Pointing to Christ
Acts 1:8
October 10, 2004
Introduction
Glen Holland was an aspiring composer who had a dream of writing the great American symphony but along the way he takes a detour. He takes a temporary job as a music teacher until he can devote his full efforts to writing his music. As he teaches his students, he does only what was required, by his contract and gives little extra effort to anything but writing his music.
The principal of the school notices this trend in his behavior and gives him a gentle reminder of the purpose of teaching. Here is a scene from Mr. Holland’s Opus.
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Mr. Holland was fantastic in the knowledge area but he was stuck as a compass. He was not guiding the lives of his students in ways that helped them live their lives. I think that there is an important lesson here for us as Christians. We too are to act like compasses for the lives of others but not to point north. We are meant to live our lives in such a way that we point out Christ.
How do we accomplish pointing out Christ? How do we show the world the life changing power of Jesus? We have to tap into the power that Jesus has for us before we can truly impact the world around us.
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Body
I. Jesus wants to make your life more dynamic
But you will receive power
Jesus has something more for you. Jesus gave the disciples a precious and personal promise. The work that He started was far from over and that was a good thing. Look at the disciples. They abandoned Jesus the night He was arrested. Thomas has serious problems with doubts. Peter and the disciples went back to fishing.
There was a lot of work to be done in the lives of those simple men and women. They were ordinary and average. They were everyday run of the mill type of people. There was not one of them that was a standout. This should give you a lot of hope. What was it that made these disciples so great? It was the power of Jesus at work in them. If Jesus can use a tax collector to write a gospel, He can use you. If Jesus can use a man who was more like a pebble than a rock to build the church, He can use you. If Jesus can use a few fishermen to change the world, He can use you.
Jesus wants you to receive something more. This word receive literally means to take or to gather but not in a selfish or greedy way. It means to take what is already yours. A good example of this is when the Fed Ex guy stops at the house and delivers a package to me. The job that guy is doing is bringing to me what is already rightfully mine and all I have to do is accept it. Jesus is saying here that there is more that belongs to us as believers, all we have to do is gather it in.
Jesus understood it would take power to change a persons life and He makes what you need available. In fact, He sends it “Fed Ex”, ready to be received. All you have to do is accept it.
The word that Jesus uses here for power is the Greek term dunamis, which is where we get our English words dynamite and dynamic. The meaning is to be given the strength or the ability to perform a certain task.
Jesus understood that we would need more power in our lives to make them dynamic for Him. Jesus sends the ability or the strength that we need through the work and person of the Holy Spirit.
Have any of you ever watched the television show Home Improvement? Tim Allen plays a goofy, home improvement show host Tim Taylor, who constantly is wanting to improve different appliances and gadgets with more power. His results are usually less than stellar. This is in essence what Jesus wants to do in your life, infuse it with more power, so you can have the ability to live for Him. Jesus gives us the power so you can accomplish what you could never do on your own.
It is the power that breaks bondages. If you are living with something in your life that is in control of you, you are in bondage. It is garbage that needs to go from your life, Jesus gives the power to take out the trash.
It is the power that gives courage
It is the power that gives confidence
II. Jesus wants to fill you with a grand display
When the Holy Spirit comes on you
Christ reveals the power of the Holy Spirit because the Spirit was His partner in ministry. Just think about what the Spirit did in the life of Jesus.
· Pre-birth: The Spirit conceives Jesus in the womb
· Pre-ministry: The spirit protects and anoints Jesus like a dove
· Ministry: The Spirit gives Jesus the power He needs to live a sinless life
· Post- death: The Spirit raises Jesus from the dead
Jesus promises the disciples something extremely special
1. The presence of God within them
2. The person of God with them
3. The power of God through them
Jesus came to this earth because He would rather die than be without you. Salvation is the reason that Jesus came but the simple truth is this Jesus wants more for you. For those of you who are believers and you feel like something is missing in your life, you’re searching for sanctification. It is not enough for you to just be saved, the Spirit want to sanctify you.
What is sanctification?
Sanctification is the process that the Spirit uses to
1.) Make you holy – Holiness is being set apart for the work and use of God
2.) Make you pure – Salvation removes the guilt of sin from your life and sanctification removes the stain of sin from your life.
3.) Make you perfect – John Wesley: Sanctification is the giving of a perfect love for God
Salvation is a free gift through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Sanctification is free grace through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. God fills the life of the believer with the abundance of His personal blessing by filling you with the Holy Spirit. How much more blessed can we get, than to have the presence of Christ in our hearts and the presence of the Spirit within our souls? It is a double portion of God’s power and presence.
III. Jesus wants to see a personal demonstration
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
Why would Jesus go to all this trouble? To make you ready for use for His purpose in His Kingdom.
Our English word witness comes from an Old English word we do no use very much anymore but we used it in Elizabethan times and afterwards. It is the word wit. ‘To wit’ means ‘to know’ A ‘wit’ is ‘a knowledgeable person.’ So a ‘witness’ of some who knows something and testifies to it.”...
Jesus is calling for us to be His witnesses. He calling for us to stand and share the knowledge of Him with a lost and dying world and to get it done we need the power only He can give and the Holy Spirit within us.
This means that we cannot sit around and keep the message of Jesus to ourselves. We have to go out and share the knowledge with others. This has been a problem for the church as a whole because we have become content with being keepers of the aquarium rather than fishers of men.
Jesus told the disciples that they would need to go spread the news of Him in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth. There are some principles that I believe we can take from this and apply to Mt. Orab.
Jerusalem: This is your community or your neighborhood
Judea: This is your region or state
Samaria: This is your nation or country
Ends of the earth: This is an impact on the entire world.
All of these are needed to effectively change the world for Christ and it all starts with changing your corner of it.
Jesus is searching for people he can use to change the world, what an absolute pity we settle for doing what we feel comfortable with.
