputing. You don't have to murmur and dispute if you know Christ is in your brethren. and he'd work in his will and good pleasure. You don't have to fight to have your way, because you know Christ is working.

Look, why do we do it this way? That you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without the rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. How? Holding forth the word of life, bearing witness of Christ. That's how you shine. bearing witness of your light, the Lord Jesus.

That's what he meant when he said, where two or three are gathered, there I am. He wasn't just giving you an excuse to get off with two or three people away from everybody else. He was saying, when you gather together, if you have to correct somebody, you do it very humbly and you don't offend, and you remember, I'm there. I'm in your midst, I'm present. That's what he's teaching. That's what he's teaching in the Philippian. Let's see a few of these acts of the Lord and we'll close. Look at verse eight.

These men started preaching in languages they had never preached in, Acts 2.8. They preached in languages they never preached in. How did they do that?

He said, somebody said in Acts 2.8, how hear we every man in our own tongue wherein we were born?

Parthians and Medes and Elamites and dwellers in Mesopotamia. Look down at the end of verse 11. We do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. That's what they were preaching. They were bearing witness of Christ. They were preaching his works. Look at verse 33, and the Lord saved some, and he made them preach that, and Peter said, therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and have receiving of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which you now see in here. Christ did it.

All right, look at Acts 3. The lame man believed, and he was healed, and everybody was looking at Peter like, what in the world, how'd you do that, Peter? Acts 3, 12. Peter said, he answered the people and he said, you men of Israel, why marvel at this? Why look you so earnestly on us as though by our own power or holiness we hath made this man to walk?

He said, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his son Jesus Christ whom you delivered up and denied him in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him go. He called him the holy one, he called him the just one. Verse 15, he calls him the prince of life.

And then verse 16, he said, in his name, through faith in his name, hath made this man strong, whom you see and know. Oh, somebody, see, it was the man's faith. No, hang on, keep reading. No, he said, yea, the faith which is by Christ hath given him this perfect sound that's in the presence of you all. Christ did it, that's what he's saying. Christ did it, his faithfulness did it.

And then in verse eight, they arrest him, they sit him in the midst to give an answer. In verse eight, I'm sorry, verse four, chapter four, verse eight, he said, you rulers of the people, you elders of Israel, he said, if we be examined this day for the good deeds done to this impotent man, by what means he's made whole, be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God hath raised from the dead, even by him does this man stand here before you all. He said he did it. Everything at Corinth, go with me over to Acts, over to Acts 18, Acts 18. at Corinth, they were saying Paul was preaching against the law, preaching contrary to the law, because he was declaring Christ fulfilled it. In Acts 18, 9, then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by vision and said, be not afraid, speak. Go not thy peace, for I am with thee. No man shall sit on thee to hurt thee. I have much people in this city.

And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. Go with me back to Acts 16. I want you to see this. He controlled where they preached. Christ controlled where they preached. He controls where we preach today. Acts 16 and verse 6. When they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia. People are, you know, God wants everybody to be saved. He's just hoping everybody will believe on him.

The Lord forbid them to go to a place to preach the gospel. And in verse seven, after they were come to Massaia, they were saved to go into Bithynia, but the spirit suffered them not. And they, passing by Massaia, came down to Troas, and a vision appeared to Paul in the night, and there stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, come over into Macedonia and help us. And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them.

And they go down to a river where people gathered to worship. And verse 14 says, and a certain woman named Lydia, a certain woman means she was chosen of God. a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, which worshiped God. She heard us, whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended to the things which were spoken of by Paul. She asked to confess Christ in baptism, and they baptized her. And then the rulers, the rulers beat Paul and Silas and threw them in jail. They were at Philippi there. He threw them in jail. Christ did all of that.

You know why? Because that jailer, was one of his elect who he redeemed. And Paul preached the gospel to him, and the Lord saved him. And the Lord saved many in Lydia's house, because they were chosen. Christ redeemed them. That's why the Spirit sent them there to preach. And there was many in that jailer's house who was the elect of God that Christ redeemed. And that's why he was put in prison to preach there. And they confessed Christ.

And that, now, Who planted the church at Philippi? Did Paul do it? No, the Lord Jesus did it. We're coming up on a text in Isaiah 60 where he said, you're gonna be my planting, the planting of the Lord that I might be glorified. Everybody that's planted in his house, he planted them, everybody. Paul bore witness that Christ did it all. Listen to this. He said, by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Everything they did, Christ worked it. He said, I went through persecutions and afflictions at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, and he said, but out of them all, the Lord delivered me.

You see, brethren, the Lord is working in his people. He's leading us every day, and he's using us for one purpose in this, or we're in this world for one reason. It's to bear witness of him. Everything he gives us is to provide the gospel for us. He's using our brethren to provide the gospel for us so that he teaches us, and this is how he's leading us today, so that we can bear witness of him. And then we send this gospel forth, bearing witness of him, supporting missionaries that preach the gospel, helping folks that preach the gospel of Christ. And we know how to walk in this world because Christ, by His Spirit, is leading us and He's teaching us at all times.

Do this, do what glorifies Him. Do what gives Him the glory. Do what makes people see Him and not you. Makes people look to Him and not to you. That's our purpose, is to bear witness of Him. And brethren, I'm telling you, our Lord, we don't, You would be better off not looking at bad, vain traditions and trying to emulate what we think a church ought to look like. Look to Christ and trust.

He's going to put the people that he would have here, here. He's going to give the message he would have preached. He's going to bless it to the heart of them he would bless. And he's going to lead each one of us. And he's not going to lose any of his people. No man's going to pluck us out of his hand. and he's gonna bring every one of us to glory, and he's gonna keep doing this until he's called the last lost sheep. He said, them I must bring, because he bought them with his blood. He must bring them, and he will bring them.

And I'm just trying to show you, brethren, this whole book that we're gonna look at is the acts of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what we see when we look to his church. we see the acts of the Lord Jesus, our King, sovereign, sovereign savior. Father, we thank you for this word. We thank you for blessing us. Lord, what a rare and precious thing to have the gospel and even more rare to believe and trust Christ. Lord, keep us looking only to him. Keep us bearing witness of him.

Lord, use us for your glory and make us truly look up and know Know that you're with your people continually, leading, guiding, teaching, keeping, correcting, doing everything we need, and cause us to be settled by that. Cause us to rest and know, Lord, that you're present with us. You'll never leave us. You'll never forsake us. Keep us knowing that and keep us resting in Christ and bearing witness of him. It's in his precious name we ask it, amen. All right, let's sing a closing hymn, brethren.

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The Acts of The Lord Jesus

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