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From the Pastors at Joy

Acts 1-9: The Work of the Holy Spirit

Our journey through the New Testament continues in the book of Acts.  I missed a blog post, so I'm going to cover chapters 1-9 with this one.

"...you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."  This was the promise Jesus made to His disciples before He ascended into heaven.  And what a promise it was!  The Holy Spirit came upon the disciples with great and affirming power on the day of Pentecost, causing them to speak in the native tongues of the many who were gathered in Jerusalem.  What a miraculous and unmistakable sign of God's work!  We see many examples in these chapters of healings, signs and wonders, even resurrections to life.  Each of these examples should cause us to stand in awe of the healing power of God through the Holy Spirit. 

However, it can be easy to focus on or look for these types of examples of the Spirit's work and miss something just as, if not more, miraculous!  To this day, many within the Christian church are eagerly pursuing the works of the Holy Spirit, all the while diminishing something truly remarkable.  Namely, that the Holy Spirit regenerates and transforms God's people! 

The first nine chapters of Acts portray a people who are changed by the grace of God through the indwelling Holy Spirit!  Peter, who had recently denied even knowing Jesus, boldly proclaims the gospel to a hostile crowd.  Many in that hostile crowd are "cut to the heart," repent and believe by the power of the Spirit at work in them.  Peter and John are given the privilege and power to speak boldly before the council, and the grace to rejoice when they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Christ.  The Holy Spirit empowered the believers to consider everything they had as belonging to the entire church.  He empowered them to administer discipline within the church when Christ's reputation was being compromised.  He gave them wisdom to select men who would help distribute goods to the needy within the church.  He strengthened one of those men, Stephen, to represent Christ with boldness and humility before the council, and to glorify Christ even as he was being stoned to death for His name's sake.  The Holy Spirit empowered Philip to bring the gospel to Samaria, and empowered Peter to speak boldly to one who thought he could obtain the gift of God with money.  The Spirit prompted Philip to proclaim the gospel from Isaiah 53 to an Ethiopan eunuch who was returning to his homeland, and the man believed and was baptized.  And in chapter 9, we see the Holy Spirit at work in the life of Saul, an enemy of the church who was seeking to arrest and kill as many of the followers of Christ as possible.  This Saul, spiritually blind, is made physically blind to rouse him to life.  By the power of the Holy Spirit, he repents and believes in Jesus Christ unto salvation!  This enemy of the cross is even referred to as "Brother Saul" by Ananias!

The work of the Holy Spirit in building Christ's church to the Father's glory is staggering!  And He is still doing that work today!  You, church, are examples of the amazing work of the Holy Spirit!  We can tend to be so fixated on seeing "something miraculous" that we fail to see how miraculous regeneration and transformation are!  Through the preaching of the gospel, through Spirit-led repentance and faith enemies of God are brought from darkness to light, from blindness to sight.  Then the Spirit transforms us from one degree of glory to the next as we behold the face of Jesus Christ.  He unifies Christ's church, He gives us hearts that long to see God glorified in every corner of the earth.  These are no small things!  Praise God for the transforming power of His Holy Spirit through the gospel of Jesus Christ!  Acts 1-9 gives us the early glimpses of a work that continues to this very day, and will continue until the last day!  Never grow weary of meditating on and trusting in the power of God at work through His Holy Spirit!