Lecture No.

5
The Church and Her Mission – 1
Objectives:
1. To help students learn how God used apostles to establish the principles, which guide
the mission of the church.
2. They will also study how the New Testament principles can be applied today in the
worldwide mission of the church

Go to the
ends of the
earth 
Learn the following Key Words
Administration Finances Ritual Aramaic Flexible
Sanctify Conversion Magnetic Spiritual Deacon
Mission Strategic Delegate Organizational Supernatural
Divisive Personality Systematic Doctrinal Phenomenal
Doctrine Reproduce Talmud
A.
The Mission Defined
o What do we mean by the mission of the church?
o It may generally be defined as the carrying out of the redemptive purposes of God to all
peoples.
o In another words, we can say that the mission is doing what God desires.
o What is his desire?
o His desire is to search for the lost everywhere until the lost are found.
o So the mission of the church is to go everywhere with the gospel.
o But it is more than that.
o The mission is to make disciples of all nations.
o The mission of the church is to all cultures, to all social and economic levels.
o Theinternal power of the Holy Spirit must be in the church before the
external mission can begin.
B.
The Mission Begun
o The mission of the church began in the power of the Holy Spirit.
o The church grew very rapidly.
o People became believers every day (Acts 2:41,42).
o The church did not grow simply because people wanted to find something new to
believe.
o In fact, many that did believe were thrown into prison, beaten, or even killed.
 o Yet many thousands of people became believers, and the gospel spread throughout many
areas in just a few years.
o In a short time from its inception, the church had grown by thousands of new believers.
o What stimulated this kind of phenomenal growth of the church.
o We will study three events stimulated church growth.
o Apostles used these principles and this will still promote church growth today.

2 Events which Stimulated Church Growth

1. The Authority of Scripture
o On the Day of Pentecost Peter preached the life, death and
resurrection of Jesus.
o He spoke with authority (Act 2:21-31; 3:13).
o Peter preached with authority (Acts 2:37).
o Stephen preached by the authority of God’s Word (Acts 7).
o They did not preach to set forth a new religion.
o They preached with the power of the Holy Spirit.
2. Reliance on the Supernatural
o After the Day of Pentecost Peter and John went to the temple and healed a crippled
man (Acts 3:6-10).
o When the people saw miracles of healing performed by the power of God and saw
lives changed, they believed that Christ could meet their needs also.

o The apostles completely relied upon the supernatural power of God.

o The church followed the example of the apostles.
C.
The Mission Expands
o The church spread to all cultures.
o Why the church can grow among all peoples?
o We will examine two important reasons why the church can grow in any country or
location.

2
1. Through Multiple Leadership
o The church in Jerusalem was well established and growing.
o Then the persecution of the church began (Acts 5:17-41).
o After the death of Stephen great persecution broke out (Acts 8:1).
o The church was scattered, but it was not lost.
o Wherever the believers went new churches came into being.
o How could this happen?
o It was because of one principle, that is, the Church is not dependent on one person’s
personality or authority.
o For example, Philip went to Samaria (Acts 8:4-8). Barnabas went to Antioch (Acts
11:19-23).
 o Other disciples must have gone to Joppa, Ephesus, and other cities.
o There were always a variety of ministries and leaders according to the provision of the
Holy Spirit (Rom. 12:5-8; 1 Cor. 12:7-11).
2. By Flexible Approach
o Most of the early believers were the Jews who were following their
ceremonial laws.
o Gentiles also accepted Christ and became believers.
o Both groups learned that the gospel does not require ritual or prescribed
ceremony but is received by faith in Jesus Christ.
o It is not ceremonies or customs, but only the truth of salvation that must be
taught as the gospel is preached around the world to many different peoples.
o What the early church taught was the truth of Salvation through Jesus Christ. How
people worshipped depended on their own culture.
o The message of the gospel is not the rules, rituals, or ceremonies of a particular religion.
o It is a message of being brought into a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
o There are no barriers of races, language, culture, or country for the Gospel. That is the
power of the gospel.
Self-Test
Sara is a new believer who had belonged to a very ritualistic religion. Now she worries that
she is not a good Christian because she is not performing religious ceremonies.  the letter
of the verses of Scripture you would use to help her.
(a). Rom. 1:17. (b). Rom. 3:9. (c). Rom. 3:24. (d). Philip. 3:9.
(e). Titus 3:5. (f). 2 Pet. 3:3.

Readings:
1. Acts 2, 3, 5, &11.
2. Arn, Win. The Pastor’s Church Growth Handbook. Pasadena: Institute for
American Church Growth, 1979. pp. 110-116; 136-138.
3. Wagner, C. Peter. Strategies for Church Growth. California: Regal Books, 1987. pp.
95-131.

Study Questions:
1. What stimulated the church growth in the early period and how it will work in our
times?
2. Have practical discussions on why the church can grow among all peoples.

Lecture No. 6
The Church & her Missions - 2

Objectives:
1. To learn the important developments in the early church
2. To study the problems and how apostles solved them.
 A. The Mission Continues
o As the church began to grow few important things developed in the early church.
o We will study three developments happened in the church as it was organized to
accomplish its mission.
o We will also study five problems that threatened the church and how the Holy Spirit
guided the apostles to use the principles to solve those problems.

3 Developments
1. Organizational Structure was developed
o There was no structure of church organization in the beginning of
the church in Jerusalem.
o Later it was developed by apostles to meet the needs of the
congregations.
o We have already studied that there were 3000 people who joined
the church on the Day of Pentecost.
o Most of them were Grecian Jews (Hellenist) These Jews lived in
the Roman Empire and adopted much of of the Greek culture.
o Later there came Jews from Judea.
o They overtook the number of Greek-speaking believers.
o This caused the first administrative problem in the church.
o The Greek-speaking believers (Acts 6:1) felt their widows were being neglected in the
daily distribution.
o It was a leadership problem, which called for some new organisational structure.
o The apostles met together and chose seven spirit-filled men to simply provide direct
leadership for their groups (Acts 6:6).
o It provided for a clear line of authority and a smooth functioning in the church.

2. Local Churches were first established in strategic population

centers.
o Some of the earliest congregations were founded in places such as
Cyprus, on the main sea route to the west, and in Antioch, a leading
city in the North.
o Then believers traveled to different places and won Greeks to Christ
(Acts 11:19-20).
o Churches were also established in Derbe, Iconium, Lystra, and other centres in Asia Minor.
o To the west, churches were founded in Corinth, and Berea and other leading cities in the
province of Macedonia and Achaia.
o The cities and towns in which Paul planted churches were centers of Roman administration,
of Greek civilization, of Jewish influence or of commercial importance.
o As a church is planted in a strategic center, it begins to spread out and establish churches in
the surrounding areas.
3. Church Finance was a part of worship
o Giving offerings was a spontaneous act of worship for the
early Christians.
o There were no pleas and demands for offerings but believers
gave from an inward desire of love and worship (Acts 2:44-
45; 2 Cor. 8:2-3).
o When the Christians in Jerusalem were in need, Paul instructed the churches in Corinth
and Galatia on a systematic method of giving and sending offerings (1 Cor. 16:1-4;
2Cor. 8:18-21).
o Paul commanded on the generosity of the believers and their spontaneous giving to those
in the ministry (2 Cor. 9:1-5).
o Those who preach the Gospel should live by the Gospel.
o The believers should help those who minister (1 Cor. 9: 7-12; 1 Tim. 5:17-18).

5 Problems
1. Administration Problems
o This was the first type of problem that threatened the unity of the early church. Their
problem was two-fold, but it was overcome by a single solution.
o First, the apostle did not have enough time to see the details of daily administration.
o They needed some assistants to whom they could delegate responsibility for daily
administration, so they could give themselves more fully to the ministry of the Word.
o Setting up lines of authority and delegating responsibility solved this organizational
problem.
o The seven men chosen to assist the apostles worked under their authority.
o The second aspect of the administrative problem in Acts 6 concerns the needs of a
cultural minority within the church.
o There was a large minority of Greek-speaking Jews in Jerusalem. They organized their
own Synagogue.
o According to Talmud there were 480 such Synagogues in Jerusalem at that time.
o The Jews often considered the Grecian Jews to be too worldly because of their Greek
style of living.
o They were often viewed as second class Jews.
o This prejudice was partly carried over into the early church.
o It was the Greek-speaking widows who were being neglected in the daily distribution,
not all the widows entirely.
o So it was not just an organizational problem, it was also a cultural problem.
o In solving this problem, certain administrative principles can be observed.
o They are:
1. Leadership responsibility must be partly delegated and clear lines of authority
must be established.
2. Cultural minorities should be represented in the leadership of the Church.
3. Leaders should be acceptable to those they lead.

Church Council