"But You Shall Receive Power"

“And you shall receive Power”

Acts 1:8

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

There are a few things that I would like to point out tonight and then I will be done.

1. The disciples were going through a tough time.

Why were they going through a tough time?

Because Jesus the one whom they were able to hang out with, the one whom they got to spend a lot of time with, and the one they even saw Him do many miracles was now crucified.

They had spent the last 3 years of their life with Jesus.

Now all of a sudden He is not with them anymore.

We see in the book of John 19:16 that Jesus was crucified:

John 19:16

Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. So the soldiers took charge of Jesus.

John 19:17

Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha).

John 19:18

There they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.

They could have been thinking what are we going to do now?

They were probably thinking is He really going to rise from the dead?

What if we don’t get to see Him anymore?

So they found themselves in a tough situation.

They were able to hang out with Jesus, spend time with Jesus and see Him perform all kinds of miracles, but now He has been crucified and they are feeling it.

2. Jesus told them to stay right where they were at.

Acts 1:3

After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.

Acts 1:4

On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.

Even though the disciples were going through a tough time, Jesus told them to stay right where they were at.

He told them “Do no leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised”

How many know that when you and I are going through tough times we want to make certain moves?

When things don’t go our way we think about leaving that ministry.

When things don’t pan out the way we thought they were, we want to do something else.

But the disciples had a promise.

Jesus told them to stay still. Stay right where you are at and the promise that my Father gave you will come to pass.

How many know even when the situation may not look good, God is still faithful to His promises.

The disciples could have left Jerusalem, they could have said Jesus has been crucified we don’t know if He is coming back.

He told us to stay here and wait for a promise. Uhhmm I think I am going back to what I used to do before.

But they stayed in Jerusalem and were obedient to Jesus. The next thing you know they are experiencing the power of God at another level.

That leads me to my next point

3. The power of God came upon their life.

Even though the disciples were going through a tough time and didn’t understand why they needed to say in Jerusalem.

They were obedient to the words of Jesus and stayed in Jerusalem and experienced the power of God at another level.

Tonight there may be a person or a young person here who is going through a difficult time and you are not sure what decision to make.

I just wanted to stop by and encourage you even though we might not understand the situation or the circumstance, stay in God’s will and He will come through.

Not only will He come through, but He is going to take you to another level and fill you with a fresh Power.

You might be a little discouraged, or you may even want to stop being involved and do something else, or you may have thoughts of leaving where God has you.

If I can encourage you tonight. Stay put and see how God will move.

God wants to take you to another level. He wants to fill you with His Holy Spirit that will allow you to do things for Him that you haven’t ever done before.

It’s like Peter before he got filled with the Holy Spirit he tried serving God, but just couldn’t do it on his own strength, but he was obedient to Jesus and stayed in Jerusalem with the disciples.