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Marching Orders for the Church (Luke 24:44-53)
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Marching Orders for the Church (Luke 24:44-53)
Gospel of Luke: Examining Our Spiritual Health
Sunday Message recorded 30 October 2022
by Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church
1700 Milam
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
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Transcript
Introduction of Cheryl Mingo and her mission work
00:00:06
Speaker
Good morning. Thank you so much for being here to worship the Lord together today. I always look forward to being with you, to exalting Christ together. So excited this morning to introduce to you a guest speaker who will be sharing with us tonight. Cheryl Mingo has been in Nicaragua serving alongside of her husband, her family. The Lord called her husband, Adrian Mingo, home to be with him. And I know that Cheryl misses him so much. We miss him.
00:00:35
Speaker
But you know what? She is continuing to be faithful to what God called her and the family to do. She also is joined by her daughter Noelia and her son-in-law Jose. And they just continue to serve the Lord there. So she was telling me that tonight she has a special presentation she'd like to share with us. But I thought maybe you would love to hear from Cheryl herself. So let's welcome Cheryl Mingo as she comes to tell us what we can expect tonight.
00:01:06
Speaker
So good to have you here.
Invitation to Cheryl's presentation
00:01:27
Speaker
Thank you.
00:01:38
Speaker
excuse me, what our projects are, prayer requests, and you'll have an opportunity to ask any questions. Hopefully I'll have some answers, maybe not. So I invite you to come. It's not super long, but it would be a good time to be able to just get to know me. You're used to seeing my husband up here, if you've been here in the past.
00:02:03
Speaker
I'm not going to preach. I'm sorry. I know you're disappointed, right? But it will be a good time to be able to get to know me a little better and get to know the ministry and just see in person what God is doing there and the part that you've had in that. So I invite you to come.
00:02:25
Speaker
I think it's at six, right? Thank you. What's that? Six o'clock. Yes, thank you. Thank you,
Mission trip memories and Adrian Mingo's translation
00:02:30
Speaker
Cheryl. I do invite you to come. I know it'll be a really interesting time for all of us and you'll know how you can pray specifically for their ministry. So I invite you to come. How many of you went on that last mission trip? Would you raise your hand if you went? I know there's several of us.
00:02:45
Speaker
Yeah, there's several. We were involved in some construction. I think there was some that worked with children. And then some of us worked with the pastors. After one of the break times, after lunch, I went into the pastors area and I noticed that there was a message on the whiteboard.
00:03:05
Speaker
And of course, our men had been out in the hot sun all day, and there I was inside with the pastors. And so someone had written a note there and said, I should have been a pastor. And so anyway, I don't blame them for saying that. I'm not going to throw them under the bus who that was. But anyway.
00:03:25
Speaker
We had a great time. I also remember serving alongside of Adrian. The first time I met him was not on that mission trip, but a previous one. And he invited me to preach. And so it was so exciting. I mean, they were just packed out that night. But there was a thunderstorm. It was raining so hard. And there was a tin roof. And it was really loud on the roof.
00:03:48
Speaker
And so I'm just preaching at my normal volume. But I noticed that Adrian was so exciting. He was my translator. And I thought, I'm giving the message. It should be equally exciting when I give it. So anyway, I started kind of increasing my excitement level. Well, he was thinking of the rainstorm, too. So his volume level, he could get really loud, right? I mean, he could really sound off. So we kept going back and forth.
00:04:15
Speaker
So by the time I get back to Columbus, I lost my voice. And so I was looking for sympathy, and I went to the men's prayer breakfast, and I remember telling them, look, the ENT says that I need vocal rest for two months, so I can't say a word. And all I remember is Ed Taylor saying, thank you, God, for answering our prayers.
00:04:38
Speaker
And I'm thinking, which side are you guys on? What's going on here? But we've always had a great time whenever we've gone to Nicaragua. I'd love to take another trip down there, another mission
The Great Commission and the Mingo family's mission
00:04:50
Speaker
team. And so hopefully tonight we can hear more of what's going on and know how we can plug in to what's going on.
00:04:58
Speaker
I hope that you will plug into God's word this morning that's found in Luke chapter 24. Josh and I have been walking with the Father through the Gospel of Luke, and you've been walking with us on that journey. And so last week, I thought it was going to be the last one, but I just could not end on the resurrection only, as important as it is. I thought, you know what? The Great Commission also deserves our attention.
00:05:28
Speaker
So when we think of the Great Commission and we think of the Mingo family and how faithful they've been to that Great Commission by going to Nicaragua, we usually think of Matthew, maybe Matthew 28 verses 18 through 20, where the Lord says, go and make disciples of all the nations, right? That's exactly what you'll hear about tonight.
00:05:51
Speaker
But our passage this morning is Luke's version of the Great Commission. Matthew's version is maybe more prominent in our thinking, but this one also is very important because it comes right from the lips of the master, right from the lips of the head of the church.
00:06:09
Speaker
You know, I think that we could give the title to the message this morning, the marching orders for the church. The marching orders for the church. What does the Lord expect from all of us who are His disciples? What are our responsibilities until His return? Before Jesus ascended back to the right hand of the Father, He left specific instructions
00:06:39
Speaker
As well, let's just call him our commander in chief, the commanding officer over each one of us as his followers. What did he say to us? I couldn't help but think about it as I read an article this week and I thought, are we carrying out
00:06:57
Speaker
The purpose, the commanding officer gave us this great commission. Are we carrying it out?
Metaphor of SS United States and church's mission
00:07:04
Speaker
I ran across an article dated July the 5th, 2022. It was written by a man named Matthew Christopher, and it was called Abandoned America.
00:07:15
Speaker
And I didn't know what it was about, but the article was about the largest and the fastest ship ever built in an American shipyard. It was constructed by 3,000 pairs of hands and it debuted in 1952, called the SS United States.
00:07:35
Speaker
whenever they were getting ready to build this ship, the US government said, you know what, we would like to pay for a major portion of that. The total price tag was gonna come in at 79.4 million, so the US government said, we will kick in 50 million of the 79.4 million if it could be used as a transport vessel to deploy 15,000 US troops.
00:08:02
Speaker
So they were agreed. They said, sure, that sounds good to us. But you know what happened? It was never used as a transport vessel carrying soldiers. Instead, in the 1950s and in the 1960s, it somehow became a celebrity cruise liner.
00:08:22
Speaker
And so stars like Walt Disney, Marilyn Monroe, and Cary Grant, and others, they began to just take it whenever they would go across the ocean to Europe or wherever. Now, the S.S. United States, which has been nicknamed Big U, is just docked.
00:08:43
Speaker
in Philadelphia at Pier 82. They're trying to figure out what do we do before it just totally rusts out. Most of it's already been gutted out, but they're thinking maybe we could turn it into rental space, rental space. And so they're thinking of how to repurpose it. All I can say is a ship was not designed to stay in a harbor. You know, a ship was designed and constructed to sail, wasn't it?
00:09:11
Speaker
Well, what about the church? What about us? What we're about to read is the purpose. This is what God intended for us to be and to do until he returns.
Declining church attendance and mission reflection
00:09:22
Speaker
Are we carrying out this purpose? Or are we getting distracted on other purposes? Lifeway Research published a 2021 study based on data from 36 denominations.
00:09:36
Speaker
In 2019, so this is pre-COVID, 2019, they found that during that year, 4,500 churches had closed. What? A church closed down? The 2021 faith communities today study revealed that across the United States, the median worship attendance over the past two decades, this is basically the 2000s,
00:10:03
Speaker
has dropped, the average attendance has dropped from 137 people to 65 people.
00:10:10
Speaker
What's going on? What is going on with the churches in America, the churches perhaps even around the world? So I'd like to invite you to please stand, have your copy of God's Word. I also have the scripture verse on the screen in the ESV. That's what I'm reading from. But if you have a different translation, that's great.
Reflection on Jesus' crucifixion and mission motivation
00:10:30
Speaker
I mean, you will get even more depth of understanding
00:10:34
Speaker
as you read even a different translation. But I'm gonna read this and then we'll pray and we'll ask God to once again remind us what's our purpose? Then he said to them, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.
00:11:01
Speaker
Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them, thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed.
00:11:21
Speaker
in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem, you are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my father upon you, but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. And he led them out as far as Bethany and lifting up his hands, he blessed them.
00:11:44
Speaker
While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven, and they worshiped him.
00:11:51
Speaker
and return to Jerusalem with great joy. And we're continually in the temple blessing God. Let's go to the Father in prayer. Lord, we need to hear a fresh word from your word. Lord, there are so many voices telling us as believers, as disciples who are following our Lord and master, there are so many voices telling us to be involved in this or that. So Lord, would you just clarify, simplify it?
00:12:18
Speaker
Let us hear from your own lips from the Word of God what you want us to be about until you return. May we be faithful to the marching orders that you've given to us, the church. So speak, Lord, as we listen. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated.
00:12:42
Speaker
First, I want you to look with me at verses 44 and 45. We looked at these last week, but I thought we should look at them again this morning from a different angle, a different perspective. That perspective being, let's examine the motivation for missions. The motivation for missions. I feel that the motivation for missions is twofold.
00:13:06
Speaker
As we understand what God has said in his word, suddenly it just ignites a fire in our hearts. Cheryl, this morning I was reading in Hebrews 1 how it said, God makes his servants a flame of fire. I couldn't help but think of Adrian. I thought he was a man on fire for the Lord. Are you on fire?
00:13:29
Speaker
As a sister in Christ, as a brother in Christ, do you love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength? The more we're in the Word of God, I think it fans that flame. But I think we also have to have a personal encounter, a personal experience where the Lord saves us.
00:13:50
Speaker
The Lord changes us and suddenly it's not just something we read in scripture alone, but it's something that is actually pulling us and guiding us and motivating us forward.
David's repentance and joy in salvation
00:14:04
Speaker
Whenever I think about the biblical understanding, notice that Jesus said all of those things in the Old Testament, they all were written about him. He said all of those things written about me, they must, they must be fulfilled. As you and I understand all of history,
00:14:25
Speaker
Time and energy, all that this life is about, it's all about Jesus. It's all about God fulfilling his plan, pointing people to Christ. As we understand that the Old Testament, the New Testament, they're very much connected. That's what we're going to look at on Wednesday night, how the cross connects so much between the Old Testament and the New Testament. You can look in passages like Hebrews 9,
00:14:54
Speaker
13 and 14, where it refers to these Old Testament sacrifices. You know, when you came in today, you didn't see animals being brought in, animals being offered up to God, right? Why is that?
00:15:10
Speaker
That is because Jesus died on the cross. There's no more need for a sacrifice of a lamb or an animal, some kind of bull or a goat or these kind of things. No, Jesus' sacrifice on the cross was sufficient. That's why sometimes like in 1 Corinthians 5.7, 1 Corinthians 5.7, Jesus is referred to as the Passover lamb, the Passover lamb.
00:15:40
Speaker
It's like He fulfilled all of that so that now we put our faith and trust in Him. And it just motivates us to want to go and tell people, especially whenever I would see people in Japan praying to an altar of stone, praying to an altar of wood, offering up some green tea, or offering up an offering of fruit. I wanted to say to them, you don't have to do that. Jesus is the way to find acceptance before God.
00:16:09
Speaker
But oh, it makes such a difference if you've been born again, if you've surrendered your life, if God's opened your eyes and you can see, now it's like you get excited. You know, it's sort of like in Psalm 51,
00:16:24
Speaker
David had sinned against God. And in Psalm 51, he writes about that. David writes about his sin. And he says, oh, how I need God to cleanse me personally. And you know what he said was going to happen whenever he got personal cleansing?
00:16:42
Speaker
there was going to be a personal experience of joy, personal experience of joy in his life. And he knew whenever the joy returns of my salvation, he knew something else was going to happen. You know where it leads? Well, let me read it to you. These are David's words in Psalm 51, verse 13. He says in Psalm 51, verse 13,
00:17:03
Speaker
Then, whenever the joy comes back, whenever I'm clean, then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you. There's something about it. Whenever you taste his goodness and his love, it just motivates you to want to go and share that with someone else. Well, let me go to the second thing that I noticed about the Lord's marching orders that he gave to us.
00:17:32
Speaker
If you are motivated to go, you better make sure that you know what the message is so that you don't go out there and then you just draw a blank. And you're saying, well, I know I'm supposed to tell you something. Verses 46 and 47, Jesus reminds these disciples, what's the core of the message? What are the core biblical truths of the gospel?
00:17:56
Speaker
Let me give you four of them to always include whenever you're gonna tell someone else about how they can be born again and how they can be saved. Of course there's more, but these are four very critical things. The first thing is make sure you include in your message Christ's death on the cross, Christ's death on the cross. You know, in 1 Corinthians chapter two, verses one through four,
00:18:21
Speaker
The Apostle Paul is saying to those Corinthians, he said, you know, when I came to you, I didn't come with lofty speech. I didn't come to you with lofty wisdom. I came to you and I preached one message, Christ crucified. That was the message. And so whenever you're wanting to share with someone how they can be born again,
00:18:44
Speaker
Don't forget about the substitutionary death on the cross when Jesus said, I will pay the price, the penalty that you owe, that they owe, your friends owe, your neighbors owe, your coworkers owe. All of us are guilty before God. But the great news is, Jesus said, I'll go. I'll lay down my life. I will pay the price they owe. And the reason it counts is because he was innocent.
00:19:10
Speaker
He had not sinned, never. And so that's why his death on the cross was so powerful, but also include the resurrection from the dead. He's not still dead. He's not in a tomb. Remember the stone was rolled away and the women went in there. Even Peter goes in there. He sees there's no one here.
00:19:32
Speaker
The reason there was no one there was because he had risen from the dead. The early church emphasized Christ's resurrection. So include the death of Christ on the cross. Include his resurrection from the dead. But also thirdly, make sure you include the Lord's call to repentance. The Lord's call to repentance.
00:19:56
Speaker
You know, Charles Haddon Spurgeon was a great preacher in London. He had a message that he said he called it Christ first and his last subject.
00:20:07
Speaker
His first subject and his last subject in his messages. Do you know that in Mark chapter 1, it talks about how Jesus said, repent and believe in the gospel. So easy. Repent and believe in the gospel. But why is it sometimes we leave off repent and believe in the gospel and we just say believe in the gospel?
00:20:30
Speaker
You know, he said, repent
Stages of repentance and genuine transformation
00:20:32
Speaker
and believe. And then you see here in chapter 24, his last message. He's about to ascend back to the father and he reminds him, here's what I want you to proclaim. You tell them repentance for the forgiveness of sins. You tell it to them. And so I'm thinking, thank you, God.
00:20:50
Speaker
You know I found it interesting that Spurgeon kind of spells it out because sometimes we get real kind of crazy ideas about repentance. What does that mean? Well Spurgeon put it in four different stages or steps and it can happen really quickly, but here's what he said happens. The first step he said in repentance is when you have illumination.
00:21:13
Speaker
And you know what the Holy Spirit will do? He will convict you of sin and of righteousness and judgment. That's the first thing that happens whenever we know, I need to turn. I'm going the wrong way. I'm making a huge mess of my life. And so that's the first thing is whenever the Holy Spirit opens your eyes, your spiritual eyes, and you realize, oh my goodness.
00:21:36
Speaker
I have sinned against the holy God. But then there's a second one is, it's called the humiliation phase. Whenever we begin to feel terrible about our sins, it ought to bother you. It ought to be like the Holy Spirit squeezes your heart and you say, oh God, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry that I've sinned against you. And that's this humiliation stage. And then there's a detestation stage, a third one.
00:22:03
Speaker
where you begin to detest. You hate sin. You begin to see what sin has done in the lives of others in your family. You see what sin is doing to our country. You see what sin has done in your life, my life. We begin to say, you know what? I don't like sin. I don't want to play with sin. I'm done with sin. And that is the last stage.
00:22:25
Speaker
When suddenly your life begins to turn away from sin and there's transformation, that's the fourth stage. Whenever no one is standing behind you with a whip saying, you better get in line, boy. No.
00:22:40
Speaker
And you want to do what God wants from your heart. That's when true repentance has taken place. That's why John the Baptist said, there ought to be fruits of repentance whenever someone has come to Christ. So that's why we turn from our sin and place our faith in Christ. So make sure you also include, fourthly, the offer of forgiveness, the offer of forgiveness, his forgiveness.
00:23:08
Speaker
Not too long ago, on Wednesday 9th, I was talking about forgiving others and what could motivate us to forgive others. I'm not talking about someone who just said one thing, but others who have really deeply hurt us. How in the world could we ever forgive them?
00:23:27
Speaker
You know how that takes place? Whenever we realize that God in Christ forgave me of all my sins, if he can forgive me of my sins, then who am I not to forgive others of their sins? And so what I shared with them was how Corey Timbin
00:23:46
Speaker
and her sister Betsy were in a Nazi prison camp and they saw unspeakable, unspeakable persecution and horrible things happening in that prison camp. Her sister died in that prison camp and suddenly after it's over and she gets out, she's released from the prison camp. Somewhere down the line when the war was over, she's speaking in a church.
00:24:12
Speaker
And a man begins to come toward her and she said, I saw him and I couldn't believe it. It was one of the prison guards, one of the Nazi prison guards that had been there that day. And she was thinking, he doesn't remember me. Surely he doesn't remember me. So when he came up to her, he said, Fraulein, I'm so glad to hear that you believe in forgiveness.
00:24:34
Speaker
because I did some terrible things earlier in my life. And he said, I felt horrible about it. And it was when I met Jesus Christ that he let me know I could be cleansed and forgiven for all the terrible things that I had done. And so Corrie Timboon is still looking down and she's thinking, oh God, can I forgive this man?
00:24:56
Speaker
And she said, before she knew it, her hand was down at her side. Before she knew it, it's like God caused her hand to go up and to reach to his hand because his hand was extended toward her. And so she took his hand and she said, when I did, I felt the warmth of God's love and the warmth of God's forgiveness flow through my life like never before. Let me tell you something, that simple message,
00:25:24
Speaker
of the cross, the resurrection, repentance, and forgiveness. It'll change your life. It'll change a world if we will simply say, okay, God, I'm willing to take that one simple message to everybody out there. Don't forget those four core biblical principles that make up the gospel. But I want to move to the third thing that we need to be clear on, the map. The map for missions.
00:25:52
Speaker
Those of you who know anything about my background know that my wife and I served for six years in Canada, for 12 years in Japan. I've continued to have the DNA of missions deep within my heart. You can't ever get it out when God puts it in.
00:26:07
Speaker
But I love missions and I enjoy looking at maps that describe where things are in terms of the receptiveness to the gospel. Do you know that in verse 47, I couldn't help but see some last six words of this verse, how they provide such clarity about the map.
00:26:30
Speaker
They supply such balance about the map for missions. They supply such direction about missions. They supply such vision about missions. Do you have a vision for missions? Whenever our commander
00:26:46
Speaker
says, I want you to go into all the nations beginning from Jerusalem. And I want you to tell him this message. There's no way we can't have a vision for missions. It is his vision. He wants to download that vision into our hearts. So we have to say, OK, God, show me then. What's the map? There's a starting line. There's a finish line.
00:27:10
Speaker
The starting line is where we are. It's where you live. It's where I live. It's the people I already know. The people in my family. It's the people where I work. The people at my school. That's the starting line when he says, beginning from Jerusalem. You start from where God has you.
00:27:29
Speaker
but you don't stay there. You haven't fulfilled the Great Commission by only taking good care of your kids, by only trying to be a witness to your extended family. What about those who don't have Christians in their families? We have to think, wait a minute, the Lord said the finish line is when all the nations, the word there is tiethne. It's not just nations as we know them, these geographical boundaries, but it's people groups.
00:27:59
Speaker
All the different people groups around the world, they all need to know that God wants them in his family, that God gave his son Jesus to forgive them of their sins. Do you know then in Acts chapter 1 and verse 8, it's similar to what we're reading here, but Jesus says, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem
00:28:28
Speaker
in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. Do you know that Luke, who also wrote the book of Acts, he took that and he just spelled it out. He spelled it out. He showed between Acts 1 through 7, Acts chapters 1 through 7, how did the gospel go to Jerusalem?
00:28:48
Speaker
But then in Acts chapter eight, how did the gospel go from Judea to Samaria? How did the gospel go to the rest of the world, the Roman world that is? Well, from chapter nine all the way through chapter 28. I'm telling you there's a map for missions. Sometimes that map has not yet been internalized. I'll never forget sharing with
00:29:12
Speaker
this one church when I was a missionary to Japan, okay? I'm gonna tell you exactly the way it happened. After I shared my presentation, like Cheryl's gonna talk to us tonight about Nicaragua, after I finished talking, a man comes to me and he said, I was in the war, and he said, the only piece of advice I'd give you is don't ever turn your back on the Japanese. They'll stab you right in the back.
00:29:36
Speaker
And I said to him, no sir, I said, I have friends. I have people that have trusted Christ. Their lives are transformed.
00:29:45
Speaker
I haven't found that they stabbed me in the back. And he said, well, just wait, because it's just a matter of time. And when I left, I prayed for him on the way home. Because you know what I thought to myself? He's still fighting a war. He's still fighting a war that's real for him. So I'm not making fun of him. I'm not even criticizing him. Really, I'm saying I feel for him.
00:30:08
Speaker
because he's still upset about what he saw in the past. And maybe he's got good reason to be upset, but just like Corey Timba, you're gonna have to do something with it. And so what he needs to do is to say, God, take the hatred out, put the grace in, take it out, Lord, all the anger and replace it with mercy, Lord. Help me to have the same map that you have
00:30:38
Speaker
for my witness and for this church and so forth. So all I wanna say is we've got to say, Lord, help me to see the same map that you do. Let me go to the fourth truth about missions. That is the method. It's just mentioned in one verse here, verse 48. You are witnesses of these things. I believe it gives us the two basic components of the methodology of the Great Commission. First, let's just talk about the personnel.
00:31:09
Speaker
are just missionaries like the Mingo family? Are they the only ones that are responsible for being a witness for Christ? What about the staff? What about Josh and what he does with our students? Trudy, what she does with our children? Is
Believers as witnesses, not judges
00:31:24
Speaker
that it? Sunday school teachers and deacons?
00:31:28
Speaker
No, you know what? I believe that the personnel is every believer, every disciple, all of us. He says, you are, you are. I want you to hear Jesus saying that to you this morning. You are, you are, you are. Speaking directly to your heart. There were women at the tomb. There were two on the road to Emmaus. There was a room full of disciples locked in a room.
00:31:56
Speaker
And there's Jesus saying, you are. And so he would say to us in 2022, you are. But then I thought about what's the presentation and missions? A witness. He says, you're a witness of these things. No wonder in Acts 1.8, he repeated it again. Jesus says, you will be my witnesses. Remember, I read that earlier. Let's think for a moment on what a witness is. Is a witness the same thing as a judge?
00:32:25
Speaker
Is a witness the same thing as a prosecuting attorney? No, that's not your role. That's not my role. You know what my role and your role, what we're called to do, our responsibility is just be witness. A witness doesn't have to know everything there is to know. It's like, I'm not opening my mouth. I don't know it all yet. I haven't been to a Bible school. A witness only is responsible to testify to what they saw.
00:32:54
Speaker
to what they heard, to what they know, to what they've experienced. You can do this. And that's what God is calling you to do. He's calling us to say, Lord, there's something you wanna say through me. I might not be the most knowledgeable person on Christianity in the Bible, but there's something you wanna say through me. And so God says, you are to be a witness of these things.
00:33:22
Speaker
Well, let's go to the fifth observation about missions. It's very important, and that is the might. That is the power, the fuel for missions. What would that be? Well, you know, verse, what is it, 49 here says, and behold, I'm sending the promise of my father upon you, but stay in the city until you're clothed with power from on high. How important is fuel?
Metaphor of Rose Parade float and spiritual fuel
00:33:48
Speaker
How important is power?
00:33:50
Speaker
You know, I don't know if you're like me. I love football. I'm not going to talk about the Tennessee Volunteers like you think I'm going to. I'm going to get to the message here. A long time ago, in the Tournament of Roses Parade, one of the parades sputters and stalls
00:34:07
Speaker
And when it stopped, nobody could get around it. It was so large they couldn't get around it. So everybody has to wait. The parade can't go on because one float ran out of fuel. They didn't know what was wrong at first and then they discovered
00:34:23
Speaker
Look at the fuel gauge. You are completely out of gas. And so they're like, sorry, I didn't think to check it this morning. I was so interested in how it was hooked up to the truck and how it was hooked up to the float and all these different things. So they had to wait until somebody got a little gas can and can't put gas in there. And what was really kind of like one of those, no, this can't be. It was a float sponsored by the Standard Oil Company.
00:34:52
Speaker
You guys ought to know this, you know. What about you?
00:34:58
Speaker
We are sponsored by Heaven's oil company. God's behind us. The Holy Spirit is the oil. He's the power. And the Lord says, I'm promising you, I will supply the power if you will just open your mouth and talk and be a witness for me. It's like there was this incredible thing that took place because you do remember the context, right? Remember last week when I said that the doors were locked in this room?
00:35:27
Speaker
These disciples were scared. They were scared. They saw Jesus die on the cross. They knew he was innocent, so they were thinking they're liable to come for us next. So they just huddled up in that room, and they locked the door. What could cause those men to suddenly become so full of courage that they unlocked the door? And they opened the door, and they go out into the streets of Jerusalem, and they start telling people right and left.
00:35:56
Speaker
Jesus loves you. He died on the cross for you. And they start telling all of these different things. We just saw Him. He's alive. He appeared to us. There was an exchange of His power into their lives when the Holy Spirit came upon them.
Philip's mission work in Samaria
00:36:12
Speaker
There was a deacon. This was not one of the original apostles. This was just a deacon named Philip. He goes to the city of Samaria. The Holy Spirit was all upon this guy. Powerful things happened. And so this guy that's a magician named Simon sees what's happening. He gets so excited about it.
00:36:31
Speaker
So whenever Peter and John comes, he tells Peter, he said, look, how much you need for that Holy Spirit power. I got some money here. I got silver and gold. And Peter said, what are you talking about? God's power is not like that. You can't buy it. You can't buy it in a store or something. It was a big mistake. The Holy Spirit's power is so unique. We have access to that power through Christ.
00:36:57
Speaker
Notice the expectation of his power. You know, he said, stay until you're clothed with power from on high. It's like there they were so persecuted. They were so harassed. They were so afraid. They were thinking we're going to be punished if we go outside that door. And yet.
00:37:14
Speaker
Once they went out that door, when the Holy Spirit came upon them in Acts 2, you couldn't stop them from talking. They were telling them, look, you guys better stop filling Jerusalem with that kind of talk, or we're going to whip you and work you over. And they said, you know what? If it's right to listen to you rather than to God, you be the judge, but we can't stop speaking. We can't stop speaking.
00:37:39
Speaker
Why do we stop speaking when that same Holy Spirit, the same Lord Jesus, the same gospel is in our lives? I think the sixth and final truth that I see in these verses are found from verse 50 down through 53. It's like whenever they saw Him ascend back to the Father. I think that they would have been marveling.
00:38:02
Speaker
Just like the time in Canada, when Jody and I were standing out there with Ken and Kathy Yinger, and Ken Yinger, he's kind of like really brilliant. He's like a reader. I'm not a reader compared to Ken Yinger anyway. Ken Yinger's looking up there and he sees those stars. And we're looking at the Canadian sky was so clear. We could see every star out there at the seminary campus. And Ken Yinger said, you know, those stars that we see, they're not really there.
00:38:31
Speaker
And I said, they're not there. I can see them. He said, yeah. But he said, you know, scientists say they burn out a long time ago. He said, it's just taking the light that long to get to us. You know what I mean? And he said, Victor, I turned to you and your mouth was open.
00:38:47
Speaker
And he said, you look like you've seen something incredible up there. And I said, well, Ken, in Tennessee, if we see the light, it's there. If you don't see the light, it ain't there. But anyway, I think when they saw Jesus ascend back to the Father's throne, I think that was beyond marveling. It was beyond being astonished. It was beyond being surprised and shocked. I mean, what word would you use for it?
00:39:16
Speaker
No wonder Luke, in Luke 24 verse 41 says they marveled at his resurrection. No wonder in chapter 20 he said they marveled at Jesus' answers. In chapter 11 he says they marveled at his authority. He had authority over demons. No wonder in Luke 8 verse 25 he says they marveled over power when he can stand up in a boat and make a storm close. Personally, I think all of that would have seemed so light
00:39:45
Speaker
when they saw him do this. And I think that they were standing there. And I think verse 450 tells me that I think they would have been marveling over his guidance. It says he led them. He led them out. Have you ever had God actually lead you?
00:40:01
Speaker
Man, it's an incredible thing when God guides you to do something. Also, I think they would have marveled at his blessing. Has God ever blessed you? Can you imagine what the blessing would have been instead? And lifting up his hands, he blessed them. And while he blessed them, two times he blessed them.
00:40:19
Speaker
Has God ever blessed you? I think if we were honest, we'd say, I got a whole life full of blessings. Has God ever done something miraculous like when he ascended, says he parted from them and was carried up into the heavens?
00:40:33
Speaker
Man, I'm telling you, God does so many things we can't do. And so what it makes us want to do is worship. I don't know about you, but sometimes when we're singing, I have a mansion over the hilltop. Sometimes whenever we're singing all of these songs about the greatness and the goodness of God, I just marvel and I can't hold it in.
00:40:54
Speaker
What about you? Do you ever marvel over that? Do you marvel over his joy in verse 52? Do you marvel over his people in verse 53? Phillips, Craig, and Dean used to sing a song called Your Grace Still Amazes Me.
00:41:11
Speaker
In the song it says, each time I come into your presence, I stand and wonder once again, your grace still amazes me, your love is still a mystery. Each day I fall on my knees, cause your grace still amazes me. Does it still amaze you really? Does it ever still amaze you? Or do you say, no, I'm pretty much over that now.
Luigi Tarisio's violins and sharing the gospel
00:41:40
Speaker
In 1796, there was a man born in the northern part of Italy, Luigi Tauricio. He loved to play the fiddle. He worked hard as a carpenter. He specialized in repairing furniture. But as his woodworking gained him a certain amount of success, his opportunities to perform on the violin across northern Italy just kept increasing and increasing. And all the while, he kept on thinking, you know what? I love violins.
00:42:10
Speaker
I believe I'm gonna start trading for violins. So he lived like a hermit, used all that he had to just continue to collect rare and exquisite violins. And the guy was illiterate, but man, he knew how to trade. By the end of his life in 1859, people were beginning to wonder, wait a minute, where is he keeping, I see him buying a lot of stuff, I see him trading for a lot of stuff, but where does he keep all this stuff? Nobody knew.
00:42:38
Speaker
And so there was a guy in Paris named Jean Baptiste Voula-Lameau, me. Sorry, I can't get this guy. I'm not from France, I'm from Tennessee. But anyway, he purchases this guy's small farm out in the middle of nowhere. And so he goes in there and he's trying to find out, where did he keep it? Where did he keep it?
00:43:01
Speaker
And he goes up into a dark, dingy attic. And you know what he discovered up there? There were 24 stratovirus. There were 120 other Italian masterpieces, I mean violins. Fine, fine violins. But a violin wasn't made.
00:43:22
Speaker
to just be collected, to just sit there in the dark. A violin, those violins, especially, well, they were made to be played. They were made for people to listen to and be blessed by. One in particular was nicknamed the Messiah, because that violin was sought after all over the world. But there was just locked away in Teresa's attic, along with so many others.
00:43:51
Speaker
And I ask you in closing in this message, is it ever possible for churches and followers of Christ to hold on to the gospel so tightly that we miss the purpose of the gospel? We miss the purpose of a church. Like a violin, the gospel was intended to go beyond our hearts and to go beyond our homes. It was intended to bring joy to a lost and broken world.
Final reminder of church's mission
00:44:17
Speaker
And like the SS United States,
00:44:21
Speaker
Do kingdom vessels designed to win spiritual victories ever morph into celebrity cruise liners, party boats for social entertainment? As we end our journey through Luke's gospel, don't forget, don't forget, what are we supposed to do? This is what we're supposed to do, Luke 24.
00:44:45
Speaker
Maybe you would say, man, if that's your purpose, I want to be in that. So I want to give you an opportunity to turn from sin, to trust Christ. His death on the cross was enough to cover all your sins. His death on the cross is enough for the Father to welcome you into his family. I want us to stand together. I want us to pray.
00:45:12
Speaker
Would you pray with me and let's pray that God would draw people to himself today. Lord, I try my best to remind all of us of what our purpose is. What are the marching orders of a local New Testament church? What should we be about as disciples, as followers of Christ? We definitely need to grow.
00:45:36
Speaker
We definitely need to love you. We definitely need to worship. Those are definite things that we know your word is revealed to us that we need to do. But we also, we also need to share the gospel. We need to take the good news that has changed our lives
00:45:54
Speaker
to a lost, broken, dying world that's sitting in darkness, waiting for a little bit of good news. And we know, we know the good news. We have the good news. And so help us, oh Lord, as we go through the month of November and we celebrate Thanksgiving.
00:46:13
Speaker
around tables, perhaps across Columbus, maybe across Colorado County, maybe across the whole United States. Wherever we go, I pray that they would hear us say, I'm so thankful for Jesus that he died for me. I pray that as we enter into December and we have opportunities like never before the rest of the year to tell people what Christmas is all about,
00:46:39
Speaker
I pray we be witness. We don't have to know it all. We just have to know you. We just have to know that simple message of the gospel. So help us, oh Lord, to be unleashed, to be out there doing what you've called us to do. And whenever we hear Cheryl share tonight, speak to our hearts.
00:46:58
Speaker
Do you want us to go there? Do you want us to go to Japan and work with Jacob Tice? What do you want us to do? What do you want each person here to do? Oh Lord, let us know that your purpose is bigger than just ourselves. We love you, Lord. So draw those that need salvation this morning. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
00:47:23
Speaker
This is a ministry of First Baptist Church, located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.