THE FELT HEART OF GOD

ACTS 2:1-13

Happy Pentecost Sunday!

This is the day that we look back and remember that day that the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the Christians in the upper room.

This is the day that we remember the birth of the New Testament Church of Jesus Christ.

Its the day that Jesus said that we as believers would receive power and a mission.

Jesus said, Acts 1:8

Acts 1:8 ESV

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

Two weeks ago, we talked about what the big deal is about the ascension and we talked about how this was the beginning of the ministry of the Holy Spirit and us.

Pentecost is the events that took place when that officially started.

Let’s read our passage to describe that event.

Acts 2:1–7 ESV

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?

Acts 2:41 ESV

So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

So, a little historical perspective here, they gathered together on the day of Pentecost in one place.

Why?

Pentecost this the Greek word for the ancient Festival of Harvest. Enacted in Exodus Chapter 23, it was a yearly gathering and celebration of the first grain harvest of the year. After the first harvest, the Israelites would gather in Jerusalem and celebrate and make sacrifices and offerings of that harvest to the Lord in the temple.

How beautiful is the perfect plan of the Lord to reap His first big harvest of the church on this day, during this festival of harvest.

3000 souls were saved that day. What a harvest for the Lord!

Now, we have been in this study on the heart of God for 2 months.

2 things about that, we could study His heart and who He is for an eternity and still not understand and grasp the entirety of Him.

We will spend eternity in pursuit of Him. The more I know about Him and fix my mind on Him, the more the things of this earth disappear.

I honestly think that we as a church have lost our pursuit of who He is and care more about discovery who we are.

We could all spend more time in awe and wonder of Him and less time thinking about my problems and difficulties and trials.

So, my prayer is that you will continue in this pursuit of seeing Him more clearly. That we would continue to pray the prayer of Moses. “Lord, show me your glory.”

We are going to more on towards a discussion about how knowing Him more will help us know who we are in Christ. Its going to help us appreciate Him more and combat the lies of the enemy.

But first, there is a puzzle piece to the heart of God that we haven’t discussed yet.

That is the importance and role of the Holy Spirit in revealing and experiencing the heart of God in our lives.

A couple of weeks ago, we touched on the importance of the Holy Spirit but this Pentecost Sunday, I believe the Lord is asking us to look closer at the Holy Spirit and how it is better that Jesus would go into heaven and send us the Holy Spirit.

Throughout our studies, in the past 2 months we have talked about

The Father’s desire to be with His people.

Jesus being the most gentle and approachable person ever.

How the compassionate heart of Jesus moves Him towards sinners and sufferers not away from them.

How Jesus’s heart sympathizes with our weakness. How He co-suffers with us.

How it is the heart of the Father that sent the Son. How the Son is the kind one holding back the wrath of God but how Jesus is the physical representation of the heart of the Father.

We talked about how the heart of the Father is full of mercy and grace.

How His heart is abounding, over-flowing, bursting with patient love and faithfulness for you.

How His heart is to forgive the iniquities, transgressions and sins of the earth.

And the missing puzzle piece to this discussion and study is this.

THE HOLY SPIRIT IS HOW WE PHYSICALLY EXPERIENCE THE HEART OF GOD.

Thomas Goodwin says, “THE SPIRIT MAKES THE HEART OF GOD REAL TO US: NOT JUST HEARD, BUT SEEN; NOT JUST SEEN BUT FELT; NOT JUST FELT, BUT ENJOYED. THE SPIRIT TAKES WHAT WE READ IN THE BIBLE AND BELIEVE ON PAPER ABOUT GOD’S HEART AND MOVES IT FROM THEORY TO REALITY, FROM DOCTRINE TO EXPERIENCE.”

Dane Ortlund says, “THE SPIRIT IS THE CONTINUATION OF THE HEART OF CHRIST FOR HIS PEOPLE AFTER THE DEPARTURE OF JESUS TO HEAVEN.”

The Holy Spirit is how we physically feel and experience the heart of God in our lives!

1 Corinthians 2:9–12 (ESV)

But, as it is written,

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,

nor the heart of man imagined,

what God has prepared for those who love him”—

these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

Some of your versions may say, that we might know the things freely given”.

The Greek word there is a word that we have discussed before. It means not just head knowledge but an experiential knowing and understanding. Its talking about what Goodwin was talking about. It goes from theory to reality, from doctrine to experience.

The Holy Spirit is how we physically experience the heart of God and “All of the things freely given”.

We just listed the brief description of the heart of God that we get through the Holy Spirit but what are these things freely given?

We list some of them two weeks ago!

IS OUR HELPER WHO TEACHES AND REMINDS US (JOHN 14:26)

CONVICTS THE WORLD OF SIN (JOHN 16:7-8)

DWELLS IN BELIEVERS AND FILLS US (1 CORINTHIANS 3:16)

THE SOURCE OF REVELATION, WISDOM AND POWER (1 CORINTHIANS 2:10-11, ACTS 1:8, EPHESIANS 1:17-20)

GUIDES TO ALL TRUTH AND KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT IS TO COME (JOHN 16:13-15)

GIVES SPIRITUAL GIFTS TO THE BELIEVER (1 CORINTHIANS 12:7-11)

IS THE SEAL FOR ETERNITY FOR THE BELIEVER (EPHESIANS 1:13)

HELPS IN OUR WEAKNESS AND INTERCEDES FOR US (ROMANS 8:26-27)

MAKES BELIEVERS NEW AND GRANTS US ETERNAL LIFE (ROMANS 8:10-11)

SANCTIFIES US AND PRODUCES FRUIT IN OUR LIVES (GALATIANS 5:16-25)

(Go through each point and say if you want this, the HS is way to have it.)

The Holy Spirit is the way that we experience all of these promises freely given to us!

What about these things from that list?

Galatians 5:22–23 ESV

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

(Go through each point and say if you want this, the HS is way to have it.)

The Spirit is how we physically experience, the love of God.

There is something physically calming about the presence of the Spirit of God.

There is joy to experience in the Spirit of God.

There can be no question the Holy Spirit is the key to you and me experiencing the heart of God and all of the things freely given to us by God.

So, if you are a follower of Jesus, if you are in Christ, you have the Holy Spirit within you.

1 Corinthians 3:16 ESV

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

Maybe I say that but you are thinking, then why don’t I feel these things you are talking about? I do not feel loved. I do not have peace in my life. I do not know joy.

I say all of these promises and truths but they sound distant to you and you have never experienced any of theses things.

I must first ask the question, have you ever come to the place that you asked Jesus to be your Lord and Savior? Are you looking for the Holy Spirit’s fruit in your life but you have never recieved Him in the first place?

A question you can ask yourself is this. If you are a Christian, you will either be producing this fruit in your life or you will be convicted that you are not.

You will either know because you have experienced Him or you will be convicted by the Holy Spirit that you aren’t currently.

However, there are some of you here that know that you have never experienced the love, peace, grace and mercy of God, and that Holy Spirit is offering you this for the first time.

May today be the day that you accept Him in your life and you become that temple of God.

Maybe you are here and you know that you are a follower of Christ and you know that you have a relationship with Him but you are needing some help finding these promises and things freely given to us.

You may be asking, how can I experience all of this more in my life?

Here it is, you do all that you can to think about Him as often as you can. You try to do all things for His glory and avoid the things that can’t glorify Him.

Being a Christian is not a one foot in kind of thing!

It is a lifetime of denying and dying to self!

The less you think about yourself and the more you think about Him, the more of Him and His spiritual blessing that you will receive!

It’s not about earning salvation or earning more, its about walking in more awareness and intimacy with Him.

You’re not going to earn more of His love, but you’re going to walk more aware of the depths of His love for you.

You’re not going to earn more mercy and grace, but you’re going to walk with more faith that His mercy and grace will cover all of your sins.

The more time you fix your mind on Him and put spiritual disciplines in your life the more you are going to walk by the Spirit like Galatians chapter 5 talks about.

Romans 12:1–2 (ESV)

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Present yourself, your desires, your thoughts, your goals to God as a sacrifice. Don’t let your thoughts look like the rest of the world. Renew your mind to what is good, acceptable and perfect.

Colossians 3:1–2 (ESV)

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

If you are in Christ, set your mind of heavenly things! Set your mind on Jesus seated at the right hand of the Father.

The more that you think about Him the more of Him you are going to experience.

Philippians 4:4–9 (ESV)

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Practice these things and the God of peace will be with you!

Is that not a great enough promise for you?!

Think about these things. We have to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to break the spirit of complaining, negativity, victim mentality, and insecurity in our lives. This world wants us thinking about worst case scenarios and the what if’s.

As we read earlier, it is the job of the Holy Spirit to sanctify us. Ask Him to!

Its the job of the Holy Spirit to help us in our weakness. Ask Him to!

Fix your mind on the things and God that is above you and with you, and within you!

And apply spiritual disciplines to your life to help you do that.

In that Philippians passage it says,

“in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be known to God.”

Back to our original passage in Acts 2:42-47

Acts 2:42–47 (ESV)

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

In just these two passages, we see that we can pray to God, devote ourselves to God’s Word and its teachings, fellowship with other believers, give to those in need, and we can praise God.

Putting spiritual disciplines in your life and fixing your mind on God more are not legalistic demands of the church. They are not means to earn more of anything.

These are ways that you and I can walk in more awareness and closer fellowship with Him. We can physically experience more of His fruit and things freely giving to us by God.

The Holy Spirit is the key. He is the continuation of the heart of God to us today. He is with you.

What changes will you make this week to fix your mind more on Him? What practices or disciplines will you put in place this week?

1 Timothy 1:12–17 ESV

I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.