The Acts of the Apostles 15

Subtitle: The Power of Prayer

Acts 4:23-31. 

This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday morning August 28, 2022.

Last week, we saw that Peter and John were severely threatened not to teach in the name of Jesus, and they were released from custody.  With the response that Peter gave them, they can’t hope too much that these men will actually stop.  However, it will buy them some time to craft a plan for dealing with them just as they did with Jesus.

We are going to see the importance of prayer today.  These men were full of the Holy Spirit, but they were not a source unto themselves.  In fact, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them during a prayer meeting.  Instead of responding to the threats of the rulers with threats themselves, they responded to the threats with more prayer to God.

May we never forget that all our doing must have a foundation of prayer underneath it, so that God is evident within it.

The believers turn to God in prayer (vs. 23-30)

Upon their release, Peter and John go to their companions to describe the actions of the rulers of Israel.

After hearing about the threats, the disciples turn to God in prayer.  Notice that we have that phrase again “in one accord.”  Remember that this means they were all singularly focused with a passion for reaching God in prayer. 

It is hard enough to get ourself singularly focused with passion on one thing, much less a whole group of people.  This really is a miraculous move of God that is happening among these early Christians.  O, that believers today would be moved upon by the Lord to be in one accord about reaching God through prayer.

Let’s take a look at how they pray and then how God responds.

They start out glorifying God by declaring that He is the One who created everything.  He created the heavens, the earth, and the seas, and then He filled each of these domains.  Salient to the moment, God is the Creator of those people giving them threats.  Essentially, they are appealing to the higher authority.  The men who have threatened them are accountable to a higher power, just as the disciples are.

Prayer is never about telling God something that He doesn’t know.  It is more about demonstrating that we know who He is.  Prayer is not getting God to the place where He will do what you want, it is about getting ourselves to a place where we can truly serve Him.

To glorify God is to lift our own spirits up out of the squalor of this world, and the clouds of confusion.  It is to come out of ourselves and into the presence of One who is greater than us.  It is to focus our heart and mind upon the only One who can sustain us and enable us.  Prayer gives us God’s perspective about our life and the things that bother us.  If we spent more time in prayer, then we would have a better perspective on life when we get up off of our knees and go about our day.

God is not only the One who created these men threatening them, but He has also spoken things through the prophets about just such men.  Through the prophet David, God said this very thing would happen.

Psalm 2 is a powerful psalm that clearly depicts God making His Anointed One (Messiah, Christ) to be king over the nations at the protest of their rulers.  Those rulers will attempt to throw off his rule, but God in heaven will laugh at their attempts to reject His decision.  “I have set My King upon My Holy Hill!”  The rulers are then warned that if they do not turn to the Anointed One in fealty, then they will perish when his wrath is kindled just a little. 

It ends declaring, “Blessed are those who put their trust in Him.”  This is similar to the message Jesus sends back to John the Baptist, “Blessed is he who does not fall away because of me.”  Really these are flip sides of the same coin, one positive and one negative.  To trust in Jesus is not to fall away.  Not to fall away because of Jesus is to put your faith in him.

These disciples of Jesus are actually seeing Psalm 2 happening in real time.  In fact, we are seeing the same thing today in our world.  The rulers of the world are set on casting off the “bonds” of God and His Christ.  This is what it looks like.

The question today is, “Whom do you fear, God and His Messiah, or the powerful rulers of the earth?  Our response will set the position that we will be in in the day of His wrath.

Verse 28 holds a nugget of powerful understanding that we must get ahold of and never let go.  No matter what the enemies of Christ may do, they can only accomplish what God has purposed ahead of time.  This does not mean that they are doing a good thing.  They have the power to choose wickedness, but they don’t also have the power to choose where that path will take them.  God is truth and reality.  You can’t fight reality without paying a price of your decision. 

Thus, all beings in the universe will do the will of God.  Some will accomplish His will by choosing to cooperate with His purposes and being transformed into His righteousness.  Others, will accomplish His will by refusing to cooperate with His purposes.  They become something far worse than they ever imagined, but in so doing, also accomplish the will of God.

Only God is the Sovereign over all that happens, and it is His Providence that is before us.  Christians must never think that becoming so grants us sovereignty over our own life.  The best that we can do in this life is to cooperate with the will of God and thereby to be transformed into the image of Jesus.  Yes, some of the path ahead is revealed to us through prophecy, but all of us must learn to trust God with our today.  If God had allowed Jesus to die in order to do something greater, then God may choose to do the same thing with Peter and John.  They have no guarantee exactly what following Jesus will look like, only that Christ will be with them all the way.  What matters in life is doing the will of God regardless of what the future may hold, and that will take a lot of time in prayer tuning our hearts to the heart of God.

Though they have been glorifying God, they are also building a case, asking God for His help.   They first ask that God would grant them to speak His word with all boldness.  A “grant” is in keeping with coming to a great King, but this is more than getting a title to some land.  They are asking for God’s help in doing what they know must be done.  God, whatever you have to do in me in order to do this thing that must be done, then please do it!

The content of our speech to this world and to one another needs to be the Word of God.  Yet, the boldness cannot come from a place of our flesh.  The Sadducees and the Pharisees had a boldness that came from much study, and the accolades of an intellectual system.  In fact, it takes a lot of boldness to put the Lord Jesus Christ to death even though it didn’t square with the Law of God.  Fleshly boldness will not work to lead us in what God is doing.  It only made things worse. 

At each point along the way, God in His mercy gave them opportunity to jump off this confidence in their own righteousness.  Nicodemus jumped off.  Even the Apostle Paul saw the light and turn around to the point that he later says that he considered all that previous boasting as rubbish, garbage, in the face of knowing Jesus.  The problem is not that God is wanting us to get rid of everything.  The problem is in my heart.  I so easily try to hold onto fleshly things that give me confidence instead of only holding on to the Lord.  Eventually, you will have to choose.  If something is getting in between you and Jesus, just know this.  There will come a day when it will be to hard to hold onto both.  Like a man trying to hold two horses together going in opposite directions, you will either let go or be destroyed.

The boldness they wanted could only come from the Holy Spirit within them and speaking in the moment.  This is only granted as we daily come to God in prayer, seeking Him, and seeking His will.

They also ask that God would stretch forth His hand to heal and give signs and wonders in the name of Jesus.  We see this again that they are fully aware that any miracles would be by the hand of God.  They would simply be faithful servants whom God worked through.

We are called to be a blessing to the sick and the hurting.  These things will then be signs pointing people back to Psalm 2.  We must make our peace with Jesus today because the day is coming when his complete rule will be established.

It is clear from history that God has granted seasons of healings, and signs and wonders.  It is not our job to know either way, but to pray for God to move and to work.  No number of miracles can save a person’s life.  People need Jesus, not miracles.  Perhaps the greatest miracle they will ever see is a man or woman of God coming out of the wilderness and speaking the word of God to them by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

They were not praying for miracles because they wanted to be wowed again.  No, it is a wicked and adulterous generation that seeks for signs and miracles.  No, they are praying for God to confirm that they are from Him through these miracles.  Only God can help us to make it to that pure place where we are praying for Him to move in our time, but we are not seeking things rather than Him.  They are not asking miracles for themselves, but to be done among the people in order to draw them to Jesus.

God’s response to their prayer (vs 31)

Verse 31 tells us that there was a response from heaven.  They would get up off of their knees that day knowing that God had heard them because the place was shaken with an earthquake.  We do not know how widespread it was.  It seems to be more for them than Jerusalem.  Of course, the skeptic will say it is only a coincidence.  However, such a person was not there to see the lame man dancing in the temple, nor the ministry of Jesus before.

So why did God shake the place that they were at?  In Psalm 18:6,7 it says, “In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, and my cry came before Him, even to His ears.  Then, the earth shook and trembled; the foundations of the hills also quaked and were shaken, because He was angry.”

This is David recognizing that his victories over Saul, and the nations surrounding Israel, were not about his great ability.  It was always about God answering his cry.  This imagery is used throughout the Psalms and the prophetic literature.  When God is stirred up to judgment, the natural order is practically unable to stand it (Hills melting like wax, etc.).  It is a sign that God is angry and is not to be messed with.

This can be seen at Sinai as well.  The powerful demonstration of quaking, thundering, lightening, fire and smoke demonstrates that God is legislating the righteousness that they should be doing.  The law is a scary thing without the mercy and grace of God.  Thankfully, it was not without mercy and grace.

The Bible says that the righteous are a people who cannot be shaken, and consequently destroyed.  Here, God shakes the place to show that He is rising up, just as David spoke of it, to stand on their behalf before these rulers.  He is not happy with their actions, though He will use them for His purposes.  When we are in right relationship with God, we need not fear His judgments around us.

This is shown in Hebrews 12, where God promises to shake the heavens and the earth.  This great day of shaking no wicked person will survive.  The only way to survive it is to become an unshakeable person.  Only God can make us an unshakeable person by the power of His Holy Spirit.

Perhaps, we should remind ourselves that Satan tries to shake us as well.  In this mortal flesh, we will be tested.  As long as we hang on to faith in Jesus, we cannot be destroyed.  In fact, the devil will only succeed in making you stronger.  Yet, if we let go of faith in Christ, then we can be destroyed.  Let us receive an unshakeable faith by the help of the Holy Spirit.

They were then all filled with the Holy Spirit.  As we have mentioned before, being filled with the Holy Spirit is not a one-time event.  There is a fresh pouring out of the Holy Spirit in response to their prayer.  We must see this and pay attention to it.  God wants to fill you, but He does so in the relationship of prayer. 

Public prayer times with other believers has its place, but the foundation of our walk with Christ is our private prayer time.  We cannot skip these private times of prayer and expect that the Holy Spirit will just always be there to back our fleshly minds up.  God help us to desire to be a people of prayer because it was God’s desire first, and it is His Holy Spirit even now stirring you up to want to pray.  You won’t be able to run the marathon tomorrow, but if you get up and start a little at a time, each day, over time you will develop a strong foundation of prayer that your flesh resisted at first.  Prayer is hard.  There is no lime-light, no accolades.  Our flesh shrinks back from it, but we must master ourselves and turn to God in prayer, if we want to know Him and the power of His resurrection.

It ends by saying, “and they spoke the word of God with boldness.”  I believe this is simply saying that God answered their prayer and this was the hallmark of their activity moving forward. 

O friend, we need to speak the word of God boldly.  It is the only hope that people have, whether they know it or not.  However, that kind of power is only found in a place of prayer seeking God’s help.  Let’s get to it!

Power of Prayer audio

The Acts of the Apostles 7

Subtitle: Peter Preaches to the Crowd III

Acts 2:25-33.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on July 3, 2022.

We are continuing to look at Peter’s sermon to the crowd on the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was first poured out on the disciples of Jesus.

Let’s review his main points so far.

• He countered the mockers who said they were drunk.
• He then reminded them of the prophecy in Joel 2:28-32 where God promised to pour out His Holy Spirit upon all flesh in the last days.
• He then points them to everything that has just happened with Jesus: he was publicly proved by God to be from Him, he was given into the hands of the religious leaders, they had him executed and buried, but he was raised from the dead.

This last point that Jesus has been raised up from the dead leads Peter to point out another prophecy to Israel.  Why would Peter say it was impossible for Messiah to remain dead in the grave?

Peter points to Psalm 16:8-11 (vv. 25-28)

Psalm 16 speaks to Peter’s point of the impossibility of Jesus being held by death.  Peter will interpret this psalm in the next verses, so let me just point out some secondary points from these verses.

This whole psalm lays out the confidence that David has in the Lord to be his ultimate shepherd.  David had confidence in the present because he knew that the Lord was at his right hand (Psalm 16:8; Acts 2:25) no matter what he faced.

Do you have confidence that God is by your side?  That kind of confidence can only truly be ours if we are repentant of our sin before God and working to do His will in our life.  This world needs Christians who have a confidence that is not just based on theory, but on the reality of a repentant, humble relationship with Jesus the Messiah who is our savior and Lord.

Yet, this confidence also had a forward-looking hope while he was in the present.  God had given David a promise that was a secure hope that gave him rest, inner peace, in the now.

The world often argues that Christians are too focused on heaven and the future.  They don’t do enough for the present.  Whether that is true or not, the fault is not in having a future hope promised by God.  Just like David, we have promises from God of a future glory that cannot be taken from us.  This can enable us to have an incredible peace even when we face great obstacles and threats from the Goliaths of this world.

In Psalm 16:10-11, David brings up the hope of resurrection.  The truth of the resurrection of the righteous filled David with the knowledge that he would one day be full of joy in the presence of God.

We are given a measure of joy in this life that can even reside with us in troubled times.  However, David foresees a time of dwelling in God’s presence like we see pictured in Revelation 21-22.  The joy of the Lord in this life is a foretaste of that eternal joy that will know no subsidence.  What we have ahead of us can only be described as Life Eternal, of which we get a taste in the present. 

May we become more like David in these difficult days that require us to be filled with the Holy Spirit.  Yet, Peter is focused on why Jesus couldn’t stay in the grave, and that is found in Psalm 16:9, Acts 2:27.

Peter applies the passage to Jesus (vv. 29-33)

In verse 29, Peter respectfully points out that David is still dead and buried.  His flesh saw corruption, or the full process of decay. His tomb in Jerusalem stood as a witness to this.  It would be easy to ignore the words and say that it is not clear what he means.  Yet, Peter points out that David was not speaking about himself.

Now, I would point out that Peter clearly sees all of Psalm 16:10 as speaking about Christ.  However, he doesn’t exactly explain the interpretive method that he is using.  I am of the opinion that his “interpretive method” was simply witnessing the events and then learning from Jesus what it meant.  Even without a special revelation from Jesus, there is something going on in this verse.  David first says, “You will not leave my soul in Hades…”  Yet, in the second phrase he speaks of “Your Holy One.”  Though we can see this as pointing to David, it is quite possible that it is scoping out and David has in mind a greater being, the Holy One of God.

On top of this, the lives of the Patriarchs, and later men like David, were often prophetic enactments of things that pertained to God’s dealing with humanity.  So, even David’s reference to his soul not being left in Hades can speak to a greater Son of David, the Messiah, (of whom David is a picture) not being left in Hades as well.

Peter points out in verse 30 that David was a prophet.  Yes, his psalms were not collected and placed among the books of the prophets, but David was a prophet nonetheless.  In fact, all three Hebrew sections of the Old Testament have prophecy.  The Torah, or the Law, has plenty prophecies throughout it, even Moses pointing to “the prophet like me” in Deuteronomy 18:15-18 that Israel should listen to.  Psalms is placed among the Writings, or Wisdom literature.  However, not only are the psalms full of prophecies, but the book of Daniel, and even Job speaking of a time in Job 19:25-26 when his Redeemer will stand in the last days and, even though Job’s skin will be destroyed, he will see God “in my flesh.”  Our categorization of Scripture can be helpful, but it can also get in the way of hearing what the Holy Spirit is saying.

David was a prophet and Psalm 16 is not just some quaint worship song to sing at the temple.  It contains a prophecy about resurrection, yes of David, but even more so, of the ultimate Son of David, Messiah.  Yes, David had the hope of his own personal resurrection, but he knew that this hope was pinned in the person, the One, who would come from among his descendants that would be the Anointed One of God.  He foresaw that the Anointed King who would rule upon the throne of David forever, would also run into trouble just as he did.  He recognized that the spirit of this world would come against Messiah and slay him too.  Like Job, David knew that he had a redeemer that would come down into the grave and release him from its grip because it was impossible for the grave to hold Messiah, or to deny his plundering of its spirits.

Peter wants them to take David seriously.  David stated that the Holy One would not be held by the grave or see decay, which means he must first be killed and then resurrected!  Thus, in verse 32, Peter states that the 120 people that had been filled with the Holy Spirit were witnesses of all that Jesus had done, especially his resurrection.

I will point out that verse 24 and verse 32 use a word saying that God “raised up” Jesus.  This word can also be translated as to set up, or to establish something above.  In this sense there is a dual raising up.  To his enemies, it looked like Jesus was down and out as he died and went to the grave, Sheol, Hades.  However, he had been raised up from the dead and set, established, upon the earth.  For 40 days, he interacted with his disciples.  Yet, another raising occurs in verse 33.

Jesus has been exalted to a position at the right hand of the Father in the heavenlies.  It wasn’t enough to just raise Jesus up out of the realm of the dead like Lazarus.  He was raised up with an immortal body and further raised up into God’s heavenly domain, and further raised up to sit at His right Hand, the highest place.

This point is always difficult on our flesh.  Like the disciples in Acts 1 speaking to the resurrected Lord, will you now restore the kingdom to Israel?  Why didn’t he (doesn’t he even now) remain on earth and fix it?  The point is that in our flesh, we will always have an enemy to fight due to the fact that the enemy of sin is inside of us all.

It is at this highest position that Jesus receives from the Father the Promise of the Holy Spirit.  In a sense, this is talking about authority.  It is given to him, or he is authorized, to pour out the Holy Spirit as he sees fit.  In fact, that is exactly what Jesus was doing.  He was in heaven pouring out the Holy Spirit on that very day (and today as well!). 

Back in John 16:7, Jesus had told Peter and the disciples, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.”  The sending of the Holy Spirit is the same as the pouring out of the Holy Spirit.  The first accentuates his personhood.  The Holy Spirit is another comforter who is like Jesus, but different.  The second phrase accentuates the water analogy.  We need to be baptized, cleansed, by the Holy Spirit in order to be filled with Him to overflowing.

This is the same Spirit that we need in this hour.  We need the same Spirit that David had when he faced Goliath (an uncircumcised Philistine), and later King Saul (an uncircumcised in heart Israelite).  We need the same Spirit that Peter had as he spoke to the crowd that day and later gave his life in the Roman Colosseum.   We need the same Spirit that Jesus had in all that he did while he was on this planet.  This is the same Spirit that we can have as we daily open our hearts and minds to His leading and His purposes.

Let’s ask Jesus every day to fill us with the Holy Spirit in order that we may be his voice, his hands, and his feet in these the Last Days!

Peter Preaches III audio

The Acts of the Apostles 5

Subtitle: Peter Preaches to the Crowd

Acts 2:14-21.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on June 12, 2022.

Today, we pick up at the Day of Pentecost and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Jesus.  As the Law was given at Mt. Sinai, so the Spirit of God was given in Jerusalem, or Mt. Zion.

A crowd had gathered due to the commotion caused by about 120 people speaking in foreign languages about the wonders of God.

Luke doesn’t clearly describe exactly what the scene looks like.  Are they still in the room with Peter speaking through a window?  Have they come out onto an open balcony?  Have they walked out into the outer courtyard around the Temple?  In the end, we have a large crowd that has gathered and Peter is given an opportunity to speak to the crowd, but now he is filled with the Holy Spirit.

We should be careful to recognize that the Holy Spirit does not take over people and control their body or speech.  There is a cooperation between the Spirit and the person He fills.

Let’s look into the passage.

The Holy Spirit speaks through Peter

Peter starts out by telling the crowd to “heed my words” (vs. 14).  The Holy Spirit had been giving the people languages to speak that many in the crowd had overheard and understood.  We can think of this as a particular way that the Holy Spirit can speak to people through believers.  Even more important, the activity itself is symbolic of things that would have meaning to those with eyes to see and minds to understand.

However, the event of mass speaking in tongues appears to be more about getting the attention of people in Jerusalem so that the Holy Spirit could speak to them in the regular language that would have been spoken in Jerusalem.  Peter is speaking by the Holy Spirit, but this time he is not speaking in a language unknown to him.  He is speaking with understanding of what he is saying.

How important it is for us to pay attention, to understand, and to properly respond when the Holy Spirit is speaking.  That may be in the occurrence of things that we do not understand, or when another person who isn’t perfect speaks to us.  In fact, sometimes the Spirit of God may speak to us through the unwitting words of sinners.  We must always be open and listening for what the Spirit is saying in the midst of what others say.

In John 16:14-15, Jesus said, “He [the Holy Spirit] will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.  All things that the Father has are Mine.”  (NKJV).  When the Holy Spirit is speaking, He is giving to us what Jesus is saying, and Jesus is giving Him what the Father is saying.  These are not merely words to hear and use for our own inspiration.  God has a purpose in those words and we should not co-opt His words for our purposes.

Thus, it is not enough to merely hear the words of God.  We should so thirst for the word of the Lord that we treat it all as precious.  I must understand these things!  Even then, it is not enough to merely understand the words.  I must live wisely in the counsel of those words.  In this life, we should put our faith completely in those words through willing obedience to the Spirit of God.

Now, we can get to Peter’s message.  He first counters the mockers who are saying that they are drunk.  Wherever God is moving, there will be mockers to ridicule it and put it down.  Don’t doubt that the devil and his spirits weren’t recognizing that this event of the Holy Spirit could really wreck their control on Jerusalem.  In this crowd, they find willing accomplices and assets that they can stir up and depend upon to do their will.  In fact, it is the opposite of what Peter is doing.  He is surrendering to the Holy Spirit, but the mockers are surrendering to the work of an evil spirit that seeks to thwart the good work of God.  We see this same spirit at work today, whether through false-believers, or non-Christians, whenever God is speaking.

Peter rejects the accusation that they are drunk.  He points out that it is the third hour.  In Hebrew reckoning, 6:00 AM would begin the morning hours, thus it was about 9:00 AM (+3 hours).  People who get drunk generally do so at night.  Of course, there are some who do get drunk in the day, but usually they are not up at 9:00 AM.

Those who give themselves to alcohol to the point of drunkenness are not following the Spirit of God.  Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:18, “do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit.” (NKJV).  Drunkenness, or better intoxication, leads to the oppose of a life that is being saved, fixed, and healed.  The phrase in Ephesians, “in which is dissipation,” actually uses the word for saving something and then fixes a “not” in front of it.  Instead of leading to a life that is filled with healing and life, it is a life that is falling apart and leading others around them to do the same.

Let me just speak to a fad in some parts of the Church that act like and teach that being filled with the Holy Spirit is just like being drunk.  This passage is saying the exact opposite.  It is not a God thing for Christians to appear to be completely out of control and stumbling over themselves.  There is a contrast between being filled with alcohol and what it leads to, and being filled with the Holy Spirit and what it leads to.  When a person is truly filled with the Holy Spirit, they will be a spring of life, a spring of salvation, healing and restoration, and they will be all those things the people around them.  The mockers are the wicked ones in this setting, but they are trying to slander this righteous remnant of Israel that was following God.

Peter then points us to Joel 2:28-32.  This is the first of three Old Testament Scriptures (the only ones at that time) that illuminate what God has been doing in Jerusalem for the last 2 months.  This is a small part of a larger prophecy about God’s dealings with Israel and the nations.

Joel opens up in chapter 1 talking about a locust army that seems to have literally destroyed the crops of Israel in his day.  This then turns into a prophecy about the Day of the Lord.  It is called the Great and Awesome Day of the Lord in Joel 2:31. The literal locusts of Joel’s day were a portend of a spiritual locust army that will come in the last days.  We don’t have time to deal with it today, but suffice it to say that the wording and imagery of Joel 2 is all throughout Revelation 9 and the locust army that comes out of the Bottomless Pit.  Remember that the Bottomless Pit is a prison for rebellious spirit-beings who were so bad that God had them locked up until the Day of the Lord’s judgment on heaven and earth would come.  There is a recurring theme of a supernatural army of evil beings coming on the earth out of the north, really a spiritual or cosmic north.  They come to torment mankind, and they come to destroy God’s people, even Israel.  Only God can rebuke this supernatural army and save His people.

In the middle of this terrible vision and prophecy of the Day of the Lord, God calls Israel to repentance.  Yes, the Day of the Lord is coming, but what you are doing today sets the table for what you will be eating then.  Israel is called to repentance and is told of the good that God has for them when they do.  So, Joel 2:28-32 is God’s promise that He will pour His Spirit out upon all those who repent and turn towards Him.  This contrast of God pouring His wrath out upon some and pouring His Spirit out upon others is an important understanding of all prophecy.

Notice in Acts 2:17 that this pouring out of the Holy Spirit takes place in the last days.  We have technically been in the last days since that day 1,990 years ago (give or take a few years).  We are in the last age of God’s work before He brings in His kingdom under the Lord Jesus Christ.  The Day of the Lord is the conclusion to this age and the transition into the Kingdom Age.

Some may ridicule (mock) that if the last days last for almost 2,000 years then the phrase is meaningless.  That is not true.  It is a harbinger to every generation that we must make our decision because God is getting ready to wrap things up.  The Day of the Lord is a day of judgment upon all nations, and upon the spiritual powers that deceive the nations.  In fact, when Jesus the Messiah was rejected, God has him sit at His right hand until the day that He makes the enemies of Jesus his footstool (i.e., Revelation 19 and the Second Coming).  Meanwhile, we are in a time of harvest (the feast of Pentecost was a feast of harvest).

Yes, Jerusalem would be destroyed and Israel taken into exile completely, but God’s judgment was not complete then.  God put pause on continuing to pour out his judgment on the nations, and instead sent His terms of peace to anyone on the side of His enemies who wish to switch sides.  Can you imagine playing a game where it is almost over and a Champion walks on the court or field for the other team that spells your doom?  Then, imagine that time-out is called and it is announced over the loud speaker that any team member that wants to switch sides can do so and they will be considered a true member of the other team?  This is the grace of God.

The pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon whosoever would choose the side of Jesus, the side of God the Father, is pictured as having no barriers.  Both men and women, old and young, free and slave would be full recipients of God’s Holy Spirit.  This Spirit would cause them to prophesy, and to have dreams and visions from God.  Everyone of God’s people would become prophets.  If all of God’s people would be prophets than who would they prophesy to?  They would be God’s voice to the nations of the earth.

O Christian, we must be filled with the Holy Spirit in these last days so that our mouths, hands, and lives will be full of the eternal life of God, so that it will flow out upon a dry and thirsty world that is lost under the power of the darkness of the devil and those humans who are in league with him.  We are closer to the Day of the Lord than they were in the first century.  Instead of asking how much longer is God going to offer terms of peace, we must be faithful to be His voice, His emissaries, holding out life to the lost saying, “Don’t die; choose life!”

Verses 19 and 20 of Acts chapter 2 speak of signs and wonders that will come before the Day of the Lord.   Some of these will be in the heavens and some will be on the earth.  Let’s be clear that the Day of the Lord culminates with the Second Coming of Jesus to literally reign on this earth as God’s King.

Now, there were signs and wonders that occurred at the birth of Jesus.  The magi came out of the East having seen a star that portended a special king in Israel.  Also, a glorious band of angels appeared to shepherd in the fields of Bethlehem.  The life of Jesus was full of signs and wonders as he did the miraculous over and over again.  At his death, a darkness filled the land that cannot be explained by a solar eclipse due to it lasting too long.  All of these are signs pointing us to the reality that the Day of the Lord is near, but so too that the promise of pouring out the Spirit is even now here.

There are still signs to occur.  Zechariah 14 is a prophesy about the Second Coming of Jesus.  Jerusalem will be nearly destroyed and Jesus will break the clouds and deliver them.  In verses 6-7 of that chapter, he speaks of a unique day.  During the day it will be dark and at evening time it will be light.  It is also described as “neither day nor night.”  It appears that the light of the sun will be diminished to the point that throughout the day there is darkness, but at evening time it will be light.  This light presumably coincides with the return of Christ to deliver Israel.  I would assume that all of this is in relation to Jerusalem time.  It is worth noting that Revelation 16 also speaks of the 5^th bowl being a darkness on the kingdom of the beast that causes pain.

Thus, the tribulation period will see these signs of blood, fire, vapors of smoke, the sun turned to darkness and the moon to blood.  Those will be signs to those who are alive at that time just as the signs surrounding the life, death and resurrection of Jesus were signs to those alive back then.  The strange events of darkness and an earthquake that ripped the temple curtain had no doubt circulated among the visitors of Jerusalem.  They had been prepared to hear what the Spirit of God had to say, what Jesus had to say, through Peter on that day.

The key point of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit in Joel 2 and quoted here in Acts 2 is that it will introduce a time where everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.  The Hebrew word for “saved” can be translated as delivered, or even escaped.  Remember the context is about this looming judgment of the Day of the Lord.  Those who call upon the Lord will be delivered from that judgment and escape it.  This is what Jesus was saying in Luke 21:36, “Watch, therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man.”  (NKJV).

Listen, friend.  God doesn’t just want to give you a golden ticket into heaven, or a badge of honor saying, “I’m saved!”  He wants you to escape that horrible day of judgment that is coming upon this world.  His promise is that all who put their faith in Jesus will prove worthy to escape that awful day.  No, we won’t escape persecutions and suffering in this life.  But we will escape the destruction that the powers of this age are orchestrating for humanity.  And, we will escape the destruction that God has determined upon them and those who stand with them as His wrath is poured out.

It is important to remain humble and understand the tension between being the survivors of this age and also being the overcomers.  Both concepts are critical for us as believers.  We are not victims.  We are those who will survive the most devastating things that will ever come upon the earth, and even more, we will be those who overcame the powers of the devil and his angels, and the kings and powers of this earth.  Amen!

Peter Preaches audio

Grieving the Holy Spirit

Ephesians 4:25-32.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on June 05, 2022, Pentecost Sunday.

We talked about the gifts of the Holy Spirit last week.  One thing we know about the Corinthian Church is that they were very busy exercising spiritual gifts, especially speaking in tongues.  It is important to note that Paul does not question that their spiritual gifts are genuine, just that they were not treating one another in the way that the Holy Spirit wanted them to do.

This disconnect can happen when we focus on the gifts of the Holy Spirit instead of the purpose for which they are given.  We must never treat the spiritual gifts as a badge of honor that cries out, “Look at me!”  They are a means to an end.  They serve a holy purpose and that purpose is to help one another become like Jesus.  Yes, the whole purpose of spiritual gifts is to help everyone become like Jesus, i.e., fight sin in our life and live out his righteousness.

It is a sad condition that many who appear to be operating spiritual gifts are not becoming like Christ, but harm themselves and others.

Let’s look at our passage.

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit

Ephesians chapter 4 opens with six verses that point Christians to work in order to keep the unity of the Holy Spirit in the bond of peace.  Always remember that it is the unity of the Holy Spirit that we are to keep, and not just unity around a leader, or leaders, who are not following the Holy Spirit.  There is a spirit of this world that attempts to bring us under its false and perverse unity.

In verses 7-16. Paul shows that the whole purpose of spiritual gifts is that we may all take on the image of Christ, which should exhibit as unity of the Holy Spirit in our midst.

Ephesians 4:17-24 has Paul speaking about our need to put off the old man and put on the new.  We can see this as putting off the image of fallen Adam and putting on the image of Christ.  We can also see it as putting of the old me that followed the flesh, and putting on the new me that is co-laboring with the Holy Spirit to become like Christ (following the Spirit).

This brings us to our text where Paul lists out concrete issues that we must deal with in becoming like Christ and thereby coming into a unity of the Holy Spirit.  In the middle of this list, Paul points us to the necessity of working with the Holy Spirit.  When we neglect, even refuse, to follow and listen to Him, it grieves Him (vs. 30).  I want to look at this issue of grieving the Holy Spirit first, and then, we will walk through the list of issues that Paul points out.

The idea of grieving the Holy Spirit was talked about by the prophet Isaiah nearly 800 years before Paul in Isaiah 63:9-19. 

“9 In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His Presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bore them and carried them all the days of old.  10 But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit; so He turned Himself against them as an enemy, and He fought against them.”

In Isaiah, we are being pointed back to those days of Israel’s affliction in Egypt, and the salvation of God leading them by the Angel of His Presence.  This parallels the Christian experience today.  We are being led out of the spiritual Egypt of this world and over the top of the impotent resistance of the Pharaoh of this world.  Jesus is leading us to an eternity dwelling with God in a universe flowing with milk and honey.  This is our ultimate inheritance.

There is another parallel to the inheritance that God has for us in this life.  He is giving us our territory, our own mind, heart, and soul (“possess your soul”).  There are giants of sin and bondage to fight, even evil spirits that war against our soul.  However, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can gain victory in this life and take possession of our inheritance.

Yet, in Isaiah 63, we see that Israel rebelled and grieved the Holy Spirit, which led to the Assyrian exile for the northern ten tribes, and eventually the Babylonian exile for Judah and Benjamin.  Paul is essentially calling us back from that path of grieving the Holy Spirit and coming under God’s discipline.

There appears to be two aspects of God’s heart for us.  He hurt for Israel when they were in bondage, and so He delivered them.  However, after centuries of rebelling against Him, He was grieved by their willful desire to sin and reject Him.

In a similar way, it is possible for Christians to be so willful in sin, and so inattentive to the love of the Lord, that we grieve the Holy Spirit.  Of course, He will faithfully discipline us as any good Father would with His children.

We should note that the Holy Spirit is grieved partially because we are working at odds to His purpose.  However, Spurgeon points out that the Holy Spirit grieves over us because He knows the misery that sin will cause for those sinned against, and also those who do the sin.  The Holy Spirit also knows the correction from the Father we must receive that wouldn’t be necessary if we just listened.  Any parent can identify with that let-down feeling one gets when they realize that they are going to have to discipline their child, when they were hoping that they were past that.  The Holy Spirit also knows how much communion, fellowship, peace and joy that we lose along the way because we persist in our rebellion.

Christian, don’t fight with the Holy Spirit.  Let Him empower you to fight against sin, both in knowing what to fight, and how to fight.

Paul reminds us that we have been sealed in the Holy Spirit.  Actually, back in Ephesians 1:13, Paul says that we are sealed “with the Holy Spirit.”  Because He is God, the Holy Spirit can be both the thing that we are sealed inside of, and the seal itself.

A seal typically has two purposes in the Bible.  It protects the contents that are inside, and it identifies, or authenticates, the contents.  The presence of the Holy Spirit in our life is a sign to all evil things around us that we belong to God.  As long as we stay in the Spirit, the enemy cannot truly take away our victory.  The Holy Spirit is also the sign that we are genuine believers and not just people hanging to the edges of the group.

Paul states that this sealing of the Holy Spirit is to protect and identify us until the Day of Redemption.  In both Ephesians chapter 1 and 4, Paul ties this sealing work of the Holy Spirit to the Day of Redemption.  Of course, salvation is a day of redemption, but it is not the completion of our redemption.  Redemption is the getting back of something that has been lost.  At salvation, we are redeemed spiritually as fellowship with God is restored.  However, we are still dying beings and our bodies are not redeemed.  Scripture always connects the Day of Redemption to the ultimate redemption of our bodies.  Note Romans 8:23.

“…but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.”

We are saved in the hope that there is a day of resurrection for us, along with all of the people of God.  The Holy Spirit is our guarantee that God will keep His word!

Sin versus the life of Christ

This brings us back to our everyday lives.  In some ways, they may seem mundane, repetitive, even a chore.  However, as a believer in Jesus who is sealed by His Holy Spirit, we are on a journey of becoming like Jesus.  The things that you face every day that tempt you to sin are the giants that you are meant to take on and fight in the power of the Holy Spirit.  He gives us power to say, “No,” to sin.

Paul walks through several sins that so easily trip up the work of the Spirit in our life and the unity that we are supposed to have with one another.  These things grieve the Holy Spirit.

Paul tells us not to lie, but to speak the truth instead.  People lie to each other for various reasons, but they all are rooted in fear.  The Holy Spirit is leading us to speak the truth in love, rather than lying to one another.  Lying becomes the cop-out, the easy way that isn’t really the easy way.  It seems easy at first, but in the end, you will be stuck in a quagmire of lie after lie that you must tell to protect earlier lies.

Sometimes it would be better if we said nothing at all.  Leaving room for the Holy Spirit is better than giving in to sin.  However, sometimes we are silent because we are afraid of what will happen if we raise our concerns.  Remember that just because I am angered by something, it doesn’t mean that I am right.  The key is hearing from the Holy Spirit whether we should be silent or speak the truth in love.

Paul then tells us that we must not let our anger lead us to sin, and we should deal with it today.  Anger is not our problem.  Our problem is that anger often motivates us to sin.  Fight or flight are often motivated by anger.

Now, anger is good in that it is that internal alarm system that lets us know when we have allowed something to continue too long without doing something about it.  When it goes off, we know that we need to do something.  However, we often do not think well when we are angry. 

Scripture says to be angry and not sin.  This does not mean that we simply eat the anger and keep quiet.  I need to deal with what angers me today.  This doesn’t mean we have to resolve the issue before we go to sleep.  However, we do need to start the work of dealing with our anger today.  Don’t put it off.

Sometimes I will find that I shouldn’t have been angry, or that I am angry out of selfish reasons.  However, sometimes God is using my anger to wake up others who are being insensitive to the Holy Spirit and others.  He sometimes speaks to us through others, and I don’t just mean through holy prophets.  God can speak to us even through sinners, if we are listening for His Spirit.  Don’t pick apart criticism looking for any little error so that you can disregard it.  Instead, pray and hear what the Spirit of the Lord is saying.

In verse 27, we are told to not give place to the devil in our lives.  Only Christ through the Holy Spirit should have a place in our life, but we can give territory to the devil.  Giving him a place in your life gives him an area from which to attack your faith.  It might be a little sin that you don’t want to give up, or it might be a pet lie that he keeps whispering in your ear that you won’t let go of.  Jesus said in John 14, “the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in me.”  This is true of Jesus, but it is not necessarily true for us.  We must work hard to press the devil out of our hearts and minds, and keep him out.  Like a little wedge, the devil will use any place of sin that we give him to tap and tap until he topples our faith.  True repentance is the only way to take back territory from the devil.

Paul then moves to stealing.  We must not steal, but labor in order to be a benefit to others.  Just because you work doesn’t mean that you won’t need help yourself.  The intention is that you will get to a place where God can use you to help others.  Don’t take the path of the life-sucking leech.  Instead, take the path of Jesus, which is being a life-giving person.  Too many people today justify theft because they feel like society is not giving them what they deserve, or are owed.  Christians should reject such an attitude.  God is our source and supply.  He knows exactly what I need, and I should be thankful whether little or much.  Both of them are a test of our faith in different ways.

Verse 29 moves to our speech.  Don’t speak rotten words, but rather words that edify others.  Rotten words are at best useless words.  Words that give no benefit to the other person.  However, rotten words can also be harmful to others.  A life-giving source, a person who is like Jesus, should speak only those words that will help others to become more like him.  Yes, I know.  Only a perfect man can tame the tongue.  That only means that you will have trouble in this area.  Welcome to discipleship.  It isn’t easy.

Paul ends with a summation of the character of Christ in verse 32.  None of us are perfect at all times in all of these things, yet.  We will need to walk in the kindness and tenderness of the Lord Jesus Christ as we learn to forgive one another.

It is not good enough to be exercising spiritual gifts, while all along grieving the Holy Spirit through the way that we mistreat one another.  May God help us to pursue love AND desire the spiritual gifts!

Grieving the Holy Spirit audio