January 26, 2025 • 55 mins
Join us on an eye-opening exploration of the Book of Acts, where the foundations of the early church come into sharp focus, challenging us to consider how today's church measures up. Inspired by Acts 1:1-11, we kick off a year-long journey, questioning whether our contemporary practices would be recognizable to early believers. As we navigate the societal challenges facing modern Christianity, this sermon calls for alignment with the mission and spirit of the early church, advocating for discernment in the face of perceived antagonism.
Experience the Book of Acts through a new lens as we highlight the empowering work of the Holy Spirit, which could more aptly be titled "The Acts of the Holy Spirit." Reflect on the apostles' remarkable transformation, from their initial hesitance in the Roman Empire to becoming bold heralds of the Gospel.
Pastor Chris challenges preconceived notions surrounding Pentecostal experiences, advocating for a universal embrace of the Holy Spirit's power across all denominations. By sharing insights from influential figures like John Wesley and John Piper, he highlight the significance of genuine spiritual encounters that transcend traditional boundaries. This sermon encourages you to seek the Holy Spirit's influence in everyday life, with the aim of making Jesus known amongst the nations.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
I'll be reading from Acts, chapter 1, verses 1
through 11.
In the first book, o Theophilus, I have dealt with all that
Jesus began to do and teachuntil the day when he was taken
up.
After he had given commandsthrough the Holy Spirit to the
apostles whom he had chosen, hepresented himself alive to them
(00:25):
after his suffering, by manyproofs appearing to them during
40 days and speaking about thekingdom of God Verse 4,.
And while staying with them, heordered them not to depart from
Jerusalem but to wait for thepromise of the Father, which he
said you heard from me, for Johnbaptized with water, but you
(00:45):
will be baptized with the HolySpirit not many days from now
Verse 6,.
So when they had come together,they asked him Lord, will you
at this time restore the kingdomto Israel?
He said to them it is not foryou to know times or seasons
that the Father has fixed by hisown authority, but you will
(01:08):
receive power when the HolySpirit has come upon you and you
will be my witnesses inJerusalem and in all Judea and
Samaria and to the end of theearth.
And when he had said thesethings, as they were looking on,
he was lifted up and a cloudtook him out of their sight.
And while they were gazing intoheaven as he went, behold, two
(01:30):
men stood by them in white robesand said Men of Galilee, why do
you stand looking into heaven?
This Jesus, who has taken upfrom you into heaven, will come
in the same way as you saw himgo into heaven.
God bless the reading of hisword.
You may be seated.
Thank you, brother Ron.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Praise the Lord, everybody Excited for this
journey.
(02:29):
I want to begin today with aquestion how do the contemporary
church's ideas about theChristian life and the church
compare to those of the firstcentury church?
That's worth thinking about.
(02:49):
We're starting our new series,as you know, through the book of
Acts today and we're going totake a year and, god willing,
we'll get through this wonderfulbook.
And it's a history book thattells us about the birth.
Missy's laughing.
She's like you're not going toget through in a year.
Where's your foe, ye of littlefaith?
Listen, this is a history bookabout the birth of the church.
(03:14):
How many know?
It's a very good thing to do, avery good thing to do to read
history.
It's very beneficial and weneed to know, we need to go back
to our roots and realize howthe church got started and
there's a lot that we can learnthrough the book of Acts from
that first century church.
Now I have two aims as we movethrough this wonderful book, and
(03:36):
the first is evaluation,evaluation.
In 1924, caesar Cardini createdwhat we know as the Caesar salad
.
Aren't you glad you came tochurch today?
The original recipe wassomething like this Romaine
lettuce, fresh parmesan croutons, egg oil, garlic, salt,
(04:03):
worcestershire sauce, citrusjuice and often even included
anchovies.
Now, if you order a Caesarsalad in this area, you're going
to get something similar.
You'll get.
What are you going to get,romaine?
Not fresh Parmesan, butParmesan croutons in so-called
(04:26):
caesar dressing.
But it's close.
It's not exact to what theoriginal was, but it's close
enough that we could call it acaesar.
But apparently around in otherplaces of the country that is
not the case.
Restaurants have taken greatliberty with the caesar salad.
Did you know?
Well, this is such big news thatI came across this article in
(04:48):
the Atlantic Post back over mysabbatical, and in it this lady
by the name of Ellen Cushingwrites these words, quote we are
living through an age ofunchecked Caesar salad fraud,
(05:09):
and man, she's passionate aboutthis too.
Pewter of Caesars are dressedwith yogurt or miso or tequila
or lemongrass, and they areserved with zucchini, orange
zest, pig ear, poached duck egg,roasted fennel, fried chickpeas
, buffalo, cauliflower frittersand rice crackers.
They are missing anchovies orcroutons or even lettuce.
(05:32):
End quote.
And the point of the articlewas simply this what many today
call a Caesar salad would bevirtually unrecognizable to the
Caesar Cardini family.
And I read that and for somereason, I don't know why in the
world.
(05:52):
I mean, that would be normallyan article I'd just kind of
breeze by.
But something sparked to mewhen I read that article Because
I started thinking about thechurch and I just wonder that if
our idea of church in theChristian life would be even
virtually recognizable, evenremotely excuse me recognizable
(06:13):
to the early church.
And as you read through the bookof Acts you've got to wonder
that I think sometimes we dependmore on theatrics than we do
the power of the Spirit.
We're not disciplined to thethings of doctrine and prayer
and the things that they were sodisciplined about.
And so as we move through thebook we want to graciously
(06:36):
evaluate our own life andpractices.
And not everything in the bookof Acts is prescriptive.
Some of it is descriptive Forinstance, we don't cast lots
anymore to choose pastors orelders or deacons but a lot of
it is prescriptive andfundamental to the church's
success and mission.
And so as we move through wewouldn't just evaluate our own
(06:58):
church and say, lord, are wedoing church quote, unquote the
way that we're supposed to, theway that you've called us to
function?
So that's one goal, evaluation.
The other is simplyencouragement.
I don't know if you've noticed,but people in our country are
becoming more and moreantagonistic against the
(07:20):
Christian message.
Have you noticed this Likewe're beginning more and more to
be hated?
Now I'm careful to call whatwe're going through here
persecution, because it'snothing compared to what is
going on in other parts of theworld and it's been that way
throughout history.
But if we're honest, I mean, welive for years as Christians
pretty comfortable lives and itwas a good thing in this country
(07:41):
to be a Christian.
Now it's man.
The message is rejected andhated.
We watch the moral fabric ofour communities, our nation kind
of, unravel more and more eachday and that can be discouraging
and it can seem like all oddsare stacked against us and some
(08:04):
churches you know many churchesare closing and pastors are
leaving the ministry frustrated.
And you might think you know,man, I just don't know about
this.
How are we going to moveforward?
But the book of Acts is a greatencouragement to us because
we're reminded that Jesusstarted with 11 apostles in
chapter 1 and added Matthias atthe end of chapter 1 to replace
(08:26):
Judas Iscariot, and he gave themthis mission to change the
world.
And this was in the RomanEmpire, like it wasn't a moral
place and they had justcrucified the Messiah.
And yet Jesus says 11 men whowere, by way, cowards, in most
of them in the gospel accounts,he says I want you to go, take
(08:49):
the gospel to the ends of theearth.
Good luck, right.
And it's like how could thathappen?
But do you know that we're heretoday because the disciples
actually accomplished what Godcalled them to accomplish?
And by Acts, chapter 17, theapostles, some of them, are
(09:13):
accused of actually turning theworld upside down and beloved.
If 11 uneducated men in thefirst century, in the midst of
the Roman Empire, can turn theworld upside down, how could a
hundred people this morning,full of the Holy Spirit, turn
the world upside down?
Amen.
This book is encouraging and Ihope it encourages you.
(09:38):
So this series is going to looka little bit different than the
way that I've preached throughbooks in the past.
Like I took three years, youremember, to go through the book
of Matthew almost verse byverse, and I don't regret that.
We joke about it, but it was afruitful study.
I have no regrets, but I feel asense of urgency with the book
(09:58):
of Acts.
So, no matter what Missy thinksI'm going to try to get through
it in 2025.
And so I don't want to skipover.
As a church, you know verses andparts of the scripture, so
because it's all important, butthere is some redundancy and
there's some key points I wantto point out.
So what we're doing is we'resupplementing the Sunday morning
(10:21):
teaching with study guides, andyou should all have a printed
one and, as Ron said, they'realso online at myworldchurchorg.
And we're asking you, our smallgroups are relaunching and our
small groups are going to begoing through the verses that I
don't touch on this morning.
And then also, we would ask you, man, go through these together
with your families or in yourpersonal devotions, and let's
(10:42):
just saturate ourselves thisyear with the book of Acts.
Are you on board?
All right, good, so today thefocus is going to be primarily
on verses 4, 5, and 8, which areall about the baptism with the
Holy Spirit.
Now, some of y'all are scaredand my charismatics are going.
(11:04):
Woohoo, finally, right, theHoly Spirit has become known as
kind of the unknown God in thechurch.
In a lot of churches, theTrinity is Father, son and Holy
Word.
Right, like people don't talkabout, they don't mind when you
talk about the fruit of theSpirit, like that doesn't ruffle
(11:26):
any feathers or make peoplenervous, but when you start
talking about power, it's likehold on, hold on, I took the
chandeliers down, don't meannobody hanging.
Let me just put you at ease, butthe book of Acts has a title in
most of your Bibles.
What's that title Do you see atthe top?
The Acts of Acts has a title inmost of your Bibles.
What's that title Do you see atthe top?
(11:47):
The Acts of the Apostles.
Now, that title, I would argue,was not divinely inspired,
because it was not part of theoriginal manuscripts.
That was added just I don'tknow why just a few years later
or a few centuries later, wedon't know exactly when.
But that's a fine title.
I mean, this book follows notall of the disciples, really
(12:08):
just a few, particularly Pauland Peter, but there's others as
well that it mentions.
A better name for the book,though, would be the Acts of the
Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit in this book ismentioned 55 times at least.
(12:31):
Probably more, I'm sure Imissed a couple, but it's
referred to 55 times at least in28 chapters.
That's more than all of Matthew, mark and Luke combined.
It's interesting that the OldTestament well, let me preface
this the entire bible, withinthe entire bible and in every
(12:52):
book of the bible we can findpictures or or a little bit
about the father, son and holyspirit okay, the triune god, but
the Old Testament seems toprimarily focus on introducing
us to God the Father.
The four Gospels Matthew, mark,luke and John primarily focus
on Jesus Christ, but, to be sure, the Holy Spirit and the Father
(13:17):
are in those as well.
But it's primarily about thestory of Jesus and the book of
Acts primarily focuses on theHoly Spirit.
So this would be better titled,I think, the Acts of the Holy
Spirit.
I want to point you first toverse 1.
Look at verse 1 with me.
This is Luke writing, who alsowrote the Gospel of Luke, and he
(13:42):
says in the first book OTheophilus, now Theophilus, now
Theophilus is likely some Romandignitary, and I should have
written this down, I forget.
I think his name means it canmean either lover of God or
loved by God.
So he's likely a Christian, buta Roman dignitary of some sort.
And Luke says to him he says Ihave dealt with all that Jesus
(14:07):
in the first book.
I've dealt with all that Jesusbegan and I want you to
underline that in your scripturejournal began to do and teach.
He began to do and teach.
That's significant.
So he says the book of Luke,the first book he wrote, was an
account of what Jesus began todo and teach.
Which means that in the book ofActs you know when Jesus, in
(14:29):
chapter one, ascends into heaven.
But how many know his ministrydid not stop.
Back this summer I taught on.
We spent a lot of time on John14, 15, and 16.
And in John, chapter 14,remember, Jesus told his
disciples you're going tocontinue my ministry, you're
going to do even greater thingsthan I have done.
(14:50):
And then he talks about bearingfruit in his name, apart from
me.
He said, you can do nothing,but through me you can bear
fruit.
And we talked about that.
And so what we see in the bookof Acts is the works of Jesus
continuing through all 28chapters.
(15:10):
But there's something reallyinteresting, because Acts 28 is
a bit anticlimactic, in thatthere's no the end.
And they live happily everafter.
Why?
Because the works of they livedhappily ever after.
Why?
Because the works of Jesus arestill continuing today.
We're still called out to goout and to win people to Jesus
(15:30):
to take the gospel to theuttermost parts of the earth.
So let's go now to verses 4 and5.
So Jesus is sending his peopleout on mission, he's about to
send them out to take the gospelto the ancient world.
And here's what he says to thedisciples right before His
(15:53):
ascension, verse 4,.
And while speaking with therisen Christ, like they're
rearing to go and start theirministry.
But Jesus says actually, juststay, stay in Jerusalem, do not
(16:13):
depart, but wait for the promiseof the Father, which he said,
of the Father, which he said youheard from me, for John
baptized with water, but youwill be baptized with the Holy
Spirit not many days from now.
(16:34):
One of the things that we seestraight away in the book of
Acts is that the early church'sministry was utterly dependent
upon the Holy Spirit.
And let me just ask you today,for reasons of evaluation, let's
just look at this church andthen maybe the contemporary
(16:55):
church as a whole.
Would people say that we areutterly dependent on the Holy
Spirit?
I think we're sometimes tooeducated, too eloquent.
We have too much technology,too many marketing resources,
(17:15):
where we've become moredependent again on theatrics
than we have the Holy Spirit.
But I've reminded as I gothrough Acts, that oh, how much
more could we accomplish.
We're not a glorified businessPastors function today as
glorified CEO but we're calledto be spirit filled men of God,
amen.
And we're called to be spiritfilled people who live and move
(17:40):
and have our being in GodHimself and minister and
proclaim the gospel in the powerof the Spirit.
Let me just ask you, what wouldit look like today?
Like what would happen inRichmond today if we were
empowered by the Spirit.
Like the first century churchwas.
(18:02):
Like what would happen?
It's worth thinking about.
What is Jesus says wait on thebaptism of the Holy Spirit.
What is the baptism of the HolySpirit?
This is kind of debated, by theway, but can we just not let
our traditions interpret thisfor us?
(18:23):
Can we let the Bible interpretthe Bible?
So let's just look at Luke inthe book of Acts and what he has
to say about the baptism withthe Holy Spirit.
So let me start here.
This is very important Everysingle real Christian, real
follower of Jesus, has the HolySpirit.
(18:46):
Otherwise you are not aChristian.
So Romans 8 and 9,.
You, however, are not in theflesh but in the spirit, if in
fact, the spirit of God dwellsin you.
Listen to what Paul said.
This is Romans 8 and 9.
Anyone who does not have theSpirit of Christ does not belong
to Him.
(19:07):
Every Christian is indwelt bythe Spirit and, by the way, if
you're a Christian, you have theentire Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is not a gas,okay.
The Holy Spirit is not anenergy.
(19:34):
The Holy Spirit is referred toas the third person of the
Godhead.
So you don't get.
You know, you don't get.
I think a lot of Pentecostalsmake it sound like, well, you
have part of the Spirit.
You don't get.
I think a lot of Pentecostalsmake it sound like, well, you
have part of the Spirit ifyou're a Christian, but you
don't have all of you know, andthey refer to him as the it
right?
No, you get all of the Spirit.
However, what we learn in theBible and you're going to see
this today is that the HolySpirit has different functions.
(19:56):
So you have the whole Spirit,but what it may be is that you
have the function of the holyspirit by his indwelling, but
maybe you're missing anotherfunction of the spirit, perhaps.
All right, many people believethat, and I think erroneously
that when the book of acts talksabout the baptism with the holy
(20:20):
spirit or in the Holy Spirit.
That Luke is referring to theregenerative or salvific work of
the Spirit.
So this is about salvation, andI just again, we just look at
context and I don't think that'swhat Luke means.
The disciples, at this point,right before Jesus' ascension,
(20:43):
have already received, it seems,the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit.
In other words, they've alreadybeen born again.
So let me show this to you Takeyour Bible this won't be in
your scripture journal, but takeyour Bible and go with me to
John, chapter 20.
And if we can put verses 21through 23 on the screen if I
(21:03):
have it I can't remember if Iput that in there or not there
we go.
You have it All right, here wego.
So this is actually this is theevening of Jesus' resurrection
and he's with his disciples.
Listen to what he says to them.
Jesus said to them peace, bewith you, as the Father has sent
me.
Even so, I am sending you.
(21:24):
And when he said these things,what's he do?
He breathed on them and saidreceive the Holy Spirit.
If you forgive the sins of any,they are forgiven them.
If you withhold forgivenessfrom any, it is withheld.
So I wanted you to focus onthat.
He breathed on thempost-resurrection and said
(21:45):
receive the Holy Spirit.
This is what I believe by faiththat the disciples are truly
born again.
In Luke 24, 52 and 53, luke saysthat the disciples worshiped
Jesus and returned to Jerusalemwith great joy this is
(22:08):
post-resurrection With great joyand were continually in the
temple blessing God.
These are disciples full of joy, worshiping God.
John Piper said it well, hesaid these are not unregenerate
people.
So my point, something toconsider, is that I believe at
(22:30):
this moment in Acts 1, rightbefore Jesus' ascension, I think
the disciples are already bornagain and have the indwelling of
the Holy Spirit.
So when Jesus talks about waitfor the Spirit in Acts 4, it can
be a bit perplexing Do you seethat?
But he says look what he saysWait, right, wait, verse 4.
(22:55):
Don't depart from Jerusalem.
Wait for the promise of theFather, which he said you have
heard from me for John baptizedwith water, but you'll be
baptized with the Holy Spiritnot many days from now.
He's talking to people whoalready have the indwelling of
the Spirit, which is interesting.
Wait, there's something elsethat you need if you're going to
(23:21):
take the gospel to the ends ofthe Roman world Jesus is
referring to, he's recalling astory that all four gospels tell
.
It's the story of John theBaptist.
Remember when John the Baptistwas baptizing people?
He was performing this baptismof repentance, preparing the way
(23:43):
for Jesus.
And when he was baptizing hesaid I baptize you in water, but
there's coming one after me whowill baptize you with the Holy
Spirit and fire.
And so that's what Jesus istelling his disciples now, who
are indwelt by the Spirit.
He said listen that promisethat John gave.
And Jesus is telling hisdisciples now, who are indwelt
by the Spirit, he said listenthat promise that John gave,
(24:05):
it's coming.
It's coming.
Not many days from now you'regoing to be baptized with the
Holy Spirit.
So what is the baptism with theHoly Spirit?
Well, we're going to look atthree key words in verse 8 that
tell us almost everything weneed to know about what spirit
(24:27):
baptism is.
And the first word and I wantyou to underline this is the
word power in verse 8.
Okay, let's look at it.
But you will receive what Power?
When the Holy Spirit comes uponyou, or has come upon you,
you'll receive power.
(24:47):
Notice what he doesn't say.
He doesn't say you will receivesalvation when the Holy Spirit
comes upon you.
He says power.
So the evidence of the baptismin the Holy Spirit is power.
Well, what does that mean?
Does that mean that you knowyou get some kind of like X-Men
(25:09):
superpower or something?
You're flying off buildings orwhatever?
It's not that.
This has to do with thecharismatic gifts, many of them
found in 1 Corinthians, chapter12.
And you're going to see this.
So let's just take a journeythrough Acts.
I don't have time for you toturn to every scripture with me
here, but we'll get to thesethrough the series.
What does the power look likein Acts?
(25:32):
Well, in Acts 2, 4, the HolySpirit falls on the assembled
believers and they're all filledwith the Spirit.
And what do they do?
They speak with other tongues.
Now, some of you who did notgrow up in Pentecostal churches,
you hear that and you go oh no,he's not going there.
Do you know what the wordtongues actually literally means
(25:53):
?
It's languages.
Why the interpreters, thetranslators, don't just use that
word?
I don't know.
It's a little less scary, right?
So they speak in tongues.
That's a power.
They were able to speak andmagnify God in languages that
they had never learned.
By the way, I know you guyshave a lot of questions about
the gift of tongues.
God willing, next week I have afeeling this place will be
(26:15):
packed out.
I'm going to talk about thegift of tongues.
Pray for me this week.
I'm going to talk about thegift of tongues.
Pray for me this week BecauseI'm going to offend Pentecostals
and cessationists.
I heard one pastor say he's anequal opportunity offender, and
that's me.
(26:37):
So in Acts 2-4, the power isthis ability to speak in
languages unknown to thedisciples, in all of those, by
the way, the full 120 in theupper rooms, not just the
apostles.
Then, in Peter's explanation,peter explains all these people
are perplexed going.
What's going on?
These people are speakinglanguages that they've never
been able to speak, and Peterexplains what has just happened,
this phenomenon, by quotingfrom Joel, chapter 2.
(26:59):
So I want you to flip over toActs, chapter 2, with me and go
to verse 16.
We're just going to read acouple verses.
So all these people areaccusing the disciples and the
others of being drunk andthey're like come on, it's 9 in
the morning.
We don't start drinking until10.
(27:20):
That's a joke, so let's look atverse 16.
We don't start drinking until10.
That's a joke.
So let's look at verse 16.
So this is Peter's scripturalexplanation of what's just
happened.
He said this was what wasuttered through the prophet Joel
and in the last day it shall beGod declares that I will pour
(27:40):
out my spirit on all flesh.
That's just happened.
Right, this is the baptism inor with the Holy Spirit.
And here's the signs.
Okay, that Peter says can also.
He doesn't mention tongues here, but he says your sons and
daughters shall do what Prophesy.
It's a supernatural gift.
(28:01):
And your young men shall dowhat Prophesy.
It's a supernatural gift.
And your young men shall dowhat Visions and your old men
shall dream dreams.
Even on my male servants and myfemale servants, in those days
I will pour out my spirit andthey shall do what Prophecy.
So in chapter two, verse four,we can see that power can look
like tongues and by Peter'sexplanation we can know it could
(28:25):
be prophecy, dreaming of dreams, seeing visions.
And we see this, by the way,throughout the book of Acts, in
Acts 4, 31,.
It's power to boldly preach thegospel even when your life is
at risk, like you need power forthat.
Remember when Peter.
He was like afraid of a teenagegirl who called him out for
(28:49):
being Jesus' disciples, and hedenied him three times.
Well, now Peter stands up inActs 2 full of the Holy Spirit
and boldly preaches the gospelLike we need power to stand in
the face of persecution.
So that power can look likethat In Acts 6, 8, it's the
power to do miracles.
In Acts 7, 55, it's the poweragain to withstand persecution.
That's Stephen the martyr.
(29:11):
In Acts 10, it's the power tospeak with other tongues.
Again In Acts 19, it's thepower to speak in other tongues
and to prophesy.
My point is this, and I think wePentecostals have erred here
sometimes it doesn't look thesame way all the time.
Jesus does not say you'll havethis particular gift when the
(29:32):
Holy Spirit comes upon you.
He says you'll have power, andthat power looks differently
throughout the book of Acts andI'll talk more about that next
week.
So to begin with, we learn fromthis first word power, the
baptism of the Holy Spirit.
It's not to do with salvation,but it is the receiving of
(29:57):
extraordinary power.
Are you with me?
Shake your head.
Have I offended anybody yet?
Doing well, my wife raised herhand in the back.
The second word that I want youto focus on and underline is
the word upon.
You will receive power when theSpirit comes upon you, and that
preposition is extremelyimportant.
So I want you to go with me onemore time to the book of John,
(30:18):
in chapter 14.
So this is pre-resurrection.
The last scripture from Johnwas post-resurrection.
Look what this verse is 16 and17.
So this is before Jesus hasbeen crucified.
And here's what he tells hisdisciples.
And I will ask the father andhe will give you another helper.
(30:39):
So Jesus is telling thedisciples I'm going away, but
I'm sending you the Helper.
Who's the Helper?
Holy Spirit.
Alright, you've been listening.
What's the preposition?
With you forever, even theSpirit of truth, whom the world
cannot receive because itneither sees Him nor knows Him.
(31:00):
You will know Him, for hedwells with you and he will be.
What's the preposition?
Amen, okay, pre-resurrection.
Jesus tells the disciples theHoly Spirit has been with you,
he has been with you.
What does that mean?
Well, I think it means that,before salvation, the Holy
(31:24):
Spirit is with us.
He convicts us of sin and hehelps us to see the glory and
the beauty of the Lord JesusChrist.
The Holy Spirit's job, by theway is to glorify Christ and to
lead us in the ways of Christ.
The Holy Spirit wouldn't want aHoly Spirit movement.
He'd want a Jesus movement.
His job is to make much ofJesus so before salvation.
(31:49):
The Lord is with people.
So today, maybe you're here atchurch and you're not yet a
Christian, and let me just say,wow, I'm glad you're here.
Maybe you're listening onlineand you're not a Christian, I
believe.
If you are open, obviouslyyou're open to hearing the
preaching of the word and thegospel.
The Holy Spirit is with you.
We had somebody come down frontbefore I was even finished with
(32:13):
the altar call a couple ofweeks ago and said I just had to
come down here.
You know what that is.
That's the Holy Spirit beingwith you, drawing you.
But then Jesus says can we putthat scripture up one more time,
john, yeah, there we go, sohe'll be with you.
That's pre-salvation that theHoly Spirit helps us, convicts
(32:33):
us, helps us see our need forChrist, and he will be with you.
Which is what?
Or in you, which is whathappens in John, chapter 20.
Okay, I know this is a lot.
Shake your head.
If you're with me, all right.
So when you're saved, the HolySpirit dwells in you,
transforming your heart, givingyou the fruit of the Spirit,
(32:55):
forming us into new creations inChrist.
That's all the work of theSpirit and His indwelling
presence.
Okay, so he's with you, he'llbe in you.
But now, what preposition doesJesus use in Acts 1.8?
When the Holy Spirit, whatComes upon you, so with you, in
(33:17):
you, upon you.
This work of the Spirit, itseems to me, is subsequent to
salvation.
Okay, you have the with youbefore salvation, the in you
during salvation, and now theupon you after salvation, and
(33:42):
now upon you after salvation.
And I'm going to take a quickbreak right here, because I see
you all fanning yourselves.
Hang on a second, I can do thisfrom my phone and here I'm
going to let you do this.
Come here.
Are y'all hot?
Oh, you're not.
(34:04):
Well, you're.
I am like roasting up here, allright, should we?
All right, I'll make you a deal.
If you stay awake, I won't.
This is a little bit longersermon today.
If you stay awake, I won't turnthe air down.
Raise your hand, if you Allright, there we go.
Oh, you've got your jacket onup here, all right.
(34:29):
So there are again.
This is so important, guys.
It's the same spirit but thereare different functions of the
Holy Spirit.
So when does this baptism withthe Spirit occur?
I'm glad you asked.
It occurs when the need arisesfor you to be empowered for
(34:55):
whatever it is Christ has calledyou to do.
And, by the way, this issomething we don't hear enough
in charismatic churches.
It's not a one-time thing.
It's not a one-time thing.
If you're looking back to aspirit baptism that happened 37
years ago, brother, you're driedup.
You need a fresh anointing, afresh feeling, a fresh baptism.
(35:16):
Amen.
Let me show that to you.
Some of you are looking at mestrange, by the way, the
indwelling of the spirit forsalvation.
Or look at me strange, by theway, the indwelling of the
Spirit for salvation.
How many times does that happen?
Once, it cannot happen again.
Okay, you're saved one time.
There's no such thing as beingre-saved.
You're saved once, but thebaptism with the Spirit can
(35:36):
happen multiple times.
Let me show you this.
You're going to have to look atsome terminology in Acts to get
this.
In Acts 1-4, jesus talks aboutthe disciples being baptized
with the Holy Spirit, which isthe language that John uses.
The other gospel writers, youwith me.
(35:58):
What word does he use?
Baptized, all right.
But then in Acts 2- 4, when thefulfillment comes, luke doesn't
say they were all baptized withthe Holy Spirit.
What word does he use in Acts 24?
They were all filled with theHoly Spirit.
Now, clearly Luke uses theseterms synonymously and we're
(36:21):
going to see through Acts thatthat term filled is used over
and over and over.
So now I get that the word fill.
It may bother you a little bitbecause it sounds more like the
indwelling right and so just theway the Bible is.
We're just going to have toaccept it today.
But Luke clearly uses thosewords filled and baptized
(36:43):
synonymously In the book of Acts.
I'm just going to give you acouple examples for time's sake.
But we see the same peoplebeing, quote-unquote, filled
with the Spirit multiple times.
So in Acts, chapter 2, peterand John are there right In the
upper room with many others andthey are filled with the Holy
(37:03):
Spirit.
Yes, okay, Interestingly, peteris filled two other times
present tense by the end ofchapter four.
In chapter four it says at theend, verse 31, that Peter, who
was with a new group of peoplethey were all, peter included
filled with the Holy Spirit andcontinued to preach the Word of
(37:25):
God boldly.
Okay.
So in Acts, chapter 2, the signto Peter was this ability to
speak in new languages, whichwas what was needed.
And in Acts, chapter 4, theyhad just been threatened, the
apostles, by the Sanhedrin, notwith their very lives, not to
preach or teach in the name ofJesus.
So what was the sign then?
It was the ability to speak theword of God boldly, though
(37:47):
their lives were at risk.
Okay, the apostle Paul uponsalvation, he receives this
baptism in the Spirit.
And then, in Acts 13, 52, itsays that the disciples,
including Paul at this point,who had already been filled with
the Spirit, that these peoplewere all filled with joy and the
Holy Spirit.
(38:07):
So this happens, and you'regoing to see this over and over
and over.
So the Holy Spirit listen canfill believers with supernatural
power at any point, at any time, in order to accomplish
whatever task he's called you to.
All right, so that's the wordupon.
The final word I want to lookat is the word witnesses, and
(38:33):
here we see the purpose of thebaptism in the Holy Spirit.
You will receive power when theHoly Spirit comes upon you and
you will be my what Witnesses inJerusalem and all of Judea and
Samaria and to the other mostparts of the earth.
Now, that's profound.
In Acts, chapter 2, after, the120 are baptized with the Spirit
(38:57):
and they're all speaking inother languages.
And there's a crowd of peoplearound and they're hearing.
This is not gibberish, okay,these are real languages, other
dialects that they don't speak.
And it says the people hearthem magnifying God.
They're not speaking to men,they're magnifying God and
(39:19):
they're perplexed.
Well, if you put yourself intheir shoes, this crowd of
people, they're hearing theseuneducated men speak in
languages they've never learnedand they're interested.
What's going on?
Are they drunk?
What's happening?
Well, what happens is thatmiracle creates a platform for
the gospel to be preached andPeter preaches a dynamite sermon
(39:41):
full of the Holy Spirit.
Guess how many were saved?
3,000.
What's the purpose of the giftsand the power To take the
gospel to the uttermost parts ofthe earth?
In Acts, chapter 3, peter andJohn making their way to the
temple for times of prayer.
They come upon a lame man whois laid at the temple gates and
(40:04):
he begs there every single dayfor money.
And remember the story Peterand John say to him as he holds
out his little cup for changeSilver and gold I do not have,
but what we do have we give toyou in the name of Jesus.
Rise up and walk.
And the man gets up the one whowas lame for years and years
and years and begins to walkaround and praise the Lord.
(40:24):
Well, guess what happens in thetemple when they see the beggar
that these people have known?
Get up and walk around.
I'll tell you what happens.
It draws a crowd and people areasking questions.
And what does Peter do?
Again, he doesn't say oh man,wasn't this great?
This is so cool, boy, we reallyhad church and leave.
No, he said, let me tell youwhat happened.
(40:46):
This is about Jesus.
See, miracles are not about us.
It's not about some faithhealer getting all the glory.
It's about Jesus.
Folks, it's about Jesus andit's about getting the gospel to
the whole world.
And when miracles happen,people tend to listen.
(41:11):
Why should they listen to youand not some Hindu or Buddhist?
The power, the power.
It's a platform for people tohear the gospel.
So, peter and John, throughthem, the Lord heals this lame
man.
Guess how many people weresaved that day?
So the number went up to 5,000.
I think it was 2,000 extra.
So now the church is at 5,000people.
(41:32):
In Acts 4.31, again Peter filledpreaches the word of God boldly
.
That's the point.
In Acts 5.12, the Holy Spiritempowers people to do many signs
and wonders.
And then in verse 14, it saysand more than ever, believers
were added to the Lord,multitudes of both men and women
.
So let me just clarifysomething, pentecostals the
(41:57):
purpose of being filled with theSpirit is not to get your
prayer language.
The purpose of the Holy Spiritis not.
So we can quote unquote havechurch, oh, we need to have
church today.
We've got to have peoplebaptized in the Spirit.
Well, that doesn't much matterif we go out and we're not
leading people to Jesus.
I've met people through theyears I've been in the
(42:17):
Assemblies of God a long timethat have quote unquote been
filled with the and walk out andbe the meanest people in the
world.
The Holy Spirit it doesn't youknow we're not Jesus doesn't
baptize us in the Holy Spirit sowe can feel good about
ourselves.
It's not even about making usmore holy.
That's the indwelling of thespirit.
The purpose of the Holy SpiritIs to have power so that we can
(42:41):
be witnesses, which begs thequestion.
Look, power so that we can bewitnesses, which begs the
question look at me.
If you don't have a heart towin people to Jesus, why are you
asking for the baptism in theSpirit so you can speak in a
cool language?
It's not what it's about.
So today, if you don't have aheart for evangelism, here's
where I would start.
Lord, break my heart for lostpeople.
Break my heart for lost people,because the baptism in the
(43:05):
Spirit is a glorious gift andit's for the purpose of winning
people to Jesus.
So the best definition this willmake some of you laugh a little
bit the best definition, thebest sermon I've ever heard on
the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
You know who it came from.
Who are my Reformed friends inhere?
(43:26):
Yeah, pastor John Piper.
No, not RC Sproul on this one,but Pastor John Piper.
He actually in about 1981, allhis messages are online like
since before they even couldrecord things.
It's just a miracle he's old,but he had this old sermon.
(43:49):
It's weird that 1981 was thatlong ago.
Isn't that wild to think about.
I just ruined some of your day.
That was a long time ago.
But he preached on how hethought the Pentecostals got it
wrong.
This subsequent work of theSpirit and I love John Piper
because he's so kind when hedisagrees and he's humble enough
(44:11):
when he gets it wrong to say Iwas wrong.
And then sometime in the 90s hepreached another sermon to the
same church and said oh, by theway, I think I was wrong, the
Pentecostals had it right, youcan't get away from this in
scripture.
And he said there aresubsequent baptisms in the
spirit that are not related tosalvation.
And he actually said he said Ipray for this every single time
(44:34):
I get up to preach a freshbaptism in the spirit, john
Piper.
I mean, he was telling a storyof just a guy in his church that
needed healing, had this issuewith his knee, couldn't walk.
And he said this is John Piper,folks.
He said, as I prayed for him,his leg began to get warm and he
was immediately healed, johnPiper.
(44:56):
So don't think this is just thePentecostal thing, and I'll say
that again in just a secondwith another testimony.
I'm almost done here.
I know I've been preaching longtoday.
Y'all right, all right, this isan important subject.
So who is this baptism for?
Who's it for?
I want to remind you that inthe book of Acts it's not just
(45:19):
for the apostles, the whole 120men and women in the upper room
received the baptism with theHoly Spirit.
So it's not just for theapostles the whole 120 men and
women in the upper room receivedthe baptism with the Holy
Spirit, so it's not just forpreachers.
It's interesting in Peter'ssermon, quoting Joel, he says
your sons and daughters willprophesy.
The gifts of the Spirit are formen and women.
Both Young men will havevisions.
Old men will dream dreams,which means it's for every
(45:40):
generation.
So if you're 103 in here thismorning, I want you to know you
have purpose.
You have purpose.
You're so valuable.
And if you're 20 years old, 16years old, 8 years old, you have
purpose.
My little 9-month-old grandbabyhas purpose.
Right Right.
(46:03):
In Acts 6, they were to getdeacons who were full of the
Spirit, not just Christians, butdeacons full of the Spirit.
In Acts 7, stephen the martyr,not an apostle filled with the
Spirit.
In Acts 8, philip not anapostle, casting out unclean
spirits doing healing miracles.
So the empowering work of theHoly Spirit is for everybody.
(46:23):
But then the question becomesis it for today?
Well, I don't have enough timeto get into this.
I think I'm going to tacklethis on Wednesday if you want me
to make the cessationist versuscontinuationist argument.
I can do that.
But there are people who saythey're called cessationists.
They believe that the gifts ofthe Spirit supernatural gifts
(46:45):
have ceased.
They died out with the apostlesand they think because we have
the canonized Word of God now wedon't need that.
I disagree.
If the early church needed thepower of the Spirit, I think
it's arrogant to think we don't.
And there's nothing inScripture.
(47:06):
Like I'm a Bible guy, there isnothing in Scripture to suggest
that the gifts have ceased orwould cease until Christ returns
.
That's when it says they'll endand I can get into that with
you on Wednesday if you want tolook at that with me.
(47:26):
So I'm currently reading a bookcalled Miracles by Dr Craig
Keener.
Craig Keener is a theologian, ahistorian and a longtime
professor at Asbury SeminaryBrilliant, he is not your
typical hang from the chandelierPentecostal, okay.
He is very quiet, almostawkward to listen to.
(47:49):
Very humble Hope.
He doesn't hear this.
I'm sure he will.
I'm sure he listens to everyone of my sermons.
In the opening chapters of thisbook he points out how, still
today, miracles create aplatform for people to hear the
gospel.
So listen to this.
(48:21):
For example, keener gives thetestimony of miracles that have
been happening in a ministrycalled Iris Ministries in an
Eastern African country, andthis ministry was founded by his
well-known friends Roland andHeidi Baker.
And these are no dummies, theseRoland and Heidi, because some
people think, well, onlyuneducated people believe in
miracles.
Well, that's not true.
That's really not true.
(48:43):
Heidi, who speaks sevenlanguages?
Anybody in here speak seven,okay, six, okay, who speaks six?
Oh, randy does All right.
Yeah, we all know that.
Redneck's one of them,heelbilly's one.
Those are dialects, notlanguages.
We love Randy.
(49:04):
So Heidi speaks seven languages.
He has a PhD from King'sCollege, london, or she does,
and Roland has a doctorate ofministry from United Theological
Seminary.
Suffice to say, these are highly, highly educated people.
Their ministry supports some10,000 orphans in this Eastern
(49:25):
African country, and here's whatKeener writes about them, quote
as for their integrity, theyhave suffered extensively and
laid their lives on the line forpeople they serve.
So there's a well-known healingquote, unquote ministry that is
known for taking a lot of moneyand staying in hotels up to
$10,000 a night, spending themoney that's received, and
(49:46):
there's a lot of fraud.
We know this.
I don't need to call theministry out, it doesn't matter.
But what Craig Keener is doinghere is this is not one of those
people.
These are people who've giventheir lives for these orphans.
He says they also offereyewitness reports of instant
healings get this of deafnessand blindness and even of people
(50:07):
rising from the dead.
Most of these, most often theseexperiences, occur in
non-Christian villages where noone expects them.
The healings generallyculminate in many of the people
in these villages, people whoknew firsthand the previously
deaf or blind following the LordJesus Christ.
(50:29):
And Keener has highly educatedother highly educated friends
who have gone and witnessed thisthemselves.
So this is not just thetestimony of this couple, and in
his book Miracles is justlittered with story after story
after story of God using peoplein these gifts of the Spirit.
(50:49):
The Pentecostal church has itsproblems and there's some
doctrinal things that I disagreewith so much that I've thought
about maybe looking at anotherdenomination.
But, man, as I've been readingthrough Acts, I just want to say
publicly that, though I havesome disagreements, I'm proud to
(51:09):
be part of a denomination thatstill believes in the power of
the Spirit.
I really am not ashamed of that, and it's interesting that.
Do you know that Pentecostalismis the fastest growing
Christian movement worldwide.
It's unmatched.
There's a lady who is anagnostic journalist.
Her name is Ellie Hardy and shehas been investigating how
(51:31):
Pentecostalism in her words andshe uses this negatively is
taking over the world.
She writes about the massconversions in Brazil and the
high instances of North Koreandefectors being born again on
the underground railroads to thesouth.
And she writes listen to this.
By some estimates, this is anagnostic.
The Pentecostal movement isconverting 35,000 new converts
(51:58):
every day.
By 2050, the number ofPentecostals worldwide is
estimated to be 1 billion, or 1in 10 people on the earth.
So we're part of the Assembliesof God, which is the largest of
the Pentecostal denominations.
Do you know that every 30seconds, someone gets saved in
(52:18):
the Assemblies of God church orministry?
That's almost 3,000 people aday, over 1 million people a
year from one denomination.
Why Is it that we're moreeducated?
That's not the case.
Is it that we love Jesus morethan other denominations?
Absolutely not, no way.
(52:38):
Is it that Jesus has called usto a different mission?
No, I'll tell you what it is.
It's our reliance on the Spiritof God.
That's it, and so I'm not askingyou to become a Pentecostal.
I don't ever call myself aPentecostal.
I hate the word becauseimmediately when you hear that,
(53:01):
like if some of you that arefrom the reform camp came in and
you asked me about myself andthe first thing I say is I'm a
Pentecostal, what would you havedone?
You would have walked right outthe door because you think of
the people who have abused thespirit and that's a real tragedy
.
So many people don't wantanything to do with the power of
the spirit because they've seencrazy charismatics doing unruly
(53:26):
, unorderly things in thequote-unquote name of the Spirit
and that's really tragic.
So I'm not asking you to cometo Pentecost.
Pastor Ron has said this often.
He said this is not this powerof the Spirit, it's not a
Pentecostal thing, it's aChristian thing.
So here's what I'm calling youto be.
I'm just calling you to be aChristian that believes in the
power of the Spirit.
That's it All right.
(53:47):
So John Wesley believed in asecond subsequent work of the
Spirit, though he would frame ita little different than I have.
Dr Martin Lloyd-Jones ReformedFriends, you know that name
believed in.
He prayed all the time forfresh baptism with the Spirit.
Matt Chandler pastors a massiveReformed Baptist church,
(54:09):
southern Baptist even, and youknow that he has opened his eyes
to the gifts of the Spirit andthey actually have services
where, I mean, the gifts aretruly practiced, all of them.
They've seen healings andprophecies.
The stories are crazy.
And he just told his church.
He said, listen, I pray thatyou get a second baptism and a
20th and a 200th baptism in thespirit.
(54:32):
And then John Piper I'vealready said that already.
He is so pro power of thespirit.
So that's what I'll leave youwith today.
What would happen if we wereserious about the Holy Spirit?
I'm not talking about conjuredup theatrics.
(54:55):
I'm talking about true HolySpirit moves.
Let's ask today here's what Iwant to do let's just ask today
that the Lord would break ourheart for the lost.
Let's start there and then, ashe does that, lord, we need your
power to reach.
I mean, what would happentomorrow if you went to work and
you prayed for a sick personand they got up out of a
(55:16):
wheelchair or immediately thatperson was made better?
You know you've been threatenednot to preach or teach at your
work, but people will listen.
Then they won't care what youpreach about.
So there you have it.
I'll be reading from Acts, chapter 1, verses 1
through 11.
In the first book, o Theophilus, I have dealt with all that
Jesus began to do and teachuntil the day when he was taken
up.
After he had given commandsthrough the Holy Spirit to the
apostles whom he had chosen, hepresented himself alive to them
(00:25):
after his suffering, by manyproofs appearing to them during
40 days and speaking about thekingdom of God Verse 4,.
And while staying with them, heordered them not to depart from
Jerusalem but to wait for thepromise of the Father, which he
said you heard from me, for Johnbaptized with water, but you
(00:45):
will be baptized with the HolySpirit not many days from now
Verse 6,.
So when they had come together,they asked him Lord, will you
at this time restore the kingdomto Israel?
He said to them it is not foryou to know times or seasons
that the Father has fixed by hisown authority, but you will
(01:08):
receive power when the HolySpirit has come upon you and you
will be my witnesses inJerusalem and in all Judea and
Samaria and to the end of theearth.
And when he had said thesethings, as they were looking on,
he was lifted up and a cloudtook him out of their sight.
And while they were gazing intoheaven as he went, behold, two
(01:30):
men stood by them in white robesand said Men of Galilee, why do
you stand looking into heaven?
This Jesus, who has taken upfrom you into heaven, will come
in the same way as you saw himgo into heaven.
God bless the reading of hisword.
You may be seated.
Thank you, brother Ron.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Praise the Lord, everybody Excited for this
journey.
(02:29):
I want to begin today with aquestion how do the contemporary
church's ideas about theChristian life and the church
compare to those of the firstcentury church?
That's worth thinking about.
(02:49):
We're starting our new series,as you know, through the book of
Acts today and we're going totake a year and, god willing,
we'll get through this wonderfulbook.
And it's a history book thattells us about the birth.
Missy's laughing.
She's like you're not going toget through in a year.
Where's your foe, ye of littlefaith?
Listen, this is a history bookabout the birth of the church.
(03:14):
How many know?
It's a very good thing to do, avery good thing to do to read
history.
It's very beneficial and weneed to know, we need to go back
to our roots and realize howthe church got started and
there's a lot that we can learnthrough the book of Acts from
that first century church.
Now I have two aims as we movethrough this wonderful book, and
(03:36):
the first is evaluation,evaluation.
In 1924, caesar Cardini createdwhat we know as the Caesar salad
.
Aren't you glad you came tochurch today?
The original recipe wassomething like this Romaine
lettuce, fresh parmesan croutons, egg oil, garlic, salt,
(04:03):
worcestershire sauce, citrusjuice and often even included
anchovies.
Now, if you order a Caesarsalad in this area, you're going
to get something similar.
You'll get.
What are you going to get,romaine?
Not fresh Parmesan, butParmesan croutons in so-called
(04:26):
caesar dressing.
But it's close.
It's not exact to what theoriginal was, but it's close
enough that we could call it acaesar.
But apparently around in otherplaces of the country that is
not the case.
Restaurants have taken greatliberty with the caesar salad.
Did you know?
Well, this is such big news thatI came across this article in
(04:48):
the Atlantic Post back over mysabbatical, and in it this lady
by the name of Ellen Cushingwrites these words, quote we are
living through an age ofunchecked Caesar salad fraud,
(05:09):
and man, she's passionate aboutthis too.
Pewter of Caesars are dressedwith yogurt or miso or tequila
or lemongrass, and they areserved with zucchini, orange
zest, pig ear, poached duck egg,roasted fennel, fried chickpeas
, buffalo, cauliflower frittersand rice crackers.
They are missing anchovies orcroutons or even lettuce.
(05:32):
End quote.
And the point of the articlewas simply this what many today
call a Caesar salad would bevirtually unrecognizable to the
Caesar Cardini family.
And I read that and for somereason, I don't know why in the
world.
(05:52):
I mean, that would be normallyan article I'd just kind of
breeze by.
But something sparked to mewhen I read that article Because
I started thinking about thechurch and I just wonder that if
our idea of church in theChristian life would be even
virtually recognizable, evenremotely excuse me recognizable
(06:13):
to the early church.
And as you read through the bookof Acts you've got to wonder
that I think sometimes we dependmore on theatrics than we do
the power of the Spirit.
We're not disciplined to thethings of doctrine and prayer
and the things that they were sodisciplined about.
And so as we move through thebook we want to graciously
(06:36):
evaluate our own life andpractices.
And not everything in the bookof Acts is prescriptive.
Some of it is descriptive Forinstance, we don't cast lots
anymore to choose pastors orelders or deacons but a lot of
it is prescriptive andfundamental to the church's
success and mission.
And so as we move through wewouldn't just evaluate our own
(06:58):
church and say, lord, are wedoing church quote, unquote the
way that we're supposed to, theway that you've called us to
function?
So that's one goal, evaluation.
The other is simplyencouragement.
I don't know if you've noticed,but people in our country are
becoming more and moreantagonistic against the
(07:20):
Christian message.
Have you noticed this Likewe're beginning more and more to
be hated?
Now I'm careful to call whatwe're going through here
persecution, because it'snothing compared to what is
going on in other parts of theworld and it's been that way
throughout history.
But if we're honest, I mean, welive for years as Christians
pretty comfortable lives and itwas a good thing in this country
(07:41):
to be a Christian.
Now it's man.
The message is rejected andhated.
We watch the moral fabric ofour communities, our nation kind
of, unravel more and more eachday and that can be discouraging
and it can seem like all oddsare stacked against us and some
(08:04):
churches you know many churchesare closing and pastors are
leaving the ministry frustrated.
And you might think you know,man, I just don't know about
this.
How are we going to moveforward?
But the book of Acts is a greatencouragement to us because
we're reminded that Jesusstarted with 11 apostles in
chapter 1 and added Matthias atthe end of chapter 1 to replace
(08:26):
Judas Iscariot, and he gave themthis mission to change the
world.
And this was in the RomanEmpire, like it wasn't a moral
place and they had justcrucified the Messiah.
And yet Jesus says 11 men whowere, by way, cowards, in most
of them in the gospel accounts,he says I want you to go, take
(08:49):
the gospel to the ends of theearth.
Good luck, right.
And it's like how could thathappen?
But do you know that we're heretoday because the disciples
actually accomplished what Godcalled them to accomplish?
And by Acts, chapter 17, theapostles, some of them, are
(09:13):
accused of actually turning theworld upside down and beloved.
If 11 uneducated men in thefirst century, in the midst of
the Roman Empire, can turn theworld upside down, how could a
hundred people this morning,full of the Holy Spirit, turn
the world upside down?
Amen.
This book is encouraging and Ihope it encourages you.
(09:38):
So this series is going to looka little bit different than the
way that I've preached throughbooks in the past.
Like I took three years, youremember, to go through the book
of Matthew almost verse byverse, and I don't regret that.
We joke about it, but it was afruitful study.
I have no regrets, but I feel asense of urgency with the book
(09:58):
of Acts.
So, no matter what Missy thinksI'm going to try to get through
it in 2025.
And so I don't want to skipover.
As a church, you know verses andparts of the scripture, so
because it's all important, butthere is some redundancy and
there's some key points I wantto point out.
So what we're doing is we'resupplementing the Sunday morning
(10:21):
teaching with study guides, andyou should all have a printed
one and, as Ron said, they'realso online at myworldchurchorg.
And we're asking you, our smallgroups are relaunching and our
small groups are going to begoing through the verses that I
don't touch on this morning.
And then also, we would ask you, man, go through these together
with your families or in yourpersonal devotions, and let's
(10:42):
just saturate ourselves thisyear with the book of Acts.
Are you on board?
All right, good, so today thefocus is going to be primarily
on verses 4, 5, and 8, which areall about the baptism with the
Holy Spirit.
Now, some of y'all are scaredand my charismatics are going.
(11:04):
Woohoo, finally, right, theHoly Spirit has become known as
kind of the unknown God in thechurch.
In a lot of churches, theTrinity is Father, son and Holy
Word.
Right, like people don't talkabout, they don't mind when you
talk about the fruit of theSpirit, like that doesn't ruffle
(11:26):
any feathers or make peoplenervous, but when you start
talking about power, it's likehold on, hold on, I took the
chandeliers down, don't meannobody hanging.
Let me just put you at ease, butthe book of Acts has a title in
most of your Bibles.
What's that title Do you see atthe top?
The Acts of Acts has a title inmost of your Bibles.
What's that title Do you see atthe top?
(11:47):
The Acts of the Apostles.
Now, that title, I would argue,was not divinely inspired,
because it was not part of theoriginal manuscripts.
That was added just I don'tknow why just a few years later
or a few centuries later, wedon't know exactly when.
But that's a fine title.
I mean, this book follows notall of the disciples, really
(12:08):
just a few, particularly Pauland Peter, but there's others as
well that it mentions.
A better name for the book,though, would be the Acts of the
Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit in this book ismentioned 55 times at least.
(12:31):
Probably more, I'm sure Imissed a couple, but it's
referred to 55 times at least in28 chapters.
That's more than all of Matthew, mark and Luke combined.
It's interesting that the OldTestament well, let me preface
this the entire bible, withinthe entire bible and in every
(12:52):
book of the bible we can findpictures or or a little bit
about the father, son and holyspirit okay, the triune god, but
the Old Testament seems toprimarily focus on introducing
us to God the Father.
The four Gospels Matthew, mark,luke and John primarily focus
on Jesus Christ, but, to be sure, the Holy Spirit and the Father
(13:17):
are in those as well.
But it's primarily about thestory of Jesus and the book of
Acts primarily focuses on theHoly Spirit.
So this would be better titled,I think, the Acts of the Holy
Spirit.
I want to point you first toverse 1.
Look at verse 1 with me.
This is Luke writing, who alsowrote the Gospel of Luke, and he
(13:42):
says in the first book OTheophilus, now Theophilus, now
Theophilus is likely some Romandignitary, and I should have
written this down, I forget.
I think his name means it canmean either lover of God or
loved by God.
So he's likely a Christian, buta Roman dignitary of some sort.
And Luke says to him he says Ihave dealt with all that Jesus
(14:07):
in the first book.
I've dealt with all that Jesusbegan and I want you to
underline that in your scripturejournal began to do and teach.
He began to do and teach.
That's significant.
So he says the book of Luke,the first book he wrote, was an
account of what Jesus began todo and teach.
Which means that in the book ofActs you know when Jesus, in
(14:29):
chapter one, ascends into heaven.
But how many know his ministrydid not stop.
Back this summer I taught on.
We spent a lot of time on John14, 15, and 16.
And in John, chapter 14,remember, Jesus told his
disciples you're going tocontinue my ministry, you're
going to do even greater thingsthan I have done.
(14:50):
And then he talks about bearingfruit in his name, apart from
me.
He said, you can do nothing,but through me you can bear
fruit.
And we talked about that.
And so what we see in the bookof Acts is the works of Jesus
continuing through all 28chapters.
(15:10):
But there's something reallyinteresting, because Acts 28 is
a bit anticlimactic, in thatthere's no the end.
And they live happily everafter.
Why?
Because the works of they livedhappily ever after.
Why?
Because the works of Jesus arestill continuing today.
We're still called out to goout and to win people to Jesus
(15:30):
to take the gospel to theuttermost parts of the earth.
So let's go now to verses 4 and5.
So Jesus is sending his peopleout on mission, he's about to
send them out to take the gospelto the ancient world.
And here's what he says to thedisciples right before His
(15:53):
ascension, verse 4,.
And while speaking with therisen Christ, like they're
rearing to go and start theirministry.
But Jesus says actually, juststay, stay in Jerusalem, do not
(16:13):
depart, but wait for the promiseof the Father, which he said,
of the Father, which he said youheard from me, for John
baptized with water, but youwill be baptized with the Holy
Spirit not many days from now.
(16:34):
One of the things that we seestraight away in the book of
Acts is that the early church'sministry was utterly dependent
upon the Holy Spirit.
And let me just ask you today,for reasons of evaluation, let's
just look at this church andthen maybe the contemporary
(16:55):
church as a whole.
Would people say that we areutterly dependent on the Holy
Spirit?
I think we're sometimes tooeducated, too eloquent.
We have too much technology,too many marketing resources,
(17:15):
where we've become moredependent again on theatrics
than we have the Holy Spirit.
But I've reminded as I gothrough Acts, that oh, how much
more could we accomplish.
We're not a glorified businessPastors function today as
glorified CEO but we're calledto be spirit filled men of God,
amen.
And we're called to be spiritfilled people who live and move
(17:40):
and have our being in GodHimself and minister and
proclaim the gospel in the powerof the Spirit.
Let me just ask you, what wouldit look like today?
Like what would happen inRichmond today if we were
empowered by the Spirit.
Like the first century churchwas.
(18:02):
Like what would happen?
It's worth thinking about.
What is Jesus says wait on thebaptism of the Holy Spirit.
What is the baptism of the HolySpirit?
This is kind of debated, by theway, but can we just not let
our traditions interpret thisfor us?
(18:23):
Can we let the Bible interpretthe Bible?
So let's just look at Luke inthe book of Acts and what he has
to say about the baptism withthe Holy Spirit.
So let me start here.
This is very important Everysingle real Christian, real
follower of Jesus, has the HolySpirit.
(18:46):
Otherwise you are not aChristian.
So Romans 8 and 9,.
You, however, are not in theflesh but in the spirit, if in
fact, the spirit of God dwellsin you.
Listen to what Paul said.
This is Romans 8 and 9.
Anyone who does not have theSpirit of Christ does not belong
to Him.
(19:07):
Every Christian is indwelt bythe Spirit and, by the way, if
you're a Christian, you have theentire Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is not a gas,okay.
The Holy Spirit is not anenergy.
(19:34):
The Holy Spirit is referred toas the third person of the
Godhead.
So you don't get.
You know, you don't get.
I think a lot of Pentecostalsmake it sound like, well, you
have part of the Spirit.
You don't get.
I think a lot of Pentecostalsmake it sound like, well, you
have part of the Spirit ifyou're a Christian, but you
don't have all of you know, andthey refer to him as the it
right?
No, you get all of the Spirit.
However, what we learn in theBible and you're going to see
this today is that the HolySpirit has different functions.
(19:56):
So you have the whole Spirit,but what it may be is that you
have the function of the holyspirit by his indwelling, but
maybe you're missing anotherfunction of the spirit, perhaps.
All right, many people believethat, and I think erroneously
that when the book of acts talksabout the baptism with the holy
(20:20):
spirit or in the Holy Spirit.
That Luke is referring to theregenerative or salvific work of
the Spirit.
So this is about salvation, andI just again, we just look at
context and I don't think that'swhat Luke means.
The disciples, at this point,right before Jesus' ascension,
(20:43):
have already received, it seems,the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit.
In other words, they've alreadybeen born again.
So let me show this to you Takeyour Bible this won't be in
your scripture journal, but takeyour Bible and go with me to
John, chapter 20.
And if we can put verses 21through 23 on the screen if I
(21:03):
have it I can't remember if Iput that in there or not there
we go.
You have it All right, here wego.
So this is actually this is theevening of Jesus' resurrection
and he's with his disciples.
Listen to what he says to them.
Jesus said to them peace, bewith you, as the Father has sent
me.
Even so, I am sending you.
(21:24):
And when he said these things,what's he do?
He breathed on them and saidreceive the Holy Spirit.
If you forgive the sins of any,they are forgiven them.
If you withhold forgivenessfrom any, it is withheld.
So I wanted you to focus onthat.
He breathed on thempost-resurrection and said
(21:45):
receive the Holy Spirit.
This is what I believe by faiththat the disciples are truly
born again.
In Luke 24, 52 and 53, luke saysthat the disciples worshiped
Jesus and returned to Jerusalemwith great joy this is
(22:08):
post-resurrection With great joyand were continually in the
temple blessing God.
These are disciples full of joy, worshiping God.
John Piper said it well, hesaid these are not unregenerate
people.
So my point, something toconsider, is that I believe at
(22:30):
this moment in Acts 1, rightbefore Jesus' ascension, I think
the disciples are already bornagain and have the indwelling of
the Holy Spirit.
So when Jesus talks about waitfor the Spirit in Acts 4, it can
be a bit perplexing Do you seethat?
But he says look what he saysWait, right, wait, verse 4.
(22:55):
Don't depart from Jerusalem.
Wait for the promise of theFather, which he said you have
heard from me for John baptizedwith water, but you'll be
baptized with the Holy Spiritnot many days from now.
He's talking to people whoalready have the indwelling of
the Spirit, which is interesting.
Wait, there's something elsethat you need if you're going to
(23:21):
take the gospel to the ends ofthe Roman world Jesus is
referring to, he's recalling astory that all four gospels tell
.
It's the story of John theBaptist.
Remember when John the Baptistwas baptizing people?
He was performing this baptismof repentance, preparing the way
(23:43):
for Jesus.
And when he was baptizing hesaid I baptize you in water, but
there's coming one after me whowill baptize you with the Holy
Spirit and fire.
And so that's what Jesus istelling his disciples now, who
are indwelt by the Spirit.
He said listen that promisethat John gave.
And Jesus is telling hisdisciples now, who are indwelt
by the Spirit, he said listenthat promise that John gave,
(24:05):
it's coming.
It's coming.
Not many days from now you'regoing to be baptized with the
Holy Spirit.
So what is the baptism with theHoly Spirit?
Well, we're going to look atthree key words in verse 8 that
tell us almost everything weneed to know about what spirit
(24:27):
baptism is.
And the first word and I wantyou to underline this is the
word power in verse 8.
Okay, let's look at it.
But you will receive what Power?
When the Holy Spirit comes uponyou, or has come upon you,
you'll receive power.
(24:47):
Notice what he doesn't say.
He doesn't say you will receivesalvation when the Holy Spirit
comes upon you.
He says power.
So the evidence of the baptismin the Holy Spirit is power.
Well, what does that mean?
Does that mean that you knowyou get some kind of like X-Men
(25:09):
superpower or something?
You're flying off buildings orwhatever?
It's not that.
This has to do with thecharismatic gifts, many of them
found in 1 Corinthians, chapter12.
And you're going to see this.
So let's just take a journeythrough Acts.
I don't have time for you toturn to every scripture with me
here, but we'll get to thesethrough the series.
What does the power look likein Acts?
(25:32):
Well, in Acts 2, 4, the HolySpirit falls on the assembled
believers and they're all filledwith the Spirit.
And what do they do?
They speak with other tongues.
Now, some of you who did notgrow up in Pentecostal churches,
you hear that and you go oh no,he's not going there.
Do you know what the wordtongues actually literally means
(25:53):
?
It's languages.
Why the interpreters, thetranslators, don't just use that
word?
I don't know.
It's a little less scary, right?
So they speak in tongues.
That's a power.
They were able to speak andmagnify God in languages that
they had never learned.
By the way, I know you guyshave a lot of questions about
the gift of tongues.
God willing, next week I have afeeling this place will be
(26:15):
packed out.
I'm going to talk about thegift of tongues.
Pray for me this week.
I'm going to talk about thegift of tongues.
Pray for me this week BecauseI'm going to offend Pentecostals
and cessationists.
I heard one pastor say he's anequal opportunity offender, and
that's me.
(26:37):
So in Acts 2-4, the power isthis ability to speak in
languages unknown to thedisciples, in all of those, by
the way, the full 120 in theupper rooms, not just the
apostles.
Then, in Peter's explanation,peter explains all these people
are perplexed going.
What's going on?
These people are speakinglanguages that they've never
been able to speak, and Peterexplains what has just happened,
this phenomenon, by quotingfrom Joel, chapter 2.
(26:59):
So I want you to flip over toActs, chapter 2, with me and go
to verse 16.
We're just going to read acouple verses.
So all these people areaccusing the disciples and the
others of being drunk andthey're like come on, it's 9 in
the morning.
We don't start drinking until10.
(27:20):
That's a joke, so let's look atverse 16.
We don't start drinking until10.
That's a joke.
So let's look at verse 16.
So this is Peter's scripturalexplanation of what's just
happened.
He said this was what wasuttered through the prophet Joel
and in the last day it shall beGod declares that I will pour
(27:40):
out my spirit on all flesh.
That's just happened.
Right, this is the baptism inor with the Holy Spirit.
And here's the signs.
Okay, that Peter says can also.
He doesn't mention tongues here, but he says your sons and
daughters shall do what Prophesy.
It's a supernatural gift.
(28:01):
And your young men shall dowhat Prophesy.
It's a supernatural gift.
And your young men shall dowhat Visions and your old men
shall dream dreams.
Even on my male servants and myfemale servants, in those days
I will pour out my spirit andthey shall do what Prophecy.
So in chapter two, verse four,we can see that power can look
like tongues and by Peter'sexplanation we can know it could
(28:25):
be prophecy, dreaming of dreams, seeing visions.
And we see this, by the way,throughout the book of Acts, in
Acts 4, 31,.
It's power to boldly preach thegospel even when your life is
at risk, like you need power forthat.
Remember when Peter.
He was like afraid of a teenagegirl who called him out for
(28:49):
being Jesus' disciples, and hedenied him three times.
Well, now Peter stands up inActs 2 full of the Holy Spirit
and boldly preaches the gospelLike we need power to stand in
the face of persecution.
So that power can look likethat In Acts 6, 8, it's the
power to do miracles.
In Acts 7, 55, it's the poweragain to withstand persecution.
That's Stephen the martyr.
(29:11):
In Acts 10, it's the power tospeak with other tongues.
Again In Acts 19, it's thepower to speak in other tongues
and to prophesy.
My point is this, and I think wePentecostals have erred here
sometimes it doesn't look thesame way all the time.
Jesus does not say you'll havethis particular gift when the
(29:32):
Holy Spirit comes upon you.
He says you'll have power, andthat power looks differently
throughout the book of Acts andI'll talk more about that next
week.
So to begin with, we learn fromthis first word power, the
baptism of the Holy Spirit.
It's not to do with salvation,but it is the receiving of
(29:57):
extraordinary power.
Are you with me?
Shake your head.
Have I offended anybody yet?
Doing well, my wife raised herhand in the back.
The second word that I want youto focus on and underline is
the word upon.
You will receive power when theSpirit comes upon you, and that
preposition is extremelyimportant.
So I want you to go with me onemore time to the book of John,
(30:18):
in chapter 14.
So this is pre-resurrection.
The last scripture from Johnwas post-resurrection.
Look what this verse is 16 and17.
So this is before Jesus hasbeen crucified.
And here's what he tells hisdisciples.
And I will ask the father andhe will give you another helper.
(30:39):
So Jesus is telling thedisciples I'm going away, but
I'm sending you the Helper.
Who's the Helper?
Holy Spirit.
Alright, you've been listening.
What's the preposition?
With you forever, even theSpirit of truth, whom the world
cannot receive because itneither sees Him nor knows Him.
(31:00):
You will know Him, for hedwells with you and he will be.
What's the preposition?
Amen, okay, pre-resurrection.
Jesus tells the disciples theHoly Spirit has been with you,
he has been with you.
What does that mean?
Well, I think it means that,before salvation, the Holy
(31:24):
Spirit is with us.
He convicts us of sin and hehelps us to see the glory and
the beauty of the Lord JesusChrist.
The Holy Spirit's job, by theway is to glorify Christ and to
lead us in the ways of Christ.
The Holy Spirit wouldn't want aHoly Spirit movement.
He'd want a Jesus movement.
His job is to make much ofJesus so before salvation.
(31:49):
The Lord is with people.
So today, maybe you're here atchurch and you're not yet a
Christian, and let me just say,wow, I'm glad you're here.
Maybe you're listening onlineand you're not a Christian, I
believe.
If you are open, obviouslyyou're open to hearing the
preaching of the word and thegospel.
The Holy Spirit is with you.
We had somebody come down frontbefore I was even finished with
(32:13):
the altar call a couple ofweeks ago and said I just had to
come down here.
You know what that is.
That's the Holy Spirit beingwith you, drawing you.
But then Jesus says can we putthat scripture up one more time,
john, yeah, there we go, sohe'll be with you.
That's pre-salvation that theHoly Spirit helps us, convicts
(32:33):
us, helps us see our need forChrist, and he will be with you.
Which is what?
Or in you, which is whathappens in John, chapter 20.
Okay, I know this is a lot.
Shake your head.
If you're with me, all right.
So when you're saved, the HolySpirit dwells in you,
transforming your heart, givingyou the fruit of the Spirit,
(32:55):
forming us into new creations inChrist.
That's all the work of theSpirit and His indwelling
presence.
Okay, so he's with you, he'llbe in you.
But now, what preposition doesJesus use in Acts 1.8?
When the Holy Spirit, whatComes upon you, so with you, in
(33:17):
you, upon you.
This work of the Spirit, itseems to me, is subsequent to
salvation.
Okay, you have the with youbefore salvation, the in you
during salvation, and now theupon you after salvation, and
(33:42):
now upon you after salvation.
And I'm going to take a quickbreak right here, because I see
you all fanning yourselves.
Hang on a second, I can do thisfrom my phone and here I'm
going to let you do this.
Come here.
Are y'all hot?
Oh, you're not.
(34:04):
Well, you're.
I am like roasting up here, allright, should we?
All right, I'll make you a deal.
If you stay awake, I won't.
This is a little bit longersermon today.
If you stay awake, I won't turnthe air down.
Raise your hand, if you Allright, there we go.
Oh, you've got your jacket onup here, all right.
(34:29):
So there are again.
This is so important, guys.
It's the same spirit but thereare different functions of the
Holy Spirit.
So when does this baptism withthe Spirit occur?
I'm glad you asked.
It occurs when the need arisesfor you to be empowered for
(34:55):
whatever it is Christ has calledyou to do.
And, by the way, this issomething we don't hear enough
in charismatic churches.
It's not a one-time thing.
It's not a one-time thing.
If you're looking back to aspirit baptism that happened 37
years ago, brother, you're driedup.
You need a fresh anointing, afresh feeling, a fresh baptism.
(35:16):
Amen.
Let me show that to you.
Some of you are looking at mestrange, by the way, the
indwelling of the spirit forsalvation.
Or look at me strange, by theway, the indwelling of the
Spirit for salvation.
How many times does that happen?
Once, it cannot happen again.
Okay, you're saved one time.
There's no such thing as beingre-saved.
You're saved once, but thebaptism with the Spirit can
(35:36):
happen multiple times.
Let me show you this.
You're going to have to look atsome terminology in Acts to get
this.
In Acts 1-4, jesus talks aboutthe disciples being baptized
with the Holy Spirit, which isthe language that John uses.
The other gospel writers, youwith me.
(35:58):
What word does he use?
Baptized, all right.
But then in Acts 2- 4, when thefulfillment comes, luke doesn't
say they were all baptized withthe Holy Spirit.
What word does he use in Acts 24?
They were all filled with theHoly Spirit.
Now, clearly Luke uses theseterms synonymously and we're
(36:21):
going to see through Acts thatthat term filled is used over
and over and over.
So now I get that the word fill.
It may bother you a little bitbecause it sounds more like the
indwelling right and so just theway the Bible is.
We're just going to have toaccept it today.
But Luke clearly uses thosewords filled and baptized
(36:43):
synonymously In the book of Acts.
I'm just going to give you acouple examples for time's sake.
But we see the same peoplebeing, quote-unquote, filled
with the Spirit multiple times.
So in Acts, chapter 2, peterand John are there right In the
upper room with many others andthey are filled with the Holy
(37:03):
Spirit.
Yes, okay, Interestingly, peteris filled two other times
present tense by the end ofchapter four.
In chapter four it says at theend, verse 31, that Peter, who
was with a new group of peoplethey were all, peter included
filled with the Holy Spirit andcontinued to preach the Word of
(37:25):
God boldly.
Okay.
So in Acts, chapter 2, the signto Peter was this ability to
speak in new languages, whichwas what was needed.
And in Acts, chapter 4, theyhad just been threatened, the
apostles, by the Sanhedrin, notwith their very lives, not to
preach or teach in the name ofJesus.
So what was the sign then?
It was the ability to speak theword of God boldly, though
(37:47):
their lives were at risk.
Okay, the apostle Paul uponsalvation, he receives this
baptism in the Spirit.
And then, in Acts 13, 52, itsays that the disciples,
including Paul at this point,who had already been filled with
the Spirit, that these peoplewere all filled with joy and the
Holy Spirit.
(38:07):
So this happens, and you'regoing to see this over and over
and over.
So the Holy Spirit listen canfill believers with supernatural
power at any point, at any time, in order to accomplish
whatever task he's called you to.
All right, so that's the wordupon.
The final word I want to lookat is the word witnesses, and
(38:33):
here we see the purpose of thebaptism in the Holy Spirit.
You will receive power when theHoly Spirit comes upon you and
you will be my what Witnesses inJerusalem and all of Judea and
Samaria and to the other mostparts of the earth.
Now, that's profound.
In Acts, chapter 2, after, the120 are baptized with the Spirit
(38:57):
and they're all speaking inother languages.
And there's a crowd of peoplearound and they're hearing.
This is not gibberish, okay,these are real languages, other
dialects that they don't speak.
And it says the people hearthem magnifying God.
They're not speaking to men,they're magnifying God and
(39:19):
they're perplexed.
Well, if you put yourself intheir shoes, this crowd of
people, they're hearing theseuneducated men speak in
languages they've never learnedand they're interested.
What's going on?
Are they drunk?
What's happening?
Well, what happens is thatmiracle creates a platform for
the gospel to be preached andPeter preaches a dynamite sermon
(39:41):
full of the Holy Spirit.
Guess how many were saved?
3,000.
What's the purpose of the giftsand the power To take the
gospel to the uttermost parts ofthe earth?
In Acts, chapter 3, peter andJohn making their way to the
temple for times of prayer.
They come upon a lame man whois laid at the temple gates and
(40:04):
he begs there every single dayfor money.
And remember the story Peterand John say to him as he holds
out his little cup for changeSilver and gold I do not have,
but what we do have we give toyou in the name of Jesus.
Rise up and walk.
And the man gets up the one whowas lame for years and years
and years and begins to walkaround and praise the Lord.
(40:24):
Well, guess what happens in thetemple when they see the beggar
that these people have known?
Get up and walk around.
I'll tell you what happens.
It draws a crowd and people areasking questions.
And what does Peter do?
Again, he doesn't say oh man,wasn't this great?
This is so cool, boy, we reallyhad church and leave.
No, he said, let me tell youwhat happened.
(40:46):
This is about Jesus.
See, miracles are not about us.
It's not about some faithhealer getting all the glory.
It's about Jesus.
Folks, it's about Jesus andit's about getting the gospel to
the whole world.
And when miracles happen,people tend to listen.
(41:11):
Why should they listen to youand not some Hindu or Buddhist?
The power, the power.
It's a platform for people tohear the gospel.
So, peter and John, throughthem, the Lord heals this lame
man.
Guess how many people weresaved that day?
So the number went up to 5,000.
I think it was 2,000 extra.
So now the church is at 5,000people.
(41:32):
In Acts 4.31, again Peter filledpreaches the word of God boldly
.
That's the point.
In Acts 5.12, the Holy Spiritempowers people to do many signs
and wonders.
And then in verse 14, it saysand more than ever, believers
were added to the Lord,multitudes of both men and women
.
So let me just clarifysomething, pentecostals the
(41:57):
purpose of being filled with theSpirit is not to get your
prayer language.
The purpose of the Holy Spiritis not.
So we can quote unquote havechurch, oh, we need to have
church today.
We've got to have peoplebaptized in the Spirit.
Well, that doesn't much matterif we go out and we're not
leading people to Jesus.
I've met people through theyears I've been in the
(42:17):
Assemblies of God a long timethat have quote unquote been
filled with the and walk out andbe the meanest people in the
world.
The Holy Spirit it doesn't youknow we're not Jesus doesn't
baptize us in the Holy Spirit sowe can feel good about
ourselves.
It's not even about making usmore holy.
That's the indwelling of thespirit.
The purpose of the Holy SpiritIs to have power so that we can
(42:41):
be witnesses, which begs thequestion.
Look, power so that we can bewitnesses, which begs the
question look at me.
If you don't have a heart towin people to Jesus, why are you
asking for the baptism in theSpirit so you can speak in a
cool language?
It's not what it's about.
So today, if you don't have aheart for evangelism, here's
where I would start.
Lord, break my heart for lostpeople.
Break my heart for lost people,because the baptism in the
(43:05):
Spirit is a glorious gift andit's for the purpose of winning
people to Jesus.
So the best definition this willmake some of you laugh a little
bit the best definition, thebest sermon I've ever heard on
the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
You know who it came from.
Who are my Reformed friends inhere?
(43:26):
Yeah, pastor John Piper.
No, not RC Sproul on this one,but Pastor John Piper.
He actually in about 1981, allhis messages are online like
since before they even couldrecord things.
It's just a miracle he's old,but he had this old sermon.
(43:49):
It's weird that 1981 was thatlong ago.
Isn't that wild to think about.
I just ruined some of your day.
That was a long time ago.
But he preached on how hethought the Pentecostals got it
wrong.
This subsequent work of theSpirit and I love John Piper
because he's so kind when hedisagrees and he's humble enough
(44:11):
when he gets it wrong to say Iwas wrong.
And then sometime in the 90s hepreached another sermon to the
same church and said oh, by theway, I think I was wrong, the
Pentecostals had it right, youcan't get away from this in
scripture.
And he said there aresubsequent baptisms in the
spirit that are not related tosalvation.
And he actually said he said Ipray for this every single time
(44:34):
I get up to preach a freshbaptism in the spirit, john
Piper.
I mean, he was telling a storyof just a guy in his church that
needed healing, had this issuewith his knee, couldn't walk.
And he said this is John Piper,folks.
He said, as I prayed for him,his leg began to get warm and he
was immediately healed, johnPiper.
(44:56):
So don't think this is just thePentecostal thing, and I'll say
that again in just a secondwith another testimony.
I'm almost done here.
I know I've been preaching longtoday.
Y'all right, all right, this isan important subject.
So who is this baptism for?
Who's it for?
I want to remind you that inthe book of Acts it's not just
(45:19):
for the apostles, the whole 120men and women in the upper room
received the baptism with theHoly Spirit.
So it's not just for theapostles the whole 120 men and
women in the upper room receivedthe baptism with the Holy
Spirit, so it's not just forpreachers.
It's interesting in Peter'ssermon, quoting Joel, he says
your sons and daughters willprophesy.
The gifts of the Spirit are formen and women.
Both Young men will havevisions.
Old men will dream dreams,which means it's for every
(45:40):
generation.
So if you're 103 in here thismorning, I want you to know you
have purpose.
You have purpose.
You're so valuable.
And if you're 20 years old, 16years old, 8 years old, you have
purpose.
My little 9-month-old grandbabyhas purpose.
Right Right.
(46:03):
In Acts 6, they were to getdeacons who were full of the
Spirit, not just Christians, butdeacons full of the Spirit.
In Acts 7, stephen the martyr,not an apostle filled with the
Spirit.
In Acts 8, philip not anapostle, casting out unclean
spirits doing healing miracles.
So the empowering work of theHoly Spirit is for everybody.
(46:23):
But then the question becomesis it for today?
Well, I don't have enough timeto get into this.
I think I'm going to tacklethis on Wednesday if you want me
to make the cessationist versuscontinuationist argument.
I can do that.
But there are people who saythey're called cessationists.
They believe that the gifts ofthe Spirit supernatural gifts
(46:45):
have ceased.
They died out with the apostlesand they think because we have
the canonized Word of God now wedon't need that.
I disagree.
If the early church needed thepower of the Spirit, I think
it's arrogant to think we don't.
And there's nothing inScripture.
(47:06):
Like I'm a Bible guy, there isnothing in Scripture to suggest
that the gifts have ceased orwould cease until Christ returns
.
That's when it says they'll endand I can get into that with
you on Wednesday if you want tolook at that with me.
(47:26):
So I'm currently reading a bookcalled Miracles by Dr Craig
Keener.
Craig Keener is a theologian, ahistorian and a longtime
professor at Asbury SeminaryBrilliant, he is not your
typical hang from the chandelierPentecostal, okay.
He is very quiet, almostawkward to listen to.
(47:49):
Very humble Hope.
He doesn't hear this.
I'm sure he will.
I'm sure he listens to everyone of my sermons.
In the opening chapters of thisbook he points out how, still
today, miracles create aplatform for people to hear the
gospel.
So listen to this.
(48:21):
For example, keener gives thetestimony of miracles that have
been happening in a ministrycalled Iris Ministries in an
Eastern African country, andthis ministry was founded by his
well-known friends Roland andHeidi Baker.
And these are no dummies, theseRoland and Heidi, because some
people think, well, onlyuneducated people believe in
miracles.
Well, that's not true.
That's really not true.
(48:43):
Heidi, who speaks sevenlanguages?
Anybody in here speak seven,okay, six, okay, who speaks six?
Oh, randy does All right.
Yeah, we all know that.
Redneck's one of them,heelbilly's one.
Those are dialects, notlanguages.
We love Randy.
(49:04):
So Heidi speaks seven languages.
He has a PhD from King'sCollege, london, or she does,
and Roland has a doctorate ofministry from United Theological
Seminary.
Suffice to say, these are highly, highly educated people.
Their ministry supports some10,000 orphans in this Eastern
(49:25):
African country, and here's whatKeener writes about them, quote
as for their integrity, theyhave suffered extensively and
laid their lives on the line forpeople they serve.
So there's a well-known healingquote, unquote ministry that is
known for taking a lot of moneyand staying in hotels up to
$10,000 a night, spending themoney that's received, and
(49:46):
there's a lot of fraud.
We know this.
I don't need to call theministry out, it doesn't matter.
But what Craig Keener is doinghere is this is not one of those
people.
These are people who've giventheir lives for these orphans.
He says they also offereyewitness reports of instant
healings get this of deafnessand blindness and even of people
(50:07):
rising from the dead.
Most of these, most often theseexperiences, occur in
non-Christian villages where noone expects them.
The healings generallyculminate in many of the people
in these villages, people whoknew firsthand the previously
deaf or blind following the LordJesus Christ.
(50:29):
And Keener has highly educatedother highly educated friends
who have gone and witnessed thisthemselves.
So this is not just thetestimony of this couple, and in
his book Miracles is justlittered with story after story
after story of God using peoplein these gifts of the Spirit.
(50:49):
The Pentecostal church has itsproblems and there's some
doctrinal things that I disagreewith so much that I've thought
about maybe looking at anotherdenomination.
But, man, as I've been readingthrough Acts, I just want to say
publicly that, though I havesome disagreements, I'm proud to
(51:09):
be part of a denomination thatstill believes in the power of
the Spirit.
I really am not ashamed of that, and it's interesting that.
Do you know that Pentecostalismis the fastest growing
Christian movement worldwide.
It's unmatched.
There's a lady who is anagnostic journalist.
Her name is Ellie Hardy and shehas been investigating how
(51:31):
Pentecostalism in her words andshe uses this negatively is
taking over the world.
She writes about the massconversions in Brazil and the
high instances of North Koreandefectors being born again on
the underground railroads to thesouth.
And she writes listen to this.
By some estimates, this is anagnostic.
The Pentecostal movement isconverting 35,000 new converts
(51:58):
every day.
By 2050, the number ofPentecostals worldwide is
estimated to be 1 billion, or 1in 10 people on the earth.
So we're part of the Assembliesof God, which is the largest of
the Pentecostal denominations.
Do you know that every 30seconds, someone gets saved in
(52:18):
the Assemblies of God church orministry?
That's almost 3,000 people aday, over 1 million people a
year from one denomination.
Why Is it that we're moreeducated?
That's not the case.
Is it that we love Jesus morethan other denominations?
Absolutely not, no way.
(52:38):
Is it that Jesus has called usto a different mission?
No, I'll tell you what it is.
It's our reliance on the Spiritof God.
That's it, and so I'm not askingyou to become a Pentecostal.
I don't ever call myself aPentecostal.
I hate the word becauseimmediately when you hear that,
(53:01):
like if some of you that arefrom the reform camp came in and
you asked me about myself andthe first thing I say is I'm a
Pentecostal, what would you havedone?
You would have walked right outthe door because you think of
the people who have abused thespirit and that's a real tragedy
.
So many people don't wantanything to do with the power of
the spirit because they've seencrazy charismatics doing unruly
(53:26):
, unorderly things in thequote-unquote name of the Spirit
and that's really tragic.
So I'm not asking you to cometo Pentecost.
Pastor Ron has said this often.
He said this is not this powerof the Spirit, it's not a
Pentecostal thing, it's aChristian thing.
So here's what I'm calling youto be.
I'm just calling you to be aChristian that believes in the
power of the Spirit.
That's it All right.
(53:47):
So John Wesley believed in asecond subsequent work of the
Spirit, though he would frame ita little different than I have.
Dr Martin Lloyd-Jones ReformedFriends, you know that name
believed in.
He prayed all the time forfresh baptism with the Spirit.
Matt Chandler pastors a massiveReformed Baptist church,
(54:09):
southern Baptist even, and youknow that he has opened his eyes
to the gifts of the Spirit andthey actually have services
where, I mean, the gifts aretruly practiced, all of them.
They've seen healings andprophecies.
The stories are crazy.
And he just told his church.
He said, listen, I pray thatyou get a second baptism and a
20th and a 200th baptism in thespirit.
(54:32):
And then John Piper I'vealready said that already.
He is so pro power of thespirit.
So that's what I'll leave youwith today.
What would happen if we wereserious about the Holy Spirit?
I'm not talking about conjuredup theatrics.
(54:55):
I'm talking about true HolySpirit moves.
Let's ask today here's what Iwant to do let's just ask today
that the Lord would break ourheart for the lost.
Let's start there and then, ashe does that, lord, we need your
power to reach.
I mean, what would happentomorrow if you went to work and
you prayed for a sick personand they got up out of a
(55:16):
wheelchair or immediately thatperson was made better?
You know you've been threatenednot to preach or teach at your
work, but people will listen.
Then they won't care what youpreach about.
So there you have it.
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