Back To The Basics-1 8.docx
Acts 1:8
Vince Lombardi was the legendary football coach for the Green Bay Packers. One time they lost a game they should have won easily.
There was sloppy play and a lot of foolish mistakes
The next day at practice, he got the team together, reached into a bag and pulled out a football.
He then said to them, “Gentlemen, this is a football.”
It was a statement that it was time to get back to the basics
Christ is getting ready to leave His team and return to heaven, He left them with this challenge to be His witnesses not only at home but also to the very ends of the earth
A few days earlier, on a mountain in Galilee, He had given them the Great Commission, “All authority has been given to Me in Heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you and lo I am with you always even to the end of the age
His commission to us was explicit; we are to make disciples by leading people to Christ
We are to mark these new disciples through baptism
And then we are to mature them by teaching them to observe all those things Christ commanded
Immediately before His ascension back to heaven, Jesus stood on another hill in Judea
There He reinforced this Great Commission by calling upon that small group to take His good news to the whole nation, not simply a few locals
It is a basic tenet of the Christian faith that we are all to be His witnesses to a lost and dying world around us
The call to evangelism to sharing the good news of Christ, is one of the most basic callings of the NT
Since the last words of those who leave us are always intriguing and important, lets look at this parting challenge
1) The Who Of Evangelism
a) You shall
b) This challenge to take the Gospel to the world is one Jesus gives to all of us
c) Two verses earlier, the disciples had tried to sidetrack the issues by asking questions regarding when Jesus would restore the kingdom
d) But Jesus did not say, “you shall be My chart makers or date keepers, but My witnesses—all of you
e) None of us are exempt from this basic element of Christian living, that is, to share the good news
f) We have to remember that you is a personal pronoun
g) That is speaks directly to us and who we are
2) The What Of Evangelism
a) You shall receive what
b) POWER
c) This is a great need of believers today
d) We all need power to live the Christian life
e) Perhaps the greatest difference between the first century and the 21st century church is summarized by two words
f) Influence and power
g) Today we pride ourselves on our influence
h) We seek to influence the decaying culture around us in various ways
i) But the early church did not even have enough influence to keep their leader Peter out of prison
j) They were virtually void of influence with the civil and legal authorities
k) But the more important news is they had enough power to pray him out of prison
l) Jesus used the word for power from which we get our word dynamite
m) We need some dynamite
n) We need this power to be His witnesses
o) The book of Acts is the story of a group of men and women just like us who—despite all the bigotry and bias of the Roman-ruled world—went out from a upper room to tell the story of a publicly executed Jew
p) They did so much with so little
q) How
r) They had dynamite nature about them
s) They had received power from on high
t) We need some dynamite
3) The When Of Evangelism
a) When did this power come upon the group of believers
b) When the Holy Spirit came upon them
c) There is no such thing as a Christian without power
d) Listen when we receive Christ we have the Holy Spirit
e) He takes up residency in us
f) Thus we have power
g) Have you ever gone out to your car, and went to try to start it and nothing
h) Only to realize that the battery was dead
i) Our car needs that power to start
j) I think some of us need that power
k) We need power that is outside of ourselves to energize us
4) The Why Of Evangelism
a) The Holy Spirit enables us to be witnesses
b) this is the very reason why we have power—to be His witnesses
c) There should be no such thing as a Christian who is not a witness
d) If we are saved, we have Christ
e) If we have Christ, we have the Holy Spirit
f) If we have the Holy Spirit, we have power
g) And if we have power, we will be Jesus’ witnesses
h) The Lord did not call any of us to be a judge sitting in condemnation of others around us
i) He did not call us to be the prosecuting attorney, pointing our fingers of accusation at others
j) He did not call us to be the defense attorney, seeking to find loopholes so others could get past the law
k) He called us to simply tell others what we have seen and heard from first hand experience
l) That is, to be His witnesses
m) We are not recruiters trying to get people to join our club
n) We are not to be salesman trying to persuade others to buy our products
o) We are simply to be Jesus’ witnesses
p) People marvel that God entrusted His holy gospel to such common men and women, void of formal training
q) They were true witnesses
r) Incidentally, the word translated witnesses is the same word from which we get our English word martyr
s) These early believers were witnesses (martyrs) in the truest sense
t) Many of them lost their lives because of their uncompromising witness of Christ
5) The Where Of Evangelism
a) Jesus told us to take His good news across the city, across the country across the continent and yes across the entire cosmos
b) Here is total participation: all of us are to be witnesses
c) And here is total penetration: we are to go to the end of the earth
d) The gospel will never find its final destination until it is shared with every person on the planet
e) In about 30 years those early believers fulfilled Acts 1:8
f) They were empowered by the Holy Spirit and with singleness of purpose witnessed His saving grace in Jerusalem (1-8), Judea and Samaria (9-12), the ends of the world (13-28)
g) Christ’s gospel is to penetrate the whole world until every religion is confronted, every error exposed, and everyone receives a witness
h) It is a huge task
i) But think about those early believers
j) Their assignment seemed geographically impossible
k) Most people believed the world to be flat
l) It seemed physically impossible
m) No air travel, radio, television, printing press, internet
n) It seemed logically impossible
o) They were forbidden by the government authorities to speak Jesus’ name
p) And it seemed socially impossible, after all, who would really listen to these to these scrubby Galileans so void of culture and class
q) And yet people listened and are still listen today
r) They had power
s) And we need power from the Holy Spirit
t) They did so much with so little and we seem to so little with so much
u) We need to get back to the basic of the early church and go with the power of Jesus Christ
