Church was GOOD

So I went to church last night. As is to be expected, there was a much smaller crowd than usual, but still a great fervency in worship. According to a few different people at the church, that fervent worship is sort of a growing thing - apparently the church has not always been so passionate in their worship, but of late has sort of grown into it. It's a very encouraging thought!

But I digress...

The worship was good, but the sermon was fantastic! The pastor preached a sermon called "Jesus the Baptizer." His sermon was about the "Promise of the Holy Spirit/Baptism into the Holy Spirit." Now this church is unapologetically Pentecostal, so a sermon of this topic is to be expected from time to time. But unlike many Pentecostal churches, he didn't preach a sermon about tongues. Thank God! He preached the true message of the Holy Spirit, took us to more scriptures than I really had time to follow, and made an argument for the doctrine of the subsequent filling of the Holy Spirit that few classically trained theologians would have been able to argue.

Here's the basics of what he preached:

1. We receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit at the time of salvation. 1Cor. 12:13. From this time the Holy Spirit is in us, abiding with us.

2. The baptism into the Holy Spirit is a separate event in the believer's life where the Holy Spirit comes upon them. Luke 24:49. It is through this experience that the recipient receives power to live for God, to do the work of God, etc. The early Pentecostal slogan was "Power for service."

He took us to several scriptures in the Old Testament in which we observe Holy Spirit coming upon someone, and they immediately begin prophesying. The sheer volume of scriptures he was able to produce to show this was staggering. The basic point he was making, is that the Holy Spirit doesn't come quietly upon a person. When all the power, all the holiness, all the virtue of God in the Spirit falls upon a person, somethings gotta' give!

Well, I don't want to recreate the message, but it was great. He did ultimately get around to the tongues issue, which is frankly necessary for good Bible exposition since tongues is an integral part of the experience of receiving the Holy Spirit in the New Testament (cf. Acts 2:4, Acts 10:44-46, Acts 19:6). But his emphasis was on the power issue. We need more of God's power in our lives, and this is how God ordained that we should have it. He concluded the message with a very practical exhortation to the church to 'yeild to the Spirit.' That when the Spirit begins to move, don't resist, but give in. He talked about the importance of Jesus becoming more real in our lives, of God's presence manifested more in our lives. It was profound...

I had a good time at church yesterday...