In this lesson, Pastor Dave Capoccia begins examining early church history by first discussing the gospel’s expansion in the first four centuries. Pastor Dave explains the extent of gospel expansion, the ways God prepared for this expansion to take place, and the chief means God used to bring about the expansion.
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well good morning welcome to Sunday school looks like we’re all set with our technical stuff today so let’s pray heavenly father thank you so much for this time to see what great things you have done in the past so that we’d be encouraged and bold and instructed instructed and convicted for the present help me to be able to explain this well help us be able to pay attention and apply it in Jesus name amen all right this is week two of our new series on church history church history 101 the early church I hope that after last week’s introductory lesson that you have come to appreciate the value of studying church history church history is really the history of God’s family which is our family if we have come to know Jesus Christ it’s the record of our family after the Bible ends of course the Bible is that first record and now in church history we have the ongoing record church history is also our portal of access to sanctifying fellowship with Believers past believers who have a unique perspective unaffected by the culture and biases of our own time and church history is also a clear testimony of God’s faithfulness and everything that he declares in his word so that like a blinking Arrow church history directs us back to God back to his word so we may follow him in godliness and joy in the Days of Our Lives now this morning we begin to study more systematically early church history now some of you may know by the end of our period of study by the fourth and fifth centuries A.D Christianity will have so permeated the Roman Empire that it will not only be officially tolerated but actually recognized as the official religion of Rome of the Roman Empire how did that happen how did Christianity spread so rapidly and thoroughly within the Empire and Beyond how did God show himself Mighty and faithful in this Christian expansion and what lessons and encouragement can we gain for today that’s what we want to look at lesson two is Gospel expansion before we get started a quick word about sources that I’m using for this course said I would say something about that today I put together this class from a lot of different sources books articles DVDs internet sites magazines even some primary sources so too many to list them all but I want to give you the main sources that I’m using so that you can benefit from them as well if you like so first and foremost is the class I took in seminary for Nathan busanits you can actually enjoy his lecture series yourself if you just go to the master Seminary YouTube page so that’s a huge source for this material another is the Capitol Hill Baptist Church History course seminar there are a number uh yeah some notes online then a number of books and and I I list them in order of their how in-depth they go so first sketches from church history by SM Houghton it’s kind of like a overview not so in depth but gives you a good overview of church history originally published in 1980 then we have Through the Ages by Ernest Trice Thompson and Elton m egenberg a little bit older Source 1965 published from a reform for spring reform press my favorite bookstores two thousand years of Christ power this is actually five volumes the first one is just on the early church but this is by Nick Needham so this came out in 2016 or rather the revised Edition it’s from written by Reformed Baptist historian and also Church Minister he’s a minister in Scotland so it’s the most in depth and it includes several primary sources at the end of each chapter in the book so or not whole sources but excerpts from those sources so you not just get a description of church history but you can actually sitiate that about that book of course these would be great resources for you if you’re interested in church history I recommend you check them out because they’re so specialized they’re probably not things that we’ll get for the Book Nook it might be good for our lending library but they certainly are worth checking out for you one other source I want to mention though is the Christian Classics Ethereal Library you can actually find this at ccel.org it’s the area around Jerusalem you actually said it before Glenda Judea it goes to the surrounding regions of Jerusalem it goes into Judea and then as you said Glenda to Samaria and then where does it go I’m sorry you say that again yeah eventually makes it up north into Syria and turkey but really to all different parts of the world and as I asked that question perhaps you’re remembering a certain line from the book of Acts not only does that book that record from Luke show indeed that was the order of gospel expansion but it also gives record that Jesus said that would be the order of gospel expansion and acts 1 8 Jesus tells the disciples before he ascends that you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my Witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria even to the remotest parts of the Earth and that’s what we begin to see in the book of Acts by the end of the book of Acts and you can see the diagram of Paul’s Journeys in the book of Acts by the end of the book of Acts which parts of Europe and the Middle East have established Christian congregations what’s one of them you mentioned turkey before Asia Minor would certainly be one of those places where else Macedonia very good the northern part of modern Greece today where else yes even in Italy in Rome then we could add some other places so you see things kind of starting on the right lower quarter there with Israel Palestine going up into Syria big church and Antioch and then we have area of turkey Asia Minor and then going into Macedonia and also the lower part of it which was called Ikea in that time so Mainland Greece Macedonia over to Rome but also the island of Crete which is kind of in the middle of all that in the uh in that section there these are all described in the book of Acts as places where um the Disciples of Jesus ministered brought the gospel and so there were churches there even by the end of the book of Acts which would probably be around A.D 60.
within 30 years of the church you have this gospel spread and though some of these churches might have been small when they founded they were already beginning to grow and we can see the extent that it had moved but this was only the beginning there would be much more expansion of the Gospel even before the end of the Bible between what we read in Acts and the Book of Revelation which was probably written around 80 95.
the gospel expands even more I mean after all when or let me ask this question where did Paul say he wanted to take the gospel with the Romans help when he wrote the letter to the Christians in Rome yeah Bruce that’s right he said I want to go to Spain with your help so it wasn’t like they thought that this was enough going to all the Earth certainly required more than just where they’d already gone now did Paul ever go to Spain historian’s debate whether he really did or not there’s not a lot of evidence one way or another there is a suggestion from what we see in the totality of scripture that Paul had a time of unrecorded Ministry between his first imprisonment and his second imprisonment so it is quite possible that he did go to Spain but whether he did or not somebody went to Spain because Christianity eventually spreads to all parts of the Roman Empire and even Beyond like I was saying the disciples did not understand Jesus command to go out into all the world to mean only a certain section of the Roman Empire or even just the Roman Empire no we see that both in the Bible and in the records that we have post Bible Christians took their message everywhere and I’m going to show you a slide this doesn’t contain everywhere they went but you can kind of see the borders of where they went I’ll explain this a little bit more in just a second but from that beginning place in Israel in Jerusalem Christians ended up taking the message of Jesus East they went into the Middle East into the Tigris and Euphrates Valley Mesopotamia which would be modern Iraq and Iran they took it into Arabia they took it along the shores of the Black Sea so that sea above turkey they took it into Armenia which by the way was actually the first political entity in history to embrace Christianity as its state religion actually even before Rome Armenia declared itself a Christian state Christians took the message into Central Asia modern Afghanistan and Pakistan they took it into India they even took it into Mongolia and China you say what are you talking about how do we know that well that’s what that picture on the right is that is the Xi’an steel a stone document discovered in China in the 1600s which details the history of healthy Christian communities from the early 7th Century into the 9th centuries so there were Christians in China at that time and if there were whole communities of Christians in the sixth to the ninth or to the seventh and the ninth centuries that means Christians must have come with the message before that so maybe even as early as the fourth Century the three hundreds so Christians took the message East and Christians also took the message West into Africa it went into Egypt and North Africa they also went South into Ethiopia so not pictured on that map there on the left but if you just keep going south from Egypt you run into Ethiopia which also became a Christian an overtly Christian Nation in the 4th century and there’s still a traditional Apostolic Christian Church in Ethiopia today they took it into Ethiopia they took it into Nubia which is modern Sudan so kind of keep going south from Ethiopia and they likely went even further south into Africa though we don’t have any specific records that say so so they took the message East they took it south and they also took it or Southwest and they also took it west of course into the Roman Empire message went to Spain whether Paul or somebody else into Gaul which was what the Romans called modern France it was called Gaul at that time took it into the British Isles and even into the Border regions and even beyond the borders into the area north where the Germanic tribes were so Christians truly went everywhere with the message of Christ not immediately in the first century but as the centuries went on Christians went further and further afield early church history it often focuses on the Roman Empire and there’s a reason for that it’s the place where we actually have good records and of course we have a special interest in it because it’s our cultural heritage in many ways the main side of our Christian Heritage but let’s not forget that Christianity is not a European religion it is an international religion and it was that way from its beginning as we can even see in how the way the message spread in the early church it is a faith that is all tribes tongues peoples and Nations who belong to Jesus Christ we see that actually even in the early church now what specifically about the apostles where did the apostles and other Main New Testament leaders end up in this gospel expansion I was going to put a list on here but it would have been too small for you to read so I’ll just say it to you though I have to give you a few caveats it’s kind of hard to say where the apostles ended up other than a few cases we do have information from church tradition as to where they ended up where they ministered and where they ended but it’s not entirely reliable so as I share this with you take it with a grain of salt there’s reasons that people might have said the apostles came to a certain place when they didn’t or said certain things happen to them when that’s an exaggeration some traditions are more reliable than others and I’ll tell you what they are in just a second but here’s a brief list as to some traditions as to where New Testament Believers specifically the apostles and a few others ended up in gospel expansion Peter imprisoned under Nero and crucified upside down in Rome James the brother John beheaded by Herod in Judea that’s actually in the book of Acts acts 12 2.
John the Apostle exiled to Patmos for a Time little island and then died of natural causes in Ephesus Andrew preached in Ethiopia crucified Philip ministered in Greece crucified and stoned Bartholomew beaten crucified and beheaded in Armenia Matthew preached in Egypt and Ethiopia run through by a spear Thomas preached as far as India where he was killed by a dart or an arrow sorry James son of alphius ministered in Syria crucified Thaddeus not a lot of information about him minister to Mesopotamia likely martyred Simon the Zealot preached through Africa throughout Africa crucified there James the brother of Jesus ordered Stone by the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem mark founded the church in Egypt burned alive in Alexandria and of course Paul probably did travel to Spain imprisoned under Nero and beheaded in Rome now of that list I said you got to take it with a grain of salt some and that’s just church tradition but the traditions for Thomas Peter Paul John and Mark are particularly strong they probably did indeed go to those areas and die there and you’ll notice from that list I just gave you all of these men except John they were martyred they were martyred in the places that they preached and ministered and we’ll talk more about persecution that Christians experienced in the early centuries but I I want to mention this to you because it is a strong point of apologetics for Christianity the apostles all of them except John were martyred even John was persecuted and none of these Apostles cracked and said I’m just kidding we made up this thing about Jesus and your need to repent don’t kill me none of them said that none of them did that these men believed wholeheartedly in the gospel that they proclaimed and they were willing to die for it this was Christ shining through weak vessels in a powerful way these men were happy to die for the Lord if it meant that they could be faithful to him he experience the goodness of him and put him on display in the world it’s definitely an example to emulate there but even in the first few centuries I get the main point Christians were taking the good news of Salvation in Jesus far and wide me a second I don’t know if you can see it too well on the map there but the different colors they are an estimate based on the records we have of when in the Roman Empire Christianity arrived in certain areas so yeah the darkest pink is where it starts and the lighter regions is where it gets to later but not only did the message about Jesus expand geographically it also expanded within regions a greater and greater percentage of the Roman population I’m going to focus on Rome here again because that’s where we have the best records and the closest connection a greater percentage of the people within different areas especially in Rome were turning to the Lord according to one estimate oh actually let me say this first how many people are we told in Acts chapter one are gathered in Jerusalem as the church 120 not a huge amount but that seems to constitute the entire Church of Christ so in Acts first chapter we have 120 believers my ad325 the Council of nicaea one estimate provides that there are probably about 10 million Christians in the Roman Empire which would have been about 10 to 15 percent of the population that is a huge increase 120 to 10 million in just three centuries a huge portion of the population how did that happen well we’re gonna answer that more let me ask you this though from which classes did converts to Christianity come was it lower was it middle was it upper it was indeed the majority low but it actually was all classes and this we can even see already starting in the book of Acts while many in the lower classes were the first to be attracted to Christianity and because there are more people in that category um it makes sense that they make up more of those who do convert we read even in Acts that there were people from all segments of Life who came to believe both Jew and Gentile there were Christian slaves and soldiers senators and philosophers merchants and lawyers ex priests and ex-prostitutes mothers and fathers children in eunuchs young and old Jews Romans and barbarians those who would come from outside of Rome in fact oh let me say this has some cool quotes to share with you but let me say this first Christianity was particularly strong in cities which maybe surprises us we think of cities as being like bastions of wickedness and there is a lot of celebrated sin in cities in America but actually cities where the strongholds of Christianity that’s where Christianity made its initial spread and that’s where most Christians lived as the centuries went on though it did include Jews and Gentiles Christianity became increasingly Gentile there were multiple reasons why Jews many Jews did not convert to Christianity and Christianity became less Jewish and one of those reasons is the Roman Crackdown on Jews because of Jewish revolts there were some violent revolts led by Jews in Israel and other places against Rome Rome really took a hard line against the Jews and Christians had multiple reasons to distance themselves from Judaism not only because they weren’t participating in the Revolt or the Crackdown but they also saw has a big theological difference between Christians and Jews so Christianity became increasingly Gentile but as I say where I was about to say we can see these facts about the increasing prevalence of Christianity in Roman society even from the words of people at that time listen to a few quotations this first one is from Pliny the Younger who was a governor in bithynia which would be Northwest turkey he writes with perplexed frustration to Emperor trajan about Christians in ad 112 and here’s part of what he says this is Pliny quote many of every age every Rank and even of both sexes are brought into danger and will be in the future the contagion of that Superstition Christianity has penetrated not only the cities but also the villages and Country Places unquote so this is a non-Christian or Roman saying these Christians are multiplying someone else this is from a philosopher turned Christian who’s known today as Justin Martyr he remarked sometime around ad150 quote there’s not a single race of men whether among barbarians or Greeks or by whatever name they may be called of those who live in wagons or are called Nomads or if herdsmen living in tents among whom prayers and thanksgivings are not offered through the name of the crucified Jesus to the father and maker of all things unquote he was making that claim he says wherever you find people you find people within their groups who are praying to the father through Jesus and then one other quotation this is from a second century I’m sorry third Century polemical father tertullian actually I think he he kind of went from the previous entry into this one but he writes around the year quote we are but of yesterday and we have filled every place among you he’s addressing gentiles cities Islands fortresses towns marketplaces the very camps tribes companies Palace Senate and Forum we have left you only the temples polytheistic temples so unquote this is from these quotations and from that data this is Christ building his church this is Christ fulfilling his promise to build his church in an obvious and Powerful way and a field that was well prepared and ripe for Harvest so we see the extent of Christianity spread in the early centuries throughout the Roman Empire even beyond the Roman Empire and at all levels of the Roman Empire the saving gospel was multiplying but now we want to come back to that question how did this happen how did this amazing Harvest of souls happen well there was some preparation involved let’s look at next the ways that God sovereignly prepared for the spread of the Gospel most basic answer to how this gospel expansion happened is that God did it God determined it a sovereign God brought it to pass he is powerful he is kind he is faithful he said he would do it and he did it God can do the impossible yet what means that God used was he pleased to use even in your sharing your own salvation testimony with people you might acknowledge on the one hand oh God saved me how did I come to Salvation it was all God he brought me he opened my eyes and that is a very theologically correct answer and yet it is also correct for you to say oh but God did these specific things in my life to draw me to him I had this um this tragedy that took place or I met this person or I was really interested in this and it led me to start reading the Bible or something like that so there were tangible means that brought you to God it’s the same thing for the early centuries of the church there are at least two main ways that I’ll mention to you in which God prepared a Roman Harvest one way is Roman civilization itself another way is disillusionment a wave of disillusionment with traditional Roman philosophy and religion let’s talk about Roman civilization Roman civilization itself facilitated the spread of the Christian gospel as you know Rome was a very powerful Empire and you saw the map before it controlled basically all the Mediterranean and to the people that conquered sorry still a little sniffly Rome brought the so-called pox Romana what does that mean peace yeah just Latin for Roman peace this pox Ramana it lasted for centuries I mean the early centuries of gospel expansion much of that was the pox Romana there was little to no International Warfare at this time it’s that a large degree of peace and prosperity in the borders of the Roman Empire now it wasn’t completely peaceful there were border skirmishes there were some revolts there were some bloody wars of succession from time to time but the Empire generally speaking was remarkably unified and peaceful many of the peoples who had been conquered and brought into Rome’s Empire they actually appreciated what being Roman brought them and so they contributed to continued order and peace and stability what did all this mean for the people of the Empire well it meant that they could trade and travel throughout the Empire the territory of the Empire while being relatively unhindered and this of course included Christians were going about with the message of salvation Roman peace and stability enabled that furthermore there were certain physical benefits that Rome helped inaugurate that made travel easier think about today let’s say you want to travel across America by car what makes you so confident that you can do that yeah roads and not just roads but pretty good roads I know we sometimes complain about the potholes or the road construction in certain areas but you go to other countries you’ll certainly appreciate how good American roads are we have good roads but not just that what else makes you confident that you can travel from one side of the country to another with a car yeah there’s an infrastructure and resources along the way so that you can find a hotel or you can get food or you can get drink or whatever it is what else what stops or somebody was saying something yeah so you actually have the vehicle or the technology or the prosperity to afford that vehicle and actually travel across the country but let me ask you this what stops you from or what stops a person from just taking your car you’re traveling you stop they just take your car and drive away with it you don’t anticipate that happening why not because we have laws because we have police because we have a court system which is by no means perfect but does some um enforcement of Justice we have these things so that enables us to travel by car and other means with a relative degree of confidence well the same thing was true of the Roman Empire they didn’t have quite the same technology that we do but they did have excellent roads and infrastructure aqueducts various things along the way as people traveled they also had a strong and plentiful military which had not only cleared the Mediterranean Sea of most pirates but it also was firmly there to keep order and they also had a decent court system in many ways different from ours today but they did have a court system where people could come and address criminal and civil cases so these things allowed the Empire’s inhabitants to travel more quickly and without fear and this proved to be a great benefit to Christians it’s interesting when you think about Paul’s travels what was the thing that seemed to hinder him the most when it came to travel well certainly there’s the Jewish persecution so it didn’t even come from the Romans at that time but um a lot of people didn’t travel by if you wanted to go really long distance in the Roman Empire you didn’t travel by Road you traveled by sea but what was the big hindrance to Sea travel weather so it wasn’t actually Pirates it wasn’t a lack of vessels it was just weather and then you know Paul was even Shipwrecked one time because of that so there was that but in terms of what the Empire itself could provide there was a lot to encourage and to protect the travel of people but even if you can travel quickly from one side of the country or one side of the Empire to another that doesn’t mean you can easily it doesn’t by itself mean you can easily share the gospel because I can travel to all right America is a little bit different but let’s say I go to another place in the world let’s say I travel to Papua New Guinea and I want to share the gospel with people I can get there pretty easily today but there’s a big barrier to my declaring the gospel and what is that language I just don’t know their language I’m gonna have to learn their language or hope that they know my language if I’m ever going to talk to them about the gospel language is a huge barrier except in the Roman Empire it wasn’t there was a Common Language throughout most of the Roman Empire basically two main languages but one particularly so what was the language that most people in the Roman Empire spoke it was Greek it was Latin more in the west but even in the west there are a lot of people who knew Greek and certainly in the middle and the east East from your perspective it was Greek now and if you might be history Buffs why did so many people know Greek yes I heard it Alexander the Great it comes back to Alexander the Great well not just him but he was a huge reason why the previous World Empire dominant Empire before the Romans were the Greeks under Alexander and his successors and Alexander brought Greek culture and language to the areas that he conquered and he attempted to make those people that he conquered culturally Greek as he was he wanted to hellenize them as the term and that term comes from Helene meaning Greek or helas meaning Greece this by the way is what the Bible’s talking about when it refers to Hellenistic Jews these were Jews who had taken on or were opened to Greek culture and many people not just Jews ended up adopting Greek culture to some degree the Romans really admired Greek culture with its art its philosophy its literature in fact there’s one Greek historian who says after the Romans conquered Greece Greece conquered Rome that is culturally speaking and so many Romans learned Greek and many of those in the areas that were conquered by Rome learned Greek they were hellenized hellenization by the way is why the New Testament is written in the language that it is you might expect hey this is a book written about Jesus from Israel why is it not in Hebrew why is it not an Aramaic or it fits in the Roman Empire why wasn’t it written in Latin it’s not it’s written in Greek it’s written in koine Greek the common version of Greek which even non-greek speakers many non-greek speakers would know and use to converse Christians were able to take advantage of this common language in the Roman Empire to rapidly spread the message of Christ I mean could you to a very small extent we see this day a little bit with English but to go to another country which is totally different culture and language-wise and just be able to show up and speak the same language that that would be a huge advantage to missionaries today most of the time they can’t do that but they could do that in the Roman Empire you could go from like Paul wanted to you could go from uh Syria or turkey to Spain and be like I’ll just speak the language that I already know and you’ll find a ton of people who also speak that language that was a huge advantage to Christians how did that happen well God providentially arranged it so Roman civilization itself aided the Harvest of souls in the Roman Empire with its pakshamana its law and infrastructure and its common language but there was something else second many of the Roman pagans were prepared to hear the gospel due to General disillusionment with Roman religion and Greco-Roman philosophy so the platonism and stoicism of the early centuries BC these were two branches of philosophy that had been very popular they were no longer seeming to be satisfying for many Romans these philosophies seemed to abstract too emotionless too unconcerned with individual people people crave something that was more real something that spoke to their deep emotional and spiritual hungers and they couldn’t find this in Roman polytheism people many Romans continue to offer nominal Devotion to the distant flawed and in different gods of the Roman state but people wanted something more and even before the message of Christ arrived many Gentiles were already looking to Eastern mystery religions for answers these would be Cults of Isis or therapists from Egypt sebele from Asia Minor or mithras from Persia these mystery religions so named because of the secret initiation rituals that had to you had to go through if you want to be part of it in some ways they I don’t know parallel is the right term but they presented some of the same ideas that would later come in Christianity these cult religions they didn’t offer selfish Gods disinterested in human problems or suffering but something like savior Gods who related to individuals and in some cases could even die and Rise Again the mystery religions also presented sacramental acts that adherence claimed could cleanse individual individual worshipers of sin delivered from death and Grant eternal life in Roman polytheism and in its philosophy and philosophies there was no promise of eternal life but people were looking for that and these mystery religions seem to offer that now of course there’s other huge differences between these mystery religions and the truth of Christianity these were not talking about the true God at all but made up God that may have been based off of a historical person who died and people said rose again and became a god so there’s some pretty big differences but these this interest in mystery religions and some of the things that these mystery religions taught and offered they show us not only what many people were looking for hungering for at that time but they also in a way stoked interest in the very types of Truth that the true gospel would actually offer say oh you know I heard about this mystery religion that talks about a personal God who offers salvation even eternal life well people are already thinking along those lines and then an apostle or someone else arrived they say let me tell you actually about the Creator God who is these things in a greater way in an actually true way let me tell you about the real merciful saving God who if you will repent and believe will give himself an eternal life to you when I think about our own culture or maybe when you think about it it can be really discouraging to think about where it is today it’s so secular it’s so atheistic it’s so ridiculous and it’s belligerent championing of Tolerance but historically speaking societies often only Embrace an idea for a time before they really want something different and this has even been true in the United States so who knows as our culture increasingly becomes morally and intellectually bankrupt with things like its modernism and post-modernism it’s like sooner or later we’re going to realize there’s there’s no basis for Morality or even happiness in our current cultural thinking as our culture increasingly moves in that direction Maybe who knows God might turn the hearts of our people to long for something different to long for truth to long for righteousness to long for salvation and we do see this on an individual level right many of you can give testimony like I was living this way I was thinking this way but I just it was so empty I wanted something more I wanted truth I wanted life and this person seemed to have it and he told me about Jesus we see that on an individual level let us pray to the Lord of the Harvest that we might see that on a national level because he can do it he did it in the Roman Empire he brought in this wave of disillusionment may he do that here in the United States and other places so not only did the Roman civilization Aid the spread of Christianity but so did this wave of disillusionment with religions and philosophies it readied the hearts of many people for the message of Jesus but even if a harvest is prepared the Harvest must actually be gathered in right so how did God do it come to our last topic for the day the chief means of Christianity spread perhaps this topic raises a special interest this last sub-topic but as you say well whatever they did it seemed to work really well why don’t we do the same thing today oh I gotta check that a little bit because remember God did prepare certain things he sovereignly arranged for this Harvest to be there and yet it is still important for us to find out what was the means what was this seemingly so effective means of spreading the gospel well can you guess what it was well persecution played a huge part in it and we’ll talk about that but even more directly the chief means that Christianity spread in the early centuries was simply personal Christian Witness it was simply Christians telling others in personal conversations about Christ from the scriptures and then living lives of joy and faithfulness to back up what they said when we think about the early church we might get the wrong idea about how Christians spread the message if we just focus on a few narrow events presented to us in the book of Acts we might look at Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost or the message that he and John preached after they healed a lame man and think that this is the Paradigm for Christian evangelism what we got to do is gather a whole bunch of people together speak to these multitudes about Jesus and watch as thousands repent and believe now God was pleased to use that in some instances and there were miraculous signs that went with that as well but there are other times even in the book of Acts where a large Gathering heard the message about Jesus and few if any repented or believed can you think of any of those times Mars Hill or when Paul speaks before the Jews after they had arrested him in the temple and I had one other example I forgot I forgot it but this in these examples very few people believed so it’s not as if that’s always what happens or that’s that’s the only way that it can happen oh Steven’s address before the Sanhedrin that was the other one and I think in many ways we see that this is true today it’s not usually the mass Convention Center address that brings about a lot of conversions at least true conversions rather it is as I think we could testify if we were to do a survey here at this church certainly it was John MacArthur’s finding when he asked his church about how the different people and it came to Faith he kind of he did this special thing one Sunday morning apparently or you ask the different people in this church to stand up when he mentioned a specific method of evangelism he said were you if you were saved in a Billy Graham crusade why don’t you stand up or if you say it by something you saw on television why don’t you stand up and he went through all these different lists and only a few people would stand up for those different methods I mean some people did but it wasn’t a huge amount but then when he got to the last one that he asked he said how many of you were saved through a personal witness of a friend family member or co-worker and then like the whole church stood up it does seem to be the way that God is pleased to save people it’s through these one-on-one life on life interactions where people just share the gospel with people they know with people whose lives back up what they say listen to uh quotation along these lines from one of the history books I know you probably can’t read that or it is kind of small so just listen to me as I as I speak it this is from Thompson and eagenberg as they talk about Christianity spread in their book Through the Ages quote Christianity grew naturally it has been said from within ordinary Christians witnessed witness to those with whom they came into contact Celsius one of Christianity’s leading critics scoffingly remarked that Fullers and workers and will Fullers and workers in wool and leather rustic and ignorant persons were the most zealous propagators of Christianity and brought first to women and children women and slaves introduced into the home Circle careful investigation reveals that Christianity and its growth followed the trade routes of the Empire and we recognized that Merchants carried it with their goods we find that in the army barracks and know that soldiers carried it from one post to another Justin that’s the same Justin we mentioned before the first philosopher to believe had sought truth in many areas and in a number of philosophic schools he was converted he tells us by a venerable old man whom he met walking on the shores of the sea he that’s Justin taught now the new philosophy of Christ every Christian laborer said tertullian both find out God and manifest him as another has said it was a case of one loving heart setting another on fire it’s so simple right you don’t need to be a preacher teacher or scholar you just have to come to know Christ yourself and then take him with you talk about him wherever you go with whomever will listen Thompson you’re going to go on to say something else emphasizing that a christ-like lifestyle backed up the words of these personal gospel interactions another quotation it was not only the words that they spoke but also the witness of their lives behold how these Christians love one another the pagans are reported to have said the Jews do not allow any of their own people to become Beggars and the Christians support not only their own but also our poor Julian the hidden Emperor so he comes in the early 300s I think he wrote after the death of Constantine seeking in vain to turn oh no later 300s seeking in vain to turn the clock backward and breathe a new Vitality into a dying paganism it is matters like this he added which have contributed most to the spread of Christianity Mercy to strangers care for burying the dead and the obvious honorableness of their conduct the second one you said burying the dead yes yeah care for burying the Dead which is another topic we could talk about another time interesting cultural issue so you hear these quotations it was Christ’s goodness and Glory displayed in the lives of simple Christians that won the hearts of God’s ready elect throughout the Roman Empire Christ was pleased to build his church by displaying himself through happy obedient Christians to the people who are walking in darkness they saw the light of Christ in these weak vessels and that should encourage us because we’re weak too but we can and must do the same as these early Christians after all the command to go out into all the Earth go to the ends of the Earth and make disciples it’s unfinished we have a part to fulfill as well God has electrons among those that we know among our friends family and co-workers put them in our lives for a specific purpose he’s preparing them some of them to receive the witness of Christ’s Glory through us of course not everyone we meet will be a Latin God has a purpose in our sharing the gospel even to those that he has not called unto salvation but God does also have his sheep that he will gather in so the question for us to ask ourselves is are we ready to fulfill our commission are you ready and willing to obey God in this area to be the trumpet that awakes the dead to New Life or to be like the farmer who plants the seed that someone else Waters and reaps now make no mistake we do need God as we are already seeing from beginning in the lesson we need God to prepare and to bring the growth we cannot conjure Revival manipulate people argue people into the kingdom of God by our own strength we need God to do the work we must pray for the loss for the fervency we must receive instruction and strength ourselves from God’s word and we must encourage one another as a church and doing all this fundamentally we must believe what the early Christians believe from the Bible that Christ is great that he is true life and joy that no one will stop his gospel advance he’s not asking for permission to save anyone’s rebellious heart whatever the Lord has determined to do he will accomplish and he’s determined to save people through us so let’s obey that command and go and make disciples remember though and this goes back to something that rich mentioned one of the ways that you will dispense The Fragrant Aroma of Christ is how you demonstrate how much of a treasure Jesus is while you are suffering as you were going through trial and persecution as my dad used to say people are always watching you they may not tell you when you say that you’re a Christian they want you to see how you will react in different situations do you laugh at the dirty joke along with everyone else how do you respond when you’re blamed for a problem that you didn’t cause they’re looking for a reason to dismiss your faith sold themselves to silence any conviction you might otherwise bring when they see you compromise in your life and they say look he’s actually no different from me he’s a hypocrite I don’t have to worry about his message people are always watching but when Believers stand in righteousness and joy in response to hardship or persecution unbelievers don’t know what to do with that it is a powerful testimony to the Treasure of God’s spirit within his people and this is what we see in the early church a faithful witness of early Christians amid false accusation suffering and even death punctuated their gospel preaching in a powerful way and it drew many to Christ just one quick example you know we mentioned Justin Martyr earlier and thompsonburg noted how he was converted after speaking to a man by the seashore well somebody had planted the seed before who was that a Christian martyr he watched some of these people being killed for the sake of Christ and he he marveled and he wondered he who had not found any satisfying answers in philosophy said what do these people have and then God brought him to somebody else who could explain the gospel to him it was the testimony amid suffering that actually brought many people to Christ what was the persecution that early Christians endured what can we learn from it that’s what we’ll talk about next time sum up what we’ve seen today in the incredible expansion of Christianity in the first few centuries expansion that eventually resulted in the official adoption of Christianity as the religion of the Empire God brought about a massive Harvest by sovereignly preparing the way by raising up a Roman civilization that made rapid travel and gospel Proclamation or yeah that made rapid travel and gospel Proclamation possible and also by stirring up a hunger for people for things spiritual a hunger that could not be satisfied by traditional Roman religion and philosophy after that preparation God sent in eager laborers ready to share one-on-one with people as they just interacted throughout their days people who would gladly and in the Holy you know with a life backed up in Holiness talk about the Savior the Lord Jesus Christ all right if you have questions about what you heard today you can come talk with me afterwards but that’s it for time it’s closing prayer Heavenly Father we thank you that you are the lord of the Harvest because just as you did this great work in the past we know you can do a great work now we don’t want to presume on you trying to conjure Revival manipulate some sort of conversion we’ve seen in other parts of church history what terrible things that led to but God we do beseech you prepare the hearts of the people we know and the people of this country to repent and believe put such a hunger in them and put a Zeal in Holiness in us so that we will declare that word with courage and Lord we will back it up with lives that are obedient and joyful even amid suffering it would help us not to be afraid if you were with us then we can overwhelmingly conquer and we know that you are with us be with us the rest of this day Lord as we continue to learn and offer worship to you in Jesus name amen all right thank you