01/20/2018
More likely than not, if you are reading this, you know Jesus; who He is, and about His life. If you are reading this you may have asked Him to come into your life, confessed Him to be your Savior, and gone down in the waters of baptism. My question to you this morning is twofold today... how deep has your relationship with Him become, and, have you asked to be filled with the Holy Spirit?
“When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.”Acts 2:1-4 ESV
We think and teach about the disciples being surrounded, and filled with the Holy Spirit, but most of the time we concentrate on their speaking in tongues, or being given the spiritual gifts necessary to begin their mission to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. However, something else occurred in the instant that they were filled with the Spirit. Something occurred that wasn’t mentioned in specific, and yet occurred, and was monumental.... their relationship with the Risen Christ became internalized, and their lives were instantly changed forever. They became new creatures.
As we read the description of the filling of the Holy Spirit we don’t read words that say that they were changed as people, or that they became different men in their relationship with God, and Jesus, but as we have read of their prior lives, and then read on about their lives that follow this instant in time, we see something remarkable... they have been transformed. During this one incredible moment when Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit into them they were remade; their entire beings were transformed; they became in truth what Jesus had spoken to them of. In this instant He abided in them, and they in Him. In this instant they became, just as Paul did when struck down, new men, and one with Him.
This is not a new revelation to believers, but is less talked of than the physical change that occurred on Pentecost. It is emphasized less than the speaking in tongues or other evidences of the Holy Spirit... primarily, I think, because it requires that we know the one who receives the Holy Spirit prior to that event in order to validate the change that has come to them. In the Disciples, we have the luxury of reading about them both before and after having received the Spirit, and the change is evident. Andrew Murray wrote of this occurrence in the late 1800s when he wrote these words...
“It is one of the most wonderful object lessons in all of scripture - the Twelve, under Christ’s training for three years, and yet remaining, apparently, at some distance from the life they were meant to live; and then all at once, by the blessed incoming of the Holy Spirit, being made just what God wanted them to be.” - Andrew Murray
The Spirit wasn’t merely a physical or intellectual event. The Spirit didn’t come just to show people tongues of fire as a demonstration, or to teach the disciples French, Italian, Mandarin, or some other language... it came to rewrite their entire beings into something new. It changed who they were, just as surely as the voice of Jesus changed Saul to Paul on the road to Damascus. Listen to what Saul has become...
“But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name."”Acts 9:15-16 ESV
So I ask again my first question... “how deep has your relationship with Him become?” You believe, but do you believe in the faith of a pre-Pentecost disciple, or a post-Pentecost Apostle? Are you learning and following Jesus, or has He changed you in a way that defies definition? Search yourself.
Now I ask my second question... “have you asked to be filled with the Holy Spirit?” There comes a time at the end of a course of study when a diploma is issued. This is more than an award or certificate of completion, it is a demarcation point between student and living the life he or she has been taught would follow. Pentecost was such a moment, and in an instant the students became teachers... the friends became brothers, and what had been two became one. Have you asked Jesus to breathe on you the Holy Spirit? Have you reached a moment in your faith when following Him isn’t enough and you want more?
“"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”Matthew 7:7 ESV
I encourage that you pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit. This may take much time as you wait upon Him, but when you reach that moment in faith there will be no doubt, and the quickening moment of transformation will be sudden and joyfully complete.
“Receive it, dear believer, and say, “If it is possible, God helping me, I must have this filling of the Holy Spirit so that I may know and sense the presence of Jesus always dwelling in my heart” - Andrew Murray
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for your Holy Spirit, and the change in me that it brings. I thank you for knocking me down, for my time of blindness, but I thank you most for returning sight to me. I thank you for allowing me to see through new eyes that, in their perfection, I can always see clearly through the lenses of your will... through the pupils of Christ Jesus. Holy Father, your desire to make me complete in you requires that I become a new man, and each step I have been taking in life and faith has brought me closer to that moment. Fill me now, and always, with your Spirit, and let me dwell in Jesus, and He in you forever. Praised be your name Merciful Father, and great are you who lives in me, great is your Spirit that I sought, but which found me... I thought I knew the road, and yet I was wandering, but in an instant I saw, in a moment you changed me, and your will illuminated my path, and made straight the way. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you Father, and great are the works of your Holy Spirit in me. May you be glorified in all things... in my every step of faith.
Rich Forbes