Spirit-Filled Eastern Oregonians
-We focused on the baptism in the Holy Spirit last week, but what difference does it make? Why should someone seek to be filled with the HS? What difference does it really make in a person’s life? Some would say that we are baptized or filled with the HS when we repent and call on the Lord to forgive us and put our names in the book of life. What does the Bible say to us on the issue? Are we supposed to seek something more than being forgiven? Is there more that God wants to do in our lives and through us?
-I’d like to tackle a few of these questions and pray that the Lord will shine His light on this word and into our hearts and minds today so we can confidently seek all that He has for us.
1. Background
-In the early 1900’s a major revival began in Los Angeles. It became known as the Azusa Street Revival. What the Holy Spirit did there was really quite revolutionary for its time. Here is what Dr. Gary McGee of the Assemblies of God writes about Azusa St.:
According to the Los Angeles Times, a bizarre new religious sect had started with people “breathing strange utterances and mouthing a creed which it would seem no sane mortal could understand.” Furthermore, “Devotees of the weird doctrine practice the most fanatical rites, preach the wildest theories, and work themselves into a state of mad excitement.”
If that didn’t grab the reader’s attention, the article continued by saying that, “Colored people and a sprinkling of whites compose the congregation, and night is made hideous in the neighborhood by the howlings of the worshippers who spend hours swaying forth and back in a nerve-racking attitude of prayer and supplication.” To top it all off, they claimed to have received the “gift of tongues,” and what’s more, “comprehend the babel.”
Nonetheless, for the spiritually hungry who came from far and wide to receive their Pentecost, “the very atmosphere of heaven” had descended, according to one. A visiting Baptist pastor said, “The Holy Spirit fell upon me and filled me literally, as it seemed to lift me up, for indeed, I was in the air in an instant, shouting, ’Praise God,’ and instantly I began to speak in another language. I could not have been more surprised if at the same moment someone had handed me a million dollars.”
Little could the subscribers of the Times have guessed that in years to come, historians would say that the Azusa Street revival played a major role in the development of modern Pentecostalism—a Movement that changed the religious landscape and became the most vibrant force for world evangelization in the 20th century. Azusa Street became the most significant revival of the century in terms of global perspective. [McGee, Gary]
-Let me just say that Pentecostalism has not until more recent times enjoyed the favor of the world or of most non-Pentecostal denominations. You might wonder why, but it may be the age-old human tendency to demonize what we don’t understand. If people don’t understand what speaking in tongues and other such “strange” behavior is all about, then they fear it and/or reject it. So, why did early Pentecostals risk being made fun of and gaining a reputation of being a bunch of wild and crazy fanatics? I think it was because they were desperate for the presence of God, and really believed that God wanted to do for them what He had done for the believers in the book of Acts.
-I am not suggesting that everything that went on at Azusa St. was proper or necessarily of the Holy Spirit. However, I do see a group of humble people who knew they were nothing without God and His Spirit. They knew that they had very little to offer on their own, which is why they wanted to receive the promise of the Holy Spirit. They knew that God’s power would come with the presence of the Holy Spirit.
-Since that time, Pentecostalism has circled the globe and millions of people around the world have come to know the experience of Acts 2. There are a lot of questions that we may never know the answers to until heaven. For example, why was the baptism in the Holy Spirit almost unheard of from the 2nd century to the 20th century? Some Christian historians point out that there were always a few who were Spirit-filled throughout the history of the church. However, it became the exception, rather than the norm. There are isolated reports of people speaking in other tongues and being used by God in miraculous ways to spread the gospel. Some would say the gifts and miracles of Acts and Corinthians were only for the 1st century church to become established. Once the canon of Scripture was completed, then those things were not needed any longer.
-I have news for them. Just look around you! Obviously, we are missing something! The world is a mess. In many cases the church is a mess. We need the power of the Holy Spirit to move beyond our human efforts and to bring life, hope, and transformation to a dying world. We need the promise of the Father! We need to receive power after the Holy Spirit comes upon us. We need help being the witnesses God has called us to be!
-TS: What can we find in the Bible about being filled with the Holy Spirit? Let’s look.
2. Biblical Foundations of Holy Spirit Baptism
A. Other Tongues- This was the same sign for all of them (Acts 2:4).
-I would be the first to tell you that I don’t understand everything there is to know about tongues. Yes, I have been filled with the Holy Spirit with the initial physical evidence of speaking in tongues, and I continue to speak in other tongues in my prayer time. However, why tongues? Why did God choose to have the believers speak out in a tongue they did not understand when they were filled with the Holy Spirit? We cannot answer that this morning, but I’d love to sit down with you and talk about it sometime. One thing I can say is that in the Old Testament, the Spirit of the Lord would come on people and they would prophesy, declaring the word of God. Perhaps the “other” tongues served as a sign that the gospel was not to be limited to the Jews alone. Maybe God had them speak in “other” tongues to show that God’s word was to be for all nations everywhere.
-Regardless, we do find consistent witness in the book of Acts that speaking in tongues typically accompanied the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
1. Acts 2:4 was the first instance. It says they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they all spoke in other tongues.
2. Acts 10:44-46 gives us a 2nd witness: 44”While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. 45 The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. 46 For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.” How did they know that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been given to the Gentiles? They heard them speak in tongues.
3. A 3rd witness is found in Acts 19:1-6: “Paul … at Ephesus… found some disciples 2 and asked them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" They answered, "No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit." 3 So Paul asked, "Then what baptism did you receive?" "John's baptism," they replied. 4 Paul said, "John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus." 5 On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.”
-There are 2 other occasions that may lend support to the fact that speaking in tongues normally accompanied the baptism in the Holy Spirit. One is in Acts 8:14-20: “[When] Peter and John arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them; they had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. 18 When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money 19 and said, "Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit." 20 Peter answered: "May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money!” The argument here is that Simon must have heard the people speak with other tongues in order to know that they had been filled with the Holy Spirit. He wanted the power to lay hands on people so that they would be filled with the Holy Spirit, and presumably speak in other tongues. Finally, we have the life of Paul himself as a witness. After being blinded on the road to Damascus, Paul was led on to Damascus where Ananias met him and prayed for him. Ananias said, "Brother Saul, the Lord-- Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here-- has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit." Now, we don’t read that Saul/Paul spoke in tongues here, but we do read in 1 Cor. 14:18, where Paul said, “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.”
-Please understand that my goal in covering all of this is to show the biblical pattern for being filled with the Holy Spirit. How do you know you’ve been filled? Well, according to Acts, you will most likely speak in other tongues. Is it possible for someone to be filled with the Holy Spirit, but never speak in tongues? I don’t really know the answer to that. All I know is what I read in Scripture. However, we can also see in Acts that the people were not trying to speak in tongues. That was a sign, but it was not the focus. The focus is and must always be the Lord Jesus. When He is our focus, we will be eager to receive whatever He has for us, and not be afraid of it. It may take you way out of your comfort zone, but God has a way of doing that when He is doing something significant in our lives.
B. Spirit Enablement- Another thing I might mention about speaking in tongues is that the Holy Spirit gives the ability to speak. The utterance does not come from us. However, it is not necessarily something that we lose complete control of. Losing control of ourselves does not appear to be the New Testament pattern. Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 14:32 that the spirit of the prophet is subject to or under the control of the prophet. This should tell us at least 2 things. First, speaking in tongues is controllable. It is not something that comes about by working ourselves up into a frenzy. It comes from seeking God and asking Him for the gift He has promised us. For some it is more emotional than others because some people are more emotionally expressive than others. However, it is controllable. Second, even though we can control it, it does not come from us. We do not make it up as we go. The Holy Spirit gives us the utterance. We must open our mouths and begin to speak out what God gives us, but we are not the source. We can initiate it or stop it. We do not know what we are saying when we speak in tongues. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:2 “Anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit.”
C. On the Day of Pentecost, the tongues were understood by different language groups. However, we never read of that happening again in the Bible. Maybe it did, and maybe it didn’t, but as Paul indicates in the Scripture we just read, no one understands tongues. That is why Paul prefers to have people prophesy or if there is a message in tongues in the midst of a Christian gathering, there should also be an interpretation of those tongues. That is also one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit listed in 1 Cor. 12. It does not mean that one of the listeners can suddenly understand the language of tongues. It simply means that the Holy Spirit gives that message to someone to speak out in a language everyone can understand. There have been occasions where people (usually someone from another language group) have heard a message in tongues and understood it in their native language. God can do anything! However, that does not seem to be the normal use of tongues. Some early Pentecostals thought that God wanted to use tongues this way so they wouldn’t have to study a foreign language in order to take the gospel to other nations. It did not work for them, but God did use their lives to reach people with the gospel.
D. Declaring God’s wonders- A final word about tongues is in order here. The listeners exclaimed, “We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues.” The point of being filled with the Holy Spirit is to declare the wonders of God. the purpose of the gift of the Holy Spirit is power to be witnesses to all nations. So, let’s not get stuck on the tongues, or the way we think it should be or shouldn’t be. Let’s focus on declaring the wonders of God to all who will hear us. If we love the Lord with all of our hearts, we will want to declare His wonders in every way we can.
3. Expected Results of Being Filled with the Holy Spirit
A. Spirit-Filled Worship - Power to pray, praise, and worship on another level
-Jude 1:20 But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 6:18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.
1 Corinthians 14:15-16 15 So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind. 16 If you are praising God with your spirit…
-We must worship in spirit and truth (John 4:24)
B. Spirit-Filled Work - Power to live on another level (holy, encouraged, edified living)
1 Corinthians 14:4 He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself… (also Jude 20)
Power to serve on another level (Be My Witnesses- being, doing, speaking, healing, etc.)
Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
John 14:12-17 12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father…. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-- 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
-Power to speak prophetically, building up others (there is a reason it focuses on speech). This comes from the prophet Joel, which Peter refers to in Acts 2:
Acts 2:16-18 16 … this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 17 "'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. 18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.
-This is something we can expect today! All people! Not just a few of the bold ones. Paul talks about this in 1 Cor. 14 as a very helpful gift to edify or build up people of God as they worship together.
-So, what do we do with all this? My hope is that we will do what Jesus said, and ask the Father to give us the Holy Spirit. Luke 11:13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
-Lord, please give me your Holy Spirit as much as I can handle. And then, we’ll be able to handle a little more. That is why we are to keep on being filled with the Holy Spirit, Eph. 5:18.
-As we get ready to pray, maybe the first thing you need is to receive God’s love by the Holy Spirit. Romans 5:5 God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. This happens when we call on the Lord to forgive us and make us clean on the inside. The HS helps us receive God’s love, which changes us. If you need to receive God’s love and want to get your heart right with Him, I’d like to pray for you. Let’s all bow our heads. Would you be willing to raise your hand if you want to be right with God?
-And if you want more of God’s power in your life to take your worship, your witness, and your work for the Lord to another level, I’d like to pray for you to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Would you raise your hand?
-Let’s pray for one another and let God work in our lives.
