Christians in Acts were driven by circumstances which required that they react to diverse situations instead of well thought out plans devised by church fathers. Divine providence and circumstances acted as a catalyst which sparked the early Christian church to move in unexpected ways. The early church was not driven solely by human ability but by divine manipulation which caused men to focus on meeting immediate needs. In the book of Acts Luke focuses on the moving of the Holy Spirit as He drove Christians to make decisions influenced by circumstances, providence, divine will and the free will of man. The will of man was established and followed as man felt that he was led by the Holy Spirit in establishing the ordinances of the early church in Acts. God manipulated settings to direct the development of the church as a whole during Acts. Decisions in the early church were made by crisis management.
Man’s efforts included the establishment of a church organization, or an assembly of believers that worked as a united whole initially. Men gathered in corporate prayer in the upper room fasting and praying for God’s guidance once Jesus left the earth. This group of people formed a prayer cell that was the first assembly of believers after Christ rose from the dead (Acts 1:12-14). The first act of church administration was to appoint Matthias to take the place of Judas (Acts 1:15-26). They were of one mind and of one intention in their purpose regarding following God (Acts 1:14; 2:1, 46; 4:32). They made cognitive decisions to come before the Lord in prayer for direction and guidance (Acts 1:14). The answer came when they participated in Pentecost for the first time and God answered their prayer by using them to speak in many different languages to declare the good news to Jerusalem (Acts 2:1-13). The important factor in this was the strangeness of the incident; it caught the attention of many who were in Jerusalem at that time who were persuaded to salvation (Acts 2:1-13). The early church went from being indecisive and scared to being bold after receiving the filling of the Holy Spirit.
Decision making carried forward as the believers adapted to the growth of the church by completely selling their possessions to support the body of believers (Acts 4:32-37). This was done for two possible reasons, first it was likely done because they believed that the coming of the Messiah to set up his earthly kingdom was going to be in a matter of weeks (Acts 1:6). In light of this, earthly possessions were not important since a greater kingdom loomed on the horizon. The second reason they sold their possessions could be due to a drive in them by the Holy Spirit to pour every resource possible into establishing the first assembly of believers. This is validated by the purity that was demanded by the Holy Spirit when Ananias and Sapphira attempted to lie to the church in regard to finances (Acts 5:1-11). It is probable that the purpose was not to eradicate lying from the church, it was to establish that God was serious about growing the church and that He did not want followers who were making a game of Christianity (Acts 5:11).
The key decision in Acts that is continually made is the decision to preach the gospel regardless of the consequences (Acts 5:42). This drive is clearly from the Holy Spirit as He motivated men to put themselves in harms way to teach and preach the Gospel. Peter and Paul spent time in prison and in trouble due to their motivation to teach the Word regardless of the consequences. Later in Acts decision making was demonstrated to have been extremely efficient. It would be reasonable to expect that the Jewish leaders who were converted from the temple would know how to run a religious organization. This was demonstrated at the appointment of the seven servants (Acts 6:1-5). This was also demonstrated at the Jerusalem counsel as they demonstrated effective organization and a use of aggregate knowledge accurately making use of Biblical principles (Acts 15).
Stephen is an example of one who was driven to preach the word in a way that was contrary to sound logic (Acts 6:8-7:60). He was successful in arguing the points of Jewish history, and building a strong case for the fact that Jesus is the Messiah until the Holy Spirit took over (Acts 7:55-56). Why would God impress a vision upon a man who was on trial and carefully choosing his words to prove that Jesus was the Messiah? God gave him the vision knowing that Stephen would act upon the vision. God knew that it was necessary for Stephen to be stoned because this acted as a catalyst for two important developments in the book of Acts. The first development was the scattering of the believers through the known world, it seems that the Jewish church exploded and fragmented after he was killed where believers ran for their very lives. These believers planted churches every place that they landed (Acts 8:1-3). The second effect of the stoning was that Saul was marked indelibly by the murder of an innocent godly man (Acts 22:20, 26:10). This very act haunted him the rest of his life and motivated Paul to walk closer with Christ Jesus (1 Tim 1:15-16; 1 Cor 15:9-10; Phil 3:4-7).
One might ask if this method of directing believers is restricted to the moving of the Holy Spirit only in Acts. A careful study of the scriptures demonstrates that Joseph most likely would not have been hated by his brothers unless he had the dreams. He also would not have been moved to Egypt if he were not sold into slavery by his brothers (Gen 37). David may not have moved to attack Goliath if he were not for the benefits of great riches, the hand of Saul’s daughter and freedom from public service and taxes for his family (1 Sam 17:25). David was careful to check out the story three times before committing to action (1 Sam 17:25, 27, 30). Daniel would not have even survived if it were not for the dreams that he had interpreted (Dan 2). There are many instances in the scriptures where circumstances dictated the decisions of men. Consider one last circumstance that goaded the religious people of Jesus day to crucify Him, Jesus healed on the Sabbath on many occasions and purposefully claimed the title of “I am”. If it were not for these actions and claims, Jesus would probably have not been crucified if He had not gone against the religious system of the day. After all, why would anyone want to kill a great healer who was eradicating sickness and demon possession from the land?
Christians in the early church were driven to make radical decisions based on the leading of the Holy Spirit and on reaction to circumstances in daily life; this is a common theme in Acts. Christian decision making in Acts was driven by the providence of God. “Alas! that the doctrine which is the key to history, the interpreter of providence, the warp and woof of scripture, and the foundation of Christian theology should be so sadly neglected and so little understood” (Pink 2005 ref 1). God drove decision making in Acts; sovereign over circumstances (Dan 4:35; Ps 115:2-3; Ps 2:8: 1 Tim 6:15). In almost every story and situation in Acts it can be clearly demonstrated that crisis moved the believers to the best possible place for furtherance of the Gospel and effective ministry (Acts 8:39-40; 12:2-4, 17; 13:44-46, 51; 15:36-41; 16: 22-40).
Acts demonstrates that Christians were “under the circumstances”. These circumstances were influenced by the divine will of God as He moved His people like chess pieces to different places to maximize their use in building His fledging kingdom. Consider Ryrie’s statement: “Peter provides the most inclusive statement on the subject in 2 Peter 1:21. Prophecies were not borne by man’s will, but the writers were borne or carried along by the Spirit… the will of man was not the carrier but rather the Spirit of God was. The men who wrote acted as agents, but their wills did not control or interfere with what God wished to communicate; the Spirit was the One who carried them along” (Ryrie 1999, 400). This statement has to do with inspiration of scriptures, but notice how similar the direction of circumstances has been (Acts 18:4-6). Look at the result of the words of Paul as he was thrown into custody and eventually sent to Rome because of circumstances that surrounded his arrest (Acts 21:30-33, 39-40; 22:22-24; 25:17-21).
It seems consistent that God would take believers and empower them to carry out His work. This often happens in the Christian life, but it is not the rule in Acts. There is a double significance that is indicated by the name Christian in that in one sense it means that we are disciples of Christ and in another instance we are servants of Christ. “His ‘anointing’ with the Spirit of God is an act of God wherein he is entirely passive, but his becoming a ‘disciple of Christ’ is a voluntary act of his own, wherein he surrenders to Christ’s Lordship and resolves to be ruled by his sceptre. … As the double meaning of the name ‘Christian’ points to both the Divine operations and human activity, so in the Christian’s progress we must keep before us the exercise of God’s sovereignty and the discharge of our responsibility” (Pink 2005 ref 2).
The contrast of Acts reacting to circumstances compared to our well organized churches of today with programs for every program, redundant committees, and even redundant pastorates. Modern day churches are so organized that a natural disaster or act of persecution on the church can be humanly be handled without the necessity of reacting or to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Modern day churches have become businesses that are handicapped by efficiency.
We have become so incredibly efficient that we are unable to recognize God working through circumstances to move the church today. “God is not a tyrant who practises cruelty and violence and all the other acts of insolent authority like an inexorable master, but he is rather a sovereign invested with a humane and lawful authority, and as such he governs all the heaven and the whole world in accordance with justice” (Philo 1996, 748). Philo recognized the working of God through providence. Circumstances are often used today to direct the lives of believers toward God’s divine plan just as circumstances dictated the decisions that the church made in Acts. “God engineers the circumstances of His saints in order that the Spirit may use them as the praying-house of the Son of God” (Chambers 1996). If God engineers circumstances to draw or move believers into paths that are in His will, it is something worth considering. “Many times God’s children are placed in a dilemma when they have to choose between duty and duty—duty to God, to their family, to their neighbors. … Circumstances have to be observed as well as actions that we may know when to ‘stand still’ and when to ‘go forward’. We are not to act on impulse but be regulated by principle” (Pink 2005 ref 3).
In our modern churches to implement a circumstantial driven church would introduce chaos into the church. It would be impossible to bring in the spontaneity that God used to drive the early church back again. This spontaneity to circumstances should act as a comfort to those who are in crisis because it is clear that not every circumstance is driven by the devil. God drives circumstances to move His believers into areas where He wishes to use them. It is important to note that in Acts the church administration had been established and yet God moved the people in the church through providence and circumstances. As the church has developed effective administration the moving of the Spirit to direct the church may have been hampered through the improved abilities of men. This can be viewed from two different perspectives, first that the Spirit is stifled as our ability increased, or that the Spirit intended to drive the church only until the maturity and organization developed. Either way the ramifications of the argument are interesting. One position indicates that human abilities have undercut God’s design. This could be further stretched to indicate that the falling off of the charismatic gifts were due to increased abilities of men. The second position could indicate that God intended for men to learn to stand on their own feet melding the natural human abilities with the direction of God.
In conclusion the book of Acts clearly demonstrates the movement of God in directing the lives of believers through circumstances and through providence. Circumstances can be viewed as God’s direct tool to change the direction or to change the aspect of ministry. Conclusively not all circumstances are spiritual attacks, some are divinely ordained to re-direct the people of God. In the end God places men in positions to make decisions based on the circumstances that they face. Contrary to our way of thinking, God uses circumstances to develop Christian decision making as much today as He did in Acts. “When circumstances are good, it’s easy to praise the Lord and feel optimistic about life in general. When troubles come, we often become impatient with God and question His sovereignty and grace. At such times we are forced to look deep into our hearts and deal with our lack of faith. They can be precious times of profound spiritual discovery and growth” (MacArthur 1997, 255). Christian decision making is a response to the divine will of God in all circumstances.
Arthur Walkington Pink, The Arthur Pink Anthology (Bellingham, WA.: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2005). Ref 1
Arthur Walkington Pink, The Life of Faith. (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2005). Ref 2
Arthur Walkington Pink, Gleanings from Paul Studies in the Prayers of the Apostle (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2005), 230. Ref 3
Charles Caldwell Ryrie, Basic Theology : A Popular Systemic Guide to Understanding Biblical Truth (Chicago, Ill.: Moody Press, 1999), 400.
John MacArthur, F., Jr, Our Sufficiency in Christ, Electronic ed. (Dallas, TX: Word Publishing, 1997, c1991), 255.
Philo translated by Charles Duke Yonge, The Works of Philo : Complete and Unabridged (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1996, c1993), 748.
Oswald Chambers, Biblical Ethics (Hants UK: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1996, c1947).