Acts 2 is the moment when the church together is baptized with the Holy Spirit. Now what does that mean? and what does that mean for us?
Some see this moment as repeatable, they speak about the baptism of the Spirit as an experience that is available to us today. I want to be careful and precise in our understanding, which means we have to note that 1) nowhere in the Bible is the phrase “baptized in the Spirit” used except when speaking of this moment in Acts, 2) in not other time in the Bible does the Holy Spirit come upon the church in the same way as it does in Acts 2. There are other fillings of the Spirit both in Acts and elsewhere in the NewTestament, but there is no other fire. So what is the baptism of the spirit and what does it signify? What does it mean for us?
What Do You Do When You’re Not Doing Anything? In our culture, we're not very good at pausing. Yet what we do in our downtime matters. As we continue the series we began last week in the Book of Acts, we see the Apostles in a moment of pause. Yet these apostles had been trained by Jesus, and they knew what to do when they were doing nothing; Christ’s People Fill Period’s of Pause With Prayer and Preparation.
"Is the gospel for people like me?" - I've often heard this question asked, especially in sharing the gospel with people from different backgrounds. Many people think that Christianity is a Western religion for Europeans, yet in the ancient world the perception was exactly the opposite. To the Roman "European", Christianity was an Eastern, Jewish religion. The Book of Acts was written to one such Roman believer to assure him that Christianity was indeed a faith for all people. In the Book of Acts, Jesus continues his ministry through His Spirit-empowered church to save people from every nation for the glory of God.
Here we are at the beginning of a new year, and its usually at this time that everyone comes out with some of there predictions for the future, both for the next year and maybe some even more long range. Whether it is clickbait just feeding our worries or an actual existential threat, people are interested in the future of humanity. Broadly speaking, you can see two general questions emerge. Question #1. Is there a future for humanity? Will we make it? Will we survive? How long? Question #2: What sort of future is in store for humanity? Artificial intelligence, gene editing, new mind and body drugs and technology that will get the most out of our potential. Can we stop the aging process? Eradicate genetic deformity and diseases?
What is the future of humanity? Well, the papers are correct in their focus on survival, for it is unavoidable that the human experience is death. This should not surprise us as it is our universal experience. What might be surprising to us is how the Jesus defines death and how He overcomes death, and what it means for the future of humanity.
Nearly every Christmas movie has the same theme: a cantankerous cynic who has lost faith in humanity experiences the spirit of Christmas and has his faith in humanity restored. Yet Jesus did not come to merely restore our faith in humanity - He came to restore humanity itself. In Philippians 2 Christians are called to have the mind of Christ, who confidently set aside the rights and entitlements that He possessed by virtue of His divine nature to take to Himself our human nature. Through His incarnation, life, death and resurrection Jesus upheld God's word of condemnation against humanity, while lovingly standing in our place to redeem any who will find their life in Him. When we are born again, the Holy Spirit truly begins to transform us in ways that last beyond the Christmas season.
We continued our "Being Human" series by opening up the issue of free will and moral responsibility. The opening text was Genesis 2:15-17 in which God sets a moral choice in front of humankind. We learned that any "freedom" human beings have is a gift of our Sovereign Creator and that God holds us morally responsible for the choices we make. Because of our sin nature desiring things contrary to God, we need Jesus to save us and bring us back to spiritual life so that we can choose the good by the power of the Holy Spirit.
This is the second part of a message started last week. Last week we explored the equality of men and women in the revelation of Scripture. Today we'll be looking at some more passages that speak to the distinctions of men and women. It seems in Corinth, like Canada, the church had gladly accepted the gospel's teaching regarding the equality of men and women. Yet, for all the excitement about the new-found status of women in the church being equal with men, some in the Corinthian church were sliding toward a more position that eroded the differentiations between male and female.
The Word of God calls us to preserve the distinction between man and woman, which honours the particular glory of each, by relating to one another in appropriate ways in the home and in the church.
This is the first of a two-week look at the Bible's teaching on gender. The focus of this message is one the fundamental equality of men and women as beings created in the image of God. We look at six different aspects of the unity of men and women as revealed in the Bible. Men and women are equal in dignity on account of their being created in the image of God, in their necessity to fulfill the creation mandate, in their depravity as a result of sin and its devastations, in their participation in salvation history, their redemption as co-heirs of life in Christ, and their mutuality in marriage. This message is fundamental and must be kept in mind as we explore distinctions between men and women in the following message.
We unpack the word of God to humankind: "Be fruitful and multiply". It is noted that in order for humankind to fulfill this word, man and woman must come together as man and woman, which is an affirmation of the goodness of the gender binary. After the fall, making babies is an act of faith in the face of sin and its devastation. In the New Testament, the command to be fruitful and multiply is expanded to all Christians, both single and married, through their participation in the great commission.
This week we addressed the reality of ethnic tension and what God is doing about it. Evangelical silence regarding ethnic tension is inexcusable. Not only because people are hurting, but because we have a real answer. In this sermon from Ephesians 2-3, we see that Jesus tears down the wall of ethnic hostility, by being saviour of all. However, the profound innovation of the church age is that Christ is gathering the nations *together* in local churches that display the manifold wisdom of God through their ethnic diversity.
