Reader: Gehan Periera
Preacher: Jonathan Smith
Today we start a new series in the Book Of Acts. This series will cover almost a year, so it will be broken down into smaller parts. The first part covers Chapters 1 through 5 and will take 10 weeks.
Today Pastor Jonathan is looking at Acts 1:1-11. Jesus spends forty days with his disciples preparing them for when he will ascend back to Heaven and to empower them with the Holy Spirit. The big picture message from this week is like the disciples, we are ordinary people empowered by the Holy Spirit to witness to the Lord Jesus to the ends of the earth.
Reader: Graeme Miller
Preacher: Jonathan Smith
Recalling the big picture message from last week, we are ordinary people empowered by the Holy Spirit to witness to the Lord Jesus to the ends of the earth.
In today's message from Acts 1:12-26, the remaining 11 apostles choose a new member to bring htem back to twelve apostles. But they didn't do it in an ad-hoc manners. They consulted scripture to ensure that they should be twelve apostles, not eleven. Then they prayed and sought the counsel of others, including God. This is how it shoudl be for us as we make decisions in out lives and in the life of our church.
Reader: Mel Truong
Preacher: Jonathan Smith
Recalling the big picture message from the first week, we are ordinary people empowered by the Holy Spirit to witness to the Lord Jesus to the ends of the earth.
In today's message from Acts 2:1-13, God sends his Holy Spirit upon the apostles at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit comes like Wind and Fire, synonomous with the way God has appeared many times in the past throughout the Old Testament, and like wind, we cannot control the actions of God's Spirit.
However, as a church, we need to ask ourselves if we are truly welcoming The Spirit or are we hindering The Spirit with our actions.
Reader: John Hargrave
Preacher: Jonathan Smith
Recalling the big picture message from the first week, we are ordinary people empowered by the Holy Spirit to witness to the Lord Jesus to the ends of the earth.
In today's message from Acts 2:14-41, the apostle Peter explains what the people are seeing and hearing and why it is happening. The Old Covenant has been replaced by a New Covenant, where the Holy Spirit is poured out upon all who find their lives in Jesus, no matter the circumstance. Because God sees Jesus when he looks at those who call Jesus "Lord", God will NEVER remove the Holy Spirit from us.
This is new! Unlike the Old Covenant, God would give his Spirit to a few and only for a specific purpose, and once that purpose was done, he would remove his Spirit because the person was not holy and righteous. But not now!
Reader: Mel Truong
Preacher: Jonathan Smith
Recalling the big picture message from the first week, we are ordinary people empowered by the Holy Spirit to witness to the Lord Jesus to the ends of the earth.
In today's message from Acts 2:42-47, we see how the early church lived. The people followed the teaching of the apostles, fellowshipped together, broke bread and prayed.
The early church did not have the New Testament like we do today, so the teaching focussed on the Old Testament and how the scriptures pointed to Jesus. Fellowship, in the context of the early church, is a word we don't fully understand. It is MUCH more than "hangin gout" together; instead it is sacrificially giving ourselves for others. The Breaking of Bread may have meant communion, or it may have meant sharing meals together - possibly it was both. Prayer was something the early church did multiple times per day - coming from a Jewish background these people were used to praying at fixed times of the day and spontaneously. We need to think of our prayer times as unstructured. We need to schedule prayer into our daily Christian life.
Reader: Bek Hudson
Preacher: Jonathan Smith
Recalling the big picture message from the first week, we are ordinary people empowered by the Holy Spirit to witness to the Lord Jesus to the ends of the earth.
In today's message from Acts 3, we see Peter & John heal a man who was lame from birth. Peter and John are imitating what Jesus did - healing people in the power of The Holy Spirit. Peter then explains to everybody how and why this was able to happen.
From our perspective this event shows us three important and fundamental things:
1. The forgiveness of all sins;
2. The restoration of all things;
3. The salvation of all peoples.
Pastor Jonathan expounds and explores on each of these principles.