The Early Church

The apostles, in the power of the Holy Spirit, were able to preach, heal the sick, and stand strong under persecution. Contrast this with their actions before the resurrection when they fled the scene of Jesus' arrest, denied knowing Him, and previously had been unable to drive out demons. Something substantial haas changed, which we know to be the unshakable belief if jesus as the Messiah (due to the resurrection) and the equipping of the Holy Spirit. Persecution from the Jewish religious leaders was rising up, but they preached the gospel boldly nonetheless. The growth of the church was rapid and the health of the church was remarkable. Though the example of the communal church is not meant to be prescriptive but rather descriptive, it is convicting to compare our current church body with the the unselfishly generous body that existed 2000 years ago. As needs arose, they were met within the church and they had no poor among them, just as it should be and was mandated in Deuteronomy. I heard a statistic once that I cannot reference, so take it with a grain of salt, that if all Christians really tithed...now not everyone, just Christians... there would be no poverty, no hunger, no homelessness, etc. If only Christians would submit to the teaching of God on tithing! God loves a cheerful giver. The story of Ananias and Saphira is meant to illustrate the folly of being a fake "cheerful giver". They were not condemned because they didn't give the entire sum of money but because they were using their gift as a means to better their standing in the eyes of the church. Their heart motivation was deceitful and needed to be exposed before it threatened to ruin the beautiful spirit of charity that existed at the time.

Tomorrow's reading: Acts 6:1-8:1a