One of the earliest descriptions we have of a
church meeting comes from Chapter 20 in Acts.
Luke is present as at this point he is accompanying Paul on their
missionary travels. We know when Luke is
a witness to the events he narrates when he uses ‘we’ rather than ‘they’. We are told that they had spent seven days in
Troas (or Troy) and were about to leave: ‘On the first day of the week, when we
met to break bread, Paul was holding a discussion with them. Since he intended to leave the next day he
continued speaking until midnight!’ The
meeting is on the third floor of a building, a room in one of the apartment
blocks. The church group was small
enough to fit into this apartment, which was lit by oil lamps. Paul is not preaching. The Greek word used is ‘dialogomai’ from
which we get our word dialogue. A
conversation is taking place and we are told a young slave sitting at the
window falls asleep. Perhaps he had a
long and hard day’s work. Slaves would
not have enjoyed good working conditions. He falls out of the window to his
death three floors below. The little
community rush down ‘and he was picked up dead.
But Paul went down and bending over him took him in his arms and said:
‘Do not be alarmed for his life is in him.’
We are told that the slave’s name is Eutychus which means ‘lucky’. ‘Then
Paul went upstairs and after he had broken bread and eaten, he continued to
converse with them until dawn; then he left.
Meanwhile they had taken the boy away alive and were not a little
comforted’ (20:11,12)
One of the things that characterised the infant
Church is the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit. Paul wrote: ‘By the power of signs and
wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, from Jerusalem and as far around as
Illyricum I have fully proclaimed the good news of Christ’ (Romans 15:19). Miracles are one of the reasons why the
Church grew. In Acts Luke talks about
sick people lying in the streets ‘so that Peter’s shadow might fall on them as
he came by’ (5:15)
Paul met Priscilla and Aquila in Corinth and their
lives show us something of the uncertainty of being a Christian. They were tent makers and like Paul they were
in exile. They had been expelled from
Rome because they were Christians. Luke tells us that ‘Claudius had ordered all
Jews to leave Rome (Acts 18:2). What is
being referred to here is the expulsion of all the Jewish Christians. Since there were huge numbers of Jews in Rome
they could not all be expelled! The
reason for Emperor Claudius expelling Jewish Christians was the disputes and
fractions between them and the main Jewish population. This took place in 49AD and they were not
allowed back until the beginning of Nero’s reign in AD54.
When Priscilla and Aquila moved to Corinth they
were key people in the Christian community there. It is interesting that in four out of the six
mentions of the couple in the New Testament Priscilla is mentioned first. The ancient world was highly patriarchal so
it would be most unusual to mention the wife before her husband. In addressing an envelope to a married couple
we still tend to place the husband’s name first. So why is Priscilla’s name placed first. Surely it is to do with the fact that she had
a higher profile than her husband in the Christian community. Indeed when the text is talking about their
ministry it is always ‘Priscilla and Aquila.’
Considering the cultures of the time, it is remarkable how many women
feature in the letters of Paul.
Later Priscilla and Aquila went to Ephesus
returning eventually to Rome in AD 54.
In Ephesus one of the people whom they instructed in the faith was a
gifted speaker called Apollos. He was a
native of Alexandria in Egypt, the second biggest city in the Roman
Empire. Christianity had spread into
Africa during the first century. Early
on in Acts, Luke speaks of the Ethiopian eunuch. Another African mentioned in the New
Testament is Simon who helped Jesus carry his cross. He came from Cyrene in modern Libya. There is mention also of other people from
Cyrene.
The Acts of the Apostles reminds us of something we
tend to forget. Christianity was born
and grew in the far east of the Roman Empire.
Jesus was put to death and rose again in Jerusalem. His followers were first called ‘Christians’
in Antioch. Modern day Turkey (Asia
Minor as it used to be called) was a powerhouse of the Christian faith in the
first centuries. Paul himself came from Tarsus in modern Turkey. Syria had a highly developed liturgy and
monastic life as had the Christian territory we know today as Morocco, Algeria,
Libya and Tunisia. The first great
Councils of the Church took place in the East.
Christianity has been their great gift to us – and a great loss to them
