Thanks
be to Jesus for this new day. The Lord blessed us with a beautiful and abundant
weekend. Our grand daughter Micah called from Boston on Saturday morning,
reporting that she and her family were going out camping. She said they could
not go Friday afternoon because of "massive thunderstorms". Sunita called from
Corfu, Greece yesterday afternoon and shared how the Lord has been faithful to
them throughout this trip. It has been truly an adventure in the Lord. He has
granted Sunita and Andy His gracious favor all the way. Sunita also shared that
their dear friends have had an amazing answer to prayer!. We praise the Lord for
His faithfulness.
The Lord
blessed us with wonderful day in His house yesterday. I preached from Acts 3, a
passage about the power of the Holy Spirit for His church today, for ministry to
a paralyzed world. In the animal and human kingdoms power is often a tool of
intimidation and subjugation. For many that’s what the perks of power are all
about — dominating, dictating and even destroying! Power in the kingdom of God
has an entirely different purpose. The power Jesus promised and provided through
the person of the Holy Spirit is not power to intimidate or impress, but it’s
power to impact!
Lloyd Olgivie puts it like this, "The power of Pentecost is for people. What happened at Pentecost is for the paralysis of the world. The Holy Spirit, Christ in the present tense, is for the healing of people in the present age. The excitement and enthusiasm of the infilling of the Spirit was to create a people through whom the Lord could continue his ministry of restoration and healing. A new age was born, Christ was alive in his people, and they were now equipped to do what he had done and the greater things he promised — communicating his love and bringing people to him."
Don’t miss this: "The power of Pentecost is for people … it’s God’s answer for the paralysis of the world!" The power of God turned despairing doubters into dynamic disciples. When they received the promised Holy Spirit they were clothed with power from on high. They received the power of God to energize them to be witnesses to Jesus Christ in a secular society. The power of the Holy Spirit was for people, to enable the disciples to reach out and touch human need and share the liberating truth of the Gospel of Christ. It’s all about personal caring for people. Pentecost is to enable us to reach out and touch others.
In Acts 3, we see the power of God healing a human life. We also see people who have been touched by the power of God touching others. This is the story of the lame man who begged by the gate called Beautiful. We see evidenced in this passage God's power to heal. Though the man was healed physically, but the message of this passage deals with human healing on every level.
This story from Acts is, or could have been, a human tragedy. The Scripture tells us that this man was crippled, and had been since birth. For literally over forty years the man had been unable to walk. He was born that way and he had never known the freedom of going anywhere without having to ask others to carry him there. This man also symbolizes for us the reality of tragedy in the human condition. We are reminded that everywhere we look there is human hurt, human suffering, and human tragedy. Sometimes it manifests itself through a physical affliction such as this man had, but more often it goes unseen to human eyes. For every one who is crippled physically, there are literally tens of thousands who are crippled emotionally and hundreds of thousands who are crippled spiritually. The message of this man is that there people everywhere who are in great need of some type of healing.
This lame man sat and begged at the gate called "Beautiful." How many of our co-workers or friends or neighbors appear outwardly to be doing OK, yet inwardly they are struggling? They are over-extended financially. They don’t know what to do with their children. Their marriages are falling apart. Their job is hanging by a thread. They are beaten and bruised. They are guilty and depressed and don’t know where to turn. Behind every door there is human need. Every person has a story to tell. We all experience hurt and failure as part of the human condition, and we all need healing. We all need Jesus, and that’s the biggest need that anyone has. People everywhere need a heavenly touch from God. We all need the power of the Holy Spirit made available to us, even as the lame man needed the touch of God.
It was the ninth hour, or three o’clock in the afternoon, when the Peter and John were going up to the temple to pray. It was the usual hour for prayer for the Jews, but it has special significance to the Christians because it was the very time of day on which Jesus had died on the cross, the hour at which he had cried, “it is finished.” (John 19:30)
Peter stopped and said to the lame man, “Look at us!” According to verse 5 this man expected to receive alms from Peter and John, but his faith was quickened by Peter’s words. The minute that Peter had this man’s attention he did two things; First, he admitted his bankruptcy in material things. “Silver and Gold have I none.” It was not that they were opposed to giving to the poor, but they could not give what they did not possess. Then he demonstrated his amazing adequacy in the spiritual realm. “In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, arise and walk.” Peter and John declared, in other words, " We do not have what you want, but we do have what you need". They had power to touch people’s lives with the presence of the living Jesus; power to reach out to people and lift them up out of their tragic circumstances and give them hope and healing, friendship and fellowship. This was the ministry of the emissaries of the spirit-filled church and this is our ministry today.
Lloyd Olgivie puts it like this, "The power of Pentecost is for people. What happened at Pentecost is for the paralysis of the world. The Holy Spirit, Christ in the present tense, is for the healing of people in the present age. The excitement and enthusiasm of the infilling of the Spirit was to create a people through whom the Lord could continue his ministry of restoration and healing. A new age was born, Christ was alive in his people, and they were now equipped to do what he had done and the greater things he promised — communicating his love and bringing people to him."
Don’t miss this: "The power of Pentecost is for people … it’s God’s answer for the paralysis of the world!" The power of God turned despairing doubters into dynamic disciples. When they received the promised Holy Spirit they were clothed with power from on high. They received the power of God to energize them to be witnesses to Jesus Christ in a secular society. The power of the Holy Spirit was for people, to enable the disciples to reach out and touch human need and share the liberating truth of the Gospel of Christ. It’s all about personal caring for people. Pentecost is to enable us to reach out and touch others.
In Acts 3, we see the power of God healing a human life. We also see people who have been touched by the power of God touching others. This is the story of the lame man who begged by the gate called Beautiful. We see evidenced in this passage God's power to heal. Though the man was healed physically, but the message of this passage deals with human healing on every level.
This story from Acts is, or could have been, a human tragedy. The Scripture tells us that this man was crippled, and had been since birth. For literally over forty years the man had been unable to walk. He was born that way and he had never known the freedom of going anywhere without having to ask others to carry him there. This man also symbolizes for us the reality of tragedy in the human condition. We are reminded that everywhere we look there is human hurt, human suffering, and human tragedy. Sometimes it manifests itself through a physical affliction such as this man had, but more often it goes unseen to human eyes. For every one who is crippled physically, there are literally tens of thousands who are crippled emotionally and hundreds of thousands who are crippled spiritually. The message of this man is that there people everywhere who are in great need of some type of healing.
This lame man sat and begged at the gate called "Beautiful." How many of our co-workers or friends or neighbors appear outwardly to be doing OK, yet inwardly they are struggling? They are over-extended financially. They don’t know what to do with their children. Their marriages are falling apart. Their job is hanging by a thread. They are beaten and bruised. They are guilty and depressed and don’t know where to turn. Behind every door there is human need. Every person has a story to tell. We all experience hurt and failure as part of the human condition, and we all need healing. We all need Jesus, and that’s the biggest need that anyone has. People everywhere need a heavenly touch from God. We all need the power of the Holy Spirit made available to us, even as the lame man needed the touch of God.
It was the ninth hour, or three o’clock in the afternoon, when the Peter and John were going up to the temple to pray. It was the usual hour for prayer for the Jews, but it has special significance to the Christians because it was the very time of day on which Jesus had died on the cross, the hour at which he had cried, “it is finished.” (John 19:30)
Peter stopped and said to the lame man, “Look at us!” According to verse 5 this man expected to receive alms from Peter and John, but his faith was quickened by Peter’s words. The minute that Peter had this man’s attention he did two things; First, he admitted his bankruptcy in material things. “Silver and Gold have I none.” It was not that they were opposed to giving to the poor, but they could not give what they did not possess. Then he demonstrated his amazing adequacy in the spiritual realm. “In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, arise and walk.” Peter and John declared, in other words, " We do not have what you want, but we do have what you need". They had power to touch people’s lives with the presence of the living Jesus; power to reach out to people and lift them up out of their tragic circumstances and give them hope and healing, friendship and fellowship. This was the ministry of the emissaries of the spirit-filled church and this is our ministry today.
In
Christ,
Brown
http://youtu.be/FuHzWSg3x1c
Super
Summer Music Festival
Saturday, June 30, 2012 at 6:30 PM
Location: First United Methodist
Church
53
McKinley Avenue, Endicott
Sponsored by: Union Center United Methodist
Church
Musicians include: Aric Phinney, Yancey
Moore,
David
Berry, Emma Brunson, Dianne Glann.
Weekly
Television outreach:
Friday
7: PM
Time
Warner Cable channel 4.
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