Over the last few months, we’ve been diving into questions that people may ask us about our faith. We’ve answered questions like, Why do we believe there’s a God? Why do we believe Jesus is the Son of God? Why do we need the Holy Spirit, and even things like why is there pain, and why can we trust the Bible?
Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve talked about what the Holy Spirit does. How He helps teach us, how He helps us when we aren’t sure what to pray, and how He helps us to live righteously. Last week, we talked about how we need to be intentional about putting ourselves in a position to be filled with the Holy Spirit continuously. This week, we are going to talk about one of the key reasons the Holy Spirit is with us and what we are supposed to do.
Read Acts 1:3-5
3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.
4 And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me;
5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
So here we see the initial commandment given to the disciples to wait for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. They are told to be intentional about positioning themselves to experience Him.
But the disciples, still thinking they were expecting Jesus to be a conquering warrior king were still confused and asked Jesus if it was finally time for him to set up his kingdom. He responded in this way
Read Acts 1:8-8
7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
For some, Christianity is just a “get out of hell free” card. They ask Jesus to forgive them of their sins, and that’s it. They just wait for Jesus to establish his Kingdom or for them to die and go to heaven. But Jesus makes it clear that there’s much more taking place.
In fact Matthew records Jesus giving this command to us:
Read Matthew 28:18-20
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
ASK: What is our job as Christians?
Our job as Christians is to make disciples. The Holy Spirit’s role in this mandate is to empower you for this mission.
But what does that look like? In the past, we’ve talked about how the Holy Spirit empowers us to be able to lay hands on people and see them healed, to be able to operate in the prophetic and other things.
Acts 2 – After being baptized in the Holy Spirit, Peter gets up to preach
Acts 4:8 – Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them,
Acts 4:31- …they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
Acts 6 – We see that Stephen is full of grace and power (filled with the Holy Spirit) and he speaks boldly to the religious leaders.
There is a biblical pattern that the Holy Spirit emboldens us to open our mouths and share the gospel. But what does that look like? Let’s go back to the very first passage we ever looked at in this series
Read: 1 Peter 3:15
But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,
So why do we believe what we believe? We’ve talked about various aspects of this for months, but the best thing for us to start with is sharing our testimony. Look at Jesus’ command to the man whom he freed from demonic possession in Mark 5:19
Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”
To help prepare ourselves for this, we are going to break up into small groups, and we will each fill out a sheet of paper. The sheet walks us through how to structure our testimony and then finally how to present the gospel. It’s pretty simple
Step 1- Describing your life before Christ.
Step 2 – Briefly explain the situation that caused the feelings you were experiencing before you came to know Christ.
Step 3 – Share how Jesus entered the story
Step 4 – Share how Jesus has changed your life.
Then, finally, the presentation of the gospel is also super simple. There’s a framework called “Alive in 5” that breaks it down really easily for us:
God is Love
Our sin divides us from God
Jesus died for our sins, then came back to life
We need to decide to put our faith in God
The Holy Spirit will help us live for God.
Adventures in Student Ministry 