Well, if you'll turn with me in your Bibles to Acts chapter 1, Acts chapter 1, and as you're turning there, I do want to bring the warmest of greetings from your brothers and sisters at Christ Church Presbyterian in Charleston, South Carolina. And I want to thank the consistory for the kind invitation to preach to you today, and what a blessing it is to be with you. Your pastor is one of my dearest friends and I'm so thankful for him, for his friendship, for his encouragement, for his ministry. And I know that you are a very blessed congregation to have such a faithful pastor. And you know what's even better than a faithful reformed pastor? One with a sense of humor. And your pastor has a sense of humor and that's a blessing, especially as a friend and a minister. I was asked earlier, as I was walking in the sanctuary by one of your elders, you know, I've always had a hard time knowing the difference between Scottish Presbyterians and the Dutch Reformed. Now, there's a lot of places we can go with that, right? But I was thinking about that just for a moment before I stepped into the pulpit, and I thought, well, for one, we love plaid, you know, we love our plaid ties, this is from Edinburgh Castle, you like to talk about the Netherlands a lot, we like to talk about Scotland a lot, we also, we also, we have rain, you know, we're Scottish Presbyterians, when it rains, we really want to preach, we're passionate about preaching in the context of the rainy weather, that's a Scottish Presbyterian, as Dr. Godfrey was walking into the church today, and he had no umbrella. I said, where's your umbrella, Dr. Godfrey? He said, we just don't acknowledge the rain in California. We just don't acknowledge it. Okay. It is a blessing to be back in what is my home state. I am a native Californian. I went to Clemson University as an 18-year-old and was converted there, and the Lord has had mercy on me and continues to. In fact, it was in the spring of 1992 that the Lord had mercy on me. He saved me from the guilt and bondage and misery and eternal penalty of my sins. He saved me from the bondage to the world and all of its seductive power. He rescued me from the tyranny of Satan. In the words of Psalm 40, he He pulled me from the miry clay and he set my feet upon a rock. And for the first time in my life, as a sophomore at Clemson University, my footing became firm. I became a member of Christ's unshakable kingdom. And everything changed as a result. My relationship with God changed. My friendships changed. My view of the world and all of its allurements changed. My hopes and dreams changed. My Sundays changed. My conversations changed. My motivations changed. My affections changed. My whole approach to life changed. Not without sin, of course. We all still have remaining indwelling sin. But this is what the Lord does. Things become new and different. He puts us on a different trajectory. We never want to give in to this idea that Christianity is something we just profess with our mouth but has no evidence in our lives. Anyone who professes faith in Christ and disputes a changed life has more than likely never truly known the Lord. He's never really lived according to Christ's way of discipleship. G.K. Chesterton put it like this, The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It's been found difficult and left untried. This directly applies to our approach to the Great Commission, to personal evangelism, and how it all relates to our discipleship. And the Lord is discipling us. He's discipling us this morning. This is where disciples are made. And from this place, disciples are made to our neighbors and to the nations. It's what I love about public worship and the Lord's Day. This is a day of discipleship. It's a day when we are put on the anvil of grace, and through the means of grace, the Lord is conforming us more and more to His Son, so that we die to sin more and more, and live to Christ more and more. This day of discipleship is meant to be central in our piety, and in our Christian lives, and so we come to this place, not primarily to say, Lord, I'm going to worship you, and I'm going to focus on you, and I'm going to give you the praise, because oftentimes our hearts are down and we are struggling what we must understand worship as is first and foremost god reminding us how much he loves us pouring upon us grace upon grace the the reformed liturgy it's like waves of grace pouring over us from the call to worship to the reading of the law to the assurance of pardon to the hymns and the psalms and then you come to the sermon and of course we have the lord's table and baptism and what a blessing it is and so when we come to worship when you come to this sermon we do we don't come as sort of super christians we come as pilgrims who acknowledge our weakness and say lord tell me again that you love me tell me again that i am loved by you in your son remind me of this because i am so prone to forget it and so let us keep these things in mind even as we look at acts chapter 1 and verses 6 through 11 would you please stand with me for the reading of god's holy word acts chapter 1 and beginning in verse 6 so when they had come together they asked him lord will you at this time restore the kingdom to israel he said to them it is not for you to know times or seasons that the father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven amen you may be seated I was speaking earlier about the the new life and the the new direction and new perspective that the Lord gives those who are his own another new affection that the Holy Spirit creates in the hearts of believers is a love for others a desire to see them in a right relationship with God I remember after becoming a christian i was playing soccer at clemson and you may have heard of this but sometimes the competitive spirit can be removed from the heart of an athlete even when they come to know the lord and i wanted just to hug all my opponents and tell them about jesus rather than score goals it really happened and i remember my coach pulling me into his office and saying son i'm glad you're a christian now he actually wasn't he didn't care at all but so i'm glad you're a Christian now but if you don't start playing like I know you can play you're going to lose your scholarship oh okay so I had to do some heart work and realize that even as a Christian athlete I can compete and I can compete hard but this is what the Lord does in the heart he creates love by his spirit for others a compassion and there's an evangelistic impulse to share the gospel with others with the lost I agree with the Puritan Thomas Watson who wrote this quote if men loved christ they would try to draw as many as they could to him he who loves his captain will persuade others to come under his banner it makes perfect sense how could we truly believe and rejoice in the good news of salvation in jesus christ and not want to share it with others how could we be indwelt by the holy spirit and not possess a burden for the unchurched how could we be in fellowship with our loving god and not want others to know and worship him too. Now, we must say from the outset, thank God we are not saved by the quality of our evangelism. Thank God that our salvation is not wrapped up in our performance as it concerns leading others to Christ. We all in this room do not do enough and fail miserably, really, to love people as we ought and to reach people as we ought. But we don't rest in that place. We want to be faithful witnesses of Jesus Christ in this world. We are to be the light of the world. We are to be salt and light in the world. We are to give a hope that's within us when others ask, when they see us living differently. Well, here in the book of Acts, we are told the story of the spread of the gospel after the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. The apostles were given a mandate by Jesus a commission to preach the gospel and to make disciples of all nations but the application of Christ's commission applies in many ways to the entire church not just to the apostles every believer is called to participate in the spread of the gospel for the salvation of sinners and it's not just that every believer has to participate but every believer gets to participate what a privilege to share the gospel with our neighbors i recently read in j.i. packer's classic work uh evangelism and the sovereignty of god he makes this this point about personal evangelism he says this the great commission quote rests on the whole church collectively and therefore on each christian individually all god's people are sent to do as the philippians did, quote, to shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life. Philippians 2, 15 and 16. He goes on, every Christian, therefore, has an obligation to make known the gospel of Christ. Let me ask you this morning, do you believe this? Do you believe this? As individual Christians, do you believe that this is your obligation? Young, old, in between is this your obligation as a church escondido urc do you believe that reaching the loss is a primary duty and privilege of the christian of the church is this the part of the part of the dna of your your congregation reaching out to others i was sharing last night with the leadership when a congregation loses that evangelistic zeal and impulse it begins to digress it begins to drift from what christ would have us to do and to be well this evangelistic impulse was was true for the early church and their faithfulness to spread the good news was not simply out of obligation it was their joy they had met the savior they wanted others to meet the savior too they were captivated by the the truth and the loveliness of christ and they wanted others to know him as well they were filled with the holy spirit the spirit of witness who was sent to glorify jesus you see this evangelism was the fruit of their union with christ and it overflowed from a heart of love and gratitude all believers were engaged in this and in the early church even amidst persecution and because of persecution they were sharing the gospel if you have your Bible, look with me at Acts chapter 8, Acts chapter 8 and verses 1 through 8. It's quite an extraordinary little section here on the faithfulness of these early believers. Acts 8 and beginning in verse 1, and Saul approved of his, that is Stephen's, execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered, whose they the disciples the followers of christ were were scattered throughout the regions of judea and samaria now notice except the apostles the apostles stayed in jerusalem devout men buried stephen and made great lamentation over him but saul was ravaging the church and entering house after house he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison now let's pause for a moment. Think of yourself in that context. Think of all of us in this context. People are getting thrown into prison. Saul is ravaging the church. You would think, oh, and people were being driven out of their homes, driven out of the area, away from their homes, the familiar things being driven out. You would probably give some leeway to these early Christians, perhaps hiding away somewhere for a while protecting themselves all these different things that would come into our minds to do look at verse 4 now those who were scattered went about preaching the word they went about preaching the word those who were scattered in Judea and Samaria it says there in verse 5 Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to to them the Christ and the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip when they heard him and saw the signs that he did for unclean spirits crying out with a loud voice came out of many who had them and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed so there was much joy in that city what a testimony of the faithfulness of the witness of the early church even in the context of severe persecution well notice with me in our text for this morning in Acts chapter 1, that the disciples had all come together to meet with Jesus in what would be his final post-resurrection appearance before ascending into heaven. And there really are three movements as I see it in this meeting. Number one, a foolish and speculative question. Number two, a mission imperative. And number three, a glorious and instructive ascension. A foolish and speculative question, a mission imperative, and a glorious and instructive ascension. First, there was a foolish and speculative question. Even after all of the teaching the apostles received from Christ over his three-year public ministry and all that Christ taught them after his resurrection for 40 days before his ascension, his disciples remained confused about the nature of the kingdom. Can you imagine that? Disciples, after a lot of good teaching, being confused about the nature of the kingdom of God, glad that doesn't happen today, they were looking for a restoration of the national, political, geographical kingdom of Israel. It's what they were looking for. It's what they were anticipating. They were looking to be freed from Roman tyranny and a return to the glory days of David and Solomon with Jesus reigning as their king. The disciples were being small-minded, focusing only upon the restoration of Israel when they were meant to focus upon the evangelization of the entire world. Sometimes Christians do this in our own day. Confusing national pride or patriotism or political change with the mission of the church. But Christ redirects His disciples and us to the Great Commission, to the mission at hand, to the mission that He gave to us. The disciples were to quit their fruitless speculation and get to work as we should do. We need to be careful that we don't mix political zeal and ambition with the mission of the church. We don't want to encourage political indifferentism, as if Christians aren't supposed to be concerned about those things, but we must recognize the difference of the mission of the church and political activism. The Lord Jesus is building His church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And we go forward with that promise, with the Bible in our hands. Next, we come to the mission imperative. a mission imperative in verses 6 through 8. Look with me at verse 8. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. This is a familiar verse, of course, to many of us here this morning. What's the nature of it? Well, it's prophetic. It's prophetic in that it foretells the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and the power that the early Christians will receive to spread the gospel near and far, even to the ends of the earth. It's also an imperative. It's an imperative telling the disciples and the church and us here this morning what they are called to be and what they are called to do and where they are called to go. And they go forth into all the world to make disciples. And they won't do so in their own power, in their own might, in their own wisdom, in their own strength, but in the power, wisdom, might, and strength of Christ through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And He has promised to go with us. He's behind us. He's before us. He is with us on this mission. And that is such good news. Now, before we go on, verse 8 also provides a tidy outline for the book of Acts, doesn't it? Indeed, it shows the geographical expansion of the church as it moves from Jerusalem, Acts chapters 1 through 7, to Judea and Samaria, Acts 8 through 12, and to the ends of the earth, Acts 13 through 28. Many have asked the question, what does the ends of the earth mean? What does that mean, the ends of the earth? Is it Rome? Is it Spain? Is it Ethiopia, or is it simply a general reference to the Gentiles who are very far away? There are differing opinions on this, but the one that makes the most sense to me is that the ends of the earth was understood by the disciples and later by the Apostle Paul simply as the farthest and most distant Gentile lands in the inhabited world at that time. In Acts 13, 47, Paul quotes Isaiah 49, which says, I will make you a light for the Gentiles that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. The phrase ends of the earth was used in other first century writings to describe the farthest regions of the world. And so it is the case here. And there is evidence in scripture and in other literature of the time that the Western end of the world was known as Germania, Britannia, Spain. The northern end of the world was known as Scythia, and the southern end of the world was considered Ethiopia, which is modern Sudan, and the eastern end of the world was understood to be India and beyond, and to China. This would seem to be the way they understood this language. Luke draws attention to an Ethiopian in Acts 8. Paul mentions a Scythian in Colossians 3. Paul expresses a desire to go to Spain in Romans 15, and India is where, according to tradition Thomas went and was martyred as a gospel witness for the sake of Christ the disciples were clearly aiming to go to the farthest reaches of the earth and dear ones so should we so should we we may not be able to go ourselves but this mission focus and drive should be in our prayers as a church in our support structures and our goals and aims for mission by the way it is helpful i think to characterize christian mission as that mission the mission of the church not the missions the mission of the church has become so convoluted with so many things particularly diaconal work which should flow in the wake of true christian mission but should not be called mission itself because it confuses things. You have sectors of the Protestant church who don't even preach the gospel and call it Christian mission. We believe in the mission of the church to go forth and to make disciples and to plant churches through the means of grace to the glory of God. That is our mission. We are to be faithful by God's grace to that mission and so let us keep our focus on this strategically as we seek to make an impact for generations to come through the mission of the church another important lesson for us to learn here is that the geographical expansion of the gospel from jerusalem to judea to samaria to the end of the earth serves as a kind of model or example to us not that we are trying to redo the early church or that we see everything in acts as normative for the church today but we can see how gospel driven discipleship and outreach begins right where we are and goes outward like co-centric circles disciples are made here through the means of grace through the discipleship that takes place in the context of the local church and then it spreads out to our neighbors as we reach out to them and then to the nations we must get this acts 1 8 applies primarily to the apostles as did the great commission at in matthew 28 the power of the holy spirit will be manifested through their courageous preaching through their teaching ministries and through the working of miracles in the early church this power will be manifested by their willingness to suffer for the cause of christ and the expansion of the kingdom of god but derivatively and if you want to say a secondary application to these things applies to us it applies to the church everywhere to all the christians in the first century and from that time to this moment we are called to carry out this great commission so how do we fulfill acts 1 8 today well first of all the faithful proclamation of the gospel the faithful and unadulterated proclamation of the gospel martin lloyd jones in his famous lectures preaching and preachers from 1969 at westminster seminary philadelphia the other westminster he was giving these lectures and one thing he said that was has become a kind of iconic statement is that he says the greatest task of the minister and of the church is the preaching of the word of god in other words there's a kind of collective accountability a collective zeal a collective commitment to the preaching of god's word so it's not just the minister it's not just the consistory it's not just the council it's it's all of you are committed to the preaching of the gospel and so that is a collective commitment and conviction the church as a whole must make the faithful preaching of the whole counsel of god a top priority not programs not music not social events all of those things are wonderful but they are not the priority it's the faithful explanation and application of the unadulterated gospel of jesus christ from all of scripture moreover individual christians must make it a priority to reach out to the lost and communicate the gospel the pastors are called to equip the saints in order the saints would go out and be faithful witnesses in their vocations to be salt and light but the question we should probably ask is why don't we do this why why are we so hesitant to do this of course there's the failure of nerve and we've all had that right you you're gearing yourself up you're gearing yourself up and you just don't do it you don't you don't share you don't reach out you don't make that invitation to church and you think why how could i not do a failure of nerve it's not that i don't love my lord or i'm ashamed of him i just sometimes get really nervous about that and that's understandable happens to everyone but there are some things that very clearly can be brought up in terms of why we don't share the gospel as we ought why i don't share the gospel as I ought. Number one, misplaced priorities. Dear friends, we simply aren't making evangelism a part of our weekly prayers or daily goals because we have misplaced priorities. If we are honest, there are 20 things that often take precedence in our lives over praying for and reaching out to the lost. A second reason, our heart is cold or divided. The world has taken hold of our hearts, minds, and affections. Most days, God and his mission are an afterthought and not on the tip of our minds. Fear of rejection. We can all be afraid of being rejected and even maligned. Fear of being ostracized. We might lose social credibility among others. Friends or co-workers may begin to push us away or not include us in certain things. Maybe if you're a teenager here, you think, well, I'm going to be made fun of or not going to be included as I would if I would just go along and laugh at the jokes and not invite my friends to church or not seek to be a witness. Another reason would be sin. Secret sin will absolutely derail an evangelistic life do any of these reasons inhibit your own personal commitment to evangelism if so then in my experience you are no different than most believers but rather than continue on with these reasons my prayer is that we would identify them and with god's help and the power of the holy spirit repent and renew our commitment to evangelism and outreach that the heartbeat of this church would be one of reaching out to the lost even as we seek to do the same although far from perfectly in charleston in acts 1 8 in acts 1 8 it was not just for the apostles but for the entire church and derivatively for every individual christian and so that's the first way we fulfill acts 1 8 today gospel proclamation number two prayerful dependence upon the holy spirit jesus declares in our text that the disciples will receive power as they go forth power how can we live in the power of the holy spirit we yield to the spirit we walk in the spirit and christ has said he's going to send his spirit in order to empower the disciples to be these witnesses now we're going to be reminded this evening that the gospel the message of the gospel is the power of god unto salvation what is the power of god it's the gospel proclaimed but we must remember that God empowers his children to proclaim that gospel to share that gospel to invite people to church and so we have prayerful dependence upon the Holy Spirit as we go second Corinthians chapter 12 verses 9 and 10 say this but he said to me my grace is sufficient for you remember paul said can you remove this thorn in my flesh we don't know what the thorn was and there's a sense in which we all have thorns in our flesh we're thinking lord could you just take this away i'll be a better witness for you if you would just take this away how many of you prayed that lord i promise i'll be a better witness just take this ailment away or this difficulty. And what does he say? He says to us what he says to Paul. My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. It's so counterintuitive. It's so counter-cultural. For the sake of Christ then, Paul writes, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am what? Strong. No, Lord, I like it when it's, when I am strong, then I am strong. That's the way, I'm an American, it. That's the way I like it. It's so counterintuitive. It's so counter-evangelical. It's one thing I love about the Reformed faith. It's absolutely, we are crushed by the law. We recognize our sin. We recognize that sin has impacted our minds, our hearts, our affections, our wills every part of us and there's no way to save ourselves our only hope is christ and so we recognize that even in the midst of the christian life thirdly here in acts 1 8 we need to remember to pray for laborers and support gospel laborers our lord said in matthew 9 37 and 38 the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few therefore pray earnestly to the lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest we must pray that god would raise up godly men to be trained and ordained and sent into the world to plant biblical churches and for those churches to be gospel witnesses and to plant more churches and those churches would plant churches this is the mission of the church fourthly a willingness to sacrifice personal comforts and leisure for the health and advancement of the kingdom of god whenever i make statements like this i think of this wonderful african-american congregation i was preaching to and i was preaching all these different things and i got to one point it was a kind of a big word of conviction and this person in the front row says wait a minute it was amen amen amen then it was wait a minute and perhaps you're thinking that in your heart willingness to sacrifice personal comforts and leisure for the health and advancement of the kingdom of god we need to be more kingdom minded with our time and money to seek first the kingdom of God and the missionary task at hand. Some of you will know the name John Payton. John Payton, Scottish Presbyterian. He was a missionary in the 19th century, and he desired to go to the New Hebrides Islands, a modern-day Vanuatu. And he had a flourishing ministry in his early 30s uh in glasgow scotland and he had a heart for mission and for years was thinking and praying about and preparing for the mission field and to go to uh the new hebrides islands where there were cannibals where there were cannibals and listen to what he says um in his journal quote i saw them perishing for lack of the knowledge of the true god and his son jesus while my green street people that was in glasgow while my green street people had the open bible and all the means of grace within easy reach which if they rejected they did so willfully and at their own peril end quote and so paton had this godly ambition as did the apostle paul that is to go where the gospel had never been preached and there were islands and tribes in the new hebrides islands which had never been evangelized when peyton began to make known his desire to go many in the church actually discouraged him to get from going what about your successful work in the glasgow mission they asked why would you leave it when god is blessing it so and will you just leave all these families that you've been ministering to in the dust aren't the needs at home in scotland great too and predictably they warned him of the peril that he would face one of them said this a mr dixon an elderly gentleman he declared to payton the cannibals you will be eaten by the cannibals payton's response is moving quote mr dixon you are advanced in years now and your prospect is soon to be laid in the grave there to be eaten by worms i confess to you yeah try that at a consistory meeting, okay? And he says, I confess to you, if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by cannibals or worms. And in the great day, my resurrection body will arise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer. Here we see the heart of a genuine disciple on display. A heart, again, that joyfully heeds the words of Christ. If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever will save his life will lose, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Within three months of landing on the island, his wife and his newborn baby died. And he buried them. And he stood over their grave, protecting it from cannibals. He stayed, he led many to Christ, and he carried on for many, many, many years, raising money for mission, raising up missionaries, preaching the gospel. Now, all of us, of course, won't be called to serve Christ in this extraordinary way but the point is the best churches and those Christians who are committed to the cause of Christ are those who are devoted to serious Christ-centered word-saturated discipleship and are passionate about evangelism and reaching neighbors and nations with the gospel that's the balance we should be aiming for strong discipleship learning growing in christ and doctrine becoming a part of our lives and then taking that out of these four walls as we see modeled in the book of acts this brings us to verses 9 through 11 and the final movement of this section a glorious and instructive ascension look with me again at verses 9 through 11 and when he had said these things as they were looking on he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight and while they were gazing into heaven as he went behold two men stood by them in white robes and said, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. In the gospel of John chapter 16 verses 7 and 8, Jesus told his disciples that in order for the Holy Spirit to come to empower them for ministry and to be their helper, he must go he he told them i tell you the truth it is to your advantage that i go away for if i do not go away the helper will not come to you but if i go jesus says i will send him to you and when he comes he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment therefore the ascension of christ is critical to the mission of the church and jesus is still building his church in fact these wonderful words at the beginning of the book of acts look at acts 1 in the first verse in the first book o theophilus that's luke i have dealt with all that jesus began to do and teach he's still doing an axe he's doing it from heaven by his spirit and through his church but jesus is still actively building his church and so when christ ascends into heaven he is exalted to the right hand of God all things are put in subjection unto him all authority in heaven on earth is his and from this position of ultimate authority on high in heaven he and the father will send forth the holy spirit to indwell and empower the church for mission to reach the nations listen to westminster larger catechism question 53 the question is how was christ exalted in his ascension it's a wonderful answer here answer christ was exalted in his ascension in that having after his resurrection often appeared unto and conversed with his apostles speaking to them of the things pertaining to the kingdom of god and giving them commission to preach the gospel to all nations 40 days after his resurrection he in our nature and as our head triumphing over enemies visibly went up into the highest heavens there to receive gifts for men to raise up our afflict our affections there and to prepare a place for us where he himself is and shall continue till his second coming at the end of the world in other words Jesus Christ the son of God and the son of man, our representative, our advocate, our crucified and risen savior, our king is on the throne. He's on the throne today, dear ones. He's on the throne in 2024. He's on the throne no matter what happens in the next presidential election. Amen. He's on the throne. Remember that. Remember if you get results you don't like, just remember that he's on the throne and he's building his church and the future of America, which we hope prospers and we hope things will change and we pray for this and we we work for this as as individual christians but remember christ is building his church and we have great hope in him and we go forth in his name and and with his love to reach out to the lost the ascension is jesus's royal elevation to his heavenly throne not only does strengthen our assurance of faith but it fosters confidence in the missionary task the great commission is not a lost cause because the king of kings because our king is building his church through his spirit and his word through weak christians and churches like us and no one can stop him all authority everywhere is his as the disciples looked on jesus was taken up to to heaven in a cloud and and you old testament scholars will know that the glory cloud was associated with god's presence in the wilderness and also with the return of christ the son of man in daniel 7 listen to daniel 7 13 and 14 i saw in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man and he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him and to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people's nations and languages should serve him his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom one and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed the kingdoms of this world dear ones will rise and fall but the kingdom of God will outlast them all it'll it is the unshakable kingdom of God. And this is what the angels who suddenly appeared told the disciples who looked on. Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? Why are you gawking? Why are you standing there? This Jesus who has taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. Two important points that they are making here. The first one is Christ will return in the same way he departed. Truly, historically, bodily, and in the clouds. So we need to be ready. As we are going about and being salt and light and evangelizing, we live in joyful anticipation of his return. Secondly, we need to stop idly staring into the sky and get to work evangelizing our neighborhoods and the world. instead of simply focusing on the sky we should be focusing on the ends of the earth now is the time of urgency and labor not idle speculation and spiritual and evangelistic mediocrity we need to get busy fulfilling the great commission there's something exhilarating isn't there about sharing christ with the lost there's something about as i was sharing last night there's something about sharing the gospel about sharing what the lord has done in your life with someone who does not have Christ, there's something about that that puts wind in the sails as a Christian. About a year and a half ago, I had the most amazing providence on an airplane. On my flight from Charleston to Atlanta to Detroit, it was a layover, I was bumped up to first class. And so I was sitting in my chair and this lady sat down next to me and she had a notebook and it had a title on the front of the notebook and it had the name Jesus on it. I forget the exact title. I thought it was interesting. And I was minding my own business and she said hello and we began to talk. And she said she was just at Stanford University giving a lecture and she was heading to a university of i think wisconsin maybe somewhere else to share to give a lecture i thought well this lady must be of some importance and again talking about politics and i could tell immediately that she and i were on very different pages politically and she was trying to wind me up a little bit with some things and i tried to respond as a christian gentleman as minister of the gospel and trying to move the conversation towards the gospel and away from Biden and Trump, you know. Have those words ever been said from this pulpit before? I don't know. And so it was just interesting. At one point, she became so visibly sort of upset about our former president. And I said, you know, you shared with me that you've written some books about how we need to all come together and to love one another and and uh and be kind and i said you you look like you hate him do you hate him and and she said well i dislike him i said well okay and uh kept talking and uh ended up being able to share uh the gospel with her uh and uh uh she she was receptive and anyway after the entire thing was over i said uh um well my name is john payne and she said my name is marianne williamson and uh she's currently running for the democratic nomination for president um and uh what was extraordinary was the lord and his providence putting this person right next to me on an airplane and the opportunity came to share the love of christ to share the gospel and and and and i like you will oftentimes have a failure of nerve or decide i'm just going to do something different i remember another time i had been speaking at a conference and i was exhausted i got an airplane and i had my john wayne movie all ready uh to to watch on my ipad and and i was just about to put my my big headphones on which is you know that that's that's code for leave me alone don't talk to me um and i look over and this lady is reading a book and it has the the chapter it's a book on the sacraments and the chapter was written by a former pca pastor who has become a roman catholic and i thought okay okay lord i i get the uh i get the hint here i'm not going to watch my john Wayne movie I'm going to have a conversation we had a wonderful conversation she was a Roman Catholic and and she had just been coming back from a from a pilgrimage overseas and and she said I said tell me about yourself said well I'm committed Roman Catholic and and she was telling me about this book she was reading I said oh yeah actually I know of that author and and she said are you a Christian I said yeah I'm a Protestant okay and I said can I ask you a question she said sure i said you just told me about all these pilgrimages you go on about you know how you go to mass every day in your church you are very committed roman catholic she said yes i am i was gonna ask you something sure i said um are you sure you're going to heaven do you do you know you're going to heaven and she said uh no no i don't and she said am i being a bad catholic by saying that and i said no actually you're being a consistent catholic i said because your theology gives you no reason for assurance and i said here's why because what your church teaches is that god has done this over here for you and now you have to do this for him and you will never know what it is that's expected of you it's arbitrary i said all catholics will have different measures of assurances based on their psychology i guess their arbitrariness i said but here's here's oh and then she said when do you do you believe you're going to heaven i said yes she was like as if i was being arrogant i said uh and i i share that not because i'm so special in fact i am a sinner that sin has infected every part of me in fact has infected every part of you too i said but can i share with you what what uh what the gospel is in my church she said yes so i shared the gospel with her and she listened and i sent her a copy of uh luther's commentary on galatians what wonderful opportunities the lord gives to us i i there are times when i i don't even want to talk to people, and the Lord blesses me with opportunities, and he does the same for you. So let us be not just committed collectively to the mission of the church, giving our money, offering our prayers, but let us all together be committed. Imagine if every person in this room was committed within the next month to share the gospel with one person. How many people would be introduced to Christ our Savior? What a privilege we have, dear ones, to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let us not be slow in doing so. Dear ones, let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for Acts chapter 1 and for all the lessons that are there for us. We've touched upon a few this morning And we do thank you, Lord, for the gospel, for the righteous life and atoning death and hell-conquering resurrection of Jesus Christ. Lord, he is our hope. He is our salvation. He alone. He is the one we preach. He's the one we boast in and glory in. And we pray, Lord, that motivated by your grace, filled with your spirit, that we would take the gospel to the world. That we collectively would be committed to the mission of the church through our prayers, through our giving, but that as individuals, as families, we would be committed and devoted to sharing the gospel, to spreading the light of the gospel and the love of Christ in the world. Lord, we love you. We thank you for the abundant grace and pardon you've given to us in your Son. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.