When The Spirit Falls

"When The Spirit Falls"

9:30 5/30/93 Psam 20:1-8 Acts. 1:1-11 Text Acts 2 & 3

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RICK

What happens when the Spirit falls.

Turn with us in your

Bibles to Acts chapter 2 starting at verse 1. Acts 2:1-4

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one

place. {2} Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind

came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were

sitting. {3} They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that

separated and came to rest on each of them. {4} All of them were

filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues

as the Spirit enabled them.

TOBY

What an amazing service they had on the day of Pentecost! 120

disciples had been praying and waiting tend days. Suddenly there

was a sound like a roaring tornado. It was a mighty ruching

wind. Every believer was filled with God’s Spirit. Resting upon

each of they was cloven tongue like a fire. They looked like

humband candles, lit up for God.

RICK

This was the birth of the church. On the day of Pentecost,

three thousand people got saved in the city of Jerusalem. Luke

tells us that the people were amzaed at waht was happening and

two questions dominated their thinking. The first was was, "what

does this mean." No sooner than Peter told them what it was all

about, the word of God penetrated their hearts and they asked the

second question, "What shall we do?"

TOBY

Let’s look at the first question, "What does this mean?" What did Pentecost mean? Pentecost meant that God’s salvation

was better than the followers of Jesus had dreamed. Yes, God was

bigger than they anticipated. The God beyond, who IN Jesus had

been WITH them, was now also God the Holy Spirit WITHIN them.

RICK

Their question jolted Peter’s memory. He remembered John the

Baptist’s words that Jesus would come with a baptism of fire.

Peter lets them know that a new day has come. God’sest gift is

for all. The Holy Spirit is for the young as well as for the old,

for the male as well as the female, for the down and out as well

as the ones who seemed to have it all. The days of special privi

lege are over and God wants to do a new work in everybody’s life.

TOBY

It was not just the preacher that was filled with the Holy

Spirit at Pentecost. Peter told the audience that the promise

was unto them, their children, their sons, their daughters, and

as many as the Lord our God shall come. The coming of the Holy

Spirit is like a new creation. It is like the wakening of life

from the dead. When the Holy Spirit comes upon a person her or

she is born again and recreated to the do the will of God.

RICK

So often in the church, we have been asking the question in

the wrong order. To many people ask what shall we do?, before

they know what does this mean? As a result their are elders,

deacons, ushers, choir members and church members who have little

idea of what does the Holy Spirit mean in relation to my life. Is

the Spirit God recreating us on a daily basis, or is that all

Šjust religous talk.

TOBY

It is a tragedy that the unsaved people coming to church are

oftne not amzaed. They do not wonder, nor are they perplexed.

Much of what they see outside the church, they find inside the

church, because God’s people are resisting be recreated by God.

Look at verse 37 in chapter 2. When asked in verse 37, "what

shall we do?", Peter answered in verse 38, "Repent & Be Baptized.

RICK

The first step in getting to seriously know Christ is a

repentence and a confession of who we are, and who we have been.

Repentence is a genuine heavy sorrow for our past wrong doings,

and of our grieving the heart of God by ignoring Him and his

commandments. It is a decision to turn away from the direction

we have been headed, and to turn toward the call of Jesus on our

lives.

TOBY

Repentance is an endeavor by the help of the Holy Spirit to

conform all of our actions to the law and will of God. It does

not consist in just once single act of sorrow, (like Oh, I’m

sorry God & that’s it.) But repentence results in sincere obedi

ence to the law of Christ for the remainder of our lives. If we

desire a change in our actions, reactions, and relationships,

then we must seek to develop a dynamic personal relationship with

God.

RICK

Friends we are here to let you know that God is not dead.