As my studies moved
from the Gospels into the Book of Acts I learned this morning that we find four
important things the early Church believed in. First of all they believed in
the risen Christ. As we move this week closer to our celebration of the
resurrection on what most call Easter Sunday it is important to consider what
this means to our faith. Paul speaks to the importance of this in 1 Corinthians 15:12-19 saying, “Now if
Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that
there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of
the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not
been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We
are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that
he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not
raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.
And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still
in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have
perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all
people most to be pitied.”
The resurrection is a
crucial doctrine along with the deity of Christ. It is the sign of Jonah that Jesus spoke of
in Matthew 12:38-41 and we join the early disciples who witnessed the risen
Christ in putting our hope in it.
The second attribute
of the early Church people was that they believed in each other and the
importance of unity in the church. A key phrase of the Book of Acts is the
phrase “with one accord” and is found six times throughout its pages. If there
is one sad fault of the modern church it is the lack of unity and cooperation.
Jesus said this Himself in Mark 3:24-25, “If a kingdom is
divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a
house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” Oh how much more
effective our ministries would be if we were all of one accord. “Behold, how good and pleasant it is
when brothers dwell in unity!” - Psalm
133:1
The third important attribute of the early church was
their belief in prayer. They prayed for courage to witness, guidance in all
decisions, and prayed in every circumstance as seen throughout the Book of
Acts. It has been said that prayer is the thermometer and the thermostat of the
church, for the spiritual temperature of goes up or down depending on how the
people pray.
The fourth thing the early church did was to believe in
God’s leading. Jesus had left them to ascend back into Heaven and thus they had
lost their earthly leader. However they did not fall apart, they turned to
God’s Word and prayer as we read in Acts 6:4 where the leaders said they would
“…give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the Word."
The early church was lead by men who had personally been
taught by Jesus and they needed these four things to carry on the work Jesus
gave them to do. If they needed these things, how much more do we need them
today?
As we approach our celebration of the resurrection of
Christ let us return to the methods of the early church. Believe in the risen
Christ, believe in each other as believers, believe in prayer, and believe in
God’s leading. The power of the Holy Spirit came upon the early church at
Pentecost and He is still here today living in the hearts of believers. Let us
be like Paul who desired to live in His power as he declares in Philippians
3:10 wanting to “know him and the power of his resurrection.”
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