The Salvation Army: Australia Southern Territory: Mission Resources Department
Life & Godliness: Pentecost Sermon Outline / 1

How to Use This Outline

The emphasis of this outline is on the exegetical material for the chosen passage. The focus of this sermon is on the following issues:

  • The Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost
  • The Holy Spirit activates gifts, services and activities in believers
  • The exercise of those gifts, services and activities is for the common good and part of God’s total gift package of “everything we need for life and godliness”

The outline will need to be customised and contextualised by each Corps Officer for the congregation to whom the sermon will be preached:

  • Adding appropriate illustrations that will connect with the specific congregation
  • Modifying language to be appropriate to the socio-cultural setting of the Corps
  • You may also wish to make the application more specific to your context.

PowerPoint slides have been provided for the following:

  1. Title Slide – Introducing the Sermon
  2. Scripture Slide – 2 Peter 1:3 (highlight verse)
  3. Scripture Slide – Acts 1:4-5(highlight verse)
  4. Quote Slide – Catherine Booth
  5. Scripture Slide – 1 Corinthians 12:4-6 (highlight verse)
  6. Scripture Slide – 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 (highlight verse)
  7. Scripture Slide – 1 Corinthians 12:3 (highlight verse)
  8. Scripture Slide – 1 John 4:2-3 (highlight verse)
  9. Quote Slide – Doctrine 4

Scripture

The Salvation Army: Australia Southern Territory: Mission Resources Department
Life & Godliness: Pentecost Sermon Outline / 1

Acts 2:1-21 (NRSV)

1When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

5Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” 12All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

14But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

17 ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.

18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.

19 And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist.

20 The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.

21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

1 Corinthians 12:1-13 (NRSV)

1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2You know that when you were pagans, you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak. 3Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says “Let Jesus be cursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.

4Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

12For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

The Salvation Army: Australia Southern Territory: Mission Resources Department
Life & Godliness: Pentecost Sermon Outline / 1
The Salvation Army: Australia Southern Territory: Mission Resources Department
Life & Godliness: Pentecost Sermon Outline / 1

Sermon Outline

Introduction

  1. God thinks of everything. Salvation is a total package deal. He has not left anything out that we need to live life as He intends or to be the people that He calls us to be. 2 Peter 1:3 tells us, “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness”. Over this series we are looking at what we have been given to enable us to live lives of power and holiness. We will look at what we need to do to make full use of the gifts He has given us, so that we can say together with Paul, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10 NRSV).
  2. Last week we looked at the Ascension. We saw how Jesus’ ascension to the right hand of the Father, above all the heavens was for the Church. We saw how He gave gifts to the Church: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. These gifts were for the building up of the body so that all together we would come to unity, grow in our knowledge of Him, grow in maturity and come to the full stature of Christ Himself. This is the part of God’s total gift package of “everything we need for life and godliness” which we receive through the Ascension.
  3. Today we remember Pentecost, which in many ways is the “Part B” of the ascension. Jesus promised before His ascension that when He had ascended He would send the Holy Spirit. So let’s take a look at the text…

The Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost…

  1. Read Acts 2:1-21
  2. In many ways, Pentecost was the birth of the Church. Fundamentally the Church can only function as the Church in as much as it allows the Holy Spirit to dwell within her and perform the ministry of Christ through her. So Pentecost marks the birth of the Church as that was the time when the followers of Jesus started to be the organism through which the Spirit breathes.
  3. Jesus clearly felt that the outpouring of the Spirit was going to be significant enough for the life of the Church that at His ascension He ordered His disciples, “not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father… for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:4-5 NRSV).
  4. After the outpouring of the Spirit, Peter tells all who were present that this was in fulfilment of God’s promise to pour out His Spirit on “all flesh” (verse 17) and that the resulting speaking in tongues, prophecy etc. was an experience that was open to all. Indeed later on in Acts 2:38-39, he also said, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him”.
    The infilling of the Holy Spirit and the exercise of gifts of the Holy Spirit are not just for Pentecostals, but for every Christian. This is what is emphasised in The Salvation Army’s stance on the practise of water baptism. The baptism that matters for The Salvation Army is the baptism in the Spirit. In fact Catherine Booth wrote in Aggressive Christianity, “here is the hope of the world, …in people getting filled with the Spirit, people getting so woke up to God and His glory, and the interests of His kingdom... This is what we want, and it only comes with the fullness of the Spirit”. The baptism of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit are therefore part of God’s total gift package of “everything we need for life and godliness”.

The Holy Spirit activates gifts, services and activities in believers...

  1. Read 1 Corinthians 12:1-13
  2. This passage for the most part talks about what we would refer to as “spiritual gifts”. It talks at some length about various obviously supernatural gifts such as speaking in tongues, prophecy, healings etc. But it is fascinating that at the start of this discussion (in verses 4-6) Paul starts by saying that there are varieties of gifts. There are also a varieties of servicesand varieties of activities. And each of these is activated in people by the same God, the Holy Spirit according to His will.
    Paul focuses on the gifts in this passage because, as we proceed through 1 Corinthians we see, he is correcting them over their emphasis of spiritual gifts over and above love, and for various liturgical abuses. However this verse talking about the varieties of gifts, services and activities points to the fact that what the Holy Spirit activates in believers is more than just the spiritual gifts that we are aware of.
  3. Let’s look at gifts, services and activities each in turn:
  4. Gifts – In the Greek this is charismata coming from charis (grace) and so has the sense of gifts of grace. These are special supernatural gifts, those specifically mentioned here: words of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit according to His will.
  5. Services – The word for services in Greek is diakonion which comes from the word for “deacon”. As we learn in Acts 6, the office of deacon was established to handle tasks such as serving the widows of the community. So when Paul talks here about varieties of services he is talking about those practical matters of ministry such as feeding the poor, caring for the sick, visiting those in prison. In 2 Corinthians Paul also describes generous giving as a form of service. All of these services are just as much activated in us by the Spirit as the gifts of the Spirit we’ve talked about are.
  6. Activities – The word for activities in Greek is energematon, comes from a word meaning “energy”.It indicates “that which one undertakes to do, [an] enterprise, undertaking... any product whatsoever, anything accomplished by hand, art, industry, or mind... an act, deed, thing done”[1]. Any work done for the Lord falls under this category, eventhose day-to-day things that aren’t glamourous but need doing, like cleaning the toilets. Or looking after the corps finances. Any action done for the Lord.

All of these gifts, services and activities are things that the Holy Spirit activates in believers. It isn’t just the things that are obviously miraculous, but also every time you give someone a glass of water for the sake of Jesus. Every time you pray effectively. These things are also things that the Holy Spirit activates in us.

For the common good...

  1. What is the purpose behind the gifts, services and activities that the Spirit activates in us? They are given to each of us for the common good.God doesn’t give us these gifts for our own good, but so that we can serve others. Some people get a bit nervous when we talk about spiritual gifts because they have observed the effect that they sometimes have when they have been abused. Paul was dealing with this very issue when he wrote to the Corinthians which is why the gifts get much more attention than the services and activities. Some people get so caught up in the gifts that they forget that (a) the glory should go to God and (b) that the gifts should be used in service of other people.
  2. The bottom line is that the spiritual gifts are not about those who have the gifts. God didn’t give them to usso weget to feel super-spiritual or better than other people. Wearen’t better than people who don’t have the same gifts as us. This also can apply with the services. Some people can be quite judgemental of other people who have not been given the service of caring for the poor. The Holy Spirit has not activated the service of living amongst the poor in every Christian. So those who have that service shouldn’t judge those who don’t.
  3. How should we respond knowing that these things can lead to pride and can end up hurting others? Well Paul addresses that issue in 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22. He instructs the Thessalonians “Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil.” Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater, but don’t accept everything either. We need to test everything, hold on to that which is good, and forget the rest. There are a few tests that the New Testament gives us for ascertaining whether something is from God or not.
    Firstly, in our passage today from 1 Corinthians 12, Paul says in verse 3 “no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says ‘Let Jesus be cursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit”. If it glorifies Jesus and accords Him His rightful place as Lord we don’t have a problem.
    In 1 John 4:2-3 we are further advised, “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist”. This is why understanding and holding onto our fourth doctrine (“We believethat in the person of Jesus Christ the Divine and human natures are united, so that He is truly and properly God and truly and properly man”) is so important, it safe guards us against the antichrist spirit that would have us believe that Jesus was only God or only human, or that in some way there was confusion between His two natures, one overcoming the other.

Conclusion

  1. How do the gifts, services and activities that the Holy Spirit activates in us fit in God’s total gift package of “everything we need for life and godliness”?
    Firstly, since we are all called to serve one another the gifts, services and activities equip us to fulfil that calling.
    Secondly, since we are part of the body that is called to serve one another we benefit from those gifts, services and activities as they function in others. We will often be blessed by the gifts, services and activities God has given to others.
    Both of these things are things we can be thankful to God for, the opportunity and equipping to serve others, and the ways in which others bless us through their gifts, services and activities.
  2. Invite people to the Mercy Seat / Response
  3. Those unaware of their gifts, services or activities and who want to serve others
  4. Those who know that they are prideful or judgemental about the exercise of their gifts/services/activities
  5. Those who are needing help discerning whether something they’ve seen or heard is from God
  6. Those who are needing help to graciously accept the services or activities of others in the Body of Christ

[1]