Week 1 · AD 1–100
The Apostolic Church
From the empty tomb to the ends of the earth
This week
The church begins with a message
- Christ died for our sins and rose on the third day
- The Spirit comes at Pentecost, and the Gospel spreads
- The first dispute: must Gentiles keep the law of Moses?
- Persecution under Nero, and the fall of Jerusalem
- The people: Peter, Paul, James, John, and more
The Last Supper
Tintoretto, 1592–1594, Venice. A later painting of the night Jesus gave the Supper.
Church life
What the first Christians believed and did
“Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, … he was buried, … he was raised on the third day.”
1 Corinthians 15:3–4
Acts 2
Pentecost
- The Holy Spirit comes on the apostles in Jerusalem
- Pilgrims hear the Gospel in their own languages
- Peter preaches Christ crucified and risen
- About 3,000 are baptized that day
Christ and the sacraments
Baptism
- Jesus: “Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19)
- Peter: “Repent and be baptized … for the forgiveness of your sins” (Acts 2:38)
- The Didache, an early church manual, uses the same Trinitarian words
Christ and the sacraments
The Lord’s Supper
- On the night he was betrayed, Jesus gave bread and wine
- “This is my body.” “This is my blood … for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:26–28)
- Paul warns the Corinthians: eating unworthily makes one guilty of the body and blood of the Lord (1 Corinthians 11)
Church life
A growing church
- Paul teaches that sinners are made right with God by grace, through faith in Christ, not by works of the law (Romans 3:21–28)
- At Antioch the disciples are first called “Christians” (Acts 11:26)
- The four Gospels record Christ’s life, death, and resurrection
- The Didache gives early directions for Baptism, fasting, and the Supper
Controversy
Who saves: Christ alone, or Christ plus the law?
Acts 15
Must Gentiles be circumcised?
- Some teachers said Gentile believers must keep the law of Moses to be saved
- Peter answers: we “will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus,” just as they will (Acts 15:11)
- The question is really about Christ: is his work enough?
1 John 4:2–3
Did Christ truly come in the flesh?
- Some teachers denied that Christ had a real human body
- John: every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God
- Irenaeus says John opposed Cerinthus, who split the man Jesus from the divine Christ
Councils and events
About AD 48–51
The Jerusalem assembly
- Apostles and elders meet over the Gentile question
- Peter speaks, and James gives the judgment
- Gentiles need not be circumcised, because they are saved by grace
- A letter asks them to avoid certain foods and sexual immorality
Persecution and judgment
A century of martyrs
- Stephen, the first martyr, is stoned in Jerusalem (Acts 7)
- AD 64: a great fire burns Rome. Nero blames the Christians
- Tradition says Peter and Paul die under Nero
- AD 70: Rome destroys Jerusalem and the Temple, as Jesus foretold (Luke 21)
- Late in the century, John receives Revelation on Patmos
Major people
Paul
- First a persecutor of the church
- The risen Christ meets him near Damascus: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting”
- Becomes the apostle to the Gentiles and writes letters to many churches
Major people
The apostolic generation
- Mary, mother of the Lord
- John the Baptist, who prepared the way
- Peter, who confessed Jesus as the Christ
- James, leader of the Jerusalem church
- John, apostle and evangelist
- Mark and Luke, Gospel writers
- Stephen, the first martyr
- Clement of Rome, writer to Corinth
Wider world
Rome’s world
- Jesus is born under Augustus and crucified under Pilate in the reign of Tiberius
- AD 64: the great fire of Rome
- AD 79: Vesuvius erupts and buries Pompeii
- AD 80: Titus opens the Colosseum with public games
Confessional Lutheran connection
What we confess
- Christ is true God and true man, and he died to reconcile us to the Father (Augsburg Confession III)
- We are justified freely for Christ’s sake, through faith (Augsburg Confession IV, Romans 3)
- Baptism is necessary to salvation, and grace is offered through it (Augsburg Confession IX)
- The true body and blood of Christ are present in the Supper (Augsburg Confession X)
For discussion
Peter said Gentiles are saved “through the grace of the Lord Jesus.” Why did the first council matter so much for the Gospel, and where do we still add the law to Christ today?