Tabor Baptist Church

Introduction

• Quote from Spurgeon
  • Example of Elizabeth
  • Example of Zechariah 
  • Example of Simeon
• Three believers before the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus
• Example of others filled with the Holy Spirit
• In Acts 1 Jesus is giving the promise of the Holy Spirit
• Far greater than the above had experienced
• Overview:
• The Promise of the Spirit
• The Power of the Spirit
• Principles that apply to us

The Promise of the Spirit

• The disciples were transformed
• They had gone into the temple from the locked room
• They were not fearful
• They were bold
• Jesus gave them of the Holy Spirit and gave them insight
• On the day of Pentecost Peter preached with great insight and boldness
• They were to wait in Jerusalem
• About 40 days after Jesus was resurrected
• About 10 days after Jesus had ascended
• 120 were gathered in the upper room (v13-14)
• Filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost
• A fulfillment of a promise - the Book of Joel
• The Holy Spirit would only come in a permanent way once Jesus had ascended into heaven and been glorified
• The Holy Spirit will teach all things - He would be their teacher
• The Holy Spirit gave the apostles special revelation to write the Scriptures
• The Holy Spirit witnesses to Jesus Christ (v8)
• Luke 24:49
• A power to preach the Word of God with such boldness
• 3000 were saved when Peter preached
• The disciples will be baptised in the Holy Spirit (v5)
• Jesus was ushering in the Kingdom of God
• God was now near
• God's people were no longer an ethnic group but Jew and Gentile
• People saved in faith
• Pentecost is a unique event
• It was something new and something different
• Two mistakes to avoid:
• It cannot be repeated as it happened then
• Visible fire
• All given the gift of languages
• There can be no further outpourings of the Holy Spirit
• Acts 11:15-16
• Acts 3:19, 4:8
• The filling of the Holy Spirit comes on many occasions throughout the Acts of the Apostles (and Church History)
• Example of Moldova

The Power of the Spirit

• The Holy Spirit was to come down in power and they were to receive this power
• To give an ability that they hadn't had before - to preach effectively
• The disciples were concerned for ethnic Israel
• Luke 24:21
• Jesus rebuked them and wanted to them to consider the whole world (v8)
• Two trains of thought:
• Jesus is not denying the restoration of ethnic Israel
• Jesus is saying that there is one Church - Jew and Gentile
• What we can say:
• Jesus' concern is that His disciples would do the work of evangelising the world
• Our task is to evangelise the world - to take out the gospel
• These men had a bad track record - little faith
• Likely 7 were fisherman
• Uneducated
• Failures in many ways
• Yet Jesus had chosen them to be a witness to Him
• They were empowered to witness
• Jesus did not start His ministry without being baptised by John, going into the wilderness and returning in the power of the Spirit
• Jesus was anointed in order to preach the gospel
• Quote from John MacArthur

Principles that apply to us

• As Christians we have the Spirit of God living in us - He is for us, to do the works of God
• Are we living in step with the Holy Spirit or do we grieve Him?
• Do we live and walk in the Spirit?
• Do we ask God to fill us with the Spirit?
• Quote from Spurgeon
• Ask, seek, knock
• Do we have Spirit filled ministers teaching us?
• The Holy Spirit is promised to believers if we ask
• The disciples received the Holy Spirit
• False teaching: we will not evangelise and preach unless we have the Holy Spirit
• Often the Holy Spirit quickens us as we evangelise and preach
• If we want to flourish as a church, we need to know more of the power of God in our lives
• We must pray for each other
• Example within the fellowship
• We must pray to be individually used by God