#1: We Need What the Disciples Got

I. Introduction
A. We know that there are three persons in the Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We talk a lot about God our Father. We talk a lot about Jesus. But we don’t talk enough about the Holy Spirit.
B. We begin today a series on the Holy Spirit. As it stands, it is planned to be sixteen sermons that will be completed on Labor Day weekend.
C. We know the work of Jesus, from the incarnation, to His ministry of love, teaching and miracles, to His crucifixion and resurrection, and then the ascension.
1. But that wasn’t the end. He had one more great task to do. Ten days after He ascended into heaven, He poured out the Holy Spirit upon His people at Pentecost.
D. The history of this series
1. I preached this series once before, in 1997, the year the Lord began to change my view of things. And this series played an important role in that change.
2. But something strange happened in response to that series. I got virtually no response. There seemed to be a reluctance to think about the things of the Spirit.
3. So, this series is not back by popular demand.
4. Of course, a lot of things have changed a lot in this church since 1997.
5. Recently the elders were talking about our need to think and talk more about the Holy Spirit, since He is the key to thriving in our Christian faith and life. And so this updated and expanded series.
E. My goal in this is that we might become more filled with the Holy Spirit. There may be other side benefits to this series, but this desire is what has generated this series, and what the focus of my prayers will be as we go through it.
F. Background
1. Acts 1 Jesus ascends to heaven after telling His disciples to remain in Jerusalem until power came upon them from heaven. Then they selected Matthias to take Judas’ place among the Twelve.
2. Acts 2 tells us the story of Pentecost, when Jesus poured His Spirit out upon His people.
3. Acts 3 is the story of the healing of the lame man by Peter and John in the temple, and the subsequent opportunity they had to proclaim the gospel of Christ to the crowd which gathered.
4. And then comes Acts 4, the aftermath of all this.
5. Let’s read Acts 4:1-20.
II. Twelve changed men
A. Think about the disciples before Pentecost.
1. They were ordinary men - fishermen, not scholars or leaders.
2. They were bumbling: It seems in almost every occasion that they did something wrong.
a. Panicking in the face of danger instead of trusting
b. Thinking about themselves
c. Not catching what Jesus is teaching
d. Taking their eyes off Christ
e. Competing for top spot
f. Rebuking Jesus for talking about cross
g. Falling asleep during crucial prayer
h. Scattering, even denying they knew Him when He was arrested
i. Hiding in fear from authorities after the crucifixion.
j. Thinking the kingdom is coming now
3. They had no sense of power when Jesus asked them to feed the 5000.
4. They angered Jesus by saying things like, “Get these kids out of here!” and “Lord, shall we call down fire upon their heads?”
5. They were hardly ever praised by Jesus. But how many times they were rebuked! How many times Jesus said to them: “How long shall I put up with you?” (E.g. Matthew 17:17) How many times did He call them, “O men of little faith.” How many times did He say to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe.”
B. But that was before the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them. What about the disciples after Pentecost? They were completely different!
1. They did not flinch in the face of danger.
2. We see them standing up to the very ones they had been cowering in fear of (Acts 4:19-20): “Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking what we have seen and heard.”
3. They were filled with joy even in the face of great suffering.
4. They lived lives that gave vibrant testimony to Jesus Christ.
5. They boldly went all over the world to boldly proclaim the gospel of Jesus.
6. They labored tirelessly in spite of tremendous pressure and persecution.
7. They were willing to die for the cause of Christ.
8. They loved not only their friends but even their enemies.
9. They had great wisdom and stability.
10. We can see how impressive they were in Acts 4:13: “When they [the Jewish leaders] 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.”
a. The word untrained here is the Greek word IDIOT(ES). It means common men, laymen, as opposed to trained professional clergymen. The thing that was so surprising was that the manner and lifestyle of these untrained men provided such a compelling argument for their faith.
b. What does "recognize them as having been with Jesus" mean?
(1) Does it mean that they recognized these men as the same disciples who had seen with Jesus earlier, e.g. at Gethsemane? I don’t think so. It doesn’t make sense of the context. Read it again: “Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John, and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were marveling, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.”
(2) “Recognizing them as having been with Jesus” was the way that they explained to themselves and each other this dilemma of untrained men being so confident and unflappable.
(3) What seems to be going on here is this: When the Jewish leaders observed the confidence of Peter and John in spite of their lack of formal training, they realized that these followers of Jesus were acting just like their Master. He too had no formal training, and yet He spoke with an authority that amazed the masters, even from when He was only 12 years old (Luke 2:46-47). People had expressed the same surprise at Him in John 7:15: The Jews were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having been taught?”
(4) Now in Acts 4 the uneducated disciples of Jesus were doing miracles and fearlessly standing up to the best professional challengers, just as their Master had done.
11. For three years they have been with Jesus, and at every turn the stark contrast between the Master and the disciples is very evident. All of a sudden, they are acting very much like Jesus Himself. The change was gigantic. And the change was immediate.
C. They were not perfect, of course. There are still a number of examples of the apostles sinning after Pentecost. E.g.:
1. Peter resisting God’s directions to proclaim the gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 9)
2. Peter sitting with the visiting Jews in Antioch (Gal.2)
D. And it was not only the disciples. The whole community of Christ’s followers was transformed.
1. Acts 2:43–47 “Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and 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.”
E. So, what happened to the Twelve? What happened to these 120 original believers? What happened to change them? The change occurred when the Holy Spirit came upon them at Pentecost in Acts 2.
III. Well, if we hold these two models before us: the disciples before Pentecost and the disciples after Pentecost, which do you identify with more, which pattern is more similar to your own life?
A. I don’t know about you, but I am a lot more like the disciples before than after Pentecost.
1. I panic in the face of danger.
2. I have to keep learning my lessons over and over again.
3. I keep taking my eyes off Christ.
4. I’m constantly struggling with pride.
5. I keep worrying about my earthly position.
6. I am sleepy during prayer.
7. I often don’t know what to say when I get an opportunity to speak to someone.
8. Timid and afraid, I’m often too concerned about what people are going to think of me.
9. I often have little sense of God’s power in my life. For instance, it is hard for me to think of myself saying what Paul said in Colossians 1:29 “To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.”
10. I feel like I’m constantly doing things all wrong.
B. Here is this great chasm between what the disciples were and what they became. And I see the same great chasm between what I am and what I should be.
1. And so I say, “I need the same thing the disciples got. I need the Holy Spirit!”
C. Now I’m not suggesting that I don’t have the Holy Spirit or that you don’t have the Holy Spirit if you identify with the things I’ve been saying. My point is that I need the Holy Spirit to do the same kind of transforming work in me as He did in the disciples – and other believers – at Pentecost.
D. It’s so important for us to know and believe that the big difference between us and the post-Pentecost disciples is the power and grace of the Holy Spirit. That’s all.
1. They were no better than we are as men.
2. They were no better educated. They were probably no smarter.
3. There is no indication that they were any more naturally talented than we are, or any more courageous, or more spiritually inclined.
4. The Holy Spirit made the difference!
E. Have you been trying to change for years and years and still find that you struggle with the same sins and bad habits you’ve had all along? I sure have. After a while, it becomes clear that we cannot change ourselves. And yet here in the disciples we see real change, real change brought about by the Holy Spirit.
1. My friends, we don’t need a self-help program! We don’t just need to unlearn some bad habits. We don’t just need a little more self-discipline or accountability. We need God’s grace, we need to have our hearts changed by His mighty power, we need to be filled with the Spirit of Jesus Christ Himself, so that each of us can say what Paul said in Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”
IV. I think some are afraid of this whole idea of seeking the Holy Spirit. I can think of a few kinds of fear that crop up in people’s minds.
A. Some are more comfortable with a more human Christianity, a Christianity where you believe what you’re supposed to believe, and do what you’re supposed to do.
1. But true Christianity is supernatural, miraculous, and spiritual, not just factual and historical.
2. True Christianity isn’t of us but of God. It’s not something we do, but something God does.
B. Some people are afraid of being too close to God.
1. Many who consider themselves Christians are scared of what God might do to them if they really surrender all to Jesus.
2. I can understand this concern. And, I’ll be honest with you, following Jesus does mean a loss of some comforts and some securities. It usually means an increase of persecution. It may bring trouble. It may mean losing some of our friends. It may mean giving away some of our possessions. It may mean letting go of some things we really enjoy. It may mean doing some things which we would never want to do.
3. There is a cost. But there is a benefit too. There is a heavenly benefit. But even on earth, there is also a gigantic increase of happiness. For man’s real happiness comes in being filled with God.
4. You see, happiness and comfort do not go together. At most, you can only have one or the other. I hope we would rather be joyful and fulfilled and at peace in our discomforts, than miserable and troubled and restless in our comfort.
C. Many are also afraid of charismatic extremes.
1. As you know, we are not a charismatic church, in the common meaning of that expression.
2. We treasure and respect our charismatic brothers and sisters, but disagree with them about some things they believe which we don’t think the Bible teaches.
3. But even most charismatics agree that there are some charismatics take things to an extreme.
4. And because of these fears of charismatic extremes, many non-charismatics are uncomfortable with attention given to the subject of the Holy Spirit. For instance, many years ago, a family left our church because the session began a study of the Holy Spirit.
5. On the one hand, the Bible itself warns us against dangerous extremes. And so it is appropriate to be afraid of unbiblical extremes (and we all are). And one of the purposes of this series is to see where in the Bible the fences are, so we don’t fall off the cliff.
6. But that fear must not prevent us from precious treasures that God has in His will for us.
7. Sometimes Christian people, out of fear of extremes, will miss out on very important truths in God’s word.
a. You can be so afraid of legalism that you won’t talk about the commandments of God.
b. You can be so afraid of multi-culturalism that you’re a racist.
8. Satan would love to use fear to keep us back from enjoying the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
9. We must not be so afraid of extremes that have come in the name of the Holy Spirit that we are afraid to talk about the Holy Spirit and pray for the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives.
V. Acts 2:4 tells us that the Christians at Pentecost were filled with the Spirit. Eph.5:18 tells us to be filled with the Spirit. But what does that mean? We’ll be talking a lot about that. But today, I’d like to think about this question: How do we go about getting the Holy Spirit in the way they had it?
A. On the one hand, the Holy Spirit is not someone that men can control. We can’t make the Holy Spirit come to us or work in us.
B. We’ve talked about the bumbling disciples during the days of Jesus’s earthly ministry, and we’ve talked about how they became Spirit-filled dynamos as a result of Pentecost. But there was one more stage in the story of the Holy Spirit coming at Pentecost.
1. Acts 1:14 tells us what the believers were doing in the ten days between the ascension of the Lord and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost: “They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.”
2. In the ten days between Christ’s ascension and Pentecost, the disciples were prayerful waiters upon the Lord.
C. I would recommend this as a pattern for us to follow. Let’s move from the bumbling stage one to the prayerful stage two and hope that the Lord will move us to stage three.
D. So the first thing is prayer
1. Luke 11:5–13 Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ 7 And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need. 9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
2. This is not just prayer. This is urgent, persistent, fire-in-the-belly kind of prayer. This is “God, I need this! and I’m not going to let go until You bless me” kind of prayer.
3. But the first thing to decide is: Is this what I really want? Do I really want to be a Holy Spirit-filled Christian? Do I want to be a person who is filled with God? Does it bother me that I am a person who is full of myself and not full of Jesus? Do I really want to die to myself and have Christ live through me?
4. If that’s what we want, then let’s start praying, let’s start fasting, let’s get serious about this!
5. Don’t be a detached observer, be a participating seeker. It’s not a matter of believing me, it’s a matter of believing God’s word. Can anyone dispute the fact that our lives are not what they should be, that our lives are not like the Twelve once they were filled with the Spirit?
a. And can anyone dispute the fact that it was the Holy Spirit that made the difference?
b. And can anyone dispute the fact that this same Spirit is here for us today and that the same power that filled them can fill believers now?
c. Then no matter what you think of me, it is clear what you ought to do. You ought to seek Him. You ought to cry out to Him. You ought to pray for God to fill you with His Spirit.
6. And will our Father not answer us if we cry out? “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13)
E. One more thing they did in stage two: they studied the Scriptures. It doesn’t say this explicitly. But here’s why it is a safe assumption:
1. First of all, if you were told by Jesus to wait around until the Holy Spirit promised of old was poured out upon you, wouldn’t you go back and study those promises while you waited?
2. And secondly, when Pentecost occurred and Peter got up to preach, he quoted a long section from the prophet Joel about the pouring out of the Spirit. How do you think was Peter able to quote such a large portion of Joel off the top of his head? I think it’s safe to say that it was because he had been spending a lot of time in the portions of the OT which talk about the coming of the Holy Spirit.
3. This is really the purpose of this series. We are going to study what the Scriptures teach in terms of who the Holy Spirit is and what ministry He is supposed to have in the life of a believer.
4. But you can be an expert on the Holy Spirit without being filled with the Holy Spirit. So study is not enough.
5. On the other hand, seeking the Spirit without studying the Spirit is dangerous, and many have gone off into serious errors following that path.