Acts 2: The Holy Spirit Comes

The New Testament doctor turned investigative journalist is back. The first time, he is chronicling the life and ministry of Jesus. This time, he is telling Theopolis about the birth and growth of the early church. Jesus told the church to wait to receive the power of the Holy Spirit. Then, they are to make disciples of all nations. We have a front row seat to how this happened.

Here’s the good news: God does amazing things through ordinary people. If God be your partner, make your plans large. If God can fisherman and a Pharisee and shake the world, what can He do with you?

Key Verse: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8

Detailed Outline of Acts

1. They’ve just Begun

• Before Pentecost [1:1-26]
• Day of Pentecost [2:1-47]

2. They start to Do

• Healing miracle [3:1-31]
• Opposition [4:32-5:11]
• The Seven appointed and church organization [6:1-7]

3. They’re forced to flee

• Stephen, the first martyr [6:8-8:1]
• Persecution spreads the Gospel [8:1-40]
• Saul is saved [9:1-31]

4. God Opens Doors

• Peter raises the dead [9:32-43]
• The Gospel comes to the Gentiles [10:1-11:18]
• Antioch church grows strong in the Spirit [11:19-30]
• James killed but angel frees Peter [12]

5. A Missions drive

• Journey to Galatia via Cyprus [13-14]
• Jerusalem council about Gentiles [15:1-35]
• Paul returns to Galatia & strengthens the churches [15:36-16:5]

6. Extended Trips

• Mission trip to Greece [16-19]

7. To Rome, then heaven

• Revisited the churches [19:21-21:14]
• Arrest and trials [21:15-26:32]
• Journey to Rome [27-28]

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Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Bible Breakdown Podcast
• 1:30 Holy Spirit Descends at Pentecost
• 8:55 Peter's Bold Sermon to the Crowd
• 14:45 The Birth of the Perfect Church
• 16:45 Living in the Power of the Spirit

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Hey everyone and welcome to the Bible Breakdown podcast. In this podcast, we will be breaking down the Bible one chapter a day. Whether you are a new believer or have been following Christ for a while, we believe that you will learn something new and fresh every single day. So thank you for joining us and let's get into breaking down the Bible together.

Speaker 2: 0:23

Well, hello everybody, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon. Today Acts, chapter 2, and man, this is where we just there's just no going back from here. This one's going to be amazing. We're going to learn about when the Holy Spirit descends upon the church. Peter's going to tell it like it is and man, he ain't going to mess around, and then we get to see this season of just what I think of as the perfect season as a church and my hope for all of us. As a pastor, we're going to get to that in just a moment, but, as always, if you like what we're doing here, I want you to take just a moment and if you're watching the YouTube videos, make sure that you are like sharing and subscribing. And, man, you guys have been so good about sharing the YouTube videos lately. I want to ask you to continue to do that, because we're just working on growing this idea of gathering and rallying around God's word. If you listen to the podcast, please leave us a five-star review. It really does help us, and I would love for you to go to the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook it's Facebook group and just let me know what is your perfect idea of a church. When you think of a church, what is your perfect idea? You're going to get to see mine at the bottom of this. It's my dream for us as a church that we would see this happen in our generation. We've got to get there first.

Speaker 2: 1:38

First, I want to remind you about what's going on. Remember Luke, the investigative journalist that wrote the gospel of Luke, and he went throughout the countryside as an observer to see about the stories of Jesus. Well, in this context, he is not only telling the story, but he's living the story as well, and what he said in the last chapter is man Theopolis. I just got through telling you about all the things that Jesus began to do and teach. Oh, we just getting started, because that's what Acts is all about. It's it's all about the birth of the early church and then spreading the gospel.

Speaker 2: 2:16

And, as I was telling you yesterday, to me, the overall theme of Acts is this that if you were voted most likely to succeed, you were voted as the best in your class and someone who always gets it right. I've got good news for you. God can still use you, but you know what he likely does Most likely. Most often, he uses the least likely to succeed. He uses the ordinary, he uses those that nobody else would have chosen, but what he does is amazing things, and if God can use ordinary fishermen and a used up Pharisee that we're going to eventually meet named Paul man, he changed the world with them, and if he can do that with them, what can he do with all of us?

Speaker 2: 2:55

And what we're going to look at today is the beginning of it all, and so it's going to be in three sections. First, we're going to talk about how the Holy Spirit comes down at the day of Pentecost, and then we're going to look at the sermon that Peter preached, and he'll mess around. He tells them like it is, and then we get to see my idea of a perfect church. Now, first of all, I'm going to get into just the tiniest little bit of theology when it comes to the Holy Spirit, because sometimes there's a little bit of confusion when it comes to how do we relate to God as Father, son and Spirit. Now I'm going to give you a very, very brief overview, and I would encourage you to go to look at some different places. Go to my website and you can see some different resources that are there for you to dig deeper in this if you're interested, but I want you to understand how this works, to dig deeper in this if you're interested, but I want you to understand how this works Most.

Speaker 2: 3:50

All analogies, metaphors, examples are going to fall apart at some point when describing God, because God is unsearchable, god is unknowable, he is beyond everything, and so this is not going to be perfect, but one of the ways I've heard people describe God to help us understand how father, son and spirit all work together is like the sun, the S-U-N.

Speaker 2: 4:06

You have the big burning thing in the sky, right, that's one aspect of the sun, but then you also have the light of the sun, then you also have the heat of the sun. All three equal the sun. You can't have one without the other. Same thing with the Father, son and Spirit, just like how you have a baseball team that has many different players that have different positions on the field it's one team. These are some examples to understand. So you have God, the Father, the creator of all. You have the son, who is the visible representation of the invisible God, and then you have the spirit that shows up all the way back in Genesis 1, 3, that says the spirit of God hovers over the face of the water.

Speaker 2: 4:49

Now they are three in person and they're same in their power but different in their personhood. So the father is not the son, the son is not the spirit. So they are separate in their identity but same in their godhood. And so it is. Yes, if your brain doesn't slowly start to hurt a little bit when thinking about that, then you're not really thinking that deeply about it. But the thing is is that the Holy Spirit is just as powerful and just as important as the Son and the Father. And here's how this beautiful thing works. That is, there is this complete triunity of love where the Father points to the Father. And here's how this beautiful thing works. That is, there's this complete triunity of love where the Father points to the Son, the Son points to the Father and the Spirit, the Spirit, points back to the Son. And so there's this amazing thing that happens, and it is absolutely wonderful. And so when we say that we invite Jesus into our heart, you know we want to get saved. Really, what we're saying is we want the Holy Spirit to come live within all of us, because Jesus ascended to be with the Father. And so, even though he is omnipresent and everywhere, the Spirit is the one that comes and dwells with inside all of us upon salvation. And up until this point that is not how it worked. He believed in God and it was counted unto them for righteousness. But from this moment we're going to read today forward the Holy Spirit comes and lives inside of all of us and the power of God rests on all of us. So let's read this together and see when the Holy Spirit came to be part of the local church. You ready Acts.

Speaker 2: 6:24

Chapter 2, verse 1 of the NLT Bible says this On the day of Pentecost, all the believers were meeting together in one place. Now already pausing in what is Pentecost. Pentecost was the first of the fall feast days for the Jewish people. You had the spring feast days and then you had the fall feast days, had the spring feast days and then you had the fall feast days, and this was the first fall feast day when the first fruits were actually given back to God as an act of worship. So it's on this first fall feast day, about 40 days or so after the Passover. So here we go, verse two suddenly there was a sound like a roaring and mighty windstorm and it filled the house where they were sitting. Then what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them, and everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages. Other translations will say other tongues, but it's languages as the Holy Spirit gave them the ability. At that time, there were devout Jews from every nation living among Jerusalem. Remember why they were there? Because it was a feast day. That's why it was crowded in Jerusalem. Verse 6,.

Speaker 2: 7:34

When they heard the loud noise and everyone coming running, they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers. They were completely amazed. How can this be? They exclaimed. These people are all from Galilee and yet we hear them speaking in our own languages. We have here the Parthians, the Medes, the Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, judea, the Cappadocia, pontus and the province of Asia, phagra, pamphylia, egypt and the areas of Libya and Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, cretans and Arabs, and all we hear are them speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things that God has done. Then they stood there, amazed and perplexed. What can this mean? They asked one another, but others in the crowd ridiculed them, said man, they are drunk. That's all. Pause for a moment Now. I don't know what's happened whenever you've been around somebody who drinks. But when I get around somebody who drinks, they act a fool.

Speaker 2: 8:36

They all started speaking in different languages. So I don't know what kind of special sauce was going on back in the early church time, but apparently there was some kind of special juice that was happening. Now, whenever you drank it, you could speak in multiple different languages. So they were like, maybe that's what's going on, but no, that is not what's going on. And there's this amazing thing that when the Holy Spirit comes, he empowers us for the work of ministry. Well, what was the number one ministry that needed to happen Is that all these different people from all these different countries and walks of life, they all needed to hear the gospel. And so when we receive the Holy Spirit, he empowers us to make a difference, and so he empowered them to speak in all these different languages.

Speaker 2: 9:18

But then watch what happens. We're just going to read this as a total thing so we can get the context of the sermon that Peter is about to preach. And what I love about this is remember Peter, just about 50 days earlier, when Jesus needed him the most, ran and hid and denied him three times. This guy was a failure and a coward, but now, with the Holy Spirit, with complete boldness, he stands in front of a crowd of thousands and look at what he says, verse 14. Then Peter stepped forward with the 11 other apostles and shouted to the crowd Listen carefully, all of you, fellow Jews and residents from Jerusalem. Make no mistake about that. These people are not drunk, as you are assuming, whatever that crazy juice is you're thinking about. Nine o'clock in the morning is much too early for that. Come on somebody Now.

Speaker 2: 10:13

What you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel. He's going to quote an Old Testament scripture. 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 and your old men will dream dreams which, by the way, I guess that's how you can tell if God thinks you're old. Are you dreaming dreams or having visions? In those days, I will pour out my spirit even on my servants, men and women alike, and they will prophesy, and I will cause wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below Blood and fire and clouds of smoke. The sun will become dark and the moon will turn blood red Before the great and glorious day of the Lord arrives. But everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. People of Israel, listen.

Speaker 2: 11:13

God publicly endorsed Jesus of Nazareth by doing powerful miracles, wonders and signs through him, as you well know. But God knew what would happen, for his prearranged plan was carried out when Jesus was betrayed, when the people, with the help of lawless Gentiles, you, nailed him to the cross and killed him. But God released him from the horrors of death and raised him back to life, for death could not keep him in its grip. King David said this about him I see that the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me. No wonder my heart is glad and my tongue shouts his praises. My body rests in hope, for you will not leave my soul among the dead, nor will you allow your Holy One to rot in the grave. You have shown me the way of life and you will fill me with joy in your presence. Dear brothers, think about this man. Peter ain't messing around.

Speaker 2: 12:09

You can be sure that the patriarch David wasn't referring to himself, for he died and was buried. He's in the dead, but his tomb is still here among us. But he was a prophet and he knew God had promised with an oath that one of David's own descendants would sit on his throne. David was looking into the future and speaking of the Messiah's resurrection. He was saying that God would not leave him among the dead or allow his body to rot in the grave. God raised Jesus from the dead and we are all witnesses of this. Now he is exalted to the place of highest honor in heaven at God's right hand, and the Father, as he has promised, gave the Holy Spirit to pour out upon us, just as we see and hear today. For David himself never ascended into heaven, yet he said. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at the place of honor at my right hand until I humble your enemies and by making them a footstool under your feet. So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Messiah.

Speaker 2: 13:26

Peter's words pierced their hearts and they said to him and the other apostles Brothers, what should we do? And Peter replied we do. And Peter replied each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God and be baptized in the name of the Lord, jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is to you and to your children, and to all those far away who have been called by the Lord our God. Then Peter continued preaching for a long time, lord our God. Then Peter continued preaching for a long time, strongly, urging all his listeners save yourselves from this crooked generation and listen to this. And then those who believe what Peter said were baptized and added to the church daily, about 3,000 in all.

Speaker 2: 14:07

So what's amazing is, when the Holy Spirit came and filled them all up, then he empowered them for the work of ministry, and so the first work of ministry that was needed was to immediately get the gospel out to everybody around. So they began to speak in other languages, as the Holy Spirit empowered them to do so. Well, the next thing that was needed was boldness. So the Holy Spirit filled Peter with boldness, boldness. So the Holy Spirit filled Peter with boldness, and so he stood up and he declared the wonders of the Lord and declared the goodness of God, and 3000 people were saved. That's what happens when an ordinary person encounters the extraordinary God. And see what happens.

Speaker 2: 14:47

Now let's finish it up with looking at what I think is the perfect church, verse 42,. All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship and to sharing in meals, including the Lord's supper, and to prayer. A deep sense of all came over all of them and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. All of the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and share the money with those in need. So what it said was God and joined the goodwill of all people, and each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.

Speaker 2: 15:35

So what it said was is number one they got to know God by knowing the words of God as it was being taught to them by the apostles. Then they did life with one another and they started growing in their faith. And then they started to share their faith with one another and, as they did start to know God, grow in their freedom and share Christ with everyone, the church began to grow, and this is the beginning of the rest. The Holy Spirit is poured out upon us and even to this day, when we receive Christ, the Holy Spirit comes and dwells within us. And as we begin to grow in our relationship with the Holy Spirit, we begin to grow the fruit of the Spirit from Galatians, chapter 5. And then what we see throughout the New Testament is, as we begin to grow, then it begins to empower us for ministry and that through some of us, we begin to be used in the gifts that are brought to us by the Holy Spirit so that we can do ministry and so we can benefit those around us and we receive the power of God and see what amazing things happen. How can you experience God? And then, how can you be used by God so others can experience him? Today, let's pray together and we'll be through.

Speaker 2: 16:47

Father. Thank you so much that you sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within each one of us. And, holy Spirit, you don't want to just dwell, but you want to overwhelm and overcome all of us. You want us to be like swimming in the ocean, completely surrounded and overwhelmed by your goodness, and you want to empower us to make a difference. I pray that you will light a fire within us, that we will be hungry and thirsty for more of your presence, for more of your goodness, and then to share that goodness with others. In Jesus' name, we pray amen. Acts 1.8 says this Jesus said you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and then you will be my witnesses to the end of the earth. My prayer is that you will experience the power of the Holy Spirit and then you will share that goodness with someone today. I will see you tomorrow for Acts chapter 3. Thank you.