First week:
In the Apostle’s teaching/Breaking Bread/Prayer was central.
Second week:
Spending time together / Active in their society / worship was REAL
Third week: The CALL / The
STABILITY / & The PLAN: Work for the Harvest - GO / Evangelism
The Third
Awareness: Consciousness,
Alertness, or Responsiveness Of Church Life.
When
it comes to a directive from God, there are so many that really stand out. Of course, the Ten Commandments, “Love your
neighbor as you love yourself.” Acts 16:31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord
Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”
As
a Church—a Fellowship of Believers, what is the CORE factor? What is Number one? Let me suggest, for the purposes of this
series, that it is found in Acts 1:8.
Understanding the background of this passage, we can see that the Church
is about to grow. In truth, it will explode!
And it will go global. Not in the
sense of YouTube coverage but in the sense of God sending this message of God’s
Love and Forgiveness to the World of People.
Here is the CALL!
Acts 1:8 THE
CALL 召命 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit
comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and
Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 使徒の働き1:8 しかし、聖霊があなたがたの上に臨まれるとき、あなたがたは力を受けます。そして、エルサレム、ユダヤとサマリヤの全土、および地の果てにまで、わたしの証人となります。」
Acts 1:7~8 The Message: 7-8 He told them, “You don’t get to know the time.
Timing is the Father’s business. What you’ll get is the Holy Spirit. And when
the Holy Spirit comes on you, you will be able to be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
all over Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the world.”
Understanding the
background of this passage, we can see that the Church is about to grow. In truth, it will explode! And it will go global! Ni tin the sense of a YouTube coverage but in
the sense of God sending this message of God’s Love and Forgiveness to the
world of people. Here is the call! And it starts here at the local level.
What new is there to talk
about? Nothing really, just that we are
to remember that THAT CALL
was for the Church then…and for the Church NOW. We
need His Power to do that task. We need His Power to do that task. We need to be witnesses for Him. And we need to go. Starting in our Jerusalem and move that
influence out to the very edge of the world—so that ALL will know.
THE
CALL
is simple: we just need to respond.
But how can we? We got things to do here! We are busy with keeping the Home Fires
burning. Keeping our families in touch
with the Divine with our prayers and with our witness. Exactly.
Nothing will change from this
CALL. That is what we are to be doing as we stay at
home…but the effect will be that others who hear this call and see our
obedience will indeed go.
For example, over the years
here at ICCS, Kazuko Hayashi left
Tokorozawa and lived and ministered in Peru.
She learnt the language of the Quechua and she taught the mountain
people to read the Bible in their own language.
Later, Hiroko Yamashita left Japan and with her ability in speaking
Russian, she moved into the closed countries of the Middle East and effected
the Work of the Gospel among many—who would otherwise NOT hear the Gospel.
We were part of that
sending team. Both have returned to
Japan but BOTH are very much involved with keeping the Main thing of the Gospel
still the main thing.
Vidar Aronsen was part of us for a
season. Under his direction a number of
us went into a closed country to carry much needed Bibles to the Underground
Church. In one trip, the team hand
carried well over five tons of Bibles to contacts. We helped with a Bible School that trained
many young people to carry on the Work of spreading the Good News among their
own people. Now, that school is closed
but some of you are still giving aid to keep the Bibles going in!
Chieko Teshima spent some time here
serving the Lord as one of our translators.
She was called to help groups carry Bibles into a closed country. She
lived 'in country' for a while—learning the language. She got stopped a number of times yet she
keep going in.
JoJo Loh will be taking The Message
into Nepal later this Spring. She is one
of us. We will be/and have been helping
her with support and our prayers.
HiBA summer teams, Tsunami
Teams, Prayer quilts, hospital visitations, ALPHA, Neighborhood Bible Studies, SS, Ladies Bible Classes, Black Gospel, Christmas
Eve, SonRise Service…all have been part of our Church DNA. Some have stayed-others have gone. Some have been very proactive like Ken Nishiono who was baptized here and
now works in the Fukushima area. Lee, and Dan –both helping in their corner of
the world.
Others, like many of you,
are keeping the Gospel clear here at home.
Praying for your children, your spouse, your parents and your
friends.
The CALL is for us!
The
STABILITY
安定 is the on going process of the Local
Church. The need to keep in the Teaching
of the Apostles as we look at in out first week is still on the list of
important activates. Let’s look at
Ephesians 4:14-16 for some details:
Ephesians 4:14-16
The
STABILITY 14 Then we will no longer be infants,
tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of
teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful
scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in
love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of Him who is the
head, that is, Christ. 16 From Him the whole body, joined
and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in
love, as each part does its work.
エペソ人への手紙 ４:14-16 それは、私たちがもはや、子どもではなくて、人の悪巧みや、人を欺く悪賢い策略により、教えの風に吹き回されたり、波にもてあそばれたりすることがなく、15 むしろ、愛をもって真理を語り、あらゆる点において成長し、かしらなるキリストに達することができるためなのです。16 キリストによって、からだ全体は、一つ一つの部分がその力量にふさわしく働く力により、また、備えられたあらゆる結び目によって、しっかりと組み合わされ、結び合わされ, 成長して、愛のうちに建てられるのです。When we grow in Him, there is STABILITY.
So, as a Fellowship, we continue to strive to
be mature in our Faith. The development
of groups within the Church to carry this on is being worked on. Support those in charge and see your Faith
blossom. Be active in the day-to-day
running of ICCS as you pray daily for the Work of Christ among us. Don’t wait for others to start praying—start yourself
and ask others in the Family to join you in prayer. STABILITY of
the Body is found in the position of our hearts in prayer. We need to pray
for this work here. It can’t be looked
upon as a business, as a workstation.
ICCS is not a company with a board of directors and stockholders to
please. ICCS is a fellowship of
Believers who are called to worship the Living God in a systematic dependency
on the Power of the Holy Spirit. We HAVE
to depend on Him. This will not hold up
under the attacks of the evil one. We
need a stability that is based on PRAYER.
Get to it!
Be ready for the growth by being ready in prayer.
And now, The
PLAN
: 計画
Acts 6:7 The
PLAN So
the Word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly,
and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. 使徒の働き ６:7 こうして神のことばは、ますます広まって行き、エルサレムで、弟子の数が非常にふえて行った。そして、多くの祭司たちが次々に信仰に入った。
Acts 8:35 Then
Philip began with that very passage of
Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. 使徒の働き 8:35 ピリポは口を開き、この聖句から初めて、イエスのことを彼に宣べ伝えた。
There is a PLAN
for ICCS. Again, we have
decided that we want to continue the English emphasis of the Chapel—the
Internationalism. Along with that—keeping
the main thing of the Gospel the main Thing.
But the PLAN
is to see the Gospel spread.
For the Body to increase rapidly with all of us becoming obedient to the
Faith. That we would be about the task
of telling others the Good News about Jesus.
That the plan would be a contagious moving of God’s Spirit among us—so
that:
Acts 11:22-24 22 News
of this reached the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch.
23 When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and
encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts.
24 He was a good man, full of the
Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.
Acts 13:38, 41 38 “Therefore, my friends, I want
you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. 41 “‘Look, you scoffers, wonder and perish,
for I am going to do something in
your days that you would never believe, even if someone told you.’” The Message of God’s Grace would be seen like it had
never been seen before in Tokorozawa…in Saitama..—what about in our homes. It is part of His Promises:
Acts 13:47-48
47 For this is what the Lord
has commanded us:
“‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”
48 When the Gentiles heard this, they were
glad and honored the Word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal
life believed.
Again,
this is not THE only way to grow. Some
grow under the harsh hands of persecution.
Some grow under fire from the Enemy.
But
also, some do not grow and they pass away.
The PLAN is to grow. It might be
in numbers but it must be in the Spirit.
Look at these verses of the Growth of the Early Church:
Acts 16:5 5 So
the churches were strengthened in the faith
and grew daily in numbers.
Acts 18:26 26 He
began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him,
they invited him to their home and explained to him the Way of God more
adequately. Discipleship.
Acts 19:10 10 This
went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the
province of Asia heard the word of the Lord. Steady and always moving on!
Acts 20:28 28 Keep watch over yourselves and
all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God,
which He bought with His own blood. His Church/with His People—the way you and I I live
now so that there is a tomorrow.
Application: 適用: As we
look at our future, I would like very much for you to break into small groups
of NO MORE than four and pray along these lines I am going to present to
you. (I’d want you to feel comfortable
so if you want to move to the other side of the room, please do so.) We will be staying in these prayer groups
when we pray for Pakistan. Here is what
I’d like you to pray for…
When can you get together during the week to pray for the
Church? By phone, FB, email, in person…
What are some of the areas you are aware of
that need special prayer care?
Who can you invite to
–a Covered Dish, Bible Study, worship service, your home?
