September 24, 2025 • 26 mins
Beginning with St. Paul's conversion in the Acts of the Apostles, Dr. Schreck explores how the apostles' mission in proclaiming the Gospel and carrying on Jesus' ministry is guided and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
He highlights how St. Peter is guided by the Spirit to bring Gentiles into the Church, how the Spirit guides the Church's leaders at the Council of Jerusalem, and how St. Paul prays over disciples of John the Baptist to receive the Spirit.
Listen to more The Spirit and The Bride episodes and discover other Catholic podcasts, videos, and resources at Faith and Reason.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:10):
This is Doctor Alan Schreck.
We're continuing the serieson the Holy Spirit in the New Testament.
And in the last couple of podcasts,we've been looking at the Holy Spirit
in Luke's, acts of the apostles,which sometimes has been called
the acts of the Holy Spirit.
And I think if you've been listeningand as you're listening to this podcast,
you'll understand why.
(00:31):
Because, the emphasis of SaintLuke is apparent that the Holy Spirit
is given specificallyfor extending the mission of the church.
And that mission isespecially the proclamation of the gospel
and with accompanying signs, thingsthat are in the power of the spirit.
How the works that Jesusdid are now carried out
(00:52):
by his, his disciples,especially the apostles.
We left off last podcast,
at the looking at the actsof the apostles, chapter eight.
So we're going to begin today by.
I'm going to be looking at evidenceof the Holy Spirit
in the acts of the apostles, beginningwith acts chapter nine.
(01:13):
To the end of the acts of the apostles.
And then I'd like to draw some conclusionsand perhaps some applications
of what we learned from SaintLuke in the acts of the apostles.
So, we left off in chaptereight with, Philip the Apostle Philip
preaching the gospel to, an Ethiopian
and that he was baptizedin the Holy Spirit.
(01:36):
Philip was taken up by the spirit.
And we read in acts 8:39and when they came up out of the water,
the spirit of the Lord caught up Philipand the eunuch saw him no more.
But Philip was found, in Azo′tus,
He's actually, you know,almost in this case, miraculously
(01:56):
taking Philip awayand bringing him to another place.
But now we we're beginning
we're going to look at, actschapter nine and following in chapter
nine of acts is about the conversionof Saint Paul or Saul at the time.
And you know the storyand I, I'm going to focus on,
the texts in the actsthat explicitly mentioned the Holy Spirit.
(02:19):
And most of you know that chapternine of acts, you could read it
if you do not know this, that, Saul,a persecutor of the church,
you know, he was standing therewhen Stephen was stoned.
In acts chapter seven,he was approving of this,
and he is, describedas a, a virulent persecutor of the church.
So he's going, on the road to the Damascusto, to persecute Christians.
(02:44):
And he has letters,that will authorize him to do this.
And he sees Jesus on the road.
Jesus appears to him and says, Saul, Saul,why do you persecute me?
And, and and he is struck blind,
And he is struck blind,
and he is led by the handby his, companions
into the city of Damascus,where he meets a man named Ananias.
(03:06):
Now Ananias was a disciple of the Lord.
And the Lord said to himin a vision it says in acts
910, rise and go to the street.
Street called straight,
and inquire in the house of Judasfor a man of Tarsus named Saul.
For behold, he is praying so.
And in this goes, and he meets Saul,and he says.
(03:28):
Saul speaks to himand says, that he has been sent
to him to receive the gift of faith.
So it it says inand then abbreviating here.
But and it's 917So Ananias departed and entered the house,
and laying his hands on him on Saul,he said, brother Saul the Lord
(03:49):
Jesus who appeared to you on the roadby which you came, had sent me,
that you may regain your sightand be filled with the Holy Spirit.
And immediatelysomething like scales fell from his eyes,
and he regained his sight.
And he rose and was baptized, took food,and he was strengthened.
So there, the baptism of Saul is.
(04:09):
And Saul at thatmoment is filled with the Holy Spirit.
What's the evidence of being filledwith the Holy Spirit?
And we see this throughout Luke's gospelin the acts of the apostles,
especially in the acts when one is filled
with the Holy Spirit,they proclaim the Word of God.
And that's what Saul did.
He went around Damascus, preachingthe Word of God with with boldness.
(04:33):
Actually, some of the Jews triedto, to, kill him, but he escaped.
And then he eventually came downto Jerusalem.
In acts 926and he says, the Lord who spoke,
he had seen the Lord who spoke to him,and how it Damascus he had preached boldly
in the name of Jesus.
And so he went in and outamong them at Jerusalem, preaching
(04:55):
boldly in the name of the Lord.
So, Saul is immediatelyin acts nine going.
He is filled with the spirit,and he proclaims the gospel boldly.
And the conclusion of this vignetteon Saul is 931.
Conclusion.
So the church throughout all Judeaand Galilee and Samaria had peace
(05:20):
and was built up
and walking in the fear of the Lordand in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.
It was multiplied.
So it's not only Saul,but the other apostles
are going aroundpreaching in Galilee, Samaria.
They're at peace, and they experience
the comfort of the Holy Spiritand more people being added.
And then now we're going to move to,we mentioned that earlier
(05:43):
in the acts of the apostles.
We talked about Peter and his empowermentbeginning at Pentecost.
932 picks up
Peter, going to, a place called Lyddawhere he heals,
a man named Aeneaswho was bedridden for eight years.
And basically he says,Jesus Christ heals you and he is healed.
(06:06):
Then Peter goes on to Joppaand there's a disciple named Tabitha.
Or which means Dorcas.
So Tabitha, Dorcas,she is had fallen sick and
She died.
And Peter, in the power of the spirit,raises her from the dead.
And so we see these miraculous
works of the Lord, through Peter.
(06:27):
But then in acts chapter ten,we have a very significant, you might say,
a turning point for the whole church,because it hadn't been clear
whether, the gospel was to be proclaimed,
to the Jews only, or what about Gentiles?
It doesn't seem,except by sort of the example
of Jesus reaching out to Gentiles,but Jesus basically.
(06:50):
And there are some passages.
And in the Gospels, Jesus sent themto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
But here is,
Peter is in Joppa, and it says in acts ten
Peter is in Joppa, and it says in acts ten
one at Caesarea there was a named mannamed Cornelius, a centurion,
a devout man, who feared Godwith all his household,
and gave alms liberally, and prayedconstantly to God.
(07:12):
So here's a God fearing man,but he's a centurion.
He's a Roman. He's a Gentile.
And, he but he has a vision,but he has to send some people
to Joppa to ask for a man named Peter.
Well, meanwhile, Peter's in Joppa,and he actually is praying on the roof
of a house, and he has a vision of a sheetbeing lowered and a vision,
(07:37):
and I'm not going to go into the details,but it was a vision of a sheet
and the the voice he heard said, killand eat their unclean animals.
And Peter said, no, far be it from me.
I've never touched anything unclean.
So it wasn't clear immediatelywhat God was saying to him. But,
it says
in acts 1017 now while wasPeter was inwardly perplexed
(07:59):
as to what the vision which he had seenmight mean, behold, the men that were sent
by Cornelius, having made inquiryfor Simon's house, stood before the gate.
And basically they meet Peter.
And it says, and while Peter was ponderingthe vision he had of the sheet,
the spirit said to him, so here'sthe Holy Spirit again, giving direction.
(08:20):
Another word to the Spirit in Lukeand in the acts is directing,
the discipleswhat they are to do and where to to go.
So the spirit said to Peter, here, behold,three men are looking for you.
Rise and go down in the company of themwithout hesitation, for I have sent them.
So the Holy Spirit sent these menand told Peter, go with them.
So the Holy Spirit sent these menand told Peter, go with them.
(08:41):
So Peter ends up going to to Caesarea,to Cornelius, his house.
And Cornelius explainsthat he had a, a vision
of a man standing in light saying,send for Peter and Joppa.
And he says, what?
What do you have to say to us?
So basically, Peter in acts chapterten begins to preach the gospel to him.
(09:02):
What else does he have to give?
Even though these people are Gentiles,he knows that the Lord has sent them
and now the vision is becoming clear
that these men who are Gentileswould be considered unclean.
To go into their housewould make them unclean.
But God sent Peter there,and so he he preached the gospel.
(09:22):
And here's verse 1044,while Peter was still saying this,
his preaching the gospel, the Holy Spiritfell on all who heard the word.
And the believersfrom among the circumcised who came with
Peter were amazed,because the gift of the Holy Spirit
had been poured out, even on the Gentiles.
(09:43):
Significant words like HolySpirit is God's great gift, the gift.
Remember Peter in his Pentecosthomily says, repent, be baptized,
and you shall receivethe gift of the Holy Spirit.
So the Holy Spirit is the gift of God,
and it is the gift of the Holy Spirithad been poured out even on the Gentiles.
And when Peter declared,can anyone forbid water for baptizing
(10:06):
these people who have receivedthe Holy Spirit just as we have?
And he commanded them to be baptizedin the name of Jesus Christ,
and he remained with him some days.
Now, however,this is going to be disturbing to
some of the, the Christians,the believers, because, Peter
and the other hand,went back to Jerusalem to report on this,
(10:28):
and some people were questioning him. Why?
Why were you baptizing Gentiles?
They're not part of the chosen people.
And basically, in acts chapter 11,Peter recounts
the story of how, how he came to do this.
And in acts 1115 he says, as I began
(10:48):
to speak,preaching to Cornelius and his household,
the Holy Spirit fell on themjust as on on us at the beginning.
What's the beginning?The day of Pentecost.
And I remembered the word of the Lord,how he said, John baptized with water,
but you shall be baptizedwith the Holy Spirit.
If then God gave the same gift to themas he gave to us
(11:11):
when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ,who is I that I could withstand God?
And when they heard this,they were silenced.
They glorified God, saying,then to the Gentiles also God
has granted repentance unto life.
So this starts a new chapterin the Christian mission.
Even before Saul who becomes Paul,
(11:31):
becomes the great apostle to the Gentile.
The first one to proclaimthe gospel is Peter himself.
And he does so, by the way,by a revelation.
I've always shows that you know,when we see Peter, the,
the, the Rock receiving divine revelationand guidance.
Well, here'sa beautiful example of the spirit
speaking to to Peterand giving him the truth.
(11:54):
The Gentiles to, are members
can be become membersof the Christian community.
So as we go on from here, Peter,we have this, this powerful account.
And by the way,
Peter, in telling the storyof the conversion
of Cornelius in his householdthree times in the acts of the apostles,
(12:16):
he recounts the same story becauseobviously this is an important event
that opens the door to the Gentiles
to become Christians. Now,
then, a little later in, acts chapter
13, there a group,but they were in Antioch now, Saul
and, Barnabas and some others,they were praying and fasting.
(12:38):
And it says in acts 13 two,while they were worshiping
the Lord and fasting,the Holy Spirit said, set apart
for me Barnabas and Saul, for the workto which I have called them.
And then after fasting and praying,they laid their hands on them
and sent them off.
And so, being sent by the Holy Spirit,
they went down to Solutiaso the Holy Spirit again is speaking.
(13:02):
He's giving directions for the church.
He says, set apartBarnabas and Saul for this work.
And, they
they went down to St Lucia
and they were sent out by the Holy Spiritin Acts 13
when they went down to St Lucia,there was a false prophet named Bar
Jesus who was, trying to take a mannamed a proconsul
(13:25):
named Sergius Paulus,telling him lies about the Lord.
And so basically, Saul it says in acts
13:9, But Saul, who is also called Paul,
filled with the Holy Spirit,looked intently at him.
This is this man who is trying to drawthis proconsul away from the faith.
(13:47):
He looked atthis man named Elias and said,
you son of the devil, you enemy ofall righteousness, full of all deceit.
And basically he prophesies,the man will be struck blind.
And basically he prophesies,the man will be struck blind.
For for what he was sayingis lies against God.
So here, you know, Paul is filledwith the Holy Spirit and rebuking
someone who is, telling lies and tryingto draw people away from the faith.
(14:11):
So there's the Holy Spiritonce again, doing his work.
So now
we move to Acts 15, a very important,event here.
Well, before I get to that, I,I should say what had happened.
They were preaching the gospel.
And at the end of chapter 13, to go back,
(14:32):
some leading men of the city stirred uppersecution against Paul and Barnabas
and drove them out of their district.
But they shook off the dust
from their feet against them,and went to Iconium.
And the disciples were filled with joyand with the Holy Spirit.
So even though so, Paul and Barnabaswere driven away of the disciples
who remained there were filled with joyin the Holy Spirit.
(14:54):
Then in Acts 15 there was a dispute about,
the requirements for, Gentileswho were being converted.
What what did they need to do?
Did they need to be circumcisedas become part of do
they have to become Jewsin order to become Christians?
And there was a dispute about this.
And so we we see another great work ofthe Holy Spirit, the, all of the apostles
(15:19):
and the elders decidedwe have to be coming to agreement on this.
So they called the council that Jerusalem.
I say this is like the prototypeof the ecumenical councils
of the Catholic Churchbecause they they needed that.
Apparently they did not have a clear wordfrom the Lord.
If the Lord had said something,they would have easily gone on to that.
But, they decidedthey would come together.
(15:42):
And the members of the,
the leaders would give little speeches,sort of the first council speeches.
And at the end, James,who is the presiding
elder of the Church of Jerusalem, sumsit up.
And they decided that
the Gentilesdid not need to be circumcised.
And they, they actually had a letterthat they wrote that they were going
(16:04):
to send around to all the churches,the Christian churches,
to make it clear what they had decidedand what the letter said.
It says in Acts 1527 and following.
We have therefore sent Judas and Silas,who themselves
will tell you the same thingsby word of mouth as in the letter.
For this seemed good to the Holy Spirit,and to us to lay upon
(16:27):
you no greater burdenthan these necessary things.
So basically, they attribute,
James, the decision they madeto the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Now, there are a number of other thingsthat we see.
And, and I'm going to skip aheadbecause, we see many other things
(16:47):
of Paulbeing sent around on mission, with Silas.
He goes to Athens, he goes to Corinth.
There's no explicit mention ofthe Holy Spirit in some of these chapters,
but the next time we see a very important
event was in, acts chapter 19,
while Apollos was at Apollosbecame a, was a disciple
(17:09):
who was preaching the gospel,while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul
passed through the upper countryand came to Ephesus.
There he found some disciples.
And he said to them, did you receivethe Holy Spirit when you believed?
And they said, no, we have nevereven heard that there is a Holy Spirit.
And he said to them,and to what then were you baptized?
(17:30):
Saul asked.
Paul is they said, into John's baptism.
And Paul said, John baptizedyou with the baptism of repentance.
And, but he said, thosewho come to believe
in the one who is coming after them,that is Jesus.
On hearing that they were baptized
in the name of the Lord Jesus,and when Paul had laid his hands upon them
the Holy Spirit came upon them
(17:51):
And they spoke in tongues,and were prophesied.
And there were about 12 in all number ofpoints could be made from this.
Like Paul could see,there was something missing when he came.
They were disciples.
They, they were relating to Paulas if they were believers.
But he noticed thatthere was something missing.
So we asked them, did you receivethe Holy Spirit when you believed?
(18:15):
I think that this is very importantbecause you might say throughout
the acts of the apostles, what is the markof a disciple again and again?
Perhaps the greatest compliment,but it's an identity, is
that people are filledwith the Holy Spirit.
And like they mentioned,Saul was filled with the Holy Spirit.
They mentioned, Barnabas was a man of,filled with the Holy Spirit and faith.
(18:39):
And this becomes, almost the identifying
mark of being a Christian,a full Christian.
Are you filled with the Holy Spirit?
And of course, the evidence of this is
in Luke's gospel and in the acts,especially the acts as,
if you're filled with the Holy Spirit,you will not only know the truth
about Jesus, but you'll be fearlessin following him and preaching Jesus.
(19:04):
This is a gospel of mission.
and we could see from the restof the acts of the apostles, Paul
is really focusing from acts 19 and onto the end of the acts of the apostles.
We see Paul going forthand the power of the spirit,
preaching the gospel to all the placesthe Lord sends him.
There are a coupleof interesting things that,
(19:25):
as he's in this mission, in Actschapter 20,
Paul realizes that he is going
to eventually be arrested.
And he says in acts 2022 and followingand now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem,
bound in the spirit,not knowing what shall befall
me, except that the Holy Spirittestifies to me in every city.
(19:50):
That imprisonment and affliction await me,but I do not account.
My life has any value,and I that I am almost.
I need to accomplish my courseand the ministry which I receive
from the Lord Jesus, to testifyto the gospel of the grace of God.
So the Holy Spirit is telling,is revealing
to Paul, that eventually he'sgoing to be in prison.
(20:13):
And we see a couple of other caseswhere that is confirmed.
He goes on, to Tyre where he andI chapter 21,
it says the people of Tyre, the, the,the followers of Jesus said
through the spirit.
They told Paul not to go to Jerusalembecause they knew he would be arrested.
And then, a little later,there's a he's in, Caesarea
(20:34):
and a man, a prophet named Agabacomes down and does a prophetic act.
He took Paul's belt and bound his own feetand hands.
This is acts 2111 and following.
And it says, thus says the Holy Spirit,
so shall the Jews at Jerusalem bindthe man who owns this belt.
And deliver himinto the hands of the Gentiles.
(20:55):
And when he heard this, we and the peoplebegged him not to go up to Jerusalem.
But basically, Paul, he'swarned by the spirit,
by prophets, and by God speaking to himthat he's going to be arrested.
But Paul knows that it's not likein some other cases
where the spirit, prohibits himfrom going.
(21:15):
And I think I skipped over,
a very important, thing about the spiritgiving direction.
Sometimes the spirit, will tell,
we'll tell Paul where he should goor where he shouldn’t go.
In acts 16, it says acts 16 six.
And when he went through the region ofPhrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden
(21:36):
by the Holy Spiritto speak the Word of God in Asia,
and when they had come opposite Missio,they attempted to go into Bithynia.
But the Spirit of Jesusdid not allow them.
And then Paul has a vision of a manof Macedonia said, come over here.
So again acts 16
Sometimes Paul is forbiddenfrom going places.
(21:57):
In this case, Paul discerns that, yeah,the Holy Spirit is telling him and warning
him and those who are with him, that he'sgoing to be imprisoned.
Arrested, and of course, it comes to pass.
He's arrested in Jerusalem.
He speaks boldlybefore the Jewish leaders, Festus
and Felix and King Agrippa.
He's boldly witnessing before,
He's boldly witnessing before,
(22:18):
the the Jewish leadersand the Roman leaders.
And he's sent to Rome.
Where to the very end of his life, he's
proclaiming the word of Godand the very end of acts of the apostles.
He's preachingeven in Rome at the last chapter of acts.
And some people are not believing.
And he said, well, is it said thatthe Holy Spirit and the prophet Isaiah
has warned that you're going to hearand not believe and not understand.
(22:42):
So to conclude this, talk, gonea little long,
but this will be the end of ourour discussion of the Holy Spirit
in, the writings of Saint Luke and herethe acts of the apostles.
And I think something's become very clearhere, that
that this is truly,a gospel related to the Holy Spirit.
(23:04):
The work of the Holy Spiritis to empower the followers of Jesus
who receive the spirit for mission,and it gives them their identity.
A Christian is onewho is filled with the Holy Spirit.
Sometimes there are visiblemanifestations of that.
Speaking in tongues and prophecy.
I mentioned a number of timesin the acts of the apostles,
(23:24):
but the main witness, the mainmark of a Christian for Saint Luke
apparently is the Christianunder the power of the Holy Spirit,
is is sent on a missionto proclaim the gospel with boldness.
Beginning we see this beginning at the dayof Pentecost in Acts chapter two.
One could just look at ourselves
(23:45):
and give a little self-examinationas the church.
Are we bold about our proclamationof Jesus?
And, you know, today, I would saymost Catholics that at least I know,
and including myself, we're very reticentabout, proclaiming Jesus.
We don't want to look likereligious fanatics.
We don't want to look like,you know, it's not socially acceptable
(24:07):
to be talking about Jesus Christto those who perhaps do not know him.
But if we take any lessonfrom the acts of the apostles
is that if the church is to grow,
we must receive a greater boldnessand empowering of the spirit,
sometimes even accompaniedby, works of God through the spirit of.
(24:28):
We'll talk about in the writings of SaintPaul of
and we've seen it in acts of healingsand, confronting, lies
in the power of the spirit, as Saint Pauldid, and, and even driving out demons.
I think this reading the actsof the apostles, perhaps I know it.
As for me, it convicts me.
It convicts me that, why isn't the church?
(24:49):
Why isn't the world convertedto Christianity?
Perhaps wewe need more of the Holy Spirit.
Perhaps we need to really pray fast,ask God
to give us that boldness to witnessto Jesus as we saw in the early church.
And we know that would often leadto persecution, even martyrdom.
(25:09):
People losing their possessions.
We look at the historyof the early church.
There was a cost of discipleshipand the cost was often losing
not only worldly status,but possessions and even one's life.
But, if we could ask the Holy Spiritfor the boldness
to become true witnesses to Christ
(25:31):
in as God the Holy Spirit leadsus, come, Holy Spirit,
fill the hearts of your faithfulenkindle in us the fire of your love.
Send forth your spirit,
and they shall be created,and you shall renew the face of the earth.
Oh God, who
by the light of the Holy Spiritdid instruct the hearts of the faithful.
Grant that, by that same spirit,we may be truly wise
(25:51):
and ever rejoice in his consolationsthrough Christ our Lord.
Amen.
In our next podcast,we're going to move to the Holy Spirit
in the Gospel of Saint John. Join me then.
This is Doctor Alan Schreck.
We're continuing the serieson the Holy Spirit in the New Testament.
And in the last couple of podcasts,we've been looking at the Holy Spirit
in Luke's, acts of the apostles,which sometimes has been called
the acts of the Holy Spirit.
And I think if you've been listeningand as you're listening to this podcast,
you'll understand why.
(00:31):
Because, the emphasis of SaintLuke is apparent that the Holy Spirit
is given specificallyfor extending the mission of the church.
And that mission isespecially the proclamation of the gospel
and with accompanying signs, thingsthat are in the power of the spirit.
How the works that Jesusdid are now carried out
(00:52):
by his, his disciples,especially the apostles.
We left off last podcast,
at the looking at the actsof the apostles, chapter eight.
So we're going to begin today by.
I'm going to be looking at evidenceof the Holy Spirit
in the acts of the apostles, beginningwith acts chapter nine.
(01:13):
To the end of the acts of the apostles.
And then I'd like to draw some conclusionsand perhaps some applications
of what we learned from SaintLuke in the acts of the apostles.
So, we left off in chaptereight with, Philip the Apostle Philip
preaching the gospel to, an Ethiopian
and that he was baptizedin the Holy Spirit.
(01:36):
Philip was taken up by the spirit.
And we read in acts 8:39and when they came up out of the water,
the spirit of the Lord caught up Philipand the eunuch saw him no more.
But Philip was found, in Azo′tus,
He's actually, you know,almost in this case, miraculously
(01:56):
taking Philip awayand bringing him to another place.
But now we we're beginning
we're going to look at, actschapter nine and following in chapter
nine of acts is about the conversionof Saint Paul or Saul at the time.
And you know the storyand I, I'm going to focus on,
the texts in the actsthat explicitly mentioned the Holy Spirit.
(02:19):
And most of you know that chapternine of acts, you could read it
if you do not know this, that, Saul,a persecutor of the church,
you know, he was standing therewhen Stephen was stoned.
In acts chapter seven,he was approving of this,
and he is, describedas a, a virulent persecutor of the church.
So he's going, on the road to the Damascusto, to persecute Christians.
(02:44):
And he has letters,that will authorize him to do this.
And he sees Jesus on the road.
Jesus appears to him and says, Saul, Saul,why do you persecute me?
And, and and he is struck blind,
And he is struck blind,
and he is led by the handby his, companions
into the city of Damascus,where he meets a man named Ananias.
(03:06):
Now Ananias was a disciple of the Lord.
And the Lord said to himin a vision it says in acts
910, rise and go to the street.
Street called straight,
and inquire in the house of Judasfor a man of Tarsus named Saul.
For behold, he is praying so.
And in this goes, and he meets Saul,and he says.
(03:28):
Saul speaks to himand says, that he has been sent
to him to receive the gift of faith.
So it it says inand then abbreviating here.
But and it's 917So Ananias departed and entered the house,
and laying his hands on him on Saul,he said, brother Saul the Lord
(03:49):
Jesus who appeared to you on the roadby which you came, had sent me,
that you may regain your sightand be filled with the Holy Spirit.
And immediatelysomething like scales fell from his eyes,
and he regained his sight.
And he rose and was baptized, took food,and he was strengthened.
So there, the baptism of Saul is.
(04:09):
And Saul at thatmoment is filled with the Holy Spirit.
What's the evidence of being filledwith the Holy Spirit?
And we see this throughout Luke's gospelin the acts of the apostles,
especially in the acts when one is filled
with the Holy Spirit,they proclaim the Word of God.
And that's what Saul did.
He went around Damascus, preachingthe Word of God with with boldness.
(04:33):
Actually, some of the Jews triedto, to, kill him, but he escaped.
And then he eventually came downto Jerusalem.
In acts 926and he says, the Lord who spoke,
he had seen the Lord who spoke to him,and how it Damascus he had preached boldly
in the name of Jesus.
And so he went in and outamong them at Jerusalem, preaching
(04:55):
boldly in the name of the Lord.
So, Saul is immediatelyin acts nine going.
He is filled with the spirit,and he proclaims the gospel boldly.
And the conclusion of this vignetteon Saul is 931.
Conclusion.
So the church throughout all Judeaand Galilee and Samaria had peace
(05:20):
and was built up
and walking in the fear of the Lordand in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.
It was multiplied.
So it's not only Saul,but the other apostles
are going aroundpreaching in Galilee, Samaria.
They're at peace, and they experience
the comfort of the Holy Spiritand more people being added.
And then now we're going to move to,we mentioned that earlier
(05:43):
in the acts of the apostles.
We talked about Peter and his empowermentbeginning at Pentecost.
932 picks up
Peter, going to, a place called Lyddawhere he heals,
a man named Aeneaswho was bedridden for eight years.
And basically he says,Jesus Christ heals you and he is healed.
(06:06):
Then Peter goes on to Joppaand there's a disciple named Tabitha.
Or which means Dorcas.
So Tabitha, Dorcas,she is had fallen sick and
She died.
And Peter, in the power of the spirit,raises her from the dead.
And so we see these miraculous
works of the Lord, through Peter.
(06:27):
But then in acts chapter ten,we have a very significant, you might say,
a turning point for the whole church,because it hadn't been clear
whether, the gospel was to be proclaimed,
to the Jews only, or what about Gentiles?
It doesn't seem,except by sort of the example
of Jesus reaching out to Gentiles,but Jesus basically.
(06:50):
And there are some passages.
And in the Gospels, Jesus sent themto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
But here is,
Peter is in Joppa, and it says in acts ten
Peter is in Joppa, and it says in acts ten
one at Caesarea there was a named mannamed Cornelius, a centurion,
a devout man, who feared Godwith all his household,
and gave alms liberally, and prayedconstantly to God.
(07:12):
So here's a God fearing man,but he's a centurion.
He's a Roman. He's a Gentile.
And, he but he has a vision,but he has to send some people
to Joppa to ask for a man named Peter.
Well, meanwhile, Peter's in Joppa,and he actually is praying on the roof
of a house, and he has a vision of a sheetbeing lowered and a vision,
(07:37):
and I'm not going to go into the details,but it was a vision of a sheet
and the the voice he heard said, killand eat their unclean animals.
And Peter said, no, far be it from me.
I've never touched anything unclean.
So it wasn't clear immediatelywhat God was saying to him. But,
it says
in acts 1017 now while wasPeter was inwardly perplexed
(07:59):
as to what the vision which he had seenmight mean, behold, the men that were sent
by Cornelius, having made inquiryfor Simon's house, stood before the gate.
And basically they meet Peter.
And it says, and while Peter was ponderingthe vision he had of the sheet,
the spirit said to him, so here'sthe Holy Spirit again, giving direction.
(08:20):
Another word to the Spirit in Lukeand in the acts is directing,
the discipleswhat they are to do and where to to go.
So the spirit said to Peter, here, behold,three men are looking for you.
Rise and go down in the company of themwithout hesitation, for I have sent them.
So the Holy Spirit sent these menand told Peter, go with them.
So the Holy Spirit sent these menand told Peter, go with them.
(08:41):
So Peter ends up going to to Caesarea,to Cornelius, his house.
And Cornelius explainsthat he had a, a vision
of a man standing in light saying,send for Peter and Joppa.
And he says, what?
What do you have to say to us?
So basically, Peter in acts chapterten begins to preach the gospel to him.
(09:02):
What else does he have to give?
Even though these people are Gentiles,he knows that the Lord has sent them
and now the vision is becoming clear
that these men who are Gentileswould be considered unclean.
To go into their housewould make them unclean.
But God sent Peter there,and so he he preached the gospel.
(09:22):
And here's verse 1044,while Peter was still saying this,
his preaching the gospel, the Holy Spiritfell on all who heard the word.
And the believersfrom among the circumcised who came with
Peter were amazed,because the gift of the Holy Spirit
had been poured out, even on the Gentiles.
(09:43):
Significant words like HolySpirit is God's great gift, the gift.
Remember Peter in his Pentecosthomily says, repent, be baptized,
and you shall receivethe gift of the Holy Spirit.
So the Holy Spirit is the gift of God,
and it is the gift of the Holy Spirithad been poured out even on the Gentiles.
And when Peter declared,can anyone forbid water for baptizing
(10:06):
these people who have receivedthe Holy Spirit just as we have?
And he commanded them to be baptizedin the name of Jesus Christ,
and he remained with him some days.
Now, however,this is going to be disturbing to
some of the, the Christians,the believers, because, Peter
and the other hand,went back to Jerusalem to report on this,
(10:28):
and some people were questioning him. Why?
Why were you baptizing Gentiles?
They're not part of the chosen people.
And basically, in acts chapter 11,Peter recounts
the story of how, how he came to do this.
And in acts 1115 he says, as I began
(10:48):
to speak,preaching to Cornelius and his household,
the Holy Spirit fell on themjust as on on us at the beginning.
What's the beginning?The day of Pentecost.
And I remembered the word of the Lord,how he said, John baptized with water,
but you shall be baptizedwith the Holy Spirit.
If then God gave the same gift to themas he gave to us
(11:11):
when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ,who is I that I could withstand God?
And when they heard this,they were silenced.
They glorified God, saying,then to the Gentiles also God
has granted repentance unto life.
So this starts a new chapterin the Christian mission.
Even before Saul who becomes Paul,
(11:31):
becomes the great apostle to the Gentile.
The first one to proclaimthe gospel is Peter himself.
And he does so, by the way,by a revelation.
I've always shows that you know,when we see Peter, the,
the, the Rock receiving divine revelationand guidance.
Well, here'sa beautiful example of the spirit
speaking to to Peterand giving him the truth.
(11:54):
The Gentiles to, are members
can be become membersof the Christian community.
So as we go on from here, Peter,we have this, this powerful account.
And by the way,
Peter, in telling the storyof the conversion
of Cornelius in his householdthree times in the acts of the apostles,
(12:16):
he recounts the same story becauseobviously this is an important event
that opens the door to the Gentiles
to become Christians. Now,
then, a little later in, acts chapter
13, there a group,but they were in Antioch now, Saul
and, Barnabas and some others,they were praying and fasting.
(12:38):
And it says in acts 13 two,while they were worshiping
the Lord and fasting,the Holy Spirit said, set apart
for me Barnabas and Saul, for the workto which I have called them.
And then after fasting and praying,they laid their hands on them
and sent them off.
And so, being sent by the Holy Spirit,
they went down to Solutiaso the Holy Spirit again is speaking.
(13:02):
He's giving directions for the church.
He says, set apartBarnabas and Saul for this work.
And, they
they went down to St Lucia
and they were sent out by the Holy Spiritin Acts 13
when they went down to St Lucia,there was a false prophet named Bar
Jesus who was, trying to take a mannamed a proconsul
(13:25):
named Sergius Paulus,telling him lies about the Lord.
And so basically, Saul it says in acts
13:9, But Saul, who is also called Paul,
filled with the Holy Spirit,looked intently at him.
This is this man who is trying to drawthis proconsul away from the faith.
(13:47):
He looked atthis man named Elias and said,
you son of the devil, you enemy ofall righteousness, full of all deceit.
And basically he prophesies,the man will be struck blind.
And basically he prophesies,the man will be struck blind.
For for what he was sayingis lies against God.
So here, you know, Paul is filledwith the Holy Spirit and rebuking
someone who is, telling lies and tryingto draw people away from the faith.
(14:11):
So there's the Holy Spiritonce again, doing his work.
So now
we move to Acts 15, a very important,event here.
Well, before I get to that, I,I should say what had happened.
They were preaching the gospel.
And at the end of chapter 13, to go back,
(14:32):
some leading men of the city stirred uppersecution against Paul and Barnabas
and drove them out of their district.
But they shook off the dust
from their feet against them,and went to Iconium.
And the disciples were filled with joyand with the Holy Spirit.
So even though so, Paul and Barnabaswere driven away of the disciples
who remained there were filled with joyin the Holy Spirit.
(14:54):
Then in Acts 15 there was a dispute about,
the requirements for, Gentileswho were being converted.
What what did they need to do?
Did they need to be circumcisedas become part of do
they have to become Jewsin order to become Christians?
And there was a dispute about this.
And so we we see another great work ofthe Holy Spirit, the, all of the apostles
(15:19):
and the elders decidedwe have to be coming to agreement on this.
So they called the council that Jerusalem.
I say this is like the prototypeof the ecumenical councils
of the Catholic Churchbecause they they needed that.
Apparently they did not have a clear wordfrom the Lord.
If the Lord had said something,they would have easily gone on to that.
But, they decidedthey would come together.
(15:42):
And the members of the,
the leaders would give little speeches,sort of the first council speeches.
And at the end, James,who is the presiding
elder of the Church of Jerusalem, sumsit up.
And they decided that
the Gentilesdid not need to be circumcised.
And they, they actually had a letterthat they wrote that they were going
(16:04):
to send around to all the churches,the Christian churches,
to make it clear what they had decidedand what the letter said.
It says in Acts 1527 and following.
We have therefore sent Judas and Silas,who themselves
will tell you the same thingsby word of mouth as in the letter.
For this seemed good to the Holy Spirit,and to us to lay upon
(16:27):
you no greater burdenthan these necessary things.
So basically, they attribute,
James, the decision they madeto the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Now, there are a number of other thingsthat we see.
And, and I'm going to skip aheadbecause, we see many other things
(16:47):
of Paulbeing sent around on mission, with Silas.
He goes to Athens, he goes to Corinth.
There's no explicit mention ofthe Holy Spirit in some of these chapters,
but the next time we see a very important
event was in, acts chapter 19,
while Apollos was at Apollosbecame a, was a disciple
(17:09):
who was preaching the gospel,while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul
passed through the upper countryand came to Ephesus.
There he found some disciples.
And he said to them, did you receivethe Holy Spirit when you believed?
And they said, no, we have nevereven heard that there is a Holy Spirit.
And he said to them,and to what then were you baptized?
(17:30):
Saul asked.
Paul is they said, into John's baptism.
And Paul said, John baptizedyou with the baptism of repentance.
And, but he said, thosewho come to believe
in the one who is coming after them,that is Jesus.
On hearing that they were baptized
in the name of the Lord Jesus,and when Paul had laid his hands upon them
the Holy Spirit came upon them
(17:51):
And they spoke in tongues,and were prophesied.
And there were about 12 in all number ofpoints could be made from this.
Like Paul could see,there was something missing when he came.
They were disciples.
They, they were relating to Paulas if they were believers.
But he noticed thatthere was something missing.
So we asked them, did you receivethe Holy Spirit when you believed?
(18:15):
I think that this is very importantbecause you might say throughout
the acts of the apostles, what is the markof a disciple again and again?
Perhaps the greatest compliment,but it's an identity, is
that people are filledwith the Holy Spirit.
And like they mentioned,Saul was filled with the Holy Spirit.
They mentioned, Barnabas was a man of,filled with the Holy Spirit and faith.
(18:39):
And this becomes, almost the identifying
mark of being a Christian,a full Christian.
Are you filled with the Holy Spirit?
And of course, the evidence of this is
in Luke's gospel and in the acts,especially the acts as,
if you're filled with the Holy Spirit,you will not only know the truth
about Jesus, but you'll be fearlessin following him and preaching Jesus.
(19:04):
This is a gospel of mission.
and we could see from the restof the acts of the apostles, Paul
is really focusing from acts 19 and onto the end of the acts of the apostles.
We see Paul going forthand the power of the spirit,
preaching the gospel to all the placesthe Lord sends him.
There are a coupleof interesting things that,
(19:25):
as he's in this mission, in Actschapter 20,
Paul realizes that he is going
to eventually be arrested.
And he says in acts 2022 and followingand now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem,
bound in the spirit,not knowing what shall befall
me, except that the Holy Spirittestifies to me in every city.
(19:50):
That imprisonment and affliction await me,but I do not account.
My life has any value,and I that I am almost.
I need to accomplish my courseand the ministry which I receive
from the Lord Jesus, to testifyto the gospel of the grace of God.
So the Holy Spirit is telling,is revealing
to Paul, that eventually he'sgoing to be in prison.
(20:13):
And we see a couple of other caseswhere that is confirmed.
He goes on, to Tyre where he andI chapter 21,
it says the people of Tyre, the, the,the followers of Jesus said
through the spirit.
They told Paul not to go to Jerusalembecause they knew he would be arrested.
And then, a little later,there's a he's in, Caesarea
(20:34):
and a man, a prophet named Agabacomes down and does a prophetic act.
He took Paul's belt and bound his own feetand hands.
This is acts 2111 and following.
And it says, thus says the Holy Spirit,
so shall the Jews at Jerusalem bindthe man who owns this belt.
And deliver himinto the hands of the Gentiles.
(20:55):
And when he heard this, we and the peoplebegged him not to go up to Jerusalem.
But basically, Paul, he'swarned by the spirit,
by prophets, and by God speaking to himthat he's going to be arrested.
But Paul knows that it's not likein some other cases
where the spirit, prohibits himfrom going.
(21:15):
And I think I skipped over,
a very important, thing about the spiritgiving direction.
Sometimes the spirit, will tell,
we'll tell Paul where he should goor where he shouldn’t go.
In acts 16, it says acts 16 six.
And when he went through the region ofPhrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden
(21:36):
by the Holy Spiritto speak the Word of God in Asia,
and when they had come opposite Missio,they attempted to go into Bithynia.
But the Spirit of Jesusdid not allow them.
And then Paul has a vision of a manof Macedonia said, come over here.
So again acts 16
Sometimes Paul is forbiddenfrom going places.
(21:57):
In this case, Paul discerns that, yeah,the Holy Spirit is telling him and warning
him and those who are with him, that he'sgoing to be imprisoned.
Arrested, and of course, it comes to pass.
He's arrested in Jerusalem.
He speaks boldlybefore the Jewish leaders, Festus
and Felix and King Agrippa.
He's boldly witnessing before,
He's boldly witnessing before,
(22:18):
the the Jewish leadersand the Roman leaders.
And he's sent to Rome.
Where to the very end of his life, he's
proclaiming the word of Godand the very end of acts of the apostles.
He's preachingeven in Rome at the last chapter of acts.
And some people are not believing.
And he said, well, is it said thatthe Holy Spirit and the prophet Isaiah
has warned that you're going to hearand not believe and not understand.
(22:42):
So to conclude this, talk, gonea little long,
but this will be the end of ourour discussion of the Holy Spirit
in, the writings of Saint Luke and herethe acts of the apostles.
And I think something's become very clearhere, that
that this is truly,a gospel related to the Holy Spirit.
(23:04):
The work of the Holy Spiritis to empower the followers of Jesus
who receive the spirit for mission,and it gives them their identity.
A Christian is onewho is filled with the Holy Spirit.
Sometimes there are visiblemanifestations of that.
Speaking in tongues and prophecy.
I mentioned a number of timesin the acts of the apostles,
(23:24):
but the main witness, the mainmark of a Christian for Saint Luke
apparently is the Christianunder the power of the Holy Spirit,
is is sent on a missionto proclaim the gospel with boldness.
Beginning we see this beginning at the dayof Pentecost in Acts chapter two.
One could just look at ourselves
(23:45):
and give a little self-examinationas the church.
Are we bold about our proclamationof Jesus?
And, you know, today, I would saymost Catholics that at least I know,
and including myself, we're very reticentabout, proclaiming Jesus.
We don't want to look likereligious fanatics.
We don't want to look like,you know, it's not socially acceptable
(24:07):
to be talking about Jesus Christto those who perhaps do not know him.
But if we take any lessonfrom the acts of the apostles
is that if the church is to grow,
we must receive a greater boldnessand empowering of the spirit,
sometimes even accompaniedby, works of God through the spirit of.
(24:28):
We'll talk about in the writings of SaintPaul of
and we've seen it in acts of healingsand, confronting, lies
in the power of the spirit, as Saint Pauldid, and, and even driving out demons.
I think this reading the actsof the apostles, perhaps I know it.
As for me, it convicts me.
It convicts me that, why isn't the church?
(24:49):
Why isn't the world convertedto Christianity?
Perhaps wewe need more of the Holy Spirit.
Perhaps we need to really pray fast,ask God
to give us that boldness to witnessto Jesus as we saw in the early church.
And we know that would often leadto persecution, even martyrdom.
(25:09):
People losing their possessions.
We look at the historyof the early church.
There was a cost of discipleshipand the cost was often losing
not only worldly status,but possessions and even one's life.
But, if we could ask the Holy Spiritfor the boldness
to become true witnesses to Christ
(25:31):
in as God the Holy Spirit leadsus, come, Holy Spirit,
fill the hearts of your faithfulenkindle in us the fire of your love.
Send forth your spirit,
and they shall be created,and you shall renew the face of the earth.
Oh God, who
by the light of the Holy Spiritdid instruct the hearts of the faithful.
Grant that, by that same spirit,we may be truly wise
(25:51):
and ever rejoice in his consolationsthrough Christ our Lord.
Amen.
In our next podcast,we're going to move to the Holy Spirit
in the Gospel of Saint John. Join me then.
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