Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: How will Christianity spread over the whole world? Jesus just gave it in one verse. It's by the Holy Spirit coming upon the apostles, empowering them to be witnesses.

Guest (Male): On today's word, Pastor Brett Meador with powerful insight for the power of the work of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, that means the power of God is imparted to you. The reason the Spirit's going to come upon you is that you might be witnesses both in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the world.

In the book of Acts chapter one, Jesus gave a clear calling to his disciples, "You shall be my witnesses." Pastor Brett Meador reminds us from today's word, the request isn't reserved for a few, but for all who follow him. But he hasn't left us to do this on our own. It's the empowerment of the Holy Spirit that enables all Christ's followers to be an effective witness for him.

Brett Meador: Grab your Bible and turn with me to Acts 1. What we really do see is the Acts of the Apostles, which is the name of this book. J. Vernon McGee, that *Through the Bible* guy from a couple generations ago, he said, "In my opinion, the proper title for the book of Acts would be: The Lord Jesus Christ at Work by the Holy Spirit Through the Apostles." That's a good title. It might even be a good summary statement of what the book of Acts is all about. Acts of the Apostles by the Holy Spirit through the apostles.

Let's back up just a little bit, verse one. It says, "The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach." We saw the word treatise there, or in your NIV or ESV, it says "book." The former book that I have made would be the Gospel of Luke. The Book of Acts is the second book of Luke. You can almost call it first and second Luke. Jesus, we're going to see him in a few verses, he's going to ascend into heaven, and you say, "He's gone, so he's done." No, he's just beginning. By the Holy Spirit, he's going to work through his apostles, and that's going to be the work of Christ.

Acts is about what God can do through the body of Christ, the Church of Jesus Christ. That's the beginning here of the Book of Acts. This is what he's talking about; what Jesus has begun is what the book of Acts is about. But notice what he's beginning to do: he both... two things: to do and to teach. He ends verse one with that. Jesus was not the kind of guy that would say, "Do as I say, not as I do." Verse two, it says that this is that book he wrote about Jesus, beginning to do and teach until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen.

"Taken up" is used four times in chapter one. It speaks of Jesus' ascension into heaven. We're going to see that, and then also that the people would be receiving the Holy Ghost. It says, "Taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments to the apostles." How did Jesus get his word to the apostles? Through the Holy Ghost. And this is where we're already seeing the benefits of Jesus being caught up or taken up in the ascension. Do you remember what Jesus told them way back in John's Gospel?

I'll give you a quick reminder from John 14:26. Jesus said, "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." In John 14 and John chapter 16, Jesus made it clear that the Holy Spirit was coming and would be giving the apostles the words they needed to hear and the words they would ultimately say.

Verse three, the apostles whom he had chosen, to whom he also showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them 40 days and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God. I love that: "infallible proof." The resurrection is one of the most provable facts of all history. But those infallible proofs of his resurrection, and they saw him for 40 days before he will ascend into heaven once and for all. What was he speaking to them about? The Kingdom of God.

Verse four, and being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. What is baptism of the Holy Ghost? We'll talk about that and we'll see that in chapter two. Jesus was right; this is going to happen to them, and we're going to have to figure out what that actually means.

But notice the red letters here: "but wait." They were supposed to wait for the Holy Spirit to come. You will be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days from now, so wait for that. This is what Jesus said. Isaiah 40:31 says, "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength." Waiting on the Lord is so hard sometimes, but if you want your strength to be renewed, wait. And these guys are going to be baptized with the Holy Ghost. It has to do with the "coming upon" of the Holy Spirit.

Verse six, when they therefore were come together, they asked of him saying, "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" They're still thinking the whole Roman Empire. Jesus died, what a bummer, we thought he was going to set up his kingdom. But then he raises from the dead and they're like, "Is now the time you're going to set up your kingdom? Now that you're alive again?" I don't blame them for asking this question because it's confusing. If you're one of the disciples, it's a little hard to follow.

But this is what Jesus was teaching. Verse three said he's teaching things pertaining to the Kingdom of God, so they ask, "Is this when we're going to see your kingdom formed? Are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" In verse seven, he said unto them, "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power." Isn't it interesting what the Jews are asking? As American readers, we miss this. The Old Testament Jews believed the Messiah would come and restore the kingdom of Israel into their hands as the nation Israel.

They mistakenly thought that Jesus was there to triumph over the Romans. That's what the whole Palm Sunday thing was about. "Hosanna, save now, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." This is what they were wanting Jesus to be: their savior from the Roman Empire. But now that Jesus is back on the scene as a resurrected savior, they're thinking, "Is now the time where you're going to establish the kingdom?" Jesus's response might seem a little bit short, maybe not very friendly, but basically he says there's some information that you guys are not ready to know or hear.

It's not for you to know the answer to that question, when the kingdom is going to be set up. And by the way, we don't even know when the kingdom is going to come. Just like we don't know when the rapture of the church comes. No man knows the day or the hour of either one of those things, the rapture of the church or the second coming when he's going to set up his kingdom. The Bible says we don't know that, and we won't. So if somebody tells you that they know the date when the kingdom is going to be set up, or the date of the rapture, or the tribulation period, you can know they've been drinking their bathwater.

Don't listen to those people that name dates. That's ridiculous. The Bible's really clear you won't know the days or the hours. You will know the times and seasons, and we're told to look at those times and seasons and be aware and be not ignorant, but to not name dates or hours. Now, you might say, "Why keep secrets? Why, when it comes to Bible prophecy, does God seem to keep secrets?" So much of prophecy has been such a mystery.

By the way, this is one of the natures of prophecy, and this is where you'll get some people that are critical of Bible prophecy. They'll say, "Oh, you Christians are into Bible prophecy. People who believe in the rapture of the church, it's brand new. Darby invented the idea of the rapture." They make this whole argument, which is really not a fair argument because there are older people that talked about the rapture of the church in various forms. But the oldest accounts of the rapture are from Paul the apostle in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. It's in the Bible!

But you say, "Brett, why suddenly are people in the 1800s suddenly believing in the rapture of the church and more of a pre-tribulation, pre-millennial view? Why is that such a modern view?" They think that's an argument as to why we shouldn't believe it. I would say it's a great argument of why we should believe it, and I'll tell you why. Because the mystery of prophecy was told by the Bible itself. Those things are going to be sealed up until the times of the end.

Do you remember when Daniel finished his book, which was all about prophecy and end times? Daniel went away from one of his visions and he said, "I did not understand anything that I had written down," and so he just went about the King's business. And the Lord spoke to Daniel and said, "Daniel, seal up the words of this book until the time of the end." Then in the book of Revelation, hundreds and hundreds of years later, John finishes his book of prophecy, and it says, "Do not seal up the words of this book."

What does that mean? What's happening is as time shakes out, our understanding of God's plan will be revealed. The mystery of his kingdom and when it's going to be set up, they did not know that. Jesus said, "Apostles, you're going to be there when I set up my kingdom," which we know from other scriptures, "you guys are going to be involved, but it's not for you to know anything about that right now." So here's what you are supposed to think about. He tells this to the disciples: "It's not for you to know."

Why does God keep secrets? I think the Lord reveals everything in perfect timing and in perfect ways. When it comes to things like the rapture of the church, the tribulation period, God's plan for the Jews and Israel, 500 years ago that was a hard thing to understand. No wonder Martin Luther and those people thought God was done with the Jews, he had forsaken them, and all God cares about is the church. It's called replacement theology.

Why did that happen? Because Israel didn't exist anymore. So when you read your Bible about Israel in the last days and how God was going to bless and protect Israel, people like Martin Luther 500 years ago, when the Jews were scattered all over the world and had no homeland, would say, "Those are spiritual blessings for the church. We're the new Israel." So when you read your Bible and it says "Israel's going to be blessed," they thought that goes to us. If you read "Israel's going to be cursed," they thought that's about those pesky Jews that crucified Jesus.

That was their worldview. In fact, I would argue probably most of us would have thought the same way because of the evidence with our eyes of what was going on in the world. But isn't it something, as the world unfolds, Bible prophecy starts to come into great focus? One of the great focuses that should have changed everybody's eschatology was in 1948 when Israel becomes a nation again. Not only do they become a nation, but in biblical proportions, they defeat the five Arab nations.

May 14, 1948, Israel becomes a nation. May 15, 1948, five Arab nations attacked them with their comparatively modern weapons, and Israel survives and defeats those five Arab nations. That was like Gideon fighting the Midianites or Samson fighting the Philistines. It's the same thing! If you follow the wars of Israel from 1948 to the present day, they're actually gathered in unbelief, just like the Bible says, but they are gathered and they are a mighty nation. You have to admit God's hand does seem to be on them in a biblically proportioned way.

We should say, "Hmm, is that what the Bible said was going to happen?" To the T! Point for point! You should say, "I'm going to get back to Bible prophecy and end times and God's plan for Israel," because look, it's totally just like Ezekiel 36 and 37. You can check those two chapters as done. Ezekiel 38 and 39 are yet to be seen, but we've seen fulfillment of these things. That changes your notes if you're into Bible prophecy. Brett, I don't like changing things about the Bible. Neither do I, except when it comes to prophecy. Those things would be unsealed; our eyes will be opened the closer we get to the end.

Very important to understand: the Lord's going to reveal in perfect timing and in his perfect way how it's all going to unfold. We've been seeing a lot of that as New Testament church. We live in an interesting day. Why does the Lord not tell the disciples everything? Like, "Here's what's going to happen: in 1948 I'm going to make Israel a nation again, and they're going to have these things called jets and pagers and... never mind." How does Jesus explain that to the disciples back in those days? He's like, "It's not for you guys right now."

Would you really want to know everything about your life? If God said, "Okay, here's how the rest of your life is going to go," would you really want that? I think a lot of us would go crazy if we knew the way our whole life was going to go, point for point. What would happen if you knew how you were going to die? "Brett, you're going to die in a motorcycle accident." At least I'll die with a smile on my face. But the Lord doesn't give us that. We really don't know that.

The cool thing is the Lord will reveal in his time everything perfectly. Theology, everything we know, is in the Bible and it's written. Eschatology is more encrypted, and the closer we get to the day of the Lord, we'll understand how Bible prophecy works. That's really important. That's kind of what's going on here when Jesus said, "It is not for you to know the times and the seasons." Why? Because it wouldn't be their time.

But what should they be worried about or concerned about or thinking about? Well, that's what verse eight is. Verse eight says, "But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." Wow, the Holy Ghost is going to come with power. The power there is *dunamis*, which is where we get the word dynamite.

The Holy Ghost is going to come, and the operative word there that we've studied in previous times is *upon*. Do you remember what Jesus said in earlier passages? We saw that Jesus said in John 14, "I will pray that the Father, he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive." The world can't receive the Holy Spirit because it sees him not, neither knows him, "but you know him." Now notice, "for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you."

When was the Holy Spirit with people? All the time. Before you're saved even, the Holy Spirit is with you. Remember when you were an unsaved non-believer and people talked to you about Jesus, and you felt that little spiritual tap on your shoulder like you need to accept Christ? You need to repent of your sins and be saved? That was the Holy Spirit with you. We've talked about how in Genesis 6 it says the Spirit of God will not always strive with man. That preposition is really important, the "with."

But Jesus says, "Yeah, the Holy Spirit's been with you, that's great, but he shall be in you." Quiz time, when did the Holy Spirit come in the disciples? John chapter 20, where Jesus showed up to them after the resurrection. This is now the church age, and after the resurrection, Jesus appears in that upper room where they're sealed shut for the fear of the Jews, and he breathes on them and says, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." And the Holy Spirit was then in them.

Then Jesus gives a third preposition, and this is what he's talking about here. "Ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come *upon* you." Well, wait a minute, didn't the Spirit already come in the disciples in John 20 when he breathed on them? He came in them, but he has not come upon them. What's the difference? The difference is this word "power." When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, that means the power of God is imparted to you.

It's just like the Old Testament. It's the same God yesterday, today, and forever. Do you remember when Samson would do great feats of strength? It said, "And the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson," and he tied the foxes together and lit their tails on fire, something you do every day. Or the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson and he took the jawbone of an ass and conquered a whole army of Philistines. That's what happens when the Spirit of the Lord comes upon you; you are empowered to do something that's beyond your own ability.

Here's Jesus saying, "Guess what, disciples? The Holy Spirit has been with you," that's the tapping you on the shoulder before you're even saved. "But when you become a believer, a Christian, that's when the Holy Spirit comes in you. But this third relationship, Jesus is saying, 'I'm going to have the Holy Spirit come upon you' there in verse eight." And he says, "Ye shall after that receive the Holy Ghost and it'll come upon you."

And what's going to happen when the Holy Spirit comes upon? Are you going to flop around in the aisle? Are you going to start speaking in tongues? Yes, they're going to speak in tongues, but that's not the main thing. What did Jesus say the main thing is? The main thing is that you're going to receive power for the coming upon of the Holy Spirit, and you shall be... not you shall go... it says you shall go and be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. How will Christianity spread over the whole world? Jesus just gave it in one verse, verse eight. It's by the Holy Spirit coming upon the apostles, empowering them to be witnesses.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that's perhaps the number one reason why you'd want to have the Holy Ghost come upon you. Not so you can impress your friends with speaking in tongues. Paul later would say that's the least of the gifts. He's not saying you should be done with it. He says, "I speak in tongues more than y'all, but I'd rather you speak just a few words of understanding than 10,000 words of tongues." Paul way minimizes the whole tongues thing because it was getting all the press.

Paul's saying that's not the main thing. We'll look at what are some of the main manifestations of the Holy Spirit. We did a talk about that from Romans 12, which is the motivational gifts, but then we talked about the manifestations of the Spirit, which is 1 Corinthians 12. And those are some of the evidences that the Holy Spirit is empowering. You're filled with the Spirit, baptized with the Spirit, call it what you want, the coming upon of the Holy Spirit.

But what are those manifestations of the Holy Spirit for? Just to impress your friends? To have a Pentecostal church where people go, "Wow, look at those crazy things they're doing"? Nope. The reason the Spirit's going to come upon you is that you might be witnesses both in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the world.

Baptism of the Holy Spirit is the power of God working through you. Now, there are some denominations that sadly believe that this coming upon that we're going to read about in the Book of Acts is... well, they're called cessationists. They believe that that ceased. It was only for the apostles in those days of the early church to get the Gospel started, but the coming upon of the Holy Spirit is done. This is an in-house debate. It shouldn't be where we fight as much about this one with other Christians. Our Baptist brothers and sisters, I love them, and they are usually very doctrinally solid, but they tend to say the Holy Spirit has ceased. No more of that. They're cessationists.

Some Baptists have loosened up on that because of the careful reading of the Scripture. You realize Paul's giving instruction long after the cessation should have already ceased, and he's talking to the Corinthians about, "Hey, when you're in church, speak in tongues, but if you do speak in tongues," and he gives instruction in 1 Corinthians 14, "let it be two or three but make sure they have interpretation." He puts rules around the manifestations of the Spirit, which means he's instructing for us. Otherwise, we wouldn't need 1 Corinthians 14 to instruct us how to properly use tongues in the church of Jesus Christ.

With a careful reading of Scripture, I kind of believe in "Bapti-costal-ism." And that is right in the middle where we need to be, not saying God's done and the Holy Spirit's no longer coming upon his church. God forbid! We become the "chosen frozen" if we're not careful. Have you ever been to a really dead church? There's no life there. That's usually because there's no Holy Spirit empowering the congregation, let alone the pastor and the leadership. You gotta have the power of the Spirit; otherwise, you're the chosen frozen.

But at the same time, there's popular churches today that are doing fire tunnels and Holy Spirit hokey pokey... don't look it up on YouTube, it's horrifying. There are so many horrible things church people do, crazy things. It's not a good testimony and nobody's accepting Jesus because of that, but there are Christians all hyped up about their craziness. I think we need to be real careful. Speaking of 1 Corinthians 14, that's where Paul puts up all the rules and restrictions on some of those things.

I love the way he finishes 1 Corinthians 14:40. He says, "Let all things be done decently and in order." Let all things biblical, let all things that are in the Bible be done decently and in order. We want decency and order, but we also want the Holy Spirit and everything that comes with the Holy Spirit biblically. We want all of that. Why does Jesus say the power of the Holy Spirit is going to come upon them? So that they can be witnesses.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador with some powerful insights from the Scripture of the powerful enablements of the Holy Spirit offered the believer from today's word. Stay right there as Pastor Brett will join me here in a moment.

But first, *Today's Word* is the radio ministry of Athey Creek Church just outside of Portland, Oregon, where Pastor Brett Meador is the senior pastor. Our vision on *Today's Word* is to proclaim the hope of salvation and help people know Jesus through careful study of the Bible. We invite you to find out more by going to todayswordradio.com. If you've missed any portion of this study, you'll find all of Pastor Brett's messages online at todayswordradio.com. Well, Pastor Brett has joined me now. Brett, as this *Today's Word* radio program continues to expand across the nation, there are more people who want to know how this community at Athey Creek Church has grown like it has.

Brett Meador: When people ask me that question, I chuckle because the verse that comes to mind is where Scriptures say the Lord uses the weak and the foolish to confound the wise. We chuckle because the Lord really does use very imperfect people, so we really can't take any credit for what the Lord's doing here. In short, I think what we're seeing at Athey Creek is simply the power of the word of God.

I believe people are seriously hungry for the Bible. There's been a trend in churches, and I don't want to sound critical, but I think there's this pressure on young pastors to teach exciting, new, topical things. Sadly, in some circles, it's become sort of a TED Talk format of churches. In my humble opinion, we need to get back to the whole Bible. Acts 20:27 is where Paul told the elders at Ephesus, "I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God."

What we're seeing at Athey is just verse by verse, chapter by chapter through the Bible. When people come and they realize I'm not trying to be flashy or come up with anything new, but kind of old school J. Vernon McGee, people think I'm coming up with something new going through the Bible verse by verse, but it's actually really old, what I'm doing. I think that's what people really are hungry for. That's what I think one of the big reasons we're seeing growth in our church, and really exponential growth, because of his word.

Guest (Male): Absolutely, Pastor Brett. Thank you for that. And if you'd like more information about Athey Creek Church, Pastor Brett Meador, or *Today's Word*, you can visit our website at todayswordradio.com. That's todayswordradio.com. Next time, Pastor Brett will continue in the book of Acts, and we'll hear the mission that Jesus clearly communicated to the apostles. *Today's Word* with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.