Welcome to ECB's weekly sermon podcast. ECB is
an international church in Bangkok, Thailand,
with dozens of nationalities worshiping together.
We invite you to connect with us from wherever
you are through our website, ecb .asia, or our
mobile app. And now we pray that you are blessed
by this week's sermon. I want to go on a bit
of an adventure with you guys today. The last
few weeks' messages have explored how the risen
Jesus doesn't just save us, but today we want
to look at how he sends us. And we see in the
story of Easter, which was a true live one, the
story relates to us because we see these disciples
who witness Jesus. They get a little bit scared.
They head behind some locked doors. out to some
fishing boats, to the Mount of Olives, and then
we watch as Jesus begins to reframe the disciples'
fear into a global calling. And he invites us,
he goes beyond the disciples in that moment,
and he enters into this moment here, and he invites
us to live that same kind of spirit -empowered
witness right where we are. And so whether you're
here for the first time or whether you've been
with us through the entirety of the series, I
want to say, welcome. We never believe that you're
here by accident. And if you've been journeying
with us, you've seen that we've walked through
a series called Living Hope. And we started exploring
some of the unexpected portraits of Jesus that
raises out of the days that were surrounding
his death and his resurrection. We've seen him
weep. We've seen him serve. Last week, we saw
that he lives. He died and he rose. And today,
we meet him as the God who sends. And we meet
him as a God who sends because resurrection wasn't
the end of the story. It was actually the beginning
of a really cool movement. And Jesus, just as
he was then, is still sending his people into
the world today. And that includes... I like
it. There's you, me, us. It's a bit of a blend.
And so go with me for a little bit of a moment
to Pastor Pablo's map. Thank you, Pastor Pablo.
To the Mount of Olives. So we're a little bit
east of Jerusalem. This is the same place where
if we read scripture, we see that there's a lot
of things that actually happened here. This is
where David, King David, fled and wept as he
was trying to flee his son, Absalom, who was
following him. This was a place where the prophets
came and were buried in hope for the awaited
Messiah. Jesus wept over Jerusalem. And then
just days before this is where Jesus' triumphal
entry had began, Palm Sunday. And so here we
are standing post -resurrection. So Jesus has
died and he's resurrected. He came back to life,
which is insane. And this is just before he ascends,
which is equally as crazy. And here he is standing
again with his disciples, resurrected, alive,
and he's about to leave. But he's not abandoning
them. He's standing on the precipice of this
thing that we call empowerment. He's about to
empower them. And if you were like the disciples
or if you're like me when you started reading
the Bible for the first time and you get to this
and you see who the person of Jesus is, you think
maybe he's about to launch a global revolution.
But instead, he says to them, you will be my
witnesses. So let's read the text together as
a whole. Acts chapter 1, verse 1 to 11. It says,
in my former book, so Luke is writing to a friend
of his named Theophilus, and he's talking about
his former book, Luke, which talks about all
of the things that Jesus did and taught until
the day that he was taken up to heaven. And after
giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to
the apostles he had chosen, After his suffering,
he presented himself to them, and then he gave
many convincing proofs that he was alive. He
appeared to them over a period of 40 days and
spoke about the kingdom of God, and on one occasion,
while he was eating with them, he gave them this
command. Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for
the gift my father promised, which you have heard
me speak about. For John baptized with water,
but in a few days you will be baptized with the
Holy Spirit. So then they gathered around him
and asked him, Lord, are you at this time going
to restore the kingdom to Israel? And we'll talk
about what that means. And he said to them, it's
not for you to know the times or the dates the
Father has set by his own authority, but you
will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes
on you, and you will be my witnesses. all of
Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
And after he had said this, he was taken up before
their eyes, and a cloud hid them from their sight,
and they were looking intently up at the sky
as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed
in white stood beside him. Men of Galilee, they
said, why do you stand looking into the sky?
And then the same Jesus who was taken from you
into heaven will come back in the same way you've
seen him go into heaven. Lord, thank you that
your word is alive and you tell us it can pierce
bone marrow, get right into parts that no human
eye can see on our own, but your word can see
it and can go right to where it needs to go.
And so Holy Spirit, thank you that you lead us
into truth. And so would you take words and study
things that we see on a screen and would you
connect them together in such a way that makes
sense to the people who are in this space today
and those who are watching online? We need you,
Holy Spirit. Amen. So you will be my witnesses.
And then he ascends. He ascends. He begins to
go up. And from my perspective, this is both,
like, super climactic, because, like, when have
any of us ever seen anything like this? And yet,
at the same time, probably for the disciples,
a bit anticlimactic. Like, what's going on? Like,
he just said he's giving us power, and then he's
disappeared. And, like, it's going to start,
right? Like, something's going to happen. But
he ascends. So even after everything it is that
they had seen, including the resurrection, the
disciples ask the question, Lord, so let's go
back before he ascends. He gives them instruction
and they say to him, Lord, are you going to restore
the kingdom to Israel? And some of the people
there, if you've studied this a bit, you might
have heard it before, but the disciples and the
Jewish people of the time were holding out for
some kind of political victory. They thought,
There's going to be national renewal that happens.
There's going to be a king that comes, sets us
free. They're in their mind Jesus was actually
physically going to sit on a throne. He was going
to overthrow Rome and he was going to fix it
all. And what's neat here is Jesus doesn't rebuke
their longing and be like, guys, no. He doesn't
rebuke their longing. He actually begins in this
moment to redirect their expectation towards
something that was far greater than they could
even hope or imagine for themselves. And so he
says, it's not for you to know the times or the
dates, but you will receive power and you will
be my witnesses. And so here they're asking for
restoration, but Jesus is talking about witness.
They wanted certainty in this moment, but Jesus
was giving them a calling. And so before the
mountain... of Acts chapter 1, there was the
shoreline of John chapter 21. I love the Bible
because there's certain times when you're reading
it where your brain just like comes alive. At
least mine does sometimes. I feel a bit like
childish at times. I imagine things as what it
could be. But I love that we can pray that the
Holy Spirit would inspire creativity and he could
actually help us understand scripture. So when
I read John chapter 21, this is just a ridiculous
story. The resurrection has happened and the
disciples don't run to the streets preaching.
They actually go and hide behind locked doors
because scripture tells us they were a little
bit scared about what the people were going to
do to them. They were afraid of what might happen
next. And then... Even after Jesus appears, remember
he comes and appears to them, and Pastor Pavel
talked about that last week. They're like, unless
I can put my hand in your side, put it in the
hole in you, I won't believe. So even after they've
touched his wounds, they still don't move. They
actually returned to what they knew. And what
they knew was fishing. So imagine the scene with
me. The disciples are together. When they finally
decide, all right, let's get out of this house.
It doesn't seem like anybody's trying to kill
us. Somebody says, let's just go back to doing
what we were doing before. And isn't that the
case with humanity? When we're feeling disoriented,
we usually return to the familiar. And so when
we don't know what to do next, we just go back
to what it is that we know. And so the disciples
were unsure of what was next. And so they went
back to fishing. And the Bible tells us that
they went back to fishing and they caught nothing
all night long until Jesus showed up on the shore.
And this is where I think it's a bit of a comical
thing that takes place. My Bible says that Jesus
sees them fishing and he says to them, children,
do you have any fish? And I like, maybe Jesus
is, I imagine Jesus is slightly more cheeky than
he actually was. Maybe it was a genuine question,
but of course he knew the answer. He could see
that they didn't have any fish. And the disciples
we know from reading the text were frustrated
that they had fished all night and had nothing.
And what happens in this moment is Peter, who's
kind of the crazy disciple who does these erratic
things, realizes who's on the shore. And the
Bible tells us that he begins to take off his
clothes and then he jumps into the water and
Swims to shore. Love that. As he's doing this,
Jesus says, cast your net on the other side.
And so they cast the net on the other side of
the boat, like they needed instruction because
they are fishermen. And they probably already
done this, but he does it anyways because God's
the God of miracles. And they pull up this huge
catch. And by the time they get to shore, again,
I think this is just so cool, the relational
nature of God. Jesus is setting up a barbie.
He's having charcoal, setting up a barbecue to
eat breakfast with the disciples. The God of
the universe setting up a barbecue to talk with
the disciples. And so as he's cooking them breakfast,
he turns to Peter. And three times he asks him,
do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me?
And each time Peter answers and each time Jesus
says, feed my sheep, feed my sheep. And then
he commands him to follow him. And that follow
me was a familiar thing because if you remember
when Jesus began his ministry, the first thing
he said, he invited the disciples to a sleepover.
John was baptizing people and they're like, whoa,
there's Jesus. And John says, you should go.
And then as they went, Jesus said, come and follow
me. They're like, where are you going? And he's
like, come and follow me. So here we are at the
climax of Jesus's life, death and resurrection.
And he's saying the same thing to Peter again
that he said, but this time. It wasn't an invitation
to a road trip or to a friendship. This time
the invitation was to a mission. And he was calling
Peter to move from a place of witnessing miracles
to deeper surrender. He was calling Peter from
comfort to cost. And as we discovered that cost
meant even to death. And so this for Peter wasn't
just forgiveness. It was a recommissioning. It
was a second follow me, but this time towards
sacrifice and sending and ultimately towards
martyrdom. And so the fishing boat was over and
a global mission was just beginning. They were
no longer fishermen. No, but they were becoming.
And I think that they might have been a little
bit scared. They were moving from people that
had a job to being people with a destiny. And
I remember in my own life encountering a moment
where I felt very similar. A bit fearful, a little
bit scared. I had finished college, university,
and I had felt like there was an opportunity
for me to move to East Africa, and a job opportunity
opened with an NGO, and I said yes to it, feeling
grossly unprepared, but the opportunity came,
and I felt like I needed to say yes. And then
another opportunity came to help lead a hospital
in South Sudan, and I felt deeply unqualified.
I had no medical background. I had no experience
in managing emergencies in a war zone. I didn't
know the systems. I didn't speak the language.
Quite frankly, I just felt like I'm not ready.
But I felt like the Lord was saying in that moment,
I'm not asking for your qualifications. I'm asking
for obedience. And then it happened again. Months
after returning, there was an opportunity to
actually go back to this college and university
and take over as a director of this program.
But I was 21 turning 22. I had got dreadlocks
when I was in East Africa. And I looked and smelled
a lot different than I do right now. And the
role had me teaching students who were older
than me because it wasn't just some first -year
program. Anybody could come into the program.
And here again, I thought, man, they picked the
wrong person. But again, God wasn't looking.
He wasn't asking in that moment for my confidence.
He was asking for my availability. He saw my
fear, and then to my fear, he began to speak
to my potential. And I think he did the same
with Peter. And I think he can do the same with
you. And that's what Acts 1 is all about. Jesus
sees their fear, but he begins to speak to their
potential. And today, Jesus sees our fear, your
fear, and he speaks to your potential. So by
the time that we get to Acts chapter 1, we've
seen them on the shore in John 21. These men
are no longer, as I said, fishermen. They are
apostles with a destiny. And he didn't just forgive
their past, but he began to reframe their future.
And he wasn't just giving them fish, he was awakening
them to a new calling. And so by this point,
the question probably isn't, do they believe
that Jesus is alive? No, because they'd seen
it. They'd heard it. They'd experienced it. The
question is, is will they still try to follow
him the same old way? And so when they ask the
question like, Lord, are you at this time going
to restore the kingdom of Israel? They still
expect Jesus to be the one who does the heavy
lifting. But Jesus doesn't just confirm their
small vision of Israel. Instead, he flips it
and he begins to give them a global mission of
redemption. And he answers them and says, it's
not for you to know the times, but you will receive
power and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
In other words, he's saying, I'm not going to
do this for you. Sometimes I say to my kids,
I'm not going to do this one for you. You can
do it on your own. He's saying, I'm not going
to do this for you. I'm going to do this through
you. And so in that moment, the resurrected Savior
reframes their life. And I think this is so cool.
This is the power of the risen Christ. He didn't
give them a job. He was giving them a destiny.
The apostles weren't handed these fancy job descriptions
or titles. They were handed a mission to make
Christ known among the nations. And so one by
one, they followed. And one by one, they gave
their lives for that calling. Man, what an exciting
and crazy start. And so he doesn't just forgive
our past, but he begins to reframe our futures
too. And once Jesus reframes your life, my life,
we don't go back to fishing. As we look at this
story, as I was praying through and preparing
and reading it again, I felt like I was getting
this neat gift of opening up some sort of window
into this movement of God. And if you think it
through, it starts on a beach, it passes through
this locked room, and then it echoes from the
mountaintop, and only in a way that God can do
it, he brings it right here to land in the heart
of Bangkok. And so I think, like, maybe this
story isn't just about the disciples. Maybe it's
actually about you and me, too. Maybe you're
here today, and you're not quite sure what you
believe. Maybe you've come with questions or
you've come with curiosity or maybe you're watching
online and you're wondering if this Jesus is
real. If his story could possibly reshape yours.
What you need to hear today is Jesus didn't just
rise. He actually came looking for you. He met
the disciples on the beach. He met them in their
fear, and he still shows up in the same way that
he did then, now, and here, right in the middle
of our uncertainty, right in the middle of our
disappointment, right in the middle of our doubts.
The same Jesus, come on, the same Jesus that
cooked breakfast for confused friends is the
one who's calling out to you and I now saying,
follow me. I've got more for you. And just like
Peter, just like Peter, you might know him for
years, or for some of us, you might be meeting
him for the first time. He's not asking for perfection.
He's inviting your presence. He wants you. And
it's so sweet. And just like Peter, it starts
with love. he asks the question, do you love
me? Do you love me? And that's always the first
question because once Jesus reframes your life,
you don't go back to fishing. So here we are.
Acts... Chapter 1. Jesus appears for 40 days
and he's speaking about the kingdom and he tells
them to wait for the Holy Spirit. He says, you
will receive power. And he commissions, he makes
a promise to them that you will be my witnesses.
Then he ascends and two angels appear and they
ask the question, why are you standing there
looking into the sky? And if you're like the
disciples or like me, I might be thinking the
same thing. Like, what's going on here? Like,
where did Jesus go? Did he move into retirement,
like the boss leaves, succession plan initiated,
and you're like, where did he go? But no, Jesus
didn't disappear, he reigns. And if you don't
grow up in a kingdom mindset with a king or a
queen that's actively engaged in what it is that
you're doing, like me, this doesn't make a whole
lot of sense. But a king who reigns is actively
engaged, participating with those that he or
she leads. And so Jesus hasn't retired. He's
seated at the right hand of God. He's got every
power above every name. And he's handed this
mission to us. Not because we're somehow flawless,
but I actually think he hands it to us because
he's faithful and he promised that this is what
would happen. So he doesn't just hand over the
reins and be like, have a good time, work it
out. He's like, no, I'm going to rule. I'm going
to reign. I still have full authority. I have
full power. I'm seated at the right hand of God.
My ability to intervene at any moment is there,
but I'm going to work in and through you. I haven't
left you. I haven't forsaken you. I am reigning.
And so this idea of the mission of God isn't
a new thing. It's actually quite old. It's been
happening for quite a long period of time. Jesus
says, you will be my witnesses. And so this is
not a strategy. It's a legacy. Do you hear me?
This you will be my witnesses is not a strategy.
It's a legacy. For God has always been sending.
Next slide, please. He's always been sending.
From the book of Genesis, the very first book.
Blessed to bless all nations. Through Isaiah,
the prophet says, it is too small a thing to
restore Israel alone. God's plan was always for
the entirety of the nations, not for one people
group. And then as we move into John chapter
20, we see Jesus himself saying, just as the
Father has sent me, I am sending you. And so
this isn't something that is just thought up
on that spot. Jesus is like, oh, I've got to
come up with a good sending message. And so I'm
just going to tell them something that sounds
good and then leave them. No, it was planned.
He knew what was required. And so this word for
witness that comes out is this word. Can you
read it with me? Say it out loud. Say it again.
What does that sound like? Sounds like martyr.
And so the Greek word for witness is martis.
And this is not just somebody who like talks,
but this is somebody who lives and dies for the
truth. And this is their calling. To be a witness
who tells of, who speaks of the truth that they
saw. And it's our call too. It's extended to
us. And so, As we're thinking about this, Jesus
says, you will receive power. And the Holy Spirit
comes to empower us to live boldly, to speak
courageously, to heal miraculously, to love radically,
to live righteously, to pray deeply, and to serve
faithfully. All for his glory. And so when he
says, you will receive power, the Holy Spirit...
gives more than some emotion. He actually gives
divine help, courage to stand like Peter did
at Pentecost. I don't know what to do or stand.
Language when we don't know what to say. Guidance,
when we're like, I don't know where to move,
the Holy Spirit redirects Paul to the right place,
and he can do that for me. So someone saying
these things, this is not like Jesus standing
as a coach being like, you guys are going to
do great things, I really believe in you, you've
practiced really, really hard, and I think you're
going to do great things. He's like, no, I believe
all of those things, but then I'm also going
to be working in and through you. I'm going to
empower you, I'm going to give you what it is
is that you need to fulfill what it is that I'm
saying you're going to do. And it's like, whoo,
the coach is coming with us. Like, he's in us,
working through us, those skills. Jesus even
said, I am going to send the Holy Spirit. I gotta
go, and I gotta send the Holy Spirit. John chapter
14, verse 12. So that you can do everything that
I did and more. And so, this isn't hype. This
is like real help. This is him promising you
and giving you everything you need to do it,
empowered by the Spirit. And this idea had a
global scope, but it had a really cool local
start to things. And so he talks about this Jerusalem,
Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
And though we talk about it being geography,
yes, it is. It's also a bit of a roadmap for
our own lives. Jerusalem, it's like your people,
where are you? For me, I think of my apartment
complex. Yesterday, we had, yeah, yesterday?
Yesterday. Day before? We had the Easter party
at our condo on Saturday. Yeah, it was Saturday.
Yeah, I think it was Saturday. Yeah, we had Easter
on Saturday. I know it was a week ago, but we
had Easter at our condo yesterday because we
couldn't do it last the week before because we
had a bunch of people. So there was like 60 people
going on an Easter egg hunt and hearing the story
of Jesus yesterday. Why? Because it's my Jerusalem.
That's my people. It's not like a location far
away from me. It's right here. Judea, your region,
where are you? We're in Bangkok and we're in
our country that's here. Samaria, it's a place
of discomfort. What do you mean when you say
that? Well, Jewish people had a bit of a stigma
towards the Samaritans, so much so that if they
needed to go to a city that was beyond Samaria,
instead of just going through Samaria, they would
what? They would go around it. And so sometimes
where God calls us to in this empowerment is
to a place of discomfort. But then there's also
the ends of the earth, which is our beyond. And
what's super cool is sometimes our ends of the
earth is somebody's Jerusalem, and sometimes
their Jerusalem is our ends of the earth, so
it works together. But ECB is actually uniquely
positioned for this very thing. We're gathered
from many nations. We're 60? 50? Yeah, let's
just say 30 in case someone says that's wrong.
Over 30 nations. And what happens is ECBers don't
always stay here for a long period of time. They
go. So we're constantly sending people around
the world from the nations to the nations. And
so in this instance, what I love is that Jesus
isn't just saying, you're going to be teachers.
No. He said, you'll be my witnesses. And the
apostles, they had seen him. So they could legitimately
be like, yeah, yeah, I've seen, I've witnessed
this, but we haven't seen him physically, but
we've received the spirit. And as a result of
that, we've experienced him spiritually. And
because the disciples did such a fantastic job
witnessing, we read it all in here. And not only
in these places, other non -Christian spaces,
we see as a result of that, that Jesus is on
the move. And what happens is sometimes when
we give witness to things, people ask like, what's
going on? And I love in Acts chapter four, the
disciples are kind of being pulled aside by some
people that are a little bit frustrated by what
it is that they're doing. And they say like,
listen, we can't help speaking about what it
is that we've seen and heard. Witness. And so
true witness actually flows from both this objective
truth and subjective experience. And you're like,
what do you mean objective truth and subjective
experience? Let's unpack it for a moment. So
consider this. Objective truth is truth that
is true, regardless of how we feel about it.
It's rooted in reality. And so Jesus, objective
truth, in the gospel, Jesus lived objective truth.
Died. Objective truth. He rose from the dead.
Objective truth. And he offers salvation through
him. Objective truth. These are facts of history.
They're facts of faith. Track one. But then we've
got subjective experience. And this is us here.
It's how that truth becomes personal to us. This
is our personal, it's our lived out encounter
with the risen Jesus through the Holy Spirit.
For example. Sometimes we feel forgiven when
we were burdened by guilt. Subjective experience.
Sometimes we experience peace that we can't explain
during hard times. Scripture even talks about
that. Subjective truth. Experience. Sensing God's
guidance when we pray. Subjective experience.
Seeing prayers answered in ways that we can't
really explain. Subjective experience. And so
if our witness was only truth, it feels a bit
rigid. And if it's only experience, it's a bit
rootless, and it's not grounded in anything.
So we need to imagine that objective truth is
kind of like a train track, and subjective experience
is the train that's running on it. And so you
need the tracks, the truth, or you derail. but
you also need movement and experience or you
stay stuck. But what happens when both of those
things come together is that we become a beacon
of living hope. When we witness to the world,
we don't just explain the nice facts about Jesus,
he rose from the dead, but we also tell the story
that he changed my life and he can change yours.
So it's truth and transformation. It's knowing
and it's living and it's believing and becoming
or experiencing it. And so let's take this a
little bit further. Now, if Jesus were on trial,
imagine Jesus is in Bangkok. The police are like,
where's Jesus? We got to find him. Why? What
has Jesus done? Well, he's the master of saving.
Some people are calling him the Lord of Life.
Can we actually prove that? Is he transforming
lives? Can we actually prove that? Is he forgiving?
Is he Redeemer? Is he bringing a holy world order
to where it is that he is? Would there be enough
evidence to convict him? If you flip back to
the book of Acts, Acts is like the courtroom
transcript. That gives direct evidence of what
it is that people witness. And according to the
book of Acts, One absolutely, Jesus would be
convicted of that. And it tells the story right
in here, and then it comes out to us of a movement
that spread, which is good news for us, not through
professionals, but through everyday people. Everyday
people doing what? Everyday people being, everyday
people doing, everyday people saying. Through
what they were, through what they did, through
what they said, they lived like Jesus. Grace
flew out of them. They gave people what they
didn't deserve. Sometimes they didn't give people
what they probably deserved. They were generous,
ridiculous. They sold things that were theirs
for the benefit of other people. They were healing
people, not just physically, but mentally and
restoring lives. They were evidencing incredible
hospitality. They were living simple lives and
their speech, how they talked was soaked in the
name of Jesus. And so like, Think about this.
This isn't all like weird things giving witness
to the person of Jesus. This is just like quite
logically functional, nice human being things
that God created us to be. Grace, generosity,
healing, hospitality, simplicity, speech soaked
in the name of what we were, what we did, what
we say. And even a 19th century critical philosopher
and cultural critic, he says this. I love it.
He says, I'll believe in your Redeemer when you
look a little more redeemed. And so when persecution
hit the early church at this moment, the apostles
stayed. People scattered, and the empire, the
Roman empire, was changed. And why was it changed?
The empire was changed because scattered believers
lived as evidence. So would there be enough evidence?
Yes. Why? Because of you. But here's the thing.
If you're anything like me, even in our own personal
lives, this kind of witnessing doesn't always
feel logical, the promise doesn't even seem reasonable.
And I rewind almost nine years ago now when my
wife Megan and I at the same time, two kids,
were feeling like God was calling us up and out
of Canada. But we didn't know where to or what
at that moment. We just knew he was calling us
out and we knew it was going to happen. And as
we began to say yes, my wife tells a story of
feeling absolutely overwhelmed with fear. It
wasn't just like dreams of drowning. It was like
she felt like when she walked through life and
would give thought and consideration to a new
culture, a new language, a new country, she just
felt like she was drowning and suffocating. And
then one day we're sitting in church and one
of our friends is preaching and she shares this
image and says, I believe there's somebody that's
here who might need to hear this. And when people
say that, sometimes I'm like, this is going to
get crazy. She says, I have a vision of somebody
who feels like they're drowning, overwhelmed
by waves. But to you, God is just saying, stop
swimming. Stop swimming. And you will see my
hand holding you. And you will walk in my peace.
And then one day, an older woman came up to her
a few weeks later, a spiritual mentor, a bit
of a saint, and she said, hey, I feel like God
has given me some scripture for you. And same
thing. Some of us have had experiences where
that's been really good, and others of us had
experiences where we're like, this is about to
get crazy again. But this was a positive experience.
And she begins to read. When you pass through
the waters, I will be with you. The rivers will
not sweep over you. That moment brought peace.
Not just for a year, but as long as the Lord
has us here. And I think just like the disciples
on the mountain, we realized that we weren't
actually being sent out alone. God had actually
already gone ahead of us. He was holding us.
He was empowering us and inviting us to step
into a story that was a whole lot bigger than
our fears. And so Jesus didn't say, you will
be my witnesses as a one -time moment. Say it,
one -time moment. No, he didn't say it as a one
-time moment. It became a blueprint for the whole
of the book of Acts and for us. And what's crazy
is if you take this, because I think I lied this
morning, and I go all the way to the end to Acts
chapter, how many chapters are in this book?
27, 28. You head to the 28th chapter, and you
read about this guy who was proclaiming the gospel,
and then it just kind of stops. Paul's in Rome,
and then what? There's no happily ever after.
There's no climactic ending. Nobody all of a
sudden dies. There's no trial, martyrdom, no
closure. It stops mid -sentence. The feeling
is like that. And some have suggested that perhaps
this is God and his creativity. Maybe, I don't
know. But God and his creativity is doing this
because the movement actually hasn't stopped.
Sometimes people say, you're Acts 29. We're living
it. Acts 29, the next chapter is us. It's our
lives. We're doing it right now. And so consider
this. This is the task. People, who are supposed
to fulfill the tasks? You, me. The power? Spirit?
The plan? Where does that come from? Well, he
laid it out. Start in Jerusalem. Go outward.
What about the philosophy? How are we going to
do this? Say what you've seen. Witness. And that
final chapter, that final chapter, it's still
being written. It's still being written. And
you're in it. And I'm in it. And ECB is in it.
And that same spirit is still sending. That same
spirit is still empowering. That same spirit
is still... It's still promising that you will
be my witnesses. Friends, we're living Acts 29.
And so the disciples stood. There's like this
U2 song. I'm not the only one staring at the
sun. Does anyone know that song? The disciples
stood there staring at the sky. And all of a
sudden the angels appear to them and they say,
stop staring, start going or being. And so I
wonder for some of us, maybe we're in our kind
of Mount of Olives moment. And you're like, what
do you mean your Mount of Olives moment? Well,
maybe you're unsure. Maybe you're a bit afraid.
Maybe you feel, I am not quite ready yet. But
the cool thing is, is that Jesus sees your fear.
He sees my fear, and he speaks to our potential
in that. He says that you don't have to be fully
ready. Just be fully available. Do you see what's
going on? Before we respond, I want you to hear
this very clearly. What Jesus gives them here,
or there, depending upon the way you say it,
it's not a command. It's actually a promise.
He doesn't say, go and be my witnesses and just
try really hard. No. He says, wait, and you will
receive power. Wait, and you will receive power.
And so being his witness isn't first an assignment.
It's the result of an encounter. Let me say that
again. Being his witness isn't first an assignment.
It's the result of an encounter. It's not about
you trying to muster up boldness. It's not about
you trying to figure it out on your own. It's
actually about the Spirit making you bold. You
hear that? It's not about you trying to muster
up boldness. It's about the Spirit making you
bold. It's not about you forcing yourself to
care. It's actually about the Spirit filling
you, filling you with love that overflows. And
so the Great Commission sends us, but this promise
empowers us. You will receive power. And because
of that, you will be my witnesses. And so maybe
today isn't just about being sent. Maybe today
is the day that some of us, some of you need
to say yes to Jesus for the first time. Whether
you're in person, whether you're online, this
invitation is for you. Jesus... doesn't wait
for you to have it all together. Thank God. He
meets us in our questions. He meets you in your
questions. And so today, if you feel him stirring,
pray simply, Jesus, if you're real, make yourself
real to me and watch what he will do. And so
this month, I stepped into a new role here at
ECB as a director part -time interim of mobilization.
But I believe that God is doing something more
than me. I think that he's actually mobilizing
us. And so I wonder if you'd be willing to see
your workplace, your muban, your school, your
friendships, your family become the place that
Jesus is. is seen, where people see Jesus in
you. So I have a question. Will you say yes?
Let's pray. Lord, I thank you that you trust
us with your mission. That you see our fear and
all the baggage and things that we bring with
it, but you also see our potential. You see the
possibility. You see what is possible. And so,
Holy Spirit, I pray that you would breathe your
Spirit into us again. Just as we prayed in the
first service, we pray again, send us into our
city, into our circles, into our world, to our
friends, to our family, Lord, carrying your living
hope with your promise that you gave to us to
be the witness. In your name we pray. Amen. Thank
you for tuning in to the ECB Sermon Podcast.
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