Any “Wheel of Fortune” fans here today? “Wheel of Fortune” is very different than when I was, well, let’s just say younger. How many of you remember that when a person used to win a puzzle, they would go shopping? Remember that?
They don’t do that anymore. And now they have some different categories of puzzles than they used to have. One of the categories they use now is “Before and After.” It’s kind of like two puzzles in one, with the ending word of the first puzzle serving as the first word of the next puzzle. So it would look something like this…Whitney Houston Texas. Get it. Make sense?
Let’s try a few and see how good our SWC wheel watchers are (displayed on screen w/out vowels) –
- Eggs Benedict Arnold
- Football Game Warden
- Exhaust Pipe Organ
- Disk Jockey Silks
- Umpire Call Forwarding
Chocolate Chip Monck
“Before and After.” For the Christian, we are living in before and after days. And we do each Easter season. We are before the 2008 version of the holiday, which is just two weeks away. But as believers, we are forever living in the after of Easter. The side of Easter that has experienced the death of Christ, and our old, sinful man dying with Him. And the side of Easter that has already experienced the resurrection, been raised in baptism, been brought alive to new life in Christ.
No matter what the calendar says. No matter what given year it is, and whether or not we are chronologically pre-Easter, as believers we are always simultaneously living after Easter.
So I want us to jump post-Easter for a few moments this morning. Acts 1. The book of Acts, chapter 1. Everyone there? When you have found it, hold your place there. And let’s pray that God will speak to us over the next few moments.
(Teaching Prayer)
ACTS 1:1 (READ THROUGH VERSE 2)
The author of Acts is believed to be Luke, author of the Gospel of Luke.
He starts this sequel recapping what was in his first writing to Theophilus.
Luke was a physician, a doctor.
And believe it or not, back then physicians were classified as slaves.
So one train of thought is that Theophilus may have been Luke’s master at one time.
VERSE 3 (READ)
There is that significant, Biblical number – 40 Days.
For 40 Days after His resurrection, Jesus spent time with the disciples.
Teaching about the Kingdom of God
VERSE 4 (READ THROUGH VERSE 6)
Three plus years with Jesus, and at some level, they still don’t get it.
From that first teaching in the Sermon on the Mount through the crucifixion.
They are still looking for a “Kingly reign of Christ in Israel”.
VERSE 7 (READ)
Difference: understanding and preparing for the return of Christ, versus studying for the date
VERSE 8 (READ)
Has anyone here ever heard that verse before? I thought so. But today, I want you to possibly hear it in a different tone or sense. A different mood that what you may previously have heard it. Especially two words that are twice repeated in my version of verse 8, “You will.” Underline those two “You will”s.
I have always heard those as commands. You will do this. You will do that. Don’t try guessing when I am coming back, because I have some marching orders for you today. “You will receive power, and you will be my witnesses.” In fact, there have even been times I have heard that with my own “or else” on the end of it.
Kind of like when mom or dad are talking to you and say, “You will take out the trash, or else you will be grounded.” Am I the only one that has heard those words that way in their life? As a command? You will be my witnesses, or I will disown you. You will be my witnesses, or I’ll be severely disappointed in you. You will fulfill my great commission, and not as a great suggestion, or there will be repercussions.
Anyone ever felt it that way? Anyone ever heard it taught that way? Anyone ever heard me preach it that way? I must confess, it is possible.
But today I want you to hear it in a different sense. What if, rather than a command, these two “you will”s are promises? Gifts? Even guarantees? What if, instead of demands, they are empowerments? If instead of obligations, they are natural outflows?
Now, English is by far my worst subject. I’m a math mind. And there was nothing about school I hated more than diagramming sentences. Ever have to do that? Hated it. And there was nothing about seminary I hated more than parsing Greek verbs. Could not stand it. And was quite miserable at it, if I do say so myself.
So at the danger of completing botching the next few minutes of this teaching, I am going to boldly go where I dare not go. And if you are not a Greek scholar, fear not. Neither am I. So this is going to stay really basic.
Greek verbs have tenses. Way too many of them. There ought to be an “it already happened” tense, an “it is happening now” tense, and it “is gonna happen” tense. But there aren’t. There are at least six tenses, including four used to describe the past. How crazy, confusing, and complicated is that? Four past tenses.
With Greek verbs there are also voices. And the longer I studied them, the more voices I heard in my head. There are persons, like in English. First person, second person, or Jamie, Debbie and Ricky Henderson’s favorite, the third person.
And there are even different endings that give you different numbers. It is all quite confusing, and should cause you to put every seminarian in our church family on your prayer list.
But to top it all off, there are different moods. And I don’t mean verbs you use when you are in a good mood, and verbs you use when you are in a bad mood.
And none of that is really all that important today. What is important is that you find out that both of these possible promises. Both of these phrases that we may have so often heard as commands, are written in the Indicative Mood.
What’s that mean? Well, if my C- in Greek back in 1993 serves me correctly, the indicative mood makes the verbs a simple statement of fact. The verb either has occurred, or is so guaranteed to occur that you can state it as if it has already occurred. It’s a done deal.
So here it is. These indicative mood verbs are saying, “You will. It’s gonna happen. It’s a fact.” It isn’t dependent on whether you want to or not. Whether you remember to or not. Whether you respond to the command or not. It’s just how it is. You will.
This is why Greek is important. They actually have another mood called the imperative mood. It is a mood of command. When you read something in the New Testament that is written in the imperative mood, it means someone is telling someone else what to do. But that isn’t what we have here. We have the indicative mood which is a mood of promise. A mood of fact.
So what will we do? Jesus says two things. The first comes from the root word lambano. Now I’m just showing off my ability to mis-pronounce Greek words. Lambano. That is the first you will. It is translated in my English Standard Version as receive power. Circle those words, “receive power.” And that’s what it means. Lambano means to receive, or to get, or to gain. To obtain something. And in this case, Jesus says what you will receive. It’s a fact. He’s not commanding it, He’s guaranteeing it. You will receive power.
That’s a pretty cool promise. Power. My second cylinder in my 2001 Mercury Sable has been misfiring for a few weeks. Needed to get the spark plugs changed out. When I would hit the accelerator, I didn’t know for sure if I was going to get power. Can be kind of scary pulling into an intersection.
But Jesus says, you will lambano. You will receive power. That’s promise number one.
Promise number two? You will eimi. From the root esomi. Five Greek letters traded for four English letters - to be. You will receive power. Promise you. And you will be. Guaranteed. Indicative mood.
What will be? His witnesses.
You still with me? What I want you to hear this morning is a great deal simpler than I am making it. I want you to hear Acts 1:8 not as some go save your neighbor and then the rest of the world command, but as a collection of promises. Jesus says, “Don’t worry about the day that I am coming back. Instead, you are going to receive power, and you are going to be my witnesses…” When? When will this happen?
When the Holy Spirit comes upon us. It is not a gift He gives us so that He can burden us down with more commands. It is a gift He gives us that results in the natural consequences of receiving power and being His witnesses. When we receive the Holy Spirit, we will. It’s as good as done. It’s indicative to receiving the Holy Spirit.
There are some other denominations that ascribe certain “proofs” to having received the Holy Spirit. Some say that if you have received the Holy Spirit, you will. . .indicative. . .speak in tongues. And I have read and listened to the arguments, and I hear the indicative mood in their voices, I just don’t necessarily find it in the Bible.
There are others that say when you pray to receive the Holy Spirit, you will be “slain in the Spirit.” It will so overwhelm you that you will drop like a 50 lb bag of potatoes. Again, they will communicate it in their own indicative mood, but I once again struggle to find it as such in Scripture.
So it can be a dangerous line to walk and suggest that there is a specific “proof” of the arrival of the Holy Spirit. Dangerous, unless we rely upon the indicative mood in God’s Word. And in God’s Word, in Acts 1:8, if I’m reading this correctly, it says that when the Holy Spirit comes upon me, I will receive power. Not a command. Not something I have to go out and do. A natural result. A promise. I will receive power.
And I will be Christ’ witness. Not an obligation or commitment that entitles me to eternal life. Not a hoop to qualify for church board status. An indicative result of receiving the Holy Spirit. I will witness. Make sense? Worthy of reflection?
In recent days, I have often wondered if the great commission has become too forced. Too demanded by pastors of their people. Too complicated, calculated, and manipulated as we feel the pressure to spread the gospel.
Maybe it is all more natural than that. Maybe it is all simpler than that. Maybe it is nothing more than a matter of opening our lives to receive the Holy Spirit. Because it seems entirely possible that Jesus is suggesting that when we receive the Holy Spirit, we will receive power. It will happen. Not of our own doing. Not of some fancy evangelistic training. It’s indicative. It will take place.
And with that power we will be His witnesses. Not because we are obedient soldiers. But because, again, it is indicative. A person who has the Holy Spirit, will have power, and will be Christ’ witness. It’s just natural. Guaranteed.
So tonight’s “evangelism” training is about conversations. I hope you will come, because there will be no packaged plan of salvation or methods for confronting an agnostic person. You aren’t going to receive a secretly coded prayer that if you can get the person to recite, you will forever secure their eternity. It is just going to be a time of simple reflections, interactions, and test driving how to take these natural, promised consequences of a life in the Holy Spirit, and free them to work through our lives.
But that does leave one very important element. We need the Holy Spirit. We need Him in our lives. We need Him to fill us to overflowing. We need to be guided and directed, each and every moment, by the very voice of God which is the Spirit dwelling within us.
Then we will have the power. Then we will be the natural witness. So I want to pray for anyone that desires that today.
Prep for prayer to receive the Holy Spirit:
How do we know if we don’t have Him? Possibly – power and witness
How do we know if we do have Him? Possibly – various signs and wonders
