bigCHURCH “Big Reach”
I remember when I first moved out West looking for a Church! It was the strangest thing to me to have to look for a Church. Down South we have multiple ones on every corner! It lead many to ask “Why was I even looking?”…And I remember asking “You don’t?” And if we are completely honest about the Church in America it’s an institution (an icon if you will). It’s the place we go for weddings, funerals and the occasional family baptism…and even if you attend weekly it’s become the comfort of “I’m a good person because I go to Church”. The Church never started that way though! It was a MOVEMENT of BOLD people kicking back the gates of Hell at every opportunity. So How Did the Church extend it’s reach?
Acts 5:22-42 Acts 7:54-8:3 Acts 9:1-31
- REACH is not a DESTINATION but a LIFESTYLE of OBEDIENCE to CHRIST!
- The Church (the Way) has exploded to over 5000 people! This is almost 10% of the Jewish population in Jerusalem at the time!
- The Church met in homes, the street and in the Temple in Jerusalem! The Church was causing Holy Havoc (sorry…Pastor Joke :D)! The elders decide to free them in Acts 5 and say that if this is of God the movement will not be stopped…otherwise it will die with the previous leaders who died and there followers disappear!
- There are leaders springing up through the new Church! One is the first martyr we find out about in Acts 7…Stephen
- Stephen was chosen to lead the distribution of the food to widows
- Stephen, was full of faith and power, and performed signs and miracles
- Then…Stephen is accused of Blasphemy against the Temple and is carried out to be stoned. He preaches the Gospel while he is on trial and then asks for God to forgive those who are stoning him
- Enter Saul in Acts 8.
- He fought to destroy the Church by dragging people out of homes and put into prison any one who spoke the name of Jesus
- For 3 years Saul persecutes the Church…and then asks permission to go to Damascus to stop the “reach” of the Church!
- On the way we know of Saul’s Conversion in Acts 9
- Here is how Paul’s life played out
- 33 AD He becomes a Christian on the way to Damascus
- 33-47AD Paul goes around preaching and teaching
- 47-57 AD Paul plants Churches all over the known world
- 58 AD Paul is put in prison and writes his letters to the ROMANS
- 66 AD Paul is put in prison and is eventually killed by Nero
Paul’s life was so radically changed by Jesus that he lived out his life so that we could know the Gospel! God worked through him to bring the Gospel to those who weren’t Jewish or knew the Torah! He gave his life so that we could search for a Church today! I wonder why those of us who are Christian, who have stepped in the same faith as Paul and radically been changed by Jesus, take the Church as an institution…a destination…a place?
Take Away:
How far would your “reach” extend if you lived a life that was meant to be beyond you?
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Tyler West 