The Lord's way of building the church and the world's way

                As I was teaching the Bible based on Acts 4 to my church leaders, God the Spirit gave me precious understanding and thus I am writing this.  That precious understanding is I saw the pattern of how the Lord builds the Lord’s church (the Early Church) in Acts 4.  But I was surprised because I thought that the pattern how the Lord builds His church and the pattern how the churches in our days are the opposite.  I thought about five patterns of the Lord's building up the Early Church.

                Before we consider five patterns of the Lord's building up of the body of the Lord (Mt. 16:18), we first need to consider the historical background of Acts 4.  It is the fact that the apostles and churches who were leaders of the early church had persecutors.  The persecutors were internally religious leaders [The priests, the captain of the temple, the Sadducees (Acts 4:1), the rulers, elders, teachers of the law (v. 5), the high priest (v. 6)] and externally the Gentiles [the nations (v. 25), the kings, the rulers (v. 26)]. 

                It’s not much different now days.  There are external persecutors who oppose the church, while others internally oppose and make it difficult to build the church.  In Acts 4, the religious leaders who were internal adversary called Apostle Peter and John and questioned them “By what power or what name did you do this?” (v. 7) since they were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead (v. 2).  Then Acts 4:8 says that Apostle Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit.

                The first way the Lord builds up the church is through prayer.

                Look at Acts 4:24--30: “When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God.  ‘Sovereign Lord,’ they said, ‘you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.  You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: ‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?  The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.'  Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.  They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.  Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.  Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”  After apostles Peter and John were released, they went to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them (v. 23).  And when they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God (v. 24).  Through this united prayers of the Early Church believers, we must be challenged. There are two things we can be challenged:

(1)   We must begin prayer by recognizing God's sovereignty.

Look at Acts 4:24 – “When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God.  ‘Sovereign Lord,’ they said, ‘you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.’”  Although there were persecutions and sufferings to the Early Church saints, they prayed to God by recognizing God’s sovereignty instead of looking at their environment of being persecuted and of suffering.  We should imitate their example of faith.

(2)   We must hold on to the word of God's promise and pray.

Look at Acts 4:25-26: “You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: ‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?   The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.’”  In this passage, the author of the book of Acts Luke quotes from Psalms 2:1-2.  And we can see the fulfillment of the prophetic words of Psalms 2:1–2 in Acts 4: 27-28: “Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.  They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.”  There were enemies who persecuted the apostles, just as there were enemies who persecuted Jesus.  And there are still those who oppose us, the Christians who follow Jesus.  Now we cannot deny that they are adversaries internally or externally in real life.  In this reality, we must pray to God with the word of promise God has given us.  Then we will be able to see with our own eyes how the Lord fulfills the word of that promise in our real life.  Therefore, we can be used as the Lord's instruments in building up the body of the Lord with spiritual discernment.

                The second way the Lord builds up the church is by being filled with the Holy Spirit.

               Look at Acts 4:8, 31: “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: "Rulers and elders of the people!  …  After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.”  The church can only be built if the Lord allows us to be filled with the Holy Spirit.  This means that it is the Lord who builds the church and the church is established by the filling of the Holy Spirit from the Lord.  The Spirit-filled life can be described in three ways in Acts 4:1-20:

(1)   The Spirit-filled life is a bold life.

Those who are filled with the Spirit are bold.  When Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit and proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ, the religious leaders who persecuted him and the other apostles were astonished when they saw the courage of Peter and John speaking courageously and realized that they were unschooled and ordinary men (v. 13).

(2)   Those who live with filled with the Holy Spirit are those who live before God.

Look at Acts 4:19 – “But Peter and John replied, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God.”  When the rulers, elders and teachers of the law (v. 5) called Apostle Peter and John in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus (v. 18), Peter and John told them that they should listen to the word of God before God (v. 19).

(3)   Those who live with filled with the Holy Spirit are those who live with confidence.

Look at Acts 4:20 – “For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”  Apostle Peter and John said, ‘We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.’  Because they saw and heard, they confidently preached the gospel of Jesus Christ.  In order for the church to be established rightly, we must all be filled with the Holy Spirit and live boldly and confidently before God.

The third way the Lord builds up the church is evangelism.

Look at Acts 4:8-12: “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: "Rulers and elders of the people!  If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.  He is ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.'   Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.’”  Apostle Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit he spoke courageously that only in the name of Jesus Christ (v. 10, cf. vv. 7, 12, 17, 18) can be saved (v. 12) before the religious leaders who opposed him.  The religious leaders threatened Peter and John not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus (v. 18).  Since the religious leaders who persecuted the apostles didn’t know the mystery and love in the name of Jesus, they warned the apostles to speak no longer to anyone in His name (v. 17).  But I think to Peter and John, the name “Jesus” meant precious jewels and secret in their hearts that gave them joy and love.  Thus Peter said to a man crippled from birth who was asked Peter and John for money at the temple gate: “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk” (3:2-3, 6).

The fourth way the Lord builds up the church is that He adds those who are saved.

Look at Acts 4:4 – “But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand.”  The fact that the number of men who heard the apostles' sermons and believed was about 5,000 is intimately connected with the Jesus’ two fish and five loaves miracle which fed about 5,000 men as well.  There are at least three similarities in these two events: (1) The appearance of 5,000 people (Lk. 9:14 and Acts 4:4), (2) The multitudes heard the Word (Lk. 9:11 and Acts 4:4) and (3) There was a miracle of healing before the event (Lk. 9:11 and Acts 3:1-10).  It is no coincidence that the author, who presented the two fish and five loaves miracle as a (spiritual) food for the apostles to present to the people, recorded about 5,000 people were saved by hearing the words from the apostles.  At the heart of the two fish and five loaves miracle is eternal life (salvation) given by Jesus, who is the bread of life, through His flesh that was ‘ripped off’ on the cross and given to the people.  Those who were saved through the apostles’ preaching were about 5,000 people (v. 4).   The Bible Acts 2:47 says, “…  the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”  As we read Acts 4, Luke writes, “many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand.”  People may increase the number of people, but the lesson is that the Lord adds only those who are saved.

The fifth and the last way the Lord builds up the church is to form His community.

Look at Acts 4: 32-35: “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.  d With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.  There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.”  Luke, the author of the book of Acts describes the Early Church community as follows: “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.”

                In short, the way the Lord builds up the church is the top-bottom method.  In other words, the church is established because the Lord initiates.  But the world's way of building the church is the opposite.  In other words, I think the way how we, the Christians, are trying to build His church is the bottom-top method.  And the first way in that method is to form a community.  But the first way of the Lord's method is prayer.

                Although we try to be one heart and one mind in the church, but nowadays, so many churches are trying to build their churches with various minds and purposes.  I don’t think we can say that this is God's way.  The second method is prayer, but even this prayer often cries out for situations, feelings, and thoughts, with the attitude that we must acknowledge our sovereignty rather than hold on to God's promises and pray.  The third worldly way is to increase the number of church members.  It seems like it isn’t the people who hear the gospel and are saved are added to the church, but the number of members seems to be increasing because of horizontal movements of the church members, even stealing them.  It seems that more people are coming to church because of the names of the people rather than hearing the name of Jesus Christ. It seems that we must go to the fourth method to seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit.  Although this should be the first, it is at the very end in the worldly way of building the church.  But I think that the fill with the Holy Spirit is mysterious whether it is biblical or emotional.

                As I think about the today's church, I wonder what would the Lord thinks.  We must go back to the Word of God.  We must go back to Acts chapter 4 given by God.  Since the Lord has promised to build His church (Mt. 16:18), I sincerely hope and pray that the Lord to build His church in His way.