Untangling the Gift of Tongues • Acts 2:4

So if you're in John chapter 20, then we are going to, we're going to read from that in just a moment. Let me just, let me just pray quick. Can I? Father, open our hearts to your word. Speak to us, Lord God. Fill us with understanding. Give us grace and wisdom, we pray, Father. Jesus, precious name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. After Jesus was crucified on the cross, we know that on the third day he rose again. And after that time, we are told in the book of Acts that he appeared to his disciples over a period of 40 days. That's a long time. And he spoke to them many things during that 40 day period. And many of those things related to the ministry of the Holy Spirit, who we've been talking about now for several weeks. And there are two such recorded appearances that I want to bring up to you this morning. And the first one is here in the 20th chapter of the gospel of John. And this, by the way, this appearance took place on the very day that Jesus came out of the tomb, all right? And here's what it says, if you'll skip down with me to verse 19, we can look at it together. It says, on the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you. The door was locked because they were afraid, flat out, they were scared. It's been three days now since Jesus was crucified, and the whole city seemed to be for it. The Sanhedrin, the religious leaders, successfully turned the crowds against Jesus to the point where they cried out to Pilate, crucify him, crucify him. And the disciples are now essentially in hiding. And they are afraid for their lives. And Jesus, now this is resurrection night, they've been hearing little bits and pieces about him being raised from the tomb. And now it says Jesus appears in the room, although the door is locked, right? He just simply appears there, and he says, peace be with you, which is probably an important thing to say if you just appear in a room when the door is locked. That's probably just a good thing to say. Just remember that if you ever walk through a wall to go talk to somebody, first thing you need to say is, it's okay, it's cool, just, you know, chill, or something similar to that. So he says, peace be with you. Now notice what he goes on to do. It says, after he said this, he showed them his hands and side. And the reason was he still bore, obviously, the scars of the crucifixion, which I believe he still does today. And the disciples were told in the middle of verse 20, were absolutely overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again, Jesus said, peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. And then look at verse 22. This is very important as to our study of the Holy Spirit. It says, and with that, he breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit. Now, this is an absolutely beautiful passage of scripture that we're looking at here today because it is a scene that is reminiscent of something that happened earlier in your Bible when man got breathed on. You'll remember that in the creation passage of Genesis chapter 2, God is creating the heavens and the earth, and he finally comes to the day when he creates man. And the Bible says he created man from the dirt, literally from the dust of the earth. My mother used to say to me when I was a little boy, young man, when she was mad at me, I was in trouble. She'd say, young man, your name is mud. And I'm not sure where she got that expression, but it turns out it's really accurate, you know, because we're basically all made from, you know, the dirt, the dust. And yet, the man, when God created him, was lifeless. And wherever he was lying or whatever, we don't know, but God created the man, it says out of literally the dust of the earth. And then, in Genesis chapter 2, it says he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and what happened to the man? He became a living being according to the scriptures, all right? Now, that's a wonderful picture of us being given life at the very beginning, all right? Well, something happened, though, to upset that whole thing, didn't it? And we know that that is, that something is sin. Sin came into the equation. In fact, in the very next chapter of Genesis, one of the chapters I hate reading, frankly, in my Bible, because it just ruins everything. Sin ruins everything. But sin enters the equation and man dies. But part of that death is a spiritual death and a disconnect from God. And it is so severe that Jesus comes along during his public ministry and he says to Nicodemus in one particular meeting, he said, man's condition is so desperate that he must be born again. He must be born a second time. And, of course, you'll remember Nicodemus completely freaked out about that, didn't know what Jesus was talking about. But Jesus went on to say that a man must be given a rebirth. Well, you know what's beautiful about this passage we just read is we just witnessed it. Because man was breathed upon the first time that he might become a living being, Jesus now comes to his disciples on that evening of Resurrection Sunday and he says to them, peace be with you, as, you know, I'm sending you out now as the father sent me, I am sending you, and he breathes on them. Well, what's happening here? What's happening is that they are receiving the spirit for the very first time for regeneration. Or, in other words, this is the point where man becomes born again. This is the point where man receives the spirit of God to live within his heart, he who has come to Christ, accepted what Jesus did on the cross, and so forth. This is that time when we begin to live again, all right? And so, whenever someone comes to Christ, to this day, and confesses their sin, recognizes what Jesus did on the cross, they once again receive that presence of the Holy Spirit, and we become the temple of the Holy Spirit. We literally, the spirit comes to take up residence inside of us, all right? All right. Now, we've covered some of this. I'm doing a little review. This is a very, very important part of part of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. But you'll remember in Acts 1, which for most of you is probably one or two page turns to the right, Jesus goes on to say that there is yet another work of the Holy Spirit, another purpose of the coming of the Holy Spirit that he wants to open his disciples up to. So, we're going to turn in our Bibles to Acts 1, and again, it's probably one or two page turns for most of you, depending on whether you have a study Bible or not. Study Bibles always add a lot of bulk to the pages and put less text on the page, so you end up having to turn more. But Acts 1 tells us now of another conversation that Jesus is having with his disciples about yet another ministry of the Holy Spirit. Look with me beginning in verse 4. It says, on one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command, do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my father promised, which you have 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? And 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. Now, we've brought out in our past... Stop there, if you would, please, with me. We've brought out in our past studies of the person and work of the Holy Spirit that Jesus himself identified this work that he wanted to do in them as the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and he told them that it was for a specific purpose. I'll put this one verse again up on the screen for you so we can see it together. And he said to them, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses. Now, notice that Jesus did not say, you will receive salvation when the Holy Spirit comes on you. He didn't say that. Why? Because they were already saved. They were already born again. They had already received the Holy Spirit way back on the same night that Jesus, on that day he came out of the grave, came out of the tomb. It says he breathed on them. Remember, we read that in John 20. And they received the Holy Spirit. But now Jesus says, there is yet another work that I want you to be open to and receptive to that the Holy Spirit wants to do. Your lives and here's what's going to happen when this Baptism of the Spirit which Jesus referred to it as takes place. He says here's what's gonna happen guys You're gonna receive power power to be my witnesses. All right All right So this is this is a yet another very important work of The Holy Spirit and as I've told you in some of our past studies in the last few weeks There continues to be a huge amount of confusion About the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and that's one of the reasons I'm kind of belaboring this a little bit with you Some Christians believe that the baptism of the Holy Spirit isn't offered to the church today Some people believe that it is But the gifts of the Spirit which come along with the baptism are the part that aren't available today And so they'll say oh, yeah, we're still baptized in the Spirit We're still baptized in the Spirit, but those gift thingies that come along with it that Paul talked to the Corinthians about that's the part That's not for today. Well, we discussed that a few weeks back and We talked about that but you know, then you have on the other side of the equation You have the polar opposite You have some churches that are operating in the gifts of the Spirit and the activity of the Spirit or at least You know, that's what their desire is to do and they are doing it with Absolutely, no respect for God's Word and the order of the revelation of his word in the scripture and it is it is it is frightening it is embarrassing and Frankly, I don't think it is advancing the kingdom of God. Some of you have been to churches in the past that You've been even invited somewhere and you got there and you sat down and things got started and you were keeping a close eye on the door because it just got wild and You wondered what was going on and what all the noise was about and some of you've never experienced this and you're kind of purist And and I just God bless you, you know, that's wonderful. But there are some of us who have been through Some we've trafficked in some charismatic Pentecostal circles and We've seen some pretty strange things and heard some pretty strange things and you know It's no wonder that a large sector of the body of Christ has Essentially taken this issue of the baptism of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit and just tossed it out because we just can't Deal with it. It's just like you know what? This is too weird and And then somebody came along and suggested possibly it wasn't for today well, that's all the only excuse we needed just to absolutely just kind of drop kick the whole thing right out of the church and And it really is sad and it's mostly sad because the enemy of our souls has done a very effective work and that work has been primarily to take Christians and turn them against one another cause us to to battle over these things and and And revert into our little factions and groups that that believe this particular way or that Particular way and we some hang on a particular word of the book of Acts or 1st Corinthians And we're this church and they create whole denominations over this thing and then this group over here hangs on this little word and and then we're the this this kind of a thing and and so forth and so on and it really is bad and and And the enemy has really just been done a really effective work. I Attended a Bible College a Number of years ago that was owned and operated by a particular denomination which taught insisted as a matter of fact that The what they refer to as the initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit was speaking in tongues speaking with other languages in a supernatural sort of a way and I Sat and went through those classes and listened to all that and Unfortunately, I found something out that was rather disturbing I found out that what happens as a result of that belief That the initial evidence of the baptism of the Spirit is speaking in tongues. It creates a situation where people go around Seeking a gift rather than what the gift is all about What the essence or the goal of the gifts of the Spirit and the baptism of the Spirit is all about Which of course is power, but people end up seeking after tongues Because tongues is the as far as this particular denomination is concerned. It's the one proof That you have truly been baptized with the Holy Spirit So, you know you get done praying with people and they're all just kind of like all they really care about is whether they got it Did you get it? You know, well, we prayed for you. Did you get it? I got it. Did you get it? Yeah, he got it and we're all you were all you know We're all just hoping that we got it and and and once and once we feel like we got it, you know It's like well there it's done. It's over. It's yeah, I got it Now I can kind of just go on with my life and the whole focal point of What the baptism of the Holy Spirit is about seems to kind of get lost in the shuffle Let me just remind you as we put this back on the screen this this verse Excuse me going out back one, but you will receive power You know Jesus didn't say but you will receive the gift of tongues when the Holy Spirit comes upon you Now I will I will tell you in all honesty that in most of the cases in the scripture where People were baptized by the Holy Spirit. There was evidence There was that that particular manifestation of that gift. But once again, we Christians we've had a long time to mess this up We've had a long time to get you know, kind of our focus off what Jesus said and on to particular Manifestations and we become the church of the first manifestation Rather than a focus on what Jesus said, which is you will receive power When the Holy Spirit comes on you, you know years ago. I remember people used to talk about Billy Graham Billy Graham, you know is very very old man now and Struggling physically, but boy, you know when you look at you look back at his ministry in his life What a what a ministry this man has had how many of you by the way? Let me see your show how many of you came to the Lord by watching a Billy Graham crusade? Anybody here? Yeah, I had some in first service I Dare say some of you are probably in Christ today because of someone who got saved at a Billy Graham crusade perhaps Maybe you read one of his books or something like that Did you know that Billy Graham is said to have led more people to Christ? second only to the Apostle Paul Not amazing, I mean the man is an evangelist and he's very cool but one thing Billy Graham even though he Says that he believes in the baptism of the Holy Spirit one thing Billy Graham will openly admit is that he has never spoken in tongues Never been given the gift of tongues Now in the kind of a group that I used to traffic with when I was going to Bible College You know what that meant to them that meant he'd never been baptized in the Spirit Because again the initial evidence of the baptism of the Spirit is speaking in tongues So if Billy Graham comes out and says I've never done that Then the natural conclusion of those individuals is well, he's never received the baptism of the Holy Spirit Which is almost laughable when you remember that Jesus said when you receive the baptism of Spirit you will receive power Now here's a man who is second only to the Apostle Paul in leading people to Jesus Christ Does that sound like power to you, I know it does to me, too And which one of us charismatic arrogance is gonna walk up to Billy Graham say, you know, Billy If you would just speak in tongues you'd have done a better work and We haven't even come that close to him and what he accomplished for the kingdom of God and we want to tell him how he can be more empowered Listen people the bottom line is Jesus said and when the Spirit comes on you you will receive power So it was Billy Graham baptized in the Holy Spirit. Of course he was what a ridiculous question the man had power which is the true evidence of The baptism of the Holy Spirit here. Here's what we've done with it in our evangelical weird Circles is again. We focused on the manifestation sitting around talking to each other. You get it. I got it You get it, you know and some people think if you just say out about a Honda a lot, you know, you know enough times Somebody's gonna say, oh he got it or something like that and it gets very weird. It gets very insensitive. It gets very crazy very fast And nobody is talking About what now we're gonna do with that power of the Holy Spirit to go out and change lives for the kingdom of God Let me just kind of share a couple of things for on a personal level When Sue and I began to walk with the Lord, you know, we the first five years of our marriage I've told you guys many times we didn't we didn't go to church. We didn't darken the door of a church I was in I was in radio. We were living in Great Falls, Montana at the time I was the program director of a little adult contemporary radio station and Sue was working for a Utility company in town like the gas company or something like that Anyway, and we just you know, we we didn't go to church ever And I had absolutely no interest in going to church. I considered it a major waste of time, and Sunday was my only day off. And I felt like I had a good excuse. Well, excuses, you have a way of falling by the wayside when your life falls apart, don't they? And our lives fell apart in the form of our marriage literally falling apart. And suddenly, we had time for God. And we'd both been raised in church but hadn't really given our lives to the Lord in a consistent sort of a way. So we gave our hearts to Jesus Christ. I was 24, 25 years old at the time, and Sue was a little bit younger. And we were invited to a church that we began to attend that I would classify today as charismatic with Pentecostal roots. And some of you know what those terms mean. Some of you might be a little fuzzy on it, but suffice it to say it was a hopping place. And Sue and I had never experienced that. She'd been raised in an evangelical church, but it was rather calm. I was raised in a liberal church that was flat-out boring. And so we start, you know, we get saved and we start going to church. And I had never, ever seen somebody lift their hands in church before. So my first several times I went to church, I couldn't close my eyes, you know, to worship because I was looking at the people. Because they were doing all these things I'd never seen ever before. And it was really, truly a pretty wild experience. I remember one Sunday, they talked about this thing called the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which I'd never heard of before. I knew the Holy Spirit was living in me because I'd accepted Jesus as my Savior. But they began to talk about this baptism of the Holy Spirit. And after the service, they invited several or whoever wanted to be prayed for to come back to a little prayer room behind the platform in the church, and they were going to pray for us. And so I was a little reticent about the whole thing. I wasn't really sure what to expect. I was pretty new to this church, but I went back. I think you did it later on, didn't you? Or did you come that same time? We don't remember. It was about 30 years ago. Anyway, I'm surprised I remember any of it. We went back into this little room, and I remember sitting down on the floor. And everyone who came back to that little room had kind of a personal prayer coach. And they had people who sat with us, and they began to talk to us. Of course, they first wanted to make sure we were saved and so forth. And they began to talk to us about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And they said, well, we're going to pray, and we're going to do this and lay hands on you. And I remember that in this prayer meeting, really, the whole focus was getting it, was getting the gift of tongues. And so, you know, and I remember it was loud. Everybody's praying. Some people were praying loud. Some people were praying soft. You know, we're kind of crammed in this room, and all this stuff is going on, and so forth. You guys have probably noticed, those of you that have been around Calvary Chapel, we've been here for over 20 years now. I've never done one of those little services. I've never talked about the baptism of the Spirit and then invited people into a little room and given them a personal prayer coach and sat them down and said, all right, we're all going to get the gift of tongues here. I've never done that because I'm not positive. I don't think it's the best way. But right or wrong, good, bad, or indifferent, 30 years ago, I was baptized with the Holy Spirit in that little room, in the back room of that little charismatic slash Pentecostal church, and I received the gift of tongues. And again, that was almost 30 years ago. And I have continued to use that gift in my personal prayer time. Between me and the Lord, it's a very intimate, very private thing. And it has been a tremendous blessing to me. As the Bible says, he who speaks in another tongue edifies himself. And there's a great building up that takes place, a great edification process that is released in the Spirit when an individual prays, you know, with that supernatural gift. But I am still today convinced that tongues is not the focus, that tongues is not the goal, that power is the goal. Some people who are baptized in the Holy Spirit may receive that particular gift, others may not. The issue is not that gift. The issue is power. The issue always will be power. And so, one of the things that I'd like to ask you today just to think about is, do you have that power of the Holy Spirit working in your life? And when I mean power, I'm talking about a supernatural work of God's Spirit to enable you to do things that otherwise you can't do in the natural self. That's what the gifts of the Holy Spirit are all about. The Spirit does not come upon us to empower us to do things or to enhance things that we already have the ability to do. The Spirit comes upon us to do things that flat out we could never do in a million years without him. And I want to make a couple of points about the baptism of the Holy Spirit here today. In fact, I'll put both of those points up on the screen and then we'll talk about each one of them. The first point that I want to make is that the Holy Spirit empowers us, again, to do things that don't come naturally. We will discuss this. But that is such an important thing. In other words, if you have some natural abilities, the Holy Spirit doesn't come along in the baptism of the Spirit to just enhance those things. He wants to do a supernatural work in your life. That's why, by the way, the gifts of the Holy Spirit do differ from leadership gifts. In other words, the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit do, in fact, differ from leadership gifts, all right? And we'll talk more about that later, not today. The other thing that I want to actually make a point about is the fact that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is not a once-for-all experience, all right? So let's talk about these things, if I could, please, for just a moment. We're going to leave those things up on the screen so you can kind of be thinking about them. But I want you to follow me over to Acts 2. I think you're still...you should be in Acts 1. So if you go to Acts 2, we're going to read about something here, because this is the day of Pentecost. Now, by the way, the word we use, Pentecostal, to describe churches that kind of walk in the moving of the Spirit, is really a word that's been borrowed from the Old Testament, Feast of Pentecost. It was a feast that Israel would celebrate once a year. It just so happened that God's Spirit came upon the believers during this Jewish feast. And so now, we've taken the term in our Christianese to refer to churches that open themselves up to the gifts of the Spirit. We call them Pentecostal, but it simply points back to what happened on the day or during the Feast of Pentecost when the Spirit fell upon the church. Now, you'll remember what happened. It says that the believers were together, they were praying, they're hanging out, they're worshiping the Lord. And suddenly, the Holy Spirit fell upon them in power, and there was this sound of this roaring, rushing wind that drew people's attention. They also rushed over to see these people, and they saw these little flames above their heads, which is pretty cool, you have to say. And then they also heard them speaking in languages they'd never learned. They were amazed. In fact, the Bible says they were amazed and perplexed. And they said, what's going on here? And some people just kind of mocked and said, ah, these guys, they've just been tipping the bottle here already this morning. And so Peter stands up, remember? Peter gets up and he says, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute here. Wait a minute. No, these guys aren't drunk. It's only 9 o'clock in the morning. You know, it's too early, you know, to be inebriated. Let me tell you what's really going on here. And he begins to explain that this is a fulfillment of biblical prophecy in the book of Joel that is now happening in the present age. Now, if you'll skip down to verse 22, I want to give you a little bit of excerpt from Peter's very strong message that day, chapter 2, verse 22. He says, men of Israel, listen to this. Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge, and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. That's pretty straightforward, isn't it? He says, you killed him. Keep reading. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. Now, skip down to verse 40. Verse 40, with many other words, he, this is still talking about Peter, warned them, and he pleaded with them, save yourselves from this corrupt generation. And those who accepted his message were baptized, meaning baptized in water, and about 3,000 were added to their number that day. That's a pretty powerful message, right? And a pretty powerful... Result all right now Peter is the one who's speaking here Okay, Peter is the one who is not only speaking He is confronting Did you hear the forcefulness of what he said Peter stands up there, and he says listen listen listen to me this Jesus is The one you crucified you handed him over to a wicked man You wanted him strung up on a cross You are the ones that got got you know hoodwinked by the religious leaders into saying crucify him crucify him and they did And I want you to know something this same Jesus rose again on the third day And he has appeared to all of us And it is by his power that all these things are going on and the Bible says that these these men hear this message And they're cut to the heart, and they're like What do we do what do we do? Peter says well confess your sin and come to him and and Receive the Lord and be baptized and all the other things that go along with that and so forth and and and so this is a Strong message and and the people are responding to it but guys Think again now who's talking here? Peter right this is Peter the Apostle Peter Now remember I told you we're at Pentecost the feast of Pentecost. That's my right hand Now Jesus was crucified during Passover, so Passover is my left hand So he's crucified here three days later. He rises from the grave and Here on the feast of Pentecost the Spirit of God is poured out upon the church. Do you know what the time differential is? 50 days 5 0 50 days we know that for 40 of those Jesus was appearing to his disciples so We got 50 days Between here and here now. We know what Peter is doing on this day. He's standing up He's confronting them with the Word of God and and and in great power. He's preaching an incredible message that Three Thousand people respond to guess what he was doing on that day He was cowering over a fire in a courtyard Calling down curses on himself and saying I never met the man leave me alone To a slave girl And now he is standing in front of literally thousands of people and he's confronting them and he is saying you crucified the Lord of Life and I submit to you that what we are seeing in the man Peter an Uneducated fisherman Between here and here is the baptism of the Holy Spirit the empowering work of God's Spirit We're a man who literally? three times Denied that he even knew Jesus is 50 days later standing up in front of thousands and saying he's the Lord of Life And you need him you need his forgiveness. You need the life that he offers That people is the power of the Holy Spirit It's the very thing Jesus said was gonna happen. Do you remember what he told his disciples before his crucifixion? It's actually recorded for us in the book of Mark up on the screen here for you We can look at it together Mark chapter 13 verse 11. He says whenever you're arrested and brought to trial He says do not worry beforehand about what to say He says just say whatever is given you at the time for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit let me tell you some people You don't have to be arrested or brought to trial to experience this in your life to experience the power of the Holy Spirit to be given the words of what to say and how to say it and Can may I submit to you very humbly? That I experience it every time I get up to teach Every time I get up to share God's Word, you know, I've never been surfing in my entire life I've never been on a surfboard, but I know what it's like because every time I get up here and I am so I am such a idiot sometimes and I My inabilities far outnumber anything else in the positive category and yet God is so Gracious to do his work that when we just step in and say Lord just use me today I want to be used of you God God begins to do a work and I ride that that that surfboard of God's grace every Sunday and every Wednesday, and I love it. But you know what? I'm I'm not so much of an idiot that I don't realize it's all him It's his work his grace his power God wants to empower his people To do things that they are not able to do in and of themselves That's what the baptism of the Holy Spirit is all about as we go back to those two points We put up on the screen here. That is the first point the Spirit empowers us to do things that don't come naturally See, so so here's the question. Once again, when's the last time you prayed with somebody and led them to the Lord? When's the last time you shared Christ with someone on a On a bus or in in school or at work or even at home or something like that? You might think why I could I could never do that. I just don't I don't I don't have the right words You know people come to me all the time pastor Would you come pray with so-and-so because you just you've got the right words No, the Holy Spirit has the right words start to trust him. You don't need me You need him you need the Spirit of God in your life to empower you. He'll give you the words. He'll give you what to say You're not to trust in a man. You're to trust in God He will tell you what to say He promised to do it and that is part of what the baptism of the Holy Spirit accomplishes in our life Now as we put up those two points again of the thing the points that I wanted to make About the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The second one is baptism by the Spirit is not a once-for-all Experience. Let me just show you that very quickly here Acts chapter 2. Are you there? Are you in Acts chapter 2? Look with me again in verse 4 In your Bible it says all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit Enabled them now it says all of them are filled with the Holy Spirit Which by the way is a term that is used along with the baptism of the Holy Spirit don't ask me why it just is so filled with the Holy Spirit means Baptized. All right. Now it says all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to have this manifestation Now, let me ask you a question was Peter one of those who was filled with the Holy Spirit that day This is talking about at Pentecost was Peter there Yeah, of course he was he's the one who stood up and answered the mocking right of the other people who came and were asking Questions so Peter was there. So can we all agree that Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit along with everybody there? Okay. All right. Good now turn ahead to Acts chapter 4 Now what we got in Acts chapter 4 is we have Peter and John who In chapter 3 don't we don't have to read it but they're going up to the temple time of prayer and There's this crippled man there who's begging and he's got his hand out saying, you know, hey, can you guys give me some money Peter? John look at they stop they look at the man and they go look at us The man looks at him expecting to get some money and Peter and John make that Marvelous statement silver and gold have I none, you know But what I have I give to you rise and walk in the name of Jesus the man jumps up on his feet starts dancing around of course that draws a crowd this guy's been crippled there by the temple for a long long time and It not only it gets so much crowd attention Peter and John are arrested Hauled before the Sanhedrin, right? so in chapter 4 we have this conversation of Peter and John before the Sanhedrin and if you'll look with me skip down to verse 7 of chapter 4 and it says They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them saying by what power or what name? Did you do this meaning this miracle of healing this crippled man look what it says in verse 8 then Peter Filled with the Holy Spirit said to them rulers and elders of the people and then he goes on with his conversation stop there Look what it says then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit said Now listen, listen people. This doesn't mean then Peter who was filled with the Holy Spirit back at Pentecost The the the tense of the Greek sentence here speaks of a current Action not a past action Greek is such a marvelous language We can look at the tense of the verbs and we can see whether it's past tense Present tense or future tense. This is present tense current action Then Peter filled again with the Holy Spirit spoke. All right, he's not done now Skip down to verse 31. So Peter and John are released from the Sanhedrin after they received some threats. Don't ever do this again They tell them they go back. They meet up with the other believers. They get together and they start to pray Oh God In light of all that's happened. Give us boldness. Look at verse 31 After they prayed the place where they were meeting was shaken and look at this and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the Word of God boldly Peter's there again John's there too. He was there the first time at Pentecost Guess what the Spirit of God fell again and again in the Greek. It is a current present action not past tense Not future right now and then now filled with the Holy Spirit. So what's going on? Guys, here's the deal Don't don't be confused by this when you come to Jesus and make him your Lord and Savior you receive the Holy Spirit to indwell and to to Transform you are given new birth and that's a once-for-all Event. Okay, once you're a child of God You're a child of God and you never have to go be a child of God again Because you're already a child of God you're saved. You're born again. You're redeemed. You're regenerated praise God, right? But the baptism of the Holy Spirit is for what? Power How often do you need power like every day? To witness for Christ to be able to say the right things. Don't you see I We need the Spirit all the time. So what do we see in the Word of God? We see that the Spirit comes to baptize her to empower repeatedly Yesterday's work of the Holy Spirit to empower us in that situation maybe in that witnessing sort of a situation or whatever God called you to isn't enough for tomorrow or The next day after that you need a fresh infilling of God's Holy Spirit doesn't mean you're being born again again You're just once One time you're born again filled with the Spirit empowered by the Spirit many times I could go on and give you way more examples of this where people are Repeatedly Paul is another great example Look at it If you if you even do a search for that that phrase filled with the Holy Spirit You'll find that Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit on multiple occasions because he had multiple Opportunities where he needed the empowering work of the Spirit because remember the baptism isn't for salvation for empowering right So God comes to empower and so as we put those statements about the baptism of the Spirit up We see that the the second one is also true baptism by the Spirit is not a once-for-all Experience we need his baptism. We need is empowering every day Every day we ought to wake up in the morning and saying Lord God. I want you today. I need you today I'm sure that I'm gonna come across people in my day that need to hear about Christ And I don't want to talk out of the flesh. I don't want to you know respond out of just me I want us to respond in the power of the Holy Spirit. I want your words What if somebody comes to me for prayer? And they need to be healed or or something and that's not to say that God heals every single time we pray But the point is we need to be baptized in the Spirit We need to be empowered by God's Spirit So we are being enabled to do what God has called us to do in that situation, but we're tools, right? No here guys. We're power tools With all the guys here and even some of the women can relate to this we are power tools We are tools in the hand of the Lord that need his power But listen, you don't exalt the tool. Do you? When you when you go out to your garden and you have this wonderful bumper crop of tomatoes or or or whatever you grow Beans and peas or whatever. Do you sit and just tell your kids and your family how great your hoe or your rake is? I'm just gonna put it on the wall. I Mean that was a good rake. So we're gonna just nail it up. Boom, dude. Look at that rake Nobody would do that. Nobody in their right mind anyway You don't exalt the tool The results are what you look at and your glory in the Lord and just by the same way guys We are tools in the hands of God. You don't look at the tool We're just here to be used We're just here to say God I want you to use my life I want to I want to function in the kingdom of God in a way that's useful to you and to do that I need the power of your Holy Spirit Working in me working through me whatever I'm asked for and you know We went through the gifts of the Holy Spirit a couple of weeks ago, or was it last week? I don't remember. Anyway, the point is you might manifest all of those gifts over the course of your life You might only have one or two of them that manifest. It's up to God The Bible says God gives these gifts as he determines, but don't go around thinking that if you had one particular gift Well, that's gonna be it for you Well, and then we start we start becoming identified by our gift, you know Well, I've got the gift of you know healing and I walk around with my golden hand Look out here. It comes, you know sort of a thing and and that's nonsense Nonsense God may use you to do a work of healing in somebody's life and it might be there and then it's gone and you may Never call upon you to do that again. That's it's his business. Not yours Stop trying to to identify yourself with these gifts. I've got it. He's got it. You don't have it. They have it Whatever forget it. This is for it's all about the glory of God. It's all about magnifying him It's all about building up the kingdom of God and it's about being a world changer Instead of sitting around on our hands and getting fed but never doing Christians we've got to start getting out there and doing we got to get off our chairs And we got to go out in the world and start affecting people for Jesus Christ Talking to people about the Lord But you have an expectation that when you do when God opens that door wide and you see that this is an opportunity to share You have an expectation that God is going to meet you at that point and it's going to be the point of your greatest need It's going to be the point of your greatest inability and you're gonna go I can't do that and God's gonna say I know but I can and I am willing to come and move in you in a supernatural way to touch this person's life that they will be radically changed for ever That's what our lives are supposed to be doing you guys Full of power Full of power the Apostle Paul said that the gospel of Jesus Christ live it for him serving him. It's not a matter of talk It's a matter of power in the Holy Spirit not disorderly Not weird not scary The power nonetheless Let's stand together You You