Success and Sacrifice

3 And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. 4 But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand. - Acts 4:3-4

Honestly I like verse 4 and the 5,000 but I am less keen on the previous verse with words like arrest and custody.

But this would seem to be be the story that replays in the early days of this fledgling movement of Jesus. Moves of God that saw 5000 people join the revolution after just a preach coupled with imprisonment, beatings and eventually martyrdom.

It isn't mentioned much nowadays but following Jesus means we sign up for both. Success and sacrifice seems to be links in the chain and partners in the Kingdom. I know its not a gospel that is preached often but it is the story of this early radical movement.

This year we laid out the next step of our vision at Milton Keynes Christian Centre of "Bringing people to Jesus, equipping them to be fully devoted followers of Christ". We are now seeing around 1,000 show up each Sunday to celebrate and serve Jesus together, now we are believing, praying and working towards 2000.

I love the idea of 2,000 but ever so slightly apprehensive about the sacrifice it is going to take to get there.