Articles
The Stress Of The Early Church
The conditions in which the church began are quite amazing. The initial tactic of Christianity’s opponents was to attack what they saw as the root cause: the leaders. So we read of the apostles being arrested and threatened by the Sanhedrin (Acts 4), then re-arrested, threatened and beaten (Acts 5). This reached a crescendo when a second-tier leader, Stephen, was arrested and murdered by an enraged Jewish tribunal (Acts 6:8-7).
To their credit, these Christian leaders were resolute, bold and courageous. But Jesus had forewarned them of these things, and they admirably endured the initial onslaught and even worse things to come.
But more amazing were the new converts, those who had not spent three years in training and seeing Jesus’ miraculous works. This message was new to them, and they chose to believe it at great cost. They did not obey the gospel because it was comfortable or advantageous in any worldly sense. Quite the contrary. Many early Jewish converts would have accepted Jesus at great harm to themselves.
What were they thinking when they saw their new leaders imprisoned? While Jesus was still alive the Jews threatened to excommunicate any who would follow Him (John 7:13; 9:22; 12:42).
We can easily imagine the rejection of these new disciples by their synagogue leaders, families, employers, etc. They would be outcasts, apostates in the eyes of their unbelieving associates. And it would get worse when the tactics changed and the authorities began to persecute the followers rather than the leaders (Acts 8:1-3).
And that’s not all. Even the harsh hand of God’s punishment was felt among them as some behaved fraudulently (Acts 5:1-11). No, God did not call them to “comfortable Christianity.” God called them to change their orientation to Him, to repent and live submissive and godly lives no matter the cost to them personally. And many did just that (Acts 2:41, 47; 5:14; 6:7; etc.).
This is the power of belief, of hearts truly convicted of the sacrifice of Jesus for them. In return they were deeply convicted that they must live for Him. Powerful, indeed, such faith. Is your faith in Christ so powerful?
