The Church and the Time of the Apostle Paul

Have you ever seen a piece of news "go viral"? Within a matter of hours, the same message crosses cities, countries, and continents, passing from phone to phone. Today that happens through the internet. But the greatest news in history — that Jesus died, rose again, and is the Savior — began to spread almost two thousand years before the first smartphone. And it traveled around the world all the same.

How? It all started on a single day, in a single city, with a handful of frightened people locked inside a house. Until the Holy Spirit came down with power — and that small group became the Church of Jesus Christ. This quarter we are going to study the life of the apostle Paul, the great missionary of the book of Acts. But before following his journeys, we need to understand the setting: how the Church was born and what the world in which Paul lived and preached was like.

I - Pentecost and the Church of Christ

While He was on earth, the Son of God became man and dwelt among us (John 1:14). Crowds followed Him, witnessing His miracles and hearing His teachings (John 6:2). After dying and rising again, Jesus spent forty days with the disciples, instructing them on how to continue the journey. And He left a clear command: that they should stay in Jerusalem waiting for the fulfillment of the Father's promise — the Baptism in the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4, 5).

That promise was fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost. Gathered for the feast, the disciples suddenly heard the sound of a strong wind fill the whole house. It was the manifestation of the Holy Spirit: they were filled and began to speak in other tongues (Acts 2:2-4). Before the amazed crowd, Peter stood up and explained that this was exactly what the prophet Joel had announced centuries earlier — the outpouring of the Spirit on all flesh (Joel 2:28, 29; Acts 2:14-18). At that moment, the historical journey of the Church of Jesus Christ began.

🏛 Fun fact. Pentecost (from the Greek pentēkostē, "fiftieth") was the feast of the harvest, celebrated 50 days after Passover. For someone who lives in the city it may seem strange to celebrate a harvest, but at that time the produce of the land meant a guarantee of food for the following months — more than enough reason to celebrate. God chose precisely the feast of the harvest to begin the greatest harvest of all: that of lives for the Kingdom.

🕊 Our reading. Here is a central point of the Pentecostal faith: the present reality of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. The Statement of Faith of the Assemblies of God teaches that this baptism is an enduement with power from on high (Luke 24:49), a divine promise to the saved (Acts 2:18), accompanied by the initial physical evidence of speaking in other tongues (Acts 2:4). Speaking in tongues is the initial evidence; the ongoing evidence is the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) and the manifestation of the gifts. And the promise has not expired with time: it is for you, for your children, and for all who are far off (Acts 2:39). It is for you too.

II - The Characteristics of the Church

In the following days, the apostles boldly preached — to Jews and non-Jews — the message of Jesus Christ, showing how the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah were fulfilled in Him. Miracles and wonders accompanied this preaching (Acts 2:43; 3:6-9), and the number of those who believed increased every day. The Church was growing.

But the growth was not only in numbers. Luke, the author of Acts, records that those first believers had well-defined marks (Acts 2:42-47):

a) They persevered in the doctrine. They did not follow just any idea — they followed the teaching of the apostles, grounded in the Word. Christian faith is not a loose feeling; it has content, it has truth to be learned.

b) They lived in fellowship. They were united and shared what they had to meet the needs of others. There was no lack of food, because it was shared. Love stopped being just a pretty word and became a concrete attitude.

c) They worshiped and prayed together. They met constantly to worship God, break bread, and pray. Their lives revolved around the presence of God.

When the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in someone, there is a transformation of attitudes: love becomes the guide for behavior, and greed and selfishness give way to kindness (1 John 4:20, 21). That same transformation is available today.

❤ For your life. Notice that the Church did not grow because it had structure, money, or fame — it grew because the people were different. A teenager filled with the Holy Spirit is also noticed: by the way he or she treats classmates, by patience at home, by the courage to speak of Jesus. Have you been seeking that presence? Have you already been baptized in the Holy Spirit? If not yet, ask: Lord Jesus, baptize me in Your Spirit and fill me with Your presence (Acts 2:38, 39). He wants to do that in you.

🏛 Fun fact. The Greek word Luke uses for "fellowship" is koinonia. It means much more than being in the same place or going to the same meeting: it involved sharing possessions, having meals together, and praying together. And the breaking of bread pointed to the worship services in memory of Jesus, instituted from the Last Supper (Matthew 26:26-29). The early church was not a social club — it was a family of faith.

III - The Roman World at the Time of Pentecost

The incarnation of Jesus, the descent of the Spirit, and the beginning of the Church's journey took place in the first century of the Christian Era. During that period, the Roman Empire was the world power, with territory covering Europe, Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), and North Africa. There was a certain stability: the Romans were not in constant war over territories, which created a period of relative peace.

God, in His wisdom, prepared the setting. Three elements of the Roman world contributed directly to the spread of the Gospel:

a) Communication. Today we use messaging apps; back then, the medium was the letter, or epistle. The New Testament letters were written in Koine Greek, the international language of the time — the "English" of that world. In Israel, the people spoke in Aramaic and worshiped in Hebrew, but many Jews also knew Greek because they did business in other cities of the Empire. That is why the entire New Testament was written in Greek and could be read from one end of the map to the other.

b) The roads. In the book of Acts, we read that the apostles traveled a lot. The Roman road network stretched for thousands of kilometers, along with riverways and sea routes. The same roads that served the Roman army in its conquests served the apostles in their preaching and in the circulation of Christian writings.

c) The peace. Without constant wars blocking the roads, the followers of Jesus could go from city to city in relative safety, taking advantage of that entire infrastructure to proclaim the Good News.

🏛 Fun fact. The Romans were impressive engineers. Their main roads were paved with large, smooth stones, were about six meters wide, and had a slight slope toward the edges — just like today's highways — to drain rainwater. Every thousand paces they placed a milestone so the traveler would know the distance covered. The most famous was the Appian Way, which led to Rome; even today it is possible to see stretches of it near the city. It was along roads like this that Paul walked — and along one of them he would arrive, as a prisoner, in the very capital of the Empire.

Christ in the Lesson

It is easy to read this lesson and be impressed with the Holy Spirit, the Church, or the Roman Empire — and forget the center of it all. But notice the Golden Text: Peter says that Jesus is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead (Acts 10:42). The content of that preaching that traveled around the world was not life advice or just another religion — it was a Person: Jesus Christ, the Lord.

The Holy Spirit who came down at Pentecost did not come to speak of Himself; He came to give power to the witnesses of Jesus (Acts 1:8). The Roman roads did not exist for tourism; God used them to carry the name of Jesus. And the Church was not born to be a group of religious friends, but the Body of Christ in the world. Everything points to Him. The greatest miracle of that day was neither the wind nor the tongues of fire — it was that ordinary sinners began to proclaim, with courage, that the Crucified One rose again and reigns. That proclamation reached you. Now the question is: will you pass it on?

Application

Seek the promise. The Baptism in the Holy Spirit is not a relic of the past — it is for today, and it is for you. Do not be satisfied with merely "knowing about" God; seek the experience of being filled with the Spirit. Pray for this in faith.

Live the marks of the Church. Doctrine, fellowship, and prayer are not just for adults. Persevering in the Word means taking the Bible seriously at your age. Fellowship means not being an isolated Christian — it means being part of the family of faith, serving, sharing, caring. Start in your own Sunday School (EBD) class.

Make the most of your "roads." God used the infrastructure of Paul's time to spread the Gospel. You also have your "roads": your school group, social media, your team, your neighborhood. They are paths along which the message of Jesus can travel. The question is whether you are using what you have in your hands to bear witness.

Closing Prayer

Lord Jesus, thank You for not leaving Your Church orphaned, but sending the Holy Spirit with power on the Day of Pentecost. We recognize that this same promise holds true for us today. Baptize us and fill us with Your Spirit, so that we may be bold witnesses everywhere. Teach us to live like Your first Church: firm in Your Word, united in love, and constant in prayer. And just as You used the roads of the Empire to spread the Gospel, use our generation and the paths we have to proclaim that You are the Savior and the Judge of all. In Your name, amen.

Soli Deo Gloria — Scripture rules; everything else, on its knees.

Teacher's Guide

Opening class activity (suggested by the quarterly): start the class by asking the group who has already received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. See if any student can explain, in his or her own words, what that experience is. Listen without correcting right away — let them think. Then introduce the lesson by saying that everyone will learn more about this "wonderful promise." As reinforcement, bring a simple map of the Roman Empire (it can be printed or projected) and show the distances the apostles traveled — it really helps this age group, which connects well with historical context, to visualize the size of the mission.

Remember that they are teenagers: they are fully capable of understanding the Pentecostal doctrine of the present reality of the gifts and of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22; Acts 2:4). Do not oversimplify — challenge them.

Five questions for the class:

1. What was the Day of Pentecost, and why does it mark the birth of the Church?
2. According to the Statement of Faith of the Assemblies of God, what is the initial physical evidence of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit? And what is the ongoing evidence?
3. What were the four marks of the early Church in Acts 2:42? Which of them is most lacking in your life today?
4. In what three ways did the Roman world (peace, roads, and language) help in the spread of the Gospel?
5. What are the "roads" you have today to take Jesus to other people — and how can you use one of them this week?