After the Acts of the Apostles
After the Acts of the Apostles
Since Luke concludes the Acts with Paul’s arrival and ministry in Rome, we are left somewhat in the dark about the following years. But it seems certain that Paul was released from custody (as he expected) and that he resumed his travels for another year or two. He visited Crete and left Titus there (Titus 1:5). Soon afterwards he wrote his Letter to Titus to remind him of his responsibilities. He must appoint suitable elders in every town who would be able to combat false teaching. He himself should also be a teacher and emphasize the kind of Christian conduct which is appropriate in those who have embraced “the sound doctrine” of the gospel of salvation.
Paul then went on to Ephesus, where he left Timothy for similar reasons (1 Tim. 1:3). In his First Letter to Timothy he gives him instructions on how to deal with false teachers, conduct public worship, select candidates for the pastorate, exercise his own ministry in such a way that his comparative youth will not be despised, arrange for the care of Christian widows, give balanced advice about money and behave like a man of God. It is a truly “pastoral epistle” (as the letters to Timothy and Titus are usually known), containing much practical wisdom for church leaders today.
Then Paul journeyed on, perhaps to Colosse (Philem. 22), then to Macedonia (1 Tim. 1:3) and then across Greece to Nicopolis (Titus 3:12), the capital of Epirus on the Adriatic. Perhaps it was his intention when winter ended to sail from there for Spain. Whether he succeeded we may never know, though early tradition says he did. In any case, at some point he was rearrested. It may have been at Troas, so that he had to leave his personal possessions behind, including a cloak and some books and parchments (2 Tim. 4:13). This time his prison in Rome was not the comparative liberty of a house arrest, but probably a dismal underground dungeon.
From such an imprisonment he wrote his Second Letter to Timothy. He felt keenly his loneliness, for only Luke was with him. He begged Timothy to come and visit him soon, and in any case before the winter would make sailing impossible. But his great concern was not for himself but for the gospel, the precious “deposit” which he had committed to Timothy and which Timothy must now hand on to faithful men who would pass it to others also. Timothy must persevere in it himself and guard it from every falsification. He must be prepared, if need be, to suffer for it. Above all, he must preach it urgently and faithfully. Paul himself had preached the gospel fully during the first hearing of his case, so that “all the Gentiles,” crowded into the place of his trial, had heard it (2 Tim. 4:17). It was a fitting conclusion to his life of testimony. Now at last he could say:
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day. (2 Tim. 4:7–8)
Tradition says that Paul was beheaded (as a Roman citizen would have been) on the Ostian Way. His execution was probably a part of the persecution which broke out in Rome in AD 64 when Nero tried to deflect responsibility for the great fire from himself to the Christians.
This same Neronian persecution forms the background to the First Letter of Peter. He wrote it from Rome9 and addressed it to Christians in the northern parts of Asia Minor to whom, he anticipated, the persecution was about to spread. He calls it a “painful trial” (1 Pet. 4:12). They are not to be surprised by it as something strange, nor to be afraid, but rather to rejoice at their privilege of sharing Christ’s sufferings (1 Pet. 4:13). Indeed, the patient endurance of undeserved suffering is an inescapable part of the Christian calling, since Christians are followers of Christ, the suffering servant of the Lord (1 Pet. 2:18–25). The apostle Peter had soon to put his own instruction into practice, for he too (like Paul) was executed during the Neronian persecution, according to tradition by being crucified upside down.
The New Testament ends as the Acts begins, namely with satanic attacks on the church from within and from without. The three letters of John, written some time after the martyrdoms of Paul and Peter, warn the churches in the neighborhood of Ephesus of a particular kind of heresy. The heretics concerned were a Gnostic10 group, which denied that Jesus was “the Christ come in the flesh,” claimed to enjoy an experience of God without having to be righteous, and made arrogant pretensions to a superior enlightenment which led them to despise the unenlightened. Over against them John emphasized the truth of the divine-human person of Christ, the necessity of moral obedience and the centrality of love. The Second Letter of Peter and the Letter of Jude were also written to counter the promoters of “antinomianism,” false teachers who degraded Christian liberty into license (cf. 2 Pet. 2:19). God’s judgment would fall upon them.
The background to the Book of Revelation is probably the more severe and widespread persecution which was initiated by the Emperor Domitian (AD 81–96). Because of his faithful testimony John finds himself exiled to the little island of Patmos, some miles off shore from Ephesus (Rev. 1:9). Here he is given an “apocalypse” or unveiling. In a sense the books of Acts and of Revelation are complementary. For Acts portrays the beginning of the church’s mission and persecution as they appeared on the stage of history, whereas Revelation enables us to peep behind the scenes and glimpse the unseen spiritual battle which is raging between Christ and Satan.
John’s visions are full of weird symbolism. Satan appears as “an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns,” who declares war on the church. His three allies are two fearful monsters and a gaudy prostitute. The “beast coming out of the sea” represents the persecuting power of the state, the second “beast coming out of the earth” (also called “the false prophet”) represents the cult of emperor-worship and indeed all erroneous teaching, while “the great prostitute” clothed in scarlet and decked with jewels, whose name is “Babylon,” represents the sinful enticements of worldliness. Persecution, error and evil are still the three major weapons which the devil wields in his fight against the church. But he will not prevail against it.
For the Book of Revelation is supremely a revelation of Jesus Christ as the Lamb who fights and conquers the Dragon. He is seen in other guises too, now patrolling and supervising his church, now sharing the Father’s throne, now riding forth on a white horse as King of kings and Lord of lords to judge the nations, now coming as the Bridegroom to claim his bride. The whole book summons hard-pressed Christians to lift up their hearts and take courage. For Christ Jesus has died to ransom his people for God out of every nation. He is reigning now from his heavenly throne. And he is coming soon to judge and to save.
The church’s prayer, with which the Bible ends, is “Come, Lord Jesus.” And the church’s assurance throughout its tribulation is that, until he comes, “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ” is sufficient to sustain all his people (Rev. 22:20–21).