I’m sure you’ve heard the expression before, I’ve said it about various people and situations… I’m sure it’s been said about me. In fact, I remember an occasion when I overheard it said about me. Two people were “summing up” the message I had just delivered during some revival services and one said to the other, “Jeff Arnold he ain’t, but he did make me think.” I took it as more of a compliment than anything else, even tho Jeff Arnold was and is one of my favorite preachers.
So I was thinking about what the leaders of the early church might say about our “new millennial, post-modern, emergent, western-culture” version of “church.” I can hear Peter now, “What the hell are these guys doing?” And Paul, in response to both the state of the Christian church and to Peter’s “profanity,” “Easy Peter! But I get what you’re saying, a ‘New Testament, Book of Our Acts’ church they ain’t.”
So let’s dialogue a little. Let’s start with, “What I love about the early church…”
Wait for it, wait for it… GO! Let me hear from you! When you read the book of Acts, the only record we have of the early church (aside from what we can deduce from the letters of Paul), what stands out to you?
July 26, 2007 at 10:35 am
Okay, I’ll start… I love how Jesus chose such a ragtag group of guys to start the church. You hear it all the time, from preachers and professional Christians, that Jesus chose the people that no one else would’ve even considered… and then they cast judgement and refuse fellowship to anyone who deviates from standardized, sterile practices.
I LOVE that Jesus picked the guys he picked. Rob Bell said, “It’s like a movement of anybodies and he calls them – the JV, the B team, the ‘not good enoughs.’ He calls them to be his disciples and they change the course of human history.”
I can identify with that. And the truth is if he had chosen the “cool” people (don’t get me wrong, they don’t come any cooler than Peter, he’s cool like Strawcutter is cool… but I digress), or the “religious” people, or the guys who had it all together; if he had chosen those guys, I just wouldn’t fit.
But he didn’t, he chose the “not good enoughs,” and I LOVE that about Jesus. I love that the early church was made up of a lot of guys that everyone else passed on.
July 26, 2007 at 4:43 pm
I think you’ve got to love the faith that those guys walked around with. It was almost like arrogant faith, not arrogance in themselves, but to know that Jesus had given them power over anything and everything they come up against. Can’t you see Peter and John walking to the temple, talking about the weather, the super bowl, who got voted off of Survivor and then walking by a beggar who is asking for money. I can almost see them walking past him and after hearing him yelling out for any spare change they stop and go back to him and say we’re broke but in Jesus name get up and walk.
That’s faith in action. No worries about how are we going to look if this doesn’t work. Its almost like they knew it was gauranteed to work. Where has that gone? Remember what Paul wrote in Corinthians, “And such trust have we through Christ to Godward; not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think as of ourselves but our sufficiency is of God! Who has made us able ministers of the new testament, not of the law, because it kills, but the spirit, because it gives us life!” Thanks for having me memorize that section of scriptures in your Jr High Sunday School Class, Mike.
July 27, 2007 at 11:45 am
You gotta love Peter, huh Willie? He’s like, “I don’t have any cash on me, but what I got you can have. Get up, bruh.” And you’re right, at least the way it’s recorded in Acts, there wasn’t any hesitation. Last night, I was thinking about how Peter could be so confident, and then it hit me… maybe it was because he had nothing to lose… and I LOVE that about the early church.
It seems like they were so taken, so captivated, so enthralled by Jesus that they didn’t value much else. Take Paul, for example, what can you do with him? If you tell him you’re going to throw him into prison, he doesn’t seem to value “freedom.” He’s already a prisoner, at least 5 times in the New Testament he calls himself the “prisoner of Jesus Christ.” On top of that, when Paul and Silas were thrown into prison, they had revival… Lol. I can almost hear him say, “Good, throw me into prison! I’m already a prisoner to a power greater than you… and those prisoners need to hear the message of Jesus!”
Or if you tell Paul, “We’re going to kill you!” It doesn’t matter, he doesn’t value physical life. All throughout his letters his says things like, “So we always have courage. We know that while we live in this body, we are away from the Lord. And we live by what we believe, not by what we can see. But we really want to be away from this body and be at home with the Lord. Our only goal is to please God, whether we live here or there, so kill me bruh!” (The last 4 words of that were mine, lol!)
Another time he said, “My life is being given as an offering to God, and the time has come for me to leave this life. I have fought a good fight, I have finished the race, and I have kept the faith. Now, a crown is being held for me, a crown for being right with God. And the Lord, the judge who judges rightly, will give the crown to me.”
Wherever they were, it seems like they were okay with it because the one thing they valued more than anything else was the mission of Jesus. I love that about the early church.