PLACES.—Jerusalem, Damascus, Caesarea, Tarsus and Cilicia, Troas, Philippi.
SIGNIFICANCE OF EVENTS.—Here the gospel ceases to be local in character and becomes universal—held no longer by national or geographical boundaries.
Development of the Early Church
157. Importance of the Book.—The Acts of the Apostles is the most important book in the New Testament, for if we were to lose one of the Gospels, we should still have three left, and if we lost one epistle, the others would still be ours. But if we had no "Acts," we should be left with no story of the ascension, (except Luke 24:51) and the next record would be Paul's letter to the Thessalonians. The whole story of Pentecost, and the spread of the Gospel, would be lacking, and, indeed, we should know nothing of the writer of the above-named epistle, nor how he came to write to the church in Thessalonica. We should have absolutely nothing to bridge over the gap between the ascension and this letter.
158. In the Acts there are six pivotal events, on which all the rest of the story turns. Master these, and the whole story is clear. These events we give as follows:
(1) Pentecost. This means power. It is suggestive that the Greek word translated power (Acts 1:8) is the one from which our word dynamite comes. Bear in mind the situation at the ascension. Here were fishermen and common individuals, to whom was committed the carrying of the gospel to all the world, yet they had neither education, nor wealth, nor social position, nor political influence. What an impossible task! What they needed, therefore, more than anything else, was power from above. It was this that Pentecost gave them, and that, too, in such measure that Peter won, in one day, more disciples for his Master than the Master himself had won in three and a half years. Thus the church was founded, and before long numbered in Jerusalem over ten thousand persons.
(2) Persecution. At first persecution might seem to be a disaster to the church. As a matter of fact, it was a great blessing. There was danger that the believers in Jerusalem would forget that they were told to "begin" at Jerusalem, but were to go to Judea and Samaria, and as far as the ends of the earth. Up to the time of the persecution that arose about Stephen there is no sign that the church did anything outside of the City of David. So, in the providence of God, the cloud of persecution broke on them and they were scattered abroad. Most fortunate it is that then they did their duty, for we read that the disciples (except the Apostles who stayed in Jerusalem), went everywhere "preaching the Word" (Acts 8:1-4). This event marked the beginning of that spread of the gospel that has never ceased from that day to this, and never will cease, until the final victory is won. Through persecution it was that God stirred up the disciples, and forced them to do work that they seem, in their great joy over the truth, to have neglected.
(3) The conversion of Saul. By far the most dangerous enemy of the infant church was Saul of Tarsus. How he worked, and how the church feared him, we shall see more in detail in our next lesson. Suffice it to say here that had he continued in his first course, the whole history of the spread of the Gospel would have been very different from what it was. From the standpoint of the truth of God, next to Moses, Paul was the greatest man who has ever lived. To have him on the side of the truth, instead of against it, was a great thing for the church of that day and for the church since that day. That which is of the utmost importance in the conversion of Saul is the fact that Jesus himself appeared to him, and in this way gave him, as it were, the Master's own sanction to act as one of the Apostles. As a matter of fact, the two most important miracles of the New Testament are the resurrection of the Lord and the conversion of Saul of Tarsus.