Fearsome or Fearful?

I was bringing some lessons to a lovely group of young people at the weekend about the infant church as we find it in Acts chapter 2. Our studies finished with verse 42 where we saw how the early believers participated in the life of the church.

'And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.'

As I have continued to meditate on the passage I was struck by the outcome of their participation in the life of their local church in the very next verse.

'And fear came upon every soul:'

A Godly fear came upon the people of Jerusalem as they witnessed the fervour and commitment of these early Christians. Sad to day in the 21st Century western church we do not strike such a Godly fear into our communities. We are not the fearsome church but we are the fearful church! To many in our nation the church is irrelevant or even a joke.

I think our lack of impact can be traced to our abandonment of the pattern of verses 41&42. Many Christians our not added to their local assemblies or baptised as outlined in verse 41. As we think about verse 42 we see that many Christians do not put themselves under the teaching of the apostles doctrine, nor do they enjoy the fellowship of other believers (preferring the friendship of this world), nor do they remember the Lord in his own appointed way and sad to say they have no interest in the place of prayer either privately or corporately. Herein is our weakness, we must say with the Apostle John: -

'Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.' Revelation chapter 2 v5

May God give us the grace to repent.