The Holy Spirit Came

In this series, The Mystery Made Known, we are studying the person of the Holy Spirit. In so many ways, the Holy Spirit is a mystery to us. We lack clarity and often have false assumptions. So to gain perspective, to learn how to better walk in the Spirit with confidence. So, we started by looking at the Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus.

In the life of Jesus the Holy Spirit:

Spirit came upon Him

filled Jesus

Leads Jesus

Empowers Jesus

Enables ministry

Performs miracles

casts out demons

And even His emotions were in the Holy Spirit.

We then briefly considered how the Holy Spirit not only worked in Jesus in these ways but also works in us in the same ways.

Last week, Pastor Jon did a great job, helping us to understand that the Spirit was promised to us. That He would come and dwell in us. That as He dwells in us, we are then guided and led by Him. We are able to minister to those around us, not by our own strength or gifting, but by abiding in the Spirit. By inviting and trusting Him to do the kingdom work as we surrender ourselves to Him.

This week, we are taking a look at when the promise of the Holy Spirit was actualized. But before we get to that moment, we need to consider the context. Just days before Pentecost, Jesus gave some important teaching and instructions.

Acts 1:4–8 “4 And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 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.””

He ordered them to wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came.

Because without the leading, empower, guiding, of the Holy Spirit in our life, we would have no ability to do kingdom work. There has never been a man, woman, or child who could do anything for God’s kingdom unless God enables them. Jesus wants them to stay in Jerusalem because the plan going forward is that as we go, we would be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, which will enable us to build His kingdom.

When you receive the power of the Holy Spirit, YOU WILL BE MY WITNESSES. The reason for the Holy Spirit in your life is to empower you to reach people for God. It is a direct mission to every believer of every generation since the day of Pentecost. We have been purposed to reach the world around us, to build people up by helping them orient around Jesus.

So the disciples and other followers of Jesus, there were about 120 of them hear this promise of Jesus, Jesus ascends into heaven and now they are expectant and waiting.

Acts 1:14 “14 All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.”

They are waiting for this Holy Spirit and they don't know what else to do, so they stay together, and they pray in the upper room.

Now they are ready, they are praying, and they may have anticipated that Jesus left today so it may be tomorrow that the Holy Spirit comes, or perhaps the day after. They didn’t know when He would come, all they really knew is that He would come.

What do you do when you are waiting for God?

do you get anxious? Do you jump to conclusions? Do you make assumptions about God in your waiting?

The disciples, the followers of Jesus, prayed. They gathered as a unified body of Christ. The bible says the where “With one accord.” They were committed to pursuing Christ and because they were committed to pursuing Christ, they were committed to each other. We have no account of them doing anything in their waiting, except gathering together and praying.

There is something beautiful about people who are intentional about coming together to pray. When the desire of the people is to meet with God together, recognizing this is a personal faith that is meant to be lived in community. That community is meant to be unified, trusting of each other.

More than that, we know that our prayer life reflects our spiritual vitality.

If we are a people who prays in ways only to receive from God, it shows that we don’t understand relationship.

If we struggle to pray, it reveals we are disconnected from God’s Spirit.

If we are impatient it reveals our need for control instead of trusting God’s timing.

If we read the Bible, if we memorize it and know it from front to back but do not pray, our reading is nothing more than an intellectual exercise.

Prayer is about meeting with God. It is about coming into His presence first and foremost to worship Him. It is about learning to surrender all of our ways, all of our ideas, all of our aspirations and trust God. When we find ourselves waiting, are we diligent to wait in His presence? Are we willing, to invite other believers into our pursuit of God as we wait?

Prayer is incredibly important in the life of the believer, because when we regularly come before God in worship based prayer, surrendered prayer, God aligns our hearts and minds with His Spirit.

So we pray.

As the time came for the Holy Spirit to be poured out, it would be a miraculous moment. In many ways it would be climactic as there would be a rumbling birthing process of miraculous signs of His coming. There would be no mistake as to what has happened, but a clear, significant moment in time that would prepare the Church of Christ to boldly move forward in great confidence.

Acts 2:1–4 “1 When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

Pentecost is one of the three major feasts for Israel. The day of Pentecost comes 50 days after the passover. It has been called both the feast of weeks because it is 7 weeks after passover and the Feast of First Fruits or Harvest. It is in the time of year that Israels first crops would be beginning to produce. We learn in Acts 2:41 that on this particular Pentecost, three thousand would put their faith and trust in Jesus, making it a harvest of man.

What is also significant about this particular year is that it would be the moment that the promised Holy Spirit is given and the Church of Christ is born. In these four verses, there are four keys.

Verse 2 “Suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.”

This is a significant verse. Throughout the Bible we see the Holy Spirit likened to this idea of breath and wind. Both the Hebrew and Greek word for Spirit also can mean breath or wind. In Ezekiel 37 we see that the power of this wind or breath is likened to breathing life into corpses. 600 years after Ezekiel, we read about the Holy Spirit coming to live within each believer. Identifying and sealing them with Spiritual life.

Two weeks ago, I mentioned that the Holy Spirit is not the wind. Yet, we see that He is likened to our very breath and in this picture of His coming, He is associated with the wind. But the language of the passage suggests, though it was like the wind, it was not the wind. They heard this mighty rushing wind, but they did not feel it.

This is one of those passage where we can walk away with some funny ideas about the Holy Spirit. We can too easily assume the Spirit is the wind or in the wind, so every time I feel that breeze its the Holy Spirit running through me..... You see we sometimes lack clarity in what the passage is saying.

Then there are times when we focus only on experiencing the Holy Spirit. I believe it is good and right to experience the Spirit, that it is truly a gift from the Lord that enrich’s our spiritual lives. But sometimes, we pursue God or His Spirit because we just want to feel His presence, we just want to feel good, we just want Him to answer this one prayer, or to see this one specific outcome. Perhaps it is that we want to have a radical experience with Him that is life changing. We find ourselves more concerned about personal experience and desired outcomes than the will of God.

We are fare more self driven than mission driven

We are far more self focused than God focused

We do not know how to live in the power of the Spirit because we are so distracted by our personal desires.

It’s not wrong to desire to feel and know the presence of God. The problem is we tend to think that if we had this powerful experience that our lives would be changed forever. If we just saw God do this miracle, or express Himself to us the way we want - then we would really know God is real. But the the Lord doesn't give that type of encounter often because ultimately, we are teaching ourselves to trust our personal experience instead of God Himself. Powerful experiences don’t carry you through life.

Committed, obedient faith that pursue’s Jesus...... that will carry you through. It’s when we trust Him more than we trust ourselves.

We see all kinds of people in the bible who witnessed miracles of God, only to doubt Him or walk away later in their life. Though your experiences with God can be encouraging, emboldening, enriching in every way that you need, you will need to live a life of faith that is intentional about surrendering to Him day after day. As we seek after God, as we ask to be filled and guided by His Spirit we will find opportunities to powerfully reach others. Its when we continually walk rightly with our God together, in His Spirit, that we can boldly, confidently pour everything we have into reaching those who are lost. We will find that we are able to worship God both on the mountain tops and in the valleys of life, singing His joy.

Our second miracle at Pentecost comes in verse 3, And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.

These tongues of fire were not literal. As interesting as it might be to imagine people literally running around with their hair on fire, that is not what is taking place here. Notice the descriptive language where it says “tongues as of fire appeared.” This is something that they saw and bore witness too but it was not physical fire.

Rather, it was more like the fire of the burning bush with Moses, where the bush appeared to be on fire, but it was not burning up (Exodus 3:1-6)

Or the pillar of cloud and fire that led the Israelites from Egypt (Exodus 13:17-22)

We also see God take this form of fire in the tabernacle and at Mt Sinai.

Throughout the Bible we see God connected with fire as a purifying, powerful agent. We could also include the verse that we have claimed for Grace Church this year

Hebrews 12:28–29 “28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.”

Seeing the fire over each believer who is present is a big deal. It means that God’s spirit is not just poured out on a few, not just the disciples or those who were close to Jesus. But all of the believers are seen with this fire burning over them. This is a consecration of a new temple. Just as the Spirit of God had consecrated the original temple in Jerusalem where His presence dwelt, He now is consecrating the body of believes as individual temples of the Lord.

1 Corinthians 6:19 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,”

We have been purchased by the blood of Jesus. When the Holy Spirit came, He didn’t come near His children, He chose to reside in them. So that wherever they go, He would be able to prompt and lead them into His will.

Notice verse 4:

Acts 2:4 “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.

This is the third miracle of Pentecost. That Jesus so loved us that He died on the cross for our sin. He took our sinful, wickedness and nailed it to the cross so that we could be justified before God and sealed with His Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 1:13–14 “13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”

Friends, this is a big deal. Wherever you go, the Spirit of God is with you! Not only is He with you, but He works in you, He refines you, You leads you rightly before the throne of God. He leads you into all truth, He convicts you of sin, He calls you to live on mission and prepares you for the work.

His being in you is the guarantee of salvation. When you are sealed with the Holy Spirit in your life, there is no question as to whether or not you are saved. Because He does not reside in those who are not saved.

We are going to move on from this miracle of Pentecost because next week, Pastor Tim will be speaking more to what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit

Acts 2:4 “4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

The fourth miracle is speaking in tongues. There are some who will try to tell you that speaking in tongues hear means to pray in a heavenly language. A language that is given to you by God for the purpose of worshiping Him with more appropriate and meaningful depth. But when we read the next couple of verses that is not the case at all.

Acts 2:5–8 “5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. 7 And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?”

To speak in tongues here means that there are people in Jerusalem for the festival from all over the world. in the next few verses, the men who are identified mention 17 regions and people groups who were present for this moment and who heard these Christians that are filled with the Spirit - speaking in their own native tongue.

Now, you might suppose that in that time, in that area people were used to speaking more than one language. And for most regions you would be right. Many people did speak multiple languages. But here is how we know that this is a miraculous work of the Spirit. We are told in verse 7, that the people speaking are Galileans.

Galileans were known for only speaking Aramaic and speaking it in their own dialect. People from surrounding areas would always struggle to understand what they are saying. An example for us would be speaking to someone from a country with a harsh sounding language like Russia. After the first word or two it would be clear that they are not from around here. Yet, I hear them, clear as day in my own language.

Through this event we see God’s intention is to unite people “From every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9-10; 7:9). Not only does God unite us, He does it under the rule of Jesus by providing reconciliation through Him and access to God the Father by His Holy Spirit (Ephesians 2:14-18).

Our God is a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic God who desires to see all people come together in one accord to worship Him. So we are bound together as believers with the Holy Spirit.

10 Core Values

This is truly an amazing moment in history for God’s people. In fact, this passage is one that only gets more interesting as you study it. If we look across the Bible we can compare it to a few other significant moments for Gods People.

Tower of Babel.

Pentecost is a reversal of the tower of Babel. The tower of babel was when men wanted to build a tower for their own glory. It was selfish ambition.

At Babel God’s judgement scattered the people..... At Pentecost, God’s blessing united them with the power of the Holy Spirit.

At Babel - nobody could understand each other - but at Pentecost, everyone heard God being praised clearly in their native language.

Building the tower of Babel was an act of rebellion - Pentecost was a demonstration of humble surrender to God.

Mount Sinai

We can consider the implications of how it relates to Israel at Mount Sinai after they were freed from Egypt.

Sinai - God freed them from slavery - Jesus freed us from being slaves to this world.

Sinai - God gave them the 10 commandments, the law that they were to uphold..... At Pentecost He gave us His Spirit, who dwells in all who believe.

God entered into a covenant agreement with the people of Israel - at Pentecost, He made a public invitation to all people that they can be forgiven and made right with God.

The church was birthed