WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.520 Now, we're going to zoom in on Acts 9 verse 31, and we're just going to work our way through 00:00:06.520 --> 00:00:09.359 that text together during this time. 00:00:09.359 --> 00:00:15.359 Now the name of the sermon, the title, is the Conditions of Christian Health and Growth. 00:00:15.359 --> 00:00:22.240 And I am aware that it's about as exciting as a manual for how to grow potatoes. 00:00:22.240 --> 00:00:26.039 But here's why I think we need this. 00:00:26.039 --> 00:00:33.679 Because we assume that these conditions that we're in now are the conditions of fatigue 00:00:33.679 --> 00:00:38.200 and decay. 00:00:38.200 --> 00:00:43.620 But God is saying to us this evening, I can work with this. 00:00:43.620 --> 00:00:50.960 Because we, the Christian church, we are a tree which absolutely thrives in the harshest 00:00:50.960 --> 00:00:58.120 of conditions because our roots go deep into the living waters of Christ himself. 00:00:58.120 --> 00:01:04.200 So as the church, and deep in our hearts, we can thrive when all the world wants us 00:01:04.200 --> 00:01:07.960 to keep silent about Jesus. 00:01:07.960 --> 00:01:13.439 When we're tempted to divide and to point the finger, but we look to Jesus instead for 00:01:13.439 --> 00:01:16.359 unity. 00:01:16.359 --> 00:01:22.760 When we're confronted by our own prejudices, but we look to Jesus for reconciliation, we 00:01:22.760 --> 00:01:24.840 can thrive. 00:01:24.840 --> 00:01:30.079 In other words, Jesus is with us so we can face anything. 00:01:30.079 --> 00:01:35.400 A friend of mine likes to say it this way, King Jesus is on his throne and everything 00:01:35.400 --> 00:01:38.799 is going his way. 00:01:38.799 --> 00:01:45.239 So let's go through Acts 9.31, just phrase by phrase, and kind of squeeze the gospel 00:01:45.239 --> 00:01:47.359 juice out of it together. 00:01:47.359 --> 00:01:51.239 So starting with the first bit, let me read the whole verse and then we'll zoom in. 00:01:51.239 --> 00:01:56.719 So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built 00:01:56.719 --> 00:02:05.919 up and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied. 00:02:05.919 --> 00:02:09.840 So let's look at the phrase, the church. 00:02:09.840 --> 00:02:17.280 Now for Christians today and Christians throughout history, disunity and discord and division, 00:02:17.280 --> 00:02:21.159 they come as naturally to us as breathing. 00:02:21.159 --> 00:02:28.159 We actually look for reasons to divide rather than reasons to come together. 00:02:28.159 --> 00:02:32.319 When left to ourselves, we're like a bunch of drowning people out together in the ocean 00:02:32.319 --> 00:02:36.920 where we kind of push down the heads of the people around us as we try to stay afloat 00:02:36.919 --> 00:02:42.479 because we all actually think that we have to push others down if we want to be lifted 00:02:42.479 --> 00:02:43.759 up. 00:02:43.759 --> 00:02:50.479 If that weren't so, why would we struggle so much with gossip and slander and that sort 00:02:50.479 --> 00:02:56.000 of pointed tribalism where it's all us and them and we point over at them and vilify 00:02:56.000 --> 00:02:58.399 them? 00:02:58.399 --> 00:03:03.239 And of course, this is what sin does, sin always does this in us. 00:03:03.240 --> 00:03:08.040 All the way back at the beginning, Genesis chapter 3, God says to Adam, what have you 00:03:08.040 --> 00:03:10.439 done and what does Adam say? 00:03:10.439 --> 00:03:14.360 No, it was the woman you gave me. 00:03:14.360 --> 00:03:20.680 Sin convinces us that we need to push other people down to be lifted up. 00:03:20.680 --> 00:03:26.120 And when our failings are visible and when we fall short, we just feel the need to throw 00:03:26.120 --> 00:03:29.439 other people under the bus. 00:03:29.439 --> 00:03:34.680 Now at the church level, we do this too, but at the church level, we think that we have 00:03:34.680 --> 00:03:36.439 the monopoly on truth. 00:03:36.439 --> 00:03:40.639 Every tradition struggles with that kind of temptation. 00:03:40.639 --> 00:03:47.120 Now accuracy matters, doctrine matters, and it accuracy matters more the more majestic 00:03:47.120 --> 00:03:49.180 the thing that you're talking about. 00:03:49.180 --> 00:03:53.120 So what we believe about God is really important. 00:03:53.120 --> 00:03:54.599 Don't get me wrong. 00:03:54.599 --> 00:04:00.560 But if we think that we've exhausted the knowledge of God, if we think we have a corner on that 00:04:00.560 --> 00:04:06.719 market, then we end up training ourselves to look at other gatherings of believers from 00:04:06.719 --> 00:04:11.759 other backgrounds and other ethnicities and other perspectives and tell them, we just don't 00:04:11.759 --> 00:04:13.519 need you. 00:04:13.519 --> 00:04:17.839 You don't add anything to us. 00:04:17.839 --> 00:04:23.639 That's not working out very well for my home country right now. 00:04:23.639 --> 00:04:28.599 Just like one eye saying to the other eye, I can see just fine without you. 00:04:28.599 --> 00:04:29.599 Thanks very much. 00:04:29.599 --> 00:04:34.120 Now of course, with just one eye, we can see accurately. 00:04:34.120 --> 00:04:39.360 It's possible, but we can't see with depth and with perspective. 00:04:39.360 --> 00:04:42.319 We need both eyes for that. 00:04:42.319 --> 00:04:50.240 So disunity, division, discord, it's our gut impulse as fallen human beings. 00:04:50.240 --> 00:04:59.480 But Jesus, the sinless Son of God, spilled his blood to create one new man. 00:04:59.480 --> 00:05:06.920 He died to bring one new people into existence made up of all peoples. 00:05:06.920 --> 00:05:10.400 That's how the new people of God works. 00:05:10.400 --> 00:05:17.519 John 17 is probably the most beautiful and deep prayer recorded in Scripture. 00:05:17.519 --> 00:05:21.839 This is praying to the Father for us. 00:05:21.839 --> 00:05:27.399 And the heartbeat of that prayer is that we would be one, that we would have the same 00:05:27.399 --> 00:05:34.879 oneness that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit have. 00:05:34.879 --> 00:05:41.279 So unity of the church matters. 00:05:41.279 --> 00:05:48.119 There's no accident that when Luke looks out, by the way, Luke wrote the book of Acts and 00:05:48.119 --> 00:05:49.559 the Gospel's Luke. 00:05:49.559 --> 00:05:54.479 And when Luke looks out at Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, three different geographical 00:05:54.479 --> 00:06:00.119 regions, and he looks at all the little churches in different homes spread out throughout there, 00:06:00.119 --> 00:06:03.559 he says the church. 00:06:03.559 --> 00:06:08.199 Definite article, the church singular. 00:06:08.199 --> 00:06:14.680 Not a church and not the churches, the church. 00:06:14.680 --> 00:06:17.479 Because this is Jesus' church. 00:06:17.479 --> 00:06:24.079 And when we entrust our causes and ourselves and our churches to the hands of Christ, what 00:06:24.079 --> 00:06:27.199 results is not fractioning and dividing. 00:06:27.199 --> 00:06:30.439 Jesus unifies his church. 00:06:30.439 --> 00:06:35.919 And our unity matters because God is one. 00:06:35.920 --> 00:06:40.920 And Jesus is drawing us into the heart of the Trinity as it were, which is unified. 00:06:40.920 --> 00:06:46.120 You can't get more unity than the Trinity has. 00:06:46.120 --> 00:06:52.879 But let's not mistake unity for glib agreement. 00:06:52.879 --> 00:06:55.340 Jesus draws lines for his church. 00:06:55.340 --> 00:07:00.000 And we exist, we work, we operate within the boundaries that Jesus has set. 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:07.079 Otherwise, Acts would not be full of examples of religious people trying to kill Christians. 00:07:07.079 --> 00:07:12.680 Wishi washi people do not get targets on their backs. 00:07:12.680 --> 00:07:17.199 Glib agreement is ugly and shallow. 00:07:17.199 --> 00:07:23.639 But profound godly unity is beautiful and attractive. 00:07:23.639 --> 00:07:27.639 And it's a gift from Jesus. 00:07:27.639 --> 00:07:35.639 So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, and now we come to our next phrase, 00:07:35.639 --> 00:07:39.120 had peace. 00:07:39.120 --> 00:07:43.519 Now if you're really on top of your ancient Israelite history, you'll know that Judea 00:07:43.519 --> 00:07:51.399 and Samaria have not had peace together for a very long time, many centuries. 00:07:51.399 --> 00:07:59.000 It started as kind of an intense rivalry way back in the days of Solomon's son, Rehoboam, 00:07:59.000 --> 00:08:09.599 ended up as racism and hatred, real hatred, so that when Jesus tells the story of the 00:08:09.599 --> 00:08:15.519 good Samaritan, it's radical that the Samaritan would be the good person. 00:08:15.519 --> 00:08:22.479 And so that when Jesus encounters a woman at the well, his disciples are surprised that 00:08:22.479 --> 00:08:27.159 he would even speak to a Samaritan. 00:08:27.159 --> 00:08:35.000 There was peace with Judea, backwater Galilee, and Samaria, and that kind of healing, that 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:36.559 kind of peace. 00:08:36.559 --> 00:08:39.720 Well, that's how the gospel comes into our hearts. 00:08:39.720 --> 00:08:44.519 That's how the gospel comes into our communities, into our cities, and into our nations, as 00:08:44.519 --> 00:08:51.399 Jesus comes in and he lays his hands on the wounds of our prejudices, and he begins to 00:08:51.399 --> 00:08:55.519 give us peace. 00:08:55.519 --> 00:09:01.039 There's a great line from Return of the King by Jarrah Tolkan that says, the hands of 00:09:01.039 --> 00:09:05.399 the king are the hands of a healer. 00:09:05.399 --> 00:09:12.980 We will never have that kind of healing and peace with one another until we really see 00:09:12.980 --> 00:09:20.840 that Jesus bought us with his blood that kind of peace with God. 00:09:20.840 --> 00:09:23.279 Because peace is costly. 00:09:23.279 --> 00:09:25.639 Someone's got to pay the bill. 00:09:25.639 --> 00:09:32.560 So you and I cannot pay the bill for others unless we really understand and apprehend 00:09:32.560 --> 00:09:40.320 the fact that Jesus had paid our unpayable bill with God. 00:09:40.320 --> 00:09:46.760 So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace, and next phrase was 00:09:46.760 --> 00:09:51.440 being built up. 00:09:51.440 --> 00:09:56.000 One of the things I really enjoy about the Bible is it's kind of like standing out over 00:09:56.000 --> 00:09:57.840 a scenic mountain range. 00:09:57.840 --> 00:10:03.160 You can take in the whole view and admire the beauty all at once, or you can go exploring 00:10:03.160 --> 00:10:08.560 and kind of explore every nook and cranny and crevice. 00:10:08.559 --> 00:10:14.000 And the Bible's nooks and crannies are just as rich and satisfying and important as the 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:16.000 big picture view. 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:18.279 Even grammar matters. 00:10:18.279 --> 00:10:22.239 So let's talk about grammar for just a second here. 00:10:22.239 --> 00:10:25.039 The church was being built up. 00:10:25.039 --> 00:10:26.959 It doesn't say the church built itself up. 00:10:26.959 --> 00:10:28.799 This building didn't build itself. 00:10:28.799 --> 00:10:30.879 This is in the passive voice. 00:10:30.879 --> 00:10:37.639 The church was the recipient of God's gracious work of building them up. 00:10:37.639 --> 00:10:42.679 Jesus is the architect, and the church is a construction project. 00:10:42.679 --> 00:10:48.799 Jesus is the builder, and we are the stones that he's putting together. 00:10:48.799 --> 00:10:53.559 So now we're beginning to see how Jesus works with his church. 00:10:53.559 --> 00:10:58.799 He does his best work in the face of the greatest opposition. 00:10:58.799 --> 00:11:02.879 So we've seen that Jesus gives unity when our impulse is to divide, that Jesus gives 00:11:02.879 --> 00:11:05.200 peace where there's only animosity. 00:11:05.200 --> 00:11:11.320 And now we see that Jesus built his church when all the world is trying to tear it down. 00:11:11.320 --> 00:11:18.560 For this newly formed church, it was a day of trouble, of opposition, of death, death 00:11:18.560 --> 00:11:22.320 threats, persecution. 00:11:22.320 --> 00:11:26.000 But Jesus is building his church. 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:28.040 And at the end of the verse it says it did what? 00:11:28.040 --> 00:11:29.040 It multiplied. 00:11:29.040 --> 00:11:32.040 He's a good builder. 00:11:32.039 --> 00:11:39.199 Friends, who else can we turn to in our day of trouble? 00:11:39.199 --> 00:11:43.439 When the world is trying to tear us down, when the enemy would set our hearts against 00:11:43.439 --> 00:11:53.240 our brothers and sisters, when our very understanding of morality is brought into question and we 00:11:53.240 --> 00:12:00.279 feel that we don't even know where to put our feet down, who could we turn to but Jesus? 00:12:00.279 --> 00:12:09.799 Only he can grow us and grow his church and make it thrive under those sorts of conditions. 00:12:09.799 --> 00:12:14.639 So we've looked at three things that Jesus gives the church. 00:12:14.639 --> 00:12:20.360 But the church's response, the church's participation in that is not inactive and placid. 00:12:20.360 --> 00:12:21.639 We do have work to do. 00:12:21.639 --> 00:12:26.980 So let's transition now for a moment and talk about what the church does. 00:12:26.980 --> 00:12:30.960 So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built 00:12:30.960 --> 00:12:38.000 up and walking in the fear of the Lord. 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:43.960 When the Bible talks about walking like this, it's talking about manner of life. 00:12:43.960 --> 00:12:49.360 It's talking about the way that you live your life. 00:12:49.360 --> 00:12:53.440 So thinking, let's think about that for a minute together. 00:12:53.440 --> 00:12:58.520 They're not just thinking in the fear of the Lord. 00:12:58.520 --> 00:13:04.680 They're not just, so they did have good theology, but it's not just about good theology. 00:13:04.680 --> 00:13:07.680 And they're not just feeling the fear of the Lord. 00:13:07.680 --> 00:13:10.360 At times they will certainly have a sense of the fear of the Lord. 00:13:10.360 --> 00:13:15.080 I imagine when the Spirit descended with tongues of flame at Pentecost, there was a sense of 00:13:15.080 --> 00:13:18.220 awe that came about here. 00:13:18.220 --> 00:13:27.480 But they were walking in this reverent awe-inspired fear of the Lord. 00:13:27.480 --> 00:13:32.920 Now our hearts have a single serving capacity for this kind of fear. 00:13:32.920 --> 00:13:37.120 One fear ultimately will drive out another. 00:13:37.120 --> 00:13:39.759 So this is a weird illustration, but bear with me. 00:13:39.759 --> 00:13:43.360 Let's say that you're walking through the Amazon jungle and you're deathly afraid of 00:13:43.360 --> 00:13:44.800 bugs. 00:13:44.799 --> 00:13:49.240 And as you're walking, all you can think about is just the buzzing and humming of all these 00:13:49.240 --> 00:13:54.639 insects that are out to get your blood and pass on some crazy disease. 00:13:54.639 --> 00:13:59.199 But then you hear the low rumble of a tiger. 00:13:59.199 --> 00:14:03.439 How's your fear of the bugs now? 00:14:03.439 --> 00:14:08.759 The greater object of fear will drive out the lesser object. 00:14:08.759 --> 00:14:16.200 We don't really have room in our hearts to give the same level of attention to both. 00:14:16.200 --> 00:14:23.559 Now the church had such a clear view of the power and majesty of God that there was no 00:14:23.559 --> 00:14:27.080 room to fear anything else. 00:14:27.080 --> 00:14:31.080 We know this to be true about the early church. 00:14:31.080 --> 00:14:35.899 They faced down lions in the arena while singing psalms with smiles on their faces. 00:14:35.899 --> 00:14:38.600 What kind of people can do that? 00:14:38.600 --> 00:14:41.960 People who walk in the fear of the Lord. 00:14:41.960 --> 00:14:46.840 Friends, that's something to pray for. 00:14:46.840 --> 00:14:52.360 A bigger, clearer view of the power and majesty of God. 00:14:52.360 --> 00:15:00.759 We would do well to devote some time praying for that, for our hearts, for our church. 00:15:00.759 --> 00:15:07.560 What couldn't God do with the church that had that kind of clarity and perspective? 00:15:07.559 --> 00:15:12.959 So to walk in the fear of the Lord is to live our lives basically like God is who He says 00:15:12.959 --> 00:15:13.959 He is. 00:15:13.959 --> 00:15:18.399 It's to live like Jesus is real. 00:15:18.399 --> 00:15:26.199 That church acted like Jesus was with them because He was. 00:15:26.199 --> 00:15:30.719 And they acted like Jesus was for them because He was. 00:15:30.719 --> 00:15:33.119 And that's walking in the fear of the Lord. 00:15:33.120 --> 00:15:37.759 So ultimately, what can coronavirus do to us? 00:15:37.759 --> 00:15:41.320 It can take our health. 00:15:41.320 --> 00:15:45.080 It can take our health, but we're going to live forever. 00:15:45.080 --> 00:15:51.480 It can take away our ability to socialize, but we have a friend who's nearer, more intimate 00:15:51.480 --> 00:15:56.440 with us than any human could ever be. 00:15:56.440 --> 00:16:03.200 The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Jesus because He is Christ with us. 00:16:03.200 --> 00:16:09.720 He brings the presence of Christ into our very internal experience. 00:16:09.720 --> 00:16:13.000 So what can the world do to us? 00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:18.240 We can walk in the fear of the Lord when we realize that the one who can create and destroy 00:16:18.240 --> 00:16:25.920 a universe with a word looks you in the eye and says, I love you, and I'm for you, and 00:16:25.919 --> 00:16:28.439 I'll be with you. 00:16:28.439 --> 00:16:31.439 And it's going to end really well. 00:16:31.439 --> 00:16:35.479 And then He puts His money where His mouth is and He dies for you. 00:16:35.479 --> 00:16:39.559 That's how we get fear of the Lord. 00:16:39.559 --> 00:16:45.159 The prophet Isaiah says, the fear of the Lord is the treasure of Zion. 00:16:45.159 --> 00:16:47.039 It's treasure. 00:16:47.039 --> 00:16:48.599 It's precious. 00:16:48.599 --> 00:16:53.000 In chapter 33, he says that we walk in the fear of the Lord, and here's what God does 00:16:53.000 --> 00:16:55.439 with that fear. 00:16:55.440 --> 00:17:02.400 He says, quote, He will fill Zion with justice and righteousness, and He will be the stability 00:17:02.400 --> 00:17:12.360 of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. 00:17:12.360 --> 00:17:22.720 So that leads us to the next section, the last section, in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. 00:17:22.720 --> 00:17:28.920 So Acts is called Acts because of a very longstanding Christian tradition that titled this book 00:17:28.920 --> 00:17:32.519 The Acts of the Apostles. 00:17:32.519 --> 00:17:39.880 It's probably better that we think about the book in terms of the Acts of Jesus. 00:17:39.880 --> 00:17:42.799 The book begins by recording the ascension of Jesus. 00:17:42.799 --> 00:17:48.299 He went into heaven, He sat down on the throne, and He began to rule and reign, and He said 00:17:48.299 --> 00:17:53.039 to His disciples, it's to your advantage that I go, because then I can send the Holy 00:17:53.039 --> 00:17:55.200 Spirit. 00:17:55.200 --> 00:18:01.200 Now who among us actually believes that? 00:18:01.200 --> 00:18:05.559 I mean if we had the option right now of Jesus with us or Jesus in heaven and the Spirit 00:18:05.559 --> 00:18:10.879 with us, I think we'd all probably choose Jesus, but Jesus didn't think that way. 00:18:10.880 --> 00:18:18.480 Because we overlook the profound reality of who He really is, of who the Spirit really 00:18:18.480 --> 00:18:19.480 is. 00:18:19.480 --> 00:18:24.640 He's the Spirit of Jesus, and Jesus sent Him to us so that He could be with us in a more 00:18:24.640 --> 00:18:29.120 profound way than we ever could have imagined before. 00:18:29.120 --> 00:18:32.960 So Jesus is more profoundly here now. 00:18:32.960 --> 00:18:40.320 He's more profoundly near to us than He ever could have been with His feet on the soil in 00:18:40.319 --> 00:18:43.720 the Middle East. 00:18:43.720 --> 00:18:50.859 So through His Holy Spirit, Jesus comforts and encourages us, especially in the face 00:18:50.859 --> 00:18:54.799 of opposition and difficult times. 00:18:54.799 --> 00:19:00.439 So when the disciples were small and they had no reason to expect real tremendous growth, 00:19:00.439 --> 00:19:04.319 you know, missionary work seemed ridiculous to a small gathering of people in an upper 00:19:04.319 --> 00:19:10.240 room, it's in that condition that the Holy Spirit fell on them with power. 00:19:10.240 --> 00:19:15.920 Giving them the ability to speak in a multitude of other languages, and 3,000 people were 00:19:15.920 --> 00:19:21.400 added to their number that day, and the mission of the church began, and it took off. 00:19:21.400 --> 00:19:23.000 That's what the Holy Spirit does. 00:19:23.000 --> 00:19:28.039 When the disciples faced the threat of prison and order from the government to keep silent, 00:19:28.039 --> 00:19:35.640 they prayed and the ground shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and 00:19:35.640 --> 00:19:40.079 they continued to speak the word of God with boldness. 00:19:40.079 --> 00:19:44.480 Then we could go on and on and talk about how the Holy Spirit practically, in just the 00:19:44.480 --> 00:19:51.759 book of Acts alone, comforts and encourages the church. 00:19:51.759 --> 00:19:53.720 But we can sum it up this way. 00:19:53.720 --> 00:19:57.399 Jesus comforts the church through His Holy Spirit. 00:19:57.399 --> 00:19:58.399 Let me rephrase that. 00:19:58.399 --> 00:20:06.039 The Holy Spirit comforts the church by making Jesus real to us. 00:20:06.039 --> 00:20:13.319 He does that through the ordinary means of grace, through sermons, through prayer, through 00:20:13.319 --> 00:20:20.920 Scripture, through our very peace and unity together, through our strengthening as a body 00:20:20.920 --> 00:20:22.960 together. 00:20:22.960 --> 00:20:28.639 Jesus has made real to us, through us. 00:20:28.639 --> 00:20:29.639 The author J.I. 00:20:29.639 --> 00:20:35.240 Packer gives us a really helpful illustration, and you may have heard it before, but it never 00:20:35.240 --> 00:20:37.120 gets worn out for me. 00:20:37.120 --> 00:20:40.559 He likens the Holy Spirit to a floodlight. 00:20:40.559 --> 00:20:46.759 So if you go, imagine the Scottish National Gallery were not under construction perpetually, 00:20:46.759 --> 00:20:49.599 and you were to go and walk down there at night, and you would see these floodlights 00:20:49.599 --> 00:20:52.400 illuminating the building. 00:20:52.400 --> 00:20:55.599 That's what the Spirit does to Jesus. 00:20:55.599 --> 00:20:59.839 His job, His work is to illuminate Jesus for us. 00:20:59.839 --> 00:21:07.079 He applies the life and death of Jesus to our life. 00:21:07.079 --> 00:21:12.000 In such a way that in 2 Corinthians, Paul says that we share in Jesus' suffering and 00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:16.679 we share in His comfort through the Holy Spirit. 00:21:16.679 --> 00:21:21.240 Now, that kind of illumination, what am I talking about? 00:21:21.240 --> 00:21:30.319 Well, don't you know the difference between knowing the gospel and knowing the gospel? 00:21:30.319 --> 00:21:31.480 Do you know what I mean? 00:21:31.480 --> 00:21:36.200 It's the difference between hearing a message one day and being unmoved, although apprehend, 00:21:36.200 --> 00:21:40.759 like understanding it, and hearing it the next day and having your life, your world, 00:21:40.759 --> 00:21:45.640 changed and turned upside down from the inside out. 00:21:45.640 --> 00:21:48.559 Don't you know that experience? 00:21:48.559 --> 00:21:52.679 In the 18th century, Charles Wesley, who was one of the founders of the Methodist movement, 00:21:52.679 --> 00:21:59.639 brother to John Wesley, he wrote one of the most beautiful hymns, and he talks about this, 00:21:59.639 --> 00:22:06.639 about the wonder and awe and beauty of the Christian experience and the work of the Comforter. 00:22:06.639 --> 00:22:12.639 He says, Long my imprisoned spirit lay, Fast bound in sin and nature's night, Thine eye 00:22:12.640 --> 00:22:20.560 defused a quickening ray, I woke, The dungeon flamed with light, My chains fell off, My 00:22:20.560 --> 00:22:27.800 heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed thee. 00:22:27.800 --> 00:22:30.640 That's the comfort of the Holy Spirit. 00:22:30.640 --> 00:22:35.640 It's the difference between our spirit laying imprisoned in darkness in the night of our 00:22:35.640 --> 00:22:40.320 souls and our dungeon flaming with light. 00:22:40.319 --> 00:22:50.319 Our shackles falling off, the spirit illuminates Jesus and makes him real to us. 00:22:50.319 --> 00:22:58.439 If Jesus were so near to a struggling church then, he will be near to us now. 00:22:58.439 --> 00:23:06.079 If there was so much comfort to be had in trying times, there's comfort to be had now, 00:23:06.079 --> 00:23:09.480 it's the same Jesus. 00:23:09.480 --> 00:23:16.000 So let's go to him now, and let's pray. 00:23:16.000 --> 00:23:25.400 Lord, I feel kind of like I have to sit down after reading this and letting it land on 00:23:25.400 --> 00:23:32.559 me by your grace, because when I read the conditions and acts, I don't see a church thriving. 00:23:32.559 --> 00:23:37.799 I can't imagine that being the case, but it does, and we are testimony to your faithfulness 00:23:37.799 --> 00:23:41.159 to the church back then and to us now. 00:23:41.159 --> 00:23:49.200 Against all odds, Lord, we praise you for your strength and your power and your goodness. 00:23:49.200 --> 00:23:56.000 We're sorry for thinking small thoughts of you or not thinking of you often enough, and 00:23:56.000 --> 00:24:02.639 we turn to you now and understand that if we are to have unity, if we are to have peace 00:24:02.640 --> 00:24:08.480 and reconciliation, if we are to be built up, if we're to multiply, it will be at your 00:24:08.480 --> 00:24:11.800 gracious hand as a gift, and we ask you for those things now. 00:24:11.800 --> 00:24:18.000 Lord, give us unity in your church around the world. 00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:21.440 Soften our hearts toward our brothers and sisters. 00:24:21.440 --> 00:24:27.600 Help us to look for reasons to unite around the banner of Christ rather than to divide. 00:24:27.599 --> 00:24:35.119 And Lord, help us day to day to walk in the fear of the Lord and thank you for the comforts 00:24:35.119 --> 00:24:38.519 that you bring to us through your spirit. 00:24:38.519 --> 00:24:40.639 We ask this for the glory of Christ. 00:24:40.640 --> 00:24:58.640 Amen.