I'm his pastor Bob Kedlesic, I'm one of the pastors here at Bridgewater, and God's word is way cooler than that car, okay? And under the hood, there's a series, we're going through this first several chapters of Acts, and we're talking about what made the early church tick, because the church is the answer to almost every problem that there is in the world. More suicide, addiction, greed, and pride, and all sorts of things. You name the problem, and the church is the answer to it, because the answer is for more people to become more like Jesus Christ. And so that's what Jesus came to do, to transform our lives individually, and then to bring about a revolution, a movement, to this world to become more like Jesus Christ. So we talked about last week just how a car is built to move, right? And if you have a car sitting somewhere for like 50 years, it doesn't get better like fine wine, okay? It rots, and it rusts, and animals move in. And so the art church, and you as a Christian, God made you to move and to be a part of a movement to see people's lives changed, including your own. And the foundation of that, or if you're a car person, the chassis, right, that holds everything together is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And today we're going to look at another part of the car, and that is something I'm sure you woke up thinking about. You woke up this morning thinking about the spark plug of your car, right? Anybody thinking about your spark plug? It's more, Bill, and you probably did, too, knowing Bill, right, yeah, but it's a little tiny thing, right? I mean, our cars weigh like most of them over a ton, some of them two tons, right? Your trucks, and yet, and yet this little tiny thing, and I know spark plugs are different for diesel engines, whatever, but like that starts the whole thing. And if you don't have that or a battery, now I do think about a battery because sometimes I have battery problems, so, but again, I could hold that right in my hand. If your car doesn't have a battery, it's not going anywhere, right? If it doesn't have that spark, and this is true, we're going to look in the book of Acts. The Holy Spirit has mentioned more in the book of Acts than any other book in the Bible. In fact, it's mentioned more in Acts than almost all the other books in the New Testament put together, and 55 times, and he's sometimes called the forgotten God, because the Trinity is God the Father, God the Son, and Mary. No, no, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, equally God, a person of the Trinity, and this is an important part, and we're going to see in Acts chapter 2 that what makes Christianity go and what makes your life transformed is the Holy Spirit. And so we'll start with Acts chapter 2 verse 1, and it says on the day of Pentecost, all the believers were meeting together in one place. A couple of things here, Pentecost, a pentagon is how many sides, 5, a pentagram is how many points to a star, 5, a pentecost is 50, okay, I don't know why, it's almost 5, but 50 days after the Passover is Pentecost. In the Old Testament, it's actually the Feast of Weeks, it's a harvest festival that Jews continue to celebrate even to this day, and it's 50 days after the Passover. Now Jesus was crucified just before the Passover, so this is just under 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and it says all the believers were meeting together in one place, and this is so important, and I know I'm speaking to the choir, those of you who are in Hancock, or those of you who are here gathered together, or even those of you who are online, it is important that on a regular basis we meet together with other believers, okay, and if you have to do it virtually because you have no other choice, because physically where you're at, or some of you drive tractor trailers, and you're over the road, and some of you watching online, you know, you're in an area where there isn't a good church, and there's just not a lot, but if you have to do that, you can't, but really we need to get together face to face. Hebrews 10, 25 says not, you know, getting in the habit of not meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but we need to meet together and encourage each other, and so much the more as you see the day of Jesus Christ's return approaching, and so it is commanded by God for us to do this. This is important. It's more important than going to a kids sporting event, and having a kid in sports. It's more important than going to the beach house or the lake house every weekend. It's more important than getting all that stuff done that you almost got done Saturday, but you didn't because it's a fair, and so I'm, in fact, I want to thank all of you for making this a priority of your life, and I want to encourage you if you're here in the building this morning, if you could sleep in another hour and a half and come at 10.45 it would really help because we have a lot of people in this service. We're filling up a lot of times. Last Sunday it was just packed, and this Sunday it's not that bad, but if you want to come at 10.45 there's a lot more room. I encourage you to do that. You won't have to park quite so far away and all that. It's great, but they're meeting together. In fact, the kids in kids ministry today, the bottom line is hang out with wise people, and they're going to hear the story of Reboom and how he listened to fools and how that just destroyed his life and his kingdom, but it is important to hang out with wise people. Your children are learning that, and that's true for us as well. You're probably going to meet more wise people here than Friday night at a bar. You're probably going to meet more wise people here than where you work. This is so important because your friends will determine the direction and the quality of your life. That's why we're having a baptism service again after second service, after second service. We're going to have some snacks out there. It's just an excuse. We want people to stay. We won't have snacks for you, but you can stay anyway and talk to people and try to get to know people. We have small groups starting up in about a month or a little less in a month. Again, that's something to encourage you to get to know other people and encourage each other. They're meeting together, and suddenly there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. Then what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. Everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, just as the Holy Spirit gave them this disability. A couple of things here. Everyone was filled with the Holy Spirit. Men and women, and they were speaking in actual languages. Some people believe that speaking in tongues can be just a very emotional state where you say syllables and things that they call it a heavenly language, but what they mean by that is it's no language at all. It's just this emotional state where your spirit is saying things verbally that have no meaning necessarily that you or anybody else can understand, but God can understand that you're just praising him and you love him. That may be a thing. 1 Corinthians 12 through 14 talks about tongues in a way that may indicate that that is okay, but this is not what that is at all. I don't want to get into that debate, but this is actual languages and it lists off 16 different languages that they were speaking, and that other people were understanding. It would be like someone stands up and starts speaking Chinese and a Chinese man on the other side says, "I can't believe he's speaking. How long did you study Chinese?" He didn't. Another person is in German and Dutch and English and Spanish and Latin and had never studied these languages, and now all of a sudden they're fluently communicating, and they go out from this room and they go to the crowds that are there for this festival and this feast, tens of thousands of people, and they're just talking to them about Jesus' death and Jesus' resurrection and how you can be forgiven and God's plan and all of this, and it's just this amazing, wonderful thing. But then in verse 14, Peter is speaking in either Aramaic or Greek, the language of that area at the time. He stepped forward with the 11 other apostles and shouted to the crowd. Listen carefully, all of you fellow Jews in residence of Jerusalem. He says, "Now I'm talking to the locals now. What's going on? Make no mistake about this. These people are not drunk, as some of you are assuming. Nine o'clock in the morning is much too early for that." Here's the thing. We think, man, if we could just see miracles like they saw back then, surely people that I know, they would give their life to Jesus Christ and they would change and they would follow Jesus. But the truth is Jesus had rose from the dead less than 50 days before, had appeared to over 500 people at one time and many others as well. And all sorts of crazy things were going on, like the holy ones of some holy people were risen from the dead as well and they went into Jerusalem and talked to me. I mean, there's like crazy things going on and signs in the heavens and now that all these people are speaking in other language and you know what the people think? They must be drunk. There must be some natural explanation of this and maybe one of you can help me out with this. I don't remember if it was Christopher Hitchens or Richard Dawkins but one of these famous atheist preachers would get up and in his little shtick he would say, you know, I won't believe in God. The only thing that will make me believe in God is if God himself appears to me right now and in an audible voice says, "I am God." And then he'd give this dramatic pause and of course nothing would happen and he says, "See? He doesn't exist. He's not real." But one of these individuals later in life he recanted that and he said, you know what, that's not accurate. Even if God appeared to me and spoke to me, I still wouldn't believe he was real. Basically, there is no amount of evidence because I would believe I was hallucinating. I would believe I would have a tumor pressing on something in my brain. I believe that someone snuck me some hallucinogenic drug. I would believe that I had a dream or a seizure or whatever or that my memory was faulty or he says there is basically he was saying there is no amount of evidence that will ever make me believe that there is a God. He had such incredible faith in his atheism. In fact, more faith than I do. I am a skeptic and you know if I was walking down the beach with maybe you or maybe with some kids and I saw a cell phone in the sand, you know, what if I stopped and I said, "Hey kids, gather around. Look at that. Isn't that amazing over billions of years? The sand has come together and in random formation and has created that phone. Isn't that amazing? How old would they have to be to not believe that? A three-year-old I think would believe me. Well, maybe not some of your three-year-olds, but certain three-year-olds. They'd be like, "Wow, that's cool." I tell you, a single cell, scientists now know way more complicated than a cell phone and time is not any and all these crazy things and you know what you talk to biologists who are really at the cutting edge of their field about biogenesis, which is the law of biogenesis says you can't do that. You can't get life from non-life, but those are on the cutting edge. Do you know what they have and why they believe that happens? They said there must be a mechanism that we don't know about yet that somehow makes non-life, disordered things, somehow become ordered in an incredibly complex way and someday by faith we believe that we will find that so that we don't have to believe in a God who did it. So doubters, miracles isn't enough for a lot of people and so he's saying, "No, what you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel and we're not sure when Joel was written, but it was between 650 and 850 years before Acts chapter 2 verse 16 here. Here's what Joel said, "In the last days, God said," he was quoting God, "I will pour out my spirit on all people, almost all the prophets, not all, but almost all the prophets of the Old Testament were men." And here's saying, "No, it's going to be different. Your sons and daughters and often they were old men or adults." And he's like, "No, they will prophesy men and women alike. Boys and girls and your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams and in those days I will pour out my spirit even on my servants, men and women alike and they will prophesy and I will cause wonders in the heavens above and signs in the earth below blood and fire and clouds of smoke." Remember, less than 50 days before Jesus was crucified on the cross, or excuse me, just 51 days before Jesus was crucified on the cross. And for four hours, it said darkness was over, like it was dark. We had an eclipse not too long ago around here. Was that for four hours complete eclipse, solar eclipse? No. So I don't know what made things dark, but this is saying blood and fire and clouds of smoke and the sun will become dark and the moon will turn to blood red before that great and glorious day the Lord arrives. And I think these people listening to Peter are like, "Yeah, I remember, remember four hours. It was just pitch black. Remember that?" And then the moon was red the next night and he says, "But everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." This is the point. So the Holy Spirit, he invaded these people's lives. He supernaturally enabled them to speak about Jesus Christ. And this is the point. The reason the Holy Spirit came and the reason we have the Holy Spirit within us as well. And we'll read about that in a little bit. But it's so that people can be saved and lives can be transformed. I guess this is the way I'm summarizing it. The Holy Spirit transforms lives. That's what he does. And here's another question to... Well, no, that's later. So he transforms lives and sorry, I'm getting mixed up. John 16, 7, this is something that Jesus says. Some of the hardest things in the Bible are things that Jesus says. Some of the most surprising things are things that Jesus says. And this is a surprising thing. He says, "But in fact, it is best for you that I go away because if I don't, the advocate won't come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you." The advocate is another name for the Holy Spirit. So I don't know why, but apparently you can't have too much God on earth. I don't know if there's some unwritten rule, but apparently Jesus says, "I can't stay and the Holy Spirit come in addition to me. It's either you either get me or you get the Holy Spirit." And he's saying, "It's better to get the Holy Spirit." Now, if this wasn't in the Bible, if Jesus didn't say that, and you were to ask me, "Which is better?" Jesus here in person on a Sunday morning, or the Holy Spirit in all of us. You know what I would say? I'm going with Jesus here in person. If Jesus didn't say that, I'd be like, "Are you kidding me?" Like, we could ask him questions, and he'd probably answer with some riddles, you know? But is that a parable, or is that real, you know? But Jesus in person, I mean, even if he's in Jerusalem, I mean just telecast his sermons. And you know, he wouldn't have aged at all because he didn't have a sin nature. And so he'd be the same age. And you know, like, wouldn't that be so much better? People would have to oh, he has to be God. Look, he's like 2,000 plus years old, and I mean, wouldn't that be? And Jesus says, "No, it wouldn't be better." I think over and over and over again, we underestimate the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and then in us and in the world. That it's better than Jesus to have the Holy Spirit within you. Think about what changed the apostles. So when Jesus was arrested, all 12 of them ran, right? And John kind of followed behind or went in with a, but the rest of the disciples, they all ran. Peter denied Jesus. And then even after the resurrection, you know, you read in John 20 verse 19, that Sunday evening. This is after the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus has appeared to the apostles and they know he's alive. And that Sunday evening, the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. And so before Jesus' death, they're scared to death and they're running away after even Jesus' death and resurrection. They're still meeting behind locked doors, scared to death. What changed them? What gave them the courage to go out into the streets and to say whatever they wanted to say and sure enough, eventually they get arrested. Some of them get killed and they don't back down and they don't run and they what changed them? And as crazy as it seems, it wasn't the resurrection that changed them. It was the Holy Spirit. That was the spark that started a movement and a revolution that is continuing to change the world today. And so the question is, not does the Holy Spirit transform lives? We know he does. We see that he does. I've seen that he does. The question is, is the Holy Spirit transforming your life? And here's a better way of asking that question because I think we'd be like, oh yeah, I think the answer is yes. We're in church. But here's a better way of asking that question. Is your life explainable? Could someone look at your life and say, yeah, that makes sense? Or do they look at your life and they're like, yeah, his life makes absolutely no sense? There's so many of you that there's makes no sense your life. My life doesn't make sense. My high school class, I went to a Christian school in high school, we had about 20 in my high school class, four of them became pastors. Then I went to college, hundreds of classmates who went into ministry there. I was not the brightest one. Okay, I'm not dumb, all right. Mechanically, I'm dumb, all right. Mechanically, there are areas that I am dumb. But, and I try and I just can't, like, those of you who can do construction and stuff like, oh, God bless you. But academically, you know, I'm not, I'm not dumb, but I've never been the sharpest one. I was never a 4.0, right. And by the time I went to seminary, like, I was like average and seminary. I mean, there's guys in my class. I mean, they were just amazing. I was never the best preacher either. You have these preaching contests. I never won. Okay, like, I wasn't even the godliest guy. I remember Ridley dorm was the dorm I was in. There's like, you know, 40 guys in that dorm, maybe 50, I don't remember. And I remember being at a dorm meeting, it was like three months into the school year, it was like November or December, I don't know. And I see this guy at the dorm meeting, I'm like, who's that? Like, that's Steve Ayers. Is he in the storm? There's only like 50 of us, and they're like, yeah, he's in the storm. Oh, well, I'm on bottom floor. What floor is he on? He's on bottom floor. How did I never meet this guy? Well, he goes to about a 10. I wasn't even in the dorm by 10 o'clock. And then he would get up every morning and pray for an hour before going to breakfast, which I also didn't do. And then go into class. I mean, I was still wrestling with addiction and my own demons and Steve Ayers. I mean, that man was and is godly. But I don't know a single classmate who's a part of a church where God has worked like he has worked at Bridgewater Church. Like this, the impact I've had here and the ministry I've had, it doesn't make any sense. It's not explainable by my life. And so many of you, it's the exact same way. There's an old guy who sometimes sit up here, maybe he's in the second service, Ben Robinson. And you know, I love seeing Ben with shorts on. He doesn't have good legs, okay? He's in his 80s. But he's got a picture of a half naked woman tattooed on his leg. He's a retired pastor. I'm telling you, his life doesn't make sense. You know, it's like, how did you get from here to here? Like there is no road, right? Like in so many of you, I look out at your lives and I was looking at Terry before Terry McCarry's life makes no sense whatsoever. And I hear some of you in your childhood and growing up and just awful. Like, and how are you a functioning human being let alone a godly person who has been changed and it's the Holy Spirit. And if you look at your life and maybe if you've been saved for three weeks, you know, you get a pass. But if you've been walking with the Lord and you've been following the Lord for years and you look at your life and you're like, yeah, that's pretty much normal. Maybe you need to question your salvation. You know, and sometimes we're saved from things that aren't visible to other people, but are visible to ourselves. You know the self-righteousness that you had and how you look down on people. And maybe others didn't realize that, but you know internally, man, I was so proud and arrogant. And now, and now I'm still working on that and I haven't arrived, but man, I am not who I was. And I don't know how I got here outside of the work of the Holy Spirit in my life. Here's what Paul's letter to the church in Rome, he says about this. He says, "So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. Our natural state." People say, "Was I born this way? Yes, you were. You were born in sin. Our natural tendency is to do what's wrong." And he's saying, "And it leads to death. But letting the spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. We shouldn't expect, you know, we get news feeds and we learn about what's happening in the world. And we hear that people that are sinners and that are far from God and that don't love God, what do they do? Sinful things that, you know, are far from God and, you know, are against God. And that shouldn't surprise us. That's the way it is. That's how all of us were born, hostile to God. It never did obey God's laws and it never will. And that's why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God. But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. I think nine times out of ten, I think most Christians, we underestimate the power of the Holy Spirit in you. You know, and I see Dylan out there. I don't know where Greg Zohor is. Five years ago, I would not have trusted Greg with a $5 bill. I would trust you with my life today. And over and over again, I see God changing people. And it's this, controlled by the Spirit, which is more powerful, the sun or a candle. Like, is that a question? Like, that's a rhetorical question. It's so stupid. Nobody's going to answer that. Which is more powerful, your sinful nature or the almighty Holy Spirit that comes and dwells you. You can have victory over that sin that has been just beating you up and pulling you down. You can have victory one day at a time, one moment at a time you surrendered yourself to the Holy Spirit. He will give you the power to do that. You have the Spirit of God living in you. And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all. Sometimes you might have a Christian come up to you and say, "Are you Spirit-filled?" Let me just say, you're either Spirit-filled or you're not. You're the Christian who has the Spirit or you're not a Christian at all. Okay, there's no such thing as a half Christian. Like, well, I have Jesus but not the Spirit yet. Like, I'm still waiting for that. No, it's an all-or-nothing thing. In fact, there's something in Acts and other parts of the Bible. It's called the baptism of the Holy Spirit. You're like, "What is that?" Well, baptism is when you take someone and you dunk them underwater. And so the baptism of the Holy Spirit is this picture of, you take the ocean and you throw somebody into that ocean. You are baptizing them into the ocean. And that's the Holy Spirit. He is an ocean of power and love. And when you surrender your life to Jesus Christ, man, it's like you're just thrown into that ocean and he can fill you and surround you and change you. The Spirit is too big for anything less than all of you. A lot of people I think want a side order of the Holy Spirit. It's kind of like, "And I'll have a few fries on the side." And that's not the way it is. God says, "I want to invade your life like a rushing wind, like a fire. It is a consuming thing. That's what I want all of you." And all the Spirit within you. And Christ lives within you. So even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives us life because you've been made right with God. I just want to close with this. This is an anti-illustration. You don't know what an anti-illustration is. You'll know after this. So if you got a battery and it's not working, how many of you have ever had your car jumped? Raise your hand. It's just one of those things that happens. You put the red on the red. I mean, they make it as simple as they can for us, not car people. And I know the black can put any ground. Anyway, but here's the thing. In a car, if you don't have a battery, you can get a jump from somebody else. In your spiritual life, there are no jumper cables. You can't borrow somebody else's Holy Spirit. It's famously said God only has sons and daughters. He has no grandchildren. I don't care how godly your grandfather was or your spouse or your mom or a friend at work or that you know, you can't borrow the Holy Spirit from someone else. You need Him in your life. And I just want to challenge you. I'm going to close in a prayer of salvation and surrender. And if you want us to pray about anything, we're two or three or gather together. They're in the midst of them. And I just want to encourage you, if we're going to have some people up front here as we close, but that we will pray with you, we will pray for you. But most of all, man, don't come here for a jump. You can't get a jump at church. You need the Holy Spirit. You need that battery inside you. And He is ready to invade your life and make it unexplainable if you'll ask Him to. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I just thank you for your power. I thank you for your Holy Spirit that you want to give to all of us so that we can obey you, so that we can become like Jesus. And I just ask that you would just do that, Lord, that no one would leave here without your Spirit. And so, God, I just want to pray this prayer for those who have never given their lives to Jesus Christ, so that they can have your Holy Spirit inside them as they go. Heavenly Father, I know that I've done things wrong and I've sinned and I can't fix it and I can't make it better and make it right. And so, I just ask that Jesus would pay for my sins and take my penalty on the cross almost 2,000 years ago. And God, out of gratitude for all that He's done for me, I want to give you my life, not just part of it, but all of it. God, I just want to be immersed and baptized in the Holy Spirit. Lord, that I would follow you, help me to follow you and make you my leader, my Lord, for the rest of my life. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.
