God at work. It Began with the Holy Spirit
In approximately AD 30, fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the disciples gathered in Jerusalem for the Jewish feast of Pentecost.
Jesus had promised them that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them. Now that promise was fulfilled.
Peter stood before the crowd and proclaimed the risen Christ. His message was direct and unmistakable: the Jesus whom they had crucified was both Lord and Messiah.
About three thousand people believed and were baptized that day.
The Church had begun.
It was not an institution with impressive buildings, political influence, or wealthy patrons. It had no army and no earthly king. Its strength was the message of a crucified and risen Savior.
And that message would change the world.
From Jerusalem to the Ends of the Earth
The first Christians were predominantly Jewish believers. They worshiped in the Temple, gathered in homes, and shared the teaching of the apostles.
Then persecution came.
Stephen became the first Christian martyr. Saul of Tarsus, who had approved his death, became one of the most remarkable converts in history.
The man who had persecuted the Church became Paul, its great missionary to the Gentile world.
His journeys carried the Gospel through Asia Minor and into Greece.
He preached in synagogues, marketplaces, and public squares.
He established churches, trained leaders, and wrote letters that would become part of the New Testament.
The Christian faith crossed cultural boundaries that had divided the ancient world.
In Antioch, believers were first called Christians.
In Philippi, a jailer and his household came to faith. I
n Corinth, a church grew amid the moral confusion of a great commercial city. In Ephesus, the Gospel challenged the worship of the goddess Diana.
Paul eventually reached Rome itself.
The little company that had gathered in Jerusalem was becoming a movement that stretched across the empire.
The Faith That Would Not Die
Rome was accustomed to religious diversity, but Christianity presented a challenge. Christians would not worship the emperor as a god, nor would they participate in pagan religious ceremonies.
Their loyalty belonged to Jesus Christ.
Persecution came in different waves and under different emperors. It was not continuous throughout the three centuries, but when it came, it could be terrible.
Nero's persecution in Rome followed the great fire of AD 64. Tradition remembers the deaths of Peter and Paul during this period.
In the following generations, men and women continued to bear witness.
Ignatius of Antioch, on his way to execution in Rome, wrote letters encouraging the churches.
Polycarp, the aged bishop of Smyrna, refused to deny Christ. When ordered to curse Christ and save himself, he answered that he had served his Lord for eighty-six years and could not now betray Him.
In North Africa, Perpetua and her young companion Felicity faced death rather than renounce their faith.
Justin Martyr defended Christianity before the Roman authorities.
Irenaeus defended the apostolic teaching against false doctrine.
Tertullian became one of the early Church's most forceful writers.
These were not merely names in a history book. They were people who believed that Jesus Christ was worth more than life itself.
The Church grew through their witness.
The Great Persecution
The greatest test came in the early fourth century.
In AD 303, Emperor Diocletian launched what became known as the Great Persecution.
Church buildings were destroyed. Christian Scriptures were confiscated and burned. Clergy were imprisoned. Believers were ordered to sacrifice to the Roman gods.
The intention was to destroy Christianity as an organized faith.
Yet the Church endured.
Some believers surrendered under pressure.
Others remained steadfast.
Some who had failed sought restoration afterward.
The Church had to wrestle not only with persecution from outside but also with weakness and failure within.
Still, the faith survived.
And then something extraordinary happened.
Constantine and the Turning Point
In AD 312, Constantine marched against his rival Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge outside Rome.
Christian tradition preserves the remarkable account of a vision associated with Constantine's coming victory: a cross of light and the words:
In hoc signo vinces.
"In this sign, you will conquer."
Constantine won the battle.
His relationship with Christianity would change the course of history.
In AD 313, Constantine and Licinius established a policy of religious toleration that allowed Christians to worship openly and restored confiscated church property.
The change was astonishing.
Only a few years earlier, Christians had been hunted and imprisoned. Now churches could be built, Christian leaders could meet openly, and the faith could receive the favor of the emperor.
By AD 324, Constantine had become sole ruler of the Roman Empire.
The Church had entered an entirely new chapter.
Nicaea: Defending the Faith
But freedom brought its own challenges.
A dispute over the identity of Jesus Christ threatened to divide the Church.
Arius, a Christian teacher in Alexandria, argued that the Son of God was not eternal in the same sense as the Father.
The question was fundamental.
Was Jesus Christ truly God, or was He a created being?
In AD 325, Constantine summoned bishops from across the Christian world to meet at Nicaea.
Among those present was a young churchman named Athanasius, who would become one of the great defenders of Christ's deity.
The council affirmed that Jesus Christ was not a creature, but truly God, of one substance with the Father.
The declaration became the foundation of the Nicene Creed.
The Church had endured persecution for confessing Christ. Now it was defending the truth of who Christ was.
The emperor had changed. The circumstances had changed. But the central confession remained:
Jesus Christ is Lord.
What Three Centuries Had Accomplished
Let us pause and consider the journey.
In AD 30, a small company of disciples waited in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father.
By AD 326, the Christian faith had spread throughout the Roman world.
Its Scriptures were being read in congregations across distant provinces.
Its teachers had defended the Gospel against powerful intellectual opponents.
Its martyrs had demonstrated a courage that astonished even their persecutors.
The Church had survived emperors who wanted to destroy it.
It had produced missionaries, theologians, teachers, pastors, and ordinary believers whose names history has forgotten but whose faithfulness God has not forgotten.
It had faced internal disagreements and serious doctrinal challenges. It had suffered, endured, and continued to proclaim the Gospel.
And now the emperor himself had called the bishops together to defend the deity of Christ.
Was this the end of the story?
Hardly.
Constantine's favor would bring new temptations. The controversy over Christ's nature would continue. Athanasius would spend much of his life defending the Nicene confession.
In later centuries, the Gospel would travel far beyond the boundaries of the Roman Empire.
But our journey from Pentecost to Nicaea has reached its destination.
The Church Still Belongs to Christ
There is one final truth I want us to take away from these three centuries.
The Church did not survive because its leaders were always wise, its members always courageous, or its circumstances always favorable.
It survived because Jesus Christ was faithful to His promise.
Before His ascension, He told His disciples:
"I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (Matthew 16:18, KJV)
That promise was not made to an empire, a denomination, or a council. It was made by the Lord Himself.
The Roman Empire has long since disappeared. Its emperors are remembered in history books. Its armies and monuments have crumbled.
But the Church of Jesus Christ continues.
The Gospel that Peter preached at Pentecost is still proclaimed.
The Savior whom Paul carried across the Roman world is still worshiped.
The faith for which Polycarp and countless others gave their lives is still confessed.
And the promise of Christ remains.
We began this journey with the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. We end it with the bishops at Nicaea proclaiming the eternal deity of the Son of God.
Between those two moments lies one of the greatest chapters in the history of God's work among men.
The Church was born in the power of the Holy Spirit, sustained through persecution, strengthened by faithful witnesses, and called to defend the truth about its Lord.
That is the story of God at work after Pentecost.
And it is a story that is still being written.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever.
(Hebrews 13:8, KJV)
Closing Hymn: "The Church's One Foundation" — Samuel J. Stone (1866)
A fitting conclusion to our journey: the Church's foundation is not an emperor, a council, or a human institution but Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
THE CHURCH'S ONE FOUNDATION
1. The church's one foundation
Is Jesus Christ her Lord,
She is His new creation
By water and the Word.
From heaven He came and sought her
To be His holy bride;
With His own blood He bought her,
And for her life He died.
2. Elect from every nation,
Yet one over all the earth;
Her charter of salvation,
One Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy Name she blesses,
Partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses,
With every grace endued.
3. Though with a scornful wonder
Men see her sore oppressed,
By schisms rent asunder,
By heresies distressed,
Yet saints their watch are keeping;
Their cry goes up, "How long?"
And soon the night of weeping
Shall be the morn of song.
4. The church shall never perish,
Her dear Lord to defend
To guide, sustain and cherish,
Is with her to the end
Though there be those that hate her,
And false sons in her pale
Against a foe or traitor,
She ever shall prevail
5. Mid toil and tribulation,
And tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation
Of peace forevermore;
'Til, with the vision glorious,
Her longing eyes are blessed,
And the great church victorious
Shall be the church at rest.
6. Yet she on earth hath union
With God the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion
With those whose rest is won.
O happy ones and holy!
Lord, give us grace that we
Like them, the meek and lowly,
On high may dwell with Thee.
Samuel John Stone
Ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but
fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household
of God; And are built upon the foundation of the
apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being
the chief corner stone; - Ephesians 2:19-20
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