Why Not The Best?

© copyright Chaplain Bob Haines

2014.  All Rights Reserved

 

 

 

 

Lt. Jimmy Carter, USN, was interview by Adm. Hyman Rickover concerning his intent to enter nuclear submarine service.  Lt. Carter stated his reason for wanting to enter this elite corps of Naval officers was in the form of a question: “why not the best?” Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia later gave that title to his book.

 

If I had only one message for the church on any given Easter Sunday, it would be to urge it to take a long, extensive look at the New Testament book of Acts. The aim would be to regain the spirit of the early New Testament church.

You want to be the best? Then emulate the best. You want to be the best Lawyer? Find the best and discover the qualities that make him/her the best attorney and seek to obtain those qualities. Maybe you can. Maybe you can’t. It depends on your talents and training.
You want to be the best athlete? It’s the same thing. Of course, you have to practice.
You want to be the best church? Look for the best in the quality — the real essence of what a New Testament church should be.
The best church is not necessarily that it has audio-visual capabilities? It is not if the pastor is paid well nor the personalities of the staff.  It is not whether it worships in a modern, architecturally stunning  building. The best is not even the one with a mega-budget or a very large membership.  These things may be successful from the world’s standards or denominational standards. But if you want to be church of Jesus, by Jesus, and for Jesus, then look at the early church as founded during the New Testament era.

There are several places where one can go to look for examples of the early church but for a good church success story, the book of Acts is a place to begin. The book of Acts, itself, is the story of the first church, or churches moving out from a small group of Jesus’ followers to reach the world with the Good News of God’s Kingdom as they knew it, based on the teachings and life of Jesus of Nazareth.

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Take a very quick look at an introduction to Acts and you might find a model that can make your church the best it can be — not by the standards of other churches but by standards inherent in the first church.  The story of Acts tells us that God promises to equip His people for the challenges they face in achieving Christ’s mission and that His people, i.e. His church, will be successful in its endeavors

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What is the story?

 

It is the story of the early Christian church moving out from the Jewish faith and traditions to a universal faith based on the radical teaching of Jesus of Nazareth — successfully. It is the story of a small group of Jesus’ disciples moving to reach a world with the Gospel, the Good News of the Kingdom of God, a kingdom not based on law but grace, not based on punishment, but repentance and forgiveness.

Acts is a follow up narrative to Luke’s first work, the Gospel of Luke. The distinctive features of Luke’s gospel are as follows.  It emphasizes Jesus’ sympathetic attitude toward the poor, lowly, outcast, , Samaritans, publicans, sinners, dying thief, and the like. That is, it emphasizes the pastoral ministry of Jesus.
Luke emphasizes prayer and contains three parables on prayer..
Luke greatly honors women and womanhood. We read about Mary, Elizabeth, Martha, the Daughters of Jerusalem and the widows. One of the distinctive marks of the Christian faith is that everyone is important regardless of gender, age, station in life, etc.

Acts takes up where the gospel of Luke ends. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, the church, led by its leaders, takes the gospel to the world successfully without hindrance. Acts puts the gospel of Christ into action, through the combined action of human agency, under the power of God’s Spirit.

It is important that we note the purpose of the book of Acts.  There are different ideas as to its purpose(s). 1. The traditional heading of Acts is “The Acts of the Apostles.” However, the words, “of the Apostles” in not in the earliest manuscripts of the New Testament. There is very little in the book about the Apostles. Matthaias appears only once. John appears early on. Peter is prominent in early chapters. James is in chapter 12. Paul is in the spotlight in 1/2 of the book. Others, not Apostles, are given significant roles in Acts — e.g., Philip, Stephen, Barnabas, Silas, Timothy, and Luke, himself. Clearly, it is not the primary purpose to give an “Acts ‘of the Apostles’.”

2. The second idea as to the purpose of Acts is that it is the story of how the gospel spread from Jerusalem to Rome. This is an old approach and is still listed as the purpose in the introductory remarks to Acts in the Oxford Annotated Bible. This is not the primary purpose of Acts. It is not a record of the geographical expansion of the gospel to Rome. It only tells how Paul got to Rome, not how the gospel did.

3. Thirdly, it is not the “gospel of the Holy Spirit” as some commentators have suggested.  The Holy Spirit is very active and it is a dominant theme of the book. However, the Holy Spirit is hardly mentioned in half of the book and is absent in 11 chapters.

Other reasons have been given as to why Luke wrote Acts.  I believe that he primary purpose of Acts is to record the triumph of Christianity. Acts is a success story.

The early Christians, empowered by the Holy Spirit, who makes no distinction in persons, broke down all barriers such as religiosity, racial, national, etc., with a liberating gospel. The gospel broke through all limitations which men sought to impose on it.

The chief purpose of Acts was to show the victorious progress of the gospel of Jesus Christ to give a spiritual freedom to all who accept the gospel — excluding none. In short it was an unhindered gospel.

 

The first two verses of the book, Acts is related to the gospel proclaimed by Jesus in word and deed. Acts is a continuation of Jesus’ ministry, but through His followers. That which is related in Acts has its source in God’s will as made known in and by Jesus.
The acts of the church today must be a continuation of Jesus’ earthly ministry. We need to study afresh the gospels to recollect Jesus’ ministry. Jesus’ ministry is our ministry: to proclaim and teach the Kingdom of God; to feed the poor and hungry (which we will have with us always); to care for the needy; to reach out to ALL people everywhere in love.

As per the third verse, Jesus’ resurrection is the foundation of the gospel. That is why Easter is the major Christian holiday and not Christmas. This is the Good News – Jesus is Alive! Paul said without the resurrection, our faith is in vain.  We no longer experience the resurrection first-hand, with our own eyes. But, by faith, we experience it as Luke’s first readers did. Christ is risen. That is the good news we proclaim.

Verse 4 of Acts reports that here now is the promise of the Father — the Spirit comes in fullness to each believer to do the spiritual work of the church.  (We should note that the Holy Spirit didn’t originate at Pentecost. The Spirit’s work goes back to Genesis 1:2 and has been manifested in certain individuals as reported throughout the Bible.)

Now, however, the activity of the Holy Spirit becomes presence in EVERY believer. Jesus’ Spirit is in ALL Christians not just a select few. God’s Holy Spirit gives you all the authority and power you need.

In verse 5 ,the baptism (water immersion) of John was completed at Pentecost with the baptism (immersion) by the Holy Spirit.  When one becomes a Christian, he/she is indwelt by the Holy Spirit because he/whe has been born spiritually, i.e. of the Spirit. Though one may not always be totally immersed in the Spirit because of the barrier one often places upon himself/herself when he/she acts on their own power and authority instead of the power and authority of the Holy Spirit.

The church today must learn the primary lessons of Acts, the chief one being to allow the Holy Spirit of God to fill it, so as to break down all superficial barriers, so that the gospel can continue to be spread to the uttermost parts of our world.

In the final verse of Acts, 28:31, the final word is the word, unhindered, or without restriction ( Greek, ἀκωλύτως ).

This is the final word in the Greek manuscript of the book of Acts. This word, though overlooked by most commentators, is in my opinion very significant.  The lesson learned is that If the church allows the Holy Spirit of God to be in total control, it will be under the spiritual supervision and management of the God and as a consequence, no man-made barrier will hinder the work or the church.

 

In summary, then the applications of an introduction to the book of Acts leads to the following conclusions

1. The story of today’s church should be a story of the continuation of the Gospel of Christ.

2. The Holy Spirit will move in the lives of the people.

3. The resurrected Christ will be alive.

4. People will hear in their own language as the gospel is shared with those in any area in which it is preached, whether in Judea, Samaria, or to the uttermost parts of the earth. On earth, Christ spoke a universal language. Not everyone can understand a Plato or an Einstein. But all can understand Jesus — the lepers, the blind, the rich, poor, famous, learned, and ignorant. No one needs a commentary to know what Jesus meant when He forgave His enemies while dying on the cross.

 

5. The mission in the life of the church is the mission of Jesus:

* The proclamation of works. His power enables the church to do good works.

* The proclamation of teaching. The world needs to be enlightened with things that pertain to God and His Kingdom.

* Endurance. The church continues to possess a cross to bear, thorns in its side. It may be persecuted as the early church was. But the gospel will be presented no matter the barrier.

 

The firm persuasion of the reality of Christ’s resurrection is the church’s inspiration. He is present in it in the presence of His Spirit giving it power and authority to do the work of God.  It must allow the Spirit of God to break down any walls that would hinder it’s continual progress.