You Shall Receive

Power...For Mission
 Resource by
John Piper

 Scripture: Acts 1:1–11 Topic: World Missions

In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do
and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given
commandment through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.
To them he presented himself alive after his passion by many proofs,
appearing to them during forty days, and speaking of the kingdom of God.
And while staying with them he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem,
but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, "you heard from
me, for John baptized with water, but before many days you shall be
baptized with the Holy Spirit." So when they had come together, they asked
him, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" He said to
them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed
by his own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has
come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea
and Samaria and to the end of the earth." And when he had said this, as they
were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood
by them in white robes, and said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand
looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven,
will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."
Before I draw out the main point of verse 8 I want you to see a similar text
in Luke 24. You recall Luke, the physician, wrote a two volume work: the
Gospel according to Luke, and the Acts of the Apostles. The end of the
Gospel overlaps with the beginning of Acts. So some of the same things are
reported.

In Luke 24:47 Jesus says to his disciples just before he ascends to heaven
that "repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in my name to
all nations, beginning from Jerusalem." Then he says, very much like Acts
1:8, "You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send the promise of
my Father upon you (i.e. the Holy Spirit), but stay in the city, until you are
clothed with power from on high."
Acts 1:8 says that they shall receive power from the Holy Spirit and shall be
witnesses. Luke 24:48-49 says that they shall be witnesses and must wait
for to be clothed with power from on high. Notice that in Acts 1:8 receiving
power is what precedes and leads to being witnesses for Christ. And in Luke
24:48-49 they are to be witnesses but power from on high is so crucial they
must wait for it in the city before they begin to launch out to the nations
from Jerusalem.
So here is the main point that I think Jesus and Luke are teaching
us: Special power is essential for an expanding witness to Christ.

Power Is Essential
The reason I say power is essential for witness is because in both Luke
24:49and Acts 1:8 Jesus says that power must come first—"You shall
receive power ... and you shall be my witnesses." "You are my witnesses ...
stay in the city, until you are clothed with power."
The Witness Is Expanding
The reason I say this power is essential for an expanding witness to Christ
is because in both these texts Jesus is sending them from Jerusalem in ever-
expanding circles until all the nations are evangelized. In Luke 24:47 he
says, "repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached to all nations
beginning from Jerusalem—hence, an ever-expanding witness.
And in Acts 1:8 he says, "You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all
Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth"—hence an ever expanding
witness.
Jesus is not talking here of an occasional word of witness in our same circle
of culture. He's talking about ever-expanding efforts to penetrate more and
more of Satan's strongholds of unbelief. That's why I say special power is
essential for an expanding witness to Christ.

The Power Must Be Special

The reason I say special power is essential is that it takes power just to
become a Christian. But it takes another dimension of power to carry out an
expanding witness to Christ.
These disciples were already Christians before they received this power that
Jesus was promising here. In fact, they were remarkably lively Christians
before this special power fell upon them at Pentecost and then fell upon
them repeatedly through the book of Acts. What do you picture the disciples
doing in the ten days between this final farewell and the day of Pentecost?
Do you picture them as weak and totally powerless with no joy and no hope
and no courage ‘till Pentecost?

If so, compare this picture with the one in Luke 24:50-53. "Then he led
them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While
he blessed them he parted from them. And they returned to Jerusalem with
great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God."
What were the disciples doing while they waited to be clothed with power
from on high, while they waited to receive the special power of the Holy
Spirit? Two things: Luke 24 tells us they were continually in the temple
worshipping God with great joy; and Acts 1:13-14 tells us they met in an
upper room and devoted themselves to prayer. So they were praying in their
smaller assembly and they were joyfully worshipping and blessing God in
the public temple.
Now all of that (prayer and great joy and blessing God) is evidence of God's
power. These are things that do not happen without the work of God's
power. Therefore, I conclude that what Jesus is telling them to wait for is
a specialpower - something more than the ordinary experience of power
that makes a person a Christian and makes him love worship and have joy
and go to prayer.
So I say again, what Jesus wants to teach us in these verses is mainly
this: Special power is essential for an expanding witness to Christ.

Voices Behind The Student Volunteer

Movement
According to John R. Mott, Arthur T. Pierson, a Presbyterian minister, was
responsible for sounding the trumpet that started the Student Volunteer
Movement in missions a hundred years ago. In 1882 Pierson wrote in
the Missionary Review that three things were needed to finish the Great
Commission and evangelize the world: 1) the whole church needed to be
involved; 2) evangelistic zeal was needed in the lives of believers; and 3) a
baptism of the power of the Holy Spirit was needed.
 On this last point he wrote, "To do this work in twenty years, we must get
more Gospel, more vitality ... The church has money, brains, organizations,
rivers of prayer and oceans of sermons, but she lacks in POWER." (Mission
Frontiers, 10/8, August, 1988, Supplement, "The Crisis of Missions" Todd
M. Johnson, p.6.)
In 1891 when the first International Convention of the Student Volunteer
Movement gathered in Cleveland, Ohio, Pierson's friend A. J. Gordon gave
the keynote address and entitled it "The Holy Spirit in Missions." He said,
"Now dear friends ... all missionary success, at home or abroad, depends
upon the Holy Ghost. I say it deliberately: the personal preparation of the
Holy Spirit is the greatest need in our ministry in this country and in foreign
fields." (Student Missions Power: Report of the First International
Convention of the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions,
Pasadena: William Carey Library, n.d. p. 17)
And Gordon went on to give illustration after illustration from church
history of how Christians had sought the outpouring of God's Spirit for their
ministry and had been given a special power for expanding witness to
Christ.

Modern Missions' Greatest Need

Now here we are in 1988, one hundred years later. Again a great movement
of missionary activity is underway:

 We have a new vision of what it means to complete the Great

Commission—namely, the new understanding of people groups that need to
be reached before the end will come.
 We have quickly-increasing numbers of foreign missionaries: there are
262,000 foreign Christian missionaries of all kinds. The present growth rate
indicates the number will be 400,000 by 2000.
 At least 20,000 non-Western missionaries, belonging to 380 different
agencies, are now working in scores of countries. At the current rate of
growth, the size of the non-Western missionary force will increase to
100,000 by the year 2000.
 Here at Bethlehem Noel and I have a list of 151 people that we pray for who
have been to "Missions in the Manse" this year, and there are about 60 of
our members who are consciously preparing for vocational missionary
service.
 Thirty Bethel College students went to Urbana '84. But last December 300
went to Urbana '87.
But the words of Pierson and Gordon need to be sounded again! The great
need of the hour is power. A special power from the Holy Spirit for
expanding witness to Christ.

What the Power Produces

So let's take the remaining minutes we have and ask, why do we need this
power? What would our witness look like if it came?

We need this power. We need it at Bethlehem. I need it. Our missionaries

need it. And you need it, if you want your life to count for eternity. And the
reason we need it is that without it our witness for Christ will lack deep
conviction, self-denying courage, convincing wisdom, and converting
effectiveness. Let me illustrate these four things from Scripture.

1. Deep conviction
When the Holy Spirit falls upon you in power your witness to Christ comes
with deep conviction.

In 1 Thessalonians 1:5 Paul says, "Our gospel came to you not only in word,
but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction."
When God clothes his witnesses with that special power from on high the
effect is a deep certainty and confidence and conviction about Christ and the
reality of his life and work. The power of God comes upon you, wraps you
up as though in a garment of strength, and carries you with conviction and
assurance through the hour of testimony.

Note: God can use your witness to win people to him even when you lack
this special power. Laurel tells how her roommate was used by God to bring
Laurel to Christ in college even though the roommate was quite a weak and
worldly Christian. But an ever-expanding witness that reaches the city and
the world will never come from that kind of weak and worldly Christian, or
that kind of church.

First of all, then, we need power because we need deep and confident
conviction when we speak for Christ. This comes when the power of the
Holy Spirit falls on us and clothes us with reassuring strength.

2. Self-Denying Courage and Boldness

When the Holy Spirit falls upon you in power your witness to Christ comes
with self-denying courage and boldness.

Acts 4:31 says, "And when they had prayed, the place in which they were
gathered together was shaken and they were all filled with the Spirit
and spoke the word of God with boldness."
And Paul says to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:7-8, "God did not give us a spirit
of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-control. Do not be
ashamed then of testifying to our Lord ... but take your share of suffering for
the gospel in the power of God."
Where does boldness come from? It comes from the fullness of the Holy
Spirit. Where does courage to suffer for Christ come from? It comes
from the power of God—the Spirit of power!
To reach this city and to reach the world with the gospel we must have
courage and boldness that is willing to suffer for Christ. (David Barret
estimates 310,000 people in 1988 will be killed for their Christian faith.)
This kind of courage wells up in the heart when the special power of God's
Spirit falls upon you. This is why martyrs have been able to sing in the
flames—this is no ordinary power. And the need for it is great.

3. Convincing Wisdom
When the Holy Spirit falls upon you in power your witness to Christ comes
with convincing wisdom, irresistible words.

In Acts 6:5 Luke tells us that Stephen was chosen as a deacon because he
was full of faith and the Holy Spirit. Verse 8 says that he was full of grace
and power and did great wonders and signs among the people. Then in verse
10 Luke tells us about Stephen's witness to Jews from Alexandria and
Cilicia and Asia: "They could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit
with which he spoke."
It doesn't matter how educated or intelligent you are, unless the Spirit comes
upon you in power when you witness to Christ, people will be able to twist
what you say to make it sound unacceptable and foolish. But if the power of
the Holy Spirit comes down and you are clothed with heavenly wisdom,
something supernatural will happen. Your words will carry an irresistible
force. "They could not resist the wisdom and Spirit with which he spoke."

Note: this power does not always guarantee that hearers will be converted.
These men were not converted but became all the more devious in their
opposition when they couldn't resist Stephen in public.

We need special power in our witness so that our wisdom will be

convincing and irresistible.

4. Converting Effectiveness
When the Holy Spirit falls upon you in power your witness to Christ comes
with converting effectiveness. Not always, (as we just saw) but far more
often than without the special power of the Holy Spirit.

In Luke 1:15-17 the angel Gabriel tells Zechariah that his son, John the
Baptist "will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb.
And he will turn many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God, and he
will go before him in the spirit and the power of Elijah, to turn the hearts
of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the
just."
In Acts 11:24 it says that Barnabas "was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit
and faith. And a large company was added to the Lord."
We need the special power of the Spirit's fullness because the human heart
is so hard to turn to God! Conversions are the work of God. Evangelism is a
supernatural business or it is nothing of any eternal significance. We need
special power if we want an expanding witness that actually converts
sinners.
The Power Is from God
If Faith and David Jaeger and the Guinea team ever plant a thriving,
expanding church in Guinea it will be because God came down and clothed
them with special power.

If we ever see the Baptist General Conference ignite with evangelistic fervor
it will be because God came down and clothed us with special power from
on high.

If Bethlehem ever takes up the evangelistic challenge of downtown

Minneapolis with deep conviction, and self-denying courage, and
convincing wisdom, and converting effectiveness, it will be because we
have received special power when the Holy Spirit has come upon us.

And what about you and me individually? Are we satisfied with our spiritual
level of power in witness for Christ? I'm not. Are you? Do you have the
deep conviction and self-denying courage and irresistible wisdom and
converting effectiveness that God wants you to have in your witness for
Christ? Have you become content with weakness and forgotten the amazing
promise: "You shall receive power!"

What should we do? What should we do as individuals? What should we do

as a church? As a conference? As a company of evangelicals in this city?

The answers to these questions are so crucial that I have decided to

rearrange the sequence of messages and continue this one next Sunday
morning. And I ask very earnestly that you would pray for me. And pray for
yourself and for the church. Jesus is offering us so much more power than
we have! He desires to do so much more through us for perishing sinners
than he is doing now!

Pray with me this week that we would know how to seek this power in a
way that pleases the Lord.