Time to Spread Your Wings

Week Four - Day 5

Today's Reading -- Acts 11:19 to Acts 14:7

Today it's time to catch up on a few things, and one of them is time itself.  In reading the Acts of the Apostles there are very few indications as to the timeframe or the dating of the events that are occurring.    The reader can be left with the impression that the formative period of the church happened within a matter of weeks or months.  Exact dating cannot be determined, but there is some agreement among scholars and historians as to the general timeline.  Please don't quote me as portraying these dates as "gospel."

To back up a bit, Jesus was around the age of 30 at the time of his death, resurrection and ascension, and shortly thereafter the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples.  So let us date these events to around the year 30 AD.  The community of believers in Jerusalem attracted followers for several years amidst tensions with the religious authorities, culminating in the stoning death of Stephen about 35 AD.  As persecution picked up many of the believers left Jerusalem and took the message of Jesus Christ on the road with them (e.g., Philip meeting up with the Ethiopian court official).  The dramatic conversion of Saul of Tarsus (Paul) did not occur until about the year 36 AD, with Peter's dealings with Cornelius and the conversion of the first Gentiles following about four years later.

Today's reading begins around the year 43 AD, more than a dozen years after the earthly ministry of Jesus and the beginnings of the church in Jerusalem.  The persecution that started in Jerusalem has driven the disciples further and further away, finally reaching Antioch in Syria (11:20), an full 300 miles to the north.  Also impressive is the fact that at the time Antioch was the third largest city in the Roman Empire.  Such success occurred in delivering the good news to Jews and Gentiles alike that a disciple by the name of Barnabas was sent to check it out by the leaders of the church in Jerusalem.  The needs were so overwhelming that Barnabas, who seven years earlier had attested to the sincerity of Paul's newfound faith in Jesus Christ before the Jerusalem church, went to Tarsus looking for Paul to help out with the work in Antioch. (You have to wonder what Paul had been doing during this interim period.  Was he studying?  Was he preaching the gospel to the people of his hometown?  In any event, he seems to be ready and up to the task of joining the mission in Antioch.)  Up to this point the persecution of the church had come from the religious leaders, but now King Herod enters the picture and state persecution begins with the martyrdom of James, the brother of John. (For you folks at St. James' Church Mill Creek, this is "our" saint, James the Apostle, one of the "sons of thunder.")  All of this happened around 45 AD.

Which brings me to the final section of today's reading which recounts Paul's first missionary journey, the first step in fulfilling Jesus' missionary charge to take the gospel "to the ends of the earth" (Acts1:8).  It is now about the year 48 AD, eighteen years after the life of Jesus and twelve years following Paul's conversion.  Many significant steps had been taken in the preceding years that made this moment possible.  None of these previous events took place overnight.  It took time, God's time,  to develop the faith, message and maturity of those who would carry the word of salvation far and wide.

In our world where events come at us with such speed, it is worth remembering that we live and move and have our being within God's time, upheld by God's grace, and saved within the context of God's plan and not ours.