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Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Acts 2:1-13
On Pentecost, we celebrate the transformative power of the Holy Spirit, fulfilling God’s promise through Ezekiel to dwell among His people, as seen in Acts 2, when the Spirit descended with mighty signs, enabling the disciples to proclaim the gospel boldly. This day reversed the confusion of the Tower of Babel, unifying people through the Spirit’s gift of understanding, not for human glory, but for Christ’s. The Spirit fills us with assurance of our identity as God’s beloved children, giving us boldness to witness to Jesus’ glory, transforming our lives to bear fruit like love and joy, making our lives a compelling sermon for the world, as D.L. Moody noted, “Out of 100 men, one will read the Bible, the other 99 will read the Christian.”
Transcript
I read a quote this week by uh DL Moody uh which I found uh really powerful it said “Out of 100 men one will read the Bible the other 99 will read the Christian.” It’s a pretty convicting uh truth isn’t it i mean I think it’s true uh it’s what what Charles Spurgeon uh the great prince of of preachers he’s called he said a Christian’s life should be his best sermon you know as we as we come and celebrate the the day of Pentecost today uh that really captures in many ways what the day of Pentecost is all about the day of Pentecost is all about the transformational power of the presence of God for our gospel witness in this world it’s not really more complicated than that uh and yet it was such a big day it was the dawning of a new age that first day of Pentecost because it’s the fulfillment of what God had promised to his people through the prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel 37 God declared “My dwelling place shall be with them and I will be their God and they shall be my people then the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel when my spirit is in their midst forever more.” You see the connection there again the day of Pentecost the presence of God abiding by his Holy Spirit and the act of witness he goes “It is then that they the nations will know that I’m the true God of Israel.” There’s this connection between the abiding presence of God and our witness in the world that we see so beautifully displayed uh in Acts chapter 2 of Pentecost god God’s abiding presence the Holy Spirit has come to transform our lives for our witness of the gospel in this world and boy does God know how to make an entrance
you know Jesus if you’ll remember had instructed his disciples to wait uh in Acts 1 verse 5 he said “And while staying with them Jesus ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the father of that same promise that we heard in John 14 that I’ll send another helper right another helper for you.” The disciples have been waiting and now that day has come and on that day Luke told us as you heard a minute ago and and in and Acts one or in Acts one uh or Acts two and suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind and it filled the entire house where they were sitting and it divided tongue and divided tongues as a fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance what an amazing experience what an amazing picture that is painted for us of the day uh of Pentecost and we really should expect nothing else the presence of God has broken through heaven and come where God now dwells with man here in this world in our lives it’s an extraordinary moment and it’s full of miraculous signs that that are happening on this day because it’s the dawning of a new era jesus sending his spirit to dwell in us for the transformation and continued our continued witness in this world for him continuing what Jesus’s ministry that he began that was you know this whole day of Pentecost if we look back to the Old Testament it was a complete reversal of of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 if you uh remember the story people built a tower trying to reach the heavens trying to make themselves or work their own way into the presence of God and this is what Genesis 11:4 the people declared why they were doing it why they were trying to build their tower to reach the presence of God they said “Come let us build for ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens and let us make a name for ourselves let us make a name for ourselves.” What they wanted was to make their own way into the presence of God and why they wanted to do it for their own glory they wanted to do it for their own glory and so God confused their language so that they couldn’t understand one another and he and he uh dispersed them all over the face of the earth because they had wanted to reach the heavens for their own glory meaning they wanted to reach the heavens they wanted to reach the presence of God for their own recognition to to point out to everyone else how great they were how smart how powerful how ingenious they were for what they were able to accomplish on their own and for their own glory and the day of Pentecost is a complete reversal of what God had done because God came down god came down bringing heaven to earth to us bringing his presence through the Holy Spirit into our lives and whereas in the Tower of Babel there was a a casting out and a confusion right in this there’s a unifying of all who are present not only of the disciples who were together and praying and received the spirit but on those who were there in Jerusalem for this feast uh this Jewish feast together who happen to hear in their own language right they heard the message the mighty works of God proclaimed in their own language there’s this unifying power of the day of Pentecost and the god’s presence uh in our lives and in this world and the spirit came to transform our hearts and lives for the mission of pointing the world to Jesus of pointing the world to his glory not to our own to his glory not by the work of man but as the free gift of the gospel of grace that we have received in Jesus you know we can make the day of Pentecost and the gift of the Holy Spirit nothing more than what the ta tower of Babel was for our own glory for our own edification we can use it in ways that it’s uh that that we use it to elevate ourselves above everyone else that we have something that no one else has and we’re somehow better and the churches have done that since Corinthians right that Paul wrote to warning them about and dealing with and yet then we just turned it into uh we turned Pentecost into the tower of Babel and for our glory and not for Christ but what we’re celebrating today and the day of Pentecost is the transformational power of the Holy Spirit for mission which is our witness to the glory of Jesus alone pointing everyone to the glory of Jesus alone so how does this transformational power of the Holy Spirit work in our lives well let’s look in a little bit more detail at Acts 2 uh so that we can understand first of all the day of of Pentecost was an extraordinary event an extraordinary event and we can get lost I think in the extraordinary points of it all uh sounds like mighty rushing wind tongues of fire speaking in other tongues those can be the things that kind of consume us about the day of Pentecost uh because those aren’t all events that we experience every day right uh but or at least not all of them of one on any kind of repeatable way right but there are some in fact there’s two common repeatable characteristics of Pentecost that we see uh at work here that we should focus our attention on because I think it was what will bear the most fruit in our lives for the witness our witness to the gospel that number one they were filled with the Holy Spirit they were filled with the Holy Spirit and number two that filling of the Holy Spirit it gave them a boldness to proclaim the mighty works of God we see that in verse 11 so number one they were filled with the Holy Spirit and number two that filling gave them a boldness to proclaim the mighty works of God these are the two central characteristics of Pentecost and and if we look at all of of Luke’s work both in in his gospel and then also here in in Acts it gives us even a more complete picture uh of what being filled with the spirit and being given the boldness uh to proclaim the gospel how that actually works and what that actually looks like because there’s all kinds of confusion I think in our culture uh as to what those things look like and what they actually mean in our lives and the first time we see Luke describe someone being uh filled with the Holy Spirit actually comes in Luke 1:es 41-47 with Elizabeth and Zechariah both were filled with the Holy Spirit and then immediately they began speaking and declaring the redemptive works of God and we’re told with joy and with great power the filling of the Holy Spirit anointed them for for that moment of uh of speaking declaring redemptive works of God with joy and power then the next time we see in Luke’s gospel the filling of the Holy Spirit is in Jesus it’s in Luke 3 21 it’s Jesus’s baptism the spirit descended on Jesus that he so that he went off full of the Holy Spirit for Jesus he received the Holy Spirit uh really in in two ways one the Holy Spirit came to him as a strong assurance of his sunship and the father’s love for him remember you are my beloved son god said with you I am well pleased that was the work of the Holy Spirit filling him but he also received the filling the work of the Holy Spirit and preparing him for declaring the word of God to Satan himself because it was after receiving the Holy Spirit in this moment of baptism that Jesus experienced that then we’re told in the very next chapter that that the Holy Spirit led him into the wilderness to face the temptation from Satan and the temptation was uh to to abandon the word of God and so Jesus was given the power of the Holy Spirit first the assurance of who he was in who he was go the beloved son of God and then he was given the the power to be able to speak boldly the word of God’s truth to the prince of lies himself and then we have the day of Pentecost the disciples being filled with the Holy Spirit and boldly proclaiming the mighty works of God but then even after Pentecost there’s still there’s still moments in the book of Acts where Luke describes the the filling of the Holy Spirit uh in Acts 4:31 you know after some the the some of the disciples had been arrested and become before the Sanhedrin and there’s there’s a great fear in in the community about what this could possibly mean and what are they supposed to do about this and they gathered together and they prayed and as they prayed they were told they were filled with the Holy Spirit and they continued to speak the word of God with boldness again the Holy Spirit coming to assure them and to give them a boldness that word boldness in Greek is so closely associated with the word assurance assurance of God breeds confidence which means breeds boldness for acting for him even in the face of great persecution even in the face of great fear of difficult situations that we’re facing in life that same assurance that Jesus received from the father is what we’re being told we receive when we are being filled with the Holy Spirit acts 7:55-56 it’s the Stephen and the persecution that Stephen faced in the midst of being stoned that he was filled with the Holy Spirit and that filling gave him remember that that vision of seeing the ascended Christ standing at the right hand of God cheering him on it gave him this incredible confidence and boldness and assurance to proclaim the truth of the gospel to those who were killing him not in judgment of them he just proclaimed the truth in Acts 13:9 Paul we’re told was filled with the Holy Spirit to deal with the Jewish false prophet bar Jesus paul received boldness of the assurance of who he was in Christ to declare the truth of the gospel to this blasphemer who was getting in the way of the true proclamation of the gospel these are the common themes that that we see throughout Luke and Acts of what Luke understands about what it means to be filled by the spirit because of the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit comes to us in fullness the Holy Spirit comes in fullness when we’re in Christ we have been baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit which means we’ve been baptized in the Spirit
the presence of God dwells with us through the Holy Spirit 1 Corinthians 3:16 Paul said ‘ Do you not know that you you are God’s temple and God’s spirit dwells in you you know some will tell you that that that after baptism you also need to be baptized in the Holy Spirit to truly be saved to really be a true Christian in this world but that’s not the testimony of God’s word at all it’s just the testimony of man the day of Pentecost and the subsequent testimony of Luke Acts tells us that continuing moments even after being baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit having the presence of God fully assured in our lives that there’s continuing moments of being filled with the spirit even as our lives continue in Christ for the assurance and boldness to bear witness to Jesus in this world because the fullness of the spirit always consists of those two things that we’ve been talking about the powerful assurance that God loves you just as he proclaimed to Jesus you are my beloved son it’s why Paul proclaimed in Galatians 4 but when the fullness of time had come God sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons and because you are sons God has sent the spirit of his son into your hearts crying “Aba father.” The Holy Spirit gives us the assurance of who we are that we are sons and daughters of God we are heirs of his eternal kingdom heirs with Christ and that loving assurance that we receive by the spirit’s dwelling in us it gives birth to confidence it gives birth to a boldness in the face of whatever we might be facing to be able to bear witness to Christ in this world to bear witness to Jesus to bring him glory one way of saying it is this that the fullness of the spirit is our assurance for his service the full receiving the fullness of the spirit is our assurance for his service in this world friends the day of Pentecost it was re it was unique for sure but it’s also in another way repeatable jesus gave his spirit to his church as the newly ascended Lord on the day of Pentecost and now Jesus min ministers to the world through his holy spiritfilled church his holy spiritfilled people on Pentecost the church was baptized by the holy spirit but throughout the New Testament we see disciples like you and me continuing to be filled by the spirit for special times a new with the with assurance that is always given for bold proclamation of the gospel in this world pentecost in one way was a once and for all crossing into a new era but in another way it’s repeatable the same way that we are baptized once with the spirit as Paul proclaimed in 1 Corinthians 12:13 when we enter into the the body of Christ but the Holy Spirit continues to come to fill us for times of assurance and boldness and witness of our faith to others giving glory to Jesus so for this reason uh we are going to continue to experience the transformational power of the Holy Spirit throughout this summer uh throughout this summer this is the beginning of a series that we’re going to be going through together because we are going to focus on the spirit’s transformational power in our lives uh giving us assurance giving us boldness out of that assurance for mission assurance that we are God’s well-beloved sons through Jesus and boldness to be his witnesses in this world and we’re going to do it through examining together the the fruit of the spirit’s transformational work in our lives you know in Galatians 5:22 to23 the Apostle Paul describes what that fruit looks like it’s not an exhaustive list but uh there’s there’s more that throughout the scriptures we could pull from but Paul gives us a good list of what the transformational fruit and work of the spirit looks like in the believer’s life he says this “But the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control against such things there is no law.” And in them verse 25 he says let us not become conceited provoking one another envying one another Jesus said they will know that you are my my disciples by the way that you have love for one another the fruit of the spirit the transformational work of the spirit in our lives is transforming us making us and molding us more and more in the image and likeness of Christ that we might truly shine as for him in this world around us the transformational work of the Holy Spirit is the fruit of a life that’s being molded the spirit does his transformational work in us all for our assurance that gives us confidence to boldly bear witness to him through our lives in this world as I said before there’s nothing more compelling no greater witness to Jesus in the world than a disciple who’s bearing the fruit of the spirit to those around him remember Dale Moody what he said one out of a hundred men uh out of a hundred men one will read the Bible the other 99 will read the Christian which means we are and embody the witness and the gospel of Jesus Christ for most people that we will encounter in this life and this is why we’re going to focus this summer on the fruit of the spirit’s trans transformational work in our lives but today on this day of Pentecost as we celebrate this incredible moment of the presence of God coming receive a new the filling of the Holy Spirit receive the fullness of the spirit in your life and in so be assured that in Christ by faith and trust in the gospel alone that you are a beloved child of God through Jesus’s finished work for you and let that assurance let that assurance give you the confidence and boldness to bear witness to Jesus in a world that is so desperately searching for him let us pray heavenly Father we do thank you and celebrate this incredible gift that you have come that you are with us always as our savior Jesus promised to the very end of the age because the helper has come the spirit has come to be with us to assure us and remind us of who we are as sons and daughters of the king of heirs to his eternal kingdom and to give us out of that assurance boldness and security that we need to face every kind of trial every kind of persecution even rejection from those that we care about in our lives because we are trying to give you always Jesus the honor and the glory that you so deserve will you come and fill us a new fill us fill us with this assurance fill us with this boldness and as we move forward together examining the transformational work that you are doing Holy Spirit in our lives to make us into a people that don’t seek glory for ourselves but are seeking the glory of Christ and the service of others that our lives may truly reflect the fruit of your work in us and Jesus we pray this all in your mighty name amen
