Baseline Biblical Expectations

Baseline Biblical Expectations

After the disciples are filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, they spill out on the street proclaiming Christ, and Peter preaches to the crowds saying:

“Repent and be baptised 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

When we read scripture, particularly the book of Acts, we see there are three fundamental things expected of God’s people.

1. To be born again

The imagery of being born again is used by Jesus to describe the reality of being brought into the Kingdom of God. This is what it means to be saved, to have our sins forgiven and to be submitted to Jesus Christ as our God.

“Christ is the head of Church, his body and is himself its saviour.” - Ephesians 5:23

To be a member of God’s people, you need to be in submission to Christ, the head of the church. You need to know and believe that Jesus Christ is God Himself, who came from Heaven to Earth to deal with the sin that separates us from God - you need to know Jesus as your saviour.

2. Baptised in water

“We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” - Romans 6:4

Here at The City Church, we believe that to be a member of the church you need to have experienced a believers baptism. This means that having been born again, you want to publicly declare what Christ has done in your life, who He is to you and that you want to follow Him for the rest of your life.

We believe in full immersion baptism - that is, the whole body goes underneath the water, representing our burial with Christ, and death to the old life and self.

We’re then brought back up out of the water, representing the newness of life that Jesus Christ has won for us.

3. Walking by the Spirit

“But I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” - Galatians 5:16

We understand there to be two dynamics to how we relate to the person of the Holy Spirit. 

The first is that to even confess Jesus Christ as Lord we need the Holy Spirit to be at work in us. Scripture tells us that when we become believers, we become temples of the Holy Spirit.

Having been completely forgiven and justified, the second dynamic of the Holy Spirit in our lives is that He helps us on a daily basis to apply the salvation of Christ, and to grow and become more like Jesus. This is about a daily expectation, in Ephesians it says we aren’t to be drunk on wine but to be filled with the Spirit - meaning that we go on being filled with the Spirit.

If you’ve read this and would say that you haven’t been born again, we’d love to help you meet Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. Please come and speak to us or a trusted Christian friend about this.