Wednesday, Nov. 26

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Wednesday

In the first seven chapters of Acts we get a good picture of what the church was doing in Jerusalem. They had the attention of the masses of the people through the extraordinary working of the Holy Spirit in their midst. The apostles had been used of the Lord in healing some individuals, so that those events opened doors for the gospel. The church continually gathered, "devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer" (2:42). They met together, ate meals together, worshiped together, and prayed together. The purity of their fellowship and unity was maintained by the attention to God’s Word and the work of the Holy Spirit.  While the apostles gave themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word (6:4), the Seven served the body's physical needs. Stephen boldly proclaimed Christ Jesus as Lord and for this he was stoned to death. 

It was at this point that everything seemed to change. A dramatic shift took place in the church from which it has never returned.  The church in Jerusalem experienced exponential growth. They had grown to enjoy a relative measure of peace that was occasionally interrupted by jealous Sadducees. Most of the people of Jerusalem held the church in esteem, that is until the mob-induced stoning of Stephen. At that point persecution became the norm for the church. "And on that day (referring to the day of Stephen being stoned to death) a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles." "  That day" is emphatic in the Greek text. That day became not only the day of Stephen's stoning and the day of great persecution of the church, but it became the day the big expansion movement began.

It is important for us to realize that the church lives in a tension. I mean this in a positive manner. We have the tension on one hand of making sure that we grow spiritually, nurture those in the body, develop our spiritual gifts, exercise Christian service, worship, pray, encourage one another, develop in spiritual disciplines, etc. This is Christian growth or growing in grace. It is the ongoing work of sanctification in our lives. And it is something for which the church exists. We must never neglect growing in grace. 

On the other hand, the church does not just exist for its members. We are to be a people with a passion for the souls of men that is manifest by our evangelism and mission labors. We are to be the bearers of the good news of Jesus Christ to a sin-darkened world. We proclaim the only light and hope for humanity.

The problem in the first church is that they were somewhat stuck in Jerusalem. They were growing in grace and certainly reaching people with the gospel in Jerusalem. But the Great Commission had not been rescinded. They still had the challenge of getting outside their comfort zone with the gospel of Christ and carrying its life-giving message to the ends of the earth.

We face this same tension. The church is not given the either/or option of inward growth or outward expansion. It is a both/and demand from our Lord. We are to "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (II Peter 3:18) and "go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:16).

Jeff Frazier