The King's Church International Audio Podcast King's Church International

We are living in momentous times! Whilst some in the media want to write off Christianity and talk about the decline of the church, the opposite is happening in many parts of the world today.  
 
A report by the Pulitzer Centre shows that every day 35,000 people come to Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit. According to Operation World, Iran a country once closed to the gospel, now has the fastest-growing evangelical movement in the world. It is estimated that over 1 million have accepted Christ in the last 20 years. 
 
 
Everything changed when the Holy Spirit came suddenly upon a group of 120 disciples. They testified boldly about Jesus to thousands who had gathered in Jerusalem at Pentecost and the church greatly accelerated (Acts 2:41,47; Acts 4:2; Acts 5:13; Acts 6:7; Acts 11:21,24). 
  
Many churches around the world today are not meeting in small halls, but in stadiums. We too must pivot into seeing that happen in our nation. So, we are starting a new series on how it’s time to reap the harvest. We see some simple lessons from the great example Jesus gave us as He preached to multitudes about this very topic (Matthew 9:35-38).  
 
1. We must have vision (Matthew 9:36; Genesis 15:5) 
2. We must have compassion (Matthew 9:36; Matthew 4:24,12:15; Luke 6:19; Matthew 8:1-4; Matthew 9:10-17; Luke 7:47; John 8; Romans 5:5) 
3. We must pray for workers (Matthew 9:38; Philippians 2:10-11; Mark 1:35-37; Acts 13:2; Matthew 6:10; Genesis 32; Colossians 4:12) 
4. We need to recruit teams (Matthew 10:1; Matthew 4:19; John 5:17; 1 Corinthians 15:10; John 15:8; Daniel 12:3; Romans 4:17; Luke 5:8,10-11; Nehemiah 4:6; 2 Timothy 4:5) 
 
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1. We must have vision (Matthew 9:36). Jesus saw the crowds, and He often ministered to crowds by the power of the Holy Spirit all at once. To see a great harvest into the Kingdom of God, we must have the same vision and focus as Jesus (Genesis 15:5). You need to have a big vision of the spiritual descendants who God is sending to us to fulfil His promise. When you receive it, instead of seeing a whole heap of trouble in the crowds, you’ll start seeing how God will change the lives of millions of people who don’t yet know Jesus.  
  
2. We must have compassion (Matthew 9:36). Jesus looked on the crowds with eyes of compassion. He saw them as ‘harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd’. ‘Helpless’ means that, like so many today, they were unable to handle the challenges life in daily life, and there was no-one to help them. At that time, apart from rampant sickness, poverty, disease and demonic oppression, Roman occupation of Israel brought its own challenges. Jesus didn’t just see faces, He didn’t just see problems: even in a crowd, He saw each individual, He knew their pain and addressed it with the power of God. Many times we read in the gospels that Jesus healed everyone that came to Him (Matthew 4:24,12:15; Luke 6:19).We too can show compassion by not hesitating to pray for the sick, asking Jesus to continue His work as we lay hands on them. Jesus ministered to the crowds but also individuals and to children. He ministered to despised people. He touched lepers with His unprotected hands, re-admitting them to society (Matthew 8:1-4). He ate with the tax collectors who were so hated by many (Matthew 9:10-17). He forgave the many sins of a prostitute (Luke 7:47) and saved a woman caught in the act of adultery from being stoned to death (John 8). What do you see when you look at a crowd? Are you filled with compassion?
Just like Jesus, you too can have God’s heart of compassion (Romans 5:5). God wants to give you His heart, but you must be willing to receive it. Ask God for His heart of compassion. 
  
3. We must pray for workers (Matthew 9:38). Everything begins with our recognition that there is a Lord of the harvest. That means we are not in charge: He is. He is Lord of our hearts, Lord of our lives, Lord of His church, and

Have you ever felt your need for God’s power in your life? Do you know that your whole life and even our world can change when we experience the Holy Spirit?
  
At many times in world history and in British history, Christianity has been written off as dead or dying. That’s what people think is happening right now. But its not true. Reports of the death of Christianity, including in the UK, are greatly exaggerated.  
  
While it’s true that many liberal and traditional churches are in terminal decline, many others are growing and starting other churches. What’s more, young people are often the biggest grouping in these churches. Today there are an estimated 650 million Christians around the world who would describe themselves as Charismatic or Pentecostal meaning that they have experienced the power of the Holy Spirit (See ‘Fire from heaven; the rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the Reshaping of Religion in the 21st century’). 
 
Yet for all these many encouraging developments, we also live in a time when there is widespread resistance to God and where paganism and militant Islam are on the march. A greater demonstration of God’s power is urgently needed. 
  
On Pentecost Sunday, we must realise that it is only a spiritual revival that is going to bring about large-scale repentance and fundamental change to our society. Revival has been well described as an ‘inrush of the Spirit into a body that threatens to become a corpse.’  
 
The word Pentecost, meaning 50, refers to the momentous day when the first disciples experienced the Holy Spirit at the time of the Jewish Feast of Weeks or Shavuot in Hebrew. This took place 50 days from the Feast of Firstfruits held at the time of Passover. It’s also called ‘the feast of harvest’ and the ‘day of the first fruits.’  
  
All these names show that the Day of Pentecost came at a time of great significance when Jews from all over the world gathered in Jerusalem. Although the coming of the Holy Spirit had been promised centuries before by the prophet Joel, the events of the day of Pentecost, ten days after the return of Jesus to heaven, changed everything for the previously nervous disciples and for the Christian church which grew immediately with 3000 new believers.  
  
From this day onwards the early Christians became an unstoppable force. Within weeks the whole of Jerusalem knew all about Jesus and within one generation, despite much hostility and, Christianity had spread throughout the Roman Empire. Pentecost was an amazing moment. Acts 2:7 says that people were ‘utterly amazed’. 
  
Whenever there is a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit comes everything changes both in the church and in the world. Time and again in history, when everything has so looked bleak in society, a new outpouring of Holy Spirit has produced what historian Paul Johnson called ‘profound seismic movements.’ 
  
We see in Acts chapter 2 some key developments that took place on the Day of Pentecost. 
 
1. The Holy Spirit came suddenly to them (Acts 2:1-2; Malachi 3:1; Luke 2:8,13-14; Acts 9:3; Acts 16:25-26 
2. The Holy Spirit came supernaturally on them (Acts 2:2-3; Luke 4:18; John 3:8) 
3. The Holy Spirit spoke powerfully through them (Acts 2:4-6,11-18,38-39; 1 Corinthians 14) 
 
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1. The Holy Spirit came suddenly to them. The disciples, who had been continuously praying and preparing to receive the power of the Holy Spirit, turned up for yet another daily prayer meeting only to quickly discover that this day was like no other (Acts 2:1-2). God is the God who acts suddenly (Malachi 3:1). After so many prophecies and centuries of waiting for the Messiah, Jesus/Yeshua suddenly appeared. At His birth, in one moment the shepherds were doing their usual boring work guarding the sheep, then out of nowhere heaven suddenly burst in on them (Luke 2:8,13-14). In another moment in time the Jewish zealot Saul was going about his daily busi

Are you ready for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit? Are you prepared to experience the power of God at work in your life and generation? Well, you need to get ready because God is about to shine a great light into a world of increasing darkness.  
  
As we sense God is preparing us for a move of God that we have never seen before in our church and in our nation, it is helpful to see how the first disciples were prepared for the Day of Pentecost in Jerusalem. The coming of the Holy Spirit did not happen out of nowhere. It followed a process of preparation.  
  
Acts 1 tells us that a lot happened in the 50 days between the resurrection of Jesus and the Day of Pentecost. For 40 of those days, they were in a period of accelerated teaching from Jesus. Then for the next days they had to take some actions. It took just over seven weeks for them to be positioned for what was to come. So much can happen in a short space of time. We see some significant factors in the preparation for the Day of Pentecost: 
 
1. We need to clearly understand God’s plan to establish His kingdom (Acts 1:3; Matthew 4:23; Luke 5:43) 
2. We need to stay focussed on receiving the promised Holy Spirit (Acts‬ 1:4-8) 
3. We need to unite in continuous prayer (Acts 1:12-14) 
4. We need to strengthen teams of 12 leaders (Acts 1:15-26) 
 
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1. We need to clearly understand God’s plan to establish His kingdom (Acts 1:3). Jesus made sure His disciples were thoroughly grounded in their understanding of the Kingdom of God - God’s new society. Throughout His ministry Jesus had repeatedly taught about the Kingdom of God (Matthew 4:23; Luke 5:43). In a kind of revision school before He returned to heaven, Jesus wanted His disciples to understand that He never came to start a new religious order. He came to announce a new whole new world order known as the kingdom of God. That is why He taught His disciples to pray, ‘Your Kingdom come, Your will be done.’ Christianity is not just a matter of personal faith. Kingdom Christianity will affect every area of life and shape our vision, values and how we act and react. To truly be a subject of the Kingdom of God means that God rules over every area of our lives and that He wants us to advance His kingdom in every area of life: home life, business life, political life, cultural life, educational life etc. So we must understand the big vision that we are part of. 
 
2. We need to stay focussed on receiving the promised Holy Spirit (Acts‬ 1:4-8). Jesus was trying to impress on His disciples the need to be focussed on the Holy Spirit, but they were distracted by earthly and political matters. As Christians we too can easily focus too much on this life and the state of the world around us or even get caught up in trying to figure out when Jesus will return. Of course it is important to do our best as Jesus taught to be salt and light in the world. But the first thing is to be sure that we receive the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:7-8). Jesus knew the disciples needed the power of God in their lives and ministries and so do we. Just as we need to be baptised in water, so we also need to be immersed with the Holy Spirit. We need to receive a new dimension of spiritual authority when we know God’s power has come on us. Only when this happens can we be energised to be witnesses for Jesus in cities and nations. That’s why we must wait for the promise and not rush off in our own strength. So let’s get real: how much power of the Holy Spirit do you have? If you need the Holy Spirit, then you need to really hunger and thirst for this happen. You must no longer live in defeat, allowing the devourer of your finances to steal from you, you cannot accept that the enemy steals your home, your health, your love. You must cry out to God for His power. This is how you get ready for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  
  
3. We need to unite in continuous prayer (Acts 1:12-14). They all joined

The reality of life is that we all need help, and that we need help at every age and stage of life. Jesus talked about the Holy Spirit as the one who would help us.  
  
The Holy Spirit, is not an ‘it’ but a person: He is a He. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, but often described as the neglected person of the Trinity. Many have heard and know about the Father and the Son, but need to know a bit more about the Holy Spirit. 
  
Jesus spoke about the Holy Spirit and He made incredible promises about Him which are as life-changing for us today as when they were first given: 
 
1. The promise of the Holy Spirit is for every believer (Joel 2:28-29; Numbers 11:25; Mark 1:8; John 16:6-7) 
2. The promise of the Holy Spirit brings new life (Ezekiel 36:25-27; Romans 3:10-12; Ephesians 2:1,4-5; John 16:8; John 3:6) 
3. The Holy Spirit brings the presence of God to live inside us (John 14:16-18; John 15:9-10; Ephesians 3:14-19; John 14:27; John 15:11; Acts 16) 
4. The Holy Spirit will be your teacher (John 14:26; Jeremiah 31:33-34; John 16:13) 
5. The Holy Spirit gives us power to share our faith (Acts 1:8; Acts 2:38-39; John 7:37-38) 
 
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1. The promise of the Holy Spirit is for every believer. Several centuries before Jesus was born, the prophet Joel recorded a great promise from God about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all people (Joel 2:28-29). This is an astonishing promise that every Christian can take hold of. This promise is available for all people: it is equally for men and for women, and no-one is too young or too old to receive it. It is especially for those who serve in low positions. It is for the servants, slaves and handmaids. It is for ex-prisoners, those in debt, distress or discontented. No one is discounted. All are precious in God’s sight. In the Old Testament, there were just over a hundred people who are recorded as receiving the Holy Spirit, and that includes the seventy elders who received a share of Moses power at the same time (Numbers 11:25). The anointing of the Holy Spirit came upon roughly one person every 120 years. But at the day of Pentecost, Joel’s prophetic promise was fulfilled and about 120 people were filled with the Holy Spirit in one go. That’s more people in one day than the previous four thousand years combined! And that was just the start. We are living in a time that has seen the largest number of spirit-filled Christians in the whole of history. John the Baptist knew Jesus would usher in the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:8). Jesus Himself declared it to His disciples too (John 16:6-7). We are very fortunate that the invitation to receive the Holy Spirit is so generously offered to us, and we must never devalue it.  
 
2. The promise of the Holy Spirit brings new life. 600 years before the Pentecost outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the prophet Ezekiel also received a great promise from God about the life-changing work of the Holy Spirit (Ezekiel 36:25-27). This means we can be cleansed from bad attitudes and sin, have our hard hearts softened with compassion, be restored to life and relationship with our Father in Heaven. The Bible makes it clear that we are all dead men walking until we receive Jesus’ death for us. It’s not just that we’ve committed sins, but our human hearts have turned completely away from the God who created us, feeling we are free to do anything we want (Romans 3:10-12). Jesus told His disciples he had to be handed over to death to pay our ransom (Ephesians 2:1,4-5). Now, while it was Jesus’ death on the cross that brings the payment for salvation, it is the Holy Spirit who comes alongside us to soften our hearts, urging and appealing to us to turn back to God (John 16:8): 
- He convinces the world of sin: awakening your conscience to recognise how you have rebelled and done wrong;  
- He convicts the world of righteousness: to see that your self-righteousness is filthy compared to the righteousness of God

Who cares for you? Who do you care for? It’s clear that the world and every person in it are in great need of love. 
  
2000 years ago, an expert in the law asked Jesus: “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25). Whilst this question may have seemed well meaning, the Bible says he was actually a lawyer testing Jesus (Luke 10:26-29). The legal expert gave the right theological answer but had entirely missed the real heart of these commands to love God and love others with everything we are - no excuses. 
 
Jesus’ next answer was brilliant, and it deals with the heart of Christianity. For your and my neighbour is anyone and everyone. To illustrate this, Jesus told a famous story about a man travelling on one of the most notorious roads in Israel. Many people had been attacked on this 17-mile road from Jerusalem to Jericho. 
 
Everyone knew this road. Everyone knew it was best to take an alternative road. But one guy was on this road and was badly beaten up, left for dead (Luke 10:30-37). This story brought home what it really means to love your neighbour and who your neighbour is. In a few sentences Jesus showed how we must never become too busy or self-absorbed to care for one another as we go about our own business in life. Everyone is our neighbour, no matter what race, creed or colour. 
 
We see some simple lessons which will help us show God’s love to our neighbours too: 
1. He saw the man and took pity on him (Luke 10:33) 
2. He stopped what he was doing and went to the man (Luke 10:31-34) 
3. He bandaged the man’s wounds (Luke 10:34; Isaiah 40:1)  
4. He poured on oil and wine (Luke 10:34; Matthew 26:27-28) 
5. He brought the man to safety and looked after him (Luke 10:34) 
6. He sacrificed to care for the man (Luke 10:35; Matthew 25:40) 
7. He made a plan to look after him in future (Luke 10:35-37; James 2:15-17; Acts 4:34; 1 John 4:20-21 MSG) 
 
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1. He saw the man and took pity on him (Luke 10:33). He saw a human being who was attacked by robbers: so many people today have suffered physical violence and been robbed not only of possessions but of their hope and peace of mind; Stripped of his clothes: To be stripped is to be humiliated. Maybe you have been stripped of your dignity and self-image by being abused or by wrong actions of others; beaten: means you have lost the battle. You’ve been overpowered by enemies, addictions or circumstances; abandoned: means you are on your own, rejected and cast aside; left to die: means you are in such a bad way that it’s all over unless someone helps you. Of course this describes the experiences of Jesus, who gave His life so that we can have life. But it also describes the experiences of so many people and maybe also where you are at right now. Do we see the pain in people’s eyes? Do we see evil that is ruining people right before our eyes? So often we don’t see the need. We need to stop and look in people’s eyes. For example the growing incidents of sex trafficking involving people working in public places has been called ‘human slavery hidden in plain sight.’ Often the need is not hidden, we just aren’t seeing it. The Good Samaritan is a wonderful example of love that begins with really seeing the needs of others.  
  
2. He stopped what he was doing and went to the man (Luke 10:34). The Good Samaritan stopped, and we need to stop too. Stop what we’re doing. Stop our plans. See the need in front of us and actually do something about it! How often do we make excuses? There were two others in this story who also saw this victim (Luke 10:31-32). Not one but two religious leaders found the man, one after the other. When he saw them, the man must have thought his rescue had come! But both chose to distance themselves and continued walking by. Maybe they were too busy. Maybe they didn’t want to get dirty. Maybe they thought the whole situation was just too risky. For whatever reason, they didn’t stop

Each woman, as well as each man, has a great destiny. Today woman are often devalued in the world, but the Bible puts the highest value on women.  
 
Right back in Genesis 3:15 God said: ‘And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; It will crush your head, and you will strike its heel.’ God was saying that the seed of woman would crush the head of Satan. This is a promise that was fulfilled when Christ came into the world, born of a woman, to defeat Satan. 
 
Mary, who was just a poor young woman, knew that she was highly favoured to give birth to the Messiah. Throughout the ministry of Jesus, we see that He gave high value to women and treated them with great kindness. As a result, many women followed Jesus and supported his ministry financially. Women were last to stay at the Cross and the first to the empty tomb. All through history women have been some of the strongest and most faithful followers of Jesus. You too can be a Christian who can make a big difference in the lives of many people, starting with your own family. 
 
Rahab was a woman with a bad past who gave her family a great future (Joshua 2:2-6). The Bible says that she was a prostitute. Her life was not very pretty and she was socially worthless. But although her past was bad her future was bright, and she is mentioned as one of the great examples of faith in Hebrews 11.  
 
She was a woman who was not from God's people. She was part of one of the people that the Lord had told the Israelites that they would conquer. In fact they were a people that was going to disappear, that was her destiny along with her people in Jericho. But her story’s ending was totally different because of the decisions she made. So what led her to make completely out of the ordinary decisions? What led her to prefer God's people over her own people? 
 
1. She feared God (Joshua 2:8-11; Proverbs 9:10; Proverbs 31:30)  
2. She asked for the mercy of God (Joshua 2:12-16; Hebrews 4:16)  
3. She chose to obey and trust God (Joshua 2:17-21; James 2:24-26; Hebrews 11:31) 
4. She saved her whole family because of her obedience to God (Joshua 6:22-25) 
 
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1. She feared God (Joshua 2:8-11). This woman knew that God was real. She knew that the Israelites had seen God’s awesome power at the Red Sea and when they destroyed other cities. Rahab and her people were so fearful that they were now coming towards Jericho. What really scared them was they understood that the God of the Israelites was ‘God in heaven above and on the earth below.’ Rahab had supreme respect and submission to Jehovah, the God of the Israelites, above the gods of her people. We too should have a proper respect for God (Proverbs 9:10; Proverbs 31:30). Rahab’s destiny started to change from the moment she recognised the greatness and power of God. The new value that was coming to her life started when she valued God. 
 
2. She asked for the mercy of God (Joshua 2:12-16). Rahab feared God but she also believed that she could receive kindness from these Israelite spies. She probably didn’t receive a lot of kindness in her life, but she still hoped for kindness for herself and her family. She knew that her only hope was to plead for mercy and that’s what the spies promised. This is a great picture of how we should come to God because He is a God of love and mercy. He is full of love who wants to forgive us of our sins and save us from destruction (Hebrews 4:16). 
 
3. She chose to obey and trust God. Rahab decided to completely come on to God’s side. She did what she had been told to do (Joshua 2:17-21). Her trust in God caused her to take action to obey God. Rahab’s faith did not remain just a thought because that would be a dead faith; it would only be an illusion (James 2:24-26). Her faith was seen by her actions. She hid the spies. She made an agreement with them. She tied the red cord to the window. She didn't wait for the spies to