10 Nov, 2019 – Berlin Immanuel Church continued in the series on Ephesians in chapter 1 verses 13-14, focusing on the sealing with the Holy Spirit. When Paul first entered the city of Ephesus in Acts 19, he found disciples who heard the message of truth and believed, but were not yet sealed with the Spirit. The experience of Pentecost, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, the baptism that Christ gives, is essential in a life of a Christian. Without the Spirit there is no life of God, no power, no revival neither in the church nor in the individual. It is through the Holy Spirit that the love of God is poured out in our hearts (Rom 5:5), the love of the cross we have heard about and believed. We can work hard, we can persevere in our faith, but the first love (Rev 2:2-4) is, above all else, it is the basis of our hope, the guarantee of our inheritance. It is this experience of the pouring out of the love of Christ in our hearts that makes us cry Abba Father (Gal 4:6). It is through the experience of the baptism with the Spirit that we have the full and intimate knowledge of God’s love in the same way a son knows the love of the father. May we heed Paul’s word of exhortation to remember the first love and seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit who alone can seal us in the love of Christ.