What Happened After Jesus Ascended?

The adult Sunday School class at First Christian Church has been such a blessing lately. We spent the first few months of this year learning about the Protestant Reformation and the many churches it spawned. Now we are going back to the early church, as it exploded from a group that followed Jesus during his earthly life to major evangelism unto the ends of the earth. In other words, we are taking a deep dive into the book of the Acts of the Apostles.

John Gill officially stepped down from his role as Sunday School teacher, and we went to a discussion group format. Patty Crawford agreed to act as facilitator, and does extra research for us. John is still invaluable due to his deep knowledge of the Bible (in case you didn't know, he is a former FCC pastor). Half of the class is happy to offer insights and discussion points that we all can learn from. Here are a few things I've learned so far:

Luke, who most likely wrote the books of Luke and Acts, never named himself in those books. But others referred to him by name plenty of times in the later epistles. He was Paul's traveling companion and personal physician. Luke was a gentile, which set him apart from the other early evangelists.

The book of Luke is the longest of the Gospels, and is indeed the longest book of the New Testament. This tells us that instead of relying on personal memory, he talked to an awful lot of people to get a wider perspective on the life of Christ. We can only imagine his enthusiasm in documenting the greatest story ever told, and how much it would mean to those who read it.

Patty found and made copies of a timeline of the first century after Jesus' resurrection that helps keep the narrative straight. This tells us who was emperor of Rome when the Gospels and epistles were written, and under who the apostles were martyred. We also get a perspective of other historical events that were happening, like the destruction of the temple and the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius.

Sometimes it helps to look at an experience from a point of view outside your own. When the apostles saw Jesus ascension, they were filled with wonder, and likely sadness that he was gone, but how would the angels of heaven welcome him home? Betty Gill brought us a description of that triumph. (And Farmer Girl/Erica DeWaard has lately been posting a lot about Acts in between stories of cows.)

Christians have a tendency to think of Pentecost as a one time event, when the apostles received the Holy Spirit and began speaking different languages. But the Greek term Pentecost is also called Shavuot or the Feast of Weeks, which was already an annual event for which Jewish people traveled from far and wide to the temple in Jerusalem. The crowd that spoke many languages was a fertile opportunity to hear the Gospel. Farmer Girl wrote about how that day echoed events from the Old Testament.

More than half the apostles who left to carry the Gospel to the ends of the earth disappeared from the Biblical account and reports of their work were not recorded in the New Testament. But their influence in far-flung nations turned out to be a lasting legacy as Christianity was planted and then grew.

We also discussed why Jesus found his apostles by selecting ordinary men of various backgrounds and occupations from the small towns of Galilee instead of Jerusalem.

Everyone is invited to join us in our journey through the book of Acts Sunday mornings at 9:30 in the downstairs chapel at FCC. Reading the first three chapters of Acts will prepare you well. Come early for coffee and donuts!