Future Church: Wind + Fire | Part 2

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Well, welcome to Awakening Church.

My name's Ryan.

We're absolutely thrilled to have you join us today.

We're actually in a series called Future Church.

And in this season and this year, we're really wrestling with, okay, what in the world does the future hold?

And then I think it's one of those things for us as we wrestle, okay, what does the future of the church look like?

Everything's been different and changed and online and in person.

And we really want to wrestle with this question: what is the future of the church?

And maybe a better question, actually a much better question, is this how do we return to God's design for his church?

Like, how do we get back to God's heartbeat for what he intended for who we are to be as his people?

Now, to answer that question, uh, we actually have to go back to the first followers of Christ, the the early church, and discover who they are, what they were about, to for us to really understand who God has intended us to be.

And so we're diving in into the book of Acts.

If you missed it, last week we began uh Acts chapter one.

And Acts tells all about the beginning of the church.

Last week we left off with this.

Jesus had risen from the grave.

He spent about 40 days in person with his disciples, teaching all about the kingdom of God.

And he told them these two things.

Uh, wait for the gift of the Father, the promised Holy Spirit.

And when the gift of the Father, the Holy Spirit comes, then you'll be my witness in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to all the ends of the earth.

Wait and witness.

And so this is what the disciples are doing.

There's about 120 of them in Jerusalem, and they're waiting.

And they're they've been waiting for about 10 days now.

And we're we pick up the story of when the Holy Spirit arrives.

And here's the question: what in the world happens when the Holy Spirit arrives on the scene?

And how exactly did the church begin?

If you got your Bibles, would you open up to Acts chapter two?

And we're gonna dive in together.

It begins this way, Acts 2, 1 says, When the day of Pentecost came, we'll talk more about that.

It's a Jewish festival where uh people from all over the Roman province came to celebrate.

They were all together in one place.

Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house they were sitting in.

They saw what seemed to be like tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each one of them.

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, other language, as the Spirit enabled or empowered them.

Now, there were staying in Jerusalem, God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.

Why?

Because it was Pentecost.

They had traveled there.

In fact, Jerusalem would have thousands and thousands of people in their city right now.

It'd be just packed to capacity.

When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment because each one heard their own language being spoken.

Utterly amazed, they asked, Aren't all those who are speaking Galileans?

And you're like, Well, how did they know they were Galileans?

Well, uh they had a deep accent.

In fact, it's a little bit like, how do you know somebody's Texan?

And I can talk about it because I'm from Texas.

Well, they have this southern drawl, they talk a little bit slower.

In fact, people look down on Galileans because of their accent.

It's like, aren't all these Galileans?

Then how is it that each of us are hearing them in our own native language?

And then you're gonna see Luke's emphasis on the gospel for all people, all nations, as he's gonna talk about those who are present.

These are Jewish believers.

Uh, and he's gonna move from the eastern part to the western part of the Roman world, and he's gonna say uh that there are Parthians and Medes and Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt, and parts of Libya and Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both uh Jews and converts to Jusium, Cretans and Arabs.

And this is amazing.

We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongue.

In fact, that verse has been one for me in a prayer at awakening where we say we exist to awaken this generation to new life in Christ.

And my prayer is that we declare the wonders of God in the next generation's language.

So good.

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

So, what happened when the Holy Spirit arrives?

How did the church began?

Well, the birth of the church began with the arrival of the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit of God showed up and everything changed.

It didn't begin before that.

They're waiting in the upper room, 120 of them, and they're just going, like, okay, we're just in a holding pattern, waiting, like the airplane stuck up, just doing loops.

And then the Holy Spirit arrives and they are on mission and stuff begins to happen.

Well, it said it was Pentecost.

Let me give you a little background on what Pentecost is.

Pentecost, also known as the Feast of Harvest or the Feast of Weeks, is Feast of Weeks because it happens seven weeks after Passover, or roughly about 50 days, or actually 50 total days.

That's why they call it Pentecost for 50 days after Passover.

At this annual celebration, Israel presented the first fruits of their wheat harvest to God, and it was considered one of three great pilgrim festivals for the Jewish people.

And you just think about the imagery is this presenting of the first fruits.

And this is the first fruits of what God is doing in this new work and bringing redemption to human history.

But it even goes deeper than that, even more incredible than that.

By the first century, uh, the Pentecost was also considered the anniversary of the giving of the law of Mount Sinai, when Moses went up onto the mount and received the Ten Commandments and the law, and God showed up in a pillar and fire, and it was this setting apart a people who would then be a blessing to all people and living under the law.

And he's going, like, no, and today I'm setting apart a people by my spirit.

You're no longer under the law, but by the spirit to bring the message of hope and life.

Well, the arrival of the Holy Spirit came in some pretty um incredible manifestation, didn't it?

It came with the wind and the fire.

The wind, you just like this rushing wind, like tornado that just ripped through.

It caught the attention of the town, of the city of Jerusalem.

And in the scripture, wind and fire are Old Testament imageries for the power and the presence of God.

In fact, the word spirit in Hebrew rule it means breath or wind.

And in Greek, pneuma, it means wind or breath.

It's the spirit of God, and then fire all throughout the Old Testament.

We see for the presence of God.

You think about uh Moses and the burning bush, and God showed up to him in the burning bush.

And then, like we just said, on Mount Sinai, uh the fire of God on the mountain, and then we see as God's leading the people of Israel through the wilderness and a pillar of fire.

It is this moment of the visible manifestation of the power and the presence of God.

And I want to take a moment and just spend a few uh minutes just talking about something that's missed in the church.

Uh, because I think we either swing and we go, we're all about the spirit in the church, or we're not about the spirit at all.

And we need the spirit of God if we're gonna be the church he intends us to be today.

And so let's talk for a second between the difference between the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the filling of the Holy Spirit.

You remember Jesus in Acts chapter one said, wait for the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

And then you also see right here that they were filled with the Holy Spirit.

Well, what's the difference?

And as we study scripture and understand the rest of the teaching of the New Testament, here's what we know: the baptism of the Holy Spirit is what happens the minute you believe and place your trust in Jesus.

You receive the Spirit of God.

In fact, our physical baptism, water baptism, is a picture of the spiritual reality of what's happening, that you have died.

That's the going under the water, and you have been raised to new life.

That the spirit comes inside of you, regenerates your dead life, and brings you spiritually to new life, new birth, indwells you, seals you by the spirit.

You is a deposit guaranteeing his return, and it is irrevocable by God.

That is the baptism, baptism of the Holy Spirit, and it just happens once, right at the moment you place your faith and trust in Christ.

And sometimes it's deeply experiential, other times it's not.

In fact, we'll see that throughout uh Acts, that sometimes it comes with the sign of tongues, and other times it does not.

And then you see also the filling of the Holy Spirit.

And so it is they're filled with the Holy Spirit, and they are speaking in tongues or other languages.

The filling of the Holy Spirit is the moment, and we're actually commanded to be filled with the Holy Spirit, Ephesians 5.18, and do not be drunk with wine, uh, which leads to the botany.

Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit.

It's not so much of how do I get more of the Holy Spirit, it's how does the Spirit get more of us.

It is a yielded life of saying, you get to have more of me, more control.

Holy Spirit, all that I am is yours.

And when the Spirit has more control of us, we start living lives that look and do things more and more like Jesus.

And so there's this filling or empowering of the Holy Spirit, and that happens multiple, multiple times as you are through the life of a believer.

Well, the birth of the church, the arrival of the Holy Spirit, and you notice that it's for all people, and is and it was symbolized this new unity in the spirit, transcending racial, national, linguistic barriers.

I like how John Stott said it.

He said, as the body is without the breath, uh is a corpse, so the church without the spirit is dead.

As we begin, listen, awakening, as we begin and start this, you know, this 2021 year and getting out of the corona pandemic, you know, Lord willing, as we're moving through this, we need the Spirit of God.

It's not optional.

As the body without the breath is a course, so the church without the spirit is dead.

And I feel like as a church, we've been in a holding pattern, haven't you?

We all year long, we've been in a holding pattern.

And it says, wait for the Holy Spirit.

And as the Holy Spirit comes, it empowers us to live out a radically new life.

You see, even as we begin, we have to understand this.

And we get this as a church.

The church is not a place, but a spirit-filled people.

The early followers didn't start with a location, although they were in Jerusalem.

It's not a building, it's not a location, but a spirit-filled people.

In fact, uh the word church in the Greek it's ekklesia.

It's a compound word, ek meaning out, ecclesia meaning called out, or and so it's the called out ones.

It's this whole idea that it's a people that are called out, a different type of people who are living by the Spirit of God.

And so let me ask you this question What difference do you think it would make if the Holy Spirit were withdrawn from your life or your community?

Okay?

I want you to wrestle with that.

What difference do you think it would make if the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from your life or your community?

And if it's if you honestly, not you nobody's checking your notes, nobody's looking on what your paper, what you're writing down or thinking.

If you would say, you know, right, honestly, Ryan, I don't think it would make any difference.

I want to challenge you two things.

One, you're missing out on the Christian life, like the Spirit of God is what regenerates, brings new life.

And and I want to challenge you, maybe you're just going through the motions of Christianity, but you've never truly given your life to Jesus.

Because the minute you give your life to Jesus, the spirit comes inside of you.

Or for others, perhaps what has happened, and you'd say, No, there's been seasons where I've watched, man, God use and work in my life and He's changed my heart and all these.

But right now, through the pandemic, no, I wouldn't say that would make a big difference.

And maybe you've quenched the spirit.

Maybe through decisions you've made, like we we can actually grieve the Holy Spirit of God and we can quench his work.

And there's a freshness of yielding your life and saying, Holy Spirit, have my life, have control in me.

Show me anything in me that's not of you.

And I want you to move and work through me.

Well, the birth of the church began with the arrival of this Holy Spirit, and then the Spirit empowered the apostles to preach uh the gospel.

Every time you see this filling of the Spirit is for the purpose of proclaiming this good news of Jesus Christ.

Now, not everyone was thinking this was amazing about the apostles, right?

There uh there was a few kind of hecklers in the crowd, if you will.

And it says, some, however, made fun of them and said, They have had too much wine.

By the way, anytime you're gonna fall after Jesus, you're gonna get some hecklers.

Don't worry about it.

Just begin to live for Jesus and not for the crowd or for others' approval.

And then Peter, I love this, by the way.

Then Peter stood up with the eleven, raised his voice, and addressed the crowd.

Fellow Jews, all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain to you.

Uh, listen carefully to what I say.

These people are not drunk, as you suppose.

It's only nine in the morning.

And Peter's about to give the very first sermon in the church.

And I love that the first sermon, he's like, Yeah, let me explain.

Nobody's drunk.

Uh, how that's a great way to start a sermon, by the way.

But here's what's amazing Peter.

You remember Peter?

Peter, who is Matthew 16, you know, declared Jesus is the Messiah, and he's you know, it was just this great moment.

And then he said, I'll never, you know, forsake you.

And then later, not too far down the road, he denies Jesus three times.

50 days ago from this moment, Peter denied Jesus and his greatest regret, his greatest failure, the thing that he felt like made him no longer usable by God, probably didn't even feel wanted, and Jesus takes time to reinstate him.

Think about this the the denier now is the declarer.

See, 50 days ago from where from today is really right around New Year's Day for us.

And maybe you've gone through some things, maybe you've made some decisions, maybe some stuff has happened in your life or last year where you're going like, I'm used goods, nobody could use me, God doesn't want me.

And and here's Peter, who who was a big failure, and now he is proclaiming the wonders of God.

And so God says, I want to use you.

I want to use you.

I want to use you by the Spirit to proclaim, and I'm gonna take your past when you surrender it to me, and it will be a powerful tool in my hands to bring many people to me.

If you'll come.

I love it.

So good.

Well, he goes on and explains what's happening that you know what they're seeing is this outpouring of the spirit, this prophecy in Joel 2.

And then he says, Fellow Israelites, listen to this.

Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which uh God did among you through him as you yourself know.

At first, he's starting off with Jesus isn't a legend, he's a historical.

These people saw him, they saw the miracles.

This is happening right in Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified.

This isn't happening hundreds of miles away, tell somebody telling a story about a distant land.

And this isn't happening hundreds of years after somebody telling about a distant man.

This is happening in Jerusalem 50 days after his execution on the cross.

And he's saying, he's historical and he's not a legend.

You have seen him, you knew him, you saw his works.

And then he goes on to say, and through this man was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge, and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to a cross.

Jesus was crucified on the cross.

Everyone knew that.

And here's what's Peter saying: it wasn't an accident.

It wasn't an accident, it wasn't like, oh, oops, mistake.

Actually, it was part of God's plan to redeem all of human history by allowing his son to suffer and die on the cross, taking the full penalty and payment for all of our sin and guilt and shame on the cross once and for all for you and for me.

It was no accident, it was part of God's plan.

But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because why?

It was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.

The author of life, death cannot keep its hold on him.

Not even death can hold him down.

And then he begins to share how Jesus was the fulfillment of these messianic prophecies.

And he says, God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.

There's 120 of us.

Jesus spent 40 days.

And in fact, we'll we we know that a little over 500 eyewitnesses in those 40 days saw the resurrected Jesus.

And he is now exalted to the right hand of God.

He ascended and received from the Father the pro exalted at the right hand of God.

He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.

The birth of the church, the arrival of the Holy Spirit, and then the preaching of the gospel.

Now notice what Peter says.

He says, when the people heard this, they were cut into the heart and said to Peter, What shall we do?

See, we saw and heard all that you said.

What do we do now?

And Peter says, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord our God will call.

And I want to take a moment and talk about this.

Repent and be baptized.

And he's talking about water baptism here.

He's talking about this public identification into the community of God.

It's not just going making this internal response, it's saying, I'm in.

And he says, As you repent and turn to me, the forgiveness of your sins, and you'll receive the Holy Spirit.

And this is the invitation, not just for them today, but for us in this moment.

That the good news, the good news is you can have your sins forgiven, and you can receive a brand new life, a personal relationship with God.

But it begins with a word we don't talk a lot about repent.

I want to take a moment and explain this.

Repentance simply means a change of mind that results in a change of action or direction.

Repentance is literally the understanding.

I was going in a particular direction.

I realized I was headed in the wrong way.

Huh.

Understood that.

Now I have a choice.

I can continue to head in the wrong direction, or I repent.

I realize I'm headed in the wrong direction.

And so then I turn around and head in a brand new direction.

I like how Tony Evans talks about this.

He says, repentance is the inner resolve and determination to turn from sin and return to fellowship with God.

See, this is the gospel.

The gospel is this that God has done for you what I you could not do for yourself.

He has taken our sin and our shame and our pain and has taken that on the cross.

And we have the choice.

We can turn from that life and turn to him.

And the question for you, and the question for me, is will you turn?

I mean, do you do you want to experience like that forgiveness?

So many walk and live this life with shame.

Don't you?

You just have this voice not good enough.

You'll never be anything.

You're screw up.

It says, therefore, there's no no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, fully forgiven.

Do you want to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit where you you you experience brand new life where you have a power, uh the same power that raised Christ from the dead, living in you to live out a life you cannot live on your own?

You want to have a personal relationship with Jesus with God, invited in.

Not based on anything you do or can do or will do, but based on what Jesus has done and accomplished on the cross.

And it says, I am going to turn from that and I'm going to turn to you.

That is the offer for you and for me.

Only Jesus offers salvation.

Everything else is an empty substitute.

Let me say it again.

Only Jesus offers salvation.

Everything else is an empty substitute.

And the reality is, is we're all looking for something to save us.

Is it the vaccine?

Is it the government?

Is it your job?

Is it your spouse?

Is it the person that you're, you know, kind of interested in, your boyfriend or girlfriend, or an affair, or uh maybe uh your success or money?

But we're all looking to something to save us.

Only Jesus offers salvation.

And by the way, heaven must intervene in order to fix what's wrong with earth.

And heaven intervened in the person of Jesus to fix what's wrong in us and in on our planets.

And so, the arrival of the church, the Holy Spirit, the preaching of the gospel, and church for us.

Here's the call the church is the carrier of the message of salvation.

What I just declared and what I was talking about, we are the carrier.

Last week we talked about every single person is a minister of the gospel of Jesus.

We are the carriers of this.

We get to carry this good news that you can have freedom and life and hope and joy and power and in Christ Jesus, that you can have a relationship with the God of the universe.

You don't have to go through this life on your own, and by the way, eternity for now and forevermore.

We get to carry that.

And when the Spirit fills us, we begin to proclaim that to those around us.

See, your faith is personal.

You get to have a personal relationship with your heavenly father.

However, it is not private.

It was never intended to be so.

Birth of the church began with the arrival of the Holy Spirit.

And the Spirit empowered the preaching of the gospel, and as a result, something amazing happened.

As a result, a new community formed.

A brand new community formed.

And listen to this, listen to the response that to Peter's first sermon.

I love this man.

This is his first sermon ever.

And it says, those who accepted his message were baptized, and about 3,000 were added to their number.

See, the power isn't in the messenger, the power is in the message.

Romans would say it is that, you know, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it's the power of God for the salvation of all who believe.

And God used that moment and Peter, this messenger, and 3,000, and all of a sudden, this 120 went to 3,120 people.

And then what you find in the book of Acts is you'll see these consistently uh summary statements about what's happening, how things are going.

And we have one here.

We have about eight of these throughout the book of Acts, and it's going to describe what the church was about when they began.

It's important for us as a new community, as we be dive back into community.

What are we to be about as the church?

And it says this it says they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.

They devoted.

What are you devoted to?

Um devoted, you know, um, we're devoted to all sorts of things.

We're devoted to Instagram, we're devoted to our Netflix shows, we're devoted um to, you know, our jobs, we're devoted to our families.

There's lots of good things we're devoted to.

And it says they devoted themselves and they they had a tenacity and a passion that said, we're gonna get in and sit under the apostles' teaching.

We're we're coming Sunday, ready, ready to be fed.

We want to learn out of your word, and we're gonna dive into God's word on our own as well.

We're gonna be in fellowship.

See, you're never meant to do this life on your own.

You're like, I'm tired of Zoom.

Me too.

And some of you have people you can do life with in person.

Wonderful, do that.

But fellowship, but not any kind of fellowship, Christ-centered fellowship, where you're encouraging one another in the spirit with one another.

It's this fellowship.

Are you in a group at awakening?

If not, get in a group.

It says the breaking of bread.

Friends, we've been doing virtual for a long time.

And we need, as humans, we're created, we need the in-person.

If you have a social bubble, and most of you do, turn it into a spiritual bubble.

If you have a social bubble, there's a breaking of bread, and this is talking about celebrating communion, and it's much more than that.

There's just something the Bible's filled with uh talking about sharing a mill.

And as we share a mill, we share hearts and we share lives, and then we begin to sharpen one another in our relationship with Jesus and to prayer.

And I gotta be honest, in my life, I was just sharing with some buddies this morning.

I'm so distracted.

I'll get up early to spend time with Jesus, and then I'll be checking like the COVID numbers, or I'll be checking, you know, uh something something online.

And just where we go, no, we want to have a conversation and relationship with our Heavenly Father.

Isn't it amazing that He listens to us and He moves, and wherever prayer focuses, the power of God falls, that we'd be a praying church.

And it says everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.

That there's just like, God, you're on the move and we're seeing what you're doing.

All the believers were together and had everything in common.

There's a sense of unity by the spirit.

They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.

There was a generosity that marked them.

There wasn't like, hey, how do I get mine and how do I make sure I take care of mine?

It's like, I got extra.

Do you need help?

And they just gave freely because why?

All that they have they recognized was already God's.

They've been saved.

And it's like, man, I can't wait to share what I have with everyone else.

And it goes on.

Every day they continue to meet together in the temple courts.

This is a daily thing.

This is why we say we want to be an everyday church, not just a Sunday church.

This is this daily side.

They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God, enjoying the favor of all people.

And the Lord, and I love this line, the Lord added to their number daily those who are being saved.

In my Bible, right here, it says it's a B hag, a big, hairy, audacious goal.

I wrote it in 2018.

My prayer is that awakening church that the Lord would add to our number daily those who are being saved.

Like, like we'd be that kind of church that we'd see in the heart of Silicon Valley through this community, every single day, 365 people come to know Jesus.

Like 2021, we get to lean into this, we get to start.

How?

By the power of the Holy Spirit, those who are uh filled by the Spirit, proclaiming his word, and in a new kind of community that is winsome and drawing people to Jesus.

And so, I like how Philip Yancey said it.

Our confused society battling needs a community of contrast, doesn't it?

Let me say that again.

Our confused society, and this is very confused, battling needs a community of contrast, a counterculture of ordinary pilgrims who insist on living a different way.

And we need, as the church, to live a different way and return to God's design for the church.

You see, the church is not an event to consume, but a community to participate in.

It's not an event to consume.

You know what?

I I turn on the TV, I click on the YouTube, I show up to the service, I get mine, and I go.

It was never intended to be that.

It's a community.

We, the ecclesia, the called out ones to participate.

There's no spectators, there's nobody on the sideline.

There's we're all a part of this together.

That's why I so often throughout the New Testament, it talks about the body, that we're all connected to one another.

We're all apart.

This is how the church began.

This is how we are to be today.

Let me ask you, are you participating in the community of Jesus?

If not, lean in.

Start, take a step forward today.

I want to close with what we did last week.

We closed with what the church is, and this is our working definition of the church.

The church is the spirit-empowered community of Jesus on mission to invite the entire world into new life in the kingdom of God.

That's what we are.

The spirit-empowered community of Jesus.

It's all about him, it's all because of him, it's all for him.

We are on mission.

You are on mission.

You are here for more than just making money and just getting by or having experiences or any of those other things.

You're on mission to invite the entire world into new life, into the kingdom of God.

And it begins with us, and it begins now with you and me.

And for some, you are going to step into the kingdom of God right now.

As I've been speaking, the spirit's been stirring, and you're like, I need forgiveness.

I long for wholeness.

I want a relationship with God.

I that spirit, that new life that you're talking about, I've never experienced that.

I've been in church for years.

And today is the day where you repent, you turn from your old life and you turn to Jesus.

And I'm simply going to pray and invite you to pray after me.

And there's nothing magical about the prayer, it's just a conversation with God.

And as you invite God into your life, the Spirit comes into your life and makes you new.

And today, would you join the family of God, this new community, and pray after me?

Heavenly Father, today I recognize I need to turn from my life and my ways and turn to you.

I repent.

Would you please forgive me and make me new?

I believe that Jesus came for me, that he died for me, and that he rose again to new life that I might have life.

Today I am making you the Lord of my life.

I'm gonna follow you to the best of my ability.

Holy Spirit, would you come in and seal me in this moment?

In Jesus' name, amen.

And the wonderful reality is in that moment you stepped into new life, and the Spirit of God now dwells inside of you, and heaven is rejoicing.

And if you made that decision today to follow Jesus, would you let us know?

Would you fill out a connection card or text uh the number?

But would you let us know so that we can celebrate with you and walk with you in this new life with Jesus?

We hope you are blessed by this message.

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