Lesson 1

So we're beginning our next phase of the class which is building on Jesus. We went from Genesis to Jesus and now we're going to build on what we've learned about from that class about Jesus and take us to the next phase. So Jesus has died, he's risen again, and now we're going to go back and see something that Jesus told His disciples. If you'll look in John 14, look with me now in verse 16. This is before Jesus died. John 14, 16. Jesus told them, "And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another comforter, and He may abide with you forever." So let's stop right there and talk about this. We're going to learn about the Holy Spirit this morning and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And in so doing, we're going to learn over the next couple of weeks about, in fact, probably mainly today, we're going to learn a lot about what the true ministry of the Holy Spirit is as compared to the false doctrines about Him. But Jesus said, "I will pray the Father," so He's going to ask the Heavenly Father, "and He that is the Father shall give you another comforter." Now a comforter, in the Greek it's paraclete, and it's talking about someone who goes with you, someone who walks alongside you. And so Jesus was with them in the flesh then. Everywhere Jesus went, the disciples were. And so they had someone to talk to, someone to answer their questions, someone to guide them. But Jesus was going to die on the cross, and He was going to be raised from the dead, and He was going to ascend to heaven, and He was going to be gone. And so Jesus wouldn't be with these disciples any longer. And so He's trying to let them know things are going to change. They're not going to stay this way. So what's going to happen is I'm going to go, and I will pray the Father that He'll send you another comforter besides me, that He that is that comforter may abide with you for how long? Forever. Never to leave you, ever, ever, ever. Now He's going to tell who that comforter is. Look in verse 17. Good morning, Kelly. Good to see you. We're in John chapter 14 verse 16. We just got through your reading. We'll be in verse 17 now. John 14, 17, "Even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive." So the comforter is going to be the spirit of truth. Jesus was the truth. He said, "I'm the way, the truth, the lie." Jesus was the truth, but He's going to send the spirit of truth. So Jesus came as a man filled with God's Holy Spirit. Remember when the Holy Spirit led on Jesus like a dove? He was filled with God's Holy Spirit, but He came in the flesh. He was God in the flesh. When Jesus leaves, God's going to send the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive. So the world can't receive the spirit of truth. Why? Because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. Now this sounds very complicated. It almost sounds like it's an oxymoron, but it's not. And so watch what he's saying here. It's going to be the spirit of truth who's going to come instead of me. And the world cannot receive the spirit of truth. Why? Because it's truth. It's the spirit of truth, and the world's rejecting the truth. So if you reject the truth, you cannot have the spirit of truth. If you receive the truth, then you have received the spirit of truth. You cannot have the truth without having the spirit who gives it. You cannot have the spirit without having the truth. This is the one beautiful thing here. A lot of people say, "Well, how do I know I have the Holy Spirit in me?" Do you have God's truth in you? Does the truth of who Christ is and what Christ has done for you dwell in your heart? Do you accept that, what He's done for you? If so, then the spirit of truth is in you. And that's the beautiful thing. The Holy Spirit is identified by the truth He tells, not by a feeling He gives. And we'll say that again. The Holy Spirit is identified by the truth He tells, not by a feeling He gives. I remember one time being at a nursing home. It was very sad. And we just got through preaching. I can't remember if I preached or someone else preached, but we just got through preaching at a nursing home. And this man wanted to know that he was going to heaven. And so someone went and led this man in a prayer to pray. Instead of telling him about Jesus and having him trust in Jesus, they led him in a prayer to pray. And when he got through praying, this man says, "Do you feel any different? Do you feel any different?" And he said, "His Spirit bears witness with ours, so do you feel any different?" And all of that was false doctrine. But the Holy Spirit is identified by the truth He tells, not by a feeling He gives. A lot of people I talk to that write in for help on the Internet who are troubled, they say, "Well, I feel coldness in my heart," or, "I don't feel the love for God I need to feel," or, "I feel this," or, "I feel that." Man, they'll say, "But I believe this, but I feel this." Well, who cares how you feel? I mean, it's not by grace are you saved through feelings. It's by grace are you saved through faith. And so it's going to be the Spirit of truth. The world can't receive the Spirit of truth. Why? Because they reject the truth. That's why they rejected Jesus. It seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him. In other words, they don't see the truth, they don't know the truth. But then He says about the Spirit of truth, "But ye know Him." Now notice about the Spirit of truth. The Spirit of truth is a person. You know what? Oh, there's my heart up there. Let me take that off there. We had a little medical thing before the class here. All right. So the truth is a what? An it? No. He's referred to by a personal pronoun. Him. God, the Father is a person. God, the Son is a person. God, the Spirit is a person. Remember, when we learned three gods, I'm sorry, three persons that make up one God, not three gods. Three persons, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, make up the one true God. And so He says, "You know Him." How do they know Him? They didn't know who Jesus was talking about. But they knew the truth. And because they knew the truth, they knew the Spirit of truth. The Spirit of truth was with them right then. He says, "You know Him, for He dwelleth with you." You see that? Now, notice this here. He dwells with you. And when the Father gives the Spirit of truth, where's the Spirit going to be then? What does it say? Look at your prepositions. He dwells with you. Where's He going to be next? Isn't He going to be next? Who is dwelling with them right now? Him, Jesus. Who is going to be dwelling in them? That's right. Jesus in the person of the Holy Spirit. Because they're all the same. They're all God. So Jesus says, "I am God with you in the flesh. I will be God with you in the Spirit." Isn't that beautiful? Absolutely amazing. And so how do I know I have God's Spirit in me? Do I have God's truth in me? If I have God's truth, I have God's Spirit because He's the one that gives us that truth. If we receive the truth, then we receive the Spirit of truth. Absolutely beautiful. So watch what He says here now. He says, "You know Him because He dwells with you and shall be in you." Watch what He says. That's verse, "I will not leave you comfortless. He will come to you?" No. "I will come to you." So Jesus is going to go. Then Jesus is going to return. But when Jesus returns, He's not going to come back in the flesh to be with them. He's going to come back in the Spirit to be in them. So now the guidance that we receive by Christ is by Him dwelling in us in revealing truth to us. As we read His Word, He gives us understanding of His Word through our personal reading and through the pastors and teachers that He provides, as it says in the book of Ephesians. We teach the truth, the church believes the truth, the church grows in the truth, and the Holy Spirit is the one who enables us to learn that truth and to grow in it. It's an absolutely beautiful, beautiful thing. Now with that said, if you would turn now to the book of Acts, chapter 1. The book of Acts, chapter 1. So with that said, I want you to think of the Holy Spirit here now. There's so much false doctrine about the Holy Spirit. And it's wicked doctrine. He's not a feeling, He's a person. He's identified by the truth He gives, not by the feeling that you feel. The Holy Spirit is Christ Himself, so there's never going to be any type of change in Jesus' teaching, change in Jesus' ministry, change in Jesus' mannerisms, because the Holy Spirit is Christ returning to us, to be in us instead of with us. So here's how this works. When you look at some Charismatic churches today, well any Charismatic church for the most part, they re-identify the Holy Spirit not according to what you see in Scripture, but they just make stuff up to where people receive, or supposed to receive the Holy Spirit, and they fall on the ground and start flopping around like a fish. How many of you have seen that? We've all seen that. When Jesus was with His disciples, were they falling on the ground flopping like a fish? No. He's not the spirit of being out of control. He's not the spirit of passing out. He's not the spirit of being slain. They call it being slain the spirit. That just didn't happen. Jesus is coming back to continue the earthly ministry that He was performing. Now when Jesus came the first time, He came in the flesh. God was performing His ministry through Christ in the body of Christ. That body was born, was conceived in a virgin, born in a manger, and then grew, and then was crucified, was buried, and then was raised again. Jesus has never ceased His earthly ministry. This is important for us to understand. Jesus never stopped His earthly ministry. He just changed bodies. Today, instead of coming back in His corporal body or His physical body, He now comes back in His corporate body or His spiritual body. So now the church is the new body of Christ. You see that? The church is the new body of Christ. In fact, give me just a moment. The Scripture just came to mind. I want to read to you. Let me look that up real quick. Turn if you would to 1 Corinthians 12. Keep your place in Acts, please. 1 Corinthians 12. 1 Corinthians 12. 1 Corinthians 12. And when you get to chapter 12, we'll be in verse 27. There's one there. Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular. Look what He's saying here. The body of Christ was the man who was born from a virgin. But now you are the body of Christ. Now Christ carries out His earthly ministry not to the body of one man, but to the body of the entirety of those who believe on Him. So you're the body of Christ and members in particular. So here you're looking at my body and my body has particular members. I've got a little finger, right? I've got other fingers. I've got thumbs. I've got nose, ears, mouth, feet, hands. So those are the particular members of my body. In the same way, the church is now the body of Christ and each individual member of that church is a member of that body. As my body parts perform different functions, so each member of the church performs different functions. You each have your own unique gifts and abilities that God uses you for. It may be encouragement. It may be teaching. It may be singing. It may be serving. It may be whatever. But there's something that God will enable you to do to have your part. Some people it's giving. They have the gift of giving. Some people's praying. They have the ministry of prayer for people. But there's something you can do to help the body of Christ carry out the ministry of Christ now. All right? So let's turn now to the book of Acts. So when we receive the Holy Spirit and we believe on Christ as our Savior, the Spirit of truth and all of this stuff about falling on the floor and falling down and all that has nothing to do with anything, it's not real. It's not true. Now let's look here in the book of Acts, chapter 1. When we're looking here at the book of Acts, the book of Acts is a transitional book. Okay? Because when Jesus came, they came under this Old Testament era. They still had the temple. They were still sacrificing animals. They still had the shadow that foreshadowed what Christ would do. When Christ comes, He fulfills the Old Testament. And now there has to be some way to transition everybody from the Old Testament to a New Testament way of thinking to get them from the Old Testament priesthood and the Old Testament sacrifices to understand that Christ is now our priest. He is now our sacrifice. And we're moving from this to the church. All right? To the body of Christ and the commission for us to go preach this good news to everybody. So, the book of Acts, it records this transition from the Old to the New. All right? To take people smoothly over from where they were to where things ought to be right now. Let's look here if we would in verse 1. The book of Acts was written by a Gentile named Luke. The former treaties have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach until the day in which He was taken up. After that, He, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments unto the apostles whom He had chosen, to whom also He showed Himself alive after His passion, that means after His death, by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, and being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith He, Ye have heard of Me. All right? So, the promise of the Father that they heard of Him was that the Holy Spirit would come. Okay? For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. So, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is about to take place. And what's going to happen is with the baptism of the Holy Spirit, of course, we looked at the Holy Spirit makes us clean on the inside. And when John talked about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, he said, "He shall baptize you with the Spirit and with fire." He said, "His fan is in His hand," talking about the winnowing fan. So, when you have grain and you break that grain and you have the hush, the chaff on that grain, they would take a winnowing fan and they would throw the grain up in the air. And as they did, the wind would drive the chaff away and what dropped would be the heavier grain. And so, they would fan. And John said, "Jesus' fan is in His hand and He'll thoroughly purge His floor." In other words, He's going to separate the wheat from the chaff, the believers from the unbelievers. He says, "He'll gather His grain into the barn, the chaff He burns with inquentiable fire." Now, that's in the future. But the gathering of that grain into the barn, every time someone believes on Christ, they're getting gathered in to the body of Christ. And so, He says, "You're going to be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." In other words, the Holy Spirit is going to come and the church is going to be born. My body is going to be here now. I mean, I'm in this body now, you're looking at me, but what I promised you that the Father would give you, I said, "I'd pray the Father." He'd send you another comforter, even the Spirit of Truth. He's with you, but He's going to be in you. He's saying, "That's going to happen in a few days." The Holy Spirit is going to come, and when He comes, He's going to fill the church, and the church is going to become the body of Christ, and I will now be in you. And in so doing, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. You will be joined to me and made one with me, and as I am, so you legally shall be. I'm seated with God in heavenly places. You'll be seated with God in heavenly places. I'm raised as a victor over sin and death, so will you be a victor over sin and death. You'll be joined to me. And so that's the baptism of Christ. Now, if you'll look here in verse 6, "When they therefore were come together, they asked of Him, saying, 'Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?'" In other words, "Lord, right now we're still under Roman authority." Is this when you're going to come back and reign and sit on the throne of David, as the prophet said? And they didn't understand the time period here, what all would take place. Verse 7, "He said unto them, 'It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which your Father hath put in His own power.'" In other words, we're not going to talk about that. It's not for you to know those things right now. "But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the other most part of the earth." In other words, the only thing you need to concentrate on right now is this. Not worrying about when all the end is going to take place. You need to be concerned with this, receiving the power of the Holy Spirit so that you can go tell the whole world what I have done. That's the phase the church is still in right now. God has given us the power of His Spirit to understand His Word, to communicate His gospel. We've got a man in Nigeria watching us right now, Brother Eglum. We've got people all over the world who believe and preach this good news that we're reading about right now. Why? Because the very thing Jesus said the Holy Spirit would do, fill His body in sin and use through all the world, that has taken place. That has taken place. I thank God for that. He says that's what you're going to be. You're going to be witnesses. Verse 9, "And when He had spoken these things while they beheld, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight." After Jesus spoke these things, He was taken up in the air into a cloud and He was gone. Of course, I'm sure there's still standing here like this, like, "Whoa." All right, so let's see what happened. "And while they steadfastly looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in wide apparel." So the two angels are now standing by them in the form of men, which also said, "You men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven?" It was, "What are you doing looking up into heaven, just gazing up into this guy?" You see, what were they doing? Jesus was all they knew. Following Him around and doing what He said and serving Him was all those men knew. And now He's gone. Now they're like, "Wow, where did He go? What do we do now?" And so they said, "Why are you doing staring up into heaven? It's not time to do that. It's time to get to work." So He said, "The men are explaining, 'Hey, we're entering into a new phase here.'" And so look what He says. He says, "This same Jesus in verse 11, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven. Then return they unto Jerusalem from the mount called all of it, which is from Jerusalem, a Sabbath day journey." So look what He's saying is He's saying, "Look, the same way He went up and He disappeared in the clouds, He's going to come back in the clouds the same way. But in the meantime, we're not to be looking up. We're to be moving on and sharing His gospel, in living out His Word, learning and obeying His truth." And so it's time for them to transition to that. There are people today who all they can think about is end time prophecy. Have you all ever met anyone like that? I mean all they talk about on TV is end time prophecy. All they talk about when you meet them is end time prophecy. You know what those people are doing? They're still just staring up like that in the sky. That's all they're doing. And it's like the angels are saying, "What are you doing looking up into the sky?" I know, man, it's all He talks about is end time prophecy. It's all He writes about is end time prophecy. And every time something comes on the news, "Here it goes, any moment now." Well then I remember years ago this man, it was the blood moon. Blood moon was going to come and it was some special sign that blood moon's gone. Then it comes into something else and then it's something else. And all they're doing is staring up into the sky. Man, we need to be serving Jesus today, spreading His Word, in living for the here and now. And when He comes in the clouds, He'll come in the clouds. Well then, we need to be serving Him. Alright? So they go back to Jerusalem, look in Matthew 1 and verse 13, "And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room where both Peter and James and John and Andrew and Philip and Thomas Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon's Elotis and Judas the brother of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with His brethren. And in those days," verse 15, "Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples and said, the number of names together were in 120. Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost spake by the mouth of David," I'm sorry, "which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was God to them that took Jesus, for He was numbered with us and had obtained part of this ministry." Now what Peter does now, he's going to say, "Hey, we only have 11 apostles now. Let's vote on who's going to be number 12." What we don't see, we don't see the Lord telling them to do that. So there's some debate on whether or not they should have done that because the Lord never told them to vote on another person. But the Apostle Paul, we know the Lord chose to be an apostle. This other person, after they voted, you basically don't hear of him anymore. But they voted on another one to make him another apostle. And perhaps that's what they should have done, I don't know. But they voted on him. His name was Matthias. Now let's go to chapter 2 and get to the heart of what we're teaching today. "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty," I'm sorry, I'm having a hard time reading, "as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And they appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost." That's the Holy Spirit Jesus said would come. This is Jesus coming back to them and the person of the Holy Spirit. And while they're in this room and all the disciples are here, this is on the day of Pentecost. Pentecost was a feast, 50 days. This is a feast that occurred after the Passover. And now people have come to Jerusalem to celebrate it. And this sounds like a mighty rushing wind coming through this building. And the disciples are there and it looks like tongues are sitting on each person's head. And it's quite a phenomenon here. And look here if you would in verse 4, "And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." So what happens is they begin to speak in other languages. Now when we're looking at tongues, well I've got so much on there. We're looking at tongues, we're looking at languages. Anytime you see tongue in the Bible, when it's used metaphorically and not the actual member of the body. When any time you see tongue in the Bible, it's used to talk about a language, a language, okay? So look here if you would, verse 5, "And there were dwelling at Jerusalem, Jews, devout men out of every nation under heaven." Now because why? They came from the different places that had been scattered. They came to Jerusalem to make their journey for this feast. So you have people from everywhere. And they're all speaking all kinds of different languages. They grew up in these different places. They speak these different languages. And verse 6, "Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded and they were confused because every man heard them speak in his own language." That would be like us together together, and I'm from Germany, you're from Poland, and someone else is from Israel, and we're all speaking these different languages. Yet when we come, we hear people suddenly testify of the mighty power of God and the grace of God and the gospel, and every one of us, you're hearing it in our own individual language. Now how is this even possible? But notice what they're saying. It says, "Every man heard them speak in his own language." Watch what they say here. "And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, 'Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans?' And how here we every man in our own tongue." You see that? The tongue is a language. What kind of languages are these? That the languages of the nations those people were from. So what do we learn about this? Speaking in tongues means speaking in languages that are unknown to the person speaking but known to the person being spoken to. Makes sense? So watch this. Let's move on further. Verse 8, "And how here we every man in our own tongue wherein we were born. Parthians and Medes and Elamites and the dwellers in Mesopotamia and Judea and Cepidosia and Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia and Egypt and the parts of Libya about Cyrene and strangers of Rome, Jews and Proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues, that is in our languages, the wonderful works of God." So there's no doubt speaking in tongues is speaking in earthly languages. What you see today in the Charismatic churches, they say that they're heavenly languages and nobody knows what they're saying. It's the exact opposite. There's no need to speak in a language that nobody knows. God was given the ability to speak in languages they were born in. They could hear it in their native tongue. So when people say, "I do all that," and nobody knows what they're saying, that's not speaking in tongues. That's not what the Holy Spirit does. Why would he do that? Why would he speak in a babble that nobody understands? And it was never a heavenly language. It was an earthly language for the purpose of communicating the wonderful works of God. So you don't fall down. You don't pass out. You don't shake like a fish out of water. You don't babble something that nobody knows what's being said. It's always an earthly language. And this was something that was used at that time to authenticate that Christ indeed had been risen from the dead because it was something that man could not naturally do. That's why they were confused. "How is this happening?" All right? So with that said, we'll go ahead and, because it's time to stop, we're transitioning now. The Holy Spirit has now filled the church, the believers. They are now the new body of Christ. Each individual member is a particular member of that body. And we've learned what the Holy Spirit does, who the Holy Spirit is, how the Holy Spirit is identified, and what he does not do, first what he does do. And this was a particular time then. Sometimes you'll see people say, you'll see these Pentecostal churches say, "We're going to have the Day of Pentecost, or we're going to have Pentecostal revival," or whatever. The Day of Pentecost has already come and gone. We don't repeat that. You don't repeat the sacrifice of Christ. You don't repeat the resurrection of Christ, the ascension of Christ. You don't repeat the coming of Christ and the person of the Holy Spirit. All that has taken place. It's history. We thank God for it, but we're not trying to relive that. And we're not staring up in the clouds saying, "What do we do next?" Or, "Let's talk about Bible prophecy," or, "When Jesus is going to sit on the throne to David." It's wonderful to learn those things. But if you do that and it takes your eyes off the world, up to the clouds, then unfortunately you're not doing the world any good. So with that, we'll go ahead and stop. We'll move next door, and we'll get into lesson two next week.