The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit lesson 43 start
Mike Doyle · Apr 16, 2023
Holy Spirit (2021-23), No. 105
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261930522187

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, so this is Lesson 43. I think we'll stop at 44. What I encourage you, and I'm assuming, and probably as soon as I assume something, that's a mistake, but I'm assuming that you're reading the text because I would say if you're not, that you at least at the end here read all of chapter 7. I could have done 4 or 5 lessons out of chapter 7. And it's just right out in his summing up what he's been teaching is really good and how he does it. So lesson 43, first question is, and by the way, if you have the book, it starts on page 240.

The question is, what was the primary theme of Peter's sermon in Acts 2? Now, I looked at it and I thought, boy, you don't need to be reading that whole thing. But if you did read it, or you are familiar with what the primary purpose of Acts 2, what would it be? Well, he was telling him that you knew this Jesus, you saw him do all kinds of miracles, and you crucified him.

So based on what you just said, what would the theme be? Alright, who would the theme be? It's Christ. It would be the Lord Jesus Christ. Yeah. And why that's so relevant is that that's the work of the Spirit. She just whispered to me, that's the answer to everything, Jesus. It's too bad Luke's not here. Luke would have the answer just like that.

Besides that, it's summarized in Acts 2.36, Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. That's his summary statement. Yeah, and that's what he's doing.

The interesting thing about the Acts 2 sermon was there were just tons of people in Jerusalem and this activity when the Spirit descended on the disciples and the believers, it created a big commotion and people came and most of the feasts that were going on were people from out of town were there. And so lots, you know, in a Jewish economy, if you were a male, you had to go to Jerusalem three times a year, and this was one of those times. Interesting that the Holy Spirit would pick this day. And so there's a lot of Hellenistic Jews and a lot of Jews that live all over the Mediterranean Basin who are there, and they hear this sermon from Peter.

And he talks about the fact that the Holy Spirit identifies the event. He talks about the Holy Spirit as the one who has created this event. But the event is almost like a herald saying there's a lot of noise here. Somebody set off the alarm, rang the bell and everybody came to see what it was. And once they got there, once they got there, Peter started to talk to him. And what he talked to him about was the Lord Jesus Christ and who he is. And what he is.

Because if you think about this, how long has it been since he was crucified, or well, since he left the planet and went to glory and before that crucified? How long has it been? 50 years. 50? Pentecost. Yeah, Pentecost, after the Lord went to heaven, how many days was it there? 40? Anybody know for sure? And then when he rose from the dead, he was around for 40 days?

So it's about two and a half months. Okay. And so he, Christianity has not really started. even though the resurrection happened. This is the beginning of the church. Right? What makes it the beginning of the church? Were there any Christians before this day? No, there weren't. Well, how about the teeth on the cross? How about the twelve apostles? How about those guys?

What makes a person a Christian? What's the Holy Spirit do? He's the agent. And so two of the main things is that the Spirit of Christ comes and occupies permanently the believer. But there's another part of it. What's the other part of it? The believer is placed in Christ. And that's the huge difference.

See that? And that placing in Christ is what, as Paul talks about later, and according to what I've been teaching for years, 33 things happened at the cross. Well, 33 things happened at Pentecost. The events that Christ accomplished at the cross became the events that were applicable to all those that were saved by Pentecost and subsequent. Do you see that? So our dependence on the Holy Spirit not only for salvation but for the understanding of all that's happened in his work is critical to the believer and his understanding of who he is.

You see that when you read what Peter said as he spoke to the crowd and you think back a few weeks about Peter, it's stunning. It is. I will say this too. Although Christ is the focus of everything he says, a lot of the content of what he talks about is Jewish. You understand what I mean by that?

He's talking about Messiah, the creation of the church, but even Peter doesn't understand everything that really is going on spiritually at this time. It takes the Apostle Paul to show up on the scene to really explain what's happened and what is happening in a Christian's life and what's really going on.

And where there's a complete separation away from Judaism to Christianity. We were with some people yesterday for breakfast in California, and their cousins and aunts and uncles, and I don't know, there's a lot of them, of Regan, my daughter, her side of the family, and their grandmother was a Jewish woman who converted to Christianity. So their grandfather was a believer and married Jerry, and so there's a huge Jewish influence in their Christianity. And I almost, but I managed to keep my mouth shut. I know.

Ask them a question like, is there What's your opinion about, is the church an extension of Judaism or is it a totally separate entity? Because in their practicing Christianity, there's a lot of Judaism in what they do. And you know I dare say that there's a lot of Judaism in what most Christians do.

So anyway, Rydow wrote, we find that it's still Christ, none but Christ who's presented as the object. He talks about the theme, not primarily the Holy Spirit, but Christ. And that's the thing about the Holy Spirit. He's always in the background but he's always the cause or the doer of what's happening. And he talks about, Peter talks about Christ being rejected.

He talked about Christ as the one who God had exalted because of what he had done. And Christ through whom forgiveness of sins and every other blessing was offered Pretty simple sermon, really. And that's true for us, it's true for every believer from that time till this time. That Christ through whom is the forgiveness of sins.

We haven't spent a lot of time studying the Jewish temples and how they dealt with sins. But Peter's talking about through this one man. His forgiveness of sins. He did it. And all you have to do is believe that He did it and who He is and you will be saved and your sins will be forgiven. I got to imagine that to a Jew that sounds too simple.

Wouldn't you say? I mean I've been humping all my life down to the temple and buying all these animals and doing all this stuff and now you're telling me I don't have to do that anymore? Yeah, that's what Peter was telling me. You know, it's kind of... Today, you know, if you get some deal, it's too good to be true.

What's the catch? They're all doing that I'm sure is you know, we've been working we had to do all these sacrifices. We had to do all this You know the hundred and one things we have to do and now you're telling me just simple faith and believe in him I'm sure they're right. Yeah, I mean, what's the catch?

What do we have to do here? You know, that's not your snake oil salesman, you know, I They're trying to figure this out, and it doesn't make sense to them. When I got saved at 35, that was the one question I kept asking these guys, do you mean to tell me that if I believe in the person and walk across, I never have to do another thing? And they said, yeah, that's right. That's what we're telling. And of course, my response was Barbra Streisand. For those of you who didn't get that, her initials are BS. And so, finally, you know, they said, now understand something.

You're not going to believe in a person and work for Christ and then get parked in a corner someplace. That's not how it works. You'll be involved, but it won't be because you have been given a a book full of rules that shows you what you need to do to be involved. You'll be involved because you want to be. But you don't have to do another thing in terms of salvation. That was really tough.

Donna? Well, I was thinking, too, with the Jews, there was also a change of destiny as well, right? How do you mean? They thought that because they were Jewish, they'd be members of the kingdom. And now they're being told that they're going to be in Christ, right? Well, he doesn't really talk about them being in Christ at this time. He does talk about the kingdom. He doesn't really talk about being in Christ. I'm not sure that Peter knew.

I find it interesting that in the spiritual education of the Jewish nation, The Lord is careful to do it a step at a time. You know, forgiveness of sin is the number one deal. And then we'll work from there. It seems like Peter was just talking to them about things that they as, if they called them men of Israel, would understand. That's right.

Well, think about when Peter goes to Ananias' house and there's this the occurrence of the Pentecost that comes down on the tongue of fire come down on Gentiles. Peter is astonished. He runs back to the guys in Jerusalem and says, guess what, fellas? God intends to save the Gentiles. They must have looked at each other and said, no. No, we're separate. No. He's going to save the Gentiles too.

That must have been a real awakening to all of them, and they must have thought, wow. Well, not only that, you can eat anything. Yeah. You know, you have the vision of that. Right before you went. I mean, yeah, that in itself was, you know, blowing the doors off their world. Yeah. Let alone, on top of that, the insult of insults. You know, they used to go through half-breeds or whatever, and they would go around. That's how much they hated the Gentiles. Couldn't eat in their house, couldn't do anything.

Now Peter comes back and says, not only did I eat at their house, you can eat anything at their house. That's right. You know, just think of what that earth-shattering message is to them. You know, we kind of read it and it's like, yeah, well, I'm trying to figure an equivalency of us, you know. Then somebody comes into your house and says, now you can, you know, smoke cigars and drink whiskey every day or whatever, I don't know. You can do that, that's perfectly good. You're not going to go, you don't have to go up and get purified if you do.

Yeah, I mean it's just a whole new mindset for them. Yeah, and you know what's interesting about that? Later on, when Paul comes on the scene, he modifies that behavior because The cool thing about Christianity that's different, the big difference in Judaism, is that Judaism, because of the law, was all about me and what I did. Christianity is about the Lord Jesus Christ and what He did, and how my involvement in Christianity is to show others the grace that He has given us. So, I wouldn't modify my diet, my behavior, if it would benefit you. A Jew never did that.

Everything benefited themselves. So did those believers that listened to Peter, are they in Christ? Even though they didn't know that's what was being taught? Oh sure. Sure they are. Because 3,000 were not saved but put in Christ that day. How does that read? You know, I think about that, too. How did the 3,000, you know, with this new message, and that was just what we're saying, how radical the message was.

But I, you know, after, you know, this is one of those things that I think whenever in Israel and all, you know, and Bethesda or whatever, Bethsaida, excuse me, you know, he spent time there with them, and day after day, you know, we only get a glimpse of his life during that time.

And I think there were thousands of people he met with that these are the people who on the day of Pentecost were there, and they understood because they'd been with him. Or they may have didn't understand, but they'd been with him, talked to him, you know, the Sermon on the Mount. You know, there are a lot of things where I think they were prepped prior to this day because, you know, the radical message would be awfully hard to swallow in one day. And I think the 3000 or something were the ones that Christ met with or had been with. Or another group would have been the disciples.

But that's right, I just can't understand, like what we're saying, how radical the message in 3 to 5,000 or whatever it was, the Kingdom of the Christ on Pentecost or in the days afterwards with, you know, Sermon on the Mount or any of these places, or just his time alone that's not recorded.

And then they go, now I understand. Well, and I think, too, there are some that, you know, as he describes where they all came from because of the holiday. You know, if you're a Jew and you don't live in Jerusalem, then you're not subject to the politics and all the stuff that's going on there. You live out someplace in Macedonia or somewhere else, you know, you're not, you're going, you're going not to the temple every week, you're going to the local synagogue. And a synagogue is a place like Holly Hills is a place for teaching about the Old Testament.

And so those people, I'm, How do I say this? I think for the locals, there probably was fear involved. For the people that were from out of town, to hear this message, especially with the work of the Spirit in them, persuading them, fear wasn't a big factor because they were going to leave. Pharisees couldn't do anything to them. That's why years later there's a huge church in Antioch. You know, in the beginning of most of these churches were Jewish people, you know, because I'm sure that they probably didn't evangelize Gentiles until Peter said, hey, look, and the word spread, you know, Gentiles are allowed.

I would say that a huge percentage that the body of Christ, Christians of America and the whole world have no clue about being in Christ and the positional truths. They say, but they have no idea about how beautiful the real message is. I think that's probably true. Although I think we might be surprised. if we were able to travel a bunch and talk to believers, you know.

I've always marveled at when China started to open up because of, who was the president that went over there back in the 80s, 70s? Richard Nixon. And so I noticed that when I was first a believer that a lot of these televangelists that were on TV, all of them had cranked up missionaries to go to China. And they would do, you know, videos from there talking to Chinese people. They found out that there were a lot of Christians in China that they thought they were going to go evangelize them. And they kept running into these guys, these people that were already believers, thanks to Hudson Taylor, and Watchman Needle, and people like that.

And not only that, they probably had a greater grasp on Christianity than the guy holding the microphone, because he was from Turner Broadcasting, whatever those broadcasting companies are that are on TV here. I think the ignorance that they show about Christianity is amazing. One more thing.

When Peter starts talking about the Lord Jesus, how does he present him in terms of where he is now and what is he doing? He's at the right hand of God. That's exactly right. That he's in glory now as a man He's, from their perspective, he's the Messiah, but he's taking care of the sin issue. He's at the right hand of God, and heaven is now open, so to speak, for those of faith.

And the way into the holiest manifested, and that Christ was all in all. So, what Peter is teaching is You can't, unless you're a Pharisee, you have no shot at getting into the Holy of Holies. But what Christ's work has done is opened the way for you to go into the real Holy of Holies, which is where Christ is. all the fear of going into the Holy of Holies and all the, you know, this, that, and the other.

Now the door's open. The door's wide open. And you can eat anything and go have lunch with the Gentile. It couldn't be more, you know, 180 degrees what they had been for, you know, generations. Well, on Tuesday, a man started the book of Hebrews and, you know, right away, at the very beginning, you know, the first verses are that in times past God spoke to us through the prophets, but now He's spoken to us through His Son, and then it describes who His Son is, how magnificent He is, and where He is, you know, and then by the time you get to chapter 10, you get to chapter 10, we're going to find out that we have access into the holiest holy. And oh by the way, when you read through the verses, there's no exit. There's no back door. You go in and stay. Racing along here, going to question two. I just have one thought to the first question there. Yeah, I think Courtney, you just mentioned or one of you mentioned location.

So I think that the comment that Radha makes about it's Christ in glory now at the right hand. So they're all of a sudden having to look heavenly in a way that they've never had to before. They're thinking, okay, maybe this is the time where you are resurrected and you take the throne, you know, of David. Maybe there's an earthly play here, but everything is heavenly and the Holy Spirit points to every bit of that resurrection and that new location of the Lord Jesus that had to have been just like, okay, we've been seeing Christ. you know, his ministry for the last 30-something years and we saw him crucified and we know that the Jews were, you know, a part of that. It says that in verse 36 there, whom you crucified. And here they're saying that, you know, Christ's resurrection was definitive proof that the Holy Spirit was convicting these men and women of in a way that they had never imagined. where Christ's location would be. This was radical. And Donna's question around, were they in Christ? They didn't know about it, but they were. We talked about that.

But having a heavenly perspective is where, in Acts 2, that's where it all begins. Having that resurrection perspective, this is where the Holy Spirit starts to point men and women to the resurrected Christ. So if we could say it, a lot of these believers, while they had much in common, they were on that salvation labor room floor, so to speak. You know, they had just been born again, and they're being asked by Peter to look at the resurrected Christ in a new location.

And that was a big deal. That was a shock factor for them, too, I think, in addition to the things that we were talking about. I think you're right. And I think question two amplifies that a little bit, where he says, what is the one distinct work of the Holy Spirit?

And it's interesting what Rydock does. He wants to talk about the Lord Jesus in resurrection glory, obviously. His resurrection glory is the antitype of Aaron's rod. Everybody know what Aaron's rod was all about? Moving on. Thus provides his exclusive rights to the everlasting priesthood. That's the other thing they didn't realize, that every believer is a priest. He didn't have to be born in a tribe of Levi.

And he says, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life, Hebrews 7.16.

The candlestick thus tells of the glory of a risen and ascended Christ, the Son of God. He goes on. This accords with all that we have heretofore seen of the Spirit's work. We look at the passage I have just read from the 8th of Numbers. This is the cool part. The lights, the Holy Spirit, were to give light over against the candlestick, the perfection of Christ risen.

In other words, the one distinct work of the Spirit is us to exhibit the perfections and the glories of Christ. And you know, kind of a, not a difficult question, but how big is your Christ? How much do you know about Him, this person who's the Son of God? You'll find that Though all through that thought, all through scriptures, there was no other light there but the light of the candlestick in the Holy of Holies.

And under its being, all the glories of the sanctuary were visible for us. Blessed be God. Holy place and most holy are one. The light that illuminates our sanctuary shows the way into the holiest of all made manifest, and it is by the Spirit we recognize how true all is for faith. Through Christ, through Him, Christ, we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. So what Rite Out is saying, there is a light There's light in the Holy of Holies. But in the true Holy of Holies, the Lord Jesus Christ is the light. He, in His glory, is the light. And all that He is, not only gives you the access, but the permanency of your position there.

And, you know, again, When we get to Romans 5 on Sunday, one of the cool things about Romans 5 is access. Do I really have the access? Believers say, well, I sin. Do I have the access? Yeah, you have the access permanently. You belong there. Well, you know, sometimes living in this sinful world that we live in, it does everything to tell us we don't have access.

So when we read that we do, it's a challenge to us, a challenge to our faith. Do I trust the Lord or do I trust my experience? Do I trust the Lord and what He says or do I trust how I feel about it? Yeah, this goes to the union with Christ or intimacy with Christ or knowledge of Christ.

But the Jeremy Camp one, that Insane Power and all that, there's another song that's out right now. And I think it kind of goes with what you're saying. And one of the verses go, on my best day, I'm a child of Christ. On my worst day, I'm a child of Christ. Yeah, that's really cool.

You know, I think that's really pertinent to us that, you know, we are still a child of God. We are still in Him, you know. He still dwells in us. We are in Him and He's in us on a good day or a bad day. When I'm an idiot, I'm still a child of God. When I'm whatever, I'm a child. It doesn't matter. We are always a child of God.

We're always in Him. And He's in us. And that's such a fundamental thing for us as believers. Our location never changes. because it wasn't us that secured the location in the first place. It was the Spirit of God who did it. And so therefore, I may not, because of sin, enjoy my location, but there's a remedy to get back to that quickly. But the location never changes, just like the Lord Jesus never changes.

I have a clarifying question for you, Mike. You mentioned that Christ is the light. Are we saying that in the illustration of the lampstand and the tabernacle that that illustration relates the lampstand to the Holy Spirit illuminating all that Christ is? So wouldn't we say that the Holy Spirit is the light? You know, yeah, but not to the exclusion of Christ, I would say. Fair enough. Because, you know, when Paul saw the glory of Christ on the road to Damascus, what was he looking at? He was looking at the glory of Christ. It blinded him.

And that's another thing about what it's going to be like to be in the Holy of Holies. We think it's really bright when they turn the lights on or you're standing out in the sun. That's nothing compared to what it's going to be like in there. We often pray for illumination through the person and the work of the Holy Spirit. And in that illustration of the tabernacle, and I think also just the role of the Holy Spirit is to shed light on the glories of Christ, which become blinding.

I think that's the best way. Yeah, I like that. Okay. Okay. We're over. Singer's got his thing. So let's pray. Father Howie, thank you for your son. Thank you for In particular, also the work of your Spirit that reveals Him to us in all that's true of us in Him. Not only what's true, but where we are. And that's so important to us. So we thank you, Father, and we pray in your Son's precious name. Amen.