This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
Waffer, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland, County
of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
In the church, as elders, we pray and say, Lord, what about
this? What do you think we should do?
And we talk and we listen and we listen to different
perspectives. And we, we wait and we pray.
And many times when we pray, we're really not sure
immediately what we should do, right?
So we wait on the Lord. There's no hurry to make any
decision until there's consensus in what it is in the mind of the
Lord. You want the mind of the Lord
right? In regard to decisions.
You definitely want the mind of the Lord in regard to His will
for the Church. Seeking God's will is like
waiting for dawn. Trusting the light will
breakthrough in time. In today's message, Pastor Clark
reveals how you should pause and pray before big decisions,
ensuring you align with God's plan.
You might fast or seek agreement with others, refusing to move
until His will is clear. In the church, leaders do the
same, praying and listening for God's direction without rushing.
Sometimes answers aren't immediate, so you wait patiently
for clarity. God's mind is what you see, not
hasty choices. Now here's Pastor Clark in Acts
chapter one with today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
It's not for you to know the times or seasons which the
Father has put in his own authority.
People love to sort of plan and in her mind study.
This is when I think Jesus is going to come and they have it
all calculated. They can use computers now and
algorithms and figure out dates and based upon different feasts
in the Old Testament or whatever.
I've never met anybody that got it right yet.
You know Jesus is there's only one that knows the big the
return of Christ to this world to set up the Kingdom, and
that's the Father. But you, he changes the subject.
But you in verse 8 shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has
come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and
old Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.
And so they're in Jerusalem, OK, Samaria encompasses the regions
of Jerusalem. And eventually, you know,
they're going to go out towards Samaria, which is northern
regions outside of Jerusalem already.
You see, the, the plan of the Lord is to get the gospel out
throughout the whole earth, right?
And eventually it did go around the whole earth, and it's still
going around the whole world. Now, the Commission we have as a
church is to be involved in world missions, which we are,
and you got to be focused on this, not Greensburg or Latrobe
or Mount Pleasant or Irwin or North Huntington or wherever we
come from. We have to be focused, yes, on
our Jerusalem, which would be Greensburg here.
But then we also have to be focused on our Judea, which
would be the surrounding areas around the Greensburg area.
And then the Samaria. Maybe it's going out toward
Indiana or Johnstown or down towards Mckeesport or whatever,
but the ultimate plan of God is that this gospel goes throughout
the whole earth, right? And we work with the Dawsons.
They work in the jungles of Venezuela, working, reaching
tribal people who've never once heard the name of Jesus Christ.
That's exciting for me personally to think about those
folks. They're reaching unreached
people groups. And then we have Philip Jackson
that works in Macedonia at that part of the world, Philip and
Lynn. And we have Philemon and Sheba
who work with the people in Pakistan.
We have Nick, I'd mentioned it works with crew.
We have another couple, Dave and Cindy Bentz at those sports
camps over there in Spain. And then we have others, you
know, that we, we support and, and are behind and, and
prayerfully, you know, involved with, in, in regards to the
gospel. But the whole idea is OK, while
they're doing what they're doing out there, we're doing what
we're doing here right through Grace FM, the radio through you
guys inviting people to Calvary or tell them about the radio or
just giving them a track and praying for them or talking to
them about the Lord Jesus. But this is the big picture
here. The Lord them to be witnesses of
him, and all these different places.
And so in verse 9. Now when he had spoken these
things, while they watched, he was taken up, and a cloud
received them out of their sight.
And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as He
went up, behold, 2 men stood by them in white apparel, who also
said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven?
This same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will so
come and like manner as you saw him go into heaven.
This experience of cloud is not something that's uncommon in the
history of the Jewish people. They knew that the pillar of
fire moved that nation at night during their time from Egypt to
the Promised Land. And the the cloud descended and
and was upon the Tabernacle in the in the daytime.
And they were told not to move unless the cloud moved.
So they're familiar with clouds. Peter, James, and John were
there at the Mount of Transfiguration when Moses and
Elijah showed up on the mountain within the cloud.
The cloud represents the glory of God, the kind of glory, the
presence of God, the Kabat of God, the very deep presence of
God. May we personally experience in
our times of privacy with the Lord in prayer, that cloud
manifesting itself all around our being that we might
experience the glory of God and the depth of God and the power
of God. And so they're, they're looking
at this scene and these two men are angels.
They're in white apparel, very similar to the angels that were
at the tomb when Jesus was resurrected.
And he they asked him a very basic question.
Why are you gazing up into the clouds?
The same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will so
come in like manners. You saw him go into heaven.
So they're literally looking and they're seeing Christ go up into
the to the Kingdom and the clouds sit at the right hand,
the Father, and they're also telling them the same Jesus is
being taken up from you will also return in like manner.
And the Bible declares that when the Lord returns and says every
eye will see him. And how is that possible?
What if he, you know, he's descending on the Mount of
Olives in Jerusalem? He, he's ascending from the
Mount of Olives. Mount of Olives is a couple 100
feet up from the Old City of Jerusalem.
So when you're up on the hill, you can look down and see the
Old City. It's about half a mile from the
city up to the Mount of Olives. They're able to walk on the
Sabbath about a half a mile, which is what that is.
They weren't breaking their their law at the time, but the
Lords reminding us that whenever he comes back that every eye
will see him and and how's that going to happen?
Well, we got cell phones, right? And the phone will be like going
off like crazy. Some object is coming from the
clouds way up there in the universe.
What is it? It's real bright.
It's like there's this crowd of it looks like angels coming, you
know, and that's the coming of the Lord.
At the second coming, every eye will see him.
Matter of fact, it says the Jewish people that are alive at
the time will look up and see him whom they've pierced.
And there'll be great revival for the nation of Israel at that
time because they're going to say he is the Messiah.
He's the one we were waiting for all this time.
And the hands will be evidence of the piercing and they'll see
him as he truly is. And so then they returned to
Jerusalem in verse 12 from the mount, caught all of it.
That's the Mount of Olives, which is near Jerusalem, a
Sabbath's day journey, as I said, about a half a mile from
the Old City. And when they had entered, they
went up into the upper room where they were staying.
So there's this upper room where they had the Lord's Supper, if
you remember, before Jesus was crucified, appears to be the
same place. And, and there's approximately
120 people in this upper room. It's a big room.
And the some of the names of the people who were there, Peter,
James, John, Andrew, Phillip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew,
James the son of Alpheus, Simon the jealous zealot, and Judas
the son of James, that's not the one that took his life.
This is different Judas. These all continued with 1
accord in prayer and supplications with the women and
Mary the mother of Jesus with and with his brothers.
So the closest people to the Lord at the time are in that
room under the authority of the Lord's request to tell them to
wait in that upper room. It had to be astounding them
anticipating what it was that God said was going to actually
occur. They had to be excited.
They had to be wondering what will this do for me?
What will this do to change my life?
What will the Holy Spirit actually do to me at this time?
And what's interesting to me is that they speak in verse 14.
They continued with 1 accord in prayer.
There was no arguments. There was no posturing for
authority or disagreements. Or I like this better than that.
Or why don't we have better food here over the next 10 days?
You know, can someone go out to Chick-fil-A and get us something
better than what we're having to eat here?
No, they just were focusing on the big picture of the Holy
Spirit and they were praying and they were all praying in unison.
There's nothing better than praying with people that have
the same heart as you do for the Lord.
There's nothing better than being in the presence of others
who love the Lord like you do. And you pray with one another
and there's no disagreement because you're praying according
to the will of the Father. And they were all in this unity
and this oneness together, praising God, lifting up
supplications, request with the women.
Some of the wives of the apostles were there.
Some of these famous women we read about at the resurrection
of Jesus. And also Mary, the Lord's mother
is there with his brothers. His brothers were interesting.
They didn't really believe until after the resurrection.
Some of his brothers, they just saw Jesus as the one who always
never did anything wrong. They get in trouble, the
brothers with the parents. This is perfect.
And you know, why doesn't Jesus ever get spanked?
Why doesn't he ever get yelled at?
Because Jesus is perfect, One pastor said at a different
friends of Jesus and his relatives would call him a goody
2 sandals. You know, he just that would be
challenging, wouldn't it? And they just couldn't believe
that he was Messiah at the time. As a matter of fact, said many
people at that time, because of remembering him being raised by
Carpenter father, that he was a carpenter's son, that he learned
carpentry, that there's nothing special about this guy.
Matter of fact, he's from Nazareth.
And that's the bad side of town. And we don't we don't anticipate
anything coming from that place. Matter of fact says can anything
good come out of Nazareth? And so they're they're waiting
for the Lord to to do what he promised he would do on the day
of Pentecost. And in those days, Peter stood
up in the midst of the disciples.
Altogether the number of names was about 120.
It's interesting here, Peter, not too many days since his
fiasco of denying the Lord had authority with the group of the
apostles. He was the first among equals.
He stood up with authority and he was reminding them about some
things from the Scriptures and he said, men and brethren, verse
16, This Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit
spoke by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a
guide to those who rested Jesus. For he was numbered with us and
obtain a part in this ministry. Now this man purchased the field
with the wages of iniquity, and falling headlong, he burst open
in the middle of all his entrails, gushed out, and it
became known to all those dwelling in Jerusalem, so that
the field is called in their own language Echaldema, that is the
field of blood, for it is written in the book of the
Psalms. And this is Psalm 69 and Psalm
109. Let his dwelling place be
desolate and let no one live in it and let another take his
office. So it's believed that whenever
Judas hung himself, he was hanging over sort of like a
Cliff area and the rope broke and when he fell, he fell on the
rocks. And that's why everything, you
know, busted up in his body. So now he isn't around.
There has to be one that will take his place.
Be the 12th. It says that therefore in verse
21 of these men who have accompanied us all the time that
the Lord Jesus went in and out among us.
You had the the 70 were who were close followers of Christ that
had the ability to be claim or name the next apostle.
They had to be involved in the baptism of John and they also
had to literally see Christ after his resurrection.
Those were two main rules that had to be enforced for someone
to be ordained an apostle. Beginning from the baptism of
John to the day he was taken up from US, one of these must
become a witness with us of his resurrection.
And so they proposed to. There's two candidates here,
Joseph called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justice, and Matthias.
And they prayed and they said, you, O Lord, who know the hearts
of all, show which of these two you have chosen to take part in
this ministry. An apostleship from which Judas
by transgression felt that he might go to his own place.
So they're seeking the Lord's guidance.
They're praying. Which of these two should be
chosen? And it's interesting in verse
26. And they cast their lots and the
lot fell on Matthias and he was numbered with the 11 apostles.
This way of making decisions occur after this time in Acts.
There was never another time where they cast lots.
Sometimes you might say, and I've been around people, what's
the Lord's? Well, I don't know, let's flip a
coin. You know, 5050, you could be
right or you could be wrong. I, I don't particularly feel
comfortable with those kind of decision making processes.
But I think as we pray in New Testament believers, you pray in
your home as a husband and wife about a decision you need to
make and you wait on the Lord. Maybe you fast, you wait and you
don't want to make a decision unless you're both in agreement
about what it is you feel God's will is for your life.
In the same way in the church as elders, we pray and say, Lord,
what about this? What do you think we should do?
And we talk and we listen and we listen to different perspectives
and we, we wait and we pray. And many times when we pray,
we're really not sure immediately what we should do,
right? So we wait on the Lord.
There's no hurry to make any decision until there's consensus
on what it is in the mind of the Lord.
You want the mind of the Lord, right?
In regards to decisions, You definitely want the mind of the
Lord in regard to his will for the church.
And the mind of the Lord is revealed to us in the Bible, in
the Scriptures. And back in those days, you got
to realize they didn't have the New Testament written yet, did
they? They were referring all the time
to the Old Testament. And how did they do things in
the Old Testament? They had the Urim and the
Thummim, right? They were like dice and they
would give them some kind of direction.
They cast lots. That's just the way they did
things, right? But now we wait and we seek the
Lord, as it tells us in James. If any of you lack wisdom, let
him ask of God, who gives to all men liberally and doesn't hold
back. So if you need to make a
decision about something and you're waiting and you don't
know what to do, don't be impulsive.
Ask God for wisdom. Ask the Holy Spirit for
direction, and God will give you the direction that you need so
you'll know what to do. You don't have to guess.
You don't have to do things. I hope this is right, or I'm not
sure. If you're not sure and you don't
think it's right, wait on the Lord.
Wait on the Lord. Trust in the Lord with all your
heart and lean not. Ensure an understanding in all
your ways. Acknowledge Him and He will
direct your paths. Amen.
That's a good verse to memorize and it's a promise that God will
truly direct your path as you wait upon Him.
And so this is the gentleman that they picked, Matthias.
Paul was not the 12th apostle. Paul wasn't involved with the
baptism of John, nor was he present in the literal physical
resurrect. He saw the resurrection
resurrected Christ in his conversion experience in the
road to Damascus. But Paul was an apostle, but not
one of the 12 and his his significance as apostle was
obviously supernatural because of how he wrote.
Most of the New Testament and most of what it is we read about
God's will for us as a church comes from the writings of Paul.
However, Luke the evangelist wrote about 27% of the New
Testament, which is interesting from the book of Luke and the
book of the Acts of the Apostles.
So Luke, not an apostle, but also very significant player in
the big plan of God. And so you look at your life, I
look at mine, Who am I? Who are you?
We're disciples, right? We're followers of Jesus Christ
and every one of us have been given a call by God.
Not one is more important or less important in the Church of
Jesus Christ. The one we worship and we
elevate is Christ. He's the only one we lift up and
we magnify. Every one of us are at the level
of the cross, equal, and we're all seeking to find the ways of
God and to please him and to live for him.
These guys had the responsibility of as, as the New
Testament tells us, upon the chief cornerstone.
And the truth of the New Testament church is built upon
the apostles and prophets, right?
Laid upon the foundation of Jesus Christ.
There's no other foundation that can be laid for the truth of
Christianity than Jesus Christ and the foundation of the
apostles and prophets, which has given us this, the word of God.
And we can know when people ask you questions about what they
should do, what's the Lord told told you that I don't know.
Well, if you looked in the Scriptures, if you sought the
mind of the Lord. And lots of times people say,
no, I haven't done that. Well, I'm certainly not going to
tell you what to do. You got to seek God for what He
wants you to do. And again, that's the work of
the Holy Spirit and why He dwells in US.
It says He will God us in all truth.
And so therefore of these men who have accompanied us all the
time, verse 21, that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,
beginning from the baptism of John to that day when he was
taken up from US. One of these must become a
witness with us of the resurrection.
And so they castle lots and Matthias became the 12th
apostle. I'm not going to go into chapter
2. It's too dynamic and too too big
to cover in 5 minutes. There's no way.
But Rita had chapter 2. If you've got questions about
anything, Acts has some interesting controversial
statements at times that people can misunderstand.
And depending on what church kind of background you had, you
might have a different understanding of some of these
things in regards to the work and the person and the Holy
Spirit. Feel free to e-mail me and I'll
do the best I can to show you what I, what we sense in this
church the Scripture teaches regarding the role and the work
of the Holy Spirit. OK, so let's pray.
Father God, we thank you Lord for the word Lord, we just thank
you already for the leading into this very, very significant Day
in History, Pentecost. We look forward to studying this
together and explored and each of us have been recipients.
If we're born again, we've experienced this baptism of your
spirit into your body. Lord, there is no denomination
in the body of Christ. There is no ethnicity in the
body of Christ. We've grouped this together.
Neither bond nor free, Jew or Gentile, male or female.
We've been all made to drink of that one rock, that spiritual
rock, which is Christ. So the unity of the Church of
all believers everywhere, in all places at all times, who have
been born again and baptized by your Spirit.
You've placed each of us individually into the body of
Christ as a whole, and then you've placed us in individual
churches, Father, and we're grateful.
I pray, O Holy Spirit, today that you would take your
teaching and sow it into the hearts of us, your, your kids,
Lord, that we might understand and we might grow in the grace
and the knowledge of you. That we might have a greater
dependence upon You, Holy Spirit, in everything we do.
That we would ask for your help moment by moment and show us,
Lord, your will and your direction, Your blessings.
Father, we remember always, Lord, what you went through for
us on the cross, Your suffering, Your death.
We remember your burial and we praise you and glorify you in
the resurrection. And also, Lord, today we learned
about your ascension into heaven, that you'll come back
the same way you left. Lord, we bring our hearts to
you. Some are broken, perhaps some
are mixed up, Lord. Some are hurting God, some are
rejoicing and blessed at all. Kind of different moods in each
of our lives, Lord. And Lord, we pray for one
another that you would promise us, Lord, as you do promise us
that if we draw near to you, You will draw near to us.
We're so thankful, Lord, when we leave this place for not leaving
you. You go with us, Lord, wherever
we go, You promise us you'll never leave us or forsake us.
And Lord, I pray for myself personally this week as I pray
for my brothers and sisters that you would open up an opportunity
for me to be able to tell someone about you.
That every relationship we have, that we would be led to your
Spirit and know the timing and look for the Segway, the
opportunity to to tell someone about what you've done for us.
If they don't know you, that they would come to know you as
well. That's our prayer.
And we know that's your prayer as well, Lord.
Thank you for listening to this edition of Living Waters of
Grace. Pastor Clark is teaching us
about the book of Acts in this series, powerful and unique part
of Scripture, not just because it records the spread of the
gospel geographically from Jerusalem to the ends of the
earth, but also culturally. Acts shows us how the message of
Jesus moved beyond its Jewish roots and began to reach the
Gentile world. What started with Peter leading
a small group in the Upper Room became a global movement with
Paul taking the gospel to cities, synagogues, and
marketplaces across the Roman Empire.
Acts captures this vital transition and reminds us that
the good news of Jesus is for all people in every place.
May we be inspired to carry that same gospel boldly into our
world today. Living Waters of Grace comes to
you from Calvary Chapel, Westmoreland.
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