Mt. Lebanon United Presbyterian Church     
 
Pastor Tim Janiszewski - "Awestruck"

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This Sunday
October 4, 2015



Sermon Title:
"Awestruck"



Scripture: 
Acts 2:42-47
(Confession of God's New Community) 
Habakkuk 3:1-2 Hebrews 12:28-29
 
Picture of Pastor Tim
October 1, 2015
 
Dear MLEPC Members and Friends:
 
God's New Community--this is what we are called to be at MLEPC. So is every other congregation in our Evangelical Presbyterian Church. So is every other Protestant church in American and around the world. The same call extends to the Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions, as well. Individually and collectively, we are beckoned by Christ to be the "one, holy, catholic (meaning "worldwide" or "universal"), and apostolic church--God's global New Community. As we are recognizing in our current sermon series, this call to community began with the birth of the Church at Pentecost in a. d. 30 when the Holy Spirit came with power. It has continued to apply to gatherings of Christ followers for nearly two thousand years now. We belong to an amazing legacy!
 
Acts 2:42-47 provides a wonderful summary of the vision, values, and characteristics of God's First New Community. They have applied to the Church throughout time and continue to set the standard for us today. Thus far, we have seen that the first Christ followers were devoted to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. This Sunday, we shall find that "Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles" (v. 43).
 
What does it mean to be "filled with awe"? Of course, "awe" is the first portion of the compound word "awesome." As one of my pastor friends recently commented to me, "Awesome is way overused and has lost it meaning and power. Everything is awesome these days!" I think he is right. In its full understanding, awe includes a sense of amazement, fear, wonder, being stupefied, and even feeling ecstasy. Being awestruck both inspires and overwhelms a person all at once.
 
What was the source of this awe among God's First New Community? Some would say that it was the wonders and miraculous signs done by the apostles. But I don't think so. The wonders and signs were an extension or manifestation that accompanied the sense of awe felt by these Christians. At the root of awe was God Himself. For they knew that God had sent His Son to be born of Mary, who still walked among them. They knew that Jesus had been the Word of God and had spoken the words of God every time he opened His mouth. They knew that God in flesh appearing had died on the cross to win salvation by defeating sin, death, and Satan. They knew that He rose up on the third day, the victor over the dark domain. They knew He had ascended to reign in heaven at God's right hand until all of His enemies are vanquished. And they knew that this Jesus had poured out His Spirit upon them by which they bore witness in word and through miraculous wonders and signs done by their leaders. Put all of this together, and God's First New Community lived "in awe"--amazement, wonder, fear, stupefied, and ecstatic. God in Christ had inspired and overwhelmed their lives.
 
A number of years ago, singer/songwriter Rich Mullins penned a song that sought to remind God's New Community today of the call to live in awe. "Our God is an awesome God. He reigns in heaven above with wisdom, power, and love. Our God is an awesome God." This week, let us take time to pause before our awesome God. Let us connect or reconnect to His supernatural Presence, inviting Him to invade and inhabit every bit of us all over again.
 
Pastor Tim

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