Sermon Central
-
The Power Of Opening My Mouth Series
Contributed by Eric Bain on May 2, 2007 (message contributor)
Summary: This sermon challanges people to get over their fear & share their faith with words.
The Power of Opening My Mouth
© 2007 Eric Bain
NOTE: This sermon is available in audio format @ www.sanctuary-church.com
BI – Do you want to see the power of the Spirit demonstrated in your life? Use words!
Last week, week as we studied Acts 1… we learned about three things the early Christians had to understand before they could really start doing this thing we call church. Those three things were…
1. They needed to understand that Jesus is coming back in the future to fully establish the Kingdom of God – Here’s what that means…
• That what he did on the cross… that was just the beginning of him ushering in his kingdom
• That this time, now, is the continuation of that Kingdome being established
• And that there will be a day in the future that he will return to finish conclude the process
2. They needed to understand was their calling
• The fact that Jesus wants to use them (us) to bring forth his Kingdom
• He wanted them to be his representatives…
• To literally, Go into the world… Make disciples… Baptize them… and Teach them as they mature in their faith.
• That was to be their role!
3. They needed to understand that the Holy Spirit was coming to give them power so that they might be able to live out that calling
And that kind of brings me to the Big Idea of last week’s message. And that’s…
BI - The journey of Church is an adventure into the known… unknown.
You see…
• They knew that the Holy Spirit was coming… but they didn’t know what that event was going to be like!
• They knew that they Holy Spirit was going to give them power… But what would that power be like?
So, here’s what I was thinking…
• I already have this Spirit within me.
• I already have this power available to me.
• Maybe if I just focus hard enough… I could break this baseball bat!
o (Attempt to do it)
• Oh, I know what I forgot to do… I forgot to pray!
o Holy Spirit… If you are in me… And I trust that you are...
o If you have given me power… and I trust that you have…
o If that power… is to be this kind of power – that I could bend this piece of steel – would you manifest yourself right now… through the strength of my arms!
You laugh… but I bet you couldn’t do it!!!!
(Bring up Jon – have him break it)
• On a serious note… What will be the power that the HS will bring?
o Again… we don’t yet know.
o But we do know that this power will somehow be related to their ability to live out their calling!
o In other words… The power from the HS, will somehow… enable them to be Jesus’ representatives to the world.
o Today we’re going to learn about 1 aspect of that power
Ok… Let’s wade in to Acts, Chapter 2… Cause we’re only going to read the first sentence…
AC 2:1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.
Two things…
1. Who were they? Who were those people that were all together in one place?
• Flip back to Chapter 1… Verse 15…
• We skipped this portion of Chapter 1, but note this… Verse 15, says…
AC 1:15 In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty)
In other words, when we begin to read Chapter 2, and it talks about a group of people being together in one place… it’s referring to the early Christians.
• All of them!
• Luke tells us, its a group of about 120 Christians!
• In other words… about as many… as we have in this room right now!
We can change the world!!!!
The second thing we need to talk about…
2. What is the day of Pentecost?
Luke says… AC 2:1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.
So, what is Pentecost?...
• Pentecost was a one-day, Jewish, festival
• It came at the end of a seven week period of grain harvesting
• And devout Jews, from all over the world (region), would come to Jerusalem to sacrifice an offering from that grain harvest
• This is the whole idea of Tithe – First Fruits!
Anyways, back to the text…
AC 2:1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
