Basic Passage: Acts 1:7-8; 2:16-21
Focal Passage: Acts 1:7-8
Memory Verse: Matthew 28:19-20
FOCUS:
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit was an unconditional promise; He is with us, within us now empowering us.
Nevertheless, power lies waste if it is suppressed.
1.INTRODUCTION
“…I will pour my Spirit upon all men…”(Joel 2:28) We are flesh and blood who continually war with our adversary in the spiritual realm. Pitiful we would have been had God not promised His Holy Spirit who will make His eternal habitation within us. As soldiers of Christ, we wrestle not with our might nor by our strength but by the Spirit. Before God promised this in Joel 2, The Spirit had intermittently been on earth to empower certain people for specific purposes.
Christ before His ascension reiterated the promise of the Father to His disciples by telling them of the Spirit, who will empower them on earth. In this lesson we will look at the reasons why the Holy Spirit was promised; which are
Witnessing/ Evangelism
Conviction/ Conversion
Power
2.FOCAL PASSAGE EXAMINED
· Witnessing
“Go you therefore, and teach all nations…” (Matthew 28:19) The word witnessing appears about thirty (30) times in the Book Of Acts. The true church of Christ is the one which witnesses about Him, as such Christians are called witnesses of Christ as the earlier apostles were. They were to first witness in Jerusalem before moving to other parts.
· Conviction
“And when He is come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” John 16:8
The church in the Book of Acts recorded several instances of conversion after the outpour of the Holy Spirit.
Notable among them was the about three thousand (3000) souls that were saved on the day of Pentecost. Others include the conversion of the Philippian jailer, the Ethiopian Eunuch, and Saul of Tarsus.
Power
“And my speech and my preaching were not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power”. (I Cor 2:5). Unlearned fishermen spoke and people received Christ, learned Paul also preached Christ all accompanied with the performance of great miracles, signs and wonders as the Holy Spirit manifested His power within them. They even had the courage to face the Sanhedrin, various trials and persecutions due to the power that had been invested in them.
3.CONCLUSION
“…When the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied…”( Num. 11:25). It has been God’s desire to make his indwelling habitation within Man. He first related as a Father, as the Son in the flesh and now in the Holy Spirit. In times past, the Holy Spirit came upon men and induced them with special power for specific purposes; He would then depart. God on the outside is an Old Testament experience but God on the inside is the New Testament experience. It is a promise; just receive it.
4.APPLICATION
“But you shall receive power, after the Holy Spirit has come upon you: and you shall be witnesses unto Me…” (Acts 1:8)
The Spirit we will receive is not to lie dormant within us but to empower us to witness and show forth the praises of Him that has called us from darkness into His marvelous light. We are not to be anxious of what to say but just preach Christ since conviction and conversion are for the Spirit; as it happened in the case Philip and The Ethiopian Eunuch.
5.QUESTIONS
Unto whom was the promise made?
How does one receive the Holy Spirit?
How well have we evanglised to those around us?
As a church
As an individual
If the Spirit is still operating in His power as before why then does sin/sinners abound?
Discuss the various ways in which the Spirit converted souls.