Transformed By The Spirit Series

Transformed By the Spirit

Text: Acts 2:14-21

Introduction

1. Illustration: A woman testified to the transformation in her life that had resulted through her experience in conversion. She declared, "I’m so glad I got religion. I have an uncle I used to hate so much I vowed I’d never go to his funeral. But now, why, I’d be happy to go to it any time."

2. One of the aspects of Spirit baptism is that it transforms.

3. In our text today, we see three types of transformation…

a. Individuals

b. The Church

c. Creation

4. Read Acts 2:14-21

Proposition: We are transformed when we open our hearts to the Holy Spirit.

Transition: The first type of transformation happens in…

I. Individuals (14-15).

A. Peter Stepped Forward

1. There is no greater evidence of the Holy Spirit transforming individuals than that of Peter.

a. Peter was notorious for sticking his foot in his mouth.

b. “From then on Jesus began to tell his disciples plainly that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, and that he would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but on the third day he would be raised from the dead. 22 But Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. “Heaven forbid, Lord,” he said. “This will never happen to you!” 23 Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.” (Matt 16:21-23)

c. In addition to this incident, you’ll recall that Peter, after saying that he would die for Jesus at the Last Supper, later that night denied three times that he even knew Jesus.

2. But here we see a completely different Peter. In v. 14 it says, “Then Peter stepped forward with the eleven other apostles and shouted to the crowd”

a. The same Peter who before had shied away from confrontation or ran and hid, now steps up.

b. Not only did he step up, but it says that he “shouted to the crowd.”

c. This is the same verb that is used for speaking in tongues. He was speaking in his own language, but he was speaking as the Spirit enabled him.

d. This was not a researched, fully written out sermon, but rather it was a spontaneous, Spirit-inspired declaration.

e. You’ll also notice the boldness of Peter’s sermon. It says that he shouted it to the crowd. He wasn’t being timid or quiet about it, he was shouting his message to the crowd.

f. This is not the same Peter as before; this was a Peter who was empowered and inspired by the Holy Spirit.

g. He was different; he was changed; he had been transformed.

3. Then he continues with this Spirit-enabled message. He says, “Listen carefully, all of you, fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem! Make no mistake about this. 15 These people are not drunk, as some of you are assuming. Nine o’clock in the morning is much too early for that.”

a. He wanted to make sure that the crowd understood what was going on.

b. He specifically wanted to address the skeptics. He wanted to know that they weren’t drunk as they had accused them of being.

c. He pointed out that it was only nine o’clock in the morning. For the Jews, nine o’clock was an hour of prayer in the temple, and they didn’t even eat breakfast until it was over.

d. So, for any devout Jew of that day, being drunk before or during prayer was simply not done. So, their accusation of the believers as being drunk was simply ridiculous.

e. They were not drunk at all; they were just filled with the Holy Spirit.

f. Now, the Peter from before Pentecost, before the outpouring of the Spirit, would have been incapable of this kind of boldness.

g. But this was a new Peter; a different Peter; a Spirit-filled Peter; a transformed Peter!

B. Be Transformed

1. Illustration: John D. Rockefeller, Sr., was strong and husky when he was a youth. He early determined to earn money and drove himself to the limit. At age 33, he earned his first million dollars. At age 43, he controlled the biggest company in the world. At age 53, he was the richest man on earth and the world’s only billionaire. Then he developed a sickness called "alopecia," where the hair of his head dropped off, his eyelashes and eyebrows disappeared, and he was shrunken like a mummy. His weekly income was one million dollars, but he digested only milk and crackers. He was so hated in Pennsylvania that he had to have bodyguards’ day and night. He could not sleep, stopped smiling long since, and enjoyed nothing in life. The doctors predicted he would not live past another year. The newspaper had gleefully written his obituary in advance—for convenience in sudden use. Those sleepless nights set him thinking. He realized with a new light that he "could not take one dime into the next world." Money was not everything. God was displeased with his sinful life. Then and there he surrendered His life to Christ, repenting of his sins and pleading for God to change his heart. The next morning, he awoke a new man. He began to help churches with his amassed wealth; the poor and needy were not overlooked. He established the Rockefeller Foundation whose funding of medical researchers led to the discovery of penicillin and other wonder drugs. John D. began to sleep well, eat, and enjoy life. You could say he began to live life to the fullest! The doctors had predicted he would not live over age 54. He lived to be 98 years old. (Encyclopedia of 15,000 Illustrations).