It takes time

We look into the book of Acts and we see the church emerge from its infancy to the church as we should know it today.

From the ascension of Christ in Acts 1 to the imprisonment of Paul all takes place in a little snap shot of 28 chapters. In my Bible it accounts for 49 Pages.

It is easy to slip into the mind set of the rocket propelled growth that is seen on occasion in Acts.

Consider pentecost, 3,000 were saved from an audience of devout men

Than just a few pages later in

Acts 4:4 KJV 1900

4 Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.

We now have a total of 8,000 men saved. It is safe to assume these men went home and told their families. Assuming on average per house conversion of 3, which is probably a low estimate we have a mass of people amounting to 24,000 souls.

This is a mind blowing number and realistically it is probably underestimated.

How long was the time span between pentecost to the next measurable marker in the time line (the death of Stephen) Acts 2- Acts 6

2 years

One may say how in the world could a church grow this much in just 2 years. That is a fair question to ask, but that story didn’t start at pentecost. It started several thousand years before that. Long before the apostles, before the prophets, before the kings. This is the culmination of God’s chosen people starting with Abraham.

You see it took time for this type of revival to happen

Moving along in the time line we see events like

The conversion of the Ethiopian Eunich

Stoning of Stephen

Sauls conversion

Peters vision of floating food

Paul and Barnabas being called christian first in Antioch

Harod killing James the brother of John

Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey

The split of Paul and Barnabas

The message to the unknown God

Paul preaching in Corinth

Acquiring Aquilla and Priscilla and Apollos

Paul preaches to king Agrippa “almost you persuaded me to be a Christian”

Paul is sent to Rome

The shipwreck in the storm Euroclydon

Pauls arrival in Rome

All of these events. So many messages and stories can be drawn from them.

The story of Christianity went from 120 in an upper room to a global phenomenon.

How long did it take?

Pentecost happened on May 24th AD 33

Paul landed in Rome in 60 AD and was there for 2 years

Approximately 29-30 years.

Now we have established much of the contents of the book of acts and came to a realization that it takes time for something like this to happen.

Lets take a closer look into a few instances of Church growth on the more practical level.

turn to Acts 16:1-5

Acts 16:1–5 KJV 1900

1 Then came he to Derbe and Lystra: and, behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess, and believed; but his father was a Greek: 2 Which was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium. 3 Him would Paul have to go forth with him; and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which were in those quarters: for they knew all that his father was a Greek. 4 And as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep, that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem. 5 And so were the churches established in the faith, and increased in number daily.

What do we see here?

Discipleship starting in the home (Timothy)

Obedience to the call of God of a young persons life (Timothy goes)

Teaching the decrees which were ordained by the apostles and elders at jerusalem. Sounds a lot like the great commission. Teach them to observe all things what so ever I have commanded you.

The church increased in number daily, but what were they doing daily. Teaching and making disciples based upon what we have been taught.

Here we see a general bolster of church growth that we can generically apply to our lives.

What is next

Acts 16:13–15 KJV 1900

13 And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither. 14 And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. 15 And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us.

Now we move onto the next story which is

Acts 16:16–19 KJV 1900

16 And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: 17 The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation. 18 And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour. 19 And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers,

It looks like these things happen very quickly.

But notice a few distinctions that add time to this story

Verse 13 there were only Women present. Your Bible may or may not have it but at the beginning of verse 14 before the word and what is there? A paragraph mark, meaning a new thought is beginning.

It is safe to assume that the following two verses are no longer by the side of the river.

Further more when Lydia invites the men to abide with here this is a very significant thing in the culture of the Jews. It was customary to house strangers in your house. There was not an abundance of hotels, Expedia and Priceline were not a thing yet. So if people were traveling and they knocked on your door it was expected for you to house them for up to three days without being invited. Any longer than that required an invitation to stay. When Lydia offers the invitation this was more than likely on Tuesday or Wednesday 3 or 4 days after the sabbath at the river. In the mean time her whole house had been saved and baptized.

To recap those 2 verses.

Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke, meet at the River to pray. After they spoke to the women that were at the river, Lydia sought them out. She got saved as well as her entire house. And immediately they were baptized.

Than verse 16 hops in with the possessed damsel. Notice in verse 18. It says she did this many days.

To me when I say many days its less than a week but more than 3 days. We see easily 7-10 days engulfed in 6 verses.

The act of exercising the demon out of this girl wound up getting them thrown in prison and this brings us to our next point of why the church grew.

Acts 16:20–25 KJV 1900

20 And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, 21 And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans. 22 And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them. 23 And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely: 24 Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks. 25 And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.

Now consider the circumstances. What would your reaction be? A mean tweet about the unjust behavior. A reviling post of the messed up government. Sulking and getting angry wondering if its all worth it.

That was probably the case for a few in the group. Notice it only says Paul and Silas were singing. It doesn’t say Timothy or Luke were.

The miracle happens the prison doors are opened, the conversion of the Phillipian jailer and the rest of his house.

What do we see here

Unnatural out look on life.

A faithfulness in spite of circumstances

From here we go to our last example of how the church grew so quickly

Acts 17:22–34 KJV 1900

22 Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. 23 For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. 24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; 25 Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; 26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; 27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: 28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. 29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. 30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: 31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. 32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter. 33 So Paul departed from among them. 34 Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

What do we see here

Boldness (standing in the middle of the idolatry) verse 22

Current with culture verse 23. He related with them but did not associate with their pagan culture. He was practicing apologetics

He address racism verse 26

Most of the people scoffed at him verse 32

But a few followed his teaching.

What is the recap?

We have a church to grow and sometimes it seems discouraging to not see it growing as quickly as we would like.

But may we remain steadfast in our faith knowing that we are not the ones to build the church but rather it is Christ. He told us “I will build my Church”.

It is our job to remain faithful and be content doing the little things, and prayerfully expecting God to take care of the big things.

Discipleship takes time. But you must find someone to disciple

The first disciples you must make are in your own home (Timothy)

Be willing to let them follow Gods plan for their life

Don’t get bored with the basics. The simplicity of scripture confounds the wise. Get them to understand the simple and them move on to the meat of scripture.

Regardless of your surrounding remember the Joy that Christ has put in your heart. Sing in spite of circumstances

Be bold for Christ regardless of the return of investment numerically