Why the Spirit Came
Acts 1:8 I Cor 2: 14
• Acts chapter one marks the end of the earthly ministry of Christ and the foundation of the church by the apostles
• Jesus prepared the disciples to be in ministry so when they were filled with the Holy Spirit they would launch the ministry of the new church.
• Today the effectiveness of the church still depends upon our understanding of the Holy Spirit and our willingness to allow the Holy Spirit to minister to others through us.
• Just as the disciples leaned on the power and ability of the Holy Spirit working through them, we also must be fully dependent on Him.
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."
If we can understand the fullness of the Holy Spirit we can move into the realm of the miraculous, and the glory and the power of God
I) First reason is to enable us to think God’s thoughts
1 Corinthians 2:14… The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Ill) This is why an individual who is exposed Jesus over a long period and continually does not receive the understanding of salvation or of a certain scripture. Then one day, all of the sudden they experience salvation or a fresh understanding. It was not because the preacher did a better job that day or because the song service was more anointed. It happens because they finally allowed the Holy Spirit to reveal to them the concept deep in their heart.
Only through the power of the Holy Spirit can we think as God thinks.
Ill News Media = example of not being able to discern Spiritual things.
Scriptural example:
Acts 1:5… For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."
The disciples were not thinking on the same level as Jesus. They passed right by that statement and went to the next verse…
Acts 1:6 So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"
• They were tired of Roman domination
• They wanted to rule the area
• They in essence said, yea, lord great but what about this more important item of the kingdom
• They were thinking of ruling in Jerusalem - Jesus was thinking reviving the Church
• They wanted a different Israel politically - Jesus wanted a different Israel spiritually
• They wanted authority and self glory – Jesus wanted all the Glory for God
We too need the Holy Sprits help to think the thought God wants us to think.
Our natural thinking is self-centered – God’s way of thinking is self-giving
The Holy Spirit is the only force in the entire universe that can bring mans’ thinking in line with God’s thinking.
John 16:13 – 14… But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.
Ill) The thinking of Peter
• Would have no relationship with a gentile
• Would never think of eating unclean meat
• Gentiles in Peter’s thinking were as dogs, unworthy
But after Pentecost
• Peter’s thinking changed
• He went to the gentiles and ministered to them
• He accepted the house of Cornelius into the new church
• He began to think like Jesus thought, that the gospel was for all
The world is full of questions and many are asking the Christians.
We need to be able to give the answer that God would give. We can only do that if we have a continual work of the Holy Spirit in our life.
Let us not put forth man’s ideas and concepts but let us put forth the concepts of God.
Ill) Y2K = Many people listened to the opinions of man concerning Y2K. Doomsday preachers were proclaiming major calamities. The Holy Spirit was not speaking through them; they were just speaking the thoughts of men. Those who sought the Lord spoke the truth.
There have been many, many times when man thoughts proclaimed a concept that turned out not to be true. What is sad is often with the proclamation they would refer to God as though he was speaking through them. Yet what was proclaimed did not come into reality.
The world is no longer interested in the opinions of man. They need to hear the mind of God come out of our lips. We need to think as God thinks.
The church has become like the boy who cried wolf to many times and eventually the people quit listing at all.
Let us be full of the Holy Spirit and think God’s thoughts about:
• Salvation
• The baptism of the Holy Spirit
• The return of the Lord
• What hell is like
• Divine healing
• Evangelism
• Missions
Therefore, the first reason the Holy Spirit came was to help us think as God thinks
II) To Share God’s emotions
• What is it that makes God joyful or angry, or sad?
• Do we feel what God feels?
• Is our heart breaking over the lost condition of the community?
• Do we weep over Odessa and Jesus wept over Jerusalem?
Look at what God can do:
• Love the unlovable
• Hatred of evil
• Joy for salvation
It is not in the natural man to love those who spitefully wrong you.
It is not in the natural man to sacrifice time and money for God’s kingdom
It is not in the natural man to deny evil and do well
It is not in the natural man to pray for the lost
It is not in the natural man to accept God’s authority over our life
The Holy Spirit allows us to feel God’s emotions and will assist us in humbling ourselves for the kingdom of God.
Ill David Wilkerson Crusade:
Wilkerson opened in prayer = Dear God before I preach help me to every man and woman as if you see them. Help me feel for each person as if you feel for them. God break my heart; help me preach with a broken spirit.
The Holy Spirit came so we can feel what God feels
• Grieved over the things the grieve God
• Excitement of the things the excite God
Romans 5:5… And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
God wants to make you a channel of His own emotions through the Holy Spirit:
III) Enable us to pray God’s Prayers
Romans 8:26… In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.
We are incapable of knowing how to pray for most situations. I have no way of knowing how to pray for individuals of the church. I have to depend on the Holy Spirit to pray for me.
Eph 2:18… Now all of us, both Jews and Gentiles, may come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.
It is only through the Holy Spirit that we can gain access to the throne room of the father. The Holy Spirit wants to lead you in your prayer life. He will assist us to pray God’s will.
IV) To enable us to do God’s Work
Zechariah 4:6… ’Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.
Jesus recruited for his followers the inadequate, uneducated, minority. The Holy Spirit changed them into a might, productive force.
To accomplish the work God had laid before us we must be filled with the Holy Spirit.
It is my prayer that the Holy Spirit of God will refill every Christian Education Worker, every advisor, every worship team member, and every leader of this church.
I pray the Holy Spirit to settle deep with your heart and spirit.
Closing:
God is wants a people who are filled with Holy Spirit:
• Think the thought he thinks
• Share the emotions he has
• Pray the prayer he prays
• Do the work he does
