01.11.2009 Acts 1 - How to experience the power of the Spirit in our lives and the Church
11th January 2009
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Do you ever feel like God is not as involved in your life as He was with the New Testament Christians? Why can’t my life experience the power of God that I see in the Bible? I’d like to unpack that question as we look at Acts 2.
Lord, we thank You that You are present – Your Spirit works in our lives – You are involved even though at times it does not appear that way – at times You seem deathly silent and far away. But if we could peer beyond this world, we would see a God Who is present and working at all times. We ask for eyes to see Your realm that matters most. Speak to us from Your word that we might apply it and be Your servants and fulfill Your purpose as Your people and Your church.
Acts 2 – Pentecost – it was originally a feast of the Jews – Pentecost – FIFTY – fifty days after Passover. This was the day that The Holy Spirit was given to the Church and to all who believed in Christ. From that point on, the Spirit dwelled inside.
In the Old Testament, the Spirit would fall upon someone and leave. In the New Testament, the Spirit comes and dwells inside all who believe. This launched what is referred to as the Church Age.
We are going to focus on the Role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We tend to get things wrong and have wrong views – the first being – minimizing the role of the Spirit. Sometimes we see what is going on in other churches and we get “charisphobia” – the fear of the work of the Holy Spirit The other side of the coin is “charismania” – seeing the Holy Spirit working in every little detail. I hate to use the term balance – because that is often being wishy washy – but I want what I would call the RADICAL MIDDLE.
Let’s all say this together:
WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA?!
Now let’s say it like I would say it…
WHAT’S THE BIG IDEAR?!
When you learn about preaching, you learn to ask this question. There should be one summary sentence that explains it all:
How To Experience The Power Of The Spirit In Our Lives And The Church. How can we do this? God wants us to experience His Power in our lives. He doesn’t save us so we can do it all on our own. But that is how we try to live. It becomes all about US doing it and leaving God and His Work and His Spirit out of our lives. We don’t mean to do it, but we do.
We’ll look at the Scriptures and then the practical application of experiencing His power in our lives.
2:1 And when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent, rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.
Now, you can’t just go into this passage without mentioning something that can be controversial in the Christian world – speaking in tongues. What does this mean? Then you realize that many churches think differently on this. I am not going to spend a lot of time on this – but I’d like to take a look at it in the Book of Acts.
There are 2 important words in this section – A noise LIKE a violent rushing wind. In verse 3 – he uses the phrase Tongues AS fire. This was NOT a violent rushing wind or tongues of fire. It was LIKE a wind and AS a fire. They were describing heavenly, Spiritual things for which there were no earthly words. This was a heavenly phenomenon – so all they could do was grab at words to try to explain. “It was sorta’ kinda’ this way” – would be how we would say it. I think this confuses people.
Vs. 4 is another key important part:
2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.
Tongues – what does it mean? Languages. They should translate it that way – some of the new translations do. If they had used the word languages, this would be easier to understand. That is what it says. And then he goes on to explain it in the next few verses.
Remember – this is the feast of Pentecost – and so there were Jews from all over the world who have gathered for Pentecost. They had been scattered in the Diaspora – when Babylon scattered the Jews – and they had lived away from Jerusalem – similar to the Muslims going to Mecca. Many from different lands would come.
5 Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men, from every nation under heaven. 6 And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were bewildered, because they were each one hearing them speak in his own language.
So here are all these people hearing the guys speaking in their own language…
7 And they were amazed and marveled, saying, "Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 "And how is it that we each hear [them] in our own language to which we were born?
They were speaking in their languages of the visitors – and they were speaking languages they did not know. He lists all the different places and languages – languages the disciples could not have known.
9 "Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,
11 Cretans and Arabs-- we hear them in our [own] tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God. "
1) Languages that were clearly understood
2) The speaker did not know the language
3) They were speaking the mighty deeds of God.
This was the purpose of the miracle – to proclaim Christ to the people of the world.
In the Jewish mind – this was the ends of the earth – all the countries of the world. The remotest part of the earth.
Acts 2:12 And they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" 13 But others were mocking and saying, "They are full of sweet wine."
14 But Peter, taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and declared to them: "Men of Judea, and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give heed to my words. 15 "For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is [only] the third hour of the day;
We don’t have to say anything more about that…if it were later in the day would they have been drunk?
Peter explains. You can’t miss it.
16 but this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel:
This is the fulfillment of the promise of God.
17 'And it shall be in the last days,' God says, 'That I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all mankind;
What was the promise? That God would send His Spirit. Jesus promised it – the Old Testament promised it. They were looking for this day – the coming of the new age – He calls it the Last Days. From our perspective – we wouldn’t see it as too much LAST. But no, these are the Last Days – God’s plan of redemption is completely accomplished. Nothing else needs to be done. This is it. In God’s redemptive plan, it is all done – it is finished. It will culminate, obviously, at the very end. But between now and then is just time. Everything is done. At some point – when He has brought enough people into His Kingdom, He will return.
And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams; 18 Even upon My bondslaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth of My Spirit And they shall prophesy.
Now – he explains this is a promise then he gives the results – what is he not saying? There is no mention of speaking in other languages or tongues. The speaking in these languages – the purpose – that they may speak the mighty deeds of God – prophesy – what God has done and doing. That was all that tongues accomplished. So in looking at this – the purpose of tongues in this scenario – a miraculous thing to give evidence that the Spirit had come. We cannot see the Spirit – so God provided this miracle for evidence that something significant had just taken place. That is all it is. Nothing else is to be said about it. In the book of Acts – 15, or 16 times is the Spirit given – and just 3 times is tongues mentioned. And in each circumstance – The Spirit is poured out to a specific group of people – this time it was the Jews. The second time – the first time the Spirit is poured upon the Gentiles. The exact same thing happens. The third time – Paul goes to the Jews of the Diaspora who have not heard of Jesus – and the first time those people turn to Christ, the Spirit is poured out and they speak in tongues. It is evidence that the Spirit has come. That is the good news. The bad news – 1 Cor. 12-14 speaks of speaking in tongues – and as clear as Acts is – 1 Cor. 12-14 is unclear. But the good news, we are looking at the book of Acts – and don’t have to deal with 1 Cor. today! I have dealt with it in the past – and I’d be happy to speak with you on a personal level if you have more questions about it.
If you want to see God’s power in your life –
1st) you must understand that it is based on promise. It is the fulfillment of a promise. It is something God must do. It is not something we can manipulate. We can’t force it. It is a work of God based on promise. Jesus spoke of the Spirit like the wind – you can’t get a handle on it – there is no formula that you can plug into your life that guarantees the working of the Spirit.
We see in Acts – people who are filled with the PSirit are also filled with FAITH. Having God work in your life has a lot to do with believing that God wants to work in your life. There is a hope and a waiting on God to do it – expecting God, on a daily basis – and looking for Him to work in your life. Because we can’t control or manipulate – we can’t expect Him to work how we expect Him to work. It is like the wind – we don’t know where it comes from or where it goes, but we can feel its effect, if we pay attention.
As I thought of that statement – I thought of the term UNLEASHING – the power of the Spirit in our lives. But that gives the sense of something that we do – a formula to manipulate what God is doing. God will work – but usually – what I have discovered – God sends us down a different path. We expect God to work in a certain way – but that is not God. He doesn’t fit into our box – or work according to our plan.
2nd) Salvation - Acts 2:21 'And it shall be, that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'
3000 are saved that day. We need to be involved in seeing people come to Christ. That is one of the primary ways we see the Spirit work. He works in bringing people to Christ. The Spirit does not come that we have miracles and people say, that Holy Spirit is really cool – He is uninterested in fame or glory – but in the power of bringing people to Christ. We need to hear the stories of how God changed a life.
John 16: 8 "And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment; 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you no longer behold Me; 11 and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.
You have experienced this change. If you want to experience this power, we need to have this lifestyle of bringing people to Christ.
3rd) Prayer – Acts 4: 31 And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and [began] to speak the word of God with boldness.
Often, Acts connects prayer to the Spirit being poured out.
Jobs are scarce – make it an aspect of your prayer – if your job is secure – there are plenty whose are not. It will probably get worse. – But we need to ask God to miraculously provide for His people. We need to make it a part of our prayer lives.
4th) Brokenness – this is hidden in this story – 50 days later – earlier, the disciples had denied Christ.
2 Cor. 4: 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves;
We have this great value placed in a common no-value – that the power may be of God and not of ourselves. If you are thinking that you did something to have God work in your life – it is not going to happen – God will not share His glory.
2 Cor. 12:9 And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.
We’ll look at the fifth next week –
5th) Community
What the Lord is doing is bringing a community that has never been brought together before. In the OT – the Spirit came upon a select few. And according to society – only men were allowed in to the inner parts of the Temple. This was a new thing – and we will focus on that next week.
1) It is based on promise
2) Engaged in bringing people to Christ.
3) Prayer
4) Brokenness – a willingness to acknowledge
5) Community