Can you think of a time when you've been waiting ages for something,
anticipating maybe an event, it could be a gig that you bought tickets
for a year or so ago, the Olympics, your revision coming to Liverpool.
It might be a relationship like an addition to your family,
a new baby, uh, meeting Mr.
Or Mrs.
Right.
And when it comes, it's actually completely different from what
you expected or, or even because it's been so long, you've kind of
forgotten that it's happening at all.
And then it suddenly arrives and someone else has to remind you of it.
That's a little bit of what's going on in our next reading in Acts, which
I'm gonna be talking about today.
And this follows on direct from last week when, um, the Holy Spirit is poured out on
the disciples and it's Peter standing up and reminding the Crowd of God's ancient
promises about the coming of Messiah.
And Messiah was a kind of Jewish hero of faith that would put right
everything that was wrong in the world.
So let's read.
It's Acts 2, verse 14 to 41.
Then Peter stood up with the 11.
He 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.
These people are not drunk as you suppose.
It's only nine in the morning.
No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel.
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.
Even on my servants, both men and women.
I will pour out my spirit in those days and they will prophesy.
I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below.
Blood and fire and billows of smoke.
The sun will be turned to darkness, the moon to blood before the coming of
the great and glorious day of the Lord.
And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Fellow Israelites, listen to this.
Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by
miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did among you through him.
As you yourselves know.
This man was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and for knowledge, and
you with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.
But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of
death because it was impossible for death to keep his hold on him.
David said about him, I saw the Lord always before me.
Because he is at my right hand.
I will not be shaken.
Therefore, my heart is glad my tongue rejoices.
My body also will rest in hope because you will not abandon
me to the realm of the dead.
You will not let your holy one see decay.
You have made known to me the paths of life.
You will fill me with joy in your presence.
Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently the patriarch
David died and was buried.
His tomb is here to this day, but he was a prophet and knew that God had
promised on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne.
Seeing what was to come.
He spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not
abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay.
God has raised this Jesus to life and we are all witnesses of it.
Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the
promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.
For David didn't ascend to heaven, but he said, the Lord said to my Lord,
sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.
Therefore, let all Israel be assured of this, God has made this Jesus whom
you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.
When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said
to Peter and the other apostles, brothers, what should we do?
Peter replied, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of
Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive
the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The promise is for you and your children.
And for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord our God will call.
With many other words he warned them and he pleaded with them, save
yourselves from this corrupt generation.
Those who accepted his message were baptized and about 3000 were
added to their number that day.
Wow.
The onlookers described here that Peter was speaking to were mostly Jews, but also
those who had converted uh, to Judaism.
They'd come on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem from all over the Mediterranean
region, and they'd come for this annual festival called Pentecost.
These were devout people that invested time and money to make the journey.
They'd taken the risk of leaving behind maybe families, leaving
their livelihoods, their land.
and making what could be quite a challenging track.
What were their expectations?
Although some might have never been to Jerusalem for a festival.
I think for many, this was a well-trodden path.
It would've been an annual visit to the temple to observe what were very familiar,
well-rehearsed sacrifices that'd been done in Israel since time immemorial,
since the time of the Old Testament.
What none of them can have expected is what happened in the reading
last week, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and then following that
Peter's explanation that we just read.
So I'm calling this talk New power Now.
What was new here?
Well, the first obvious thing is Peter.
Peter's gone from being scared of admitting to a servant
girl that he knew Jesus at the time that Jesus was crucified.
He then went on to hide inside a locked room after Jesus died because he was
scared of the Jewish authorities.
And here he is standing up and preaching in public in Jerusalem,
the capitol city of the Jewish religion to thousands of people.
Peter was a fisherman.
Remember.
Unschooled is how the Bible puts it.
And yet here he is delivering this eloquent, well referenced speech
drawing on different Jewish scriptures and confidently challenging this
massive Crowd to put their trust in Jesus, who just a month before
had been, um, enemy number one.
It's quite the turnaround.
And the difference is the Holy Spirit.
In fact, for some people, the change in the followers of Jesus over the 40 days
since his crucifixion is strong evidence of the truth of the biblical account.
Let's assume the other view for a moment that this was all made up,
just a story made up by the disciples.
So the intention of the Jewish leaders in crucifying Jesus as they had done several
time previously was to kill the leader, and then the followers would scatter.
You'd expect any rebellious movement or rival sect would
be snuffed out as a result.
You kill the guy that's the inspiration that's drawing everyone
together and everyone goes home, loses interest, does their own thing.
But in this case, even though Jesus' death had been very public and as shameful as
it could get, somehow within a matter of weeks to this event we read about
today, this angry, betrayed, grieving group of followers had somehow come up
with a story of resurrection that was not only fantastical, not only likely to
get them killed by those same leaders, but also theologically seamless with
all of Jewish scripture accompanied by this outpouring of supernatural
power and then convincing at least 3000 people within hours of its launch.
And this was all achieved in 40 days by a traumatized group
of unschooled men and women.
Seems very unlikely.
The alternative view, of course, is that the whole account is actually true.
Jesus rose again.
He appeared to his followers, he gave the promised Holy Spirit
and that's why they were bold and excited cuz they knew it was true.
So what else is new in this passage?
Well, as I said, here was a Crowd of people that had come to sacrifice,
devout people worshiping God in the particular location of the Jerusalem
temple, and in the particular ways that the Jewish scripture specified.
This was their only path to God in the Jewish religion.
But Peter blows this outta the water.
Jesus is the Messiah they've all been waiting for he says.
No wonder the Crowd were cut to the heart when they realized.
But the real revelation is verse 38, where he says, repent, be baptized in the name
of Jesus, and your sins are forgiven.
No more animal sacrifices.
No more pilgrimage to the temple.
Just believe that Jesus did indeed rise from the dead and is able to forgive us.
Jesus was enough.
Now, you may be quite familiar with this.
You might have heard a street preacher.
, um, being in church and heard it in the church liturgy.
You might know it from a gospel song or even a Crowd talk.
But on this day in Pentecost, this was brand new, truly the
birth of the gospel message.
The difference is the Holy Spirit.
But the pouring out of the Holy Spirit was also new.
Peter reached right back to this prophecy, uh, which we read in our reading recorded
by Joel at least 500 years previously.
And this prophecy described what was to come.
Ordinary people seeing visions, dreaming dreams, prophesying even young people
because of God pouring out his spirit.
You see, in those times in Jewish history in what we now call the Old Testament,
God's spirit was just for the chosen few.
A prophet here or there.
The odd king was inspired by the Holy Spirit.
but this was temporary.
It was just the odd occasion.
And what Peter is describing here is being filled with the Holy Spirit.
It's a continuous experience.
It stays with you.
No one had ever known the Holy Spirit like that before.
And what accompanied that prophesied pouring out of God's spirit?
That's when we come to power.
New power, and by power I mean supernatural power.
Now, I think certainly in Western cultures, we have this fascinating
relationship with supernatural power.
On the one hand, we dismiss it in our hyper-rational
scientific view of the world.
We might even scoff at miraculous happenings, or it best be a little
cynical, to be honest when we hear a story of someone being healed, for example.
As for raising the dead, really?
And yet we can't get enough of stories of power.
Characters with supernatural gifts, superheroes, boy wizards, the
paranormal, harnessing hidden secrets, ghosts, monsters, multiverses,
reincarnation, blah, blah, blah, blah.
It's big entertainment business.
But where are the stories of Jesus' power in all that?
The miracles and wonder that Peter points out here, that the Crowd
he was talking to knew very well.
They'd heard the stories, they'd maybe even witnessed them.
Well, I have a theory.
Because the source of this power is the Holy Spirit.
Wonders in the heavens, in the Joel prophecy, the healing and other miracles
of Jesus, and finally Jesus' resurrection.
But to access this power, we approach a person, the Holy
Spirit, to experience this power, which is the greatest there is.
we come into relationship with the source of this power.
In contrast, all the other powers we are so fascinated by in our culture,
well, they're not about relationship.
They're really, if we're honest, all about us, our effort to train,
to meditate, use the ways of the force, learn spells, whatever.
The message is.
If you work hard enough, if you discover the secret knowledge, you will gain power.
It's all about your effort.
And then once learned, the power is at your disposal.
You are in control.
You choose how to wield it.
For good heroes or bad our anti-heroes or villains, you call the shots.
You go where you want with it.
Kids dreaming of revenge on the school bully are firing lasers outta their eyes.
It's seductive.
Power that we earn and control or power that requires our
relationship with the power giver.
My theory is that as a society we long for power with which
we can overcome circumstance.
We're clearly fascinated by the stories of it, but we reject God's
offer of power through the Holy Spirit because if we are really
honest, we want it on our own terms.
End of theory.
What does God's power look like?
Well, we have the healing miracles of Jesus.
The wonders think calming of the storm, turning water into wine, but also the
possibility of forgiveness through faith, which is power in itself.
That our lives would be transformed, that we could be forgiven of
all our shame and start afresh.
The good news of salvation is described in the Bible as being
accompanied by signs and wonders.
That back up the truth.
And we see this throughout the book of Acts.
Personally, I've seen people get immediately better from
longstanding pain or illness when I've prayed in Jesus' name.
I've seen pictures in my mind's eye when I've prayed for basically strangers that
unlocked something emotionally for them.
When I've described that picture to them, I felt prompted to share specific
verses or scriptures with people that has brought specific encouragement to
a situation that I didn't know about.
I've seen people released from oppressive, longstanding spiritual influences,
a release that resulted in actual physical change in their demeanor.
Uh, from that freedom, I did bottle out of praying for someone
to come alive again soon after they drowned, but my friends did.
Sadly, the lad stayed dead.
but I've also seen countless changes in apparently intransigent situations
as a result of praying for change.
These are all quite everyday examples of the power of the Holy Spirit available to
those that choose to live in relationship with God, as Peter describes here.
New power now.
Now, by this I mean that in days of hoping for future Messiah, hoping
for the outpouring of God's spirit as described in Joel's prophecy.
The days of coming month after month to sacrifice animals to be right with God.
These days are over.
No more waiting, no more sacrifice.
On this day of Pentecost, God's power in the Holy Spirit became available
to us, ordinary people, everyone.
Each one of you now can ask God for forgiveness and by believing in Jesus,
be released of that debt of sin.
Just as 3000 people did that day, each of us now can receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit as a result of that transaction of our shame for his forgiveness.
The Holy Spirit who can transform your situation.
Peter declared this is for you, for your children, and those who are far off.
The Holy Spirit is accessible to all.
New power.
Now, what we read about here in this first gospel message was completely new it.
It was a game changer.
It changed the rules.
It opened up.
, not just to the Jews, but to everyone, all people, the possibility of coming to God.
It demonstrated that the power that Jesus had to transform situations
was now available to all of us when we put our faith in him, and now
it's available to each one of us.
It's just a Prayer away effectively and a lifetime of
practice in faith, to be honest.
New power now.
What will you do with it?
Coming up we have Conversation street, but before we get into that,
here's a clip from our podcast.
What's the story which you can subscribe to on all your favorite podcast apps
and you may feel like you do or do not have a lot of money, and
you may be able to give all of it or none of it to the Lord, but
what are you doing with your time?
Yeah.
And I think that he values the time way more.
Mm-hmm.
than he does the money, because that's how he lived his life.
Yeah.
He spent time with people and time with his apostles, and time with the
poor, with the widows and the orphans.
So welcome back to Conversation Street.
My name is Matt Edmundson.
Beside me is John Harding.
For those that have joined the livestream, uh, we are Crowd.
We're an online church.
As you probably picked up, uh, from the fact, uh, we've been, uh, looking at,
uh, the Bible, looking at scripture.
And so welcome, uh, to you.
Great that you are here.
Now, John.
Matt.
I . Yeah, I was, I was finishing my thought.
Uh, it's, um, I always love just listening to Will talk.
He has this amazing ability to take something very complex and put it
in terms that I can understand it.
I think that's partly to do with his science job, Do you know what I mean?
It's like, takes all this complex stuff and puts it in ways to understand it.
Um, but I'm intrigued.
Right.
Uh, with Will's talk, you've, as we said in the introduction,
you've just come back from Israel.
So let's get this into the conversation.
Um, what was, what was that scene like, do you think, uh, where Peter
stands up before the Crowd, because it's, it's not an auditorium, is it?
It's not like he's gone, the Echo Arena or whatever it's called now.
Um, and I'm just kind of curious what.
Paint that scene for us if you can.
Well, first of all, let me say.
Great talk and, and Will always bring something so thoughtful, uh,
reflective and really powerful.
I mean, if we're really listening to what he's saying, we should be
thinking, could that be true for me?
Could I have some of that?
Is that available to me?
Really?
Um, of course we believe it is, and as Will believes, it's, but, you know,
really enjoyed listening to that.
Um, I mean, it's only Wednesday, a couple of days just gone that we
were allegedly stood in that upper room where this event happened.
Now I don't, it's the right room, but, um, if Peter's saying, like it says
in the verse, David was buried here.
Mm-hmm.
, then they alleged over the burial place of David.
Okay.
But you're talking about a city that is rammed for one of the
three main festivals, and, and Will talked about that brilliantly.
You've got Jewish people living their Jewish lives, they've
gathered together for like a really special moment of worship.
Um, and this case, the, um, festival of Pentecost, the three big festivals, uh,
Tabernacles, Passover, and, and Pentecost.
So the city is rammed, rammed with good people, rammed with devout people, rammed
with people who were, um, trying to relive and retell the story of their ancestors.
Of course, those stories were meant to be trailers for the
ma uh, for the main event.
They were meant to be foretastes, um, yeah.
Of, of what would come later.
Uh, and, and that is what they're experiencing.
Those things that they were waiting for, that were promised to them is coming true.
Will put it.
So, so, well, so, um, I think you'd have had real mixed responses.
You would've had some, like we see in this is like, that makes perfect sense.
You've just explained to me, um, everything that I believed in a new
and fresh way and, and 3000 were added to their number on that day.
So I think it'd been really exciting.
Uh, the, the passage talks about joy and rejoicing quite a lot.
They think the men are drunk.
There's some something that's quite exciting, um, and loud, um,
that's happening in this moment when the spirit fills them.
Um, and we tend to think of religious festivals or religious services, as dare
I say, a little bit boring, a little.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Um, you know, but that is far from what's happening here.
This is an exciting moment, uh, of God breaking out from
the norm of what was expected.
Yeah, absolutely.
And I That's a good, actually, it's a good point to kick off, isn't it?
Cuz this is right at the start of the passage that Will was talking about today,
that there was just this level of joy.
These guys had encountered the Holy Spirit.
And, um, the, the bottom line is how do you know when you've
encountered the Holy Spirit?
You'll be joyful.
Uh, is, yeah.
Is, is, is a, is probably a fair takeaway, right.
Yeah.
I, I mean, when I've asked to receive the Holy Spirit, that because it's a gift, he
is a gift, and we can ask to be filled.
Um, I mean, honestly, there've been times where I've laughed uncontrollably.
There's also been times where I've wept like a baby.
I remember one occasion, um, in a, a service, a church service, and I stayed.
um, towards the end and I just said, Lord, holy Spirit, I really
feel dry and weary in life.
I need you come and fill me.
And quite unexpectedly, um, I mean it was like, it was like the whole
of my body vibrating for 45 minutes.
Wow.
I was snot and tears.
No one dared go anywhere near me.
But it did me good.
It revived my heart, it encouraged me.
So yeah, joy.
But something's gonna happen when you encounter the Holy Spirit
because, um, he's gonna bring some power and some transformation
and breakthrough into your life.
Yeah, totally.
And when Will was talking about this, he was, I mean, he was talking about some
of his experience, wasn't he, with the Holy Spirit about how he had, um, he, he
sort of felt impressed to, uh, speak to someone or to pray to someone, um, and.
You know, he had pictures and thoughts and, and, and you know, he is prayed
for sick people and they've got well, and so he has, he has seen, um, and
experienced the miraculous or the, the, the invasion for want of better
expression of the Holy Spirit in his life.
Um, and also the Holy Spirit through him, to other people.
Right.
That, that was, uh, what sort of came clear to me.
So for you, what you are saying is you've got very similar stories.
You just experienced the Holy Spirit in different ways, right?
Well, absolutely Matt, and I think that that's why, as you said, Dr.
Will Sopwith super scientific guy, I think his research was in to do with
spreads of viruses and advising the government during covid and stuff.
You, you've gotta really ask, you've got this story about a guy
who dies and is rose from the dead.
Um, God on Earth.
It's a pretty unbelievable story, but it's a story that about half
the world's population believe.
. Mm-hmm.
. And so there are those who believe it and those who don't believe it.
And if you are in the camp of not believing it, can you really write off
the experience of those who do believe it?
Surely that in itself is enough to think maybe there's something in this.
But for those of us who believe it, we, we believe it because that story
becomes part of our experience.
Mm-hmm.
So the, the things that Jesus promised around the power of the forgiveness
of sins, again, Will great talk if you, if you are watching it,
but that's a true power, isn't it?
Yeah.
My life was characterized by guilt and shame and
condemnation before I knew Jesus.
I, I couldn't sort that out for myself.
And when I received his love and his forgiveness, he transformed how I thought
and felt about myself and, uh, and my life and, and that shame and guilt was lifted.
What an incredible miracle.
But yeah, I, I've seen the healings.
My nan was healed pretty instantly of Parkinson's disease.
Holy.
She went from having tremors and shakes wandering around the town,
and we have to go look for her to just changed in an instant.
I remember once my youngest boy, he'd been swimming in a river in France.
We found a dead cow floating in the river.
Um, and his whole ears had swollen up.
And the sort of opening in this ears had closed up.
He was in a lot of pain.
I got my phone out to look with the, um, touch.
I wish we had pressed record.
We anointed him with oil.
Like the Bible says, within three seconds, it had completely been healed.
Amen.
I, I remember being a kid when we had no food in the house, no money, um, being
incredibly poor growing up and sit in a sat at a set table ready for food.
Cause my mum was convinced that God would provide food and knock on the door,
go to the door, there's a bag of food.
So for me, the miraculous has been an aspect throughout my Christian life.
. Um, I don't put my faith trust in that, and I thought that was really honest
and vulnerable of Will to talk about the times where we believe for the miraculous.
Yeah.
And we don't get the miraculous mm-hmm.
, um, that that was, and, and, and, and I know that's the sort of stuff you've
discussed in the past on Crowd Church.
Why do bad things happen, for example?
Yeah.
And all those big problems.
But I'd just bring it back to that fact that there are people who
believe the story, people who don't.
And if you don't, you've really got to ask the question, why do these people like Dr.
Will Sopwith like us and others, why do we really believe it?
You know?
Um, and the simple answer is because it's become our story,
it's become our experience.
Yeah.
It's the truth that we, we've all experienced, isn't it?
And I, I I, I'm gonna put on the, Matt's written a comment here.
Um, he said, I asked God to touch me in the past.
and he has done at MCYC, uh, I'm not sure what that stands
for anyway, uh, 13 years ago.
Amazing feeling.
And it's, it's interesting, isn't it?
How I think we've all got these stories, um, these sort of testimonies
we'd like to call 'em in the church of where we have experienced God.
It's not just a, um, I i I we don't believe just because of guilt.
We don't believe, just because that's the way we were brought up.
Um, it's not the way I was brought up.
Uh, but we, we believe for many reasons, one of which is our experience of, of God.
And, and the thing that I loved about Will's preach is, he touches on this
where Peter's concerned, doesn't he?
Where Peter is, this Galilean fisherman, um, who was scared to a, to tell a,
a young girl that he knew Jesus to within a few short weeks standing
up an uneducated man delivering.
You know, maybe not the prescribed way of delivering a speech, but definitely
delivers this amazing speech, brings in Old Testament references and all kinds
of, so you have to look at that and go, that is one heck of a transformation?
Right?
Undoubtedly, and if you think about it, 3000 responded, and that
was a percentage of the Crowd.
Mm-hmm.
So you could, and this is not on the Temple Mount, um, the courtyards of
the temple, but you could easily get over a hundred thousand to 200,000
people there in that physical space.
So, um, you, you've got a city that is rammed and, and, and it, I
mean, I'm nervous enough talking to this camera and I can only see you.
I'd be nervous talking to me as well.
Yeah, yeah.
There's a transformation that's taken place, isn't there?
Mm-hmm.
And, and, and Matt is right.
It's like an encounter with the Holy Spirit that brings your faith alive
rather than and one of my concerns.
. One of my concerns about certain types of Christianity, modern
Christianity, is that we've made it a little bit like a self-help movement.
Yeah.
A self-help program.
Yeah.
So I'm on this personal quest to a bit like I might do some
yoga classes or I might do some, uh, a particular type of diet.
I'm trying to find a way to improve my life, and what Peter is
doing here is calling people into relationship with Jesus is in,
in community together actually.
Mm-hmm.
That's gonna be the next section of reading.
Yeah.
And he's calling them into something that's not for them to
do, but it's for them to receive.
And it's, it's about inviting that forgiveness and that that power of
God's spirit to transform our lives.
It's not that it's not without effort, of course there's an effort to the
Christian life, but the effort's about receiving and surrendering and keeping
our eyes fixed and focused on, on, on Jesus, in and pressing into community
in all its various forms together.
Yeah, no, I like that.
I like that.
And I'm with you.
I mean, I, I, I would say I probably fell foul of Christianity and the
self-help, you know, the sort of the Western Christianity, self-help ideology.
And I, you know, that sort of distinct, positive and everything
will be all right kind of thing.
And it, and it, and the reason why I agree with you is because, um,
you and a bunch of other people along the way have challenged me.
And it's like, it's not, this is about God's grace.
This is about Jesus here.
Um, self-help in some respects is good.
Yes, you need to take responsibility.
Yes.
Um, you need to stop messing about yes, et cetera, et cetera.
But fundamentally, there are things you cannot do without the grace of God.
And self-help won't.
You can't just get your head down and plough through it.
You need the grace of God.
Right.
Is that what you're talking about when you talk about self-help?
Absolutely.
It, it, I'm talking about moving away from therapeutic Christianity.
So, so you like, I I, we know each other well, I mean, I know that if you decided
you're gonna do a gym program, I mean, I dunno what you're pressing now, Matt, but
you take these things quite seriously.
Do you know what I mean?
So when you're a particular type of person who wants to make things happen, um,
entrepreneurally in your workplace and all the rest of it, we can sort of apply
that to ourselves as if it's down to us to save ourselves and improve ourselves.
Mm-hmm.
And really, we are all called just to surrender before Jesus.
And, and to, and, and for him to do some of it for us that we could
never have done for ourselves.
and then it talks 2 Corinthians 3:18 19.
The, it's the role of the Holy Spirit who transforms us into the likeness of Jesus.
Yeah, it doesn't happen passively.
It doesn't happen without effort, but it's, it's the right type of effort.
Um, it's not through trying to be really, really good, and I'm trying
to avoid being really, really naughty.
It's just about keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus.
And, and, and like I pray every day, every day I say, holy Spirit,
your job is to transform me.
Your job is to make me more like Jesus.
Um, holy Spirit, I yield to you.
I submit to you.
I worship you because you are God.
And, and I ask that you would, um, be at work in my life today.
And, and so I'm, I'm coming to him to confess my need.
Holy Spirit, I need you.
Uh, that is probably my most prayed prayer.
It's a very good Prayer to pray, actually.
If you wanna know where to start praying, start praying right there.
But I'm curious, mate, on this self-help thing, what are some of the things
that you've seen people fall foul of?
Um, because I do think this, there's a couple of things which I think are
problematic in the church at the moment.
Um, the self-help being one of them, progressive Christianity being another.
Maybe we'll get onto that a little bit because Peter, I think, addresses
this a little bit in his talk actually, uh, in his, in his sermon.
Um, but what, what are some of the examples that you, you can think of
that people might need to watch out for?
Okay.
Well take any of the good things that we might call spiritual disciplines.
Mm-hmm.
understanding and reading the Bible, Prayer, that, those sorts of things.
Um, what hap what can tend to happen is we, um, pick and mix,
pick and choose those things away from others in community.
So I find my favorite songs and my favorite preacher.
, and really I'm trying to, um, feed myself the things that I want.
Uh, or like when you hear someone say, I don't go to a church because I
just go and encounter God in nature.
Mm-hmm.
, um, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, uh, uh, part of the, um, persecuted
church in Nazi Germany.
He talks about this when he says the, the, the, the problem with
that approach is, um, it never really caused me to surrender.
It never really caused me to compromise in the, in the right and
the best of the healthiest sense.
Uh, when, when I connect with other Christians in community, um,
together around God's word, it, it requires a different posture from me.
It requires a humility, um, uh, from me, and that that's really
where spiritual formation takes place, uh, most powerfully.
So that's a little bit what I mean, it's like, yeah.
Like I, and I think I talked about it in my last Crowd talk actually.
Um, I need community.
I need to commit to community.
And I'm not talking, I'm talking online or in person.
For me, that's what matters.
It's about a commitment to a group of people to do your life together.
That's how you take those individual things and you move them from
self-help to a sort of a shared mutual love and service of one another.
Yeah, no, absolutely.
Very well said.
And interestingly, um, I mean, there was many things that, I've got many
notes from Will's talk because, you know, why would you not have really?
Um, but right at the end of it, um, uh, at, uh, the, at the end of Peter's
talk, he says here, um, when, uh, when people heard this, they were cut to
the heart, um, and said, and they said to Peter, okay, well this is fine.
What do we need to do?
And Peter says, repent and be baptized every one of you.
Um, what do you think?
What does cut to the heart mean?
That's a, I think it's a really interesting phrase.
You know, people can hear all this stuff and, and find it interesting.
They can find it, uh, you know, mentally I can, I can kind of think about this
or, you know, I think there's gonna be different types of responses.
And I'm curious, what does cut to the heart mean, do you think?
I think there's a massive difference between conviction and
condemnation and, um, for us in Christ there's no condemnation.
Um, I think that, like, there've been times where I've preached in the past
and someone said, oh, you said something.
And I felt really condemned from it.
Yeah.
And really I think, I, I, I think what happens in conviction is,
um, we, we humble, our hearts are like, May, maybe this is true, may
maybe, I don't know best here may.
Maybe what that person is saying could be right.
And so, uh, I think when it says cut to the heart, there's something that they're
doing, which is opening their heart to allow God to come and touch their hearts.
Um, as opposed to just doing what you saw in the stories of the gospels of some of
the Pharisees and the Sadducees, which was just to put their hands, say no.
Mm-hmm.
not even gonna consider or entertain for a moment that maybe
what Jesus is saying is true.
So, um, often the message of Jesus has this polarizing effect.
Yeah.
It rarely leaves us as neutral.
It forces us to either humble ourselves and think, do you know what?
Maybe I've not got this right.
Maybe there is a God who knows best for my life.
And, and that's where you get into this whole idea of repentance.
Yeah.
From the Greek of metanoia, which means to change our thinking mm-hmm.
to line our thinking up with God's thinking.
Mm-hmm.
. And we know how God thinks He's revealed it to us through his word.
Yeah.
The Bible.
Yeah, absolutely.
In fact, uh, just a few short weeks ago, I did a talk called How to
Turn Your Life Around in 30 Days, which is very self-helpy and was
deliberately titled like that.
And the whole premise of the talk was, you need to repent
or we talked about repentance.
The whole talk was about repentance.
And that's how you turn your life around.
And it is about that, isn't it?
It's about repentance.
Um, which has a real issue I think with progressive Christianity, with,
um, what they call now as expressive individualism in the sense that you,
it's not about you, you, it's about going, I'm not living this the right way.
I'm not living it according to God's way.
And so I need to humble myself and get in line with what God is saying.
Right?
And that can be true for someone who's not a Christian.
That can be true for someone who is a Christian, you know?
Mm-hmm.
, it can be true in how I run my family.
I, I could be like, um, you know, I, I could be doing something as
a husband, which I need to repent.
Oh, it doesn't change my faith.
I just need to realign my thinking with God's thinking.
Right.
And I think you're right.
It's very, very polarizing.
Uh, and the standard is, is remarkably simple to understand.
But actually when you think about it requires a lot because God's like, no, no.
It's my way that's just the deal , you, you've gotta align to my way.
Right?
Well, I mean, and well done for saying it Matt because like what we're not
trying to do in Crowd Church is.
Get as much popularity and as many followers as possible.
What we're trying to do in love is to share the, the truth of who Jesus is
in a way that can help people encounter him and have their life changed.
But we do that knowing that it will have that type of polarizing effect.
And, you know, well, I, I completely agree with how you're calling out this
progressive Christianity because, um, it, there's no Christianity where the self
is, uh, the Lord and the boss of my life.
No.
Uh, like my, um, Nan used to say to me that, that there's a throne in your
heart and it's only space for one.
Uh, so either you can sit in it and think you know best and live your life
your way and, you know, how's that going for you, by the way, or you
can invite Jesus to come and do that.
And, and, and I, I, I know I see that in your life.
I see it in, uh, the lives of the people around me that I'm in community with.
Um, that all we're trying to do is take God's word and say, how can
we live a biblically faithful life?
Yeah.
Um, because maybe, maybe just maybe we don't know best.
And what Peter does in this talk is not come up with something new.
No.
Uh, a friend of mine used to say, uh, innovation in
theology is a dangerous thing.
if you come up with something new.
Yeah.
Then, uh, hang on a second.
All Peter's doing is calling these people back to something that's ancient.
Back to something that's, um, that's proven and tested.
The God of the ages, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God revealed,
um, to Moses, uh, in the Torah.
Um, that that's what he's calling people back to.
And a lot of progressive Christianity is, is trying to sort
of deconstruct those things in order to come up with something new.
Yeah.
Which effectively is, um, you at the center of your life.
Mm-hmm.
. And it's very, very dangerous, I think.
Very, very dangerous.
It's, um, you know, it's the same thing.
We live in an age now, don't we?
We live in a culture where actually we try and tell ourselves that we are not
wrong because we're living our truth.
Uh, and, and so we, we don't like to face up to the fact that maybe we are
wrong or what the Bible says is sin.
But, um, and so what we do is we redefine what that is and we go, oh, we can't be
wrong because we just live in our truth.
Right.
And, and that again, puts me at the center of everything.
Whereas actually, I think it takes a brave man or woman to stand up and
go, nah, I've, I need to deal with this according to God's standard.
Right?
Well, Jesus never said to you do you, um,
you know what, that would be a great t-shirt.
You know me.
I mean, we've, we've got very serious and very deep, but these are, these are life
and death matters, aren't they, really?
Yeah.
Um, and, and really it's about having that posture and, and
I I, I see that in your life.
I see in Will's life.
I hope people see it in my life.
That posture of saying, all I want to do is try to understand, um, God's
word, who he is as best I can, and faithfully use that as the standard that
I try and measure my life up against.
Yeah.
That, that's what we're trying to do.
No very well put, very well put.
Well, I think we've, uh, we've, we've had a very good conversation.
Feels like two minutes, John, but apparently we're almost outta time.
It just goes by so quick.
So let me just say, lemme just say Matt, because of the passage.
I would really encourage people watching this at any time if you're
watching it live or some other time.
Uh, when you finish watching it, just find some space on your own and say, uh,
holy Spirit, could you do that for me?
Yeah.
Could you fill me like you filled those people?
Could you come and touch my life and begin transforming my life in that way?
Uh, and let us know how you get on.
Yeah.
Um, because I, I know that that is a Prayer that God wants to answer.
Yeah, absolutely, totally agree with you.
And as you go through the story, and as Peter quotes Joel, you see that he
breaks down gender bias, he breaks down racial bias, he breaks down class bias.
There's no excuse.
There's age.
Yeah.
The young, the old, they're all thrown in, aren't they?
So, um, everything's broken down in this one sermon and it is available for you.
And that's one of the things that came out in Will's talk, isn't it?
And I think Yes, you, that includes you.
And so, um, yeah, I think that's a great Prayer to pray.
Like John has been praying.
Holy Spirit, would you come touch me today?
Like you did the disciples back in Pentecost.
Would you come?
Can I, and help me to lead a life which is, uh, right and aligned to you.
I think it's, you know, take me your way.
Take me your path.
They're brave prayers to pray, uh, because you never know what God's got in mind.
Just pointing that out.
Um, but yeah, it's, it is awesome, man.
John, listen, next week, right?
Um, We have you speaking according to my notes.
So we're taking a slight, we're pausing slightly on the Acts series and we are
doing what we call, uh, a now word.
It's, it's basically where you and I on the odd occasion just go, I
think we should just talk about this, just feel like God's impressing
on me to talk about this topic.
Um, whereas the whole Acts series is very, you kind of dictated, you know,
what the, what's the next passage is.
So just give us a brief, a brief glimpse into what is coming next week.
It's something that's really been on my heart.
It touches on some of the things we've been talking about.
But if we were to ask the question, what is the present
moment that we're living in like?
What, what is the world like at the moment and how do we live well in the world?
Um, has the world changed at all over the past 2, 5, 10 years?
What is the, what are the characteristics of this landscape
that we find ourselves in?
And what does it mean to live well within that landscape?
That, that's really what I, I want to touch on.
And again, just to try to bring some biblical perspective and truth into that
perspective, uh, into that question.
Oh, yes.
You're not gonna wanna miss that.
Ladies and gentlemen, we know it's gonna be good cuz, um, I mean, John, love you.
You're an awesome dude, and you are one of the best Bible teachers that I know.
So, uh, do come and listen to it.
It's gonna be, it's gonna be epic.
Yes, it is.
So thanks for joining us tonight.
Matt's put here in the comments, uh, join us again next week.
I'm just reading Matt's, in fact, let me put it up on the screen
because you know Matt does a much better job at this than I do.
Uh, thanks for joining us tonight.
Join us again next week at 6:00 PM gmt.
As John Harding brings us his now word.
What Matt has not done in his comment, which surprises me is reminded me
to tell you that we have midweek groups as well, which meet on Zoom.
So if you'd like to connect with us, uh, at Crowd Church, you can do that.
Uh, there, the web link is on your screen.
You can reach us at www.crowd.church if you're listening to the audio.
Um, connect with us through that and we will let you know
about the midweek groups.
Uh, we would love to see you there if you wanna get into these small
groups that John's been talking about.
Uh, Anya says, thank you so much.
Uh, that was amazing conversation.
Great.
Uh, thanks Anya for watching.
And, um, yeah, wherever you are, have a fantastic week.
Uh, I'll be back next week.
John will be back next week, and so will,
I'll be back next week.
Yeah, yeah.
We've got, we've got it all going on.
So John, anything else from you in closing, bro?
Uh, just a pleasure and, uh, just pray they have another great rest of their day.
Yeah, absolutely.
Have a fantastic rest of the day, wherever you are and, thanks so much for joining.
God bless you guys.
Do pray that Prayer about the Holy Spirit.
Uh, you will not be disappointed and just see what he does in your life.
Um, and like I said, me, John and Anna will be back next week.
God bless you.
Bye for now.
Thank you so much for joining us here on Crowd Church.
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Bye for now.