Acts Week 8 – Radical Reconciliation and a “Contrast Community”
The early church wasn’t perfect. They had their problems, and those problems are a lot like the ones facing us today. There was discrimination and prejudice in the early church. The apostles didn’t ignore it. They were honest about it and worked to prevent it. This made the church even more appealing to their community. However, not everybody was happy about this. Some outside the church were also threatened, leading to the first martyrdom. The forces of division and darkness were at work then and are at work today, but the Gospel can always overcome.