Pentecost
Icebreaker
Q - Have you ever been given a present or tool that had a big impact in your life? (e.g. first bicycle, guitar, a book, a washing machine). What was it and how did it change your life?
Q - Can you remember anything that struck you from last Sunday's service?
Study
After his resurrection, Jesus was forty days with his disciples and seen by hundreds of people until his ascension. Ten days later was the day of Pentecost. Pentecost is the Greek name for the Jewish Feast of Harvest (or Feast of Weeks), it is mentioned in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. There were many people gathered in Jerusalem and that is when these amazing events happened. The first Christian Pentecost marked the beginning of the Church and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Q – Some of the most significant moments in Jesus’ life were also during these big festivities. Why do you think that was? Does God still act in that same way today?
Henri Nouwen said “Without Pentecost the Christ-event - the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus - remains imprisoned in history as something to remember, think about and reflect on. The Spirit of Jesus comes to dwell within us, so that we can become living Christs here and now”
Please read together Acts 2:1-13
Q – What strikes you the most in this passage? What do you find interesting or surprising or attractive?
Q - How would you feel if you had been one of the Jews who had come to celebrate a Feast and suddenly saw the disciples speaking in different languages?
Those who were seeing what was happening were “Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, ‘What does this mean?’” and then “the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved” (2:47). These were exciting timing, the start of a revolution and the sense of being part of something meaningful.
Q – What are the characteristics of that early Church? What can we learn from them?
Q – The Church throughout history has had many movements to try and reconnect with its beginnings (E.g. desert monks, the reform, the revivals, etc.). What would it mean for us in Ashtead today to reconnect with the Church’s origin? How would that look
Q - What could we do to try to achieve this?
Q – As we rebuild the SGSG church together, how would you like it (us) to be?
Action
Martyn Lloyd Jones said “Revival, above everything else, is a glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is the restoration of Him to the center of the life of the Church. You find this warm devotion, personal devotion, to Him.”
Think of one thing you’d like to see God do through us (and you personally) in the next few months. Think of one thing that you might be able to do to enable this to happen. You might want to share this and then pray for each other.