Pastor Leon Seaton

The Acts of the Holy Spirit

When Jimmy Carter was running for President of the United States, one powerful question almost went unnoticed by the national media. One Sunday morning, Carter had worshiped at the Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia. When the service was over he walked out into a swarm of newsmen and women camped on the church's front lawn. Cameras were whirring, video lights glaring, microphones thrust forward! The media moved in for interviews. Most of the questions could be anticipated, but one question frightened Carter’s aides.

        "Mr. Carter, suppose when you are President, you get into a situation where the laws of the United States are in conflict with what you understand to be the will of God. Which will you follow, the laws of the state or the commandments of God?"

Carter stopped, looked up, and blinked into the bright Georgia sun, obviously turning the question over in his mind. Then, perhaps still "in the Spirit on the Lord's Day," perhaps with the Holy Spirit gently whispering the lyrics of the gospel into his ears, he turned toward the reporter and replied, "I would obey the commandments of God."

Alert aides, alarmed by this candor, unnerved by their candidate's near-treasonous remark hurriedly whisked him away from the press and into a waiting car. Carter the politician should have avoided the question, or hewed closely to the law of the land, but Carter the Christian had the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ whispering in his ear, "Do you love Me? The world cannot see or know Me, but do you love Me? Do you keep My commandments?"  “Whispering The Lyrics”, Thomas G. Long, CSS Publishing Company – found at www.esermons.com

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The book of Acts describes the start of the early church. Some refer to the book as the Acts of the Church, some the Acts of the Apostles, and some the Acts of the Holy Spirit. Each description is correct.

It is a powerful, dynamic story. Just before Jesus “took off” He told His followers to go to Jerusalem and wait for “the promise of the Father.” I doubt if they really understood what Jesus meant, but to their credit, they did as told.

Ten days later their lives changed forever!

This was no ordinary Sabbath day! Much to everyone’s amazement the Holy Spirit filled the place with the sound strong wind. Flames appeared on the believers. Adding to the surprise was the sound of the believers praising God in several foreign languages! People that had come from all over the world to honor the Passover celebration heard them praising God in their native languages and dialects.

Some scholars believe that they were also speaking “heavenly languages” meaning languages that were not spoken here on earth.

Even more amazing was the transformation in the apostles. They changed from timid men to men that were ready to change the world. And change the world they did. People of that time accused them of “turning the world upside down!”

Personally I find it embarrassing that the church is seldom accused of having that much influence today, although they do sue us for not being politically correct. There are two way to solve that frustration.

1.    Prayer

2.    For Godly men and women to seek leadership roles in our nation. We cannot expect non-Christians to act like Christians.

God did not call us to be obnoxious, but we are called to change the world even if it goes against the grain of the world. “World” in this case means the world system on government and finance.  

There is a difference between believing in the Bible and obeying its precepts!  

Listen to these words from Matthew 5:10-16:

          Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.  Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.  You are the light of the world; a city on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.”

However, listen to verse 16! “In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

        How can this be? The secret is that if we truly let the light of God shine in our lives the world will be better off because of our godly work.

The great universities in America started out as Christian colleges; so did the great hospitals. We’ve let Satan put out our lights through secularism.

Jesus instructed us to not worry about opposition.

Matthew 10:19, 20  “But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.”  Although Jesus said, “At that time,” He did not say, “Only at that time.”

We are studying the Holy Spirit. Today I want to look at how Jesus responded to the leadership of the Spirit by looking at the first few chapters of St. Mark.  Mark stresses facts and actions rather than themes or topics.  Because of that it is the most “exciting” of the gospel books. Mark also shows Jesus as a man of action and authority.

Jesus once stated that He was committed to doing only what He saw and heard from the Father.  I have asked the Holy Spirit to help me do only what I see and hear from Jesus during the remaining years of my personal ministry.  Quite frankly I am tired of doing things my way!

The words of Christ are not in red in the pew Bibles, so if you have your personal copy, please follow along in it.

In Mark 1 he records Jesus baptism by John the Baptist and the fact that the Spirit sent Jesus out in the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. God often uses Satan as a tool to help us!

In Mark 1:15, John the Baptist said, “The time has come; the kingdom of God is near.   Repent and believe the good news.”

God expects us to live a holy life. 1 Thessalonians 4:7, “For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.”

The emphasis here is avoiding sexual immorality.  However, holy living is required by God.  We cannot just float into heaven after we receive Jesus as our Savior.  He is also to be our Lord, meaning we do what He says and doing it when He asks us to.

That is not always easy, but God gives His Holy Spirit to us to help us do two things:

1. Resist Sin

2. Walk in obedience.  To choose to sin is to resist God's Spirit.

To walk in holiness means that we have chosen to put God first in all of our dealings and activities. Jesus made a powerful point in Luke 17:1-10, "Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep.  Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, 'Come along now and sit down to eat'?  Would he not rather say, 'Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink'?  Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do?  So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.'"

Jesus came to earth as a servant – both to God and man. He expects us to see ourselves the same way. Therefore I would suggest that to be sanctified to God is to become God’s servant. SANCTIFICATION means to be separated unto God. When you decide to marry someone you become separated (sanctified) to that person.

Unfortunately in our society the wife is seen as the servant and the husband is seen as the master. That was the Old Testament way of doing things, but Jesus changed all of that.  Granted, the custom carried over into the New Testament, but if you examine the scriptures carefully, the husband and wife are to work together to get the job done.

(We won’t get personal here, for my wife may be taking notes). Therefore, we have to share the burden of our lives equally. When Jesus and the disciples had the “Last Supper,” Jesus washed their feet because no servants had been hired to do the job. The disciples  should have washed His feet.

In 1963 a young couple purchased 80 acres of farmland in northwest Oklahoma.  No one else wanted it, so the couple talked the purchase over for several days and finally gave $900 for the property. They reasoned that they could plant grass for the cattle and get a return on their investment.

The man did not live long enough to see the grass come up. He died as the result of asthma.  A short time before his death the young wife asked, “What should I do?  How am I going to make it?”  He responded, “I don’t know.  Just do the best you can.”

Today that widow is 101 years old.  She is as sharp as a tack, does not require glasses to read the newspaper and does not use hearing aids!  (I should be so young!)  As she told me that story she leaned forward and asked, “Do you know how much the first oil check was from that property?”

I didn’t have a clue…so she triumphantly announced “$100,000.00!”   They had no idea of the wealth under that almost worthless piece of property.

In the same manner, many of us have no idea of the power available to us through God’s Spirit if we will simply open up to His word and determine to live a whole-hearted life totally committed to God!

Sunday, August 9, 2009