The way the Lord builds His church

[Acts 4:19-20]

I have gained insight through studying Acts chapter 4 during the church leadership Bible study session. The revelation I received is regarding how the Lord established His church (referred to as the early church). However, what surprised me is that the pattern of how our churches are being established in this current age seems to be the opposite. I identified the pattern of how the Lord established the early church in five steps, which I have named the "Top to Bottom Method": (1) Prayer (v. 31, see also 1:14-15), (2) Being filled with the Holy Spirit (vv. 8, 31), (3) Proclamation of the gospel (vv. 8-12), (4) Increase in believers (v. 4, see also 2:47), (5) Loving community (vv. 32-37). However, I believe that the methods of the world are the exact opposite, which I have called the "Bottom to Top Method." I compared the world's methods with God's methods:

Church:

In the priority of the Lord's method, being filled with the Holy Spirit comes first, but in the world's method, the emphasis is on the community of the church. While efforts are made to have one heart and one mind within the church, observing the many churches nowadays striving to establish themselves with various minds and purposes, I cannot confidently say that this aligns with God's way.

Number of congregants:

The second worldly method seems to prioritize the increase in the number of church members. It is concerning to see that it might not be about people hearing the gospel and being saved, but rather about an increase in congregants due to horizontal shifts or even "sheep stealing," as described in the book ‘The Sheep Thief.’

Evangelism/Mission:

The third method is reluctantly engaging in evangelism and mission.

Being Filled with the Holy Spirit:

Only at the fourth step do I think the seeking of being filled with the Holy Spirit comes into play. Despite it being the foremost priority, the world's approach places it at the very end.

Prayer:

Even in our prayers, it often seems that we cry out more with a perspective focused on our situation, feelings, and thoughts, rather than acknowledging God's sovereignty, holding onto His promises, and praying with a posture of recognizing His authority.

Today, I fervently pray that all of us would humbly participate in the Lord's work of establishing the church, following His method. I earnestly hope that we may all be used as instruments of the Lord in His work of building His church.

First and foremost, the way the Lord establishes the church is through prayer.

Look at Acts 4:31 - "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." After Peter and John were released, they went to their own people and reported everything the chief priests and the elders had said to them. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God (vv. 23-24). As we observe the united prayer of the early church saints, we encounter several challenges:

Recognizing God's sovereignty as the starting point for prayer.

Look at Acts 4:24 - "Sovereign Lord, you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them." The term "Sovereign Lord" acknowledges God's absolute authority over all creation. Even in the midst of trials and tribulations, recognizing God's sovereignty and praying in this manner demonstrates a precious foundation of faith.

Clinging to the promises of God's Word in prayer.

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.” The author of Acts, Luke, quotes Psalms 2:1-2, showing the fulfillment of this prophecy 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." This emphasizes the importance of holding onto the promises of God's word in our prayers.

Praying for the fulfillment of God's will.

Look at Acts 4:29-30: “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.” The phrase "Now, Lord, consider their threats" signifies a plea for the actions of persecutors to ultimately serve God's purposes, particularly in the proclamation of the Gospel, as salvation is found only through the name of Jesus (v. 12). So, what were the results of this prayer?

They experienced God's intervention.

Acts 4:31 states: "After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken ...." This shaking was a sign of God's presence (Lk. 21:26; Acts 16:26; Heb. 12:26-27; Ps. 114:7; Isa. 6:4).

All the gathered believers were filled with the Holy Spirit.

Acts 4:31 states: "...they were all filled with the Holy Spirit..."

They boldly proclaimed the word of God.

Look at Acts 4:31 from today's passage: "...And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly."

Just as there were adversaries who persecuted Jesus, there were also adversaries who persecuted the apostles. As disciples of Jesus, we, too, face adversaries, both internally and externally. However, this reality prompts us to pray. When we pray, we must acknowledge God's sovereignty and cling to the promises He has given us in His word. Furthermore, we should pray for the fulfillment of God's will in spreading the Gospel for the salvation of souls.

Second, the method by which the Lord establishes the church is through being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Look at Acts 4:31 and verse 8 – “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" (4:31), "Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them..." (v. 8). The early church leaders, who were the apostles, faced persecutors. These persecutors were internal adversaries, including religious leaders (priests, temple officials, Sadducees in verse 1), and external adversaries, which included Gentiles and peoples of Israel (nations, peoples in verse 25), as well as earthly rulers and officials (kings, rulers in verse 26). I believe that the situation is not much different today. There are external adversaries who oppose the church, as well as internal adversaries who hinder and make it difficult to establish the church. In Acts 4, we see the internal adversaries, the religious leaders, who summoned the apostles because they were displeased with the teaching of the resurrection of the dead through Jesus (v. 2). At that moment, Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit (v. 8). Here, we must keep in mind a significant fact: when establishing His church, the Lord allows the filling of the Holy Spirit, who is from the Lord Himself. This means that only with the filling of the Holy Spirit from the Lord can the church be established.

So, what does a life filled with the Holy Spirit look like? In Acts 4:1-20, we can identify three aspects:

A life filled with the Holy Spirit is a courageous life.

In other words, someone filled with the Holy Spirit is a courageous person. When Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit and proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ, the religious leaders, who persecuted other apostles, saw him speaking boldly and were astonished, thinking of him as an uneducated offender (v. 13).

A life filled with the Holy Spirit is a life lived before God.

Look at Acts 4:19: "... Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God."

A person living a life filled with the Holy Spirit lives with confidence.

In Acts 4:20, Peter and John say, "we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard." They had confidence because they spoke based on what they had seen and heard. In order for the church to be established, all of us need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we must live lives of courage, lives lived before God, and lives of confidence.

Third, the way the Lord establishes the church is through proclaiming the gospel.

Apostle Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, boldly proclaimed before the religious leaders that salvation can be found only in the name of Jesus Christ (v. 12). Look at Acts 4:10 – “ 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." Here, Peter mentions both the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. He declares that even though the religious leaders had crucified Jesus, God raised him from the dead. He repeats to the religious leaders what he had previously said to the people after the healing of a man with a disability and at Pentecost (2:36; 3:15). The religious leaders threatened Peter and John, saying, "do not speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus" (v. 18), just as they had persecuted the apostles for speaking in the name of Jesus. They despised Jesus' name because they did not understand the mystery and love contained within it, and they tried to forbid the apostles from speaking to anyone about it (v. 17). However, for Peter and John, the name of Jesus was a name engraved on their hearts, a precious gem, a hidden joy, Jesus, oh that name, I cannot speak it, the mystery of that name, the love of that name. This is why Peter told the beggar at the temple gate in Acts 3:6, "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk."

Fourth, the way the Lord establishes the church is by increasing the number of believers.

Look at Acts 4:4 - "But many who heard the message believed; so the number of men who believed grew to about five thousand." The fact that the number of men who believed after hearing the apostles' preaching reached about five thousand is closely connected to the miracle of Jesus feeding five thousand men with five loaves and two fish. In these two events, there are at least three similarities: (1) The appearance of five thousand people (Lk. 9:14, Acts 4:4), (2) The fact that all the crowds heard the message (Lk. 9:11 and Acts 4:4), (3) There was a miraculous healing before the event (Lk. 9:11 and Acts 3:1-10). The author, in presenting the feeding of the five thousand by the apostles as a form of the gospel that needed to be spread to the people, records the five thousand people who were saved by partaking in the form of the word from the apostles. This is by no means a coincidence. The core of the feeding of the five thousand is that Jesus, who becomes the bread of life, was divided among the people through the crucifixion, giving them the gift of eternal life (salvation). The number of men who received salvation increased to about five thousand through the apostles' preaching (v. 4). In Acts 2:47, the Bible says, "And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." Just as this verse says, in Acts 4, we see that many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand. We may not be able to increase the number of church members, but the lesson here is that only the Lord can add those who are saved.

Fifth and last, the way the Lord establishes the church is through a community of love.

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. 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.” It shows a similar pattern to the communal life of the Jerusalem church recorded in Acts 2:42-47. This indicates that the communal life depicted in Acts 2 was not temporary but a continuous practice. If Acts 2 describes the lifestyle of the three thousand believers who believed and were saved on the day of Pentecost, then Acts 4, which we read today, portrays the lives of five thousand new believers who believed after hearing Peter's preaching (4:4). The remarkable fact is that they all became like one person (v. 32). In other words, they became of one heart and mind. Because the five thousand people became like one person, everything they did was like the actions of one person. The concrete evidence of this fact is the communal life of sharing possessions among them. None of them claimed that their possessions were their own, but they shared everything (v. 32). This does not mean relinquishing personal property rights, but it means that they retained their property rights intact and allowed the church to dispose and use their possessions as needed (since there were still needy saints among them).

In short, it can be said that the way the Lord establishes the church is a "top-down" approach, meaning the church is established because the Lord initiates it. However, we must reflect on whether the world's methods of trying to establish the church are not the exact opposite. That is, as Christians, we should consider whether we are trying to establish the Lord's body, the church, in the way of "bottom-up." As we look at today's church, let us think about what the Lord is thinking, and let us earnestly pray that the Lord will establish His body, the church, in His way, for He has promised to do so (Mt. 16:18).

Serving the church, which is the body of the Lord established by the Lord,

James Kim

(In the way of the Lord, not the ways of the world)