Awakening
Awakening • Sermon • Submitted
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Awakening Sermon Columbia Grace Men's Retreat
Story of Billy Graham at John Wesley house
We see in this story what it takes not only for a great awakening but also for a personal awakening and I'm going to add revival also. It takes someone with a burden to be more Christ like in their own life and that burden to be more like Jesus always leads to a burden to see others not only come to Jesus but also to see Luke warm fires fanned into white hot flames. Then it takes seeking God in prayer and fervently, passionately Praying to see God move personally and corporately. It takes someone understanding that we need to constantly be seeking a fresh anointing a fresh filling a fresh awakening of the Holy Spirit so that we can live the way the Bible teaches us to live so that we be who God calls us to be and do what God calls us to do. See we have to be to do. The sermon on the mount talks about the BE attitudes that is the attitude of being, once we become Men of God we are then enabled to do what Christ calls us men of God to do. For example I don't study the word of God to preach I study the word of God to live and by living it out through the power of the Holy Spirit I then am enabled to preach it. Notice it takes the power of the Holy Spirit to enable and empower me to live how God instructs us to live and listen we all can be full and our cup running over with the Holy Spirit but our cup leaks and that means we need to have a awakening a fresh anointing and filling , it's not just a one time thing. So let's take a look at
John 20:21-22 Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you. As the Father has sent me, I also send you.”22After saying this, he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
John 20:21-22 Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you. As the Father has sent me, I also send you.”22After saying this, he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
This is John's version of the Great Commission. You have Jesus breathing on the disciples imparting the Holy Spirit prior to the day of pentecost. First, this is the breath of the new creation. There is no Jew on the planet that would have heard this and not immediately thought of Genesis 2:7. In Genesis 2:7, God forms the man and woman, and he breathes into them the holy spirit. He breathes the ruah of God the spirit of God into us and makes us living beings. Here, he breathes again. This time, it is the breath of the new creation. This is almost like a second creation account but now it is the new creation under a new covenant. Also notice that before Jesus sent the disciples out He gave them the Holy Spirit and before He sent out the entire 120 from the upper room He gave them the Holy Spirit and the last thing Jesus says as He's ascending into heaven is
Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
What this tells us is that we need to be full of the Holy Spirit and when we feel like the fire is going out we need to be refilled. This tells us that in order for us to be the disciples of Jesus that we're all called to be we need the Holy Spirit, it tells us we need to be baptized in the spirit which means we have got to have a up to date 24/7 365 white hot on fire let me tell you what Jesus is doing in my life relationship with Jesus because Jesus is the one who baptizes you in the spirit! Moving on to
The next day, their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and all the members of the high-priestly family. After they had Peter and John stand before them, they began to question them: “By what power or in what name have you done this?” Then Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit and said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders: If we are being examined today about a good deed done to a disabled man, by what means he was healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified and whom God raised from the dead — by him this man is standing here before you healthy. This Jesus is the stone rejected by you builders, which has become the cornerstone. There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.” When they observed the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and recognized that they had been with Jesus. And since they saw the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to say in opposition. After they ordered them to leave the Sanhedrin, they conferred among themselves, saying, “What should we do with these men? For an obvious sign has been done through them, clear to everyone living in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. But so that this does not spread any further among the people, let’s threaten them against speaking to anyone in this name again.” So they called for them and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. Peter and John answered them, “Whether it’s right in the sight of God for us to listen to you rather than to God, you decide; for we are unable to stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.” After threatening them further, they released them. They found no way to punish them because the people were all giving glory to God over what had been done. For this sign of healing had been performed on a man over forty years old. Acts 4:5-22
The next day, their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and all the members of the high-priestly family. After they had Peter and John stand before them, they began to question them: “By what power or in what name have you done this?” Then Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit and said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders: If we are being examined today about a good deed done to a disabled man, by what means he was healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified and whom God raised from the dead — by him this man is standing here before you healthy. This Jesus is the stone rejected by you builders, which has become the cornerstone. There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.” When they observed the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and recognized that they had been with Jesus. And since they saw the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to say in opposition. After they ordered them to leave the Sanhedrin, they conferred among themselves, saying, “What should we do with these men? For an obvious sign has been done through them, clear to everyone living in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. But so that this does not spread any further among the people, let’s threaten them against speaking to anyone in this name again.” So they called for them and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. Peter and John answered them, “Whether it’s right in the sight of God for us to listen to you rather than to God, you decide; for we are unable to stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.” After threatening them further, they released them. They found no way to punish them because the people were all giving glory to God over what had been done. For this sign of healing had been performed on a man over forty years old. Acts 4:5-22
So Peter was in the upper Room when Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit on to them like we talked about in John. Peter was also at the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit fell on him and now we see Peter here in Acts chapter 4 again it's telling us that he was filled with the Holy Spirit. Twice in this chapter alone we find that Peter is again filled with the Holy Spirit. What does this teach us? It teaches us that the day of Pentecost is not a singular event in the same way as the cross, resurrection, and Ascension are singular events. Pentecost is meant to be one of those never-ending days. Peter is filled with the Holy Spirit a fourth time in order to speak the word of God boldly.
An Ephesians 5:18 Paul tells us not to be drunk with wine but to be filled with the Holy Spirit. He is saying that the Holy Spirit is better than drinking wine. It literally means do not continually get drunk, but continually be filled with the Holy Spirit.
