“You Shall Receive Power”

(Acts 1:8)

I. Introduction.

A. Orientation.

Sometimes we tend to forget

That though Jesus is fully God,

When He became a man,

He became fully man –

He became like you.

He took to Himself

The same limitations you have,

The only difference

Was He didn’t have any sin.

If He had our limitations,

How was He able

To do all that He did?

It wasn’t as we might think –

That because He is God,

He did what He did

Through His own divine power.

I believe Scripture tells us

That being fully man,

He did what He did

Through the Spirit.

Jesus was conceived by the Spirit

In the womb of the Virgin Mary,

So He was without sin.

And He was anointed

With the Spirit at baptism

To equip Him to do

What He came into the world to do –

To preach and teach,

To do miracles,

To live a life wholly devoted to God

And to lay down His life for us.

Our passage reminds us

That even the orders He gave to His apostles

He gave by the Spirit (v. 2).

B. Preview.

But now that He was going to heaven,

Who would carry on the work?

His disciples.

Where were they going to find

The power to do this?

From the same source as Jesus.

Before He left, He reminded them

Of His Father’s promise:

That they would baptized with Spirit

Not many days from then –

It was about ten, to be exact.

And when the Spirit came on them

They would receive power

To be His witnesses.

What I’d like to consider this morning,

Is that the Lord

Has not left you on your own

To do what He’s called you to do:

He has given you His Spirit.

Let’s consider two things:

1. That Jesus has given you His Spirit.

2. So that you would have the power to do what He calls you to do.

II. Sermon.

A. Let’s consider first,

That Jesus has given you His Spirit.

In Luke’s Gospel,

Jesus told His disciples

To wait in Jerusalem

Until they were clothed

With power from heaven (Luke 24:49).

They obeyed:

They went to the city,

They waited,

They prayed believing,

And they received power.

This power was the Spirit

He was about to send upon them.

Without the Spirit’s help

They wouldn’t have been able to do

What He had called them to do.

Without Him, neither can you –

You also need His Spirit,

And that’s exactly

What He’s promised to give you.

The Spirit’s work

Was something God promised

To His people

As a part of the New Covenant blessing,

Through Jesus’ work.

Adam’s sin forfeited this blessing –

He drove the Spirit away –

Not only for himself

But also for his children –

He did this for/against you.

But what the first Adam lost,

The second Adam was going to bring back.

That’s the message

Of the whole Old Testament.

The second Adam

Would crush the head of the serpent

And bring enmity/hatred

Between the seed of the woman

And the seed of the serpent (Gen. 3:15) –

He would give you His Spirit

Which would divide you

From the people of this world.

The second Adam

Would circumcise their stony heart

Give His people the desire

To turn away from the world/sin

And to turn to God (Deu. 30:6).

He would give you His Spirit

To take away your desire for the world

And give you a desire for Him.

The second Adam

Would give all His people

Power to do His will –

This was pictured

By the anointing oil

Poured on the head of the priests

And on the kings,

That would run down their head

And flow to the rest of their body.

The Spirit would flow from the Head

To the members of His body

Empowering them to do

What He calls them to do.

These were all pictures and promises

Of what Jesus came into the world to do –

He obeyed

And He went to the cross,

That He might bring about

The Spirit’s return –

A return that went both ways –

Back to those who looked forward to His coming,

And forward to those

Who would look back at His coming.

If you are a member of His body –

If you are connected to this Head –

Which you can know

By the fact that you’re trusting Him

And turning from your sins –

Then you can know He’s given you His Spirit:

That He’s baptized you into Jesus –

“For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body” (1 Cor. 12:13).

That He dwells/lives in you

And that you are His temple –

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you,

whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” (1 Cor. 6:19).

B. But now let’s move to this second point:

Why did Jesus give you His Spirit?

So that you would have power.

Jesus said to His disciples,

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.”

Power to do what?

To be His witnesses!

“And you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria,

and even to the remotest part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

Do you see any difference in the disciples

After the Spirit came on them in power?

Before He came,

On the night of Jesus’ betrayal,

The disciples abandoned Him (Matt. 26:56),

Peter denied Him (v. 74).

When Jesus was crucified,

They all stood at a distance and watched –

No one owned Him or stood up for Him (Luke 23:49).

After He died and was buried

They were all hiding (John 20:19).

The work of the kingdom

Had come to a standstill.

But let’s not judge them too harshly.

We would have done the same

If we had been in their situation.

But what happened

After the Spirit descended?

Peter stood up

And preached with such boldness and power

That three thousand men were converted (Acts 2:41).

Peter and John stood before the Council

With such confidence

That these leaders didn’t know

What to make of them (4:13).

When the Council told them

To stop preaching and teaching in Jesus’ name,

They stood up to them and told them

That they could not stop speaking

About what they had seen and heard (vv. 19-20).

When they were threatened and released,

They went back and told the others what had happened.

They prayed for God’s help,

He gave them more of His Spirit,

And they went out

And continued boldly to preach Christ (v. 31).

He gave them power!

What did the Spirit do

To inspire this kind of confidence?

He didn’t change them physically.

He didn’t make them indestructible,

Or give them herculean strength,

So that no one could defeat them

And no prison could hold them.

Their boldness didn’t come

From a physical superiority over their opponents.

They were just as vulnerable

As they had been before.

The Lord doesn’t want you

To trust in your own strength.

The change He made was spiritual –

He changed their hearts.

He turned up their affections

From mediocre to radical.

He turned up the heat in their furnace

And gave them a stronger desire to serve Him,

A heart for Him and His work,

A desire to see His name glorified above all.

Once He bent their heart in His direction,

They used everything they had

To advance His cause

To the very best of their ability.

This is what the Spirit

Also wants to do in you:

To give you this power

By turning up your affections.

You know what it’s like

When your heart is bent on something –

There’s no stopping you.

This is how He puts enmity

Between you and the world.

How He gives you the desire

To turn from the world to Him.

How He empowers you

To do what He calls you to do.

The only thing standing

Between you and doing God’s will

Is your heart.

It’s not that you can’t do

What He calls you to do.

More often than not

You just don’t want to do it.

Jesus gave you His Spirit

To overcome your lack of desire,

So that you will say,

Here I am, send me!

Do you sense this power

In your heart this morning?

Is your love for Him strong enough,

So that when He calls on you

You don’t look for someone else

Who’s willing to do it,

But you say,

Here I am! Use me!

If it isn’t, then you need

To come back this evening

As we consider our Lord’s command

To, “Be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18):

What it means to be filled,

How you can know that you are,

And encouragements to do so.

The more you have of His Spirit,

The more you will be willing,

And therefore able,

To do His will.

Let me just remind you in closing,

That if you don’t have this love –

If you don’t have any of this desire

To turn from your sin and this world,

And to give yourself to His cause –

Then you don’t have the Spirit.

If you don’t have the Spirit,

Then you don’t have Jesus

Or the life He gives either.

You need to be born again!

You need to come to Jesus

So that you might be.

If that’s your situation this morning,

Then pray and ask Jesus

To give you His Spirit,

That you might trust Him and live. Amen.

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