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Show BIBLE Rj:DR. KENNETH J. FOREMAN SCRIPTUnE: Acts 1:8: 2:lM; 4:1-4: 4 17 25 ll:M8: 13:1-3; 14:20 27: 1C-1 in M-lfl" 30-31. DEVOTIONAL READING. Acu 4:23 31 Story of Revolution Lesson for December 5, 1918 THE MOST important history in the world is in one small book. The most important movement, the most revolutionary, the one that is destined to change the world more than IMgJiK any other, is the Christian church, h 'fif?A The story of how h it began is ir. the W , book of Acts. No Y y A other book in or tAfh out of the New p Testament tells the pSmjf.'M story: The history liii.i of the beginnings Dr. Foreman 'of the one and only j international, interracial, worldwide world-wide movement that sets out to aim at nothing less than a complete transformation of mankind, the .Revolution from Within, the Christian Chris-tian Church. l What the Church Is i THERE are hundreds of churches today and they do not all agree. ; But every church, whatever its name or peculiarities, aims to stay , on the course marked out by the Christian church when it was one and undivided, the church of the Apostles. We look back to the story in Acts to see what the true church j is. i In the very beginning, the church was not the place where the Christians met for worship. II was not the officers. The Apostles themselves were not , the church. The church was not a thing at all; it was people. In Acts these people are seldom called Christians and never called churchmen or church-members. They are given more meaningful names. They are called "disciples." that is, learners, students. They are called "believers." They are called "brothers" for their life was like that of a family. They are called the people of "the Way," travelers together to the same destination. The church, in short, is a fellowship, fellow-ship, the Family of the Friends of Christ , How the Church Began THE ..infant church was like all human babies: it began small and poor. No bystander would have expected it to live; but it had life in its heart. Two forces set that church on its way. One was the command of Christ. The people who were lu it, or rather the people who were the church, took their orders from Christ. It was because of him that they went out to bear witness wit-ness to him to the "uttermost parts of the earth." Then the people were filled with the Holy Spirit; they were guided constantly by the Spirit. The book of Acts has often been called the "Acts of the Holy Spirit" rather than of the Apostles. Leaders OD never does for people what they can do for themselves. So guidance of the Spirit was never a substitute for human leadership. A true:hurch is not a mob: It acts, as the New Testament church 'did, in an orderly fashion. One of the church's first problems prob-lems was that of finding leaders. The history in Acts is largely the history of certain leaders John, Peter, Paul. But these were not alone. Not even the Apostles tried to run the church like a dictatorship. dictator-ship. The people themselves chose the officers who were ordained by the Apostles. What the Church Does pIVE things the Apostolic church did, and these mark any true church today. They "continued in the Apostles' teachings;" the beginning be-ginning of all our church schools and Sunday schools is in that brief Phrase. They formed a fellowship; the church then was not a list of names of people who cared little for one another; it was a true family. They observed the sacraments; sacra-ments; they and their households house-holds were baptized, and they continued "in the breaking of ihe bread." Baptism and the Lord's Supper have always been observed In some form in every Christian church! Tbey "continued in prayer;" a church In which only the minister prays 's a feeble affair. Above all. they were "witnesses." Tnat is to say, they told the story of Jesus his life, his teachings, his death, his resurrection Jesus lives! Jesus is Lord I So the Apostles Preached, from Jerusalem to "ume and far beyond. But their preaching would have been mere shouting m the wind, If Christ had not lived again in thousands of everyday Christians. ciCafrntht fcJfi '""f'n Council |