Sermon

Acts 1: You Will Be My Witnesses

Speaker Jeremy Kuehn

Scripture Acts 1

Series Acts

Date Oct 05, 2025

Acts Acts 1:8 Discipleship Empowerment Growth Holy Spirit John 5:19 Kingdom Prayer Preparation Witnesses

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Acts: You Will Be My Witnesses

Sermon Abstract

TEXT

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8 NLT

CIT

After Jesus' resurrection, and before his ascension into heaven, Jesus gives his disciples final instructions to wait on the promise of the Holy Spirit and then in that power to go forth in spreading the gospel.

CIS

Jesus’ disciples always stand at a crossroads of attempting life with or without the Holy Spirit’s empowerment but they also live under the same promise as the Disciples to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

SO

The hearer will better understand the necessity to seek, wait, and receive the promises of God.

TITLE

Acts: You Will Be My Witnesses

Sermon Outline

ME

Sequels
There was a time in the not so distant past where a TV show would come on at a set time of the week, play only during that time, and then you would have to wait a week to see the next episode.
- If you missed it, too bad! Some shows had a rerun, at 2AM, but who’s going to catch that?!
- I vividly remember getting home from school and praying, wishing, and dreaming of getting home in time to watch Boy Meets World!
- Maybe you watched Star Trek, or Mash!
I was trying to explain this to my son the other day. He’s never lived the reality of life in installments.
Life is way more like tv of the 90’s than it is like the streaming services of today.
- Everything builds and there is no going back. There is no rewind button
- In fact to live life to its fullest I would say you have to be where you need to be and doing what you need to be doing, when you’re supposed to be there or else you will miss it.
To be clear, I prefer streaming my TV and movies because I can watch them when I want to, unfortunately it’s not reflective of reality.
Transition
Today we are embarking on a journey through the book of Acts. But before we do I want to look at Jesus’ ministry and how it might apply to us.

WE

Jesus explained his ministry process in one short sentence.
“Whatever the Father does, the Son also does.” John 5:19B NLT
This is where Jesus truly shined. He had a relationship with the father that was his guide for life.
This is also our blueprint for life.
- If our goal is to be like Jesus, if our goal is to be a disciple it stands to reason we would have to seek the same source as Jesus.
If there is one thing we need to deeply understand it is God’s blueprint for us as individual disciples and as a church.
The book of Acts, as we read it, is not only historical but meant to be taken as a pattern of our relationship with God in both the church and personally.
I’d like to read a portion of Acts chapter 1 to set the stage for us.
“In my first book I told you, Theophilus, about everything Jesus began to do and teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven after giving his chosen apostles further instructions through the Holy Spirit. 3 During the forty days after he suffered and died, he appeared to the apostles from time to time, and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive. And he talked to them about the Kingdom of God. 4 Once when he was eating with them, he commanded them, “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. 5 John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” 6 So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?” 7 He replied, “The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”” Acts 1:1-8 NLT
- There is a tension in this verse the apostles faced and that we still face today.
- Really in this passage of scripture we see two tensions.
- First, do we go ahead of the spirit in our zeal?
  - Remember Jesus gives them the great commission to go into all the world. “All the world” is a really big place, so where do you start?
- Second, where do we keep score? How do we gauge success?
  - Is it by the growth of the Kingdom at large, or the pursuit of the Kingdom within us?
  - Nick Saben once said to his players, “don’t play the score board, play the position.”
- Today I want us to confront If God has begun such a work through Jesus and in the disciples, how will they continue that work without Jesus physically present?
- We’ll end today by looking at how God still continues that work in us.
Let’s pray.

GOD

Broad overview
I want to give you a few broad points about the book of Acts before we address chapter 1
This book is a sequel
- Most of the gospels close with the ascension of Jesus, leaving us wondering what’s next.
- Acts contains the origins of the early church and Christianity.
- Look at verse 1
- The gospel of Luke parallels Matthew and Mark
Luke wrote the gospel of Luke and then followed it up with Acts
- Luke was a doctor
- Being a doctor in that day was not like today.
  - They didn’t go through years of medical school.
  - You didn’t have to go through your primary care to see a specialist.
  - And nobody was beholden to an insurance company.
- In those days the normal place of a dr was a slave to a master.
  - Most likely, Luke, was on assignment by the man he writes the book to. Theophilus.
- Theophilus came to know Jesus as his savior, and released Luke to become a friend and traveling companion with Paul
- In Acts 16 we see a vernacular change from third person to first person
  - V10
- From this point on, Luke included himself in the writing.
- Theophilus instructed Luke to write a full account of the history of the movement
- The Holy Spirit used Luke’s writings to give an accurate account of the life of Jesus and the early church.
The book of acts spans 30 years though we could read it in 30 mins. On average we see one miracle per year.
- Think about that for a second.
- You can read the book in 30 mins and you see page after page of miracles. The big ones!
- But the actual pace of life is much slower in real time.
- Everything from the miracle of Saul’s conversion to following Jesus to the raising of the dead.
- The years can accomplish what the days never could.
- I’ve heard it put this way,
Transition:
- This brings us to a point of tension. If God has begun such a work through Jesus and in the disciples, how will they continue that work without Jesus physically present?
Kingdom Now?
V4 Wait
- “ Once when he was eating with them, he commanded them, “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. 5 John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”” Acts 1:4-5 NLT
- I can imagine why Jesus said this and why the disciples might have struggled with it.
- If you look back to the end of the gospels the disciples receive a mission.
- They’re called to go into all the world! You can imagine they might have been very zealous to do this.
- They ask the same question here as before.
  - People change, but not that much.
- There is a temptation for them to go and attempt this in their own power.
  - But the dynamics of living in a kingdom dictate you only go with the king's authority, or you risk everything.
- Jesus commands them to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit as had been promised.
- In the midst of this the disciples ask Jesus about when he would setup his kingdom.
- To their credit there are scriptures that combine the coming of the holy spirit with an earthly kingdom.
  - Ezekiel 36:26-28 and Joel 2:28-29.
  - Maybe they were thinking of these.
- Jesus instructed them not to worry about the when but focus on the what He wanted them to do.
- This is one of the primary reasons I haven’t been an end times scholar.
- Jesus specifically says the dates are not for you to know.
- Do not miss what God wants for you right now.
  - Be faithful.
- It’s good to be informed about what comes next, but don’t be so consumed by it you miss the transformation of your life.
Wait and Seek
Not wait and see, wait and seek.
The disciples' life is not a game of waiting around. If we are not called to action, we are called to prayer.
V8 A blueprint for growth
- This is the ultimate blueprint for growth personal, and corporate.
- Preparation
  - They spent time in the upper room in prayer.
  - They were there waiting and seeking, not waiting and seeing.
- Jerusalem
  - The home front. They started in Jerusalem because that’s where they were.
  - Chapters 1-7 of Acts all deal directly with the apostles only in Jerusalem.
- Judea and Samaria
  - After Stephen is martyred many Christians scatter and end up away but not really that far away.
  - Chapters 8-9 offer a glimpse into what many thought would have been the end of the faith, only to find out it actually explodes.
- To the ends of the earth
  - This is where we still are.
  - Chapters 10-28 of Acts

YOU

Start Where You Are
A season of preparation is always in order.
Work For Today & Pray For Tomorrow
Play the position, not the score board.