Holy Ghost Power

Ok, this might be longer, so we'll just get down to business. Take a moment and bomb through Acts 2. If you've come for exhortation today, what you're going to find instead is a brief overview of this chapter, bringing out the power of the Holy Spirit. It should realize our great need of the blessing of God for spiritual matters.

You notice a few things here, starting with how it was Pentecost, and the disciples had purposed to gather together in one place. God took this opportunity to sent His Holy Spirit to them. Finally, they knew the presence of God with them! The Lord showed them audibly and visually that there was Someone new coming to live inside of them. The sound of a rushing wind (John 3:8), although it wasn't windy. A tongue in the appearance of fire coming, splitting, and sitting on each of them as Christ promised in Acts 1:8 ("the Holy Ghost shall come upon you"). Literally, the Spirit of God sat on them so they could initially understand the fulfillment of the word of Christ.

Next thing is they have a sign unto themselves, and others around that the Holy Spirit was working through them. They were able to speak many dialects. These dialects would have been variations of the native language of Israel, that was slightly changed in different areas because the Jews had been scattered abroad in the years before because of persecutions and captivities.

Any reasonable answer to hearing these Galileans, a few being uneducated fishermen, speak in the different dialects that they had never spoke before would be that it is God working. We find they are all amazed, but no doubt once again the hardness of their hearts shows through, "They must be drunk!" I was baffled at this answer. How does that make any sense at all? It isn't as if these men are speaking jibberish; they are speaking in each person's dialect that is present from 17 regions mentioned. They weren't cursing, they were speaking "wonderful works of God" (Acts 2:11). It wasn't even night time, it was still 9am and these were accusing the disciples of being drunk?

As the disciples stand up to defend themselves, the Peter speaks up and the Holy Spirit works mightily through the word of God. Peter defends themselves, then shows them proof of the coming of the Holy Spirit through the prophetic statement of Joel. He then gets into the meat of his message that Jesus was the Christ and Lord (Acts 2:36). He presents, as I see it, nine different witnesses that Jesus was the Christ and Lord starting in verse 22 through 35.

1. Them v22- The scoffers had seen His miracles, signs and wonders. This shows that He must have been approved of God. Nicodemus came to Jesus and said, "Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him" (John 3:2b).

2. God v23- Jesus was the fufilment of the prophecy of God. It shows that Jesus is the Christ since it was according to foreknowledge of God.

3. Death v24- Death must have thought, "This is odd!" Firstly, one who had never sinned died by giving up His own life (John 19:30). The payment for sins is death (Romans 6:23), He had never sinned (2 Corinthians 5:21), so He never should have died. Since He never should have died, death had no right to keep Him and lost the battle when He was raised through the eternal Spirit of God (Romans 8:11).

4. David v25, 26 - He fortells of the Kingship of the Messiah, which will be proven by the rest of the witnesses.

5. Corruption v27 - Corruption has to witness because He is the only one to not see corruption. Death itself had no power over Him and declares, "this must be the Christ."

6. Incorruption v28 - In 1 Corinthians 15:20 tells us that He is "the firstfruits of them that slept." Since He is the first, and the Messiah needed to be first to enter heaven in the new body, He is the Christ. The Messiah had to be first because a image needed to be established for the saints to be conformed to when they gain their incorruptable body at the coming of Christ to the air (1 Corinthians 15:49)

7. We all v32 - The apostles were witnesses because they had seen Christ after the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:4-8).

8. Holy Spirit v33 - The coming of the Holy Spirit would attest to the fact that Jesus, the Christ, had come to His Father and to the right hand of God. Remember the promise of the Lord Jesus to His disciples concerning the Holy Spirit in John 14:20, "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." The coming of the Holy Spirit proves that Jesus is the Christ because He came as foretold since Jesus went to His Father in heaven.

9. Resurrection v34-35 - the fulfillment of David's Psalm could only take place in resurrection. Jesus had to raise from the dead in order to fulfill this (to get His incorruptible body). We also know from the coming of the Holy Spirit that He went to the Father. At the Father's presence, He takes His rightful place at the right hand of God because of resurrection. Resurrection declares, "He is Christ and Lord."

After all of this, we see the working of the Holy Spirit. How amazing it would have been for the apostles to behold the power of the Holy Spirit. A once somewhat hostile crowd is convicted in their hearts, and 3000 souls are saved, then baptized, then added. Those added followed the teaching of the apostles given them of Christ, fellowship, and in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.

We should not expect another Pentecost. The Holy Spirit only will come in that way once and never again. The gift of tongues has passed away (1 Corinthians 13:8), and we know that the giving of that gift doesn't correspond with the giving of the Holy Spirit since one like Paul didn't have the gift.

There is a reason why Jesus told His disciples to stay in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came, because they had no power in Spiritual things without this help. We too have no power without the Holy Spirit. This is why the prayer meeting before gospel is important, to ask for help from God since we cannot convict souls. The Holy Spirit is the teacher. The Holy Spirit does the conviction. Without this help, we can do nothing. It was not Peter who saved 3000 souls; Peter was an instrument used, speaking the word of God with His voice, used by the Holy Spirit to convict souls, who intern repented and believed at their own free will. Without the Holy Spirit, Peter's words would have been empty. Without the Holy Spirit's work, our words will never convince the anxious or cold hearted sinner. We need Holy Ghost power to see any gain for the Kingdom of God.