Turning Points in church history - Part 1

Where did it all begin? You know this part because Acts has told you this.

This is the Pentecost and the Council of Jerusalem.

The church is still essentially a Jewish religion.

Christianity is a sect.

And the gospel is going out towards Rome.

Now, first disclaimer I must make.

I said I'm talking about church history, but I'm really only talking about the history of the Western church.

Because we know that Paul went off towards Rome, but there's other histories that tell us Thomas went to India and Philip went south to Ethiopia.

And those are stories that I just don't even know, to tell you the truth, and would be stories I'd love to know.

So this is really...

the story of the Western Church.

And the reason, though, it's important, because we're all the successors of the Western Church.

Most of us are.

I mean, maybe there's a few exceptions here.

Sorry, Sebastian, your forebears might have slightly different forebears, and Josh, too.

But for most of us, we've come.

Where we are today, how did we get here, is through the story of the Western Church.

And that story, as we've seen in Acts, is a story that starts in Jerusalem.

I believe that the whole Acts is really the fulfillment of verse 8, 1 verse 8.

Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and then to all the ends of the earth.

And that's the story of the church.