Pentecost

Acts 2

The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost

2 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. ² Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.³ They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. ⁴ All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

⁵ Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. ⁶ When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. ⁷ Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? ⁸ Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? ⁹ Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus  and Asia,¹⁰ Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome ¹¹ (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” ¹² Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”

¹³ Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”

Peter Addresses the Crowd

¹⁴ Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. ¹⁵ These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! ¹⁶ No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

¹⁷ “‘In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
    your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
¹⁸ Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.
¹⁹ I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
    blood and fire and billows of smoke.
²⁰ The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
    before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
²¹ And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

Today we focused on Love God, Love One Another and Love All!

We must make sure that Jesus is central to everything that we are, we do this by being with other Christians, praying  and reading God's word. We must love each other as though we are family (look at Jada and Jada) and finally we must love other people and show them the love of God in the way we live our lives - then they will want to know why we live as we do and meet Jesus for themselves. We do all of this through the power of the Holy Spirit! This Pentecost lets allow the Holy Spirit to so fill our lives that other people can see and touch Jesus in us.

"Acts 2:47 "And the Lord added daily to their number those who were being saved."

We are out of the building for the refurbishment, the planned maintenance work so tomorrow we meet at 3pm in Downs Road Methodist Church at 3pm.Please join us if you can.

We now have a Facebook page. www.facebook.com/ClaptonSA. Have a look and see what is happening. In the meantime if you need us to pray then please email us your prayer requests clapton.corps@salvationarmy.org.uk.

We are meeting at 7pm next Tuesday to pray walk the area at the hall. We are trusting and believing god for amazing things in the future, if you need help trust him then call in (once the building work is complete in two weeks time) or send us an email.

Tomorrows key verse is Isaiah 45:22, Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God and there is no other." Everyone can choose to follow Jesus. whatever your background, culture, age, your present circumstances. No one is excluded. John 3: 16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whosoever believes in him, will not perish but will have everlasting life. " Starting today, please trust Jesus for everything - he will never, ever let you down.
Praying for you. 

“The ransomed of the Lord will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”

Isaiah 51:11

I think the above picture shows pure childish joy. (Pepper Pig came to Toddlers and the little children just smiled and laughed.) 

We can experience joy  - deep down happiness, when we live in the power of the Holy Spirit as redeemed children of our Heavenly Father. God our Saviour is faithful to his covenant word and we are members of the new covenant ratified by Jesus’ blood. The restoration plan is for the whole of mankind, to be set free from sin and to be released and live as God intended. Jesus paid the ransom price for our release so that we can all be part of his redeemed people. We are part of the kingdom of God.

God loves to restore individuals, because once one person comes to know Jesus then that is caught by someone else and suddenly we look round and find a community full of believers.

 

Acts 2:47, "And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."

Acts 2:47, "And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."

Today in church we welcomed Mary, Matthew, Elizabeth, Andrew, Vithleem and Ishmael as adherents.God is good! The challenge for each of us, is to be obedient to God's call on our lives. God has a unique plan for each of our lives, lets each be open and when God calls be brave enough to say YES! "Because he lives I can face tomorrow, because he lives all fear is gone, because I know he holds the future and life is worth the living just because he lives! The picture shows Ishmael and Karl enjoying food and coffee together. There use to be an old song that had these words in it, "put your hand in the hand of the man who stilled the water, put your hand in the hand of the man who calmed the sea..." Today try putting your life into the hands of Jesus, you will never be let down and he will never disappoint you. In a world where everything keeps changing he is unchanging and totally reliable. Give Jesus a chance today!