#The Holy Spirit brings...Transformation

In my former book Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began

to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven.

After giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the

apostles he had chosen after his suffering, he presented himself

to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive.

He appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke

about the Kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was

eating with them, he gave them this command.

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

which you've heard me speak about.

For John baptized with water. But in a few days you will be

baptized with the Holy Spirit. And that's our text for today.

My wife Taran and I, we've been living in Scotland for the last

21 years until really recently, but before that we lived not

very far away from here in Watford.

Oh, OK, we've got some Watford people in the house.

This is going to be fun. So, so, so we're in Watford and

we started to sense the Lord calling us away.

And, you know, we went on a bit of a journey and we ended up

being really, really clear that the Lord was calling us to move

just the two of us and our newborn baby to Scotland, to

Aberdeen of all places. And, and we were excited about

that. We were less excited about

explaining that to our family and the people who had just

become grandparents. And so, you know, we were super

nervous that and our remember driving down the motorway

towards Devon where Taran's parents live and just praying,

Lord, please will you let this go OK.

And just being super nervous about how they might respond.

And so we get there late at night and we are, we, we go

straight to bed. We get up the next day.

The fatted calf has been, you know, killed.

And there's a big lunch ready and all of the family are coming

over the, the grandparents and the siblings and the dog.

And, you know, it's like a big, big event.

And, and, you know, I could hardly get through my roast lamb

or whatever it was because I was so nervous.

And then eventually, after the meal was finished, I said, well,

you know that we've been seeking the Lord and we've been asking

him, like, where we should go. And we've been pursuing a number

of different options. Well, we're now at a place where

we feel fairly clear that the Lord is asking us to move to

Scotland and in fact to Aberdeen.

And there was a really long pause.

And then eventually Terence Granddad, who at that point when

he was in his 80s and he was kind of like the patriarch of

the family, he suddenly spoke up.

And in a very kind of grave and sombre voice, he said no.

He said no, you can't go to Aberdeen and you definitely

can't move to Scotland at all because, and we were wondering

what he's going to say. And he went they won't have AB

and Q in Scotland. And I was like, I'm fairly sure

they will have AB and Q in Scotland.

He said, no, I was there during the war and they didn't have AB

and Q then, and I very much doubt they've got one now.

And my point is, you might be wondering what my point is.

I believe, or many of us would believe that there are loads of

things that we absolutely couldn't live without.

But it turns out that actually there are loads of things that

we think we couldn't live without that we really could

live without. I remember we had some friends

who were asking the Lord, Lord, we'll go anywhere, We'll do

anything for you as long as there's a place where the Pizza

Express, my wife, Taryn, you know, when people say literally

and they, they, they, they don't actually mean literally.

Well, Taryn, literally when, when she was pregnant with our

first child, she literally doubled her own body weight.

And, and you know, I couldn't possibly comment on the reasons

for that, but they may have had something to do with the fact

that she just couldn't leave the house before she'd consumed a

full tub of precooked cocktail sausages.

Now, you're welcome. Now, we might believe that that

our life just couldn't go on if, you know, without chocolate or

without coffee or without B&Q or without precooked cocktail

sausages or Pizza Express. But the truth is there are very

few things that we actually can't live without.

But what I want to talk about today is how we as human beings,

never mind we as followers of Jesus, we cannot live without

the presence and power of God. We can't live, Oh, I'm enjoying

this. This is good.

We can't live without the Holy Spirit.

And if I could sum up where we're going to go over the next

season of life as a church across all of our expressions,

it's that and the teaching series that we're going to start

digging into, which is called impact.

You know, the kind of the central thesis of the whole deal

is that we are dependent on God, we're dependent on his spirit.

We're dependent on the power and the presence of God that you and

I were born to know the voice of God at the core of who we are.

We're born to recognize his voice.

We're born that whatever beautiful or perfect purpose He

has laid out for each one of us, it's actually impossible to

complete it without being full of the Holy Spirit.

So we don't need pretty much more of anything at all.

But we do need much more of the Holy Spirit.

If we want to make an impact with our lives, if we want to

make a dent in the universe that echoes on into eternity, we need

to be full of His Spirit. And you know, as we were

preparing to come to versa, from the moment where we knew we were

coming, we were like, Lord, what on earth are we going to do?

Like on the 1st Sunday and the Sundays after that?

What journey in the scriptures are we going to go on together?

We began to sense that the Lord would have us do this.

So what we're going to do is over the weeks and months,

probably up until the summertime at least, we're going to walk

our way through the book of Acts.

And as we do that, we're going to stop.

We're going to kind of linger wherever the Holy Spirit is

mentioned. And we're going to try to

understand what was going on in that moment.

And therefore what might happen in our lives today if we were

to, to kind of seek to understand it and to appropriate

everything that's in the text in our lives today.

So that's pretty much where we're going.

And so as we do that, and this is really a kind of introductory

session, as we do that, we're going to observe all kinds of

things. So, for example, we're going to

observe that the disciples were dramatically changed when they

received the Holy Spirit. This kind of amazing inner

transformation occurred in their lives, where they went from

people of absolute fear to people of remarkable courage.

We're going to observe how the church went from kind of like,

just really ordinary people making all kinds of mistakes.

And they carried on making some like, you know, meandering into

some places they maybe wished they hadn't.

But they went into a season of remarkable fruitfulness for the

Kingdom. And we're going to see the lame

walking and demons fleeing and the dead being raised.

And we're going to see some amazing ways that they were

guided by the Lord and by his Spirit.

And we're going to see that the only explanation for any of it

is Pentecost. The only is I don't know whether

you've ever seen a bouncy castle.

You know, when it, when suddenly you unplug it, like without the

power, you've got nothing, right?

You know, suddenly it's just all deflated.

And, and that's really the journey that we're going to go

on. Without the power, we've got

nothing. And by the way, what an amazing

vision for a life that we would live, the kind of lives for

which the power and the presence of God is the only explanation,

right? The people look at us and they

say, well, even though I understand their education and

their experience and their background and all the kinds of

things that have happened, there's still no possible

explanation for how that could have happened with those people.

That's the kind of life that's going to be laid out before us

over the coming months. You know, they said of Jesus,

who is this man? And they asked each other, where

does this man get his power from?

And they asked the early church or of the early church, like, by

what power do you do these things?

Oh, that they would ask the same of us, by what power do you do

those things? And so that's going to be the

invitation over the next season as we journey together.

And today in the in the time that I have left, I just want to

take some time to look at the critical foundations that the

author of our text today, Luke, lays in the early verses of the

book of Acts that really go to lay a foundation for everything

else that is to come. I think there are really 3

foundational truths that we need to understand.

It's like assumptions. He's like stepping in and saying

these three things really matter if you're going to understand

the rest of the story. And the first one is this.

Jesus is alive and he's at work. This journey begins the the the

book of Acts begins with the risen Jesus, right.

So he's no longer in the tomb. His body is no longer wrapped

in, in burial clothes. His body is no longer subject to

decay or to rigor mortis or anything like that.

He is alive. Like he's fully alive.

You know, it's not the kind of alive where you hear people say,

well, yeah, I suppose he's kind of like alive in our hearts or

in our memories or something like that.

No, no, no. Luke wants to tell us Jesus is

like, properly alive. In fact, he's more alive than

many of you are looking this morning.

He's like, now just to let you know, when I say things that

aren't very funny, right, the journey that we're going to go

on together is you laugh. I preach better.

That's how it works. So, OK, so he's really alive.

Verse three. He presented himself to them and

gave them many convincing proofs that he was alive.

And he didn't just do that once so that they were like, oh, I

wonder, you know, did we hallucinate that?

Did we, you know, were we, was it just wishful thinking that

one time? No, no, Luke tells us he did

that over and over again over a period of 40 days.

In other words, Luke, Luke wants us to understand that the

Christian Church is the only movement that has ever existed

that's still being led by the founder after his own death.

Also, in addition to that, Luke wants to go one further and say

he isn't just alive. He's still doing things.

He's still at work. If you're the kind of person who

likes to circle things or underline things in your Bible,

highlight things, and I hope you are because that's a really good

way to deface your Bible. Perhaps a good word to circle is

the word in verse one where it says began by former book

Theophilus. He's talking about the Gospel of

Luke. Actually, he's saying in the

Gospel of Luke I wrote to you about all that Jesus began to do

and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven.

So he's telling us that everything that's captured in

Luke's Gospel, all the amazing things that he did.

So, you know, the, the feeding of the 5000, the calming of the

storm, the, all of the healings, the paralyzed man, the man with

leprosy, the 10 men with leprosy, the woman who'd been

bent double for 18 years and so on and so on.

Every amazing thing that he did and all the amazing things that

he taught. That was just the beginning.

Jesus was just getting started, right?

All the way through he, he's kind of doing amazing things.

He's teaching amazing things all through his life and ministry,

all the way through the cross, through the resurrection and

beyond into all of his post resurrection experiences.

Luke is telling us that was just him like beginning and he is

still doing things today. He was just getting started.

If you're new to church, and I know that there are some people

in this room who are new to church, that might surprise you

because you might have thought, well, the church is kind of like

a a well meaning, earnest group of people who are seeking to

live according to the teachings of Jesus after he's disappeared.

And to be honest, we are a well meaning, earnest group of people

and we are seeking to live according to the teachings of

Jesus. But the difference is that we

believe he's still here. He's like here and he's doing

things in our midst. Even today we're expecting him

to show up. We believe that he's here right

now, just this week in our staff meeting on Tuesday.

It's amazing, actually, the staff meeting.

In some ways, I wish you could all come to it, but people have

the opportunity to share what Jesus is doing in and around the

church. And this week there was the most

amazing story from just about one particular person whose life

has been dramatically changed by Jesus.

And, you know, he's obviously experiencing a lot of

difficulty. And yet he wrote in and Natalie,

one of the team, she read out this letter and I've got the

permission to share some of it. So.

So this is what he wrote. He said, I hope to see you on

Wednesday. I should have been with you at

church on Sunday, but there were some altercations in this house

and I had to call the police. I've mentioned to you before

that it's very difficult to deal with addicts who are on crack

cocaine. Don't worry about me, because I

know that having found Jesus, the Lord is looking after me.

And because you both devoted so much time to me, I've made it.

I walked tall. Now you will see this in me.

I can't thank you guys enough. I'll see you on Wednesday and

you will see that I'm no longer lost in the desert of my sad

mind. I'm a special guy.

God bless. Isn't that beautiful?

And that's just one like on, that's just one, I think it was

Christmas Eve at the Carol service, there were like 15

people who gave their lives to Jesus in that one moment.

And that's just part of a wider move of God's spirit that is

sweeping this nation at the moment.

And and you're going to get really bored of hearing me talk

about this, but but it is actually amazing that we are

living in a moment where God is moving in this nation in a way

that people haven't known for hundreds of years.

And the Bible Society just did a report.

It was actually they commissioned a really like

proper organization called you Gov to do a really big sample

size survey of the whole population.

And what they discovered was that more than 2 million people

have joined the church in England and Wales in the last

seven years. I mean, that's incredible.

I mean, yeah, you could clap that.

That would be good. And what they found is there are

actually five times as many young men in church as there

were seven years ago, and there were four times as many young

women. But there are people of all ages

joining the church at the moment.

And I know that there are people in this room.

It's like you're almost wondering, like, why am I here?

How am I here? How did I get here?

I just feel compelled to come. Well, the truth is that Jesus is

alive and he's at work and he's at work in your life.

GK Chesterton said at least five times in history, the Christian

faith has to all appearances, gone to the dogs.

In each of these 5 cases, it was the dog that died.

I love that. We shouldn't be surprised that

God is at work in our nation because Jesus is alive and he's

at work. That's the first thing.

Secondly, the world is ready and waiting.

Whenever we approach a passage of Scripture, it's always a good

idea to just try to have a try to have a look at what the

context is. You know, often as Christians,

we like to just take one verse and write it on a fridge magnet

and stick it on the fridge and completely ignore whatever the

context is. But that's a bad idea.

So. So if we were to look at the

context immediately surrounding our verses, we'd start to

understand that when Jesus makes this promise, that is to do with

being filled with the Holy Spirit, being baptized, being

drenched, being being overwhelmed by the Spirit of

God. He's doing that because of the

call that he's given to the church.

And in fact, you know, if you were to look at the verses

immediately before the ones that we read now, you're like, well,

hang on a minute. You read the Acts chapter one

verse one. There are no verses in front of

this one to one. In one sense you're right.

But the book of Acts is volume 2 of A2 volume work a bit like

Lord of the Rings. It's like a story that kind of

goes over 2 volumes. And the first volume is called

Luke's Gospel. And so if we were to go a few

verses up into the very end of Luke's gospel, we would find

that Luke 24, verse 46, Jesus said the Messiah will suffer and

Luke 24:46

rise from the dead, and then repentance for the forgiveness

of sins will be preached in his name to all nations.

Can you imagine those poor fishermen who've like only ever

been in this tiny part of the Middle East and suddenly they're

being sent to all nations without the invention of a

plane, a train or an automobile? It's like an enormous call and

that that comes immediately before this thing about the Holy

Spirit. And then immediately after it

acts chapter one, verse 8, Jesus says you'll receive power when

the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you'll be my witnesses in

Jerusalem, all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

So the context of this promise to be filled with the Spirit is

this enormous call to make sure that everyone on the face of the

earth has the opportunity to accept or reject the good news

of Jesus. The whole world is ready and

waiting. One of the wildest things that

came out of this report by the Bible Society was the incredible

spiritual hunger that is present across the adult population.

And we don't know about the children and young people

because they, they haven't done a survey of them yet, but the,

the adult population just, I'm hungry to encounter God.

I don't know about you. I've been a Christian for about

30 years. And in that time, you know, I've

done my best to kind of share my faith with people around me.

And I, it's not been easy. You know, I don't know what kind

of a response you've had, but, but often I felt like people are

like smiling and nodding whilst thinking in their hearts.

No thank you. Or even, in some cases, open

hostility. But the news is that that things

are shifting. And So what they discovered was

that one in three people in the adult population in England and

Wales would come to a church if only they were invited.

One in three. And so I don't know if you can

imagine, maybe you work at a gym or something like that.

You're like, OK, well, I've invited you and you said no,

I've invited you and said you said no.

So you're the one who's coming. You know, it's like, that's how

that's how statistics work, isn't it?

I mean, it isn't quite how statistics work, but the more

people you ask, the more it is like that, right?

So if you ask 1000 people, then maybe 310 people will come to

church. And so we have this incredible

opportunity. The world is ready and waiting.

You'll be my witnesses to the ends of the earth, says Jesus.

And finally, the, the, the kind of the third foundation that

Luke is laying for us is that the order of things is this.

It's God does something in your life, and then he does something

through your life, right? The the order is in you then

through you. A while ago, my uncle moved into

a new house and we were really excited to see his new house.

And so there was a kind of a big family gathering.

We all went. We were super excited to see it.

We're excited to see each other as well, right.

But but mainly we're excited to see the house.

And it was a really nice house, you know, in a nice area and it

was made of old bricks and it and, you know, they were kind of

like beautiful gas St. lights outside and all this kind of

thing. And it was a really good house.

The problem was that it was next door to this awful house.

It was like a derelict house and it looked like it had been drawn

by a child. You know, it was like a child's

drawing of a house. And the windows were falling out

and half of the building was falling down.

And it's really difficult, isn't it, when somebody says to you,

what do you think of my house? And you're like, well, your

house really nice. The problem is your neighbour's

house not so great. It was a bit awkward and anyway

we kind of got through that. About a year later, our family

WhatsApp group went wild. And the reason was because my

sister-in-law had been watching a TV program called Ugly House

to Lovely House. Has anyone ever seen that

program? Right.

So, so ugly House, a lovely house.

And this was the house that was featured my uncle's next door

neighbor. And so they, they, it was, it

was so brilliant. They did everything to that

house. I mean, there was barely a

single thing that remained the same.

And, and so from the inside out, they renovated every single part

of it, new kitchens, new bathrooms, they knocked a load

of walls down and put up some other walls.

And then they made the outside beautiful new Windows and

everything else, and it looked amazing.

The only problem was that now my uncle's house looked like it

needed some work. You know, there's a, there's,

there's a scruffy house in every road, right?

And if you're looking through your front windows and you can't

see the scruffy house, that means you're living in it,

right? So anyway, my point is, and

again, you might be wondering what my point is, my my point is

actually don't we all long for it's a bit of a tenuous, I mean,

don't we all long for a renovation?

Don't like, I don't know about you, but like my heart is

breaking for so many situations around the world at the moment.

And I want God to do something dramatic in Ukraine, for

example, or in the Middle East. It's like, oh, Lord, please.

But actually whenever I approach the Lord, what I'm also deeply

aware of is, Lord, when you're doing all those things out there

in the world, please don't pass me by because I know that in my

own life there are attitudes and behaviours that are not good.

I'm not going to confess them to you right now, but like, I just

know that I need work. I need an inner transformation,

a renovation of my own soul. So I just find it really, really

interesting that Jesus is like, yeah, I'm sending you to the

nations. Every single person on earth

needs to have an opportunity to accept or reject the good news

of Jesus. But before you go, just wait

right there, because I'm going to envelope you with my Spirit.

And in fact, in Luke's gospel, right at the end, Jesus says the

same thing, but in slightly different words.

He says stay in the city until you've been clothed with power

from on high. You know, we need to know the

power of God, the transforming work of the Spirit right in the

core of who we are. Even as we go, we we're living

in this moment of incredible opportunity, the kind of

opportunity that our great grandparents would have longed

for. But here's how it works.

God has to do something in you before he does it through you.

And so we as a church, that's what we're going to ask for

right over and over again, over weeks and months, we're going to

say, Lord, we need it. Everything that you want to do

in our lives, you know, we want to live the kind of lives for

which only the power and the presence of God is the

explanation. We want to, we want to fulfil

everything that you're calling us to do.

But first of all, Lord, please will you do something in US?

Don't pass us by. Why don't we stand?