teaching the people

It strikes me that the early church continued in a lot the same pattern that Jesus saw in his ministry.

This is what it says in Acts 4:1-4: “The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. They seized Peter and John and, because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. But many who heard the message believed; so the number of men who believed grew to about five thousand.”

Right before this, Peter and John healed a crippled man. That made people ask questions, and they took the opportunity to talk about Jesus. And people responded.

Sounds a lot like Jesus, doesn’t it? Jesus helped people, which made more people gather. Then he talked, and people believed. The religious leaders would get angry and plot against Jesus.

I have a couple of thoughts here. First, the church is at it’s best, and most effective, when it looks most like Jesus. He was our model for how his work should be done on earth, and we are his workmen saved and recruited to continue what he started - teaching the people.

Second, when we look like Jesus we will scare whoever is currently in power. After all, they like things just the way they are; right now, everything is going to their advantage. They aren’t looking for change; in fact, change is a threat. The status quo is familiar and comfortable. But Jesus is countercultural and revolutionary. He and his followers always bring change.

This is a cautionary tale for all of us. If we’re in church leadership, we have to be willing to move past what feels good to us to embrace the changes that come as Jesus’ kingdom moves forward; certainly we never want to find ourselves in the position of opposing those changes. If we not leaders, we should still be open to the ways the Gospel message is spreading to people not like us, and how that might result in church being different than it used to be.

At the end of the day, the people who benefit from the system will try to perpetuate it, and the ones who don’t will try to change it. At least that’s the way the world works. Jesus calls us to see beyond that, and to follow his lead regardless of benefit to ourselves.