The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

KEEPING YOUR SPIRITUAL FIRE BURNING, PART I (Acts 2:1-4)

KEEPING YOUR SPIRITUAL FIRE BURNING, PART I (Acts 2:1-4)

We are going to be teaching today on this subject: “Keeping Your Spiritual Fire Burning.” And this is so important in this day, and in this age.  It seems to me that the world is searching for an answer to the questions they have about the meaning of life, and the truths about right and wrong.  Some are looking to the government for handouts to make them happy.  Some are looking to the educational institutions to make them happy.  Some are looking to their friends to make them happy.  Some are looking to religion for happiness.  But they will not find it in any of those places.  They will not find true happiness and fulfillment, until they find the Lord Jesus Christ and make Him their Lord and Savior.  

On The Day of Pentecost, God created the church, the body of true believers to share His gospel message of truth and eternal life.  It is through this church that the Holy Spirit has all the answers that people are looking for.  We are that church, the church of the living God.

Click on the play button to hear a message on how The Holy Spirit is the empowering fire of God. Fire gives power. Do you know what’s wrong with so many churches? There is no fire. And because there is no fire, there is no power. 

Can you imagine a factory where everything in this factory is perfect? I mean, all of the machinery is in place, there are mighty wheels, and great pistons, and conveyor belts, and chains and hoists, and everything is there in the factory, but the factory is cold and dead, and nothing is happening. Somebody says, “Well, maybe we need to put some stained glass windows in the factory. Maybe we need to put a steeple on top of the factory. Maybe we need to put a big sign out in front of the factory. Maybe we need some robed choirs in the factory.” Then somebody says, “Wait a minute. There’s no fire in the boiler. That is what we need, is a fire in the boiler. That fire is where the power comes from.” And so many churches today, they have everything except fire. Fire is power. Jesus said, “Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.”  You see rationalism, and ritualism, and traditionalism, and formalism, will not do it. It is not form. It is not facts. It is not fashion. It is fire. The Holy Spirit is the empowering fire of God.

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.

WAITING FOR THE SPIRIT (Acts 1:12 to 2:1)

THE ASCENSION OF OUR LORD (Acts 1:9-11)

Today’s message does not have the great theological Bible truths of the last several weeks, but it does have some good Bible history.  Our message today is somewhat workman like in that it talks about what the disciples did while they waited on the comforter that Jesus had promised them.  Today, we talk about the characteristics of the disciples, and then we discover that Peter is still just as impulsive as he has always been as he tries to lead the group in choosing a replacement for Judas.  And then lastly, we will set the stage for our discussion next week on the events of Pentecost.  

The Bible tells us that the Old Testament Feast of Pentecost represents something—that is, it is the fulfillment of something.  The Feast of the Pentecost has been fulfilled in the birth of the church.  Pentecost was to depict the beginning and origin of the church. It spoke of the coming of the Holy Spirit in the very particular ministry of calling a people out of this world to form the body of Christ, which is the church. Five minutes before the Holy Spirit came on the Day of Pentecost there was no church. Five minutes after the Holy Spirit came on the Day of Pentecost there was a church. In other words, what Bethlehem was to the birth of Christ, Jerusalem, on the Day of Pentecost, was to the coming of the Holy Spirit. 

Click on the play button to hear a message on how it was at Pentecost that The Holy Spirit became incarnate. He began to baptize believers, which means that the Holy Spirit identified them with Christ as His body here on this earth. As believers, we are a part of that fulfillment today.  Our purpose on this earth today is to allow the Holy Spirit to work through us to gather all of the members of that great body of the church.  Jesus is coming again to gather that church up as His bride.  Our mission is to spread the gospel of Christ to the uttermost parts of the world.  

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.

THE ASCENSION OF OUR LORD (Acts 1:9-11)

THE ASCENSION OF OUR LORD (Acts 1:9-11)

Our message today is about the ascension of our Lord into Heaven.  Without a doubt, it is significant to our faith that Jesus is alive and working for us today.  Jesus did not just go off into heaven and leave us never to be heard from again.  He has provided us with a perfect, complete, salvation.  He is our great High Priest in the Holy Tabernacle in Heaven, He is our paraclete, our advocate, before the Father.  And He has promised to return for us.  

Jesus is alive.  Jesus is working for us, and Jesus is coming back.  These are some of the things that distinguish our faith from all other religions.  These are the things that we base our hope on. You do not place your confidence in a mere man when you place your confidence in Jesus; you place your confidence in the God-man.  Because He is a man, He can sympathize with you and is able to meet your needs.  He is a royal priest.  He is a righteous priest.  He is a peace-promoting priest.  He is also a personal priest—He is for you personally.  He didn’t inherit the office; that is, He didn’t come in the line of Aaron.  He is an eternal priest.  If the work of Jesus Christ had ended with His death, burial and resurrection, then our salvation would be incomplete.  It is because Jesus is alive today and has ascended into heaven that He is our eternal and perfect High Priest.  It is because Jesus is living today and has ascended to heaven that our salvation was completed.  It is because Jesus is living today and has ascended to heaven that our salvation is being completed today.  It is because Jesus is living today and has ascended to heaven that our salvation will be completed in the future when the Lord gives us our glorified bodies.  

We don’t often hear messages preached on the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Rightfully so, the evangelistic message of the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord is talked about more frequently.  But the ascension of our Lord represents the hope and promise of the believer.  As a believer my Lord is alive, He is my advocate, and He is coming again for me.  

This is the message we need to proclaim.  It is because we have the hope, the confident expectation, the promise, of the return of our Lord that we should feel the urgent need to proclaim the gospel message to a lost world.  

Click on the play button to hear a message on what the Ascension of Jesus Christ means to you as a follower of Christ.

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.

THAT OLD-TIME RELIGION (Acts 1:1-9)

THAT OLD-TIME RELIGION (Acts 1:1-9)

The book of Acts is a wonderful, wonderful, book, and we are going to be looking at this book for quite a while. As a matter of fact, I got to thinking about a title for this particular study and I came up with “That Old-Time Religion.” Now, the reason that I want to call it “That Old-Time Religion” is that we need to take a look back, so that we might really face the future. And it is very important that we do this today, because it is the Old-Time Religion that needs to be the New-Time Religion.

The book of Acts tells a very impressive story of what happened in the first century when the church was created.  The book of Acts is the story of success. It is the story of a church triumphant. Really, it is the story of a small group of unlettered, uncultured people with meager resources, very little money, no prestige, no colleges, no seminaries, no radio or television, no internet, Google didn’t exist, there were no printing presses, and no magnificent buildings in which to draw people in.  All they had was a small group of people who went out to tell the story of a publicly executed Jew. 

They went out against great obstacles.  They faced the imperial might of Rome, the intellectual sophistication of Greece, the religious bigotry of that day, and they turned that world inside out, and upside down, for Jesus Christ. They did so much with so little.  Today, we do so little with so much.  Therefore, I believe we need to go back and see what they did, and how they did it. And for that reason, we are going to be studying the Book of Acts, which is the story of a church on fire with evangelism and growth, and I believe it can become our pattern for today. And I want God to burn the message into your heart.

Click on the play button to hear a message on what Jesus can accomplish through you, if you let Him.  Do you want this year to be a great year? Then recognize His presence in you, receive His promise to you, and respond to His program through you.

Our prayer, today, should be “Father, I pray, in the name of Jesus, that You would make me a greater soul winner. And Lord, help me to recognize that, in the truest sense, You are the one who draws those people to Yourself as You inhabit my humanity and display Your deity. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.

INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF ACTS (Acts 1:1-8)

INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF ACTS (Acts 1:1-8)

Today, we begin our study of the book of Acts.  The KJV lists the title of this book as “THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.”  Of course, the titles of the books in our Bibles are not inspired, they were inserted by the translators, so there will be differences based on the translation, although this, and the “THE ACTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT,” are the two that you will generally see.  But to me, a title that would more accurately describe the book is “The Lord Jesus Christ at Work by the Holy Spirit through the Apostles.”  The reason I like that title is this book is, first and foremost, about the work of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit, to establish the New Testament church, in order to call out a body of believers, whose mission would be to spread the Gospel message to the uttermost parts of the earth.  

The Book of Acts, which is sometimes called the fifth Gospel, is a continuation of the Gospel of Luke.  Luke is the writer, and it was written in about the year 60 A.D.  The Book of Acts is remarkable in many ways, for it is a bridge between the Gospels and the Epistles. The New Testament without the Book of Acts leaves a great hole that needs to be filled.  

The Book of Acts furnishes a ladder on which to place the Epistles.  It is something that allows us to climb from the gospels into the Epistles.  For the book of Acts gives the history of the founding of the churches to which the Epistles are directed. The book of Genesis records the origin of the spiritual body, and the book of Acts records the origin of the church.  

Click on the play button to hear a message on the special features of this wonderful book.  It speaks of the prominence of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is prominent. He is at work from the vantage place of heaven itself.  And it also speaks on the Prominence of the Holy Spirit. Christ promised to send the Holy Spirit. You and I are living in the age of the Holy Spirit. The great fact of this age is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in believers.

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.