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The Acts of the Apostles
was the theme of every discourse. His name—the only name given
under heaven whereby men can be saved—was by them exalted. As
they proclaimed the completeness of Christ, the risen Saviour, their
words moved hearts, and men and women were won to the gospel.
Multitudes who had reviled the Saviour’s name and despised His power
now confessed themselves disciples of the Crucified.
[595]
Not in their own power did the apostles accomplish their mission,
but in the power of the living God. Their work was not easy. The
opening labors of the Christian church were attended by hardship
and bitter grief. In their work the disciples constantly encountered
privation, calumny, and persecution; but they counted not their lives
dear unto themselves and rejoiced that they were called to suffer for
Christ. Irresolution, indecision, weakness of purpose, found no place
in their efforts. They were willing to spend and be spent. The con-
sciousness of the responsibility resting on them purified and enriched
their experience, and the grace of heaven was revealed in the conquests
they achieved for Christ. With the might of omnipotence God worked
through them to make the gospel triumphant.
Upon the foundation that Christ Himself had laid, the apostles
built the church of God. In the Scriptures the figure of the erection
of a temple is frequently used to illustrate the building of the church.
Zechariah refers to Christ as the Branch that should build the temple of
the Lord. He speaks of the Gentiles as helping in the work: “They that
are far off shall come and build in the temple of the Lord;” and Isaiah
declares, “The sons of strangers shall build up thy walls.”
Zechariah
6:12, 15
;
Isaiah 60:10
.
Writing of the building of this temple, Peter says, “To whom
coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen
of God, and precious, ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual
house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable
to God by Jesus Christ.”
1 Peter 2:4, 5
.
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In the quarry of the Jewish and the Gentile world the apostles
labored, bringing out stones to lay upon the foundation. In his letter
to the believers at Ephesus, Paul said, “Now therefore ye are no more
strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the
household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the Chief Cornerstone; in whom
all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in