When persecution comes, we do not give up and we do not give in. We gather together and stand firm in christ. No matter what suffering we may face, we will face it together and pray for the Holy Spirit to give us boldness. When they came together to pray, they didn’t pray for the suffering or persecution to end, rather that God would give them the strength and the boldness to continue preaching the Gospel in spite of it! True revival needs a back bone and a bunch of bold believers who will not go along with the culture, but will actively live in opposition to the ways of this world. We will not compromise with a culture that belittles and disrespects our God and our faith. We will stand firm in truth and will continue to preach the good news to everyone who needs to hear it! When we pray this way, the Holy Spirit will come down in our midst and renew out hearts and minds with a fresh outpouring of His presence.

We are better together! Every great and beautiful thing that happens, only happens when we come together. However, as christians, we must always be aware that we aren’t the only ones gathering together. The greatest movements and revivals in human history have always met opposition. Today we are seeing waves of persecution sweeping across the globe. Now more than ever we are beginning to see the birth pains of the persecution coming upon the church. We have enemies who are coming together as a kingdom of darkness, and are coming against the light of the world. We must prepare ourselves for the coming persecution. One day we may end up being in chains for our beliefs! But if we persecution comes, we will get through it together.

When the people of God are actively praying and fellowshipping together, the miraculous begins to happen! In this chapter a miracle happens for a lame man. He was miraculously healed by the power of God at the hands of His disciples! God wants to do the miraculous in us, around us, and through us! God used the disciples to do the miraculous! Even after this great miracle an even greater miracle begins to happen! One man’s miracle became a walking testimony to the people of his community! People began to run together to catch a glimpse of the grace and mercy of God. God wants to use your miracle to win the hearts of the lost!

With 3000 brand new christians, the disciples knew that there was more to be done. They didn’t just preach at people, they brought them into fellowship and community. Revival isn’t just about preaching the gospel, it’s also about displaying it. Fellowship together is the only thing that keeps revival from being just a memorable moment to being a true God honoring life style. When we bring people into our homes and daily created opportunities for people to grow, we will begin to see revival spread throughout our city. Let’s look at what true fellowship looked like.

Revival has begun! The Holy Spirit filled that upper room and everyone was filled with his presence. We see people speaking in other tongues and the power of God manifesting himself in his people. They weren’t the only ones who were affected! We see that a true move of the Holy Spirit draws unbelievers together! People from every tribe and nation gathered together and were amazed by the promise of the Holy Spirit! This miraculous promise wasn’t meant to be stuck in the 4 walls of the upper room. It burst forth into the community and spread like a wild fire. The community benefitted from the move of the Holy Spirit as it gave the disciples utterance to preach the Gospel in each person’s own language!

Before we can accomplish God’s mission for the church, we must receive power from the Holy Spirit. When we gather together, God will pour out his spirit! The baptism of the Holy Spirit contrasted the tower of Babel! At the tower of Babel the people were scattered and the languages were confused and mixed. On the day of Pentecost we see people from every nation gather together and each language was being spoken and united God’s people. This moment was a moment of unity and togetherness. One of God’s greatest goals is to unite his people by the power of the spirit. We are one body with many members, but one Holy Spirit who lives in each of us and connects us to each other, so let us continue to seek the unity of the Spirit!

One of the greatest movements of all time sparked from the day of Pentecost. That upper room experience is what many christians long for, and often times rarely experience. Sometimes it can be discouraging when we want to see a move of God and don’t. However, it is important to remember that the church is the hands and feet of Jesus, we are a move of God! Acts 2 only happened because of Acts 1. The bible says that they had devoted themselves to prayer together. This is how we see revival. Dead faith doesn’t produce revival. Only when the people of God come together and become active and devoted to a life of prayer do we see a move of the Spirit!

As christians we are called to be a people of community, but many christians choose to do life alone. It can be tough trying to figure out God’s will on our own. In the book of Acts, there was a moment before Jesus ascended and gave directions to his disciples. After his resurrection Jesus had appeared to over 500 eye-witnesses. He appeared to many people individually, but the Bible says that when the disciples had come together, it was in that moment that Jesus commissioned and gave instructions to his disciples. Guidance and Counsel happens best in community. In this sermon we will explain why Jesus’ mission for the church can only be accomplished together!

Every Christian is a soldier in a war. When we don’t know or forget that our life is a war we can no longer make sense of our struggles. When this happens we wrongly interpret everything negative in our loves as judgment from God. In reality, our situations are not a result of judgment from God but rather at many times is an attack from the enemy. God had poured out his judgment on Jesus rather than us for those of us that are in Christ, and in doing so has already claimed victory over the enemy.

Every Christian ultimately works for Jesus. Jesus’ estimation of your life and works is all that will matter in the end. We should then work hard and honestly for Jesus, not just when others are looking, but all the time because Jesus is always looking. We can rest assured that if we work in this way for the Lord, he will reward us in this life and the life to come, so we are not wasting or lives but rather investing them for a reward.