The early church can first be seen from the bird's eye view in Acts 2 thru 4:
2:1 When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
5 And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. 6 And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. 7 Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.” 12 So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “Whatever could this mean?”
13 Others mocking said, “They are full of new wine.”
14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. 15 For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. 16 But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
17 ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions,
Your old men shall dream dreams.
18 And on My menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days;
And they shall prophesy.
19 I will show wonders in heaven above
And signs in the earth beneath:
Blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
20 The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
21 And it shall come to pass
That whoever calls on the name of the Lord
Shall be saved.’
22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know— 23 Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; 24 whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it. 25 For David says concerning Him:
‘I foresaw the Lord always before my face,
For He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken.
26 Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad;
Moreover my flesh also will rest in hope.
27 For You will not leave my soul in Hades,
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
28 You have made known to me the ways of life;
You will make me full of joy in Your presence.’
29 “Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, 31 he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. 32 This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. 33 Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear.
34 “For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself:
‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand,
35 Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” ’
36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”
38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”
40 And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” 41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. 42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. 43 Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. 44 Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, 45 and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.
46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
3:1 Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. 2 And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple; 3 who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms. 4 And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, “Look at us.” 5 So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. 6 Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” 7 And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. 8 So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them—walking, leaping, and praising God. 9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God. 10 Then they knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
11 Now as the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch which is called Solomon’s, greatly amazed. 12 So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people: “Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? 13 The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go. 14 But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15 and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. 16 And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
17 “Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18 But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. 19 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, 20 and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, 21 whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. 22 For Moses truly said to the fathers, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you. 23 And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ 24 Yes, and all the prophets, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days. 25 You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ 26 To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.”
4:1 Now as they spoke to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, 2 being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. 3 And they laid hands on them, and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. 4 However, many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.
5 And it came to pass, on the next day, that their rulers, elders, and scribes, 6 as well as Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the family of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem. 7 And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, “By what power or by what name have you done this?”
8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: 9 If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, 10 let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. 11 This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ 12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus. 14 And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. 15 But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, 16 saying, “What shall we do to these men? For, indeed, that a notable miracle has been done through them is evident to all who dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. 17 But so that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them, that from now on they speak to no man in this name.”
18 So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. 19 But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. 20 For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” 21 So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way of punishing them, because of the people, since they all glorified God for what had been done. 22 For the man was over forty years old on whom this miracle of healing had been performed.
23 And being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. 24 So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: “Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them, 25 who by the mouth of Your servant David have said:
‘Why did the nations rage,
And the people plot vain things?
26 The kings of the earth took their stand,
And the rulers were gathered together
Against the Lord and against His Christ.’
27 “For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together 28 to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done. 29 Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, 30 by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.”
31 And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.
32 Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. 33 And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all. 34 Nor was there anyone among them who lacked; for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, 35 and laid them at the apostles’ feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need.
36 And Joses, who was also named Barnabas by the apostles (which is translated Son of Encouragement), a Levite of the country of Cyprus, 37 having land, sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
Now that was a lot for me to quote here, but it is so packed with a view into what the birth and beginning of the church looked like.
That was the most beautiful thing the entire physical and spiritual realms had ever seen. It is referred to as "the little flock."
But it did not last very long. As Paul said:
For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.
(Acts 20:29)
How very very sad that it was torn apart, divided, scattered and destroyed. But God never stopped working with His believers to spread the gospel throughout the whole world. And that is good even though the divisions were also spread through the entire world as it is today.
We are now, in June 2026, very close to 2000 years from the day of Pentecost. According to the most well researched time chart that I have ever seen, We are about two years away from the 2000 year mark.
The Bible indicates that the bride will make herself ready before the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, Jesus Christ, the Bridegroom.
That is not much time for His Bride to make herself ready. It's nearly impossible to imagine how things could come together within that two year time frame, but with God, all things are possible.
The cry in Song of Songs is Return, return! O Shulamite.
Song of Songs is like a prophetic parable picture of Jesus Christ and His bride the Church.
So just as in that "Song" we see this young most beautiful among women Shulamite girl, and the love they share, by the time we get to chapter 6, verse 13 it seems that she is gone. In the Song, it is not clear quite what happened to her, but from this cry, it certainly is clear that she is gone:
Return, return, O Shulamite;
Return, return, that we may look upon you!
What would you see in the Shulamite—
As it were, the dance of the two camps?
(SoS 6:13)
The call is for the Church to return to the beauty it had at the very beginning, and even more beautiful, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing! No man can do this, no human leader can create her. It will take a remnant people who return together to rebuild the real temple made of living stones, that is you and I, coming together under one Head, Jesus Christ, living in each of us as the Holy Spirit. There is no other way!
So here in Acts 2-4 we see something of what it looked like from the view of a bird watching thousands of people moving around meeting from house to house, all throughout the entire city (of Jerusalem) every house connected to all the believers house around them like a large net, one large covering the whole city without a hole anywhere in it where men (like fish) could swim through a hole in the net and be lost.
So that is what it looked like from a bird's view flying over the city, but what did it look like inside those houses?
Here we get only one place in the New Testament, in 1 Corinthians 14:26-33:
26 How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. 27 If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two or at the most three, each in turn, and let one interpret. 28 But if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in church, and let him speak to himself and to God. 29 Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge. 30 But if anything is revealed to another who sits by, let the first keep silent. 31 For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged. 32 And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. 33 For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.
This view is vitally important to see. Now Corinth is usually spoken of as that really bad church where Paul has to do so much correcting of all these horrible things, they were just so messed up!
But that is not quite true!
How can I say that?
Well lets look at what Paul says about them.
But before we do, we need to understand something about "traditions."
Traditions are spoken of negatively all throughout the Bible. Jesus warned against the traditions of the elders and the traditions of men.
But there are three places where Paul speaks of traditions as something good, even necessary and required. Here are the three verses in chronological order. Paul's letters to the Thessalonians were before his letters to the Corinthians: So here he writes to the Thessalonians:
Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle.
(2 Thessalonians 2:15)
But we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us.
(2 Thessalonians 3:6)
And to the Corinthian church he says:
Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you.
(1 Corinthians 11:2)
Does he mean that? "Now I praise you?" and "you remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you?"
Yes, that is the only place in the entire Bible where anyone is praised for keeping the traditions! And that is Corinth!!!
So in these verses in 1 Corinthians 14:26-33, is the only description in the entire New Testament where we see what a typical meeting of the church actually looked like! And while Paul is making some correction here, he is not changing a single "item" of what they did, only that they do them in an orderly manner.
And also notice the very last verse "33 For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints."
Did you catch that; "as in all the churches of the saints."
It seems perfectly reasonable that this typical view of what they did in Corinth, was exactly the kind of tradition you would see in all the churches.
Where is that today?
It is gone, nowhere to be found on planet earth, at least that I know of!
Now the title of this article is "The Wisdom."
What we have read about in these verses, the way the church met at the very beginning is filled with the wisdom of God. What I am going to try to do now is try to bring out the wisdom of God in these patterns.
Before I dig in, I want to say as strongly and loudly as I can, that man has NEVER had a better idea than God!!!
The way we do church today is absolutely NOT better than what the personally trained Apostles of Jesus Christ taught at the very beginning. Not only is it not better, it is wretched by comparison.
Now there is one more passage to look at in Paul's letter which has been called "The Queen of the Epistles." It is the letter commonly called "Ephesians." But it was not written to the Church in Ephesus! But that is for another study.
And this letter, known as "Ephesians" is the highest most amazing book in the entire Bible. So we need to look at what it says about the church, and then I will try to pull all these pictures together to show the amazing wisdom of God in this church He is building.
Lets look at "Eph." 4:11-16. This is the highest peak in this book, and the entire Bible, in my opinion.
11 And he gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some shepherds and teachers, 12 to completely equip the saints into the work of ministry, into building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all arrive into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, into a complete man, into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be infants, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of teaching, by the cunning of men, in craftiness with a view to the systematizing of error. 15 But, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, fitly joined together and compacted by what every connection supplies, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow into building itself up in love.
Now before I can show the extremely great wisdom of God in arranging His church this way at the very beginning, I need to try to paint the picture of what all these descriptions actually would look like. Think of a large net, like a commercial fisherman's net. In this case covering the whole city. Think of each knot in this net as a house where brothers in Christ meet. And think of each strand between knots as a connection where a brother, a couple, or a family meet in those two houses (knots). Now let your mind extend beyond the "net picture" for a moment, so each person or family may meet in three or more houses on different days. (You can't make a physical net look like that.) So in our picture, every house is connected to several other houses, most are near each other, but some, even many of the connections are across town, etc. Lots and lots of connections. In a town with hundreds of families, there would be multiple meetings happening every day of the week, and typically more on the weekends.
The entire church in that city is ONE net covering the entire city and including every believer in the city. And of course there would also be believers sometimes traveling to other cities near by or farther away so ultimately the whole church on the earth is ONE church.
Now add the description from 1 Corinthians 14, when each person comes into a meeting in a house, they bring with them something they have received from the Holy Spirit. It might be something they read in the scripture that stood out to them in a new or interesting way. It may be from a dream they had. Or something they received while meditating in the wee hours in bed on the scriptures they have read. It may be a word they heard from the Lord. And often it could be something they heard or learned in another house meeting they were in. The most important factor here is that the Holy Spirit is the head, the only head in every house, every meeting, and is the head of every saint.
Now as it says "let all things be done for building up" and "decently an in order." Now I want to express this next detail in a balanced way, what I am going to say should not be a "law" or a "rigid rule", but a general understanding. That is, the meeting is not a "free for all" with three or four conversations going on in the room at the same time. When someone is sharing something they brought into the meeting, all the others should remain silent, so only one person is speaking at a time. Now for balance, when people are arriving and setting out the food and greeting and hugging each other there can of course be multiple things going on at the same time, but please don't let that dominate a lot of the time. This should be basic courtesy, and that is rare these days.
Now the section from "Ephesians" 4:11-16 is so packed, I am not going to elaborate much on it because there is so much there. You need to spent time reading and rereading and thinking about and meditating on and learning to picture that in your mind until you know it deeply and fully. That is to be incorporated into the picture I am trying to paint here.
Okay now lets think about the amazing wisdom of God in this kind of church in a city. Imagine somehow a hundred Christians in your city suddenly miraculously started one day. And lets say they are from all the many different backgrounds that they would have, and all the different doctrines they came with, divided in every imaginable way. What a mess that would be. Now lets think about at the start there is some teaching from the scripture about how the Holy Spirit must be the head of every man, and that the Baptism in the Spirit is absolutely necessary and that all the gifts and functions of the Spirit are absolutely essential.
It is going to be very difficult to paint this part of the picture because the Holy spirit may do all sorts of things that I have never imagined. But I am going to take a shot at some. This first one is one that actually happened to a friend of mine named Connie. She was a part of a church denomination where the gifts of the Spirit all were operating. One day a man came from another locality, from a church of the same denomination. He was there as a visitor. So in the course of the meeting he stood up and spoke a message in tongues, and then sat down. This was normal for them, and so they waited for the interpretation, and they waited, but there was no interpretation. So after a while the same man stood up again and spoke a message in English and sat again. At the end of the meeting there was a group of people around that man talking about why there was no interpretation, that was very unusual. Meanwhile there was a little gathering around Connie because she was asking why the man had stood up twice and said the same thing twice! They got together and realized that Connie had the interpretation, but didn't know it because she just heard English, and didn't even know that he spoke in tongues. Now imagine a whole variety of unusual, unexpected things like that.
Do you think anyone there who heard what happened with Connie, could doubt that God had spoken? Now imagine one night in a meeting someone shares something very profound that he heard in another meeting, then another person says, wow, Sam said exactly the same thing in the meeting I was in, and a third person says Oh that is amazing I have been bothered by this verse in such-and-such and that makes that verse make sense and he shares how he now understands that verse, and when they compare notes they realize that it had to be the Holy Spirit who had two different people say the same thing on the same previous night in two different houses, that had to be the Holy Spirit shedding light on the verse that the third man was wondering about. Suppose in one of the meetings someone speaks a message in tongues, and a woman who as a girl with her parents were missionaries in some small country and she knew this obscure language, and that was the language the man spoke in tongues, and the others there didn't know anything about her being on the mission field, and had no idea that she was bilingual. So when she interprets what the man said, everyone is amazed, and that message is shared in several other houses in the next few days, and gets confirmed in other ways only the Holy Spirit could orchestrate.
Now lets consider prophecy. Notice that in the first verse in 1 Corinthians 14, you know right after chapter 13, the agape love chapter, the very next thing Paul says is:
Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual [gifts], especially that you may prophesy.
By the way, the word "gifts" I have in brackets because it is not in the Greek, in fact chapter 12 is a lot about "spiritual gifts", in chapter 14, the Greek word for gift is nowhere in the chapter. My understanding is like a parent gives his children gifts, like toys to play with. But by chapter 14, they are spiritual functions, the real thing. (But don't read to much into my example of "toys", but only after the love chapter there is a greater level of maturity in the spiritual functions.)
So back to the rest of verse 1, "especially that you may prophesy."
This one can be very wonderful, suppose a man speaks a prophecy with a specific word that speaks directly to a traumatic experience that a women had as a child that she never told anyone about, and she is greatly comforted by the Lord hearing that word.
Now imagine the great variety of ways the Holy Spirit would work if He was never quenched and was free in every meeting to do all that he wanted to do. How long do you thing false teaching would last in a city like that! The Holy Spirit would wipe the slate clean in short order. Remember what it says:
But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.
(1 John 2:27)
A church operating like this in complete obedience to the Holy Spirit and fully connected by all the joints would certainly be what it says here:
but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
(1 Timothy 3:15)
The unity of the body of Christ will NEVER come any other way.
Only by returning all the way back to exactly the way the church met in the beginning. This is absolutely necessary! It will start as a small remnant of people who do return, but when they do, the age will change and there will be a wedding feast.
There is absolutely NO OTHER ANSWER! This will happen. I want to be part of it. Don't you?