Calling on the Spirit
October 9, 2022
Acts 2:1-4
Have you ever received a gift you just weren’t sure you knew what to do with? Ties that make good presents for someone else. Perfumes and colognes that would make a skunk hold its nose? Maybe it was a picture or painting that would look great in someone else’s home. When we receive them, we know the routine, we smile, we say thank you, and we hope we can move on.
There’s a gift we receive from God that many of us really don’t know what to do with. We struggle with it because we know we have it, but it kind of just sits dormant. Never getting used, or at best . . . rarely getting used.
Have you ever received the gift of fire? Yup, it’s one of those unusual presents. Maybe you received a fancy lighter one time. Or you have a fire stick for times when you’re camping.
Fire is certainly fascinating. It’s frightening and scary, yet magnificent and powerful. And at the same time, we’re drawn to it. Who doesn’t like a warm fire in th winter or a campfire and smores.
Now, let’s combine gifts and fire and what do you get? It’s really the first gift from God to the young disciples and early followers of Jesus. Maybe the early Christians wondered, too. After all, that was part of the Lord's first gift to the church on that great earth shaking Pentecost . . . FIRE and the HOLY SPIRIT.
The faithful remnant of Jesus’ followers had gathered in the upper room near the temple in Jerusalem. There were 120 of them. In Acts 1:4-5, Jesus told the group
4 And while staying with them jesus ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, He said, “you heard from me;
5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” - Acts 1:4-5
They had been in Jerusalem, dutifully waiting for the gift of the Holy Spirit, a gift they really could not conceive of. What was the Holy Spirit? What would it do to them? What would it mean to have the Holy Spirit?
For 10 days, they prayed together, they chose a replacement for Judas, they ate together, they hung out and talked about life, faith and Jesus and what was to come. They were gathered in Jerusalem to wait for this gift, yet they weren’t quite sure what this gift was all about, nor what to do with the gift when they received it
Jesus had told them about the Holy Spirit. During their meal with Jesus on the night before His crucifixion, He told them that it was necessary for Him to leave them so that He might send a COMFORTER, one who would walk beside and ENCOURAGE, TEACH and EXHORT them.
Still, they weren’t sure what Jesus was talking about. Still later, Jesus told them through the Holy Spirit, they would receive POWER, a supernatural power as the Spirit would lead them.
How would they receive this gift? Who would deliver the gift? UPS, DHL and Fed Ex had not been invented.
Luke tells us the story in Acts 2 - - -
1 When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.
2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. - Acts 2:1-4
So, that’s the story. They were all together. The coming of the Spirit happened very suddenly, it was loud and filled the house and they were immediately filled with the Holy Spirit.
Now, I want to do something we’ve never tried before. I want you to listen to about 2 minutes of a classical music piece. Whenever I hear it, I think of this moment in church history. It’s Peer Gynt, by Edvard Grieg. The movement is called “In the Hall of the Mountain King.”
The music starts out slowly, just as if it was a typical day in the upper room, the 120 are together and waiting just as Jesus told them to do.
As the movement picks up speed - - I picture the choir as a representation of the Holy Spirit as we really can’t understand them. But we sense the power and intensity. And through this, I picture the Holy Spirit coming upon the group in the upper room. And finally, they’re filled with the Spirit of God and are excitedly dancing and praising God as never before, then it’s over. Boom! Just as suddenly as the Spirit came. He’s gone. Not gone forever, just the initial outpouring.
Nothing was moved: no buildings destroyed, no doors slammed shut, not even a leaf rustled. Yet, the Spirit filled the room. As they looked around to see what was happening, they noticed that above each head was what appeared to be a FLAME. . . FIRE that simply sat there . . . the FIRE that would be Christ's first gift to His church . . . the FIRE that was the Holy Spirit.
Watch or close your eyes and picture the scene of the Spirit coming
for the disciples, but maybe also coming for you, into your heart.
VIDEO I used this video, which has a choir. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTXNqfUWT5E)
My body always begins to race when I hear this piece. I just thought it might be different to hear music and picture an act of God occurring. I wonder if the disciples had any more idea what to do with a gift like this fire than we do? But to their eternal credit, and to our undying benefit, they didn’t think of possessing the gift; they let that gift possess them.
The fire was exactly as advertised. It proved to be a COMFORTER, an ENCOURAGER, an EXHORTER, a TEACHER. Peter was able to give the first sermon, and 3,000 people responded to accept Jesus. What a sermon. The only way Peter could accomplish this, was through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Peter probably did not understand it. I doubt that any of them did. The folks who heard him didn’t, especially when they heard the message of the disciples in the languages of their own homelands. That kind of power is beyond human comprehension. But, understand it or not, the power . . . the fire . . . the Holy Spirit . . . was there that day, and the fire is still here today in God’s church.
It is still the Lord's birthday gift to the church. Unfortunately, we often treat it as we would one of the horrible ties, smelly perfumes or ugly pictures. We don’t know what to do with it, and, quite honestly, we seem to live as if we would just as soon not have it.
I suspect we’re afraid of it. It’s almost as if someone had given us a caged beast. We’d be terrified at what would happen if somehow that cage opened. We read the account of what happened to those early disciples at Pentecost; we see what a tremendous effect the coming of the Spirit had on them, what an unbelievable difference was made in their lives; and somehow we know that if the Spirit came to us in that way, if the fire would take hold of US like it did them, things would never be the same. Sometimes that scares us. . . doesn’t it? After all, what would God call us to do?
On the other side of the coin, there’s still that natural fascination we have with fire, with POWER. We think, “Wow, what great things could happen in us and through us if we would open ourselves to the Spirit like Peter and the rest did! What a witness we would have! What a church we would have!” And it’s true - we would be given such power that life would never be the same again.
Do we want that kind of power here? Or are we afraid of it? Do we want the fire of Pentecost to burn in Alexandria? Or are we worried that it might ask us to do more than we want to give and disrupt our comfortable lives?
Would we be willing to give our time?
Would be willing to speak His Word, even if others didn’t like it?
Would we be willing to risk our lives and livelihoods?
Would we be willing to give more financially?
Lots of questions which very well may change us . . .
As Christians we can live impoverished, weak lives devoid of the Spirit’s power. If you are a Christian, a believer in Jesus, then the Spirit of God lives within you. But is there evidence to the world, that the Spirit is alive and well.
If we want it we can have it. We can have it by preparing for it in the same way the early disciples did. First, they had a personal relationship with Jesus. They believed, even though it didn’t always make sense, they had faith in Jesus. They trusted Him and followed Him and worshiped Him. They learned commitment and obedience. When Jesus called for them to FOLLOW HIM, they did. They gave up their lives to follow Jesus.
Second, they lived with a sense of expectancy. Jesus told them to go to Jerusalem and WAIT, without doubt one of the most difficult commands He ever called them to obey. Not many of us like to wait. We’re not patient. We want to know how long will I have to wait. Jesus didn’t say. He just said wait here and you’ll receive the Holy Spirit. And they obeyed, and they waited . . . with a sense of real anticipation.
And, they prayed . . . not just for a moment or two; they prayed and hung out together. It was the start of church fellowship. It was church community in action. Which we’ll talk more about. They did this for 10 solid days. And then it happened . . . the Lord's first birthday gift to the church . . . the all-powerful Spirit of the living God came upon them. We can have it too.
I want us to be Biblical ‘fire - starters’. People who call on the Holy Spirit, and please understand . . . if you’ve already accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then the Spirit of God is already dwelling within you. Listen to these 4 scriptures which will help you see the Spirit really dwells within us - - -
27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. - Ezekiel 36:27
16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? - 1 Corinthians 3:16
14 Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you. - 2 Timothy 1:14
11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,
He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. - Romans 8:11
Do you hear that? The Spirit of God . . . the same Spirit who filled Peter and James and John, Doubting Thomas, and Paul . . . the same Spirit promised to us by Jesus - - - - - is the same Spirit who is filling us today.
The Holy Spirit is kind of mysterious, we don’t fully understand who and what the Holy Spirit is. And things, especially . . . things we cannot see, things we cannot explain, things that don’t work off of logic can really bother us.
Yet, that does not have to be the case with he Holy Spirit. Look at the Spirit as a gift from God to you and I. It’s a gift that’s supernaturally placed within each of us when we proclaim that Jesus is really the Christ, that He IS the Son of God, our Messiah. When we proclaim this from our heart, God mysteriously sends the Holy Spirit to come into our heart, soul, mind and entire bodies.
The Spirit helps us make the right decisions, the Spirit helps us to pray, He encourages us, comforts us, and leads us. The Spirit of God is nothing to fear, in fact it is something to crave and seek. And once we have the Spirit, do we hide it within ourselves, afraid others may look at us a little differently; or do we say, “THANK YOU . . . GOD!!” And we show the world Jesus in the way we live.
The Holy Spirit can be quenched, it can be put out, we can be like firefighters, and put out the fire, or we can be the kind of people who help keep the fire lit.
The same Spirit that changed chaos into creation, turned the Red Sea into a highway of freedom and brought salvation from the “yes” of a young, Jewish virgin. The same Spirit that invades body and soul, and makes us more than we ever imagined we could be.
The same Spirit that disturbs . . . delivers, and lifts up. The same Spirit that makes the old feel young and brings life from death. The same Spirit that touches our lives today touched the lives of the disciples and the world was never the same.
The same Spirit that ushers us to eternity in Christ . . . is the same Spirit who dwelt in the prophets and disciples and you and I.
Are we Pentecost people -- on fire for Christ? Or are we firefighters -- dousing the flames, making sure that, whoosh, this doesn't get out of hand?
Will we treat the Spirit as a gift we would just as soon do without? Will we simply be fascinated by the Spirit as we watch others set on fire? Or will we pray, “Lord, give US that fire.” That is MY prayer for First Baptist Church - Alexandria . . . and I hope . . . . . . it is yours.
Pentecost people acknowledge that the power of the Spirit can be frightening, but they enter into it, they take the risk, they embrace the unknown and the unseen. Pentecost people boldly share the good news of Jesus Christ.
Pentecost people go from being believers to being proclaimers and go from thinking about themselves to thinking about others . . . healing, forgiving, serving, loving.
We can immerse ourselves in the Bible and get involved in the church. We can invite others to come with us. We can tell our friends, our neighbors, our co-workers what it is that makes our lives so wonderful!
I truly believe the Spirit will give us everything we need to serve those around us. Our call is to Follow Jesus!
But let me tell you something, when we are really Pentecost people this could get out of hand! But, wouldn't that be great!
