The First Christians
By mallisle
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I remember that day when I was with Jesus and he first told us about all the things he was going to suffer.
"The Son of God will be betrayed into the hands of evil men. They will whip me, they will beat me, they will crucify me," he said.
"Oh no, Lord," I said. "Don't you think we're going to be popular? Don't you think they like us? We're a band of travelling preachers. We heal people. We've done no one any harm. Why would they kill you?" Jesus was angry.
"You don't have in mind the things of God," he said. "The religious people of today are popular. The ones who strut around saying their fancy prayers and impressing people with their long words. Being a man of God isn't a popularity contest. They hate me because I expose their hypocrisy. I show them up as the kind of people they are. I heal people on the Sabbath, and they say, 'Come here on another day, you have six days to be healed and on the Sabbath you will just have to stay sick.' That's the kind of people they are. Cruel and heartless. And I ask them, if your donkey fell down a hole, wouldn't you pull it out again, even if it was the Sabbath? That's why they hate me. Because I show them up to be the kind of people they are. And they will hate you too. Anybody who follows me must be prepared to be whipped, to be beaten, to be crucified, just as I will be. What good is it for a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?"
When we went to Jerusalem for the passover, Jesus took a bowl of water, put a towel around himself and started washing everybody's feet.
"Why are you going to wash my feet?" I asked.
"Unless I wash your feet you have no part in me," he said.
"In that case, Lord, not just my feet but my whole body as well."
"You don't need me to wash your body. You are clean. But there is someone here tonight who isn't clean. Do you understand what I have done for you? I am the Lord, I am your teacher, but I have washed your feet. Now you must be prepared to wash one another's feet. The one who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven must be prepared to do all the dirty and unpleasant jobs. One of you is going to betray me," he said. "It would be better for him if he had never been born." We were all really upset. Some of the disciples started saying, one after the other,
"I hope I would never betray you, teacher."
I said to John, who was sitting right beside him,
"Ask him who it is." He leaned back and asked Jesus,
"Lord, who is it?"
"It is the one I give this bread too," said Jesus. He dipped the bread in the bowl and gave it to Judas.
"Would I ever betray you?" asked Judas.
"Yes," said Jesus, "you would. What you are going to do, do quickly." Judas went out into the night.
"What do they want him to do?" someone asked me.
"I don't know," I said. "Maybe he's gone to get some food for the feast." Jesus passed around the bread.
"Take it and eat it, this is my body which is broken for you." He then passed around a goblet of wine. "Take this and drink it, this is my blood which is poured out for you so that your sins may be forgiven." We all took a little sip of wine. "Do this often, to remember me. I will not drink wine again until the kingdom comes and I drink it in Heaven." Even then, no one really understood what he meant.
We sang a hymn and went out to the little hill where the olive trees grow.
"My children," said Jesus, "Tonight they will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. You will all run away. I will be with you only a little while longer. Where I am going, you cannot come."
"Why can I not come where you're going?" I asked. "Even if everyone else runs away, I won't. I'm ready to die with you."
"Are you really ready to die with me? Before the cock crows you will deny that you ever even knew me." Jesus led us away to Gethsemane. "You sit here while I go and pray." Three of us followed him a little further on. "I expect to die tonight. I am so full of sorrow I could die just of that. Stay here and pray with me." Jesus left us and went a little bit further. When he came back he found us asleep. "Why are you sleeping?" he asked. "Couldn't you stay awake another hour? You are willing, but you don't know how weak you are. Pray that you won't fall into temptation." The next time he woke us from our sleep Judas had returned with a huge mob armed with swords and clubs. Judas kissed Jesus and they arrested him. Someone dashed forward with a sword and cut off somebody's ear. Jesus didn't like that.
"Don't you think I could call down thousands of angels if I wanted to fight a battle? But then the promises of God in the scriptures would not be fulfilled. For which of my miracles have you arrested me?" Then we all ran away. I sat in the courtyard. One of the servant girls said to me,
"You were with Jesus." I said,
"No I wasn't. I've never met him." I went out through the gate. Another girl saw me there and said,
"This man was with Jesus."
"I wasn't. I've never met him. I don't even know him." Then a whole crowd of people gathered around me.
"You are one of those people," they said. "You all have the same accent."
"No, no," I screamed. "I have never met Jesus, I have never spoken to Jesus, I have never even seen Jesus and I don't know what you're talking about." Then the cock crowed. I remembered what Jesus had said. I've never cried so much in my life.
Judas hanged himself. I don't think he could take it when he saw what they actually intended to do to Jesus. Judas probably thought they'd just beat him and put him in prison for a few days. I felt sorry for Pilate, he really wanted to release Jesus.
"What has he done wrong?" Pilate asked the crowd. "What crime has he committed? I will release one of my prisoners," he said, thinking they would ask for Jesus. "Who should I release?"
"Barabbas!" they shouted.
"What should I do with Jesus?"
"Crucify him!" the people screamed. I couldn't believe it. There he was up on that cross. A few days later some of the women were saying that he had risen from the dead.
"We saw him. We touched his feet," one of them said. "He's not dead, he has risen." Mary said,
"I thought it was the gardener, but it wasn't. Eventually I realised it was him, it was Jesus. He's alive again." I went to the tomb. It was empty. There was nothing there, except for a few grave clothes. I came back to tell everybody. Thomas didn't believe me at all.
"If I can see the nail prints in his hands and put my hand into his side where they put that sword," he said, "then I will believe."
We started off on a long walk up to Emmaus village. A man came up to us on the road.
"What are you upset about?" he asked.
"There was this man called Jesus," one of the disciples told him. "He was a preacher. He went around doing miracles and healing people. We thought he was going to restore the kingdom of Israel and get rid of the Romans. But they took him and they crucified him."
"It was about three days ago," another one said.
"Then these women came this morning," said another. "They told us they couldn't find his body. They'd seen all these angels telling them that he was alive."
"You stupid people," said the man. "What does it take to actually convince you? Haven't you ever heard of the Scriptures?" Then for several hours he explained to us everything Moses and the prophets had said about Jesus, but we still didn't realise who it was. When we got to the village it was almost dark, so we insisted that he came into the house and had some food with us. We gave thanks and broke bread. Then our eyes were opened and we realised it was the Lord. He disappeared.
Jesus appeared to Thomas a week later when we were in the house. The doors were all locked but suddenly, there Jesus was standing in front of everyone. "Put your finger in my hands and feel them," he told Thomas, "put your hand into my side. Stop doubting and believe."
"My Lord and my God!" shouted Thomas.
"You believe because you have seen. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
We weren't really sure what to do with ourselves after Jesus had died. I went back to fishing. Some of the other disciples came with me. We went out all night and we caught nothing. Then we could see this man on the shore. He said, "Cast the nets over the other side." We did, and the net was so full we couldn't pull it back on board. John said,
"It is the Lord!" I wrapped my robe around me, jumped in the water and swam towards him. The others followed me in the boat. We had breakfast together. It was a huge catch of fish and the net wasn't broken. Afterwards, Jesus asked me,
"Simon, do you love me more than all of these people?"
"Yes Lord, I do." He said,
"Feed my lambs." He asked again, "Simon, do you really love me?"
"Yes Lord, you know that I do."
"Take care of my sheep. Simon, do you really love me?" I was upset that he had asked me this three times.
"Lord, you know everything. Don't you know that I love you?"
"Feed my sheep. When you were young, you dressed yourself and went where you wanted, when you are old you will stretch out your hands and someone else will dress you and lead you where you don't want to go. You will die a martyr's death."
The last time we saw Jesus someone asked,
"Lord, are you going to overthrow the Romans and restore the kingdom of Israel?" Jesus answered,
"All of these things will happen. One day the Romans will be gone, one day Israel will be restored. But it is not for you to know when these things will happen. You must stay in Jerusalem and wait for the gift the Father has promised. In a few days time you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit. You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Then he was taken into the sky and a great white cloud envelopped him. We stood there looking, absolutely amazed. Then some angels appeared beside us and said,
"Don't be so surprised. This Jesus, whom you have seen ascend into Heaven, will come back in the same way."
For the next forty days we spent most of our time in prayer. All of the twelve apostles, who had lived and worked with Jesus, were praying together, except Judas, who had killed himself. So we had to choose someone else to replace Judas. I stood up in front of all the believers, there were about 120 of them altogether. "Brothers, I know Judas did a bad thing, but the things had to be fulfilled which were spoken in the Scriptures long ago. He was a member of this ministry. We need to choose someone else to replace him. We want someone who has been with us all this time, since John was baptising in the desert, and who can be a witness of the resurrection."
"I want Joseph Barsabbus," said one apostle.
"I want Matthias," said the other. They drew lots. Matthias was chosen.
One day we were together in prayer when something wonderful happened. There was a sound like a strong wind blowing that seemed to fill the whole house. I could see these strange little flames that seemed to be settling on me and on everyone else, as though we were on fire, but I couldn't feel any pain. We all knew what it was. It was the Holy Spirit that Jesus had promised. Suddenly we began to pray out loud in lots of different languages, languages that we didn't even know how to speak. We went outside the house. A big crowd of people gathered around us.
"You're a Galilean. How are you speaking my language?" someone asked me.
"Am I speaking your language?" I asked.
Then someone started shouting,
"These people are drunk." I felt this sudden power come upon me that I had never felt before. Suddenly I realised that God wanted me to stand up and speak to these people. If I opened my mouth, God would give me the words to say.
"It's only nine in the morning," I said, "how could these men be drunk? Have you ever heard of the prophet Joel and what he said? 'In the last days I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will see visions, your young men will dream dreams.' You saw Jesus' miracles, and then you put him to death by nailing him to a cross. But God knew this, and he allowed him to be handed over to you. It was all part of his plan. Jesus is in Heaven now, and he has given us his Holy Spirit. That is what is happening today. God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, Lord of all the world and Saviour of mankind." The people were upset when they heard this.
"What are we going to do?" one of them asked.
"Repent of your sins and be baptised, and God will forgive you. He will give you the Holy Spirit. This generation that you and me belong to, it's corrupt, isn't it? Our grandparents and our parents remember a time when people were kind to eachother, not mean and selfish like they are now. You can save yourselves." I couldn't believe how many people were baptised that day. There must have been thousands. It was like baptising a whole village full of people. We all used to meet in eachother's houses, and we pretty much became like a Christian village. We used to eat together, we used to pray together, we used to take bread and wine together. It was great. We sold everything we owned, and if anybody needed money we gave it to them.
One day John and me saw a crippled man being carried to the temple gate.
"Could you spare me some money?" he asked. "I don't want much. A few small coins would help buy me something to eat." I felt this sudden rush of power within me. God wanted to heal this man. All I had to do was speak the word.
"Look at us," I said. "Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus, get up and walk." I took hold of his right hand and helped him up. He jumped up on his feet.
"I'm healed, I'm healed!" he shouted at the top of his voice and followed us along the road. "Hallelujah!"
"What happened to you?" someone asked. "Aren't you the crippled man who sits by the temple gate begging?"
"I'm healed, God healed me. Praise the Lord. I'm free." A large number of people were now gathering around us. I felt that they were giving the glory to us, not God.
"It wasn't us who did the miracle," I said. "Don't stare at us as if we were psychic healers. It was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, he healed this man. He has glorified Jesus Christ, whom you killed. Pilate wanted to let him go but you all shouted, 'Crucify him, crucify him!' But God raised him from the dead and we saw it, I saw the risen Jesus standing there with my own two eyes. It was Jesus who healed this beggar, through the power of his name and through faith in him. I know that you didn't mean to kill God's holy son, that you didn't know who he was. To you he was just some mad man charlatan with crazy ideas. It had to happen anyway, you had to fulfil all the things that the prophets had said about Jesus and the way he would suffer. God can forgive you. Turn from your sins and turn to him. Your sins will be wiped out and a time of refreshing will come from the Lord. You can receive the things that were promised in the prophets. God told Abraham, 'Through your offspring every nation on Earth will be blessed.' We are heirs of the promise of Abraham. God fulfills that promise to us when he forgives our sins and makes us good."
The priests and some of the holy men were very angry when they heard about our preaching. Some of them came up to us.
"You are telling people that Jesus has been raised from the dead," one said.
"Yes I am, and I make no apologies for that," I said. "We saw him. He has risen from the dead."
"We believe that there is no resurrection," said another. "Do you intend to continue preaching?"
"Yes," I said, "these people are standing listening to us, and we are showing them the way. I do intend to continue preaching."
"You will not continue preaching, you will come with us," said a third man. They crowded around us and pushed and shoved us, leading us on to the local prison. It was a big stone building. They led us inside. They chained us to the walls. The big, iron door slammed behind us. It was dark and smelly. It was late at night and I had been preaching all day. I was tired. I tried to sleep, but it wasn't really possible with iron bands around my ankles and chains painfully digging into me. The night slowly dragged on. In the morning they took us somewhere else. It was a relief just to have the leg irons taken off and to be able to walk around again. We were brought before Annas, the high priest, Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and the rest of his family. The beggar who had been healed was also there.
"Who gave you the power to do this? Who gave you the authority? What is his name?" asked the high priest. I replied,
"If we are being asked to explain our act of kindness to a crippled beggar, then I want everyone in Israel to know this. By the name and power of Jesus Christ, who you crucified and who God raised from the dead, that is the authority by which we healed him. There is no other name under Heaven by which we can be saved."
"How do you know all this?" asked the high priest. "Where were you educated?"
"We are fishermen," I said. Annas turned to his friends.
"They have been with Jesus," he said.
"Yes," said Caiaphas, "Jesus must have taught them these things."
"Were you healed?" Alexander asked the beggar.
"Yes, I used to beg at the temple gate. I am the same person."
"He is," said Annas, "don't you recognise him?"
"These men came yesterday morning and that one there, I'm sorry, I don't know your name."
"Peter."
"He prayed for me. He healed me. He took hold of my hand and my ankles and feet became strong, I could feel them knitting together."
"Stand outside," said Annas. We all went outside for a few minutes and could hear them talking to eachother. Then they called us back in again. "You mustn't talk about these things anymore," Annas continued. "We'll pretend that they never happened. Don't talk about this healing or Jesus anymore and you'll have no more trouble from us."
"You have seen this man, who begged outside the temple gate for forty years, restored before your eyes," I said, "and you want me to just be quiet about it."
"We don't want any trouble with the other religions that exist in Jerusalem," said Caiaphas. "They don't all believe in the resurrection of the dead. Somebody might be offended."
"Look," said Annas, "you think that because I'm High Priest I'm intolerant and evil. I'm not. I respect everyone's religion, no matter how strange it may appear to me. I have no desire to persecute or imprison anyone. But when it comes to things that are really controversial, like somebody rising from the dead and you having the power to heal people, I think you should keep your views to yourself. I can make your life very peaceful for you or I can make it very unpleasant."
"We can't help telling people what we have seen and heard."
"In that case, last night won't be the last night you spend in the cells."
We came back to the believers. We told them everything that had happened to us.
"Still preach the word, brother," said one of the women.
"I don't think you should preach less, I think you should preach more," said an old man. He closed his eyes and prayed. "Lord God, send out the believers with great power to speak the word of God with boldness, to work miracles, to preach even more, to heal even more people." While he was still speaking there was a small earthquake. I could feel the ground shaking, I could see some of the things in the house moving and jumping around. Over the next few weeks I saw all sorts of people talking to people on the street corners about Jesus, people who I had never seen preach before. I saw lots of believers laying hands on people and praying for healing, and I saw lots of people being healed. We sold many of our possessions and shared the money. There was nobody poor among us. A man called Joseph sold a field and came to give us the money. We had started calling him Barnabas, which means encourager, because he always made us feel positive about what we were doing.
"Thank you, Barnabas," I said, as he put the money on the floor by our feet.
"Don't thank me," said Barnabas, "thank Jesus."
"You're the one who sold the field and gave us the money."
"That's nothing compared to what Jesus did for me. Take that money and do good with it. Help the needy. Preach the gospel somewhere a long way away. I don't need it. It doesn't belong to me."
News of what Barnabas had done spread. Ananias and Sapphira wanted to do the same thing, so they sold their field and Ananias came and put some money down at our feet. But this time I could sense that something was wrong. Their hearts weren't in it. They knew that if they pretended to be poor the believers would always look after them, but they had kept an awful lot of that money for themselves. They also knew how much everybody liked Barnabas. They all thought he was wonderful for doing that. But Ananias and Sapphira would be spending all their money on jewellery, expensive clothes and voyages far away, while he lived in poverty. I couldn't stand the feeling any longer.
"Ananias," I said, "how has Satan filled your heart and persuaded you to do this? You have lied to the Holy Spirit by keeping back some of the money you were given for that field. You have not lied to men but to God." He fell down in front of me and died. The young men came and wrapped up his body and carried it away. A few hours later his wife came. She didn't know what had happened. "Is this the price you were paid for the land?" I asked, pointing to the money on the floor.
"Yes," she said.
"Are you sure? Is this all of it?"
"That's all of it."
"How could you agree to test the Holy Spirit in this way? This afternoon your husband died. Now you will die also." At that moment she fell down at my feet and died. The young men came and wrapped up her body and carried it away to be buried beside her husband. Everyone was very afraid. No one dared join our meetings. But we did heal many people, and people would just lay sick people out on mats so that my shadow would pass over them, and that would heal them.
The high priest had us arrested again. We were all taken to the prison. During the night we saw an angel.
"It's a ghost," someone said.
"Maybe it's Jesus," said somebody else.
"No, it must be an angel."
"Go and tell the people about Jesus," the angel said. "Go into the temple courts and tell them the full message." At daybreak, something strange had happened to the prison doors. They were big heavy doors and they should have been locked, but we just pushed them open. We went out into the temple courts.
"Turn from your sins. Turn to Jesus and God will forgive you," I began. Great crowds of people gathered around us. The captain and the officers from the prison came.
"Stop this. Stop this preaching," said the captain. The people in the crowd began to roar. They wanted us to continue. "Drag them away."
"No," said one of the officers. "The crowd are becoming angry. They might stone us."
"We'll come quietly," I said, not wanting to cause a riot that would put us all in danger. We were stood before the high priest again.
"We warned you not to speak about these things," he said.
"Should we obey God or men?" I asked. "You killed Jesus by nailing him to a cross but God raised him from the dead. I saw him with my own two eyes. He is now sitting at the right hand of God as Prince and Saviour, just waiting to forgive your sins if you repent and turn to him. He has given the power of the Holy Spirit to those who obey him."
"Blasphemy, blasphemy!" screamed one of the men, waving his fists in the air as he gazed at me.
"We'll have these men put to death," said another.
"No," said Gamaliel, a teacher of the law. "Perhaps these men are just fanatics, like Theudas or Judas the Galilean. In that case they'll gather a few hundred people around them for a while and then they'll be forgotten. But if these men are from God you will not be able to stop them, you will not be fighting against men but against God." Gamaliel managed to persuade the authorities not to kill us, but they had us flogged. The whip came down on my back 39 times. I didn't know that pain like that was possible. They did that to Jesus before they crucified him. It was just a small taste of what he suffered for me.
"Don't talk about these things anymore," one of them said. Instead, I talked about them all the time. Day after day I never left the temple courts, and never stopped teaching people about the Lord in their houses. That's what we all did.
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