Jesus Before Pentecost

Most of us are regular people who have good days and bad days. Our lives are radically ordinary and unexciting. That means they're the kind of lives God gets excited about. While the world worships beauty and power and wealth, God hides his glory in the simple, the mundane, the foolish, working in unawesome people, things, and places.In our day of celebrity worship and online posturing, this is a refreshing, even transformative way of understanding God and our place in his creation. It urges us to treasure a life of simplicity, to love those whom the world passes by, to work for God's glory rather than our own. And it demonstrates that God has always been the Lord of the cross--a Savior who hides his grace in unattractive, inglorious places.Your God Is Too Glorious reminds readers that while a quiet life may look unimpressive to the world, it's the regular, everyday people that God tends to use to do his most important work.

Jesus before Pentecost studies the history of Jesus' ministry from William P. Atkinson's Pentecostal perspective. This perspective affects both his method and the book's content. In terms of method, Atkinson puts forward a strong argument for looking carefully at John's Gospel, as well as the synoptic gospels, as a reliable historical source for Jesus' life. In terms of content, his main areas of study follow key Pentecostal interests, summed up in the foursquare Pentecostal rubric of Jesus as Saviour, Healer, Baptiser in the Spirit, and Soon-Coming King. The picture that emerges offers fresh insights into Jesus' life: notably, the symbolic meaning Jesus invested in the feeding of the five thousand; the effect that Jesus' approach to healing the sick had on Him; the involvement of God's Spirit in His life and in the lives of those around Him; and, lastly, His enigmatic predictions of his future coming. Overall, the study is both academically rigorous and warmly engaging. It will appeal to anyone who is interested in Jesus, regardless of whether or not they are associated with the Pentecostal tradition.

An exposition of the apostle Peter's speech on the day of Pentecost. This book examines the issues surrounding the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the early church, and demonstrates that this dramatic event fulfilled the ancient prophecy of Joel. The Holy Spirit gifts were given for a limited time, and their main purpose was to enable the early christians to effectively witness to the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Acts is the sequel to Luke's gospel and tells the story of Jesus's followers during the 30 years after his death. It describes how the 12 apostles, formerly Jesus's disciples, spread the message of Christianity throughout the Mediterranean against a background of persecution. With an introduction by P.D. James

The NIV is the world's best-selling modern translation, with over 150 million copies in print since its first full publication in 1978. This highly accurate and smooth-reading version of the Bible in modern English has the largest library of printed and electronic support material of any modern translation.

Preached at Enfield, Connecticut on July 8, 1741, this is perhaps the greatest sermon ever preached in America—and is certainly among the most well known. Owing to its forthright dealing with God’s wrath and His intense hatred of sin and the sinner, it is also one of the most controversial. Indeed, for more than three-quarters of the sermon Edwards lays down a relentless stream of the most vivid and horrifying descriptions of the danger facing unregenerate men. While it is difficult to read such graphic language, there is abundant hope in the sermon’s conclusion. Edwards puts it this way, “And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ has thrown the door of mercy wide open and stands calling and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners.” While those who would rather ignore God’s justice in favor of His mercy condemn Edwards and his sermon, those who were present and actually heard him preach that day reacted in a decidedly different manner. According to the diary of Reverend Stephen Williams who attended the sermon, “Before the sermon was done there was a great moaning and crying through the whole House, ‘what shall I do to be saved; oh, I am going to hell, etc.’” The diary goes on to indicate that Edwards had to interrupt his sermon and come down to minister to those who were under such awful conviction. And so, in spite of what the scoffers might think or say, “the amazing and astonishing power of God” was manifested among the people that day—with many falling not into the hands of an angry God, but into the arms of a mighty Savior.

With this acclaimed volume in the Pillar New Testament Commentary series, Carson explains the text of John's Gospel to help you minister the Word of God to others, either by preaching or by leading Bible studies. The commentary will also deepen your understanding of the Gospel in your own life and worship. Throughout his commentary Carson does the following: makes clear the flow of the text, focusing on the movement of thought rather than on word studies and Greek syntax engages a small but representative part of the massive secondary literature on John, providing a kind of map of contemporary studies on this Gospel draws a few lines toward establishing how John's Gospel contributes to biblical and systematic theology offers a consistent exposition of John as an evangelistic Gospel Preceded by a comprehensive introduction treating such matters as the authenticity, authorship, purpose and structure of the Gospel, this commentary on John exhibits the solid evangelical Scripture exposition for which Carson is well known and respected.

As the young pastor of a self-satisfied English congregation in the 1880s, Samuel Chadwick was so frustrated over his lack of power in the pulpit that he collected his sermons in a pile and set fire to them. The result was immediate: The Holy Spirit fell on him.