Monday, February 27, 2006
we should be just like the first church.
ACTS 8:1 "On that day a great persecution broke out against the church (not capitolized) at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria." v4 "Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went."
Most people would have quoted chapter 2 verse 42-47.
Jesus's last command after He rose from the dead and before He left this Earth. Mark 16:15 "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation."
Acts 2:42-47 recounts the glorious pow wow of Christians eating together and sharing every worldly possession, praying together and enjoying the teaching of the apostles. BUT this is short lived. I make this emphasis in response to hearing that we should be living this Acts 2 model in todays world. I believe this is a mistakeI think people see that "and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." People reason that because God did this He desires us to use this model for the church today. Does it mean this?
I believe this was for a short time only. Not that God might not do this at times but just imagine if the persecution never came. The Gospel is much more inclusive. Extend your tent stakes. For the Gospel to spread we must move out. I believe the mega church movement, the tendancy for Christians to cloister together as much as time allows, and the concept of "be in church whenever the doors are open", will be looked back upon and seen as a movement that should be for a short time only if at all. In other words I believe the emphasis should not be placed on gathering together too often. Why because we train people to do what we want them to do. If we want them to be able to disciple each other and move out and share the Gospel then we should do that instead of training people how to sit or stand in a large auditorium and listen to music or talks. Anyway, The Gospel would not have spread if the early Christians had their way and stayed cloistered together. In heaven we will have plenty of time for that but for now many people are dead in their sins and need to hear what we have heard. Yes of course we should meet together sometimes but the question is how often do we need to gather in order to be equipped for sharing the message of Christ? Because that is one of the main purposes of meeting together.
There all alot of things that are "biblical" but not what God wants us to do. Murder is "biblical", in the Bible, but of course God does not desire us to participate. We have to be very careful of extracting our doctrine from narrative portions of the Bible. We have to lookm for the point of the scripture and also at the bigger picture.
After having said this, I do beleive there are principles we can live out from the Acts 2 portion of scripture, but its a story about what God did and what happened. We cant say we should do exactly what they did. The attitudes should be the same but the application will be different during different seasons. If we truly desire to be like the first church we should look at the whole account of what the church was like, especially the use of authority of the apostles, how they discipled new leaders, the problems the early believers encountered, the differences in different cultural settings, and the emphasis on going out as opposed to cloistering together.
Whats the point? Will we move out on our own like God wants us to or will we need a kick in the pants?
Most people would have quoted chapter 2 verse 42-47.
Jesus's last command after He rose from the dead and before He left this Earth. Mark 16:15 "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation."
Acts 2:42-47 recounts the glorious pow wow of Christians eating together and sharing every worldly possession, praying together and enjoying the teaching of the apostles. BUT this is short lived. I make this emphasis in response to hearing that we should be living this Acts 2 model in todays world. I believe this is a mistakeI think people see that "and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." People reason that because God did this He desires us to use this model for the church today. Does it mean this?
I believe this was for a short time only. Not that God might not do this at times but just imagine if the persecution never came. The Gospel is much more inclusive. Extend your tent stakes. For the Gospel to spread we must move out. I believe the mega church movement, the tendancy for Christians to cloister together as much as time allows, and the concept of "be in church whenever the doors are open", will be looked back upon and seen as a movement that should be for a short time only if at all. In other words I believe the emphasis should not be placed on gathering together too often. Why because we train people to do what we want them to do. If we want them to be able to disciple each other and move out and share the Gospel then we should do that instead of training people how to sit or stand in a large auditorium and listen to music or talks. Anyway, The Gospel would not have spread if the early Christians had their way and stayed cloistered together. In heaven we will have plenty of time for that but for now many people are dead in their sins and need to hear what we have heard. Yes of course we should meet together sometimes but the question is how often do we need to gather in order to be equipped for sharing the message of Christ? Because that is one of the main purposes of meeting together.
There all alot of things that are "biblical" but not what God wants us to do. Murder is "biblical", in the Bible, but of course God does not desire us to participate. We have to be very careful of extracting our doctrine from narrative portions of the Bible. We have to lookm for the point of the scripture and also at the bigger picture.
After having said this, I do beleive there are principles we can live out from the Acts 2 portion of scripture, but its a story about what God did and what happened. We cant say we should do exactly what they did. The attitudes should be the same but the application will be different during different seasons. If we truly desire to be like the first church we should look at the whole account of what the church was like, especially the use of authority of the apostles, how they discipled new leaders, the problems the early believers encountered, the differences in different cultural settings, and the emphasis on going out as opposed to cloistering together.
Whats the point? Will we move out on our own like God wants us to or will we need a kick in the pants?
hd 9:52 AM