The Infectious Church

bryan posted on May 28, 2009

“The Infectious Church” by Bryan Loritts

When we come to the book of Acts we see the church in motion and having a phenomenal, culturally changing impact!

The setting for this infectious movement called the church begins in Jerusalem, but it doesn’t stay there! No! It spreads, just like a virus!

If we can embrace the DNA of the early church in such a way that they become ours we will set the table to have the same kind of infectious impact that they had

1. The Gospel: On the day of Pentecost, Peter preaches a sermon that is centered on the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In other words he preaches the gospel! With great boldness he calls people to repent of their sins and put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ! Peter preaches the Gospel! And this is how the community is formed, and it is this gospel that catapulted and launched this incredibly infectious church in the book of Acts!

2. Making Disciples: The early church were “devoted.” This word literally means to commit, to stay by, to persist, here it is, it literally means to attach oneself to. In fact this word was used of one who followed another. Discipleship simply means to produce reproducing followers of Christ.

3. Pursuing Christ: The church was in constant pursuit of Christ. The phrase ‘breaking of bread’ is more than just a meal together, although that was a significant part of it. Specifically, Luke is pointing out that the sacrament of communion was a major part of their gathering. In fact it was so crucial to the life of the church that our text tells us that they did this day by day in verse 46. In other words, they were constantly remembering Christ!

4. Aligning Biblically: The church was incredibly committed to biblical truth, or to say it another way they were aligning biblically. We know this from verse 42 that tells us that a major part of the church was a commitment to the apostles teaching which was rooted in their version of the Scriptures which was the OT and centered on the person of Jesus Christ.

5. Loving Others: The first church sold their possessions and gave to each who had need. This is telling us that this church was a socio-economically diverse church. There were the haves- those who had the property and the resources to give. And there were the have nots- those who didn’t have and therefore were in need. These two groups were going to church together and doing life with one another.

But secondly this church was also a racially diverse church. The nations represented at Pentecost included Egypt, Libya and so on. So that this is a multi-ethnic, multi-national gathering. Yet in spite of ALL their differences Acts 2 tells us that they were loving one another, giving up their possessions and sharing with whoever was in need, regardless of race, class or socio economic status!

When the church gave herself to the gospel, making disciples, pursuing Christ, aligning biblically and loving others well her world changed. In fact it would change the mightiest nation, Rome forever. Just three centuries after our passage is written, the emperor of Rome would become a Christian! Astounding! The very nation that tried with all its might to stop the viral infectious movement called the church, ended up catching the virus herself. That’s the church!