Brownwood Church

As disciples are made and churches are planted in Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, and Corinth, the mission and vision of the church is carried out on Paul's second missionary journey. The Holy Spirit was not only directing them, but also demonstrating His power above the political officials who actively opposed them throughout.

Early church fathers like John Chrysostom would face similar circumstances in the 5th century after the Roman Empire overtook the church in Constantinople. Faithfulness to Christ developed layers of complication when preachers and theologians had to sort through the changing emperors' loyalties, which set the stage for the next generation of church fathers like Augustine.

After returning from their first missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas went to Jerusalem to help settle a matter of dispute regarding the necessity of the Law for Gentile believers. At this first council, Peter testified Gentiles did not require circumcision and James judged that they should only abstain from a few pagan practices without compromising the gospel.

The early church in the 4th century found itself in a similar situation when Arians began teaching the Son was not divine. The council of Nicea convened to pronounce its judgment against Arianism, after which Athanasius carried the torch of Trinitarianism to the council of Constantinople, where the heretical teaching was finally condemned for good.

God's plan of salvation going to the end of the earth began to be fully realized when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Gentiles in Caesarea just as it had been on the Jews in Jerusalem at Pentecost. Peter's vision confirmed what Jesus had taught in that God was making clean what was previously called unclean, and the newly-converted Paul was to be a primary instrument of His to take the gospel to the Gentiles.

"Christian," the name mockingly given by citizens of Antioch to those who seemed to believe all that Jesus said and did, became the embraced identity of believers. Many martyrs of the early church were asked to give their name before their execution, to which they replied, "Christian." When asked their nationality, they would say the same: "Christian." And this refrain began to be a demonstration not only of the unity of the believers of the early church, but their true and ultimate identity.

Not only was the church born in persecution, the more it was oppressed, the more it multiplied and spread. In a scope never before seen, the apostles began to witness the manifestation of the Spirit in salvation, judgment, and His evident works. When Stephen stood up and demonstrated that the work of God had always been shown throughout the world, the unbelieving Jews did what they had always done before to the prophets: tried to silence him.

The first witnesses were martyrs who confessed the faith often unto their death. Men like Polycarp and Justin Martyr followed in the footsteps of Stephen, whose testimony began to demonstrate the effectiveness of the gospel to the Hellenist world beyond the first Hebrew believers. Incredibly, not only would the gospel begin to spread throughout the Hellenistic world, God would even use the Greek language to preserve the new and better covenant through His Word.

The first followers of Jesus waited for the Spirit in Jerusalem to receive the power of languages to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. This was a power the expanding Roman Empire of the day lacked, and as it later fell, the church continued to advance upon the nations.

Our faith was received as the disciples passed down what they had been taught by the Lord Himself to other faithful men in the first century. Before Peter and Paul were martyred during the reign of Nero, they handed the gospel down to those they discipled, like Clement of Rome. John, also persecuted under the empire, would teach men like Polycarp of Smyrna, who would continue to do the same as the church began to grow.

Though he was driven out of the garden because of sin, Adam was sent out with life (Eve). Though God had just pronounced death, we see in Adam a glimmer of hope when he names his wife.

In both judgment and grace, God prevented them from eating of the tree of life and living forever. They could not just turn around and do the good work of eating from the tree of life to cover what they had done. Blood would have to be shed, and God would do it first to send them out with an adequate covering.

Though they were banished from the garden and the cherubim would guard the way until the flood destroyed the earth, they were sent out with a shadowed commission until the One who could pass through the fire would open up the way to paradise again.

In God's pronouncement of judgement for sin, He put enmity between the serpent (the Dragon) and the woman (true Israel) [Rev. 12], and also between the seed of the woman (Christ) and the seed of the serpent (the spirit of Antichrist). This enmity was good because it was from God, necessary for redemption, and the foundation of the gospel. Like all other beginnings, the first good news was given in Genesis.

The seed of the serpent would deliver a strike to the heel in which Christ was bruised and wounded for our transgressions, but He would deliver a strike to the head of Satan from which he would never recover. In a very real sense, God declared Satan's defeat from the beginning.

After Adam & Eve's desires met the Serpent's temptation and sin was birthed, Yahweh God came calling and walking in the wind of the day. Scripture's first Theophany/Christophany/Pneumophany is a reminder that God has been pursuing us from the beginning.

But the man and woman hide themselves from the Lord, and we see the first sense in which sin separated us from God. When He called out to them, Adam blamed the woman and God Himself; while Eve blamed the serpent.

The story of Scripture from the beginning was not one of us confessing our sin and pursuing God, but rather hiding from Him and blaming anyone and everyone. Yet He is such a good Father that He has pursued His children from our very first sin.

How was paradise lost? Though there was good in the tree, the man & woman, and even the serpent once, all had the potentiality for evil within. The serpent was Satan manifest, the devil & dragon whose fall from heaven after his creation is recapitulated during the ministry of Jesus when He sees him fall, and in end when Satan is finally cast down.

It was for this reason he was more crafty than all the other wild beasts in the garden, and his schemes consisted of questioning God's Word, then adding restrictions to it, after which he was able to deceive Eve to do the same. Once the serpent knew she was willing to add to God's Word, he knew she would be willing to reject it entirely, as would her husband; and thus, humanity fell through one sin.