God’s Biblical Blueprint for Every Local Church
It’s so good to be back in the amazing book of Acts.
As you are about to hear in this PODCAST, the elegant simplicity of what God intended His local churches to look like and how He intended for them to function, coupled with unencumbered sincerity of His biblical blueprint for every local church ministry, is breathtaking to behold.
We see a descriptive model of what would be labeled as a “successful church” in Acts 2:42-47
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
What we see here is a group of Christ-followers steadfastly living life together, studying the Old Testament and the Apostle’s teachings of them, and eating together and praying together… frequently… like ALL THE TIME!
Talk about elegant simplicity.
Now, keep in mind that we read this description of the “early church” immediately after reading about a group of people hearing Peter’s message and surrendering their lives to follow Jesus. A group of 3,000 people!
Now, where would a group of 3,000 people meet to devote themselves to fellowship, eating together, living life together and praying together?
Some suggest that they met at the Temple in Jerusalem. However, I disagree. You see, Pentecost was a pilgrimage festival. A large amount of those 3,000 people had to have come to Jerusalem from regions near and far.
So, after hearing Peter’s message and deciding to follow Jesus, it would only make sense that these “pilgrims” would have returned to their homes, leaving a much smaller group of people who resided there in and around Jerusalem. So, instead of a huge group of thousands initially meeting, it makes sense to me that there were smaller groups devoting themselves to the Apostles’ teachings, prayer, fellowship, and one another… meeting in peoples’ homes.
The first local church was somewhere between 100-300 people met throughout the week in people’s homes.
These homes also acted as “home base” for the twelve disciples.
And this came at a price.
As a great wave of persecution against the early church swept across Jerusalem, the early church members were forced to flee. In fact, they were forced to flee throughout Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth.
The very thing that Satan meant to use to persecute and literally kill the early church, God used to EXPAND His ekklesia…
Expanding through geography and time even to us, here and today some two millennia later!