Be The Church

The Gift of the Spirit

No. That wasn’t a typo in the sermon series title. The series is called The Gift of the Spirit…as in The Holy Spirit. It’s true that often people get caught up more so in the gifts of the Spirit, as in what are the gifts, how are they given and any unnecessary today?

While those are important questions, they aren’t the most important questions when it comes to The Holy Spirit. For while we proclaim a Trinitarian faith: God, Son, and Spirit, the Holy Spirit is often the forgotten member of the Trinity. Many Christians have very little understanding or even relationship with the Holy Spirit. Given the fact that the Holy Spirit’s role has been so abused throughout church history, it is understandable He is often ignored, misunderstood, or even resisted.

But that is to our great deficit! The Holy Spirit is the most essential gift Jesus gave his followers before ascending to heaven. In fact, Jesus was adamant that it was good He was going away, for the very reason it meant the Spirit would come upon the Church. The Spirit makes it possible for us to know experientially the love and grace of God. The Spirit comes alongside us to guide, direct, encourage, comfort, convict, and empower as we seek to follow Jesus. He imparts gifts to us to enable us to live as Christ’s witnesses in the world. He personally reassures us we are God’s children, wholly and dearly loved. Who wouldn’t want more of that in their lives?

The Spirit has so much to offer the individual, the church, and the world! In fact, we can truly only be “in Christ” when we live in the Spirit. When we look closely at Scripture, we see that the Holy Spirit is not to be feared, but rather welcomed. He is, as our four-week series will show: a Good Gift, an Essential Gift, A Gift that Keeps Giving, and yes, He does also bring Gifts for us. It is my sincere hope and prayer that by the end of this series, we won’t just know more about the Holy Spirit; but will instead engage more regularly with Him for direction, wisdom, comfort, and empowerment. “Come, Holy Spirit, Come!”

Church Matters

The Acts of the Apostles

The automobile tycoon Henry Ford once famously said, “history is more or less bunk.” Why look back when you can look forward? Get busy making history rather than reading stories of those long dead and gone? 
 
Fair enough, except that sometimes the stories of the past are the very thing that inspires us for the future. A man named Luke had a front-row seat during the early days of the Christian church. Like an investigative reporter, he had already captured the story of the life of Jesus into a biography we now have in the New Testament.
 
But Luke had a second book in him, a book about the early Christian church. The church grew, Luke believed, by the will and purpose of God in fulfillment of promises God made years before. His is an encouraging story, of how from a handful of Jesus followers in a single church, this movement spread beyond geographic, ethnic and racial boundaries. The message, that salvation is found in Jesus, raised from the dead and ascended to heaven, changed lives and communities everywhere it went. And the catalyst for all this change, Luke believed, was the power of the Holy Spirit, the gift Jesus left with the church when he ascended into heaven.
 
It’s an inspirational story and raises interesting questions for us today, none more important than this: How can we, at City Church, capture today something of the confidence, enthusiasm, vision, and power these early Christians and their leaders had? It’s a question we will explore in the weeks to come.