QUANTITY FOLLOWS QUALITY -- Devotional for April 21, from "Good Seeds"

And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer…praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42,47)

Someone said, “In thinking about past Christmases, why not go all the way back to the first one.” That is surely true, for isn’t it possible to get all sentimental and nostalgic about the fun we had at Christmas time when we were children – and still entirely miss the reason there even is such a thing as Christmas. That same principle holds true regarding church. People can hark back to the simple joys of the old country church, or feel their religious spine tingle as they ponder the candlelight and organ music and somber prayers and mysterious rituals of church as they once experienced it – and yet totally miss what the church actually is. To discover the meaning of church, again we must go back to the first one. And here in Acts 2 we read what went on in the earliest church. Though surely not aware of it, those Christians were involved in five distinct activities, which resulted in two special blessings from the Lord. Notice that nothing is said here about church buildings or pastors or budgets or boards or rituals or even sermons and songs, and yet these people “had church” like nothing seen since. They were continually (daily) devoted (not just dabbling) in: 1) Truth, as it came to them through those who had had a real encounter with Jesus; 2) Fellowship. In 75 A.D. they knew nothing of potlucks and small talk, but much about putting into practice the “one another’s” of the New Testament; 3) Remembering – what Jesus did for them when He died for them: every time they ate bread or drank wine, they let these elements call to mind their Lord’s supreme sacrifice; 4) Prayer - Seeking God’s face and blessing, showing the dominant heavenward focus of the believer; 5) A spirit of joyful gratitude to God, tempered by a fearful awareness of His absolute holiness – two things which are played out in Worship. Now, what two effects followed these five causes? A) Favor with outsiders. We think living the Christian life as we should always results in suffering and persecution, but sometimes unbelievers reserves judgment as they are drawn to us (to our God through us), maybe even secretly admiring us – to the point of wanting what we have. And that’s just what happened in "The First Church of Jerusalem": B) Quantitative growth. When we do what pleases God (quality), He is pleased to multiply our influence, and very often our numbers, too. (quantity).