Spirit-Led: Speaking by the Spirit

Well, it's good to be with you this morning. If we've not met, my name is Josh. And whether today is your very first time or you've been coming to Whitewater for 50 years, I believe God's up to something. He's been showing it over and over. We keep seeing God moving in the lives of the people here in our church, and I believe he's up to something in you today on purpose.

And our problem is we're often not paying attention to that. And if we would just lift our eyes and be paying attention, we might be able to see what God's up to today. We're in week two of this companion series to our Holy Spirit series called Spirit Led. If you missed the first three weeks of our Holy Spirit series, please go back and listen to that on YouTube. It just lays all the foundation for all the things that we're going to be talking about over the next several weeks.

This series was designed to move beyond simply gaining knowledge about who the Holy Spirit is and what he does and how to walk in him, and actually seeing and experiencing what it looks like when real people in a real time and place rely on the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit. We see this in the Book of Acts, but we want to see it in our lives, too. God launches his church into the world in the Book of Acts, but we also want to highlight what God is doing right here. And so before we jump into Acts, Chapter two, I just want to share a quick Holy Spirit story from someone right here in our body, if we'll watch. My name is Nathan Rogers.

I have been coming to Whitewater for seven, eight years. Kind of started serving in the nursery. Then we jumped to middle school and high school students, where I've been for the last probably five or six years.

The Holy Spirit recently has just been on me about, you know, in my everyday life and when I'm around people or serving to people or helping people in parking lots load their cars, sharing my faith, right? Why I am, who I am, and what I'm doing. At first, it's. It's this very nervous, kind of like, am I gonna say the right thing? Am I gonna do the right thing?

And I've just come to realize that, you know, like everybody else, the Holy Spirit just wants me to be honest and truthful and just transparent with where I've been, who I was, what the Holy Spirit and Jesus has done in my life. But it just. It's gotten so much easier to just do it and say what the Holy Spirit's guiding me to say because you just never know the one thing you say can help change somebody's life or plant that seed that then the Holy Spirit just gets to grow and nurture and lead somebody to faith.

Will you pray with me? Heavenly Father, King Jesus, Holy Spirit, we ask that you give us eyes to see and ears to hear what you are up to in our lives and in this world and throughout scripture. So teach us from your word today, convict us to act on what we learn and empower us as normal everyday believers to be your light in this world. In Jesus name, amen. I also want to tell you a Holy Spirit story that I've experienced last December into January.

I was looking ahead at the preaching calendar for 2026 and I knew we would be working through the book of Mark all the way up through Easter. And my plan was right after that we would go straigh into a Roman series that ran all the way through the end of the year. And as we were at the same time as a staff, we were praying the Holy Spirit prayers, very similar to the prayers that we've invited you all to pray on the half sheets. If you didn't get one, they're on the exits or on the tables at the exits on your way out. But we were praying these prayers together as a staff and we were praying, holy Spirit, come reform us from the inside out.

Teach us to listen and obey. Build us up through one another. Send us in your power. Have your way in us and through us. And as we prayed these prayers together, that's where it became obvious that God wanted us to take some time to talk about the Holy Spirit.

And so we bumped Romans and we put a three week series in there on the book of Acts. And I told Russ about it and Russ said, well, you know what you need to do right after that. And I said, no, what's that? And he said, the Book of Acts. I said, that's a great idea.

And so I bumped the Roman series and we added eight weeks on the book of Acts. And all of that leads us to today as we are in Acts chapter two and the story of Pentecost. And I wish that I could tell you that I was this thoughtful and observant, but the truth is I wasn't. I've just been trying to do whatever the next thing that the Holy Spirit put in front of me to do. And here's the wild part today as we study Pentecost and the Holy Spirit coming on the day of Pentecost In Acts chapter two, today is exactly 50 days after Easter.

It is Pentecost Sunday. This is Pentecost. I wish I had planned this. It would be brilliant.

But the Holy Spirit did. How cool is that? Now let's dig into what the Holy Spirit is so beautifully prepared for us to talk about today. Last week we talked about that transitional moment between the Gospels and the Book of Acts. Jesus is resurrected from the grave and 40 days afterwards he remains with his disciples, teaching them about the kingdom.

And he gives them the great commission to go into all the world, making disciples, baptizing them and teaching them to do everything he's commanded. And then he tells them to wait. And last week we said, what are they waiting for? Well, they're waiting on the power of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. He wants them to wait for the Holy Spirit, because as equipped as they might be from spending the last three years with him, they cannot do what he has in mind for them to do without the power of the Holy Spirit.

And so they wait. But they don't wait sitting on their hands. They don't wait passively. They wait actively, devoting themselves constantly to prayer. And how long do they wait?

Well, 10 more days. A total of 50 days. From the Resurrection to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We read about this in Acts chapter two, starting in verse one. This is the 50th day.

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Other tongues is literally other languages here now there were staying in Jerusalem, God fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.

This was one of the times of year that all the people from all around came to Jerusalem, from every tribe and nation and tongue. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked, aren't all these who are speaking Galileans? How is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus in Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene.

Visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs. We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues. Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, what does this mean? Some, however, made fun of them and said they've had too much wine. When you don't know how to explain what's going on, just blame alcohol.

Now, to be fair, this is a wild moment, right? There's something like fire that separates, splits off in different directions and rests on people. There's a sound like rushing when these ordinary Galileans are speaking real languages they don't know. That's a lot to take in. This is how God chooses to mark the moment when the Spirit is poured out onto his people.

And while this would already be an incredible moment on its own, what becomes truly stunning when you step back and look at the whole story of Scripture is that God has been preparing for this day, this moment, for more than a thousand years. When we look back through biblical history, we can see that God has been unfolding his rescue plan for the world, weaving it into the rhythm of the Jewish feasts we read about in the Old Testament. These feasts are not just random religious holidays. They are signposts. They're shadows.

They are prophetic markers pointing forward to God ultimately, to what God ultimately plans to accomplish through Jesus. Let me show you what I mean. This is mind blowing. The most repeated story in Israel's history is connected to the Jewish feast of of Passover. It's the story of how God brings his people out of slavery in Egypt after 400 years.

It's a story directly referenced over a hundred times all throughout Scripture. The turning point of Passover is when God gives his people instructions for how they are going to be redeemed. He tells them to take the blood of a lamb and to smear it over the doorposts of their homes. And that night, judgment passes over every house covered by the blood of the lamb, while the death of the firstborn comes to every home without the blood. Well, after that first Passover, generation after generation, Israel celebrates Passover to remember how God miraculously made a way for his people to be delivered through the blood of a lamb.

He makes a way where there was no way. And fast forward and we know this, the Gospels, and God again makes a way to deliver his people by sending his son to offer himself on the cross as the greater and final sacrificial lamb. Jesus dies on the day that Israel remembers God's deliverance. Jesus dies on Passover. Jesus dies on Passover.

And then three days later, he is raised from the dead on another feast. It's the feast of first fruits. First fruits was when Israel would bring the very first portion of the harvest, the grain harvest, before God. And they did this to thank God for what he had provided. But they did it also as a proclamation of faith that God would be the one who would bring an even greater fulfillment of the harvest to come.

Listen to how explicitly the Apostle Paul makes this connection between the first fruits and celebration and the resurrection of Jesus. It's in First Corinthians, chapter 15. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die.

He was the first to sin. So in Christ, all will be made alive, but each in turn, Christ, the first fruits, the beginning of the harvest. Then when he comes, those who belong to him, the fulfillment of the harvest. Jesus is the first fruits of resurrection life. His resurrection is not just a miracle for him, it is the first piece of a much greater harvest that's still coming.

Well after the feast of first Fruits, Israel is commanded to start counting. They are to count seven full weeks, seven sevens, 49 days. And at the end of 49 days, on the 50th day, they celebrate another feast. In Hebrew, it's called Shavuot, or the Feast of Weeks. In Greek, it's called Pentecost, and It just means 50th.

This is the day that God chooses to send His Holy Spirit. But there's one more connection to make here in Jesus time. Pentecost was also deeply connected to remembering Mount Sinai and the giving of the Ten Commandments. Because after the first Passover, after God rescues Israel through the blood of the Lamb as he causes them and leads them to pass through the waters of the Red Sea, Israel arrives at Mount Sinai, Jewish tradition says 50 days later. And what happens there at Sinai?

At Sinai, God descends on the mountain. Fire burns on the mountain. Wind and thunder fill the air. Smoke rises. The sound of God's voice echoes over the people.

God comes down in power and glory as he forms a covenant people for himself and gives them the law. But while Moses is up on the mountain with God, something tragic is happening down in the camp. The people grow impatient. They turn from the God who just rescued them, and they make a golden calf to worship. They worship an idol while the glory of God is still sitting on the mountain above them.

And in the cleansing judgment of God that follows this, about 3,000 people die in the camp because of their rebellion. Hold on to that number. We're going to hear it again, it's going to come back around. So back to the New Testament. Jesus is crucified on Passover, the same time lambs are being killed to commemorate how God rescues his people from Egypt.

And then he rises from the dead on the Feast of First Fruits, representing God's providence of the first fruits and the greater harvest to come. He remains with his disciples for 40 days. He ascends into heaven. And then 10 days later, on the 50th day, Pentecost, and the Holy Spirit comes. On that day, God descends in a way that sounds a lot like Sinai, doesn't it?

There's a mighty rushing wind. There are tongues of fire. There's sound of heaven filling the place. Luke is intentionally making us think about Sinai. This is a new Sinai kind of moment.

But instead of the presence of God descending onto a mountain while the people stand at a distance in fear, and at Pentecost, the presence of God descends directly onto and into his people. At Sinai, the law is written onto tablets of stone. At Pentecost, the Spirit begins writing God's new covenant law onto human hearts. At Sinai, only Moses goes up the mountain. At Pentecost, ordinary men and women become the dwelling place of God by the Holy Spirit.

At Pentecost, God's presence begins to live within them. And this is what all of history has been moving toward up to this point. Acts 2 is the fulfillment of centuries of longing, generations of shadows that are all pointing forward to something greater. The same God whose presence walked with Adam and Eve in the garden, the same God whose presence descended onto Sinai. It's the same God whose presence shows up in the tabernacle.

And then the temple now fills his new dwelling place. The new temple, his people. This is why Paul later says in First Corinthians, chapter six, he says, or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body here at Pentecost, at this massive intersection of history and prophecy and fulfillment and covenant and harvest and Sinai and resurrection and Spirit.

Luke says, the fire separates and rests on each one of them. And then Peter stands up to explain to everyone what this is all about. Verse 14. Then Peter stood up with the 11. Judas is gone at this point, raised his voice and addressed the crowd.

Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you. Listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk as you suppose it's only nine in the morning? No. This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel.

And then he quotes Joel. In the last days, God says, I will pour out my spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my spirit in those days and they will prophesy. Joel promised that there would come a day when God would pour out his spirit onto and into his people.

Not just prophets, priests and kings, not just a chosen few. Joel said a day was coming that God would pour out his spirit on sons and daughters, young and old, servants and masters, men and women. Ordinary people from every layer of society would receive the spirit of God and proclaim his truth. And Peter stands up on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter two. And he said, that's today.

Pentecost is the day that God throws open the doors of spirit empowered life to all of his people. The Holy Spirit is no longer coming temporarily upon a few people. The Holy Spirit is being poured out broadly on the people of God. Acts 2 says, they were all together in one place and all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit. And what is the message that God has so incredibly prepared for and miraculously empowered them to speak in every language?

It's Jesus. It's Jesus. As Peter continues this spirit empowered sermon, here's the summary of what he says. In verses 22 through 36. He says, Everybody listen.

Jesus of Nazareth was not just some random teacher or prophet. God made it clear who he was through his miracles and wonders and signs. And many of you saw those things happen. You know what God did through him. Still, you handed him over.

You put him on a cross. You killed him. But make no mistake, in no way does that mean that God was not still in control. Jesus was delivered up according to the deliberate plan and foreknowledge of God on purpose, with. With a purpose.

You meant it for evil. God was working his rescue plan through it. You killed him. God raised him from the dead. Death couldn't hold him.

The grave couldn't keep him. King David even spoke about this. He said when he said that God would not abandon his Holy One to the grave or let his body see decay. He said, David wasn't talking about himself. You know how we know?

Because David is dead. His tomb is right here. We know it. David was pointing to Jesus. He says, and now we're telling you plainly.

God has raised Jesus to life and we are witnesses of it. And not only has Jesus been raised from the dead as the first fruits, he has been exalted to the right hand of the Father. And right now, today, he has poured out his Spirit. And that is what you are seeing and hearing. And he closes with these words.

God has made this Jesus whom you crucified. Both Lord and Messiah. The message is Jesus. It's all about Jesus. The whole point of all of this is Jesus.

Then we pick up in verse 37 and we see what happens, what the response is. When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart. And they said to Peter and the apostles, brothers, what shall we do? Peter replied, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off. For all whom the Lord our God will call. With many other words, he warned them and he pleaded with them. Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.

Those who accepted this message were baptized. And about 3,000 of them were added to their number that day. Remember at Sinai, 3,000 people died because of their rebellion. At Pentecost, 3,000 people come to life through repentance, baptism and faith in Jesus. This is one story.

This is not lots of little stories. This is one story. It is so important when we read Scripture that we recognize that God is always up to far more than we can even imagine. The One who spoke everything into existence is still the One who is holding all things together. Even now.

For 1500 years, he was working and preparing and setting up this moment. And no one saw it coming where all of it would come together.

And I think we make a huge mistake when we read Acts chapter two. I think most often we read what happens here. And we believe that the main story is that people are miraculously speaking in tongues. Tongues, Church. God is up to so much more than that.

Sometimes when we talk about the Holy Spirit, we just get fixated on the power and the miraculous and the exciting. We want wind and fire and signs and dramatic moments. And listen, God can still do whatever he wants to do. I don't think we should ever become so afraid of supernatural things that we explain them all away.

But sometimes when we talk about the Holy Spirit, we can get fixated on the miraculous. But Acts 2 will not let us turn the Holy Spirit into nothing more than a spiritual fireworks show. The Spirit comes in miraculous power to do way more than cause people to speak in tongues. He certainly does. But he does way more.

He comes to empower witnesses, to boldly proclaim the gospel. He comes to convict unbelievers of their sin and need for Jesus. He comes to gather more and more people into the kingdom. But the most important thing the Holy Spirit comes to do is make Jesus seen and known. People did not come to faith that day because the disciples spoke in tongues.

It wasn't because of the fire or the wind. They came to faith because they finally saw Jesus for who he actually was. The wind and fire and sound and languages that drew the crowd. It was the sign that this is from God. But what cuts 3,000 people to the heart and inspires them to repent and confess Jesus as Lord is seeing for the first time that Jesus is actually who he said he was, that he has done what the scriptures said for over a thousand years he would do.

What brings 3,000 people to life is seeing Jesus, not spectacle or hype, not emotional manipulation. 3,000 people come to faith when the gospel of Jesus is proclaimed through ordinary people filled with the Holy Spirit. This is the fulfillment of what Jesus told them back in Acts 1:8. He said, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you to do what? And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth all the way to Cleves, Ohio.

A few weeks ago, we looked at the wide range of things that the Holy Spirit does through Scripture. He comforts and convicts and empowers and guides and gifts and sanctifies and transforms and so many other things. But underneath all of that, the primary work of the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus. The Holy Spirit works in the lives of believers by making us look more and more like Jesus so that the world can see him through us. Through the ongoing work of sanctification, he reshapes our desires and changes our hearts and confronts our sins and produces his fruit within us of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.

That's not from us, that's from Him. He takes ordinary people and begins forming the character of Jesus with He empowers selfish people to become generous, fearful people to become courageous, bitter people to become forgiving, distracted people to become attentive to God, prideful people to become humble in recognition of what he has done. He empowers ordinary believers to love like Jesus and serve like Jesus and endure like Jesus and speak like Jesus and boldly proclaim Jesus. And as believers gathered together in real Christian community, just like this, we get to see more and more of Jesus in one another. We begin seeing his grace in one another, his patience, his compassion, his truth, his forgiveness, his courage.

The church together begins reflecting the character and presence of Jesus to the world by the power of the Holy Spirit. And then, as we scatter back out into our homes and neighborhoods and workplaces and schools and friendships and communities, our lives are intended to be gospel epicenters where the presence and message of Jesus radiates outward into the world around us. They see him in us. And at the same time, the Holy Spirit's also at work in the lives of unbelievers. He's convicting them of sin, awakening them to their need for grace.

He's calling them to repentance. He's opening blind eyes to the overwhelming love and mercy that Jesus poured out through the cross. In his resurrection, the Holy Spirit is constantly making Jesus seen and known, and he's doing that through us. This is how Paul puts it in 2nd Corinthians 5. And he died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again.

So from now on, we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old is gone, the new is here. All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

That God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against Him. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. That's the message of Christ. We are therefore, Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. And when we sing those words that one day we will go to heaven and we will be dressed in nothing but his righteousness, it will all be ultimately fulfilled. Acts 2 is not just the story of what God did. It's the story of what God is doing. God still fills ordinary people with His Spirit.

He still convicts hearts. He still reconciles people to Himself. He still transforms lives, empowers witnesses, builds his church, turns fearful people into courageous people, and calls unbelievers into belief. He is still doing Acts two work today.

And maybe, like the crowd in Acts two, you're beginning to see Jesus for the first time. Maybe you've heard about him before. But today something's different. Maybe the Holy Spirit is working in you right now. You see him really as Lord.

You see that he really did die for your sin, that he really does love you, that he really did rise from the grave, that he really is inviting you into new life. And maybe your response today is the same question that those people asked, what do I do? And the answer is the exact same answer they gave. Repent, turn to Jesus, be baptized, receive forgiveness, and receive the gift of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit so that you can get on this train too and start looking more and more like Jesus so that others can know him too. And for those of us who are already following Jesus, Pentecost reminds us that we are not spectators in the Kingdom of God.

We are spirit filled ambassadors of Jesus Christ Church. Hear me. You are not accidentally where you live, you are not accidentally where you work. It is no accident who your neighbors are, who your co workers are, who your classmates are, who God has placed you around. God has placed His Spirit within you.

So that wherever you go, the presence and message and likeness of Jesus is intended to radiate out the through your life. This is what it means to be a gospel epicenter. Not someday when you have your life together. Right now, right now, in ordinary places, in everyday moments, the Holy Spirit is empowering you to look like Jesus. And yes, it's crazy.

Yes, it's crazy. Yes, it seems impossible. Yes, you will look in that mirror and you will say, how could Christ be magnified in this? But the promise of scripture is that that's how it works. These aren't my words.

I'm not just rooting you on. The Holy Spirit has revealed himself in scripture as the one who empowers us to look like Christ so that other believers can see Jesus. So that we can see Jesus more in ourselves. So that when something comes out of our mouth and we say we would never say that, but Jesus would say that that's what the Holy Spirit in us and so that the world may see Jesus too, through us. And so whatever God's calling you today, maybe it's repentance that you've been walking and squelching this Holy Spirit power inside of you.

Maybe it's to come to him for the first time and see him as he truly is. Maybe it's just to recognize for the first time that this week the Holy Spirit is calling you and empowering you to live an Acts 2 kind of life.