The beginning of the church and its growth
The Book of Acts records the growth and progress of the church in the first century. Up to this point the apostles had been through a lot already. They had been following Jesus and were witnesses of the many miracles he had performed. Only a few of his disciples were there to see him crucified, but all of them started to doubt the he was the son of God as his lifeless body lay in that new tomb. However their faith was rekindled once Jesus appeared to them after he was raised from the dead. Now Jesus told his disciples.
Matthew 28:18 "All authority has been given to Me in
heaven and on earth.
He also told them,
Mark
This is exactly what the disciples of Christ did as we learn
from the Book of Acts. In the first chapter of Acts we learn that Jesus
instructs his disciples not to leave
Acts 1:8 "But
you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall
be witnesses to Me in
From this verse, we learn that when the Holy Spirit comes
upon these apostles. They will become witnesses of Jesus in
As we study
the book of Acts we can see that the disciples obeyed Jesus instructions and
stayed in
Acts 2:1 When
the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one
place. 2 And suddenly there
came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole
house where they were sitting. 3
Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat
upon each of them. 4 And they
were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as
the Spirit gave them utterance. 5
And there were dwelling in
We can only imagine how great a sound this was. Now this was not a wind but Luke describes it as a sound of a great rushing wind. This would be a sound that was most likely echoing through out that area as filled the place the apostles were staying at. This sound was so loud that it caused a great number of people to gather together where the apostles were. These people were being eye witnesses to the birth of the church as they heard they heard this great noise and the hearing the apostles speak in their own language. Some were truly amazed that these uneducated Galileans were speaking in these other languages while others tried to accuse the apostles of simply being drunk.
Acts 2:14 But
Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them,
"Men of
Then Peter goes on tells
these people that were listening how Joel’s prophecy was being fulfilled and
teaches them about Jesus death, burial and resurrection. In doing this, the apostles had accomplished
the first part of Jesus statement in Acts 1:8 by being a witness to him in
Acts
So, Peter tells them exactly what they must do in order to receive the remission of their sins. They had to repent and be baptized for the remission of sin. As you continue on reading we discover that about 3000 people gladly received those instructions that day and were baptized into Christ for the remission of their sins in Acts 2:41 and because of their obedient faith we learn that God added them to the church in Acts 2:47. It completely amazes me how anyone can read the second chapter of the book of Acts and firmly say that a person doesn’t have to be baptized in order to be saved. These 3000 Christians, who took part in the birth of the church, continued in the apostle’s doctrine, fellowship, breaking bread, and prayer according to Acts 2:42.
Another remarkable event, which caused the church to grow is found in Acts 3 and 4. Peter and John were on their way into the temple when they came across a man who was lame from birth. He was left there to beg for alms but notice what Peter tells the man.
Acts 3:6 Then
Peter said, "Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you:
In the name of Jesus Christ of
Instantly this man was healed after more than forty years of
being lame from his mother’s womb according to Acts
Mark 16:20 And they went out and preached everywhere, the
Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying
signs.
Peter boldly preached to them about Jesus proving to them from scripture that he was the Messiah. The high priest, Sadducees, and the captain of the temple arrested Paul and John for proclaiming Jesus death, burial, and resurrection. However they to late because we learn that Peter’s message had reached a great number of these people and the church was now around 5000 men strong not including the women Acts 4:4.
The next day the Sanhedrin council had no choice but to let them
go because they could not deny the miracle that was done(Acts
Acts
The Christians were of one heart and one soul. They shared everything they had with each other so that no one was without. These Christians truly loved one another and because of the love the church continued to grow by leaps and bounds. We learn a great lesson from their example how we should have a great love for one another so that we can help God’s church grow today as well.
However we learn from Acts 5 that were some that were thinking more of themselves and how they could they could look good to the people. Ananias and Sapphira sold their land but then they tried to lie to God about how much they were giving. They both said they gave it all but in fact they were keeping back some for themselves so that they could look good to the brethren. Well this didn’t pay off for them because they both died instantly for their sin and because of the example the church grew in great fear of the Lord.
Once again the apostles were working many signs and wonders and men and women were being added to the church Acts 5:14. Once again the high priest arrested the apostles and threw them into jail, but an angel freed them that night and told them to go back into the temple and preach the word of God again. Eventually, they found themselves before the Sanhedrin council again defending that Jesus was the Christ. A well-respected teacher of the law by the name of Gamaliel convinced the council to leave these apostles alone.
Acts 5: 38
"And now I say to you, keep away from these men and let them alone; for if
this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing; 39 "but if it is of God, you
cannot overthrow it -- lest you even be found to fight against God."
The council followed this advice and had the apostles beaten and told them not to speak in the name of Jesus again. However, this did not discourage the apostles at all. Instead, noticed what happens:
Acts 5:41 So they
departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted
worthy to suffer shame for His name. 42
And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and
preaching Jesus as the Christ.
At this
time the church was growing by leaps and bounds. Because of this great growth
we encounter our first problem in the church in Acts 6. The widows were being
neglected from the daily distribution of food so the apostles decided to find
seven faithful men to look after these widows. Not only did these men take care
of this problem with the widows they found ample time to preach the word of God
and the disciples multiplied greatly in
One of these appointed men was Stephen and he had been doing
many signs and wonders around the people. Well, this didn’t hold well with some
Jews from the Synagogue of the Freedmen. So, they argued with Stephen but they
could not resist his wisdom, which came from the Holy Spirit Acts 6:10. Stephen defended himself and
proved to those Jews from the Old Testament that Jesus was indeed the Christ.
They didn’t like his message so they stoned him which gives us our us our first
recorded martyred Christian in Acts 7. We learn that a man by the name of Saul
consented to his death and that a great persecution arose against the church in
One of these Christians named Philip made his way into
Acts 8: 29
Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go near and overtake this
chariot." 30 So Philip
ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, "Do you
understand what you are reading?" 31
And he said, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" And he asked
Philip to come up and sit with him. 32
The place in the Scripture which he read was this: "He was led as a sheep
to the slaughter; And as a lamb before its shearer is silent, So He
opened not His mouth. 33 In
His humiliation His justice was taken away, And who will declare His
generation? For His life is taken from the earth." 34 So the eunuch answered Philip
and said, "I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of
some other man?" 35 Then
Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to
him. 36 Now as they went down
the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, "See, here is water.
What hinders me from being baptized?"
37 Then Philip said, "If you believe with all your
heart, you may." And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God." 38
So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went
down into the water, and he baptized him.
Philip taught this man about Jesus Christ and keeping with
the command of Jesus and with what Peter taught at the birth of the church this
man was down into the water and was baptized that is fully immersed under the
water for the remission of his sins because he wanted to become a Christian.
After this new soul was saved Philip continued on preaching the word in all the
cities toward
Now Saul could think of nothing better to do than to destroy
Christianity. He hated this new movement so much that he gained permission to
go outside of
Acts
Saul didn’t wait he didn’t try to put it off he submitted
himself baptism and began preaching the good news in the synagogues. The Jews
were astonished at this, because they knew this man was trying to destroy Christianity
not promote it. The Jews wanted to kill
Saul but he escaped from the city with the help of the disciples. He made his
way into
Acts 9:31 Then
the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and
Peter was doing his part as well. He had gone through the
country and healed a man at Lydda and brought a woman back to life in Joppa,
which caused many more people to become Christians Acts
Another pivotal point in the growth of the church can be found in Acts 10 and 11. When Jesus told his disciples that they would be witnesses to the end of the earth, they had no idea that this would include Gentiles. God gives Peter a vision to help him understand that both Jews and Gentiles are equal in the sight of God and they should all have the opportunity to become a Christian. Peter ends up at the house of Cornelius and begins teaching him and his family about God. However, he just barely gets started teaching them when God pours out the Holy Spirit on them. He did this to show Peter and the men that were with him that God also wants the Gentiles to be Christians as well. We should all be very thankful that God has included all of us in his plan of redemption.
Some men from
Acts 12:23 Then
immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he did not give glory to
God. And he was eaten by worms and died.
24 But the word of God grew and multiplied.
We have
seen most of Jesus statement fulfilled in Acts 1:8 with the exception of them
being a witnesses to him to the ends of the earth. However, we are going to see
that Paul’s missionary journeys and the workings of Christians in general will
fulfill Jesus statement in Acts 1:8. Paul’s three missionary journeys are
recorded in Acts 13 to Acts 21 shows
us that Paul suffered many trials and
tribulations during this time period, but he was very successful in
establishing churches wherever he went. He set up or was involved in the growth
of churches in the following regions:
Acts 21 to 28. We
learn from history that there were 10,000 or more Christians at
Colossians 1:5 because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as it has also in all the world,
Colossians 1:23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded
and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you
heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul,
became a minister.
As we have explored the beginning of the church and it
growth we can clearly see that Jesus’ statement in Acts 1:8 has came to pass.
The disciples were witnesses to Jesus in
I hope this lesson the morning has shown how important it for us to continue on with what the first century Christian accomplished. Jesus command for his disciples to go and preach the good news to world did not end in the first century. His command is just as valid today as it was back then. As you have seen from the history of the church in the 1st century it take a great dedication and commitment from Christians to continue to grow God’s church and must be done out of love. So as we enter into this new year lets do our best to bring glory and honor to God.