People Who Were Not There

The preacher begins by reading Luke 24:45‑53, emphasizing that the Great Commission was first given in Jerusalem and that the disciples were to wait for the promised power of the Father. He then moves to 1 Corinthians 15 to connect the resurrection appearances of Jesus with the timing of Pentecost, noting that the 50‑day period after the resurrection includes the 40 days Jesus walked with his followers and the ten days leading to the Holy Spirit’s outpouring. He recounts the post‑resurrection appearances, especially the gathering of about 500 believers, and argues that this large meeting was likely the moment Jesus told them to go to Jerusalem for Pentecost. Turning to Acts, he highlights the prayer of the 120 disciples, the dramatic arrival of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and the surprising fact that roughly 380 expected believers were absent. He speculates on why those “people who were not there” missed the event—lack of belief, busy lives, indifference, or simple forgetfulness—and uses these possibilities to warn contemporary believers not to miss the revival he expects in Houston. The sermon concludes with a call to expectancy, prayer, and active participation, urging the congregation to be present for God’s moving and to avoid becoming another missed witness.

What is Houston's First Baptist Church?

Houston's First Baptist Church is a relevant biblical community where we gather our hearts, grow our souls and give our lives as we seek to fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20). This podcast provides weekly messages from Pastor Gregg Matte and others. Visit us at HoustonsFirst.org to learn more about HFBC, and visit us in person the next time you're in Houston!

I'm going to ask us to read in the book of Luke, chapter 24, a different account of the story of the Great Commission. All of us are familiar with the one that begins, Go ye therefore into all the world, etc., etc. This is another account of the same event and commission of our Lord. Luke, chapter 24, we shall begin reading in verse 45. Luke, chapter 24, please, verse number 45. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, And thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. Now will you turn with me quickly, please, to 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, verse 1. This is a subsequent event now that is being described a short time after the first had taken place. Let me pause here as you're turning to 1 Corinthians 15 and say that the word Pentecost means 50. And I believe that along with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, that Pentecost was the most exciting and important event in the days of Jesus Christ. Now after Christ rose from the dead, he was alive for 40 days and appeared himself to people for that period of time, and then he ascended back to heaven. Ten days later, Pentecost took place. These 10 days and the first 40 make 50. Pentecost, 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are reading from what happened on, probably, the 40th day. Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand. By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures, and that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve. After that, he was seen of about 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remaineth unto this present, but some are fallen asleep or have died. Jesus Christ, as the Bible had promised, had come into the world in all of his fullness. He had been born of the Virgin. He had lived a perfect life. He had died on the cross to make atonement for the sins of the world. On the third day, he had risen from the dead. It was not the preaching of the cross, as is today, but of necessity to validate his messiahship that the preaching of the resurrection was the prominent theme of the apostles, the disciples, and the early church. They went everywhere proclaiming, He is risen, He is risen, He is risen. Some believed, but most did not. Now, Jesus Christ, to prove himself, made sure that at least 11 times, once to the two Marys, once to one Mary alone, to the apostles, and one time to above 500, but for a total of approximately 11 times, Jesus Christ appeared and proved himself as visibly and literally living and risen again to the eyes of the believers as well as those who were skeptical. Now, Jesus, over and over, had one message for them. It appears that at every time he arose from the grave, or every time he appeared after he had arisen from the grave, he said, Go into Galilee. At least five of the 11 times we know that he said it. Over and over, he was saying, Go into Galilee. Meet me in Galilee. tell people to come into Galilee, something big is going to happen. Now I want to interrupt right here and ask you to turn over with me very quickly to one last bit of scripture. Turn in the book of Acts, if you will, to the very first chapter, Acts chapter 1, verse 15. Acts chapter 1, verse 15. And in those days, Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples and said, the number of names together were about 120. Men and brethren, this scripture must have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost, by the mouth of David, spake before concerning Judas, which was to guide them that took Jesus. Now turn to Acts chapter 2, verse 1. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as a fire, and it sat upon each of them. The post -resurrection appearances of Jesus Christ were unannounced, unanticipated, spontaneous, unexpected appearances. Over and over again, he caught individuals, or little groups of people, by surprise, and revealed himself to them as being alive. Now continually he began saying to them, go into Galilee, go into Galilee, go into Galilee, with no mention of why or what was going to happen. Among the early church, among the early church, among the early church, among the hearts of the disciples, as they began to burn within them, the glowing reality that something big was about to happen, that some big news was about to break, they spread the word like prairie fire, go to Galilee, go to Galilee. Now the Bible says that one time, Jesus Christ appeared to above 500 brethren at once. Now because the disciples and the early church were in a state of persecution, were still afraid for their lives, I believe that at no time except this one pre -announced, pre -determined, pre -planned meeting would there have been 500 together at any one time. Now listen very closely. I'm actually unfolding my thoughts to you and showing you how I get a thought and how I build a sermon. They were afraid. It was unusual. It was unlikely that there would be 500 together at once. I theorized that this one appearance of the 500 must have been the one time that Jesus said in the 11 other times, go into Galilee. Something big is going to happen. Something terrific is about to be announced. Otherwise, it is totally inconsistent with what we know about the New Testament that so many disciples and believers would have gathered together in one place at one time. And I believe that it was there that Jesus Christ gathered them together and made the announcement about Pentecost. There it was that he said, I want you to go into Jerusalem and tarry. And he told probably all 500 of them, the most exciting event of Christianity to date is going to happen. You see, Jesus Christ had told them to go into all of the world, but he hadn't told them how they were going to do it. The Great Commission was literally an absurdity. The Great Commission was an impossible mission. He had told a rag -tagged, bob -tailed handful of discards and rejects to evangelize the world. It was legally impossible, for it was against the law to speak in the name of Christ. It was physically impossible because the whole world hadn't even been discovered yet. It was geographically impossible because they did not have the vehicles with which to get from one place to the other. It was socially impossible because they were the ignorant, the unlearned, they were not the scholars of their day, and no one would listen to them. It was impossible by every rule of the book. And as their minds were staggering with the amazement of what Christ had told them to do, balanced with the absolute reality of the impossibility to do it, someone remembered that Jesus Christ had told them to go and pray. Now that they could do. And so they went into Jerusalem and began to pray. And it was at Jerusalem that Jesus had told them by going there and tearing in prayer until you be endued with power that you will get the supernatural power to do the impossible. Now when I reread Acts chapter 1, the 15th verse, I recall that he said there were about 120 in prayer that day, in the day of Pentecost. And so I raised the question, where were the other 380 people? Hence, the title for my sermon, The People Who Were Not There. What happened? Why did Jesus Christ, in the flush of popularity as the disciples, fled at the cross, then after the crucifixion, began to come back and almost to cow back to a rallying power of the cross, once again now had been assured that Christ was real. He was alive. They had touched him. They had nailed it down. He was the Christ. They need not be afraid. And then he had given them the job of conquering the world and said, I'm going to give you one last little secret of how to get the power to do the job. Go and tarry. And Jesus, you see, never really had in mind their going to all the whole world. He knew they couldn't do it. He was going to bring the world to them. The Bible says that men, Jews, out of every nation under heaven were in attendance on the day of Pentecost. They were all there. God brought the world to them. Christ did a miracle. And in my opinion, the evangelization of the world which took place on the day of Pentecost when men from every nation were there and heard in their language and spread all over the world spreading the gospel was, in my opinion, the greatest miracle of the New Testament. And yet, 380 people missed out on Pentecost. Where were they? What happened? Now, the people who were not there. Let's have a little conjecture this morning. Let's play a game. Let's guess a little. What do you know about human nature? Well, from what I know about it, I would say that having been around Christians and for several years and Baptists for several years and, of course, all the disciples were Baptists. Anybody knows that. That probably there were four things that happened. Number one, some of them simply did not believe anything was going to happen. They really didn't believe it. They did not believe that the power of God to do what God had told them to do was either available or possible. They simply could not believe. Other messiahs had come. You see, Jesus Christ was not the first one who had come and claimed to be the Messiah. They'd heard that story before. They had seen so -called saviors crucified on a hundred crosses. And men had attempted to change the world as they are today in the energy of mere human wisdom throughout the centuries, and it failed. And there was absolutely no reason for them to believe that this experience was going to be any different. The same old thing, we've heard that before. You know, there are a lot of people in this world that are speculating that what God is doing in this place and in that place is just some more of the same old thing. And one of these days, they're going to wake up and find that revival has come to the world, and they missed it. One of these days, our God's word is going to be vindicated. You can put that down. They just really didn't believe. Pentecost, I've heard that story before. Then secondly, I believe there are some of them who simply didn't have time. Now, when I study the Bible, I try to remember that these people were not superhuman people. They were butchers and bakers and candlestick makers, and they did not have the full -time job of following Christ. Now, they loved him, but the kingdom of God was not in bearing arms. The kingdom of God was in the heart. It was a day -by -day experience. They had to get up in the morning. They had to go to work. They had to catch fish. They had to plow corn. They had bills to pay. They had to go home and argue with the old lady. They had to spank kids. They had to go to PTA. They had to do it all. They really did. They did not, when we speak of them following Christ, they didn't just literally go around day -by -day on a donkey trailing Jesus Christ. They were everyday people with everyday problems and everyday things to do. Now I can't believe that there was a scandal among them. I don't believe there was a criminal in the bunch. None of them hated Christ. They were good people. They were just busy people. They were just good everyday folks. I can almost hear them as some of them turned away and said, yes, that sounds interesting. I think I'll see if I can't make a couple of nights of Pentecost. I'll see if we can't get off work one evening and maybe we can go to that. That sounds good. I'll see if I can't work it in my busy schedule. Well, they just got too busy and 380 of them missed out on the most exciting event this time of the resurrection of Christ. Too busy. And the Bible says in the very last days it will be exactly like that. They will marry, they will give in marriage, two will be sleeping in a bed, one will be taken to the left, two will be grinding in the mill, one will be taken, one will be left, two will be working in the field, one will be taken, one will be left. Business and commerce and society and life will go right in until the coming of Christ and it's all over. Too busy. Too busy. Number three. Some of them didn't believe, some of them didn't have time and then some of them really didn't care. There was a lot of There was a lot of peripheral discipleship. Oh, it was wonderful to follow Christ. He came and talked about a kingdom of God on earth, the throngs thronged his way. Everywhere that he went it was popular to be a Christian. They were all following Christ. But one day, Jesus started talking about discipleship, about living for him, about dedication, about service, about a world who had not heard about Christ. And he had told them, you're the salt of the earth, you're the light of the world, now get at the job. And he began to separate the sheep from the goats. And there are a lot of them who really just couldn't care less, whether the world got evangelized or not. They really did not care. Well, fourth, I can imagine that there were some of them who did not remember. Really. I can hear it all now. Somebody comes running home at night and says, did you guess what happened today in Jerusalem? You should have been there. It was sensational. There were 3 ,000 saved. And guess what? You remember what Jesus told us about witnessing the people out of every nation? And we couldn't do it. We couldn't go to the world. And we were trying to figure it out. You know what happened on Pentecost? God brought somebody from every nation in the world to Jerusalem. And they heard. And now they're going back. Oh, they were so excited. I bet they were just dancing a spiritual jade. And I can see some of them. Pentecost. Let me check my calendar. That was today, wasn't it? Pentecost. I meant to go. Was that yesterday? Oh, I had intended to make it. They simply forgot. Now, why do people forget? Two reasons. One is because they do not plan to remember. And the other is because it is not really important enough to make an impression on their mind. Now, that's the end of the first part of my sermon. And this is the last part. The application, young ministerial students, is the punch. And the application is obvious. We stand, I believe, with all my heart before God, on the verge of what may well be the climactic, critical turning point in our church's history this week. I really believe and pray we may never be the same again as God begins to move and business begins to pick up for our God here in the city of Houston. I believe God has got great things in store for us. Now, some of you, after all is said and done, still really don't believe it's going to happen. And let me say this. Whether one is saved or 1 ,000 persons come to Christ will be largely determined by what you do believe. For without faith it is impossible to please Him. And if your attitude is, well, I really still can't see it. You'll never convince me that a city of approaching 2 million persons in a greater metropolitan area can really be shaken in the 20th century in 1970. I'll really never believe that. If your heart does not burn and glow with an air of expectancy in you, then to that degree you can help kill the revival. I told my wife that the last two or three years at Del City there was an intangible something I couldn't put my finger on that just made me live for Sunday. I'd come into those services Sunday and it was red hot. The power of God was there. There was a brightness, a life, a living power that just made the difference. And about three or four Sundays ago, I figured out what the difference was when that same thing really began to crystallize here in our church. You know what it is? It is a spirit of expectancy. Expectancy. We don't plan to come down to this corner night after night and do business for God and the status quo. We are really hoping to be used of our Lord to do something for Him. And when our people come together and sit up on the edge of their seat and look around and pray, Oh God, who's going to come to Christ today? Today, when you get there, you're starting to get somewhere. I thank God that our people are believing. They are expecting. And God is doing things. But some folks, after all said and done, still really don't believe. And won't believe. There are some this week who don't and won't have time for the revival. What a tragedy. What a tragedy. That people will not cancel an engagement, cancel a trip, cancel a business meeting, cancel a ball game. It will not matter 15, 18 months from now who was on the long of a short end of a 6 -0 score. But it will matter for eternity whether the quarterback of that 6 -0 football team is in heaven or in hell. That will make all the difference in the world. Now there is nothing, church, as important as what we're doing. I guarantee you that it would give the devil no little satisfaction to laugh up his sleeve and say, ha, ha, ha, what a bomb. I'm still prince and power of this world and don't you forget it. I believe that in our little corner of the world for which we are primarily responsible in the city of Houston, Texas that as Christian people, as believers in our Lord we can and will and must make a change on our city and an impact for God in the lives of men. We must take time. And then the third comparison is this. There are some who really don't care whether it happens or not. I'm not trying to wax sensational or dramatic. It'll take some time before you will be able to know what I'm talking about. But for the first time in my entire ministry I want you to know that I know of at least one man who has literally sacrificed himself and his life and the outcome of a revival and the hearts of men on the altar of success for the glory of God. And that's just about all I can say. There's one man I know whose life is literally on the line. He cares. I remember something about when Zion travails she shall bring forth. And I beseech you in the name of our Lord to forget about the ball game, to get on the phone, to call friends and neighbors, to make three or four visits. Go door to door if you must. Above all, get on your knees an hour this afternoon and pray for God's power on this revival. Take time. Care. Care. Care. Care. And the last word, of course, is some of us will forget. Really meaning to go. And you know, I think the worst part of it all is that those disciples, the rest of their life, heard about Pentecost and wished that they had been there. Oh, I wish I'd have gone. I wouldn't want to hang around here for the next 50 years and hear about one of the best things our God ever did for us and regret it until my grave thinking, oh, I wish I would have been there. Oh, that was yesterday, wasn't it? I meant to go. Another week will come and go before you can imagine. And the last, very last thing, I have 100 last things to say today. The very last thing is this. I want to go on record as assuring you as your pastor that revival is going to come. The power of God is going to fall. Scores of people are going to be saved. Things are going to happen. And we don't want you to miss out on it. Not only that, but we cannot see victory without you. We must have you. We need you, your heart, your concern, your prayers for the one and the two. Zero in on somebody. Get a burden on your heart. Pray 20 minutes a day. Go by and plead with them to come. And night after night as the gospel is preached and songs are sung and testimonies are said, God will bless and folks will be saved. Don't end up next Sunday. Next month. Next year. And be one of the people who were not there. Believe. Expect. Witness. Attend. And God will send revival. Let's stand.