Episode 2 - The Church After The Resurrection

The Church After The Resurrection

If you ask the average “Christian” about how the church got to be the church, many of them would have no idea. If you ask them how the Bible was put together, they will have no idea. If you ask them, what does it mean to “be” a Christian, they will have no idea. Many people believe that all they are required to do is show up once a week and listen to a sermon. The reality of our society is that many in the Western church have at best a superficial knowledge of their faith, and in many cases, have no “real” knowledge at all. They blindly go about repeating whatever they have been taught or heard, and they never take the time or effort to really understand the why behind it.

They have simply been indoctrinated and follow along because others do. I believe the reason for this is that for generations many people whose parents took them to church attended a ritual that is known as Sunday School. For one hour a week on a Sunday, children are herded into classrooms where a well-meaning adult attempts to teach them about the Bible, God, and Jesus. Theoretically this instills in each person a love for God and helps give them a foundation that helps them become mature practicing Christians. However, in the western church, this is not the reality.

What is created is a person who, sometimes, not always and not consistently attends a church service and sits and listens while a minister instructs them in what is in the Bible. Well in some cases, the sermons are from the bible, in many cases, the message comes from a denomination’s guidebook, which is known as the lectionary. Regardless, people are not taught to explore, question, and think, they are taught to simply believe. When pressed as to why they don’t question, often they say, “I don’t need the answers because I have faith. There are many ministers who, if you question what they teach, that is also their answer, I just believe, I have faith. Faith is fine and wonderful and a necessary thing for people to have, unfortunately, there are many who confuse faith with blind acceptance.

I am a firm believer in what is written in Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” I have great faith that Jesus walked the earth, that He is the Messiah, and that by believing in Him and trying my best to follow His teachings, I will be and am saved. I do not have faith that Moses wrote the 1^st 5 books of the Bible and that everything in the Book of Genesis is historical fact. I also have faith that even though I don’t accept everything verbatim that is in the Book of Genesis, my eternal soul is not at risk. I believe that God gave me an intellect and built in me a capacity to think and learn and understand. That is the purpose of these messages and why I call them the Hidden History of the Church.

I believe that if we, here in the western world, really want to save and grow the church, save and grow Christianity we have to explore the roots of the faith. In some of my past messages, I talked about how Christianity survived in the early days. Not only how Christianity survived, but also how it thrived. It was planted, watered, and grew in the face of unrelenting pressure and under constant threat of real persecution.

That was sort of a grand overview. Today I will start looking at some of what happened during the years immediately following Christ’s ascension into Heaven and how a Jewish sect spread across the region. I’m not going to discuss Paul’s missions, after all his work is very heavily handled in the New Testament. No, I’m going to look at some of the others that were involved. Let’s start in Jerusalem, Jesus has been turned over to the Romans by the Jewish leaders. He has been tortured and crucified. He has risen from His tomb.

We all know that Jesus left no writings, and the Gospels were written well after His Death. Some estimates have Mark: Written around 70 AD, Matthew and Luke between 85 and 95 AD, and John around 90 AD. So, a significant amount of time had passed after His death, before anything about His life and ministry was written down. The letters of Paul do not contain any reference to the actual ministry of Jesus, but mostly refer to His resurrection and how Christians should behave and believe.

The early followers of Jesus, especially after the resurrection, cared less about what He said and more about what He did. None of those who shared His story ever tried to describe the resurrection, it was enough that it had taken place and that He had appeared to His disciples after He had been laid in the tomb. It was in the earliest writings that He became the Greek word, Christos, and not the Jewish Messiah.

Nobody knows for sure how long He was around after His resurrection, some say a few days, the tradition of most denominations was 40 days and then in the presence of two of His disciples He ascended into Heaven. Now, of course, skeptics will say that none of this happened. That once Jesus was crucified, He was dead period. That all of this was mass hysteria or a grand hoax. Regardless of how any person today feels about it, the one absolute reality that cannot be argued is that those early followers believed something happened and they believed the He was indeed the Messiah. They had no hesitation in expressing their belief in that and as a result a new sect of Judaism came into being. It was called the Word, and it focused on the teachings and the belief that Jesus was the savior that had been promised.

There isn’t much written about the Jewish followers of Jesus who remained in Jerusalem, except they were there, and they stayed there for at least the next almost 30 years. They fled to the town of Pella before the Romans destroyed the temple in 70 AD, but before that they had an active presence in Jerusalem. We know that Peter was the first leader.

What else do we know about them? As I mentioned there are those historians who say they were known as the sect of the Word, and others say they were called the Nazarenes, after Jesus’ hometown. Personally, I find this one to be the most likely answer, especially since Nazareth was not known as the center of Judaism and in fact was considered a backwater town. Remember in John 1:43-46 “ 43 The next day He decided to go to Galilee, and He *found Philip. And Jesus *said to him, “Follow Me.” 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip *found Nathanael and *said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses wrote in the Law, and the prophets also wrote: Jesus the son of Joseph, from Nazareth!” 46 Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good be from Nazareth?” Philip *said to him, “Come and see.”” So, it makes sense that they would be labeled after the place of their founder.

The early followers of Jesus who were in Jerusalem believed that to become a follower of Jesus, you first had to convert and become Jewish. That meant you had to follow all the Jewish laws including circumcision and the dietary rules. These issues actually became the root of the first controversy among the followers. In the book of Acts, in Chapter 10, we find where Peter, who was an observant Jew, had a dream about food and what was permissible to eat., “10 But he became hungry and wanted to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance; 11 and he *saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, 12 and on it were all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the sky. 13 A voice came to him, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!” 14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.” 15 Again a voice came to him a second time, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.” This was unheard of among true followers of the Law of Moses.

After this, Peter starting traveling more around the countryside, eventually ending up in Rome, and spreading the word about Jesus. Meanwhile, James the brother of Jesus replaced him as the leader. While James was the leader came the 2^nd controversy, about whether or not Greeks could become followers without converting to Judaism. In Galatians Paul argues against men having to be circumcised to became a follower of Jesus. When he writes in Galatians 6:12-16, that those who are advocating it are doing it for show and not for true faith, “All who want to make a good showing in the flesh try to compel you to be circumcised, simply so that they will not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For those who are circumcised do not even keep the Law themselves, but they want to have you circumcised so that they may boast in your flesh. 14 But far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. 16 And all who will follow this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.”

He goes on to reinforce the idea of new requirements in Romans 13:8-10 “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for the one who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the Law. 9 For this, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the Law.” Who was this conflict with?

Tradition holds that James was the older brother of Jesus and was not an original follower. After all, if my younger brother claimed to be the chosen one, I’d have plenty of doubts. James became a follower after the crucifixion and resurrection. He was a devout Jew, who did not think of following Jesus as a new religion, he viewed it as another way of being a faithful Jew. He served as the leader until around 62 AD when he was martyred by the Jewish leaders. The story of his martyrdom is told by HE – GIS – EPUS who lived immediately after the apostles, gives what many consider to be the most accurate account of the death of Jame, in the fifth book of his Memoirs.

“4. “James, the brother of the Lord, succeeded to the government of the Church in conjunction with the apostles. He has been called the Just by all from the time of our Saviour to the present day; for there were many that bore the name of James. …

7. Because of his exceeding great justice, was called the Just, and Oblias, which signifies in Greek, ‘Bulwark of the people’ and ‘Justice,’ in accordance with what the prophets declare concerning him.

8. Now some of the seven sects, which existed among the people, and which have been mentioned by me in the Memoirs, asked him, ‘What is the gate of Jesus? and he replied that he was the Saviour.

9. On account of these words some believed that Jesus is the Christ. But the sects mentioned above did not believe either in a resurrection or in one’s coming to give to every man according to his works. But as many as believed did so on account of James.

10. Therefore, when many even of the rulers believed, there was a commotion among the Jews and Scribes and Pharisees, who said that there was danger that the whole people would be looking for Jesus as the Christ. Coming therefore in a body to James they said, ‘We entreat thee, restrain the people; for they are gone astray in regard to Jesus, as if he were the Christ. We entreat thee to persuade all that have come to the feast of the Passover concerning Jesus; for we all have confidence in thee. For we bear thee witness, as do all the people, that thou art just, and dost not respect persons.

11. Do thou therefore persuade the multitude not to be led astray concerning Jesus. For the whole people, and all of us also, have confidence in thee. Stand therefore upon the pinnacle of the temple, that from that high position thou mayest be clearly seen, and that thy words may be readily heard by all the people. For all the tribes, with the Gentiles also, are come together on account of the Passover.’

12. The aforesaid Scribes and Pharisees therefore placed James upon the pinnacle of the temple and cried out to him and said: ‘Thou just one, in whom we ought all to have confidence, forasmuch as the people are led astray after Jesus, the crucified one, declare to us, what is the gate of Jesus.’13. And he answered with a loud voice, ‘Why do ye ask me concerning Jesus, the Son of Man? He himself sitteth in heaven at the right hand of the great Power and is about to come upon the clouds of heaven.’

14. And when many were fully convinced and gloried in the testimony of James, and said, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David,’ these same Scribes and Pharisees said again to one another, ‘We have done badly in supplying such testimony to Jesus. But let us go up and throw him down, in order that they may be afraid to believe him.’

15. And they cried out, saying, ‘Oh! oh! the just man is also in error.’ And they fulfilled the Scripture written in Isaiah, ‘Let us take away the just man, because he is troublesome to us: therefore, they shall eat the fruit of their doings.’

16. So, they went up and threw down the just man, and said to each other, ‘Let us stone James the Just.’ And they began to stone him, for he was not killed by the fall; but he turned and knelt down and said, ‘I entreat thee, Lord God our Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’

17. And while they were thus stoning him one of the priests of the sons of Rechab, the son of the Rechabites, who are mentioned by Jeremiah the prophet, cried out, saying, ‘Cease, what do ye? The just one prayeth for you.’

18. And one of them, who was a fuller, took the club with which he beat out clothes and struck the just man on the head. And thus, he suffered martyrdom. And they buried him on the spot, by the temple, and his monument still remains by the temple. He became a true witness, both to Jews and Greeks, that Jesus is the Christ. And immediately Vespasian besieged them.” The followers of Jesus were willing to die for their belief in Jesus. Since this happened around 62 AD and they left the city prior to 66 AD, there is no real record of who became the leader of this group. However, it is safe to believe that by this time the Gospel had been spread far and wide through the Roman Empire, because we know that Peter and Paul were both in Rome.

We also know about the early Jerusalem followers of Jesus, and indeed, about almost, if not all, of the early converts is that they believed that Jesus would be returning at any time. They truly thought the end times were to be in their lifetimes. That is why they didn’t really organize or have any real written guidelines and passed down His teachings orally. Next time, I’ll talk about those 2^nd generation church leaders. The ones who came right after the Apostles.

Read your bible, especially the Gospels. If you can’t tell others what Jesus taught, and NOT what some preacher, even me, said he said, then you’re doing your faith a disservice. We are called to BE Christians, not play at being a Christian. We are called to follow His teachings; we are instructed to practice what Jesus preached.

If you have any questions, use the contact form here on the website, I’ll get back to you as quickly as I can.

I’ll talk to you next week, until next time, I’m Hank Wilson, God bless y’all and peace.