The Blessed Holy Spirit (Part Four)

Greet everyone!! (Welcome first time visitors to the family!)

Ask everyone to open their Bibles to the book of Acts 1:4-11, and then Acts 2:1-13. (They can read along on the screens if they do not have the version being used.)

Acts 1:4–11 NLT

4 Once when he was eating with them, he commanded them, “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. 5 John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” 6 So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?” 7 He replied, “The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 9 After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him. 10 As they strained to see him rising into heaven, two white-robed men suddenly stood among them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!”

Acts 2:1–13 NLT

1 On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. 2 Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. 3 Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. 4 And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability. 5 At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. 6 When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers. 7 They were completely amazed. “How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, 8 and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages! 9 Here we are—Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia, 10 Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism), Cretans, and Arabs. And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done!” 12 They stood there amazed and perplexed. “What can this mean?” they asked each other. 13 But others in the crowd ridiculed them, saying, “They’re just drunk, that’s all!”

And right after this, the Bible records for us the very first sermon ever preached from the newly birthed “Body of Christ”, as the Apostle Peter, then filled with Holy Spirit and thus power and boldness, began to declare the fullness of the gospel message to all who were present.

And as soon as the truth of the gospel message hit the hearts of the people, many of them repented and were baptized and some 3,000 souls were added to the kingdom on that very day!

Today, is the Sunday of Pentecost. Pentecost, for those of you who may not be very familiar with this special day, is called in the Jewish culture, Shavuot (The Feast of Weeks) and it’s one of the three “solemn feasts” that all Jewish males were required to travel to Jerusalem to be a part of. (The other two, were the Passover feast and the Feast of Tabernacles.)

All three of these feasts were what was called, “first fruit” feasts, in that the people were supposed to bring an offering to the temple from the first fruits of their crops as a way of giving thanks to the Lord God for giving to them their provisions! (Passover first fruits was of the barley harvest, Feast of Weeks was of the wheat harvest and Feast of Tabernacles was of the olive and grape harvest.)

Pentecost, or Shavuot, or the Feast of Weeks (whichever name you choose to call it), gets its name from its occurring 7 weeks from the day of first fruits following the Passover celebration. So, the day after the Sabbath of Passover, was the day of the first fruits and then 7 weeks later would come, Pentecost.

Each of these three festivals represents a work of the Christ. At Passover, we find Yeshua becoming the “passover lamb” who was sacrificed to atone for the sins of all of mankind, once and for all time. On the day of the first fruits celebration, following the Passover festival, Yeshua rose from the grave and thus became the firstfruits of those who would subsequently become victorious over hell, death and the grave!

Then Jesus spent the next 40 days after His resurrection, walking and talking with His disciples and preparing them for His departure. He ascended back to heaven on the 40th day, which is what we just read from Acts 1. And then ten days later, He sent the Holy Spirit of God, who was poured out upon all of those who were with the disciples in the upper room waiting, which was 50 days from the Passover Sabbath and 7 weeks from the first fruits celebration.

And so, 2,000 years ago on this day, on the day of Pentecost, the firstfruits of the body of Christ were gathered and some 3,000 souls were added to them!

Now as to the third feast, the Feast of Tabernacles, we are still awaiting the return of our Lord and Savior, Yeshua, so as to fulfill and complete everything and bring us back to perfect unity and eternal life with our great God and Savior!

The book of Zechariah ends with the prophet speaking of the nations going to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles and the closing of the Bible, in Revelation 21:3-4 mentions that God’s tabernacle will be among His people and that He will dwell amongst them!

This is why we await our Lord’s return; because it begins His reign with us forever!

So, everyone say “happy birthday”, because each year on this day, we celebrate the coming of Holy Spirit and the birth of the “ekklesia”, the Body of Christ!

I just mentioned to you that on this day, some 2,000 years ago, the Apostle Peter stood up and delivered the very first sermon of the Body of Christ. The only reason that Peter was able to do this and the very reason that he was driven to do this, was because he had been filled with the fire of the Holy Spirit of God and with a supernatural boldness that was never there before!

The Peter that existed before Jesus ascended and before Holy Spirit filled him, was very much like most of us.

He was impulsive and acting out of emotion and feelings.

He was driven by his conviction to religion and the traditions of those who has taught him.

BUT.............once he had grasped the knowledge and the faith of who Jesus was and was then filled with the fire of the Holy Spirit of God, his life was changed and was never the same again!

The same man who had denied having any relationship with the Lord on the night of Jesus’ arrest, when questioned by a little girl, became radically on fire for Yeshua and stood before thousands of people on the day of Pentecost, declaring the truth of who and what Jesus was, with all boldness and assurance!

Go back and read Acts 3 and Acts 4 and you will see the boldness of Peter as he and John were brought before the religious leaders and the rulers of their day and age.

They were arrested and brought before the religious council so that they could be questioned about what they were teaching the people regarding this Jesus and about their having just radically healed a man who had been crippled since birth for over 40 years

Pay close attention to what the passage says about Peter, in Acts 4:8, when the religious leaders had just asked Peter and John, “By what power or, by what name did you do this?”

The Bible records in Acts 4:8-12, “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, ‘Rulers of the people and elders, 9 if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by Him this man is standing before you well. 11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Did you all catch what was different about Peter in this passage?

Verse 8 starts off with, “Then Peter, FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT...”!

Peter was being led and empowered by Holy Spirit as to how and what he was to say to the questions and the accusations that were being thrown at he and John by the religious zealots.

That is exactly what Yeshua had said to the disciples the night of His arrest, when He began preparing them for His death and departure.

He said to them, in John 14:26, “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 that I have said to you.”

Once Holy Spirit is living inside of you and you are letting Him empower you and lead you, then you won’t have to worry about what to says and how to answer people, when they question you about your faith and belief in the Lord!

He, Holy Spirit, will bring to your remembrance everything that you need to know and to say.

The words of life will begin to “flow” from within you and come out!

And in saying that the words of “life” will flow from within in you, let me remind you that I just mentioned to you that we are awaiting Jesus’ return, so that the final celebration, the Feast of Tabernacles, will be fulfilled.

Well, in John chapters 7-8, we read about Jesus being at the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem.

And in His day, during this feast, there was a “water libation” ceremony and an “illumination” ceremony that took place.

The water libation ceremony, was where the priests would go to the pool of Siloam and gather a large pitcher of water and pour it our at the altar in the temple area, as an expression of hope that the Lord God would send the rain for their future crops.

Jesus, while this ceremony is taking place, stands up in front of the crowds of thousands of people and cries out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”

And John records that Jesus was saying this about the Holy Spirit that would be sent to all believers, after He was glorified.

And as to the illumination ceremony that took place during the Feast of Tabernacles, or “Sukkot” as it is said in Hebrew, this was the part of the festival where they would light these four, 75 foot high oil fed lamps, that were so tall and gave off so much light, that it was said that they would illuminate the city.

These lamps at night, were to remind the people of the pillar of fire at night that led the children of Israel throughout the wilderness for the 40 years that they were there.

And at this point in the ceremony, Jesus, again, stood up and said to the crowds, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Do you have the light of life living inside of you today?

And so, back to Peter and his bold declaration to the religious leaders. This only happened, because Holy Spirit was flowing through him and out of him, with the words that he was to speak.

Peter, along with the other 119 people in the upper room on Pentecost, had been filled with the Holy Spirit of God and now he was full of living water and the boldness to move and speak in accordance with the Spirit!

I mentioned over the past couple of weeks that there are some commands that we find in the Word of God, that deal with our relationship with Holy Spirit. The one that I want to mention to you this morning, is that of what we just read of with Peter and his bold declaration to those who were questioning him and making threats against he and John.

The Bible tells us, as we just read in Acts 4:8, that Peter was “FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT”.

This, being “filled with the Holy Spirit” is actually a command that Paul gives to the body of Christ, as we find in Ephesians 5:15-18, where he says,

Ephesians 5:15–18 ESV

15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,

Paul says to the church at Ephesus, to be careful how they “walk” in their daily lives, in their new “spiritual lives”.

Going back to beginning of chapter 5, Paul had already encouraged and instructed the new believers as to how to “walk” in their faith. He said that they were to be imitators of God and thus to “walk in love”.

Walking in the love of God towards one another, is how Jesus said that the world would know that we belong to Him, as His followers, because “love” is the prime attribute of God.

This is why John records in his first epistle, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

Which is why it breaks my heart, when I see and hear professing Christians bashing one another and talking badly about one another and gossiping about one another.

That is NOT walking in the love of God, but rather, that is walking in the way of the god of this world.

Paul also told the believers in Ephesus that as true followers of Jesus, they were “light” in the Lord and thus they should “walk as children of light”.

Do you remember what I just said to you about Jesus’ emphatic declaration at the Feast, where He said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life”?

Well, Paul is saying here that we are to “walk as children of light”; which is to say, that as those who have been “born again”, we have been born of the light and thus we should look like THE LIGHT to the world in our daily walk!!

Then, in verse 15, Paul again, warns the believers in Ephesus to be careful as to how they were walking. He says to not walk as unwise, but as wise, which was just re-emphasizing what he had instructed them to do a few verses earlier.

In fact, Paul makes it very clear for us as followers of Yeshua, that we must “walk according to the Spirit”, so that we do not keep going back to the flesh.

This another command that we are given from the Word, pertaining to how we live by the Holy Spirit.

Paul said to the body of Christ in Galatia, in Galatians 5:16,

Galatians 5:16 ESV

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

Paul said that the desires of the flesh are against the Holy Spirit and the desires of the Holy Spirit are against the flesh.

You cannot walk in both of them. As Jesus, you will love one and hate the other!

I really like how this verse reads in Galatians 5:16 in the AMP version of the Bible, it says:

Galatians 5:16 AMP

16 But I say, walk and live [habitually] in the [Holy] Spirit [responsive to and controlled and guided by the Spirit]; then you will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh (of human nature without God).

And so, going back to Paul’s instructions in Ephesians 5 and as to how the believer is to walk in their spiritual life, he says that in walking as a “wise” person, we should “make the best use of the time, because the days are evil”.

In the KJV, of this passage, it read that we are to “redeem” the time. This meaning that if we are walking as one who is wise, then we are “buying back” the time that was going to be used for evil and thus we can use it for the kingdom of God!

Then in verse 17 of Ephesians 5, Paul instructs us to not be foolish, but to understand what the will of the Lord is. So many Christians want to know what the will of the Lord is and within the Bible, you will read and learn about His will.

Within the Word of God, we read of God’s command will and of His sovereign will. His command will is revealed in the things that He commands His children to do, in order to please Him, but they are things that we must choose to do. For instance:

I Thessalonians 5:18 tells us, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

I Peter 2:15 says, “For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.”

I Thessalonians 4:3-4, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor.”

In each one of these verses that are declaring God’s will, these are commands given, that you and I choose whether we are going to follow them or not.

In other words, we have the ability to see God’s will fulfilled in our lives, or we have the ability to live outside of His will in and through our lives.

The sovereign will of God is something completely different, however.

God’s sovereign will is what He has determined is going to happen and no matter what we say, or what we do, we CANNOT change the sovereign will of God!

It was His sovereign will to send His Son to die for our sins and nothing that the devil or man tried to do, could interfere with, or alter that plan.

It is God’s sovereign will to judge this earth and to destroy all of the works of the enemy and to eternally judge all of those who rebel against Him and reject His Son, Jesus, and His offer of salvation.

And there is nothing than anyone, or anything can do to stop this from happening! It is His sovereign will!

And so, in Ephesians 5:17, when Paul says to “not be foolish, but to understand what the will of God is”, what is the will of God that he is speaking of?

Well, in the very next verse, he states it.

In verse 18, Paul says to not be drunk with wine, because that is wild, senseless, recklessness, but rather to be filled with the Holy Sprit!

It is NEVER God’s will for a child of His to become drunk. Drunkenness is a sin and the Bible states that those who participate in drunkenness, will NOT inherit the kingdom of God!

Rather, Paul says that we are to be FILLED with the Spirit!

As I told you last week, this verbiage refers to a continual action, and not a one and done sort of thing!

It is best likened to that of the wind filling the sail of a boat and driving it.

Not a static, one time event, like filling up a cup.

No, Paul is saying that we are to continually filled with Holy Spirit, so that we can fulfill the will of God and “walk” as those who are wise!

This is what we see in Peter, in Acts 4:8. Peter was “filled” with the Spirit and thus he walked according to the will of God and said and did what God wanted him to, in healing the lame man, to going before the council and declaring the full truth about the gospel message!

And let me show you, per the Apostle Paul, what being filled with the Holy Spirit of God looks like in the life of the believer.

Paul said that it is evident who is being filled with the Spirit, in verses 19-21. These people will be, “addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

The outward manifestation of being filled with the Holy Spirit is evident, each and every time that it happens, through the heart of the believer being filled with inexpressible joy, to where that person begins to worship God in their heart with spiritual songs of praise, that start internally and then manifest when in the presence of other filled believers!

Look at Paul and Silas in Acts 16. They had been stripped of their garments and beaten with rods and then thrown into the inner part of the prison and placed in shackles.

But at the midnight hour they began praying and then singing hymns to God and everything changed at that moment!

The Spirit filled believer joins in joyous harmony in singing the psalms of the Bible and the hymns and the spiritual songs from their own hearts, along with other Spirit filled believers, as they also give thanks ALWAYS and for EVERYTHING to God! And they submit to one another, out of reverence for Yeshua!

A person who is continually being filled with Holy Spirit, is someone who rejoices in the midst of everything that is happening in their life and they keep giving thanks to God the Father, in the name of Jesus the Christ, for all circumstances that they are going through; good or bad, plentiful or without, sick or well, in all things, they are giving thanks unto God!

How many people have you seen before at a “revival” meeting, get supposedly filled with Spirit and roll and giggle and shout and run, saying that the Spirit has control of them, and then the very next night at the same revival meetings, that person is complaining and moaning about their present situation and asking for people to pray and intercede and ask for God to intervene on their behalf?!

I’m going stop here today and just say that next week, I am potentially going to talk about what walking in the Spirit looks like, versus what man has made it out to be and how we can continually keep being filled with power and the presence of Holy Spirit!!