Sunday Sermon
sunday morning 18th Jan 2009
Acts 2 v1-13
The disciples have been told to wait in Jerusalem for the Promised Holy Spirit.
Thus they wait, together, united and prayerful.
Then in the waiting the Spirit comes.
1) He comes on the Day of Pentecost. V1.
In the OT the “feast of weeks” Ex 34v22. Held 50 days after Passover.
It was one of three festivals where the Jews were expected to go to Jerusalem. (Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles)
In the OT it was a harvest celebration where Gods material blessing was celebrated at the end of the grain harvest.
So it was a time of joy and worship in the goodness of God.
· For the church today it is also a time of joy and worship in the Lord.
Why? Because the whole event is a reminder to us that God keeps his promises.
He had promised to the disciples only days before the sending of the Holy Spirit and before that through OT prophets – as Peter goes onto explain.
2) He comes loudly, visibly, and personally.
V2 loudly, the sound filled the whole house.
V3 visibly, they saw something
V3-4 personally, they all have the Spirit rest on them
In other words this was a multisensory experience!
They all heard, saw and felt the Spirits coming.
The sound was bone shaking. It filled the whole room and alerted all of Jerusalem!
The sight must have been frightening – fire! But also wonderfully attractive – fire!
The feeling too as the Spirit picked them each out individually, must have been exhilarating.
· Contrast all this to the coming of the Spirit on Jesus.
In the form of a dove, is quite different to His appearing now!
Why the difference? Has to do with the difference between Jesus, and the people.
Jesus was not in any need of the sensory experience that the disciples needed.
The Spirit deals with each of us differently too.
We need not tread Him as some kind of machine that only works in one way.
Many of our problems arise because of that kind of thinking. E.g. if this is how it worked in the past it must be the way things work now! Many so called “charismatic Christians” believe that only those who speak in tongues are filled with the Spirit because that was the effect of the Spirits filling in those early days! (note though that the tongues spoken here were foreign languages, not angelic).
· Above all we must keep in mind that the Spirits ministry is personal!
He came to rest on each one of those gathered.
Also none were then left out! It was not just the Apostles or just the men, or just ....
Each one had the Spirit come to dwell in them!
And if you are a believer today, the Spirit has come to dwell in you also!
There is no upper or lower class of Christian, all who are born again have the Holy Spirit.
But he does deal with us all in different ways, for different reasons.
Further we can all progress in our relationship with the Spirit or regress.
3) He comes with immediate effect on the disciples and the general population
V4 the disciples begin speaking in different languages.
The immediate effect of the Spirits coming was to loosen the tongues of the disciples!
They begin to speak about God! The begin to proclaim the Good News, v11.
Take note of the wonderful timing of God here!
The Spirit comes at Pentecost when there are thousands of Jews gathered from all over the world, and the gift given is the ability to preaching in a foreign language!
Why? So that all would have the chance to hear and believe!
Note our wrong attitudes today:
We often want the Spirits ministry for personal and selfish reasons! It’s all about what we want, our needs, our feelings etc.
We want the Spirit so that we can have an experience!
It’s the wrong attitude. It is seeking the gift rather than the Giver.
It is trying to use God rather than be used by God.
Not that wanting an experience is wrong, and undoubtedly as we seek God earnestly we will have experiences of his power and grace.
But wanting the experience for experiences sake alone is wrong!
Also there is the effect on the wider world of the Spirits coming:
V5-6 all the different peoples hear the noise and come to find out more
The noise was like a siren – it alerted the people that something was happening.
V7-8 how can the Galileans speak their languages?
V12 what does it all mean?
Obviously there would have been a large proportion of “true Israelites” amongst the people.
Those who really were seeking God and truly going to Jerusalem to worship and thank God.
They heard the disciples proclaim the “wonderful works of God” and they wanted in on it!
· Yet there was also another response.
V13 some just mock!
Though seeing the same thing they came to a different conclusion.
How worrying that is! Yet we know that is the human condition.
Some hear the message and believe, some hear and mock.
Where does the difference lie? Not in the message, not even in the means here.
The difference lies in the person.
Those who wanted God found him, those who did not want him did not find him!
Chilling for those who don’t want God, they will never find him.
Encouraging for those who do want God, they will find him.
sunday Evening 18th Jan 2009
Romans 8v3-4
These verses tell us basically two things.
We are told that God sent his Son and what that means for us.
1) God sent his Son. V3.
· We are told why he sent his Son
Jesus came to solve the problem of the law.
That problem was that the law could not save fallen sinful man.
It was “weakened” “powerless”, it was impossible for the law to save.
Gods law tells us how to live. It creates a standard. It shows a glorious way.
Bu it does not lift a finger to help us obey!
The law can shout its commands at me all day long yet I still cannot obey!
Why? Because it cannot change my nature! I am a sinner in my heart!
Outwardly the law will get some conformity.
I may not commit adultery, but internally the law will be broken, I will lust!
The law cannot help me there. I’m lost. Convicted, deserving of punishment.
This is the hopeless condition of mankind the world over!
We all would want to live better, love more, hate less. Show genuine compassion, be generous to those in need etc.
But we can’t, greed, pride, selfishness all seem stronger drives! (chp7)
· We are told what form the Son took
But all is not lost. For God sent his Son. And he came, just like one of us!
To see him you would say, he is just like me. But there is one essential difference!
“likeness of sinful flesh” he did not have the fallen nature. He was the second Adam.
He had the same body and the same parts that make up a full human nature, body, mind and spirit but without sin, not fallen!
Just like Adam before Adam fell.
He was tempted in every way but was without sin.
And that had to be true in order for him to accomplish the work He came to do.
· We are told what He accomplished v3-4
“on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,”
He came to deal with sin!
The problem with sin is that it makes me deserving of punishment.
As a morally responsible adult I deserve to pay for my sins myself.
Regardless of how big or small a sinner I may be. The fault is mine. I should pay!
But Jesus deals with my sin! He came into the world to deal with sin.
Is it really fair that someone else pays for my mistakes?
Well that depends on the relationship. A father may want to help his daughter out of trouble. A husband may want to do the same for his wife! All illustrations have their limits.
Why does God help us?
“for God so loved ...”
He loves us. He made us. He is responsible for us.
There is no condemnation for us because Jesus has come to pay the price.
He died on the cross for us, because he loved us. He saw our need, our fallen culpable human nature and he could not stand by and watch! He had to do something about it.
The only way that sin could be dealt with was through the sacrifice of himself: the Lamb without blemish both internally and externally.
And so He did deal with sin – he condemned sin in the flesh, on the Cross. Once and for all the righteous for the unrighteous! (1pet3v18)
So God sent his son because the people that he had created and loved were irretrievably lost if left to their own abilities. The law could tell people all day long what was required, what had to be obeyed, but we simply could do nothing about it, because we are fallen. There was a problem! But Jesus comes to deal with sin, by dying for us, taking sins punishment, because he loves us.
2) what is the upshot of all this for us?
a. “that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us”
The laws righteous requirements were obey and live, disobey and die!
Jesus accomplished that for us, on both accounts.
He lived a perfect life, without sin.
Then on the Cross 2 Cor 5v21 “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
He took the penalty for sin on the cross – died for us.
The problem has been taken away! The law requires perfect obedience = righteousness, and that is what we have in Jesus.
b. It means we have a new way of living!
The result is not simply that we do not need to worry about our sins condemnation anymore. That of course is true. We do not.
But the Good News is so much more than just that.
The good news, never in the NT, stops when we understand the way the problem of our sin can be overcome.
The Good News always moves into life and relationship.
Paul puts it here in terms of the way we now “walk” or “live” or conduct ourselves.
· There are two ways of walking.
· A. according to the sinful nature / flesh.
We once lived the natural life in our own strength, under the condemnation of the law.
That is life without God, still facing the judgement of the law. Lost and alone.
This is the life that we all know about, we are born into it!
· B. According to the Spirit
But no longer. Now we live the new life, in the Spirits strength, under the freedom of the law as its requirements have been fully met in us through Christ.
This new way of living according to the Spirit is where the Good News brings us.
What has God done for us?
He has sent his Son to die for us so that in Him there is not condemnation and he has sent his Spirit so that there is a new way of living!
This is Salvation: Forgiven sins and new life.
App: Our responsibility is to live in this whole truth.
To accept what God makes of us: that is he says No condemnation.
And then to go on living according to the Spirit. How? V5 points us in the right direction.
