The Power and Purpose of the Church

Grand Parkway Baptist Church

Sep 10, 2023 GRAND PARKWAY BAPTIST CHURCH

Neil McClendon, Lead Pastor
Acts 2:1-14
The Power and Purpose of the Church
1. The Church is a spiritual entity which is intended to demonstrate a spiritual reality, v. 1-4
“Without the Holy Spirit, Christian discipleship wild be inconceivable, even impossible. There can be no life without the life-giver, no understanding without the Spirit of truth, no fellowship without the unity of the Spirit, no Christlikeness of character apart from his fruit, and no effective witness without his power. As a body without breath is a corpse, so the church without the Spirit is dead.”
- John Stott
"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; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
-Acts 1:4-5
“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.”
-Acts 1:8
a) “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit”
" And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”
-Acts 2:38-39
b) “and began to speak in other tongues”
Three differences between this and the gift of tongues in I Corinthians 14:
1) audience- here they are talking to men not God
2) translation- didn’t need interpretation
3) evidence that the Spirit has come (Acts) vs. edification of the church (I Corinthians)
2. God is purposeful in everything He does, v. 5-11
Three things demonstrate God’s purpose here…
a) a reversal of the Tower of Babel
b) Pentecost marked the giving of the Law at Mt. Sinai
c) meaning of Pentecost- first fruits
3. The Church is designed to cause questions not just answer them, v. 12
But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
-Acts 2:14-21
What can we learn from this explanation?
God uses imperfect people to tell a perfect story
we’ve been living i