FILLED UP
Acts 2:1-13
S: Holy Spirit—the Church Begins
Th: Freed to Minister
Pr: DISCIPLES OF JESUS ARE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT.
?: How? How does this happen?
KW: Steps
TS: We will find in Acts 2:1-13 three steps that describe how the church began and how disciples of Jesus are filled with the Spirit.
The ____ step that describes the beginning of the church is the…
I. EVIDENCE
II. EFFECT
III. EXPLANATION
RMBC 02 September 01 AM
COMMUNION:
We come here today because we stand at the cross.
Like Mary…
Like John…
…standing at the base of that old rugged cross.
Then, it was a matter of shame.
Today, we glory in it.
I will glory in the cross
Where my Jesus was crucified.
Through his blood I stand forgiven,
Cleansed from sin and justified.
I will glory in the cross
I will ever lift it high
As a banner for salvation,
As the standard for my life.
We are united together because of the work of Jesus.
Those of us that know Jesus are invited to share in the elements of the table.
If you do not know Jesus, that is, you have not received Him as your Savior and Lord, you do not trust Him with your life, that is, you have not been changed by the message, just let the elements pass by.
Please wait until the time comes when you do have that personal relationship with the Lord Jesus.
We practice “communion” because we are to remember the death of the Lord Jesus.
We take the bread to remind us that it was by the body of our Savior that our salvation came.
He died in our place.
He became our substitute.
We take the cup to remind us that it was by the blood of our Savior that our salvation came.
He died for our sins.
He became our sacrifice.
Being led in prayer by _______________________, let us take a moment and thank Him for favoring us with his mercy, love and kindness.
(Prayer)
The apostle Paul writes, "The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me."
Let’s partake together.
____________________ will now come and lead us in prayer.
Again, the apostle Paul writes, "In the same way, after supper he took the cup saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me."
Let’s partake together.
INTRODUCTION:
ILL Notebook: Birth (calf birth)
A man was helping one of his cows give birth, when he noticed his 4-year-old son standing wide-eyed at the fence, soaking in the whole event. The man thought, "Great, he’s 4 and I’m gonna have to start explaining the birds and bees. No need to jump the gun, I’ll just let him ask, and I’ll answer." After everything was over, the man walked over to his son and said, "Well son, do you have any questions?" "Just one," gasped the still wide-eyed boy. "How fast was that calf going when he hit that cow?"
Well, that is a mystery!
But the truth is…
Birth is a mysterious thing.
Many of us have had the experience of waiting for that baby to be born.
We come up to the due date, and he or she shows quite an unwillingness to leave their place of comfort, no matter how uncomfortable the mom is.
Babies tend to come on their own timetable.
As we come to our passage today in Acts 2, we observe that the birth of the church happens on God’s timetable.
TRANSITION:
But first let me say…
1. Today is the beginning of “discipleship month.”
This is our second year of taking the month of September to have an emphasis on discipleship.
But why do we so this?
The answer is really two-fold.
The first reason is wrapped up in who we are.
We are disciples of Jesus.
We are His followers, and it should be our goal to be fully devoted followers of Jesus.
The second reason is that we are commanded to be disciple-makers.
The Great Commission tells us that we are to make disciples.
We have the enormous responsibility of introducing others to Jesus and see that they too become faithful followers of the Lord.
This year’s theme for our discipleship month is “Freed to Minister.”
2. We are “freed to minister” the gospel as His light in this world.
Our year long theme has been, “My Life as God’s Light.”
It has been our goal to be God’s light in this world.
We are able to be God’s light in this world because we have been freed to do so.
We are no longer in the bondage of sin.
By the miraculous work of our Lord Jesus, we have become a member of His kingdom, and as a result, His light shines through us.
In our recent study of Acts 1, we discovered that…
3. Context: The apostles received instruction to wait for the baptism of the Holy Spirit (1:4-5).
“Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
The baptism of the Holy Spirit was not something they could cause.
It was only something they could wait for.
The only way they were going to be successful was because of the Holy Spirit.
So, they needed to wait.
And in the meantime…
4. The believers prepared themselves for ministry.
Last week, we learned that the believers in Jerusalem were obeying Jesus’ instructions.
They were waiting on His leading, anticipating what was to come.
They were submitting to His authority, uniting together in mind and heart.
And they were praying always.
And the Holy Spirit did come.
And the Holy Spirit came because they prayed…right?
Actually, no.
The Holy Spirit came, not because the believers prayed, but because He was promised.
So we find…
5. In today’s text, the church has its official start.
This is affectionately known as the birthday of the church.
And nothing has ever been quite the same since.
And it is here, right away that we learn some very important things about the nature of being a Christian.
It is this…
6. DISCIPLES OF JESUS ARE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT.
But how does this happen?
Well…
7. We will find in Acts 2:1-13 three steps that describe how the church began and how disciples of Jesus are filled with the Spirit.
OUR STUDY:
I. The first step that describes the beginning of the church is the EVIDENCE (1-4).
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
On the Israelite calendar, Pentecost follows fifty days after Passover.
Passover was a picture of death and the work that Jesus did on the cross on our behalf.
Correspondingly, Pentecost becomes a picture of new life.
Pentecost was a culminating feast of harvest, an offering of first fruits.
And it is on this Pentecost that we observe the first fruits of the believers’ promised inheritance—the Holy Spirit.
But that is not all.
We also observe the first fruits of the full harvest of believers to come.
As we mentioned before, the Spirit does not come because He is prayed down.
The sovereign timing of God is the cause of the Spirit’s descent.
We cannot make the Spirit come.
He is not our bellhop to answer when we call.
And as out text shows, there is an element of surprise that makes this event so tremendously exciting.
We find here that there are three signs that give evidence of God on the move.
The first is that…
1. There was the miracle of sound (a blowing of violent wind).
This was not a weather phenomenon.
Clearly, the witnesses to the event did not know how to describe it.
So Luke has to report it that it was like a rushing wind.
It was so utterly beyond their grasp of understanding.
It was not like anything they had ever experienced before.
This reminds me of the story of Ezekiel and the dry bones.
As God orders him to, He prophesies for the Spirit, the wind, to come.
And He does.
And as He comes, the Spirit fills the dry bones with new life.
To the Hebrew mind, I think this has to come into play.
As they hear this wind, it is a sign to them that new life has arrived.
The second sign is that…
2. There was a miracle of sight (tongues of fire).
Again, Luke has to report what has never been experienced.
It is not a literal fire, but it is like fire, in the shape of tongues above them.
Perhaps it would remind them of the burning bush, signifying the Divine Presence.
Or perhaps it would remind them of the cleansing power of God’s Presence as observed in Isaiah’s commission.
Either way, they have to recognize that God is with them.
His Presence is unmistakable.
The third sign is that…
3. There was a miracle of speech (speak in other languages).
God gave them the ability to speak languages that they did not know.
We will speak of this in greater detail this evening, but I do want you to note that they did not have to be taught how to speak other languages by reading a book or attending a seminar.
No one needed to be coached.
No one had to develop the gift by repeated practice.
It happened because the Spirit was there.
He was in total control of the situation.
These believers simply received what He gave.
This leads us to…
II. The second step that describes the beginning of the church is the EFFECT (5-11).
Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”
We must get this right…
1. The “tongues” were known languages.
We know this by the people’s response.
First, they consider this all a real mystery, for they recognize by the accent that these are Galileans.
It was easily recognized and it probably shocked the sophisticated city dwellers.
Everybody knew that Galileans were ignorant and uneducated.
But here they were, speaking in native languages.
This long list of places is a fair representation of the world as it was known then.
So here they were…uneducated Galileans speaking the languages of the world…speaking and understood.
ILL Notebook: Communication (illegible)
After Kent Gramm returned some corrected essays at Wheaton College in Illinois, a puzzled student raised his hand. Point-ing to a word Kent had circled in the student’s essay the student said, "I can’t read what you wrote about it in the margin." After intense scrutiny Kent finally deci-phered his criticism: he had written the word, illegible.
Well, these Galileans were anything but illegible or unintelligible.
Their speech was immediately recognized.
And what they were finding is that…
2. God was fulfilling His promise by supplying the power and the ability to reach the ends of the earth.
The uttermost parts of the earth had come to Jerusalem!
God had provided the ability of languages to demonstrate that His love and concern was more than just a Jewish concern.
God’s desire was for all the world.
So God does what only He can do.
He miraculously advances the spread of the gospel.
The curse of Babel is reversed.
There is communicated intelligence.
There is universality—it is for all peoples.
ILL Notebook: Evangelism (sales)
A passenger jet was suffering through a severe thunderstorm. As the passengers were being bounced around by the turbulence, a young woman turned to a minister sitting next to her and with a nervous laugh asked, "Reverend, you’re a man of God, can’t you do something about this storm?" To which he replied, "Lady, I’m in sales, not management."
That is good advice for us to remember.
Managing this world is God’s business.
Our business is winning souls, which we do by God’s power.
For…
3. When we are filled with the Spirit, our concern turns outward.
Just as these believers did, we are to proclaim the truth of the greatness of God.
For them, this event was filled with wonder.
They must have been overwhelmed with His greatness which spilled out in praise.
I enjoy how John Piper describes this event:
The flames on their heads had set fire to the knowledge of God, and turned it into passion. And the violence and the loudness of the wind had drowned all the puny voices of doubt and uncertainty. And so every remnant of timidity and hesitance and weakness is swallowed up in the experience of God’s greatness. And a tremendous boldness and courage and zeal was unleashed as they gave witness to the greatness of God.
This now leads us to…
III. The third step that describes the beginning of the church is the EXPLANATION (12-13).
Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”
1. Many responded with genuine interest ready to investigate this phenomenon.
The text describers a scene of astonishment here.
There are people listening here that are amazed and bewildered.
In the language of today, I think Luke would have said, “It blew their minds.”
It hit them so hard, they were stunned and staggered.
So the text continues to tell us that they sought for a solution.
The thoughts were literally running through their minds.
They were determined to investigate and figure out what this phenomenon was.
But…
2. Others were skeptical to the point of mocking.
They were filled with mockery and ridicule.
They dismissed it all.
They must be drunk was their explanation.
It reminds me of…
ILL Notebook: Skepticism (6 inches of water)
A teacher was doing her best to discredit the miracles of the Bible. She said, "Take, for instance, the crossing of the Red Sea. We know this body of water was only 6 inches deep." Immediately from the back of the room came the remark, "Praise God for the miracle!" Annoyed, the teacher asked, "What miracle?" "Well," explained the student, "the Lord must have drowned the whole Egyptian army in just 6 inches of water!"
No matter how ridiculous it may seem, the only thing that seems more ridiculous is the rationalization.
The idea that these believers were drunk was an unintelligent conclusion.
Their speech would be worse, not better.
APPLICATION:
You know…
1. If you are a believer, you have been baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ (I Corinthians 12:13).
The apostle Paul writes…
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.
When the Spirit came on these believers in the upper room, it was a uniform, sovereign work of God.
And God made them into one spiritual body.
They became, in that instant, the Church.
It is an unrepeatable act of history.
This means we do not ask for another Pentecost, just as we do not ask for another Calvary.
That would be ridiculous and insulting.
In the same way, we do not ask to be baptized by the Spirit over and over again, for when we are baptized in the Spirit, God places us into the body.
The Spirit is in us.
If you are a believer of the Lord Jesus here today, that is already a reality.
You have been places into the Church.
But note this difference…
2. As disciples of Jesus, we are to give evidence of being filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18).
Paul again writes…
…be filled with the Spirit.
More accurately, the translation ought to be, “be being filled with the Spirit.”
It is to be continuous.
And note it is a command!
There is to be fresh, continuous filling.
ILL Notebook: Evangelism (I gots cookies)
While attending seminary Russell Brownworth’s two older children (ages 9 and 7) seemed to attract every other child in the mobile home park for after-school games of hide and seek.
Their youngest, Carrie, was not quite 3—and (in the minds of the older siblings) always in the way. It was something you could count on; ten minutes into the games, the little one would get pushed aside or skin a knee.
One afternoon, she came through the front door crying for mommy. She had gotten the worst again. Elizabeth, her mother, attempted to comfort her by giving her two freshly baked cookies. "Now, don’t tell the big kids yet," she cautioned, "I haven’t finished; I haven’t got enough for everybody yet."
It took less than three seconds for Carrie to make it to the screen door, fling it wide, and announce to the big kids, "Cookies, I gots cookies!"
Well, great news should be shared with enthusiasm!
And…
3. As disciples of Jesus, we are to have a heart that is turned outward (I Corinthians 9:16).
Paul so well reflects this when he writes…
Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!
When the Spirit comes upon us and we are filled, we have hearts that are turned outward.
You see, Pentecostal power is not about tongues.
It is about the harvest.
There are people that need to hear the good news.
They need to be told.
We must also remember that…
4. As disciples of Jesus, we are to expect opposition.
As in our text today, some will inquire, and others will oppose.
But more importantly…
5. As disciples of Jesus that are filled with the Spirit, we are freed to minister.
We are free to speak His Word by the power of the Spirit.
We are able to go beyond human limitations.
We can reach the unreachable.
We can make strong stands with fresh convictions, for there is a living hope that burns within us.
Because of the Spirit, we can carry our faith across barriers of culture, race and nationality.
God gives us a greater concern for the welfare of persons around us.
That’s the difference He makes in us when we are filled.
So…are you filled?
Because when you are, what seems impossible is not.
Because when you are, people that need Christ are going to find Him.
BENEDICTION: [Counselors are ]
Be being filled with the Spirit…rejoice that Jesus kept His promise and sent Him to be with us, so that we would daily have Divine Presence;
Be being filled with the Spirit…for as we are, our hearts are turned outward, and out focus is not on how we feel, but on the harvest of people God wants in His kingdom;
Be being filled with the Spirit…for when we are, we are true, devoted followers of Jesus, freed to minister.
Now…may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
BIBLE STUDY:
THE NECESSITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Acts 2:1-13
Any specific questions from this morning’s message…
Pentecost: Deuteronomy 16:9-10. What is the relationship of the Feast of Weeks and Pentecost? Also was traditionally understood as the day of the giving of the Law. Why does God choose this day to give the Holy Spirit?
What are the links between chapter 1 and 2?
Is Acts 2 the normative experience for the Christian?
What does baptism represent? What did it represent to Jesus?
What is the difference between baptism of the Spirit and filling of the Spirit? How do we receive them?
Why is there so much controversy about tongues today?
Is it another language? Is it a heavenly language? Is it a prayer language?
Does it still happen today?
What do we have to do to keep the filling going (Ephesians 5:18)?
