The other day, an evangelist from Singapore visited Japan, greeting people around him. He said, "Greetings to you from Jesus inside of me!" I was very impressed by his greeting. I could see Jesus in him very clearly. It was very good.

Last Thursday, I was very late for our prayer meeting. When I finally came, a lady was waiting for me. For some reason others were late too. Looking at me, she reported her anxiety. She said, "I thought all of you had been taken up to Jesus, leaving me behind!" Of course, she was [half] joking. But, I do know that Jesus is coming back some day in the future. Remember the terrible earthquake that happened in Kobe over two years ago? The scenery was so horrible that we couldn't believe what had happened. I don't know what it will be like at the end of time, maybe it will be a little like that, but we need to know that we have a kingdom that will never vanish.

After Jesus was raised from the dead, He returned to Heaven, leaving His own Spirit. With this Spirit, Christians are to work together, and perfectly as a part of Jesus' body.

In today's scripture passage, Acts 3 gives us many examples of the Spirit's strong work through believers, though other examples are given in Acts. In Japan, we call Acts 'The Work of the Disciples', but 'we' also call it 'the work of the Spirit'. Without the Spirit, the Apostles were very weak in spirit, however after they received the Holy Spirit, they were totally changed into people of prayer! What we have is the prayer.

To pray is such a blessing - for through prayer we can communicate and fellowship with God. In the Bible, it says it's a blessing to pray to "You". We are pushed into prayers by problems and troubles. Without them, it's often hard for us to pray. We are so lazy that we don't pray unless we have things to pray for.

"What we have is also the strength, or power, to overcome everything." II Corinthians 4: 7-10. We do have sufferings in life. We get knocked down, but we are never knocked out - because we have treasure in our minds.

2 Cor.4:16. It can't be denied that we get old. We just can't help it. However, we Christians have something inside that keeps young and full of energy. True, some of us start to suffer from physical weakness, but please do not be depressed, for we do have an inner-self that gets strengthened every day.

What we have inside, thirdly, is the power to lift up people! See Acts 3:1-10. We, Christians, who have strength inside of us, are supposed to look around and find people who are in need, and share what we have with them. We need to help people who really need our help! Here, in this passage of scripture, Peter and John find such a man, who is badly in need of their help, and give him what they have. They were faithful enough to admit that it was God working through them. Through evangelical work, we can reach out to people in need. There are several ways and methods of saving, and bringing people out of their problems, but, without Jesus, there is no way of saving souls from their sins.

There was once a wealthy man, who lived by himself. Soon, a maid began to wait on him. Until he died, she took very good care of him. Then, when he was about to die, he gave her a piece of paper. After that, he died. She loved him, and the piece of paper was her treasure, a gift from her master. She kept it in secret, hidden under her bed.

One day, she herself became sick. But, she couldn't afford the medical care she required. Then, when she was about to die, a pastor visited her. He found her piece of paper, and read it. It was her master's will, giving her all of his money! She couldn't read the letters, and didn't know that it was that kind of treasure. Still, it was her treasure! And she had kept it with her all that time!

We shouldn't be like this example. We are to share the treasure that we have with the people we find around us. We are to know what it is that we have!

Translated by Junko Okamoto - Edited for the Net by Shido
For another sermon see: Oita Evangelical Christ Church
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