Empowered by the Spirit: The Birth of the Church
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Bible Study Guide
Sermon Clips
### Quotes for Outreach
1. "My message for you today is about sort of carrying the torch forward and learning to speak all over again just as the apostles did when they were given the gift of the Holy Spirit. Communicating in a way that people understood. When I was in health care, one of the assignments I had in my last consulting stint was to work with physicians. And oddly enough, guess what the number one problem they had was on surveys? Communicating in a way people understood. It's like, oh! And their scores were reflected actually in health care reimbursement, both for them in their offices and in the hospital. So it's interesting how tough it can be sometimes for us to communicate in a way that people understood." [00:55]
2. "Faith is what centers us, but then the life in the Spirit, walking by the fruit of the Spirit, is what Christ actually engages us to do. So we are to speak in a way that others understand, and we are to act, we are to form relationships, we are to seek out others to grow that church. And we say collectively, come Holy Spirit, come Holy Spirit, be with us today. In the name of Christ, Amen." [13:51]
3. "And Peter was among them leading the troops. And the Holy Spirit came in the sound as of the wind. So it was a sound. It wasn't necessarily a blowing force that they felt. It was a sound as of the wind. And that sound was so dominant that people thronged to what they thought was the source of the sound." [04:16]
4. "And for us, it's a remembrance of our baptism, where we know that our sins have been erased. And on that day, three thousand came to join. But before he even gave this long sermon, he quoted the prophet Joel. And he looked into the Scriptures to say, this was foretold that this day would come. In the last days, it shall be, on the prophet Joel, that I will, God declares, I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions. And your old men shall dream dreams." [08:31]
5. "So we are to speak in a way that others understand, and we are to act, we are to form relationships, we are to seek out others to grow that church. And we say collectively, come Holy Spirit, come Holy Spirit, be with us today. In the name of Christ. Grace and peace to you today from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen." [00:55]
### Quotes for Members
1. "During my ministry on earth, that proceeded from the Father, and now proceeds from the Son, and is now with you and with the church forever. And with that, you will be given, in the very center of your lives, faith. Faith given to you not by your own reason or strength, as Luther would say in the small catechism, but by the work of the Holy Spirit. And then there is life, and that life has requirements with it. At the very top is a remembrance daily, as I mentioned, of your baptism. That we daily go to God confessing our sins, reminding ourselves also that our sins are wiped out, our slate is clean. No matter what we do with repetitive sins, God has given you forgiveness." [11:54]
2. "But then next comes a core requirement, which started with the Apostles, and that we are to go out and witness. We are to proclaim. Proclaim means we are to share verbally the Gospel. Proclaim the great gifts that you have been given. Then second, pray for yourself, your family, and for others. I think we all do that, but it's a requirement that we should be vested in. And next, wear the armor of God. And for that I want to go to Ephesians, because Satan is here to break up the church." [12:32]
3. "And Peter, of course, pipes up and says, you know what? It's nine in the morning. Thank you very much. We're not drinking. That hasn't happened. And for Jews, actually, should they take wine during the day? They really had it in their evening meal. So it would have been a bit absurd. But this was a real reversal. Of what God had instituted in the Tower of Babel. When everybody was speaking in one language, he said, you guys are too unified. And you're self-focused on yourself, not on God, trying to build a tower up into the heavens. And so after the flood, as you may recall, when everybody got together and says, let's build a tower all the way to the heavens. God gave us languages and all the people dispersed across the various parts of the world. Here, God does the opposite. He allows the disciples to speak. He allows the people to speak in languages to bring everybody back together in unity for the church." [06:25]
4. "And Peter continued, recounting the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He emphasized that Jesus was handed over to be crucified according to God's plan, but God raised Him from the dead, freeing Him from the agony of death. Peter called the crowd to repentance and baptism, leading to the conversion of about 3,000 people that day, marking the formation of the first mega-church." [07:26]
5. "And it's why we always want all of us to be invested in reading the Word of God, not just listening to it, which is key, but being invested in Bible study. I'm sorry, the next one is that we serve, and that we serve others in love just as Christ served us. And that's the focus. Faith is what centers us, but then the life in the Spirit, walking by the fruit of the Spirit, is what Christ actually engages us to do." [13:13]
6. "So as the Spirit comes into our lives today, I wanted to reference a little bit from what has happened on this great day. That if you look at the known world, all the way from Spain on the left, all the way to Italy, to Greece, to Rome, the center of the kingdom of the empire there, and all the way over into Egypt, everyone from that area, again, had converged upon Jerusalem. Everyone was required to. And as Christ received the Holy Spirit when He actually was baptized in the Jordan River, so we too, on this day, remember our baptism, and the Spirit-filled life that God now requires of us. He wants us to move forward, and now speak in a way that others will understand when you share your Christian faith." [10:40]
Ask a question about this sermon
1. "My message for you today is about sort of carrying the torch forward and learning to speak all over again just as the apostles did when they were given the gift of the Holy Spirit. Communicating in a way that people understood. When I was in health care, one of the assignments I had in my last consulting stint was to work with physicians. And oddly enough, guess what the number one problem they had was on surveys? Communicating in a way people understood. It's like, oh! And their scores were reflected actually in health care reimbursement, both for them in their offices and in the hospital. So it's interesting how tough it can be sometimes for us to communicate in a way that people understood." [00:55]
2. "Faith is what centers us, but then the life in the Spirit, walking by the fruit of the Spirit, is what Christ actually engages us to do. So we are to speak in a way that others understand, and we are to act, we are to form relationships, we are to seek out others to grow that church. And we say collectively, come Holy Spirit, come Holy Spirit, be with us today. In the name of Christ, Amen." [13:51]
3. "And Peter was among them leading the troops. And the Holy Spirit came in the sound as of the wind. So it was a sound. It wasn't necessarily a blowing force that they felt. It was a sound as of the wind. And that sound was so dominant that people thronged to what they thought was the source of the sound." [04:16]
4. "And for us, it's a remembrance of our baptism, where we know that our sins have been erased. And on that day, three thousand came to join. But before he even gave this long sermon, he quoted the prophet Joel. And he looked into the Scriptures to say, this was foretold that this day would come. In the last days, it shall be, on the prophet Joel, that I will, God declares, I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions. And your old men shall dream dreams." [08:31]
5. "So we are to speak in a way that others understand, and we are to act, we are to form relationships, we are to seek out others to grow that church. And we say collectively, come Holy Spirit, come Holy Spirit, be with us today. In the name of Christ. Grace and peace to you today from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen." [00:55]
### Quotes for Members
1. "During my ministry on earth, that proceeded from the Father, and now proceeds from the Son, and is now with you and with the church forever. And with that, you will be given, in the very center of your lives, faith. Faith given to you not by your own reason or strength, as Luther would say in the small catechism, but by the work of the Holy Spirit. And then there is life, and that life has requirements with it. At the very top is a remembrance daily, as I mentioned, of your baptism. That we daily go to God confessing our sins, reminding ourselves also that our sins are wiped out, our slate is clean. No matter what we do with repetitive sins, God has given you forgiveness." [11:54]
2. "But then next comes a core requirement, which started with the Apostles, and that we are to go out and witness. We are to proclaim. Proclaim means we are to share verbally the Gospel. Proclaim the great gifts that you have been given. Then second, pray for yourself, your family, and for others. I think we all do that, but it's a requirement that we should be vested in. And next, wear the armor of God. And for that I want to go to Ephesians, because Satan is here to break up the church." [12:32]
3. "And Peter, of course, pipes up and says, you know what? It's nine in the morning. Thank you very much. We're not drinking. That hasn't happened. And for Jews, actually, should they take wine during the day? They really had it in their evening meal. So it would have been a bit absurd. But this was a real reversal. Of what God had instituted in the Tower of Babel. When everybody was speaking in one language, he said, you guys are too unified. And you're self-focused on yourself, not on God, trying to build a tower up into the heavens. And so after the flood, as you may recall, when everybody got together and says, let's build a tower all the way to the heavens. God gave us languages and all the people dispersed across the various parts of the world. Here, God does the opposite. He allows the disciples to speak. He allows the people to speak in languages to bring everybody back together in unity for the church." [06:25]
4. "And Peter continued, recounting the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He emphasized that Jesus was handed over to be crucified according to God's plan, but God raised Him from the dead, freeing Him from the agony of death. Peter called the crowd to repentance and baptism, leading to the conversion of about 3,000 people that day, marking the formation of the first mega-church." [07:26]
5. "And it's why we always want all of us to be invested in reading the Word of God, not just listening to it, which is key, but being invested in Bible study. I'm sorry, the next one is that we serve, and that we serve others in love just as Christ served us. And that's the focus. Faith is what centers us, but then the life in the Spirit, walking by the fruit of the Spirit, is what Christ actually engages us to do." [13:13]
6. "So as the Spirit comes into our lives today, I wanted to reference a little bit from what has happened on this great day. That if you look at the known world, all the way from Spain on the left, all the way to Italy, to Greece, to Rome, the center of the kingdom of the empire there, and all the way over into Egypt, everyone from that area, again, had converged upon Jerusalem. Everyone was required to. And as Christ received the Holy Spirit when He actually was baptized in the Jordan River, so we too, on this day, remember our baptism, and the Spirit-filled life that God now requires of us. He wants us to move forward, and now speak in a way that others will understand when you share your Christian faith." [10:40]
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