Written by Pastor Law, posted by Peter Yong
26th January 2009
John 20:19-23;
Acts 2:1-4
Main Idea: Appropriate the Holy Spirit in you to do ministry.
Objective: To challenge the congregation to allow the Holy Spirit to empower them to serve God.
- Introduction.
- Why the spiritual power experienced by the first century Christians is not something we can also experience today in our church?
- The simple explanation is we cannot have the fruits without the roots.
- What are the roots we are talking about here? It is the infilling of the Holy Spirit; the Pentecost. The empowerment of the early disciples by the holy spirit had bear much fruits for the early church.
- Two of the great revivalists of a past generation were Jonathan Edwards and Charles G. Finney. Jonathan Edwards viewed revival as a sovereign act of God which could in no way be influenced by man’s preparation. Charles Finney disagreed with Jonathan Edwards and he believed that God was always ready to bless His people with revivals and we men and women could have revivals whenever we are ready to pay the price in heart preparation.
- The day of Pentecost showed that both were right and both were wrong.
- In Acts 2:1, it says, “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.” The Holy Spirit came down only “when the day of Pentecost came…”
- No amount of self-emptying or heart preparation on disciples’ part would cause the Holy Spirit to come down on any other day.
- But this sovereign act of God coincided with deep humbling on the part of the disciples. The spirit would not have come upon men and women in whose hearts are not prepared for the Holy Spirit to fill.
- The 10 days of waiting and prayer had produced the result of what is stated in Luke 24:49, “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.”
- At the Pentecost God’s sovereign purpose and man’s essential preparation came to maturity, and immediately there followed the divine intervention of God. There were 3 supernatural phenomena.
- Explanation of the text.
- The early church (first century) Christians and disciples of Jesus experienced the supernatural Holy Spirit visitation in Acts 2:2, “Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind come from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.”
- This was their first recoded encounter with the supernatural Holy Spirit. It was an experience of 120 disciples of Jesus; it signified the mysterious renewing and purifying of the Spirit in the church.
- And the second supernatural phenomenon is recorded in Acts 2:3, “They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.” This was an individual experience, symbolizing the Spirit’s melting, warming, purging ministry.
- The third supernatural phenomenon is recorded in Acts 2: 4,6, “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them… When they heard this sound a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language.”
- This was the outcome of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the early disciples, they all became witnesses to the fact that many languages became one.
- This historical descending of the divine Holy Spirit had great implications for the first century disciples and for all of us today.
- When they received the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, they were no more behaving as described in John 20:19 , where after the death of Jesus, the disciples locked themselves behind the closed doors because they were fearful of the Jews.
- After they were empowered by the Holy Spirit, they became very bold. Acts 2:46, 47 say, “Everyday they continued to meet in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
- The who gathered in
- In their effort to explained, they mocked and said, “They have had too much wine.”
- Peter stepped forward and spoke to the Jews in their face and said the Christians were not intoxicated but they were filled with another spirit. So, in Acts 2:17 and 18, he quoted the Old Testament prophesies from the book of Joel 2:28-32 and interpreted it, “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. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.”
- Impacts of Being Filled by the Holy Spirit.
- The extent of how much the Holy Spirit had transformed the lives of the waiting and praying disciples was shocking.
- After they experienced the effects of being filled by the Holy Spirit, the risen Christ became real to them. They preached as if Christ was with them. They received entirely new insights concerning the Old Testament scriptures.
- Even Peter was able to link the prophesies of prophet Joel with the present situation and said, “…this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel.” (verse 16)
- And the Apostle Peter’s sermon which was authoritative and sharp produced deep conviction in his audience.
- In Acts 2:37, “When the people heard this, they were cut to the cut and said to Peter and the other apostles, ‘What shall we do?’”
- Peter’s sermon left a deep impression on their minds of the hearers, and they were baptized. In Acts 2:41, “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about 3000 were added to their number that day.”
- One of the most significant changes in the attitude of these former unbelievers of Jesus was that their willingness to preach the gospel and so many thousands into the early Christianity movement. Such was the powerful impact of the Holy Spirit in the life of the early disciples of Jesus.
- How can that transforming power of Holy Spirit take place in our lives?
- Now, we must allow the first message of our resurrected Lord Jesus Christ with regards to the Holy Spirit impact our lives.
- The message is taken from John 20:19-22, “On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After that he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
- Symbolic Act of Christ’s Breathing
- Let us understand the symbolic act of Christ’s breathing. It was breathing into the disciples.
- The word “Spirit” is derived from the Latin spiritus, it means breath.
- The Greek word for the Spirit, pneuma, also means wind or breath.
- The Hebrew word for Spirit, ruach, has the same meaning.
- It was the Breath of God which produced order out of chaos in the beginning (Genesis 1:2). Man became a living soul by God breathing into his nostrils the breath of life (Genesis 2:7)
- With this in mind, let us see the meaning of the symbolic act of Christ’s breathing into the disciples. This was where Jesus revealed to them the source of their power.
- First, Jesus blessed them with peace twice (John 20:19,21)
- Next, Jesus gave them the great commission, 20:21, “… as the father sent me, I am sending you.”
- Then, Jesus imparted to them the Spirit in verse 22, “And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.”
- You see, without the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, the disciples would be powerless to do Christ’s commission.
- This was really a foretelling of the coming Pentecost. It teaches us a valuable lesson.
- As if Jesus is saying to his disciples and all of us today, “ All you have to do is to breathe in, to take the Holy Spirit I impart to you now. He is the power to enable you to fulfill my commission.”
- The disciples breathed in what Christ breathed out.
- On the day of Pentecost, God breathed out, Acts 2:2, “Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heavens and filled the whole house where they were sitting.”
- The early disciples breathed in, and verse 4 says, “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit…”
- When disciples like you and me breathe in or receive the Holy Spirit, just as when we place iron in the fire, the fire enters the iron and the iron will acquire the properties of the fire.
- Dr J. Wilbur Chapman, a noted American evangelist who with Charles Alexander exercised a mighty evangelistic ministry around the world, was at one time deeply concerned at the lack of fruitfulness in his ministry.
- “What is the matter with me?’ He asked Dr. F. B. Meyer. “So many times I fail, so many times I am powerless. What is the reason?” Dr F. B. Meyer answered, “Have you ever tried breathing out 3 times without breathing in once? Dr Chapman realized the need to be filled by the Holy Spirit to do ministry.
- You have the Holy Spirit and You need to be filled by the Holy Spirit.
- Paul says in Romans 8:9, “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.”
- 1Corinthians 3:16, Paul says, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you.”
- You need to realize that being filled with the Spirit is something that involves conscious decision. You need to go for it and desire it.
- You may possess the Holy Spirit but you may not be filled with the Holy Spirit.
- There is no point in having a check of RM1000 in my pocket if I do not know it is there; or if I do not its value, I will not use it.
- I have received the check in the sense that I possess a piece of paper. But actually, I have not received it until I present it at the bank an receive its value in cash.
- If this is true, it is our part to breathe out, to exhale from our lives all that is impure and unworthy, and then, to breathe in, to consciously allow the Holy Spirit to fill us
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