Resurrection Sunday 2013 - Where is God's Power?

Where is God's Power?
click for audio

Jesus did many impressive miracles throughout His earthly ministry, but the ultimate demonstration of who He is was in His resurrection from the dead. Similarly, when the Apostle Paul writes about his own life in Philippians chapter 3, he expresses a longing to experience God's power - not through signs and wonders in this life but in his own resurrection to be with Christ. In the meantime Paul's desire was to pour himself out as Christ did for the salvation of all who will believe. That's the most incredible demonstration of God's power: firstly that He would be able to raise us imperishable and undefiled to be with Himself forever; and secondly that in the meantime He can help us to be so transformed in character that we don't live for temporary things any more but only that which will last.

Lives to Learn from Pt 4: Judas

Lives to Learn From in the Book of Acts

Part 4: Judas

(click for audio)

The story of Judas Iscariot is one of the saddest and most confronting in the Bible. It raises all kinds of issues for people, from the simple historical accuracy of two accounts that at first glance don't add up (Matthew & Acts), to more complex issues like the question of whether Judas was merely a pawn in the battle between God and Satan - a victim of a much larger battle than he was aware of. Ultimately though, Judas stands as someone who in many ways represents the person we all can be and the fate we all can share, so it's important to learn from his story. In grappling with the hopelessness of his situation, we learn why there is always hope for us... unless we reject the Saviour King we all need.

Lives to Learn From pt 3: Matthias & Joseph

Lives to Learn from in the Book of Acts

Part 3: Matthias & Joseph

(click for audio)

The story of the two men who were candidates to replace Judas has some great challenges for us to apply to our own lives, such as: 
1) Why did Joseph have 3 names? If we needed to choose another name to identify you, what kind of name would that be? What kind of name should we be known by? 
2) What do we do when a choice needs to be made and there's no clear winner? Even after prayer, reflection upon Scripture and consultation with believers it was not obvious which way to go so a mechanism was found where God's sovereignty could prevail. How does that inform our own decision making? 
3) How would you have responded in Matthias' position or in Joseph's? Would you have become proud? Resentful? Our response to recognition or the lack of it can tell us a lot about the condition of our hearts and our true motivation for service.

Lives to Learn From pt 2: The Holy Spirit

 
Lives to Learn from in the Book of Acts

Part 2: The Holy Spirit

(Click for Audio)

What does it mean to receive power from the Holy Spirit? In the first chapter of Acts we see Jesus preparing His followers for the arrival of the Holy Spirit, then in chapter 2 He arrives with a bang! How similar should our experience of the Spirit be to what the first followers of Christ experienced on the day of Pentecost? We see through Acts 2 a pattern of the Spirit's work which is repeated throughout the book of Acts. To understand it, we need to remember what Jesus said in Acts 1:4 - that the Spirit would come just as Jesus taught. To understand the work of the Spirit we must remember all that Jesus said about Him.  A great place to start is to look at John 14 to 17 which records the instructions Jesus gives His disciples and His prayer to His Father - all of which give great guidance about the work of the Spirit.

We discover that this work can be summarised like this: The Spirit works to draw people closer to God in Christ and to all those who are in Christ.  He works through us to help others in that same direction also.

Sometimes we get too distracted on the means the Spirit uses rather than the purpose of His work.  We need to diligently apply 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 which urges us to not quench the Spirit but to test everything and hold on to the good.  We must not become overly prescriptive about what God does and does not do beyond what He clearly says in His Word.

Lives to Learn From pt 1: Jesus

Lives to Learn from Pt 1: Jesus
(click for audio)

Over the next few months we are going to be looking at some of the people who feature in the story of the early church as recorded in the book of Acts.  There are so many great lessons to learn from what God did in and through many of these people and many parallels with our own lives as we look at how different people responded to God.
The book of Acts begins by talking about Jesus, so it's natural to start our journey with Him.  In this message we look at the way Acts 1 describes Jesus as the One who sends His followers into the world to be His witnesses.  We do not go alone, however.  He gives us power through His Spirit within; and we know that God is always at work around us.  Where is God at work around you and how is His Spirit preparing and calling you to be involved in that work of bringing people to fullness of life in Jesus?