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Aug 03, 2025

The Promised Spirit | Spirit, Power & The Church

The Promised Spirit | Spirit, Power & The Church

Passage: Acts 1:1-8

Speaker: Matt Petty

Series: Spirit, Power & The Church

Category: Sunday Sermons

Keywords: spirit, what it means to be filled with the holy spirit, how the holy spirit empowers believers, acts 1 explained, practical steps to walking in the spirit, signs of living a spirit-filled life, living with god's power, book of acts study guide, power & the church, the promised spirit

This sermon launches our church-wide study through the Book of Acts, beginning in chapter 1. We explore the foundational truth that the Holy Spirit isn’t just a concept, but how we’ve been given His presence and power to walk out our calling. Discover how Acts sets the tone for how we live as followers of Jesus today and what it looks like to live a Spirit-led life with purpose, boldness, and surrender.

Well, good morning, good morning, and good morning. You guys are looking good today. I don't know if it's the new back-to-school haircuts or the outfits you're trying out tomorrow or for what, but you are looking good. If you're visiting with us today, thank you for being here. If you haven't been with us all summer and you've been living at your beach house, we don't like you. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. We do like you. We like you. Hey, listen, if you were visiting maybe first, second, third time, if there's anything we can do as a team here, man, you would light up our week if you would just let us walk beside you somehow just to help you connect into this special place.

Well, listen, about 10 days ago in a momentary Netflix moment of weakness, I succumbed to the trap of waiting and watching for the number one movie on Netflix, the number one movie. In a family vote I lost, I ended up watching something that I wish I wouldn't have seen. Now before you get like, "Ooh, pastor, what you talking about?" No, no, no. All right. In mid-1996... Can I get a '96 kids of the room? ... I was a sophomore in college and my life changed forever. A movie came out that bridged comedy and sports and cameos and just one-liners. They changed language. It changed one-liners of tap, tap, taparoo and the history of golf, and I met a guy by the name of Happy Gilmore. All right, Happy Gilmore. All right, and he became a hero in my life until last week.

Some of you know what I'm talking about. Along with 47 million other people, I watched the sequel to Happy Gilmore and it was terrible. It was terrible, all right? Terrible, terrible, terrible. No, we'll still be friends if we disagree, but it was terrible. Despite all the cameos, it was terrible. I don't remember one line of the movie. I don't have one thing that I can laugh at with my friends around the backyard fire. It was terrible. I wish I could undo seeing it because Happy is old. The people were not funny and I don't remember one line, but here's the deal. Isn't this the case with most sequels? Now before you Star Wars people get me, those aren't sequels, right? They wrote all of them at the same time. I mean, think with me just a minute.

Jaws II, terrible, Dumb and Dumberer, terrible, Jurassic number 12 or whatever we're on right now, terrible. Sequels are terrible except for the sequel that we are jumping into as a church this fall and except for the sequel that we are going to spend from now for the next weeks and months, walking through the sequel that you just saw the bumper of the Book of Acts, the Book of Acts. Now before you are like, "Matt, I'm looking at my Bible right now. On the table of contents or on my app right now, there is not a sequel. There is not an Acts one and an Acts two." Yes, you are correct in that, but Acts is in fact a sequel. Acts is a second part of Luke's gospel. You've got Luke's gospel over here, and then next right after that, you have him writing the Acts Book or Acts Letter.

Now, Acts is a big, beautiful book, right? It is a beautiful book. It has tons of inspiration. It has tons of encouragement. It has tons of Bible teaching. The Holy Spirit falls in it. Acts is an amazing book and it's actually written in a way that is in some ways it's a guide for us as believers to how to live out our faith. It's also a guide to how us as a church should walk out our mission and calling on this planet and it's also a guide for us to not only have this internal faith in us, but how we should point it to those that are around us, to those that are in our nation and ultimately to reach this world. Now, listen, I'm going to go ahead and give you a little fair heads up that this is going to be an amazing journey through this book, all right? It's going to be an amazing journey through this letter. Why?

Because this one book, listen to me here. This one book describes 30 years, 30 years of church history and precedent. This one book records 20 cities and regions. It documents the gospel spreading to three continents. It mentions over 95 people's name by their names. It has 32 miracles in it. We see about 10 specific salvation moments where people give their hearts to Jesus. We have these five massive movements of the Holy Spirit where massive amounts of people surrender to Jesus. We've got eight times in this book where whole families give their heart to Jesus and that are baptized. Then Acts shows us the church, the church that goes from like 120 people to 3,000+ people. Look, if you don't like big churches, you wouldn't have liked the Book of Acts, right?

You're not going to like heaven one day. Why? Because the church that moves in the spirit is always growing, it's always moving. We're going to see that in Acts. Man, the Book of Acts is incredible. It shows us Paul, this guy that comes out in the latter half of it on this missionary journey that starts at mile zero. It moves to 10,000 miles later where he takes his final journey to Rome to stand for his faith. The Book of Acts is amazing because even in it, it describes a man one day that is just like a lot of you guys that falls asleep while the preacher was preaching, falls out a window and dies. There's a warning for you right there, right? Don't worry, don't worry. They raise Him from the dead, right?

Acts is awesome because Paul and Barnabas were walking down the road one day and these people did mistake them as Greek gods. It happens to our worship, Pastor Carey and I, all the time. But it's incredible, right? There's this handkerchief ministry that goes on. There's this midnight worship that happens. There's this disastrous Jewish exorcism. Ever heard of one of those? That happens in this book. There's this moment in the book where a riot breaks out at an idol maker's factory. I've never even heard of that before, but it's in the book, right? There's this one place in the Book of Acts, only place in the Bible that a man is described to be full of worms.

I mean, you got to love that if you're a sixth grader coming into church now, but in all seriousness, this book has so much in it. For all of you English people, it just ends. I love it. There's no closing to the book. It's just like one chapter. It's full on all throttle and then it's over, right? There's no closing in the book. Fifty times we see the Holy Spirit falls and is mentioned. The church is born and it just seems like time after time in this ancient document that was written to this guy named Theophilus that is just as relevant today as it was when the pen ink hadn't even dried. This is the Book of Acts that we're going to jump into over these next week. So, church, hold on, 28 chapters in this book, and here's my heart.

My heart is that from today until the time that we finish this book sometime in mid-February, yes, you heard that right, that our lives would not be the same. In fact, I want you to do something when you're visiting. We don't normally do this, but we're going to do it today. I got the microphone, right? I want you to do something with me just for a minute. All right. I want you to take the Book of Acts in your hands. Whether it's a paper copy or an electronic copy, they're all cool, all right? No judging, either one of those and I want you to do something. I want you to take that book in your hand, click off the game for just a minute, click into Acts for just a minute, all right?

I want you to stand up with me. I want you to stand up with me with that word in your hand, with God's word in your hand, whether it's digital, whether it's old school paper. I want you to hold this book in your hand and here's what I want us to do today. I'm just going to pray that these next weeks, these next months of our lives, that through God's power and through what we're about to see through the Holy Spirit, that our lives would not be the same. I want you to pray this every day as you look through this book. Let me pray for us. Lord Jesus, take these next weeks and these words are on this page and bring it to life in us. God, this document of Acts is living, it's breathing. It gives us life through your power and through your Holy Spirit.

God, move in us and it's in your name, Jesus, we pray. Amen. All right. You can have a seat. Now, I know some of you're still hung up on that. Matt, are you really serious about that February thing? Yes, I probably am. All right, I probably am. Take a break at Christmastime because we got to look at sweet baby Jesus, but then we're going to look at Acts. So, here's what we're going to do today. I'm going to lay some foundation, all right? Lay some foundation and then we're going to get a challenge on the back side of it based on this gift that God wants to give us all.

We're going to look at the first eight verses of chapter 1 today. It's going to give us the main idea of the book and introduce the Holy Spirit to us. Acts chapter 1, here we go, verse 1. Let me read it to us because this is all I know how to do in preaching. Read the Bible, talk about it. Here we go. Ready? Here's what it says. In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all... Say all.

All.

That Jesus began to do and to teach. You might want to circle that do and teach because it's a model that's going to be all through the book. In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day He was taken up to heaven after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. Now Paul's right there. So, again, this is Luke. All right, this is the physician, the doctor, Luke. All right? He's writing to this guy named Theophilus. Now Theophilus, by definition, the name means friend of God or close to God, but histories as well as scholars would tell us that Theophilus is actually a skeptic.

Actually, some people would say that Luke, the physician was a slave, an indentured servant because that's how it worked a lot of times in doctors' lives to this guy, Theophilus. You can just feel if you begin to read the Book of Acts that you can see Luke's heart through his gospel and through this letter of Luke just wanting Theophilus to know who God is, to know who Jesus is, to experience Jesus's love and the Holy Spirit's power and how God wants to move in his life. Now, we're not entirely sure what happens to Theophilus, but in chapter 16 of Acts, it sure seems like the story goes from third person to first person and actually Luke begins to travel with the Apostle Paul. So, possibly he may be set free Luke to go be with Paul.

We're not really sure that Theophilus met Jesus or not, but what we are sure is this. This physician named Luke, this incredibly intelligent man named Luke, this very smart, classically trained, incredible writer in Greek Luke gives us this account and we have this mighty historical book written by a very intelligent man. You say, "Matt, how do you know he's very intelligent?" Well, if you are a Greek scholar, you would say that the book of Luke and the Book of Acts are two of the very best well-written historical accounts of the time period that anybody possesses, whether you're Christian or whether you're just secular. You can see that, which by the way, this actually brings up a thought in my mind that I like to present over and over to us.

I want you to write this principle down from the text I just want to pull out. Here's the principle, history and intelligence both support and back up the works of Jesus and the word of God, all right? The works of Jesus and the word of God. So, Pastor, why are you bringing this up? I'm bringing it up because for so long people thought that they needed to trade in their smarts to be a Christian, and that is so far from the truth. Listen to me, church. You don't have to check your intelligence at the door to be a follower of Jesus. I love the fact that this guy, this physician, this classically trained medical doctor wrote this document to us and it's been held up for thousands of years.

Did you realize that more advance that science gets and the more advance that archeology gets and the more advance really as humanity that we get, the more we point to God instead of away from God? Have you began to see that it's just so funny in secular people's minds that wow, science is actually pointing towards the Creator? Have you seen this lately? It's like they're blown away, but I love the fact that we don't have to check our intelligence at the door. We in fact can lean into our intelligence because God is the one that has given it to us.

In fact, if you look at all the places and all the times and all the events and all of the people throughout this letter and that are also found in secular history, you're going to see that every single person that have tried to prove the Book of Luke as well as the Book of Acts not being true has actually held their hands in there and went, "Well, everything that is written, we can find." Do you know why? Because Luke either saw it, heard it, walked with somebody who saw it, heard it, or had a relationship with them. It was God that inspired him to write it down and catch this and it was God who has eternally preserved this word. Why? So that through the Book of Acts that we can be encouraged. So, that through the Book of Acts that we can know the power of God.

So, that through the Book of Acts that we can walk out God's plan for our lives. Listen, listen, the Book of Acts radically changed the first century church because they were able to see what God is and who He is, but I'm going to tell you today that it just as much can change us. Man, I love this book. Now, since we've laid a little bit of foundation about the Book of Acts, I want to give you a little bit of a warning and actually a little bit of instruction of how we should study this book. All right, little teaching moment here for all of us. So, how should we study the Book of Acts? Because that's what we're going to do together through the word. Number one, actually, we should not study the Book of Acts like some just crusty academic, right? Some crusty academic. Man, what do you mean by that?

Here's what I mean by that. Yes, the times, the places, the events, and all that stuff is fabulous and scholarly study is amazing. You know that about me. I love to do that. But listen, to only study the Book of Acts for facts is to always pull up short and miss what God wants to do in your life. You see, not only do we need to study it for the facts, we need to study it for this. Lord, what are you doing in me through this? You see, analyzing dates is great, but if we don't see what it is in us, then we miss it, which also leads me to this. Number two, we should not study the Book of Acts like just some casual fan, like some casual fan that plops in and plops out based on that good old T-ball travel schedule. Whenever I can make it, I'll do it, but if not, I'm just going to flush it.

Why? Because the Book of Acts is this continual story. It's this continual movement of God over and over and over again showing us our mission, showing us our goal, showing us who He is, showing us how we should move into him. It's not this deal where I can take pieces and leave other pieces. It's not this deal where I should come in with no expectation for God to change us. So, how should we study Acts? Number three, we should study Acts really and truly like a committed follower of Jesus or a committed servant of Jesus that wants to live, here's the goal, that wants to read the text and live what it presents. That's the goal, right? To read the text and say, "Yes, Lord Jesus, do that in me."

To read the text. Yes, Lord Jesus, change that in me. Yes, Lord Jesus, let the Holy Spirit rule in me and let me submit to your calling. Now, I need you to lock that in for the rest of this series. Why? Especially for the Book of Acts, you say, "Matt, why is the Book of Acts any different than the other books?" Here's why. The Book of Acts actually shows us what it looks like to live and walk in Jesus now, and here's why. Because of the Book of Acts, the majority of it except for chapter 1 that we're in today, the Book of Acts is after Jesus has walked on this earth, it is after Jesus has ascended to heaven, and it's after Jesus has given us the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the Book of Acts is exactly the same as today.

Do you see what I'm talking about? There's not a whole lot of contextual difference. If it says it in Acts, it is true today. If it says it is here, it's true today. The power given in Acts is the same power that God wants to give us today. The promises of Acts are the same promises that God wants to give us today and actually write this principle down. The ordinary people that God uses in Acts are an encouragement for all of us, ordinary people today to walk and to be used by God. I love this about Acts because we're not like, "Well, that's just how it used to be. It's not how it is anymore." No, you're wrong. The same God, the same Holy Spirit, the same power, the same presence, the same use of the church to move the gospel to this planet is still happening today.

So, what Luke does in his gospel, we just read it, is he explains to us what Jesus did and said. All right, remember I told you to circle that, right? But in Acts, here's what he's doing. He's explaining to us what Jesus is still doing and still saying. So, do not fall into the trap of thinking, "Well, that's how it was then and it's just going to be different now." Because after this week, it is always the same. All right, let's get back to the context here. All right, let's get back to the context. Let's recall what Jesus did. Watch this in verse 3. Watch what Jesus is doing. All right. This is in between the time that he's describing in Luke, the time in between Jesus' resurrection and when he ascended to the Father. Watch what he says in verse 3.

He says, "After Jesus's suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive." All right. For those you like, "Well, there's never proof in the Bible that Jesus did that," yeah, there is. Just read it, all right? Just read it. It's right there. Watch this. That's Jesus. He appeared to them over a period of 40 days and he spoke about the kingdom of God. He spoke about the kingdom of God. It's so cool what Jesus did in between the time he rose from the grave and the time he ascended to the Father, from the resurrection to the return to the Father. But why? Why did Jesus do that, right? It's simple why Jesus did it, because He knew that we were skeptics.

He knew we needed the proof. He knew we needed the witnesses to all roll around this idea for Jesus to show all of us that all of history and all of logic and all of thinking and all of belief and all of morality are backed up by Him and stamped and sealed through His resurrection. Church, listen to me closely. Jesus is the proof. He's the proof of everything and it all rests on Jesus and what He did and how He died and how He rose and all of this world is now pointing to the idea that Jesus did what He said He did. Do you realize that Christianity is not this idea of this man that is just speculating what's happening? Christianity is not someone's wild imagination, but it all rests on the foundation. What did He just say in Acts? The foundation of what Jesus did, said, is doing, and will always do.

That's the difference. That's what we're seeing in Acts. Think about it. The world doesn't need a Buddha to explain the teachings of Buddha. It just doesn't. It can explain them. It doesn't have to have that, but the world needed Jesus to solidify exactly who God is and what He wants to do in us. He did it and He proved it, and that's what Luke is saying right here. He's saying that Jesus gives salvation and Jesus gives life. Jesus does what? He leaves us with a gift. Listen, this next little part of the message is where I think a whole lot of Christians blow it. We're all about this whole Jesus thing, but we miss the gift that Jesus has left us with that has a challenge. In fact, look at it in verse 4 and 5 with me. Watch what He says right here.

He says, "On one occasion, while Jesus, while He was eating with them, He gave them this command. Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait..." What does He say? But wait for the gift that my Father promised. In other words, this is before Jesus has ascended back to the Father. He's like, "Hey, wait, in Jerusalem, just wait boys, you got to wait. You don't have what it takes yet. You're not there yet," but watch this. He says, "Do not leave Jerusalem but wait for the gift my Father promised," which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Now, a couple things here. This is a transitional verse. I need to explain it, a couple things here that are important.

Number one, what we're doing is we're bridging the gap of this text from Jesus walking on this earth to Jesus ascending back to the Father. This is that transitionary moment of Jesus, yes, has already breathed the Holy Spirit on them, but it's in a little bit of a way at this point, transitioning in between the spirit being there, the spirit leaving them, the spirit being there, spirit leaving them. That's how it was in the whole Old Testament. But at the day of Pentecost, what we're going to see in a week or two is that the spirit then indwells the believers. That's you and me. From that point on, chapter 2 on, it's different.

Jesus looked at these boys as disciples like, "Hey, you better hold on a minute. If you go out there without the Holy Spirit, your lunch is going to get ate. Wait a minute, I'm going to give you a gift." Now, we are operating in the gift section. Now, at the moment, we give our life to Jesus. We're going to see this in a minute. That Christ rules in us, the Holy Spirit rules in us. But I also want you to see here in verse 4 that it's one of those rare moments that God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are all mentioning at this moment in this one text. Well, we get this picture of the Trinity here. Now, some of you are like, "I can never explain the Trinity."

The Trinity is really hard to explain. I get it. But when we get to hold onto what we're seeing here that we don't serve three gods, we serve one God that has these three purposes, these three roles in our lives, we begin to understand it and we see the beauty in it. In other words, the Father directs, rules, and guides. The Son has given us His character of God. He mediates and gave us freedom and forgiveness, and the Spirit is the one that comes into our lives to comfort us, to forgive us, to convict us, and to give us His power. Now, what we're seeing here is Jesus looking at them saying, "Hey, you know who the Father is. You know who I am, but I'm about to send the Spirit in a mighty way." So what do they do? They wait. Now for us, listen, we don't have to wait. Why? Write this principle down.

Here's the cool thing about this today. For us, here's the principle, salvation and the spirit are a package deal for us. You don't have one without the other. Listen closely. The moment you give yourself to Jesus, look at this. The moment Christ saves you, God himself moves in you. Now, look, I don't know if you've ever heard this before. Maybe you have, maybe you haven't. Here's what that means. The moment you come to a point in your life where you turn from your sin and you turn to Jesus, what Jesus does is He takes the heart of stone and He gives you a heart of flesh. Here's what Jesus did. Here's what He does to us now because of post-Pentecostal living. He infuses you with the Holy Spirit, and here's the cool part about it.

There's no need for a second baptism, a second meeting of the Holy Spirit. We're now living in the Spirit. There's so much bad teaching around the Holy Spirit. There's actually so much avoiding of teaching around the Holy Spirit. The idea is when we are saved, when we're truly saved, we're going to live a life that glorifies God only through the guidance of the Spirit and partnering with the Spirit. We can now live and work and walk and talk all through His power. Here's the deal, church. This is the goal and the theme of the whole Book of Acts. It is people that have been radically transformed and infused with the Spirit is now walking out God's plan in our lives. Now, for some of you that grew up in church, you know the Book of Acts as the Acts of the Apostles.

Why? Because that's how it's defined in a lot of Bibles. For some of you, you'll always heard of it as the acts of the church. That's the title of the book. But really and truly, if we had to put a title on the Book of Acts, it would be this, the Acts of the Lord Jesus Christ through the apostles with the church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Now, that's a terrible title, right? Terrible title, but that's what it is because that's what God wants to do in you and what He wants to do in me and what He wants to do with this church. He wants to not only save you, but He wants to put His power in you and give you the ability to live through His Holy Spirit. Now, but here's the question. What's the deal with this thing in this Holy Spirit? We got to solve this before we go any farther.

So, I thought today what we'd do is let me give you five quick things about the Holy Spirit that'll help you in using and partnering with Him to move in your life. All right. Let me give you five quick things. Number one, the Holy Spirit's presence, listen to this, is not just an experience. It's new life, all right? The Holy Spirit's presence is not just an experience. It's new life. What does that mean? That means that the Holy Spirit's role in our life is to connect us with the Father, connect us with the Son, give us eternal life and to give us power. That's the Holy Spirit's role in your life. Now, for some of us, we struggle with us because we grew up in churches, maybe like I did, maybe like you did that it was God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Bible, right?

We just let that whole spirit then go away. Now, some of you grew up in churches where it was all about the spirit, amen. Can I get any tambourine people in the house? You grew up waving flags. You grew up seeing a whole bunch of stuff that you were like, "I don't know what that is, but that's weird, right?" But what does the Spirit do? The Spirit connects us with new life. In fact, listen to what Paul says about it in Romans 8:9. He says, "You however are not in the realm of the flesh, but in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the spirit of God lives inside you. If anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. The Spirit gives life because of righteousness, and if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you," catch this.

He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who lives in you. Listen to this in Romans 8:14. It says this, "For those who are led by the Spirit of God, they are children of God." So when you think about the Spirit, don't think some outer body feelings, some outer body experience. No, no, no. You need to flush that. Think of new start, new power, new offer to connect to God. That's what the Spirit does. Why? Because of this. Number two, the Spirit's desire is to make us whole and spiritually mature. At the core of who the Spirit is, that's what He wants to do in us. Yes, He loves you where you are, but He loves you way too much to leave you there.

The Spirit wants to take you from where you are and to continually move you, continually guide you, continually infuse this power in you. In fact, listen to what Jesus says about it in John 16. He says this, verse 12, "I have much more to say to you more than you can now bear." Now, I feel like if I ever walked with Jesus physically, He would say that a lot about me. Watch this. In verse 13, He says, "But when he, the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you in all the truth and he will not speak on his own. He'll speak only what he hears and he will tell you what is yet to come." So listen, church, listen. The Holy Spirit doesn't want to just give you new life. He wants to walk beside you. He wants to give you life. He wants to show you things.

He wants to guide you in all directions. So, He indwells you, He leaves you, He moves in you, He urges you. He breaks down the wall of self-glory and begins to point our attention and affections to who God is. But listen, listen, listen, listen to this. Number three, but the Holy Spirit's invitation is for us to either walk in the Spirit or to silence Him in our lives. That's His invitation. You see, the Holy Spirit is not a forceful spirit. I need you to hear this. The Holy Spirit will not kick down the doors to your life. He's a gentleman spirit that waits, that convicts, that knocks, and it says, "Here I am if you'll just listen." What does that mean? That means that we make a choice. Listen closely. We make a choice whether to walk in the Spirit or to silence the Spirit. We make a choice to do that.

In fact, listen to what Paul says about it. I love Paul's language towards the Spirit. He says this in Galatians 3:3. He says, "Are you so foolish? After beginning by the means of the Spirit..." In other words, hey, you were right. You did what is right. You gave Him your heart. Watch this. Are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? Oh, here's what I know about most of us, man. We would never admit that out loud though, would we? We would never say, "Yeah, man, I just walked by the flesh and don't worry about it, right?" But can I tell you something about us and the Spirit? Every time we choose our will over the Spirit's will, every time we change our will with what the Spirit is prompting us to do, do you know what we're doing?

We're doing exactly what Paul says right here. We're just trying to live foolishly, and it never ends up right. It doesn't. Every time we walk our ways, we're disregarding the spirit in our lives. But I want you to keep walking with me here in the text because Paul points out, "Hey, you don't have to live like that. You can live in a different way." Look back at verse 5 with me, and let me just read the rest of this text. Watch what it says. Acts 1:5, it says, "For John, he baptized with water, but in a few days we'll be baptized with the Holy Spirit." Let's talk about Pentecost. We're going to get there later. All right? Come back. Verse 6, then they gathered around Him and asked, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"

In other words, hey, we've been following you. Now, are you finally going to do this? He's like, "Yeah, you dummies." He didn't say that, but in my mind, that's just what it sounds like. He said to them, "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority." Oh, but look at verse 8, underline it. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all of Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Again, remember, the Holy Spirit wants to give us new life. The Holy Spirit wants to mature us. The Holy Spirit gives us this choice whether we walk in Him or whether we walk in our own will. But what happens when we decide to walk in the Spirit? Catch this.

Number four, the Holy Spirit's gift is not only the presence, His presence, but it's also His power to fully live for God. You see, for many of us, the Christian life is so frustrating because we keep trying to do it on our own. We keep trying to just eke it out on our own power, our own existence, our own charisma, our own strengths. But that's not how God says to operate. He says, "I've given you this gift of the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life." Listen, this is the main idea of the whole book. Verse 8 is the key text of the whole book, and that is that the Spirit of God's power is offered to you. It's yours for the taking. It's yours to pick up. It's yours to walk in.

Believer, listen, you have a divine power that is offered to you, that is abundant, that is good, that is always true, that is always righteous, that always offers joy. He wants to give you power. He wants to infuse you with power. He wants to walk with you in tandem, and He wants to give you all of himself. We can either have it or we can just keep walking on our own existence. That's what the book says. In fact, I want you to read 8 again real fast. Watch this in verse 8, and I want you to put your name in verse 8 every time I say the word you to make it personal. All right? So instead of you, you're going to say your name, like I would say, Matt. You know your name. All right, ready? We're going to do this out loud. It's going to be a little Pentecostal for your friends of ours, right?

Here it is, but that's great. There was three of you that did it right there. All right, three. I got three of you. Let me slow down. You are going to say your name there. But you will receive the power when the Holy Spirit comes on. Some of you miss a third one. But will go with it will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all of Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Listen. That's the Christian life. The Christian life is I come to a point in my life where I say I can't, but He can. I submit my heart to Him. I submit my life to Him. I give Him all of me. He gives me His spirit, the Holy Spirit, and He gives me His presence and power. We don't have to do it on our own. We don't.

Man, it's so freeing and we're going to see this over and over and over and over again that it's His power that makes the difference. But how do we know that His power is working in us? Really quickly, let me give you a number five because we're going to keep walking on this one over and over again, but here's number five. Here's how you know if the spirit is leading you. Number five. Number five, here it is. The Spirit's influence in our hearts always produces witness from our mouths. Do you realize every single time in the Bible that is defined as someone is either controlled or indwelled or given the spirit that their first response is always proclaiming who God is? You want to know if you're walking in the Spirit?

Does He come out of you? You want to know if you're walking in the Spirit? Here it is. The feeling of the spirit here in my heart produces of Word of God from here. Does that make sense? No. All right. Luke chapter 1, John the Baptist was filled with the Spirit. What's the first thing he did? He proclaimed the coming of the Messiah. I mean, Acts chapter 2, the Holy Spirit indwelled them at Pentecost. We're going to see this. What's the first thing they did? They began to speak about who God is. Acts 4, Peter's filled with the Spirit. He began to teach about the Spirit. Acts chapter 4, the apostles are filled with the spirit. They began to teach about the Spirit even in persecution. Acts chapter 9, the Apostle Paul became a follower and indwelled with the Spirit.

He began to speak and teach in the synagogues of the Spirit. What does that mean? It means believer, if you ever want to know if you're following the Spirit, what's coming out of your life and out of your mouth? Are you walking in the Spirit? Here's a thought. If the Holy Spirit's voice never comes from our mouth, is the Holy Spirit really in our hearts? Because I'm pretty sure that Jesus says from our heart that our mouth speaks. I'm pretty sure Jesus says it's not an accident when things come out of our mouths. It's really what indwells our hearts. You see scripture's clear. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our heart comes out of our mouths. So, here's my last question for you this morning. Do you have the Holy Spirit? It really comes down as simple as that, right? Do you have the Spirit?

I'm not really sure I have the Spirit. Well, that's not good news. It's actually bad news and good news. Here's why. The bad news is you probably don't have the Spirit if you're not sure you have the Spirit. But the good news is this, the offer to turn from where you are and turn to who Jesus is and the Spirit that He wants to give you is right here and right now. The Bible says that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, that you can be saved. At the moment you offer your heart and you offer your life to who Jesus is, at the moment you invite Him to forgive you of your sins, to be your Savior and your Lord, here it is. He indwells you. He gives you the Holy Spirit to give you power and help you walk out the Christian walk.

But here's the question. Have you ever done that? I'm not talking about, "Did you sign a card at VBS when you were like four and a half?" I'm not talking about, "Did you read the Bible or came to church 23 and a half times last year?" Has there been a moment in your life where you said, "Lord Jesus, all of you, I give my life. Forgive me and come in and make me yours"? Do you need to do that today? Listen, for some of you, you tried to walk in the Spirit for a long time, but you haven't been able to. Why? You don't have the Spirit, but you can get the Spirit by giving your heart to Him. In just a minute, we're going to have an invitation. It's what we do here, new people. Most of the time we close with a song. That song is just to contemplate.

It's to see where we are. It's not to beat everybody to the parking lot. I know that seems like it is sometimes, but it's for you and me to go, "Hey Lord, here I am." Maybe today you need to receive Christ. Here's what I want you to do. If that's you today, there's something in you that's going, "Hey, that's you," man, immediately after I pray in just a minute and I don't want you to leave your seat, maybe you're not even sure where you are. I just want you to leave your seat. I want you to come right over here to this next-step banner that just magically lit up, right? I just want you to look at myself or one of the other counselors and just say, "Hey, Matt. I need Jesus. I need the Spirit. Would you just let us minister to you and pray with you, walk you through what that looks like today?"

And it's going to be bold. I get it. Maybe you need to look at the person beside you and go, "Hey, will you come with me?" And look, if they say, no, never come back to church with them, come with somebody else, right? But maybe that's you today or maybe, maybe, maybe there has been a time in your life where you've invited the Spirit for Jesus to change you, but maybe there's been a season of your life where you've just pushed Him down so much to where even when He wants to speak, there's just so much in the way. Maybe today you just need to say, "Hey, Lord, move in me. Spirit, clean me. Help me walk in you.

 

Follow Along with the Message

The Promised Spirit

 

August 3, 2025

Acts 1:1–2
1 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.

PRINCIPLE: History and intelligence both support and back up the of Jesus and the of God.

HOW SHOULD WE STUDY THIS BOOK?

1. We should NOT study Acts like academics.

2. We should NOT study Acts like fans.

3. We SHOULD study Acts as servants of Jesus.

PRINCIPLE: The people God uses in Acts are an encouragement for all of us ordinary people today to walk with and be used by God.

Acts 1:3

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.

Acts 1:4–5

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.

PRINCIPLE: Salvation and the Spirit are a deal; you can't have one without the other. The moment Christ saves you, God Himself moves in.

The holy spirit's:

1. Presence is not just an experience, it’s .

Romans 8:9–11

9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 ...the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

Romans 8:14

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.

2. Desire is to us whole and spiritually mature.

John 16:12–13

12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

Romans 8:14

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.

3. Invitation is for us to either walk in the sprit, or Him in our lives.

Galations 3:3

Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?

Acts 1:5–8

5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. 6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But 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.”

4. God's gift is not only His presence also His to fully live for God.

Acts 1:8

But 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.

5. Influence in our heart always produces from our mouths.

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Additional Notes

 

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