“Completing the Mission that Jesus Began”
Seeking and Saving Those Who are Lost
The Birth of the Church, Part 2
Acts 2:1-13
We are continuing the series in the book of Acts called, “Completing the Mission that Jesus Began”. Acts is a wonderful New Testament book that gives us the history of the birth of the church, and the progress of the Church as it begins “Completing the Mission that Jesus Began”.
Remember, that the Mission is Seeking and Saving Those Who are Lost!
Luke 19:10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." NIV
Remember that the church is not a building, but the people of God. When the Bible talks about the church, it is always referring to the people of God.
Jesus promised two great events that occur in Acts 2.
1. The birth of the church
In Matthew 16:18 Jesus said, "I will build My church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it."
2. The coming of the Holy Spirit
In John 14:16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. NIV
Both of those events took place at the same time on the same day and are recorded for us in Acts, chapter 2.
Read Acts 2:1-13
We began this message last week entitled “The Birth of the Church”.
Brief review.
In the first four verses we have four important supernatural elements that we need to examine carefully in order to understand the implications and applications of this passage.
Last week we looked at the first two:
1. The church:
The church is one body of believers indwelt by the Holy Spirit, all in an invisible union with Jesus Christ and with each other. The church is the instrument through which God will “Complete the Mission that Jesus Began”.
2. The baptism of the Holy Spirit.
All believers are made one, by the baptism of the Holy Spirit. At the moment of salvation a person is baptized by the Spirit into union with Christ and His body, the church.
This week we are going to look at
1. The filling of the Spirit
2. The speaking in other languages
We start with:
1. The filling of the Spirit.
Acts 2:4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. NIV
In verses 2 and 3 they received the Spirit of God. In verse 4 the Spirit of God fills them and His power is released.
The Bible teaches that there is a distinction between the baptism of the Spirit and the filling.
1 Corinthians 12:13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body — whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free — and we were all given the one Spirit to drink NIV
Baptism of the Holy Spirit occurs at the moment of salvation, and all believers, are baptized into the body of Christ the church.
Romans 8:9 if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. NIV
(1.) What is the filling of the Spirit?
Ephesians 5:18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. NIV
Do not yield your body to alcohol (Which leads to all kinds of immorality.) The wine controls the person that is drunk.
But instead
Yield yourself to the Holy Spirit of God (which leads to the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control NIV).
(a.) The person who is filled with the Spirit is controlled by the Spirit of God.
It is important to look at the word “filled” in Ephesians 5:18. A more accurate translation would be “being filled continually”. That is the meaning of the present tense verb in Greek.
The believer is not commanded to be baptized by the Spirit, because he is baptized at the moment of salvation. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of God is in him and never leaves him. We do not need more of the Spirit. He needs us to yield more of ourself to Him.
The word “filled” confuses us. If a glass in empty it needs to be filled with water. If it is full it does not need to be filled. That is not the picture here.
The picture here is about control and yielding.
For example, Acts 6:5 says, “they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; NIV When he was stoned, the overwhelming, controlling thing in his life was faith and the Holy Spirit. It was the dominant force in his life at that moment.
The Scripture, Acts 5:17 Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. NIV Jealousy was the controlling thing in their life at that moment.
The Bible talks about being filled with love, that is
where love dominates your life.
ILL. Baptism of the Spirit is like plugging in the lamp. All the power is available. Could I have a volunteer grab these two wires?
But the light is not on. This person is not shining for Jesus. Why?
(b.) Being filled with the Spirit is like turning on the Spirit’s power who lives in the believer. Then the fruit of the Spirit will be evident. Galatians 5:22-23
Baptism of the Spirit makes the power available; filling turns it on.
The big problem for the believer is that the switch keeps getting turned off and left off. What keeps turning the switch off? It is rebellion, sin, or indifference that keeps turning the switch off.
How does the believer turn the switch on and keep turning it on?
(2.) How are you filled with the Holy Spirit?
Now, that's the question of the Christian life.
(a.) We are filled with the Holy Spirit when we yield to His authority. The Spirit is always present in the believer’s life, but we must yield total control to Him.
How much of you does the Spirit have?
Ill. What if you gave God 60%, would that be good enough for God? 80%? 99%?
At 99% you would still be living in sin and rebellion against God!
Do you mean God wants everything? Yes!
Have you read in Scripture that God is a jealous God?
Deuteronomy 4:23 Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the Lord your God has forbidden. 24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. NIV
Have you ever wondered what that was about?
Ill. If you were in the middle of a child custody battle with a child molester, how much time would you be willing to let your child spend with the molester?
God is in a child custody battle over you with the worst child molester that ever existed, Satan.
If God has 99% of you, then Satan has 1% that’s enough to destroy you. The truth is you may think Satan has only 1% when he really has all of you because you can’t serve two masters.
(b.) Confession of sin is an essential part of yielding control to the Spirit of God.
1 John 1:8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. NIV
The Greek work translated “confess” means to agree with God about our sin. Our sin is hurtful, needs to be forsaken and restitution needs to be made.
T. S. The finial element in this passage…
2. The speaking in other languages
Speaking in languages, did not occur as a result of the baptism of the Spirit; it occurred as a result of the filling. It says so in verse 4.
What are these other languages that the disciples are speaking?
They're real languages.
In verse 6 it uses the word language, in verse 8, native language, and in verse 11, tongue.
There are two different words being used. The first of the two is dialektos. From which we get dialect. The one in verse 11 is glossa; so it means languages.
The word Greek word dialektos & glossa always refers to real language. It never means anything but language, doesn't ever mean gibberish or ecstatic speech. It always means languages.
When someone thinks they have the gift of tongues and then they speak in a non-language; they don't have a gift from God.
It even tells you which languages are being spoken in verses 9, 10, and 11.
It is the power of the Holy Spirit that enabled the disciples to speak in a language that they have not learned.
(1.) It was a special phenomenon for that special day. It is not the universal pattern for a Christian that is filled with the Spirit to speak in unlearned languages.
For example, in Ephesians 5:18, “What is the result of being filled with the Spirit?" It is not speaking in unlearned languages. It is praising God, loving your wife. Wives following their husbands’ leadership, children obeying their parents, being a good employee, and being a good employer.
We need to remember that this was a transition period, the beginning of the New Covenant and the church age and the end of the Old Covenant. Jesus was the fulfillment of the Old Covenant.
We are going to see that there are a few more events during this transition period when the Baptism of the Holy Spirit comes on believers after they are saved.
But the norm for all the church age is not what happened here in the transition period.
2.The second time we have believers filled with the Spirit and speaking in unlearned languages is with
Samaria.
Acts 8:14. I think you'll find this interesting. By this time the Good News about Jesus had spread to Samaria.
The Jews hated the Samaritans because they intermarried with Gentiles. But at the moment of their conversion, they did not receive the Holy Spirit, they were not baptized into the body. Why? Because the Spirit of God wanted some very important Jews to be there when it happened so they would know that, indeed, it happened just like it happened to them.
So that Peter and John could come back and say to the Jews, you'll never believe it. The Samaritans got the same thing we got. You see, this is bringing together the body. So that they would have the same sign as the Jews had so there would be no way for the Jews to say we got something you didn't get, see...not at all.
3. The third time is in Acts 10:44 Peter's gone to Cornelius who's a Gentile. While Peter was speaking to Cornelius, the Holy Spirit fell on all of them that heard the Word and they spoke in unlearned languages and praised God.
The Jewish believers were astonished! They couldn't believe Gentiles could receive the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit of God wants everybody to be sure that the church is, in fact, one body. So He goes to great pains to make sure everybody knows.
In Acts 11:15 Peter's telling about his experience with Cornelius.
Acts 11:15 "As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. 16 Then I remembered what the Lord had said: 'John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' 17 So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?" 18 When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, "So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life."
NIV
4. The fourth time is in In Acts 19 there are some Old Testament saints who believed in the coming of the Messiah or the Christ through John the Baptist. They don't even know that the Messiah has come.
And everybody that has come to Christ since that time has been placed in the body of Christ at salvation by the baptism of the Spirit.
If there is such a gift of unlearned languages today, then something's wrong. Why do missionaries toil many years to speak in a foreign language?
Invitation:
Before the Mission can be completed we must be filled with the Holy Spirit.
