Is where we're going to start this morning Acts chapter 1 and
hope you had a good Thanksgiving.
We had a drove 9 hours one way 9 hours back for about 48 hours of
visiting so we had a lot of driving in there but thank God
for safety. I know some others traveled and
some are still traveling so be praying for them.
They're not traveling right this minute, but they'll be traveling
this afternoon after the morning service where they're at.
So be praying for them. But Acts chapter 1 is where
we're going to start. We're going to do the last of
our seven mountains this morning.
And then we'll get into some valleys and remember that the
mountains that we're looking at are meant to encourage us or to,
to to help us, give us give us an excitement in our Christian
lives. And so this will be the last of
those before we get into the valleys.
But we're going to talk talk about the Mount of Olives this
morning. And I know we, we know what
happened on, on the Mount of Olives in several different
cases. But we're going to talk about
the Mount of Olives and Jesus Christ departing this earth as
he as he was taken back up into heaven there on the Mount of
Olives. So Acts chapter 1, and we're
going to start reading in verse #1 And this is Luke writing.
And so Luke says the former treatise have I made, O
Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,
until the day in which He was taken up.
After that he that after that He through the Holy Ghost had given
commandments under 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 the things
pertaining to the Kingdom of God.
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, Ye have heard of
me. For John truly baptized with
water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many
days hence. Interesting verse here.
When they therefore were come together, they asked of him,
saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom
to Israel? And 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, but you shall receive power after that
the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses
unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria,
and under 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 2 men stood by them in white apparel, which
also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into
heaven? This same Jesus which is taken
from you into heaven shall so come in like manner, as you have
seen Him go into heaven. Then return they unto Jerusalem
from the mount of the mount called Olivet, which is from
Jerusalem, a Sabbath days journey.
We're going to talk about the Mount of Olives this morning.
Let's pray and then we'll get right into our lesson.
Father, I thank you for the day you've given us.
Thank you for the the time we've had the latter part of this week
with with Thanksgiving and being able to spend with family and
and just remember all your goodness and and everything that
you've done for us and everything that you continue to
do for us. God, we are, we are not as
grateful as we should be. And God, I pray that you would
just challenge us in that regard and and help us to make the
changes that we need to there. But God, as we look at this
Mount of Olives this morning, God, I pray that you'd help the
truths that we look at to burn deep into our hearts and, and
got to be remember, we would remember the calling that
you've, you've given to us in in winning souls with the time that
we have left. God, I pray that you'd give us a
good Sunday school this morning and a good service afterwards.
In Jesus name, I pray, Amen. All right, the Mount of Olives.
Now it's interesting that anytime you see in the Old
Testament, I'm talking aside from Jesus's ministry, but
anytime in the Old Testament you see the Mount of Olives, it had
to do with a king. You had David Bible records
David fleeing over the Mount of Olives when he was running from
Absalom. And then you also have sadly at
the end of Solomon's life, since in Second Kings, at the end of
Solomon's life, you have him Bible records, him making altars
and shrines and things to all these different gods for all the
different wives that he was trying to please these foreign,
foreign wives that he had married.
You have Solomon making these different, different idols and,
and shrines to those gods. And the Bible's very clear that
God at the end of Solomon's life says, I'm going to, I'm going to
take most of the Kingdom away from you.
I'm going to let your son rule 1-2 tribes, but I'm going to
let, I'm going to let your son rule just a little bit because
of the promise I gave to David. But otherwise I would have taken
all of this Kingdom away from you and given it to someone else
because of what you're doing here at the end of your life.
But even Solomon, the one who gave us the Proverbs and all of
that, we have him walking away at the end of his life from God
and, and building all these shrines.
But that is on the Mount of Olives surprisingly, or or maybe
interestingly, now we have the Mount of Olives play such a big
part in Jesus earthly ministry. But that was the history there
of the Mount of Olives, what Solomon did there.
But anyways, so we have also Gethsemane.
And if you remember from our Bible geography lessons,
Gethsemane is right adjacent to the Mount of Olives.
I've not been there. Maybe some of that have it's,
it's at the base or maybe just the part way up the Mount of
Olives. But it's interesting here in
Acts chapter 1, I'm getting just a touch ahead of myself, but I,
I was. Does anybody know?
And we'll come back to this in just a minute, but does anybody
know? Look at verse 12.
Then return they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet,
which is from Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey.
I remember from our Bible geography what is between
Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives.
What do you have to cross? Anybody remember it's a valley?
Which one? There we go, Brother Bill, the
Kidron Valley is between the Mount of Olives.
Come down. You hit the Garden of
Gethsemane, Kidron Valley, and then you're back, back up into
the city of Jerusalem. And so anyway, why was I saying
that? Oh, because verse 12, he, they
returned back to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, which is a
Sabbath day's journey. Anybody know what a Sabbath
day's journey is? OK, anybody else?
Because my immediate thought
when I read that is a Sabbath day's journey is obviously
different than today's journey. So what is that?
They say it's about 2000 cubits, which is point 5.6 miles, which
makes sense. He'd come down across the Kidron
Valley. Within a half a mile, you're
back in Jerusalem. And so I'm going to talk a
little bit about that later, what the Jews would do to get
around that Sabbath day's journey.
Because that was the law. You you could only travel a
certain amount because it was considered work, Right.
So that's what the Sabbath day's journey is.
But just interesting note there. About a half a mile.
Yep. Whoever said less than a mile,
Miss Bonnie and 2 1/2 hours. I don't know, Brother Dave, if
you're walking slow, he could make it last that long.
So anyways, yeah, about a half a mile.
So anyway, so we have the Mount of Olives and you have here now
this is the end of Jesus's life. Well, he's already been
resurrected from the dead. So it's not the end of his life.
It's the end of his time here on earth.
But he's already been resurrected.
He has now spent, he saw in verses one through 12, he spent
40 days with the with the disciples, not just his twelve,
but the disciples that have that have come to know Jesus Christ
as their savior. He has spent 40 days with them
and he's getting ready to to leave.
And I think it's so interesting there in verse 6, we've covered
this a few times, but in verse 6, they're still saying, now are
you going to restore your Kingdom?
They don't quite understand exactly what is what is going
on. Remember we talked about this
last week when Jesus, Jesus tells them, I'm going to I'm
going to build my Kingdom and all of that.
And then he dies and imagine what's going through these
disciples minds. It's not so much that all we've
spent our whole life following Jesus and now he's gone.
Now what do we do? But they have spent the last 3
1/2 years of their lives following him.
Anybody that had businesses, remember Peter and all these
fishermen, they've given up their trades and now they're
following Jesus. He dies.
And can you, you can imagine the anxiety I would say that is
going on inside of them. And then he raises from the
dead. So they talk about a roller
coaster of emotions, right? They're excited.
I think probably while Jesus was on the cross, they had thoughts
that he may come off the cross because they knew the power he
had. They had seen the miracles.
They knew who this was. And, and the Bible even records
that he could have called the 10,000 angels.
Bob doesn't say 10,000 but he could call have called 10,000
angels to come down and take him off the cross and destroy all
those that were that were crucifying him.
And I think the disciples possibly expected him to do that
because remember when Peter is in the garden of Gethsemane and,
and the soldiers come to him. And I think we overlooked this
sometimes that in the garden they, they asked Jesus, are you
the are you the one that claims to be the king of the Jews?
And he said, I am. And what happens to all those
people? His voice knocks them all
backwards. I would think if I was a
soldier, if I was one of the chief priests or one of the the
guys helping the chief priest to go capture Jesus and that
happened, I would just hey, I think there's something more
going on here. But they don't they pick them
all selves all back up and still go take Jesus.
Interesting that that that wasn't enough to stop them.
But you got to remember, Peter swings his sword, takes off the
the high priest's servant's ear and Jesus puts his tells him put
his sword away. It's not not time yet.
OK, so when is the time? Maybe when he's on the cross and
and maybe that's even going through the disciples minds.
Remember, they've all fled here. They're they're not at the at
the cross. They've they've left and they're
watching from afar because of the fear that what might happen
to them. But I do think in the back of
their minds, they thought that it that's an even better
opportunity right in front of everybody's going to come off
the cross and he's going to kill them all and he's going to set
up his Kingdom. But he doesn't.
He dies. So the roller coaster of
emotions. Now what do we do?
So they go into hiding. I mean, they're hiding in the
upper room when remember when Jesus comes in and comes right
through the wall of the upper room or through the door and
shows up to them. So, so you go from I think he's
going to, I think he's going to come off the cross to he dies
now he resurrects from the dead and now they go, OK, now it sort
of makes sense. Verse 6 Lord, without this time
restore again the Kingdom to Israel.
They're confused, they don't understand exactly what's going
on. But then as we look through this
lesson, we're going to, we're going to look at what happens
here on the Mount of Olives. They get this Great Commission
to, to go and spread the gospel to the world.
And that's what what Christ wants them to do.
But it's interesting, you know, here on the Mount of Olives is
where Peter and James and John fell asleep while Jesus prayed
to to the father for this cup to pass from him and, and all of
that. And now they're back on the same
mountain, but they're not sleeping.
They are very attentive as to what's going on possibly again,
thinking he's going to set up his Kingdom now and we're going
to be high-ranking officials in this Kingdom.
So there's also a reason that Christ called them to this Mount
of Olives. And maybe that's what this is.
And I think that's why they asked that question is, is this
the time that you're going to, or you got to remember, Peter is
never quiet or never, never embarrassed or, or shy about
asking what's on his mind, right?
He's going to ask Jesus, Hey, is this the time, Peter, when, when
Jesus said, one of you is going to betray me, Peter's the first
one. Is it me?
Am I going to betray you? Is it, is it me that's going to
that going to do that? So Peter's not afraid to ask
what's on his mind. And, and they ask that and verse
7, Jesus doesn't answer. It answers them not with yes or
no, but it is not for you to know the time or the season
which the Father hath put in his own power.
So not telling them no. So they still have the question
in their mind. OK then when?
So it's coming. We know it's coming, but when?
So anyways, let's look at, let's look at this lesson and I want
to see in verses one through three that first of all we have
Jesus Christ, who is the centerpiece of everything that's
going on here. Luke says the former treatise
I've made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and
teach until the day in which he was taken up.
After that, He through the Holy Ghost had given commandments
under the apostles whom he had chosen.
This is all about Jesus. Luke's writing to Theophilus
about everything that happened with Jesus.
And he says to whom also he 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. So the first first thing I want
to look at here is why was why was it important for these 40
days that Jesus show himself to the disciples?
I think one of the obvious proof reasons is to give them
irrefutable confirmation that he was alive from the grave, from
the dead. Remember, Thomas says to the to
the other disciples, until I see till I put my finger in his
hand, the hole in his hands and my fist in his side, I'm not
going to believe that he raised from the dead.
And then Jesus shows himself to Thomas and says, go ahead
Thomas. And does Thomas do it?
No, he drops to his knees and says, my Lord and my God.
So that was after his resurrection, though these are
these are Jesus needed to prove not for his own sake, but for
the sake of the disciples. These 12 disciples were going to
be the ones that the Bible later says they turn the world upside
down, right? But they needed proof that this
was this was real because of maybe their lack of faith.
I would like to think that if, if we had Jesus Christ living
with us and we were following him and he died and raised from
the dead, I would like to think that we would, you know, we
would, we would be on fire for him and go spread the gospel.
But if there's any question in our mind of what actually
happened, it's your faith is going to be very weak.
And so I think one of the, one of the reasons that Jesus was
alive with them for 40 days and spent that time with them was to
give them this, this confirmation that what they were
seeing and what they were witnessing was true.
He was alive from the dead and he was the Christ that they saw
whose tomb was empty. And, and all of that, this, it
is real. And, and Pastor mentioned this a
couple weeks ago about the swoon theory and all of that, that,
you know, that people that crit, people that are critical of the
Bible and of this whole narrative of Jesus Christ say
that, you know, he was just a man.
He was not the Messiah. He happened to be unconscious
for three days and then came back from that, not from the
dead. And so you still just have a
normal man that yeah, maybe did some some neat things, was a
good teacher, perform some magic, not miracles, some magic.
We don't know exactly what was going on, but it was still just
a man who happened to come back from a near death experience.
The problem is if you come out of a coma, you don't, you're not
walking the streets 2 minutes later perfectly healthy, right?
So even if he had swooned into a coma and come back from that, he
is not going to be, you know what a rock walking around with
the disciples after everything he went through the the cat of
nine tails and his beard being ripped out and the loss of blood
and the spear in his side and all of that.
Even if he survived all of that as a normal man, you're not
coming back from that quickly and being able to walk around.
So anyways, Jesus I believe wanted to give these, I wouldn't
say faithless, but men of little faith at times, confirmation
that what they had been following for the last 3 1/2
years, this person they had been following and and disciples of
was truly the Messiah. He was truly the Christ.
But the second reason he needed to spend time with them was go
to keep your finger in Acts chapter 1.
We'll be back there. But go to Luke chapter 24 and
you will probably recognize these these verses were one
verse away from a very, very familiar verse.
And we'll read that in just a second.
But Luke 24 and verse 45, Jesus needed to give these disciples
instruction. OK, you died, you raised from
the dead. We've been following you.
Now what do we do? They obviously don't know
because you see that in Acts chapter one, verse 6.
Are you setting your Kingdom up? Now?
What are we supposed to do? And so Jesus for these 40 days
is giving them instruction on what what to do and how to do
it. But in Luke chapter 24 and verse
45, it says then opened he their understanding that they might
understand the Scriptures go back to verse 44.
And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you
while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled,
which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in
the Psalms concerning me. So this is after his
resurrection. He's he's with them again and
he's saying, I, I, I did all of this and I and I'm talking to
you again and giving you this understanding so that you will
understand that this is the prophets, the prophecies that
were about me. They're all been fulfilled and
in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me then opened
he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures.
They were reading them, but they didn't quite understand them.
And Jesus gives them an understanding.
And then this is the familiar verse in verse 46.
And he said unto them, thus it is written, and thus it behooves
Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, from the dead the
third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be
preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem
and and and and then you have the the Commission to go spread
the gospel to the world. And so these 40 days back in
Acts chapter 1 is where we'll we'll be again.
But these 40 days were to instruct them on what they were
supposed to do after he was gone.
You know, I still don't think. I think, like I said, that the
roller coaster of the emotions. I think that the the apostles
thought, OK, good, he's back from the dead now.
He's going to be with us forever.
They did not understand that He was going back to His Father and
He had to give them. He had to explain that to them
in these 40 days and give them their Commission here on earth
of what they were supposed to do going forward.
But anyway, so we see the reason that Jesus was here on the earth
for 40 days. But then I want to show you in
verses 4 through 8 the promise that He gave them.
So let's read those again. Verses 4 through 8 of Acts
chapter 1, being assembled together with them, commanded
that they should not depart from Jerusalem.
But wait for the promise of the Father, which saith, ye have
heard of me. For John truly baptized with
water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many
days hence. And in verse 4 there he's
telling them to wait at Jerusalem again.
I think this in their minds is good.
This is where he's going to set the Kingdom up.
So wait here for me. But they don't understand what's
going on. Verse 6 When they therefore were
come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, without this
time restore again the Kingdom to Israel.
And he said unto them, It's not for you to know the times or the
seasons which the Father hath put in his own power.
But verse 8 Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost
has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in
Jerusalem and all Judea, and in Samaria, and under the uttermost
part of the earth. So go to John chapter 14 with
me. Keep your finger in in Acts,
John chapter 14. This is his promise to them and
a wonderful promise. It is but a promise that he was
going to leave the Holy Spirit with them.
You know, I think sometimes in the in the Bible, we, we think
about the story of David and we think about the story of of
Joshua and Moses and Elijah and some of these great men in the
Bible. And we think, man, if if we
could only have seen God work like they did.
And I think that we will one day see them in heaven and maybe get
to talk with them and have them say, man, I wonder what it would
have been like to have the Holy Spirit himself living inside of
me. I think that we really
underestimate or we really take for granted or whatever word you
want to use the fact that the Holy Spirit of God lives inside
of us. And that's what happened here in
Acts chapter 1, verses 4 through 8, the promise that the Spirit
was going to, he was going to leave the Spirit with us so that
we would know and we would be guided and comforted just like
if Jesus was actually on earth with us.
But John chapter 14 and verse 16, Bible says, and I will pray
the Father and he shall give you another comforter that he may
abide with you forever, another comforter.
Well, who was the first comforter?
Jesus Christ, He was with them. He was the one instructing them.
He was the one when they would get into crazy situations that
they would come to and say, Jesus, explain that to us, what
just happened. He was their comforter.
But I'm going to send you another comforter that he may
abide with you, with you all. Remember, Pastor always talks
about that with you all, basically forever, even the
spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it seeth
Him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him, for he dwelleth
with you and shall be in you. That's the Holy Spirit that was,
that was promised right here on the Mount of Olives, not just to
the disciples, but to all, all people that would come to know
Christ as their Savior. They get the Holy Spirit.
Look at verse 26. But the comforter, OK, so he
says, I'm going to give you another comforter.
Now in verse 26 he tells them who that Comforter is, 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. And then look at verse chapter
16 and verses 12 and 13. Chapter 16 of John verse 12.
I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear
them now. Howbeit, when He the Spirit of
truth has come, He will guide you into all truth.
For He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall
hear, that shall He speak, and He will show you things to come.
This is interesting. Jesus was telling them all along
in His earthly ministry that this Holy Spirit of promise was
coming. They did not understand it.
But now here in Acts chapter one, this, this is Him saying,
when I leave, as soon as I leave, I'm going to, I'm going
to send another the Holy Spirit to be your comforter, to be your
guide. And that's this promise that
they get here in verses 4 through 8 and verse 8.
But ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon
you, which was coming. It was coming right now.
This was, this was just about to happen.
And, and then you see that in Acts chapter 2 with Pentecost
and, and all of that amazing, amazing promise that was coming,
but not just a, not just a promise of heaven or a promise
of, you know, a Kingdom coming that they didn't understand.
We see that in verse 6A, promise of the Holy Spirit soon as I
leave. And it's expedient that I do
leave. I need to so that the Holy
Spirit can come. And we know those verses as
well. But it was a, it was a promise
that he gave them here, but it was also this promise of the
Holy Spirit had purpose. And I think sometimes,
especially I know I, when I was younger, I would hear pastors
preach on the Holy Spirit. And in my mind, I would say, you
know, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to be that person.
Me and Brother Nitin were just talking earlier this week and he
said, you know, sometimes I think he said, I, I remember
the, the story of DL Moody and DL Moody at the beginning of his
life saying the world has yet to see what God can do with one man
who's fully surrendered to, to his will and to what God wants
him to do. And at the end of his life, DL
Moody said the world has yet to see what God can do with someone
who's fully surrendered. To what?
To to God's will. And I, me and brother Nitin were
talking and he said, I, I remember hearing that after I
was saved and going, I'm going to be that one.
I'm going to be the one the world sees completely
surrendered. And he said, and now every day I
go, why is it so hard to surrender?
And I think we all see that as Christians, but you see that
with Paul, the the apostle Paul, The things that I know I should
be doing, they're so hard to do and things I don't want to do, I
do them. That's the flesh that we deal
with. But the purpose of having the
Holy Spirit is not just so that you have the Holy Spirit or just
so that people can say, wow, look at him, He's filled with
the Holy Spirit. And I think often we, we, that
is our goal in our minds. I want to be filled with the
Spirit but for what there was a purpose.
And we see that here in in verse 8.
Ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you
great, great power to do what though.
And ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all
Judea and in Samaria and and unto the uttermost part of the
earth. And I think the most important
word possibly in this verse is ye shall be witnesses.
You don't have a choice. When the Holy Spirit comes to
live inside of you after you're saved, you will be witnesses to
me. That's the purpose of the Holy
Spirit now. Yes, He guides us, He comforts
us. He brings things to our
remembrance. We see all that, and that's
another point. I will bring everything to your
remembrance that I've said unto you.
But this is what He said unto us.
And if we don't read it, he can't bring it to our
remembrance. And we've talked about that
before. So we, it's very important that
we're reading God's word so he can bring those things to our
remembrance when we're witnessing and working for Him.
But the purpose of the Holy Spirit being given to us is so
that we can be witnesses for Jesus Christ, and that will have
power in those things. Second, Peter 39, I'll just read
you this verse. But God's will is that all men
come to repentance and how does he do that through his people
and and and he gives them the power to do that.
But second Peter 39 is very clear on that the Lord is not
slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness, but
his law and suffering to us. We're not willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
And in verse 8, you'll receive the you shall receive power
after the Holy Ghost has come upon you to be those witnesses
that I need you to be so that all men can come to repentance.
We already read verse 12 of John chapter 16.
But part of the Holy Spirit's work is to, to convince men
actually go over there. I want, I want to read these
John chapter 16. Part of the Holy Spirit's work
is to convince men of their need for the Savior.
Look at John 16 and we'll, we'll read verses 8 through 12.
We already read, did we? We didn't read verse 7.
So we're going to start in verse 7.
This is the verse I just mentioned.
Nevertheless, John 16, seven, I tell you the truth.
It is expedient for you that I go away.
This is Jesus talking to His disciples.
For if I go not away, the comforter will not come unto
you, but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.
And this is the Spirit's job or His goal.
When He has come, He will reprove the world of sin and of
righteousness and of judgment of sin, because they believe not on
me, of righteousness because I go to my Father, and ye see me
no more of judgment because of the Prince of this world is
judged. I've yet many things to say unto
you, but you cannot bear them now.
And this is where we read verse 13.
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide
you into all truth. For He shall not speak of
himself whatsoever. He shall hear that shall He
speak, and He will show you things to come.
But the Holy Spirit is very, very active in bringing men to
Christ, but He also uses His people, those that are saved to,
to be a witness for him. And we need the power of that
whole of the Holy Spirit to do that.
Now we're almost finished. But I want to look at at verses
9 through 12 of Acts chapter 1, because what does this mean for
the Saints or those of us that are saved?
What does this power of the Holy Spirit on our lives and Jesus
Christ ascending here on the Mount of Olives, What does it
what does it mean for us? And I think, you know, not that
not that Jesus crucifixion wasn't memorable to the to the
disciples and not that his miracles weren't memorable to
the disciples. Not that his resurrection wasn't
memorable to them. Not that him coming through the
door in the upper room when they were huddled in fear and him
showing up and say, what are you?
What are you afraid of? Not that that wasn't memorable,
but Can you imagine? The last thing you see of Jesus
Christ is him ascending up into heaven in a cloud and that's it.
He wanted to be Jesus didn't want to just just be gone.
And they didn't know what happened.
I mean, Bible's very clear. Many, many people saw him after
his resurrection. He was not trying to pull the
wool over anybody's eyes. He was showing them, I am the
Messiah and I have power even over death.
But now I'm leaving. I'm going away and I'm not just
going to disappear. I'm going to leave right in
front of your very eyes. So in in verse 9 we see that and
when he had spoken these things while they beheld, he was taken
up and a cloud received him out of their sight.
They saw it happen. But but I think it's very
important to in verse. Let's see verse 10 while they
look steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, 2 men
stood by them in white apparel. I think it's very important for
the Jews, for us, Sure, if one person says they saw something
crazy, we might think they're crazy or whatever.
But if a whole bunch of people are saying it, it's, it's much
more likely. But the Jews, and I'm going to
read you this verse, Deuteronomy chapter 19, verse 15.
One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity
or for any sin, and any sin that he sinneth at the mouth of two
witnesses or at the mouth of three witnesses shall the matter
be established. It was very important for the
Jews that it wasn't just the eyewitness of one person needed
to be two or more. And every major event you
haven't in Jesus life there's at least two that witness.
It's pretty interesting even the amount of transfiguration you
have Moses and Elijah and the three disciples, but they were
his followers. But Moses and Elijah, 2
witnesses at the tomb you see 2 angels witnessing the fact that
he was resurrected from the dead.
And all the way through Jesus life, you see these two
witnesses. That is not so important for us,
but it was very important for the Jews to prove to to to be
The Bible says that that it to be established as as fact, you
need to have at least 2 witnesses.
And you have that here again on the on the Mount of Olives as
Jesus ascends mount of ascension.
Sometimes it's called. But two witnesses in white
apparel stood by them and, and said in verse 11, why do you
stand here gazing up into heaven?
He just told you what to go do, Go do it.
But then we have lastly in verse 12, the trust that these
disciples had in what had just happened.
What was their response when they so they've been told what
to do. They've been told in verse 8,
they're going to receive power to go do these things.
And then in verse 9, they see him ascend.
He's gone the the angels tell them why stand you gazing this
same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so
come in like manner as he seen have seen him go into heaven and
verse 12 what did they do? They returned to Jerusalem.
Why? Because he told them, remember
in verse 7, he said unto them, it sorry, it's not verse 7.
Where is it? Verse 4, be assembled together,
commanded that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait
for the promise of Father. So they did not run in fear at
this point. They went and did exactly what
they were told to do, get back to Jerusalem.
And when the Holy Spirit's power comes upon you, then you're
going to go be witnesses and wait for that point.
Don't go without his power. And I think we do that often.
We don't have time to even talk about that.
But often we go out to do good things with no power because
we've not asked for it or it's or sometimes it's not even what
God wants us to be doing. Did he want them to be
witnesses? Yeah, but not yet.
Stay in Jerusalem till the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you
have that power. And then go be witnesses to me.
And then, and I want you to turn to one last chapter, one last
passage. Zechariah.
It's the second to last book in the Old Testament, so you can
find it quickly. Zechariah Malachi.
But Zechariah 14, because the Mount of Olives was in in some
prophecy here. Zechariah 14, verses 3 and 4.
And I'm going to start reading why you get there just for sake
of time. But Zechariah 14, three and
four. Then shall the Lord go forth and
fight against those nations as when He fought in the day of
battle. And His feet shall stand in that
day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the
east. And the Mount of Olives shall
cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the
West. And there shall be a very great
valley and a half of the mountains shall remove toward
the north and a half of it toward the South.
But there's a prophecy that Jesus Christ is going to return.
Just remember in in verse 11, the the Angel said, why do you
stand here gazing? This same Jesus which is taken
up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as you have
seen him go. And the Bible says that in
Zechariah 14, he's going to come back to this same place, the
Mount of Olives. But when he lands on that
mountain, I can just imagine the the scene there.
He's going to land and the and the mountain is going to split.
Just an amazing, I think an amazing thing that's going to
happen to show the power of who he actually is.
But the disciples understood and I hope that we understand the
urgency that when that happens, the time for the salvation of
men is over. That's it.
That's his second coming. That's what we talk about all
the time. Are you living like Jesus Christ
could come back today? That's this, that's, that's the
Zechariah prophecy. He's going to come back to the
Mount of Olives. He's going to split it and his
millennial Kingdom will start. But we have from now, from from
this point in Acts chapter 1 until that happens to, to, to,
to see men save now, that's when he comes back to, to start his
millennial Kingdom. But we are going to be called
to, to the clouds first Thessalonians tells, tells us
that that's it. We have a short time to do this.
And that's what Jesus was trying to tell these disciples here in
Acts chapter 1. Stay in Jerusalem till I give
you the power to do it. But once you have power, go be a
witness to me in Jerusalem, your city in Judea, your surrounding
area, Samaria, same continent, but not your country anymore.
And then to all the world. That's still our job, to be
witnesses for Jesus Christ, just as He commanded these disciples
here on the Mount of Olives all the way back right before his
ascension. And that's still our job.
Receive power from the Holy Ghost and then go be witnesses
to me, to your friends, to your neighbors, to your country, and
to the rest of the world. Let's pray and then we'll be
finished for this morning. Father, I thank you again for
this day you've given us. Thank you for your word.
Thank you for the promises in it, but also the commands.
And God, I pray that you'd help each one of us to live our lives
in such a way that your Holy Spirit can.
We can be filled with that power that we need to go do the work
that you've called us to do. Pray that we wouldn't get ahead
of you. But I also pray that we wouldn't
be behind you and not doing what you've called us to do.
And I pray that you just bless the time that we spent here
together this morning. God, I pray that it would
encourage us, but also challenge us to go be the witnesses that
you've called us to be. In Jesus name, I pray, Amen.
And we're dismissed.