FOURTEENTH STUDY
The Church in Transition
From the Appointment of the Seven, A. D. 35, to the Council at Jerusalem, A. D. 50.
We enter upon the study of a brief period, only fifteen years, but of supreme importance and of vast results to the world; a period, too, in which we have the deepest interest, for if its events had never taken place Christianity would have been only a Jewish sect and we would not be members of it.
1. At its opening, 35 A. D., the church was in and around Jerusalem only; and every member was a Jew, bound by the restrictions of the Jewish law and ceremony. There was no thought that the church would ever include Gentiles except as Gentiles might first become proselytes to Judaism.
2. At its close, 50 A. D., we see a church planted all around the northeastern portion of the Mediterranean Sea; and, what is even more remarkable, a church wherein Jews and Gentiles were worshiping together on terms of equality. A wonderful transition this!
I. Let us draw the Map of the Lands occupied by the church during those fifteen years. 1. Draw the coast line of the Mediterranean Sea. 2. The island of Cyprus. 3. The lands east of the Mediterranean Sea. Judea (or Palestine), Syria, Phœnicia. 4. The lands north of the Mediterranean Sea, in Asia Minor, Cilicia, Pamphylia, Pisidia, Lycaonia. 5. The places: Jerusalem, Joppa, Cæsarea and Samaria in Judea, Damascus and Antioch in Syria, Tarsus in Cilicia, Antioch in Pisidia, Lystra and Derbe in Lycaonia.
II. Let us carefully note the Progress of Events in this remarkable evolution of the church.
1. The Preaching of Stephen. Stephen was a Hellenist, or a Jew of foreign origin. He was the man who first had the vision of a church wider than the bounds of Judaism; and he proclaimed this great truth. See evidences of this in: