The end of Luke's Gospel, chapter 24. This is a prelude to Acts chapter 1. And I trust you will quickly see why in a moment. So it's Luke 24, last chapter of Luke. And we'll start reading from verse 36. So it's Luke 24, verse 36. And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? And why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. handle me, and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have.' And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of broiled fish, and of an honeycomb, and he took it, and it ate before them. And he said unto them, These are the words which I speak unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures. And said unto them, Thus it is written, And thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you. But tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, till he be endured with power from on high. And he led them out as far as to Bethany. And he lifted up his hands and blessed them. And he came to pass while he blessed them, he was departed from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God Amen. And that's the end of Luke's Gospel. We come into Chapter 1 of Acts, and it's really almost a continuation of that chapter. And I want us particularly to look at verses 4 and 5 tonight, where we are told by Luke, and being assembled together with them, commanded them they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father Which saith he, he hath heard of me? For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. Now I know some weren't here last week, but I don't really want to go over what we did last week. Suffice it to say that I said that Luke, who wrote the Acts of the Apostles, is continuing kind of Luke Volume 2. Luke Volume 1 is the Gospel. Luke Volume 2 is the Acts of the Apostles. I also said that some would say that it's the incorrect title for this book. It should be The Acts of the Holy Spirit. And perhaps a better name still would be The Acts of the Holy Spirit Through the Apostles. But we are happy with the Acts of the Apostles, and it's a historical record of what they did. We also mentioned the beginning few verses of Luke 1 and chapter 1, where Theophilus is mentioned. And Luke seeks to give an accurate account in his gospel about things Jesus began to do and teach. And Acts chapter 1, same Theophilus, he's writing now to continue what Jesus began to do in the Gospels, but now he's not doing it personally, he's doing it through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And last week, I produced a few little handouts only to help us look at some verses, OK? It's not that I don't think that you can turn page to page, but it's just helpful to have it in front of you. So I've taken the to do it again. You just give those out. You don't got to use these, of course, but I'm hoping it'll be helpful to you as we go through. You'll see it's in a strange format. I'll come to that in a minute, all right? Don't think, what's he doing here? It's all back to front. Just bear with me. In John's Gospel, chapter 20 and verse 21, the Lord Jesus says this to his disciples, as the Father hath sent me, even so send I you. So the Lord said, the Father sent me, and in a similar way, I am sending you. And it's very interesting to think of how did the Father send the Son, because if we can discover what the Bible says about that sending, then we can learn a little bit of how the Lord sends us. And there are lots of similarities. We won't go through that tonight, but I will mention one thing in particular. And there are lots of things he could think. He sent him to fulfill his will, he sent him to be beaten, he sent him with a mission, and so on, and that's how the Lord sends us. But one of the things the father did was to empower his son to do the work to which he had called him. He gave him power. He gave him the Holy Spirit. And that's sometimes perhaps not something we think about, that all the work the Lord did in his humanity as a Son of Man, he did by the Spirit. I sometimes feel that some folk are a little bit residential about this. I had a chat with a friend of mine who was principal of a theological college one time, Philip Eveson, and we chatted about this and he agreed that there are some people who are afraid of anything to do with the Holy Spirit. And I guess it's because of excesses. There's so much strange stuff out there that they're afraid to do anything with scripture. But that's just to deny the plain teaching of scripture. And so as we go through this, I might have to just explain what I'm not saying, just in case you think I'm going off the rails a little bit. I hope, I trust I'm not going off the rails. But I will try and prove to you what the scripture says. And that's what we need to look, because It ultimately involves you and me. This is not a theological lecture. This is not something you can say, oh, yes, that's very nice. I learned some new truth, and go out and be different, or be the same as you've always been. We need to be different. We need to know what the Lord has commissioned us to do, and how are we to do it, and from whence do we get the power to do it? So that's the line I'm thinking of this evening. Bev and I are very old, all right? I confess that. And in our young days, we used to, don't tell anybody this, but we used to go to some Pentecostal meetings, right? Only because we were young, and there were some young people there, and we weren't afraid to clap and say, praise the Lord. And in Pentecostal circles in those days, they had what's called tarry meetings. And a tarry meeting was where you, people of God prayed sometimes for several hours, sometimes through the night, they'd have an all-night prayer meeting, and the object of tarrying was to pray that God would send the Spirit upon them. I don't know if they do that kind of thing anymore, but when I read that little word in Luke's Gospel, tarry, I said, ah, yes, I remember that. So we're going to start with the top line, Acts chapter 1, which I've just read. I've been assembled together with them, commanded them they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith he, you have heard of me, for John truly baptized with water, but he shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost now many days hence. And that came from Luke chapter 24, which is the next verse on the right. And behold, I send the promise of my father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until you've endured with power from on high. Now, it's interesting that the context of that quote from Luke, Jesus has explained to them the gospel. He's explained to them the relevance of the Old Testament references to himself. And you'd think that now they've got it all. They've got it all that they need to go out and be preachers of the gospel. They've got all that they need to go and tell people about him. What more do they need? Then he opened their understanding, and this is verse 45, that they might understand the scriptures. And said to them, thus it is written, thus it behove Christ to suffer, to rise from the dead. Repentance, remission of sins should be preached. So this is what you are to understand of the gospel. This is what you should preach. You are witnesses of these things. You've seen it with your eyes. You've seen all the wonderful things I've done. And you've heard what I've said. Right. Get to it. Get on with it. But he didn't, because he realized that knowledge of itself is not sufficient, and knowledge is necessary. You could have something to say. It's no good having a full heart and an empty head. Neither is it any good to have a full head and an empty heart. So Jesus says, right, you've got all this knowledge, you've got what you've seen and heard and experienced, but there is something else that you need. You need the promise of my father upon you. And you're to wait, you're to tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you be endured with power from on high. And then, and only then, will you be able to go out and to preach this gospel with knowledge, with experience, and with power. And that will make the difference. So that's why we've got this little verse secondly, right? He said, wait for the promise of the Father. He reminds him of that in Acts chapter 1, OK? And then he quotes a verse from or quotes John. For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not mendicant. And if you go to the last verse on the right at the top, we find the root of that. So it's Luke 1, verse 16. John answered, saying unto them, I indeed baptize you with water. But one mightier than I, the latter of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose, he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. There's come in one who is greater than me. He's better than me. He was before me. This one I'm not worthy to undo his shoelaces. I baptise you with water. I baptise you for the repentance. And there's a work there. But there's someone coming who is greater than me, and he will do a greater thing than baptise you with water. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. And that will make the difference to the way you live and the way you tell others. And did you notice the reference in Luke 24 to the word witnesses? Luke says, again, I donít think Iíve put this down on the sheet, but you know it anyway, but Iíll just read it to you so you have it exact. ìFor ye are witnesses of these things.î You witness what Iíve said, what Iíve done, you are witnesses. And then back into Acts chapter 1, Jesus says, verse 8, ìAnd you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and you shall beî what? Jumping up and down? saying, hallelujah, you shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the outermost part of the earth. So they were witnesses in Luke 24. They'd seen, heard, all that. They were witnesses, and they will continue to be witnesses. But the difference now will be the Holy Ghost come down upon you. And of course, that's what happened on the day of Pentecost. Now, the application of that is open to discussion, controversy, or whatever. And I'm sorry to say that some folk, again, are afraid of this. Some would say that it's not right to pray the Lord might send the spirit, because he's already sent the spirit. So how can you ask the Lord to send the spirit again? Some would say it's not right to ask the Lord for the spirit to come down because he's already come down and therefore you can't ask him to come again. I'm not too worried about phraseology. It seems to me my concern is that God would work mightily by his spirit. Of course the spirit is with us, it's in every believer, but It's strange, isn't it, that the Apostle will exhort, we've had this, Robin did it when he did Ephesians, about exhorting believers to be filled with the Spirit. The implication is that they're not. Why would you tell believers to be filled if they're already filled? Of course, it's the present continuous tension, go on being filled. Why tell someone go on being filled with the Spirit if they're already filled and they've got enough, they've got it all. Obviously, there's a greater need for more of the Spirit or more of his work through us or upon us or whatever phraseology you would like. And I think the great sadness amongst many evangelical churches is a great absence of the work and blessing of the Holy Spirit. However you want to define it, however you want to explain it, that's the great need of the hour. The Holy Spirit working in and through us, in witnessing particularly, but in praying. I'm sure you, as I, have been in prayer meetings, and they've been the same people, and sometimes they're very similar prayers, but sometimes something extraordinary seems to happen. The Lord seems to take hold of a man, of a woman, and they pray, and you've never heard anything like it. It's almost as if they've stepped out of the prayer meeting room, and they've stepped into the very court of God. It's as if they're speaking personally, well, as they are, to the Lord God. And there's an intimacy there, and you think, wow. Now, blessed are you if you've had that kind of experience. But that's not the norm, alas. That's not the norm. And we shouldn't be afraid of these things. If we're fairly sensible Bible people, we will know what is of the Spirit and what is a bit dodgy and a bit best left alone. Now, the fact that the Lord is saying this to his disciples led me to think of the Lord himself. And this is why we've got these other verses, just to re-underline, to confirm that this is how the Lord ministered. by the power of the Holy Spirit. See, the argument goes something like this. Because he's the son of God, which he is, because he's God in the flesh, which he is, he does everything by his own innate power, because he's divine, he is God. He does everything as the son of God. But actually, when you read the Gospels, the Lord talks about himself as the son of man. And in that phrase he is stressing his humanity. He is a man. He is God, of course, but he is man. Totally God, totally man. And it's humanity that he is stressing. And in his humanity, as a man, The Father blesses him by the Holy Spirit. Now, if I need to prove that to you, because I might need to prove that to you, I've got these verses. So starting on Luke chapter 4, which is the second verse down, on the left, Luke 4 verse 18. The Spirit of the Lord, this is Luke 4 verse 18, The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He sent me to heal the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives, and recover his sight to the blind, and set at liberty those who are oppressed. That's from Isaiah. We'll come back to that in a minute. So here is the Lord Jesus in Nazareth, in a synagogue. He's given the parchment to read, the scriptures to read, and this is the bit he reads. And then he says, this is me. This day is this fulfilled. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me. He has enabled me to preach, to teach, to heal, to recover. All that I will do as the Messiah, as the Son of God, the Spirit of the Lord will enable me to do this. And then, I wonder if you've ever thought about this, Luke chapter 4 verse 1, then Jesus being filled with the Holy Spirit. That's a funny phrase, isn't it? Here's the Son of God. He can do anything and everything. But as the Son of Man, he is filled with the Holy Spirit, as other men were, and women, in the Gospels and in the New Testament. So Jesus is filled with the Holy Spirit. He returns from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the world. And you may know that word led is quite a strong word. I always like to see, perhaps because it's the father-grandfather bit come out of me, I like to see men or women with their little ones, and they've got them in hand, and they take them to school. And they take them along, and sometimes they can't hold them back. They rush in, all right? They rush in to go, just the little ones are rushing to go, you know, and they go along. And I met a little girl around the corner this week. Her name is Isabel. She's a typical noisy three-year-old or four-year-old. You're going to stop. I said, oh. All right. Now, but then there are some times when the mother is in front and dragging behind, you know, I don't want to go to school. You've got to go to school. I don't want to go to school. You've got to go to school. I know, but I'm not going to school. You've got to go to school. Dragging them along. Now, this word here means driven. In other words, the Holy Spirit is not saying, now, do you mind just going into the wilderness? Because you need to be tested, you need to be tempted. We know you'll come through it fine, but you just need to do it. Do you mind? There's no kind of gentle, you know, just going along. This is a driven. Now, how you explain that, I don't know. But the point I'm making is the Spirit is taking over, as it were, because this has to be done. It's the spirit behind this. That's what it says. And then back to chapter three of Luke, and this is to do with the Lord's baptism. And the Holy Ghost descended upon him in bodily shape. A voice from heaven said, you are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. The spirit descends upon him as a form of a dove. Not as the tongues and flames of angels as in Acts 2 and so on, the flames of fire, but he comes as a gentle dove. You see, there was nothing in the Lord Jesus which needed to be burnt up. There was no sin that had to be purified. There were no dodgy motives there. He's holy and he's pure. On the day he was born, and even in the womb was he pure. So we stress that. The Holy Ghost comes upon him. Now, this didn't happen in a vacuum. And this is why the last three verses at the bottom are from Isaiah. In Isaiah 61, verse 1, we're told, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. And it's virtually the same verse as Luke 4, verse 18. All right? The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach the good tidings of the meek. He has sent me to bind the brokenhearted, to proclaim Him, and to put His cup at the opening of the church. Right, that's there in 61. Now, earlier on in Isaiah 42, God will say of His servant, of His Messiah, behold my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth, I put my spirit upon him. He shall bring forth through the Gentiles. Before that, you go back into Isaiah chapter 11. That's the verse that begins about the root of the Jesse, our tribe of David. It's kind of like a Christmas verse, if you think, talking about the coming of the babe who will be at Bethlehem. And verse 2 says, and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. So here in Isaiah, the Prophet is prophesying of the Messiah who will come and one of the great marks of his ministry and of his life will be that he will be filled with the Spirit and anointed by the Spirit and he will accomplish all these great things. So we're back to where we started. As the Father has sent me, so have I sent you. How did the Father send the Son? He sent him with a mission, with a purpose, a foreordained purpose to accomplish salvation of his people, and all that was set before him. That was the mission, that was the news, that was the will of God. He was to do all that. His head was full of knowledge, and his heart was full of the Spirit. The father equips the son to do the job he set before him. And he does it by the Holy Spirit. So now the Lord Jesus, he's leaving earth, he's done his job, he's now going to ascend into heaven, he's going to sit at the right hand of the Father, he's going to make a session for his people. But meanwhile this little lot are left behind. And they are going to go out into a world that will persecute them, that will treat them as they treated him. If they hate you, you know they hated me first. If they persecuted you, you remember they persecuted me, and so on and so on. And they need to be equipped. And as the Father equipped him by the Spirit, the Lord Jesus Christ, with the same Spirit, will equip his people. It's a lovely thought, isn't it? It's a lovely thought, in a way, and in a sense, in an equal way. There's a verse in John, I think it's chapter four, is it? Or chapter five, where John says, and the Father gave not the Spirit by measure to him. The Father didn't say, well, you need the Spirit, but just a little bit. just partly, just 50%. The Father didn't measure out the Spirit to the Lord Jesus, not by measure. I wonder, perhaps that's the problem with us, with me, that the Lord gives the Spirit by measure to us, I'm using these terms figuratively, because our lives are so full up of rubbish. This is challenging me. I hesitate to give you this illustration, but I will. I've got a double garage. I've got two garages, one next to another. There's not room in either garage for a car, because it's full up with other stuff. It's built for a car, but there's no room for a car. There's a bike in that one, and there's a bike in that one, and there's all kinds of stuff in this one. And we can't get two cars in there. full of that stuff. I'm sure, unless you're ultra, ultra, ultra tidy, there's a room or a cupboard or a drawer in your house that you can't get any more in because it's so full of junk. Well, of course, it's not junk, is it? Because you never know, you might need it. My daughter in Switzerland, every year, has what they call the skip day. That doesn't mean she goes skipping. She means she hires a skip, puts it in the drive, and says to her son, right, that's got to go on, that's got to go on, that's got to go on. And they fill it up. I try and get over there when they're doing this so I can push the phone. But it may just be. That the Lord would fill us with His Spirit, would bless us by the Spirit, whatever terminology you want to use. And the problem is there's so much junk in our lives, in our hearts, there's so much it's not necessary. It's not necessarily sinful, it's just, it clumbers us up. laying aside every weight. Do you remember that kind of phrase that the writer of the Hebrews chapter 12, he imagines this athlete running. And it's amazing that modern day athletes have hardly any clothing on. And the stuff they wear is like skin tight. You don't see them running down with a heavy pullover on and a siwester thing and a big hat. They don't do that. They wear the least, least clothing as possible because it holds them back. And it may be that that's the problem with us. The Lord Jesus said to his disciples, you need to wait, you need to tarry. But this was a specific instruction to the disciples. It was not an instruction to say, well, I can't do anything until the Lord moves me. That's just plain idleness. God forbid that we should go to the opposite extreme and say, OK, I accept what you're saying. So I realize it's by the Spirit. Therefore, I must wait for the Spirit to bless me, to help me, to encourage me, to enable me. So I'll wait, and I'll stay in, and I'll stay in bed. Most of the people of God that God called in the Bible, they were actively serving him in what capacity they could when he called them. It's just a fact. Lycia out in the field with the oxen or whatever, and Elijah says, right, you're going to follow me and you're going to be, and so on and so on. People are active. The fishermen getting ready to fish or coming back, whatever. People are active. They may not be doing much, but they're active in their own little capacity. And the Lord says, right, I've got bigger things for you. I've got better things for you. Follow me. Follow me. God forbid we should use any excuse for not being active for the Lord in whatever way we can. And how many great folk we have used of God started off with very, very humble beginnings. I'm not too sure about how Dick started off way back. I'm sure if I ask Betty, she'd remember that, although she can't remember what she had for dinner. But she will remember that, how Dick started. I do remember reading about Billy Graham. When he was a young man, he'd go out to the fields and he'd preach sermons to cows. I don't know if any were ever converted, but that's what he did. And then in years to come, he preached to thousands and thousands. Humble little beginnings. And these men, fishermen, what do they know about anything? And Peter becomes one of the greatest preachers this world has ever known, with amazing effects. Well, enough, enough, enough. So here's the thought. Don't leave this place until you meet with God the Holy Spirit. Remember, Jacob, I will not let thee go. Till Thou bless me. I wonder if we'd go home, if God said, tonight I'll bless you, but you've got to plead with me, you've got to cry to me. You say, oh Lord, yes, wonderful, but I need to go by quarter to nine, because there's something I want to watch on television at nine o'clock. We need to think seriously about these things. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your Word. We thank you for the ministry of the Holy Spirit. We thank you for our Lord Jesus, who was, we are told, full of the Holy Spirit, anointed by the Holy Spirit, did all these things by the power of the Holy Spirit. Although he was the Son of God, he humbled himself. He took the role of the Son of Man. He did as he was led of the Spirit and was obedient to the Spirit and to the Father, and he always did that which pleased you. And even in his death, we are told, he offered himself as a sacrifice by the Eternal Spirit. It's as if the Spirit just helped him through those last few hours. Oh Lord, we pray that we might know more of the ministry of the Spirit in our hearts and lives. We confess that so often we are powerless in our witnessing, in our living, and in our praying. We want to pray better than we do, whether it's in the prayer meeting or whether it's at home. We want to pray better. We want to pray deeper. We want to cry to Thee that You'd have mercy upon us. Lord bless us we pray for Jesus' sake. Amen. Amen. Right. Now, the hymn I've chosen to finish is in the same section as this one we started with, which is 366. This is 367. 367.