The Spirit: Sent to Sanctify the Nations

Classes of 15 have about 460 some graduates on the field. Radius is a training school. It is not a sending agency, but sending agencies come down to Radius and recruit from us. We're going to have an event tomorrow night along with Greenville, where we're going to talk about the synergy between the two institutions, but also why training matters. We notice intuitively that your better trained soldiers, your better trained pilots, your better trained doctors always do a better job. And somehow, in the world of Christianity, in the missions world, it's the excitable people that end up going to the mission field, and typically the excitable people are not very well trained. So, Radius a few years ago started Missionary as our resourcing arm to speak to church pastors and to speak to the things that are happening on this side of the ocean, but Radius is the training arm for what happens on that side of the ocean.

So Chad and I worked together on Missionary for quite a while. Yeah,

Missionary is, if you will, an inspirational educational side of Radius International. Missionary exists so that we can educate the church and help the church prepare to send well, to create a culture of mission through the church, and then to send people faithfully, not only as they leave your church, but even as you care for them while they're on the field. And so we're hoping between these two ministries, which really are under the one umbrella of Radius, to both help prepare those who are sending, and to help prepare you to send them well. So one of the things in your gift bag, in

your little goodie bag or gift bag, I'm not really sure what you call that, you have this little stand, and then you've got this little card that is kind of a new series that Chad and I have done some videos on. There's five videos. They're mercifully short videos, so don't be intimidated. These aren't two-hour monologues on how to build a missions program. They're much shorter, but they begin with own the mission, and then two, steward the means, three, build the house, four, commit to the culture, and then five, labor together. And so this little stand is meant for you to put on your desk so that you don't leave it in your hotel room. There's a URL on the back of this, missionary.com, every language. So missionary.com is where all of these resources are housed.

This is really the initiative we're putting forward for the church on how to send well, and not just, as I mentioned in the opening comments, not just send to everywhere. Again, there are churches, by God's grace, in every major language. We shouldn't call them an unreached language group, but we can call them a poorly reached language group. But what about those places? What about those languages where the gospel and the church have yet to go? So this is our real attempt at trying to help churches, because we believe the flow of missions is not dictated by the sending agencies. It's dictated by the church, and if the church is to catch a vision for going, that's what will change missions [unclear].

Yeah, just briefly, I want to emphasize missionary.com. Missionary.org, that's the Mormon, that's not us. Missionary.com. Secondly, I wanted to say that as we're helping the church send, we have a book. Brooks and I have written this book. The only thing that comes out of our experiences with our own churches is sending. Brooks as a missionary myself as a pastor, but we come from churches where we have members, who make us look good, because they're so committed to sending well. And a lot of what we put together comes out of those churches, but it's called "Send and Survive." And it's really synced up with these short videos, each chapter is. The chapters in here help your church understand that it is a missionary society. You are the sending agency. You are a lampstand that exists to give off the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ to the ends of the earth.

So we want to help you do that well. There's also in the slide up here, in this book, a QR code that takes you to a number of resources, like sample missions policies, or how to, you know, sort of vet people for the field, et cetera, that we hope will help you as your church creates your own. But this should also be in your bag as well, this book, and so we want you to have that resource. And we're

hopeful that's going to be helpful to you. Friends, if you go to RadiusInternational.org, that's not the Mormons, that's us. But Missionary.com, those are your two URLs where you're going to get all of these resources, and you're going to get to know these two institutions that are working together for this week. And so that's really our hope, is that some of these things trickle out to your churches for the next coming years and toward the end of the year. So thank you guys for being here. We hope it's a help to

you. Well, good morning, friends. And again, welcome to the 2026 Missionary Conference. We are so excited that you are here with us. Thankful that you're here. And my name is Jason Faber. I am a pastor from Sovereign Grace Church in Bakersfield, California, a church that's very involved with missions. And it's my privilege to serve as your emcee for the conference. And where I want to begin is you know that a conference like this doesn't happen without a slew of volunteers. We have over 100 volunteers from all across the country. Someone actually told me there were like 600. To serve in this way.

And also our friends from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary have helped us out. And so I just want to give them a round of applause. To serve you. And they're easily identified. They're going to be wearing a shirt like this. So look for those shirts. And also look for these gray lanyards that they will be wearing. And whatever you need, they will be able to help you out. So keep an eye out for that. Now another thing I want to help you with.

Is to get you oriented to this beautiful campus. Because it's sprawling, isn't it? And also the conference schedule. And the best way that I know to help you do that. Is to encourage you to download the Missionary app on your phone. You can simply go to the app store. Type in Missionary. It's going to be right at the top. And you can download that. And that's going to give you a schedule. That's going to give you a list of the exhibitors that we have here. And it's also going to provide you with a map. And so I can't encourage you enough to download that. What that's also going to allow you to do. Which you need to do. Is to register for the breakout sessions that we have. There are various tracks. And you need to register for those.

And what it will also show you is where those breakouts are located. Because we have three different locations here on campus for those breakout sessions. First of all. If you're going to be following the doctrinal breakouts. Then those are going to be held here in the MacGorman Chapel. The practical issues breakouts are going to be held at the Riley Center. Which is the overflow room in the Riley Center.

And then the women's breakouts. Which again. I'm from California. So we need to make these kind of distinctions. They're for the women only. Only women can go to those. Now ladies. That doesn't mean that you have to go to the women's track. You can go to the other breakouts if you want to. But men. You are excluded. And those are going to be held in the Truett Auditorium. Now ladies. I need to apologize to you. Because that track over there is quite far. And I know the weather out there isn't the best. And the scenery as you take that hike is not the prettiest.

But here's what I can assure you. Inside that auditorium is beautiful. And more importantly. I have every confidence that those breakout sessions will be very lovely. And nothing but a delight to you. So again. Between the app and the signs. And remember look out for the volunteers. They'll guide you to your destination. So that you can get where you need to go. Another thing I want to point out. Is that in the tote bag that you receive when you register. There are two very helpful resources in there.

That our sponsors have kindly given to you. First of all. From our friends at 9Marks. We have Persecution and Missions by Matt Rhodes. Thank you brother. And second of all. You have a booklet from our friends at The Master's Academy International. How to build a biblical missions program.

And so you're getting both of those free. You have them both free. They're very helpful resources. So I encourage you not just to receive them. But to actually read them and meditate on them. Because they will help you and your church. Another important item.

Have you noticed anybody around wearing a red lanyard? Have you noticed those red lanyards? Well we need to pay special attention to those folks. Because what those red lanyards are communicating to you. Is that these are field workers. In restricted access countries. And you say. Why do I need to be aware about that? I know that we're a culture that likes to take pictures. So take pictures. We encourage you to. But do not take a picture of a person with those red lanyards. Because if those photos fall in the wrong hands. And they have to leave that country. I think we'd all be devastated by that. So look out for those red lanyards. Also I'm sure you're all wondering. Because we're getting closer to that time. What are our lunch options? Okay you guys are interested in that.

We have quite a few this year. First of all. We have a meal plan available. If you signed up ahead of time. You know who you are. You have those brown wristbands. That lunch will be served in the tent. Second of all. We have several food trucks that are going to be on the campus. And so if you want to get a quick bite. Really conveniently. Those are there for you. And thirdly. We've also made the lunch and dinner breaks a little bit longer. So that if you want to go off campus. And get something to eat. You have plenty of time to get that. So maybe you can go get some of that famed Texas barbecue. Right? I've had quite a bit since I've been here. And I highly recommend it. Lastly. I don't know if you've noticed.

But Matt Boswell is using the voice. The human instrument that he's given us to praise him. So you'll notice that at times the music drops. And we can just hear each other singing. Brothers and sisters. That's a glorious thing. So let's do that now. Let's stand together. And join our voices in praise of our glorious God.

As we sing before the throne of

I want to introduce, commend to you, a speaker. Chad Vegas is pastor of Sovereign Grace Church of Bakersfield, California. And I want to commend him to you for... For three reasons. First of all, in his role as pastor at Sovereign Grace, Chad has modeled, for many of us, pastoral leadership in the area of missions. You heard him speak earlier about his involvement with Radius International, an institution that he helped found. And he's done all kinds of work like that, entrepreneurial work for the kingdom.

In that sense, it's provided a model for us. Secondly, I would say this. Chad should... He should be commended to you because of his careful attention to the scriptures. You don't have to spend long with him to realize that this is a man who loves the word of God, who submits his mind to the teaching of scripture.

And then lastly, I would say this. I have had the privilege, and it is a privilege, to have known Chad, to be his friend, to be able to have the kinds of conversations that friends have with one another. Christian friends.

And I can testify to you of his personal godliness, of his love for Christ, his desire to be as useful as he can be for Christ's service. So I would commend Chad Vegas to you and urge you to give attention to his words.

Jonathan. That was certainly kinder than I deserve. If you will, turn with me to John chapter 15. John chapter 15. We will begin by looking really at verses 15 or chapter 15:26 and 27 together as we consider the mission of the Holy Spirit to sanctify the nations.

John chapter 15 and verse 26. But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning.

This is the word of the Lord. Let us go to him for his help in understanding it. Father, we do come recognizing that the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of you, our God. Thank you. And we recognize that we need the head of the church, our Lord Jesus, to speak to us as his sheep. We need to hear his voice as he speaks in his word by the Spirit and through his minister. And I pray that your Spirit would be powerfully at work in our hearts and minds so that we hear Christ.

Guard my mouth from error and our ears from error and help us to revel in the privilege of hearing our Lord Jesus speak in his word and by the Spirit. Pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. If you look at the text in verse 26, you get this word that begins, but. But when the Helper comes. And the reason that contrast is there is you're being pointed back to what has just preceded it. And what has just immediately preceded it is Jesus speaking about how the world has hated him, and so the world will hate his disciples also.

In fact, in this entire section of the scriptures, really starting in chapter 13, but coming into chapter 14 when he begins to speak about the Holy Spirit and all the way through chapter 16, we hear Jesus preparing his disciples for his departure. He is going to go to the cross. He will then be resurrected and ascend to the right hand of the Father. And he's preparing his disciples for his absence, and he's preparing them for the trouble that they will face in this world.

And I give you that context as we talk about the mission of the Holy Spirit, in large part because I want you to hear that context, because that context is the context of this text, but also because as I was preparing to talk about the mission of the Holy Spirit, the one thing that was probably most on my mind and my heart are people who I can't name now, in places that I won't name now. Who I know are listening to us.

They're listening to these or watching these live stream. These are people who are missionaries from my own church in difficult parts of the earth. And as I was studying this, I kept being overwhelmed in prayer for them, knowing they would be hearing this and wanting them to be greatly encouraged. They are in places that are very difficult to live.

I often hear from them when I hear from them. It's often in tears as they struggle with the stresses upon their marriage, fears about their children. Will they become bitter or will they love the Lord Jesus? Will they thank God that their parents were sent to do this or will they be angry about it?

Fears about their ability to learn language. Will I ever get there so that I can clearly articulate this gospel? Fears about government opposition, opposition from the people, concerns about their own inability to teach and preach? Well, wondering, will this people who are so hardened in sin and idolatry, and in this case, Islam, and Islam really mixed with animism, will they have ears to hear and eyes to see? Or will I spend myself and see no fruit? I know that all of these anxieties are continually upon them.

And then they face the opposition. of the world and the flesh and the devil. And so I hope you'll indulge me as I'm concerned for you to hear this message. But man, are they on my heart as I think of what they've gone to do and how I hope they're deeply encouraged.

So here's what I want to do as we come at this text. I want to come at this text really under three headings. First, I want to consider the mission of the Holy Spirit as revealing his person. The mission of the Holy Spirit really reveals who he is. And we'll see that in the first part of verse 26. Second, that the mission of the Holy Spirit is to bear witness to Christ in us.

He is the one who comes to bear witness to the Son of God, our incarnate Messiah, to us, or in us, really. And we'll see that in the last phrase in verse 26. And then finally, the mission of the Holy Spirit is to bear witness to the nations through us. So he is come to bear witness to Christ to the nations through us. And we'll see that in verse 27. And then I'll jump over to Acts.

But let's start with that first point. The mission of the Holy Spirit reveals his person. So look there with me in verse 26. But when the helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, he is sent from the Father. I don't want to run right over that word, because when we talk about mission or missions, we're really driving back to this sending. That verb sending in Latin is that word from which we get mission.

So the mission of the Holy Spirit is mentioned right here in the sending of the Holy Spirit, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father. He will bear witness about me.

So when we talk about the mission of the Holy Spirit or tomorrow when Kevin DeYoung speaks about the mission of the Son, and really they ought to be in opposite orders but we have order, but we had to be shifted due to Kevin's schedule.

When we talk about the mission of the Holy Spirit or the mission of the Son, what we are talking about is the work that the Father sent the Son to do to redeem us. As he took human nature to himself, walked among us, taught, did miracles, suffered, died on the cross in our place, rose from the dead for us, and ascended to heaven. He ascended to the right hand of the Father from where he poured out the Holy Spirit in his mission. He was sent, and he is sent to sanctify us or to apply the work of the Son to us.

These missions reveal the persons in God. So missions reveal processions or God as our triune God. So it is in the mission of the Son that we learn of the Father and his unbegottenness, and we learn of the eternal begottenness of the Son. And it is the mission of the Holy Spirit and his mission that we learn of his eternal procession from the Father and the Son. So we get this clear revelation of our triune God in the historical missions of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Now we had some notion of plurality in God in the Old Testament adumbration or the Old Testament foreshadowing that we read about. So we read, for example, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. But then in verse 2 we read that the Holy Spirit hovered over the surface of the deep. And in verse 26, I'm talking about Genesis 1 if you're not aware, in verse 26 we hear that let us make man in our image. And so we begin to see pictures, little foreshadowing, tastes of the fact that we have one God, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God. The Lord is one, Deuteronomy 6, 4. But we also hear that there is some sort of plurality in him. We're not entirely sure what that all is because it's a kind of foreshadowing.

B.B. Warfield compared it to the idea that in the Old Testament you have, if you will, like this well-furnished room, but the lights are dim. And so when Christ comes and when the Holy Spirit is poured out, the light in the room is turned on. And it's not that the furnishings changed, it's just that now they're fully illumined. So it's not that God became triune in the mission of the Son and the Holy Spirit. He's always been our one triune God. But we see it clearly. His person is revealed to us. And notice something about that. But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father. Pay attention to that word, from.

Slow down on a preposition. From the Father, the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father. That from-ness that we speak about when we speak about the Holy Spirit. There's a kind of from-ness. And what do I mean by that? It's not even really a word.

But he's from the Father and the Son. And the analogy that is given in Scripture for this right off the bat, a biblical analogy, and I want to be careful about analogies because analogies are somehow us, by the superintendents of the Holy Spirit, trying to grab hold of the truth about the Creator in creaturely language. And so while what we know is true about God, it is in no way, shape, or form comprehensive about the knowledge of God. We are just getting a hold of the hem of his garment.

And so we hear this analogy right out of the gate in Genesis 1. As I said, Genesis 1 begins, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And then it goes on in verse 2 to say, "And the earth was formless and void. It was if you will uninhabitable and uninhabited." And the spirit hovered over the face of the darkness. The spirit of God hovered there. Now we get this language, this language of ruach, which is breath. This is the analogy that's given, breath. Now, what's that about? Well, think about this fromness in relation to the analogy of breath. Whenever you have a thought, you put that thought to a word. Well, at least if you're me, you do. And that sometimes can be unfortunate. But by analogy, we're speaking of God who never has a bad thought.

You ever think about that? God doesn't brainstorm and then go, dumb idea, dumb idea, dumb idea, good one. That doesn't happen. He has a thought that's put to a word, and that word is carried forth by breath. So when you speak, if you put your hand in front of your mouth when you speak, you can feel your breath. It's carrying forth that word. So breath, if you will, has a kind of executive function. And so when we talk about the Holy Spirit, he has this sort of executive function. What do I mean by that?

Well, in Genesis 1-2, the point is not, when it says, the point is not, formless and void means that somehow something has gone wrong in God's creation. The point is that you're being told about the beginning of God's creation, which is about to be completed, brought to perfection, brought to fruition. And so you see three days of forming, and three days of filling, and then you hear that God finished all his work, and then the Lord rests and sets apart the seventh day as holy. And the Holy Spirit is the person in God who's eminently attributed with this idea of perfecting or completing or bringing to fulfillment or fruition what God is doing. All the works of God are the works of the one undivided triune God, but they each have works that are eminently attributed to them.

And so the Holy Spirit is perfecting what God is creating, bringing it to its completion. So the creation is from the Father and through the Son and in the Holy Spirit. And we see, even we come to Genesis chapter 2 and verse 7 as God forms Adam from the dust of the earth, and then he breathes life into him. Again, that reference to the Spirit of God who gives life to Adam.

And so he has this role, if you will, of executing what God is doing in the sense that he is bringing it to fruition, bringing about life. And I said just a second ago that it's from the Father through the Son and in the Spirit. The Spirit is involved in the creative work of God. He's also involved in providence or the upholding of all things. And he's involved in new creation. So look with me in the context in John chapter 1.

John chapter 1 and verse 1. In the beginning was the Word. Now you hear the allusion to Genesis 1 there. In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. Now we know in verse 14 that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. This is speaking about the One who is the Son of God. All things were made through Him.

And without Him was not anything made that was made. So all things are from the Father and through the Son. Now I'm not going to get into that too much because Kevin's whole message tomorrow is on the mission of the Son.

The Son in His life and ministry is empowered by the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit hovers over the womb of Mary. The Holy Spirit anoints Him at His baptism. He is the One who has the Spirit without measure and gives the Spirit without measure.

And when we come to John chapter 20, now remember this creation and new creation, go to John chapter 20 and Jesus in the upper room with the disciples upon His resurrection. And verse 21, Jesus said to them again, Peace be with you.

As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you. And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. You see the Holy Spirit breathes upon the first Adam to give Him life. The Holy Spirit brings to fruition God's created design in Genesis 1 and 2 and the Holy Spirit who empowers the Son in whom we have new creation. That Holy Spirit is then breathed by the Son upon His disciples.

And what we need to understand is He is not only the Spirit who is bringing to fruition the old creation, He is the Spirit who is bringing to fruition the new creation. So that if anyone is in Christ, new creation.

This is speaking about the Spirit as the breath of God. Now you might say at this point, here's my struggle. How do I as I'm thinking about all of this, distinguish the Father from the Son and from the Holy Spirit? I mean when I think about any of the one of the three I begin to think about the one and when I think about the one I begin to think about the three and so I think maybe you've not been helpful enough to which I want to say if that's where you are, you're not confused. We're getting it.

Gregory of Nazianzus and his oratio on baptism says that very thing. Let me get to the second point. The mission of the Holy Spirit is to bear witness to Christ. So look back at John 15 and verse 26. That last phrase He, the helper, the advocate, the Spirit of Truth He will bear witness about me.

He will bear witness about me. See the Holy Spirit, the mission of the Holy Spirit is to bear witness to Christ in us. He will bear witness about me. Now notice that first phrase when I said to bear witness to Christ. He will bear witness about me.

Now He's called the advocate in John 14. He's called another advocate another of the same kind of advocate. Jesus is also called the advocate the helper, the paraclete with the Father and He is the Spirit of Truth. He will lead them into all truth concerning Jesus. He will reveal the truth about Jesus to them. He'll take what is Jesus' and make sure that they know it.

His testimony is to bear witness to Christ. And so in that sense, maybe I'll take you another step from the from-ness and the idea of the breath to this sense of deflection. The Holy Spirit's ministry of deflection. That sounds strange.

Pardon my sort of rough analogy, but you might think of the Holy Spirit like the guy in the room who's always changing the subject. Now please don't think of him as the guy in the room. It's an analogy.

Just get what I'm getting at here. Always changing the subject. What do I mean by that? Well you come to the Spirit and you say, I want to know you. Tell me about you. And here's his answer. Can you believe that the eternal Son of God through whom God created all things can you believe that He became a creature?

He took human nature to Himself. That the law giver placed Himself under the law. That He walked among you. That the one who is holy became sin for you. Can you believe that the blessed one became the curse?

That the one who is the author of life died for you? What's more, that He rose for your justification. That His vindication before the principalities and powers is your vindication. That He ascended to heaven where He ever rules and reigns for you. And that He's constantly interceding for you. And that you were tethered to Him there. You're anchored in Christ. That eternity is yours. Can you believe that?

Yeah, but I asked about you. Tell me about you. Can you even grasp hold of the fact that the Father loves you and He gave His only begotten Son for you? You're a rebellious sinful creature. There was nothing in you that elicited that from Him.

He's love. And He sent His Son to save you. He didn't send His Son so that He could love you. He sent His Son because He loves you. And that He's not reluctant to save you. It's not like, okay, as long as you get into the blood of Jesus, I'll go ahead and call you my own.

It's that He went looking for you. And when He saw you coming, He ran to you and threw His arms around you and kissed your neck and rejoiced in you. Can you believe that about the Father? Say, well, still I asked about you.

And friends, it's precisely in that deflection, in His joy in revealing the Son to you, so that in seeing the Son, you also see the Father who loved you. It's precisely there that you do get to know Him.

I said He's not only bearing witness to Christ, but He's bearing witness to Christ in us. So let me give you another analogy. Another analogy, and it's from Paul, 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Look there. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 10.

These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. Now listen to the analogy for this, as we're going to get to in verse 11, but listen. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God, or the deep things of God. For who knows a person's thoughts, here's the analogy, who knows a man's thoughts, except the Spirit of that man, or that person, which is in him. So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

Here's what I'm getting at here as I'm pointing out what Paul says. Paul's giving you an analogy in which he says you cannot know the heart of God, you cannot know the deep things of God, apart from the Spirit of God, just like no one can know your thoughts apart from you telling them.

Because you can't know the thoughts in a man. Your Spirit knows your thoughts in you. You know them, but other people don't know them. You don't know God in the way that he's speaking of here apart from the Spirit of God.

He's actually just coming into this after making a comment that's interesting that reflects back to Luke and the crucifixion of Christ. If you remember when Jesus died on the cross, one of his cries from the cross is, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

Now you hear that phrase, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do, and you think, what exactly does Jesus mean? They know not what they do. They knew his claims to be the Messiah. They knew about his teachings. They knew about his miracles.

They knew that they were murdering an innocent man. So what does he mean they know not what they do? And his point is not that they are not morally culpable because somehow they're ignorant of the sin they're committing.

His point is they don't really see Jesus as he is. They don't really know him. The kind of knowing that they need is only spiritually discerned. They don't have eyes that see or ears that hear or hearts that believe. They are spiritually dead. In fact, Paul, look at 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 8, just says that very thing. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

Listen, it's one thing for me to rehearse the history of what Christ did in his life and death and resurrection and what he did for sinners. It's another thing for you to hear that and say, not only did he give himself for sinners, but he gave himself for me.

Not only does he forgive sins, but he's forgiven my sin. Not only does he declare men righteous, clothing them with Christ's righteousness, but he's declared me righteous. I'm his own. He loves not only the world, he loves me.

Romans 5.5, the Holy Spirit sheds abroad in our hearts the love of God. That's God's love to you. We love because God first loved us. The Holy Spirit gives you eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts to believe. He testifies to Christ not only through the minister in making him publicly known in the preaching of the word, but he testifies to Christ in your heart so that when the minister speaks and the spirit takes his words and drives them into your heart, you're no longer hearing that man.

You're hearing the Lord Jesus himself call his sheep. You're hearing his voice as he speaks to you by the spirit and through this word. He does that work. And I want to remind those of you who are in the field or going into the field, not that this merely applies to you, but I particularly have you in mind.

When you face those lonely nights apart from your family and your friends and your church and you any number of difficulties and anxieties and you face that dark night of the soul and you lay there in bed and your eyes cannot close and sleep and you begin to wonder, has God forgotten to be gracious?

Has he shut up his compassion against me? Is his steadfast love forever at an end? Where is he? And you begin to cry out to him. I want to remind you that Paul tells us in Romans 8.26, the spirit is in you.

And he's taking those things in that moment when you aren't able to do anything but just, ah. And he's taking those inarticulate groans and he's bringing the prayers that you need before the ears of the Father. Saints, this is the point that Jesus is trying to make to the apostles, not merely that he'll send them out on mission. He will. We'll get to that in a moment. But he wants them to understand, I will never leave you as orphans.

The spirit will come and the Father and I will dwell in your hearts. Let me turn to the third point then. The mission of the Holy Spirit is to bear witness to the nations through us, to the nations through us. So look at John 15 verse 27, and you also will bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning.

Now, listen. We know if we know anything about context that the original audience here is not you and me. It's not the you in the pew. It's the you he's talking to. And the you he's talking to are the apostles. They were the ones who were with him from the beginning of his ministry.

And they are the ones who in this text he's speaking of that will bear witness. They are the ones who will pass down to us the apostolic doctrine, and the Holy Spirit has been given to them to that end that they preach Christ, and so we need to understand that as we begin, that he's going to, yes, proclaim the gospel to the nations through us, but the us first is the apostles.

The apostles, they are the foundation of the church of which Christ Jesus is the cornerstone, Ephesians 2 20, and they have, if you will, passed the baton to the church so that the Holy Spirit is not only going to empower the apostles, though he will first and uniquely empower them, but he's also going to empower those who come to faith in Christ through their word. So that we see, for example, not only the apostles, but arguably the whole hundred and twenty empowered by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. We see not only the apostles, but the church that's gathered in Acts 4 31, who are empowered by the Holy Spirit and begin to speak the word with boldness. We see not only Paul, but even as Paul speaks to Timothy, he says, guard the good deposit by the Holy Spirit.

So it's not merely the apostles who are empowered by the Holy Spirit, though it is first them, and uniquely them, in the sense that they are the apostles, and they've passed it down to us. So let's look briefly at that, the apostles, and get to what they were told. Acts chapter 1 and verse 8, if you will.

Acts chapter 1 and verse 8. They've asked Jesus during the 40 days after his resurrection and before his ascension about the restoration of the kingdom to Israel. He has been teaching them about the kingdom of God and about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which is, all of this is wrapped up together, and I don't have time to get into all of it.

But at one point, we are all familiar with this, he says in verse 8, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and all Judea, and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

Now listen, this is not, first and foremost, a kind of missions paradigm, where your home church is Jerusalem, and then the towns around you is all Judea, and then Samaria is that sort of janky town 10 miles out, and then, you know, California is the ends of the earth, right?

That is not what's happening here. Sometimes, as a resident of California, we feel like we're at the ends of the earth, but that's not what's happening here. Jerusalem is a historic city that the apostles, in fact, were Christ's witnesses in, and they were also in all Judea, and Samaria, Acts 8, and the ends of the earth as we go through the whole book of Acts. This is talking about, as a prophecy, what, in fact, the apostles will do, where they will be his witnesses in power. They will bear witness to him in power. Those places, and they, in fact, did that, but I want you to notice what it says. You'll receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. Now, earlier, I talked about the breath of God, and I didn't talk about the power of God when I did, but think of the power of the Holy Spirit who's coming upon them.

He is the one who orders and perfects, brings to completion God's creation. He is the one who is breathed. out to give life to Adam. He is the one who parts the flood and causes the floodwaters to recede, Genesis 8, 1, so that the dry ground appears. He is the one who parts the Red Sea, Exodus 14, 21, so that he can save God's people and damn his enemies.

He is the one who is called upon to breathe life on the valley of dry bones, to give life to the dead. He's the one who resurrects the Lord Jesus by his power, Romans 1, 4. This is the power we're talking about.

It's the power of God working in these apostles and from them in us and through us as we bear witness. If I didn't believe that, I would never walk up and open a Bible and teach anyone anything, because my words, from the moment they come out of my mouth, would fall to the ground.