THE MIRACLE OF THE CHURCH

Acts 2:40–41 MSG

40 He went on in this vein for a long time, urging them over and over, “Get out while you can; get out of this sick and stupid culture!” 41 That day about three thousand took him at his word, were baptized and were signed up.

Set the stage of Pentecost miracles:

1. The miracle of the Spirit

2. The miracle of communication – witnessing

3. The miracle of preaching

– first sermon preached; just 569 words and 3000 became followers of Jesus Christ and were baptized

The final miracle of the Holy Spirit on that day of Pentecost was the birth of the church.

You may wonder why I call that a miracle. It is because I know human nature. Next to the transformation of persons, the second greatest miracle is oneness with others that have been transformed by the work of the Holy Spirit.

The best of human relationships, apart from the Holy Spirit, are based on the barter of mutual needs, interests, causes, or fears. We do not naturally live in close, harmonious, giving and forgiving relationships. Unless there is something we need either to get or provide, we are not drawn into either friendship or partnership. Without the Holy Spirit, we use people or are used by them depending on our power. You see we are fundamentally selfish and self-centered.

But when the living Christ sets us free, we are able to participate in his eternal purpose for his people:

that they become one – one with him and one with each other.

When he performs the miracle of his love in use, it is then that a character transformation begins which makes it possible for us to love unselfishly. The church as it was meant to be is made up of those people.

In this biblical passage we witness the beginning of the miracle.

1. The first quality of the church was that it was made up of 3120 people who had come to a sure knowledge of salvation through Christ’s death and resurrection and had received his living presence in his Spirit.

2. The second quality of the newly born church was that they had an objective basis for the subjective experience of being together.

What had happened was thoroughly rooted in Scripture. A Christ-centered church is also a biblical church.

3. The third quality was that the church was one that had all things in common.

Share what we have is a natural result of our communion with Christ and with each other. Sharing everything was what was needed at the time and they had been liberated to live for Christ and each other.

4. The fourth quality flows out of the third. Life together in the early church is described as breaking bread together and prayers.

In order for people to be galvanized into oneness in Christ, they must spend time together – it takes time to get to know someone. To grow as a follower of Jesus Christ, we need to spend time together. Church attendance is NOT optional for the follower of Jesus Christ. So, no you cannot be a good Christian and not attend church with fellow believers.

Prayer together becomes the time of communication with the Lord in which we are replenished by his Spirit in order to continue unselfish and nonmanipulative concern and caring for each other.

5. The fifth quality of the infant church was praise. They had gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God (v46).

Praise had been an outward sign of the indwelling of the Spirit when he filled them. They could not praise him enough for what had happened. How about us; does our praise demonstrate how grateful we are for what God has done of u, as. Our have we simply forgotten what he has done.

6. The final quality, I believe, was the natural outgrowth of the other five. People were attracted to their joy and wanted to know the source of such joy.

What happened at Pentecost is what the Lord wants for every Christian and every church. Everything led up to Pentecost – the virgin birth, the Master’s ministry, the cross, the empty tomb. Without Pentecost there would have been no church. Somewhere in someone’s obscure history, a Galilean carpenter might have been mentioned or perhaps the record of the visit of the Messiah to the planet Earth. But it took Pentecost to perform the miracle of the transformation of human personality. Pentecost could not have happened without Calvary and the empty tomb, but if it had not happened, we would not have known what Christ did for us.

And without the church continuing to act like the first church, future generations will not know what Christ did for us.

Our Lord created the church to carry on his ministry of preaching the Good News that humanity’s sins have been paid for and life, true life, is possible – a gift waiting for those believe on the work of the Lord Jesus Christ!