Be His Witness
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
What does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit? We love to talk the religious language, we love to talk about being filled with the Spirit of God.
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.”
We can know we are truly filled with the Holy Spirit when winning lost souls is our priority.
I. The Person
I. The Person
We can know the Holy Spirit is a person and not just some cosmic force because the Bible says that it is so.
If He is a person, then we need to get to know Him. We may have had an initial contact, but we need to deepen our relationship with Him.
A. He Is God
A. He Is God
The easy answer is that He is God! And He is, but what is it about the Holy Spirit that gives us confidence that He is God? Why are we so sure that there is a Trinity?
1. He is Eternal
1. He is Eternal
how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Just like Jesus existed with the Father in the beginning, the Holy Spirit also existed with the Father in the beginning.
2. He Is All-Powerful
2. He Is All-Powerful
And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.
He has the same power as the Father. He can control the winds and waves, just like the Son. He is All-powerful.
3. He is Ever-Present (omnipresent)
3. He is Ever-Present (omnipresent)
Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?
Sometimes people say, “I can’t pray right now, it feels like my prayers aren’t making it past the ceiling!”
Well, the good news is the that Holy Spirit is below the ceiling too!
4. He is All-Knowing (Omniscient)
4. He is All-Knowing (Omniscient)
But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
If we want to know all the deep things of the Bible…if we want to know all the deep things of the universe, we need only ask the Holy Spirit to show us!
It is by the Holy Spirit in us that we can be intimate with God and know the mind of God.
5. He is Creator
5. He is Creator
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
God here is the word Elohim. This is the Triune God made of the Father, Son, and Spirit. And Just as Jesus was present at creation, and just as Jesus was responsible for creation, the Holy Spirit was both present and responsible for creation.
6. He is Equal in All Things
6. He is Equal in All Things
He is not inferior to The Father or Son, but He is One with them and exists in perfect harmony with them.
There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling;
Just as we are united in Jesus Christ, we are united in the Holy Spirit of God.
B. He Is Personal
B. He Is Personal
1. He Speaks to Us
1. He Speaks to Us
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” ’
The Holy Spirit of God is the communicator. He tells us the will of God.
It was by the speaking of the Holy Spirit that we have what we call the Bible.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
2. He Intercedes For Us
2. He Intercedes For Us
Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
This means that the Holy Spirit prays on our behalf and makes our requests known to God.
Intercession means to petition or pray on behalf of another person or group.
So, when you pray for another person you are interceding for them.
Intercession from the Holy Spirit is more than just prayer - intercession comes from an attitude of selfless concern, it is marked by compassion directed toward the well-being of others rather than personal benefit. Jesus Christ is our ultimate intercessor. He is our high priest. But the Holy Spirit intercedes for us because we do not know God’s will. “The Spirit overcomes our ignorance by interceding.”
3. He Testifies of the Truth
3. He Testifies of the Truth
“But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.
So, when we share with a non-believer, it’s not just we that are sharing, it is the Holy Spirit of God that is going before us to testify about the truth. The truth is Jesus Christ. For He says, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”
Of all the roles and responsibility of the Holy Spirit, this is the one that captivates me most, that He gets to your heart before my words are relayed through this microphone and out of the speakers. The Holy Spirit is actively testifying of the truth of God’s Word.
4. He Leads Us To The Lost
4. He Leads Us To The Lost
Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go near and overtake this chariot.”
Here in this story, Philip has been sent into the desert to find a man who’s heart is being primed by the Scripture. This Eunuch has the scroll of Isaiah, and he is reading it. And Philip gets there, and the Holy Spirit led Philip to overtake that chariot and to share Jesus with that man.
Here is how we pray mistakenly so many times - We say, “God, if you want me to share the gospel today, will you put someone in my path to share with?”
Friend, that’s not how God works in the Scripture. What we need to be praying is, “God, where can I go today to find the one that you’re wanting me to share with?”
The Bible says that the harvest is plentiful. Well, how does the farmer get his crops? Does he go to the supermarket while the wheat lines up and walks into his barn? No, friend, the farmer goes out into the fields and he harvests the wheat.
In the same way, we must quit waiting on God to send someone our direction and ask God to send us in the direction of someone.
5. He Guides Us to The Truth
5. He Guides Us to The Truth
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.
Some want to try to read the Bible without asking for the blessing of the Holy Spirit, but it cannot be done. The only way we can truly understand the Bible is if the Holy Spirit guides us to the truth.
That’s why we have so many people with knowledge and no understanding. They’re not filled with the Holy Spirit, their eyes are not on the Lord, and they think they’re going to sit down with their coffee and study the Bible.
But we don’t study the Bible in the way that we think we ought to be able to study, we study the Bible by abandoning anything we think we know and by allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us to the truth.
6. He Appoints
6. He Appoints
Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.
Some like to say that God doesn’t call people into the ministry, but what they’re missing is good theology. Because God does supernaturally appoint people to serve in the ministry and in different capacities such as deacon, teacher, nursery workers, administrators, etc. God has a way of calling people and using them to accomplish His purposes.
C. He is Holy
C. He is Holy
1. Don’t Lie to Him
1. Don’t Lie to Him
But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself?
While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.”
Now, I am not going to say that God will strike you dead for lying to Him, but I’m not going to say He’s not either. I am not God, and God does what He wants.
But we can lie to the Holy Spirit and commit that capital offense against Him. He can come convict us of sin and we can deny that we’ve done it.
2. Don’t Insult Him
2. Don’t Insult Him
Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?
How do we insult the Spirit of grace?
When He shines His glorious light on our darkness and we can’t do anything else but close our eyes and tell Him to leave, we have insulted Him.
Jesus came as the light of the world to the Jewish nation, and He made the blind to see, and yet Jesus says that those who had sight were all blind.
They were not blind because God forbid it, but they were blind because they shut their eyes and they took what was visibly good and they called it evil. It was blaspheme against the Holy Spirit when they said that Jesus operated by the power of the lord of filth and not by the power of the Holy Spirit.
We do not want to insult the Spirit of grace by refusing to see what He is so plainly telling us.
3. Don’t Grieve Him
3. Don’t Grieve Him
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
How is it that we grieve the Holy Spirit?
When the Holy Spirit comes into our life, He cleanses us, and He sanctifies us, He sets us apart for the work of God.
The Mother Cleaning All Day
If you’ll remember there was a time when kids went outside until dark while momma fixed supper and cleaned the house. And you better not track mud in momma’s house or else!
I heard of a mother who saved and scraped so she could get a brand new rug there as the pride and joy of the living room. The day arrives and finally she gets that carpet…and here come billy, suzy, and the dog. Right out of the creek, through the screen door, holding a pot of wet mud from the bank…
Billy and Suzy are fighting to get in the door first, the dog comes in between them, and there goes that pot of mud, right onto the new carpet.
Those kids may have still been part of the family, but their mother was grieved, and so were they when momma got out her rod of correction.
Now, when we sin, we take a pot of dirt, filth, and animal waste, and we sling it all over the new carpet of our heart.
What we do is actively allow sin in our inner man, a place that has been sealed for cleanliness by the Holy Spirit.
We aren’t thrown out of the family of God, but the Holy Spirit has to wash us clean again and chastise us for our sin.
II. The Power
II. The Power
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you
What does He give us the power to do?
A. Power To Live Holy Lives
A. Power To Live Holy Lives
When Jesus was on the earth, it wasn’t just His preaching and His miracles that set Him apart, but it was His holiness. Imagine how easy it would have been for the Pharisees to discount all that Jesus did if He was living in sin?
They wouldn’t have to discount it, because He would have done that by Himself.
Why is it any different for the Christian?
If we are going to be effectiveness witnesses of Jesus Christ, then we must live holy lives.
It’s very clear that the Bible has called us to live holy lives. It’s not about legalism, it’s not about perfection, it’s about holiness.
Holy means to be “set aside” for a special purpose.
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
But we cannot live holy lives without the power of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit lives in every believer, but some believers are more mature than others. Why?
Because they are filled with a measure of the Holy Spirit.
For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.
Here is what Billy Graham writes about this power to live a holy life:
The Holy Spirit: Activating God's Power in Your Life Power for a Holy Life
In the Christian life, power is dynamically related to a Person. This Person is the Holy Spirit Himself, indwelling the Christian and filling him with the fullness of His power. As we said earlier, He supplies His power for a purpose; it is to be used. Although His limitless resources are available to us, He will permit us to have only as much power as He knows we will use or need. Unfortunately, many Christians are disobedient and, having prayed for power, have no intention of using it, or else neglect to follow through in active obedience. I think it is a waste of time for us Christians to look for power we do not intend to use: for might in prayer, unless we pray; for strength to testify, without witnessing; for power unto holiness, without attempting to live a holy life; for grace to suffer, unless we take up the cross; for power in service, unless we serve. Someone has said, “God gives dying grace only to the dying.”
B. Power to Serve Him
B. Power to Serve Him
When you read through the Book of Acts, you’ll see time and time again that every service and every great victory was won by the power of the Holy Spirit.
This is something that they would discover on the day of Pentecost, and something that would change their lives as the continued to serve the Lord.
We like to think that the power of the Holy Spirit is reserved for the pulpit, but it is supposed to be present in every area of the church.
Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business;
This is when they were selecting deacons to administrate the feeding of orphans and widows. You’d think that they could just find anyone to oversee such a simple administration, but the instruction from God was to find men that were full of the Holy Spirit.
The problem that churches have today is that our committees, deacon bodies, and pulpits are filled with people who aren’t full of the Holy Spirit.
From the finances to the nursery, it must be done in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
You could be the best and brightest administrator in the world, but if you’re not operating in the power of the Holy Spirit you are soon to be satan’s chief tool in the church.
Anything less than operating totally by the Holy Spirit of God is less than God wants for you.
III. The Purpose
III. The Purpose
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.”
There is but one reason why the Holy Spirit would fill them with power, and that was so that the message of Jesus Christ would spread to the end of the world.
Are you hesitant about supporting missions? Then you haven’t come to a full understanding of God’s desire for the world.
God’s desire for the world is that the whole world hear the name of Jesus, turn from their sin, and worship Him.
If that is the reason that the Holy Spirit came to fill the disciples of Christ, why do you think the Holy Spirit would fill you?
The Holy Spirit will fill you when the will of God becomes your sincere desire. to reach the nations with the message of Jesus Christ.
Conclusion
Conclusion
We see Jesus moved with compassion several times in the New Testament - In all of those moments, we see a common theme, that He has compassion on those that are oppressed in sin and in poverty and feel as if they have no hope.
But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.
Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
I can see the multitudes in need of the gospel of Jesus right here in our community. Within a twenty-minute drive of our church there are 15,000 people in need of a savior and a Great Shepherd. My prayer tonight and on into this evangelism training that you will be filled with the Holy Spirit and will be burdened to reach the lost.
