Avoiding Charismatic Chaos by Properly Interpreting the Book of Acts

[Music] thank you well I said that we were going to slow down through our study in First Corinthians 12 13 and 14 and today we're going to be taking that really to the next level we're going to be taking that to a whole another level as I preach basically I'm going to pull this entire sermon from just a verb tense in the First Corinthians chapter 12 and the reason for that is oftentimes something that's very small can have a large impact I um I realized that yesterday I was cutting up a carrot and um you notice I have a Band-Aid here on my on my thumb my wife bought the real carrots you know the big ones which we don't ever get I mean that was cool we always have those little baby ones that are you know like the size of a pinky and so I had the big one and I was taking out the knife and I was chopping through it real fast I got to the thick part at the end I thought I gotta have to chop really really hard on this part and I just forgot that my thumb was underneath anybody else ever done that pretty soon it's like the little flapier thumbs just hanging up sorry I just wanted to freak the pregnant lady out over here sorry Mallory you know and so um I got a Band-Aid on but it really reminded me this morning I got up and I'm trying to do my hair and I'm trying to button my have you ever tried to button with no thumb you know something's wrong with your eye or your thumb or your toe it has an impact on what every other part of your body has an impact on your life and so if you ever wonder why I'm slowing down so much in First Corinthians 12 13 and 14 it's because at the end of the day there are certain truths which if we don't get them right they may not seem like a big deal you know they're a tiny little verse in the scripture or a tiny chapter um an unknown chapter in the Bible that maybe we've not read much but if we get it wrong it can have a massive impact on our entire church body and this is certainly one of those I mean you remember we talked about last week one verse First Corinthians 12 13 where Paul said by one Spirit you were past tense baptized you remember that uh which is interesting because that so clearly past tense that even a second grader would get that and yet for the last 100 years we've had so many movements telling us we need to still be seeking and searching and soaking and begging for this so-called baptism in or of the Holy Spirit which brings up a very important question doesn't it well well where does that come from then how could well-intended teachers how could they possibly take something that Paul says is past tense and then say that it's something that we all still need to be seeking and trying to get as Christians today and the answer to that comes from you're ready the book of Acts the book of Acts 99 percent of the challenges and confusion and Chaos that comes out of these more charismatic movements comes from a misunderstanding of the book of Acts and it all boils down really to one question is the book of Acts meant to be prescriptive or is the book of Acts meant to be descriptive is the book of Acts meant to be something that's prescriptive like picture a doctor who tells you to take a medication and says this is what you're to do this is who you're to be or was the book of Acts written to be descriptive like any other history just detailing a mighty and beautiful moment in which God moved in a powerful way something unique and something new now here's what's interesting for 1900 years guess how ax was interpreted by virtually everyone not as prescriptive but is descriptive for 1900 years acts was interpreted as the scriptive history that was for a few reasons number one is just the obvious literary features inside the book itself and this may bore some of you you may not be too interested but it's important to understand anytime you approach any book of the Bible what the literary features are in this particular book you have Luke saying I'm writing a two-volume set he wrote the Gospel of Luke and he wrote The Narrative of Acts and he calls it by his own words a history oftentimes you'll hear Scholars call it a historiography he tells the recipient of these letters Theophilus in Luke chapter 1 verse 3 he says I've investigated everything from the very beginning to write it all out for you in consecutive order and then he gives the guy's name Theophilus which we know obviously he was probably a very ugly baby because his parents named him Theophilus looking child they'd ever seen come on come on give me something there I worked hard on that one you'll use that I guarantee you'll be in Bible study and you'll use that all right but it's not only the literary features you know the authorial intent which is obvious but also the theological or if we call it the contextual features as well where here you have a clear transition in history you've got the time from the Pentecost the initiation of the church the birthday of the churches we'll see today all the way to Paul's in prism and it's just a 30-year timeline of transition Peter's caught in the transition James is caught in the transition Paul's caught in the transition the 120 are caught in the transition the 3000 are caught in the transition old Covenant to New Covenant synagogues to churches Jew only to Jew Gentile and all of mankind what you have is a book of historical transition which is why you never want to say that any part of it is absolute or prescriptive unless it's confirmed later on in the Epistles because it was a unique moment in the church's history specifically its birth which is what's so interesting that about a hundred years ago after 1900 years of you in the book a certain way a hundred years ago in 1906 1907 during Azusa Street the first wave of Pentecostals the first wave of charismatic said no no no no no no no no this particular volume is no longer descriptive this now volume is to be interpreted as what prescriptive hence you need to be trying to experience all of these particular things you need to be clamoring for this kind of activity you need to be doing signs and wonders you need to be begging for a second or third work of the Holy Spirit or what they called a baptism of the spirit all the while using Acts 2 acts 8 acts 10 and Acts 19 for passages to defend that position and all the while ignoring the goal of the author the style of the literature the transition in Theology and even the text itself and I'm going to give you an example here from John Mark Ruffman who was is one of the leading end quote scholars in the charismatic movement in fact Bill Johnson a lot of these guys pull from his writing and I'll give you an example he says the emphasis upon quote the power and speech of the spirit throughout The Narrative of Acts shows the Pentecost narrative is not simply a call for repentance it's not a matter of becoming regenerated by the spirit as a way of dealing with the cost of sin and attaining Heaven rather he says the reverse the New Covenant sees repentance and baptism get this as preparation for the gift and mission of prophethood on all generations end quote there it is acts is not there to describe how the New Covenant offers a pathway for Redemption out of sin he says acts is there to show you that you are to be a prophet or an apostle end quote so what I want to show you this morning in the limited time that we have is just kind of taking on a journey through the book of Acts and I want to show you how it's descriptive not prescriptive and it's an opus or a narrative that's detailing the great transition of the ages as the Lord ascends to heaven and he sends the spirit down to earth to launch the church and to transform the world think about it this way it's a history to be praised it's not an experience to be craved it's a history to look back on and to be praised rather than an experience to be sought out and begged for and craved and I want to do that by taking you through those four passages so often convoluted by the charismatic teachers Acts 2 acts 8 acts 10 and acts 14 and if you take last week in this week you've heard every single reference to the so-called baptism of the spirit which we learned last week is actually the baptism in the spirit all right so here we go turn with me if you would to the book of Acts and let me take you through this on a uh we'll call it a quick flyover we did the jet tour the flyover through Revelation this one's going to be more of a sightseeing Journey so it'll be a little quicker and we'll hit these four key passages now number one I'm gonna put it on the screen I want to show you the foundation we call it an origin text to a lot of this rather misguided teaching it's in Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2 and I want you to read with me the day of Pentecost in verses one through four and I want you to notice I'll put it on the screen here number one this is when the Holy Spirit was given to the apostles or to the Jews this is when the Holy Spirit is given to the Jews launching the church and I'm sure you've all read this before but let's look at it again and let's pull out a few important truths Acts 2 verse 1. when the day of Pentecost had come they were all together in one place and suddenly there came from Heaven A noise like a violent in rushing wind and it filled the whole house where they were sitting and there appeared to them tongues as of are looking like fire Distributing themselves and they rested on each one of them very important on every single one of them and they were all notice the universal language filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues glossa is a language we know what those languages are if you keep reading Acts 2 tonight you'll see them the parthians and the medes everyone's coming from all around the world and they hear them speaking in their own language as the spirit was giving them utterance all right so if you got a pen go ahead and just underline verse three that they rested on each of them and in verse 4 they were all filled with the Holy Spirit right here and everyone knows this this is the moment that the church was born and the church only has one birthday like you only have one birthday you can celebrate your birthday but you only have one birthday and this is the birthday of the new era of God's work on Earth called The Church but this is also the text that most often you'll hear charismatic teachers say drives you to beg for this filling of the spirit so that you likewise can do signs and wonders and speak in tongues but I want you to notice something here friends there's absolutely no seeking at all do you catch that look at it again nobody's begging nobody's clamoring nobody's soaking nobody's asking there's none and I also want you to notice I had you underline it that it isn't selective every single person in the upper room all was in dwell every one of them were indwelt by who by the Holy Spirit see that now this is a little bit similar to last week and if you were here last week I don't want to bore you to death but let me just give you a few of these key references again so you can put them there in your margin you can see how they all synchronize with one another number one when it came to this beautiful moment we call being you know baptized the baptism in the spirit number one we know that this moment had to happen after Jesus was glorified Jesus had to be glorified before this was going to happen Okay we talked about that last week and if you have a Bible there just write down John 7 verse 39 John 7 verse 39. you'll remember Jesus is at the Feast of Tabernacles and he says hey if you want Living Water I want you to come to me and you're never going to thirst again but then John adds in John 7 39 the little editorial note and he says but this he spoke of the spirit whom those who believed in him were to receive that's future for the spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified so in order for this day of Pentecost to happen Jesus had to be glorified he had to come back from the Tomb in his new glorified body the same one that could eat but could also walk through walls the same one that a lot of times was recognizable but other times wasn't because it existed in some form of Glory that we can't comprehend but not only did Jesus have to be glorified you could write this down number two John 16 verse 7 Jesus had to go away he had to leave remember in the upper room and Jesus is telling the men he's going to leave and in John 16 7 they're sad and they're saying no no no I don't want you to go but Jesus responded I'm telling you the truth it's to your advantage that I go away for if I don't go away the helper shall not come to you but if I go then I will send him so number one Jesus had to be glorified number two he had to leave which was the Ascension Luke 24 when he goes up to heaven which leads to reference number three if you want to write it down there in your margin Acts chapter 1 verse 4 we talked about last week as well Jesus told this group to wait he told him to go to the upper room and just wait acts 1 verse 4 Gathering them together he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for what the father had promised which he said you have heard of from me so that's what in Acts chapter 2 you see happening you see this group and they're in the upper room and they're just waiting which leads to reference number four acts chapter 1 verse 8 in fact if you're in Acts 2 you could just go back a page and look at it Acts chapter 1 verse 8 he calls it a one-time event look at this he says but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you and if you've got a pen would you do me a favor here and underline the grammar you shall receive power and then also has come on you both of those are ready for the big word here both of those are punctily or passive future which just means a point in time done by somebody else in the future so literally what you have here is John saying Jesus had to be glorified he had to leave and then Jesus says I want you to wait and then he says the holy spirit's going to come it's going to happen one time and you just gotta wait when it happens you'll know and what we're seeing in Acts chapter 2 is what the Fulfillment of all those promises that's what we're seeing and you go well Tony why in the world are you forcing me to to deal with all these truths and all these scriptures and why Tony here's what you're really asking why are you repeating today what you said last week right now here's the reason I want our church I want us to grasp the absolute importance of Bible study of good Rock Solid Bible study I want you to learn to love grammar I want you to even learn to love syntax I know you're going no no no no no no I'll go somewhere else no you're going to stay I want you to know the word you want to know why so you don't ever go soft serve and you and you blow around with the winds and waves of Doctrine and you go to work and someone says well man we had an enlightening meeting last night and the Holy Spirit fell and all it was moving I want you to know that you've studied every single passage in the scriptures relating to certain topics and you know the doctrinal reality of those things and you don't have to walk away from that co-meeting that co-worker meeting insecure and doubting and wondering because you know that you know that you know what it means to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit that's what I want for you see over the course of last week in this we've now studied and we will have studied every single passage relating to this Doctrine there's not one that will have missed and I want you to notice here that every single text in the Bible calls this a one-time event every single one of them I mean you could picture it like the The Life of Christ the Virgin birth of Christ the the death of Christ the resurrection of Christ the Ascension of Christ The Return of Christ you could also just put right in line the indwelling the coming the baptism in the spirit it's a one time event that came to the church and Paul grabs it in First Corinthians 12 and he says and when you were saved guess what you were plugged into that baptism that's what you're reading about and you'll notice in here there's not an ounce of seeking to cause it nobody not one ounce of seeking see what you're seeing is the old Covenant to the New Covenant you're seeing the transition the new birthday of the church and here's why this is so important there's no hint of seeking in the rest of the New Testament there's not one place not in Jerusalem we're going to see here in a second in Samaria we're going to see in caesarea we're going to see an Ephesus you could also go through all of Paul's letters Antioch galatia caesarea Philippi colossa Corinth nobody in the entire New Testament is ever asking for the Holy Spirit the whole concept is 100 of fabrication of the last 100 years I know for some of you that's shocking because you you literally were raised you were raised that the louder you cry now can I just pause there for a second listen does God does God have ears trick question I mean does God need yours God the father is spirit is there anything he doesn't know not your question so so if I pray and I say heavenly father um I really beg you to move I need you to come now send the spirit fill this place flood this place with your holy atmosphere you know come on come on come on come on come on come on is that any more Valiant of a prayer than Our Father who art in heaven Hallowed be thy name the kingdom come thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven just give us this their daily bread forgive us our trespasses those are trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but Deliver Us from Evil for thine is the Kingdom and The Glory forever and ever amen does this one over here make God hear me more see so often we're bringing God down to a human level like the prophets of Baal as if we cut ourselves more he's really going to hear what did Elijah do he walked over and he knelt down and he whispered a sentence and God moved what are you seeing here in Acts chapter 2 you ready we call it historical transition the birthday of the church the birthday of the church God wanted the early church to know that they were part of something new in fact let's go ahead and do this together I'm going to go through the rest of this sermon and every time I say acts is historical I want you to say transition old Covenant to New Covenant synagogues to churches Jews to everybody I'm going to say historical and then you're going to say back to me if you want to transition okay should we practice it can you do it so what are these men and women in the upper room on Pentecost experiencing you ready historical hey amen that was good that was good all right turn to the next one turn to Acts chapter 8 with me turn over a few more here's the next one and again I'm giving you all of them these are all four there's not one we're missing okay Acts chapter 8 and now we move from the holy spirit being given to the Jews the apostles to the Holy Spirit number two in your notes being given to the Samaritans to the Samaritans okay now look at this in chapter 8 verse 14. same thing when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God so again go back you're in Jerusalem the church starts everyone's excited there's three thousand four thousand it's growing but it's all Jewish for the most part it's run by Jewish people when the apostles in Jerusalem then heard that Samaria 40 miles up north had received the word of God they sent them Peter and John it's kind of like an Envoy ambassadors go check it out who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit interesting they come down the hill because remember Jerusalem is up they come down the hill and they prayed that the Samaritans would receive the holy spirit for he had not yet fallen on any of them they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus and oh my goodness that sounds like a second helping that sounds like a Second Blessing verse 17 then they began laying their hands on them and they were receiving the Holy Spirit now that sounds an awful lot like a second or third word doesn't it they got saved they believed in Christ the apostles come down and then the holy spirit is given and we would assume it's not mentioned here that they also spoke in languages verifying that was the Holy Spirit that was with them and on them okay that's important it feels like a Second Blessing until you understand the context which is why good Bible study is so important the context is key all right a little bit of background here okay so stick with me for two minutes of teaching all right the Jews and the Samaritans absolutely hated one another they hated each other with a Vengeance okay here's the reason why Solomon's United Kingdom go back 700 years 800 years actually 900 years and then by the time you get to 700 BC in that ballpark you had a split because of sin and you've got jeroboam going north with 10 tribes and then you got rehoboam his buddy his little son going south with two tribes and they're at War and things really got nasty when the Assyrians came in and began to intermarry with the northern tribe a little bit later the southern tribe goes off and they end up in Babylon and they come repatriate back and that's when they look up to the northern tribes and they say what have you done you married the the Assyrians you're half breeds and that's when the name Samaritan came about so you had this hostility that began to build now we don't have things like that so it's almost hard for us to picture but I want you to understand this was bad stuff this was bad blood this was tribal enmity okay to the point by the time you get to John 4 remember Jesus is at the the well and there's a woman sitting there who's Samaritan and check them and she's going well we worship up at Mount garazim and you worship all the way down in Jerusalem who's right they had built their own Temple of worship that's how bad things were and it got to the point that it became a tangible hatred let me show you how how bad it was turn with me if you would back to Luke and look at Luke chapter 9 and you'll like this Luke 9 and look at verse 52 you're going to see just how bad it was this hatred between the Jew and the Samaritan uh John and James are with Jesus and Jesus is going to send some guys ahead into Samaria to see if they want him to come teach and they're going to reject him and then look at what happens they're going to send him a Valentine's Day card they're okay with it all right wrong look at 9 52. Jesus sent Messengers on ahead I'm sorry guys I just find this so funny because you know we look at bible characters and we sometimes think they're just different from everybody else you know they're kind of perfect well no we don't but a lot of times we think they don't have the same feelings we do look at this this is the kind of thing you and I would do Luke 9 52 he sent Messengers ahead and they went and they entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for him but look at this verse 53 the Samaritans didn't want to receive him because he was journeying with his face toward Jerusalem so they hear there's a Jewish rabbi coming through and he's heading to Jerusalem and they're like no we don't want you here you're not going to be housed you're not going to be cared for no food for you so look at what James and John do in verse 54 when his disciples James and John saw this they said Lord do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and just eat them up that that's so just real right Lord can we just call down some lightning and turn them into dust let's make them powder let's burn them up let's dust them right now I know today we don't have those feelings by and large we don't live in a period or a season or an era of tribal enmity but try to picture it maybe picture it this way okay anybody from the Inland Empire out there anybody wow okay a lot in this service we had two in first service okay so let me see who's from the Inland Empire out there okay good I'm trying to see so Daniella you're going to be our representative from the ie so as for our context you're going to be the Samaritans out in the Inland Empire all right the cast offs The Leftovers way out there okay and then everybody else that's from Orange County where we know God really moves right this is the Promised Land right this is we're going to be the Jews now I want you to understand what's Happening Here we were told here in Orange County to never ever ever do any business visit or eat with anyone from Inland Empire the IE never so Danielle and all her friends were never allowed to go talk to you from the time we were knee-high that's what we were taught we were not even allowed get this to drive through the Inland Empire I mean we had to go all the way down around San Diego we had to go all the way North up to 15. you weren't even allowed for your tires to touch their land and that's what you were taught pretend from the time that you were little the socio-cultural tension was so high that literally Samaria was a no-fly zone you just didn't go there okay now let me ask you a question you ready what would have happened if here in Orange County this new work of God began and we were so excited about it but then a few months later we heard that the same thing was popping up out with Daniela and Michael in the Inland Empire in IE what would we have done we would have said what that's not God it's a bunch of frauds out there and guess what the Samaritans out there in the Inland Empire they would have said we don't want your leadership so what I want you to understand here is God intentionally left this gap on purpose to make sure you're ready that the early church was able to protect its Unity so when the disciples the apostles hear what's going on in Samaria they take Peter and John and they say hey you guys got to go check this out and they get on their horse and they get up to Samaria and they see what's going on and that's when through their prayer the Lord sends the Holy Spirit and that's when these men and women very likely begin to speak in their other languages and now the apostles realize what the church is not just Jewish the church is also going to include who the Samaritans it's not First Baptist Jew and then First Presbyterian Inland Empire it is now going to be one thing ready historical transition all right one more Acts chapter 10. one more look at this one we actually got two more last one will be short Acts chapter 10. look at this the holy spirit is given to the Jews then to the Samaritans and this one for you and I is super important because this one is about us the Holy Spirit was given to you ready number three the Gentiles the Gentiles everyone in the room who is not a Jewish person in Heritage this applies to you all right Acts chapter 10. now if you don't know the story there's a Roman Centurion and he is uh having a dream he loves God uh he wants to worship God but he doesn't really know God and he has a dream up in caesarea and there's this moment where in the dream he's told to send his servants down to Joppa to meet a man named Peter and so long story short the same time he's having the dream Peter is down in Joppa and he has a dream he's praying and in the dream as a Jewish man who's never supposed to eat this non-kosher off-limits food there's this big sheet that apparently comes down in his dream and it's got all these animals in it that he had never been allowed to eat and God says in the dream I want you to kill one and eat one and he goes no I'm a Jewish man I don't touch that stuff and then God says what I have made clean is now holy for you to eat and so he realizes when he wakes up what this means right then these men knock on his door from caesarea and they said hey our boss up there the Centurion wants you to come up and teach and so Peter takes the dream and takes the the word of God and he walks on up to caesarea he walks into the room there in this Roman centurions uh probably large home and there's all of his guests sitting and then the Centurion says hey Peter um God gave me a vision and he wants you to share with all my friends so Peter just stands there and begins to share the gospel and he says there was this one named Jesus who was prophesied as the Messiah by the Jews and he came and he died on a cross and he rose on the third day according to the scriptures he's ascended to the father and the good news is now available and then he pauses and as he's sharing look at Acts chapter 10 verse 44 catch what happens verse 44 while Peter was still speaking the words the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message and all the circumcised Believers those are Pete's friends the Jews they were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out upon who read it with me the Gentiles also for they were hearing them speaking with tongues the other languages and exalting God now friends you got to understand here if you thought the Samaritan Jew thing was bad this is a Chasm you were not allowed as a Jew to have anything to do with the Gentile and in fact if you walked down a street and you touched one of their their houses you had to take your sandal off and bang the dust off of it an absolute racial divide and that's why you see here shock because you have an even bigger moment of historical transition in fact look at it real quick look at verse 45 all the circumcised Believers the Jews who come with Peter they're stunned so you could just write in your margin they're stunned and then jump down to verse 47. look at this they immediately begin to grow inclusive they put aside their Prejudice and they grow inclusive look at verse 47. surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized to have received the Holy Spirit just as we did it's a rhetorical question we can't not let them into the church like we were in fact jump over one page to Acts chapter 11 and look at verse 15. Peter gets on his horse he heads back up to Jerusalem and he uses what happened here to teach the rest of the Apostles what God was doing look at this in Acts 11 verse 15. you see it he says as I began to speak he's talking to all the apostles in Jerusalem I began to speak the Holy Spirit fell on them just as he did on us at the beginning verse 17 if God therefore gave to them the same gift as he gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus who was I that I could stand in God's way I love that he goes man if I'm sitting there and I'm watching the same thing that happened to us in Jerusalem in Acts 2 Pentecost happened into the Gentiles who am I to get in the way of God and look at verse 18. and when they heard this they quieted down and they glorified God saying well you can just picture all these guys in their big robes well God is granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life everyone get the picture got the picture Orange County Inland Empire all the rest of California in our analogy would have been the Gentiles and you weren't allowed to touch him and you weren't allowed to be a part of him because they were the enemy and what happens here is God breaks down the Prejudice in that moment Peter goes back to the apostles and he says guess what guys it's not just the Jew it's not just the Samaritan it's also going to be the pagans too and they go well who are we to stop it you ready historical transition let me show you one more we got time for one more real short okay real short look at acts 19. here's the last one this is all of them okay this is the last one Holy Spirit was given to the Jews the Samaritans the Gentiles in Acts chapter 19 you're going to love this I like to call this the Holy Spirit given to the leftovers just to make sure it's clear everybody gets him okay but actually technically we'll put it on the screen it's the Holy Spirit given to John's disciples it's it's John's disciples look at this in Acts 19 verse 1 now we're not with Peter anymore we're with Paul he's on his third missionary journey and while Apollos was at Corinth Paul verse 1 having passed through the upper country came to Ephesus so he's up in Asia Minor and look at this he found some disciples that's broad term for followers of God just followers of Yahweh which he would have recognized because he had always been one of them he'd been a Jew of Jews in verse two he said to them hey guys did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believe notice how the holy spirit is one of the indicators of how this church is now for each group did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed and look at what they said no we haven't even heard about a Holy Spirit isn't that interesting in verse 3 he said well into then what were you baptized and they said into John's baptism now which John do you think that is by the way which one John the Baptist right now by the way show hands who knows when how long ago had John died at this point anybody know 20 years all right so they've been just kind of hanging out under the teaching of John for 20 years Jesus has come and gone 17 years previous and then they're just keeping rolling they haven't heard about the church haven't heard about Christ haven't heard about the Holy Spirit keep going verse 4. so Paul said well John baptized with the baptism of repentance telling the people to believe in him who was coming after him that's Jesus so he shares the gospel and when they heard this they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus and when Paul laid his hands on them Holy Spirit came you see what you got here he's got a group of Old Testament Saints who never heard about the new thing this is no magic work no second act no third move this is just simply a group of guys who had been under the teaching of John the Baptist then often the fields doing Ministry and Paul rolls up and he goes let me tell you about the new thing called The Church let me tell you about Jesus they're saved Holy Spirit and dwells just like he does today see Samaritans Gentiles John the Baptist men they're all grafted into one new church finish it with me one more time ready historical transition and by the way friends that's why when I taught on First Corinthians 12 13 all Paul's doing is grabbing this this this this beautiful scene from the early church and he's importing it to say guess what Corinth and by the way all of you the moment that you were saved you were what you were put into that baptism all the Old Testament Saints all the present Saints all the future Saints you've all been put into the body of Christ through this initial work this beautiful thing called The Church and um I hope you don't mind me going back on all this and slowing us down I just I want you to have comfort I want you to have Clarity and security to enjoy the scriptures and to see the value of context and here's really the big thing to rejoice in being a part of the church age that if you're in Christ Christ is in you it is done and by the way there's a little bit of sad irony in there that a lot of these groups who claim to be focusing so much on the Holy Spirit are actually the ones who are most abusing what he actually came to do because he came as the pledge the comforter the helper the security he wants you to know who you are in Christ not to walk around wondering he wants you secure that's what I want for you let's hope you don't mind me going back here and digging in so let me just ask you one more time when your friends and family come up to you and they come out of some hyper encounter somewhere and they say Hey you know we had the most amazing thing happened last night the Holy Spirit showed up you know have you ever heard of him you pull out your Bible and they say yeah it happened all over the book of Acts you're going to say oh yeah it did it happened in Acts 2 it happened in Acts 8 it happened in Acts 10 it happened in Acts 19. and you know what it was historical transition beautiful moment the birthday of the church the birthday of the church [Music] now foreign

Channel: Mission Bible Church

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Length: 38min 32sec (2312 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 05 2023