Stephen spoke tonight on the feeding of the five thousand, one of the many miracles performed by Jesus when He was on earth. After a busy day of prayer and ministry, Jesus’s disciples were ready to send the crowds away to eat, but Jesus gave them the challenge, ‘You give them something to eat.’ (Luke 9:13) This seemed an impossible task, given they only had five loaves of bread and two fishes, but Jesus took this offering (one boy’s lunch, according to John 6:9), prayed to His Father and blessed the food before breaking it and asking HIs disciples to distribute it.

The fact that this small amount of food fed not only five thousand men but also the women and children present and there were twelve baskets of leftovers tells us this was a miracle, beyond natural explanation. When we pray, God often answers in miraculous ways. He can do amazing things as we pray, though we need to let Him do the work!

Our loaves and fishes were made out of chocolate and did seem to go much further than we expected!

Dave spoke this morning from Matt 13:47-50, another of the short parables of Jesus which reminds us there will come a day of judgment when the righteous and unrighteous will be separated. A parable about nets to a group of people for whom fishing was a daily reminder of life must have resonated with local people. There were different types of fishing practised in the area (using a line and hook as mentioned in Matt 17:24 or one person using a net), but a common type of fishing was to use a dragnet, where two or more men would use the net to collect fish. In this parable, we see all kinds of fish were collected in this manner and these would be separated (good from bad) later on.

Matthew 13:47-50.

Jesus spoke much about judgment and hell (see Matt 8:12, Matt 23:33, Mark 3:29, John 5:29) and it is necessary for us to take this subject seriously. Jesus said, ‘If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.‘ (Mark 9:23) The reality of hell and judgment was something Jesus spoke about frequently, stressing that what is required is a response now to God’s open invitation to repent and be born again (see John 3:16-21). God does not want anyone to go to hell (see 2 Pet 3:9, Ezek 18). He offers us a way to be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ (2 Cor 5:20-21), but we need to have ears that hear God’s warnings. Not only is it imperative that we follow God on the narrow path that leads to eternal life, it is also imperative that we take this message of reconciliation and hope to the world which is largely ignorant of and indifferent to God’s ways.

We’re now in April and there’s lots happening at GPCC!

Today we have services at 10.30 a.m. and 6.00 p.m., with the evening service being our monthly ‘Little Big Church’ where there’ll be songs and stories for children during the service.

This week will be the last week before the Easter holidays for our Monday youth (8th April) and Parent & Toddler group (12th April). Come prepared for Easter activities and chocolate! We’ve been getting new equipment for both groups, so come along to check out the new table tennis tables and pool tables for youth and the new play equipment for toddlers! We’ve been blessed to have Lisa and her team from the Dearne Family Centres helping at our Parent & Toddler group over the last few weeks, so she’ll be leading craft activities again this Friday between 9.30 a.m. and 11.00 a.m. There will then be two weeks off, with Monday youth resuming on 29th April and Parent & Toddlers back on 3rd May.

Midweek meetings (prayer meetings/ Bible studies) will continue on Thursdays (11, 18, 25 April) where we’ll be continuing our studies through Acts and coffee mornings will be on Saturdays between 10 a.m. and 12 noon (13, 20, 27 April).

On Saturday 13th April there will be the opportunity for our church children to watch an Easter film called ‘The Lion of Judah’ at 5 p.m. Food will be provided.

Next Sunday (14th April) we’ll be at Cherry Tree Court in the morning at 10.30 a.m. and at Market Street at 6.00 p.m.

On Good Friday (19th April) we’ll be having a fellowship meal at 5 p.m. and a service to remember our Lord’s death at 6 p.m. On Easter Sunday (21st April) we’ll have services at 10.30 a.m. and 6.00 p.m. as usual.

On Wednesday 24th April, ‘Churches Together’ will be running another Family Fun Day at GPCC between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Easter crafts, games, stories and activities will be on offer, along with free lunch.

On Tuesday 30th April there will be a ‘Churches Together’ prayer meeting at the Salvation Army at 10.30 a.m. All welcome.

William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army (whose motto ‘Blood and Fire’ reflect core beliefs in the death of Jesus Christ and the fire of the Holy Spirit), wrote the hymn ‘Send the Fire’ in 1894. The first verse speaks of his longing for the fire of God in his life through the Holy Spirit:

‘Thou Christ of burning, cleansing flame,
Send the fire, send the fire, send the fire!
Thy blood-bought gift today we claim,
Send the fire, send the fire, send the fire!
Look down and see this waiting host,
Give us the promised Holy Ghost;
We want another Pentecost,
Send the fire today, send the fire today!’

The line ‘we want another Pentecost’ begs the question ‘is that possible?’ Many have claimed that the events described in Acts 2 were ‘one-off’, never-to-be-repeated, events. They believe that the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the supernatural miracles described in the book of Acts were simply to ‘launch’ the church, so to speak, and are not needed today. To crave another Pentecost, to talk about the need to be baptised in the Spirit today or to speak in tongues, is regarded by many as unnecessary and even heretical.

As a Pentecostal church, we obviously don’t agree with that interpretation of the Bible. We believe that we are still living in the era of Pentecost, in the times when God pours out His Spirit on all people (as prophesied by Joel in Joel 2:28-32). When Paul talks about tongues and prophecies ceasing, he says that will be ‘when completeness comes’ (1 Cor 13:9), when Jesus comes again. We don’t think we’ve reached that point yet and so we believe that the church today needs the Holy Spirit to be effective in living and witnessing for Christ and therefore we echo William Booth’s sentiments.

Does that mean we will see tongues of fire or hear the blowing of a violent wind? Not necessarily, for the Spirit will come in His own way and in His own time. But the New Testament speaks of Him as the guide, the teacher, the living water and the power behind our witness (see John 14:16, John 16:12, John 7:37-39, Acts 1:8) and speaking in tongues and the gift of tongues are mentioned elsewhere in the New Testament (see Acts 10:44-46, Acts 19:6, 1 Cor 12:7-11, 1 Cor 14:1-25). We should, like William Booth and those early Pentecostal pioneers, seek the fire of the Holy Spirit and His power in our lives today, for we need Him desperately if we are to have any impact on our community and see people won to the Lord. The signs and wonders described throughout Acts (Acts 5:12, Acts 6:8, Acts 8:6, Acts 14:3, Acts 15:12) are needed in our churches in our times. Let’s seek God together, as these disciples did (Acts 2:1), for the blessing of the Holy Spirit to be poured out afresh, not for our sakes, but that others may see and hear the wonderful works of the Lord and thus be saved.

The third of the supernatural phenomena associated with the Day of Pentecost and the arrival of the Holy Spirit was the ability to speak in other tongues (or languages) as the Spirit enabled them. (Acts 2:4) The crowd’s reaction show us that this was definitely an unusual experience (they were ‘amazed and perplexed’); Galileans had the reputation for being uncultured (see John 1:46, John 7:52) and clearly had a pronounced accent (see Matt 27:63); historians tell us they struggled to pronounce guttural sounds like K and G and tended to ‘swallow syllables’ as they spoke, so it was all the more astonishing that they spoke in many different languages to the crowds gathered in Jerusalem for the holy festival and were understood by all.

The purpose of this supernatural experience was to alert the people to what God was doing, for people clearly heard the disciples ‘declaring the wonders of God’ in their own languages. (Acts 2:11) This led to opportunities for witness, as Peter responds to the question ‘What does this mean?’ (Acts 2:13) It’s no coincidence that God should choose this method of witness; Jesus is described as ‘the Word’ (John 1:1) and, as John Stott says, “Ever since the early church fathers, commentators have seen the blessing of Pentecost as a deliberate and dramatic reversal of the curse of Babel.” There, the pride and ambition of humankind led to the confusion of different languages (when I used to teach French, I always tackled the question of ‘why can’t we all speak the same language?’ by referring back to Genesis 11!); here, speaking in tongues led to the blessing of the gospel reaching all nations (and the list of nations covered harks back to Genesis 10 where we see the scattering of Noah’s descendants). This multilingual witness coheres with the universal offer of salvation in the church’s message and its consequent worldwide mission and reminds us that the Holy Spirit is given to us so that we can be witnesses, not so that we can hoard blessings ourselves. Howard Marshall reminds us, referring to the crowds gathered in Jerusalem, that “their presence and participation in what happened constituted an indication of the worldwide significance of the event.” Without the outpouring of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, the church really would not exist!

Wind and fire are symbols of the Holy Spirit, symbols associated with God throughout the Bible. The word ‘breath’ and ‘wind’ are the same (ruach in Hebrew, pneuma in Greek) and it is not surprising that one of the first signs of the Spirit’s arrival on the Day of Pentecost was ‘a sound like the blowing of a violent wind…from heaven.’ (Acts 2:2) Just as God’s Spirit had come upon the valley of dry bones as Ezekiel prophesied, bringing new life from dead bones (Ezek 37:1-14), the Holy Spirit’s arrival is likened to the wind which cannot be seen but which can be felt and experienced (see also John 3:8), bringing new life and power to people.

Fire is a symbol of God’s appearances to mankind in the Old Testament. Moses experienced the wonder of the burning bush from which God spoke (Ex 3:1-22) and God guided His people through the wilderness by a pillar of fire at night (Ex 13:21). When the Law was given, Mount Sinai was covered in smoke because the Lord descended on it with fire. (Ex 19:18) Elijah saw the prophets of Baal defeated when the fire of God descended on his sacrifice. (1 Kings 18:24, 38-39) John the Baptist predicted that Jesus would baptise with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Luke 3:16). Jesus said that He had come to cast fire upon the earth (Luke 12:49). The final place of judgment is the lake that burns with fire forever and ever. No wonder the writer to the Hebrews tells us ‘our God is a consuming fire.’ (Heb 12:29) Fire symbolises purity, for the heat of fire consumes the dross, as well as zeal (we are required to be zealous for God rather than being cold or lukewarm.) It also brings light into our lives.

These two symbols, therefore, illustrate something of the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives. He is the wind who brings new life and who sweeps away all that is old and not of Him; He is the fire who purifies, brings light to us and inflames us with zeal. We simply can’t do without Him.