C: In this lesson we'll talk about some wrong ideas people have about the Holy Spirit and how you can correct these ideas using God's word.

1. Make sure you obey

Matthew 7:21-23
21 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?'
23 Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

C: Some people think that if you have expereienced "miracles" in their lives, then they must be saved. Perhaps God has answered their prayers or healed their sickness. Perhaps they have gone to different revival meetings and had feeling. But here Jesus says some thing amazing. On the judgment day, many people will say "Jesus we did great things in your name, are not we saved?" But Jesus will say, "I never knew you".

Q: What was their problem, according to v21 and v23? [They did not do the will of the Father. They did not know Jesus. They did not obey him]

C: The Bible is very clear. Miracles and experiences do not prove salvation. Discipleship is the issue. Other passages that show this are :

Matthew 24:24
For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect--if that were possible.

Deuteronomy 13:1-11
1 If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a miraculous sign or wonder,
2 and if the sign or wonder of which he has spoken takes place, and he says, "Let us follow other gods" (gods you have not known) "and let us worship them,"
3 you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul.
4 It is the LORD your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him.
5 That prophet or dreamer must be put to death, because he preached rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery; he has tried to turn you from the way the LORD your God commanded you to follow. You must purge the evil from among you.
6 If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, "Let us go and worship other gods" (gods that neither you nor your fathers have known,
7 gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, from one end of the land to the other),
8 do not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity. Do not spare him or shield him.
9 You must certainly put him to death. Your hand must be the first in putting him to death, and then the hands of all the people.
10 Stone him to death, because he tried to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
11 Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and no one among you will do such an evil thing again.

2 Thessalonians 2:9-12
9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders,
10 and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.
11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie
12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

2. Miracles prove God's spoken message

C: All throught the Bible, whenever God wanted to reveal new truths, he has done miracles to show his people that that is Him who is speaking. The creation, the flood, the parting of the Red sea, the manna in the desert, the fire from heaven for Elijah and the miracles of Jesus all proved that God was speaking.

Hebrews 1:1-3
1 In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways,
2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.
3 The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

C: This says that now God has spoken to us through Jesus. Jesus is the final message from God.

Hebrews 2:1-4
1 We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.
2 For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment,
3 how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him.
4 God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

C: We must be sure not to drift away. We know that this message is the truth because God confirmed it through miracles (v3-4)

Q: According to v4, to whom did God give these miracles? [He gave them to whom he wanted]

C: We cannot say to God, "Do a miracle for me". He might do it, if he want to, but is up to him, not us.

C: The Bible is very clear. Miracles had purpose. They proved the new spoken message of God. Other passages that teaches this are :

Exodus 4:5
"This," said the LORD, "is so that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers--the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob--has appeared to you."

1 Kings 17:24
Then the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from your mouth is the truth."

Mark 16:20
Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.

Acts 2:22-24
22 "Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.
23 This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.
24 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.

Acts 14:3
So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders.

The written word of God need no miracles to prove it, as we see in the story of the rich man and Lazarus.

Luke 16:27-31
27 "He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house,
28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.'
29 "Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.'
30 "'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'
31 "He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"

C: God can do miracles today, but it is upt to him. He does answer prayers. But he does not do miracles in the way some claim, where they bring peole up to the stage and heal them and then ask for money. We should not look for miracles but rather righteousness. Jesus himself said in Matthew 16:4.

Matthew 16:4
A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah." Jesus then left them and went away.

3. Many new languages = many new converts

C: Let's look at the beginning of the church. In Acts 2, religious people from all over the world had come to Jerusalem for the religious festival of Pentecost. They spoke all different languages. Jesus had died 50 days earlier and the apostles were all together in one place.

Acts 2:1-8
1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.
2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.
4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.
6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language.
7 Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans?
8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Here we see that God did an amazing miracle. There was wind and fire (v2-3). Everyone started to speak in other tongues (v4). The word "tongue" means language. These languages were not gibberis or garbage, they were real languages that the people could understand.

C: When all the people in Jerusalem heard the apostles speaking in their own languages, they were amazed. Imagine if started speaking in different languages you would be amazed. But see, back then, they did not have the Bible in all those languages. That is why apostles needed the miraculous gift of speaking in tongues, so they could convert many new people. Today some churches use "tongues" completely different. They simply babble and then say it is from God. That's not right.

C: One practical challenge : it is good to learn new languages. If you don't know English, learn it. If you don't know the main language of your city, learn it. It will help you to make many new converts for God.

4. Money can't buy this power

Acts 6:5-8
5 This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism.
6 They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.
7 So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.
8 Now Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people.

C: There were special miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit during the early days of the New Testament church. These gifts were passed on by the apostles laying their hands on people (v6). You can see in v5 that Stephen already was full of the Holy Spirit before they laid their hands on him. But after they laid their hands on him he also could do miracles. This was important, because people who had never met Jesus needed to see miracles to believe the spoken message of these men. Now we don't need miracles to prove that the gospel is true - we have the Bible. Philip was on of the men in Acts 6. He went to Samaria and started converting lots of people, doing great miracles. Let's see what happened...

Acts 8:14-23
14 When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them.
15 When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit,
16 because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them; they had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.
17 Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
18 When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money
19 and said, "Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit."
20 Peter answered: "May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money!
21 You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God.
22 Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart.
23 For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin."

C: The church in Jerusalem sent Peter and John, the apostle to Samaria. They did this because there were many family groups starting there but Philip was the only one who could do miracles. And since Philip was not an apostle, he could not give miracle power to anyone else. But the apostles could, so they come to appoint other leaders in Samaria and give them miracle power (v16).

Simon was a magician Philip had baptized. When he saw in v18, that the apostles could give others miracle power, he wanted this power too, so that he could make other miracle doers. He offered them money (v19)_.

Q: How did the apostles react this offer? [They rebuked him(v20) and said that his heart was not right].

C: Money cannot buy miracle power. Only the apostles could give this power to others and when they died and the people the hand touched all died, then the miracles died, too. Indeed by the 2nd century AD, church leaders wrote the miracles had passed away.

C: God still answers prayers today and he can do miracles in response to our prayers, according to His will.

C: Think about your life. Have you been praying for God to do miracles? Have you asked him to do great things. When we ask, He will answer.

5. Men need to be convicted

1 Corinthians 14:18-26
18 I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.
19 But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.
20 Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults.
21 In the Law it is written: "Through men of strange tongues and through the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to me," says the Lord.
22 Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers; prophecy, however, is for believers, not for unbelievers.
23 So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and some who do not understand or some unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind?
24 But if an unbeliever or someone who does not understand comes in while everybody is prophesying, he will be convinced by all that he is a sinner and will be judged by all,
25 and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, "God is really among you!"
26 What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church.

C: Chapters 12-14 of 1 Corinthians focus on the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, because the Corinthian church was abusing them, focusing on the gifts rather than on love and evangelism. Paul made some interesting statements here.

* In v19, he said that he'd rather speak 5 understandable words to instruct others than 10,000 in an incomprehensible language.

* In v20, he told them to not be childish. He explains that tongues are a sign, a miracle to prove to unbelievers that we are from God (v22). But prophesying, that is preaching, is for believers (v22). Therefore the church should not be focused on "speaking in tongues" but on preaching, so that people can be convicted of their sins (v24-25) and repent.

C: God's heart is to see men repent and be convicted of their sins. Think about your life. Have you been convicting others about their sins? Have you been challenging them and teaching them the truth? That is what the Spirit wants you to do.

6. Most excellent way

1 Corinthians 13:1-3
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

C: According to v8, what will happen to prophecies, tongues and special knowledge? [They will pass away]

What will remain (v13)? [Faith, hope and love].

C: The foundation of the church is faith, hope and love. Love lasts forever, though the miraculous gifts passed away. They had a very important purpose : to help establish the early church and prove the divinity of Jesus. But now God's word and our love are enough to get the job done.

Conclusion

In this lesson, we have covered a lot of deep ideas that may be hard to understand. Take the practical challenges and change you life. Realize that love is what matters, not the so called "miraculous" experiences. Pray for God to do miracles in your life. Preach in a challenging way, to help others to change. And let the Spirit change you to be more like Jesus.