Upside Down

What were the basic elements of operation for the birth and beginning of the life style of the early New Testament believers, which enabled them to make such a supernatural impact on the world? They simply followed Jesus.

First, people heard the word of Jesus Christ and what he has already done for them. They believed that word with repentance and faith – turning from sin and wrong thinking and wrong living, and holding on to and trusting in what Jesus did as being all sufficient to “save”. Two immersions took place: Immersion in water, which was following the example of Jesus, which was the outward proclamation of the inward commitment to doing all the will of God. There was an immersion in the Holy Spirit, which occurred at Jesus’ baptism, in which the supernatural power of God came upon his life to enable him to carry out the supernatural work of the ministry. Believers did these things and met together daily, “breaking bread”, in which is the communion of constantly remembering his broken body and shed blood, first in the homes then elsewhere (formalized meetings came later). Fellowship around carrying out the mission that Jesus gave to every believer resulted in people going out to others both near and far to share the good news that there is healing, forgiveness, and freedom through faith in Christ Jesus the Lord. These are the basic elements of operation of the early church. It was informal and engaging, with everybody actively participating in some way to spread the word. The result was that the early Christians gained the reputation as those that “turned the world upside down” (Acts 17: 6).

Things have slid a long way since then. Maybe we should get back to just following the example of Jesus and just doing all the basics. Maybe we need to rediscover the simplicity of the good news of the finished work of Jesus and the exalted position of spiritual authority of every believer in him, and the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit to rest upon every believer to carry out the mission that Jesus gave for us to accomplish, and the world will once again start getting turned “upside down” for Jesus. 4-8-15

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