realCHURCH - An Empowered People

Read Acts 1:1-8

"One cannot read this book without being profoundly stirred and, to be honest, disturbed. Stirred because we see Christianity, the real thing, in action for the first time in human history…Here we see the church in its first youth, valiant and unspoiled…a body of ordinary men and women joined in an unconquerable fellowship never before seen on this earth. Yet disturbed for surely this is the church as it was meant to be. It is vigorous and flexible, for these are the days before it ever became fat and short of breath thru prosperity, or muscle-bound by organisation. These men did not make "acts of faith", they believed; they did not "say their prayers", they really prayed. They did not hold conferences on psychosomatic medicine, they simply healed the sick. BY modern standards they may have been naïve, but perhaps because of their very simplicity, perhaps because of their readiness simply to believe, to obey, to give, to suffer, and if necessary, to die, the Spirit of God found that he could work in them and thru them, and so they turned the world upside down." JB Philips

Jesus clearly underlies the Nb of the power of the presence of the Holy Spirit for the newly birthed church. A New Testament church is to be a Holy Spirit empowered and alive church, where we understand and live in the fullness of His authority, power and action. We see this when:

q Jesus sends out the 12 (ie the first disciples) it says in Luke 9 that "he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick" - and then he says not to take anything else with them!! Teaching them reliance on God's spirit.

q Later He sends out the 72 in Luke 10 and they reported back that even the demons submittted to them in His name

q In John 14:15- "...And I will ask the father, and he will give you another counsellor to be with you forever - the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him or knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you..." and later in vs 26 "...All this I have spoken while with you. But the counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you..."

q Paul reminds the church in Corinth that his preaching was not simply with wise and persuasive words but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power (1Cor 2:4)

q Since we live by the Spirit let us keep in step with the Spirit (Gal 5:25)

When one does a sweep of the whole of Acts we can see this clearly:

q Holy Spirit was the source of all guidance = iin Acts 8 we see him leading Philip to the eunuch, in Acts 10 he prepares Peter for the coming of Cornelius' men; in Acts 11 Holy Spirit tells Peter to go with them; in Acts 11 He shows Agabus about the coming famine; in Acts 13 he directs the apostles to set apart Paul and Barnabus for the task of taking the gospel to the gentiles; in Acts 15 He guides the decision of the council in Jerusalem; in Acts 16 he leads Paul, being kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching in Asia and led to Macedonia instead; in Acts 20 He tells Paul what awaits him in Jerusalem. The early church was a spirit-guided community

q All the leaders were spirit-filled men = in Acts 6 the first deacons had to be spirit-filled; in Acts 6&7 speaks of Stephen being full of the Spirit; in Acts 11 says same of Barnabus; in Acts 20 Paul tells Ephesian elders that the Holy Spirit has made them overseers.

q The Holy Spirit was the source of courage and power = Acts 1:8 says the disciples would receive power when the Spirit comes on them; as a result of Pentecost there came a hunger for word, fellowship, worship, prayer, signs and wonders, generosity, evangelism (Acts 2:42-47). Acts 3 the healing of cripple at gate Beautiful. Peter's courage and eloquence before Sanhedrin in Acts 4:8 is due to Holy Spirit (they were "ordinary unschooled men"); believers prayed for boldness to proclaim the word and Holy Spirit fills them and they do exactly that (4:31); Paul overcomes opposition of Elymas the sorcerer by power of the Holy Spirit (13:9); the Holy Spirit brings joy in the midst of persecution (13:52)

The pattern for any New testament believer and church is to be Holy Spirit empowered & alive! This is the wine that our wineskin needs to contain! John Stott said "We do not need to wait for the Holy Spirit to come; he came on the day of Pentecost. He has never left the church." Yet it is often very easy to grow cold/familiar with the Spirit of God and have at best a distant relationship with Him.

What good is it to have a wonderful wineskin if it is not containing the new wine? We can have the best facilities, the best programmes, the best muscians, the best children's ministry teachers, the best communicators, the best administrators, the best mission statement, we can read the bible more than others, we can fast and pray continually - but these are little good without the breath of God's spirit blowing thru and reigning within. Paul tells us in 2 Cor 3:6 that we are "ministers of a new Covenant - not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life"! God's Holy Spirit is key to New Testament church life!

The scriptures tell us that the Holy Spirit does the following:

q makes Jesus increasingly real to us ie he points to Jesus (Jn 15:26)

q confirms that we belong to Christ and are God's children - Rom 8:9, 16

q he gives us power and boldness to witness – "There is no better evangelist in the world than the Holy Spirit" Dwight Moody - Acts 1:8

q he equips us with spiritual gifts to get the job done - 1Cor 12:8-11. Scripture tells us that the gifts have a 4-fold purpose:

1. To glorify the Father and the Son - Jn 14:13 & 15:26

2. To build up the body - 1 Cor 12:7-27

3. To equip the church for carrying on her work in the world more effectively - Eph 4:12

4. To prove that God is there! 1Cor 12:1

q he makes our praying more effective - Rom 8:26

q he opens up God's word to us - Jn 16:13

q he guides us into all truth -

q he takes us into new depths of worship (Worship me acceptably in Spirit and in truth - John 4:24)

q fills us with Gods love - Rom 5:5

q fills us with joy - Acts 13:52

q he directs us (eg Spirit stopped them at times and told then to go at others)

q helps us in our weakness (rom 8:26)

q reveals the will of God to us - 1 Cor 2:9-10.

q gives us weapons for spiritual warfare - Eph 6:17-18

So how do we live in the power and life of the Spirit?

1. It starts with an understanding that the Spirit is a person and desires a relationship with us! He is one of the God head and Jesus refers to him as another exactly the same (allos). He can be grieved, he speaks, he teaches, he pleads with God - all things a person does. If not in relationship with Him then you are with another spirit. (1Jn 4:2)!

2. On salvation we receive God's spirit.

Gal 3:27 tells us that on conversion the Spirit baptises us into Jesus. Rom 8:9 also says that if we do not have the Holy Spirit we are not Christians! John (Jn 16:8) tells us it is the Holy Spirit that convicts the world of sin. It was Him who brought us to the point of salvation.

3.. We then need to be baptised in His spirit.

Now Jesus baptises us into the Spirit (John 1:33). It was a clearly distinguishable event from salvation. The disciples were saved the NT way in Jn 20:22 after Calvary, and Jesus breathed on them and they received the Holy Spirit, but they are then baptised in the Holy Spirit 40 days later at Pentecost. Prior to that they were saved under the Old Covenant - Jesus had not died yet and become the sacrificial lamb.

Paul was saved on the Road to Damascus and was only baptised in water and the Spirit 3 days later (Acts 9).

The only example of it happening simultaneously with salvation is where Cornelius and his household believe and are baptised in the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:44).

4. We then need to maintain the fullness of the Spirit.

Baptism does not lock us into a place of eternal spirituality and effectiveness from which we can never lapse. Because we have been endued with power, we have become an even greater threat to the enemy, and he will redouble his efforts to bring us down eg Jesus tempted in the desert after his baptism by the Holy Spirit (Mat3:16-4:3).

Paul writes to the church and urges them to be filled with the Spirit (= keep on being filled) - Eph 5:18. He also writes to the Galation church and challenges them for lapsing into legalism and trying to complete in human effort what the Spirit started (Gal 3:1-3). We need to actively maintain and grow our relationship with the Spirit. This happens "positively" when we give out thru ministry (Luke 8:46), "negatively" when we sin or grieve the HS by denying Him control, or "neutrally" simply by allowing life to overrun us and not spending time getting refreshed in His presence. Give HS access and time daily, throughout the day.