Time to time, we order quite a few scopial Bibles. For those who desire them, we can get them a wholesale price. It was forty percent off. Before I went to Canada last July, we ordered a couple. I think they came before we left, but the invoice didn't come until I returned. If you took care of these, why? This refreshed my memory concerning them, if not, I have the bill here. I'm glad to talk to you today. So we turn in our Bibles to Acts chapter one. Acts chapter one. Acts chapter one and verse nine. Acts one and nine. When he had spoken these things, while they beheld he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. While they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in quite a power, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, Why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus which is taken up upon you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go. We're living in days of incredible unbelief. Only a few or four weeks ago I read an article in the paper or might have been out of a magazine where there are certain people throughout the world who do not yet believe that men have landed on the moon. They say it's impossible, and they refuse to believe even the likes of pictures on the TV tracking their course, or pacing their course, as well as the communication centers, and hearing their voices coming back from the moon. If there was any thought about this, our enemies would expose it because they choose have their tracking instruments. And in spite of these truths that we have, unbelievable, undeniable truths and facts, yet they refuse to believe. They refuse to live. Also, I notice there's a society in England, and they do not believe that the world is round. They say it's square. And yet you see these pictures in your magazines and on the TV, pictures taken from the men in space as they look back upon our earth and took those beautiful colored pictures. And the earth most certainly is round. And the Bible says that God sitteth upon the circle of the earth. And yet they refuse to believe all these indisputable facts that the earth is round. and that men had landed on him. I remember in Winston-Salem many years ago listening to a group of men talk, and their argument was that some said the earth was square and others said the earth was round. One fellow spoke up and he said, well, if the earth is round, I'll split hell wide open. Well, he's not a Christian, he sure will. In other words, here are indiscreet, undeniable facts as to the shape of the earth, and also that men have landed on the moon, yet man in blind, determined, stubborn unbelief will not live. Why did I tell you those things? Because, friend, we have indiscreet, undeniable facts. of Christianity, that a man came into this world nineteen hundred years ago. He executed the mind and will of God. He executed God's plan of redemption for men. He went back to heaven, and today is at God's right hand, and as we noticed a couple of Sundays ago, these undeniable fruits in verse three. And in spite of all the evidence that we can muster, undeniable heaven, people that they will not believe, what God says. They will not believe the truth of the gospel. They will not believe in the fundamental truths of God's blessed holy word. Well, their eyes are going to be open someday when it's too late. Here we have a man who divided eternity, the Lord Jesus Christ. Just think of eternity. The only way you can describe eternity is by space. And your little mind cannot grasp or apprehend the depth of space. It just goes on and goes on and goes on and you never come to the end of space. you may try and calculate space by light years, going into the millions and the trillions and quadrillions and so on, till your little mind staggers under the wind. Oh, this mighty subject appears a man who stepped into time, and time is measured by year, by month, by week, by day, by minutes, by seconds, that we as poor youth might in some way grasp that. Here's a man who came into this world. He spent thirty-three years here, about thirty-three and a half. He went back to where he came from, and that was the greatest thirty-three and a half years in the history of the universe. Yes, a lot was accomplished, but most was accomplished in the last forty-five days, and you'll see a little later on. And so here we have a man who divided eternity. Eternity past, eternity to come. This man divided chronology. You read about BC, before Christ. AD, you read about after Christ. And the atheist, the infidel, much as he hates in the name of Jesus Christ and the claims of Christ. Every time he puts down the date on his correspondence, he's bearing testimony to the man Jesus Christ. Because that's exactly what he said in a.m. And here's a man that not only divides eternity and not only divides chronology, he divides humanity. Antichrist, pro-Christ. A man is one or the other. You're either pro-Christ, you're for Christ, or you're anti-Christ. John is going to be an anti-Christ, a man who will be the personification of unbelief and rebellion against God. But John says anti-Christ is already at work. Or here, nineteen hundred years ago. Meaning... oppositions of Jesus Christ. And finally it's going to be seen in a man for Son of a man is a coming man of sin, the coming Antichrist. And so this morning as you sit here, you're either pro-Christ or you're Antichrist. Oh, you shudder at the word Antichrist. Friend, if you're not saved, you are Antichrist. that is the spirit of anti-Christ, dominating. Christ says, he that is not with me is against me. And the only way you can be with Christ for Christ is by accepting him as your Savior and being born again. Otherwise, no matter how religious you may be, you're against Christ. There's no neutral ground. If one or the other, you're saved or lost before Christ or you're against Christ. That's a solemn, solemn fact. You may have religion, but remember, religion is not Christianity. Christianity is a relationship. And many religions do not relate to God. Here is Christianity, and that means relationship. If you've just got religion, you don't have Christianity. No definite, knowledgeable relationship with God, whereby you're born into his family, and God can look upon you as his child, and you can call him my father. Here's a man who divides humanity. And I'm going to go further. He divides family. Listen to this. Mark thirty four. Think not that I am come to send peace on the earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her, mother-in-law, and a man's foe, shall be they of his own household. In other words, Christ is saying this. Some will accept me. They will love me. They will even die for me. In other words, they'd rather have me than part with all loved ones than to pray to all loved ones and leave me out. and have me depart from there. Now the Bible does not endorse the disruption of social life. It's God's mind of all in the family be saved. But if some refuse to accept Christ, then the family is divided. That's where he claimed in your Bible. The Bible says in Acts sixteen and thirty and thirty one, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. and thou shalt be saved and thy house. God has always wanted the same household. God commended Abraham, whom he said is my friend, and he shall order his household after me. And so if some refuse Christ and are not born again, others are saved, they are divided. And Christ is the one. Those were for him, and those were against him. This cannot be said of any other character. Abraham was not the divider of eternity, nor the divider of chronology. Neither was David, neither Plato, that great philosopher, nor Confucius, Muhammad, or Buddha. This can't be said of any of those men. those leaders of great religions. This can only be said of Jesus Christ. And so he's the man that we're here to speak about this morning, the man Christ Jesus, who disrupted this vast universe in its procedure, the circling constellation, the blazing suns. And he introduced something. never been known before, will never be known again. But God became man, and God devised and designed and executed to his son the wonderful work of redemption to rescue man from sin that had entered into this world. And Satan grew with the instigator of it, and had enslaved men and women. And God wanted to deliver them. from that sinister power. So we find, thirty-three years ago, someone who had a miraculous birth, a miraculous birth, no earthly father, who was born of God. That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. At the age of twelve, He was a brilliant young Jew, able to compound the lawyers and the scribes and the Pharisees, asking them questions that they couldn't answer at the age of twelve. Then you find him during those eighteen silent years there in Nazareth. And you remember how he went into the temple you have it in Luke chapter four. And during those eighteen years of seclusion, he was the temple reader. He read the scriptures. Then at the age of about thirty, he stepped out into public ministry, public life, introduced by John the Baptist. Here's his public ministry. He performed thirty-five miracles and told about thirty parables. According to the Bible, but that's not all. John tells us in the last verse of his gospel that if all that Jesus said and did, where to be written, the world itself could not contain the books. That could be written. Christ concentrated. so much into that little three and a half years that the book world itself would not contain the works that were going to detail and still tell all that he did. There was a life that was schooled. There was a life that no other life compared to the life of the man Christ Jesus. Then you find the Lord Jesus, the most interesting, forty-five days of his entire life that I want to speak on this morning. Forty-five days, the last forty-five days he was here on this earth, and then he led. And these are very interesting, leading right up to his ascension that we read about. Think of the Last Supper, its sacred... solemnity, the scenes in the garden of Gethsemane, when he sweateth where great drops of blood falling down to the ground. Think of his arrest. Think of Peter's courage when Peter took his sword and cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest, impetuous Peter. Then you had Peter's denial, and Peter's bitter grief. Yes, Peter saw his mistake. Here he is so bold and so courageous. One point. A few hours later he denied the Lord Jesus Christ, the very one he sought to defend, as if Christ needed anyone to defend him. But here's Peter, he quarrels before a maid. which he said, Art thou, not one of this man's disciples. Then you have the trial of the Lord Jesus. He went before Caiaphas the high priest first, then over to Pilate. Pilate sends him across the town to Herod, and Herod returns him back to Pilate. These men have got a hot potato on their hands, and they want to get them off their hands. There's something about this man they're afraid of. There's something about this man they don't want to be guilty of doing anything against him. And even Pilate, after the second appearance before Pilate, Pilate says, I'll have nothing to do with this just man. And he washed his hands. And he said, I'm innocent of the blood of this just man. See to him. tried to shell the responsibility that he couldn't be. He was a shrewd politician. He had said enough, and he will be held responsible for the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, as well as the Jewish nation. Lord says in the Acts, ye, be heard of them, who see, cry, and slew the son of God. And I want to say further, every man and woman in the world if responsible for the death of Jesus Christ. It was your sins and my sins that nailed them to the tree. He was there because you had sin. He was there because I had sin. And all our sins were laid upon him. Jesus bore them on the tree. God, who then laid them on him and believed him? I... The blood of Christ today is crying out for the forgiveness and salvation of all men. In a coming day that same blood will cry out for the condemnation of God in this end for all who trampled that blood under their feet and rejected the one who shed that precious blood at Calvary. And here you have the Lord Jesus before Pilate and then and then Lucifer. And you know the true death of the saints, when they pierced those lovely hands and tender feet, and put that circle of the crown of thorns upon his head. He did that before Pilate, when they mocked him and scoffed and tore the hair from his cheeks and spat in the street. final act of God dishonored, was after Jesus fired from the soldier, the Roman soldier, took his lance and split his heart and cradly thrust that spear into his side. Then you have the burial in Joseph's new tomb. You have the Roman guard stationed there and the temple walked. Then you had the descent of the angel who came down and rolled away the stone. And here you have the fear and the flight of the soldier. Here you have the empty tomb and the glorious announcement, the electrifying news. He's alive. He has listened. Jesus Christ. He's alive. Yes, the Lord Jesus, after his resurrection, he was with his old for forty days, and he had conversations with individuals and little groups. He appeared to Mary Magdalene. He appeared to some of the other women. His mother had another Mary. You find in the closing book of Mark, the group of women, at the end of the fifteen chapter, getting ready and preparing spices to go to the supper tour the next morning. Yes, he met with some of them. He met with the two on the Emmaus Road. He met with his disciples in the upper room when Thomas was not there, and he met them the next Lord's Day when Thomas was there. I've challenged Thomas. put his finger into the grip of the nails, and crossed his hand into his hand, it was fine. He not gave us what to believe. So you have the Lord Jesus who promises the Holy Spirit. One might mention, too, that breakfast he cooked on the shores of that lake that morning. The disciples had toiled all night and caught nothing. And here the Lord Jesus had breakfast waiting for them on the shore of that lake. He didn't have a hook nor a net, but he got the fish. And he made the pie, and he cooked the meal, fried fish, fresh out of the lake. And he said to them, Come and die. It was at that meeting that Simon Peter was restored to the Lord. As I've already mentioned, he promised them the Holy Spirit until the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost. They had a temporary filling of the Spirit. It might tide them over them until the Spirit of God came to abide and stay in the hearts of all those who would believe. Now he says, I would like you to follow me out to Bethany. and the little band follow him. These are his friends. They follow him with loving fear, knowing that something tremendous is about to happen. And as he looks at you, there's Mary, his mother, Mary Magdalene. There's Joseph, John, James. Peter, Tom, and he looks at these are his friends. These are his love followers. And as he looks them over, he lifts his hands up to bless them, pronounce the blessing. I wonder what he could have said on that occasion. Maybe we could borrow some of the words he said earlier. Peace. I leave with you. My peace give unto you. Neither let your heart be troubled. He believed in God, but he also in me. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. And as he finished, he began to rise. His hands outstretched and blessed. And he began to rise. You can see every eye riveted on the Son of God as he ascends. A cloud descends to receive him. And he steps into that chariot of Christ. Unabashed. There they stand gazing up to the spot where they last saw you. They saw that face. that loving, tender faith until it disappeared into the cloud. There they stood, where tears of loneliness in their eyes, was fear beginning to sweep over their hearts as they looked up. What are we going to do now? This fall. The one we love, the one we follow. We left all the fall. Just then, two shining messengers did point the peril from back to earth. From where the Savior disappeared, these messengers came. And they said, ye men of Galilee, Why stand ye gazing up into heaven, this same season which is taken from you at the heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen? How this changed the whole picture. Their heavy hearts became light. They no longer stood in gaze. They had received their permission. They had a mission to perform. They taken hasten back to Jerusalem. They dropped the message. This same Jesus shall so come in like manner as he had seen him grow. Don't stand gazing now. There's a job to be done, and you're to be busy doing it until he comes again. That's his last mission to the church. And the little band, of course, gathered with many others along the day of Pentecost when the Spirit really did come, and united them all. They were then to carry out what they were told to carry out. by the messengers of the risen Christ. He would go forth with that mission. This was to be their business. Talk about him, the Lord Jesus Christ. Over in England many years ago, there was a little town, and the city fathers, they used to call them ventures in those days because they met in a room and they town hall, the temple hall. They had their tea and something to eat and discussed matters of importance relative to the little town. And they decided one day they wanted a new clock to be put in the power of the town hall. They got a clock maker and told him to make a clock. and they told them about the size they wanted, and they said, now we want an inscription on that clock, a title. We don't know yet what it's going to be. We want you to make the clock, and when it's finished, ready for installation will give you the inscription. Well, he finished the clock, and he used to go and try and get these men to tell him what he was to put on that clock. Sometimes they got aggravated because of his persistence. One day he came in and they were all having their lunch and discussing a wicked problem. And he once again said, Gentlemen, what do you want me to put on the clock? One man snapped back. Go about your business. Well, he left thinking that's what they want. And he went home and he made the inscription. go about your business. And when he put it on the clock, the counterpart that looked at it, was somewhat shocked, but also surprised and pleased. Could it be a better description? Here's a new clock. Now go about your business. Tell the world by your hands what time it is. And this is the message that you angels gave to thy little band that stood gazing up into heaven. Go about your business. You've got a story to tell. I do in heaven. Isn't that the case with the church? It's so new. And so, Christian, God wants us to go about our business telling the story that he has left for us to tell. We were speaking one Sunday on... the witnesses found in the Bible and some of the things concerning these witnesses. I just want to mention five witnesses that should characterize every child of God from that day till now. The first thing that should characterize a true witness for Jesus Christ is a personal knowledge of Christ. This is essential that a witness have personal experience with and a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, the facts that he testifies unto. That's why Acts follows facts. In the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you have the facts. And in the Acts of the Apostles, you have the acts of the disciples, helped by the Holy Spirit, telling the world about the facts, the work, the life, the death, the resurrection and ascension of Christ. They are the facts. That is the message and the mission of the church that day tonight. The second thing about a witness is personal consistency. Not only a story to tell, but a life to live. of the life oftentimes is more weak than the words. The third thing is personal courage. It takes real courage to speak the truth under all circumstances. Oh yes, some circumstances it's difficult for a Christian to witness for Christ, but oh, it takes courage sometimes. All the spine you've got, all the courage you can muster, little anybody, can be a coward. And drift with the tide, dead fish floats down the stream. But it takes the lives of fish to go against that stream, even up the rapids. And that little fish has got a little motor in there. I don't know how many horsepower it is, but he certainly can turn it on. something in there that amazes you. The power of a little fish that can drop those rats. Think of the hundreds of pounds of pressure that are trying to wash that fish downstream. Although the fish makes progress against opposition, this is the Christian's courage to witness for Christ under all circumstances. Then the personal patient of the Christian. Someone gets saved the first time to hear the gospel. Others have to hear it several times. Maybe a number of years before they finally come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, the need of patience and also personal power. This is a must. one who's a witness for Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit of God. So here you have the central theme of the Christian's witness, Jesus Christ. He says she shall testify of me. Then you have also here, you have this more or less the sphere of the Christian witness. Beginning at Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uppermost heart to the earth. So here you have the central theme Jesus Christ. Then you have the sphere, the whole world. Then you have the secret and the source of the strength of that witness, the Holy Spirit. Without him you can do nothing. The Spirit of God has been provided. It was needed. Because without him we could do nothing. Spirit is needed. He's provided. God provided him. And he is received by all those who want to become real Christians. And in the energy of the power of the Spirit of God, there are bright and shining light for him. After that he believed he were sealed with that Holy Spirit of God. The Spirit came in our hearts when we were saved. And in the energy and power of that ungrieved, unquenchable Holy Spirit, we can be a witness for our Lord Jesus Christ. And so we witness with power and we walk by faith, as you have in verses nine and ten, for the Savior is gone. This little band can no longer walk by sight. Oh, it must have been nice when he was here. to go up to the Lord Jesus Christ and ask him questions and feel the warmth radiating from that heart, that glowing personality, that one that knew all things could answer all questions, solve all problems by how the disciples depended on. But now he's gone. You're going to have to live by faith now. It's a life of faith. And without faith, you cannot please God. Not only so, it's waiting in hope. First of all, witnessing with power the Holy Spirit. Then walking by faith, but he's now in heaven and waiting for the hope. And that's our verse eleven, his same deed. are so common like manner as he has seen them grow. That's our hope. There are four things noticeable in the Acts of the Apostles that characterize the early church, and that is Christ's Godhead, his worship, his atonement, and that he is going to be the deliverer of his people and the destroyer of his enemies. These are the things that the early Christians taught. First of all, His resurrection. This is the problem of the Lord. We notice in the rest of this chapter next Sunday, Lord willing, when you have the replacement of Judas here, it says here, the replacement of Judas is to be a witness of His resurrection in verse twenty-two. And those words, His resurrection, Witnesses of his resurrection are found eight times in the Acts. That's what the early church used to do. Witness to his resurrection. In Romans four, one you read, that the Lord Jesus Christ, by his resurrection, he declared his lordship. He was declared to be the son of God with power. According to the spirit of holiness, from the resurrection to among the dead, here you have his Godhead definitely established. Declare to me the Son of God your power according to the Spirit of God by the resurrection among you. And if you want an evidence that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, you have it in his resurrection, that makes it very clear. No other man or legal of any religion, never rose again from the dead. Now this was the glowing theme of those burning hearts, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. A little girl, the daughter of a missionary on the mission field, was talking to the other little girls around, the little boys too, about her living Savior. And this little heathen girl, he couldn't understand if she'd been taught otherwise. And she had a little idol disposed to represent her tribal religion. That was her little god, and she said a prayer to it every day. Her mother taught her to do that. One day, this little heathen girl, she went out and she buried her little god or little idol in the ground. She went back three days later. And she dug it up. And she took it and threw it against the rock and smashed it with me. Her mother was curious. Why? Why would my daughter do such a thing as that? She said, Mama, I don't want her God to save me. She's calling the name of her little companion, the missionary daughter. Her God's alive. He rose on the earth. That's the God I want. I don't want a God to stay. And that's it. I don't want a God to stay. Is God dead? I should say nothing. He's alive. I was alive forevermore. This was the testament of the early Christians. His Godhead. Then his reign, his lordship. Verse thirty-six of chapter three. God hath made that same Jesus whom he crucified both Lord and Christ. Now that's now. He's at God's right hand, and he should be the Lord of every district. The Lord of my life. Yes, when a Christian saved, he changed his master. No longer sin and Satan, and set, but Christ. He's my Lord. Then the third thing that was included in their message was his atonement. And this meant the remission of sins. And time and time again in the Acts you read, the remission of sins, first to the Jews, then to the Samaritan, and then to the Gentile, the remission of sins. And before there could be any remission of sins, there had to be the atonement. which placed affected on the plots