Rev. David Holwick S After Acts: Early Church series #1
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
May 23, 2004
1 Corinthians 1:26-31
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I. The "great cloud of witnesses." Hebrews 12:1
A. Sarah signs up for summer class in Spanish.
1) Fills in a gap in her education.
2) Most of us have gaps, especially concerning our faith.
B. Church history is a neglected topic.
1) Protestants jump from book of Acts to 1850.
a) (or even jump from Jesus to 1850)
b) Everything else is discarded.
c) There can be doctrinal reasons for this.
2) Baptist restorationist emphasis: get back to the Bible.
a) Much of what we do is a reaction to other traditions.
b) But we can learn from other traditions.
1> Their history is our history as well.
C. I like history.
1) As Solomon wrote, there is nothing new under the sun.
2) What we can learn from the ancients:
a) How they applied the Bible to the great questions of
the day.
b) Mistakes we should avoid.
c) Truths we need to rediscover.
II. The early church was small and scattered.
A. It was hardly noticed at first.
1) In first 100 years, a few Roman writers mention Christians.
a) Pliny, governor of Bithynia, wrote the Roman emperor
Trajan (c. A.D. 112), asking for advice about how he
should deal with Christians. (Epist. X.96).
b) The Roman historian Tacitus, in his Annals (A.D. 115),
referred to "Christus," who "was executed at the
hands of the procurator Pontius Pilate in the
reign of Tiberius" (XV.44).
c) Writing about A.D. 120, Suetonius, a popular Roman
writer, declared that Claudius expelled the Jews
from Rome because they "were continually making
disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus"
(Vita Claudii XXV.4).
"Chrestus" is a corrupted form of Christos (Christ).
Luke alluded to this situation in Acts 18:2.
#27882
2) Generally, Christians were considered a flavor of Jews.
a) The Jews themselves made a few references to Jesus in
the Talmud, all negative.
B. From small beginnings it grew steadily.
1) End of 1st century - 0.5% of Roman population.
2) End of 2nd century - 3.5% of Roman population.
3) End of 3rd century - 10.4% of Roman population.
a) By 2nd century, most major cities had some Christians.
III. The earliest worship was simple.
A. The Roman writer Pliny wrote this about Christians:
"They were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day
before it was light, when they sang an anthem to Christ as
God,
And bound themselves by a solemn oath (sacramentum) not to
commit any wicked deed,
But to abstain from all fraud, theft and adultery, never to
break their word, or deny a trust when called upon to honor
it;
After which it was their custom to separate, and then meet
again to partake of food, but food of an ordinary and
innocent kind."
Pliny, "Letters," x.96, AD 112
B. Key points:
1) Regular worship, probably on Sunday.
2) Before dawn - they were slaves.
3) Hymns and prayers.
4) Strong moral commitments.
5) Special meal - communion or "love feast"?
IV. The earliest Christians were common people.
A. The Roman elite looked down on them.
Remarks of anti-Christian philosopher Celsus in 2nd century:
Their injunctions are like this: "Let no one educated, no
one wise, no one sensible draw near.
For these abilities are thought by us to be evils.
But as for anyone ignorant, anyone stupid, anyone uneducated,
anyone who is a child, let him come boldly."
By the fact that they themselves admit that these people are
worthy of their God,
They show that they want and are able to convince only the
foolish, dishonourable and stupid, and only slaves, women,
and children.
Origen, "Contra Celsum" 3.44
#1182
1) The Apostle Paul agreed with him. 1 Cor 1:26 ff
a) Few Christians were influential.
1> There were some - Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus.
2> But both of these were "secret Christians".
b) God had a reason for this - we must trust in God alone.
2) Jesus' brother James says the church was mostly poor people.
a) However, the rich were given royal treatment!
B. Christians were lowly but they had values.
1) Some years back Rev. David Rivers asked the late Lloyd
George Patterson, church historian at Episcopal Divinity
School, how he accounted for the endurance of the
early church.
So many of the tools of communication that we associate
with growth either did not exist or could not be used
in a hostile environment.
They couldn't even have church buildings, let alone clever
Public Relations programs.
Patterson responded by saying that the early Christian
communities were characterized by unusual integrity, and
some people were attracted to that.
#19178
2) The pagan Pliny noticed it.
3) The anonymous Letter to Diognetus, possibly dating from the
second century, draws upon it:
Christians are not differentiated from other people by country,
language or customs.
They do not live in cities of their own, or speak some strange
dialect, or have some peculiar lifestyle.
They follow local customs in clothing, food, and the other
aspects of life.
But at the same time, they demonstrate to us the wonderful
and certainly unusual form of their own citizenship. ...
They marry and have children just like every one else;
but they do not kill unwanted babies.
They offer a shared table, but not a shared bed.
They are at present "in the flesh" but they do not live
"according to the flesh". #1548
V. The earliest church faced prejudice and opposition.
A. There was no widespread persecution yet, but local harassment.
B. Graffiti on the Palatine Hill in Rome, perhaps from 2nd cent.
Man praying to a crucified donkey with words:
"Alexamenos worships his God"
In a nearby room was this additional graffiti:
"Alexamenos is faithful"
VI. Christians remain ordinary.
A. Today one-third of humanity professes faith in Jesus.
1) Genuine faith is undoubtedly much less.
B. The elite still look down upon us.
Charles Colson notes that on the day of Pentecost, those
touched by the Holy Spirit were accused of being drunk,
or maybe crazy.
Today, believers are still considered to be weak, foolish, or
emotionally unstable.
But more and more studies are showing that religious believers
are more emotionally and mentally stable than the average
population.
Religious faith is linked to lower blood pressure and lower
rates of drug use, alcoholism, suicide, and mental disorders.
#25037
1) Faith has its benefits - are you willing to pay the cost?
2) Be faithful to Jesus.
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
# 1182 "Those Dumb Christians," Gordon Fee, Commentary on 1 Corinthians,
1987.
# 1548 "Letter To Diognetus," (anonymous, early second century), in
Eerdmans Handbook To The History Of Christianity, 1977,
page 69.
#19178 "They Had Unusual Integrity," Rev. David B. Rivers, in
The Living Church, August 20, 2000. Taken from
www.HomileticsOnline.com, quoted in Rev. Brett Blair's
Illustrations by Email, www.sermonillustrations.com,
May 27, 2001.
#25037 "Religious People Aren't Stupid," Charles Colson with Nancy
Pearcey, "A Dangerous Grace" (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1994),
p. 56; quoted in Dynamic Preaching weekly newsletter,
www.sermons.com, June 1, 2003.
#27882 "The Historicity of Jesus Christ," Wayne Jackson, M.A.,
Reason & Revelation, January 1998, 18[1]:6-7
These and 25,000 others are part of a database that can be downloaded,
absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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