ACTS 2:1-4 RECEIVE THE PROMISED EMPOWERING2016 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Acts 2:1-4 Receive The Promised Empowering

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2016.

We want to look at Acts chapter 2 verses 1 through 4 this evening and spend some time just allowing God to minister to our hearts and pour out his Holy Spirit upon us. And so we want to begin the evening tonight by reading through Acts chapter 2 verses 1 through 4 and then getting into the message for tonight. So here's what it says. Acts chapter 2 verse 1 says, "...when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place."

And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and one sat upon each of them.

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Let's pray before we get into the message. Lord, as we consider your word this evening here in Acts chapter 2, as your Holy Spirit was poured out upon the church that was gathered together in that upper room, Lord, we pray that you would do a similar work within this place this evening. Lord, that you would pour out your Holy Spirit. And Lord, that we...

As your followers would be open, receptive, Lord, to what you have in store for us. And I pray, Lord, that you would do a work in our hearts that we would go forth, Lord, in the power of the Spirit to do the things that you've set before us and called us to do. And so, Lord, we pray that you would bless this time in your word. In Jesus' name, amen.

Well, as we look at Acts chapter 2 verses 1 through 4 this evening, I've titled the message, Receive the Promised Empowering. As we've been talking about for the past couple weeks, the Lord has promised this empowering in Acts chapter 1 before Jesus ascended into heaven. He told his disciples to wait for the promise of the Spirit.

He told them to wait until they received this promise that he had been talking to them about. And as he gave them that instruction to wait, he then ascended into heaven. And for the next 10 days, the disciples have been waiting.

They've been back in Jerusalem where he told them to wait. And they've been gathering together and meeting together. It seems like every day they were gathering together and meeting together and waiting for this promise to be fulfilled. Now during this time, while they are waiting for the promise of the Holy Spirit, they're

It's important to understand that they did have at that time the Holy Spirit dwelling within them. This wasn't, you know, going to be their first encounter with the Holy Spirit. Earlier in the Gospel of John, Jesus told his disciples, you know the Holy Spirit because he lives.

is with you. And then he told them the Holy Spirit will be in you. And so he says, you're familiar with the Holy Spirit. You've had some encounters with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is with you. But there's a coming day, Jesus told them, where the Holy Spirit would be in you. Well, that was fulfilled in John chapter 20, verse 22. And it tells us there that Jesus breathed on the disciples and said, receive the Holy Spirit.

And they experienced then the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. That is, the Holy Spirit was with them, alongside of them, but now the Holy Spirit is within them. And that took place after the resurrection of Jesus, because it's the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus which enables us as believers to have the Spirit dwelling within us, because now our sins are forgiven, and there's a new work that God wants to do in us by the Spirit.

And so every believer has this experience, the Holy Spirit dwelling within them. But after Jesus breathed on them and they received the Holy Spirit, the indwelling of the Spirit, then he gave them this promise to wait for the promise of the Holy Spirit. He gave them the instruction to wait for the promise of the Holy Spirit. And so they're waiting for something else. It's a further experience, a different experience with the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit was dwelling within them, and that's primarily for work within the believer. And every one of us as believers have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. But the empowering of the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised was going to be a different work.

And that's primarily for reaching unbelievers or for being a witness to Jesus. And so they're waiting for this promised empowering of the Spirit. Now as I talk about the empowering of the Spirit, the Bible refers to that concept in several different ways. And I like to use the word empowering to kind of summarize all three of these and to give us a good understanding of what we're talking about.

So sometimes this is referred to as the baptism of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 1, verse 5, Jesus told his disciples that John baptized them with water, that was for repentance, but that they were going to be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. And so again, that was 10 days that passed from when he ascended to when this promise is fulfilled in Acts 2.

In Acts chapter 1 verse 8, he refers to the same event, but he uses a different description. He says, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

And so the promise of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is synonymous with. It's the same thing as the Holy Spirit coming upon you, which again, both of these are fulfilled in Acts chapter 2. Now when the event actually happens here in Acts chapter 2, we see in verse 4 that they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with tongues as the Holy Spirit gave them utterance.

And so when the event actually happens, then Luke describes it or uses a different set of words, and it says that they were filled with the Holy Spirit. And so this one event, which happens here in Acts 2, verse 4, is described in three different ways. It's described as the baptism of the Spirit. It's described as the Holy Spirit coming upon them. And it's described as the filling of the Spirit. And so, again, I kind of summarize all these three things

with the word empowering. The empowering of the Spirit is God pouring out His Spirit upon us in such a way that He enables us to be witnesses to Jesus, that He enables us to be a witness to the world around us. Now this empowering of the Spirit is something that Jesus told them to wait for. It's something that He promised them, and it's not a one-time thing.

The filling of the Holy Spirit is seen throughout the book of Acts, and we'll get to see that a little bit tonight and even more as we go on in the book of Acts. But it's also commanded in Ephesians 5, verse 18, we're commanded to be and to continually be filled with the Holy Spirit. And so I like what Dave Guzik says about that. He says, we should perhaps ask, are you baptized in the Holy Spirit? Instead of asking, have you been baptized in the Holy Spirit?

Because it's not just a one-time, in-the-past type of event. As opposed to salvation, right? Have you been saved? There is a point where you believe in Jesus, you receive the gospel message, that's one time. You don't have to keep on repenting and believing, repenting and believing. You do in the sense that there's still sin that you're going to be repenting of. But that conversion, it's a one-time experience, right?

The baptism of the Holy Spirit, the empowering of the Holy Spirit, the filling of the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Spirit coming upon you is an ongoing experience. It's something that we're to be continually receiving. And so not just one time have you ever been at some part in your life filled with the Holy Spirit, but are you right now filled with the Holy Spirit? Are you right now immersed,

with the Holy Spirit, overflowing with the Holy Spirit.

are you right now empowered to be a witness to Jesus? And that's a good question for us to ask ourselves. Are you filled or am I filled with the Holy Spirit? And so this evening, as we look at Acts chapter 2, we want to look at receiving that promised empowering. It's promised to us and we need it and it's available for us as believers, but how do we receive this promise? And

And so we'll look at three points here in verses one through four, looking at what they experienced and how they received this promised empowering to help learn how we can receive this empowering in our life as well. And so the first point is to surrender your life to God. In order to receive the promised empowering, to receive this promise of the Holy Spirit, we need to be surrendered to

Check out verse 1. It says, And so it tells us here, as they're about to receive this promise, they were gathered together in one place, in the upper room, probably. They were gathered together in this one place, and they were all with one accord. Notice that. They were all with one accord. Okay.

Now, one accord speaks to us about unity. And as I talk about one accord, I shared last week, I like to use the illustration of a car. So I did my best with all of my skill and techniques to draw you up a picture of an accord. This is a Honda Accord. It's pretty cool.

It's pretty remarkable how it resembles real life vehicles, right? Okay, so it's a quick, easy diagram of a car, right? But I like the picture because it points for us a picture. If we're all in one accord, that is, if we all climb into this one vehicle, we are in it together, right?

And that means that we are on the same journey. That means that we have the same destination. It speaks of the unity that we have together. We're all in this together. But as I look at them in verse 1, it says they were all with one accord in one place. They were all together. They were all crammed into that one accord. They were on the same journey. They had the same destination. The question that I would ask is, who is driving?

Now, if you look at this picture, it kind of looks like Kim's driving, right? Or maybe Aaliyah, which would be a little bit more scary. Who's driving as we're all in one accord? As we're all united together, who's driving is the key question. And of course, as we look at the disciples here in Acts chapter 2, who is driving is God. This is an important point to understand. Being united together is

is good. For us to gather together and to be united around common bonds, common goals, common objectives, that's good. And we can accomplish a lot as we are united together. But sometimes we get confused on this. And we start uniting together and

in order to try to get God on our side. And we kind of get this idea in our head, if we can just get everybody together, then we can get God involved in our program. As he sees, we're all in this together. And sometimes we try to do that kind of in order to get God to do the things that we want to do. And in that case, when we have that mindset, we're the ones driving the

We're the ones behind the steering wheel deciding this is where we're going to go and this is how we're going to get there. And God, we want you to climb on in, you know, trying to get God in as a passenger in this one accord that we have.

Sometimes this is demonstrated, you know, and I don't mean to say this in a bad way, and not every way is like this, but sometimes as we ask for prayer for things, you know, there's, you know, just get everybody praying, because if we can get everybody praying, then God will get on board and do what we're asking him to do. And sometimes

Again, not that we shouldn't have and ask people to pray, but sometimes our minds are backwards on this. And what we really need to be looking for is for God to do the driving, for God to be setting the direction, setting the course and the destination, and for us to get on board in God's accord, you know? And so we're all in one accord together because we're all looking to God for

to set the agenda and to do what he wants to do. One accord with each other is good, but one accord with God is essential. And that only happens if we surrender to God. As the disciples were gathered together with one accord here in Acts chapter two, they're not just in accord with one another. They're not just in agreement with one another. They are fully surrendered to God. Think about it.

Jesus, before he left, told them to wait in Jerusalem. And where are they? They're in Jerusalem. And what are they doing? They're waiting. They are submitted to God as they wait in Jerusalem, obeying the thing that the Lord instructed them to do. And why are they waiting there in Jerusalem? Well, they're waiting for the promise that would help them to do the rest of

of what the Lord commanded them to do. That is to go into all the world and make disciples. So they're right now doing what the Lord told them to do so that tomorrow they can go on and do the rest of what God told them to do. You see the point? They are fully surrendered to God. They are obeying him right now and they're committed to obeying him tomorrow. They are committed to living their life

for the purposes and the plans that God has set for them. Them being together, waiting, was their obedience to the Lord because their lives were surrendered to God. And they were also committed to continue that obedience because their lives were surrendered to God.

We can see another example of this in Acts chapter 4 if you want to flip over a couple pages. In Acts chapter 4, Peter and John are threatened and told to, you know, hey, stop preaching the name of Jesus. And so they leave the Jewish leaders after receiving that threat and they share what happened with the church. And so the church responds by lifting up this situation before God.

In verse 24 of Acts chapter 4, it says, And let's jump down to verse 29. So notice what happens.

the apostles are threatened and commanded, stop speaking in the name of Jesus. They bring that report back to the church and the church then prays and says to God. Now notice they're with one accord again when they lift up this prayer. So they're together again, they're united together again, but they're not just united with each other, they're united with God because their prayer in verse 29 is, give us boldness to speak your word.

And so what they're praying for is for the ability to be obedient to God even when there is opposition. They're still surrendered to God. They still want to obey God above all else. And even if it costs them their life, they want to obey God. And even if it costs them persecution, they want to obey God. Even if it costs them imprisonment, they want to obey God.

And so their prayer with one accord is not just one accord with one another, but they are still surrendering their lives to God and saying, we want to still be faithful to speak your word because that's what you've told us to do. And so they prayed that they would have boldness to speak his word. And then in verse 31 here in Acts chapter 4, it says, and when they had prayed, they

And so you can see the point here, that as they were in one accord with the Father, as they were looking to be obedient to God, and they asked for prayer to be filled with the Spirit, to have boldness, to be faithful, then God empowered them with the Holy Spirit. And so you can see the point here,

and they spoke the word of God with boldness. They were surrendered to God. No matter what that meant in their life, no matter what consequences they might face in their life, for that, they were surrendered to God. In order to receive the promised empowering, you need to surrender your life to God. You need to come to a point where you have a heart for God such that you desire to do God's will.

So that you, like Jesus in the garden, are able to say, Lord, not my will be done, but your will be done. Because there will be conflicts where you have goals and desires and objectives that are different than what's on the plan set forth by the Father. And we need to come to the point, in order to be empowered by the Holy Spirit, we need to come to the point where our hearts are set such that we are submitted to the will of God and the plan of God. And we would say,

I have this will. I have these desires. These are my goals. And I don't want to experience those things. And I don't want to go do that. But Lord, not my will be done, but your will be done. I want to be submitted to your plans. We have to come to the point where we surrender our life to God. Because the purpose of the Holy Spirit's empowering is to be a witness to Jesus.

And where our lives are not lining up with that, where our lives are not designed to be a witness to Jesus, we need to be surrendered, to come to a point of submission where we ask God to help us to be a witness to Jesus, to glorify Jesus to the world around us, to be an example to the world around us. For us here at Living Water, my prayer this evening is that we would all be in one place and one accord, as it says here in verse 1.

Are we together tonight with one accord? That is, if God's called you here at Living Water, then he has a part for you to play. He has a plan for you, a purpose for you here at this fellowship. You know, I think many times as Christians, we think of choosing a church or attending a church kind of like getting season tickets to our favorite sports team.

We attend. We're fans. We want them to succeed. We want them to do well, but we're just watching. We're invested, but we're just watching. And the Lord doesn't want this to be that type of event for you. This isn't like you've got a season pass and you can come as often as you want. God wants you to join the team. That's how he's designed the church to function.

And so as I ask that question, are we together tonight with one accord? I would ask you to present that to the Lord and ask the Lord to show you your part and your role, the things that he wants to accomplish through you here at Living Water. Not just in your own personal life, wherever you are and wherever you go. That's one aspect of God's call for you. But if God's called you here, then what's your part in the work that he wants to do here? I know it's scary to get off the bleachers here,

But that's why we need the empowering of the Holy Spirit. And we need to be surrendered to the Lord to be able to receive that empowering. And so I want to encourage you this evening to submit to God's plan for your life and to be a witness for Jesus. However he's called you to be that witness. It might not be the witness that you want. Sometimes God calls us to be a witness to Jesus in the hospital.

And as we go through illnesses, as we go through difficulties, you know, think about like Rick Dominguez, think about like Sherry Souza, think about there's so many that we've seen. And God has used the things that are happening in their life to enable them and empower them to be a witness to Jesus. Now, none of us would choose that. None of us would want to submit to that. That's his plan for us. And so we need to submit to it. However, he's called you to be a witness.

Surrender your life to God. Let go of your dreams and your plans and your hopes and all your objectives and what you want, and you let God set the agenda. And maybe God has in store for you much better things than you could have planned for yourself. In fact, definitely God has in store for you much better things than you could have planned for yourself. We may not see it at the moment, but in eternity we'll be able to testify of that.

In the workplace, be the witness that God has called you to be. Surrender your life to God. And if God calls you on the mission field, but you don't want to go, hey, surrender your life to God. Whatever the case may be, whatever is specific to God's work in your life, you need to surrender your life to God in order to receive the promised empowering of the Holy Spirit. Well, the second point as we move on in chapter 2, looking again at verse 1, but then also verse 2,

Ask God to give you his spirit. So if we want to receive this promised empowering, what do we need to do? First, surrender our life to God. Second, we ask for God to empower us, to give his spirit to us. Again, verse 1, it says,

They were all with one accord in one place, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Now here as we look at this account in Acts chapter 2, we find a difference between what the disciples experienced and what we experience in receiving the empowering of the Holy Spirit. The difference is they had to wait for

They could not be empowered by the Spirit before this. They had to wait for this specific day. Jesus told them to wait for the promise. He ascended into heaven, and there was 10 days that they waited and prayed.

And it could not happen before that because, well, this was fulfilling some things that God had set up for his timing and for the fulfillment of the scriptures. But this was a one-time thing. They had to wait these 10 days. It was just for that first time. After that, we don't see that type of waiting again. Instead, the Holy Spirit is given upon request. The Holy Spirit is given when we ask.

And so they spent these 10 days asking God to pour out his Holy Spirit. And so it says, when the day of Pentecost had fully come. Now, the day of Pentecost was a special day. It was a specific day because it was all part of God's plan. And again, this is because it was the first time the Holy Spirit is going to be poured out in this way. This was God fulfilling the prophetic purpose of a feast that he established in the Old Testament, the Feast of Weeks.

The word Pentecost just means 50th, because it's the 50th day after the Sabbath that takes place after the Passover. Now, don't worry about the complicated equation there, okay? But it was a specific day, a certain number of days after the Passover. So remember, Jesus was crucified. That was Passover. He resurrected on the third day. That was a Sunday. Now, 50 days later...

This is also a Sunday. It's the day of Pentecost. It's a celebration of a feast that God had ordained for the nation of Israel. It was the feast of harvest where they would celebrate the beginnings of the harvest that God was about to bring. And so as they were farmers and they had the wheat field, they would take a small portion of that wheat harvest. They would take it. They would offer it to the Lord and

in anticipation of the rest of the harvest that they were going to go back home and be able to reap. And so on that day for this feast, when it had fully come, when this day, it was just perfect, it was the right exact time, the Lord poured out the Holy Spirit upon the church.

Now, it's interesting because Jewish tradition tells us that the law was given to Moses on this day. And so you have the Old Testament Pentecost where the law is given from Mount Sinai. And then you have the New Testament Pentecost where the Holy Spirit is given to the church. Now, for us today as we look at this, the day of Pentecost has already fully come.

And so we don't have to wait for a specific days. We don't have to wait 10 days. We don't have to wait for a specific time on the calendar. We don't need to wait. And so what do we need to do? Well, instead now we just need to ask. I would ask you to consider the words of Jesus in Luke chapter 11. Jesus says in Luke chapter 11 verse 9, I say to you, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you.

And so Jesus says, ask, seek, and knock. And if you ask, he says, it will be given. But then he goes on to explain that. He says, look, if your son asks for a piece of bread, who gives him a stone? Who will feed their hungry child with rocks? Or if he asks for a fish, who will give him a serpent? Give him something dangerous instead of something that can meet the need of hunger.

And then Jesus says in verse 13, if you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? And so the point is, look, you're a fallen person, you are sinful, and yet you give good gifts to your children and you meet their needs and you provide for them and you take care of them. And so if you can do that as a fallen human being, a sinful person with all kinds of things wrong with you, how much more can

Your heavenly Father who is perfect, who loves you beyond measure, who wants only what's best for you, how much more, he says, will he give the Holy Spirit to those who ask? And so he tells us to ask, and it's a present tense command. So when he tells us to ask, it means ask and keep on asking. Again, it's not just a one-time event, but ask God to give you the Holy Spirit. That's the instruction. That's the command.

And so they had to wait, but while they were waiting, they were asking, and then they received the promise. For you and I, we need to ask. And we don't have to wait 10 days any longer. We don't have to wait for that day on the calendar. But we have to ask and to keep on asking, and God's promise is, I will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask. And so we can have a confidence as we ask. We can have an assurance as we ask that when we ask,

God wants to give us his spirit. He wants us to be filled with the Holy Spirit. That's his will. That's his plan for us. And so here in Acts chapter 2, they wait, they ask, and they are filled with the Holy Spirit. Then in Acts chapter 4, we saw that a few moments ago. They pray, they ask again, and what happens? They are filled with the Holy Spirit again.

Later on in Acts chapter 8, there'll be some people up in Samaria who believe in Jesus and receive the gospel. They get baptized as they believe in Jesus, and then the Holy Spirit's lay hands on the people. I'm sorry, the apostles lay hands on the people, and they receive the Holy Spirit at that time. And so it's that occasion where the Holy Spirit comes upon them as they ask, and the apostles are praying for them.

And so we see here what we need to do in order to receive the promised empowering is to ask. He gives us a responsibility in this. It's a promise to us. It's a command for us. It's what God wants for you. But you have to engage with God in order to receive this promise, to receive this empowering.

J. Oswald Sanders, who wrote an awesome book on leadership that's kind of like the classic tried-and-true leadership, spiritual leadership book that we often refer to. He says this about the Holy Spirit. He says, we are filled with the Spirit as much as we choose to be. This is something for us to consider. And I would encourage you to meditate on this thought and maybe consider it again later on this week.

We are as filled with the Spirit as much as we choose to be. The Holy Spirit is not limited. It's not a limited resource. You can only have a little bit because, you know, otherwise there won't be enough to go around. The Holy Spirit is given without measure, the scriptures tell us. The only measurement really is how much we ask. It's really our choice how much we're empowered by the Spirit.

Now, there's a lot of things that are not our choice. We can't choose God's plan for us. So God may call you to be a missionary. That's his plan for you. You don't get to choose that. I mean, you can choose not to do it, but you can't change it and say, God, instead, you know, you're going to choose this for me. You're going to have this plan for me. You can't do that. God gets to choose. And so people of God have, well, God's plans set for them. We can't choose that.

Now, you may want to be an effective, you know, awesome evangelist, but that may not be God's plan for you. And so no matter how much you try to force it, that's not going to happen because, well, that's not God's plan for you. You can't choose God's plan. You can't choose your spiritual gifts.

The scriptures tell us that gifts of the Spirit are given according to the will of the Holy Spirit. He chooses what spiritual gifts you have. And you might think, well, I wish I had somebody else's gifts. I don't like the gifts I've been given. But you don't get to choose that. That's not your choice. We can't choose how successful we are in life, in business, in ministry. We don't get to choose that. Maybe we have a ministry like Jeremiah where we preach to people who refuse to listen for our whole life.

And we don't see much evidence or fruit from the ministry and the things that we've been doing. That might be part of what God's called us to. We don't get to choose how successful we are. That's up to God. That's part of God's work. But what we can choose is how faithful we are. And we choose how faithful we are, number one, by submitting to God's plan. It's not about

comparing our lives to somebody else. It's not about, you know, comparing our lives to our dreams and desires for us, but it's about how faithful we are to do what God's called us to do. And so you can choose how faithful you are by surrendering your life to God and submitting to God's plan. But on top of that, you choose how faithful you are by asking God to give you his spirit, asking God to empower you to do

his plan for you. You don't have to wait for a special day any longer, but you do need to have the right heart, saying, Lord, I want to do what you desire. I want to be submitted to your will. I want your purposes, and for you to be glorified in my life. And as you have that heart, and ask God for the Holy Spirit, his promise is he will give you the Holy Spirit.

to enable you and empower you to do the work that he's called you to do. But there's a part that you have. It's a little bit like getting refills at a restaurant. You know, some restaurants, they come and they offer refills, but then they say, you know, can you take off your lid? So you take off the lid and then they take your cup, they go give you a refill, they bring it back, you put the lid back on. Now, if you don't take off your lid, you don't get the refill. There's a part that you have to play. The

And it's being offered. It's being given to you, but you got to take off the lid. Now, for us as believers, that idea of taking off the lid, that's us surrendering our life to God. I'm going to take off the lid of my life and say, I'm not going to limit you, God, on what you can do or what access you have or where you're going to send me or what you're going to call me to do. I'm just going to open myself up completely and ask for a refill and ask for you to fill me with your Holy Spirit and

to insist my own way, to insist that God do what I want him to do. That's like keeping the lid on it. Lord, this is it. This is all I want. This is what I want. Now you work with this and that doesn't work. And no wonder we don't experience the power of God, the power of the Holy Spirit when we approach it in that way. I've heard stories of all you can eat barbecue.

where they keep bringing you food, just incredible amounts of meat and different kinds of meat, as long as you have that little sign on your table where they know, okay, that sign's up, you know, it's a green light. They just keep on bringing it. And you don't really get to choose what they bring. They just bring the next thing, and they bring it to your table until you flip the sign and say, okay, that's it. I don't want any more. That's really how we are as believers, right?

God will continue to give his Holy Spirit to empower you to do the work that he's called you to do and live the life that he's called you to live as long as you have the sign of it saying, yes, please give me more. I don't care what you give me. I don't care what you want. Whatever, just bring it. I'll consume it.

That needs to be our heart. That's the heart of the disciples as they were gathered together with one accord. They were saying, we don't know what God has in store for us, but we know he's called us to reach the world with the gospel. And so give us your spirit, Lord, so that we can do the work that you've called us to do. And we need to have that kind of heart that asks for the Holy Spirit, that requests, God, would you fill me? Would you empower me?

that I could do the work that you've called me to do, that I could live the life that you've called me to live. Well, finally, point number three, as we move on to verse three and four, respond as the Spirit moves. In order to receive this promised empowering, we need to be responsive so that when the Holy Spirit is moving and when he's prompting our hearts, that we are taking the steps that he is asking us to take. Verse three tells us,

Here as they're gathered together, they've been waiting, they've been asking, they have their lives surrendered to God, and now there's the sound of a mighty rushing wind.

And these tongues of fire, these flames of fire appear over each of them, and they're filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, looking at this passage, I'd like to point out that as we talk about being empowered by the Spirit or filled with the Spirit or baptized by the Spirit, that there's a variety of experiences that we have in receiving this empowering of the Holy Spirit.

For these disciples, they heard a rushing wind and they saw these tongues of fire. But that's not repeated throughout the rest of the book of Acts. And so we shouldn't get the impression that this is always what happens when people receive the filling or the empowering of the Holy Spirit. In fact, the rest of the book of Acts records a variety of experiences. It's not always the same.

And in many ways, it's like receiving the gospel. When someone receives the gospel and believes in Jesus Christ, you can hear the testimonies, right? Some people have amazing feelings that go, oh, I just felt like this huge weight was lifted off me. Some people have great emotions. They come to the Lord, they're weeping, and there's this great joy that

Some would describe maybe some warm fuzzies or, you know, some other things. The Apostle Paul was knocked off his horse and a bright light shone around him as he received the gospel, right? Different experiences. And the empowering of the Holy Spirit is the same way. It's different. It happens differently in our lives. And sometimes it might be dramatic.

The Holy Spirit comes upon you in a way that is really felt and it's tangible. You can just, you know, there's this great expression. There's this great emotion. There's these feelings. There's this demonstration. And sometimes the Holy Spirit comes upon you in that way. And sometimes the Holy Spirit comes upon you and there's not really much to say about it. And that's okay. In fact, it can be different for two people sitting in the same service. And sometimes we feel like, wow, look at that person. I mean, they're just weeping and overcome and just like, whoa, wow.

And I'm just sitting here, you know, it must not have worked for me. But that's not the reality. The Holy Spirit, we receive by faith, just like salvation is received by faith. And so now what God calls us to do is now go forward in faith. Because His promise is, He will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask. Now live your life in the power of the Holy Spirit.

God wants you to be filled. He commands you to be filled. He promises to fill you when you ask. So go forward in faith knowing that you have that promised empowering of the Holy Spirit to do what God has called you to do. But you might experience it differently than somebody else. And you might experience it differently at different times in your life.

Not only is there a variety of experiences, but notice it's an individual experience. In verse 3, it tells us, And so it wasn't, you know, one big ball of fire over the whole gathering. Each and every individual had the flame of fire over them. It was an individual thing. God was doing an individual work to all of them.

but they had their own filling of the Holy Spirit. And keep in mind, this is the 120 that we see mentioned gathered together in chapter 1, not just the 12 apostles. And so this experience is not just for the elite or leaders or some special group, but this is for all believers. All believers together.

God wants you to be filled with the Holy Spirit. He commands you to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And he promises that you will be filled with the Holy Spirit when you ask. Remember, as this group of believers have gathered together, only two of them were possible candidates to be an apostle, right? That's what we saw last week in chapter one. So again, this isn't like the elite of the elite. These are normal believers. They weren't all apostle material, right?

They were just those who responded to the message of Jesus. Again, it's for every one of us, each of us individually. It's not enough to be part of a church that has the filling of the Holy Spirit, but you personally, individually need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It's not enough to be part of a family where, you know, maybe your spouse is filled with the Holy Spirit. No, you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

It's not enough to have your parents filled with the Holy Spirit. You need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It needs to be for us individually. We have this empowering from the Lord. In verse 4, it tells us, There was an immediate response. As they're filled with the Holy Spirit, they began to speak with other tongues. Now,

The whole idea of speaking in tongues, I'm not going to get into detail on that tonight. Essentially, speaking in tongues is a supernatural ability to speak to God in a language that you don't know. It's a real gift from God. It's still active for today. It's not for every believer. We'll talk more about it next week. But notice what it says. They began to speak as the Spirit gave them utterance. Here's the point.

The Holy Spirit moved. He put the sounds in their mind on their tongue. And what the disciples were doing was responding as the Holy Spirit moved. They were responding to the moving of the Holy Spirit in their life. Now tongues is not the only way that the Holy Spirit moves. In Acts chapter 19 verse 6, it tells us that the Apostle Paul laid his hands on some believers. The Holy Spirit came upon them and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.

And so as they were in this group, they were those who the Holy Spirit moved to speak with tongues, and there is others who the Holy Spirit moved to prophesy. And I'm not going to get into the details of prophecy tonight either, but that's the supernatural ability to speak a message for God. Tongues is to God. Prophecy is for God. But either case, it's the Holy Spirit giving that gift. It's the Holy Spirit moving that

in someone's life. But then there's the need to respond to that. You can resist. Sometimes the Holy Spirit moves and we say, no, I don't want to say that. I don't want to do that. And if we refuse to move as the Holy Spirit prompts us, as we refuse to respond as the Holy Spirit moves, we will not receive the promise empowering. It's there, it's available, but we don't engage it. We don't put it in gear because we refuse to do something

what the holy spirit is calling us to do and so this evening i want to encourage you to respond as the spirit moves we want to give some time this evening for us to worship and to invite god to work in our midst to pour out his holy spirit upon us but as we do we need to be willing to respond and it goes back to the point number one surrender your life to god

That is, you submit your will, your plans, your dreams, your hopes, your goals, your objectives, and you submit that to God, and you say, God, whatever you want in my life, I'm going to be obedient to that. And that includes, if you prompt me and move me by your Holy Spirit to do something I'm not real comfortable doing, I want to do that. I want to go forward and do the things that you've called me to do. So we need to surrender our life to God. We need to ask God to give his Spirit.

John, you can come on up and he's going to lead us in some songs. And as he leads us in this time of worship, let's take this time to surrender to God and to ask God to give us his Holy Spirit. Again, it's not a one-time thing, but I can share quite freely, man, I need a fresh new work of the Holy Spirit in my life. And so I'm not just sharing this as like, hey, you know, all of you better listen to this because you really need this.

But God has us here in the book of Acts in chapter two this evening because we all need to come to a new place of surrender in our life. And we all need to ask God to pour out his Holy Spirit upon us.

Now, as we have this time of worship, we'll have the first couple songs where we're asking God to fill us. We're surrendering our life to God. But we also want to give opportunity as we continue on in the time of worship to respond as the Holy Spirit moves. Now, listen. The Holy Spirit may want to give you the gift of tongues tonight. And for some people, I know that freaks you out. But surrender to God's plan. If He wants to do that work in your life, invite Him to do it. Let Him do that work. Now,

Please understand, we do have the rest of the scriptures for us as well. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 14, things need to be done decently and in order. So this is not a license to go crazy, disrupt the service, interrupt everything. No, no, no. But if the Holy Spirit wants to give you the gift of tongues, if he moves in your heart to speak in tongues tonight,

Do that. You can do it quietly to yourself. It doesn't have to be a loud public thing. You don't have to interrupt and disrupt, but respond if the Holy Spirit moves in that way. Maybe the Holy Spirit will move to give you the gift of prophecy tonight. We're going to give you opportunity to share corporately. Maybe God wants to give you a word for the rest of the congregation or for somebody specific. Be open to that and invite God to work in that way.

But those are just two examples, tongues and prophecy. That's just two of the ways that the Holy Spirit manifests himself. He may move on your heart to pray for somebody, and we want to give opportunity for that as well. Maybe praying for healing or provision or for blessing or for whatever God may put upon your heart. He may fill you tonight, but not move in any of those ways today, but maybe he will tomorrow.

or the next day, and we need to continue to be in that place of inviting God to work and responding as He moves. And so let's take these next few moments. Let's begin just by worshiping the Lord and inviting Him to pour out His Holy Spirit upon us as we surrender our lives to God.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.