Inception

In David Platt’s provocative book Follow Me, he makes a most penetrating statement.  “So, if you had nothing but people – no buildings, no programs, no staff, no activities – and you were charged with spreading the gospel to the whole world, where do you begin?  Would you start by pooling your money so that you could spend millions of dollars on a building to meet in? 373287_1_ftc Would you get the best speaker, the greatest musicians, and the most talented staff in order to produce and present programs that appeal to your families and your children?  Would you devote your resources to what is most comfortable, most entertaining, and most pleasing to you?  If we recognized that there are billions of people without the gospel, many who have never heard it, and if we realized that hundreds of millions of people are starving without food and water, we would probably not say, ‘Let’s spend millions of dollars building a house of worship.’”

Let us look at a portrait of the church in its inceptionThe Great Commission given by Christ was not a choice to consider.  It was a command to obey.  Without the benefit of media or technology, the gospel spread to the known world in the first century.  In the next seven posts we will observe seven imperatives from the book of Acts that made this possible.