I’ve been writing a lot lately on Church, its purpose, and how today’s church model is very different from the church in Acts’.  I’ve felt led to write such posts mainly because when I look at the Christian Church, I see many churches that fail to equip God’s people for the evangelistic work that we are supposed to be doing, too many churches manipulating non-believers into “salvation” by not revealing the deeper things of God, and too many churches practicing churchianity as their lifestyle rather than performing the work that a Christian is called to do daily as their lifestyle.

I’m not bashing, condescending, or hating in any way.  The most important thing as a Christian is to have a real relationship with God.  But also do not forget that we are all accountable to God, and because of this, strive to uphold what God calls of us.

So let’s get to the point: is Church for the Christian or an opportunity to reach non-believers through a specifically catered service?  The first church was mentioned in Exodus 19:5:

“Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.”

Possession (Strong’s 5459) is equivalent to peculiar.  Therefore, God is calling the assembly a peculiar possession.  God selected his bride and proposed to her.  She was special in God’s eyes (for more info on the marriage relationship to Israel, see Israel’s Marriage with God).  This church was an assembly of Hebrews, whom God had chosen to enter into a relationship with Him.  This assembly was closed off to all foreigners (Exodus 12:43), unless the foreigner became circumcised (Exodus 12:44) – which is to say, the foreigner becomes an Israelite.  This is because in order to partake in the celebration (at the time, Jewish festivals/feasts) of God, the assembly needed to maintain its purity and unity by not allowing any idolaters into their assembly, or church.

Although God commanded Israel to not allow foreigners to celebrate Israel’s festivals with Israel, God did not call for complete segregation from foreigners.  In Leviticus 19:33-34 God says:

“When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him.  The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.”

Therefore, while assembling as a congregation to celebrate God, foreigners were not allowed to partake.  But while living their daily lives, Israel was called to love foreigners.  This should start to sound somewhat familiar to you since the Old Testament was a shadow of the things to come (Colossians 2:17).

So what about the church of Acts?  There are 7 key characteristics that define what the church of Acts did (see The Church of Acts for more details): Prayer, witnessing outside the church, devotion to all things of God within the church, christian fellowship, proper delegation of church authority, baptism, and a focus on the entire church body (not just a particular church).  The church in Acts was socialistic, where no brother was ever found in need because possessions were sold to distribute wealth.  All characteristics of the church in Acts and all teachings within the New Testament point to a church with the entire purpose of preparing and equipping God’s people so that they can successfully go out into the world to witness to non-believers.  The church is not supposed to be geared toward bringing in non-believers for the following reasons:

1) Churches should replicate the teachings within God’s word for how to run and manage a church

2) If a church is geared toward non-believers, it is not possible for it to properly equip God’s children.  How can a church celebrate God and His word to the fullest if its service is “watered down” for the non-believer?

3) In the Old Testament, God forbade foreigners to partake in the celebration of Jewish festivals and other holy days so that the congregation can maintain its purity and unity.  This obviously has an implication for today’s church (Colossians 2:17).

Similar to the Old Testament, where although God forbade Israel to allow foreigners into its holy celebrations but mandated Israel to love its foreigners that lived in its lands, the church today should follow this example as well.  Inside the church, focus on raising up God’s people by following the example of the church in Acts and the teachings within God’s word.  Outside the church, love non-believers and be strategic witnesses.

If you are a church leader, remember that you are accountable to God.  If your heart differs from what His word tells us, clearly in this case your heart is not being guided by God.  Be ever discerning and seek the heart of God at all times and be sure to adjust your service to what God’s word tells us out of the fear of the Lord.

-Mark

What did it look like?  Aside from the miracles, signs, wonders, and sufferings that the Church performed or experienced, I want to look more closely at the strategic use of the original Church.  Do you believe that the Church at this time experienced an apostolic movement to confirm the resurrection of Christ?  Good – then we should be more fervent to construct the  modern Church in the image of the original Church since God gave them gifts that we rarely see today.  Do you believe that at the time, it wasn’t so much an apostolic movement as it was a greater filling of the Holy Spirit?  Good – then we should be ever more fervent to replicate the early Church, which had a greater filling of the Spirit.

Prayer:

“They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.” – Acts 1:14

One of the main functions of a Church is that it serves as a house of prayer.  Matthew 18:19 says that if two or more gather in Christ’s name, they will receive what they ask for.  The key is that everyone must be in agreement of what is being asked of.  There is no use in community prayer if we do not agree on what is being prayed for.  All believers in Acts were not only one in heart, but also one in mind (Acts 4:32).

Witnessing outside the Church:

“…For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.” - Acts 1:22

Please see Churchianity vs. Christianity.  Many churches go outside of their walls only a few times throughout the year.  This needs to change.

Devotion to all things of God within the Church:

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” - Acts 2:42

Within the Church, the congregation devoted themselves to the teachings of the apostles – this is the opposite of being witnessed or preached to; doing (devoting) verses receiving (being witnessed/preached to).  Within the Church, you also see fellowship, prayer, and breaking of bread.  Devotion is being proactive to the apostle’s teachings – which are written all throughout the New Testament.

Fellowship:

“Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.  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, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” – Acts 2:45-47

Christians hanging out together but not breaking bread, worshiping, praying, encouraging, or sharing insights/teaching is often mistaken as fellowship.  This is not fellowship; this is merely Christians hanging out as the world does…minus the wicked acts.  According to what the book of Acts gives us for an illustration of the early Church, fellowship is giving to the needy within the Church by being so selfless as to even selling your own possessions, breaking bread and eating together, and praising God for the community of believers.

To further illustrate the selfless nature of the early Church, below are some more verses:

There is no “I” in team; all the believers were one not only in heart but also in mind:

“All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.” – Acts 4:32

Division, dissension, slander, gossip, and differences were obviously dealt with biblically since the product was a unified congregation in heart and mind.

Are there any in need within your congregation? This shows what it means to be one in mind:

“There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.” – Acts 4:34-35

Proper delegation:

“In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

- Acts 6:1-4

If you are a minister, do not neglect your duties as a minister by spreading yourself too thin.  If you are a pastor, do not neglect your duties as a shepherd by spreading yourself too thin.  It is important to also take notice on how important the apostles considered prayer and ministry – so important that they gave responsibilities to others, even though they were the best at what they did in the Church.

Baptism:

“So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days.” – Acts 10:48

So important is baptism, that it was mentioned 17 times in Acts.  We take baptism for granted today in the Christian Church in America.  Imagine being baptized during a time where surrounding kingdoms are ready to kill or persecute you because of your outward proclamation of Christ?  Anyone who repented in Acts was immediately baptized.  Not only is it symbolic of a renewal, but it has an impact on us spiritually.

Focus on the entire Church body:

“The disciples, each according to his ability, decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea. This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.” - Acts 11:29-30

Too often today do church leaders focus only on the members within their church and the community around their church.  This was not the case in Acts.  In Acts, the Church worked together by providing for their fellow brothers in the surrounding kingdoms.  Multimillion dollar churches and churches so large that they begin creating satellite churches in areas miles apart was not heard of in Acts.  The Philippians did not monopolize the Christians of Macedonia.  Rather, the Philippians would have sent money to the Christians of Macedonia to help them establish their own church and help them when needed.  This is important because we need pastors who can get involved in the local community and our individual lives, not pastors that are celebrity status and broadcast their messages across state borders.  This is a moral hazard…many Christians use these messages as their primary bread and skip out on church.

This should give anyone that is involved in church leadership some solid long-term direction for their church and anyone not involved in leadership some insight so that they can spark change.

-Mark

I’ve been to some churches over the past few years – mostly due to relocating or visiting a friend’s church.  I’ve been to Presbyterian, Baptist, Pentecostal, and non-denominational churches.  Recently, a friend of mine was talking to me about her experience as a worship leader for quite some time at a non-denominational church.  It took her 4 years to realize that her church was not really living up to the original function of the Church in Acts.  She briefly mentioned that the church would go on annual missions trip and seldom participate in some other outward reach programs.  But for the most part, she was not content with this version of a church, which hides behind its own doors (except for a few times throughout the year).  Another interesting piece of information is that this church would outcast those that left or disagreed with some aspect of the organization as if this church were the only part of the body that had it right, and thereby creating its own “kingdom” (or bubble).

What stuck with me the most from the talk was that she believe that many of these non-denominational emergent churches were practicing Churchianity rather than Christianity.  Reflecting on my past church experiences, I realized how true this was.  Denominations tend to have more outward reach programs through the help of its denominational affiliations with non-profit organizations and such, probably due to their sheer size.  As for non-denominations, first, I’ll tell you why I think this inevitably occurs within this breed of churches.  Then in a future post, I’ll tell you why it is Churchianity and not Christianity. DISCLAIMER: I am speaking generally, not all non-denominational churches are Churchians rather than Christians.  This difference occurs most likely due to sufficient funding, or a lack of caring about funding…as you will see.

I say inevitably occurs because the organizational design of non-denominational churches is set up so that the incentives of the leader/owner at a church are not aligned with that of what a business needs to survive: profits.  Non-denominations do not receive stipends from the parent denomination (such as a Baptist Church), since they do not have a parent denomination.  Moreover, most non-denominations are not funded properly either because there is no endowment which supplies a sustainable cash flow in perpetuity or because there are not enough people to supply sufficient funding (non-denominations are not affiliated, so many people may feel their is no legitimacy to these churches), This lack of funding is the misalignment of incentives.  Non-denominations need a cash flow to survive, yet they are not getting it.  So like any other business owner, the product or service needs to change so that they can attract more “customers”, which will hopefully supply the business with a sustained cash flow.

So what do these non-denominations do?  Like any other business, they need to target their product or service toward  a core audience so that they can be very efficient with a target audience then very inefficient with a broad audience – this is when the marketing comes in.  So you begin to see services that are marketed mostly toward a younger audience through the pop-worship rock, lights, sound, lasers, etc.  They target their messages toward that demographic.  They even go so far as to limit who can go to certain services, as if the Church of Acts had such segregation…(or as if the kingdom is segregated).  Granted, some pastors actually have a genuine heart to reach a certain sociographic and don’t change their service to become more efficient and receive better funding.  Even in this case, as you will see, this is still leading to a toxic view of what Christianity is…so even these pastors are not blameless (1 Timothy 3).

Through this marketing clutter, caused by targeting a certain sociographic, the target audience becomes manipulated into Christianity: the topical message approach does not let people respond to all possible convictions, the deeper truths of Christianity are usually not spoken about so those that have accepted God usually haven’t weighed the cost of accepting Christ (Matt 21:44), the modern worship that makes God the object of a sappy love song distorts the image of God, God’s divine order is not upheld which means that there is no divine presence at the gatherings (1 Cor 11:10).  Therefore, what is felt is hype and emotion which is created through the marketing and is being confused with “God”; the whole message of the Bible gets lost.

As I said earlier, the saddest part is that some that run such services genuinely have good hearts.  But unfortunately, truth within your heart is different than acting on that truth (Galatians 5:24-25).  They do not realize the toxicity of topical messages;  They do not realize that there is no divine presence when God’s divine order is not upheld, therefore, they are confusing hype and emotion with truth;  They do not realize that most modern worship displays God as your boyfriend/girlfriend;  They do not realize that the little cash flow they receive is most likely a coincidence due to strategic marketing than a blessing due to preaching truth and going out into the world; Etc. (and the list continues).

Satan twisted scripture to try to deceive Christ; how much more would he do it for us that are not Christ?  If only we could go back to the Church of Acts.  The Church of Acts was designed by the Gospel according to Jesus, who taught the disciples while on Earth with him.  Even 2000 years ago, Christ said in Luke 10:2 “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”  The same is true today.  Why are churches still creating their own kingdoms, dismissing those that leave, and not going into the world often?

The message you receive at a church should not be your primary food, nor the worship your only time of worship.  Church supplements what we lack individually.  Individually, God gives me my daily bread through reading and I receive the joy of God through worshiping.  Individually, I cannot have fellowship with myself – this is why I need church.  Individually, I will confess that I am weak and rely upon others’ strength to go out into the world as a group to help the needy – this is why I need church.

Unfortunately, the message and worship are only times that many “Christians” actually receive or praise throughout their week.  This is why topical messages should not be and why worship should be taken seriously.  Sanctification comes by understanding more about God through His word.  Topical messages do not reveal the deeper truths of God (such as sanctification!) because most of His wisdom is intertwined throughout many verses and is revealed by Him through conviction, not by topics.  Furthermore, a pastor speaking on a topic opens up the congregation to point their finger at the pastor.  For instance, if a pastor speaks about sacrificing money spent on yourself and I see him eating at a restaurant or going to the movies, he clearly hasn’t avoided the presence of evil, the blamelessness that he should uphold, and the message he preaches to his congregation!

The design of the Church of Acts should not be spoken of briefly, so please check out what it looked like in this post: The Church of Acts.

-Mark

“Finding the disciples there, we stayed with them seven days. Through the Spirit they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.” – Acts 21:4

Why did Paul go to Jerusalem?  Better yet, why did Paul go to Jerusalem when his ministry was for the gentiles (Romans 15:16)?  The desire and work of an apostle is the spreading of the Gospel through evangelism.  If we take a step back to examine Paul’s journey prior to going to Jerusalem, we will recognize that Paul was being led by the Holy Spirit to head toward Spain, and on his way, pass through Rome (Romans 15:28).  But first, Paul had made the decision to go to Jerusalem (Romans 15:25).

Romans 15:25-28 explains that Paul was going to Jerusalem to ensure that the “poor among the saints” in Jerusalem received the fruit (contribution) given by Macedonia and Achaia.  While in Jerusalem, Paul also decided that he would strive to “arouse my own people (Jews) to envy and save some of them” (Romans 11:14).  Paul taught that Israel is holy since its firstfruits is holy:

“If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.” – Romans 11:16

In Acts 20:22-23, we are told that Paul was compelled by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem.  However, the Holy Spirit warned that prison and hardships were facing Paul in every city.  Therefore, Paul knew that his ministry on earth was coming to a close.  Regardless, he felt led to go to Jerusalem.  In Acts 21:4, Paul and his crew arrived at Tyre where he met the disciples.  Here, they were urging Paul through the Holy Spirit not to go to Jerusalem.  Moreover, at Paul’s conversion, Christ Jesus told Paul to flee from Jerusalem “because they will not accept your testimony about me” – Acts 22:18.  So why would Paul continue on route to Jerusalem?  Clearly he wasn’t disobeying God.  It is clear in Acts 23:11 that God willed for Paul to testify in Jerusalem prior to testifying in Rome.  Paul was confident with the decision to go to Jerusalem because he recognized that the Spirit’s work in Israel was fulfilled through Christ and after Christ was the age of the Gentile.  The Holy Spirit was not wrong in urging Paul not to go, rather the Holy Spirit was warning.  The Holy Spirit’s warning was further confirmed through the prophet Agabus and his prophecy concerning Paul’s imprisonment in Acts 21:11-12.

To summarize the Holy Spirit’s role in Acts 21:4: The Holy Spirit warned that Paul would face prison and hardships.  Moreover, the Holy Spirit’s work in Israel was complete through the death and resurrection of Christ until the full number of Gentiles is reached.  Therefore, God, through His sovereign wisdom, used Paul’s hope and affection “for his own people” (see Romans 11:14) to lead Paul to Jerusalem so that the developing enmity of the Jews climaxed to their final rejection of grace.  Paul’s love, hope, affection, and longing to suffer for Christ gave him all the confidence that he needed to continue regardless of the Spirit’s warning.  Paul spoke plainly to the Jews perhaps so that the difference between grace and the law (Jew and Gentile) could be distinguished by the Jews.  Although the exact reason for God sending Paul to Jerusalem isn’t clear, we can learn some truths about this story that are applicable to our walks as Christians.

1) The Holy Spirit warns us of danger and leads in the path of God and when persecution comes, he gives strength to endure it.

2) Suffering for the name of Christ should be the decision-making factor in seeking out God’s will.  The Holy Spirit warned that Paul faced hardships and prison in every city.  As Paul did, we too should consider our lives to be worth nothing and in this, we will fulfill God’s moral will for our life.  Perhaps this is a truth that we should live by when uncertainty exists: choose the path that denounces your life and glorifies God.  Paul did not look back at the consequences of his decision.  He knew that by putting his life in harms way meant a certain death and by dying, his life’s work was threatened by the “savage wolves” to come (Acts 20:29).  Yet, Paul continued in the path that kept his life of no worth.  In other words, by staying to protect his life’s work, he would have considered his life of some worth, rather than giving it up to God – the giver of all worth!  Is your decision making based upon claiming some worth or value to your life?

-Mark