Early Church Beginnings - Acts of The Apostles

     When Jesus was born in Bethlehem during a census directed by Caesar Augustus (Octavian), He was born into a Greco-Roman world that, while wrought with military and political confusion just a few decades prior, was stable and relatively peaceful.¹ The region under Roman rule, which included modern-day Europe, northern Africa, and the Near East, was culturally Hellenistic. While Romans spoke Latin, Greek was the universal language of the time and Hellenistic influences permeated the region, particularly stressing literary and intellectual accomplishment. Monotheistic Jews were contrasted by Greek influences in the occult, philosophy, and religious syncretism, all of which would prime the region for the acceptance of the gospel message.¹
     By God’s grace, Jews were afforded a fair number of religious freedoms, which is significant when we consider the beginnings of Christianity. Of particular importance was the fact that the Sanhedrin remained intact and was the very vehicle through which the crucifixion of Jesus was carried out, ensuring Old Testament prophesies regarding the Messiah’s death, burial, and resurrection would be fulfilled.
     The Acts of the Apostles documents the setting and context of the early Christian Church. The very place where Jesus was crucified was the place where the Apostles were to remain, awaiting the anointing of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Before His ascension, Jesus promised they would be “baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Luke 1:5, ESV). While Christians now, and in the first century, live in the present evil age, a key facet of the early Christian self-understanding was the conviction that, with the coming of Christ and the Spirit, the “last days” had dawned.² We are in an “already but not yet” time leading to the age of the Kingdom of God, where Jesus will overthrow Satan once and for all.³ In Romans 16:20 we read, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you."
     With the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost those who were indwelt with the Spirit of God were sealed for the day of redemption (cf. Eph 4:30). Those who have since put their faith in Jesus Christ enjoy that same promise. While all Christians know this to be true, what is less understood may be the significance of the early church in organizing and proselytizing.
Without the narrative accounts in the book of Acts, which accounts for over 25% of the New Testament, we would not have the story of Pentecost, Stephen’s martyrdom after his speech before the high priest, Saul’s conversion story, and the Jerusalem council, to name a few.  Furthermore, we may not get the full picture of how Judaism is the foundation of Christianity; how the early Church did not necessarily forsake such events as meeting together daily in the temple courts. In Acts 2:42 Luke notes that fellowship involved community gatherings where believers learned the Apostles’ teachings, broke bread, and prayed. These were common practices that were taking on a whole new meaning.
     Dr. Stacy notes that Luke wrote Acts to remind his audience (then and now) that irrespective of distances between Judaism and Christianity, Christianity began as a legitimate movement within the piety of first century Judaism.⁴ Old Testament commands, which warranted certain Jewish disciplines, served the early church well, assuming it was understood that Jesus did not come to abolish the law, but fulfill it, as He indicates in Matthew 5:17; that the perfectly holy life He led fulfilled the moral requirements of the Torah.
     Peter appealed to the “Jewishness” of the early church by referring to the prophecy of Joel regarding the last days, quoting Joel 2:28-32. Peter will also reference back to David’s writings in Psalm 16. While the grace of God and His sovereign will is what drags men out of their sin and death (cf. Jn 6:44) and into life in Christ, the means through which the Apostles were able to witness so effectively was by their eyewitness accounts of the risen Christ, the giftings (such as healing) which proved their divine appointment and apostolic authority, and by appealing to the pious and practicing nature of a Jewish, monotheistic (which was exclusive to Judaism), society.
     As a final example of this appeal, the concept of baptism was well-known in Jewish Levitical practice. The Jewish mikvah, which was a cleansing from physical, spiritual, or moral impurity was an early signal of what was to come in the ordinance of believer’s baptism. While mikvah was a ceremonial cleansing, accomplished with a purpose and carrying significant meaning, modern-day Christianity largely considers baptism an afterthought. This shouldn’t be so! We should not separate the act (repentance) from the ritual that signifies it (baptism).⁴
     In conclusion, let us never forget that the early Christian Church was built upon the foundation of Jewish beliefs and Old Testament promises, fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ. While members of the religious elite summarily denied the deity of Christ, Jesus took ordinary men and used them to build the early Church into an eschatological community of the new age.