So I'm going to read a variety of passages from Acts chapter 1 and 2 to think about how the church begins.
So we'll begin in Acts chapter 1, verses 4 to 8.
On one occasion, while Jesus was eating with the apostles, he gave them this command.
Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you've heard me speak about.
For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
So when they met together, they asked him, Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?
He said to them, it is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority,
but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
And then if we flick over to chapter 2, we'll read verses 1 to 4 first of all.
And then verse 16 and 17.
As Peter draws the crowd's attention to the prophet Joel, and he says what happens can be explained by what was spoken by the prophet Joel.
In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.
I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs of the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke.
The sun will return to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
And then finally, for us now, we'll look from verse 32 to 39.
And we read there,
God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.
Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit,
and has poured out what you now see and hear.
For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said,
The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.
Therefore, let all Israel be assured of this.
God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.
When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles,
Brothers, what shall we do?
Peter replied,
Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins,
and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far off,
for all whom the Lord our God will call.
So we'll leave our reading there.
We're thankful to God that we can hear the word that the Spirit inspired.
We're going to think about those passages and one or two others as we begin this new series,
where we think about the Holy Spirit in a believer's life,
and particularly the Holy Spirit in the life of the church.
So, why a series on the Holy Spirit?
Two reasons.
One is that you hear, you know, if you read Christian books,
anything to do with the Trinity,
the Spirit is often described as the forgotten member of the Trinity.
There is that appreciation that we can easily lose a sense that the Spirit is personal,
that he has a distinct work in a Christian life and in the church.
And so I hope, as we spend a few weeks thinking about the Holy Spirit's work,
it will be encouraging for us to see how the Spirit actively and personally works in and for us.
And I think, too, we always need that constant reminder that the Spirit serves as the glue
that binds a Christian to Jesus Christ.
So we'll be remembering time and again that we need the work of the Holy Spirit to reveal Jesus to us,
to apply the work of Jesus to us,
and to keep showing us more of the glory of both the Father and the Son,
to help us in our worship.
But also, it seems important in the time that we find ourselves
to recognise that just as we are bound to Jesus,
he is the head of the church,
so we are bound in Christ and by the Spirit to one another.
And so I hope that this will be a way to strengthen our appreciation of our fellowship,
that even though social distancing is separating us,
still we are bound together by the Spirit of Christ in his church.
And so we begin today thinking about the Holy Spirit and the life of the church for that reason.
I have three things to say,
and one book to recommend if you find that you've got lots of time on your hand.
George Smeaton, a free church professor, I think he was,
back in the 19th century, wrote a book on the Holy Spirit,
which I have been slowly working through.
It's an excellent book.
I've got some quotes from him for everybody's benefit.
First thing to say,
the Spirit is at work in the founding of the church.
The Spirit's there right in the beginning.
That's Acts chapter 1.
Here's Smeaton.
The great work of the Spirit is called the church.
So the Spirit is actively involved in establishing the church.
So we've read there, Acts chapter 1, verses 4 and 5.
Jesus' words to the apostles,
Wait in Jerusalem until you receive the gift my Father promised.
What was that gift?
Well, we know from the Old Testament and from Jesus' words,
the gift he has in mind is the Holy Spirit.
And that's why Peter, when he preaches,
draws the crowd's attention to the promise of Joel in the Old Testament
that's now being fulfilled.
We can also think of the words connected to the New Covenant in Ezekiel 36,
verse 26.
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you.
So there was this promise from the Father of the Holy Spirit
that would come on the people of God.
And so Jesus tells the apostles they are to wait in Jerusalem
until they are baptised with the Holy Spirit,
just as Jesus promised.
And you remember John the Baptist said,
I baptise with water,
but one who is among you baptises with the Holy Spirit and with fire,
speaking of Jesus.
If we take a step back,
think about Jesus' baptism,
which was for him the beginning of his public ministry.
What do we see?
So we hear the voice of God,
this is my son who I love.
What do we see?
We see God the Spirit come down on Jesus as a dove.
Jesus does ministry in the power of the Spirit.
And so now here,
as the church is formed,
and they're told to wait for ministry to begin,
what are they waiting for?
They're waiting for that same Holy Spirit to come on them.
The same Spirit in Christ would be the same Spirit in the apostles.
And that's the same Spirit in the same Spirit of Christ is in us,
is in the members of Buclue,
is in Christians,
whoever we are,
if our faith is in Jesus.
Again,
to take a step back,
Jesus,
the night before he died,
in John's Gospel,
king and head of the church,
Jesus said,
in John chapter 16,
verse 7,
it is good for you
that I am going away.
Unless I go,
so Jesus is thinking about his going,
unless I go,
the counsellor,
the comforter,
will not come to you.
And then,
in John chapter 14,
Jesus has already said,
I will not leave you as orphans,
I will come to you.
So notice there,
Jesus departing,
and Jesus coming,
are joined together.
How are they joined together?
They're joined together with a promise that Jesus would save the Spirit.
It's the Spirit of Christ,
who comes to dwell in the church.
And it's the Spirit of Christ,
that will enable and empower the church in ministry.
So in Acts chapter 2,
we read,
the church comes into existence at Pentecost.
The gift of the Spirit is given.
The gift promised by the Father,
promised by the Son,
arrives.
And then they get that ability to speak in other languages,
and instantly,
Peter is preaching,
because the Spirit wants to share the glory of Jesus,
the good news of the Gospel,
with other people.
And what we see,
is that that same Spirit,
that enables the apostles to preach,
enables Peter to preach,
it convicts and convinces the crowd
of the message of the Gospel.
They believe that Jesus really is the Son of God,
He really was sent by God,
demonstrated to be the Saviour by His miracles,
and that He was handed over by God's foreknowledge,
and they, in their sin,
had killed Him,
but God raised Him.
And the Spirit,
by His Word,
by the preaching of the Word,
builds 3,000 into the Church.
Every single person who is baptised that day,
3,000,
showing they identify with Jesus,
every single one of them receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The great work of the Spirit is called the Church.
The Spirit reveals Jesus as the Son of God,
reveals Him as the risen Lord and Saviour.
It's the Spirit who causes us to be born again.
So we can say that if we're part of God's Church,
that that's only because the Spirit has opened our eyes
to see our sin and our need,
to see Jesus as good,
to see Jesus as Saviour,
and to look to Him in faith.
The Spirit welds us in
and unites us to Christ.
And then we are united together as a Church by faith.
So the Spirit is at work in the founding of the Church.
I'd sort of connected,
but building on that,
let's say, secondly,
that the Spirit is the bond
uniting the Church to Christ.
How can we say,
as sometimes we do,
I belong to the Church?
That's not about the fact
that we happen to go to a shared location,
that we share proximity,
and that we take part in religious practices.
And that's good news for us,
because those things have been taken from us temporarily,
but that does not mean we stop being the Church.
It doesn't mean we stop being the people of God.
What the Bible says is that God is building His Church,
Christ is building His Church,
and He sends the Spirit as that cement
that unites us to Christ.
So as Jesus builds His Church,
the Spirit is at work.
And we're going to turn this time
to 1 Corinthians chapter 3.
I just want to read a couple of verses there,
in 1 Corinthians chapter 3,
where Paul is using the picture of the Church
as a temple-building project.
And there in 1 Corinthians 3,
in verse 10,
we read,
And then he goes to talk about,
with Jesus as the foundation,
there's various materials that can be used.
Some of those are good and will last.
Some of those are not and will not last.
But then verse 16,
Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple
and that God's Spirit lives in you?
So here is Paul the Apostle.
He's saying,
I've laid in Corinth the foundation for the Church,
which is Christ.
Christ as cornerstone,
Christ as foundation.
The Gospel is what the Church is built on.
And then he uses this image
that the Church is like a temple-building project.
And it's Jesus' project.
And the only way to build the Church
is on Jesus and His Word.
But then the finished article there in verse 16
is that we become a temple
in which God's Spirit lives.
That's a wonderful image of the Church.
The Spirit of God lives in us.
Again, we are seeing here
that we become part of the Church
only by having saving faith in Jesus.
So the Spirit calls us to believe.
The Spirit binds us to Jesus.
Christ comes to us by His Spirit in us.
And we become part of this temple-building project.
So here's the amazing truth for you to consider.
Maybe you're in your sitting room.
Maybe you're in your kitchen.
Maybe you're in your bedroom.
But here is this wonderful image.
Now just as in the Old Testament,
where did God choose to dwell?
On the earth, He chose to dwell in the temple.
And what we see regularly at the temple
is that the cloud of God's glory
filled that temple.
But now in the New Testament,
God chooses to live in His people.
God chooses us, the Church,
as His temple.
And so we are filled, as Christians,
with the Spirit of glory.
So the Holy Spirit joins us to Christ
as the foundation.
The Holy Spirit joins us to Jesus
as the head of the Church.
So from top to bottom, beginning to end,
whether we're together or whether we're apart,
we are one body, one temple,
where Christ lives by His Spirit.
And the last thing to say
about the Spirit of the Church for today
is that the Spirit is at work
in the worship of the Church.
I think it's important for us to recognise this
as we live in strange days
for a few weeks.
You know, we can worship in our pyjamas,
which isn't normal.
On a Sunday, we are finding that this virus
is restricting our shared worship.
And we weren't able to have a Lord's Supper last week.
We have no services.
So it's important for us to see
that we are still a worshipping people
and the Spirit is at work
as we worship.
And again, one of the things I hope
will come out of this time
of isolation and distance
is that it will make you and I
long for shared worship,
to long for community and fellowship
as the people of God.
It's one of those things that
sometimes we don't always appreciate
what we've got until
what we've got is gone.
So I hope
whenever we get the chance to come back,
we'll come back with a new appreciation
of the privilege of being able to worship.
Certainly for me this week,
I've also been thinking about
having a new appreciation
for the struggles of the persecuted church.
Thinking about stories of believers
who are isolated permanently
and they cannot worship with anybody else
and they dare not share their faith
because they don't know who to trust.
They don't know whether if they talk
to someone about Jesus,
they'll get reported to the authorities,
thrown in prison or killed.
And so ours is temporary.
And still, thanks to technology,
we can still worship.
And so we remember our persecuted
brothers and sisters in Christ.
But it's so important for us to remember,
even in these strange days,
the Spirit of Christ will work among us
as we worship.
Again, George Smeaton,
he said,
the presence of Christ
by the Spirit
in the church
is the church's glory.
And whether we meet in a building together
or whether we meet remotely
thanks to technology,
nothing changes that.
Christ is present
by his Spirit.
And so,
while we may look small
and insignificant to the world,
in God's eyes,
we're glorious.
Because the Spirit
dwells in us.
I want to read another couple of verses,
this time from 1 Peter,
chapter 2.
1 Peter, chapter 2.
And we find here,
Peter is picking up on the temple image
that Paul used,
but also talking about the church
as priests.
So,
in 1 Peter, chapter 2,
verse 5,
or read verse 4.
As you come to him,
the living stone,
rejected by men,
but chosen by God
and precious to him,
you also,
like living stones,
are being built
into a spiritual house
to be a holy priesthood,
offering spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God
through Jesus Christ.
So,
he's saying the church
is a holy priesthood.
We are a set-apart people.
Set-apart for what?
Set-apart to serve God.
And there,
in verse 5 particularly,
it says,
we're set-apart to offer
spiritual sacrifices.
In other words,
we're set-apart
so that we might be
a worshipping people.
Everybody in the world
worships something,
but we are to worship
the one true God.
And so,
we offer spiritual sacrifice
in our shared worship
and in our daily lives
of loving obedience
to him.
And those things
don't change.
And whatever our circumstances
and restrictions,
we still can worship together
corporately,
and we can still
live lives of worship
and loving obedience
to God.
And then also,
in verse 9,
the same idea
is picked up again,
but taken in a slightly
different direction.
You are a chosen people,
a royal priesthood,
a holy nation,
a people belonging to God.
For why?
That you may declare
the praises of him
who called you out of darkness
into his wonderful light.
So we are set-apart,
called to worship,
and we are called
to witness,
to declare
the praises of him
who called us
from darkness
to light.
We are to share
the good news
of the salvation
of Jesus
with others.
But the point
for us today
is that
we worship
and we witness
with the help
of the Spirit of Christ
in us.
Here's one last
George Smeaton quote,
and I find this
so helpful
for thinking about
what is it
that's happening
when people gather
together as the people
of God
to share worship.
This is true
whether we do it
in one building
or we do it remotely.
Here's what
Smeaton says.
He says,
the Lord Jesus
acts from God
to us
and from us
to God
in both instances
by the Holy Spirit.
So the Holy Spirit
is central
to our worship,
bringing us
the grace
of Jesus
to us
and enabling us
to praise
in response.
So practically,
what does that
mean for us
in these days?
It means that
whenever we read
the Bible
with one person,
with a hundred,
with a thousand people,
we need
the Spirit of Christ
to speak
to us
and to
enlighten
our hearts
and our minds
so that we can
grasp the truth
so that we might
live out
that truth.
When we pray
or when we listen
to God's Word
being preached,
the Spirit
of Christ
uses it
to bring
fresh grace
from God
to us.
Uses
that prayer
and that preaching
to bring salvation.
So we see
the Spirit
as the channel,
the channel
through whom
we receive
grace
from God
and the channel
through whom
our praise
and our worship
returns
to God.
So as you sit
at your kitchen
table
or as you sit
at your couch
and do family worship,
as you sit around
the computer
now
and think about
worship
and maybe it feels
slightly different
and artificial,
remember
the Spirit
of God
in you
is bringing
the grace
of God
to you
and wants
to help you
to respond
in real
worship
and praise.
So we need
the Holy Spirit
and we're so thankful
the Holy Spirit
established the church,
establishes us
in the church,
unites us to Christ
and helps us
in our worship.
So we'll hear
hopefully lots more
about the work
of the Holy Spirit
in coming weeks
but we'll leave it there
for now.
and