The Early Church (Level 2 | 44)

You're on a journey through the Bible to experience the epic story of God and to learn your

part to play in the unfolding drama.

Prepare for your role as you learn your history, your enemy, and your kingdom.

Welcome to the Bible Brief.

Join us today as we see the growth of the early church, but the people face new challenges

from your religious leadership of Jerusalem.

We're listening to the Bible Brief.

They all used to know each other by name, but since that day in the upper room everything

had changed.

Pentecost, the Jewish feast of Shavuow, would now have new significance just as the Passover

had new significance because of Jesus.

It was that Pentecost day that Jesus baptized his followers with the Holy Spirit.

And later that day, more than 3,000 new believers received the Holy Spirit as well.

They were a new community of thousands.

The disciples had a lot of new names to learn, but more than that, they had lots about

life to figure out in this new era.

Jesus was now in heaven.

The believers were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they had a mandate to spread the gospel

to all nations of the world.

Not only that, but many of these new believers were soon exposed to new risks in their lives.

More than a few of them were immediately disowned, with many others having to change occupations

or professions due to their belief in Jesus.

Their work networks may have collapsed overnight, and they found themselves isolated and alone.

Well, alone except for the other 3,000 people with them.

Everything was new and difficult and exciting.

God was on the move.

It's in the midst of this upheaval in their lives that all these new believers looked to the apostles.

Now, an apostle of the day was simply someone sent out by someone else.

But here in the early church, there are those that we also might call capital A apostles.

These capital A apostles were exclusively those who had seen Jesus risen from the dead

and been directly commissioned by him for proclamation of the gospel.

The apostles then were essentially limited to the 12 disciples of Jesus, with the betrayer

Judas having been replaced by another man.

It follows them that these 12 apostles were the Messiah commissioned authority in the early

church.

It was through their leadership that many of the difficulties of the early church were confronted.

Further, it was through their teaching that many came to faith in Jesus.

We can even see this from the earliest days there in Jerusalem.

They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread

and to prayer.

A sense of awe came over everyone, and the apostles performed many wonders and signs.

All the believers were together and had everything in common.

Selling their possessions and goods, they shared with anyone who was in need.

With one accord, they continued to meet daily in the temple courts and to break bread from

house to house, sharing their meals with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God

and enjoying the favor of all the people.

And the Lord added to their number daily, those who were being saved.

Imagine being in the community for a moment, hearing from the apostles about their experience

with Jesus, seeing their faces light up when a memory popped into their minds.

Maybe even seeing some of those aha moments when they finally understood something Jesus

had said a year or two prior.

Not only that, but in the community you were witnessing the power of the Holy Spirit

with the apostles performing miracles like Jesus had done.

This new temple of God, the church, was showing the city of Jerusalem that God was doing a new thing.

His presence was no longer merely in that holiest place of the big physical temple in the middle

of Jerusalem.

No, God's presence was now in people, making them holy from the inside out.

Further, God was demonstrating this new era by giving the apostles miraculous gifts to heal.

The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people, and with one accord the

believers gathered together.

And more and more believers were brought to the Lord, large numbers of both men and women.

As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats,

so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by.

Crowds also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those tormented

by unclean spirits, and all of them were healed.

It was quite a time to be a believer in Jesus.

Life may have been difficult, there may have been new risks and hardships, but it was

amazing to daily see the power of God at work among the people of Jerusalem.

As time went on, however, the hardships of these early believers began to amplify, all

from some familiar enemies of Jesus while he was on the earth.

The religious leadership of Jerusalem didn't like what was happening because their hold

on the people was loosening, though they themselves had heard that Jesus rose from the dead.

His movement didn't stop with him.

Now they were seeing his followers do miracles and healings extending the ministry of their

rabbi.

These religious leaders were used to being the top of the social and religious hierarchy

for the Jews.

They were used to being the only authorities with the only opinions that mattered.

But now there were these fishermen from Galilee and others to whom the people began to listen

by the thousands.

These so-called apostles had to be stopped.

And so the religious leaders began a persecution campaign, and they tossed the apostles in prison.

But even this escalation doesn't work out well for them.

Almost immediately God sends one of his heavenly messengers, one of his angels, to let the

apostles out of prison, and they immediately begin preaching the gospel again.

Just infrestrated, the leading priests decided to bring some of the apostles before them again,

and this time they get a sense of the resolve of these men.

They brought them in and made them stand before the St. Hadrian Council, where the high priest

interrogated them.

We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, he said, yet you have filled Jerusalem

with your teaching and are determined to make us responsible for this man's blood.

But Peter and the other apostles replied, we must obey God rather than men.

The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree.

God exalted him to his right hand as prince and savior in order to grant repentance and

forgiveness of sins to Israel.

We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those

who obey him.

When the council members heard this, they were enraged, and they resolved to put the

apostles to death.

However, soon one of the elders of the council stopped this rage from turning into violence.

He warned them that there was a chance that the priests were actually acting against God,

and he recommended letting the apostles alone so that perhaps this new Jesus movement

might die out on its own.

This older man had seen movements come and go and thought that this one was probably

just like anyone that would fizzle out over time.

So the other priests took his advice.

They called the apostles in and had them flogged, then they ordered them not to speak in

the name of Jesus and released them.

The apostles left the St. Hedrine, rejoicing that they had been counted worthy of suffering

disgrace for the name.

Every day in the temple courts and from house to house, they did not stop teaching and proclaiming

the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.

The word of God continued to spread.

The number of disciples in Jerusalem grew rapidly, and a great number of priests became

obedient to the faith.

Yes, even some of those priests come to have faith in Jesus.

Despite many of them hoping that this movement would die out, they began to see even some

of their colleagues join the apostles in believing that Jesus is the Messiah.

This burgeoning church didn't appear to be dying out anytime soon.

And so, the church continues to grow and grow.

So much so, that the apostles soon have to assign some people to ensure that the shared

resources of the community are distributed according to people's needs.

The apostles end up appointing some men to serve in this distribution and service capacity.

And one of these men is named Stephen, a man full of faith, full of grace, full of power,

and full of the Holy Spirit.

And whom God is using in this burgeoning church.

Soon, however, from outside the church, some of the leading Jews of a particular Jewish

sect begin accusing Stephen of blasphemy against God, and against the law that God had given

the nation through Moses.

Quickly, these accusations lay in Stephen right where the apostles were before, in front

of the council of priests.

And the high priest, having heard the accusations against Stephen, simply asks him,

are these things so?

Stephen answers the simple question with a long story.

He responds with a magnificent and lengthy sermon containing the history of the Israelites

from Abraham through Moses, through David and finally ending the prophets who had announced

the details of the coming Messiah.

But this great sermon abruptly ends with a striking rebuke against the Jews that he's facing.

He says, you stiff-necked people, you always resist the Holy Spirit just as your fathers

did.

Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute?

They even killed those who foretold the coming of the righteous one.

And now you are his betrayers and murderers.

You who received the law ordained by angels yet have not kept it.

Stephen calls the religious leaders before him, betrayers, murderers, and lawbreakers,

and the fire of anger is kindled within them.

On hearing this, the members of the St. Hedrung were enraged and they gnashed their teeth

at him.

But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked intently into heaven and saw the glory of God and

Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

Look, he said, I see heaven open in the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.

At this they covered their ears, cried out in a loud voice and rushed together at him.

They dragged him out of the city and began to stone him.

While they were stoning him, Stephen appealed, Lord Jesus received my Spirit.

Falling on his knees, he cried out in a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against

them.

And Stephen dies right there, stoned to death for his faith and obedience to Jesus.

Stephen becomes the first martyr of the church, not crucified like Jesus, but stoned to death

with the same result, condemned in jealousy and in rage because of his message of offence

to his hearers, condemned for the truth.

The priests liked to think of themselves as the most righteous among people.

Those who revered the law, honored God and kept their hands clean.

They didn't like hearing that they were murderers or lawbreakers.

Their pride couldn't handle Stephen's rebuke.

And so they did what they did to Jesus.

They killed Stephen.

They proved his accusation true by murdering him soon after he caused them murderers.

It was at this awful scene of stoning that were introduced to a man who has a lasting

impact on the Bible and on the church, a man who was assisting in the proceeding, who

was holding the coats of the men who stoned Stephen to death, a man who had quickly become

one of the greatest enemies of the Christian church.

Join us next time as we meet Saul, the enemy of God's church.

For Bible readings, reflection questions and quizzes, don't miss the Bible Brief app.

Available on iOS and Android so you can go deeper into the story.

The Bible Brief is a project of the Bible Literacy Foundation, a non-profit dedicated

to helping you learn the Bible.

Give to support the Bible Brief by visiting biblebrief.org or tap the give link in the show notes.

Thank you for supporting the Bible Literacy Foundation.