Going Global

Acts 1-7 gives us the picture of the 1^st Church as it is establishing itself in Israel.  The church is thriving, but it is still local, not global.  This is not what they were told to do.  Remember these words of Jesus:

Matthew 28: 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

and these:

Acts 1: 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

                  It is clear that the plan of Jesus was that the church was to move out of Jerusalem and to go forward into the world, to the nations.  As we come to Acts 8:1, the church is still for the most part in Jerusalem and it takes God allowing persecution and martyrdom to force them outward.  For whatever reason, they have not gone out into the world with the gospel, and here is what the persecution did: Acts 8: 1 On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.  They are forced here to finally leave and to go out.  Why would God allow this in a thriving church? Here is the answer…Because the church is to be missional in nature, not institutional.                                                                                  

One of the results of this scattering was a church start in Antioch (See Acts 13).  This church sends out the first foreign missionaries, not the Jerusalem church.  The first mission trip was around 48AD, about 15 years after the birth of the 1^st church.  There are some characteristics of the very first missional/global church.  What we see of them, we can translate into our setting today.                                                                                                                                                  

Here are the characteristics of this missional church in Acts 13.  1.  Worshipping church (13:2) 2.  Prayer and Fasting church (13:2)  *It is in the midst of these two passions where the Holy Spirit spoke to set apart workers for the harvest to which he has called them.  When the Holy Spirit speaks he does so for this purpose: to set apart believers to go and join him in testifying about Christ in the world (John 15:26-27).                                                                                                                                                                                        

I am convinced that a worshipping and praying church of passion will also be a church that attracts those who want to go, raises up people to go, and personally participates in the going.  Are you apart of a church like Antioch? You and I should be.