Ten-Minute Studies In The Bible And Church History: The History Of The Early Church Began With Pentecost? Lecture 12.

“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.” (Acts 2:1).

The value of Church History is the value we place on those who lived and died for their faith in Christ. Does the Church actually care about it’s own history? Does the Church even know it’s own history? And if it does what does it learn from it in the modern age of the Church? Who really studies the Book of The Acts Of The Apostles and realize this is the Churches history from the beginning. The Church seems to have a vague and brief understanding of the early Church and those who started it. What really does the Church know of it’s very beginnings and is it enough? Does the Church really know the travels and ministries of the twelve apostles? Does it really even care? The answer to the last question I sadly think is that most in the Church do not really care because it was two thousand years ago and what value does it have today? The Modern Church is aware of its history but it doesn’t really value it. The Modern Church has a vague if not at least a brief understanding of it’s history but it doesn’t value it. The birth of the early Church was at Pentecost; it began at no other time and should be remembered as such. Most people who go to church have a simple understanding of the names in the Book of the Apostles. Very simplistic view and understanding to the point that their just names more than actual flesh and blood people who lived, preached, and some of them killed for their faith in Christ. Does the Modern Church understand it’s own history as written and recorded by Luke in his book? Does it not understand the dept it owes to those who helped create the early Church of Christ by their actions and words and letters? The beginning of the Church Age began at Pentecost. That’s it’s birthday and it’s beginning as a faith and hope for those who believed and preached the Gospel. Pentecost was when the Holy Spirit came and the Apostle Peter preached his first major sermon where three thousand souls were saved, (Acts 2:1-47). Read the sermon and take notice of his audience. Take notice of the list of the nations that heard their own language from the mouth of the Jewish speaking Apostle Peter. They heard their own language being spoken and that list isn’t far the region that the Church began in. There is a reason they heard so many languages that Pentecost day; the Gospel was meant to be preached beyond Jerusalem and the land of the Jews who believed in the Messiah. The Holy Spirit was telling the early Church what it’s mission was suppose to be; sadly it took a while to get that message but they would get it but it took persecution. Those listening to Peter’s sermon that Pentecost were pretty much all Jews who had traveled from other parts of the Roman Empire to be at the Feast of Pentecost. There’s a reason the list of languages was mentioned and listed as it was. It was a signal to those who were there to go back to their homes throughout the empire and tell them what they had seen and heard in Jerusalem. What is the Feast of Pentecost anyway? Why is it important to the Church calendar? Pentecost should be studied, celebrated, and observed by the Church as it is the beginning of the Church. It is why there are Jews and Gentiles in the Church. The Book of Acts Of The Apostles is a history of the power of that Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came. The Feast of Pentecost, (Leviticus 23:15-22), is a harvest and thanking God for the plentiful harvest feast. There’s a reason the Holy Spirit came on Pentecost and that was to create human harvest; three thousand Jewish souls were saved. The Church of Christ was born. There are spiritual links to the Feast of Pentecost and that particular Pentecost in the actions of the two loaves waved and their importance is in the future of Gentile salvation; one representing Jews and the other the Gentiles. This important feast needs to be studied and the deep meanings of the idea of harvest and soul winning via the Holy Spirit’s movement and actions in the Church. The story of the Church via the Holy Spirit that Pentecost is the story of the story of Peter and John and the other Apostles before the Jewish elders, (Acts 4:4-21), the story of Stephen, (Acts 6:5-15, Acts 7:1-60), the story of the beginning of the persecution of Saul of Tarsus and the preaching of the Apostle Philip in Samaria and then the preaching of the Apostle Peter and John following Philip’s example in Samaria, (Acts 8:1-25), then the story of Philip’s preaching to the Ethiopian, (Acts 8:26-40), and then the story of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, (Acts 9:1-43), then the story of the Apostle Peter preaching to the Roman Cornelius, (Acts 10-48), And the story of Peter’s defense of his preaching to the Roman Cornelius once he returned to Jerusalem, (Acts 11:1-18). We have the story of the first of the apostles to die for his faith in Jesus, the Apostle James, brother of John, and the persecution of the Church, (Acts 12:1-25). It’s the story of the Jerusalem Council, (Acts 15:1-29), And the history continues into the missionary journey’s and epistles of the Apostle Paul. This is just a very brief introduction of the heritage and history of the early Church of Christ and it’s neglected by the modern Church? I think it does because there seems to be no real interest in studying the beginnings of the early Church or the feast of Pentecost that started it. Study both and regain the heritage and history and it begins with Pentecost.