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Acts 8:14-17 “Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. The two went down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit (for as yet the Spirit had not come upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus). Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.”

“They received the Holy Spirit.” This hard to speak of, hard to define, intangible force that we so often symbolize as a dove, or a peaceful breeze. But the Holy Spirit of God is so much more than something meant to inspire us, give us peace, or help us to have the courage we need to “plug away” at another hard day of following in the footsteps of Jesus.

We know there’s so much more to the Spirit of God (that we believe is with us here and now) than what we often remember or recognize. In fact, because we so often assume the Spirit is “on our side” and walk forward into what we desire – we run the risk of settling for so much less than God intended when He began making His dwelling in our midst.

A humbling quote from AW Tozer says, “I remind you that there are churches so completely out of the hands of God that if the Holy Spirit withdrew from them, they wouldn’t find it out for many months.”

Likewise, recently Francis Chan has written, “..if the Spirit moves, nothing can stop Him. If He doesn’t move, we will not produce genuine fruit – no matter how much effort or money we expend. The church becomes irrelevant when it becomes a purely human creation. We are not all we were made to be when everything in our lives and churches can be explained apart from the work and presence of the Spirit of God.”

Genesis 1:2 tells us the Holy Spirit isn’t something “new” God is doing, but rather a part of the trinity since the very beginning. “…and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”

There are mentions of the Spirit of God all over the Old Testament, revealing to us that this aspect of God has been moving before any of this began. It is a force of life completely and wholly “other” than our own. Sometimes when we talk about the Holy Spirit, being “Spirit-filled” or “Pentecost”, we think of small things. Things like the pentecostal church movement. Or things like speaking in tongues. Or other visibly experienced stories we’ve heard of one sort or another.

But we must understand the purpose of the Holy Spirit was not simply contained in a single verse of scripture. Yes, the many-flavored Fruit of the Spirit tastes like Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control. But the purpose of the Spirit of God in our midst is not completely in bringing that fruit into being.

Neither is it contained in Acts 1:8 – “But you will receive POWER when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Yes, we have the promise that we will be EMPOWERED when the Holy Spirit comes on us. But that is not the complete purpose of the presence of the Spirit of God.

But we’re not the only ones who jump to the wrong conclusions when it comes to the Holy Spirit. Even those who were there in the moment we read about this morning ended up focusing on the wrong part of what God was up to. In Acts 8:18-19 we see that sorcerer named Simon going up to Peter and John, asking to be empowered to lay hands on others in the same way – and even offering them money to give him that ability. Take a moment to let that simmer. He wasn’t even asking to buy the Holy Spirit. His desire was to have the ability to dispense the Holy Spirit in the same way they were doing. Talk about “missing the point”. Peter rebuked him quickly, saying that you cannot buy this gift of God with money.

The Truth is, we must take the entire Word of God if we want an explanation of “the purpose of the Holy Spirit”. Even then, we have only a portion of all the purposes and desires of God. But our passage from Acts chapter 8 definitely reveals some incredible things to us. Come back tomorrow to hear more…

Let’s begin this journey by exercising our imaginations, because God is so very “other” than what we’re used to thinking about. Pretend with me, there’s an ancient group of people that have existed for thousands of years. They share an intimate bond, in a way that no one else can understand. You see, they are each – at some point – given a seed. This seed grows into a plant who’s magic is incredibly powerful. Through their plants, they can communicate with each other. Through their plants, they are given abilities beyond anything they could ever do on their own. Through their plants, they bring life where there was death, and light where there was darkness.

One day, a mysterious visitor comes to your door and whispers of these things. He takes your hand, and gently places a tiny seed in the middle of it, curling your fingers over it to keep it warm and safe. He tells you that you’ve been invited to join this ancient group of bringers of light and life. You’re overwhelmed by his message.

After he leaves, you immediately know what you’re going to do. You take the seed you’ve been given, and seal it in a solid transparent layer of UV-Protectant. You then place it in the center of a large glass display case and set the case in a prominent location in your living room. You start to tell everyone about the magical group of people you’re now connected to.

That would be pretty silly, wouldn’t it? But what I want to tell you, is that followers of Christ do this on a regular basis on a much grandeur scale.

Here’s a little bit of background for the passage we’ll be focusing on:

Back in Acts chapter 2 we have the coming of the Holy Spirit like never before at Pentecost, to the apostles. The movement of those following Christ began to grow, signs and wonders were being done by the apostles, and thousands more people were being baptized into the faith. They were baptized into the name of Jesus. Those who had been baptized were devoting themselves to the apostles teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And as we read in Acts 2:47 – “Day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.”

The miraculous acts of the apostles continued to get the attention of everyone around, and so as attention was being gained, they used those moments to call people to repentance for the way they had crucified and denied Jesus Christ. They preached the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, and that we could share in such a resurrection.

Huge crowds of people loved what they were doing. Some religious leaders were not big fans and tried to quiet them. Some tried to benefit from what was happening, and ended up dead.

At one point there was so much going on, the apostles needed help keeping accounts to make sure widows were being taken care of. So seven men who were “of good standing, Full of the Spirit and wisdom” were chosen, including Stephen and Philip. Stephen ended up doing great work for the Lord, and when he was arrested he accused the religious leaders of missing out on what God was doing. He reminded them of the history of God’s people turning against him at Mount Sinai. He told them they were working against the Holy Spirit in the same way, and that they had betrayed & murdered the “Righteous One” the prophets had spoken of. They were so mad, they stoned Stephen, and Saul was pleased. Then Saul went on a crusade of finding followers of Jesus and punishing them.

The followers of Jesus, then, were forced to spread out into Judea and Samaria to escape imprisonment. (Does that sound familiar? Acts 1:8 talked about this. Apparently it didn’t depend on the apostles coming up with a strategic plan on how to reach these areas. Simply joining the activity of God, caught them up into a movement outward for all the world.) As those followers went, they were proclaiming the word. Scripture tells us that the apostles themselves were not scattered, but apparently Philip – who had been confirmed as having the Spirit, and blessed for ministry previously – had been scattered to the city of Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them. They listened eagerly, and saw the signs that he accomplished. Great things were happening for the Kingdom coming.

In Samaria, there was a man named Simon, a sorcerer with a huge following. He saw the people following Philip, and all that was happening, and began to believe in the Messiah as well. After he was baptized in the name of Jesus with many others, he began to follow Philip constantly. Eventually, word of what was happening in Samaria reached the apostles, and that is where our passage picks up tomorrow…

Here we go again with another “Five Minute Friday” post!  To learn more about “Five Minute Friday” (FMF), check out the linked image here.  Basically, each week there’s a word given for you to write about.  You start writing, no back-tracking, editing, etc.  At the end of 5 minutes, you stop.  Then you post it, and share in the community of words that were birthed during these 24-ish hours.  It’s cool stuff.
So here’s this week’s response to the word: “dive”

So there are a few things in life that make me smile.  Okay, quite a few.  But one of them, is when someone tries to tell me, “No, actually THIS is how you ______.”  As if God ordained a specific way to roll a bowling ball, hold a pencil, or _____.  That’s what I feel about diving.

The pencil thing, that’s probably just my 10 year old frustrated self talking.  The teacher gives me that rubber thing around my pencil that’s supposed to help me hold it the “correct” way, because someone decided long ago there was a specific way to hold a writing utensil.  I still do it wrong.  Maybe they’re right, cause my handwriting stinks.  Thankfully, I can type.

The bowling thing, well, I think it goes back to one guy my mom dated who tried to help me learn the “correct technique” many years ago.   I was a teenager, and he thought he’d warm up to my mom by getting on my good side.  Sorry sir, I think it’s more fun to use my own technique.  It’s hard to describe, but I usually feel like a bowling ninja break dancer or something.  I’m not horrible, and have gotten close to 200 before.

And diving, well….I realize it’s a legit sport and some people can make it look incredibly graceful.  But me?  I love to run, jump high into the air tucking my body into a human-sized cannon-ball, and make the biggest splash imaginable.

I think that’s okay sometimes.  I think Jesus was a cannon-ball kinda guy too.  He definitely didn’t listen to how everyone was saying the Messiah was supposed to arrive.  He wasn’t worried about following through with his Savior moves using the proper techniques of the religious leaders of his day.  He was about His Father’s business, and doing so in a way that made the world take notice.

So while some people may stress out about perfecting their form….I think I’ll make another splash….

Whoa.  That one actually worked well in 5 minutes.  I win. 🙂