The Power Of The Spirit In The Early Church — Sandeep Poonen

And once again, it's a good thing to move front and center. I know it's maybe more comfortable in the back, but it helps the speaker and it helps us all if we're all together, so if you could move closer, not just now, but during the other services, that would be great.

Thank you.

It's a pleasure to be here. I'm going to read, start by reading something in 2 Peter 1, 2 Peter 1, verses 2 through 4. 2 Peter 1, grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, seeing that his divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence.

The Need for the Holy Spirit in Personal Christian Life

For by these he has granted to us his precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. I was asked to speak on the early church and the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and I wanted to start by talking about the need for the Holy Spirit, first of all, in our own lives, and this verse, this series of verses is something that constantly comes like a sword towards me.

I'll tell you why. I want to kind of be able to explain that and set that up as the reason why we really need the Holy Spirit. You know, we hear the statement that Christianity is not a methodology, it's not a philosophy.

It's not a set of statements. It's not a set of truths that we believe. It's not a religion. It's a relationship. These are phrases we use, but I'll tell you something. As I look at my own life, as much as I hold fast to that, it's very difficult for me to look at my own life and not see that there's a constant urge and a constant pulsing within myself to reduce my religion, my Christianity, to a set of rules.

If I look back at my life, and I want you to think about your present Christianity, does it oscillate between being generally content during the day because you're following the commands of God as you know it, that you're not sinning in some particular way that you used to sin with, and you comfort yourself that God is with you, and then oscillating between that and sometimes being discontent because you're disobeying God's word in some area, that you're allowing anger to settle in, or a bitterness, or an envy, or a lack of forgiveness, or lust, or whatever it is, and that you slip back into something that you thought you departed from, so you oscillate between that, you go back to the contentment when you repent about it.

Is that your Christian life? Is that my Christian life? That's where I was saying, I noticed that it's, for me too, can slowly devolve into those two sets of emotions, those two sets of beliefs, and I've noticed that in that there is also a set of rules that are settled in.

The old covenant was a law, a set of law given by Moses. Now we're not under the law, we're not under the old covenant, we're under the new covenant, the old covenant's obsolete, is what Hebrew says. But a new covenant can also be a new set of rules.

The rule is not do not commit adultery, the rule is don't lust, but now lusting becomes the rule. The old covenant said don't murder, the new covenant says don't even get angry, well now anger becomes the rule, and as long as I'm following the rules, I'm okay.

I'm okay with myself, and when I'm not obeying the rules, I'm not okay. And I don't even believe that the Christian life is meant to be a life where I'm exhibiting what are the virtues written in Galatians 5, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness.

This is what I mean by that, because those virtues can be birthed, those virtues of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, can be birthed out of a lot of self-will. Self-discipline. I know this, I've come from India, where there are other religions too, where there are lots of very sincere people who demonstrate a fair amount of patience, a lot more than we see among most Christians, and temperance, and kindness, and goodness.

I've seen it in myself, water that drips out of a towel that is squeezed. And I can make my Christianity to be that. Constantly looking, okay, I need a little bit more kindness, I need a little bit more goodness, so I grit my teeth and I try a little bit harder.

And I want to compare that to what we read in 2 Peter 1, verses 2 through 4. This is the standard, and let's read that again slowly, and let me just point out what I see. Here's the promise of the Christian life.

What I said compared to what is written here. Verse 3, it says that God's divine power has granted me everything pertaining to life and godliness. Then in verse 4 it says, by this divine power he's granted me promises.

A whole lot of promises in this book, are all kinds of promises. Sin shall not have dominion over you. It's not a command, it's a promise. Because you're under grace, you're not under law, it's a promise.

I'll always conquer through Christ. Overwhelmingly conquer, it's a promise. What shall separate me from the love of Christ? Nothing, that's a promise. Now God's given me all these promises. That's where it gets, for me, the rubber hits the road, because in verse 4 it says, by these promises, so that, what's the reason he's given us these promises in verse 4?

So that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature. Not start to look a little bit like what Jesus looked like. Not have fruit that resembles the fruit of the Holy Spirit. But partaking of the divine nature.

You know what your nature is? I don't need to tell you, you know it better than I do. I know what my nature is, we're all called what we have, human nature. Nature, not behavior, nature. God is telling me that these promises in this book, has got to take me to the point, that by those promises, I partake of, I take part of, you know we partake in a meal.

We consume the divine nature itself. How are we doing? In terms of being able to say, yes, I can attest that I have been living my life, by reading these promises, being able to take in the very divine nature.

That my fundamental nature has been changing. It's not a behavior modification program. It's not a methodology. It's not a philosophy. It's a partaking of the divine nature. That word partaking is the same word that's in fellowship.

Fellow sharers, God the Father, God the Son, and us. Fellow sharers of the divine nature. Is that blasphemous? It would be if it wasn't written in God's word. When I compare myself to this, I'll tell you I find that I am the most in need.

This is the standard. 1 John 1 verse 3, if you don't know, one of my favorite verses. What we have seen and heard, just a couple of pages over. What we have seen and heard, we proclaim to you also. Said that you too may have fellowship with us.

John, the apostle John, touched the physical body of Jesus. Leaned on his breath, smelled him, felt him. He says, what we have seen, heard, touched, we're sharing with you that you may have not adore me because I touched Jesus and you didn't.

Or look up to me because, yeah, I was there. I saw Jesus. Touched his hand before he had the nails. All that's great. But what I want to share with you is fellowship. And the fellowship I have is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

Again, that same concept here. This is why I'm here, to tell you that what you must have with me is what I have with the Father and the Son. That's what the apostle John was saying. It's a feasting. It's a fellow sharing with the Father and the Son.

Receiving the Holy Spirit Through Personal Need

How can we do this? Fellow sharing with the divine nature. Some feet of strength, some great gritting your teeth, some resolving to get up at five in the morning and pray for two hours now, reading one hour of Bible every day, partaking of the divine nature.

Partaking of the divine nature, we'll quickly come to the end of ourselves. And we say, Lord Jesus, we need your Holy Spirit. Not to bring revival out there, to stop homosexuality out there, not to stop abortion out there.

Way before that happens, it happens with me personally. To say, Lord, I need divine nature. Otherwise, I'm way short. Who am I to preach about this good news when I'm failing miserably to partake of the divine nature?

Lord, I need your Holy Spirit. Not to make limbs grow up, not to make dead people get up, but for me to partake of the divine nature. And I think part of the problem is because we Christians have made the bar lower than that.

We have looked at that bar, partaking of the divine nature, and said, that's almost blasphemous. That's not realistic. It's far from the reality in my life. So let me preach a lower level of Holy Spirit indwelling me.

But the end result is there's not this gutted personal need for the Holy Spirit in my own life. That I say, oh, I need revival in the land. I make it so broad, but there's not a gutted sense of I'm the one most in need.

That sense is lost because my standard of what it really means as Christian life is, yeah, I should be living a good life. I should stop watching pornography. I should stop shouting at my wife. I should generally be kind to other people.

Should pay my taxes, et cetera, et cetera. And I'm doing it. So now it's my turn to help everybody else get to where I'm at. And that primal sense of, Lord, I am most in need is lost. I want to start with that and say there's no need for the ministry of the Holy Spirit out there if it doesn't start with a great deep need for the Holy Spirit in here.

That's where I, standing on the pulpit, must recognize that I have a much greater need than any of you because I know myself. I know the thoughts that run through my mind, even sitting in the back this morning.

And how it is a fight to keep the temple of the Holy Spirit, me, pure. Then I say, Lord, I need you for me most of all. It is from that basis. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying, well, I'm not interested in the sins out there.

I have opportunities to speak and I'll speak at times against sins out there. But it should never be. It should never be that I get so focused or get too focused on the sins out there that I don't constantly come back to the fact that I am myself fall oh so woefully short of the standard that God set for me.

How short I fall. It is this spirit with which the Holy Spirit is birthed from that desperate sense of need. I always think of the way the Holy Spirit came upon the first human being to live inside of that human being.

You know who it was? Mary, not the day of Pentecost. Mary was the first human being on whom the Holy Spirit descended and lived, came within her and conceived. As impossible as it is for a virgin to birth a baby is as impossible is it for you to live the Christian life, to partake of the divine nature, that Christian life.

You want peace, patience, kindness in some human sense, you can get it. You can train your self-will and self-discipline and get there. But you want to partake of the divine nature? How can it be is what Mary said, I'm a virgin.

And then the angel of the Lord responds to Mary, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and you will be filled with power from on high. But do you see yourself as a virgin trying to birth a baby? The life of Christ, that's what Mary birthed, the first body of Christ.

Have we gotten to that sense of impossibility in ourselves? If that's not them, how can the Holy Spirit come upon us? That's the way the Holy Spirit came upon us in the first cause when Jesus was birthed in the physical sense through the body of Mary.

And it's that same spirit that was in the church. And it is out of that that we read in Acts 24 verse 49. It was in that spirit that, I'm sorry, Luke 24 verse 49, where Jesus said, Behold, I'm sending forth the promise of my Father upon you.

But you are to stay in this city until you're clothed with power from on high. And he was talking about the Holy Spirit coming upon them to live in them. The first church was given a very strict order here.

Don't go anywhere. Don't do anything. Don't think about telling anybody about Jesus, the resurrected Jesus. I know you saw me, but don't think about telling anybody about Jesus. Don't go about healing anybody.

Do you know the disciples healed people even before Jesus died? They had the power to heal. Read Luke chapter 10. They had the power to heal. Jesus said, Don't do any of that. Stay in the city. Stay in Jerusalem.

Because this was something different that was going to happen. This was not just going out and starting to heal people. They did that even when Jesus was around. Stay in the city. Don't think about going to as a missionary anywhere.

Don't think about evangelizing anybody. Don't think that you can start preaching messages, anything. Don't think about all of that until you are filled with the Holy Spirit. If we don't have that need for the Holy Spirit in our own lives, because we've seen our own lack.

It's not the Holy Spirit's not complicated to receive. The Holy Spirit is as simple as receiving as a child receives bread. A hungry child receives bread from a father. It's that simple. It's not complicated.

I don't believe in tearing for years and years waiting for Holy Spirit. It's very simple for me. If I'm hungry as a child is hungry for bread. The loving father gives me the Holy Spirit to overcome sin.

And John chapter 14 verse 16. This is what the Holy Spirit was given to do when Jesus was talking about the Holy Spirit. John chapter 14. This is what the Holy Spirit was going to do. He was going to come and live.

Verse 17. He says that you know him because he abides with you and will be in you. This was why we could partake of the divine nature. This is why David couldn't partake of the divine nature. This is why John the Baptist couldn't partake of the divine nature.

Because they didn't have the Holy Spirit living inside of them. The Holy Spirit came upon them, but the Holy Spirit could not live inside of them. David didn't have a clean temple. His heart was not cleansed by the blood of Jesus.

Hebrews 9 14. Cleansed by the blood of Jesus. It was only because of the finished work of Jesus on the cross. When the blood cleanses our temple that now the Holy Spirit can come and live in this clean temple.

That's why David couldn't do it. That's why Moses couldn't do it. Doesn't make us better than them. But we have an opportunity they didn't. To have our hearts cleansed by the blood of Jesus. So that our hearts became the house in which the Holy Spirit can dwell.

And the reason the Holy Spirit comes to dwell is so that we can partake of the divine nature. So that I can share with the fellowship. That father, son, and me. Because of the Holy Spirit in me can be in communion and union.

That's the first work of the Holy Spirit that he wants to do. That is why John 16 7 makes sense. Look at John 16 7. I don't know if you understand this verse. I tell you that it is to your advantage that I go away.

For if I do not go away the helper will not come to you. Do you really believe brother and sister, saint of God. Do you really believe that it would be. It is better that the Holy Spirit is in you. And Jesus is not standing next to you.

Than for Jesus to be physically standing next to you. How often have we wished man. I wish I was walking back 2 ,000 years ago and Jesus was right there. I have. Have you? Do you think your life would be easier to always have Jesus right next to you?

I have thought that. Unscriptural. It is better that I go away and I leave you. So that I'm no longer here next to you. You know why? Because I want to give you something better. I want you to have somebody in you.

Have we in this room listening to my voice. Have we embodied this? This difference that we cherish the Holy Spirit who has come to live inside of me. If I have not recognized and embodied that difference.

I have missed the very core of the Christian message. The very core. Because the core is that I partake of the divine nature. Not that I end up being some kind of good Christian. I partake of God's nature.

I can't say that enough number of times to recognize how far I fall short. We fall short of that. That is why Paul could say, I'm the chief of sinners. The least of the apostles. Least of the saints. You think he was ogling at women walking down the street?

Absolutely not. Do you think he was shouting at his co-workers? No. Partaking of the divine nature was what he was reaching for. That I may be found in him. To know him. Know him. Like a bridegroom knows a bride.

Like the father knows the son. I fall short. Not like I have attained. But I press forward. With that as a background. With a personal need for the Holy Spirit. With a waiting in Jerusalem. Not saying, Lord, I'm ready to do it.

Until I know that you and I are one. That I have surrendered everything. That was the ministry of the Holy Spirit. That began not even in the early church. But before the very first church started. And it is with that in mind that we see in Acts chapter 2 verse 1.

Unity as the First Mark of the Spirit-Filled Church

That the Holy Spirit came. I just want to talk about a few points here and there. I don't want to spend a lot of time on each point. But I want to talk about the first church. And then a little bit of the early church.

And what are some of the nuggets that I draw out of. The characteristic that described the Holy Spirit working among them in the early church. You read in Acts chapter 2 verse 1. And that's the one phrase I want to talk about.

They were all together in one accord. They were all together in one accord. And then in Acts 4 24. You don't have to turn there. The same thing happens. The next time we see that the same group of the apostles.

And the Christians are filled with the Holy Spirit. They too. They lifted up their voice with one accord. And this is the first moving of the Holy. This is the first point I want to make about the moving of the Holy Spirit.

In the church. And it is unity. It is a unity that must happen among believers. All men shall know you're my disciples because you hand out tracts to them. Because you have a good feeding program. Because you have a good missions outreach program.

No. All the world shall know you're my disciples because you love one another. There's a unity. There's a deep intimate love. That the father in John 17. Jesus said Lord I pray that as you and I are one.

That they will be one with one another. It is a unity. That is for me the fundamental mark of the Holy Spirit working in and through me. That is what the local church is. So when I think about the subject that I was given.

The early church and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The primary, the very first mark that in my local church I look for. To see whether the ministry of the Holy Spirit is active. Is whether I am becoming one with my brothers and sisters.

Is that happening in your local church? That you're becoming one? It was an absolute revelation to me. Changed my walk. When I, God opened my eyes to see that God was not interested in individually holy people.

In the new covenant. You'll say that's wrong theology. Hold on. God was interested in individually holy people to become one with one another. It's a big difference. That is why I'm not monastic. It'll be so much easier for some of those temptations that I presently struggle with.

To just disappear if I just joined a monastery. But that's not the goal that I'm looking for and I never knew why. Because I said Lord it'll be easier for me to be holy. Yes it would. But God's not interested as holiness is the goal.

God is interested as holiness that leads to unity. Holiness is imperative. Don't get me wrong. You won't be able to be united with the Father and the Son if you're not interested in being holy. The spirit is called the Holy Spirit.

Not the gift of tongues spirit. Not the healing spirit. Not the love spirit. But the Holy Spirit. So yes the Holy Spirit will make you holy. But it is so that you can be one. Who are you one with? Dear Saint of God.

I hope if you're married to your wife. I hope we're trying to get there. First of all she is your neighbor. Your closest neighbor. And then the local church. It was a revelation to me. It redeemed my view of the church.

I was sitting in a church and I was disgusted. And I was disappointed in myself and in the church. I said Lord what's the need for it? I can sit at home and I can listen to sermons. And I can get really good at becoming a good Christian.

But why need the church? I don't like the songs they sing anyways. I don't like the hypocrisy I see anyways. I don't like the sermons I hear anyways. But God gave me a fresh revelation of why the church is so important.

God's not interested in you just being holy. God wants you to be holy so that you can be one with the brothers and sisters in the church. Now if they don't love the Jesus. If they're not connected to the head.

You can't be one with them. They're not interested in being a part of the body of Christ working together. If this thumb decides to check out of the rest of the fingers. Nothing I can do about that. There's nothing the rest of the fingers can do about it.

But are you trying? Are you doing your part? Are you checking out? Saying I got to be on my own. I got sermons to watch. I got my podcast filled up. Just got a fresh download of new sermons. So I don't need to be one with other members in the body of Christ.

Unity. I think much about Jesus's last prayer in John chapter 17. Last thoughts before he died. When he was thinking about his disciples and us. He said, Lord, I pray that they may be one. Jesus, what about holiness?

Yeah, holiness of course. Sanctify them in the truth. Consecrate them. But that they may be one. As the Father and I are one. That they may know that you love them as much as you love me. It's a unity between brothers and sisters in the local church.

That is the primary mark of the Holy Spirit moving. I speak as an elder of a church in my local church. That is the fundamental mark I look for in my personal life. If I don't see a unity with my fellow elders, I am not one.

And the ministry of the Holy Spirit is fundamentally hindered. I don't care how many people I preach to in public seminars or conferences. This is where the Holy Spirit must move in each of our Christian lives.

Young people, are you one with brothers your age or sisters your age? Are you seeking to be one with the 30 and the 40 year olds? That should be the local church. Jesus loves the church. Gave himself up for the church.

There's going to be pure persecution because the devil hates Jesus. Listen, this has comforted me. I might face persecution, but that's not because the devil hates me. It's because the devil hates the Holy Spirit who's in me.

Who's trying to make me the bride of Christ. Who's trying to make me the body of Christ. The devil hates Christ. It's because I choose to be in Christ that the devil hates me too. That's where the allegiance comes in.

He doesn't hate you. He hates Christ. And because you choose to be in the body of Christ, but you have to make that choice. So I say, Lord, I am making that choice to be in the body of Christ. Then I'll face persecution.

But if they persecuted the head, they'll persecute the body. If they persecute the bridegroom, they'll persecute the bride. Comes with the territory. Make it about your allegiance to Jesus Christ. Let that be non-negotiable.

Make it an allegiance to the others who claim the name of Jesus. In this day and age where the internet and walls are built up, especially in America, it is so easy for us to closet ourselves. In a time and age where churches are half-hearted and so few churches preach the truth, it is easy for some of us who are wholehearted, who love listening to Finney and Wesley and all the other ones, or love reading these books, to closet ourselves.

And to become solo artists who have our private devotion and have our private intimacy with Jesus and never hear the call of God to become one with other brothers and sisters in our locality. And if it isn't there, say, I have prayed this to the Lord many times.

Lord, if you pack up our church in San Jose, California, I will move because I know you want me to be one. And if there's not one Christian brother or sister in San Jose, California that I can be one with, take me somewhere where I can demonstrate the beauty of the church.

Don't be satisfied with individual holiness. Use that as a stepping stone to say, Lord Jesus, I want holiness. I want the fruit of the Spirit. Without holiness, no one will see the Lord. But I want to have that holiness so that I can be one with other people because it's with that unity that others will say, they are disciples of Jesus Christ.

Boldness, Holiness, and Hatred of Sin in the Early Church

It's when I lose that prime inward focus and say, Lord, that inward focus is so that I can be one with other people. The other two things I see about the first church, we saw about Acts 4 verse 24, it talks about how they spoke the words with boldness.

This stuttering Peter who couldn't acknowledge Jesus to a servant girl stands up with the 11. Stands up with the 11. I hope you noticed that in Acts chapter 2 verse 14. He didn't stand up alone. The 11 are right there with him.

There's no solo artist ministry anymore. Peter's the one who spoke, but the 11 are right there with him. And Acts 4 29 through 31, it also says that too, that they were all praying and it's in light of their threatenings, in light of the persecution that they were starting to get.

Not yet persecution, just threatening, just insults. Not the real kind where they take our wives and our spouses and all of that. But in the light of the threatenings, grant us boldness to speak the word.

And they were filled with the Holy Spirit. And what happened when they were filled with the Holy Spirit is they spoke the word with boldness. There's a confidence. There's an increasing confidence that I noticed in the first Christians.

As I read Fox's Book of Martyrs who went singing to the stake. There's a confidence that increases in us. I don't speak as one who has been threatened with a stake. But I will tell you this, that as I have sought to be unified with Christ more in my personal life, I care less and less what people think about me.

I care what Christ thinks about me. That doesn't mean like I act like a fool or I'm unkind and I'm not sensitive to people's feelings and opinions. I don't want to insult them. But the more I'm directed to the Father and the Son and that communion and union with the Father and the Son is what matters.

I have more confidence in what I believe. I'm more fully persuaded in what I believe. Because He and I, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit in me are communing more. And I'm confident that I don't have to be worried about what will happen when they come to try and take my children away because the same Father and the Son who I've been looking at will give me the strength.

But there must be an increasing boldness that is on the inside, not something I muster up. It is an increasing boldness because He's the one I'm constantly looking at. He's my constant reality. I've seen that.

And again, I mean, as we've noticed, the ones we sometimes have to speak out first against is the religious leaders. It's standing up to religiosity in the Christian world that's usually the first test before we're asked to stand up to the persecution out there in the world.

We have to be careful how we speak out. There's a lot of foolishness in the way we speak out. It's easy for many of us to listen to enough Phinney that we can also preach fiery sermons. You just need a little bit of talent and the knowledge of God's Word to preach like Phinney in the words.

But boldness that comes with the filling of the Holy Spirit is a lot different. There's wisdom in there. There's a reverence for God in there. There's a love for people that's willing to die for them, even as we say such words that must accompany any fiery sermon.

And along with this boldness comes a hatred for sin. Because right after that in Acts chapter 5, I see what happens when Ananias and Sapphira, most of you know that story, came to the church and tried to deceive the apostles that they had sold all of their property.

You know, some people think that, hey, the mark of the early church is they sold everything and had everything in common. It says in Acts chapter 2, it says in Acts chapter 4. But Acts chapter 5 tells me that Peter was saying, it was your property, you didn't need to sell it.

You would have been fine sitting in the church as a wholehearted believer, even if you didn't sell your property. While it remained unsold, Acts chapter 5 verse 4, did it not remain your own after it was sold?

Was it not under your control, the money? God loves a cheerful giver. So it's not about everybody, this is the mark of the early church, that everybody sells everything. No, if they want to, they do it.

If they don't want to, that's fine too. It was under your control. But what God hated over here was the deceit and the hypocrisy that Ananias and Sapphira had, pretending that they were like the other wholehearted people.

I want you to think about that. That the sins that are most serious, that God took most seriously was the sin inside the church. Inside the church. And the sin of deceit and hypocrisy. The sin of being dishonest.

The sin of saying one thing and living another. The sin of preaching a high lifestyle but living an ordinary lifestyle. Those who stand up and speak are the most guilty of it. People like me, preach a high lifestyle.

But don't see that tremendous need. And don't make it evident to those who are sitting there that I too am one under great need. I fear that hypocrisy and dishonesty will come in because I am enamored by what all other people did in the name of Jesus.