Quick Note – Acts 9:31 – Multiply

Acts 9:31 – So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up.  And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.

I don’t have any statistics or research to prove my gut feeling, but it seems to me that the Christian church in general has been declining.  There seem to be fewer and fewer people becoming Christians and more and more people leaving the faith.  Maybe it is a problem in America and not in other parts of the world, but it is a sad commentary on the state of the church today.  Based on what I have noticed, many people in church today seem to believe that the solution is to change our political leaders.  It seems to me that many Christians are more concerned about who is winning the elections than about those who are lost. 

I’m not writing this as a scathing attack on the church.  No way!  I am a Christian, and I am part of the church.  But I just feel like we have been putting our faith, our trust, our hope in the wrong things.  Instead, we must bring our eyes back to God because that is where true growth can be found. 

Our passage today talks about the state of the early church after Saul (who was a persecutor of Christians who later became Paul) became a Christian.  There was a short period of peace after a hard time of tribulation.  But even in these times of peace, the church multiplied.  We are told in vs. 31, that the church multiplied because of two things – they were walking in the fear of the Lord and finding comfort in the Holy Spirit.  The early church didn’t grow because of Peter or Paul or any of the apostles.  It grew because they feared God and found encouragement in the Holy Spirit. 

These are the two things that we need to return to if we want the Christian church to multiply again.  It is necessary if we want to see the church grow instead of decline.  It is what is required if we want to see believers grow into disciples and disciples into leaders.  We must fear God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strengths.  We must respect and obey Him as our Lord, knowing that He is worthy of all our praise.  Rather than conforming to this world and ignoring our duty to God, we must stand apart as a light and follow our God.  Let us once again fear the Lord and treat Him as both our King and our God. 

Second, we must find encouragement/comfort in the Holy Spirit.  When we stand as a light, when we live differently, we are guaranteed to be persecuted.  This happened with the early church and will also happens with us if we do the same.  However, let us not grow weary in doing good, but trust our God to bring us comfort and strength.  He sent the Holy Spirit into our hearts to give us peace and encouragement.  So don’t let your hearts be troubled, trust Him to watch over you and continue to persevere in doing good.  John 15:5 says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”  As branches, we must keep ourselves attached to the Vine, Jesus Christ, if we ever plan to bear good fruit that will bring honor and glory to God.  We must not shift our focus to the things of this world, to political leaders, or even to creating good laws and regulations.  These things will not solve the problem of a dying church.  Rather, it is by keeping our eyes on Jesus Christ, fearing Him, and finding comfort in His arms that we will multiply once again.  It is in Christ that we will find a new awakening.