At the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were taking place among the people; and they were all with one accord in Solomon's portico. But none of the rest dared to associate with them; however, the people held them in high esteem. And all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women, were constantly added to their number, to such an extent that they even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and pallets, so that when Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on any one of them. Also the people from the cities in the vicinity of Jerusalem were coming together, bringing people who were sick or afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all being healed.
Luke begins to give us glimpse of what was happening in the lives of these early followers of Jesus by revealing God’s transformational activity through the leadership of the early church. The Apostles, which were Jesus closest followers while He was here on earth, were using the Spiritual sign gifts that they had received through the Holy Spirit to perform the miraculous. And the miracles that the Apostles were performing served to confirm and authenticate that the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel was from God and not simply made up by man. Luke also explains that as the crowds would walk into the temple mount area, what they would see was thousands of early followers of Jesus gathered together in one accord. There was an unmistakable sense of unity and community amongst these early followers of Jesus as they gathered together to hear the message and teachings of Jesus, to pray together, and to proclaim the message of the gospel through the celebration of communion.
In verse 13, Luke states that those who were not followers of Jesus dared not to associate with them. However, even though those who were far from God held these early followers of Jesus in high esteem. Those who were far from God spoke and thought highly of this new community that followed Jesus, but did not feel like they could join and be involved in a close relationship with them. That seems weird, doesn’t it? I mean, isn’t our natural tendency to want to hang out with people that we respect and think highly of? So why would those who were far from God not have the courage to try to connect with these early followers of Jesus?
To understand why those who were far from God had a high opinion of these early followers of Jesus, but did not have the courage to connect with them in community, we need to go back to what we looked at last week. After God gave the world the shocking example of Ananias and Sapphira to serve as a reminder that testing God brings trouble, all those in Jerusalem and the region around Jerusalem were gripped with fear and anxiety. Those who wanted to live a hypocritical lifestyle when it came to following Jesus were scared off.
And those who were far from God had great fear when it came to following Jesus, because they did not want to become like Ananias and Sapphira. They were worried that their performance for God would result in their death at the hands of God. They thought that they had to get their life together before they could even think about having a relationship with God.
Maybe I have just described how you view a relationship with God. Maybe you think that you have to get your life together before you could even think about having a relationship with God. Maybe you think that a relationship with God is based on your performance for God. If I have just described you, I want you to understand that it is not your performance for God that results in whether or not you have a relationship with God. Instead it is placing your confident trust in what God has done for you through Jesus that results in you having the opportunity to experience forgiveness of sin and the relationship with God that you were created for.
We see evidence of this reality revealed for us in verse 14, as Luke records that as early followers of Jesus engaged those who were far from God with the claims of Christ and message of the gospel, multitudes of men and women were constantly added to this new community. As those who were far from God heard the message of the gospel, their fears of failing to perform were replaced by a confident trust in God’s performance for them. The message of the gospel, confirmed and authenticated by the miraculous activity of the Holy Spirit through the spiritual sign gifts, resulted in the church swelling in size.
Most historians believe that at this point in the book of Acts, the church consisted of between 5,500 and 6,000 people. God’s co:mission was being enthusiastically embraced as followers of Jesus engaged in the mission that they had been given to live their lives as missionaries that revealed and reflected Christ as they shared the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel and as they loved and served those around them.
Now imagine yourself in this story. Imagine walking into the temple to see between 5 and 6 thousand people in genuine and authentic community as the early leaders of the church shared the message and teachings of Jesus with them. Can you imagine what that looked like? Can you imagine what that sounded like?
Because, tomorrow it is in this context that we see an amazing confrontation take place...
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