Dr. Ronald Powell

A.D. the story Continues 

A.D.: Episode 3

The Work of the Holy Spirit

SCRIPTURE REFERENCE

Acts 2:1-4

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

INTRODUCTION

This week in the A.D. series you will watch the arrival of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit has always been working.

From the beginning, Scripture says, "The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters" (Genesis 1:2). In the Old Testament, we frequently read about the actions of the Holy Spirit. He would come upon people, such as judges, kings, and prophets.

In the New Testament, the Spirit of God conceived Jesus in the womb of Mary (Luke 1:35), descended upon Him bodily as a dove at His baptism (Luke 3:22), anointed His preaching ministry (Luke 4:16), and gave Him supernatural power to perform signs and wonders (Matthew 12:28).

And then after His resurrection, Jesus promised His disciples, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8).

Jesus kept His promise on the Day of Pentecost, when God poured out the Holy Spirit upon the believers gathered in Jerusalem (Acts 2:1-4). The impact of the arrival of the Holy Spirit was so powerful that, as you saw in this week's episode, it galvanized Peter and gave him and the other disciples the courage to preach openly (Acts 2:14)-resulting in a great revival (Acts 2:47) and a great missions movement that took the Gospel from Jerusalem to Rome (Acts 28:14) and, over the centuries, from Rome to us.

The Holy Spirit has always been working. But His work is not aimless. In fact, He has a job description. In reading Scripture, you can count on finding clear descriptions of the Spirit's various tasks. Scripture does not leave the works of the Spirit to our imagination. The Spirit of God has specific work to be done, and Scripture clearly teaches us about that work.

MESSAGE

Ten Works of the Spirit

1. The Holy Spirit exalts Jesus.

This is the Spirit's first and primary work, the number-one item on His job description. It is the work about which He is always most concerned. Everything else the Spirit does connects with this primary task.

On the Day of Pentecost, when the apostle Peter explained the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, he preached about "Jesus of Nazareth" (Acts 2:22-41). Jesus Himself said in John 15:26: "When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father-the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father-he will testify about me." And in John 16:14, Jesus said, "[The Holy Spirit] will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you."

It is always the Spirit's mission to exalt Jesus. The Spirit has not come so we might go away from a service talking about the Holy Spirit or the gifts of the Spirit. The Spirit has come that we might be deeply impressed with the person and work of Jesus Christ and go away excited about His work. The gifts are necessary to thrust us into the mission and work of Jesus. The purpose of the Spirit is to exalt Jesus and let Him be lifted up.

2. The Holy Spirit convicts us.

In John 16:8-11, Jesus identified inner conviction as the work of the Spirit: "When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned."

The Holy Spirit is like the prosecuting attorney of God, but He attempts to help us before we face Judgment Day. It is the Spirit's mission to convict us in three areas:

First, He gives us an awakened sense of sin, particularly the sin of unbelief in Jesus. The Spirit wants to reverse that unbelief so we will trust and believe in Christ.

Second, the Spirit wants to affirm to us the righteousness of Jesus. The Pharisees said Jesus was of the devil, but the Spirit says He is of the Father. The Holy Spirit desires to reverse the world's verdict of Jesus. The world has judged Him as either an imposter or simply one among many prophets. The Spirit's mission is to affirm the righteousness of Jesus, and He calls on us to look to Him alone for salvation.

Lastly, the Spirit brings an acknowledgment that judgment has already been passed against the evil one. Satan is a defeated foe.

3. The Holy Spirit regenerates us.

Jesus said, "Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit" (John 3:5). Spiritual regeneration comes through the Spirit's presence. Jesus acted upon this truth when, on the evening of His resurrection, He breathed upon the disciples and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit" (John 20:22).

Until that point, the faith of Jesus disciples had been identical to every Old Testament saint: They looked forward to the Messiah who would one day come.

But now, Jesus work was finished on the cross, and He stood before the disciples with proof that His work on the cross had merit. They received the opportunity that no one before them had ever been given-to believe in Him who is Life, no longer with anticipatory faith but with evidence of Christ's finished work. Jesus breathed on them and gave life in a new sense. God had formed "man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being" (Genesis 2:7). Now Jesus breathed a new order of life into His disciples-eternal life.

4. The Holy Spirit lives in us.

"Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in your midst?" (1 Corinthians 3:16). Paul's words to the church of Corinth were addressed to people who had become insensitive to the Spirit's presence. Paul reminded the church that although they were filled with many things that were not of the Spirit, God's Spirit lived in them. The key to change involves acknowledging we are the Spirit's people.

The Spirit's presence helps us to resist the power of the evil one. In many ways, our life is somewhat like a submarine. The deeper it dives, the greater the pressure against it. Greater, therefore, must be the corresponding pressure within it to resist the evil one. We don't successfully deal with sin until we come to God and say, "Lord, fill me full of the Holy Spirit and give me the abiding presence of Jesus."

5. The Holy Spirit seals believers.

The apostle Paul wrote, "When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession"(Ephesians 1:13-14). He also wrote, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption"(Ephesians 4:30).

When you become a believer, God takes His invisible stamp of ownership-the Holy Spirit-and brands your life. His presence in your life is a mark that you belong to God.

Paul also said the Holy Spirit is a down payment that guarantees you're completely Christ's. We say a house is sold when a contract is entered into. The house is put in escrow. Then, placed on the "for sale" sign is a "sold" notice. But the house is not really sold until it has cleared escrow. Hopefully, the person who put the payment down has enough assets to complete the transaction.

To use that analogy, Paul said there is coming a day when you will be completely God's-in eternity. You are now in escrow, and the Holy Spirit has sealed you and marked "saved" across your life. Of course, you can opt out through a willful decision to walk away from Christ and thereby fall away from His grace. One day, you're going to be totally out of this world and completely His. Fortunately, we don't have to worry about the good credit of the One who's buying us. His assets are sufficient. When the "sold" sign goes up over our life, it's a deposit that guarantees our redemption.

6. The Holy Spirit guides us.

Living in the Spirit is a personal relationship. When you maintain a life of prayer and communion with the Lord, you can lean on the impressions you get while praying.

There are so many instances of the Spirit's guidance in Scripture. Acts 8:29 says, "The Spirit told Philip, 'Go to that chariot and stay near it.'" Also, in Acts 13:2: "The Holy Spirit said, 'Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.'"

We're really helpless in getting accurate guidance and direction unless the Spirit works within us. The Spirit is especially present, especially active, in the critical junctures of our life-times when we're making vital decisions that will affect us for many days to come. Again and again, Scripture suggests to us that when we open ourselves to God, the Spirit works in us with power and we can rest in His creative work. The Spirit knows what He is doing in assigning us our mission within His body and within His world. The Spirit doesn't make mistakes in guiding our lives. We can rest in His direction.

I always encourage young people, especially in moments of important decision-whether or not you will marry, whom you will marry, what your vocation will be, where you will go in life-to spend extended time praying to know the mind of the Spirit for their lives. I can assure you, the Spirit has a purpose for you. You can choose to grab hold of that purpose and go with it, or grieve the Spirit by not spending time seeking His direction.

7. The Holy Spirit prompts us to worship.

The Spirit prompts believers to worship and adore the ever-living God. That's what happened in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost. God's Spirit inspired songs of praise on the lips of Jesus disciples, even in languages they didn't know (Acts 2:4, 11). Jesus said in John 4:24, "God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth." In Luke 10:21, Jesus Himself worshiped through the Spirit: "At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit." Ephesians 5:18-19 admonishes us to "be filled with the Spirit" and to worship by "speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit." Paul went on to say in Ephesians 6:18, "Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests."

As we take the time to worship, our spiritual well is always being filled. For out of the life of the worshiper, "rivers of living water will flow from within them" (John 7:38). But when we stop being responsive to the Spirit in worship, we find that almost immediately we run dry.

There's a time to be quiet in the presence of the Lord, a time to hear the word of the Lord: "Be still, and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10). But there is also a time to praise the Lord with an upraised voice. There is a time to shout from the depths of our being, "Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns"(Revelation 19:6).

The Spirit incites us to that kind of worship.

8. The Holy Spirit empowers us for witness.

Jesus said, "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised. . . . 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" (Acts 1:4, 8).

Paul said to the Thessalonians, "Our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction" (1 Thessalonians 1:5). Words are not enough. The Spirit ministers the things of Jesus to us. The Lord promised that as we go forth with the Holy Spirit, the Spirit will be active in our witness and empower us for service.

There is a balance between the worship of the Lord and the work of the Lord. It is never the purpose of the Lord to simply have the Spirit stir us to worship and then leave us there. The Spirit's task is to instill strength in us in the moment of worship, so that we can go out empowered to do the work of the Lord.

9. The Holy Spirit enables us to understand and apply what is taught in the Word of God.

The Spirit not only inspired the Scripture, but He also caused it to be inspiring. "All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16). Whatever the Spirit does will line up with Scripture because the Spirit inspired Scripture to begin with. The two will always agree.

The Spirit causes us to understand God's Word. We see this illustrated in the story of Saint Augustine's conversion, a man who changed the shape of the Church. No one can doubt that Augustine had a genuine experience with Jesus Christ. He had dabbled in occult religions and had lived very immorally. His godly mother, Veronica, had prayed for him all his life. Then one day, as a man in his mid-thirties and burdened down with sin, he heard the voice of a child saying to him, "Take and read!" He rushed to a nook in his garden where he found a Bible lying open to Romans 13:12-14: "The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh." Augustine read it and lived it, because the Spirit took the Word of God and made it alive.

If you're a Christian, you're a Christian because God drove His Word deep into your life. If you're growing as a Christian, it's because the Holy Spirit is faithfully applying the Word. That's His work.

10. The Holy Spirit will give life to our mortal bodies.

This is a work of the Holy Spirit that's yet to come. But the promise of that work is connected incredibly with the resurrection of Christ Himself: "And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you" (Romans 8:11). Think of it! Paul identified that event as positive proof of the validation of the Gospel, and that life-giving work of the Spirit is promised to each of us.

APPLICATION / CLOSING

Give the Holy Spirit Room!

In his article "Five Faces of Pentecost," Dean Merrill, an award-winning author, shares about his visit to an immigrant church in Amsterdam, Holland. It was a dynamic service, and even though he couldn't understand the language spoken, the Spirit's presence was very strong. He kept looking at a banner across the front of the sanctuary where the choir sat. It read, "Geef de Heilige Geest ruimte." He finally turned to a young man next to him and said, "Do you read Dutch?"

"Some," he replied.

"What does the sign say?" Dean asked, pointing to the stage.

He gave the translation: "Give the Holy Spirit room."

And I thought, That's right. That's what we need to do in our personal lives. That's what we need to do in our families. That's what we need to do in the body of Christ, in our church services, in our prayer meetings. It can't just be scripted. It can't just be a schedule. It can't just be, "Well, we're doing this out of routine and habit." There has to be an openness, a sense that we're making room for the Spirit.

The Spirit who hovered over the chaos and breathed into it the creation, the Spirit through whom Jesus was conceived in the womb of Mary, the Spirit through whom we are born again; this creative, dynamic Spirit wants to be birthed into time and space in our lives today. The Spirit who was poured out on the disciples on the Day of Pentecost wants to be poured out on your life today.

For that to happen, we must give the Holy Spirit room.

 NEXT SERVICE: 

1:00 Pm - This Sunday @ Crosswinds International

109 Westfaul Dr

Macon, Ga. 31216

478-254-3143