The Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-41) // On mission with the risen Jesus

They began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled

them. Now they were staying in

Jerusalem, God fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.

When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in

bewilderment because each one of them heard their own language

being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked,

Aren't all these who are speaking Galileans?

Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native

languages? Parthians, Meats and Elamites,

residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,

Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Sireni.

Visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans

and Arabs. We hear them declaring the

wonders of God in our own tongues.

Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, what does this

mean? Some, however, made fun of them

and said they have had too much wine.

Then Peter stood out with the 11, 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. These people are not drunk as

you suppose. It's only 9 in the morning.

No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel in the last

days. God says I will pour out my

spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will

prophecy. 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 prophecy. I will show wonders in the

heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and

billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to

darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great

and glorious day of the Lord, and everyone who calls on the

name of the Lord will be saved. Fellow Israelites, listen to

this. Jesus of Nazareth was a man

accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs,

which God did among you through him.

As you yourselves know, this man was handed over to you by God's

deliberate plan and foreknowledge, and you, with the

help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the

cross. But God raised him from the

dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was

impossible for death to keep its hold on him.

David said about him. I saw the Lord always before me.

Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices.

My body also will rest in hope, because you will not abandon me

to the realm of the dead. You will not let your Holy One

see decay. You have made known to me the

paths of life. You will fill me with joy in

your presence. Fellow Israelites, I can tell

you confidently that the patriarch David died and was

buried, and his tomb is here to this day.

But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on the

oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne.

Seeing what was to come, he spoke to the resurrection of the

Messiah, that He was not abandoned to the realm of the

dead, nor did His body see decay.

God has raised this Jesus to life and we are all witnesses of

it. Exalted to the right hand of

God, He was received from the Father, the promised Holy

Spirit, and has poured out what you now see and hear.

For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, The

Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your

enemies a footstool for your feet.

Therefore let all Israel be assured of this.

God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified both Lord and

Messiah. When the people heard this, they

were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles,

Brothers, what shall we do? Peter replied, Repent and be

baptised everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the

forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the

Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your

children and for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord our

God will call. With many other words, He warned

them and He pleaded with them. Save yourselves from this

corrupt generation. Those who accepted His message

were baptized and about 3000 were added to the number that

day. So Lily's already said, but this

is a really big moment in the history of the church and

history of God's dealings with humanity.

And sometimes the events of a single day can change

everything. Maybe on a on a global level,

that might be we're at war or war is over.

It could be a medical breakthrough that will save

countless lives. It could be a political upheaval

or regime change that just changes events all around the

world. On a more personal level, just

think of a wedding day or the birth of a child.

The day before your life is one way, just as it's always been.

And then suddenly the next day everything changes.

And the day of Pentecost was a single day that changed

everything forever. And why was that?

Well, because in the city of Jerusalem that day in the early

years of the 1st century AD, God himself comes to dwell with his

people. All thanks to Jesus life, death

and resurrection. For us on the day of Pentecost

we've just read about, the living God comes to dwell with

his people through the Holy Spirit, and nothing will ever be

the same again. The living God who made us can

now dwell with and in us because our sins have been paid for by

Jesus. I was speaking with a friend

earlier this week about this pastor who just said message of

Pentecost. It's just, it's worth

celebrating maybe even more than the message of Christmas that we

do every year. And she said, actually it's a

bit like the message of Christmas.

And you can almost sum it up with Emmanuel, God with us.

That is what the coming of the Holy Spirit means.

It means Emmanuel, God has come to live with us and in US

through the Holy Spirit so we can enjoy intimacy with God and

partnership with God in this world.

This changes everything, the day of Pentecost.

And why is the coming of the Holy Spirit so life changing?

Well, the 20th century pastor and theologian John Stott puts

it like this. He says without the Holy Spirit,

the Christian life is impossible.

There could be no life without the life giver, no understanding

without the spirit of truth, no community without the unity of

the Spirit, no Christ likeness without the fruit of the Spirit,

no effective witness without his power as a body, without breath,

as a corpse. So the church without the Spirit

is dead. I hope we're getting the point

here. This is a big moment.

The coming of the Spirit changes everything.

It's God himself come to live with his people, to empower us

for new life with Him, and to live as His witnesses in this

world. So again, as we said, it's a bit

of a long pass. We're going to try and speed

through it and then finish with a few implications for us today.

So looking at verses 1 and 2 here, the coming of the Holy

Spirit, Luke begins by by telling us his disciples we're

all together in one place. That's verse one.

If you hear last week, you know that refers to the 12 apostles

recently with Matthias joining their number, and about 120 are

their believers with them. And Luke tells us it's the day

of Pentecost. Now the day of Pentecost was the

day already before the coming of the Holy Spirit, and it was

called Pentecost because it came fifty days after Passover.

Literally, Pentecost is the 50th in Greek, and it was the

beginning of a Jewish harvest festival known as the Feast of

Weeks. And by the 1st century, it also

become a celebration of God giving the law to Moses of Mount

Sinai. This big moment where God

reveals his law to his people that he saved from slavery.

That's what it began to represent.

And it's now been 10 days since Jesus ascended into heaven.

And throughout Acts chapter 1, Luke has been making us wait

Acts 1 · chapter mention

with the apostles and disciples. We've waited with them.

We've held on with them to the closing words of Jesus.

Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my father promised.

And now suddenly verse 2, with the disciples all together in

one place, the Holy Spirit is poured out on them.

Let me read verses 2 to 4 force again.

Luke says. Suddenly a sign like the blowing

of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole

house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be

tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of

them. All of them were filled with the

Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit

enabled them. It's a huge moment.

What is going on here? Well, all the images Luke

records for us here are symbols of the presence of the living

God with his people throughout the Old Testament.

So very tells us first of all, there's there's a sound like the

blowing of a violent wind that represents the creative power,

the breath of God. So a violent wind in the book of

Exodus parted the Red Sea, open it up so that God's rescued

people could walk to freedom when they received the law at

Mount Sinai. There was a huge wind round

Mount Sinai, the sea. On the same mountain generations

later, the prophet Elijah encountered God and there was a

violent wind accompanying that. And then Luke tells us there

were tongues of fire resting and all of them.

That again represents the purifying presence of God and

the Old Testament fire often means God is cleaning up.

He is getting rid of the sins of His people from His presence.

Again, Mount Sinai, the Lord descended in fire.

Exodus 19, verse 18. Fire was present when Elijah met

Exodus 19:18

with God. 1 Kings 19, verse 12. What is going on here?

1 Kings 19:12

Luke wants us to see the living, holy God has come near to dwell

with His people. And how on earth is that

possible? How can a holy God live with

sinful people here on earth? The difference is that Jesus has

come. Jesus has lived and died and

risen again. And because Jesus has paid for

our sin through his life, death and resurrection, the living God

can now dwell with his people. Look at verse 4.

Here Luke tells us all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit

and began to speak in other tongues as the spirits enabled

them. Again here we learned the words

of God are proclaimed. See the prophets in the Old

Testament. Filled with the spirits, they

can proclaim the words of God to the world around them.

Now the spirit has come. All God's people are empowered

to be prophets. All can be witnesses to the

living God, to the world around them.

We have wind, we have fire, we have speech.

God himself has come near to his people, and he wants to speak to

them and through them, to the world he created and the world

he loves. It's a huge moment in the

history of the Bible. And again, look at those verses,

verses 1 to 4. Again, know how inclusive Luke's

language is here. He says what seem to be tongues

of fire separated and came to rest on each of them.

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak.

Looks clear. The blessing of the Holy Spirit

is for the whole community of believers, not just Peter and

the other apostles, but all 120 of them present in that room.

The Holy Spirit is God's empowering presence in all his

people. And again, if you've been here

at all the last few weeks, we've already seen the apostles.

They play a unique and distinctive role in the history

of the church. We're going to learn more about

the apostles rules in the weeks to come.

But right from the outset, there is no two tier Christianity.

It's not like the apostles have the Spirit and the rest don't.

There's no idea of some believers with the Spirit and

other believes who like them. No, no, all of them were filled

with the Holy Spirit says, look, the Holy Spirit is the living

God dwelling in everyone who trusts in Jesus.

We'd see this is a huge moment. This is this is a new way of God

coming near to his people. There are echoes of the Old

Testament, but something new is happening here.

It's a unique turning point in salvation history.

Now we're going to see in the weeks to come in the book of

Acts, when people come and put their faith in Jesus, they

receive the Holy Spirit. It's not He's not received in

all the ways that are mentioned here.

There's no mention of wind or fire elsewhere in the book of

Acts. We shouldn't expect to see those

same physical signs of someone receiving the Holy Spirit.

But the message of Pentecost is still one we need to hear

because God comes and dwells with all his people.

And there's a refrain all the way through the Bible.

God says again and again to his troubled, beleaguered people,

people struggling, He says do not be afraid, I am with you.

And now in a world post Pentecost, every believer in

Jesus can know with certainty the living God is with me.

He is dwelling in me and among his people.

Through his Holy Spirit. We can now live knowing that the

Lord is with us. We can now be His witnesses in

this world, and that's what the Spirit empowers the disciples to

do. In the following verses, verses

5 to 13 that Stuart read out to us, Luke introduces us to this

crowd in Jerusalem that day, verse 5.

Now that we're staying in Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast

of Weeks, God fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.

Straight away, right at the beginning of his book, Luke

gives us a glimpse here of the Gospel for all nations, verses

5. It's a 13 cause again, it's hard

to hide what is happening with the early disciples.

They're declaring the wonders of God together at full volume.

The crowd comes together in amazement and we learn more

about these other tongues. The Spirit enabled the disciples

to speak. So what are these other tongues?

Well, the crowd tells us in verses 7 and 8 and verse 11 they

are. The other tongues are the native

languages of the cried, the native languages of the Greek or

Roman world of the 1st century looks clear here.

These aren't the sort of tongues mentioned elsewhere in the New

Testament in One Corinthians 12 to 14, where those tongues are a

particular gift of the Spirit given to some believers that

require the Spirit to interpret no on the day of Pentecost.

The tongues here refer to intelligible human languages

different from the disciples own languages.

So the gift of tongues at Pentecost enables the good news

of Jesus to go to these God fearing Jews from every nation

under heaven, says Luke. And when Luke describes every

nation under heaven, he's not including nations that would

have been unknown to him at that time, so Australia or America or

Ireland, but actually he's referring to every nation under

heaven means just the Greek or Roman world, all the places

where Jewish believers have been scattered in the intervening

centuries. He names 15 countries and

peoples in verses 9:00 to 11:00. This was the whole known world.

And they're all here at Pentecost.

And by the power of the Spirit, they are hearing the good news

of Jesus. This was the birthday of the

global church, the first steps towards a church made-up of all

nations to which we belong today.

And as this crowd gathers to hear what's going on, there are

different responses to what is happening.

Some are amazed and perplexed, Luke tells us.

Others make fun of the disciples, saying they must be

drunk. So Peter stands up to explain

what is going on and what follows.

Peter basically has three big questions he's trying to answer

for this crowd. What just happened, Why has this

happened, and how should we respond?

Let's be through those three questions then.

What has just happened? What Peter tells them the

promised Holy Spirit has come. Verses 14 to 21, The promised

Holy Spirit has come. Peter begins by dismissing the

idea. They're drunk.

He says it's 9:00 in the morning.

That's not happening. And instead, before this crowd

of God fearing Jews, he opens up the Old Testament to them, the

Jewish scriptures, verses 16 to 18.

This is what was spoken by the prophet Jewel, says Peter.

In the last days God says, I will pour out my spirit on all

people. Your sons and daughters will

prophecy, 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 prophecy. According to Peter.

Here the Jewish crowd are witnessing the fulfilment of

centuries old prophecy. The pouring out of the Spirit

was promised right the way through the Old Testament,

through prophets like Isaiah, Ezekiel and the prophet

mentioned here, Joel. Actually, the pouring out of the

Spirit was also promised much more recently by recent people.

This cry would have heard people like John the Baptist and Jesus

himself. And according to the prophet

Joel, the coming of the Holy Spirit is the sign we are now in

the last days. God's saving purposes for

humanity are going public, says Peter.

So the last days in the New Testament, quite an ominous

phrase. People think it's all like

apocalyptic stuff. I guess what it really means is

the period of time between the first coming of Jesus and the

second coming of Jesus. Jesus already said he's coming

back one day. The last days are between his

first coming and his second coming.

Therefore, we today are living in the last days, the age of the

church, the age of opportunity when the church go into the

world proclaiming the good news of Jesus before Jesus returns in

glory. And in those last days, says

Joel, the Holy Spirit's poured out on all God's people.

We've already seen that in verses 1 to 4, but it's really

significant. Again, our Bibles have in

translation often have gender inclusive terms to kind of

really reflect the fact that actually men and women are

included in this. So I mean, that's not the

original Greek, but but we we reflect that on our modern

translations. But here in Jewel, it is

absolutely emphatic. In the original Greek, it is

your sons and daughters will prophecy.

Your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men

and women, I will pour out my spirit in those days.

That's not a translation decision of an English person.

That's Jewel's prophecy and Peter's message.

On this day, the Spirit is for all believers, and that's

significant because in the Old Testament the Spirit does

appear. The Holy Spirit appears at

various points, but often he appears to help particular

people, significant people, for a particular work of service at

a particular moment in time. So the Spirit comes on kings

like Saul and David, prophets like Joel, great warriors like

Samson in the book of Judges. But Nigel tells us the Holy

Spirit's poured on all God's people, men and women, young and

old, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord.

In verses 19 to 20, we learn of signs of God's power and

judgment that will come in these last days.

Some of them actually happened on the first Good Friday you'll

prophecies. The sun was turned to darkness

again, that happened when Jesus hung on the cross.

Some of these signs are for the future before Jesus returns.

But in this meantime, verse 21, salvation is offered to all

people. Jewel is emphatic about that.

Peter is emphatic about that. Verse 21, everyone who calls on

the name of the Lord will be saved.

Salvation is offered to everyone through faith in Jesus.

A key work of the Spirit now that he's come is to rescue and

save everyone who puts their faith in Jesus.

So what just happened? Peter says the promised Holy

Spirit has come. Why is the Spirit come now?

Peter tells us because the risen and exalted Jesus has poured him

out on his people. The real cause for the coming of

the Holy Spirit, says Peter, is Jesus life, death, and

resurrection. Again, it's really striking here

that instead of focusing on the Holy Spirit alone in what he

says, Peter directs our attention again and again to the

saving life and work of Jesus. Why?

Because without the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, a

holy God could never have come near to us in the person of his

Spirit. It's Jesus who's won the Spirit

for us, Jesus who pours out the Spirit on us.

And it's through faith in Jesus that any of us can receive the

Holy Spirit. This Peter's talk is all about

Jesus. I hope you could see that in

verses 22 and following Peter tells us Jesus was a man just

like us. He says verse 22, Jesus of

Nazareth, he, he had a hometown, he had a family, but but

actually he was a man not like us.

He was he was accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and

signs. He was special, He was unique.

And this man, Jesus was crucified.

Verse 23 This man was handed over to you by God's deliberate

plan and foreknowledge, and you with the help of wicked man, put

him to death by nailing him to the cross.

It's amazing to remember to remember where all this fits.

This is 50 days after the crucifixion.

There were people in this crowd, men and women who 50 days

previously had screamed crucify him, crucify him.

When Jesus was on trial, some of these same individuals sitting

here listening to Peter, we remember Jesus, didn't we kill

him. We learned 2 amazing truths

about the cross here in verse 23.

One, that the crucifixion of Jesus was part of God's plan to

save a people for himself. Peter said Jesus was handed over

to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge.

The cross wasn't an accident, wasn't a tragic mistake.

It was part of God's saving plan.

But at the same time, says Peter, the crucifixion of Jesus

was the work of evil people, and Peter holds them responsible for

that. You with the help of wicked man,

put him to death by nailing him to the cross.

At the cross we see two things that that they're just baffling

to us, but they are taught again and again in Scripture.

On the one hand, God is sovereign over all things.

He's working on his saving purposes in human history.

Human beings are always responsible for their actions.

God's sovereignty never takes away our responsibility.

That is what Peter's telling this cried about the cross.

And as far as the people in the crowd know well, Jesus, he died,

didn't he? 50 days ago?

He was, He was crucified. We saw it, we saw his body

hanging on a tree. But actually Peter has amazing

news for them. Verse 24 onwards, Jesus is

alive, says Peter, but God raised him from the dead,

freeing him from the agony of death.

Why? Peter tells us because it was

impossible for death to keep its hold on him.

He says you saw a weak man crucified in the cross.

Actually he is the Lord and Messiah, and he is far stronger

than even death. Death tried to take him, Death

tried to keep him, but he just broke free because he is Lord

and He is God. Peter quotes from a couple of

Psalms, Psalm 16, Psalm 110, to show what has happened, to show

that the Old Testament was always pointing forward to this.

Then he comes to climax, verses 32 to 33, where he says God has

raised this Jesus to life. We are all witnesses of it.

He and the other disciples exalted to the right hand of

God. He has received from the Father

the promised Holy Spirit and has poured on what you now see and

hear. Why is the Spirit come?

It's come because the risen and exalted Jesus has poured him out

on his people. The Holy Spirit, God himself,

can now dwell with us because Jesus has put an end to the sin

of his people. He's defeated sin and defeated

death. The Spirit of God is the gift of

God, one for us by the Son of God.

He's the gift of the risen and exalted Jesus.

It's a huge amount Peter's communicating here, but he ends.

He wraps up by actually looking for a response from his hearers.

Verse 36. He says, therefore, that all

Israel be assured of this. God has made this Jesus whom you

crucified, both Lord and Messiah.

And he asks the people to respond to that.

It's not enough, says Peter. Just to listen to this, I'm

going to give you an interesting account of how Old Testament

prophecy has been fulfilled. Or, or you can just look at us

and yeah, that's nice. And go back on your way.

No, he wants a response from the crowd.

It's not enough just to be drawn to Jesus or attracted to Jesus,

or to Christian community or to be just looking for answers.

There comes a point when we each need to decide, will I put my

faith in this Jesus or put my faith in someone else?

Will Jesus be my Lord or will someone or something else be my

Lord? Do I believe Jesus is who he

says he is? Will I receive the Spirit or

will I say no thanks, That's not for me, for Peter, how should we

respond? He spells it out for them.

He says repent and be baptized. Verses 36 to 41.

Look at verse 37. When the people heard what Peter

had said, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the

other apostles, brothers, what shall we do?

We need to hear just the almost a sense of hopelessness there

because up to this point, all Peter said he spelt out just how

badly wrong they were about Jesus.

That guy that you called to be crucified 50 days ago, He's

actually the Lord. He's the Messiah you've been

waiting for. And actually that could be the

end of Peters and he says, sorry guys, you had a chance.

You blew it and he's coming back to judge you.

That's that's for the crowd is at this point going buzz, what

shall we do? Is there any hope, Peter?

Is there any way back from what we've done?

We have killed the Lord and Messiah sent by God to save us.

Is there any hope and it's actually by verse 38, the hope

comes, the good news of Peter's message comes Peter isn't just

announcing God's judgement on his enemies.

He's offering forgiveness to everyone who will by the knee

before this Jesus verse 38, Peter replied, repent and be

baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the

forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the

Holy Spirit. How how does the cried respond

to Peter's message? Very clearly Peter says we

should repent. Let's turn around, stop running

away from God and start running towards God.

It's a complete change of direction for us and we should

be baptized. Baptism here, a sign of faith,

dying to your old way of life, rising again to a new way of

life, asking Jesus to be Lord and rescuer of your life.

And if we do that, says Peter, he offers us 2 gifts, the

forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit, the

forgiveness of sins being washed clean from whatever we have

done. Jesus forgives his enemies if we

come to him and the gift of the Holy Spirit again, that's God

himself come to live with us. It's not like, well turn over a

new leaf and you're on your own. It's turn over a new leaf and

then let me come and live with you, says God, to change you, to

empower you to follow Jesus in this world.

Repent, be baptized, and the gifts are the forgiveness of

sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit, and those gifts offered

by Peter to the crowd are accepted by 3000 people that

day. Verse 41, it was he accepted his

message, were baptized and about 3000 were added to their number.

That day, 3000 people received from God through faith in Jesus,

forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The Christian Church was born that day, worshippers of Jesus,

witnesses to Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit.

And it continues to this day, including this church family

that we're sitting among this morning.

And we'll learn more about the power of the Spirit at work in

that church next week when we look at their new life together.

There's a lot here. How should we respond to the

coming of the Holy Spirit 2000 years ago at Pentecost?

Just a few reflections as we finish, and we're going to

unpack these as we carry on through this amazing book of

Acts. First thing I wanted to see is

this. The Holy Spirit is the greatest

gift God can give to us. He's the gift of himself.

Through the Spirit living in us, we can now have close personal

relationship with the living God, Father, Son and Holy

Spirit. The Holy Spirit really is God

himself come to live in US and with us.

The message of Pentecost that my friend said Emmanuel, God with

us always and forever. We need to see the connection

here. The Holy Spirit dwells with us

thanks to Jesus life, death and resurrection.

Again, Peter's focus is not on the Holy Spirit in and of

himself. It's on Jesus, what he has done

his saving work so that we can have the Holy Spirit.

It's possible in in church history and human history get so

transfixed. I want a bit of that power that

the Holy Spirit offers. We always think like get that

without all that grim cross repentance stuff.

The answer Peter gives us? No, the Holy Spirit dwells with

us thanks to Jesus life, death and resurrection.

The Holy Spirit. This is a holy God.

How can he live with people who are not holy?

Only because Jesus has paid the price for our sin.

We cannot have the Holy Spirit without faith in the saving work

of Jesus. But building on that, we can't

follow Jesus without the help of the Holy Spirit.

Without the Spirit, the Christian life is impossible.

With the Spirit, we can live as witnesses for Jesus.

Again, sometimes we maybe different church traditions

don't talk as much about the Holy Spirit to the point we can

maybe think, well, yeah, that's may be fine for some Christians,

but but I think I'm fine without.

Actually, no is the testimony of God's Word.

No is the testimony of Acts, whose prophets promised the Holy

Spirit to God's people in the Old Testament because because

they knew you need the Holy Spirit.

You cannot do this on your own, in your own strength.

We cannot live as witnesses for Jesus in this world without a

daily dependence on the Holy Spirit.

That's why Jesus told the disciples wait for the Spirit.

And that's why the Spirit came at Pentecost and comes to the

lives of every believer who puts their faith in Jesus.

We need to depend on the Spirit in prayer together if we are

going to live for Jesus and live with Jesus in this world as a

church family. We need to learn that

dependence, to pray together, to listen to the Spirit in God's

Word together, to let His Word shape us more than the words of

culture around us. We need to pray for one another

that we would know the presence of God with us as we live for

Him in this world, the Holy Spirit.

He is not an optional extra for the Christian life or someone

certain church traditions need and others don't.

Without the Holy Spirit, the Christian life is impossible.

But with the Holy Spirit, that gift that Jesus won for us and

pours out on everyone who puts their faith in Him, we can enjoy

intimacy with God together and partnership with God together.

Enjoy intimacy with God. The New Testament says it's by

the Spirit we cry out, ABBA, father, Dad, help me.

That's the Spirit in US. It's the Spirit.

He unites us to Christ so we can say I am in Christ and Christ is

in me because of the Spirit. It's through the Spirit that the

love of God is poured out into our hearts.

Romans 5 verse 5, the Holy Spirit gives us intimacy with

Romans 5:5

God, close personal relationship, knowing the God of

the universe loves us, welcomes us, accepts us, dwells with us

because of what Jesus has done. And the Spirit also gives us

partnership with God. Amazingly, the New Testament

says regularly we are Co workers with God and that's madness

without the Spirit. Yeah, God, you do that.

But I'll, I'll cover this bit. We'll be fine.

No, it's only because the Spirit is in US, empowering us that we

can be used by God to build His church in this world.

We can't save anyone, but the Holy Spirit through US can

transform lives and bring repentance and faith to people

as we proclaim the good news of the life, death and resurrection

of Jesus Christ. Intimacy with God and

partnership with God. That is what the Christian life

is all about that is what the day of Pentecost one for us the

message of Pentecost Emmanuel, God with us.

The invitation Peter leaves with a crowd is the invitation Luke

leaves with us how we respond, we repent.

You'll put our faith in Jesus, and His Holy Spirit will empower

us to live for Jesus and with Jesus.