Happy Birthday Church - A Pentecost Sunday Sermon

Happy Birthday Church

A Pentecost Sunday Sermon

By

Bishop Melvin L. Maughmer, Jr.

OPENING: - Today is Pentecost Sunday the day we celebrate the birth of the church, not the birth of the Apostolic Church, the Methodist Church, the Catholic Church, the Baptist Church, the Episcopal Church or any other denomination. We celebrate the birth of the Church of God. The Church which was purchased by His blood Acts 20:28 says, “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood”. There are many brick and mortar churches, denominations, and religious entities that will look at today and claim they are the church, which is celebrated, because they have a nice edifice, wear religious grab, sing a few praise songs, and think they are the church. However, let me make this absolutely clear everyone in the church building is not part of the Ekklesia, the called-out ones, the church of God, the body of Christ. Understand the Church of God consist only of true born-again believers. This must first be understood so that we do not confuse what we sometimes see other so-called, fallible churches doing and believe that they are part of the Church of God.

The Church of God that we celebrate today can not be confined to labels, denominations, organizations, or religious propaganda. In fact, The Church Biblically is not a building no matter how nice of an edifice it is, the crowd that attends or how popular the preacher may be. The true Church of God is made up of the people who have been called out of darkness into this marvelous light the Ekklesia, who truly Repent are Baptized, and have received the precious gift of the Holy Ghost.

PRAYER: -

SCRIPTURE: - Acts 2.

We live in a time when the word Christian is used so frivolously. People use it thinking that it gives them a status in life or that because they say they are Christian then the Hellish life they are living is o.k. because I am a Christian. They feel as saying they They fail to understand that few words have as much baggage as the word Christian. The early church was called “Christians” by the powers-that-be for the first time in Antioch (Acts 11:26 says, “And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch”. It wasn’t a name Jesus’ disciples gave themselves it was a name given to them by the society in Antioch.

Let me give a little background on this word Christian. Antioch was referred to as “all the world in one city,” where you could see all the world’s richness and diversity in one place. And the marketplace was its hub. Antioch was designed like most cities of that day: A circular wall on the outside, a marketplace in the center, with the interior of the city walled in way that divided different people groups from one another. Then Enter Christ-followers, the Gospel, and The Church came to Antioch and began breaking down the dividing barriers in a way that upset the society’s existing categories, somebody say DISRUPTIVE – the Holy Ghost is DISRUPTIVE. People from all parts of the city Jews and Gentiles alike were suddenly coming together. This group of people was redefining community in a radical and unprecedented way, so much so that a new word was needed to categorize what in the world was happening.

I needed to give that brief background because we are celebrating Pentecost Sunday the birth of the Church not the birth of Christian.

Understand Pentecost is more than a one-time event, it is more than the giving of the Holy Ghost and it is more than speaking in tongues.

Pentecost was the birth of the Church of God, and the Church of God is based upon several components and not a one-time event.

First the Church of God is based upon Foundational Truth.

Foundational Truth according to the dictionary is defined as a basis upon which something stands or is supported.

As believers of Christ Jesus our foundation is Christ Himself, on Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand, and we cannot build on another 1 Corinthians 3:11says, “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ”.

Biblical foundational truth is truth supported in the Word of God by God. Everything that we as faithful believers of Christ believes must be based upon, supported, and founded on and in the Word of God.