Acts 2:14 “Then Peter stood up with the 11, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: ‘Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say.’” Jesus had died, was buried and rose again on the third day and later ascended back into heaven. Before He left, He told His disciples to wait in the upper room until the Holy Spirit came upon them in power. (Acts 1)
After this we see Peter standing up, raising his voice and addressing the crowd that had gathered to hear the message that God had for them. We read in Acts 2:41 that “those who accepted his message were baptized, and about 3000 were added to their number that day.” The kingdom of God is beginning to spread. Jews that had come from all over the world and were part of the 3000 that were baptized, went back to their own countries and began to spread the kingdom of God in their own communities, language and culture. It started small, from a little village in Palestine and began to spread throughout the Roman world. Two things stand out in my mind. First, what was the situation like in the days of these early disciples with the extension of the kingdom of God? And secondly, what were these men/women like who were so greatly used of God to spread the good news of the gospel of the kingdom throughout the Roman world? It is these two things that I would like to look at in the next few weeklies. I trust that it will be an encouragement to you as it has been to me.
Rome, “the mother of all nations,” had conquered the world at that time. They ruled with an iron fist. In conquering the world, they had numerous slaves and prisoners that often were sacrificed in the arena for the enjoyment of the spectators. Rome, like other empires, committed the five deadly sins.
One deadly sin was tyranny and the worship of leaders. Caesar, and those who followed were ‘gods’ to the people and they would not tolerate the people worshipping any other gods but them. In the time of Christ, Augustus had died and his successor Tiberius came on the scene. Tiberius was not Augustus’ first choice as heir, so his position was insecure. He and the Senate did not get along and so Tiberius looked for help elsewhere and turned to a man by the name of Sejanus. He launched a widespread purge, arresting and executing many rivals. Just when Sejanus seemed to be unstoppable, Tiberius told the Senate that Sejanus was condemned. Sejanus was arrested and executed.
Later came Caligula, who at first did well, but his behavior became strange. He seduced the wives of his guests and murdered people at random. Soon he was dead, murdered by his closest advisors. He then was followed by his uncle, Claudius who had been disfigured by illness when he was a child. Often he was the butt of jokes, but to everyone’s surprise he worked hard and did well. It was during this period that other changes in the empire were taking place as well. In Egypt, there were attacks on the Jews. In Judea, Jesus was challenging the religious and political establishment. At this time, the local furor barely touched Rome but the kingdom of God that was beginning to spread would one day engulf the entire empire. Claudius’ wife, Messalina, was quite promiscuous and Claudius had her murdered. Claudius remarried with his niece, Agrippina. She wasted no time in removing her rivals and convinced Claudius to make her son, Nero, his heir. Once this was done she removed the final obstacle, Claudius himself, by poisoning his food and then announcing Nero as emperor. We of course know the outcome of what Nero did in blaming the Christians for the burning of Rome, a fire that he had undoubtedly set himself. In his early days Nero was guided very much by his mother.
It reminds me of the kings of Israel that when they are mentioned it is always with their mother as well. How true the saying is: “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.” We often think that the time we live in is hard and difficult and that spreading the gospel of the kingdom is difficult, but when we look through history, we see that the kingdom of God is unstoppable. Yes, we might have many difficulties and obstacles, but when we look at history we see that there were others who have gone before us in even more difficult times.