April 30, 2017
Morning Worship
Text: Romans 8:37
Subject: The Anointing of the Holy Spirit – Part 1
Title: More
Last week I finished up the series on Lessons from Revelation. I by no means exhausted the things that we can learn, but where we finished last week created a great starting oint for a new series – The Anointing of the Holy Spirit.
This is not a new topic or something that I rarely teach about. Most of you know that I consider it to be one of the primary facets of our Christian lives. Much of what we will study will be a refresher for many of you. For some it will be new information. But the goal is to get us to the place where we understand the importance of the Holy Spirit in our everyday Christian walk and what we miss out on without Holy Spirit power alive in us.
In order to begin I fell it is necessary to take you back about 13 years to an event that impacted my life as a pastor. We had been here a couple of years and had seen the church begin to once again become a healthy body, but for a long period of time it seemed that we had reached a plateau. No growth! No movement! Not a lot of activity other than just having church. It was a Saturday night, if I remember correctly, and I was in church praying as I do on occasion, with the lights out and music playing. And I had reached a point of frustration in ministry and I cried out to the Lord, “Why am I here?”
And immediately is heard – not in my ears but in my heart – I have brought you here to bring the Holy Spirit back to the church. So I began preaching on the Baptism in the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit – everything I could think of about the Spirit. And I had people say to me, “You are teaching things we have never heard before…” Now I don’t think that was necessarily accurate. But what I was doing was preaching and teaching with a passion and from a perspective that maybe the church hadn’t seen before.
You see, I didn’t preach like the old time Pentecostal preachers. I didn’t even know what a Pentecostal preacher was supposed to sound like. But what I did do was preach with the conviction that what the bible says about the Holy Spirit is true and just as valid for the church today as it has ever been.
That was then and this is now. I sense a renewed urgency to study and teach about those things once more and to even add to our understanding that we have had about the Spirit. Nothing new – just new revelation from the scriptures about the importance of the Baptism in the Spirit in the church and in each believer.
Let’s begin with where I left off last week.
Romans 8:31-37 (NIV2011)
31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.
34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
Verse 37 is going to be our starting point throughout the series.
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
I believe this is God’s word…
I believe it is for me…
I accept it as mine…
I will appropriate it to my life today…
Let’s begin with this thought… the idea that we are more than conquerors is directly connected to what Paul had written previously in chapter 8.
Romans 8:26-27 (NKJV)
26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
27 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
This is clearly a reference to praying in the Spirit, which in 1 Corinthians 14, Paul says means praying in tongues… And tongues come as a result of the baptism…
We know what Jesus said in Acts chapter 1 and verse 8…
8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
Let’s talk today about some misconceptions abut the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.
1. "The events at Pentecost only occurred once and were never to be repeated." Is that true? Well some want it to be… I was talking to a pastor friend the other day about the baptism in the Holy Spirit and he told me this, “I don’t not believe it. I’m just a little afraid of it.” And I believe that is where a lot of people are. Thus, they want to negate the doctrine of the Holy Spirit to accommodate their comfort level. John 14:16-17 (NKJV), And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever-- 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. The book of Acts records in detail some three instances when the Holy Spirit descended again, soon after Pentecost. Acts 8 in Samaria; Acts 10 in the house of Cornelius; and Acts 19 in Ephesus. Luke 24:49 (NKJV), Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high." Acts 2:39 (NKJV), For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call." Acts 4 tells us that Peter and John and others were filled with the Holy Spirit again when they prayed together and a supernatural manifestation resulted. And Ephesians 5 tells us that we should not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit… and the tense of the verb “be filled” indicates a repetitive action. The outpouring of the Spirit is a continuing event that only began on the day of Pentecost.
2. The Baptism in the Holy Spirit occurs when a person is saved – it is the same as the indwelling of the Spirit. Have you ever talked to one who is saved but does not believe in the Baptism in the Spirit like we do? A common response is, “I’ve got the Holy Spirit just as much as you do!” And yet the scriptures show that these are two separate acts of grace poured out by God on those who seek Him. Acts 8:12 (NKJV), But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized. At this point were these people believers? And if so, did they have the Holy Spirit? Now if that is the end of it then why are verses 14-17 recorded? Acts 8:14-17 (NKJV) 14 Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, 15 who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. 16 For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
3. The Baptism in the Holy Spirit is only for a chosen few… We have already seen the answer to that in Acts 2:39, For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call." But most people enter in to this with the thought that if God wants me to have it, then he will give it to me. But it doesn’t work that way. The very beginning of this is seen way back in Numbers 11:29 (NIV2011), But Moses replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!” Luke 11:13 (NKJV), If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!" In Matthew 28, who did Jesus say was supposed go and make disciples? Matthew 28:18-20 (NIV2011)
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
4. You don’t have to speak in tongues to be baptized in the Holy Spirit… this is probably the idea that gets the most attention concerning the baptism in the Spirit. Like my friend that I spoke of earlier, people seemed to just simply be afraid of the idea of speaking in tongues. Even many Pentecostal Pastors seem to be afraid of abuse in the church through the use of tongues, so they try to quiet it or prohibit tongues in their church services. Did you notice that I said “their church services?” Listen to this. Here is the way I was taught about tongues in my studies to become credentialed in the Assemblies of God… and while it is true to some extent, it really misses the full explanation of tongues as the evidence of the Baptism in the Spirit. There are five mentions of the Baptism in the Spirit in the Book of Acts. Acts 2 in Jerusalem; Acts 8 in Samaria; Acts 9 in Damascus; Acts 10 in Caesarea; and Acts 19 in Ephesus. Three of those five episodes specifically mention that tongues accompanied the Baptism in the Spirit. In the other two it is implied… But those other two do not specifically state that tongues was there. We kind of have to stretch it a little to get to that point. And that leaves the door open for sceptics. “So how do we justify what we believe? We have to look at what the first church believed and to do that let’s turn to Acts 10 first. Acts 10:44-47 (NKJV) , 44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. 45 And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. 46 For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Then Peter answered, 47 "Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?" There are a couple of things we have to notice here. Peter took six men from the church in Joppa with him to Cornelius’s house. These are not mentioned as those who were in the upper room on the day of Pentecost. They were men who were saved because of a miracle they saw performed in their home town. Acts 9:42 (NKJV) 42 And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed on the Lord. Acts 10:21-23 (NKJV)
21 Then Peter went down to the men who had been sent to him from Cornelius, and said, "Yes, I am he whom you seek. For what reason have you come?" 22 And they said, "Cornelius the centurion, a just man, one who fears God and has a good reputation among all the nation of the Jews, was divinely instructed by a holy angel to summon you to his house, and to hear words from you." 23 Then he invited them in and lodged them. On the next day Peter went away with them, and some brethren from Joppa accompanied him. Acts 10:47 is the key. 47 "Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?" What do you think happened to those six men when they received the Baptism in the Spirit? How did they know that the house of Cornelius had received? For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Speaking in tongues and magnifying God. This is not a one or the other situation. It was both. Then in Acts 11 Peter gave the same explanation to those in Judea. 15 And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us at the beginning. 16 Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, 'John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' 17 If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?"
…we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
Here is where we want to be. The scriptural evidence that supports the baptism in the Holy Spirit is overwhelming. Denominational bias may deny it, but the scriptures debunk every traditional myth.
The Lord has poured out His Spirit and it is for all people. It is a secondary act of grace that is given to those who ask that they might receive power. And the early church believed that the Baptism in the Spirit was accompanied by tongues.
This morning I want you to take a little time.
1. If you don’t know Jesus as your lord and Savior you cannot receive this power. You must be saved. If you are serious about receiving from the Lord and are ready to make a commitment to Him would you just stand up right now? Don’t hesitate. He wants to save you.
2. If you aren’t sure yet about this baptism would you just ask the Lord to reveal to your heart the truth of these scriptures. His desire is that you receive this baptism. He wants you to be empowered to be His church.
3. If you are ready to receive today I invite you to come forward and I will pray with you to receive.
4. If you are baptized in the Spirit would you just take some time now to just rest in His presence and ask Him, “Lord, What do you want for me?” Just allow Him to speak to your heart to prepare you for the things that He has in store for you.
If you earnestly desire to receive the Baptism in the Spirit to be empowered for ministry I want to ask you to do this one thing. I want you to take a week to pray that you might receive the promise of the Father. Seek His face and then next week we will continue to teach on this topic. Let’s all prepare ourselves to receive supernatural power from the Lord.
