June 25
Bible Reading: Acts 5:12-16
Acts 5:14, “And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women.”
When pastoring at Lewis and Clark Bible Church, I found in a closet an old church attendance sign in a closet. It had a place to display the numbers of people in attendance at the various Sunday services. You remember the kind? Imagine what it would have been like to post one of those at Solomon’s Portico? “Peter, what are we to do? The numbers keep changing so fast we can’t keep up!”
It’s helpful to understand what was happening in the historical and cultural context. Let’s first consider what the church in that day didn’t have. They didn’t have any kind of elaborate organization, at least not in how we’d put one together. Prototypical deacons would come later (Acts 6), but at this point, the organization amounted to Jesus as head, and the Apostles called forth to do His bidding. They didn’t have any church buildings, the very concept of which lay a couple of centuries in the future. They had no entertaining music to draw people. No comfortable seats for them to sit in. No fancy worship folders. No hymnals or chorus books or songs displayed on PowerPoint. [That’s not to say that some of the aforementioned things are wrong. I’m merely pointing out that the early church grew in the absence of them.] The Apostles had read no church growth books and had attended no such seminars. In fact, they hadn’t even been to Bible school or seminary. Neither Peter, who had denied Christ three times, nor Paul, who had a history of violence against the church, would have survived the scrutiny of any missionary or pastoral search committee.
But they had Jesus! And He was the attraction! They held, as a treasure in their earthen vessels, the precious knowing of Jesus in a personal way. They possessed a glorious gospel message that had worked to forgive them from their sins and had caused them to be born again to a new way of life. They had, by the Spirit, hearts filled with love, that revealed itself in their readiness to sacrifice their all for the sake of their brethren. They held in their changed lives the dramatic proof that Jesus had died for their sins and rose from the dead!
The church growth that we read about in the book of Acts took place according to a simple formula. The church grew as the Spirit worked and the people prayed. All three things were happening simultaneously. Though the Spirit is surely capable of working independently of us, God has graciously chosen to include us in the work that He does. Nothing happens apart from prayer. That same formula has repeated itself countless times in various places around the world. Next time you look across the pews, yearning to see what those folks saw two millennia ago, keep in mind what drew all those people. What drew the people was the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it was the Spirit that unveiled that truth to folks. And it was as the people of that day were praying. And you can do that too!
“The true church lives and moves and has its being in prayer.” – Leonard Ravenhill
LORD, SEND A REVIVAL
Send a revival, O Christ, my Lord,
Let it go over the land and sea,
Send it according to Thy dear Word,
And let it begin in me.
Chorus:
Lord, send a revival,
Lord, send a revival,
Lord, send a revival,
And let it begin in me.
Send a revival among Thine own,
Help us to turn from our sins away.
Let us draw near to the Father’s throne,
Revive us again, we pray. [Chorus]
Send a revival to those in sin,
Help them, O Jesus, to turn to Thee,
Let them the new life in Thee begin,
Oh, give them the victory. [Chorus]
Send a revival in ev’ry heart,
Draw the world nearer. O Lord to Thee,
Let Thy salvation true joy impart,
And let it begin in me. [Chorus]
LookingtoJesus 