Holy Spirit Week 2 A4

St Bart’s Anglican Church

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Week 2 – The POWER of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2) Small Group Discussion Questions

1. How do you see the Holy Spirit at work in and through you?

2. How have you witnessed the power of the Holy Spirit at work in other people? How can this sometimes appear dramatic and other times more quiet? Why are both completely valid?

Read Acts 2:1-13

3. Is there anything that particularly stands out for you in this passage? Does it excite you or scare you?

4. This is an incredibly dramatic scene that must have been both exhilarating and terrifying for those present. What do you think it would have felt like to be one of the disciples in this scene?

5. What are the various physical ways that we see the Holy Spirit manifested here?

6. How do people respond to the Holy Spirit moving? Try to look at each group and be specific in describing their responses.

7. How would you respond to a friend who asks the question: “what does this mean?” (v.12)

8. What is the significance of the experience of the Holy Spirit being an outside power and not a strength of our own? How is it clear in the passage that the Holy Spirit is power from God and not from ourselves?

9. What difference does it make to you to know that we have access to such incredible power?

10. Sometimes we can feel quite powerless in life – either because of our situation or because we don’t ‘stack up’ according to worldly measures of power. How does the Holy Spirit change this?

11. How is the Holy Spirit power for life in relationship with God? How intimate of a relationship does God desire with each of us? How do this make you feel?

12. How is Peter changed from the person he had been prior to this event? What does his address say about this incredible event?

13. Given what you already know about the Gospel of Luke, and Jesus’ words in Acts 1:8, what might the gift of languages (vv.8-11) suggest about who the Gospel is for?

Read Acts 2:14-21

14. How does this fit with that spoke by the Prophet Joel (quoted by Peter)? (cf. vv.17-21)

15. With the gift of the Holy Spirit, the disciples were transformed from withdrawn and scared men into brave and proclaiming witnesses. What does this tell us about the power of the Holy Spirit? What’s the implication for our own situation and prayers? How have you seen people changed?

16. How can we be more open to God working in our lives in whatever way he chooses – be it like a roaring wind or a gentle breeze?

Talk 2/3 (The Holy Spirit): 24/05/15 “The Power of the Holy Spirit” by the Rev’d Adam Lowe

Bible Passage: Acts 2

INTRODUCTION \\ PROMISE FULFILLED IN POWER

Last week we began our three-part series with Jesus’ promise of the Holy Spirit.

• That the the Spirit of truth would remind the disciples of what he taught them, and even what he had not been able to teach.

• A remarkable promise, and actually a promise for every person who believes in Jesus…

• And so this week, we’re looking at the Power of the Holy Spirit.

• Jesus said:

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ Acts 1:8

• The word for power in the Greek is dyanmis, it’s a form of the word from which we get in English, dynamite.

• So this means incredible power. It’s explosive power.

• When Josephus - a Jewish historian in the first century - used the word, it was often in reference to that of an army.

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• So when we hear that the Holy Spirit comes with power, we should have a sense of incredible might and strength.

• And that’s exactly what we see here in Acts 2.

What an amazing day! The first four verses of Acts 2 are action-packed.

They’re experiencing it with all their senses - it’s immersive.

• A sound like the blowing of a violent wind;

• A sight which seems to be tongues of fire separating and resting on each of them;

• People spontaneously speaking in every language.

• It draws a crowd and they’re bewildered.

We’re not sure if they were gathered in the upper room mentioned in Acts 1:13 or one of the many spaces of the temple (Luke 24:53; Acts 2:46A) - the place isn’t precise.

• But whilst the place isn’t precise, the time is very precise.

• It’s Pentecost. Pentecost isn’t something invented by Christians!

• Pentecost was the fiftieth day after Passover.

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• It was an agricultural festival at which people would bring the first sheaf of wheat from their crop and offer it to God - part gratitude for that which had been provided and part prayer that the rest of the crop would be safely harvested.

• This meant that there were Jewish people from everywhere coming to Jerusalem.

But of course it wasn’t simply an agricultural festival.

• There’s echoes of the story of rescue which dominated the memories of Jewish people.

• Remember, it was at the Passover when the lambs were sacrificed and they escaped from Egypt though the Red Sea.

• And it was fifty days later when they would come to Mt Sinai and Moses would receive the Law.

• It’s on this day - fifty days since Jesus pointed to his own death on the cross as he shared the Passover meal with his friends, that the Holy Spirit comes and fills them.

• This is the day that Jesus had promised the disciples (cf. John 14 and Luke 24).

• This is the day the people had longed for. An age when the Law of God would not be written on stone tablets, but on the very hearts of his people.

• When Peter stands up and quotes the prophet Joel, he’s saying that day is this day.

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• Moses went up the mountain and came down with the law on tablets of stone; this day, Jesus has ascended into heaven and sent his spirit into his people’s hearts.

• The day prophesied by Joel (cf. 2:28ff). By Isaiah (cf. Isaiah 32:15). By Ezekiel (cf. 36:27)

• The day pointed to by John the Baptist.

• The day promised by Jesus himself!

• That day, has dawned because of Jesus.

• That day, has dawned in which God’s Spirit is be poured out in power.

This means, that every Christian through the Holy Spirit has:

• POWER from God;

• POWER for Life; and

• POWER to Transform the World.

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PART A: POWER FROM GOD \\ VERSES 2-4

So first, power from God. The three phenomena or signs that we read of are amazing.

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

• A sound like violent wind, a sight which seemed to be tongues of fire, and a cacophony of languages ringing out. Note that it’s a sound ‘like’, and a sight which ‘seems to be’…

• They’re real but they can’t be fully described.

• Sometimes we can be so startled by this, we miss something critical - perhaps even more important than the shape of the signs, which is the source of the power.

• The wind, fire, and language might all seem like natural phenomena, yet they are supernatural both in character and origin.

• Where does it come from? It comes from heaven.

• These physical manifestations are from outside.

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• It isn’t an internal psychological experience. They’re hearing it. They’re seeing it.

• Crowds gather and are bewildered by what they hear.

• Crowds don’t gather because of an amazing yet unexpressed cognitive process!

• It is both real and not from this world.

The power of God, God’s very presence, does not come from within.

• He comes from outside and enters in.

• The worldly idea of power is something we achieve and accumulate.

• The worldly idea of power says, look for the strength within…

• The world says, the problems you experience are external, you’re fine just the way you are, and all you have to do is look internally to find the resolve to face them.

• Christianity says, the problem of sin is in every one of us, and the solution can only come from outside, from God.

• That’s so incredibly liberating!

• That when we’re faced with immense challenges, when we’re challenged by the mission that God lays before us, we don’t need to rely on our own power!

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• We don’t rely on mere, frail, human power - that from within.

• But we can rely on the power of God who pours his Spirit on us.

• Being spirit-filled means having an outside power at work in us and through us.

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PART B: POWER FOR LIFE \\ HOPE AND RELATIONSHIP

Second, this is power for life, life with God, because God’s Spirit is with us.

Where God’s Spirit is, he brings life, because God is the source of all life.

• The Spirit hovered over the water at creation;

• Life is breathed into the human form;

• Ezekiel forsaw a time when dead bones would be brought to life;

• Jesus breathes on his disciples with the gift of the Holy Spirit;

And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. (Romans 8:11)

• We have the most amazing gift of life through the Holy Spirit! //

We read throughout the Bible that when God’s presence shows up, it is often accompanied with fire.

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• In Genesis 15, when God makes a covenant with Abraham, a blazing torch passes between the pieces of the sacrifice laid out.

• In Exodus 3, Moses encounters God with the burning bush.

• In Exodus 13, the people of God are led through the wilderness by a pillar of fire.

• So when we hear of the tongues of fire resting on them, we should immediately think of God’s presence coming and making a home.

• This is remarkable, not least because in the Old Testament the sight of God’s presence was completely overwhelming, it was even fatal.

• Yet because of Jesus, we can be filled with God’s presence: empowering and purifying.

• Every believer is like a burning bush!

• This of course is the very declaration of John the Baptist - he baptised with water, but one more powerful than him would baptise with the Holy Spirit and fire (cf. Lk 3:16).

• God confirmed the validity of the Old Testament Law with fire from heaven (Ex 19:16-18), and so here at Pentecost God confirms the validity of the Holy Spirit.

• And that which became true on the day of Pentecost is true today.

• All Christians have received the Holy Spirit.

• That doesn’t make us little gods, but it does make us temples of the Holy Spirit.

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It is so remarkable that we can share an intimacy with God like that.

• At Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus and he hears the words confirming both his sonship and the Father’s great love for him.

• We read in Galatians (4:6) of how as children of God, he sends his Spirit into our heart who calls out to ‘Abba, Father’.

• His Spirit tells of his love for us and helps us cry out in love to him.

• The Holy Spirit takes what is real in our head, and also makes it real in our heart

• You can know God’s love even more intimately than if he was standing next to you.

Of course that can look different for each and every person.

• For some the Holy Spirit may come upon them with a big noise.

• For others, the Holy Spirit may come softly and secretly, quietly transforming.

• We have to be careful not to think the experience of those on Pentecost is prescriptive of how the Holy Spirit will always come upon a believer.

• Otherwise, it can result in guilt, because people are made to feel inadequate.

• Or it can result in jealously because we long for the experience that someone else had.

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• All that we need to know is that God loves to give the Holy Spirit to people, and all that we need to do is ask.

• How the Holy Spirit will be precisely at work in you, I don’t know.

• It might be like a gentle breeze, or a roaring wind.

But the point is this - when you trust in Jesus, asking God to send his Holy Spirit, he produces a joyful inhibition. The crowd, struggled to understand what was happening.

(It’s interesting that some want to know more, some blame it on intoxication.)

Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine. ’” (vv.12-13)

• They’re not drunk of course, as Peter clarifies.

• They’re filled with the Holy Spirit and that has resulted in a joyful inhibition, that may have been mistaken for drunkenness.

• But there’s a difference, as is mentioned in the letter to the Ephesians:

Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. (Ephesians 5:18)

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• Alcohol distorts reality and makes you less afraid, the Holy Spirit makes the Father’s love so real that your fear is gone.

• So they weren’t drunk, they were filled with the Holy Spirit which meant they had a joyful fearlessness.

• Power for life, because we have the presence of God in us.

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PART C: POWER TO TRANSFORM THE WORLD \\ OUTWARD

Power from God. Power for Life with God. And finally, Power to Transform the World.

The disciples would have been expecting renewal for Israel, but Jesus says, actually this is power for the transformation of the entire world.

That’s made abundantly clear with the third phenomena - the other tongues.

• That’s what drew all the crowds and caused amazement.

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them (v.3)

Note the cause and effect. We’re to be left in no doubt that this miraculous speaking of languages is because of the Holy Spirit.

• This is not intoxication.

• This is not simply a miracle of hearing as some purport.

• This is not incoherent babbling.

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Speaking in tongues is often the source of much angst in Christian circles.

• In 1 Corinthians 12 and 14, Paul speaks of a a gift in which people speak a language spontaneously, that is not understood by others. A type of heavenly babble.

• That’s not what is happening on the day of Pentecost. It’s different in several ways.

• The direction of the speaking is public, not private.

• The character of the speaking is understood by the listeners. That described in 1 Corinthians 14 is unintelligible and requires a special gift of interpretation.

• The purpose of the speaking is to bare witness to the Gospel.

• This is a supernatural ability to speak in recognisable languages.

And this is an international crowd.

• From Parthia and Mesopotamia in the north and east, to rome in the west, and Egypt and arabia in the south - together with the Island of Crete… this is an international and multi-lingual audience with many native languages and local dialects!

• Yet, miraculously, people from every nation could understand the message.

When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language (v.6)

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And this was the message: everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

• And that this Lord is Jesus who died on the cross, but death could not hold him.

• Peter warns them. He pleads with them.

• And some repent, are baptised, and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

• They’ve come to Jerusalem to celebrate the first fruits of their harvest, What they’ve witnessed is the first fruits of a great harvest of souls.

• At Babel (Genesis 11), people proudly tried to ascend to heaven, At Pentecost, heaven humbly descends to them.

• The curse that scattered language and nations, has been reversed.

• In Jerusalem this day, the language barrier was supernaturally overcome as a sign that the nations would be now gathered together in Christ - anticipating that day when the redeemed will be drawn from every nation, tribe, people, and language.

God’s message, the news of salvation, is breaking into the world and we are part of it.

• Every boundary is being broken down and the good news of salvation is breaking in!

• This is the bigger picture of why God has given us the gift of the Holy Spirit.

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• The Holy Spirit is also thrusting us into mission.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

Time and time again we see throughout the New Testament that one of the key ways in which the Spirit empowers us is for mission.

• At Ascension, Jesus commissions the disciples, but they’re left staring into the air.

• But now they’re ready to tell the world - because they’ve got: power from God, power for life, power to transform the world.

• And friends, so do we.

• If you feel unqualified for the mission of God, don’t worry, the Holy Spirit has all the power and experience we could ever imagine.

• That’s why God’s people can do what would be impossible for them to do alone.

• God has sent his spirit to empower you, to grow you, and joyfully proclaim his good news through you.

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