ECCLESIOLOGY OF ACTS

ECCLESIOLOGY OF ACTS

Ecclesiology of Acts is an important topic, since we can know about the beginning of the Church and the original view in Church government, the Lord’s Supper, baptism, missions, apostolic influence, a church service and other topics. Ecclesiology is the study of the church, and the church is the assembly of the believers. So ecclesiology is the study of the Christian faith, how to become a believer, why should one do so, how to conduct your life after doing so, and the promise of eternal life.

The New Testament term for church is “Ekklesia”; it is a word that had been used in the LXX, and it is used about a hundred times to translate the Hebrew word “qahal”, the assembly of God. In the book of Acts, the term “ekklesia” is common, where it designates first the community in Jerusalem (Acts 5:11), then mission communities (Acts 8:1; 14:23), and then both the local community (Acts 9:31) and the collective, dispersed church (Acts 8:3).

We know from the beginning of the book of Acts, that the church started with the coming of the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:1-13). Also, we see until the end of the book, all the ministries and influence of the Holy Spirit (Acts 28). Although we can say it is the book of the Acts of the Apostles, it would be better classified as the Acts of the Holy Spirit through the Apostles.

In the Book of Acts we see that to be a Christian, or to became part of the Church, you must have faith in Christ, repent of your sins, be baptized, and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:37-39). Then we see the embryonic view about the church’s service: a) persevere in the doctrine of the apostles; b) have communion with one another; c) participate in the Lord’s Supper, the sign of union with Christ, and the “agape”; d) prayer. So, in other words, we have a kind of relationship, vertical and horizontal, and both are inter-connected. It was vertical when the early Christian received the word through the apostles, whom had received all authority directly from Jesus (Matt. 28:19, 20, Acts 1:1-8). Belief in the apostles’ message was/is belief in Christ Himself. Then they kept the communion open to each other in common life and prayer (Acts 2:42-47).

We see that the Ecclesia in Acts was a charismatic community (Acts 5:12-16). The church was organized with the coming of the Holy Spirit, in Him the Church moved on and grew in numbers (Acts 2:47). By the same Spirit, the church is a live organism with Christ as the head, then apostles, with Peter having the primacy (Acts 1:15; 2:14; 3:1-10; 51-10 etc), prophets, evangelists, teachers. By the book of Acts we already see that the church had elders and deacons as leaders (Acts 6:1-7; 14:23). By the election of the elders we see that the church was democratic in government.

The ecclesiology in Acts is rich in information of the foundation and propagation of the early Christian faith, and helps us to understand how Christianity spread the message of the Gospel everywhere.

Ryrie, Charles C. Basic Theology. Chicago. Moody Press. 1986

Enns, Paul. The Moody Handbook of Theology. Chicago. Moody Press. 1989

Fiorenza, Francis Schussler and John P. Galvin. Systematic