The Requirements of Pentecostal Power
Text: Acts 2:1-13
Introduction
1. Illustration: The Good Life: Recent Roper ASW research reports that 89% of Americans consider owning a home necessary to having a good life. The next top requirement is good health (87%) followed by a happy marriage (81%). 52% say a second car is essential to a good life, up from 43% in ’99. 48% claim a vacation home is necessary while 47% consider overseas travel integral to a full life. (Gazette 7/26/03)
2. One of the main requirements for living a victorious Christian life is walking in the power of the Holy Spirit.
3. However, walking in Pentecostal Power has certain requirements.
a. It requires obedience.
b. It requires openness
c. It requires vulnerability
4. Read Acts 2:1-13
Proposition: Walking in Pentecostal Power requires a life totally surrendered to the Holy Spirit.
Transition: First...
I. Pentecostal Power Requires Obedience (1)
A. Together In One Place
1. Our text begins with the phrase "On the day of Pentecost..." In order to fully understand what happened on that first Pentecost, we must understand two important things about that day.
a. What Pentecost was.
b. What Pentecost is.
2. First, let us consider what Pentecost was.
a. The word Pentecost means “50.”
b. Held 50 days after Passover, Pentecost was also called the Feast of Weeks.
c. It was one of three major annual feast, a festival of thanksgiving for the harvested crops.
d. Deuteronomy 16:16 (NLT)
“Each year every man in Israel must celebrate these three festivals: the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Harvest, and the Festival of Shelters. On each of these occasions, all men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he chooses, but they must not appear before the Lord without a gift for him.
e. All Jews were required to come to Jerusalem to celebrate this festival, a fact that will play great significance in the events to come.
3. Second, let’s consider what Pentecost is.
a. On this particular Pentecost, God fulfilled a promise that He had made many years earlier.
b. Up until this time, God was very selective as to whom He placed His Spirit on. Usually, He placed His Spirit only upon major leaders like Kings, Prophets, and Priests.
c. However, the Prophet Joel had declared Joel 2:28-29 (NLT)
“Then, after doing all those things, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions.
In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on servants—men and women alike.
d. Through Joel, the Lord promised that He would no longer be selective. He would give His Spirit to anyone who asks.
4. Luke tells us that on this day, "...all the believers were meeting together in one place."
a. The fact that they were all together is an act of obedience.
b. Luke 24:49 (NLT)
“And now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promised. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven.”
c. Jesus knew that they were not yet ready to do what He wanted them to do. They would need the power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish their mission.
d. Therefore, He told them to wait, and they did what He commanded them to do.
5. Now look at the results of their obedience.
a. It created unity. The word translated “together” (Gr homothymadon), meaning likemindedness, occurs twelve times in the New Testament, eleven of which are found in the book of Acts. Their physical togetherness created a spiritual togetherness.
b. It created tremendous effect. The impact of what happened to them on those who witnessed it would not have been as effective if only a few of them were present.
c. It created blessing. The Bible is clear that obedience brings blessing. What would have happened if they had disobeyed the Lord? Thank God we will never know.
B. Obedience
1. Illustration: Finney noted this about obedience and sacrifice, “Revival is nothing more or less than a new obedience to God!”
2. Obedience brings Pentecostal Power.
a. Obedience brings blessing - spiritual blessing.
b. Being filled with the Holy Spirit is not an option; for Christians it is a command.
c. Ephesians 5:18 (NLT)
Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit...
d. God did not give us this precious gift to ignore, but to equip us with His power.
3. Obedience brings Pentecostal Revival.
a. The baptism of the Holy Spirit creates in us a new hunger and passion for God.
b. It causes us to place pleasing God as our number one priority.
c. It gives us an increased passion for prayer.
d. It gives us an increased passion for the word.
e. It gives us an increased passion for evangelism.
4. Obedience brings Pentecostal Gifts.
a. 1 Corinthians 14:1 (NASB)
Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts...
b. Speaking in tongues is only the beginning. It is the initial proof of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. It is a wonderful gift, but it is not the only gift.
c. The Holy Spirit has many more gifts to give us, and we are commanded to seek after them.
d. To fail to do so is an insult to loving and gracious God.
Transition: Also...
II. Pentecostal Power Requires Openness (2-4)
A. As the Holy Spirit Gave Them
1. On this day, the Holy Spirit manifested or displayed His presence in several ways.
2. First, Luke tells us, "Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting."
a. In the OT, the Hebrew word for Spirit "ruach" means "breath or wind."
b. John 3:8 (NASB)
"The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit."
c. Notice that the sound came from heaven. There was no mistake that what was happening came from God.
d. Also, notice that the wind was a "roaring mighty wind."
e. Just as Jesus promised, the Holy Spirit came in power that day.
f. The sound of the wind indicated that God was going to do something powerful that day through His Holy Spirit (Horton, CBL: Acts, 41).
3. Luke tells us about a second way that the Holy Spirit displayed Himself was "what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them."
a. The tongues of fire portray the presence of God. Several times in the Old Testament God displayed Himself in the form of flames.
b. The Greek means a tongue that was cloven, that is, parting asunder. The idea is that a single tongue appeared and then began to split and divide itself, resting upon each of them.
c. Again this goes back to the idea that God would pour out His Spirit on all people.
d. The same Holy Spirit was poured out on all 120 people.
4. The third way that the Holy Spirit appeared that day was "everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other tongues, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability."
a. Suddenly, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit which was evidenced by them speaking in other tongues.
b. These were languages that they had never learned or studied.
c. It was the Holy Spirit that gave them this ability. They spoke, but not from their mind or thinking. It came from the Holy Spirit.
d. This is the one sign that was repeated.
e. However, they had to be open to the Holy Spirit was doing in their lives.
B. Openness to the Spirit
1. Illustration: A.W. Tozer writes in the Pursuit of God: "Why do some persons find God in a way that others do not? Why does God manifest His presence to some and let multitudes of others struggle along in the half-light of imperfect Christian experience? Of course the will of God is the same for all. He has no favorites within his household. All he has ever done for any of his children he will do for all his children. The difference lies not with God but with us." How open are we to trying something new, even if it takes a little effort on our parts. Our spiritual receptivity or our openness to God depends on who is in charge. The more God is in charge the more receptive we are to his voice and experiencing his presence.
2. We need to remain open to the Holy Spirit.
a. These believers received the baptism of the Holy Spirit because they were surrendered to His leading.
b. They were willing to allow Him to do new things in their life.
c. They were willing to allow Him to give them experiences that may have seemed strange to them at first.
d. They were willing to say "Holy Spirit I am yours."
3. Staying open to the Holy Spirit requires giving Him control.
a. Once we say "Lord, I will do anything for you accept...", we have limited the Holy Spirit in our lives.
b. Once we say, "Lord, I want the Holy Spirit, but I don’t want to speak in tongues," we have dictated to God what He is allowed to do in our lives.
c. Saying that is like saying, "Holy Spirit I really don’t trust you."
4. When we remain open to the Holy Spirit He can do amazing things through us.
a. He can empower us.
b. He can transform us.
c. He can use us.
Transition: We need to say "Holy Spirit I surrender myself to you."
III. Pentecost Requires Vulnerability (5-13)
A. The Crowd Ridiculed Them
1. One thing about the Holy Spirit is that He has great timing. Notice what Luke says about the timing of this Pentecostal outpouring, "At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem."
a. Again, this is one of the three festivals that Jews all over the world were required to come to Jerusalem.
b. In fact, since Pentecost and the Passover are only 50 days apart, many of them just stayed in Jerusalem.
c. The point is this, the city was filled with people from all over the world, and this outpouring would be witnessed by thousands of people.
2. So when this huge crowd heard the sound of the believers’ speaking in tongues, "everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers."
a. They were all confounded because they kept hearing these them speak in their own language.
b. "Own" is emphatic, indicating that it was the language they knew as a child.
c. They were not speaking merely in a variety of Galilean or Aramaic dialects but in a variety of entirely different languages.
3. They were completely dumbfounded. Notice what they said, “How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages!"
a. Galileans had difficulty pronouncing gutturals and had the habit of swallowing syllables when speaking; so they were looked down upon by the people of Jerusalem.
b. Therefore, since the disciples who were speaking were Galileans, it bewildered those who heard because the disciples could not by themselves have learned so many different languages (Expositor’s Bible Commentary, The, Pradis CD-ROM:Acts).
c. In other words, Galileans were the ancient version of Hebrew "Rednecks." How could these "Rednecks" have learned so many different languages?
4. What they heard them say in their own language was "the wonderful things God has done!”
a. "Wonderful things": a deed of importance and power (Louw & Nida: NT Greek-English Lexicon)
b. They were testifying to what God had done.
c. They understood the meaning of the words, but not the purpose.
d. They wanted to know "What can this mean?"
5. However, others were not quite as impressed. They simply said
“They’re just drunk, that’s all!”
a. Just imagine the ecstatic joy flooding their hearts for them to behave in a way to cause such a charge! Where is the infilling of such joy today?
b. These believers made themselves vulnerable for the joy of experiencing God in such a powerful new way.
c. They were willing to face ridicule and insult in exchange for more of God.
d. How about you?
B. Willingness to Be Vulnerable
1. Illustration: Vulnerability is believability and Christianity is believable when it is lived out by vulnerable Christians.
2. We must be willing to exchange vulnerability for transformation.
a. Early Pentecostals were willing to face ridicule and insult because they knew they had been changed by the power of God.
b. They were kicked out of every decent church of the time.
c. People thought they were crazy!
d. But they did not care because they knew God had done something in them and that was all that mattered.
3. We must be willing to exchange vulnerability for intimacy.
a. Are we willing to be vulnerable to be closer to God?
b. Are we willing to be vulnerable to experience the awesome presence of God?
c. Are you willing to be vulnerable to touch the very throne of God?
4. We must be willing to exchange vulnerability for power.
a. Are you willing to be vulnerable to know the power of God?
b. Are you willing to be vulnerable to be used mightily by God?
c. Are you willing to be vulnerable to be Christ’ witness?
5. 2 Corinthians 5:13 (NIV)
If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God...
Transition: Are you willing to be vulnerable for God?
Conclusion
1. Have you been obedient to God when He said "be filled with the Spirit"?
2. Have you been open to the Holy Spirit? Are you willing to give Him control?
3. Have been willing to be vulnerable? Or have you resisted the Holy Spirit because you’re afraid of what others may think?
