The Early Church Essay

When many think of the early Church, they think of a perfectly uniformed group of individuals praising and worshiping together. This, in fact, is not true; the early church was not perfectly unified and had many internal and external conflicts. The apostles preached about Jesus and tried to get followers through talking about his life, death, and resurrection. When the church was starting, many internal questions arose like: Who can hear the gospel? Who was in charge? And what does it mean to be free? Many also were not sure whom to turn to ensure that something was valid within the church. With so much confusion, people turned towards the principle apostolicity, which connected the work and intentions of the apostles and ensured reliability. They used the partnership with the spirit to make decisions.

By the late 1500s, Christian denominations had been popping up all over Europe. This was in response to the reports of indulgences (selling of freedom from purgatory), clerical immorality, abuse of money, along with many other bad actions that were rampant among the Church. It was these problems that Luther and others rebelled and created their own religions. With the rising of these Reformation movements, the Church needed to make some reforms itself. These reforms took the form of educating the clergy, opening monasteries, the Inquisition, and the organizing of councils. In fact, even though Protestant attacks brought these reforms, many of these reforms were needed anyway. The problems in the Church were so bad that the Church would not

In Acts 2:1-4, Paul recounts Pentecost as the ultimate outpouring of the Holy Spirit to all believers, indwelling and granting them with spiritual gifts. Ephesians 4:11-12 explains that these Spirit-given

The vision of the early Christian Church as a haven of peace in a troubled world is a fiction that history shows to be false, and for some very good reasons. Even when Jesus was still with his apostles a dispute arose that signalled the bitter partisanship and embattled denominationalism that came into even sharper relief in the centuries that followed Jesus’ ascent into heaven, where he sits at the right hand of God.

In Acts13:1-4, While a couple of the prophets and teachers gat together to fast and worship the Lord. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them” (Paul, 2007, Acts 13:2). Every one had prayed for them and then Saul and Barnabas went on their way to Seleucia and then sailed to Cyprus. “When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. “John was with them as their helper” (Paul, 2007, Acts 13:5). Paul and Barnabas had left the church in Syria in answering God’s calling to proclaim Christ. The Plain that Paul and Barnabas had was to go to synagogues to evangelize and preach the gospel there. But many of the Jews rejected Christ. Later on the missionaries had come to recognize that God called them to witness to the Gentiles.

Upon hearing the gospel, they received the gift of the Holy Spirit (vs. 44-45) and they were baptized with water in the name of Jesus (vs. 47-48). Peter recounts this event in Acts 11 and equates it with the baptism of the Holy Spirit as predicted by John (vs. 16) and which followed belief in the Lord Jesus (vs. 17). In Acts 13, Paul and Barnabas travel to Antioch and began to teach in the synagogue. In verse 24 they describe John’s baptism as one of repentance. Later Paul, Silas, and Timothy travelled to Philippi, where they encounter a woman from Thyatira who was a worshipper of God

In the book of acts provides thirteen example of supernatural guidance to mark the stages of Paul’s minister. In this paper it talks about four of these passages that deal with direction given by the Holy Spirit. In the first passage it was about the prophecy of Agubus (11:27-30) in which he predicts a coming famine. In the second passage it was given the spirit inauguration of Paul first ministry journey at Antioch (13:1-4). The third passage is the spirit’s prohibition to Paul to preach in Asia and in Bithynia; however directing his travel to Troas (16:6-7). The last passage that was discussed is the extended travel narrative in which the Spirit compels Paul to go to Jerusalem (20:22-24), then evidently desire not for him to go there (21:4).

The book of Acts written by the apostle Luke continues the gospel of Christ. It describes the works and wonders performed through people from Christ himself. It is the acts of Christ demonstrated through individuals. The first specific insight that I discovered from reading the text this week was the mentioning of " The passing shadow of an apostle might be sufficient to bring about healing ( Acts 5: 15 ). As they preached messages, Jesus followers. This lets me know that Christ had the power on earth to bless others spiritual as well as physically. The second specific insight that I discovered from reading the text this week was when, " Saul was recruited

Jesus must have known that believers would be lost without him walking along with his people, therefore he left the Holy Spirit behind to help those that needed some assistance along the life’s journey. The Holy Spirt helped Paul along his journey as well to be where he was once at in his life, to be a true testament that the Holy Spirit is alive and still at work in many lives. Through Paul’s reaching out to the churches he was involved with even while in prison allowed the believers to draw closer to Christ. With the help of Paul’s teaching and Jesus anointing then the Jews and the Gentiles came together as one to learn about the Holy Spirt and how he can advance the early church into the church of today.

The life of Jesus had been rubbed onto these disciples. What a testimony to these early witnesses! This could be said of every child of God even today

Act 2, gave us a vivid description of how the new testament church began. After Peter preaches on the Pentecost day many were touched by what Peter said. Act 2 recorded that many who were present when Peter spoke had the urgency to receive the gospel so that their sins can be forgiven. Although many accused the disciples of being drunk the good news is that Peter was able to make it clear that they were not drunk rather they filled with the holy spirit. Fulfilling the prophecy that was given to the Jews by the prophets.

“Acts describes the life of the church in Jerusalem, the spread of the gospel in Samaria, the activities of Peter, and the early persecution of

In the gospel, people are always looking for Jesus to see the wonders he does. They are attracted by the charism of this new ‘prophet’ that has arisen among them. They are attracted by the fame of this healer and preacher. However, Jesus knows that those are not true reasons to follow him. He is expecting for something deeper that comes from their hearts, a desire to find God and embrace him in their lives. Today many more people are looking for God and many people

In the second half of this period, Constantine was converted and legitimatized the church. The church, which had been a private and underground movement, now went public with a more structure.

Acts 8:15-16 When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.