Unstoppable Power

The term “ground zero” refers to the point on the earth’s surface closest to a detonation. It has often been used in reference to nuclear explosions, but can also refer to the epicenter of an earthquake, epidemics or other disasters. In recent years the term “ground zero” has become synonymous with the site of the World Trade Center. The common denominator in all these meanings is that ground zero describes the site of devastation and death and destruction.

This morning we’re going to be looking at a very different kind of ground zero. If you’re visiting us, last week we started a series in the book of Acts called Mission Unstoppable. The book of Acts records an explosion of spiritual power greater than the world has ever seen and the ripples of that explosion went out in all directions in ever widening circles until the whole world, and in fact all of history, was impacted by that explosion.

Ground zero of that explosion is found in the 2nd chapter of Acts, so let’s turn there together. But this is a very different kind of ground zero and a different kind of explosion – instead of producing death and destruction, it produced life and salvation. Instead of twisted metal and rubble where a building or city once stood, lives that were twisted and falling apart were untwisted and put back together and retored to relationship with God. Pentecost exploded God’s mercy and forgiveness to lost sinners with the spiritual power to penetrate hardened hearts and darkened minds – transforming lives with the grace of God, lives like yours and mine.

That was the purpose for which the Holy Spirit was given – to continue Jesus’ ministry and mission on earth through the church spreading salvation to the ends of the earth - and His purpose and power on the earth and in the church is no less powerful or available today.

The power of the Holy Spirit that was poured out on the church at Pentecost is still powerfully at work in the church today

Let’s pray and then read together Acts 2:1-13

I want to break this chapter into 3 sections, with 3 simple points:

I. The power of the Spirit poured out

II. The power of the Spirit preached out

III. The power of the Spirit lived out

I. The power of the Spirit poured out

The day of Pentecost was a holiday also known as the Feast of the Harvest that commemorated the gathering of the grain harvest. It was called Pentecost because it occurred fifty days after Passover. Jews gathered in Jerusalem from all around the world to celebrate Pentecost.

The 120 disciples were gathered together in one place and in one accord when suddenly the Holy Spirit came upon them in dramatic power. First they heard a sound like a mighty rushing wind, then they saw tongues of fire divide and rest on each of them, and then they began to speak in other tongues – languages they did not know or learn, but were able to speak fluently as the Spirit gave them utterance.

And now they had the attention of the thousands of Jews who had come Jerusalem from many different nations for Pentecost. Most of the vast crowd was amazed to hear these uneducated Galileans speaking in their own language and praising God. A few people mocked and said they were drunk – but no one took that seriously. It was clear that what was happening was of God. It was really the tongues that caught the attention of the crowd and prepared them to hear the gospel. I think this gives us a great picture about all the gifts of the Spirit – they are gifts from the Spirit to enable the proclamation of the word to go forth with greater power and receptivity, whether among unbelievers or among believers. All the gifts of the Spirit are for the building up of the church and are good and necessary for the church – and that includes the gift of tongues.

A word about tongues

So let’s talk about tongues for a few minutes. There is one word used in the NT to describe this gift, glossalalia, but as we look at the gift here and then in the epistles, there seems to be two very different manifestations and purposes to the gift of tongues. When the Holy Spirit comes upon the disciples, they are given the ability to speak in other languages “as the Spirit gave them utterance”. And the Jews gathered here are amazed as they hear uneducated men speaking fluently in their own tongues. So here what we have are earthly languages being given supernaturally to the disciples by the Holy Spirit.

But in 1 Corinthians 14 Paul seems to be describing a different phenomenon of tongues when he says that the “one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men, but to God, for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit.” (vs. 2) and later speaks of praying in a tongue. This sounds like a similar but different manifestation of the Spirit – in Acts they are praising God in an earthly language that others understand, and in 1 Corinthians there is a praying to God in a language that is not directed to or understood by those around them. It is the same gift of glossalalia but it’s manifested differently and for different purposes. So there is a speaking in other earthly languages so that unbelievers might hear and see God at work, and there is the believer’s prayer language between them and the Lord.

So what is Grace Community Church belief about the gift of tongues? I don’t have the time to teach more fully on this right now, so if you have questions please come and ask. But in brief here is what we believe scripture teaches:

• The gift of tongues (both types described in scripture) are still in operation today as are all the gifts of the Spirit. We see no indication in scripture that the gifts of the Spirit were given temporarily to be withdrawn at a later date.

• The gift of tongues, like all gifts of the Spirit, is a good gift and to be desired. Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 14:1 that we should eagerly pursue the spiritual gifts. When Paul wrote that he was speaking to a church that was abusing the gifts and especially the gift of tongues, so if ever there was an opportunity for Paul to say, hey, let’s just lay off the gifts –this was it. But he didn’t. He stoked their fire for the gifts, while laying biblical guidelines to help them use the gifts in spiritually mature ways.

• We believe that speaking in tongues is an evidence of the baptism or filling of the Holy Spirit but we do not believe that speaking in tongues is the only or necessary evidence of being baptized in the Holy Spirit. Paul indicates that not all speak in tongues and we would never consider a believer to be less mature or less spiritual because he or she did not speak in tongues. The Corinthians were flaunting the gift of tongues as a spiritual badge of maturity and Paul essentially tells them that their attitude simply revealed how spiritually immature they were. So we would encourage every believer to pursue love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, knowing that not everyone will receive every gift.

• Finally, our position on the public speaking in tongues follows Paul’s instruction in 1 Cor. 14:27-28

If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret. 28But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God. 1 Cor. 14:27-28 (ESV)

So tongues in public need to be interpreted or they are to be kept between a believer and God. Not because tongues aren’t good, but for the sake of clarity in the public meeting. The gifts are to benefit the church, so there must be understanding or it’s not beneficial and it will only serve to confuse. Here’s what I want to say and then we’ll move on: we should not be leery of any of the good gifts of the Holy Spirit. Everything can be abused, but abuse of a good thing should not lead to disuse, but to clarifying and pursuing the good and true and biblical use of the gift, and that is true of the gift of tongues. If you do not speak in tongues I would encourage you (Paul would encourage you) first of all not to be afraid of this gift and to earnestly pursue it as well as all other spiritual gifts.

II. The power of the Spirit preached out (acts 2:14-24)

This is a manifestation of the power Jesus promised the disciples they would receive – power to be his witnesses. Now we see the same Peter who denied Jesus three times out of fear of what a small crowd might do to him standing up and addressing thousands of Jews and filled with the Spirit he preaches the gospel with the power of the Spirit and that power is demonstrated in two ways:

a. The power of the Spirit is demonstrated in Peter’s boldness. After explaining that what they were seeing was what was prophesied in Joel, namely that the Spirit would be poured out Peter than preaches Christ with an in-your-face-kind of boldness. He pulls no punches – “this Jesus…you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up…”. When you speak publicly you learn how to soften moments like that, “this Jesus, who was crucified (we just won’t mention who did it), God raised him up.” That way no one is offended. But Peter steps up with a boldness that smacks them in the face with the evil that they are guilty of – not because he wants to offend them, but because he wants to drive home the conviction of what they did – God’s chosen people are guilty of rejecting and crucifying God’s Chosen Messiah.

The Holy Spirit gives boldness. Do you lack boldness in your witness? I know sometimes I do. We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit – He will give us all the boldness we need to share our faith with others clearly and boldly. As we consider growing and going, we should be asking God to fill us.

b. The power of the Spirit is also demonstrated in the response the crowd has to Peter’s words. Read with me vv. 36-41

When they heard Peter’s words they were cut to the heart – it was the Holy Spirit who took Peter’s words and pierced their hearts with them. The purpose of the power of the Spirit will always be to empower the preaching of the gospel for the saving of souls – there is no greater miracle that could be done than for a soul to be saved. This is the work of the Spirit – that in one day 3000 souls would be saved and added to the church. These 3000 are only the beginning of an unstoppable advance of the word of God and unstoppable increase of the church by those who were being saved.

Remember that Pentecost was the Feast of the Harvest – the day they celebrated the first fruits of the harvest – and on this day there were gathered thousands of first fruits of a world-wide, history wide harvest that would reach down to our day and beyond. Oh, that we would see the Spirit of the Lord bring in the harvest in our day, both throughout the world and in our church. Let’s pray with faith and confidence to that end. The harvest is ripe, may the Lord ripen the harvest and use us to harvest many precious souls to Christ. Jenn was sharing with some girls from another church about our frustration with the lack of salvations we have seen and one of the young ladies said, sounds like your church needs to pray more. There is a great harvest, and the Spirit is powerful to bring in that harvest – let’s pray the Lord of the harvest to use us in that great labor! The Spirit is still ready to bring in the harvest.

The power of the Holy Spirit that was poured out on the church at Pentecost is still powerfully at work in the church today

III. The power of the Spirit lived out (vv. 42-47)

This is the first snapshot of the newborn NT church. You read this and you can’t help but get a sense of the joy and awe that filled these early believers as they were seeing God move powerfully in their midst. There is spiritual life and spiritual power in this newborn church. There is joy and there is awe. There is praise and folks looking on like what they see. And what I love about this picture of the power of God at work in the church is that it is multi-dimensional. They’re seeing miracles, seeing salvations, but their experience is more than that. They are devoted to the apostles teaching, and to fellowship and to communion and to prayers. They are generously selling everything they owned to give to those in need (and we’ll talk about this practice a little later in the book, so don’t run out and sell your home just yet), and they were spending a lot of time together breaking bread together in fellowship. God moving in their midst was producing healthy gospel growth that included their growth as disciples.

Our new mission statement is Loving God*Growing Together*Serving Others*Going to the World and someone might say, “isn’t the mission of the church simply to reach the lost, why have all that other stuff in the mission statement? Why not just, Going to the world? This picture of the Spirit’s work lived out helps to answer that: reaching out to the lost is central to the church’s mission, but our mission also includes other aspects of God working in our midst that proclaim to the world “God is in this place, God is with these people.” Gospel growth includes Christians growing in the spiritual disciplines and vital life together so that the world sees a healthy, thriving church that displays the presence of God and leads people to give praise and glory of God.

And as their spiritual momentum picked up speed, more and more people were added to their number day by day those who were being saved. Notice it was the Lord adding to their number. Because Gos was in their midst the church was a dynamic place to be: full of joy and life and awe and praise and love and fellowship and generosity. And God added to their number. In the end, only the Lord can save precious souls and bring them to faith in Christ. But God desires to do that, and as we close this study, may our heart and faith be stirred to ask God to use us as a church to see many added to the church.

This was a special day, the inauguration of the coming of the Holy Spirit. We may not see 3000 in one day. But the power of the Holy Spirit that was poured out on the church at Pentecost is still powerfully at work in the church today. I want us to close by asking God to pour out His gracious Holy Spirit on us in a fresh way. Ask God for revival. Power. Gospel growth. For the Spirit to fill us and use us powerfully for His service and glory.

We are going to close by having a time of corporate prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to fill us and empower us as a church. Pray for people to come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. Pray for the God to do great works among His people.