The persecution of the early Church was such that the Christians could not meet in one large group or invite people to the services at random as we do today. They ministered to people and talked to them, but they had to be very careful whom they brought to the services because there were many spies making lists of the Christians to be killed. Consequently, their meetings had an aura of mystery, but the people came with real faith just the same. They loved to come together for basic, simple fellowship. They would come and break bread together and talk by the hour, especially when there was a visiting ministry to teach them. They had some good readers who could read on and on under the anointing. The people were so blessed that afterwards they talked about what the Lord had done, what He had been to them in the Word. Often, they had a copy of an epistle or a word that had been given from the Lord, or even prophecies that had come in their own group by one of their prophets. They would read these, read the Scriptures, sing, and worship the Lord a great deal. Sometimes they became so involved and carried away in it that they worshiped and sang by the hour. They would hear the Word, exhort one another, and give everyone an opportunity to testify.
The services did not end like ours do; they just kept going. We read how Paul stopped in one place and preached almost all night. One young man in the balcony fell asleep, fell out of a window, and broke his neck; but Paul prayed for him and the Lord healed him (Acts 20:7–12).
The early Christians worshiped the Lord with a reverence that did not have the formality we know. Their reverence had a sincere, yet informal quality to it. In fact, they had to teach people to be quiet because they might be so overtaken with a revelation that suddenly everyone wanted to speak. The order was, “You can all prophesy one by one and take turns to exhort, but everyone must be a little slow to speak.” The prophets had to speak two or three while others judged, but each one held his peace until his turn came (I Corinthians 14:29–31).
It was a thrill when the apostolic companies came to the churches. Many times the companies were small, consisting of only two or three; but the demands made upon them were great. How the people listened and listened, drinking in every word!
I think the early Church thrived more on the stories of Jesus than anything else they heard. They would gather together and listen, as someone told about his experiences, how Christ had ministered to him and what He had said. They never ceased to be fascinated by the stories of the Lord. That first century the early Church saw people journey through the different churches. When someone had a real experience with the Lord, the word spread; and soon the people gathered.
We in this day set a time to come to the house of the Lord, but the believers in the early days did not. They did not wait for service time; they simply came. We cannot understand how they knew; it must have been a spiritual awareness. As the Holy Spirit gave them the witness of where and when to come, they would start gathering together, knowing that the Lord had summoned them. They dropped everything just to come together and worship the Lord. In their world there was nothing as important as hearing the Word God was speaking, and doing the will of the Lord. The early Church had a deep respect for the Word. The early Christians were also addicted to moving in the Spirit. Most of them were very much aware of the spirit realm and spiritual phenomena. When they became real believers in the Lord and were filled with the Spirit, they were concerned about something greater than coming together to hear a sermon; they were concerned about the Word being anointed and the revelation coming from the Lord.
The little children had an important place in the early Church. Almost from the beginning, the blessing rested upon the children. Often when the ministries traveled, they took the young men with them. It was the responsibility of an older saint to talk to some of the younger ones and teach them. They were more concerned about doing that than about winning converts. They talked with the children, telling them about the Lord and bringing an anointing to them. Even when the apostles or prophets went forth, they often had a young Timothy or Titus with them. This was the way the young ministries came forth and were blessed.
It is difficult to imagine what the early Church faced, because we live in another age. We live with many pressures, but they had other kinds of pressure though their lives were very simple. Some of them had found nothing in life worth living for; but when they came to Christ, everything changed. They knew their lives were in jeopardy from the minute they became believers. They could be stripped of their possessions (if they had any). They could be killed or have their homes taken from them. Many believers had no family ties because all had forsaken them. They were people who had paid a great price.
People did not become believers unless they were willing to pay the price. This has always been true. They paid a price that was very dear; consequently, they never played at being Christians. It was serious business. It meant more to them than their life because the odds were that they would lay their life down for it. They made the most of it, as they came and worshiped the Lord.
Nothing in the world could change a person’s perspective toward life like the conditions under which the early Church lived. Those Christians lived in a world in which their lives were sometimes hanging by a thread. People who live that way do not become very anxious over things that are transient and a part of the passing scene. If a house burned down, that was too bad; but it was not considered any great catastrophe. There were people coming to services all the time who had been burned out or robbed, or whose goods had been taken. They were told by the Lord, “Let them take your coat and give them your cloak also (Matthew 5:40). Do not worry about it. You have something far more important.” Because of that, they had a sense of values that was very sound. The things of this world and their possessions did not count for nearly as much as just walking with the Lord for one day. Each day was a day, not of looking out for themselves, but of walking with God, for it might be their last.
The Scripture, “We are killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter” (Romans 8:36), truly applied to the early Christians. Not a day passed without Christians being persecuted or slaughtered some place in the Roman Empire. In some churches many of the people bore scars where they had been beaten. Others were bruised or maimed. One might see a lovely child with his eyes put out or limbs broken or amputated as a result of having been tortured. Some actually managed to escape the wild beasts, after being cruelly mauled by them. Christians were anyone’s sport, yet every day there were more of them. They could not be killed fast enough; people kept believing and doing anything they could to follow the Lord. All they wanted was just to love Him and serve Him.
Those early days were beautiful days, but we are in days that are beautiful too. Those days were precious, but we are in days like them. The early Christians seemed to sense that they were taking a running jump on a springboard, sailing out into a whole new world, an ocean of grace that the world had never seen. We are doing the same thing as we stand on the threshold of times that are very much in the plan of God. We are reaching out into a whole new age. Perhaps the greatest problem all of us have is that of becoming overly concerned with our own little world which we have restricted in our thinking, instead of realizing that God has made us a part of such a big, beautiful world, of a whole new era that is coming. Many people who call themselves believers or Christians will miss what God is doing just as people did then.
The early churches saw a world that had a great deal of religious activity and organization. There were some who separated themselves from every kind of pleasure and comfort of life, while others made a religion out of any form of debauchery they could think of. The whole scope of religion went from one extreme to another.
We see much religiosity in this day, but most of it is based on the psychic realm. At the same time we see a great breakthrough, as people are walking with God. The Lord is walking in our midst just as He did in the early Church. What we need now is to develop a greater awareness of the Lord. We do not have the awareness that we should have, nor do we realize how much the Lord is with us, dwelling in each one of us. We often are not aware of our high calling in God nor of who we really are, what we are chosen to be, or what God has made us. If that awareness came upon us, our worship would be no different than that of the early Church.
Each time they took the Lord’s Supper, the early Christians were aware that the Lord was with them. He appeared in their midst hundreds of times while they were breaking bread and taking the cup. Nothing was more sacred to them than coming together to eat of His Body and drink of His Blood. Some of our Communion services are very much like that. We come together; and as we break the bread and bless it, we are aware that the Lord is with us. We worship the way we are supposed to, with singing in the Spirit. We read the Scriptures and expound them.
Many of the things that happened in the early Church, we have not yet experienced to any degree. There were frequent interventions by angels who came and talked to the disciples, explaining what they were to do or how they were to flee from certain pressures. For example, Acts 27:23 tells of an angel who came to Paul during a storm. When someone had been through such an experience, he related the incident many times afterwards. We read certain hints of this in the Bible. Simon of Cyrene is identified as the father of Rufus (Mark 15:21). The churches must have loved to hear that black man named Simon tell how he had carried the cross for Jesus. He was one of the most honored men in the early Church. Rufus was a minister who preached far and wide throughout the Roman Empire, but Simon of Cyrene was the man whom the Romans compelled to carry the cross of the Master when He fell under its weight.
The stories that were told in the early Church were beautiful, describing what had happened and what the Lord had done. God has led us away from the old-order testimony service, but one of these days we will be telling one another how the Lord has met us and what He has done for us in a way that will be glorifying of the Lord. We will not boast about what wicked sinners we were before the Lord saved us, but we will tell what the Lord has done for us. The early Church talked about the times He had ministered to them and what He had done. The little things that He did seemed to stand out in their minds; and that is the reason they are recorded in the Gospels every once in a while; for them there was nothing more important.
Many things happened the night Jesus was tried in the courts of Caiaphas; but there is only one thing that stands out in the Gospels. The Christians did not remember the false accusations brought against Jesus; but they did talk about Peter denying the Lord, about how the cock crew, and the Lord turned and looked at Peter and broke his heart. Those are the things they talked about and recorded in the Gospels.
There was a childlike simplicity in the people who loved the Lord. There were some very brilliant men in the early Church. Not only could they speak many languages, but their other abilities would rival some of the best educated people today, yet there was a childlike simplicity about the faith in their hearts and about the way they walked.
They were not concerned about splitting hairs or coming together to argue. What really thrilled them were the stories about the resurrection of the Lord. They were very concerned about the way the Lord would lift the veils from their understanding. After the resurrection, they suddenly understood many things. The two men who were on the road to Emmaus suddenly had their eyes opened, and they knew Him (Luke 24:13–32). Most of the Christians found that as they walked along with the Lord, there were progressive times when the Lord lifted the veil from their understanding and suddenly they knew things they had not known before; suddenly they could see them clearly.
Paul writes about the eyes of your understanding being enlightened (Ephesians 1:18). In these days the Lord is opening your understanding. As you are walking along with the Lord, the Lord lifts the cloud; or He suddenly confronts you with a mountain, and your faith rises to cast it into the sea. Little by little you are made strong by the fact that the Lord is more and more real to you all the time. It is a privilege to suffer for the Lord, to go through things you do as you walk with God.
No generation, even that early generation, was more favored than this one. The prophets saw this generation and prophesied about it. The early Church saw it, and they talked and prophesied about these days. They looked forward to this generation when there would be a consummation of one age and the beginning of another one. This is the reason there are many references to it. They knew there would be much conflict, great difficulties, and sorrows in the earth; but they knew also that Jesus Christ was the Lord and He would prevail. We read much about the patience of the saints, for they believed what God had said about them; they had to be patient and endure. They knew that the Kingdom was coming, the glorious Kingdom of the Lord.
The days of revelation are just ahead, the times when the Lord will appear in our midst during a service. He comes very close even now, and He will reveal Himself. The Lord said, “Do not worry about it. When it is said, ‘Lo, He is in the chamber, or He is in the desert,’ do not rush to meet Him” (Matthew 24:26). His presence is not a matter of distance or of opportunity, but of the spiritual state of the heart. In the first century, He came where the hearts were prepared. When the believers were in one accord worshiping, there would be a visitation from the Lord; and something would happen. It will be that way again. As we walk on with the Lord from day to day, we will know some tremendous days, filled with signs and wonders.
Twelve hours a day to wait before the Lord would not be enough, for there are many things to be learned and many people to be helped. Sometimes we can actually help more by spending time alone with God in prayer than by ministering to people directly. Too often we do not see the Lord for all the people; we do not see the ministry for the mechanics of it.
The ministry is changing because many things of the New Testament times are being restored and many of the New Testament ministries themselves are being restored. The veil between the saints that have gone on to be with the Lord and the present Church is disappearing. As the cloud of witnesses hovers near (Hebrews 12:1), some of the saints of the past reach out to communicate.
When a person walks in a ministry, they become a little odd, because the ministry helps them eliminate many facets of their life that are considered a part of a well-rounded personality. Those facets are lost in a concentration upon one specific area.
The Lord frequently taught Peter, James, and John things that He did not teach others. What was it like to be on top of the mountain and see the Lord transfigured, to see Moses and Elijah come down and talk with Him (Matthew 17:1–9)? We would probably have stared and been overwhelmed with trembling awe. Peter wrote in his epistle, “We were eyewitnesses of His glory and of the Kingdom” (II Peter 1:16). He had seen the Lord in His glory, and he had seen what the Kingdom would be like. What did they talk about on the mountain that day? Moses and Elijah talked to the Lord about the things concerning His death and about the glory and the things of His Kingdom. If that conversation had been recorded, it would be marvelous for the believers to read; but only Peter, James, and John heard it. The Holy Spirit did not see fit to put it in the Scriptures. But God is speaking those same things to us today—the secrets and the wonders of the Kingdom that is to come, another age with a glory beyond what we can imagine.
What would you like to know about the early Church? What would you like to know about the life of Christ? What experience would you like to have lived through with Him? Would you like to have seen the way He put His disciples in a corner, demanding that they be believers? Would you like to have heard one of His sermons? Would you like to know what He looked like? He did not look the way artists usually paint Him. He looked much more like a Jew than He is usually portrayed. His face was rather round, not thin and aesthetic as people usually picture Him. He was strong physically, because He worked in a carpenter’s shop, handling big beams. His shoulders were tremendous. Every time one looked at Him, he probably thought of the Scripture, “The government shall be upon His shoulders. His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor” (Isaiah 9:6).
We will all see the Lord before long, for this is the day of the Parousia, of His appearing. In the meantime, we must continue to labor unto the Lord, to sing unto the Lord, and to worship Him with all our hearts. We must believe in this walk with the Lord and not waver in it or be confused.
The believers in the early Church could not be shaken. They were ready to die for their faith. There was no question about it; their decision was made. They had set their will almost stubbornly to believe what God had said, to believe the Word, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, even if they had not seen Him. The Lord was great in their sight. By human standards they were ignorant and unlearned men (Acts 4:13), but His wisdom was theirs because they trusted wholly in Him. They rejoiced when the prophecy came over some weak person that he would move with the strength of Samson. They loved to see the arm of the Lord made bare. They were inadequate and insufficient; they just let the Lord be great.