Now is the Time

Can you go back to that moment you decided to respond to the Lord’s invitation to know and love Him? What was happening in your life? Oh that sweet sense of forgiveness and then deep hope- hope for now and for the future! That weight of sin lifted off your shoulders. That joy. That sense of a fresh beginning and a new God-given purpose.

If you’re like me, it was a whole new world to discover. A world made up of a new family, a beloved community who followed Jesus and chose to make his name known throughout the world. What a time it was! We just couldn’t wait to tell what Jesus had done for us. With fire in our souls and God’s mission in our hearts, we stepped out in faith and watched God work.  Jesus was right in the middle of it all! We spoke to each other with words of encouragement, sharing scriptures and stories of God actively at work among us and through us. Do you remember? Sounds just like the book of Acts!  

Let’s take a look at a quick summary of the Book of Acts. It’s amazing!
 •Jesus Ascends and Matthias is Chosen to Replace Judas (Chapter 1)
•Pentecost Happens and God Empowers the Believers (Chapter 2)
 •Peter preaches - 3,000 saved and baptized (Acts 2:41)

Real Community- Deep teaching and fellowship established with food & prayer  
Wonders and miracles from the hands of the Apostles
Believers shared what they had    
People added daily (Acts 2:47)

•Persecution comes- (Acts 4) But more believers are added!  (Acts 4-6)
 •Stephen becomes the first Martyr- (Acts 7) The church spreads  
•Saul’s conversion – Ananias, a common believing man- is used by God to heal Saul (Acts 9)
•The church was strengthened, encouraged by the Holy Spirit and continued to grow (Acts 9:31)
•Signs and wonders continue, including Peter raising Dorcas from the dead, and more people come to faith (Acts 9- on)
•The Holy Spirit continues to fall on those who hear the Gospel – (Acts 10:11, 11:15)
•Teaching, conversions, miraculous signs, and persecution continue (Acts 11-Acts 17)
 •Paul’s ministry takes off as he travels the world. Many come to faith and churches are established. (Acts 18-28)

What an incredible time to be alive! Thinking about this makes me ask the question: From a practical perspective, what fueled this movement? Of course, it was God Himself! But He uses mere humans to accomplish his work.  

There were several distinctives of this movement of God as found in Acts. Here’s a few:  

1. They Were of One Accord  
Just a look at a few verses from Acts reinforces the importance of unity in God’s Kingdom.  
Acts 1:14 “All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.” (Commitment to prayer)    

Acts 2:46-47 “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 favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” (Commitment to learning and to hospitality)  

Acts 4:24a “And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them” (Commitment to worshiping together)  

Acts 5:12 “Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon's Portico.”  (Commitment to ministry together)  

The believers were all of one mind. They had a singular focus, a singular mission. Unified on what God had called them to in order to impact the world. Their success in ministry creates a problem, however, bringing the second distinctive.  

2. With Success Comes Challenges  
When there’s success in the things of God’s Kingdom, Satan takes notice and takes action. Resistance happens. Temptation comes even more so to the lives of believers. Human self-interest and jealousy comes into play. People jockey for power and position, wanting to be noticed, wanting to be important. These human motivations result in division, slander, gossip, infighting, and lack of forgiveness. The unity of believers is always tested when things go well (and when they go poorly!) because we are in a spiritual battle that impacts eternity.

God is not surprised by this!   Jesus’ prayer to the Father for all believers in John 17:20-23 reveals He knows full well what will come: “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,  that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,  I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”  

Our Lord is saying something very important. A break in unity stops the powerful witness of the believers and stops growth in the Kingdom. The world watches us! It waits to pounce and declare that we are frauds and that our King is in fact just a powerless myth. When Satan successfully fractures unity, the focus becomes internal and the mission becomes secondary to the structure. This famous quote reminds us, “It has been said that the Jews turned the gospel into a religion, Romans a philosophy, Europeans a tradition, and Americans a business.” Ouch.  

The young church was not immune to this happening. How did the church recover from this and gain their footing once again? In fact, the story is recorded for us to learn from it!  

 3.The Recovery of Ministry that Pleases God  
God disciplined his church, and it began while Jesus first walked the earth. In Matthew 20, two of Jesus’ disciples are corrected by him when their mother asked Jesus for places of authority. Later when Jesus had returned to Heaven, Ananias and Sapphira are dealt with strongly for their lying and their prideful desire to look good. If you read Acts 5:1-11, it’s important to notice that even more people came to faith after their deaths. The fear of God is a good thing for the church! Pride in all its forms must die. When the Grecian Jews thought their widows were being overlooked in food distribution (Acts 6) resolution brought more people to belief in Jesus.  Acts 15-16 reveals a struggle within the young church over the issue of circumcision and its part in the life of a believer. All this reveals the need for wise decisions and shared leadership among those called to lead and serve. Growth also occurs when Biblical freedom is established.  

Perhaps one of the most powerful testimonies about how God works is found in Acts chapter 9. Saul converts (becoming Paul), but the disciples are afraid of him. Barnabas steps out in faith and defends him. Paul is eventually accepted and begins to preach. Growth and the recovery of a ministry that pleases God comes when we invest in each other- overcoming our fear- and are not threatened by the gifts God has given to others.    

We often see in scripture how persecution brings growth to the church as the Gospel spreads, but here we see that godly discipline, humility, problem resolution, and investing in people and releasing them into ministry is also crucial to growth and advancing the kingdom of God. A break in unity stops the powerful witness of the believers and growth in the kingdom, but once restored, it begins again!

The time of the early church was one talked about 2,000 years afterward! The people were rich in faith, rich in love, and rich in obedience. Doesn’t it sound just like our church? It does to me!  

Are we also not in an incredible time? Are the opportunities not just as rich? Absolutely! The world is watching again. The opportunities are all around us as people are afraid and uncertain of the future.  We are in a great position to minister to a world much in need of Jesus. We are a family!  (1 Timothy 3:15; Ephesians 1:5; Hebrews 2:11.) The same distinctive found in Acts apply today. When we function like the family God intended, we will bear fruit as a family would- All the fruit of the Spirit will be evident. People will be valued and honored, and most importantly, God will be glorified. Others will want to give their lives to Jesus as they hear the truth, see the love, and experience real community. God’s eternal purposes will be fulfilled all to His Glory!  

One more question- Can you picture Heaven? Think how wonderful it will be! Endless worship and fellowship. No more suffering and no more pain. Reunions with family and friends who had left earth before us. Seeing people we have shared the Gospel with and acted toward with the heart of God. These heartwarming scenes await us upon the return of Jesus Christ! Persevere in the work of the kingdom, brothers and sisters!