Join us for this week’s message as Rev. Tom Finnemore starts our new series diving into the book of Acts.
Hello happy New Year wow it’s going off really well is it let’s try again so okay at the 9:00 a.m. Gathering uh we said Happy New Year and those guys are wild okay they really are and uh they shouted and also with you so uh the ring leader is a lady who
Had her 99th birthday last week she’s out of control so happy New Year happy year so okay if we’re going to commit let’s do it say and also with you yes happy New Year and also you gosh we got there in the end the 9:00 a.m. is strayed away
They loved it okay well it’s good if you don’t know me my name’s Tom it’s um wonderful to be able to welcome you um amazing was an amazing uh testimony uh from from Luke from Ben absolutely incredible and and Clarissa and my wife leaned over to me she said wow the 80s
Hair haircuts are really back aren’t they so I think she’s talking about you Luke can’t of been talking about she only wasn’t talking about me that’s for sure um and to say we want to share something um before we we jump into today’s talk and we’ve got a guest speaker next
Week you don’t know who it is yeah we just calm down and it’s guy called Richard Pollard if oh you’re a lively crowd today if you don’t know Richard uh Richard was a student here back in the 1990s I think um and married to Nikki uh they have two children uh their eldest
Son is very difficult child as uh is Joel paard uh wherever Joel is just been Tor in America and now he’s back he’s taken his Northern his Northern Vibes on on into America they love him uh so they’ve got two lovely children and Richard was Baptist
Minister here from 200 five I think to 2007 uh Joel doesn’t know uh okay that’s I can say what I like really if we don’t know do we and Richard has been a Baptist ministry in leads and in Bristol and now is on the team of a large Church
In Bristol called woodlands and is’s working with a local uh Baptist region in the west of England to Pioneer Church Plant and so um he has been in conversations with some members of our Baptist uh community so we are an Anglican church and we’re a Baptist Church and um the way that baptist
Ministers are chosen is very very different to the way that Anglican vicar are appointed and you were going to get an email this week that is going to change your life because it is going to go into a lot of detail about Baptist Church governance Alan lamb whispered to me
Earlier he cannot wait for this because he thinks he’s going to just add extras Zeal to his passion for evangelism but um essentially what happens is is a Baptist Minister who is in conversations with a church about potentially coming comes with what is called a preach with a
View and they do another kind of thing in the Baptist church is called preach with a peep which sounds very odd in the current climate I have to say but let’s part that there because we’re live on YouTube um so Richard is coming he is in the process of discerning with his wife
Nicki and their family uh whether God is calling him to our church and part of the way of testing that call is coming here next week to speak and the Baptist members of our church of um are also Discerning whether he’s right to come so
Next week I would love it if when he’s here you you know when you guys are happy on the inside but it doesn’t come out in your face I’d love you know I’d love you to do more of that if he makes a joke please don’t
Laugh please don’t laugh at all um if you have any deep theological questions uh please uh very aggressively at the end question it that that that would give it I’m I’m I’m I’m just messing with it I’m just messing with you so so um uh make him make him our home and
Will you pray this week um as as we pray all of us pray as a church family just for the next season of our churches life and whether the Lord is indeed calling um Richard and Nikki and somebody at the 9:00 a.m. Gathering caught me afterwards was very concerned and said but what
About Joel Bard because he’s on our team and I said if you know what Gladiators it’s a father and son team presenting it now H and funny enough they hadn’t so that didn’t work but there you go so folks we we’re jumping into the book of Acts we’re ask we’re beginning to think
We’re particularly in the next couple of weeks looking at the church in Jerusalem the first church church and we’re looking at um what it means to be on earth as in heaven what does it look like for that to that to happen um in the city of Jerusalem that that that
Heaven breaks in as the church kind of is birthed and we’re asking those kind of questions what can we learn from that in 2024 sheffields what is it the Lord might in our vision Series in November we said for such a time as this uh We’ve journeyed through Christmas into New
Year and just saying Lord what is Lord that that you might be saying to us now in 2024 what does it mean on Earth as in heaven a phrase that has been buzzing around my mind and we’re going to jump straight in if you’ve got a Bible um I’m
Going to read the first 11 verses and then I’m going to jump to verse 14 I’m going to share a story um a reflection and what I think there are key bits of this first chap the well heart first half of the chap first chapter of Acts
What that might mean to us for today so this is it in my former book Theophilus I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up to heaven after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen after his
Suffering he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive he appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke about the kingdom of God on one occasion he was eating with them he gave them this command do not leave Jerusalem but wait for the
Gift my father promised which you have heard me talk about for John baptized with water but in a few days you will be baptized with the holy spirit so when they met together they asked himl are are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel he said to them it
Is not for you to know the times or dates the father has set by his own authority but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my Witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the
Earth after he said this he was taken up before their very eyes and a cloud hid him from their sight they were looking looking intently up into the sky as he was going just listen to these words when suddenly two men dressed in white Stood Beside them
Men of Galilee they said why do you stand here looking into the sky this same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come back in the same way you’ve seen him go into heaven I’m just going to jump to verse 14 they all joined together constantly
In prayer along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brothers this is the word of the Lord wonderful on Friday morning um I decided to go for a run and it’s something I’ve did quite a bit started in lockdown and then for variety of
Reasons over the last couple of months I’ve got out of the practice and um when you restart it’s like oh this is a nightmare so any excuse not to go I seen it as a sign of the Lord theed do want me to go for a run and I I needed to to
Walk we’ we’ve got two dogs it was a buy one get one free deal so we went for a second and I said to my wife well I said why why don’t I why don’t I take them out running with me because that seemed
Like a good idea so put him in the car drove up to Red Myers which if you’re not familiar with Sheffield is is a beautiful place it’s about literally a 10minute drive from here some lovely reservoirs in the edge of the P dist streets and so that it was very cold
There I am get the the dogs out I’m in my running stuff and even they look surprised do you know what I mean a man in lier is never good even even Labradors can see that you know what I mean and so we’re we’re off and um um
We’re running and I stop because it’s very muddy hadn’t quite thought that part through and I and I went to get my phone and I thought oh no I’ve left my phone back at home and and and I was kind of kicking myself really because I thought
This would be a great photograph moment do you know what I mean selfie me a bit muddy dogs even muddier put it on straa actually I don’t use stra at the minute cuz I’m so terrible I don’t want people to see I’ve told you now it’s all out
There and I thought this would be amazing and I thought I can’t got got my phone because I like you know I try end up taking photos of of everything that’s that’s kind of I guess part of the generation I am really my mom is horrified absolutely mortified that
People take photos and then put them on the Internet on that face tube you’re going to take that picture don’t take that picture of me put it on face tube do you know what I mean the Russians will see me no they’re not they’re not not worried about a pensioner in the
West Midlands they’re really not they’re not worried about that say you know like take po photos of everything and and if you get a really nice photo you may print it out you might put it in a frame you might put it on your mantle piece and bizarrely this this the fact
That I had got my phone and the fact that I couldn’t take a phone photo and I began my mind works in weird ways as you probably noticed by now but I just thought it’s interesting because publicly I I always put like a nice picture on Instagram and Facebook I mean
I don’t know why but I just do uh I guess we all do but if I’m honest what can happen is in my internal world the less Pleasant the more unpleasant things that happen or things that have happened I can almost imagine I I kind of put
Them in a picture I put them in a frame and I almost stick them on the mantle piece and the reason that I say that is because over New Year I was for the first time ever I was delighted that 2023 was gone I usually get a bit
Depressive at New Year I’m a fairly Melancholy person anyway but I just couldn’t see the Glad see the back of 23 my dad died there was other stuff happening it was just I can’t it was some good stuff too but I I’m just glad
To see to 23 go and I was walking my dogs this time I wasn’t running and I was listening to a talk and it was a talk about bitterness cheery talk for New Year and I sensed what I can think the Holy Spirits saying to me your heart is
Bitter I thought well Lord I really would prefer to hear a court to California actually because it’s really wet and it never rains there and again I just thought your heart is getting bitter and I thought about it for a while and I thought it probably is it definitely
Is and what had happened is there’s been a number of moments I think where people had either said stuff or stuff had happened and I i’ I’d printed them out these pictures and I got a nice frame you know well not that nice cheap ones
From Ike you know and and I put them on the mantle piece what was happening is every day I was analyzing going over and over and over and over the same conversations over and over and the photo was getting bigger and the frame was getting larger and larger and larger and
Larger like some something happened to you a pain a hurt or a heartbreak or something a disappointment a deep disappointment and it’s like it’s a photograph of a moment that you’ve maybe like me it’s been framed and you’re looking at it all the time can’t go
Away and as I was on this um just this patch of grass just down the road from here now with my dogs there was a deep invitation almost from the Holy Spirit to say do you want to be free you want to be free and so I felt the Lord begin to say
I want you to pray blessing on the people in the frame we gritted teeth we did and I’m tempted to go back and do the analysis again and oh look at that picture there but it’s like this time it’s as you play Pray blessing and life and walk in the opposite Spirit the
Picture gets smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller and I don’t know today as we start 2024 if one is are what are those images that in our internal world I’m not talking about the pictures you put on Facebook I mean I take 20 pictures I’ll pick the best one put a
Filter on it put it on there I’m talking about the ones that no one else sees but in your heart you frame them because I want to take the book the first few verses of Acts and I want to take them in reverse because what what we find incredibly is that they’re in
Verse 10 we see that that Jesus ascends into heaven we know that acts is written by Luke it’s often known as The Acts of the Apostles but actually what theologians tell us it’s actually should be renamed the acts of Jesus and so what what is happening for 40 days since the
Resurrection Jesus has been appear appearing with and teaching his disciples the resurrected Jesus so that is Jesus who is fully resurrected yet has scars on his body to to the permanent reminder which he still has in his body in glory at the right hand of the father
Interceding for you like he knows our name just just hold that thought for a moment that Jesus Christ knows your name and and he is seated at the right hand of the father and he is interceding praying for us as a church and for us as
Individuals he that he he’s kind of what he’s known as his high Priestly function and so as he’s spending time with the disciples there is a Time come where he’s going to leave them and In This Moment he descends to he ascends sorry to heaven in surrounded by a cloud
It must have been if you like taking photos I mean that is right there and then that must have been a phenomenal moment mustn’t it and and and it’s he surrounded by a cloud okay so so what on Earth does that mean well that has particular anything in scripture often
Has images and pictures which point to other parts of scriptures which it weaves together to point to this moment the Supreme person Jesus Christ who speaks the whole thing into being is now surrounded by a cloud of the presence of God the same Cloud that appears in different places throughout the Old
Testament which points to God so the the followers of Jesus are are looking up as this dramatic thing is done happening and it is Jesus clearly saying as he’s walked into hum as he’s gone into Jerusalem in humility on a donkey on Palm Sunday he’s now
Ascending into Glory as the one who is all powerful it is these incredible moments so the first imagees one of the cloud and then the second are these two men that we are told are dressed dressed in white and they say this men of Galilee they say why do you stand here
Looking into the sky this same Jesus who’s been taken from you into heaven will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven John starts who is an amazing uh Church leader and theologian when writing about the book of Acts says
This is a moment that we can all learn from because this is the moment where the Angels remember the Angelic um throughout Luke’s gospel when the announcement of the birth of Jesus it’s Angels when Jesus is in Gethsemane it’s the an there’s angels and now as a Jesus
Ascend into heaven to to mark his divinity is the presence of angels and what they say is this don’t stand looking at what you’ve lost don’t stay in a moment staring craning your neck I was thinking about that I was reflecting on it quite a lot thinking
Okay the the the latter half of Luke’s gospel says the disciples return in Joy but what would that have been like because Jerusalem was pretty intense it was not an easy it’s not like hey let’s go let’s chill out it’s it’s it’s it’s the ser serious principalities and powers and Jesus is
Going it must have been terrifying and the Temptation is to stay and look in Nostalgia at what was will it ever be the same what’s going to happen now is he going to come back how’s he going to do what do we what what do we do
Now and there’s this and there’s earlier when when Jesus is gathered with his disciples what they say is that he begins to talk about what will follow is Pentecost the outpouring of the spirit why is that significant okay the people of God wander the desert for 40
Years Jesus spends 40 days in a desert he spent 40 days now with his followers saying that the spirit of God will come at Jesus’s baptism something significant happens the father speaks over his son telling him him before he does any public Ministry that he’s loved and now
10 days after the the Ascension happens and then 10 days later Pentecost the spirit is poured out for 10 days the people the god Jesus’s followers wait for him and they commit to prayer seeking his face because as he ascends to he Heaven he is reminding them of his
Supreme authority of the authority of Jesus and he saying that he’s in his then the spirit Falls and when the spirit comes will be a baptism in the Holy Spirit the song that bethan chose for us the first song which is a new song which is a shock because it ain’t
From the 90s folks I was shocked we’re singing new stuff why you know what’s going on wherever next it sings about the power in the name of Jesus when you and I are baptized into the Jesus we are baptized into his name we take the name of Jesus Heather you’re baptized into the
Name of Jesus father so the Trinity Father Son and Holy Spirit whoever it is whe it’s a tiny baby or a grownup you see in the name of Jesus we are told that he supreme power Smith Wigglesworth the crazy uh evangelist from Bradford was said to be illiterate
Was a plumber he turned the word upside down his simple approach Ro to Ministry and to to to to healing and taking on principalities and Powers was simply to speak the name of Jesus and so what’s happening here is Luke is describing a moment where where where the disciples go don’t don’t don’t
Photograph a moments of Jesus ascending because what he’s saying is is he’s describing you were be witnesses to me in the city and Beyond you are to Bear witness to me we’ve heard from Ben with his beautiful 80s haircut that that’s that we are to Bear witness to
The goodness of God we are to Bear witness to all that it is that he has done and yet what is happening here is Luke is describing the birth ju actually just technically before the birth of the church ver the people gather he’s saying that he now has ascended into the
Highest place he knows your name he is all powerful that he sending his spirit will baptize you in the in the Holy Spirit and when the spirit comes it testifies to a deep internal love of the father my dad died at the end of October I have his Aston Villa hat which
I proudly wear there it sparked some interesting conversations at the school Gates I can assure you I have this kind of lumber jacket that Clarissa thinks makes me look a bit overweight but I really enjo I really like it it has got a button missing but there’s something
And I’ve actually got his I’ve got his little red Fiesta outside there is something that happens that when I kind of wear that stuff and I I wear his jacket and I’m sitting in his car and I’m thinking oh this was my dad’s when the Holy Spirit fills
Us he testifies to our spirits that we have an inheritance in Our Father who loves us more than any Earthly father who who sheds abroad the love the perfect love which melts Hearts which changes lives which caus us out of bitterness and darkness into and addictions into life and freedom in the
Name of Jesus and what happens is Luke tells us as the disciples gather and as they’re looking in the moments the Angels say don’t photograph it don’t don’t put it in that Ika frame put it on your mantle piece because he has something for us to do and he’s with
You in the most profoundly powerful personal way as you know I am a Vicor which means I get paid to work one day a week so the rest of the time I have quite a lot of uh time on my hands and um and I listen to podcasts and things
Like that because what honestly it’s hard to know how it’s full of time and you know sometimes when we hear about um the state of the church in our nation and globally particularly in the west it can get all rather depressing folks you know decline um it can you know culture is
Challenging um you know my my daughter lives in a very different world to mine she’s 12 when I was 12 I used to go cycling with my mate Jimmy on my red racing bike we had no phones um we didn’t worry about humos seexual we didn’t worry about gender identity we
Didn’t worry about any of that we just got on with life we were much Freer in many ways the wars could be another major war in the um Middle East which is hugely encouraging uh and if you like rightwing cranks on the internet who tell you that
Jesus is about to appear anytime now we’re in the end times just remember that what what what we’re what Jesus what the Angels say to um the disciples is that only the Lord knows the times in fact I remember been on a mission to Southport in 2006 and mate my was about
To get to married and this fellow ped him on one side said I really think you need to cancel your wedding he said why that he said because Jesus is com back in 2009 there’s no point well he ain’t come back yet it’s a sense isn’t it that that the
It just feels so Bleak at the moment post pandemic Rising anxiety mental health it is Bleak it feels Bleak it’s hard to stay encouraged if I’m honest and yet as we step into the book of the acts of Jesus we’ll see that there is nothing new Under the
Sun that in Jerusalem it was tense they were under occupation it was violent it was fearful yet Jesus gathers a group of men uneducated R North and women who had no voice in that society and he breathed his precious powerful lifegiving Holy Spirit presence upon them and they birthed something they
Committed to Mission to proclaiming Jesus to Bear witness to him the disciples asked him early on you know what’s he going to do what’s his kingdom going to look like is it is it going to be a like the kind of questions they’d asked throughout Jesus’s Ministry and yet he
Points to what it’s looked like it’s going to be a kingdom that is’s brought about by people on their knees and he’s going to be brought about by weak people people who do not have it all together people who have had terrible pasts but a glorious future beginning to Bear witness to the
Unchanging lifegiving glorious Jesus Christ and committing to living in these Little Radical communities in homes the only place in a city like Jerusalem that would have any sense of equality of black and white Jew Greek okay Greeks kind of come later but there’s a sense in which the only place in any City
Where there is a level of freedom and togetherness and equality and it is the Taste and the foraste of heaven and it happens in a moment there’s a choice a decision are you going to photograph that moment looking up upwards in Nostalgia at what was or step into the call of the
Lord placing our vulnerabilities our fears stepping into the freedom that the Lord Jesus Christ has won on the cross being transformed by his spirits becoming the church the bride of Christ that he Longs us to be not fearful not being discipled and conditioned by the culture but being
Renewed by the transforming of our mind as we immerse ourselves in this book and as we’re filled with the Holy Spirit and I today as we starting this new series into 2024 I want us to think of what are the things that we framed what are they what are those
Pictures what is it the spirit will make it clear and in our mantle pieces in our hearts is it time to take them down to break them to walk in a place of freedom and over the next weeks we’re going to track we’re going to say holy
Spirit what are you saying to our church in Sheffield in 2024 what can we learn from the first church for such a time as this let’s Stand Together sh we invite the band to come and join us