Receiving Empowerment for Witnessing
Acts 1:8
Spring Life Series 2008
March 2, 2008
Morning Service
Spring Life is the annual emphasis on Evangelism and discipleship in the Wesleyan Church. This message was adapted from some of the materials provided from the Wesleyan World Headquarters
Introduction
If you have been watching any of the political news lately you may have noticed the slogan for Barak Obama’s campaign. Change we can believe in. Now let me be the first to say that Senator Obama’s ethics and means for change and my own are light years apart. However, his slogan is my main interest this morning.
It seems that we are experiencing a massive shift in the American climate but it has nothing to do with our weather. We seem to be living in a climate of change. One of the themes of this political season seems to be change. I am not sure that I heard any of the candidates not mention the need for change. I am also sure I have not heard a good plan for creating change.
Change is one of the things that we don’t like very well but it is a fact that our world is changing and that means we need to understand the climate of change around us. Not so we can change with it but so we can reach people in the midst of change.
If you have your Bibles with you I want you to open them with me to Acts 1:8,, as we look at a passage of change for believers, for the church, and for the world. It is a change we can truly believe in.
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." Acts 1:8
God has a very specific plan to create change in the world and it is one that is simply laid out in this verse.
God has a people for the task: Every person who claims Jesus as their savior is a member of the family of God. Every Christian has a responsibility to available to God for the task of witnessing.
God has a power for the task: Jesus makes the promise to send the Holy Spirit to be our power source for the work of witnessing. The Holy Spirit gives us the power that we lack to accomplish the task of witnessing.
God has a philosophy for the task: We are to be witnesses for Christ and to share what we have experienced with Christ.
God has a process for the task: Jesus sends the church out in ever widening areas of influence. First they start in their own community, then to their region and then to their world.
As Luke records these words of Jesus, they appear like a final challenge to the disciples to go out and change the world. In essence, that is exactly what witnessing is, sharing how God has changed our world and how He can change the world for others.
Changing the world seems like a rather tall order. Especially when they don’t think that they need a change. How do we change the world? How can we change the community around us? Our mission is to change the world around us one life at a time. Our nation needs not some form of political or social change but rather we are in desperate need for a spiritual change.
How do we experience the kind of spiritual change that we so desperately need?
To experience real change we must be receptive to the Holy Spirit
The Spirit will open the door to opportunities to witness. If the Holy Spirit comes into our lives there is a fundamental change that happens to us. We become sensitive to the leadership of God. The issue becomes our own willingness to follow and our being receptive to that divine guidance.
Jesus has something more for you. Jesus gave the disciples a precious and personal promise. The work that He started was far from over and that was a good thing. Look at the disciples. They abandoned Jesus the night He was arrested. Thomas has serious problems with doubts. Peter and the disciples went back to fishing.
There was a lot of work to be done in the lives of those simple men and women. They were ordinary and average. They were everyday run of the mill type of people. There was not one of them that was a standout. This should give you a lot of hope. What was it that made these disciples so great? It was the power of Jesus at work in them. If Jesus can use a tax collector to write a gospel, He can use you. If Jesus can use a man who was more like a pebble than a rock to build the church, He can use you. If Jesus can use a few fishermen to change the world, He can use you.
Jesus wants you to receive something more. This word receive literally means to take or to gather but not in a selfish or greedy way. It means to take what is already yours.
To experience real change we must be empowered by the Holy Spirit
Jesus made it clear to the disciples that they would not be doing His work in their own power or with their own abilities. When Jesus tells the disciples that they would receive power, He begins a process of natural progression.
First, they would receive the Holy Spirit, then the Spirit gives power and finally they would see extraordinary results. This is exactly what happens for the disciples in the early church. The Holy Spirit falls, they are filled and God begins to do amazing things. Peter is an excellent example of this. He goes from being reluctant to being dynamic. Peter preaches the Pentecost sermon and 3000 come to know Christ. Peter heals the sick, converts the pagans and even raises the dead. All of this is directly the result of power from the Holy Spirit.
The word that Jesus uses here for power is the Greek term dunamis, which is where we get our English words dynamite and dynamic. The meaning is to be given the strength or the ability to perform a certain task.
Jesus understood that we would need more power in our lives to make them dynamic for Him. Jesus sends the ability or the strength that we need through the work and person of the Holy Spirit.
It is the power that breaks bondages. If you are living with something in your life that is in control of you, you are in bondage. It is garbage that needs to go from your life, Jesus gives the power to take out the trash.
It is the power that gives courage
It is the power that gives confidence
What are the results of this Spirit driven change?
The desire to witness
You are meant to be a witness! Your life is meant to show the work of Jesus in you. You are a living, breathing testimony for Jesus. Your life is a witness to others.
A witness is one who communicates the truth
A witness is someone who by explanation and demonstration gives audible and visible evidence of what he has seen and heard without being deterred by the consequences of his action - Stuart Briscoe
Witnessing is at the core of Christianity. Being a witness means being seen and point to the Truth. It is part of being a follower of Jesus. Can your faith be a priority in your life, if no one knows about it?
Jesus is calling for us to be His witnesses. He calling for us to stand and share the knowledge of Him with a lost and dying world and to get it done we need the power only He can give and the Holy Spirit within us.
This means that we cannot sit around and keep the message of Jesus to ourselves. We have to go out and share the knowledge with others. This has been a problem for the church as a whole because we have become content with being keepers of the aquarium rather than fishers of men.
The compassion for the world
There is a destiny to consider
God put you on this planet for a reason. You are not the result of some cosmic mistake like many scientists want is to believe. You are made in the very image of God Himself. You are on this earth for a purpose to be the absolutely best person you can be for Jesus.
You destiny lies in the fact that you have been saved. Your destiny in life is found in the fact that you have a home in heaven to be looking forward to. If you do not have a personal relationship with Jesus, neither of those things can be yours. You do not have salvation for your sins. You do not have a destiny in heaven.
There is also the destiny of those you want to reach that needs to be considered. Without Jesus a person is lost. They will be lost for all eternity without Jesus. When Eve took the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, which was forbidden, there was an understanding. God said that if they ate that fruit, they would die. The Hebrew word for die means to die and die. Without salvation people will die and then die a second time.
There is a destination to impact
Notice what Jesus said to the disciples, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. The first destination that you are called to impact is your Jerusalem. If there were an evangelism bullseye that this church wanted to hit, Mt. Orab would be at the center.
Jesus was saying something most churches miss. The work of evangelism must begin in your own neighborhood. The church must reach it’s own community.
Elizabeth usually plants flowers each spring. A flower has to grow where it has been planted, it cannot move and choose another place. However, it can spread seeds to produce additional flowers. This is the mission of the church to spread the seeds of the gospel around us.
Jesus told the disciples that they would need to go spread the news of Him in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth. There are some principles that I believe we can take from this and apply to Mt. Orab.
Jerusalem: This is your community or your neighborhood
Judea: This is your region or state
Samaria: This is your nation or country
Ends of the earth: This is an impact on the entire world.
All of these are needed to effectively change the world for Christ and it all starts with changing your corner of it.
Jesus is searching for people he can use to change the world, what an absolute pity we settle for doing what we feel comfortable with.
Conclusion
Since we are in the midst of a climate of change, I think that I can steal a catch phrase or two.
Can we make a difference for Christ in our community? Yes we can.
Can we share the truth that sets others free? Yes we can.
Can we boldly go out and fulfill the Great Commission in our neighborhoods? Yes we can
Can we reach lost people with the hope that exists in Jesus?
Yes we can
