The Spirit-Empowered Church

One night several years ago, hurricane-force winds battered an American town. In the morning, people emerged from their homes and shelters to assess the damage. The power of the storm quickly became apparent to one investigator, who was amazed by an amazing discovery. Imbedded in a telephone pole he found a flimsy, plastic drinking straw. Obviously, under normal circumstances, a flimsy straw could never penetrate a telephone pole. The tremendous power of the wind had driven the straw into the wood like a spike.

As believers living in an ungodly world, sometimes we wonder if we can ever make a difference. We wonder if we can effectively penetrate our cynical culture with the good news God has given us to proclaim. The answer lies in the source of our power.

• If we rely on our own strength and methods, we cannot make much of a difference.
  
• If we choose to be driven by God's limitless power, however, we become like that straw in the hurricane—nothing can stop us! We can make a dramatic difference.

Indeed, that is what Jesus wants the church–the collective body of Christian believers–to do. Like the early church in the book of Acts, He wants us to have a profound impact on our culture, to turn our world upside-down for Christ (see Acts 17:6). It is possible–if we do it in God's way and in God's power.

How Did the Church Begin?

In this new section of our Foundations for Living studies, we will look at the role, purpose, and function of the church today. It is vitally important to understand how the church was established. Man did not initiate the beginning of the church. Christ did. In fact, it is the only organization Jesus ever started.

Christ Established It

"Christ is the head of the Church, which is His body. He is the first of all who will rise from the dead, so he is first in everything." (Colossians 1:18 NLB)

Christ Purchased It

"Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood." (Acts 20:28)

Christ Will Bless and Maintain It

"On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it." (Matthew 16:18)

Who Makes up the Church?

At spiritual re-birth, we are made a part of this wonderful gathering of believers that Jesus Himself established, purchased, leads, and protects. Greater still, God has a purpose for each of us individually in this great plan of His.

Tragically, many churches today are shrinking in number. Some have faced horrible and divisive splits. To make matters worse, a number of people have stopped attending church altogether because they have become disillusioned with the hypocrisy they see.

Don't forget–the church is not made up of perfect people. It is made up of people like you and me who make mistakes, and even sin.

It has been said, "The Church is not a museum for saints, but a hospital for sinners."

If you really want to walk with the Lord and grow spiritually, involvement in the church is an absolute necessity. It is not an option, Scripture emphasizes this:

"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching" (Hebrews 10:23-25).

What Makes Church a Blessing?

It is not an option for us as believers to take or leave the church as a whole. If we are true Christians, we will want to be a vital part of all that God is doing today in and through His people. Church should not be some place where, as Adrian Rodgers humorously put it, we go to be "hatched, matched and dispatched." That was never God's original intention.

Church does not have to be some kind of miserable experience. It should be an oasis in a hot desert. It should be a place where we come to be refreshed, revived and equipped. We should not dread it, but look forward to it—even long for it. Like David, we should be able to say, "I was glad when they said unto me, 'Let us go into the house of the LORD'" (Psalm 122:1).

"As long as you notice, and have to count the steps, you are not dancing but only learning to dance. A good shoe is a shoe you don't notice. Good reading becomes possible when you need not consciously think about eyes, or light, or print, or spelling. The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God."—C. S. Lewis

Church should be a place to worship God, learn more about Him, straighten our priorities, help others, and use the gifts that He has given us. That way we can be equipped to go back into the world as changed people representing Jesus Christ.

What Makes A Church Effective?

The reason so many churches are ineffective and/or falling apart today is because they have strayed from God's original plan. The phenomenal strength and growth of the early church can be traced to this: the Spirit of God working through the Word of God in the hearts of the people of God.

Jesus describes that dimension of spiritual power in the opening chapter of Acts:

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (Acts 1:8)

1. The effective church is empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Many years ago, A. W. Tozer said, "If the Holy Spirit were taken away from the New Testament Church, 90% of what they did would have come to a halt. But if the Holy Spirit were taken away from today's church, only 10% of what it does would cease."

We're not seeing the same results as the early believers because we are not relying on the same power they did and we are not operating on the same principles. Returning to Acts 1:8, the word "power" in that verse comes from the Greek word, dunimis, meaning dynamic power. The word "witness" comes from the Greek word, martus, from which we get the word, "martyr." A more literal translation of that verse would be, "You shall receive dynamic power to live for Me and, if necessary, even to die for Me."

Ten days after Jesus ascended into heaven, the Holy Spirit descended upon the obediently waiting 12 disciples in the upper room. What difference did the empowering of the Holy Spirit make in the lives of these early believers? The same disciples who had huddled behind closed doors after Jesus' crucifixion for fear of the Jews could not be kept behind closed doors after they had received this heavenly dynamite. After God's power exploded in their lives, they had the courage to tell the authorities, "We cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard" (Acts 4:20).

2. The effective church preaches the gospel to all people.

A big trend in many churches today is to build a seeker-sensitive church, tailored to the special needs of a specific group of people. Instead of being led by God, some church leaders are being led by marketing surveys that supposedly show them what type of demographic they should cater to in order to grow in attendance. This is called Niche marketing. As a result, people in the church have become spectators instead of participators. Programs have taken the place of power. Gimmicks have taken the place of the gospel.

Jesus told us, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel" (Mark 16:15). He did not say, "Go only to the people you can personally relate to" or "Go only to a particular demographic." We should be preaching this good news to everyone: "We proclaim Christ! We warn everyone we meet, and we teach everyone we can, all that we know about Him" (Colossians 1:28 Phillips).

One of the beauties of the church is our diversity (see Galatians 3:26-28; 1 Corinthians 12:18-25). To neglect Christ's mandate to preach the gospel to everyone shortchanges the church and falls short of God's objective.

How Can You Tap into the Holy Spirit's Power?

Do you desire boldness in your witness for Christ? Has your prayer life become dry and one-dimensional? Do you feel that you are lacking something in your spiritual walk? Is the world turning you upside down instead of you turning your world right-side up?

This promise for power from the Holy Spirit was not just for the believers of the early church. It is for you, as well. In other words, there is a dimension of power available to the believer today that is not automatically ours! After receiving the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, Peter told the crowds gathered around the house, "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" (Acts 2:38-39).

We do not need to go to Jerusalem to receive the Holy Spirit's power—nor do we have to wait for it.

Pentecost does not need to be repeated—it needs to be appropriated.

God wants to make you into a powerful representative for Him. Ask God to empower you with His Holy Spirit and to show you how you—like the believers in the early church—can turn your world upside down.

Part II