Speaking Of God's Mighty Works

[0:00] As we as a church refocus on what it means to make disciples, we're looking at how God used the early church to accomplish that mission.

[0:11] From the very start of our study in this book, we've seen the centrality of the resurrection in Acts 1 verses 1 through 3. There's not a more important doctrine for Christians to get a handle on than the fact that Jesus rose again from the dead.

[0:27] The Gospels chronicle what Jesus began to do and teach. That's what we're told in Acts 1 verse 1, that Luke in his Gospel wrote what Jesus began to do and teach.

[0:40] And the resurrection highlights the fact that there is more to be done related to his story. And that comes from the Great Commission in Matthew 28 verse 19 to make disciples of all nations.

[0:56] So it wasn't just about the life of Jesus. That was very important. And we learn a lot of great lessons and there's a great model to follow, right?

[1:07] But that was just the beginning of what Jesus was sent to do and intending to do what God was intending to do on this earth. And because he raised Jesus from the dead, that we understand there's more that needs to be done.

[1:23] And the resurrection also provides confidence for an individual to believe in Jesus and to preach the Gospel message. It would be foolish for us to go and tell people about Jesus who died for their sins and rose again from the dead if indeed the dead are not raised, if indeed Jesus has not been raised.

[1:45] And we know Paul tells us in Corinthians that if the dead are not raised and Jesus has not been raised, then our faith is in vain. We're still in our sin and we're basically without hope in this world.

[1:58] But the resurrection, very, very important, very central for our lives, for our faith and for our ministry as a church. In Acts 1 verses 4 through 11, we see that the...

[2:13] Let me try that one again. We see the need for the Holy Spirit. Though Jesus left a command to his disciples to make disciples of all nations, they still had to wait for the Holy Spirit to arrive before they were empowered to carry out that task.

[2:29] He told his disciples as he was ascending, he said, Go and wait for the Holy Spirit that's going to come to you. And that waiting was due to the fact that Jesus had to present his sacrificial blood on the heavenly altar for the sacrifice that covered our sins, the sins of the world.

[2:50] He had to present his blood on that altar and that had to be approved by the Father. And once that was completed and the sacrifice was officially accepted, the Holy Spirit would be sent.

[3:03] And it wasn't an immediate thing. With God, it could have been. Jesus could have ascended, the disciples go, and then the Holy Spirit show up. But they waited 10 days.

[3:16] Why? Why'd they wait 10 days? I have no idea. Just what God wanted them to do. He said, Go and wait. And I'll send the Holy Spirit.

[3:27] I really actually think I do have a good idea of why he had them wait. Because in that time period, they were praying. Right? And they were being united.

[3:40] So the disciples, they desperately needed the Holy Spirit because of the difficulty of the message that they had to preach to the people. And the geographical extent to which it was to be preached.

[3:52] In Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. And then to the end of the earth, according to Acts 1.8. These are just local fishermen. These are poor folk. How are they going to go to the end of the earth?

[4:05] Well, the Holy Spirit is going to guide and direct and lead and prod and poke and cause things to happen that end up sending the message from Jerusalem, where it starts, to around the known world.

[4:19] And we know Acts 7 and 8, with the ministry of Stephen there, the lesson or the sermon, if you will, from Stephen that led to his death, that that martyrdom, the killing of Stephen there, ultimately led to a persecution that spread, that caused people to go out into Judea and Samaria and to go out from Jerusalem and to take the message of the gospel with them.

[4:46] So the Holy Spirit was needed to empower and encourage and embolden the believer, but also to bring about the circumstances that would lead to the message being spread.

[5:00] And then last week, as we finished up Acts 1, we observed how God works out his plan based on the fallout from the betrayal by Judas Iscariot.

[5:12] And we saw in that text, verses 12 through 26, that God's plan works out of a united people. The disciples, the men and women, they were together in the upper room praying before the Holy Spirit came.

[5:25] They were praying. They were together in prayer. There were about 120 of them praying. There may have been food. I don't know.

[5:38] They may have been Baptist and there may have been food involved, but they were definitely together and they were in prayer together. They needed God's help. They needed his wisdom.

[5:50] They needed his protection. There was concern about them as being followers of Jesus and know what it means for them as individuals. But they were united together.

[6:02] And we see that God's strategy is organized. As it relates to Judas Iscariot, Judas' betrayal of Jesus was prophesied hundreds of years before it happened. And everything that happened to Jesus came about because it was planned to happen.

[6:18] God wasn't caught off guard. Satan wasn't able to thwart God's plan and like, oh, look at the great victory that I have here. No, no. Judas was prophesied about hundreds of years before he came about.

[6:31] It wasn't mentioned by name, but it was shown that the Messiah would be betrayed. And we know that God's choice is perfect. Judas betrayed Jesus and then he ended his own life.

[6:48] And then Matthias was chosen to take his place. Matthias was the perfect replacement for Judas. And he had a gospel ministry.

[6:58] And as it relates to us, those of us who are in Christ, those of us who gather and worship him and praise him and seek to grow close to him, God chose you.

[7:10] And his choice is perfect. Now, you may think lowly of yourself. You may not have a high view of who you are or what you bring to the table. But I'm telling you, God thinks very highly of you and has a high expectation and has a high calling for your life to be a disciple and a witness to share the gospel message.

[7:34] Now we come to Acts 2. It's a very pivotal moment in history. This is where the rubber hits the road and things get moving on the continued work of Jesus in this world through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

[7:47] And that work, in a nutshell, is speaking of God's mighty works. It's speaking of God's mighty works. Let's read Acts 2, verses 1 through 13.

[8:02] When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting, and divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.

[8:22] And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven.

[8:36] And at this sound, the multitude came together, and they were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?

[8:53] And how is it that we hear each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappodicea, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians.

[9:21] We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, what does this mean?

[9:35] But others, mocking, said they are filled with new wine. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for your word.

[9:47] Thank you for this time together. And Lord, we just pray that you would give guidance and certainty to what it is you desire us to gain from this time. In Jesus' name, amen.

[10:01] So as we jump into breaking down this passage with the typical three points that every good sermon has, this one being no different, we see in verses 1-4 that the Holy Spirit shows up.

[10:17] He shows up. You notice verse 1? They were all together in one place. They're together. Now the unity of God's people is often overlooked when reading this section of Scripture.

[10:32] At least it was by me. I mean, I've read Acts, I don't know how many times. Lots. And you probably have as well. You've probably read this portion of Acts. No. And the focus so much is on the coming of the Holy Spirit and what happens when He comes and what takes place and what they're talking about.

[10:52] But we cannot dismiss this very important detail that they were all together in one place. They were united. We know that they were praying together.

[11:05] We know that they were anticipating the same things. They were of one mind. So the unity of God's people, it can't be overlooked.

[11:16] We cannot overlook that fact. And when it comes to fulfilling the Great Commission in our churches, we cannot forget, we cannot overlook the need for unity in the body of Christ.

[11:29] See, we think that if we just implement the right program or follow the right formula, that God's going to bless our efforts and bring people to Jesus. Yet many local churches have divisions from within.

[11:43] There are disagreements which lead to infighting and grudges that are harbored for years. Offenses that, the offenses that go ignored in the name of unity and under the guise of keeping the peace and not bringing discord to the church.

[12:01] And all these offenses that are ignored and all the, quote, well-intentioned people who just say, I'm not going to bring it up. I don't want to mention it. You know, I don't want that. I want to, let's just keep the peace.

[12:11] It doesn't really matter. Well, when we allow that mindset to happen, when that mindset is existing in the church body as a whole, and that may be you, I have no idea.

[12:22] I'm not reading your mail. You know, God hasn't given me special insight into, hey, you really need to preach on this for so-and-so, you know. Hey, by the way, did you know Rose is going to be there on Sunday? You might want to say this.

[12:33] It doesn't quite work that way. You know, but the fact is that, you know, we do, we get these mindsets. You know, people are well-intentioned. They don't want to bring up discord. They don't want there to be strife and all that. Well, that type of mentality, when it's in the body of Christ, when it's in a local church, it's actually weakening the infrastructure of the church.

[12:54] It weakens the infrastructure of the church body. Think of Luke 11, verse 17, when Jesus says, every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste and a divided household falls.

[13:11] In context, he's talking about the kingdom of Satan because they believed he was casting out demons by the ruler of the demons, right? And so he called them out on that. But this principle, it's not just related to the kingdom of demons.

[13:29] It's related to any kingdom in any household. Jesus is very clear that division leads to the fall of a household, and I'd say even a household of faith.

[13:41] And that's why unity is of utmost importance in the body of Christ. Jesus told his disciples that the way they behave toward one another is how people will know whose they are.

[13:53] In John 13, 35, he says, by this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. What about in the case, now, so, now, we can say, oh, I attend such and such, I attend First Baptist in Shapley.

[14:12] That's my church. And I go there, and we go every Sunday, and it's great and awesome and amazing, and the music is good, and we feel the people are very loving and accepting, and the pastor doesn't put us to sleep too often.

[14:27] And you have this testimony among people. And then one day you go, man, I've got to tell you about this. There's this person in the church, they just get on my nerves, and I cannot stand, I hate it when they're there.

[14:40] I love it when they're not there, but I really hate it when they're there because I have to put up with them, and they have a funny spot on their face, and their voice is high and squeaky, and they are always yelling at me or telling me I need to do something right, or, well, when you have that testimony with somebody, why is that individual going to think there's anything special about this church if all you're doing is not loving but hating those in it?

[15:09] By this all people will know that you're my disciples if you have love for one another. Are you loving the unlovely and the unlovable and the quirky and the weird and the offensive?

[15:24] And John goes on in his epistle, so that was in John 13, 35, that was in the Gospel of John. He goes on in his epistle to explain that love cannot abide in the heart of hate. 1 John 4, 20 and 21.

[15:38] If anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, he's a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, whoever loves God must also love his brother.

[15:58] Hear that? I love the epistle of 1 John and I hate the epistle of 1 John. And my love-hate relationship with it exists in the directness that John has in his epistle.

[16:15] This one right here. If you say that I, if you say, I love God but you hate your brother, you are a liar.

[16:27] Ooh. But it's only one person. Yep. That's all it takes. It only takes one offense to break the law, to be a transgressor of it.

[16:41] And here it only takes one instance that makes you a liar. You cannot love God if you're hating your brother.

[16:53] You need to do both. And if there's a situation, if there's an instance that somebody offends you or you offend somebody, you need to go and make it right with them.

[17:11] Because what we're told in Matthew is that if you're standing at the altar ready to present your sacrifice and you know your brother has something against you, you leave that there at the altar and go be reconciled.

[17:26] Then come back and make your offering. Because when there is discord and there's offense, your worship to God is worthless.

[17:41] So we need to make it right. We need to seek to be united. Ephesians 4, verses 1 through 6, another section of Scripture that talks about the unity of the body.

[17:52] So important. So let's not overlook that detail. They were together in one place and we know they were praying together and they were seeking the Lord together. So unity, it's a tremendously important topic throughout the New Testament.

[18:07] Not only our unity with God, but our unity with one another. And unfortunately, the scope of this study does not allow me to dig even deeper. You might think, man, you just spent like five minutes on unity. Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's so much.

[18:20] You have no idea. I've read like five books about this stuff in like the last few months for class. So it's deep. It's very important. So let's simply take away the fact that this group of disciples were quite united with one another and they've spent a significant amount of time seeking the Lord in prayer.

[18:40] And all this time in prayer together is what prepared them for what was about to happen. The Holy Spirit shows up. The Holy Spirit is poured out on the disciples of Jesus to begin the work of renewal in Jerusalem and make it possible for his salvation to reach the ends of the earth.

[18:58] The Holy Spirit, which had been promised, finally comes. God's in the habit of fulfilling his promises, by the way. The only hard thing we have with it is that he's not bound by time.

[19:12] So he made promises a long time ago that still haven't been fulfilled. He's still going to do it. He has time to do it. He has all time. Whatever he wants.

[19:24] We may or may not see it fulfilled. But they did. The Holy Spirit's coming. Ten days later, the Holy Spirit arrives at the sound like a mighty rushing wind.

[19:37] That does not mean there was a strong wind. It's not like all of a sudden a hurricane came blasting through and winds are destroying things and trees are falling over and the house is shaking and you can hear the wind.

[19:51] No. It just means that there was this strong sound, this loud noise that filled the entire house and the best that Luke could do as he was collecting information, as he was getting the accounts from the people that were there, the best he could do is like, yeah, they pretty much said it sounded like a strong wind.

[20:10] The Holy Spirit comes, it was accompanied by a sound like a strong wind and it filled the entire house and not only was there the loud noise but there were the tongues of fire that rested on each of them.

[20:23] Now that's interesting. Now that's an interesting shape that the Spirit takes but it's not the first time that the Spirit takes a form of something.

[20:34] We know in Luke 3.22 that the Holy Spirit after Jesus is baptized descended on him in bodily form like a dove and a voice from heaven, you are my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.

[20:46] So we know the Holy Spirit is there as a dove. It appears as a dove. Probably the bystanders, those who are standing by not really understanding or knowing what's going on probably saw this dove like, oh, he's a bird man.

[21:00] You know, like, oh, here it comes landing on his shoulder or whatever. But we're told what it is. It's the Holy Spirit. So you see, the Holy Spirit on two different occasions has been revealed to mankind indicating the vessel in which he dwells.

[21:14] So in Luke 3, he descends on Jesus and he dwells in him to empower him for the ministry that he would fulfill over the course of the next three years. And there are several times through these Gospels you see Jesus doing things by the Spirit.

[21:30] That's because the Spirit's in him. And now in Acts 2, the Holy Spirit rests on each disciple indicating the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit that takes place in each believer. And this is a truth that is new and something that has to be explained.

[21:44] But in John 14, 17, Jesus says, the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him or knows him, you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you.

[21:57] So that was the intent, the Holy Spirit to dwell in the believer. 1 Corinthians 6, 19, Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God?

[22:11] If you're in Christ, if you have called on him for salvation, if you are saved, you have the Holy Spirit in you dwelling. You are a temple of the Holy Spirit.

[22:23] In addition to the loud noise and the tongues of fire, the final sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit is that the disciples started to, began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

[22:44] So I think we would be better served if this word tongues were translated languages instead. because there's the word tongues, glosa, in Greek, it just means language.

[23:02] Now where we get our word glossary from. Right? Where you get your list of words and definitions and such. There were these were common languages spoken by the disciples and understood by the people.

[23:15] They were common languages. They were known to the people. Unfortunately, there have been many false teachings related to the issue of tongues that have sprung up from misunderstanding of this and other passages in the New Testament.

[23:29] I'm not going to take the time now to go over that. That's a study in itself. But, you know, the fact is that these guys were speaking words that were understood by people.

[23:42] The only matter that we need to take from this today is that the Holy Spirit was sent as promised by Jesus and He's empowering the disciples to carry out the gospel ministry. And there is another thing that I didn't even think about until now.

[23:55] Now, how are we going to go to the ends of the world? We don't know their language. Well, the Holy Spirit shows up. Guess what? You're speaking a language that you didn't even know you could speak. It's nothing of your ability but everything of the Holy Spirit and what He was accomplishing and doing.

[24:12] So, the Holy Spirit shows up. Verses 5-11 we see that the people hear the praise.

[24:25] See, Luke's description of the Spirit takes up only four verses but they're quite remarkable when you consider the fact that this is a paradigm shift in how God interacts with His people.

[24:37] The next several verses are going to examine the response of those who were there to witness firsthand what was taking place on the day of Pentecost. And this audience is a good representation of the lands to which the Jews had been dispersed and are going to go where the disciples are going to go with the gospel.

[25:00] The people were gathered so this is the time of the Feast of Pentecost which celebrated the wheat harvest among the Jews and it was known it was the traditional day for them on which Moses received the law at Sinai and the people were gathered to celebrate when Moses received the law the old covenant and now they're witnesses to the first actions of God after implementing the new covenant.

[25:26] It's just God's timing is perfect and we always kind of find the connections later on. I think it was very important that it happened at Pentecost because for them Moses getting the law was like that was the biggest deal of all but now you've got the Holy Spirit coming which is even more important and it happens on this important day for the Jew.

[25:51] We're told that those in attendance were devout men from every nation under heaven and you look at verses 9 through 11 and it specifies where these people were from and as you look as you read through that list there are likely over a dozen languages represented among the people who were there to witness what was taking place.

[26:13] There's no explanation that would suffice other than this being a clear activity of God. These were Galileans they were not rich people they were not well learned in the course of 10 days or 50 days since Jesus had risen from the dead did they learn all these languages and such this is clearly a work of God an act of God.

[26:35] verse 6 shows that God and at this sound the multitude came together God used that loud noise it wasn't the strong wind it sounded like a strong wind but he used that loud noise accompanying the Holy Spirit to draw the people together to hear the disciples proclamation.

[26:57] God used something to bring the people together to get their attention so that they could make a proclamation and what were they proclaiming?

[27:08] They were proclaiming the mighty works of God. They were proclaiming the mighty works of God. And before I go too far down that God uses instances in our lives to get our attention.

[27:24] I always think of this 9-11 probably one of the biggest dates in my life's history as far as important world history dates.

[27:38] After September 11th after the attacks the planes flying into the buildings and all that what happened in the next six to nine months was astonishing as people she said it look at that Holy Spirit's working here they went to church they filled houses of worship they filled stadiums in the name of prayer God got the attention of people and that was an opportunity for the gospel and for people to proclaim the mighty works of God.

[28:20] So yeah it may not be as big as 9-11 in your life by the way but it can be a major deal. God's trying to get your attention. It could be amazingly maybe somebody is dealing with cancer or they're bleeding and they don't know where the bleeding is coming from they can't figure it out or they find that if you eat the wrong foods your stomach you're losing a lot of blood God's using things in our lives to get our attention and unfortunately you've heard this maybe you've heard this before sometimes we're just so stubborn like a mule that God needs to take a 2x4 and hit us upside the head with it sometimes 4 or 5 times before we're finally going to listen and do and hear what he has to say.

[29:11] So what are the mighty works of God? in the context of this considering how recently Jesus had been crucified about 50 days beforehand it could mean the works that God did through the earthly ministry of Jesus they're proclaiming what he had done what they had seen him do considering this is the introduction of the coming of the Holy Spirit it could mean the works that God did through raising Jesus from the dead and sending the promised Holy Spirit and the fact that Jesus is going to come again or considering the Pentecost context it could be referring to the work God did in delivering the Hebrews out of Egypt and giving the old covenant on Sinai and it's a recounting of what God did through the Exodus and afterwards but everyone was hearing it in their own language and that was like the man they're proclaiming the mighty works of God and we can hear them in our own languages but whatever the exact meaning behind that is it appears to be that they are praising

[30:13] God for what he has done rather than a message of repentance to the people they were praising God they were speaking of his mighty works this is what God has done here and this is what God done he did this and through Jesus he did this and Jesus died and he raised again but we know in verses 14 through 40 when Peter preaches the first sermon in church history he's going to give that message of repentance he's going to give a clear gospel presentation which we'll get into is it any wonder considering all that the disciples have experienced that they would desire to make God's mighty works known to all people these are the people who saw firsthand Jesus living on the earth giving sight to the blind helping the lame walk deaf hear they saw some amazing things and they experienced the love of Christ they wanted to share it and they wanted to talk of the mighty works when as believers we take time to think of all that

[31:19] God has done on our behalf the salvation that we have in Christ the good works he has used us to do for his glory the maturing he does in us through trials we experience the only proper response is to praise him there's no better response than to praise God that's the only thing we can do he saved you he's sanctifying you he's delivering you trial after trial he's molding you into the image of Jesus yeah and you know what he may make it may be one thing he does is make you lose everything you have but that may be what you need to be molded into the image of Christ but he's doing it because he loves you and thus we should praise him Augustine the hippo of hippo excuse me says that man's chief work is the praise of God man's chief work is the praise of God

[32:25] Spurgeon says praise is the rent which God requires for the use of his mercies God's mercies are new every morning great is his faithfulness lamentations 323 what's what's God require praise why are we here to praise God to glorify him what's the purpose in life to love the Lord to enjoy him forever to praise him glorify him that's what he's do verses 12 and 13 you have the response of the people and it's mixed the response is mixed it says and all were amazed and perplexed saying to one another what does this mean but others mocking said they're filled with new wine they're drunk that's basically what they're saying now that the

[33:29] Holy Spirit has come to the disciples part two of the ministry of Jesus in the world can begin and it begins much the same way that the rest of his earthly ministry took place he constantly left people amazed at the things he did I did a little search it was fairly extensive so I'm only giving you a little bit of it of these phrases that you can find throughout the gospels I went all through Luke just to be consistent we have Luke and Acts both written by Luke Luke 2 47 and all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers man who is this kid what's he know they're amazed at his understanding and answers Luke 4 32 and they were astonished at his teaching for his word possessed authority he wasn't just somebody saying something but he also had the authority to back it up Luke 8 25 he said to them where is your faith and they were afraid and they marveled saying to one another who then is this that he commands even winds and water and they obey him they were afraid and they marveled they were amazed they were astonished

[34:40] Luke 8 56 when he raised Jairus' daughter back to life and her parents were amazed but he charged them to tell no one what had happened Luke 11 14 now he was casting out a demon that was mute when the demon had gone out the mute man spoke and the people marveled they were amazed oh man what is going on here who is this guy Luke 20 verse 26 and they were not able in the presence of the people to catch him and what he had said but marveling at his answer they became silent even when they were trying to trip him up they were trying to make him look bad in front of the people the Jewish leaders could do nothing but be amazed at his answers and be silent they're saying it's foolish of us to try to throw him off it's foolish of us to make him look bad in front of the people so we're going to just be quiet that's when God used Judas to accomplish the task of Jesus' death and not only were people amazed but they were left wondering what the significance of what they had just witnessed what does this mean they asked there at

[35:50] Pentecost what does it mean now they're declaring the mighty works of God in their language what does this mean and really there are only two responses that someone can have when they're confronted with the mighty works of God they can either embrace them as God working and revealing himself to his creation so when you go and share the gospel you talk about Jesus who died for your sins rose again from the dead there's only two ways that people can respond embrace it or reject it say it's foolish it's folly and they develop their own idol to worship Acts 17 verses 32 and 34 pieces that say now when they had heard of the resurrection of the dead some mocked but others said we'll hear you again about this but some men joined him and believed so Paul preaching the resurrection of the dead preaching the gospel of

[36:52] Jesus people either mocked him you are a dumb foolish Jewish man who is talking about this thing called the way and the resurrection of the dead this is utter ridiculousness and then there are some who believed and that third the typically given third category we will hear you again about this it actually is more leaning towards the unbelief than the belief side because they haven't accepted it yet so they're in the rejected category because if they say we'll hear you again about this and then die five feet away well they're not going to hear you again about this and they've made their decision to reject and not accept right so and that's also why Moody after the great Chicago fire made it a point at the end of his sermon he said we will talk again next Sunday about what you do with this man who is called Christ that group never met again and it haunted

[37:53] D.L. Moody for the rest of his life where he said I never do I ever leave an appointment leave a sermon leave somebody with a week to make a decision about Jesus I always put it on the spot you need to make a decision because you're not guaranteed a week you're not guaranteed an hour so people there's only two responses accept or reject 1 Corinthians 1.23 says but we preach Christ crucified a stumbling walk to Jews and folly to Gentiles that's that's it most people now they see people who go into church and who believe in Jesus oh you're just a foolish man you're a foolish dumb woman dependent on this ancient religion that's and then they throw out all their buzz terms misogynistic and genocidal and you know homophobic and transphobic and blah blah blah blah all the terms and labels that they put out there and you know just to try to rail you and run you down because to them it's foolishness but then when they are looking at the mirror that is the perfect law of liberty and they're looking at their life it's God pointing back at them saying no sir you are the foolish one but that's what we're going to expect most people are going to think you're foolish and dumb and make you feel bad about it

[39:21] Romans 1 18 and 19 for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth they suppress the truth for what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them but they suppress the truth I don't want nothing to do with this God we talked about that in Sunday school ever since the day of Pentecost after Jesus ascended to heaven God's united people have been praying and working together to see the gospel be spread throughout the world as we've witnessed in the text this morning it's of first importance that the Holy Spirit shows up he's the one who equips and emboldens Jesus' disciples to carry out the gospel ministry he's the one who equips and emboldens us to carry out the gospel ministry if the Holy Spirit's not in it then the effort is merely man's attempt at winning souls to Christ if God's not in it it's just your attempt if you're drumming up the next program you're figuring out the next program to implement in the church because we gotta grow the church and we gotta bring people in they gotta hear this message the Holy

[40:33] Spirit better be in it or it's just your attempt to do something that's the Holy Spirit's job in the first place as the disciples are sharing the truth with lost sinners the people hear the praise when we're talking about Jesus and what he has done and how important it is they're hearing us praise God over and over again God has transformed our lives and we ought to boldly and unashamedly share about what he has done for us God is good and he's worthy to be praised and that praise should be shouted from the rooftop and finally we can take comfort in knowing that the response is mixed there will always be some people who are drawn to Jesus through the Holy Spirit and they'll embrace him as Lord and Savior and there will always be people who push Jesus away and they seek to worship false gods made in the image that they desire to make it in and Jesus says that what brought is the way that leads to destruction many there be that find it small as the gate narrows the way that leads to life and few there be that find it so expect that as you share and you praise God and you're sharing the gospel most of the people are going to hate it and not accept it don't feel bad the bottom line takeaway is this we're richly blessed in

[42:01] Jesus and we ought to be speaking of God's mighty works and there's none mightier than the work that led to our salvation the death burial and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ let's pray thank you father for this book thank you for this account and acts thank you for what we can take away from it and learn from it Lord I pray that as we seek to honor you and as we seek to shout your praise that you would embolden us that we'd be encouraged that we would together seek you out that we'd together be in prayer that we'd be together in you there would be no division in this church that Lord where there is a fence people would seek reconciliation because Lord we want you to get the glory we want people to see you through what we say and do both in this building and through the ministries that we get to carry out that we have the privilege of sharing your word and your love thank you

[43:12] Lord Jesus help us to meditate on these things amen peace and back peace and peace