#The Holy Spirit brings...Wonders and Signs

Well, Acts, the book of Acts, we're in this series, it's

called the impact series. And what we've been doing is we,

Taran and I, we've been pausing every time as we read through

the book of Acts. We've been pausing every time we

get to a moment where the Holy Spirit's mentioned.

And what we're trying to figure out is what is the Holy Spirit

doing in the book and with these people at that time?

And therefore what the Holy Spirit might do with us in this

moment in, in our time. And, and we're still kind of in

the moment, just post Pentecost, right?

So the, the day of Pentecost is a day that's been long for for

centuries. It's been prophesied, it's been

predicted that, you know, everyone's looking forward to

the day when the Holy Spirit will be poured out on all

believers. And then the moment is finally

come and, and this community is formed.

It's like the fellowship of the Spirit, not the fellowship of

the ring. That's a different thing.

The fellowship of the Spirit. This is a group of people formed

by for the Holy Spirit, for the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit

is dwelling amongst them. And one of the things he's doing

that we looked at, Taran looked at, was it last week, a couple

of weeks ago, something like that was was, you know, being

formed. This is a group of perfect

strangers who by the power and the wonder of God are being

formed into this beautiful family, this incredible

community. What we're going to look at

today is that they're also a family that's marked by the

power of God, right? Marked by the miraculous that

God is, is not moving in ways that aren't able, you know,

difficult to perceive actually, God, when God comes by his

spirit, his people know about it and the people in the city know

about it. And so we're we're going to be

reading from Acts chapter 2, starting at verse 43.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

It says this everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and

signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together

and had everything in common. They sold property and

possessions to give to anyone who had need.

Every day they continued to meet together in the temple court.

They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and

sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the

people. And the Lord added to their

number daily those who are being saved.

One day Peter and John were going out to the temple at the

time of prayer at 3:00 in the afternoon.

Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the

temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to

beg from those going into the temple courts.

When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for

money. Peter looked straight at him, as

did John. Then Peter said, look at us.

So the man gave him their attention, gave them his

attention, expecting to get something from them.

Then Peter said silver or gold I don't have, but what I do have I

give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth walk.

Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up and instantly the

man's feet and ankles became strong.

He jumped to his feet and began to walk.

Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and

jumping and praising God. When all the people saw him

walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man

who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful,

and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had

happened to him. And that's our text for today.

One of the things that's happening all around the world

at the moment is that there is an increased curiosity interest

in the Christian gospel. And, and you know, there are so

many reports and so many statistics coming out and we'll

talk about that in future weeks. But it's amazing the, the

cultural moment we're living in is extraordinary.

And the interest in the Bible as a book like it is, is, is

increased in a way that we've never known before.

I don't know whether there's anyone in the room who works in

book publishing, but now would be a really good time to be a

publisher of the Bible. In fact, I read a statistic

recently that said that Bible sales have increased by 136% in

the last few years in the UK. And so it's like, this is an

amazing moment. We were in the pub having lunch

with some friends the other day, and we were speaking to the guy

who worked there, and he said, you know, he's trying to guess

what we did for a living. And that's always, you know, a

fun game. And he, we said, well, we do

work Sundays, if that helps. He said, well, you're definitely

not a vicar. I was like, well, kinda.

So anyway, he, he, we were chatting to him and he was like,

I don't know what's going on. He said, I've had absolutely no

interest in God or religion or faith for the whole of my life.

But in the last couple of years, I find myself increasingly

interested and wondering what going to church would be like.

It's just a fascinating thing. That wasn't, you know, where we

started the conversation, but that was kind of where we where

we landed. And so this incredible openness

to the gospel, amazing interest in the Bible.

And I read this, this article, and one of the stories in it was

this young woman who had felt suddenly compelled to read the

Bible. And so she'd gone out to a

charity shop, She'd found a Bible, and she'd taken it home,

put it on her bedside table. And she, in this article, she

said, every night before I go to bed, I just read a little bit of

the Bible. And it just brings me peace.

Now, that's a beautiful story, right?

But I've got questions like when she reads the Bible she

experiences peace. I can't remember the last time I

experienced peace when I read when I read the Bible.

Like I don't know whether we're even reading the same book.

Does anyone else experience peace when they read the Bible?

Or do most people like me experience discomfort when I

read the Bible? That's basically how it works

for me. Like every.

It's almost as if the Lord doesn't even care about my

comfort at all. It's almost as if he's using the

discomfort in my life to bring about the change that he wants

to see in my life. I don't know whether how that

lands for you, but when I was reading this passage of

scripture this week, I was feeling extremely uncomfortable.

Like there was a kind of a jarring, like a provocation.

It felt like I've been stung by a bee, you know, something like

that was like, I just can't get this out.

It was like in Scotland, we would say, you know, it's like

the Lord was chopping on my head.

You know, it's like, it's just like knocking on my head all the

time. And the verse that was just that

I just couldn't let go of is is chapter 2, verse 43 where it

says this everyone, this is describing the church in the in

the in the early church, everyone was filled with awe.

Everyone was filled with awe. Everyone was filled with awe.

I wonder whether that's how you would describe what happens in

here on a Sunday or or what how you would describe Verso

Vineyard, your experience of it. Everyone, I'm just filled with

awe. And the answer probably for many

of us is, well, that isn't the first adjective or noun that

would that would spring to mind. In fact, it's even more intense

than that in in this passage that we read, you know, the

everyone was filled with awe is how it starts off.

But then the whole city finds out about what's happening in

the church and all the kind of crazy miracles and things that

are happening. And then in chapter 3, verse 10,

it says this, they were filled. This is the city was filled with

wonder and amazement. I just found myself in this

place of, I don't know, like dissatisfaction and desperation

and and longing. Like Lord, please, if you were

to do like, I mean, this church has a great reputation.

You know, even before we ever visited for the first time, we

knew of this church. Great reputation in the city,

great reputation in the region, great reputation across the

whole body of Christ in this nation.

You know, this church is well thought of, but I don't know

about you, but what I long for in terms of a reputation like,

oh, that people would say about this church.

Do you need a miracle in your life?

Versa Vineyard. Do you want to know the power in

the presence of God? Like, really, no, you should go

to Verso vineyard. Do you want to know the meaning

of the word or Verso vineyard? And I just wonder whether

there's a journey for all of us to go on with regards to the

power in the presence of God such that God would do something

so extraordinary amongst us that the whole city would be filled

with wonder and amazement. You know, we were away at the

Vineyard leaders gathering, not this past week, but the week

before, which is an amazing kind of tribal gathering of all the

leaders and pastors and so on from around the Vineyard in the

UK and Ireland. And I was speaking to a friend

of mine and he was saying that in his family he has experienced

A remarkable miracle. And so here's how the miracle

goes. His, his daughter, who is kind

of young adult, had been experiencing some pain in her

abdomen and it had been going on for weeks and weeks.

And the pain was just getting worse and worse and worse to the

degree that she was taking morphine for the pain.

And you know, she was having, you know what it's like when

when something really big is going on in your body, you're

having relentless scans and relentless medical appointments

and so on. And that been going on for

months and months and months. And they just eventually they

were like, OK, we know what it is and we need to operate.

And so she's lined up for this operation.

She's taking morphine all the way up to this operation.

And then as she goes in into the operation, they've got all these

different disciplines there because they, they're expecting

everything on the inside to be connected to everything else.

You know, so it's like they've got gynecologist, they've got

gastroenterologist, they've got all kinds of other surgeons and

so on. And they, they open her up and

the church are praying like mad. And then as they open her up,

there's nothing there. Everything looks brand new.

In fact, they supposedly took a picture and they were like this,

this is like, this is like brand new.

And then it must be like inside the uterus or something like

that. So they were like, let's have a

look in there. They were like, the word he used

was clean as a whistle, right? I don't know whether that's a

good thing. But anyway, so and so and so,

they were like, there's nothing to see here.

And so they closed her up. Even though they'd seen stuff on

the scans, there was nothing there.

They closed her up and she went home and she never took morphine

again. And do, you know, it was

amazing. And, you know, when you hear

stories like, you know, oh, well, that was somebody's,

somebody's friend, somebody, you know, whatever.

Like this is someone who is a friend of mine.

And, and, and like, what struck me so much about that story was

the look in his eye. That man will never be the same

again. And he said, you know, our whole

family has changed. We'll never see God in the same

way again. We'll never, we'll never live

the same way again. Everything has changed for our

family because of what God has, what God has done.

And the word to that I would use to describe that what I saw in

his eye was, oh, his family has been overshadowed by the

Almighty God in a way that has just left the dent had a such a

huge impact that he'll never be the same again.

And so I want to think this morning about like, what is what

does it look like? What's going on with these

people at this time when it comes to how they're living and

what they're expecting and what they're seeing?

And how might that by be our reality too?

And the first thing is these people in the book, they have a

different normal. They have a different normal.

Their world view, their way of seeing the world is just

dramatically different from mine.

Now, you know, I would want to suggest that for many of us

who've grown up in the Western world are, are thinking the way

that we see the world has been shaped by a bunch of different

ideologies that are coming at us all the, all the time.

The first one would be materialism.

You know, the materialism would be the belief that the only

things that exist are the things that you can touch or taste or

test for, right. So it's like there's nothing out

there. There's nothing in here other

than atoms and molecules and acids and alkalis and and

elements and compounds. It's just like, you know, it's

just the stuff. Material is the only thing that

exists and that's coming at us all the time.

Materialism, Second one, rationalism.

It's like you will be able to understand everything that

exists or happens in the world as long as you think hard enough

and you're clever enough. You know, Sherlock Holmes is

just slightly ahead of all of us.

But but one day, you know, if I could think really hard and be

as clever as Sherlock Holmes and there's nothing that exists or

happens in all of creation that I can't figure out for myself.

Rationalism, materialism, rationalism.

Third one, secularism. There is no God.

Don't be silly like you know, whatever your funny beliefs that

you might have in your mind, just keep them to yourself

because they've got no place in a like a sensible society.

And so there is no God. Stop worrying about it.

Just just live without him. That's the soup we're swimming

in all the time. That's what's coming at us all

the time. Like there's nothing out there.

There's nothing in here. We're just atoms.

We're just compounds and elements that everything is just

laws of physics and science and all of that.

So just just just live without God.

Now, I don't know about you, but if if I think that, then it

feels to me very unlikely that I'm going to be living in a

community where miracles are happening all the time and their

reality is so different from that their way of seeing the

world there. These are people who have

experienced tongues of fire coming from heaven, right?

These are people who've experienced, as it said there

many wonders and signs being performed.

These are people who are seeing thousands of people added to the

church in one day and then people being added to the church

every day. They're seeing God at work in

dramatic ways and to their worldview is dramatically

different from ours. Do you see we're being

brainwashed by our society and so our sense of what is normal

needs to be taken out and recalibrated.

We need to give it back to the, you know, the creator and say my

normal isn't working. You know, I need a new normal.

Please, please can you recalibrate my normal according

to what God says is possible? That's the first thing.

They have a different normal. The second thing is they have a

different schedule. When our three kids were in

primary school, my wife Taryn went away for a girls weekend in

Edinburgh drinking cocktails and shopping and, you know, talking

non-stop without drawing breath about, I mean, I don't know,

girl, girl things. And so, and so I, I was, I was,

you know, like I was going to say, I was, I was babysitting.

No, no, no, they were my kids, right?

I was, I was being dad. I was parenting.

That's what's called parenting. I was parenting the kids And,

and I was so stressed. Honestly, I, it was like we had

drum lessons, piano lessons, recorder lessons, Cubs,

brownies, swimming lessons, you know, a play date for one kid

and a trampoline thing for the other kids.

And I was driving around like a rally driver all weekend just

like, and, and there came a point where there was a traffic

jam and I was stuck in traffic. I could feel my blood just

literally boiling the pressure over all like, Oh my goodness,

I'm going to be, you know, little cherub is going to be

late for a ballet dancing or whatever.

It is just so stressful. And the point is, that's how we

live our lives. Just like everything planned and

no space. Do you notice like these Peter

and John, they're on a mission, right?

They, they know where they're going.

We've already found out. They go to the temple every day.

And so they're going to the temple every day.

They're going at 3:00 in the afternoon.

This is their moment to pray. And so these aren't people who

are like lacking things to do and they're not people who are

like dawdling away through life, the kind of people who drive you

crazy when you, like, come up behind them in the traffic jam.

These are these are people with a purpose.

And yet do you notice what happens when they see this guy

sat down by the gate? They stop.

It's like they've got space in their calendar for a divine

appointment. Can I ask you if we're going to

see God, do the kinds of things that we long for him to do?

Do we have space in our schedule for the Lord to intervene?

I have a friend of mine who's very senior in an oil company.

And every day before he goes to work, he says, Lord, I know the

oil company pays my salary, but I want you to know I work for

you. I want you to know that my

tongue belongs to you, my hands belong to you, my feet belong to

you, my time belongs to you, I belong to you.

And then he goes to work and maybe we just need to come.

Like, I honestly think we're being challenged.

We're being cast a vision this morning by the scriptures for

people who have meaning and purpose and a plan and a

schedule and all of those kinds of things.

But we're absolutely open and willing for the Lord to say, and

what about this guy? You're going to stop for him?

They have a different schedule #3 they have a different

expectation. One of the things that I want

you to notice in this passage is that not only do they stop for

this guy, but what's fascinating is they stop today.

They stop in this moment. And the reason I say that is

because in chapter 3, verse 2, we we find out that this man

who's been unable to walk for his entire life is carried to

the gate every day, right? So he sat there how often?

Every day. And then the eagle eyed amongst

you will also notice that earlier on in our passage in

chapter 2, verse 46, it says the believers met in the temple

courts every day. And so my point is that this guy

is there every day and they're going past him every day.

I've got questions about that. Why does he get healed today and

not yesterday? Why did he have to suffer for

longer than was absolutely necessary?

They've been passing him for weeks.

It's confusing, isn't it? Here's a guy, he's unable to

walk. He has to be literally carried

wherever he goes. He could have been healed

yesterday. Why was it today?

Some of this stuff to do with healing and miracles and signs

and wonders. Anyone who gives you a simple

answer to what's actually really complicated is is giving you a

short changing year. Why the wait?

There's a very similar and equally challenging moment in

John chapter 5 where Jesus. In John chapter 5, Jesus and the

John 5 · chapter mention John 5 · chapter mention

disciples, they go to a place called the pool of Bethesda and

it says in John chapter 5 that around this pool loads of people

John 5 · chapter mention

with disabilities would would sit and they're kind of waiting

for their healing. That's the reason why they're

there. And then it says that Jesus

can't comes to a guy who's been, he's been unable to walk for 38

years and Jesus heals him. I've got questions about that.

There are loads of people with disabilities around the pool.

Jesus heals one, as far as we know.

The others, they have to wait and maybe they have to wait for

their whole lives. Do you see, like anyone who

gives you a simple like, oh, this always happens or this

never happens is giving you short change.

You know, there are there are churches that would teach no one

ever gets healed, right, That, you know, that's what used to

happen in the Bible, but it doesn't happen anymore.

To which my friend whose daughter was healed the other

week is going to say, well, well, you know, you can believe

that all you want, but I've got a different reality in my life.

You know, like I've seen God heal.

And so anyone who says God never heals is, is telling an untruth.

But equally, there's a whole bunch of other churches that

say, no, no healing is always available.

You know, you, you, you'll always be healed.

Well, they might want to just tell those people who have sat

around the pool of Bethesda who had to wait for their healing,

even though the literal, you know, Jesus is in their midst.

It's got to be more complex. There's got to be space for

mystery. What's so interesting in the

passage in John chapter 5 is that when the, the, the

John 5 · chapter mention

authorities basically get super cross because they're like, hang

on a minute, you know, Jesus, you're healing on the Sabbath

and that's not appropriate. And, and so they start to

interrogate him about what's really going on and he gives 2

explanations for what's happening in that moment and why

he's healed that guy. The first one is in John 517

where he says my father is always at work.

And in other words, like even on the Sabbath, God's at work,

right? But but that's that's his first

explanation. God is always at work.

And the second explanation is in chapter 5, verse 19, where he

says very truly, I tell you, the Son of man can do nothing by

himself. He can only do what he sees his

father doing. So for me, those two

explanations are really, really important, right?

The first one is his assumption is God's at work here somewhere.

So I'm going to keep my eyes open and I'm going to watch for

it. I'm expecting God to be at work

somewhere here. Is it inconceivable that God is

like not at work, He's at work somewhere.

My father is always at work even to this very day.

And so his, his assumption is where is God at work?

Like he's looking, he's looking for the Lord to be at work.

That's the first thing. The second thing is he says I

only do what I see my father doing.

So in other words, God's at work somewhere and I'm watching for

it and when I see it, I invite solve myself with it.

This is that's his explanation. And one of the things I love

about being part of the Vineyard is that you could go to a

Vineyard church anywhere on the face of the earth and they would

have the same understanding about this stuff.

It's really important. It's like a distinctive that is

that is true of every Vineyard church in the world.

Number one, that we embrace the mystery that we, we, there are

no simple answers. We're not going to say you'll

always be healed. We're not going to say you'll

never be healed. We're going to live with the

mystery of the Kingdom that sometimes when we pray and when

we minister to people that part of the future where there's no

more sickness and no more pain and no more tears and no more

death. Sometimes that future Kingdom

breaks into the present and we see God do incredible things.

And so we're like, we're not going to say that never happens

because sometimes it does. We're going to live with the

mystery. It's OK that sometimes we have

to wait and sometimes we don't. But the second part is we're

going to say, no. My father is always at work

somewhere. And so I'm going to keep my eyes

open. And when I see it, I'm going to

partner with it. And you and you could go to any

Vineyard church on the face of the earth.

This, these verses in John Five are critical.

I only do what I see my father doing.

So I'm watching for it. We embrace the mystery I've

written here. You'll always find in the

Vineyard people living with a rampant expectation that our

father is always at work. And so we're going to watch for

it. So they, they, they had a

different expectation and maybe we need to upgrade our

expectation and, and say, no, no, I believe that God is at

work somewhere and I'm going to watch for it.

And then the final thing is they have a different kind of power.

You know, if this whole healing thing or signs and wonders or

whatever you want to call it is down to me, that's a real

problem. You know, it's down to the power

that I have, that's a problem. If it's down to my holiness,

that's definitely a problem. Just ask my wife, right?

So, so if it's down to me, that's a real problem.

And that's why I love what happens next.

You know, this man who's been unable to walk for his entire

life, He's completely and instantly healed.

And a crowd gathers around and then in chapter 3, verse 11, it

says like this crowd literally runs towards them.

And then in verse 12, Peter and John say, why are you staring at

us? Which is one of my favourite

lines in the whole Bible. Why are you staring at us as if

by our power or our holiness, we've made this man?

Well, in other words, there's nothing to do with us.

What they go on to say is we've put our faith in Jesus, in his

name, in his power, and he's the one who's really doing it.

And so if we want to do what Jesus did, then we need the

power that Jesus had. And you see that in in Acts

Acts 10 · chapter mention

chapter 10, actually verse 38, it says there's God anointed

Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power and he

went around doing good and healing all who are under the

power of the devil because God was with him.

Do you see? God anointed Jesus with the Holy

Spirit and with power, and he went around healing people.

So it's the power of the Spirit that we need if we want to

minister healing to people. The apostle Paul put it like

this. I came to you in weakness, with

great fear and trembling. You see, it's not about him, he

says. My message and my preaching were

not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration

of the Spirit's power. And so we long for God to do all

kinds of crazy things in our midst.

We long for the people of Saint Albans and the rest of

Hertfordshire to be like filled with wonder and amazement at

what God is doing amongst us. We long that our reputation

would be you need a miracle in your life.

You want to experience the power of God or the presence of God?

You want to meet God? Reverso Vignon is the place you

need to be. We long for that.

And in order for that to take place, we need to be filled over

and over again with the same power that filled Jesus, with

the same power that filled the apostle Paul, which is the power

of the Holy Spirit. So why don't we stand?