Acts 1:1-11 We need the Holy Spirit

The church doesn’t need management techniques, we need the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:1-8)

In the last church where I worked, we had a really good Café church.  We used to meet in a comfy room that felt nicely intimate and we would dim the lights to get the atmosphere right.  One day I joked with a friend, ‘God’s not going to turn up tonight because the dimmer switch isn’t working.’  I worried that people confused the mood we created with God’s presence.  I fear that we have focus too much on getting the lightening right as if that is what God needs to work.  Or maybe our dependence is on the right performers.  I once had a pastor tell me that he built his church around a really good band.  But what if God was not to gift your church with capable musicians, could Jesus not build his church?  Our dependence on techniques may actually reveal a lack of confidence in God.

Luke opens the book of Acts by telling his friend Theophilus, that in his last book, Luke’s Gospel, I told you about what Jesus began to do and teach.  The implication is that this book is about what Jesus will continue to do and teach.  While this book has traditionally been called ‘The Acts of the Apostles’, it might be better titled, ‘The Acts of the Risen Jesus.’ 

It begins by Jesus teaching the disciples, and then telling them to wait in Jerusalem until he sends them the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is the means by which Jesus acts in this book.  In fact, even before he ascends to heaven, he gives his disciples instructions ‘through the Holy Spirit.’  Christian ministry only produces results when the Holy Spirit works through the one who is speaking and in the hearts of those who listen.

He tells his disciples to wait in Jerusalem until he sends the Holy Spirit.  They were baptised with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and the church has never been the same since.

There are different ways that Christians put together the different references to the Holy Spirit in the New Testament.  My belief is that Pentecost was a unique event.  Up to that point believers were not given the Holy Spirit.  But from that time believers have the Holy Spirit from the time of their conversion.  There are a couple of unique exceptions that we will see in the book of Acts are specific to the context of the early church, but the Apostle Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth and said, ‘we are all baptised by the one Spirit into one body’ ( 1 Corinthians 12:13).  I also believe that believers need to go on being filled by the Holy Spirit as we depend on his daily (Ephesians 5:8).

What does the Spirit do?  He doesn’t give us management techniques.  He is not dependant on mood lighting.  He doesn’t need a professional band.  He doesn’t need eloquent speakers.  Instead the Holy Spirit enables people to speak the good news of Jesus with courage (Acts 4:31).  He causes us to submit to one another in love (Ephesians 5:21), inspires us to praise God with spiritual songs (Ephesians 5:18), and he enables us to be Holy (Romans 8:13).  Don’t just think of the Holy Spirit’s influence on you when you are caught up in the joy of a good praise song, you will really know if he is filling you if he is making you more like Jesus. 

It has been said that 95% of what the average church does could be done without the Holy Spirit.  Let’s depend on Him more.  Our real purpose as churches depends on it.  Jesus told the disciples that when the Holy Spirit comes on you, they would be his witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.  That verse is like a contents page for Acts, for that is exactly what happened.