LESSON 15: Growth of the Christian Church
LESSON 15
GROWTH OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH
The book of Acts, the only book in the Church History division of the Bible, describes the acts of Jesus’ apostles through the Holy Spirit. These acts resulted in the beginning of God’s Church.
Acts was written by Luke, the same Luke who wrote the book Luke. Acts follows the clear plan of Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.”
After Jesus’ ascension, the disciples went back to Jerusalem and waited for the Holy Spirit. On the day of Pentecost, they heard a sound like a rushing wind and saw tongues like fire over each of them. The Holy Spirit had come.
Now empowered by the Holy Spirit, Peter preached the Gospel to the Jews who had gathered at the sound of this incredible event, and about 3,000 people accepted the Good News of Jesus and were saved! This was only the beginning of the growth of God’s Church.
In the first part of Acts, Peter is the main apostle read about. It describes how he and others preached the Gospel to the Jews in Jerusalem with thousands of them believing in Jesus as their Savior! They taught the Jews how Jesus, the One they had crucified, had risen from the dead, and was the promised Savior. This teaching made the religious leaders angry. They ordered the apostles to stop telling the Good News of Jesus, but the apostles refused. They knew only Jesus could save the people from their sins and continued preaching the Gospel message. When they were arrested and put in jail, the apostles were asked why they continued to preach even though it was forbidden. Peter and the other apostles replied, “…We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).
The apostles trusted God to give them strength, and they continued to preach the Gospel and many thousands of people believed in Jesus as their Savior as a result!
Even with the expansion of God’s Church, several apostles were arrested, beaten, and even killed for sharing the Good News of Jesus. In Acts 7, we read about the death of the first martyr—Stephen. Acts 8 tells us Saul, a very important religious leader, approved of Stephen’s execution. Saul and others did everything they could to hurt Jesus’ followers. Many believers fled from Jerusalem and scattered to Judea and Samaria. However, they still preached God’s Word. This brought the Gospel from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria, just like Jesus told His followers to do.
In Acts 9 we read of Saul’s surprise encounter with Jesus and Saul’s conversion to Christianity. After his conversion, Saul’s name is changed to Paul and we see him take the Gospel to the Gentiles in Acts 10, fulfilling Jesus’ command in Acts 1:8 to take the Gospel “to the end of the earth.” This is why St. Paul is known as the Apostle of gentiles.
The persecution helped the growth of Christianity in and outside the Roman Empire and the believers became very strong in their faith. The persecution of the church continued till the beginning of the fourth century. During the reign of Emperor Constantine of the Roman Empire, he put an end to the persecution and declared Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire. Thus Christianity became strong in Rome and the Christian missionaries brought the gospel to even outside the empire.
Video Reference:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYGZmEpJmHg&t=33s
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_BaCLcVMeU – Conversion of Saul
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIpqedE0t2I – Stoning of Stephen