The Word Made Plain

Guest (Male): Welcome to the Word Made Plain with senior pastor Tony Clark of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Tony is teaching a study in the book of Acts. Please open your Bible to Acts chapter 10, verses 44 through 48.

Tony Clark: I definitely want to teach you the word of God. So turn with me in your Bibles to Acts chapter 10. We're going to be looking at verses 44 to 48 as we continue our verse-by-verse study of the word of God. For those of you who are here for the first time, this is how we go through the Bible: chapter by chapter, verse by verse, book by book, from Genesis to Revelation. And so as we are on Sunday mornings, we're in the book of Acts.

And Wednesdays we're in the Old Testament, we're in the book of Judges and looking forward to getting back with you to go through the Old Testament book of Judges with you. And then we're going to keep marching through the Old Testament just as we are going to keep marching through the New Testament. So Acts chapter 10, looking at verses 44 to 48.

And Father, we pray that your Holy Spirit would come. Oh Lord, come and give us understanding of your word. We need you. Guide us, direct us. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen. Acts chapter 10, looking at verses 44 to 48. And the title of this message is "Come Holy Spirit Come." Come Holy Spirit Come.

Now, when we say "Come Holy Spirit Come," what are we saying? What are we asking for? Oh, this is the subject of this chapter. Peter is giving a mini-sermon to the Roman soldier Cornelius and his relatives and close friends. And after he gave them the gospel, which is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, something happens that blows the minds of the people Peter brought with him.

Let's see what happens in verses 44 to 48. Look what it says there: "While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Then Peter answered, 'Can anyone forbid water that these should not be baptized, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?' And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then they asked him to stay a few days."

Now, these are some incredible verses because in them, we get some insights into the third person of the Trinity: the Holy Spirit. Notice how Peter was preaching as he was preaching. Verse 44 says, "While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word." Peter was a man who was frequently interrupted.

He was interrupted by the Father in Matthew 17:4-5, when on the Mount of Transfiguration, God interrupted Peter and said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him." In other words, He was saying, "Peter, shut up and hear Jesus." He was interrupted by the Son in Matthew 17:25, when Jesus knew that Peter was coming to talk to Him about paying taxes.

When Peter came into the house, Jesus interrupted and said, "Hold on Peter, what do you think, Simon? Do the sons or the children of the king pay taxes to the king?" And Peter said, "No, Lord." He said, "Then the sons are free." And then He says this, "However, lest we offend them, pay the tax for me and for you." Oh, you thought that whole offending thing was a new thing? Jesus said, "Lest we offend them, pay the taxes for me and for you."

And so here it is in Acts chapter 10, Peter is now being interrupted by the Spirit. I don't know about you, but I too need to be interrupted by the Father and by the Son and by the Holy Spirit. I need my plans interrupted sometimes because they are just that: my plans, not the Lord's plans.

And we need not to get upset nor in our feelings when our plans are altered or interrupted because it's still true: Father knows best. And so often, God is trying to spare us from disaster. And so often we get the angriest when our plans and our will isn't completed, when we know that we didn't spend adequate time praying through that situation, praying through that thing that we are about to venture into.

See, when we spend time in prayer and we make some plan, we're open to God changing, altering, or interrupting it because we trust that Father knows best. This is why we must have a garden of Gethsemane like Jesus. That is the place of prayer where our wills and our plans are crushed and we leave like Jesus did, saying in Matthew 26:36-46, "Not my will, but thy will be done."

When we don't have a place like Gethsemane, the place of prayer, when God interrupts or alters our plans, we are angry, upset, depressed, because we didn't get our way. Oh, Gethsemane crushes our will, our plans, and we leave saying, "Your will be done." Oh, do you have a place of prayer that you can go to? Do you have a garden of Gethsemane that you can go to and you can get your orders from your Commander-in-Chief, Jesus Christ?

We need a garden of Gethsemane where our plans and our wills are crushed and we leave saying, "Not my will, but thy will be done." So once again, Peter is interrupted, but this time by the Spirit. Notice when the Spirit of God fell in verse 44: "When Peter spoke the word of God." So many people want to see the Spirit of God move in their lives, and the biblical pattern is that the Spirit moves through the preaching and teaching of the word.

Oh yes, there are exceptions to this rule, but this seems to be the biblical pattern. And so if you want to live in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, abide in the Spirit, saturate yourself in the word of God, bury yourself in the word and you will find yourself overflowing in the Spirit. Oh, I say this because walking in the Spirit is just another way of saying you're walking in obedience to the word of God.

And so as Peter was preaching about the death and burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Cornelius, his family, and close friends in their heart believed the gospel message, and the Holy Spirit falling upon them was the evidence that they believed the gospel message in their hearts. Oh, in Acts chapter 8:14-17, the Samaritans received the Holy Spirit when the apostles Peter and John came and laid hands on them.

In this particular case in chapter 10, the Holy Spirit just fell upon them without the laying on of anyone's hands. This shows that good preaching and teaching is more than just accurate biblical exposition or good stories. People leave church and say, "Oh, he told some good stories." It's more than that.

It must have the power of the Holy Spirit to truly change and transform lives. Some preaching with some good stories and some running around and fooling around, that will never change people's lives for all eternity. We need the Spirit of God taking the word of God and applying it to the heart of man to see mankind changed by the power of God's Holy Spirit.

And then it says those of the circumcision, which is a reference to the six Jewish men who accompanied Peter to the house of Cornelius from the city of Joppa, according to chapter 10:23. Verse 45 said that they were astonished when they saw that these Gentiles, the Spirit of God came upon them. They were astonished.

Now, the Greek word for astonished is "existēmi" and it means to be put out of your wits, astonished, to be beside oneself. Oh, what blew their minds like this? The end of verse 45 says, "Because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also." See, you must understand that the Holy Spirit was poured out basically on the Jews in their mind.

Or salvation was only for the Jews according to the Jewish people. So to see the Holy Spirit fall upon these Gentiles, oh, it blew their minds. They were out of their wits. They were beside themselves because they believed in order to become a Christian, you had to become a Jew first. And so to see the Holy Spirit fall upon the Gentiles as Gentiles, oh, it was just mind-blowing to them and it astonished them.

Then to rub it in more, not only did the Holy Spirit fall upon them, but according to verse 46, these Jews heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. In other words, they spoke in tongues. It was to magnify God, notice that. The purpose of the speaking in tongues here was to magnify God, not to teach men.

The audience was God and not man, which is consistent with 1 Corinthians 14:2, which says, "For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God." And this was so eye-opening, that salvation was not exclusively for the Jews, but that the church will include Gentiles. And the Jewish people at this time, this just blew their minds.

They were beside themselves. It was as if another person popped out of them just like them and they said, "Can you believe what is taking place?" They're like, "No, I can't believe it's taking place. Can you believe it?" They were just beside themselves. They couldn't believe that the Spirit of God would be poured out upon the Gentiles just like it was poured out on them.

Oh, this is just so amazing. Do you see why we need to cry out, "Come Holy Spirit Come"? Because when the Spirit is flowing freely, watch this, it unifies people who were normally at odds with one another. So when we start to have an exclusive attitude, please realize that the Holy Spirit is hindered and not flowing freely.

Oh, I shake my head every time I hear about or see on social media some race claiming to be the original man or how all of the original people were of their race. Oh, when the Holy Spirit is flowing freely, it unifies people who are normally at odds with each other. Just like we see in these verses here.

In my humble opinion, and I say humble, I believe that the Holy Spirit is grieved when we have an all-exclusive church in an area that is multicultural. The Holy Spirit unifies people. Jesus said, "If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me." Jesus unifies people. Jesus said if you just exalt Me, lift Me up.

Yes, the primary interpretation of that verse is being lifted up on the cross. However, the application of that verse is when Jesus is being lifted up through the teaching and preaching of the word of God, it will draw all people unto Him. Oh, God has graciously allowed for us to see this with our eyes.

If you took a look around this room now, you would see all color faces, shapes, sizes. The preaching and teaching of the word of God when the Spirit of God comes upon the preaching and teaching of the word of God, it unifies people. People who normally would not be in the same room with each other are here because of the preaching and teaching of the word of God. The Holy Spirit unifies people.

It was obvious that Peter by now was used to being interrupted by God because he says in verse 47, "Can anyone forbid water that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?" He says, "There's no need for me to keep going and keep preaching. The Spirit has interrupted."

Obviously, he was used to this interruption. And this is the proper sequence of things. After salvation comes baptism. Have you been baptized? I'm not talking about some baptismal regeneration, meaning that you get baptized in order to be saved. No. After salvation comes baptism. Peter preached the gospel, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

He preached the gospel, the people believed it in their heart, the Spirit of God fell down, he stopped the sermon and just said, "Hey, can we forbid any of these people from being baptized?" After salvation comes baptism. Have you been baptized yet? Baptism is the outward showing of an inner change.

There must first be that inner change, and you outwardly show by going down in the water that you have been identified or you are identifying yourself with Jesus Christ. The Greek word is "baptizō". It means to submerge. Baptism represents the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's what it represents.

So they got saved, the Spirit of God fell, and then Peter said, "Can we forbid, we can't stop these people from being baptized." Let me just pause again one more time to ask you whether you're open to God interrupting you and your plans, like Peter was in these verses. He didn't keep going. He stopped.

And so often, you know, we look at interruptions as a hassle, an inconvenience. I don't know about you, but I do. But if we're in tune with the Spirit of God, we will flow with the Spirit. I just have to admit that I am learning this lesson. Because I have to discern whether it is Satan hindering or God interrupting.

Oh, do you know the difference between Satan hindering and God interrupting? Oh, let me help you in this area. Satan will always oppose or try to hinder the spirit and the work of God. In 1 Thessalonians 2:18, Paul teaches, "Therefore we wanted to come to you, even I, Paul, time and again." Watch this. "But Satan hindered us."

In Romans 1:13, Paul declares again, "Now I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you, but was hindered until now, that I might have some fruit among you also, just as among the other Gentiles." So as we can see, Satan does all he can to distract, hinder, or stop the gospel from going forth.

So cell phones going off, babies crying, people walking in late, just like they're doing right now, weird distractions, all are used by Satan to distract, hinder, and stop you from receiving the word of God and from me delivering it the way God will want me to.

Because now, you know, as you're coming in late and I'm like, "Okay," in my mind I'm like, "Okay, why are they coming in late? Okay, where have they been? Okay, what happened? Why are they late? Did they wake up late? Did they..." And see, all this is going through my mind. I'm still speaking the word, but in my mind I'm doing this.

And it's like, "Oh, okay, they're getting up again. Okay, why are they getting up? Okay, they just came in. Why are they walking out already? What's going on? Did a number come up behind me?" See, all this is going through my head. And then on top of that, all of a sudden [vibrating sound] or [ring sound] or some weird ringtone you have.

And I'm like talking louder so nobody gets distracted, and all of a sudden, I'm distracted because I heard it. Satan uses all of these things to hinder. This is why we try to have a dynamic children's ministry, so little kids don't have to be in here fooling around, either babies crying or cooing and gooing and doing whatever.

Because it's a distraction. Satan uses these things as a distraction to keep you from hearing the word. Because as the baby's gooing and cooing, you're like, "Oh, that's my little baby gooing." And you just look at the face, "Oh, you're just so cute. Oh, you look just like me." You see?

Now you're distracted about how the baby looks like you. Or you're looking at the baby gooing, "Oh, you look just like your daddy." Now you're distracted because now you're thinking about the daddy and he's a deadbeat and he ain't right and he left you and whatever. Satan uses all of these things as distractions to hinder you from hearing the gospel.

Oh, little Johnny, "Okay, I gotta pee-pee, I gotta potty." They just, you know, "I want a cookie," and you know, "Are we ready to go home now? Is it time to go home?" And see, all this stuff is going, Satan capitalizes on these things to hinder the gospel from going forth. Another thing that blew the minds of these Jewish brothers that came with Peter is that the Holy Spirit just didn't fall on the Gentiles.

It fell upon them, notice, just as it fell upon the Jews. Oh, God was showing them just what Peter said in verse 34: God shows no partiality or favorites. God doesn't show favoritism. God didn't favor the Jews over the Gentiles. The Holy Spirit fell upon the Gentiles. Here it is: just as He fell upon the Jews.

And this was mind-blowing for the Jews to see this. This left these Jews astonished. But God had to do it this way because had God not poured out His Spirit the same exact way on the Gentiles, the Jews would have treated the Gentiles as, don't miss this, second-class Christians.

However, in the church today, it is still done in many circles. Believers who speak in tongues look at those who don't speak in tongues as second-class citizens. "Oh, you don't have the Spirit yet." "What do you mean I don't have the Spirit?" "Because you don't speak in tongues." Well, Romans 8:9 says he who does not have the Spirit of God is none of His.

So I can't even be a Christian without the Spirit. So what are you talking about? But see, in certain circles, this is what they do. They look down, those who are doing a certain thing will look down on others who don't do it like they do it. Especially the whole baptism in Jesus' name or the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

"Oh, you're Jesus-only people. Oh, it's just ugh." "How were you baptized?" Hey, how about "Good morning, how are you?" and then "How were you baptized?" You kidding me? "Oh, you wasn't baptized in Jesus' name. Oh my goodness." And they look down on others as second-class citizens, second-class Christians.

This is what happens within the church. This is why the Gentiles of this world want nothing to do with the church because the church is too busy fooling around, squabbling over things that doesn't have any eternal value to it. Whether you're baptized in Jesus' name, whether you speak in tongues, whether you don't, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and all kinds of things, you know, wearing dresses or wearing suits.

It's just sickening. It's just sickening. Sometimes I don't want to be a part of the church, and I'm a pastor! It's just sickening the things that we squabble about. And the unbelieving, the Gentiles of this world are looking at us and saying, "And they want me to come join that circus?" No way. We gotta do better at this.

Oh, you got some who say you're speaking in tongues, that's of the devil. And then they go on to say because you're just saying you're just speaking gibberish. What is that gibberish you're speaking? Oh, my goodness. I've talked to many of them. I said, "Do you want me to just rip out 1st Corinthians 14 from the whole Bible? Would that make you feel better?"

We just rip out 1st Corinthians 14, it doesn't say what it says. We just rip it out. The whole chapter dealing with tongues. Ah, but let's just skip over that. We gotta do better in this particular area. God had to pour out His Spirit on these Gentiles just as He did upon the Jews because God knows us.

He knows we're just people and we look for the smallest things to disagree on and the smallest things to try to puff ourselves up and make ourselves look good. He knows us. So He just said, "Let me pour out My Spirit upon them the same way I did upon them."

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