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Lorenzo

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How to Receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit
« on: July 27, 2011, 11:49:33 AM »
How to Receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit.



I close by pointing you to Peter's instructions for how to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2:38–41.



The Word of God Must Be Heard

First, the Word of God must be heard. Peter has preached that in God's plan Jesus was crucified, raised, and exalted as Lord over all the universe and that forgiveness of sin and spiritual renewal can be had from him. The Word has been heard.

The Sovereign God Must Call Men and Women

Second, the sovereign God must call men and women to himself, or they will never come. Verse 39:, "The promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off, everyone to whom the Lord our God calls to him." No one comes to faith in Christ unless the Father draws him (John 6:44, 65). The preached Word is heard with conviction and power only when the effectual call of God lays hold on the hearers.

We Must Receive the Word

Third, we must "receive the word." Verse 41: "So those who received his word were baptized." Receiving the Word means that it becomes part of you so that you trust the Christ it presents. You trust his provision for your forgiveness. You trust his path for your life. You trust his power to help you obey. And you trust his promises for your future. And that radical commitment to Christ always involves repentance—a turning away from your own self-wrought provisions and paths and powers and promises. And when you really turn to Christ for new paths and new power, you open yourself to the Holy Spirit, because it is by his Spirit that Christ guides and empowers.

We Must Express Faith Through Water Baptism

Finally, we must give an open expression of faith in the act of water baptism in obedience to Jesus Christ. Baptism was the universal experience of all Christians in the New Testament. There were no unbaptized Christians after Pentecost. Christ had commanded it (Matthew 28:18f.) and the church practiced it. So we do today.

Therefore, I invite you to experience the greatest thing in the world—Repent, trust Christ, open yourself to the power of his Spirit, be baptized in his name, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.



http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/how-to-receive-the-gift-of-the-holy-spirit

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Lorenzo

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Four Reasons Why It Is Right to Do So
« Reply #1 on: July 27, 2011, 11:55:00 AM »
Four Reasons Why It Is Right to Do So

Here are four reasons from Acts.

1. Terminology

The very term "baptized in the Holy Spirit" (1:5; 11:16) implies an immersion in the life of the Spirit. "John immersed in water; you will be immersed in the Spirit." If the Spirit overwhelms you like a baptism, you can't imagine him merely sneaking in quietly while you are asleep and taking up inconspicuous residence. That may be the way it starts (Paul may have this early movement in mind in 1 Corinthians 12:13), but if it ends there, Jesus and Luke would not call it a baptism in the Spirit.

2. Power, Boldness, and Confidence

Jesus says in Acts 1:5 and 8 that baptism in the Spirit means, "You shall receive power . . . and you shall be my witnesses." This is an experience of boldness and confidence and victory over sin. A Christian without power is a Christian who needs a baptism in the Holy Spirit. I am aware that in 1 Corinthians 12:13 Paul says that baptism in the Spirit is an act of God by which we become a part of the body of Christ at conversion, so that in his terminology all genuine converts have been baptized in the Spirit. But we have done wrong in limiting Paul's understanding of the baptism in the Holy Spirit to this initial, subconscious divine act in conversion and then forcing all of Luke's theology in Acts into that little mold. There is no reason to think that even for Paul the baptism in the Holy Spirit was limited to the initial moment of conversion. And for sure in the book of Acts the baptism in the Holy Spirit is more than a subconscious divine act of regeneration—it is a conscious experience of power (Acts 1:8 ).

3. The Testimony of Acts

In fact the third reason I think this is that when you take your concordance and look up every text in Acts where the Holy Spirit works in believers, it is never subconscious. In Acts the Holy Spirit is not a silent influence but an experienced power. Believers experienced the baptism in the Holy Spirit. They didn't just believe it happened because an apostle said so.

4. The Consequence of Faith

The fourth reason we should stress the experience of baptism in the Holy Spirit is that in Acts the apostles teach that it is a consequence of faith not a subconscious cause of faith. As a convinced Calvinist I believe with all my heart that the grace of God precedes and enables saving faith. We do not initiate our salvation by believing. God initiates it by enabling us to believe (Ephesians 2:8–9; 2 Timothy 2:25; John 1:13). But this regenerating work of God's Spirit is not the limit of what Peter means by baptism in the Spirit. In Acts 11:15–17 Peter reports how the Holy Spirit fell on Cornelius just as on the disciples at Pentecost. "As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, 'John baptized in water, but you shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit.' If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us, when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I should withstand God?" Notice that the gift of the Spirit, or baptism in the Spirit, is preceded by faith. The NASB correctly says in v. 17 that God gave the Holy Spirit after they believed. So the baptism of the Spirit (v. 16) or the receiving of the gift of the Spirit (v. 17) cannot be the same as the work of God before faith which enables faith (which Luke speaks of in 2:39; 5:31; 16:14; 11:18; 15:10; 14:27). The baptism in the Spirit is an experience of the Spirit given after faith to faith.

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Lorenzo

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Two Things That Characterize This Experience
« Reply #2 on: July 27, 2011, 11:59:01 AM »
Two Things That Characterize This Experience

We could talk for hours about what that experience is. In fact, most of my messages are just that—descriptions of the experience of the Spirit of God in the life of the believer. But I'll mention two things from the book of Acts—things that mark the experience of being baptized in the Holy Spirit or of receiving the gift of the Spirit.

1. A Heart of Praise

One is a heart of praise. In Acts 10:46 the disciples knew the Holy Spirit had fallen because "they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling (or magnifying) God." Speaking in tongues is one particular way of releasing the heart of praise. It may be present or may not. But one thing is sure: the heart in which the Holy Spirit has been poured out will stop magnifying self and start magnifying God. Heartfelt praise and worship is the mark of a real experience of the Holy Spirit.

2. Obedience

The other mark I'll mention is obedience. In Acts 5:29 Peter and the apostles say to the Sadducees who had arrested them, "We must obey God rather than men." Then in verse 32 he says, "We are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God gave to those who are obeying him." ("Gave" is past tense; "obey" is present, ongoing tense.) It is inevitable that when the object of your heart's worship changes, your obedience changes. When Jesus baptizes you in the Holy Spirit, and infuses you with a new sense of the glory of God, you have a new desire and a new power (1:8 ) to obey. Whether or not you speak in tongues, these two things will be your experience if you have been baptized in the Holy Spirit—a new desire to magnify God in worship and a powerful disposition to obey God in everyday life.





http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/how-to-receive-the-gift-of-the-holy-spirit

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=42531.0
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