This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to day four of our first week together looking through the
book of Acts. At the last half of Acts chapter two today, we're going to
continue to look at how you and I begin to experience the power of God's Spirit
in our lives. We reminded ourselves yesterday that it's not a feeling.

You certainly don't feel like you're the most powerful being in the universe.
It's more a humility. It's being connected to God and directed by God.

And yesterday we began to look in Acts chapter two, reminding ourselves that to
experience the power of God's Spirit, first we have to admit the reality of his
power. But then a second thing comes. Then I must admit my need for his power.

When I am confronted by the evidence that God wants to make a radical change in
my life, how do I react? That's the question. In Acts chapter two, these
disciples, these first apostles go out into the streets.

They began to tell the good news in all the languages and people are seeing this
miracle. They hear the wind. They saw the flames of fire.

They hear these other tongues and they see what God is doing. How will the
people in the streets react? Well, they react differently based on the choice of
their hearts.

Listen to what happens in Acts chapter two, beginning in verse five. Now they
were staying in Jerusalem, God fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. Then
they heard this sound.

A crowd came together in bewilderment because each one heard them speaking in
his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked, "Are not all these men who are
speaking Galileans? How then is it that each of us hears him speaking in his own
native language?

Parthians, Medes and Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia,
Pontus and Asia, Fergie and Pamphlia, Egypt and parts of Libya and near Cyrene,
visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs, we
hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues. " Amazed and
perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean? " Some however made fun
of them and said, "They've had too much wine.

" And then Peter stood up with eleven and he raised his voice and he addressed
the crowd. I'm not going to focus on all of Peter's sermon here because we're
going through more quickly, but let me just skip to the end and tell you what
happened. In verse 41, those who accepted his message that day were baptized and
about 3,000 were added to their number that day.

So what happened? This message goes out into the streets, people see what is
happening. What were the responses?

Some were amazed, some were confused, some were critical and some were
committed. Some were amazed. They looked at what was happening and they thought,
"This is an awesome thing.

" They didn't necessarily do anything about it, some did and some didn't, but
they thought it was a thing of great interest. It's one thing to be amazed, it's
another thing to make a commitment based on that amazement. There are some who
are constantly amazed by the things of God.

Look at that flower, look at that sunset, look at what God has made, but they
never make a commitment to the Creator. The amazement never grows into a
personal commitment in my life. So in that sense, I'm just a consumer of the
things that God is doing.

I am never someone who is relating to Him. Some were amazed, others were
confused. They were bewildered.

"How could this be? " they said to one another. And there are many things to be
confused about when it comes to the way that God works.

And at the beginning of faith, there is always, I believe, confusion because it
doesn't match up with the way that I've lived my life. It doesn't match up with
my plan for my life. It doesn't match up with my little world.

It's always confusing to be taken out of your world into the greater world that
God has for you. The question is, are you going to get stuck in your confusion?
Some of these people did that day.

They got stuck with their confusion. Because I can't explain it logically, then
I'm not going to go to the next step. If your standard for the kind of life that
you can live is just your logic, you're going to live a pretty small, a pretty
empty life.

God has so much more. God is bigger than my mind. God is bigger than my logic.

Now once I get to know him, I find it does make sense. But first I have to break
through the confusion when I'm trying to understand it on my own and come to him
and say, "God, help me to understand. " Some were confused.

Some were critical. They were looking and they said, "Oh, they've just had too
much wine. " Now Peter's going to say, "Why would we be drinking wine from the
morning until now and be drunk already at this time of the day?

" But they still criticized and there are always the critics. Now the reason
people criticize, there are many reasons. But in this case, it's pretty obvious.

They're criticizing because they can't accept. They don't want to hear. They
want to reject what's going on.

And so they just say they've had too much wine. Oh, in our culture today, it is
so easy to make fun of things that are serious. In fact, it gets the best
laughs.

And the truth of the matter is, I like the laugh. I like humor. But it scares me
when we use humor to take away the opportunity for commitment to Christ, for
commitment to things that really make a difference.

So people make fun of marriage because they've had so much pain in their own
marriage. So people make fun of children, make fun of parents raising children
and the commitment that they have because maybe of some of the failures that
they've had as a parent. People make fun of Christians because they're afraid to
make a commitment of faith.

They're afraid to let go of that one little habit that they think is the most
important thing in their life. Some were critical. But then some, in fact, three
thousand that first day, some were committed.

They were saved and they were baptized. Now, why? Why were they saved and
baptized?

What happened that took them to this place of commitment? It was Peter's sermon.
God used the message of a man, just a normal man, a fisherman, this man who just
a few days before, a few months before actually, had been denying Jesus.

All of a sudden now is preaching Jesus and three thousand are saved. Now what
moves them to commitment? Without looking through or reading through this entire
sermon, you see a pattern that happens again and again in the book of Acts in
this first sermon of Peter.

He begins by answering their questions. He begins where they are and then he
shows them the truth from God's word. What happened in the Old Testament and now
is happening in people's lives today.

And then he does the most important thing. He points to Jesus. That's what these
apostles did again and again.

He spoke with confidence, not about himself, but about Jesus, and he challenged
them to change. Those are the things that I need to do, that you need to do, to
help people to know how what has happened in my life, in your life because of
Jesus Christ, can happen in theirs. Begin by answering their questions.

Show them the truth of God's word. Point them to Jesus. Speak with confidence,
not your confidence, but God's confidence, and then challenge people to change
based on what only God can do.

You want to live out the reality of the Holy Spirit's life. First you recognize
the reality of the Spirit, then you admit your need for his power, but then a
third thing has to happen. Number three, you've got to live out that power with
other believers.

Acts chapter two verses 42 to 47. Here's what happened with these first
followers. They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the
fellowship and to the breaking of bread into prayer.

Everyone was filled with awe and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by
the apostles. All the believers were together and they had everything in common,
selling their possessions and goods they gave to anyone as they had need. Every
day as they continued to meet together in the temple courts, they broke bread in
their homes and they ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and
enjoying the favor of all the people and the Lord added to their number daily
those who were being saved.

They're experiencing the life of God's Spirit together in this church. Western
thinking, particularly American thinking, is our enemy at this point. Our idea
is I want to get the power of God's Spirit and then like some spiritual cowboy,
I want to go out and individually change the world.

We want to charge out solo, just me and Jesus versus the world. And we do that
and we fall flat on our faces and we think what happened? What did I do wrong?

So we try to pray more and read the Bible more to charge up more and then we
charge out again and bam, flat on my face again. What happened? Finally, sort of
with our spiritual tail between our legs, we determined that this whole life of
the Spirit is not as real as it's made out to be.

Well, it's real. The problem is in the way that we try to live it out. Since
we're American, we try to live it out as individuals all on our own and we've
missed the whole point.

We're baptized together into one body. This new church has given the Spirit
together all at once. I believe the number one reason that we do not, that I do
not, experience the filling of the Spirit, the power of God's Spirit in my life
is that we try to do it alone rather than in relationship with other believers.

The filling of the Spirit is not a self-help program. It is the empowering of
God's church for his purposes in the world. And these verses we've just read
show us how God's Spirit empowered them together to experience and to live out
God's purposes together.

God's purposes cannot be accomplished individually. They can only be
accomplished together. That is what the church is all about.

And in these verses we see the purposes of the church, the five purposes of the
church in the beginning of this church, a changed community. We see maturity and
membership and magnification and ministry and mission. Those are the five
churches, maturity being like Christ, membership being a member of the body,
magnification, worshiping God, ministry, ministering to other believers,
mission, going out to make a difference in the world.

We see it all. We see maturity. They devoted themselves to the apostles'
teaching.

They were learning more and more, growing in him. We see membership. They
devoted themselves to the fellowship.

That's what membership is. It's fellowship with each other. They ate together
with glad and sincere hearts, it says.

They fellowshiped around food, magnification. They praised God and enjoyed the
favor of all the people. Ministry they gave to everyone as they had a need and
mission.

The Lord added to each their number daily. Those were being saved. These
purposes that are lived out in this church are lived out together with other
believers.

As we think about God's spirit and his power in our lives, let's take a moment
to talk to him right now. Holy Spirit, we thank you that because of the love of
Jesus, you have come into our lives if we trusted in him. And it's my prayer
today, it's our prayer together, that we would trust in you by admitting our
need of you.

Lord, forgive me for those times when I live life on my own power, when I forget
about you. Remind me of your power today. And Lord, also remind me today to
trust you not alone, but with other believers.

Asking others to pray with me, asking others to encourage when I'm feeling down,
asking others to join me together in ministry. Lord, remind me that I am not in
this alone. It's about serving you together.

Lord, thank you for the power of your spirit. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Tomorrow, it's Acts chapter 3, we're going to see what happens after the
spiritual explosion of Acts chapter 2.