Without the Spirit the church is lifeless and lost.
With the Spirit, the church is empowered to love God first,
love others well and pour out their lives for the mission of God.
The Holy Spirit makes all the difference.
We read in Acts 2 that at 9am when Jews around the world
gathered to celebrate the giving of the law and harvest of the wheat, the Holy
Spirit entered the entire house like a mighty rushing wind and tongues of fire
rested on the Apostles. The wind reminds
us of John 3 when Jesus explained that the Holy Spirit is like “the wind
[blowing] where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it
comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
SO what happens when tongues of fire rest on the
Apostles?
What effect does the empowering presence of God have in this
moment? Something amazing happens: they begin to proclaim the mighty works of
God in different languages! This is very significant. Jesus poured out His
Spirit not just so the Apostles would experience this miraculous event, but for
divine empowerment to live their lives on God’s mission.
This event of being gifted with the ability to speak in
different languages is a direct reversal of the Babel story in Genesis 11. In
the tower of Babel, people joined together in rebellion to God’s commands and
it ended with God’s judgment of dividing up their languages. In this picture,
the disciples had joined together in obedience to Christ’s commands and
received the Spirit which empowered them to speak in different languages, not
to fulfill their own purposes (like in the Babel story), but for the purposes
of God!
The Jews from all over the world were amazed and perplexed as
they heard the wonders of God in their own native tongue! Some wondered what
this miraculous event could mean and others joked that they must be drunk.
Peter stands up to set the record straight. He points to the
Old Testament prophecy in Joel about the sending of the Holy Spirit. He shares
about Jesus death and resurrection which took place according to God’s definite
plan and foreknowledge resulting in Christ as being both Lord & Christ.
The people’s response shows the very presence of the Spirit:
they were cut to the heart. Only the Holy Spirit can bring about this work of
conviction. They ask ‘brothers what shall we do?’ Peter’s response is to repent
and be baptized. He is not saying that salvation comes through baptism, but that belief in Christ will lead to obedience
to His command to be baptized. This obedient faith is promised the gift of the
Holy Spirit: aka new birth, the law written on a believer's heart, and divine empowerment
for the mission of God.
This celebration of first-fruits of the wheat harvest ended with a harvest of
souls for the Kingdom of God: 3000 people believed and the law was written on
their hearts. The Jewish celebration of Pentecost that began as a celebration
for first-fruits harvest and law was fulfilled with the Spirit’s saving and indwelling
presence.
Finally, we see that the Spirit’s saving presence not only
affected their witness to the world, but it also greatly impacted their life with
one another. If you want to know what a Spirit filled people looks like - focus in on Acts 2:42-47. We do not see people
drunk in the Spirit, falling down in confusion, on the contrary, we see a
people full of the fruit of the Spirit: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). We see
a people DEVOTED to the apostle’s biblical teaching. They devoted themselves to
praying, fellowship with one another and eating meals together. The filling
of the Spirit resulted in changed hearts in regards to finances and possessions. They
did not hoard money for themselves, they shared with people as they had a need.
This is what the Spirit’s presence does. Before the Holy
Spirit, we live for self; life is about us. When we put our faith in Christ and
receive the Spirit, we are filled with His love and are compelled to LOVE HIM
FIRST and live for His purposes (see 2 Cor 5:16). We love others and think of
them and their needs as just as important as our own (see Phil 2:4). THAT is what the empowering presence of Jesus
does in us!
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