Discipleship

Acts 6:7 is the first of a series of six summary statements that seem to be used by Luke to shift the story line in Acts. Like the entire collection of summaries, this one is remarkable in its description of what the church looked like. Here is what Luke says: The word of God continued to spread; the number of the disciples increased greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. (Acts 6:7, NRSV)

There are some very powerful verb ideas in that sentence – continued to spread, increased greatly, and became obedient. What makes them even more impressive in their testimony to life in the early church is that they summarize the earliest life of the church.

Think about the story line in Acts thus far. It all started with the followers of Jesus, eye witnesses to the resurrection, a bit confused about the whole Jesus thing. “Are you going to restore the Kingdom to Israel at this time?” was their question just before His ascension. Jesus’ response was simply “Go and wait.”

Wait they did – and on Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came upon them, these otherwise confused and frightened followers boldly proclaim “This Jesus, whom you have crucified, God has made both Lord and Christ.” A mega-church was born that day – 3000 people (likely just counting the men) were baptized. That was a pretty impressive “first Sunday” by anyone’s standards!

They continued to bear witness to the gospel, and the church continued to have an impact on its Jerusalem community. A great Christian community is being formed in which there were no persons who had unmet needs. (Again, pretty impressive by anyone’s standards.) We meet people like Joseph, whose witness was so impressive the apostles gave him a new name – Barnabas, son of encouragement. We read the unfortunate story of Ananias and Sapphira and their horribly negative witness. There is a bit of persecution of the followers of Jesus – perhaps summarized in Acts 5:41 where Luke says, they rejoiced that they were considered worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name.

For the first time since Luke 22:45, the word disciples is used Acts 6:1 to describe the followers of Jesus – perhaps suggesting that in Luke’s mind, the church really is the continuation of “what Jesus began to do and teach.” (Acts 1:1) The last story of this first “act of Acts” ends with those powerful verbal idea – spreading, increasing, obeying. Apparently Luke views such ministry as the work of those who see themselves as disciples of Christ – continuing the ministry He began.

I wonder if perhaps my own life as a disciple would be more productive if I were brave enough to evaluate it with words like spreading, increasing, and obeying. Then what about those I have the privilege to influence – are they spreading, increasing, and obeying?

When I review the story line of Acts – there seems to be this rather consistent idea that the primary focus of these early Christians was simply to follow Jesus as disciples. That idea has all sorts of implications for them in their culture – as it does for us in our own culture. It transcends culture in ways that are both amazing and filled with potential.

All of this leaves me with a simple question: If I were writing a summary of my life, my discipleship for Christ – would words like spreading, increasing, and obeying be the words I would honestly use!