140202 Trusting God to Live Abundantly

Trusting God to Live Abundantly:
Believers in the Early Church
Sunday, February 2, 2014

Anytime you get into the Word, you want to know what the context is. You want to see how God brought people into or out of a situation. You want to see that real people did real things, and that God cared.

I cannot begin to tell you all the resources I used to put this teaching together, because so much of it is in my head or just notes in my Bible from years of listening to teachings and doing my own research.

(List books from collateral to RECC.)

Acts 19:20
  So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.

Seventh Great Statement of Acts on the heals of a massive movement of God's Word. What follows is the Adversary's reaction.

Acts 19:24-32

Gov. Scott Brown tries to balance the budget, and a riot ensues.

Acts 19:33-41 

This is like the political mobs and their rants of today. The mob blamed Alexander for their ills, but all Alexander wanted was to speak the Word. God's Word heals people. 

1Co 11:23-25 
  For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:
  And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
  After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.

Paul wrote this during the events of Acts 19. What else is in 1 Corinthians? The manifestations, which includes healing.

Isa 53:5  But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

1Pe 2:24  Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

Acts 20:1,6,15-17,38 Paul wrote 2 Corinthians on board ship.

Acts 20:7-12
  ...
  And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted.

Young man falls, and is healed. What did Paul write in this section of Acts? His timing included Passover, Resurrection, Pentecost...

2Co 9:8 
  And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:

For longer than I have been in this ministry, the principle of the tithe has been in my heart. This ministry expanded my understanding of it. More than twenty years ago, I made this and hang it in my home.

1. Demetrius and the silver smiths had their false prosperity, but Alexander. Gaius, and Aristarchus escaped had physical and eternal life.

2. The unnamed youth was healed and restored to life.

The believers of the early church were real people who faced real challenges. They believed what God said. Paul tells them how to abound. Together they trusted God to live abundantly.