Witness, Stand!  Message 8.17.2014 from Plymouth Congregational Church in Racine, WI (text version)

Unless you’re Rip Van Winkle, have been living under a rock, been in solitary confinement, or been in a coma during the last week, chances are really good that you heard that Robin Williams died.  It’s been everywhere: tributes, wall-to-wall news coverage on CRWNN (The Cable Robin Williams News Network), newspapers, social media.  It’s been everywhere.  In fact, the coverage has even eclipsed the fact that the world is falling apart at home and abroad.  Everyone, it seems, has a story to tell about Robin Williams and what he meant to them.

Just to make sure there’s no mistake about what I’m saying: Robin Williams was a comedic genius, a kind-hearted person, a loving friend, and a philanthropic man.  His suicide is a tragedy to be sure.  It is not his death per se that I want to focus on today, but rather the national reaction to it that I find nothing short of profound.  Particularly in light of the one major point of today’s message that I’ve entitled, Witness, Stand!

What is that one point of Witness, Stand!?  It’s that witness and worship are interconnected.  What we find ourselves talking about, witnessing to, recounting stories of…speak volumes about what and who we worship.  Witness and worship are interconnected.

In the days following Robin Williams’ death, we heard graphic details of the scene, every friend he ever had appeared on the news to witness to who he was and what he did, their favorite memories of times together and the difference Robin Williams made in their lives.  People who didn’t know him yet heard about him or knew of him through movies and late night shows all had stories to tell and wanted to be part of the ongoing celebration of his life.  They were witnessing to Robin Williams.  Some even took photos of themselves standing on their desks, putting themselves in the story book of Dead Poet’s Society and remembering Todd Anderson’s witness to Robin Williams as O Captain My Captain!  The picture on the front of today’s bulletin.

Of all the items of witness, there is one item that is missing.  One question that is going unasked and unanswered.  One elephant in the room no one is talking about.  One mystery unresolved.  One question no one wants to touch.  One idea that hangs heavy in the air and remains in the hushed breath.  One thought that we are all dancing carefully around to avoid disturbing:     the question of “Where is Robin Williams now?”

We’ve been hearing nothing but witness 24/7. All of this witness and yet no witness I’ve heard to worship of anything larger than Robin Williams.  What a comfort it would have been to his family to know that while suicide is devastating, not even that–not even death from suicide– can separate someone from the love of God in Christ Jesus—that He has shown to those of us who believe.  What a comfort it would have been to his family and his friends to know that faith in Jesus Christ meant eternal life for Robin Williams and encore performances, laughter and smiles forever, instead of just a final curtain call with a strange silence of one hand clapping.  In all the witness and tributes and celebration of life and fame, I have yet to hear one word of witness to what would make the question of “Where is Robin Williams now?” less disconcerting.

In our Old Testament passage from today, Joshua 24:13-24, the people of Israel took a stand (for a while at least) saying they were witnesses and they’d serve the Lord.  Witness is meant to be something we take a stand on…not something we hide under a bowl.  Witness is visible.  Witness is audible.  Witness is public proclamation of what you believe, what you know and what you saw.  In a court of law, the fate of others, the outcome of judgment is based upon witness testimony.

Witness, Stand!  That’s what we could glean from today’s passage:

Acts 1: 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

We can stand as witnesses to what Jesus has done for us and no one can take that away.

If you’ve been with us over the past couple of weeks (or have been listening online at our new website  Http://PlymouthChurchRacine.com) you know we’ve been working our way through the book of Acts.  The first week we heard that the Holy Spirit is a gift worth waiting for and last week, we interrupted Jesus’ thought mid-stream as he was chastising the disciples to get out of the Ruts, give up the Old Tapes, and stop relying upon our understanding of the End Times.  Jesus was about to do a whole new thing and He wanted to make sure we understood that the Crucifixion and Resurrection proved the pivot point of all history so that now because of the Holy Spirit coming, we’d be empowered for worship and witness in a whole new way.   Because witness and worship are interconnected.

Acts 1:6 So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

As followers of Jesus Christ, you and I are supposed to be witnesses, to take a stand for what Jesus Christ has done in our lives.  With the Holy Spirit pumping spiritual iron in our souls, we have all the power needed to do it.  It’s easier to witness to the difference Robin Williams made in our lives than it is to witness to what Jesus did.  Not because Robin Williams has done more, but because it’s easy.  No one will look at you sideways or stop inviting you to parties if you share your connection with Robin Williams.  Arguably, you’ll get invited to more if you have less than a 7 degree of separation with him and knew him personally.

Witness isn’t always easy though.  Here’s something else that happened this week.  In a strange sense of media selectivity, while Robin Williams took a last stand for celebrity, the Yazidis and the Christians in Iraq were taking a stand, too.  They were refusing to convert to Islam and instead were taking a stand on what and who they worship.  What they believed was so important to them and the threats against them were so real that they had to flee!

Who are these Yazidis?  Yazidis pray to Melek Ta’us (Tawûsê Melek), the archangel who didn’t bow down to worship Adam, served time in hell and repented, and is worshiped as an angel, the Peacock Angel.  Given the way he fell from God, the Islamic name for Melek Ta’us is “shaytan,” which is the Arabic word for the devil and a close relative of the Hebrew word (ha-)satan or Satan in English.  This idea of devil worship is among the reasons the Yazidis are being targeted by the militant Islamic State group.  So, up on the mountain in Iraq—while the US is giving testimony to Robin Williams’ difference in our lives—up on the mountain we have Yazidis who worship a fallen angel at best, the devil at worst…and we have Christians witnessing to their worship of God and paying the price for being Nazarenes (i.e. Christians).  Both Yazidis and Christians are being systematically targeted for extermination because of their religious beliefs…both groups seen and judged as being infidels  by militant ISIS members.  Yet, they witness because witness and worship are interconnected.  Witness speaks to who we love and what we worship.

Going back to our passage of Scripture today, Jesus says we’ll have all the power in the universe—Holy Spirit power–to be witnesses in our culture.  To take a stand for Jesus.  To say we love Him.  To talk about the difference He’s made in our lives.  Each of us has a circle of influence that begins with our Jerusalem and ends at the farthest reaches of the earth.  The Internet means that we don’t even need to leave our living rooms to touch people a world away.  But will we witness?

Witnessing doesn’t need to be walking up to total strangers and saying “Do you know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior?  If not, you’re going to hell.”  Witnessing is what we did with Robin Williams.  It’s saying what he meant to us.  Witnessing to Jesus’  impact on our lives doesn’t need to be any more complicated than being a good listener and when someone is talking about a struggle, finding a way to say, “I don’t pretend to know what you’re going through, but the Bible tells me that Jesus knows what you’re going through.  I can point you to Him and tell you that He’s made a difference in my life.  I can pray for you!  You need comfort?  He’s the comforter!  You need wisdom?  He’s got it all!”

Back to our passage: “you will be my witnesses.”  Notice Jesus didn’t say we’d be His theologians all the way to the ends of the earth.  He didn’t say we’d be His apologists, His scientists, His philosophers, His media consultants, or His lawyers.  Witnesses don’t have to do that kind of work.  All we need to do is to tell our story.  Dumping the whole gospel dump truck on people scares the socks off of most of us, including the one getting dumped on.  But telling our story, witnessing to meeting the Love of our life, Jesus Christ, our Rescuer, the Comforter, the One who provides jobs and healing and friends with encouraging words, the One who answers our prayers, befriends us in our deepest depression and gave our lives meaning—this is a story people will listen to.  It’s real and it’s personal.  And no one can take it away from you.  Even in an age of relative truth, no one can deny your story and what it means to you.

So, will you respond to the command of “Witness, Stand!” by telling one person your story this week?

I’d like for you to turn on your biblical imagination for a moment.  I don’t do this often, but for the moment I want for you to imagine that you woke up last Friday morning really early and Jesus told you to stand on the corner of College and 12^the Street here in Racine at 11:32 am.  Don’t be late, He said.  Then He told you that the winning Powerball ticket was going to be blowing on the wind up from Illinois and He was going to give you the sudden ability to jump up and pluck it out of the air because He wanted you to bless others with the money that you’ll win.  So you think maybe this is all in your mind and maybe pretty stupid, but if it’s real….well, what’s the harm in trying?

So you’re there on the corner right on time and sure enough, here it comes, floating on the wind….kind of like that feather in Forrest Gump.  You hear a voice behind you saying, on the count of three….Jump.   One.  Two.  Three.  Jump!  And so you do.  You look like LeBron James and leap 5 feet into the air, the Powerball ticket firmly in grasp and then you land comfortably on both feet, not even winded.  You tune in to watch the Lottery and sure enough, you’re the mega million super-duper trillion dollar winner!

How many of you would keep it completely quiet, even from all your family?  How many of you would call someone you know or tell someone at home what bizarre thing just happened to you?  Heck, how many of you would call family to tell them that you jumped and didn’t hurt yourself! Can you believe it?  I haven’t jumped in years!

Most of us probably couldn’t keep ourselves from telling all kinds of people what happened.  And seriously, in the scope of eternity, what matters more?  Jesus’ sacrifice paying for your sins, total forgiveness, and giving you access to our loving God for all eternity, or Powerball tickets, and Robin Williams and other comforts of this world?  How many of those can we take with us when we die?  We talk about what excites us, what moves us, who we love, and what matters to us.  Our witness is interconnected to our worship.  So this week, here’s your homework:  Be a listener to someone who doesn’t know Jesus.  Take time to be a witness, to take a stand, in your own little corner of the world with people you know.  Don’t let a day go by without giving your friends and your family the knowledge and the comfort of knowing where you stood.  For the world, the whereabouts of Robin Williams may be a mystery, but with you and with me, it doesn’t need to be.  Witness and worship are interconnected.  So, Witness, Stand!

* * *

Scripture Readings 8.17.2014 referred to in today’s message

Joshua 24: 13 So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.’ 14 “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” 16 Then the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods! 17 It was the LORD our God himself who brought us and our fathers up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. 18 And the LORD drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the LORD, because he is our God.” 19 Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the LORD. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. 20 If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.” 21 But the people said to Joshua, “No! We will serve the LORD.” 22 Then Joshua said, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the LORD.” “Yes, we are witnesses,” they replied. 23 “Now then,” said Joshua, “throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel.” 24 And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the LORD our God and obey him.

Acts 1:6 So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Witness, Stand!  This is what Christians are supposed to do.  This message was first given by Barbara Shafer at Plymouth Congregational Church of Racine, WI on August 17, 2014.  The sermon text is from Acts 1:8.

Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

You can click this link to hear the message:

Witness, Stand! Message from Plymouth Congregational Church on August 17, 2014

Thank You, Father, that You comfort us and have not left us alone, face-down and despairing, in the ruts of life.  We ask Your forgiveness for the ways we have embraced old tapes instead of listening to You.  Forgive us for readily listening to the world or to the evil one or anything else that seeks our destruction and failure. Forgive us for trip hazards we ponder and dwell on instead of attempting to remove and especially, Lord, forgive us for any stumbling blocks we put in each other’s way.

We ask, Lord Jesus that You would instruct us about the Kingdom of God and You would show us where we go astray in our understanding.  Holy Spirit, guide us and teach us; make known to us everything we need in order to do the will of God, just as Scripture promises You do.  Help us, Lord, to be on the lookout for Your work in our midst and give us encouragement to embrace new things and new ways even if they’re uncomfortable for us.  We ask, Jesus, that Your presence would go with us and we would find joy in quiet times with You.  Thank you for the gift of prayer.  We thank You that Your burden is light and Your yoke is easy.

We praise You for how You choose to use Your people to build Your Church.  May we always be prayerful.  May we always be faithful.  May this always be to Your glory.  We ask, Lord, for visible fruit for our efforts to serve You.  Keep the evil one far from us as we draw closer to You.  Protect us by the power of Your Holy Spirit.  Grant us love for one another and unity in the Body of Christ.  May we witness to the world that we belong to You, Lord Jesus.  Be glorified this day.  Amen.

Ruts, Old Tapes, and End Times  This is the sermon text version of the message first preached at Plymouth Congregational Church of Racine on August 10, 2014

Have you ever had the experience of trying to remember something and an answer comes to mind that is close-but-no-cigar and suddenly that’s the only answer you can think of—even though you know it’s wrong?  Your mind gets in a mental rut and you can’t think of any other answer, usually until around 2 o’clock in the morning when you wake up and remember the answer but you seem to have forgotten what the question was?

Ruts can be problematic for each of us, Christian or not.  The disciples—the 11 remaining since Judas was dead—had just heard Jesus command “Don’t Leave, but Wait!” and should have been experiencing the Woo-hoo of anticipation!  But they were in a rut.

Today, mindful that it is Communion Sunday, we will take a brief look at the totally new thing Jesus was doing and three dangers that might impede our ability to see the new things Jesus has in mind.

What are these 3 dangers?  Ruts.  Old Tapes.  And a preoccupation with the End Times.  Getting stuck in any one of those acts like the molasses swamp in Candy Land where you’re stuck there and can’t get out until the red card is drawn and it never seemed to arise.  Stuck.  No way of getting out.

Ruts.  Old Tapes.  End Times, 3 trip hazards or pitfalls in the progress of the Church and Jesus had to deal with the disciples on this before the Church even got started.

To set the stage, Jesus has just finished with commanding “Don’t leave but wait!  The Holy Spirit is the gift worth waiting for…” and you’d expect the disciples to break into a happy dance or at least be on the lookout for this gift all the while asking, “Are we there yet?”

Nope.  What do the disciples do?

Acts 1:6 So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.

This is a rebuke and the 1^st century Jesus version of a face-palm.  These disciples—Jesus must have wondered, are they really reliable enough to get the Church going??  If I’d been Jesus, which clearly I’m not, I would have asked the Father to revisit whether this plan was really the best we could do.  Entrusting the growth of the Kingdom and the fate of the entire church to such a group of closed-minded people who weren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer.  Jesus talks about the Kingdom OF God and these disciples are still there asking about the Kingdom TO Israel.  Arrgh!

And yet, in some odd way…because the Holy Spirit was coming…we ARE God’s best plan for growing the Church even though we have ruts and old tapes and end times preoccupations that are not unlike that of the disciples.

What might be some of our Ruts?  Do any of these fit?

• We’ve ALWAYS done it THIS way.
• Oh, we tried that way back when and it didn’t work.
• So and so used to do this, but now we don’t have anyone to do this anymore.  No one can do it like So-and-so did.

A few years back—when I was in seminary actually—we were asked to read some things to provoke theological thinking.  One of those items was The Revelations of Divine Love — a 14th-century book of devotions written by Christian mystic Julian of Norwich. She had sixteen mystical visions called “Shewings” and in those, she contemplated universal love of God for mankind and tried to communicate hope in a time of plague, religious schism, uprisings and war, times—interestingly—not unlike ours. Published in 1395, it is the first published book in the English language to be written by a woman.  Which of course, that all by itself made many of my classmates throw up their hands in utter disgust and then point their fingers at the few women in the class and say, “See?  This is why women shouldn’t do theology!”  Their ruts were well-formed.

I disagreed with much of what Julian of Norwich wrote, but there is one image she painted that has stuck with me:  It is the image of a Servant and she writes, “Which sight was shewed doubly in the Lord and doubly in the Servant: the one part was shewed spiritually in bodily likeness, and the other part was shewed more spiritually, without bodily likeness.”

She continues to describe the Lord as both Father and Son…and the Servant as both Adam and the Second Adam Jesus.  The Servant Adam is sent to do the Lord’s will and she writes,

“The Servant not only he goeth, but suddenly he starteth, and runneth in great haste, for love to do his Lord’s will. And anon he falleth into a slade, and taketh full great hurt.”  (A slade is a rut.  And this Servant, the first Adam could not get out.  He was facedown and stuck.  Julian continues), “then he groaneth and moaneth and waileth, and struggleth, but he neither may rise nor him himself by no manner or way.”

In her vision she understood that he felt pain and heaviness of body, feebleness, blindness in reasoning, stunned by the fall enough to almost forget his own love.  He was stuck, he could not get out and the two things that concluded her assessment of this Servant’s situation was that “he lay all alone and it was a long, hard, grievous place”.

Anyway, the point of this is that the rut is a problem.  It required Jesus entering into humanity’s rut and the love of God working a miracle at the Cross for us to experience a return to the loving presence of the Father.  Julian reflected up on the plight of man writing, “Of all this most mischief that I saw him in, was failing of comfort: for he could not turn his face to look upon his loving Lord which was to him full near, –in Whom is full comfort;–but as a man that was feeble and unwise for the time, he turned his mind to his feeling and endured in woe.”

The idea that we’re in a rut, facedown, and cannot even look to see the face of our loving Lord, our loving Father in Whom we can know all comfort, that rut is a very clear image of where people are at—even today!

The disciples were in a rut.  They didn’t quite get it that Jesus was about to ascend to heaven and that the great gift of the Holy Spirit was going to be His ongoing presence with them in a whole new way.  They didn’t quite get that there was a parenthesis of time between the Resurrection/Ascension and the time of Jesus’ return.  To them, Jesus was back.  He rose from the dead.  There was a new sheriff in town and He was going to do exactly what their old tapes said He’s supposed to do.  The same thing that the Old Tapes before the Crucifixion were suggesting.  Political overthrow.  Kingdom establishment and the Vindication of Israel.  Old Tapes on perpetual repeat.

It was like a skipping record.  Old Tapes, ruts of thinking that said the Crucifixion and Resurrection were just unnecessary blips between what the Old Tapes said about restoring the Kingdom and restoring the Kingdom and restoring the Kingdom and restoring the Kingdom…

Jesus wanted for them to understand that the Old Tapes needed to go because it wasn’t about Restoring an old sinful Kingdom.  It was going to be a whole new thing!  Their confidence must be transferred away from sinful humanity’s solutions of politics and overthrow….and instead, to place their total confidence in what God has done through Jesus.

What are our Old Tapes that undermine our confidence?  Maybe something from your childhood like

• Why can’t you be like your sister, your brother, the neighbor’s child or the perfect kid from school?
• Why can’t you do better at math, science, writing, praying, going to Bible study, being better behaved?

Or maybe from your current experience?

• You tried that before.  Remember how you failed.
• You’re too old to do that.
• Women don’t…men don’t….
• You have no power against a culture that’s plowing ahead and face it: you’re stuck back in the 1950s.
• Or how about this Old Tape:

God let you down before.  He’ll let you down now.

Jesus says to throw away all those Old Tapes!  Anything that undermines your confidence in Him and Him alone.  Anything that says you can save yourself.  Throw it out.

Ruts and Old Tapes are dangerous indeed, to the growth of the Church!  But there’s also the danger, the trip hazard, the pitfall of focusing on the End Times.  You see, the disciples were so focused on what happens at the end of time that they failed to realize that they were just embarking upon the nearly 2000 year window of the Church that you and I can see has already constituted “the last days.”

There’s a lot of work that has been done in spreading the Gospel from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria and to the ends of the earth in the past centuries.  And there’s more work to do before He returns.

By focusing on the End Times and relying upon our Old Tapes and Ruts of theology we can act as though we’ve got all the answers and now we just wait for Jesus to come surfing in on the clouds.

I’ve actually been in a bit of a theological discussion with a Christian brother on the Internet.  His focus on the end times—ignoring the interim time frame—and his self-assurance of knowing how God saves people means that evangelism becomes completely unnecessary.  To people like him, God has elected some for salvation and some for damnation and there’s nothing that can be done to save the damned.  Therefore the days of the elect are devoted to thinking “Praise God I’m saved! And now I’ll just sit on my hands until the angels sing and Jesus tells me all the reasons why He chose…ME!”… like it was a divine basketball team and Jesus and Satan were picking sides for the big game at the end of time.

This is the outcome of ignoring that there’s window of time in which God is building the Church—it’s not over yet!  The Kingdom is still advancing and He’s using regular people do to it…by sharing the Good News.

Pitfalls, trip-hazards exist!  We have ruts, old tapes and end times.  Worse yet, our culture exploits those and increasingly finds ways of turning Christians inside out.

What used to be private: sex lives and sins and nasty thoughts toward one another are suddenly becoming public consumption.  We see Sex, Lies and Video Tapes all over the media.  People use Twitter and Facebook to say nasty things they would never say in person.  Private thoughts become public consumption with a virtual distance/anonymity to give us the illusion of covering our shame.

And yet, what used to be PUBLIC—our religious beliefs—after all there was a time that the church building was the center of every town.  Town meetings were held there…why??  Because it was the only space big enough to hold a whole town because for people of that day, religion was a public thing.  What used to be PUBLIC we’re now increasingly told must remain private.  Irrespective of what you think of these individual items, let’s just note that in aggregate they are serving to privatize the Christian faith.  No Nativity Scenes or Christmas trees in the public square.  No proselytizing about Jesus.  No 10 Commandments anywhere.  No Christian references in public schools.  No education about why freedom of religion was authored to protect the citizenry—not to silence us.

Now we have nothing but equal time for everyone in our culture because everything is *relatively* true…for someone…and the rut of thinking that is being well-formed by our culture is that you’re a bigot—and an ignorant backward person too—if you say anything about Jesus’ being THE ONLY WAY.  Culture says to keep your opinions to yourself.  Privatize your religion, the culture shouts!  It’s been banished from the public square to the closed doors of one’s bedside as if Christianity ought to be a sign of shame.  Fear of being ostracized is a huge rut and danger to the growth of the Kingdom.

We must be willing to dispense with Ruts, Old Tapes, and End Times.  We must place our confidence in Christ and be willing to engage with our culture while there is yet time.  Jesus says that Acts 1:7 “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.”

Until then, there’s work to be done and if we’ll just get rid of Ruts, Old Tapes and End Times preoccupations…and place our total confidence in Jesus Christ, we’re just the disciples to do it!  Amen?  Let’s pray.

Ruts, Old Tapes, and End Times represent 3 dangers, trip hazards, or pitfalls to the growth of the Church.  This message was first given by Barbara Shafer at Plymouth Congregational Church of Racine, WI on August 10, 2014.  The sermon text is from Acts 1:6-7.

Acts 1:6 So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.

You can click this link to hear the message:

The Scripture reading from the morning referenced in the content is from

Daniel 7:13 “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. 15 “I, Daniel, was troubled in spirit, and the visions that passed through my mind disturbed me. 16 I approached one of those standing there and asked him the true meaning of all this. “So he told me and gave me the interpretation of these things: 17 ‘The four great beasts are four kingdoms that will rise from the earth. 18 But the saints of the Most High will receive the kingdom and will possess it forever– yes, for ever and ever.’ 19 “Then I wanted to know the true meaning of the fourth beast, which was different from all the others and most terrifying, with its iron teeth and bronze claws– the beast that crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. 20 I also wanted to know about the ten horns on its head and about the other horn that came up, before which three of them fell– the horn that looked more imposing than the others and that had eyes and a mouth that spoke boastfully. 21 As I watched, this horn was waging war against the saints and defeating them, 22 until the Ancient of Days came and pronounced judgment in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came when they possessed the kingdom.

This is our weekly Revival Prayer (week 1).

Lord, we honor You as God—as the One who is the First and the Last, the Living One; You were dead, and now You are alive for ever and ever! You hold the keys of death and Hades. You are the Head of the Church, your bride.  You are the Word of Truth and possess all wisdom.

All of your people sin every day, yet Father, You love us and gave Your Son for us so that we might have eternal life with You.  We thank You for forgiveness of sin.  We thank You for allowing us to share in the work You are doing.  We thank You for the Holy Spirit and for the mysterious way He dwells in all who believe in Your Name and trust Jesus died as payment for our sins.  We thank You for the way You draw people to Yourself.

We ask, LORD, that if anyone is near today who doesn’t know You as God, that they would be bold and seek out someone here—in the comfort of family—who can tell them of the Way.  We thank You that the Kingdom of God is advancing and growing and for the way You delight in using Plymouth Church to do our part.  We thank You that Your Holy Spirit is the gift worth waiting for.  We thank You for the way He lives in us to teach us, to guide us, to remind us of how good You have been to us.  Grant us wisdom, courage, joy, and patience as we look for Your return.  May we be found faithful, Lord Jesus. Amen.

Ours is not a culture that likes to wait.  For anything really.  We aren’t satisfied with 3-5 days of mailing time for bills so we do online payments.  Letters?  A thing of the past.  Email—for better and oftentimes for worse—is instant.  We aren’t satisfied with the old stove-top Jiffy Pop that takes 3-5 minutes of preheating and another 5 minutes to pop up to look like a tinfoil turban.  All the while it needed our constant attention and activity to keep it from burning.  No, we need popcorn that pops quickly even while making its own bowl to save us time, and cleanup!  Now, it takes 2.5 to 3 minutes to pop and requires no effort from us at all and yet we stand in front of the microwave looking at the clock urging, “Come on!!!!”

We do it with popcorn and coffee makers, even the ones where we only have to wait for 1 cup at a time.  3 minutes is the new 15 in an instant age.  As Americans, we resist waiting in grocery store or pharmacy lines.  We hate waiting in traffic like the kid in the car commercial who is invited to imagine driving and ends up thinking of nothing but errands and waiting in traffic saying, “Move it; You’re killing me.”  We can’t wait until we’re 16, or 21, and many definitely don’t want to wait until they’re married.  But some things are ABSOLUTELY worth waiting for.

Worth Waiting For…for today and also way back when the Church was just getting started.

Today, we’re going to look at the Book of Acts, something that’s often called the Acts of the Apostles and rightfully seen as the Acts of the Holy Spirit, but we’re going to look at it as Acts of the Holy Spirit and the Apostles because the 2 go hand-in-hand as God introduces His Holy Spirit and ushers in the spread of the Good News.  It takes both an act of God and the privileged participation by obedient man.  That’s what the initial church needed to grow and it’s what we need today:  Growth.  REVIVAL as an act of God and our privilege.  The Book of Acts tells us how to do it.  God’s game plan as it were.

Acts has the unique role in the NT of being a bridge between the Gospels (Mt, Mk, Luke and John) and the letters to the churches that form most of the rest of the NT and all the letters Paul wrote.  Acts is unique as a bridge.

But it also forms kind of like an organizing structure, kind of like one of those over the door shoe racks that allows us to match left and right shoes.  On one side it tells of the missionary journeys of Paul as he begins to share the Gospel—by God’s commission—to the Gentile world.  But it also forms a link to the letters Paul would then write to the churches as the church goes from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria and to the ends of the earth. We can match journey and letter to form a visual pair. It’s kind of like a subject index in that way, too.

I’d argue that in the opening verses of Acts 1, we see the key to unlocking the rest of the book.  That key is the Holy Spirit.  Jesus says to wait for Him.  He’s worth waiting for.

The author of Acts is widely considered to be the Gospel writer Luke since both this book and the Gospel according to Luke are addressed to the most excellent Theophilus.  While the name means “one who loves God” most scholars think this is an actual person as Theophilus was a name not uncommon at the time of the writing of this which was around 30 years after the death of Christ.  The thing I want you to remember though, is that Luke, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit writes an orderly account of Christ’s life in the Gospel and of the Church’s birth and grown in Acts.  The Holy Spirit breathed complete truth into both books and in these opening verses of Acts we see 3 really good reasons why the Holy Spirit is worth waiting for:

1.  The Father promised Him
2. Jesus taught Him
3. John the Baptist foretold Him

Let me just interrupt the line of thought here for a moment before we look into the Scriptures to say that I believe the Holy Spirit is the best kept secret of evangelical Christianity. 

Back in the day when I used to sing the doxology at church but didn’t really know Jesus at all…I was a pew sitter not really a full-fledged Christian at the time…I remember thinking “Praise Father Son and Holy Ghost” and thinking…I don’t really believe in ghosts.  The Holy Spirit isn’t a ghost like Casper or ghost-busters.  He’s called the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, Advocate, Counsellor, and yes, the Holy Ghost because He doesn’t have a body.  He’s Spirit…which is very helpful and we’ll get to that in the next couple of weeks.  But for now, we don’t need to treat Him like He’s the crazy uncle of the Trinity where we put Him in a corner and hope He doesn’t say too much.  His arrival is the greatest thing to happen to mankind since Jesus rose from the dead because:

1. The Father promised Him
2. Jesus taught Him
3. John the Baptist foretold Him

Open our eyes, Father to the truth contained in Your Word.  Help me to speak only as I should, Lord Jesus.

Acts 1:1 In my former book, Theophilus,

If you’ve been listening, you know that’s the Gospel of Luke.

 I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach

Notice it says Jesus began…began to do, began to teach…which implies that He’s not finished yet with teaching us.

2 until the day he was taken up to heaven,

He began to do and teach until He went to heaven.  Well, it makes it a little hard to teach us from heaven, so Jesus didn’t plan on leaving us without Himself for very long.

2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.

Do you see?  The Holy Spirit was already at work, communicating Jesus’ instructions to the disciples Jesus had chosen. Jesus’ succession plan was already in effect.  Before Jesus ever left, His Holy Spirit was already on the job.  So Jesus was teaching the disciples and then…

3 After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.

Perhaps this is a good time to address the issue of Christianity being for mind-numbed ignorant people who have a blind and irrational adherence to some old irrelevant book.  People who need a CRUTCH.

Do you see that Jesus showed Himself?  That’s physical evidence.  He gave many convincing proofs that He was alive.  That’s appealing to the rational thought processes.  Empirical evidence.  Hard facts.  Not just once, mind you, but over a period of 40 days.  Time enough for questions and answers.  Time enough to form a habit of thinking deeply and rationally.  Time enough for the emotions traumatized by the Crucifixion and Resurrection to settle.  Time enough for any flights of fancy to have taken wing and gone south.  God doesn’t ask that we believe on blind faith.  No.  Jesus gave evidence and spoke about the Kingdom of God for forty days.

4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

 In one simple command of “Don’t leave, but wait,” Jesus outlines the three reasons the gift is worth waiting for: The Father promised it. Jesus spoke of it.  John the Baptist foretold it.

Let’s take a short look at each of those before we conclude.  Why is the gift worth waiting for?

The Father promised it.  In numerous Scriptures and on numerous occasions actually. Isa 32:15. 44:3, Jeremiah 31:33-34,

• Ezekiel 36:26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
• Joel 2:28 ‘And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. 29 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

The Father promised it and God is always good for what He promises.  Worth waiting for to be sure!

Jesus spoke of it…to show that the Father’s promise was nothing new.  Jesus’s teaching about the Holy Spirit, though, added a new personal dimension.

• This gift worth waiting for would be Jesus’ ongoing presence!  John 14:15 “If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever– 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
• This gift worth waiting for would bring the ability and the divine necessity to testify about Jesus.  John 15:26 “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. 27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.
• This gift worth waiting for would be Jesus’ way of imparting wisdom and power—originally confined to the Godhead would now be ours by way of this gift!  John 16:15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.

If it weren’t enough that the Father promised it which makes it a done deal, and that Jesus spoke of it which makes it right and true, we also get a beautiful explanation in that John the Baptist foretold it.

• Luke 3:16 John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

The Holy Spirit is a gift from God, promised by the Father, spoken about by Jesus Christ, and foretold by John the Baptist.

This 3-fold witness underscores the importance of Jesus’ command of “Don’t Leave, but Wait!”  It transforms the waiting into a time of great anticipation.  Not of wasted time and frustration of time chewed away with nothing to show for it.  No, this will be a gift of such importance that the anticipation builds. 

So what’s your take home message for today?

1.  Have you thanked God for this wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit?  This is Jesus’ ongoing presence with you and with me.  Better than what the disciples had because the Holy Spirit comes to us when we believe and never leaves us, period.
2. Think about the times you spend waiting and for what?  Are you waiting for things worth waiting for? The Holy Spirit calls us to revisit our priorities and see where witness…the reason He came…falls in with our priorities.
3. Take time to pray and ask Jesus to build in you that same anticipation of something so amazing that it’s worth waiting for.  Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you what YOUR role is in the building of the Kingdom, not only here at Plymouth and here in Racine, but to all the ends of the earth.  It’s why He came.  I want for you to be giddy with excitement at what God is going to do!

Three out of 3 witnesses agree: Don’t Leave.  But Wait!

The Father, the Son, and John the Baptist agree:  this gift from Father and Son—the ongoing presence of God in your life and mine—this is a gift definitely worth waiting for.  Let’s pray.

“Worth Waiting For” is a message based on Acts 1:1-5

Acts 1:1 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3 After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” (NIV)

 Worth Waiting For (Message from 8.3.2014)  Please click the link to listen on YouTube.

Additional Scriptures referenced in this message:

Isaiah 32:15

Isaiah 44:3

Jeremiah 31:33-34

Ezekiel 36:26-27

Joel 2:28-29

John 14:15-18

John 15:26-27

John 16:15

Luke 3:16

Beginning August 3, 2014, I am launching a new sermon series entitled “Acts of the Holy Spirit and the Apostles.”  These sermons will be given at Plymouth Congregational Church in Racine, WI on Sundays at 10:30 am.  I will be posting the sermons on SeminaryGal.com as well as on Plymouth Church’s website (presently under construction).

I invite you to join me as we journey through Acts and see how the Holy Spirit prepared the first Church for mission and guides the progress of the Kingdom even today.

The Book of Acts, as it is simply known, describes the Great Commission (given in Matthew 28:18-20) unfolding as the Gospel moves from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria, all the way to the ends of the earth.  Jesus commanded it, the Holy Spirit empowered it, and the Church as we know it was launched.

Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”