The Early Church

Acts documents what is considered to be the "birth of the church". I think it's interesting to see how some things have changed, and some things have stayed the same. I'm going to outline 13 areas that my text covers as characteristics of the early church.

The first 3 cover the individual:

^{Acts 2:38} Peter replied, “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. ³⁹ The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

Repentance - We need to admit we are sinners and commit to turning our life over to Him. It's not just believing; believing is passive, repenting is active. I can believe in the power of sunscreen, but if I don't respond to that belief with action and apply the sunscreen, I will end up lobster like.

Baptism - "Repent and be baptized..." (Acts 2:38). If Jesus did it then why shouldn't we?? (Matthew 3:15-16)

Receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit - Just like salvation is a gift we must accept, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is such, we must receive it. 
 

 The next 10 cover the essentials for helping new believers become a part of the church family:

 ⁴² They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ⁴³ Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. ⁴⁴ All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵ They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. ⁴⁶ Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Devoted to Doctrine (42)- We can't let people get stuck in the "experience" of church, we need to make sure to be constantly pursuing education and growth in the Word.

Fellowship (42)- we need to move past the Sunday morning hellos and into a real connection with other believers.

Breaking Bread (42)- This refers to communion. When early Christians ate together they always included the sacrament as a sign of Christ's presence.

Prayer (42)- Not just before meals and before bed. Prayer was a constant activity.

Wonders and Miraculous Signs (43)- I can't find anywhere in the bible where it says this was only for the early church...can you???

Generosity - (44-45)  "Why does God let children starve to death?" (ever been asked that??)     
HE doesn't...WE DO!!  If everyone gave as they are commanded to this wouldn't be a problem. (Malachi 3:9-12)

Public Gathering for Worship (46)- This is a witness to the world to the church's solidarity. A basketball player without a team to play on is just a kid with a ball.

Glad Meal Times (46)- I love how it's specified that it was glad meal times. We are meant to be glad, not grumbly. You will always have an abundance of things to complain about. Jesus was tempted, tortured, humiliated, and basically just treated like crup. Yet he didn't complain. Really, this is an area we really need to get a hold of.

Favor with People (47)- We can't always control this aspect, Church persecution is a sad reality. However there are things that are in our power. Ever had that family member that you wish you could hide in the corner and pretend they don't belong with you becuz of their behavior...don't be that person for your church family.

Growth (47)- If we meet our responsibilities in the other areas, God will take care of this part :)

No church or person is perfect. The purpose of this post is not to shine a light on the faults of today's church, but rather to help us refocus on God's plan for the church. 
 

Shopping with only 3 wheels

"The purpose of being baptized in the Holy Spirit is to give the believer power to witness".

Let's look at Peter for a minute...
Peter was a disciple of Jesus, yet when Jesus was arrested and the time came for Peter to stand up for his beliefs, he denied Jesus. (3 time to be exact Luke 22:54-62). This shows that Peter lacked boldness and courage.
But then, after receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit, Peter stands before a crowd of thousands and boldly proclaims the message of Jesus as our savior. Not only that but he tells the crowd that it was they, along with wicked men, who were responsible for Jesus' death, and they needed to repent. (Acts 2:14)


Imagine if we were all a little more open to letting the Holy Spirit work through us...

God did not send the Holy Spirit to make us feel good.

He sent Him because we lack the power to do God's work without Him.

If you want to truly fulfill God's purpose for you, you must be willing to surrender all of yourself.

Have you ever tried to go shopping with a cart with a bad wheel?? The entire shopping cart is opening itself up to you to use at your discretion, it knows it's purpose and it's happy to oblige. But that one tiny little wheel....that the shopping cart doesn't see as necessary for you to control. It's given you everything else, so why is it so important to give you this?? Sure he's seen other carts give all four wheels, but it seems a little strange to him. He's a good cart after all, he has the safety strap for the kiddos, the extra space on the bottom, heck, he even has a cup holder!! 
 
Give God all your wheels, after all, He's the one who gave them to you!!

More than just a time to eat!

So Why Then???

Why was that the moment that Jesus chose to pour out the baptism of the Holy Spirit?

I'm going to briefly go over some of the feasts of the Old Testament, and look at how they were setting the mold for Jesus to fulfill. My text explains it like this:

The Old Testament feasts were like an empty container until New Testament truth was poured into them. Like a builder lays out wooden forms before pouring in the concrete. When the concrete is set, the forms can be removed. This is how the old feasts function within our Christian faith.

OK, so I just worked on trying to explain the feasts that were going on around the time of Jesus' crucifixion, and it was just too daunting (been trying for over an hour, just deleted everything I had)...so for this I am going to cop out a bit and direct you to this website which I think sums it up pretty good!! It's about a 5 min read, so don't worry, not too long!

http://gracethrufaith.com/selah/holidays-and-holy-days/the-feast-of-first-fruits/

Ok...moving on 

The "Feast of Weeks" occurred 50 days after Passover. Pentecost means 50, so it's also called the Pentecost. It was a celebration of the end of the harvest and was a pilgrimage holiday, which meant that Jews from all over would gather in Jerusalem for the celebration.

Let's just take a few moments to look at a few things here:

1. The end of the harvest...Luke 10:2 He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 
2. Pilgrimage Holiday...Jerusalem was crawling with Jews...Jesus knew the right time to send the Holy Spirit :)

There's so much more that can be discussed regarding the significance, but I think that's enuf for now. You get the point. The timing wasn't an accident...must be that whole omnipotence thing!

Beginning with a BANG! Some points to ponder...

There have been 3 points thus far in the study that have really challenged me...

1) To witness you must SPEAK. Sigh...I didn't really like this one to be honest. "We are all called to minister to others." That I can handle. "The most effective way to minister is to live a life according to The Word and people will see the difference in you." Yup...That I like too.
                                                      
                                                  That's where I like to stop.
                                                                                    That's the easy part.
Opening my mouth is the hard part. (yeah, i know, but try to avoid the comments on that one if you can!!) I challenge you to ask yourself where and with who you need to be a little more bold in your witnessing. My only caution is that if you ask, you need to be ready for the Holy Spirit to show you!!


2) Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, All of Palestine, The Whole Roman World.
       This is the succession of areas that Paul and the other disciples witnessed. They started with their neighbors and family, then went to the surrounding towns, onto the the distant countryside, then out way past their comfort zones. The funny thing about this is it took the persecution of Christians for them to go. In other words, listen carefully to where God would have you go, or He will find a way to make you move!

3) Baptism of the Holy Spirit
        Yup, that's a can of worms for some of you, I realize that, but I'm going there anyway!!
Acts 2:4, 17-18  Note the 14th word of verse 17. (NIV version) (uh huh, that means you and me too). I have never spoken in tongues...to be honest it has always weirded me out a little. But if this is the baptism that Jesus has to offer me, who am I to turn it down??? Matthew 3:11

                                    "No thanks Jesus, I'm not really into all that stuff". 

I don't think so...

I will leave it at that for now.

A little info about Acts, and a few thoughts on the Holy Spirit

YAY!!! It's about time right! Oh well, better late than never right??

Onto my second course, Acts: The Holy Spirit at Work in Believers

I'm going to approach this course a little differently than the first. The first was full of background info and history and culture of the time that wasn't apparent in the context of the books studies. This study of Acts has a different focus. It's more about analyzing what's in the book of Acts, and digging a little deeper into the meaning and application. I would highly recommend reading through my first blog entries about the History and Culture of Jesus' time, it will give a much better understanding of Acts.

I will start with some basic info on the book of Acts:

Author: Luke (well, at least this is the most likely case. The Author is never stated directly in the book, but based on the structure, personal knowledge of Paul's travels, and references to the book of Luke, we can safely conclude it was written by Luke)

Date Written: around 63 AD

Main Characters: the Holy Spirit, Paul, and Peter (in that order!)
                                        (At one time the book was called The Acts of the Apostles. All the Apostles are mentioned, however Peter and Paul's journeys are more the focus.)

Main Ideas: History of the Church; The Holy Spirit; How to be a witness 

Being that the true Main Character of this book is the Holy Spirit, I think it's good to take a moment to really identify who He is. This is the part where I get to stray from my text's teachings, and simply talk for a bit.....ohhhhhh I like this part!!

I like to think of the Holy Spirit kind of like a mall security guard. They don't get as much hype as the "real" cops, people like to make fun of them, but they are the first we call on when we can't find our car or someone takes our purse. Jesus promised the Disciples he would send someone whose coming was so important, it warranted Jesus' departure.(John 16:7) He commanded (not asked, but commanded) them to wait in Jerusalem until they received this "gift" from His Father; a gift that would be for all people (Joel 2:28-29). Why is it then that something that Jesus recognized as vital for His people, is something that we like to shy away from?? I don't mean to condemn on this, I too fall into the category of people who like to try to put the Holy Spirit into a box. I doubt this is what God had in mind when He sent this gift for us. I would be hurt (and a little dumbfounded) if I gave you a mansion as a gift, and you only chose to utilize the basement and garage.

As we really take some time to look deeper into the book of Acts I pray that you will join me in moving forward with and open mind, and a surrendered heart.

Talk to you soon!
Sarah

Can you hear the sound....of silence???

...........yup........i hear the silence too.....

I have been having a hard time feeling motivated these days...working on it tho

I'm reading through the book of Acts right now in prep for my next course. It's AMAZING how much more it all makes sense now that I know some of the history and culture of the time!  I've always had such a hard time understanding anything out of the bible, now it's starting to make some sense...crazy!

If I don't post anything in the next few weeks feel free to start harassing me!

After the "Passion"

Well, in my last post I said I would go more into detail about this time, because it was too much to cover in just one blog entry. I'm sorry to say I might disappoint some of you here. After further review I don't think I am going to go too in depth about this. My studies focused mostly on who told what in reference to the different Gospels, and that sort of knowledge isn't the goal of this blog.

I strongly encourage you to take some time and sit down to read about the arrest, trial, Crucifixion, and resurrection of our Lord. Knowing what Christ endured only brings me that much faster to my knees.

This will actually end my blogging on my first course "Christ in the Synoptic Gospels". Thank you so much for following along with me through this course, and I sincerely hope you were able to walk away with a better understanding of the History and Culture of Jesus' time.

My next course will be on the books of Acts...So I'll see you soon!!