Much has been said about this idea of being an "Acts kind of Church." I am not sure I ever
There seems to be some misconceptions about this early church in the book of Acts.
But with that said, we would need to try to learn several things: How did people get into the church? What did those who were added to the Church do once they were added? What kind of preaching did they hear? What is the responsibility the church has to the new converts? What kind of home did the believers have?
To be an Acts kind of Church, you need to have an Acts kind of Christians.
The Lord Added To their Number Daily: Acts 2:42
I want you to think about additions to the church as they used to occur among the early Christians. Certain people today are always talking about the "early church," and they seem
to have some very "strange ideas" about this early church.
First, ADDITIONS TO THE CHURCH, WHAT ABOUT THEM? "The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."
It seems to have been the custom in the earliest times for persons who had been converted to Christ to join themselves with the church of Jesus Christ.
- "Act then according to your duty, and if you are a Christian, join with Christians; if you love the Master, love the servants; if you love the Captain, unite with the army, and join that regiment of it which you think adheres the closest to the Master's word." Spurgeon.
The persons who were reached at Pentecost were added to the church by the Lord.
Does anybody else ever add to the church? Oh, yes, the devil also often hustles in his servants. Who was it that added Judas, and Ananias and Sapphira, and Simon Magus, and Demas to the church?
Thus, you need to search and see whether you are the model that the Lord would add to a church. How can you tell if you have been added by Christ?
If you are, you have been converted by the Lord,
- You have been wounded by the Lord, and you have been healed by the Lord, and in the Lord is your righteousness and trust.
- It has not been man's doing; whoever may have been the instrument, the Holy Spirit has produced all your works in you.
- You must have been the subject of a divine intervention; something more than you could do for yourself or any man could do for you must have been formed in you by the Lord.
- He who made you has made you new.
Then, the right kind of additions to the church are described in the text by the words, "those who were being saved." Acts 2
- The Lord added to the church daily the saved," or "The Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved." Saved persons were added to the church, and only the saved were fit to be added.
Those who are being saved, in whom the work of salvation has truly begun, are the only proper candidates, and these are spoken of in the forty-fourth verse as "believers."
The proper persons to be added to the visible church of Jesus Christ are those
- who believe to the salvation of their souls,
- who are daily experiencing the saving power of the name of Jesus by being delivered from sin,
- by being saved from the pattern of the world,
- by being saved in the sense of sanctified from the various corruptions and lusts which rule among the sons of men. These are the sort of persons who should be added to the church.
So let the question be asked, "Am I saved? Have I believed in Jesus?" If I have,
- the process of salvation is going on within me,
- I am being delivered from the reigning, ruling power of sin each day;
- I am being kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, and
- I will be kept and presented in the end spotless before the presence of God with great joy.
We set the door wide open to all who are saved, however little their faith may be.
Drafted by Charles E. Whisnant, Proof Read by Charity Whisnant
