This Bible study was recorded at Calvary Chapel
of the Finger Lakes and was taught by
Pastor Bill Gallatin.
This evening we begin with the Book of
Acts, Chapter 1, Verse 1.
The Book of Acts.
Let's bow our hearts before the Lord.
Father, we ask that by the Holy Spirit
You would enable us to receive those things
that You have for us tonight.
Lord, that You might speak clearly through Your
Word, that we might be able to share
in such a way, Father, that You could
touch every heart here tonight.
Lord, that it come of their own will,
because of their love for Christ, a desire
to grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ
and an understanding of the love of Jesus
Christ and the work and the power of
the blessed Holy Spirit in the church and
in our lives.
So, dear Lord, we invite You now to
be glorified, to minister to our hearts by
the power of Your Holy Spirit as you
study the Book of Acts together.
May Jesus be glorified in Your name be
magnified, Father.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
You're going to have to bear with me.
The pollen is so high it's affecting the
microphone.
It never ends with me, does it?
I've never, in all the years I've been
living in New York, had gotten a sinus
infection from allergies.
So there's a first here.
It really must be quite high.
OK, the Book of Acts.
We know without a doubt it's written by
Luke.
Tradition has it that his reference to Theophilus
here in the first verse...
Theophilus means loved of God.
Now, it could be a general reference to
whoever's reading this.
Oh, loved of God.
And that is wonderful to know that we
are all loved of God in the New
Testament and the epistles in the New Testament
are all written to those that are loved
of God.
That's you and I.
But the general consensus, and I agree with
it, is Theophilus is a person and tradition
has it that he was an extremely wealthy
man.
And that Luke, the only Gentile writer of
the New Testament, was his slave and he
purchased Luke's freedom.
And Theophilus was also a very dear friend
of the Apostle Paul.
And because of the Apostle Paul's ministry and
travels and constant infirmities and sicknesses and problems,
Luke being a physician, Theophilus gave him his
freedom and then allowed him to travel with
Paul in his ministry to care for him
and to watch over him.
It's interesting also that Paul having the power
of the Holy Spirit and the miraculous working
in his life, but in his own personal
life as he prayed for others in a
dynamic way, and we have the record of
it, in his own personal life, it caused
him to depend upon God.
There are many times when God supernaturally did
not heal him and he needed Luke.
We also know that these accounts are very
descriptive and accurate.
Luke writing one of the Gospels, not being
an eyewitness.
It's interesting God did choose him because being
a physician and a doctor, he would be
very exact in writing down facts and receiving
facts.
And so Luke probably did much interviewing of
eyewitness accounts of the things that took place
in the Gospels and being a physician, having
a very clear mind and a mind that
would be very careful in writing down the
facts, did write them down in the Gospel
of Luke.
And then he's writing here, making reference to
it.
It's interesting he ends it by, in Luke,
you know, he makes the reference where Jesus
tells the Apostles to carry in Jerusalem until
they be endued with power from on high.
And now he carries right over into the
book of Acts, in this treatise that he
writes, and he begins it by saying that
this is going to take place where he
gives us the record of this outpouring of
the Holy Spirit which takes place on Pentecost,
or the baptism that we refer to as
the Holy Spirit.
He begins by saying, the former treatise, have
I made O Theophilus, or O Beloved of
God.
Now you can insert your name there.
Now stop and think of this, that God
loves you so much that he's written all
these letters.
These are love letters of God's grace, mercy,
and assurance to you.
You're just as beloved as Theophilus.
Jesus loves you just as much.
And so he's had the Holy Spirit write
these things for your edification, for your encouragement,
for your hope, for your assurance.
And especially when he brings out the beauty
of the work of the Holy Spirit.
It's going to work in your lives.
Something that we have that's such an advantage
over the Old Testament saints.
The indwelling person of the Holy Spirit to
enable us to obey the commandments of God,
to give us the power over sin, to
give us the power that we naturally don't
have to resist temptation, to flee the temptation,
to live the Christian life.
And having God Almighty living within us, the
person of the Holy Spirit, enabling us to
live the life.
And so this wonderful letter to bring out
the work of the Holy Spirit in the
apostles after Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
So, O Theophilus, I'm writing to you of
all that Jesus began both to do and
to teach.
And there he's making reference, naturally, to the
book of Luke because he was bringing out
the accounts of all the things that Jesus
Christ did and did teach in the Gospel
of Luke.
Until the day in which he was taken
up, after that he, through the Holy Ghost,
had given commandments unto the apostles whom he
had chosen.
Now, there's a direct reference here that there
must be some specific level of apostleship of
the original eleven.
We will exclude Jude because he betrayed Christ,
even though Jesus can pick him.
Now, it tells us in Ephesians that one
of the gifts of the church is an
apostle.
And then it goes on to list people
that are gifted by God, given to the
church during the church age for the edifying
of the saints.
And it's interesting when it says apostles, prophets,
evangelists, pastors and teachers, it doesn't say that
they're given for the salvation of souls.
Even evangelists are given to the church for
the edifying of the body of Christ.
God does the saving, and these gifted men,
but even though there are apostles, and I
believe there are apostles in the church today.
There are apostles that don't make American newspapers
and the denominational monthly magazines because of healing
services and large crowds and stadiums with praise
bands and publicity programs and great, you know,
organizations behind them.
There are men that are probably walking around
the jungles of South America and Africa.
You know that we'll never hear of until
rain glory doing the same thing.
Raising people from the dead through prayer and
doing the things of the book of Acts.
But I do not believe that there are
any men that come to the same level
as the original apostles, because Luke here makes
mention of these eleven men that Jesus had
picked.
And I'll bring out something out later to
give you the reason why I think that
no one will equal those twelve men, even
though there are apostles.
Now, the word apostle means one who is
sent out.
But clearly, I don't believe today there are
any men that have the anointing or the
ministry that these original men have.
And here's a reference.
He had given commandments unto the apostles whom
he had chosen.
So, remember, he had many disciples and he
went up into a mountain to pray.
Remember, before he picked these twelve men, he
spent all night in prayer, you remember, alone
on one of the mountaintops overlooking the Sea
of Galilee.
Out of all the disciples, then he came
down off that mountain, you remember, and multitude
gathered around him.
But then he drew aside and he picked
his disciples, or his twelve apostles, Judas being
one of them.
Amazing, isn't it?
Because he knew what Judas was and what
he would do.
But it just shows you, again, the sovereign
power and control of God over everything.
That it didn't hurt the glory of God
or hinder the kingdom at all to have
someone like Judas in the original twelve.
Didn't hurt at all.
Nothing really upsets God's agenda.
Nothing can set aside God's program of redemption
in the coming kingdom and the finalization of
everything in time and Jesus Christ returning and
setting up His kingdom.
And nothing can really hinder the work of
God in your life as you submit your
life to Jesus Christ, no matter what Satan
may attempt, no matter what kind of a
Judas the enemy may bring into your life.
But Jesus Christ has it all under control.
That's how secure you are when you put
your trust in your faith in Jesus Christ.
And then, after he had chosen them, Luke
shows us that Christ gave the commandments, gave
his life, rose from the dead.
And then he goes to verse three, "...to
whom also he showed himself alive after his
passion by many infallible proofs."
In other words, it cannot be refuted.
"...being seen of them forty days."
In other words, appearing in his resurrected, glorified
body for forty days.
Many times, you remember, he appeared first to
Mary Magdalene and Mary at the tomb.
Then he appeared to Peter.
He appeared to the two disciples walking along
the road to Emmaus and gave them a
magnificent Bible study and then had a meal
with them.
He appeared to a handful of the disciples
of the Sea of Galilee and cooked breakfast
with them and ate breakfast with them, had
some fish and bread with them, showing that
he wasn't a ghost or a phantom or
a spirit, that he had a glorified body
and he ate food.
We know that he appeared, as Paul tells
us in the end of 1 Corinthians 15,
to above five hundred people at once.
Now, in our system of law, to convict
a man of a crime, you only need
two eyewitnesses of an event that are in
agreement.
Two or three at the most, and you
can convict a man of a crime if
they are eyewitness and they line up.
And it's amazing, the eyewitness accounts, the many
infallible proofs and records that we have on
hand of the risen Christ, and yet today
people doubt the resurrection.
And again, it's the act of the will.
There are more documents verifying the resurrection of
Jesus Christ, him being seen by credible witnesses,
eating meals, conversing, scholarshipping, and even when he
appeared to Thomas, you remember, he came out
of the fifth dimension into our dimension and
passed through the wall and manifested himself.
And he told Thomas, you know, put your
fingers in my wound, put your hand in
my thigh, because Thomas, you know, had doubted
and said, I will not believe unless I
see the wounds in his side.
And Jesus was there in his invisible form,
listening, you remember, and so then he stepped
into the room and then he had a
meal with him and he told him, he
said, you can feel my body.
Does the spirit have flesh and bone?
And sinners remember, he didn't include blood, because
in the glorified body, blood won't be the
life.
We will be spirit.
You won't need blood in your glorified body,
and there is no blood in Christ's glorified
body.
He said, does the spirit have flesh and
bone?
But he has a body, a glorified body,
as Paul lays out clearly in 1 Corinthians
15.
We will be given a glorified body fit
for the heavens that will live eternally, never
to grow old.
I looked at a brother today, you know,
he's been fellowshiping with us.
We have kind of grown together here at
Calvary Chapel for the past fifteen or sixteen
years.
I said, we're growing, you know, we're growing
old, getting great together, Jim.
He says, yeah, and we're not even using
Grecian formula.
Well, no need for that up there.
Just a body that will never age, or
weaken, or be fatigued.
And these mortal bodies, sometimes, you know, just
this sinus infection, just, I don't know what
it is, but your immune system's fighting it,
and you're sneezing, and your nose is running,
and stuff's pouring out of the, you know,
luck in your eyes.
And at the end of the day, you're
just exhausted just from sneezing and sniffing.
I said, boy, there won't be like that
in glory.
I'll be able to smell flowers up there.
It's going to be wonderful.
Glorified mold, and it won't bother me.
It's just going to be great.
But many, many infallible proofs.
It's an act of the will, isn't it?
People don't believe because they don't want to.
It's not that you can't.
It's a choice.
I mean, every single person in this room,
if you've gotten to high school, has been
given some sort of a course in history,
and you've been given some facts about some
great historical figure, whether he's been a good
person or a bad person, he's been great.
Or she has been great.
And she's made, or he's made his mark
on history, right?
And it's so old in history, you don't
even have a photograph.
All you do is have what someone says,
well, this is what a Narda said he
looked like in those days, in the 1600s,
and you believe that they existed, don't you?
You accept it as fact.
You incorporate it into your life, and you
go on with your older life, and with
your education, believing that Napoleon existed, that the
king of whoever existed, that Attila the Hun
existed.
Yet, there's no photograph.
You've never met anybody that had dinner with
him.
Why do you believe that they existed?
Because somebody said they existed, wrote some evidence,
and it's in a book somewhere, and there's
a witness that said, yes, he existed.
And somebody drew some kind of a character
or a picture that said he lived.
Got him on a horse or something.
And it's in your history books, and you
accept it as fact.
And he's not even the savior of the
world.
He may not even be good.
He may be a despot, a horrible but
a powerful man, and he's in your history
books.
You accept that man is living, that woman
is living, as a very fact of life.
And yet, there's more infallible proof of the
living Christ, that Jesus Christ conquered death, the
savior of the world.
He can save your soul, and people wrestle
with it and doubt it.
They say, I need more facts.
It's unbelievable.
Now, why is that the case?
Because with Jesus, there's a sin issue.
I can believe that Horus, the great Greek,
or Pluto, or Caesar, or Attila the Hun,
or Napoleon.
You see, it's not a sin issue.
When it comes to Jesus, there's a personal
sin issue.
I have to reckon with that.
And so, other than face my personal sin
in dealing with Jesus Christ, I just say,
I don't believe it.
I believe that Napoleon's real.
I even believe that Santa Claus is real.
So, many infallible proofs.
Being seen of them forty days, and speaking
of the things pertaining to the kingdom of
God.
Jesus Christ laying out that one day he's
going to return and set up his blessed
kingdom on this earth.
Right now, Satan's ruling this earth.
And as you look at the world today,
as he's trying to draw the world together,
economically and politically.
You know, it's interesting to watch the stock
market and see that America is being sucked
into Europe and Asia, and we can't let
go or we'll collapse.
You know, they're talking about, you know, the
great economy, but the only reason the stock
market is exploding above 8,000 is that
we are now so inclined with Asia and
Europe that we can't isolate ourselves.
We're not great enough to get out of
that market now and survive.
And the greatness of the stock market is
because of money from Asia and Europe, and
we're being caught right up into it, and
we can't afford to let go.
We're part of it.
This new world order, a unified world and
a new economy, and everything being tied together.
You see, and Satan, that one day, through
electronic funds transfer and computer technology, he'll just
start throwing switches and you won't go anywhere.
You won't get money out of the bank.
You won't have your heat in your home.
You won't get in the hospital.
He's going to control the whole world.
I've got, I'm circulating it through the pastors,
a new patent in the patent office in
Washington, D.C., of a microfilm, or actually
it's so thin, you can almost see through
it, it's so thin, a chip that they
can now implant in the hand, a computer
chip, that wherever you go now, they can
take your blood type, your body temperature, your
pulse, and your medical record, and you can
show it and get it in any hospital
in the world.
You won't even know it's under your skin,
and it's in the patent office now in
Washington, D.C. We are rapidly approaching that,
and Satan's going to control the world that
way.
Jesus said, you remember when Satan offered him
all the power and the glory and the
money and wealth of the world, if he
bowed down and worshipped, you know, get thee
behind me, Satan.
Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and
him only.
And what he was telling Satan is, you
should be worshipping me, the Lord your God.
And he rejected Satan's kingdom, Satan's offer.
But it's coming to an end.
And Jesus gives this marvelous, wonderful hope of
a kingdom that when he returns, that he
establishes in righteousness, in peace, in joy.
It's going to be glorious.
This marvelous kingdom that Jesus Christ will establish
as he fulfills his promises to Abraham, the
Mosaic Covenant, and the Davidic Covenant.
And being assembled together with them, commanded them
that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but
wait for the promise of the Father, which
saith he, you have heard of me.
Now, that's not the promise of salvation.
Jesus had already offered that through himself.
They'd already experienced their salvation.
The promise of the Father, you remember in
Luke 11, was the promise of the baptism
and the power of the Holy Spirit.
The promise that Joel spoke of in Joel
chapter 2, verse 28, in the last days
he would pour out his spirit upon all
flesh.
This promise of the Father that they needed
to be the witnesses that they needed to
be.
It was a promise from the Father.
That's a wonderful thing to know that God
has made a promise to you that you
can receive the power of the Holy Spirit
and you just receive it by faith.
For John truly baptized with water, but you
shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not
many days hence.
Well, probably just about ten more days until
Pentecost.
Jesus had been showing himself forty days and
ten more days would be the day of
Pentecost.
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the formation
of the church, every believer having that opportunity
to receive the power and the fullness of
the Holy Spirit.
Now, John gave the baptism of water, you
remember.
In fact, John himself, when he spoke of
Jesus, said, you know, I baptize in water,
but there's one coming.
It was the baptism of repentance.
You're burying the old life.
We're going to have that water baptism shortly
down at Canaan, Jake, and Malay.
It's the burying of the old life, doing
away with the old, putting it to death,
and then coming up out of that water
in the new, a signal of that new
life and typifying the resurrection.
That Jesus Christ promises.
But he said, there's someone coming that's going
to baptize you with fire.
I'm not even worthy to unlatch his sandals.
I can dunk you in the water.
I'll baptize you with water, but I don't
have the power to baptize you with this
fire, this Holy Ghost.
Jesus is the baptizer.
He's the one that will do that, and
it's through the promise of the Father.
And isn't it wonderful to know, as we
go through this, you can receive the baptism
of the Holy Spirit simply by faith, receiving
it the same way you do your salvation,
by faith.
In just a few days coming, they received
the very promise.
They didn't know what was going to happen.
They were just told away.
They had no idea.
And so, by believing what God said, they
applied it to their lives, anticipated, and they
waited upon it.
And he didn't say exactly how many days.
That's another wonderful thing.
Thank God they didn't get frustrated after two
or three days.
Ah, the promise isn't coming, and it just
goes their way.
They wanted it bad enough that they waited
on it until they received it.
Now, remember, they had already had the indwelling
spirit.
In John chapter 20, before this time, before
Jesus Christ brought them to this point, you
remember, he breathed on them and said, Receive
ye the Holy Spirit.
So, they already had the spirit dwelling within
them.
Jesus said in John chapter 7, that when
you drink of this well, remember, that I
offer you this living water, it will be
like a gusher coming up inside of you,
and you can be filled with this spirit.
The filling of the spirit from the inside
is to conform you into the image of
Jesus Christ, to give you that ability to
have the grace of God in your life
and the attributes of God.
It's filling you up.
When you fill a vessel with a liquid,
and whatever stain or color it is, and
you look at that liquid and that vessel,
you can see what's in it.
OK, you're filled with the spirit of God.
Then you see the fruit of the spirit
in your life.
Remember, receive ye the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 1.13, Paul said, After you believe
on the salvation of Jesus Christ, the spirit
of God comes within you and seals you
until the day of redemption.
That has already happened to the apostles.
But now, they need to be totally immersed
from the outside.
Power from on high.
The spirit has to come upon them.
Now, what's he mean?
What's baptized mean?
It means to immerse.
When you're water baptized, you're totally immersed in
that water, a type of the great.
You're going under, you disappear.
The old man's gone.
You're buried.
You come up anew out of the water.
You've been totally immersed in it, and you're
changed.
It's from the Greek term where they dye
garments, and they would baptize the garments when
they give them the color.
They take a garment, maybe it's bland with
no color whatsoever.
They totally immerse it in a vat, a
certain color.
That's called, they baptize it, and they put
it down underneath the liquid.
Totally immersed in it.
They bring it out.
It would be different.
When you're water baptized, you're burying the old
man.
But now, God wants to totally immerse you
in the Holy Spirit.
Totally immerse you that when that's taken place,
you're a different person.
It gives you the power to be a
witness.
When they, therefore, were come together, they asked
of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this
time restore again the kingdom to Israel?
See, that was their concern.
You remember, even before Jesus Christ was crucified,
they thought he was going to restore the
kingdom then.
They were looking for the promise of Abraham.
They knew some of the scriptures, and when
Jesus was announcing to them who he was,
they thought right then the kingdom was going
to be restored.
They wanted it then.
Well, who wouldn't?
I want it now.
I don't want to wait.
God only knows who's going to be the
next president.
It doesn't matter what party they are, whether
they're a conservative or a liberal socialist.
You know, they can label themselves whatever they
are, but we're almost now the United States
of the world.
We're no longer just the United States of
America.
We're going to, in the next few years
before the rapture of the church, mark my
words, you might even see different terminology for
America.
With this new educational system, outcome-based education.
You can't just be a black man or
a white man or have a German background.
You've got to be an Afro-American or
a Spanish-American or a German-American.
Why can't you just be an American?
You see, because they want to do away
with America.
With all real nationality and pool the whole
world, the brotherhood of man.
That's the last age before the rapture of
the church.
What they're doing is dumbing down the United
States to sweep us all up into this
new world order, the brotherhood of man.
There's no nation, no identity anymore.
We're just all pooled together in the new
world order.
Under one big, massive government.
Under a social system with one number to
buy and sell for passport, insurance, car rental,
air travel, automobile, gasoline, food, hospitalization.
It's right around the corner.
I wouldn't mind Jesus coming back today.
Just think.
Look how glorious it is living in that
kingdom that no one knows about now.
Just being directed by the Holy Spirit now.
Having his will done on this earth in
my life.
My life's not out of control anymore.
It's not chaos anymore.
The will of God's being done in my
life.
It's not perfectly.
Far from it.
But so much.
Oh, it's so glorious and so restful, so
wonderful to be in the Lord's kingdom, to
be directed by his spirit.
I love it.
So, they said, Lord, are you going to
restore the kingdom now?
Now that you're risen, is this it?
You know, they want it.
He said unto them, well, it's not for
you to know the times and the seasons
which the Father hath put in his own
power.
You see, that was almost 2,000 years
ago and they were nowhere near the second
coming.
They had no idea what God had planned
for the future with their lives and many
generations afterward.
They had no concept.
Remember, Jesus taught, I think in Luke, also
of the man in his parable where he
went away and he assigned talents to certain
individuals that they would trade and he said,
occupy until I come.
Make busy.
Be a wise steward over the things that
I've given you and bring an increase until
I return again.
Stay busy.
Even though he gave the truth of the
second coming, he didn't say, now just sit
around and try not to sit and wait
for the rapture.
He gave each individual in the parable a
certain responsibility and amount of money and he
said, now I want you to increase it.
I want you to deal with it in
such a way that it's for my kingdom
and it brings glory.
I'll meet your needs.
I will bless you.
Occupy.
Make busy until I come.
Jesus Christ is not slothful.
In fact, in Jesus Christ's kingdom, and it's
different from every religion on earth, did you
know that in many religions on the earth
it's actually spiritual to be a beggar?
Especially in Hinduism, there are men that are
almost worshipped and are nothing but beggars.
They wander around India begging.
Jesus said, there's no beggars in my kingdom.
Work.
Occupy until I come.
You glorify God by working and serving and
being busy with active faith, being a productive
person in your society.
In fact, he wrote to Paul in 2
Thessalonians 2.
He said, if a man doesn't work, he
shouldn't even get food from the church.
If he doesn't work, he calls himself a
brother.
He shouldn't eat.
God doesn't want lazy people.
He wants people bringing in glory and he
gives the power.
Don't be thinking of the second coming all
the time.
Don't be sitting around waiting for the rapture
of the church.
It's coming.
It's God's time.
But there's other things that are important.
There are people that are perishing.
There's a darkened world that needs to see
the light of Christ in your life in
an active way, in a normal, everyday situation.
Someone who will be responsible with love and
responsibility and integrity.
So, occupy.
Don't worry about that right now.
That day will come.
Then he goes on to say in verse
8, You shall receive power after that the
Holy Ghost is come upon you.
And you shall be witnesses unto me both
in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in
Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the
earth.
It's going to start in your own personal
life, in the city of Jerusalem.
It's going to spread out.
He knew that persecution was coming.
As they began to express their faith, their
persecution would come from the Pharisees.
They'd be driven to Judea, to Samaria, and
then the uttermost parts of the earth as
the apostles were driven further and further away
from the land of Palestine.
Now, what is the power that Jesus Christ
is speaking of?
What is the power of the Holy Spirit?
It's love.
That's the greatest power, you see, of the
church.
That's the power that holds things together.
You know, I haven't seen a supernatural healing
save a marriage, but I've seen love save
a marriage.
I've seen people that both have the gift
of tongues and it hasn't saved their marriage.
But love saves a marriage.
See, that's the greatest power we need.
And the power to be a witness, and
the word witness there is martyr, or you
have so much love in your life from
Jesus Christ that you're not afraid to die
for Jesus Christ or for the sake of
love.
That's the power.
And I think again, as I look at
the church, I look at some lives, I
look at the failures in my own life
in the past, going after the wrong kind
of power, not understanding the mistakes I've made.
I thank God that I realize now the
greatest power that there is, is the power
of love through the Holy Spirit, the fruit
of the Spirit.
And that's what Jesus Christ is interested in.
You see, Satan can't combat that.
He's always trying to destroy.
He cannot destroy the love of Jesus Christ.
Nothing can separate you or us from the
love of God in Christ Jesus.
Many of you have had some real hard
times in your life, had some real crises
and some powerful experiences that have been satanic
and negative.
If it wasn't for the love of Jesus
Christ, you wouldn't have survived literally.
You know, I love miracles.
I've seen miracles.
I've had miracles in my own life.
I've seen a lot.
But as I measure it all now, the
greatest power, and it's exactly what Jesus says,
you're going to need the power of love
to go on, because love stops you from
quitting, from giving up.
In the beginning of Jesus Christ's ministry, there
were miracles that you couldn't even fathom.
I mean, some of them are recorded here.
And the multitudes went running after him.
It's sensational.
The crowds wanted to see food multiplied, lame
walk, blind get their sight.
They'd heard about him.
They'd run around and see a Galilee.
It's just like you see today when so
-and-so may have some dynamic ministry and
do no fault of his own.
They'll go for miles to fill the auditorium
to see something sensational.
And yet, some of these very same people,
after they've seen those miracles a couple years
later, you find out they're divorced.
They're not living together.
They're drinking again.
They're back into whatever.
So, you see, miracles are great, but without
love, without that power, you can't continue.
You can't go on.
It's the greatest power there is.
So, he said, now this is very important.
Get that power of the Holy Spirit that
will fill you with the love of Jesus
Christ.
And you shall be witnesses.
Not only in Jerusalem, you'll be a witness
in Judea.
If you lose your job again, and you're
forced to move to Samaria, you'll still be
a witness for me.
If you even have to go to another
country, you'll be a witness for me.
You'll be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and
the uttermost parts of the earth.
No matter where you go, because of the
love and the power of the Holy Spirit,
you'll continue.
Remember, Jesus said, continue ye in my love.
I think we have to ask ourselves, some
of us, we reflect back when we got
saved, are we apprehending more of the love
of Jesus, the purity of Jesus, in our
actions toward each other?
How quick we forgive.
The tone of our voice in an argument.
Our attitudes.
Are we really continuing in the love of
Christ?
Are we growing in the love of Christ?
Are we just speaking tongues now?
Have we got some doctors under our belt?
I've been on a mission trip, and it's
exciting.
Now I'm back.
Now what do I do?
You see, the love of God is so
wonderful.
It's powerful.
When he had spoken these things, while they
beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud
received him out of their sight.
Just as he was there, sharing these last
few things with him, the importance of love,
and the power that just immersion of the
Holy Spirit will do for you.
The Shekinah presence of God came down, and
up he went, back to the Father.
You remember in Exodus chapter 40 verse 34,
when Moses erected the tabernacle in the wilderness,
it says the Shekinah cloud of God came
down upon the tabernacle, the presence of God,
and all of his glory.
It says Moses couldn't even enter in.
He had to wait for a while until
God's Shekinah had settled.
He couldn't enter in, as the cloud came
down upon him.
In 1 Kings, I think it's chapter 8
verse 11, when Solomon dedicated the temple, the
Shekinah cloud of God came down, approving of
his presence.
God the Father, and all of his fullness.
It says the priest, they just had to
sit and wait.
They couldn't get up and go in to
begin the ministry.
They had to just sit and wait because
of the cloud.
Luke, earlier in his gospel, said in Luke
21 verse 27, it says when these things
begin to take place, you look up, you
remember, earlier in that text, and then he
speaks of this coming of Jesus Christ, that
he will come in a cloud with power
and great glory.
Revelation 1 says, tells us the same thing,
that he's going to return in a cloud
of glory, and all the tribes of the
earth will see him and mourn, just as
he is taken up in the Mount of
Transfiguration.
You remember Peter, James, and John were given
the privilege to be there with Moses and
Elijah, and they appeared briefly as Jesus invited
them into the kingdom, and they saw the
living Elijah and Moses, and they didn't need
an introduction.
They'd been dead for hundreds of years, but
they knew who they were, because it's the
fulfillment of 1 Corinthians chapter 13, that we
were in glory.
We will know as we are known.
No introduction is necessary.
We will know everything.
And so they knew it was Elijah and
Moses, and they were so enamored, you remember.
Oh, Elijah and Moses, let's build some booths
here, and let's just fellowship and stay here.
Let's not come off the mountaintop.
There's demon-possessed people down there.
There's trouble down there.
I mean, we have to witness down there,
and I don't want to do that.
We've got to go back to work.
Let's just stay up here at the retreat.
And if you remember, all of a sudden,
Moses and Elijah disappeared, and a cloud overshadowed
them, and God the Father said, this is
my beloved son.
Hear ye him.
Don't be enamored with Elijah and Moses.
Jesus is here now.
My son.
If you want to be excited about somebody,
you want your life and your ministry to
be like something, look at the life of
Jesus Christ.
This is my beloved son.
Hear ye him.
Don't be enamored with Moses and Elijah.
He was out of that cloud, you see.
And so here Jesus is returning to the
Father, and the cloud receives him up out
of their sight.
And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as
he went up, behold, two men stood by
them in white and purple.
More than likely, this is the two angels
that were in the tomb at either end
of the slab where Jesus' body was laid.
And then remember, at the resurrection, they went
rushing in, and Jesus wasn't there, just the
grave clothes and the angels, one at the
head and one at the feet where Jesus'
body had lain.
More than likely, these were the two angels.
And they said, ye men of Galilee, why
stand ye gazing up into heaven?
This same Jesus, not another one, 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.
Now, remember in Zechariah chapter 14, Zechariah sees
and speaks, as God has shown in the
second coming of Jesus Christ, that he's going
to return from heaven, and he's going to
come to the Mount of Olives, and there
will be a tremendous earthquake, and the Mount
of Olives will split from the east and
the west, and half of the Mount will
move to the north, half of the Mount
will move to the south, and there will
be an opening, a crevice, right to the
eastern gate.
The Psalms tell us that when the earth
moves, it says the gates will be pushed
up to be prepared for the coming of
the king.
It's interesting that there are gates buried.
There's another gate buried underground of the eastern
gate, the seal that you see now in
Jerusalem.
And because that gate is there, and the
archaeologists tried to go in and do some
research and dig, the Muslims put a cemetery
there to stop it.
But there's a gate under there, and the
Psalms says, lift up ye heads, O ye
gates, lift up ye heads, for the king
cometh in all his glory.
And when this mountain splits, Jesus will be
leading all the remnant of the Jews that
have fled to Petra, up from Petra, just
as Moses brought the original people of Israel
in to the promised land.
Jesus, coming again, that prophet, like unto Moses,
is going to bring the remnant, and all
of Israel shall be saved.
And he brings them up right through the
Mount of Olives to the eastern gate.
And he stands on the Mount of Olives
with the remnant, and the church, all the
faith with thee, shall come, Zacharias says.
Isaiah, chapter sixty-three, one through seven, describes
the Lord coming back in all the glory
to rescue the Jews that have fled from
Antichrist, that have fled down to Petra, in
the rock.
And they'll find out that even that rock
can't save them.
The only rock is the rock of their
salvation, Jesus Christ.
And they look about and say, what is
this blood on thine apparel?
It's the very blood of his own sacrifice,
as he went into the holiest of holies,
proving his only death, his death, his sacrifice
for sin.
He is the atonement, the sacrificial goat for
all of us.
And he comes back with the blood of
his own apparel, destroys the Antichrist in Armageddon,
and then brings the remnant with the church,
his bride, and they enter in through this
Mount of Olives, just as he left, the
God of heaven and glory.
Revelation one-seven, again, describes it.
The whole universe lights up at the second
coming of Jesus Christ, when he comes with
all of his glory, and all the saints,
all the armies from heaven, described in Revelation
nineteen.
It's going to be a glorious time.
Then return they unto Jerusalem, from the Mount
called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem in Sabbath
day's journey, oh, close to a mile, about
five thousand feet.
And it's about that to the city, just
to the old city and the Temple Mount
from the other side, the back side of
the Mount of Olives.
And they were come in, they went up
into an upper room, where abode both Peter
and James and John and Andrew, Philip, Thomas
and Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of
Alphaeus, Simon the Lotus and Judas the brother
of James.
Quite possible this is the writer of the
book of Jude, who would be the half
-brother of Jesus Christ, because Paul tells us
in Galatians chapter one, verse seventeen, of James,
the half-brother of our Lord.
And so, this would more than likely be
James and Judas, the half-brothers of Jesus
Christ.
And Judas would be the writer or the
author of the book of Jude, as he
has asked them to do, about a hundred
and twenty of them.
And they all continued with one accord in
prayer and supplication with the women and Mary,
the mother of Jesus, and with his brother.
And it's interesting, this is the last mention
of Mary in the New Testament.
She had a marvelous place in history, but
after this, she's never mentioned again.
And it just shows you the imbalance and
the error of Roman Catholicism to make more
out of Mary than is biblical.
In fact, the tragedy is that the Catholic
Church has deceived millions of people into getting
people thinking they need to pray to Mary.
It's a nuisance.
It's as though Jesus is too busy or
Mary can help you with your prayers.
And we know that's not true, because Paul
tells Timothy that there's only one mediator between
God and man, and that's the man Christ
Jesus.
Another tragic thing is that the Pope, they
say, is very feeble.
One of the last decrees he's going to
be making, they say he's working on an
infallible decree.
One of his last shining moments, evidently, before
he leaves, he's going to make a decree
and a statement that Mary is the co
-redeemer of mankind with Jesus Christ.
Such a perversion of truth to make a
statement that Mary is the co-redeemer of
mankind.
In the train station in Rome, the Catholic
Church has made a statue of the cross
with this grotesque figure of a body with
Mary's body on one side and Christ on
the other on the cross.
So, a lot of things have crept into
some of the church that is simply not
biblical.
This is the last mention of Mary, the
mother of Jesus, in the New Testament.
She's there with the brethren.
And in those days, Peter stood up in
the midst of the disciples and he said,
the number of the names together were about
120.
Men and Brethren, this scripture must need to
have been fulfilled.
This is interesting that if you know the
Bible, when you see something that really seems
so catastrophic, so negative, or so alarming that
you can see the hand of God and
you say, you know, Lord, it's not good.
I don't like it, but you are sovereign
and you've got it under control.
There's a wonderful hope and stability that knowing
the word of God brings a believer.
He says, Men and Brethren, this scripture must
need to have been fulfilled, which the Holy
Ghost by the mouth of David spake before
concerning Judas, which was guide to them that
took Jesus.
Now, here again, remember the Pharisees called him
an ignoramus, an idiot, an illiterate Galilean, the
so-called half-breeds of the Jews.
Remember, the Galileans were the lowlife.
They were the poor peasant type and farmers
and the fishermen of the north.
The elite lived in Jerusalem, around the temple
area, all the merchants and the wealthy, and
all the lowlife would bring their goods to
Jerusalem to sell in the market.
But it's interesting, this illiterate fisherman knew his
Bible and knew that the Holy Ghost anointed
David and he could quote and make reference
to the forty-first psalm, verse nine, and
knowing that David, when he prophesied, was prophesying
about Judas.
Hundreds of years earlier.
So, you see, you don't have to be
a theological genius or a seminary graduate to
be used of God.
Here was a fisherman, but he read his
Bible, he read the scriptures, and he loved
Jesus Christ.
The Lord said, you're going to be an
apostle.
And at this time, you remember, he'd only
walked with the Lord three years.
The apostle only known Jesus as the Messiah
for three years, at this point.
This is just after his crucifixion, and they
only met him.
Jesus' ministry lasted three years.
So, here you have fishermen that up to
the time they met Jesus Christ and got
their calling, just went to church on a
regular basis out in their community somewhere.
They lived in Capernaum and Tiberias and Bethsaida,
around the Sea of Galilee.
So, you know, they went to church and
they read the scriptures.
They knew the scriptures.
So, that's why they could respond to Jesus
or see the hand of Jesus so quickly
and incident in their life.
That's why people can't recognize the Lord.
I don't know if the Lord's in their
life.
Well, it's obvious they're not reading the Bible.
That's usually the case.
I won't say that that's 100%.
I don't want to offend.
But you come to find out that people
don't recognize the hand of the Lord in
experiences of can't quite see what's going on.
They're just simply not reading the Bible.
They're satisfied with just hearing it taught to
them and hearing it by someone else, but
they never really investigated themselves and then grow
in that relationship and sensitivity to the way
the Lord's working and directing things in their
own personal life and getting to know how
the Lord operates.
So, they don't recognize the hand of the
Lord or His sovereignty or His providence in
the circumstances in their own life.
So, that's why a lot of times they
panic.
They think, oh, things are out of control.
Oh, oh.
And it never, it's never out of control.
What happens, you see, is I don't have
my eyes on the Lord.
I'm not reading the Word and I get
out of control.
The Lord's always in control.
He's the potentate of the universe.
He controls the whole universe.
Nothing but fear.
That's why Isaiah says, Thou wilt keep him
in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon
Thee.
Trust ye in the Lord Jehovah forever.
You see.
And so, here's this, well, the educated Pharisees,
the religious leaders, these stupid fishermen from Galilee,
this guy named Peter.
This guy named Peter was handpicked by Jesus.
He knew the scriptures and he knew that
Judas was a fulfillment of prophecy by David
many centuries earlier.
He said, well, it's tragic, but it must
needs be fulfilled.
It's a tragic thing, but this scripture must
needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost,
so he knew the Holy Spirit anointed David.
Before concerning Judas, which was guide to them
that took Jesus.
And again, what a tragedy.
Judas betrayed Jesus Christ for money.
You wonder how many Christians today turn their
backs on Jesus Christ for a raise or
advance in a corporation and deny their Lord.
It never ends.
Big mistake.
There's no money, no silver, nor gold, nor
position or advancement in this life that can
compare to Jesus Christ's worth, even considering denying
Jesus Christ.
No human being that's a friend is worth
keeping if they would cause you to deny
Jesus Christ.
In fact, I don't see how they could
be a real friend.
How can you trust someone who says they
love you and they want you to sin
with them and deny Jesus Christ?
How could that be a friend?
That's just clever speech by the devil to
get you to drop your guard.
He was lumbered with us and has obtained
part of this ministry.
Now, this man purchased a field with the
reward of iniquity and falling headlong, he burst
asunder in the midst and all his bowels
gushed out.
You remember after Judas snuck around and betrayed
Jesus Christ and got his money, his conscience
bothered him.
He tried to give the money back and
the Pharisees knew it was blood money and
it was a high Sabbath, so they wouldn't
take the blood money.
They refused to take it and Judas threw
it down and he fulfilled prophecy again, and
Peter speaks of that.
You remember after he did it and he
went out and he committed suicide.
He couldn't take it, so he went out
in a hot, midday, tied a rope around
his neck and jumped out of an olive
tree and hit the ground and just laid
there, probably suspended partially, didn't hang completely in
the air, broke his neck, and then the
heat of the sun and the heat of
the sun and the heat of the sun
and the heat of the sun and the
heat of the sun and the heat of
the sun and the heat of the sun
and the heat of the sun and the
heat of the sun and the heat of
the sun and the heat of the sun
and the heat of the sun and the
heat of the sun and the heat of
the sun and the heat of the sun
and the heat of the sun and the
heat of the sun and the heat of
the sun and the heat of the sun
and the heat of the sun and the
heat of the sun and the heat of
the
sun
and
the heat of the sun and the heat
of the sun and the heat of the
sun and the heat of the sun and
the heat of the sun and the heat
of the sun and the heat of the
sun and the heat of the sun and
the heat of the sun and the heat
of the sun and the heat of the
sun and the heat of the sun and
the heat of the sun and the heat
of the sun and the heat of the
sun and the heat of the sun and
the heat of the sun and the heat
of the sun and the heat of the
sun and the heat of the sun and
the heat of the sun and the heat
of the sun and the heat of the
sun and the heat of the sun and
the heat of the sun and the heat
of the sun and the heat of the
sun and the heat of the sun and
the heat of the sun and the heat
of the sun and the heat of the
sun and the heat of the sun and
the heat of the sun and the heat
of the sun and the heat of the
sun and the heat of the sun and
out with believers.
He led people to Christ.
He went to church.
He was the treasurer of the church, but
the Bible is plainly clear.
He was never a believer.
He cleverly moved in and gotten in the
crowd, learned the language, sang the songs, did
the ministry, no bad doctrine, but his torment
drove him to suicide because he wasn't a
true believer.
He didn't have true hope in Christ.
And I would imagine that you'd offend one
of his friends and say, oh, he's never
saved.
Oh, yes, he was.
I went to church with him.
We were on a mission trip together and
he led people to Christ.
Don't tell me he wasn't saved.
He wasn't saved.
Just because he committed suicide, God is love.
The reason he didn't know Jesus was like
he was tormented with his guilt and he
couldn't undo the wrong.
His torment drove him to take his life,
even though he went to church and he
knew Jesus personally.
But he was not a believer in the
Son of God.
It was known unto all the dwellers of
Jerusalem, in so much as that field is
called in their proper tongue, Echeldamah, that is
to say, the field of blood.
In other words, because it was dirty money,
the Pharisees would not take it, so they
gave it to charity and they bought it.
Remember, you purchased the potter's seal.
And again, if you look at the prophecy
of Zechariah chapter 11, again, you have prophecy
being fulfilled in Judas casting the money to
the potter's seal.
They weighed my price and it was for
30 pieces of silver.
Zechariah prophesied of what would take place.
And then Peter, again, notice knowing the Scripture,
he quotes Psalm 69 verse 25.
He sees in the Spirit that Psalm 69
is speaking of Judas.
He says, For it is written in the
book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate
and let no man dwell therein and let
his bishopric and his bishopric let another take.
So here, Peter again is aware of the
Scriptures in the Spirit, knowing that Psalm 69
verse 25 is a prophecy concerning Judas, years
earlier.
Now, you have that same availability.
Remember David said, Thy word, O Lord, have
I hidden in my heart.
If you read the Word of God with
an open heart, God's Spirit puts that in
your heart even better than a computer.
You know, when you put something into a
computer, it's locked in, it's in there and
you have access to it.
You may wait for a month and go
in and just blip, blip, blip and next
thing you know, out it comes.
It's in the computer.
It's been put in there.
The Spirit of God is far greater than
a human computer and you don't have to
worry about memorizing Scripture.
I'm not saying don't do it.
A lot of people do it and enjoy
it, but if you read the Word of
God, you study the Word of God and
it gets into your heart.
The Spirit of God promises that when you're
in a situation, he will bring it to
the surface for you to identify.
You say, How can I know whether this
is sin or not?
If you read the Word of God, the
Spirit of God will identify the situation you're
in every single time and he'll direct you
as what to do.
Would Jesus do this?
No.
He brings the Scripture up and shows you
how Jesus dealt with that same situation.
It's in your heart.
You've read it.
You don't have to worry about memorizing it.
The Spirit of God will bring everything to
your remembrance.
It's so imperative to read the Word of
God that the Spirit of God can bring
it up for you.
Boot it up into your heart and you
can identify.
This is a wolf.
This isn't the direction I should go.
This isn't the person I should be involved
with.
I shouldn't be watching this.
I shouldn't sign.
The Spirit of God will honor his Word,
and the more you read, the more information
you have.
Fill the computer.
Fill your heart with the Word of God
and the Spirit of God will bring it
up for you at any given moment that
you have need.
That's why Christians are deceived.
It's not that they really want to be
deceived.
It's not that they want to deny Christ,
but they can't identify.
Paul said we're not ignorant of Satan's devices.
We're wary of the wiles of the enemy,
and Satan doctors things up and camouflages things
and makes them seem so plausible.
Look what he did to Eve.
Made it seem like she's in the best
thing ever for her husband, for herself.
It was a grand deception, and she did
not pay heed to the Word of God,
and she fell.
She was deceived.
And every Christian today...
and you see, we're Eve.
We're the bride.
We're the bride of the last Adam.
Eve was the bride of the first Adam.
The church, man and woman, we are the
Eve of the last Adam, Jesus Christ.
And Satan's always coming to you.
Ask God, said, is this in the Bible?
Can you do this?
Whenever you catch your thought saying that, don't
do it.
When you catch yourself starting to think, I
wonder if this is in the Bible, don't
even think about it.
Protect yourself instantly.
Don't even argue with the devil.
Eve shouldn't even have a conversation with Satan.
What did Jesus do?
Did he argue with Satan in his temptation?
He used Scripture and said, take a hike.
Each time Satan tempted Jesus Christ in his
need, with a legitimate need, a human need,
but it wasn't God's will at the time,
Jesus Christ identified it because he knew the
Word of God.
The Spirit of God brought it to his
heart immediately.
He will do the same for you.
He did it for a fisherman from Galilee.
He'll do it to a truck driver, to
a schoolteacher, to an architect, to a businessman,
to a pastor, to an elder, to a
housewife.
Therefore, of these men which have accompanied with
us all the time that the Lord Jesus
went in and out among us, beginning from
the baptism of John, unto that same day
that he was taken up from us, must
one be ordained to be a witness of
his resurrection.
So, this is the proof text right here,
that the original twelve had some specific significance,
because Peter didn't say we need ten more
or twenty more, there's going to be many
to follow.
There's that original twelve.
One had to take the place of Judas.
Twelve.
There must be one ordained.
There was that original twelve that had a
specific importance in the scheme of things, even
though there may be apostles today, but nothing
like the original twelve.
And I believe I have a proof text.
Turn to Revelation chapter 21.
If somebody wants to call themselves an apostle
today, great, but they aren't the same class
as the twelve.
John sees the New Jerusalem, and notice verse
fourteen.
After he sees the gates, the wall and
the gates, it says in verse fourteen, And
the wall of the city had twelve foundations,
and in them the names of the twelve
apostles of the Lamb.
And I believe that they are the original
twelve, with the exception of the twelve that
took Judas' place.
Now, let's look at this.
This is interesting.
You see, if there's only twelve apostles in
those twelve foundations, what about all the other
names of apostles?
See, there's a specific significance to twelve, and
that's why here Peter says it's important that
we replace the twelve here.
And those twelve, and those twelve only, will
be in the foundation stone of the New
Jerusalem, even though there are many today, maybe
many after those twelve, with lesser gifts and
significance.
But those twelve, who's the twelve?
They appointed two, Joseph and Barnabas, or Barthabas,
who was surnamed Justice and Matthias.
And they prayed, and they said, Thou, Lord,
which knowest the hearts of all men, show
whether of these two thou hast chosen.
It's like they chose them.
Now you pick one.
We'll pick the two, and you pick one
of them, God.
Isn't that the way we pray?
Lord, I think we ought to do this.
Now bless us.
I mean, we say we want to do
God's will, and we already go out and
make the purchase, and then we ask God
to honor it.
Lord, we're picking these two guys.
You pick one of them for us now.
You tell us which one it is, but
we'll pick the two.
It's interesting, when God was going to bring
revival to Gideon, remember what he said?
Gideon, you have too many guys.
You've got to get rid of several hundred,
or not hundred, but several thousand, some, you
know, twenty-some thousand.
He got down to the last three hundred,
and God told Gideon, he said, Now there's
going to be three hundred men of the
men that I will choose, not you, Gideon.
I thank God that he has chosen the
pastors and the elders of Calvary Chapel, and
everybody that's in ministry.
That's why we're so blessed.
That's why it's such a joy and a
delight to be here, because God has picked
the people.
He never makes mistakes, even if he picks
a wrong one now and then to teach
us some things.
So they prayed, and they said, Thou, Lord,
which knowest the hearts of all men, show
whither of these two thou hast chosen, that
he may take part of this ministry and
apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell, that
he might go to his own place, which
would be hell.
And they gave forth their lots.
Now, remember, this is interesting.
In Proverbs 1633, in the Old Testament, they
used a system of lots that are drawing
of straws, so to speak, to choose and
make choices.
They'd cast lots.
Now, it says in Proverbs 1633 that the
lot is cast in the lap, but the
whole disposing of the matter thereof is of
the Lord.
Remember, they cast lots in the ship, in
the storm, and the lot, God controlled it
all.
When these guys were cast in their lots
and it came back down to Jonah, he's
the guy that got tossed overboard, because God
wanted him tossed overboard.
But in the New Testament, we have the
indwelling Holy Spirit now to pray.
Jesus said, We can ask our Father.
We have an advantage.
Now, notice how God treated this, and I
personally believe that God just ignored it.
He just said, OK, do your thing.
Form your committee, your five-year plan to
cause church growth.
You know, do all your stuff.
I'm just going to ignore it, because it's
not by might nor by power, but by
my Spirit, sayeth the Lord.
So they gave forth their lots, and the
lots fell on Messiah.
And he was numbered with the eleven apostles.
Now, it's interesting, this is the last time
you ever hear of Messiah.
If he was really that important, I don't
know what he did, but you never hear
his name mentioned again.
But who did God pick?
A man on the way to Damascus.
That was his choice.
And I'll bet you, whatever I have reward
in heaven, that when we get there, his
name's going to be in one of those
twelve foundations with the other eleven.
So you see, the lot is cast into
the lap, but the whole disposing of the
matters of the Lord.
So, if something isn't going your way right
now, one of your great plans for Jesus,
don't be upset.
He knows best.
Don't get all angry.
He's got everything under control.
Remember, he's going to work it to the
good.
He may just be ignoring one of your
projects right now.
I've had plenty of them ignored, believe me.
And I'm learning not to let it upset
me.
I'm just making less projects, because he just
ignores them.
He says, the money doesn't come when no
one gets involved.
And I start praying, Lord, stir these people
up.
Don't they love you?
God says, Bill, let go.
Quit trying to make things happen, because you're
excited about it.
It's not my will.
He just ignores whatever isn't his will.
He doesn't get angry.
He just ignores it.
Well, you never hear of a bias again.
That's it.
It's the last time he's mentioned, because men
picked up.
But you hear an awful lot about Paul.
And he was an eyewitness of the resurrection,
wasn't he?
Jesus himself appeared to him on the road
to Damascus.
Shall we stand?
Father, I encourage you to know that you
use men like Peter, a fisherman, tax collectors,
people just like us to do wonderful things
through us and in us.
We thank you, Lord, that if we allow
the word to get into our heart, you'll
bring it forth in any situation to guide
us, to enlighten us, to encourage us, to
strengthen us, to protect us.
And how we thank you, Lord, for your
perfect wisdom that we may devise something and
you just might ignore it, because it isn't
important.
Lord, you don't get angry.
You don't quit using us.
You just ignore it.
We thank you, Father, for that wisdom, and
we pray that we might learn, Lord, just
to yield more and more to your perfect
will and rest.
And realize how great your power is through
the work of the Holy Spirit.
Lord, how we thank you for your choice
of us personally to be in your kingdom,
to grant us forgiveness of sin.
How we thank you, Jesus, for that marvelous
life in you.
Lord, grant us that power, that fresh power
each day of that love, that marvelous love
that you have, that it might change our
attitudes, our thinking, our responses, that it might
free us from ourselves and we might begin
to think of others and serve others and
be free.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
398-3550.
Our address is Calvary Chapel of the Finger
Lakes, 1777 Route 332, Farmington, New York, 14425.