Today I'm Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Do you ever feel like your spiritual life is dull? boring, irrelevant. Like you're just kind of going through religious motions, but there's no real sense of power, of drive, of mission, adventure, possibility.
Well, you know what? That's not God's will. And if you want to find out how it can be different, stay with me. That's today on Living on the Edge. Do you ever feel like you're not qualified enough to make a real difference for God?
I'm Dave Druy and today on Living on the Edge, Chip Ingram has great news for you. In Acts chapter 2, a blue-collar fisherman who once denied Christ three times stands up before thousands and delivers the most effective sermon in history. What qualified him? The Holy Spirit. Today, Chip unpacks the explosive conclusion of Pentecost, and later in the program, he'll also tell you about a remarkable opportunity that just launched this month, our mid-year match.
Exciting details on that just ahead.
Now here's Chip Ingram with a message titled, The Birth of a Movement. If you have your Bibles open, to Acts chapter 2. Are you ready? This is the story. of the birth of the church.
We're going to hear Peter's message, and his message is going to be about what? The resurrection. Beginning in verse 22, he says, Men of Israel, listen to this. Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God. To you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.
This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge. With the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.
Now he's going to go on. Look at verse 33. Exalted to the right hand of God, he was received from the Father and the promised Holy Spirit. has been poured out, and that is what you see and hear. For David didn't ascend to heaven, and yet he said, The Lord Yahweh said to my Lord Adonai, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.
And then notice what he calls for a decision. Therefore, let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified. Both Lord and Christ. They're making this point that He is, in fact, God and He is the waited Messiah. He was the hope of Israel.
And so he speaks to them and says, guys, You got a big issue on your hands. What are you going to do with this truth? This spirit coming is evidence of all that Jesus taught. The lesson here is that the power is in the message, not the messenger. You know, sometimes we feel like um If I could just speak better, if I just knew more.
The Apostle Paul would say in Romans 1:16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it The gospel, the message, is the power of God to salvation. to the Jew first and also to the Greek. What he's saying is that, you know what, there's a reason in God's wisdom that he picked an uneducated. Blue collar worker. Who really failed?
to be the hero of the first message of the early church. It's not how cool you are, it's not how hip you are, it's not how much you know, it's not your personality. The power isn't the gospel. If you will share it, people trust Christ because the Holy Spirit prepares them and the Holy Spirit is speaking to him. God loves them.
He wants your mouth, he wants your heart, he wants your hands, he wants your eyes. He just wants you and me to love people and then to have the courage to say, Has anyone ever explained to you how to have a personal relationship with the God of heaven? Has anyone ever shared with you how you can have eternal life? That it's actually a gift that's not about religiosity, it's not about a moral code, it's not about philosophy, that God actually loves you and He made you? You know what you'll find?
People will look at you and go, no, no one ever has. Would you? And then you'll think, well, I'm a failure, and I can't say it very well. And you'll think, great, that's you and Peter. You ready to roll?
So you know what's happened here? The church is born. The church is born. In fact, listen to what happens. Pick it up at verse 37.
When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart. And they said to Peter and to the other apostles, Brothers, what shall we do? Peter said, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, so that your sins may be forgiven. and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off.
For all whom the Lord our God will call. And then, with many other words, he warned them and he pleaded with them: Save yourselves from this corrupt generation. And those who accepted his message were baptized. and about 3,000 were added. That day.
And so what happened was the church is born. And if you have the Spirit of God, you're a part of this new thing called the church. Romans 8:9 says, However, you're not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he doesn't belong to him.
So if you don't have the Spirit of Christ living in you, you don't belong to him. The second thing this happened is this was the Spirit's baptism. Remember he said, John will baptize with water, I will baptize with the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul would later look back and say, For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether Jew or Greek, whether slave or free. We were all made to drink one Spirit.
Baptism, the word has a literal meaning and a figurative meaning. Literally, the word just means to immerse or to dip. Figuratively, it means to identify with someone.
So when Peter is telling these people, repent, change your mind, and not that baptism saved them, he's saying, your new identity, you need to go public. And so now they're going to be baptized and have to declare that their former thinking was wrong, and they're going to identify and literally be placed into this new supernatural community. called the church. Here's the lesson. The lesson is that he that has the Son has life.
And he that has not the Son of God does not have life.
So the question today is, do you have the sun? Not do you intellectually believe In God? Not are you a moral person? I got news for you. Not is there some philosophy in Christianity is one of the better ones.
This is about relationship. If you have the Son, you have life. If you don't have the Son, you don't have life. It's that simple and it's that clear. Later, John who wrote that in 1 John 5, 11, 12.
Would talk about this record. He said, These things I've written to you so that you might know. that you have eternal life. God wants you to know.
So let me ask you. Not, do you quote, believe in God? Not are you. A good moral person. I mean, Peter was speaking to a group of people that probably their morality was just off the charts above most of ours.
Do you have the sun? Because you can only be made whole and perfect and forgiven in God's Sight By having the blood of Christ cover you and Him giving you as a gift. the very righteousness of Christ. I grew up in the church for 18 years. Actually, I left when I was about 15 because I couldn't take it.
The hypocrisy, the junk, the religiosity, the rules. The Christians I met, unfortunately, were some of the worst people I'd ever met, so I didn't think God even existed. But when I began to explore what it really meant to have a relationship with God instead of quote church or Christianity and who Jesus really was, I discovered the truth. And the truth is God The Father, the Triune, God of all the universe who made And created you and me and every human being on the face of the earth. He loves us.
He's for you. He's not down on you. He loves you, and he sent his son to die in your place and to prove it that he would rise from the dead. And he makes you an offer. And the offer is eternal life, the life of Jesus living inside of you.
Requirement on your part and mine? Repent. Turn. Empty hands of faith, Lord Jesus, I accept your death, payment for my sin, your resurrection, the proof that it's true. Today, will you come into my life?
For me, that was 1972. Are you 100% sure at this moment that you have the sun? And if not, could we just stop? I mean, I'll get the fourth point. I'll knock it out quick.
But I have to believe God brought multiple people in this room. And the Spirit of God is going, you need the Son. You need the sun today. And this is how your mind's going, oh man, if I need the sun and I go this direction, that you turn. Man, I got an addiction over here, or I'm living with someone over here, I got this issue going over here, and I've cheated over here.
And tell you what, God will clean up your life. Yours is a, I'm turning from it. You don't have the power to change. You ask the Son to come into your life, forgive you for your sin. He'll give you the strength.
with God's people. to deal with that stuff. Father, right now as we stop, you know every person that you've brought because you love them. And you are prompting and speaking deeply in their heart and life, and something inside of them is screaming, despite all the conflict. I want the sun.
I want eternal life. I need to be forgiven. If that's you, just in your heart, would you just pray along with me? And it's not the words, it's you talking to God saying, Dear Father, I admit today that I need you. I ask today.
That you would forgive me for all my sins. I believe and trust that you paid for my sin by Christ's death. I believe and trust. that his resurrection proved it is true. Will you come into my life right now?
Will you make me your son? Your daughter. Lord, thank you.
Now give me strength and courage to follow Jesus. Christ's name. Literally, millions of people around the world prayed that prayer. They were sincere. The Spirit of God came into their life, and they heard somehow, that's it, that's the big deal.
That's not the big deal. That's like going into labor and having your wife have a baby and going, okay, we got that over with, and you leave. I mean, the baby just got born. When you're a spiritual baby, you need the milk of God's word and the love of God's people. He's got a life ahead of you.
And by the way, can I tell you something? Instead of that stuff you hear on TV, it's really hard.
Okay? It's really hard and it's awesome. And it's really swimming upstream. And it's blessed. And the joy is unspeakable.
You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and we'll continue our message in just a moment.
Well, something special is happening here in June at Living on the Edge. It's a powerful mid-year match. For a limited time, every gift to this ministry will be doubled in size, meaning twice the reach, twice the impact for every dollar given. You can learn more about it at livingonthege.org, and Chip will have more details after today's message.
Now let's get back to our lesson. And so Once the Spirit of God, when you pray and ask the Son to come into your life, He comes into your life. And you're a new person. The old has passed away, everything becomes new. But now you have to learn, like a little baby learns to walk and then learns to eat and then learns to grow.
He's going to conform you. He's going to make you like Jesus. Five years from now, your friends will go, what happened to you? Used to be a selfish creep like the rest of us. I mean, you hit it well.
You were very sophisticated, and you went to a great school, so you hit it really well, but you were a selfish creep like all of us. And you like care for people that no one cares about. Leads us to point number four. Jesus' spiritual body began doing what he did when he walked on the earth in his physical body. See, that's the game plan.
The genius, the wisdom of God. was when Jesus walked on the earth, he not only revealed what God was like, But it Here's a need and he meets the need and here's some people that need fed and he feeds them and here's some truth and he gives the truth and he lived and he loved in such a way and the wisdom was I'm gonna leave and go to the father And the spirit Of God is going to come inside every believer.
So we're not going to have one Jesus, we're going to have a thousand, and then a million, and then five million, then 20 million, then 30 million. And you know what their job is? Their job is to stay connected to the Father and keep their heart tender so we would live the way Jesus lived. And we would do what Jesus did when he was here.
So Basically, we're his spiritual body. And that's why Jesus said the last night on the earth, you will do greater works than I did. Not quantitatively, but qualitatively. If you're a Christ follower and His Spirit lives in you, Jesus lives in your house. That means He's at your work.
That means He's in your neighborhood. You are the light of the world.
Well, how does it work? Here's how it works. What did they do? They did bio. They didn't call it that then.
What did Jesus do when he was walking on the earth? He got before God, didn't he? He went to the temple and he worshipped. He said, I need to do life in community. Even the Son of Man, so he had 12 guys that he did life with.
They didn't have some little Bible studies. It wasn't like, well, Peter, what answer did you get for question four? I mean, they're doing life, and it was, you know, Lord, I'm struggling with this, and my mother-in-law is making me crazy, and I'm really tempted with lust, and what do I do with that? And Jesus would say, Come on, let's get in here, guys. And he taught him.
And then they're on mission.
Okay, you guys ready? You've learned enough. Two by two by two. Ready? Go for it.
You go to those towns before I get there, and here's the power. I'll be right behind you. They lived before God, they did life in community, and they were flat on on mission. Look at verse 42. They just began to do what he did while he was alive.
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship and to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Before God, In community. The word fellowship, we get quinine. Apostles teaching the word before God. The trade?
They're having meals together? This wasn't some religious group. These are people who are doing relationship. with an eternal God living inside of them. Everyone Was filled with a sense of awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were being done by the apostles, and all the believers were together.
And they had everything in common, selling their possessions and goods, and they gave as anyone had need. And every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. This wasn't like a once-a-week duty. I mean they're doing life together. And not just big meetings, they broke bread together in their homes and they ate together.
How? With glad and sincere hearts. And they're praising God and thanking God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Non-Christians like them. They weren't known for what they were against.
They were known for how loving they were. And then notice at the very end. And the Lord added to their number daily. those that were being saved. How did it happen?
It was the Spirit's Filling ministry. They're filled with the Spirit. We'll develop this later. The baptism of the Spirit is a one-time event that occurs when you put your faith in Christ, pray to ask Him to come into your life, and you're baptized or placed in the body of Christ. The filling of the Spirit happens multiple times.
In fact, in Ephesians 5.18, where it says, do not be drunk with wine, for that's dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit. Don't think of a cup and water being poured in it. Think of a sponge that is filled with something that so when you push on the sponge it's what comes out. The word filling here means, but be controlled by the Spirit. Allow the Word of God and the truth of God and the Spirit to have His way so that instead of being selfish and self-centered and right-centered, you become like this group.
They were generous. They were kind. They were sharing. Why? Because it was the spirit of Christ living in them and the life of Christ living through them.
So they were filled with the Spirit, were commanded to do that. Here's the lesson. Is God's agenda For his people has not changed, and his power is no less available today. than it was then. But if I could give me and you a gift, it would be that we would actually believe that.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, Jesus said, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the uttermost parts of the earth. We're sitting in this room today because people actually believed it and did it, and many of them gave their lives throughout the centuries.
Now think about this. Just do the math. God the Holy Spirit raise Christ from the dead. God the Holy Spirit when you prayed to receive Christ, entered your mortal body.
Now, he doesn't necessarily have control. You can shut him off and you can quench it. But if you'll let him. As you renew your mind with His Word, as you do life in community with people, He will fill you and give you the same supernatural power. that the early disciples had.
And he then has an agenda for you. I mean, isn't life more than just being successful and being self-fulfilled and getting a good job and being upwardly mobile and hoping everything turns out and only to get to the end of your life and going, I worked really hard, I did this, I had this crazy schedule, I did this, my kids got in these schools, I finally got married, you know what, I got buffed up in my body and I had money for surgeries later when I got older, so I still look kind of good and I'm crazy and I'm either plugging or watching or doing. And get to be like 80 years old and go, Mimi, what a waste. This was all supposed to bring security and fulfillment and joy. And I had to have pills to get up and pills to go to sleep and Do you really want to do that?
Or do you want to do what God made you to do and placed you on this planet to do to change the world?
Well, what's your dream? Shouldn't you have something where If the Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is inside of you, shouldn't you expect him to do something supernatural in you and supernatural through you that you would like Peter go, I can't believe this happened to a regular person like me? What's your dream? I'm going to challenge you, if you don't have one, ask God. As we close, let me share mine with you.
I have a dream. Lord, that one day churches will be filled with warm, caring, non-legalistic, non-self-righteous, authentic, passionate followers of Jesus. That the broken, the irreligious, the fallen, the different, and the unlovely would be welcome there. The churches would measure success, not By the size of their budgets, the numbers in their flock, or the beauty of their buildings. but by the depth of their love.
I'm dreaming the day when Christians would stay married when times are tough, when forgiveness is sought and granted, and predictable struggles would result in humbly coming to God and His Word. and a wise brother or sister for wisdom and help. I'm dreaming of a day when parents model holiness and purity and set boundaries for their children to protect them from the seductive world system. that promises everything and delivers death. I'm dreaming of a day when parents eat together and laugh and tell stories of God's love at bedtime, tickle each other to tears, spill popcorn on the floor, pray about tests and lost friends and lost neighbors, and make their house the most exciting, fun place to be on the block.
I'm dreaming of a day when Christians know their neighbors' names and eat hamburgers in the backyard, a day when we're known by our love. I'm dreaming of a day when churches work together to paint schools and clean parks and build houses in the tough parts of town and refuse to care who gets the credit. I'm dreaming of a day when Christians would be known for what we're for more than what we're against. A day when prayer would be viewed as more powerful than politics and the people would be valued and treated with dignity even if what they believe is antithetical to all that we stand for. I'm dreaming of the day when Christians would cease to be so concerned about being cool and hip and cutting edge and relevant.
And simply be consistent and caring and committed to be like Jesus and do what He says. I'm dreaming of a day when nine out of ten Christians would think it abnormal and strange. If they didn't come before God daily, do life in community, and be on mission 24-7. This is a dream I can't shake. It's a dream that Christians everywhere, in every culture, in every church, in every expression of Christ's church would simply live like Christians.
Maybe it's because it isn't my dream at all. It's Jesus' divine will and prayer for his church. It's what he meant when he taught us to pray. May thy will be done and thy kingdom come. On Earth, as it is in heaven.
You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and a series called The Jesus Revolution. Join the movement. Remember, you can revisit or share these messages anytime by going to livingontheedge.org. And speaking of joining the movement, Chip has some exciting details on the mid-year match that's just begun coming up in a moment. And by the way, to make sure you don't miss any of Chip's daily broadcasts Monday through Friday, be sure to subscribe to the Living on the Edge podcast or find the Chip Ingram Sermon podcast for his complete messages wherever you listen.
As we heard today, the early church sold what they had, ate together, prayed daily, and looked out for one another in ways that left the people around them speechless, and lost people noticed. They weren't known for their positions or their arguments. They were known for their love. That picture in Acts chapter 2 isn't an idealized past we can only read about. It's the template.
It's what Jesus intended the church to be all along. And Chip's challenge today is really a question: does any of that describe the community you belong to?
Well, that question is worth sitting with. And here's Chip with a vision for the kind of community Living on the Edge exists to help build, and how your gift this June makes it possible. Maybe you look at the culture and you feel. Kind of a quiet despair. The world seems to be unraveling fast, and you wonder.
Is the church up for the challenge?
Well, here's what I want you to see. The early church didn't launch into a friendly, welcoming world. They launched into the Roman Empire. A culture of power, corruption, sexual immorality, and violence.
Sound to know you're And yet God used the early Church to turn that world upside down, not with political muscle, not with cultural influence, but in the power of the Holy Spirit and a willingness to live differently. Radically committed people who said Jesus and Jesus alone matters more than anything. more than my life, more than my political party, more than my nationality, Jesus I will be loyal to with all my heart, all my soul, and all my mind. That's the message of the Jesus Revolution. Rome didn't stop the early church, and this culture won't stop this one.
I believe that with all my heart. And if you believe that too, then here's my question. Will you join the movement by giving to us this June and allowing the Word of God to go forth here and all around the world? Help Living on the Edge shout from the rooftops that the Jesus revolution is an unstoppable force and that God is and will use it to change the world. Don't miss out.
The early church gave radically because they believed in something bigger than themselves. If that conviction is alive in you right now, act on it. This is our mid-year match and every dollar given this month is doubled by a group of partners who believe in exactly what Chip just described. Go online to livingontheedge.org or call us at 888-333-6003.
Well, I'm Dave Druy. Join us next time as Chip Ingram continues studying the Jesus Revolution, right here on Living on the Edge. Today's program is produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge. Uh
