In his sermon 'Final Instructions,' Peter Allison discusses Acts 1:4-8, focusing on Jesus' final instructions to his disciples before ascending to heaven. The sermon highlights key transitions in God's plan, such as the shift from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant and the inclusion of Gentiles into the covenant of grace without becoming Jews. Allison emphasizes the importance of waiting on the Lord, explaining that the apostles were instructed to wait in Jerusalem for the promised Holy Spirit, which is crucial for empowering them to fulfill their mission of spreading the Gospel. The sermon underscores the transformative power of the Holy Spirit, which brings courage, strength, and the ability to inherit the earth. The coming of the Holy Spirit marks a new era where Satan is bound, allowing the Gospel to reach all nations. Allison encourages believers to rely on the Holy Spirit's power in their mission to evangelize the world, highlighting the role of the apostles and the church in God's redemptive plan. He concludes by urging believers to be zealous and committed to spreading the Gospel in their respective roles and areas of influence.

Please turn in your scriptures to Acts chapter 1. I'd like to read the same 11 verses, but we'll be looking at verses 4-8 this morning. 4-8 this morning. The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both 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 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. 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 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." 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 as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven?

This same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven." May His Word be hidden in our hearts that we might not sin against Him. Gracious Father, I ask that You would sanctify my sinful lips, that they may proclaim the riches of Your grace. I ask that Your Holy Spirit might open our hearts, that we might receive with meekness Your Word. Ask, Lord, that this Word that we hear might be mixed with faith, that we may obey it. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Well, we talked last week about the transformation in these disciples over this forty-day period that Jesus was with them here on the earth. It's a time of preparation, a time of transition, and as He commissioned them for their calling. Now, This transition though is very significant. It's huge. This is the biggest change in God's economy since the creation of the world.

There have been other big transitions in God's economy. But this is the biggest. There was Noah's flood. God destroyed the entire population except for eight souls. And He set in motion forces that divided the entire world into continents.

It completely reconfigured our climate. It completely reconfigured geography, the face of the world, the surface of the earth. Massive canyons now appeared. Mountains, underwater trenches miles deep in the oceans. It also marked the beginning of the death penalty.

That's when God commanded man to take the life of men, people who killed unjustly. In this transition, Christ's victory over sin, that's proclaimed by His resurrection and ascension into heaven, removed the penalty of death for sin for all those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and that He is the Son of God come in the flesh. There was the Tower of Babel after that. The Tower of Babel was the first manifestation of tongues that divided people into many kingdoms and nations. You remember they were all trying to build this monument to heaven, this tower of Babel, and God was displeased with that, and He gave them many different tongues so they could no longer communicate with each other.

And they were forced to scatter as God had wanted them to do, called them to do. So this was a huge transition in God's economy. Well, the manifestation of tongues at Pentecost did just the opposite. It broke down the national barriers to communication and it served to unite people into one kingdom under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Big transition.

Or next came a huge transition at Mount Sinai. At Mount Sinai, God spoke forth His covenant law. On the mountain, God gave Moses a pattern for an earthly tabernacle. And that pattern was after the temple in heaven. God's shekinah glory dwelt with men.

Physically, at a physical location where sacrifices that could not take away sin were continually made for sin. But after this transition here in Acts, we no longer come to a mountain that burned with fire and blackness and to darkness and to a tempest and the voice of words so that those who heard it begged that the words should not be spoken to them anymore. It was a sight that was so terrifying, Moses said, "'I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.'" You see, after this transition in Acts, we now come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, to Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant whose blood speaks better things than that of Abel's and whose blood sanctified not an earthly copy, but whose blood sanctified the heavenly temple, the reality. He has passed through the heavens and with His own blood, He has sanctified that temple once and for all. Where Mount Sinai inaugurated an earthly temple, this transition inaugurates the heavenly temple.

It led to the complete and utter destruction of the earthly temple, never again to be rebuilt. There is no more need for a copy of what's in heaven when you have the temple in heaven. In fact, to rebuild some earthly temple so that you could make sacrifices on it again would be a repudiation of Christ once and for all. Sacrifice for sin. See, where Mount Sinai marked the exclusion of Gentiles from the Temple, this transition here marks the inclusion of Gentiles into the covenant of grace without them first becoming Jews.

Throughout the Old Testament, many Gentiles came into the covenant of grace, but they did so by becoming Jews. But after this transition, Gentiles in mass are brought in to the covenant of grace without becoming Jews. So you see, this is a monumental transition. This is the biggest transition in God's economy since the creation of the earth. And so following His resurrection, Jesus met with His disciples to instruct them regarding this kingdom of heaven.

He spoke of things pertaining to the kingdom of God. Matthew calls it a kingdom of heaven. The other writers and Luke here calls it the Kingdom of God. They are the same, one and the same. And so this passage that we want to look at this morning provides some of the specifics of Jesus' final instructions to His disciples while He is still on earth.

These instructions that happened over these forty days, as He's speaking to them about this kingdom and giving them His last words as He meets with them in the flesh. And the first thing He commands them is He's assembled together with them. He commands them not to depart from Jerusalem. They were to go back into Jerusalem because they were apparently at the mountain called Olivet, which is a short distance away from Jerusalem. It's a short enough distance that the disciples, remember in Jesus' last week before the crucifixion, they were staying at the Mount of Olives and coming in and out every day.

So it's what one writer said is Sabbath Day's journey. Luke says it's a Sabbath Day's journey. It's a very short distance away. When God calls them to go back into Jerusalem and don't depart there, He says. Now why?

Well, because the Kingdom of God would begin there. Isaiah 2, 3 says, Many people shall come and say, Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." So God's kingdom was in its outward manifestation here in this time after this great transition was to go out from Jerusalem. And so they were to go and to wait there.

It's also, I think, a command that was to teach them, to give them exercise in obedience. We still train people that way. People train animals that way. You have them wait somewhere. It's a test of obedience.

And these are people who are going to be proclaiming and preaching obedience to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Lord had them wait. Don't go out of Jerusalem. They were to wait there for the promise of the Lord. Now our minds can quickly jump to what was the object of waiting there.

But don't miss the simple fact that they were to wait on the Lord. We'll get to what they were waiting for in a minute, but they were to wait on the Lord. This is a significant lesson, I think, that we all need to learn. All of God's children need to learn to wait on the Lord. Because you see, many significant blessings are promised to those who wait on the Lord.

Have you ever thought about those blessings? Courage is promised to those who wait on the Lord. Psalm 27, 14 says, Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall Strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord." Well, the apostles would need courage. They faced Jews who had already killed Christ, and now those same Jews are looking to kill His apostles, His disciples.

They faced hostile rulers who would imprison them and beat them and kill some of them. They needed courage. And Psalm 27 says that courage is a blessing to those who wait on the Lord. They needed strength. Remember what Paul said he had endured as an apostle in 2 Corinthians 11 in the end of the chapter, verse 23 and following.

He says he endured Stripes beyond measure. From the Jews, he had five times been beaten with 39 stripes. He was beaten with rods. He was stoned. He was shipwrecked.

He's been in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of his own countrymen, the Jews, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. And this is all beside and in addition to and on top of his spiritual concerns for the souls of those that he was ministering to. These apostles are going to need strength. And God promises strength to those who wait on the Lord. Maybe many of you have memorized Isaiah 40-31, but those who wait on the Lord, they will renew their strength.

They will mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. That's promise to those who wait on the Lord. And so Jesus commanded His disciples to wait, to wait in Jerusalem.

God also has another promise for those who wait on the Lord. Something very relevant to the commission of the apostles. God promises that those who wait on the Lord will inherit the earth. Psalm 37 verse 9, For evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. Psalm 37, Wait on the Lord.

Verse 34, I mean. And keep His way. And He will exalt you to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off, you shall see it. These apostles were being commissioned to go out as God's heralds in this inauguration of the Kingdom of Heaven where Christ is pictured as riding forth as a conquering king.

The sword of the Spirit proceeding from His mouth. And He is pictured as reigning and bringing all His enemies under His feet. And so these apostles were the foundation of this New Testament church that would conquer the world and bring every enemy into submission and to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And so they needed to wait on the Lord because it is to those who wait on the Lord is given this privilege of inheriting the earth. You see, we really can do nothing on our own.

I think that's another reason that they were to wait. Their waiting reinforced this very important fact that they can't carry out this commission to disciple the nations that Jesus gave them at this time. Go into all the world, and as you go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded. They can't do this, and we can't do this on our own. We can't do it on our own strength.

We can't do it with our own willpower. And so their waiting served to reinforce this fact that they needed to wait on the Lord for the power to do what He was calling them to do. And as I said earlier, I think it's also a test of their obedience. They were going to teach others to obey all that the Lord had commanded. They needed to demonstrate that they could obey Him themselves.

But what are they to wait for? They are specifically to wait for the promise of the Father. He reminded them that He had already told them about this. He said, wait for the promise of the Father which He said you have heard from Me. Jesus said, you've already heard this promise from Me.

Well, first of all, what is this promise? Well, I think this promise of the Father is the promise of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in salvation. Joel 2 says, "...and it shall come about afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men dream dreams, your young men see visions." And in Isaiah 32 verse 15, Isaiah prophesied about the time that, quote, "...the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is counted as a forest." This is the promise of the Father. But it's repeated.

Jesus repeated this promise to His disciples. As He said in John 14, 16, He said, I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper that He may abide with you forever. The Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows Him, but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you." That was the promise of the Father, and Jesus repeated that promise to them of this Helper, this Holy Spirit, that would come to them and would dwell with them. That's why Jesus says that He would never leave them nor forsake them right before He's ready to leave them because He sends His Holy Spirit who proceeds from Him. And He dwells with us.

Dwells with the Apostles and is in us. And a little later in that chapter, 10 verses later in 26, Jesus says, "...But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you." That was the work of the Holy Spirit in them. Teach them all things and bring to your remembrance all things that Jesus said. Teach them all things. There is nothing that we learn apart from the revelation of the Word of God and the illumination of the Holy Spirit.

Isaiah speaks about even knowing how to plant grain, gardens, even knowing how to harvest the crop, And even knowing how to cook it, prepare it, these are all things that are taught by the Holy Spirit. If He doesn't teach us, we just don't know. John 15 in the next chapter, this is in Jesus' discourse in the upper room in the night in which He was betrayed. He says, But when the Helper comes, whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. So he said, this is then the promise.

They were to wait for the promise of the Father. And he says, for as John truly baptized with water, but you will be baptized by the Holy Spirit not many days from now." What is this baptism of the Holy Spirit? Which Jesus said would come to them. Baptized. It's a Greek word that we've just transliterated.

We've just taken the way it sounds in Greek and brought it right into English. Now that happens with names. We usually transliterate names. Sometimes they're translated. But we usually transliterate them.

But when it happens with words that aren't names, it's often because there isn't a word to translate it to. There isn't a word that adequately captures the meaning of that word. And so really to be baptized is to come under the influence of something or someone. That's what the word means. When you wash a cup, you bring it under the influence of soap and water so that the cup changes from being dirty to clean.

And you can stick it under the water, or you can hold it under water, or you can just get it wet. All those things bring that object under the influence of water and bring about some change in it. 1 Corinthians 10.1 says, Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea." Baptized into Moses? What does that mean? Well, if we understand baptism as fundamentally coming under the influence of, then it's very easily explained by Exodus 14.

How were they baptized into Moses? They came under His influence, His teaching. Exodus 14 tells us that what happened in the Red Sea crossing, such that they were baptized into Moses. Such that Paul calls it a baptized into Moses. We read that, Thus Israel saw the great work which the Lord had done in Egypt, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed the Lord and His servant Moses." The people believed Moses.

They realized that he was now a messenger of God. And the Bible says they believed Him. Much like people were said to believe in Christ when they saw His signs. So Paul said that these people believing in Moses after the Red Sea was them being baptized into Moses, coming under His influence. And so the baptism of the Holy Spirit is to come under the influence and power of the Holy Spirit in salvation.

And this is what happens in salvation in not just the New Testament, but in the Old Testament as well. Regeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit. Convincing us of our sin and our misery. Enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, because remember the Holy Spirit brings to mind the things that Christ has taught and said, and He persuades and enables us to embrace Jesus Christ as He has offered to us in the Gospel. That's the work of the Holy Spirit in regenerating us, in making us alive.

Sanctification is also the work of the Holy Spirit. 2 Thessalonians 13 says, But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth." Sanctification by the Spirit. See, and this is true. This work of the Holy Spirit, this baptism of the Holy Spirit in regeneration was true of Old Testament saints as well as New Testament saints. Isaiah 44, 3 speaks of this baptism of the Holy Spirit.

It speaks of the Holy Spirit falling on the children of believers in regeneration. Verse 3, For I will pour water on him who is thirsty and floods on the dry ground. I will pour My Spirit on your descendants and My blessing on your offspring, and they shall spring up among the grass like willows by the water courses. And one will say, I am the Lord's, and another will call himself by the name of Jacob. And another will write with his hand, the Lord's, and Name Himself by the name of Israel." What is that describing?

Describing the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit falling on these children of believers as they grow up and they take with their own hand and enter into covenant with the Lord. And They take the Lord's name upon their own lips. And they say that they belong to the Lord. Name Himself by the name of Israel. This is a regenerating work of the Holy Spirit within us, causing us to reach out to God.

Acts 10 speaks of the Holy Spirit falling on Gentile believers in their regeneration. Remember Peter saw that vision of unclean animals, and God said, rise, kill, and eat. And Peter said, no, I've never done that before. And God did this three times and Peter understood from that when these messengers showed up wanting him to come to the house of Cornelius, a Gentile, Peter understood that God was calling him to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles. And so Peter in obedience goes.

And he's surprised at what happens. Cornelius has gathered a little assembly there of his relatives and close friends to hear Peter's message. And as Peter is speaking, the Holy Spirit fell on those who heard the Word. And Acts 10.45 says, "...And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished." Why were they astonished? Because the Holy Spirit has fallen on these Gentiles.

They were astonished because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles, for they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. And then Peter answered, Can anyone forbid water that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have? And so He commanded that they should be baptized in the name of the Lord. This Holy Spirit fell upon these Gentiles, and they believed. They were regenerated.

And Peter immediately ties this to what happens in baptism, the significance of baptism. They were baptized with the Holy Spirit. And that's what's signified in water baptism. It's not something in us. Baptism points to the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration.

Baptism of water is a sign. It's an outward sign of the inward work of the Holy Spirit in uniting us to Christ. Romans 6 and Colossians 2 both speak of being united to Christ by baptism. Well, pouring water on somebody doesn't unite them to Christ in regeneration. It's the baptism of the Holy Spirit that does this.

But the water baptism is a significant sign that points to that inward work. And it is itself a means of grace when it is received by faith. And so this baptism of the Holy Spirit is something that's true of all believers and always has been, as long as there have been believers in the Old Testament and the New Testament. 1 Corinthians 12 says, "'For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit, we were all baptized into one body, whether Jew or Greek, whether slave or free, and have all been made to drink into One Spirit.

This is something that is true of every believer. Every believer that is in Christ has been baptized, has received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Old Testament believers were regenerated and sanctified by the same Holy Spirit, just like New Testament believers. But there are other baptisms of the Spirit. I don't think this is what Acts is referring to here.

Because these disciples were already regenerated. Something else is in view here as Jesus promises them they will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. They were already regenerate. They'd already received this baptism of the Holy Spirit. In fact, there were in John 20, 21, when Jesus appeared to His disciples on the same day that He arose, And they were startled and He said, Peace to you.

And He said, As the Father has sent Me, so I send you. And when He had said this, John says that He breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit. So this is happening. This is 40 days ahead before what Luke is talking about here in Acts. They'd already received the Holy Spirit.

And Jesus said, if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained. You See, so this is not speaking here either of merely speaking of miraculous gifts of the Spirit that they would receive, such as speaking in tongues or healing or raising the dead or having power over demons. The disciples already had that. In Luke 10, after Jesus had sent out the 70, remember, they rejoicing that the demons were subject to them in Christ's name.

Old Testament believers also had the Holy Spirit come upon them in miraculous ways. Samson, Elijah, Elisha. They all performed mighty acts, raising the dead, defeating armies, and so on. They performed them by these gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit coming upon them.

The seventy elders under Moses, remember the Holy Spirit fell on them and they prophesied. Even unregenerate Saul, the first king of Israel, prophesied when the Holy Spirit came upon Him. So Jesus isn't here just speaking about some miraculous gift of tongues or power over demons and so forth. That was already present as well. Verse 8 gives us, I think, a little another clue about what this baptism of the Holy Spirit that Jesus is referring to is.

He says that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them. Now what, we could ask, well what power were they going to get that they didn't have, and why would they be given this power? Well, Jesus said that it would be to their advantage, to the disciples, it would be to their advantage that He would go because then He would send the Holy Spirit. But if He didn't go, the Holy Spirit couldn't come. So this baptism of the Holy Spirit brings an advantage here in the New Testament that they didn't have yet.

That the Old Testament saints didn't have. It's an advantage that Jesus speaks of that the church never had before. Now there's a further clue in what is connected with the power that would come upon them. Verse 8, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. The power that Jesus had earlier told them would be an advantage.

It would be to their advantage that this Holy Spirit came. And when you receive this power, when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be witnesses to Me. These people, these apostles whom Jesus had commissioned, He had chosen, they would be witnesses to Him in Jerusalem, in Judea, and to the ends of the earth. Or to the end of the earth. See Acts speaks of this witness transforming Jerusalem in Acts 1-7.

It ends with the martyrdom of Stephen at the hands of the Jews in Jerusalem. But you remember thousands have been saved and brought into the church. Acts 2, it was 3, 000. Acts 4, it's 5, 000. And in Acts 6, many priests we read.

Many priests, the very people that crucified Jesus, believed. The Gospel triumphed in Jerusalem. And then in all Judea, Acts 8-12, the Gospel goes out through all Judea and the surrounding regions. And this ends with the martyrdom of James at the hand of King Herod. But the Gospel has triumphed among the Jews and the Gentiles throughout the region.

Remember Cornelius and his household in Caesarea. The Samaritans were saved. The Ethiopian eunuch were saved. Many people were saved as the Gospel went to all Judea and those surrounding regions. And then the rest of the book from chapter 12 and on, or 13 on, gives the history of the Gospel as it goes throughout the Roman Empire under the ministry of Paul.

And it recounts all of his missionary journeys. And Paul even alludes to additional trips that he wants to make to Spain. And so this section, the book of Acts, ends with the triumph of the Gospel in Rome. Acts 28, last verses of the chapter. Paul dwelt two years in his whole rented house and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence." And these are the final words in the book of Acts.

No one forbidding Him. No one forbidding Him. The Gospel had gone to all Judea, had triumphed throughout the region, all of Jerusalem, all Judea, and now throughout the Roman Empire. So what is this advantage then? Well, I think The advantage is that Satan is now bound.

So he is no longer able to deceive the nations. And so for the first time in history, the Gospel is going forward and no one can stop it. And the nations are being discipled for the first time in history. This is by the power of the Holy Spirit. Sainting being bound in the Gospel to going to all nations, I think are two sides of the same coin.

They are two inseparable aspects of the work of the Holy Spirit. And it is an advantage that we have, this coming of the Holy Spirit, binding Satan and binding demons and enabling the Gospel to go to all the world, no one forbidding it, so that the nations are discipled and that all the nations are taught to observe everything that God has commanded. The Spirit testifies to what Christ has done. In John 16, after Jesus told them that the Spirit could not come unless He left, He went on to tell them what the Spirit would do. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.

Of sin, because they do not believe in Me. Of righteousness, because I go to the Father and you see Me no more. Of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. This is the great advantage, brothers and sisters, that we in the New Testament age have. This work of the Holy Spirit to prepare the way to break down every impediment to the proclamation of the Gospel and the discipling of the nations throughout the world is by the power of the Holy Spirit that this happens.

And this is what is unique to the New Testament that never happened before. The Spirit would come and would convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin because they do not believe in Me. That's the convicting work of the Holy Spirit. And this is going to all the nations.

And this is why it was to a great advantage. None of the Old Testament prophets, as great as they were, saw the wholesale discipling of the nations. There were a few minor exceptions that were foreshadowing the coming. Jonah preached to Nineveh. And everybody repented, and there was two generations there of believers, but it fell away, and that nation became quickly very, very wicked again.

But see, the Gospel didn't go to all these other nations like it does today. And like it began to do in the days of the apostles. Convicts the world of righteousness because I go to the Father and you see me no more. And it convicts the world of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. Satan was bound at the cross.

He was defeated. And Revelation provides more detail in that. Remember, this transition doesn't happen overnight. It doesn't happen in an instant. There are some that will.

In the twinkling of an eye, when Christ returns, we will be transformed. But this gospel age came in a transition over 40 years. Interestingly, it's the same number of days that Jesus was with the disciples. But it was over 40 years at this transition. So whether you say Jesus was inaugurated and sat on the...

Begins his kingdom when he ascended. He ascended and sat at the right hand. Or later on in 70 AD when we see the nations given to him, there is a transition. But this is the inauguration of the kingdom where by the power of the Holy Spirit, the saint is bound, the nations, and he cannot deceive the nations, and the Gospel goes to all the world. And it begins with these apostles that are but the foundation of the New Testament church.

You see, we too have been given this power in the Gospel Age. We too are witnesses. As we'll see in the next chapter, it was all those that were in the room that received this Holy Spirit anointing. And so we are to be busy about the proclamation of the God. This spreading, the evangelization, testifying to who Jesus is and what He has done.

This is something that is incumbent on us. We are collectively God's people. We are the church. And it is to us that this commission has been given. And we have, brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit to accomplish this.

We have the power of the Spirit. We have His assurance of victory in this work. And so we, as Paul says, we brothers and sisters ought to be those who spend and are spent in our labor for Christ's Kingdom. In whatever place and station He puts us, we don't all have the same office and the same function. But wherever He has called us, in whatever field, whatever endeavor, whatever aspect of this great commission that He's given to us, we need to spend and be spent for it.

May God enable us to do so. Heavenly Father, we thank You that you have given to us your Spirit. And with that Spirit, you have given to us a great advantage, a great gift and access. We are said, Lord, to reign with you, to be seated in the heavenlies. And Father, we ask that you would forgive us where we have ignored this great heritage and this great blessing and this gift and have acted as if it didn't exist.

Father, May You give us a zeal for Your Kingdom. May You give us an urgency to spend and be spent for the sake of the Gospel and for the ministry of the Word, wherever You have called us, as fathers, as mothers, as husbands, as wives, as workers, as laborers. Lord, may all that we do be done as unto You. We offer to You our bodies as living sacrifices through Jesus Christ. Amen.