“How
Jesus Turned Forty Days Into Two Thousand Years of
Ministry”
By Tom Hanson
November 14th,
2010
Click here to download printable sermon
notes in pdf format.
Empowerment
is the theme of the month. Jesus
had
real power; we read about how He turned water into wine, he took a few
fishes
and some bread and fed 4,000… Great
power multiplied it all.
Joshua
24:15 …choose
you this day whom ye
will serve…
Joshua
was not a
big man. When he
was with the spies that
had searched out the promised land, they said that they were as
grasshoppers in
heir own eyes (Numbers
13:33). In
spite of that, Joshua
said that they were well able to take the land, because he believed
that God
would give them the victory. We
have a
great victory in Jesus today.
Luke
20:13-18 …let
us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours…
Joshua gave them a choice; we have
the same choice now: Choose
you this day
whom you will serve; He made up his mind.
Empowerment comes from having a made-up mind. Once you make up your mind,
you can do so much
more than you think you can.
Romans
1:16 …the
power of God unto everyone
that believeth…
If
you have problems, go to the Word of God. Just
as in Biblical times, people followed by
faith, even so we also need to have faith and follow as we are
instructed by
the Word of God. Just
as people shared
the Gospel message with us, we need to share it with others. There are people that try to
stop this work;
there always have been.
I
remember one time on the Andy Griffith Show, Barney Fife was a new
deputy, and
Barney tried to handle a situation on his own ability, and people
didn’t pay
much attention to him. Andy
sat down and
talked with him, and told him that the badge on his chest was more than
just a
piece of metal, and encouraged him to do what he knew was right. Barney went back, and put
himself aside, and
he said, look, this is the law, and you may not like it, but that’s
what the
law says. This
time, the people
listened. We have
to go forth with
official authority. The
Bible says, if
God be for us, who can be against us? (Romans
8:31)
There was a
time
when Elisha called on God to open his servant’s eyes, because Gehazi
thought
that they were badly outnumbered (2
Kings 6:15-17). When
the young man’s
eyes were opened, he saw that the enemy was outnumbered. We are surrounded by God’s
messengers. For
every battle
of the warrior is with confused noise,
and garments rolled in blood; but this
shall be with burning and fuel of fire (Isaiah
9:5). We
may get confused, and snap
the ball too quick, but if we follow God’s game plan, we will be
victorious. If we
live godly, and soberly (Titus
2:11-12), we will have victory in good times and in bad. Our success will empower
others to go
forward.
We have to
delight ourselves in the Lord. Who
encourages the encourager? God does. We
come to worship, and leave to serve.
Matthew
28:16-20
…All power is
given unto me…
Jesus
was baptized by John the Baptist, but soon He and His disciples were
baptizing
more people than John was. John’s
disciples asked, “Who is this man?” and John told them. He had a growing following. What empowered Him? the
Spirit of God. For
three years he had mounting favor, a
mounting following, and mounting persecution.
Eventually they crucified Him, but he didn’t stay in
the grave. When the
women went to the grave after three
days, they found the empty tomb, and they went and told the disciples,
who ran
to the grave. Six
Flags doesn’t have a
ride like this. He
was with them for
forty days after the resurrection. There
are some other things that lasted for forty days. In
Noah’s day, it rained for forty days (Genesis
7:17). Jesus
fasted for forty days
and then was tempted by Satan (Matthew
4:1-11)—you notice Satan didn’t come around after the
resurrection, though.
Moses fasted
for forty days when God
gave him the commandments (Exodus
34:28). You
can get some things
established in forty days.
Mark
16:15-20
…He was received
up into Heaven…
After
forty days, Jesus had proven the reality of His resurrection to His
selected
witnesses. There
had to be great joy in
this victory over death. They
knew that
the truth of eternal life was REAL. They
had first-hand proof that Jesus was real in all His eternal glory. No one could make them doubt
anymore. They had
all the proof they needed—forty days
of it—and now they had a job to do:
Lift
up Jesus, and go, teach, baptize.
We
just read that Jesus was received up into Heaven. Now
he was gone; this time for good (this was
better than the last time he was taken away from them—by the cruelty of
man),
but, Jesus was gone again, and they would have to fulfill Jesus’
mission by
themselves (or so it seemed). There
would be no more physical contact.
Luke
24:44-53 …endued
with power from on high…
This
time Jesus gave His disciples a bit of knowledge that would prove
immense: He would
give them power from on high. They
weren’t alone; in fact, He would be in
them in His Spirit to lead and guide them unto all truth.
Acts
1:1-11
…ye
shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you…
The
forty day party was over. This
time,
Peter did not go a-fishing, no, he went to Jerusalem and
got him some POWER.
Acts
2:1-4
…they were all filled
with the Holy Ghost…
Peter,
that day by the power of the Holy Ghost, shared the great salvation
message,
the same message that faithful believers must share today to see others
saved.
Acts
2:37-42
…ye shall receive the gift
of the Holy Ghost…
In
conclusion, we are the believers today who are empowered to share the
great
Gospel of Jesus Christ. Let
us believe
it with the same certainty that the early church did. Let
us go forward, knowing that we are
empowered by Jesus Christ to complete this mission. Forty
days turned into a two-thousand year old
and counting—and growing—and thriving—ministry.
Sermon
notes by Pete Shepherd
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