2016.5.15 礼拝

2016.5.15 礼拝

241st Life Church Service 　2016.5.15 Acts 2:1-12 “Knowing and Seeking the Fruit of the Spirit”
Leviticus 23:15-16 “You must count for yourselves seven weeks from the day after the Sabbath, from the day you bring the wave offering sheaf; they must be complete weeks. You must count fifty days – until the day after the seventh Sabbath – and then you must present a new grain offering to the Lord.”
Pentecost, Feast of Weeks: One of the three major Jewish festivals / a harvest celebration. Later tradition associated the feast of weeks with the giving of the law at Sinai – the Ten Commandments. This was not only about God’s law but what God planned for us, in other words the “will of God”.
The Significance of Pentecost

1. Fulfillment of Jesus’ Promise
John 14:16-17 16”And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another counselor to be with you forever – 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”
John 20:29 The Jesus told him (Thomas), “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not see and yet have believed.”
Jesus’ promise about the Holy Spirit was fulfilled to the apostles. And this Holy Spirit is promised to Christians who believe although unable to see like Thomas.

2. The Holy Spirit Gives Life
John 6:63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.
It does not mean we cannot believe if we cannot experience the Holy Spirit.

3. He gives power for Service (witness)
Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witness in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.”
Acts 2:4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit an began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Acts 2:11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism). Cretans and Arabs – we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”
Acts 2:32-33 32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. 33 Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.
The apostles were given the power through the Holy Spirit to be witness of Jesus Christ. Likewise, we are also able to be serve God.

4. He created a new community which was the church.
Acts 2:42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
Acts 2:46-47 46 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, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Having received the Holy Spirit, they were remembered the words from Jesus and gathered together in one spirit – the beginning of church. God has planned for us to build a community which is the church. It is God’s will that we serve in a community and be witness to the people.