The Early Church

Story from… Acts 2 and 4; Acts 9:31; 1 Corinthians 16; 2 Corinthians 8

The Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit filled all the disciples, marked the beginning of the New Covenant people, known as the Church. Thousands came to believe all that Jesus had done for them.

These new disciples of Jesus spent time together in prayer and were united in heart and mind so they shared everything they had. Selling their possessions and goods, they felt that what they owned was not their own. There were no needy people among them, because those who owned land or houses would sell them and bring the money to the apostles to give to anyone in need. They celebrated communion in their homes and ate together all with great joy, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. They testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all. And the Lord added to their number daily people who were being saved.

The apostles were performing many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. Everyone was filled with awe and all the believers were meeting regularly at the Temple in the area known as Solomon’s Colonnade where they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching of the Word.

Guided by the Spirit, the church grew in Jerusalem and then spread throughout the region as the disciples gave their lives fully to the work of the gospel. They continued to preach about Jesus’ death and resurrection and new life for all who would believe. They lived generous lives, sacrificing for those who were in need. All of this displayed God’s great generosity toward mankind in real, tangible ways.

The believers were encouraged in a letter by one of the apostles, named Paul, “I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, what God in his kindness has done through the churches in Macedonia. They are being tested by many troubles, and they are very poor. But they are also filled with abundant joy, which has overflowed in rich generosity.

I can tell you that they gave not only what they could afford, but far more. And they did it of their own free will. They begged us again and again for the privilege of sharing in this gift for the believers in Jerusalem.

They even did more than we had hoped, for their first action was to give themselves to the Lord and then to us, just as God wanted them to do.”

Another time Paul taught the believers, “You should follow the same procedure I gave to the churches in Galatia. On the first day of each week, you should each put aside a portion of the money you have earned. Don’t wait until I get there and then try to collect it all at once.”

 In this way the church continued to grow and be a blessing to each other as they supported the continued spread of the gospel.

These were times of great growth and blessing for the Church as they were guided and strengthened by the indwelling Holy Spirit who led them in all the ways of truth and life.

Let me tell you another story about the Church…

Several years went by and problems began to arise among some of the believers. They were no longer living under the power of the Spirit, but instead were becoming just like the rest of their culture…Corinth was a port city, and along with great economic gain and philosophical understanding came questionable moral behavior. The problems of the city began to affect the Corinthian church.

Quarreling and divisiveness had sprung up among the believers and some leaders started to claim spiritual superiority over one another. Some of the believers even began to sue one another in public courts.

Others were coming to their communal meals and overeating and drinking to the point where some were drunk and some went away hungry. Sexual immorality in the church became a problem too. One man was even reported to be having an affair with his own stepmother and no one was doing anything about it! On top of all of that, the church was starting to divide itself into factions based on who’s preaching they liked the best.

The Apostle Paul wrote them a letter stating, “each of you says, 'I belong to Paul,' or 'I belong to Apollos,' or 'I belong to Cephas,' or 'I belong to Christ.'”

But Paul told them, “all things are yours . . . you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God. The place of the preachers is not to establish themselves as leaders among men; instead, people should think of us all as servants of Christ.”

There were also fights about which spiritual gifts were the “best” and they began to argue about weather Jesus was really raised from the dead or not.

The good news for this story is that the church in Corinth was teachable and ultimately repented.

(Today’s post is from: The Storyformed Way is a derivative of The Story of God © Copyright 2003-2006 Michael Novelli & Caesar Kalinowski, all rights reserved. This derivative was created and distributed with permission. You are free to use, remix, and build upon this work non-commercially if you attribute Soma Communities. For details, see creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/)