Becoming a great Church.... Part 3

Nothing can be more exciting, uplifting, and powerful as a church experiencing the anointing of the Spirit, with Spirit filled, inspired members.
We can only become a great Church through the work of the Holy Spirit in us.

And, we can only become a great Church if we are willing to prayerfully wait for God to show up, like he did at Pentecost, and change us and our congregation as he did then in Jerusalem.

Because when God shows up, and starts working, we become a

revived, or regenerated, Church.

Acts 2: 41 Those who accepted his message... about three thousand, were added to their number that day.

This first mark of a great church is really the source of all the other ones you could list. The first Church was a regenerated church. This simply means that the people of the first Church were saved people. They had been born again, or regenerated, or revived by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus, long before this day, said that every person needs this. He told Nicodemus, a teacher of Israel:  "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." (John 3:3)

Jesus came to us to revive us. Suffocating in our sins and impurity, he breathes new life into us, so that as we “inhale” the Spirit, we become new people who are in relationship with the Father through Jesus, his resurrected Son. And so, as we are revived in order to live again, our new life is so radically different from the old life, that it is as if a new person has been born  -  one who hungers for a relationship with God and one that welcomes the work of the Spirit in his life!

New life by the Spirit makes all the difference. It makes us Christians. It makes us children of the Most High! It makes us brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ. It makes us people who are gifted by the Holy Spirit to do the Lord’s work well, making an impact and healing people. 

Too many people’s names have been added to church rolls without ever adding these people to the Church of Christ through being revived by the Spirit. To be in the Church of Jesus Christ is no mere formality of adding your name to a roll. To truly be part of the Lord’s Church, you must first be born again.

The Bible clearly teaches that salvation is by faith. There must be faith in the heart of the person trusting in Christ for his or her salvation. No one can believe on behalf another person. Each one must come to Christ personally.

Our text indicates that those who accepted Christ’s message given through Peter were the ones who were added to the church. Before we can be added to his Church, we must agree with God concerning what his Word says about our sinful condition, our inability to save ourselves, and the necessity to trust Christ alone for our salvation.

Becoming a great Church, is becoming a Church that leads people to Jesus, and to help them to through faith, be revived into a new life and ministry through the work of the Holy Spirit.

Are you still suffocating spiritually? Have you been revived? Did God breathe his eternal life into you? Have you been born into the true Church of Christ and into a relationship with Jesus?