Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So if you were to visit my home and just
come in and hang out, you might notice on a
shelf something kind of odd there. And one of our
shelves in our house we have three clocks all sitting together,
And a normal kind of inquisitive person would be like,
why does someone need three clocks all sitting in the
(00:21):
exact same spot, And if you examine them close to
you'd be like, and they're not working. So why do
you have three clocks that don't work, all sitting in
the same spot.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well, each one of these clocks came from.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
The home of one of either my grandparents or Carrie's grandparents,
So growing up, these were clocks that we saw a lot.
I remember spending the night at my grandparents house and
hearing the mantle clock going off in the middle of
the night. I remember this small one in the front
with the little like the balls. The action of the
clock would spin one way, then it'd spin the other.
I remember just being fascinated by the action of the clock.
(00:57):
So when we walk into a room and we see these,
we're sort of like taken back and reminded of our heritage.
This is where we've come from, This is the love
and presence of our grandparents and our lives. In a
lot of ways, this is what these clocks symbolize. These
clocks are symbols of our grandparents' love. Symbolism is an
(01:18):
important part of who we are in a lot of ways.
It's how we sort of make sense of the world.
We use symbolism and how we communicate with each other.
We use symbolism to remember the past we make We
use symbolism to describe the present to anticipate the future.
In fact, in our text today, as Luke is trying
(01:40):
to describe the arrival of the Holy Spirit what that
was like, we see him employing like a trio of
symbolism in our text, and this is going to sort
a sort of an outline for us today. We see
Luke giving a symbol of God's power, a symbol of
God's presence, and a symbol of god full unity. So,
(02:01):
in describing the Holy Spirit came and was given this
unique thing that never happened before, symbolism is used to
help us understand what that might have been like.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
The big idea for.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Us today, what I hope we sort of take away
and what we wrestle with throughout the week is this.
It's only through the Holy Spirit's power and presence that
we can join with God in building his kingdom. It's
only through the Holy Spirit's power and his presence that
we can join with God and building his kingdom, a
kingdom built on Gospel unity. Before his ascension, at the
(02:37):
very end of the Gospels, we hear Christ say, go
make disciples of all nations.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Go do that.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Take all these fractured groups of people, these pockets, the
people that are divided, and bring them all together under
the banner of Jesus Christ. That's a command that has
fallen to us now as followers of Jesus.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
And what we must remember.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Is that if we hope to accomplish that at all,
to display what God's kingdom is like, to invite people
to enjoy in the fruits of that kingdom, it's only
through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit that
we can do that. A symbol of God's power, a
symbol of God's presence, and a symbol of Gospel unity.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
That's what we're studying together this morning.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
So as we're preparing to do that, let's first pause
and pray.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
So God, thank you for your faithfulness to us.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
As we're saying already this morning, your love.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
That is.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
So peculiar and so good. Thank you for your continued
faithfulness to us. Teach us to be faithful to you
more and more form us into the image of your
Son through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.
This is the words that we pray. Lord, that's in
your name. We say these things. Amen. So first, let's
see a symbol of God's power. Verse one of our texts,
(04:05):
when the day of Pentecost came, the followers of Jesus
were all together in one place.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Suddenly a sound like the.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled
the whole house where they were sitting. So all throughout scripture,
when the power of the Holy Spirit is being described,
when God's at work through the power of the Holy Spirit,
we see a repeated theme, and one of the ways
that this is described is by a wind or a breath.
(04:32):
The very beginning of creation Genesis two, we see this imagery.
The symbolism being employed says, the Lord God formed the
man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the
breath of life into the man's nostrils, or the man
became a living person. We know this is symbolic in
a lot of ways because God doesn't breathe the way
that you and I breathe. Right, He doesn't need oxygen
to survive. This is a picture for us to understand
(04:54):
that God is bestowing the gift of life. That He
is giving the gift of life. God's power is a
blowing of life. The Psalmist reiterates this theme. Palm thirty
three six says, by the word of the Lord, the
heavens were made their starry host by the breath of
his mouth. The prophet is Ezekiel when he had this image,
this prophecy of the Lord's people being in exile and
(05:15):
coming back to the promised Land. He has this vision
and it's rich with symbolism. But see what how Ezekiel
describes the Lord's promise that he would bring people back
from exile. Ezekiel thirty seven says, this is what the
sovereign Lord says, Come, oh, breath from the four winds,
breathe and to these dead bodies, so they may live again.
So I spoke this message as he commanded me, and
(05:37):
breath came into their bodies. They all came to life.
They stood up on their feet a great army. Then
he said to me, son of Man, these bones represent
the people of Israel. They're saying, we have become old,
dry bones. All hope is gone, our nation is finished. Therefore,
prophesy to them and say, this is what the Sovereign
Lord says, Oh my people, I will open your graves
of exile and cause you to rise again.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Then I'll bring you back to the land of Israel.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Picture that the the Israelites felt like that their nation
was dead, and there's this vision of skeletons in a field,
the breath of life coming over them. They're rising to life,
symbolizing like this promise that no, I will bring you.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Back to the promised land.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
At one point, Jesus himself, as he's talking with Nicodemus,
the most famous verse probably in the entire Bible John
three point sixteen. In the middle of this conversation that
he's having with Nicodemus, where that verse comes, we hear
Jesus comparing the Holy Spirit to a wind, says, the
wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear it sound, but
you cannot tell where it comes.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Where it's going.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
So it is with everyone born with the spirit. So
here's the point, Like, why why is the Holy Spirit
compared to the wind. Well, what's the wind? Like? We
had a pretty windy week this last week. I came
home my trash can was blown over, so you might
have had some damage at your house.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
What's the wind? Like?
Speaker 1 (06:54):
I know, when I go outside and I experience the wind,
I'm convinced that it's external to me. I know, the
wind isn't something that I have made. It's something that
is external to me. It's also very mysterious. The wind
sort of like gusts, it blows. I can't really necessarily
anticipate what the wind's going to do. I can't see
the wind, but I can certainly experience its power. Like
(07:21):
we said before, just before ascending to heaven, Jesus says,
go make disciples of all nations. But as we've studied
already in this series, he also says and wait.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
He doesn't say, go make disciples of all nations. Get busy.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
He says, go make disciples of all nations. Build my church.
But wait, the power source for obeying this command was
external to the apostles. Go build my church, but wait,
it's not by your own wisdom. It's not by your
(07:57):
own effort. It's not by you trying really hard, or
or studying scripture or praying in a certain way. The
power to build the church did not come from within
the disciples. It came to them from heaven. The Holy
Spirit felt like the wind that Luke is saying, it's
felt like the wind. It was like a violent, rushing wind.
(08:19):
It wasn't wind. It was kind of like wind. It's
external to them. It was mysterious. Nothing like this has
ever happened before. They can't see it, but they can
definitely feel as power. And there's clear implications for us
today as we know that this has fallen to us
build my church.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
More than anything.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
We have to understand we are merely conduits of God's grace.
We don't have to be the power source. I can
depend on God's power as I'm practicing faithful presence, as
I'm showing up in places, and I'm trying to be present,
being extra compassionate and generous, being available, being tuned into
(09:03):
what the Holy Spirit is doing in people's lives. It
doesn't have to be my own cleverness, my own wisdom,
my own power. I can I can witness what God
has already at work doing and join him with that.
When I'm trying to love someone that's difficult to love
what I'm trying to offer forgiveness, I.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Don't have to be the power source of that. I
don't have to try really hard.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
I can submit to Jesus and say, Lord, I need
you to be the power source for this. The disciples
did not manifest the Holy spirits by their good behavior.
It wasn't like they practice enough spiritual disciplines and okay,
now the Holy Spirit comes. It wasn't about the avoidance of sin.
It wasn't about how generous they were. God intervened in
(09:47):
their lives. God came to them, and that same mysterious
work is at work in your life.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Right now. God is coming to us.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
He's with us, empowering us to go make disciples of
all nations. It's not by your own strength, but by
the power of the Holy Spirit. So here's what I
want you to know. The command rests on you. Go
build the church, go display show share what the Kingdom.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Of God is.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
But take the pressure off. You're not responsible for the fruit.
You have a role to play. You must be obedient,
but it's the power of the Holy Spirit. That's a
work that's building His kingdom. You worry about your worship,
your obedience, Let God take care of the outcomes. God
(10:47):
is the power source for all things with regards to
building his kingdom. The first symbol that.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
We see in our textaday is God's power. It's like
a rushing wind.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Secondly, we see a symbol of God's presence. Verse three
says the disciples saw what seemed to be what seemed
to be tongues of fire that separated and came to
rest on each of them. There were three great Jewish
festivals that.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
The Hebrew people would observe.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
The first is Passover, then the Feast of Weeks, and
the Feast of Tabernacles. And it was during the time
of Passover that Jesus was betrayed, arrested, and crucified. Matthew
chapter twenty six. We even read that the Last Supper
that we now get the sacrament of communion from it
was actually the Passover.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Feast that Jesus was eating. The Last Supper was the
Passover feast.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Jesus was executed on the day of Preparation, that's the Friday,
like the day before the Sabbath of the Passover, and
this is pretty rich in symbolism. So when the Jewish
people were enslaved in Egypt, God promised that he was
going to rescue them, and to do that they had
to slaughter a lamb. They took the blood of that lamb.
(11:58):
They put it on the door frames of their homes.
The promise being, whoever's inside of this home, the Angel
the Lord would pass over you.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
And so now we call Jesus the Lamb of God.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Whoever has submitted themselves to the rightful reign of Christ,
we've come to be under the protection of that blood that.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
We get spared. We get saved out of sin and corruption.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
We get spared from eternal death that passes over us
because of Jesus Christ. The Feast of Weeks was also
known as Pentecost. It happened fifty days after the Sabbath
of the Passover. In fact, the word Pentecost means the fiftieth.
(12:43):
The feast itself celebrated two things. It celebrated God's faithfulness
for the spring barley harvest, but it also commemorated the
giving of the law to Moses on Mount Sinai, kind
of solidifying the Hebrew people as God's chosen people. Right,
they had come out of their slavery in Egypt, they
had gone through wilderness. Now they've come to this mountain
called Mount Sinai. Moses goes up on the mountain and
(13:03):
receives the Law, and this is very symbolic. This is
like saying, like, you are my chosen people. The Old
Testament Law was proclaiming that you're my chosen people.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
The Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Descending on the disciples is like Jesus saying you are
my chosen people.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
You're who I've chosen to go build the church.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
In fact, our text there's another detail connecting the Holy
Spirit coming on Pentecost with the giving of the Law
mount Sinai. We read this in Exus chapter twenty four
says when Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud
covered it, and the glory of the Lord settled on
Mount Sinai. For six days, the cloud covered the mountain.
On the seventh day, the Lord called to Moses from
within the cloud. To the Israelites, the glory of the
(13:52):
Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain.
Then Moses entered the cloud, went up to the mountain.
He said on mountain forty days and forty nights. In
both accounts, the presence of God is depicted as fire.
On mount side of there's this what seemed to be
this consuming fire. When the Holy Spirit came on Pentecost,
(14:12):
there's tongues of fire that came to.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Rest on each one of the disciples heads.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
In fact, throughout scripture, just like wind is a symbol
of God's power, fire is a symbol of his presence.
In Exus chapter three, God calls the Moses from a
burning bush. In Exus thirteen, after the Israelites have been
freed from captivity, as they're wandering through the wilderness, we
see that God led them by a pillar of fire.
Second Chronicles, chapter seven, when the Israelites got done finishing,
(14:40):
when they got done, when they completed the temple, they
said that the Lord's presence came into that temple like
fire coming down from heaven. Fire is a symbol of
God's presence. But there's a huge difference in our text
today with what happened as we see with the side
and what happened on Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai, people were
(15:05):
terrified of God's presence Exus twenty says when the people
heard the thunder, when they saw the flashes of lightning,
the smoke billowing from the mountain, they stood at a distance,
trembling with fear.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
They said to.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Moses, you speak to us, and we'll listen. But don't
let God speak directly to us.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
The world die. So it was only Moses.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Moses, and only Moses went into too God's presence to
receive the law. But at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came
to everyone, every believer there was in the presence of God.
Tongues of fire came to all their heads. Second Chronicles,
(15:47):
fire descended to the Lord's temple to show his presence.
Now every believer, fire is descending from heaven, showing every
believer is like a temple of the Lord. The Lord's
presence is with every believer. Not only did they have
God's power through the Holy Spirit, they had his presence.
(16:10):
This has huge implications for us. Again, the Holy Spirit
is mysterious. We can't see him, but we know he's
not distant, He's not unapproachable. You don't have to be
terrified of the Lord.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
You are.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
A temple of God through the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Wherever you go, God's with you. You're never on your
own when it comes to obeying the Lord, putting his
commands into practice, doing the work of the Kingdom.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
When you're forgiving. God is there.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
When you're wounded and you're not sure what to say.
God is there when you're trying to be compassionate. God
is there when you're trying to figure out how to
love someone, especially someone who's particularly hard to love. God
is there you're learning to be generous. God is there
when you mess up and you fall short. God is there.
(17:08):
You don't have to travel to a physical structure like
a temple to be in the presence of God. We
gather here in this physical space as His Church. But
God's presence with us is not limited to this physical space.
Through Jesus, we all have full access to the Lord
through the Holy Spirit. That doesn't solve all of our problems,
(17:33):
but it certainly allows us to take heart. It allows
us to submit to God and trust him in the
middle of those problems. God is always present with you.
He's always at work through the power of the Holy Spirit.
It doesn't mean you won't experience frustration or confusion or
temptation as you're joining with God and building his kingdom,
(17:54):
it means that you don't have to navigate it alone.
Jesus's command rests on us to go build my church.
But that command is manifested in us by the power
and presence of the Holy Spirit. He's not distant, he's approachable.
(18:18):
You are a temple of the Lord. You are a
burning bush of God's glory and goodness. Lastly, this examined
a symbol of gospel unity. We saw this last week,
this sort of.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Teasing out, this idea of disunity and unity. We see
a picture again Verse four. All of them were filled
with the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
They began to speak in other languages as the Spirit
enabled him. Now they're staying in Jerusalem, God fearing Jews
from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound,
of crowd came together in bewilderment because each one heard
their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, I asked, aren't
all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it
that each of us hears them in our own native language.
(18:59):
Parthians means Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontius, Asia, Persia, Pamphilia, Egypt,
all parts of Libya near Syreen, visitors from Rome, both
Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans, Arabs. We hear them
declaring the wonders of God in their own tongues the
very first week in this series, in Acts chapter one,
(19:21):
when Jesus has proven that he has resurrected, He's given
them many convincing proofs. As we read, we hear the
disciples asking him a question. I said, Lord, are you
going to restore the kingdom to Israel at this time?
And this question really shows that they still are really
struggling to understand what God's kingdom is. In their mind,
(19:44):
it's territorial, it's political, it's national. It's like this idea
of us versus them. But there's some of us that
are God's showsen people and others aren't. So God, are
you going to like make Israel great again? But they
didn't really understand is that this is universally available to
(20:05):
all humanity.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
God is busy redeeming everyone.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Pentecost fell at the beginning of June, when traveling conditions
were at their best, and that meant that a lot
of people came to Jerusalem for the feast of weeks
for Pentecost. One commentator describes it said, never was there.
It was a more international crowd in Jerusalem than at
the time of Pentecost. So verse four we read all
(20:34):
the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, began to
speak in other tongues. That's like other languages, as a
spirit enabled them. I want you to notice that it
doesn't say the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Gave everyone there the power to understand Aramaic.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
It says the Holy Spirit gave the apostles, the disciples
the ability to speak in a way that everyone heard
their own native language. That's hugely important implications there. Those
president didn't have to change their nationality, their cultural identity
(21:11):
in order to come to God.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
God met them where they were.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
The Holy Spirit didn't steamroll other cultures saying everyone has
to become like a Jewish Hebrew here. In fact, much
of the Epistles Paul's writing to these early churches basically saying, hey,
like you guys are really misunderstanding the point of the Gospel.
You have these false teachers coming saying if you want
to be a Christian, you have to become a Jew first.
(21:38):
You have to get circumcised. You have to follow the
Old Testament law. And Paul's like, that's that's not That's
not the case. Tim Keller, regarding this passage, he says,
because of Pentecost, we see that there's not a right
language or a right culture when it comes to God's kingdom.
Christianity renews every culture and at the same time honors
(21:59):
every culture.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
So to be a follower of Jesus means to a
certain degree.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
You are lifted out of your culture, like your way
of life, the way that you were raised, the way that.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Your culture functions. To a certain degree, you're lifted out
of that.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
You can see the excesses in the inhumanity, the self centeredness,
the greed, the immorality of your way of life. But
you're still a part of the people that God made
you to be on purpose. The Holy spirits finds you
in your culture, in your circumstances, in your in every
(22:39):
way that you are identified as a person. God finds
you there and then He leaves you there to say,
build my church. African theologian Layman Sanai, in his book
Whose Religion is Christianity the Gospel be on the West,
with regards to this idea. He says Christianity helped Africans
become renewed Africans, not remade Europeans. So the implication is this,
(23:06):
God isn't calling for cultural uniformity. He's calling for universal submission.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
To Jesus.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
And whatever space of life you inhabit, and whatever hang
ups that you have. To that submission. God calls all
of us in the unique spaces that we live to
all universally surrender to say we are coming together under
the banner of Jesus. In many ways, what we see
(23:45):
here is a symbolism of the reversal of the curse
of Babele Genesis eleven. We see like all of humankind.
This story is described as that they're building this great
mind to their own glory, like look how great we
are as people, and God's like, that's bad. So he
(24:07):
confuses them. He says, they give them different languages so
that they can stop being so basically working together to
be self centered, kind of oxymoronic. But the divisions expressed
by language barriers were overcoming this moment. David Peterson, the theologian,
says what happened all the day at Pentecost suggests that
God's curse has been removed, but the confusion of tongues
(24:28):
was not undone. By providing a common spiritual language, communication
took place under the diversity of languages represented there, God
was expressing his ultimate intention to unite people from every tribe, language,
and nation under the rule of his son.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
So here's the point for us today.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
As we are going and we're trying to tune ourselves
into God's work, as we're trying to join with Christ,
as he's building his church, as we're submitting ourselves to him.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
There are certainly.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Racial, cultural, socioeconomic implications of this.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Right. Each of us have to examine our own hearts.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
For pakis, bigotry and prejudice and nationalism, this idea of
like us versus them, like I'm convinced, like I'm good
and they're bad. Like we have to examine all that
and surrender that to Christ. On my way of life
is the right one. I even met with a couple
this week. We'll just talking about marriage and how that's
challenging because sometimes you come from two different backgrounds and
(25:20):
you say my way of life is the right one,
this is how you should do dishes right, And there's
all this tension because it's like us versus them, Like
there's the right way to do things and the wrong
way to do things. And there's a lot of tension
in marriage because it's like you just refuse to say, well,
maybe that's not the case. Maybe like we can surrender
(25:40):
and submit ourselves and not.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Say this is the right way.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
We struggle with this stuff, but there's also theological implications
as well that we might not realize. Each one of
us in our minds have this idea that there's the
right way to pursue God. Like some people, especially in
the West, they'll say the right way to pursue God
is to be very thoughtful, to study scripture, to really
(26:07):
to really understand what it's saying, that that's the noble
way of pursuing God. Then you have other people say, no,
the right way to worship God is to like have
an emotional experience of worship. And then that's some one
else say, no, the right way is through silence and solitude,
that you need to learn how to pray and like
get in tune.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
With the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
There's a lot of different people saying like they don't
say it this way, but like real Christianity looks like this.
The point is, there are certain things that we should
all strive to do, but how we pursue God as
as diverse as the cultures in which we come from.
(26:48):
There's not a single path towards submission. There's the path
that you're on. Christ finds us where we are, He
finds you where you are, and he's inviting you to surrender.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
We have to work together to do that.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
Fesians chapter four says, make every effort to keep yourself
united in spirit, binding yourself together with peace. For there's
one body, one spirit, just as you've been called one
glorious hope for the future. There's one Lord, one faith,
one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is
over in all, living through all. In other words, God
is at work uniting us together, people who are very different,
(27:28):
under the lordship of Jesus. That's what God is interested in.
It's not about uniformity, it's about submission. You know that
you're on the right spiritual path when you're not afraid
to submit to Jesus. The Holy Spirit really is not
(27:52):
just a promise of God's future redemption. He's a manifestation
of that redemption right here and right now. So here's
what we need to understand as a church. When we
are when we're living united lives with each other, we
are displaying what God's kingdom is like to the world.
When we live united with one another. When we try
to have a functional community of health and vibrance relationally,
(28:13):
that is submitting to the Holy Spirit. That is being
a city on a hill. When we are actively forgiving
one another, it's seeking forgiveness. That's displaying what God's kingdom
is like. When we hold each other accountable, when we
challenge one another do better, that's living out God's kingdom.
(28:34):
When we are empathetic with one another, when we create
an environment where we don't have to have a facade,
we can say this is what I'm really struggling with.
We're displaying what God's kingdom is like. When we learn
from one another. When I find out this is what
(28:54):
you these are the spiritual disciplines that you depend on.
And when I consider, well, maybe I could do that too.
When we learn from one another, when it comes to
who God is and what he is like, that's the
slangest kingdom. All this has to be done by the
power and the presence of the Holy Spirit. We can't
just think by our own strength, just live united lives.
(29:21):
It first comes to individual and corporate submission to Jesus.
We are to be a compelling picture of God's grace.
So what about you? Whereas God inviting you to respond
this morning, are you really struggling to just lean into
the power of God? Like, when you look at your
(29:42):
life in an unbiased way, do you see you trying
to take the reins, you trying to will it into existence,
whatever that thing is, You resisting God's power by taking
control yourself. Do you see that at work in your life?
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Maybe you struggle with God's presence.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Maybe you kind of act academically get that God's with me,
but I don't functionally do anything to actually experience intimacy
with God. I just sort of put in my back pocket, like, yeah,
God's with me, but I don't slow myself enough down
to just actually spend time with the Lord. Maybe it's
seeking unity with other believers. Maybe you really struggle with
(30:20):
that because you have things that have happened in the past, woundedness.
There's parts of your heart that you said, listen, Jesus,
I can do the whole me and you thing but
the whole you in your church saying I'm out. Are
there people that you need to seek forgiveness from or
offer forgiveness too? Where do you need to repent? Where
(30:44):
you need to change course? Who do you need to
better love? How can you speak the gospel over yourself?
How can you remind yourself that you were magnificent, magnificently
created in God's image on purpose, that you were here
because the Lord dreamt you into exist, that he is
holding you into existence right now. Bible says that he
is singing over you, that he loves you so much
(31:07):
that in the middle of our corruption, like we went
our own way, in the middle of that, God didn't
just wipe the slate clean and start again, but he
he incarnated. He came into our lives. He took our
humanity upon himself, and he walked with us. He lived
a perfect life, and then he willingly traded us places.
He allowed himself to be humiliated, tortured.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
And killed. He died the death that we created so
that we could go free.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
And three days later he rose from the dead forever,
defeating sin and death, saying, welcome son, welcome daughter.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
In what we're going to take communion.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
We're going to remind ourselves of that truth of the
power and the presence of the Holy Spirit that we've
been gifted.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
We're going to remind ourselves of the unity.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
That we not only get to experience, but we must
experience through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
So as we're preparing our hearts for.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
A time of community, the first time we're going to
do is put a discussion question up on the screen
so we can continue to process and maybe apply some
of this to our lives. And then Chelsea's going to
come forward and lead us in communion. So here's a
discussion question. What encourage you the most of this morning
and why was it God's power through the Holy Spirit,
his presence through the Holy Spirit, or Gospel unity through
the Holy Spirit. So let's spend the next four to
five minutes discussion that together at our tables.
So if you were to visit my home and just
come in and hang out, you might notice on a
shelf something kind of odd there. And one of our
shelves in our house we have three clocks all sitting together,
And a normal kind of inquisitive person would be like,
why does someone need three clocks all sitting in the
(00:21):
exact same spot, And if you examine them close to
you'd be like, and they're not working. So why do
you have three clocks that don't work, all sitting in
the same spot.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well, each one of these clocks came from.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
The home of one of either my grandparents or Carrie's grandparents,
So growing up, these were clocks that we saw a lot.
I remember spending the night at my grandparents house and
hearing the mantle clock going off in the middle of
the night. I remember this small one in the front
with the little like the balls. The action of the
clock would spin one way, then it'd spin the other.
I remember just being fascinated by the action of the clock.
(00:57):
So when we walk into a room and we see these,
we're sort of like taken back and reminded of our heritage.
This is where we've come from, This is the love
and presence of our grandparents and our lives. In a
lot of ways, this is what these clocks symbolize. These
clocks are symbols of our grandparents' love. Symbolism is an
(01:18):
important part of who we are in a lot of ways.
It's how we sort of make sense of the world.
We use symbolism and how we communicate with each other.
We use symbolism to remember the past we make We
use symbolism to describe the present to anticipate the future.
In fact, in our text today, as Luke is trying
(01:40):
to describe the arrival of the Holy Spirit what that
was like, we see him employing like a trio of
symbolism in our text, and this is going to sort
a sort of an outline for us today. We see
Luke giving a symbol of God's power, a symbol of
God's presence, and a symbol of god full unity. So,
(02:01):
in describing the Holy Spirit came and was given this
unique thing that never happened before, symbolism is used to
help us understand what that might have been like.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
The big idea for.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Us today, what I hope we sort of take away
and what we wrestle with throughout the week is this.
It's only through the Holy Spirit's power and presence that
we can join with God in building his kingdom. It's
only through the Holy Spirit's power and his presence that
we can join with God and building his kingdom, a
kingdom built on Gospel unity. Before his ascension, at the
(02:37):
very end of the Gospels, we hear Christ say, go
make disciples of all nations.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Go do that.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Take all these fractured groups of people, these pockets, the
people that are divided, and bring them all together under
the banner of Jesus Christ. That's a command that has
fallen to us now as followers of Jesus.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
And what we must remember.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Is that if we hope to accomplish that at all,
to display what God's kingdom is like, to invite people
to enjoy in the fruits of that kingdom, it's only
through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit that
we can do that. A symbol of God's power, a
symbol of God's presence, and a symbol of Gospel unity.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
That's what we're studying together this morning.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
So as we're preparing to do that, let's first pause
and pray.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
So God, thank you for your faithfulness to us.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
As we're saying already this morning, your love.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
That is.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
So peculiar and so good. Thank you for your continued
faithfulness to us. Teach us to be faithful to you
more and more form us into the image of your
Son through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.
This is the words that we pray. Lord, that's in
your name. We say these things. Amen. So first, let's
see a symbol of God's power. Verse one of our texts,
(04:05):
when the day of Pentecost came, the followers of Jesus
were all together in one place.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Suddenly a sound like the.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled
the whole house where they were sitting. So all throughout scripture,
when the power of the Holy Spirit is being described,
when God's at work through the power of the Holy Spirit,
we see a repeated theme, and one of the ways
that this is described is by a wind or a breath.
(04:32):
The very beginning of creation Genesis two, we see this imagery.
The symbolism being employed says, the Lord God formed the
man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the
breath of life into the man's nostrils, or the man
became a living person. We know this is symbolic in
a lot of ways because God doesn't breathe the way
that you and I breathe. Right, He doesn't need oxygen
to survive. This is a picture for us to understand
(04:54):
that God is bestowing the gift of life. That He
is giving the gift of life. God's power is a
blowing of life. The Psalmist reiterates this theme. Palm thirty
three six says, by the word of the Lord, the
heavens were made their starry host by the breath of
his mouth. The prophet is Ezekiel when he had this image,
this prophecy of the Lord's people being in exile and
(05:15):
coming back to the promised Land. He has this vision
and it's rich with symbolism. But see what how Ezekiel
describes the Lord's promise that he would bring people back
from exile. Ezekiel thirty seven says, this is what the
sovereign Lord says, Come, oh, breath from the four winds,
breathe and to these dead bodies, so they may live again.
So I spoke this message as he commanded me, and
(05:37):
breath came into their bodies. They all came to life.
They stood up on their feet a great army. Then
he said to me, son of Man, these bones represent
the people of Israel. They're saying, we have become old,
dry bones. All hope is gone, our nation is finished. Therefore,
prophesy to them and say, this is what the Sovereign
Lord says, Oh my people, I will open your graves
of exile and cause you to rise again.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Then I'll bring you back to the land of Israel.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Picture that the the Israelites felt like that their nation
was dead, and there's this vision of skeletons in a field,
the breath of life coming over them. They're rising to life,
symbolizing like this promise that no, I will bring you.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Back to the promised land.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
At one point, Jesus himself, as he's talking with Nicodemus,
the most famous verse probably in the entire Bible John
three point sixteen. In the middle of this conversation that
he's having with Nicodemus, where that verse comes, we hear
Jesus comparing the Holy Spirit to a wind, says, the
wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear it sound, but
you cannot tell where it comes.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Where it's going.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
So it is with everyone born with the spirit. So
here's the point, Like, why why is the Holy Spirit
compared to the wind. Well, what's the wind? Like? We
had a pretty windy week this last week. I came
home my trash can was blown over, so you might
have had some damage at your house.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
What's the wind? Like?
Speaker 1 (06:54):
I know, when I go outside and I experience the wind,
I'm convinced that it's external to me. I know, the
wind isn't something that I have made. It's something that
is external to me. It's also very mysterious. The wind
sort of like gusts, it blows. I can't really necessarily
anticipate what the wind's going to do. I can't see
the wind, but I can certainly experience its power. Like
(07:21):
we said before, just before ascending to heaven, Jesus says,
go make disciples of all nations. But as we've studied
already in this series, he also says and wait.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
He doesn't say, go make disciples of all nations. Get busy.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
He says, go make disciples of all nations. Build my church.
But wait, the power source for obeying this command was
external to the apostles. Go build my church, but wait,
it's not by your own wisdom. It's not by your
(07:57):
own effort. It's not by you trying really hard, or
or studying scripture or praying in a certain way. The
power to build the church did not come from within
the disciples. It came to them from heaven. The Holy
Spirit felt like the wind that Luke is saying, it's
felt like the wind. It was like a violent, rushing wind.
(08:19):
It wasn't wind. It was kind of like wind. It's
external to them. It was mysterious. Nothing like this has
ever happened before. They can't see it, but they can
definitely feel as power. And there's clear implications for us
today as we know that this has fallen to us
build my church.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
More than anything.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
We have to understand we are merely conduits of God's grace.
We don't have to be the power source. I can
depend on God's power as I'm practicing faithful presence, as
I'm showing up in places, and I'm trying to be present,
being extra compassionate and generous, being available, being tuned into
(09:03):
what the Holy Spirit is doing in people's lives. It
doesn't have to be my own cleverness, my own wisdom,
my own power. I can I can witness what God
has already at work doing and join him with that.
When I'm trying to love someone that's difficult to love
what I'm trying to offer forgiveness, I.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Don't have to be the power source of that. I
don't have to try really hard.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
I can submit to Jesus and say, Lord, I need
you to be the power source for this. The disciples
did not manifest the Holy spirits by their good behavior.
It wasn't like they practice enough spiritual disciplines and okay,
now the Holy Spirit comes. It wasn't about the avoidance of sin.
It wasn't about how generous they were. God intervened in
(09:47):
their lives. God came to them, and that same mysterious
work is at work in your life.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Right now. God is coming to us.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
He's with us, empowering us to go make disciples of
all nations. It's not by your own strength, but by
the power of the Holy Spirit. So here's what I
want you to know. The command rests on you. Go
build the church, go display show share what the Kingdom.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Of God is.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
But take the pressure off. You're not responsible for the fruit.
You have a role to play. You must be obedient,
but it's the power of the Holy Spirit. That's a
work that's building His kingdom. You worry about your worship,
your obedience, Let God take care of the outcomes. God
(10:47):
is the power source for all things with regards to
building his kingdom. The first symbol that.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
We see in our textaday is God's power. It's like
a rushing wind.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Secondly, we see a symbol of God's presence. Verse three
says the disciples saw what seemed to be what seemed
to be tongues of fire that separated and came to
rest on each of them. There were three great Jewish
festivals that.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
The Hebrew people would observe.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
The first is Passover, then the Feast of Weeks, and
the Feast of Tabernacles. And it was during the time
of Passover that Jesus was betrayed, arrested, and crucified. Matthew
chapter twenty six. We even read that the Last Supper
that we now get the sacrament of communion from it
was actually the Passover.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Feast that Jesus was eating. The Last Supper was the
Passover feast.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Jesus was executed on the day of Preparation, that's the Friday,
like the day before the Sabbath of the Passover, and
this is pretty rich in symbolism. So when the Jewish
people were enslaved in Egypt, God promised that he was
going to rescue them, and to do that they had
to slaughter a lamb. They took the blood of that lamb.
(11:58):
They put it on the door frames of their homes.
The promise being, whoever's inside of this home, the Angel
the Lord would pass over you.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
And so now we call Jesus the Lamb of God.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Whoever has submitted themselves to the rightful reign of Christ,
we've come to be under the protection of that blood that.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
We get spared. We get saved out of sin and corruption.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
We get spared from eternal death that passes over us
because of Jesus Christ. The Feast of Weeks was also
known as Pentecost. It happened fifty days after the Sabbath
of the Passover. In fact, the word Pentecost means the fiftieth.
(12:43):
The feast itself celebrated two things. It celebrated God's faithfulness
for the spring barley harvest, but it also commemorated the
giving of the law to Moses on Mount Sinai, kind
of solidifying the Hebrew people as God's chosen people. Right,
they had come out of their slavery in Egypt, they
had gone through wilderness. Now they've come to this mountain
called Mount Sinai. Moses goes up on the mountain and
(13:03):
receives the Law, and this is very symbolic. This is
like saying, like, you are my chosen people. The Old
Testament Law was proclaiming that you're my chosen people.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
The Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Descending on the disciples is like Jesus saying you are
my chosen people.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
You're who I've chosen to go build the church.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
In fact, our text there's another detail connecting the Holy
Spirit coming on Pentecost with the giving of the Law
mount Sinai. We read this in Exus chapter twenty four
says when Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud
covered it, and the glory of the Lord settled on
Mount Sinai. For six days, the cloud covered the mountain.
On the seventh day, the Lord called to Moses from
within the cloud. To the Israelites, the glory of the
(13:52):
Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain.
Then Moses entered the cloud, went up to the mountain.
He said on mountain forty days and forty nights. In
both accounts, the presence of God is depicted as fire.
On mount side of there's this what seemed to be
this consuming fire. When the Holy Spirit came on Pentecost,
(14:12):
there's tongues of fire that came to.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Rest on each one of the disciples heads.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
In fact, throughout scripture, just like wind is a symbol
of God's power, fire is a symbol of his presence.
In Exus chapter three, God calls the Moses from a
burning bush. In Exus thirteen, after the Israelites have been
freed from captivity, as they're wandering through the wilderness, we
see that God led them by a pillar of fire.
Second Chronicles, chapter seven, when the Israelites got done finishing,
(14:40):
when they got done, when they completed the temple, they
said that the Lord's presence came into that temple like
fire coming down from heaven. Fire is a symbol of
God's presence. But there's a huge difference in our text
today with what happened as we see with the side
and what happened on Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai, people were
(15:05):
terrified of God's presence Exus twenty says when the people
heard the thunder, when they saw the flashes of lightning,
the smoke billowing from the mountain, they stood at a distance,
trembling with fear.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
They said to.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Moses, you speak to us, and we'll listen. But don't
let God speak directly to us.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
The world die. So it was only Moses.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Moses, and only Moses went into too God's presence to
receive the law. But at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came
to everyone, every believer there was in the presence of God.
Tongues of fire came to all their heads. Second Chronicles,
(15:47):
fire descended to the Lord's temple to show his presence.
Now every believer, fire is descending from heaven, showing every
believer is like a temple of the Lord. The Lord's
presence is with every believer. Not only did they have
God's power through the Holy Spirit, they had his presence.
(16:10):
This has huge implications for us. Again, the Holy Spirit
is mysterious. We can't see him, but we know he's
not distant, He's not unapproachable. You don't have to be
terrified of the Lord.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
You are.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
A temple of God through the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Wherever you go, God's with you. You're never on your
own when it comes to obeying the Lord, putting his
commands into practice, doing the work of the Kingdom.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
When you're forgiving. God is there.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
When you're wounded and you're not sure what to say.
God is there when you're trying to be compassionate. God
is there when you're trying to figure out how to
love someone, especially someone who's particularly hard to love. God
is there you're learning to be generous. God is there
when you mess up and you fall short. God is there.
(17:08):
You don't have to travel to a physical structure like
a temple to be in the presence of God. We
gather here in this physical space as His Church. But
God's presence with us is not limited to this physical space.
Through Jesus, we all have full access to the Lord
through the Holy Spirit. That doesn't solve all of our problems,
(17:33):
but it certainly allows us to take heart. It allows
us to submit to God and trust him in the
middle of those problems. God is always present with you.
He's always at work through the power of the Holy Spirit.
It doesn't mean you won't experience frustration or confusion or
temptation as you're joining with God and building his kingdom,
(17:54):
it means that you don't have to navigate it alone.
Jesus's command rests on us to go build my church.
But that command is manifested in us by the power
and presence of the Holy Spirit. He's not distant, he's approachable.
(18:18):
You are a temple of the Lord. You are a
burning bush of God's glory and goodness. Lastly, this examined
a symbol of gospel unity. We saw this last week,
this sort of.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Teasing out, this idea of disunity and unity. We see
a picture again Verse four. All of them were filled
with the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
They began to speak in other languages as the Spirit
enabled him. Now they're staying in Jerusalem, God fearing Jews
from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound,
of crowd came together in bewilderment because each one heard
their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, I asked, aren't
all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it
that each of us hears them in our own native language.
(18:59):
Parthians means Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontius, Asia, Persia, Pamphilia, Egypt,
all parts of Libya near Syreen, visitors from Rome, both
Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans, Arabs. We hear them
declaring the wonders of God in their own tongues the
very first week in this series, in Acts chapter one,
(19:21):
when Jesus has proven that he has resurrected, He's given
them many convincing proofs. As we read, we hear the
disciples asking him a question. I said, Lord, are you
going to restore the kingdom to Israel at this time?
And this question really shows that they still are really
struggling to understand what God's kingdom is. In their mind,
(19:44):
it's territorial, it's political, it's national. It's like this idea
of us versus them. But there's some of us that
are God's showsen people and others aren't. So God, are
you going to like make Israel great again? But they
didn't really understand is that this is universally available to
(20:05):
all humanity.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
God is busy redeeming everyone.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Pentecost fell at the beginning of June, when traveling conditions
were at their best, and that meant that a lot
of people came to Jerusalem for the feast of weeks
for Pentecost. One commentator describes it said, never was there.
It was a more international crowd in Jerusalem than at
the time of Pentecost. So verse four we read all
(20:34):
the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, began to
speak in other tongues. That's like other languages, as a
spirit enabled them. I want you to notice that it
doesn't say the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Gave everyone there the power to understand Aramaic.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
It says the Holy Spirit gave the apostles, the disciples
the ability to speak in a way that everyone heard
their own native language. That's hugely important implications there. Those
president didn't have to change their nationality, their cultural identity
(21:11):
in order to come to God.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
God met them where they were.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
The Holy Spirit didn't steamroll other cultures saying everyone has
to become like a Jewish Hebrew here. In fact, much
of the Epistles Paul's writing to these early churches basically saying, hey,
like you guys are really misunderstanding the point of the Gospel.
You have these false teachers coming saying if you want
to be a Christian, you have to become a Jew first.
(21:38):
You have to get circumcised. You have to follow the
Old Testament law. And Paul's like, that's that's not That's
not the case. Tim Keller, regarding this passage, he says,
because of Pentecost, we see that there's not a right
language or a right culture when it comes to God's kingdom.
Christianity renews every culture and at the same time honors
(21:59):
every culture.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
So to be a follower of Jesus means to a
certain degree.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
You are lifted out of your culture, like your way
of life, the way that you were raised, the way that.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Your culture functions. To a certain degree, you're lifted out
of that.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
You can see the excesses in the inhumanity, the self centeredness,
the greed, the immorality of your way of life. But
you're still a part of the people that God made
you to be on purpose. The Holy spirits finds you
in your culture, in your circumstances, in your in every
(22:39):
way that you are identified as a person. God finds
you there and then He leaves you there to say,
build my church. African theologian Layman Sanai, in his book
Whose Religion is Christianity the Gospel be on the West,
with regards to this idea. He says Christianity helped Africans
become renewed Africans, not remade Europeans. So the implication is this,
(23:06):
God isn't calling for cultural uniformity. He's calling for universal submission.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
To Jesus.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
And whatever space of life you inhabit, and whatever hang
ups that you have. To that submission. God calls all
of us in the unique spaces that we live to
all universally surrender to say we are coming together under
the banner of Jesus. In many ways, what we see
(23:45):
here is a symbolism of the reversal of the curse
of Babele Genesis eleven. We see like all of humankind.
This story is described as that they're building this great
mind to their own glory, like look how great we
are as people, and God's like, that's bad. So he
(24:07):
confuses them. He says, they give them different languages so
that they can stop being so basically working together to
be self centered, kind of oxymoronic. But the divisions expressed
by language barriers were overcoming this moment. David Peterson, the theologian,
says what happened all the day at Pentecost suggests that
God's curse has been removed, but the confusion of tongues
(24:28):
was not undone. By providing a common spiritual language, communication
took place under the diversity of languages represented there, God
was expressing his ultimate intention to unite people from every tribe, language,
and nation under the rule of his son.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
So here's the point for us today.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
As we are going and we're trying to tune ourselves
into God's work, as we're trying to join with Christ,
as he's building his church, as we're submitting ourselves to him.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
There are certainly.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Racial, cultural, socioeconomic implications of this.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Right. Each of us have to examine our own hearts.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
For pakis, bigotry and prejudice and nationalism, this idea of
like us versus them, like I'm convinced, like I'm good
and they're bad. Like we have to examine all that
and surrender that to Christ. On my way of life
is the right one. I even met with a couple
this week. We'll just talking about marriage and how that's
challenging because sometimes you come from two different backgrounds and
(25:20):
you say my way of life is the right one,
this is how you should do dishes right, And there's
all this tension because it's like us versus them, Like
there's the right way to do things and the wrong
way to do things. And there's a lot of tension
in marriage because it's like you just refuse to say, well,
maybe that's not the case. Maybe like we can surrender
(25:40):
and submit ourselves and not.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Say this is the right way.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
We struggle with this stuff, but there's also theological implications
as well that we might not realize. Each one of
us in our minds have this idea that there's the
right way to pursue God. Like some people, especially in
the West, they'll say the right way to pursue God
is to be very thoughtful, to study scripture, to really
(26:07):
to really understand what it's saying, that that's the noble
way of pursuing God. Then you have other people say, no,
the right way to worship God is to like have
an emotional experience of worship. And then that's some one
else say, no, the right way is through silence and solitude,
that you need to learn how to pray and like
get in tune.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
With the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
There's a lot of different people saying like they don't
say it this way, but like real Christianity looks like this.
The point is, there are certain things that we should
all strive to do, but how we pursue God as
as diverse as the cultures in which we come from.
(26:48):
There's not a single path towards submission. There's the path
that you're on. Christ finds us where we are, He
finds you where you are, and he's inviting you to surrender.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
We have to work together to do that.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
Fesians chapter four says, make every effort to keep yourself
united in spirit, binding yourself together with peace. For there's
one body, one spirit, just as you've been called one
glorious hope for the future. There's one Lord, one faith,
one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is
over in all, living through all. In other words, God
is at work uniting us together, people who are very different,
(27:28):
under the lordship of Jesus. That's what God is interested in.
It's not about uniformity, it's about submission. You know that
you're on the right spiritual path when you're not afraid
to submit to Jesus. The Holy Spirit really is not
(27:52):
just a promise of God's future redemption. He's a manifestation
of that redemption right here and right now. So here's
what we need to understand as a church. When we
are when we're living united lives with each other, we
are displaying what God's kingdom is like to the world.
When we live united with one another. When we try
to have a functional community of health and vibrance relationally,
(28:13):
that is submitting to the Holy Spirit. That is being
a city on a hill. When we are actively forgiving
one another, it's seeking forgiveness. That's displaying what God's kingdom
is like. When we hold each other accountable, when we
challenge one another do better, that's living out God's kingdom.
(28:34):
When we are empathetic with one another, when we create
an environment where we don't have to have a facade,
we can say this is what I'm really struggling with.
We're displaying what God's kingdom is like. When we learn
from one another. When I find out this is what
(28:54):
you these are the spiritual disciplines that you depend on.
And when I consider, well, maybe I could do that too.
When we learn from one another, when it comes to
who God is and what he is like, that's the
slangest kingdom. All this has to be done by the
power and the presence of the Holy Spirit. We can't
just think by our own strength, just live united lives.
(29:21):
It first comes to individual and corporate submission to Jesus.
We are to be a compelling picture of God's grace.
So what about you? Whereas God inviting you to respond
this morning, are you really struggling to just lean into
the power of God? Like, when you look at your
(29:42):
life in an unbiased way, do you see you trying
to take the reins, you trying to will it into existence,
whatever that thing is, You resisting God's power by taking
control yourself. Do you see that at work in your life?
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Maybe you struggle with God's presence.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Maybe you kind of act academically get that God's with me,
but I don't functionally do anything to actually experience intimacy
with God. I just sort of put in my back pocket, like, yeah,
God's with me, but I don't slow myself enough down
to just actually spend time with the Lord. Maybe it's
seeking unity with other believers. Maybe you really struggle with
(30:20):
that because you have things that have happened in the past, woundedness.
There's parts of your heart that you said, listen, Jesus,
I can do the whole me and you thing but
the whole you in your church saying I'm out. Are
there people that you need to seek forgiveness from or
offer forgiveness too? Where do you need to repent? Where
(30:44):
you need to change course? Who do you need to
better love? How can you speak the gospel over yourself?
How can you remind yourself that you were magnificent, magnificently
created in God's image on purpose, that you were here
because the Lord dreamt you into exist, that he is
holding you into existence right now. Bible says that he
is singing over you, that he loves you so much
(31:07):
that in the middle of our corruption, like we went
our own way, in the middle of that, God didn't
just wipe the slate clean and start again, but he
he incarnated. He came into our lives. He took our
humanity upon himself, and he walked with us. He lived
a perfect life, and then he willingly traded us places.
He allowed himself to be humiliated, tortured.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
And killed. He died the death that we created so
that we could go free.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
And three days later he rose from the dead forever,
defeating sin and death, saying, welcome son, welcome daughter.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
In what we're going to take communion.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
We're going to remind ourselves of that truth of the
power and the presence of the Holy Spirit that we've
been gifted.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
We're going to remind ourselves of the unity.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
That we not only get to experience, but we must
experience through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
So as we're preparing our hearts for.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
A time of community, the first time we're going to
do is put a discussion question up on the screen
so we can continue to process and maybe apply some
of this to our lives. And then Chelsea's going to
come forward and lead us in communion. So here's a
discussion question. What encourage you the most of this morning
and why was it God's power through the Holy Spirit,
his presence through the Holy Spirit, or Gospel unity through
the Holy Spirit. So let's spend the next four to
five minutes discussion that together at our tables.
Popular Podcasts
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!
Fudd Around And Find Out
UConn basketball star Azzi Fudd brings her championship swag to iHeart Women’s Sports with Fudd Around and Find Out, a weekly podcast that takes fans along for the ride as Azzi spends her final year of college trying to reclaim the National Championship and prepare to be a first round WNBA draft pick. Ever wonder what it’s like to be a world-class athlete in the public spotlight while still managing schoolwork, friendships and family time? It’s time to Fudd Around and Find Out!