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

The Gifts of the Spirit

1 Corinthians 14:1-5.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on May 29, 2022.

Last week, we talked about the Day of Pentecost and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2.  I want to pause on our walk through the Acts of the Apostles and focus this week and next on issues of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.  In fact, next week, June 5, is Pentecost Sunday.

The Day of Pentecost nearly 2,000 years ago was a significant day, which opened the door for a whole new way of God’s working among His people.  From that day onward, each one of God’s people would have a spiritual gift or gifts by which they could strengthen and build up one another as the Holy Spirit leads us.

Let’s get into our passage.

The impact of love on spiritual gifts

Let’s refresh our minds regarding the context of this chapter.  Paul is writing to the Church at Corinth, Greece, in order to correct their errors regarding spiritual gifts.  In chapter 12, he broaches the subject, but then, in chapter 13, he shows them the more excellent way of love.  Chapter 14 calls Christians to a balance.  Love is not more excellent in the sense that we would choose it to the exclusion of spiritual gifts, but rather that it would be the moral imperative behind why and how we use spiritual gifts.

Verse 1 gives us the command to pursue love and to desire spiritual gifts.  It makes sense that he puts love first as it is the “more excellent way.”  He also uses the word pursue.  Of course, it is not a love relationship with another person that we are pursuing now, but a love itself.  The foundation of having love in my relationship with others is having a relationship with love itself.  Better yet, when we understand that “God is love,” this is a call for us to pursue God Himself, His character, His image.

Paul clearly is not trying to nix spiritual gifts.  We should continue to desire them, but for the purpose of demonstrating the image of God and His love for others.  Any expression of spiritual gifts should be to fulfill the imperative of love.  Love always works for the good of others, as defined by God, and not their harm.

Paul uses the example of two gifts, speaking in tongues and prophecy, because this is where their erroneous thinking was most obvious.  Speaking in tongues was the spiritual gift that many of the Corinthian Christians saw as the most desirable, even to the point of ignoring others.  The Greek culture saw intelligible language as a higher stamp of the divine than prophecy in an understood language.  Those closest to the divine would not be understood.  Their church assemblies had devolved into large numbers of people speaking in tongues and not wanting to do much else.  They had become so hung up on it that it was harming the value of the Christian gatherings.

The root of this problem is that they are thinking about God’s things with the mindset of the world around them.  Their Corinthian culture was dominating how they used these spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit.  This is not just a Corinthian problem.  All people are in danger of letting their own culture overwhelm how they approach the Bible, the Church, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

In verse 2, Paul begins to explain the purpose for both speaking in tongues and prophecy.  He does so by highlighting two issues: who is being addressed and who is being edified by it.  Let’s deal with them one at a time.

When a person speaks in tongues (an unknown language that they have not naturally learned), they are talking to God and not to others.  One might object by pointing to the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2.  They were understood by others, but it does not in anyway give the idea that those speaking in tongues were speaking to the crowds.  Peter later addresses the crowds in a language that they understand.  In essence, the crowds are overhearing this group of about 120 individuals who are all speaking in languages that they did not naturally know.

It is also important to understand that this initial outpouring of the Holy Spirit is unique to later outpourings.  God had orchestrated it to happen on a feast day in which Jews from many different nations would be there to overhear what He does.  Why?  We talked about this last week.  At the Tower of Babel event, God had confused their languages so that they couldn’t understand one another.  This was a sign of His judgment as He disowned the nations.  Also, in Isaiah 28, especially verse 11, God is explaining to the northern kingdom, which was led by the tribe of Ephraim, that He was casting them out of the land.  They had not listened to His prophets who spoke to them in a language they could understand, so God would speak to them through a language they don’t understand.  Ultimately, it was a reference to foreign invaders (the Assyrians) who would destroy Samaria and cart the people of Israel off into exile, where they would be forced to learn foreign languages to survive.  Again, unknown tongues, or languages, is a sign of God’s judgment throughout the Old Testament.

So, why would God have the Apostles and the disciples speaking in tongues?  Notice that the languages are unknown to the Galileans, but not to these Jews who were from every nation under the Roman Empire, even beyond.  God is letting these Jews who had been dispersed know that He is reversing the judgment of the northern kingdom of Israel, and He is reversing the judgment of the Tower of Babel.

I know that we have taken a big detour, but it is to establish Paul’s point.  Speaking in tongues addresses God.  Whether others overhearing understand it or not is immaterial. 

In verse 4, Paul states that a person edifies themselves when they speak in tongues.  This verb is the idea of building something up, strengthening it, completing it so that it is finished.  Many of the Corinthians were not even thinking about these distinctions because they were more concerned with distinguishing themselves as spiritual in their meetings.  Speaking in tongues is not a spiritual badge of honor that we get from the Holy Spirit.  It is for the purpose of speaking to God and building ourselves up so that we look more like God, like Jesus.

Someone may ask, “How in the world does speaking in tongues edify a person when it isn’t understandable?”  There are several ways.  First, speaking in tongues is a tangible gift from God.  You know for sure whether you are speaking a language you know or not.  You also know if you are just mimicking someone else, or really letting the Holy Spirit give you words to say that you don’t know.  Such a tangible gift lets me personally know that God is keeping His word to believers by giving spiritual gifts to us.

Second and more importantly, willingly surrendering yourself to speak what you don’t understand strengthens our faith for those times when the Spirit of God prompts us to speak something that we can understand.  It becomes an exercising of our ability to trust God and just do what He gives me to do.  Of course, there are people through the years who have done all manner of unbiblical things in the name of God, but they were lying.  The Holy Spirit will not contradict God’s Word since He was the One who inspired the prophets to speak those words and write them down.

Even when God gives us something to say to another person, we don’t always understand why He would have us say it, or how it can help them.  Speaking in tongues builds our confidence in God and helps us to grow in our relationship of learning to be obedient to the Holy Spirit.

There is a third reason.  We are told that the Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf and through us to God. He can put into words what we struggle to say.  This is part of His helping ministry.

Thus, we can see that speaking in tongues is more of a personal thing that is intended for me to use for my benefit.  I will point out Paul’s words in verses 18-19.  Paul basically says that he speaks in tongues more than any of the Corinthians.  However, in a church meeting, he would rather speak 5 words in a known language than 10,000 in an unknown language.  The whole purpose of gathering together is to build each other up. 

All of this teaching about speaking in tongues is qualified by the statement in verse 5 “unless indeed he interprets…”  Here, Paul recognizes that there is another spiritual gift, the gift of interpretation.  If a person is going to speak to the assembly in tongues, they should be ready to interpret it, or know that someone else in the assembly has the gift of interpretation (see 1 Corinthians 14:27-28.  In the case when speaking in tongues is interpreted, it then functions essentially like prophecy and can now help others in the group. 

In conclusion, speaking in tongues is generally for personal use.  There are times in a corporate meeting where we may all be privately praying, i.e., we are not leading prayer for the group.  I think that speaking in tongues would be fine even though you are in a group.  However, one should not raise their voice to the point of sounding like you want everyone to listen to you.  The key is understanding the purpose of the moment we are in, and the purpose of the gift we exercise.

Let’s look at the comparison of prophecy and its particular purpose.  With the gift of prophecy, a person is addressing other people.  The prophet speaks on behalf of God to people.  In this setting, they would be speaking to God’s people in a church service.  God may speak about something in the past, something in the present, or something in the future.  Some things about the future may even disclose something that God says will happen (predictive prophecy).  Regardless, God intends the person receiving the prophetic word from the Holy Spirit to share it with another person, or group.  This requires a prophet to be careful to hear from the Holy Spirit about the content of a message and the timing of disclosure. 

Paul even adds some words that describe the purpose of prophecy.  It is to build up the people of God (in order to be like Jesus), to exhort them (stirring them up to Godly action), and to comfort them in difficult times.  God’s purpose is not to show who in the assembly He favors.  The purpose of the prophecy is about strengthening the whole church.  It takes faith in God, and a true spiritual gift from God and operating in love, in order to speak to others on His behalf.  No other motivation is acceptable.

There are many in the Church today who think they are making the Church stronger by casting off clear teaching of Christ and His Apostles.  They may even do so under the guise of speaking on behalf of God, i.e., prophesying.  A prophetic word will always be in harmony with the whole counsel of Scripture.  It will strengthen us in ways that God wants, as opposed to what we want and what the world wants.  Those who compromise the Word of God often believe that more lost people will listen to us if we “fix” the Gospel.  However, this is a self-delusion.

In verse 5, Paul makes it clear that prophecy is the greater gift and not speaking in tongues.  This would be a surprise to some of the Corinthians.  It is the greater gift because it impacts a greater number of people.  His emphasis is on the primary benefit.  We could say that if every single person in the Church was being personally edified through the proper use of speaking in tongues, then they would be more able to exercise the other spiritual gifts, like prophecy.  These gifts should not be in contention with one another, but rather dovetail together in their complementary purposes.

The American culture is like the Corinthian culture in some ways and not in other ways.  Speaking in tongues in prayer is not something you would “brag” about with the world or even some believers.  We are more likely to “hide” it or “run” from it than they would have been.  Speaking in tongues is not something to be feared, yet neither is it something to be publicized.  These are God’s holy gifts among His holy people.  We should not prostitute such things by promoting it before the world.  I’ve seen secular shows done on speaking in tongues, or videos on YouTube.  This is not something that we should treat lightly.  It is an intimate thing between believers and the Holy Spirit of God.

Let us build the foundation of unconditionally loving each other, not because the other person is doing it too, but because that’s what Christ asks us to do!  Then, let us desire spiritual gifts by praying for God to enable us in the ways that He desires to do, so that we can be a blessing to His people on His behalf.  It was always His intention that we would need one another, and especially that we would need one another operating properly in those spiritual gifts that He supplies.

Gifts of the Spirit audio

The Acts of the Apostles 4

Subtitle: The Comforter Has Come!

Acts 2:1-13.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on May 22, 2022

Today, we will talk about the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon the followers of Jesus in Jerusalem.  This is The Promise of the Father that Jesus explained to his disciples in John 14-16.  He told them in John 14:16, “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever…”

Let’s look at our passage.

The disciples are filled with the Holy Spirit (1-4)

In verses 1-4, we have arrived at the awaited day.  For ten days, the followers of Jesus have been meeting to pray, asking God to send the promised Holy Spirit.

Of course, God was not holding out on them.  It was quite the opposite.  They were about to receive great help from God.  They would be filled with the Holy Spirit, and baptized into the Spirit of God.

The tragedy of losing faith because things do not happen on our time table is great.  God has very good reasons for the timing that He picks.  Satan’s lie to us is like that of that ancient serpent in the Garden of Eden.  He convinces Eve that God is holding back something great from her, you shall be like God.  The truth is that God was all along working to truthfully and rightly bring all humanity into a place where we will be like Him, perfectly imaging him to the universe around us.  May God help us to trust Him for the timings in our own lives.

We are told that the Holy Spirit comes on the Day of Pentecost.  It is formally called the Feast of Weeks because it occurred seven weeks (seven sevens) plus one day after the first day of Unleavened Bread.  Harvest is a huge theme in the Feast of the Lord given to Israel.  In the spring, the Feast of Firstfruits celebrated the beginning of the barley harvest.  Pentecost celebrated the beginning of the wheat harvest, and in the Fall the Feast of Ingathering/Tabernacles celebrated the completion of all the harvests for the year.

We are also told that the disciples were all “in one accord.”  We saw this phrase back in Acts 1:14. After 10 days, they were still united around the singular passion for receiving what Jesus had promised would come, the Holy Spirit.  Unity is good, but it must be focused upon what God has promised, not what our flesh wants.

May God give us a singularly-focused passion to be filled with the Holy Spirit for the days that we are in.  We should lift up our eyes and look at the fields because they are ripe for harvest!  Who will go out into the field and bring them in?  O Lord, we pray that you will send laborers out into Your great harvest, and let it start with us!

There are some signs and wonders that are associated with this first outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  They are called signs and wonders because, on one hand, they are amazing things that get our attention regardless of our spiritual state, and on the other hand, they are signs that mean something to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear.

The first sign is a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, that fills the whole house.  This is a real sound, but notice that it doesn’t actually say there is wind blowing in the room.  Wind is a term in the Bible that connects with the Holy Spirit.  The same word could be used of a spirit, wind, or breath.  When a person is alive (i.e., they have a spirit in them), it is natural for them to breath.  Breathing is a sign of a spirit inside.  It takes little extension to see the wind as a breath of God over the earth, or even ill-winds as the breath of bad spirits.  The disciples would have no doubt that this sound of a rushing wind was the promised Holy Spirit.

The second sign is divided or distributed tongues of fire that appeared over the heads of each of them.  Fire was often a sign of the presence of God going back to the wilderness wanderings with the cloud by day and pillar of fire by night.  Again, there would be no doubt that the Holy Spirit was coming upon each of them.

At this point, the Holy Spirit fills them and our third sign occurs.  They began speaking in different languages that they would not naturally know.  The Holy Spirit was giving them what to say.  We cannot say how it felt for them to be filled with the Holy Spirit, have an urge to declare the wonders of God, and have a foreign language come out of their mouths.  Regardless, these 120 people filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking in many different languages is a sign that pointed to something amazing that God was doing, but more on that in a bit.

The significance of the commotion (5-13)

It doesn’t seem like the crowd is drawn by the sound of a rushing wind, or that the sound of the wind continued.  It is the sound of 120 people proclaiming the wonderful things of God in many different languages that draws them.

We are not told exactly where this house is in relation to Jerusalem or the temple mount.  However, few houses would have been able to accommodate 120 people.  This is probably a place that is built close to the temple mount with large balconies and openings.

Jerusalem is also filled with people from all over that part of the world.  They are hearing languages of the places that they had come from.  There would naturally be many languages spoken in Jerusalem: Aramaic, Greek, Hebrew, and perhaps even some Latin, but the emphasis is on languages that are from far away.  There would be no reason people to learn most of these in Israel, much less Galileans.  They are speaking about the wonderful works of God.

The crowd is amazed and perplexed about how it is possible for these Galileans to be speaking all of these languages.  Of course, some mocked them saying that they were drunk, but that is only a refusal to try and understand what is happening.  Drunk people do not suddenly speak languages they haven’t learned declaring the wonders of God.

We will talk more about this event over the next two weeks.  For today’s purposes, we will focus on two important connections to what God is doing here.  We already know that this is connected to a harvest of believers coming into the Kingdom of God from among all nations.  This is essentially what Jesus said was the purpose of the Holy Spirit being poured out.

The first connection regards the sound of wind and the presence of God hovering over the people.  This harkens back to the imagery in Genesis 1, where the Holy Spirit hovers over the waters of the earth preparing for God to bring order to His new creation, and to fill it with creatures.  Here, the Holy Spirit hovers over these new creations of God, and prepares to fill them with His Spirit in parallel to the waters being filled with water creatures, the skies with flying creatures, and the earth with terrestrial beings.  These new creations would be filled with the Holy Spirit of God Himself!

The second connection regards the giving of the Law at Mt. Sinai.  Moses led God’s people out of bondage in Egypt to Mt. Sinai.  At Mt Sinai, a covenant was cut with God, and God gave them a gift of The Law.  It would teach them righteousness, but also be a sign of the true righteousness of the One True God to the nations that would encircle them later.  In Acts chapter 2, Jesus has led God’s people to Mt. Zion (Jerusalem) where he cut a covenant with God on the cross.  God gave them the gift of His own Spirit.  It would teach and empower them, but it would also be a sign of the righteousness and grace of God to the nations of the earth. 

These picture two very different messages to the earth:  Behold, the severity and the goodness of God.  Of course, there was goodness under the Law.  Just ask, Rahab, Ruth, and many others.  However, the Law emphasized the righteousness of God. He is fundamentally a God of Truth.  There is also righteousness during the Age of the Spirit of Grace.  However, the pouring out of the Spirit emphasizes the grace and mercy of God.  He is fundamentally a God of Loving-Kindness.

There are also word and picture similarities between the two events.  Both events describe the presence of God accompanied by loud sounds and fire.  The people of Israel stand amazed at the presence of God in both cases.  There is also a sealing of a new covenant with God in both cases.  And, both are being sent to be a witness of God to the nations.

The third connection is with the events at the tower of Babel.  The tower of Babel involved the rebellion of Nimrod and the people of the earth.  God had told them to spread out and fill the earth, but Nimrod counseled those around him not to do that.  They build a god-gate, most likely trying to connect to the pre-flood “gods” that had brought “civilization” to the ancient world.  This ended with a judgment from God in which He confused their languages, gave them boundaries on the earth, and gave them into the hand of false gods by disowning them.

There are two words specifically used.  The first is the word translated as “divided” or “distributed.”  The divided tongues like fire that are placed above the 120 points us back to a time when all of the nations were divided (Genesis 10:32).  Deuteronomy 32:8 talks about a time “When the Most High divided their inheritance to the nations and separated the sons of Adam, He set the boundaries of the peoples…”

The second word is the word “confused” or “Perplexed.”  The crowds are confused by what they hear and the same word is used of Genesis 11:7 where God says, “Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech…”

Essentially, God is signaling that a reversal of the Babel Judgment has begun.  At Babel, they could not understand one another.  At Pentecost, God the people are able to understand.  At Babel, they are dispersed in judgment and disowned by God.  At Pentecost, God is dispersing His people to go to the ends of the earth and bring whosoever will back into the people of God, His called-out ones.

This event was as significant to the god of this world as the trumpets of Joshua were to the giant-clans of Canaan. The evil spirits of the world would be quaking as they began to hear about this spirit-filled people who were coming out into the nations.

How about you, my friend?  Are you filled with the Holy Spirit, and do you hear that mighty trumpet blast of the Holy Spirit calling us to follow Him?  O, God help us to not trade our inheritance for a bowl of beans!

Comforter Has Come audio

The Acts of the Apostles 1

Subtitle: Jesus Promises The Holy Spirit

Acts 1:1-8.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on April 24, 2022.

Today, we begin a journey through the book often called Acts.  We will take our time to go verse by verse, which will make this a long journey.  From time to time along the way, we will pause the series for special occasions.

The setting of the book (1:1-3)

First up, let’s talk about the setting and situation that gave rise to this book of our New Testament.

The author is not identified, but there is basically no dispute that the author is Luke the physician.  This is attested within the 2^nd century and there is no dispute from anyone at the time. 

We should note that even the Gospel of Luke does not identify the author in its verses.  However, the oldest copy of the Gospel of Luke that we have dates back to the 2^nd century (AD 100’s) and has written on it in Greek “According to Luke.”

In verse 1, the author refers to a former account, “The former account I made…”  He explains the subject matter of the earlier account.  It was about “all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up…”  This clearly describes a gospel account, and makes Acts a second volume that essentially starts where the Gospel of Luke leaves off.

As for the title of the book, there is no title given by the author.  It is simply an account describing what happened from the ascension of Jesus forward.  Thus, it is historical with a theological emphasis throughout it, much like the gospel.  Since the Gospel is about what Jesus did and said, so this book has been referred to as The Acts of the Apostles, and the shorter form Acts.  Of course, we should recognize that Jesus is still acting through his disciples by the help of the Holy Spirit.

Both the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts are addressed to an individual named Theophilus.  The name means “friend of God,” and is used only in Luke 1:3 and Acts 1:1.  It is a Latin name, so the person is most likely a gentile convert.  I say this because Luke states that he wants Theophilus to be certain of the things in which he had been instructed (Luke 1:4).  Also there, Luke states that he had a perfect understanding of all things from the very first that he was writing about.

All of the Gospels portray a transitional period after the Resurrection of Jesus.  There are 50 days between the feast of Passover and the feast of Pentecost (called the feast of Weeks in the Old Testament).  Note that Pentecost is a Greek word for 50.  During the first 40 days, Jesus appeared on multiple occasions giving them commands, proving that it was really him, and that he was not just a spirit.  Luke states in Acts 1:3 that Jesus gave them infallible proofs of his resurrection to establish its reality beyond a doubt.  We see this with Jesus having them touch him and eating food in their presence and yet appearing and disappearing within locked rooms.

These first appearances happened in and around Jerusalem.  Then, there was an appearance in the area of Galilee.  This seems to be the situation that Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians 15:6 in which he mentions Jesus appearing to “over 500 brethren at once.”  The end of the Gospel of Luke places the ascension of Jesus on the east side of the Mt. of Olives near Bethany.  This is a short distance from Jerusalem towards the east.

Verse 3 also tells us that Jesus used this transitional time to speak of things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.  This would be particularly important to the disciples because they were perplexed at how the crucifixion, and now resurrection, of Jesus would connect to the awaited Kingdom of God.

Jesus instructs the disciples (1:4-8)

This opens with the last appearance to them in this transitional period.  Jesus is giving them his last instructions before going into heaven.  Jesus commands them to wait in Jerusalem for the “Promise of the Father.”  This idea of waiting may seem strange or unimportant to us.  However, the followers of Christ (and even the followers of God throughout history) are to be characterized first as a people who have waited on God the Father. Isaiah 40:31 reminds us that those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength and be able to fly, run, and walk without growing weary.  We are not an inactive people, but we are not driven by the mission or task itself.  We wait upon the Lord and follow His leading like the righteous of every age.

The Promise of the Father is a reference to the prophecies regarding the pouring out of the Holy Spirit.  In Joel 2, the Father promises that a time will come when He will pour out His Spirit upon all flesh.  This is as opposed to being poured out on a few individuals hear and there, which was how it was experienced before then.

If there is any doubt about what promise Jesus means, it is put to rest in verse 5.  John the Baptist baptized people in water, but they were about to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.  We should remind ourselves of Matthew 3:11 at this point.  John himself said, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry.  He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”  (NKJV). 

Salvation is sometimes pictured as the Spirit of God putting or baptizing a person into Christ.  The disciples present were all saved members of Christ and his body.  Here the picture is reversed and Jesus will immerse his disciples into the Holy Spirit.  Notice that this picture shows a person being completely surrounded by the Holy Spirit.

There is another picture that is used of the Holy Spirit and that is being filled with the Spirit.  At salvation, Christ dwells in the believer through the Holy Spirit.  However, being filled with the Spirit pictures the Spirit flooding forth and filling our whole inner being until it overflows.  Both these inner and outer pictures are pointing to the same idea. 

Of course, salvation and Spirit baptism can happen simultaneously or separately.  The reason the disciples had to wait was mainly about the fact that the coming of the Holy Spirit in this new outpouring needed to coincide with the feast of Pentecost.  Just as the death of Jesus happened on Passover and conceptually tied to the sacrifice they made in Egypt, so the coming of the Holy Spirit conceptually tied to Pentecost.  This was a celebration of the harvest that God had given up to that point and the further harvest that would be realized in the months ahead.  The baptism of the Holy Spirit is connected to the harvest of believers who would come into the Kingdom of God through the work of the apostles and the Early Church.  They would be like a rock in the pond causing ripples down through history to our very hour. 

We see in verse 6 that the disciples are more concerned about Israel and what Jesus was doing in regard to reestablishing the kingdom.  Old Testament prophecy pointed to a time when the Anointed One of God (Messiah/Christ) would: break off the Gentile dominion over Israel, bring back those of Israel who had been dispersed to Gentile lands, fix all that was wrong with Israel, and bring the world under his righteous administration.  They believed that this would happen up until the cross, where their hopes were dashed.  Yet, these hopes were now restored since the Resurrection of Jesus.  They are like kids often are, asking the Lord, “Are we there yet?” 

Jesus tells them that it is not for us to know the times or seasons that are under the Father’s authority.  The Father would determine when that would happen and He was not giving the disciples more information.  It is important that Jesus expects it to happen.  He doesn’t berate them for not understanding that the Kingdom was only a metaphor and would never happen literally.  This is the approach that many liberal Christians take with such prophecies.  However, Jesus refocuses them.  Our focus is not to be on the “when” of God’s Kingdom restoration of Israel. 

Instead, their focus is to be on receiving power to be witnesses of Jesus to the ends of the earth (verse 8).  This power would come when they were filled with the Holy Spirit.  We will talk more about this when we get to chapter 2.  However, we must always remember that the power behind our activity must always be the Holy Spirit.  We must not let the lesser power of institutional momentum and pride of a brand fuel the task of taking the gospel to the ends of the earth.  The pouring out of the Holy Spirit would essentially be about giving a witness to the world of who Jesus is, what he did, what he has made available to us presently, and what he will do in the future.  We can be filled with the presence of God because of what Jesus has done.

In verse 8, Jesus highlights the concentric circles of the expansion of this witness.  It would start in Jerusalem, move to Judea and Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth.  Imagine, here we are today at the ends of the earth from Jerusalem talking about Jesus!  Yet, there are still many who need to hear about Jesus, and they also need to see Jesus in us.

May God help us not to run ahead without the help of the Holy Spirit in doing this work.  Without Him we will fail, but with Him we will succeed at doing the work!  That said, neither do we want to hang back when the Spirit of God begins to move.  May God help us to walk in step with His Spirit, and to stop in sync with His Spirit.

Acts Jesus Promises audio