Shaping Theme in Acts:
Holy Spirit
Shaping Theme in Acts: There is a central mystery of God’s nature that we have labeled with the theological term Trinity. The Bible teaches that God is one, yet three – he is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. This is something that is beyond our ability to fully grasp. Theologians have written tons and tons of books trying to explain and trying to understand the Trinity, but it is something beyond what we are going to be fully able to get. And we should expect this because God is glorious beyond all imagination. We know about him what he has revealed to us, but (of course) there are glories to him that we will be discovering for all eternity after Christ returns. One day, we’ll understand more of the glories of God and we’ll understand him better.
For now, we’re going to talk about the Holy Spirit – God along with the Father and the Son, yet he is not the Father or the Son, but is distinct.
The Promise of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit was essential for the apostles to receive Jesus’ commands to them and to respond. He was a supernatural agent of communication between Jesus and his apostles. Without the Spirit, they would have been ignorant, forgetful, lost, uncertain and ineffective.
The apostles had seen three years of Jesus’ teaching and miracles, they had seen his death on the cross, they had seen him alive and raised from the dead – so, you can imagine, they are straining forward, ready to go on their mission of making disciples of all nations. But their first command in Acts wasn’t to get started, but to wait (v. 4). They needed to wait because their commandment from Jesus Christ could only be accomplished by supernatural means. They could not have gained any traction without the help of the Holy Spirit.
The promise was that the apostles would be baptized with the Holy Spirit (v. 5). They were going to be immersed in the Holy Spirit – they weren’t just going to receive a little supplemental help from him when they needed it. They weren’t going to begin in their own power and then call for backup when they needed some assistance – they couldn’t do any of it without the Holy Spirit.
Power for the Apostles
Reading on, we see that the apostles would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them. Why were they going to receive this power? Was Jesus creating the first prototype to a superhero team? Were they going to be able to go forth doing this awesome ministry with these superpowers? No, the power was to one specific end:
“. . . and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria,
and to the end of the earth.” (v. 8)
The word apostle means “sent one” – it is somebody who is sent with a message. That was their calling, their command and their mission, and therefore that is what the Holy Spirit empowered them to do. The Holy Spirit would come upon them, they would be baptized in him and they would receive power. God would empower them to do what he commanded them to do.
Power for the Church
What does this have to do with us? Does the Holy Spirit still operate that way with us – just normal, American Christians in 2018 – or was that a unique thing he was only going to do for the apostles to get the ball rolling for the church?
Well, if you know your Bible, you’ll know that the Holy Spirit still operates this way, and the church still operates this way. The Holy Spirit is still the power of the church, and the only power for the church to be the church. The Holy Spirit empowers God’s people to exist and operate.
We could get people to attend church, but we could not get them to repent. Only the Holy Spirit can convict someone of sin and bring about repentance. We could bring about participation, but we can’t bring about genuine faith in Jesus Christ as Savior. We can bring about traditions, but we can’t bring about worship that comes from the heart – only the Holy Spirit does that. We can bring about membership, but we can’t bring about fellowship, a commitment to one another with a shared life in Christ. Only the Holy Spirit brings these things about.
Now, not everybody is called to be an apostle, so it’s not going to look exactly like it did for the apostles – but if you are a Christian, you are filled with the Holy Spirit and called into ministry and enabled to do that ministry through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit empowers different people with different gifts (1 Cor. 12:4-11).
Filled with the Holy Spirit, we can be filled with anticipation as to what he might do through us in this world. Any and all forward motion as a church has to begin with prayer, because we don’t want to roll up our sleeves and just settle for what we can accomplish by natural means – we want to see God working among us. Let us pray and commit ourselves to never settling for anything less than Spirit-led, Spirit-filled ministry together.
From the sermon series: Shaping Themes in Acts.
Discussion Starters
- Read Acts 1:1-8 and discuss it together.
- What does it mean to be baptized with the Holy Spirit?
- According to Scripture, what kind of power does the Holy Spirit give?
- What is the purpose of this power?
- Read and discuss Acts 2:1-4 – the arrival of the Holy Spirit.
- Is this prescriptive for how the Holy Spirit always fills people (?) or
- Is this just descriptive of how the Holy Spirit filled the first apostles?
- Does the Holy Spirit still empower Christians today?
- What are some specific ways in which the Holy Spirit empowers (i.e. spiritual gifts)?
