The Jerusalem Church 2 Showed Love For Needy Saints And Received Love When Needy
Preacher: Gary Hunt | Series: The Jerusalem Church
In the book of Acts, we have the Divine record of the gospel being preached and thousands obeying to be saved, become Christians. No one became a Christian by the Siiner’s prayer. Instead, we read they were saved when they believed in Jesus enough to repent of their sins, confess Him to be the Son of God and be baptized (immersed in water) for the forgiveness of their sins. After being saved, Jesus added them to His one universal church. In various localities, they assembled together as local churches. The first local church was the church meeting in Jerusalem. From Acts, we have the Divine record of this church that was guided and unified by the apostles’ teaching in their worship and work together. Unlike the false teachings of men today, the Jerusalem church took care of the needy saints among them in a direct sacrifical way without any directing churches or centralized organzations involved. They also received love from other local churches when they became needy. Again, this was done directly without any involvement of directing churches or centralized organizations. We also see that the Jerusalem church was not a general welfare society that tried to meet the needs of the population in general. Why is it that lcal churches today follow such a different pattern in giving and receving benevolence than what we read in the book of Acts? Could it be they have departed from and rejected the apostles’ authoritative teaching and embraced and applied the teachings of men based on human wisdom and glory?
