Post Pandemic Preaching - The Church

-


'Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”

And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.

So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.'

Acts 2:38-47 in the New King James Version

[This is the 13th lesson of this series]

Note: We have a series we call Origins, where we talk about how humans discuss about the origins or how things began. There is a separate lesson on this passage in that series.

The Church

In Christianity, there is some confusion and even debate as to how the first church started, what is the first church, who started it, what is the one true church and so on.

Now depending on several factors, for instance, where we grew up, what denomination we are in and so forth, so billions of believers all over the world will not all have a unified answer. Most will point to themselves or their denomination as the one true church. Otherwise they wouldn't have stayed there (not including other personal reasons).

Religion

The point is that Jesus did not come to establish a religion. But when believers talk about church they inevitably come to arrive at religion. Believers will not admit to it but most do not identify as Christians first. Many will proudly declare or at least identify as whatever religious denomination they adhere to. In fact some believers hate the label Christian as it was actually originally a derogatory term. And so many of them do not want to be referred to as such.

The first believers to be called Christians were the believers in Antioch, Acts 11:26. They didn't come up with the name themselves. It was the people of Antioch, those who didn't believe in Christ who did. [Antioch is modern day Antakya, Turkey]

The First Church

Now the most accepted origin of the first church is what was described in Acts 2.

The Holy Spirit was the One who birthed the church, about 120 believers. It was divine, not manmade.

Peter preached the first church sermon, outdoors to a crowd of people. It wasn't inside a beautiful cathedral or a large stadium. And as we read in the passage above, three thousand were added to the church. This became known as the Jerusalem church.

Those in the first church moved out of Jerusalem and spread Christ outside of their homeland. And thus "churches" in other cities opened up. We have the church in Antioch and the several other cities Paul and the other apostles went to in their missionary journeys, the seven churches in Asia Minor, the church in Rome, the churches Paul wrote to in his epistles, and all the other places the first believers went to.

Branches

What started as one local church, soon became many and inevitably branched out to different sects, some claiming to be the one true church.

Today, believers are proud to declare that they are:

Anglicans, or Baptists, Catholics, or Lutherans or Methodists. Many are proud to belong to the Orthodox Churches, or that they are Pentecostals, or Presbyterians. Others say they are Seventh Day Adventists or Autonomous. The rest are Non-Denominational or that they are anyone of the countless sects in between.

Image Credit: bible.knowing-jesus.com

But we are all One Church, if we follow Christ. We are Christians first.

Then we are whatever denomination we belong to second. And that should be a far second.

Christ did say He came to divide and mentioned family members as examples. And He did. Families got divided as far as who they follow. But Christ will always be the single unifier.

One Church

There is One Church, as there is One Christ, One God and One Holy Spirit.

God is love, yet even inside the church there is no love.

The church can only be the church, if Christ is the center. If we will reread that excerpt from Acts 2 above. It tells us that the "church":

1. Repented
2. Were Baptized
3. Were Forgiven
4. Received the gift of the Holy Spirit

The Promise is for Everyone, near and far.

5. They Followed the teachings of Christ
6. They met in fellowship, They broke bread and Prayed
7. There was fear of the Lord among them and There were signs and wonders
8. They Helped one another
9. They Met in their homes
10. They Ate their food with gladness and Simplicity of heart.

There was Joy. They Praised God. They have Favor and the church grew daily.

The church is not just the people who look like us, talk like us, dress like us, smell like us or go to the same church we do.

Christ didn't die for the Baptists or the Catholics, or the Lutherans or the Methodists or whatever we else we call ourselves.

Christ died for All, near and far. Christ does not belong just inside your church building, or your denomination.

Christ is for the world. Believers met in their homes, this is biblical, the first church did this.

The pandemic afforded us a restart. It also allowed us to see what are the important, and not so important things in life. It showed us the good, and the bad in people. And it allowed us time to be alone, to think about things, to see where we are, where we are going or where we came from.

The church needs to repent. The church needs to welcome Christ back inside the church. The church needs to glorify Christ and not anyone, not our church leader, not our church founder, not our church name, not our achievements, not our big plans, projects and anything else.

Revelation

There is wisdom and reason for everything. Christ will return. Today is a good time to go back to the origins of our faith, the faith that moves mountains, the faith which heals not wounds, the faith which shares Christ with love and empathy, not arrogance and pride, the faith that transforms, renews and gives hope, not worry and the faith in One God. 

We are all followers of Christ.

Christ will return for His spotless Bride. Who will He see when He comes back?

Yes, step number one - repent.



Post Pandemic Preaching Series





Roadmap (to navigate this site)

Comments

Post a Comment