Sermon For Penetcost Sunday May 23, 2010

THY WORD IS TRUTH

JOHN 17:17

“Do We Walk In The Spirit?”

  Today is the Pentecost Sunday and we celebrate the birthday of the church. For on that first Pentecost Sunday the Apostle Peter we learn in the Chapter 2 of the book of Acts stood up to address the crowd after the Holy Spirit had settles upon then as they were gathered together in one place.  And we have to read clear to the end of Chapter 2 of Acts to find out where that place was; for the author of the book of Acts identifies the place as the courts of the Temple which is just outside the Temple on the Temple grounds. And who is Peter addressing for Peter is about to preach the first sermon of the church.  And after this first sermon, three thousand souls will be added to the church on the very first day of the church’s existence. Who is Peter addressing as he raises his voice to address the crowd. Who is Peter addressing and what has just happen to them that would radically change their lives?

 The Apostle Luke gives us the description of the crowd with these words at verse 5.

 “5Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.
6When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language.
7Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans?
8Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?
9Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome
11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs-we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!"
12Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?"

And just before Peter got up to speak we have this description of the visible manifestation of the Holy Spirit coming upon the eleven and Peter as the crowd watched.

2Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.
4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

          And what was the unbelieving reaction of some in that crowd to what they saw that day.  Luke tells us in verse 13,”

 13Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine." 

Those upon whom the Holy Spirit descended displayed such bizarre behavior that some in the crowd concluded that they must be drunk.

          So Peter has to set the record straight.  Peter says that these men in fact are not drunk for it is only 9 o’clock in the morning. But Peter who had the education of a fisherman then quotes the Old Testament prophet Joel.

And that was the Old Testament reading for today.

And Gods words through the mouth of his Prophet Joel who was given to the kingdom of Judah in the reign of king Joash 825 years before Jesus was born. And the bible fast forward class just learned this last Wednesday night when we studied the 398 years the kingdom of Judah’s history and the 21 kings of Judah before all of Jerusalem’s inhabitance every man woman and child were taken into captivity in Babylon and the Temple of Solomon was destroyed.

          Here are the words of the Prophet Joel and the opening words of Peter’s sermon.

 17" 'In the last days, God says,  I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.
19 I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke.
20 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.

And to Peter’s mind this was like what would happen when the Messiah would come in judgment upon the earth at the end of the age.

          And sadly many protestant churches and in fact a whole denomination looks at speaking in tongues as the only manifestation of the Holy Spirit in a believer but the Apostle Paul speaks otherwise in several places in his 11 epistles to the church and I don’t mean to belittle those who have relatives or friends in Pentecostal churches for they display many more evidences of the Holy Spirit than just speaking in tongues in those churches and they still a growing denomination and must be recognized of that fact.

          But there are many warnings by the Apostle Paul about discerning what is appropriate in the church and what is not for those who would speaking in tongues and that happens in the 1 Corinthian’s 13 which is one of the most familiar of all the chapters in the bible for it is called the love chapter.

          And for obvious reason the focus is narrowed down to the subject of love and away from the rebuke and warning of speaking in tongues which is why Paul was writing the live chapter in the first place.  Since Paul defines the concept or doctrine of grace, Paul also define the concept of tongues and the Holy Spirit to the Corinthian church.

So let’s go to the chapter 13 of 1st Corinthians as see Paul’s warning. 

          Paul writes, “1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

And then Paul talks about what love is, love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not easily angered ... and Paul goes on but ends the passage with “LOVE NEVER FAILS!”

          But then Paul goes back to tongues and prophesy as out ward manifestation of the Holy Spirit with these warning about their abuse.

8 But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.

What do you suppose Paul means by when the perfect comes the imperfect will disappear?  Who is the perfect in the bible. Jesus is the perfect lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.  Any reference to perfect in the bible is a Messianic reference. Jesus of Nazareth says this, “Be ye perfect and my Father in heaven is perfect.”

         So Paul is making the point that the outward manifestations of the Holy Spirit are temporary but there are lasting or perfect internal manifestations of the Holy Spirit within the believer and they permanent and eternal? And are required for eternal life. 

Paul says in Romans 8, 9, "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him".

Did you notice that it says anyone and the conditional word “if” is used.  This is a condition of eternal life when Paul uses the conditional word “if”.

The laws of language and thought are higher than the law of God for without them we would not be able to understand God’s spoken word or written word!       

What are the internal manifestations or evidence of the Holy Spirit within a believer according to Paul in this Corinthian passage of Chapter 13?

There are three of them. They are in the last verse of the chapter.

What are the last words of the Apostle Paul in chapter 13 of First Corinthians?

Here they are, “13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

          Faith and Hope are included but the greatest attribute of a Holy Spirit filled Christian or should I use the term “fruit of the Spirit is “love”.

So what does the Holy Spirit by the Apostolic teaching of the Apostle Paul produce in the believer or disciple of Jesus Christ.  Yes, the Holy Spirit of Christ is within all who accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. All those who are “regenerate”. 

The doctrine of regeneration which appears in the Confessions of the Presbyterian Church is almost extinct in the sermons of the modern church but a whole page is devoted to it in the Westminster Confession.

And the central teaching of Jesus of Nazareth on the indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit is his statement to Nicodemous,  “You must be born again.”

And being a born again Christian or believers is not just a catch phrase of a Tele-evangelist but are the very words of Christ. “You must be born again".

          And Paul knows this because of all the biblical conversions the Apostle Paul had the most dramatic and physically violent. Paul was knocked off his horse in the road to Damascus and blinded by the glory of the Resurrected Christ, Paul was changed from a murderer of Christians to a teaches and evangelist of Christians and a planter of Churches by the grace and mercy given to him by Christ. Paul’s conversion is so important to understanding the book of Act that Luke puts it in chapter 9 and then repeats the story late in the book in chapter 22 Luke thinks that understanding of the regenerated Paul is crucial to understanding the book of Acts which should have been entitled the Acts of the Holy Spirit instead of the Acts of the Apostles.

          So Paul would define what the indwelling of the Holy Spirit produces in a believer in his epistle to the Galatians in chapter 5 on the “Fruits of the Spirit”.  These are the attributes or fruit or produce of the Holy Spirit in human beings that are regenerated or born again in the Spirit of God.” 

Galatians 5 verse 22, “ But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” 

These 9 attributes should be displayed by those born again; born again in the Spirit of God. And these are very convicting to day for this Pastor for by this measuring stick I fail on many. But that is what the Holy Spirit is suppose to do. convict every believer of their sins and to bring them to repentance.

          There is that word again.  Repentance!

For that is the call of the first sermon of the Church made by the Apostle Peter on the first Pentecost sermon if we could return to it, for after the sermon Peter makes this charge to the crowd. This is the alter call that Peter makes.

Verse 38 of Acts 2, “Repent and be baptized everyone of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.  And listen to these next words. “And you will be given the gift of the Holy Spirit.” The promise is to you and you children and for all who are far off. 

This promise is to all whom the Lord our God will call.

 May the elders come forward for communion: