Handling Adversity Part 4
Scriptures: Acts 3:3-7; 4:8-13; 5:3-4; Galatians 5:16-23;
Introduction:
In my message last week I gave you an introduction to the Holy Spirit and why Jesus sent Him here to be a helper for us. If you recall from last week, before Jesus ascended into heaven, He met with His disciples and shared with them that He would send them a helper. He instructed them to remain in Jerusalem until they had received power from on high which would come through the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit fell on them, they began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. These “other tongues” that they were speaking in were actually the native language of the crowd that was witnessing what was happening. So the Holy Spirit delivered a message to everyone present in a way in which they could all understand. When they were questioned about what was happening Peter stood up and preached one of his best known sermons. Notice the change within Peter. Weeks earlier he was scared and in hiding, now he was bold and openly professing Christ. This change within him was what Christ had stated would be necessary for the disciples to accomplish the ministry that they were about to embark upon. The Holy Spirit enabled them to walk boldly in their ministries. What the Holy Spirit did for the disciples He is able to do for us today and this is the point of my message. The disciples faced constant adversity, even death, but through the power of the Holy Spirit, they prevailed. So let’s start by examining some specific instances where the Holy Spirit helped the disciples.
I. The Holy Spirit Being A Helper
After the day of Pentecost, the disciples began their public ministries. They began preaching and teaching God’s Word based on what they were taught by Christ. They also began to share revelations as it was revealed to them by the Holy Spirit. Remember one of the jobs of the Holy Spirit was to empower them.
Shortly after the disciples began their ministries, Peter and John were going to the temple to pray. Notice that they were no longer in hiding, but they were openly going forth in what was customary at the time, to pray during the ninth hour or 3:00 p.m. As they were entering the temple, they came upon a lame beggar at the gate of the temple begging for money. Look at Acts 3:3-7. “When he (the beggar) saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he began asking to receive alms. But Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him and said, ‘Look at us!’ And he began to give them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, ‘I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene – walk! And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were strengthen.”
I want you to focus on what Peter said. When the beggar asked for money, Peter said “I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene – walk!” What did Peter have that he did not have before? He had the Holy Spirit. You see, before he was given the power through the Holy Spirit, Peter could have “questioned” if he could heal the man. This was not the case in this situation. As he walked in the power of the Holy Spirit, he did not question that if he told the man to get up, that he would get up. Now I want you to consider this for a moment. What would happen if we walked in the power that we given? When we prayed we knew we’d receive an answer. When we laid hands on the sick, we knew they’d recover. When we talked about Christ it would not be with a sense of embarrassment that we are a Christian. You see, many of us act like the disciples did before they received power, but I am here to tell you that God has given you power to be an over-comer through the Holy Spirit. We have everything we need to succeed if we would just listen and allow the Spirit of God to lead us. Let’s move on to another example. After Peter and John healed the man, they got in trouble with the “religious” leaders of Jerusalem.
After healing the man, the man gave God the glory. When others saw it, they too marveled which got the attention of the religious leaders and other rulers who eventually had them arrested for causing such a stir amongst the people. When Peter and John were brought before them they asked them “By what power, or in what name, have you done this?” What they were really asking was “Under whose authority did they heal this man and preach about Jesus Christ.” Now here is where we see the change in Peter fully manifested. Remember, his previous sermon was delivered to the general public who had witnessed them receiving the Holy Spirit but now he was getting ready to preach to those who he used to be afraid of. Look at Acts 4:8-12. “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, ‘Rulers and elders of the people, if we are on trial today for a benefit done to a sick man, as to how this man has been made well, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, who you crucified, whom God raised from the dead – by this name this man stands here before you in good health. He is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the chief corner stone. And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”
Peter shared with them that the authority they were now operating under came from Jesus Christ whom they (the religious leaders and rulers) had killed. He then tells them that there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. He was preaching to those who killed Christ and he was talking to them as if they did not understand. He was no longer scared of what they could do to him. He was speaking under the power of the Holy Spirit and they took notice of them. When Jesus told His disciples that He would send the Holy Spirit, He told them that the Holy Spirit “will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” (John 14:26). This is what the Holy Spirit for Peter in this instance.
Verse eight says that Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit and began to preach to them. As I stated earlier, after Jesus was crucified, Peter and the other disciples went into hiding. Now, weeks later, Peter is boldly professing Christ to those who actually helped to kill him. But I want you to specifically notice that before Peter spoke, the Holy Spirit came upon him and gave him the boldness that we witness in these verses. What we see here was actually foretold to the disciples by Jesus before He was taken. When Jesus was talking to His disciples about things to come, this is one of the things He told them: “When they arrest you and hand you over, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour; for it is not you who speak, but it is the Holy Spirit.” (Mark 13:11) Peter allowed himself to be used by the Holy Spirit and when he spoke the men marveled. Look at their response in Acts 4:13. Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.” They looked upon Peter and John with amazement when they noted their confidence and the fact that they were no longer afraid of them. You must remember that during these times it was the rulers and religious leaders that everyone bowed down too. No one questioned their power, decisions or beliefs in public. So when Peter and John spoke out against them in support of Jesus, they really could not believe it. This was a major turn and shift in their power that would last forever. The leaders recognized that they were “untrained” in Scripture so they must have walked with Jesus for how else would they be so confident? Remember the role of the Holy Spirit – He would be a helper. He would teach us while reminding us of the words of Christ. He would lead us into truth and when we had to stand before the judges, He would speak through us. There is one more example I want to share with you. Turn to Acts chapter 5.
When Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit, He promised that the Holy Spirit would lead us into all truth. In this next example, we have a situation where the Holy Spirit revealed the truth in a situation. Acts chapter five opens with a situation of a husband and wife team, Ananias and Sapphira, who sold a piece of property and had promised to give the proceeds to the Church. After they made the transaction, they decided to keep part of the money for themselves. This was well within their right to do, but the way they went about it had disastrous results. When Ananias came before the disciples to “donate” the money, the Holy Spirit had already revealed to them what He was doing. Let’s begin reading at verse three. “But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” (Acts 5:3-4) This revelation was given to the disciples through the Holy Spirit. When you read carefully this interaction and the interaction between the disciples and Sapphira, you will find that although they were dealing with men, they actually lied to God. As we read this understand that it is the job of the Holy Spirit to bring us into knowledge and truth. So what about us today? Does the Spirit of God still operate today as He did during the New testament times? Absolutely!
II. Giving The Holy Spirit The Credit
There is so much we can learn about the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. I cannot get it all in this message, but I do want you to understand that the Holy Spirit is very active in all of our lives, even when we do not give Him credit. You see, we do not call Him out when He has done something for us. For example, when my daughters do something well, I give them the credit for a job well done. When anyone else does something for me, I say “thank you” in acknowledgement of the act of kindness that they have bestowed upon me. These responses are called having “common courtesy.” So it is the right thing to do when we acknowledge something that someone has done for us. But when it comes to the work of the Holy Spirit, we refer to His work as “something”. “Something told me not to do that!” “Something told me that you were lying!” “Something told me to call and check on you!” “Something told me that I would be okay!” Well let’s call Him what He is, the Holy spirit of God. The Holy Spirit told me what to do! The Holy Spirit told me the truth about my situation! The Holy Spirit told me that you were lying to me! The Holy Spirit showed me how to manage my finances and get out of debt. If we start giving Him the credit He is due, we will begin to recognize that He is operating within our lives. As long as we give the credit to “something” else, then we will continue to believe the lie of Satan that God has forgotten all about us as we are left here alone to fend for ourselves.
So how does the Holy Spirit help us in times of adversity. First, He will show us the truth of the situation. That truth will include the part that we played that got us into the situation and what is happening around us. He will lead us through the times of adversity if we are willing to be led. Someone made the statement once that “God will pull us through if we can stand the pull.” So many times the Holy Spirit begins to pull us through and we grow weary of holding on and let go. It is during these times when we are refusing to allow the Spirit of God to do His job. We will never let go when He is the source of our power. It is only when we are walking in our own power do we grow tired and weary and give in. But I want to share with some verses from the fifth chapter of Galatians. These verses are very familiar to you, but I want to share them in the light of handling adversity. Again, think about the carrots, the eggs and the coffee beans.
Turn to Galatians 5:16-21a. “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these of which I forewarn you……..” These are the things that cause us to experience adversities. Sometimes we face adversities because we do not have our flesh under the control of the Spirit of God. These are times when we allow our flesh to lead us into something that the Holy Spirit was trying to keep us out of. When we are walking in the power of the Spirit, we will not give in to our flesh. Remember, our flesh constantly fights against the Holy Spirit and oftentimes wins. But as we mature, we begin to recognize when our flesh is leading us and when we are truly walking in the Spirit. Now the question may be asked, what about the adversities that we experience when we are walking in the Spirit. Remember when Jesus was taken and crucified? It was not because He had gotten in His flesh, it was because He was walking in the Spirit and those who desired to have Him dead were not. Think about it, what was the problem that the religious leaders and rulers had with Jesus and the disciples? They were afraid of losing their power. They were jealous. They were angry. They were walking in their flesh even though they were supposed to be the religious leader. As Christians, we will face many times of adversity that are not necessarily due to something we did, but because of others who are not walking in the Spirit.
So am I saying that by walking in the Spirit we will not face adversity? No. What I am saying is that if we are walking in the Spirit, when we face adversity, we become like the coffee bean. We will change the adversity and ourselves as we yield to the Holy Spirit and accept Him leading us. How do we know when this is happening? First, we will recognize what the Spirit is doing. We will stop saying “something told me…” and start saying “the Holy Spirit led me to…..” It is nothing wrong with giving God the praise and the credit for what He is doing in our lives. We will recognize that we are walking in the Spirit when we begin to see the fruit. When you see an apple tree with apples on it, do you wonder if that tree is an orange tree? No, you recognize it as an apple tree. Well the Spirit of God produces things within our lives and these things are known as “fruit”. The fruit that is produced through the Holy Spirit is found in Galatians 5:22-23 which says: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control; against such things there is no law.”
When you look at this list closely, you will find what the Holy Spirit will do within us to help us through times of adversity. You see, the Spirit wants to produce within us love – yet our flesh thrives on hatred. The hate within us leads to a lot adversity – that which comes upon us and that which we cause. The Spirit of God wants to produce within us joy – yet our flesh thrives on bitterness. Joy comes from the Spirit and is not affected by our circumstances. Bitterness exists within man and is fed by our circumstances until it overshadows everything surrounding us. Are you starting to see what the Spirit of God was sent here to produce within us? The Spirit of God wants to produce within us peace yet our flesh thrives on wars and discord. Even when there is nothing going on in our lives and we should have peace, our flesh begins to think up “what-if” situations to ensure that we are always worrying about something. Remember what I told you last week? “Today is the tomorrow we worried about yesterday.” Our flesh resists the peace that the Spirit of God is trying to produce within us. The Spirit of God is trying to produce within us patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Our flesh thrives on impatience, rudeness, anger, doubt, disputes and a real lack of self-control. Everything that our flesh desires can lead to times of adversity. Everything that the Holy Spirit is trying to produce within us can lead us to a place that when adversity comes, we are able to handle it.
Conclusion
I started this series off three weeks ago with a story about a young woman who was at the end of her rope. As she expressed her feelings to her mother, her mother showed her that our responses to adversity is not based on what is outside of us, but what is on the inside of us. It is our inner man that is changed by adversity. In the story the adversity was the boiling water. Each item was changed by its adversity – the change happened within. The carrots became soft on the inside. The eggs became hard on the inside. The coffee bean totally dissolved and changed it’s adversity for the better. When the daughter tasted the coffee, she was pleased with the taste and the aroma. That could not have happened had the coffee bean remained the same through its adversity. Had this daughter been walking in the Spirit, she could have called on the fruit of patience during her difficult times. She could have called on the fruits of faithfulness when things got real hard. She could have called on peace when she got to the point of losing sleep at night. She could have called on joy, which comes from the Spirit of God and not from our circumstances.
I used to wonder how the older people could suffer, go without and have little and yet would always have something to share with someone else. No matter how bad the circumstances got, they were able to dig deep within their reserves to pull out something to help them get through. I did not understand what kept them going in the worst of times but now I understand. You see, faith in God and reliance on His Holy Spirit is not based on our educational level. It is not based on what degrees I have. It is not based on the number of zeros I can write on a check. It is based on my willingness to allow the Holy Spirit to operate within me. When I do that, He will lead me to truth; He will teach me; and He will protect me.
If you are facing adversity right now, you have a power source. If you are at your wits end, you have a power source. If you are at the end of your rope, you have a source that can lengthen the rope. If you do not know where to turn, you have someone that can tell you. If you are willing to allow Him, the Holy Spirit is ready to bring you into the knowledge of Him and reveal to you what Christ has been waiting to convey to you personally. Just ask Him and believe.
May God bless and keep you.
