Automatically Generated Transcript

00:00.000 --> 01:13.400
Acts 1, 9 to 11. I'm not sure the page numbers I might have given you are right, so just go by the Bible text, Acts 1, 9 to 11. And what we're doing here is looking at scriptures that tell us a little bit about Jesus being lifted up to heaven. There's a part of the scriptures that actually tells us the exact opposite of what is often called the Plerosis, and Plerosis is a word that means that the fullness was put in, or it was given in the total evidence of the lot clauses is the opposite of another word. Anybody tell me what the the word is for the opposite of Plerosis. It's a Greek word so I'm not expecting you all to be shouting at once. But the Plerosis is what we are looking at here in Acts 1, Where Jesus is "'taken back to heaven?" so there's a hint for you. Is there a passage you can think of where just

01:13.400 --> 02:12.480
the opposite is described of Jesus coming down from heaven, and where is going up to After heaven He is crowned as King of Kings and Lord of Lords and where His name is given the authority of the greatest name on earth that is called a Plerosis where it will increase. There is another word. What the word is for the humbling of Jesus? 2 – Philippians 2 begins, «Let this mind be new, which was also in Christ Jesus,» and it goes on to say how, he emptied himself, and so the opposite of motwairlois is the emptying of himself, which there's a word for – I was fishing to see how many of you might have heard it – what about people in Canberra, have they heard it? No! Ok, well

02:12.480 --> 02:44.600
Chianosis The word blah blah blah… Which means the self-emptying of oneself. Jesus made himself of no reputation and came down to earth and took upon a servant's role. More than that, he took on humanity, and as a human he was relative to Father God, as Father God is human, appearing to enormous amounts of power. He's the son of God and left no deity behind and own but, nonetheless, he emptied himself of all the rights and privileges that were his

02:44.600 --> 03:42.060
as one of the third members of the trinity in heaven is God, the Father God, the Son and God, the Holy Spirit and it's called Kenosis! But to teach about that is only half the story because there came a time having finished working on Earth in submission to the Father, he related to Father God as a human relates to Father God even though he also was relating as True Son. So this morning we were talking about the coming of Jesus and his going to the cross and all that was involved in his giving himself for our sins. And that was a great part that he did with our salvation. But our salvation has more than that. Sorry that was good Friday we went that line and then In the morning service we are looking at how Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

03:42.060 --> 04:17.800
And he is rising from the dead is the first step of the pleroces, but it's not the final step because having been around for forty days and appearing to people and then being seen to them, he then returned to Heaven and that is what we are reading of here. This is Acts 1 verse 9, And when he has said these things, he's been giving discussion, having discussion with his disciples and they were looking on, he's led them outside the city to the top of the man of olives, I think it is, and he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight, and that's just a cloud.

04:17.800 --> 05:10.600
He went up vertically till he was hidden behind a cloud. And while they were gazing into heaven, now remember the way they understood the term heaven, is that there was the heaven where the birds flew, that's meaning the sky. There's heaven where the stars shone. There's also heaven where God rules. And there's nothing, no noises I can make to indicate the heaven where God rules. But he was lifted up vertically to go through the sky and presumably by the disciples through what is the stars above and eventually to where God sits. And this is the beginning of his Plerosisnomïaris it's a Greek word and it means the filling of all things and Jesus was lifted up and reversed to how he come

05:10.600 --> 06:06.320
and KENONSIS is now lifted up to the highest place. Please say with me Plerosis Nomïaris all right and you know another Greek word Plerosis leaving up to be to fill all things and one of the things about Jesus is that he was granted because of his willingness to so empty himself and to come as a servant, he was lifted up to be the total master, he was lifted up to the reverse, the opposite. And that's what we're reading of. And as they were looking on the cloud hid the mountains from their sight, that's where he disappeared from their visibility to them. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men, they appeared first 2. Stood by them in white robes, and said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into

06:06.320 --> 07:01.080
heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you have seen him go into heaven. 3. And this has become the hope of the angels, That the one who has taken up to glory, to fill all things, is going to come back. This one who is now King of Kings and Lord of Lords, this one who has been made to be Lord of the Church, this one who has achieved our salvation, and has sat down of the right hand of the Father, is going to come again.' The angels are declaring it and what's interesting is the manner of his coming at the end of of the age, is not to come again as a baby in Bethlehem, or not to come to do things around Galilee, he's going to come in the same manner as they have seen him go. So visibly, physically and indeed there's verses in the Old Testament that say that

07:01.080 --> 07:56.940
his feet will touch the Man of Olives. So he's literally going to come again to the same spot that they had seen him go, from which they had seen him go. Now, this is the hope of the Church, of Jesus coming back again. And in between the time of Him, this rising and going to heaven, a number of things have happened in which He has been exalted to a specially high place. And so we'll look now to Matthew and Matthew's Gospel in Chapter 23, Matthew Gospel 23.27 to 37 to 39, 37 to 39. Now, this is a bit of a flashback to something that happened not too long before this event because Jesus has been getting and appearing to His disciples across 40 days after His

07:56.940 --> 08:43.220
resurrection. But prior to that happening, there was a final moment when He offered Himself to Israel to be its King, to be its coming Messiah, that had been prophesied down in their Scriptures all through the years. And He had been rejected and crucified. But this is before His crucifixion, but it's sort of after the rejection of the leaders. And so Jesus is speaking a prophetic moment as to what the result of their not having received their Messiah, though they started out as a crowd waving palm branches. And that's why we have a Palm Sunday, not so long back. But the Palm Sunday was to remember that the crowds were accepting Jesus, but the leaders

08:43.220 --> 09:35.960
got Him put upon the cross and crucified with the people's compliance in terms of going along with their handover to the Romans. 3 O Jerusalem Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to it, how often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing. See your house is left to you desolate . . . for I tell you, you will not see me again And then, until You say blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Now they had said that in the Palm Sunday event. It was what prophecy from the Old Testament said they'd say and they waved the palm branches and they had the Levi choir singing from what we call the hill representation, the whole

09:35.960 --> 10:33.560
whole lot of the Psalms as Jesus came into the actual capital city. came, as was prophesied one day the Messiah would come, riding on a donkey's colt. He fulfilled all the prophecies, and he came riding in as the King of Israel. And that city, and its leadership, and the people following, rejected him. 19 And there Jesus says in verse 38, 1 See, your houses are left to you desolate. for, I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.' So there is to be in all possibility in Jesus' wording there, a moment future to that one whereby the people of Israel would indeed be turned around to say blessed is he who comes in the Name of the LORD again and receive their Messiah at some possible

10:33.560 --> 11:40.040
future moment. I do think the Bible elsewhere predicts that Christ is going to come and there'll be something that will happen because they, the Jewish people, the ones who represent them in this future generation, are going to recognize how their nation had done the worst thing they ever could have have done of killing their own Messiah. when God sent the Holy Spirit on those who had been praying in the upper room, and that they had come out showing prophecies and saying things, and the people who had come to Jerusalem for a special feasting period from all over the ancient world, people coming because they were Jews by religion if not Jews by race. In that moment of the day of Pentecost Peter preached the first Christian sermon.

11:40.040 --> 12:31.300
I think there were people saying Christian things earlier, and there certainly were lots of people calling folks to come back to God, like Jonah, or whatever in the Old Testament. But this was the first time for people to get into that which Jesus opened up by his ministry on Earth which we later will learn has a special name. thinking as to what the special name is of the group, who is being formed on this day of Pentecost. 52 Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance,' says Peter to the crowd to crucify Jesus, �as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent, therefore� Now by the way, the word repent literally means to reverse your verdict. We know your

12:31.300 --> 13:04.100
the word to cry about your sins or to be sorry for your sins. which is sort of implied. But it means to have an opposite decision. It's a word about what you make up your mind to do. And the gospel message here illustrated by Peter in that first great sermon at the Day of Pentecost has in it the call for repentance. And the call for repentance is the call for people to reverse their verdict about Jesus. Why so?

13:04.100 --> 14:01.520
Because Jesus came and was rejected. Also in the New Testament era that follows, the people who pronounce the Gospel call on folk to accept Jesus as the Messiah, to reverse that, turning down of strategy and having him crucified, or in our modern generation it was our sins that partially got him crucified, To recognise that we are a part of the sinful race that killed him, and to reverse the verdict. Where as they rejected him, where as they killed him, where as they thought they could run their own affairs, he is calling on us to reverse the verdict, at least for you. Repent therefore and turn back that your sins may be blotted out. The first Christian message was very much one that had, in it's centre, the call for repentance that you might have, The Forgiveness Of Sins.

14:01.520 --> 14:33.740
Now, it's a bit of a problem today that we give the Gospel in parts sometimes, but leave out the parts that are a bit hard to get people to accept. But there is no True Gospel of our repentance of the Stance that the Bible, particularly the New Testament convicts us of the all-of-us-have of being in rebellion against God and having an attitude of rejection of the Lordship or the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Lord. We put him on a cross. God knew that it would happen

14:33.740 --> 15:12.160
and he planned it in his scheme of things that that way Jesus would bear our sins. And when he cried out and said as I've explained in previous messages, my God! my God, how you have forsaken me, or in another translation, my God, my God, why have You forsaken me?' It was because God laid on him the sins of us all, and punished him, and the anger of the wrath of God for the sins of all generations. For the effect of the changing of the whole of the world, and even the animal kingdom, which has brought into a place of fallen-ness, what we see of the animal kingdom, what we

15:12.160 --> 15:50.740
we see of the human kingdom, what we see of all the things going on around us, they are not how God created this world when He created it and said it is good or it is very good. But it is a fallen world and we are a fallen set of people and we are fallen individuals who represented, whose hearts according to Ezekiel are desperately wicked, the hardest deceitful among all things and desperately wicked. I had to think that was my sermon last weekend, and desperately wicked. Who could know it? It's so wicked that we don't know our own hearts. Where beyond understanding,

15:50.740 --> 16:16.560
if I can just repeat from that sermon, when it says desperately wicked, we sometimes don't understand even the English words used to translate there. For the word desperately was used in the medical circles when you were taken off to the hospital or to where you might have in in battle and had a sword pushed through you, but you're just still living just a bit? But then the surgeon looking over you says,

16:16.560 --> 16:59.800
ìThis a desperate caseî. You know what they meant by the word desparate? You're not coming back, you're not getting out, that's right. You're going to die, there www.Khoon canvas.com is help! But being desperate in the words translated wicked can always be used not only for medical things, you're desperately sick, would be quite a feasible translation. But when it's used in a passage, there's obviously meaning about our sin, they translate it as wicked. We are in a stage of wickedness that is beyond repair. The entire human race – for all have sinned, and have fallen short of the glory of God

16:59.800 --> 17:41.760
– tells us that we've missed the mark, but not only just have we missed the mark and someone or another shot, and did pretty good, and got 99 par cent, still fail, because they didn't hit the mark. 35 But no, this verse in Jeremiah about being desperately wicked tells us that we have a humanity which is beyond repair, which is why we need to be born again, and it is why we need to have a new heart. The heart that we have because we are part of a fallen race is desperately wicked, and therefore Peter called on his genetics to repent, and a part of his desperately wicked nature is how they put Jesus on the cross.

17:41.760 --> 18:33.780
That was the proof of it, that was the outcome of it. And in our lives, although we may try our best to be a person that lives well, yet nonetheless, we've got a heart that will never please God, because it has been decreed by him in his word, as And we are to repent therefore of that terrible heart, and turn back.' When he said that to that generation he's saying to them, you put him on the cross and and crucified him. Reverse your verdict. You can't undo the fact you've crucified him but you can you can repent. And make him Lord of lords and King of kings. That your sins may be blotted out. That times of refreshing, may come from the presence of the Lord.

18:33.780 --> 19:35.020
Just as the wording desperately wicked can be talking about a position to be in that you can admit you've had it, it's you're going to die... So the word refreshing is one of those words that's used in the scriptures about spiritual refreshment. Times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. And here the Apostle Peter is in a sermon that he goes on to describe that if people would but repent and confess that in baptism he called for that people would cover pence and confess Jesus as their Savior, that they would not only get the forgiveness of sins, but also they receive a second gift in the whole deal. Now I want to hear what some of you know as the other thing you get when you come to Christ and you change your verdict, and you come to the Lord Jesus and trust Him and give yourself to Him and trust in Him as your Savior. Not only do you get the forgiveness but there's a second gift.

19:35.020 --> 20:15.660
Anybody want to tell me what it is? I think many of you know. Well you are, yes, being born again is the refreshing part. I'm not, you've got ahead of me. One step. according to Peter's sermon, if you repent of your sins, not only do you get the fact of being forgiven, but what else does God give you at that moment? Come on up the back. Yes, the gift of the Holy Spirit. They are the twin blessings of coming to Christ.

20:16.660 --> 20:56.300
Your sin is not just meaning the times you might remember. When I was a kid, I stole the chest set to give to my dad, which I really greatly regretted and I eventually confessed to him and he sent it back he loves chess but he sent it back, He was a shame to me. Not only is it the actual sins that you may remember, but the fact of your being a sinner. change? 16. No, you should remember to change your sinful attitude. 15. Get off my back Christ, get off your sinful Carry of the will of God.

20:56.300 --> 21:23.500
16. Reverse your verdict. Where has he left you out of your life? 17. Let him be your Prince and King and your Savior and your Library. 18. Repent therefore. at your sins, maybe you've loaded it out. And the times of refreshing which is actually the way of saying about the Holy Spirit, because the Old Testament uses that phrasing about the Holy Spirit times of refreshing may come from the

21:23.500 --> 22:19.120
presence of the Lord and you get the gift of the Holy Spirit which is what makes you and you were correct being born again. Being born again is that regeneration of the heart, the one that's desperately wicked and is hopelessly lost, hoped desperately sick, that one that's not coming back from being desperately wicked and dying, that one will be refreshed by forgiveness, and by the gift of the Holy nature which will renew it from the presence of the Lord. It goes on to say, �and that he may send the Christ appointed for you.' part of what will come that he will sends at the second coming, Jesus, particularly he is coming to the world. But for the people who've come to Christ, will Jesus take them? Another spot in John's gospel. Jesus says he is going away. He says this is for your

22:19.120 --> 23:18.800
good that I go away because I am going to prepare a place for you. Right now in glory, in heaven, Jesus is preparing a special resting place for you. A special place for your consumption. inclusion with Him in glory and He's not gonna just send an angel to get you to make your own way up, He's coming back Himself because this is personal for Jesus. Do you know what's personal? You and Him! That's what's personal! And He'll be coming back for you, for everyone who is repented of their sin and put their trust in Him as Savior and Lord. He'll you would not only have forgiven their sins but and given you the Holy Spirit to help you to grow and seek to live the Christian life but He's coming back at the end of time to collect you for Himself. I find that a fantastic thought

23:18.800 --> 24:09.200
that Jesus sees me as someone He's coming to collect! Wow that forgiveness God's forgiveness must be real. It's, the Christ appointed for you Jesus whom heaven must receive until the time of restoring all things it's not just you and me, but the whole world, is going to be put back as it should have been. Restoring all things. It was a cosmic death that Jesus died for our world as well as for the individual sinners. Anyway I先etlect the Christ appointed to you. him. Heaven must receive until the time for restoring all things about which he spoken by the mouth of the Prophet'. Alright, that's fine for that one. We'll

24:09.200 --> 25:18.920
move on to another verse and we're going through about the exaltation, the fact that Jesus has gone back to heaven to be exalted but the one day he'll return it again. We'll go from there to Ephesians 3, 4 to 9 okay, now this is in the book of Ephesians. The chief feature of the book of Ephesians, is it talks about their being a brand new body, but it's not talking about a brand new entity it's not talking about the fact of your human body it's talking about Christ's body it's talking about the people of God and the fact was that they were used to be the Jewish people and they used to be the non Jewish people and there was a great antithesis between the two and the Jews looked down their noses at the Gentiles and they called them pigs or dogs.

25:18.920 --> 26:08.880
And the Gentiles were busy with their kingdom on earth and they used to persecute the Jews. Not always all the same amount, but that was how the two were as two different groups of people. And anyway, when Jesus came into the world and died upon the cross, he didn't just die for the Jewish people. Well, he certainly did fulfil all that was lead up in the Old Testament code of sacrifices, he certainly did fulfil all of the promises that the one day he came and be the one that brought about the promise God gave to Abraham, he's someone that came to fulfil what was a Jewish promise. The old covenant is replaced by the new covenant, and this new covenant is what was prophesied

26:08.880 --> 26:35.840
and these Old Testament books to be for the Jewish people, the thing though is that it wasn't just for the Jewish people, it was to make a covenant that would dismiss and shatter the wall between the Jewish people and the non Jews because it would give a similar entrance to both the Jews or the gentiles which was not so much the keeping of the Old Law,

26:35.840 --> 27:26.800
not so much the being a Jewish person being circumcised, if you are a male, not so much as someone who has been in the race of people called Jews and had all the various things to do with the physicality they had, whether it be big noses, or whether it be the blood type or whatever, that made a person a Jew! I want to tell you that when God made the promise that there would be a new covenant, He made it within mind that it was going to be open to everybody and the entrance was going to be simply whether or not you came and accepted the Christ, whether or not you allowed him to be Christ over all the world, over all people and to be part of what was later to be called the body of Christ. Christ would have returned to heaven where he was

27:26.800 --> 28:21.680
exalted leading His Church from heaven as the head of the Church, but we on the earth who have received him as Savior, will be a part of his body here on earth. Where the head of the church is Christ in heaven, the body of the church is us, who have come to know Jesus as Savior, whether we were a Jew or a Greek, made no different. Only what counted is that you have come and taken Christ as your Savior, and then you have got into the body. And so this is what Ephesians is talking about, and this was called something that would be revealed, and a big surprise, they had a technical word for something that was hidden that nobody understood because it had not been revealed, they called it a Mosterion, that's actually the Greek word Mosterion which our bibles translate by an English word mystery, and

28:21.680 --> 29:18.140
thereby confusing an awful lot of people's thinking. There is a connection between the Mosterian and the Greek idea of the Word, because it is something you cannot know, but not because it is too technical or not because it is too complicated or because of anything other than the fact that God has not yet revealed it. Mosteria means something yet to be revealed and the Church is completely hidden from the Old Testament mind. They had all this idea in the Old Covenant that you had to be a Jew to belong to God God, and they weren't wrong. Jesus affirmed to the woman at the well that salvation is from the Jews, that Jerusalem is the right place, that the sacrifices made in the Samaritan mountain was not acceptable, but it was Jerusalem, and their system of sacrifices was the way

29:18.140 --> 30:28.740
to get close to God. Until Jesus came and died on the cross and paid the sin for the whole world, 25 Open the door for there to be a new body. 26 So the book of Ephesians 13 which was not made known to the sons of men in other firing other generations. They didn't know. They didn't have a church back then they had got the word of and when you translate from the Hebrew to the Greek you will get the word ecclesia which is what the New Testament uses for the church but it was a different understanding altogether it was the congregation of the children of Israel. There was the ecclesia but now in the New Testament the word Ecclesia is used for the congregations of every person who has come to Christ. There is a doctrine, as a theologian I used to teach in college, that the chief idea of

30:28.740 --> 31:15.100
the church is all the people who are part of the body of Christ. He's the head in heaven and we, still being Christians, are his body on earth and that represents every single person who's actually done business successfully with Jesus. some of them are Methodist and some of them are other denominations, some of them might even be some of the denominations. I think they are quite wrong. But the people in them came to Jesus somewhere, anyway. I've told you my stories of the fellow I used to sleep next to in the extra room when we had too many students at college. He was in the sleeping bag next to me and when I asked him how he became a Christian it was And one of those scientific things where you go to read about science but it's science of..

31:15.100 --> 31:50.380
You know it's really a cult. Where they think somewhere by their scientific theories you get to be right with God and the more he read the more he didn't follow it. The more he knew they were wrong and but somehow someone told him about Christ and he became a Christian and then the more he read in their science room he realized was wrong and he left. Then they found a church where they talked about Jesus as a saviour — what happened to be a Baptist church, and He came to the Baptist college, and He ended up a student sleeping on the sleeping bag next to me and in the common room, because we had too many students.

31:50.380 --> 32:34.840
He would tell me his testimony, and He was a glowing Christian who loved Jesus, and learned when he was studying at a college that he might tell other people. That is what a Christian is! someone that has come to Jesus, and the only relevant thing for you tonight is whether you have found Christ as your own personal Saviour, and whether you have trusted in Him to forgive your sins, and whether you have received Him as your Saviour. That means to put your faith in Him, to take away your sins and to give you the Holy Spirit, and to make your Christian, become a part of the body of Christ, this new body. The Book of Ephesians tells us the mystery that they didn't know anything about, is God was going to make a new body They wouldn't be any more the botherer of

32:34.840 --> 33:09.960
whether they're Jews or Gentiles and the antipathy that lay between them The Book of Ephesians actually says That it was a big wall A wall that got broken down by Jesus death and by the invitation of the gospel to come and be a Christian Now, it doesn't matter what denomination you are The only thing that counts tonight Is that you have successfully come and rested your case and rested your faith in Jesus Christ as your personal savior. It's a mystery, but a mystery that's now revealed

33:09.960 --> 33:41.280
as to how you get in the door, and that there are gentiles who are fellow heirs, along with the Jews, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel. And there were some terrific promises in the Old Testament as to what was going to happen When the Messiah came and His doings would be finished and the gospel was offered and the good news of the gospel is that it doesn't matter anything about you other than you repent

33:41.280 --> 34:30.780
of your sins and you put your faith in Jesus as your Savior. Well Paul says in verse 17, Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace. Now these Gifts of God's Grace are the operations of the Holy Spirit, that God sovereignly chooses to give different parts of His Body different tasks. And so all of us in the Christian Church have been given a task, and we're given a gift for it to operate. And that gift, that gift is what you're given special to do that maybe others haven't. You may have some other people, your meeting you have the same gift as you, but the You The Body of Christ has got various spiritual gifts spread across it, it's called a Grace.

34:30.780 --> 35:18.960
There's a certain subset of those gifts which Paul goes on to speak about in chapter 4 and chapter 3 and it is the list of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher. They are the gifts of leadership by which he leads his church, for yet there are people who are in the church you have other gifts that contribute to the overall working of the Church as well. We find what God has called us to. We can't dictate it, you can't, sort of, somehow or other decide that you'll go up the ladder and get better gifts or something because whatever the Holy Spirit decides he distributes them, the Holy Spirit severally, as he wills. And so this factor of the Body of Christ so that we may do the work of Christ down here

35:18.960 --> 36:20.460
on earth doing Jesus well. He's in heaven, and He sends His orders through the Holy Spirit to the people in the church, and they do what Jesus wants from heaven. It's because He's been exalted, and one of the things that He has exalted is the head of the church. of what has happened to Jesus. Now there's a lot more I can say about that, but I just want simply to continue, by turning us back to our verse that we've started at where I'm going to finish on again, in Acts one verses nine to 11 and just point out again what we says back then already, that Jesus is coming back again and when he comes back, it is the Head of the Church coming back to reward members of the body for how they've obediently done his will. In-between times He's in heaven and He has a task of praying for us, or looking after

36:20.460 --> 37:06.120
us and helping us and answering our prayers. He's in heaven and He is our intercessor. He's our high-priest in heaven, and just like the high-priest, back in the old covenant used to go into the temple and do things that would get the people accepted. So Jesus now in heaven acts as our high priest, so when you are in need, He speaks to the father on your behalf. He tells the Father, there's John, he needs you. Let the Holy Spirit help him now. Jesus leads his Church and in a sense through that Holy Spirit, As I was saying this morning, Jesus comes to people in need.

37:06.120 --> 37:56.580
So the apostle Paul, after Jesus has ascended, after the ascension has happened, after the Day of Pentecost, many people are coming to Christ, and Paul ends up in prison, in danger of his life because people are trying to talk the authorities into killing him. Paul is afraid and the Bible tells us that Jesus stood by him. If I can reiterate one of the points from this morning's message on the Resurrection, Jesus didn't need the angel to roll the stone away to let Jesus out. Because his Resurrection included a change in all of the abilities that he had in terms of what he was now able to use, whereas before he'd left a lot of those abilities aside.

37:56.580 --> 38:36.780
Now he is one who can do things like walk through doors, he's still physical and yet he's not someone who he speaks of as running on blood but he does have flesh and bones here he owned up to having. He ate in front of them, he was not just a ghost, he wanted to prove it by eating in front of them but he'd come in through the door that was locked and he'd get such a terrible fright. But Jesus, though he is exalted in heaven, is able to come to you on earth.' And he came to Paul. By the Holy Spirit enablement, I wouldn't know exactly how to say. It's a mystery.

38:36.780 --> 39:15.100
But Jesus is not someone who because he is in heaven, and not all so here on earth. He tells us that, �Where two or more are gathered together in his name, there is he, There is he in the midst. Jesus is here because we open the meeting in Jesus name and we've met because we're Christians in Jesus name and this is Jesus' Gospel that's being proclaimed. I want to tell you one way if you want to be a powerful preacher, I want to give you the biggest hint you could ever get. Preach the Gospel. Power isn't necessarily in the person at all. It's in the message that he gives.

39:15.100 --> 40:07.380
because of the messenger who has sent it to be given who not only sends his message in terms of the accuracy of his ideas but he comes in the person, in person, in his message, in the gospel, there's something about Jesus that when you pick up this message and say he turns up and people say while you were talking God spoke to me, or people hear somehow that sense of call has happened happened on that day of Pentecost, when Peter called the people to come. To as many who had come, and when Peter gave the call it was a sense in which Jesus was calling, and he actually said it to as many as whom the Lord our God shall call. And one of the features of this message, the gospel that makes it powerful, is not just necessarily that someone's been to preaching class. I

40:07.380 --> 40:37.600
think that works for a few people. I'll have to confess that the professors told me it had not worked for me. They told me off because they had all this fancy stuff you have to do to give a good sermon. I knew another way. I learned how to pray for my sermons and then just got there and I�d say I want you to know and headed straight in and then the professors had told me off. What I also knew is that when I walked out the door, the other students came to me some in real sense of conviction and says

40:37.600 --> 41:25.620
God to talk to them. Because Jesus is present in His message. If you want to know how to be powerful and preaching, get the message that Jesus once said. It is the gospel that has the power of God and the salvation. It's not a preacher, it's not a teacher, it's not someone who has all the right things to give to your kids. It's not just a lesson and the example you give, all in which is good by the way, But the thing that causes people to come to Christ including the children of your families is a message! I am sure glad I find that out when my kids were little. Because I took every opportunity to tell them the Gospel

41:25.620 --> 41:51.080
and to tell them of the Jesus who died on the cross for their sins. In fact, I had a lot of little ways, I smile at them now but when they were in their cribs, when they're in their little babies, I used to sing songs over them. But what were the songs? There is a green hill far away, without a city wall, where our dear Lord was crucified, who died to save us all,

41:51.080 --> 42:18.500
or I'd sing songs that had to do about Jesus calling, or quote Bible verses where the word of God comes and Jesus says come unto me. All you who labor in a heavy laden and I'll give you rest. I gave him the gospel because I had come to know, and this is what I used to teach in my theology classes, that the power is not in the messenger. It is in the message, and the person from heaven, who comes in his message.

42:20.300 --> 43:09.360
You know, I had students, I still have students who meet me like one did not so long back in Mount Omney. It was so long ago that I was teaching 23 years. And there was a lady a woman you know about 30 ish and she'd been in one of my classes and she says I still remember one of those lectures. I couldn't even recognize who she was, but she remembered exactly one lesson where she learned that Jesus is the Secret. And Jesus comes in the gospel, and Jesus turns people with that Gospel into disciples and she told me where, in which church she's doing it now. This is the truth of the New Testament that Jesus' power from

43:09.360 --> 44:14.260
heaven, the exalted Jesus comes down through his calling people to come for the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit and as you proclaim that message, and the gospel message, he is present in it to make it powerful. If you could know that secret you will be so greatly blessed. And this is because he is the exalted Christ and he comes into our lives. He's present amongst us tonight. I know in some of my messages how strongly does his presence come be felt and this is one of them where Jesus makes himself present to be heard he's the salvation of the world he is the one that turns people into disciples he's the one who calls when I looked at tonight and we were a small number so Joey and I and one of the others was getting you all to sit on this side and I thought well

44:14.260 --> 44:54.020
It's rather a sad night as I've got a message on my heart knowing a few are going to be here. The ones God wants to be here or here and how do I know one of you this has not been all designed for you. So we are going to do what I don't do often because I don't want to over do putting pressure on people but I'm gonna give a call. If God has spoken to you about you and Jesus There's nothing better to be talked about than you and Jesus. And He's calling you, for you to trust Him, be committed to Him, to believe in Him, to

44:54.020 --> 45:45.000
let Him be everything for you. As we have the final music and we're singing I'll take my place somewhere, then you come down – we'll make it dramatic shall we? have it, you come down a kneel down here and say that you're praying to Jesus, that you want to be totally his, that you want to be one who has repented of your sin if you haven't done that before, and that you want him to be all and all to you and you want his message to be heard through you. You know there'd be nothing more thrilling than someone I call it catching a bug, but there is a thing that happens to people where it happened to my church in Sydney where a young man who came forward,

45:45.040 --> 46:16.880
and I already knew he was one of my youth leaders. He was a pretty good youth leader. He also liked playing football. So, I had a special affection for him. He was someone that was going to go places because he was very skilled in his academics as well. But he came forward on Sunday evening, I took him ... I can't remember whether there are any others or not, but I took him out to a room like the back or somewhere, I said, tell me, why did you come forward?

46:17.480 --> 47:00.060
I'd been going through the book of Romans and going through the verses of the Gospel. You know what He said to me? He said, Romans has got to me, but the Gospel in the book of Romans, And the fact that you need to trust the message not you methods, not your big schemes, not your wonderful personality you may think you have, even someone a bit like that. But trust the message, he said, the book of Romans has got to me, the gospel message. The Roman road. He's presently a pastor in New South Wales and a man that God uses.

47:00.060 --> 47:45.240
If God has spoken to you tonight on some issue or particularly if you have never been certain that you have gotten in the door that you're a person who belongs to Jesus and are part of His Church so He is your head in heaven and you're a part of the Body on Earth, then come and make certain tonight, leave who you be, and come down here and tell what you want to God and then go back and take your seat again. Afterwards, if you want to, you can come and ask me questions and I'll join in with what you've done. But do that while we have this final piece of music and they're gonna be playing from over there still. Good, so this will be vacant and I'll be back on my seat.

47:45.240 --> 48:36.700
But come down, bow down here, and let heaven hear what he needs to hear from you about you and Jesus. Let me first finish in this prayer hand back to the musicians. Heavenly Father I do give you thanks and praise for the power of Jesus, the mystery of His marvelous ministry that no one understood until it was revealed, how He died on the cross, how He rose again, how He was exalted to heaven, how He's at the right hand of the Father praying for this church right now, how somehow mysteriously he comes amongst us and has given that promise where two or more are gathered together in his name. That

48:36.700 --> 49:33.700
surely is us tonight. This surely has been his message". He said he's here. No wonder that verse in Revelation 3 talks about him being at the door of the church behold I stand at the door and knock how fascinating though that he knocked at the door the church you then says if any individual, any person can hear my voice and will open the door, so the capture there is in that verse in Revelation 3 of an individual getting up and opening the door and then it says Jesus says and I'll come into him and fellowship with him and he with me and And Lord I ask that tonight might be the beginning of a very close relationship of Jesus with someone who finds out how so to do tonight. Help them to do that I ask in Jesus' name, Amen.