You’ve heard the expression “Rome wasn’t built in a day”, well neither was anything else in the ancient world. Take the Great Pyramid of Egypt for example, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world (and the only one still standing) took around 20 years to build. The Great Wall of China was built on and off over 2,100 years. What’s my point? The “Great” things of the world take time to build and the Church is no different.

The essence of Christianity is believing in Christ for salvation from sin; there is “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God...” (Ephesians 4.5,6). All those who believe in Christ are included in the Church. In that we are one body, we have a connectedness to early believers. Their beliefs are our beliefs; their God, our God. Construction began on the original Resurrection Day, that was the day Jesus was set in place as the chief cornerstone. Shortly thereafter Peter began fulfilling his roll (Matthew 16.18-19) as he and the other apostles laid the foundation (Ephesians 2.20) that the church is still building on today.

That foundation is the gospel message, the one thing that all denominations agree on despite their other differences. In this way the “church” – not your local congregation that you attend every week, but rather every believer since the first century – is built into God’s holy temple. That means we are all connected, not by belief only but in a very real way.

You’ve seen the commercials. They open with a person who states they thought they knew everything there was to know about their family history until they had a DNA test and found that what they thought they knew was only the tip of the iceberg, or even completely wrong. Organizations like Ancestry.com try to give people an understanding of their physical connections to the past. While this may be interesting, it is completely unimportant when compared to our spiritual ancestry. We can look back at the adventures of Peter and Paul and Timothy and John and know that is our heritage too – and more, as the same Spirit that lived in them now lives in us. We share a spiritual DNA.

When Jesus told the disciples that they would lay the foundation of the church and that the gates of hell would not prevail against it, he intended for us to receive that same message. The early church lost site of this message when Saul, an agent of Satan, began to persecute and kill believers. Even so, the power to overcome evil persisted. One of the Church’s worst enemies was converted and later became one of its greatest assets. This mighty work of God resulted in the Church once again living in fear of the Lord instead of evil. The power of the church to overcome evil continues to ebb through every believer today.

Other hardships came to the body. The Jews rejected not only their teachings, but them as well. Christians were forbidden to teach in the synagogues. Paul went door to door in his evangelism efforts (Acts 20.17-.21) and shortly thereafter believers even began meeting for worship and remembrances in their own homes (Romans 16.3-.5). Time and again they proved themselves worthy, and they experienced joy, brought to them on the wings of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, the early church suffered greatly. But they were often characterized by grace, love, and a hope in the future.

The early church wasn’t timid in how they lived their faith, neither should we. Playing it safe is still just playing. Don’t settle for knowing God well enough to save your soul. Know Him well enough to save souls. Know Him to the point that Scripture is cherished in your heart. Start acting like an early believer, and you will help bring the church into a time when the word “church” means something.