Front matter
THE
EARLY CHURCH
By R. Herbert
2015, Living Belief Books – an imprint of LivingWithFaith.org & TacticalChristianity.org
The text and images in this e-book are copyright.
All rights reserved.
ISBN 978-1-943274-06-2
This book is not to be sold. It is made available without charge by the publisher and free copies can be downloaded from:
LivingWithFaith.org or TacticalChristianity.org .
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. In a few cases, the ESV (English Standard Version ©) is cited, and these translations are also gratefully acknowledged.
Cover: "Paul" © Kenneth Wyatt, reproduced by kind permission of the artist. In this wonderful painting, the apostle Paul is shown penning Greek words speaking of writing a letter or epistle. The Greek characters are large; many scholars feel that Paul may have written in such a manner due to failing eyesight (Galatians 4:15 and 6:11). The original artwork may be seen at http://bit.ly/1MoAHT5.
CONTENTS
A Note to the Reader
Introduction
PART ONE: FOUNDATION
1. The Book of Actions
2. The Unknown Apostle
3. Like Wind and Fire
4. The Universal Gospel
5. Priorities of the Spirit
6. What the Early Church Looked Like
7. Were the First Christians Communists?
8. Persecution!
9. Stephen and the Gifts of Faith and Power
10. The Man from the Ends of the Earth
11. A Centurion and Change in the Church
12. What Happened to James?
13. Faith and a Good Night's Sleep
14. The Man at the Door
15. Luke's Checkpoint Summaries
PART TWO: EXPANSION
16. Seeing the Light in Damascus
17. "Brother Saul" and the Faith of Ananias
18. Paul: Prepared to Serve
19. Barnabas: Son of Encouragement
20. The Church at Antioch
21. The Only Way
22. The Apostle Who Didn't Come to Dinner
23. Three Journeys – Three Lessons
24. Paul and Barnabas Disagree
25. An Encouraging Incident at Philippi
26. What Must I Do to Be Saved?
27. The Apostle Paul's Job Description
28. All Things to All People
29. A Matter of Citizenship
30. The Road to Rome
31. A Cell with a View
32. Paul after Acts
33. The Early Church after Acts
Afterword
A NOTE TO THE READER
Most of what we know about the origins of the Christian Church and its earliest history comes from the Book of Acts, or Acts of the Apostles – one of the most fascinating books in the New Testament. But Acts can be a complex as well as a captivating book for those who do not know it well. The book spans a number of decades of the first century, mentions more individuals than any other New Testament book, and, as we will see, describes constant action and many important events.
Like the Book of Acts, this book – Lessons in Christian Living from the Early Church – deals with only the first century of the Christian Faith, focusing mainly on the period from the founding of the Church in approximately AD 30 to around AD 60 when the apostle Paul was imprisoned in Rome. Only the last couple of chapters of this book go beyond that point to look at what happened to Paul and the early Church after the story line of Acts comes to a close.
But although The Early Church covers essentially the same timeframe, it is not a retelling of Acts or a commentary on it. Instead, this book consists of a collection of short essays dealing with the practical Christian lessons that we can learn from some of the lives, events, and conditions of the earliest years of the Christian Faith. A few of the chapters reproduce articles published on our websites, but most were specially written for this volume. If you would like to know more about the Book of Acts before looking at its lessons, the following Introduction sketches the background. If you would rather jump to the story itself, it begins here.
R. Herbert, Ph.D.
INTRODUCTION
According to tradition, the anonymous document now called the Book of Acts or the Acts of the Apostles was written sometime in the last decades of the first century by "Luke the Physician" (Colossians 4:14), who accompanied the apostle Paul on many of his travels.
Acts thus records much of the history of the early Church from an eyewitness perspective, as Luke was clearly present when many of the events occurred. In other situations Luke evidently heard of the events first-hand from people who witnessed them, so his account of early Christianity includes many important details and insights.
The Book of Acts also contains some intriguing clues regarding its origin and purpose. It is addressed to "Theophilus" (Acts 1:1) – the "most excellent Theophilus" for whom Luke also wrote his Gospel (Luke 1:3). Because Theophilus literally means "lover of God," it is sometimes thought that this might mean Luke and Acts were written as a record for any "Christian reader." This is possible, but Theophilus was not an uncommon name and it is just as likely that an actual individual was being addressed. Such an individual may have been a "patron" of Luke – supporting his research and writing – and probably a believer in Christianity himself (Luke 1:4).
There is perhaps one other possibility. Because Luke was with Paul for the two years the apostle was imprisoned in Rome while awaiting trial, some have wondered if Theophilus was the Roman official in charge of Imperial legal cases at the time, and Luke and Acts were written as legal briefs in support of Paul's case. It is true that Luke uses the same Greek word "excellency" that he uses of Theophilus to refer to the Roman governors Felix and Festus (Acts 23:26; 24:3; 26:25), but the title may simply be one of respect to his reader. In any case, Luke doubtless had in mind an ultimately much wider audience than just Theophilus, whatever that person's identity may have been. Even if the book was not addressed directly to Christian readers in general, it certainly was written with them in mind.
From our modern perspective, Acts is often called the "bridge" between the four Gospels and the epistles of Paul. It certainly is that. Were it not for Acts, we would not know the outcome of the Gospel story or the background to so much of what Paul and the other apostles wrote about in their letters to early Christian churches and individuals. Acts truly is a key to understanding much of the New Testament, and it also answers a great many questions we might have regarding the early Church. How did the Church come into existence? How was it governed? What was it like? How did it change as it became established? Importantly, the answer to each of these questions carries lessons that we can apply in our lives in the Church today.
The Book of Acts is divided into two parts dealing with the founding of the Church (covered in Acts 1-12) and the spreading of its message throughout the Roman Empire (covered in Acts 12-28). Although it does not have a break in the middle to show this division, Acts is clearly organized to show the successive development of these two themes. We see this especially in the way Luke carefully selects material to show significant parallels between the two halves of Acts.
PARALLELS
In the first part of Acts (covered in this book in Part One: Foundation), we see the formation of the early Church in Jerusalem from the promised outpouring of the Spirit of God, and the Church's subsequent growth in Judea and nearby Samaria. Throughout this first period, the apostle Peter is the leading figure in the Book of Acts. We hear of other important early Christians such as Philip and Stephen who also accomplished great things, but the focus continually returns to
Peter. The final chapters of this section contain two vital transitional events. We see the receiving of the Holy Spirit by the Roman centurion Cornelius as the beginning of the conversion of the Gentiles, and we see the conversion of the Church's great enemy, Saul of Tarsus, setting the stage for the Gospel to be widely preached to the Gentile population of the Roman world.
In the second half of Acts (covered in this book in Part Two: Expansion), the stress is no longer on the Church's establishment within the Judean homeland, but on its spread to the city of Antioch in Syria – an area populated by Jews and Gentiles alike – and to the Gentile world beyond. Saul/Paul now takes center stage, and the work of this apostle is traced through three great missionary journeys – covering thousands of miles and lasting two, three, and four years respectively – until his captivity in Rome. We see other notable figures in this period of the early Church, too – not least Barnabas and Silas – but just as Peter is dominant in the first half of Acts, the focus now is on Paul. Although Peter is mentioned some 70 times in the first half of Luke's account, he is mentioned only once in the second half of the book – while Paul is mentioned about 180 times in the second half.
The parallel between Peter and Paul in the two halves of Acts is an important one which is carefully developed. Just as Peter healed a lame man (Acts 3:1-10) and others on whom his shadow fell (Acts 5:15), Paul is shown to have healed a lame man (Acts 14:8-10) and others who were touched by a cloth from him (Acts 19:12). Just as Peter was repeatedly thrown in prison and at one point miraculously released (Acts 4:3, 5:18, 12:3), Paul was also frequently imprisoned and on one occasion miraculously freed (Acts 16:23-24, 21:27-36). Peter counters an influential magician, Simon Magus (Acts 8:9-24), as does Paul in confronting Bar Jesus (Acts 13:6). Peter appears before the Sanhedrin and preaches the Gospel to the Jewish religious leaders (Acts 4:5-12, 5:29-32), as does Paul (Acts 22:30-23:6, 26:1-29).
Acts stresses many other similarities between the two apostles, and it is clear that Luke selects his material carefully to show the equality of Paul with Peter in their respective areas of taking the Gospel to the Gentiles and the Jews – though there is some small degree of overlap. Just as Peter oversaw the conversion of the Gentile Cornelius, Paul spoke to the Jewish Sanhedrin in Jerusalem, as well as preaching to many Jews, along with Gentiles, on his missionary journeys.
CONTINUITY
The fact that the first half of Acts stresses foundation and the second half of the book stresses expansion does not mean there is no continuity in the account, of course. Expansion is seen in the first half of the book ("and the Lord added to their number daily" – Acts 2:47), and foundation is seen in the second half (Paul established new churches in each city – Acts 14:23), so these and other ongoing themes run throughout Acts. We see continuous growth in both the number of believers and the geographical range of Christianity as it expands. At the same time we see a recurrent theme of persecution of the early Church – attacks which rise and fall in successive waves, often claiming lives and striving to limit the Faith, but never succeeding in stopping the foundation and expansion of the Church.
Another ongoing theme we find throughout Acts and one which we stress in this book is that of accomplishment. The travels of Peter and then Paul are synonymous with the outflowing of the Gospel as it spreads from its place of origin in Jerusalem farther and farther outward and eventually to Rome – the capital and center of the ancient civilized world.
But the accomplishment documented in Acts is not just the spread of an abstract religious idea. Luke is careful to show the value of the work being done at each stage of the early Church's growth – its results and outcomes that go beyond simple numbers of converts and cities visited – through the establishment and the working of faith and change in the lives of those transformed by the Gospel. Many of the practical lessons of Christian living we can learn from Acts are found in these insights into the characters and accomplishments of the early Christians.
There is one other aspect of continuity in Acts that we must keep in mind as we look at the early Church and its lessons for us today. In tracing the development of the Church from its Jewish Christian origin in Jerusalem to a spiritual commonwealth of Gentile Christians in cities throughout the Roman Empire, Luke is not really looking just at the historical "Acts of the Apostles" (we must always keep in mind that is a later title given to Luke's book, not an original one), but at the continuation of the work of Jesus Christ that Luke described earlier in his Gospel.
Luke begins Acts with reference to "…all that Jesus began to do and to teach" (Acts 1:1), and the history of the early Church, as recounted in Acts, is simply the story of the continuation of that doing and teaching: "… you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8). As his "witnesses," the early Christians did the same kind of works Jesus did and preached the same Gospel that he did.
Seeing this continuity helps us to better understand Luke's choice of material, the things he stresses and the things he only lightly touches upon. There is certainly no question that Luke's history of the early Church is a selective one; it is not only the best one we have – but also it is one which faithfully shows us the continuity of what Jesus Christ began to do, as well as providing us with many lessons from which we can personally profit in our own lives as He continues His work in the Church today.
Benjamin Franklin wrote: "Whoever shall introduce into public affairs the principles of primitive Christianity will change the face of the world;" and that is exactly what Luke attempted to show in Acts – and, of course, what Jesus of Nazareth intended.
PART ONE: