Here is a look at the first 30 years of the Christian Church. It is an incredible story. In this message, Scott Brown explains the amazing story of the first 30 years of the church after the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Acts is one of the most exciting books of the Bible - full of action, ideas, and conflict. The central concern of the book of Acts is expressed in the promise the Lord Jesus gave to His disciples at the very beginning of the book, “You shall receive power.” Acts teaches us plainly that our mission is not only local but global in scope. The disciples were witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and the uttermost parts of the earth. All throughout the book of Acts, men boldly proclaimed the gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the revelation of your son Jesus and how you've transformed the world through Him. We pray that you would fill us up with the knowledge of your will, that you would give us a greater sense of your power and your desire that we be your witnesses in the world, Lord, that you would place upon us a mantle of holiness and truth so that we would do the things that we saw in the book of Acts, amen. Okay, so here we are in the book of Acts. Acts absolutely is one of the most exciting books in the Bible.
It's chock full of action and ideas. There's conflict. And the whole focus of the book of Acts is found in this statement, you shall receive power. So today I want to spend our time introducing the book and then examining various elements of the book and then ending up with 12 marks of the church that turned the world upside down. This was the church that turned the world upside down.
First of all, the heartbeat of the book of Acts is summed up in two words, power and witnesses. This word dunamis is coupled with another word that explains the activities in Acts, and that is the word witnesses. You shall receive power and you shall be My witnesses. And this of course is uttered in Acts chapter 1 verses 7 and 8 when the Lord Jesus Christ said, it is not for you to know times and epochs which the Father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you shall be my witnesses, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest parts of the earth." So that summarizes what you're gonna read about in the book of Acts.
The word witnesses occurs 39 times and it really speaks about the whole mission and the life of a Christian and that is to be a witness of Jesus Christ to declare his glory to reflect his nature to be an imitator of Jesus Christ to be fashioned after the image of what the Bible calls the heavenly man and that's the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And so what you find here is that the gospel as a result of this power It's not bound by institutional or geographical constraints, but the glory of God runs free throughout the world as you'll see demonstrated in the book of Acts. The glory of God is demonstrated in every imaginable place. Public squares, prisons, when somebody is arrested, in homes, in synagogues. And by the way, when you read the book of Acts, you'll notice there are many, many homes, places where people live, where the Gospels power is demonstrated.
A fascinating study is to study the Gospels and the book of Acts and ask what happens in homes and then you should ask what's happening in my home. The geographical reach of the mission of the Church of Jesus Christ is spoken of, and that is that the reach of the Church is not just local. It's also global. Because these witnesses began in Jerusalem and then fanned out to Judea and Samaria and ultimately to the uttermost parts of the earth. Now one of the things that we should recognize is in the midst of this expansion of the life of Jesus being demonstrated in the world.
It did not go on unopposed. It was viciously opposed by governments, by religious leaders, by philosophers. Really all the basic categories of power in the world found themselves resisting the power of the gospel. They could not resist it. Let's talk about the author of the book of Acts.
The book of Acts is written by Luke. Now Luke wrote two volumes that appear in Scripture. The first volume is the Gospel of Luke. Now, Luke and Acts actually belong together, and you'll sometimes find commentaries putting them together. But Luke is volume one, the glory of Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
That's the Gospels and the Gospel of Luke. And then you have the Acts of the Apostles. And they do belong together. They're actually better read together because Luke is writing with a sense of continuity. Luke is also a historian.
His method is very clearly delineated. He's a very careful historian. He's not a haphazard storyteller that pulls one thing from here and another thing from this era. He tries to be very chronologically sequenced in his testimony. And you can see this demonstrated in Luke chapter 1, 1 through 5, where he speaks about his technique, where he says that he is compiling an account of things that were accomplished, handed down from those who saw them by very eyewitnesses.
But Luke is a historian, and you can see the orderly way that he compiled his account, as he says, and he took the testimony of eyewitnesses. He says that he investigated everything thoroughly. These are words that he uses as he describes how he wrote down the testimony of Jesus in consecutive order. So he has a very orderly approach. Luke is not just a historian, he's also a physician.
From both Luke and Acts, you see that He understood the medical terminology of the day, and some have even taken Luke and Acts to try to develop a medical terminology of the ancient world. Luke was also a traveler with Paul. They traveled together. You find the word we. There are the we passages.
You find this in the book of Acts in Luke 21 17 you see that Luke arrived in Jerusalem with Paul and then Luke left with him to go on their voyage to Rome which is recorded in Acts 27 verse 1 So Luke was with the Apostle Paul. He saw it. He saw the demonstration of the power of the gospel through the Apostle Paul. Now let's talk about the time frame of the book of Acts. The book covers the first 30 years of the history of the church.
And during these 30 years, the world was turned upside down. Luke begins by recounting what happened during the 40 days that Jesus presented himself alive. That's how Acts begins, right after his resurrection. And Jesus' last words to his disciples foretell in summary form what is going to happen in the next 30 years and beyond. And you read this in Luke chapter 24 verses 46 through 48.
These words that Jesus uttered in Luke 24 are fulfilled and demonstrated in the book of Acts and here's what you see. The resurrection took place, repentance and remission from sins. It was preached in His name. And the message did spread among the nations beginning in Jerusalem. And Jesus' final words are contained in this section in Luke 24 that they did not depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for a promise.
Luke 24, 53 records, And they worshipped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. And then, after that, they returned to the city, and they find themselves in a home meeting. And this little band of 120 disciples are there faithfully waiting on the coming of the Holy Spirit. So then after that, now, Luke records the next 30 years of the work of the Holy Spirit. Now, look what can happen in 30 years of the moving of the Holy Spirit.
Come to think of it, I was talking to Deborah and Claudia this morning, and I was telling them that it's possible that I have 30 more years left. I wasn't even thinking of the book of Acts. But think of what can happen in 30 years of a lifespan. I've been a believer for over 40 years. It's a period of time.
It's a period of time longer than the period of time recorded in the book of Acts. Think of what marvelous things can happen in just 30 years. Don't despise what God can do in a short period of time like that. Who knows what can happen in your lifetime. Don't lose hope.
When God pours his spirit out, the earth shakes, people tremble, nations change. And don't think for a second that when you look around in this world today as Bad as it seems that God can't dramatically transform people's lives He can and I believe that he will But the book of Acts spans only a 30 year time frame and you know what can happen to a people who have it in their minds who say not my words but your words not by my spirit but by your spirit Oh Lord not my possessions Lord but yours What do you think can happen with a group of people like that? So, the book of Acts spans only a 30-year period. Remarkable, isn't it? Now, look at the name of the Book of Acts.
It's called the Acts of the Apostles. Others have supplied more descriptive names than just the Acts. Some have called this the Acts of Jesus Christ through the Church, or the acts of God's people empowered by the Holy Spirit. One theologian suggested that it might be best described as the continuing words and deeds of Jesus by His Spirit through the Apostles. That was the late John Stott who said that.
So the name of the book of Acts I think should instruct us about what this is all about. Here's one thing I love about the book of Acts. It has a very simple outline. Look at the outline. The first half is the birth of the Church, Acts 1-12.
Peter is prominent in the first 12 chapters of the book of Acts. And then the second half speaks of the expansion of the Church, which spans from chapter 13 to chapter 28. And the Apostle Paul is prominent from chapter 13 on. So you get these two great apostles and their ministries explained in the book of Acts. Let's talk about the features of the book of Acts.
And I'd like to just talk about some of the people, some of the philosophies, some of the groups that you'll meet in the book of Acts. To me, this is one of the most amazing things about the book of Acts. It covers such a breadth of people and philosophies and positions that people take. Like for example, personalities. You meet Abraham, Agabus, Ananias and Sapphira, Apollos, Artemis, Caiaphas, Barnabas, Bernis, Caesar, Cornelius, Crispus, Demetrius the silversmith, Drusilla, Felix, Festus, Gallio, Gamaliel, Herod Agrippa, Herod Antipas, you meet James, you meet John the Baptist, you meet Lydia and Mark and Moses and Paul and Peter and Philip and Philip's daughters and Pontius Pilate Priscilla and Aquila, You got to pick up what's going on with Priscilla and Aquila.
What a great little couple that's there in the Book of Acts. The seven sons of Sceva. Wow. Aristarchus, Timothy, Tychicus, Silas, Simon the sorcerer, Theophilus and the women of prominence and the leading men in chapter 13. So you bump into all kinds of absolutely fascinating characters in the book of Acts.
Now notice also the interesting people groups that are there in the book of Acts. The Athenians, the Epicureans, the Asiarchs, the Gentiles, the God-fearers. You got to learn about the God-fearers. The Greeks, the Hellenists, the idol-worshippers, the Judaizers, the Pharisees, the Paracels, the Sadducees, the Sanhedrin, and some of my favorite, the Stoic philosophers. By the way, we're in 1 John in our church right now, and John is addressing the false doctrine of the Stoics, and you meet the Sanhedrin, you meet the people of the way.
How about that? That's who we are. The people of the way. It's beautiful. You meet the zealots as well and notice the places that you go to.
You're going to go to the beautiful gate and see what happens in the beautiful gate. You'll go to Solomon's portico. You'll go to Antioch and Arabia and Asia and Athens and Caesarea and Corinth and Cyprus and Damascus and Derbe and Ephesus and Galilee and Iconium and Jerusalem and Judea and Lystra and Mytilene and Kos and Rhodes and Phoenicia and Macedonia and Spain and Syria and Tarsus and all kinds of places. Acts takes you to all these remarkable places where amazing things happen by the power of the Spirit of God. Here's one thing that Acts makes it very plain to us and that is that Jesus Christ works in places, cities, roads, real places.
Jesus is real and he does his work in real historical places. The Bible is not a book of mythology. It's a book of real places. You can go there today And you can stand pretty much on the same place that the Apostle Paul stood The Bible is not a book of myths Okay, so those are some of the fascinating wonderful features of this book Now, I'd like to slow down a little bit, and I'd like to speak of 12 marks of the church that turned the world upside down. And when you read the book of Acts, you will see these qualities of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I'll just dictate them very quickly and then we'll go back and take them one by one. It was a transforming church. Secondly, it was a worshiping church. Third, a praying church. Fourth, a persecuted church.
Fifth, a relational church. Sixth, an enthusiastic church, seventh a missionary church, eighth a bold church, ninth a gospel preaching church, tenth a vigorously taught church, eleventh an elder-led church, twelfth a spirit-filled church. So we'll walk through each one of these one by one. So let's begin with a transforming church. One example of this happens in Thessalonica.
The Gospel came to Thessalonica. Great multitudes came to the Lord. And it included Greeks. And the city went into an uproar and a mob gathered and Jews who were not converted were envious and they became bloodthirsty and The tumult Was rising there was a violent mob that began to search for Paul and Silas who entered the city In Acts chapter 17 verse 6 we read this But when they could not find them they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city crying out these who have turned the world upside down have come here too okay word was spreading that Jesus Christ is alive and they weren't welcome But they have turned the world upside down. And throughout the book of Acts we see whole cities impacted.
Jerusalem is thrown into an uproar. Why? By a lame man who is healed. And a persecution breaks out against the church because of that lame man who was healed. In Rome there were enough believers within 30 years of the resurrection to cause Nero to blame the fire that burned the city to the ground on the Christians, and he enacted laws to regulate Christians.
People of all walks of life were rescued by the Gospel as it was preached. We see lots of personal transformation. Not only do you see whole cities thrown into an uproar where there are riots and tumults in stadiums and city streets and synagogues. Not only that, you see on the micro level of the power of the gospel in people's lives and what happens to individual people and how profound the power of the Gospel is. You know, at the end of the Gospels, you see Simon Peter denying the Lord.
And after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, what happens? He's a different man. The Spirit of God changed him. Luke recounts that Saul of Tarsus was breathing threats against the church, and yet he is converted, and he begins to breathe life into the church, you find Barnabas who was an aristocratic, land-owning Levite. You learn about him in Acts 4, 36.
And you find him giving His land away for the needs of the Jerusalem church. And He's called the Son of Encouragement. He's a brother who encourages his brethren through His generosity. And He stands in the long line of aristocratic and wealthy people who are saved. They use their resources for the power of the Gospel.
We meet Philip in Acts chapter 6, verse 5. He's a deacon. He's an evangelist. And then he moves to Caesarea for about 20 years and he raises his family there in Caesarea and his household is characterized by evangelism and God has given him in Caesarea this remarkable lot of daughters. He has these four godly daughters and they are called prophetesses.
They speak the Word of God. On their hearts is the Bible and that's what they do. They speak of the how to apply the Bible to those that in their in their reach. We meet James in chapter 6 verse 3. James the brother of Jesus.
James who did not believe in Jesus during his earthly ministry but now after the resurrection we find him in Acts 15 and who is he in Acts 15? He's one of the most important leaders in the Church of Jerusalem. He writes the Gospel of John. He writes 1 John. He writes the book of Revelation.
But we know that he didn't believe at one point. He scoffed at Jesus most likely. What happened? Times of refreshing had come in and transformation takes place. This is a transforming church.
Now it's very important that you understand that the mark of a true church is transformed lives. That is the chief manifestation of the Gospel. If you have someone who claims to be a Christian and their life hasn't been transformed and they're not being transformed, there's no way that they can legitimately claim that Jesus Christ has entered their life. And it's very important in our day that we understand what regeneration is. Every revival has its center in the doctrine of regeneration, where a true doctrine of regeneration is preached.
So it was a transforming church. Secondly, it was a worshiping church. In Acts chapter 2, verses 37 through 47, you find that the church was worshiping together. And they loved to be together and they loved to worship together. They worship in homes.
They worship in the marketplace. They worship in the synagogue. They worship in the temple. They worship in the amphitheater. They worship in the jail.
Okay? They worship wherever they go. You know, you can relate to that. You're driving down the road and you're crying out to God. You're walking down the street.
You're talking to someone on the phone. And there's this interchange, there's this fellowship with God that takes place, but they were a worshiping church. And we find that their worship wasn't bound to buildings, and we see the disciples worshiping in spirit and in truth in a number of different contexts, but they were a church that loved to come together and to worship. And they loved to come together and to pray. You know, I often think of our prayer meetings in our church.
Now, the prayer meeting that happened at the beginning of the book of Acts, in Acts chapter 1, there were 120 people there. That prayer meeting wasn't much different than our prayer meetings. It's fairly close to the size of our prayer meetings. And imagine, imagine what good can come from a little group of people praying in a home just like we did last night. They were a worshipping church.
When these people pray, things happen. They pray, prison doors fly open. They pray, buildings are shaken. They pray, chains fall off. They pray, lame men walk.
And we see this focus on prayer that should help us just to remember the blessing of prayer and how God has given us this marvelous resource to cry out to him and there's so many promises about prayer but in Acts chapter 1 14 you see their passion for it these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brothers now in that one statement you learned quite a bit about prayer. These all continued with one accord. It was united prayer. It was prayer and supplication. In other words, it was declaring their dependence upon God and they were also crying out for particular needs.
It was prayer of the whole church with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. And by the way, they're not praying to Mary, okay? Mary is praying. That's significant. And Jesus' brothers are also there as well.
It seems that Jesus' brothers had become converted at some point. In chapter 3 verse 1, Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And read what happens after that. It's amazing, it's beautiful what happens. In Acts chapter 6, 4 the elders said, but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.
In Acts chapter 10 verse 31, Peter says, Cornelius your prayer has been heard and your alms are remembered in the sight of God in Acts chapter 12 verse 5 Peter was kept in prison but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. So Peter's in prison and the whole church is praying for him. You know, whenever one of the brothers or sisters is suffering some kind of difficulty, the church should gather in prayer to pray for that person. In Acts chapter 16 verse 13, and on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside where prayer was customarily made and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there. A place of prayer, the women are there, and the apostles go and speak to them there on the Sabbath day.
Acts 16, 16, now it happened. As we went to prayer that a certain slave girl possessed with the spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune telling. They're going to pray, and here the slave girl shows up. And marvelous things happen. Here's one thing that you learn about the incidences of prayer in the book of Acts, and that is that miracles, remarkable happenings take place when people are on the way to pray.
It makes you sort of want to be on your way to pray a little bit more. You never know what might happen on the way to pray. So it was a praying church. There's also a persecuted Church. Number four, somebody said that the problem with Christians today is that nobody wants to kill them.
And what this person is referring to is that Christians don't speak the truth and therefore nobody needs to bother with them and nobody needs to bother them. And the statement is an indictment upon a modern church which desires to fit in quite nicely into the culture that it exists in. Rather than transforming the culture, it is transformed by the culture, and that's always a mark of an apostate church. But the early church was met with rejection, And the persecution took many different forms. You can categorize the different forms of persecution in the book of Acts as you go through it.
You know, sometimes you had these extreme situations where the multitudes rose up against them. Sometimes it was actual multitudes. Can you imagine that? That's never happened to you or me. You know the worst thing that's ever happened to me is Somebody just said something not very nice about me.
But the multitudes have not risen up to, you know, tear me apart. It hasn't ever happened. But it happened to the apostles many times. You know, Jesus said, you shall be my witnesses. Now the word witness in the book of Acts often appears up against the word keruso, preaching, to be a witness and to preach.
And This is typically the reason why there's persecution. And the word witness is the Greek word from which we get our word martyr, martyrian. You shall be my martyrian. You shall be my witnesses you shall be my martyrs and the persecution always comes at the preaching of the gospel and the various manifestations of a transformed life for example in Ephesus when people started throwing away their idols and burning their idols the persecution rose up. If you turn away from some of the idols of the day as they did in the book of Acts, you will be persecuted.
It may not have anything to do directly with Jesus, but an idol that Jesus is telling you to escape. And that's true persecution today. If you just try to apply one thing in the Word of God, you might get persecuted. And it's not because of the gospel message, it's because you followed Jesus in some matter of life. And one of the most dangerous things you can do in this world is to change your life and not walk like everybody else walks.
And that was really why persecution took place. But what we learned is that the gospel was disruptive to everything. Like for example, the spread of the gospel in Ephesus had a negative effect on the economy of Ephesus because people quit buying idols and Demetrius the silversmith was infuriated because his business was tanking because people were getting converted and they weren't messing with those idols anymore and there was a huge riot in the amphitheater in Ephesus where 20, 000 people were screaming and yelling great is Artemis of the Ephesians one of the goddesses. Claudia and I actually stood in that amphitheater a few years ago. It's remarkable to picture what happened there.
It's amazing. But it was all because the economy was being affected by the gospel. When you embrace the gospel, it affects what you spend your money on. You know, when people become Christians, Hollywood is going to start hurting. It will.
The great idols of the day will be turned away from. You know, The Gospel has an impact on philosophy in Athens. The Gospel has a disruptive impact on worship in Lystra. You can read about it there. But the persecution took on different forms.
Not only do you have multitudes coming in, But also there's the form of belittling. That's probably the most common form of persecution. Like for example, on the day of Pentecost, you remember what the crowd said about the disciples? They're drunk with wine. Well, they weren't drunk with wine.
They were the happiest, most loving people that they had ever been, okay? And it was so shocking in contrast to their former lives, they thought they were drunk, but they weren't drunk at all. They were just different. They were happy, you know, and they weren't weighed down by the idols that they once served so much. You find the martyrdom of Stephen.
If you read Fox's book of martyrs, you'll note that John Fox tells us that on the day that Stephen was killed, there were 2, 000 others who lost their lives that day. Now the Bible doesn't say that. The Bible just tells the story of Stephen being stoned. He's being covered with rocks until he's dead. Can you imagine dying like that?
And then he rose up and he blessed his persecutors and he said, lay not this sin on their account. He was the most loving man in the room. Now, is it true that 2, 000 were also killed on that day? I don't know. It isn't the Bible that says that 2, 000 lost their lives.
It's John Fox. It's tradition. But there are the various manifestations of persecution. In Acts chapter 14, verse 1, it was the Hellenistic Jews who stirred up the crowd and poisoned the minds against the brethren. So you have this poisoning of minds through slander and misinformation and misrepresentation.
In Acts chapter 14 verse 19 the Jews stoned Paul and they stoned him and they thought he was dead. Now was he playing dead? You know every once in a while you hear of a shooting and people play dead. You know after the shooter is removed they get up and they say I'm alive. Well that happens.
I don't believe Paul was faking dead. He was probably knocked out, but then he got up and and he went back into the city. And the reality of the early church is this, and it should be a reality of the modern church. And I'll just quote this statement. Through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God.
But in the midst of the persecutions, God cares for his people. He nourishes them. And we notice the very tender example of this when God comforts the Apostle Paul You'll read this in Acts 18 9 through 10. This is God himself Comforting Paul he says do not be afraid any longer But go on speaking and do not be silent For I am with you and no man will attack you in order to harm you, for I have many people in this city." Isn't that amazing? God was just encouraging Paul to go in and he wouldn't be attacked.
Now there would be other times when he would be attacked. But God was just comforting him during that one situation. To go in the city, God said, I have many people here, don't worry about it. So it was a persecuted church. Number five, it was a relational church.
It was a church that was characterized by cohesion, relationship, love, joy, meals together. They spent lots of time together. They loved one another to such a degree that some of them would sell their possessions. It was a time of poverty in the Jerusalem church, and so they needed to spread the wealth around because of the difficulties that were upon them. And there are so many instances, little snapshots, of beautiful church life.
You know, think about your own church life and the little beautiful snapshots that you've seen. I mean, even in the last 24 hours I've seen several little snapshots of the church. Very sweet little things. Things you would just maybe ignore. But you think about what the love of Jesus does in a church.
You know we find them for example in the upper room and their passion is toward God in chapter 2. And chapter 4 verses 37 through 47, there's this description of what they did together. They broke bread together from house to house, singing and making melody in their hearts to the Lord. I mean just reading that I have a flashback. We were in a home recently and the father pulled out his guitar and passed around song sheets and we sang.
It was so beautiful. And it says there that the church was walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit and they were multiplied. In Acts 9 31 it says, And they rejoiced over its encouragement. In Acts 15 31 we read, they were strengthened in the faith and increased in number daily. In chapter 16 verse 5 we learn that they met quote on the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread.
That's in Acts chapter 20, verse 7. It was a relational church where people knew each other and they cared for each other and they prayed for each other and they ate with each other and they encouraged one another and you'll see all these little snapshots throughout Acts that describe it. Also too you'll notice something that's very different compared to the modern church. They met in homes and it becomes very obvious that the book of Acts begins in a home, and it also ends in a home, and they met from house to house. They were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart.
We read about Jason's house in chapter 17, verse 5. We read about Philip's house in chapter 21, verse 8. We read about Cornelius' house in Acts chapter 10, verse 22. And you'll find that homes were used, they were used for prayer in chapter 12, verse 12. They were used for the Lord's Supper in chapter 2, verse 46.
They were used for fellowship in chapter 20, verse 7. They were used for teaching. You know in Rome Paul's home was used for an all-day evangelistic conference and Acts chapter 28 verse 17. There were impromptu gatherings like in Acts 16 32. There were planned gatherings as they met on the first day of the week as in Acts chapter 20 and all this to just illustrate the value of a home what's the value of a home The value of a home is defined by the power of the gospel, working in it, and how it is used in order to be a blessing to the Church of Jesus Christ.
And, you know, Things can happen in homes that don't seem to happen in big old commercial buildings. So we should use our homes that way. You know what? All of you do that. Every single person that I'm looking at right now has a home that is used for the gospel.
What a blessing. I'm so grateful for that. These are little lighthouses in your neighborhoods. It's a beautiful thing. But anyway, you see that it's a relational church.
And then, And then sixth, it was an enthusiastic church. Everywhere there are these evidences of enthusiasm. Paul was preaching past midnight in Troas, you know, that great story of Eutychus. He's sitting on the windowsill and Paul is preaching. He's going on and he drops off to sleep and he falls out of the second story, and he's dead.
So, Paul goes down and he comes back to life, and Paul continues on until daybreak. They were hungry. You know, in times of revival, things like this happen. In times of revival that last forever, but just recognize there are times when God pours out His spirit where people can't get enough. I was just reading yesterday about a revival that took place in England in the 18th century, and it was just telling about two days in the life of John Wesley.
He preached till midnight. He got up at five o'clock in the morning, preached to 7, 000 people at 5 a.m. Because these people were so hungry they wanted to hear the Word of God before they went to work. And then he kept on preaching to small groups around. That's very common in times of revival where instruction is hungered for and it's needed.
People need it. But it was an enthusiastic church and then it was a missionary church. And it was a church that gave its resources for the spread of the gospel. They sent their people and their money to regions beyond their own. They did what Solomon speaks of in Ecclesiastes.
They cast their bread upon the waters and their bread multiplied throughout the whole world. They were ascending church and this is the constant drumbeat of the book of Acts. In chapters 1 through 7 the gospel spreading in Jerusalem. In chapters 8 through 11 The gospel is spreading to Judea and Samaria and then in chapters 12 through 28 the gospel spreads to the ends of the earth and it hasn't stopped spreading even until this day. So they were a missionary sending kind of a church.
And every church should constantly be thinking and praying about how they might send more out into this world. They were also a bold church, number eight. The early church was not characterized by timidity they had the words of life when you know what will save a dying person you will provide what's necessary for their salvation You don't keep your mouth shut if you have a little child and you're out in the front yard and that child starts to run toward the street. You know, you don't keep your mouth shut. You go after that child And that's what reasonable people do.
They take extreme measures for extreme problems. And the most extreme problem is lostness and unbelief. So you see this boldness in the early church. And also it seems like they grew in boldness as time went on in the book of Acts. In chapter 13 verse 46 we read, Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, it was necessary that the Word of God be spoken to you first, but since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold we turn to the Gentiles.
So The crowds often marveled at their boldness. They recognized that their boldness was connected to something. Can you think of what it might be connected to? They connected the boldness of the apostles to Jesus. In chapter 4 verse 13, here's the proof of it.
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, they perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men. They marveled and they realized they had been with Jesus. Their boldness was a reflection of their bold Savior, Jesus. They were becoming more like Jesus. And in becoming more like Jesus, they were becoming more bold.
Now this is something you should see in your life. You should see yourself becoming more bold. You know, when you're converted, your boldness often is at a low level. You might go through periods where your boldness flags, but recognize this, you should be bold. You should be filled with the Spirit of God and be bold to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ it was also a gospel preaching church number nine now 20% of the words in the book of Acts are sermons of gospel proclamation.
Let me just say that again. You think about the 28 chapters, 20% of the words in those 28 chapters are sermons of gospel proclamation. In Acts chapter 19 verse 8, we read that they were, quote, reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God. And so the gospel was preached and people were renouncing their idols. In chapter 19 verses 18 through 20, the preaching of the gospel brought about fear and it says there that the fear fell on all and many believed and came confessing their deeds brought magic books and burned them.
In Acts chapter 18 verse 26 it's recorded that, quote, Paul has persuaded and turned away many people saying that they are not gods which are made with hands. And to the Gentiles Paul was preaching peace through Jesus Christ that He is Lord of all. That's in Acts chapter 10 verse 36. But the power of the gospel was manifested in this particular situation where people's eyes are opened and they turn from darkness to light literally from the power of Satan to God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith." That's Acts 26 17 and 18. In Lystra, Paul and Barnabas told the crowd exactly this.
They said, we preach to you to turn from these useless things. And it was a gospel of opening eyes that were blind, turning away from darkness, of turning away from your idols, a gospel of receiving the repentance of sins and being sanctified. You know when the Philippian jailer asked, what must I do to be saved? He ended up experiencing a real transformation. His whole household came to faith and they believed and they were baptized.
And they were a gospel preaching church. This is always the central matter for all true reformation, where the true gospel is preached, where the power of the regenerative power of the gospel is preached. And you know one of the problems that we have in our times is that if a wrong doctrine of regeneration has been preached and that it's actually a regeneration that doesn't really regenerate and we should preach a doctrine of regeneration. It was also a well-taught church or a vigorously taught church, number 10. There are many examples of this.
The Bereans were very faithful in their devotion to scripture. And we read that they were, quote, more noble than those in Thessalonica, and that they received the word with all readiness. It was Paul's experience to engage in teaching wherever he went. One example is found in Acts 20 verses 18 through 21 and actually all the way to the end of the chapter. And the Apostle Paul is teaching the Ephesian elders there on the beach in Miletus.
Number 11, it was an elder-led church. It's clear that the churches and acts were led by elders. Paul speaks to the elders of the church in Ephesus, Be on your guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood." The seriousness of that statement is remarkable. He purchased with his own blood. He's saying, pay attention to yourselves and shepherd, because Jesus died for these people.
He shed His blood for them. The eldership model is characterized by shared leadership. It's diverse leadership. And you see this throughout the book of Acts. And then finally it was a Spirit-filled church.
The key verse in Acts is Acts 1-8. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, in Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth." And here we find the tremendous importance of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. We are not ever at our best when we are on our own. We are only at our best when we are filled with the Holy Spirit. And it is the power of the Holy Spirit that makes all the difference in the world, in the church.
And God saves sinners. He pours out His Spirit upon them so that they would have a life that's not their own, that they would be transformed by beholding the face of Jesus Christ. And He would change them, and He would give them a sense of His presence in all the different places with all the different experiences that they find themselves in. And they are a people of the Spirit, the people of the way, who look to Jesus. And that's the big lesson of the book of Acts.
You shall receive power and you shall be my witnesses. And when we think about what it means to be a New Testament Church, this really speaks of the heart of the matter for us. What is a church? What is the church supposed to do? This is what a church is supposed to be and this is what a church is supposed to do.
I just want to return to something that we covered earlier. What can a church do with 120 people who spend 30 years caring for nothing except the spread of the gospel? What can God do with the people who preach a true gospel of transformation and repentance? What can God do with the people who are continually devoting themselves to the Apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer. What happens is this.
Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe, and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common. And they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all as anyone might have need. Day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, They were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.
What a wonderful church. What a marvelous place to live your life. Most of you probably have 30 years left in your life. What do you think might happen with a church like that? May it be so with us as it was with them.
Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for telling us the stories of the past that help us to understand the works that you have in store for us in the future. Thank you for rescuing your people and making a church. Thank you for spreading it throughout the whole world. You spread it here to the United States of America, and you have spread it into our dark hearts, and you saved us.
Lord, we praise you. And now, Help us to spread this gospel of the kingdom as they did. Amen.