Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church

Announcer: You are now listening to an inspirational message from Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church where Dr. Michael W. Wesley Sr. is the pastor. Please join the service in progress.

Dr. Michael W. Wesley Sr.: Something happens when I call you.

Something happens when I call you.

Something happens when I call you.

When I call you. When I call you. When I call you. Something happens when I call you.

Something happens. Something happens. When I call the name of Jesus. May not cause the oceans to stop flowing.

May not cause the stars to stop shining, but something happens. It happens in my heart. A peace, a joy, a feel, an understanding, a calm in my anxieties.

Something happens when I call on that name, in the name of Jesus. I'm grateful. I'm grateful for the privilege.

I think that's what we sometimes miss that we have been included in the family of the faithful, and we have been given that opportunity.

No matter the day, no matter the time, no matter the hour, we can always call. Whenever we call, something happens.

So I'm going to call now, Lord. Thank you for blessing us with this week. Thank you for watching over us. Thank you for bringing us together. Thank you for traveling grace and mercy.

Thank you for rest and peace and renewal. Thank you for worship. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for family. Thank you for friends. Thank you for challenges. Thank you for every circumstance.

Now, Lord, as we come to this moment, I pray that you would lift again your human. Out of himself and fill us with your Holy Spirit. Speak to us in this moment. Bless now the words that are in our mouth, the meditations that's on our heart, and it may be acceptable in your sight. Oh Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. We ask you now in Jesus' name.

Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Come on, give the Lord a hand clap of praise. Amen.

Last week, y'all didn't hear what I talked about, because I preached at 8 o'clock, but I want to pick it up because you're going to get a little bit of that, but then some more, something else. I want to look at the book of Acts chapter one.

I guess to be fair with you, we need to look at all 11 of verses. I wanted to read just verse 10 and 11 in your hearing. That's really where the sermonic focus is, it's on verses 10 and 11.

I'll back up a little bit just to kind of give you where we are. The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach.

Until the day that he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen. To whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them 40 days and speaking of things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

And being assembled together with him, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith he, you have heard from me. For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence.

When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, will thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? He said unto them, it's not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has put in his own power.

But you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the Earth.

And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold two men stood by them in white apparel, which said unto them, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven.

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath day's journey. This is the word of God for the people of God. I want to talk about this same Jesus.

Same Jesus. How many know it's not a different one? How many know that if you're going to be delivered, if you're going to be saved, if you're going to be helped, if you're going to be blessed, it's going to come from the same Jesus. Not a different Jesus.

I found that ironic because just a week and I promise you, I hate to do it, but I just I just see it so much in everyday language. In the news recently, your famous president told the people at the council, the United Nations Council that unless you work with me, you're going to hell.

Now those are not my words, those are his words. The implication of that is that if you're going to be saved, then I'm going to be the savior. That's that's the that is the implication because only God has the power to send people to hell.

If other folk had the power to send to hell, you and I would have been there a long time ago. Just think about how many people have told you. And if it was based on their word alone, you would have no chance because people would keep you there.

But thank be to God, there is one who does have the power. I want you to understand, it's not two or three different Jesus.

The name Jesus was a very common Jewish name in the first century. During during the days of of Jesus' earthly journey on the earth, the name Jesus represented or meant Yeshua.

So it was a very common Jewish name. As a matter of fact, there were about five people doing Jesus' lifetime whose name was Jesus.

There was one man whose name was was Jesus, and and and his father was known as Sehi. There was another man whose name was Jesus, and he was a high priest.

There was another man named Jesus in that day, and and he was connected to the Greek and Roman Empire. There were two other men whose name was Jesus, but they were not my Jesus.

Their function was their function in the society. But after and since the common era, no one has been bold enough to name their child Jesus.

Because the name is now reserved and associated with him who is able to keep you from falling. The one who can present you faultless before the Father which is in heaven.

So so so no no no one names their child Jesus now. You know, there are a lot of different names people don't use no more. I have never met no one whose name was Jezebel.

I've known people who had Jezebel spirit, but I have not known a girl whose real name was Jezebel. I I have not I've heard people call themselves Delilah.

But I really haven't met nobody who whose mama named them Delilah. If they did, you know they flunk Sunday school. Because there are just certain things that you you come to know when you come to the Bible that you don't brand people that way.

I'm not going to dwell on names, but I will say that we shifted. We went from naming people biblical names to naming them alcoholic beverages.

I guarantee you, you know somebody. I ain't going to go into that. I'll let that be with you.

As we come to this passage, I do want you to know the the the gospel of of Matthew closes in a blaze of glory.

That in that last final week of the life and passion of Jesus, a lot of challenging and difficult moments were experienced by Jesus and the twelve and the small band of women that came with him from Galilee.

They they they watched him as as he ministered in private in the upper room. And then he told them that one of you is going to betray me.

They began to be sorrowful and say, is it I? And they watched him as he took them out of the upper room to the Garden of Gethsemane and fell on his face and prayed so hard that great drops of blood came from him.

They watched as a band of men came with torches in the middle of the night to arrest him and pick him up and saw him betrayed by one of their own, whose name was Judas Iscariot with a kiss.

They saw him led from courtroom to courtroom in kangaroo style courts. Then they saw him beat unmercifully.

Then early the next morning they saw him led like a common criminal through the streets of Jerusalem to a place called Calvary. And some of them had the audacity to watch him die.

Then those who were halfway bold saw where they took him off the cross and where they buried him in a borrowed tomb. The women in particular had decided that that can't be all, we got to do some more.

We got to put his body away better. And they plotted to what they would do on the third day. But instead, when they went to the cemetery looking for a dead body, they found a risen savior.

And and you and I would be left in the cold from that point, not knowing what happened. If we did not have the book of Acts to seal the gap between where the gospel closed and where the rest of the New Testament is formed.

You and I would be lost forever in wonderment. What happened to him? Yeah, he got up. We heard that he rose. We heard the women say that he's not here. He he's alive. We heard the testimonies, but what really happened?

This treatise that Jesus began to write to a man whose name was Theophilus. He was some Jewish or Roman official. We don't know much about him.

But Luke, the doctor, the friend of Paul, the traveling companion, helps us to see the gap that took place between the close of the gospel and what happened in the life as Jesus and his followers, or should I say his followers, began to minister with power and to inflict the society with a constant barrage of testimonies concerning the one that they had taken and crucified.

We would have no knowledge of that. We we we would have no knowledge of of of of what happened and and and how is it all of a sudden that we hear of the twelve? But then when we move past this book called Acts and we open up the book called Romans, and here is a man who is not mentioned among the twelve writing the rest of the New Testament. His name is Saul and become Paul, the apostle. And how can we know who he is unless Luke gives us the fitting pieces?

To help us to know how he was arrested on the road to Damascus and converted and became apostle. And then given a commission to go into the world to preach the gospel.

So this is an important piece of scriptural analysis here. What I want you to hear is this morning that Luke helps us to see those parting moments. The gospel writers don't don't write about this. This is only here.

That when Jesus was raised from the dead, and he met with his disciples in that last meeting on Earth, that they gathered on Bethune's mountain and they asked him, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?

Last Sunday morning, I talked about why they were so much in love with yesterday because those dreams of leadership and ethnicity and identity and all of that, but I'm not going to go there today. What I want you to hear is that Luke picks it up by saying that after he told them, go back to Jerusalem, set aside the things that divide you and get on one accord.

The scripture say he just started going up. No elevator.