Queen's Road Cell

8. What was the relationship between the churches in Jerusalem and Antioch (see 11:22,27-29)? Antioch was under the authority of Jerusalem. On previous occasions (8:14; cf. 9:32) the leaders of the church at Jerusalem had sent representatives to follow up mission work outside the city Antioch was richer  Consider our relationship with those with whom we have a complex relationship - because we are older or higher in secular or spiritual authority, but compared to whom we are disadvantaged in other ways. It takes grace from both sides to navigate this well. 9. What laudable traits do Barnabas and the Christians at Antioch show in 11:19-30?    Barnabas was glad to see the gospel received even though it was unfamiliar territory He prioritized the spiritual well-being of the new converts and exhorted them personally 'a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith'. " no other man is described by Luke as good in Acts, and in his spiritual gifts he stood on a level with Steph...

Our last study in Book 4.3 of the Omega series. Galatians 5:16-26 give us descriptions of what it means to be filled with the Spirit: v. 16 says "walk" by the Spirit - indicating that our lives are to move in a certain direction, with a certain quality, under a certain empowering. There is a contrast here with the life that is lived that gratifies the desires of the flesh, implying that "walking" by the Spirit involves fulfilling the desires of the Spirit. v. 18 tells us to be "led" by the Spirit. This shows that we must follow the direction of the Spirit, guided and shaped by the Spirit, rather than to be guided and shaped by "the law" - in context here the Mosaic law. We live under the ethical imperatives of a higher law. v.25 says we are to "keep in step" with the Spirit. This amplifies the idea of a the Spirit's leading and asks us to imitate the Spirit. I think there is an implication of a common marching in step as a chur...

I began by asking who in church we felt had the marks of a Spirit-filled life. All agreed on Siew Leong!  :) We agreed that spiritual fruit was more indicative of the Spirit's filling than spiritual gifting, but we noted that, had Siew Leong's gifts been less public, we might have found it harder to identify him as being filled with the Spirit. I noted that there are many other people in church who exhibit the fruit of the Spirit and who live lives of surrendered devotion to Christ but who remain relatively unknown. Although all are commanded to be filled with the Spirit (Eph 6:18), not all are obedient to this command. We would expect that the life of one marked by the Spirit's filling would demonstrate a great extent of the purifying, unifying, revealing and empowering ("P-U-R-E") work of the Spirit. The Scripture references before us, espeically of Ephesians 5:18ff give specific pointers of the Spirit's filling. These include a life of worship 'from t...

We spent no time on the book questions on this topic and instead focused on John 7:37-39 as well as some of the concepts in the introduction in our study guide. Jesus 'stood up' (Jewish rabbis customarily sat to teach) and 'cried out'. This draws attention to the importance of his teaching.  I noted that the Greek punctuation in v.37-38 can also be "If anyone thirst, let him come to me. And (let him) drink, whoever believes in me. As the Scripture has said...". This variant reading is found in the ESV as well as the NIV and makes Christ rather than the one who comes to Him the subject of the Scriptural reference. John 4:10-14 suggests that both readings are possible and true. Although there is no single OT verse that speaks of rivers of living water flowing out of hearts, there are numerous references (Zec 14:9, Is 55:1 Is 12:3 , Ez 47) to living water in the OT. Jesus then must be speaking of the entirety of what the OT teaches about the Spirit's coming...

As we shared our experiences of the Holy Spirit it seemed clear to me that we had a range of spiritual encounters - from relatively brief times of conviction of sin and awareness of God's presence, to a more sustained time of unusual closeness to God. I feel that the former types of experiences are somewhat usual in the experience of all of us, but the latter would be more of what I think constitutes 'filling' of the Spirit. These times are characterized by a desire for intimacy with God in renewed desire to pray, boldness in witness, victory over temptation and wanting to meet with other Christians. Sometimes (as in Joyce's and my experience), these were preceded by a time of unusual hunger for God's presence and power. Sometimes (as with Eugene), God worked somewhat suddenly. As we 'build the altar' while waiting for God's sovereign move of the Spirit in our lives and the life of our church, one of the ways that shows how we hunger for God is to fast...

We start a new section on the Person and work of the Holy Spirit today. Wayne Grudem in his book on Systematic Theology helpfully categorizes the work of the Spirit: He purifies, unifies, reveals and empowers ("P-U-R-E"). He is the Person of the Trinity who leads us to holiness, assures us of our standing as children of God, helps us understand scripture, gives us spiritual gifts and unites us with brothers and sisters in Christ all over the world. As we looked at Acts 1 and 2 my comment was that the book of Acts makes it clear that the Spirit enabled bold witness of a previously cowardly band of disciples. He enabled workings of miracles that authenticated their witness and opened the way for the truth of the gospel. The difficulty with the book of Acts is that it can be difficult to see which parts are meant to be normative for all Christians, and which are only one-off accounts of events. In Acts, truth and power are not divorced. We see in John 20:22 an event where Je...

Today Chee Boon joined as as the visiting PLT member (they are going round to different SGs) Joshua asked if the Holy Spirit was active in sanctification of believers in the OT. We note that the Spirit was given only on select individuals prior to Pentecost - to kings (1 Sa 10:10, 11:6, Ps 51:11), prophets, judges and craftsmen (Ex 31:13).It is interesting that even in the OT the manifestations of the Spirit's power was different in different individuals. Joel 2:28-29 looks forward to the time when all God's p eople will be recepients of God's Spirit. And we are individually (1 Co 6:19) and corporately (1 Co 3:16) the temple of the Spirit. So we can be sure that we enjoy the blessings of the New Covenant paid in Christ's blood in a way that OT saints did not. But I believe the Bible does not rule out a lesser work of the Spirit in the preservation and sanctification of His people. Shaun asked about the bodily resurrection of the godly dead at the time of Jesus'...