As The Spirit Leads Series

AS THE SPIRIT LEADS

Text: Acts 11:27-30

Introduction

1. Illustration: Some of you know, and for those of you who don’t, you’re about to learn something new about your pastor, in the summer of 1982 I went to Europe as a missionary. The night before I was about to leave, some of my friends from church threw a going away party for me. At the party a girl showed up that none of us knew or saw before. At the party she gave me a plaque that read, “Being filled and led by the Spirit may take you to places you never planned; but the will of God will never call you where the grace of God cannot keep you.” No one that I know of ever saw her again. I’m convinced to this day she was an angel bearing a message from heaven.

2. Any church or individual that wants to make a difference in the world needs to be willing to be led by the Holy Spirit. Doing so will lead you to places you never dreamed of, and some of them may be scary. However, the will of God, nor the Spirit of God, will never call you where the grace of God cannot keep you.

3. Read Acts 11:27-30

Transition: The first step to being led by the Spirit is…

I. Listening to the Spirit (27-28).

A. Predicted By the Spirit

1. Another new thing that Luke introduces us to in this chapter is spiritual gifts. So far, the only spiritual gift he’s really talked about was tongues, and then usually in reference to evidence of Spirit baptism.

2. But here he talks about a new gift, the gift of prophecy. In vv. 27-28 he says, “During this time some prophets traveled from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 One of them named Agabus stood up in one of the meetings and predicted by the Spirit that a great famine was coming upon the entire Roman world. (This was fulfilled during the reign of Claudius.)”

a. Although I believe tongues to be an important gift, it is one of many.

b. Another important gift if the gift of prophecy. In fact, Paul thought of it as more important than tongues.

c. In 1 Cor. 14:5 Paul says, “I wish you could all speak in tongues, but even more I wish you could all prophesy. For prophecy is greater than speaking in tongues, unless someone interprets what you are saying so that the whole church will be strengthened.”

d. Now, there are two different uses for the gift of prophecy, just like there are two different uses for a hammer (you can hammer nails in, or you can pull them out).

e. The first, and more frequent, use of this gift is to encourage and strengthen the church. In this use the Holy Spirit gives a specific message to the church where they are strengthened in their faith and encouraged to stand strong in the faith.

f. However, there is second, and less frequent, use of this gift is to predict the future through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

g. That’s exactly what is happening here, a prophet named Agabus stands up and prophesies that there would be a great famine.

h. Luke then gives us another side note; this prophesy came true during the reign of the emperor Claudius.

3. So, this raises the question, does the Holy Spirit still speak through people today through the gift of prophecy? The answer to that question is yes, he most certainly does!

a. Nowhere in the NT does it say that the gifts of the Spirit will cease before the second coming of Jesus.

b. While there are some churches that teach that the gifts of the Spirit were only for the apostles, and once the Bible was put into the form we know it today, the NT does not teach that the gifts will cease before Jesus returns to for his church.

c. The text that these churches use is 1 Cor. 13:10, which says, “But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.”

d. Now, if the time we are in now is perfect I beg to be excused.

e. It seems obvious to me that we still need the gifts and leading of the Holy Spirit in the church today.

f. If we look at the church today, we can clearly see that the gifts of the Spirit are still necessary. They are not yet useless.

g. We still need the Spirit to speak to us.

B. Listening to the Spirit’s Voice

1. “The Holy Spirit will never direct us to be prideful, arrogant, unforgiving, immoral, or slothful or full of fear. We step into these things because we are insensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit within us.” (Charles Stanley).