I've been reading through Acts and I can't help but compare the early church with today's church. Or rather, with churches I grew up in. Churches I've attended or visited. Churches I've heard about. Churches I've heard complained about. Churches I've heard praised about.
What about the early church is so different? Why doesn't the current church seem to have the same power as the early church? Why is it the current church seems to struggle to keep believers coming? Should we strive to look more like the early church, or has the church changed because times have changed? Is the early church outdated and superfluous?
I see one big difference between the early church and today. The Holy Spirit. Maybe I just grew up in a Baptist church, but I never remember the Holy Spirit being taught in Sunday School, preached from the pulpit, or even referred to. Like the black sheep, awkward mystical 2nd cousin of the family of God, it seems easier to ignore and carry on life with the much easier to understand and containable God and Jesus Christ ( how ironic). Take no notice of the Holy Spirit behind the curtain.
The Holy Spirit is power. That is made evident throughout the Bible.
Then the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done.
-Judges 14:6
The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
-Genesis 1:2
But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit
-Matthew 1:20
"I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
-Matthew 3:11
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witness in Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria and to the end of the earth.
- Acts 1:8
I think the thing churches today are missing is boldness, boldness from the power of the Holy Spirit, made available to us through Christ, from the Father.
When was the last time you saw the Holy Spirit fill a church after prayer and lead the believers to do something crazy for His kingdom?
When was the last time people in your church sold their possessions and gave the proceeds to the church to be distributed to the needs of the believers?
How many needy, struggling, hurting people do you see in your church? Or do you think that there are none?
How many of those people do you see yourself or fellow believers selflessly reaching out to?
That’s the Holy Spirit y’all.
The Holy Spirit moves us. When we have the Holy Spirit inside us, we can’t help but move out, we can’t help but witness, we can’t help but boldly proclaim the gospel.
We’re so quick to judge street evangelists. I think we might even hate them. We say they misrepresent us, they preach fire and brimstone instead of love and acceptance. We say that God is love and so these people are leading the masses away from Christ and towards a false god.
Let’s be honest. We condemn what we do not understand. We have never been that bold. We have never put ourselves up in front of hundreds of people we don’t know and loudly proclaimed who we trust in, who we love, who our devotion is towards. We condemn street evangelists because we don’t have an accurate understanding of the gospel ourselves.
Because the gospel calls us to repent. The gospel tells us that we killed Jesus. The gospel tells us that we are broken and evil and weak without Christ to save us, without God to guide us, without the Spirit to fill us. The gospel tells us to turn from our sin, to repent, and to fully surrender and obey God. The gospel tells us to willfully accept slavery to God. To become nothing so that He becomes everything. To obey without question, without complaint, without understanding.
We preach love and acceptance because it’s easy. It’s easier to tell someone “God loves you” than it is to tell them “You are evil.” It’s easier to tell people that as long as they love God, everything will be ok than to tell them “you can’t love God, you can’t love people, you can’t even control whether you live or die”. It’s easier to pretend than it is to deal with the truth.
Where is our boldness? Why do we hide?
Church, rise up! You are the bride of Christ and yet you diminish His power. You pretend like He’s your little pocket Jesus. You ignore Him until your weekly visit on Sunday. It’s all about you and your comfort and your entertainment and your personal success and it is NOTHING about His kingdom, His glory, His call on your life.
Because He’s calling you. He’s yelling for you. He’s screaming for you. He’s whispering in your ear.
And you drive to work every morning. You swing by Starbucks on your break. You go home and watch tv. You eat dinner with friends or family. You go out on the weekend. You plan vacations and trips. You pay bills. You attend church services.
And Christ has nothing to do with any of it. The Holy Spirit isn’t invading your life. The Lord your God is a passing thought to you.
Wake up Church.
Snap out of it.
Unplug your programming.
Surrender your robot lifestyle.
Let’s speak with boldness the gospel.
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