His Empowering Work
Acts of the Apostles • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 9 viewsHe empowers us by Promises. He has promised the Holy Spirit He empowers us to
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Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me;
for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
I. He Empowers us by Promises
I. He Empowers us by Promises
Back in the 50s there was a scientist who placed mice in buckets of water. He did this to see how long they would tread water. The first go around, the mice treaded water for 15 minutes.
In the second trial, the mice were rescued just as they began to sink. They were dried, off and allowed to rest. When they were put back in the water, this time they treaded water for over 40 hours.
How is that possible? It is possible because they were empowered by hope. They were empowered by the promise of rescue.
Are you on your way to drowning? I don’t want you to drown, I want you to tread water relying on the empowering work of our hope, Jesus Christ.
The Entire Bible is based on Promise
I want you to think about the entire Bible as if it were one single snap-shot.
When you do that…what do you see? You ought to see that at every age, and in every time, there is a promise. What is that promise? The ultimate promise, from the creation of man, to the end of time, is that anyone who follows God, who has faith in God, will live eternally.
Look again in Acts 1:4
He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father.
Jesus has been crucified, He is now risen, and He is here to announce that the promise of God is taking the next step in its fulfillment. That God is moving us closer to glory, that He is moving us closer being like Jesus.
He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me;
This is not a new promise, this is a promise that has been in place since the foundation of the world. The promise has always been that God is going to bring redemption to mankind. To those who have faith in Him.
as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,
His Divine Power
What is His divine power?
who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
The Divine power of God is the ability to keep His promise of salvation by faith. There is no other way, there is no other avenue. He has made us a promise that if we believe in Him, we will have everlasting life.
You say, “Pastor, I thought we were supposed to have faith in Jesus for everlasting life?”
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”
To have faith in God and His salvation, is to have faith in Jesus and His death and resurrection. A person cannot have faith in God without having faith in Jesus. To get that everlasting life, to obtain that divine power of salvation, we must have faith in God.
as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,
by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these [promises] you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
Power through Promise
It is by promise that God gives us power. By His promises, He gives us victory over the world and victory over death.
These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
When Jesus says that “in Me you may have peace”, He is saying that by trusting in My promises you will have victory. You will overcome the world. and if you can down in your heart that you will overcome trial and tribulation in Jesus name, then you will be empowered to live a Godly life.
Old Testament Promises
These promises of God are not just found in the New Testament, but they are found in the Old Testament as well. If you want to see an inspiring list of fulfilled promises in the life of God’s people, you can find that in Hebrews 11.
Abel - Genesis 4
The story of Cain and Abel is the story of two brothers. Abel made a sacrifice according to the promise of God, according to faith in God..and his sacrifice was accepted. Cain made a sacrifice based on his own initiative, void of the promises of God, void of empowered living, and it was rejected. Cain was so angry that he murdered his brother.
not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.
Abel may have suffered persecution because of his righteousness, but because he lived empowered by promise, he was ultimately saved. Cain may have gotten his revenge and had power here on earth, but because of his evil works and his lust for power, he ultimately died.
Noah - Genesis 6
God made a promise that He was going to flood the earth. The whole earth rejected that promise, except for the family of Noah. What happened? Every one else that lived on the earth died from the power of the flood, but Noah was saved from the power of the flood. When the whole world was sinking, Noah was floating because he lived according to promise. He was empowered to overcome that great flood.
Rahab - Joshua 2
Rahab was a prostitute, a pagan who saw the power of God, and believed in Him. When He said, “I am going to take Jericho” she believed Him. And because she believed in God, she was rescued.
Many more
who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the foreigners.
Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.
All of these things were recieved waiting on the promises of God. Being empowered by His word of promise. We see the ultimate promise of redemption come when Jesus is born and dies on the cross, raising from the dead to prove His victory.
And, now, here we are, and these disciples are getting ready to receive a promise that God set in motion from the beginning of creation:
We know that we are empowered by Promise, and we see these disciples are about to be empowered by that promise…but what is the promise.
III. He Has Promised the Holy Spirit
III. He Has Promised the Holy Spirit
And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me;
for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
Some will say that the promise of the Holy Spirit is a New Testament ordeal, but that’s not the case. The Holy Spirit has always existed just as God has always existed, and the Holy Spirit is promised even in the Old Testament. In fact, there are at least 100 references to the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament.
Here are two key Old Testament Verses that relate to the book of Acts and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit.
Joel 2:28
“And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh
Peter references this in chapter 2, and counts it as fulfilled on the day of Pentecost.
2. Zechariah 12:10
“And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.
This is fulfilled at the crucifixion and when Jesus appears to show His nail-pierced hands and feet.
Addressing “WHO IS THE HOLY SPIRIT”.
Who is the Holy Spirit?
For most people, they put the Holy Spirit into two camps. Either they view Him as the emphasis of worship…believing that the Holy Spirit wants praise and adoration, believing that the Holy Spirit fills you and causes you to shake and run around, that He causes you to speak in some kind of angelic language.
Then there are those who believe that the Holy Spirit has nothing to do with worship, nothing to do with their daily life, nothing to do with accomplishing the work of God, and they’re both wrong.
Who is the Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit is God.
He’s not lesser. He’s not inferior, He is God. Just as Jesus is God and was there at creation, the Holy Spirit is God and was there at creation.
The Holy Spirit is a divine person, one with God the Father, and God the Son. He is the Third person of the Trinity.
The Holy Spirit is not some sort of impersonal force in the universe that God uses. He is a person and He relates to you personally.
The Holy Spirit is in authority.
To get a directive or a mission from the Holy Spirit is just as powerful as getting a word from God, because He is God.
What Does the Holy Spirit do?
Well, we know that the Holy Spirit is God, that He is personal, and that He has authority…but what exactly does He do?
He seeks to glorify Jesus
However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.
Jesus doesn’t say that the Spirit does not have authority, He simply says that He will not speak by His own authority. Well by Who’s authority does He speak?
He speaks on the authority of Jesus.
He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.
False Doctrines of the Holy Spirit
Anytime someone says that the Holy Spirit has given them a new word, any time someone says they had a vision, any time someone says that they have had a dream, and that word, or dream, or vision, does not directly glorify Jesus Christ…then it’s not of the Holy Spirit.
Now what are the two camps?
The first one is that they believe the Holy Spirit brings on emotion and dancing, screaming, speaking in tongues, or what have you…and they want to make the Holy Spirit the emphasis. Or they want to make themselves the emphasis…or they want to make their generation the emphasis in the work God is doing. However, the only emphasis that the Holy Spirit will give is to Jesus Christ.
He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.
He will not give glory to anything or anyone else but Jesus Christ.
He Teaches us the Bible.
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
Then there’s the other camp…
This camp is the one that thinks the Holy Spirit is non-existent in their life. They think that we need to make sense of the Bible..they think that we need to use worldly wisdom to understand the tragedy of the world. They think that there are no such thing as spiritual requirements for deacons, committee members, or church leadership.
On a more broad spectrum, there are people who think they need a PhD to understand the Bible. If they do…then tell me how a little child gets saved?
Sure, we need to know hermeneutics, context, history, so on and so forth, but you can know all of those things and still not understand the Bible.
How can I know when someone understands the Bible? How can I know when someone’s life is filled by the Holy Spirit?
Not simply that they know what the Bible says, not that they hold the leadership position, not that they’re the pastor or teacher, but if they do what the Bible says.
Now remember, there are two ways to teach. One way is information, but the best way is application. The Holy Spirit doesn’t give you information…but He transforms your life by God’s word by getting you in and out of different situations.
Let’s say there’a a preacher, preaching today on loving your neighbor. He gets out of church and sees a man who has been beaten and bloodied, and instead of going over to help him, he just get on the other side of the street and forgets that he saw him there.
Then, there comes another man who isn’t a Bible teacher, not a seminary graduate, just a lay person in the church, and he sees that man and he goes and helps that man, calls the ambulance, pays the bill, and checks on him in the hospital.
Which one of these men do you think is the man who understands the Bible? It wasn’t the preacher or the teacher, but it was the lay person.
We understand the Bible when we do what it says…the Holy Spirit is the One Who teaches us how to live by the scripture. He convicts us, steers us, and fills us, applying the word of God on the inside.
He Empowers Us
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
What does the Holy Spirit empower us to do?
He empowers us to do the will of God.
IV. He Empowers Us to do the Will of God
IV. He Empowers Us to do the Will of God
There was a specific reason that the Holy Spirit was going to come on the day of Pentecost…
look again in v. 8
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
What Jesus was saying is that the Holy Spirit will empower you to glorify Me (be witnesses to Me), The Holy Spirit will open the hearts of the people in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the end of the earth (He will teach them the word of God).
This is what the Holy Spirit has always done, He has always filled people and empowered them to do the will of God.
Anytime that you find, “And the Spirit of God filled him”, in the Old Testament and the New Testament, it was solely to accomplish the will of God here on earth.
Do you want to know why you can’t live empowered, why you cannot live at peace, why you cannot live victoriously?
It is because you have the wrong idea about the Holy Spirit.
Emotionalism
It could be that you are led by your emotions. You get one little feeling about something and you assume that its the Holy Spirit. Or maybe, you are always seeking this spiritual high where you “feel” like God is talking with you.
Listen, God is not going to do a deep work in your life emotionally.
What is something Jesus says the Holy Spirit will do?
He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
When the Holy Spirit does a great work in your life, what He is going to do is He is going to point you back to the promises of God. He is going to bring to your remembrance that God’s got this, and you don’t need to worry. Just be obedient and let Us work out the details.
He is not going to pile onto your emotionalism.
Trying to live the Christian life based on a whim or an emotion is going to lead you to exhaustion. Living the Christian life based on the promises of God is going to empower you to endure. You cannot accomplish God’s will with emotions.
Dead Religion
The opposite of emotional living is dead religion.
That is, just going about your day as if God is not indwelling you. One thing of the Holy Spirit is that He lives in the Christian.
Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
Do you want me to tell you how a church dies? When the people become void of the Holy Spirit.
Folks, this is just the building, you are the temple of God. The Holy Spirit may be present in here, but more importantly He is present in the life of believers. If you want this church to thrive, you want it to change, you want it to be free of dead religion, you want some vibrancy…then you first…be filled with the Spirit, live in obedience to God.
How can you go from emotionalism or dead religion to Spiritual renewal?
Live by the promises of God, not by your emotions.
Recognize that the Holy Spirit is in you and with you, present in your every day life.
Totally submit your life to knowing and doing the will of God
I thought this was supposed to be a Mother’s Day message?
Live by the promises of God, not by your emotions.
By the way, “train a child in the way they should go and when they are old they will not depart”, that is a principle, not a promise. That is a proverb, a general truth, not a promise. What your adult child does and how they live their life is their choice, not your fault. Stop bailing your child out by blaming yourself and intercede before God on their behalf.
Recognize that your children belong to God and God alone, and that His Spirit lives in you, present in your everyday life.
Totally submit your life to knowing and doing the will of God, providing the example to your children.
How can you know what the will of God is? By knowing and doing what the Bible says…everything else will fall into place if you will do that.
