The Church

The opening pages of the book of Acts show us in the early

church God used to launch the movement that we call
Christianity.
 On their opening Sunday, 3,000 people came to faith in
Jesus Christ.
 At their second public gathering, over 5,000 were added to
their number.
 Historians and scholars go on to tell us that within six
months of Pentecost, there were over one hundred thousand
new Christians in the city of Jerusalem.
 And here’s the reality: Every single one of us trace our faith
back to this moment that began with a handful of Christians
in Acts 2.

When you realize the magnitude of what happened through this

group of people, it raises a question: What was it about them that
enabled them to be so mightily used of God? This was a ragtag
group of nobodies. Nobody knew their names, nobody knew their
platform, nobody knew where they’d come from. Yet history
records that they were used by God to literally turn the world
upside down. And I think if we look closely at Acts 1:1–14, we
can find four characteristics of the early church that we can apply
to our own lives.

1. The early church had a faith that produced obedience.

They trusted God, and they did what God said.

Before he ascended, Jesus told them, “You will be my witnesses
in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the
earth” (Acts 1:8 HCSB). He said, “I want you to go back to
Jerusalem, and Jerusalem is where we’re going to begin this
movement.” You know what happened just 40 days earlier in
Jerusalem? Jerusalem had made a pretty clear statement about
what they thought about Jesus. Jerusalem was where Jesus was
whipped, beaten, tried, crucified and buried. Jerusalem was the
place where they could lose their lives. Logically, strategically, it
made no sense to go to Jerusalem.
And yet the Bible says they went to Jerusalem. Why would they
do that? Here’s why: They heard the voice of God. And when God
speaks, we respond in obedience and faith. Hearing doesn’t mean
God fills in all the blanks, but God clearly speaks about what the
next step is. And, in faith, I respond in obedience to the next
step. And that kind of faith demands intimacy with God.
“Everything Jesus desires to do through you he will do out of the
overflow of what he’s doing in you.”
The single greatest thing you carry to the field is not your
training. It’s not your education. It’s not your experience. It’s not
even your passion. The single greatest thing you carry with you is
your intimate love relationship with Jesus. Everything Jesus
desires to do through you he will do out of the overflow of what
he’s doing in you.

2. The early church had a passion that produced unity.

Verse 14 tells us, “These all with one mind were continually

devoting themselves to prayer” (NASB). This phrase “one mind”
in the Greek language literally means one will, one heart, one
passion.
What the writer is telling us about these people is that they had
all wrapped their hearts around the same thing. What is it? Look
at verse three. It says, “He also presented himself alive to them
by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during 40 days
and speaking about the kingdom of God” (HCSB).
These are the last 40 days Jesus will be on earth physically. And
the Bible says every time Jesus got around his disciples, he only
talked about one subject: the kingdom of God. What is the
kingdom of God?
The kingdom of God is the ultimate eternal redemptive mission
of God. Here’s the way we define the kingdom of God at Hope
Church: The kingdom of God is God’s sovereign activity in the
world, resulting in people being in right relationship with himself.
The kingdom of God is the big picture of what God is doing in the
world.
If you’re not careful when you go out and get involved in mission
and ministry, the church can become the goal. But the church
was never to be the goal. The church is a temporary tool
established by Jesus to teach people about the King, to disciple
them in kingdom living, and then to send them out for the
expansion of the kingdom to the ends of the earth. These people
in the book of Acts, they wrapped their hearts around that and
said, “Everything else we put aside in view of the glorious
kingdom being expanded to the ends of the earth.”

3. The early church had a desperation that produced

prayer.

The Bible says they got in that upper room and they devoted
themselves to prayer, and they didn’t stop praying until God
showed up to do what he said he was going to do. I believe God
in his sovereignty has chosen to limit his activity to the prayers of
his people. No, God doesn’t need us. God doesn’t need our
prayers. Prayer is not powerful. The One to whom we pray is
powerful. God, in his infinite sovereignty, has ordained that he
moves in response to the prayers of his people.

“Prayer is not powerful. The One to whom we pray is

powerful.”

You dig deep enough anywhere in the world where God is actively
at work, and let me tell you what you’ll find. You’ll find a remnant
of people that have sought the face of God in prayer for that to
happen.

4. The early church had the Spirit that produced power.

We can debate for days in seminary classrooms what really

happened on the Day of Pentecost. But here’s one thing we can
all agree on: On that day, the church was empowered as it had
never been before.
Conclusion

In his book Forgotten God, Francis Chan writes, “When I read

the book of Acts, I see the church as an unstoppable force. The
church was powerful and spreading like wildfire. Not because of
clever planning, but by a movement of the Spirit. Riots, torture,
poverty or any other type of persecution couldn’t stop it. Isn’t
that the type of church movement we all long to be a part of?”

These men and women of God were an unlikely group of people.

But they had a faith that produced obedience. They had a passion
that produced unity. They had a desperation that produced
prayer. They had the Spirit of the living God that produced
power.

May we become men and women of God like that.