Pages 61-89 cover the first half of the book of Acts (Acts 1-16:9). The beginning of Acts gives an account of the early Christian church’s development and is the biblical record of Christianity’s early days. Jesus was resurrected and had ascended into heaven, but Jesus had encouraged His followers with the promise of the Holy Spirit and the power for witnessing to people about Jesus everywhere—in Jerusalem (locally), throughout Judea (regionally), in Samaria (nationally) and to the ends of the earth (globally). This would have been a daunting and impossible mission without the Holy Spirit!
What stood out to me in these pages were two followers of Christ chosen to carry heavy loads of mission work during that early church time--Peter and Paul—and how different in background and privilege they were and yet how God through the Holy Spirit used these men in unexpected ways.
Both Peter and Paul were of Jewish heritage, but Peter was the fisherman with little formal education who lived off the catch from the sea. Bold and outspoken, he had denied Jesus three times when Jesus was passing through his final hours before crucifixion. Peter had the heart to serve Jesus but attempted to do so by his own power. Paul, on the other hand, was a student of the law, who had risen through the Pharisee ranks to become a respected and feared leader of the Jewish faith that opposed Jesus and his followers with the heart and intent to kill, not to serve. Yet, Jesus redeemed and enabled both of these men of contrasting backgrounds to take leading positions in the early church.
It was the uneducated Peter, together with John, both filled with the Holy Spirit, who stood up to the ruling Jewish council in Jerusalem, the authorities of the Jewish law, with the declaration that they had to obey God rather than human authority.
It was the educated Paul, also chosen by the Lord, who was sent out on the seas (Peter’s domain) away from Jerusalem and his former Jewish authority circle on missional trips far from Jerusalem to the Gentiles, and kings, and to the people of Israel.
It was Peter who received the profound vision from the Lord interpreted to no longer view Gentiles as unclean and to associate with them for missional purposes, but it was Paul who carried out that mission on a larger geographic scale to convert Gentiles throughout Asia Minor.
When Paul met up with resistance from believers of a sect of Pharisees, it was the uneducated Peter through the Holy Spirit’s guidance that provided the understanding that all believers are saved in the same way by the undeserved grace of the Lord.
Our world is slowly emerging from the health oppression of Covid-19 and the physical oppression of sheltering in place. The early church weathered oppression of a political and religious nature and spent time in prayer, teaching, and in sharing abundance blessed by the Holy Spirit.
As in the early church, we can trust in the work of the Holy Spirit though it may come through people of unusual backgrounds. The Holy Spirit will use each believer for God’s glory and purpose. It is for us to pray, teach, and share our abundance, just as the early church, and then trust in the Holy Spirit’s work in our church.