Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
The Same Power - Blueprint Series
52 Plays1 year ago
In this sermon, Ridley Barron preached about the transformative power of the Holy Spirit as demonstrated on the day of Pentecost and its ongoing significance for believers. He delved into the historical and spiritual importance of Jesus Christ's life, death, and resurrection, and emphasized the responsibilities of humanity in light of God's grand plan. Barron outlined the realities of Jesus' time on earth, the adventurous and unpredictable nature of following Him, and how the events of Acts chapter 2 catalyzing a global inclusion into the gospel fulfilled ancient prophecies. With a call to action for sharing the gospel, he affirmed that God’s message through Christ is for everyone, not limited by race or background.
Timestamps:
05:42 Understanding and embracing the Holy Spirit's role.
06:28 Two scenarios: faith lacking or spirit resisting.
10:25 God's commitment to covenant, referenced as fire.
15:10 People speaking different tongues, mistaken for drunk.
18:35 Accepting Christ brings indwelling of Holy Spirit.
21:10 Desire for abilities, submission to Jesus Christ.
23:59 Peter includes Gentiles in worldwide gospel opportunity.
29:06 Pentecost unites all nations in God's kingdom.
30:16 Pentecost fulfills prophecy, invites personal connection with God.
33:44 Be able to share the gospel confidently.
38:37 Mankind discredits Jesus despite strong evidence.
41:04 True relationship with God requires active participation.
44:24 Open hearts, holy spirit, success in commission.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Setting the Scene
00:00:00
Speaker
If you wanna go ahead and turn your Bibles to Acts chapter two, we're gonna be picking up the story of Acts this morning right there. As we get ready for that, I wanna invite you
00:00:10
Speaker
to do a couple things with me. Number one, I would like for you to celebrate with me. This past Wednesday night, many of you have heard us talk about this and some of you are part of that. Our men's leadership academy, first section of that leadership academy came to an end, came to a conclusion. If you're one of the guys that was a part of that, I would love for you just to stand up right now and stay standing for a second.
Leadership and Accountability
00:00:34
Speaker
I think you know who you are, yeah.
00:00:39
Speaker
So several reasons why I want them to stand. Number one, if you are a guy and you are not able to be a part of this past leadership academy and you're thinking, hey, I might want to do this, I would encourage you to just grab one of these guys and say, hey, what was involved? What did it look like? Those kinds of things. And pray about your participation in the next go around of this. Number two, I want you to pray for these guys. Stand up.
00:01:04
Speaker
I did not tell you to sit down. Number two, as you see these guys around you, I'm asking you to hold them accountable. Because in entering into this leadership academy, what I asked them to do was to pray about how they could be leaders for their families, but also for this congregation. And guys, I want to say to you, my heart to you is that the church we are tomorrow will be in part determined by what kind of leaders you choose to be today.
00:01:28
Speaker
So I give you as the church permission to look at them from time to time, not every day, not every week, and ask them hard questions. What are you doing to serve me? What are you doing to lead me? What are you doing to lead this congregation? Because I don't wanna let them off the hook just because they completed 12 weeks. And then thirdly, I wanna ask you, what are you doing to follow? You see, good leaders are only as good as the people who follow them.
00:01:56
Speaker
And so as they serve this congregation in whatever capacity, it may be serving as safety guys out front, it may be teaching some of our kids as several of them do, they may be future deacons or elders. What they determine to do by God's power will be between them and God. What you do to follow their leadership will be between you and God.
00:02:16
Speaker
So I want to pray for them real quickly. So thank you guys. I'll pray for you in just a second.
Community Tragedy and Prayer Request
00:02:20
Speaker
I also want to invite you selfishly, if you will, just to be praying this morning. My nephew, some of you know, but one of my nephews is a pastor in Manchester, Georgia.
00:02:31
Speaker
He called, or texted me this morning, they had their prom for Manchester High School last evening. They are just down the road from Columbus, Georgia, so they're having prom in Columbus where most of them do. And last night at midnight, a car full of boys pulled up next to a car and shot multiple shots into the car, killed one of the young men who was the quarterback for the football team, and also has put another kid in ICU. He's already had one surgery this morning to try to save his life, and they think you'll have to have another this afternoon.
00:03:00
Speaker
So I ask you to be praying for that little community, for that church, and specifically for my niece-in-law. Is that what you call them? Anyway, his wife, she actually is a high school teacher there at Manchester High School, had both of these boys in her classes. Teachers, you know how much that is a connection that is made, but she actually has been mentoring the boy who's in the hospital for the last few months, doing some one-on-one meetings with him and stuff like that to encourage him. So she's taken it especially hard.
00:03:30
Speaker
It's a hard world we live in and getting harder by the day. And so it is incumbent upon us as followers of Jesus Christ to continue to take and hold hope before the world and say, guys, there's something better, something better than gangs and games and
00:03:45
Speaker
taking life from other people and somehow thinking you're establishing some kind of chain of command or whatever, all of us, every single one of us are better off when we submit our desires to that of God. So let's just pray for them, pray for these men and pray as we get into the word this morning. Father God, we thank you for your listening ear in times like this because it's hard. It's hard to think about another young man's life being snuffed out.
00:04:14
Speaker
without any real reason, it's just a stupid thing. Another man who's hanging on by a thread to his life, Lord. In these moments, we just ask that you would intervene on behalf of this young man, that you would intervene on behalf of these two families, one that's mourning the loss of a son and the other who's praying desperately for their son.
00:04:33
Speaker
I pray for a school and a community, and quite frankly, Lord, I pray for our nation. It seems like we have lost our moral compass long ago, Father, and now we are seeing just in every segment of our society, it is not too late.
00:04:49
Speaker
It is not too late. As long as there is God, as long as there is day, there is an opportunity for us to reach and to spread the light of the kingdom to other places. So I pray that this morning as we dive into your word that it comes alive in us and then in turn we go and take it to a world that's dead that needs this life. I pray, Father, that what we say and do in this place will bring you honor and put a smile on your face. But Lord, I pray that it would challenge us to go out and be different.
00:05:20
Speaker
radically different. It's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Exploration of Acts Chapter Two
00:05:25
Speaker
So as we get in Acts chapter 2 this morning, we're going to be talking about what is probably the most significant event in the history of the church. It is the very beginning of the New Testament church, but before we dive in, I need to ask you to do something. Set aside all your preconceived ideas about the Holy Spirit.
00:05:43
Speaker
Now, some of you come in here with a really good understanding of what the Holy Spirit is and what his role is in our relationship with God, and that's good.
00:05:50
Speaker
But there are, because of the diversity of backgrounds in here, there are some of you who come out of very strict religious traditions where the mention of the Holy Spirit scares you to death. You're very afraid of that. You're afraid of what's going to happen. Then there's others of you who have been at the other extreme, and you've been a part of what I would call very kindly the excesses of the Holy Spirit, where people have unbiblically held out standards of
00:06:14
Speaker
Holy Spirit movement and those kinds of things and saying you've got to do this in order to prove that you're whatever and I just I want to bring us back to reality I want to bring us back to not only the arrival of the Holy Spirit but the purpose of the Holy Spirit in our lives now I
00:06:30
Speaker
There's two things that may be happening here for you today if you fall into the category where you go. I don't even know what you're talking about with the Holy Spirit, or I've never really experienced something like the Holy Spirit. One of two things may be going on, either A, you don't have a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ. Because as you're gonna find out here, the whole teaching of this morning is that the gift of the Holy Spirit is given at the moment of salvation for all of us.
00:06:57
Speaker
There's no exception to that. If you have a relationship with Jesus Christ, you believe that in your head, then you will know that because of the presence of the Holy Spirit in your heart and the indications that are given by that. The other thing that might be happening is you might have a genuine relationship with God, but you've done everything you can to suppress that Holy Spirit because you are indeed afraid of what it might ask or what it might take you or what it might ask you to do, those kinds of things.
00:07:21
Speaker
So let's set aside our preconceived ideas a little
Pentecost and the Holy Spirit
00:07:24
Speaker
bit. Let's take a look at this story, what it means for us, why it was so important and critical to the nature of the church, and what it means for us as a 21st century New Testament church and we follow Jesus Christ.
00:07:36
Speaker
Acts chapter 2 beginning with verse 1, it says, when the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. Now, they as, of course, the apostles, they were sent by Jesus back to Jerusalem to stay together until the arrival of the Holy Spirit, the gift of the Holy Spirit. The day of Pentecost that is referenced here is one of three religious holidays that God put into place for the Jewish people
00:07:59
Speaker
where they were required to pack up their family, take them to Jerusalem to be at the temple. This specific holiday was meant for the purposes of celebrating the giving of the law to Moses on Mount Sinai to the Hebrew people. So they are there in Jerusalem, literally from all over the known world at that point, coming in to represent the Jewish tradition. They're there to celebrate what God has done with the covenant of Moses' law that was established to his people.
00:08:26
Speaker
Verse 2, suddenly a sound like that of a violent rushing wind came from heaven and it filled the whole house where they were staying. They saw tongues like flames of fire that separated and rested on each one of them. Then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
00:08:46
Speaker
So God had promised to pour out his Holy Spirit. This was not a new thing. You can track it all the way back to the Old Testament when Joel the prophet wrote these words. After this, I will pour out my spirit on who?
00:08:59
Speaker
All humanity, and just so you're understanding who all humanity is, Joel is kind enough to say, then your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will have dreams, your young men will see visions. I will even pour out my spirit on the male and female slaves in those days. So he goes into great detail to say what was considered at that point the lowest of society, the slaves, that everybody is going to have access to this promised Holy Spirit.
00:09:26
Speaker
If you go back and look at the things that happened in that room that day, it's pretty cool. The first thing it says they did, it says they sound like a violent rushing wind came from heaven. If you have been doing your Greek word studies at home, which I know you haven't, that's a joke.
00:09:44
Speaker
You will go back and you will know that in the New Testament the word most often used to refer to the Holy Spirit is the word pneuma. That word pneuma in the original Greek means a blowing of breath or a blowing of wind to move something. Here Jesus says that you're going to have a Holy Spirit. He's going to show up and it first presents itself as a violent blowing of the wind.
00:10:10
Speaker
It was like God was saying, I told you it was gonna come. You thought it was gonna be a trickle, but the dam is broke and it's here and he is here in power. So this violent rushing wind appears and then the second thing he says is that tongues of fire came on their head. It is a very common thing in the Bible for God to be referenced as fire. You can go all the way back to Genesis 12.
00:10:33
Speaker
counter between Abraham and God when he first establishes the covenant with him. If you remember the story, God cut a covenant. That's what it was called in the Old Testament. He cut a covenant with Abraham. They cut the animals in half. And in normal covenants, what would happen is that both parties would walk through the animals symbolizing that if I don't keep my part of the covenant, then let what happened to these animals happen to me. So there was this tremendous commitment to making sure the covenant happened.
00:11:02
Speaker
But in that particular instance, God was the only one to walk through the covenant because he was saying to Abraham, you aren't gonna be the one that keeps this covenant, I will do it myself. But if you remember that story, he didn't just walk through the covenant, it was a flame of fire that went through the covenant. Then you fast forward to Leviticus, the presence of God showing up in the early tabernacle was represented by a flame that appeared and was so bright and intense that they could not even worship.
00:11:32
Speaker
the Shekinah of glory of God, which was the spirit of God descending on the tabernacle represented by fire. The representation of fire, God as fire, is because fire is a purifying agent.
00:11:45
Speaker
It's a powerful agent that drives out impurities. And so the presence of God as a fire was a very common thing in scripture. The third thing it says happened that day in that room was that they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. We're gonna come back and talk about that specifically later. And they began to speak in different tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now, the speaking of tongues is probably one of the most controversial gifts there is in all of today.
00:12:09
Speaker
today's church, okay? Some people disagree about what it means or how it's used, those kinds of things. Questions are asked about is it actually a gift of speaking or is it a gift of hearing? Let me just tell you this, the two most common beliefs is that there is a speaking of tongues that represents the speaking of man-made languages, okay?
00:12:32
Speaker
speaking German or French or Spanish or Hispanic or whatever. The other one is that it is an unknown kind of prayer language that is uttered by people. And I'm here to tell you that the Bible references both. Okay, so what's the difference? Well, let me talk about the latter one first. The private prayer language is something that people experience in their own personal prayer time.
00:12:54
Speaker
When they are unable to come up with words, they are so overcome by the Spirit that the Spirit utters for them the things that need to be said. The Bible talks about this, that in your private prayer closet you become overwhelmed by the Spirit. I'm going to venture to guess that most of us in this room have never experienced that, okay? That's kind of an indictment of all of us.
00:13:18
Speaker
Because what that means is that probably we have never been so submissive to the presence of the Spirit that he overcame with us with that kind of authority and power in our lives.
00:13:28
Speaker
Now, that does not mean go home and try to conjure that up. It doesn't mean go home and try to manufacture. That's a very dangerous thing to do. It's just something to be aware of that as you and I have the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we should be daily moving more and more to a place of submission so that the Spirit does have that power in our lives. The first one that we talked about
00:13:51
Speaker
is obviously the man-made languages. That's what's happening here in this story. It's going to tell us that all these different people from different places of the earth came, and they were able to hear their own native tongue. And that's an amazing thing. Both of them, regardless of which kind it is, uses a word, a Greek word is glossolalia.
00:14:10
Speaker
which is a fancy way of just saying multiple tongues, okay? So just be aware of that. There's different kinds, but this one specifically is a reference to the ability of people to speak and to speak a language that is not native to them. So Acts chapter 2 verse 5, it says, they were Jews staying in Jerusalem, devout people from every nation under heaven. So they literally have come from all over the world to be a part of this Jewish holiday.
00:14:36
Speaker
When this sound occurred, a crowd came together and was confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language. They were astounded and amazed saying, look, aren't these all who are speaking Galileans? Now, we would not understand the tone of this being 21st century Americans, but that question is, wait a minute, these aren't the brightest people in the world. How are they speaking these languages? Because Galileans were not considered to be highly educated people.
00:15:02
Speaker
So they're acknowledging something incredibly powerful is going on here and it's not just because they're smart and intelligent and educated folks.
The Role of the Holy Spirit in Believers
00:15:10
Speaker
Verse eight, it says, how is it that each of us can hear them in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, those who live in Mesopotamia, in Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts, Cretans and Arabs, we hear them declaring the magnificent acts of God in our own tongues.
00:15:37
Speaker
They were all astounded and perplexed, saying to one another, what does this mean?
00:15:43
Speaker
But some sneered and said, they're drunk on new wine. Peter stood up with the 11, raised his voice and proclaimed to them, fellow Jews and all you residents of Jerusalem, let this be known to you and pay attention to my words. For these people are not drunk as you suppose, since it's only nine in the morning. So immediately what happens is this incredible feat is going on and they're speaking these different tongues. The first assumption of everybody around them is, oh, they're a bunch of drunks.
00:16:09
Speaker
They've had a little bit too much of the partying wine from the holiday. They've got a hangover. They're still carrying on, whatever. And Peter is quick to stand up and discredit this to make sure that the right credit is given to the right thing, the right person here, okay? So these people are being used by the Holy Spirit to speak to people from all over the world.
00:16:33
Speaker
This is a great example, Pentecost is, of how religious people are the first people to squelch the Holy Spirit. You ever been in a church, been in an experience, a camp meeting, a revival, maybe just a prayer time together and the Holy Spirit begins to move and immediately it's the religious people who want to put a clamp down on it because the Spirit of God is moving outside of the framework of their understanding.
00:16:57
Speaker
And so instantly their first instinct is, okay, let's kind of put God back in his box because when he gets outside of his box, it's a little scary. So let this be a reminder to you along with many other instances through Jesus's life, when he starts operating the way he wants to operate, it's better to step back and let him go, to let him do what he needs to do, to operate the way he needs to operate and quit trying to restrain God to a box that we think fits our religious practices.
00:17:26
Speaker
The Spirit of God is going to call you to uncomfortable places. He's going to call you to get out of your comfort zone. He's going to call you to be stretched in different ways in your faith. And when he begins to do that, the last thing you want to say is, I can't do that. That's not the way I operate. That's exactly what was going on in this situation here.
00:17:46
Speaker
These people were saying, hey, wait, we're not comfortable with this, so let's find some man-made reason, some man-made explanation for what the Holy Spirit is doing here. But what was really going on was this radical invitation for all those who were present to be invited into the kingdom of God and to experience what was about to happen as the Holy Spirit was turned loose in this place.
00:18:08
Speaker
The Holy Spirit was indwelling each of the followers of Christ with His presence. And when it did, it sealed their hearts with the promise of God's love for them and the promise of the future that He's planned for them. Now, the reason that's important for you and I is because that's exactly what happens at the moment that you accept Christ as your Savior and Lord. Ephesians tells us, according to Paul's writing, that the Holy Spirit comes and puts His seal of approval on us. So what does that mean for us in practice?
00:18:38
Speaker
When you accept Christ and follow Christ as your Savior and Lord, the Holy Spirit comes in to dwell in you. Remember John 14 through 16, Jesus affirmed that this Holy Spirit would come, that He would arrive and He would come in power on all those who follow Him. Why is that important for you? Well, Jesus said it's important that I go away so that the Holy Spirit can come.
00:19:02
Speaker
The reason that's important is because Jesus, being God in flesh, was confined into being one person at one place wherever he was. With him getting out of the way, the Holy Spirit now comes and is then able to indwell every believer regardless where they are or where they go. This is a powerful thing because now the temple of God is no longer in one place. Where's the temple? Wherever you go.
00:19:27
Speaker
Paul would later write about this and he would say, don't you know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit? Guys, as you sit here today, you are not coming to a church, you are the church. You are the church and dwelt by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, this is where it's gonna get really, really uncomfortable. Get ready for this, okay? If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, if you have the Holy Spirit in you, as the Bible tells us, you do not have permission to sit and soak in Jesus. You are giving Jesus so you can go give him away.
00:19:59
Speaker
I knew I wouldn't get an amen there. I just knew it. Why? Because there's many of you right here today who are going, you know, I'm just not comfortable. I don't know that I have any gifts or talents to give. So literally what you're saying is that the Bible's lying to you. Knew I wouldn't get any amens there either.
00:20:18
Speaker
because the Bible says that when the Spirit comes to indwell in us, he does numerous things. He's a counselor, he's a guide, he's a comforter. He gives us direction, he works on sanctifying us, but one of the things he very clearly does for every Christ follower is he gives you gifts that are being used to be building up the Holy Spirit, I mean, building up the Holy Church of God wherever it is, wherever your feet take you. If you're not serving the body,
00:20:47
Speaker
then you're a disobedient follower of Christ. Knew I wasn't getting Amiens there either. Good thing I'm not living for those today. You see, the problem is it's real easy for us to point our finger at other people and go, but they're so much more gifted than I am.
00:21:05
Speaker
or for us to get selfish and go, I wanna have that gift, not the one he gave me. I wanna get up and I wanna be able to speak like Pastor Ridley does. I wanna get up and I wanna be able to sing like Jayden does. I wanna be able to do certain things that other people do, which again, says to God, you don't know what you're doing. You don't understand what I desire. Let me remind you that submission to Jesus Christ says he's in charge, not you.
00:21:35
Speaker
He's in charge. And so he knows better the gifts you need, the skills you need, the talents you need in order to serve the body the way he needs you to serve it. So if you're gonna follow Jesus, if you're gonna let the Holy Spirit work in your life, it starts every single day by going, spirit, what do you wanna do inside of me? How do you wanna use who I am or what you've created me to be so that I can give you glory?
00:22:05
Speaker
One of the perfect examples of this though where we abuse and misunderstand this is this idea of evangelism.
00:22:12
Speaker
Many times we have these conversations who go, have you had a conversation with anybody about Jesus lately? I don't have the gift of evangelism. The gift of evangelism is a real thing. The Bible lists it as one of the spiritual gifts. The gift of evangelism is that it's second nature for you just to talk about Jesus with people. You don't have a problem with it. You can take a gas tank and fill it up with gas and look at somebody and go, let me tell you how this is exactly like Jesus Christ. I mean, you can turn every opportunity into an opportunity to share Jesus with people.
00:22:43
Speaker
but that does not excuse any of us from being evangelists. Because Acts chapter one verse eight, Jesus very clearly says to the entire body, you will be my witnesses. In Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth, you can look at Jesus and say, I don't have the gift of evangelism.
Inclusivity of the Gospel
00:23:01
Speaker
You cannot look at Jesus and say, I can't be an evangelist.
00:23:06
Speaker
Same thing's true with so many other things in our lives. Guys, you may not have the gift of being beautiful musically and vocally, but it does not excuse you from not singing to worship God. Look, I got some amen's on that one.
00:23:24
Speaker
So understand the work of the Holy Spirit, what he's doing. Notice also here who Peter begins to preach this sermon to. We're fixing to dive into the sermon a little bit. This is one of the first of many sermons that will be preached in the book of Acts, the first one of Peter's sermons. It specifically is addressed to outsiders.
00:23:46
Speaker
the people who don't belong according to the Jewish religious tradition. Verse nine through 11, he goes through and he names all these different places, the Parthians, the Medes, the Ilamites. He gets down to the Cretans and the Arabians. So basically this is a who's whose list of who doesn't belong to Judaism. And Peter addresses them and speaks to them because he is saying the good news belongs to the world, not just to the Jews.
00:24:14
Speaker
The good news is being offered in these different languages so that different nations will have the opportunity to hear. He's telling them this isn't just a Jewish thing anymore, it is a worldwide opportunity for the gospel to go forward.
00:24:28
Speaker
And this really isn't a surprise because if you go all the way back to Genesis 12 again, the promise that God made in the covenant to Abraham is that you will be a blessing to all the nations of the world. It's always been part of God's plan that Gentiles, you and I would be a part of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was always been a plan that Jesus would send out his message and his messengers to the ends of the earth. This is no surprise to Jesus. It was always what he was up to.
00:24:56
Speaker
Note especially that he talks about the Cretans and the Arabians here.
00:25:00
Speaker
Why do I single out those two? Well, there was no love lost between the Jews of Jerusalem and the Arabian Jews. They were considered basically second-class Jews because of where they lived. But the Cretans especially, later on, Paul would address them in the book of Titus chapter one, verse 12, where he would say, I'm gonna give you a quote from one of your own people. This is one of their own Cretan prophets. And he would describe his people this way, literally, we are all liars, evil beasts and lazy gluttons.
00:25:29
Speaker
How's that for a promotional campaign? He says, that's our culture, that's who we are. And what Peter is preaching, what Paul was writing is that even the lowest of society in our eyes matter to God. And we should be willing to go and take this gospel wherever he compels us to go. Think about what Jesus was most despised for when he was here on the earth.
00:25:54
Speaker
The Pharisees and Sadducees were going crazy out of their mind because Jesus would hang out with people like that. Jesus hung out with guys like Matthew, a tax collector who was basically considered to be a betrayer of his own people. Jesus spent a hot afternoon in the Middle East sitting by a well with a woman who had been married five times and was living with a sixth man just to make ends meet.
00:26:20
Speaker
Jesus knelt and used his finger in the dust in the presence of a woman who had been caught in adultery. And the message in every single one of those instances is your past is not what matters to me, it's your future. I receive you by grace, I receive you with my mercy and my forgiveness, and if you will accept what I'm about to offer you, your future will be promising and bright because I will guarantee my presence with you.
00:26:47
Speaker
Jesus never endorsed sin, but he always welcomed sinners. He was always very quick to say to them, go and sin no more. So the beauty of the story is that the Holy Spirit was coming to indwell believers like you and I so that now the temple, the presence of the Holy Spirit goes wherever you and I go.
00:27:10
Speaker
wherever you and I go. If you're looking for a place to serve, if you're looking for an opportunity for ministry, if you're trying to figure out how you use your gifts for God's kingdom, start wherever your feet are. Look for wherever God has taken you. Look for the people that God has put in your sphere of influence and use that for his glory.
00:27:29
Speaker
Another amazing thing is this reality. The spirit that came that day and indwelt those people is the same spirit that indwells you and I, and that spirit now comes to stay in the believer. If you go back to the Old Testament, the spirit would come and go from people from different times and empower them for certain situations, but today you and I are guaranteed the presence of the Holy Spirit in our interactions with Christ and our interactions with other people. So.
00:27:57
Speaker
What was God using this spirit of signs, the sign of tongues? What was the point of what he was trying to say in that point, that season, that day? The obvious point is that the gospel's for the nations, for the Messiah people of Malaysia, for these other unreached people groups that we have talked about, for the neighbor that lives on your street that gets on everybody's nerves because he never cuts his grass.
00:28:25
Speaker
For the lady at the grocery store that cut you off and took your space at the parking lot. For the coworker who gets on everybody's last nerve. For that old friend of yours from high school who jumps on every Facebook post you make to make a negative comment to you. All of them belong to Jesus. All of them. And our job is to issue an invitation for them to receive what he has done for them by dying on the cross
00:28:55
Speaker
As followers of Jesus, we offer salvation to all people. Our savior died to win the whole world. Not just Chapel Hill, not just your close circle of friends, not just the Democrats or the Republicans, not just the people who act like you, vote like you, eat like you, drink like you, dress like you. Pentecost was a little foretaste of what was gonna happen in Revelation 7-9 when John wrote these words.
00:29:23
Speaker
After this I looked and there was a vast multitude from every nation, every tribe, every people and language which no one could number standing before the throne. Every nation, every tribe, every people, every high school, every college, wherever you go, whatever you do,
00:29:51
Speaker
Every political ideology, all are invited to the kingdom of God. And it's our job to share that message with them.
Fulfillment of Prophecy and Personal Faith
00:30:00
Speaker
So what did Pentecost mean for us? Number one, Pentecost was another fulfillment of prophecy, was spoken of by the prophet Joel. Peter references that and he says, this is another affirmation that God has always been working and he always is working and he will guarantee that things come to fruition because Joel prophesied this thousands of years before and here we are seeing it come true right before our eyes.
00:30:24
Speaker
But Pentecost also means it's the dawn of the last days. When you hear that phrase in scripture, the last days does not mean that Jesus is coming back next week because none of us know the answer to that question, right? When he says the last days, what he's referencing is the time between Jesus' ascension and Jesus' second coming. We are living in the last days. Thirdly, Pentecost means we all have an invitation to know God personally, and isn't that good news?
00:30:54
Speaker
We all have an invitation to know God personally. That's an amazing thought to think about the creator of the universe desiring a one-on-one with you and I. My less flattering moments when my rebellious spirit rises up, I have to stand back and be amazed at the fact that God wants anything at all to do with me.
00:31:19
Speaker
those less proud moments where I think to myself, man, if my congregation knew what I was thinking or heard what I was saying, if my congregation knew the way I just acted, but you know what? God does know. And the amazing truth of the gospel is that He loves me anyway. And He loves you this morning regardless of what your situation is. He loves you where you are so that He can bring you closer to who He wants you to be. Number four,
00:31:48
Speaker
Pentecost was the beginning of our assignment to fulfill the Great Commission. Again, Acts 1.8, Jesus says, you will be my witnesses. But he was very close, careful to say, you will receive power, and that power is this arrival of the Holy Spirit. He's the one that gives us the ability to carry out this mission. Number five, Pentecost means Jesus has taken his place on the throne, amen? You know what that means?
00:32:16
Speaker
There's not one atom, not one cell, not one molecule of this universe that's not under his authority. Everything about God, everything about Jesus is sovereign.
00:32:31
Speaker
his character, sovereign, his will, sovereign, his desire, sovereign. In verse 32 of the sermon here that Peter preaches, he says this, God has raised this Jesus. We are all witnesses of this. Therefore, since he has been exalted to the right hand of God and is received from the Father, the promised Holy Spirit, he has poured out what you both see and hear. And in verse 36 he says, therefore, that all the house of Israel know with certainty that God made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Messiah.
00:33:02
Speaker
So I wanna take a second and I just wanna break this down for you really quick, the sermon that Peter preached for two reasons. Number one, when I am done with this, you will know the plan of salvation and for any of you who've never had the opportunity to hear it, you will be responsible for what you're about to hear.
The Resurrection and Its Implications
00:33:20
Speaker
You will have no excuse, the gospel will have been presented to you and you will have to decide, you will have to take responsibility with what you do with this gospel.
00:33:29
Speaker
The second reason, and probably more prominently here, is that for those of you who are followers of Jesus Christ, you will no longer have the ability to walk up to your pastor and go, I don't know what to say in a gospel conversation. I'm taking that excuse away from you. I want you to know, I want you to have the comfort level that regardless of whether it's a friend, a family member, or a complete stranger, you will have the ability to break down the gospel and the gospel plans so that you can talk to people about what Jesus has done for them.
00:34:00
Speaker
So the first thing Peter talks about is he talks about the man, the man being Jesus Christ. Second, chapter of Acts, verse 22, it says, fella Israelites, listen to these words, this Jesus of Nazareth was a man attested to you by God with miracles, wonders, and signs that God did amongst you through him, just as you yourselves know. He's saying, you saw this guy. He's been walking amongst you for three years. You were there.
00:34:30
Speaker
You watched him be tried, you watched him be crucified, you watched his resurrection. You know who we're talking about. At his first coming, Jesus came to give a demonstration of what would happen in his second coming. He came to give kind of a revelation of what the kingdom of God was gonna look like. In case you missed it, this is what the kingdom of God means. There'll be no more illness. You see, when Jesus spoke to those who were sick, their sicknesses left them.
00:34:59
Speaker
Lame men began to walk, blind men began to see, those who were deaf were given the ability to hear. And oh, by the way, if he showed up at your funeral, your funeral was over. He spoke life to dead people and he emptied out graves. And one day, one day when he returns, every grave will be empty. Also means there are no demons.
00:35:24
Speaker
The demons fled from Jesus. They were afraid of Jesus. People speak His name. They flee. They recognize the authority and the power that the Son of God has. There'll be no more fear. No more fear. Regardless of what your fear is based in here, that's gonna be removed so that you no longer have to deal with that. And there will be ultimately, finally, no more death.
00:35:47
Speaker
No more death because death has finally been conquered by Jesus Christ himself. Jesus will reverse the curse. Secondly, the plan. You see, this has been part of God's plan all along.
00:36:01
Speaker
All along from the very beginning of time when God first breathed life into Adam, he knew there would come a day when his son would have to be offered as a sacrifice, that his son would be put to death and that his son would empty out a tomb. It did not happen one second sooner than or later than God anticipated. On the time that God had appointed for Jesus to be resurrected, a stone started to roll away from the tomb.
00:36:26
Speaker
That's how good and great God's plan is for humanity. It has been planned out from the very beginning. That is the sovereignty of God. If you were here last week, we talked about that. God's plan has a sovereignty to it that cannot be undone regardless of what you do. But he also speaks to the responsibility of mankind. Look at verse 23.
00:36:51
Speaker
Peter, as he's preaching to those men, says, though he was delivered up according to God's determined plan in foreknowledge, you used lossless people to nail him to cross and kill him. This speaks to this dynamic. God had a sovereign plan, but you have a responsibility. You have a responsibility. When you are made aware of God's plan, you have an option to choose or to reject what God wants to do in your life.
00:37:20
Speaker
That's ultimately expressed in your salvation, but it's also expressed day by day in your obedience to follow God the rest of your life. Every single day of your life, it should begin with the opportunity for you to invite the Holy Spirit to tell you what God wants to do in your life that day. Thirdly, Peter talks about the resurrection. The resurrection. He tells how amazing God is and this amazing thing that God has done by raising his son from the dead.
00:37:50
Speaker
Death could not hold him. I love this quote from Lutheran minister George Bertram. The abyss can no more hold the redeemer than a pregnant woman can hold a child in her body. I thought that was pretty cool. If you think about it, those of you who have experienced the beauty of a newborn child, when it's time to go, it's time to go. There are no pause buttons. There is no time out.
00:38:18
Speaker
When she grabs you by the arm, gentlemen, and says, it's time, you move. That's the way the universe responds to the commands of God. Lastly, he talks about the witnesses. There is no more historically documented event in all of human history than the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And the irony is that mankind has been spending 2000 years to discredit it.
00:38:42
Speaker
There is more evidence that Jesus lived than evidence that Aristotle, Socrates, or Plato lived. And
Nature of God and Invitation to Faith Adventure
00:38:48
Speaker
yet we quote them constantly and consistently like they are God themselves. There's more evidence that Jesus was resurrected from the dead than any scholar wants to give credit. The credit they have to give because it cannot be undone. At the time that Peter is speaking these words, there are over 500 different people who had walked with him, who had seen him, and who had seen him after he was resurrected.
00:39:11
Speaker
Not one of them stood up at this point to say this is all a lie or this is all a joke. Few people have illustrated the majesty of Jesus better than C.S. Lewis. In his book, The Chronicles of Narnia, he captures the incredible story and reality of what Christ has done for his kingdom. There's one point where Lucy, one of the children who is visiting Narnia, is in a conversation with Mr. and Mrs. Beaver
00:39:39
Speaker
Mr. and Mrs. Beaver are just two parts of the kingdom of Narnia. And they're talking specifically about Aslan. Aslan is a representative of Christ, a lion, who represents his character and his nature. If you've never read the book, at least watch the movie, it's worthwhile. In that interaction, Lucy looks at Mr. and Mrs. Beaver and she says, is he a man?
00:40:04
Speaker
Aslan, a man, said Mr. Beaver, sternly. Certainly not. I tell you, he's the king of the wood and the son of the great emperor beyond the sea. Don't you know who is king of the beast? Aslan is a lion, the lion, the great lion. Ooh, said Susan, I thought he was a man. Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.
00:40:29
Speaker
That you will, dearie, and make no mistake, said Mrs. Beaver. If there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly. Then he isn't safe, said Lucy. Safe, said Mr. Beaver. Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver is telling you? Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn't safe, but he's good. He's the king, I tell you.
00:41:00
Speaker
This is the God we're invited to engage. If you think you have a relationship with God that's called you to a comfortable life, you've embraced religion, and religion will kill you. Religion will strangle you. Religion will lull you to sleep believing you've got it figured out. And as Matthew tells us, when Jesus is telling his sermon on the Mount,
00:41:29
Speaker
Many of us will arrive at heaven with religion in our hands and Jesus will look at us and say, depart from me because I did not know you. Instead, what Christ has invited us to is the greatest adventure the world has ever seen.
00:41:47
Speaker
It is a moment by moment, day by day experience where you lean in on the power of the Holy Spirit and invite him to guide your life in ways you would never undertake on your own. To be his servants, to be his witnesses, to carry the life changing message of the gospel to a world that needs to know it. He's not safe at all. That's not what he invites us to.
00:42:19
Speaker
If your primary concern today is your comfort, I invite you to pray what really does Jesus want for you? Because he didn't die to make you more comfortable. He didn't die to make you feel better about yourself. He didn't die so that you could just have a better here and now. He died because you're a sinner and you need grace. He died because without him, you don't have hope.
00:42:48
Speaker
He died because eternity awaits all of us, but only heaven awaits for those who know him. So my heart, my prayer for you today, make sure you have a relationship with the Jesus Christ. Make sure that you are not embracing religious practice or tradition and counting on that to carry you through this life into eternity. And for the rest of us, don't be lulled to sleep.
00:43:19
Speaker
He didn't come to make you safe. He came to make you roar like a lion. Will you pray with me? Father, I pray this morning that our hearts are attuned to you, that we are aware of your presence, that you are invited in to do exactly what you need to do for each and every one of us. Help us to submit.
00:43:48
Speaker
That's a scary word for some of us because we know that you're gonna invite us into dangerous places. You're gonna invite us into places where we aren't comfortable and where our desires are not the biggest concern. But Lord, if we're gonna be the kind of church you desire us to be, we gotta quit being afraid of your spirit. We gotta quit trying to control
00:44:20
Speaker
your power in our lives. We gotta quit trying to make you work according to our path, our framework of thinking. So this morning, Father, I pray that our hearts become truly wide open and available to what you wanna do so that we may experience the full power of the Holy Spirit in our lives and that we may be successful in living out this great commission you've given us.
00:44:50
Speaker
It's in Jesus' name I pray, amen. This morning, if the Lord's speaking to your heart, come make this altar a place where you can pray with your family or pray with one of our counselors. If you don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ and you're saying, hey, I'm not sure how that looks or what that looks like, what I'm supposed to do, come talk to one of us. Let us talk through that with you and answer some questions for you.
00:45:14
Speaker
Or maybe today you just realized for the first time that your relationship with Jesus is you trying to control him instead of him controlling you. You responded as a spirit speaking to you this morning.