04/30/23 Heaven, Wind, and Fire
Heaven, Wind, and Fire
Acts 2:1-4
A couple of weeks ago, Lisa & I helped our daughter Lexy and her husband Logan move into their new home. They were moving from an apartment in Whitewater to a new house that they had just purchased in Milwaukee.
It was a multi-day extravaganza. We hopped in our truck & trailer early on Friday morning and didn’t return until late Saturday night.
There are two things that I’m increasingly reminded of these days when moving things:
1) I’m getting older! My back and arms not-so-gently remind me that I’m not in my 20’s or 30’s anymore.
I saw a funny meme the other day that said: “Kids, enjoy your 20’s & 30’s because when you turn 50, that ‘Check-Engine’ light comes on.”
Anyone here this morning have a ‘Check-Engine’ light on?
Anyone here this morning have an engine light that’s telling you to ‘Pull into a service center Immediately’ ? 😊
2) The other thing I’m reminded of when I help someone move is actually a question….one simple question: “Why do I own a truck and trailer?” ….I mean, if you own the means of transportation, then you automatically become a participant in the moving process. If you own a truck, and you can lift things, you are already 2/3 of a “Two Men and a Truck” hauling service! Then add Lisa to the mix (Who, being a farm girl, can lift practically anything) and we essentially become “Two Men and a Truck”!
But Not Anymore! Last week, a few days after moving our daughter to her new home, we sold our truck and trailer to our son-in-law’s younger brother….so now guess who’s gonna get the call when family members need help moving!
As my other daughter told me, “Well Played Old Man, Well Played!” 😊
Lexy & Logan purchased what realtors refer to as a ‘Starter Home’. The house is a bit older and in need of a little TLC. Once they have a better idea of where they feel God is calling them to put down more permanent roots, (If it’s God’s will) they’ll most likely move into more of a ‘Forever Home.’
Our passage for today (From the book of Acts) deals with the person of the Holy Spirit, and how the Holy Spirit made these early believers his ‘Forever Home.’ In the same way, He makes YOU His Forever Home – IF you have placed your faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
The moment you give your life to Jesus, you undergo what is called a spiritual baptism. This means that the person of the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of you – much like someone who takes up permanent residence in a house and makes it their Forever home.
Last week we looked at this verse from Acts chapter 1, verse 5 that mentions spirit baptism: “For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 1:5)
The Bible refers to this as the “Indwelling” of the Holy Spirit. The person of the Holy Spirit actually moves into your heart!
In John 14:16-17 Jesus says “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever – the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you.”
In order for a house to be occupied, however, it must be listed on the market – It must be available to purchase. When you recognized your need for a savior and gave your life to Christ, your spiritual house came up for sale on the market – and Jesus paid the price.
1 Corinthians 6:20a says “You were bought at a price…”
Jesus paid the price for your sins, and your belief in Him made you available for the Holy Spirit to come take up residence (To dwell) in your heart.
Your previous occupant, sin, no longer lives within your walls – he no longer holds the deed to the property!
The key he holds to your front door no longer works because the lock has been changed!
When Satan’s mail arrives at your mailbox it gets marked ‘Return to Sender’ because there’s a new occupant living in your house – His name is The Holy Spirit – The 3rd person of the Trinity…who is also in His very substance…GOD!
The only way sin gets into your house now is if you willingly let him in.
When sin knocks on the door of your heart and you decide to let him in, there’s a problem, because the Holy Spirit and sin do not mix. When you allow sin to come over for dinner, the Holy Spirit grieves.
Ephesians 4:30 says “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”
How would you react if your spouse invited an “Ex” (Boyfriend, Girlfriend, Former Spouse) over for dinner?
Well, you would be upset for sure…but it would also grieve your heart, would it not? You would feel betrayed by the actions of your spouse. You would feel disrespected…you would feel unloved.
THIS is how God feels when you invite sin, the former occupant of your heart, back over for dinner. Sin can make itself look really good, sin “cleans up well” so to speak. Don’t fall for its deceitful temptations – don’t let him through the door.
In our passage of scripture for today, the Holy Spirit is indwelling new believers in a powerful way.
Take a look at verse 1 of Acts chapter 2. If you recall from last week, we looked at the ascension of Jesus as he was taken up into the clouds – and into Heaven – before the very eyes of His disciples.
Today’s passage takes place 10 days after the Ascension of Christ. The disciples were praying and waiting for the promised Holy Spirit to arrive – something that Jesus had promised them would soon take place.
Verse 1 mentions that it was the day of Pentecost. Pentecost literally means “Fiftieth.” It is the New Testament name for the traditional Jewish Feast of Weeks (Also called Feast of the Harvest) celebrated exactly 50 days after Passover.
It was a time to celebrate the firstfruits of the wheat harvest that would have begun in Israel every year around this time.
Pentecost was also the recognized day of remembrance in which God delivered the Law of Moses to Israel at Mt. Sinai.
Obviously, Pentecost held a great deal of significance to many of the people who had gathered there waiting for the promised Holy Spirit to arrive.
Luke tells us in Acts 1:15 that there were about 120 people.
Think about that – God decided to change the world using a group of people who could comfortably fit inside this building! That’s not many people, and yet look at the impact these normal, everyday people would have because the Holy Spirit would soon take up residence in their hearts….and because they were obedient to Him.
Verse 2 of today’s passage describes the way in which the Holy Spirit initially arrives to these founding members of the church. The text describes “A sound, like the blowing of a violent wind came from Heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.”
First of all, many people read this verse and assume that actual wind was suddenly gusting through the room where the people were meeting.
We sometimes mistakenly visualize this scene as a hectic & chaotic scenario where people’s robes and headpieces are flailing in the wind, things are falling of the table, people are tipping over….that is not what is going on here.
It is the sound of a violent wind that fills the room – not actual wind in the room.
Has anyone ever been to the Willis Tower in Chicago? (Formerly the Sears Tower)
On the 103rd floor, you can stand on a glass balcony called “The Ledge.” Basically, you are surrounded by glass, including straight below your feet as you gaze 1,300 feet straight down to the street far below.
Personally, I’ve never been on the Ledge, but people who have been there say that the sound of the wind is one of the things they remember most (Chicago is the Windy City, after all)
People don’t feel the wind, but the sound of the blowing wind leaves an impact on them.
The sound like that of a rushing wind brings the presence of the Holy Spirt here in our passage for today.
In both Hebrew and Greek, the words for ‘wind’, ‘breath’, and ‘spirit’ are essentially the same – wind, in scripture, is frequently used as a picture of the Spirit.
Jesus says in John 3:8 “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the spirit.”
Job 33:4 also says “The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the almighty gives me life.”
Genesis 2:7 says “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”
The movement of air through breath and the sound & nature of wind describe the presence of the Spirit of God – and in our passage for today, God’s presence is announced through the mighty sound of rushing wind.
Then in verse 3 of today’s passage, Luke describes a visual presence of the Holy Spirit manifesting Himself among the people in the room.
It reads: “They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.”
Has anyone seen the Original Indiana Jones movie? … Raiders of the Lost Ark
There is a scene near the end of that movie where Indiana and Marion are held captive and tied to a post while the Nazis hold a ceremony with the Ark of the Covenant.
Suddenly, a ghostly type of wind appears followed by tongues of fire that shoot from the ark, impaling the evil nazis, melting faces – all sorts of exciting things. Indiana Jones and Marion, of course, remain unscathed.
When verse 3 describes tongues of fire falling on people amid the sound of violent wind, I suspect many people of my generation recall this vivid movie scene…
Let me be absolutely clear….This is NOT what is happening here in verse 3. There are no scary ghosts, no impaling bolts of fire, no one is tied to a pole, no face melting, no evil nazis…none of that.
Now obviously, what the people experienced here with the Holy Spirit’s arrival was not actual fire – if it was, people would have been char-broiled on the spot!...then, there would have been faces melted!
Regarding this “fire”, the NIV text uses the phrase “Seemed to be”…. The King James says “There appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire”
In scripture, fire generally represents God’s presence as well as the process of refinement. Both of these aspects of fire are present here as the Holy Spirit makes His dramatic arrival with something that looks like fire.
The description of fire here reminds me of the burning bush experienced by Moses…remember that? Exodus 3:2 says “There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up.”
The Holy Spirit’s fire experienced at Pentecost represented the presence of God indwelling each believer present that day.
This event was a powerful visual display of the literal birth of the Church. The Old Testament was officially over, and the New Testament was beginning.
The law was fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ – and now the New Covenant in His blood had officially begun.
Verse 4 of our passage for today describes two results of this initial baptizing of the Holy Spirit.
1) First of all, we read that everyone was filled with the Holy Spirit.
Biblically speaking, there are two things going on here: People were being baptized by the Holy Spirit – and people were also being filled with the Holy Spirit – these are two different events happening at the same time.
Baptism of the Holy Spirit is positional in nature – when you placed your faith and trust in Jesus, the Holy Spirit sealed you and placed you into the body of Christ.
You went from being a child of the Devil to being a child of God.
The baptism of the Spirit is a one-time act of God in the life of every believer….it is Not an experience, rather, it is sovereign, single, unrepeatable act on God’s part.
The baptism of the Spirit is similar to other positional changes that occur when someone accepts Jesus as Lord & Savior - things such as regeneration, justification and adoption.
Paul describes it this way in 1 Corinthians 12:13 “For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body – whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.”
On the other hand, being filled with the Spirit is a continual and ongoing process that involves an experiential component.
For instance, Acts 4:31 describes many of these people who were initially filled with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost were filled again at a later date. Luke describes it like this: “After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.”
Peter was filled with the Spirit again in Acts 4:8
Remember the stoning of Stephen in Acts chapter 7? Acts 7:55 says “But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to Heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.”
Think of Spirit baptism and Spirit filling like this:
You’re at Culver’s. You order a butter burger value meal consisting of a beef patty, the bun, fries, and a beverage. All of these components represent aspects of your salvation. The beef patty represents justification, the bun represents the baptism of the Spirt, the fries represent adoption, and the beverage represents the filling of the Holy Spirit.
Do you notice a difference between the beverage and the other items in your meal deal?
The burger, bun & fries are a 1 time deal, right? You eat them and that’s it, there is no way of acquiring more of them on your plate once they are in your tummy…
But the beverage is different. When your cup gets low, you stroll over to the soda dispenser, and you fill it up again. This is something that you can do over and over again. (You’ll also need to use the restroom over & over again, but that’s another issue altogether!)
This is similar to being filled with the Holy Spirit…
Just as Re-filling your glass at Culvers takes effort (It requires that you get up from your seat and intentionally walk over to the beverage machine) being filled with the Spirit also takes some effort on our part as well.
We must put forth the effort of emptying ourselves of pride and selfishness. We must acknowledge the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives and saturate our mind with the word of God.
Paul tells us in Ephesians 5:18 “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.”
We are told to be filled…something that we play a part in.
Lastly, in verse 4 of our passage for today, we see an extraordinary manifestation of the gift of tongues occurring after people were filled with the Holy Spirit.
When scripture speaks of tongues in this passage, it is referring to actual human languages spoken by different people who were visiting Jerusalem at the time.
Not only did people hear the gospel message in their vative language, but it was also a beautiful illustration of God temporarily undoing what was instituted at the tower of Babel in Genesis chapter 11.
At Babel, language was used to confuse and divide, whereas here at Pentecost, language was used to clarify and unite.
As many of you are aware, there are different views within Christianity today as to how (And if) the Holy Spirit continues to manifest the miraculous gifts of healing and tongues.
Even within this congregation, there are different views on the sign gifts of the Spirit…are they still present today? Did they cease with the passing of the Apostles?
Today’s sermon isn’t about specific gifts and whether or not they continue to be dispensed by the Holy Spirit.
Today’s message is about looking at the specific way in which the Holy Spirit came to the original church – and for us to be filled with gratitude to God for such an indescribable gift.
No matter what your thoughts are concerning tongues, we cannot allow differing viewpoints on the matter divide us. This is what Satan wants more than anything.
If we spend precious time arguing amongst ourselves about a secondary doctrine such as this, then we are failing to fully accomplish the primary job of the church – reaching others for Christ.
Lastly, I’d like to leave you with a list – a biblical list of everything that the person of the Holy Spirit does.
What are the responsibilities of the Holy Spirit?
What exactly does He do?
There So many things:
1) Indwells the believer
2) Seals the believer until the day of redemption
3) He is the believer’s helper
4) Assists the believer in prayer
5) Intercedes for God’s people according to God’s will
6) Comforts the believer
7) Provides Joy for the believer
8) Provides Hope for the believer
9) Sanctifies the believer
10) Gives gifts to the believer
11) Convicts people of sin
12) Testifies to the person and work of Christ
13) Provides wisdom to the believer
14) Provides discernment to the believer
Pentecost is the birthday of the church.
If we had a birthday cake here this morning, it would need to be large enough to accommodate about 2,000 candles.
How many years have you been a believer? visualize putting that many candles onto a birthday cake this morning. How bright is the spiritual flame on each of those candles.
If you are like me, the strength of the flame on top of each candle isn’t always the same from year to year. Of my 40 years as a Christian, there have been some years when my flame has been tall and bright – and then there have been some years when it has been barely visible.
I suspect that this morning, many of you could say the same about the spiritual candles on your cake.
This year let’s all completely surrender every aspect of our lives to God and be intentionally filled with the Holy Spirit as we live in gratitude for what our savior Jesus Christ has done for us!
Let’s Pray.