THIRD QUARTER 2018
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #3
JULY 21, 2018
"LIFE IN THE EARLY CHURCH"
As we look back at the early church, there are many valuable lessons for God's last day church today as we look forward to Christ's second coming.
First, we need to recall that, following Christ's death on the cross, the disciples were in hiding, afraid for their lives and in despair because their Saviour had been put to death. Despite 3½ years with Jesus, they had not understood His mission on earth or His plan of salvation for mankind. Jesus had to come back following His resurrection and spend 40 days with them to show them from the Scriptures why He had come, and the depth of God's infinite love and sacrifice as embodied in His birth, life, death on the cross, and resurrection fulfilling God's plan of salvation for the human race. With this true everlasting gospel in their hearts and minds, they were changed men with a burning desire to share this gospel message to the world. They were on fire for Christ and through His strength, filled with the Holy Spirit, they were fearless and unstoppable in their mission.
Only then, were the disciples able to fulfil the commission Jesus gave them (Mark 16:15): "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature."
As God's last day church, this responsibility continues today for as Matthew 24:14 states: "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations: and then shall the end come."
But God saw that His remnant church needed to see His complete gospel message in order to share it with the world and so in 1888:
"The Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His people through Elders Waggoner and Jones. This message was to bring more prominently before the world the uplifted Saviour, the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. It presented justification through faith in the Surety; it invited the people to receive the righteousness of Christ, which is made manifest in obedience to all the commandments of God. Many had lost sight of Jesus. They needed to have their eyes directed to His divine person, His merits, and His changeless love for the human family. All power is given into His hands, that He may dispense rich gifts unto men, imparting the priceless gift of His own righteousness to the helpless human agent. This is the message that God commanded to be given to the world. It is the third angel's message, which is to be proclaimed with a loud voice, and attended with the outpouring of His Spirit in a large measure."
With this true everlasting gospel in our hearts and minds, God's last day church will also be changed and will also have the same burning desire as the disciples and the early church had to share this gospel message to the world. With our focus on Christ and Him crucified, relying on His strength, and filled with the Holy Spirit, it will indeed be time for Christ to take us home.
Let's now take a look at some of the characteristics of the early church, as guidelines for God's remnant church in these final days of earth's history.
Let's look at EGW's description of the disciples and the early church following Christ's sharing with them from the Scriptures concerning Himself and His mission:
"Under the training of Christ the disciples had been led to feel their need of the Spirit. Under the Spirit's teaching they received the final qualification, and went forth to their lifework. No longer were they ignorant and uncultured. No longer were they a collection of independent units or discordant, conflicting elements. No longer were their hopes set on worldly greatness. They were of "one accord", "of one heart and soul." Acts 2:46; 4:32. Christ filled their thoughts; the advancement of His kingdom was their aim. In mind and character, they had become like their Master, and men "took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus." Acts 4:13." (AA pg. 45).
AT Jones addresses this same issue of being "of one mind" and its importance for God's last day church as well in the following comments:
"LET this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." In the verses previous to this Paul exhorts us to likemindedness. It is not in this epistle alone, but in several others that he presents this subject. Indeed, it is the chief duty of Christians to be of one mind. In 1 Cor. 1:10 it is written: "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment." In Rom. 15:5, 6 we read: "Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus; that ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." And in Phil. 2:2 Paul says: "Fulfill ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. . . . Let each esteem others better than themselves." {April 23, 1885 ATJ, SITI 262.1}
In that last prayer of Jesus, before he went over the brook Cedron into Gethsemane, this was His one great request, "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in Me, and I in thee, that they also may be one, even as We are one; I in them and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me." John 17:21-23. Here three times in quick succession the prayer is that all who believe on Him may be one; and twice is expressed the consequence of such unity, "That the world may believe" that He is the Son of God. The great heart of Him who gave his life for the world, yearns for the belief of those for whom He died. A few then believed in Him, and through these is He to be made known to the world, and that the world may believe their testimony they must be united. Burdened with this great argument, He prays with an earnestness only second to that in Gethsemane, that all His followers may be one, that so the world may believe that He was sent of God, and so believing be saved. {April 23, 1885 ATJ, SITI 262.2}
Christ not only prayed thus but He made ample provision for the fulfillment of His prayer. "I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one." "If ye love Ne, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth; Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him; but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." "If a man love Me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and We will come unto Him, and make our abode with Him." John 14:15-17, 23. Thus "our fellowship is "formed "with the Father, and with His son Jesus Christ." And this is the only possible way in which we can have true fellowship one with another. For if this man has, by the Holy Spirit, fellowship with the Father and with the Son; and if that man has, by the Holy Spirit, fellowship with the Father and with the Son, they must have fellowship one with another, for the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one; and those who have fellowship with these must be one likewise. {April 23, 1885 ATJ, SITI 262.3}
Similarly, EJ Waggoner in the following quote, stresses the importance of God's true church being of one mind, as well as being humble and loyal to the word of God. Once again, the power source is Christ and Him crucified:
The true church is the body of Christ, "the fullness of Him that filleth all in all." Eph. 1:22, 23. Therefore we find this exhortation: "If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfil ye My joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant." Phil. ii. 2-7. {December 14, 1893 EJW, PTUK 579.11}
It was the mind that Christ had when He was in heaven, that led Him to do that. In heaven He had the spirit to serve, and it only needed that He should take the form of a servant, for men could not look upon Him in His glory. In Him we see in what His church must be. He "went about doing good," living among men as one that served. So, it is said to us, "By love serve one another." Gal. 5:13. This mind can be in men only as they yield themselves to the Word of God, for the word is spirit and life. The prophecy concerning Christ was, "I will put My words in His mouth; and He shall speak unto them all that I shall command Him." Deut. 18:18. And when He came, He took as the rule of His life, "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Accordingly, we find that the characteristics of the church at the time when the Spirit of God dwelt in it were humility and loyalty to the word of God. "They were all with one accord in one place." Acts 2:1. "And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul." Acts 4:32. Their prayer was that with boldness they might speak the word. Verse 29. When they were dispersed from Jerusalem, they "went everywhere preaching the word.' Acts 8:4. {December 14, 1893 EJW, PTUK 579.12}
As we look at the deteriorating situation in the world around us, these are indeed perilous times for God's last day church but we can derive encouragement from the experience of the early church and their source of strength, Jesus Christ, as we can see in this quote from AT Jones:
"Jesus is as willing to impart courage and grace to His followers today as He was to the disciples of the early church…..
The disciples and apostles of Christ had a deep sense of their own inefficiency, and with humiliation and prayer they joined their weakness to His strength, their ignorance to His wisdom, their unworthiness to His righteousness, their poverty to His inexhaustible wealth. Thus, strengthened and equipped, they hesitated not in the service of their Master." {February 6, 1893 ATJ, GCDB 166.15}
What an equipment that is, though! Think of that equipment! Strength, wisdom, righteousness, wealth! Those are the very things that we need in the face of the things that are against us, for we cannot make any calculations upon any power of earth nor reputation that men will give nor upon any wealth that this world might furnish or any considerations of it or of life. So here are almost the very things enumerated that we considered in a previous lesson. {February 6, 1893 ATJ, GCDB 166.16}
But how was it that they obtained strength? By acknowledging their weakness, confessing their weakness. How did they get wisdom? By confessing their ignorance. How did they get righteousness? By confessing their unworthiness. How did they get wealth, inexhaustible wealth? By confessing their poverty. {February 6, 1893 ATJ, GCDB 167.1}
Now then that is the situation in which we are to be: inefficient, ignorant, poor, unworthy, and blind. Is not that just what the Laodicean message tells us--that we are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked and do not know it? Someone was reading that the other day and he touched upon that word "blindness," and immediately my mind ran to the ninth chapter of John and the last verse. All turn to that, if you will. John 9:41. It is at the end of the account of that man's healing from the blindness and restoration of sight to the man that had been born blind. What does that verse say? {February 6, 1893 ATJ, GCDB 167.2}
"Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin; but now you say, We see. Therefore your sin remaineth." {February 6, 1893 ATJ, GCDB 167.3}
When Jesus tells you and me we are blind, the thing for us to do is to say, "Lord, we are blind." He told those folks they were blind and they were blind, but they said it was not so. It was so. If they had confessed their blindness they would have seen God in that man's healing from his blindness. Well, then, brethren, the thing for us to do is to come square up to that Laodicean message and say that every word He says is so. When He says you and I are wretched, tell Him, "It is so, I am wretched; miserable; it is so, I am miserable; poor, it is so; I am poor, a perfect beggar, I shall never be anything else in the world; blind, I am blind, and shall never be anything else; naked, that is so; and I do not know it; that is so, too. I do not know it at all, as I ought to know it." And then I will say to him every day and every hour, "Lord, that is all so. But, oh, instead of my wretchedness, give me thine own satisfaction. Instead of my misery, give me thine own comfort. Instead of my poverty, supply all thine own riches. Instead of my blindness, be thou my sight. Instead of my nakedness, oh, do thou clothe me with thine own righteousness. And what I know not, Lord, teach thou me." [Congregation: "Amen."] {February 6, 1893 ATJ, GCDB 167.4}
Brethren, when we come with one heart and one mind to that place, we shall have no difficulty at all in repenting. It will not be difficult to repent and there will be no lack of repentance. That next verse will be fulfilled: "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous therefore and repent." {February 6, 1893 ATJ, GCDB 167.5}
The difficulty about our not being able to repent is that we have not confessed that what the Lord has told us is the truth. When I know that I am wretched then I know that I need something that will satisfy me. And I know that nothing but the Lord can give that, and I depend upon nothing but Him to give it. And if I have not Him, why it is only wretchedness. Any moment that I have not Him it is only wretchedness, and any moment that I have not His comfort it is only misery. Any moment that I have not absolute dependence upon His unsearchable riches--the unsearchable riches of Christ--I am utterly poor, a complete beggar. And every moment that I do not see and confess that I am blind and have Him as my sight, I am in sin. He says so." {February 6, 1893 ATJ, GCDB 167.6}
So, we can see clearly from this statement that the early church had the solution for our Laodicean condition. This is indeed good news for God's last day church. As EGW says in Acts of the Apostles (pg. 57):
"The disciples of Christ had a deep sense of their own inefficiency, and with humiliation and prayer they joined their weakness to His strength, their ignorance to His wisdom, their unworthiness to His righteousness, their poverty to His exhaustless wealth. Thus, strengthened and equipped, they hesitated not to press forward in the service of the Master."
Similarly, in Acts of the Apostles (pg.77), we read as follows: "It was the cross, that instrument of shame and torture, which brought hope and salvation to the world. The disciples were but humble men, without wealth, and with no weapon but the word of God, yet in Christ's strength they went forth to tell the wonderful story of the manger and the cross, and to triumph over all opposition. Without earthly honor or recognition, they were heroes of faith. From their lips came words of divine eloquence that shook the world."
And so, in closing, may it be our prayer, that through His strength, God may use us to share to the world this most precious message, His true everlasting gospel, that will once again shake the world so that Christ may soon come to claim His bride and take us home!
Blessings, John and Monica.
