All That Jesus Began
Download MP3Invite you to open your bibles to the book of the Acts of the Apostles. The book of the Acts of the Apostles. Last week, we spent an entire service dedicated to prayer, in preparation for what we will be looking at in the coming weeks. Tonight we begin our study on, Doctor Luke's second book, the book of Acts. And, this book could just as easily be called acts of the Holy Spirit as it could acts of the apostles.
Joel Brooks:And, I'm sure for many of you, I feel like I need to address this. I'm sure for many of you just hearing the word, the words we're gonna study the book of Acts, and hearing the Holy Spirit, produces a number of emotions in you. Perhaps there are some of you here that feel excitement, a sense of anticipation, a sense of hope. And then there's probably others that feel maybe just a little bit of uneasiness, that we're going to be looking at these things. You're you're kind of scared of of all the holy spirit talk.
Joel Brooks:You, there's a little bit of fear here. You, you, you kind of picture, you know, what's gonna happen? What's God gonna call me to do? You know, am I gonna stand up? Am I gonna speak in tongues?
Joel Brooks:You know, am I or maybe worse, God's gonna call me to go to some 3rd world country I've never heard of because the person next to me prophesied over me saying that I was supposed to do that and, and you have like all these these visions of all these crazy things that can be happening as we go through this. I think that this mixed bag of emotions is good. I think it's good. I think it's part of a Holy fear and anticipation as you begin opening a book like this. I have great hopes for this study.
Joel Brooks:My prayer is that God would use it in us to create a hunger unlike any we have ever known. And that he would make us into the church that he died for us to become. And so tonight we're gonna read just the first five verses in chapter 1. In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God.
Joel Brooks:And while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the father, which he said, you heard from me. For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Pray with me. Our father, we do come before you with a holy fear and anticipation. Or we know that right now we are not the people that we should be.
Joel Brooks:So we ask that you would send your spirit to open up your word, come in power and change us. Lord, I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain and transform us into the image of Christ. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Joel Brooks:Remember that this book is written by Doctor. Luke. It's a continuation of his previous gospel, which was also dedicated or written to this man named Theophilus. Theophilus is likely an important, educated Greek man who, somewhat removed from the events of Jesus's life, but he has a, a keen interest in them. Perhaps he is even a believer, but he he wanted Luke to lay out in a orderly manner just the facts of Jesus's life.
Joel Brooks:And that was this first account, and this is picking up on that. I think this book really, is easy access for people like us who also are, non Jewish. We are educated, we are removed from the events of Jesus's life. And so Luke writes in such a way that we get it, which is one of the things I really enjoy about reading this. Luke begins this book by using the word began.
Joel Brooks:It's, it's a key to the entire book of Acts. Look at verse 1. It says, In the first book, in the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach. So Theophilus, when you read my former gospel, when it when you read that account of all that Jesus had done, that's what he began to do. But when you read how he he he lived and now he healed people, how he did miracles, how he taught people, how he did all of those things, that was just the beginning of His work.
Joel Brooks:That was the beginning of His teaching, the beginning of His miracles, the beginning of His healings, the beginning of His acts of service. But all of these things continue. It wasn't the end of them, they are continuing on. He has ascended to the throne of heaven, not to sit, but he is currently at work and he is building his church. And so it's important for you to understand that Christ, although there is a once for all ness and his death, burial and resurrection, there is a once for all ness there.
Joel Brooks:It's still a work he has begun, and he is still working and moving. And the primary way that Jesus is still working is through his Holy Spirit at work in his church. I think Paul explains it best in Romans chapter 15 verse 8. He says this, for I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me. And so Paul, he he looks at himself and says, you know, I'm a man of very limited abilities.
Joel Brooks:I don't have all all all the gifts of speaking. I don't have all of the boldness. I don't have all of things, but Christ has changed me. And now when I look at my acts and I'm doing things that I could I could never do on my own, I see it as Christ is now working. He is at work through me.
Joel Brooks:But Christ is still at work, enabling me to do these things. And Jesus works for us, works through us still. I'm gonna go ahead. Spoiler alert. I'm going to read the end of the book of acts.
Joel Brooks:Just so you know how how it ends, but it is a spoiler. Doctor Luke does not write. Thus, Jesus concluded all of his works. Thus, Jesus finished. That's that's not how Luke ends acts.
Joel Brooks:Now he ends with this with Paul, and I quote, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus with all boldness and without hindrance. And there's nothing past tense here. These are all present participles. Teaching, proclaiming. There is a work that is ongoing with boldness and without hindrance.
Joel Brooks:And Jesus is still at work. The story is still open ended. So the same Jesus that we read about in the Gospels is the one who is still working and he is still working in the church. He is still acting, which is why we have the book of Acts. Let's look again at verse 12 and the first book, O Theophilus, I've dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he has chosen.
Joel Brooks:Luke says that before Jesus was taken up or before he was, he ascended into heaven, he gave commands. And he didn't just give commands, he gave commands through the Holy Spirit. And this phrase, through the Holy Spirit, is the is one of the key themes throughout the entire book of Acts. You're gonna hear this over and over and over through the Holy Spirit, through the Holy Spirit. And that's why Luke doesn't just say, Jesus gave commands.
Joel Brooks:But he wants you to know He gave commands through His Spirit. The same Spirit that is at work at us. And I would say the same Spirit that is giving us commands. Jesus here, he could be seen like a king giving orders to his subjects. He is building his kingdom.
Joel Brooks:He is saying it's time to go on the offensive. It is time to kick down the gates of Hades. Notice that Jesus doesn't give, I would say, chill bumps. It's not what he's so much interested in here. He gives orders through his spirit.
Joel Brooks:And we still receive these same orders to go into the world. Actually think what Luke is referring to here, comes from John chapter 20 in which Jesus tells his disciples, you know, as the father sent me, so I am sending you. But then he says, it breathe. He breathed on them and he said, receive the spirit. And so you have this command, this commission of sending, and then it's through the Holy Spirit with this breathing.
Joel Brooks:I think that's Luke is writing just another way of explaining what John says in John chapter 20 here. Now Jesus is giving orders. He's giving them a mission. And there are a couple of things that are necessary for the disciples, if they are to have a successful mission. Look at verse 3 through 5.
Joel Brooks:Says he presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God. And whilst staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the father, which he said, you heard from me for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. And so here we see Jesus giving his disciples to 2 things. He gives them objective proofs. He gives them objective proofs that he is risen from the dead.
Joel Brooks:And then he gives them a subjective experience with the baptism of his spirit. You have both objective proof and you have a subjective experience and both of these things are needed in order for us to fulfill our mission as the church. You, you can't have one without the other. You, you need both of these if we are to fulfill God's calling. So let's look at these objective proofs.
Joel Brooks:Jesus thought it was very important that he prove himself to be alive to his disciples. People in the 1st century, despite what you might think about them or been told, they would have a problem with the resurrection. They realized that when a person died, they didn't come back to life. It was, it was a huge problem for them. I would say for a century, 1st century Jew, it was actually more of a problem than we would have concerning the resurrection of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:And so Jesus knew that, okay, if they're going to to believe in me, I need to give them convincing proofs. He does not want to be, you know, like the bigfoot or Elvis, you know, with all this conspiracy theorists out there saying, oh, no, we, we saw him at the McDonald's in Vegas or, you know, we saw bigfoot in Oregon and it just, you know, where's the proof? He he didn't want people studying blurry little pictures. He he gives an abundance of proofs. He he walks with them and he talks with people, like on the road to Emmaus.
Joel Brooks:He, He appears many times to them. He says, hey, look at me. Look at me. Look, see see my see my scars on my hands and my feet? Come touch me.
Joel Brooks:Feel me. I I'm not a ghost. I am flesh and blood. Do you have any fish? Let me eat fish.
Joel Brooks:I'll eat fish in front of you. Can a ghost eat fish? He's he's giving them very convincing proofs that he's alive. And in order to be eyewitnesses, we have to be convinced of his resurrection. These disciples have to be convinced of his resurrection.
Joel Brooks:Otherwise they are not going to go through all the verbal abuse and through all of the physical abuse to come unless they are convinced that Jesus is alive. Peter's just going to go back to fishing if he is not convinced Jesus is alive. Matthew's going to go back to tax collecting if he is not convinced, beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus is alive. They are not going to go and suffer brutal deaths unless they're convinced. So Jesus puts out these evidences and I would say that we have to be convinced as well.
Joel Brooks:We need to pour over these eyewitness accounts of Jesus. Convinced of his resurrection beyond any shadow of a doubt. If we're to testify for him with any boldness. But being convinced of Jesus' resurrection is not enough. We need more than facts.
Joel Brooks:We need an experience. We need to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. What does baptism in the Holy Spirit mean? I've I've read a lot of books over the years and heard a lot of sermons dealing with this. And so I know that there's a lot of confusion concerning this.
Joel Brooks:We're not gonna be able to sort it all out tonight. Hopefully we'll begin getting a clearer picture as the weeks unfold in front of us, but, but I hope we at least get a partial understanding of this. Let's just start with the word baptize. The word baptize means to immerse, to dip, to wash, to fully envelop. At the end of Luke, Jesus describes this baptism as being clothed, which is a great way of like being wrapped or being surrounded.
Joel Brooks:He says this, and behold, I'm sending the promise of my father upon you. That's the same language as acts, but stay in the city until you're clothed with power from on high. So to be baptized into spirit is to be clothed with power from on high. This baptism of the spirit, we're going to look at in a few weeks, takes place at Pentecost. And so just, just go forward.
Joel Brooks:We'll sneak peek. Go to chapter 2. Let's read the first four verses and see what this baptism of the Spirit here looks like. 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.
Joel Brooks:And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance. Verse 4 in describing this experience here, it says, and they were all filled. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit. The spirit was poured on them and they were filled. So if I had to put a definition on what it means to be baptized with a spirit, I would come up with with something like this.
Joel Brooks:Baptism of the spirit is the experience of being filled with God's spirit and receiving power for witness. It is the experience of being filled with God's spirit and the power for witness. So when we are baptized in the spirit, we are filled with the fullness of God, filled with the spirit, and now we are given a new power to fulfill our mission. That's what I think we see here in these first couple of chapters. I'm sure that you have a lot of questions about baptism of the spirit.
Joel Brooks:When does it happen? Does it happen when you become a Christian? Does it happen sometime after you become a Christian? Does it happen just once? Does this happen many times?
Joel Brooks:Before we get to answer all of these things, and actually originally most of my message was just going to be kind of walking through that. And I, I scrap that out because I really want us to get to the essence of what it is. What it, what is the essence of being baptized in the spirit? At its essence, it is an experience of the Spirit of God, at its essence. And I realize, that whenever you start talking about an experiential theology, it makes some of you start to squirm.
Joel Brooks:It makes me squirm a little bit. I'll admit that. You just start squirming. It's like, oh no, this experiential theology. But to be baptized in the spirit is to experience the Spirit of God.
Joel Brooks:We we see this here. He's not telling his disciples to wait and receive a doctrine. He's not saying, what what you need, I want you to all gather together and I'm gonna give you one last piece of theology. And when you get that one last piece of theology, it's going to be like you're clothed with power from on high and you're going to be my witnesses. That's not what he's talking about.
Joel Brooks:He's talking about a subjective experience. Something is going to happen to you. You're gonna feel that something will happen and you'll receive power and you'll be my witnesses. Yeah. You're gonna receive some life altering experience.
Joel Brooks:I think much of contemporary Christian counseling gets it wrong when talking about baptism of the spirit. Today, a counselor very well might have somebody who is struggling with these, these issues in the room with them. And they might say, you know what? You just really need to claim by faith. You need to just believe that you have received this baptism despite what you feel, despite what you experience, you just need to believe that it has taken place.
Joel Brooks:I think that language like that would have been completely foreign to anybody living in the time of Acts. You don't find that at all in the book of Acts when people have been filled or people been baptized in God's spirit. That it was purely a intellectual faith that they just had to believe it, despite what they felt, Despite what their heart was telling them. You don't you don't see that there. This is a real encounter with the living God, with real emotions.
Joel Brooks:And as Christians, we need to embrace both the objective facts of Christianity and the subjective experience of Christianity. We need both of these. I know that most of us are more comfortable receiving a doctrine than an experience, but Jesus knows that you need much more than a doctrine if you want to be his witnesses. To only embrace the facts of Christianity and not the subjective experience, I would compare it to this. It's like, it's like being dedicated to cookbooks, and yet never tasting the food.
Joel Brooks:That's what it's like. In which you know all the ingredients, you know how it all works, you know the chemistry behind it all, you know the recipes. Some of you, you've seen the pictures, you know it's going to be good. Sometimes you even share the recipes with others because you know it's going to be good. But you've never actually tasted it.
Joel Brooks:But you need the objective facts, you need the recipe, and you need the taste. Because once you have the taste that gives you a boldness unlike you've ever known, you're unashamed to tell people, you have got to try this. You've got to. Much more than just a picture or words or a recipe. Doctor.
Joel Brooks:Martin Lloyd Jones, one of my preaching heroes, preached during the mid 20th century. I believe he gave a great picture of what it means to be baptized in the spirit of God. And many contemporary pastors have used it, and you probably heard it from them some. John Piper has used this a number of times. It's certainly not original to me.
Joel Brooks:But he says, being baptized in the spirit is like this. It's like a father and a child walking together hand in hand And they're, they're walking hand in hand and the child is happy, the child is content, The child is secure in his father's love and knows his his father is has affection towards him. But then suddenly his his father just swoops down and picks up his child, swings him around, gives him a big embrace and says, I love you so much. And then and then maybe holds him so he can establish eye contact with him and says, I am so glad you're my son. And then puts him back down, and they hold hands again and they keep walking.
Joel Brooks:Lloyd Jones says that when this happens with God, it's this is what being baptized in the spirit is talking about. A pleasant, a happy walk with God suddenly became something of unspeakable joy. Absolutely life transforming joy. And there becomes such a certainty of God's love, such a certainty of His affection, such a certainty of your sonship, it overwhelms you and it bursts into praise. And you cannot help but telling others, you're clothed with power to proclaim the message of this.
Joel Brooks:Have you had any kind of experience like this? This is this is what I believe when when a few weeks ago we went through Ephesians 3, when Paul said, you know that you might know that you know that the breadth and the length and the height and the depth of God's love. That you might know the love that passes all knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of Christ. I believe that is what he's talking about here. I think you're seeing Paul at that moment being lifted up, spun around, and squeezed.
Joel Brooks:He's like, it's glorious. We are filled with all the fullness of God. We're knowing a knowledge that cannot be known. And and and it spills out onto paper and he says, I pray this for you. Says, my prayer for you is this.
Joel Brooks:So how did the these disciples come to experience this? How can we come to experience this? Jesus prepared the disciples 2 ways. 1, he taught them and then he asked them to wait. He taught them, and then he asked them to wait.
Joel Brooks:At the end of verse 3, we see that Jesus spent time speaking to his disciples about the kingdom of God. He speaks to his disciples about the kingdom of God. He does not gather them all together and discuss what a lot of, church leaders do now. He didn't say, alright, y'all get together. I'm about to leave.
Joel Brooks:You know, you need to have this this experience. Alright. Peter, lighting is everything. I mean, we need to somehow evoke an emotional experience. Now you can't have really bright overhead light like this, and the light can't be too dim.
Joel Brooks:You've got to set the mood just right, Peter. Remember this, a lot depends upon this. And Andrew, you know, you put away the lyre, pick up an electric guitar, it it it people respond to an electric guitar. It touches their emotions. Remember, transitions are everything too.
Joel Brooks:We can't have any of those awkward silences during a service, okay? That just kills the Spirit of God. It kills any of the emotion that the working here, we can't have that. Maybe if we have some kind of, you know, PowerPoint where you know, we have motions or as the deer, we have a deer walking across, you know, people respond to something like that. Are you taking notes guys?
Joel Brooks:Because I'm about to leave and we we need to somehow make sure people have an emotional experience. I've been in meetings like that. I mock it and love. I have been in countless meetings like that. But there's no teaching of, let's teach about the kingdom of God.
Joel Brooks:Let's teach about Jesus and His lordship, and how he reigns, and how he sends his power to equip us to go out and tell the world. Why don't we teach that and let's see how the people respond? But that's what we need to be doing. I thank God we meet in a a place like this. I thank God we do because if when we're singing, worship happens.
Joel Brooks:Worship happens, if there's a genuine emotional movement. I mean, what am I gonna credit? The the basketball goals? You know, the the the lighting? The the amazing sound as it reverberates off the gym walls?
Joel Brooks:God's at work. God's at work. Jesus did not teach them how to play with people's emotions. He taught them about the kingdom of God. In doing this, he obviously opened up to them the scripture.
Joel Brooks:I mean, it's no coincidence that when Pentecost happened, happens, Peter rushes out and he goes straight to Joel 2. You want to know what happens? Joel 2. Where do you think he got that from? Jesus has been pouring into him.
Joel Brooks:He says, you're about to receive an experience. Let me tell you how you can interpret this experience, biblically, scripturally. Let me tell you what's gonna happen to you and why it's gonna happen to you. Otherwise, you might completely miss it. So if you want to be filled with the Spirit of God, you must devote yourself to being filled with His instruction or filled with his word.
Joel Brooks:The key is not to throw away doctrine. It's not to get rid of theology and say, oh, that's counter to the spirit. You don't do that at all. Good theology always leads to doxology. Good theology always leads to praise, always leads to God.
Joel Brooks:And so we let the word of Christ pour over us. We pour over the word and the word of Christ pours over us and the spirit of God fills us. Secondly, Jesus told them to wait. He told them to wait. If, if I had been with Jesus, or if I'd been Jesus, I would have come up with a different plan.
Joel Brooks:I just wanna go ahead and put this out there. I would have come up with a different plan. In my mind, it's it's beautiful because I I'm very symmetrical. And it would have just kind of made sense as Christ went up, spirit falls down. That's that's that beautiful symmetry.
Joel Brooks:You know, he goes up, spirit falls down. That would have been my plan, and Jesus has a different plan. He says, hey, I'm going to to go up and and I'm not sending my spirit down immediately. You're gonna have to wait. You have to wait a while.
Joel Brooks:You have to to wait 40 days here before I pour my spirit down. Why in the world does he do that? I mean, symmetry. It's so beautiful. You could've just had that, but he has them wait.
Joel Brooks:It's because waiting produces hunger. That's what it does. Waiting produces hunger. Some of you are going to go out to eat after this. If you go to a crowded restaurant and you order your food, you've got to wait and you gotta wait.
Joel Brooks:And the longer you wait, the hungrier you get to finally, if you have to wait an hour, no matter what they serve you, it's going to be good Because you waited for so long. So part of what Jesus is doing here, instead of just sending his spirit down, immediately he's saying, you're not ready. You're not hungry enough for this. You have no idea what you're even asking for. You you kind of just casually ask for the spirit of God.
Joel Brooks:Just kind of flipping like, oh God, fill me up with your spirit today. Do do you even know what you ask? You'll know what you ask when I withhold the spirit of God from you for 40 days. So they're asking God, send your spirit. Send your spirit.
Joel Brooks:Day after day, they're gathering together and saying, send the promise of the father. You told us to wait. Please. And waiting produces not just a hunger, but it moves into a desperation. Because they realize they can't do anything, anything, until the spirit of God comes.
Joel Brooks:They are desperate for him. Desperate. You know, within a few months of starting this church, within just a few months, we tripled in size. We just kinda, you know, just tripled in size immediately. And, a church planter who who has planted 100 of churches came to visit, and he met with me, and he said, he he was just thrilled with what was going on.
Joel Brooks:And and he said, Joel, the most important thing now is momentum. The most important thing else for you to seize the momentum you have and go with it. There's a lot of energy. There's a lot of newness. You gotta seize this and go with it.
Joel Brooks:And I remember I shared this, with our elders and and we got together and we prayed and and one elder wisely prayed this, said, God take away our momentum. Take it away. It's like, we don't we don't want to build a church on momentum. Because if if you just have this church and all of a sudden just, you know, explodes, you could be distracted in so many ways. You cannot even at all be thinking of the witness of Christ, you could be thinking about the witness of Christ.
Joel Brooks:You could be thinking about the witness of your church, and just how great your church is, and just telling everybody about your church. And you've just forgotten why the Spirit of God was giving you to witness to Christ. So take our momentum away. Create in us a hunger and a thirst for you, God. Not for what the world would see as success, Not for any of those things, just a hunger and a thirst for you.
Joel Brooks:And so that became our prayers. Have you taken time to wait and to pray? Have you taken time to pour over scripture? So that scripture in turn is, in a sense, poured on you. The living word poured on you.
Joel Brooks:Have you taken time, serious time to ask for God's presence and for his power to be real in your life. And I I pray that you would take time this week to do that. If it means getting up in the early hours, do it. It means staying up late at night, do it. If it means skipping lunch, getting on your knees, do that.
Joel Brooks:Ask for God to show you without a doubt, he is real. He is resurrected and that you can experience his love and joy in a way that you never have before. Pray with me. Lord, I do believe that terminology can sometimes get in the way. Sometimes.
Joel Brooks:So I I I pray that with some of the confusion when we talk about baptism of the Holy Spirit, some of the the confusion that's there that that through your spirit that would fall away and you would remind us at at the very essence, what do we see here? We see an experience with the spirit of God. We see this clothing of powerful witness. So whenever this happens, however this happens, I pray that we would now take a honest look at our lives and ask, is this something that we we have encountered or experienced? If there's sin issues in our life, bring this up.
Joel Brooks:Lord, whatever resistances there are, may they come crumbling down. May we not love you only with our head, but fully with our heart. We come now simply to say, we need you, Jesus. We need you. And we pray this in your name.
Joel Brooks:Amen.
