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Let Us Rely on the Holy Spirit
Acts chapter 1-10, John 14:15−21
Mari Ikeda
It’s Pentecost today, the day to remember and celebrate the first coming of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God and Jesus. While God, the Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit are one and the same, they are all different from each other. So we don’t need to make a strict distinction among three, today I’d like to focus on who the Holy Spirit is, by reading mainly the book of Acts. Let’s read Acts 1:3-11 first.
A.We cannot do anything without the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:3-11)
Act1:3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” … 8 (You) will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. 10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
Just like the disciples here, we often find ourselves losing the sight of Jesus, feeling alone and insecure, so we just cannot move but only look up into the sky helplessly. At those times, even if we understand in our minds that Jesus loves us so much that He sacrificed His life for us on the Cross, such understanding of ours remains just a knowledge and seems to have no power before our smallness and weakness that are so real to us that we lose our direction and power to move forward.
What we need to do in such times is, just as Jesus says to the disciples here, to wait for the Holy Spirit to come down, instead of forcing ourselves to move forward from where we are now. As it is said in v.8, once we receive the power of the Holy Spirit, we will be able to go to the ends of the earth, which means both a physical distance and a psychological distance, to reach the place where we have never even imagined ourselves to reach.
If the disciples who had first-hand experience of Jesus’ death and resurrection were told to wait for the Holy Spirt, there is no question that we cannot do anything without the help of the Spirit.
Now, how does the Holy Spirit help us? I’d like to talk about only four of the important points today. Firstly, but not the most important work of the Holy Spirit is to cause various supernatural phenomena and make us convinced, in a half-forcible way, of the presence of God, who transcends human understanding. The first Pentecost was when such power of the Spirit was revealed. Let’s read Acts 2:1-6.
B. The work of the Holy Spirit
1. Supernatural power (Acts2:1-6)
Acts2: 1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. 5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken.
The event of Pentecost was a mysterious phenomenon that people could actually hear and see. Starting from this event of Pentecost, according to the New Testament, various forms of mysterious phenomena and works, such as speaking in tongue, prophesies, healing of sickness and various miracles, were performed among the believers. Those forms of supernatural power worked as a proof that the Holy Spirit was working, and encouraged people in the time of the New Testament.
In our modern time, the Holy Spirit does not cease to make supernatural phenomena happen. In many churches today people still speak in tongue or prophesy, or we see miracles of healing. We are greatly encouraged by those things. But indeed it doesn’t matter whether those things happen or not, because there is no change in the fact that God is with us, whether or not He makes supernatural thing happen.
Therefore, the appearance of supernatural power by the Holy Spirit is nice to have, but is not indispensable. The important thing is that by the power of the Holy Spirit our hearts are filled by God’s love and transformed, rather than we gain supernatural forces.
Now I want to pick Peter as an example. How was he transformed? Let’s read Acts 4:8-13. Please pay attention fo the last verse.
2. Words that tell others about Jesus (Acts 4:8-13)
Acts4:8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! 9 If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, 10 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. 11 Jesus is “‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ 12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” 13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.
Here we no longer see the weak Peter, who betrayed Jesus and denied His relationship with Jesus three times. Once just a poor fisherman in a rural village, he now boldly witness Jesus in front of political leaders and religious elites of the Jewish society in those days. It was the Holy Spirit, who transformed Peter in such a way.
For Peter, it was no longer a matter of concern that he was an unschooled fisherman or he betrayed Jesus out of his cowardice. It meant more to him now that Jesus loved him so much that He gave His life to forgive him, and that his desire to tell about Jesus to the world was so certain to himself.
Do we have the same kind of conviction and desire that Peter had? If we have many uncertainty and worries, perhaps we are caught up in our own thoughts or someone else’s thoughts, and have forgotten to ask the Holy Spirit to help us. The Holy Spirit is the one who turns our heart to the direction of Jesus and teaches us what to speak.
3. Tearing down our prejudice (Acts 8-10)
What I’d like to focus on next, regarding the work of the Holy Spirit, is the work of tearing down our prejudice. It can be seen if we read Acts chapter 8-10.
It is written that Phillip’s encounter with an Ethiopian official, Peter’s encounter with a Roman centurion named Cornelius, and the encounter of Saul, later known as Paul, with Aeneas, were all done by the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Given that both the Ethiopian official and Cornelius were gentiles of high social status, neither Phillip nor Peter would have had any contact with them, and they would have never imagined that those gentiles were desiring to know God, unless the Holy Spirit taught them so. Similarly, in the story of Saul and Aeneas, Aeneas first rejected when the Holy Spirit told him to go and meet Saul, because he knew that Saul was an awful persecutor who arrested and imprisoned any Christians he saw, but Aeneas followed the Holy Spirit in the end, and forgave and baptized Saul.
There are people who desire to know and believe God from their heart, among those whom we avoid or suffer for. We may feel difficult to accept, but the Holy Spirit can change our heart and teach us the magnitude of God’s love.
Now, finally, I’d like to talk about the most important work of the Holy Spirit, by reading Jesus’ word in John’s Gospel. John 14:15-21.
4. Teaches us the love of Jesus (John14:15-21)
John 14:15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
The most important work of the Holy Spirit is to teach us about Jesus’ love, and teach us that we live in Him and He lives in us.
One more important thing here is the “command” Jesus talks about, which we can find in a passage right before this passage, 13:34-35.
John 13:34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Jesus desires for us to know that He loves us and that we love Him and each other. We will fail all of them very soon if we try to do it by our own strength, by the Holy Spirit can always give us a new strength. It is the work of the Holy Spirit that we can become confident and rejoice in God’s love for us, and that we can discard our prejudices and arrogance to love others. Because the Holy Spirit enables us to do what we are unable to do, we will keep our hope in Him and not be discouraged by our limits.
Now I want to encourage you to seek the help of the Holy Spirit for yourself during the following time of worship and throughout this week, especially if you lost sight of God’s love for you or if you have a difficulty in forgiving someone because of your anger and hatred toward that person. Make sure you don’t force your heart to change by yourself, but only wait expectantly for what the Holy Spirit will do for you.
To close the message, I’d like to pray the prayer recorded in the letter to the Ephesians with a little change in wording today. Let’s pray.
Dear God, I pray that you may strengthen us with power through Your Spirit in our inner being. Give us the faith to believe that You dwell in our hearts. Help us take root and be established in Your love. Together with all people who have faith in You, give us power to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is Your love, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, so that our hearts may be filled with joy. You are the one who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to Your power that is at work within us. Glory be to You throughout all generations, for ever and ever! We pray this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Summary
It is through the work of the Holy Spirit that we can truly accept and rejoice in God’s sacrificial love for us and grasp its enormity. The work of the Holy Spirit is sometimes seen in supernatural events, but more often, we see it in the changes in our hearts. When we lose sight of God’s love for us or struggle to love other people, let us rely solely on the Holy Spirit.
For Discussion
1. What are your thoughts and reflections as you read about Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 or recall supernatural experiences in other churches (e.g. prophecies or speaking in tongues)?
2. Share about a time the Holy Spirit changed your heart.