The Power to Live Life Part 2
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Pentecost
Pentecost
Pente meaning 50. We celebrate the birth of the New Testament Church. The church that Jesus wanted. And the church that Jesus empowered.
Jesus’s disciples were ready to go and tell the good news. Or the Gospel story, but He tells them to wait until the Holy Spirit comes.
This is not just having the Holy Spirit with us - something that all Christians have.
This is having the power of the Holy Spirit in us. Jesus calls it His baptism. A submerging in the person and power of the Holy Spirit of God
This birthed a church that had power.
Jesus wanted his disciples to go and tell the good news, but he wanted them to be able to back it up. To do miracles and signs and wonders so that peoples hearts would be changed. And the door would be opened in lives for salvation to take place.
This is one of three baptisms that every believer receives in their lives.
The first baptism is the Baptism performed by the Holy Spirit. That is that he baptizes or leads us to Christ.
It is how you became a believer. Nobody becomes a believer without the Holy Spirit drawing at their hearts and showing them their sin and the remedy for it.
The second baptism is then the outward statement of that internal change.
this is performed by a pastor or elder of the church and it is the baptism in water. An outward statement of what Christ has done inside.
I stand with you in a tank or a body of water and I submerge you under the water, allowing the water to envelope you as the grave enveloped Christ, saying that you are dead to yourself. That you have died with Christ and along with that death, your sin and your old man have died as well.
And then I bring you up out of the water, representing the resurrection of Jesus Christ from that grave and you into a new life.
Paul says that the life that we now live is the life of Christ in us. Or Jesus living through us.
And then the third baptism is performed by Jesus. And it’s this one that we are speaking about today. It is the baptism into the power of the Holy Spirit.
A baptism of power and fire
A baptism that now gives the believer the power that they need to live victoriously and to minister powerfully in the world that we live.
12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.
As we see here, Jesus expects that his followers and disciples would do even greater things than he ever did.
Why is that not happening in many places where the believers are gathering today? Because we aren’t getting people baptized in the power of the Holy Spirit.
That’s how this is done. It’s the only way that these things are done.
So let’s go back to last week.
We took the whole service to look at
The Way It Was!
The Way It Was!
The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament.
Mankind through Adam and Eve were created to have communion with God.
They walked and talked with him every day
They thought the way that he thought
They were totally innocent. No sin, no knowledge of sin or even desire to sin.
They were totally powerful (not like God) from God. They had dominion over the earth and everything in it.
But they fell to sin and the desire to become like God. And they died spiritually.
They lost their ability to walk with God
They lost their ability to talk with God
They had no more communion with them, because all of that was spiritual and now their spirits are dead.
And so we see the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament as the power of God that comes upon someone.
Usually to help them do something that God needs done.
But in further studying you will see that after the feat is accomplished, the Holy Spirit returns to God.
Why? Was God being cruel? NO
The Holy Spirit cannot reside in someone who’s spirit is dead. And the Old Testament Saints had no way (there was no final sacrifice for sin yet) to walk in relationship with God.
So we looked at 4 accounts.
In , God puts his Spirit on Aholiab and Bezalel to perform the tasks of building the tabernacle. The place where he will reside in the center of his people.
Through that Spirit upon them they would be gifted “In all manner of workmanship. Cutting jewels, carving wood, artistic work in gold, silver and bronze.
They would be able to make everything to the very sharp detail that God had commanded for it to be done.
In we looked at Balaam. How he was paid by the King of Moab to curse Israel. But how God had told him not to. And everytime he goes to curse them, it ends up being a powerful blessing over God’s people. I said that he speaks God’s very words over the people. And he does this 4 times.
The Bible says there that the Spirit of God came upon him and he spoke the blessing over God’s people.
What does that say? That The Holy Spirit will direct the very words of mans mouth. To speak what God wants him to speak and not speak what he thinks he should be speaking. Man how many of us need that in our lives?
Then over in 1 Samuel we looked at the choosing of a young shepherd boy to be annointed as the King of Israel
He would be in the entire history of Israel til today the best King they ever had.
Want to guess why? Because, the Bible says, that while Samuel the prophet anointed him as King, that the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward.
And we see this in David’s life from that point on, that he seeks God’s direction and guidance in almost every single situation that he faces.
That’s the way it was.
Now let’s look at
The Way It Is!
The Way It Is!
And this is not a search into our time yet. This would be the time of Jesus, because He is the one who changes everything.
And what we see is the Holy Spirit, not just on man, but his Power and Presence through man.
And the first one we see this happen in is Jesus. And rightfully so, because he is our model of being a Christian, Right?
Christian = Christ Like
Jesus is baptized by John in water. As that happens, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descends upon Jesus. We read nothing of what happens to it after it does that, so I would have to believe that it disappears as the Holy Spirit enters into him.
Now up to this point, Jesus’ communion with the Holy Spirit happens as he goes into the hills to pray.
In Gethsemane, we see how fragile Jesus is as he knows his time has come. But how that prayer in the garden firms up his resolve that he can do what is required of him.
What is the difference between the Jesus who walks into the garden and the one who is lead captive out of it? The Holy Spirit.
Jesus prayed. And we know that he prayed hard.
But now the Holy Spirit is physically seen coming upon his human flesh.
And he walks into the wilderness to be tried by satan for 40 days, and over comes. Why? The Holy Spirit is in him.
And then he walks into the temple, pulls out the scroll of Isaiah and quotes a messianic prophecy that Isaiah wrote, 1,000 years before this which is totally about him.
and reads it.
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
And he is launched from that moment into his three years of ministry leading up to his death and end of his time on earth.
And as He is leaving, he has a heart to heart talk with his disciples. He wants to make sure that they understand that he is not leaving them powerless.
And in fact, he is leaving them in better shape than if he were to stay with them (though they can’t see that)
We see this conversation in . Please read it on your own this week, because I haven’t the time today.
1 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.
2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.”
John 14:
Next Thomas will ask him how they will know the way. You see they don’t have the spiritual understanding yet.
Then Philip will ask him to show them the father. You tell us that we will know the father through us, but we aren’t getting it yet. Again, no spiritual understanding.
Mysteries of what Jesus spoke are still clouded by frail human thinking and reasoning
Jesus’ answer to them is this in
16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—
17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.
18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
John 14:
Judas goes on with the questioning - Jesus how will you manifest your presence to us. How will you lead us and guide us as you have done up to this point if you are gone. Basically the question is how will we go on in these things without you?
Jesus will go in chapter 15 to teach about the vine and branches. How they are to stay connected to him. But again, how do they do that if he is leaving them?
He will talk about the relationship that they should have as fellow beleivers. But how do they do that? And today we still have infighting in the church and the family of God.
He will tell them of how they are to relate to the world. and how they will face persecution and be hated because they are following him. Geeze, thanks for that Jesus. And you aren’t going to be here to help us through that?
And then he answers every question that they had.
John 15:
26 “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.
27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.
And he dies and they are destroyed with him.
But on the third day he resurrects and now they are crazy. What happens. Their spirits have been reborn.
They resurrected with him. Just as Adam and Eve died two deaths, first spiritually and then physically. Jesus died two deaths and when he resurrected gave us two rebirths.
First our spiritual and after this body is laid in the ground our physical, which will also be spiritual (in body) for the scriptures say to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
And so their spirits are alive. What does that mean? It means they can have that communion that Adam and Eve had with God in the garden.
Life can be brought back to what God had intended it to be.
And so they are excited. They are going out to tell the world.
And he says, woa, wait.
4 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;
5 for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
4 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;
5 for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7 And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.
and look down at verse 8
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.”
And so they wait. And in fifty days, we see this happening.
1 When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them.
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
5 And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven.
6 And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language.
7 Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans?
8 And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born?
9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,
10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,
11 Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.”
12 So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “Whatever could this mean?”
13 Others mocking said, “They are full of new wine.”
14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words.
15 For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day.
16 But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
17 ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams.
18 And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy.
19 I will show wonders in heaven above And signs in the earth beneath: Blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
21 And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved.’
The church is born. The disciples are spiritually alive and spirit filled and they go and change their world.
they are persecuted. Most will die martyrs deaths, but it doesn’t matter - The Holy Spirit is guiding them
The Holy Spirit is telling them what to say
The Holy Spirit is giving them the authority and the power to raise the dead, heal the blind and deaf and sick, send demons fleeing and restore spiritual life back to human kind.
And church, that is the
The Way It Will Be!
The Way It Will Be!
Listen brothers and sisters, nothing has changed.
This is the church that God expects to see today.
The Spirit filled Church.
I know that there are some who teach that this time has passed. They are wrong. I don’t have time today, but if you need me to I’ll show you that from the scriptures.
There are others who say some of the manifestations of being filled with the Holy Spirit are demonic (speaking in tongues) They are wrong.
We need the Baptism of the Holy Spirit in the church of America today like never before.
We have pastors leaving the ministry because of great sin in thier lives
Others are leaving because of burnout
we have an anemic church
Weak Christians, sick christians, and feeble christians
We can’t even heal a cold let alone raise the dead, heal the blind and deaf.
We can’t even get out of bed on a Sunday morning to get to church. That’s sad.
We aren’t praying with power. (why would anyone want to be there?)
We aren’t moving in power.
We are compromising our integrity and walk with Christ with things of the world.
We have Christians living together
We have christians lusting after one another and the things of this world
We have christians whos language hasn’t change, whose lifestyles haven’t changed after accepting Jesus as their savior
These things ought not to be.
I don’t say that to get you down and defeated today. I say that to lift your spirit high and say that can all change and will all change when you are baptized in the power of the Holy Spirit.
When you are baptized with the Holy Spirit, you will enter into a communion with God like Adam and Eve had.
He will walk with you every day.
He will talk with you everyday.
You will experience and understand spiritual things like never before (especially his Word)
You can commune with him because The Spirit of God speaks to the Spirit of Man.
When you are baptized with the Holy Spirit, you will be gifted to do things that normally you would not be able to do.
God will enhance your ability to get the Kingdom business accomplished on this earth
You will find yourself in places you normally wouldn’t go
You will find yourself with people you normally wouldn’t be with
You will find a love in your heart for things that normally you wouldn’t do
All so that God can touch those around you with love, mercy and grace.
When you are baptized in the Power of the Holy Spirit, you will have the words to speak whenever they are needed.
You will know the Word of God for your family, your co-worker and the person you meet at the Wawa deli counter
God wants to speak to people today and he needs his people to open their mouths so that he can do so
You will have the words of healing over peopel
You will have the words of restoration over situations and relationships
You will know how to bless people and lead them to Christ.
You will share the good news wherever you are, because God will place a burning in your heart for you to do so.
You will see visions, you will dream dreams
We will understand our glorious inheritance and live in it.
WE will understand the mysteries of the Word of God
This was an aha moment for the disciples. Their spiritual eyes were opened to what Jesus had taught and now for the first time, they got it
You will get it to and it will be a privilege for me as your pastor to see your heart get what God has been speaking to you for so long.
How many want this today? How many need this today? Raise your hands.
How many want to live like God intended his people to live?
How many want to have the power to overcome that addiction in your life?
But wait
How many need the guidance of the Holy Spirit in your life to keep you from those places that you can’t get away from?
How many are contemplating major decisions of life? getting married, going to college, having children, maybe a move to another place, but you need to hear God’s heart for those situations? raise your hand.
How many want to live a christian life that is not boring. It is powerful, joyful, and fulfilling?
How many need a refreshing of the Holy Spirit in their lives? It’s become stagnant
Anything that I’ve missed?
How many need a scare healed, a hurt mended?
Let’s Pray