Pastor Kelvin supports women in ministry
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Pastor Kelvin helped us to dig into Acts chapter 2 this Sunday. The first works of the Holy Spirit in the nascent church reveal to us three things that God wants to do in our church and in our lives today. First of all, we learn that God desires to pour out his Spirit upon believers. When Jesus visited the disciples in the upper room after his resurrection, he blessed them saying,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.”
John 20:22
Jesus was putting into action the pending promise of which the prophet Joel had spoken. The sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and every sending of the Holy Spirit into our lives since then is a fulfillment of the awesome blessing of Jesus upon his disciples. Even though every Christian has the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:9), we are not done receiving when we are saved. Our whole Christian life is to be lived in an attitude of receptivity to God’s Spirit. Theologians discuss whether we receive more of God’s Spirit or God’s Spirit gets more of us. It is both. But Paul’s admonition is simple to remember. Its literal translation is…
Be being filled with the Spirit.
Eph. 5:18
Pastor Kelvin pointed out that especially at this time in our church’s history, it is important to observe an important aspect of the prophecy of Joel and the Upper Room experience of the disciples. Both affirm that the receiving of the Spirit and the ability to “prophesy” as a result of the Spirit’s gifting are not restricted by age and are also given to both male and female.
Rev. Jones reminded us that theologically, we also need to remember that women being subject to men was not part of the original creation. Rather it was part of the curse which followed the fall of humankind into sin. In Jesus, the effects of the curse are being done away with. This began to happen in the ministry of Jesus and will be completed when Jesus returns and completes his victory over the last enemy, death itself.
Rev. Jones reminded us that Jesus in his life and ministry elevated the status of women beyond what was common in his time. He included women among his disciples. He met Mary Magdalene at his tomb and made her the first witness to the resurrection.
Paul later explained a key principle of the Gospel to the Galatian church this way. He wrote,
In Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Gal 3:26-28 NIV
We are all spiritual equals at the foot of the cross. This is a powerful and far-reaching principle which should govern the work of the Christian church in all its relationships.
The Pentecost story also affirms another purpose that God has. And we constantly need to be reminded of it. God desires and continues to work to call people to repentance and discipleship. Logically, we might want to put this point first, but it is part of the message of Pentecost that we should not do so. Remember that even though Jesus had told the disciples in Acts 1:8 that they were to be his witnesses, nevertheless, he instructed them not to start their assignment but instead to stay in the upper room. He told them plainly that they needed to wait for the Holy Spirit, the enabling power to come upon them. Pastor Kelvin suggested that much of the reason that the Christian church is so ineffective in calling people to Jesus today is that we usually get right to work first and pray second when our plan A didn’t work.
When we have prayed and opened our hearts for God to work, then we are prepared to do the Great Commission work that God has called us to do. God needs us to be his faithful witnesses for Jesus.
The third thing that God seeks to do is to unite his people in a devoted church fellowship.
Unity in the community of faith then produces many more beautiful fruits – worship, spiritual growth, united intercession, shared service to others, and teaching, to name a few. The emphases of the early church are recorded here for us so that they can be a model for us. Luke says,
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
Acts 2:42
These four activities contributed to their continuing unity. They learned together from the same source, the teaching of the Apostles. They spent time together in fellowship and met the needs of one another that arose. The breaking of bread is likely the precursor of the sacrament of communion. So, they shared that together in memory of Jesus. And they prayed together too. In these four ways we still maintain our togetherness.
Pastor Kelvin gives thanks for a ten year ministry partnership
During his Sunday message, Pastor Kelvin commended the congregation on the ten year partnership in ministry that has characterized his term as pastor. He remarked,
JoAnne and I have been so thankful over these last ten years for your diligent partnership in the Gospel. We diligently repaired the house of God. We organized with excitement to celebrate the 200th anniversary of this lighthouse for Jesus to let people know that we were continuing the work of God in our community. Our community learned that we are not just an historic building, we are a vital and active church. We started new outreach ministries, a booth at Suffield on the Green and mass Christmas card mailings. We ventured into the 21st century with a church website and Facebook page and projection capability in the sanctuary. And when COVID hit, we buckled down to work and started streaming our services online and we began receiving online giving. Along the way, God has granted us grace to add to the church both adults and children, including thirteen confirmations so far of children whom God has given us. And God has blessed our efforts and granted us strength together to recover from the stresses of the pandemic in a way that many churches did not. Praise be to God!
Pastor Kelvin Jones