Obey-Stay-Pray

Acts 1.1-14

I must confess to you that I deeply long for the day when the Lord Jesus Christ shall return in like manner. I'm not afraid to die but I do hope that Jesus' return happens in my lifetime. I love the words Horatio Spafford penned about that occasion:

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

We have heard it correctly preached that our Lord's last words are his marching orders for the Church (Acts 1:8), that we are to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

You have heard it preached that we are witnesses whether we want to be or not; that our lives give testimony each day to the authenticity of our relationship with Christ whether intentionally or unintentionally; whether a helpful or unhelpful witness.

You have probably been inspired by great sermons on this subject and resolved with flint faced conviction to be that witness and charged out the back door of the Church at the end of the service to confront the world with your witness. You resolved with all your heart to try harder and do better----but you never lasted past Wednesday!.......

Our witness should be powerful but it often seems powerless and we're afraid to ask why?

Well let's stop being afraid and ask "why?" tonight.

The answer is because we usually bypass 3 critical imperatives from this text that PRECEDE our living as Christ honoring Witnesses.

Let's take an honest look at them tonight:


The First Imperative is found in verse 4 where it says, " he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem..."

Verse 12 says simply, "Then they returned to Jerusalem". The idea is that they did not take off to storm the world. They did not begin a canvassing campaign or evangelistic thrust. What they did was simply to be obedient to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our takeaway is that obedience is the foundation of our Christian witness and the foundation of obedience is our own personal, authentic relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.......
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The Second Imperative is found in verse 4 where it says, "...wait for the promise of the Father..."

Verses 14 says, "...with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers."

Our takeaway is that they waited for the promise of the Father and they waited in consistent, insistent, persistent prayer. 120 people prayed for 50 days before the Holy Spirit fell.......

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The Third Imperative is found in verse 8 where it says, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you..."

The Power of the Holy Spirit comes after intentional waiting characterized by radical obedience and radical prayer.

Our takeaway is that there are no shortcuts to receiving the Power of the Holy Spirit. Time means nothing to Him but timing is everything. He can do more in a heartbeat than we could do in a lifetime.
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Are you sick to death of accomplishing what you can accomplish for Christ. It's always too little too late and has about as much power as trying to boil water over the picture of a glow worm. Are you ready to see what Christ can accomplish through you in the Power of His Holy Spirit?

Then the answer is OBEY-STAY-PRAY!