ACTS: the Church Empowered Helping People ﬁnd & Follow Jesus

ACTS: The Church Empowered Helping people ﬁnd & follow Jesus. Acts 4:23-33

When you read the book of Acts, does it make you HUNGRY to have what they had and do what they did? If not, then what are you hungry for? Maybe a better question is: What are you FULL OF?

Every movement of God that I have ever seen started with a group of people who had a passion to see God work just as he worked through his people when the Church ﬁrst began. I remember here at CHC the days when we as a staf began to truly HUNGER for a work of God that EXCEEDED anything that we could do in our own power and ability. That led to a time of PRAYER and BROKENNESS and REPENTANCE and then POWER. I have seen with my own eyes what God can do when his people truly seek him. The early church is an enigma. They were JUST LIKE US and yet they were NOTHING LIKE US. I love the story in Acts 12:12-16 about how Peter was in prison for preaching and the early church gathered for prayer for him. God miraculously delivered him from prison, but when he went where the church was hiding and praying and told a young girl that answered the door who he was, no one in the church believed her when she reported this to the church. They told her that she was out of her mind! How funny! They were praying for his release, but would not believe it when it actually happened. Have you ever done that? The early church was just like us. But they were nothing like us in that they experienced remarkable times of outpouring because of their faith in Jesus Christ. They had what so many of us want. But what will it take for us to see what they saw and to do what they did? Let’s see what Luke says.

The early Church HUNGERED for GOD.

*They were obedient to Christ in their PATIENCE. [UPPER ROOM EXPERIENCE] Isaiah 40:28-31 NIV 28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. 29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 31 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. So, what were they “waiting” on? The work of the Holy Spirit!

*The members of the 1st Century Church were FILLED with the Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit is the FIRE that ignites us and the FUEL that sustains us. WHAT IS THE FILLING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT? -It is DISTINCT from the BAPTISM of the Holy Spirit. [Given at salvation!] -It is a COMMAND to be OBEYED. Ephesians 5:18 NIV 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be ﬁlled with the Spirit,

*We are instructed to “be being filled” with the Spirit. This implies that it is a CO-OPERATIVE action. We submit and he fills! The filling of the Spirit is actually the action of being CONTROLLED or LED by the Spirit of God. It is not so much an emotional experience as it is a spiritual and practical act of SUBMISSION to God in his daily leading of our lives. We must choose his WILL and his PROMPTINGS over our own inclinations and desires. Being filled with the Spirit is not something that causes us to LOSE CONTROL of our physical bodies, but is that which actually enables our bodies and minds to be UNDER the CONTROL of the Holy Spirit. And self-control is a FRUIT of the Spirit!

-It is a RECURRING EVENT in the life of a believer. *Scripture refers to the ﬁlling of the Spirit as a daily need/action. *Real life proves that WE LEAK, and we need to seek the ﬁlling daily.

We live in a broken world, and we are broken people in a constant process of being healed and being strengthened. But we stumble and fall. We get preoccupied with lesser things. We get selﬁsh or discouraged or distracted or overcome by troubles, and we LEAK. We have to continually REPOSITION ourselves under the control and direction of the Holy Spirit. This must be a continual, repeated reality in our lives as followers of Jesus Christ. Only then will we experience God in ways that openly demonstrate his presence and power in our lives.

-It can be a COLLECTIVE EXPERIENCE. (Acts 2;1-3; 4:31) The filling of the Holy Spirit is the daily need of every individual follower of Jesus Christ. But it can also be the collective experience of any local body of believers when they are brought together through brokenness and a unified desire fulfill the will of God on this earth. This experience of the filling of the Holy Spirit is a precious and glorious aspect of holy Christian community and obedience. It is also rare. This is why the next aspect of what the early church did is so very important to us!

The early Church PRAYED.

*Prayer was a CONSTANT in their new lives. Acts 1:14 NIV 14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

Acts 2:41-42 NIV 41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

*They prayed with FAITH. Acts 4:24 NIV 24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. "Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them . . . 27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.

-They began in prayer by remembering God’s SOVEREIGNTY. -They recognized that what was happening was actually GOD’S WILL! [Talk about Southaven Campus and what this means for CH Hernando as well!]

-Steven DEMONSTRATED this mindset as he was being MARTYRED.

*Those that are ﬁlled with the Holy Spirit “see” Jesus STANDING as the Sovereign Lord next to God the Father – even in the most DESPERATE of situations! Acts 7:55-56 NIV

55 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. 56 "Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." *They prayed God’s WORD. Acts 4:25-26 NIV 25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: " 'Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 26 The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed one.'

To pray the word of God reveals that you KNOW and LOVE the Word of God! God’s word to us is essential to our service of God. We cannot simply go on what we FEEL; we must GO on what GOD HAS REVEALED! His word is his REVEALED WILL. Praying God’s word to him is a powerful way to talk with God. It gives us conﬁdence in the things we are asking of God when we already know that they are in line with what he has already told us! We are simply CONFESSING (or AGREEING WITH) what he has already spoken. It is our HALLELUJAH to his AMEN.

*They prayed for BOLDNESS. Acts 4:29-31 NIV 29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus."

-Notice what they DID NOT pray for: PROTECTION! [Erwin McManus’s prayer for his children: Lord, make them DANGEROUS!] *Their request was directly in line with the will of God!

-Notice the WORD they used to describe themselves: “Doulos=Bond-slave”. A. a slave B. metaph., one who gives himself up to another's will those whose service is used by Christ in extending and advancing his cause among men C. devoted to another to the disregard of one's own interests

A bond-servant was a voluntary slave; one that lived to serve the needs and desires of another! Am I a bond-servant of Jesus Christ?

The early Church OBEYED. Acts 4:31 31 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. *The Holy Spirit was actually the One that FILLED them not only with HIMSELF, but also with the WORDS that they needed to share the Gospel.

God honored his servants in the early church because they hungered for, prayed to, and obeyed GOD. This is why the early church was accused of “turning the world upside down” in their day! They were an SPIRIT-FILLED BODY! And I think it is worth repeating that the spread of the Gospel was not accomplished through the preaching of a few powerful apostles. The Gospel was spread through the FAITHFUL WITNESS of every member of the early church! Look at the words of Acts 8 again from last week: Acts 8:1-4 NIV

1 And Saul approved of their killing him. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. 2 Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. 3 But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged of both men and women and put them in prison. 4 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.

The Gospel was ﬁrst brought into Judea and Samaria by Spirit-ﬁlled believers and NOT by the Apostles!

In fact, the Gospel was not even brought into the city of Jerusalem exclusively by the apostles! Even though Acts 2 gives us the sermon that Peter preached that day, Luke tells us that EVERYONE in that upper room was ﬁlled with the Spirit and then spoke the Gospel in other languages. God has always used ALL of his followers to spread the good news about Jesus Christ! How is that happening in us in these days?

Is it happening here at CHC? Is it happening in YOU and ME?

Let’s pray.