Dear brothers and sisters I invite you to open your bible with me In the book of Acts of the Apostles, chapter 1 Acts of the Apostles, chapter 1 We will read until the verse 14 From 1 to 14 The Acts, chapter 1, verses 1 to 14 It is written the following: I have given an earlier account, O Theophilus, of all the things which Jesus did and of his teaching from the first Till the day when he was taken up to heaven after he had given his orders, through the Holy Spirit, to the Apostles of whom he had made selection: until the day He was taken up to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, which, He said, "you have heard from me" for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? " And He said to them, "It is not for you to know times of seasons which the Father has put in His own authority But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, 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, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven?
This same Jesus, who was taken yo from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven" Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey And when they had entered, they went up into the cenacle where they were staying: Peter, James, John, and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew and Matthew; James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot; and Judas the son of James These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers. Amem I want to think with you regarding the following theme Jesus went up and the Holy Spirit came down Jesus went up and the Holy Spirit came down You all are well aware that Luke was the only biblical writer who was not jewish he was a gentile He was problaby born on Syrian Antioch He was a doctor in his profession and a historian as well He wrote perhaps the most relevant work of the history of the Christianity in two volumes The Gospel, as the first volume And the book of Acts of the Apostles, being the second volume of the same work It's interesting that Luke Upon registering the facts that we find in the Gospel and Acts Make an accurate research He looks up the works and goes after the informations more strict and precise for the facts And he recounts all the things that Jesus started Pay attention on this Started doing and teaching He started because what Jesus did and taught is carried on by the apostles with the church And to this day we are still teaching what Jesus did and what He taught. I call your attention to the order because perhaps by our human logic we would invert the verbs to "What He started teaching and doing" but this is not what we find here Jesus started doing and teaching.
Because He is Because He does He teaches His example precedes his action This order and this logic cannot be altered by the church First we are and then we do and then we teach So my brothers and sisters Having this text in mind, I would like to extract 4 truths Essencials crucials for the Christianity The first one The resurrection of Christ a truth incontrovertible is what it is on verses 1 to 3 Look that that on verse 1 and 2 the talks about the continuance of the ministry of Christ when he declares that he is giving an account of all things that Jesus started doing and teaching until the day in which He was taken up, after He throught the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whon He had chosen. From this point on, you'll find the book of Acts That is the book of the history of the church And if you read attentively the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts you will see that exactly what Christ did and what Christ taught the apostles kept doing and teaching. Because they learned with Him Because they had in Christ, the model, the example, the prototype, the paradigm If you look at verse 3 with me Luke will give us information regarding the proofs undeniable and irrefutable of the resurrection "To whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by may infallibe proofs.
" Obviusly they are not scientific proofs because this is a historic fact and historic facts you are not able to take to a laboratory to make experiments They are judicials proofs And Paul while writting his letter to the Corinthians said that these proofs are so evident and He appeared to the discipules He appeared to Cephas He appeared to James He appeared to Paul He made an appearance to more than 500 people at once Then the resurrection is not only a psychological fact It wasn´t only a fact as Matthew registered when the discipules went out telling that He had resurrected if in fact He had not. or as the skepticals say, the was not even dead He had been removed from the cross and put in a grave and the graves had not 7 spans below the earth but they were dug in rocks and had a ample space with fresh air and that He would have recovered His energy or that the women went to the wrong grave and started proclaiming that He had resurrected No, absolutely no! Jesus resurrected His grave is empty And Jesus is on the throne This is the main keystone of the Christinism.
Because if Jesus had been defeated by the death He had been a failure He even couldn't have saved himself He couldn't be our redeemer If He didn't resurrect as Paul says, our faith is fruitless Our preeching is fruitless Those who believed are deceived Those who died perished with no hope What makes us false witnesses of God. But in fact He resurrected as the firstfruit from those who are asleep. He entered the innards of the death He took the prod from the death He killed the death and resurrected gloriously inaugurating the immortality Because He resurrected the death does not have the last word Because He resurrected, the cold grave is not our last address Because He resurrected our hope is alive.
But please note that On verse 3 says that after giving infallible proofs of your resurrection He appeared to the disciples to the apostles during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining the kingdom of God. He continued his ministry of teaching after his resurrection. Forty days To then ascend to heaven To be seatead on the right side of God To continue his ministry as the Supreme Minister As the Righteous Advocate, mediating on our behalf Seated on the throne From where He has the Book of History in His hands And won to open the Book and to loose its seals To govern the world To govern the history And steer the church, as His head But here comes the second truth from this text The first one is the resurrection of Christ An incontroversial truth Second The promess of the Holy Spirit A blessing from the Father We find it on verses 4 to 8 And I call your attention to a very important point The coming of the Holy Spirit was conditioned to the ascending of Christ The Holy Spirit could not be poured upon the church unless Christ went up to Heaven And I call your attention to two verses so we can conffirm this First open in John chapter 7 Gospel of John, chapter 7 verses 38 and 39 It is written: "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water But this He spoke concerning the Spirit whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
" So the blessing of the Holy Spirit was conditioned to the glorification of Christ. He needed to go up For the Holy Spirit come down But let's read another passage that makes this clear It is John 16 verse 7 Let's read together, please John 16, verse 7 "Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you.
but if I depart, I will send Him to you. " Firstly Jesus goes up Secondly the Spirit comes down. Please note what is the Promise of the Father on verse 4 now going back to Acts of the Apostles, chapter 1 we will read verse 4 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father which, He said, you have heard from Me.
" The question is: What is this promise? What is this promise? What is the Promise of the Father?
And you will realize with me that when the pentecost happens, when the Spirit is given when the Holy Spirit comes down, Peter interprets this fact of giving the Spirit as the fulfillment of what Joel wrote on chapter 2, verse 28 "That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh" Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams And also on My manservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit So the great Promise of the Father was the pouring of the Holy Spirit And this promise would have to be waited, Jesus said in Jerusalem They were not free to go out of Jerusalem And perhaps, the last place they would like to be was Jerusalem The church was being pressured The church began to be persecuted They were not from Jerusalem, they were Galileans And they wanted to go back to Galilea But Jesus said: "Stay in the city until you are endued with power from on high. " Luke 24:49. And here, in Acts 1:4 Jesus says: "do not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the Promise of the Father, which you have heard from me.
" Loved brothers, it is so important that you understand that the history of the Christian church start in Acts 2 from the point of view historical and on the New Testament with the pouring of the Holy Spirit. It is clear that the Holy Spirit already had an important place on the Old Testament It was giving to a few special people for special missions But the definite coming, completed and full to stay forever with the church happens with the fulfillment of the Promise of the Father. And what did they do?
Did they obey Christ? Yes! This obedience was unrestricted Remain in the city And this was an unwavering perseverance until you are endued with power from on high.
John Stott interpreting this text said that before sending the church to the world Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to the church and this order cannot be altered You and I need to receive this Promise of the Father before we are used by God to fulfill the Great Commission. But note that beyond this Promise of the Father on verse 5 Jesus talks about the baptism by the Holy Spirit "for John truly baptized with water but you shall be baptized by the Holy Spirit now many days from now. " By the way, John the Baptist who came before Jesus, was the one who said this clearly I baptize with water but the one who is coming after me, is mightier than I and He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
Here we see one of the subjects of main importance for the Christianity that is the baptism by the Holy Spirit. This subject is controversial for the evangelical church Some think in a way, while others think different but I want to highlight Firstly that this baptism with the Holy Spirit is connected with the salvation All of them who is saved is baptized by the Spirit in the body of Christ All of them who is saved receive the Holy Spirit has the seal of the Holy Spirit. No one can say "Lord Jesus" if it was not by the Holy Spirit It is impossible for someone to believe in Christ without the work of the Holy Spirit.
It is impossible to be a believer without having the Holy Spirit It is impossible to be a part of the church of Christ without being baptized by the Spirit in the body of Christ. So every believer has the Holy Spirit. Every believer is baptized by the Spirit in the body of Christ Every believer is sealed by the Holy Spirit of the Promise Every believer is dwelled by the Holy Spirit It is impossible for you to be a believer and saved if you still do not have the Holy Spirit.
So But On the other hand It is also inserted in this question a different and important feature and this is why many use a semantic position because Jesus is also talking here about a different factor, that is the putting on power And this is why on verse 8 He talks about power And this is why in Luke 24:49 says "tarry in the city until you are endued with power from high. " And this is why in the teology of the New Testament we use the expression: be full of the Spirit. Because one thing is to have the Holy Spirit and other thing is the Holy Spirit to have you.
One thing is to have the presence of the Spirit other thing is to have the Spirit as president One thing is you to be dwelled by the Spirit Other thing is to be full of the Spirit And you are well aware It is not necessary to be a specialist to say this Not all believers where the Spirit dwell, are full of the Spirit When you are full of the Spirit, you know you are and the people around you also know you are. There are evidences Obvious and clear And our Lord Jesus Christ is treating this question, the enduing of power as well Jesus said who does this is Himself The baptizer here is the Lord Jesus Christ. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit, said John the Baptist.
And here, Jesus is mentioning that word from John the Baptist and is working this necessity. And the question for us today is: You, who have the Holy Spirit. Are you full of Him?
To be full of the Holy Spirit is not an option. It is a commandment, an order To be full of the Spirit is not exceptional, should be normal Abnormal is not to be full of the Holy Spirit With that said, We will see that on verses 6 and 7 Jesus will talk about the nature of the kingdom. "Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?
" And He said to them "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. " Please note that the disciples, the apostles did not have a clear idea of what it meant the kingdom of God because for them the kingdom of God was a political reign That is why they were interested in making Jesus a king. And twice, Jesus left the crowd, because of the inclination of this people in making Him a king.
When He multiplied bread and fish, the bible tells that the crowd wanted to make Him a king and Jesus fled So that His disciples would not be tempted by this idea of seeing Him only as a political Messiah earthling that came to solve the problems of the present to cure the ill, to multiply bread and fish and to feed the crowds. The second time It was when Jesus Christ, after the transfiguration came down from the mount and cured a boy who had evil spirits and whom the disciples could not cure. It is written in Luke 9, verses 43 and 44 that all people were full of wonder on how much God did through Jesus And once more it takes over the inclination of making Jesus a political Messiah, a political king and even the disciples were taken over this same feeling.
and Jesus says straight to them in Luke 9:44 " Let these words sink down into your ears, for the Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men. " In other words, do not think that I came to this world only to cure the ill and feed the hungry. Don't you think that I came to this world to be only a political Messiah Don't you think that you will change my agenda.
I came to this world to go to the cross, and to the cross I am going. Because is at the cross I will free you Only at the cross I will redeem you My reign is not political, is spiritual The apostles were not understanding this Perhaps thinking of a geographical reign On a earthling reign Or a political reign Or a static reign And Jesus replies to them: It is not for you to know Not Chronos nor Kairos Not times nor seasons that the Father has reserved by His exclusive authority This is not for you to know. This competes to the Management, not the stockroom.
Your position is not to be supposing what great plans God has. Your job is to receive power to work for God My brothers, it is interesting how the church many times is tempted to be discussing the works, instead of getting to work So many people in air conditioned rooms discussing, wondering, philosophizing and trying to discover so many things trying to interpret and understand many things and the work are being left on the side I was not called to discuss the work. I was called to accomplish the work And for this reason that Jesus start now Read it on verse 8 the necessity of being endued by power.
Look at Jesus answer to His disciples "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. " My loved brothers and sisters, let's stop here and think If you had to quit your life right now regarding power How you would evaluate yourself?
Are you experiencing this power? Are you receiving this power? Are you full of this power?
Perhaps you ask Power for what, pastor? Perhaps the text will help First of all, power to leave from the theological speculation to the missionary action The disciples wanted to discuss scatology Jesus said: this is not for you. You will receive power to work The order is not to discuss, but to work There are a lot of people discussing about work but the work need to be done and let me tell you something wonderful If you want to see the church growing, you need to work Please pay attention at what I will say Those who know more, many times are the ones who do less Those who know a little, do a lot.
Sometimes you surprisingly find a person with little doctrinal knowledge but this person has given many fruits and planted many churches that are full of converted people In awe, you wonder how it was possible How could this be? It's because there is no harvesting without sowing We should use more the soles of our shoes, instead of the seats of our chairs The power is not in your talent The power is in the Holy Spirit of God. In the gospel of Christ The gospel is the power of God to save all of those who believe It does not matter if the person has a PhD or a basic level of instruction.
If he opens up his mouth to preach, there will be virtue of the Holy Spirit and people will be converted. We need power, brothers and sisters. Today we pile up diplomas and titles Understand that I am not opposed to that.
I actually think we should study more But I want to tell you that you can have all diplomas from all academies the best ones out there But if you do not have power, there will be no virtue to preach the gospel. There will be no fruits. You will receive power But power for what?
Secondly, power for you to solve tensions within relationships Dear all, today we hear a lot about emotional inteligence and the market place is giving more importance to the person who have comportamental abilities than a person who have a high IQ But the Christianism is the pioneer in this But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria. And Samaria is interesting because when Jesus was going to Jerusalem He had to pass through Samaria, and they did not receive Him They were enemies And the bible tells that John, who was the disciple of love but was Son of Thunder Asked: Lord, do you want us to ask fire from the skies to burn this people? They do not deserve to live.
Let's burn them. Jesus replied: You do not now know the type of spirit I am, John But when John was ended by the power of the Holy Spirit and the church received the power of the Holy Spirit and the gospel arrived in Samaria Do you know who was sent to Samaria? John.
And Peter. Now they did not want fire to fall, but they were preaching for the power of the Holy Spirit Do you know what this means? If you are full of the Holy Spirit, you are not pained If you are full of the Holy Spirit, you forgive those who hurted you If you are full of the Holy Spirit you solve those long lasting pending issues of your family or at your job If you are full of the Holy Spirit you will take the gospel until those who consider you their enemies Power Power.
For what? Power to die, my friend If you do not have a cause to die for You still do not have a cause to live for One of the questions I hear often is: Pastor, what if a persecution start in Brazil? As it is happening in some countries where just the fact of you having a bible, you are persecuted.
If you gather people at your house, even within closed doors you have to sing in low voices, very low voices. Our brothers are being killed today Our brothers are being imprisioned with shortage of bread and tortures Our brothers today are dying for their faith And people ask me if a similar situation arrives here, would they bear? And I tell you that those brothers Are not more converted than you or do not have a bigger power than you do In fact, if God allows a persecution to raise He will capacitate us to give up our life for Christ All of those who have been sealed by the Holy Spirit will not deny their faith And will not give up to the antichrist This one will not apostatize this one will remain strong and will win the devil with the Blood of the Lamb and the Word of the Testimony, that is the suffering We need power But power for what?
Power to preach Without power you will remain quiet Without power you are a coward Without power you are like a secret agent of the Kingdom of God Without power you can spend an year long in a classroom with friends who have never heard of Christ and you will remain cowardly quiet Without power your neighbors will not know that Jesus is the Lord Without power your family will not be evangelized Without power you will be heedless But it is impossible to have power and not speak of His name This is why Jesus here makes it clear the necessity of being endued by power Please note That now, in third place Luke will talk about the ascending of Christ The seal of His victory, on verses 9 to 11 "Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, 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, who also said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven. " But why did he go up?
He went up because He consummated the work he came to do He was born, He lived, He died, He resurrected, He stablished the church and now He ascended to pour down the Holy Spirit He went yo because His work here was done But the text tells us That He went up also with a promise that He will return In the same manner He went up, He will come down How did He go up? Visibly Because His return will be visible Every eye will see His return will be audible at the sound of the trumpet of God and the voice of the archangel So it will be a fact visible and audible Third, He will come suddenly It will be in a moment, in the shutting of an eye As lightning goes from east to west, He will come suddenly How will he come? He will come unexpectedly, like a thief who does not warn you beforehand letting you know he will arrive such a day and time Unexpectedly It will be like the days before the flood, when the men married and gave in marriage, sold and bought Living life Until the flood came.
The return of Christ will be alike The return of Christ will be unavoidable There is no powerful person on the earth who can change this and change the agenda and detain Him from His return. He will return. But He will return victoriously gloriously and with triumph and will put all of His enemies below His feet And He will seat at the throne to judge the nations and all of those who do not have their nome in the Book of Life and them will be sent to the lake of fire, where already are the false prophet and the antichrist and the dragon and where the death is Then He will enter for the betrothed of the lamb with His church for a feast that will not have an end Blessed be God!
But I want to finish My last point here and Jesus talks about this The last item is the search for the Holy Spirit A plead of the church Let's read together verses from 12 to 14 Note that Jesus went up to heaven with triumph and his disciples went back to the cenacle happily The verse 12 talks about the return "Then they returned to Jerusalem because the order was to remain in Jerusalem and wait for the Promise of the Father Note the place mentioned on verse 13 part A And when they had entered, they went up into the cenacle. Why the cenacle? Because at this same place they had been together with Jesus and had the Easter Supper And where Jesus made a transition from the Jewish Easter to the Supper Inaugurating the New Alliance on His blood At this same place Jesus said that He needed to go up for the Holy Spirit to come down So this is the place where they gathered Who were there?
Let's read together Verse 13: Peter, James, John, and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, Judas the son of James Still on verse 14: Mary the mother of Jesus and His brothers They were in 120 people These were some of whom where there What did they do there? Please take a look at verse 14 "These all All whom? Those 120 These all continued with one accord in prayer one accord How long did it last?
Ten days Ten days Jesus did not tell them to pray for ten days and He would send the Holy Spirit Pray once and I will send the Holy Spirit. He neither said this He said: pray, do not depart until it happens Sometimes we start praying but give up They had to pray until it happened But think of a meeting where no one is discouraged Wondering what time it was and complaining that was tired I think we do not need to pray, because we have prayed for 5 days and nothing happened 6 or 7 days and nothing happened. I will stop praying But all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication And chapter 2 tells that suddenly 10 days later, on a Sunday at 9 am, they were seated when the skies opened up Tongues, as of fire A rushing mighty wind Started blowing And the bible tells us that all of them were filled by the Holy Spirit of God And they all started talking about the greatness of God The crowds gathered And started questioning what that meant The bible still tells us that they started saying to one another "They are Galileans" and "They are full of wine" And Peter stands up Full of the Holy Spirit and says "It is 9 am, they are not drunk.
What is happening here is the fullfilling of the promise of the Father as the Prophet Joel mentioned: "I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh" And he preaches a sermon full of the Holy Spirit about the death, the resurrection, the ascending of Christ and about His Lordship The bible says that the hearts were touched in such a way That the crowd gathered there asked the preacher: "And what can we do regarding this? Peter replied: "Repent now and each of you shall be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call. " This promise is to you, to me and to the church today The seal of the Holy Spirit, the power of the Holy Spirit I want to finalize saying that that I find very important This text teaches us that there is no sacred place they are not at the temple they are at a cenacle The Holy Spirit can come upon someone who is under a tree or in a pauper house In the lobby of the hotel Or in a hotel room In your kitchen In the classroom There is no sacred geography Second There is no sacred family There were Mary and Jesus' brothers but it does not say that Jesus' family received more of the Holy Spirit than the others they neither became more famous than the others.
They were all filled in the same way There is no sacred family Third There are no sacred age There were gathered Mary, her children, others with an elevated position, also the apostles there were also the simple people, whose names were not mentioned But all of them were filled by the Holy Spirit in the same manner Also There is no sacred position physically saying, because they were not on their knees They were not standing up They were seated Sometimes we think that the physical position can determine the level of my reverence Not necessarily I can be on my knees Prostrating, but my heat is full of arrogance It is not about the physical position they were seated and the Holy Spirit was poured I would like us to think on one thing: My God, I cannot live without this fullness I cannot walk without this fullness I cannot be a witness without this fullness I need this seal of power. I need What about you? Do you need it as well?
May God help us Pastor Arival, would you kindly pray for us?
