Good News: Break out the cake, it’s the Church’s birthday
This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday. It’s the day on the church calendar that celebrates the birth of the church, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in believers. We take time to celebrate Jesus’ birth and resurrection, so why not the birth of the church on the day of Pentecost?
More than a building or an institution, the Church is people who believe in faith on the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and that there is no other name under heaven that can save humanity. It’s when we think of the Church simply as a denomination or a physical structure that we lose the essence of what Jesus established. He said, “I will build my church” but He wasn’t talking about a building.
The apostle Paul wrote that God placed all things under Jesus’ feet and that He is the head of the body, which is the church. The church is not an “it.” The church is people; you, me, us. The Holy Spirit, through Paul, was fond of comparing the Church to our physical body…one body but many parts. “Each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” Rom12:4-5 (NIV) Again in Corinthians Paul writes, “There should be no division in the body, but all members should have the same concern for each other. So if one member suffers, all the members suffer; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice.” Jesus loves His Church, His body. Each of us loves our body, we feed it, we clothe it, we keep it cool in the summer and warm in the winter, so why would Jesus love His body, the Church, any less? Romans 8 says that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Do you want to hear some good news? Jesus is not going to fall out of love with His body. He died to make us part of Himself, His body on earth. The Father went out of His way to adopt us into His family. “He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us through Jesus.” (Eph 1:5-6 CSB)
No one forced God to adopt us against His will, it was His good pleasure. What an awesome Father we have! We are eternally connected to the creator of the world through His Son. He is the head; we are His body; we are the Church and members of each other. When we talk bad about another Christian, we are talking bad about Jesus’ body. Do we really want to do that? When Jesus confronted Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus, Jesus didn’t say, “Saul why are you persecuting my followers?” He said, “Saul, why are you persecuting ME?” Jesus and His body, the Church, are one. We are the body of Christ, the Church. The church is you and me, and all who have believed on the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.
Happy Birthday Church!
Text Ken at 918-852-9797.
Ken Staley is the pastor of Faith Church of Pleasant Grove 9:30 a.m. and Harrisville Methodist Church 11 a.m. Both are Global Methodist congregations.
