Reading the book of Acts was interesting and eye opening. While I have read verses and passages from the book of Acts before, I had never read it all the way through. Doing this, help me get a full glimpse of the church and how it started. It let me see the turmoil of the church and the turmoil of the first believers of Christ.
I must say, I have a better perspective of what it was like
to be a believer. It was hard. At times, I feel like it is hard to be a believer
in this day and age because of how people feel about church and believers, but
in all honesty, it is not as bad for me as it was for the early Christians. Compared to them, I have it easy.
Reading the book of Acts help me see that conflict in the
church is not anything new. I am not
sure how I feel about that. To know that
we have probably gotten worse with handling church conflict in this modern
era. As one pastor alluded to… the early
Christians could not just leave a church and go to another church down the
street. They had to stay where they were.
Seeing how the first believers worked together to build
churches and help get the Word of God out was exciting. It was enjoyable to see so many people
wanting to be a help to Paul and his mission.
I did hate to see the fall out between Paul and Barnabas. That one hurt my heart. I felt like they were a great team. But, I understand that at times, you have to
move on.
Paul and Barnabas parting ways helped me to see that you can
move on when it is time to move on. This
is one of the things I have struggled with in my own Christian walk. I have been at churches and with people who
made the strong case that if you left a church or no longer wanted to
fellowship with people from the church, you were sinning. I know for a fact, I have stayed at a church
too long for this reason, to my spiritual detriment, as well as stayed friends
with people for too long, to my mental and psychological damage. I understand now, when it is time to move,
you need to move.
I am somewhat ashamed to say that I never knew this happened
between Paul and Barnabas. I knew of
their relationship and how excellent Barnabas was as an encourager, but I never
heard a sermon on how they ended up parting ways.
Probably, the most interesting thing to see was that the
apostle Paul was the first multi campus pastor.
His ministry crossed continents and oceans. It has been said that he traveled around 10,000
miles to more than 40 cities, sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That is pretty marvelous.
We see the letters he wrote that are included in the
Bible. It would be interesting to see
what other letters he wrote to his flocks.
It was wonderful to understand the history of the church and
to see how it parallels to today’s church.
Understanding how the first believers learned, grew, worked, and helped
build the kingdom inspired me to be better.