Morning all!

Monday 27/04/20

Morning all, it's a lovely new day today in Civray, south of Poitiers in France and we praise the Lord for it! 

I hope you managed to watch the Worship on line yesterday morning. We enjoyed it very much and it felt as if we were all together as the children of God exalting His holy name. 

There was no technical problems either phew!

 If you have missed it, these were the readings followed by Steven's notes.

Psalm 98:1-9 Psalm 116:1-19 Luke 24:13-35 Acts 2:36-42 

1 Peter 2:1-9

The Beginning of the New Era of the last Days
Acts 2:36-42

Introduction

I have chosen to look at the Acts reading this week because herein we see what is effectively the birth of the Christian Church and the advent of the Kingdom of God breaking in and reaching out to all nations.
Possible only because of: Passion / Resurrection / outpouring of the Holy Spirit
This passage is part of public declaration of the good news of the Kingdom and brings us to the first part of the responses to it.

Currently church is functioning in a different mode and beyond the lockdown, as with many other things, we may find ourselves making changes - who knows?
Going back to day 1 and just beyond, takes us to a very different place and not one we can go back to, but, we see principles that are still relevant and of which we need frequent and good reminders, so, under each of my 5 headings. I am going to list 5 reminders!

1. What God Did - v 36

"Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah."
1st reminder - God has to be in what we do and say and we should allow His voice to be heard through 'us'.
Lord and Messiah - the truth but highly subversive in the then political setting and for the next 250 + years
Caesar - was solely lord in the Roman Empire and later would be worshipped as such
Messiah - another king - see above and remember at the trial of Jesus 'we have no king but Caesar'
Today the message of Jesus, if not subversive, is certainly a serious challenge to people's allegiances: is Jesus King in our lives? To call Him Lord, biblically, is declaring Him to share the divinity of God!

2. What the People asked - v 37

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?"
2nd reminder - we need to be drawing a response from people, not provoking but drawing a response. Too many will either stay where they are or go with the flow.

I think it was the revivalist preacher 'George Whitfield' who asked, after his evangelist students returned from preaching assignments, something like 'Were any converted? - did any react against you?'
If they answered 'no' to both questions then he told them they hadn't preached the gospel!
We are called to be catalysts - people, who in the name of Jesus, bring forth responses from others!
So, they asked what they should do!

3. What Peter told them - v 38-39

"Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off-for all whom the Lord our God will call."
3rd reminder - we need to guide people clearly. I think at times we soften matters too much.

Peter mentions three things to glance at

1. Repent for forgiveness of sin which comes in the name of Jesus and of course through what he did on the cross
2. Be baptised - a sign of belonging and identifying with Jesus and what he did on the cross and through resurrection - so, in baptism we die to sin and self going into the water, and rise to new life as we come up and out.
3. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit who:
a. is God's mark of ownership on us,
b. the one through whom we are adopted as God's children
c. brings the presence of Jesus to us
d. enables us to be the people we are called to be in Christ

There are scriptures behind all of those and if you would like them so you can think more about that, then please email me.

4. What Peter warned them - v 40

With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation."

Peter's sermon wasn't short or quite as we have in Acts 2!

4th reminder - we all need to be realistic about society in general and the world at large. We need to see what is good and wholesome but we must also see what is bad, corrupt and down right evil.

5. What happened - vv 41-42

Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

5th reminder - when God is at work through his people, lives and ministry should be changing as we go along.

The first part reminds us of the huge response on the day of Pentecost - a massive start to the new era of the Kingdom.
The second, reminds us it isn't just about 'bottoms on pews' as the saying goes.
There was an 'active' response from those people
They involved themselves in a host of activities which would inform and energise them in their faith and living of the Christian life Being mature in Christ is not automatic but takes input, effort and output!

Conclusion

Someone wrote a parody based on the 1st verse of the hymn, 'Onward Christian soldiers'. I picked it up through David Watson:

"Like a mighty tortoise
Moves the church of God
Brothers we are treading
Where we always trod"

And I'll stop there as that was the relevant part of the quote.
Right now we are not! That is, treading where we've always trod!

The matters to consider are, amongst others:
1. How are we moving and changing
2. What you and I are doing so we grow in our faith and then can contribute more to the life of the people of God
3. The new paths we have to tread now and along the way and,
4. right now how we can use this different mode of gathering to invite people who may now enter a building! This is a new and different opportunity , so, invite family, friends and whoever - share the posts and videos - let's see what God does and says as we move on and out.
In the end we are here to glorify Him as was on that first day when Peter preached the gospel.

You are all welcome to watch the service LIVE and here is the link 

Steven Abram