SERIES: “LESSONS FROM THE EARLY CHURCH”
TEXT: ACTS 2:1-13
TITLE: “RESTORING THE POWER OF THE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH”
INTRODUCTION: A. A mechanic in Mangum, Oklahoma, answered the distress call of a woman
motorist, whose car had stalled. He examined the car and informed her that it was out
of gas.
She asked the mechanic, "Will it hurt if I drive it home with the gas tank empty?"
1. That woman didn’t understand the automobiles operate
2. She was confused as to what powers the vehicle.
B. Many Christians are confused about the Holy Spirit
1. There are those who over-emphasize the Holy Spirit
2. There are those who under-emphasize the Holy Spirit
3. There are those who ignore the Holy Spirit altogether.
C. Who is the Holy Spirit?
--The Bible refers to the Holy Spirit in many different ways
1. The Spirit of God – Gen. 41:36
2. The Spirit of judgment and fire – Is. 4:4
3. The Spirit of wisdom and understanding – Is. 11:2
4. The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord – Is. 61:1
5. The Spirit of truth
6. The Spirit of Christ
7. The Spirit of Grace
8. Counselor/Comforter
9. Power of the Most High
D. Holy Spirit has been active throughout history
1. In creation
--Gen. 1:1-2 – “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the
surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”
2. Throughout the Old Testament
a. Judges 6:34 – “Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon, and he blew a
trumpet, summoning the Abiezrites to follow him.”
b. 1 Sam. 16:13 – “So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence
of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David
in power.”
3. Throughout life and ministry of Jesus
a. Lk. 4:1 – “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by
the Spirit into the desert…”
b. Lk. 4:14 – “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about
him spread through the whole countryside.”
E. In our text tonight, we see a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit that had been
prophesied and promised both in the Old Testament and by Jesus.
1. Occurred on a day we call Pentecost.
a. Jews called Pentecost the Feat of Weeks
--it was one of the high holy days for the Jewish people
b. Began fifty days after the Feast of Firstfruits
2. As you study the calendar of Jewish feasts in Lev. 23, you’ll see that it is an
outline of the work of Jesus Christ.
a. Passover pictures His death as the Lamb of God
b. The Feast of Firstfruits pictures His resurrection from the dead.
(1). Firstfruits took place on the day after the Sabbath following Passover.
(2). Firstfruits always took place on the first day of the week
--The Sabbath is on the seventh day
(3). Jesus rose from the grave on the first day of the week and as 1 Cor. 15:20
tells us – He “became the firstfruits of them that slept.”
3. If Pentecost was 50 days following Firstfruits, then it, too would have been on the
first day of the week.
a. It celebrated giving of the Law (the Old Covenant)
b. What better day to start the New Covenant than on this day
4. The events described in Acts 2 are the beginning of the church
--The promised time when Jesus would lead His people not by His physical
presence but instead by His Holy Spirit.
F. Vance Havner: “We are not going to move this world by criticism of it nor conformity
to it, but by the combustion within it of lives by the Spirit of God.”
1. Important that we understand this power that is given to us
--Without the work of the Spirit in our lives and in our church we become like the
people Paul describes in 2 Tim. 3:5a – “having a form of godliness but denying
its power.”
2. 1 Cor. 2:4-5 – “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive
words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not
rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.”
2. Without the Power of the Holy Spirit the message of the Gospel rest in man’s
wisdom
I. THE EXPRESSION – HOW DID THE HOLY SPIRIT COME?
A. Believers were together
1. “all together” – word literally means “unanimous”
--not just together as a group of people but together in purpose and perspective
2. “in one place” – “ to admit or delight in”
--That’s where the body of Christ needs to be: accepting one another in grace
B. Expecting something
--there was an expectance that God was going to do something in their midst
1. “Sound”
a. Came form heaven – not from N, S, E, or W but from “above”
b. “like a violent wind”
--ever been in a tornado? sound of freight trains
2. A visual effect – “saw what seemed to be tongues of fire”
--One commentator describes it this way: “The original Greek gives the picture, not of a cloven
tongue on each, but the ‘firelike’ appearance presented itself at first, as it were in a single body, and
then suddenly parted in this direction and that; so that a portion of it rested on each of those
present.”
C. All of them were filled with Holy Spirit
1. The Holy Spirit is not fire or wind
--1 Kings 19:11-13a – “The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the
LORD , for the LORD is about to pass by." Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart
and shattered the rocks before the LORD , but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there
was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but
the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he
pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
2. “filled with the Holy Spirit” – not full of themselves but the very Spirit of God.
3. Spoke in other tongues
--to what does this refer?
a. Spoke as the Spirit enabled them
--Work of God’s Spirit that allowed them to speak in other languages (dialects)
b. vs. 6b – “Each one heard them speaking gin their own language
c. vs. 8 – they ask how it can be that they can hear in their own native languages
4. The Spirit accomplished what Jesus said He would do in John 14:26-27 – “"When the Counselor
comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he
will testify about me. 27And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.”
--v. 11b – “we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”
5. Fire represents:
a. Purity – fire is used to purify precious metals
--takes out the pollution and impurities
b. Presence
(1). There was the fire of the Shekinah glory that led the children of Israel at night.
(2). There was the fire that came forth from the altar to consume those who had defiled the altar
(Lev. 10:1-2).
(3). There was the Lord speaking from the midst of the fire (Deut. 4:11-12), so that Moses stated,
"Our God is a consuming fire" (Deut. 4:24).
c. Those tongues of fire demonstrated that God had come to His people to dwell in them and to
constantly be with them.
(1). His presence is ever near for those who know Him.
(2). He abides in us, purifying us as a holy people unto Him.
d. Fire is the symbol of transformation!
--Because fire changes whatever it touches.
II. THE EXPLANATION – WHY DID THE HOLY SPIRIT COME?
A. Jesus said in Acts 1:8 that when the Holy Spirit came that He would give POWER
1. Greek word here is dunamis
--explosive, inherent power ready to be put to use
2. The Greek word dunamis entered the English language when the Swedish chemist and engineer
Alfred Bernhard Nobel (1833-96) made the discovery that became his fortune. He discovered a
power stronger than anything the world had known up to that time.
He asked a friend of his who was a Greek scholar what the word for ‘explosive power’ was in
Greek. His friend answered, ‘Dunamis”. Nobel said. ‘Well, I am going to call my discovery by that
name.’ So called his ‘explosive power’ dynamite.
B. Six different areas where Holy Spirit brings power:
1. Power to witness
a. 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.”
b. Rom. 1:16 – “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of
everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.”
2. Power to pray
a. Rom. 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.
b. R.A. Torrey: “If we’re too busy to pray, we’re too busy to receive power.”
3. Power to overcome temptation
1. 1 Cor. 10:13 – “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful;
he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also
provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”
2. Olin Hay, “The Holy Spirit will never do for you what you can do for yourself.”
4. Power to strengthen the church
--Acts 9:31 – “Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was
strengthened; and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord.”
5. Power to convict and convince of sin, righteousness, and judgment
--Jn. 16:7-11 – “But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the
Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8When he comes, he will convict
the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 9in regard to sin, because men do
not believe in me; 10in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see
me no longer; 11and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.”
6. Power to change lives
--Rom. 8:13-14 – “For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you
put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14because those who are led by the Spirit of God
are sons of God.”
CONCLUSION: A. One New Year’s Day in the Tournament of Roses parade, a beautiful float suddenly
sputtered and quit. It was out of gas. The whole parade was held up until someone could
get a can of gas.
The amusing thing was that this float represented the Standard Oil Company. With its
vast oil resources, it was out of gas.
1. There are a lot of people today who are out of gas
2. They have no power to live their lives
B. John R.W. Stott, The Spirit, the Church, and the World: “Without the Holy Spirit,
Christian discipleship would be inconceivable, even impossible. There can be no life
without the life-giver, no understanding without the Spirit of truth, no fellowship without
the unity of the Spirit, no Christlikeness of character apart from his fruit, and no effective
witness without his power. As a body without breath is a corpse, so the church without the
Spirit is dead.”
C. God offers us power through His Holy Spirit
1. But we have to be ready and willing to accept this power wholeheartedly
2. A fellow who had been reared in the city bought a farm and several milk cows. In
the feed store one day he complained his best cow had gone dry.
"Aren’t you feeding her right?" asked the store owner.
"I’m feeding her what you’ve been selling me," said the man.
"Are you milking her every day?"
"Just about. If I need six or eight ounces of milk for breakfast, I go out and get it - I
just let her save it up."
--The feed store owner had to explain it doesn’t work that way.
--With cow’s milk, like God’s presence, you take all that’s there, or you eventually
have nothing.
D. Hear these words and make them your prayer to God tonight:
Lord, send revival in mighty flood-tide;
Send streams of blessing to sweep far and wide.
Send them engulfing like waves of the sea;
Sweep through our lowlands and work mightily.
Send the outpourings of God’s Holy rain
Send mighty cloud-bursts again and again
Strike holy lightning at home and abroad;
Speak in your thunder, O Spirit of God!
Fill all our churches with rivers of power
Flood man’s embankments in this holy hour!
Sweep away rubbish and all the debris;
Sweep all the hindrances out to the sea.
Things long unmoved by our normal smooth way
You can remove by Your flood-tide’s full sway.
Unsightly jumble that littered each side
Sweep to oblivion by Your holy tide
Lord, send revival to flood all around;
Flood by Your blessing all low parched ground.
Sweep on in power; oh, sweep, mighty flood!
Sweep in all fullness, O river of God!
(Dr. Wesley Duewel from "More God More Power")
