What is the church? What people comprise this "gathering"? What does Paul mean when he calls the church the "body of Christ"?
To answer these questions fully, we need to understand the social and historical context of the New Testament church. The early church sprang up at the crossroads of Hebrew and Hellenistic cultures. We have already surveyed these cultures in two earlier articles, "Jews in New Testament Times" and "The Greeks and Hellenism".
In this article we turn our attention to the history of the early church itself. We will see what the early Christians understood their mission to be, and how unbelievers viewed them.
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New Testament Concepts of the Church
The Church Is Founded. Forty days after His resurrection, Jesus gave final instructions to His disciples and ascended into heaven (Acts 1:1-11). The disciples returned to Jerusalem and secluded themselves for several days of fasting and prayer, waiting for the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus said would come. About 120 of Jesus' followers waited in the group.
Fifty days after the Passover, on the day of Pentecost, a sound like a mighty rushing wind filled the house where the group was meeting. Tongues of fire rested upon each of them, and they began speaking in languages other than their own as the Holy Spirit enabled them. Foreign visitors were surprised to hear the disciples speaking in their own languages. Some of them mocked the group, saying they must be drunk (Acts 2:13).
But Peter silenced the crowd and explained they were witnessing the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that the Old Testament prophets had predicted (Acts 2:16-21; Joel 2:28-32). Some of the foreign observers asked what they must do to receive the Holy Spirit. Peter said, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost" (Acts 2:38). About 3,000 people accepted Christ as their Savior that day (Acts 2:41).
For several years Jerusalem was the center of the church. Many Jews believed that the followers of Jesus were just another sect of Judaism. They suspected that Christians were trying to start a new "mystery religion" around Jesus of Nazereth.
It is true that many of the early Christians continued to worship at the temple (cf. Acts 31) and some insisted that gentie converts should be circumcised (cf. Acts 15). But Jewish leadrs soon realized that the Christians were more than a sect. Jesus had told the Jews that GOD would make a new covenant with people who were faithful to Him (Matt. 16:18); He had sealed this covenant with His own blood (Luke 22:20). So the early Christians boldly proclaimed that they had inherited the provileges that Israel once knew. They were not simply a part of Israel - they were the new Israel (Rev. 3:12; 21:2; cf. Matt. 26:28; Heb 8:8; 9:15). "The Jewish leaders had a shuddering fear that this strange new teaching was no narrow Judaism, but merged the privilege of Israel in the high revelation of one Father of all men". Henry Melvill Gwatkin, Early Church History, Vol. I (London: Macmillan and Company, 1927), p. 18
| New Testament Heretics |
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| Since the first century, the church has been plagued by individuals who have tried to twist the truth to suit their own fancy or "refine" it to make it more acceptable or "sensible". Of special concern to the early church were three groups of heretics: Judaizers, Gnostics, and Nicolaitans. Judaizers. At first the church was composed entirely of converted Jews who recognized that Jesus was the Messiah, GOD's Anointed One. But as Paul began his ministry among the Gentiles, some of the Jewish Christians warned that a Gentile could not become a Christian unless he or she first became a Jew! They said that the Gentile converts should practice physical rituals such as circumcision and adhere to the Law that Jews had kept for hundreds of years (Acts 15:1-31). As Paul's ministry fanned out, it soon became apparent that Gentiles were flooding into the church with this Jewish indoctrination. Jewish Christian leaders followed in Paul's footsteps, demanding that the gentile believers conform to their beliefs. They used Old Testament Scriptures to support their point. At times these "Judaizers" even preceded Paul on his missionary journeys. In such cases, they caused so much turmoil that little or no evangelistic work could be done. Gnostics. The Gnostics taught that Jesus wasn't really GOD's Son. To their minds, matter was evil and spirit was good. Since GOD was good (and spirit) He could not have personally created a material world (evil). They further argued that since spirit and matter could not intermingle, Christ and GOD could not have united in the person of Jesus. They took their name from the Greek word gnosis ("knowledge"), professing to have special insight into the secret truths of life. Archaeologists have found several Gnostic papyrus manuscripts in Egypt. Some of them are pseudepigraphical writings, such as the "Wisdom of Jesus Christ" and the "Acts of Peter". Perhaps the best-known Gnosic book is the Pistis Sophia ("Faith Knowledge"), which has been translated into English and French. Many small Gnostic communities were scattered across the Near East. Each developed unique doctrines of its own. Today we must rely on their manuscripts to trace the beliefs of each community, and in many cases it is difficult to tell whether a particular group was Gnostic or a totally different religious sect. A notable example is the community of scribes at Qumran. Paul mentions three men who deserted the faith for this heresy; Hymenaeus, Alexander, and Philetus (I Tim. 1:20; II Tim 2:17-18). They claimed the resurrection had already passed, perhaps believing that whatever spirit is "left over" when a man dies is absorbed again into GOD. Nicolaitans. John focused on a more extreme form of Gnosticism rampant throughout the first-century church (I and II John; Rev. 2:6,14,15). He felt that heretics had to be cut off from the church before they spread their ruinous ideas. Irenaeus, Tertullian, and other church fathers denounced the Nicolaitans along with the Gnostics. Irenaeus reported that the sect was named for Nicolaos, a deacon of the first Nicolaitan community, who indulged in adultery. |
A. The Jerusalem Community. The first Christians formed a close-knit community in Jerusalem after the day of Pentecost. They expected Christ to return very soon.
The Christians in Jerusalem shared all of their material goods (Acts 2:44-45). Many sold their property and gave the proceeds to the church, which distributed these resources among the group (Acts 4:34-35).
The Christians of Jerusalem still went to the temple to pray (Acts 2:46), but they began sharing the LORD's Supper in their own homes (Acts 2:42-46). This symbolic meal reminded them of their new covenant with GOD, which Jesus Christ had made by sacrificing His own body and blood.
GOD worked miracles of healing through these early Christians. Sick people gathered at the temple so that the apostles could touch them on their way to prayer (Acts 5:12-16). These miracles convinced many people that the Christians were truly serving GOD. Temple officials arrested the apostles in an effort to suppress the people's interest in the new religion. But GOD sent an angel to deliver the apostles from prison (Acts 5:17-20), which aroused more excitement.
The church grew so rapidly that the apostles had to appoint seven men to distribute goods to the needy widows. The leader of these men was Stephen, "a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 6:5). Here we see the beginning of church government. The apostles had to delegate some of their duties to other leaders. As time passed, church offices were arranged in a rather complex structure.
B. The Murder of Stephen. One day a group of Jewish men seized Stephen and brought him before the council of the high priest, charging him with blasphemy. Stephen made an eloquent defense of the Christian faith, explaining how Jesus fulfilled the ancient prophecies of the Messiah who would deliver His people from the bondage of sin. He denounced the Jews as "betrayers and murderers" of GOD's Son (Acts 7:52). Looking up into heaven, he exclaimed that he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of GOD (Acts 7:55). This enraged the Jews, who carried him out of the city and stoned him to death (Acts 7:58-60).
This began a wave of persecution that drove many Christians out of Jerusalem (Acts 8:1). Some of these Christians settled among the Gentiles of Samaria, where they made many converts (Acts 8:5-8). They established congregations in several gentile cities, such as Antioch of Syria. At first the Christians hesitated to welcome Gentiles into the church, because they saw the church as a fulfillment of Jewish prophecy. Yet Christ had instructed His followers to "teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Matt. 28:19). So the conversion of Gentiles was "only the fulfillment of the LORD's commission, and the natural result of all that had gone before..." Thus the murder of Stephen began an era of rapid expansion for the church.
Missionary Efforts. Christ had established His church at the crossroads of the ancient world. Trade routes brought merchants and ambassadors through Palestine, where they came into contact with the gospel. Thus in the Book of Acts we see the conversion of officials from Rome (Acts 10:1-48), Ethiopia (Acts 8:26-40), and other lands.
Soon after Stephen's death the church began a systematic effort to carry the gospel to other nations. Peter visited the major cities of Palestine, preaching to both Jews and Gentiles. Other went to Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch of Syria. Hearing that the gospel was well received in these areas, the church in Jerusalem sent Barnabas to encourge the new Christians in Antioch (Acts 11:22-23). Barnabas then went to Tarsus to find the young convert named Saul. Barnabas took Saul back to Antioch, where they taught in the church for over a year (Acts 11:26).
A prophet named Agabus predicted that the Roman Empire would suffer a great famine under Emperor Claudius. Herod Agrippa was persecuting the church in Jerusalem; he had already executed James the brother of Jesus, and had thrown Peter into prison (Acts 12:1-4). So the Christians in Antioch collected money to send to their friends in Jerusalem, and they dispatched Barnabas and Saul with the relief. Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem with a young man named John Mark (Acts 12;25).
By this time, several evangelists had emerged within the church at Antioch so the congregation sent Barnabas and Saul on a missionary trip to Asia Minor Acts 13-14). This was the first of three great missionary journeys that Saul (later known as Paul) made to carry the gospel to the far reaches of the Roman Empire. See "The Apostles" for more information about Paul's missionary journeys.
The early Christian missionaries focused their teachings upon the Person and work of Jesus Christ. They declared that He was the sinless servant and Son of GOD who had given His life to atone for the sins of all people who put their trust in Him (Rom. 5:8-10). He was the One whom GOD raised from the dead to defeat the powers of sin (Rom. 4:24-25; I Cor 15:17).
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