Why Are We Lacking The Power of the Early Church?

Over the past few years it seems that many churches have tried to call us back to the power of the early church. I recognize that there are entire 'movements' and church 'styles' that have been attempting to get back to the early church. Some of these are probably great, but some do not appear to be so biblical in there attempts. As we read of the incredible outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the amazing growth of the early church we must ask, "Why isn't that stuff still happening today?"

Lately four of us at my church have been rotating and teaching through the Book of Acts at our Sunday evening service. While reading and studying Acts I have been blessed and amazed by the reminder of the incredible impact the early church was having. Acts is typically known as the Acts of the Apostles, but I prefer the name suggested by some commentators, "The Acts of the Holy Spirit (through the early church)" because it gives us a much fuller picture of what was really taking place in the early church.

Luke opens Acts by reminding his readers of the time Jesus spent with the disciples before the ascension, and in verse 8 we read, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Many look to Pentecost and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit as the ultimate manifestation of this power. While Pentecost was incredibly significant, this interpretation completely ignores what Jesus is saying. The point is that the Holy Spirit's empowering was for a very specific task, and that was the proclaiming of the Gospel to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the end of the earth.

At Pentecost there was the sound of a mighty rushing wind and the tongues of fire appear and then each person begins speaking in other languages and everyone can hear each other as if they were speaking in their own language. The onlookers believe them to be drunk, but Peter gets up and proclaims that they are not drunk at all, what was happening was a fulfillment to the prophecy of Joel. Joel's prophecy spoke of when the Spirit would fall and there would be miraculous signs, but most importantly the prophecy ends with, "And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."

The prophecy spoke of the 'last days' in which Salvation would go to all the nations. Jesus had come in the line of Abraham and was now fulfilling the prophecy that Abraham's seed would be a blessing to all nations. Peter recognizing the connection immediately preaches the gospel after quoting the prophecy from Joel saying, "...this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. ...This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. ...Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. "

It is also interesting to note that there is no alter call given. There is no request for a response, there is no mention of them giving their lives to the Lord or asking Jesus to come into their heart as can be commonplace to our church services today. Instead, Peter boldly proclaims the gospel while filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus foretold, and the people respond with no prompting whatsoever. The next verse records, "Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

Jesus had specifically told the disciples that they were to wait for power from the Holy Spirit, and THEN they would be His witnesses. As is repeated so often throughout the whole Bible, "Salvation is of the LORD." Peter and the rest of the disciples clearly understood this, their job was to be the Spirit empowered witnesses to the Resurrection and the Holy Spirit would then change the hearts of men.

In chapters 3 Peter proclaims the gospel after the lame beggar was healed to walk. The crowds go crazy, Peter again points them to Jesus saying that it was Jesus who healed the man. Before Peter ends his sermon he and the others were arrested by the Sadducees. Once again we read in Acts 4:4 that though there was no alter call or request for a response 2000 more were added to their number bringing the total to 5000 new believers.

"Salvation is of the LORD" and the Holy Spirit was moving as the gospel was being proclaimed. It didn't even matter that the preacher was hauled off to the authorities before his message concluded. The gospel went out, the Spirit moved and people got saved.

Here is a quick summary of how this plays out through chapter 10:

Acts 4 - Peter gives the gospel to the Council, then after being threatened and released we read in Acts 4:31, "And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness."

Acts 5 - The apostles are imprisoned and then an angel opened the gates telling them to, "Go, stand and speak to the people in the temple the whole message of this Life." The Council again threatened them and Peter again gives them the gospel. The chapter ends with Acts 5:42, "And every day in the temple and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ."

Acts 6 - We read in vs 7, "The word of God kept on spreading; and the number of disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many priests were becoming obedient to the faith."

Acts 7 - Stephen is arrested standing before the Council and his defense is a history lesson which climaxes in the reminder that as their fathers had killed the prophets before, now these leaders were responsible for putting the true prophet, Jesus to death.

Acts 8 - Through Philip the gospel goes to the Samaritans, and an Ethiopian has the gospel explained to him while reading a passage from Isaiah.

Acts 9 - Saul is converted to Paul and to a believer in Jesus Christ as the Savior and "immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, "He is the Son of God."

Acts 10 - After visions from both Peter and Cornelius the Roman centurion, Peter goes and proclaims the gospel to these gentiles and, "While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message."

This pattern continues through the rest of Acts just as Jesus prophesied.

Now to the question in the title of this post, "Why are we lacking this incredible power that was so apparent in the early church?"

While I recognize that there are probably a number of other factors that are involved in answering a question like this, it certainly seems that there is a distinct pattern that we are to emulate. The pattern as Jesus prescribed it is that believers are to be witnesses to His resurrection, and that the Holy Spirit will empower us for that task.

I feel that the reason why so many churches (and Christians in general) today are drastically lacking in any true demonstrable power is because they are failing to truly preach the gospel. Sure there are plenty of "Bible" churches today, but perhaps they have fallen into the same trap that the Pharisees had in Jesus' day. Jesus addressed this in John 5:39-40 saying, "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life."

Eternal life is found only in coming to understand that Jesus is the Savior who lived the life that we should have lived and died the death that we should have died. Teaching the Bible alone does not save people. This is what Jesus pointed out to the Pharisees, they needed more than just Bible knowledge, they needed to understand that the Bible shows men their need for a Savior. In my last post "What Is The Point Of "Line Upon Line" Teaching?" I wrote, "...if we forget that the 'lines' all point us to Jesus and His incredible work of Redemption then we have completely missed the whole point of the Bible!"

We need churches that faithfully preach the Word, showing how all Scripture 'bears witness' to Jesus and the Good News that He is the Savior that we need. This is the task that Jesus gave the disciples with the promise of power from the Holy Spirit, and this is the pattern that we must return to.