Title: Resurrecting Church (1)/Acts 2:42-47
You must do the prayer exercise and the Holy Spirit exercise, and you must do various Bible studies well. You have to focus on church education, develop musically, sing well, and do a lot of missionary work. Indeed, there are many theories and methods for church revival, such as having good visits and administrative management. However, the peculiar thing is that although there are successful examples of revival of immigrant churches, the standard of success is not consistent.
In this time, we want to receive grace together by presenting some of the simplest principles among the various theories and methods of church revival.
1. For a church to revive, it must become a church that gathers well.
Acts 2:46 says, "Be diligent about being together". The congregation of saints is more than a church. So, just before Jesus ascended into heaven, that is, the words of the gathering are mentioned as the premise for the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church (Acts 1:4;2:1; 6:15).
Where we gather together, strength, heat, love, and fervent faith arise. So, some said that Christianity is a religion of charcoal. Charcoal burns when gathered and extinguishes when scattered. Let's make a hot furnace by collecting charcoal fire one by one. I believe that when the church becomes a hot furnace, it can melt steel and even the heart of a person as hard as iron.
The gathering of the saints is the source of the power of church revival. When the choir also gathers together, zeal arises, and when prayer is prayed together, great power is created just as when the 120 members pray together. The power of revival will arise only when the church gathers well. When more than 10,000 people gather for a sermon, the sermon comes from the meeting itself.
The most difficult thing in the world is preaching, and the more you do it, the more difficult it is to preach. However, sermons of less than 1,000 people are prepared, sermons of more than 1,000 people share with the audience, and sermons of 10,000 people or more come from the audience.
That's why Hebrews 10:25 says, "Make every effort to gather together." The characteristic of the early church was that it was a church that met frequently and met well. We also believe that if we want church revival, we need to gather well.
2. For a church to revive, it must become a church that people like.
Let's look at the scene of the fellowship of saints in Acts 2:46. They wanted to see each other, to meet, and to love each other. A church that loves people means that I like others and that others also like me. In Korean, there is a word for “virtue”. What is "virtue"? Virtue refers to the virtue that people follow. The number one secret to the success of modern business is to have the virtues that people follow. A virtuous company has no godmother.
Let's become a church that loves people, a church that I like others and others like me too. There are all kinds of people in the world, and there are some people who especially hate people. Especially people with tuberculosis fall into this category. An elder's daughter I know was docile and beautiful, so she got a matchmaker from a young man who ranked first and got married. But strangely, this bride hates people. When members of the church reach out to shake hands because they are happy, they turn their hands back. This bride had a personality that hated people. So the young man who married this girl had to live a life of unhappiness.
A church that loves people is revitalized. It is wrong to say that we like each other only. Women who boast of their faith on local trains, people who say they have been to prayer centers in full bloom. But if they don't know how to give up their seat to a patient or an elderly person standing next to them, they're not people-loving.
3. For the church to revive, there must be joy.
In order to revive the church, we need to make it a church full of joy, like a banquet house, not a gloomy church like a house of portraits.
What is the Gospel? Gospel in Greek is euangelion ( ), which means good news. Among the types of churches, there are legal churches and evangelical churches. Families also have legal families and evangelical families. Husbands also have legal husbands and evangelical husbands. The legal church, family, and husband follow principles, divide, question, and argue, and only themselves are right, loud, and authoritarian.
A church with joy is revitalized. Heesung Church was the first church I joined after graduating from seminary. In other words, it was a church with the meaning of 'good sound' church. This church had a character. It was a church where people came and cried and then laughed. It was a church that came with sorrow and returned with joy. It was a church that came in despair and returned with hope.
4. For the church to revive, we must evangelize.
A church that has the reproductive power and continues to evangelize is revitalized. Speaking of church revival, evangelism cannot be left out. The repeated evangelism movement of the church is reproductive evangelism.
We can see people who repeatedly evangelized in the early church. After meeting the Messiah, John the Baptist evangelized to Andrew, Andrew evangelized to Peter, Peter to his friend Philip, and Philip to his neighbor Nathanael (John 1:40-45). Also, Paul evangelized to Timothy, the son of faith, and Timothy evangelized to faithful people, and the faithful people to other people (2 Timothy 2:2). The method of conduction is called the Timothy method of conduction.
5. For the church to revive, it must be spiritually holy and receive moral praise from the world.
At one time, the world church looked up to the Korean church. But these days, I am looking at the Korean church with concern. I am concerned about the Korean church being unholy. The reason is that our Korean church is becoming more secular and falling into materialism, and the church is unable to fulfill its mission as a church.
It is true that these days the church is focused only on 5B. Building, Budget, Baptism, Bus, Burial place. The shameful thing is that all the churches around the world looked at the Korean church with envy, but now the Korean church is becoming more and more unholy and secular. They even say that they sell churches in Europe, but Korean churches sell members.
When the church is holy and praised by the world, it is revived (Acts 2:47; 5:13).
“But be holy in all your conduct, as the Holy One who called you” (1 Peter 1:15).
“I am the LORD your God; be holy because I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44).
“Sanctify me in the truth” (John 17:17)
Not all of us become holy just because we go to church. Being baptized does not make you holy by attending church services. We become holy when we abide in the Word that is truth. The church must be revived, but it must be revived in the truth. A temporary revival is a restless revival.
What kind of church is a revival church? A church that gathers well is revitalized. A church that loves people is revived. A church with joy is revived. The church with the reproduction of evangelism is revived. The church that is sanctified and praised as the light and salt of the world will be revived.