{"id":12562,"date":"2021-03-22T22:19:45","date_gmt":"2021-03-22T22:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=12562"},"modified":"2021-05-04T22:13:25","modified_gmt":"2021-05-04T22:13:25","slug":"jerusalem-the-model-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=12562","title":{"rendered":"Jerusalem, the Model Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

Views: 0<\/p>

[Note: <\/strong>This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles 1<\/strong> page.]<\/span><\/p>\n

Jerusalem is where the church began. It was no accident that the first Gospel sermon was preached there, resulting in its establishment (Isa. 2:2\u20134; Luke 24:47). The early chapters of Acts tell us most of what we know about the first church of Christ.<\/span><\/p>\n

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  1. It was a church without distinctions<\/strong>. It was composed of people of all spiritual levels, from Jesus’ murderers to His apostles. There were wealthy land-owners and widows in abject poverty. There were Palestinian Jews and Hellenistic Jews. God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34), neither must we be (Jam. 2:1\u20134). We are out of step with Christ if we let race, wealth, education, et al. effect our treatment of others.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. It was a church of manifold unity<\/strong>. They were united in spirit. When a complaint arose it was immediately dealt with and not allowed to cause schism (Acts 6:1\u20136). They were of one accord, one heart and soul. They were united in one place (Acts 2:44, 46). They were united in prayer (2:42; 4:24). They were united in their doctrine and practice (2:42). They had all been saved and added to the church alike (2:38, 41). They all worshiped alike (2:42). Jesus’ church can always be recognized by its worship.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. It was a compassionate<\/strong> Many members sold their possessions to help others (Acts 2:44; 4:34). Widows received daily help (Acts 6:1). Jesus’ church will not be indifferent to the needs of others.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. It was a tried <\/strong> The Sanhedrin Court arrested various apostles three times, forbidding them to preach. Stephen was stoned to death for preaching, then a great persecution arose, driving all but the apostles from Jerusalem. Later Herod killed James and imprisoned Peter. The church was made stronger by it.<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. It was a large <\/strong> The first day it had about 3000 members (Acts 2:41), then the number of men grew to about 5000 (4:4). It was called a multitude next, which first multiplied (v.32), then multiplied exceedingly (5:14; 6:7).<\/span><\/li>\n
  6. It was an evangelistic<\/strong> church (Acts 5:28), which at least partly explains why it was so large. A church will always grow when it fills its city with the Gospel. It cannot do so without it.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    [Note:<\/strong> I wrote this article for and it was published in the Julyt 12, 1976, edition of Granbury Gospel<\/em>, weekly bulletin of the Church of Christ, Granbury, Texas, of which I was editor.]<\/span><\/p>\n

    Attribution:<\/strong> From thescripturecache.com<\/em>; Dub McClish, owner and administrator<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Views: 0[Note: This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles 1 page.] Jerusalem is where the church began. It was no accident that the first Gospel sermon was preached there, resulting in its establishment (Isa. 2:2\u20134; Luke 24:47). The early chapters of…<\/p>\n

    Continue Reading… Jerusalem, the Model Church<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[709,344,1058,138,166,1,125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-work","category-compassion","category-diversity","category-evangelism","category-trials","category-uncategorized","category-unity","wpcat-709-id","wpcat-344-id","wpcat-1058-id","wpcat-138-id","wpcat-166-id","wpcat-1-id","wpcat-125-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12562"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13603,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12562\/revisions\/13603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}