I. The Kingdom Only God Can Build 00:00
Lord, we come before you this morning. We’re open to the ways that you want to move in our hearts. We’re open to the ways you want to change us, transform us, empower us, and send us. So, Lord, I pray that as we dive into your word, the story of how you birthed your kingdom on earth through the church, you would just open our eyes to see and open our ears to hear the things you would speak to us. In Jesus’ name, amen.
So I’m reading this book. Well, it’s a series of books; I think there are six or seven. I’m very much enjoying them. It’s sci-fi, and it’s about these superhuman, genetically modified people. It’s supposed to be a thousand years in the future or whatever, and they’ve conquered all the planets in the solar system and terraformed them, and there are millions and billions of people, and they’ve got all this power. But as with every human society in the history of the world, it’s filled with slaves. It’s filled with wicked and deceitful men. It’s filled with people who are abusing their power. And there are these great power dynamics between the elites and the people. The Golds is the name for these superhuman rulers, and the Reds are the scum of the earth, mining the materials as slaves. And there’s this great story of this Red who gets adopted by the splinter group, and they’re going to take back the world, make it equal, fix the world. And he gets transformed into this killing machine who goes out and leads a rebellion and overthrows the hierarchy, and then they set up the Republic that’s going to save the world. And that’s the end of the first trilogy. And the next trilogy is: the Republic didn’t work, and now he’s got to save the world again, because the Republic didn’t work. Do you know why? Because it was run by humans. I don’t know about you, but we just don’t do all that great with making perfection.
And that’s what Pentecost is all about. Every human culture in the history of the world has tried to bring about the kingdom of God, and in Pentecost God comes to make his kingdom on earth. And the only reason that it works, and for 2,000 years we’ve seen that it does, is because it’s led by the Holy Spirit. And so we’ve got to start today with this idea: this is a story of how God saved the world.
In fact, I was kind of toying with the idea of changing the title of the series that we’re in. We’re in this series called The Acts of the Apostles, and we’re going to run through the beginning of the church, what we see in the book of Acts. And I almost want to change it to The Acts of the Holy Spirit, because that’s really what’s being documented here. Now, the human element, oddly enough, is necessary. If I were God, I would eliminate that human element from my plans, because, believe it or not, even with God in us we still make mistakes. We still run into issues. But God is so good that he wants to bring his kingdom to earth through you: wicked sinners, saved by grace, transformed by the Holy Spirit, building the kingdom of God. That’s what Pentecost is about: God didn’t want to do it himself, although he has every power to do so. He wanted to make us like him, going out into the world, bringing peace, bringing health, bringing forgiveness, bringing life, bringing the kingdom.
II. As the Father Has Sent Me 03:28
So when we go to the Gospel, you might say, “Well, didn’t we just read this Gospel a few weeks ago, where Jesus comes into the room and the doors are locked? It’s the same story as we read on Easter. What’s going on here?” What we’re doing is remembering what Jesus told the disciples, the apostles, to do. And so on Pentecost, don’t you know these disciples, these apostles, would have been thinking, “Oh, this is what Jesus meant.” So let’s read real quickly what Jesus says when he meets the disciples on his resurrection day, when their whole world gets transformed by the risen Christ, in John chapter 20, verse 21:
21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” John 20.21–23
First, I’ll point out this peace. I had an opportunity to talk about this in a sermon: it’s shalom. It’s wholeness, it’s fullness, that they’re supposed to carry with them. This is the peace that Jesus wants the disciples to operate out of. It’s very simple. In psychology terms it means more than this, but at the very least it means this: have you ever made a decision out of stress? And how good have your decisions out of stress been? For me, I have a pretty bad track record when I decide that my fear, my stress, my anxiety, is where I’m going to operate out of. And so, at the very least, what Jesus is saying is, “Operate out of the peace which I will give you, that surpasses all understanding.”
And if you see these situations that the apostles are thrown into, where they are literally being asked to die for their faith, could they do it without supernatural peace? I don’t think so. This peace is not the chill, relaxed dude. This is the empowering “I carry the presence of God with me; what man shall I fear?” And so when we look at this, that’s a part of what receiving the Holy Spirit’s all about. It’s integral that you have a peace which surpasses all understanding, that will keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge of Christ Jesus (Phil 4.7).
III. Breath, Cloud and Fire 05:53
Now we have Jesus breathing on the disciples, and there are three images that we’re given of the Holy Spirit that I want to touch on in these stories. First of all is the breath. And of course that brings you back to the garden. In fact, what Jesus is doing when he’s breathing on them is he’s re-creating them. He is making them that new man. He is inviting them to participate in his resurrection. He is breathing new life into them, recalling the breath that God made when God sculpted man in his image and breathed life into him (Gen 2.7). The Holy Spirit of God, breathing into the disciples.
And then we have these other two. Keep your eye out; they’re coming up soon. It’s the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire. Remember back in Exodus, when God led the Israelites through the wilderness, they followed the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire (Exod 13.21). Well, at Pentecost, how did the Holy Spirit come? He came as a rushing wind and as tongues of fire. And what’s the message? The pillar of cloud is within you. The fire is within you. They had to have a pillar of cloud by day so they could see it, and a pillar of fire by night so that they could see it in the dark. You have that within you. There is no place that you go where God will not guide you. There’s no place you will go where you’re ever lost, when you have the Holy Spirit with you.
So think about these three images. We sang about them. It’s so powerful. The wind is the thing that opened the Red Sea so that Israel could cross (Exod 14.21). All of us have impossible things in our life. I don’t think any of us are asking God to part a Red Sea. That’s a pretty impossible idea, to go down to the ocean and just say, “God, make a path.” It’s not going to happen. And yet we come up and our car broke down and we can’t afford another one, and our wife is mad at us (not really; she’s great). There are these things that come up in our life, and we look and we despair so easily. “My friends don’t like me. They didn’t invite me to that party.” Whatever it is, we get this despair. And it’s like, no, you have the rushing wind that parts the ocean and allows you to walk through. You have the power of God within you.
IV. The Power to Forgive 08:13
So what are we to use this power for? Well, what does Jesus say when he says, “Receive the Holy Spirit”? He talks to them about forgiveness: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Why does he jump straight to forgiveness? He has like three lines as he’s opening up to tell them, “I am risen; the new world has come,” and within those three lines, the majority of the words, if you look at each line, are about forgiveness. Why?
Well, I just want to push it out there. We tend to like to focus in the church, as we’re so holy, on the fact that we can retain the sins of any. “See, Jesus cared that we would condemn the world. That’s part of our job. We have to retain the sins.” Is our job any different than Jesus’ job? And it says very clearly Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to save it (John 3.17). And who are you to retain the sins of any, when Jesus on the cross, as they were crucifying him… I know Becky’s been real mean to you lately, or Johnny or Jack, but they aren’t crucifying you. Jesus, from that position, said, “Forgive them, Father. They don’t know what they’re doing.”
And even more, that God-like power, forgiveness: when did Jesus talk about forgiveness? When did he teach on it? Well, there’s this guy that gets lowered through a roof. You remember? He’s completely lame. He can’t walk. And so his friends are like, “We’ve got to get him to Jesus.” They cut a hole in the roof and they lower him down. Get yourself some friends like that, let me tell you. They are making a way to bring him to Jesus. What do you think we’re supposed to be doing for the world? We’re supposed to be making a way to bring them to Jesus. That’s a side note. But he lowers him down, and he says, “Your sins are forgiven.” Everybody loses their minds: “You can’t say that. That’s God’s authority alone.” Jesus says, “What’s easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” (Mark 2.1–12). What do we see in Acts? The people of the church are given the power to say both “Your sins are forgiven” and “Take up your bed and walk.” That’s the Spirit that’s in you. That’s what we’re called to. That’s what Pentecost is about.
In fact, the motto in this sci-fi series I’m reading that they have for the revolution is “Break the chains.” And they do it by fighting and violence and all this stuff. The motto of Pentecost is: go out and break the chains with the Holy Spirit-empowered love, the truth, the way. Bring people to Jesus. Break the chains. Bring healing. Bring forgiveness. So what are we doing by the power of the Holy Spirit? Are we creating the best company in the world, because we’ve got a direct line to God and he’s given us some real good insight on how to fix things? Maybe that’s somebody’s call. But at the very least, I know that the call of God is to forgive the sins of the world. That’s the church’s job. Not because we have power, but because the Holy Spirit who raised Christ from the dead is within us. We have a job to do.
So the apostles are being prepared to do this work by Jesus. He’s framing the entire thing in that light, because, you know what? They’re going to be killed, and their friends are going to be beaten, and their families are going to be locked up. And what is your first reaction if they touch your family? Revenge. “I’m going to take those guys out. I’ve got the power of the Holy Spirit.” In fact, this was actually addressed by Jesus early on. We had a couple of disciples, and they’re like, “Hey, that city wasn’t nice to us. Do you want us to call down the fire of God on them?” And Jesus goes, “You don’t get it” (Luke 9.54–55). And that’s where he says, “I did not come to condemn the world but to save the world.”
So think about this. Jesus is framing their entire ministry, their entire purpose, in the light of forgiveness. He’s doing this because he knows that they’re going to have a lot to forgive. And yet, like we read last week, what did Peter say? He said, “Don’t be surprised when you suffer in this world” (1 Pet 4.12). And yet we go out into the world and we’re like, “Man, why is my life so hard? Why are these people so mean?” That’s the way the world is. But I have an answer for you. I can’t tell you why everybody’s so mean. Everybody has their own reasons, the fallen world, that stuff’s fine. But you know what matters more? It’s our job to forgive, by the power of the Holy Spirit. That’s why Stephen, the first martyr (and we’ll talk about him at some point in this series), had the power, unbelievable power, so that when people were picking up stones to kill him, he also said, “Father, forgive them.” People don’t do that. Not without God’s empowering gifts of the Holy Spirit.
V. The Day of Pentecost 13:35
Okay, let’s talk about what happened on the day of Pentecost, Acts chapter 2, beginning in verse 1:
1 When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. Acts 2.1
So think about this ragtag bunch of 11 people. We’ve got this beautiful icon in the back, and they all look so holy. These are the same people who ran away from Jesus when he died, locked themselves in a room, were in total fear of the Jews, and thought, “Well, I guess Jesus was wrong.” At the first sign of persecution, even though he told them, “I will rise again,” they gave up. They were just over it. They’re like, “This is over. We’re all probably going to die. Let’s try and escape somehow.” Those people are sitting in a room praying, because they saw Jesus, and then he disappeared. They were walking with him for 40 days, and then he ascended into heaven. And now they’re like, “God, what are you doing?” And they’re looking through the Scriptures. We actually skip a little story about how Peter’s finding references in the Scriptures and saying, “This must be what’s happening now.” And they’re starting to understand there’s something bigger going on here.
And they’re sitting there, and they’ve picked another disciple. In case you look at the icon and you’re like, “There’s not 11, there’s 12”: well, they’ve picked another guy to replace Judas. And they’re in one accord. They’re gathered in unity, seeking God. And just like today, God shows up when the people of God gather and seek him. God shows up. Now, you don’t get to determine how he shows up. Maybe he shows up by telling you that you probably shouldn’t have watched so much Netflix last week and you need to give it up. Maybe he shows up by healing your sprained ankle. Maybe he shows up by impressing on you the love that you have for your kids and your family. But God shows up when we come and we seek him.
And then at Pentecost they’re sitting there, and they’re praying, and the Holy Spirit comes, in verse 2:
2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Acts 2.2–4
VI. God Dwelling With Men 16:32
This is what the Bible is all about. I think I’ve said that like seven times, in sermons about totally different stories, but they’re all about this central concept. I wasn’t wrong the other times. The Bible is this beautiful document where the crucifixion is the center of the Bible, the resurrection is the center of the Bible, Christmas is the center of the Bible, all of these things. And the Holy Spirit coming and dwelling in man: it is the completion of God’s work and his incarnation. Because why was he born on Christmas? What do we say? Because God was going to dwell with men. But guess what? Jesus only dwelled with like 150 people. So think about this: what does God need to do to dwell with all men? He needs to send his Holy Spirit, who can be within us and on us and work through us. Now there are billions of Christians, and every one of them has God dwelling with them and within them. That’s the power of Pentecost. This was God’s plan all along. And so we see that God is now dwelling with men. Hallelujah! You are now God’s vessel.
That means… I was listening to the story of this hospice nurse, and I can’t imagine a more difficult job. I can imagine ones that are as difficult, but more difficult? I don’t think so. They’re with people as they die, as their families have to say goodbye, and even worse, as their families don’t come to say goodbye. And they’re with them day in and day out. And she was just sharing about how she gets to bring God into the room, in the presence of tragedy and death. That’s the power of Pentecost. And I’m driving on the road and somebody cuts me off, and I don’t know if I bring the power of God into that moment. I often bring a different spirit, one of accusation and anger. But there’s something that we could all learn, not just from the simplicities of our job: you are the answer in somebody’s life. Somebody needs God, and you’re going to run into them. In fact, everyone needs God, but some people need you to bring God into their life. That’s Pentecost.
VII. The Reverse of Babel 18:57
Okay, let’s keep going:
5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And at this sound the multitude came together, Acts 2.5–6
This was a loud rushing wind. It wasn’t like… no, it was shaking the house. People are coming from all over, like, “What happened?” And they’re coming, and then they’re bewildered, because they’re hearing their own language.
7 And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?” Acts 2.7–8
So this is the accomplished work of the Holy Spirit, which is the uniting Spirit, the one that allows you to speak one to another. Let me talk about this in the sense of the story of the Tower of Babel. You remember that story? It’s one of the greatest in the Bible. It just sticks with you, because it’s so true. All these people get together and they’re like, “We’re going to build a tower to heaven.” And then God’s like, “No, no, that’s not how it works.” And he scatters them, and they’re all just disunited. They’re scattered. They’ve lost the ability to communicate one to another (Gen 11.1–9). And that whole problem I was talking about in the sci-fi book, where they can’t figure out how to build a society that can be good: it’s because when people try and get together, division occurs. Through the fall, through our brokenness, our humanity comes out.
But the Holy Spirit rewrites that story. In Pentecost God builds a tower to earth. We’re building towers to heaven, and God’s like, “No, I’m building a pathway to earth. I’m coming to you. You don’t have to come to me. I’m bringing my kingdom here.” And in the midst of that, he unites the people. He brings people from every nation under heaven. Luke uses that phrase specifically. He’s saying the work that’s happening here is that now there can be unity among men again, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
And the languages thing: we can kind of get caught up on this. Like, maybe you don’t have the Holy Spirit because you’re not able to speak in tongues and have this guy in Italy understand you, this guy in Africa understand you. We can get caught up on the whole idea that while they were speaking all these different languages, they heard their own language. That was a miracle on Pentecost. Great. God can do it anytime. But there’s a deeper reality to what’s going on, and I will illustrate it in the simplest of ways.
We have all had conversations with people that we care about where we talk completely past one another. I say to Haley, “Haley, I noticed that my laundry wasn’t done.” Haley thinks, “Jesse is telling me how much he’s upset with me that his laundry wasn’t done.” I think I’m offering to do my laundry. I said the same thing; it’s interpreted in two different ways. One of them could result in unity and flourishing and peace, and one of them results in, well, not unity and not flourishing and not peace. I watched this movie the other day about this couple breaking up. They were married, and it’s just the most tragic thing you’ve ever seen, because they’re saying words and the other person’s hearing something completely different. They do an excellent job in this movie of illustrating that point. I think this is just a problem, period, in every human relationship, all the time. We say words, and we hear different things, and we need the Holy Spirit to bring that koinonia, that fellowship, that unity in the church.
Did you know I’ve even heard people in this room say things to me that I was upset about? Even us holy Christians. And yet the Holy Spirit convicts us. It brings us together. It unites us. Like I mentioned last week, when I’m censing and I come out and I bow to you, what am I bowing to? I’m bowing to God’s Spirit in you, Christ in you. We are all the same. We are all connected. We are all empowered by the Holy Spirit to love one another, to speak the same language. English, Spanish, it doesn’t matter. It’s talking about a connection, a unity, that can come only when you give yourself to the Holy Spirit.
VIII. Your Sons and Daughters Shall Prophesy 23:27
So what are we doing here in this church? We’re growing, we’re building, we’re having these Fire Nights that are so powerful. People are being prayed for, people are being healed, people are being set free, people are being empowered, activated, the same way as we saw in Acts. We see these people who are activated. But what’s so beautiful about the story in Acts is that they didn’t stay in the upper room. They walked outside. They said, “Look at this crowd of people who need to know the goodness of God. Thank you for the mighty wind that drew everybody. Let me preach a sermon. Let’s tell them what’s going on.”
We’re going to dive into Peter’s sermon another time. It is beautiful, it is wonderful, it is awesome. But I just want to pull out a few things for us to hold on to this morning, some promises that God has given us through Pentecost. We’re going to jump straight to when he talks about what Joel says:
17 “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; 18 even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.’” Acts 2.17–18
So what does that word mean, prophesy? Because apparently we’re all supposed to be doing it. What does it say? “I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.” Raise your hand if you’re neither a son nor a daughter. None of us. So we’re all supposed to prophesy. Did you know that every one of us has the Spirit of God in us? So what are we supposed to do? Are we supposed to get up there and say, “And then I saw a mountain, and the mountain had a crack, and then a tree grew up from the crack”? That’s not what prophecy is. Yes, it can take that form. Yes, we see in the Bible these beautiful poems that come out of the prophetic word of God. But what is prophecy, simply? It is speaking God’s perspective into a situation by the power of the Holy Spirit. That’s it.
So somebody comes to you and they’re hurting, and they’re saying, “Man, I really am just wrestling with the spirit of depression.” And you pray for them, and you get this picture of the sun coming up on the horizon, and you say, “I just see the sun coming up on the horizon.” And they’re like, “Whoa. I feel like I’ve been living in darkness, and now the Spirit is there and it raises it up.” I use that as just a random example, but I’ve seen that happen again and again and again. Your prayer, your words, by the power of the Holy Spirit, are the key to what God’s doing in the life of that person. So why aren’t we doing it all the time? Why not now? I will say, yes, we get it wrong sometimes. We’re humans, absolutely. But it will never hurt for you to ask the Holy Spirit, while you pray for somebody, “Is there something you want to say?” I know my words are not as good as his.
We’ve been practicing it in home group, and we’ve seen great times, and we’ve seen okay times, but we’ve never seen anything… knock on wood. Okay, I don’t really care about the wood. What I really care about: by the power of the Holy Spirit, we’ve never seen anything that hasn’t spoken life into these situations. And you learn how to do it, and you get good at it. It’s like learning a new language. You have to practice. But by the power of the Holy Spirit, you start to recognize, “Oh, that’s what you’re saying. Oh, that’s the prophetic voice in this situation.” Maybe you feel scared to practice it with people you don’t know. Practice it with your wife. Practice it with your best friend. The Holy Spirit is meant to empower us to act differently. Okay, we’re all going to prophesy.
IX. Visions and Dreams 26:42
“And your young men shall see visions.” Let me just say this: everyone here needs a vision for their life. There’s an epidemic in our culture of apathetic, lost, confused young people. The old people aren’t doing much better, but let’s just focus on the young people. In our culture we see so many people who have no idea what to do. Well, you need a vision, and you need one from the Holy Spirit. Not from the world, not from your career counselor, not from YouTube, whatever it is. You need the Holy Spirit. Now, the Holy Spirit can move through a YouTube video, through a career counselor, through all those avenues. But you’ve got to ask him. You’ve got to seek him. “Seek, and you will find” (Matt 7.7). This is a promise. You will see a vision of what God wants you to do.
Okay: “Your old men shall dream dreams.” Now, you know God is moving when your old men start dreaming dreams, because throughout life we tend to get the dreams beaten out of us, because we didn’t get that house, or we didn’t get that job, or we didn’t restore that relationship, or whatever it is. We tend to stop dreaming. Everyone here is called to be a dreamer by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, I’ve met some dreamers who are not operating in the power of the Holy Spirit. They are living in a pseudo-reality of their own making. Don’t be them. Ask God to give you dreams for your future. He wants life, and life abundantly, for you (John 10.10), and his dreams are way better than yours. I want to write a story someday, a fantasy tale, and it’s going to be full of my dreams, hopefully shaped by God. But you know what? For my life, I’d rather have his. I can dream about fantastical ideas, but God can dream things into reality. He can speak over your life, and he can give you dreams that are things to hold on to, that will shape the steps you take, that will lead you to the kingdom of God.
Dreams and visions. Now, I will say, there’s not really a clear distinction. You look at the commentaries: he’s making a poetic point that both the young men and the old men have equal access to the Spirit and should be operating from the Spirit’s perspective. We make some delineations: “Well, only old men can dream dreams, and what you’re saying is a vision.” No, that’s not it at all. God wants to shape your imagination, so that you think with him, you see with him, you move with him. So let’s prophesy over one another. Let’s pray over our life. Let’s dream together. Let’s have visions for where God’s taking us, and let’s take the world back from the enemy. That’s what we do. Jesus started it, Pentecost initiated it, and we are completing it. That’s our job.
X. No Second-Class Citizens 30:03
“And on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.” If you didn’t get it before, there is no such thing as a second-class citizen in the kingdom. Did you know that? Not a single person in this room has less access to God. There’s no junior Holy Spirit. There’s no “Well, he’s a bishop, so he obviously has more access to God.” No. Yes, God’s given him authority and power to operate in his sphere of influence as our spiritual father. Thank God for it. But, man, if all you ever get from God is from this pulpit or from these clergymen, you’re missing out. You have access to the Creator of everything that is: life, goodness, peace, joy, the fruit of the Spirit, gentleness, patience, self-control. Did you know you can control yourself? I forget that sometimes. But the Holy Spirit is so good he can even help you control yourself.
On all people he is pouring out his Spirit, and the only limit is how far you’re willing to let him take you. You can absolutely limit God in your life if you want. I do it on a regular basis, and he tells me about it. If you seek him, he will lead you, and he will say, “Don’t do that. Don’t do that. That just takes you away from where I’m taking you.” And then he’ll empower you to do all the other things.
Today, as we talk about Pentecost, I want you to ask God, “Where are you in my life?” I want you to ask him, “God, what are you doing in me?” And if you’ve never experienced the Holy Spirit in your life, if there’s anybody here who feels that they need a fresh outpouring, that they’ve never felt that goodness, or they just don’t know what’s going on in their life, we will pray for you, again and again. We’re going to see in this book that the elders of the church laid their hands on people, they were filled with the Spirit, and then they went out and they established the kingdom of God, and their lives were forever changed. And the church for 300 years was slaughtered and grew exponentially. We have difficulty growing when we offer free lunch at church. It’s because it’s not about the worldly benefits. It’s all about his Spirit.
If you feel like church is boring, you need the Holy Spirit. If you feel like church isn’t good enough, you need the Holy Spirit. If you feel like your life is failing, you need the Holy Spirit. There’s just one answer: God in you, your hope of glory (Col 1.27). That’s all I’ve got today. The Holy Spirit is in you. Ask him to reveal himself. And if you need prayer, come up after the service and get prayer. God will fill you. Amen.