The Spirit’s Coming In Power

Review

Turn to Acts 2:1-13.

In Acts chapter one, the Lord designates His disciples to go throughout the world as His witnesses. But first, they had to wait. This they did, likely in the same upper room where they had celebrated the Passover with the Lord just before His death on the cross. They stayed where the Lord wanted them to stay as they waited for His power, direction, and blessing. While they waited, they prayed and they prepared.

Message

Turn to and read Acts 2:1-13.

Baking is not my strong point. Maybe that’s something that you love doing, but it’s certainly not something that I do every day. Although I don’t know much about baking, I do know that one particular item has been seeing a resurgence of popularity among bakers in the last few years. It’s nothing new, but perhaps a new generation is discovering the good qualities of this item. What I’m talking about is sourdough bread.

From what I’ve seen and heard, making your own sourdough is all the rage right now and it really took off during the pandemic when everyone was staying home.

To make sourdough, you must have the right conditions, otherwise, you’ll kill the yeast.

Your sourdough starter must have the right temperature in order to grow. Too hot, and it will die. Too cold, and it won’t grow. Temperature will affect the flavor also.

Your sourdough starter must be fed. How much and what kind of flour is used will affect the flavor and growth of the sourdough.

No doubt, other factors contribute to the process as well, but one point is clear: you must have the right conditions if you want your sourdough to be healthy.

That is exactly what God reveals to us about the coming of the Holy Spirit. God had in mind the exact conditions that He wanted for the timing of this historic event.

Next slide here:

The conditions of the Spirit’s coming - Acts 2:1.

Verse one indicates two conditions that were met before the Spirit came.

Condition of time

It says that the Day of Pentecost was fully come. Now, you and I might read over that text and move on to the more important stuff, but God included it for a reason. He didn’t just say that as “filler material.”

College students can get pretty good at adding “filler material” or “fluff” to their papers. In other words, they get really creative at using a lot of words to say a bunch of nothing.

Rest assured, that’s not what God is doing here. He mentioned this for a reason.

In Jesus’ day, Pentecost was a Jewish celebration of God’s provision. It was celebrated exactly 50 days after Passover and it occurred at the beginning of the wheat harvest as a thanksgiving to the Lord.

Verse one says that the Day of Pentecost was fully come. “fully come” means to “complete entirely” or to “be fulfilled.” It doesn’t just mean that the day had arrived again on the calendar, it means that the significance of Pentecost was fully realized at this particular celebration when God the Father sent the Holy Spirit to these 120 Jewish believers. The coming of the Holy Spirit was the ultimate fulfillment of this particular Jewish festival. It was the perfect time on God’s calendar.

At Pentecost, a very unusual sacrifice would be offered to the Lord at the Temple. The priests would bring two loaves baked with yeast and wave them before the Lord. Typically, they did not offer the Lord loaves with yeast because yeast in the bread represented sin. But here, they offered two loaves of leavened bread.

Read slowly:

It seems that these two loaves of bread pictured how that sinful Jews and Gentiles would one day be unified in this new institution that God would establish called the church. On the Day of Pentecost, an institution was launched wherein both Jew and Gentile would be joined together and be filled with the same Holy Spirit of God.

Application: This condition of time was no accident! God did not just squeeze it into His calendar where He could fit it in! He did not just pick the date at random! At the perfect time, God sent His Son into the world and at the perfect time, God sent His Spirit to these believers.

Church family, our God is the master of time. He is never late, nor is He early. He moves precisely when He means to.

Condition of unity

“they were all with one accord in one place.”

A minor detail? No! Absolutely not! This is the second time that Luke mentions the unity that the believers had among themselves during this time.

Acts 1:14 - “these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication.

Acts 2:1 - “they were all with one accord in one place.”

Do you remember what “one accord” means? It means unity!!!

Application: I treasure a sweet spirit of unity in our church! To me, a sweet spirit among our church family is priceless!

It’s priceless, for one, because I love the fellowship together. I love the peace and joy that is found in gathering with the church family who is unified. But there’s an even greater reason than that and our text reveals it to us here:

Application: Unity is a prerequisite, it is a precondition for having the power of God!

God cannot bless disunity with the power of the Holy Spirit!

If you want to see God move in our church then we must have unity.

A sweet unity among the church is one precondition to having the presence of God. Whereas a sure-fire way to quench the Spirit is to have a spirit of disunity in the church.

Here’s how you maintain a spirit of unity in a church: humility and transparency.

When these conditions of time and unity were completely met, then God moved. So we see first, the conditions of the Spirit’s coming. Secondly…

Next slide here:

The circumstances of the Spirit’s coming - Acts 2:2-4.

Have you ever met a person who is an expert story teller? I don’t mean someone who just likes to talk, I mean someone who can tell you about their simple life experiences and spin them in such a way that they hold your attention the entire time. Several years ago I became friends with a man who clearly fit that description of a story teller. His name is Dalton Heath.

Dalton would describe himself as simply a good ol’ boy from eastern North Carolina. To this day, he loves to dress in the same attire that he wore as a barefoot little boy: bib overalls. He is a smart man, full of wisdom, and a fountain of good common sense. He is a great friend and loves to hear what God is doing here at our church. He served for many years as a missionary to Liberia, Africa, and was deeply loved by the people there.

One thing I quickly learned about Dalton is that he an expert storyteller. He’s not flashy. He talks nice and slow with a draw in his southern accent, but he can hold your attention with his stories. Especially when he’s preaching, he’ll weave a good story and he can do it with a specific thought in mind that he wishes to convey.

Here in verse two, Luke is very careful as he tells this story to Theophilus about the circumstances that occurred when the Holy Spirit came upon these 120 believers.

First, Luke describes…

The sound

These roughly 120 followers of Jesus are gathered in the upper room when in an instant, they begin to hear a sound. Luke describes that it was like the sound of a rushing mighty wind. He doesn’t say that they felt a rushing mighty wind, he says that it was a sound “as of” a rushing, mighty wind. They didn’t feel the wind, but the sound was unmistakable - it completely filled the entire house.

It was a sound of rushing wind. “Rushing” means one that had enough force to move or bear things along.

It was a sound of a mighty wind. “Mighty” means violent, forcible.

Both of these words indicate power, but then the greek word here for “wind” means a soft movement of air, like a breath. Luke is drawing a vivid contrast here. Other times in the book of Acts, Luke uses a different Greek word to describe the blowing of wind out on the ocean - like when Paul is on a ship bound for Rome. But here, the Lord moved Luke to use this Greek word. In Acts 17:25, Paul uses this same word while preaching to the men at Athens.

Acts 17:25 KJV 1900

Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;

One person said,

This contrast is a beautiful image of the working of the Spirit of God. He is the infinite Spirit of almighty power, but He works with compassionate kindness, never crushing people into line, but like a dove, gently wooing men to the love of God. - Witness to Christ, Stewart Custer, page 18.

Application: that is a perfect description of how the Holy Spirit works in our hearts today! He is powerful! He is unmistakable! But He doesn’t force us. He convicts us so gently and kindly - leaving us with the choice to obey or to disobey His voice.

My friend, the Spirit of God uses the Word of God to convict us, in other words, to move us to obey the Scriptures. He never acts contrary to God’s Word. He is like a still, small voice that gently, but powerfully urges us in our hearts to be obedient!

“To do what?”

Oh, when He convicts you, there’s no mistaking what He wants you to do. You’ll know it. Perhaps today He is convicting you of your need to be saved from your sins. Maybe today is He urging you to stop trusting yourself and to trust in Christ alone for salvation. Don’t run from His voice! Don’t try to ignore Him! Stop telling Him “no”! Just submit to what He wants you to do and you will have peace with God. He will give you a certainty that you made the right decision.

So Luke describes the sound, but secondly, he describes…

The sight

Never before had the Spirit of God come upon human beings such as was happening here. There is no such record that the Spirit of God ever moved in this way in the Old Testament. This was the mark of something new. Throughout the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit typically filled an individual to do a specific task or for a certain time. Samson was a perfect example of this. There were a few exceptions, such as David or Moses, but the Spirit’s ministry during the Old Testament did not include permanently filling individuals. At Pentecost, God completely changed that pattern. Pentecost established a completely new pattern going forward. This new experience was marked by a new sight that affected all of the believers in that upper room. Every person - man and woman alike - recieved a visible confirmation that the Spirit of God was permanently indwelling them.

“Cloven” means “to cleave asunder” or “to distribute.” In other words, this visual sign was like a flame of fire that was distributed to and rested upon each person. It was a fulfillment of John the Baptist’s prophecy in Luke 3:16.

Luke 3:16 KJV 1900

John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire:

Jesus kept His promise. The Comforter had come. Although Jesus would not be with His disciples in bodily form, He had given them a far better gift. He would not continue with them, but rather in them through the person of the Holy Spirit. Jesus kept His word that He would abide in them forever. This was far better for His followers.

The sound that they heard and the sight that they saw were a confirmation of the amazing change that had happened within - they were filled with the Holy Ghost, as verse four says. These signs indicated to them all that this was an extraordinary event. A dramatic change was taking place in that moment. The word, “filled” means to be “controlled.” Going forward, they were to be submissive to the control of the Spirit of God.

Application: Christian, are you sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit?

He will convict you to change your thinking about sin in your life.

He will continually challenge you to surrender - whether it’s an area of your life or a particular thing or need.

He will sometimes impress upon your heart to help others and to show them the love of Christ.

He will urge you to tell others about Christ.

Broadly speaking, He will lead you to obey the Scriptures and to do the will of God.

If you say “no” to Him one time, it gets easier to say “no” the next time. But I’ve also found the opposite can be true. If you say “yes” one time, it gets a little bit easier to say “yes” the next time. As you grow closer to the Lord, you’ll find that submitting to the Spirit of God is not a dreaded burden, but a blessed reassurance that you are on the path of pleasing God with your life.

Invitation

The Lord’s Supper

Ask the men to come and have a seat at the front.

If you have trusted in Christ alone for salvation, then you are welcome to participate in the Lord’s Supper. It has significance to you. If you have not trusted in Christ, then you are more than welcome to watch and listen. This ordinance of the local church is a celebration and a remembrance of our Savior’s sacrifice of Himself for our sins.

Read 1 Corinthians 11:27-29.

Christian, during this time, take a moment to ensure that you are right with God and man. Examine yourself. If you haven’t already, confess, in other words, admit any known sin to God and claim His forgiveness. During this time, meditate on what your Savior did to bring you salvation. Think about His sacrifice and how He did it for you. Praise Him and thank Him as you talk with Him in your heart.

Pray and thank the Lord for giving His body and shedding His blood for us.

Serve the bread

Read 1 Corinthians 11:23-24.

Partake

Serve the grape juice

Read 1 Corinthians 11:25-26.

Partake.

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