The Holy Spirit

Intro

I was having a conversation with Amelia a few days ago. We we talking about some of the challenges of life. I try very hard to not diminish the challenges kids face, because they really are tough things. Going into a new place where you don’t know anybody is challenging. Being tested on something difficult and getting a bad grade is hard. Strife between friends is difficult to manage, even as adults.

We talked about when birds are being born, or when caterpillars are coming out of their cacoon, how the struggle is important and gives strength. We need challenge.

It’s the same in the church. When things are easy, it’s easy to be soft. To compromise on truth. When there is pressure, we are all forced to take a stance, to stand up or sit down. When I see the church pressed, I know that the Holy Spirit is working powerfully within people. As has happened since the beginning and is recorded in the book of Acts.

We’re going to be in Acts chapter 2 today, looking at the day of Pentecost, the day the gift of the Holy Spirit came among us. And for those interested, I’ll be using the overall outline and overview laid out in the Bible Project’s introduction to Acts that you can find online.

Acts

The book of Acts is really a continuation of the gospel of Luke, who was an early convert as well as a physician. Both Luke and Acts were letters written by Luke to a man named Theophilus.

The title Acts, is more accurately known as

The Acts of the Apostles

Following this group, often one or two at a time, and their spreading of the gospel, which is the resurrection of Jesus and salvation through Him through belief and repentance. While we’re on the subject, let’s define apostle. I like the way Peter Wagner puts it in his book “On Earth as it is in Heaven.”

An apostle is a Christian leader gifted, taught, commissioned and sent by God with the authority to establish the foundational government of the Church within an assigned sphere of ministry by hearing what the Spirit is saying to the churches and by setting things in order accordingly for the expansion of the kingdom of God.

Put more simply. An apostle is sent. All apostles are disciples, not all disciples are apostles. There’s some debate over whether or not that title of apostle ended with the early church. In my opinion, it did. The apostles were all witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus, including Paul, whom Jesus appeared to, and they were chosen to establish the early church. Many also wrote letters to churches that became Holy Scripture. Today, we defer to what the apostles laid out through the Holy Spirit as the ultimate authority.

But really, the most accurate way to look at the book of Acts is as

Acts of Jesus and the Spirit

Because the continuing message of Jesus and work of the Holy Spirit is the unifying thread throughout the entirety of the account and across multiple people.

So let’s dive into Acts. As we talked about last week, Judas has now been replaced by a man named Matthias, who is to take over as the twelfth member in the apostolic ministry. Before Jesus was taken to heaven, we see this exchange

Acts 1:4–6 NIV

4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” 6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

Acts 1:7–8 NIV

7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

The whole of scripture was leading to what Jesus did on the cross. He was the final sacrifice. And now the ones He chose are on the verge of reciveing this power, and then taking the gospel to the whole earth. God promised Abraham 2,000 years earlier that all the earth would be blessed by his seed. His descendants.

So now they’re waiting. They are in constant prayer together. Then the day of Pentecost comes. For Christians, Pentecost is forever celebrated as the day the gift of the Holy Spirit was given, but it was already a celebration for the Jews. It was a festival celebrated 50 days after passover, which is why it’s pente. It was also referred to as the Feast of Weeks or the Feast of harvest. We have passover, at which time Jesus was crucified, and now we have the feast of the harvest, when the Holy Spirit comes. Consistently God shows that everything was a precursor to His ultimate plan. The church is born during the celebration of the harvest, after telling His disciples the fields, people, are ripe for the harvest.

Acts 2:1–4 NIV

1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

To those reading this account in Luke’s day, they would have understood the significance. Remember, at the point this was written, their scriptures were what they called the Tanakh, or what we now refer to as the Old Testament, though there are some slight differences between the two.

After Moses finished the work of setting up the tabernacle we read this of the glory of the lord.

Exodus 40:33–35 NIV

33 Then Moses set up the courtyard around the tabernacle and altar and put up the curtain at the entrance to the courtyard. And so Moses finished the work. 34 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 35 Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

The glory of the Lord, His presence, filled that place. We see later at the dedication of the new temple

2 Chronicles 7:1–2 NIV

1 When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. 2 The priests could not enter the temple of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled it.

The presence of the Lord is like a fire, His glory filling the temple. For the entire history of this nation, there has been this association with God and fire. When God made the covenant with Abraham, what passes between the pieces of animal is a smoking firepot and blazing torch it says. When God calls to Moses, it is in the form of a burning bush. The presence of the Lord shows up many times, and eventually there is this place for the Lord’s presence in the temple, with the Holy of Holies being the greatest concentration of that presence.

Why can’t we approach God. So often, people think of sin as inconsequential. But it’s not. Our sin cannot survive in the presence of God. Imagine every sin, no matter how slight, is like this flammable tar stuck to us. Imagine approaching a blazing inferno. What happens if you get too close? The tar reacts. It lights up, and we are covered in it. We are destroyed. So what must we do? We’ll get to that in a moment.

Isreal was unique in their relationship with their God, in that the very presence of this God would show up in this way. From the very beginning, we have in Genesis the claim that mankind was made in God’s image.

In other cultures, they had idols of their deitys. Images. But these people weren’t stupid, they knew it was just wood or some other material. However, some ancient cultures would perform rituals that they believed would bring these spirits literally into the object. Essentially breathing life into them.

So Isreal is made in the image of God, and yet the presence of God is separate. So what changed?

The direction God was moving from the very beginning, from the time He made mankind in His image, to appearing as flame, to His presence residing in the temple, to His presence leaving. Then Jesus comes and starts changing the very meaning of the word “temple.” And to prepare the way John the baptist told all who heard him Matthew 3:11

Matthew 3:11 NIV

11 “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

Then Jesus takes our sin upon Him and dies on the cross WITH OUR SIN. He is our substitute. That means when God looked at Jesus on the cross, it was as if He lived my life, your life, the worst of all sinners. But when He looks at me, it’s as if I lived Jesus life. Pure and blameless. I am been redeemed. That tar has been wiped clean. So now what of the presence of God?

The Holy Spirit comes, this presence, and resides in Jesus disciples. A baptism of the Spirit. Not on every person in the world. But His followers in that place. Those that recieved that forgiveness through repentance. And then…the church was born.

What happens to those that received the Holy Spirit? They went out. No longer did they need to carry the ark of the covenant into battle. The presence of the Lord dwelled among them. Within them. As they continued to spread throughout the surrounding areas the presence of the Lord spread, wherever His followers went. His Kingdom, this new kingdom of heaven, gaining territory.

Throughout the book of Acts we see the miraculous spread of the gospel. The disciples continue to spread out, often because of resistance and persecution, and over and over again, more and more people receive the Holy Spirit. Like a single candle that is lit, as more and more people are lit on fire, it spreads. It’s light brighter. For so long the Holy presence of the Lord could be felt in Israel, but when Jesus came, when the Holy Spirit came, I can picture that presence growing and growing and growing. For 2,000 years it has spread. And with every new person, that heavenly kingdom growing.

This life as a disciple is not getting together for church once a week. It’s not making sure the scales are balanced and we’re doing more good things than bad things. This life is about opening up ourselves to our very creator. Of being made new. Of His presence through the Holy Spirit lighting a flame within us that can never be put out. To advance the Kingdom of God NOT through our power but His. To call others out of the bondage of sin and death into new life with the messiah Jesus Christ through repentance. Not through our words, but the words of scripture and the testimony of the Holy Spirit.

How exciting. To be citizens of God’s kingdom! How incredible to be a living temple for the Holy Spirit, the presence of the living God.

I’d like to pray over you. First a prayer of repentance, then a prayer to receive the Holy Spirit.

PRAY