After the Cross, Now What? (May 5, 2024)

Matthew 28:16–20  ~ “Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.””

• Jesus met the disciples in Galilee
• He assured the disciple of His power
  • Jesus’ power or authority is a given power; given by God to exalt Christ above and over all
  • Jesus’ power is above and over all that is in heaven and earth:
    • to rule and reign
    • to govern and direct
    • to forgive sins, to judge, receive and reject men, to save and deliver men through life and death
  • Jesus’ power assures the believer of deliverance
• He commissioned His disciples
  • He commissions us to “go”
  • He commissioned us to baptize
  • He commissioned us to teach all that Christ had commanded
• He promised to be with His followers
  • Christ is with you …
    • every step
    • every decision
    • every trial
    • every joy
    • every day
    • every hour
    • every sorrow
    • when without
    • when poor
    • when having nothing
    • when having plenty
    • when abused
    • when sick
    • when facing death

Mark 16:15–20  ~ “And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.”

• Now salvation can be received.
• As a believer, we have the power through Christ to carry out the Great Commission
  • Casting out devils – Acts 16:18
  • Speaking with new tongues – Acts 2:4
  • Taking up SPIRITUAL serpents – Acts 28:5
  • Drinking any deadly thing – Mark 16:18
  • Laying hands on the sick and healing them – Acts 28:7-8
• The ascension assures (proves, confirms) that these things are absolutely certain:
  • God is alive
  • Christ is God’s Son
  • Heaven is real
  • The Gospel is true
  • The Great Commission is the call and mission of all believers
  • As believers, we have the power to carry out the Great Commission
  • As believers, we have an advocate with the Father, sitting on His right hand

Luke 24:45–49  ~ “Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.””

There are three prophesies listed in these verses:

• Christ must suffer and arise
• Repentance and forgiveness must be preached
• The Holy Spirit and power must be sent. As the disciples went forth witnessing, they were to be given the wonderful promise (the Holy Spirit) and power of the Father.
  • The believer was to be equipped for witnessing.
    • He was to receive the promise of the Father (the Holy Spirit).
    • He was to receive power, being clothed (endusēsthe) with power.
  • The source of the spirit and power was God.
    • Christ was to send the promise.
    • The promise was “of the Father.” God gave the promise.
    • Believers had to tarry, that is, wait upon the Lord and pray for the promise.
    • The promise was to come from “on high.” God Himself was the Source of power for all evangelism.

John 21:25  ~ “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”

Acts 1:8  ~ “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

• The believers equipping power was to be the Holy Spirit.
  • The disciples had asked about the kingdom, positions of leadership and authority Christ had promised.
  • They were to receive power, but not the power of this earth, not the power of …
    • position
    • recognition
    • supervision
    • fame
    • wealth
    • politics
  • Their power was to be spiritual and supernatural. It was to to be the very power …
    • of God Himself
    • of the Supreme Being of the universe
    • of His presence
    • of His Spirit
• The believers task is a great one: to tell people about God
  • The disciples had asked about the coming the kingdom and just when the kingdom would come.
  • Now is NOT the time to huddle together in church buildings or in Christian societies social gatherings; NOW is the time to do what Christ was saying and IS saying to us today – NOW is the time for …
    • Witnessing to the Lost
    • Bearing witnesses to the truth about God and Christ
  • Witness about Christ, sharing the glorious salvation found in Him, is the great task of the believer. This is understandable, clearly seen, for no great truth exists in all the universe. Man can now live forever; man can now be delivered from sin, death, and hell. Just think about it! The perfect cure for …
    • sin has been secured
    • death is known
    • hell now exists
    • heaven is REAL
  • There is no reason for the world – no reason for any person – to suffer any longer under the weight and bondage of …
    • selfishness and hoarding
    • bitterness and hatered
    • war and power
    • emptiness and loneliness
    • fear and anguish
    • inadequate supply and hunger
    • killing and maiming
    • insecurity and low self-esteem
    • guilt and shame
    • ignorance and the unknown
    • depression, anxiety, panic attacks
• Jesus gives the believers the method we are to follow in His witness and for the spreading of the gospel
  • witness where we are and as far as we can go
  • witness to all we meet through our home and community
  • don’t move on until all in your area knows the message of the gospel
• Witnessing in the book of Acts is a forceful, revealing the duty of the believer:
  • Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.””
  • Acts 2:32 “This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.”
  • Acts 2:40 “And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.””
  • Acts 3:15 “and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.”
  • Acts 4:33 “And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.”
  • Acts 5:32 “And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.””
  • Acts 8:25 “Now when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.”
  • Acts 10:39–43 “39 And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, 40 but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, 41 not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. 43 To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.””
  • Acts 13:31 “and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people.”
  • Acts 14:3 “So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands.”
  • Acts 18:5 “When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus.”
  • Acts 20:21–24 “21 testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. 22 And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, 23 except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. 24 But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”
  • Acts 22:15 “for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard.”
  • Acts 22:18 “and saw him saying to me, ‘Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’”
  • Acts 22:20 “And when the blood of Stephen your witness was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him.’”
  • Acts 23:11 “The following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.””
  • Acts 26:16 “But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you,”
  • Acts 26:22 “To this day I have had the help that comes from God, and so I stand here testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass:”
  • Acts 28:23 “When they had appointed a day for him, they came to him at his lodging in greater numbers. From morning till evening he expounded to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus both from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets.”

John 16:8  ~ “And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:”

• convict, reprove, to convince a person concerning sin, righteousness and judgment
  • convict means to prick a person’s heart until he sense and knows he is guilty
  • convince means to hammer and drive at a person’s heart until he knows the fact is true
• The Holy Spirit convicts and convinces the world of three things: sin, righteousness and judgment
  • There is conviction of sin
    • The Holy Spirit convicts the world of its sin, that man is sinful. The Holy Spirit convicts a man that he …
      • misses the mark, that is, comes short of the glory of God (Romans 2:23)
      • trespasses, that is, wanders off the right path (Ephesians 2:1)
      • transgresses, that is, breaks the law of God (Hebrews 2:2-3)
      • man’s unbelief is wrong (John 8:24; 1 John 2:1-2)
  • There is conviction of righteousness
  • The Holy Spirit convinces the world that Jesus’ righteousness is acceptable to God …
    • that Jesus really was received up into heaven by the Father because He was righteous
    • that Jesus has secured righteousness for every man
    • that man can approach God through the righteousness of Jesus
    • that Jesus is the ideal and perfect Man, the very Son of Man himself (John 1:51)
• There is conviction of judgment
  • The Holy Spirit convicts the world that judgment is coming, that a man is to face the personal judgment of God. The Holy Spirit convicts a man …
    • that he is both responsible and accountable to God and man
    • that there is to be a real day of judgment sometime out in the future
    • that he is to stand face-to-face with God and be judged
    • that he is to be judged for sin and lack of righteousness, for what he has done and not done
    • Romans 14:12; Hebrews 9:27
  • The Holy Spirit convinces the world that Jesus has borne the judgement of sin and death for man. The Holy Spirit convinces a man …
    • that Jesus died bearing the penalty and judgment of sin for him (1 Peter 2:24; 1 Peter 3:18)
    • that Jesus, by His death, destroyed the power of Satan over sin and death (John 16:11; John 12:31; Hebrews 2:14-15)
    • that man can be freed from sin and death, that he can be forgiven for his sin and given eternal life through the death of Jesus (John 3:16; Ephesians 1:7)

Ephesians 3:20–21  ~ “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”