The Descent Of The Holy Spirit

Today we are going to continue our sermon series in the book of the Acts of the Apostles.

If you brought your Bible and you want to make your way to the book of Acts, chapter 1, there is a sermon outline.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

If you'd like one, just raise your hand.

Our ushers would be happy to give you one of those to follow along.

If you haven't been tracking with us, this is, I think, the third week.

The book of acts was written by luke, who also wrote the gospel of luke, and he writes to a man named theophilus.

Told you about the history of his name, and theophilus wanted to know the truth about Jesus and also how do you explain the explosive growth of Christianity during that time.

And so Luke is writing to him to give him evidence and explanation for what's going on.

And he begins in the book of Acts by focusing on Jesus' last appearance to his disciples before his ascension to heaven to be at the right hand of God While he's there, jesus told his disciples that when the Holy Spirit came upon them, they would receive power to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, judea and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the world.

That's what the book of Acts is all about.

As we track through it, we're going to see God leading his disciples, jesus' disciples, into that mission.

And today, luke it's very exciting takes us to the moment when the promised Holy Spirit descended on Jesus' disciples.

That day is known as Pentecost and I'd like to read it beginning in Acts, chapter 2, verse 1.

Acts 2:1

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place, meaning the disciples by the way, it's not just the 12.

, it's a whole bunch of them, 100.

And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting and there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit was giving them utterance.

Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven, and when this sound occurred, the crowd came together and were bewildered because each of them was hearing them speak in his own language.

They were amazed and astonished, saying why are not all these who are speaking Galileans, and how is it that we each hear them in our own language, to which we were born, to which we were born, parthians, medes, elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, judea, cappadocia, pontus in Asia, phygeria, pamphylia, egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytites, cretans and Arabs.

We hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God and they were all amazed, greatly perplexed, saying to one another what does this mean?

But others were mocking and saying they're full of sweet wine.

Today we're going to look at two things from this passage the descent of the Spirit and the filling of the Spirit.

What makes Pentecost unique is the descent of the Holy Spirit on those who believed in Jesus In the Old Testament.

The Spirit of God sometimes would come down on individuals like the prophets, the judges, the kings, to do special things.

But what happened at Pentecost never happened before.

What happened at Pentecost was not only the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies, it also was what Jesus promised his disciples would happen.

He told them when he went away and not until then he would send the Holy Spirit who would be with them and in them and begin to do things in their lives only the Holy Spirit could do.

For instance, in John 14, jesus says this verse 16, I will ask the Father, he'll give you another helper that he may be with you forever.

That is the Spirit of truth, truth whom the world cannot receive.

It doesn't see him or know him, but you know him because he abides with you and will be in you.

Jesus said I will not leave you as orphans.

I will come to you After a little while.

The world will no longer see me, but you will see me because I live.

You also will live, and that day you will know that I am in the Father, you in me and I in you.

And then, in John 16, 7, jesus said I tell you the truth.

It's to your advantage that I go away, for if I don't go away the helper will not come to you, but if I go I will send him to you.

So when the Holy Spirit came down on believers in Jesus at Pentecost, the New Testament identifies this as both the baptism of the Spirit and the filling of the Holy Spirit.

After the Holy Spirit descended on the believers at Pentecost, the crowd watching all of this, looking out, had one question what does this mean?

These are devout Jews Never seen anything like this.

And as you look at the passage, there are four main things that accompanied the filling of the Spirit that can help us understand what it means.

That's what we're going to look at the wind, the fire appearing drunk and speaking in tongues.

We're going to look at the first two today and the last two next time.

As Jesus said, the descent baptism and filling of the Holy Spirit could not take place until he had ascended and was seated at the right hand of God.

And while the descent baptism and filling of the Spirit took place for those believers at Pentecost at that moment, it now happens instantly to the person who believes in Jesus, places their faith in Jesus for eternal life, as Paul tells us in Ephesians 1, verse 13,.

Ephesians 1:13

Listen to what he says to these Gentile believers.

He says in him, jesus, you also, after listening to the message of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, and having also believed, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise Immediately.

Now this is happening to teach us some things about what that means.

It didn't happen like this, any other way.

This is God moving, changing gears, and now, from now on, the Scripture tells us this happens immediately for people who believe in Jesus.

When the Holy Spirit descended on believers at Pentecost, they were filled with the Holy Spirit.

I'm going to talk about what that means.

What happened at Pentecost can help us understand that, what that means when we believe in Jesus.

How does the Holy Spirit do that?

What does it mean when we're filled with the Holy Spirit and, like I said, there are the four things we see associated with that on the day of Pentecost.

That gives us a clue.

The first thing that accompanied the baptism and filling of the Holy Spirit was something they described like a violent wind.

Everybody heard it and felt it.

Jesus told Nicodemus, actually, that being born again of the Spirit was like.

Born again of the Spirit was like feeling the wind.

You don't control it, you can feel it, you can't see it, but being born again is like that.

In fact, the Hebrew word for Spirit is, in fact, wind Ruach.

Have you ever been out on a windy day?

Of course you have.

It's a rhetorical question.

The wind's invisible.

You can hear it, though, and you can feel it.

That's what was happening at Pentecost.

Imagine this image of a violent wind everybody's surrounded with, and what it means, you see, when you believe in Jesus.

Here's the main idea.

Something has come upon you from outside you, something has come from heaven.

You can't see it, but you know it's there when the Holy Spirit feels you.

You didn't make it happen.

It wasn't just some psychological experience coming from within you.

It's coming from outside you, into you.

That's the feeling of the Spirit.

It wasn't just having a set of beliefs or you're more religious.

When you believe in Jesus, you encounter a power from outside you.

That's how Jesus described it in Acts 1.8.

You're going to receive power from outside you that's going to come in you.

One of the ways we understand Pentecost is the violent wind.

It's not something they're conjuring up from within.

It's happening, coming to them from outside.

You know, when I believed in Jesus many, many, many moons ago, I'll never forget it because I immediately felt different, and it wasn't something I was conjuring up in my mind or myself.

I wasn't doing anything, I just believed and prayed.

And something came into me from outside of me.

I felt it.

I couldn't explain it, but I knew.

Now Jesus was in me and I didn't know how.

I didn't understand things until much later, as I began to read the Bible and said, oh, oh, when we believe we're sealed with the Holy Spirit, okay, wow, what happened to them?

What happened to me and anybody who believes in Jesus is a supernatural intervention.

That's what it is Now.

That immediately put these disciples and it puts us directly at odds with our culture.

You know this right, the supernatural, the spiritual.

See, our culture says that all our problems in life are coming from outside us, right over there.

That's the problem, right there.

And you know what we have inside us a solution to solve those problems.

It's in us, right over there.

That's the problem, right there.

And you know what we have inside us solution to solve those problems.

It's in us.

But Pentecost Christianity says you know what Our main problem is coming from inside us, our sin, nature and God, who is outside us, has the power to come in and make things right.

This is the exact opposite.

This is what we face as we move through our culture Counter the opposite of how God wants to work in people's lives.

The wind, the violent wind, came from outside them.

They felt it, they couldn't see it.

It filled believers.

The spirit, the wind, the second thing that occurred to show us the meaning of what was happening, to explain this, they saw tongues of fire.

This is fantastic.

They saw tongues of fire coming to rest on each single one of them Again.

The people look at this and say what does this mean?

Well, if you know your Bible, this is extremely significant to help us understand what happens to us as well as them.

When we believe in Jesus as our Savior, he promised to send His Holy Spirit.

See in the Old Testament when God's glory, when His glory presence manifested itself.

His special presence shows up as fire, fire.

Genesis 15, 17,.

When God made a covenant with Abraham, god appears as a blazing torch.

His presence is there.

In Exodus 3, verse 2, when God appears to Moses for the first time, he appears in a burning bush, all on fire.

Exodus 3:2

His presence, yahweh, is there.

In Exodus 19.18,.

When God comes down on Mount Sinai to appear to Israel, everybody looks there's fire.

There's fire on the mountain.

His Shekinah glory presence.

In Exodus 14.24,.

When God is leading the children of Israel through the wilderness, he appears as a pillar of fire.

That's his presence.

Amen, amen.

Can I get another amen on that?

Amen, amen and Ezekiel 1, 4.

I could go on for quite a while.

Ezekiel 1, 4.

Ezekiel sees for quite a while.

Ezekiel 1.4.

Ezekiel sees a vision of God and you know what he sees Fire.

The special relational presence of God to people is signified by fire His glory presence.

When the presence of God showed up in the Old Testament by fire, it was overwhelming and it was extremely dangerous.

It could be fatal to walk into God's presence.

When you saw the Shekinah glory, now realize what's happening.

At Pentecost, every believer in Jesus is now a burning bush who has the presence of God himself.

That's what it means.

The tongues of fire represent the fact that the glory and presence of God himself has come upon and into every single believer in Jesus.

We're walking burning bushes.

The presence that was once sometimes fatal comes to rest on and in each believer in Jesus.

Now, as we continue with this, this is something even more fascinating.

Consider who's here.

The 12 apostles are here.

They're in that room.

You could argue the apostles were probably the most ordained people in history.

They were with Jesus, they were trained by Jesus, they were appointed by Jesus.

You don't get more ordained than that.

But they aren't the only ones who received the Holy Spirit.

The fire rested, it says, on each one of them the lowliest believer, male, female, slaves, free, rich, poor.

Every single believer got the presence, the Holy Spirit.

It's not just for a few.

You know and you can ask.

I ask this well, when the Holy Spirit comes upon a believer, what does it feel like?

That's the question we all want to ask.

When the Bible describes people who are filled with the Spirit, it really does express.

It is expressed in many different ways, which we're going to see as we continue in the book of Acts, but there seems to be a thread, a thread through all of them and in every single person.

We get a hint of how it feels as we go back and we listen to what's happening at Jesus' baptism.

Remember when the Holy Spirit came upon him as a dove, he heard a voice.

The voice said oh, holy Spirit's on him.

This is my beloved son, whom I am well pleased.

I delight in him.

You see, that's what it feels like Beloved, loved.

We're beloved of God himself.

Can you imagine how Jesus felt when he heard those words?

And everybody witnessed the Spirit coming upon him.

Jesus heard the Father say to him you are my son, I so delight in you.

You say, yeah, that's Jesus.

Yeah, but it holds true for every single believer in Jesus since Pentecost.

Listen to what Paul says in Romans 8, 16.

You have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons, sons by which we cry out Abba, father, daddy, to our God.

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, jesus, our brother.

Now, why does Jesus send the Holy Spirit into our hearts when we believe?

Well, I'm going to look at a number of things here to help us understand that.

But it was true for them as well.

I'm just going to take a look at the scripture.

I can't do it all.

There's so much about the work of the Holy Spirit, but I'll give you a taste.

Why does Jesus send the Holy Spirit?

Jesus talks about.

We've already looked at sending the Holy Spirit and what he'll be sent to do John 16, 12, 13,.

He said I have many more things to say to you.

You can't bear them right now, but when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he's going to guide you into all the truth.

John 16, 14, 15,.

And that's his.

The Holy Spirit is going to glorify me.

He's going to take what's mine and then disclose it to you.

That's such a great image.

All the things the Father has are mine and therefore I said he's going to take of mine, listen to it and disclose it to you.

You'll know it.

The Holy Spirit's going to take who Jesus is and what he has said and manifest it to us.

That means the things you know about him and the truth in your head, in the bible.

The holy spirit's job is to come and make that real to you, in your heart of hearts, a confidence and an assurance you can't explain any other way.

That's his job.

Make it real, not just here.

Oh yeah, I know that.

No, no, no, experiencing it.

It's real.

And the Holy Spirit who is in your heart will make those truths a fiery reality in your life.

And I picked out four things in particular.

Like I said, there's much more to be said about this.

I picked out four things in particular.

Like I said, there's much more to be said about this.

I picked out four very important things.

The Holy Spirit has sent to help us understand the reality of.

That's his job.

John 14, 16,.

Again, jesus says I'm going to ask the Father.

He's going to give you another helper that he may be with you.

Don't miss this forever.

He ain't going anywhere.

You could sin to the, you fall apart.

He's not going anywhere.

You're gonna.

You may quench him, grieve him, him, disobey him, ignore him, neglect him, but he is not going anywhere.

You're stuck with him and then eventually he kind of helps you understand what's going on.

But, beginning with the Holy Spirit's going to help us realize the reality of Jesus' presence in us.

That's his job.

I'm going to ask you the following he's going to be with you forever.

That is the spirit of truth.

The world can't receive, it, does not see him or know him.

But you know him because he abides with you and will be in you.

I'm not.

I notice the connection spirit I me.

I'm not going to leave you as ours.

I'm going to come to you.

The spirit's job is to make Jesus' presence absolutely real to us, in our hearts, not just our head.

We know he existed, we know he died, we know he rose from the dead.

No, no, no, no.

He's a real presence in our life through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Listen to what Jesus said in John 14, 20 to 21.

In that day you will know that I am in the Father and you in me and I in you.

He who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me, and he who loves me will be loved by my Father and I will love him and you know what we'll do.

And he says I will disclose, disclose myself to him.

It's not going to be head knowledge, you will know, you will know me.

That's the first thing.

The presence of Jesus in life is made real to us through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Second, Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to give us assurance that we are a child of God.

We already read this Romans 8, 16.

The Spirit himself testifies we're children of God.

He adopted us.

He's testifying to us you are a child of God.

He adopted us.

He's testifying to us you are a child of God.

Third, jesus sends the Holy Spirit to give us the assurance this is a huge one assurance that God loves us.

Most people, most Christians, actually have the hardest time with this because we sometimes pair God's love with what's happening in our circumstances.

Don't do that.

The Holy Spirit is sent into our hearts to tell you, to give you assurance, that, just like Jesus, he loves you and you are a delight to him.

Because of Jesus, because of your relationship with him.

Listen, romans.

Paul says in Romans, as he talks about our being justified by faith.

In Romans 5 and on, through and the grace of God, he comes to verse 5 and he says and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Love God, not just in our heads.

The Holy Spirit's going to make it real to you.

So you know it.

You know he loves you.

Don't judge the circumstances and equate that oh, god doesn't love me.

Things are going bad, wrong.

It's a common mistake.

Don't do that.

Go with the truth.

Go with the witness of the Spirit in your heart.

Fourth, jesus sends the Holy Spirit to give us assurance that we are saved by Jesus and have eternal life.

A lot of verses on this, but 2 Corinthians 1, 21, 22,.

Paul says God also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge, a pledge of what Eternal life, that we're going to be in God's kingdom when he returns.

We'll be part of that.

The hope He'll never leave us.

He's given to us as a pledge of our redemption.

What does it feel like to be filled with God's Spirit?

How does that work?

We know one thing, a thread that goes through every single point we see this is that you will manifest joy, joy in the Holy Spirit.

You know why?

Because you're going to feel so free, so loved.

Nothing could shake it.

So free, so loved, you can't help but be joyful.

You can't help it.

When I came to faith in Jesus, like I said before, I knew right away something happened to me.

It came from God.

I can't explain it.

I didn't imagine it.

I didn't adopt a set of beliefs or anything.

I just knew Jesus came in after I prayed and the first response I had, my immediate response, was I was filled with so much joy.

I couldn't even speak.

I couldn't.

I was so happy.

All I could do was smile.

Remember the guy who's with me who led me to the Lord?

We both could tell something happened to me and I got the biggest smile on my face.

I think it went up to my eyes.

I couldn't speak, I didn't know what to say, and I'm looking at him and a big smile went over his face.

We didn't say a word.

He just took his Bible and left and I never got over that, never got over the joy of my salvation.

You know what I've noticed?

I've noticed the same, similar response in the people that I've had the privilege to lead to the Lord, person to person, when they get it and they're free, there's joy.

They get it.

They can't stop, that's it.

They get it.

They understand the Lord has come in.

Very powerful when you hear the voice of the Spirit speaking and manifesting God's love in your heart and you are able to say wait a minute.

If someone as great and beautiful and powerful as that loves me, why am I so anxious, why am I so fearful, why am I so upset with this Good question?

Paul says in Romans 8, 31 and 32, what, then, shall we say to these things?

If God is for us, who's against us?

He who did not spare his own son but liver him up for us all, how will he not also freely give us all things with him?

It's powerful.

It's powerful when you can talk to yourself like that.

You are full of the Holy Spirit, joyfully, free from worry, from fear, which we'll see next time.

You don't want to miss the second part, because there's four things that accompany the feeling of the Spirit.

We've looked at the first two today.

The violent wind Something's coming from outside you.

You had nothing, you didn't conjure it up.

It's there outside you, from heaven.

Second, the fire representing the Holy Spirit has come on every single believer who believes in Jesus.

It's a reality and his job is to make what you once only knew in your head real to you in your heart, experiencing it, changing your life through it.

When we continue next time, we'll look at the next two marks being filled with the Spirit, which will include speaking in tongues.

I can't wait.

Okay, I want it to be fun.

The moment you believe in Jesus and become a Christian, god sends his Holy Spirit into your heart so you can experience his real presence, and there is no greater joy than to know God's presence is with you in you, will never leave you and he delights in you and has given his son for you.

Listen, if you've never believed in Jesus, you think of a time when you personally have just dear God.

I believe Jesus died for my sin, rose again.

I want to have him in my heart, please.

I believe in him.

Let me know the reality of my faith in him.

Just ask the Lord to do that, because John 3.16 says God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

I invite you to believe in him, father.

Thank you for Jesus, who not only died on our behalf to bring us to you, but when he rose and ascended to your throne, he sent the Holy Spirit so he could be with us forever, till the day of our redemption, when we see you face to face.

Thank you for your presence with us, lord.

Thank you for how you've made the truths of Jesus real to us in our day to day life, so we would not lose heart.

I pray Lord, even this week you would just make yourself known and real and disclose yourself to us as we give ourselves to you.

Help us to experience the fullness of your spirit as we hear the truth about your love for us and adoption and how we're your sons and daughters.

I pray this Help us, lord, in Jesus' name Amen.