Tag: Early Church

God Has Left The Building

by Matthew Stidham, posted in Acts, Scripture

God works through a variety of people in a variety of places, including outside of the church building.

In his second volume (Acts), Luke tells us that his first volume (Gospel of Luke) recorded “…all that Jesus began to do and to teach.” The story of Acts, then, tells us all that Jesus continued to do and to teach by means of the Holy Spirit through his Church.

One of the first things we notice is what happened to Jesus in volume one happens to his Body in volume two. Jesus lives by the Spirit, and now Jesus sends his Spirit to his followers. Jesus preaches the Kingdom of God, and now his followers proclaim Jesus as King. Jesus healed the sick and lame, and now his followers do the same. Essentially, Luke is using these examples to call his readers to be like Jesus in their context.

One of the clearest examples of being like Jesus is the trial and martyrdom of Stephen. Just like Jesus, Stephen is a man full of the Spirit, full of grace and power, and performs great wonders and signs. And just like Jesus, Stephen faced opposition that sought to put him to death based on false charges and testimony. And just like Jesus, he refused to back down from his mission.

If you’ve never read Stephen’s sermon to the Sanhedrin, take a few minutes and read Acts 7. It’s a wonderful summary of how God’s presence and action has never been restricted to any one building, land, or people. Stephen reminds us that God has worked in many places and in many ways through many people.

We are reminded that God called Abraham out of the land of the Chaldeans to Harran, then to the promised land. He worked in and through Egypt during the famine under Joseph. He worked with and through Moses while in Egpyt, and in Midian. He dwelt on Sinai while Israel rebelled in idolatry at the base of the mountain. God dwelt in the Tabernacle throughout the wilderness, and even when Israel finally settled in the promised land. He then dwelt in the temple of Solomon.

What Stephen so skillfully does is point out from the Scriptures that God’s power and actions are not tied to one building. It never has been, and never will be. God works through a variety of people in a variety of places, including outside of the church building.

Finally, he gives us one last reminder from God’s own mouth that his presence and action isn’t limited to “houses made by human hands.” Stephen does all of this through Scripture, reminding the Sanhedrin that Moses predicted a prophet would come that would be like him. That “Righteous One” is the very Jesus they had condemned to death. He then calls this assembly out on their sinful resistance of the Holy Spirit and rejection of Jesus.

And they killed him.

It’s always a tragedy when people ignore the word of God, but even more so when it leads to violence. Stephen’s defense is nothing but quoted Scripture of how God has worked in the past, and a claim that he works the same way today. He points out the inconsistency of the Sanhedrin by denying the Holy Spirit’s working in the world, and how their ancestors ignored the Word of God as well.

The rejection of Stephen’s testimony was a rejection of God’s work in the world, just as it was when they rejected Jesus. God works through a variety of people in a variety of places, including outside of the church building. And that was a message that the Sannhedrin refused to hear.

Stephen’s death shouldn’t be looked at as just a tragedy (and indeed it was a tragedy.) When evil men intended to silence this movement of Jesus’ disciples through violence, God used their actions to bring salvation “to the ends of the earth,” just like he did through Jesus. In short, God chose to work through a variety of people in a variety of places, and this event put things into motion outside of the church building (Temple).

You see, the intense persecution that broke out because of Stephen’s Spirit-fueled sermon caused Christians to flee Jerusalem. And while we might think this is a bad thing, God again used it powerfully to take the Gospel into a variety of places!

Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.

Luke 8:4 NIV

Jesus had already told his disciples that they were to be witnesses in Jerusalem (which they were doing quite well), but also in Judea, Samaria, and everywhere else in the world (which they were not doing). This persecution that no one would want is the very thing God uses to spread the saving message of Jesus to non-Jews outside of Jersualem.

Essentially, we Gentiles are followers of Jesus today because this tiny Jesus movement faced persecution in the years following the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, but continued to talk about Jesus wherever they went. God worked through a variety of people in a variety of places, including outside of the church building, and you and I are here as a result.

The seat of power in Jerusalem that ignored the workings of God were completely destroyed. Because the religious authorities in Jerusalem rejected the prophets of God, Jesus the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit amidst God’s people, the religious establishment was completely destroyed. But God’s mission and God’s people were not! They continued with the mission set before them, and we are here today as a testimony of their faithfulness!

We often forget that God’s mission all along was to create a people for himself that would lead all people to Him. When God called Abraham, he promised that this plan was to bless all nations. We forget that God wanted Israel to be a kingdom of priests to proclaim his goodness and glory before all nations in hopes of reaching them. We forget that the law called Israel to be a people who looked after the foreigner because God loved them too! We forget that through the Isaiah God ordained his Temple as a house of prayer for all nations, and through Jeremiah proclaimed that all nations would be present in his assemblies. We forget that the Great Commission of the New Testament was a command to carry out the Great Commission of the Old Testament.

God works through a variety of people in a variety of places, including outside of the church building.

If we’re honest, we would have to admit that we have largely lost the fire and the mission that Israel and the early church were called to. North American churches have enjoyed such a comfortable existence for so long that we have forgotten our mission. We really like things the way they are, and we’re quick to complain any time we are inconvenienced in the slightest with regard to our religious freedom. At the same time we’re painfully slow in spreading the Gospel of Jesus to the lost around us. This seems to be the opposite of what God has called his people to do!

Don’t misunderstand me, I’m thankful for our freedoms, and I deeply love our churches. I’m also keenly aware that our freedom has led to complacency and atrophy in the American Church, while intense persecution and violent oppression has simultaneously led to an explosion of faith and church growth in areas like China, Iran, and India.

I’m thankful for our freedom. I’m thankful for the peace we enjoy. But we must never equate our freedom of religion with the fulfillment of the mission God has set before us. God works through a variety of people in a variety of places, including outside of the church building. Therefore, we must be willing to get outside of our comfort zones and get about the mission God has called us to!

God has blessed us with the freedom to assemble, yet we often don’t.

God has blessed us with freedom of speech, yet we rarely use it to tell others about Jesus.

God has blessed us with peace, yet we forget that we are in the midst of a spiritual war.

In many ways, our freedoms have killed our mission.

Stephen’s sermon is true. God works through a variety of people in a variety of places, including outside of the church building. And every time God’s people get complacent and lose the mission God has set before them, his Spirit moves through his faithful people to work in a new way.

If we are not on fire for the mission of sharing the Gospel of Jesus with the lost, God’s mission will be carried out without us. God’s Spirit will move his faithful people outside of the walls and structures to carry out the mission regardless of the cost. And instead of wringing their hands at every inconvenience and setback, God’s faithful people will view these things as new opportunities to do God’s will in their community. God works through a variety of people in a variety of places, including outside of the church building. Are we willing to join Him in his work?

Acts 7-8 remind us that in a world that values complacency and comfort, we are called to be like Jesus. It will always seem easier to keep things the way they are and to ignore the leading of the Spirit. It will always seem easier to just assemble with our own people and ignore the lost around us. It will seem easier to define our own version of faithfulness and redefine the mission God has set before us. But when has God ever called us to do the easy thing?

Communion at Home?

by Matthew Stidham, posted in Sacraments, Worship

We trace our roots to the American Restoration Movement. Thomas & Alexander Campbell and Barton Stone were dedicated to seeing their churches return to simple Biblical Christianity. So many divisions had occurred in the Church over matters of opinion, and because over disagreements over things that are never enumerated in Scripture.

The Restoration Movement sought to restore simple Christianity in order to bring unity to all Christians everywhere. And one of the major ways they did this was through the Lord’s Supper.

If you grew up in the Church of Christ like me, you might be surprised to learn that the practice of the Lord’s Supper was once a battleground for division. We assume it’s always been done this way and there’s really nothing to consider that is new. But in the not-so-distant past the Lord’s Supper was a point of division, not unity. The Campbells ultimately broke their denominational ties over the issue of who could partake of the Lord’s Supper. The denomination they were a part of required people to pass a test and receive a coin as proof that they were worthy of partaking, and only ordained elders were allowed to distribute the elements. The Campbells saw no such exclusion in Scripture and welcomed all who professed faith in Christ to participate.

The desire to welcome all at the Lord’s Table led the Campbells, and similarly Barton Stone, to seek a way of practicing Christianity that was consistent with the Scriptures, and nothing more. They sought to unite in Christ, and in Christ alone. Nothing other than faith in Christ would be required for fellowship.

Some Christian traditions are struggling right now with how to share the Lord’s Supper. Sincere belief that only some can distribute the elements and only some can partake is causing real struggles for some congregations. But we view Scripture differently.

Here are some reasons why you can (and should) take communion at home, and why I believe you can do so on more than just Sunday.

  • If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you are ordained by God as one of his priests. (1 Peter 2:5-9)
  • All the early believers were committed to “breaking bread” in their homes (Acts 2:42, 46)
  • It seems that the early church gathered to break bread on the first day of the week, at least in Troas (Acts 20:7). Historical writings from the 1st and 2nd century tell us that the practice varied from place to place.
  • Notice, however, that the church was ok with eating the Lord’s Supper after midnight, meaning this meal took place on Monday morning (Acts 20:7-11 shows they “broke bread and ate” after midnight).
  • Luke informs us that the early church had the practice of eating the Lord’s Supper daily (Acts 2:46).

I’m not trying to change your theology of the Lord’s Supper with this article, but I do want you to rest assured that you aren’t doing anything contrary to Biblical practice if you choose to eat the Lord’s Supper with your family at home.

I’m praying home church will be a blessing to you this week. Don’t forget to tune in to either our website, our Facebook page, our YouTube channel for some announcements, a time of prayer, and a message from God’s word on Sunday at 10:00am.

What is the Best Way to Read the Bible?

by Matthew Stidham, posted in Church History, How to Read the Bible

Last week we looked at examples from the New Testament of people coming together in community to study the Scriptures. We also looked at the first few centuries after the New Testament to see the council at Nicea surrounding the deity of Christ. Christians came together around the Scriptures in order to clarify beliefs and put an end to false teaching. This council resulted in what we commonly call The Nicene Creed.

This community study of the Scriptures happened on many other occasions as well. As the years passed, again the Church saw need of solidifying doctrine amongst all believers. The decision was made to collect the writings held highly by the community and combine them into an authoritative collection. There was some debate concerning some of the writings we have today in our New Testament, and some differences still exist today (does your Bible contain the Apocrypha?) But when the Church came together in community, the most trusted writings were compiled to solidify the documents of our faith – the New Testament.

We are so used to having our sacred writings in one book. Can you imagine going through life and having to search from city to city to find a copy of John’s Gospel? The fact that you own a Bible, or have access to a Bible online, or in app form is because 1600 years ago the Church, the Body of Christ, came together in community in order to compile (not create) the writings we know and love.

Today, we must take the same approach toward interpreting Scripture. Renowned theologian, seminary professor, and author Scot McKnight has a suggestion for how we are to read and interpret Scripture today in his book, The Blue Parakeet. In this quote, he speaks of the “Great Tradition,” that is the understanding of the historical Christian community.

“I suggest we learn to read the Bible with the Great Tradition. We dare not ignore what God has said to the church through the ages (as the return and retrieval folks often do), nor dare we fossilize past interpretations into traditionalism. Instead, we need to go back to the Bible so we can move forward through the church and speak God’s Word in our days in our ways. We need to go back without getting stuck (the return problem), and we need to move forward without fossilizing our ideas (traditionalism). We want to walk between these two approaches. It’s not easy, but I contend that the best of the evangelical approaches to the Bible and the best way of living the Bible today is to walk between these approaches.”

Scot McKnight, The Blue Parakeet

The history of the church shows that Scripture has been best interpreted in community. When believers come together and wrestle with the Scriptures to find truth, error is avoided, God is honored, and Scripture is upheld and interpreted in a relevant way. As history and the New Testament has shown us, it is the best way.

Will We Learn From Our Past?

by Matthew Stidham, posted in Scripture

Paul’s admonition to Timothy is to correctly handle the Scriptures. Does any true follower of Christ seek to do otherwise? I’m sure we can find spurious people that misuse Scripture for ulterior motives. Yet Paul needs to caution Timothy about handling the Word. Surely this caution would extend to us, and we have more need of concern.  Timothy saw Paul’s ministry firsthand, and thoroughly understood the culture in which the New Testament was written, and Paul still feels the need to caution him in the correct handling of God’s Word. What are we to do when it comes to the handling of Scripture? This is where a basic understanding of church history comes into play.

The community of believers in Christ has always worked together to study and interpret the Scriptures, and this community approach is still needed today. From the time of Paul we see the Bereans working together to compare the truth of Scripture with Paul’s message (Acts 17:11), or the need in Philippi for the members to be of the same mind (Phil. 4:1-3). We also see the leaders of the church come together in community to discuss how to apply Scripture to these new Gentile converts (Acts 15). There are many other examples of the church coming together in community to interpret the Scriptures in the pages of the New Testament alone, but what about after the first century? Should Christians continue to read and understand Scripture in community? Absolutely! And many of the beliefs you hold today are a direct result of this process.

Most Christians understand that our New Testament was written in the first century AD. What we often forget is that the New Testament didn’t exist in a leather bound, easy to carry book for all believers to read. Many Christians went their entire lives never having the opportunity to read the New Testament. How could they ever live the Christian life without a personal copy of the Scriptures? Community! Believers came together and summarized the teachings of the apostles in the second century with the Old Roman Creed, which eventually became known as The Apostles Creed. While it is not a complete retelling of the New Testament, it does summarize many of the facts of Bible in a format that believers could memorize and discuss.

These discussions eventually raised some questions concerning the deity of Jesus. What did it mean to be “the Son of God,” or the “Word,” or “one with the Father?” Has Jesus existed for all eternity like the Father, or was he created first before all things? In 325 AD, over two hundred Church leaders gathered in the town of Nicaea to sort these matters out. Like the Bereans two centuries before, they searched the Scriptures in community to give language to the deity of Christ. The core Christian belief today that Jesus was “fully God and fully man,” or as The Nicene Creed states “true God from true God…became human,” came out of this meeting.  With Christians coming together in community to interpret the Scriptures, major questions were answered, heresies were silenced, and Scripture was upheld.

We’ll continue to look at other examples from Church History next week, but today I want to leave you with a question: What’s the best way to study Scripture in community today?

Life Back Then

by Matthew Stidham, posted in Church History, Life, Uncategorized

This was posted by John Mark Hicks this morning on Facebook. I thought it was too good to not share. We get to take a look into the early life of the church!

Letter of Mathetes to Diognetus (probably around 130-150 A.D.)

“Christians are indistinguishable from other people either by nationality, language or customs. They do not inhabit separate cities of their own, or speak a strange dialect, or follow some outlandish way of life….With regard to dress, food and manner of life in general, they follow the customs of whatever city they happen to be living in, whether it is Greek or foreign…And yet there is something extraordinary about their lives. They live in their own countries as though they were only passing through…Any country can be their homeland, but for them their homeland, wherever it may be, is a foreign country….They live in the flesh, but they are not governed by the desires of the flesh. They pass their days upon earth, but they are citizens of heaven. Obedient to the laws, they yet live on a level that transcends the law. Christians love all people….A blessing is their answer to abuse, deference their response to insult.”

1 Peter 2:12, “Conduct yourselves honorably among the nations, so that, though they malign you as evildoers, they may see your honorable deeds and glorify God when he comes to judge.”