Hey listen, have you ever gone somewhere, and maybe you didn’t really want to go, or maybe you just weren’t expecting that much, and once you got there and you got into it, it delivered way more than you ever imagined? Did you ever do anything like that? Have you ever been anywhere like that? Yeah...three of us, okay.
Let me tell you about one of mine. A couple of years ago, I think...actually, it was after a Saturday night service...some people invited us to go to the ballet. For some of you, that is a real trip. For me, not so much. I know we have people who love the ballet. We have world-class ballet people here in the church, but I’d never really gone, never really thought that that would appeal to me, but I thought, You know, somebody else is paying for it, and I’m tired. It could be a two-hour nap. People will leave me alone. They’re all watching that deal, so this will be okay. And I have to tell you, it delivered way more than I ever thought. I mean, lights and...it was just an incredible experience. I went away as a fan at least of that type of ballet.
Well, hopefully, that’s going to happen for you today. In fact, some of you today...this is going to be so cool because I was here last night...are just here. It’s just church on Sunday, but you’re going to get way more than you imagined or expected. We’re going to be studying one of the most powerful chapters in the Bible...Acts, chapter 2. And that actually happened to a group of people. They had no idea what was going to go on, maybe some low expectations, and it totally rocked their world what they got involved in.
So, here’s what I want to do. I have a lot to cover. We just have a whole lot we need to get through in a short amount of time, so let’s dig in. I want to encourage you to bring your Bibles. How many of you own a Bible? Do you own a Bible? Do you have those that are actual books like this? Okay, some of you have that. Some of you are like me, and I have these, but they’re kind of for show. I do it on the computer and on my PDA and all that, and that is kind of where I do it. I just want to encourage you, whatever you use, bring it in and use your Bible because we won’t be able to cover in the bulletin all the Scripture we’re going to look at.
So, let’s jump in...Acts, chapter 1. Jesus...just as kind of a review...got the disciples together. He says, "Here’s is what I want you to do. I want you to wait. I want you take a timeout, and I want you to get all God has for you, and it’s going to rock your world and everybody else’s world." And that is what we talked about last week, how to be a world-changer.
As they come away from that talk...and we didn’t even cover this in Acts, chapter 1...but at the end of Acts, chapter 1, they have to choose a new apostle because Judas had kind of flaked out on them, and so they didn’t know what to do. So, they basically threw dice. You know, lucky sevens! It was Matthias, and then things changed. From this point forward, they have an experience with the Holy Spirit in ways they never could have dreamed. And so, it gets started with a bang.
Let’s read Acts, chapter 2 and verse 1. It says, "On the day of Pentecost." What was the day of Pentecost? It says it was seven weeks after Jesus’ resurrection. Let me explain Pentecost. Think of a required party. That is basically what it was. It was a required party that all Jews were going to come to. They had a couple of feasts a year they had to come to Jerusalem. They were all required to come. Think of New Year’s Eve, New York City. Anybody ever been there? Have you seen it on TV, the ball dropping and all of that? Think of a party like that, only it’s a select group of people who can come.
Let’s think of Cubs fans. It’s a party for Cubs fans from all over the United States, but think of the United States like Europe. Is this getting confusing? In Europe, they have states, but they all speak a different language. Do you understand that? Have you ever been there? You just go to a little place like Connecticut, and they call it a whole another country, they speak a different language. Well, let’s suppose it’s just a required party only for Cubs fans who are scattered out throughout the United States, and they each speak a different language. You have the picture? That’s Pentecost, only you put Jews in for Cubs fans. Okay?
So, you have Jews who are dispersed all over the known world. They speak different languages, but they come back for this party, a required party in Jerusalem. It says, "The believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm [in the skies above them], and it filled the house where they were [meeting]. Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them." What was that? I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like that. I don’t think the writer had ever seen anything like that. He was just kind of trying to describe a God moment.
Have you ever tried to describe a sunset? Wow...how do you describe that? Well, this was a God moment. The fire perhaps symbolized the fire of the Holy Spirit. A lot of times, fire in the Bible symbolized cleansing and purity. But he saw something, and there was a sound. They heard something.
Then verse 4. It says, "And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit." Now, this is a fulfillment of what Jesus talked about with His disciples in John, chapter 14. We talked about that last week. Kind of a last minute pep talk before He was crucified. He gathered them together, and He said, "You know what? I’m leaving, but the Counselor is coming. The Holy Spirit is coming, and He will lead you into truth." And then last week, the very last thing He said before He ascended, He said, "You wait in Jerusalem. John baptized with water. In just a few days, you are going to be baptized with the Holy Spirit."
So this is a fulfillment of that promise that they would receive the gift, that they would be baptized in the Holy Spirit. This is actually the birthday of the Church. This is the very beginning of the Church. In the Old Testament, God’s people basically dealt with God the Father. That was kind of their relationship. Occasionally, there would be signs of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit would empower just certain individuals. You know, people like Samson. Remember him? Strong guy. He was full of the Holy Spirit, empowered. Every once in a while, you would have somebody who was empowered by the Holy Spirit, but it was just periodically.
Then Jesus comes, and Jesus closes out the Old Covenant. Now it’s a New Covenant, and He demonstrates a new kind of power, something they had never seen before. And He attributes it to the power of the Holy Spirit working through Him. Now you have the beginning of the Church. It’s the birthday of the Church. And from that moment until now, there is a new sense of power, and that is a relationship with the third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.
Now, what affect did it have on the people who were baptized with the Holy Spirit that day, that brand new birthday of the Church? Well, they had a new power to overcome sin, and we’ll be talking about that as we study through Acts. They had a new power for ministry. It’s hard to miss. These guys who were just normal, ordinary people all of a sudden are able to do things they couldn’t. Some of them are miraculous. They’re able to do miracle. Some of them, there is a boldness to proclaim the gospel, which you’re going to see with Peter as we continue this chapter. But there is just a new ability to do what God has called them to do. There is a power they didn’t have before.
Another interesting thing happened; the rest of the verse. "And began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability." Circle other languages. In some versions...maybe it’s the version of the Bible you have...it says, "They spoke with other tongues." What is that about? What’s up with that? This is honestly where it gets dicey in the Church. Church people get on edge. In fact, I was with a whole group of pastors for a day or two this week, and they said, "Now, you’re going through the book of Acts. What are you teaching on this week?" I said, "Acts, chapter 2." And they said, "Are you going to get into the whole tongues thing?" I said, "Yeah, and I can’t wait. It’s going to be cool."
And, you know, it’s like, "Oh, what are you going to do?" because this is just kind of freaky subject. For some people, you were raised in a church...some of you weren’t raised in a church, and that is probably good because this will be brand new stuff, and you’ll just approach it without any preconceptions here. But some of you were raised in a church where they had an overemphasis on power gifts and tongues and that kind of thing, and I call you charismaniacs.
And then, some of you were raised in a church where they didn’t even talk about it because they were afraid of all the excess and all that. And I call you charisphobiacs. You’re just kind of afraid of the whole thing. And so, you have this whole deal, and all I want to do today is just teach it. I want to teach what I understand from the Bible. I hope you learn something, and then I hope God applies it in various ways in our lives. We’re just going to study it. Here is what I want you to do. I going to ask you to ask this question of yourself right now, and then I’m going to ask you to ask the same question of yourself at the very end of the message.
This is the question...Do I have all that God wishes for me to enjoy? Do I have all of Him that God wishes for me to enjoy? That’s it. Just ask yourself that question, and then we’ll study just a little bit.
Now, what were these other languages or these tongues? Let me give you two words. I think it’s on your outline sheet. The first one is glossolalia. Can you say glossolalia together? Glossolalia. That’s kind of a cool word. Let’s say it again. Glossolalia. Now, what glossolalia is is a mystic, supernatural ability to speak in another language. Now, glossolalia in itself as you study it...it comes from the Greek glossa, which means tongue and lalia, which means talk or language.
It doesn’t have to be a known foreign language. This particular word does not necessarily indicate a known foreign language. It can just be another tongue. The Bible talks about tongues of men, which is a known foreign language, and tongues of angels, which we know nothing about. From this point forward, Acts, chapter 2, until now, there have been groups of believers who practiced glossolalia. Down through the ages, if you study Church history, there have been groups.
Now, a hundred years ago, when a kind of a culmination of Wesleyan holiness movements began to pray that God would pour His Spirit out in these days, in about the turn of the century, there began to be more people who spoke in this kind of a tongue, this glossolalia, than probably at any other time in history, and it grew and it grew and it grew. And now, if you study the Church around the world, there are millions and millions. There are many in the United States but especially outside of the United States. Foreign missions is tipped heavily in the favor of those...in whatever world they live in or country they live in...that practice glossolalia.
The early Church seemed to practice glossolalia in at least a couple of settings. Let me just kind of lay it out for you. Number one, there was a speaking in another tongue, which was not necessarily a known tongue, as kind of a prayer language. Paul affirms this as a good thing. He says, "I do it more than all of you." And as he prays, and then he talks about it, we may study that in another study, but he says that when you pray in another tongue as the Holy Spirit kind of leads you to do, there is a building up on the inside of the individual that does it. He says it’s a good thing. It’s nothing to be afraid of.
Oftentimes, a prayer language is released during kind of a timeout setting as I have studied this, as people get away sometimes in retreat settings or sometimes extended times of prayer. Not everybody does it, but there are some who are released into this prayer language. And I know here at Seacoast, we believe all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit are available today. We don’t have a lot of pre-expectations about what God is going to do. When you try to put God in a box, He kind of breaks out. Have you noticed that? We believe they’re all available. And when we have retreats...like we’ve had Cleansing Stream Retreats. We’re now morphing those into what we’re calling Life Retreats, and I’m really anxious to see it. We’ve already had one of them kind of underground, and we’re going to spring them on the whole church. It’s going to be a cool thing.
But as one segment of the retreat setting, always at the end, we have prayer for people who would like to be released in this. And oftentimes, people are released into a prayer language; not everybody, but some people. Now, this is something I have experienced. I’ll be real honest with you. It’s something that is a part of my personal prayer life. It’s not something I do in public, but it’s something I practice regularly in my personal prayer life.
Now, that being said, this is not what is being talked about in Acts, chapter 2. That is just one expression of glossolalia. Another thing they would do from time to time in the early Church was that they would practice glossolalia in a corporate worship service. In some settings, not all, someone would speak out in another tongue. And then, you find a lot about this in 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14. Somebody else who had what was called the gift of interpreting tongues would speak out and give an interpretation.
In other words, in a service like this, maybe somebody over here might stand up and they would give this message or this prayer or whatever it happened to be in a tongue nobody understood, and then somebody over here might stand up and kind of give an interpretation. And then everybody would go, "Wow. That was God. That was cool."
In fact, Paul says that in a public setting you ought not to speak in tongues unless there is an interpretation so that everybody can benefit from that. So that was sometimes practiced, not in every service but in some services and some gatherings in the New Testament. And then, everybody around would judge whether it was really God or just a sincere person with bad burritos or maybe a self-seeking Loony Toon. Those are all possibilities: God, bad burritos, or just a Loony Toon. And if you’ve ever been a part of a church that maybe practices that, you’ve seen all three of those in operation at various times, oftentimes when you’re bringing your best friend for the first time to church.
Some people ask, "Well, why doesn’t that happen at Seacoast on the weekend gatherings?" Well, let me explain. My experience...and believe me, I’ve been in this for a long, long time...my experience is that this type of thing is best practiced in smaller groups. Now, let me tell you why.
1. Everybody can hear and experience it.
2. You know the people who are involved, and so you can lovingly judge what is going on. And that’s a whole part of it, and I don’t want to go into a whole teaching on that. That’s another teaching.
But in a setting like this, you could have somebody who has absolutely no credibility, or somebody who has been kicked out of three or four churches, or somebody who is unstable mentally or emotionally, do their thing and disrupt everything that is going on and confuse everybody in the house. And I just don’t think that’s the best use of this, and I don’t see where this gift was practiced in every setting in the New Testament.
So, there were personal prayer times and there was a corporate tongue and interpretation. Neither of those was what was going on in Acts, chapter 2. Well, you say, "Well, what was going on in Acts, chapter 2?" Well, I’m glad you asked.
There is a second word, and it’s called xenolalia...can you say that together? Xenolalia...from the word xenos, which means foreign, and lalia, which means tongue. And the difference between this and glossolalia...glossolalia is supernatural ability to speak in a language that doesn’t necessarily doesn’t have to be a known tongue. Xenolalia is a supernatural ability to speak in another language that is a known tongue. It would be like if one of you who never ever studied it, suddenly could speak flawless French or Spanish or Chinese or German. Those of you in college, how many would know that would be a cool gift? Forget studying. I’m going to blow right through French 101. That is what xenolalia is all about, and that seems to be what is happening here.
Let’s go on. Let’s read it. Acts, chapter 2 and verse 5, it says, "Godly Jews..." Cubs fans "...from many nations were living..." circle living, "...in Jerusalem." Some of them were living there, but some of them were just there temporarily because of the Pentecost party. So, the whole city is really full. It’s like Super Bowl Sunday or something like that in a city because of the feast.
It said, "When they heard this sound, they came running to see what it was all about, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers. They were beside themselves with wonder. ’How can this be?’ they exclaimed. ’ These people are all from Galilee, and yet we heart them speaking the languages of the lands where we were born!’" It just goes through just a whole bunch of them. They said, "We’re from here, and they’re speaking this, and how can they do this?"
"’And we hear these people...’" down in verse 11, "’...speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done!’" Now, this got their attention. Wouldn’t you agree? And it made them open to hear the proclamation of the gospel. Here’s what happened. There was this noise, a God noise, something happened, and then they see something they don’t understand. There are people speaking in their own languages who obviously haven’t studied it, and they’re telling about the wonders of God. And what it does, it sets them up. There is a purpose. It sets them up to hear the gospel, which we’re going to read in just a minute.
The question is...Does this happen today? A whole group of people sitting around and speaking in a language that is a foreign language they don’t know, and it’s recognized by other people, which opens them up to hear the gospel. I’ve never been a part of a service like that. I suppose it could, but I’ve never seen it.
Now, we did a little research on this this week, and I’m not going to give you a name because I don’t want to mischaracterize the situation and throw this guy under the bus, but one of the top guys in the Southern Baptist denomination told us this week that he was speaking in a foreign country years ago. And evidently, there wasn’t an interpreter or something, or I don’t know if everybody could hear the interpreter, but he was speaking, and he spoke in English the whole time, but a significant group of the audience said they heard it in their own language. And so, God evidently did a miracle there, and many came to know the Lord. And I go, "Yeah, God!" That’s awesome. That’s a cool thing. Don’t put God in a box. How many of you know God can do just about anything He wants to do?
Here’s what I’m learning. I’m 53 years old, and I just learned He doesn’t consult me all the time about it. "Hey, Greg, will this be okay? Could you do this?" He just does His own deal. It certainly wasn’t the norm, and honestly, that probably wouldn’t be that useful in our setting here, but God uses other things in order to declare Him known. He can use anything He wants to, but it was a unique expression for the birthday of the Church at that moment to show God was at work. It was a sign that the promise was being fulfilled.
Verse 12. "They stood there amazed and perplexed. ’What can this mean?’ they asked each other. But others in the crown were mocking. ’They’re drunk, that’s all!’ they said." How many of you...no, I’m not going to say how many of you have ever been drunk before. That’s not a fair question. Just look at me. Don’t respond. How many of you have ever been drunk before, and all of a sudden you started speaking in a foreign language? Man, that’s an expensive bottle of wine. Would you agree with that?
So, they said they were drunk. Let me make a point here. Now, I want you to hear it. The work of God among us should be amazing and unexplainable. If you can explain everything that’s happening at Seacoast, then God probably isn’t at work. Did you hear me? The work of God among us ought to be amazing and at times unexplainable. In fact, we ought to be a little weird. We ought to be a little countercultural, a little bit odd. Jesus said that His people were to stand out like a light in a perverse generation, in a broken culture.
And so, when we’re operating as God wants us to operate, it ought to be a little strange. We’re supposed to be different, we’re supposed to be a little bit odd, not in the clothes we wear or the bumper stickers we put on our car. Many Christian are odd for all the wrong reasons. Do you know anybody like that? St. Augustine, one of the early Church fathers in the fourth and fifth century, in a book he wrote called The City of God...see if this doesn’t sound like this could apply today almost 2,000 years later.
He said this, "The people of the world and the people of the Church should most differ from each other regarding how they treat money, sex, and power. The world thinks that money is sacred, and they are promiscuous with their sex. Christians should be promiscuous with their money and treat sex as sacred. The world uses power to increase personal position. Christians use power to serve others." Could that have been written today? Almost 2,000 years ago, an early Church father.
Whenever there is a move of God, there are going to be people who are going to call it weird. And sometimes what people declare as moves of God are weird and odd, and they’re not really God. We ought to be discerning about those things. We shouldn’t be just totally gullible. But even within the Church, anytime there is a move of God of any kind, there will be some people who will go, "Boy, I hope this is true," and they’ll judge it. They’ll kind of look at it, search it out, and then affirm it. And there are others who just write it off right away. "That’s weird. That’s different." We’ve seen that here at Seacoast. "That’s just different. That’s weird. That’s just not right. That’s not real." Well, a move of God is oftentimes unusual, and it attracts attention.
So, then Peter stands up to preach. In Acts, chapter 2 and verse 14, it says, "Then Peter stepped forward with the eleven other apostles and shouted to the crowd." A couple of things here. This is Peter. The last we heard from him, he’s a coward. Remember? Jesus is being crucified. A young girl comes and says, "Aren’t you one of the followers?" "No! Not me, not me, not me, not me." The cock crows, and he goes off kind of defeated.
Now something has happened. What? He has been baptized in the Holy Spirit. He’s full of the Holy Spirit. And so, now he’s bold. He’s so bold, he’s shouting. Why is he shouting? Because microphones had not been invented yet. Seriously, that’s why some preachers shout. They don’t realize microphones have been invented now.
Next, listen to what he says. "Listen carefully, all of you, fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem! Make no mistake about this. Some of you are saying these people are drunk. It isn’t true! It’s much too early for that. People don’t get drunk by nine o’clock in the morning." Some of you have been drunk at nine o’clock in the morning, haven’t you? That’s why you laughed, but you’re not anymore. "No, what you see this morning was predicted centuries ago by the prophet Joel." Then he goes on, and he makes a case from the prophet Joel.
Let me just ask a question. How many of you have recently read the book of Joel? Three...two. Okay, I’m not scolding anybody. I’m making a point. You probably ought to, but you have no clue what’s in the book of Joel, do you? In order to keep this message from being really longer than it is, I’m skipping this section because it’s not about you. They would have known. They would have had a working knowledge of the book of Joel. And so, he’s talking to a Jewish crowd, and he makes a case for Christ from the book of Joel. That’s what that is all about.
Then he reminds them in verse 22 about Jesus’ ministry among them. He says, "People of Israel, listen! God publicly endorsed Jesus of Nazareth by doing wonderful miracles, wonders, and signs through Him, as you well know. But you followed God’s prearranged plan. With the help of lawless Gentiles, you nailed Him to the cross and murdered Him."
Now, they’re tracking it in at this point because what he had talked about had just concluded seven weeks earlier. These are the same people who when Jesus first came into Jerusalem eight weeks ago had said, "Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord." They were welcoming Him, and just a week later, these are the same people who are yelling, "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!"
Here’s the interesting side note. A lot of these people get saved and become leaders in the church...same people who crucified Jesus become leaders in the church. That’s the power of transformation. That is what God can do for each one of us.
So they’re tracking. And then, verse 24, he says, "However, God released Him from the horrors of death and raised Him back to life again, for death could not keep Him in its grip." And then, he goes on to some new ground, and he begins to talk about the fact that Jesus was the Messiah they had been waiting for. They had a problem with the Messiah dying. He said, "You know what? People here saw Jesus." He took them to the Psalms of David because they had a working knowledge of that, and showed them how David predicted. He’s talking to a Jewish audience, and he’s making a case for the gospel. If this was a Jewish crowd at Seacoast, I’d take time with this, but I’m not going to.
Verse 36. He says, "So let it be clearly known by everyone in Israel that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified to be both Lord and Messiah!" And verse 37. "Peter’s words convicted them deeply, and they said to him and to the other apostles, ’Brothers, what should we do?’" They were convicted. "God came. He didn’t look like who we thought He would be. We followed Him a little bit, but then we ignored Him because His agenda was different than our agenda, and we walked away. And not only did we walk away, but we actively crucified Him. What should we do?"
This is where it connects with you and me...because God comes into our lives. We see evidence of that. Maybe it’s a friend who shares the good news with us. Maybe it’s during a time of loss when the world stops, and we begin to think about what really matters. Or maybe you hear a message from a preacher, and God intervenes in your life, and you’re open, and then you go, "Well, if I follow Him, it means it’s going to be some changes, and I’m not sure I’m ready." And so, we walk away, and the truth is, we crucify Him again with our sin. And so, we come to a point of saying, "What do I do with the message of the gospel?"
I remember when I was about 18 years old, I came to that point. Jesus Christ rose from the dead. He is God. He proved He was God. What do I do with that reality? And so, what do you do? And Peter tells us with the rest of his message. And let’s real quickly go through it.
How do you become Spirit-filled? How do you become baptized with the Holy Spirit? How do you receive the gift that was promised?
1. You repent of your sin. Acts 2 and verse 38. "Peter replied, ’Each of you must turn from your sins and turn to God...’" What is repentance? It’s turning. Repentance in a 180. You are walking this way, doing your own thing, you come to a realization that God is who He said He was. For whatever reason, you have to acknowledge your sin and say, "God, it’s my sin that crucified You." And you turn, and you walk the other way. You say, "You know what? I’m following my agenda. Okay...I’m going to do Your will." You repent. You don’t laugh off sin. Sin is a big deal. Sin separates you from God. Sin separates you from other people. Sin is your problem, and so you repent of it.
2. Be baptized. "’...and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.’"
Let me just give a short teaching on baptism here. What is baptism? Baptism is an initiation rite. Just a few months ago, the pharmacy school at MUSC, was having a hooding ceremony here in this auditorium. And one of our friends here was graduating, and we were real proud of her accomplishments. And so, I came and sat right up there in the balcony and watched the hooding ceremony.
The hooding ceremony was an initiation rite. It was celebrating the conversion of a lay person into a member of the medical profession. That’s exactly what baptism is. It’s a celebration, an initiating rite, celebrating someone who was outside the Church into the life of the Church. Secondly, it’s an accountability factor. Baptism separates the tire-kickers from the real buyers. Are you going to be a closet Christian, or are you going to come out into the open?
Now, because this Scripture says, "Repent, be baptized, and then you will receive the gift," we need to answer the question...Does baptism have the power to save you? And we at Seacoast believe no. Only Jesus saves. Only faith in Jesus. Baptism is an outward expression of what has taken place inside. You repent, you decide to follow God, you believe, you put your faith in the fact that Jesus Christ died for your sin, He was who He said He was, and then baptism is an outward showing of that. I’m part of the team.
Tragically, some people believe that they’ll go to heaven because they were baptized at some point in their life. Maybe they were sprinkled at some point, and that’s all it took, and they’re going to heaven. See, if you’re banking on a future on baptism rather than Jesus, you’re mistaken.
A couple of years ago, I was watching a television show. I like documentary, history deals, and this was talking about this violent gang from El Salvador. It follows this one guy who was a leader, and he viciously, viciously murders people. After he murders them, he walks out, and he does this sign of a cross and says, "Forgive me, Father." That guy thinks that because he was baptized, sprinkled, dunked, or something at some point, that he is part of the team, and he just has to confess little sins. I wonder. There’s no transformation that has taken place there.
Frankly, this is where we differ from some churches. This is where we differ from the Catholic Church. Now, I don’t want to bash Catholics. I’ve never done that. That is not my deal. In fact, Seacoast has lots of Catholics, recovering Catholics, lapsed Catholics, every form of Catholic you could imagine. But frankly, the Catholic Church believes baptism is necessary for salvation. The forgiveness of sin is conveyed through baptism. It is a sacrament. The children carry the guilt of sin and must be baptized in order to remove it.
We don’t believe that. We believe salvation and forgiveness of sin comes from faith alone, not faith plus baptism, faith plus works, faith plus anything else. It’s faith in Jesus Christ alone. Baptism has no redemptive power of its own. There is nothing special about the water. It’s just water.
So, here is the next question...Can I skip the baptism part and still be Spirit-filled? I don’t like that question...even though I wrote it...because here is what it says. Jesus dies an excruciating death on the Cross. He takes your condemnation, your sin on Himself, offers salvation as a free gift, and then He asks you to go public. He says, "Be baptized." And you say, "Well, I’ll take the gift and pass on the baptism. Thank you." Something is wrong with that picture.
True believers offer their sin to God, and offer their will to God, and say, "You know what? I’ll follow You anywhere." That’s repentance. "I will follow You anywhere, anytime. You want me to be baptized? I’ll be baptized right now. You want me to be dunked, I’ll be dunked. You want me to stand on my head in a baptistery tank, I’ll do that if that is what You require because I am grateful for what You have done."
When a believer says, "You know what? I’m not going to let a pastor dunk me," that is a problem. A better question would be...Why would you not be baptized? Why not? He says, "Repent and be baptized." Let me ask you. Have you been baptized in water since you’ve believed, signaling the fact you want to go public, you want to be identified with the home team, you’re not ashamed of Jesus? If not, why not?
I can only think of a couple or three reasons. Number one...you didn’t know...Now you do. Number two...you had a deep theological issue with it. And it might be, but most of you can’t even spell theological. Or number three...you’re stubborn and just unwilling to yield your will to Christ. See, this one separates the tire-kickers from the buyers.
So, he says, "Repent, be baptized..." and then number three.
3. By faith, receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. If you repent, if you have faith in Jesus, and you indicate your sincerity through baptism, then you become a Spirit-filled, Spirit-baptized believer. Holy Spirit comes to live inside of you. You say, "Well, is there more of the Holy Spirit that I can experience?" You bet! We’re going to talk about it in chapter 4 in two weeks because there is a filling of the Holy Spirit that is very, very important. But, what are the results of a group of sincere followers of Christ, obeying God, waiting on His Spirit. What are the results of being Spirit-filled?
1. Your faith will become contagious. Acts 2:41 says, "Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church-about three thousand in all." Your faith becomes contagious. The first church is born, and it’s a mega-church. Mega-churches are defined as 2,000 or more people. It’s a mega-church. Now, here’s the problem with mega-churches...I’m going to be honest with you. We’re a mega-church. We like what they call a macro-mega-church. There are 38 churches in America that have 10,000 people or more every weekend. We’re one of them.
The problem with mega-churches, honestly, is when a mega-church springs up, especially when they grow to 3,000 the first week and 6,000 the second week or whatever, they’re not winning new people to the Lord. They’re not emptying out other churches all around. And that can happen here. And that’s why if you want to join this church, or you come and talk to me about joining this church, I try to talk you out of it if you go to another church because we’re not looking to empty out other churches. There are times when God calls people to move around...not as often as people think they do...but there are times.
But here’s my goal. Here is what we dream about at Seacoast. That Seacoast becomes so Spirit-filled, the individual members are so Spirit-filled that our faith becomes contagious to those who don’t believe. That is the goal. That is the target. And that is what happens when people become Spirit-filled.
2. Your love for the Church becomes apparent. Acts 2:42 says, "They joined with the other believers and devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, sharing in the Lord’s Supper and in prayer." Let me ask you a question. If you’re dating someone, if you’re single...that’s the only people who should date is people who are single. Got that? If you’re still married, going through a divorce, you do not date. That’s a whole another sermon, and I didn’t get a lot of amens on that.
The only people who date are single. If you’re dating someone, how do you prove you really love them? Take them to bed? No, that proves you’re selfish about that whole deal. Buy them stuff? No. What do you do? Marry them! Somebody over here went, "Praise God, I’m going to ask her today right after this service." Really, seriously. You marry them. You devote yourself to them.
It says they were devoted to one another. There are too many believers who are just dating the Church. We’re to be in as love with one another as we are to Jesus. We are to be as committed to one another as we are to Jesus. We are to stand out...our world has throwaway relationships. We stay married as long as we’re compatible, and we’re growing at the same level. We’ve grown apart. Let’s get divorced. No! Start growing together. That’s the way the Church does it.
Or if we see somebody else who seems to be a better fit, well, let’s just kind of...that’s not the Church, and yet that’s how the Church treats one another so many times. We are to be devoted to one another. The Church wasn’t a building; it was a way of life. They were devoted to teaching and to fellowship and to breaking bread and to prayer. Those are signs of being Spirit-filled.
3. Your ministry becomes more powerful. "A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders." Can I just say this? If you’re a believer and you’re committed to the church, you’re in full-time ministry. Some of you are getting paid, some of you are not, but you’re in full-time ministry. All of us have ministry. It says when you’re Spirit-filled your ministry becomes powerful. We’ll talk about that more as we go through the book of Acts.
4. Your generosity becomes radical. Acts 2:44. Read this together. "And all the believers..." We move our lips out loud when we read out loud. Okay? "All the believers met together constantly and shared everything they had." That is radical. You say, "Well, that’s Communism." No, Communism forces it. This is voluntary.
Rodney Stark...this is my last thought here...Rodney Stark, who wrote a book called The Rise of Christianity, said, "Early Christians had an incredible network for caring for one another and helped them survived persecutions, epidemics, enabled the movement to grow." Now, here is what he says in the book. He says, "The Emperor Julian launched a campaign to institute pagan charities in an effort to match the Christians. Julian was a pagan. Julian complained in a letter to the high priest of Galatia in the year 362 that the pagans needed to equal the virtues of the Christians for recent Christian growth was caused by their moral character, even if they pretended," he said, "and by their benevolence towards strangers and care for the graves of the dead."
The same emperor later wrote, "The impious Galileans support not only their poor but ours as well." One of the things that is going to convince those who don’t follow Jesus here in Mount Pleasant and Columbia and Greenville and wherever the church gathers is going to be our love for the lost, our radical generosity to those who are less fortunate. See, I want that to be characteristic of us.
So, how do we respond? Same question as before...Do I have all God wishes for me to enjoy? During our response time...in fact, here is what I want to do. I’m going to pray for you right now, and then I’m going tell you what I want to do during response time.
Let’s pray: Father, thank You today for Your Word. Thank You for the power of Your Word that is so relevant today, as relevant today as it was 2,000 years ago. And so, God, right now, we ask that You would speak to us. We’ve studied the Church, now how does this apply to us? God, I ask that You would help us just to be open and honest with You and with ourselves. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
