The Promise of the Father: A Spirit Filled Church

The Promise of Our Father: The Spirit Filled Church Acts 2.42-47 Pentecost resulted in a Spirit Filled Church. The Promise of the Father for the followers of Jesus is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. We hear different things today about churches. We hear things like, “the worship in that church is awesome. “We hear, “What great programs they have!” Felix Mapa’s church in a remote area of Papua New Guinea All over Europe and North America The withered fig tree, leaves but no fruit, looked good but fruitless. Temple, what magnificent buildings… going to be destroyed, fruitless. What is a Spirit filled church? We’re going look at that from God‘s Word this morning. Remember there were no church buildings until the 3rd century. Their organization was simple. Pentecost Sunday had taken place and this, and this is the result The marks of a spirit filled church. Pentecost or the Feast of First Fruits The first of the wheat harvest waved before the LORD. Honor the LORD with all of your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing and your vats will brim over with new wine. Proverbs 3.9 -10. Giving is a blessing. It has promised returns. Marks of a Spirit Filled Church: Those people love Jesus! You can feel the strong arms of Jesus there. The Presence of the LORD is there when it gathers. Their boast is in the LORD, not how great their church is. They don’t say, “You ought to come to my church.” They say, “You ought to come to my Jesus.” Yesterday morning, 35-40 Hindus from Bangladesh coming to Christ. v.42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Devoted= regular and continually, persist, constantly diligent, committed, dedicated, persevere Robe devoted to something or someone is to be loving, loyal and dedicated Clothed With Christ Jesus Romans 13:12-14 Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts. Not a hit and miss. Not an option. Marriage sometimes yes, sometimes no. I don’t feel like being married this week. I am too tired. I have so much going on. How long will that last? There is a need today to patiently persevere in the Word. Pastors need to be faithful to the Word. God’s people need to be devoted to the Word * What was the Apostles Teaching? * It was the Word. What was the Word? It is the Logos. John 1.1 In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. With great power the apostles continue to testify to the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus and much grace was with them all. Acts 4.33 Clothed with the power from on High the apostles taught the soon to be written New Testament The apostles teaching was Jesus Christ, the Son of God, crucified and risen and coming again! I Corinthians 2.2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The early church was devoted to this. Devoted= regular and continually, persist, constantly diligent, committed, dedicated, perseveres We are in a time now that “calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of the saints.” Revelation 13.10b One of the marks of a Spirit filled church is that they are devoted to the Word of God, to Jesus Christ and that is their focus. Preach the Word Herald, Proclaim Publish They were devoted to the Fellowship. “You yearn for a safe place, a community of friends who are hungry for God, who know what it means to sense the Spirit moving within them as they speak with you. You long for brothers and sisters who are intent not on figuring out how to improve your life, but on being with you wherever your journey leads. You want to know and be known in conversations that aren’t really about you and or anyone else but Christ. “Only a few voices direct us to worship or call us to a new level of trust. Only a few invite us to experience spiritual conversations in a spiritual community.” -      Dr. Larry Crabb (True Spiritual Community, Formerly The Safest Place On Earth Fellowship= community, communion, joint participation, the share in something, intimacy, a gift jointly given The Spirit filled Church or a church filled with people who are Spirit Filled, have community, they participate in each others joys and sorrows, struggles and victories. They encourage each other. We participate in each others lives. Prayer, caring, loving In this fellowship we see Jesus. We see Him in others. We see Christ in eyes, words and deeds and in just the ministry of Presence. What is this need we have. We need community. We were created for fellowship. Fellowship with God. Fellowship with one another. It is based on His Word, by His Spirit. There’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus. They care for each other… and they do not broadcast what they do for one another. Edie, Margot, Leah These is holy intimacy among them, the love of God. They share each others lives. A person who stirs up conflict in the community is detestable to the LORD Proverbs 6.19 They were devoted. The early church was devoted to this. Devoted= regular and continually, persist, constantly diligent, committed, dedicated, persevere Biblical Fellowship Old Testament word for fellowship is peace in some translations. It means sacrifice for alliance or friendship, voluntary sacrifice of thanks. Exodus 20.24 “‘Make an altar of earth for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep and goats and your cattle. Wherever I cause my name to be honored, I will come to you and bless you. Leviticus 3.6 “‘If you offer an animal from the flock as a fellowship offering to the Lord, you are to offer a male or female without defect. There is a purity, a perfection with our fellowship with the LORD. It is special. Numbers 10.10 Also at your times of rejoicing—your appointed festivals and New Moon feasts—you are to sound the trumpets over your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, and they will be a memorial for you before your God. I am the Lord your God.” Giving to God is a form of fellowship. We have koinonia as we give. The same with giving gifts to one another. II Samuel 6.17 They brought the ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the LORD. A wonderful time of rejoicing and victory for Israel. They had fellowship with Him. We used to open the school day with a moment of silent prayer. We used to have prayer at graduations. I prayed years ago at Bay Shore High School’s Graduation. We acknowledged God. No more. Sad. God wants to have fellowship, not sure how many were doing that… I know I was. We had prayed the night before at the Family Altar, the sofa in the living room. We had prayed before we went to sleep. My Mom prayed with us before we left for school. So it was appropriate for me to pray at school. II Chronicles 30.22 Hezekiah spoke encouragingly to all the Levites, who showed good understanding of the service of the Lord. For the seven days they ate their assigned portion and offered fellowship offerings and praised the Lord, the God of their ancestors. New Testament word for fellowship is koinonia. It means fellowship, association, community, communion, joint participation, intercourse, the share which one has in anything, participation, intimacy, a gift jointly contributed, a collection, a contribution, as exhibiting an embodiment and proof of fellowship I John 1.3 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. I Corinthians 1. 9 God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. II Corinthians 13. 14 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. The Fellowship of Sharing In His Sufferings Saint Francis wrote, “We have got a lot of dying to do if we are to have the lives our souls hunger for, a lot of entering into the great mystery of death and resurrection.” That is fellowship. Isn’t that where we connect the deepest? When we bear one another’s burdens, when we show our scars? Of course it is. Philippians 3.10-12 I want to Christ, the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings They were devoted to the fellowship. Bread= food often eaten Barley, Wheat, Mills, Ovens The early church was devoted to the breaking of bread Devoted= regular and continually, persist, constantly diligent, committed, dedicated, persevere * The Breaking of Bread had to do with eating together. Acts 2.46b They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, This was sublime fellowship Extreme joy Not without its challenges but we can have joy in problems, in grief, in struggles! The source of joy is the LORD and our relationship to Him and fellowship with Him? After this service this morning! * The Breaking of Bread had to do with the LORD’s Supper. We do this to remember Christ’s sufferings Proclaiming the LORD’s death until He comes I Corinthians 11. 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the LORD’s death until He comes. His Body broken, His blood shed Do this in Remembrance of Me. I Corinthians 11.24 The way He broke the Bread Luke 24.30 When He was at the Table with them, He took bread, gave thanks, broke it and gave it to them. We do this to examine ourselves. I Corinthians 11.28 A man or to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. to test, to scrutinize, deem worthy, If Repentance is needed, then do it, confession, As soon as you come to Christ you can take this, even if it is right before! Jesus served this to men who followed Him and were clean by the Word He spoke but still needing to be converted. We do this to be reminded of His Promise of the Kingdom Mark 14. 25 “Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” We remember what our salvation is based on The LORD left a meal to remember Him by. Broken unleavened bread. This is My Body broken for you. The Song is of Moses and of the Lamb. Revelation 15.3-4 The Passover lamb in Moses was fulfilled in Jesus, the Lamb of God. Revelation 5.6 I saw a Lamb, looking as if had been slain, standing in the center of the throne. I Corinthians 5.7 Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Prayer Prayer= addresses to / conversations with God, places devoted to prayer/ synagogue and outside if there was no synagogue Devoted= regular and continually, persist, constantly diligent, committed, dedicated, persevere Constantly in prayer prior to Pentecost and a mark of the church afterwards. Acts 1. 14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, Prayer is conversation with the LORD God Almighty. Both in public and more so private. Missionary and evangelist E. Stanley Jones wrote, “The first thing in prayer is to get God. If you get Him, everything else follows. Allow God to get at you, to invade you, to take possession of you. He then pours His very prayers through you. They are His prayers—God-inspired, and hence, God answered. “Prayer’s like the fastening of the cup to the wounded side of a pine tree to allow the resin to pour into it. You are now nestling up into the side of God—the wounded side, if you will—and you allow His grace to fill you up. You are taking in the very life of God.” Oswald Chambers, —Matthew 6:6 Jesus did not say, “Dream about your Father who is in the secret place,” but He said, “… pray to your Father Who is in the secret place….” Prayer is an effort of the will. After we have entered our secret place and shut the door, the most difficult thing to do is to pray. Devoted= regular and continually, persist, constantly diligent, committed, dedicated, persevere Colossians 4.2 “devoted” to adhere to one, be his adherent, constant to one, to be steadfastly attentive unto, to give unremitting care to a thing, to continue all the time in a place, to persevere and not to faint, to show one's self courageous for, to be in constant readiness for one, wait on constantly So important being devoted to prayer is that Jesus ruthlessly cast out everyone who bought and sold in the temple, and said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations…. But you have made it a ‘den of thieves’ ” (Mark 11:17). A House of Prayer for all nations: praying for the children of Bangladesh on Tuesday morning, for Haiti on Sunday night Praying for Kenyan Pastor Mathew. The prayer box, the prayer meetings We need to be on our guard for those things that can enter our temples and take the place of prayer. The devil has an arsenal full of stuff… everything from bitterness to busyness. He told His disciples the parable of the widow, the friend at midnight and the unjust judge to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He calls us to faithful, persistent, importune, persevering prayer. Romans 12.12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. If you pray only when you have a great need in your life then you are not devoted to prayer. We are to pray always and not give up. What is a Spirit Filled Church? It is described here: v.42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Continue in this way.