I want to go through, Lord willing, the book of Acts. I've never gone through the book
of Acts. And I've been reading through it, and I tell you, it's
been a blessing to me. It's been a real blessing. I started to preach from the
first two chapters and then jump over here in verse 22 where Peter
starts his sermon. But as I was reading it, I realized
this. There's food in every word of
God. There's food in every verse.
As I began reading this chapter one, and it talked about the
infallible proofs, and this same Jesus is coming again, I thought,
my, what food. What food? What instruction? What instructions we have. I
tell you, one of the advantages of going verse by verse through
the Scriptures is that it makes us deal with things we probably
wouldn't deal with. Like I said, I wanted to jump
over here to verse 22 where Peter had his sermon and just cheat
and take his sermon. You know, that's the easy way
out, isn't it? It's to take a sermon they've already preached and
just say a few words about it. But in order to preach the whole
counsel of God, you have to preach the whole Word of God. You have
to preach the whole Word of God in order to preach the whole
counsel of God. So, I want to deal with this first chapter
this morning. And the theme of this book is our Lord's ascension
back to glory, back to his Father. and His Lordship. Now, I titled this message, This
Same Jesus Shall Come Again. That's great news to believers.
This same Jesus. You know, they watched Him go
away out of their sight. And I had no doubt they were
perplexed. But they said, This same Jesus is going to come again.
He's coming back. Now, the book of Acts as Jason
noted, was written by Luke. And he writes it to his friend
Theophilus. You know, in Luke he called him
Most Excellent Theophilus. He was a man of nobility. I know
the Scripture says not many mighty, not many noble are called, but
some are. Some are called. And here's one
of them, Theophilus. This is the same person he wrote
to in his Gospel of Luke. And then he picks up where he
left off in his former, and he calls it a former treatise. We
call it the Gospel of Luke. He calls it his former treatise
concerning all that Christ taught and the miracles, all that he
did. Look over in Luke chapter 24. Turn back there. Sometime
of the day when you get a chance, just read through this chapter.
In verse 48, He says, and ye are witnesses of these things,
talking to the disciples, the apostles. And behold, I send
the promise of my Father upon you. But tarry ye in the city
of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high. And
he led them out as far as to Bethany. And he lifted up his
hands and blessed them, and it came to pass while he blessed
them, he was parted from them. and carried up into heaven, and
they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy,
and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God." And
it says, Amen. And that's where Luke picks up.
Luke just basically just picks up right where he left off and
just continues now on. And what he covers is about 30
to 35 years is what the book of Acts, it covers about 30 to
35 years. Then he says here in these first two verses, the former
treaties have I made all Theophilus of all that Jesus began both
to do and teach, until the day in which he was taken up, after
that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandment unto the
apostles whom he had chosen. Then he says here in verse three,
to whom also he showed himself alive, alive, after his passion,
after his death by many. infallible, infallible proofs,
being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining
to the kingdom of God." He showed them many infallible proofs for
forty days. He ate with them. He sat down
and He ate with them. He taught them things concerning
the kingdom of God. You know, before, He spoke in
parables concerning the kingdom of God. But now, no doubt, He
spoke to them plainly. And he spoke to them concerning
God's kingdom. And as John said in John 1, 1,
we handled the Word of life. We've seen Him. We've handled
Him. We've touched Him. Their witness is true. These
witnesses here are honest men, made honest by God. These are
honest men. This is a witness of honest men.
That Jesus Christ is alive. He's not in that tomb. He's not
in that grave. This man is alive, and I thought
as I read this, and every man that's ever walked on this earth,
every man and every woman is going to have to deal with him.
Everyone. He's not dead. He's alive and
well and seated at God's right hand. That's where he's at. But
he told the disciples, he said, you go to Jerusalem and you wait. You wait for the promise of the
Father. You wait for the Holy Spirit
to be endued with power from the Holy Spirit. They were going
to need it. They were going to go out here into a lost world.
They were going to go out into a world of darkness. And they
didn't have the complete Word of God that we have. God gave
them special powers that we don't have. But He gave them the Holy
Spirit. He told them to go to Jerusalem.
And you wait. Without the power of the Holy
Spirit, Our preaching would be absolutely fruitless. It would
come to nothing. If it depends on my preaching,
if your salvation, if your edification depends on my preaching, you're
in trouble. He said, you wait. You wait in
Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high. It takes
the power of God to save dead sinners. There is not a physician
among the sons of Adam that has ever walked this earth that can
give a dead man sight, that can give a dead man hearing ears,
that can give a dead man a new heart. He can't do it. It takes
the power of God to save dead sinners, not the power of persuasive
words. Paul said, I didn't come to you
in the wisdom of words. Not at all. Power. And I realize this. I realize
this. And the sooner we realize it,
the better. We who preach. Power does not lie in my speaking
abilities. It doesn't lie in my speaking
abilities. It lies in the very power of God. He commands life. He said to that infant laying
in the field, live. And if he says live, I promise
you, you will live. I can tell you to live all day
and you'll still be dead. But if He says live, you're going
to live. It's His power. Many, and this
is sad, many have been persuaded into making a profession by persuasive
speaking, but none have ever been saved that way. None have
ever been saved that way. His people must be made willing
when? In the day of His power. In the day of His power. Now,
it's evident that we need the Holy Spirit. We need the Spirit
of God. We need His power in giving life. We need His power in raising
dead sinners. But we need Him to teach us.
And these next two verses demonstrate that. It's evident by these verses
why we need the Holy Spirit to teach us. Look here at verse
6 and 7. When they therefore were come together, they asked
of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the
kingdom to Israel? And he said to them, It is not
for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father
has put in his own power. We need his power to raise us
from the dead. We need his power to give us
life. We need him to teach us. We need him to teach us. They
were more interested at this time in the not in the kingdom
of God, not in God's kingdom. Here's what they were interested
in. Will thou at this time restore again the kingdom, not of Israel,
to Israel? Will you restore the kingdom
to us again? They were more interested in God restoring the kingdom
back to them and them being somebody again. That's what they were
interested in. They were more concerned about
Israel's prominence than God's kingdom. That's what they were
more concerned about. I'll tell you this. These men
were saved, but they're still just men. And
we have to remember this. At our best, we're still just
sinful men in need of mercy. Still that way. And he says, has not revealed," this is what
he's saying, what the Father has not revealed, leave it alone.
He said, leave it alone. What he's put into his own power,
the revealed things belong to us and our children, Scripture
says, but the hidden things, they belong to him. They belong
to him. The revealed things about Christ,
about God, about our salvation, about our redemption, about our
justification, about our righteousness in him, that's what we need to
know. We ought to be well-versed in
it, so well-versed in it that we can't be fooled. Well-versed
in it. The revealed things belong to
us, and that's the things concerning Christ and our redemption in
Christ. And here he says in verse 8,
he said, here's your mission, this is your mission, this is
our mission, and ye shall be witnesses, listen, unto me. You shall be witnesses. What
is a witness? Is that somebody that repeats
a story that he heard? That's somebody that gives you
first-hand information. That's someone who has seen and heard
the story directly. Ye shall be witnesses unto me.
This is our life's work. My life's work is not running
a machine shop. That's what I do to pay the bills.
and whatever it is you do to pay the bills. Our life's work
is to be His witnesses. He says, you are the light of
the world. You're the salt of the earth.
You're His witnesses. We are to tell of the things
which we have seen and heard out of His Word and by the teaching
of His Spirit. That's my life's business. That's
it. We are to give what we have been
given. That's what we are to do, to give what we've been given
by God, the gospel. What we have, the gospel that
we have to preach, is true and faithful. I don't know about
too many things in this world that's really true and faithful,
but this is. This is. This is the infallible Word of
God. The gospel is. Paul said in 1
Timothy, he said to Timothy, this is a faithful saying and
it's worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came to the
world to save sinners. That's true. That's true. Paul told those Corinthians,
we are not our own. We've been bought with a price.
I don't belong to me. I belong to Him. I thought this
was interesting. The Greek word for witness, to
be a witness to Christ, to be His witness, you'll be my witnesses.
You know what the Greek word means? Martyr. It means you shall
be my martyrs. Here's why he's saying it. That
means that you will lay down your life for my sake. And we do that. We may not do
it at the stake. But he's saying this, you are
my martyr, you are my witnesses, you lay down, your life is mine.
Your life is mine. You lay it down. And then we
see, this same Jesus shall come again. It says in verses 9 through
11, And when he had 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 you
have seen him go into heaven." They actually watched. These
witnesses right here, they actually watched him ascend right in their
sight up into heaven. And the cloud, it says, received
him out of their sight. Now, let's notice some important
truths in this verse. First of all, Christ ascended
back to the Father as he said he would. He always does what
he says. He said he'd go back, he did.
He ascended back to his Father. And then he is seated at the
right hand of God right now. The Lord Jesus Christ, the one
they put to death on the cross, the one whom they put in that
tomb and they thought they had done away with him, this man
is alive. This man is seated at God's right
hand as our substitute is sitting there. Our advocate is sitting
there. Our mediator is sitting there
mediating between God and men. Our high priest, he's sitting
there, and he intercedes for us there. Aren't you glad of
that? I prayed this morning. Jason prayed. I prayed for Debbie. We prayed for others. Aren't
you glad he prayed? Aren't you glad he intercedes?
Because you know what he said? Father, I know you always hear
me. There's my confidence. There's
my hope. There is one. There is one. who is always heard. And He is
there and He makes intercession for us. He accomplished our salvation. Salvation was an accomplishment
for Him. You know, when He spoke to, was
it Moses and Elijah? You know what they spoke of?
The death that He should what? Accomplish. It was an accomplishment
for Him, not a tragedy. It's not a tragedy. It was an
accomplishment for Him. Saving you was an accomplishment
for Him. And He finished the work that the Father gave Him
to do on this earth for His elect, and He has now entered into the
Holy of Holies. That's where He is. At one time,
He had no place to lay His head. At one time, He walked among
the filth and the muck of this life that you and I have to live. But now He's in the Holy of Holies
where there is no sin. representing us, representing
his people, those who believe on him. He did not come here
to stay. He came here to accomplish a
work, gather his people, and take them home. That's what he's
going to do, and take them home. He said in one place, I must
be about my father's business. He came here. He accomplished
his work. He's going back to the Father.
He's interceding for us. And I tell you this, I may not
live to see Him come when He comes and ends it all, but I'll
see Him in a little while. I'll see Him in a little while.
It won't be that long. And we'll see. And just as this
was not His home, it's not our home either. It's not ours either. And right now, Our Lord sits
as King over all. He has no rivals. He has no competitors. He's King. God the Father has
put all things into the hands of the God-man. A man sits enthroned at God's
right hand, King over all. When God created Adam, He said,
you have dominion over the over the fish, over the fowl, the
air, over all the animals. You dress the earth, you have
dominion over the earth. Well, he lost it. Well, this
man, this man is king not only over the earth, he's king over
all. He's king over all the angels,
the fallen angels and the unfallen angels. He's king over every
power, every authority. He's king over... There's a man
sitting at God's right hand who is our king, and he's king over
all. And he's coming again. He's coming again. The Old Testament
says someone's coming. The gospel says he's come. And the epistles say he's coming
again. And God sent two angels to declare
this truth to them and to us. Just as sure as he came the first
time, just as sure as he came the first time, he's coming again. He's coming again. As I sat and
thought about that, I looked out the window and I thought,
am I looking for him? Did I get up this morning looking
for him? Am I here today looking for him? He's coming again. And this hope, listen, this hope,
every man that has this hope ought to brighten every day.
It ought to brighten every day. He's coming again. We don't know
what day it'll be, but it will happen. It will happen, as he
said it would. He said in John 14, Verse 3, and if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again. You can write this down. I will come again and receive
you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. You, he says, are going to be
with me. Where I am, there you may be
also. And we will see him for ourselves. Can you imagine this? And from
time to time I sit around and I meditate and think about this.
It could be today or tomorrow, but it won't be long that I'll
actually see the one I'm talking about. We will see the one that
we listened, preached about, and we read about him. And we'll
see. I won't have to read about him
no more. No one will have to preach to me about Him no more.
I'll see Him for myself. Job said, I will behold Him with
my eyes and not another. You won't have to have another
man standing up here telling you about Him because you'll
see Him for yourself. You'll see Him. And when He comes,
we will see Him in His full glory. The first time that he came,
it says, there was no beauty that we should desire him, but
this time he will be altogether lovely. He will be altogether
lovely. The first time he came, they
saw a poor man. They saw a weak man. This time
when he comes, they're going to see power. they're going to
actually see, and we're going to see, power and glory. Look over in Luke chapter 21.
In verse 27, And then shall they see the Son
of Man coming in a cloud with power and," what? Great glory. Oh, the first time
He was laid in a manger. What glory is in that? What glory
is in a manger? He was born to poor parents.
What glory was that? This time, oh, He said He's come
with power and great glory. I can't even explain. I can't
find the words to explain it. His glory, when He comes this
time, will not be veiled. It will be plainly revealed. And then we shall receive, when
this happens, we shall receive the goal of our salvation. And you know what that is? It's
to be like Him and with Him. It's to be like Him and with
Him. And once this happens, once He comes and this happens, all
things, the Scripture says, will be made new. All things will
be made new. New heaven, new earth, old things
will pass away and all things will be made new. All the body
of the saints shall be raised from the grave and they'll receive
glorified bodies. Turn over to Revelation chapter
21. This is what's going to happen pretty quickly when He comes. Look in verse 1, Revelation chapter
21, verse 1 and 2. And I saw a new heaven and a
new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed
away, and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city,
new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as
a bride adorned for her husband. Now look at verse 5, "...Behold,
he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write, write
this down, John, put this in a book, for these words are true
and faithful." These words, what I'm telling you is going to happen.
Behold, I make all things new. There won't even be a trace.
There will not even be a trace of this old creation. Not even
a trace of it. Behold, I make all things new.
He made you new. He's going to make the earth
new. He's going to give you a new name. He's going to sing a new song. It's all
going to be new. It's all going to be new. I tell you, this will be a glorious
day for His saints, but a terrible day for those who don't believe
on Him. It will be a terrible day for
them. It says in Revelation 1, verse 7, Behold, he cometh with
clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced
him. And all kindreds of the earth
shall wail, wail because of him. Even so, amen, even so, so be
it. Some, the Scripture says, will
pray for the rocks and the hills and the mountains to fall on
them and hide them from the face of the Lamb. They will stand
before God and receive the deeds done while in the body. They
will stand before the judge of heaven and earth and be judged,
of which the Scripture says he will by no means clear the guilty.
This is so. And the Lord Jesus Christ will
be the judge. You'll be the judge of the quick
and the dead. But for the believer, for those who believe God, it'll
be the rest we've been waiting for. It'll be that rest, that
rest that we have been waiting for. That's what it'll be to
us. Right now, we do enjoy a spiritual rest in that we are not trying
to keep a law or a ceremony or do this or do that to be accepted
of God. We don't do that. We have a spiritual
rest right now. But when this happens, we are
going to have that rest that is perfect and undisturbed, and
we'll enjoy it, and it'll never end. That's a rest that'll never
end. But then we see here in verse...
verses 12 through 26, and I'll go through these quickly. We
see that these disciples, after seeing our Lord and being told
to wait until they were endued with power from on high, we find
that they are obedient and yet weak. Does that not describe us? Obedient
yet weak. From verses 12 to 26, we find
the apostles being obedient to their Lord's command. They went
back to Jerusalem just as he told them to. They went back
and they waited. It was about ten days went by.
And they waited. And they went back to Jerusalem.
That was right in the enemy's territory. I mean, they went
back to a people, to a city that hated them. They hated them as
much as they did their Lord. But they went. They were obedient. Sometimes duty takes us in harm's
way, but we must go. And they went. They went. We
know that all things are under His power. We know that. They
knew that, and they acted on it. And they were to wait on the
promise of the Father. The Scriptures are always telling
us to wait on the Lord. I want to give you some Scriptures
here that I looked up and wrote down because it would take too
long to go through all these. We are to wait on God. That is so spoken of through
the Scriptures so often. We are to wait on God as the
God of salvation. Psalm 25, 5, if you want to write
these down. Lead me in thy truth and teach
me, for thou art the God of my salvation. On thee do I wait. That's who I'm waiting on all
the day, all the day. We wait on him as the giver of
all temporal blessings. It says in Psalm 104, 27 and
28, These wait all upon thee, that thou mayest give them their
meat in due season, that thou givest them they gather. Thou
openest thine hand, and they are filled with good. It says
in Psalm 145, just about the same thing, verse 15 and 16,
The eyes of all wait upon thee, and thou givest them their meat
in due season. Thou openest thine hand and satisfyest
the desire of every living thing." We wait upon him for mercy. He
says in Psalm 123, 2, Behold, as the eyes of servants look
unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto
the hand of her mistress, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our
God until that He have mercy upon us." We wait upon Him for
mercy, and we wait upon Him for pardon. It says in Psalm 39,
7 and 8, "'And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in Thee. Deliver me from all my transgressions. Make me not the reproach of the
fool.'" We wait upon Him for pardon. We wait upon Him for
salvation. It says in Genesis 49, 18, I
have waited for thy salvation, O Lord. It says in Psalm 62,
1 and 2, Truly my soul waiteth upon God. From Him, from Him
cometh my salvation. He only, God only is my rock
and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not
be greatly moved. We wait upon Him for guidance
and teaching. Psalm 25, 5, Lead me in thy truth
and teach me for thou art the God of my salvation. On thee
do I wait all the day. Wait upon Him. Wait upon Him.
We wait upon Him for protection. Psalm 33, 20, Our soul Waiteth
for the Lord, for He is our help and our shield." I tell you,
the Word of God is so comforting, so comforting. In Psalm 59, 9,
because of His strength, will I wait upon thee, for God, God
is my defense. We wait for the coming of Christ.
It says in 1 Corinthians 1, 7, Paul says, "...so that ye come
behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ." It says in 1 Thessalonians 1.10, "...and
to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead,
even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come." Our
position is this. and wait." That's our position. To watch and wait. But in everything we fall short. In all things we fall short.
In verse 15, and I'm just going to put all these together. Verse
15, and in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples
and said, the number of names together were about 120 people
there. Men and brethren, This scripture must needs have
been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake
before concerning Judas, which was God to them that took Jesus.
For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this
ministry. Now this man purchased a field
with the reward of iniquity, and falling headlong he burst
asunder in the mist, and all his bowels gushed out. And it
was known unto all the dwellers of Jerusalem, insomuch as that
field is called in their proper tongue Atheldamah, that's to
say the field of blood. For it is written in the book
of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell
therein, and his bishopric let another take. Wherefore of these
men which have accompanied with us all the time that the Lord
Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from John beginning
from the baptism of John until that same day that he was taken
up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his
resurrection. And they appointed two, Joseph,
called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justice, and Matthias. And they
prayed and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all
men, show whether of these two thou hast chosen, that he may
take part of this ministry, an apostleship from which Judas,
by transgression, fell, that he might go to his own place.
And they gave forth their lots, and the lot fell upon Matthias,
and he was numbered with the eleven apostles. But I tell you
this, God didn't choose him, and God did not tell Peter to
do that. In all things we fall short.
Peter did not wait for the Lord. He did not wait for the Lord
to reveal who would take Judas' place. He took it upon himself.
I think he had good intentions, but he took it upon himself,
and he said, Now, Lord, you decide which of these two men that we
picked out, we picked out two men here, now you decide which
one you want. Neither one. Neither one. God's man was Saul
of Tarsus. No one would have picked that
man, just as Samuel would not have picked David. When he went
to the sons of Jesse, he picked the tall, dark, handsome one.
That's what he picked. And he wouldn't have picked Saul
of Tarsus because he hated Jesus Christ. I tell you what we're
going to do. We're going to go out here and get an apostle that
hates God, that hates Christ. It's usually the one that we
wouldn't pick. That's the one whom God says, this is the man.
And we must learn to wait, to wait on him, to open doors and
reveal his will. That takes time. He does it in
his own time. Now, let me sum this all up. In this chapter, we found this. The Lord is risen. The Lord is
risen. that this same Jesus is coming
again. He's alive and He's coming again.
We sang that song, we serve a risen Savior. He's gone back to the
Father, waiting for His enemies to be made His footstool, but
He's coming again. The same One who lived for us
and died for us and rose for us is the same One, the exact
same One. Not a look-alike. Not a look-alike,
the same One. He's coming back to get us. We
ought to be the most excited people on earth. We have something
to look forward to, don't we? People that don't believe the
gospel, people that have never had the gospel revealed to them,
I don't know, what do they have to look forward to? Death? Die like the beasts of the field?
We have something to look forward to. We have someone to look forward
to. And then last of all, Wait. Wait. If there's any lesson we
can learn, wait on the Lord. Wait on the Lord and be His obedient
servant and be about our Father's business until this same Jesus
comes again. Okay, Mike.