19 April, 1998
INTRODUCTION: Back in February of 1985 I did a two week pastoral internship in Johnson City, TN at the Johnson City Alliance Church. Johnson City, TN is in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains so even though it is in the south, the winter there can be much like it is here in Pennsylvania - snow.During the week that I was there, we saw very little snow - a dusting here and there. But on the night before that I was supposed to leave for home, the National Weather Service was calling for a significant amount of snow. The man of the house with whom I was staying worked at the airport in the tower and was responsible for monitoring the weather on the radar. So I had first hand information that it was going to show. And snow it did - about six inches or more.
Now this did not set well with me because of two reasons:
So I was looking at being delayed a day. BUMMER! That night I prayed for it not to snow - but it did. The next morning when I got up (before everyone else) it was a winter wonderland. Even though it had stopped snowing the roads were covered and the trucks had not cleared all the back roads. But I was determined to go home. I had told my host family the night before that I might not be there when they woke up the next morning. So I wrote my host family and nice long thank you note, loaded up my car, and headed out. There was no stopping me barring another major blizzard. Once I got to the interstate, it was better driving but getting there was a challenge. But I was determined to go home.
What was it that motivated to keep on driving in spite of the conditions. I wanted to go home. I missed my family and so I had a reason to keep going.
What do you think motivated the apostles and those few followers of Jesus to keep going after He had ascended into heaven? It would have been real easy for them to give up. They could have figured there was no point in persevering. They had seen their Lord be executed and even though He had risen from the dead, He was gone again. They could have concluded that they were on their own and that there was no reason to keep going. But they did the exact opposite. Rather than giving up, they turn their world upside down. Rather than letting the fire go out, they set the world on fire.
What was it that motivated them to keep going? What was it that fueled the fire in them to keep on keepin' on? That is what I would like us to consider.
If you take a good look at the first chapter of Acts and try to put yourself in their place it is very possible that you will come up with the same motivating factors in their lives that I have. When you consider all they have experienced and heard up to this point, you might conclude as I have that there were probably five motivation factors that caused this small band of disciples to persevere in the life and work they had been called to.
We have to assume that by this time, the disciples and the others were convinced that Jesus was in fact alive. That even though He had been crucified, He was now alive - that He had risen from the dead.
What a motivation it must have been to come that point that they fully understood that they were not hallucinating but that Jesus was in reality alive. What a motivation it must have been for this band of believers to know that the One they thought was dead and gone was alive and still their Master.
There was another man in the history of God's people who came to this realization and it gave him a hope and a courage in the midst of his suffering that caused him to not give up. The man's name was Job and the declaration he made is recorded in Job 19:25,26 where he writes "I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth." These men and women in the early church could have made that same declaration and I believe it gave them the courage to persevere. We must never forget that the God we serve is not dead. We must never forget that Jesus is alive and is at the right of the father
This question that the disciples asked Jesus was concerning the time that He was going to restore the kingdom to Israel. In the minds of the disciples, the coming of the Holy Spirit and the coming of the Kingdom of God were closely associated because the OT frequently joined the two together. So when the Lord spoke to them of the soon coming baptism of the Spirit they immediately concluded that the restoration of Israel's kingdom was at hand.
It has been suggested that they had the wrong idea about the coming kingdom but that it is not necessarily so. The fact is, the Lord had taught them much about the literal earthly kingdom to come - both during his life with them and during his post resurrection days with them. If they were wrong in their thinking , He would have corrected them.
Basically they were confused as the to the timing. The word that is used for "know" in this verse indicates that Jesus refused to answer the question, not in respect of the matter itself but in respect of the time inquired. Jesus tells them that instead of knowing the times and dates of what they knew was going to come about, they were to be concerned with fulfilling His commission to the church until the proper time of it's coming. Jesus was telling them that it was not meant for them to know when all this would take place but rather it was meant for them to carry on the work that He had started. The reason they were to press was because of the commission to them - the church.
And what was that commission to the church?
The New Testament word used for witness here is martu which is the same word used for martyr. By Jesus telling them that they would be witnesses to Him meant:
"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched-- this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete."
Every four years the Summer Olympics begins with an event that captures the attention of the world: the lighting of the Olympic flame. At the end of an international marathon relay, one final runner enters the Olympic stadium. After traveling by foot over thousands of miles, the torchbearer enters the stadium and, to the thrill of millions, ignites the enormous Olympic flame.
As followers of Christ, we too, have been called to carry a torch. It is the same torch that Jesus carried for three years. And it was this torch that He passed on to the disciples in the Great Commission that I believe motivated them to press on in that work.
But Jesus passed on more than a great commission or a mandate. He passed on His very purpose in life -- His passion and the lifestyle that He lived. For within the words of the great commission is an autobiographical description of the driving priorities of Jesus' life -- it was His mission statement.
Following Jesus means living the way Jesus lived:
We need to restore a passion for the mission that Jesus passed on to us and it needs to be restored at the heart of each individual in the local church. We need to renew our determination to make the great commission a normal part of our everyday walk and persevere in the work that He has entrusted to us.
We have been called upon to be a witness for our Lord. To make it known to others in word and deed that Jesus has changed our lives and we are committed to following Him to the end of the earth. That means that we don't perjure ourselves when are called to take a stand for Christ. It means that, given the opportunity we share what we know to be true about Christ and leave the results up to God.
We have been called upon to make disciples of those who respond to the gospel, showing them what it means to be a follower Jesus, imparting to them the truth that will set them free, walking by their side and equip them to be disciples who are faithful and true.
We have been given the same great commission that Jesus entrusted to the apostles there on the mountain. And that commission that is ours should motivate us to persevere in the work as it did the apostles.
Jesus told them to go to Jerusalem and wait for the promise of the Father. The word baptized usually carries the meaning of being dipped or immersed but here it has the idea of uniting with. Jesus was speaking of that which John the Baptist and the Prophet Joel had prophesied about. He told them that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them. The word for power is dunami.
Jesus was speaking of a power, and might and strength far greater that any political power that they thought they may have needed. Jesus was assuring them that they would be filled with the power and the strength from on high to do what He had commanded them to do - to fulfill that mission of being witnesses and making disciples. And this is why these ordinary men and women turned their world upside down.
This is how these men and women just like you and me were able to do the things they did for God. They were uneducated ordinary plain simple people. As Peter Wagner points out they were considered to be Galilean hillbillies. And yet they were used of God to spread the gospel through the world that they lived. And it was all due to the fact that they had been clothed with power from on high. It was the power of the Holy Spirit that enabled them to speak the words they spoke and perform the miracles they performed. And it was the promised power of the Holy Spirit that gave them the courage and motivation to press on.
The same Holy Spirit that came upon this small group of people in that upper room is the same Holy Spirit that is available to us today. The same power is available to us through the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Jesus does not show favoritism when it comes to being filled with the Spirit. In the days of early church is was obvious to the disciples that the Holy Spirit was just as available to the Gentiles as He was to the Jews. It doesn't matter who you or where you have come from - if you have put your faith in Jesus Christ fro salvation, then the power of the Holy Spirit is available to you to live the life God has called you to live and to do the work He has called to do. We may not be given the power to touch a lame man and see him walk but we have been given the power to do what He has called us to do. And maybe that realization will give us the motivation to persevere in what we are called to do. Maybe if we could come to terms with the fact that Jesus has promised to empower us as He did the disciples, we would be motivated to say yes more often. Maybe if we could come to terms with the fact that it is God's intention for every believer to play and active part in the work of the kingdom and that He will give everyone one of us the power to do it, we would be more likely to make ourselves available to Him and the church. Maybe we would not give up - maybe we would actually turn this world upside down.
This same Jesus that you see being taken away on a cloud will one day return in the same way.
What do you think that promise did to these believers? Don't you think that set a fire inside them? Don't you think that just gave them just enough to courage to keep fighting the good fight and to keep the faith? The same promise that the angels made to the apostles that day, are just as pertinent to us. He is going to return. There is so much that I don't know about the second advent of our Lord. There is so much that I don't understand. But I know two things about His return to this earth and they are evident in this passage.
The angels declared that this same Jesus will come back! His coming is guaranteed! When? I don't know. And it is not meant for me or you to know. You can make your charts and you graphs. You can follow the news. You can listen to all the experts. But neither you nor I nor anyone else knows when. But one thing is for certain. His coming is guaranteed.
Look at the what the angels said. He will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.
Revelation 1:7 "Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen."
One day Jesus is coming back again. One day Jesus is coming establish His earthly kingdom once and for all. He is coming to bring judgment and to rescue us from this place once and for all. There is a lot that we have to put up with between now and then (if the Lord doesn't call us home sooner). And there is a lot of kingdom work to be done until such time that He brings it all to an end. But one day, He will return. And that should give us the courage and the stamina to keep fighting the good fight. I know it seems like He's never coming back. We ask ourselves what in the world is He waiting for? It is easy to get frustrated with all the evil and wickedness that is about us. It would be easy to lose heart because of all the suffering that we have to deal with day in and day out. But the fact of His coming must keep us from not losing heart. It must keep us looking up and looking ahead. It must keep us doing what He called us to do.
Matthew Henry says it well that
"when we stand gazing and trifling, the consideration of our Master's second coming should quicken and awaken us; and, when we stand gazing and trembling, the consideration of it should comfort and encourage us." (from Matthew Henry's Commentary)
Let's not forget that He is going to come again - it is guaranteed and it will be visible.
One thing that is obvious to me it that as much as anything else, they still had one another. Their lives might be at great risk, but they had one another. They would not have the support of the masses but they had one another. They were a community of believers and at this stage of their lives, they were in one accord. And they were all they had. And I wonder if that is part of what kept them going? I wonder if that is part of what gave them the courage to press on in the life and work that had been called to.
In the fall of the year, Linda, a young woman, was traveling alone up the rutted and rugged highway from Alberta to the Yukon. Linda didn't know you don't travel to Whitehorse alone in a rundown Honda Civic, so she set off where only four-wheel drives normally venture. The first evening she found a room in the mountains near a summit and asked for a 5 A.M. wakeup call so she could get an early start. She couldn't understand why the clerk looked surprised at that request, but as she awoke to early- morning fog shrouding the mountain tops, she understood. Not wanting to look foolish, she got up and went to breakfast.
Two truckers invited Linda to join them, and since the place was so small, she felt obliged. "Where are you headed?" one of the truckers asked.
'Whitehorse'
"In that little Civic? No way! This pass is DANGEROUS in weather like this."
"Well, I'm determined to try," was Linda's gutsy, if not very informed, response.
"Then I guess we're just going to have to hug you," the trucker suggested.
Linda drew back. "There's no way I'm going to let you touch me!"
"Not like THAT!" the truckers chuckled. "We'll put one truck in front of you and one in the rear. In that way, we'll get you through the mountains."
All that foggy morning Linda followed the two red dots in front of her and had the reassurance of a big escort behind as they made their way safely through the mountains.
Caught in the fog in our dangerous passage through life, we need to be "hugged." With fellow Christians who know the way and can lead safely ahead of us, and with others behind, gently encouraging us along, we, too, can pass safely. (Swindoll, Growing Strong, P. 286)
Sometimes I think we forget just how important we are to one another in this thing we call the Christian life. We were not meant to be lone rangers. There is not a one of us that was meant to be an island. We are the body of Christ - a community of believers. I believe that it was that sense of community that gave the early Christians a reason to persevere. Maybe it should be a motivating factor for us.
So why do we never give up? What reason do we have to keep going?
John Wesley obviously had every reason to give up in what he had been called to do. But he never did. Listen to this excerpt from his diary and you'll see why.
It would have been easy for him to give it up. It would have been easy for him to throw his hands up in the air and say, "What's the use - no one is listening. I just keep getting run off." But he didn't.
And it would have been easy for the early Christians to give up. They could have surmised that it was useless - that they were on their own again and that the future looked hopeless - that they were fighting a losing battle. But they determined to persevere. And so should you and I.