(The Activity of the Holy Spirit) Preaching and Pastoral Care — Peter Brandon

The Book of Acts: Problems, Proofs, Promises, and the Spirit's Program

Now we've looked at the book of the Acts, and I cannot give you an outline again, because if I do so, we shall miss getting right the way through into the second chapter. But we have noticed, first of all, they had problems.

Then we noticed that they had infallible proofs, and that simply means they were absolutely sure that the Savior that they were preaching was real and written. Then we noticed, too, that they had two great promises.

The promises of the coming of the Holy Spirit, and then the promise of the second coming of Christ. Then we also noticed he gave them a massive program. Think of it. Judea, or Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth.

And quite frankly, we all felt that if the Lord had given us a program like that, we would be almost in a state of spiritual exhaustion. But these early Christians, because they were filled with the Spirit of God, they went everywhere preaching the word, and they fulfilled that program within 40 years.

So we can see, once God meets us in power, we can fulfill that program even today. Then we noticed that wonderful ascension, and now we are going to look at the first reference to prayer in the book of the Acts.

The First Prayer Meeting in Acts

And would you turn to Acts 1 verse 12, and we'll read just three verses. They returned unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem, a Sabbath-days journey. And when they were come in, they went up into the upper room, where abode both Peter, James, and John, and Andrew, and Philip, and Thomas, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and James, the son of Alphaeus, and Simeon, Sir Lotus, 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. Now note verse 15, and in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples and said, now notice the brackets, the number of names together were about a hundred and twenty.

Now that's the first recorded prayer meeting in the book of the Acts. But if you go through the book of the Acts, you will find there's as many mentions to prayer as preaching. Let me quote it. In Acts 1 they're praying, in Acts 2 they're continuing steadfastly in prayer, in Acts 3 they're going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, in Acts 4 when they have prayed the place with Satan, in Acts chapter 5 we have Ananias and Sapphira judged probably in a prayer meeting, Acts 6 the apostles appoint deacons so that they might continue in prayer and the ministry of the word, Acts 7 Stephen goes into the presence of God praying, Acts chapter 8 when the apostles came down they prayed over the converts in Samaria and they received the Holy Spirit, Acts chapter 9 Paul is praying, Acts chapter 10 Cornelius is praying and Peter praying.

Now can you see the importance of prayer? Now there's something about prayer here that's very special indeed. It's joyous prayer. Now when you wave someone goodbye and perhaps you will never see them again, and perhaps they're on a boat and you're standing on the jetty side and you wave them goodbye and you deeply love those people, maybe a close relation, maybe your own parents, when you wave them goodbye you're waving with tears.

When the Lord Jesus went back to heaven and they saw him going up into heaven and a cloud received them out of his sight, and that cloud was the Shekinah Glory, the last act of approval that God gave to his son.

In other words he was saying just as the cloud denoted the presence of God in the tabernacle, now the one who's going up is being approved of God as the Son of God and the cloud is there. It receives him out of their sight.

But when they went back to Jerusalem they were full of joy, full of happiness. Now to me that's wonderful, why? Because they knew the Lord Jesus was going to come to them in another way, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

And as we have been seeing they were far greater men when the Lord Jesus was absent and the Holy Spirit was present than in the Gospels. They're transformed people, why? Because the Lord Jesus has gone up into heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit and they were empowered.

But in fact they knew more about the Lord Jesus in his absence than in his presence. And do you know what that means? When people are filled with the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit can make the Lord Jesus absolutely real to them, if they will only let it.

And that's what he wants to do to us. So it was a joyous prayer meeting, they were in a prayer meeting and they were full of holy joy because of the anticipation of the coming of the Holy Spirit. But then there is something about this prayer meeting and I want you to note it and that is the place.

There's something here that's quite strange that's never mentioned again in Scripture and it's only mentioned once and this is what it says. When they would come in, they went up. Now let me repeat that again.

When they would come in, they went up. Now when they were told to go and prepare the Passover, as you know it was an upper room, but they went up without going in. You say, whatever do you mean? Well when they went in, someone would wash their feet.

Now they missed that. And when the Lord Jesus Christ went up into that room, he could tell they had not washed their feet. So before he spoke to them about the Holy Spirit, he made sure their feet was washed.

Or were washed. Now, they learn the lesson here and they go in and they wash their feet and probably their hands and they go up. Now why? It's absolutely important that when we pray, we have clean hands.

What does that mean? The Scripture says, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear. And one of the reasons why many of our prayers are not answered is because we are unclean in the presence of God.

Sin is in our life. You remember what the Apostle says, I would that men pray everywhere lifting up holy hands without wrath and without doubting. Now can you see what happens? They go in and they wash their feet.

They wash their hands. Now of course God is not concerned so much now with our feet being washed and our hands being washed. Although the atmosphere is cleaner when they are, especially the feet. But he is very important about this one thing that when we are in his presence, we can lift up holy hands so that there is nothing between us and God.

So have you got it? They went in and they went up. Then I want you to note another thing which is very interesting. Notice the number 120. Now we have already seen from 1 Corinthians 15, on one occasion the Lord Jesus saw 500 and that must have been a planned meeting.

Where were the 380? Where were they? Obviously they were missing when the Holy Spirit came. But this is the point I want to raise. The Holy Spirit came and he filled the 120. We don't know what happened to the 380.

But he did not withdraw the Spirit because they were not there. He came. Always be among the 120. Don't be on the outside. If revival comes, say Lord I don't want to be at it, I want to be in it. Be among the 120.

That's a vital lesson. And that gives us a wonderful clue because I do not believe for one moment we shall ever see a church that's in perfect unity. But even if there are 120 out of the 380 who are there, God will still bless.

And bless abundantly. Then I want you to note their unity and this is lovely. When they were coming they went up. Whereabout Peter and all the apostles. Now look at verse 14. These all continued with one accord, one accord, one accord in prayer.

You see God had brought them together in lovely unity. And they could really sing God loves you and I love you. And there was that holy unity among them. Now that's vital. And then lastly I want you to note it was a simple place.

It wasn't an upper room that was connected with the temple. It was an upper room that was connected with an ordinary house as we shall see in a few moments. And that's where God brought his people together.

Outside the confines of Jerusalem, outside of the establishment. And being gathered together in the name of the Lord Jesus in a simple room. And that's where the first prayer meeting was established in church history.

Doesn't that lift your heart? And wherever God finds a group of people who are really fervent in prayer and in love with each other. And Christ is the centre, he will bless. Now we'll have to forget all about the lots that were cast.

Pentecost and the Feast of Firstfruits

And we'll look now at Acts chapter 2 at these amazing verses 1 to 11. Let's read it together. 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 out of heaven as of a rushing mighty wind.

And it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as a fire and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. And began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noise abroad the multitude came together and were confounded. Because that every man heard them speak in his own language or as it should be translated in his own dialect.

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 his own tongue wherein he was born. Parvians and Medes, Elamites.

And dwellers in Mesopotamia and in Judea and Cappadocia. And in Pontus and in Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia in Egypt. And in the parts of Libya about Cyrene. Strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians.

We do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. And they were all amazed and were in doubt saying one to another. What meaneth this? Others mocking said these men are full of new wine.

Now there we see two things. We see the power that comes and we see the praise that was projected. Now let's look at it. When the day of Pentecost was fully come. The time of his coming. Now again may I say this to you.

You will never understand what that means until you understand Leviticus 23. Now in those feasts of Jehovah. And do try and get a grip of them because it's a gateway into the New Testament when you understand it.

The first feast as we have seen was the Passover that was fulfilled at Calvary. Secondly the next feast was the Feast of Firstfruits. And we have seen that that was fulfilled in the resurrection when Paul says Christ the Firstfruits.

Now note this. After Firstfruits there were 7 Sabbaths 49 days. And then the day following the 49th day which was a Sunday was the Feast of Pentecost. Now in the Feast of Pentecost they had all their sacrifices.

They had two lambs for a burnt offering. One bullock for a burnt offering. They had two rams for a burnt offering. Then they had the sin offering. And that was a goat and the peace offering of two lambs.

So with the feast there were the blood sacrifices. But the most important thing in the feast was two big loaves. I wish we could see them. Now these loaves were larger than the normal loaves that they had for the meal offering.

But there was something strange about those loaves. You see all the meal offerings had to be without leaven. But these two loaves had to have leaven. And these two loaves were presented. Now what do those two loaves speak of?

The Jews didn't understand it. They never did in the Old Testament. The spiritual ones understood what the sacrifices meant. Those that saw behind the sacrifice the Messiah coming and dying. They knew that but they didn't understand what those two loaves meant.

What did it mean? In Acts chapter 2 the Holy Spirit came down and all those 120 in that upper room were Jews. And they were all baptized into the body of Christ. When you come to Acts chapter 10 they were not Jews they were Gentiles.

And the Holy Spirit came and brought them into the body of Christ. So there are two distinct comings. Acts chapter 2, Acts chapter 10. One the Jews, the other the Gentiles. And so even in the Old Testament there were symbols of the Church of God being brought together both Jew and Gentile.

And Paul puts it lovely. For there is one baptism in the Holy Spirit which incorporates Jew and Gentile. And there's neither bond nor free for we're all one in Christ Jesus in the body of Christ. Now why should leaven be there?

The Holy Spirit as Dove and Fire

Now notice this. When the Holy Spirit came upon the Lord Jesus he did not come upon him as a flame of fire. How did it come upon him? The Holy Spirit came upon him as a dove. What does the dove mean? It's a symbol of absolute purity.

For the older ones it's a symbol of intrinsic purity. Why? Because there was nothing in the Lord Jesus that was inconducive to holiness. He was as holy as God himself. So it was a pure dove. But when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples he didn't come as a dove.

Note this. He came as a flame of fire. Why? To expose the flesh. To produce a conflict. To show that there's nothing that we can do to change it. And give us the power to say no to its dictates. That's why he's seen as a fire.

So can you see that? On the Lord Jesus the Holy Spirit came as a dove. On these disciples that had the leaven in them, the flesh it comes as a fire. And so that's the significance of Pentecost. Now do note this.

There will never be another Calvary. It's over and past. There will never be another resurrection of Christ. Here it comes. There will never, never be another Pentecost. It took place two thousand years ago and will never, never be repeated.

You see it's unbelief on our part to pray for the Holy Spirit to come. He has come, he has been poured out and he's in the Church of God. Now grasp that because that's important. Then I want you to note not only the time but notice the place.

The Upper Room, Unity, and the Rushing Mighty Wind

When the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place. Now I want you to see the irony of this. If you were in the temple you would see the priests going in and out doing their duties.

And there was the veil. But there was no shekinah glory. Herod's temple was one of the great masterpiece of building in the Roman world. It took at least 60 years to build. But when the Holy Spirit came and I want you to watch this it missed Herod's temple completely.

And the Holy Spirit came in an upper room. Why? No longer he dwells in temples made with hands. He dwells among his gathered people in simplicity. Isn't that remarkable? There was the establishment being rejected and a simple company of people had the great Pentecost.

Another interesting thing. Notice the conditions that prevail before he came with one accord in one place. Can you see there was this absolute unity. Now may I say this to you always pray that there might be unity and love in our local churches.

Where there is unity and love God blesses. Then I want you to know another interesting thing. Suddenly now that goes right the way through the book of the Acts. For instance in Acts chapter 4 when they were praying suddenly the place was shaken.

In Acts chapter 9 suddenly there was a life from heaven. And that man was saved. Acts chapter 16 suddenly there was an earthquake. Now this is interesting. A group of people may be praying for a mighty movement of the Spirit for 10 years.

And then suddenly it comes. It's how God works. And so we must continue in prayer and always remember on many occasions, not all occasions God works suddenly. And there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind.

Now I don't know if you've ever been in a rushing mighty wind. I was once in a rushing mighty wind there in Stornoway. And I was walking right near the cliff I shall never forget it. And up there in Stornoway right in the north, the north of Scotland going almost as it were to Greenland.

I was walking round this cliff admiring the scenery when suddenly a mighty wind came. And it was an awful experience. And I had to cling on to a rock and ask God to help me. Everything was going. Now that's the kind of wind that you have here.

A mighty wind. For instance we read in Scripture of a mighty wind. We read of a rushing wind. But this is the only time you will ever read in Scripture of a rushing mighty wind. Now what does it speak of?

It speaks of the mighty irresistible power of the Holy Spirit. Now may I say to all of you we need to get back to that. You see one thing we have lost in the Western world is this mighty manifestation of the power of the Spirit.

And every group of Christians that see real revival they get back to the upper room not praying for the Spirit to come but rediscovering the power of the Spirit. The rushing mighty wind. Now if you go through the book of the Acts you will find that rushing mighty wind in every chapter except one.

That's chapter 15 when they had a conference and a debate about whether the Gentiles should really come into the kingdom of God. That's the only chapter where there's no real blessing. Now if you go through Acts chapter 2 Peter preaches and when he preaches he preaches under the power of the Spirit and the people are convicted they are pricked in their heart and they cry out men and brethren what shall we do and Peter says repent and be baptized.

And 3000 were swept into the kingdom. What a wind. Acts chapter 3 he's going up to the temple with John and he sees a lame man that had been in that condition for nearly 40 years. The man had never walked in his life and he looks down at the man and says silver and gold are by none but such as I give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk and he went to lift him up and the man leapt up.

What a wind. Imagine you in that sitting position I guarantee you couldn't leap up even though you're young you'll crawl up a bit. But here was a man that's never walked in his life and when he hears rise up and walk he leapt up and walked up the power of the Spirit.

Then you read in Acts chapter 4 when they had prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled together. What was God doing? He was showing the action of the rushing mighty wind the mighty power of prayer.

And every group of Christians right the way through the history of the church have got back to the upper room and recaptured that power and they've seen it in their generation and may we see it in ours.

Spirit-Filled Assemblies and Believers

The rushing mighty wind. Then you will notice that the wind fills the room and this speaks not only of his presence but of his presidency and so in that room where they met the place was just filled with the Holy Spirit showing that as a company of people or if you like as an assembly they were Spirit filled.

But then you will notice this there appeared cloven tongues like as a fire and it sat upon each of them. Now let's imagine that we're there and what would happen would be there a tongue of fire would come on you on you, on you and settle on your head on you.

It would have been amazing and when that tongue of fire came upon the heads of the people they knew by that sign they had received the Holy Spirit and they were filled so there's two fillings. The room is filled with the wind and they are filled with the Spirit and what does that speak of?

A Spirit filled assembly and Spirit filled believers. Now if there's ever a need to get back to that it's today. Now we do not wait for the wind, why? Because the wind was associated with Pentecost and it was linked with the fact of the coming of the Spirit.

We do not wait for these tongues of fire that came once and will never come again but what we need to do is to get back as it were to a local church and ask God to really meet with us in power so that the company is filled and all the believers are filled and then God can begin to do something with us.

Then I want you to note what happens when they are filled with the Spirit. Look at verse 4 and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Now you will know something about these tongues if you look at verse 11 Cretes and Arabians we do hear them speak in our own tongues the wonderful works of God. Now what does this mean? These tongues were intelligent languages.

If you look at the nations that are mentioned here there are 13. If you look at the languages there are 9. And if you look at the people that were speaking them they were Galileans. Now unfortunately the Galileans were called by Edersheim the Cognizant of the East.

You see they weren't good speakers. You remember with the Apostle Peter it says his speech betrayeth him or bereath him. In other words you could tell a Galilean a mile off. You mustn't imagine that when Peter stood up on the day of Pentecost he spoke brilliant cultured Hebrew or Aramaic.

No, he spoke in the language of a Galilean. And therefore these people were not linguists. Far from it. And yet this is the miracle. These people had never learned these languages and yet when they were filled with the Holy Spirit they were speaking out the wonderful works of God and it must have been wonderful for people to have seen it.

Let's get the drama of it so that we see it and apply it to ourselves. There would be one Galilean speaking beautifully in another language and he would be speaking fluently in the language that the people could understand and he would be speaking about the wonderful works of God in creation.

And they were spellbound. Then someone else would be speaking about the glorious works of God that were shown among the children of Israel when they were going through the wilderness and he would be speaking about all the marvelous miracles.

...with their mouths open because they were not only speaking the language if you look carefully they were speaking the dialect. Now a missionary if it's a difficult language sometimes takes five years to learn that language so he can speak fluently.

But a very, very few missionaries learn the dialect. These people were not only speaking the language but they were learning speaking the dialect. And they were speaking out the wonderful works of God.

And then another person would be speaking out the wonderful works of God in the coming of Christ. Someone else would be speaking out the wonderful works of God concerning the work that he accomplished on the cross.

Another person would be speaking out the wonderful works of God in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And the ascension. You see they were speaking out the wonderful works of God. Why? Because they were filled.

Praise, Unity, and Priestly Participation

Now when God's people are filled with the Spirit they are not only filled with power but they are filled with praise. When God's people begin to praise then the world takes note. You say how do you know that?

In Acts chapter 2 the last verse we read this. They were praising God and having favor with the people. Now isn't it lovely when you meet a group of people who are rejoicing in the Lord and these early Christians after all their failure were met by God.

They were filled with the Spirit and then they were speaking out the wonderful works of God. But something else I want to share with you look at verse 11. But Peter standing up with the eleven lifted up his voice and said Ye men of Judea and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem be this known unto you and hearken unto my words.

Now this is not so much power this is not so much praise this is priestly participation. Now first of all when Peter stood up you will notice they stood up with him and that meant they were all there.

Not Peter standing up with seven. Peter standing up with the eleven. You see although they were only young Christians they had been joined together in the body of Christ and linked up with the head and now they were moving in unity and all the apostles they stood up with him and when Peter preached they were standing with him.

Lovely. Unfortunately today we don't function in unity like that. But here they had that complete unity. Then I want you to note something else. He not only stood up with the eleven they were all with him but they were all filled.

You know sometimes when I go into the back room in these modern days and you go to the prayer meeting they say all kinds of things and I hear them saying Lord lock out the preacher. Amen. Lord bring the preacher to the dust.

Amen. Lord let's not free the preacher. Yes. Fill him with the Holy Spirit. Yes. But what should we really do? Lord lock us all out. Bring us all to the dust. Fill us all with the Holy Spirit. You see they were all with him.

They were all filled. And then there's something else. When he stood up and preached it was a spontaneous message as we shall see in a moment. They were absolutely following every word that he was saying.

All there. All filled. All with him. And when he stood up and says we're not drunk with wine then it's not only the third hour that means it's not opening time. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joe.

You could almost see the eleven saying Amen. And when he got to that point after quoting Joe chapter 2 Jesus Christ of Nazareth a man approved of God. Hallelujah. With him. When he got to the point that you have crucified Yes.

That's true. They were with him. When he got to that point this same Jesus whom you have crucified God has made both Lord and Christ who were right behind him in the preaching. They weren't standing on their feet and someone nodding like that.

If Peter had a hymn book he would have hit him. Oh no. They weren't that critical saying oh you shouldn't have quoted Joe that's only partially fulfilling. They were all with him. Standing with him. Now that's the art of priestly participation.

So that when someone stands up and preaches we preach with them. Sisters preach. As he's preaching about sin you say Lord. As he preaches about the cross you quietly say Lord open their eyes. As he calls them to come you say Lord bring them there.

You're not there to hear a sermon. You know it. You're there to help the people. You know we were having a mission three years ago or a little longer in Melbourne. And there was an old man called Mr Chapman who was 91 and he went round all his neighbours inviting them to him.

And one night he brought six and I can see him coming in the Bayswater Community Centre and he's piled them all in. All quite respectable people because he was quite a wealthy man. And as I was preaching he was preaching with me.

And when I made the point of sin he was actually saying did you get that? Did you get that? And when I made the point if you die in your sins you will be lost. In fact he was too emphatic. But you see what was basically happening was this.

He was trying to stand up with me and preach the gospel. Now that's the secret that you have here. Peter standing up with eleven. Now let's look at Peter's sermon and it will not take long. First of all I want you to know it was spontaneous.

Peter's Spirit-Empowered Sermon

He didn't have a lot of notes with him. There was this criticism that they were drunk with wine. So Peter stepped forward and said we're not drunk with wine. And then off he went. Now this is the amazing thing.

Out of all the sermons in the book of the Acts this is the most classical. It's even better than the sermon Paul preached in Acts 17. It has a lovely introduction. It brings the scriptures very carefully together.

Especially those scriptures relating to Christ. And it has a beautiful conclusion. And yet the man who preached it was not a classical man. Secondly if you read this sermon there are more scriptures in this one sermon than any other sermon that you find in scripture.

52 of the scripture is a mere quotation of scripture and 48 is exposition. Think of that. And then remember this 50 days previous before this they didn't understand the death, burial and resurrection.

And now in those 40 days the Lord had instructed them and their memories were fired up so that he could stand up and give these long passages of scripture. He could quote Gerald chapter 2, Psalm 116 Psalm 16 I'm sorry and Psalm 110 and quote them perfectly.

Now may I say this to some of you young men and women who are thinking of going into the Lord's works. Memorise the Word of God. Fill your mind with it. So that when you're preaching you're quoting the Word of God.

And then I want you to note that his preaching was faithful. He went right to the point and he told the Jewish people that they had put the Lord Jesus on the cross and they were responsible for his death.

And yet this man 50 days before this denied his Lord before a little girl at a burning fire. And look at him now filled with the Holy Spirit speaking to thousands of Jewish people who had put the Lord on the cross and he accused them of placing the Messiah on a tree.

You see the courage that God had given to him and the faithfulness of preaching. And then lastly, I love this, it was fruitful. Notice what happens if you can and you'd like to turn over the scripture.

Look at verse 37 because it's a very important verse. The connecting verse is 36. Then let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made that same Jesus whom you have crucified both Lord and Christ.

Now when they heard this they were pricked in their heart. Now that word prick is the strongest word for pain in scripture outside of hell. The word is taken from the idea of a red hot needle going into the center of this part of the skin so that the poor victim says oh!

We used to have a boy in our school he suffered a little with obesity he was a lovely chap and one boy sat behind him and he could see his teeth coming through the back of his ear and the master was excreting his prick and one boy put the pin in him and he shut up and he got the cane over his paw.

Now if you can imagine that that's exactly what happened as Peter was preaching can you visualize it? Suddenly the spirit of God began to move and they were pricked to the heart, they were brought under conviction and they said to him men and brethren whatever shall we do we must get right with God.

You see now that's real conviction and wouldn't it be lovely if we saw that again. You see scenes like that broke out in the 18th century they broke out in the 19th century, they broke out in Wales. Can I give you a little description of what took place in Wales?

Revival, Conviction, and Gospel Fruitfulness

Round about 1950 I was there in a place called Clonesley and I was preaching in a public house and it was full of people and an old man came to me and this is what he said. In 1903 he says I was in this pub as a young man this shows the power of revival and he said all of a sudden something came over everybody in the pub.

It was as packed as it is now only with men and they all went into that gospel hall just over the road where you come from and every one of them got saved. Can you see all drinking and suddenly something hits them.

The conviction of sin and they went into that pub and all got into that gospel hall and all got saved. Furthermore so many people were converted that the pubs all closed and they were actually pouring the beer down the gutters.

The miners who got saved in the Welsh revival when they went down to the mines the pit ponies didn't understand them because they used to swear at the ponies in order to get them going and now they were converted they didn't swear and the ponies did not know what to do.