Spirit Filled; Community – 160325
Spirit Filled – Community
Acts 5:1-16
Over the last 2 weeks your Spirt-filled preaching series has focussed on:
- The characteristics of a spirit-filled life
- The characteristics of a spirit-filled church
Today we’re looking at a spirit-filled community.
What happens what God is doing in you & me > impacts what God is doing in us > impacts what God wants to out there.
So to ensure we are all on the same page
What would a Spirt-filled Neath & Aberafan look like?
Increases:
- Salvation
- Healing
- Kindness
Decreases:
- Loneliness
- Poverty
- Crime
- Divorce
- Abuse
- Homelessness
- Racism
That’s the Goal, not to fill the church have nice services → God is transforming your communities of this land.
Acts 5, show us 3 characteristics of a spirit-filled community.
- An increased sense of the Holiness of God
v13 – No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. Nether less, more & more Men+ Women beloved in the Lord & were added to their number.
Seems like a contradiction:
Why were people scared to join the Christians: Death of Jesus, threat of authorities, fear of Jewish leadens, Ananias & Sapphura (fear of the L0rd)
Yet people came.
→ Spirit-filled Community is a community where there is an increased sense of the Holiness/Presence of G0d.
Like in Acts 5 – doesn’t join, but can’t help myself.
A story of how revival came to Dowlais in 1904…
A village near had a school teacher in Dowlais. A man called T.C heard Evan Roberts relevant preaching. Thomas went into Dowlais and caught fire → Caught the coal miners train home arriving at 9:45pM just as the pubs were closing .
So filled with God he couldn’t go home. He came out of the train station on a cobbled street, got down on his knees & began to sing praises to God. People came out of the pubs/billard halls. They came to see what was going on. On his knees singing / tears streaming singing of the blood of Jesus. People came around making a crowd. One man with a beer glass in his hand, got on his knees & joined T.C Thomas then another before dozens joined. Soon 100,00 people would be saved in Wales.
Pubs closed, magistrates had no cases to hear, Pits didn’t have to respond to miners who stopped swearing at them, families were transformed.
An increased sense of the Holiness of God.
Recently nice Sunny days like today, can create problems:
It reveals things you wouldn’t see:
- windows need cleaning
- shelves need dusting
- see shafts of light, picking
up dust particles
Spring cleaning, same in our lives.
To have an increased Awareness of Holiness of God.
John 3 – 19 – 21
Everyone who does evil hates the light. But everyone who lives by the truth comes into the light.
Behaviours that I have tolerated are suddenly exposed
Acts 2: 37
→ Spirit-filled Community
→ Exteriorised by an increased Sense of the Holiness of G0đ.
2. An Increased sense of the Hope of God.
Romans 15:13
What our world needs now – More than anything else is HOPE.
What Neath needs now is HOPE in Jesus.
When something Overflows it impacts it’s surroundings.
3. An increase in the activity of God
There was healings, miracles, salvation seen.