We all start somewhere in our journey with God. The same is true with the church. It began with the creation of people, but people kept getting it wrong. When Jesus came he showed us a better way to be the church. The church is built on faith in him. Without that, it is just religion which is dead faith. That doesn't mean you don't believe in a higher power or God, but without the key (Jesus) it doesn't take you anywhere. It is not rejuvenating your soul.
Jesus taught the way to worship God. He taught people how to unite even when there is nothing other than him to unite them. He set the bones and left his apostles to build the church. He trusted them to do what was right and make more disciples in his image. They did not let him down.
After Jesus' sacrifice he returned to be with humanity for forty days before his ascension. It was very generous since I am sure he was ready to go home. During that time he revealed himself to numerous people. He also prepared his apostles one last time with their commissioning to build the church. He wanted them to know that they were ready. When they were ready, he ascended on a cloud back to Heaven to remain until the chosen time for him to come back to bring all that follow him home.
He ordered the apostles to stay in Jerusalem until they were baptized by the Holy Spirit. That could not happen while Jesus remained. Maybe this world can only handle one God presence at a time or maybe it is simply just part of the design. Either way, the Holy Spirit could not reside in our souls until Jesus returned to Heaven.
Once Jesus left, the Holy Spirit came and baptized them in fire. It was not burning fire or hell fire. it was spiritual fire to awaken their souls and empower them to do all that was necessary for God. They would never have succeeded without it. It would have just been too hard and dangerous. This baptism took away any residing fear that they had in their soul. The soul has to be cleansed (emptied) to make room for the Holy Spirit.
Once they were empowered by the Holy Spirit living within their souls, they were ready to start their work. Many stayed in Jerusalem which was dangerous, but necessary to build the church strong. The church has always been under persecution. If you don't feel the pressure or the heat from that persecution then you should maybe do a self evaluation to see if you are actually working under the Holy Spirit.
Some of the Apostles left Jerusalem to go out into the world to build the church among the gentiles. This was a new concept. It was a hard prejudice for some of them to get rid of. That means that not all the apostles would have done the job as well as others. It doesn't meant that they were not faithful Christians. It just means that Jesus knows that we all have hang ups.
The Holy Spirit will have us deal with those when the time is right. However, the Holy Spirit will spend more time encouraging you and opening your eyes to truths throughout your journey. It would be too much to have all your faults revealed in one moment's time. It would crush most people. Basically what this teaches us is that church communities/buildings are full of flawed people. It is unrealistic to demand people to be perfect at the moment of salvation. However, a true Christian will be open to the Holy Spirit and work on their own heart condition throughout life.
Judas was already dead at this point. He probably killed himself during the 40 days of resurrection. In a way he was a martyr to teach the church to display what not to do. He died a horribly gruesome death that exposed him for just what kind of man he was. That is a good lesson to learn because we all are going to be exposed for the person that we really are. Facades are pointless.
As the church grew, Christians were united together through prayer. They came together to pray which strengthened them. It began with the apostles, the women that followed Jesus, and Jesus' brother who finally believed. Peter was the appointed spokesperson for the church. He spoke to about 120 people when they came together (men and women). This was the first Jesus Christ church. He was a leader that would made Jesus proud. He stepped up to do what he was always meant to do.
The church was getting organized and they decided that they needed to appoint two more apostles to fill empty place of Judas. They set a standard before a person would be considered. They had to have followed Jesus since the death of John the Baptist, witnessed Jesus' death, and believed in the resurrection. The decision also had to be united among the 11 remaining apostles. If one opposed, then the person would not be chosen.
The two that were chosen were Joseph (Justus) and Mathias. They cast lots to see which would receive the position of apostolic ministry. This gave the Holy Spirit the power to make the choice. The lot fell on Matthias who became the 12th apostle. Today the church should have 12 elders or deacon to represent the 12 tribes / apostles of the original church. It is a position of honor, but also great responsibility.
Acts 1
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