The Holy Spirit: All That You Need | Acts 2 | Pastor Andrew Coleman | June 1, 2025

This morning we do come to praise him,

to worship him as our redeemer and our

God. Would you please turn with me to

the book of Acts in your Bible. And if

you don't have a sermon outline, there

are some guys that are rushing to the

front to give one to you this morning.

The text that we will be reading is not

on your outline. And so you will need a

copy of God's word. I hope you bring

God's word with you. Um, but if you

didn't, we have some in the pewback that

is there in front of you and you can

open that up, go to the table of

contents, look up the book of Acts, and

then we will be going to Acts chapter

Acts 2 · chapter mention

2. During this series of after the

resurrection, I've had a picture of the

Sea of Galilee, and that's the picture

that's in front of you. Some very

important things happened on that shore.

Some very important things happened of

both the Lord's love and the Lord's

power. It was that sea that he stood up

one time and said, "Peace be still." And

it went from a raging tempest to being

smooth as glass. It was in that sea that

he rallied multiple catches that were

overwhelming of fish that would sink a

boat. It was on that sea that he would

walk and he would even give Peter the

power to

walk. Define all laws of gravity and all

the things that we so that we think are

so very very real and clear to us.

Beyond those things is the great and

glorious power of God. It was in this

place that the Lord Jesus taught and he

preached and he went down to Jerusalem

to be crucified. He was crucified and he

was laid in a tomb and we celebrate that

event. Um we call it Easter though

resurrection Sunday may be more

appropriate. So this last resurrection

Sunday we did look at the amazing

resurrection. the amazing resurrection

that showed us the power of

God and we looked at what happened after

that. So, we've been looking at what

Jesus was talking about over and over

and over again that he is here now with

them that with the disciples that he was

there with, but that he was going to

depart and send one greater. This

morning, I want us to recognize that

today is Pentecost Sunday. Can you fill

that in? It is Pentecost Sunday. It's

also the beginning of family camp. And

both of these coincide quite well for us

um because of where we're going to go

and what we're going to do. So,

Pentecost Sunday is an important time

for us to recognize something that has

been often left

out. But before we get going too far, I

want you to notice here. And I have a

little test for you. Okay? Notice this.

Think about the first coming of Christ.

The first coming of Christ.

Can you write down some of the things

that come to your mind when you think

about the first coming of Christ? The

first coming of Christ, to give you a

hint, that is what we celebrate at

Christmas

time. Do you have images in your mind

about the first coming of Christ? Write

down a few of them. Write down a few of

them. If I could, I would play

[Music]

the while you write. Go ahead and write

down a few of them.

What images do you have in your mind?

Kind of think about that. Kind of think

about that.

Do you have four yet?

Do you have

four? There's many more than

that. What did you write down? I heard

somebody over here say wise men. Is that

right? That's good.

shepherds. That's good. In fact, how

about this image? Look at this one. Um,

what is that? I mean, that that's kind

of where it kind of starts a little bit.

The shepherds are out keeping watch over

their flocks by night, and there's one

shepherd that tells them what is about

to happen. And then it says at the end

of that, a whole host of of excuse me,

there's one angel that tells them what's

about to happen. And then there's a

whole host of angels that show them and

talk to them. And it says, "Go where?"

"To the finest hotel in

Bethlehem." No. Follow the

star and go to a lowly

manger. And there we see

Jesus in a feeding

trough. Are these images that you have

in your mind when you think of

Christmas? When you think of the coming

of Jesus, when you think of the coming

of the

Messiah, have you seen pictures like

these before that tell vividly the story

from the

gospels? We also see those wise men

mentioned making their way from the

east. So now the screen goes black and

we want to think a little bit about what

is in your

mind when I say the Holy Spirit

comes. Like to ask you to quietly write

down some images in your

mind. The Holy Spirit

comes. What comes to your

mind? If you could

imagine the narrative that we've been

told, what would you write

down? I'm giving you a few minutes to

write. How many of you would say

this? I can more readily remember the

images of Christmas than I can the

images of the coming of the Holy Spirit.

How many of you would say, "I I I have

more of an idea of Christmas, the first

coming of Christ, the birth of Christ,

than the coming of the Holy Spirit." Who

would say

that? Probably threequarters of

us. And you know

why? Because we naturally

emphasize the

person of the Trinity, of the Father,

and the person of the

Son. And we very often are a little

hazy about the person of the

spirit. All three are God. We're going

to go through some systematic theology

this morning. But what I want to help

you see is is that most of the time we

don't have good imagery of this just

simply because the spirit tends to be

foggy to us. And I believe that that's a

combination of a few natural things that

we can relate more to a father and a son

in our mind than maybe a spirit. We

understand that because we are perhaps

we we all have a father um whether close

to him or not. And some of us are sons

but we're children. So we can relate to

that. Maybe we are a father to children.

So we can relate to those things. But

when it comes to the spirit, it's a

little bit more nebulous both physically

and

figuratively. But when we come to Acts

Acts 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2, we see the exact description

of what happened. Just like we were

described what happened when Jesus comes

to the earth as the Messiah, we see the

description of that. And how about some

of these images?

Peter stands up in Jerusalem and begins

to

preach. Let me remind you which Peter

this is. This is the Peter

that said, "I do not know the

man just 50 days earlier."

This is the Peter that was burdened with

all of the failure of his

life that he had denied the one that he

claimed to so passionately

love. But in God's good providence, God

had a plan. He did all of this at a

particular time of the year where there

was Passover and then there was

Pentecost. We'll see what that means.

And then we see that it's time for

everything to roll. And it's time for

the prophecies of the Old Testament and

the prophecies of our Lord Jesus Christ

to be fulfilled when he said, "I'm going

to send the Holy Spirit to you." Now,

look at this next image. Um, and there's

there's a little bit more here. You see

that there's many people around and

they're looking at scriptures and

they're talking and Peter is preaching

and you can start to see maybe a little

flame above their head. And what do you

notice at the top of the

picture? A dove. And the dove we saw at

Jesus's baptism was representation of

the Holy

Spirit. And so the dove is coming upon

them. We don't know exactly what the

setting was and how grand and glorious

it was, how many different meetings they

had, but as the apostles would gather in

rooms in Jerusalem or as they would

gather in various other places, we would

see

them as the gospel was being

proclaimed. Go to the next

picture. And then the next

picture, what in the world is

that? Why is there seemingly a flame? It

talks about a rushing wind. One artist

would catch it this way. There's a

rushing wind with fire and there was a

roaring sound. And then as the apostles

would teach and pray and

discuss, there was a physical

manifestation as it would seem of a

flame over their

heads. Now, does that seem far out to

you? Is that any more far out to you

than a child being conceived in a

virgin by

who? The Holy Spirit.

You see, as we believe in the virgin

birth breaking the the sin line so that

the Messiah could be a perfect sacrifice

for us. We see that the Holy Spirit

comes upon Mary and we see that Mary

conceives as a virgin. This child is of

man, but he is also of God.

We see that miracle occur in his coming.

Now we see the Holy Spirit come and

there's a miracle representation of

this. I want to say to you that this

message, the content of this message

today is of the most important message

that we could have. I want you to notice

the title of the sermon today. The Holy

Spirit, all that you need. the Holy

Spirit, all that you need. You see, very

often in our Christian lives, we may be

living in struggle and defeat, and we're

thinking that we need something

more. We're thinking that we don't have

everything that we need to do what God

has called us to do, to be who God has

called us to be. We don't have, we're

not equipped to overcome the sin that

just seems to be entrenched in us. The

things that we can't break, the things

that we can't stop. Listen, the things

that we can't

start. But I want us to see this morning

that just as Jesus would come to save us

through his death on the

cross, being raised by the power of God

from the tomb, the Holy Spirit comes and

he empowers us to believe in that

salvation and to live it. So let me

remind you of the timeline that is here

and this is only on the screen in front

of you. First of all, there is the

Passover, the crucifixion, and the

resurrection. So, Passover is the feast

that was being recognized that upholds

and looks at the sacrificial lamb, the

blood that was put over the doorposts of

the of the inhabitants of Egypt. They

were in bondage and they're going to be

released. When that happened, they said,

"Remember this always. Always remember

how God delivered you from slavery from

Egypt. And the way that he did it was

through a sacrificial lamb for each

family. And through that, the death

angel passed over those homes. He did

not come into those homes. He delivered

them from that death. And this is a this

is a precursor. This is a vision of the

great Passover that's going to come when

the Messiah finally comes to deliver all

of God's people from their

sin. So the life of the Lord Jesus is

taken. It's crucified. He is crucified

on the cross of Calvary and then he is

resurrected and then he goes on to live

40 more days on coming and going on the

earth until his ascension.

And when he ascends to the

father, he has promised that the Holy

Spirit will come. Now, they didn't know

when the Holy Spirit was going to come.

They didn't realize that he was talking

about just a matter of

days. But indeed, that's exactly what

happened at Pentecost. At Pentecost, the

feast of Pentecost. So, there was the

first feast of Passover. Now, the feast

of Pentecost, we'll talk about what that

feast was. We see that the ascension

happened at 40 days and Pentecost

happened at the 50th day after the

Passover. So, notice here with me the

importance of this message. This is

going to remind us a little bit.

Unfortunately, I have some statements

here that I've written out. This is not

normal. It's not the way I usually do

it, but these are important enough. I

want you to read them. I want you to

think about them as I read them. And I

think that there are many people who are

a little confused about the Holy Spirit.

They haven't really been taught very

much systematic theology about the Holy

Spirit. Systematic theology just simply

says, what does the whole Bible say

about the spirit? What does the whole

Bible say about anything? That's

systematic theology. But when we come to

looking at the systematic theology, what

does the Bible say? These are some

general statements. And if you will read

these carefully, especially if you're a

new Christian this morning, I want to

encourage you, you're going to learn a

lot about one of the most absolutely

important things that you could possibly

know as a child of God. Notice here,

unfortunately, we have not traditionally

recognized the enormous significance.

Can you underline enormous significance?

the enormous significance of what

happened at the festival of Pentecost

when the Holy Spirit depended descended

upon the apostles and all believers.

That's what happened there. The Holy

Spirit depend descends upon them. Notice

this next statement. Some denominations

completely ignore the events of Acts 2.

Others give it an intellectual or

lurggical nod and still others outright

underline it distort or

abuse the event of

Pentecost. And so we see we see

everything from ignoring it to

distorting it and abusing

it. Third statement, it would be

impossible to overstate the significance

of the notice these things the coming.

So he comes the work and presence and

the whole purpose of the Holy Spirit in

the life of God's

people. The Holy Spirit is far more

important than we typically

realize. We often know intellectually

about the Holy You hear you heard Tim

Bone Jeff give a testimony about

intellectually knowing who Jesus was.

But he said even though I had a pastor

friend that mentored me and I had other

people around me that talked to me about

the gospel for many many years for

decades Tim Bone he just told us his

testimony and his testimony was he kind

of intellectually knew about Jesus but

it was more theoretical and it wasn't

experiential until he started to realize

no no no all this is real and all this

is real for

you and this God wants to have a

relationship with you and he designed

you to have a relationship with him and

that comes through the work of Jesus

Christ. But here we also see that it

comes through the work of the Holy

Spirit. We're going to see how that can

be. Notice the fourth statement here.

All true

Christians come to recognize the

absolute necessity of Jesus's death in

payment for our sins and his

resurrection in power over our sin and

death. So it's this is what makes a

Christian is that you recognize who

Jesus is. You recognize that this is

God's sacrifice for all of your sin.

That's what makes a Christian. He comes

to believe that Jesus died so that we

can be cleansed so that we can be made

taken from enemies of God to friends of

God. And we would any true Christian

would say, "Oh, no. It's all about

Jesus." You know, it's interesting when

we meet um very often with people and

we're sharing the gospel with them and

we start talking about um whether what

they understand about the gospel,

they'll start talking about what they

do. They'll start talking about the fact

that well I go to church and I do this

and I try to help other people and and

so forth and people who don't clearly

understand the gospel Jesus is not the

center of it. I'll say to you that there

was a there was a man who came to us

from another country. If I said the

country all of you would know it. I'm

not going to say the country but um he

came to us from the country. In fact he

brought to one of our our meetings as a

pastors. He brought to us his his um

credentials of having been to a Baptist

seminary in that

country. And as we sat down to talk

about the gospel and I just started to

ask them, "How is it that someone is

saved? What is it that makes a Christian

a Christian?" He began to say, "Well, we

walk in the Ten

Commandments. We walk in the

instructions of God. We obey God. That's

how we become

Christians. We go to church. That's how

we become Christians. And I I I kept

asking I kept saying, "Okay, so tell me

about how, you know, how that begins.

How does that work?" And so, let's go

back to the beginning. How how does a

Christian's life start? And he said,

"Well, you have to you have to love

God." And um if you love God, then

you're going to you're going to um be a

Christian. And I kept asking questions

trying to get to the basis of his belief

about how we come to know God. And

finally his wife who was sitting next to

him hit him in the me in the meeting and

said Jesus he's asking about

Jesus. This was a guy who had been a

pastor in another country. He had gone

to seminary and when asked how do we

become God's children he couldn't get to

the

cross. You see the cross is where

everything

starts. If there is no cross and if

there is no Messiah then there is no

hope. You can't obey the ten

commandments. You can't going coming to

church won't save you.

What we see here is that it would be

impossible to overstate the ex the

significance of Jesus's death in his

resurrection. Look at the next statement

there. But few Christians clearly

understand the essential role that the

Holy Spirit plays in both our filidin,

our salvation and our daily

life as God's people journeying through

a fallen world. There's many many people

who call themselves Christians and

perhaps are saved by the grace of the

cross but yet are not experiencing the

importance of the Holy Spirit in their

life. Many Christians do not realize

what happened at Pentecost. This is the

next statement in Acts chapter 2. Its

Acts 2 · chapter mention

practical and powerful impact on their

ability to fill it in live for God in

this present life. They simply don't

realize how important that is. Now, I I

talked about the fact there's the

context of Passover. And in the Old

Testament, there was Pentecost. Um uh

that was the feast of weeks. It c it was

celebrated 50 days after Passover. So,

the Jews had been celebrating this for

over a thousand years. And the end of it

was the end of the grain harvest. So,

the end of the first grain harvest. And

what are you supposed to do that when

you harvest all of your wheat? The very

first thing that you should do is bring

your first part of the harvest to

God to bring it as an offering. You

know, that should be instructional to us

in our own in our own lives. The fact

that God calls us to bring our first

fruits to him. When you make money, you

need to give God his first. That is that

is the example that we see throughout

the scripture is that giving financial

sacrifice is an act of worship and we it

it is an act of saying Lord I trust you

Lord I'm thankful to you here is part of

what I've made out of out of trust that

you're going to take care of me and out

of gratitude that you have taken care of

me this is yours first let me tell you

that the people who learn that that that

comes First are the people who

experience the great grace of God in

their lives in this area. Malachi 3:10

Malachi 3:10

says, "Bring to the Lord his portion

first and he will take care of you."

That's not prosperity theology. That's

promise

theology. He made that promise and it

doesn't have to be distorted. I don't

have a Learjet and neither does Pastor

Jason. Pastor Pastor Ruben doesn't drive

a Bentley. Okay? So relax about all of

that. What we recognize is that all of

us, pastors included, are to give God

the So the the feast of Pentecost was

about giving to God his. Now here's some

other two parts of this. The Jews also

celebrated at Pentecost the giving of

the law. The giving, you see, they had

been delivered from Egypt. And then

what? Moses goes up on Si and the law

begins through Moses. The law is given.

The word of God is given. And so we see

that and this covenant is made between

the Hebrews there in the wilderness and

the law of God is given. And then we

come to the New Testament. Think about

this with me. Pentecost is after Jesus's

resurrection because that after his

ascension. Um, and it occurs 50 days

after the last Passover with the Lord.

And it it represents the spirit's

inddwelling in the church. So, the

spirit comes to the church and fulfills

the law through Christ in God's people.

Fill it in. This is the new covenant.

God is with his people. Jesus held up

the cup, the third cup of redemption at

the Passover, and he said, "This cup is

the covenant of my blood.

This is shed for you. This is the new

covenant for redemption and the Holy

Spirit represents that. Now, I'm going

to make some statements here. In fact,

there's 14 of them. These are incredibly

important and this is where you'll

really maybe learn some things and start

thinking about some things. Think

carefully about these statements.

Overview and reminders. Number one,

there is one God eternally existing and

fully expressed in three persons. There

is one God eternally existing and fully

expressed in three persons. And let's

read those three persons out loud

together. Father, Son, and Spirit.

Number two, the entire gospel, fill that

in. The entire gospel rests on the

doctrine of the Trinity.

You really need to understand more the

doctrine of the trinity. Now, no one

fully understands the doctrine of the

trinity. It is beyond our ability to

fully comprehend. But the Bible does

tell us a lot about the trinity. And

what the Bible tells us, we can begin to

learn and understand. And so, instead of

running around in a fog confused about

who's the father, who's the son, and

who's the spirit, how does that work?

What is that? I want to encourage you to

go ahead and learn the basic doctrines

of the Trinity because the gospel plays

into every bit of it. The father sends

the son to pay the price and the spirit

empowers the son to fulfill the father's

command. And listen to this. And the

spirit works in our hearts to not only

help us to believe but to obey.

And so the doctrine of the trinity has

everything to do with your salvation.

The whole gospel depends upon this. This

is why you should think deeply about the

trinity. You should learn about the

trinity. The mysteries of the trinity

you should allow to remain mysteries.

But the things that have been told you

should seek to

understand. Number three, each person of

the godhead. Notice these. Let's say

them out loud together. Each person of

the Godhead is equally God,

eternally God, and fully God. You need

to understand that they are all equally

God. There's not one that is more God

than the

other. There's not one that was

created. They're all eternal. Eternal

past, eternal present, eternal future.

and they are all fully

God.

Jesus did this. Jesus did not

consider this this glory to be held on

to in Philippians 2, but he emptied

himself voluntarily. Doesn't mean that

he wasn't God, but he emptied himself of

the glory in order to become a human.

And he did that and he becomes a baby

and he grows up among us to fulfill the

plan of God. He does this

voluntarily. And we're going to see

amazingly that the spirit does something

very similar here in just a second. The

spirit also comes and gloriously

beautifully limits and and is

subservient for the glory of God

eternal. Notice this number four. There

are not three gods but there are three

persons of one God.

Now, just put out there to the side,

blow a fuse, because this is where you

can get in trouble if you try to fully

understand that statement. You can

understand enough of it that you can

believe it, but there's much that we do

not fully comprehend about that. Number

five, each person is equal in essence as

each fully possesses the look at this

identically same eternal divine nature.

All three of these, father, son, and

spirit have the

identical eternal divine nature. There's

not one that is more God or less God or

anything of that sort. Number

six, yet each is also an eternal and

distinct personal expression of the one

undivided divine nature. So God

expresses himself in three persons and

this is this is part of the beautiful

uniqueness of the relational nature of

God. Look at number seven.

So the Holy Spirit is fully God. So when

we're talking about the Holy Spirit, the

Holy Spirit is fully God. He's not

one-third God. Yet he exists along with

the father and the

son. Number eight, what distinguishes

the spirit is his particular role and

relationship to the father and the son.

So there's a special role that the that

the spirit has. Just like there's a role

for the father, just like there was a

role for the son. The the son came in

physical form, laid down on a Roman

cross, was put to death, the spirit also

has a role in a relationship in this.

Number nine, the spirit eternally

embraces his role as the here it is.

This is amazing. the background position

of the trinity. The background position

of the

trinity. What do we mean by that? The

spirit never presents himself as the

focus. This is number 10. The spirit

never presents himself as the focus but

exalts the father. Listen to this.

Through the son.

So this is the way the spirit works.

This is how it works within the trinity.

The father is exalted by the spirit and

he does it through the

son. This is

amazing. Number 11. Amazingly, even

though he has the exact same divine

nature as the father and the son, he

willingly fulfills the fill it in behind

the scene position in everything the

triune God does.

So, the spirit is always working behind

the scenes. The spirit, listen to this,

the spirit is working behind the scenes

in Genesis

1. At creation, it says, "And the spirit

of God hovered over the

waters." Listen to this. It's the spirit

of God that is working behind the plan

of the father for the nation of Israel

as he empowers different people. as he

empowers Gideon, as he empowers Samson,

as he empowers Moses, as he empowers

David, as he empowers different figures

in the Old Testament, the spirit comes

behind the scenes and works. And if you

if you read too fast, you'll miss

it. And the spirit of the Lord was upon

him, friends, that's the Holy Spirit in

the Old

Testament. We see this also in the life

of Jesus.

Jesus stands up and full of the spirit

and with the power of the spirit

proclaims the plan of God. And so the

spirit is working behind the scenes.

This is very important for you. In just

a minute you're going to see

it. Number

12 in

creation. So in the creation of the

world, in redemption and in

consummation. What do we mean by

consummation? What's the

consummation? Can you put there heaven

right above that heaven? That's the

consummation. It's when all things

finally come together. The consummation

of it all. When it all comes to the

apex. This this world is not the apex of

it. This present life is not. Listen to

this. Even the death, burial, and

resurrection is not the end of God's

plan. Just because Jesus is risen from

the dead, that's not the end of it.

Listen, Jesus's resurrection from the

dead is what makes the glorious end

possible. And that is when all things

are going to be made new. And when all

of this earthly life and all of the

sickness and sorrow and sadness and

brokenness and violence and self-doubt

and mental illness and suicide, that's

when all of this will finally be done.

That's the glorious consummation. Listen

to this. In creation, in redemption, and

in consummation, what is the spirit? The

spirit is the supporter. Read it out

loud together with me. He is the

supporter, the helper,

sustainer, and

equipper. Isn't that amazing?

He does all of those things actively. We

see that in the Old Testament. We see

that in the New

Testament. Number

13. The Holy Spirit never takes the

spotlight. Fill it in. He never takes

the spotlight. He always leaves that for

the Father and

Son. Number 14. The Holy Spirit is sent

by both the Father and the Son. Fill it

in. as our

helper to bring glory to God. So it is

the spirit who helps us to do that. Are

you at Acts chapter 2? You need to be at

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 2. And I want us to read

Acts 2 · chapter mention

about this glorious moment when the Holy

Spirit comes. Just as we would read

about in the Gospels about the birth of

Jesus, now we come and we read in Acts

Acts 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2 about the coming of the Holy

Spirit. First of all, and we're going to

do this very quickly, I want you to see

um in Acts chapter 2, and on your

Acts 2 · chapter mention

outline, fill this first part in. The

Holy Spirit comes with power and signs.

The Holy Spirit comes with power and

signs. And you're going to look for

rushing wind, tongues of fire, and

speaking in other languages. This

amazing uh event that occurs. So, Acts

Acts 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2, look what it says in verse

two. And suddenly there came from heaven

a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and

it filled the entire house where they

were

sitting. And divided tongues as a fire

appeared to them and rested on each one

of them. So, they're in this room and

they're they're they're there worshiping

and meeting and they're talking and then

all of a sudden there is a mighty

rushing

wind. The sound of that, that's what we

see in Genesis 1:2. It's the wind of the

Genesis 1:2

spirit blowing upon the waters. It's

Ezekiel 37 that the spirit of God is

there in the midst of what he is doing

in the land. And there's tongues of

fire. Look on your outline there.

There's tongues of fire. They represent

the purity, power, and God's presence.

Do you remember the burning

bush? That the presence of God was

symbolized by a burning bush that did

not consume the bush. Well, listen to

this. It doesn't say that the disciples

all had singed clothes, singed hair, and

they smelled smoky when it was all over.

There's the symbol of an all-consuming

fire that does not burn up the bush,

does not burn up the

apostles. So, it's a it's a similar

symbolism of the presence of

God. Notice with me in verse three, and

divided tongues as a fire appeared to

them and rested on each one of them.

Verse four. And they were all, read it

out loud, filled with the Holy Spirit,

and began to speak in other tongues as

the Spirit gave them

utterance. Now look what it says in

verse 5. Now there were dwelling in

Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every

nation under heaven. So that's kind of

amazing. Jews that had come in from

everywhere for Passover. And at this

sound the multitude came together and

they were bewildered. So everybody hears

this loud noise and then they start

gathering perhaps in the streets.

They're coming together because each one

was hearing them speak in his own

language. So the he goes through the

list here. Luke did the research on

this. This is from the the gospel writer

Luke. He wrote the book of Acts. And

look at verse 7. And they were amazed

and astonished saying, "Are not all of

these who are speaking Galileans?" So

these are people from Galilee. How do

they know all these language? How is it

that we each hear each of us in his own

native tongue?

the Parthians, the Mes, the Elommites,

the res residents of Mesopotamia, of

Judea, of

Capidoshia, of Pontius, of as

Asia, Fergia, Panilia, Egypt, and other

parts of Libya, coming fromSirene,

visitors from Rome, both Jews and

procelites. So those are people who

became Jews by by faith and cretins and

Arabians. We hear them telling in our

own tongues the mighty what? Works of

God. So this is a miracle that instantly

happens as a glorious sign. It's a sign

just like Jesus did signs. Here's a sign

that the Holy Spirit came. Jesus did

signs. He healed the lame. He calmed the

sea. He caused five loaves and two

fishes to feed 5,000 people. He did

these amazing things as signs that he

was from God. That as signs he was God

in the flesh. And now the Holy Spirit

comes and saying, "I'm here. Here's the

signs." What did this do? Fill it in. or

or you can notice here at the bottom

this is authenticating their message

symbolizing global outreach and a

reversal of the confusion of

Babel. So we go all the way back to the

beginning in Genesis and it was language

that was dividing the people and now we

see the Holy Spirit is uniting the

people under even different languages

through his

power. Look with me in um the second

one. The Holy Spirit fulfills

prophecy. Um, Acts chapter 2 verse 16-

Acts 2:16–21

21 shows this and it's where Peter

quotes Joel 2. So look down with me in

verse 16. So Peter stands up and he

begins speaking. He begins preaching.

This is his sermon at Pentecost. In

verse 16 it says, "But this is what was

uttered through the prophet Joel."

That's what Peter says. And in the last

days it shall be God declares, look what

verse 17, God declares that I will what?

Pour out my spirit on all fle flesh and

your sons and your daughters shall

prophesy and your young men shall see

visions and your old men shall dream

dreams even on my male servants and my

female servants. In those days I will

pour out my spirit and they shall

prophesy.

Now, he goes on to continue to quote

that, but look at under number two on

your notes. It says, "In the last days,

I'll pour out my spirit." Peter is

explaining that this is a fulfillment of

that prophecy. The spirit is not just

for kings and prophets or prophets and

kings. It's for all flesh. You see, in

the Old Testament, we see only certain

ones touching down and being receiving

this. But this is a decentralization of

God's

presence. This is God coming out to

everyone who believes. Every believer

can receive and operate in the

spirit. When we look at the Old

Testament, it's the people gathered. And

what we see starting to happen here is

the New Testament is the people

scattered. They're sent out. In the Old

Testament, we see that the nations are

called to come to Israel. Come and see.

Come and see is the phrase of the Old

Testament. Come and see God. Come and

see God's people. You know what the New

Testament is? Go and tell. Go and tell

what God has done. And so it's goes from

come and see to go and tell. It goes

from gathered together to scattered for

God's glory. Number

three, we see the Holy Spirit empowers

bold witness. And this goes 14 all the

way through 36. Um, and notice here,

Peter who had denied Jesus weeks earlier

now boldly preaches to a large crowd.

So, Peter who couldn't who couldn't seem

to get it together and say the right

things over and over again in Peter in

Jesus's ministry. Now he's standing up

in Jerusalem. The crowds are gathered

and he's preaching. And notice this, the

spirit, because he is filled with the

spirit, the spirit gives clarity and

courage and ability to explain scripture

and to testify about Jesus. This is

exactly what Jesus had told the

disciples would happen. Jesus said,

"When the spirit comes, he's going to

remind you of everything I've said." And

that's exactly what we see happening

when Peter stands up and starts

preaching is that Peter is reminded of

the things that God said. Peter is

reminded of how Jesus was in the Old

Testament throughout the Old Testament.

Peter is reminded of the truths of this

and he has the power to explain it.

Peter who would get mixed up on

everything and the other disciples would

get mixed up on everything. Lord, are do

you mean that we're supposed to hate our

mother and our father? Lord, do you mean

that we're supposed to leave? Lord, do I

mean they would they would and they were

vying for power and everything else and

all of that is gone now because the Holy

Spirit has

come. Notice this on your outline here.

The spirit gives clarity and courage to

explain that Peter circle that last one

there. Peter has no fear of

man. This is amazing. Look at Acts 2:36.

Acts 2:36

Let all the house of Israel therefore

know for certain that God has made him,

speaking of Jesus, both Lord and Christ,

and then read it out loud. What's the

last thing there? This Jesus whom you

crucified. Does that sound like a guy

who's

afraid? He's looking at all of these

people, probably Roman soldiers standing

around and Jewish religious leaders and

everybody else. He's saying this Jesus

whom you crucified is the

Messiah. And he goes on in Acts chapter

Acts 3 · chapter mention

3 to say repent and return to God and

receive the refreshing that only God can

give. What about Acts 2 37 through38? In

number four, there at Pentecost, number

four, I want you to see this. The Holy

Spirit brings

conviction and leads to

repentance. It says there that they were

cut to the heart. They were cut to the

heart and they cry out, "What shall we

do?" And Peter says to them, "Repent and

be baptized and you will receive the

gift of the Holy Spirit."

This shows that the spirit is given to

all believers, not just apostles or

early leaders. And then we also see in

Acts 2 41-47, the coming of the Holy

Spirit marks the age of the spiritfilled

church because what happens on that

time? It says that 3,000 people are

saved and added to the community in one

day.

Can you imagine 3,000 people suddenly

this little band of disciples goes and

explodes into a a what would be a

medium-sized city in that day and time

of people who would come to

faith. And notice what happens. And

that's not the only time that happens.

There's numerous times when thousands of

people are saved and the spirit forms a

new kind of community marked by devotion

and teaching and disciple to teaching

and fellowship. They're pray they're

praying together and they're breaking

bread together. They're sharing

resources and meeting needs. They have

joy and generosity. They're no longer in

fear. Then they have favor with

outsiders. Very often we we see that

there were people who were glad to

receive the message that was

proclaimed. This is the spiritfilled

church. It's alive. It's united and it's

growing. And why? Because the spirit is

there. Last Sunday, fill this in. Notice

here. Last Sunday, Pastor Ben rightly

taught there's a difference between

being indwelt by the spirit and being

filled with the spirit. You see, every

true Christian is indwelt by the Holy

Spirit the moment they are saved from

their sin and made a child of God.

Everyone gets the spirit. But not every

true Christian walks in the power of the

Holy Spirit as God

intends. We see that God commands us to

be filled with the spirit on a continual

basis. And this is a very, very key

point. Pastor Ben mentioned this last

Sunday. Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 18

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

is that classic ver verse that says

don't act like the world. Don't get

drunk with wine. Instead, be filled with

the spirit. It's like don't be

controlled by wine. Instead, be

controlled by the Holy Spirit. Be filled

with the spirit. Now, that word be

filled is a Greek word. It's a Greek

verb. And the the structure of that verb

is incredibly important. That verb is a

present which means right

now. It's an imperative which means

what? You must. It's passive which means

avail

yourself. You can't fill yourself with

the Holy

Spirit. We'll talk about that right

here. It's in the second person plural

which means all of you. Not just you

singular. It means all of you. and he's

talking to believers. So the whole

picture of this is this is that God's

command for you to be filled with the

spirit is this. He's saying come and

present yourself to God to be

filled. No one else can give you the

spirit except the spirit.

The son has provided this. The son has

sent the spirit to us. It's not through

the laying on of hands that someone now

has the Holy Spirit. We see that every

believer has the spirit. When we lay

hands on someone and pray for them, we

are asking God's blessing upon their

lives and we see the power of this.

Here's part of the idea of this. Right

now, you must avail yourself all of you.

Illustration number one is imagine

yourself standing under the shower of

God's spirit. You're standing under the

shower and there you are receiving it.

Or imagine that you're a bucket and you

are put you're putting yourself in the

position under a faucet to be

filled. That is part of the picture of

what it means. You're not doing the work

yourself. You're simply being available.

You know, that's usually what God asks.

is that you avail yourself to him. Our

big problem very often is that we don't

avail ourselves to

God. We're too busy going to the next

thing. We're distracted or we don't

know. I want you to notice this. How

notice this that some Christians just

have just enough of the Holy Spirit to

fill it in. Make them miserable.

Why do you say that? The Holy Spirit

makes people miserable. You better

believe it. He knows how to make me

miserable. He really knows how to make

me

miserable. How does the Holy Spirit make

us miserable? You see, we have fill it

in. They have the conviction of sin, but

they do not draw upon his power for

victory over sin. This is this is the

reason the Holy Spirit has come that we

not only know when we're wrong, but we

can have the power to do what is right.

It is the Holy Spirit's job to convict

us concerning sin and righteousness. And

he does that to bring us to salvation.

And he does that in our daily walk. But

many people don't recognize that that's

what's going on.

How is it that we can be filled with the

spirit? I want you to notice this and

this plays very much into our family

lives. Number one, if you want the

spirit of God, notice this. We recognize

God's

design and God and desire for us to be

filled to overflowing with him. You need

to recognize that this is how God

designed you as his child. And he

desires for you to want him. And that's

why he says, "Avail

yourself." Ephesians 5:18, "Make

Ephesians 5:18

yourself available to me to fill you

with my spirit." That's what he's saying

in Ephesians 5:18. Number

Ephesians 5:18

two, we recognize if you want the Holy

Spirit-filled life, we recognize that

unconfessed, unrepentant sin in our life

blocks his spirit's presence and power.

Now, God can come and o he can overcome

anything. He can come and convict and

move you. There's no doubt about it. But

as Christians, when we continually live

our lives ignoring him or choosing other

things besides him, there can become

this barrier that we in

disobedience are saying no to his

spirit. And that's where the misery of a

failed Christian, you know, again, some

Christians have just enough of the

spirit to make them miserable. And

they're wondering what's wrong. And part

of the problem is is that God will not

come and inhabit

um to overflowing with his power a

vessel that is unclean.

Galatians 5, 1 John chapter 1 says, "If

1 John 1 · chapter mention

we say that we have no sin, we make God

a liar and his word or his spirit is not

in

us." Look at First Thessalonians 5:19.

1 Thessalonians 5:19

What does it say there? 1 Thessalonians

1 Thessalonians 5:19

5:19. What do I have there? Do not

quench the spirit.

When you continually refuse to have a

quiet time, when you refuse to read

God's word, when you refuse to spend

time in prayer, you know what you're

doing? You're quenching God's

spirit. But when you begin to read God's

word and avail yourself, saying, "Lord,

speak to me through your word. You've

given us this for a reason that we may

know you, that we may hear from you.

When you come before God and you, as

we're going to see, start confessing

your sin to him, when you avail yourself

to

him, this is when God's spirit begins to

fill us and move in us. Look at number

three. We confess and repent of our

sin. So, this is this is what um put out

there to the side. Hosea chapter 14.

Hosea 14 · chapter mention

Hosea chapter 14 will help you immensely

Hosea 14 · chapter mention

in

this. Also, Psalm 32 and Psalm 51. All

of these are about how God's people come

from being out of fellowship with him to

being in fellowship with him. And we see

a God who says, "Bring the backslider to

me because I'm going to love him

freely."

Charles Haden Spurgeon wrote one of his

devotionals on Hosea chapter

Hosea 14 · chapter mention

14 just two words

uh excuse me just two lines and it says

the backsliders come to him and he loves

them

freely. Friends I'm a

backslider. Are you ever a backslider?

Do you slide back from where you're

supposed to be with the

Lord? Are you too busy for the

Lord? Are you too impressed with

entertainment and career or

family or other things? And you kind of

leave the Lord in this. Listen, you know

what the Lord says? Come back to me and

I'll love you freely.

I'll love you freely. I'll forgive you.

This is a God of grace. And all of this

comes through the

spirit. This is

amazing. Look at First John chapter 1

1 John 1:9

verse 9. Many of you have it memorized.

Let's read it out loud

together. If we confess our sins, he is

faithful and just to forgive us our sins

and to cleanse us from all

unrighteousness. How does this s How

does this verse begin?

Oh,

if if when was the last time you just

got down and dealt with the Lord, let

him deal with

you. When was the last time you were

really still before him with your word

with the Bible

open realizing the areas in your life

that you need to confess to him as sin.

Oh dear friend, this is how the

spiritfilled life

begins. We continually confess our sin

and continually let him fill

us. Finally, look at number

four. We ask him

continually. We ask him continually to

fill us with his spirit so Christ may be

glorified by our worship and obedience

to him.

God wants you to ask him, "Lord, would

you fill me?" Is this is amazing. This

is one of those things. There's there's

two amazing prayers that I've seen

answered in my life over and over again.

Really, three. One of them is Lord,

would you give me somebody to witness to

today? It's amazing what happens when

you start praying that. Lord, would you

open the door for me to share the gospel

with somebody? I mean, it's just it's

like you had a billboard on your head.

Ask me about Jesus. If you start to

pray, Lord, would you give me the

opportunity to share the gospel? I

you're guaranteed somebody's going to

the Lord's going to open a door because

he wants you to do that. That's why the

reason you're here. If you pray, "Lord,

I need wisdom." James 1 says he will

give you wisdom. If you will just take

the time to say, "Lord, I'm going into

this business meeting. I don't know

what's going to happen. I'm going into a

meeting with my wife. I don't know

what's going to happen. Lord, I'm scared

to death of my 13-year-old. I don't know

what's going to happen. Lord, give me

wisdom about

this. Would you give me wisdom about

this situation? James 1 says, "If you

will ask God in faith, he will give

wisdom to you." Most answer here's the

third one. Lord, would you fill me with

your

spirit? Would you fill me with your

spirit that I may and now a lot of times

when I pray that sometimes some issue of

sin comes up and is like, "Andrew, we

need to deal with

this." And then I have to say, "Yes,

Lord, you're

right." Friends, when we continually ask

God to fill us with our with his spirit,

he fills us. Look at the last passage

here, and we close with this. Luke 11:es

9 through13. Jesus is speaking and look

what he says here. And I tell

you, ask and it shall be given to you.

Seek and you will find. Knock and it

will be open to you. For everyone who

asks receives and the one who seeks

finds and the one who knocks it will be

open. What father among you if his son

asks for a fish will instead instead of

a fish give him a

serpent? Or if he asks for an egg will

he give him a scorpion?

If you then who are evil, that's we're

sinful in our nature. If you then who

are evil know how to give good gifts to

your

children, how read it out loud. How much

more will the heavenly father give the

Holy Spirit to those who ask him? My

friends, God wants you to be filled with

his spirit. And this is the key to

living the Christian life.

You're not called to live the Christian

life in your own strength. You are

called to surrender to the spirit and

allow him to do it in you. This is all

that you need. Amen. Amen. Let's stand

together for

prayer. Lord, I thank you for

Pentecost. I thank you for what happened

at Pentecost. Lord, so often we just

think about the birth of

Jesus, the

manger. Lord, the lowly

place, no room in the

end, just a little few

gathered. But Lord, Pentecost reminds us

that you come in

power. You come in great power. And

Lord, what was very humble the first

time of your coming, Lord, when the

spirit comes, there is a great release

of what you want to do. Lord, I thank

you that you care to be in us, that you

care to make us holy, that you care to

make us

victorious. In John 15, you told us that

without you, we can do nothing. Well, we

have you through the

spirit. And so Lord, we can do all

things through Christ who strengthens

us. Lord, I thank you that the agent of

the spirit is what gives us

Jesus. Lord, I pray that we would learn

this. I pray that we would figure it

out. I pray that we would surrender to

it. And Lord, I pray that you would do a

new work of obedience and sanctification

in our lives. I pray that we would not

continue to toy with the gods of this

world. that we would not play as

Christians with evil, that we would not

watch the garbage and allow the thinking

of the world to invade our values and

our minds with our children, with our

spouses, Lord, with our families, with

our

homes. Instead, Lord, I pray that your

Holy Spirit would empower us to be who

you've called us to be, to live in

victory over sin and that we would show

the world a Jesus who saves to the glory

of the

father. So Lord, we thank you for your

spirit. We pray that Sheran Hills would

be characterized by a surrender to your

spirit and Lord the great filling of

your spirit that we may be all that

Jesus has called us to be. In Jesus name

we pray. Amen.