Acts 13: Making Room for the Holy Spirit in the Church

Introduction

This message concludes Ryde Baptist Church's series in Australia on the Holy Spirit. Over the previous two weeks, Pastor Tony asked the question "Who is the Holy Spirit?": he is God, he works in us to make us like Christ, and he works through us to lead other people to Jesus Christ.

The preacher starts from there: if the Holy Spirit is in us and works through us, what difference does that make now? He gives his message a simple title, "Make room for him." He briefly touches on the personal side, already well covered by Pastor Tony, then focuses on how a church makes room for the Holy Spirit, starting from Acts 13:1-4.

He begins with an honest observation: God the Father and Jesus Christ seem easier to grasp than the third person of the Trinity. And he tells how, as a young believer, he was disoriented by teaching that put experience above character.

Message outline

1. Why the Holy Spirit feels hard to grasp

The idea of a father, whether our own experience of one is good or complicated, is something we can picture. For Jesus, we have the Gospels, which give him a face, a name, actions and places. Some have even watched the series The Chosen, which offers an on-screen version of it.
For the Holy Spirit, the Bible uses images such as the dove, fire or wind. That is harder to grasp, and for some, their only contact with him is the closing blessing "in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit."
The preacher gives two reasons. Some grew up in a church where the Holy Spirit was almost never mentioned: they are not resisting him, they simply were never taught.
Others have lived through unsettling, confusing or destabilizing experiences that left them perplexed. The preacher counts himself in this second group.

2. When experience comes before character

Converted very young and hungry for God, he is invited to a service where everyone prays aloud in a language he does not understand. There is an intensity he cannot explain, and everyone seems to understand except him.
He tells himself: "Something is happening here and I am missing it, or else there is a problem with my faith, because I am not experiencing it."
He stays in that church for a while. Every sermon is about experience, phenomena, the spectacular and testimonies. He wonders: "Am I not filled with the Holy Spirit?"
Nobody asks him whether he is becoming more like Christ, whether he is growing in the love of God, in self-control and in the fruit of the Spirit. He does not judge those believers, many of whom were more mature than he was.
His diagnosis: the proof had been put in the wrong place. "Speaking in tongues had been placed above the fruit of the Spirit. Experience had been placed above character." By God's grace, he later found a solid biblical foundation.

3. The Holy Spirit is a person, not a force

In John 16, before leaving his disciples, Jesus tells them he still has many things to say to them, and that it is to their advantage that he goes away, because the Holy Spirit will come and guide them into all the truth.
What could be better for disciples than listening to Jesus in person? But in his body, Jesus was limited to one place: if he was with Peter, he was with Peter; if he was in Jerusalem, he was not elsewhere in Judea.
The expressions and pronouns Jesus uses remind us that the Holy Spirit is a person. To make room for him, we have to treat him as a person and not as a power.
To the younger ones, the preacher says: you do not "level up" in the Holy Spirit, like in a video game before facing the "final boss." You do not receive more of him: he is constant in his divine nature.
He is not a resource you draw on when things get hard. You can have a real conversation with him: just as we pray to God the Father and God the Son, there is also God the Holy Spirit. That changes the way we pray.

4. Letting yourself be guided: the posture of surrender

The preacher polls the congregation: who prefers to assemble IKEA furniture without the instructions? Five people raise their hands: "We'll start a support group."
He himself often ends up with screws left over. He looks at the little figure in the manual, who always looks happy and seems to know what he is doing, and tells himself he will do better on his own.
On vacation it is the same: if a guide suggests the best route, he looks it up on Google and replies that he found another place rated 4.8 stars. "I am the worst person to have on vacation."
Yet Jesus says: "However when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all the truth" (John 16:13). A guide is only useful to someone who accepts being led.
You can hire the best guide or have the most detailed manual: if you refuse to follow it and to acknowledge that the other person knows what they are doing, you will struggle. Making room for the Holy Spirit means giving him permission to guide you and lead you.

5. Antioch: letting the Holy Spirit interrupt our schedules

After the persecution told up to chapter 12, many believers went north to Antioch and founded a church there. This is where the Church takes shape and where the disciples are recognized as one body.
Acts 13 marks the moment when the mission unfolds: toward Europe, later all the way to the United Kingdom, then to Australia, where people more than forty years ago had a vision of seeing the gospel advance. "And here we are."
In the room there is a man from Africa (probably from Ethiopia or Egypt, according to the preacher), an aristocrat close to Herod, a Levite and a Pharisee. Very different worldviews. "Reading their names, it sounds like a real Baptist church."
It is while they are serving the Lord and fasting that the Holy Spirit speaks and asks them to set apart Barnabas and Saul. They were making room within their ordinary rhythms.
The preacher values well-organized services that respect everyone's schedule. But he asks his church a question: "If the Holy Spirit wanted to interrupt us, where would he do it? Where is the margin?"
Ryde Baptist Church states among its values that God speaks, through his Word and through the people around us. Making room means creating the space where he can do so.

6. Making room for every gift

We often confuse "making room" with the spectacular: healing, deliverance. There is nothing wrong with those, but making room also means letting gifts be exercised throughout the whole body of Christ: administration, healing, prophecy, hospitality, both those we see and those we do not.
Imagine a Sunday where, during prayer, someone is healed, set free or receives a word of encouragement, while another person makes sure everything runs on time, another prepares a good morning tea, and newcomers are welcomed.
If we only recognize the Holy Spirit in the spectacular, we deprive others of the opportunity to make room for him through their gifts. The mistake would be to value only public gifts.
The preacher remembers the very first time he walked through the church door, in January of the previous year: a person from the church, wearing an apron, welcomed him with a hug and a pancake. He did not know anyone. "It may seem small, but it meant a lot to me."
At the newcomers' meals, many say that the smile at the door or the handshake decides whether they stay. "Do not make yourself small, do not let fear hold you back." If God has given you a gift, use it.
Next year, Pastor Tony will offer two training courses to help people identify their gifts and make them bear fruit.

7. When he speaks, listening together

"The Holy Spirit said": Luke does not say how. An audible voice, a prophetic word from one of the prophets, an inner conviction? We only know that the Spirit spoke, and that he still speaks today.
One distinctive of a Baptist church is collective discernment: nobody dictates the direction alone. The church discerns together God's will for the place where he has put it, and pursues that vision as a community.
Later, Paul will have to correct people who stand up to impose a direction without this shared discernment.
The preacher's prayer: that the church would do as in Acts 15, where the leaders gather, pray, discern and then write: "it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us" (Acts 15:28).
The principle: everyone in the congregation can hear God. "We do not have one person who goes away for six weeks and comes back glowing, saying: here is the direction." When an important decision comes up, we take the time to pray together.

Key takeaways

The proof of the Holy Spirit's work is not measured first by the spectacular but by fruit: experience must not come before character.
The Holy Spirit is a person, the third person of the Trinity. You do not "level up" in him, you enter into relationship with him.
A guide is only useful to someone who accepts being led: making room for the Holy Spirit begins with surrender.
A church makes room for him when it leaves margin to be interrupted and honors every gift, including those we cannot see.
Everyone can hear God: the church discerns his will together, as in Acts 15:28.

Personal application

This week, can you take five minutes in silence and solitude to ask the Holy Spirit, "What do you have for me today?", and then listen?
In your prayer, do you address the Holy Spirit as a person, or rather as a force you call on when everything goes wrong?
In what area do you prefer to "assemble the furniture without the instructions" rather than letting yourself be led?
What gift has God entrusted to you, visible or discreet, and what is holding you back from using it in your church?
How can you help, in your community, so that important decisions are discerned together in prayer?

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

What does it mean to make room for the Holy Spirit?

On a personal level, it means treating him as a person, the third person of the Trinity, and not as a force, then giving him permission to guide you. In a church, it means giving him the opportunity to interrupt our schedules, letting everyone exercise their gifts and discerning together what he says.

Why does Jesus say it is to the disciples' advantage that he goes away?

In his body, Jesus was limited to one place: if he was with Peter, he was with Peter. By leaving, he sends the Holy Spirit, who guides the disciples into all the truth (John 16:7-13). For the preacher, these words also remind us that the Holy Spirit is a person.

What is collective discernment in a Baptist church?

It is the conviction that nobody dictates the church's direction alone. Everyone can hear God, and the community discerns his will together, like the leaders in Acts 15:28: "it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us."