It is a sin to be good if God has called us to be great.”
Last week we began a journey to see how God can take our church from good to great. In Acts Chapter 1, we saw that Jesus commanded his followers to wait for the power that would come upon them when they received the Holy Spirit. But while they waited, they didn’t just sitting around doing nothing.
• They persisted in prayer
• They studied the Scriptures
• They proceeded with preparations
What a great lesson for our church as we wait for the power of God to carry His purposes and plans through us. And it’s so obvious that we need that power. We can come up with all kinds of plans, ministries and programs, but if we do that in our own power, while we might, by the grace of God, succeed for a while, we can’t ever have the kind of eternal impact that God wants us to have. So the obvious question for us as a church is how do we plug into that power?
I read this week a story about a man who was looking to buy a saw to cut down some trees on his property. He went to Home Depot and asked about various chainsaws. The guy in the little orange vest told him, "Look, I have a lot of models, but why don’t you save yourself a lot of time and aggravation and get the top-of-the-line model. This chainsaw will cut a hundred cords of wood for you in one day."
So the man took the chainsaw home and began working on the trees. After cutting for several hours and only cutting two cords, he decided to quit, thinking there must be something wrong with the saw "How can I cut for hours and only cut two cords?", the man asked himself. "I will begin first thing in the morning and cut all day", the man told himself.
The next morning the man got up at 4 in the morning and cut, and cut, and cut till nightfall, and he only managed to cut five cords. The man was now completely convinced this was a defective saw. The very next day the man brought the saw back to Home Depot and explained the problem. The salesman, baffled by the man’s claim, removed the chainsaw from the case and said "Huh, it looks fine." Then he started the chainsaw, to which the customer responded, "What’s that noise?"
If we want our church to be able to go from good to great we need to make sure we use the power that God has made available to us. For the next two weeks we’re going to see how the early church plugged into the power of God and see what we can learn from that.
Read Acts 2:1-21
My original intention was that this message would take just one week. But then I decided that not too many of you would want to listen to a two hour message. So I’ve broken it down into two one hour messages – one this week and one next week. Seriously, I’m barely even going to be able to scratch he surface on this whole concept of how we plug into the power of the Holy Spirit, even in two weeks, but hopefully we can lay a good foundation to build upon.
There are quite a few different approaches we could take to this passage and to the Holy Spirit in general. For instance, we could focus on the work of the Holy Spirit. We could talk about how the Holy Spirit works in the lives of unbelievers to convict them of sin and lead them into a relationship with Jesus Christ. And then we could discuss how the Holy Spirit works in the lives of believers to guide us into truth, to bestow spiritual gifts as He wills and to help us in our prayer life. And we will touch on several of those topics in the next two weeks.
But I’d like to take a slightly different approach. Two of the most important and misunderstood aspects of the Holy Spirit are:
• The Holy Spirit is a person, not an “it”
• The Holy Spirit is 100% God.
As a person and as God, the Holy Spirit has a unique relationship with those who have chosen to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And so I’d like to focus this morning on four important and essential aspects of that relationship.
HOW THE HOLY SPIRIT RELATES TO US
1. We are baptized with Him
All four Gospel writers record for us the words of John the Baptist at the baptism of Jesus. All four accounts are amazingly similar, but let’s read Luke’s account:
John answered them all, "I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
Luke 3:16 (NIV)
As John baptized Jesus, he used that occasion to teach about a time in the future when Jesus would baptize not just with water, but with the Holy Spirit. Not surprisingly, Jesus confirmed that teaching with His own words. Since we’re looking at this passage on Acts that was written by Luke, let’s begin by going back to the end of Luke’s gospel:
He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."
Luke 24:46-49 (NIV)
So Jesus told them to stay in the city until they received what the Father had promised. Based on the previous teachings of Jesus, there is no doubt that Jesus is referring here to the Holy Spirit. And that is certainly confirmed as we come to the first chapter of Acts. You’ll remember these words of Jesus from our study last week:
For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
Acts 1:5 (NIV)
In these three passages, we see both John and Jesus prophesying the baptism of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 2:1-3, we see the fulfillment of that prophecy.
Before we go any further, I want to acknowledge to you that there are a lot of different thoughts within Christian circles about what is meant by the “baptism of the Holy Spirit.” There are some who believe that the “baptism of the Holy Spirit” is a separate action that takes place apart from our salvation. And many who hold to that view would also teach that the evidence that a person had received the “baptism of the Holy Spirit” is the ability to speak in tongues.
However, I’d like to suggest to you that based on a careful examination of the Scriptures, the baptism of the Holy Spirit occurs in every believer at the moment of salvation. It is also clear that it is experienced by every believer and not just a select few. The primary passage that deals with this issue is in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church:
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.
1 Corinthians 12:13 (NIV)
Remember that Paul is writing here to Christians in a church that is full of sin and characterized by great divisions and by people who have fallen away from their faith. And yet, he makes it clear that all believers – notice he writes “we were all” – had been baptized by one Spirit into one body. The verbs “baptized” and “given to drink” in this verse are both in what is known in Greek as the aorist tense. The aorist tense indicates a completed action that occurred at one time in the past. In other words, all these believers had been baptized with the Holy Spirit at one point in time – at the time of their salvation. It was not something that they had to continue to seek after subsequent to their faith in Jesus Christ.
Paul confirms this teaching in his letter to the church at Ephesus:
There is one body and one Spirit - just as you were called to one hope when you were called - one Lord, one faith, one baptism
Ephesians 4:4, 5 (NIV)
Both of these passages reveal that purpose of the baptism of the Holy
Spirit is to incorporate the believer into the body of Christ – the church. That’s why Paul stresses both the universality of the baptism of the Holy Spirit among all believers as well as the importance of the unity of the members of the body of Christ. Paul’s teaching very clearly rules out any possibility of two classes of Christians – those who have experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit and those who have not. Therefore it must be true that every Christian receives the baptism of the Holy Spirit at the time of his or her conversion.
I think that it’s also instructive that not once in Scripture are we ever commanded to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Based on what we’ve already learned that certainly makes sense. Why would we be commanded to seek something we already have? As we’ll see later, we are commanded to be filled with the Holy Spirit, but never to be baptized in or with the Holy Spirit.
It’s also important to note that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is not something that we can do ourselves. In every passage related to the baptism of the Holy Spirit, it is Jesus who is doing the work of baptism:
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit…
I am going to send you what my Father has promised…
…you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit…
In fact, not only can we not baptize ourselves with the Holy Spirit, the Bible is also clear that the baptism of the Holy Spirit never came about as the result of anyone praying and asking for God to do that in his or her life. It is an act that is initiated and carried out by God completely apart from any action on our part.
Acts 2:1-3 describes the baptism of the Holy Spirit for Jesus’ disciples. They were all together in one place when they experienced a sound like the blowing of a violent wind and then they saw what looked like forked tongues of fire that came to rest on them. It was not some emotional experience. It wasn’t something they initiated. Luke just records for us the fact of the Holy Spirit coming on those who were already followers of Jesus Christ. And every believer that was present experienced that event.
Beginning in Acts 2:16, Peter uses the Old Testament prophecy of Joel to help explain the coming of the Holy Spirit that day. You’ll notice that every action recorded in that prophecy, including the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, was all God’s work
In just a moment, we’ll pick up with our passage in Acts, but before we do that I want to briefly discuss two other aspects of our relationship with the Holy Spirit. Although they aren’t specifically addressed in this passage, they are related to the baptism of the Holy Spirit, since they also occur at the moment of our salvation.
2. He seals us
Let’s look at two passages that both discuss this second aspect of our relationship with the Holy Spirit:
Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
2 Corinthians 1:21, 22 (NIV)
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession - to the praise of his glory.
Ephesians 1:13, 14 (NIV)
Once again, it is clear from both these passages that the work of sealing is something that is done on our behalf by God. We can’t seal ourselves and the sealing of the Holy Spirit doesn’t occur as a result of our prayers or any action on our part.
At the very moment that we accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit comes into our lives for two purposes that Paul describes by giving us two different pictures of the Holy Spirit:
• A seal, indicating a finished transaction in which we become God’s possession
In Jesus’ time a seal was an engraving with the name of the owner. It signified ownership or authority. So when the Holy Spirit seals us at the moment of salvation, it is an indication that we now belong to God and are under His authority.
• A deposit which guarantees our glorification
When Mary and I signed a contract to buy a house a while back, we also had to make an earnest money deposit. That deposit was a guarantee that when the house was completed, that we would follow through with our obligations under that contract and close on the purchase of the house.
At the moment of salvation, the Holy Spirit performs a similar function on our lives. He becomes the earnest money deposit who guarantees that one day I will experience all of the benefits of my salvation that God has promised.
There is one more action that the Holy Spirit takes at the moment of our salvation:
3. He indwells us
Before we discuss the idea of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, I’d like to take us back to the work of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament for just a moment. Sometimes I find that Christians are surprised that the Holy Spirit is indeed present in the Old Testament. We first see Him in Genesis 1:2:
…the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
There are also numerous references to the “Spirit of God” and “Spirit of the Lord” in the Old Testament. For instance, in our study of the life of David several months ago, we saw that both Saul and David experienced the “Spirit of the Lord” at various times in their lives. Although some commentators would consider that a temporary indwelling of the Holy Spirit, it seems to me that it is more of a temporary filling of the Spirit. In a moment, we’ll talk more about the filling of the Spirit, and I think you’ll see better then why I take that position.
What we can be sure of is that in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit did not come to reside or dwell permanently in the lives of God’s people. The Holy Spirit would work in the life of a person for a certain purpose for a certain period of time. And in many cases the Bible actually records that the Spirit of God would leave that person. Here’s one example:
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. Samuel then went to Ramah. Now the Spirit of the LORD had departed from Saul…
1 Samuel 16: 13, 14 (NIV)
Notice that the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in order to enable him to carry out his duties as the King of Israel. But the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, even though he was still the king, because he had turned away from God and serving God was no longer a priority in his life.
But in the New Testament, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit works much differently. Let’s look at two passages that very clearly teach the idea of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.
Romans 8:9 (NIV)
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God...
1 Corinthians 6:19 (NIV)
In Romans, Paul makes it very clear that the person who does not have the Spirit of God living in them does not belong to Christ. We can conclude, therefore, that every believer must have the Holy Spirit indwelling, or living, in his or her life. And if that is true for every believer, the indwelling must occur at the very moment that a person accepts Jesus as Lord and Savior.
And the passage in 1 Corinthians makes it clear that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer is permanent. God does not ever remove the Holy Spirit from the life of a believer. Remember that Paul is writing here to a church that’s full of sin and immorality and yet gives not even a hint that it is possible for a believer to lose the indwelling of the Spirit. Again the verb “have received” is in the aorist tense – it is something that has occurred at one point in the past and does not need to be repeated. But when he writes “the Holy Spirit…is in you” he uses the present tense which indicates a continuing action. It could even be translated “the Holy Spirit, who continues to live in you”.
The very moment that Jesus Christ enters our lives as Lord and Savior, we also enter into a relationship with the Holy Spirit.
• We are baptized by the Holy spirit to incorporate us into the Body of Christ
• We are sealed by the Holy Spirit as a sign of God’s ownership and authority in our lives and as a guarantee of future glorification
• The Holy Sprit indwells us in order to guide, help and comfort us.
Those are all amazing, important concepts. But if we want to be able to plug into the power of God that comes through the Holy Spirit, there is a fourth aspect of our relationship that is vital.
4. He fills us
Notice the first part of Acts 2:4:
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit…
It seems to me that much of the confusion about our relationship with the Holy Spirit arises because many commentators fail to recognize that the filling with the Holy Spirit here in verse 4 is a separate and distinct action from the coming of the Holy Spirit recorded in the first three verses. As a result, the activities recorded here in Acts 2 beginning with the last part of verse 4 are linked with the baptism or indwelling of the Spirit rather than the filling of the Spirit. While that might not seem like a big deal on the surface, I think that we’ll see that it is indeed significant.
We’re going to discuss the idea of being filled with the Spirit much more next week. But let me just say for right now that this is the one aspect of our relationship with the Holy Spirit that involves our participation. The baptism, sealing and indwelling of the Holy Spirit is something that God does without any action on our part. God initiates the action and He completes it and he does that for every believer.
But when it comes to being filled with the Holy Spirit, we are given a command:
Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
Ephesians 5:18 (NIV)
It seems to me that since we are given a command, it means that there are some things that God expects us to do. So next week, we’ll take a deeper look at what it means to be filled by the Holy Spirit and what we need to do in order for that to occur. We’ll see how we can plug into the power of the Holy Spirit so that God can move us from good to great.
“It is a sin to be good if God has called us to be great.”
