The Church of Eleven22 - S01 E74 - The Spirit of God

Episode Date: August 31, 2020

Hey, church family. If you got your Bibles, I hope you do. I want you to grab them. Go to Acts Chapter 2. We are basically a week out from saturated. I know you've been praying and fasting and getting ready. And I just wanted to focus this week and really next week on how we are to get ready for this revival that we call saturated. Now, part of the reason we don't call it a revival all the time is because it seems to me maybe a little presumptuous to tell God, when he is going to revive us. However, the Bible says that we have not because we ask not. And so I have thought for a long time the problem with adults is they quit going to camp. And so basically, that is what saturated is. It's like camp for adults, where we are saturated in the Word of God, in the presence of God, and the gospel of Jesus Christ on Wednesday, Thursday,

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, because I just don't think an hour and a half on a Sunday is enough for it to stick. And so as I've studied historically, revivals, everything from Azusa Street to the Brownsville Revival, to the Great Awakening, to the Second Great Awakening, there are some ingredients that always preceded the believers before God unleashed a revival on his people. And the three of the ingredients we're going to talk about today, tomorrow, and the next day. One, and by far the most important is the Holy Spirit, The second was this sense of repentance that people would come before the Lord and confess their sins and change their lives because of it.

And then the third was a real pursuit of holiness. So that's where we are going this week. So we're going to start with the most important thing. And that is the coming of the Holy Spirit, Acts chapter 2. If you were in church this past weekend, that's what we preached about. And so here's Acts chapter 2. Now, Jesus has lived his life, he's died on the cross, he's resurrected from the grave, he has given the great commission to his disciples, and before he ascends to the right hand of God,

the Father, he says to his disciples, okay, there's an entire lost world out there, and you and you alone have the message of salvation, the gospel. And even before you go and proclaim this gospel, and before you come up with a strategy on how to take the good news into unreached people groups. And before you plant churches and before you write songs and before you have another service, before you do anything else,

you go and you wait. And you wait on the Holy Spirit. Because without him, you're powerless. But when he comes, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And then you'll be my witnesses everywhere you go.

Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And so that's what the disciples do. They are obedient, and they go and they wait on the coming of the Holy Spirit. And so in Acts chapter 2, it is the description of the events of the coming of the Holy Spirit. It says, when the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. Pentecost was an Old Testament celebration, and so men and women from all over Israel would

have been gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate Pentecost. And suddenly, there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing, wind. Now it's interesting here that the word wind here in Greek is Numa, which also can be translated breath or spirit. The Hebrew word is Rubach, and I think the Bible intentionally has one word to represent wind, breath, and spirit. And it, this rushing wind, it filled the entire house where they were sitting and divided tongues as a fire appeared on them and rested on each one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues or languages as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now, there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every

nation under heaven. And at this sound, the multitude came together and they were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. All right. So let's stop right there. Let's talk about speaking in tongues real quick. I don't have time to dive into it like crazy, but it is a gift of the spirit. Not every believer has it. If you look at 1 Corinthians chapter 12, different believers have different spiritual gifts.

Every believer has at least one spiritual gifts and no believer has all of them. Therefore, we need each other like different parts of a body. It's very clear in 1 Corinthians 12. And here what is happening is called glossolalia, and that is this miracle where the disciples are speaking, but it's really a miracle of hearing. The people are hearing in their own language what the disciples are saying, and not just in their own language, they're hearing it in their

own dialect. So that's one version of what in English we would call speaking in tongues. There's also what the book of Romans in chapter 8 would call what we would call a prayer language, like a groaning of the spirit. That is not for public consumption. That is for a private closet prayer language. And then the third aspect of speaking in tongues is a prophetic word from God that requires an interpreter if it is to be done in the worship experience under the authority of the elders. But if there is no interpreter, then those kinds of tongues should not happen because it causes confusion and not clarity. So the prayer language and the in-service prophetic word, that's not what we're talking about in this specific situation.

The disciples are speaking and people are hearing it in their own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia and Judea and Cabinosa and Pontius and Asia and Fergian. and Pfefealia and Egypt and parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytites, Cretans, and Arabians. A part of what's happening here is in the Old

Testament when people began to try to become their own God, they built what was called the Tower of Babel and they were trying to reach God to claim equality with God and God struck them with confusion by confusing all of their languages. And now the opposite is happening. here on the day of Pentecost, we don't climb our way to God, but God, through his son, Jesus Christ, has sent down the Holy Spirit, and all of these people are unified in one spirit. And they say, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, what does this mean? But others, mocking said they are filled with new wine. Some people looked at what was happening and said, man, these people are just drunk.

Verse 14, but Peter. So who's going to talk first? Who's going to talk most? The Apostle Peter. And what I love here is that what has gotten Peter in trouble all throughout the Gospels, namely his aggressiveness and his mouth, now God is going to use that same aggression and is going to use his mouth to preach the very first church service ever. The Peter, standing with the 11, lifted up his verse.

voice and address them. Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give ear to my words, for these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it's only the third hour of the day. That'd be 9 o'clock in the morning. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel. And what's going to happen is Peter, just an ordinary fisherman with not a high degree of education, but filled with the spirit immersed in the spirit. spirit is going to be able to unpack the prophet Joel. Why? Because the spirit of God teaches us the

scriptures. Now, there is one baptism and everyone who is in Christ, Christ puts the spirit in him. The Bible, the book of Acts will talk about being immersed in the spirit at salvation and then filled with the spirit at other times in your life. And the difference is the moment you put your faith in Jesus, you are immersed. The Greek word is baptizo in the Holy Spirit. That you have all the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not a potion that you need to top off every time you come to church. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity who resides in every believer. But there are times when the Spirit has more of us, when we are more aware of his presence and what Paul would call walking in step with the Spirit. This is what Peter's doing here. So he preaches from the Old Testament,

prophet Joel. And in the last days it shall be, God declares that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams. Even on my male servants and female servants in those days, I will pour out my spirit and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and vapor and smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood. Before the day of the Lord, comes the great and magnificent day and it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be safe. That's the text from Doe. Now he's going to, here comes his sermon. Men of Israel,

hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourself know, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. That this is not, it's like the least seeker-sensitive sermon of all time. Peter pulls no punches. By the way, think about this. These people that he's standing in front of have the power to have him arrested and crucified.

About six weeks before this, Peter can't even admit that he knows who Jesus is in front of a servant girl, and now he is preaching Christ crucified to the people that had Christ crucified. How does this happen? The reason this happens is because, one, Peter met the resurrected Christ, and two, now he is filled with the Holy Spirit. And God does not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of self-control. This is what Peter is displaying. He continues, verse 24, and God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it. The it there is death. For David's sin,

concerning him, I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand, and I may not be shaken. Therefore, my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced. My flesh also will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your holy one see corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence. Now he's going to explain, brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried. In fact, you can go today to Israel and you can still see the tomb of King David. His tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him

that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of Christ that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. You see what he's doing here. He's like, see what David said? David said that I saw the Lord always before me and all of these people respected David and David is attesting to not only that Christ was before him but also Christ would die and be resurrected. Verse 32, this Jesus, God raised up. And of that we are all witnesses. Basically all Peter's doing is sharing the gospel,

the life, death, the resurrection of Jesus. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the Father, the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing, that God the Father sent his son, and now he is pouring out His Holy Spirit. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand

until I make your enemies, your footstool. And now this is how Peter is going to close the sermon after the Spirit has come. let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles, brothers, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, repent and be baptized. Every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sin and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. So who gets the gift of the Holy Spirit?

Anyone that repents and surrenders their life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is not just reserved for the varsity. There's like a varsity in JV. That's not how it works. That Jesus deposits the Holy Spirit and every believer, for the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off. That's us. Everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.

And with many other words, he bore witness and can, to exhort them saying, save yourself from this crooked generation, and so those who received his word were baptized. And there were added that day about 3,000 souls. At the bottom of the southern steps where Peter shares these words, there were these ceremonial baths called mikfuss, and they used them as baptistries. And the moment these men and women surrendered their life to Jesus, Peter said, your next job is to go public with that and get baptized. By the way, if you're a believer in Jesus and you've never been baptized as a believer, your next step of obedience is to get baptized.

Go on our website, find when the baptism classes are. I think they're after every service is coming up in the next few weeks, and you should get baptized at our beach baptism, which is coming up in at the end of September. And 3,000 souls were saved that day. Interestingly enough, when Moses goes up on Mount Sinai, receives the law of God, the Ten Commandments. He comes down Mount Sinai. And meanwhile, Aaron and the Israelites have taken all the gold that they took from Egypt and they have thrown it into a fire and they have made

this golden calf. And while God is giving the law to Moses, the Ten Commandments, the Israelites, are breaking the law by worshiping an idol. And Moses curses them and the earth opens up and three thousand people perish that day. Moses throws the law down and it breaks. He goes back up. He gets a second copy and they do it again. So 3,000 people die on the day that God gives the law because of their idol worship. Here, Jesus has fulfilled the law and he has sent the Holy Spirit and God saves 3,000 people. I think what he is doing now is he is reestablishing his people, the church, by the power of the Holy Spirit. By the power of Holy Spirit. Do you want to know if you have the Holy Spirit? Here's how you know. Do you love Jesus? Have your repented of sin? Then you have the Holy Spirit. For everyone who surrenders their life unto

Jesus Christ, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And if we won't revival, we need the Spirit of God in us. Let's pray. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Spirit, would you convict us of sin? Would you call us unto your Would you comfort us in times of need? Would you teach us your word? And would you remind us of the guarantee that you are the good deposit until we are glorified in heaven? We prayed in Jesus' name.

Amen.