The origin, growth and trials of Jesus’ Kingdom from 32 A.D. to 313 A.D.
Posted: Wednesday, March 16, 2011
by Joel Hendon
http://hebronics.org/index.html
When Jesus walked the earth with his disciples, he let his plan for man’s salvation be known to the apostles. As they journeyed with them one day, on foot as was the normal mode of travel in that day, he introduced the following conversation with them:
Now when Jesus came into the parts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Who do men say that the Son of man is? And they said, Some say John the Baptist; some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But who say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jonah: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven. And I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. (Matthew 16:13-19 ASV)
(2) Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the truth: for he shall not speak from himself; but what things soever he shall hear, these shall he speak: and he shall declare unto you the things that are to come. (John 16:13 ASV)
Then after his death, burial and resurrection, on the day he was to ascend back into heaven, he instructed them to wait in Jerusalem until they received power from on high. They did as they were told and while waiting in Jerusalem, they appointed a new apostle, Matthias, to replace Judas Iscariot who had hung himself.
When the day of Pentecost arrived, the Holy Spirit descended upon the 12 apostles and they were enabled to speak in languages they had never studied, so that they were able to preach the words given them by the Holy Spirit in languages understood by the various peoples who were then gathered in Jerusalem. The sermon given by Peter is recorded for us in Acts chapter two.
His sermon introduced the Lord’s church (kingdom) and instructed the people who believed what the apostles taught them, what they must do to be forgiven of their sins.
They then that received his word were baptized: and there were added unto them in that day about three thousand souls. (Acts 2:42 ASV)
This began the church of our Lord and we find later in verse 47 of the same chapter that the Lord added to them day by day those that were saved.
Even before it ‘s beginning, Jesus and his disciples had begun to be despised and hated by some sources, such as he Jewish high council and many others. The Roman government under which the entire territory was ruled, in an effort to appease the Jews and thereby keeping relative peace, often added their own persecution to the young church, which they referred to as a sect of the Jews.
It is difficult to conceive of the horrible treatment given to Christians in the second and third centuries. Yet the young church began and grew rapidly in the face of all the persecution. Paul admonished his young protégé, Timothy, that he should be prepared to be persecuted and his warning was for all future Christians.
But thou didst follow my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, patience, persecutions, sufferings. What things befell me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yea, and all that would live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and impostors shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But abide thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. (2 Timothy 3: 10-14 ASV Emphasis added-JH)
True Christians do not resort to physical violence except in self defense. Yet as time passes, there are fewer and fewer true Christians, and they are despised by more and more people simply because their teaching and manner of life cuts into the conscience of those who sin or who refuse to obey God.
We are criticized and ridiculed for teaching that there is but one God and one Savior. Yet they will not normally follow after any god. I am forever being accused of trying to force my religion upon others. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I am most grateful that we still remain free to live our lives according to our conscience. I would never force anyone to become a Christian even if I had the power to do so. It would do neither him or myself any good if I did that.
But the Christian’s primary duties to God are those of teaching His word to others and trying to persuade them to become obedient to Him, for the sake of their own soul. In fact Jesus gave the following instructions to his apostles as he sent them out to teach of the coming kingdom of Christ:
And into whatsoever house ye enter, there abide, and thence depart. And as many as receive you not, when ye depart from that city, shake off the dust from your feet for a testimony against them. (Luke 9:4-5 ASV)
This is a simple way of saying where people reject the doctrine of Christ, move on to others. An old saying I have heard most of my life is that ‘all people deserve to hear the gospel of Christ once before any one hears it twice‘.
No one will ever convince me that the Bible is not the inspired word of God, that it is truth and is inerrant in it’s original form as given to the inspired writers. Christians in this present day, especially here in America, have been extremely blessed to have been only minimally persecuted. Most of the persecution has been simple criticism and scorn from the unknowing.
This Article has been viewed 213 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
No comments yet.We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.