A Narrative Of The Origin And Growth Of the Early Lord’s Church
Posted: Monday, August 29, 2011
by Joel Hendon
http://hebronics.org/index.html
The coming of Jesus, the Son of God to this earth, His life, crucifixion, resurrection and ultimately the establishment of His kingdom (church, the called out, Christianity) was the single most important thing which has ever occurred on this planet. This was the purpose for which the universe and all which are in it were created. The beginning of His church was the most momentous occasion in all of history. The beginning of Christianity.
Jesus Christ was to be the turning point of time on this earth. After His death and His kingdom came into being, on the first Pentecost after His resurrection, the time is for the diffusion and growth of His Spiritual kingdom. There has been no unexpected catastrophes of this everlasting kingdom although it has suffered many trials and hardships. These were foreseen and prophesied by the Lord Himself. It will never be destroyed and even death shall not end it.
When Jesus was walking and teaching His disciples here on the earth and preparing them for the coming of His church, as they passed by the edge of Philippi, He asked them whom do they say He is and Peter answered and said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God“*. Then notice the response Jesus gave him:
Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and *on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:17-18 NKJV)(emphasis mine JHH)
In these few verses we learn that His church will be based upon the rock that He was the literal Son of God and that Hades (the grave) would not prevail against it. This means that when He died on the cross, that event would not stop it and also that when those who were re-born into His kingdom, or church, died physically, that death would not prevail against His kingdom either. In fact His New Testament church could not be established until He had shed His blood. Read this:
And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. (Hebrews 9:15-17 KJV)
The arrival and establishment of His church is very precisely described in the 2nd chapter of Acts. Through miraculous intervention into the 12 apostles present that day, they were able to speak all of the various dialects and languages of those present to hear them. There were thousands of Jews there in Jerusalem for the Pentecostal Feast, from all areas where they had dispersed under captivity, and there were those who spoke different languages and even more dialects. But the miraculous gifts given the Apostles gave them the ability to speak them all. Here is the scriptural explanation:
And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. (Acts 2: 5-11 KJV)
Those who have an interest in this establishment of the church, should red the entire chapter 2 carefully. You will see that over 3,000 were added to them on that first day through their obedience to those things contained in the apostles teaching. And in verse 47, the last verse in the chapter, we read, “And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved”.
The early church was concentrated in and closely around Jerusalem. However, it spread rapidly as the Apostles and thousands of new converts spread out into surrounding territories such as Samaria and Galilee and by the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, were in all of the surrounding countries. Estimates of the deaths of Jews in the slaughter of Jerusalem vary but the hearnow.org page on “A Calendar of Jewish Persecution” lists that 1,100,000 were slain and an additional 97,000 taken into slavery and captivity. There is no reliable record of Christian deaths, yet writers of tradition state there were none killed, in that they followed the instructions given by Jesus in his prophecy (see quote below) and fled to the hills when they saw the siege being established around the city by the Romans.
When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. (Matthew 24: 15-22 KJV)
The Lord’s kingdom has had periods of extreme persecutions towards it and there have been times when certain areas slowed in growth of the church, as is the case in the United States at this time. However, some areas are revealing record growths over the same decades that have been waning here. India reportedly now has more New Testament Christians than there are here, and some of the African countries have also been experiencing record growth in Christianity over the past several decades. These facts add credence to the prophesy made two thousand years ago by Jesus Himself that, “the gates Hades shall not prevail against it”.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Excellent article. Question: Do you take the Roman Catholic view that "Peter" was being set apart to rule the Church? Peter means "Petros", and Rock means "Petra"; or do you take the view that Jesus was referring to himself as the "rock"?Hi Christopher, thanks for reading and commenting. No, I do not believe the conversation had anything to do with Peter, other than he engaged in it. If you start with verse 13 where this conversation begins, you will see that the entire subject was "who did people think Jesus was, and after Peter got it right in verse 16, Jesus commended him for doing so, and then He says "upon this rock, I will build my church", the subject had not changed to Peter but was still concentrated on who Jesus was. And His church was established completely on the fact that He was the Son of God.
Here is a good explanation of verse 17 from Burton C. Coffman commentary;
Verse 17
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.
Jesus' confession and blessing of Peter in this place is best understood in the light of a promise Jesus previously made to the effect that he would confess those who confessed him (Matthew 10:32,33). Note the parallel: "Christ, Son of God" and "Peter, son of John" (that is the meaning of Bar-Jonah). Note also the attribution of divine initiative in providing Peter that information. The great truth that Jesus is God's Son is not taught by human wisdom but in that wisdom which is from above. To the contrary, human wisdom is ever active and diligent to blur and erase that truth from men's minds and hearts. A witness to Christ's divinity is also contained here. Who but Christ himself had taught Peter and the others this epic truth? Yet Christ flatly declared that God had taught it. This is a powerful, though incidental, corroboration of Peter's confession from the lips of Christ himself.
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Peter in the Greek is Petrov (or Petros), and means a pebble or small stone. whereas the rock is petra meaning a huge bedrock
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