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00:00 the Lord is impressing anything upon you from what we have gone
00:05 through in the service so far. Let me just recap. We started off with a sister
00:11 from Africa, Africa and a trumpeter from Africa singing us a beautiful song.
00:19 We move to brother Allan sharing us brothers from prison who minister with
00:26 us. And then we moved through brother Vincent sharing us the boys brigade and
00:32 then the youth came up to share about the church camp. Then brother Israel
00:38 shared about a ministry in China and then we had a sister from India
00:45 coming up to share about her work with the needy. In the midst of all that,
00:52 brother Richard tells us God is growing the church. Do you not see what God is
00:57 saying? If you do not see, ask yourself because I I sense something. And we see this
01:04 morning the diversity of the church from Africans to Indians to the youth to
01:12 military people in boys brigade. You name them. I think God is saying something. And as we go through the
01:17 text, keep that in mind. Yeah. Because we'll return to that diversity in the unity of the church. Okay. Let's start
01:24 off. Where is my quiz? We always start off the year with a quiz. All right, let's see. What was the most boring
01:30 subject you studied in school? What say you? Anybody want to shout out something?
01:37 Maths. No, you did math. So you There you go. Wow, that's really coming. What was
01:42 Ellen? What was it, Ellen? Yes. Moral knowledge. Moral knowledge. No, I think his the
01:48 history guys have got it. History has got it. Okay, you you really hear history is considered probably the most
01:55 boring subject. I mean all due respect Malaysian history, you know, sajara sultan sutan,
02:02 I tell you. Okay, but you see, here's the point. History is not only boring.
02:11 History is dangerous. It's a very dangerous subject. I want to explore a little bit of that this
02:17 morning. Give me a few minute. Any Londoners here? We're going to make some remarks about our British friends. Any
02:24 Londoners here? I'm in safe territory. Okay, great. This is the London Museum of Natural
02:32 History. Beautiful building. Very nice. Extremely elegant. Very good to bring
02:39 your kids to learn about butterflies, minerals, logs,
02:45 stones. I can see the look on the face. boring.
02:52 Now, however, there's one part of the museum where the cherry call pyto, you know, they cue the rest of this. You can
02:59 hear an echo and that's this part. Oh, they have a T-Rex section, you know,
03:06 is packed, you know, and no entrance fees are more. So, everybody queues in to see all of this. After all, why do
03:13 you want to hear about butterflies and stones and look at thousand or 100 year old books when you can look at Uncle
03:20 T-Rex animatronics? Now, what's the point of all of this?
03:26 The point is you can't say you go to the museum and say, "Oh, I've been to the museum, daddy. I went to study." And
03:32 then go and look at T-Rex. That's selective. It's selective history. And why is the
03:41 queue at the at the Jurassic section so long and the queue to the butterfly
03:47 section you can count with one hand? Because everybody wants to see this. This is interesting. This is exciting.
03:56 This is powerful. This is earth shaking. Butterflies. Thank you very much. You
04:02 fall asleep. Now the book of acts is a historical
04:08 book. It is the history of the growth of the
04:14 church. In fact scholars would tell you it is the only book written purely in a
04:20 historical narrative style. So it is a history book and it has suffered a lot
04:26 of abuse and a lot of divisions. People fight over the content of the book of Acts. And this particular event,
04:34 Pentecost, is our T-Rex. Why? Because it's earth shattering. It is fire. It is
04:40 tongues of fire. It is all these kind of miracles blowing over wind. The shaking
04:45 like an earthquake. And everyone says that's Pentecost. But let me ask you a question. Is that only what Pentecost
04:53 is? And I'd like to suggest to you that's only part of Pentecost.
04:60 If you really study Pentecost like what brother Brendan read us through, Pentecost is divided into three
05:06 sections. And this whole miraculous violent wind,
05:11 tongues of fire is only the entree. The main cause is the message and the
05:18 final ending is the community. And this morning we want to pick up on the part
05:24 of Pentecost which everyone forgets. If you go to bookstores out there, you find
05:29 dozens of books written on Pentecost. And when they write, do you know what they write about? They write about tongues of fire.
05:36 Don't believe me? Go out there, go to salvation, go to Canaan land. You pick up a lot of books. When they write on Pentecost is only on a miracle. Most
05:44 people forget about the Pentecost message. So this morning we're going to
05:49 talk about the complete Pentecost message. What happened after the
05:56 outpouring of the Holy Spirit? Let us come before God in prayer.
06:02 Lord we thank you this morning and we thank you for the rainbow
06:07 of community that is in our church and we are blessed by that and uh we thank
06:13 you for the song we sang. Let us be one voice in love and harmony. And we know Lord you are saying something to us.
06:20 Teach us on the sensitivity of the spirit. The spirit led the first
06:26 congregation years ago. May the spirit lead us also today. And we say this in
06:33 Jesus name. Amen. Let me just recap a little bit what Peter spoke last week because we have to
06:39 tie the two together. And Peter told us how in before the spirit was poured on
06:46 Pentecost, the spirit was only available to a few people. You find it in the Old Testament. In Ezekiel, there is a
06:52 prophecy that the spirit will be given to all. And the outpouring of the of the God's spirit is what brother Brandon
06:58 shared with us is the prophecy of Joel written down there from verses 25 to 28.
07:04 I want to pick up a few other things. John the Baptist in the Gospel of Luke proclaims Christ were baptized in the
07:11 Holy Spirit and fire. I throw to you that prophecy was fulfilled when tongues of fire came. And of course, he brought
07:18 us a little bit on the controversy of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Let's quickly recap this a little bit because
07:25 some people out there teach us that this there's a two-tier conversion process.
07:30 Now, I want to cave it a little bit. I don't want to turn this morning into a charismatic bashing session. And I think
07:36 there's a lot of things we can learn from our charismatic brethren. And we're going to do a bit of soulsearching this
07:41 morning. But let's just quickly wrap this up. Uh the book of act tells us about how the church moves from Judea to
07:48 Samaria to the ends of the earth. And these are things which people always use
07:53 to point to a two-tier conversion. You need a secondary baptism. And I put it
07:59 up for you. You will find that actually they are actually milestones. The Samaritans, you must understand the
08:04 gospel moved from Judea to Samaria. The Ephesian disciples weren't really Christians. So, they are marters. Yeah.
08:11 Okay. Let me pick up another thing to add on Peter's me uh uh discussion
08:17 yesterday about last week about speaking in tonesues. You must understand in Pentecost whole groups of people spoke
08:24 in tongues, not individually. And what's happening out there is that you have people grabbing you. So I was grabbed as
08:30 a young man and says, "Can you speak in tongues?" "No, I cannot." "Oh, you're a half half filled Christian." They'll
08:36 drag you into the room and four people lay hands on you and say, "Come on, speak speak." They do all sorts of
08:41 things to you. But you you look at Pentecost, none of that happened. It's spontaneous.
08:47 It's spontaneous. Whole group just burst out. In fact, the the you find the record later on of Samaria and the other
08:54 disciples is the same thing. So we I I have a lot of concern when people drag you to a room, put on music and put your
08:60 hands around you and say, "Oh yeah, speak speak do that to you." Now I I I have grave concerns on that. Okay.
09:07 Right. Now let's go and look at the other side and let's do a bit of soul searching on us reform evangelicals.
09:13 Okay? Those who think we're very right. Now after that miraculous occasion, we
09:19 find this perplexing verse. The skeptics come out and said someh however made fun
09:24 of them and say they have had too much wine. Now if someone comes to you and says I had a great experience of the
09:32 Holy Spirit. I went to this service and someone laid on hands on me and I just
09:38 fell down. I had this warm sensation over me and I felt very close to God.
09:44 What would you be thinking? or or someone comes to you and says he had a vision or the Lord spoke to him in
09:51 a very private manner. He he saw a vision of Jesus and said something to
09:56 him. What would be your first impression? Now I suspect in this church a fair few
10:03 of us will be like this group. We will be thinking placebo effect. This fellow very emotional and don't know what he
10:10 saw. Yeah, this fellow every time like to go for all these things. We can be generally cynical in an evangelical
10:18 church. And in churches where the supernatural does not occur very often,
10:24 we can have the habit of throwing out the baby with the bath water. That's a
10:29 term they go. Let me just give you a few quotes from some conservative evangelicals. David Cook, an Australian
10:36 uh evangelical says this. We must beware of throwing out the baby with the bath
10:41 water. In our reformed circles, we need more awareness of the indwelling spirit
10:47 and more confidence in him to do his work. And the late John Sto, the great British scholar said this, "If we have
10:54 hesitations about some claims to signs and wonders today, we must make sure we
10:60 have not confined both God and ourselves to the prison of western rationalistic
11:06 unbelief." You see, intelligent people like you and I are cynical. We believe in signs.
11:12 So God rests up here. God doesn't rest here. But keep that in mind because we're going to explore a little bit of
11:19 that theme. Okay? And I I think a lot of this goes about because there's a lot of people out there trying to hoodwing us.
11:25 You know, they tell us all these big miracles and you find a lot of it is quite phony and because of that we get
11:31 extremely suspicious. Now let's go back to the message here. We have thousands of people coming down
11:38 at Pentecost. this fantastic miracle happens. Then a fisherman called Peter
11:44 stands up with the 11 and what does he do? He raises his voice and address the
11:50 crowd and we have the first preacher in the New Testament. The first preacher
11:55 and the conversion rate is fantastic. You know, at the end of it, 3,000 people come to know the Lord. So, here is the
12:02 first New Testament preacher. Let look at some other people who really preach very well. But let me just put you a
12:08 little bit in context about the work of the Holy Spirit. Yeah, this is what Jesus says about the Holy Spirit. The
12:16 wind blows wherever it pleases. It hears his sound, but you cannot tell where it
12:21 comes from or where it's going. So it is with everyone born of the spirit. Now on that day, people were cynical. Now, I
12:29 want to I want us to keep this in mind. We want us to have an open mind. I'll put it this way. The Bible neither
12:36 teaches that signs and wonders should be normal. That's what some churches out there teach. Nor does it say it should
12:43 be exceedingly rare, which is what a lot of evangelicals like to teach. God's
12:48 will is sovereign because his spirit blows as it pleases. Now, back to Peter.
12:54 Peter addressing the crowd, the first mega preacher in a huge crowd. Today, we
13:01 have the same thing. We can have people taking thousands. He has a huge bigger
13:07 crowd than Peter probably because he has speakers and he had technology. And look at the crowd there. This preacher. Now,
13:15 now let's take this in perspective. Normally when you have such a huge crowd
13:20 and an outpouring, a so-called outpouring of miracles because at the end of this you find a lot of people
13:25 being slayed in the spirit, a lot of so-called people being healed, etc., etc. Let me ask you a question. What do
13:33 you think is the content of the message? We're going to compare that with what
13:38 Peter spoke. I give you an example. The same preacher went to Singapore. Look at the poster. I think there's easily
13:45 80,000 or 60,000 people. What do you think is the content of his sermon?
13:51 Healing or miracles or the work of the Holy Spirit? I've been to quite a few of
13:58 this. And whenever you have a huge crowd and you have a so-called preacher who
14:03 can show the anointing of the Holy Spirit can do a lot of miracles. Guess
14:08 what the content of the message is? The Holy Spirit or powers, miracles,
14:15 wonders. Now, why am I being so chong here on that? Look at Peter's sermon. What is
14:21 the content of Peter's sermon? Let's take a few minutes. Did Peter talk about
14:28 the Holy Spirit? You'll find the Holy Spirit is not even
14:33 mentioned besides the prophecy on Joel. Did Peter spend a lot of time talking about healing? Healing is hardly
14:40 mentioned. Did Peter talk about signs and wonders and all these great powerful
14:45 thing? What is the central theme of Peter's message
14:51 is Jesus. Now that is a revelation.
14:57 Let me wrap this up very simply for you. A lot of people out there teach us that
15:04 the center focus of Pentecost is the Holy Spirit. I'd like to propose to you that's an
15:11 error. The center focus of Pentecost is Jesus
15:17 Christ. very important to pick up because it will show you the role of the Holy
15:24 Spirit. Let's break this up a little bit. Now, Peter's sermon basically gives
15:30 you a narrative of the entire life, death, and exaltation of Christ. And
15:37 I've listed it out down for you to have a look. I'm going to break it down a little bit. He talks about how Jesus was
15:44 accred by God with signs, wonders, and miracles. He talks about God's will. He
15:50 says how you notice he used the word you crucified him. He doesn't say Judas, you know, he says you. He picks it up and
15:56 shows you the nature of sin. With the help of the Pharisees and Romans, you crucified him. Verse 24, he said death
16:04 cannot hold him. And then he says something really amazing. Remember these
16:10 are Jews is the entire Jewish crowd at the temple coming for the Passover. And
16:15 he says something very groundbreaking. He picks up two psalms, Psalm 16 and Psalm 101, and he does something really
16:22 amazing. He says, "David spoke about Jesus." Now, that's groundbreaking.
16:28 David, their own patriarch, spoke about Jesus. And then he adds something on their
16:34 authority. They as apostles, they are witnesses to this. That's mentioned again and again in a few chapters. And
16:41 then he uses the word that Jesus is Lord and Christ. is he uses the word Yahweh
16:46 meaning he is the same as God and he uses another Jewish term to say Christ he is the Messiah
16:54 now why all of this can't a person who is preaching on
16:59 healing say I'm also preaching about Jesus I'm preaching about the healing power of Jesus didn't Jesus heal so I'm
17:07 also preaching Jesus let me give you example now unless you've been living in a cave
17:15 or you have you are totally avoiding kids, you will know what this annoying
17:20 little thing is. If you don't know, find somebody next to you with an iPhone or an iPad. You'll probably be downloaded
17:26 in there. I had an argument with my wife with my daughter or this my 11-year-old
17:31 intelligent daughter. I said, "This is not a bird." She got very upset with me. She said, "It's a bird." I said, "It's not a bird. It's a ball." Now, you see
17:39 my house has got angry. It's called angry bird. For those of you who live in cavesh,
17:45 I got angry bird stickers, toys, I got even a bathing cap. It's all over my
17:51 place. So I I I can't, you know, I I I get very annoyed. Okay. So we had a very intellectual discussion. I say it's not
17:57 a bird. I said, look, and and for those of you who are not aware of this, the game is a game where you catapult the
18:03 bird to hit green pigs. I don't know why the pigs are green. It's developed by a Finnish company and he made him millions
18:09 of dollars. Now, here's my point. I I told my intelligent daughter, I said, "Look, it
18:16 could be I said the bird is just a marketing gimme. It could be bats. It could be pigs. It could be cows. It
18:21 could angry cows. It's just they happened to use a bird because it's cuddly." So, she got very annoyed with
18:27 me. She said, "Okay, it's not a full bird. It's half a bird." I said, "Okay, you're right." And then replies, "You
18:35 know why? It's because they've taken away what is the most important thing of the bird? The wings.
18:42 They clip the wings so they go catapoot the bird. You see? Now there's a lesson
18:47 here. It looks like a bird, sounds like a bird, but the most important thing of
18:53 the bird is missing. You can go to hear a sermon and they
18:59 tell you about healing or tell you about prosperity or tell you about the goodness of God, but they can clip the
19:06 most important thing of the message of Jesus. Let us explore that a bit and
19:11 think Angry Bird into a much more spiritual realm. Is this Christ?
19:17 It is in a sense. It looks like Christ. I don't think Christ carries a rifle. But it takes a part of Isaiah that says
19:24 Christ will liberate the poor. Christ will come to bring justice. This is they
19:30 call it a Jesus liberation squad. In Memphis, they have a church where
19:35 they've taken the Statue of Liberty and put a cross on it. And you look at the fine print down there. It says to
19:40 reclaim America for Jesus. Is this the gospel? It's not the gospel.
19:47 He's taken part of the gospel and has pushed it to the front and the rest of
19:52 it has discipled. They have clipped the wings of the gospel. Now, similarly,
19:58 people who preach this all the time in every message. Every time they open
20:04 their mouth, they only talk about healing, supernatural powers. Have you been baptized the spirit? Have you got
20:10 signs and wonders? Are doing an angry burn on you. They have clipped the wings
20:17 of the message. What is the central core of the message here? And we look at it
20:24 carefully. Peter picks up one verse about the ministry of Jesus. We find it in verse
20:31 22. from verses 23 running all the way to the end. What is he talking about?
20:37 He's talking about the gospel. For a bird, the wings is the key element
20:45 that makes the bird fly. For a message on Christ, the gospel is
20:50 the wing. Either that is not the gospel. You're not speaking Jesus. You're speaking something else.
20:57 The real Jesus encompasses his entire life, death, resurrection, ministries,
21:04 and teaching. The real Jesus centers around the gospel message.
21:11 And Paul put it very nicely in first Corinthians. He say, I resolve to know nothing while I was with you except
21:17 what? Jesus Christ and him crucified. He doesn't say Jesus Christ and his miracles. He doesn't say Jesus Christ
21:23 and the signs and wonders. He doesn't say Jesus Christ and and helping the poor. He says Jesus Christ and him
21:30 crucified. Why? Because the cross is
21:35 power. We're going to take a short while to explain that. The next verse shows you in 1 Corinthians 1:18.
21:42 To Paul the cross brings the real power of God. and putting it in much more
21:49 contextual language the power of the Holy Spirit is the power of the cross.
21:56 Now what happens when people come and tell you but I went to this rally and I felt this
22:02 thing over me. I felt very good. I felt very alive. I felt zap like Peter say
22:08 this highlander and they are genuinely believing it. And I have lot of very
22:13 dear friends who look me in the eye and tell me with tears that Anna, you need to feel the anointing fire. Anna, you
22:19 need to receive and be refreshed. Let me give you example,
22:24 not a very good example. This was so-called a wedding of the
22:29 century, wedding of the year last year next to a certain royal wedding. Okay,
22:35 beautiful couple. Don't they look nice together? Kim's dream wedding. Again, for those of you who don't follow
22:41 Hollywood news, this is a very expensive wedding which lasted 52 days. Okay, look
22:47 at how people spend money on the wedding. Ronald, you're getting married. Don't spend money on this. Okay, but the
22:54 point is the focus is it on the wedding or the marriage? Obviously, the focus is on the wedding.
23:01 And sometimes we can do the same thing. We focus on the blessings. We focus on certain things like that we like to pick
23:08 up from the Bible but other things we cut off. Now why I think this is quite
23:13 tragic because if you look at her eyes she genuinely believes she's in love. I
23:20 I went back that day and that day they showed it on ETV you know and I I actually watched the program and when
23:26 you watch it you can tell she's genuinely happy. The mother genuinely
23:31 believes in the marriage but it lasted 52 days. What's the point? The point is
23:38 just because you had an experience doesn't validate it. Just because you go
23:43 to a rally and someone touches you and you had this fire and you go on your tears, if we do an out call afterwards
23:49 and you go on your tears, it means nothing. That in itself means nothing.
23:56 You can be genuinely happy and be genuinely mistaken. And this marriage
24:03 lasted 52 days. What we make of Christ will determine what God makes of us. And
24:10 this morning we challenge ourselves to ask is our relationship with Christ centered on the cross or on other
24:17 things. Let me wrap up this session. The Holy Spirit proclaims Jesus. The next
24:26 astounding fact because Peter picks up two Old Testament psalms. We learn
24:33 something that day. All scripture, Old Testament, New Testament, is read in
24:39 light of Jesus. Jesus is the key, the interpretative key to the entire Bible.
24:44 And the cross anchors us to Jesus. Now you can sit there and says I don't feel
24:50 it. I don't feel it. Now how I mean when when when when you look at that what do you see when when you look at that cross
24:58 you don't feel the power I don't I I go to a rally someone zap me I feel power.
25:03 You ask me look at the cross I don't feel power. So how so so let me give a few minutes to show you how you find in
25:10 all the epistles from all the apostles how they pick it up. Let's talk about grace.
25:16 If you think you're doing very well in life and God is blessing you, remember the cross points to grace. Why? Because
25:24 Ephesians 2 says this. It is by grace you have been saved through faith, not from yourselves. It is a gift of God,
25:31 not by works so that no one can boast. And there are times in my life where God
25:36 blesses me in my business. I get paid enough to pay bonus for my staff and we can go for holidays and I feel afterward
25:43 a bit cocky of myself. I actually not so bad in Cantonese meaning I'm very good. And
25:50 God reminds me you I caught you by grace. The cross doesn't separate me and
25:57 you our brothers from Africa, our brothers in drug rehab is by grace and
26:02 I'm humble. What happens when you're suffering? I went through with some friends who told me yesterday, God is
26:08 very unfair because they just lost their daughter, seven year old daughter and struggle very heavily with tears in
26:15 their eyes. You say, "How can God do this to me?" And you cannot explain it.
26:21 But sometimes when bad things happen to you, remember this. The cross reminds you your God suffered.
26:27 And this is what Paul says in Philippians in another book. I want to know Christ and the power of his
26:34 resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings and becoming
26:39 like him in his death. So somehow to attain the resurrection from the dead. So if you're suffering remember this in
26:45 life we all carry our cross. For some here it is a disease some is a family
26:51 problem some is a death. We all have our sorrows. Always remember this. The power
26:57 of the cross reminds you Christ suffered. But that is not all. A lot of
27:02 Peter's message talks about the glory of God. So we give hope. And yesterday we
27:08 was speaking to this couple friend of mine very sad. He the seven year there
27:13 was an if you read the spa on Wednesday there was there was an abituary dear friend of mine seven year old daughter
27:19 had a brain aneurysm one in a thousand chance and she just passed on. You know what was worse? This is the second child
27:25 they lost. the first child they lost in nine months and the grief was just all over and I spoke to the wife May you
27:32 know and the only thing that kept her going was one day she will see her children in heaven
27:40 and it was so bad that we were talking she said I know I'm clinging on like this to my faith no I can wake up every
27:46 morning and I cannot breathe I don't want to get up but she says it is heaven
27:52 that keeps me going and this is what Peter another apostle says the God of all grace who caught you to his eternal
27:59 glory. And that is what Peter is saying here. Jesus seated at the right hand side of God. After you suffered for a
28:06 little while, he will restore you and make you strong. And my good friends
28:11 tell me, honor, we will move on and we will be restored. Suffering is not enough. The cross reminds us of the
28:18 eternal hope. How about attitude in a church like this? We all fight. And Paul
28:23 in the Philippians tells us after talking about the cross and the attitude of Christ tells us you must be united
28:29 with Christ. Same attitude as Christ same love one is spirit do nothing of
28:34 selfish ambition. So the cross is power in transforming us. That's the most
28:40 important thing in our behavior our attitude to be more Christlike in a diverse church like us. We could go on
28:48 church leadership, church leaders take on the cross that he the our king would
28:57 gladly humble himself to the cross that our king would wash the feet of the
29:02 disciples. So all church leaders learn the first prerequisite is to put aside
29:08 your ego and we could go on and the most important it tells her what love is. I
29:14 want to go back again to what is God leading us this morning. We are a diverse church. Sometimes it's hard to
29:20 be united. Sometimes we fight. We'll get on each other's nerves and we remember what is the cross. The cross is love.
29:28 And this is how we know what love is. Another apostle, John. Jesus Christ laid
29:34 down his love for us. I just showed you a sprinkling of verses from three apostles from five books. I could spend
29:42 two hours. Every epistle talks about the cross. This is what John says. We ought
29:48 to lay down lives or brothers. If anyone has material possessions and see his brother in need has no pity on him, how
29:55 can the love of God be in him? And our dear sister who was helping out just the way brother Rama prayed over is
30:02 portraying the cross. That is what we just saw. Brother Ellen shared us with
30:08 morning glory. This is what the cross does. that bricks brother Ellen from a
30:13 bondage of the past where he had a relative who was in prison cost him his
30:18 education fund cost him his studies but the cross is power
30:25 is power Christ laid down his life for us and dear children let us not love with words or tongue but with actions
30:33 and in truth what my brother KJ John always tells me integrated with integrity in truth and here we have it a
30:40 picture of how you love your brother. You come all the way down from the roof to bring him to Jesus. You know that is
30:47 in the gospels. And what does Jesus says? He doesn't talk about healing. He says what? Your sins are forgiven.
30:53 Again, a reflection on the cross. And we end with this for me to life live
31:00 is Christ to die is gain. This is fighting words. Very difficult. I end
31:07 with this section with this because yesterday when I spent time with my friend we shared this you know we say
31:13 look is is only thing that keeps you going if every day you have a bit more
31:18 of Jesus. Every day you have a bit more of the cross. Last few weeks I spent time with brother Richard Yo. Uh you may
31:25 not know he was some pankai. I I had dinner with him. One day he's on
31:30 Facebook with his wife and the wife tells him you know I'm going out for noodles in Makati. The wife steps across
31:36 the road, a taxi brings her down. This is what life does to you. You know,
31:42 you see, if you're not prepared, the world will mow you down. For us to
31:47 survive and thrive, you need a bit more of the cross in your life every day. The
31:53 cross is power. The cross is grace. The cross teaches us about suffering. The
31:60 cross teaches us about love. The talk cross teaches us about glory. And when
32:06 we do that day by day by carrying our cross, we can say dearly every day for
32:11 me to live is Christ to die is gain.
32:17 Let us end this session with this section of the church. After we talk about the message of the cross, he talks
32:25 about the Christian community. The first Christian church and we just quickly wrap up. The first Christian church were
32:31 devoted to biblical teaching, generally caring for each other, lively in their
32:36 worship and growing the church by word and lifestyle evangelism because we say he says this here that in verse 47 they
32:44 enjoyed the favor of all the people and the Lord added to the number daily. We thank God FBC is growing. We hope we're
32:52 not growing because you find the church has a need for you because you like the food at Globe Cafe
32:59 because you can put your kid in Sunday school. We hope we are not growing because you like to hear speakers who
33:04 can tell you jokes or can move you emotionally. We hope we are growing because of the cross. And the cross
33:11 transforms us into such a community people are drawn. I want to come back to
33:17 what I said this morning. To move a church with such diverse backgrounds is
33:22 difficult. It's difficult. And this is what the cross does. In Galatians, Paul
33:29 says this, "You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ
33:35 have cloth yourselves with Christ." And in Galatians issue of Judaizers coming in to break the church. And he say that
33:41 neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in
33:47 Christ Jesus. And this morning, friends, there's no African or Indian or Chinese
33:52 or drug re reform people. We are all one church, one voice. We sang a song this
33:59 morning. I want to pick up the words for you. And if God leads us, we'll sing it again. We sang one song that said one
34:05 voice. Let me recap the words. Father, we ask of you this day. come and heal our land. The next line, knead our
34:13 hearts together that your glory may be seen in us. Then the will know what?
34:19 That Jesus Christ is Lord. Then the world will know that Jesus Christ is Lord.
34:27 Why? Because the glory is seen in the church. And the chorus, let us be one
34:34 voice in what? In love and harmony. And we pray, oh God, grant us what? Grant us
34:42 unity. I'm going to close in a short while, but may that be our prayer. Now, I want to
34:48 pick up one other verse that we often uh
34:54 Oops. Am I No more battery?
34:59 Yes. Sorry. Now, this is one verse I'm going to now take a little bit five minutes to talk
35:04 about us evangelicals. Now I've been reading a lot of books on the conservative evangelical side and every
35:10 time they come to verse 43 which says everyone was filled with alls and many wonders and miraculous signs were done
35:17 by the apostles they bypass it. They bypass it. So we ask ourselves a
35:23 question this morning as we wrap up. What is the place of miracles in our church?
35:29 Now I'm going to break you down to what the Greek says. There are three in essence this is what the miracle is. A
35:34 miracle is a demonstration of the power of God. What is a wonder? The Greek word tarata it means you're astonished.
35:42 And the word signa means it it actually functions to embody a spiritual truth.
35:49 For example, Jesus when he heals the blind is actually a parable to talk
35:54 about spiritual blindness and this tree is are picked up. Now a lot of conservative churches say this only
36:01 happened then doesn't happen today. We now got the Bible. No need all these miracles already only happened in the
36:08 book of Acts. Now this is doing a T-Rex again. The evangelicals are also
36:13 truncating history. Now I did a very I struggled with this. Let me pick up what
36:19 other texts in the Bible say in Hebrews. This is what Paul says. We must pay more
36:24 attention to what we have heard so that we do not drift away. This salvation
36:31 which was first announced by the Lord was confirmed to us by those who heard him. He's talking about the gospel. And
36:37 he says this, God also testified to it by signs, wonders, and various miracles.
36:43 The same Greek words used here by Luke in the book of Acts and gifts of the
36:48 Holy Spirit distributed and according to his will. Is that the only book saying
36:53 it? Let's look at Romans the which is about justification by faith. He said, "I glory in Christ Jesus in my service
37:00 to God. I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the
37:06 Gentiles to obey God by what I've seen and done by what? By the power of signs
37:11 and miracles through the power of the spirit." Is that the only text? Again, Galatians which is about legalism. He
37:19 says this, "Does God give you his spirit and work what? miracles among you
37:24 because you observe the law and because you believe what you have heard. And again in 1 Corinthians 14 in this
37:31 chapter which people talk about the priority of prophecy over tongues. This
37:36 is what Paul says if an unbeliever or someone who does not understand meaning
37:43 a young Christian comes in where everyone is prophesizing he will be convinced by all. He is a sinner and
37:50 will be judged by all. and the secrets of his heart will lay bare. So you'll fall down and worship God exclaiming,
37:57 "God is really among you." Now let's pause. I just showed you five texts.
38:02 What does the New Testament teach us? The New Testament teaches us miracles
38:08 were normative at that time. Now am I asking that every service I'm going to
38:13 ask you to break in tongues, prophesy, see dreams. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying miracles have a role to lead
38:20 people to the cross. Let me go back to this image. Peter used this image last
38:26 week. I used the same image some time ago. I I feel quite sorry for this guy. You know, if you go on internet and you
38:32 Google counterfeit miracles, his face comes up. I'm afraid one day I'll greet him and I
38:38 say you look very familiar. And I go, "Ah, you're a Google."
38:43 Now the point is this. We look at this. Why? Why is he a poster boy? Because he looks silly.
38:50 So ask conservative evangelicals say that this what they teach you all the churches out there. They roll on the floor. They fro like animals. Must be a
38:58 bit crazy. But here the sword cuts both ways. Remember the essence of Pentecost is the
39:05 cross. Now what if he who you think looks very silly went home read his
39:12 Bible transformed his life and became closer to Jesus.
39:18 What's wrong with him rolling on the floor then? So long the service is done in an orderly manner. Let me illustrate
39:25 it to you another way. They say Christian life is a race. So we expect everyone to run this way you know
39:31 smiling hallelujah run like that. But the thing is not everybody runs that way. People like me probably run like
39:37 that. The point doesn't matter how you run. Does it matter if you sit at the back
39:44 there very quietly or you want to jump on the floor here and roll? Does it matter if you worship very quietly or
39:49 you raise your hands? What matters is your heart is worshiping the Lord? Does it matter if a church preaches miracles
39:56 another church doesn't? What matter is your life is transformed? In the end,
40:01 people all run differently. I'm probably the middle guy. The one on the left is probably my wife. Very slow and steady.
40:08 The point is God can use anything. We started out by looking at what the Holy
40:14 Spirit blows anywhere and you cannot predict. You cannot put God in a box.
40:20 The charismatics are wrong because they put God up like what Peter called a performing monkey. They want God to
40:26 perform miracles. You know what is the evangelical heresy?
40:32 We gag God. We put God in a box and say, "No, no, no. You cannot do that. No, no, no, no place for this."
40:39 If afterwards I do an alter call and people fall down, are you going to say, "Oh, honor leading us charismatic."
40:45 That's not the point, isn't it? The point is God can do anything to bring us
40:50 to the cross. So, we want to end with this. I want to ask you this. Do you believe in a God of
40:58 miracles? It's an important question. Let me tell you why. I'm going to wrap up now. This
41:05 is a reverend in in uh Finland. You know, I can't read the language. Claus
41:11 Henrik. Do you know what? I saw him on BBC. If you look carefully at his book, you find the word down there, the word
41:17 atheist there. He's an atheist, but he's a pastor.
41:23 And to him, there's no contradiction. I I heard this interview on BBC, a program called the Exodus of Christians from
41:28 Europe. Europe is spiritually dead. He's not the only one. Another man, Til Sean
41:35 from Amsterdam is also a pastor. He's openly an atheist.
41:42 Now, here's the point. Here's the point. Europe is spiritually dead.
41:49 The Europe that produced all our Christian saints, our giants, Martin Luther, Calvin, we William Wilberforce,
41:58 centuries later, Europe is dead. Why? Because people wake up one day,
42:05 they don't need God. I'm going to tell you a bit about myself. I ask you the same thing. Don't
42:11 you think sometimes you need to just feel God? That's a miracle, isn't it? I spoke to
42:18 brother David and how he went through a dry period and God just spoke to him.
42:25 Now if you're not going to pray for it, you're going to sit in church. You're going to enjoy all of this and after a
42:30 while, God is going to be irrelevant. You're going to be an atheist or an agnostic. I ask you another question in
42:38 this midst. Are there not people who doubt? I bet you that people here who say, you know what, deep down I'm not so
42:44 sure this is right. You can read all the Bible you want, but you need God to just
42:49 touch you with a sign, with a wonder and says, "I'm real." There could be some of
42:55 you sitting here who struggle because you're bitter. God has let you down.
42:60 It's not intellectual. It's like I know like sister Nelly in Panta, you know, Allison, the daughter is going blind.
43:06 She's legs are broken. The husband has got cancer. What more can go wrong? As sister Olivia shared to me by just the
43:14 touch of God or maybe you're struggling with a bondage,
43:20 some struggle and you feel guilty. You need that touch. Either that will analy
43:27 Europe. There are more Christians in Nigeria where Booh Haram is slaughtering Christians there than they are in
43:34 Amsterdam where they are free. Why? Because people are touched by God. There
43:39 are more Christians in Malaysia where they're telling us we can't use our Bible. Where the papers are saying things against us despite persecution,
43:46 our faith is more on fire. Why? Because more people get on their knees to say, "God, be real to me." I want to end with
43:54 this. I'm going to ask the the worship team to come in a while.
43:60 Luke says this, "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? You ask for an egg
44:06 will give him a scorpion. If you then you're evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will
44:14 your father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to ask of him?
44:19 What is the point? I think we all need to be filled a bit more to sense God.
44:25 At the end of the message, what happened with Peter? The crowd was so moved. They they said
44:32 this in verse 27, they were cut to the heart. You know what that means? It doesn't mean you get emotional. It means
44:38 you're convicted by the Holy Spirit. Now, we're going to ask this. What is a
44:45 response? Brothers, what shall we do? I'm going to lead us in prayer on three
44:50 things. As with the music comes up, I'm going to invite the musicians to come up now.
44:56 First, to repent of your sins as Paul said. The Old Testament says, "Restore
45:01 to me the joy of my salvation." And some of us have been Christians for
45:07 so long, we have forgotten the joy of our salvation. And it we start with our
45:13 knees to repent. The second thing we're going to ask
45:18 about is to have a feeling of the Holy Spirit.
45:24 That the Holy Spirit will move you closer. That you really sense as you sit there,
45:31 God is real. We're going to sing this song. Please remain seated. First, I
45:36 want to bring up the words. Worthy is the lamb. Written by Charismatic Hill Songs.
45:44 Extremely biblical the words. Thank you for the cross, Lord.
45:49 You see, a miracle can be very quiet. You don't have to roll on the floor. It can be very quiet. The aim is to
45:55 transform us in our faith that the cross is real for us. Thank you for the cross.
46:02 Thank you for the price you paid. Bearing all my sin and shame, in love,
46:08 you came and gave amazing love. Brothers, sisters, we are now going to move in the spirit. I'm going to ask you
46:14 to stand up. We're going to sing. We're going to ask God to minister to you. And
46:19 I'm going to ask that you pray for a small sign, a wonder, a miracle in your
46:24 life. Pray for a feeling of that that will transform you and to pray to repent
46:31 of your sins. Let us minister to God in song now.
46:39 Hallelujah. Thank you for the crossbow.
46:49 Thank you for the price you
46:56 bearing all my sin and shame. In love you came
47:03 and gave away.
47:09 Thank you for the Lord.
47:15 Thank you for the pierces.
47:21 Wash me in your cleansing flow. Now all I know your forgiveness
47:31 and your
47:36 worth
47:41 seated on this throne.
47:47 We crown you now with great crown. You reign
47:54 victorious. I am lifted up. I am lifted up.
48:04 Jesus, son of God.
48:13 Worthy is thallelujah.
48:25 We praise you Lord. Hallelujah. Worthy is the come to you now Lord.
48:33 Hallelujah. Worthy is the
48:40 Thank you, oh Lord. Thank you for the cross.
48:48 Thank you for the price you paid.
48:55 Bearing for my sin and shame in love you gave
49:02 and gave amazing grace. Thank you Lord. Thank you for your son.
49:12 Thank you for the helpless hand.
49:18 Watch me in your presenting clothes. Now all I know your forgiveness and your
49:28 things. Worthy the lamb rose. Worth He is the lamb
49:37 seated on the throne.
49:42 Crown you now with many crowns. You reign you victori.
49:54 I am lifted up. Jesus Jesus son of God
50:06 I'll never fight.
50:12 Worthy is the lamb.
50:18 Worthy is the lamb. Lord we come before you now in prayer.
50:24 Lord eyes closed as the music plays. We asked for the spirit to move before us.
50:31 Now the congregation for the first sermon said, "What shall
50:37 we do?" And Peter replied, "Repent." Right now, eyes closed, we ask if
50:44 anybody here wants to repent. Raise your hands. Any sins. Thank you.
50:50 We see you at the back. Thank you, brother. If you put your hand down, thank you, sister. Put your Thank you at
50:56 the back, brother. Thank you. We see your hand brother in front. Thank you. We see your hand sister. We see your
51:01 hand. Thank you at the back. We see your hand at the here right hand side. We see your hand. Put it down. One more round.
51:07 Do not harden your hearts today when you hear the Lord. Any sin we ask you now
51:12 just to raise your hands and then put it down slowly. Any sins to repent. Put up your hands. Anybody else? Thank you
51:18 sister. Thank you the back. We thank you. We say thank you. I see your hand. Thank you. We see your hand. Thank you.
51:24 We see your hand. Lord, we ask for all those who raise their hands. Restore to
51:29 us, oh Lord, the joy of our salvation. Sometimes we've been Christians for so
51:34 long, we forget you are real. And if there can be atheist pastors out
51:39 there, oh Lord, you know the depths of our heart, the doubts in there. Rekindle to us that fire, oh Lord.
51:47 Rekindle to us the joy of your salvation. Rekindle to us the power of
51:54 the cross, oh Lord. And to all those who put up their hands, we ask, oh Lord, for
51:59 that declaration. You fill them now with the presence of the Holy Spirit, oh Lord.
52:05 And we say this in Jesus' name. Amen. I still one other prayer. Some of you may
52:11 be struggling and you need to sense a bit more of God in your life.
52:16 We ask you now to just say, Lord, I am struggling. You're not real. Put up your hand. We want to pray for you right now.
52:23 Thank you, brother. I see your hand. Thank you at the back. We see your hand. Anyone? Thank you. We see your hand.
52:29 Thank you. We see your hand. Thank you. Thank you. Quite a fair few. Let's go
52:35 before the Lord in prayer. Lord, we struggle daily with our faith. For some
52:40 of us, oh Lord, is bitterness. We say life is unfair. God, restore to us a miracle. Give us a
52:49 sign, a wonder as the spirit blows and let us realize you are real in our
52:55 lives. For some of us, we are struggling with bondages. Lord, as you use signs and wonders and
53:02 miracles with the first church, we ask now if it is your will, pour that upon
53:08 this church so that we grow closer to you and to the
53:14 cross and we can truly sing worthy is the lamb. We say all this in the name of
53:20 our Lord and our savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Let's take this one last
53:25 time as we bring up the words and then we can depart slowly. Can we bring this
53:31 up again? We're going back to the Let's go. Let's
53:36 just go to the chorus. Yeah. Worthy is the lamb.
53:44 Worthy is the lamb. Sing with us right now. Worthy is the lamb.
53:50 Worthy is the lamb. The whole sing worthy is the lamb.
53:55 Worthy is the lamb. The whole saint. Worthy is the lamb.
53:60 Worthy is the lamb. Worthy the lamb.
54:06 Worthy is the lamb seated on the throne.
54:20 For you reign victorious
54:27 high and lifted up
54:32 Jesus son of God. The blood of heaven to sanctify.
54:44 Worthy is the lamb.
54:50 Worthy is the lamb. Hallelujah. Lord spirit fall on us now.
54:56 Worthy is the lamb. Lord come and anoint us right now. Your spirit.
55:02 Worthy is the lamb. Hallelujah. Lord, as we depart right
55:09 now, we ask your spirit be with us. Fill us with the presence of the Holy Spirit
55:15 that leads us to the cross. Anoint us right now with your fire. We say this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you. I'm going
55:22 to ask brother Moy to lead us in a ventilation. Thank you.
