A People of The Word and Spirit

Breakthrough Church: What's up, everybody? Welcome back ⁓ to another episode of the Breakthrough Church podcast. Man, we're gonna dive right into scripture and here's here's why we're gonna do that. One, it's the Bible, it's the best. ⁓ but I I think that ⁓ culturally what I want to be true, not just about about breakthrough in our church, but about about me as a person. But ⁓ as ⁓ for for you as a disciple of Jesus, I think one of the things we need to begin to combine and bring together again is the the word of God and the spirit of God. And ⁓ there's there's reasons why I'm bringing this up. I don't want to get into all of that. I was listening to a podcast that just deeply resonated with me. But even before that, last night, ⁓ at our discipleship group, I ⁓ taught on the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And I'm gonna I'm gonna walk you through those scriptures today, but I think it's because we need to we need to marry, bring together the word and the spirit. And a lot of churches, you know, some churches are word churches where all they care about is really just like the what does the Bible say in obedience to the word. And preaching the word. And then there's those other churches that are like all about the experience of the spirit and the leadership of the spirit, the power of the spirit, ⁓ and ⁓ maybe to the detriment of their emphasis on the Bible and the word of God. But I think we need to bring both of them together, where we are ⁓ absolutely convinced that the Bible is the authoritative word of God, and because of that, we do pursue the power and presence of the Holy Spirit in our life individually and our churches corporately. And ⁓ John Wimber has a great quote where he says, if you're all word, you dry up. If you're all spirit, you blow up. If you're all a word and spirit, you grow up. And for us to grow up into all God wants us to be, we must be rooted in God's word and filled to the brim and overflowing with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. And Jesus had a f had a had a phrase to describe what that filling of the Spirit looks like. So You might think, ⁓ well, he's going to talk about the spirit side of this. No, we're going to be word and spirit right now. We're going to look at the word and what it says about the spirit and how how we are to engage with the spirit of God. ⁓ so let's let's go ahead and start. If you have your Bible, go ahead and take it ⁓ to Luke 3. If you don't or can't, because you're driving, please don't hurt yourself. But In Luke chapter 3, verse 16, John the Baptist says, I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. This ⁓ this language, this sentence about Jesus' ministry of baptizing you in the Holy Spirit and fire is mentioned in all four Gospels. Of all of the things John the Baptist could have prepared them for, because he's preparing the way of Jesus, he doesn't prepare them. For the forgiveness of sins. Now we we please don't hear something I'm not saying. Jesus died on the cross to forgive you of sins, and we go proclaim the forgiveness of sins. But I think it's important to note that the one aspect of Jesus' ministry that John the Baptist highlighted and is recorded in all four Gospels, which is unique, is that Jesus was gonna come and baptize with the Holy Spirit. One of the primary ways Jesus came to baptize with or Came to earth to die on a cross is to pave the way for the coming of the Spirit, who is God Himself in the midst of His people. So I think first off, we need to elevate the baptism of the Spirit and our relationship to the Holy Spirit. We need to elevate it to be way more important than maybe how we are treating it. ⁓ a lot of us see it's like an auxiliary. ⁓ the Holy Spirit's kind of behind the scenes doing some stuff that I don't really, I'm not really aware of, but. He really helps me just understand scripture and helps me live a life of holiness. True, he does those things. But there's something about this baptism of the Holy Spirit that all Christians need, but not all Christians have had. And I'll explain more about what I'm saying in a minute. But the first point I wanted to make is that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is something that Jesus does, and it is elevated to the point of being as important as forgiveness of sins. Now that might sound like heresy, and before you think I'm heretical, I want to point something out to you. When Jesus died on the cross and they stabbed him in the side, what flowed from his body? Blood and water. Blood to forgive and purify, and water to fill and empower by the Spirit. And in his blood flowing from his side, you see his ability and power to forgive you of your sins with the water flowing from his sides. You see. His ability to immerse you, baptize you in the water of the Spirit, the person of the Spirit. This is who Jesus is. He's the baptizer of the Holy Spirit. And this should speak to you about Jesus' desire, Jesus's, Jesus' desire to immerse you in the person of the Holy Spirit. Okay. That's the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Baptize. The word baptize, I've I've mentioned it already, means to immerse or douse. Or overwhelm. Think about going in water and you come out and every part of you is dripping wet. The same happens when you are baptized in the Spirit. You go into him in a way, or he comes upon you rather, and you leave that experience dripping wet with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Okay? That's what baptism means, to be immersed, to be doused. Okay, let's move forward to Luke 24. So what happens after Luke three, what we just read, is Jesus goes on this journey with his disciples and he empowers them with the spirit to go and heal the sick, preach the kingdom, cast out demons, and all these, and they move in the in the power of the Holy Spirit. They, they, they are not ⁓ aloof or unaware of the reality of the spirit among them. They've they've literally partnered with the spirit to do supernatural kingdom ministry. So it's not like they're unfamiliar with that. And despite that, look what Jesus says in Luke 24, verse 49. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you, but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. He's speaking this to people who have already moved in power. And he's saying, you're gonna need a lot more than what you've had already. Think about the ways these disciples have already been engaging with the Holy Spirit. I've mentioned a few: casting demons, casting out demons, healing the sick, etc. ⁓ and then ⁓ They've also, in Luke 24, right before this passage, Jesus opens their minds to understand the scriptures, which you can only do by the power of the Holy Spirit. And so they've experienced the Holy Spirit through understanding the Bible. And then in John, it says that he breathed on them and gave them the Holy Spirit and said, receive the Holy Spirit. That was when they were indwelt with the Spirit in John chapter 20. What's my point? The baptism of the Spirit. Is a distinct experience for Christians and separate from other ways you experience the Holy Spirit, like understanding the Bible or indwelling of the Spirit at salvation, who seals you as the guarantee of what is to come, Ephesians chapter one. So there's ways to experience the Holy Spirit, but that doesn't mean you've been baptized with the Holy Spirit. It means you have the Spirit, it means God loves you, it means you're sealed. All these things are true. But there's something distinct about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Okay. And that distinction comes in the language Jesus uses in Luke 24, 49. Clothed with power from on high, and the promise of my Father will come upon you. Something is about to happen to them that's gonna take what they've already experienced to the next level. And it is described as power. Fast forward to Acts chapter one. Acts chapter one. Jesus says the same thing in verse four and five, for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. He's connecting what John said Jesus was going to do in baptizing with the Holy Spirit in fire with Acts chapter 2, Pentecost. I know I'm moving quickly, but you can pause if you need if you're taking notes or whatever. But Luke 3 and Acts 2 are connected by Acts 1. Jesus is saying, hey, you're about to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Wait in Jerusalem until that happens. So they come together and they're like, hey, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel now? And they're connecting this promise of the coming spirit with the restoration of Israel, which is not totally off. There's there's some biblical precedent in the Old Testament to that. But let's let's move to verse eight. Acts 1:8. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria until the end of the earth. The baptism of the Spirit, hear this very clearly. The baptism of the Spirit is so that you can receive power to be a witness to the resurrected Christ. The baptism of the Spirit is not primarily about speaking in tongues. Does that happen? Yes. Should it happen? Maybe. ⁓ I don't think that it has to happen. My point is, it's not about speaking in tongues. Will it? Probably. Can it? Yeah. For sure. Does it have to? No. For you to know you've been baptized in the Spirit, it does not mean you must speak in tongues. It is a common experience, though, not just in scripture, but in my experience, helping others receive and release the baptism of the Holy Spirit in their life. Tongues is very, very often accompanying that moment. It does not always mean that's going to happen. The baptism of the Spirit is about receiving power from on high to be a witness to the resurrected Christ. That's why it's happening. And notice the language. The Holy Spirit comes upon them. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. That's the same language as in Luke 24. The promise of my Father will come upon you. Why does that matter? There's a difference between the Spirit in you and the Spirit on you. The Spirit in you was true of you when you said yes to Jesus. The first time you surrendered your life to Jesus, the Holy Spirit came to dwell in you. And his job in you is to form you into the image of Jesus. He wants you to be like Jesus. So inside of you, that's what he's doing constantly. He's he's active in your heart, constantly wooing you to Jesus, cutting out the flesh, making you more like him in your at a heart level. The Spirit is on you for others, meaning he will come upon you and grant supernatural ability to do things you could never do on your own in order that you might minister to others and show them that Jesus truly is alive. This is making some sense. The Spirit is in you for you, on you for others. So when Jesus is saying, wait for power, he's like, I've no, I know you've moved in power already, but this is a supernatural boost where you're going to be able to do things you could not do before. That's the baptism of the Holy Spirit, guys. The supernatural ability to do things you couldn't do before, unto witnessing to the resurrected Christ. This is really cool. This is a really cool promise. Jesus is the one that does it. He's the one that baptizes with the Spirit. And the Spirit brings power. And that power enables you to witness to the resurrected Christ with supernatural abilities. It's like a superpower. It's like all of a sudden you can do something that like you can't do, but the spirit's doing it through you because you've received his power. Okay. Let's keep going. ⁓ I'm giving you the basics of the baptism of the spirit. And to remind you, the reason I'm bringing this up is because ⁓ we need to be a church, we need to be a church. If you're with Breakthrough Church, hear me out. We need to be a church and have a culture that is radically committed to the message of Christ crucified and radically committed to his strategy, which is the power of the Holy Spirit. First and foremost, our strategy to make Christ known. To those around us is the Holy Spirit. Not some cool small group or program. Now we sure, I'm sure we'll do those things. The strategy that Jesus had was: hey, look at what the kingdom of heaven is like, and I'm gonna release you in the power of the Holy Spirit. And they do it. In Acts chapter two, Spirit comes upon them and they speak in tongues. There's observable, tangible evidence that they have been baptized with the Holy Spirit. Almost every time I've prayed for someone to receive the baptism of the Spirit, something happens to their body. They shake, vibrate, get really hot and sweaty, their hands really heat up, or all of a sudden they start having pictures in their mind, or they speak in tongues. Something happens to their body because if an eternal God comes to give you power, that power is probably going to manifest itself in your body somehow, some way. That's just true. It doesn't always happen. I've heard stories of people not having anything happen when they get prayed for to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And yet they go forward to have these super powerful ministries, people getting healed and delivered like crazy. So it doesn't have to happen. It normally does, though. Does that make sense? I don't want you to feel guilty if it's not happened or like, ⁓ I'm wrong, something's wrong with me, or I didn't get what I came for. I don't want you to feel that if if you didn't receive that when you were prayed for. But my guess is. If you've if you if you've grown up in church or if you've been around in Dallas Fort Worth area and been part of the movements and the denominations that I'm aware of, my guess is no one's actually laid hands on you and prayed that the Holy Spirit would come upon you in a moment. ⁓ I would love to come to church on Saturday. I'm preaching on this on Saturday, and we're gonna lay hands and we're gonna let the Holy Spirit come and baptize us. Cause what this does is it makes the kingdom of God a reality in the here and now. And by here and now, I mean. When he's touching your physical body in time and space, everything you thought was true about God becomes true about you experientially so that you're more rooted in who he is and what he's done for you on the cross and what he's calling you to do on mission in this earth, on this earth. At Discipleship Group last night, we talked about often, almost always, Jesus will give you an experience and then an explanation. A lot of us want it the other way around. Jesus, would you please explain it before you let me jump in there or throw me in there? And Jesus rarely does that. And even when he does explain things, nobody understands it until they experience it. The beautiful thing about the spirit, the baptism of the spirit is it's an experience, a true encounter in your physical flesh in a moment of time that results in supernatural power to witness to your kids, your neighbors, your coworkers, your employees. Your parents, whoever it might be, with supernatural strength and ability. The word power is dynamous or dynamis. I forget exactly how to say it. It means it's where we get the word dynamite. This is not just some subtle little powerful thing that we do. This is like dynamite. It's explosive. It is outward. It's it's ministry so that Jesus is made known with power. And this is the only way the church spread in the book of Acts. And in fact, Everywhere there's new believers, one of the first things the apostles do is make sure that they're baptized with the Holy Spirit. This is not something for the super mature or or professional Christians or pastors or those seeking to be in ministry. The baptism of the Spirit is like an essential, foundational ministry that the apostles had in the book of Acts. Case in point, Acts chapter eight, and then I'll be done. Also, for reference, you can go to Acts 19 on your own. It's a powerful passage, but we're going to stick with Acts eight, Acts chapter 8. Philip, one of the apostles, goes to Samaria after Stephen the martyr is killed. Persecution causes them to scatter. They go to Samaria. Philip is preaching the gospel and healing the sick, and all the crowds are paying attention to him. They're so much so that they stop paying attention to this other guy, Simon the Magician. Now, Simon the Magician. ⁓ was a guy who had all the attention in the world from the crowd, from the people, because he was using magic to do dis to to ⁓ he was using magic and displaying power through the magic, and everybody had their eyes on him. But when Philip comes on the scene, everybody turns around and starts to pay attention to Philip, even Simon. It says, even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized, continued with Philip. And him seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed. And so now the amazer becomes the amazed because there's signs and wonders by the power of the spirit. This is how we get the attention of the world again, church. It's not by fog machines and high production on a Sunday. It's about the power of the Holy Spirit. It's about bodies being healed and demons being cast out. That's what gets the attention of a lost, broken, and dark world. This is the pattern in Acts. This the strategy of Acts. We've got to learn to move in the power of God, the power of the Holy Spirit. Philip does, and it gets the attention of an entire city and even captivates the ones who used to be the one captivating. This is incredible. But here's what's crazy in verse 14 of chapter 8. It says, Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. Listen, for he had not yet fallen on any of them. But they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Did you catch that? They'd received the Word of God, they were baptized in the name of Jesus, and had not received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. My point is: you can follow Jesus and be super mature and have the word of God and you've been conformed into his image and also not have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Now let me remind you. How do you know if you've received the baptism of the Holy Spirit? Well, let me ask you this question. When you witness, does power manifest? That's like the only way to know if you've been baptized with the Holy Spirit. Because the goal is to give you power to witness. So go try to witness and see what happens. Does power show up? Does that person get healed? Do you get a word of knowledge? Does someone get convicted when you're preaching the gospel to them? Or just even more basic, do you even have a desire to go witness? Because one of the things the Holy Spirit will do when he baptizes you is compel you into the mission field to go and seek and save the lost, just like Jesus did. If you're baptized with the Spirit, you care about lost people. So if you don't care about lost people, maybe then that you haven't received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Just ⁓ maybe, maybe not. I'm just saying the one way to know, almost assuredly, if you've been baptized with the Spirit is when you witnessed his power. Go on full display, the power of God. And in this instance, it does. And they came, Peter and John came, laid hands on them, verse 17, and they received the Holy Spirit. It does not say what happened to them, but we can read between the lines with fairly, I mean, large confidence. When they laid their hands on them, they received the Holy Spirit, verse 18. Now, when Simon, remember Simon the magician, the guy who knew what it was like to move in power, saw That the Spirit had been given through the laying on of the apostles' hands. He offered them money, saying, Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit. Simon is asking for the ability to baptize people in the Holy Spirit, this gift of impartation. He's not so much concerned about healing and deliverance now. Now he wants, he's seen something even more powerful. He wants to be able to lay hands and people receive the Holy Spirit. Well, why would he ask that unless he was observing some powerful manifestation happen in a room where people were probably, just like Acts 2, being mistakenly been mistaken as drunk or falling over tipsy or laughing or vibrating or shaking or getting hot or all of a sudden speaking in tongues and prophesying things they don't know it about, but God's revealing to them. I'm guessing that this room was crazy when the Holy Spirit came upon them. Because that's the only reason why I think Simon would ask to receive that type of power. And Peter's like, dude, your mind's not in the right spot. Your heart's evil. You need to go repent because you can't buy this type of power. ⁓ but my point of that is what did they do? They received the word of God and then received the Holy Spirit. They go together. They even sent apostles. They sent apostles to make sure that not only did they receive the word, but that they received the Holy Spirit. Verse 15. They came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. They received the word, but they were like, but you've got to receive the Spirit too. They're both one and the same. This should, ⁓ my gosh, this fires me up because it's not like the Holy Spirit is some after of afterthought. The Holy Spirit is not some auxiliary thing that we can choose to, and the Holy Spirit's not just for charismatics and Pentecostals. The Holy Spirit, the baptism of the Holy Spirit unto power to witness is for anyone who's received the word of God. And we must be a person, a people who emphasize the word of God, which is the word about Jesus Christ and the baptism of the Holy Spirit, so that we're a people that actually can get the attention of the world. Not just Bible thumpers trying to convict people of their sin, but true people who usher in the kingdom of heaven on earth today with power to see signs, wonders, and get the attention of a dark, broken world. This is what we're called to do. Now I hope you're asking. ⁓ please, yes, pray for me. I'm going to pray for you right now. And I believe some of you will even get touched by the Holy Spirit. Because I believe He's so eager to do this, he's going to do it through this podcast. After that, I want you to reach out or come on Saturday. We've got to be mobilized. I don't care if you join Breakthrough or not, but you want to touch, you want to receive the baptism of the Spirit. Let me, let me and my team lay hands on you to see it happen because we need this, guys. This isn't just something that we ⁓ yeah, I guess I could do that. No, Jesus said, wait in Jerusalem until you receive the power of the Holy Spirit, the baptism of the Spirit. He ordered them not to depart. Receiving the baptism of the Spirit is not a suggestion, it's an order. And Jesus does not trust a minister of the kingdom unless they've been empowered by the Spirit from the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is a distinct moment in time where we receive power from on high to be a witness to actually do what Jesus has commanded us to do. So Here's a practical application. If you're like, gosh, what do I do? Ask Jesus, please, Lord, baptize me in your Holy Spirit. And I thank you that I have received it in Jesus' name. And then I'm gonna ask you to do something crazy. You ready for this? Go try to witness. Go try to witness. Find somebody that looks hurt. Ask if you can pray. See what happens. I'm not promising you that something's gonna happen. I will promise you that the more people you pray for, the more we'll get healed. And if you've been baptized in the spirit, it will happen. Would you trust me on that? Okay, here's another crazy thing. If you're like, well, I don't know if I could pray for someone, how about you do this? The next time you're alone in a car, turn on music as loud as you want, worship music, and I want you to just start babbling a language you don't know. You know, well, how do I do that? Literally, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Start saying syllables and words alone. Look silly, act silly. The only one you're gonna embarrass is yourself because you're in your car by yourself. If you can get over that, just ask the Holy Spirit to give you a language and then go for it and see what happens. I I will hear testimonies. I will hear testimonies of people who come back and say, Man, I had just spoken tongues for the first time. And it's a glorious thing. But even if that doesn't happen, ask Jesus. He's the one who baptizes. Ask him, Lord, would you baptize me? In your Holy Spirit, so that I can be a more effective witness in my neighborhood, school, workplace, home, et cetera. And I believe he's going to answer that. And so, Father, I pray right now in the name of Jesus Christ for everybody who's listening to this podcast. I believe that there is no distance or geographical distance in the spirit. And so I pray, Father, in the name of Jesus, for those listening to this podcast, would you fill them now with your Holy Spirit? Would you touch them with your power from on high, the promise of the Father? And would you release all the gifts of the Holy Spirit in them and through them? Will there be signs and wonders, healings and deliverances that come through this people, that the world might look at us and actually pay attention to us. I pray you'd release tongues, prophecy, the whole gamut, Lord. Touch powerfully each one listening to this podcast and give them boldness to go and lay hands, to ⁓ preach the gospel, to prioritize the loss in their lives, knowing that you are leading them to do that, God. The Father, you're a good father, and you give good things when we ask. Would you give us more of your Holy Spirit that we might be the church you've called us to be? In Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for listening, guys. ⁓ hope to see you all at church on Saturday. See ya. Peace.

Luke 3:16 Luke 24:49 John 20 · chapter mention Acts 2 · chapter mention Acts 1:8 Acts 8 · chapter mention