Values of a Gospel-Centred Church

28th March 2022

What are the values of our church family? Who are we seeking to be and become? In this 5-part series, we will look at the five values of our church, which seek to keep the gospel at the heart of who we are and what we do.
These values are not new to Calderwood Baptist Church but whether you have been part of the church family for a long time or a short time, it is really helpful to be reminded of the culture we are seeking to cultivate in our church family at Calderwood.

Empowered by the Holy Spirit

Consider a few of the responses to the apostles in the early stages of Acts:

Acts 2 records Peter preaching to a vast crowd with an incredible amount of clarity and scriptural understanding such that thousands believe in Jesus. The effect of Peter’s words are found in v37:

Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

Acts 4 records Peter and John speaking before the ruling council of Jerusalem and when the rulers and elders heard them, they said:

when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.

Stephen preached boldly to the High Priest and, despite the evil of the crowd, he testified about Jesus to the point of death.

After Saul’s conversion, the other apostles were afraid because they weren’t convinced that he wasn’t the same old Saul, zealously desiring to persecute the Christians. The thing that convinced the other apostles that he really had become a Christian was when,

he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. (Acts 9:28)

Did Peter have the ability to convict people to their hearts?
Did John and Peter have the ability to be like Jesus?
Did Stephen have the ability to keep preaching in the face of death?
Did Saul have the ability to change himself from persecutor to preacher?

No! They were not able to do any of these things on their own. These responses come from the empowering of the Holy Spirit.

Something had utterly changed these men. It wasn’t so long ago that Peter was cowardly denying Jesus and Saul was killing Christians but something had utterly changed them. And not only them but everyone who had become a follower of Jesus. What had changed them? The Holy Spirit. It is clear from reading Acts that the agent of change in the life of the believer is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not simply reserved for a few believers but is promised to all:

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38)

And these Holy Spirit filled people changed – they became new creations, born again followers of Jesus. And outwardly they changed too – they now had a devotion to God’s Word and to the gospel, they loved to hear God’s Word preached and had a boldness in proclaiming it themselves, they loved God’s people and loved gathering with them to pray, take the Lord’s Supper together, and generously share their lives together.
 

Faith in the work of the Holy Spirit

God’s Word describes many ways that the Spirit works in our lives but I want to focus on what it is, as a church, to have faith in the work of the Holy Spirit.

Would our church life and ministries be any different without the Holy Spirit?
Would our Sunday gatherings be any different without the Holy Spirit?

To stop and consider these questions honestly may reveal a lack of faith or dependence on the work of the Spirit. There can perhaps be a tendency to think that we can’t do without the Father or the Son but the Spirit is only necessary for a certain brand of Christianity – this would be wrong and far from the Biblical picture of God’s church.

Perhaps we might think that God’s Word can do it all on its own – we just need to read our Bibles, preach the gospel, and teach scripture. Perhaps we might think that the Spirit is an optional extra – He is not. The Spirit uses God’s Word – this is where our church values come together. We must not only be rooted in God’s Word or empowered by the spirit but we ought to be both because the Spirit uses God’s Word to do His Work in God’s people.

As God’s people, Jesus sends the Spirit to empower us through the Word.

Think about the example of salvation: Both Jesus (in John 6) and Paul (in 2 Corinthians 3) talk about how the Spirit gives life. Without the Holy Spirit, our ministries and our preaching would be in vain – we are unable to convict people of sin, we are unable to cut people to the heart and cause them to ask what they must do to be right with God (as in Acts 2 above), we are unable to make them new creations. But Paul writes that the spirit causes us to be born again “through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:23).
 
Do we trust that God will use our ministries and preaching to save people?
Do we trust that God will give us a love for His Word and His ways?
Do we trust that God will equip us to share the gospel, and complete loving good works?
Do we trust that God will give us boldness to communicate the gospel?
Do we trust that God will sanctify us, change us, and produce the fruit of salvation in our lives?
 
I hope the answer to all five is ‘yes’. But we must recognise that all of these depend on the empowering of the Spirit, and all of these are examples of the Spirit’s empowering in our lives and in our church. Without the Spirit, none of these will be accomplished.

The primary thing that the Spirit uses to accomplish all of these things is God’s Word. So remember, whenever you pick up your Bible, you invite God’s Spirit to work in you for your good and for the good of others.

Too often, when we think of the Spirit’s work, we think of fancy, showy, outward signs and wonders. And because these are not everyday occurrences, we get discouraged and perhaps even wonder if we have the Spirit in us. Don’t look to these things.

Instead remember, that every time you want to read and study your Bible, every time you want to pray, every time you repent, every time you teach or share the gospel, every time you lovingly serve someone in Jesus’ name, every time you joyfully trust Jesus. Every time we do any of these things is a sign of the Spirit’s work in our lives. Without His empowering, we could do none of these.

Next - Making Jesus Known