A Community of the Spirit

02/01/2009 - Series: Being the Church, part 2 - A Community of the Spirit - Acts 1:4-5; 2:1-41 Last week we said the church is a community founded upon the Rock of the apostolic message – the divinely inspired confession of and message about Jesus Christ. The identity and message of Jesus Christ are foundational to the identity and message of the church. But while the church is gathered around the identity and message of Jesus Christ, the church is more than that. We will see today that the church is a Community of the Spirit. Remember that Matthew is the only Gospel that contains the Greek word ekklesia, that we translate as church (Matthew 16:18 and 18:17). The first occurrence of the word ekklesia after the gospels, comes at the end of Acts 2, the passage we will consider today (Acts 2:47). So while the church is a community built upon the Apostolic message about Jesus Christ, we will see today it is also a community of His Spirit. In the words of one commentator: “We must understand that the church’s nature is unique, and that this unique nature is the result of the work of God’s Spirit in the world.”