In the sermon titled 'All You Need to Know About the Future,' Scott Brown explores how the Book of Acts serves as a bridge between the Gospel of John and Revelation, emphasizing the continuity of the biblical narrative. The sermon outlines six blessings granted to the disciples by the resurrected Christ: preparation through teaching about the kingdom of God, empowerment by the Holy Spirit, sustenance from Christ at the Father's right hand, the promise of Christ's return, unification in prayer, and the establishment of apostolic authority. Brown emphasizes the importance of the Holy Spirit in empowering the church, noting that the promise of the Spirit's outpouring is fulfilled in Acts and is crucial for the church's mission. The ascension is highlighted as a critical event, confirming Christ's position at the Father's right hand and His ongoing intercession for believers. Brown encourages the church to focus on obedience to Christ, the spread of the gospel, and reliance on the Holy Spirit as they navigate the future. The sermon also underscores the idea that the history of the world is centered around the history of redemption, with the church playing a pivotal role in God's plan.

Please open your Bibles to the inerrant, all-sufficient Word of God. You have an outline in front of you I trust. I'm going to speak the heading of each section while I read this just to help you see where we're going with it. So we'll begin in verse 1. The first section is verses 1 through 3 where our Lord prepares his disciples by teaching them of the kingdom of God.

The former account I made Otheophilus of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach until the day in which he was taken up, after he, through the Holy Spirit, had given commandments to the apostles whom he had chosen, to whom he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. The second section, he energizes them by the Holy Spirit, verses four through eight. And being assembled together with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, you have heard from me, for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Therefore when they had come together they asked him saying, Lord will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said to them, it is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in his own authority, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth the third section He sustains them from his father's right hand verses 9 through 11 Now when he had spoken these things while they watched he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight and while they looked steadfastly toward heaven he went up as he went up behold two men stood by him by them in white apparel forth he promises to return and who also said men of Galilee why do you stand gazing up into heaven this same Jesus who has taken up from you into heaven will so come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven." The fifth section, he unifies them in prayer.

Verse 12, then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey. And when they had entered, they went up into the upper room where they were staying Peter, James, John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brothers. The sixth and final section he establishes apostolic authority verses 15 to 26 And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples. Altogether the number of names was about 120 and said, men and brethren this scripture had to be fulfilled which the Spirit spoke by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.

For he was numbered with us and obtained a part in this ministry. Now this man purchased a field with the wages of inequity, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his entrails gushed out, and it became known to all those dwelling in Jerusalem. So that field is called in their own language, Akedamah, that is, field of blood. For it is written in the book of Psalms, let his dwelling place be desolate, and let no one live in it, and let another take his office. Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John to that day when he was taken up from us, one of these must become witnesses with us of his resurrection.

And they proposed to Joseph called Bar-sabbas who was surnamed Justice and Mathias and they prayed and said, You, O Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which of these two you have chosen to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell, that he may go to his own place and they cast their lots and the lot fell on Matthias and he was numbered with the eleven apostles. Let's pray. Father we thank you for your holy word that is designed to open up our hearts, to teach us the things that are true, to help us to examine our own hearts, to show us the story of the whole world as you are telling it here in this text. Lord, I pray that you would show us the ways that your church would receive power from the Holy Spirit and that this would be the manifestation of your glory in the days to come in this very church. Amen.

Please be seated. So we've just completed our studies in the Gospel of John. We've seen his glory. We've seen that there's nothing more practical and life-changing than fixing your eyes on Jesus Christ. And of course a church can really only fulfill her mission if her eyes are on the Lord Jesus Christ to do his will.

So as we end the Gospel of John, we recognize that the work of redemption has been complete and now is the time to gather souls into the family of God, to plant churches, and to spread the gospel throughout the whole earth. The Gospel of John, of course, covers the first thirty, covers thirty-three years of Jesus' life, and now the Book of Acts covers the first 30 years of the history of the church. In fact, there's a really good commentary on the Book of Acts called 30 years that changed the world. We're seeing pictures of redemptive history. It's very clear from what we have been dealing with that the history of the world breaks into three sections.

First, the redemptive Acts of God in the Old Testament pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ, then the era of the Lord Jesus Christ where he manifests the glory of his father in the Gospels, and then finally the story of the expansion of the church in the book of Acts, and which is reflected in the letters of the New Testament. So, I'm transitioning us here into the book of Acts to see the continuity of the Gospel of John to the Book of Acts and then as we finally go to Revelation. In these two chapters, we're just going to do two chapters in the Book of Acts and then we'll move to Revelation. But what we find in chapter one is this preparation of the disciples to receive the promise of God, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Then in chapter two, in the first 13 verses, we see that promise fulfilled, and then we see how the promise was communicated in Acts chapter 2, 14 through 41 and then we see how it was lived out in the church.

One of the most exciting sections to me of the book of Acts in verses 42 through 47. But in Acts chapter 1 we see how the Lord was preparing his disciples and these are the preparations of the disciples for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And so our time in Acts I hope will act as a bridge, a bridge from John's Gospel to the book of Revelation. And these two chapters help us to see the historical continuity of the Bible and the bridge really from the Old Testament to the Gospels to the spread of the Gospel. And so I want us to consider this as a preparation to our launching into the book of Revelation.

I'd like to have you, I'd like you to have the book of Revelation in your minds when we are looking at these sections in the book of Acts. And I'm sure it's obvious to you, we're staying with the Johannine writings, we're staying with John, John the Gospel, and then we're moving to John the prophet who prophesies in the book of Revelation. But let's be very clear, we're beholding the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. We left the Gospel of John beholding the glory of Jesus. Well, we're not stopping, we're staying with the glory of Jesus Christ.

And in the book of Acts, you see the glory of Jesus Christ working through the church. In the gospel of John, you see his glory as the only begotten of the Father, the miracle worker. He's full of grace and truth. In the book of Acts, you see the power of the Spirit poured out. In Revelation, you're informed of things that are happening in heaven and on the earth during this church age before the second coming of Jesus Christ.

So during these 30 years of the book of Acts, the world was turned upside down. This is the backdrop for the book of Revelation. And I just want to make a comment here about this spectrum of history. Christianity is a religion that's based in history, that's based on eyewitnesses, by things that really happened. And What's happening in the world today is nothing less than the continued execution of God's will in history.

In this scheme of the Bible, you have the whole Old Testament pointing to Jesus Christ. You know, in the Gospels, you have the Lord Jesus Christ living and dying and rising from the dead and then ascending into heaven. But when we land in the Book of Acts, we're brought to the church age, which spreads from the resurrection to the ascension, the appalling out of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, all the way to the second coming of Christ. That's what you get in Acts chapter one. And you know the Bible refers to this period as the last days.

People are always asking, are we in the last days? Yes, you are in the last days. You entered the last days when Jesus Christ was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven. These are the last days and they are composed of the trials and the tribulations of the church and this will be the focus that we'll find both in the book of Acts and in the book of Revelation. So I want us to see this transitional period in the book of Acts as part of the flow to the book of Revelation.

Acts explains what's happening on the ground by the power of the Holy Spirit. And Revelation is more complex. It shows two views at once in remarkable visual imagery. First, It explains what's happening behind the scenes in heaven during the church age. And those pictures, I hope, are some of the most encouraging things you'll encounter during this series in the book of Revelation.

But it also describes in very graphic, in highly symbolic detail, the kinds of things that you can expect during the church age. And so I hope that as we enter into this journey, we'll see the whole history of the world, the whole history of redemption. The history of the world is the history of redemption. The Church of Jesus Christ is the center of history. The activity of God to rescue a bride, to save sinners, to bring them into his family, and then to exist with them for all eternity in heaven.

That is what history is all about. And we can read the news, we have been reading the news, and we're saying, what's happening? What's going on? These are the strangest things in the world. What's behind it all?

And both in the book of Acts and as we get to Revelation, you can see what's behind it. And There are things happening on Earth, but these things that are happening on Earth are actually direct results of things happening in Heaven. You always need to understand that. Whatever's happening in your life right now, you need to recognize that these things are happening in your life now on this earth because there are things happening in heaven. I was reminded this week that C.S.

Lewis used to say that he wanted people to quit talking about space when they looked up into the sky. He said that when we think about, when we look up into the sky, we think of it as empty space. There's just this vast array of planets, but there's just these bodies out there. There's nothing out there except space junk that really came from a big bang. There was a big bang and now there's all this debris flying around the universe.

What C.S. Lewis was saying is that when you look up into the sky, you should stop using the word space. He said you should go back to the word in the Bible, the heavens, because there are things going on in the heavens that determine what happens on the earth. Out there is not empty space. There's activity in heaven and I'd like for us to see the history of the world and the history of your life really as as a result of what's going on in the heavens but then having been powered from heaven by the power of the Holy Spirit, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.

So, you know, it's very interesting this week we're facing election, we've had an election, we've all been very nervous about it. You know, we have the Democratic Party saying that if they get elected they're going to keep killing babies, that they will promote every form of sexual promiscuity that is prohibited in the Bible, they'll take away your unalienable rights, they will force the racist and oppressive agenda of critical race theory and intersectionality. That's what they're going to do and and maybe they will, but we don't know for sure. But what we need to recognize is that the book of Revelation makes it very clear that no matter what's happening on the ground, Jesus Christ is ruling all these things. The book of Acts makes it clear that no matter what's happening all around you, you receive power from the Holy Spirit.

You can take it. You can get through this time. And, you know, it's a very important election. But don't be fooled for a minute into thinking that this is the most important election in the history of the world. This is just another election that the mighty hand of God is controlling.

It's all it is. God always has controlled elections and he always will. And this election is not the biggest election in God's plan. And we think it's a biggie for us, but recognize that God, God is bigger. You know, in this very first chapter of the book of Acts, we're really, we're told a number of things.

I'm going to outline six of them, but first of all, it tells us what you need to know about the future. Secondly, it tells you about what the energizing power of God is in that future. And then finally you learn about the authority that God has given you, the authority of the Apostles, as you walk through that future. So the book of Acts is just so wonderful and you'll find it you'll see this is very Very true the Christ as this as Christ was the center of the gospel of John He is the center of the book of Acts He is absolutely dead center in the book of Revelation And the first three verses make that very clear in Revelation. So Luke begins by recounting what happened during the 40 days that Jesus presented himself alive after his resurrection.

And then Jesus' last words to his disciples would foretell in summary form what was about to happen in the next 30 years and beyond. And so I want you to notice these six blessings that the resurrected Lord grants to his children in Acts chapter 1. You see them in your outline. First of all, he prepares them by teaching them of the kingdom of God. Second, he energizes them by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Third, he sustains them from his father's right hand. Fourth, he promises to return. Fifth, he unifies them in prayer. Sixth, he establishes apostolic authority. Every single one of these is critical for us as a church.

These are critical for Hope Baptist Church. So let's begin. We'll start walking through this text, taking this first section. First, he prepares them by teaching them of the kingdom of God, verses one through three. He is teaching the eye witnesses of his resurrection and this period covers 40 days.

In these first three verses, it begins like this, the former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day in which he was taken up after he through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the Apostles whom he had chosen to whom he presented himself alive by the way eating and drinking and walking around and speaking after his suffering by many infallible proofs being seen by them during 40 days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. That was the focus of Jesus instruction during those 40 days. Now you know what he was doing. He was going around teaching them about the kingdom of God, things pertaining to the kingdom of God. And what we know from scripture is that the kingdom of God was established by the reign of Jesus Christ and it will be further established in heaven at his second coming.

It's that his kingdom has been established already in partial form but not yet in its complete form. And the Lord Jesus Christ speaks of this kingdom of heaven as something that reigns in your heart. It's something that is in you. The kingdom of God is in you. In Matthew 633 Jesus makes it very clear that the mark of a Christian is that he's seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

He said, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things sufficient for the day is its own trouble in Romans chapter 14 we learned that the kingdom of God is connected with everything in your life all of your attitudes everything that you say and do The Apostle Paul in Romans 14 17 says for the kingdom of God is not in eating and drinking but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit for he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men. The kingdom of God is demonstrated in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. You know I've seen I've seen the kingdom of God at work in my house in my house for many years my parents moved moved in with us about 14 years ago, and I have seen my father every day be a demonstration of righteousness and peace and the Holy Spirit. You know he's not here today.

I'm not sure you'll see him back. His health has been declining over the last few months particularly. And this is... It's very difficult for me in some ways to be preaching and not have him sitting there. He always is there.

He is always there. He's always there encouraging me. He's always there praying for me. And to have him not here is not to have that presence of that one soul and righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. But all of you are here and he is listening.

So this is about the kingdom of God. And what we learn from the word of God is that the kingdom of God does not advance by political initiatives. It advances by the preaching of the gospel and the conversion of sinners. The kingdom of God has come, it is expanding through the reign of Jesus Christ in the hearts of those who turn to him and obey him. And this is really the comfort of the Scriptures, that his kingdom is, it is in your hearts, and his kingdom is coming in might, in absolute comprehensive and vanquishing light and beauty and joy.

I want you to notice the submission of the disciples in this text. They were commanded to wait in Jerusalem, that's in verses 4 through 6. He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father. Isn't it interesting that the Lord Jesus commanded them to go back to Jerusalem? Do you think that they were a little bit afraid of that?

This was the place where their Savior was crucified. This is the place where you get rounded up and things happen, right? But he commanded them. He commanded them to go into the jaws of the lion and they went. They obeyed.

They obeyed him. I think that's such a marvelous picture here Luke Luke speaks of this the Lord Jesus is quoted they're saying behold I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry in the city of Jerusalem, yikes, until you are undue with power from on high. That's Luke 24 verse 49. So they're following Jesus Christ's command to wait for the empowerment that the Lord had promised, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which is the fulfillment of the promises of the Old Testament all over the Old Testament, particularly in Isaiah. Over and over again There is living water getting poured out and all the despised, unclean animals, the water flows and there's foliage and they grow and they're blessed and now they're in an inhabited city because that living water is flowing.

All these pictures are being fulfilled in this passage of scripture. In Isaiah 32, the wilderness will become a fruitful field. These are the pictures of the gospel. And so then only a few days earlier in the upper room during the upper room discourse, Jesus promised that the Spirit would come. He said in John 16, 7, it is to your advantage that I go away.

He's already told them about this outpouring of the Spirit. He says in chapter 15, when the helper comes, in John 14, 15, he says, he will give you another helper. That is the Holy Spirit, another helper like me, another helper like Jesus. Jesus has announced he's leaving but he's sending another helper, the Holy Spirit. You know when you think about the book of Acts, think you know what can happen in a 30-year time frame beginning with a hundred and twenty people meeting in a room, what can happen in the world when people say, yes, Lord, I will be your witnesses?

What will happen to an obedient people who have renounced their rebellion against the word of God and they say, yes Lord, I will do everything you want me to do. I won't hold anything back. If the Word of God says it, I want to do it. What can happen with the people like that? Well, the disciples have a question about the future.

Don't we all? Therefore, verse 6, when they had come together, they asked him, saying, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? Well, if you knew the future, you could be happy, right? Like if you just knew, well, now if you knew what was going to happen to the stock market, you might get happy in a way. But if you knew the future, you know, you could probably be happy.

You know, you really would like to know the future. But The apostles in asking this question had not quite landed on the fact that Jesus' kingdom was not a physical earthly kingdom. They were looking for the physical ascendancy and the remaking of the kingdom of David in a physical form. And they were looking for earthly and physical boundaries of a nation state. They weren't primarily thinking of a spiritual kingdom that spreads from shore to shore like the water covers the earth and so Jesus gives them a two-fold answer.

First of all about the future He tells them how they should think about the future in verse 7. And he said to them, it is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in his own authority. You know, they wanted to know the details of the future, don't we all? But God is declaring here through his Son that he is not going to reveal the timetable of history. Now you have these two words here, times and seasons, that the Lord Jesus Christ uses.

There are two different words that are markers in time. Times is the Greek term chronos, it's where we get our chronology. And he's talking about sequences of events there. It's not for you to know the sequences of events. And then he uses the other word seasons and that word is kairos and the term the term generally has to do with eras, seasons of time, spans of history, times in which particular nations might reign, or particular features might be resident in the world.

So he's saying it's not for you to know the sequences and it's not for you to know the eras. Well we do know this one thing, this is the era of the church, this is the era of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And what Jesus is saying is that it's fruitless to speculate that his disciples would remain ignorant of the date and the chronology and the eras preceding the second coming. And no one knows. We learn from the Gospels that not even Christ knows or the angels.

Jesus said in Matthew 24 36 but of that day and hour no one knows not even the angels of heaven but but my father only And Jesus is making it very plain to his disciples that it's not important that they know, it's not necessary that they know. He's not giving the connections with the events and the political leaders and the timelines of histories. He's not gonna tell them about nations and wars. He's going to give them a sense of the generalities but not the specifics. But he also, He tells them something else that's even more important and that is that they will receive power from the Holy Spirit That's the key To the eras that's the key to the chronologies, you know all of all of our lives are on a chronology One year after another you know we're coming up to the to the new year, and we're going to count another year.

We're going to count an era called 2020 and 2021. Wow, what a wild era that was, is. But what does Jesus do? He promises them that he will give them power, that his work in their lives is not primarily to reveal politics and nation-states and wars and weathers and things like that specifically, but the Spirit. Verse 8, But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

And so in the next chapter we'll see how this happened and the book of Acts demonstrates how it continued to happen for those who were saved. In Zechariah chapter 4-6 the prophet explains what it will be like in the New Covenant. Not by might, not by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts, says the Lord of hosts, the Lord of all the armies of heaven, all the powers and the principalities. And power for what? Well, you shall be my witnesses.

Power for that. Power to be witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. Now, what's a witness? A witness is a person who's seen something and he tells about what he's seen. And this word witness, witnesses appears many times in the book of Acts, but a witness sees something and then testifies that it's true.

And I think you can think of it this way. We have seen ourselves that we are sinners and we have seen that Christ is the substitute for our sins. This is what we testify to. And we testify to the whole counsel of God. It's very interesting that the word witness is the word martyriion.

It's the word where we get our word martyr. And this word defines our mission in life, that we bear witness and that witnessing might have deadly effects upon us. But here what you see these witnesses doing in the book of Acts You see that the work of God's not bound by institutional measures, it's not bound by political measures, it's not bound by boundaries of countries, it's not bound by any of that. The Word of God is not chained. And you see the glory of God being displayed in riots, you know, in the public squares.

You see the glory of God spreading in homes, in people's houses. You see people being converted in prisons all these different places the Word of God is not chained a political Ruler a Nation state laws they cannot bind the Church of Jesus Christ because of the power of the Holy Spirit that resides in them. You see the joy and the freedom of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts that Jesus gives in the midst of attacks, in the midst of laying half dead by the side of the road on the outskirts of town, while you're in the midst of a trial with swords drawn against you. The power of the Holy Spirit is working through all these things. The church should never expect days of peace in the world.

We should pray for it. We should pray that God would give us peace, but we shouldn't expect it. And This work happens in Jerusalem and Judea and into the uttermost parts of the earth. But the Lord Jesus Christ is declaring himself the Lord of his children by giving them power. And they are witnesses in Jerusalem that has to do with your hometown and Judea that has to do with your region and to the end of the earth that has to do with your world.

This is the scope of the ministry of the Church of Jesus Christ and it's not for you to know the future but it is for for you to walk by faith every day. Each day has enough trouble of its own. The third thing we see is that he sustains them from his father's right hand, verses nine through 11. This is the section on the ascension. The ascension is often minimized in importance in our thinking, but what we read in verse 9 is that when he had spoken these things, while they watched he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight.

And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in wide apparel." Well with the ascension, the Lord Jesus Christ is completing, is continuing to complete his work. And his ascension confirms where Jesus is, that Jesus is ever present at the right hand of his Father. When we pray, we are praying to the Lord Jesus Christ who is sitting at his Father's right hand. The ascension makes it very clear to us that Jesus Christ's glory is everlasting, emanating literally from the heavens. His Ascension explains that Christ's care for his church is ever loving and he ever lives to make intercession for the saints.

And So the ascension is just confirming that Jesus is at the right hand of his Father and he is interceding for us. Now there's another element of this that Ephesians 2 speaks about. Not only is he at his Father's right hand, there's also a sense in which you also at your Father's right hand. You know, The whole doctrine of baptism speaks of this, that we were raised with him and seated with him in the heavenly places. So the Lord Jesus Christ is not only interceding for us, He has already, in a sense, gathered you up to be by his side.

That's how safe you are. He's holding you. He's holding your hand. He's put his hand on your head. And you are seated with him in the heavenly places.

Do you picture yourself that way? When you walk through the world and you see the dangers that are there, do you see yourself, do you picture yourself with him? He is in you and you are in him and you have been raised up with him." It's such a remarkable thing. You know, in 2 Timothy chapter 4, I was reading it this week, Paul would say, the Lord stood with me and strengthened me. And if you look at the context of that, he said that because everyone had abandoned him.

Demas forsook him, Alexander the coppersmith did him much harm, But he says, but the Lord stood with me and strengthened me. That's what you can count on during the church age. So when you look up into space, Don't think of it as empty space. The Father and the Son are raining from the heavens and the Lord Jesus is interceding. You know, this is a big difference in the way that a Christian looks up into heaven and a secularist looks up into heaven.

When the materialist, the atheist looks up into heaven, they just see space junk. It's beautiful, it's amazing, but it's just a bunch of debris flying around out there. But when the Christian looks up, they know that their powers and principalities and angels and Jesus Christ is on the throne and he's directing everything from heaven, from the heavens. So the fourth thing that we see here is that the Lord Jesus promises his return. Who also said, men of Galilee, why are you, why do you stand gazing up into heaven once you have loved to hear that I think that there were a few people smiling when he said that this same Jesus who has taken up for you into heaven will so come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven.

So he went up personally, he will come back personally. He went up in bodily form, he will come back in bodily form. He went up to a particular place. He's going to come back to a particular place on this planet. And the significance of it all?

Well, there's a lot we could say about that. I'll just give you one level of significance of it in Romans 16 20. And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

That's the end of Romans. The fifth thing that we see him doing is that he unifies his children in prayer in verses 12 through 14. So the disciples returned to Jerusalem to an upper room which is at the Mount of Olives and they were continuing with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with all his brothers. So Jesus is preparing them by gathering them together in prayer. This is something that we've we continue to do.

We gather together in prayer. Jesus in John chapter 15 verse 7, he already said, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. And this is a picture of a corporate prayer meeting. Corporate prayer meetings are one of the most important things that churches ever do. Do you go to our corporate prayer meetings?

Well, many of you do, most of you do, but some of you don't. Let me just take this opportunity. Stop neglecting the corporate prayer meetings. Okay, that's a command from heaven. And I just want to say, hey corporate prayer meetings are so good.

They do so many things. They first of all, they deal with our arrogance and our self-sufficiency because all of us look up to heaven and say, oh God help us. Help me, help my friend, help this church. That's what corporate prayer meetings do. They've gone out of style for many people.

They think it's some kind of thing that's sort of on the edge. You know, we've recited this many times in our corporate prayer meetings and have sung it on 1 John 5, 14. And this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. What a blessing. But when you come together in the prayer meeting, you're really declaring that you are nothing and God is everything.

And my view, here's my view about corporate prayer. We should only let the most severe emergency keep us from corporate prayer. They were united, they were of one mind. By the way, this is a theme in the Book of Acts. You find this word united or of one mind 11 times in the New Testament, 10 of them are in the book of Acts.

They were united by love for Jesus Christ and they came together in one accord to pray. What a blessing that is. The sixth thing, the final thing he establishes, apostolic authority, verses 15 through 26. So what is happening here? Well, there's a lot happening here, but let me just drive down to one of the most important things that's happening here.

Prophecy is being fulfilled. The replacement of this apostle was to fulfill prophecy. In verse 15 we see it. Peter stood up in verse 15 and then in 16 we read his words, men and brethren this scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus for he was numbered with us and obtained a part in this ministry. So the Apostles believed that they had to appoint another Apostle in order to fulfill the prophecy and specifically the prophecies are recorded in Psalm 69 verse 25 and in Psalm 109 verse 8.

They were fulfilling prophecy. The Lord Jesus is putting these leaders in place to finish the New Testament record and to establish the purpose, the purposes and the functionality of the church. This is in preparation for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and so they're replacing Judas, They set the qualifications, they accept the nominations, and then they seek the Lord in prayer. And we recognize here that they don't trust in themselves. They trust Jesus Christ to make the decision.

How do we know that? They cast lots. Now I'm not going to go into a big discussion about casting lots for the sake of time, but when they cast lots, they were trusting that Jesus Christ was going to control the casting of the lots. They threw themselves upon the providence of God. Now, you know, like they say, you know, don't try this at home.

But Matthew gives us a clue why there had to be twelve, twelve apostles instead of eleven. Why, why couldn't there be eleven apostles? And it's because Scripture had to be fulfilled. In Matthew 19 verse 28, we read, Jesus said to them, assuredly I say to you that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. Why 12?

Because 12, that number really matters. We're going to encounter this number 12 in Revelation over and over and over again. Matthew Henry interprets it this way, there were to be 12 apostles in the Christian church to answer unto the 12 patriarchs and 12 tribes of the Jewish Church. There were twelve tribes of Israel, there must be twelve apostles in order in order to fulfill the Old Testament prophecy, to replicate the Old Testament pattern. And the church also, you know, rests on the foundation of the Apostles and the prophets and so they this foundation had to be completed.

The authority of the Apostles and prophets is the authority of the Church of Jesus Christ. Paul said we have no other pattern. There's no other pattern but the pattern of the Apostles who have brought forth and carried forth all the promises of the Old Testament. In Ephesians 2 19 the apostle Paul speaks of it like this. In verse 20 then he says, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a temple of the Lord in whom you also being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

So what's happened? Hey it had only been ten days. What's the big rush? Why did they have to appoint more apostles in just 10 days in order to fulfill these prophecies? And so they moved with speed to do it.

And now the church is ready. The church is ready for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The church is ready for the ensuing manifestation of the glory of Jesus Christ in the church age for the next however many years it will be. And it's not for you to know times, chronologies, or seasons, eras. But you shall be filled with power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you." So it causes us to ask, you know, What can God do with 120 people who spend 30 years caring for nothing except for the obedience of Jesus Christ and the sanctification and holiness that's worked by the power of the Holy Spirit for the spread of the gospel in the world.

What can God do with the people who preach the message of the eyewitnesses that the kingdom of heaven is at hand? What can happen, what can God do with the people who are energized by a spirit from heaven? What can God do with the people who know that they are sustained from the ascended Lord Jesus Christ who sits at his father's right hand. How confident would they be? How happy would they be in his arms?

What can God do with the people who are united in prayer? What can God do with the people who abide by apostolic authority? And so in Acts chapter one, we find all of these things, the preparation of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the next chapter, and we'll find out what they're doing. And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, and were sharing with them all as anyone might have need. Day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

What can God do with the people who have all they need to know about the future. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you for showing us the history of the world, the history of my life, the history of all of our lives, for your own glory. I pray, oh Lord, that you would manifest your glory in all these different ways. You prepared your disciples like this, and now Lord, that you would prepare us like that, and that whatever happens in these coming days that we would be a people who are filled with power from on high.

Amen.