Hunter Outreach Message 1 By David Cook

Father, thank you so much that we can have time like this to have the scriptures in our mother tongue,
heart language, read to us, to have them in our hand, to have them explained to us
and to have the Holy Spirit, the other comforter, present to open our eyes and give us understanding of these things.
Heavenly Father we pray that today won't be just like any other day but that you'll challenge us to the depths of our core
about the way we are using the rest of the days that we have on this planet. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
When I was in my last parish the local hospital was called the Western Suburbs Hospital
and I'd often be visiting parishioners there and parking of course being in the inner western suburbs of Sydney was always at a premium
but I noticed that outside the main door of the hospital there were three parking spots
with a sign that said parking for doctors only and I thought right, well that's where I'm going to park and that's where I parked
and I thought now if anybody comes up and says, oh you can't park there, I'd say I am a doctor.
I'm a doctor of the soul. I'm a physician to the eternal. No one ever stopped me and I parked there for four years without ever being stopped
but that is the truth that pastors are people who are in ministry to the soul.
Martin Lloyd-Jones was one of the best known preachers of the 20th century.
Before he went into the ministry in London he was a renowned physician.
Martin Lloyd-Jones from the year 1955 to 1968 every Friday night at Westminster Chapel in London preached his way through Romans.
You can get copies of those sermons and each one is dedicated to the enthusiastic Friday-nighters
but even then from 1968, he didn't finish Romans, he only got as far as halfway through chapter 14
but Dr Lloyd-Jones said this, he said,
I know of no greater tonic in the realm of the spirit than a thorough reading of that book.
Now here is a physician. Surely he is speaking about the letter to the Romans which he focused so much of his attention on.
No he is not. He was speaking about the book of Acts.
You are holding in your hand a great tonic in the realm of the spirit.
A thorough reading of this book is so good for your soul.
We look at vitamins, supplements and all this sort of thing but here is a great tonic.
Acts, you notice, can be easily overshadowed by its neighbours.
It's surrounded by the giants of John and Romans and very often we just pass through Acts
because Acts becomes a centre of controversy, doesn't it?
People come to Acts and say, what does it teach me about baptism?
Or what does it teach me about eldership?
Or what does it teach me about the spirit's experience?
And yet none of those things are at the core of what the book of Acts is about.
Now you're going to need much more than the words that are printed on your sheet today.
You're going to need your real Bibles so take them up please and let's start in Luke chapter 1 verses 1 to 4.
Let's go back to the very first section of Luke's Gospel
because you know that Acts is volume 2 of Luke's work of which Luke's Gospel is volume 1.
And in volume 1, Luke 1, 1 to 4, Luke tells us why he wrote the twin volumes.
He sort of repeats this again in Acts 1, 1 and 2.
Look at what he says.
Luke 1, 1.
Many have undertaken to brew up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us,
just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the Word.
Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning,
it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus,
so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.
Now notice, look at verse 1 again and notice that Luke is writing about things which have been fulfilled.
Not just things which happened but there is the fulfilment of a definite purpose.
Verse 2, he tells us that he's basing his work on reliable eyewitnesses and preachers of the Word.
Verse 3, he tells us that he has carefully investigated everything in order to set forth for us an orderly account.
And in verse 4, one of the things you notice about Luke is that as a writer he uses last words well.
Let me just read verse 4 for you in the order in which Luke wrote it in the original language.
Since you may know of the things you have been taught, certainty.
Certainty is his last word because he wants this bloke Theophilus, whose name means lover of God,
who is probably the patron who paid Luke to write this work, he wants him to have certainty.
He wants him to know that this is not fanciful, it's not made up.
You don't leave your brain at the door when you're thinking about the Christian life.
This is reliable material working towards certainty.
Now what does he want him to be certain about?
Well flip over if you would to the very last chapter of Luke's Gospel.
Have a look there at Luke 24, verses 46 and 47 because here the resurrected Lord Jesus
is reminding his apostles and others of the great truths of the Gospel.
He says, verse 46 of Luke 24, he told them, this is what is written, he reminded them,
that the Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day
and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem.
Now there it is friends, look at 46 again.
Verse 46 is an excellent summary of volume 1 Luke's Gospel,
the suffering, the death and the resurrection of Jesus.
And verse 47 is an excellent summary of the whole of the Book of Acts,
that repentance and forgiveness should begin in Jerusalem and go to the ends of the earth.
And notice that it is the certainty of the work in verse 46, the death and resurrection of Jesus,
which provide the grounds for us taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth
and calling on men and women to repent.
Without the work of Christ there would be no need to repent and there would be no means to be forgiven.
The preaching of verse 47 is only possible because of what God has done in verse 46.
And notice verse 47 explodes our parochial thinking.
We're thinking of the hunter. Good, think of the hunter.
But this is not the world. Think of the nations.
I want you to notice here in these significant verses one little word.
It's the first word in verse 47.
It is the word and. Isn't it a remarkable word?
This is God's purpose that Christ will suffer, rise from the dead on the third day and.
It is as much the purpose of God that the Gospel should reach the ends of the earth
as it is the purpose of God that the Lord Jesus should suffer, die and rise from the dead.
You deny verse 46 and you're a heretic, aren't you?
You deny verse 47 the need of the Gospel to go to the ends of the earth.
Well, that's quite orthodox, isn't it?
We excuse ourselves in Australia, would the mission fields come to us?
Africa's empty now. China's empty now, is it?
We make up all sorts. We're very creative in making up all sorts of excuses why.
Verse 47 isn't in the economy of God and God's purposes.
God's purpose is that the Gospel should go to Iran,
that the Gospel of repentance and forgiveness should go to Afghanistan and China.
It should even go into North Korea and the Netherlands and throughout the UK and Australia.
And it is as much God's purpose as that his Son should suffer, die and rise again on the third day.
Now, my son has been going in the United States to a church which is re-envisaging.
It's an American church, re-envisaging.
What does that mean?
Reconfiguring, examining every activity to make sure that everything that church does
is leading towards church planting.
Sometimes when I go to missions conferences like this in individual local churches,
they say, what can we do to lift the profile of missions in our church?
What have you got? Have you got a session of elders?
Have you got a parish council of councillors?
Who is your central decision-making body in the church? Sack them.
That's the way to promote missions in the church.
And take your missionary interest committee
and make them the central power and authority and decision-making body in the church.
Or if you don't sack them, simply take the elders and take the parish councilors
and make them the missionary interest committee
so that you judge everything in the church by the way in which it is going to promote
the cause of the Gospel getting to the ends of the earth.
Now, flip over if you would to Acts chapter 1 verse 8 because that's obviously the bridge, isn't it?
Where the Lord Jesus says, but you, he says to the apostles who receive power
when the Holy Spirit comes on you.
And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria
and notice out to the ends of the earth.
That is what is to be fulfilled.
Notice what Jesus is saying.
The Gospel is to go out. That's what it's about. That's what Acts is about.
It's the irony, isn't it, that here is a book called Acts and it's all about the Word.
It's to go to Jerusalem and Judea, that's Acts chapters 1 to 7.
It's to go Samaria, that's Acts chapters 8 to 12.
It's to go to the ends of the earth, that's chapters 13 to 28.
So that the late professor of classics at Auckland University, Ian Blakelock said,
in his summary of the introduction and his commentary to the book of Acts,
he said to press beyond the fringe is always sound policy
provided it is done with vigour and devotion.
And someone said to me, do you think Luke was married?
I'm absolutely sure Luke was married.
And I'm absolutely sure Luke had children.
Oh, how do you know he was married and had children?
Because everything important he has to say he says three times.
I'll tell you once, I'll tell you twice, I'll tell you three times.
Have you noticed that in Acts? I put in your outline there.
We're not told once that Saul was converted to become Paul.
We're told once in chapter 9 and then it is repeated in chapter 22 in Jerusalem
and then it is repeated again before King Agrippa and Festus in chapter 26.
This is a significant conversion.
And what about the conversion of the Gentile Cornelius and his family?
The Gospel is even for the outsider.
Yes, we're told in chapter 10 and we're told again in chapter 11 and then we're told again in chapter 15.
When the Jerusalem Council met to determine whether the Gospel needed additive,
whether it needed to be supplemented, we're told about their decision in chapter 15 twice and again in chapter 21.
But have you noticed in your reading of Acts that on three occasions the Holy Spirit is poured out?
In Jerusalem it is the Jewish Pentecost, chapter 2.
Chapter 8, the semi-Jewish Pentecost, the Spirit is poured out on the Samaritans.
And then in chapter 10 it's the Gentile Pentecost where the Holy Spirit is poured out on the Gentile world in Cornelius.
In other words, Luke is showing us that the key to everything which happens in this Book,
the fulfilment of the purposes of God, God has not left us on our own.
God does not need us.
God has given us His Holy Spirit.
And chapter 1 verse 8 tells us that these men are to wait until the Holy Spirit comes on them
so that they will be empowered.
They're not strong people.
They're weak and frail people just like us.
But they are open to the reception of the Holy Spirit.
It's amazing. Look at verse 4 there on one occasion.
Do not leave, Jesus said, but wait.
Do not leave Jerusalem but wait for the gift my Father promised which you have heard me speak about.
These are the men who were with Jesus, who saw the resurrected Jesus.
Surely they're ready to get out into ministry. He says, no you're not.
You wait.
You wait until the Holy Spirit has come upon you because you're ill-equipped for ministry.
Look at verse 2.
Did Jesus do things of his own power?
No, it says there, until the day he was taken up to heaven after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he was chosen.
Jesus lived and walked and ministered in the power of the Holy Spirit and he says to the apostles,
you wait until the Holy Spirit comes on you.
And what is Luke saying to us today?
Whatever is achieved, it's not because of human ingenuity.
God will glorify himself by doing his work through his Spirit empowered people.
He will work through weak and frail people and he pours out his Holy Spirit from the right hand side of God
where he has ascended.
Now I'm just going to spend the rest of our time looking at two examples in Acts to show us this for our encouragement.
Flip over if you would to Acts chapter 4.
You'll remember the setting is the first persecution of the church in Acts chapter 4.
From a familiar source, it is the Jewish ruling council, the Sanhedrin.
They are calling Peter and John the apostles to account because in Acts chapter 3
they saw a crippled beggar sitting by the gate beautiful in the temple and Luke tells us the name of the gate twice.
Get the contrast.
Here is a man who is anything but beautiful sitting beside a beautiful gate.
Here is a book about the movement of the Gospel from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth
and the first miracle is a man who can't move at all.
And this man is a severe reflection on Judaism because in the law of God to his people he said,
Let there be no beggars amongst you.
Make sure you're open-handed with one another and yet here is a man who is begging at the beautiful gate of the temple
and the Jews couldn't have cared less about him.
What a contrast it is to the church that's described at the end of chapter 2,
warmly encouraging one another, offering hospitality and sharing all the things they had.
And you remember the story.
He looked up and Peter said, What I have I don't have silver and gold for you,
but what I have I give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Walk.
And this man who had never walked and he was 42 years of age.
There is the creation of ligament and muscle.
Not only does he walk but he leaps and he praises God.
This is a remarkable miracle.
And so in chapter 4 verse 7, they had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them,
By what power or what name did you do this?
Here they are before the august assembly of the rulers of Israel.
See what they say in verse 10.
Peter stands up.
He says, Know this, you and all the people of Israel.
It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom you crucified,
but whom God raised from the dead that this man stands before you healed.
Don't you understand your own scriptures?
Psalm 118, look at verse 11.
He is the stone you builders rejected.
He was no pebble.
He is no tiny stone to be thrown away.
He is the one who is the capstone.
And I'm to tell you verse 12 that salvation is found in no one else
for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.
You are wrong to reject him and you cannot be saved
until you repent of such rejection.
There is no substitute for faith in Jesus the Messiah.
Now look at their response.
Verse 13, when they saw the courage of Peter and John,
they realised that they are unschooled.
They'd never been to college.
They were ordinary, but they were astonished.
And they took note that these men had been with Jesus.
They knew the scriptures.
Psalm 119, here they are untrained.
And yet they're quoting our scriptures back to us.
Theologically astute.
Standing before the ruling council, untrained former fishermen,
giving a story telling us.
I knew a man in Weowool.
He used to drive a wheat harvester up there.
He was totally illiterate.
And then one day someone shared the gospel with him.
He became a Christian.
And so he went along to the local Anglican church in Weowool.
And after a couple of years there, he thought there's a lot in this church
I don't like.
But I know that the Anglicans get together in a synod at Armidale.
I'd better go up there and give them a talking tool.
What's wrong with the church?
But the problem was he was illiterate.
And he realised he needed to learn to read
so that he could read the Bible and stand before them
and write a speech and preach and tell them what was wrong.
So he learnt to read.
He learnt to write.
And along he went as the representative of the Weowool parish
to the Armidale Diocese and Synod.
And he gave them a good talking tool.
And I saw the bishop a few years later.
What was it like?
He said, he certainly gave us a good talking tool.
He was unschooled, unlettered.
But we note that this man, these men, have been with Jesus.
When D.L. Moody went to England for his mighty crusades
at the end of the 19th century,
one reporter from the London Times was asked to go to the crusades
and find out the secret of Moody's success.
The reporter said this,
I can see nothing in Moody to account for his marvellous work.
That amused Moody.
There was nothing in him to account for his marvellous work.
One fine Christian, the Earl of Shaftesbury, went along
and he said, I was so impressed
because the whole thing was so unimpressive.
Moody's voice, he said, was ill-managed.
It was rough.
Yet the result was striking, effective, even touching.
Moody kept saying, the work is not mine.
Shaftesbury said, I came away realising
that the Holy Spirit can work with feeble materials.
It is Christ in him, nothing but Christ.
Don't bring your armour, just a few stones.
Not just 22,000 men Gideon, not even your 10,000, just 300.
Undegreed, unlettered, ordinary.
Look at these people in verse 13.
They are astonished.
They can't figure it out.
They were astonished at Pentecost.
There's no natural explanation.
But would you notice that Luke makes it clear for us
why these men were able to speak in the way they did?
Look at verse 8.
There's the key.
Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit,
said to them, the cowardly Peter,
now Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, courageously testifies.
Now, friends, I don't know what position you take
on Pentecostal theology.
You can take any position on Pentecostal theology you like.
Is it what you say?
Pentecostals argue from their experience.
Yes, and non-Pentecostals argue from their non-experience as well.
I've got to ask this question.
Do I have a conscious awareness of the Holy Spirit
empowering witness in my life?
It's not a matter of singing, closing your arms and doing it.
Do I know the Spirit and do I have a confidence in Him
which causes me to speak?
Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them,
the Holy Spirit is the only effective fuel for missionary zeal.
Don't engage unless it is engaging in the power
and depending on the Holy Spirit.
Now, second example, go over to chapter 6.
In chapter 6 we read there's a problem in the church.
There's some widows complaining against one another
and so deacons are to be selected.
Look at verse 3 of chapter 6.
Brothers, choose seven men from among you
who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom.
Incredible, isn't it?
It's a matter of serving on tables
and yet they need to be filled with the Holy Spirit
even to serve on tables.
Look at verse 5.
This proposal pleased them and they chose Stephen,
a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.
And then go down to verse 8.
You see, Luke is saying something, isn't he?
He's saying it again.
Now Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power.
Stephen is just no ordinary man.
Oh, he's an ordinary man but he's a man filled,
fuelled with the Holy Spirit.
And in verse 11 there's a debate
and his opponents cannot stand up to him
and so they secretly persuade, verse 11,
some men to say,
we have heard Stephen speak words of blasphemy against Moses,
against the law and against God.
And the bottom line of what Stephen has to say
before the same Sanhedrin,
if you go down to verse 51 you'll see what he says.
You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears.
You are just like your fathers.
You always resist the Holy Spirit.
Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute?
They even killed those who predicted
the coming of the righteous one
and now you have betrayed and murdered him,
you who have received the law
that was put into effect through angels
but have not obeyed it.
When they heard this they were furious
and they gnashed their teeth at him.
But look at verse 55.
It's amazing, isn't it?
But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit,
looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God
and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
Look, don't tell them what you see.
Don't tell them what you see.
You'll get into trouble.
Look, he said, I see heaven open
and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.
At this they covered their ears and came
and they stoned him to death.
But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit.
My friends, the world will always make
natural explanations, oh he's like his father,
she's like her mother,
they've got the gift of the gab.
What nonsense that is.
It is the Holy Spirit who empowers you and me
to box above our weight
and to find that even when we testify,
unenlightened intellect is never a match
for Spirit empowered testimony
and your salvation and my salvation
is testimony to that.
That is the truth.
In my case, he was a builder,
not a man of letters, he was a carpenter.
He spoke simply to him about a man
I had never heard of called Malachi
who I was told apparently was a prophet
in the Old Testament.
And Spirit enabled boldness in that carpenter
and clarity in him melted all resistance
in this young, rebellious listener.
Now my friends, don't hear me wrongly.
I am not elevating a lack of education
and a lack of preparation.
Look at the history of the church
and see how God has used education.
Ignorance does not facilitate service.
Look at great men in the church
like Teutulian and Justin and Cyprian and Augustine.
How God used their educational depth.
But what I am saying is that you can have all that
but without the Holy Spirit to empower you,
you will get nowhere.
How did the Gospel penetrate so far
into the priesthood in Jerusalem?
This Ethiopian treasurer, Cornelius,
Sergius Paulus, the Roman proconsul,
the Gentiles at Pisidian Antioch,
Lydia and the Philippian jailer at Philippi,
the Jews at Thessalonica and Berea,
Dionysius and Damaris at Athens,
the church at Corinth and the church at Ephesus.
God used fragile, weak people to enable
and enabled them when they were out of their depth.
That's the truth.
Flip back if you would to John chapter 2.
We are going to flip a bit in this talk so let's flip.
John 2, what a remarkable verse this is.
Here Jesus has just turned water into wine
and all the people want to follow him
because they have seen the sign.
Look at verse 23.
Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast,
many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing
and believed in his name.
Look at verse 24.
But Jesus, he would not entrust himself to them
for he knew all men.
He did not need man's testimony about man
for he knew what was in a man.
He used the word man there four times.
Jesus didn't need anybody to come up and say,
hey, look out for these people.
They're men.
You needn't entrust them.
He didn't need advisors like this.
He wasn't like some prime minister
surrounded by spin doctors and advisors.
And then immediately John says, now there was a man.
Well, does he know what this man needs?
Too right he does.
He says to Nicodemus, I know what you need.
You need to be born again.
Now what I'm saying to you, friends,
is that Jesus knows what we are capable of
and Jesus knows what we need.
Now flip back, if you would, to Luke's Gospel.
And in chapter 11, the disciples come to Jesus and say,
John the Baptist taught his disciples to pray.
Will you teach us to pray?
What a remarkable thing that is.
Because it's as you pray that I know what your creed is.
Your prayers reflect your belief.
And so the Lord Jesus, who knows what I need,
tells me exactly what I need to pray
and it fits my need precisely.
Look at what he says.
When you pray, pray like this.
Heavenly Father, may your name be honoured.
May your kingdom come.
Very spiritual prayer.
A right priority.
But I know that you need bread for the body.
Give us each day our daily bread.
And just as you need bread for your body, friends,
you need forgiveness for your soul.
Forgive us our sins as we also forgive everyone
who sins against us and lead us not into temptation.
The Lord Jesus understands me perfectly.
He knows that I am not made to bear the weight
of unforgiven sin and guilt.
And so he knows that I am to pray first for God's honour
and then for the forgiveness of my sin.
My own pastor in Sydney went away in January on his annual leave
and he was in the United States.
He was on a plane and he was flying from San Francisco to Washington.
There was a man sitting next to him with a little one-year-old son on his knee.
My pastor said to the man,
What have you been doing in San Francisco?
Are you going back to Washington?
Yes.
He said, We've just come so that I could introduce my son to his grandparents.
My parents have not met my son before.
Oh, my pastor said, What do you do in Washington?
I work for the US Justice Department.
Oh, what do you do for them?
I'm in the Nazi search unit.
Are you still searching for Nazis?
Yes.
Sixty-five years after the end of World War II.
Yes, we still are.
Are you still fighting?
We are, as a matter of fact.
In fact, I actually go to the door and knock on the door
and I know I'm about to find one.
And my pastor said, What response do you get?
He said, More often than not, when the door is open
and I introduce myself and tell them why I'm there,
they burst into tears and express a great sigh of relief
that at last the guilt can be dealt with.
But you're not meant to carry guilt of unforgiven sin.
And Jesus knows what's good for us.
He says, Therefore, pray for forgiveness.
Someone said, How do I know if my sins are not forgiven?
Well, I'll tell you a really good litmus test.
If you're unforgiving, then you know your sins are unforgiven.
The Siamese twin of unforgiveness is unforgivingness.
Confess your sin.
That's what Jesus is saying.
But notice he goes on.
He knows what he doesn't need advice.
He knows what's in a person.
And then he tells the story of the friend who comes at midnight.
And let's see how that finishes.
Look at verse 11.
What a marvellous verse.
Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish,
will give him a snake instead?
Now, a sort of snake and a fish, they sort of feel the same, don't they?
And so you can imagine your son saying,
Hey, Dad, could I have a fish, please?
Oh, yeah, sure, son.
And you pull out a deadly snake in there and say,
There, take that death out.
Oh, Dad, what are you doing that for?
Would you do it?
No, you wouldn't, would you?
Well, your son comes and says, Dad, could I have an egg?
That's a perfectly reasonable request.
And a sort of curled up scorpion is sort of like the shape of an egg, isn't it?
You want an egg, son?
Here, here's a curled up scorpion.
Oh, Dad, what are you doing that for?
Would you do it?
No, you wouldn't do it.
Even though you're evil, you wouldn't do it.
How much more if you then, verse 13,
though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children?
How much more will your Father in Heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him,
Yes, I need forgiveness and I need the gift of the Holy Spirit?
At the end of Acts chapter 2, they were cut to the heart and they come to Peter and they say,
What should we do?
And what does Peter say?
Repent and we baptised every one of you.
And what will happen?
God will forgive your sin and He will give you the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The great blessing of the new covenant, forgiveness and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
That's what we need.
And that is what Luke is telling us.
Jesus knew that's what you needed.
Peter, full of the Holy Spirit.
Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit.
So how can you get the Holy Spirit?
You come to Jesus.
The Pentecostal address in Acts chapter 2 is all about Jesus.
When Paul found the disciples of John the Baptist who'd never heard of the Holy Spirit,
he preached to them about Jesus.
You come to Jesus and you will have the Holy Spirit.
The old Baptist preacher, Spurgeon,
I looked at the dove and it flew away.
I looked to the cross and the dove flew into my heart.
You come to Jesus.
I sighed for rest and happiness.
How about this old hymn?
I sighed for rest and happiness.
That's what I needed.
I yearned for them, not thee.
But while I passed my Saviour by in my search for rest and happiness,
His love laid hold on me.
Now none but Christ can satisfy.
There's none other name for me.
There's love and life and lasting joy, Lord Jesus found in thee.
My friends, one of the most common words in the Book of Acts is the word,
It must happen.
But it will only happen as we walk in the power of the Holy Spirit
who mobilises us to tell people about Jesus.
I'm not interested in your attitude to Hillsong and Pentecostal theology.
Do you know the Holy Spirit?
Do you have confidence in Him to empower you to speak when you'd rather be quiet?
I was with a group.
It was a sort of university Bible study group.
It wasn't in Australia, but it was the equivalent.
Young people, they were very, very well trained, theologically astute.
And the leader said to the group, here was the question,
How can we get courage to witness more?
And the questions came around, we need to pray, that's true.
We need to encourage one another, that's true.
We need to make ourselves accountable and report about our witnessing.
All that's true.
Anything else?
No.
Nothing else?
No.
Nothing.
Right.
Next question.
Next question.
Next question.
How can I box above my weight?
Yes, pray.
Yes, make yourself accountable.
Seek God.
Heavenly Father, I know that you do not have one taint of evil in you.
I can imagine that a father would give a snake to his son's request for a fish.
I can even imagine that a father would give a scorpion to his son's request for an egg.
But in you, there is no wickedness.
And how you love to hear your children come to you and say, give me the Holy Spirit.
That's what Luke's on about.
Are you walking in the power of the Holy Spirit, the other comforter,
and he's urging you to say no to sin and to speak up in your witness.
I said, you know, that Luke uses last words well.
Look at the very last word of the Book of Acts.
Let me read it to you, that last verse in the Book of Acts in the order in which Luke wrote it.
This is how it goes.
He, Paul, verse 31 of Acts 28, he preached the kingdom of God
and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ boldly and unhinderedly.
That's how it finishes with an adverb.
Unhinderedly.
The Gospel is going to reach the ends of the earth.
And it won't do so in ways that will glorify us that we can brag about the statistics.
The Gospel will reach the ends of the earth in the power that God provides to us
through the person of the Holy Spirit.
And Luke says, Peter, filled with the Spirit.
Stephen, filled with the Spirit.
In the front of my Bible, I've got my favourite hymn.
I've got my favourite letter to the editor of the Sydney Morning Herald.
And I've got this saying which I like to read every day.
This is what it says.
When I reach the end of my days, a moment or two from now,
I must look backward on something more meaningful than the pursuit of houses and land
and stocks and bonds and machines.
I will consider my earthly existence to have been wasted unless I can recall a loving family,
a consistent investment in the lives of people
and an earnest attempt to serve the God who made me.
Nothing else makes much sense.
Did you hear that?
A loving family, a consistent investment in the lives of people
and an earnest attempt to serve the God who made me.
All in the power of the Holy Spirit whom I receive because my sins are forgiven
because of the crucified, dead, resurrected and ascended Jesus.
Let's pray.
Continue to watch over us, our Heavenly Father,
as we make sure that we are investing our lives for your Kingdom
and please, please develop in us a real confidence in the other Councillor,
the Comfort of the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit.
We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.