Latest / Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services / Living Waters of Grace 09.16.25
Transcript
- 0:03This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
- 0:08Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,
- 0:12County of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
- 0:16continues teaching through God's Word.
- 0:37They were in unity. They weren't fighting or
- 0:39arguing. They were waiting on the Lord
- 0:41that it wasn't their prayer that brought this power of God upon
- 0:45them. This was ordained by God.
- 0:48And so some people think today, well, we need to have another
- 0:51Pentecost. Well, I, I don't want to depress
- 0:53you, but there's only one Pentecost that happened already.
- 0:56But there's plenty of opportunity for more infillings
- 1:00and empowerment of the Holy Spirit throughout your life.
- 1:02It doesn't just happen one time when you get saved.
- 1:05Unity in faith is like a choir singing in a harmony, creating
- 1:10space for God's voice. In today's message, Pastor Clark
- 1:14unveils how the disciples waiting together without
- 1:17conflict experienced God's ordained outpouring of the
- 1:21Spirit. The Holy Spirit offers fresh
- 1:24infillings and empowerment throughout your life, not just
- 1:28at salvation. It's not your striving or
- 1:32perfect prayers that bring this. It's God's plan.
- 1:36Are you open to the Holy Spirit's ongoing empowerment in
- 1:39your walk with the Holy Spirit now?
- 1:42Here's Pastor Clark in Acts Chapter 2 with today's edition
- 1:46of Living Waters of Grace. We're in the book of the Acts
- 1:50and we're going to study Pentecost today.
- 1:52Chapter 2. In order to receive from the
- 1:55Lord the power of the Holy Spirit in our life daily, we
- 2:01have to be in a place of vulnerability and and
- 2:04understandable weakness. If we're all together and we
- 2:08think we got our strength all set up and we got everything
- 2:11laid out that no matter what happens we can handle it, then
- 2:14we're usually not good recipients of the need for
- 2:19empowerment of the Holy Spirit. We're used to doing life our own
- 2:22way and our own strength, but whenever we're weak, we have a
- 2:27desperate need for the power of the Holy Spirit.
- 2:30And I, I love the teaching of Paul in 2nd Corinthians 12
- 2:34before we go into Acts. He had this affliction health
- 2:37issue, and he asked the Lord three times that it might depart
- 2:42from him in chapter 12 of Second Corinthians verse 8.
- 2:47And he said to me, And this is the Lord's word to Paul, My
- 2:51grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in
- 2:55weakness. Therefore most gladly I will
- 2:58rather boast of my infirmities, that the power of Christ may
- 3:02rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasures and
- 3:05infirmities and reproaches and needs and persecutions and
- 3:08distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am
- 3:13strong. Paul understood the principle of
- 3:18becoming aware of his own inability, his own weakness, his
- 3:24own situation in his own life. He could not overcome in his own
- 3:29power, his own ability. And I have that verse by my bed.
- 3:33And sometimes when I go to bed at night or I get up in the
- 3:36morning, I sense my own personal weakness and my need of the
- 3:40Lord. And I'm so comforted and
- 3:43couraged that it's not a bad thing to feel weak.
- 3:46Matter of fact, it's a good thing to know you're weak
- 3:48because in that weakness, that's when the power of God is
- 3:52manifest. That's when the strength of God
- 3:55will show up in your life, when you recognize your weakness.
- 3:59And so that's a promise. And so when I think of the book
- 4:02of the Acts, and I also think of the promise of Jesus in regard
- 4:06to the person of the Holy Spirit, Jesus said, and I read
- 4:11this last week, I want to review it again in chapter 14, verse
- 4:1415. If you love me, keep my
- 4:16commandments. In other words, obey the Lord in
- 4:19your life moment by moment. If you love the Lord, you're
- 4:22going to want to do what he asked you to do and that this is
- 4:26this is not in front of other people.
- 4:27This is your own private life, your own integrity of where you
- 4:31are with God moment by moment and the decisions that you make
- 4:35moment by moment. And Jesus says the evidence of
- 4:38our relationship with him and and our love for him is living
- 4:42in obedience and surrender to him.
- 4:44And he said, and I will pray the Father, and he will give you
- 4:47another helper, that he may abide with you forever.
- 4:51The spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it
- 4:55neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for He dwells
- 4:59with you and will be in you. And I will not leave you
- 5:02orphans. I will come to you.
- 5:04So this wonderful work of God, the Holy Spirit in the book of
- 5:08the Acts, this is the beginning of the church age.
- 5:10Acts chapter 2. If you have your Bibles, you can
- 5:13turn there. If you don't, you can listen or
- 5:15look on your phone, whatever you app you have there for your
- 5:18Bible. We will go through this chapter
- 5:22of Acts, part of it at least today.
- 5:25Now I just want to set the stage.
- 5:27We have Passover significant in the sense of the day that Jesus
- 5:34was crucified on Passover, Jewish feast, and then you had
- 5:40the Feast of First Fruits was the resurrection that occurred 3
- 5:47days after the death of Christ. And then you have the feast of
- 5:51Pentecost which is 50 days after the resurrection.
- 5:56So these were all lined up in Jewish history to show the
- 6:01Jewish people that Christ was truly the Messiah.
- 6:04Now they would still celebrate these various festivals and not
- 6:07tie Christ into it because of the deception and the lies that
- 6:11were going around regarding who Jesus was.
- 6:13And did he or did he not truly raise from the dead?
- 6:19And then we had the Feast of Tabernacles in the fall.
- 6:21So there was three major feasts that the Jewish people took
- 6:24pilgrimage. The Jewish males took pilgrimage
- 6:27to go up to Jerusalem. And so here we are now at at
- 6:31Pentecost and the city is jam packed.
- 6:35The Jewish people celebrated Pentecost for the giving of the
- 6:40law. That's when Moses gave the law.
- 6:43Now we are in a different dispensation beginning at this
- 6:47particular point. Now we have church history when
- 6:50the church's birth and the day of Pentecost.
- 6:53Now we have to think about the people who were invited into the
- 6:56temple court somewhere in the temple compound to have enough
- 7:01room for 120 people and that eventually 3000 people who would
- 7:05listen to Peter's sermon on that day and and become Christians.
- 7:093000 people had to be a pretty big area to house all those
- 7:13people. At one time.
- 7:16These people that were called to go up into the room to wait.
- 7:21Jesus said you go after he ascended 10 days.
- 7:24They were to wait until the Holy Spirit came upon them.
- 7:29What were they like during those ten days?
- 7:31What, what was happening with them?
- 7:33Well, we know from last week, it says they were in one accord.
- 7:36They were in unity. They weren't fighting or
- 7:38arguing. They were waiting on the Lord.
- 7:41But it wasn't their prayer that brought this power of God upon
- 7:44them. This was ordained by God.
- 7:48And so some people think today, well, we need to have another
- 7:50Pentecost. Well, I I don't want to depress
- 7:52you, but there's only one Pentecost and it happened
- 7:55already. But there's plenty of
- 7:57opportunity for more infillings and empowerment of the Holy
- 8:00Spirit throughout your life. It doesn't just happen one time.
- 8:03When you get saved, you need to continually be filled.
- 8:06But the difference between what happens in the book of the Acts
- 8:10here and what happened to you and me is that I wasn't baptized
- 8:13by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. I was baptized by the Holy
- 8:17Spirit when I got saved. The moment I got saved, the
- 8:20moment you got saved, you were baptized into the body of
- 8:24Christ. The body of Christ didn't exist
- 8:26the way it does now until the day of Pentecost.
- 8:30And on the day of Pentecost, that's when all these people who
- 8:34were believers were baptized by the Holy Spirit into this entity
- 8:38we call the body of Christ. And Jesus being the head of the
- 8:42body, and we're parts of the body.
- 8:45And so these folks that were waiting for this to occur, they
- 8:50were very, I'm sure, intimidated in a lot of ways.
- 8:55They were weak. They were in weakened
- 8:56conditions. They were gathered together,
- 8:59perhaps not knowing exactly what was going to happen and how it
- 9:02was going to happen and what was going to happen to them because
- 9:04of this event called Pentecost. So they weren't proud, they
- 9:09weren't arrogant, they weren't independent.
- 9:11They were in a place of surrender and a place of willing
- 9:14brokenness to be able to receive from God the Father what he was
- 9:19going to send by the Son in the person of God the Holy Spirit.
- 9:25First Corinthians 12/13 for us today and those of us who are
- 9:30believers and those of us perhaps maybe will come become
- 9:33believers the day or in the days to come.
- 9:36It says for by 1 Spirit are we baptized into the body of
- 9:40Christ. So an unbeliever is not in
- 9:43Christ. They're totally unaware of their
- 9:46need of Christ. Most of the time they're not
- 9:48even aware of the fact that there is a power called the Holy
- 9:52Spirit, a person, the Holy Spirit.
- 9:55The Holy Spirit is the one who convicts the world and convicts
- 9:58lost people of sin. They need a savior of
- 10:01righteousness. They're unholy, they're impure.
- 10:05And the potential judgment of dying without forgiveness from
- 10:09Christ and going into eternity without a savior, that's the
- 10:12work of the Holy Spirit. He's also called the Comforter
- 10:15and the Helper. And I mentioned that last that
- 10:17we need to continually ask the Holy Spirit for help and to
- 10:21comfort us not to try to do life in our own strength and try to
- 10:25make it through by our own ability on our own wisdom, but
- 10:29to be humble and say, Lord, I need your help or ask someone
- 10:33else to pray for you or or to encourage you and the Lord we we
- 10:37that's the purpose of the church to comfort and encourage and
- 10:40minister to one another to be there for one another to help
- 10:43one another. That's the health of of a Bible
- 10:47teaching church is to have crisis ahead and we're all
- 10:50serving him and serving one another.
- 10:53And so these folks now are told in chapter 2, verse one, they're
- 10:59waiting and it says they've been waiting for 10 days.
- 11:02And verse one, when the day of Pentecost said fully come, they
- 11:06were all with 1 accord in one place.
- 11:08So they're they're waiting, they're not leaving each other
- 11:12during this period of time. They're staying in this place to
- 11:16receive what God, through the Lord Jesus Christ, God the
- 11:19Savior, told them would come to pass.
- 11:22And suddenly everything's real calm and sort of normal.
- 11:27And then suddenly this is this happens in a blink of an eye.
- 11:32Suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty
- 11:37wind. They could hear this.
- 11:40They couldn't see it, but they heard this noise probably sound
- 11:44like 100 locomotives coming at them at one time.
- 11:48And not only did they hear this wind, but everybody in that
- 11:51compound that confines of Jerusalem where they were
- 11:54located were also hearing the wind because it was eventually
- 11:57going to attract thousands of people to see what was going on.
- 12:01And it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
- 12:04And so they weren't standing and they weren't jumping around.
- 12:09They're they're just sitting there like you guys are sitting
- 12:11here today. They're not knowing what to
- 12:13expect. Nothing like this has ever
- 12:15happened before in human history.
- 12:18And then there appeared to them divided tongues as a fire, and
- 12:23one sat upon each of them. And so you've got to visualize
- 12:28this, that you've got 120 people in this room, and as you're
- 12:32looking around, you're hearing this wind.
- 12:34You're probably shocked and and awe and fearful.
- 12:36What's going on? Is this a tornado or hurricane?
- 12:40Are we all going to be killed? I mean, there had to be all kind
- 12:43of thoughts going through their head.
- 12:44The only was that when alarming and unlike anything they had
- 12:49ever encountered. But they're looking and they're
- 12:51seeing on top of each of the people's heads, the 120 there
- 12:56something that appeared to look like a flame of fire.
- 12:59It sort of reminded me when Jesus was baptized, it says that
- 13:02the, the dove ascended, descended upon him, the Holy
- 13:06Spirit to give the picture that Christ was the Messiah.
- 13:11And they saw it visibly. And so in this case, they, they
- 13:14see these tongues of fire. What does fire represent?
- 13:18Fire represents the power to purify something.
- 13:23Fire also represents the holiness of God in the burning
- 13:27Bush, the fire pillar of fire by night as they travelled through
- 13:32the wilderness with the Tabernacle.
- 13:35Our God is a consuming fire, the Bible says So the fire of God,
- 13:40the power of God, the glory of God, the the absolute holiness
- 13:47of God is manifest in this picture of these fiery tongues.
- 13:52You mix fire with wind and you get major energy explosion and
- 13:59this is what was happening. The fire and the wind together
- 14:03was creating this phenomena that was actually a physical
- 14:07phenomena and they were experiencing this and and then
- 14:13it says in verse 4, and they were all filled with the Holy
- 14:18Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave
- 14:24them utterance. Now the Greek word for the idea
- 14:30of tongues and also in verse 6, we'll get there in a minute when
- 14:35it talks about them hearing the people, hearing these guys and
- 14:39gals speaking in language was from the Greek word where we get
- 14:45our word linguistic, we get our word.
- 14:48I forget the word that slips my mind now, but it's the word that
- 14:51means language. And so this was not babbling.
- 14:56This was not something that was unable to be discerned as far as
- 15:01what it meant. As we continue here, this is
- 15:05literally a gift that they were given to proclaim the greatness
- 15:10of God in the midst of all the people that would hear them.
- 15:15This was something too that they weren't doing themselves.
- 15:18It was the Spirit. The Holy Spirit was giving them
- 15:21this utterance to do this and verse 5 and there were dwelling
- 15:25in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven.
- 15:30There had to be at least 15 different people groups from
- 15:34various places as far as Iran and Egypt and and the Roman
- 15:38Empire and and and Greece and and this on and on and on.
- 15:42So there was all these people with these multiple languages at
- 15:46at this time in Pentecost visiting Jerusalem.
- 15:49And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together and
- 15:52they were confused because everyone heard them speak in his
- 15:56own language. OK, this was not in Babel.
- 16:01Like say I'm say I'm Greek and I'm there and I don't understand
- 16:06Hebrew, but I'm part of this crowd and I'm hearing some of
- 16:11these people speaking in fluent Greek.
- 16:15The great acts of God throughout the Old Testament in the Bible.
- 16:20The New Testament wasn't written yet.
- 16:22So they would be proclaiming the greatness of God's deliverance
- 16:26from the, the bondage of Egypt and Pharaoh and all the things,
- 16:30the great things that God had done.
- 16:33And someone else would be there and, and, and no Italian or
- 16:37someone else would be there and, and no some other Egyptian
- 16:41language or whatever. So the word I was looking for
- 16:44was dialects. OK, That's the Greek word of
- 16:47that word, language, dialects. So they were speaking in various
- 16:51dialects, OK, at one time, and it's a reversal.
- 16:56What happened at the Tower of Babel when they decided to use
- 16:59one language to build that tower to get up to God and sort of
- 17:03control things was all based on pride.
- 17:06And God had to disperse the crowd by giving them different
- 17:09languages where all of a sudden they couldn't understand one
- 17:11another, right? Well, in this instance, now
- 17:13everybody is understanding the same message given by the Holy
- 17:17Spirit through these various languages.
- 17:20This is the real gift of tongues.
- 17:23I mean, we'll get into other things down the road, but I
- 17:26mean, if I'm going to have a language, a gift to speak in
- 17:30tongues, Lord, give me Italian. I'd like to travel Rome and not
- 17:34have to study and be able to just talk to people and give
- 17:37them the gospel, right, Without having to study, you know, this
- 17:41software, learning how to speak a foreign language.
- 17:44I mean, I took I took two years of Spanish in high school and I
- 17:47all I can say is like buenas tarde or hostile luego como SE
- 17:53almost dead. And I know that one.
- 17:55I'd learned how to order breakfast a little bit because
- 17:58one time I had to go to Mexico. So I wanted to know how to order
- 18:00pancakes and panaceos and that kind of stuff.
- 18:04Caliente chocolate. And I like that too, you know,
- 18:07anyway, it's a lot of work to know a language.
- 18:10Well, these people were, I learned it in regard to these
- 18:13languages. Wasn't God was looking down and
- 18:16said, well, you already know Italian, so you're going to
- 18:18proclaim the greatness of God in this language.
- 18:21And no, it was a supernatural manifestation of languages.
- 18:25I talked to Mike Dawson one time and they spent many years in the
- 18:29jungles. They're still there in the
- 18:30jungles of Venezuela with the Anamont Indians.
- 18:34He said, Clark, we prayed many times, Lord, give us a gift to
- 18:36speak this language. It is brutal when you go into a
- 18:40foreign country where there's no language and you have to point
- 18:42at things forever to figure out does that word mean tree or
- 18:46branch or leaf? I mean, it's it's it takes a
- 18:49while to eventually know the language and then to be able to
- 18:52write the language down in the Bible in the New Testament
- 18:56translated and but he told me one time an interesting story.
- 19:00His father was very pragmatic man, very balanced in his
- 19:06theology, wasn't flying by the seat of his pants.
- 19:10He knew the word, he knew doctor, and he understood what
- 19:12the Bible teaches regarding truth.
- 19:15And one time he was sitting there talking to a witch doctor,
- 19:19trying to have a conversation, but there was no conversation
- 19:22because he didn't understand Yanomano.
- 19:24And the Yanomano Indian didn't understand him, his language,
- 19:28But they were smiling at each other and talking to each other.
- 19:31Well, lo and behold, years later, when this witch doctor
- 19:34became a Christian, he said, I'll never forget that one time
- 19:37you and I were sitting down there by the river talking, and
- 19:40you were telling me about Jesus. And I understood what you were
- 19:44saying. And he said what he says.
- 19:47Yeah, you were talking to me. The way you were communicating
- 19:51somehow was translated to me in my language, even though you
- 19:54were speaking something different.
- 19:57Now, that's only God. It only happened for a little
- 20:01while, a little bit, but it was enough to touch that Indian's
- 20:05heart and the Lord used it. I know missionaries I've talked
- 20:09to for years, it's been years, you guys know, you study
- 20:13language, you know to go to be a missionary.
- 20:15And it wouldn't have been nice if you just would have been
- 20:17given that gift and you can get on the plane the next day after
- 20:19you were ready to go and just go give the gospel.
- 20:22It doesn't work that way for some reason, but nonetheless, in
- 20:26Pentecost here these are literal languages.
- 20:30This is not Babble. If you would have been there and
- 20:32said, well, these people are drunk.
- 20:34And we're going to see what some of the people thought about what
- 20:36was happening here as we studied this together, the the crowd's
- 20:40response and when they responded to this, it says in verse 5, and
- 20:44there were dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews, devout men from
- 20:46every nation under heaven. So it gives you the idea of all
- 20:49these different people groups. And when the sound occurred, the
- 20:52multitude came together and they were confused because everyone
- 20:56heard them speak in his own language.
- 20:57I mean, that would be wild, wouldn't it, just to be able to
- 21:02hear every language at that particular time being spoken at
- 21:07the same time. And it's only resonating with
- 21:10people who are from that particular people group that
- 21:12would understand. Someone over here is talking
- 21:15Italian, but if I'm Greek, I'm just listening to the guy that's
- 21:17speaking in Greek and I'm hearing what it is he's saying,
- 21:20OK. And so it says in verse 7.
- 21:25Then they were all amazed and they marveled, I should say, so
- 21:29I would be amazed and marveling too.
- 21:31I marvel and amaze reading this. And they said to one another,
- 21:35look, are not all those who speak Galileans?
- 21:40I mean, they, they only knew like one kind of dialect, the
- 21:43Galileans. And how is it that we hear each
- 21:47in our own language in which we were born?
- 21:50That's the question. How in the world is this
- 21:53happening? It's a miracle, the work of God,
- 21:56the Holy Spirit. Parthians, that's the first
- 22:01people group and knees from Persia and Elamites, those
- 22:06dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontius in Asia,
- 22:10Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya joining
- 22:14Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and Proselytites, Cretian
- 22:22and Arabs, We hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful
- 22:27works of God. So they were able to witness of
- 22:34their faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
- 22:39biblically through the language to all these people who were in
- 22:44town at Pentecost to celebrate the giving of the law.
- 22:48No one expected this to happen except obviously our faithful
- 22:53God and those he told that this was going to happen and why they
- 22:57had to wait. But the world was not prepared
- 23:00for this at this time nor were they expecting this.
- 23:04I was listening to someone talk about this particular section of
- 23:08scripture and they said Jesus one time in the scriptures was
- 23:13they believe this could have happened by the portico of
- 23:15Solomon with the big pillars where it had a big expanse of,
- 23:19of space and cement where people could congregate.
- 23:24And Jesus was over there one time praying and walking around.
- 23:27And, and you would have loved to heard the conversation if you
- 23:31could. But you know, he knew he was
- 23:32going to go to the cross and die.
- 23:35He knew he was going to suffer. He knew he was going to raise
- 23:37again from the dead. But he probably walked around
- 23:39that room and that big area of space.
- 23:43And this was praising his father, saying it won't be too
- 23:46long before they'll be 3000 people here one day.
- 23:51They'll get saved by hearing the gospel from the Apostle Peter.
- 23:57Thanks for joining us on today's edition of Living Waters of
- 24:00Grace, a ministry of Calvary Chapel, Westmoreland.
- 24:04Today, Pastor Clark is teaching about the book of Acts, and as
- 24:07we learn more about Acts, it becomes clear that the early
- 24:10church didn't miss a single opportunity to share the gospel.
- 24:15In nearly every chapter, you see apostles like Peter and Paul
- 24:18stepping into conversations, crowds, and crises with
- 24:22boldness, ready to proclaim the name of Jesus.
- 24:26Their example challenges us to consider how we might step into
- 24:30gospel moments in our own lives. What doors might God open this
- 24:35week for you to speak truth, offer hope, or live out your
- 24:38faith in a way that points others to Him?
- 24:41The story of Acts reminds us we are part of the same mission.
- 24:44Today, let's live with eyes open and hearts ready to respond.
- 24:49We hope you are challenged by today's message.
- 24:52If you're in the Greensburg, PA area, we'd love to see you in
- 24:55person this Sunday at 10:30 AM at 400 E Pittsburgh St.
- 25:00Unit 6B. For more information, visit
- 25:04calvarychapelonline.com. You can also join our e-mail
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- 25:21teachings. If you were in the Greensburg
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