THE CHURCH PROSPERS ACTS 9 V 31
In Acts 9 v 31 is a very interesting comment. We have seen that the NTC was born and grew out of persecution but despite all this, it produced something worthwhile. It says in this verse "Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace (rest and prosperity) and were edified (housebuilder). And walking in the fear (alarm or fright) of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied.
This suggests to me that all the persecution and pain that they experienced produced fruit. Eventually, their suffering and patience produced the fruit of a period of prosperous fellowship (not prosperous money) and as a result, the church was built up. if the church was alarmed or frightened by the mighty works of God that they saw and experienced, then the unbelievers probably had the same experience because it showed them that the God they were trying to erase was a force to be reckoned with.
Much as they wanted to remove him from the scene and revert back to the status quo, it wasn't going to happen. He had risen and ascended and planted his church (note not ours) and it was a force to be reckoned with as they saw how powerful their God was in comparison to the heathen gods who could do nothing and did nothing.
It is important to note that the power behind the throne so to speak was the name of Jesus. Not the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as some seem to think. The person that the people had been confronted with was Jesus the Messiah bearing in mind that the Jews were hoping and praying for a Messiah that was going to rescue them from the tyranny of Roman rule. Their focus was earthly but the focus of the NTC was heavenly and deliverance from the problems of the earthly world.
This deliverance would not separate them from the world but allow them to live above the demands of the world and live in the new way of living that the messiah offered. In one sense it was a counter-culture that enabled them to fight off the negative and destructive and replace it with the positive and faith-building.
You need to do more than sing Kumbaya in a building to do that. You need daily fellowship and an awareness of the miracle-working God and where necessary, be used by him to make it happen.
I notice that added is not used to describe growth in the NTC. It always seems to be multiplied. Such a contrast today where surveys seem to point out not addition or multiplication in our churches but declines. What does that say to you? It says to me we are not doing what we are meant to be doing because if we were, we would be multiplying.
And if I had to sum that up succinctly I would say that in most cases we are building our church, not his church. If Jesus said he would build his church, that is what he means. It does not mean that he will build our church if we appear to be doing the right things.
I don't care how successful any church is in man's eyes if it is not His church, it is a waste of time and you are flogging a dead horse because at the end of the day it will come to nothing. I believe God is giving us plenty of warning by the fact that so many leaders of the mega-churches have come a cropper. Whatever the reason, first and foremost they have built a monument to man's effort.
And let me say here that man is very capable of keeping the ball rolling. We know this from all the groups and associations that proliferate society. Some of them have been going for a hundred years or more. So we have to look beyond that to what is God doing, if anything, rather than what man is doing. Cross all the right T's and dot all the right I's and you can keep going forever and a day.
What might have started the right way eventually becomes nothing more than an attempt to maintain the status quo which of course means spiritual death.
And to finish, a quote from Dr. Jurgen Buhler, President of the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem who said "All things built on man's glory and on human effort will have to fail, so the things built on God's unshakable Kingdom will remain."