After our great 19th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION (f.y.i. our 20th Anniversary is Sunday, September 18, 2016), we have been impressed by the Spirit to take a fresh look at the New Testament Church. We not only want to be the people God wants us to be, we want to be the Church God has called us to be.
In fact, if we are the Christians that we say that we are, then our Church will be the Church Christ says that it should be.
The Church is not actually made of bricks, steel, concrete, and wood. While we admire great architecture, and though we are amazed at the sacrifice of time and treasure that has gone into the building of great Church buildings, that is not actually the Church. The sheer effort that generations of Christians have expended in the building of fantastic churches is certainly impressive. But that is not the Church.
The church isn’t a building or anything man-made. It isn’t the pipe organ or the drum set. The church isn’t a pew or a theater seat. The Church isn’t a choir or a praise team. The church isn’t a robe or blue jeans. The church isn’t candlelight or a light show.
THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST IS MADE UP OF ALL THOSE WHO HAVE RENOUNCED THE WORLD, THE FLESH, AND THE DEVIL AND ALL HIS WORKS, WHO HAVE WITH TRUE REPENTANCE FORSAKEN THEIR SINS, BELIEVED ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, IDENTIFIED AS LOVERS OF HIS WILL AND DOERS OF HIS WORD AND HAVE THE CLEAR WITNESS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT THAT THEY ARE BORN OF GOD.
The Apostle Peter exhorted the First Christians, “You, as living stones are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ...you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar (purchased) people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light; which in times past were not a people, but are now the people of God...” (1 Peter 2:5-10).
It is in the pages of the fifth book of our New Testament, “The Acts of the Apostles” that we read the account of the first Christian Church. It is easy to impose on the Bible our preconceived ideas of what that church must have been like. We are 1,982 years away from the first Pentecost.
Those trained in Roman Catholicism come to the text with their ideas and experiences. Those who are Protestants will read the text through the filter of their theology. Baptists, Pentecostals, Campbellites, and Wesleyans will all emphasize one aspect or another. But it is our prayer that as we ask the Lord for a fresh vision of what our church should be, that we will set aside our ideas and prejudices and simply let the Word of God teach us.
As the Lord wills, we will focus on these essentials of the FIRST CHURCH.
1. TRUTH THAT TRANSFORMS
2. SPIRIT THAT EMPOWERS
3. WITNESS THAT REVOLUTIONIZES
4. FELLOWSHIP THAT EDIFIES (Builds up)
We are praying that as we delve into the history of the First Church we will experience for ourselves that amazing melding of our spirits into the will of God for the Church of the 21st Century.
Throughout history the Church of Jesus Christ has faced incredible opposition and persecution. It has endured false teachers and hereticks. It has been relegated to obscurity and ignored. The Church has been ridiculed, opposed, threatened, and buried.
But we are a resurrection people! Our Founder was opposed, persecuted, mocked, ignored, ridiculed, opposed, threatened, crucified, and buried. And like Him, His Church has risen.
ACTS2DAY is our aspiration! We want the Acts 2 experience today. And we want others to realize the joy of Acts 2!
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