{"id":108,"date":"2018-11-06T16:36:52","date_gmt":"2018-11-07T00:36:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/migrate.bettersermons.org\/?p=108"},"modified":"2020-06-01T11:41:03","modified_gmt":"2020-06-01T18:41:03","slug":"the-church-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/the-church-alive\/","title":{"rendered":"The Church Alive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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The Church Alive<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Key Passage:<\/strong>\u00a0“While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?'”<\/p>\n

Key Thought:<\/strong>\u00a0The story of Paul and the Ephesian believers outlines the steps to reviving a dead church.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Scripture:<\/strong>\u00a0Acts 19:1-7<\/p>\n

Idea:<\/strong>\u00a0 These are challenging days for the church with shifting cultural paradigms and increasing calls for pluralism leaving many wondering what being a Seventh-day Adventist is all about.\u00a0Few are willing to venture off the pews into the world of personal evangelism.\u00a0Many of our members never crack their Bibles open during the week. Most can not articulate the mission of their local church. We struggle with problems in our families, generational polarities, and chronic fatigue.\u00a0And yet all these challenges pale into insignificance when you ponder our greatest nemesis\u2014spiritual malaise.\u00a0Our greatest need today is to experience the life-giving revival and reformation that is ours in the gift of the Holy Spirit.The Church Analyzed:\u00a0<\/strong>Acts 19:1-3 –\u00a0As the apostle Paul visited with the Ephesian believers he got the feeling something was not quite right. And so like a doctor with his clip board in hand, Paul started probing for some background information when he asked, \u201cDid you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?\u201d\u00a0 While they were aware of the Holy Spirit, Paul\u2019s friends here were woefully ignorant about the nature, operation, and gift of the Spirit.\u00a0 They had only gone as far in their spiritual journey as John the Baptist had been able to take them. Like many today, they yearned for more.<\/p>\n

The Church Revived:<\/strong>\u00a0Acts 19:4-7 –\u00a0The apostle Paul built a bridge from where these men and women stood to where they needed to go by leading them into a personal relationship with Jesus.\u00a0He helped them to understand the purpose of John\u2019s ministry, the centrality of Christ in their salvation, and the promise of the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n

When they embraced the gift of salvation, Paul then baptized them in the name of Jesus.\u00a0Now this is the only time that re-baptism is ever mentioned in the Bible, so we need understand that there is no need for frequent re-baptisms in our spiritual journey.\u00a0While those who have left the Christian faith and after a long time returned, and while some Christians who receive vital new truth and want to join our church may rightfully seek re-baptism, there is no need to desire re-baptism every time we fall, because there is pardon for sin in Christ and there is a celebration of that pardon every time we wash each other\u2019s feet and celebrate communion.<\/p>\n

After Paul baptized these believers, he conveyed a blessing by laying hands on them.\u00a0Considering our theology of baptism and the priesthood of all believers, we need to consider the proper relationship between water baptism, the laying on of hands, the anointing of the Spirit, and the believer\u2019s entry into gospel ministry.\u00a0It is fitting, then, that water baptism be accompanied by the laying on of hands.<\/p>\n

Baptized and blessed, these Corinthian believers were filled with the Holy Spirit.\u00a0It was a life-giving, vivifying fire that electrified the church and set it on fire for loving service in the cause of Christ.<\/p>\n

Effective ministry for Christ requires specialized abilities, and so these believers then found themselves invested with spiritual gifts.\u00a0They spoke in tongues and thus were able to communicate the gospel with people in other languages without a prior knowledge of those languages.\u00a0And the gift of prophecy enabled them to speak powerfully for God.\u00a0The whole church came alive when spiritual gifts were mobilized for ministry.<\/p>\n

The final step in reviving the Ephesian church took place when the saints entered into ministry.\u00a0They got up out of their pews and revolutionized their whole town.\u00a0They became an unstoppable evangelistic juggernaut!
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Submitted by Dan Martella.\u00a0Better Sermons \u00a9 2005-2007. Click here for\u00a0usage guidelines<\/a>.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Church Alive Key Passage:\u00a0“While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, ‘Did you …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions\/109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}