Sunday 01:23:11

The early church – what did they spend their time doing? Who were they hanging around? What did they do when they got together? What was important to them? Acts 2:42 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Acts 7 – Stephen is stoned. Acts 8 – Persecution breaks out, the church is scattered. This young fellowship of believers left Jerusalem and is scattered throughout the region. Gospel is taken to Samaria and they believe Acts 10 – the Lord appears to a Gentile, leads Peter there and he shares the Gospel with him – the first Gentile believer. Acts 13 – the church in Antioch sends out the first missionaries – Saul and Barnabas Acts 17:5-11 5 But other Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd.[a] 6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other believers before the city officials, shouting: “These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, 7 and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.” 8 When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil. 9 Then they made Jason and the others post bond and let them go. 10 As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. The trip to Thessalonica was a disaster. Paul did not get to spend time with the church in Thessalonica, teaching, building the church. But look what happened there… 1 Thessalonians 1:6-10 6 You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. 7 And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. 8 The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, 9 for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. The church there should have died. It was little, young, and persecuted. What is it that caused these little, young churches to have such an impact on the community around them? The Thessalonians: 1. Turned from idols. 2. Served God. 3. Waited for Christ’s return. The Jerusalem church: Acts 2:42 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Their lives were saturated with the Gospel. They were devoted to reading the Gospel. They were devoted to fellowship together – reference not just to hanging out, but worshipping God together. They were devoted to breaking of bread together – can mean eating a meal together, but probably means sharing the Lord’s Supper. They were devoted to prayer. Their lives, friendships, and time were saturated with reading, talking about, and worshipping about the Gospel. What can cause this little, young churches to have such an impact on the community around us? Lives saturated with the Gospel. Time reading. The content of our conversations. That our fellowship together would lead to worship of God. Not just talking, taking time to pray together and for each other. That is how through the last 2,000 years little, young churches have turned their communities upside-down.