We Have a Purpose

Imagine you are on a grand adventure through a dense and treacherous jungle, with your trusty compass in hand. You are tasked with leading a group of people to safety, but along the way, you begin to notice something odd.

Your group starts to get distracted by the beautiful flora and fauna, the shiny rocks, the exotic birds, and the rushing streams. They start collecting souvenirs and taking detours to explore every little thing that catches their eye.

As the hours and days pass, you notice that your group is losing sight of the bigger picture - the purpose of the journey.

You notice they begin cutting down trees and are building cabins in the jungle.

You remind them that the goal is to make it to safety, to reach the end of the jungle and find civilization. But they seem too caught up in their own individual experiences to listen.

Similarly, the church is on a grand adventure - to lead people to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. But along the way, we can get distracted by our own tasks, responsibilities, gifts, talents, and personalities. We can get so consumed by the details that we forget the bigger picture - the purpose of the church.

It's important for us to remember that while our individual experiences and contributions are valuable, they should never distract us from our main goal - leading others to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

This morning we’re beginning a new sermon series. We’re going through the Book of Acts together.

We’re going to start in chapter 1 and look at the first 8 verses this morning.

Let’s read it,

Acts 1:1–8 NKJV

1 The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, 2 until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, 3 to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. 4 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; 5 for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

The book of Acts is volume 2 of a work that started with the Gospel of Luke.

We don’t know who Theophilus was, but he was likely a Christian, or at least a seeker who was wanting to more about the Christian faith. Most likely an important Roman official.

The Book of Acts is the account of the work of the Holy Spirit in and through the church.

The book of Luke records what Jesus, “began both to do and teach” in His human body, and Acts tells us what Jesus continued to do and teach through His spiritual body, the church.

Verse 3 emphasizes the reality of Jesus’ resurrection.

During those 40 days after His resurrection Jesus talked about the coming of His kingdom. This refers to the reign of God over the hearts and lives of those who have trusted in Him (Matt. 6:33; Rom. 14:17; 1 John 3:1-9)

Verses 4-6 tells us Jesus instructed His disciples not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the Holy Spirit.

In verses 6-7 we see the disciples’ political goals revived. They just couldn’t get past that.

Jesus offered a warning in verse 7 that we also should be reminded of, “It’s not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.”

In other words, don’t be so focused on when things will happen, but rather, just do what you’ve been called to do and be ready when that time comes.

Now that brings us to verse 8.

What’s the Holy Spirit’s role in our lives as the Body of Christ?

The Holy Spirit Fills Us with Power

Let’s look again at verse 8.

Acts 1:8 NKJV

8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

It’s important for us to understand the context here.

Luke wrote Acts. Luke wrote the book of Luke.

In his gospel, Luke is showing us the life of Jesus, and how the HS was on Him, leading and guiding Him. In the OT the HS would come and go on people.

When we get to Luke 4:1, and verse 14, in the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry, the HS was filling Him and leading Him. Everything He did was led by the HS.

Now in Acts chapter 1, Jesus says the HS will come upon believers.

And since Acts is a continuation of Luke’s message, to get the context, let’s go back to Luke 24:45-49

Luke 24:45–49 NKJV

45 And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. 46 Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, 47 and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 And you are witnesses of these things. 49 “Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”

Did you catch what Jesus just did?

He said, “All right guys here is the message: Christ suffered, died and rose on the third day. There is the message you just got and here is what you are going to do with it. You are going to go out and preach it in all nations; you are going to proclaim this message.

And He says that before you even think about going to do that, don’t miss the means by which this message is going to go out. The Holy Spirit is going to fill you and you are going to be clothed with power from on high.” In other words, Jesus is telling these guys, “Don’t even think about trying to do this on your own.”

And that’s the whole point, showing and sharing the gospel in our lives. What I want to say to you and encourage you with is, if you feel inadequate, if you feel like this is not your thing and you are just not good at introducing others to Christ and telling other people about the gospel. If that’s the way you feel, that’s exactly how you should feel. That’s the whole point.

I am just willing to believe that if we give ourselves to telling people about Christ, we would see the power of the Holy Spirit work in ways that we never could have imagined. I think this is what we see throughout the book of Acts and throughout the history of the church.

One of my favorite guys in the history of the church, a guy named D.L. Moody.

He started doing inner city work in Chicago. He started preaching. God was pouring down His Spirit on D.L. Moody and people were coming to Christ left and right. He began to preach in different cities in America, then in England, revival and awakening just breaking out wherever he preached. I remember reading in his biography about one particular town. They were discussing who to have come and speak at their revival meetings. Everybody was talking about D.L. Moody. We need to get D.L. Moody. One guy stood up in the front and said “I don’t understand why we need to get D.L. Moody, its not like he has a monopoly on the Holy Spirit.” Everything got real quiet. Old, wiser gentlemen stood up in the back and he said, “Son you are exactly right, D.L. Moody does not have a monopoly on the Holy Spirit, however, the Holy Spirit does have a monopoly on D.L. Moody and that’s why we need to get him here.”

Does the Holy Spirit have a monopoly on your life? Does the Holy Spirit have a monopoly on Faith Bible Church?

We’ll never reach our community in our own power. We need the power of the HS. That’s why Luke said in verse 8:

Acts 1:8 NKJV

8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

“But you shall receive power...”

Secondly...

The Holy Spirit Gives Us a Purpose

Second, I want us to see that He provides for us. He gives us a purpose. The HS gives us a purpose in our life.

The question is why has God given us the HS?

As we look in Scripture there are all kinds of different answers for that.

The Holy Spirit leads us. The Holy Spirit guides our steps, guides our paths. That’s His purpose. He gives us gifts. We have different spiritual gifts. The Holy Spirit gives those gifts. The Holy Spirit is our comforter. He comforts us when we are going through difficult times. The Holy Spirit does all of those things.

What I want to propose to you is those purposes are secondary compared to one other purpose of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Just about every time the HS came upon someone in the OT, it was to accomplish one thing. The HS came upon someone, they prophesied. They began speaking God’s Words. Moses, Samuel, Ezekiel.

Then in Luke, 8 times Luke uses the phrase “filled with the Holy Spirit.”

John the Baptist, Elizabeth, Zechariah, believers on the Day of Pentecost, Peter before the Sanhedrin, the believers in Acts 4:31, Paul after his conversion, in every instance upon being filled with the HS, they spoke the words of God.

Let’s look at just one of those examples.

Acts 4:31 NKJV

31 And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.

What did they do? They spoke the word of God boldly. They shared the gospel boldly.

That’s pretty consistent. OT and NT alike, the Holy Spirit’s primary purpose in our lives is to enable us to be proclaimers of God’s Word.

To be proclaimers of grace and mercy of the gospel that has been entrusted to us. That is the primary purpose of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Let’s look again at Acts 1:8

Acts 1:8 NKJV

8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

What did Jesus say the HS would enable the believers to do?

Be my witnesses.

On the Day of Pentecost the HS would be given so the followers of Christ could be HS empowered messengers of the Gospel to a lost and broken world.

That’s the purpose of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and I want to ask you, not to put a guilt trip on you or anything along those lines, but just to say, are you fulfilling the purpose of the Spirit in you?

Because I believe with all my heart that if we walk out of here and we don’t give ourselves to this purpose, then we will miss out completely on His power. He fills us with power and He gives us His purpose.

To be His witnesses, sharing the gospel with a world that needs salvation.

Next,

The Holy Spirit Outlines Our Plans

Finally, He outlines our plans. He outlines the plans for our life and for the church. In Acts 1:8 you see Jesus say to these guys you are going to take the gospel from “Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Acts 1:8 NKJV

8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Did you know that is the outline for the entire book of Acts?

Acts 1–7, you can write it down, the gospel goes to Jerusalem and then with Stephen’s death at the end of Acts 7.

You get to Acts 8, the gospel begins to spread to Judea and Samaria.

You get to the end of chapter 9 and you see the gospel has gone throughout Judea and Samaria and now it’s in the hands of these guys named Paul and some of his companions.

And we see the church begin to take hold in Acts 10 of the nations. Antioch becomes a sending base for sending the gospel to the ends of the earth from Acts 10 all the way to Acts 28. Acts 1–7—Jerusalem; Acts 8–9—Judea and Samaria; Acts 10–28—to the ends of the earth.

That was the plan of the Holy Spirit. We are going to take this gospel, the whole gospel, to the whole world, through the whole church. That was the plan.

And I have got this feeling that plan has not changed from that day until now. The plan is still the same.

The Holy Spirit, who is in this room and who is dwelling our lives, wants to take the whole gospel, through the whole church to the whole world.

We have got to ask the question: what would happen if we took serious the purpose of the Holy Spirit in our life and we gave ourselves to this plan. Somewhere along the way we have a tendency to lose site of the purpose.

I challenge you to pray this prayer this week: “Lord thank you that your power works in me through the Holy Spirit. Show your power through me as I witness to others today and in the coming days. I know that I am not alone. I know that it is in your strength and your ability, that I share the gospel of Jesus Christ with this friend. Thank you for using me for your kingdom. Amen.”

What I want to do is I want to challenge you to take God at His Word. I want to invite you, if you are willing to say in your life, I believe that I am not alone; I believe it is not in my power. I am going to be intentional about sharing the gospel, sharing God’s Word with people.

I know that I have been talking to believers, to Christians who have the Spirit in them. I know that there are some of you who don’t have the Holy Spirit in you because you have never placed your faith in Christ and ask Him to forgive you for your sins. If you would like to begin a relationship with Jesus for the first time and you want the Holy Spirit in your life, then I want to invite you to say I am ready to believe in Jesus.