Alright, let's turn to the book of Acts in chapter number 11. I'm sorry, chapter number 1. We're going to read verse 11. And if you remember, we have been talking about the early church in the book of Acts and on Sunday nights we have been going through the book of Psalms. And in studying the book of Psalms, getting ready for the next Psalm, which was Psalm 53, in studying that, I found out that Psalm 14 and Psalm 53 are the same. And when I preach Psalm 15, I preached it as Psalm 14 and Psalm 53 together. So, taking a break from the book of Psalms for tonight and maybe for a while, I may... Trying to get this video camera fixed. It's pointing the wrong way. Fix that for me, Moby. It's pointing the right way. So, anyway, so I'm going to go back to, and I'm going to preach the message tonight. I told you that this morning, that I'm going to preach the message tonight that I'd planned on preaching this morning. So we're in Acts chapter number 1, and we're just going to read one verse. And the title of the message today is, The Effect the effect of Acts chapter 1 and verse 11 on the early church. So in Acts chapter 1 and verse number 11 it says this, Which also said, you men of Galilee, why stand you here gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus was taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven. So two weeks ago, you know, I preached about the church being in one accord. And I mentioned to you how the church being in one accord meant that they had a unity of purpose. And that unity of purpose was of faithfully serving Christ. And that unity of purpose of faithfully serving Christ was driven by this promise. that Jesus is coming again. So how did that promise affect the early church? That's what I want us to think about today. And ultimately, we're going to see that if it had an effect on the early church, then it should have an effect on us. And so we want to learn from that effect that it had on the early church, and we want to have it affect us also. So think about this. The book of Acts is, you know, it's the Acts of the Apostles. It's really the history of the early church. And it goes through the 11, and as the 11 begin to spread, and then as Paul comes on the scene, and it really follows Paul through his life. And so it is the Acts of the Apostles. But in that, you see the early church. So one of the things that I always like to try to do as I'm reading the scriptures is I always like to try to put myself in that person's position. I mean, think about this. If you were David and Saul was delivered into your hands and David had been trying to kill or Saul had been trying to kill you and now there's Saul laying and you could take him out instantly, what would you do if you was in David's position? Try to put yourself in that person's position and how you think you might respond. So put yourself in the position of one of the apostles or the members of the early church and think about the events that had just happened. How would you respond? I mean, if you were one of the apostles, you had left all and followed Jesus. You had believed that Jesus was the Messiah. You had believed, as John 6, 14 says, that this is the truth, that prophet that should come into the world. And so they know that the prophet that Moses talked about, that Jesus is that prophet. Also it says, when they were testifying of Christ, it says, When Christ cometh, will He do more miracles than these which this man hath done? That's in John 7, verse 31. So they believed that He was the Messiah. He was the one that was going to deliver Israel from the oppression of the Roman Empire. You followed after Him, and you believed that He was going to reestablish the throne of David. He's crucified and slain. You had left all to follow Him. You expected the kingdom to be restored. He's laying in a grave. You watched them crucify Him. You saw them scourge Him and mock Him. Yet, after He was crucified and He laid in a grave, Now He's appeared unto you. You've talked with Him. You've put your fingers in His hands. You put your hand in His side. You saw Him eat. You saw Him appear. You saw Him disappear. You've seen Him. You've talked with Him. You have become an eyewitness to the resurrection. You're trying to get your hands around the fact He that was dead is alive. You know, I mean, they had seen Lazarus be raised again by Jesus, but Lazarus had the same type of body as he had before. Jesus was different. He had a different body. You know, so they were trying to get their arms around that. And then you're wondering about the kingdom. You ask questions about that. You ask the question of when He would restore the kingdom to Israel. That's in Acts 1-6. And Jesus says not to worry about it. And He says that you will be empowered and that you will be a witness. Can you imagine what it was like for them to sit there and think, what's He mean? We'll be empowered. What's it mean? We'll be witnesses unto Him. So they're trying to get their arms around where they're at in life. Their life has gone through a tremendous change. What they had anticipated their walking with Jesus being, what they had anticipated their discipleship being, now it was all changed. And Jesus just gives them this little piece of information. Go back to Jerusalem. When you are empowered, then you'll be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world. Now we find them there in the upper room. When Jesus was crucified, we know that they were filled with fear. They were filled with doubt. Remember, that's the period of time when Peter says, I'm going back to fishing. They'd all followed after him. There was hopeless. There was a period of time. What are we going to do now? Just a few days before this, they were filled with fear and doubt and hopelessness. And now as we catch up with them in the book of Acts, we see them no longer full of fear, no longer full of doubt, no longer full of hopelessness, but we find them full of boldness, we find them full of confidence, and we find them with hope and joy in the first couple of chapters. And what caused that? The fact, the promise that Jesus is coming again. It seems to me as I read through these first couple of chapters of the book of Acts that that promise that Jesus gave them, I'm coming again, is the driving force behind their work. It's the driving force behind their labor. It seems like that they anticipated that the return of Christ was going to be soon. They expected Christ to return. That imminence of the return of Christ is what urged them to action. Remember this. Remember when Paul is talking about the resurrection to the church or about the rapture to the church at Thessalonica? He says, then we which are alive and remain. We, that means Paul, thought that he was going to be alive when the Lord returned. We are going to be alive and we remain when the trump sounds? Paul anticipated that when Christ returned, he was still going to be alive. They didn't anticipate it to be 2,000 years down the road. They anticipated that it could be at any moment. It's called the imminent return of Christ. And it was that understanding of the imminent return of Christ that urged them to action. Let's think about this. A sense of urgency always stirs us to action, doesn't it? You think about that and Well, they may say, well, in your syllabus, they may say, on April the 2nd, you're going to have a test. And on February the 2nd, you're saying, I got two months to study. That's no big deal. April 1st comes around, all of a sudden, uh-oh, I better study. That test is tomorrow. All of a sudden, you're, listen, it may not be April 1st. The day may turn over to April 2nd at 12 o'clock midnight. You might say, uh-oh, I've got a test at 8 o'clock in the morning. I better start studying. That sense of urgency always stirs you to action, right? You might think, oh, I've got till the end of the year to pay my taxes on my property, that's no big deal. I can think about that tomorrow." And then when December 31st rolls around, you're like, uh-oh, I wish I would have paid those bills. You get what I mean. A deadline always stirs us to action. So this sense of urgency that the early church had The expectation for the return of Christ is what stirred them to action. We would do well to have that same expectation. The expectation that Christ's return could be soon. And it could be. We don't know when it's going to be. For all we know, it could be another 2,000 years down the road. But it could be tonight. And really the reason that you don't have a lot of urgency in our hearts and in our lives and in doing the work of the Lord is because we really don't anticipate the Lord to return. None of us really, even though we know it's a possibility, none of us really believe that the Lord is going to return before we die. We think we're going to pass off into eternity and we're going to live out our days on this earth and even though we know that the Bible says that we could and it's preached to us that the Lord could return at any moment, we don't really believe it. So we would do well to have this sense of urgency. So, in my mind, they had this sense of urgency that the Lord is coming again and that promise that the Lord is coming again is what gave them the desire to do the work. As a matter of fact, as you study the book, you know that they really didn't spread out the way they were supposed to until persecution come. But I made three points in my message last week about the effect that the promise had on the early church. The things that, the three points that we looked at, and I'm just going to dig into them a little bit, is that it gave them the ability to live by looking beyond this life, it comforted them with hope, and it gave them boldness. And that's the three things I want to look at tonight. It gave them the ability to live by looking beyond this life. When you think about the soon return of Christ, and you know that the return of Christ could be at any moment, then you're able to look at beyond what's happening in this life and think about the life that is to come. Hersher York wrote a long article about his dad's death, which was Wallace York, who used to pastor, Wallace York pastored Ashland Avenue Baptist Church many years ago. But as he watched his dad laying there and drawing his last breaths, Wallace and Herschel did not agree on their eschatology. They did not agree on the end time events. Wallace was a dispensationalist and Herschel is a pre-millennialist. And in this article that I read that Herschel had written about his father, he said, You know, I think we missed the purpose of eschatology about all of the end time events. The Bible does not encourage us to be convinced of a system but to be comforted by a promise. So it's not so what he's saying is it's not so much about premillennialist or dispensationalist or which one's right and which one's wrong and we ought to fight these battles over that. It was that God gave us the book of Revelation so we could be comforted by the fact that Jesus is coming again. that this world is going to come underneath God's control again, and we can be comforted by the fact that this world is not our home, and that what's going on in this world is not the end, but we have a future to look forward to, and that future is in eternity with Jesus Christ, and there are promises that are ours because of that. The promise of the soon return of Christ gives us the ability to look beyond this life, to think about the life that is to come, to think about when Jesus Christ is going to reign forever and ever, and He's going to sit upon the throne of David, and He's going to rule and reign for a thousand years, and all of those things, it should cause us to be encouraged, and it should cause us to be inspired. We look beyond this life. to the life that is to come. You see, that promise of the soon return of Christ is what allows us to be comforted when holding the hand of a dying loved one. And as Wallace York called it, receive his promotion. You see, Wallace had a conversation with Herschel and he said, When it comes to that time when they're no longer able to keep me alive other than by artificial means, don't you allow them to stop me from receiving my promotion. You see, Wallace didn't consider his death as a thing to fear, but it was his promotion from this sin-cursed world to the presence of Jesus. because we have this promise that Jesus is coming again and that death has no sting and the grave has no victory, we know that this life is just temporary and we're going on to our eternal home and we're going to receive our promotion to being with Jesus. And so we can be encouraged by that and comforted when we are facing the loss of a loved one. Not only that, but we can also be inspired to work for the future. Look in the book of Hebrews in chapter number 13 for just a second. One of the things that's evident as you go through the book of Acts and you look at the life of Paul and you look at the life of the early Christians and then you look at the lives of the martyrs that has given their lives for the cause of Christ down through the ages. One thing you know for sure is they were not afraid to lay down their physical life. Hebrews 13, 6 says, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. You know that is the testimony of the martyrs down through the ages. They were not afraid, though they faced the stake. Though they knew that they would be burned at the stake, they were not afraid. Why? Because they knew that their physical suffering was but a temporary thing that was leading to eternal life. And so, they were not afraid of what men could do unto them. So when they took the early church and they said, they threw them in jail and they said, we tell you not to preach in His name anymore. What did they do? Hey, whether it's right for us to obey God or man, you be the judge. But we're going to preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Why? Because they were not afraid of what men could do unto them. They were bold enough to continue to do the work of the Lord. Because of why? They had this promise that Jesus is coming again. They had the promise that Jesus had been resurrected from the grave. And so death had no sting to them. The grave had no victory for them. So they were not afraid. They were inspired to work because they looked to the future and they were not afraid of what men could do unto them. They knew when they served the Lord that there was a crown of life that awaited them. They knew the future crowns that they had to receive. So they worked for the future and they didn't focus on the here and now. You see, knowing the fact that they were going to be an heir to it all. You see, the earth is the Lord's in the fullness thereof. The Bible teaches us that we're heirs. Join heirs with Jesus. And so there was no need for them to worry about what was happening on this earth. They didn't have to worry about riches. They didn't have to worry about seeking men's applause because they knew that when they died, they were going to be an heir to everything that was the property of Jesus. And so they were able to look beyond what was happening on this earth. While you're there in Hebrews, turn back to Hebrews 10.32. This passage amazes me. Hebrews 10.32 says, But call to remembrance the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great flight of afflictions. partly whilst you were made a gazing stock, both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly whilst you were become companions of them that were so used. For you had compassion of me and my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods. knowing yourselves that you have in heaven a better and enduring substance. And so they were not afraid to allow their goods to be spoiled because they knew in heaven was a better and a more enduring substance. They were not worried about what was going on in this world because they knew that Jesus was coming again. So that knowledge of the promise of the Lord's soon return urged them to serve Him faithfully and do the work that He had called them to do and not be worried about what happened to them in this earth. As a matter of fact, there's some passages of Scripture that we can read that tell us that they were willing to suffer for Christ. And they departed from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. Romans 8.18 says this, For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 2 Thessalonians 1.5 You see, they knew that suffering awaited them because of their following of Christ, and they were not afraid. When I say 2 Thessalonians chapter number 1 and verse number 5, which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which you also suffer. So that promise that Jesus was coming again gave them the ability to look beyond this life to the life that is to come. Even though they may suffer for the cause of Christ, they were ready and willing to do that because they knew that Jesus was coming again. So whatever man could do to them, it didn't matter. They could take away their finances, they were going to inherit it all. They could kill their body, but they couldn't touch their soul. They could look beyond what this life had to offer. And actually, you can see that what this life had to offer was insignificant to them. One of our problems today is what this world has to offer has too high a place in our lives. That may be one of the reasons we're not able to serve God as we should. So the first point, the effect that the promise of Jesus' soon return had upon them was it gave them the ability to live by looking beyond this life. Second of all, they were comforted by the hope. Look at Isaiah chapter number 26 for just a minute. Can you imagine what it was like? Every day you went in the synagogue, and every time the Word of God was opened, and the Scriptures were read, there were some Scriptures that you didn't know what they meant. You didn't know what they meant. So in Isaiah chapter number 26 and verse number 19, there's a prophecy of the coming Lord. There's a prophecy that they didn't know what it meant when it was read. And when it talks about the resurrection, they didn't know. But here you see, thy dead men shall live together with my dead body, shall they arise, awake and sing, you that dwell in the dust, for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. What does that mean, the dead shall live? What does that mean, the earth is going to cast out their dead? This is talking about the resurrection. When that was read in the synagogue, they had no idea what that meant. But now you have the early church and they can say, remember when it said in the book of Isaiah that the dead are going to live? Look at Jesus, He's alive. When they saw the 500 witnesses walking around the city of Jerusalem after the death of Christ, there you see, that's the promise of the book of Isaiah. There it is, we see it with our own eyes. What we didn't know what it means, now we know what it means. Can you imagine what that was like for them to recognize? that the words that they'd heard for so many years were now being fulfilled right before their very eyes, they were comforted by that. You know, and you turn to Job 19, but you know all of us have these thoughts and ideas about when the trumpet's going to sound and the dead in Christ are going to rise first and we all maybe having our own minds what that's going to be like. I was reading a poster in one of the English teachers classroom and it's told some characteristics of a good reader and one of them is that a good reader will visualize what they're reading. Now I don't know about you all but I kind of visualize what it's going to be like when the trumpet sounds. I kind of visualize what it's going to be like when the dead in Christ are going to rise first. And we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. I kind of visualize what that's going to be like. But one of these days, if we're alive, and that trumpet sounds, and all of a sudden we see, we're going to say, that's what that means. Well, that's exactly what the apostles were feeling when they saw the resurrected Lord. Isaiah 26. That's what that means. The dead are going to live. What did Job say? Job 19.25, when he said, For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh I shall see God. So they had this promise. How is that going to happen? How is Job going to see God in the flesh? There it is. I touched the body of Jesus. I see He had a body and it was flesh. I could touch Him. He has a resurrected body. So Job is right, his Redeemer lives and in his flesh he shall see God. How am I going to do that? I've just seen Jesus. That's how it's going to happen. You see they were comforted as they see these Old Testament prophecies that they couldn't understand before as they see them coming to fruition and it builds their faith and gives them hope. The book of Daniel now, chapter number 12 and verse number 2. and many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to everlasting contempt." What's that mean? I've just seen Jesus. I now know what that means. When you see the reality of the Word of God, it is very comforting to you. And for these early apostles, They were able to see the promises of God come to fulfillment and they were able to understand that the words of the Old Testament are true. They were comforted by that hope. Then they have the promise that when Christ returns that all the host of heaven He is going to bring with Him. So we understand They understood that their loved ones who were in Christ, who believed in the coming Messiah, they could be comforted that their families who believe were in the presence of Jesus. And they were able to recognize the fact that Jesus Christ is coming again. And then they received the promise that when He comes again, He is going to sit upon the throne of David. And so they were able to recognize that they would have victory over the wickedness of this world. They're comforted by that hope. You see, we have a real hope. I saw another post today about someone posting. I'm trying to do life right, I'm trying to live life right, and why does it seem like that my life is full of trouble and people who aren't trying to do life right, it doesn't seem that trouble hits them very often. Here's the hope that we have, and we can be comforted by this hope. We know that we have faithfully served the Lord, and we can be comforted by the fact that we know that the wickedness that is in this world is going to be destroyed, and the good that is in Jesus, we're going to have victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. We can be comforted by that, and that's the comfort that the apostles had. Their victory was real. They had real hope. And as we've already said, death had no sting for them. So how did that promise affect them? It gave them hope. And it gave them, well, I can't even remember my own point. What do you think about that? They gave them the ability to look beyond, live by looking beyond this life. And lastly, what do we see as we go back to the book of Acts in chapter number 2? Look at the change the night that they took Jesus and they took Him to crucify Him. They arrested Him. Where was Peter? He was warming himself by the devil's fire. He denied the Lord three times. The Bible says he went out and wept bitterly because he knew that he had denied the Lord three times. Peter had gone back to fishing. He'd just forsaken all that he'd lived for for the past three years and he was going back to his old way of life. But where do you see him on the day of Pentecost? Do you see him hiding in fear? Do you see him ashamed? No, you see Him standing up on the day of Pentecost. And you see Him standing and preaching the Word of God. You'll see them giving utterance to the words of God. Verse 14 of Acts 2 says, But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and said unto them, You men of Judah, and all you that dwell in Jerusalem, be this known unto you, hearken to my words. Were they afraid? Were they running? No, they were standing with boldness. Why? Because they had to promise that Jesus is coming again. They didn't understand it in the beginning. They didn't know they were afraid when Jesus was arrested. They were afraid when Jesus was taken to crucify. They didn't know. They had no idea. But now they've seen Jesus. Now they've heard His words. Now they recognize that the promise is still coming. That Jesus is coming again and He will establish His kingdom. So now they have boldness. One of the reasons they had boldness It's because they had a needed message. Acts 221 says, "...and it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." They had a message that the people needed. The promise is if people will believe, they will be saved. Now, sometimes I get caught up in people not hearing. Sometimes I get caught up in maybe parts of the work being left undone. Sometimes I worry about, am I doing all that I should do? Are we as a church doing all that we should do? But I need to remember the promise. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. Sometimes I get caught up in the unfaithfulness of church members. But here's what we know. His sheep hear His voice and they follow Him. Sometimes the reason they're not following is because they're not His sheep. And it doesn't matter what you do if they're not one of His sheep. It doesn't matter how you deliver the message. It doesn't matter how you try to make it acceptable for them. It doesn't matter what you do if they're not one of His sheep. They're not going to follow Him. And one of the things we need to make sure as a church that we don't do is we need to make sure that we don't try to make the church acceptable to people in such a way that we go away from the Word of God. We don't want to be mean and belligerent. We want to be loving and we want to be helpful and we want to be encouraging and all of that. We want to show people the way, but if they don't come, if they don't follow, if they don't hear, the reason they're not is because they're not a sheep. They may even come up and they may even say, well you guys are this and you guys are that and the reason we won't come to church is because you did this or you did that. Satan's good at giving people excuses, right? Sometimes we shouldn't get caught up in all of that. Why worry about rejection? You know, you read a lot of articles today about how church is falling out of style and that people are leaving the church by leaps and bounds. Maybe the reason they're leaving the church in leaps and bounds is because they're goats and not sheep. Because Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. So his sheep are going to hear his voice and they're going to follow. So we know we've got the message, we want to deliver the truth in love, and we know that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, but if people won't listen, and if people won't follow, they're not rejecting us, they're rejecting Jesus. You see, they had that boldness not only because they had a needed message, but because they knew that Christ would be victorious again. Because if you go back and you read that, it says, this same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven. He's coming again in like manner. He's going to come in the splendor and the glory of His Father. He's going to come as you go over to the book of Revelation and you see. He's going to come as King of kings and Lord of lords. They're able to be bold because they knew they were on the winning side. Now here's another thing. How was Jesus raised from the dead? Jesus was raised from the dead by the power of the Spirit, right? Do we recognize that we can be bold because the Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead is the same Spirit that came to empower them? Remember, and you shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you. Right? That's Acts 1-5. You shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you. Look at Romans chapter number 8 and verse number 11. What does that mean to be empowered? And what power is that? Romans 8, 11 says this, But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead... So we know that it is the Holy Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead. I don't know about you, but I would expect that the power that it took to raise up Jesus from the dead is significant. And if that same power dwells in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. So we know the same Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead is the same Spirit that quickens our dead bodies and makes us alive. But we also know that same Spirit is the Spirit that empowered the early church. And it is the same Spirit that empowers this church today. You see, they could be bold because they had the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. And the power that they had is the power that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead. And so that power has been with the church since the day of Pentecost. That power still resides with His church today. How does that seem? Well, every time that a dead soul is made alive, that power exhibits itself. Every time a church continues to persevere, because Jesus said, Lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the world, even to the end of the age. Every time a church continues to persevere, the only way it can persevere is because of the power of the Holy Spirit. So the fact that we are still here, persevering in the truth, is the fact that we have been empowered by the Holy Spirit of God. So they had boldness because they had been empowered by the Holy Spirit. I just want to give you one more thing and then we'll close. 1 Thessalonians chapter number 1 and verse number 10. 1 Thessalonians chapter number 1 and verse number 10. There we go. And to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. They could be bold because they knew that they were going to be delivered from the wrath to come. The promise of the second coming of Jesus Christ had a great impact on the early church. You see it. You see the evidence in them. How they were changed from fearful to bold. To having hopelessness to having hope. It had a tremendous effect upon them. What is that promise? What effect is that promise having on us? What effect does that promise have in your life? Does the promise that Jesus is coming again give you the ability to live by looking beyond this life? That your goals are beyond what this life has to offer? And when the world may come crashing in on you, and you may have to suffer a little or a lot, does the promise that Jesus is coming again give you the ability to look beyond this life? Does a promise that Jesus is coming again give you hope? And you don't have to live with despondency in your life. You don't have to live in depression because you have a hope that is in Christ Jesus. A hope. We're not ashamed because of that hope. And does it give you a boldness to stand up for Jesus? because you know that he's coming again and in the end he'll be victorious and that you will be delivered from the wrath to come. I pray that this message will encourage us to serve the Lord. And just like the early church was affected by the promise of Jesus' soon return, I pray that you will be encouraged by the promise that Jesus is coming again. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this opportunity we have to be in your house and learn from your Word. We pray that you'll bless the preaching of your Word tonight. Encourage your people with the truths we found in your Word. In the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.