We Need the Holy Spirit
Meeting the Holy Spirit Through Acts • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 3 viewsYou must be Spirit-filled to be an effective witness.
Notes
Transcript
Have you ever had an awesome encounter with God? I have.
Have you ever read the book of Acts? Acts is an awesome book in the Bible. It’s the fifth book in the NT and the second book in a two volume set written by Luke. Luke was a Greek doctor who travelled with Paul. He writes to someone named Theophilus. Most likely, Luke is writing to a patron who is at least sympathetic to the gospel message, if not already a believer. At any rate, Luke’s first audience is probably upper-middle class Jews and Romans (and maybe Greeks too). But here’s the cool thing about the books of both Luke and Acts: they are for everybody.
If you google “list of amazing things in Acts” you can find a list of all the amazing stories in Acts. Here’s just a few:
The Holy Spirit comes to the apostles in the form of tongues of fire (Acts 2:1-4).
The apostles speak in tongues (Acts 2:5-13).
Peter heals a lame man (Acts 3:1-10).
Saul has a dramatic encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-19).
Peter raises Dorcas (Tabitha) from the dead (Acts 9:36-43).
An angel rescues Peter from prison (Acts 12:3-10).
We’re not even halfway through the book and already some amazing things are happening. We see the apostles and believers bolding proclaiming Jesus, and having amazing encounters with God. And it starts right at the beginning, where Jesus says to the disciples:
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.”
Sermon series introduction.
Encountering the Holy Spirit in Acts
The person and work of the Spirit
Why?:
So what we want to press into - and perhaps for some of us capture or re-capture - is that Spirit-filled life that stands in word and action as a witness. My hope and prayer as we study how the early Christians experienced living life in the Spirit is that each one of us will have a “wow” moment with the Spirit of God; one among many in our lifetime
We’re going to start that series today by looking at this little verse, right at the start of Acts. Because it holds the key to the spread of the gospel and the church all over the world.
And I want to say this: Unless we are empowered by the Spirit of God, our witness won’t stand.
You must be Spirit-filled to be an effective witness.
As we consider how the Holy Spirit empowers our lives for witness, I think we see two factors in this text that need our attention. The first factor is…
Spirit Empowerment
Spirit Empowerment
What is the mission statement of the church? Can anyone tell me?
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
This is the commissioning Jesus gives His church, of which we are a part. This is central to our understanding of Acts 1:8.
Yet we read this at the start of Acts in verses 4-5
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;
for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
This recalls Luke 24:49, where Jesus tells His disciples DON’T go anywhere until the Spirit comes. It seems counterintuitive for Jesus to tell His disciples to stay in the city, rather than getting out there and starting on their mission. But again:
Unless we are empowered by the Spirit of God, continuing the mission of Jesus Christ to make disciples of all nations is a failed endeavour.
As we get to verses 6 and 7 of Acts 1, and the disciples are asking Jesus “are you going to do that military conquest thing now, and drive out the Romans and restore Israel??” They were focused on the immediate now. They know that triumph is coming, but they are thinking it’s over Roman oppression. Which, in case you’ve missed it, ended about 1500 years ago. So clearly a conquering once for all has to be bigger than the Roman empire.
Jesus reorients their thoughts. He says “hey, it’s not for you to know the timing God’s got planned when it comes to this world or the end or such things. Instead, you’ve got a mission to continue: my mission. Then He proclaims that sweet hope over His disciples that rings true for us as well:
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.”
It is within this context, this idea that without the Spirit of God our witness is really no witness at all, that we must root ourselves. God’s divine power makes all the difference!
Jesus has given them a commission, to go and make disciples. For us to continue carrying out this mission is to follow in the very steps of Christ! But it wasn’t until the Holy Spirit had come upon them that they would be equipped for this work.
This first factor of the Holy Spirit empowering our lives for witness is about exploring Spirit empowerment. Jesus says we will receive this power. So the question becomes, what does it mean to receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon us?
The coming of the Holy Spirit - as we will see later in Acts - changed everything. What are some of the ways that the Holy Spirit’s indwelling changes our lives?
Certainly there is victory over sin. We are no longer enslaved to it and by the Spirit we can overcome it.
For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
In the Spirit we receive power to wage war against Satan and his forces, engaging in the spiritual battle that is all around us.
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.
For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
You know, I was talking with my father-in-law at one point. And he said to me “I’d rather meet a demon than an angel.” Now my father in law is a pastor, and a mentor of mine. So I’m asking WHY? He explained it’s because any time we see angels in the Bible, people get terrified fast. They are literally these amazing , huge beings coming directly from God. They are a scary sight at first! But as scary as a demon can be, we know that we serve the one who is bigger. In Jesus, through the Spirit, we do not have to be afraid but have the power to wage spiritual warfare. How amazing is that?
We also have the gifts of the Spirit found in 1 Corinthians, and the fruit of the Spirit in our lives as we read in Galatians 5.
The empowering of the Spirit also leads to effective Christian community through loving service and acts of power. This is something we’re going to explore more but realize: The whole of the book of acts is full of these type of power encounters with the Holy Spirit! Healings, miracles, signs, etc!
We receive power for effective witness. Not that our words, our eloquence, or our lives are so great. Rather through the Spirit, we proclaim the mysteries of salvation.
and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead,
and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things.
And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
This is the particular focus of Acts 1:8 when it comes to being empowered by the Spirit. To be empowered by the Spirit, or to be full of the Spirit, not only creates life transformation in each of us, but causes us to have effective witness.
But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.
So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands.
Did you notice how God empowered them both to speak boldly, and gave signs to attest to the truth of their speech? As we go through Acts you will see that the early Christians lived with the reality of the powerfully moving Holy Spirit in their lives everyday. I think somewhere along the way the church forgot that. But God has not and I think when we earnestly desire to know God, we will find ourselves encountering the powerful, living Spirit in new and amazing ways. The key to understanding the significance of the coming of the Spirit is that our witness to others is not just some words - God closely attends this witness about the gospel. He gives signs through the disciples and us as to its truth! He is in it!
The primary task of the Christian is to tell about Jesus in their lives and with their mouths. This can only be accomplished by means of the Spirit’s powerful indwelling. And it is the Holy Spirit who convinces someone of the truth of the gospel. So when Jesus tells us that we are to be clothed with power through the Holy Spirit for witness, we realize that not only do we walk in divine power to boldly proclaim the message about Jesus Christ, but it is only our job to proclaim, not convince.
This first factor as we consider how the Holy Spirit empowers our life for witness is to understand the nature of Spirit empowerment. It is for whole-life change, and specifically as we consider Acts 1 8 for witnessing about Christ’s death and ressurection; the salvation found in Him alone.
But this leads us to a second factor…
The Whole World
The Whole World
Jesus next words in Acts 1:8 reverberate down through history:
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.”
Why is this little line so important? This is actually another theme we see throughout Acts. First Christianity builds in Jerusalem, starting with Pentecost. But from there, we see it begin to spread. First to the Jews, but then in Acts 8 we read that Philip the evangelist has taken the gospel message to Samaria. Later in the chapter, some of the apostles from the church in Jerusalem go to see for themselves, praying for the Samaritan believers. And guess what happens:
Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.
In the same way that the apostles had received the Spirit, in the same power that the Jewish church had moved now these Samaritans too join together. The Spirit is given to them just as much as the Jewish church.
Now skip over if you will in your Bibles to chapter 10. Here Peter and Cornelius the Roman centurion meet. God tells Cornelius, someone who loves the Lord, to send someone to get the apostle Peter. Now, for a Jew to enter a Gentile’s house was strictly forbidden. This would cause the Jew to be unclean. But just prior to the man coming to get Peter, God gives Peter this vision of a blanket filled with food. Food that no Jew might touch, such as pig, or other such animals that were considered unclean. Naturally, when God tells Peter to eat Peter responds by saying that He wouldn’t eat something that was against the law to eat. But then God says this:
And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.”
Peter’s not sure what to make of this, until the man comes to get Peter. Then Peter gets it. He goes to Cornelius’s house, proclaims the gospel, and they believe. And then again in Acts 10 44-45 we read:
While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word.
And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles.
It is after this point that Paul and his companions begin the work of spreading the gospel to the Gentiles. And from that work we have many of our New Testament books, like Romans, or Galatians, or 1-2 Corinthians.
How does one band of followers of Jesus turn into an entire movement that spread not just through one nation, but throughout the entire known world? At this point, 2000 years later, every continent, pretty well every country has heard the good news, somehow, some way. How does this happen?
It’s because of the Spirit’s power, moving in the hearts of people to hear, receive and believe, and then go and proclaim that the gospel spreads. It’s because of the Spirit’s power moving throughout churches and nations, igniting fires in the hearts of God’s people to draw closer to Him, or to carry out the mission of Jesus, and to live - sometimes in the face of extreme adversity - for Jesus.
We need to realize, Church, that for this type of expansion to take place, it can only happen if the Spirit of God is filling us. Jesus told Peter this in Matthew 16 18
And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Jesus said I will build my church. Not you will, not that other guy. I will. God builds His church through the power of the Spirit’s moving and indwelling. And praise God, the gates of hell surely will not prevail against it!
As we have said before:
Unless we are empowered by the Spirit of God, continuing the mission of Jesus Christ to make disciples of all nations is a failed endeavour.
Could not it also be said that we must be Christ’s Spirit-empowered witnesses, to the ends of our world? Not just here in Leask, or Marcelin, or Misty, or Blaine Lake, or Muskeg. But how about in the city when we visit there. How about in the places where we don’t feel most comfortable to go? Think about it, where is your “end of the world?”
It is in the mighty moving and working of the Spirit in and through His people that Jesus builds His church. So if we want God to move mightily in our midst, we must desire the Spirit of God actively moving in our lives and hearts.
Not just in Jerusalem or Samaria, or Leask, or Blaine Lake, but to the ends of the earth we are His witnesses. Whether we’re living in the Holy Land, or living in the frozen north of Saskatchewan. If you know Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, you too have received the power of the Spirit of God in order to be a witness to what Christ has done.
Ending - Waiting on God.
Ending - Waiting on God.
You must be Spirit-filled to be an effective witness.
The two factors of this that we find in Acts 1:8 are
Spirit-empowerment
We must be empowered - or Spirit-filled - in order to accomplish our mission. This empowerment is for witness in word and action. As we see throughout Acts, the believers witnessed boldly, proclaiming Jesus Christ. God also worked through them to do signs and wonders that showed God moving. Awesome encounters with God through His Spirit-empowered people are all over the book of Acts! It is imperative too that we live as Spirit-filled people to accomplish the mission Jesus gave us
The Whole World
Jesus makes it clear that when the Holy Spirit does come, the time will then arrive for the spread of the gospel to take off. And what we see as we continue to study Acts is the spread of the gospel throughout Judea, and then to the Samaritans, and finally to Romans and Greeks and all sorts of people groups who would be considered Gentiles. Only by the Spirit’s powerful, mighty working can the church be built, but Jesus makes it clear that He will build His church. And this is true for us too. What is your Jerusalem, Samaria, ends of the earth? Wherever we go we’re called to boldly witness, trusting the Spirit. Where has He given you opportunity?
After Jesus had given His disciples these things, He ascended. The disciples returned to Jerusalem. Acts lists all the disciples, including the women who were there. Then we read this in:
All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
In anticipation of what was to come, we find the disciples earnestly seeking God in prayer. They postured themselves in readiness for God’s Spirit to move. And when He did, well, that’s where the amazing story of Pentecost, tongues, and the salvation of many comes from.
And that’s how I want to end today.
I want to end by together, all of us, praying with a burning desire to see God’s Spirit keep moving and move more. God did amazing things in Acts. From the story of Pentecost to the stories of healing, deliverance, and salvation. God moved powerfully. He still is! But when God’s people join together in prayer and ask for the power of the Holy Spirit to be on them as well, amazing things happen.
This message was a little shorter purposely, so that we could end by corporately praying for a renewed move of the Spirit here in this church and in our communities. If we want to see God’s Spirit move, that means all of us need to have a heart and earnest desire to see God do amazing things here. To pour out His Spirit and allow us to grow deeper in the power of God’s Spirit.
So, what I would like to ask you to do is this: Begin as a body of believers to desperately ask God to pour out His Spirit here in fresh ways. So together we’re going to pray. I want to invite you to speak out your prayer to God - asking Him in the hearing of others for a new move of God’s Spirit. A fresh fire here. Let’s do it together.
Corporate prayer. Asking people to speak out their wish for God’s Spirit to move.