There is a crucial distinction between what is meant by “receiving the Holy Spirit” and “being filled with the Holy Spirit” although sometimes both might happen at a one event or at separate times. While every believer receives the Spirit at the moment of salvation (a foundational transaction of faith in Jesus Christ) being filled with the Spirit is when He the Holy Spirit takes control. This filling results in a divine empowerment to do God’s work, such as speaking His word with a boldness that is not our own. The Christian life involves not only the certainty of having received the Spirit but also a continual possibility of being filled by Him to live effectively for Christ in an evil world.

Automatically Generated Transcript

[00:00:00] In our church life, we have a day during the week when it falls to my lot to design something for the bulletin. The only one problem with that is that I usually try and anticipate the message that’s to happen Sunday morning, and sometimes I mention about Sunday night. But the only thing is that as the days go by and I pray about the coming Sunday, the Lord can at times impress on my heart a different message from what I anticipated in the bulletin. So if you’re reading in the bulletin that I’m about to talk about judgment, then breathe easy. Because the Lord has laid something else on my heart. And we have on the screen just there, one of the verses that speaks about, it’s right at the beginning of the book of Acts,

[00:01:03] and the book of Acts is often understood as a title to it as the Acts of the Holy Spirit. Other people might give it the Acts of the Church, or some people see it as title of the Acts of the Apostles. All of those titles are accurate enough in terms of saying what the book of Acts is about, but this particular verse at the beginning highlights the fact that there’s something going on in the foundation of the church that involves the power of the Holy Spirit. and so the book of Acts traces through that development of the Spirit in the church and in this beginning part it tells us about the moment where the apostles and perhaps some others with them were in prayer and the Holy Spirit came and sat on them or appeared as an appearance sitting on each in turn and this is what is being talked about

[00:02:03] and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Thankfully we’re past the era of the church where lots of arguments continued as to whether or not they still were to be speaking in tongues today as there was on this first occasion and that’s actually not the real point of the passage as much as it’s the point that the Holy Spirit came in some new form not new form but in a new way to constitute the church the church began at Pentecost a little word that’s used for church ecclesia just means an assembly and the same word is used in the Greek version of the Old Testament about the assembly of Israel but it’s not used in that same technical sense of the church that we take the New Testament to be talking about

[00:03:02] and one of the things when we seek to understand about the church is we note its beginning by how Jesus said I will build my church and the church’s future to the ministry of Jesus he founded it he set the platform for it by his mighty ministry and his death on the cross and he said he will build the church which is what the book of Acts then goes on to display but at the beginning of this is this moment where it uses the language of being filled with the spirit now it’s very interesting that one of the features of the language used about the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts is that there are a number of different terms in our theology slash theology group that meets every second Thursday. We met last Thursday and the next one will be a fortnight from then. But we’ve been talking about the Holy Spirit

[00:04:06] and there’s just so much to be talked about. But one of the features that we find is that the language that is used about the coming of the Holy Spirit, there are a number of differing terms and it’s very hard quite to tie down how they are either just other different ways of saying the same thing or they are different ways to describe what the Spirit does with some overlap between them. And certainly in the beginning of the book of Acts as it describes the coming of the Holy Spirit you immediately have this phenomenon of there being a term used filled with the Holy Spirit But we also find that Peter has a sermon to give as the Holy Spirit takes over him and he delivers it to the crowd. At the conclusion of it, that sermon, Peter tells them if they repent and get baptised, they will receive the Holy Spirit.

[00:05:06] And so these disciples have just had, I’d say you’d say they received the Spirit, but they’re also filled with the Spirit. and then Peter tells to the crowd, having witnessed that which the Holy Spirit did in enabling Peter, so to speak, they hear from his lips that if they come to Christ, if they repent of their sin and they’re baptised, if they confess Christ, they will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And so immediately in these initial chapters, and you can see that, I don’t know whether you can get up, the final verse in chapter 2, maybe about 24 or so, it does talk about the fact of Peter’s final commands to the crowd that they are to repent. And if they so do repent, they not only will be forgiven of their sin, but they will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

[00:06:02] And so immediately in this initial chapter of chapter 2, you’ve got two terms used to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to receive the Holy Spirit. And from what has been revealed thus far in just these first two chapters is not clear as to whether they’re just different ways of saying the same thing or whether they’re two terms that mean exactly different things or are they two terms that overlap somewhat. I’m going to be suggesting to us this morning that all the different terms through the book of Acts do overlap but are not carrying identical meaning. and you can actually narrow down that which is particular to the terminology of being filled with the Spirit as you go through the book of Acts which is what I propose to teach us through. How much of that teaching I get to do this morning

[00:06:57] I don’t know because I discovered there are so many spots I even listed eight of them for me and I won’t have time to tell them this morning and we’ll continue tonight in this going through the different terms and finding out what is the exact meaning and how much they overlap. But thus far we’ve noticed that there’s no possibility of your being filled with the Spirit in the New Testament unless you’ve received the Spirit. That’s clear from Peter’s sermon. You have to come to Christ. Now a lot of the people, there were 3,000 people so we’re told who were listening to Peter on that occasion and in that occasion of those people most of them were folk who were good Jews and did all of the old covenant asked of them. No doubt there were many who didn’t as well I suppose but there were many who were good Jews

[00:07:51] and would eventually end up in glory in heaven. But yet they were still told by Peter to come for the forgiveness of sins and to receive the Holy Spirit And the twin blessings of the new Christian message is the offering of the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit that the forgiveness of sins is total. It’s not like the old covenant where people, if they did something wrong, they’d go down to the temple and offer a certain sacrifice depending on what the sin was, what had to be killed and bloodshed as a sacrifice. But now that Jesus has come, The whole ministry of Christ, which is what the Gospels have carried us through, has to take him to that moment when he went to the cross and he bore our sins. And the New Testament teaches us that his doing so was once and for all, complete.

[00:08:52] And there’s no more sacrifice needed for sins. It also teaches, the New Testament does, as you read through both the letters of Corinthians and all the little letters of Paul, and also if you read through the book of Hebrews, we don’t know who is the author of Hebrews, but if you read through those books, you find it telling us about the once and for allness and the total effectiveness of the death of Christ for our sins. The word that’s used of the success of that death of Christ is it’s a total atonement, a completed work done. And Jesus, by how he died, has done all that’s necessary for us to have the forgiveness of sins. We may need to own up to some along the way, which 1 John 1.9 talks about. If you’ve sinned and confessed your sins, say the same as God says about your sins.

[00:09:50] And he will be faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness because Jesus has totally paid for it. The atonement for your sins, past, present, even future maybe, that you may commit, all the atonement for those is finished. As Jesus himself on the cross said when he said, it is finished. That’s a very big difference from the old covenant system whereby if someone sinned and they did something wrong, they stole a neighbour’s pig or they did something else or they got angry at the priest and slurred his name or something that they had to go down and there had to be a sacrifice made and there’s quite a range of different, I was going to say recipes, that’s not the best word, there’s quite a range of different sacrifices that needed to be brought

[00:10:42] for the sins but all of these the book of Hebrews in the New Testament tells us were a picture of how Jesus would actually be the real sacrifice and the fruit of which he took to heaven and sat down at the right hand of the Father, the atonement being completed, no more sacrifice for sin needed. Just that if you’ve caught yourself out in the wrong, confess it, say the same as God about it being wrong. And God is faithful because of the completed atonement to cleanse you from all sin. That’s the New Testament life we now live in. How fantastic is it? But look at that verse 39. It’s on the screen now down the bottom there of what’s on the screen. For the promise is to you. It’s a promise. It’s a new covenant promise. The Old Testament had heard the promise

[00:11:37] but it didn’t come true until Jesus finished his mission. Jesus went to heaven. Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Father. He took the fruit of his death on the cross to heaven. And from there the atonement complete. He offers this. Repent and be baptised, every one of you. Be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now do you notice this is the same chapter 2 we were reading before about them being filled with the Spirit but now is using the language of receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit. As we go through the book of Acts we can certainly make it clear that these terms overlap and it’s impossible for you to be a person in the New Testament era to be filled with the Spirit

[00:12:36] if you haven’t first received the Spirit. And in many cases people receiving the Spirit at that moment like the apostles were who ran outside preaching the Gospel. They never intended to do it. They didn’t write a bullet and get their sermon topic wrong. They just had the Spirit dry and go outside and begin to preach. The interesting thing is the miracle that happened is that a lot of the people who come from various parts of the world back then who were Jews by religion, it’s probably why they were there, there might have even been some who weren’t even Jews at all, but they all heard them speak in their own language. There was a miracle of languages. I don’t know, I can’t tell. Excuse my voice. I don’t know and I can’t tell whether the miracle happened in the apostles who spoke it

[00:13:26] or to hear in the ears of those who listen because the wording we have is we all do hear them speak in our own tongues people listening were amazed because they could see there were Galileans who generally didn’t know many languages who were busy fishing or doing something up there in Galilee and the people perceived them to be untrained unlearned they weren’t intellectuals they were people who just spoke the language they knew but the people heard them in their own tongues. Miracle either happening in the persons of the apostles speaking or the miracle happening in the ears of the ones listening, I don’t know. We’re not told enough. But what we can see is that in the New Testament area there’s no possibility of your being filled with the Spirit unless you first receive the Spirit by coming to Christ.

[00:14:20] You know, that’s the difference between someone who’s very religious and you can become someone trained to be religious. I confess as one who was and thought myself to be a Christian until the day that Christ called me and I knew I had to come. And that day I received the Spirit. But it didn’t stop other people thinking I was doing pretty well as a little Christian boy. Because you can be trained to be a Christian and I’m not lessening the value of that. But you can be trained as a Christian but it is a happening to receive the Spirit. And in the New Testament all the training which is good to have had and helps your character to develop etc. But nonetheless the receiving of the Spirit is the platform that sets you up to be as was the case with the 12 apostles.

[00:15:16] When the Holy Spirit came on them and sat on them in tongues of fire. When you’ve received the Spirit and by the way the tongues of fire happened that first Pentecostal day but they don’t have to happen hereafter. You could go out of this church this morning having woken up to the fact that you’ve never received the Spirit and you go home or get in your car and say Lord I can’t wait to get home but I need you to give me the gift of the Holy Spirit and do it now. It’s something that’s a faith request Generally it happens when The gospel breaks in on you You understand the gospel That says you can’t forgive yourself You understand the gospel That says that Jesus loves you And he died for you You like Nicodemus Might take several times Listening to Jesus That you’ve got to be born again That’s receiving the spirit

[00:16:11] And be made to have a new birth Maybe don’t get the message straight away I don’t think Nicodemus understood because he said he couldn’t understand but across time and the time that the gospel record spans eventually pictures Nicodemus coming to the Saviour knowing the Saviour and stepping out in confession of him when he went to ask for Jesus’ body from Pontius Pilate and risked his life and did it with another fellow who was a rich guy who had a cave that would be used as the tomb for Jesus there is a happening of receiving the Spirit and my very first question to you this morning on this point is have you really received the Spirit in church life and having been involved since being a young person and having been trained in evangelism and having been involved in talking to people

[00:17:11] Some of those occasions have been children’s occasions and children come and very often someone brought up in a church, a child will say, Jim, like one little girl did one day, I’ve tried to receive Jesus seven times, she said. She prayed a prayer. She says, how do I know that he’s come into my life? The group that we’re talking used the terminology of Jesus coming into your heart. There’s nothing wrong with that terminology, it’s not complete. The receiving of the Spirit, Jesus presently is in heaven and he sends the Holy Spirit to represent him into your heart. That’s how that happens. But I thank God that he’s not judgmental on little children for how they word it. But when you’re willing to do business with Jesus and you want him to give you that once and for all forgiveness of sins

[00:18:13] and put his Spirit in your heart to bring the rule of Jesus there, then it happens. One of the beautiful things about that happening, it’s different for different people. I have to be a bit cautious of quoting the way it happened to me because it was dramatic and I knew it. And I had a picture of Christ, a vision of him that was attached to all of that. And other people, it’s just a quiet prayer. Some sense that they’ve now arrived at the moment when it’s time to do business with the Lord and they just word a prayer. Some people pray that prayer and are not actually aware that Jesus came to them and answered to it. Later on, they suddenly wake up, oh boy, and they realise what happened back then. There’s no formula. There’s no particular way sometimes in evangelistic meetings

[00:19:15] we hold them by giving a call for people to step out. I’m glad for the practice and I was one who did it in a big crusade meeting. But sometimes the fact that we do have those evangelistic methods sets up in people’s minds that it’s that somehow walking down to the front of the meeting or that somehow putting your hand up or it’s something that is done that is the thing that is the trick. Well, it’s not. There is no trick. It’s just in your heart you believe God’s promise. If you believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, I’ve got the verse mixed now, but if you trust Jesus that he died for you and you believe in your heart, then he comes to you and you get in the door. That’s what receiving, there we are, thank you. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord,

[00:20:16] this business of receiving Jesus is not just an emotional moment of welcoming his spirit to waft into your personal. You confess him as Lord, there’s a surrender to who he is. He’s the Lord of glory. He’s the King of kings. There’s no way that you can walk with Jesus except you do it humbly and say, Lord. Even if you don’t use the word, the point is that he’s the boss and that surrender to him is a part of what happens. Sometimes we’re more aware of it and when you listen to different people’s testimonies, it’s moving as some of them tell you of how for them was an issue of whether they give in to who was the boss or let him be Lord. All of this is wrapped up and when you believe in him, you’re believing in him as the Lord of lords and king of kings when you’re believing in him you’re believing in him

[00:21:12] as the one who died for you when you believe in him you’re the one who you’re believing it is the one that you hear has risen from the dead so he’s alive to be that king to be that lord you’re believing the one who’s gone to heaven and been given the highest place in his name now is the name that’s above every name fantastic that that’s who he is because if you come across an evil scenario where there are demons concerned, if you go somewhere and there’s an attack from the rotten world, the evil world, the spiritual world that’s contrary to God, you just have to say, Jesus, with trust in your heart, and they will run. If you find a person who’s got a problem that can’t be solved, if there’s a disease that needs to be released, God can heal, God can bring about, you can’t tell him what he needs to do but he can

[00:22:09] and if you come to Jesus and there’s a problem of someone with a disease you’d be surprised at how much he steps in because he is Lord of Lords and King of Kings and there is no evil force, there is no evil scenario that when you call on the name of Jesus he will step into it. It’s a fantastic thing to be a Christian and to realise that Jesus when you belong to him and he belongs to you, boy are you secure and one of the things that happens as a Christian is you gradually get this understanding growing in you that you can rip his hand and he’s got you and you’ve got him if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, boy there’s a lot that and you believe in your heart so it’s not just an outward ceremony, it’s not just a hope expressed with lips, it’s the heart who crowns him as

[00:23:13] Lord and Saviour, who believes that God has raised him from the dead, that’s why he can because he’s alive and he’s King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You will be saved. Are you a saved person? Really? And if you’re not this morning please today find some time to Romans 10 verse 9 if you can remember that verse look it up, put your finger on that word that says believe in your heart and say Jesus in my heart I believe you. I’m trusting you. Please save me now. Put a now on the end because that’s the part of the key. Don’t just say I hope I’ll work toward it or I hope anything say Jesus do it now and he will. Now what I’m making clear is that the receiving of him is a relational transaction transaction. Be sure that it’s done. Go back please to that verse 2 in chapter 2 verse where we begin verse 4 They’re all filled

[00:24:40] with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave the mutterants. although the two terms to receive Christ and fill with Christ overlap what this term filled as being useful in this verse to tell us is that he came and took over control. What was the control? I reckon those disciples were as astonished as all the crowd were. I think that as they began to speak they were aware, I know this is true it’s what is the heart of preaching that you get speaking and sometimes you’re just left to make clear the doctrines and that’s okay you can’t make it any different by deciding yourself but other times as you speak somehow you’re aware of some current that’s flowing you’re aware that there’s another person who’s in the action and it’s the Spirit of Christ who’s giving the utterance and the people

[00:25:49] in the receiving end know the difference you say Jim what makes you think that well because I was one of the receiving end and I knew that it was Christ who was speaking to me he gives the person might have been a preacher in my case it was in other people’s cases it’s their parent at home other people it’s a friend sometimes when I was a school high school student lunchtime I’d end up with a group of people talking to me and I don’t know how I didn’t have to make it happen but it didn’t necessarily sometimes we just talked about the things we love to talk about as young people at school and then suddenly there’d be another person who was taking over the conversation or one of the people who was coming around I’d get a little group of people around me and someone would ask a question because I’d sort of come out in the open

[00:26:58] of being a Christian and I’d suffered a bit for it you know not terribly but as happens when people try and knock it out of you a bit or try and you know laugh at it and suddenly one guy says to me Jimmy says you’ve got something I don’t know what it is but I want it and I said it’s not a something it’s a someone that was the beginning it took a little while in this fellow’s case but he came to know Christ there is someone who speaks and if you’re a Christian and are involved in that you go home and you praise God for what he did you never think to yourself oh wasn’t I a good speaker I learned early at high school days it wasn’t my fancy wordings or my knowing all things I have to confess I made plenty of mistakes in my talking to people about Christ but when they came to Christ it was the success of the other voice the spirit gave the mutterance

[00:28:28] and those are moments when the Holy Spirit takes over control and he doesn’t do it because you’re necessarily good at anything or necessarily someone who is so pleased God that he gives you a present or something for being a nice person I want to tell you if that’s the way he wants to use you he does it because of his choice and of his power and that is what he does and so in those moments you could say you were controlled by the Holy Spirit. And that’s actually what it means in the way they used their language back then. It was where the Spirit may have been present in influence in other occasions, but when he so is being influential that you could attribute what happens to him and not you, then you’d use the language of filled with the Spirit. Other people might see it as being you, but it’s him.

[00:29:29] And that’s what the language means. Let’s go to another verse in Acts 4. Now, as I say, I’ve got a list here of eight, and I know I won’t get through too many of them, but what actually happened in the book of Acts is that they got a lot of persecution, the disciples, and they were working hard to get across Jesus’ message, but they were all beginners at the whole task. And so they got a lot of opposition, and some of the opposition had members of their company put into jail, et cetera, and Peter and John got put in jail, and they never knew whether they’re coming out as dead corpses or going to get let out again. So this is not easy days for the church. And when they got accused and by the authorities, the Jewish authorities, and warned not to go on talking in his name,

[00:30:27] they went back with the challenge to the church and they got the people to pray. And as they prayed, something happened to the place in which they were praying. It suddenly got shaken. The place where they prayed, the place which they gathered together was shaken. Now I can bet that they weren’t only filled with the Holy Spirit, I think they were probably filled with fear unless the roof came down or continue with the fear of what the authorities have warned them about. But they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. This has been a special point for me to like to point out that people often quote the beginning of the book of Acts as evidence why if you’ve got the Spirit you should have spoken in tongues.

[00:31:23] I think those people have noticed one thing that’s true and failed to notice a bigger one that they should have seen. The bigger one is they’re all filled with the Holy Spirit. This was a happening to the people on the one occasion. They’re all filled and they continue to speak the word of God not as scaredy-cats but with boldness. They started with boldness and then they’d been threatened and they were scared. But when the Holy Spirit filled them, they continued to speak the word of God with boldness. And I think it stands out to me anyway, the thing that is the strongest point to notice in these terms that overlap a lot but they have their own individual meaning. I think the meaning of being filled is the Holy Spirit has taken over control and is responsible for the outcome that’s visible

[00:32:16] and they continued to speak the word of God with boldness. there’s something about the church of God when God’s Spirit steps in and takes over that control that the world outside are just amazed they were in the case of Peter and James and John and the disciples because they acknowledged that they’d been with Jesus when they spoke with boldness they said what could it be about these ones that speak like this oh they’ve been with Jesus here’s some yet to become Christian people noticing a true fact it’s the connection with Jesus that gives the filling of the Holy Spirit have you had experience of finding that God managed to take you and all the limitations that belong to who you are and do something through you if you have then you knew a moment when the Holy Spirit took over the control

[00:33:21] and the fruit of it was that you spoke the word of God with boldness when the church is weak it doesn’t have much speaking like that when the church is strong people go out to the places where they work and to their surprise they find themselves raising a flag for Christ I think it’s a beautiful thing when Christian people realise that this is actually the normalcy of Christian living and that they’ve not yet really registered much action and they sometimes ask a friend I realise I never raise the flag much at my work they know I go to church but I sort of hide away and I don’t really go to the times when they’re too raucous and you’ve kept your testimony okay but you wish, you wish that you could be more triumphant in that workplace you go to. Well, the answer you need is in the filling of the Holy Spirit.

[00:34:32] And what is more, he will give it to those who pray. Mind you, in this particular case, if you look at it carefully, they prayed for courage and they got boldness. They prayed for not getting scalped, I guess, not getting persecuted and killed. They prayed because they were threatened but they prayed. And if you’re someone that says, I don’t know really, I haven’t experienced much of the Spirit doing things through me, why don’t you make it a prayer? I better give you warning though that the Bible teaches on the overall, I haven’t got time to prove this by quoting too many verses, but the way the Spirit works is varied according to how he chooses. And if you pray and say, Lord, I want you to use me, you may be surprised at the way he chooses to do it and the things he lets happen.

[00:35:38] There may be somebody here this morning and something’s happened with you which is something really tested you and you wished it hadn’t occurred. Look again. Look again. Maybe the thing that is awkward for you, when your relatives see how you go through it, will be the thing whereby the Spirit of God is in. I remember the story of a man who was the only one in his family who was a Christian and he had, I think it was a brother that was always ribbing him and giving him a hard time. And the brother sort of knew a way how to get him angry. And so the brother would have a go at him and he lost his temper. And he said things he wished he hadn’t. And he wished it didn’t happen. And he went to his brother and he said, I’m sorry. The brother, I don’t know the exact details of whether he, anyway, in what it was told to me

[00:36:56] that the brother sort of broke down about it and said, oh, he says, I can understand you’re being angry because of what I said and did. But what I can’t understand, you’re coming to me and apologising. And in the story, I heard it, I didn’t see it happen, but I heard it told. The brother came to Christ because he couldn’t explain how his Christian brother came and apologised. Spirit was in it all the time. And if you pray, well, sometimes the place gets shaken, so don’t be surprised if it does. When you pray, sometimes it won’t be shaken and nor will you do anything dramatic, but it might be somehow that in the whole circumstances that you pray about, you will find the work of the Holy Spirit. In the overall outwrapping of it all, you will have succeeded by what the Spirit did. I find this is a fantastic verse.

[00:38:05] They prayed in desperation but they come out of the praying and speaking the Word of God with boldness. A little bit of that, I know. My older brother, who, he’s a big brother, bigger than me, you know, very good at everything, playing football and had a rifle. My parents were a bit silly. They bought him a .22 rifle. We went away for holidays and I had a friend of mine come from my class at school and we went off running, my friend and I, in the sand dunes. My brother was a bit sulky because he was older and left on his own. So he took his gun and he shattered us. We didn’t know he was there but he kept firing shots with his .22 rifle zinging over my head and I didn’t know it was him. He’s a pretty good shot so if I had known it was him I wouldn’t have worried as much. But we two came home, me and my friend, and spoke about

[00:39:12] this person chasing us and he had a good laugh. Why was I telling you this about my brother? I’ve actually forgotten the reason why I was going to tell you but anyway, my brother was someone because he was older and bigger and stronger. He had a whole group of friends who were his friends in primary school and there was other rival gangs in the town. This is in Perth where if you ran into some of them they’d belt you up and I never got belted up but I watched how they were pretty cruel. One day the leader of their gang they were from overseas I won’t say what nation they were from. That might make you prejudiced or make you think I am. But the fellow caught me. I was up a tree. And the reason why he couldn’t get at me is he couldn’t climb good enough. I just stayed up the tree.

[00:40:10] But that gang of my brothers, I always followed him. But there came a time when he was proud of me. Because I got on fire quicker and he got challenged. And I remember going back to the town where he lived and had a number of places to go and preach at. And he said, I’ll take you around. And he came around and he’d stand at the meeting. Someone would ask him who he was. And he’d say, oh, that’s my brother. Because the work of the Spirit leads you to do things. And whereas previously I would be following him and being little brother, the Spirit enabled me to step out and do something to speak the word of God with boldness. I love this verse. Now, if I could squeeze in at least one more. Let’s go to another passage. Why don’t we go to Acts 13, 9 to 12. Acts 13, 9 to 12.

[00:41:21] Now, the reason why I’ve chosen all these passages, they do utilise the language of being filled with the Spirit. So, it says, but Saul, who was also called Paul, this is the Apostle Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him. Now, this is a leader in the community who’s also got alongside him a rascally man who’s demon-possessed type. But he looked to the fellow who’s giving the problems and he says, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? Now, who do you think, I know you’ve read that it’s Paul verbalising, but who’s the one that stands behind that language? That’s Jesus. That’s through the Holy Spirit. That’s what it means when it says, Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit,

[00:42:29] looked intently at him and came out with something that was very much a dangerous thing to do in front of an important official. You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of deceit and villainy. That’s because he’s being prompted and told that the reality is to word. Will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time. And immediately mist and darkness fell on him and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. Then the proconsul, the man who’s the official guy, he believed when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord. Now, that astonishment wasn’t just that it was well-framed intellectual clauses, I tell you.

[00:43:29] He’s astonished because the power that came when Paul pointed the finger at the man and said, but what happened? And the mist came on him and he became blinded in front of the official. That’s why he was astonished of the teaching of the Lord. Now, I am not one who was brought up in a house that believed in being a Pentecostal or charismatic as they used to be called back then. But I want to tell you, I want to tell you that when the Holy Spirit gets a grip of somebody, things happen that’s not just them. And the Pentecostal church, though I think in lots of little ways, have got some doctrines wrong, yet they have one thing right. And that was that we should count on the presence of the Holy Spirit in the church and in our lives. And when you call on God that he will fill you with the Spirit,

[00:44:23] when he does it, you’ll be surprised. You’ll be staggered at what he can do. For he’s in the business of taking over control and doing things that you’d never achieve on your own. And when the Holy Spirit is at work, he makes the church flourish. The church I used to be a teenager in in high school years was very conservative Baptist church. One of my dad’s best friends, they went through college together, was the pastor. And this man had a father who’d been a Baptist pastor. His father was an evangelist, but the man himself, my dad’s friend, was a very good teacher and pastor. And this particular church was strong and filled and was overflowing and known to be on the south side of Adelaide, one of the major churches you could go to and see what was happening.

[00:45:18] This was a church where the Holy Spirit was at work. But when a visiting man came, he was the new principal of the Bible college. My dad had been the past principal and he went to another one and he went to the Baptist college. And so into the Bible college came a return missionary, a man who was a charismatic. It was interesting watching when you were a teenager some of the church adjustments. I’ll call them adjustments. But our church that I went to, they wouldn’t have the man come and preach because he was known to be a charismatic. Anyway, he wanted to come and because he was the new principal of the Bible college and they supported the Bible college they sort of had to have him. So they said we won’t let him preach in the church because his doctrines might not be right.

[00:46:14] But they said we’ll let him speak to the young people and there was an intermediate Christian endeavour at which I went. It was for teenagers, high school age. So they sent him along thinking, well, if he won’t do it, he’d be dangerous. They couldn’t have made a bigger mistake. Because he spoke on John 7, verses 37 to 39, about the rivers of living water. And he quoted the passage that says, he who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water. And then he said, the most strange thing I’ve ever heard a preacher say previous, he says, now, you believe on Jesus now for rivers of living water, and then you can forget about it. And when he said you can forget about it, I was staggered because I’d never heard a preacher tell you to forget about it.

[00:47:10] They nearly always say, please remember this or take this into account, write it down in your Bibles. But he said, just believe it and forget about it because God doesn’t need to have any false pumps pumping the river. You just believe it and rivers will flow. And then he said, put your finger on the word believe and believe Jesus’ promise for the Holy Spirit to flow through you. That morning, this teenager back then had his finger on the word believe and just as he said, I forgot about it. He went away. Things went on as normal. The Christian Endeavour used to have you doing all these little jobs. They had committees. I was chairman of one committee. Then they’d call a meeting for all the chair people and we’d report on what we’d done.

[00:48:05] Each of those meetings, I reported that our committee had never met. I didn’t know why. I didn’t know that being chairman I should have called it funny really administration has never been my high point and I’d say I’d never met but someone else took over a bit of a leadership and came along with a book to read it was the book The Calvary Road which call on Vogue to confess their sin and one meeting we were meant to talk about what our committees had done or not done he said now you’ve got to confess your sin start over here and he picked a spot I breathed easy because there was a doorway between me and where he picked and so it would go around the other side of the room give me time to think up something to confess and went around the room the most interesting meeting I’ve ever been in people came out with

[00:49:05] statements that were really astonishing things they got around to me and the only thing I had to confess was how annoyed I was at the bloke who made himself the leader because I always saw myself as someone that should lead and he’d stolen the march on me and got it all going. He was doing a good job and I was annoyed. So I confessed my jealousy or my annoyance at him making himself the leader. But something happened that day. I’m here today because of that day of the Holy Spirit moving and us as a group, I emerged as a preacher, began getting opportunities. My sister asked, one of the students of the college where Dad was now working, had a church. He only had one teenager in it and he was not knowing how to win the teenager so he asked me to come along and preach. The one teenager came to Christ.

[00:50:13] He was my first public response. And ever since then, I want to tell you, I don’t have to pump the river. Just believe in Jesus’ promise. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water. It’s based on faith. You trust him for the gift, the presence of his spirit. And every now and then, you can’t make it happen, but every now and then, he does something. And the teaching of the Lord triumphs. We need the filling of the Holy Spirit in the church. And it will be different for different people. I’ve found others of my friends, it used them in differing ways. And the Lord will do with you what is his purpose for you. There’s some alignment with your gifts of the spirit and what the spirit fills you to do. But it’s not a total excuse me for being…

[00:51:23] Anyway, I’m just saying today that the teaching of the Lord is something that came out of Paul. And the verse we’re looking at is a verse that’s saying how the council bloke, he was absolutely astonished at the teaching of the Lord. And when other people outside of the church, people outside of Christ, get affected, what does it is what the spirit does. You don’t have to be good at everything. You don’t have to be someone who’s, you know, succeeded as top dog in whatever is your career or whatever. But what will be the thing that hits people is what happens in you. Because you believe in the Holy Spirit in you and you get filled and controlled, they will be astonished at you somehow. Because of the Holy Spirit and what he’s doing. Will you join with our church

[00:52:34] in trusting the Holy Spirit to do something amongst us which will affect people everywhere? I have as a hope, a joy, I can’t ever say this will happen. It’s something about revivals that are on my heart. Australia needs a revival. We keep going backwards in our country with the morals and with a sense of reverence and of the foolish things right now down in Sydney going on. Foolish not because they don’t have any point but because they’re out to somehow cause a rift and make the whole thing worse in Israel. We need the Holy Spirit to step in. And I don’t see any reason why God can’t bring a revival and what is more if he chose to, it would have to be his decision, he could start with us. Let’s believe God for something. We can word it, Lord, if it be your will.

[00:54:01] You’re not trying to force his hand to do what you say. But will you believe that he could work in our church? And maybe even that will be a beginning of revival. Who knows whether there aren’t some of you sitting here that God is going to come and tell you to go to another city and he’ll do a work in you in that city. Who knows whether there’s someone here that God will say I want you to go overseas. Who knows whether some of you who’ve never really thought you’re an extrovert enough to be busy witnessing that he won’t somehow give you a quiet way of, some way that he gets through with you. Believe him and then ask him to show you what it is or where it is that he wants you next to go. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for this message. I thank you, Father, for the terminology of receiving Christ

[00:55:16] and being filled with the Spirit. And if there are folk here this morning who need to receive Christ who’ve never really been certain that they have, who’ve covered up that question mark, would you let them not escape it again? And Lord, if there are some who do know you, but there’s something that is true about the Holy Spirit and his power, it’s not just a matter of doing all the right things. It’s a matter of trusting that your Spirit will take over and control them and use them. If someone here doesn’t know where their place lies, would you show them a place, Father, that they may know how the Spirit can flow through them, I pray it in Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.