What did people want from the early church?

Posted September 17 by Michael Palko
That question was posed in class a few weeks ago, and my first response to it was "They wanted a leader." Indeed, most wanted a military coup. Their life was hard. They wanted someone to free them from the oppression that surrounded them and to make things easier. Even Peter, "the rock" on which the church was built had a different idea when Jesus predicted his own death (Matthew 16:22).

However, the more I've thought about that question, I've come to the realization that people in the early church more likely just wanted someone to help them, someone to take care of them. When did Jesus gain followers? When He did something for or gave something to them. John 6:1-14 tells about how people began following Jesus when they saw the "miraculous signs He had peformed on the sick." Then Jesus feed 5000 men (and you know the women and children eat, too). Philip estimated the cost of that would have been more than "eight months' wages." People were in such a frenzy that Jesus had to "withdraw again to a mountain" just to get away and be by Himself.

I think what people in that time thought, or at least hoped, was that by following Jesus their friend and relatives would never be sick again and that they might not have to work so hard, or even at all, to earn the money needed to feed their families. How cool would that be? And while that may have been what lured them to that early church community, I think what they more likely found was that things did get a little easier because "All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had." (Acts 4:32).

Church is people. And aren't we just like the early members of the church community? I know I sometimes need help, as much as my "machismo" hates to admit it. I seek (and need) a respite from the demands of work, home, and family. I'm beginning to more clearly see "church" outside of the brick and mortar of "the church." I see it in a neighbor who helped me cut down a tree. I see it in a friend who volunteered to drive my kids home from an activity. And I have started to look for opportunities to do things for others...just because.

I think members of the early church were probably pretty surprised at how their lives changes. They didn't get the military leader that they'd hoped for, but instead their old ways of thinking and acting were attacked and overthrown by the good that comes from sharing and forgiving.

What can you and I do to continue that revolution?