What would happen if our church could sit in on a gathering of the real people, families, churches described in the years immediately following Jesus’ earthly ministry? What would be the same? What would be most different and jarring? I would guess there would probably be more in the second category than we would care to admit. Not just culturally but biblically. This year at North Life, we are launching into the dynamic book of Acts with a year long series, “Acting the Part: A Study on Doing and Being Church in Book of Acts.” Already…we have realized that the profile of first century Christianity is breathtakingly contrasting/challenging to the muted, convenient version that we typically accept and even promote in our day.

Contemporary Christians, according to Ajith Fernando, who read Acts with an open mind will find themselves challenged with several pointed applications by what happened in and was embodied by the early church.

Challenges To Listen To

• To a society where individualism reigns and where the church also seems to have adopted a style of community life that “guards the privacy of the individual,” the early church presents a radical community where the members held all things in common.

• To a society where selfishness is sometimes admired and each one is left to fend for himself or herself, Acts presents a group of Christians who were so committed to Christ and the cause of the gospel that they were willing to sacrifice their desires for the good of others.

• To a society where pluralism defines truth as something subjective and personal, Acts presents a church that based its life on certain objective facts about God and Christ—facts that were not only personally true but also universally valid and therefore had to be presented to the entire world.

• To a society that denies absolute truth and therefore shuns apologetics and persuasion in evangelism in favor of dialogue, Acts presents a church that persuaded people until they were convinced of the truth of the gospel. Instead of aiming at mutual enrichment as the main aim of interreligious encounter, as many do today, the early church proclaimed Christ as supreme Lord with conversion in view.

• In an age where specialization has hit evangelism so much that we rarely find churches that emphasize healing also emphasizing apologetics, Acts presents a church where the same individuals performed healings and preached highly reasoned, apologetic messages.

• In an age when many churches spend so much time, money, and energy on self-preservation and improvement, Acts presents churches that released their most capable people for reaching the lost.

• In an age where many churches look to excellence in techniques to bring success, Acts presents a church that depended on the Holy Spirit and gave top priority to prayer and moral purity.

• In an age when many avenues are available to avoid suffering and therefore many Christians have left out suffering from their understanding of the Christian life, Acts presents a church that took on suffering for the cause of Christ and considered it a basic ingredient of discipleship.

Questions To Ask Ourselves

  1. “Where does my individualistic-leaning church need to grow in more authentic, interconnected community with one another?”
  2. “If a first century church leader sat in my chair of ministry influence, what are the first three changes they would make?”
  3. “Where does my ministry need to regain a dependence upon the Holy Spirit and gospel-fueled burden for the entire world?
  4. “What hardships and inconveniences are we avoiding at all costs…even when they are a part of/means to God’s will for us?”

Feel free to track with our unfolding sermon series in the Book of Acts here.

Fernando, A. (1998). Acts (p. 40). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

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