Examining the history of the early Christian church in the book of Acts has rich lessons that apply to God’s remnant church today. Part 1.

2016 Hartland Summer Campmeeting: Mission and Purpose of the Remnant Church

<p>Examining the history of the early Christian church in the book of Acts has rich lessons that apply to God’s remnant church today. Part 1.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Hartland Institute of Health and Education

Diego Silva

Lessons From the Apostolic Church- Part 1

Our camp meeting theme is the mission and purpose of the Remnant Church.

And I decided to take up a two-part series from my time, which will be today and tomorrow from 8.30 to 9.45.

And we're going to be studying about the Apostolic Church.

The title of this two-part series is Lessons from the Apostolic Church.

And so what we're gonna do is we're gonna study a particular book in the Bible.

Obviously, we're not going to exhaust the study of this book.

Can you have any idea what book we're going to be studying When we talk about the apostolic church, what book in the Bible do we specifically go to to give us the best history, most amount of details, the Book of Acts?

So we could also entitle this series, Lessons from the book of Acts.

And we're going to understand something, as much as we're able to in a two-part series, we're only going to be spending 2 and a half hours together, about the experience of the early church.

And we'll find some important lessons that apply to the remnant church, because that's what our camp meeting is about, is the mission and purpose of the Adventist church, the remnant church of Bible prophecy.

So, let me just ask you some questions as we begin.

You can just turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 1, as we begin, and I'll just ask a couple of questions as we delve into this book.

When you think of the experience of the apostolic church as outlined and described in the Book of Acts, what are some words that come to mind that would describe this church, this movement?

I mean, really, the book of Acts is like the acts of the Holy Spirit through the followers of Jesus and the apostles.

When you think of the book of Acts and what is highlighted there, community.

You know the word community actually comes from the word common and these early Christians did share things in common, not just their faith, but even their material goods, and that is also highlighted in the early chapters of the Book of Acts.

It had a purpose, and it was driven by that purpose.

There's another word that, more common, that we would use to describe this group of believers.

When you think of the apostolic church, don't you think of unity?

I mean, we can go through these chapters.

We're not gonna be able to go through each 1.

But just to give you an idea, in the first chapter of the Book of Acts, of course, you have the introduction to the book.

Luke was not 1 of the apostles, he was not a Jew, and he actually wrote 2 books, The Gospel of Luke and The Book of Acts, really a two-part series, 2 volume treaties that he wrote to solidify the faith of a particular believer, a non-Jew believer, in this movement.

But this two-part seminar will not be Luke as 1 part and Acts as the other.

But yes, you have 2 volumes that deal with the establishment of this church.

You have the life of Jesus and his ministry and what he accomplished, and then you have what the apostles did after the ascension of Jesus in the book of Acts.

So in the first chapter, Luke just gives us a picture of what took place right after the ascension of Jesus, the upper room experience, the experience of coming together and waiting for the Holy Spirit as was promised by Jesus.

In Acts chapter 2, you have what took place on the day of Pentecost, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Peter preaching with power, thousands of souls baptized.

In Acts chapters 3 and 4, you have this experience of Peter and John.

First they heal a man, And then they use the opportunity as the attention of the people is drawn to them to preach the gospel.

And again, you have conversions taking place.

And now all of a sudden you have opposition that is awakened.

The Jewish Sanhedrin threaten Peter and John, imprison them.

You have that famous statement in Acts chapter 5, verse 29, we ought to obey God rather than men.

I mean, we could talk about the book of Acts and we could focus on these incredible pictures of the working of the Holy Spirit, accomplishing great things through these apostles, keeping them unified.

Later on in the book, you have most of the latter half of the book dedicated to the ministry of a man named Paul, who was called as an apostle to the Gentiles, and you have his first, second, and third missionary tours in Asia Minor and then beyond to the southern part of Europe, and the church grew.

It was a victorious, evangelistic, unified, powerful church that created a tremendous impact in the world during the first century, but in this seminar, I am not going to focus on these glamorous sides of the Book of Acts, because Sometimes we fail to take note, even though we're familiar with them, of the parts of the Book of Acts that actually highlight the struggles that the early Church experienced as a movement.

And I'm not talking about the external struggles.

What are some of the external struggles that the early church faced?

And they faced persecution from the Jewish nation, the Sanhedrin.

They faced persecution from Jews that were dispersed throughout the Roman Empire, And they also faced persecution by Roman authorities and pagans.

These are the external struggles and threats to the well-being of this church.

But in our study, what we're going to focus on is the internal struggle that existed, the challenges, the human side of the book of Acts, which sometimes we gloss over and don't really focus on.

Let me give you an example right off the bat.

Acts chapter 1, right there in the first chapter, we have after Luke's introduction, and he talks about what took place between the disciples, the apostles and Jesus just prior to his ascension.

This is after the crucifixion, after the resurrection.

By the way, you can read parts of this in the last chapter of Luke, because the last verses of Luke 24 and the first verses of Acts chapter 1 actually have some overlap, okay?

So as Luke introduces this second volume of his treaties to a man named Theophilus.

He actually highlights some things that are recorded in the last part of the book of Luke.

If you go to Acts chapter 1, verse 6, Jesus is with the 12 apostles.

This is after the crucifixion and after the resurrection.

And right here, right off the bat, we're gonna see that the Apostolic Church was a church that was developing, not only growing in numbers, but they were growing and maturing in their understanding of present truth.

They didn't have it all together in terms of their understanding of truth.

Even though some of them experienced miracles and signs and wonders taking place through them before Jesus' death, even though they were with Jesus after his death and resurrection.

Notice the question in verse 6 of Acts chapter 1.

It says, when they therefore were come together, who are they here?

By the way, sometimes we use the words apostles and disciples interchangeably, but we're gonna try to, in our study, make a distinction because Luke, we're gonna find, and I'll show you later on today or maybe tomorrow, that there is a distinction between apostles and disciples, okay?

Even the meaning of the words are different.

And when we talk about apostles, we're talking about the 12.

Now, the apostles were disciples of Jesus, but not all disciples were apostles.

So we're talking here about the apostles specifically, the 12, they come together and they ask him saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?

Do you realize that this question reveals that there is still a very limited understanding of the nature of the kingdom of God on the part of the apostles?

Of course, even John the Baptist, when he was imprisoned, revealed that even though he understood present truth in the sense that he understood that Jesus was the Lamb of God, that takes away the sin of the world.

He is the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Old Testament.

And yet he still had a limited understanding of the kingdom of God.

Of course, the disciples, we don't have to talk about how limited and wrong their views were prior to the crucifixion.

I mean, the walk with Jesus on the road to Emmaus after the crucifixion, the disappointment.

You know, we thought He was the 1 that would redeem us.

Back to Menu

Lessons From the Apostolic Church- Part 1

Transcript

Description

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Related

Acts: First Generation Lessons for Last Generation Believers

5. No Small Dispute

56m

Lessons From the Apostolic Church- Part 2

1h 11m

The Book of Acts

The First Jerusalem Council

47m

Acts: First Generation Lessons for Last Generation Believers

4. Antioch

59m

Women's Ordination Symposium

8- The Present Relevance of 1 Timothy

1h 53m

The Book of Acts

The Second Jerusalem Council

58m

Workshop: Dealing with Conflicts In Ministry

Dealing With Conflict in Public Ministry

1h 6m

WYC 2012 Breakout Sessions

The Sanctuary and the Holy Spirit, Part 2

56m

Cutting Timothy

47m

Deacon & Deaconess Basic Training

Deacon & Deaconess Basic Training- Part 1

1h 12m

Sound Doctrine