Early Church – Rev Dr Jaerock Lee 2000.01.02
Text: Acts 2:42-47
Today, on New Year’s Thanksgiving Day, I would like to testify about the ‘Early Church’, which is one of the four prayer topics given to our church. Through today’s Word, we must achieve great revival and become a model for all churches in the world by establishing a church like the early church that God wants and is pleased with.
1. Reasons to establish the early church that is pleasing to God
In the long-awaited year of 2000, as God has given to this church, as the prayer topic, all the saints must rise from all corners of the world to shine and achieve the Great Sanctuary, as well as accomplish world missions in a grand way.
However, the driving force that can achieve all of this is to come out with more than the early church and faith. In other words, as in the text Acts 2:42-47, a church that is full of the Holy Spirit and grace enough to gather together, offer fiery prayers without ceasing, work of power such as countless miracles and signs, and share all that the saints have with each other. , to become a church united by love, a church that lives according to the Word, and a church that believes and obeys.
When we achieve the shape of a church that God is pleased with, we will be able to not only achieve the Great Sanctuary and achieve great world missions, but also reveal the glory of God to the whole world.
2. The Early Church and the Saints
After Jesus was resurrected and ascended into heaven, many people repented and were baptized and received the Holy Spirit as His disciples and believers began to preach the message of the cross. At the same time, they often gathered to share God’s word and pray. This was the beginning of the church and the early church was formed.
Among the disciples and saints of Jesus, who became the foundation of the early church, there were many people who personally saw the countless miracles and signs that Jesus performed while he was on earth, and even the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. In addition, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and had great faith because they lived their faith while watching the wonders and signs that appeared through the apostles. So, even in the midst of severe oppression, the early church was revived day by day, and through them, this gospel was able to spread to Europe and again to the whole world.
Then, let’s take a look at what the members of the early church looked like.
First, the early church worked hard to gather in the temple every day with one heart.
This is because brothers of faith who are united in the Lord are loved more than brothers whose hearts long for the spirit, longing for heaven, and share blood. It is because grace and truth are filled with you.
Unfortunately, however, we are seeing many people today who claim to believe are increasingly reluctant to gather. Early morning worship or district worship disappears from each church, and they come to church on Sundays to worship and then disperse to have their own time. That’s how much it goes to the world, and it ends up being dyed in the world.
However, looking at the signs of the end times that are taking place all over the world, we read in Hebrews 10:24-25, “Look for one another, encourage love and good deeds, and do not forsake assembling, as is the habit of some, but exhort them, but as the day draws near. Let’s do it more and more.” Keeping this in mind, we must do our best to gather in the Lord more and more every day.
Second, the early church made every effort to fellowship, break bread, and pray.
The bread here does not mean the fleshly bread, but in John 6:51, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. The bread I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” As you said, it is the flesh of the Lord, and spiritually it means the word of God. Therefore, breaking the bread means that we listen intently to the word of God, read and teach it, and feed our hearts.
Moreover, in Acts 2:46, the second half of the text, it says, ‘They broke bread at home and ate with joy and sincerity of heart.’ This means that the early church members did not end up hearing the word of God only in the temple, but also meditated on the word of God at home and in their daily life and went out for food. Therefore, even today, if it is true faith, it is not just about going to church once a week and listening to God’s word, but it should come out by meditating on the word you hear for a week and doing it.
He also said that the early church made every effort to pray. In the days of the Early Church, the believers kept their faith despite severe persecution against Christianity, so they did not spare even their lives for the Lord. One of the reasons the early church members had such good faith was because they had a fiery prayer, so they were able to preach the gospel boldly by being filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 4:31).
Therefore, the members of the early church were not afraid of being eaten by lions, beheaded with the sword, or crucified, but they glorified God without fear.
Third, in the early church, many wonders and signs appeared because of the apostles.
John 4:48 says, “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will never believe.” How about today? There are many people who do not believe even after seeing the wonders and signs, and even among those who believe, you can see that there are many people who think that these works of God were only possible in the time of Jesus.
However, if we do not have visible wonders, signs, and strange powers and strange things, we will not be able to lead a fervent religious life. Of course, as He said, ‘Blessed are those who believe without seeing’ (John 20:29), there are people who believe without visible signs or signs, but most of them do not. However, when we look at the countless works of God, we can have clear faith and run toward the New Jerusalem.
Therefore, in this church, which is supposed to build the world in the last days, we must show many works of God’s amazing power and lead many souls to God’s arms.
Finally, the early church shared all things with each other and divided it according to need by selling property and possessions.
Many people in the world today value material things as precious as life. If we can share these things with each other without saying ‘even if it is mine,’ we can truly become a church overflowing with the Lord’s love and loving our neighbors as ourselves. Moreover, if we do not put our hope on this earth, but live with hope in the kingdom of heaven, we will never have greed for material things, but rather, we will be willing to give more before God.
Therefore, we must know that no matter how much material we have gathered on this earth, we cannot take it to heaven, and our love for material things can become greedy and lead to sin and death (6 Timothy 10:XNUMX).
3. Why God gave the Early Church as a prayer topic
First, God gave this church the Word of the Early Church as a prayer topic in the sense of inviting us to live a more passionate life of faith with blessings.
God has been with this church as a wonderful blessing since its opening until today. However, just because we have received such great blessings from God, we must not neglect our religious life. This is because the blessings God gives on this earth do not mean ‘Now that you have lived your life of faith, enjoy yourself and rest.’ This is to show God’s faithfulness in reaping what we sow and repaying us according to what we have done, and to give us hope for the blessings that will be given to us in the eternal kingdom of heaven.
We must receive the blessings we deserve in heaven, but the blessings we receive in heaven cannot be compared with any other blessings on this earth. We, who truly believe and hope for this, should never become complacent in our faith life or look at the world just because the blessing has come.
Next, in the sense of preparing for the multitude of people who will soon come from all over the world. Among the millions of people who will come from all over the world, there will be believers and non-believers. What will they do when they come and see the main church like the early church? Believers say, ‘Oh, this is the early church! This is the kind of church God wants!’ You will receive grace and be moved by this, and even the people of the world will glorify God when they see this beautiful church and its members.
In preparation for this very time, God prepares us as the model of the most ideal church in the world by examining himself once again and keeping it in mind through the Word of the Early Church. This is because, just as the gospel was preached to the whole world through the early church, even in these last days when the coming of the Lord is near, a church that looks like the early church will come out and spread the gospel throughout the world.
The early church members were not able to lead a free religious life because of the constant persecution and the threat of death, and they could not enjoy any of the riches that the world enjoys. However, they had hope for heaven and had unshakable faith in any circumstance and circumstance. Because of this precious treasure, they gathered in the temple every day to share God’s word and pray.
So, as the early church members said in Luke 17:20-21, “The kingdom of God does not come with sight, and it cannot be said that it is here or there, the kingdom of God is within you.” It was on the way. In this way, when we achieve the spiritual heaven beautifully on this earth, we will actually be given eternal heaven.
In the name of the Lord, I pray in the name of the Lord that, through today’s Word, you will become the blessed saints who first establish the kingdom of heaven in us and spread the gospel of the kingdom to the whole world by forming the perfect form of the early church.
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