When the Holy Spirit Has Come Upon You | Acts 1:6-11
The book of Acts is a sequel to a first book entitled, The Gospel According to Luke. And the aim of the book of Acts is to compile a narrative of all that the resurrected and ascended Jesus continued to do by His Spirit and through His people over the course of approximately 30 years. And what the resurrected and ascended Jesus accomplished by His Spirit and through His people in such a relatively short span of time is nothing short of breathtaking! These acts are, humanly-speaking, impossible. Which is why this account, this narrative has such dynamic impact on those who read it, and hear it, and take it in, and digest it.
The book of Acts informs us about who we are. It informs us about our place in the grand and overarching purpose of God. Loved ones, listen. The book of Acts can change your life. The book of Acts can change a church. The book of Acts can awaken something in us, by showing us who we are as Christians, and what we are here for. And so, I invite you to pray. Pray that God’s Word to us in and through the book of Acts will accomplish things that ordinary people – overwhelmed with every-day, garden-variety cares and concerns could never accomplish in and of themselves.
So, when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
Acts 1:6-11
My outline for this message boils down to three observations. 1) The Father’s purpose. 2) The Father’s plan. 3) The Father’s provision.
God, The Father, Has a Purpose
We know that God, the Father has a purpose because, Jesus says, in Acts 1:7,
“It is not for you to know times or seasons the Father has fixed by his own authority.”
In other words, God the Father is ultimately in control of all that happens in the world. God the Father is the author and director of this great drama we call history. He is Lord over time and Lord over the seasons of our lives. According to Eph. 1:5,
“God the Father brings about all things, . . . according to the purpose of his will.”
In Isaiah 46:9-10, He says,
I am God, and there is no other. I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, “My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.”
And the purpose of God, the Father, is to be known and treasured, bowed down to and glorified through the Lord Jesus Christ. I get that from Acts 1:8 where Jesus says,
“You will be my witnesses.”
That is, you will be witnesses of me. The purpose of a witness is to testify, to validate, to vindicate by personal experience or perception. And since the object of the witnesses in Acts 1:8 is Jesus, the purpose of God the Father is show how glorious and great He is in the person and saving work of God the Son.
In a word, the purpose of God the Father is SALVATION. His purpose is to rescue a people, to redeem a people, to ransom a people through the life, and death, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus. That, in a nutshell, is the substance of Luke’s first book. Jesus, the Son of God, came to earth, lived a perfect life, died upon a cross in order to seek and to save the lost. Jesus comes to the poor. Jesus comes to the outcast. Jesus comes to those whose lives are broken because of sin. And he comes to save in fulfillment of the Father’s purpose.
And further, this purpose is not fully accomplished until it has been made know and had its redemptive effect in all the earth. I get that from Acts 1:8 where Jesus says,
“You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
The author records Jesus’ words with a bit more detail in the gospel of Luke 24:46-48.
“Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”
So, God has a purpose. And when was the last time you felt your heart burn, and your affections stirred by the truth that God the Father, who directs all history according to the purpose of His will, has a purpose – and that purpose is to communicate His Kingship, to reveal His sovereignty, and assert His saving authority in such a way that you and I would have something to REALLY talk about?
Last week, the Sovereign Grace Churches of the Southeast Region held a youth camp. Pastors from the region preached their way through Romans 8. On the last night of the camp, several teen-agers bowed the knees of their hearts to the authority of Jesus. One of them was a 14-year-old, named Raul. Raul, they said, never smiled. He was an angry and bitter young man. But Raul testified that night, “something came down on me.” And in tears of humility, he called on Jesus to forgive him of his sins. And a group of teen-aged boys surrounded Raul and prayed with him and for him. When one of the pastors asked Raul what had happened, he pointed up and said, “He is my king!”
The passion of God is to be your king - to pursue you with mercy and goodness all the days of your life. His zeal is to put His soul satisfying presence and His sin destroying power on display, for our eternal well-being, in and through His glorious Son, Jesus Christ. This is the purpose of God the Father. He wants to be known. He means to be enjoyed. And this purpose shall not fail.
Second, God the Father has a plan for accomplishing His purpose.
God the Father Has a Plan
And God the Father’s plan is people who can honestly and personally and joyfully testify to God’s greatness and goodness shown to them through the person and saving work of God the Son, Jesus Christ. Look at Acts 1:8 again.
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses.”
In most cases, witnesses are people who can provide a credible, personal, experiential testimony, are profoundly effective in communicating the reality of another individual.
I was talking with someone about what the owners of the Minnesota Twin’s baseball team recently did to their roster. And as we talked, we began to swap stories about the good old days of Twins baseball in general, and former Twin’s slugger Harmon Killebrew in particular. We both remembered how we felt back in the day – listening to Twins games on 830 WCCO – when “Killer” came to bat. Anticipation. Expectation. Hope. We had both experienced being at the old Met Stadium and witnessed Harmon’s classic home run swing. But my most personal experience was a chance encounter at the Target store in Apple Valley, MN about 25 years ago. I went in one day and was surprised to discover that Harmon Killebrew was going to be there in 20 minutes to sign autographs. I sprinted to the sporting goods section, bought a baseball, and was the first in line to get a “free” Harmon Killebrew autograph. I remember him asking my name. I remember a couple brief personal questions about my family and background. He signed my baseball. And I thanked him for the memories. He shook my hand and said, “Well Greg, that’s kind of you. Take good care of your family.” Harmon Killebrew died 15 years ago. But I’m still a witness to the reality of a gracious and highly regarded and heroic professional athlete.
And you see, being a witness just now, was totally painless. It is actually quite natural. We do it all the time. I believe that is, at least in part, why God chose to use witnesses as His plan for accomplishing His purpose.
Now it’s important to remember that God the Father is Lord over time and seasons. Therefore, he doesn’t fly by the seat of his pants. He’s not making things up as He goes along. God never wings it. Further, on account of his sovereign authority, he has no need for contingencies. He never says, “Didn’t see that comin’. Guess I need a new plan.”
You know, He could have simply said, “Earth, be filled with knowledge of my glory and greatness. Be filled with people who love my beauty.” He could have said that. He could have done that. But He didn’t, because the greatest of His greatnesses, the pinnacle of His perfections, is His mercy.
And so He planned, before the foundation of the world, a saving strategy, that would, in the greatest possible way, amplify the riches of His grace and kindness of His mercy displayed toward us in the person and saving death of Christ Jesus. And therefore, God’s people, redeemed by God’s son, filled with God’s Spirit, are God’s plan for filling the earth with the knowledge of the greatness of His grace.
Can you conceive of this? God, the one who has authority over time and history and epochs and seasons, has made His people His plan to accomplish His purpose. It should rock your world to realize “I am God’s plan.” “I am God’s plan.” Me, who can barely remember people’s names or where I left my keys, am God’s plan. Me, with my innumerable deficiencies am God’s plan. Me, and my countless sins am God’s plan. And then there’s all of you. We – together - are God’s plan – God the Father’s plan. He has no other plan - for accomplishing His purpose of filling the earth with knowledge of His greatness in the person and saving work of His Son Jesus Christ.
What was He thinking? Certainly, between the depravity of our souls, and our utter impotence in doing anything about our depravity (much less even caring about our depravity), as well as our odd idiosyncrasies, and personality flaws, and past hurts, not to mention the most fundamental external obstacles – e.g. social, cultural, generational, ethnic, political, geographical (just to name a few) – how can this plan possibly work? Answer: GOD!
God the Father has made provision for our countless inadequacies and our absolute inability to resolve them - and in doing so He has made the greatness of His glory stand forth that much more dramatically – because the provision He has made for our inability is the power of the trustworthiness of His own promise. So third,
God the Father’s Provision
Look again at Acts 1:8.
“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
How are we to understand the “you wills” of Acts 1:8? Are they the commands of a stern, micro-managing, controlling master? “You will. You will do whatever I command you to do. You will go wherever I tell you to go. You will! Hah. Hah. Hah. Hah.” It’s not like that.
The provision of God for the fulfillment of the purpose of God is the promise of God for the needs of the people of God as they personally engage in the plan of God.
God has given promises as His provision to overcome every obstacle to the fulfillment of his purpose. You will receive power. And you will be my witnesses. And Luke shows the reality of these promises getting the job done.
He will recount the Father’s empowering presence coming down at Pentecost, and transforming fragile and fearful disciples into faithful and fruitful witnesses. 3000 hearts were made new in one day. And this power is not restricted to a dozen men. The Spirit empowers men AND women, sons AND daughters, young AND old, slaves AND pagans, Jews AND Gentiles, a prominent business woman AND the physically handicapped. We see the power of the Spirit converting, healing, raising the dead, opening prison doors, guiding, directing, protecting. And when there was soul-crushing persecution, or beatings, or stonings, or storms – just to name a few of the obstacles that stood before them – the supernatural empowering presence of the Spirit never receded into the background, and their disposition never gave in to self-preservation. They DID receive supernatural power!
And they were witnesses. In Acts 2-7 they were witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea. In Acts 8 they were witnesses in Samaria. And then, in Acts 13 the lid comes off, and their witness extends to Syria and Cyprus and Turkey and Macedonia and Greece, and eventually, all the way to the epicenter of the entire Roman empire. Sometimes, as in Acts 13 and 16, their going was voluntary. Other times, as in Acts 17 and 27 their going was involuntary. Sometimes, as in Acts 2 and 24, the Sovereign Father brought people willingly to their witness. Other times, as in Acts 9, he takes people down to the ground in order to see and hear the word of Christ. The promises of Acts 1:8 – are completely fulfilled in just 30 years. And listen. The language of Acts 28:28 implies that things are just getting started.
“Let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles. They will listen.”
You will receive power. You will be my witnesses. They will listen. Those are some remarkable promises – especially for people who do not feel powerful, and who are not particularly adventurous, and who do not see themselves as all that compelling.
Take me for example. I’m an introvert who has learned how to rely on the Lord to rise above my natural disposition. But for the longest time, if you said to me, “Hey, let’s go out and meet people.” You might as well have said, “Hey, let’s go out and get a colonoscopy.” It might not be the worst thing. But I’d rather not.
So, we were living in Hawaii. We needed to do some laundry. We had no dryer. On a typical sunny day in Hawaii, it takes about 10 minutes on the clothesline and your stuff is dry. But on this day, it’s raining like crazy. And it had been raining like crazy for days, and I need clean stuff to put on. So, I go to the laundry mat. And I had actually been meditating on Acts 1:3-8. So, I’m asking the Lord to fulfill His promises. And I’m praying, “God, how do you want to put your rule and reign on display right here, right now at this laundry mat?” And I hadn’t said “Amen” when in walks a “local” (Asian decent) woman whom I’d never seen in my life. And being an introvert, I said nothing as she walks past me to the machines. But, completely out of the blue, the thought enters my mind - This woman is overwhelmed and anxious, and is desperate to talk with someone about her very troubled marriage.
So, the problem is pretty obvious, right? We’re total strangers. I’m a dude and she’s not. I’m a haule (that’s what they call white people in Hawaii) and she’s not. And I’m asking myself, “How on earth will I even start a conversation, much less get down to the vulnerable topic of her personal life? And even if I did, what if it was just some random thought?” So, I pray. “God, if that thought about this woman’s trouble is from you, then you’re going to have do something.” And again, I hadn’t said “Amen” before the door to the laundry mat opens, and in walks one of our female (non-haule) church members. And she had barely greeted me, when she looks past me, sees this woman, and they both say one another’s names simultaneously. And they begin squealing their delight at encountering one another. “I haven’t seen you since high school!” And while they’re having their little happy reunion, my dryer is already done and I’m packing up to go. And as I leave, I pass our church friend and whisper to her, “God brought you here for right now. She needs you.” And our friend sends me out the door with a puzzled look on her face.
About an hour later, our friend, Susan, comes knocking on our door – to tell us how she had spent the last hour listening and crying with an old high school friend about her deeply troubled marriage – and how desperate she was – and how she wished she had a friend in whom she might confide. And the Holy Spirit had opened a door for Susan to care and invite her friend into the Kingdom of God through the person and work of Jesus.
Now just think of all the obstacles the Lord overcame – He awakened me out of my passive disinterest and self-preservation. I was on the lookout. My radar was turned on. He flicked my temperament obstacle over here, the social/ethnic obstacle over there, the relational vulnerability barrier – just think of long it typically takes for you to trust someone enough to tell them about your shame – He just flicked it away like it was nothing. Just think about how long it takes to know where and how to apply the gospel to someone’s life. That’s the practical power of the promise - “You will be my witness!”
How about obstacles that relate to the scope and breadth of God’s purpose – i.e. “the end of the earth”? What about those nations, those unreached peoples where you’ve got language barriers, or on account of geopolitical boundaries, it’s not even legal to be a witness of Jesus? What about those obstacles? How is God going to deal with that? Here’s an example –
One of the most unreached people groups on planet earth today are the ethnic Nepali people (i.e. people from Nepal), who by virtue of a mass migration almost a century ago, now live in the neighboring country Bhutan. Nepal and Bhutan are countries that border northern India – the Himalayan mountains – Everest, etc. and the people are mainly Hindu by religion. And as the population of Nepali immigrants to Bhutan grew, dramatically, they became an unwelcome socio-economic problem for the Bhutanese government. So, they were marginalized and forced into refugee-like camps. And over the past several years, Lutheran Social Services has been working with the Bhutanese government to re-settle these Nepali Hindu’s in the US. And guess where one of the largest resettlement points in the US is for one of the most “unreached” people groups on the planet? Yep. Sioux Falls, SD. Bhutan is closed to traditional missionaries. So, the Nepali/Bhutanese Hindu’s are cut off from the good news of the Kingdom of God, right? NOT!
LSS has a mentoring program here in SF – so that people, like us, can befriend these people, and help them, and care for them as they make the mind-boggling transition to a new life in the US. You can volunteer for about 6 hours a month – no passport, no visa, no language acquisition, no formal assessment, application, acceptance, or financial support-raising by a missionary sending agency required. Just drive downtown, fill out a one-page volunteer request form, put me (or another of our pastors) down as a reference, spend about 30 minutes in orientation, and you will be connected with a family from one of the most unreached people groups in the world. The nations are like dust in the palm of God’s hand. King Jesus promises, “You will be my witnesses . . . to the end of the earth.” Done.
You see, God uses many means in order to keep His promise that His people WILL BE WITNESSES, to fulfill His purpose. He stirs some hearts to go. He stirs the hearts of others to come. He stirs circumstances so that some are sent. He stirs other circumstances to cause some to be brought. We see it happen every day. But I believe the main way, the most fundamental way God fulfills the promise, “You will be my witnesses”, is by fulfilling the other promise – the one that says, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.” What is that? What actually happens when the Holy Spirit comes upon you? And how do we get it? Look for a moment at Ps. 51.
“Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.”
Psalm 51:12-13
There is no doubt that King David, the man who wrote Ps. 51 was an unusually gifted man. Who among us could hold a candle to David’s extraordinary and God-given capacities and talents. Poet. Singer. Mighty warrior who had snatched lambs from the mouths of lions and bears, and slain giants. But while many of David’s traits and gifts are evident in what he writes, or at least lie in the background, notice that none of them are prominent in this Psalm. Instead, David presents himself here as a repentant and pardoned sinner – nothing more, nothing less, and nothing else. Everything else is abandoned, and he strips himself of everything else so that we, dear friends, might consider the true qualification for receiving the Lord’s empowering presence in order that we might teach transgressors His ways.
According to Ps. 51, the power that God promises, when the Holy Spirit comes upon us, is the power of the pleasure of His salvation. It’s the power of the pleasure of forgiveness of our sins. It is the power of joy. Joy in being pardoned. Joy in God’s mercy. Joy in God’s acceptance, and embrace. Joy in being the object of His love. Joy in hearing God say, “You’re mine.” Jesus prayed like this –
I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me, may be in them, and I in them.
John 17:26
Jesus is praying that the love with which God loves Jesus will be in us – that the pleasure God feels in Jesus will be in us. And that love, that pleasure, is the power that makes us his witnesses. Pleasure always makes us a witness. Pleasure is more powerful than your personality. Pleasure is more powerful than your temperament. The powerful promise of pleasure moves you to do hard things, even when you’re tired, or when you’re sick, or when the weather is bad, or when the object of your pleasure is hundreds of miles, and hours of drive time away. Pleasure gives shy and introverted people words, because somehow you always find a way to express what gives you pleasure – whether it’s an awesome restaurant, or a great movie, or an amazing song, or a sick new band, or an unexpected encounter with one of your heroes. If it tasted great, sounded great, looked great, was wonderful and made you feel great, and you experienced the power of pleasure, then whatever it was that generated the pleasure is what we talk about.
So now imagine the power of feeling infinite pleasure – the very pleasure which God the Father feels when He gazes upon the infinite perfections of God the Son. “This is my dearly loved Son, in whom I am well and fully and eternally pleased!” Imagine feeling infinite and eternal pleasure. It’s that pleasure that transforms our witness and our worship and our devotions and our conversations and our relationships and our experience of spiritual community. And that pleasure is the power that God promises to give us when the Holy Spirit comes upon us.
But who of us has ever known, for any length of time, what it is be baptized – immersed, drenched – with an outpouring of the experience of pleasure in the glory of God? The fulfillment of this promise is the traction for living together on mission, for joyful faith in affliction, and the power for witness we seek. And I believe that God would have us seek Him for it – together – now. And what better way to seek it than to fix our mind’s attention and our heart’s affections on that which gives God the Father fullness of joy – namely, the beautiful gospel life and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. And what better way to fix our mind’s attention and our heart’s affections on what fills God the Father with pleasure than to sing it. And as we sing it, I encourage you to be seeking pleasure in the glory of God in the face of Jesus and what he has done in the gospel. And ask God to keep His promise – it is His promise - to fill you with the same pleasure what fills Him with pleasure. And may the Holy Spirit come upon us with fresh pleasure and power so that we might be Jesus’ witnesses here, and as we scatter into the nooks and cranny’s of this city, and wherever else the Lord might lead. Let’s pray.