God's Spirit of Refreshing

Clearly, the Day of Pentecost is an extremely meaningful Holy Day. It's what we would call it. It's not the spring, it's not the fall, it's I guess a summer Holy Day. And this particular day is, as we know, it's an annual Sabbath. It happens to be on Sunday every year because when we're counting 50, we come to 49 days counting Sabbaths and the next day is Sunday. But there are many different meanings that we might think about or come to understand, I'm sure, over the many years and perhaps even decades that some of you have observed the Day of Pentecost. You have heard messages and studied information regarding a connection with the giving of the wall. That's one of the things that we see connected with the Day of Pentecost.

It's also, of course, described, as I read earlier, as the Feast of Weeks.

And it describes then how we count 50, count seven different weeks for 49 days and then another day for 50. It also involves, as we've had mentioned by several, first fruits, an early harvest, implying if there's an early harvest, then we're anticipating a later harvest. And actually, the early harvest is in preparation for a later harvest that God is clearly going to bring about in His great plan for man.

And, of course, as we read Acts chapter 2, which we've had several references to already today and read through some of it, even in the service this afternoon, the Day of Pentecost is clearly connected to the coming of the Holy Spirit. The coming with the mighty wind and the fire, the cloven fire on the individuals who were assembled on the Day of Pentecost shortly after the death of Jesus, the death and resurrection. There are a lot of different things that we can think about, that we can talk about. And, specifically, all of us have been recipients. If we have repented of our sins, if we've been baptized, if we've had the laying on of hands, we've been receiving a recipient of the Holy Spirit of God. And, clearly, that's the most important gift that any of us could ever have. We can think of different gifts that we might have, we can think of different blessings, perhaps our family, marriage, or many other things that we might mention or think about, but the most important gift that God has to give. He sent a fabulous sacrifice in Jesus as He sent Him to the earth, and as He performed magnificently under the duress that He, of course, endured for us because of us, because of our sins, He needed to provide that merciful sacrifice. But, as we both, ready again, had reference, He went away so that He would send the help. The help that each and every one of us need, and that each of us are needing to live with an awareness of the fact that that presence of that Spirit, a Spirit from God, is given to us for a reason. It's given to us, not just to help us, but to really transform us, to transform our mind and to convert our heart.

I'd like for all of us this afternoon to think, I'd like for you to think about what does it mean to you, what does it mean to you to be refreshed?

What does it mean to be refreshed? Now, I'm not thinking, I'm thinking of having a 15-minute church service. I'm not thinking of that. What is it to you to be refreshed? You see the ads on TV, and they're usually depicting palm trees and swaying in a hammock with a cool breeze in a beat setting with a calming sound of waves and a cool drink, usually some type of beer.

Cool drink or luscious food may be very, very nice looking food, and usually then shade, of course, from the trees, from, you know, the hot sun. Now, that would be one type of refreshing. I know I also, and I know some of you, maybe many of you, probably most of you, I would say probably all of you, work harder than I do sometimes, and I know you and is out there cutting down trees that I couldn't even put a rope around, and I've been after an hour or so of doing that. He needs to be refreshed, and, you know, I know Mr. Johnson's been down in Arkansas. He's been down there working away, and he was telling me about having to move some trees, and I probably would have just tried to set him on fire, but that probably wasn't the desired outcome. He was laboring, and I can only say that the thing that I basically end up doing that puts a lot of stress on me is mowing the lawn, which I hate to do, as I've told you a number of times. I don't like that, but it's a necessity because the neighbors can get on to me if I don't. I've got to mow it down, and yet I don't like to spend the hour or hour and a half it takes to do that because at the end of that, I'm tired, and I'm dirty, and I'm thirsty, and I want to come inside or get in out of the shade and have some type of a cool drink, and, of course, later finally get a shower and get cleaned up. You know, now that's what I think of whenever I think of being refreshed. Of course, that's all dealing with the physical factors of, you know, being revived after we've been doing some hard work. Or I guess Lorraine could be doing that out of her garden out there as she is trying to beat the animals to the food that she is growing for them, because sometimes that's what it seems like, that you are feeding the animals, and if you can get it before they do, then that's a real plus. But I bring this up, you know, as far as being refreshed or asking you, you know, what does refreshment bring to your mind? Because, as we read in Acts 2, we have a what would have to be an unbelievably remarkable account of an activity that God caused to take place. And I was thinking of this, and I thought, this may be, this may be, I guess if I were to categorize things, you can see epic things that have happened throughout the past 6,000 years, and you can see that some of them were really big.

I would have to say in the last 6,000 years, the biggest thing that ever happened happened 2,000 years ago when Jesus came to the earth, when he was set by the Father, and when he achieved victory over the devil's dominion in this world and over his corruption of mankind.

And yet, a little later that same year after Jesus was put to death and then resurrected from the dead, a little bit later, a couple of months later, because this is the sequencing we find in Acts 1 and Acts 2, because Acts 2 is the day of Pentecost after the Passover time and days of unleavened bread when Jesus was put to death, you have to say that that was an unbelievably remarkable event that God sent his Holy Spirit to man, to those, as we've had mentioned, to those who have been called, to those that he is reaching out to transform their lives.

And it's amazing to me as I look not only at chapter 2, because in chapter 2 you see a description of that event, and then you see the inspired preaching of the Apostle Peter. And of course, as we all know, Peter, you know, he's quite transformed here. He's quite a bit different than he was when he was two months earlier cowering when they were saying, are you with Jesus? No, no, I don't know him. I'm not one of those, you know, with him.

He had a real change of heart. He had a real change in his life. And of course, this is epitomized by what we read not only in chapter 2, and the sermon that he gave, and the preaching that he was able to powerfully give, but I also show you in chapter 3 and in chapter 4 and in chapter 5 of the book of Acts, we have a description of these first leaders, not only Peter, but John and others.

These first leaders of the New Testament Church who were enjoying a tremendous blessing from God. They were thrilled with what was happening because there was ever reason to be thrilled. And yet, I'd like for us to look in Acts chapter 3, because in chapter 3, and I'm only going to be hitting some of these verses if you want to read through the whole thing. I would certainly recommend you do that, because the sequencing of chapter 3 and 4 and 5 with chapter 2, they all tie together because they display the Acts of the apostles.

That's where it is. That's what the book of Acts is about. It's about what the apostles did. But maybe even more importantly, it's what the people that God drew to be a part of the church were doing.

Mr. Johnson read about some of these things this morning about how they were coming together, how they were within the doctrine of the apostles, what they were teaching. They were within the fellowship. They were within the breaking of bread, and within the prayers for one another. That was the model. That was the pattern. But I want us to look in chapter 3 at how Peter followed up his Pentecost sermon. You could say in chapter 2 that you could read through Peter's Pentecost sermon, which pricked the hearts of people and then caused them to say they were of a mind to want to know what we need to do.

Where did we turn? We have really messed up. And of course, he was then able to tell them, give them direction on what they can do to be able to recover. Because that's truly what every human being needs to do. All of us today, in everyone yet in the future, everyone is going to come to understand their need for God. They're going to come to understand their need for the Holy Spirit. They're going to come to understand what Peter spoke about here. Here in chapter 3, he gave not only this sermon on the day of Pentecost, but as we see in chapter 3, he and John, Peter and John, are involved in a healing.

Someone has brought to them, someone who is begging, asking for help. You know, they are in need. They have physical infirmity. Peter and John look at them. They're able to heal. Not that they were able to do it, but that the Spirit of God, that they were now becoming empowered by. They were able to express things that they had not been able to express before. And what I want to focus on is starting here in chapter 3, verse 19. Maybe we'd back up to verse 17. He said, Friends, I know that you've acted in ignorance. See, this is in essence a continuation of what Peter said on the day of Pentecost.

He says, I know that you've acted in ignorance. You didn't really realize who it was that was walking among you. You didn't comprehend that whatever Pilate and Jesus were there, that this was a complete mismatch. You didn't realize that. You didn't realize that when Jesus was pitted against all of the religious leaders, complete mismatch.

You know, the religious leaders were on the losing end of any, any type of dispute or discussion or action. They were bound to lose because they were talking to the Son of God. He says, I know that you've acted in ignorance, as did your rulers. And in this way, God fulfilled what he had foretold through the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer. And so he said, well, you know, you did put Jesus to death, but this had been predicted.

This was a part of the process. This was a part of the divine plan. And so he said in verse 19, he didn't just say this in chapter 2, he says in verse 19, you need to repent. You need to repent, therefore, and turn to God. You need to repent and be converted.

Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away so that you could be forgiven of your sins. And then he adds this expression that I would like for us to think about here today. Repent, be converted, turn to God, that your sins may be wiped out so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. Times of repression. I've read this many times, and I'm sure you have too. I've somehow kind of thought, well, it looks like times of refreshing probably is connected with what he says a little bit later about the timeless of restitution, which I know is going to be yet in the future. And yet I very much believe in just looking at this, that when he talks about the times of refreshing or the time of refreshing, he tells us to repent, to be forgiven of your sins, and you will be refreshed. You will be refreshed by the presence of the Lord, impacting, directing, leading, guiding your life. You're going to be a converted individual with the Holy Spirit of God that provides a refreshing unlike any other type of refreshment.

See, the times of repression. Now, maybe that's referring to when Christ comes back, but I don't think so because it goes on to say, and it goes on to verse, the latter part of verse 20. And so the times of repression may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah who is appointed for you, that is Jesus, who must remain in heaven until the time of universal restoration, the time of restoration of all things that God announced long ago through his holy prophets. See, here it appears that he's talking about something that's directly affecting you. Right now, you can be refreshed. You can have the presence of the Holy Spirit living in your life, affecting your heart, affecting your mind, affecting your interaction with others, and Jesus is going to be sent back, and he's going to restore all things. He's going to, time of restitution is coming, and of course that is talking of his return and the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth. So if we think about this time of refreshing, this refreshment that's available by the coming of the presence of the Lord to be in you. See, he had told the disciples the Spirit of God is with you. It's going down the side of you. It's helping you. You are kind of following me. You have a perception of kind of who I am. You're learning, but it says it needs to be in you, and when the Holy Spirit of God is in you, then you are a different person, a different person than you've been in the past. Now, I know at times we don't look very different. We think that we're the same. We think we're even worse.

But that's not the case, not from what it tells us, that we can be refreshed of the presence of the Spirit of God living in us. And so the question that we want to think about this afternoon, are you refreshed today by the presence of the Lord, by the Holy Spirit in your mind? Does your mind and does your heart feel refreshed?

And do you enjoy the divine presence of the Lord in your life? Now, see, that's a very significant refreshment to think about. One that we should not overlook, one that we should not minimize, one that we should not ignore. My wife and I were talking about this the other day and thinking about how that even though she has gone through a fair amount of suffering here in the last few months, and thankfully, very thankfully, she has greatly improved from her back infection and her shoulder is improving tremendously, even though it takes time to continue to work through that. We have thought, you know, at times, boy, this seems like this is pretty tough. This is hard to go through. This is difficult to endure. And yet, she told me, you know, for some reason, I know I heard, but I also know that God is with me and God is helping me, and God wants me to be lifted up. He wants me to be refreshed. He wants me to be happy. He wants me to be able to have a confidence and a peace that you cannot have on your own. That's what He wants. And so He makes a way whereby that is possible.

Now, I'd like for us to turn to Philippians chapter four, because this is a very key section of Scripture that I would like to read in connection with this.

How we can be refreshed by the Spirit of God being in us.

How we can be refreshed, uplifted, we can be empowered, we can be strengthened. We can be going through difficulties, trials, problems, challenges, which we are. You know, some of us are struggling, suffering with some of those right now. And others of us at different times do that, but see, what we really want to believe is what the Word of God says. That that refreshment is available. It comes from the presence of God in your life, in your heart, in your mind. So here in Philippians chapter four, and I know that you're familiar with these Scriptures, but I want to focus on just one section, because Philippians four, starting in verse four, describes being refreshed. It describes the way that each of us can be with the Spirit of God thriving in our life. Here in Philippians four, verse four, he says, rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I'd say to you, rejoice. See here, again, Paul is directing this to the entirety of the congregation in Philippi. He is directing this to the group. All of you have access to this. Individually, you can do it, but collectively you can enjoy supporting one another in this. But he says, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say, rejoice. Verse five, he says, let your gentleness be known to everyone because the Lord is near.

See, we need to learn to rely on the Spirit of God to not be, you know, as we might otherwise would be, but to be gentle, to be me, to be kind. He says, let your gentleness be shown to everybody.

The people who interact with you every day, you have a responsibility to be gentle toward them because it says, you know, the Lord is near. I'm not sure exactly what that's saying except that each of us have a connection. Each of us have a connection to God. And certainly, you know, Christ is coming back, and yet He lives in us. He lives in us through the power of the Holy Spirit.

And he goes on in verse six to say, you don't even need to worry about anything. Now, that starts heading home whenever you don't feel good, whenever you're sick, whenever you need a job, whenever you have financial turmoil, whenever, you know, all the different problems and distress, whenever the family issues arise. He says in verse six, don't worry about anything. But in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. This is really a good section. First Corinthians 13, four through eight is a good section to memorize. Philippians 4, verse four through eight is a really good, four through seven at least, is a really good section of Scripture to memorize and focus on and read because this is what God says He's made available. He's made available to you a refreshing time because you are able to relate to Him as a son or daughter. And He is extremely interested in you. He's interested in your preparation, your growth. He's interested in how you can serve others. He's interested in how you can be at peace because here when we read in verse seven, it says not only rejoice and not only be gentle and not only don't worry, just take things to God in prayer. But in verse seven, as you do that, He says the peace of God that passes all understanding will guard your heart and your minds in Jesus Christ.

See, that is a state of existence, a state of being, a state of living. Even as we live in this world and we certainly believe and know that this world is corrupt and it's contaminated and it is in need of help, and for the most part that help is going to come only when judgment comes from God.

And yet, we can live with the help and power of the Holy Spirit, with the refreshing presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and we can be happy. We can rejoice. And we can have peace. Peace of God that passes all understanding. It says it will safeguard, it says it will guard in the translation that I'm using, will guard your hearts and your minds in Jesus Christ. Yeah, it will give you a safeguard. Now, that's real repression. That's real repression, more than just a cool drink and some shade and a shower and a recuperation time. For me, I'm all along. That's just physical stuff.

But this is talking about spiritual help, and even in the face of difficulty, in the face of distress, and as we read different prayer requests from people, some who are laboring with life-threatening issues, some who have chronic problems, who struggle with those and wish for relief, pray for relief. They're growing in faith. They're growing in the love of God, and then they can have a peace that refreshes us because God has made the Holy Spirit available to us. And again, as I said, that's beyond beyond just physical rejuvenation. That's mental and spiritual and emotional, a peace and rest that I would have to call or say would be real, real repression. And so the question that I posed, do you feel that? Do you feel a refreshment from God because He has involved Himself in your life?

You should, but again, I know that I should, but I maybe don't some of the time. If my mind is in outer space, I'm not reflecting on what God says and what He is able to do and how He wants me to rejoice, how He wants the peace of God that passes all understanding to stabilize and to calm me, even when I'm in distress. That's what all of us need. That's what we want. We have access to that, brethren. I'm trying to show that because, as Peter says, repent and be baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. That's one of the scriptures we read in chapter 2. Here in chapter 3, he says, repent and be converted or returned, be forgiven, and you will be refreshed by the presence of the Lord, by the intervention of God in your life so that you're able to endure even difficult things with a certain level of peace and calm that it is impossible to have on your own.

Let's take a look at what we read here. We haven't read it yet. I guess I haven't gotten very far.

I want to point out in chapter 3 and 4 and 5 here of Acts how Peter was such a transformed person. You can read chapter 2 and you can certainly know he was a powerful preacher and he was able to tell them exactly, you know, you just killed Jesus. What's the matter with you? He could promote the gospel of the kingdom of God. He could teach that you've got to believe who Jesus is. You've got to believe who the Son of God is and the relationship that He has with the Father. You need to believe the relationship you can have with Him, not because of us so much, maybe not because of us at all, but because of His Spirit working in us, His Spirit molding and shaping our minds. Here, Peter in chapter 2, as was mentioned by someone here earlier today, you know, Peter spoke with great boldness and, you know, he was actually given what seems to be a, you know, a prominent role of proclaiming a message of hope, a message of the kingdom, a message that involved Jesus Christ. And actually, here in chapter 2, you have to go back to Acts here, Acts chapter 2. Let's see what it is that he proclaimed.

Acts 2, verse 11. This is actually after we read verse 4 earlier.

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit. Verse 4 began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them the nobility. So there was a miracle in language, as well as in hearing, as you can read through this and see. Well, what it is that Peter was preaching at that time, and these from many different parts of the area around Israel at the time, people from Rome in verse 10 and verse 11 of Christians and Arabs in their own language. We hear them speaking about God's wonderful works, his deeds of power. See, and that's amazing what Peter was, what he had in his head. His books of Acts wasn't written at that time. Neither were the Gospels, and neither were any of the epistles or the book of Revelation. This was not available.

He was thinking of the wonderful works of God that God had done throughout the entirety of the Old Testament with the people of Israel, and how that God had said that the prophet will come, you will not accept him, and you will kill him, and yet it's important that you acknowledge that and repent, and you can receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Down in verse 21, he quotes a section of Joel, Joel chapter 2, and you might go back and read Joel 2 if you want. I'm not going to, but Joel chapter 2 says in verse 20, as we approach the time when Jesus will return, Son will return to darkness, the moon to blood, before the coming, the Lord's great and dreadful day, or glorious day, I guess it says here. And then in verse 21, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Whoever calls out to God for help, whoever seeks the help that God has available, you know, he was saying that this is in the future, close to the time when Jesus returns, you know, many people are going to be on repentance, many of them are going to refuse, but anyone who does yield, anyone who does repent and calls on the name of the Lord, you know, can seek salvation. That is what he was saying out of Joel. You could read this back several hundred years prior. This is what Joel had stated. You also see the boldness that Peter was stating here in chapter 4. Chapter 4 verse 13 says, now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were just ordinary folk, that's what we see recorded here. And I'm again, I'm not even reading chapter 4 here of what Peter had to say because he had some very emphatic things to say about Jesus Christ and about how he is able to affect people's lives for the good. And yet in verse 13, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, realized that they were uneducated and ordinary men, they were amazed and recognized them as companions of Jesus. See, that's amazing when you read that and see that Peter and John and others of the apostles spoke in such a way that people were just dumbfounded. They said, look at these ordinary people! Look at these fishermen from Galilee. Look at these regular folks that we don't even like to think is equal to us. They're ordinary and yet they are speaking in such a way, they are acting in such a way, they have been given a blessing from God in such a way that they were amazed. See, are people amazed when they see you or when they see me? I don't know that they are. Sometimes they might be amazed at my stupidity, some things I might do that wouldn't be so impressive. I would hope that people would be amazed that I would want the refreshing that comes from the Word of God and the Spirit of God working in me to be a representative of love and joy and peace and long suffering and gentleness and goodness and faith and migness and timorous. That's what I would like. And that's what they're saying here in verse 13 that the boldness of Peter and John was so impressive they just couldn't understand it. What is? Come over those people. They can't be like this. But of course, yes, they could with the Spirit of God. Later on here in chapter 4, in verse 31, this was read earlier, this is when they had gone back after they had interacted with the council and others. They'd gone back to the church in verse 31 when they prayed. And this was not just the apostles, but this was the church. The people that were clustered together and who were supportive of them, but they didn't know exactly what to expect because they didn't know what God would do.

So in verse 31, when they had prayed, a place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness. Again, the empowerment was among the people, and it was among the apostles, and it was seen by others, and then it was shared by the congregation. I wrote down several things that I want to point out as we look at these chapters here. The first thing is simply, as Peter received this refreshing Spirit of God, these things, the day of Pentecost being the remarkable day that it was, and of course following a couple of months behind the time when Jesus had come to Jerusalem and allowed himself to be slaughtered as the Lamb of God. See, those were predetermined to take place.

Day of Pentecost, the coming of the Spirit of God, that was predetermined by God. If we look here in chapter 2, verse 23, here he's talking chapter 2, verse 23. I guess we need to back up to verse 22.

He says, Israelites, listen to what I'm saying. Jesus of Nazareth, a man who's attested to you by God with deeds of power and wonders and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.

See, this was a part of God's plan. This was a part of God's predetermined plan.

Now, yes, Jesus willingly went into it, and he willingly accepted the burden of being human so that he would be able, as a human, to overpower Satan's deceptions and be able to show that, yes, with close enough contact with God, with close enough empowerment of the Holy Spirit, the human, like us, are able to achieve a victory, again, with God's help, with his power coursing through us. In chapter 4, this again is after he had gone back to the church, a group. It says, in verse 27, in this city, in fact, both Herod and Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, gathered together against his Holy Servant Jesus, whom you anointed to do whatever your hand and your plan has predestined to take place. See, both those scriptures are dealing with the purpose and plan of God that was carried out in the life of Jesus and in his suffering and death and resurrection. But you also find, if we look at Luke 24, you see at the very end of this book, that ties together with the book of Acts. I think I've mentioned this to you before, but if you read through Luke and Acts, both of them written by Luke, you find a pretty good sequential study of something that everybody needs to know. Everybody knew, certainly can easily get a grasp of the Son of God and the New Testament church by reading Luke and Acts. Not that you shouldn't read other books, but those two tie together because, as Luke says here in the latter part of Luke 24, he says in verse 50, excuse me, let me back up a little bit, he says in verse 48, Jesus is telling his disciples, you are witnesses of these things. You're witnesses of what happened to me. You're witnesses of my life, my suffering, my death, my resurrection, and what I have to offer, which is tremendous power. He says in verse 48, you are witnesses of these things. You are eyewitnesses, actually, because you're standing here watching. And see in verse 49, I am sending unto you what my father promised, and so I want you to stay here in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. Here he was talking about, again, the predetermined plan of God, of sending the Holy Spirit, when? Why didn't he send it right then? They needed it as quickly as they could. Now, he had told them, I want you to count. I want you to wait until my purpose and my plan is achieved, which was going to be on the day of Pentecost a few weeks later. And that's what we find when we look at Acts chapter 1. We know in chapter 2 this is when it happened, but in Acts chapter 1, and again, the flow is really good between Luke and Acts, because Luke is writing this to Theophilus. He's writing both of these books to Theophilus. But he said after verse 3, the suffering of Jesus, he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God. And so, not only did he verify who he was, what he had come to do, and what he was able to do to help them, but he also was teaching them about the kingdom of God, about our preparation, about the time that would yet be in the far future.

But he says in verse 4, while staying with them, Acts 1 verse 4, while staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father. And this, he said, is what you have heard from me, for John baptized with water, and you will be baptized from the Holy Spirit, not many days from now. See, this was a purposed plan that God was bringing about. And so, I think it's important for us to realize that, you know, as we celebrate Holy Days, we do that throughout the year. We do it when God tells us to. But the meaning and significance of them are unbelievably remarkable, because they are fulfilling the plan and purpose of God.

And for there to be a group that God chooses to work with now, before he intervenes in world affairs. I mean, it's clear that world affairs are declining. You know, that's a huge understatement, because it's not just declining. It's in one debacle after the next, leading to rescue, leading to the time when this world is going to be rescued. But see, God is choosing. He's choosing to deal with some, but out of a purpose that he is bringing about. And we've already mentioned, and I'm not going to go through these verses, because Peter reiterated this, not only in Acts 2, but in Acts 3, verse 15, and in Acts 5, verse 30. His message to those who were coming to him is, you just killed Jesus. You just crucified the Son of God. You killed the author of life. Chapter 3, verse 15. Chapter 5, verse 30. Whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. You know, it doesn't sound like he was holding back. He was really just telling them the facts, I think, for the most part. They all knew what they had done, and they knew what had happened in Jerusalem. They knew, you know, the chicanery and the confusion that was brought about by the leaders, the religious leaders, but the people were also giving the consent to that. And of course, not only did he tell that, he told every human being needs to repent. We read that in chapter 2, verse 38, and in chapter 3, verse 19. And in chapter 3, verse 26, we can turn to that. He said, everyone needs to repent. He's actually talking in verse 22 and 23 and 24 about how God was going to send someone that you really needed to pay attention to. He says in verse 22, you must listen to what he says. You must listen to Jesus Christ. And in verse 25, you were descendants of the prophets and of the covenant that God gave to our ancestors, saying to Abraham, and your descendants, all the family of the earth, are going to be blessed. But when God, in verse 26, raised up his servant, Jesus, he sent him first to you. He sent him to the Jews. He sent him to people you would think knew something about the law. They knew what it was the Old Testament said, but they ignored the facts. They were confused. They were deceived. And he says, God raised up his servant. He sent him first to you to bless you and to turn each of you from your wicked ways.

See, Peter was a remarkably different individual as he had been refreshed by the Holy Spirit. He wasn't being mean. He was just telling them the facts. And of course, it's amazing to see here in these few chapters how that the Lord added to the church. It wasn't a matter of just joining the right church. I've got to be in the right church. See, that's in this perception that many people have today. And yet what we see here, chapter 2, verse 39, it says, for the promise of the Holy Spirit is for you and your children and all who are far away everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him. God is involved in drawing people to Jesus Christ. In verse 41, we read this earlier, those who welcomed his message were baptized. In that day, there were 3,000 people added.

Again, they were turning to God with repentance. But see, they had been drawn to see who Jesus was. There were others who refused to believe that. But God had drawn people. And this is what happened to all of us. And whatever time in the past decades when God has chosen to deal with each of us, see down in verse 40-47, chapter 2, verse 47, the brethren were there. It says, to these 3,000, they were together praising God, having the good will of the people, and day by day the Lord added to their number those who would be saved. Again, it doesn't say that so many more people joined the church. It says the Lord added to his church, to his first fruits, those that he would draw, that he would draw to a sense of responsibility, a sense of yieldedness, a sense of commitment. And that, of course, is a wonderful blessing to see in chapter 4.

Chapter 4, verse 4, again Peter and John are speaking in verse 1, to the people and priests and captains of the temple. And they were really stirred up. They were annoyed because these hayseeds, these ordinary folk, were proclaiming that in Jesus there is a resurrection from the dead. And of course, that was already borne out because they'd already been eyewitnesses to the fact that Jesus was resurrected from the dead. So they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day. And it was already evening, and many of them, in verse 4, those who heard the word, believed. And they numbered about 5,000. So here, you know, they were 3,000. You know, more were added. Now they're numbering 5,000. Let's go on to chapter 5 in verse 14. This is after the interaction in chapter 5 with Ananias and Sapphira. And Peter asking them if they were telling the truth.

And of course, as it turned out, they were not. But in verse 14, again, we read this earlier, I think, yet more than ever, believers were added to the lore of great numbers of men and women. Again, the terminology wasn't that they joined the church, they were added by being a recipient of the spirit of refreshment, the spirit of refreshing.

That has come to them and is available to us if we recognize it. And of course, it says, great numbers of both men and women. It wasn't exclusively men, it was men and women. And later, of course, it was not only Israelites, it was Gentiles. As I mentioned earlier about Cornelius, he was a good man. He didn't have the Holy Spirit, he needed it, and God gave it to him. That was in Acts 10, but that's not a part of what we're covering today. It's amazing to see, as Peter and I recommend you read through chapter 3 and 4 and 5, as you see what a transformed life by the Spirit of God is like. You see healings occurring, actually providing some physical refreshing. That was what they could easily see here in chapter 3, when this crippled man came to Peter and John, or he was brought basically to them in chapter 3. Peter looked intently at him in verse 4, as did John. He said, look at us.

And so this man fixed his attention on them and expecting to receive something from them. He hoped that they would give him some money. He hoped they would give him something he needed or wanted.

And Peter said, I don't have any money. I don't have any silver or gold. But what I do have, I give to you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.

And he took him by the hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were strong, and jumping up he stood and began to walk and entered the temple, walking and leaping and praising God. So that was physical refreshing, clearly. That was benefit. That was extended.

And yet you see over here in the latter part of this chapter, chapter 3, in verse 11, this guy, he hung on to Peter and John. You know, he could not get enough of them, because I've been here for 40 years. I've been crippled for 40 years, and I've been brought to this gate, and I've been asking for help. And you have given me more than anybody could ever give.

In verse 11, when he clung to Peter and John, all the people ran together in the portico, utterly astounded, and Peter saw it. He addressed the people and said, you Israelites, why do you wonder at this? Why do you stare at us as if by our power or our piety? We've made him walk. What are you looking at us for?

You ought to make with him, and Isaac, and Jacob, the God of the ancestors, our ancestors, has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. But you rejected that holy and righteous one, and asked to have a murderer given to you, and you killed the author of life. And God raised from the dead. And in this we are witnesses. But in verse 16, by faith, by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you. And in verse 16, he said, the power of God is not us. It's not human ability or power or strength or might.

It's the power of God that is refreshing us to relate to God and then be able to serve others.

The last thing I want to point out here is it simply, and this was actually an amazing paragraph that all of us have had access to if we take the good news, we had a remarkable article about how we can use the health of the Spirit of God, and there were numerous articles, actually there were many articles in the good news that are just unbelievably fabulous that gives so much spiritual nourishment and so much depth of growth that's available to us. And yet there was a section, one paragraph that I'm thinking of, and it's asking the question, why do we seem to not make much progress? Why do we seem to stumble? Why do we seem to fall? Why do we continue to sin? Because we do. Why do we do that? Why do we do that over and over again? Well, it's because we're depending on our own power, because we trust ourself. Now, that's not a very bright move.

That's not a good move. Trusting me, trusting you, that's not where power is.

But of course, it went ahead to say in this short paragraph, I think it was in Mr. Tubics article about the Holy Spirit and about how it's represented by oil and fire and whatever else, wind and light and water. You know, an amazingly good article about how the Spirit of God is symbolized. And yet, it said, you know, we end up not succeeding because we rely on our own power and not constantly on the power of God that's been given to refresh us. It's been given to lift us up. If we believe that, if we trust that, if we are able to benefit from that, then we understand it's not by our strength or by our righteousness or intelligence.

It's by the Spirit of God working in us. It's by the presence of God refreshing us, that we can be uplifted and empowered and that we can do the job that God has given us to do. And so here in chapter 3, you know, Peter says, you know, look, it's not us. It's not by... we can't do anything on our own. And it's certainly not because of our wonderful qualities. It's because we are preaching to you the name of the one who is able with the wide healing. And here in chapter 5, chapter 5, verse 38, chapter 5, toward the end of this chapter, you know, you find when you read through this that the apostles are really, you know, they're kind of amazed at what is happening, and yet they are thankful that God has given them a presence of His own power to be able to do miracles. And of course, you see, you know, they healed many in verse 12. Actually, it says in verse 15, chapter 5, you know, other people carried sick out of the street and laid them in the cots and mats so that Peter could walk by in his shadow.

Might fall on some of them, and great numbers of people would gather from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick, and they were all healed. See, this was a miraculous outpouring of God's power and spirit, and clearly, you know, something that, you know, we want to, not negate, we don't want to ignore that. We want to be beseeching God to provide that, but here you find in the latter part of this that the apostles are persecuted for what they are doing. You know, the others don't like it. You know, we don't like that you're preaching Jesus, and that you're preaching the power of the Spirit of God, and that you're teaching the kingdom of God. See, we don't like that at all. We don't like you talking about the resurrection of the dead. We certainly don't want you to proclaim Jesus Christ. And, of course, they ultimately have to say, as I think we're aware, that, you know, they state, verse 29, we must obey God rather than any human authority. So if there was a conflict, clearly you default to what God says instead of what the human authorities say. And he says in verse 32, we're witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, which God has given to those who obey Him. See, we want to obey God in order to be recipients of His Spirit, but as He gives us that spirit of refreshing, that spirit of refreshment, that we want to deeply appreciate that Spirit that is available to us to guide us and lead us. And as you find here in the last few verses of this chapter 5, you see that they're trying to figure out what can we do. You know, how could we punish them? We put them in jail, and then they got out, and we don't even know how they got out. We didn't even read that. That's in chapter 4. And they were released. You know, they couldn't figure that out. But here in chapter 5, they're still persecuting them. And yet, in verse 34, you find Gamaliel saying something quite interesting.

He says, think about it. You know, there have been a couple of other uprisings, and people have followed so-and-so a couple of different times, and they went for a little while, and he died, and then it quit. It's over. Nothing to it. But what Gamaliel said in verse 38, so in this present case, I tell you, keep away from these men. Let them alone, because if this plan, this undertaking is of human origin, it'll fail. But if it's of God, then you will not be able to overthrow them. And in this case, you may even find yourself fighting against God.

See, who was working with these New Testament Christians and leaders in the initial Church of God, 19 centuries, 1920, whichever it is, centuries ago, who was working with the M.O. Godbloods? It was by his design, by his purpose, by his plan, that he was inspiring the Church to be able to go forward, because they weren't relying on themselves. They didn't have a high opinion of themselves. They realized, you know, we're fishermen, we speak Galilean, but we have a power that not only refreshes us, even in time of distress, but enables us to do the work, to do the job, to preach the gospel, to proclaim the Kingdom of God and Jesus the King of that Kingdom, to proclaim that as loudly and broadly as we possibly can. So, brethren, this Day of Pentecost, as you read about it here, and again, I know that that was beyond the Day of Pentecost, what we're reading in chapter 3 and 4 and 5, but this clearly describes the power that God had made available to the initial members of the Church. And we need to understand that he has made that available to us. He tells us in 2 Timothy 1, verse 6 and 7, he tells Timothy to stir up the gift of God that is in you. And I ask you, you know, should you not stir up the gift of God, ask God to stir up the gift of God that is in you, that we could more perfectly reflect a divine nature, and that we could be able to show the love of God that we desire, that we could be stirred up to do that, and that we have been given. I think it's in verse 7 here. I'm not looking at that, and I only better look at it so that I can get it right. 2 Timothy 1, verse 6, for this reason, I remind you to rekindle the gift of God, which is within you through the laying on of my hands. He was telling Timothy that, but he says, God has not given you a spirit of fear. He's not given you a spirit of cowardice. He has given you a spirit of power and love and of a sound mind. And so, you know, we've been rescued and we've been refreshed. And I ask that all of us consider how refreshing it is for the presence of the Lord to reside in us and to empower us and to strengthen us. And clearly, we want to remember that God is the one who drew us to Jesus Christ, that he is the one who provides a calling and an election, that he is the one who has the power that we can rely on to lead and guide our lives. And as we go forward, you know, there's more active things that can be done, but we want to be trusting and relying on God. So we want to thank God for his gracious presence in our lives. And I certainly hope that even in any distress that we may go through, that we can truly be refreshed by the presence of the Lord in us.