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We begin this morning a verse-by-verse study of the book of Acts. So I would encourage you to take your Bibles and turn to Acts chapter one, and this morning we will look primarily at the first 11 verses. I've entitled my discourse to you this morning, "The Promised Power and Kingdom." Follow along as I read Acts chapter one, beginning with verse one.

"The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach

until the day when He was taken up, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen.

"To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of 40 days and speaking of the things concerning the Kingdom of God.

Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, 'Which,' He said, "you heard of from Me;

"'for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.'

"And so, when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, 'Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?'

He said to them, 'It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority;

"but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.'

"And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.

"And as they were gazing intently into the sky, while He was departing, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them.

"And they also said, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched him go into heaven.'"

It is crucial for us to understand as believers that God is the creator and the consummator of all things, including history. God is the one who created time and space, and He did all of this ultimately to bring glory to Himself. Now, ultimately, we know that God is glorious. His glory is intrinsic to himself, whether anything gives him glory or not. However, he did create all things to bring glory to himself, and all but two things do that. Certainly, all of the animals, the plants, the mountains, the seas, the stars, the sun, all that He has created, except two things, two things that he gave with a will, a capacity to choose, and both of those things that he has created have chosen not to glorify him due to sin, and those creatures are man and non-elect angels.

It's fascinating that God has no plan or remedy to reconcile rebellious angels unto himself; their doom is fixed. However, by his grace, he has chosen some of mankind, called his elect, to be reconciled to himself, and ultimately to give him glory. Before time began, we know, according to Scripture, that God set into motion a plan to reconcile some, to save some. We read of this, for example, in Titus one and verse one, where the inspired apostle writes to Titus and describes himself as "a bond servant of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth, which is according to godliness, in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago." The Greek could be rendered literally "before time began."

Likewise, in Second Timothy chapter one and verse nine, God describes his himself as a saving God, and there the apostle Paul writes, saying that he has, "saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity." So indeed, as we study scripture, we see that in eternity past, before time began, the Father promised the Son, a love gift of a redeemed humanity, and when all of redemptive history is ultimately consummated the Son will return that gift of a redeemed humanity back to the Father as a reciprocal expression of his love to the Father. This is the sovereign plan of salvation that we read about all through scripture, and it is often referred to as God's plan of redemption. And when we read God's revelation to us in the Bible, we discover very quickly that there are two primary purposes that God has in history - in redemptive history - and we see these themes woven through the tapestry of every passage of scripture. One purpose is to redeem those whom he has chosen in eternity past, and secondly it is to restore a kingdom, particularly his earthly kingdom, that he promised to his chosen people, Israel, and that will occur at the consummation of redemptive history, when the Lord Jesus Christ comes again. And some of the components of that kingdom will include the salvation of Israel, a generation of ethnic Jews, as well as many Gentiles. It will also include a renovation of the earth, renovating it back to Edenic splendor and the bodily resurrection of God's people who have died. And then at the end of that 1000-year kingdom there will be an uncreation, or literally a dissolution of the created universe, and he will create a new heavens and a new earth, which will be the eternal estate of those whom he has redeemed in this kingdom. The Lamb of God becomes the Lion of Judah in the kingdom. The priest becomes the king, where everyone can see the suffering servant that Mark spoke of in his gospel is now the one in reality that Matthew spoke of as the sovereign king. And when we read the gospel of Luke, we see Jesus depicted as the Son of Man, and in John the Son of God, and ultimately in the kingdom, everyone who is a part of that kingdom will see that indeed he is God, very God.

These promises were first seen in Genesis 3:15 where, as you may recall, he promised that the serpent and all who belong to him would cause Christ to suffer; and certainly Christ suffered when he was here on earth, but also that Christ, the seed or the descendant of the woman Eve and all who belong to him, would eventually defeat the serpent with a fatal blow, which he did on the cross of Calvary. So I want you to understand the big picture here before we come to this text. All through the Old Testament, we read of a coming Savior who would redeem the people, but we also read of a coming Messiah who would be king; one who would not only establish a spiritual kingdom in the hearts of all who would believe in Him as Savior and Lord, but who would also establish an earthly kingdom.

Now, after the Savior King came and ascended back into heaven, the Creator and consummator of all things chose a messenger by the name of Luke to record the details of the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who came to seek and to save those who were lost in his first advent, when he came as the Lamb of God, and we read about that in Luke's Gospel, the Gospel of Luke, but in the providence of God, the very same one who orchestrates the events of history to ultimately glorify himself also had Luke write yet another record, one that would chronicle the history of the early church and put into perspective the promised Holy Spirit; a record that would help us understand the invisible kingdom of God, where he rules in the hearts of men. A rule that is now mediated through his church, of which Christ is head, and also a chronicle that would help us understand the coming earthly kingdom where Jesus Christ will personally and physically reign upon the earth for 1000 years in the final phase of his kingdom that he will establish at his second coming, sometimes known as the millennial kingdom; and we read of all of this in the book that we're in this morning, one called the Acts of the Apostles, or better labeled the Acts of the Holy Spirit through the apostles. I'm looking forward to leading you through this marvelous historical account over the months and probably years to come, one that is rich in theology as well as eschatological truths. Here the Spirit of God speaks through his inspired messenger Luke, who was a brilliant historian as well as a physician in the first century, and a close friend and traveling companion to the Apostle Paul.

In Acts, Luke will chronicle events that transpire after our Lord's ministry has concluded, and beginning with Christ's ascension, he records the transition of our Lord's ministry to the church that was birthed at Pentecost. We will also learn about the ministry of Peter, where the gospel was spread to Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth, especially as we journey with Luke's record of the apostle Paul and his missionary journey to the Gentiles. Acts also helps us understand the systematic rejection of the gospel in the first century and the mounting persecution of the church.

Now, in these first 11 verses, we can clearly see the transition from our Lord's ministry on earth to that of the church, along with several themes that will be reiterated all through the book, and I've divided this section of scripture into three sections that I trust will assist each of us in grasping what the Holy Spirit has for us. We're going to learn of our Lord's preparation, presentation, and promise - real simple - his preparation, his presentation, and promise. And you might think of it this way: we're going to see his past preparation, his present, at least in that day, presentation, and his future promise. Three fascinating historical events that set the stage for all that will follow.

So, first we're reminded of our Lord's past preparation, in other words, his preparation for future ministry through the church. Notice verses one through the first part of verse two. He says, "The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when He was taken up." Now, first of all, may I say that we know very little about this character, Theophilus. We do know that his name means "lover of God," and since Luke addresses him as "most excellent Theophilus" in Luke chapter one verse three, we can surmise that perhaps he was some kind of a Roman official, maybe he was a senator, maybe he was some Roman general, we simply do not know, but we must not pass over this prologue too quickly, for there is a lesson to be learned here. Notice Luke speaks of the "first account I composed," referring to the Gospel of Luke. We see here that the content in that was about all that Jesus began to do and teach. You see, herein, dear friends, is the great example of the Master, one we would all do well to emulate. The church was established on what Jesus did and what he taught. His disciples watched him practice what he preached, and ministry will be utterly ineffective - your ministry, my ministry - it will be utterly ineffective apart from doing just that: teaching and doing.

There must be both orthopraxy and orthodoxy. Orthodoxy, of course, is the belief in divine truth revealed to us, as the basis of all Christian doctrine, and orthopraxy is simply the practice of that truth. For example, as a teaching shepherd, I am to know the truth and to live it, so that you will know the truth and live it, and you all have the same responsibility as I do. You see, we cannot practice what we do not know, but we certainly must practice what we do know, and it is a despicable malfeasance of duty for a pastor to neglect either doing or teaching or preferring one over the other; the Lord was our example. We must do, and we must teach. And while the Lord was on earth, we know that he poured out his life into a few men, equipping them with objective doctrinal truth, and then living it out before them. Luke later described this as the apostles' doctrine in Acts 2:42.

It's fascinating when we think back and observe the Lord's ministry, we can see that he had absolutely no desire to somehow attract a crowd with clever techniques. In fact, many times when the crowds did come, he kind of disappeared. He gave no command anywhere in Scripture to be careful to learn how to embrace the culture and make sure that your gospel message is not offensive and culturally acceptable. We don't see that any place in Scripture. He merely unleashed the truth and lived it perfectly. In fact, contrary to the current neo-evangelical fads and obsessions, to be a mile wide and an inch deep, what we see with Jesus is he poured himself into mainly 12 men, in fact primarily three of those. In fact, as we look at the Lord's ministry, we could use the little equation that would say that concentration equals multiplication. Concentrate on a few, and the gospel will grow and spread and multiply. Don't do the opposite. Don't concentrate on the masses and spread the truth very thinly over the masses, and expect it to grow, at least grow in the way that God would have it grow, but instead pour yourself into a few, concentrate on the depth of your ministry, and let God cause the fruits of it to grow into the breadth that he has ordained for it.

Now, obviously, the apostles learned this lesson very well. We can see, for example, what Paul said in Titus two, in verse seven. He says, "...show yourself to be an example of good deeds," speaking to this pastor, Titus, "...sound and speech." He went on to say, "...showing all good faith that you may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect." In First Timothy, chapter four, in verse six, we see how Paul passionately exhorted Timothy to warn the church about the dangers of false teachers and errant teaching, and he said, "In pointing out these things to the brethren, Timothy, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following." And in Philippians one, Paul prayed in verse nine that, "...your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent." And in Colossians one, beginning in verse nine, he said, "We have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding." There's the teaching that he prays for, and here's why he went on to say, "so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all power according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience, so indeed Jesus established his church upon sound doctrine, of which he was a living example."

And dear friends, this was his preparation for the church and our model for ministry, and he did this, back to Acts chapter one and verse two, "until the day when He was taken up after He had, by the Holy Spirit, given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen." Again, these disciples were the primary focus of his ministry, his earthly ministry. He equipped them with the knowledge of the truth, model that truth with his life, but now his disciples, his apostles in particular, needed something else. They needed something very, very important that they did not have. They needed the indwelling, the permanent abiding of the Holy Spirit, and this was about to descend upon them.

So, first we are reminded of Jesus' preparation for ministry now being handed off to his church, that was the past. And then, in the present, at least in that present day, we see, secondly, the presentation of Christ; the presentation of himself as the exalted Savior and King, verse three. Notice what it says, "To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of 40 days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God."

Now, friends, you must remember the context here. The disciples were terrified, they were confused. We thought Jesus was coming to establish the kingdom, where is the kingdom? Where is peace and righteousness? Where is the king? What a blessed assurance this must have been to those dear men who cowered in fear when Jesus was crucified. Those men who feared the Jewish authorities, who were so paralyzed with fear that they refused to even believe the initial reports that the tomb was empty. Now all of a sudden, they're looking at Jesus. Jesus is alive! We are invincible! Don't you know they thought. It's fascinating to read John's account of Jesus' first appearance to the disciples in John 20 and verse 19. There we read, "It was evening on that day, the first day of the week," in other words on a Sunday night, "and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews," in other words, they had locked themselves in some place, "when the doors were shut, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, 'Peace be with you..'" Wow, can you imagine the looks on their face? Can you imagine the exhilaration? Talk about a confidence booster, and for 40 days we read that they had opportunities to witness the many convincing proofs of his miracles there in verse three, as he walked through walls and closed doors, as he ate and drank with them. The very one whose crucifixion wounds that they could see bore witness to his atoning work on the cross and his obvious resurrection from the dead.  Well, obviously the Lord knew that they would need this time of encouragement and confidence, because he was about to send them out with the very same message that would cost them their lives.

Now notice this was a time where Jesus was speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God, the end of verse three. You will recall that they were confused about the kingdom of God. They were wondering when he was going to restore the kingdom. When will you establish your throne in Jerusalem? When will you bring in peace? When will you bring in righteousness and justice? When will you rule with a rod of iron? And certainly the Lord had to clarify his rule, that now indeed he would reign spiritually in the hearts of genuine believers. Now there would be an invisible kingdom, and they would need to preach about this spiritual kingdom to those who are lost and dying in their sins, calling people to repentance, calling them to make the Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of their lives, and also to help them understand that the final reality - the ultimate fruition of the promised earthly kingdom, the millennial kingdom - would be postponed; that it would not be realized until Jesus came again the second time.

Now I must digress for a few minutes, because this is important for you to understand. There are are many, and many that I love that I believe go to great lengths to manipulate the scriptures to avoid allowing it to say what is obvious. Many will deny that there will be an earthly kingdom. Many believe that the church has replaced Israel, that God is finished with Israel.

The label that they have ascribed to themselves would be amillennialists. "A" meaning that they deny that there will be a millennium, and then there's another variation of it called post millennialism, and I'm not going to get into all of that, but beloved, I want you to see something in this scripture in a moment. But first I want you to understand, I believe this is so important, I want you to understand that the Jewish rejection of their Messiah did not nullify the unilateral, unconditional, irreversible covenants of God made to Abraham and to David concerning the establishment of an earthly kingdom. The Jews' rejection only postponed it. Now certainly the custodianship of divine truth that was once within the purview of Israel would be taken from the Jews who rejected it and now be transferred to the Gentile church. That is obvious in Scripture. The spiritual leaders of Israel were an abysmal failure. In fact, in Matthew 21 verse 43 the Lord says, "Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and be given to a nation producing the fruit of it." We also see this in Luke 20 and verse 16, that whole passage about the Lord and the vineyard makes it very clear. He says, in essence, that the Jews who killed the prophets and killed the Son are going to lose the vineyard; the vineyard being the sphere of God's saving purposes within the realm of Israel. In other words, the privilege and the responsibility of disseminating divine truth would be taken away from them. For this reason, the gospel was taken to the Gentiles.

Indeed, as we read scripture, the keys to the kingdom were taken from the Jews and given to a new people. Scripture is very clear about this. A new set of leaders emerged, namely the apostles, then the New Testament prophets, the evangelists, and even today, teaching shepherds, they all became the new vine growers. Certainly, the Jews were set aside, and a new guardianship was established in the Gentile church. But friends, please hear this: that transfer was not permanent. We read this in a number of passages, Luke 21:24, the Lord tells us that Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. You see, we must be very careful not to permanently replace Israel with the church, and say that God is finished with Israel, and say that the promised earthly kingdom has been permanently exchanged for a spiritual kingdom alone.

Now, certainly Israel was temporarily displaced, but it was not permanently replaced. Dear friends there is not one verse in all of scripture that would suggest that the promises to Israel are permanently canceled and transferred to the church. You just won't find that in scripture that the future reign of Christ on earth and a glorious kingdom that was promised all through the Old, all through the New Testament, is canceled and now replaced by merely, and only, a spiritual kingdom. This I believe is the grievous error taught by millennialists and postmillennialists. An error that certainly is not consistent with scripture. And although I won't take time to get into it, it is rooted ultimately in the anti-Semitism and anti-Judaism of some, not all, of the early church fathers, especially Justin Martyr and Origen and Augustine. That Israel's displacement is not permanent is clearly seen, for example, in Romans 11 verse 25. There Paul says, "For I do not want you, brethren," in other words, you Roman Gentile believers, "I do not want you to be uninformed of this mystery,"  the mystery speaking of the marvelous chain of events that will ultimately result in Israel's salvation, I don't want you to be confused about this. He says, "Lest you be wise in your own estimation." In other words, lest you be proud. He says there has been a "partial hardening," that has happened to Israel, and indeed we know that it's partial. There have been many Jews that have come to a saving knowledge of Christ, and he says this partial hardening has happened to Israel "until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and thus all Israel will be saved."

Now, friends, if Israel means the church, this verse makes no sense at all, because the church is the church by virtue of the fact that it is saved. But here he says that there will be "a partial hardening happening to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and thus all Israel will be saved, just as it is written, the deliverer will come from Zion. He will remove ungodliness from Jacob, and this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins." And in verse 28 he says, "from the standpoint of the gospel, they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God's choice, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers." In other words, because of God's covenant to Abraham, because of the fathers - Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all of Israel, through them - all of them are the chosen recipients of the unilateral and unconditional and irreversible covenants that God gave to the fathers. And in verse 29 it says, "for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." Indeed, God called Israel "my elect," he called Israel, "My chosen people." Friends of God of sovereign election and grace never revokes his calling. In verse 30, it says, 'For just as you once were disobedient to God," referring to His Roman Gentile readers, "but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience," in other words, the Jews, "so these also now have become disobedient in order that, because of the mercy shown to you, they also may now be shown mercy, for God has shut off all in disobedience, that He might show mercy to all."

 Friends, Israel has not been replaced permanently by the church. Think of it this way: God does not choose to save some spiritual cadavers, some who are spiritually dead, and then turn around and cancel that promise because those corpses refuse to respond to him in repentant faith, and then turn around and offer those same spiritual blessings to another group of spiritual cadavers, equally as spiritually dead, assuming that somehow they are more deserving. That's a theological nightmare. As we look at Acts, we see that at no time during Jesus' 40-day post-resurrection, pre-essential presentation to his disciples, did he indicate that the promised earthly kingdom was now permanently exchanged for a spiritual kingdom. Nor did he say that his covenant promises to someday save a generation of ethnic Jews - his chosen, his elect people, as he called them - has now been canceled because of their unbelief. You see, friends, such a position would be utterly contrary to the essence of sovereign grace, whereby God is the one who initiates salvation solely on the basis of his good pleasure, never on the basis of human merit. God never cancels his saving purposes to save those whom he has chosen and elected to salvation and instead turns around and gives them to some other people who are presumably more deserving. There is no indication in this text, nor anywhere else that he suggested that Israel would be permanently replaced by the church. You see, friends, if he had, Acts chapter one and verse six and seven would make no sense.

Notice verses six and seven, "So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, 'Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom of Israel?' And He said to them, 'It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority.'" Now, if Israel had been replaced by the church, this would have been the place for him to say it. You know, we can go to many passages in the Old Testament; let me remind you of but a few. Zechariah spoke of this future restoration and reconciliation with Israel. In Zechariah chapter eight, beginning in verse two, he says, "Thus says the Lord of hosts." I love that, well, that gets my attention, "Thus says the Lord of hosts, 'I am exceedingly jealous for Zion,' in other words, for Israel, "'yes, with great wrath I am jealous for her.' Thus says the Lord, 'I will return to Zion and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be the City of Truth, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts will be called the Holy Mountain.'" And in verse 13 he says, "'And it will come about that just as you were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you that you may become a blessing.'" And in verse 20, "Thus says the Lord of hosts, 'It will be that the peoples will come, even the inhabitants of many cities, and the inhabitants of one will go to another, saying, "Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the LORD, and to seek the LORD of hosts; I will also go. So many peoples and mighty nations will come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the LORD. In those days, 10 men," he goes on to say, "'from all the nations will grasp the garment of a Jew, saying, "Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you."'" Talk about kingdom promises.

In Micah chapter four, beginning in verse one, we read, "And it will come about in the last days that the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains. It will be raised above the hills, and the peoples will stream to it. Many nations will come and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us about His ways, and that we may walk in His paths.' For from Zion will go forth the law, even the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.'" And later on in verse seven, "And the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion from now on and forever." Would you have me believe that God was disingenuous when he made those promises? Jeremiah 31 and verse 33 where he speaks of his new covenant with his people Israel, He says, "I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people." The new covenant promises are expanded in great detail in Ezekiel 36 and 37 for example, in 37 beginning with verse 27 we read what God says, "I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will be careful to observe my ordinances, and you will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers, so you will be My people and I will be your God." Beloved, think with me, imagine you have an opportunity to witness to a Jew today, and you come to that Jewish person and you say, "Dear friend, I have great news for you. The Lord Jesus Christ is your Messiah." And, of course, the first thing that they will say to you is, "Where's the kingdom?" Well, at that point, if you're an amillennialist, you would have to say, "Well, you've got to understand that we're living in the kingdom now, the kingdom is a spiritual kingdom." "Oh, really?" the Jew would say. "You mean to tell me that all of those promises in the Old Testament, all of even the promises that I read about in your New Testament from Jesus and the apostles regarding an earthly physical kingdom, you mean to tell me that all of that is has been negated?" "Well, yeah, you see, because of your unbelief, your ancestors' unbelief, all of those promises were canceled, and all of those kingdom promises were now given to the church." "Oh, really, so, in other words, when God called us his elect and his chosen people, he really didn't mean that?" "Well, he did then, but later on he didn't, because..." You see the problems you start getting into? "So you mean to tell me that a sovereign God, who knows all things, who orchestrates the events of history from the very beginning to the end, who wrote the holy sacred scriptures in the Old Testament, who used language to tell all of us, not only in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament, that you Christians believe, you mean to tell me that that sovereign God knew all along that he was really not meaning what he said, that he was going to change his mind, and he led us to believe all of this about an earthly kingdom, but he didn't really mean what he said? My, I want nothing to do with your God, with your gospel. Thank you, have a nice day."

Beloved, that is not the truth of scripture. We can say to the Jew, the Lord Jesus Christ was your Messiah, and we can explain to him the glorious meaning of a spiritual kingdom that is ultimately going to find its fulfillment in an earthly kingdom, because Jesus is coming again, and he will make good on his promises, because our God is sovereign, and he is faithful to his word. God is not finished with Israel. Beloved, be very careful. Do not manipulate the scriptures to avoid the obvious. There is no compelling reason to spiritualize the prophetic literature concerning the millennial kingdom, delineated in great detail in many texts, especially in Revelation chapter 20. Our sovereign and holy God was not disingenuous. He is not disingenuous. He is faithful. He did not say one thing in normal language, and mean something totally different. There will be a glorious future kingdom that will fulfill all of the Abrahamic and Davidic and New Covenant promises of the Old Testament. And, dear friends, please hear this: all of God's people in the Old Testament, all of his people in the church age, all of his people in the tribulation will enjoy the magnificent blessings of the earthly kingdom.

So, here in Acts chapter one, in verses one through 11, we see the resurrected Savior presenting himself to those who would continue the work of the spiritual kingdom, and of course, it was essential for him to remind them of these magnificent, glorious truths of the promised earthly kingdom, bolstering their confidence in his faithfulness. He wanted them certainly to see him not merely as the innocent lamb, but also as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the exalted King of Glory.

So we see his preparation and his presentation as he presented himself physically as Savior and King, but thirdly his promise - his future promise - and they're really twofold. First of all, to empower his church, and secondly to return as the King of kings. Notice what he says in verses four and five, "Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, 'Which,' He said, 'you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.'" You see friends, even as the Lord himself needed the enabling power of the Spirit of God to conduct his earthly ministry - and you will recall that he received that at the moment of his baptism, right, you remember that, how the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove, remember that when Jesus was baptized? Likewise, the apostles, and all of those who would follow in the church age, all of us would need the Holy Spirit.

Now, prior to this, you must understand that the Holy Spirit's power functions in a different way. As we try to understand some of the nuances, and some of the other passages of scripture in the Old Testament, as well as in contrast to the New, we can look back and see that the Holy Spirit worked in terms of regenerating people prior to Pentecost, bringing them to salvation, and occasionally filling them for special works of ministry. You might say that the Holy Spirit would abide upon people from time to time, but he did not permanently indwell them. But now he would at Pentecost, and this, of course, is impartial fulfillment of his promises to Israel concerning the new covenant, of which all of the saints would enjoy. We read some of this, for example, in Ezekiel 36 verses 26 and 27 He says, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh, and I will put My spirit within you."

Now, if I can digress again for a moment, all believers receive the indwelling Spirit of God at the moment of salvation. We are all immediately, when we are saved, placed into the body of Christ, First Corinthians 12:13 tells us. In fact, we can read in Romans chapter eight and verse nine, that if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. And later on I will get into the issues of second blessing, and some of these errors that you hear taught in charismatic and Pentecostal circles, but I want you to understand that even though we receive the indwelling Spirit of God at the moment of salvation, when we rebel against the Spirit by not walking with Him, by not surrendering our lives to the Spirit of God as he has revealed himself in his word, we grieve the Spirit, and eventually we quench the Spirit, and we cut off our spiritual power. When we do that, our spiritual gifts become useless for ministry. When we grieve and quench the spirit, our desire to serve disappears, the joy of fellowship vanishes. Our songs of redemption are silenced, and gradually, almost imperceptibly, our testimony and our ability to witness for the Lord Jesus Christ gives way to worldliness. Child of God, we need to rejoice in the magnificent gift of the indwelling Spirit, that by him we can be strengthened with power in our inner man, as Paul prayed in Ephesians three, so that indeed He will empower us to be able to do "exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within you."

 So Jesus promised that they would soon be baptized with the Holy Spirit, not many days from now, and I want you to notice he told them to wait for it in verse four. I want you to notice what he did not say. He did not say, "I want you to pray for it." He did not say, "I want you to seek it through some special means." He simply said, "Wait," and we know grammatically that the verb "be baptized" is in the passive voice, indicating that this baptism is wholly a work of God, not of man, just like salvation. We see this, for example, in Paul's words to Titus, in Titus three, beginning in verse five, there we read, "He saved us not on the basis of these which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior." But what's fascinating is not only did Jesus promise to empower them by the indwelling Spirit of God, but also, secondly, to return physically; ultimately to restore the kingdom to Israel.

Notice verse six, "So when they had come together, they were asking him, saying, 'Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?'" In other words, is it at this time you're going to establish your earthly reign? See, keep in mind this was what was on their mind, and might I also remind you that they undoubtedly remembered many of the Old Testament prophecies where God linked a special outpouring of the Spirit of God upon his chosen people with the establishment of his glorious earthly kingdom. We've already read about some of those in Ezekiel and Jeremiah, so this was a perfectly valid question. Now want you to notice something here in verse seven. Notice how Jesus answered their question, "Lord, is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" in verse six, notice what he said. "No, the church has replaced Israel." He said, "No, I canceled my promises to Israel and given them to you, who are a more deserving people. There will be no future reign, there will be no glorious kingdom on earth. In fact, you are now living in the kingdom, because it is exclusively and permanently a spiritual kingdom." That's what he said there in verse seven, right? Obviously, he did not say that. He merely said to them, "'It is not for you to know times or epochs." Times - "kairos" - in other words, it's not for you to know the precise moment when that is going to occur, or the "epochs," meaning the events, the characteristics, or aspects of a specific era or season of the redemptive plan. That is not for you to know which the Father has fixed by his own authority. Instead, he focuses them on something else.

Notice, Jesus does not deny that the kingdom will occur, but he simply said to them, it is not for you to know the specifics, not for you to know the time of the event. In fact, Jesus said in Mark 13:32 that only the Father knows the specific time. It's almost as if he's saying, 'Look, guys, get that off your mind here. There's something that is very, very important for you to understand here. I want you to be ready. I want you to be vigilant. Rather than telling you about the specifics of the coming kingdom, I want to redirect you to the issue at hand."

Verse eight, "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth." In other words, I am going to give you power through the indwelling Spirit of God to carry on the work that I have begun to preach the gospel to the whole world.

Now, what a magnificent promise this must have been to them in that day, and frankly, to all of us; to empower us with the spirit of God that lives within us, and also a promise to return. Notice what he says in verse nine through 11, "And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into the sky, while He was departing, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them." Undoubtedly, these were angels. And they said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched him go into heaven." In other words, don't be so blue, don't be so shocked. You know what? The kingdom's coming, the earthly, it's coming, he's going to come back. But right now, what you need to be concerned with is waiting for the Holy Spirit, because you've got a job to do, and you've got to do that in this church age until the times of the Gentiles is fulfilled, and indeed Jesus will return just as he ascended. How did he ascend physically in a glorified body? And from where did he ascend? From the Mount of Olives, and even as the angels promised, he will come again just in the same way, and we read of this in numerous passages, especially in Zechariah 14 verse 14, "And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south," and on the prophecy goes describing the second coming of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords to establish his earthly kingdom, even as he has promised.

O child of God, I just pray that these amazing truths and these remarkable promises will stir each of our hearts and cause us to live for his glory and to serve the one who deserves our utmost. Let's pray together,

Father, as always, we are moved when we read your word, and we are amazed that not only have you revealed these truths to us, but you have the power to orchestrate all of the events in history to accomplish that which you have decreed. Lord, thank you that you are a faithful God, and I pray that each of us will live lives that express the joy of our heart, knowing that we have been redeemed by the blood of the lamb and not by our own merit. And Lord, may we look forward to that time when you come and snatch away your bride, the church; when you take us unto yourself, and then during that time when you pour out your wrath upon the earth during the age of the tribulation, and you finish your judgment promises, even to Israel, and then ultimately save them, and then, Lord, when we return with you at your second coming to observe the establishment of your glorious kingdom, Lord, may all of these truths ignite our hearts to serve you and to search the scriptures, that we might be exhilarated with these fascinating and blessed truths. Thank you for meeting with us in Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.