The Early Church (Built on Rock): Church of God

The Shape and Structure

The shape of the early church we find in the New Testament is much different from what we see today. From what we have in scripture, the Church was organized around the church in Jerusalem, primarily. There was also the church in Antioch. There were three main Apostles: Peter, James, and John; however, main is a term we must use loosely. For Jesus made it very clear that he was the head of the Church. No other person was to think himself above another. This is why we have situations like Paul, who was not chosen by the original disciples at all to be an Apostle. He was chosen by Jesus after his Resurrection (see "Part Four: The Resurrected Church—Built on Solid Rock"). The authority of the Apostle and the church rests in Jesus and Jesus alone, not a ruling body or a human agency. They were, through the Holy Ghost, the representatives of Christ and no one else.

Christians started out as a community, a tribe, and violence helped them form this community. There should be no illusions; the Gospel was met with violence. As Jesus promised his disciples in John 15 and John 16, that people would hate them because they hated him. This caused the people to have very strong communal connections. They lived with one another and had church in each other's houses. Acts 4 says that there was no lack between them because they shared all that they had. This indicates how much they believed in the power of God through Jesus Christ. The church then spread throughout the Roman Empire. In places like Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth, and other port cities: Jesus was being preached all over the place. People were hearing about the tribe of Christians and were amazed and horrified by them. The church was spreading so rapidly that people resolved to stop its spread. Paul, the apostle, started out as a zealot attempting to destroy the very church. He went so far as Damascus, a city not in Israel but in Syria, to throw Christians in jail. Of course, as we know, he failed because he met Jesus, but his actions were not atypical. People were trying to stop Christianity because it was vibrant and attractive. Regardless of one's background, the Gospel appealed to you because it displayed a savior who was real and alive. To spread the message, God appointed many more Apostles (see "Apostles") and we saw the introduction of other called people to fulfill the call of the church to establish the kingdom of God. We saw the rise of prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Specifically, Acts 13, Acts 15, and Acts 21, includes a discussion of all of the people with these offices. The exception is the office of pastor, which is a word only used by Paul in Ephesians 4 but its meaning, shepherd, has a similar function to bishop and elder which both mean overseer (see "One Shepherd—Many Elders"). But what we see is that as the church matured, the focus was still on Christ as the head. The Apostles led as a team in different places. Peter, James, Paul, and others affected churches in different regions.

The Practices

It is clear from the New Testament that the people in the early church believed in an experience of salvation. As Acts 8 clearly shows, the people came to believe in Jesus and then were baptized in the Spirit of God. The Apostles specifically laid hands on them and the Spirit in them was transferred into the people. Acts 2 set the stage for this. The promise was that all people would be filled with the Spirit, so God gave them an experience of the Holy Ghost, an experience of salvation, for them to know this. Many people prophesied, many spoke in tongues, many people worshipped God. The underlying issue is that the Spirit showed himself in them by empowering and giving them evidence of his presence. After commitment to Christ, the people would then be baptized in water. Today, there are debates about how one is baptized. The only example we have is by people being immersed in water (see "Doctrine of Baptisms"). We are not saying this is normative, because baptism in water is symbolic, according to the example set forth in the scripture (especially Acts 8:37) believing is the most important thing; baptism is secondary (1 Corinthians 1:17). Baptism was to be a sign of the confession that one made to be buried and resurrected with Jesus (Romans 6:4-5). Beyond baptism, the practice of keeping the "Lord's Supper," also commonly called communion, was very important to the saints. Christians believed that the very real presence of the Lord inhabited their services. It is no less a belief that the Lord joined them when they remembered his death celebrating the feast he established as a norm. This is why Paul claims that there should be no "divisions" among the people (1 Corinthians 11:18). God himself would be joining them. He also admonished that every person should "examine" him or herself before he or she took part in this feast (11:28). The power of God showed itself by their practicing this feast so much so that if someone violated it they would probably get sick or die (11:30). In context, because this ceremony reflected Passover, it is best to assume that there was no yeast in use: meaning that it was unleavened bread and unfermented wine (see "The Lord's Supper"). The power of the church was epitomized by God's ability to make them one in Christ, a people and not peoples, a community of Christ. As one continued to be a part of the community of the saints, one would then participate in the church services where they would break bread, preach and encourage one another (see "Order of Sunday Service"). 1 Corinthians 14 explains that part of the service involved prophecy and speaking in tongues. Another part of the service was praise. The main focus of the service was the preaching. People needed to be taught the message of Jesus Christ and told testimonies about the power of God. The seventh verse of Acts 20 discusses that Paul preached in one place for a very long time showing how important the ministry of the scriptures was to them. No doubt it should have been, given that the scriptures meant so much to them. Communities became churches once the apostles ordained elders. The apostles sent letters to these churches to teach, admonish, exhort, and to establish the doctrine of Christ. The letters we now have comprise the majority of the New Testament. The goal was to keep an educated and spiritual community—a community that knew the scriptures, one that was productive in the kingdom of God. That community was to spread and create other communities and so on. The passing on of the Gospel was of primary importance because Jesus was interested in seeing the kingdom of God flourish.

DRAFT V2010-06-28T4:47:26 PM