Our name | Mission | Vision | Leaders Ministries | Schedule | Directions | Contact Home   Gateway Church gathers for worship Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Location: 6425 Jefferson Rd. (Hwy. 129) in Athens, Georgia. For directions, click here. Ministry of the Word: Recent sermons Our quarterly e-magazine Gateway Today For the Gateway family Pastor Jerry's Weekly E-Mail A GATEWAY SERMON SUMMARY AUDIO Jesus' last words (Ascension Sunday) Jerry Varnado, pastor Gateway Church, Athens GA May 28, 2006 Main Scripture text: Acts 1:1-11 Today's text contains the last words Jesus spoke to His disciples before returning to heaven. His departure time had arrived, and He reminded them of key things He had taught them earlier -- things critical to accomplishing the mission assigned to them. These words are for all who follow Christ. The essence of what He said can be summed up in four key words: wait, receive, power, and witness. 1) Wait. These men had been with Jesus for three years. They were baptized, born-again believers. They had been told to make disciples of all nations. But still Jesus said, "Wait" -- because something more was needed before undertaking their mission. 2) Receive. For a gift to do us any good, we must receive it and put it to use. This is why Jesus taught so strongly on humility. Pride works against what God desires to give us. We must humbly receive from Him. 3) Power. The specific thing the disciples needed -- and we need, too -- is to receive is the power that accompanies the baptism with the Holy Spirit. This is not the same thing described in John 20:22, when Jesus said, "Receive the Holy Spirit." In Acts 1, Jesus is talking not about a power that sanctifies and sustains us. He is talking about a power that propels into Kingdom ministry. 4) Witness. This "going" power of the Holy Spirit enables us to be witnesses for Jesus. A witness is one who gives testimony based on his or her personal knowledge and experience. We are to witness in both word and deed. Our walk must match our talk -- but, just as importantly, we must "name the name of Jesus" for our witness to be clearly Christian. Wait, receive, power, witness. These are key words to understanding what Pentecost is all about. More about that next week -- on Pentecost Sunday. Supporting texts: John 7:37-39 | John 16:6-7 | Matthew 18:4 | Mark 10:15 (also Luke 18:17) | John 14:16-17 | John 20:22 | Luke 11:13 | Acts 4:20 | 1 John 1:1 | Romans 10:17 A mp3 audio file of this sermon is here (35 min.). (Download to a PC by right clicking on the link and choosing "Save Target As." Mac users: click, hold, and choose "Download Link to Disk." Depending on your connection speed, the file may take several minutes to download.) An audio tape of the sermon summarized above is available free of charge (U.S. requests only). Request a tape by calling or writing the Gateway Church office. Please specify tape number 060528a: Jesus' Last Words. © 2006 Gerald R. Varnado To the Gateway Church home page How to contact us