The Power
Holy Spirit Series
CCCAG 9-10-23
-Scripture- Acts 2:1-4
Introduction
I came into the Pentecostal church in a very unique time- in 1993 right before the major revivals in Brownsville and Toronto started. When I first started to follow Jesus, the church we were attending was a fairly typical church that was Assemblies of God in everything except it’s affiliation. We had Royal Rangers, Missionettes, went to Spencer Lake camp- the whole 9 yards. Even all of the pastors were licensed or ordained with the AG. The leadership just wanted to remain independent of a major fellowship or denomination to maintain the freedom to set the beliefs and practices of the church at the local level.
About 2 years into going to that church, something happened. Our pastor, who was a very respectable AG pastor, got revived at a camp meeting and started to lead us down a path of revival and freedom in the Holy Spirit. Then, Father’s Day 1995 happened- which was the start of the Brownsville Revival where the Holy Spirit was poured out on hundreds of thousands of people from all over the earth.
All the sudden, we were thrust into a charismatic renewal, where all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit were being used and seen among us, and a lot of people were coming into the church and getting saved.
As a new Christian, I really didn’t know a lot about theology or bible yet- I was still learning. I was just enjoying riding the wave of power and joy I was experiencing.
It was so different from how I had been living before. Suddenly I had power to live for Jesus, no matter what the circumstance.
This matches up with what Jesus said right before He ascended to heaven-
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.”
That word power in verse 8 is the Greek Word Dunamis which means
An abundant miraculous power and ability, a worker of mighty deeds exhibiting power, strength violence of action in wonderful works
Remember this definition, we will be referring back to it a little later.
I now had that power working in my life.
Today we will be continuing our series on the Holy Spirit.
Acts Chapter 2 is the central verse we all know and love when it comes to the Holy Spirit falling on people in power.
So let’s get into it.
Acts 2: 1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Prayer- That we learn to be a people of the Power once again
This morning, we are going to explore this thing called the baptism in or of the Holy Spirit- the terms are used interchangeably. We are going to look at what the BIBLE says about it’s timing, it’s purpose, it’s evidence.
Let’s start with the timing of the baptism- when does it occur in the life of a new believer?
I. Generally speaking- Separate event from salvation
There are a few Christian denominations that, like us believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit. There are two main camps within that belief.
Some of them believe that the baptism is the initial evidence of salvation- especially when it comes to speaking in other tongues.
For example, the church that uses our church building after we are done on Sunday would believe this. They view the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues to be a direct evidence of salvation and if you haven’t had that experience, you are not saved.
You see this belief generally in Apostolic, Jesus only, and oneness types of churches. They also don’t believe in the trinity- but believe that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are not separate but are all manifestations of the same entity called God.
However, the belief that Holy Spirit baptism with the requirement that you speak in others tongues in essential for salvation isn’t found in the bible. Furthermore, that belief ignores John 20:21 that says that Jesus, after He rose from the dead breathed on them and said receive the Holy Spirit.
Now why would Jesus give them the Holy Spirit if they were not even saved because John’s Gospel doesn’t report them speaking in tongues.
To put it plainly, we do not hold to that belief. We believe that the Holy Spirit Baptism is a separate event that occurs after salvation.
I also hold to the Assembly of God view that says that the Holy Spirit is the birthright of every Christian who has ever lived.
The bible says that the Holy Spirit is our deposit, assuring us of our salvation and the reward we will receive in heaven.
2 Cor 1:21-22
Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, 22 set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
Just to review- At Jesus’ death and resurrection, God restored to those who believe in Jesus and choose to follow HIM that which Adam and Eve lost for all of humanity in the Garden of Eden.
We have talked a lot about that in previous messages so I don’t want to rehash that too much, but I just want to point out that in John 20:21 that says Jesus breathed on them and said “receive the Holy Spirit”, He was not endowing them with supernatural power.
Jesus restored their spirit’s connection to the Holy Spirit which restored their connection with God.
Acts chapter 2 is something completely different than that.
Let me illustrate the difference-getting wet
When the kids were little, I would be able to get great specials because I was a paramedic to go to Wilderness Resort for their water parks, and we would go a few times a year. When you are in a water park, everything is spraying you, or soaking you all of the time in light to medium pressures.
You were in the water park, and you were getting wet. That’s what John 20:21 is talking about- the Holy Spirit living within us.
But then inside that same water park, there is the giant barrel dump. You stand under this giant barrel that is about 50 feet in the air and it slowly fills with water until it reaches a tipping point when hundreds of gallons of water suddenly rush over you, pushing you backwards and completely overwhelming you.
The barrel dump is the Baptism in the Holy Spirit- you feel the overwhelming power of the water all around you.
You can walk around the water park and not get very wet.
But there is no escaping the barrel for those who are standing under it.
That’s why we view the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a separate event from salvation.
Now, they can occur simultaneously. Acts records in the early church a few times where it happened, and I’ve witnessed it myself.
But, salvation comes first with the Holy Spirit coming to live inside you, then the baptism. That’s the timing.
Let’s look at the purpose of the Baptism.
II. It’s purpose
A few minutes ago we talked about the Greek Word for power that Jesus used to describe what would happen when the Holy Spirit would come upon a person.
That word Dumamus is the root word for the English word dynamite- something that has explosive power that can level anything you want.
When I finally surrendered my life to Jesus and became a Christian, I was kind of a closet Christian at first. Most people saw the change in me immediately, especially me quitting smoking and not cussing anymore. However, I was pretty shy about trying to talk about Jesus- I didn’t know anything other than what I was learning at church. I didn’t know really anything about the baptism and the power that it held for me so I never really pursued it.
That is, until I volunteered at the church for a drama that we were putting on called Heaven’s Gates and Hells Flames.
Before each night, there was a 2-hour prayer service we were required to participate in. It was there I was baptized in the Holy Spirit. As most of you know, I’m a pretty reserved, somewhat shy, and introverted person. I was deathly afraid of public speaking because I cared too much about what people thought about me.
However, that all changed when I got the baptism- boom! The dunamis power exploded in my spirit and I walked out of the prayer meeting on fire.
After that night’s performance was done, we went to Taco Bell, and I was going from table to table boldly proclaiming everyone’s need to surrender to Jesus. I talked to the kitchen staff, walked along the cars in the drive through, and everyone in the dining room. I was answering objections with knowledge I didn’t know I had learned yet, and not caring if people were laughing at me. I had an overwhelming need to tell everyone I met about Jesus.
Doesn’t this match up with what Jesus said?
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.”
This scripture became very real to me, very fast. I was insatiable in my reading of the bible, Christian apologetic books- anything having to do with Jesus and I was there.
BOOM -that dynamite power blew up in my life.
And it can happen to you as well.
Let’s talk about the evidence- speaking in tongues
III. It’s evidence (speaking in tongues is a sign of a changed heart)
4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them
I often wondered why the baptism in the Holy Spirit produces this phenomenon. The Greek word for tongues both in the description of the fire coming down and enveloping people and in what is coming out of their mouths is the same- Glow-sa. Let’s tackle the second use of that word first.
Speaking in tongues has always been a subject of contention within the Christian church. Many older or mainstream church’s look at the more charismatic churches and accuse them of mixing things like voodoo or witchcraft into our worship practices because many pagan religions do the same thing.
But we shouldn’t be surprised at that- what God creates for good the devil aways tries to counterfeit to prove it’s nothing special.
So let’s ask a couple of questions- why did God give us this gift of a spiritual language, and why is it important to the Christian today as an evidence of the Holy Spirit’s baptism?
If you remember back to the book of Genesis in the time immediately after the flood, the survivors were told again to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth.
At that time, there was only one language. They obeyed in being fruitful and multiplying, but disobeyed in the last point and instead made for themselves a large city, which they started to build a tower to reach up to the heavens so they could make a name for themselves.
God saw what they were doing, probably gave a divine sigh, and as the bible says, confused the languages of the people. All of the sudden, they could not communicate with each other, so they ones who found other that they could understand separated from those they couldn’t understand, and moved away as was the original intent and command of God.
Back to Acts chapter 2 and answering the question- why give us the gift of tongues?
There is a verse in Zephaniah, which is in the Old Testament that speaks of something that happens in the end times-
Zeph 3:9 NKJV
"For then I will restore to the peoples a pure language, That they all may call on the name of the Lord, To serve Him with one accord.”
Why am I talking about the end times when we are talking Acts chapter 2?
Because the gift of tongues being part of the Christian life and experience largely disappeared after the 1 century.
However, in 1901 it came back.
The Pentecostal Revival kicked off at Charles Parham’s school in Wichita Kansas that spread like wildfire across the continent and then the world.
Why does this matter?
Because God knew what was coming in the next 123 years- where we are today. He knew we would face 2 world wars, a great depression, a dust bowl, and now a societal falling away from the church.
Our Father knew we would need all of the power we could get and brought this gift of the Holy Spirit back to us so that we, like the original Apostles and believers in Jesus, would be able to stand against the tide and proclaim HIS name despite the world falling apart around us.
Our Father also wants us to be effective citizens of heaven, therefore we need to be able to speak the language. Again, the entire point of the Holy Spirit returning to live inside us and come upon us in power is to restore everything that was lost to us after the original sin.
The second point of the gift of speaking in tongues is that it is the evidence of a new nature and a new heart.
Jesus Himself referenced this in Matthew 12:34 when HE taught us that
“It is out of the overflow of the heart that the mouth speaks”
The gift of speaking in tongues as an evidence of the Holy Spirit baptism is a proof to us that God has indeed done a heart transplant on us, and we are living a new life in HIM.
I’ve mentioned in the past that immediately upon surrendering to Jesus, God changed my heart. I used to cuss more than a drunk sailor. When I came back home from being in the Army for a while, I had a Ph. D in filthy language. My father, who was a Navy Sailor even rebuked me on how much I was swearing after listening to me talk driving me home from the airport.
When Jesus touched me at salvation, that instantly changed. It was the first evidence that people at work noticed about me the day after I got saved.
Even the subjects of my conversation changed. My favorite topics were generally unfit even for a strip bar at closing time, but I just felt a block in my spirit about even being interested in those subjects anymore.
When I received the baptism in the Holy Spirit a few months later, it really supercharged this change in my heart even more so and made me able to share the truth of the Gospel much more effectively.
One final point of the tongues of fire is this-
IV. It’s personal
I’ve been to quite a few large church gatherings in my life that have had a heavy presence of the Holy Spirit in the room. There have been times in meetings that I have felt so much of the weighty presence of God pressing down on me that I’ve felt paralyzed and been unable to move.
During those times, if I was able to look around the room and see other people feeling the same thing I was feeling, I also saw a few people sitting or standing with their arms folded, looking at their watches or phones, and being totally uninterested in what was happening.
That always stunned me that the same fire of God that was melting the hearts of the people was hardening others.
That’s when I noticed something about what the bible says about that first Holy Spirit outpouring in the upper room-
Acts 2:4
They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.
Sometimes I think we see the Holy Spirit as just an impersonal force or a God energy that is sent from the Father. It’s important to remember that the Holy Spirit is a person. He does not go where He is unwelcome. He is not just an impersonal force that hovers in church meetings and falls down on everyone- the bible indicates here that the image of the fire above their heads sent down little tongues that made a very personal connection with each person there.
That’s important for us to remember.
God wants you to experience this baptism in the Holy Spirit. If fact, HE wants you to live in the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
But you need to want it.
All rise
Prayer
