Sermon Tone Analysis

Historical Background

Jerusalem was completely destroyed in 70 CE by General Titus Flavius Vespasianus, son of Emperor Caesar Vespasianus Augustus (originally named Titus Flavius Vespasianus).

Vespasian himself, as a general, was tasked with responding to the Jewish uprising in February of 67 CE.

Subsequently, in 69 CE Vespasian was acclaimed Emperor and his son Titus was left to finish off the Jewish uprising, which he did with typical Roman severity.

The Roman historian Tacitus quotes (or paraphrases) Calgacus, a Scottish chieftain, as describing Rome in the following manner: “These plunderers of the world [the Romans], after exhausting the land by their devastations, are rifling the ocean: stimulated by avarice, if their enemy be rich; by ambition, if poor; unsatiated by the East and by the West: the only people who behold wealth and indigence with equal avidity.

To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace.”

This is what happened to Judea in general and Jerusalem in particular.

After the Jewish revolt, Judea and Palestine were a shadow of what they were during the times of Jesus.

And during the times of Jesus, they were a backwater province that was more of an irritant than a strategic focus of Rome.

Emperor Caesar Traianus Hadrianus Augustus decided to build a completely pagan city on the site of Jerusalem called Aelia Capitolina.

Ostensibly when construction of a temple to Jupiter began on the Temple Mount, the Jews erupted in rebellion again and this led to the Bar Kokhba Revolt from 132-136 CE.

This revolt resulted in the extensive depopulation of the Jewish communities of Judea, more so than during the First Jewish–Roman War.

Some scholars describe it as a genocide.

According to Cassius Dio, a Roman historian, 580,000 Jews perished in the war and many more died of hunger and disease.

50 fortresses and 985 villages were destroyed.

While the Jewish population remained strong in Galilee, Golan, Bet Shean Valley, and the fringes of Judea, Judea and Jerusalem would not see significant Jewish population until modern times.

Jesus Prophecy regarding Jerusalem and the Temple

The Jerusalem Church

Persecution

Response of Believers

Response of Jerusalem Leadership

The Jerusalem Council

The Antioch Church

Origins

Character of the Church

Final Historical Note

When the first Jewish revolt spoken of above broke out, the Jerusalem Church left the city and dispersed to the regions around Pella beyond the Jordan.

According to F.F. Bruce, “in dispersion these believers continued to call themselves the church of Jerusalem, and their successive leaders were drawn for several decades from relatives of James, members of the holy family.

They were disowned as apostates by orthodox Jews, and increasingly disowned as heretics by orthodox Christians, although they thought of themselves as forming a bridge between these two bodies, conserving all that was best in both.

They lingered on in Transjordan and Egypt until the seventh century, when those who had not already been absorbed by Jewish or Christian orthodoxy lost their identity in the overflowing tide of Islam.”

(F.F.

Bruce, “The Church of Jerusalem,” Christian Brethren Research Fellowship Journal 4 (April 1964): 11.)

In other words, they became irrelevant.

Which Church: Jerusalem or Antioch

Are we controlling people or sending people?

Are we taking money or sending money?

Do we send new members away, afraid of them or do we embrace new members, believing in what they will become and contribute?

Do we demand our culture and preferences or do we subordinate our culture and preferences to the Scriptures?

Are we defeated by persecution or do we grow by persecution?

Do we oppose the leading of the Spirit or do we follow the leading of the Spirit?

Do we guard the gospel or do we share the gospel?

These two churches can be represented by James and Barnabas.

Each contributed and each failed.

James contributed an ethnically defined letter from which we can still learn.

James failed to recognize God’s mission to the Gentiles.

Barnabas failed by abandoning his co-worker Paul because of cultural pressure.

But Barnabas contributed the Apostle Paul to the world by bringing him to Antioch.

Jerusalem rejected him, Antioch embraced him.

No Barnabas, no Paul.

No Antioch, no Paul.

No Paul, no church.

Which church will we be?

Jerusalem, which is ethnically defined, divided, personality driven, controlling, and fearful?

Or Antioch, which is diverse, united, team led, releasing/sending, and full of faith?