Please note that this article is the fifth article derived from a five-part teaching series on the Nature of the Local Church given in Bermondsey Gospel Hall, the audio of which is unfortunately unavailable.
And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. (Acts 2:43-47)
We have been considering the constitution of the local church for a number of weeks now. Our consideration started with the creation of the local church, the principle that that the church is made up of Christians who have responded to the gospel, declared that by passing through the waters of baptism and have come together as a local church. As they come together we covered the commitment of the local church, how they devoted themselves to certain things in their life together. They commit themselves to the teaching that they believe together, the partnership they have together, the times that they gather together and the prayers that they pray together. As a group we said that they form a community, the community of the local church, which has two particular characteristics: communal presence and communal possession. This community is one where there is generosity in both relationships and resources.
In this last session I think it is necessary to take a step back from our granular study of the local church, zooming out to consider the impact that this community has on the communities surrounding it. It is time to consider the consequences of the local church, the effects that it has on those who are external to it.
A church has consequences. That is a real church with cause a reaction in the communities it comes into contact with. If we are being faithful to God’s intention for the local church laid out in his Word, our communities will have something to say about our church. Whether people walk past the door and say we are caring and committed members of the community or call us religious bigots, outsiders must have something to say about us. We must have an impact. If they have nothing to say, we are failing to be faithful as a community.
We must have an impact as a church, the local church should have consequences. The metaphors that Jesus used to describe the impact that citizens of his kingdom will have in the world weren’t bland and discreet. We are to be salt and light, both of which have an undeniable impact when they are applied. Salt makes things salty, preserving their life and changing their flavour, and light lightens things up.
Ultimately the local church must have an impact because the message that we share, the message that has saved and is shaping us, has an impact. Not only does the Gospel call for a response, but it also causes a reaction. Paul illustrates this by saying that the knowledge of God through us, that is Christians who are shaped by and sharing the Gospel, are ‘to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.’ (2 Corinthians 2:16). For some people the life of Christians and the message of Christ stinks of the stench of death, for others it has a sweet smell of life. To some it is an offence, to others it is a delight. Like marmite, you either love or hate the message of Christ.
If the message of the gospel causes such reactions, we can expect that the community formed around and by this message will also have such consequences. It will have an impact, whether positive or negative. When people are walking past outside where we meet and say something, we know that we are being faithful to God’s plan for the church in his Word. Whatever they say about or call us is ultimately immaterial (assuming it is for the right reasons). What is worrying however is when people interact with us and have nothing to say at all. The local church has consequences, an impact in the community surrounding it. This then is our final constitutional principle for the local church.
PRINCIPLE 10: The local church is a community that impacts surrounding communities, whether receiving a positive or negative reaction.
The life of the early church had a definite impact on those in Jerusalem. Furthermore, the reaction of this surrounding community as recorded for us in Acts 2 is overwhelmingly positive. Three clear consequences this local church are seen, being: Fear (2:43), Favour (2:47) and Faith (2:47).
1. Fear
I’m not sure if you have ever been star struck. Sarah and I were recently in the United States attending Together for the Gospel (T4G), a large Christian conference at which many well-known Christian teachers were speaking. Given that the messages preached and books written by such men have had such a large impact on my own Christian life, I was a bit star struck to see them in real life. I recognised the ways that God had used these men not only in my life, but in tens of thousands of lives, and I was left in awe.
We are told that faced with the commitment of this local church, awe came upon every soul. In contrast to ‘all those who believed’ (verse 44), it is likely that this awe relates to those who encountered the church whether they believed or not. That is, the communities around the local church in Acts 2 were struck with awe.
Some translations render it as ‘fear’, which is also an apt word to describe what took place. Not the fear of fright or terror, like you get when you watch a scary movie, but the fear you get when you encounter somebody or something you recognise as special, different. The communities were star struck. Not because there were famous celebrities present, but because they recognised that God was present. It was a religious fear or awe. They had recognised the special character and significance of what was taking place in that local church. The had realised that God was moving, moving so evidentially that wonders and signs were being done through the apostles (Acts 2:43). In the very next chapter we will see a lame man walk, and later we will see the sick being brought from the surrounding towns and laid out in the streets of Jerusalem in the hope that one of the apostles would pass and heal them (Acts 12:16). As the writer to the Hebrews would record of the Christian message, ‘it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.’ (Hebrews 2:3-4). There was a recognition that what was happening was of God, that he was bearing witness to the work happening in this local church, and that struck people with awe.
When the work of God is seen in the people of God, the world looks on in awe. It doesn’t solely have to happen in response to the miraculous, God works in far more wonderful ways that healing our physical bodies. Paul will later describe when outsiders come into the church community and are convicted, called to account and have the secrets of their heart disclosed they ‘will worship God and declare that God is really among you’ (1 Corinthians 14:25). The saving work of God is the greatest and most powerful witness to him. The miracle of the new birth is far greater than miracles like making the lame walk. The work of the Holy Spirit in opening the eyes of the heart is more wondrous than opening the eyes of the blind.
As we share the gospel, and as people respond to the gospel, God will work by his Holy Spirit in ways that mean the communities around us will sit up and recognise that God is at work among us. As people are transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of Jesus Christ and are transformed from the image of fallen man to the image of the Son of God, outsiders will be stuck with awe at what is being done.
2. Favour
Not only does the surrounding community recognise the work of God in the church, but they respect the people of God in the church. In fact, stronger than respect, Luke tells us that the church had ‘favour with all the people’ (Acts 2:47).
Having a fruitful and faithful local church in your community should be a positive thing. After all, from a world centred perspective Christians are good citizens. We love our neighbour, no matter their ethnicity or experiences, because they are made in the image of God. We befriend the lonely because we recognise that God desires a relationship with them. We help the weak, orphans and widows, because we know God cares for even the neediest in our society. We don’t litter and we recycle because we realise that this earth has been given to us by God to steward. There are numerous benefits from a purely material perspective to having Christians in your community. In many ways we can expect that living faithful and fruitful Christian lives in the midst of our communities will win favour for us from other members of the community.
In Acts this favour was seen most clearly when the authorities tried to crack down on the church community. When the religious elite tried to punish Peter and John for preaching, they could find no way to do it because of the praise they were winning for God from the people (Acts 4:21). When they sent soldiers to arrest the apostles for preaching the soldiers they sent refused to arrest them with force because they were afraid of being stoned by the people (Acts 5:26). In the centuries that have passed since these events, the world has often respected and revered the local church. Christians have often found themselves favoured in the eyes of their communities.
However, let us not get too caught up with the idea of winning favour and respect in our surrounding community because we are good and upright citizens. Before we drift off into thoughts of golden days that have passed or are just over the horizon when Christianity will once again be respected and favoured, we need to burst our slowly inflating balloon of positivity and realise that while the church will always have an impact, it can cause both a positive and negative reaction.
The scene set in these verses is overwhelming positive. However, it would not stay this way. While the crowds are picking up stones to stone the soldiers in Acts 5, it wouldn’t be too long until a Christian by the name of Stephen would be stoned to death. Eventually the offence of the gospel became too much for the religious listeners and all the healings and benefits they provided were not enough to spare the church. Stephen preached a sermon that went too far, cut too close to the heart for their liking and all Jerusalem was sent into an uproar (Acts 7:2-54). The ruling council in anger arose, dragged him outside the city and stoned him to death (Acts 7:57-60). Acts 8 tells us of a great persecution that broke out against the church and this community was forced to flee Jerusalem, scattering throughout the land (Acts 8:1).
While fear is a common reaction, it can do two entirely different things. Fear can either make someone fall on their knees in worship or raise their fists to fight. Eventually the sinful hearts of the surrounding community would turn and oppose the work of God that was happening in the church. Thye would be favoured no longer, being persecuted instead.
Is this really that surprising? For while Christians love the lonely, care for the needy and serve their communities, the world is starting to realise that they are also the individuals who believe that marriage can only take place between a man and a woman. Christians are the dominant group that want to protect the life of both mother and child, rather than allowing the murder of the child at the choice of the mother. Christians are those who offer the same forgiveness to murderers and paedophiles as to hard working, law abiding citizens. Christians are the people who say that there is salvation to be found only in Jesus Christ, not in Islam or Buda. And perhaps most probing of all, Christians believe that one day each of us will have to give an account to God for every word we have said, thought we have thought and deed we have done. Christians believe that unless we have trusted in Jesus Christ for salvation, eternal punishment rightly awaits us.
Jesus warned his disciples, the very men who were leading this church in Acts 2 that ‘‘A servant is not greater than his master’. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.’ (John 15:20). What a comfort such words must have been to the apostles in the coming chapters in Acts, when the positive reaction of the community in Acts 2 became like a distant dream. As they were chased around the empire, hunted down and executed. Crucified, speared, stoned and beheaded. Soon members of the church would be fed to wild animals in the arenas or burnt alive at the garden parties of Rome. The local church has consequences, consequences that we may prefer not to consider.
Looking though the rest of the New Testament, as well as the rest of church history, shows that respect for the church is rare. The favour seen here is ultimately fleeting. Instead, it is persecution that is prevalent for most our brothers and sisters throughout history. This often begins with offence, leads to opposition and finally results in open oppression. Paul near the end of the New Testament will tell Timothy that ‘all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted’ (2 Timothy 3:12). We must come to the same realisation. Respect is rare and favour is fleeting, ultimately persecution is prevalent.
For many, for most, the gospel message and those who share and are shaped by it smell like death. However, there will always be those that when they hear the gospel and see our lives, it will be a sweet smell of life. As we finish our series on the local church, and as we consider the consequences of it, we must remind ourselves that whether the reaction is positive or negative, whether it is applause or affliction we receive from the communities around us, the result is always the same. The certain consequence of the local church is faith.
3. Faith
The ultimate consequence of the local church in the surrounding communities is seen in the final sentence of our passage. ‘And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.’ (Acts 2:47). Salvation is the ultimate consequence of the local church, individuals from outside the community are added to it when they are saved by grace through faith. Notice that the result isn’t just that the church grows or increases in number. Rather, God used the local church in a way that led to the salvation of sinners and the incorporation of them into the community of his saints.
We see such addition throughout the first chapters of Acts, with the church growing rapidly. On Pentecost itself it went from a small band of 120 followers to a group of thousands. However, even after Pentecost God continued to save and add people to the church. Later in Acts we see rather than slowing, this growth is accelerating, Luke record that ‘more than ever believers were being added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women’ (Acts 5:14).
However, what is key is to see that even after the authorities turn on the church and persecution breaks out, the expansion of the church continues (Acts 11:24). In each city where Paul goes on his missionary journeys, whether he receives a positive or a negative reaction, the result is almost always the same. The church is built and God’s kingdom expands. Recognition and respect are not required for the church to grow. Favour is not necessary for people to become Christians. In fact throughout church history often it has been the times of fiercest persecution that the church has experienced the greatest growth. In fact, Paul considered times of persecution as particularly fruitful for evangelism. In realising that there were many adversaries in a place against the gospel, he recognised that it was ‘a wide door for effective work’ (1 Corinthians 16:9).
Ultimately we can have confidence as the consequence of the local church is set in stone, it is fixed and secure. If we are faithful in being the local church and proclaiming the gospel, God will use that for his own purposes and plans. And his purpose and plan is to one day have a church comprising people of every tribe, tongue, people and nation (Revelation 5:9; 7:9).Whichever road we have to take to get there, whether we receive a positive or a negative reaction, we are going to end up in the same place.
While we must take great care not to equate this certain triumph of the universal church in the last day with the certain triumph of our local church in these days, there is certain hope for each local church today. Sometimes faithful local churches are revitalised, but sometimes they close. There are times when the Lord uses a local church to add many to his kingdom, but there are others where the work progresses slowly or perhaps not at all. However, regardless of the successes and failings of the local churches we are members of, every Christian, and as a result every local church, is part of a greater body. And the body and bride of Christ will triumph in the last day because he promised that he would build his church, and the gates of Hell would not stand against it (Matthew 16:18). The same Christ that promised to build his church has sent us to be the church. The same Christ who has been given all authority on heaven and on earth has told us he will be with us always, until the end of the age (Matthew 28:19-20).
It is with great hope we can sing then in our local churches, whether we are met with favour or persecution in our communities, of the certain triumph of the body and bride of Christ, of which we are all a part.
The church's one Foundation, is Jesus Christ her Lord. She is His new creation, by water and the Word. From heav'n He came and sought her to be His holy bride. With His own blood He bought her, and for her life He died.
Elect from ev'ry nation, yet one o'er all the earth. Her charter of salvation, one Lord, one faith, one birth. One holy Name she blesses, partakes one holy food and to one hope she presses, with ev'ry grace endued.
The church shall never perish! Her dear Lord, to defend, to guide, sustain, and cherish, is with her to the end. Tho' there be those that hate her and false sons in her pale, against the foe or traitor she ever shall prevail.
'Mid toil and tribulation, and tumult of her war, she waits the consummation of peace for evermore. Till with the vision glorious her longing eyes are blest, and the great church victorious shall be the church at rest.
ALEXANDER ARRELL