When the Spirit Moves: Rediscovering Wonder in the Every Day
Edited directly from the sermon transcript of Matthew Miller’s message at Highland Hills Church of Christ on February 1, 2026. Adapted for length and readability while preserving his voice and message.
Think of a moment when a truth stopped you in your tracks. Each time I ask that question, I remember something different that has affected me.
Years ago, I became so absorbed in reading what people said about the Bible that I spent less time hearing the Bible itself. In school, it was easy to become caught up in what this scholar or that scholar was saying. At the same time, I was struggling with prayer and could hide that struggle behind reading books that seemed spiritual.
At a retreat, I told an adviser I knew I needed to pray more, but I kept getting caught up in those books. He asked whose voice I would rather hear: another person’s, or what God wanted to say to me. It felt like an arrow through my heart. Reading books about Scripture was good, but I had let something lesser replace what God was calling me into.
The Bible calls that encounter with truth conviction.
Acts shows us what the church does when the Spirit is at work. It speaks, hears, confesses, and grows. Here we also see it move through repentance.
In Acts 2, the disciples have been waiting after Jesus’s ascension. They pray in anticipation of what God will do. Then the Spirit comes, and people from many places hear God’s truth in their own languages.
Everything God does begins with his word. At creation, he speaks. John tells us the Word becomes flesh in Jesus. Here the church begins with God’s word proclaimed. Alongside the miracle of languages comes another miracle: hearts opening to God’s activity among them.
What happens when his word truly reaches our hearts—past our defenses, excuses, expectations, and religious familiarity?
Peter stands with the other apostles and addresses the crowd in Acts 2:14. Some have accused them of being drunk. Peter responds that it is only the third hour of the day. This is one of Scripture’s memorable moments: it’s nine in the morning. But he gives a much deeper explanation. What they are seeing fulfills God’s promise through Joel that he will pour out his Spirit.
Peter then speaks of Jesus: his works, his death, and his resurrection. The people have taken and crucified the one God sent, yet God has raised him because death could not hold him. Peter draws on David’s words to show that the risen Christ is now exalted and has poured out the Spirit.
He brings the message to its point: God has made this Jesus, whom they crucified, both Lord and Christ.
What they are witnessing is the fulfillment of God’s purpose. Jesus’s crucifixion was not a failed mission. A Messiah is a rescuer, and people may have thought a rescuer could not possibly die on a cross. Peter helps them see that God’s redemptive plan was at work there.
The cross reveals both the seriousness of sin and the depth of God’s love and willingness to do something about it. The resurrection and enthronement of Jesus show the victory God has accomplished.
Then comes the response in verse 37: the hearers are cut to the heart. The message has opened them up and exposed what is inside. They see it and are broken over it. They ask Peter and the apostles what they should do.
Peter calls them to repent and be baptized in Jesus’s name for forgiveness, receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit. He tells them that the promise reaches them, their children, and those far away whom God calls.
When we open ourselves to God’s word, the Spirit presses truth into the deepest parts of our lives. It has a clarifying quality. Paul calls the gospel God’s power for salvation to those who believe.
Peter speaks plainly. The cross belongs to God’s plan, and the people still bear responsibility for what they have done. Hearing the truth makes that responsibility unavoidable.
But the purpose goes beyond making them feel guilty. They are waking up. Their question—what should we do?—shows that formation has begun.
Repentance means more than regret. It means turning our lives toward God. I appreciate the way J. I. Packer describes it: we bring what we know of ourselves and our sin and turn it over to the God we know. These hearers do not understand everything. The New Testament has not yet been written. But they recognize the truth when it enters their hearts and want to respond.
Baptism identifies us with Jesus and his death and new life. The gift of the Spirit means God personally helps us walk that life. We receive a companion through every season, moment, and day. We are not forgiven and then left to manage everything alone.
The remarkable signs at Pentecost gain the crowd’s attention. The message reaches their hearts. Their honest encounter with the risen Lord brings change and growth.
The gospel cuts to the heart in order to produce new life in the Spirit. When we truly hear what God says, we cannot simply remain as we were.
Jesus prompted many responses, but people did not encounter his holiness, power, and love and remain unaffected. Some were broken before him. Others felt threatened, offended, or jealous. His self-giving power challenged the powers of the world.
That same message reaches us. We can resist its clarity, or recognize the path of freedom and hold fast to Jesus.
If you are coming to know him, the next step begins with that response: allowing his word to enter your heart and turning toward him. If you already follow him, the invitation still applies. Respond to the Spirit’s convicting work and bring before God what needs repentance and healing.
I am the first to acknowledge sin in my own life that I need to turn over to him. We can let things linger too long. The light of the gospel needs to shine into those places and heal us.
David gives us a powerful picture in Psalm 51. He had misused his power, taken another man’s wife, and arranged that man’s death. He had royally messed up. It would have been easy to keep justifying himself.
But Nathan confronts him, and David acknowledges his sin. He seeks cleansing, truth in the inward parts, and a renewed heart. He longs for the joy of salvation to be restored so that he can teach others God’s ways.
The psalm reminds us that God receives a broken and contrite heart. That is where healing can begin: when we stop concealing what is broken and place it before him.
When the gospel breaks through the coldness in our hearts, its light is an invitation to new life. We can respond with the same question those first hearers asked: What should we do? Then we can take the step God places before us, turning toward Jesus in repentance and trust.
