Not a Fad

Bulletin

Dan Peters
04/30/23 - Discipline

Not a Fad

The church was growing, 3000 and then 5000 (Acts 2:41, 4:4). But God was not going to let this growth become a fad. No. So a husband and wife were going to donate a large sum, but they lied about how much. Immediately after he lied, he died (Acts 5:5). Immediately after she lied, she died (5:10). This stops a fad pretty quickly! “And great fear came over the whole church, and over all who heard of these things.” (Acts 5:11). The result? “But none of the rest dared to associate with them.” (5:13). None of the rest would-be Christians, fad-goers or more commonly called “hypocrites”.
The problem with fads is that people simply do what others do whether they are genuine in the fad or just going along to be liked by others. They fake being in the fad. God stopped the fakes.
This is not to say that we don’t need a revival today, we do. Recently coming back from a visit to California, I saw and heard how many churches have dwindled in size, just like here in Murray. But there is a flip side to this, it is not all bad. The church is not a fad. Those who are remaining faithful, show God they are willing to be true to him when it is unpopular. There is much to be encouraged about this. God has never wanted his people to rely upon numbers, (1Sam. 14.6, etc.).
Plus there is an extra benefit by keeping the church out of the fad mentality. As surprising as it sounds, when God disciplined the church in the death of this lying husband and wife (Acts 5:1-14), it actually caused true church growth. It kept the faddish kind of people out, but also grew sincere followers at the same time. “But none of the rest dared to associate with them; however, the people held them in high esteem. And all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women, were constantly added to their number,” (Acts 5:13-14).
Soon after this, persecution by the Jews, stopped the church from being a fad too (Acts 7:54-8:1, 12:1-2, etc.). These outside forces kept the church genuine. Christianity spread not because it was a fad, but because it was based upon historical truth.
Personally, isn’t time you genuinely become a disciple of Jesus? Not because of parents, family or friends, but because you genuinely believe in Jesus. It’s your decision to be born again. Historically, he was crucified, buried and raised up again, according to prophecy plus over 500 witnesses saw him with the crucified scars (1Cor. 15:1-11, John 20:25-28). Genuinely repent of your sinful past, be buried in water baptism. Then raised up, living for something greater than yourself. For the cause of Christ be genuine. Dan Peters