church history: acts to today

matt 16:13-17 - jesus with the apostles

13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.”
15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17 And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
18 “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
19 “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”

things to notice in our history from these words of jesus:

the rock the church is built on is either peter or the confession...inconsequential for our purposes today.
peter is blessed becuase he recognizes that jesus is the christ, the son of the living god

this truth will remain central to the church in acts and in history.

the church is christ's; he will maintain it.

matt 28:19,20 - the great commission

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

the apostolic period refers to the period when the apostles were still alive and active in ministry.
most people date this from around 30 AD (christ's death) to the death of the last apostle (probably john, sometime around 100 AD).
initial state: the church is just the jews who followed christ. they were jewish guys in jerusalem

as they preached the gospel in the first chapters of mark, they found some converts.
but it was a message that required change both in beliefs and action and so found hostility.
the first chapters of acts record the persecution of the church by the jews in jerusalem/judea.

major changes that occured in this period:

- inclusion of gentiles

cornelius was the first in acts 10...
paul's missionary journies

first - to turkey (hostile jews attack him) (acts 13,14)
second - further west in turkey, then to macedonia/greece (hostile jews attack him) (end of acts 15 - 18)
third - turkey, esp ephesus, and macedonia/greece (hostile jews attack him) (end of acts 18 - first part of 21)

- abandonment of jewish cultural exclusivism

the jerusalem council in acts 15 is a huge statement - gentiles are gentiles and are ok to god that way.
that view is repeated and expanded in galations, romans 2-4, 1 cor 8-10, etc

that is a huge shift - god's people used to be a nation with distinct, required holidays and practices.
now all of a sudden we have all of the worlds cultures represented in "god's people"

- exclusion from jewish society

you can see this starting in the new testament - major factors:

the continued rejection by the jewish leadership meant that converts were forced to leave the 'jewish structure'
christian non-participation in the jewish rebellion (66-73 AD) (jews felt called to the jewish nation, christians choose to submi to the government [even secular])
'council' of jamnia

after jerusalem was destroyed, jamnia became the center of jewish learning in the area.
towards the end of the first century, a few things were decided there (maybe in a council, maybe not):

- scripture is the old testament...in hebrew (no septuagent)
- a nice curse on christians (and potentially others...gnostics, etc)

continued spread of the gospel

the gospel continued to spread throughout the world - thomas most likely spread the gospel east (all the way to india), and the church continued in this way.
to the east:

the roman empire abutted the hostile persian empire on the east; unlike in rome, christianity never became the state religion there.
the church developed differently in the east (a whole separate study), but did spread effectively, reaching china in the 600s.

to the west:

the church spread throughout the roman empire...

persecution

every 20 years or a new persecution would arise. a lot of christians were killed...this would continue until roughly 300AD.
that's 200 years of persecution...finally reaching a head under diocletian. he tolerated christanity for 18 years, but was finally convinced to persecute the church. it is said that up to 20,000 were killed in nicomedia (city) in 203.

formation of scripture

- preservation/distribution of apostolic records

we know that the words of christ were distributed during the apostles lifetime as paul references them.
we also know that the apostolic letters were distrubted during the period of the apostles.
after the death of the apostles, the church continued to distribute and use the letters.

- response to heretics

marcion attempted to exclude everything but pauline literature from the bible (late 2nd century).
this type of heresy meant that the church had to define what was and what wasn't canon.
by the end of the 2nd century we have a list of books accepted as canonical.

constantine became 'emperor' in 312 (well...kinda in 306, but really not until 312)
in 313 he proclaimed full tolerance of christanity.
incidentally...as christinity became the offical religion for the roman empire, it became increasingly persecuted/distrusted in the persian/sassanid empire to the east (it was assocated with rome and the enemy).
we'll end this period with the removal of the last 'roman' emperor.

formation of doctrine

by 325 constantine has summoned the council of nicea to settle some doctrinal debates.
the 'institutionalization' of the church meant that the stability of the empire required an 'offical right answer' for every major debate.
this led to an increase of councils, after which the losers were excommunicated from the church and exiled from the empire.
the bright side is that the church was able to clearly refute a great many bad interpretations of scripture.

growth:

the removal of persecution led to growth
by the end of the century christianity is the largest religion in the empire.

formation of authority

as the church became increasingly vital to the state, councils are called to settle debates...ultimately to ensure unity.
the down side of the councils (to a protestant) is that the church ended up asserting itself as an authority roughly equal to scripture.

note: in the east, the empire remained and the church stayed 'offical' for all the way until the byzantine empire fell in 1453.
missional growth in the germanic tribes:

once the roman empire fell, the ex-romans evangelized the barbarians that had captured them.
the germanic tribes that ultimately defeated rome and moved into roman territory became christians.
this included ireland (st patrick!), england/scotland post rome, france/gaul, germany, and central europe.

rise of monasticism

monks had been around since the 3rd century, especially in egypt.
but monasticism really took off in the post-roman period.
monks provided a structure for christian service and ministry, and maintained literacy and study in a pre-university age.

good / bad:

good - preserved learning as important to the church.
good - some encouraged mission activity, engagement with world.
bad - fostered clergy/laity distinction, some encouraged withdrawl from world.

a notable point ending this period was the reign of charlemagne (500 AD) and his 'holy roman empire'.

charlemagne boosted schools and literacy (the modern university system often traces to this period).
this continued the link between the church and state...the catholic church was united with the secular authority.

missional growth in the slavic tribes:

missionary activity from rome and constantinople to eastern europe/russia took place (with success) in this period.

the catholic church balances power against/between states

the catholic church became the church to individual states as the carolignian empire split.
power struggles emerged between states, and the church is either forced in or enters to secure it's interests.
good / bad:

good - church won power to appoint bishops, instead of having kings appoint them (investiture controversy)
bad - church began seeking political power

schism

in 1054, east vs west becomes official.
the divide had been growing since the end of the roman empire (5th century).
rome had been considered by the east the "first among equals", rome considered itself the leader.
finally comes to a head over the filioque (does the spirit proceed from the father or the father/son).

east/west excommunicate the other and cut off ties.

crusades

1095 - 1200ish...
rather than missionizing the arabs, the churc opts to conquer them.
initial success followed by pure failure.

the renaissance began in northern italy as city states began to increase pursuit of arts/sciences (after a period of wealth/stability/trade).
the church began to increase it's use of the arts, but this was a time of great corruption in the church as the office was effectively controlled by wealthy powerful figures.
pope leo X, son of the wealthy medici family in florence, is said to have said upon being elected pope, "Since God has given us the papacy, let us enjoy it."

the church was official; the church was the societal norm; and the church was morally corrupt.

wittenburg:

in 1516, the germans passed a law called the reinheitsgebot mandating that beer could only have barley, hops, water, (and yeast).
the next year, luther (a catholic theologian) posted his 95 thesis to the door of the wittenburg church and started the reformation.

northern europe:

the reformation spread through northern europe

- spread through theological zeal (people were convinced and embraced the reformation)
- spread by political advantage (rulers/leaders used it for non-religious reasons)
the reality is that it probably spread on a national level due to some combination of both reasons.
e.g. the english reformation had a very secular cause (henry VIII wanted a divorce) but also had some excellent particpants.

counter-reformation:

the catholic response to the reformation was called...the counter-reformation.
it involved:

- doctrinal components

they held a number of counsels to declare protestents heretics

- moral components

all in all, the catholic church cleaned up quite a bit.

the effects of the reformation also meant that governments were increasingly free from catholic political influence, and the catholic church increasingly began to play less and less of a role in politics.

mission activity

the reformation and counter-reformation led to a marked increase in missionary activity.
nothing like competition to bring out your best i suppose.

enlightenment:

basically...the world went all sciencey.
this period also involved a 'de-religiousness' of society, as governments moved away from forced religion.

romanticism:

the world is getting better! society will fix us all!
science began to be presented as an alternative to the church.
the church responded by making religion 'spiritual' or 'subjective'

modernism:

brutal world wars removed romantic notions from the western world.
life was cruel and without hope.

the church became more liberal and subjective.

and here we are.

1. expectations for the church

failure!

the church has had sinful, failing elements in it from the beginning.
get over it.
you need to expect the church to fail. yes to fight it and to work against it...but not to be shocked if you see it.

mature vs immature? mature works to grow the church. immature whines about it.

value to christ

acts 9:4 ("why are you persecuting me"), eph 5, etc the church is christ's body; he values it.
we need to value the church as christ does.

wanna see if you value it?

how much do you think/pray about your brothers/sisters?
do you think about what they don't do for you or how you may help them more?
etc...

2. heritage! we are part of the human witness of christ

evangelism:

- we've seen the apostles carry the gospel in acts
- we've seen the church carry the gospel in history
- be encouraged to live for this goal

- we must have the same life goals as the apostolic church. we carry christs name and message to the world.

service/gifts:

the church that paul served, christ built, etc...we get to serve
be encouraged to serve one another.

- what you are about in life needs to be under this banner.