Sermon Tone Analysis

Text: Luke 24:45-49; Acts 1:7-8; 2:1-12

Theme: The coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Disciples will create the Body of Christ—the Church—and compel them to go preach the Gospel to all the world.

Date: 05/27/18 File name: Post_Resurrection_06.wpd ID Number

Seven weeks ago we celebrated the Festival of the Resurrection—better known to most as Easter.

The Sunday after Easter I began preaching on the post-resurrection sayings of Jesus.

There is always much anticipation leading up to Good Friday, and Easter.

It arrives and we celebrate with a renewed spiritual intensity.

And rightly so.

Then, like most churches, we quickly move on to other themes after the celebration of Easter Sunday.

This year, as I re-read the story of Christ’s Passion, I came under the conviction that I needed to look at, and preach about, the post-resurrection sayings of Jesus.

In the first 40 days after the resurrection Jesus appeared to both individuals, and groups of individuals—large and small.

He spoke words that we need to hear, and to think about.

Then, those 40 days were followed by 10 days of waiting for the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples on Pentecost—an event which birthed the church.

It occurs to me, that as Christians, we spend lots of time looking at the week of our Lord’s Passion.

We are particularly familiar with the events surrounding his Triumphal Entry and crucifixion.

We know the seven sayings from the cross.

How many Christians, however, know the seven post-resurrection sayings of Christ?

After the resurrection, Jesus had five major appearances and spoke seven times.

We’ve looked at six of those statements, and this morning we will look at the last.

Here it is: “I’m Going to Send You What the Father Promised ... Wait for it.”

The disciple have been in Galilee 40 days receiving some final instructions form Jesus.

At the end of their time together, Jesus once again promises the coming of the Holy Spirit, commissions them to go into all the world with the Gospel, and then ascends into heaven before their eyes as they stand there slack jawed with amazement.

What a forty days it must have been.

According to Acts 1:12, the disciples make their way from Galilee back to Jerusalem.

On the Day of Pentecost—fifty days after the resurrection—120 believers are gathered together in one place when “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.”

(Acts 2:2–3, NIV84).

Here we witness the birth of the Church, and the empowering of the Church by the third person of the Godhead—the Holy Spirit.

It is that same Holy Spirit that binds this local congregation together into Christ’s Church and empowers us for ministry.

I. THE SPIRIT ENABLES YOU WITH DIVINE ENERGY

“Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.”

(Acts 2:2, NIV84)

ILLUS.

Some of you may remember the run-a-way block-buster movie Twister from 1996.

Bill and Jo Harding, are storm chasers on the brink of divorce, but they’ve put their difference aside to create an advanced weather alert system by putting themselves in the cross-hairs of extremely violent tornadoes.

If you're like me, you really enjoyed the phenomenal special affects as combines were lifted into the air and then dropped, buildings disintegrat around people, and cows learned how to fly.

1. the wind is a powerful and often destructive force

a. tornadoes and hurricanes wreak havoc with trees, homes, property, and even lives

ILLUS.

In 2011 an EF-5 tornado with 300 mph winds hit Joplin, MO.

It was a mile wide, and stayed on the ground across the entire southern end of the city.

158 people died and another 1,500 were injured.

It was the deadliest tornado to hit the U.S. in fifty years.

It caused $3 billion in property damage—the most ever for a tornado.

2. God often used the destructive force of the wind to get his message through to His prophets

a. the prophet Elijah encountered God's power in the whirlwind that "rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord"

3. but wind can also be a constructive force as well

a. for 1,500 years wind drove great ships through the seas

b. in parts of the west you'll see acres of wind mills that generate electrical power for homes and businesses

4. at the same time, it’s not wind that blows upon them

a.

Acts 2:1 says that it was the sound like the blowing of a violent wind

b. the supernatural activity of God is so utterly beyond the grasp of humans that the Bible writers have to employ similes to describe His manifestations among men

A. THE MIRACLE OF A MIGHTY WIND REPRESENTS A MIGHTY GOD WHO DOES MIGHTY THINGS THROUGH HIS SPIRIT

1. God does not give believers the Holy Spirit merely for the sake of spiritual euphoria, but to accomplish His divine purpose in our lives and His church

a.

He gives us spiritual gifts with which to accomplish ministry

b.

He gives us spiritual graces—the fruit of the Spirit—to create in us the character of Christ

2. the believer needs divine energy to live out his or her faith, and to carry out the Great Commission

a. as a body without breath is a corpse, so the believer—the Church— without the Spirit is dead

b. the coming of the Spirit means you have God living in you as your life-giving power

3. we do not have sufficient power for living the Christian life without the energizing of the Spirit

a. where does the power to beat back temptation come from?

1) God's mighty Spirit

b.

where does the power that takes a man and his family half-way around the world as missionaries come from?

1) God's mighty Spirit

c. what power is it that moves a lost person out of his or her spiritual complacency to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior?

1) God's mighty Spirit

d.

where does the power come from that enables a believer to faithfully endure the hardship of a terminal disease with grace and even joy?

1) God's mighty Spirit

e. what supernatural force enables us to read the Scriptures and be quickened in our mind to understand and then apply them to our lives?

1) God's mighty Spirit

4. The Spirit Enables You with Divine Energy

II. THE SPIRIT PURIFIES YOU WITH A FIERY BAPTISM

“They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.”

(Acts 2:3, NIV84)

1. the people not only heard a strange sound, but they also saw a strange sight

2. tongues of fire came and rested on each of the 120 believers gathered in that upper room

a. again, not real fire, but what seemed to be tongues of fire

b. years before the disciple’s Pentecost experience, John the Baptist had proclaimed,

“ ... “I baptize you with water.

But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”

(Luke 3:16, NIV84)

3. if you've been born again, you too, have been "baptized with fire"

a. every believer is now a burning bush

1) the glory and presence of God has now come into every single believer

b. that presence that was once fatal comes on every one and rests upon them, without consuming them in judgment

c. and, according to Eph. 5:19, one of the clearest manifestations of the Spirit among believers is not speaking in tongues, but speaking to each other in psalms, and hymns and spiritual songs from the Spirit

A. THE MIRACLE OF FIRE REPRESENTS THE PURIFYING ABILITY OF GOD TO MAKE US HOLY AND RIGHTEOUS IN HIS SIGHT

1. God does not give believers the Holy Spirit merely for the sake of spiritual euphoria, but to accomplish His divine purpose in our lives and His church

a.

His divine purpose is that our character and our conduct be distinguished by holiness

1) yes, Christians are to act differently than lost people

a) we act differently because we are different ... we are a new creation in Christ

2) we are to have a fixation on spiritual pursuits, and not worldly pursuits

2. what God wants for us in the way of spiritual cleansing and maturity, we cannot accomplish outside of the energizing power of the Holy Spirit