Why do we need the Holy Spirit? Do we have the Holy Spirit living in us? Do we want the Holy Spirit living in us? You are not saved unless you do you know. Romans 8:9 “But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all). And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. The Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you.”
The book of Acts is a continuation of the Gospel of Luke. Luke in his first letter describes the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Then in this, his second letter he describes the beginnings of the church after Jesus ascends to heaven and sends the Holy Spirit to his followers.
Acts is the fulfilment of many of Jesus’ prophecies after he fulfills the OT prophecies. It is vitally important for us because it shows us how the original followers of Jesus, who spent three years with him, thought church should be under the power of the Holy Spirit.
After the introduction, in ch 1 verse 4 we see Jesus give the command to stay in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit comes. In other words, don’t bother going out as a follower of Christ without the Holy Spirit. He’s essentially saying what he said earlier in his ministry, that you can do nothing without me.
In verse 7 we see the beginning of “The Great Commission of Acts”. Jesus is saying that you can’t know everything even with the Holy Spirit, but here’s what I want you to do with the power that the Holy Spirit gives you, “Be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere, from here to the ends of the earth.”
Are we not wanting something more than that or different from that from the Holy Spirit? We want the gifts, the wisdom, even maybe sometimes the conviction from the Holy Spirit, but are we excited about the power to be His witnesses, to tell the world about Him. You can get all those other things as well, but the priority it seems is for the Spirit to give us the boldness and the words to speak about Christ, this is clearly what the primary purpose is, even when he gives us miraculous abilities. Even the Holy Spirit will not force you to do anything so the question is, do we want the Holy Spirit to empower us for this task?
Then they watch Jesus ascend to heaven and the angel says He will return from heaven, the same way you saw him go. And it seems the angel is saying, get your focus off of heaven, and put your eyes on your task here because Jesus is coming back, and we know that the next time he comes it is to judge.
Verse 12- to the end of the chapter describes the replacement process of Judas Iscariot and in ch. 1:20 we see that they were already a church and they followed the Scriptures they had. They chose leaders based on their having witnessed Jesus ministry and resurrection (today, that would be the NT). Anyone who has witnessed the New Testament and believes it, is a witness (an apostle in the technical sense of the word, which is a sent messenger). So let’s have a look at what happened…
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So as we begin chapter two, I don’t think we should overlook the fact that all the believers were gathered together in one place. When people have a common purpose and they are excited about it, they seem to gather together often. Whether it be a team trying to win a championship, a workplace, rehearsing for a performance, a knitting circle – working together and being together is something we want to do as often as possible when there’s passion about the mission.
Also they were obeying Jesus last command to stay in Jerusalem. Most of these disciples were not from Jerusalem and had given up their old lives to follow Jesus. They didn’t have a clue what to do next other than to follow Jesus’ last command. You know that is a very good place to be with God. Not knowing what to do next but obeying the last thing he said and then waiting for the next instruction.
Well eventually it came. It was the day of Pentecost, something we associate with the coming of the Holy Spirit, but it was actually something they celebrated long before Jesus even came. Pentecost came 50 days after Passover and was a celebration of the harvest. Interestingly Jesus chose to send the Holy Spirit 50 days after he died as the final Passover lamb.
Now when the Holy Spirit comes what do we see? First of all just as John the Baptist said in Luke chapter 3, Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. Now we don’t see people levitating, we don’t see healings yet, or any other miracle other than speaking in other human languages or tongues. We see some kind of fire come upon people, and these people essentially start talking about the wonders of God in other human languages. Why did God give them this specific ability at that time?
It was because this was one of the biggest celebrations of the year and Jews from all over the known world would make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. This was probably the time of year that Jerusalem was the most populated with people from every nation. Their first reaction was to be amazed when they heard all these Galileans speaking in their languages so that they could understand what was essentially the Gospel. And like any crowd even today, some were amazed and others just ridiculed them.
These people were most likely Jews who had been dispersed throughout the world by God’s acts in history. Most of them knew the God of Israel and they could all come and hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ in their own languages and return home to spread the word in every nation or to the ends of the earth.
Then comes the first sermon of the church and I think it may suggest that proclamation through preaching may be the most important activity of the church. There was no worship time first, no offering taken, no setting up a soup kitchen, Peter just starts talking. And this is important, he used Scripture to explain what was going on.
He begins with quoting from the book of Joel to show them the fulfilment of a prophecy from the Old Testament. A few verses later he uses the words of King David from the well known Psalms.
This is important in preaching, and it has made me think. How do we use Scripture to explain what is going on today? Do we use it to explain our current situation? As Peter used the Old Testament prophecies, should we not be using the New Testament prophecies, especially those given by Jesus himself to describe the state of the world?
It was Peter himself years later at the end of his life who wrote in his second letter, “I want you to remember dear friends what the holy prophets said long ago and what our Lord and Saviour commanded through your apostles”. He also said that all prophecy is breathed out by God and you should pay close attention to the prophet’s words until the day dawns (or until Jesus comes back).
Scripture allows us to not only know what we are to do, but it also shows how all is going according to God’s plan so we can trust what he says about the future as well. So back to Acts we see that he uses Scripture to explain what is happening.
The other thing we don’t want to miss is in verse 17. He basically says we are in the last days. Using Joel’s prophecy, Peter is confirming that the last days have started as God said, with this pouring out of the Holy Spirit.
Matthew 24 is broken into two parts. In the first part Jesus is talking about the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. This is the end of the age, and he says that the good news of the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world so that all nations will hear it, after that the end will come. That is the tribulation he’s talking about, when Jerusalem gets destroyed as prophecied in the book of Daniel.
It makes sense to believe that this proclamation to people of all nations at the day of Pentecost is what Jesus is referring to when he says the good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed to all nations. In addition to this, Paul had completed his missionary journeys before the fall of Jerusalem as well. If this is true and the abomination of desolation was already set up when Jerusalem fell by Antiochus Epiphanes, that opens up the possibility that Jesus could come at any moment not for a rapture out of a tribulation, but for the final judgment.
Now some would say then that if this is true, the gospel has already been preached throughout all the world and we don’t have to do it anymore.
But that disregards the ongoing nature of this kingdom and especially makes it all the more urgent to be Christ’s witnesses, because when he comes again rather than giving people another chance to believe through a future tribulation and the 1000 years, he comes for the final judgment and all who have not come to believe will be doomed forever in the second death. The church is their last chance.
If this is not true, why was the early church so committed to spreading the word? Death and persecution were normal consequences of talking about Jesus. You see they knew that Jesus was talking about the destruction of Jerusalem in their lifetimes. They knew these were the last days and they knew that everyone who called on the name of the Lord would be saved during this period.
They didn’t know exactly when the great and glorious return of the Lord would be, but they probably thought it would be shortly after the temple was destroyed in Jerusalem. I wish I had time to take you through 2 Peter and see what he really says about all this, but for now just remember that he said, to the Lord, a day is a like a 1000 years and 1000 years like a day. And that word day can be translated age, period, time, even forever.
John baptized with water, preaching repentance for the forgiveness of your sins. Jesus baptizes with the fire of the Holy Spirit and he and Peter preach repentance for the forgiveness of your sins.
If we look ahead in verse 38, “Each of you must repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” This gift is not a bonus, it is the product of salvation. You are not saved if the Holy Spirit does not live in you. You cannot be sanctified by Christ, or understand spiritual things without the Holy Spirit. And that Spirit will produce fruit in and through you. No fruit, no Spirit.
We will see that the same people are filled with the Holy Spirit on different occasions. Does this mean that the Spirit fills us and then leaves, or is it actually a permanent resident? We need to look at the word “fill” which is pleo in Greek. This word is used to represent fulfillment or to influence, supply, or accomplish. So the best way to interpret these events is that the people were supplied and influenced by the Spirit that was already in them, in order to accomplish something.
The Bible says that the Holy Spirit of God comes to dwell in us at the moment of our conversion, but obviously we are not constantly influenced and surrendered to it. This word “filled” means that we have come under the immediate influence of the Spirit, and that’s why whenever it says “they were filled”, it is followed by some miraculous work like speaking in tongues, or healing, or prophecy. In the Old Testament people were also said to be “in the Spirit” especially when they prophesied. That is the same thing except it was temporarily supplied from the outside rather than from within. The implication of that I suppose is that we always have access if we want it, because He is always available.
Some Christians believe the proof of your baptism in the Spirit, your reception of the Spirit, comes from speaking in tongues. That’s not biblical, it doesn’t happen for everyone; I think the Bible teaches that the proof of your receiving the Holy Spirit is your witnessing about Jesus whether in a normal language or a tongue.
I am aware that we are talking about the Spirit as if it is an “it”. But Scripture is clear that The Holy Spirit is a person. The trinity is a difficult concept and one that the Muslim people find quite offensive. It’s not like these are three different people, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They are all God, but they are different aspects of God. Just like we are made in God’s image we also have a threefold being of body, mind, and spirit. You would never separate a person saying that Bob’s mind or Spirit is a different person than Bob’s body.
The Father is the mind, the invisible essence of God where everything originates. For God and us, all things must originate from a thought. God’s body in terms of His physical manifestation is Jesus Christ, and the Spirit is the active agent or force that allows the mind to influence physical reality. Remember at Creation, they are all present, and it says the Spirit of God hovered over the waters. It is through the Spirit that material reality is influenced and God’s thoughts can become physical reality.
One of those is Jesus the man. Remember how Jesus was created as a human? Through the Holy Spirit coming upon Mary. Jesus is the physical manifestation of God fully powered by the Spirit, and believers and the church are now the physical manifestation of God on earth when powered by the Spirit.
That’s why Jesus had to leave, because he was the container of the Spirit while here. He could breathe the Spirit temporarily on others like in the Old Testament, but for the Spirit to be freely and permanently given, he had to leave the physical realm. The Spirit is the power of God. It is a He, a person because it is God. We often say that about our loved ones who have passed, we will say he or she lives in our hearts. Does that make sense?
If you’re not sure about whether the Holy Spirit lives in you, I think the best and maybe only way to prove it is by your desire to share Jesus and glorify His name. To tell somebody about Jesus and watch the power that comes over you to do so. Not the result of a conversion, but the power to have the words to speak. Jesus doesn’t promise that everyone will heal or speak in tongues, but he does promise that when we witness and attempt to make disciples, that he will be with us even to the end of the age. And that must be through the Holy Spirit. Whether the people we speak to are converted and saved or not is up to him.
Prove that the Spirit lives in you by telling someone about the wonders of Jesus Christ and why he had to come. We will see how the early believers did this in the rest of Acts. For the rest of the fall we’re going to see what this presence of the Holy Spirit causes in the church, and though it is a different time and culture, the principles we see will be very relevant to us today.
