We are all Witnesses

Transcript

What I want to talk about today is really two complementary things I want to talk about. The power of the resurrection and our calling to be witnesses to that power. And, of course, there's no greater moment of witness than what happens in Acts chapter 2, where they literally bring in two, three thousand souls. Now, this is how Peter expressed it in Acts chapter 2. He said this, This Jesus hath God raised up. There's the resurrection, whereof we all are witnesses. Now, we know that Peter is talking about himself and the disciples and the others that were in that room when the Holy Spirit came upon them. And we'll be talking about that in a few minutes. But really, when he says we all are witnesses, he's talking about all faithful brethren for the last two thousand years. We are witnesses, and it's very specific what we are witnesses to. We are witnesses to the resurrection. In the book of Acts, this word for witnesses is found seven times when it's related to those people who are the disciples preaching. And in all seven of those times where this word witnesses are used, as in we are the witness or we are called to be witnesses, it's always references to the resurrection. The witness that we are a witness to is the resurrection. Why? Well, the reason is because there's so much power in the resurrection. Paul puts it this way. In Philippians 3, verse 10, talking about his own motivation, spiritual motivation, he says this, and you know this verse, but we'll read it anyway. He says, That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Now notice he says the power of the resurrection. Well, what exactly does that mean, the power of the resurrection? Well, we know you and I are blessed to know what the resurrection represents. We have a solid understanding of why Christ was raised from the dead, what the power was that did it, what he accomplished in his life, that he would be raised, that the grave could not hold him. We understand what all that means. We understand what Paul meant when he said if Christ hasn't been raised, we are still dead in our sins and of all people, to be the most pitied. So we understand all that, but what does he mean by the word power? The power of the resurrection. It doesn't just mean understanding. It doesn't just mean we know the purpose of the resurrection. It means much more than that. In fact, this word power is talking about a force. It's talking about a strong, mighty, unstoppable force. That's what the resurrection is. And it is such a strong and incredibly powerful force that when it's applied properly, it can obliterate, obliterate, obliterate the other overwhelming power. And that's the power of sin and death. So why did I become interested in this? Well, I came across something recently that brought me to thinking about what this power of the resurrection means. And what I came across was a book. I picked it up. Here's the book. If you can see it. It's a big book. It's a big, heavy book, a lot of pages in this book. And it's called The Faith, a History of Christianity. Now, I knew what this book was going to be about. I knew that it would be an apologist book for all the wrong terms that Christianity had taken over the century. But I was intrigued because I had picked up a similar book many, many years ago. I'd actually mentioned it in the past, but not in a long time. I picked up a book many, many years ago that was called Early Christian Heresies. It was a much smaller book, but it was a really fascinating book. I learned a lot from the book Early Christian Heresies. Early Christian Heresies, by the way, was a heretical book. It basically said that everything that you and I believe is heresy and all those false doctrines that were developed over the years were actually correct. But if you could put aside the offense of what the author was saying, you could actually learn a lot. And so I actually got quite a bit out of that book. And so my hope was that this book, which is so much bigger than the other book, and it's a historical book, might expand upon those things that I had learned and give it a little bit more historical context. So I dove into this book. I wanted to understand why things went astray so quickly, because the gospel message is so powerful and so wonderful and so complete that you have to wonder why it was rejected so quickly. Now, of course, it wasn't rejected by everyone. There were the disciples. There were the churches. There were the remnant that has always been there. But almost from the very moment Christ leaves the scene, people try to start changing who he is and what he did. They started trying to change what the resurrection represents. It didn't start changing when Constantine made Christianity the national, the official religion, although that certainly didn't help. That turned Christianity from an institution instead of a calling. So it didn't help. But that's not where it had started to change. It had started to change from the very beginning. Even in Acts and some of Paul's letters, we can already see people trying to change who Christ was and what he did and what his resurrection represents. So I thought maybe this book could help me understand. And in actual fact, in the same way that early Christian heresies work, it did actually help me to understand. Let me explain. So unlike early Christian heresies, this book didn't go off the rails for a full 17 pages. Early Christian heresies, as I remember it, started bleeding at about page two. But this book, it took them 17 pages to start saying things that make you go, I don't know where you came up with that. And the reason was because the first 17 pages, he gives a synopsis of the four gospels. And there's really nothing in it in those 17 pages that would make you go, I don't understand what he's talking about here or there. Now 17 pages, even in a big old book like this, is not enough to give a reasonable synopsis of the gospels or the earthly ministry of Christ, obviously. But the interesting thing was that he took all of his information right from the gospels and he didn't make any prognostications or any things that were out of line. It was pretty simplistic stuff. It wasn't inspiring by any means. But at least it was right. At least it was direct and it was verifiable. And I thought, well, this is all right. But I really didn't have any issues with what he was saying. Then I came to page 18. And page 18, he reaches the point of talking about the resurrection and Christ's ascension to heaven. Now remember, I had no issues with what he had said about anything up to this point. And then he said something that I didn't at first understand. And this is what he said. He's talking about the 40 days that Jesus spent with the disciples after he was raised from the dead and then, of course, his ascension to heaven. And he says, the men now went to Galilee, meaning the disciples, there for 40 days. And after his passion, the living Jesus presented himself to them, spoke with them, ate with them before he was carried up into heaven. He's talking about his ascension from the mount. I'm like, OK, well, that's OK. And then the very next thing he says is this. He says it was talking about his ascension. It was, for them, absolute evidence that he was Christ. Well, that was now I'm on page 18 and I'm like, what? Now, I'm not suggesting that the ascension to heaven disproved that Jesus was Christ by any stretch of imagination, but it certainly was not the absolute evidence that he was Christ because the absolute evidence that he was Christ had already taken place. The absolute evidence that Jesus was Christ was at the resurrection. You know, when Jesus walked into that or appeared in that inner room, you know, this man who had been dead and buried three days before and now three days later, he's alive and well, there's your absolute evidence that he's Christ. And it's not the ascension. The ascension was certainly spectacular. But when we refer to our witness in Christ, it's not about the ascension. It's about the resurrection. So that made me wonder, why would he say that the ascension was the absolute evidence that he was Christ? The ascension doesn't really provide anything more other than that's where he was going. So why did he say it? Well, again, these books are fascinating because they sort of answer their own questions because this is what he says. The very next sentence, he says this. Come on. He talks about, first, the death on the cross. This is the next sentence. He says, the death on the cross was the end of a prophet. Well, now that's interesting. Jesus was a prophet and is a prophet. And so, I mean, he is a prophet, so it doesn't really end as a prophet. But to talk about his death on the cross being the end of a prophet, well, that sort of understates it a little bit, don't you think? I mean, yeah, he's a prophet. And being a prophet is pretty big. But savior of the world, I think savior of the world is bigging. That's what that old thing about burying the lead, the end of a prophet. I thought that was a weird statement. And again, after the last statement, I was kind of confused. Why would he say that the cross was the end of a prophet and not the death of the savior? And the reason is because of this. Because though a prophet is a great and holy man, a prophet is a man. Nobody argues that the prophets of old weren't men. And so, what he's actually saying here is the end of a prophet is he's saying that's the end of the human Christ. That's what he's saying. And you know that because the very next thing he says, the very next thing is this. The resurrection was the beginning of a new religion, for it was the evidence of Christ's divinity. Now, Jesus's resurrection was not the evidence of Christ's divinity. Jesus is the son of God. We understand why he was raised from the dead. But here's the thing. Why would he jump to the conclusion from the resurrection that it was the evidence of his divinity? Why would he do that? What's the actual purpose of that? And it is because if he's a man and he was raised from the dead, then what does that say about me? And the problem of humanity is we always have to have it a little bit about ourselves. Now, if you're not sure that's where it goes, I'll show you because this is the next thing that he says. Or I think this thing actually might be two sentences later. He says this. And now he has declared Jesus as God. And so he says this about one of the teachings of Christ. He says, they, that is the disciples, had his admonition to future generations. If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. But whosoever shall save his life shall lose it. And whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it. Matthew 16, 24, 25. Now, first of all, he calls it an admonition, almost as if he's saying, well, you know, Jesus was telling us, here's a good piece of advice for you. If you want to come after me, just deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me. Like he's giving a nice piece of advice to people. Of course, Christ wasn't giving a nice piece of advice. Yes, it's couched in, and, you know, if you want to come after me, here's what to do. But this is the only way to Christ. The only way to Christ is to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow him. And where do we go when we follow Christ? We go to Calvary. That's where the cross goes, the crucifixion of the flesh. And if Jesus was tempted, in all ways like we are, but, and could have sinned, but didn't sin, what does that say about my standing before God? It says I have none. I knew a guy who wrote a book many years ago, and he was talking about Christ in his earthly ministry. And he said, Christ on earth had to be 99.999% human. And I thought to myself, and he was making the point about, you know, going through the trials and the temptations he had. In order to have gone through all that, he had to be 99.99% human. And I thought to myself, why can't you give up 0.0001 % of whatever it comes out to? And the reason is because if I give that up, then I have nothing. Then none of this is actually about me, because a man did follow his father. A man did know sin. Now, it is incredibly hard to not sin, but he did. And he was all points like as we are, yet without sin. That's why the author tries to compromise what it is to follow him. In his mind, it can't be possible. It's harsh and it's compelling, but not possible, because if it is, I have to deny everything about myself. And you remember what Paul said? Paul said, I count everything as dumb, as waste, as almost in the way that I might know Christ and the power of his resurrection. That's how strong a force the resurrection can be for those who are poor enough in spirit to deny their own selves completely. That's what we're called to do. That's why we are witnesses to the resurrection, because the resurrection crucifies our own flesh if we allow it to do that. Now, from here, the author tries to explain Christianity and where it was at. The reason I want to show you this is because we're going to go to Acts chapter 2. In its very next paragraph, again, we're only on page 19 of the book now, and it talks about Christianity at the day of ascension. Notice what he says. Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot to mention this. This is what the author says about Jesus's quote from Matthew 16, 24. And look at how it denies it. I should have shown this. I apologize. He says, but those words, that's Matthew 16, 24 to 5, so harsh and compelling, were not written down for more than half a century, and then not by the apostle Matthew, to whom the gospel in which they appeared was attributed, but by an anonymous Greek speaker living in Syria. So again, I apologize for not showing that earlier. You not only lose the divinity of Scripture, the inspiration of Scripture, but you lose the whole idea that what Jesus was saying was actually possible, that you can actually deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Christ. That's basically what he's saying there. And then this is what he says about Christianity at the moment of the ascension. He says, on the first ascension day, that's the day Christ was taken up to heaven, Christians had no book of their own, only the Old Testament of Judaism. Well, the Old Testament of Judaism is that split between Old Testament and New Testament that a lot of Christianity likes to do, like the Old Testament is useless to us who are followers of Christ. Of course, we know full well that that's not true. But to the author, the book is now useless. It's the only thing you have is, you know, this old book. And this is at the moment of ascension. So that's all they had. They had no laws, except, of course, the laws. Oh, it says it had no laws other than the ancient Mosaic laws. Well, of course, had many laws. Christ laid down the law of, I give you a new commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. They had no defined creed, except, of course, the Beatitudes, the entire Sermon on Mount, every parable, the meaning behind every miracle, everything Jesus had taught for three and a half years. It wasn't like they didn't have those three and a half years. They had just happened. But he says they have no creed. They have no form of worship, except for due-less and remembrance of maid. They have no liturgy, except for the bread and wine. Now, he's not saying the bread and wine. We are. They lacked a priesthood, although they had the priesthood of Melchizedek. And hierarchy. And Jesus said, I'm the hierarchy. It's just me. And we, by the grace of God, understand that. They had no buildings. Well, that's true, although they had the temple. No funds. Also true. And no name. Well, I suppose, yeah. I guess the name is important. Fundamental issues of belief, the nature of Christ Himself, whether it be human or divine or both. The relationship of the father and son were unresolved. Well, of course, they are fully resolved. The Trinity was to become a core of Christian doctrine, though the term appears nowhere in the New Testament. So basically, what the writer is saying, from his perspective, by denying the resurrection, is that Christianity, at its inception, was in total chaos. They had no laws. They had no books. They had no doctrine. They had no teachings. It was in complete and total chaos. Is that the way it was at the start of the beginning of Christianity? Well, we have that answer, of course, in Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2, verse 1. Right away. And when the day of Pentecost was come, they were all with one accord in one place. No chaos. No chaos at all. In fact, you could argue that Christianity, at this moment, was at its most unified, its most organized, its most powerful in these first two to three chapters of the book of Acts. It wasn't chaos at all. It says they were all of one accord. They were all of one mind. That word accord is talking about a passion. They were all of one passion to witness for this remarkable thing that they had been through. There's no chaos. They have liturgy. They have worship. They have understanding. They have a unity of spirit. No chaos at all. Remember, prior to the resurrection, they weren't of one accord. Even at the Last Supper, they were still arguing about, you know, who was going to be the greatest. Even that, but after the resurrection, after Christ is raised from the dead and appears before them, it's all one accord. And here in Acts, they were in one accord, in one place. Even when Jesus appeared in the upper room, they weren't all in one place. Remember, Thomas wasn't there. But now they are. And it's not like it all falls apart either, right? Because by the end of the chapter, it's even greater. It says at the end of chapter two, And all that believed were together and had all things common, and sold their possessions and goods and part of them to all men, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord— there it is again in the temple. There's their house. And breaking of bread. There's their liturgy from house to house. They eat meats with gladness and singleness of heart. There's the unity. Praising God and having favor with all men. And the Lord added to the church such as should be saved. Remember, it was 3,000 people. That's a pretty good day of witness. So that speaks both to how far astray Christianity can go so quickly, but it also speaks to the power of the resurrection. Because without the resurrection, we are the most pitied. And not just without the understanding of it, but without the appreciation of it as well. So I want to consider this idea of the power of the resurrection by looking at those first few verses in Acts. Going back to Acts, beginning of the chapter again. And it says this—and again, you guys certainly recognize what it is— it says, And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the house where they were sitting. So they're in this house early in the morning. We know it's early in the morning, right? Because in just a few minutes, Peter's going to say, It's 9 o'clock in the morning. We're not drunk. So it's early in the morning. And they're all together in this one place, in this one accord. And all of a sudden, this sound from heaven comes in the house. And it sounds like a mighty wind. Notice it doesn't say that the wind is blowing. It says the sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind. So it was the sound of the wind. It wasn't that they were sitting there and everything was blowing all over the place, but that sound was there. And that sound can be really, really intense, by the way. In fact, you know, years ago, we were up in North Conway, New Hampshire. And in North Conway, New Hampshire, they have this attraction. It's actually in a building, and it's a small little room. And you go in the room, and they close the door. And when they close the door, what you experience is what it sounds like if you are in the observation room on top of Mount Washington. I don't know if any of you have ever gone to that room. But for like five minutes, it pipes in all around you, the sound of a nor'easter outside of Mount Washington. And you are in the room. And let me tell you, it's pretty darn intense. And this moment that takes place is pretty darn intense. It's not this. I don't think that captures it. First of all, this is just my personal opinion. I don't think the fire sat on their head. I think the fire sat on their lap because it makes such a point of them sitting down. But this looks almost like they were confused. I don't think they were confused. I think they were awestruck. I think something like this is probably a better rendition of what it is. And so you've got this incredible, mighty sounding wind. And then it says, and there appeared onto them cloven tongues as of fire and sat upon each of them. So you had these cloven tongues of fire and this whipping, whipping sound of wind. And this fire sits, I believe, on their lap. Now, here's the thing about fire. Fire doesn't sit. Fire burns. But of course, this fire didn't burn. This fire sat on their lap. Why didn't it burn? Well, obviously because it's spiritual fire. But you know, brothers and sisters, what they experienced is no different than what we experience. We just don't see it in the same magnitude. Because let me tell you, you and I, by the grace of God, had been called to an understanding of the power of the resurrection. And one of the things we experience because of the power of the resurrection is fiery trials in our life. Trials of faith, trials of struggles to get the world out. And to follow Jesus, to deny him and carry that cross. We are in fiery trials all the time. But it doesn't burn. Instead, it carries us along. And that's, of course, what happens to them. The spirit enters into them and they be given this incredible ability to speak in other languages or, excuse me, speak in other tongues. And you know, again, that's no different than you and I. Yes, I can't speak Spanish or I can't speak a little Spanish. I can't speak Swahili. I can not too good on French. I'm really bad on Dutch. But by the grace of God, we have this incredible opportunity to speak the word of God. To see things in this word that the writer of this book, no offense to him, he could never say. You couldn't see it without the resurrection. But you and I can see it. We can speak in a tongue that I would have never known. Never if I hadn't been called to you by the grace of God. And so this fire sits on them and they get filled with the Holy Spirit. It says, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. That's just what we speak about as the Spirit gives us utterance. And of course, then they start speaking to other people as the other people start hearing. Now, I don't believe that the other people were there. I think they went out from here without the fire and started speaking to people out there. They took this new ability that had just been given to them. And the reason I say that, that obviously the other people weren't there, is because the other people start commenting about the fact that they're able to hear them speak in their own languages. So the fire on their lap couldn't have been there at that point. Because if the fire in the lap was there, the fact that they were speaking in the tongues would have been, again, it would have been burying the lead. You got some guy sitting there with fire on his lap. You're not going to pay attention to what he's saying. You're going to pay attention to the fire on his lap. So they went out and started speaking and people started hearing it and started saying, why is it that we can hear these people in their own tongues? In our own tongues? How is it possible? And then, of course, Peter gets up and gives that incredible speech where he says, we are witnesses to the resurrection. We are witnesses to it. In other words, you just saw us do something spectacular, but this isn't about us. Just like deny yourself. That's what this calling is. So what does it mean to be a witness? Well, the first thing it means to be a witness is you have to see something. If you don't see it, then you're not a witness to it. Now, you and I, brothers and sisters, have never seen the Lord Jesus Christ, but we have seen him. In fact, there's an example in Scripture of somebody who never saw the Lord Jesus Christ, and yet Jesus said, you have seen me, and that's the man born blind. Because the man born blind had never seen Jesus. Remember, Jesus went over and put mud in his eyes when he was still blind. And he says, go down to the pool and wash. And he does. And he comes back looking for Jesus, and he doesn't find them. And then he's in the temple, and Jesus finds him. And when Jesus says to him, do you believe in the Lord Jesus? Do you believe in the Lord? He said, who is he, Lord, that I might believe? Jesus says this. He says, it is he that speaks to you, because Jesus had regular conversations with the man born blind long before he had ever put mud in his eyes. We don't have time to go into that, but he did. But then he says, and it is he whom you have seen. And the blind man had never seen him, but he had seen him. He'd seen him in all those times that Jesus had come and told him about the gospel, told him things like, you know, no man born blind anywhere in Scripture has ever been given his sight. That's why the man could say to the Pharisees, no man. has ever been born blind and given their sight. It wasn't that the man born blind had been reading a Bible for his past several years. He couldn't read. He couldn't go into the temple. I don't think he could have gone into the synagogue. He was unclean. So where did he get that incredible education? He got it from the Lord Jesus Christ. And every time Jesus told him the stories about the Christ who would come, who was going to come, every time he told him, the man could see who that was. So that when he comes, he can say, oh, he's a prophet. And when Jesus says, I am that man, he can sit down and worship him. So the first thing you have to do is you have to see something. And the second thing you need to do is you need to get yourself out of the way. In other words, if you're going to be a good witness, you can't be a witness to your own indiscretions, right? No man has ever said, yeah, I saw myself go in the building and set it on fire. And then I saw myself leave. I was a witness to it. Witnessing requires objectivity. You know, there's a movie. I don't know if any of you have ever seen this movie. The movie is called 12 Angry Men. It's one of my favorite movies. It's one of Josh's favorite movies as well. And it's really all about what it means to be a witness, right? There are two sets of witnesses in this movie. There's the witnesses to a murder. The movie is about the 12 jurors who are deliberating about whether or not a son has killed his father. And there are witnesses to the murder. And so that's part of the deliberation. And so you have those witnesses. But what you find out in the movie about those witnesses is all their witnesses, all their witness is couched or set up based upon their own situation. And then you've got the witness of the jurors who witnessed the trial. And all of them had their own sense of priorities and their own sense of what the world really was. And all of it was tainted. All their witness was tainted because they kept bringing themselves into the picture. Well, a true witness doesn't do that. A true witness has objectivity. But the only way to have objectivity is to put yourself aside. What happens in the movie is they sort of all work out getting past their own weaknesses. What happens in life is our high calling to do that very thing, to be pure and selfless witnesses to the resurrection. That's what our calling is all about. That's what witnessing is all about. As a true witness, this is who we are. We want to know him. We want to recognize and appreciate and be changed by the power of that resurrection and what it represents. We want to be in the fellowship of his suffering. It's one of those things. Understanding that we have to carry our cross to Calvary. That we might be made conformable, born again, born of the spirit, all those things, if by any means, and we deserve none of it, but we are blessed to have it, if by any means we might attain onto the resurrection of the dead. So that's the power of the resurrection and this wonderful witness that we've been called to. Let us never underestimate it and let us remember the incredible power. You ever ask yourself about this about Acts chapter two at the beginning? Why was there fire and wind? God could have easily just put the Holy Spirit within them. It didn't have to be that dramatic. So why did he make sure that it was dramatic? And it's because to be a witness of the resurrection of Christ and to recognize the power of what it is, it is dramatic. And we should never downplay it. We should never say, oh well we're a lot like the other churches only for a couple of doctrinal things. Our walk is incredible. Our witness is amazing. We have the opportunity to take this flesh and lay it aside that we might attain onto the resurrection of the dead. Let us appreciate every single moment of it.