DGLT 2K12 Session 1

Intro

This is probably a good place to say that this is definitely not some sort of pre-req course for CCF DGL. I am not in a position to make those sorts of decisions at CCF, nor do I ever wish to be. Everything I do here is to support the committee and to build up your kingdom leadership, on this campus and beyond.

So just because you've been invited to this doesn't mean you're going to be a DGL next year, and just because someone isn't here doesn't mean they won't be. I wasn't trying to be exclusive or elitist when I went on invitations to gather this group. I just wanted a smaller group lol.

Yet still there's almost 40 of you, and if you each had a group of 5, that'd mean 200 people will be committed to DGs next year, which would be cool, but not a realistic projection at this point. So even by simple math not all of you will be DGL next year.

But I know a lot of you had a great time going deeper Sunday morn at retreat, so I will be trying to equip you guys in that some more, wherever you end up taking this to: home church, the next school you're going to be at, maybe one on one with an old friend of yours.

John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

The vision I have for all of you is that a new generation of young kingdom leaders be raised to represent not simply some programs or some ideas, but the radical, powerful love of Christ.

Agenda for DGLT this term:

• This session we're doing a Q&A on the DG message on a more conceptual level, and I'll be going over the necessary character of someone who wants to go deeper with brothers or sisters
• In February, we'll have another Q&A discussion on the practicalities of DG relationships, and I'll be going over group formation and talking about DGL selection (which isn't just for committee, because we really ought to examine ourselves to see whether we're in the right season to be a leader)
• March we're going to have the current leaders talk about their joys and their struggles as a DGL, and have the younger folks share about their fears, and I'll talk a little bit about bringing biblical community to places where it hasn't been at that depth before
• I'm hoping to speak less and less each meeting this year, and have you guys work with each other more and more to wrestle through issues

(Group Work) Feedback on retreat DG message

• Before we get to questions, how did you feel about the DG message?
• Was it something you guys were already doing? Was it new?
• How did your group react to this challenge of going deeper and what were some common concerns or questions?

Importance of DGs

DGs change lives. I don't say it as if that's a burden you all need to carry, but I say it in hope, in faith, knowing the biblical community is vital to transformation. This isn't just any gathering where you just come together, bond, be good friends and learn a few things. DGs are a place where people face their demons and are transformed by God.

That requires of you not knowledge, or even leadership, the #1 requirement for a DGL is a character of deep love.

I hope this is a relief to a lot of you, who thought you had to be this marvelously knowledgeable teacher or leader to walk with others or be a DGL, you don't. This should also serve as a reminder to others of you that being a DGL is just as much about your transformation, as it is about the transformation of those with you.

That aside, there will be some of you whose personalities and love languages just don't fit this group format. Actually I find a lot of very loving people would rather not be DGL because they find that the title actually detracts from how they love people. Weirdly over the years I've also found that the people who are super gung-ho about leading people are usually the ones who shouldn't, and the ones who hesitate and instinctively exercise a good amount of self-examination, who approach it in weakness, are usually the ones who should.

Some of you will be way better one on one, or maybe with a larger group like yearly meetings. Some of you will feel way freer as someone who's bringing that openness, bringing that authenticity, pushing forward with the DGL while not having to carry that title yourself.

I haven't even talked about seasons of receiving, seasons of healing, seasons of revelation, things that God will do with you that you should really focus on rather than be a leader, all of which we'll go over in Feb.

So not everyone should be a DGL when they hit upper year, and that's not saying anything negative about you. You have to put your insecurity issues aside and commit to walking with people, whether you end up being DGL or not. I don't want to hear anyone saying next year I was in DGLT so why wasn't I chosen as a DGL and that person was instead. None of that please. The title only matters if your pride or your insecurity cares about it. We'll talk more about all that in Feb.

Character for Going Deeper

Humility-Servanthood

Being a DGL isn't a badge of honor. It isn't some measure that says you're mature enough or stronger than other people who aren't DGL.

Matt 20:25 But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 26 It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, 28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Matt 23:8 But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. 9 And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. 10 Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. 11 The greatest among you shall be your servant.

I might sound a little harsh here, and I don't mean to do that, but this point is just really really important. You must get this right. If I could have you get anything at all out of these 3 sessions, this would be it.

The question you need to ask yourself is, are you aiming to be a leader because you deeply desire to love on others and walk alongside them and give of yourself to do so? Or are you in it because you think you're mature enough or capable enough to do this or you feel like you ought to be leading people by now?

Please be brutally honest with yourself and truly wrestle with that question. Please don't trick yourself when you answer that, because the truth will show in the fruit soon enough. I guarantee that in no time at all everyone will see exactly why you wanted to be DGL.

You're not making disciples of you, you're helping people become disciples of Jesus. Therefore I always say that DGLs bring the culture to a group, not the substance. You're not there to bring growth or bring teaching. You will soon find out that you can't grow people past their hurts or teach people out of their struggles. The Holy Spirit will bring the substance, John 16 says that He will lead us into all the truth. Rather, you're there to bring the tone, the attitude, setting a safe environment, calling on Christ's victory always, cheering people on.

At the end of the day, it really isn't about you as some awesome leader and how you'll manage to lead people and grow people because you're older or more mature or stronger or whatever. It's about what God will do when you walk life towards Him together.

Openness-Authenticity

James 5:16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

We talked about this one already at retreat. The thing to remember is that all of this is aiming towards healing, towards restoration by God. You're not aiming at the dark stuff so you can guilt and shame and scare people into earning their own victory. We're calling on the victory of Christ, and helping others see that what God has for them is so much better.

The other thing to remember is that the first one to go deep has to be you. The group will only go as deep as you do. Therefore if you're still not comfortable, still need to hide some significant, blinding piece of junk in your soul, then this is probably not a good time to be DGL.

Safety-Confidentiality

Hopefully I don't have to explain this to you. If you know you struggle with gossip, or you're way more comfortable talking about others than you are going deep about yourself, please don't be a DGL.

Not only will you ruin your own group, I've seen entire DG ministries be ruined that way, because once there's a leak in one group, every group will shut up.

That's not to say we won't be graceful and just boot people out of groups when mistakes happen, but leaky mouths must be confronted, first by the leader, then by the group. What happens if there is no remorse or repentance after that I leave to a case by case basis.

I know DGLs a lot of time are asking other people outside the group to pray for someone, or give advice about how to handle certain situations. The simplest practical rule to save yourself messes here is of course to keep names out of it, and learn to abstract situations into ideas and concepts that other leaders can also wrestle with you on. More importantly, however trivial you think something is, always ask permission first.

Perseverance-Hope

Luke 18:1 And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

One thing you'll notice quickly is that when people go deeper, when people start facing their demons, is that it can get messy, sticky, and ugly, but that doesn't necessarily mean that something's wrong.

People are remembering and reliving and facing hurts, anger, jealousy, unforgiveness. A lot of people don't know how to deal with stuff like that, especially deeper things like parents/childhood, past romantic relationships, past hurts dealt by brothers and sisters.

They might lash out and instinctively defend themselves when those areas are brought up; hurting people hurt people. I want you DGLs to know that that's normal, it isn't personal. As much as people will be prickly at times, please persevere with people in hope.

Don't give up, sometimes even if they do. We know that Christ wishes to restore us, but has called us to persevere in that pursuit. Let people know it's OK to struggle and wrestle, OK to fail repeatedly, no one is expecting magic bullets that fix things by next meeting. Remind people, we're here to grind this out with each other as long as we're in this group together.

(Group Work) Q&A Discusson

Talk about some common comments and questions, and have everyone try to answer them.

Session 3: Being His People (4/4)

A quick aside about genders here. This level of sharing creates emotional attachments, and I've seen so many romantic relationships that are initiated via that just crash and burn. So single gendered groups please. You can have co-ed prayer meetings, co-ed bible studies, just not co-ed DG level sharing. The co-ed groups I've seen either really struggle to be open or authentic, or get so close and so attached and so misunderstood that people really get hurt. So you have been warned. If you value your heart, just don't do it.

5) Accountability

Being open to being caught.

And they devoted themselves.......

Devotion is more than a once a day event, it's a constant habit of yielding to God's love, yielding to God's hand, yielding to God's will. Accountability is when the reminder of that comes not only from the God-head, but also from the body, your brothers and sisters.

A very wise elder once told me a phrase that really sums up accountable living: “being open to being caught”

Now the word "open" has a double meaning here:

1. to be open about your life, laying out your life 100% for others to examine (the openness and authenticity that we already takled about)
2. to be open to the truth that your group speaks into your life when you might not recognize you're aiming off a cliff

If you are just going to be offended and defensive every time someone connects the God's voice to something awful you're planting in your life, and you don't accept or consider anything your brothers and sisters say to you, soon people will stop saying anything to you, and what's the point then? Again, if you want to keep your darkness, what's the point of walking with people?

This is the important bit, often sparks fly in accountable relationships because people feel judged, so I have to warn all of you, this isn't a license to go around shouting at other people’s junk. I repeat, this is not a license to go around shaming people, which somehow has become the popular theological thing to do. All of us have a lot to learn and practice in terms of being quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry, to become a safe person to share with, to speak in the love of our Abba Father.

Story: "A brother walked into another brother"

Sorry girls that a lot of my stories are about porn. When I was younger to honor the hearts of the girls I used to mainly deal with guys and this is pretty prevalent with them. Working with girls more nowadays and I'm realizing unforgiveness is their #1 destroyer, eating disorders way more prevalent than I thought, and that girls aren't exempt from sexual temptation, so I hope you girls can appreciate this story as much as the guys.

Accountability is not about the more spiritual person helping the less spiritual one or stronger person fixing the weaker one. We're all in the same boat, but we're all rooting for each other towards our destinies in Christ. We are all calling on Jesus' victory for each other.

We want each other to grow to be whole, for each other to become all that God destined us to be, and walking together towards that will require us to learn to gently ask the hard questions when we see someone aiming towards a pit, and for us to trust that those walking with us speak for our own good.

What now?

Meet, pray, read, share, walk. Not rocket science right? Who thinks you can find some brothers, or some sisters and do this once a week?

What I've shared is the root of biblical community, and only from here does everything else spring out in due time: missions, social justice, evangelism, etc.

I'm sure you guys have some questions, and again this term I'll be running some DG leaders training sessions to help you current and prospective DG leaders walk in this and give you guys a place to take up those questions, get more equipped in people leadership, and get help with specific situations.

Right now I'm going to break you guys off into your DGs to start practicing this. Challenge yourself to be more open about the dark spots, be quick to listen slow to speak, and pray over one another.

Session 3: Being His People (3/4)

3) Reading the bible

Read the bible, don't just listen to someone else talk about it.

They devoted themselves...to the apostles teaching...

When it comes to interacting with scripture I have another whole workshop series on it but I'm just going to say this today: don't simply rely on listening to other people talk about the bible, actually read it for yourself. Read it voluminously, repeatedly, persistently.

When the perspectives of our faith are inevitably tested by the thorns of Satan, you're going to have a hard time standing strong if what you fall back on is the authority of a John Piper youtube video or a Wayne Grudem textbook. Trust me, Satan is smart enough to talk circles around those guys when he attacks you.

Christian media is, for the most part, well intentioned, and many of them are really edifying, but something you might not have realized is that often you're actually making it harder for God to speak to you and reveal things to you if you continually fill your mind with other people's impressions of God. You start internalizing their biases, divisions, hurts, and fears and it ultimately skews, unbalances and filters your relationship with God.

So the question isn't to find the right one to listen to, none of them are totally right all of the time, very few of them represent the whole picture, but let’s pursue hearing God ourselves, and get to know our good shepherd's voice.

The best way to do that, the best way to hear God through the scriptures, is to read through it prayerfully yourself.

I have a lot more the share with you on this but for now I challenge all of the DGs to read through the bible in a year. Which sounds daunting, but if you let go of this very asian, and quite frankly presumptuous and prideful idea that you should understand every verse along the way the first time you read it, it then only takes 40 minutes a day.

Remember, this habit we're building for a lifetime is way more important than the novelty of learning new things at this point.

OK, so far, meet together, pray together, read together. Not rocket science right? I did say this was in order of easiest to hardest. So here comes the harder bits. Not that they're complicated, but they do require more boldness and gentleness.

4) Sharing life

Go deep about you, not abstract scriptural theories.

Acts 4:32 Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul.....

Walking with God, being His disciple is not some third person theological idea that you can attend classes for and study up on. It isn't about information, it’s about transformation.

It's not about what you know or what you say or even what you manage do on the outside, it's about you, who you truly are on the inside, often when you think no one is looking.

Let me illustrate, what percentage of your life's triumphs and struggles do you share with your closest confidant? 60%? 80%? How many have someone they're at 100% with?

What I've learnt working with people over the years is that the last 15, 10, 5% that doesn't get shared is usually the part of one's life that needs God the most.

Whether intentionally covered up, or subconsciously hidden, the ideas, agendas, and motivations that don't see the light of day are usually the ones that really needs God's light. Regardless of how Godly a life you manage to piece together around it, that little chunk of habitual darkness or that little piece of your past that you can't bear to face will eventually consume you if left festering.

Story: "a brother in Dan's DG practice group"

Real transformation, real discipleship, requires authenticity, that what you say is truthful, and openness, that you don't hide anything.

If you want to keep your darkness to yourself, why bother walking with people? Why try to pretend to grow if you are not willing to open your dark spots to God's redeeming light? DGs are to be a place free of gossip, that confidential and safe place, where we help each other start unpacking and letting God’s light face our demons.

Session 3: Being His People (2/4)

1) Being together

Show up! You can't walk together without being together.

And all who believed were together....And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes......

(duh, remember I did say that these are ordered from easiest to hardest)

Emergencies are understandable, but no excuses. Here are some examples of things that are not emergencies: "I am so behind for this exam/assignment", "I need to go see friend/bf/gf", "I am double booked with this other meeting", etc.

I encourage all the groups to set a consistent time early in the semester that everyone is expected to work their schedule around. DG isn't something you can do in your spare time. If you are only willing to give a little spare time for it, please do everyone else a favour, don't join a group.

Story: "my first DG, 5:30am"

Story: "the eager, consistent father of 3"

Be there!

2) Prayer

No one is allowed to say I'll pray for you, and not actually do it everyday.

They devoted themselves...to prayer....

I have to admit, I put this as the second point, but this is actually pretty hard, because prayer is usually one of the first things to go when we get busy. You'll keep at your ministries and your obligations because of other people's expectations, but no one notices (at least right away) when you stop praying.

In my walk over the years, one of the best things to wake up to is to know that I had brothers praying for me, that a bell will resound in heaven for me multiple times a day. Even just the thought of that already strengthens me.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12)

Prayer is not to be a secondary option to our consoling, counselling, or advice, we are not wrestling with just emotions or decisions. We will not gain victory on our own, we must call on Jesus' victory.

Therefore spend a good chunk of your meeting in prayer, don't worry so much that you're not "learning" anything. In all my years in DGs and watching them, prayer has always been the root of change.

Prayer is the simplest act of support for one another in Christ, so if you can't even commit 5 minutes a day to doing that for your group, what are you willing to do?

Session 3: Being His People (1/4)

So yesterday we walked through where God is with us today, and hopefully many of you joined me on that journey; that many of you encountered Him, were affirmed by Him, were touched by Him. This morning I want us to deal with the question of, well, what now? This weekend was great, but where do I go from here?

“What now?” isn't just a question about this retreat time, or even your time at CCF. Some of you might be graduating, in 4 months time you might be in a different town, for school, for home, for work. You're thinking about how much you've grown in your walk with God these past years and wondering, well how am I going to keep that going when I no longer have this wonderful community around?

Others of you would've noticed that CCF has no staff workers that will hold you by the hand and feed you, so when you become seniors and end up being the ones being looked up to, how do you grow? We're not called just to be disciples, but also to be disciple makers, so how do we help others walk with God when we often times feel so inadequate?

Me and the bunch of us alumni wrestled with these questions a few years ago, and it was out of that struggle that we discovered discipleship groups, that it is actually a tremendously powerful thing to gather with a few brothers, or a few sisters, and walk, grow and encounter God intimately together. That we didn't need someone with a seminary degree, or get a well-published curriculum to grow, heck the first people to do this were noted to be uneducated fishermen and the outcasts of the Jewish community.

I know CCF already has DGs, and from what I hear that things are going pretty good. But what I realized being here last semester is that no one has laid out to everyone what DGs actually are. So what I want to do this morning is talk what a DG is and does, bring together into one message what doing life together is all about. I hope that this encourages and empowers those of you who want to grow to come together and go after it together this next semester and onward, because DGs, and growing for that matter, really isn't rocket science.

In Acts 2 we saw the lives of people who repented, believed, got baptised, received the Holy Spirit, and began this life filled with awe and wonder with God. In that passage we will find the roots of walking with God together as family, the roots of biblical community:

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47)

I know that most of you are probably half asleep, so I've really shortened this message, which is the one I normally do at the DG workshop at Campus Challenge. This term I'm hoping to run a couple DG leaders training session and share the whole thing with you, but here are the 5 root values of a DG, in increasing order of difficulty:

Session 2: The Final Covenant (4/4)

The reality is, for those of us who are saved, we are always in the loving presence of God. The question is no longer God please be near me, God please come, no longer this cry of fear and abandonment, but a cry of sonship and adoption. Abba, Father, I am your child, as I grow, would you open my eyes to see and hear of where you already are all around me.

It goes from you come close to me and you die, to I come into you and you truly live.

That is the final covenant. This is the covenant that Hebrews 8 speaks of as having made the previous one obsolete. Those lives that we saw in Acts 2, so filled with the wonder of God, so thick with His presence that even unbelievers favoured and revered them. We’ll talk more about Acts 2 and being His people tomorrow, but that is the full invitation from God today, that's our destiny as His children. His spirit in us, flowing through us, so that we may see that His presence, His hand, His love is already all around us.

Some of you, you've experienced all of this. As the psalmist said you've tasted and seen that the Lord is good! Testify! Encourage! Walk along side! Don't keep it to yourself, that's the reason us alumni are here.

Some of you have stood in front of that torn curtain for a while now. You've been feeling unworthy and undeserving, busy trying and trying to beg and qualify for His presence. Well, let me share with you a little secret, trying to open an already opened door doesn't do a whole lot. Seriously, try it. Perhaps you've already noticed that for all your efforts and ministry and learning you seem to be at the same plateau with God. He is inviting you tonight to stop striving after what has already been gifted to you. You didn't earn your salvation, you certainly aren't going to earn your intimacy with Him. Pray that cry of sonship, receive what He's been wanting to give you if you'd just stop trying to pay for it.

Let Him love you, let yourself be undeserving of it, that was always His point.

Some of you see that torn curtain and you don't really know whether you want what's inside. You're thinking, what if in there my desires die, what if my dreams die, what if my plans die. So you keep God at a distance. You go to church meetings, learn all the ideas about Him, serve a little bit maybe, but never letting Him move you beyond mere churchiness. I could say all sorts of things to try to persuade you and what not but I'm just going to say this, it is simply not possible to follow God at a distance. The Israelites tried that already, and look at the OT, look at what happened to them.

More importantly is this which I can say with 100% certainty, that your old self will die. Your old self will drain away, your new self will begin to pour in. As the apostle Paul said, I consider all the things that I had garbage in light of Christ. What's behind that curtain might be so different but yet so much better than what you could possibly plan on your own.

Some of you have no experience of what I'm talking about at all, that torn curtain might as well be a brick wall. You know some stuff about God that other people have told you, or that you've read or listened to somewhere, for years even, but you've never interacted with God, He's never really acted in your life, and even if you prayed it feels like it vanishes into thin air. If the spirit of the God of the universe entered into you, well you really didn't know when it happened or even if it happened.

For you guys I encourage you to ask God tonight where am I with you? Don't rely on affirmation from yourself or from other people, think about it, your yes’ their yes', they don't mean anything! I don't care if you're Calvinist or Arminian, predestination or free will, even atheist or agnostic for that matter, but I think we all agree that no one else's affirmation of eternity matters except God's. Maybe you were too scared or too distracted to say anything before but tonight, ask Him!

Every time I prayed over retreat, I just hear God saying, I would love to meet them, I've been waiting to touch them. As we enter into a time of worship and prayer, I really hope this will be a time where you let your guard down in God's presence, whether this is your first or the hundredth time.

The alumni are going to come around, ask for you name, lay hands, and pray over you. You don't have to share deeply or pray extra hard or anything like that, just sit and receive. If you do have something specific you want to share with them, give them a tap.

As you worship, I encourage to be a child, free to dance, free to love, free to shout Abba, Dad. Pour out your heart to Him, welcome Him, and ask Him to open your senses to my God, my lord, my saviour, my father.

Where are you with God? Are you willing to receive and walk in the fullness of His invitation, His final covenant with us?

Session 2: The Final Covenant (3/4)

The significance of all of that, of this change in how God interacted with people, is best summarized by the tearing, from top to bottom, of the curtain separating the holy of holies when Jesus died.

Now for those of you not familiar with the structure of the temple of God, this wasn't any ordinary room or curtain, this was the innermost sanctum of the temple (after women, gentiles, ordinary men, and non-high priests were excluded), the place where God's presence resided, where high priests still died if they didn't perfect the purification procedures. That curtain was destroyed, the way to where God dwelled, the way to God's presence was opened.

Yet history does not end here does it?

Jesus resurrects in 3 days, giving eternal life and adopting and loving as His own children those who would welcome Him and confess His name. Huge deal, it’s the reason most of us are here this weekend, absolutely the greatest thing to happen to humankind, a gift of grace and forgiveness for all of those trespasses that once got their due in the OT.

But history doesn't end here either.

Jesus died and rose again, bringing us believers with Him into eternity, but God wasn't nearly done. Jesus and God didn't just tear the curtain and leave us to wonder whether we could, or how we would, walk in to where He was. So what happens next? (Acts 1:4-5)

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.”

So you see something else happens after Jesus! Something that Jesus Himself spoke of. And watch what happens when that Holy Spirit shows up, not just on the apostles, but on ordinary believers! Here the Holy Spirit had already been released on to the apostles, whom people took as drunk, but Peter explains to them that they had just killed the saviour they've been waiting for, and the crowd asks Peter what to do (Acts 2:38-47):

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.”

And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

So here’s the progression we see: they repented, and were baptised and received the Holy Spirit and then they began experiencing and walking a new life, a supernatural life! That didn't stop with just the apostles or the crazy people following them in Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit was released to people everywhere:

There was a Roman military official by the name of Cornelius. He was a worshiper of the God of Israel, which the Jews never recognized because he wasn't Jewish. One day he gets a dream to go get Simon, also named Peter, who was living with Simon the tanner by the sea, and listen to him. Meanwhile, Peter, who, what do ya know, was living with Simon the tanner by the sea, gets a vision that unclean things have been made clean by God. When Peter meets Cornelius, he finally puts one and one together and realizes that God is bringing non-Jews into the family of God, and started to share the gospel with Cornelius’ household. Here’s what happens next (Acts 10:44-47):

While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?”

So you notice now that every people group that was previously excluded by the temple receives salvation, receives the Holy Spirit, receives the presence of God. Hence in the rest of the NT, in the letters of Apostle Paul he would often write that when you believed and were saved, the Holy Spirit entered into you.

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13)

This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. (1 John 4:13)

The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” (Romans 8:15)

Look at this, He whose name couldn't even be spoken in OT we may now call Father, Abba, Dad in greek.

We don't walk in through that torn curtain, God comes out. All that separation, all that distance that people needed to keep in the OT vanishes, as the Spirit of God comes out of the Holy of Holies and makes His dwelling in our very being as believers.

Think about that for a moment, think about that in light of all that you saw in the OT and what being near God was like.