The Promise of the Holy Spirit
Acts 2:37-39
May 12, 2013
For those who may not have been here last week,
We are sailing on uncharted waters for me here.
I ordinarily am a verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book kind of guy.
I put great value in expository preaching
And for the most part shy away from topical studies.
However, for the last several months,
As we were finishing the gospel of Matthew
I have had a prompting within me to study the Holy Spirit.
The main motivation for this study is in response to Christian weakness.
I have looked at my life, and I have certainly listened
As many have shared their struggles with me.
And it appears to me that far too many of us struggle far too often.
When I hear statements like, “I hate what I’m doing, why can’t I stop?”
Or, “I thought all of this was behind us.”
Or, “I don’t know why I am so timid to share Jesus”
Statements like that come from sincere hearts.
• They come from hearts that love Jesus.
• They come from hearts that desire righteousness.
• They come from hearts that pursue obedience.
And yet they come from hearts that are at the same time discouraged
Because they don’t feel as though they ever truly achieve their goal.
Issues like that sort of force a pastor to dig deeper.
And the overwhelming reality that hit me is that
This solution is really not that complicated.
All of those issues are a result of walking in the flesh.
All of those issues are a result of not walking by the Spirit.
So I began to ask myself, “Why do Christians not walk by the Spirit?”
And there are really two main reasons.
1) They don’t know Him
2) They don’t know how
Our world has so misrepresented the Holy Spirit,
And characterized Him as some sort of wild emotion responsible for abnormal behavior that by in large “normal” people are terrified of Him.
They don’t want the Holy Spirit to direct their lives
Because they don’t want the circus that they think comes with Him.
And such a reality only proves that Satan has done a better job distorting who the Holy Spirit is than the church has done revealing who He is.
So the aim of this study is to first of all reveal who the Holy Spirit is.
But the second problem (don’t know how to walk by the Spirit)
Is also an issue.
There are many who don’t fear the Holy Spirit working in their life, but when they read statements like:
• “be filled with the Spirit”
• “walk by the Spirit”
• “pray in the Spirit”
They don’t know how.
Some think it is all mystical and ecstatic.
To be filled, or to walk, or to pray in the Spirit must be
Some sort of out of body experience where wild and tingly things occur.
And so some who seek to be led by God’s Spirit
Actually go about it in the wrong way.
I received a book one time as to how to speak in tongues.
(Not what I would call genuine speaking in tongues, but how to develop what is commonly called “A private prayer language”)
After doing a rather inadequate job of seeking to prove the relevance of a prayer language, this writer actually began to try and explain how to do it.
It included practices like loosening up your mouth, and audibly speaking any syllables that come to mind, no matter how bizarre it may sound.
And people actually equate this with the Holy Spirit.
And so some people when they do seek to walk by the Spirit
Go looking for Him in the most mystical of places.
• That is not at all what walking by the Spirit is.
• That is not at all what being filled with the Spirit is.
• That is not at all what praying in the Spirit is.
And so I find it necessary that we examine what those things really are.
The end result being that we all fall in love with the Holy Spirit
And learn to trust Him, follow Him and allow Him to work in us.
And so that is what we are currently studying here on Sunday mornings.
Last week I gave you our theme verse of the study.
Galatians 5:25 “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”
And I won’t go back through that intro again,
Except to point out the obvious here,
And that is that you can trust the Holy Spirit to guide your life.
If He is the One who GIVES life,
Then certainly He can be trusted to GUIDE life.
He is trustworthy and we need Him.
And this morning I want to really begin our study of Him
And begin to reveal namely why He is so necessary.
I want to show you the difference that He makes in life.
And to do that let’s start in the book of Acts on the day of Pentecost.
I want to show you “The Promise of the Holy Spirit”
We don’t have time to work our way through the entire chapter,
But you are familiar with what is occurring.
Jesus had told His disciples:
Luke 24:49 “And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
The disciples weren’t supposed to do anything
Until they received the Holy Spirit.
Well, on Pentecost He came.
The walls were shaken, tongues as of fire rested on them,
And they all began to speak in other languages.
And it really was quite a scene.
Acts 2:12-13 “And they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others were mocking and saying, “They are full of sweet wine.”
And it was at this point that Peter took his stand to preach his sermon.
(READ ACTS 2:14-21)
So Peter says this is not drunkenness,
This is actually the fulfillment of a long awaited promise.
This is the fulfillment of the promise God made through Joel.
(Quoting Joel 2:28-32)
(17-18) “’AND IT SHALL BE IN THE LAST DAYS,’ God says, ‘THAT I WILL POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT ON ALL MANKIND; AND YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY, AND YOUR YOUNG MEN SHALL SEE VISIONS, AND YOUR OLD MEN SHALL DREAM DREAMS; EVEN ON MY BONDSLAVES, BOTH MEN AND WOMEN, I WILL IN THOSE DAYS POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT And they shall prophesy.”
So let’s examine this a little
And see if we can’t understand what Joel was seeing.
Joel clearly saw a fabulous event occurring in “the last days”
“the last days” began when Christ died.
This time was a bit of a blur to the Old Testament prophets.
They looked at the time of Christ similar to how
You look at a mountain range from afar.
From a distance the mountains look real close together,
In reality they are miles apart.
The prophets could see the first coming of Christ,
And they could see the second coming of Christ,
But sometimes they had difficulty seeing the valley of time in between.
That is why “the last days” is taking so long.
And Joel noted that in these last days an amazing thing would occur.
God would “pour fourth of My Spirit”
It was the promise that God would send His Holy Spirit to earth.
Some distinctions:
• “on all mankind” – Jew and Gentile alike
• “sons and daughters” – no gender discrimination
• “young men…old men” – no age distinction
• “bondslaves” – no status distinction
God would send His Spirit without prejudice or discrimination.
Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
And of course we notice the activity that all of these would be involved in.
• “prophesy”
• “see visions”
• “dream dreams”
Now this is where some people get off course here with the Holy Spirit
And start instantly trying to turn Him into something mystical and ecstatic
They think that the Holy Spirit is all visions and dreams
And special appearances and new revelation.
No.
Please understand who made this prophecy and how he understood it.
Joel was an Old Testament prophet.
And the unique thing about a prophet in the Old Testament
Is not that they spoke boldly,
But rather that they had something to speak.
What made a prophet unique is that they had privileged information
From God to give to the people.
The emphasis here was no on everyone preaching,
But on everyone understanding.
Even after the people this day got saved, Acts 2:42 doesn’t find them preaching but “continually devoting themselves to the apostle’s teaching”
And in the Old Testament that information
Routinely came through dream or vision.
Numbers 12:6 “He said, “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream.”
What Joel was saying was not that all would preach,
But rather that all would understand.
When I pour out My Spirit indiscriminately,
All those who receive Him will have full understanding.
They will all know.
Jeremiah 31:34 “They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
Joel foresaw a day when God would truly make Himself known.
From there Joel went into the events leading up to the return of the King.
Joel put the two events together, because as I told you,
They had trouble distinguishing how far apart they were from a distance.
(19-20) “’AND I WILL GRANT WONDERS IN THE SKY ABOVE AND SIGNS ON THE EARTH BELOW, BLOOD, AND FIRE, AND VAPOR OF SMOKE. ‘THE SUN WILL BE TURNED INTO DARKNESS AND THE MOON INTO BLOOD, BEFORE THE GREAT AND GLORIOUS DAY OF THE LORD SHALL COME.”
So Joel saw both the beginning and the end of this time period.
And one truth aspect of this time period is this:
(21) “’AND IT SHALL BE THAT EVERYONE WHO CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.’”
So the people think we have some drunks on our hands and Peter says,
“No, God’s promise through Joel is being fulfilled before your very eyes.”
Now if you skip down in Peter’s sermon you will find Peter
Proving that Jesus is the Messiah and that they killed Him.
This reality startles the people in Jerusalem.
(37) “Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?”
They are afraid of the judgment of God and don’t know what to do.
And I want you to see Peter’s answer.
(38-39) “Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. “For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.”
• They need to turn from sin…
• They need to trust in Christ…
And not only will they be forgiven, but…
“you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
And notice Peter’s statement.
“For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.”
Now did you catch what Peter just did?
He paraphrased what Joel had said.
There is a promise of God’s Spirit and it is an indiscriminate promise
For all who repent and trust Christ.
In other words Peter was saying:
THIS IS THE DAY YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR!
Now, let me show you why they have been waiting for such a day.
TURN TO: JEREMIAH 31:31-34
Now you have to know that this passage was written
In one of the darkest days ever of Jewish history.
Nebuchadnezzar was presently tearing down the wall of Jerusalem.
He would soon accomplish his goal, kill many, take the rest into exile
And burn Jerusalem to the ground.
It was the absolutely epitome of failure on the part of the Jews.
Moses had led them out of Egypt
With the promise of land flowing with milk and honey.
And God was very specific as to how they could keep that land.
We don’t have time to study it all, but sometime read Deuteronomy 28.
Deuteronomy 28:1-2 “Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the LORD your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. “All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the LORD your God:”
Deuteronomy 28:15 “But it shall come about, if you do not obey the LORD your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:”
And really the main blessing was fruitfulness in the land.
The main curse was eviction from the land.
Well, here Jeremiah sat, knowing that Israel
Was about to receive the ultimate curse.
They were about to be removed from the land God had given them.
It reeked of failure.
But in this darkest hour of human failure, God interjects a promise
(READ 31-34)
Here God introduces His new covenant (also read it in Hebrews 8)
This new covenant answers all the weaknesses of the old covenant.
The Old Covenant failed because it depended on HUMAN EFFORT.
The children of Israel had to obey to make it work.
They didn’t obey, so it didn’t work.
But this one:
(31-32) “Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD.”
Furthermore the Old Covenant didn’t work
Because it FOCUSED ON THE OUTSIDE, not the inside.
The New Covenant will work from the inside out, not the outside in.
(33) “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
And because the Old Covenant depended on human effort to change the heart, it NEVER SUCCEEDED.
The children of Israel never got to know God,
And they never found true forgiveness.
But the New Covenant would be successful.
(34) “They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
So Jeremiah introduces a new covenant that will cause
Israel to succeed whereas the old covenant let them fail.
It was a promise of something better to come.
• A day of true worship
• A day of true intimacy with God
• A day of true forgiveness
Now, one thing Jeremiah doesn’t tell us, is the agent of this covenant.
Jeremiah doesn’t tell us, but Ezekiel does.
TURN TO: EZEKIEL 36:24-28
Now you notice that Ezekiel has much the same thing to say as Jeremiah,
The only difference is Ezekiel reveals WHY their hearts would be obedient.
(27) “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”
So this new covenant with all these tremendous promises
All hinged upon the Holy Spirit coming to dwell within them.
This concept is illustrated in the very next chapter.
TURN TO: EZEKIEL 37:1-14
God’s Spirit would make people come to life
And achieve what they had lost due to their own human weakness.
In other words – THE SPIRIT WAS THE PROMISE
They waited for the Spirit
They anticipated the Spirit
Isaiah 32:15-20 “Until the Spirit is poured out upon us from on high, And the wilderness becomes a fertile field, And the fertile field is considered as a forest. Then justice will dwell in the wilderness And righteousness will abide in the fertile field. And the work of righteousness will be peace, And the service of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever. Then my people will live in a peaceful habitation, And in secure dwellings and in undisturbed resting places; And it will hail when the forest comes down, And the city will be utterly laid low. How blessed will you be, you who sow beside all waters, Who let out freely the ox and the donkey.”
Isaiah 44:1-5 “But now listen, O Jacob, My servant, And Israel, whom I have chosen: Thus says the LORD who made you And formed you from the womb, who will help you, ‘Do not fear, O Jacob My servant; And you Jeshurun whom I have chosen. ‘For I will pour out water on the thirsty land And streams on the dry ground; I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring And My blessing on your descendants; And they will spring up among the grass Like poplars by streams of water.’ “This one will say, ‘I am the LORD’S’; And that one will call on the name of Jacob; And another will write on his hand, ‘Belonging to the LORD,’ And will name Israel’s name with honor.”
And of course that passage that Peter quoted in the book of Joel.
I tell you all this
Because I want you to understand the mindset of Israel.
When it gets close to Christmas we anticipation.
• We read those passages about “A child” being born to us.
• We read about the King coming to Zion on the colt of a donkey.
• We read about the Messiah coming to reign on David’s throne.
We make a big deal about Christmas.
WHY?
Because it marked the fulfillment of the promise
That God would send a deliverer to save us from our sin.
But Israel anticipated the Spirit as much as they anticipated the Messiah.
They anticipated Him, they longed for Him, they wanted Him.
He would be the answer to their weakness.
And even when Jesus came, He reiterated that promise.
John 16:7 “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.”
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
Something more beneficial than having Jesus around?
Something better than having God in the flesh?
WHAT IS BETTER THAN HAVING GOD IN THE FLESH?
According to Jesus:
HAVING GOD IN YOU
Look forward to this, this is a good thing!
John 7:37-39 “Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'” But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”
John 14:16-18 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”
John 14:26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”
John 15:26-27 “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.”
Now why do I tell you all of this?
BECAUSE I WANT YOU TO UNDERSTAND THAT
THE COMING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IS A BIG THING!
AND BY IN LARGE THE CHURCH HAS OVERLOOKED IT.
• We spend at least a month celebrating Christmas.
• We have gobs of songs we sing rejoicing in the coming Messiah.
• We decorate with nativity scenes.
• We ponder the mystery of the incarnation.
And if I ask you when is Christmas, what will you say?
December 25th.
You know it, you anticipate it,
We call it “The most wonderful time of the year.”
We celebrate the coming of the Messiah.
And yet, this year the church
Will almost completely overlook the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Does anyone even know when Pentecost is?
(It is always 7 weeks after Easter – this year it is May 19, next Sunday)
My point is that we have failed to see how big this is.
We have failed to see that God fulfilled an enormous promise.
God sent His Spirit to dwell in us, to be the answer to our weakness.
• God sent Him to change our hearts from the inside out.
• God sent Him to empower us for ministry.
• God sent Him to guide and direct us.
And yet His coming is hardly ever celebrated, hardly ever anticipated,
And widely overlooked.
WHY?
There again because we don’t realize how badly we need Him.
Today when we talk to people about being saved we are always looking for an angle by which to coerce them to accept Christ.
Do you know what angle the apostles used?
If you trust Christ, you’ll get the Holy Spirit.
Acts 2:37-39 “Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. “For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.”
Consider Paul talking to those misguided Ephesians:
Acts 19:1-5 “It happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus, and found some disciples. He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said to him, “No, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” And they said, “Into John’s baptism.” Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.”
And this is the glorious reality for believers.
Colossians 1:26-27 “that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
• At Sinai we saw God to us.
• At Bethlehem we saw God with us.
• At Pentecost we saw God in us.
Friend, don’t look at the Holy Spirit as someone to be dreaded.
Don’t look at the Holy Spirit as someone to be avoided.
Don’t look at the Holy Spirit as someone you can’t trust.
The saints of old anticipated the coming of the Holy Spirit
As much as they anticipated the coming of the Messiah.
They knew they needed Him.
On their own they were too weak.
On their own they were kicked out of the Promised Land.
But one day, when the Holy Spirit came, they would never fail again!
He is the answer to human weakness and timidity and fear.
Don’t ignore Him, seek Him – He is what we want!
And this morning I don’t mind telling you that you can have Him.
Let me read it again:
Acts 2:37-39 “Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. “For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.”
• This promise is for you.
• This promise is for your children.
• This promise if for people who are far off.
• This promise is for everyone the Lord calls to Himself.
If you will repent of your sin…
If you will trust in Christ…
(what Peter meant by baptism)
And Peter says if you will do that, you can have the promise today.
No more waiting
No more anticipating
Instead you can receive Him
It’s that simple.
See, it’s not mystical.
• You don’t have to be in some special service speaking gibberish, with people falling down or slapping you in the forehead.
• You don’t have to fall into a trance or have an out of body experience.
God has promised the Holy Spirit and Peter says God will give Him to you, if you will repent of your sin and trust in Christ.
And that is a good thing.
The Holy Spirit was never someone to dread,
He has always been someone to anticipate!
He is the promise of God!
John 7:37-39 “Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'” But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”
