Sermon Tone Analysis

Launch Week Four

Spirit Wind

Jeff Jones, Senior Pastor

November 16~/18, 2007

 

We are in a series called /Launch/, where we are looking at the first few months and years of the early church in the book of Acts to learn all we can as we in these next few weeks push the re-launch button for our own church.

In just a few weeks, we will be on our new campus, and that move is not just about us getting a new building.

That move is about us replanting this church as missionaries to this community.

The building is a tool to help us as we engage this community, invite our friends, and serve people in tangible ways.

As I said, if you have been in this church once or more, you are in, God has you here for a reason, and we are going to talk about what it means to re-launch this church and for you and me to fly the individual missions that God has set aside for us.

A few weeks ago, we talked about the mission that God gave the church and each of us as his followers, how easy it is to drift away from missional focus.

Two weeks ago, we talked about widening our welcome, making it easy for people to connect to God, and last week Drew did a great job talking about the church, how God decided to reach the world through local churches, and how there is a role for all of us here.

Today we are going to talk about the very first command the church was given, and the most important command.

After they were given the mission, the very first thing they were asked to do was not to get busy but to wait.

Jesus told them that before they start running with the mission, they must wait.

I don’t know about you, but waiting is about the hardest thing anyone could ask me to do.

I hate waiting, which is why I don’t go to the doctor very much or why I don’t like to get my haircut.

When I am in a grocery store or Walmart, I always try to pick the cashier lines very carefully to minimize waiting.

I try to find as close to a Type-A cashier as I can find, someone who seems with it, who is really into their cashiering, the kind of person that likes to set speed records.

I go down the aisle quickly to assess which cashier has the eye of the tiger, like in the old Rocky movie…then I choose.

Then you get in line, and the person in front starts pulling out her checkbook (oh no!), and then says, “I have coupons, let me find them.”

Many times I’ve wanted to just say, “Look, I’ll pay for your stuff, just go!” Waiting is excrutiating, really hard.

Jesus gave the mission, pumped his little group of followers up, and then told them to wait.

Their mission was big, to reach the whole world with the good news about what God was doing to make a way possible to relate to him, and they had a lot of work to do—but not yet.

Let’s read the passage in Acts 1:

 

Slide: _______________ ) Acts 1: 4-5

 

/Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.

For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit (1:4-5).

/ Shortly after that, Jesus ascended to heaven, and the disciples knew that their first job was to wait.

Wait for what?

For the coming of the Holy Spirit, God himself, who would indwell them and empower them for the mission.

They were waiting on God’s empowerment.

They could go and try to do the mission on their own strength, but that wouldn’t work.

They were to go and to wait.

So, in verse

 

Slide: _______________ ) Acts 1: 12-14

 

it says, /Then they returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city (/a short walk).

/When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying.

Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James.

They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

/So, the disciples along with Jesus’ family and other followers of Jesus, about 120 people, go and hang out in this large room, to wait.

They hardly know what they are waiting for, and they don’t really know how long they will have to wait.

They didn’t understand much about the Holy Spirit, so they didn’t know what would happen when the Spirit did come and fill them.

Would it hurt?

Would it be obvious?

Is it going to take a day?

A week?

A month?

They had no idea.

They just knew that their job was to wait.

Jesus didn’t tell them any more than that.

So, while they waited, Acts says that they devoted themselves constantly to prayer.

They also chose another disciple to replace Judas, but other than that, they devoted themselves to prayer.

Those days were days of waiting, and while they waited they prayed.

Before God would come with power, they had to wait, which is the way God often works.

When you look at church history and biblical history, typically before a major advance of God’s power, there is a short time of retreat.

Paul took three years of retreat before he started his ministry for example.

The way God often works is that just before a major movement of God is a time of waiting for his people, before major divine activity a time of inactivity.

Such times are important times, though they may not feel so great for us.

Have you ever had a time in your life where you sense God wanting to do something big in your life…you feel called to a particular ministry, or you believe God is about to do something in your life or through you, but then nothing happens for a while.

You have this excitement that something is about to happen, but then nothing happens.

Those times may feel like a waste of time, but they are not.

Times of waiting are important.

We see them as a waste of time, but God sees it as a developing time.

They are a reminder to us that this is God’s work, not ours…that this is about his power, not about our efforts.

When I graduated from seminary, I expected God to open the right door for ministry right away.

After all, I’d spent all this time preparing, and I was ready…let’s go.

I had my diploma, some great ministry experience, and now God needed me.

He was lucky to have a guy like me on his team.

And the right thing wasn’t there.

None of the opportunities in front of me seemed right, and it took months for God to open up the right door.

At the time, those months felt like a waste of time, but those months were important months for me to realize that maybe God wasn’t so lucky to have me and that it really is about him.

God did things in my life while I waited that could have never happened any other way.

That’s also true for this church, as it was in Acts 1.

Why did God make the church wait?

To remind them that it really was his work requiring his power, and we need to remember the same.

These next months and years as we relaunch our church are not about us having a cool building, or a great staff, or engaging worship services, or incredible children and youth ministries…it really is about his power.

The early church was to wait for God’s Spirit to breathe his power into that group of people so that they could go impact the world.

They waited, and while they waited they prayed.

They prayed for God’s power to come, for him to work in their lives.

You’ll hear about specifics in a few minutes, but today we are initiating a time of waiting and prayer, and I want that to start right now.

Right now, before we move and relaunch our church, I want us to start a time of waiting on God, a time where we invite his Spirit to come into our lives and into this church in a fresh way.

As a corporate prayer, we are going to sing a prayer; we are going to ask him to fill our lives and this church with his power.

Some of you may feel especially dry right now spiritually, and you know you need a fresh filling of his Spirit in your life.

All of us need that, so let’s as a church ask for that, ask for the Spirit to come.

Song.

Video.

Being out in Southern California, seeing how wind and fire conspired to engulf acres and acres was amazing.

You clearly see the power of wind and fire.

Acts 2 tells us about that day, 10 days into their waiting period, when the Holy Spirit did come, and when he came he came in an unmistakable way:

 

Slide: _______________ ) Acts 2:1-4

 

W/hen the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.

Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

They saw what seemed like tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them (2:1-4)./

As they were praying, after ten days of waiting, a sound of a mighty wind filled the place, which is an important symbol of the Holy Spirit.

The word for Spirit can also mean breath or wind, as in Genesis when God breathed his divine breath, or spirit, into Adam, giving him life.

What God was doing was breathing his Spirit into the church, giving power and life, so that through the church he could breathe his divine wind onto the world.

Fire was another symbol God chose, where flames of fire came to rest on each of the people, showing that God was filling them with his divine power.

Fire in the Bible is a symbol of God’s presence and power, and it was clear that God was empowering every one of them for mission.

As we saw on the video, when you combine wind and fire together, you get a very powerful force, that can engulf a whole region.