A Virtuous Cycle
Acts 4:1-31
Introduction
During Superbowl XXXVII, FedEx ran a commercial that spoofed the movie Castaway, in which Tom Hanks played a FedEx worker whose company plane went down, stranding him on a desert island for years. Looking like the bedraggled Hanks in the movie, the FedEx employee in the commercial goes up to the door of a suburban home, package in hand.
When the lady comes to the door, he explains that he survived five years on a deserted island, and during that whole time he kept this package in order to deliver it to her. She gives a simple, "Thank you."
But he is curious about what is in the package that he has been protecting for years. He says, "If I may ask, what was in that package after all?"
She opens it and shows him the contents, saying, "Oh, nothing really. Just a satellite telephone, a global positioning device, a compass, a water purifier, and some seeds."
I think our church is like that commercial. We have the power of the Holy Spirit at our disposal, but we do not use that power enough to worship, teach the word, love one another and minister to people.
But we can if we will learn the Cycle of the Holy Spirit.
A cycle is when a circular series of events with one leading to another, leading to another, leading to another, leading back to the first again. For example the way the seasons move is a cycle. Spring, Summer, Fall and then Winter show a cycle of birth, growth, death, and dormancy. Then it all starts over again.
The way a Christian grows has often been compared to a roller coaster. But I think it is more like a cycle. We see this cycle repeat itself over and over again in the life of the early church as they are filled with the spirit and then a cycle of events returns them to a renewal of that filling.
Acts 2-4 is a stretch of scripture where we see that.
The Story
Retell story from healing to arrest to acquittal and celebration of believers.
Cycle: Holy Spirit comes upon us.
The first step is the Holy Spirit coming upon us. This happened for the early believers way back in chapter 2. They waited for Him to reveal Himself and on Pentecost He did just that bringing new life to the believers.
Do you believe God can bring the dead to life again? They do in Death Valley.
Death Valley may no longer deserve its name. Normally the hottest and driest place in North America, this desert area in California has experienced the wettest year in a century. As a result, colorful wild flowers are in bloom. “Vast fields of desert gold poppy, Eschscholzia glyptosperma, desert star, Monoptilon bellioides, evening primrose and phacelia have sprouted in the usually barren moonscape, which includes the lowest point in the Western hemisphere.”
Heavy rains have resulted in disaster for other parts of California through flooding and mudslides. But the rainwater has brought the desert to life. Referring to the explosion of color, a spokesman for the Theodore Payne Foundation said, “2005 is a year likely to be remembered as the wildflower show of a lifetime.
I believe God can bring the dead to life, but he won’t do it without our participation. It takes us being willing to make ourselves ready just the way the disciples did.
[Illustration of a glass of dirty water. Dumping it out is not enough. You have to clean it out and then fill it with clean water.]
Right now we are filled with things that are not that bad and probably don’t seem to be destroying your life.
Young families - activities, stuff
Youth - entertainment, friends
Seniors - fears
Clean it out and let the Holy Spirit fill you.
Cycle: We minister in His power.
After the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles, they responded by ministering. First they preached on Pentecost, but chapter three showed how they continued this. And after this story they continued it.
If we are not ministering in the power of the Spirit, we are ignoring our purpose and the whole reason we are here. We begin to live like the man in the FedEx commercial, with the power of the Holy Spirit at our disposal but we fail to let him use us and we become stagnant.
Do you know what happens when a person becomes stagnant as a believer? They get bored because they are not busy ministering. As a result they become opposition. Instead of supporting the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the oppose it because Satan uses them instead of the Spirit. We are like a vacuum, we cannot go unfulfilled. So if the Holy Spirit is not filling your actions, then Satan will.
Cycle: Opposition is stirred up.
When people minister, Satan gets busy and starts whipping us into a frenzy. It only makes sense. If I try to attack you by hitting you in the face, what are you going to do? You will defend yourself. And most people will then counter-attack. And Satan often uses stagnant Christians to do this. Who opposed the apostles? It was not the pagans or the Romans, but God-fearing, religious people.
The primary reasons people oppose those who minister is ...
1. They are embarrassed that they are not ministering so they attack instead of change.
2. Ministry often leads to change so they attack the change instead of allow it because they selfishly want it there way.
3. People who minister will gain notoriety and many people are unwilling to surrender the spotlight.
4. People who minister might begin to have control. Others who long for control are not willing to give it up and attack to keep it.
Cycle: We have a choice about how to respond
a. Either we cower and run – The Chicken Run
People who cower and run often act like a chicken with their head cut off. They run around frantic. They lose their cool and stir things up worse than the opposition would have.
Others just slink away into the night never to be heard of again.
b. Or we stand up and obey God and continue to minister
In 1935, Blasio Kugosi, a schoolteacher in Rwanda, Central Africa, was deeply discouraged by the lack of life in the church and the powerlessness of his own experience. He followed the example of the first Christians and closed himself in for a week of prayer and fasting in his little cottage. He emerged a changed man. He confessed his sins to those he had wronged, including his wife and children. He proclaimed the gospel in the school where he taught, and revival broke out there, resulting in students and teachers being saved. They were called abaka, meaning “people on fire.”
Shortly after that, Blasio was invited to Uganda to share with the Anglican Church there. As he called the leaders to repentance, the fire of the Spirit descended again on the place, with similar results as in Rwanda. Several days later, Blasio died of fever. His ministry lasted only a few weeks, but the revival fires sparked through his ministry swept throughout East Africa and continue to the present. Hundreds of thousands of lives have been transformed over the decades through this mighty East African revival. It all began with a discouraged Christian setting himself apart to seek the fullness of God’s Spirit.
In his discouragement he had a choice to make. Give up or give in to the power of God. What are you going to do? I have to admit that I often am tempted to give up. But then God reminds me that he is still working in my life and I renew my commitment once again.
Cycle: If we maintain our calling, then God blesses us with renewed Spiritual power and the cycle starts over.
Just as it did in the lives of the disciples and that missionary, it can in you. If you will give yourself back to God again, he will renew his spirit in you.
Obedience leads to power. Power leads to ministry. Ministry leads to opposition and a choice. And the cycle repeats itself.
Application
Why is the cycle broken?
1. We don’t minister.
2. We run in the face of opposition
3. We are sent in a new direction of ministry (this is not a break, but usually leads to a reprieve for a brief time until we get started in the new direction).
Will you surrender to the power of the Holy Spirit, by being cleansed?
Are you tempted to quit? Commit yourself to obey.
Are you ministering to the Lord or letting Satan have control? There is not middle ground.
