Handling Adversity Part 3
Scripture: John 14:16-18; Luke 24:46-49; Acts 1:8; 2:1-8
Introduction
This is part three of my series “Handling Adversity.” In the first two parts, I focused on how Jesus handled His adversity upon His last entry into Jerusalem and how the disciples handled theirs once Jesus was crucified. When preaching a sermon for Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday focusing on what happened before Jesus was crucified and what happened when He rose from the dead, we sometimes do not complete the story by asking “What happened next?” For the next two weeks, hopefully, I want to share with you what happened next because what happened after Jesus was resurrected coupled with His disciples accepting the fact He was alive forevermore plays vital role today in how we handled adversity. This message will examine Jesus promise for the Holy Spirit and what happened when He came and next week I will get into how the Holy Spirit helps us and operate through us. Let’s start with the counsel Jesus gave His disciples weeks before they entered Jerusalem as He was preparing them. Turn to St. John 14:16-18.
I. Jesus Promises To Send Us A Helper
As Jesus was teaching and comforting His disciples about what was ahead, He told them that even though He must leave them, He was also going to send them a helper. John 14:16-18 records the following: “I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”
In these verses Jesus was letting His disciples know that although He was leaving them, He would ask God the Father to send them another helper, the Holy Spirit. Notice that He used the term “another” when referring to what the Holy Spirit would be. Jesus saw Himself, and he was, as a helper for mankind. He came to open the door for us to reach God the Father. He came to “help” us get there. When He was leaving, He was sending another “Helper” to replace Him. In talking about the Holy Spirit, notice He says that the world would not know Him for He is the Spirit of truth, but the disciples would. He told them that they would know the Holy Spirit because He would abide with them and would be in them. So there are two functions the Holy Spirit would do, He would abide with them so that they would never be alone, but He would also abide in them and act as a guide and teacher. Jesus said in John 16:13-15 that the Holy Spirit will “…..guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.” It is important that we understand what happened after Jesus was resurrected from the grave. Before Jesus ascended into heaven, He told His disciples that He must go so that He could send the Holy Spirit back to assist His followers until then end of time. He said that the Holy Spirit will disclose to us those things that are of Christ and subsequently of God because everything that the Father has the Son has. This is a direct benefit of being a child of God. What God has He has made available to us through the Holy Spirit, but we must accept and understand Him. There are a lot of things happening within the Church that we are giving the Holy Spirit credit for when truthfully He is not involved in it. So understand that before Jesus left, He foretold to His disciples that after He left He would send another to help them. This was all said before He went to Jerusalem for the last time and was crucified and resurrected on the third day. So let move on to what He told His disciples after He was resurrected.
II. Wait For The Spirit
After Jesus rose from the dead, He appeared to His disciples. As He was preparing to leave them, Luke 24:46-49 records the following: “And He said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
As He was about to ascend into heaven, Jesus told His disciples to remain in the city until they had received the promise (the Holy Spirit) that He had promised them from the Father. The Holy Spirit was given to us to help us, especially during times of adversity. One of the best lies that Satan has sown in the Church is that we must beg, fast and pray in order to receive the Holy Spirit and that theory cannot be substantiated in the Scriptures. We have placed people in bondage because they think they do not have the Holy Spirit residing within them because they do not “speak in tongues” which is being taught in some Churches as the evidence of the Holy Spirit being present in someone’s life. Then we have those who professed to be walking in the power of the Spirit and “speak in tongues” often yet when you examine their lives closely, there is no evidence of any power and they are struggling with their faith more than those who do not speak in tongues. This teaching has caused more harm than some other teachings within the Church because people who do not speak in tongue feel that the Holy Spirit is abandoning them and they are not worthy. But let’s examine what the real purpose of the Holy Spirit is. He was given to the disciples second as a helper. Remember, He was first given to Christ, but I will touch more on that shortly. But for the disciples, He would lead them through the truth as they began the most important part of their ministry – taking the message of Christ out into the world. Because Jesus understood what they would face, He did not want them going out until they were filled with the power from God which came through the Holy Spirit. They did not have to ask for Him, they were told to wait because Jesus was going to send Him. So from the beginning we find that the Holy Spirit was a gift to us to enable us to accomplish what we would otherwise not be able to do. One more point before we go to the book of Acts. Remember when Jesus was anointed by the Spirit? Before Jesus started His ministry, He was baptized by John the Baptist. When He came up out of the water Matthew 3:16 records “After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him.” Jesus did not ask for this anointing, God did it because He knew that Jesus would need His power to accomplish what He had to do on earth. Can you imagine what could have happened when Jesus was tempted by Satan if He had not already been filled by the Holy Spirit? Jesus understood this and He chose to ensure that the same happened for His disciples and for each of us. So if you get nothing else from this message, understand that God has made the Holy Spirit available to all of us, whether you ever speak in tongues or not, He is with you and available for you. All you need to do is to yield your will to Him and the rest will take care of itself. If Jesus needed the Holy Spirit before He started His ministry and the disciples and others needed Him before they started theirs, does it not make sense that we too need the Holy Spirit active in our lives?
Now some of you are wondering if I am discounting what is recorded in Scripture about being filled with the Spirit of God with the evidence of speaking in tongues. No I am not. What I am telling you is that the Holy Spirit was given to all of us without there being a requirement that you speak in tongues, especially the way we do things today in Church. But I am getting ahead of myself. Let’s look closely at what happened with the disciples and my last statement may make more sense to you.
III. The Baptism of The Holy Spirit
Jesus told His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they had received power from on high. This power would come in the form of the Holy Spirit and after they had received the power, then they would be going forth to accomplish their ministries to the world. So let’s look at Acts 1:8. Jesus said this to the disciples pertaining to what they would receive and what they would do afterwards. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” Once they were baptized with the Holy Spirit, they would be able to go out into the world to begin their ministries. Again, the purpose of the Holy Spirit was to empower them so that they could do what God had called them to do. He would be their helper while at the same time leading them to the truth. After Jesus shared this with His disciples, He ascended into heaven. Let look at Acts chapter two when this promise was fulfilled – the day of Pentecost.
“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.” (Acts 2:1-4)
In these verses the first thing we note is that this happened on the day of Pentecost. The day of Pentecost was the 50th day after the Sabbath of Passover week, thus the first day of the week. It was also called the Feast of Weeks in Deuteronomy 16:10. On this day the disciples and others were all together in one place. And there came a sound like a mighty rushing wind and there appeared unto them tongues of fire that rested on them. Now here is where some people have misinterpreted what happened. When the tongues of fire rested on them, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit was giving them utterance. On the day of Pentecost when they spoke in tongues, the Holy Spirit was speaking through them. The language was unknown to those speaking, but not to those listening. It was not a heavenly “unheard of before” language; it was a language that the audience knew of their native tongue. The disciples were not in control of what was being said, the Spirit of God was in control. How could they speak in a language they never heard or new existed? Their speaking in other tongues was God’s way of reaching out to the masses with His message. Consider what was recorded in verses six through eight. “Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. They were amazed and astonished, saying, ‘Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born?”
When the disciples and the others in the room, including women, were speaking in tongues, they were speaking in another language that was known on the earth. They were speaking multiple languages – so everyone who was present and witnessed the event heard the message of God’s mighty deeds in a language they understood. As the crowd heard the message, they stood amazed wondering what it all meant. Do not miss what happened here for it is extremely important. Through the filling of the Holy Spirit, God used this event to reach out to everyone in the crowd to draw them back to Him. He spoke to all of them at once in a language each could understand so they knew He was talking to them. This was an amazing act of love. The language barrier is the greatest hindrance to the building of any relationship, and in this moment, God wanted to send a message that would not be forgotten. He wanted those present to know that He was in the building and what they were seeing was real. One more point about the 120 speaking in tongues. Remember the story of the tower of Babel from Genesis chapter eleven? In that story everyone spoke the same language and there was unity. Because they all understood one another, they could make decisions and act as one unit. One day, they decided that they would build a tower that would reach into heaven. When God looked down from heaven and saw what they were doing, He decided to slow them down. Genesis 11:6-7 records “The Lord said, ‘Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” Why did God confuse their speech? Because they were on one accord and could understand each other. Because they spoke the same language, He said that there was nothing that would be impossible for them to do if they decided to do it. This is important. You see, when people speak the same language and come into agreement, mighty things can happen. Our problem is that although we speak the same language, we do not come into agreement. What would happen in this Church if we all came into 100% agreement? There would be nothing that we could not do. Nothing would be impossible for us!
Well if you consider what happened with the tower of Babel and why God confused the language, then what was the purpose of the disciples and the others speaking in tongues on the day of Pentecost? Before, at the tower of Babel, He slowed down their creativity and oneness so that they would not advance too quickly. But on the day of Pentecost, He wanted to make sure that everyone knew what was going on and could be a part of it. On that day He brought down the language barrier. What a mighty God we serve!!! On that day God let it be known that a new day had arrived and there would be no going back to the way things used to be. This was the fulfillment of a prophecy by the prophet Joel.
When the people saw what was happening with the disciples and the others, they initially thought they were drunk. But Peter stood up and told them what was happening. In Acts 2:14-36, Peter delivered a mighty sermon. In that message He said “But this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel: ‘And it shall be in the last days’ God says, ‘that I will pour forth of My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams…” Peter said that what they were witnessing was the fulfillment of this prophecy. So when you read this, what happens when God poured forth His Spirit included the prophesying (which is what the 120 were doing when they were speaking in tongues); having visions, dreaming dreams that were from God, etc. Also notice that Joel said that God would give Him to all of mankind – not just the preacher or spiritual leaders. We all have access to the same power source – just get plugged in.
Before I close this week’s message, I believe that I must clarify one thing in reference to the speaking in tongues. Sometimes people have done it in the middle of a service; preachers have done it in the middle of their sermons; televangelists have done it in the midst of a fund drive, and the list goes on. These are not the same thing as happened on the day of Pentecost. They spoke a language that was known to those listening because God was speaking to them. The bible is very clear on this point. God will not give someone a “spiritual message/prophesy” in tongues without also giving someone the interpretation because if it is a true message, it will need someone to interpret it otherwise there is no understanding and the message is lost. So if you hear this going on and there is no interpretation, you can be assured that it is probably of the flesh and not of the Spirit. Next week I will get into how the Holy Spirit aids us when we are facing adversities. May God bless and keep you.
