Americans are people full of hyperbole; do you know what that is? We are people who will amplify, enlarge, exaggerate, and overstate just about everything. We’re like fishermen with a better story about a bigger fish. We don’t want to be outdone by anyone.
I want you to understand right from the start I am not using hyperbole this morning. I’m not here to try to impress you with an exaggerated story. I’m just simply here to tell you the truth.
If I enlarge the truth; if I try to reshape the truth to impress you, then it is no longer the truth. How many of you understand what I just said?
Can we make red redder or blue bluer? Can we enlarge 2 + 2 = 4 and call it 5 just to impress someone? Can we make an inch longer, a foot bigger, or a yard stick more than three feet?
Truth is absolute and stands alone. Altered or exaggerated truth is not truth at all.
This morning we are returning to the series “Living with Power.” “Living with Power” may seem like hyperbole to some of us; we’re living from day to day just trying to get by. How can we live our life with power?
The simple truth is you can. Here’s how. The Holy Spirit is an INCREDIBLE PARTNER making us into INCREDIBLE PEOPLE. Amazing but true, the Holy Spirit will energize the mundane ordinary life with supernatural power; this is God’s INCREDIBLE PARTNERSHIP with you and me.
People try to put some spark or energy into their lives in many different ways. A God shape whole within your heart cannot be filled with the things of this world.
I watched out the windows last night as the police had a man pulled over in front of the church. It didn’t take long for me to figure out this man had been driving under the influence. Even though it was dark outside alcohol had a noticeable impact on the way this man was living his life. What this man had inside him affected his outlook on life and how he handled himself. His inability to walk a straight line made it obvious that he had been transformed by what was inside him.
We’ll look today at Acts 2. A crowd gathered on the day of Pentecost accused the Spirit-filled disciples of being drunk! “They have had too much wine!” Peter’s response to the false accusation was simply, “these men are not drunk, as you suppose.”
Think for a moment about Peter’s response to the accusation of the crowd and Paul’s admonition to the church in Ephesus. “Do not get drunk on wine . . . instead, be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18 NIV).
Alcohol is a false and destructive way to try to fill one’s life with energy and fullness. It’s one way of trying to fill the empty places in your life but it never lasts. However, what a drink is unable to do the Holy Spirit does! The Sprit will energize and fill the life of the believer.
Has anyone ever charged you with being drunk with your Christianity? How seldom men have thought us drunk. We lack the flashing eye, and the pulsating song, and the tremendous enthusiasm of an overwhelming conviction.
What our community needs to see is the life transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. Let the Holy Spirit impact your life to such a degree that people begin to ask, “What’s gotten into you?”
• How many believe God wants us to be an INCREDIPLE PEOPLE?
• How many believe incredible people are hard to ignore?
• How many believe the world will take notice if our lives are full of life and are compellingly different from their own?
Now don’t miss this! Every one of us in this room has been created to live an incredible life – a life filled with amazing purpose, passion and power.
But we can’t live an amazing life on our own! We can’t live an incredible life without an INCREDIBLE PARTNER. We have bee given just such an amazing partner in the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised his disciples a partner … a parakletos who would be with them and in them forever because the fullness of their lives depended on how full they were of Holy Spirit!
Let’s look for the next few moments at the INCREDIBLE PARTNERSHIP between the Holy Spirit and the people of the early church. (Advance)
1. AN INCREDIBLE PARNTERSHIP BEGINS WITH AN EXPERIENCE.
What was so compelling to the crowd on the day of Pentecost? What happened that caused them to take notice of the disciples? It was what happened in the upper room.
• Acts 2:1-4 1When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. (NIV)
The disciples had an experience with the person and power of the Holy Spirit. The men and women who went into the upper room were not the same when they came out. The 120 gathered in the upper room were brought into an INCREDIBLE PARTNERSHIP with the Holy Spirit through a common experience.
EXPERIENCE BUILDS AND STRENGTHENS OUR RELATIONSHIPS.
Susie and I have a wonderful relationship, but our marriage and love for each other didn’t just happen. We shared experiences together. I still remember looking into her eyes at the pizza shop when she smiled and said she would like to have me as her boyfriend. I tingled on the inside! As the weeks passed, we held hands and kissed for the first time. Our experiences together drew us closer and closer together; we didn’t want to be apart. Ultimately we decided to make this boyfriend/girlfriend thing permanent; we were married August 27, 1982. Now nearly twenty-two years later we love each other more than the day we were married? Why? We have continued to share experiences together.
Imagine if I wanted to have a relationship with Abe Lincoln. I could read about his life. “I could read his writings and the writings of those who knew him. I could gain a great appreciation for the kind of person he was and the things he accomplished. I could even travel to Lincoln’s tomb, stand near where his body lies and attempt to talk to him. But I would not have entered into a relationship with Honest Abe.”
“Relationship requires interaction. Abe could never talk to me, acknowledging my presence, shake my hand or give me a pat on the back. Without the ability to experience Lincoln, I can never have a true relationship with him. I may end up knowing about him, but I can never know him.” (Robert Heidler)
Don’t miss this! Knowing about someone and knowing someone experientially is not the same thing. The difference between the two is huge; it’s like the difference between jumping across the ditch at the side of the street and jumping across the grand cannon.
The disciples intellectually knew about the Holy Spirit. Jesus had told them about the work of the Spirit and to anticipate the coming of the Spirit. However, their head knowledge made little change in how they lived their lives, but after their experience with the Holy Spirit they were never the same.
Your experience with the Holy Spirit will benefit you in two important ways. (Advance)
1. Our experience with the Holy Spirit is a CONFIDENCE BUILDER.
• 1 Corinthians 14:4 He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, (NIV) a person who speaks in tongues is strengthened personally in the Lord. (NLT)
Why could the Apostle Paul endure the difficulties he faced preaching the gospel? Why would he continue to preach even though his life was being threatened? Why was he willing to risk being arrested for the sake of the gospel? Why could he tell the Romans, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ” (Romans 1:16)?
Paul had an experience with the Holy Spirit. Paul was thankful he spoke in tongues more than those in the church at Corinth (1 Corinthians 14:18). Why was he thankful to pray in the Holy Spirit? He grew in confidence and faith through these times of prayer. It was through Paul’s experience with the Holy Spirit that He could say, “In my weakness I am made strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).
(Advance)
2. Our experience with the Holy Spirit is a COMMUNICATION BUILDER.
We can best communicate with others from our experiences; perhaps this is why Jesus calls us to be His witnesses to tell of our experience with Christ. The Bible says, “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew12:34). The greater our experience with the Holy Spirit, the more we will have within our hearts to tell others.
People with an experience have something to say! (Advance)
2. AN INCREDIBLE PARTNERSHIP WITH AN EXPLANATION.
When the people in Jerusalem heard what was happening a crowd gathered in the temple courts. Peter wanted folks to understand what was happening.
• Acts 2:12-14 12Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?" 13Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine." 14Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. (NIV)
The curious crowds reacted to the dynamics of Pentecost in 3 basic ways:
• Some were bewildered and amazed …
• Some asked honest and sincere questions …
• Some ridiculed and mocked the Spirit-filled disciples!
The reactions of the crowd to the Spirit-filled disciples are the same kind of reactions many people have today.
• Some people aren’t opposed to a Spirit-filled life, they’re just curious and amazed about it!
• Others are hungry for the power of the Spirit in their life. They sense deep within there must be more to life than what they’re living and they ask "What’s this Spirit-filled life all about?"
• Still others are critically sarcastic. Their attitude is — "These are flaky people addicted to emotion or experience ... they’re just people who love the feeling of being intoxicated … with anything!"
Peter wasn’t defensive or threatened by any or all of the reactions to the Spirit-filled life. The incredible partnership with the Holy Spirit enabled Peter to give a biblically based explanation for the amazing praises and prayers the crowd was hearing in their native languages!
• Acts 2:15-21 15These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! 16No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 17’In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. 18Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. 19I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. 20The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. 21And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ (NIV)
People today don’t need our opinion. PEOPLE NEED A BIBLICAL UNDERSTANDING ABOUT THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AVAILABLE TO ALL BELIEVERS.
(Advance)
1. We have an incredible partnership with a PURPOSE.
• 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." (NIV)
The primary purpose of the baptism in the Holy Spirit is not to make us feel good. The reason we are given the Holy Spirit is to be an empowered witness. We are given power to tell our world about Jesus. We don’t tell the world with our own strength or ability, we do so through an incredible partnership with the Holy Spirit.
Notice three things about the purpose of our partnership with the Holy Spirit.
• First, our purpose tells us WHOSE WE ARE. Jesus said you will be “MY WITNESSES.” We are not our own; we have been bought with the blood of Jesus Christ. Therefore we are not free to “do our won thing.” We must fulfill His purpose because we belong to Him!
• Second, our purpose tells us WHO WE ARE. We are WITNESSESS of Jesus Christ. You are not called to be the greatest theologian; you are simply to tell your world what Jesus has done for you! Like the blind man we can say, “One thing I know, I was blind but now I see” (John 9:25).
• Third our purpose tells us WHAT WE DO. Jesus said we will be witnesses “IN JERUSALEM, JUDEA, SAMAREA, EVEN TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH.” Can I put it to you simply? The gospel is not top secret for your eyes only. We’re supposed to tell everybody!
(Advance)
2. We have an incredible partnership through a SUPERNATURAL PHENOMENON.
How do you know when you have had entered into an incredible partnership with the Holy Spirit? How do you know what experience the Holy Spirit will bring to you? Will you have fire over your head? Will there be the sound of a tornado blowing in the room where you are praying? Will your goose-bumps have goose bumps?
The Bible shows us a common supernatural experience shared by those who have been baptized with the Holy Spirit is speaking in other tongues. This is what we call the “initial physical evidence” of the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
• Acts 2:4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. (NIV)
• Acts 10:44-46 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. [45] The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. [46] For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. (NIV)
• Acts 19:1-6 . . . Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples [2] and asked them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" They answered, "No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit" . . . [6] When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. (NIV)
When you are baptized in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues you know that you know that you know what happened really happened. No one can take that experience away from you.
We have entered into an incredible partnership with an experience, an incredible partnership with an explanation. Our partnership with God has one purpose.
(Advance)
3. AN INCRDIBLE PARTNERSHIP WITH AN EXHORTATION.
Exhortation means to speak words that encourage or inspire! An exhortation seeks to motivate the listener to take action. We don’t just want people to listen, we want them to be changed!
Through our incredible partnership with the Holy Spirit we want to see others people enter into the same dynamic relationship with God we have experienced. Therefore the Holy Spirit gives up opportunities to inspire others to become all they were created to be!
Peter could have stopped with an explanation; he could have just answered their questions saying “this is that.” But Peter wanted the crowds to move beyond the facts to a personal faith in Jesus Christ.
• Acts 2:37-40 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" [38] Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. [39] The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off--for all whom the Lord our God will call." [40] With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." (NIV)
The Holy Spirit enabled Peter to bring the people listening to him to a point of action. Over 3,000 responded that day and were saved.
Through Peter’s exhortation to the crowd listening on the day of Pentecost we find two keys to life-changing communication.
A. Words that change lives are RELEVANT!
Peter was answering the question the crowd was asking … now there’s a novel idea, communicate in a way people will listen to you by meeting their needs.
The people asked, “What does this mean. . . what must we do” Peter’s response was simple, “Let me explain this to you. . . repent and be baptized.”
Life-changing communication doesn’t begin with the question — what am I going to say? Life-changing communication begins with the question — Who am I trying to talk to … what are the real needs and issues that they’re wrestling with?
In-other-words we don’t approach people with our own agenda or canned approach to evangelism. Instead we listen to what they are saying and let the Holy Spirit inspire our response. A Spirit-enabled exhortation meets people where they are!
B. Words that change lives are CHRIST-CENTERED!
The theme of Peter’s exhortation … was Christ!
If we truly want to help people live amazing lives it won’t happen with indoctrination … IT WILL HAPPEN WITH AN INTRODUCTION TO JESUS!
The purpose is to exhort those who hear us to receive Christ. An exhortation is an admonishment to take action; it’s to encourage someone to do something. We’re to encourage people to come to Jesus.
CONCLUSION:
How about you? Have you entered into an incredible partnership with the Holy Spirit?
We have an incredible partnership through a common experience.
We have an incredible partnership with a biblical explanation.
We have an incredible partnership with a spirit-empowered exhortation.
THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL BE YOUR INCREDIBLE PARTNER MAKING YOU AN INCREDIBLE PERSON.
