Dynamite Power

Dynamite Power

Acts 1:4-8

Good morning,

Channel 6 News in Knoxville reported that a box, believed to contain dynamite, was found at a recycling plant.

Channel 6 News reported, “The ATF agent on the scene spoke with them about the potential damage from dynamite.

Agent Jason Dobbs, a certified explosives specialist, explained that dynamite can be safe if stored and handled properly.

However, the dynamite found at the recycling facility was smoking, which raised concerns about what could happen if it exploded.”

? How could you stop the explosion that can occur with dynamite? What would you do to contain such power?

Please open your Bibles to Acts 1, as continue in that study.

Last week we learned that the Book of Acts is the history of the early church and its followers, and we were encouraged to catch the wave of following Christ, to be saved from our sins.

Today, we will learn what Jesus told the Disciples to do while they waited for the dynamite power they were promised.

I. Wait in Jerusalem.

Read Acts 1:4-5

Notice Jesus said, “to wait for the Promise of the Father, "which," He said, "you have heard from Me.”

When did Jesus talk to them about the Promise of the Father?

Just before Jesus experienced betrayal, the beating, and His crucifixion, He called His Disciples together and gave them some instructions. One of the things Jesus told His followers…

John 14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. NKJV

A few days after the Resurrection, Jesus told His Disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Holy Spirit and once they received the Holy Spirit, the New Testament church began.

Wait! Psalm 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God; NKJV

Boice said, “Be still and know that I am God’ is not advice to lead a contemplative life, however important that may be....

It means rather, ‘Lay down your arms. Surrender and acknowledge that I am the one and only victorious God.”

The Disciples were to wait because they had a coming promise and the thing Jesus told them to wait for was worth waiting for.

When Jesus told the Disciples to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit (the promise of the Father), He knew the Disciples could not do anything effective for the Kingdom until the Spirit came.

John 15:5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. NKJV

The promise of the Father was a Baptism of the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12:13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body — whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free — and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. NKJV

Baptized means to immerse, submerge, or overwhelm and there are three main Baptisms taught in the New Testament.

John’s Baptism of repentance, which became obsolete once Jesus was crucified, the Baptism of the Holy Spirit at salvation, and a Water Baptism, immediately after faith in Christ.

F.F. Bruce said, “John's baptism was a baptism of repentance, but as John's baptism pointed forward to Jesus; it became obsolete when Christ came.

1. Who receives the Baptism of the Holy Spirit?

1 Corinthians 12:13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized.

Who was Paul speaking to?

In 1 Corinthians 1:2 with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. NKJV

Paul wrote 1 Corinthians to the Christians at Corinth; to both carnal and sold-out Christians, Paul said, we were all baptized.

Paul did not say only those Christians who have reached maturity were baptized in the Spirit. He said that all have been baptized, and have all been made to drink into one Spirit

John Bechtle, “It's ironic that Christians have argued so much about the baptism of the Spirit when Paul used it as one of his main arguments to prove that we are all united in Christ!”

Paul also said in Ephesians 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling;

Ephesians 4:5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism;

Ephesians 4:6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. NKJV

After the beginning of the Church, there are now two types of baptism: a believer’s Water Baptism and a Spiritual Baptism.

A Believer’s (water) Baptism is for someone who has already placed their faith in the finished work of Christ to be saved.

In Acts 8, Phillip finds a man reading Isaiah and the two men come upon some water and the man asks Phillip what prevents him from being Baptized.