The rest of the book of Acts (and most of the New Testament, for that matter) will be the record of how the early church continues to spread this gospel of grace and inclusion throughout the world of the Gentiles. This doesn’t make the story any less Jewish, mind you. It will take another 80 years or so before we see a Gentile-dominated church (and what a mess that will be). Yes, the part of our Bible that we have come to know as the New Testament is the collection of correspondences between the apostles and the communities scattered throughout Asia and Asia Minor that are trying to bring this good news into every corner of the empire — and the struggles they have in the process.
But there are a couple more observations I would like to make before we close up the book of Acts. Both of them are about Paul. We will need to wrap up that discussion we had earlier about Paul’s conversion… or repentance… or whatever that was.
But it’s also interesting to note how Paul changes throughout his ministry. We mentioned earlier that his first convert seems to do more for Paul’s intentions than simply giving him an idea for a name change. Paul seems to be bent on the idea of getting to the top of Rome — speaking to Caesar himself. We also mentioned that God continues to step in his way.
If we follow Paul closely in his missionary journeys, he has some major changes in either his strategy, his philosophy, or both. On the first journey, Paul meets his first convert and it appears to change his plans radically. He bounces throughout the region of Galatia and Iconia, sporadically jumping from one town to another. He doesn’t stay in any city for more than a couple weeks. While some might argue he “plants churches,” he does not start any real communities — what we would call “house churches” — and he certainly doesn’t belong to any fellowship of believers where he stays for any period of time.
After his first journey, there is no record of Paul making any disciples or starting any house churches.
His second missionary journey happens at a much slower pace. He stops in Corinth and stays for quite some time, starting a house church with Priscilla and Aquila. We are also told he had swung through Lystra again and called Timothy to be his talmid. Add Timothy to Priscilla and Aquila and we get the following count:
After his second journey, Paul has three disciples and has started and belonged to one house church.
Things continue to progress and Paul is now expanding his ministry on his third journey. Still working with his disciples, he is now sending them out and starting more intentional communities. But possibly even more important is this reference in Acts 19:
While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”
They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?”
“John’s baptism,” they replied.
Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. There were about twelve men in all.
After his third journey, Paul has helped plant multiple house churches and now has “about twelve” disciples.
Wait a minute, “about twelve”? What is Luke doing? Did the Holy Spirit have a hard time remembering the exact number when He inspired Luke to write it down? About twelve? What was it? Was it eleven? Twelve? Thirteen?
Apparently, what we’re supposed to hear is “about twelve” — but why?
Because Paul is starting to look more and more like Jesus. Luke isn’t trying to give us the exact count of the talmidim following Paul, he’s trying to tell us who Paul is becoming. My teacher told me he had a Jewish Rabbi notice that Luke deliberately makes his account mirror the life of Jesus. Consider the following:
- Recruited disciples who used to follow John the Baptist?
- Tells his disciples he has to go to Jerusalem?
- Is accused of speaking against the Temple?
- Is convicted by a Roman governor?
Luke is trying to tell us Paul is looking more and more like Jesus every day.
And I would argue the driving idea is that Paul is spreading less empire and “planting less churches,” and making more disciples. And I don’t know if Paul even gets it himself. What I find so interesting is that Paul is so dead set on getting to Rome, but God keeps preventing him (according to his own words). The moment I’m told Paul makes “about twelve” disciples — the moment I’m told Paul is starting to make disciples the way Jesus made disciples — God shows up and says, “Now you can go to Rome.”
And I find myself back at my soapbox. I feel as though God is pretty serious about this disciple-making stuff. And it doesn’t seem like disciple-making is church planting. And it doesn’t seem like disciple-making is expanding Christendom. It looks as though disciple-making is done the way Jesus did it.
“Timothy, come. Follow me.”
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