Peter - Filled With The Holy Spirit

Calvin: "...Luke wanted to show that Peter was strong only because he was filled with the Holy Spirit," (Sermons on Acts, p.129).  Standing before the mighty Jewish Sanhedrin accused of the healing of the lame man, Peter and John made their defence statement.  That statement was a reaffirmation of the fact that it was Jesus of Nazareth, Whom they crucified, who raised this lame man to full physical agility, not them.  They gave Jesus all the credit and glory for this mighty act of healing.

But what empowered Peter to speak like this, being an ignorant and uneducated man, was his being "filled with the Holy Spirit."  This is not the first time Peter experienced this infilling of the Spirit. It happened before on the Day of Pentecost when God poured out His Spirit on the apostle's preaching.  Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit. But this was not the last time this happened to the apostle.  Every time he had something significant to do for Christ, he was endued with "power from on high."  When the groups of believers were met together after Peter and John had been released from the 71-strong Sanhedrin, they prayed to the sovereign Lord and were all filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter included (Acts 4:31).

Calvin is correct: we are weak and inform when we are deprived of Him.

But there is much more to this than just help when we need it.  This is a special filling for a special purpose.  And it is this that preachers need more than anything else today.  We have all our theology and correct doctrine; but we do not have the Spirit in power.  We can preach well-constructed sermons, but have no power.  We can woo congregations with our weepy concluding stories, but no power.  It is power we need, power to live, power to preach, and power to witness to Christ in every situation.  Without this heavenly enabling, all our preaching and witnessing are in vain.

The preachers of old were men who knew the filling of the Spirit in great measure.  Think of men like John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, Daniel Rowlands, Jonathan Edwards, R. M. McCheyne, etc.  They knew the Spirit's power on their lives and ministries. How we need to know that today.

Let us pray to the sovereign Lord that all Gospel preachers will be Spirit-filled men, and that when they stand up to preach, it will be "in demonstration of the Spirit and of power."

A Pastor With GUTS!

 

 

This is absolutely great ! ! !

Prayer given in Kansas at the opening session of their Senate. It seems prayer still upsets some people.. When Minister Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but this is what they heard:

Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done.

We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed  our values.

We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.

We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare..

We have killed our unborn and called it choice.

We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.

We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem....

We have abused power and called it politics.

We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition.

We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.

We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.

Amen!

The response was immediate. A number of legislators walked out during the prayer in protest. In 6 short weeks, Central Christian Church, where Rev. Wright is pastor, logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls

responding negatively.. The church is now receiving international requests for copies of this prayer from   India , Africa and   Korea .

Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on his radio program, 'The Rest of the Story,'and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired. With the Lord's help, may this prayer sweep over our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we again can be called 'one nation under God.'

If possible, please pass this prayer on to your friends.... 'If you don't stand for something, you will fall for everything.'

Think about this: If you forward this prayer to everyone on your e-mail list, in less than 30 days it would be heard by the world.

Slavish Adherence

"...we must beware of a slavish adherence to old forms," preached Dr Lloyd-Jones in his Ephesians sermons (Vol.8, p.289).  How often has DMLJ not pressed this point!  And the apostle Paul warned about the same kind of thing.  Yet we tend to become enslaved by what are good things - old forms of ding things, old ways of thinking, old practices that once had great significance but now are no more than of historical significance.

For example, why are some churches today asking congregations to stand for prayer?  True, the Scottish covenanters stood for prayers, with the backs of members turned to the minister.  Why was this done? Because at that time, Christians were persecuted relentlessly so while prayer was being offered by the minister, at least some of the worshippers kept their eyes open to watch for potential attack.

Is this relevant in today's church situation?  Hardly.  But some Christians have to keep the tradition going on, a "tradition of men," as Peter called it, and for no apparent reason; certainly their is no spiritual or theological reason for such a practice.  But to do otherwise would be to take these Christians out of their comfort zone, and leave them confused.

We need to beware of the traditions of men, and well did DMLJ warn the churches against such a practice.  How easy it is to adopt like practices, such as, the way Presbyterians all seem to sit in the back pews of a church, etc.  Slavishness to a particular translation of the Bible, or to the insistence that women cover their heads for worship, or do not wear 'men's clothing,' or the exclusive use of Psalms in the public worship of God, etc; the list could go on interminably. 

Once we succumb to any 'old form' is a sign that we have been defeated by the devil, according to DMLJ.  So watch out.  Stay alert.  And dont become a slave to anything or anyone but Christ and His truth.

Limited Faithfulness To Scripture

It is not in the least surprising to realise that some reformed preachers emphasise the particularity of atonement to the point where it becomes suffocating.  These men are so tied in to confessional Christianity that they are hampered in what they can offer to a sinful humanity, or more specifically what they have to offer to sinful men.  If the only thing they have to offer sinners is the offer of salvation through faith in Christ alone, then the mere offer is useless.  These dear brothers are so hampered and restricted in their preaching of the Gospel.

But when these same men only quote those verses of Scripture in part in order to support a particularly philosophical interpretation of the Bible, then they have plunged to a new depth.  Christ did not only "taste death," which is how the verse was quoted recently; He tasted death "for every man," (Heb.2:9).  The latter part of the verse does not suit those who hold to scholastically restricted atonement teaching, so they leave out that part of the verse that teaches that!

Or again, another preacher quoted, "God was in Christ reconciling to Himself."  The big problem is that Paul did not say that in 2 Cor.5:19. What he said was "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself."  But this extremely reformed preacher deliberately omitted the words the world, clearly because he held to limited atonement.

It is so sad that men are prepared to squeeze the Gospel to fit a human template just because they are working to a particular agenda.  Adherence to some confessional dogma is much more important to these men than adhering to Scriptural data, which is the correct methodology.

Now when reformed men resort to that kind of unfaithfulness, there is little hope of any change within the church, certainly not so far as reform is concerned. 

If you are of a reforming disposition and conviction, please covenant with me to work for the reform of the church so that we might see again times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord.