Archive for the ‘Acts 2: 42’ Tag
“Participate In The Passionate Spirituality Of King Jesus!”
Filed under: Bible, By Pastor Timothy, By Tim Brassell, By Timothy Brassell, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Discipleship, Evangelism, Faith, GCI Windsor Mill, Maryland, God, God Father Son and Spirit, God the Trinity, God's love, good news, Gospel, Grace Communion Baltimore, Grace Communion International, identity in Christ, Inclusion, Jesus Christ, Love, Ministry, New Life Fellowship Of Baltimore Maryland, New Life Fellowship Of Windsor Mill, MD., On Mission with Christ, Participation with Christ, Participation with Jesus, Pentecost, Perichoresis, Prayer, relationship with God, Relationships, Sermons, The Church, The Dance and Dream of the Trinity, The Father, Son and Holy Spirit, The Gospel Project, The Holy Spirit, The Plan of Adoption, Timothy Brassell, Trinity, Uncategorized, union, Union In Christ, Union with Christ, Witness, Witnessing to God, Witnessing to Jesus, Worship, Worshiping God, Worshipping Jesus | Tags: Acts, Acts 2: 42, Adoption, Ambassadors for Christ, Basic Christian Doctrine, Being In God's Family, Christ Reigns, Christian Faith, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Devoted Church, Faith, GCI Baltimore, God's Faith, God's Grace, God's love, Gospel, Grace Communion International, Having The Peace Of God, How God Reveals Himself, Humanity Revealed, Humanity Revealed In Jesus, Jesus, King Jesus, Knowing The Father's Love, Life's meaning and Significance, Live ready, Love, New Life Fellowship Baltimore MD, New Life Fellowship Of Baltimore Maryland, Participate With Jesus, Relationships, Revealing Your Life's Purpose, Sharing God More Accurately, Sharing In God's JOy, Sharing In God's Laughter, Sharing In The Divine Nature, The Basic Christian Belief, The God Who Is Love, the reason for your existence, Timothy Brassell of New Life Fellowship, Trinitarian Theology, Trinity, Understanding God, Understanding Human Beings, Understanding Life's Calling, Who Is God?, Who Is Jesus?
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Part A:
Part B:
Full Message:
Scripture: Acts 2: 42 (CSB)
Summary:
Christ the King Sunday calls us to remember that Jesus does not rule over a small, distant kingdom, He reigns over all creation, every place, every circumstance, and every moment of our lives. Even when the world feels chaotic, confusing, or out of control, Scripture declares that Christ is still the One who reigns, restores, and works all things together for good for those who love Him.
This powerful sermon by Pastor Timothy Brassell reminds us that salvation is not merely receiving something from Jesus, it is receiving His very life. In Acts 2:42, we see the pattern of Jesus’ own passionate spirituality now shared with His people: devotion to Scripture, fellowship, communion, and prayer. These are not religious tasks to check off but tangible ways we participate in the life He lives with the Father through the Spirit. As Athanasius so beautifully expressed: “He became what we are that He might make us what He is.”
Jesus does not force this life upon us; He invites us into it. He calls us into a relationship that grows, transforms, and reshapes us over time. And because He will one day return in glory, we live with a holy urgency, choosing participation over passivity, devotion over distraction, and love over indifference.
As ambassadors of reconciliation, we join Jesus in His ongoing work of calling others into this relational life with the Father. The gospel is not merely information; it is invitation. An invitation to share in the very life, love, and mission of King Jesus.
Key Themes and Reflection Questions:
1. Christ’s Reign as Our Present Reality 👑🌍
- Theme: Because Jesus reigns over all creation, we can live with confidence that nothing in our world or our personal lives falls outside His loving authority.
- Discipleship Question: Where do you need to trust Christ’s present reign instead of being shaped by fear or uncertainty?
- #ChristReigns
2. Sharing in Jesus’ Life Through the Spirit 🤝🔥
- Theme: Participation in Jesus means opening ourselves to His ongoing life, His mindset, His rhythms, and His relationship with the Father made available to us by the Holy Spirit.
- Discipleship Question: How might you intentionally create space this week to participate in Jesus’ life, rather than merely observe it?
- #ParticipateWithJesus
3. Devotion That Forms Us Into Christlike People 📖🤲
- Theme: The early church’s devotion to Scripture, fellowship, communion, and prayer wasn’t routine, it was transformative. These practices shape us into people who mirror Christ’s character.
- Discipleship Question: Which of these four devotions is most needed right now to shape you more deeply into the likeness of Jesus?
- #DevotedChurch
4. Living Awake to Christ’s Coming ⏳🌅
- Theme: Because Christ will return, we live with a posture of wakefulness, choosing faithfulness, compassion, and mission rather than spiritual sleepiness or distraction.
- Discipleship Question: What one step could you take this week to live with greater spiritual attentiveness?
- #LiveReady
5. Joining Jesus in the Ministry of Reconciliation 🌿🕊️
- Theme: Reconciled by Christ, we now become His ambassadors, showing His grace, embodying His compassion, and extending His invitation to others.
- Discipleship Question: Who might God be placing on your heart to encourage, reconcile with, or gently point back to Him?
- #AmbassadorsForChrist
Reflective Moment:
As you sit with these themes, consider where Jesus is inviting you to say yes to His life this week. The passionate spirituality He lived before the Father is the life He now shares with you through the Spirit. Where can you open your heart a little more to His reign, His presence, or His invitation?
May your “yes” draw you deeper into the life of King Jesus; the life that makes us fully alive in Him.
“How to Hear and Receive Father’s Word – Jesus! Pt2”
Filed under: Bible, By Pastor Timothy, By Tim Brassell, By Timothy Brassell, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Discipleship, Evangelism, Faith, GCI Windsor Mill, Maryland, God, God Father Son and Spirit, God the Trinity, God's love, good news, Gospel, Grace Communion Baltimore, Grace Communion International, identity in Christ, Inclusion, Jesus Christ, Love, Ministry, New Life Fellowship Of Baltimore Maryland, New Life Fellowship Of Windsor Mill, MD., On Mission with Christ, Participation with Christ, Participation with Jesus, Perichoresis, Prayer, relationship with God, Relationships, Scripture Paraphrases, Sermons, The Church, The Dance and Dream of the Trinity, The Father, Son and Holy Spirit, The Gospel Project, The Holy Spirit, The Plan of Adoption, Timothy Brassell, Trinity, Uncategorized, union, Union In Christ, Union with Christ, Witness, Witnessing to God, Witnessing to Jesus, Worship, Worshiping God, Worshipping Jesus | Tags: Acts 2: 36-47, Acts 2: 42, Adoption, Basic Christian Doctrine, Being In God's Family, Christian Faith, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Devoted To The Word, Faith, GCI Baltimore, God's Faith, God's Grace, God's love, Gospel, Grace Communion International, Having The Peace Of God, Herar The Father's Word, How God Reveals Himself, Humanity Revealed, Humanity Revealed In Jesus, Jesus, Knowing The Father's Love, Life's meaning and Significance, Listen To Jesus, Love, Meet Jesus In The Word, New Life Fellowship Baltimore MD, New Life Fellowship Of Baltimore Maryland, Pastor Jesus, Relationships, Revealing Your Life's Purpose, Sharing God More Accurately, Sharing In God's JOy, Sharing In God's Laughter, Sharing In The Divine Nature, The Basic Christian Belief, The God Who Is Love, the reason for your existence, Timothy Brassell of New Life Fellowship, Trinitarian Theology, Trinity, Understanding God, Understanding Human Beings, Understanding Life's Calling, Who Is God?, Who Is Jesus?
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Part 2A:
Part 2B:
Full Message:
Key Scripture: Acts 2:36–47 (focus on v. 42)
Summary:
In this heartfelt and thought-provoking message, Pastor Timothy Brassell calls believers back to the true source of divine communication, Jesus Christ, the Living Word of the Father. Preaching from Acts 2:36–47, he challenges the Church to listen beyond mere words, and to hear the voice of the Father speaking through His Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
This sermon reminds us that faith begins not in human performance but in divine participation. To truly “hear and receive the Father’s Word,” we must center our hearts on Jesus, the content, context, and communicator of God’s truth.
1. Jesus, The True Pastor of His Church 🕊️👑
Pastor Tim began by turning attention away from earthly recognition and toward Pastor Jesus, the one true Shepherd. Every leader and pastor serves only in participation with His ministry.
“Whenever we honor one person or group, we’re really honoring the grace of God given to all in Christ.”
Key Insight: When we celebrate ministry, we celebrate the life of Jesus being lived through His people.
2. Hearing the Father’s Word Through the Son 📖🔥
The Father always speaks through His Son, never apart from Him. Many claim to hear “God,” but Pastor Tim urged believers to ask: Which God are you hearing, the God revealed in Jesus, or a god of your own making?
The true Word of the Father is Jesus Himself. To receive Him is to listen to the Father’s heart.
“You can’t tell God who He is. Only He can tell you who He is through His Son.”
3. Devotion to the Apostolic Teaching 🙏📜
Acts 2:42 reveals that the early church’s first act was not fellowship or prayer, but devotion to the apostles’ teaching. The teaching that proclaimed Christ as Lord.
“You can’t participate in prayer, fellowship, or communion until God first teaches you how through His Word.”
The message reminds us that our life of faith always begins with divine instruction. We don’t make the Word come alive, the Word makes us alive.
4. Meeting the Living Word Through the Written Word ✝️💬
Pastor Tim powerfully reframed how we approach Scripture. Reading the Bible is not about gathering information; it’s about meeting Jesus through it.
“Jesus loves me, this I know, for through the Bible, Jesus tells me so.”
Scripture is the chosen medium where Christ personally meets us by His Spirit. Without the Living Word, even the Bible remains just ink and paper.
5. Testing Every Word Against Christ ⚖️🔥
From Deuteronomy 18, Pastor Tim issued a sobering call to discernment: not every “word from God” is truly from Him. Any message that lacks Christ at its center is a dead message.
“If a message doesn’t point to Jesus as source and content, question whether it’s really the gospel.”
The Church must not tolerate substitutes that sound spiritual but do not reveal the Father through the Son.
6. Our Relationship Is Mediated Through Christ 🤲❤️
In one of the most profound statements of the sermon, Pastor Tim declared:
“You do not have your own personal relationship with the Father. Jesus has a relationship with the Father and He shares His relationship with you.”
True Christian life is always mediated. We know the Father only through the Son, in the Spirit. This keeps our relationship grounded in grace, not performance.
7. Practicing How to Hear the Word 👂📖
To help believers truly engage with Scripture, Pastor Tim offered a three-step guide practiced weekly in FaithTalk Jesus Bible Study:
- Ask first: What does this passage tell me about who God is — Father, Son, and Spirit?
- Then ask: What does this reveal about God’s heart and purpose as seen in Jesus?
- Finally ask: How am I invited to participate in this revelation?
This approach transforms Bible reading from self-centered reflection to Christ-centered communion.
8. The Takeaway: Jesus Is Still Speaking ✨
The sermon concluded with a timeless truth: “Jesus is the answer. So what’s your question?”
Whether we’re facing joy or hardship, the Father continues to speak His Word, Jesus Christ, through Scripture, preaching, and the Holy Spirit. The invitation is simple: listen, rest, and respond to His living voice.
Reflect & Respond:
- Are you reading the Bible to learn about God or to meet God through Jesus?
- When you listen to sermons, do you listen for Christ’s voice, not just human words?
- How can you practice hearing the Living Word through the Written Word this week?
Main Idea: The Father’s Word comes to us through His Son, Jesus Christ, in the Spirit. We hear, receive, and respond by centering every part of life on the Living Word.
Closing Line: “Jesus still speaks. The Father’s Word alive and present through Scripture, the Spirit, and His Church.”
“How to Hear and Receive Father God’s Word! Pt 1”
Filed under: Bible, By Pastor Timothy, By Tim Brassell, By Timothy Brassell, Christian Living, Christianity, Christmas, Church, Discipleship, Evangelism, Faith, GCI Windsor Mill, Maryland, God, God Father Son and Spirit, God the Trinity, God's love, good news, Gospel, Grace Communion Baltimore, Grace Communion International, identity in Christ, Inclusion, Jesus Christ, Liturgy, Love, Ministry, New Life Fellowship Of Baltimore Maryland, New Life Fellowship Of Windsor Mill, MD., On Mission with Christ, Participation with Christ, Participation with Jesus, Pentecost, Perichoresis, Prayer, relationship with God, Relationships, Resurrection, Sermons, The Church, The Dance and Dream of the Trinity, The Father, Son and Holy Spirit, The Gospel Project, The Holy Spirit, The Plan of Adoption, Timothy Brassell, Trinity, Uncategorized, union, Union In Christ, Union with Christ, Witness, Witnessing to God, Witnessing to Jesus, Worship, Worshiping God, Worshipping Jesus | Tags: Acts 2, Acts 2: 42, Adoption, Basic Christian Doctrine, Being In God's Family, Christ Our Foundation, Christian Faith, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Devoted To The Word, Faith, GCI Baltimore, God's Faith, God's Grace, God's love, Gospel, Grace Communion International, Having The Peace Of God, Hearing Through Christ, How God Reveals Himself, Humanity Revealed, Humanity Revealed In Jesus, Jesus, Knowing The Father's Love, Life In Participation, Life's meaning and Significance, Love, New Life Fellowship Baltimore MD, New Life Fellowship Of Baltimore Maryland, One True Gospel, Relationships, Revealing Your Life's Purpose, Sharing God More Accurately, Sharing In God's JOy, Sharing In God's Laughter, Sharing In The Divine Nature, The Basic Christian Belief, The God Who Is Love, the reason for your existence, Timothy Brassell of New Life Fellowship, Trinitarian Theology, Trinity, Understanding God, Understanding Human Beings, Understanding Life's Calling, Who Is God?, Who Is Jesus?
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Part 1A:
Part 1B:
Full Message:
Scripture: Acts 2: 42
Summary:
This week’s message from Pastor Timothy Brassell offers a deeply clarifying and convicting call to return to the foundation of all true Christian life and preaching — Jesus Christ Himself. The sermon, drawn from Acts 2:42, explores what it really means to hear and receive God’s Word as Jesus intends, not as a set of “how-to” instructions, but as a living participation in His ongoing relationship with the Father through the Holy Spirit.
Pastor Tim reminded listeners that worship is never something we perform or generate: “When we gather, we are not just getting our praise on; we are participating in Jesus’ own worship of the Father.” True discipleship, then, begins not with our doing, but with our being. Being joined to Christ, who is the living Word of God.
As Karl Barth declared in The Barmen Theological Declaration (1934):
“Jesus Christ, as he is attested for us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God which we have to hear, and which we have to trust and obey in life and in death.”
This powerful truth framed the entire message: the Church’s greatest need is not more information, activity, or innovation. It is devotion to the one Word of God: Jesus Christ.
Pastor Tim emphasized that every sermon, every act of worship, and every reading of Scripture must be centered on Christ, interpreted through Christ, and lived out in participation with Christ. Without Him as the content and foundation, even the most well-intended message becomes hollow.
From Acts 2:42, he identified the early Church’s threefold devotion, a model for the Church today:
- Devotion to Jesus Himself
- Devotion to the Proclamation of Jesus
- Devotion to the Apostolic Teaching of Scripture
Through these, believers move from hearing about God to hearing from God.
Key Themes and Reflection Questions:
- Jesus Is the Foundation
- Theme: Every true word of God flows from the person of Jesus Christ. Without Him as the foundation, the Christian message collapses into moralism or self-help. Discipleship Question: Is Jesus the foundation of your daily thoughts, choices, and actions, or have you built on something else?
- Hearing the Word in Christ
- Theme: Hearing God’s Word means joining in Christ’s own conversation with the Father. Scripture becomes alive when we listen through Him. Discipleship Question: How are you intentionally listening for Christ’s voice through Scripture this week?
- Devotion to Apostolic Teaching
- Theme: The early Church grew because it was devoted to the apostles’ teaching. Scripture that proclaimed Jesus as the Living Word. Discipleship Question: How can you grow in devotion to the apostles’ teaching, so your faith remains rooted in Christ and not in culture?
- Guarding the Gospel
- Theme: There is only one Gospel. The Gospel of Jesus Christ. Any message that sidelines Him for other topics loses the life-giving power of grace. Discipleship Question: Are you discerning what you hear and read through the lens of Jesus as the true Gospel?
- Participation, Not Performance
- Theme: The Christian life is not about doing things for God, but joining Christ in what He is already doing through you. Discipleship Question: In what ways can you shift from performing for God to participating with Him this week?
Reflective Moment:
“Lord Jesus, quiet my heart, open my ears, to hear You. Let every word I read, every song I sing, and every prayer I pray draw me deeper into Your life and love. Tune my heart to listen, not for information, but for transformation. May my worship, reading, and serving be rooted in You, the one Word of God whom I must hear, trust, and obey in life and in death. Draw me into Your divine conversation with the Father, and help me to live as a true participant in Your ongoing life and mission. Amen.”