Okay, good morning. If you are new to Watermark, my name is Kevin. I'm one of the leaders here.
It's great to see you and to be with you this morning.
Now, if you're new, you might not know, but the last four weeks we've been working through the latter part of 1 Corinthians.
1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14.
And the reason is because this is possibly the New Testament's most concise teaching on the spiritual gifts,
what the Bible has to say about spiritual gifts.
And the reason we've been doing that is because as a church we want to grow in both our understanding, our theology,
but also our practice, our usage of spiritual gifts.
But we want to be a church that's governed by God's Word.
We want to be controlled by what God says, not by culture or what any people say.
So we've been looking at the Scriptures, right?
But there is a challenge.
And the challenge is that although 1 Corinthians 12 to 14 has a lot to say about spiritual gifts,
it's actually, spiritual gifts is a very small part of the entire Bible's teaching
about the work and the ministry of and the person of the Holy Spirit.
In other words, when we think of what does it mean to be a Spirit-filled church,
a Spirit-dependent church, a church that's walking in step with the Spirit,
living by the Spirit, dependent of the Spirit,
being transformed and renewed by the person and the ministry of the Holy Spirit,
spiritual gifts, such as what we've been talking about,
is a very small percentage of that, maybe less than 10% of the Bible's teaching.
And so the question remains, well, we want to be a Spirit-dependent church,
a church that's filled with God's Spirit and walking and dependent on Him.
What does that mean in its totality?
And so this morning, what I want us to do is to close off this kind of mini-series
by looking at a lot more of the Bible's teaching.
What does it look like when a church or a group of people, an individual,
encounters God, the Holy Spirit, in a profound and wonderful way?
And so that's what we're going to look at today.
And we're going to do that by looking at Acts chapter 1 and 2.
And so I'm going to pray for us, and then Alan and Kat are going to come read God's Word.
Let me pray for us, and then we'll dive in.
Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ, wonderful Spirit of God,
we come before you this morning because we want you to speak to us.
Lord, as Alan and Kat read your Word to us, won't you speak to us?
Let these words go deep in our heart.
May we see something of who you are and who we are in you.
May we see what it means to be a church that is wholly dependent on you
and filled with you and walking with you.
And God wants you to call us to become the kind of church that you want us to be.
So Spirit of God, I ask you, come and speak to us through your Word.
In your wonderful and gracious name, amen.
Let's listen to the reading of God's Word.
Today's scripture reading comes from Acts chapter 1 to 2.
You can follow along on the screen your Bibles or the bulletin.
So when they had come together, they asked him,
Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?
He said to them,
It is not for you to know times or season that the Father has fixed by his own authority,
but you will receive the power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you,
and you will be my witness in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria
and to the end of the earth.
When the day of Pentecost arrived, when they were all together in one place,
and suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind,
and it filled the entire house where they were sitting,
and divided tongues as a fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them.
Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem,
let this be known to you and give ear to my words.
For these people are not drunk as you suppose,
since it is only the third hour of the day.
But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel.
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.
And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved.
Men of Israel, hear these words.
Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God
with mighty works and wonders,
and signs that God did through him in your midst.
As you yourself know,
this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God,
you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
God raised him up, losing the pangs of death,
because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
This Jesus raised up, and of that we are all witnesses,
being therefore exalted on the right hand of God.
And having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit,
he has poured out this,
that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.
For David did not ascend into the heavens,
but he himself says,
The Lord said to my Lord,
Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.
Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain
that God has made him both Lord and Christ,
this Jesus whom you crucified.
Now when they heard this,
they were cut to the heart
and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles,
Brothers, what shall we do?
And Peter said to them,
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.
For the promise is for you and for your children
and for all who are far off,
everyone whom the Lord our God calls himself.
And with many other words he bore witness
and continued to exhort them,
saying,
Save yourselves from this crooked generation.
So those who received his word were baptized
and there were added that day about 3,000 souls.
And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching
and the fellowship,
to the breaking of bread and the prayers,
and all came upon every soul,
and many wonders and signs were being done
through the apostles.
And all who believed were together
and had all things in common,
and they were selling their possessions and belongings
and distributing the proceeds to all
as any had need.
And day by day,
attending the temple together
and breaking bread in their homes,
they received their food
with glad and generous hearts,
praising God and having favor
with all the people.
And the Lord added to the number,
day by day,
those who were being saved.
This is the word of God.
Okay, thank you, Ellen and Kat.
Many years ago,
I was in a conversation with somebody
and he made a comment
about a certain church,
or denomination,
type of churches,
a group of churches,
and his comment was this.
He said,
those churches are so dead
that the Holy Spirit probably falls asleep
when he walks through the door.
And I remember being taken aback
by the comment for two reasons.
The first one is,
it came across as quite opinionated,
quite arrogant,
as if to say,
the Holy Spirit loves out kinds of churches,
but those churches he doesn't.
But the other reason was,
I actually had family members
that were part of that denomination.
And I remember hearing stories
at that time
of God really moving powerfully
in those churches
and changing people's lives
and bringing people to saving faith.
And so the comment struck me as,
not only opinionated,
but just not true.
But it raises the question,
what does it look like
for a church to be filled of the Spirit?
What does the Spirit-filled church look like?
Well, in order to do that,
we're gonna look at Acts,
chapter one and two.
And you'll remember
how the book of Acts starts off.
Jesus tells his apostles,
his disciples,
to wait in Jerusalem
until the promise of the Holy Spirit
is given to them.
This was a promise
that the prophets in the Old Testament
had spoken about.
And John the Baptist,
the final of the Old Testament prophets,
in a sense says,
I baptize you with water,
but there will come one after me
who will baptize you
with the Holy Spirit.
And so Jesus says,
wait and pray
for that day to happen.
And so the disciples do.
They wait and they pray
for 10 whole days.
We've got prayer meeting this Thursday.
It won't go on for 10 days,
I promise you.
But that's what they do.
For 10 days they're praying
and eventually on the day of Pentecost,
God delivers on his promise
and he pours out his Spirit
in a most powerful and amazing way.
And on that day,
the New Testament church is born.
So what does the New Testament church look like?
What does the Spirit-filled church look like?
Well, I want us just to think
about a couple of things.
And the first one is this.
The first mark,
the Spirit's presence and power
upon a church or an individual
is a profound sense of awe
and reverence for the majesty of God.
A profound sense of awe.
When God's Spirit comes upon us,
there's a profound sense of awe and majesty.
We see this throughout the book of Acts
and throughout the Bible,
that when God's people,
either an individual or a church,
encounters the living God,
the first response is not light-hearted laughter
or kind of soppy emotionalism.
It's a profound sense of awe
and arrestation,
a profound sense of being in the presence
of one infinitely mightier
and more majestic
and categorically different
from anything we had ever experienced
or seen or witnessed before.
And it's like God's presence arrests us.
I don't know if you've ever had an experience like this
in another setting.
Maybe you are,
I was thinking about if you're walking on the mountain,
the peak,
or you're hiking maybe at night
and you hear a rustle in the bushes, right?
And you freeze.
Or maybe you see a snake,
you know,
on the side of the path.
And the first thing is you freeze, right?
Even if you don't want to,
you're just frozen with fright.
When God's Spirit comes upon a people,
a person,
there's a sense that it arrests us.
We don't just go on with life as normal.
There's no arresting that takes place
in almost fear and dread
in light of the awesomeness
and the majesty
of whose presence we are.
I think we see something of that
in Acts chapter 2 here
when the Spirit is poured out on the disciples
and Peter is filled with the Spirit.
He stands up and he preaches the gospel.
He tells them about Jesus.
And look what it says.
Look at verse 37.
It says,
Now when they heard his words,
they were cut to the heart.
That means they were seized.
They were taken a hold of.
And they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles,
Brothers, what must we do?
It's like they don't just go on with life.
Nobody goes to the coffee station afterwards
and says,
Nice sermon, pastor.
Good job today.
They cry out,
Tell us what we must do.
Something's got to change.
How do we get saved
in light of what you've told us?
And Peter says,
Turn to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And look at verse 43.
It says,
And awe came upon every soul.
This deep reverence.
This life had changed
because they'd encountered the living God.
You know,
Ray Ortlund tells this story.
Ray Ortlund's one of my heroes.
And he tells this story
when he was a teenager.
His dad was a pastor.
And sometimes he'd be in church
and his dad would be preaching.
And it was a pretty conservative,
respectable church in North America.
And he says,
Sometimes during his dad's sermon,
the middle of the sermon,
there'd be such a profound sense
of God's majesty in the room
that respectable, honorable,
suit and tie wearing members
of the congregation
would gently get up from their seats
and walk down the aisle
to the front of the hall
and before the piano
would just get down on their knees
and weep.
The weep in the presence of majesty
as the eyes were opened
to see who God is.
I think the closest thing
that I've ever come to this
was actually just a few weeks ago.
I don't know if you remember,
four or five weeks ago,
we were looking at Isaiah chapter six
and I'd been meditating on it
the whole week
and my heart was full
of this passage
of the majesty
and the glory of God.
And afterwards,
Alan led us in a song,
that song,
Holy Forever.
And as we were singing this song,
I was standing over here
and I was filled
with such a sense
of the sheer glory
and majesty of God
that there's almost a sense
I was afraid of my life.
And actually,
I was standing over here
and I kept on taking
a step further back
and another step back
and I kept on walking back
until I bumped into the chairs.
There's kind of a sense of,
I didn't want to get too close.
I kind of was aware
of my brokenness
and my depravity
and God's majesty
and I thought,
if I'm not careful,
I don't know if I'm going to get
out of this room alive.
There's such a sense
of the awe,
the transcendence,
the glory of God.
And that's what happens
when God's people
encounter the Spirit of God.
There's not a frivolity to it.
There's a transcendence,
a power,
a reverence
to the majesty
and the glory of God.
And we see this again
in Revelation, right?
John encounters God
and he falls down
as though dead.
Seeing God,
he's astounded
by his majesty.
What does the
Spirit-filled church look like?
Yes, there's joy.
Yes, there's contentment.
Yes, there's peace.
But there's a profound sense
of awe and reverence
in the sheer majesty
and glory of God.
But then,
and that leads us
to the second thing.
The second distinction
of the Spirit-filled church
is deep repentance.
Look at our passage here.
Look at verse 37
and onwards.
Look what happens here.
Jeremy spoke about this
a few minutes ago.
It says,
when they heard this
they were cut to the hearts
and they said to Peter
and the apostles,
brothers,
what shall we do?
In other words,
what must we do to be saved?
And Peter said to them,
repent and be baptized
every one of you
in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ
for the forgiveness
of your sins.
You will receive the gift
of the Holy Spirit
for the promise
is for you
and for your children,
for all who are far off,
everyone whom the Lord
our God calls.
And with many words
he bore witness
and continued to exhort them,
saying save yourselves
from this crooked generation.
And so those who received
his word were baptized.
Friends,
when God moves upon a church,
when God's spirit
moves upon a church,
there's always profound
and deep repentance.
Now,
if you're new to church
this morning,
that word repentance
may,
you may not be familiar with it.
And it may sound quite strange.
It may sound like
a very heavy word.
You may think
when the church talks
about repentance
we're talking about
shaming you
and guilt tripping you
and making you feel bad.
And you may feel like
I feel bad enough
about life as it is
and now I come to church
and you make me feel
even worse.
Thanks very much.
But actually,
that's not the point at all.
When the Bible
talks about repentance,
it's actually the opposite
of what we often think.
The Bible's call
to invitation
is always an invitation
to life,
to freedom,
to peace,
to life
in all this fullness.
in John Bunyan's book,
John Bunyan wrote a book
called The Pilgrim's Progress
about 400 years ago.
And in this book,
it's an analogy
of a man who goes
on this journey.
He comes to faith in Christ
and it's his spiritual journey
through life.
But in the beginning
of this book,
this man,
his name's Christian,
he has this profound
burden on his back.
It's this picture
of a backpack
or a rucksack
on your back
and he's got
this heavy burden
and he's trudging
through life
and it's heavy
and it's hard
and he can't get rid of it.
And at one point,
he comes to a cross
and at the cross,
this burden
gets released
from his back.
And he feels the sense
for the first time
in his life,
the sense of freedom,
the sense of lightness,
the sense of joy,
the sense of life.
As this burden
that he's been carrying
all his life
gets laid down.
And friends,
the Bible's invitation
to repentance
is an invitation
to turn from death
to life,
from darkness to light,
from carrying our guilt
and our shame
and our inadequacy
to laying that down
and experiencing
the freedom
and the joy
of knowing that Christ
has taken those things
on the cross for us.
Now that doesn't mean
that repentance
is always easy or simple.
Repentance is difficult
because it requires
we lay down our pride
and our ego.
It requires that
for a moment
we lose face before God
and say,
God, it is right.
I am a sinner
in need of grace.
God, I admit
that I have tried
to be my own God.
I've lived for my own glory
and it's gotten me nowhere.
And so at first,
repentance is hard.
It feels like
a part of your ego
needs to die
but it's always
an invitation
to life.
And Jesus said
that when the Spirit
of God comes,
He will come
and convict the world
of sin
and righteousness
and judgment
not in order to shame us
but to liberate us.
But before that happens,
the Spirit impresses upon us
a profound sense
of the ugliness of sin
in our lives
and the depth
and the extent of it.
You know,
this happened to me
a few years ago.
I think I've shared
this story with you before.
One of the prevailing sins
in my life
that I've often struggled with
and I know it doesn't sound
like a very big sin
but is a deep love
for people's approval
and affirmation.
And I know that sounds
very trite and small
but it's an idol
in my life
that trips me up
and gets me
into so much trouble.
I find myself
doing all sorts
of dumb things
that I shouldn't do
and I don't want to do
because I'm scared
to say no to people
and I don't want
to disappoint people.
And what I find
is that for me,
one of the prevailing sins
is that people's approval
and people's affirmation
and people liking me
has this controlling grip
on my life.
And actually,
often I find
it's more important to me
than the person
of Jesus Christ.
And if I'm honest,
that sometimes I love
what people think of me
more than I love Christ.
And I'm meant
to be a pastor, right?
And what that means
is I've got this idol
that I bow down to
and worship
and adore
called approval of man,
love for man.
And one day,
a few years ago,
I was grappling
with this
and praying for this
and I went for a prayer walk
and I said,
God, you've got to change
this in my life.
I hate this thing.
It feels like it controls me
and I can't get rid of it.
God, please come
and change me.
And I was deeply
convicted of it.
And as I was going
on this prayer walk,
I saw in my mind's eye
a picture of like
a chalice or an urn.
It was a dark picture
and out of this chalice,
snakes were coming
out of it.
And in my mind's eye,
I saw this is this idol
that I bow down
and I worship.
And I give reverence
and awe
to this disgusting
snake infested idol
in my life
called the approval of man
and the fear of man.
And this disgusting urn
is actually more precious,
more beautiful to my heart
than Jesus Christ.
And as I went
on this prayer walk,
I said,
God,
you've got to change me.
I hate what this thing
is doing to me.
Lord,
and for the first time
in my life,
what I had thought was
just being a wise pastor,
just caring for people.
Actually,
I saw the depravity
and the ugliness of it.
And God convicted me
of this need
to repent.
And as I cried out to God
and said,
God,
you've got to not only
forgive me,
but you need to save me
and change me.
I felt like God
turned my life around.
And He did that.
He really delivered me
of that.
Maybe some of you
have seen that.
I'm not as nice
as maybe I used to be.
But I didn't,
I wasn't nice
because I really loved you.
I just was nice
because I loved myself.
And I loved what people
thought about me.
Friends,
that's what God's Spirit does.
He brings us to a place
of seeing the ugliness
of sin
and the repulsiveness
of our idols.
So we turn
from death to life.
And we saw this
in Isaiah 6
a few weeks ago, right?
Isaiah sees the majesty
and the glory of God.
God opens his eyes
to see God.
And the first thing
he says is,
God,
you've got to save
those people.
No, that's not what He says.
He says,
woe is me.
I am lost.
I'm ruined.
I'm undone.
I've seen the glory
of the Lord.
And my lips are unclean
and I live amongst
the people of unclean lips.
God's Spirit,
when He comes upon us,
friends,
what does it mean
to be a spiritual church?
It means we'll see
the things in our life
that for years
have been hidden
to our hearts.
And things that we've excused
and said,
oh, I'm just a good
steward of money,
we'll actually see,
no, we're just greedy.
And as we say,
oh, we just care
for this person.
We're just talking
to everyone in our CG
to see how we can love them.
We'll see,
actually,
that's just gossip.
And we'll see
the depravity
of the sin in our lives.
Sorry,
I didn't mean this
to be this heavy.
I just kind of apologize.
When God's Spirit
comes upon us,
we see God
and we see ourselves.
But here's the third thing,
friends,
when God's Spirit
comes upon our church,
upon a group of people,
it's not only
a profound sense
of awe
and deep repentance,
but an overwhelming assurance
of God's profound,
undeserved love
and kindness
and mercy
and grace.
Listen to how
Martin Lloyd-Jones
describes it.
He says,
when God's Spirit
comes upon somebody,
they are given
a clear view
of the love of God
and of the Lord Jesus Christ
and especially
of His death
upon the cross.
At last,
they see it.
Oh,
they'd always believed it
theoretically,
but it'd never become
true for them,
truly become real for them.
They'd honestly believed it,
yes,
but they never felt
its power.
They'd never known
what it was to be melted
by the love of God,
to be broken by it.
They'd never known
what it was to weep,
yes,
with a sense of unworthiness,
but then with love
and joy,
as they realized
that in an individual
and personal way,
the Son of God
loved them
and has given Himself
for them,
and peace comes
into our hearts,
and joy enters
into them,
and we are lost
in love
and praise
for God the Father
and God the Son
and God the Holy Spirit.
Friends,
this is what God's Spirit does.
He assures us
of God's unceasing love
and acceptance,
which leads to profound
confidence
and a conviction.
Previously,
you're timid
and you're shy
and suddenly,
you're now,
you're insecure
and full of self-doubt
and you encounter
God's Spirit
and His love
invades your heart
and it changes
and it transforms you.
And surely,
that's what we see
in Acts chapter 1
and 2 here,
right?
Remember,
just six weeks before,
the Apostle Peter,
Jesus is busy on trial,
Peter's watching him
on trial,
a servant girl
comes to him
and says,
aren't you one
of His disciples?
And he says,
no, no, no,
I don't know the man.
She says,
I'm sure I saw you
with him.
He says,
I've never met the man.
I swear in my life,
I don't know
what you're talking about.
And six weeks later,
this same Peter
is standing in front
of the high priests
and the rulers
and authorities,
the very guys
that just crucified Jesus
and saying,
you need to repent.
Christ is Lord.
You crucified him
and you're in trouble.
What's happened to Peter?
The Spirit of God
has come upon him
and being filled
with the power of God
but the love
and the confidence
that He is God's Son
changes him
and transforms him
into a different person.
Friends,
my dear friends,
do you know
the love of God
like this?
Personally,
deeply,
individually,
not just theoretically,
not just doctrinally
or intellectually,
do you know
that Christ
went to the cross
for you
because of His love
for you?
That's what
the Spirit of God does.
He takes what's written
in our heads
and He writes it
on our hearts
in a way
that changes us.
And the Bible,
the Acts,
the way the Spirit
comes upon the church
is described
as the outpouring
of the Spirit.
God pours His Spirit
on the church.
Look at verse 17.
It says,
In the last days
it shall be,
God declares
that He will pour out
His Spirit
upon all flesh.
Verse 18,
I think He says
the same thing.
Let me just get
in my Bible here.
Verse 18,
Even on my male servants,
my female servants,
in those days
I will pour out
my Spirit.
Verse 33,
This Spirit
He has poured out
upon us,
says Peter.
Well,
there's another place
in the New Testament
where God talks
about the pouring
out of the Holy Spirit.
Romans chapter 5,
He says this,
We rejoice
in our sufferings
knowing that suffering
produces endurance.
Endurance produces character.
Character produces hope.
And hope does not disappoint us.
Which,
that's an interesting phrase.
I think hope
often disappoints us.
You hope for a promotion
at work
and you don't get it,
it's disappointing.
You hope for a relationship
to work out
that doesn't work out.
That's the problem with hope.
It often disappoints us,
isn't it?
Paul says here,
the kind of hope
that God,
the Holy Spirit
pours into our hearts
doesn't disappoint us.
Why?
Because God's love
has been poured
into our hearts.
When God's Spirit
is poured upon us,
His love
is poured into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit
that changes
and transforms us.
God takes the truth
of the gospel
and He writes them
in our hearts
in a personal way.
And what this means
is that God takes
insecure people
and He makes them secure.
He takes anxious people
and He makes them
remarkably calm.
He takes hopeless people
and He gives us
sudden new vision
and purpose
and hope again.
And conflict ceases.
Grace abounds.
Forgiveness
and reconciliation
becomes common
and normative.
You have a conflict
with someone in church
and God's Spirit
is poured into our hearts
and the love of God
is poured into our hearts
and rather than me
coming to Claire
and pointing out
it's all her fault
and saying it's all your fault,
suddenly I come to her
and say, hey I'm so sorry.
Actually I see now
what I've done.
And she says, no, no,
actually it's not your fault,
it's my fault.
And the love of God
transforms us
and changes us.
The Holy Spirit
writes the love of God
personally into our hearts.
And of course
this inpouring
of soul anchoring
love and assurance
and security
generates an unusual
outpouring
of love and tenderness
and softness
in our hearts
towards others.
Suddenly we're no longer
living for ourselves
and our own plans.
We live for others.
And God's love for us
means we start
to love others.
And look what happens
here in Acts.
Look at the end
of chapter 2
verse 44.
It says,
And all who believed
were together
and all things in common
they were selling
their positions
and belongings
and distributing
the proceeds
to all as any had need.
And day by day
attending the temple
together
breaking bread
in their homes
they received their food
with glad and sincere
and generous hearts
praising God
and having favor
with all people.
We see the same thing
in chapter 4.
The full number
of those who believed
were one heart
and one soul
and nobody said
that any of his possessions
belonged to him
or were his own
but they had everything
in common.
Friends,
the love of God.
The love of God.
Do you know it?
Have you experienced it?
Friends,
are you secure
in the love of God?
Or do you say,
yes,
I know Jesus died for me
because he loves me
but you're wracked
with guilt
and insecurity
and fear
and shame.
This is what God does
when the Holy Spirit
poured out in our church
and in our lives
and in our hearts.
The love of the Lord Jesus
becomes real
and perceptible
and perceivable
to our hearts.
It shapes the way
we respond to situations
and storms
and challenges.
Is it evident
and visible
to those who are closest to you?
The love of God
to our hearts.
Well,
the Spirit of God
knowing does that.
He does,
fourthly,
empowers us
for bold evangelism
and witness.
Look at what happens here.
Look at the quote.
Peter here,
when he stands up
and the Spirit comes upon him,
he quotes from Joel chapter 2
and he says,
Joel in the Old Testament
promised this is what
was going to happen.
And so look at what
Joel says,
verse 17.
He says,
In the last days
it shall be,
declares God,
that I will pour out
my Spirit in all flesh.
On your sons
and your daughters
they shall prophesy.
Okay,
that's an important word.
Young men shall see visions.
Old men will dream dreams.
Even on my male servants
and female servants,
in those days
I will pour out my Spirit
and they shall prophesy.
What does Joel mean
when he means this?
Well,
I don't think Joel
simply means that
in small group
or community group
everyone's going to have
a word of knowledge
or a prophecy for one another.
Okay,
it might mean that,
of course.
God gives us spiritual gifts.
We spoke about that last week.
Paul says,
don't despise prophecy.
Don't despise speaking tongues.
That's fine.
But when Joel says that
men and women,
young men,
old men,
young women,
old women,
employees,
servants and bosses,
everyone will prophesy.
The word prophecy means
will proclaim
the excellency
and the awesomeness of God.
They will preach the gospel.
They will go into their workplaces.
They will go into their sports fields.
They'll go into
their social clubs.
They'll tell colleagues
and family members
and neighbors and friends,
this is who God is.
When God's spirit comes upon us,
all people,
rich,
poor,
young,
old,
educated,
uneducated,
will be so filled
with God's spirit and power
that they won't be able
to help themselves
as they speak about Jesus.
And that's what we see in Acts,
right?
In Acts chapter 5,
the apostles are called in
and they threatened,
hey,
don't tell anyone about Jesus
otherwise we will arrest you
and beat you up.
And they do beat them
and they send them out
and what do they do?
And so every day
in the temple
and from house to house,
they did not cease
teaching everyone
about Jesus Christ.
Acts chapter 4,
with great power,
the apostles were giving testimony
to the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus
and grace was upon them.
Acts chapter 8,
Philip opened his mouth
and beginning with the scriptures,
he told them the good news
about Jesus.
They throw them in jail
and what do they do?
They tell the jailers
about Jesus.
They release them from jail
and they go into the marketplace
and they tell people
about Jesus.
They enjoy the favor of man
and they tell them
about Jesus.
They threatened
and beaten
and accused
and they tell people
about Jesus.
In each and every circumstance,
they cannot help themselves
but tell people
that Christ is Lord
and they preach the gospel
to one another
and that's why
the book of Acts
is called the book of Acts.
It means the act
of the disciples
but it actually should be
the acts of the Holy Spirit
empowering the disciples
to proclaim the gospel.
Friends,
what does a spirit-filled church
look like?
It means we so love God
and love others
that we cannot keep
this good news to ourselves
and we find ways
and opportunities
and we overflow
with the wonder
of who Christ is
that he died on the cross
as we were saying earlier,
for sinners like me
and we tell people
about Christ.
What does a spirit-filled church
look like?
Lastly,
the spirit-filled church
looks like an insatiable love
and delight
and treasuring
of Jesus Christ.
When you read
the book of Acts
and the rest
of the New Testament,
what we see again
and again and again
is that the work
of the Spirit
is to make the church
more focused
and in love
with the person
of Jesus Christ.
The irony is
the spirit-filled church
is not focused
on the Holy Spirit.
The spirit-filled church
is empowered
by the Spirit
to worship
and glory
Christ
and God the Father.
In John chapter 15,
Jesus says this,
he says,
when the Spirit comes,
he will bear witness
about me.
Now,
the Holy Spirit
is like this giant spotlight
that shines
and says,
look at Christ,
see Christ,
see what he's done
on the cross,
see how glorious he is,
see his majesty
but see his humility.
The Holy Spirit
bears witness
about Christ
in our hearts
and then in chapter 16,
he says this amazing thing.
I think we've got
on the slide,
he says this,
when the Spirit
of truth comes,
he will guide you
in all truth,
okay,
so the Holy Spirit
comes and fills our hearts
and he guides us
into truth.
What truth
does he guide us into?
Does he tell us
the truth about,
you know,
equals MC squared
and AI
and technology
and how life works?
No,
the truth
that he reveals
to our hearts
is that Christ
is worthy
of our worship.
He will glorify me.
The great J.I. Packer
said this little verse,
John 16 verse 14
is the most important verse
in the entire Bible
in helping us
to understand
the work
and the ministry
of the Holy Spirit.
When the Spirit
comes upon our hearts,
he fills us
with a sense
of the all-sufficiency,
the all-satisfying
wonder of Jesus,
that Christ
is glorious
and wonderful
and enough for us.
John Piper says
his passion,
the passion
of the Holy Spirit
is to make much
of Jesus
in our hearts,
in our lives,
in our churches.
He sent into the world
to open the eyes
of our hearts
that we might see
the magnificence
of Christ
and glory in him
and glorify him.
Friends,
this is what we see
in Acts
in the New Testament.
That everywhere we go,
the Spirit-filled church,
they cannot help themselves
but worship
and glorify
and treasure
and delight
in Jesus Christ,
praising him.
And in the marketplace
and in the temple
and in their homes
and on the way,
they're opening the Scriptures
and they're showing people
Jesus is wonderful,
Jesus is sufficient,
Jesus is enough.
Friends,
if you're a Christian
this morning,
I want to ask you,
is that true of you?
Is your heart
full of Jesus?
Is your heart
delighting
in the Lord Jesus Christ?
Is your relationship
with Christ
one of delight
and treasuring Jesus
above all things?
Friends,
if you're anything
like me,
I know it's not true
of me all the time.
Other things
grab my attention.
Other things
become more important
to me.
I get distracted
by things like
saving money
for the future.
Distracted by kids
and education
and career progression.
We get distracted
by house renovations
and exams
or studies
or relationships.
And Jesus
becomes smaller
in our hearts
and these things
become bigger
in our hearts.
And one of the goals,
one of the roles
of the Holy Spirit
is to so invade
our hearts.
We need the Spirit
of the living God
to break into our hearts
and make Christ
big in our hearts
and our own kingdom
small again.
And so I want
to ask you,
what's your relationship
with the Lord Jesus Christ?
Is Christ big
in our hearts?
Or do we just pay
lip service
and go on
with our lives?
Dear friends,
this is what
the Spirit-filled church
looks like.
Spiritual gifts
such as prophecy,
speaking tongues,
a word of knowledge,
a spiritual revelation.
Yes, we need them.
Wonderful.
God, may we have
more of them.
Absolutely.
Signs and wonders,
miraculous healings,
I'm all for that.
But oh dear friends,
can't you see
how much more
the Spirit of God
wants to do
in us in the church?
Let's not settle
for a few prophecies
here and then
and say we are
a Spirit-filled church.
No friends,
let's get on our knees.
Let's humble ourselves
before God.
Let's cry out
to the living God
and ask for Him
to pour out His Spirit
upon us
in power
and majesty
and in awe.
Martin Lord Jones again,
let me close with this.
He explains
what the Spirit-empowered
church looks like
and he says this.
I think I've got
a quote up there.
He says,
Do we know anything
about this,
my dear friends?
Do we believe
in God coming
and doing these things
not only that we cannot do
but that we cannot control,
cannot explain?
I ask you,
do you long to know
such things,
to see such things
happening again
in our day?
Are you praying
for such things?
This is what God can do.
This is what God has done.
Let us together decide
to implore Him,
to plead with Him
to do this again.
Not that we may have
the experience
or the excitement
but that His mighty hand
might be known
and His great name
may be glorified
and magnified
among all people.
Friends,
next week is our church retreat
and we're going to be
talking about these things
a little bit more.
Oscar's going to be
speaking on this theme
more as well.
Some of you might know
I'm going on sabbatical
the week after the retreat
and so I won't see you
for a while.
If you're not at the retreat,
I'll see you again
in 2025.
But while I'm on sabbatical,
I am not just going
to be on holiday
and I'm not just going
to be watching Netflix
and sipping pina coladas
by the swimming pool.
What am I going
to be doing on sabbatical?
I'm going to be praying
and studying God's Word
and seeking God
for this.
This is going
to be my prayer
for my own heart
and for you
and for us as a church
and for our great city
that we too
will be freshly
and mightily filled
anew
with the Holy Spirit
in a fresh
and powerful way.
that we will have
such a profound sense
of God's awe
and reverence
and fear
and holiness
and the glory of God
that it will turn
our worlds upside down.
That God,
whose Word really matters,
that we will live for Him.
That God,
the one whose opinion,
the only one whose opinion
really counts,
will so explode
in our hearts
that the other idols
of our life
will fall away
and become trivial
into our life
and we will live
in fear and trepidation
and awe and reverence
before the majesty
and the holiness of God.
I'm going to be praying
that we will be so filled
with the,
anew with the Holy Spirit
that we will repent deeply
of our pride
and our ego
and maybe the things
that we,
and starting with myself,
the things that
we've kept secret
for too long
will be brought
into the light.
That some of us
maybe for the very first time
will be honest
with ourselves
and honest with others.
That we will know
and experience
the freedom
and the joy
and the life
and the peace
of walking
in the light.
Friends,
I'm praying
that God will show me
deep idols in my heart
that they will be exposed
to me
and that I will repent
deeply of these idols.
That the,
the,
the web
and the roots
will be disentangled
from my heart
and that I will live
in freedom.
Friends,
I'm praying
that we as a church
will be so utterly astounded
by the radical,
radical love of God
that it will change
our lives.
That for many of us
that have been wracked
with shame
and guilt
our entire lives
that feel insecure
and are always afraid
of what people
or our parents
think of us
for the first time
will be anchored
and rooted
in the profound love
of God
that they'll be given
a security
to our hearts
and lives
we didn't think
was possible.
Friends,
I'm praying
that God's spirit
will come upon us
in a new
and wonderful way
that the love
of God into us
will flow through us
to others
and that we will be
unstoppable
in sharing the gospel
with others.
Friends,
I'm praying
that God
will pour his spirit
into our hearts
that we will treasure
Jesus Christ
above all things
that Christ
will be more precious
and glorious
and beautiful
and wonderful
and desirous to us
than anything else
in all the world
that we will be able
to walk away
from any other treasure
to hold on to Jesus.
This is who Christ is.
This is what the spirit
does in his church.
This is what God
wants to do in us
and so will you
join me in praying
that we will be truly
a spirit-filled church,
a God-dependent church.
Friends,
last thing before I close,
let me say this.
In John chapter 7,
Jesus stands up
and he says this.
He says,
if anybody thirsts,
let him come to me
and drink.
Whoever believes in me,
as the scripture said,
out of his heart
will flow rivers
of living water.
And John says this,
he said,
about the Holy Spirit
who is not yet given.
Friends,
I want to ask you,
if you're not a follower
of Jesus this morning,
Jesus says that your heart
will always be dry.
It will always
be like a dry riverbed.
You will always be searching
for life and hope
in the things of this world
and they'll never satisfy.
And maybe they'll satisfy
for a week or a month
or a year,
but soon they'll fade away.
Jesus Christ says
that only as you come to him
will he fill your heart
to the life,
the life-giving power
of the living God,
the life that you were made for.
Friends,
where are you looking for life?
What are you hoping
and trusting in?
What are you giving yourself to?
It cannot satisfy.
It cannot save.
Jesus Christ can.
So why don't you come to him
and he says that as you do,
he will pour the Holy Spirit
into your heart
and he will do these things
for you.
Let's come to him now
and pray.
Father God,
wonderful Son,
Holy Spirit,
we need you.
Oh God,
we need you.
God,
we confess that our lives
are a poor reflection
of what we see
in the scriptures,
a poor reflection
of what we see
in the book of Acts.
And God,
so many things
in this world
distract us
and grab our attention
and grip our hearts
and you, God,
have become small.
Lord,
I pray
by a move
of your spirit,
won't you pour
your spirit upon us
in a fresh way?
Won't you come
and fill and flood
our hearts
that we will live
in awe
and majesty
and reverence
before you?
Won't you come
and fill our hearts
that God,
we will live
for you
and you alone.
God,
you know each
and every one of us.
You know
where we're at
this morning.
You know
the struggles
in our hearts.
You know
the anxieties
and the fears.
You know
the things
we're worried about.
The things we trust
and the things
that we find
so hard to let go
because for all our lives
we've held onto it.
Oh God,
won't you help us
this morning.
Spirit of God,
come and help us.
In your great name
I pray.
Amen.