Transcription
Christianity.
We are live at Radical Christianity. I am Trina Olsen. We have I am Tina Hoover of Radical Christianity. We have Brad Weidman. Brad Weidman with YWAM Denali. Doug Weidman with At Ministry. Jeff Hoover with Radical Christianity, Michelle Widman with At the Table Ministries.
Verse six, Acts 1 verse 6. And I'm reading out of the NIV. So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" He said to them, "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth."
After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going. He suddenly when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. "Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? The same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come back the same way you have seen him go into heaven."
All right. Who wants to unpack some of that?
Hallelujah. [laughter]
Wow.
So, um, let me find this scripture. I think it's it's Exodus 13. Is it 13? 134. Um, read it here. 13.
I'll start here for a little bit. You know, verse six, you know, every time they gather, they ask Jesus, "Lord, when's it your time to take, you know, you're going to restore Israel?" You know, they weren't quite getting it.
Yeah. And Jesus didn't really entertain it this much this time because he knew what he needs to do be get done needs to happen here. And he just only said that just a he answered him who says to fix the dates and times. "You're not permitted to know." But then he goes into what the whole, you know, what the promise is about to come.
Mhm. He just only tearing it just for a little bit, but he need to bring their focus on what is to come. And you know, looking back, the disciples were not getting as Jesus was on this earth, he wasn't get they weren't quite getting it all the way through.
Because what what they did not have is what they're waiting for it to come. They did not have the Holy Spirit. And that was Jesus's purpose on earth is so the Holy Spirit can come.
Amen.
Amen.
So like what is going to unveil here now what can are we still missing it?
Yeah. So the the angels or the the witnesses said, "Why are you looking up? He's going to return the same way he left." So where else is the cloud significant? In Exodus 13:21, "And the Lord let Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way and by night a pillar of fire to give them light so as to go by day and night."
So they're so concerned about Israel. I'm not negating that we should be concerned about Israel. I'm not taking it away from there. I'm not taking it away that Jesus is coming back another day to save the world. You know what? You believe what you want, but what are you doing with what you have right now?
Amen.
So Jesus went up into the cloud. Was it to lead them by day?
Yeah. Once again. And we're they're more concerned about Israel. They want this significant leader. They want someone to come in and save the day. They they're looking for someone to snatch them out of the pit of hell in life.
But yet, they're not willing to sacrifice their own life for him. You know, we need to lay our life down. And and it's like he's asking them to go and wait. He's not asking him to go and fight. He's asked him go and wait and and when the promise comes, you'll know it. You'll know it. So like, so I would say right now at this point, if if you're watching and you're just not really sure uh where you are with Jesus and you just want to say, "Hey, I I I want this. I want this relationship with Jesus." Then just just ask him right now. Like Jesus, I want you in my heart. He needs to come into your heart so he can clean out all the scrambled mess in in your brain. But um when he comes into your heart, you feel that. And it's not a special it is a special prayer, but there's no formula to the prayer. It's just like, "I want you Lord of my life, Jesus, and I want you to come into my heart. I want to receive the Holy Spirit, and I want to know what this is about. What is it about? I want to be a part of this change that's going on, the goodness that he has to offer."
This is so good. Oh my gosh, this is all [laughter] right. Who's up there? Who's going to say something next?
I was thinking about [clears throat and cough] very much the same same verse that 10 through 11 where they're looking intently into the sky. They're where's he gone? Like trying to put myself in that same scenario. And I look at today like the church. We're we're looking intently to the stage instead of the in the beginning it says Jesus came to do and to teach. When are we going to get motivated to do? Like are we going to just stand there and wait? Are we going to sit and just wait on this thing thing to happen? Like seeing him ascend like oh is he coming back down? Is he not coming back down? I we don't have time to be thinking about that. There's a lot of lost sons and daughters. Like we need to catch the fire that's in us and let it burn and just Yeah. reveal him, you know.
And um it takes me back to John 21. And this is when when Jesus is telling Peter what's going to happen to him, you know, before he dies. And and I think Peter is like freaking out. I really do because he knows what it was like to deny Jesus three times, you know, and and he's standing on the boat in John 21 with the other I think there was seven disciples. Not everyone went, you know, not everyone went. And so Peter went back to what he knew and everyone followed him. So what are they following you? You go back to what you knew. you know, you go back and do what you know to do and God will show up in that moment. He will meet you in your moment. And so when they do that, Peter is standing on the boat and and when he recognizes that it's Jesus, he puts on his outer garment. Outer garment, the Greek root word is the same Greek root word of wedding garment in Matthew 22. And this is crazy because this is the same thing that that person in the wedding banquet doesn't have on and they get thrown out into the darkness and nashing of teeth. Peter knows. He knows that he has a second chance and he's not going to let hell and high water stop him. Are you gonna grab a hold of your life and grab hold of God and let the enemy know that you're not gonna you're not gonna stop me?
Yeah. You know, and so Peter's standing there. He puts on his outer garment. He puts on that thing that the person in the wedding banquet doesn't put on and and he jumps into the water. What if he dove into it? Like I think he was so zealous that he just, you know, he got crashing into that water. He didn't care. You know, some people say, "Hey, he didn't even walk on it." Like, you know what? I don't think he even cared. He was going after Jesus. [laughter] You know, and he grabbed Jesus says, "Go get some of your fish." So, this net that the rest of the guys can't pull into the boat. Peter carries that net.
Yeah. 53 fish. Is that right?
No. No.
Something like that.
A lot of fish.
But he carries this net. It's a heavy net. He doesn't tear the net this time and he doesn't lose any fish. And I believe it's prophetic to the rest of his life that he's not going to lose any fish and he's not going to carry the means of carrying people to Jesus, you know. And so it's the end of this scripture. I just love it because Jesus is reinstating Peter, but he's also telling him what how the church is going to look. But this part is so important because Peter's worried about, well, what about John?
Yeah. We're all worried about what about Tina? What about you? Like, like you can't you can't beat me to the race, [laughter] you know?
I'm gonna drive. We're gonna run to the So, [laughter] but he's he's he's scared and rightfully so because he knows what it feels like because when he denied Jesus, the rock went to the cross. He didn't have Jesus. It was only the foulmouthed fisherman Peter standing there on his own and he knew he had nothing.
Yeah. So we have nothing without this. So So he's scared and and and this here it's it's coming. So it says [laughter] it's coming.
So Jesus answered. Peter turned around and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. and and Peter saw him and he asked, "Lord, what about him?" And Jesus answered, "If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is it to you, you must follow me?"
So, what if Jesus is about to show them that he's about to return?
Yeah. And I'm not This is not a theological, you know, This is this is about Jesus coming back today in you just like he came back [laughter] today and you. So we are super excited. We got some extracurricular activities. [laughter] So we want you to get excited because what was good for the disciples is gonna happen to you, too. And they just led the way. [laughter]
Sorry, I went on a little tangent.
That's good. That's all good. [laughter]
I love it.
That's all right.
I want some more of it. [laughter]
What do you got, Tina? Anything over here? I think Brad's got something brewing up there. Oh,
I'm sure. Man, I think you got like sword out.
You better hurry up, Tina, if you want to get that out there. [laughter]
Tina, don't wait. Spit it out.
Brad's on the countdown. [laughter]
on deck. [laughter]
We have a um here on YouTube. Um exactly. I would want my lord or new card to be seen. Well, explain. Yay. When you talked about the the car.
Yeah. Yeah. So, what do you got, Brad? [laughter]
We see smoke coming out of yours up here.
Oh, sorry about that. Shook the table. [laughter]
Yeah. Getting the tremolos in the upper room already. [clears throat]
My my I'm I'm leaning out.
You're full yet. New King James. And when Jesus responds to them, he says in verse seven, "It's not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in his own authority."
Yes. And then he follows with that, "But you shall receive power when Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem." And like in my head, I almost feel like he's saying not just Jerusalem, but also Judea and Samaria, but not just Judea and Samaria, but to all the earth. To the ends.
Yes. To the end of the earth.
Um, actually, it doesn't say ends. It says to the end of the earth, which to me even like speaks differently of he's not just talking about a geological thing. He's saying a time thing. All the way to the point of when this earth is done with and the new earth is created.
Come on. All the way to the end of the earth. Not ends, but the end of this earth.
Wow. Right. Yeah.
And and then you have of course these these what we could probably assume to be angels appearing and just being like, "Guys, what are you doing?" Like [laughter] he gave you he gave you everything you need. Like you know what you need to do. go and wait for the Holy Spirit to empower you and then once you're empowered, go. And to me, I just I think about we can be as people, we can so want to wait for the perfect timing for things. Well, I'll step into doing this when I'll step into doing that. Well, I'm waiting I I'm just waiting to feel led.
You know that that term. And uh I'm sure we've all heard this phrasing before, but if you're waiting to feel led, I would encourage you to go to your nearest Walmart or sports center. Go into the fishing section. Uh and then grab one. Go into where the waiters are, the the lead waiters. Grab one of those things. And now you felt led. [laughter] And now go and do what Christ has commanded.
And keep that in your if you need to keep that in your pocket. You might want to wash your hands a little bit afterwards, too. But but I in all say I say that tongue in cheek, but in all seriousness, Jesus is saying right here, listen, it's not always it's not time for you to always know the time and the seasons and when you're supposed to know what's happening. But I've given you I've guided you. I've instructed you enough. I've shown you enough if you're unsure what to do as a Christian and we've all been Christians for the s like we've all been born again at some point in time. So it's not like everyone's been born with the full knowledge of what we're supposed to do. Even Jesus, it says in Luke had to grow in knowledge and understanding.
252 Luke 22.
Luke 252. In Luke 252, it says Jesus grew in knowledge and favor. with man and God. That means Jesus himself had to learn what his responsibilities were, what he needed to do. If he had to do the same, we have to do the same. But we have this wonderful, wonderful benefit of having a scripture of having the Bible in this day and age accessible to all of us. Um, if you don't have a Bible, maybe go to your closest hotel, see if they have one stashed away. I know some of them don't do that anymore, but hey, send us a message and we'll get you a Bible.
Yeah, send us a message. Um, and and read through what the gospels show Jesus doing. Read through what you see Jesus because he g he makes it very very clear. This is what I want you to do. Just this is in John 15. Just as I have loved you and the father has loved me. Now go and love amen one another. go into all the earth and love others. Even [clears throat and cough] to the point of, well, I have I have people that have done horrible things against me. That's fine. Jesus gives this wonderful parable of the good Samaritan. And for those of you that don't know, Jewish people at the time and Samaritan people at the time were at odds with each other. They hated each other. They were literally enemies of one another. And Jesus gives this parable of a good Samaritan, a Samaritan person, not just an idea of a person, but a a group of people going and helping a Jew, someone that's supposed to be their enemy, and helping them to the point of not only bandaging their wounds, but making sure they received all the care that they needed to go forward in life, to be able to survive, to continue living when their own people weren't even willing to stop for them and help them. I mean that that alone is an act of Christ. It's an act of love. Um but on top of that, we we even have the benefit of you have the Holy Spirit dwelling in bodily. Uh in Colossians, uh the the writer of Colossians, I believe, is is Paul, he tells us that we have the full Godhead dwelling inside of us because the Holy Spirit dwells in us. We have the full Godhead dwelling inside of us. And so we lack nothing to be able to go forward. It's more of that not that we lack the power, we just lack the understanding. We lack the the the knowing of our own identity that we are called to go and preach the good news to let people know, hey, there is a savior. This is what he's done for me. And he wants to do far more for you.
Come on. but not to be content sitting and waiting for the perfect season to come. You don't need to sit and wait if you're at if you're at a workplace. Then you don't have to be the annoying Christian at workplace, but you can be you can be the Holy Spirit guided and led who is a person that looks different from the from the rest. When everyone else is cutting up and and tearing others down, you can be the one that actually speaks positive things about the person.
Yeah. Instead of jumping on the bandwagon of uh dishing on the on the boss and everything like that, not in a suckup way, but in a genuine way being like, "Yeah, but also he's they're really good at this." And you know what? Not only is he good at this, you you guys are good at this, too. You You're excellent at getting these things organized. You're excellent at explaining these and changing the whole atmosphere of where you're at to to build up and encourage those that are near you.
Yeah. You know, um I worked in a distribution center um quite a few years ago now. It seems like yesterday. But you know, we don't have to go and preach to everybody. We don't have to go and look like the Jesus freak. We we need to start representing the glory of the Lord and we need to start letting him shine. And you know, this is this is one of the most amazing things. I I knew I had a reading issue and I had problems with my numbers getting backwards. Well, I got called into the office. We were we were doing inventory and they did a trial run and and so they called me into the office to um tell me that I got my numbers backwards on my inventory and I had the row wrong. And so it's dyslexia all day, you know, and it's like in front of my face. And so when I got back to the doc, the guy is like, "Hey, what did they call you in the office for?" And I said, "Oh, I got my numbers backwards." He said, "Oh, you do that all the time." I'm like, "Why didn't you tell me?" He said, "I love working with you." He said, "We get to talk about God all the time." He said, you know, and so he's will he's a receiver and he he's quot he has quota and he's, you know, they're rigid and and so he could lose his job if his count is off and they're they're relying on this this to be important. And so the awesome thing about this is is he was willing to take the chance on missing a number that I got wrong and not miss out on the moment that God had. Like that's what we get to do. That's favor with man. I would go out on the docks and I would pray on these trucks and I would pray for God to invade people's lives that touch these trucks everywhere they go. They claim territory. Be creative and watch God start to show up and give you opportunities where you work. Don't just look to go preach to him. Look to go to ask God, who are you highlighting and how can I represent you today? Like that's man, it's it's going to start getting really real. And it's not about you looking like a Jesus freak. It's about you shining the glory that people want. and they're gonna like, "I want to know this God," you know, "Can you tell me more about him?" You're going to start getting dreams. You're going to start having visions. You're going to start encountering God at in your job, in the grocery store. It's about ready to be game on because Jesus said, "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel, heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead, and set liberty to the captives." And it's about ready to get real in your life. and you can sit back and wait for the promise and go in his power or you can have the fire insurance and hope that someday he's going to want you. But if you don't want him here today, why do you expect him to want you there?
Yeah. It's game on. [laughter] I'm excited. I you know verse eight it should be your everyday message it says but you will receive the power of the Holy Spirit when it comes upon you and it's and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem he's not separate he he says you will be my messengers because we are the ears and the voice for the people who don't know who Jesus is we are his messengers. We are his witnesses to show the world who he is.
And and it and you know will in their choice. You will receive the power and you will be my witness. It's not separating the ones who we are. So we go ahead and share it.
We can if we want. Okay.
I don't know if we want to take that time right now, but um we'll go back to the question um about how to have the vision of Christ. It says there's a question uh what should be my vision if God of God if I'm an atheist and we can if you can hang in we we will help you with that because we can show you through a scripture that God will show you exactly who he is and it's not about us leading you somewhere. We literally can show you actually I'll just tell you right now so that you don't miss it. Um, go and read Revelation 4 and actually allow your Bible to read it to you on your phone or your computer. Read Revelation 4 and allow your imagination to visualize what the scripture looks like. And it really depicts who the father is. And if you read Revelation one, it really depicts who Jesus is. And we need Jesus in our hearts so that we can reflect Jesus. And and he says in John 17 that we become one with Jesus as he's one with the father. You know, in the moment when you're when you're allowing Revelation 4 to just worship over your mind and just touch your heart, ask the father if you can sit on his lap. Let him love on you. Like this is just a simple simple gospel. We make it so hard and complicated and people think that you got to go to this, you know, theology school. And I'm not taking away from what people do, but we need to simplify it for people that don't have that education and help them to understand that you can see him in the scripture and you can visualize him and you can talk to him and ask him asking real questions like I was a a Christian atheist, you know, I was a Christian for 18 years and I I I didn't know the God that I served. And that's even worse yet, you know. So, it's okay where you are. And I really believe that, you know, I'm just going to pray right now. Father God, I thank you for this amazing person who is acknowledging that they're an atheist. And and I love you for acknowledging it. I feel the presence of God right now. And I thank you, Father God, for bringing yourself and making yourself real to our friend. And and I thank you, Father God, that you would give is it a woman? You don't know. I thank you for giving this amazing son or daughter a vision. I feel like it's a woman. I'm not sure. But I feel like God is about to encounter you in a way that you're going to see him. Not just read about him, but encounter him. So God, I thank you in their dream tonight that you would give them a dream of the real Jesus. and they when they wake up in the morning, they have a greater understanding of who you are in their heart and how much you love them, God.
Oh, it's a journey. So I I really want to challenge you that would you contact um either the wide men's or um you know or radical Christianity whoever you at the table ministries you know and allow someone to to help you walk this out, you know, and it's awesome to have questions. We're not here to sell Jesus. We're here to let him sell himself.
Amen.
Amen.
Wow. I feel the presence.
All right.
Yes.
I thought I was going to cry on that.
I'm not convinced I'm not.
No, you can cry. We will carry on.
Yeah. While you soak in that spirit, give me a tissue countering you.