Article March 24, 2008 Issue

A BRIEF HISTORY OF CHURCH FELLOWSHIP

BY DAVID ROBERTSON

YOU'RE a fisherman in Galilee, wise in the way of fish, just learning how to be wise in the way of capturing human hearts. And the leader of your group has just given you a new name. He's called you "a rock," in fact—and said he was going to found his church on "this rock."

Jesus had asked his disciples who they thought he was. And Peter said he thought Jesus was "the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matt. 16:16). Unlettered as he was, Peter's spiritual sense enabled him to see that Jesus' ministry, or church, was evidence of God's love for humanity—evidence of the active, living God, who was right with people, healing them, saving them, guiding them. That evidence had already transformed Peter's life, and would continue to change it, bringing him through temptation and danger, and into renewal, spiritual authority, and leadership.

For Peter and most of the other disciples, this consciousness of God's presence was an unfolding force in their lives, one that led them to go out and minister to people, using what they were learning from Jesus as their guide. At one point, according to Luke's Gospel, Jesus sent 70 additional people out in pairs to go ahead of him and prepare the way for him. They, too, engaged in the work of healing (see Luke 10:1, 2, 17-20).

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