Tag Archives: Roman Empire

Infectious faith

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INFECTIOUS FAITH

“When our time was up, they escorted us out of the city to the docks. Everyone came along — men, women, children. They made a farewell party of the occasion! We all kneeled down together on the beach and prayed. Then, after another round of saying goodbye, we climbed aboard the ship while they drifted back to their homes.

“A short run from Tyre to Ptolemais completed the voyage. We greeted our Christian friends there and stayed with them a day. In the morning, we went on to Caesarea and stayed with Philip the Evangelist, one of the “Seven”. Philip had four virgin daughters who prophesied.” Acts 21:5-9 (The Message).

It amazes me that there were Christian communities in every city and town along Paul’s route to Jerusalam. In the space of some thirty years, the message of Jesus had seeped into every nook and cranny of the Roman Empire, so it seems, and that in the face of serious opposition from both Jews and Romans. What was it in the message and in the circumstances that caused the gospel to take root so firmly in the hostile soil of pagan Rome and Jewish fanaticism?

Because of the Pax Romana, the relative peace that prevailed in the empire, there was freedom of movement between countries and provinces all around the Mediterranean Sea. There was no such thing as passports and visas to hinder free travel between countries. The Roman government kept a tight rein on the people through its army, quelling any signs of rebellion before it spread.

There was one common language spoken throughout the empire. Thanks to the conquest of Alexander the Great and the spread of Greek culture and language, Greek was the lingua franca of the empire, making verbal communication easy wherever the believers went.

Roman roads on the main routes were paved, enabling Paul and his associates to journey in relative ease and safety along the main highways, avoiding danger from gangs of robbers on the way.

Wherever Rome ruled, it created colonies which were microcosms of Rome itself. Through its governors and their subordinates, who were Rome’s ambassadors, everything that Rome stood for was represented in the farthest corners of the empire. This model was the basis for understanding how the church was to function in the world.

Just as Caesar ruled the empire through his ekklesia, a group of chosen men he gathered around him, who had an intimate relationship with him and who carried out his instructions through his representatives, so the church (Jesus’ ekklesia) was a group of people who had an intimate relationship with Him and through whom He implemented His will on earth.

Although these factors made the spread of the gospel easy, they do not give us the reason for the rapid spread of Christianity in a hostile environment. The real power lay in the effect Jesus had on the people who believed in Him. Paganism and idolatry were common everywhere, but false religions did not have the power to transform lives.

Jesus had promised His disciples that He would build His church in a place like Caesarea Philippi, where people engaged in sexual orgies with goats in public as part of the worship of the goat-god, Pan. In that kind of environment, the worst that pagan beliefs could produce, it happened and it was happening eveywhere.

Take Ephesus, for example. The power of Jesus had broken and nullified the hold of the goddess, Artemis, over the city. Witchcraft was exposed, occultic books burned and a whole industry based on idolatry ruined. The power of the Holy Spirit, working in the lives of those who believed the message of Jesus, so changed lives, transforming selfish and greedy people into loving, caring and generous followers of Jesus that whole communities were changed and the message was carried everywhere, wherever the believers went.

What Now?

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WHAT NOW?

“Dear Theophilus, in the first volume of this book I wrote on everything that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day He said goodbye to the apostles, the ones He had chosen through the Holy Spirit, and was taken up to heaven. After His death He presented Himself alive in many different settings over a period of forty days. In face-to-face meetings, He talked to them about things concerning the kingdom of God.” Acts 1:1-3 (NIV).

It is fitting that we continue the story of Jesus as Luke did to his friend, Theophilus. We are indebted to him for his meticulous record. Without it we would never know the sequel to the Jesus-story and how the first disciples took on the Roman Empire and, through the promised Holy Spirit, so securely planted the message of the truth about Jesus that it infiltrated the known world of their day and still continues to change lives through their writings.

Luke made sure that Theophilus understood that Jesus spent forty days with His disciples after the resurrection, tying up all the loose ends so that they would know exactly what to preach and teach after He left them. His theme was the kingdom of God. There was no doubt that He was alive and that He would continue to be fully involved with them as they carried out His instructions and lived out His life in a hostile environment.

Unlike so much of current preaching and teaching which ignores the bigger picture and makes the gospel all about us, He put His life and death into the perspective of God’s realm and rule in the lives of people. It was not about them. It was about Him, His purpose for coming and their on-going mission to proclaim Him to the world.

He would have warned them that their task was a dangerous one. Like Him they would have to face the hostility of the Jewish leaders who had put Him to death as well as the Caesars whose claims demanded the worship and allegiance that was due Him alone.

These arrogant Roman emperors, in particular Caesar Augustus, “believed that he was god incarnate on earth, the prince of peace who had come to restore all of creation…His priests offered sacrifices and incense to rid people of their guilt. One of his popular slogans was “There is no other name under heaven by which men can be saved than that of Caesar.” Another phrase they used was “Caesar is Lord.” Throughout the Roman Empire, the Caesars called on people to worship them as the divine saviours of humankind…” (Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis, Zondervan 2005, page 162)

The implications are obvious. Into this world came the “Jesus movement” in a remote corner of the empire that was giving them no end of trouble. These people claimed that their leader was a rabbi, that He had announced the arrival of the kingdom of God, that He had been executed by the Roman authorities for treason, and that His followers claimed that He was alive. Now they were claiming that He, not Caesar, is Lord!

Their opposition would be ruthless ad relentless but the message had to go out. The apostles had to know it, be convinced of it, believe it and proclaim it not matter what the consequences. This was the final mission of Jesus before He returned to the Father. For forty days He instructed them until He was sure that they were ready to take on the world!