Acts 1:12-2:13 Phenomena

To.

So this is Acts chapter 1, and we're going to be in verse 12.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

Now, Jesus, if you forgot, if you weren't here last week, we're just at the moment where Jesus ascended, He ascended into His kingship at the right hand of the Father, uh, into His priesthood.

And so that's where He is at.

He's not just floating out past Jupiter right now, hanging out amongst the stars.

He is actively making intercession on your behalf.

And so he's ascended.

All the apostles looked up to see where he was going.

And then two guys in white robes showed up and said, Why are you standing here staring into heaven?

Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he'll return from heaven in the same way you saw him go.

So that's where we are right now.

Verse 12, you ready?

Here we go.

Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, a distance of a half mile.

When they arrived, they went to the upstairs room of the house they were staying.

Here are the names of those who were present: Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James, son of Aphaeus, Simon the Zealot.

I love that Simon the Zealot never got rid of that moniker, right?

You remember what a zealot is?

It's a guy that would like hide a knife in their sleeve, ready to assassinate somebody from the Roman government.

Simon the Zealot, he's still hanging on to that one.

And Judas, be clear, son of James.

All right.

They all met together and were constantly united.

That's highlightable, that's underlinable, that is so significant.

They were constantly united.

Do you know that Proverbs says that there is a commanded blessing in unity?

That God commands a blessing in unity.

The enemy loves to try to work in families and in church families to get disunity, to get discord.

Because when there is unity, there's a commanded blessing of God upon it.

So here they are.

They all met together and we're constantly united in what?

In prayer.

Prayer is such a significant aspect of the body of Christ that if we ever discount it, we'll miss out on the power and authority that He has for us as sons and daughters.

Yeah?

So you can't ever miss out.

Like this is another highlighter moment.

They're constantly united in prayer, along with Mary, the mother of Jesus, several other women, and the brothers of Jesus.

During this time, when about 120 believers were together in one place, Peter stood up and addressed them.

Brothers, he said, the scriptures had to be fulfilled concerning Judas, who guided those who arrested Jesus.

This was predicted long ago by the Holy Spirit speaking through King David.

He's speaking out of places in Proverbs.

Okay, let's keep going.

Judas uh was one of us in the ministry, excuse me, Judas was one of us and shared in the ministry with us.

Judas had bought a field with the money he received from his treachery, falling headfirst there, his body split open, spilling out his intestines.

I don't feel like Peter's over it yet.

Anyone else you read that?

You're like, Peter is still kind of feeling all his feelings about the betrayal of Judas.

Because, like, you could have just said, and he died.

No.

Judas had bought a field of the money, falling headfirst there, his body split open, spelling out his intestines.

This is crazy work.

Peter's like, if you forgot, I just wanted to remind you.

The news of his death spread to all the people of Jerusalem, and they gave the place, uh, they gave the place the Aramaic name Akildama, which means field of blood.

Let's keep going.

Peter continued.

This was written in the book of Psalms where it says, Let his home become desolate with no one living in it.

It also says, Let someone else take his position.

So now we must choose a replacement for Judas among the men who were with us the entire time we are traveling with the Lord Jesus.

So you're getting an insight here that there were people all along that were included, not just the twelve that were following Jesus.

From the time he was baptized by John until the day he was taken from us, whoever is chosen will join us as a witness of Jesus' resurrection.

Let's keep going.

So they nominated two men.

Joseph called Bersabbas, also known as Justice and Matthias.

Then they all prayed, O Lord, you know every heart.

Show us which of these men you have chosen as an apostle to replace Judas in this ministry.

For he has deserted us and gone, man, and gone to where he belongs.

Peter is going through it.

Then they cast lots.

Check this out.

Then they cast lots, and Matthias was selected to become an apostle with the other eleven.

I want to stop right there.

Then they cast lots.

This is interesting because you don't see this mentioned a whole lot, uh, and not really at all in Jesus' ministry, but you do in the Old Testament.

Casting lots to figure out what is the desire, what is the will of God.

So, what is casting lots?

So, casting lots uh would have been an acceptable biblical means in that time discerning God's will in certain situations.

You can check out in Proverbs 1633.

Uh the commentary on this is that this is the final recorded instance of casting lots for divine guidance.

So they're trying to figure out, okay, we're down to 11.

He's gonna be replaced.

How are we gonna do it?

Now check this out the Holy Spirit is coming but has not come yet to empower them.

Yeah?

Because Jesus says, go and wait, because I'm gonna send the Holy Spirit and he will come upon you.

We're gonna get into that in just a minute.

So we understand the Holy Spirit's coming to give guidance, but the guidance of the Holy Spirit isn't there yet.

And we see from Old Testament there were ways that you could find out, God, what is really your will in this?

And so there we cast lots, which in some cases could almost look like dice.

They would narrow it down.

They use common sense and wisdom.

They had a protocol, okay, who's been with us since Jesus was baptized by John?

They look around, you weren't, you weren't, but you were, you were, you were, you've been with us the whole time.

And they're using common sense and discernment to say, okay, we've narrowed it down to these two guys, Justice and Matthias, right?

We've got these two guys narrowed down to, we're not sure who it is.

God, you know the hearts of everybody.

So they prayed, cast lots, and that's how they figured out who was going to be coming with them.

Does that sound a little bit weird?

Or does it sound, man, I kind of wish it was that simple these days.

Would you, if you had a huge life decision, would it be easy to just pray and say, God, do you want me to do this or do you want me to do that?

And you get out the Yahtzee and foom, throw them, right?

And you then you get your answer.

It's like, okay, well, God, this is what, and they believe that divinely God would cast the lots and make them fall with what the divine answer would be.

And I read that, I thought, man, that seems crazy.

But then the other side of me is like, ah, that would kind of be an easier way to go about it, wouldn't it?

Because I'm just trusting that God, these lots fell the way that you wanted them to, and so now I know your will for my life.

I don't have to pray anymore, I don't have to guess anymore, I don't have to wonder anymore.

I'm just trusting.

This is the last moment that you see lots cast in the New Testament.

Why?

Because chapter two is coming.

You ready?

Verse one, chapter two of Acts, buckle up buttercup.

Here we go.

On the day of Pentecost, Pentecost means 50, right?

50.

This is 50 days after the Passover.

On the day of Pentecost, all the believers were meeting together in one place.

All the believers were meeting together in one place.

What was going on?

There was unity.

What else is going on?

There's obedience.

Because Jesus said, Don't leave Jerusalem until I send the Holy Spirit, right?

In case you forget, keep your mark right there.

I'll I'll rewind.

I'll go back to chapter one.

And this is what Jesus said in verse 4, chapter 1.

Do not leave Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit sends the gift he promised.

Excuse me, till the Father sends you the gift he promised.

As I told you before, John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

Now we're on the day of Pentecost, 50 days after the Passover.

If you don't know what the Passover is, long time ago, the children of Israel were enslaved to Egypt.

God then brought about Moses to bring the people freedom.

During that there were ten plagues.

The final plague was a plague of the death angel was going to come through and killed every single firstborn.

But God said to Moses, have the people take a blood of a lamb, mark their doorposts so that their family would be safe, and the death angel would pass over and not bother them.

The Passover, yeah?

So I'm going to mark my doorpost with the blood of the Lamb so my family is safe.

This was the Passover, and then the freedom of Israel came.

You'll find most uh Jewish uh uh uh commentary will hold to that 50 days later they're at Mount Sinai when the Ten Commandments are given, right?

So you see, and then also this is also, by the way, the time where we'll get in this a little bit next week, where you see uh Moses is gone for a bit, the people start to stress out, and they're like, hey, let's make a god out of a golden bull, and we're then we'll party and celebrate and worship it, right?

You don't remember that?

Okay, we'll talk about that a little bit next week because a few people die.

Crazy.

So now we're on the day of Pentecost, 50 days after the Passover.

Old Testament, 50 days later, after the original Passover, there is given the law.

The law does what?

Man, it brings death in a way because there's no way that we could accomplish the law.

Pentecost comes.

You ready?

And the believers were meeting together in one place, and suddenly there was a sound from heaven.

Ten days they had been meeting together and then suddenly.

Ten days they'd been praying together and then suddenly.

Ten days they've been worshiping together, then suddenly.

Ten days they're in unity together, and then suddenly.

Don't ever forget that suddenly still happened.

Don't ever forget that suddenly can still happen in your life.

Suddenly could be today for you, suddenly it could be tomorrow for you.

Oftentimes we won't want to give up, but don't forget, suddenly is occurred still.

Verse 2, suddenly there was a sound from heaven like a roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting.

I want to look right there.

I love this word.

In the Old Testament, there's a word that gets used over and over called ruach.

It's the breath of God.

And in the New Testament, you see the word pneuma, and that is also the breath or wind of God.

And so we have in this moment, we get the context, this idea that when they hear this mighty rushing sound, anybody ever gotten close to like tornado weather?

Like it what they say it sounds like a freight train.

Like that's that's the description you hear.

If you've ever been in a tornado or know somebody that's been in one, it says it sounds like a freight train coming.

I've never been in that situation, but I've been in a few hurricanes.

Then I remember one time as a kid stepping out from behind of a wall that was shielding me from the wind of a hurricane that was making landfall.

And I remember it just knocking me back and blowing me back and being so crazy loud.

And then my dad said, Hey, dummy, get in the house, right?

I'm sure it was with more love than that, but that's how it felt.

So, so I know what it sounds like, and it's loud.

So we get this idea.

Suddenly there was a sound from heaven, from where?

From heaven, like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, the ruach of God, the pneuma of God was blowing into that room.

And everybody could hear it.

It was audible.

We're gonna see three phenomena, three moments that happen at Pentecost that are that are incredibly powerful.

The first thing we have is an audible phenomenon, the breath of God.

We know we know from Genesis 2, verse 7, that when Adam was shaped being shaped by God, the clay's getting all put together.

Genesis 2:7

What is what does God do to bring Adam to life?

I was gonna let you answer so there wasn't dead air while I drank some water.

He breathed on Adam.

Adam comes to life.

When God breathes on something, it doesn't stay dead.

When God breathes on something, it doesn't stay static.

When God breathes, something dynamic occurs.

The breath of God always brings the dynamic.

The ruach of God, the pneuma of God, always brings the dynamic, not the static, not the mundane, always the dynamic.

Yeah?

All right, so we're gonna lean into this.

Now check this out.

So the breath of God was bringing the church to life.

Because the believers were gathered together, but they had not gone out.

Because we understand we as the church, we the church is not this building, this is where we meet, but we as believers are the church as we gather together and as we go out.

Up to that moment, they were gathered together, but they had not been sent out yet because they had not been empowered yet by the Holy Spirit to be witnesses.

So they're together, and as God is breathing on those believers gathered together in unity, praying, the Holy Spirit comes into that room, the ruach of God comes into that room, and the church is coming alive.

Yeah?

You with me on that?

So they're being clothed with power from on high, is what's happening in that moment.

Now, just a quick just insight.

We know that the disciples at this time are already believers in Jesus.

Yeah?

They believe that he's the Messiah, Yeshua, right?

He's the one.

He you they saw him die, they saw him rise again.

They put some of them their fingers in the nail prints in his hands and his feet in his side.

They saw him eat fish.

We've talked about that, right?

They've seen all these things.

If Jesus is alive, he is the Messiah.

We can see that in John 22, this isn't going to be on the screen, but you can check it out later.

John 22, verse 22, the disciples believe, and this is what it says, then he, Jesus, breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit.

Now, I want to ask you something.

If they've received the Holy Spirit in John 20, 22, then why are they waiting for the Holy Spirit in Acts 2?

John 2022, we have to understand this about the Holy Spirit.

When you become a believer, there is what's called the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Indwelling.

You can write that down.

There's the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and you will have that forever.

Every genuine believer receives the Holy Spirit at salvation.

The Holy Spirit's indwelling regenerates the believer, making them spiritually alive.

The indwelling work of the Holy Spirit brings holiness, conviction, guidance, comfort, and growing relationship with God.

Praise God for conviction that when we do stupid, God loves us enough, the Holy Spirit's like, hey, that's stupid I have better for you.

Repent from that.

Even as Jess was just vulnerable before you this morning, say, Hey, I need to repent for fear of man and be able to stand in front of her church family, and everybody's like, cool, yes, let's let's confess our sins because there's freedom in that.

Yeah?

Praise God for that.

And so we have these moments where we're like, okay, that's conviction of the Holy Spirit that leads us there.

And so there's an indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

John 14, 16 and 17.

John 14, verse 16 and 17 says, He lives with you and will be in you.

John 14:16

This is the Holy Spirit being talked about.

Romans chapter 8, verse 9.

Romans 8:9

Romans chapter 8, verse 9 says, Anyone who belongs to Christ has the Spirit.

Romans 8:9

But we need to make a distinction this morning.

There's a distinction being made between the Holy Spirit in you at salvation, and as Acts 1.8, Jesus says, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.

Holy Spirit in you, Holy Spirit upon you.

Everybody, can we hear that clear distinction?

So the purpose of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is not to make someone more saved.

The disciples on the day of Pentecost, when the ruach blew in the room, they're not now more saved.

They're not now somehow even holier, but what are they?

They're empowered to fulfill Christ's mission.

So Holy Spirit in me is working in me, convicting my heart, bringing about righteousness.

But the Holy Spirit upon me is empowering me for the mission that Christ has called me to, called us to, called the church to in this life.

You with me on that?

So we see, and we'll see throughout Acts, because I don't have to praise God, we're going through the whole book, so I don't have to get into all today, but you will see consistently that the Holy Spirit being being baptized in the Holy Spirit is not always together with somebody coming to Jesus.

It's a separate act.

It's in a sequential order.

There's a coming to Christ, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, then there is a filling of the Holy Spirit, then empowering of the Holy Spirit.

Yeah?

And we'll see later in Acts.

There's even an opportunity in the moment where you see the salvation come to a family and the baptism with the Holy Spirit at the same time.

Cool?

I'm trying not to throw too much information at you at once.

So the supernatural, empowering, promised Holy Spirit came in the room in Acts 2.

I'm gonna say it more time.

The supernatural, empowering, promised Holy Spirit of God came into the room at Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

We hear the wind, and it filled the house where they were sitting.

Then check this out.

Second phenomenon.

So the first one was an audible.

The second, what looks like what looked like tongues, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared.

That's gotta be crazy, right?

Then what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them.

Um I don't know what your experience is with fire, but as a kid, like I played way too much with it.

Which is crazy because my dad, when I was little, was a firefighter.

Um, and so but I remember back in the day when hairspray was made of the good stuff, you could light a lighter and spray hairspray and have your own little flamethrower.

Anybody remember that?

Yeah, yeah.

I caught my deck on fire one time with that, and so I got it out.

It's okay.

Dad never knew unless he listens to this.

And so, like, you could see it's like and there's this huge flame just shooting out, and you're like, wow, this is so you can feel the warmth of it.

But this fire that's on them, there's not a warmth to it, it looked like what looked like flames or tongues of fire, like this is all of a sudden this this flame on their head.

Could you imagine looking around the room and you're like, what did we eat?

Right?

Peter's dumb soup, we should have not heated it up again.

And like, and so it's not a mass hallucination, the empowering of the Holy Spirit's coming, and like a flame of fire, because we see John say that I baptize with water, but one's coming who's gonna baptize with spirit and fire.

And now you have a flame of fire on the heads of the 120 or so that's in the room, and they've been praying together and waiting for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

And now the Holy Spirit's showing up, so we have an audible one, the wind, we have a visual one, the fire, and we're not done yet.

What a day of gifts to be given.

And everyone present was, check this out, filled with the Holy Spirit.

Everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Nobody had done anything but be obedient to what God had asked them to do in staying in Jerusalem, and then they get filled with the Holy Spirit.

How do you get filled with the Holy Spirit?

Be obedient to what God has for you.

If He's got the Holy Spirit for you, listen, I want to tell you something.

He gives good gifts.

I want to say that again.

The Holy Spirit, he said it's better that I go.

Jesus said it's better that I go so the Holy Spirit can come.

Do you believe that?

Will you choose to receive that the word is true?

And I want to tell you something right now.

Like, it is critical that at some point we do enough study that we will choose to believe what Scripture says is true because it'll change the way that we live our daily life.

So, everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.

Who gave them the ability?

The Holy Spirit.

It wasn't themselves.

So check this out.

On the day of Pentecost, we read about these three wonders, these three phenomena.

First is audible.

Most people don't have a problem with that.

Second is visual, flames of fire.

Like that sounds a little bit weirder, maybe.

I don't know if to you.

It sounds weirder maybe than the audible wind, a rushing, a Russian mighty wind, right?

This phenomenon, the verbal one, gets people nervous.

And this is the only out of the three that remain through the rest of the book and remains today.

Yeah?

So most people don't stress out about the wind, they don't stress about the flame resting on people's heads, but the moment speaking in tongues is mentioned, a lot of people get weirded out.

And it's mainly because tongues is done out of order in many places.

Some have used it as a license to exalt emotionalism rather than intimacy with God.

Some have used it as a as As a badge, like I am holier because I speak in this unknown language.

So hear me speak it and hear me speak it louder than you are.

And there's a context we'll get into as we go into Acts.

There's a context of when it's right for a spiritual language to be used.

And there's four different kinds, and we'll get into that as we go.

Man, I just don't have time to break it all down today, right?

Like um.

But we see clearly what about spiritual language.

We see clearly what that it was given by the Holy Spirit.

They begin to speak in other languages as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.

You cannot assign tongues to the devil because we see in scripture it was given by God.

When you get on ground that begins assigning the things of God to the devil, then you start etching and inching over into blasphemy.

Okay?

Now, I'll say this it is the only gift, it's not the only gift of this Holy Spirit, but it's the primary gift that offends our intellect.

That's what Chuck Smith would say.

Anybody remember the Jesus Revolution movie?

Anybody ever see that?

It's a cool movie.

It's about the Jesus movement that happened in Southern California back in the 70s where all these hippies started getting saved, and just the power of God moving.

It's just a phenomenal revival, and it ended up sweeping across the nation, right?

And Chuck Smith was at the heart of it, and he says, Listen, it it offends, it offends the intellect because it doesn't make sense that I'd be given a language I don't understand to be able to praise God.

In fact, there was there was a guy, he was a uh a pastor for a long time that that mentored me from a distance.

He passed away a few years ago, Jack Hayford.

He would say that the gift of the Holy Spirit giving us the gift of tongues is the ability to worship and pray above our own intellect.

Let me put it to you like this.

Have you ever been in a situation where you couldn't find the words to express your heart?

You couldn't find the words to express what's on your spirit.

Check this out.

So the Holy Spirit gives them this ability.

We're gonna keep diving in.

At that time, I'll make sure I'm not squis uh skipping past my notes.

Let me back up real quick before I get on into the next verse.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 14, just so there'll be some peace in this room right now.

There shouldn't be anything but peace.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 14, everything must be done so that the church may be built up.

There is a care that we pastorally give over this church to make sure that we are operating fully in what God has for us and fully in accordance to it.

It doesn't mean that we take control, but that we are stewarding what happens in this place, yeah?

So sometimes you can talk about tongues and you begin to think, I've seen videos on TikTok about what happens in these churches.

Somebody's gonna run across the pews, or somebody's gonna run around the room, or some things are gonna happen, and you see stuff going on, you're like, I don't know how I feel about that.

And can I just say that in this house, we're gonna abide by scripture and believe that I see clearly this is a gift that God gives us through the Holy Spirit, and we're gonna contend for it, but we're also gonna understand there is an order to which he has for it to be used in the body to so the body may be strong.

Yeah?

So this is what it says.

He goes on in 1 Corinthians 14, verse 33, it says, For God is not a God of disorder, but of peace, as in all the congregations of the Lord's people.

1 Corinthians 14:33

Okay?

So God's not a God of disorder, but of peace.

So we contend that God does whatever he wants to do, and we know that as he does it, there is a peace that comes with it.

Now it's not a peace that leads you for a Sunday afternoon nap on your couch.

It's oftentimes a peace that leads you into battle, knowing that he's got the battle won.

Yeah?

Okay.

Cool.

So what we can't do is write the gift God has given us.

We can't, we what we can't do is write this gift off because it's been mishandled by people.

In fact, it really sounds like a phenomenal plan of Satan to take a gift of God, make it seem unwantable or eerie, or weird, or whatever icky the word is you would want to use.

Isn't a phenomenal work of the enemy a plan to say, I'm gonna use messed up people to not operate in this properly, so then the whole church will look at it and say, Well, I now don't want to have anything to do with it.

What a phenomenal tactic that is.

But check this out.

Listen, I want to tell you right now, I refuse to not teach about the Holy Spirit.

I refuse to deny all the gifts he gives, because to do so declares that I have more knowledge than God of what the church needs.

I will we we will not stop talking about the Holy Spirit because we there's no way you can go through Acts not talk about the Holy Spirit.

First off, right?

We're gonna be like, what's it called?

Redacted.

There's gonna be pages just redacted, redacted, redacted.

So we're we're refusing, we're not gonna stop talking about the Holy Spirit.

We're not gonna stop talking about the gifts he gives.

Because listen, there's a point where you begin to say, I know what's better for the church than what God knows is best for the church.

And to do that is just, listen, I I love you enough to tell you that I'm gonna be held accountable for God for what I teach you.

So listen, as much as I want you to like me, and as much as I want you to know the love of God fully, I recognize that there's a price that gets paid being a pastor and leading people into the presence of God and leading people close to God.

So I have to do my best to get in the word, let you know what it says to the best of my ability, and then pray that there's grace, even in the places where I might get it wrong.

Okay?

All right.

In many branches of the church, it was a teaching that if you didn't speak in tongues, you hadn't received the Spirit.

I want to talk on this really quickly.

Baptism is the Holy Spirit.

There's a lot of places says that if you did not speak in tongues, you had not been filled with the Holy Spirit.

It is an evidence, it's not the evidence.

Okay?

It's an evidence, it's not the evidence.

First Corinthians 13 1 says, if I could speak all the languages, this is Paul talking again, if I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but did not love others, I would be a noisy gong or clinging symbol.

He goes on to say in verse 13, three things will last forever, faith, hope, and love.

And the greatest of these is love.

Love needs to be evidence of my filling with the Holy Spirit.

Yeah?

So I can have you, there can be people that have a spiritual language, but they're not operating in love.

And scripture says they're a clanging symbol.

It's a it's it's uh it's piercing to the ear.

It's not you guys rolling with me this morning?

Cool.

All right.

So this is what it says at that time, this is verse 5, there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem.

When they heard the loud noise, isn't that crazy?

The noise was so loud, people in the city are hearing it.

When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers.

They were completely amazed.

How can this be?

They exclaimed.

These people are all from Galilee, and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages.

Here we are, Parthians, Medes, Eliamites, people from Mesopotamia, sorry, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontius, the province of Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs.

Check this out, and this is what it says.

If you got a highlighter, if you can do it on your digital device, however you want to underline it.

And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done.

The disciples did not know the languages they were speaking, yet the languages in that moment were being heard by those who spoke it from other places in the world.

Yeah?

They come up and they're like, Man, these guys don't know my language, but they're saying it perfectly.

And what they're saying is praises to God.

So I want to cycle back that a spiritual language gives you the ability, a supernatural ability above your own intellect to pray and praise God.

Yeah?

And we see that biblically right here.

They're like, How can this be?

And they stood there amazed and perplexed, it says.

What can this mean?

They asked each other.

But others in the crowd ridiculed them saying, They're just drunk, that's all.

Now we're gonna get into Peter's sermon because Peter is not a fan of, hey, I'm not drunk.

It's only 9 a.m., right?

Maybe 5 o'clock somewhere, but not right here.

But others in the crowd ridiculed them saying they're just drunk, that's all.

You always, even from the day of Pentecost, there's two groups.

The curious, what can this mean, and the critical, they're just drunk.

There's the curious and there's the critical.

The critical shut it down, the critical will mock it, the critical will laugh at it, the critical will make videos about it and post it and make it seem stupid and make it seem foolish.

And listen, you don't get a scripture that says, I'd rather look a fool in the eyes of man than a fool in the eyes of God, if it weren't possible to look a fool in the eyes of man by loving God.

Yeah?

If I'm gonna look a fool in the eyes of man rather than a fool in the eyes of God, that means there's things that God's gonna have me do that makes me look foolish in front of men.

And so I gotta choose, am I gonna honor God or am I gonna honor men?

Am I gonna serve God or am I gonna serve men?

And what I would say to you today is this there's two crowds, there's the curious and there's the critical.

And maybe you're not sold, and maybe we're not far enough along in the process for you to say, okay, I'm getting behind understanding that the Holy Spirit wants to empower me so I can be his witness.

Oh, and by the way, he might have a gift for me, and that gift might be a language that I don't understand.

He has a heavenly language for me that I can't wrap my brain around, but that it exalts him.

Maybe you're not to the point of understanding that and you want more study, but I would say this be curious, don't be critical.

May the heart of this congregation be a heart that is always curious and not critical, because we want to seek out the truth of the word and find out what it says about who God is, who the Holy Spirit is, and what it means for us rather than being critical and shutting down what God would want to do in the life of this church.

Because check this out if we're not careful, we'll begin working against God rather than walking alongside of him.

I don't want to, I don't wanna I don't wanna be in a fight with God.

It doesn't ever seem to work out good for those that do it.

I don't want to ever, right?

I don't want to ever be at odds.

I don't want to be on the other side of him, like looking him in the face, saying, No, I know better.

No, this is the way it's supposed to go.

I want to be curious on the things that maybe I don't understand and dig into the word and like, okay, God, what are you saying about this?

What are you speaking about this?

I uh I can tell you, and I'm spending time on tongues because it's in the passage today, and it shows up a lot more throughout Acts.

But tongues has been the selling point of people that don't want to receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit.

Like, I don't know that I want that because I'm afraid of what might happen.

Am I suddenly just gonna start shouting out gibberish that I don't know?

I wanna I wanna tell you something.

If God is good, can we trust him that he's really good?

I mean, this is like I don't know a sexy way to say that.

I don't know a more clever way to ask that.

If God is good, are you gonna trust that he's really good?

I mean, how clever do we have to get in saying it?

Like so then I'm gonna trust, okay, God, if you if you told the disciples, don't leave.

I've got a gift coming for you.

And we're going to get into, and I can't today because time doesn't allow it, we will get into why the gifts of the Holy Spirit are still relevant for today.

Because there's a group that would read scripture and say, Oh, the the gifts ceased when we got the Bible.

When we got the full canonized version of the Bible.

There's people that believe the gifts of the Holy Spirit stopped then.

They're like, we don't need it because we got the Bible.

I would say that's probably a misunderstanding of the text that they're getting it from.

And we'll get into that as we keep going on into Acts.

So if your background's like, man, I was always told that these things don't happen today.

And that the people that are doing it are kind of out there, they're just kind of crazy thoughts and they're just running down these roads that don't, you know, without any kind of direction.

I would just say, hey, be curious, not critical.

If that was your past, man, listen, we've got people from all kinds of backgrounds in our church, and praise God for that.

And it has been such a blessing.

When people would say, Man, you got people from from from Baptists and Methodists and Lutheran and all these different like Pentecostal, we got all these different backgrounds.

I'm like, man, praise God because there's a beauty that we need from each of them.

And I want to be curious about what God has for us and what his word says, and not be critical over maybe things that I've seen abused in the church.

Because can I tell you something?

We're a church that believes in giving, and I've seen churches that abuse finances, but I believe God calls us to be believers and givers, right?

Uh so I I've seen places where healing has been abused, but I still believe God calls us to lay hands on the sick and see them recover.

Just because I've seen something misused doesn't mean I can take it out of the word.

You with me on that?

And so I just want us to be a people that say, listen, because we've seen something abused, may we not just redact a part of scripture because it makes us feel weird.

Let's get in and find out what he wants for us.

Because I don't care if I feel weird, if I feel peaceful and I'm wrong, that's not peace.

I've been deceived.

Right?

I want to know, man, even if it makes me uncomfortable, God, what do you have for us?

A little over 10 years ago, my brother is ministering in Ghana, Africa.

He's on a missions trip, it's a medical mission trip, and he's just going to record, and he's he's filming things and taking pictures, and they get an off day.

And um and it's one morning they get up and they're like they don't have anything to do, so they go out to the beach, and they're just like, ah, they can rest, they can hang out, and they're swimming in the ocean.

And uh my brother gets caught in uh ript, and he's getting pulled out into the ocean, and he's trying to swim and he's trying to fight it, but he can't, and he's getting tired.

Mika, would you come up for me real quick?

He's getting exhausted and he's swimming as hard as he can, and um, he keeps trying to do this number.

I don't know if you've ever been in water that's too deep and you're getting tired, but you take a moment where you try to let your feet touch.

See if you're far enough now where you can just stand.

And every time he would try to let his feet touch, his head would go under.

And then he'd have to get more energy and push himself back to the top, swim his way back to the top.

And he began to realize he's like, Man, I think I'm about to die here.

And um he's in Ghana.

It's early, early morning in the United States, and my mom wakes up, and she senses the Holy Spirit say, pray for Jason.

Same day, same time.

She doesn't know what Jason's doing that day.

She knows he's in Africa, um, knows he's in Ghana.

She wakes up.

She doesn't know how to pray.

I don't know what I'm praying for.

You just want me to pray.

So, what does she do?

Oh, Holy Spirit, you've given me a language that I can use that connects with God in a way that I intellectually can't.

I don't know what prayer to pray right now, so I'm gonna just engage in the language that you've given me.

And she just begins praying.

Jason's on her mind and she's praying in this language.

She's praying and she's praying and she's praying until she finally feels peace.

She goes back to bed.

As she's praying, and Jason's in the middle of drowning, another guy has tried to swim out to help him.

And now that guy's caught in the current and he's drowning.

And as Jason is thinking, I'm about to go under, and if I go under, I can't get back up.

He says, Joey, I hear God say to me.

It's the first time I hear God say, Jason, stand up.

He's like, if I go under, it's over.

I don't have the strength to get back above the water.

And he hears the voice, Jason, stand up.

He's like, This is it, and this is it, but I'm just gonna go out, trust in God.

And he goes, believing he's gonna sink under the water, and as he puts his feet down, he finds out he's on a sandbar hundreds of yards from shore.

And he stands up and he's catching his breath.

He's coughing up water and he's breathing.

He's like, I'm not dead, I'm alive.

Praise God.

He starts shouting out to the guy who had come out to save him.

His name's Peter.

Kind of funny.

Peter in water.

Peter, stand up, because he's like right in line with Jason this moment.

Peter doesn't want to listen because he's at the same place.

If I go under, I can't get back up.

Peter, I'm telling you, stand up.

There's a sandbar.

Peter's exhausted.

He's like, he just goes for it.

And Peter's on the sandbar.

And they just work their way back into shore, collapse on the beach, just breathing deep and just thinking, man, what a moment that was.

No clue that on the other side of the planet, God had woken up, my mom, to pray for my brother in a language that she didn't know because she didn't know how to pray.

And God met my brother with a sandbar in the middle of the ocean so that his life could be saved.

Listen, there's a lot of things that I can't explain.

But I've seen the power of God at work in the life of people.

And I believe as we're getting into this series, there's gonna be some things that maybe you're like, man, I need to study more because I'm not real comfortable with it.

I would say study more because I believe this today.

There's some people that you're drowning in a place where you can stand.

It's gonna feel scary to trust.

People are gonna think I'm so crazy.

I go to the church that believes in tongues.

It's wild that you're not stressed out that you go to a church that believes that a virgin gave birth to the Son of God.

Tongues stresses you out.

It's not weird that you believe in a God that came to earth, lived perfect, was crucified, beat to death, right, put on a cross, three days later raises up again, eating fish in front of his disciples.

That's not weird, but it's the tongue thing that gets us.

But I believe as we push into the things of God, you're gonna find a footing that you didn't know that you had.

I hear the voice of God saying, Elias, you're drowning in a place where you can stand.

I want you to trust me.

Trust me that the Holy Spirit is good.

Trust me that the Holy Spirit's a gift.

Trust me that He has your best in mind.

Trust me that He's gonna lead you where you're supposed to be, where you're supposed to go, bring you the comfort that you need.

Amen.

Let me pray over you.

Thank you, God.

Thank you, God, that uh you know what we need more than we know what we need.

God, you you see our needs, and um, Lord, I thank you right now that today I feel like there's somebody either in this room or that's gonna listen to this online that they're like, man, I need I need to stand.

I need the faith to stand.

I'm drowning, and I need the faith to stand.

And what does that even look like?

And I believe I believe the first step is to say this, God, I choose with my will, not my emotions, I choose to trust you.

I choose to say, give me revelation on your scripture.

I choose to say, I want to trust that what your word says is true.

I want to trust that what your word speaks over my life is true.

I want to trust that the promises you have for me are good.

I want to trust that you are for me and not against me.

I want to trust that you've not left me, you've not forsaken me.

I choose to trust that if God be for me, who can be against me?

I choose to trust that I am called and appointed in this time, in this place, in this city, in this year.

I'm called and appointed to be here and make a difference in the kingdom of God.

And I don't have to do it under my own strength.

Listen, if you're in this place today, you've been doing it, you're trying to be a witness under your own strength.

It is a moment to say and invite, Holy Spirit, I ask that you would fill me full, that I would be baptized in you, that I would be immersed, that you would give me every gift you've got.

For me.

The ones I've got figured out and the ones that I don't.

The ones that I think I understand, the ones that I don't.

But I trust that you want to empower me with a power, with a dynamic evidence from heaven.

Speak life to these, your sons, your daughters.

Speak guidance, speak blessing, speak hope, speak peace.

Speak wisdom over them.

And thank you, God, for leading us to good places in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

I got a couple announcements before I get there.

I just want to say one thing.

As you start contending for the things of God, a practical question would be like, after just talking about tongues, Joey, what if I feel like that I've prayed for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and I sense there's like anybody ever get a thought in your head?

And you're like, man, you can just put words of that thought.

Um, this is the way I would say it to you.

Um if you think of the word uh apple right now, I don't know if you can see it in your mind's eye or whatever, but like what I would say to you is a lot of times you get a thought, and then to share that with somebody, you have to use your voice to share it.

Does that make sense?

You got a thought in my mind, it's like the apple's red.

I gotta say that out loud.

And the Holy Spirit oftentimes it will come as like I get this sense of an utterance, the same way like if you took French, right?

Maybe you don't know that language.

Uh uh, we, right?

It's like you get that word in your head, it's like I need to say yes, and the word you get for yes is we.

It's like, I'm just gonna say we.

That doesn't make sense, it's not my normal language.

But what I would say is trusting, and you begin speaking, saying, God, this feels different to me, but I'm trusting that it's coming from you.

And you begin to give voice to that rather than thinking the Holy Spirit's about to grab your mouth and start flapping your gums for you.

Right?

Sometimes it's like, oh my God, she's gonna grab my face and throw it out, right?

Other than saying, I'm giving you a language the same way if you're sitting in this room, and maybe your primary language is English, but you know Spanish, and you can flow in Espanol, right?

It's like you have to see that, hear that in your mind, and then bring your mouth to use those words.

Holy Spirit language oftentimes works a lot that way.

Yeah?

But we're gonna get more into it.

If you have questions, do me a favor, write them down.

One of the ways that you can get questions to us, probably can we get up our our QR code screen and our uh our connect number?

Um you can get it into our link tree.

If you're a guest with us, you can connect this way.

Um can we go back to the other screen?

Is that possible?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Um you're gonna be getting our ministry calendar, what's coming up throughout the rest of the year.

It's ways to just know what's going on.

Um, online giving, you can do that.

But our join and text community, you can text that number, you can put prayer requests to that number, or you could put even questions to that number that pop up as we go through this series.

I would love to get questions because there might be a week every now and then.

We just need to take a break from the text and dive into the questions and bring a little bit of clarity to those questions.

And I'm cool with that, and I would love to do that.

And so, a practical way that you can do that, other than slipping me a piece of paper that I will lose at the end of service, is just texting that number right there.

And then it also is a blessing because you'll begin to know what's going on in the church.

Yeah.

Uh after service, we invite you to stay.

We got a time you can make your own desserts in the back.

You better get to it before the kids do.

Um, and then giving, yeah.

Uh, if you give, man, we're grateful.

Um, I know that God calls us to be givers.

And uh that's not law to me, that's life to me to be able to give.

And uh, man, I've seen God in this last even month move because we've been faithful to give.

Um, move in dynamic ways, take care of my family personally in dynamic ways, because we didn't stop giving when it would have been easier to keep the money rather than to give it and trust him.

And so, uh, but there's ways that we've made it easy for you to give.

Uh, you can do it any of those ways.

And then next week we're gonna be having a back-to-school blessing next week.

So um be ready.

We're gonna pray over the kids.

It's gonna be a sweet time.

We're looking forward to that.

Man, be blessed.

We stand up real quick.

Let me pray a blessing over you as we go.

Lord, I thank you for your sons and daughters.

May your face shine upon them.

Bless them and they're coming and they're going and they're lying down, they're rising up.

I pray that you be their front and their rear guard, give them the mind of Christ, wisdom of God.

I thank you, God, that um they would be empowered by your Holy Spirit to be witnesses for you, sharing your hope, your love, your message to this world.

Thank you, Lord, for these, your sons and daughters that are curious and not critical.

Bless them in the works of their hands, I pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Let's give the Lord a praise.

Appreciate you, love you.