Good morning, church. How are you? It is so good to be in the house of the Lord today. If you're new here, my name is Ricky, and I have the privilege of being one of the pastors here at the church. And, uh, we are continuing our series on the book of Ephesians, which is why I want to invite you to turn to Acts chapter 3.
I know that seems counterintuitive, but in walking through Ephesians, we're pausing and doing a miniseries on the Spirit to help us understand Ephesians 5:18, which says I'll remind you, "Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit." Now, it's been a while since we talked about the Spirit at our church, and so we wanted to pause here and explore what that looks like for a church. What does it look like for a Christian to be filled with the Spirit?
Now, I realize, though, as we come to talk about this, we all come in to talking about the Spirit with different different preconceptions and different assumptions. Wherever you are, though, I've probably been where you are in your position at some point. I grew up in the charismatic movement and the— and the kind of the end of the Jesus movement with people falling down, people speaking in tongues, people dancing in the aisles.
And that's not like a metaphor that like people were dancing in the aisles, like people were literally here in this building dancing in the aisles. I mean, that's just what I grew up with. I was like, "Oh, I guess that's a normal thing." And then I found out later my Baptist friends were like, "That's not allowed." So I was like, "Okay, well, sorry." I've been there, grown up in that. I've also been in a place of being skeptical and even cynical about the work of the Spirit. I remember being affected that as I grew up, some of the people that seemed, quote, "filled with the Spirit" and seemed like they had powerful encounters with the Spirit, later fell into sin, and some of them would not even say that they're Christians at this point.
I was talking to a friend of mine who will go nameless that admitted that during that era of our church, when people were being slain in the Spirit, meaning the Spirit is affecting them and they're falling down, he went up for prayer and all of his friends were being affected. And so he was just— he was like, I guess this is what we're doing. So he pretended to fall down, and then he just laid on the ground until like I don't know, people started getting up and then people asked him, what was it like? And he was like, it's hard to describe.
Right, so you've seen that kind of stuff. I mean, it happens. And so whether you're on the end of, man, I just cannot wait for those things of the Spirit to be present in my life, or you're like, man, I'd never wanna see any of that. I have probably been where you are, as we'll talk about in this message. Everyone has a different starting point when it comes to the thinking about the Spirit.
So how do we resolve that? We resolve it by going back to the Bible, right? We resolve it by opening up God's Word, which is the only authoritative source of direction about the Holy Spirit. Not your experience or my experience, but the Bible. So we're going to turn to Acts chapter 3, Acts chapter 3, and let me say this by way of introduction as we read Acts chapter 3.
In the book of Acts, some of the things that happen in the book of Acts are unique and unrepeatable, right? Certain things happening in certain ways will not be repeated, and they are, in a sense, a memorial to what the Lord did in that period of salvation history. But we also see from the way that Luke writes, as we'll see today, that it's not just meant to be a memorial, it's also meant to be a model. This is Luke is very careful to record how the Spirit-filled church is built. And we see then Paul kind of reinforcing that in his letters and taking that and saying, "Yeah, this is what is supposed to take place in the Spirit.
Here's how to govern it, how to be careful with it, how to fan it into flame." So let's lean in then and see this monument, but also model from Acts chapter 3. And we're going to basically do today 24 hours with the Spirit-filled church. We're going to start out at the beginning of the day. We're going to end the day with them and see in Acts 3 and 4 what it was like to just drop in to the church.
So Acts chapter 3, let's remember this is God's word.
Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate, to ask alms of those entering the temple. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, 'Look at us.' And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, 'I have no silver or gold, but what I do have I give to you.
In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand and raised him up. And immediately his feet and ankles were made strong, and leaping up, he stood and began to walk and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God and recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple. Asking for alms.
And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. This is God's word.
And Lord, I pray that today, regardless of where we are approaching this topic from, Lord, that you would center us on and help us to stand on the foundation of your word. Lord, we pray that we would be faithful to the model that you've laid out in the book of Acts in the New Testament. God, our desire is to be the church you want us to be, to be the Christians you want us to be. So I pray that you would help us see how the Spirit helps us be the Christians you want us to be and the church that you want us to be. And I pray that you'd bring clarity and inspiration through your word. In Jesus' name, amen.
6 · The pastor identifies the church's theological position as confessionally charismatic/continuationist and explains what this means in practical terms: belief in the ongoing, powerful work of the Holy Spirit in the same ways demonstrated in Acts 3
Well, we are a confessionally charismatic or continuationist church. So if you're not into theology, you might not know what those mean. But what it means is this: we believe in our statement of faith, in the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in every way, that we believe that God continues, that the Holy Spirit we see in Acts chapter 3 is with us still, and he still works in powerful and unique ways.
7 · The pastor establishes the sermon's main point through a quotation from Pastor Jayaprakash: the Spirit still does wonders
Now, I want to, though, give us our main point, is a quote from our friend Pastor Jayaprakash from India. So last year we had Pastor Japakesh with us, and he was talking about the work that God has done in and through him and his church. And so he said— he summed up what we believe about the Holy Spirit, I think, in just a beautiful and compelling way. He said, "We believe," meaning we believe and he believes and our family of churches believes, "We believe that he still does the wonders." And then he just went on to describe just several amazing things about God giving them twins when they thought they couldn't have children, and just miracle after miracle in a sense.
And he said, "We believe that he still does the wonders." So 3 questions we're gonna ask and answer. The first one is this: What does the Spirit do? And the answer is from Pastor J.P., wonders.
8 · The pastor demonstrates Luke's intentional intertextual design, showing how the Acts 3 healing parallels Jesus' healing of the paralytic in Luke 5 and the blind beggar in Luke 18
What does the Spirit do? He does wonders.
Now, remember that Luke is the author of both both the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts. And so this story should remind readers of Acts chapter 5, where Jesus is teaching and a paralyzed man is lowered down through the roof. Do you guys remember this story? It's like one of the all-time greatest hits in kids ministry, right? Everybody loves the guy getting lowered down, the paralyzed guy.
And so similarly, he had a group of friends because he couldn't help himself, and they tried to get him in front of Jesus. And so similarly, They have these friends that are getting this man in front of people who can give him alms. He can't work, he's been paralyzed from birth. And in the middle of that, he calls out and Jesus heals this man who's lowered right in front of him, this paralyzed man. All of a sudden it says that he rolls up his mat that he used to lay on, 'cause he doesn't need to lay on it anymore, and leaves praising God.
You see, that story and this story in Luke placed almost overlapping on top of each other. Similarly, Luke 18 has another story where Jesus is passing by a blind beggar, who the blind beggar calls out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me." And Jesus stops and Jesus restores him. And so you have these stories of Jesus' miraculous healings, very similar in theme. And what Luke is doing, he's intentionally placing those stories over this story, or rather in the background of this story, and he's making a point, a theologically powerful point.
9 · The pastor makes two interconnected theological claims: (1) Jesus' miracles were performed in the power of the Spirit, and (2) Jesus promised that same Spirit's power to the disciples
Two things are coming together in this moment. First, remember that the miracles that Jesus did were in the power of the Spirit. Luke tells us, as we saw last week, that Jesus was conceived in the power of the Spirit. He begins his ministry with the power of the Spirit. His first sermon is from Isaiah, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to proclaim good news," right? And all throughout his ministry, the power of the Spirit is with Jesus.
Second, we also see that in Luke's recording, Jesus promised the Spirit to his disciples. He said in Acts chapter 1, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you." So for the original disciples, they wouldn't have been going, "Well, what kind of power is that?" No, they would know. They would have seen the power of the Spirit on Jesus and be amazed that Jesus is saying, "This power will come upon you." The same Holy Spirit that was on Jesus as he worked miracles in the Gospel of Luke is now in the book of Acts on The church. Luke is extremely intentional to record that.
10 · The pastor establishes a critical theological distinction: Jesus' relationship to the Spirit is unique as a member of the Trinity, but the same Spirit truly dwells in believers
Now, an important distinction. Jesus is the sinless Son of God, so his relationship to the Holy Spirit is not the same as our relationship. We don't become part of the Trinity, right? Jesus and the Holy Spirit, two members of the Godhead, relate to one another uniquely. If anybody thinks that they're, you know, they've gotten in on that and that you're now part of the Trinity, We as pastors would love to talk to you after the meeting and pray for you and possibly evaluate you. So the— we get that, right?
We get that you're not Jesus, because the Holy Spirit comes upon you, doesn't make you Jesus. But we don't want to undersell the point either. The Holy Spirit, the member of the Trinity, Holy Spirit, dwells in the heart of Christians who are restored and reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. Right? I don't think you can oversell that or the wonder of that.
All that we see of the Spirit in the Gospel of Luke is placed right up parallel with all that we see from the church. Same Spirit working in both books.
Now, it's important to note that there are two distinct ways the Bible speaks of the Spirit's work coming into the believer's life. The first way the Spirit comes into the believer's life is at salvation. So apart from the Spirit making our dead hearts alive again, we could not respond to the offer of salvation. Ephesians 2 says, "But you were dead." Okay? So here's the reality. If you guys leave here and you drive over to Concordia Cemetery and you preach the gospel powerfully, I mean, just a bang-up gospel sermon, how many of the people in Concordia Cemetery are gonna respond? It's gonna be zero, right? I'll just save you the trouble.
Don't do that. Meaning that our hearts are dead. Ezekiel 36 pictures it like this. Our hearts are stone. But Ezekiel 36 promises that one day the Spirit would come and remove our heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh.
Or in the language of Ephesians 2, you were dead, but now made alive. What is the— what's the agent for making us alive, for opening our eyes, for taking our heart of stone out and putting in our heart of flesh? It is the Spirit. And the Spirit of God comes so powerfully into our life that Paul can tell the whole church in 1 Corinthians 12:13 that if you— that he says of the whole church that have believed in Christ, You have been plunged into the Spirit, meaning immersed in the Spirit. So it's not as though you just dip your toe into the Spirit.
No, you've been immersed in it. That's the only way that you are a Christian. If you are a Christian today, the Spirit has worked in your life.
11 · The pastor establishes the second distinct way the Spirit works in believers' lives: the filling of the Spirit, which is distinct from and subsequent to the Spirit's saving work
But there is also another way the Bible speaks of the Spirit's work coming into the life of the believer, and that's the language of filling. All right, you see this in Acts 4:8, as we're about to see in a moment, where Peter stands in front of the council and it says, "Peter, filled with the Spirit, said to them." Now, you might think, "Well, wait a minute. I thought Peter was already filled with the Spirit from Acts chapter 2. Did it not work? Maybe he didn't fill up the tank all the way, you know? The Spirit in Acts 2 got him to, like, 50% full, and then it's like, 'Oh, now we're filled.'" No, that's not it at all. He was filled with the Spirit in Acts chapter 2, and then he is filled with the Spirit in Acts chapter 4.
And that's what I believe— we believe that Ephesians 5:18 is talking about. When Ephesians 5:18 says, "Don't be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit," that's not a gospel call. He's speaking to a church. So he's not saying, "Don't be drunk, but rather become a Christian." That's not what he's saying. He's saying, "Don't be drunk with wine.
Don't be filled up with alcohol. Be filled up with the Spirit. That's what he's saying. It's this other experience. So Nicky Gumbel says it well.
I'm going to say what he says and then tweak it slightly. Nicky Gumbel, who's created the course we're using for Alpha, says it really well in the material. He says, every Christian has the Holy Spirit, but not every Christian is filled with the Holy Spirit. Or perhaps to use the language of Ephesians and elsewhere, every Christian has been indwelt by the Holy Spirit, but not every Christian has been filled with the Spirit. And then we even see this pattern of continual fillings by the Spirit.
12 · The pastor uses the extended metaphor of sailing to illustrate the difference between the Spirit's constant presence (the wind always blowing) and the Spirit's filling (sails straining when caught by a strong wind)
Now, this is the metaphor I want to use here, which is appropriate because it feels like we're in the middle of a giant windstorm. At any moment, we could be carried away to glory, which I would say, come, Lord Jesus, I'm ready. But I'm going to use the metaphor of sailing. Now, I know you guys are from El Paso. Raise your hand if you're from El Paso.
Have you ever sailed? Okay, you've never been sailing, but there's a sailboat, there's a sailboat that's powered with wind, if you can imagine such a thing. I got to experience this when, because my wife's grandmother used to live on Cape Cod, and so there were all kinds of sailing ships going back and forth, different kinds of craft. And what you'd notice is sometimes when there was no wind, if you had a sailboat, man, you're just dead in the water. You're just sitting there waiting, waiting for the wind.
But then sometimes the wind would pick up and it would fill the sails and you'd be like, "Oh, okay, great. Now we're moving, we're moving. We can navigate now." But then there were other times where a strong, powerful, consistent wind would come and you thought the sails were kind of out and being filled. No, now you could see, whoom, they're straining. That canvas is straining as it's being carried along by the wind.
And you could say, "Okay, well, it was filled before, but now it's full." filled, filled. In a similar way, that's what the Spirit does in our lives. The wind's always blowing, but sometimes the Spirit can come in and breathe and fill the Christian.
13 · The pastor shares his salvation testimony, describing how the Spirit opened his spiritually dead heart to see his own sin and need for Christ
Now, myself, I've experienced this. Just to use a personal example, I know I'm running a risk using personal illustrations because I'm not saying this is going to happen to every single person in the same way, but I think some kind of illustration is helpful here. So I was saved at age 10, I think 10 or 11, in that classroom, the corner classroom right there. You see the door Right there, that's where I was saved. And I was saved because of the work of the Holy Spirit in my life. I sat in that classroom thinking, as our teachers were so faithful, they've been faithful through our whole church history, I think, to speak the gospel to kids. And so they would say, you know, "Jesus died for your sins." And my default response at age 10 was to look around and go, "Yep, you people need that." Right?
Some of these kids in this classroom, right, could stand to hear about that. I hope you're paying attention. You know? And that was my attitude. And so they said it every week, every week, and every week I nodded and I was like, "Yep, yep, you need that." But then one day our teacher said something that she said, you know, frequently, "Jesus died for your sins." And it was— the only way I can explain it is it's almost as though a light, like, clicked on in my heart where I realized for the first time, oh, That's for me.
And I realized when Jesus died for your sins, I was in the your category, that I was self-righteous, that I had sins that I committed just like everybody else, and I was just better at hiding them than other people. And the Lord met me and almost in a sense, turned on the light, took that heart of stone out, gave me a heart of flesh. I saw, I went from dead to life. And that only happened, brothers and sisters, because of the work of the Spirit in my life. I mean, otherwise I would still be a self-righteous jerk.
I might even still be sitting in this room, but I'd be sitting there thinking, "Yeah, you people need this. Hope you're paying attention." But the Lord stopped me, restarted my heart, opened my eyes because of the work of the Spirit.
14 · The pastor shares his experience of being filled with the Spirit at age 13 during a missions trip
And then a few years later, when I was 13, I went to a missions camp in Wades. And I do believe, God did something unique there. I saw glimpses of wonder during kind of the day. This is back in the era where I guess American missionary kids just ran the streets of Wadas. Now that I'm describing this out loud, it seems dangerous and probably not a great idea necessarily, but thanks, Mom and Dad, for letting me do that. It was great. And I'm out there, and God's just doing stuff. I mean, we're proclaiming the gospel.
These scared kids are becoming bold. There are— I mean, there's some— weird demonic stuff we're praying against, the Lord silences it, we're able to do the gospel presentation. I mean, just amazing things. And that night, they had a time of prayer and they asked for people if they wanna go forward to experience more of the Lord. I think it was just some general call, like, if you wanna experience more of God in your life, if you wanna have a deeper fellowship with the Lord, if you wanna be empowered for what God wants you to do, come forward, we'd love to pray over you.
So I went forward and my experience, this is, subjective, but my experience was I went forward and as soon as somebody began praying for me, I dropped to my knees, unable to move. I felt like I was almost like there was a heaviness on me. And what I experienced in that moment was a feeling of the nearness of God that I had never ever before experienced in my life. A feeling of the nearness of God, a feeling of the immediacy of who Jesus was, I mean, I can't— it's hard to describe. It felt as though spiritually I were on the hill beholding the cross of Jesus Christ and what he had done for me.
And as the Lord confirmed in my heart, "This was for you. I love you." And the experience of God's love just made me— I just began to weep. I mean, I'm like a 13-year-old and it's not cool to weep, just especially in groups of people. And I'm just weeping. I'm just absolutely weeping.
And in that moment, as I'll share later, like, I felt like there was also kind of coupled with it even a call to ministry where the Lord says, like, do you see this cross? This is what you're called to proclaim. And I'm like 13. I got acne. I'm not like a choice servant of the Lord.
And yet the Lord, this experience, I think would be, I think scripturally kind of talked about as being filled with the Spirit. I was filled in that room, in a sense. He sparked my heart to life. He came to reside in my heart, but then I was filled. And I've had that experience a number of other times as well.
15 · The pastor makes a critical theological assertion: the same Holy Spirit active in Acts remains unchanged in power and ability today
What God did with me, you may not have experienced. What God did with Peter in this moment, I don't think any of us have probably experienced. Where the Spirit works through you to raise up somebody that's paralyzed. But this we do believe, church, he still does wonders. And the same Holy Spirit that we see in the book of Acts is the same Holy Spirit that dwells with us today.
It is not as though across the 21st century, the Spirit has slowly weakened in his power and ability. To now kind of arriving fatigued in the 21st century, the Spirit's like, "Man, I did my last revival last century. This is— I'm getting worn out here." No, the same Spirit on Christ, on the early church, is with us. What does he do? He does wonders.
16 · The pastor transitions from the first question (what does the Spirit do?) to the second question (why does the Spirit do that?)
Second, why does the Spirit do that? This is so important. And this will help you if you're kind of sitting back going like, "I don't know, man. I don't know if I can trust this." This will help you. Why does the Spirit do that?
17 · The pastor answers why the Spirit does wonders: to point to Jesus and build a church that points to Jesus, not to draw attention to human ministers or miracles themselves
To point to Jesus and to build a church that points to Jesus. We first get an example of why the Spirit is not given to the church. Look at Acts 3:12 with me. It says, "When Peter saw this, he addressed the people saying, 'Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this? Why do you stare at us as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk?'" Peter immediately says in this moment, "It's not about me." He says, "Don't look at me." In a sense, he does not even draw their attention to the miracle itself.
This is extremely helpful, guys. Peter in this moment could have easily become a cult leader, right? It's the Peter show. Build the church into himself. He just did a miracle.
He's now making special appearances. That's the church. No, he says in this moment, don't look at me, don't look at us, look at him. It is not about Peter's power or godliness. It is about something else, as we're gonna see in just a second.
And this is often where charismatic churches or groups can go wrong. Listen, let me just say this. Hear me when I say this, you know my heart, but I am profoundly uncomfortable anytime you see a quote unquote famous charismatic leader who builds the ministry around themselves, where they are the COVID of the book, they are the headliner for some event that's happening, their name is at the forefront of their ministry, I am profoundly uncomfortable with that because I do not think that's what you see with Peter here. He intentionally in this moment draws attention away from himself. And where does he draw their attention?
Well, it is to Jesus, as we'll see in a minute. I wanna note one other thing. He doesn't draw his attention to himself, and he does not in this moment build his whole ministry around the wonder of this miracle either. Meaning he doesn't build his whole ministry around healing. He doesn't build his whole ministry around the spectacular work of the Spirit.
In fact, in Acts 8, a magician tries to buy the power of the Spirit from Peter. And Peter looks at him and says, "Your heart is not right before God," and just rebukes him. Meaning that he does not turn people's attention to himself, but he also does not turn people's attention to this miracle or this gift as though that were the central focus of the church. There will in every age be people who are happy to look for and receive the gifts of God, but they don't want God. This is why I think similarly today people want the gifts of miracles or signs or health or wealth.
They want the things that God can give, But they do not want God. They want God to come and empower what they already are giving their lives to rather than going, Lord, I surrender. I want your purposes for my life. And they don't call the entire kind of church to build around these miracles. Peter does something else.
Like, I want you to look at this really intentionally. Verse 12, he says, why do you stare as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? Verse 13, This is what he launches into. "The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers glorified his servant Jesus." And then he's off to the races. In this moment, he points immediately away from himself, even away from the miracle itself, and points immediately to Jesus.
And you wanna see the main point of his message is in verse 18. "What God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer." He thus fulfilled. And notice his call in verse 19. Repent therefore and turn back that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. So Peter immediately moves from the miracle to Jesus.
The Spirit's work is meant to point to Jesus. And notice, look all the way down in Acts 4:4. Notice that the result of all this ministry is not— and I'm not saying you can't do this, but it's not a series of healing services as the culmination. It is Acts 4:4, "But many of those who heard the word believed, and the number of men came to about 5,000." Meaning that Peter goes immediately from the miracle to Jesus himself.
Now, this is exactly, I think, what we see about the Spirit's work in John chapter 16. 15, where Jesus himself says this, "But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father," what will he do? "He will bear witness about me." That's what Jesus says again in Acts 1:8, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you." And you will what? You will be my witnesses. Meaning this, the wonder of the Spirit is meant to draw people's attention to the wonder of the gospel.
The gift of the Spirit is meant to draw people's attention to the gift of the gospel. The miracles are not the end point. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus are the main point. 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says, this is what's most important: that Jesus died, that he was buried, and that he was raised again on the third day. That's the most important thing.
18 · The pastor uses an extended spotlight analogy to illustrate how the Spirit's work functions: the Spirit is like a spotlight that draws attention not to itself but to what it illuminates—Jesus Christ
Look, I think of the— maybe this is helpful— I think of the work of the Spirit in this way, as a spotlight. It is— imagine a dark room, a dark stage, the spotlight goes bam, you know, and illuminates, and it's impressive and cool. But the spotlight is meant to point to something else. The point of the spotlight is not— that's a pretty cool beam. It's a cool beam.
Like when Jen, my wife, used to do conference work, and so we would get to these conferences early, and they'd be testing kind of the light and sound and stuff like that. Before the meetings started. And some of them were very cool, like young adult conferences, so they had cooler lights and things like that. And it was really fun to watch the sound and audio people and visual people go to town with all the things that the lights could do, right? They're like, blue, back and forth, and then red, and then like green, and then like there's other stuff, and stuff's on the screens, and there's like all these different things that they can do back and forth.
You know, razzle-dazzle stuff. But I always thought it was weird as like an onlooker. And they were like, oh man, look at that. Oh, look at that. Look at that gel.
This lighting gel is like the coolest. This is a new one that came out. And I'm like, you guys are a bunch of nerds. I don't know what's happening here. And, but I remember thinking, 'cause I was a musician, it is so weird that they were so excited about the lights.
Now, if you put a musician up there in the spotlight, that would be cool. I could volunteer if you, If anybody needs me to get up there, I'd be happy to just, you know, be tested. The light's on now. But because there's something in your heart that's going, listen, the lights and that razzle-dazzle aren't the point. It's what's being illuminated that's the point.
It's what's at the center of the stage that we're trying to see more clearly. And in that way, sometimes churches can get enamored with the lights of the Spirit where they're like, hey, look at this. It goes off and on. We could do this and we could do that. And they can, at some points, forget what the point is, that the lights are meant to illuminate the person and work of Jesus.
19 · The pastor applies the spotlight analogy to his own testimony from unit 14, showing how the Spirit's filling at age 13 functioned exactly as the analogy describes: the Spirit fixed his attention on Jesus Christ and the cross
Man, that is what we see with Peter here. And that's what I, by God's grace, experienced in that first powerful encounter with the Spirit at age 13. I mean, I felt the vivid— that's the best way I could describe it. It felt like the spotlight of my life. Everything was kind of blackness, and my attention was fixed fixed on the cross of Jesus Christ and the reality of God's love for me as a loser, acne'd, few friends, 13-year-old who felt alone, right?
And the Lord in that moment reassured me that he loved me and that he cared about me. And then later even talked— kind of gave me a purpose for life.
20 · The pastor addresses the objection 'where are the wonders?' by appealing to David Platt's observation that the Spirit's spectacular works often accompany the bleeding edge of gospel proclamation—new territories and revival movements
Now, one specific question many people will have here is, well, if he still does wonders, And if that stuff is supposed to point to Jesus, where is the stuff, huh? You know, like, let's see it. Do a wonder, Ricky. Aren't you preaching the gospel? Let's see one. Now, I think the example of Scripture is helpful as a model. David Platt makes this really good observation after spending a lot of time in the developing world and a lot of places where the gospel is breaking in.
To cultures and tongues and tribes. And often when you, and it's kind of held true around our experience as well, if you talk to missionaries around the world, they will often describe kind of a more pronounced and predominant wonders of the Spirit as they're doing ministry. And I don't know if you've ever experienced this, but missionaries will come and they'll describe like, we were here, we were there. I mean, even JP, who we talked about early, I mean, just like, miracles happening as he's ministering to his town. And you're like, "Oh, man, like, why do they get miracles?" And you might be tempted to think, "Well, J.P. just must be, you know, more godly than he is." But that's not the reason, right? Or maybe God just loves India more than the United States.
I don't think that's the reason either. What you see, David Platt's observation is this: when you look at Acts, you often see that the Spirit's more spectacular work is found on the bleeding edge of gospel proclamation. Meaning that when the gospel is going into an area, it is often more visibly powerfully accompanied by signs and wonders and the visible work of the Spirit to testify and point to the truth of the message. And I think we should, when we see those things happening, we should rejoice in that. And I also think this is what God does in revivals.
I've been reading a book on revival recently. It's a great book, "A God-Sized Vision," about a series of revivals in the last few hundred years. And I've thought about that, and I thought about the history of our church coming out of the Jesus Movement. And I think often what happens is that when God sees fit, and we pray that he would see fit, when God sees fit to re-proclaim the gospel among a people, among a nation, it's often accompanied by the more spectacular work of the Spirit. And it doesn't mean it can't be spectacular in the everyday stuff of life, but there is often almost a more pronounced work of the Lord in these moments.
And I want you to hear this, our church is here because of that work. Our church is here because God saw fit in the late '70s to, in a sense, re-evangelize the city of El Paso and many places around the country. God was bringing the gospel to a bunch of— as you could trace the movement— a bunch of surfers and druggies and losers and closed-off, cold, Bible-believing Christians. And God brought the gospel, often spectacularly, in spectacular ways.
21 · The pastor summarizes the second question's answer (why the Spirit does wonders: to point to Jesus) and transitions to the third question (when does the Spirit do this?)
So then, why does the Spirit do these things? To point to Jesus and build a church that points to Jesus. Now, one of the things too— well, let me get to that in a second. Question number 3 then: When does the Spirit do this? I don't know about you, but I'm like, how do I get in on this? When does the Spirit do this?
Can we set up a meeting? Can we set up a meeting in a particular way that the Lord would do this exactly? When does the Spirit do this?
22 · The pastor answers when the Spirit fills believers: when the church takes up the work of pointing to Jesus
Well, I think the example here is the Spirit does this when the church takes up the work of pointing to Jesus. That's when the Spirit accompanies us, when the church takes up the work of pointing to Jesus.
Now notice when it says the Spirit fills Peter. So he preaches this great message in Acts chapter 3 to this kind of crowd in the city, but then in Acts 4, he's dragged in front of the whole Jewish council. They're not super psyched about this miracle. And by the way, Luke I love because he's a physician and a historian. So he records the gait that the guy is sitting at, because he's basically telling the reader, if you wanna go check this, that's fine.
People will remember him. Go look him up. And he talks about his legs and ankles being made strong, because as you know, like if you have surgery and you're laid up for a long time, your legs and your ankles atrophy, especially if your entire life you haven't walked, they're gonna be totally atrophied. But in a second, he's standing up, right? This is a miracle of miracles.
And the Jewish council is like, uh-uh, we don't like this. They demand to know by what power or name Peter does this miracle. So what do you think is gonna happen? Well, he's gonna tell them about Jesus, but it says first in 4:8, then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit said to them. So he is already getting ready, right?
He's going up the platform, maybe he's half praying, Lord, please help me, give me, you know, I just preached a long sermon, I'm about to do another one to a bunch of hostile people, "Lord, please help me." And the Lord fills him with the Spirit, meaning that Peter is about the work of gospel proclamation, and then he is accompanied by the filling of the Spirit to further that work of gospel proclamation. And he does such an amazing job that it says in verse 13, "When they saw the boldness of Peter and perceived that they were uneducated common men, they were amazed." were astonished. Meaning that Peter is absolutely tracing the whole Old Testament, spitting fire, pulling out prophecies. He's compelling, he's powerful, he's bold. And you have this whole Jewish council, right?
They've given their whole lives to study. They've got degrees on the wall. They've got, you know, fancy vestments maybe. They're sitting there and they're the learned of the nation. And this guy, Galilean fisherman with no formal training is absolutely tearing up their interpretation of the Old Testament with verse after verse and principle after principle, exploding, spitting fire.
I mean, this is remarkable. And remember something about Peter too, guys. Remember, this is less than a year since he denied Jesus 3 times. And the last time he denied Jesus was because he was afraid of a little girl. Okay?
So that's not like the candidate for the guy that's gonna get in front of the Jewish council and astonish them. He's scared, he's unlearned, he's uneducated. How does Peter do this? "Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them." Look, Peter doesn't have the background, he doesn't have the education. What he does have is this, a boldness to turn his ministry toward proclaiming Jesus, and the Holy Spirit fills in the gaps.
The Holy Spirit gives him what he needs in this moment to proclaim powerfully.
23 · The pastor expounds Acts 4:29-31, showing the church's prayer after Peter's release
And then they release Peter, and look at what happens then. The church then gathers to pray, 'cause they're threatened by the council, and look at how they pray in Acts 4. They talk about, you know, these are the threats against us, and then they pray this. And now, Lord, verse 29, Look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
Now notice what the church does not actually pray. They don't actually pray to be filled with the Spirit. Now, I'm not saying it's bad to ask to be filled with the Spirit. I think Ephesians 5:18 can give us the flavor of, yeah, let's pray that the Lord would fill us with the Spirit. But this church does not actually pray for it.
Instead, they pray for two things. One, they pray for boldness to continue pointing to Jesus despite the threats and dangers around them. They pray, look, this is our task, we're setting our face to it, but Lord, give us boldness. They pray for that. And then two, they pray for the Spirit's wondrous work to accompany them that more people might be pointed to Jesus.
That is when the Spirit of God fills them again. Now, many, remember this, many had already been filled with the Spirit in Acts chapter 2, right? It wasn't as though, okay, some people hadn't gotten the Spirit and so, We gotta redo this? No, many had probably been filled with the Spirit, but God fills them again in answer to their prayers. Look, it's that sailing analogy, right?
They are turned in the direction the wind is pointing, the Spirit's with them, but in this moment, the Spirit fills their sails all the more that they could sail well into where Jesus wants them to go.
24 · The pastor reinforces when the Spirit works (when the church takes up Jesus' work) with a pastoral anecdote about directing a nostalgic member to evangelize their neighbor
Look, when does the Spirit do wonders? When the church rises to take up the work of Jesus. We had a pastor years ago that— I love this story, and I'm not going to tell you who it is just because you might be like, "Hey, that was kind of mean." It's actually, I think, appropriate in the context. We had an older member who said, "Man, you know, Pastor, I just want to see the Spirit work again like I saw in the '70s or '80s or whatever. I just want to see the Spirit work again." The pastor said, "Hey, that's not a bad thing, but you want to see the Holy Spirit work again? Go across the street and tell your neighbor about Jesus." And the person was taken aback. They were like, "What?" "Yeah, if you want to see the Spirit work again, go tell your neighbor about Jesus." Because that's when the Spirit meets the church, in the work of doing what Jesus has given the church to do. Look, my own experience at age 13 was this is a subjective thing, right? We're going to talk about next week testing anything like this with the Word, but subjectively I felt the Spirit convince me of God's love for me, show me the cross, and then felt a distinct impression that God was calling me to be a preacher of the gospel.
Now, that's subjective, but that's been confirmed with counsel over many years. And I felt that, and I felt in a sense the Lord was turning the course of my life in that moment to point where he wanted me to point. And then gave me the power of the Spirit to begin to walk that path.
Now, you might wonder, okay, well, wait a second here. If that's true, if it's all about proclaiming the gospel, what about the inward-facing work of the church? In 1 Corinthians 12 to 14, the whole section is mostly about the inward-facing work of the church. They're abusing tongues, they're abusing prophecy, they're mishandling the spiritual gifts, and Paul gets in and sorts them out. So what about these inward-facing works of the church, right?
Where Paul says, if you have a prophetic word or prophetic encouragement that you're bringing a truth from the Lord to somebody to meet them where they are, how does that help us proclaim the gospel? That's not pointing to Jesus, that's just ministry in the church. Well, remember this, the inward-facing work of the Spirit often builds up the church so that it can point to Jesus. Meaning if somebody is suffering and hurting, maybe a word from the Lord meets them and encourages them and they are strengthened then to build the church and reach the lost. Or somebody who feels God is absent from their life and they are prayed over and God fills them with the Spirit and they feel that Galatians 4 work of the Spirit, crying, "Abba, Father," they feel God is their Father and it strengthens them for the work that God has them to do.
It builds the church. So some of the work of the Spirit is building up the church in strength to point to Jesus. And some of it is the church just going and pointing to Jesus.
25 · The pastor illustrates unit 24's claim with a testimony of a missionary worker who sought the gift of tongues during weariness
Let me give one example about this. We had a girl in our church at one point working at one of the children's homes we support in Mexico. And it just so happened we'd been preaching through 1 Corinthians 12 to 14 about the gifts of the Spirit. And she asked God at the end of the service, "Lord, please give me these gifts because I just want to know your nearness, right? Just convince me that you're near." Because she was in a hard season of feeling very alone. She had moved away from where her family were, her friends were, and so she was working full-time, living full-time at this children's home, and she was getting weary.
And so she went forward, and I think if I remember right, she even asked specifically for the gift of tongues, 'cause she'd heard other people had that gift, and it was a kind of a prayer language of communion with God. And so she was like, Lord, maybe you could give me that gift, and it would, you know, help encourage me in this season. And so she went forward, and I think she came to the front of the church as we had a time of prayer. She came, she prayed, she waited, And nothing happened. And so she's like, okay.
So she just drives back to Mexico, and that week she just began to keep praying, Lord, please, please remind me that you're near me. We talked about the Galatians 4 work of the Spirit helping us cry, Abba Father, feel the nearness of God. She's like, Lord, I need that work, I need that work. But then she felt led to begin to just praise the Lord and say, Lord, thank you that you are near, thank you that you are with me. And as she began to praise the Lord, she began to speak in tongues.
And was filled with the Spirit, and it felt like, man, the Lord was with her in the room. And her experience was that built her up and gave her the energy and resolve she needed to finish her course of proclaiming the gospel to these little kids. Meaning the Lord met her and blessed her, but she didn't go, "Oh, awesome, now I'm just gonna go look for more and more blessings." No, it met her and blessed her, and then she's like, "Great, send me back into the game, Lord." I want to proclaim the gospel to these kids. That's what the Lord does.
26 · The pastor transitions from exposition to application, framing the application section around one central question: what is your posture toward a wonder-working God? He uses current events (Asbury revival, Jesus Movement movie) as a Rorschach test to help listeners identify their own posture
When does the Lord most often meet the church? It meets the church when the church takes up the work of pointing to Jesus. So here's what I want to get to, the application. The application question is going to be one question today, and then next week we're going to talk about some of the specifics. But the application I just feel led to bring before you today is this: what's your posture toward a wonder-working God in the Christian life? What's your posture as you think about the Lord and his work in the world today?
Sometimes the things that you see in the, you know, the world around us can be kind of a Rorschach test where you kind of get a glimpse. Maybe you've seen these things about Asbury and the revival going on where people are just praying in the chapel of this college, or maybe even somebody's seen the— there's a movie, I guess, coming out about the The Jesus Movement, and you see some of those things, and it kind of sometimes can be a posture check. Like, what's your first thought when you see that stuff?
27 · The pastor diagnoses three unbiblical postures toward the Spirit's work: (1) closed and cynical (arms folded, assuming financial motives), (2) desperate and disorderly (forcing manifestations, abandoning Scripture), and (3) the most common: 'open but cautious' which he reframes as 'persuaded but pessimistic'—people who intellectually accept continuationism but don't expect God to work
Well, here's a couple postures. I'm gonna warn you, they're all unbiblical at first. First posture is this, closed and cynical, right? I don't believe that glorifies the Lord. Where you think about the Lord working in the world today, and your posture is arms closed like this, and cynical. They're probably after money. You know, you see the thing at Asbury, people probably making money off of that, huh?
Always making a buck. You know, and you're just like, why is that your first thought? You know? And— but that's kind of the position you've got in. Like, maybe it's been a bad experience.
Maybe you've had something happen that you're like, I don't know. So you've gotten to this point of going closed and cynical. I don't want to trust anything that's subjective. I only want to be able to reason my way through the Christian life. So you're closed and cynical.
Which is— I don't think— let me just bring before you, I don't think that's the posture of Acts 3 and 4. I don't think it's a posture of 1 Corinthians 12 to 14. I don't think it's a posture of Ephesians 5. And I don't think it's a posture of 1 Thessalonians 5 either. I may have forgotten some.
But I think that Scripture would call us to a different posture. But on the other end of the spectrum, there could be desperate and disorderly. Desperate not like in a godly sense of like, "Oh, I'm just desperate for the Lord." But desperate like, "I got to make something happen here." Right? I remember somebody who was like told by somebody— oh man, this stuff happens. They were like, if you want to speak in tongues and it's not working and you've tried everything, just repeat to yourself, I want to buy a Honda.
I want to buy a Honda. I want to buy a Honda. And just keep mumbling it over yourself and then something will happen. I'm like, I don't know if that's— we should be trying to force this to happen, you know? And at some point now, it's not bad to step out in faith and ask for that gift.
But, but that kind of thing to me is an ungodly kind of desperation. And many times those things are accompanied by disorderliness, meaning you're not using the scriptural boundaries and guidelines for how the work of the Spirit should be governed. And people— stuff starts happening and people close the Bible and are like, awesome, now here we go. You know, like, let's see what's happening, you know, versus keeping the Bible with them. So that can be the two extremes.
Or I think where many Christians are today, they would say they're open but cautious. I've heard a lot of people tell me this. I'm open but cautious. And it feels very godly in a sense. You know, I'm open, I'm open, but cautious.
I'm open but cautious, you know. And I would just say, listen, man, I think in 80 to 90% of the cases I've talked to people, what you really are is persuaded but pessimistic. Meaning, persuaded meaning, The Bible doesn't say the gifts ceased, and so you can't say that. And you kind of know that, maybe some— you might feel that, but you're like pessimistic about it. You're like, ah, you know, somebody describes, man, let's lean forward and see what the Lord has for us.
Well, we'll see. You know, you're persuaded but pessimistic.
28 · The pastor prescribes the biblical posture: optimistic and orderly
So what posture would Acts 3 and 4 cause us to have? What posture would Ephesians 5:18 cause us to have? Let me suggest one: optimistic and orderly. Meaning optimistic because you believe that the same God in the book of Acts is the same God today. That the same Spirit of the living God that was on Jesus in his ministry, Jesus promised that would be with his church until the end of the age. And you believe that same Spirit of God is here with us today in 21st century El Paso. You believe that.
We believe that, church. So we have a godly gospel optimism about us that maybe we pray and the Lord doesn't do anything, but maybe we pray and the Lord does something amazing. And we lean forward looking for that. And orderly, right? That we use the Bible, that we govern what happens with the Bible, with the principles of the Bible.
Even in this text, a couple of really good principles, right? One is that the work of the Spirit's never meant to draw our attention just to be on the work of the Spirit. The work of the Spirit is meant to spotlight the work of Jesus and who he is and what he's called the church to be, right? So we want the spotlight to be in the same, in the right place rather. And then we don't center the church's ministry simply around spectacular gifts, but we center the church's ministry around the task that Jesus has given us as a church to make disciples and preach the gospel.
And we'll see some more guidelines there as well. So this is the way I wanna talk about it. This is the posture I want to suggest for our church, that we lean in with the Bible in hand, right? We don't want to lean away with the Bible like this, like, like, you know, don't, don't look at me. I don't want anything spiritual to happen.
We neither do we want to leave the Bible behind and then, yeah, here we go, right? We want to lean in believing that God is the same God, believing he desires to reach the nation, believing that God has his purposes in this generation. That are unique and profound and are meant to lead more people to Jesus. But we do it with our Bibles in hand, our Bibles open, that we might be biblical in all that we pursue.
29 · The pastor closes the application with his own testimony of moving from 'persuaded but pessimistic' to 'optimistic and orderly
Let me close with this. A few years ago, I just want to admit, I was very much in the posture of persuaded but pessimistic. That was where I was, right? I was persuaded. I wrote a paper It sounds so foolish. I wrote a paper even on the work of the Spirit in pastor's college.
And I was like, here we go. Here's my paper, Lord. I believe that you can theoretically, possibly, maybe someday still do something. And I definitely believe that. Just not with me or in my church, hopefully, because it's weird.
And that's kind of where I was. And the Lord, in his kindness, I ended up with a group of pastors that I was friends with. At a conference for another family of churches, not ours, but another similar one. And they were— they had a really helpful message on healing. And it was good, it was biblical, it was from the Word, it was expecting that God can still heal, but it's also governed by his purposes and those things.
And so at the end of it, they had a time for people going forward for prayer. And so I just thought, I'm not going to go forward for prayer. Because, and this is just very honest, because I had asked for God to heal me of a particular health issue for a number of years, or not a number of years, a number of months rather, and he hadn't done it. And so I was just kind of like, whatever. But I had been sharing about this particular health issue, it was like an intestinal kind of thing.
And one of the pastors I was with said, hey man, are you gonna go forward? I was like, I gave him kind of one of those like, "Eh." And then he kind of put his arm around me and was like, "You're gonna go forward, you know, like tell me more about why you don't want to go forward as we walk forward together." And so I go and I'm just like, "Okay, Lord, maybe this is not the right posture." And so I began, you know, I'm just like, "Lord," and people are praying for me and I kind of go, "Lord, you know that I'm struggling to believe that you can and will heal. I pray that at least you would just do a work in my heart that I might— this is realizing my posture is off. And this is subjective, right? The Lord didn't speak audibly.
I'm not writing new Scripture with this. This is tested, as we're going to talk about next week. But I felt the impression that the Lord put on my heart was, "I'm going to heal you despite your unbelief." And so, you know, and I felt like the presence of God there. I felt him convict me.
And in that moment, I did not feel my stomach glow or get warm or anything. You know, I've heard people describe some things. And so after, you know, I was prayed for, the guys are asking me, "Hey, how— you know, did you feel anything? How did it go? Do you feel like the Lord meet you?" And I said, "Yeah, I felt the Lord meet me, but I don't feel any different," you know?
So I go home. Over the next couple weeks, you know, I kind of just go about my routine, go about my business. I have follow-up with the doctor. And he asked me, okay, we're gonna schedule this procedure. I think you may need— we're gonna— but how have your symptoms been?
And so I thought, okay, well, how have they been? And I said, well, they seem a little better. And he's like, okay, well, what do you mean? Like, so how much— how many recurrences are you getting, all that stuff? And I said, I don't think I've had any issues like that.
And he goes, Huh, like none? And I was like, yeah, I haven't had any, nothing. And I still remember him, he like had his little folder and he just closed the folder and he was like, well, guess you don't need the procedure. Let me know if something happens. And so I was like, hey, what, does this happen a lot?
He's like, what do you mean? I was like, you know, like suddenly better. And he goes, matter of fact doctor, he goes, yeah, not really. And he just kind of left. And I remember walking out of the parking lot, and again, just that impression from the Lord, "I healed you despite your unbelief." And it was such a helpful moment, I think, because it moved me from going from this posture where I'm like, "Okay, hopefully nothing happens," to like, "Okay, Lord, I believe this, and this says that you're still at work." So help me to lean forward for what you have.
30 · The pastor prays for the congregation, asking God to correct unbiblical postures and lean the church forward in expectation that God still does wonders
Let me pray and then we're going to take communion and end. Oh Lord, I just pray in this moment, as we turn our attention toward communion, Lord, that you would do a work in our hearts. Lord, if we have not had a biblical posture, if we have not had a posture of believing that you do the wonders, I pray that you would lean us forward. As we believe that you are the same God, and our heart, Father, is to proclaim the gospel in the city of El Paso and through it the world. And I pray that you would use us to do it.
We pray that you would stretch out your hands and accompany us in power. We pray for revival in our city and in our nation. We pray that you would re-evangelize our country with the gospel in the power of the Spirit. We pray these things in your Son's name, amen.
31 · The pastor introduces communion with a gospel presentation rooted in Titus 3:4-7, grounding the entire sermon in the gospel
We're gonna end with communion because in a particular reason, we're gonna start doing this through the season leading up to Easter, but I want us in this moment to remember after hearing about the Spirit's power, that the Spirit's work is possible only because of the work of Jesus and the Spirit's work points to the work of Jesus. So, let me read this. Actually, I'm going to just read this. When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. If you're not in Christ today, this is the offer of the gospel for you. As we've talked about the Spirit, we've talked about him changing dead hearts to life.
I heard somebody at one point even tell me, "Man, what you guys have, I don't know how, but I want some of that." If that's where you are today, this offer is for you, that Jesus Christ reconciles people far off to the Lord. He can bring dead people back to life. So if you see Jesus today, believe in him and turn to follow him, and the power of God will come into your life as you turn to follow Jesus. And if you are a Christian, we remember that we are justified not because of our faith level reaching 1,000, not because of our good deeds of the week, but we are justified through Jesus Christ. And so, with that, Let me encourage you, if you've believed in Christ, you're welcome to participate in this meal.
And if you've not believed, please just observe the meal. So please take the bread in your hand now.
32 · The pastor leads the communion liturgy, beginning with the warning from 1 Corinthians 11 about self-examination, then the words of institution from the Gospels
The Scripture says, "Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then, and so eat the bread and drink of the cup." So as we come approaching the table of the Lord, if there's any sins that you're aware of in your life, Those sins have been paid for by Jesus Christ. You're not gonna be resaved in this moment. But if the Lord brings to mind any sin in your life, go ahead and just confess it to the Lord, that the Lord might forgive and cleanse in this moment. The Lord Jesus, on the night of his arrest, took bread, and after giving thanks to God, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take, eat.
This is my body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." Please eat the bread.
And in the same way, he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant sealed in my blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this in remembrance of me." Please drink the cup.
As the Lord says, Every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the saving death of the risen Lord until he comes.
33 · The pastor concludes by calling the congregation to stand and worship, framing the closing song as Trinitarian (Father, Son, Spirit)
Church, please stand as we turn our hearts now to what the Lord has done. And as we sing, we're going to sing a song that is about the work of the Father, about the work of the Son, and about the work of the Spirit. And so as we end, let me just encourage you. Ask the Lord for resolve to bring glory to him. Ask the Lord for resolve to proclaim him. Ask the Lord for resolve to live a life that points to him and be expectant that as you do, the power of the Lord will meet you right where you are today.