This week’s instalment focuses on how the strategies employed by the early Church to preach the Good News evolved from their understanding of the mission given to them by Jesus. Charged with this assignment, groups of established and new believers worked effectively together to spread the gospel in their localities and on their missionary journeys.

Witnesses

The task Jesus gave to the Church was to go into all the world with the message of his life, death and resurrection, to which they were witnesses. The key to understanding the rapid spread of the gospel, and expansion of the number of new believers in the early days of the Church, lies in the believers’ understanding of themselves as personal witnesses, commissioned by the Lord Jesus.

The term ‘witness’ is used numerous times in the New Testament in order to describe the believers. It was first used by Jesus himself, speaking to the 11 and others with them in one of the post-resurrection appearances. After referring to his death and resurrection, he said “You are witnesses of these things” (Luke 24:48). Jesus repeated this when he gave the strategy, “You will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8).

It was the need to appoint an eyewitness of Christ’s ministry, resurrection and ascension that Peter gave as the reason for replacing Judas. He said, “it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us…for one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection” (Acts 1:21-22).

Peter, speaking to the crowds in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost referred to the resurrection: “God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact” (Acts 2:32). Similarly, when speaking at the Temple, he declared that he and the other believers were witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus (Acts 3:15). Even when brought before the High Priest and the Sanhedrin, the Apostles stressed the fact that they were witnesses to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Peter added that the Holy Spirit also was a witness to these things (Acts 5:32).

Early believers understood themselves as personal witnesses, commissioned by the Lord Jesus.

Paul’s personal testimony of the appearance of Jesus to him on the road to Damascus included the declaration that Jesus had appointed him to be a witness: “Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you” (Acts 26:16).

The significance of this stress upon their role as witnesses lay in the believers’ recognition of their personal relationship with the Lord Jesus and through him with the Father. This was a fulfilment of the prophecy of Jeremiah that the New Covenant would involve just such a personal relationship with God. Jeremiah had foreseen that this personal relationship would be open to all believers, “They will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord” (Jer 31:34).

The experience of this special relationship between the believer and the Lord Jesus meant that each one received the Great Commission as a personal command from the Lord and shared in the vision for carrying the Good News to all nations. They each personally received the power of the Holy Spirit to enable them to be his witnesses and this had the effect of confirming and reinforcing their conviction.

Strategy Fulfilled

Even though the believers in the Jerusalem Church had received the three-fold experience of commissioning, envisaging and empowering (discussed last week), they still were not fulfilling the whole purpose of their mission as witnesses, until after the death of Stephen.

The picture we see from Luke’s account in Acts 1-5 is of the Church being wholly confined to Jews, Hebraic and Hellenistic, centred upon Jerusalem with a strong homogeneity among the members and enjoying the favour of all the people. The authorities warned the Apostles not to speak publicly about the resurrection of Jesus, but there was no widespread persecution - no attempt to root out all the believers.

All this changed following the powerful preaching of Stephen, his arrest, defence before the Sanhedrin and his very public testimony to the risen, glorified Jesus at his stoning (Acts 7:54-60).

But the persecution that then descended upon the believers was a turning point in the mission of the Church. The next stage in the strategy Jesus had given them began to be fulfilled as the witnesses started to make their testimony in the towns and villages of Judea and Samaria and even farther afield. The final stage in the strategy of carrying the gospel to the ends of the earth did not begin until after the conversion of Paul, who was specifically appointed to be the apostle to the Gentiles.

The persecution that descended upon the believers after the death of Stephen was a turning point in the mission of the Church.

Strategy Follows

In the earliest days when the Church was largely confined to Jerusalem, structure and organisation were minimal. The believers were a fellowship rather than an organisation. They had no special buildings for meetings, as they simply worshipped in the Temple and in one another’s homes. The Apostles clearly had a special position in the fellowship and were the main public spokesmen and teachers of the house fellowships.

It was not until the church at Antioch began sending out missions into the Gentile world that the need for some structure and organisation began to become apparent. The churches Paul planted in each of the towns and cities on his missionary journeys were centred on the home of one of the believers and in each house fellowship Paul appointed local leaders. These fellowships were not highly organised institutions; they were simply local groups of believers acting in much the same way as the fellowships in Jerusalem. The need for organisation was minimal particularly due to the expectation of the imminent return of Christ among the first generation of believers.

The major stress was upon mission rather than organisation. It was a mission in which everyone was involved. They were all witnesses, seeking ways of obeying the command of the Lord Jesus to share with others the facts of his death and resurrection and the message of the forgiveness of sins.

The Church of the first generation was not an organisation with a headquarters and meeting places to which it invited people to come, but rather, a fellowship of believers who went out to others. They took the message to the people rather than inviting the people to come to hear the message. Thus, the major organisational need was to teach new believers so that they were equipped to obey the commission to go and witness to others.

From the foregoing, it will be seen that the strategy of the Church flowed out of the mission of the Church and the structure of the Church flowed out of the strategy. Thus, both strategy and structure were subordinate to mission, which was the prime task of the Church.

Questions for further reflection:

1. Sowers and reapers are all engaged in the work of evangelism. Witnesses are sowers and evangelists are reapers. How does this apply to the work of evangelism today?

2. The Acts of the Apostles shows the New Testament ekklesia as an organism rather than an organisation. Can we have structure without losing spiritual vitality?

This article is part of a larger series. Please click here for previous instalments.