Have You Been With Jesus

Title: Have you been with Jesus,

Portions taken for messages from Jerry Shirley and Kenneth Trent on Sermon Central.

Introduction: As we sit in the breeze way we are sometimes watching vehicles go by the church. One might pass being really clean another with mud all over it. We can say the one with mud all over it has been mudding. How can we tell because of the mud covering it, right?

Core: When we see the clean one we might think it had just been to the car wash or washed by the owner. Peter and John were doing God’s will, healing people, preaching the word and then they were called before the Sanhedrin. The one fact the leaders of Israel knew was that they had been with Jesus.

Body

I. Just as we can look at vehicles and normally tell they had been mudding

A. So too should the world be able to look at us and say they have been with Jesus. It should be TOO OBVIOUS TO MISS

1. “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.” Acts 4:13

2. It is just as true today as it was then, that the world should be able to tell when we have been with Jesus

3. When I first went to Florida in 2001 after resigning the church I had pastored for 7 ½ years I was walking up to enter the Walmart store.

4. An elderly African-American woman was sitting leaning against the building, as I walked up she flicked a cigarette into the parking lot and said you’re a preacher aren’t you.

5. I said well I was and she I shouldn’t be doing that.

6. I often wonder how she knew, I wasn’t dressed different, I didn’t have a sign on, how did she know I was apreacher? I guess she could tell I had been with Jesus.

B. Peter and John had been with Jesus for over 3 years.

1. He had been their master their teacher.

2. They saw Him perform miracles

3. He had rebuked them and they had learned from their mistakes

4. They had seen Him crucified

5. The two of them had raced to the grave when Mary told them it was empty.

6. He was alive they had seen Him on several occasion after He arose

7. Having been with Jesus they would never be the same.

8. They were forever changed.

C. Just like when we see vehicles as they pass and can tell in many cases where that vehicle may have been.

1. So it should be with us when people see us it should be TOO OBVIOUS TO MISS when we have been or are with Jesus.

2. Can this verse be said of you?

3. Do others take knowledge and marvel and know that you must have been with Jesus?

4. People say we become like those we are around

5. The longer a couple is together the more they develop the same habits.

6. The better they know each other

D. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says people should be able to see the glory of the Lord in us, 18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

1. God’s Spirit should be felt when we are around others

2. The Holy Spirit should be felt the moment people walk into this church building.

3. If it isn’t then there is something wrong

4. Wrong with our lives and wrong in our church.

E. Every day you should spend time in study.

1. When you have confessed any sin you committed

2. You sit down to study

3. You should have that intimate fellowship with Him

4. You should be changed by the Holy Spirit into the glory of God and into the likeness of Jesus Christ.

II. THE DEEDS DONE BY PETER AND JOHN COULD NOT BE OVERLOOKED

A. Peter and John had just healed a 40+ year old man who had been lame from birth

1. The miracle was too obvious to deny

2. Their healing of the man was not for any:

a. Selfish benefit.

b. Political gain

c. Social gain

d. Monetary gain

3. It was done as a selfless service to others with no prospect for their own gain

4. This will call attention to the fact that our deeds are motivated by reasons far superior to our own personal benefit.

B. As we saw the fruit of the Spirit in a message not long ago walking with Jesus brings the fruit out in us. Galatians 5:22:23 “22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.