JOE TUNON

STORY 12: The Early Church (Acts, Romans, 1, 2, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1, 2 Thessalonians, 1, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1, 2, Peter, 1, 2, 3 John, Jude, Revelation)

Jesus’ mother Mary and the apostles are still hiding from the Romans in an upper room, when they receive the Holy Spirit that Jesus had promised, appearing as tongues of fire. They go out and speak to the crowd in a way that everyone hears their own language. They share the good news and renew the call to repentance for God’s kingdom had truly come. Overwhelmed by how many Greeks and Romans and other Gentiles accept Jesus as the Christ (God’s anointed Messiah), the apostles have a new problem: Jews are always circumcised according to Mosaic practice but what about these Gentiles? Do these new converts need to get circumcised first? Ultimately, instead of imposing circumcision, they decide in their first official meeting (after a fair amount of arguing!) that gentiles could in fact convert to the "Way" of Christ by following a couple of the Jewish dietary laws and by accepting Jesus as the Son of God. At that time there is a Pharisee named Saul who also happens to be a Roman citizen. Saul persecutes the Christians until Jesus himself appears to him, and the persecutor of Christians becomes the biggest missionary, an apostle born out of time! Writing letters to the new churches under his Roman name Paul, he tells the Jews that there is no longer a need for animal sacrifices like in the old times, since Jesus’s death now takes away all the sins of the world, and he tells the Gentiles when he sees a statue dedicated to an “unknown” God that Jesus IS that God. There are other letters by other apostles to other churches, ending in the last letter, the book of Revelation (Hollywood’s favorite book). While many people wrongly use the last book and its apocalyptic imagery to try to figure out when the end of the world is, the real message is that Christ will return at any time, like a thief in the night. In the end, death itself is destroyed and there will be a final union of God and his people in a new, heavenly Jerusalem. “Maranatha” or “Come, Lord Jesus”, is one of the calling cards of the first Christians.