Jesus Christ preached important moral instructions and guidelines
for living a godly life to the Hebrew people while He lived on Earth.
He was the Gospel and He had a plan for His followers who were living in
spiritual darkness to preach the spiritual meaning of His life, death,
and resurrection to the entire world. He had an appointed time to be
sentenced, beaten, and crucified on a cross. Jesus died, was buried and
was resurrected from the dead for the sins of those who loved Him,
believed in His sacrifice and obeyed His commandments. To spread His
Gospel, it would be preached but not by Jesus who ascended to Heaven,
but by men and women who had the Holy Spirit inside them.
When
Jesus told His disciples He had to leave them, He said He would not
"leave them as orphans." (John 14: 18); He said God would send them "the
Helper, the Holy Spirit, in my name. He will teach you all things and
bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you." (John 14:26).
Jesus had promised His disciples: "You will receive power when the Holy
Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses... to the end of the
earth."(Acts 1:8).
Forty days after being raised from the dead,
Jesus ascended into Heaven. His disciples were still in Jerusalem, ten
days after the ascension, still feeling destitute for the Messiah they
knew. Suddenly the Holy Spirit came down dramatic fashion to the
Apostles as the "sound like a mighty rushing wind" (Acts 2:2) and
"divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of
them." (Acts 2:3). All spoke in other languages which caught the
attention of Jews from other lands who were close by, celebrating
Passover. The Holy Spirit also imparted the mighty power of Scriptural
knowledge and God's wisdom to the disciples, so they could go out in the
world and spread the Gospel of Christ.
Peter addressed the
befuddled crowd in the first Holy Spirit-filled sermon of the Church
Age. He quoted Joel 2:28 which described to the last days of the Church
Age when the Creator "will pour out" His "Spirit" so that "your sons and
your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions,
and old men shall dream dreams." (Acts 2:17).
On that day, 3000
souls repented of their sins and were baptized with the Holy Spirit's
permanent indwelling of God's kingdom (John 14:16). The Holy Spirit
provided a tiny glimpse of fellowship in heaven as more and more people
gathered sharing kindness and love with one another. The Apostles shared
the Gospel of Christ, which became known as the "Way", and even
performed many signs and miracles. Day after day, they attended the
"temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their
food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with
all the people." (Acts 2: 46-47).
The disciples Peter and John
were taken to stand before the Pharisees after healing a man who was
crippled (Acts 3: 1-10). They were asked by what authority did they heal
the man. By the power of the Holy Spirit, they spoke with incredible
authority and astonishing boldness, although they weren't educated. The
disciples said that Jesus Christ had given them spiritual power. But the
Jewish council told them not to speak Jesus' name, but they answered
they could not obey them, but God (Acts 3: 13-22).
Stephen became
another disciple who was prophesying with the Holy Spirit inside him. He
also was taken to the council, he stood and boldly told the Temple
authorities about the Old Testament prophets from Abraham to Solomon
that they were men of God, unlike these Jewish leaders who had "resisted
the Holy Spirit" and killed the prophets and, recently Christ (Acts 7:
1-50).
Stephen angered the temple authorities and was stoned by a
group of rabbis. One of these zealous rabbis was Saul of Tarsus, who
hated Christians and murdered many of them. Saul didn't hesitate to
stone Stephen (Acts 7: 54-60). However, Saul became "Paul" the Apostle
who was suddenly stopped on the way to Damascus by Christ Himself (Acts
9: 1-19). As a result, Paul became a bold follower of Christ who
tirelessly spread the Gospel to as many towns as he could and revisited
others to make sure these "churches" were getting along together as
individual bodies of Christ.
The Apostle Paul wrote many of the
books in the New Testament which were circulated as letters throughout
the Christian communities. Many of the towns he visited were named in
chapters in the Book of Acts as well as other "testimonies," later
called "books" that composed the New Testament.
Thanks to the
dramatic conversion of the disciples by the Holy Spirit, during the
first century, the "Way" spread rapidly and extensively from Jerusalem
and Galilee to Greek-speaking lands close to the Mediterranean Sea and
territory that made up the Roman Empire. Many people took up their
cross, adopted Christ as their Savior, and adapted their lives to
Christ-centered morally sound teachings.
As the next two centuries
came and went, the Holy Spirit continued to inspire and teach people of
the Way (Christians) despite increasing persecution until the early
fourth century when Christianity became a religion free to be practiced
by the Roman Emperor Constantine. Finally, by the mid-4th century AD,
the gathering of believers in Christ had a legitimate religion.
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