Immigrants of the Kingdom of God

Reflections on Immigration as a Metaphor of Christian Discipleship

Asumang

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2008
• eBook ISBN: 9781498274579
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Immigration has in recent years become a hotly contested subject in public political and social discussions. Both in Europe and America, there is increased polarization, confusion, and anxiety about how to handle this challenging phenomenon. What has not been adequately discussed during these debates, however, is the influence of immigration on religion in the host countries. The increase in the number of Moslem immigrants in the West has been raised in some publications. However, this book is among the first to examine the impact of immigration on the Christian faith from a biblical perspective. The fact is, in many Western countries today, the future of Christianity is progressively becoming dependent on immigration. Is there any biblical perspective to the phenomenon? What should be the response of Christians to the debate? And how should Christian immigrants themselves interpret their experiences in the light of the Word of God? Asumang examines the lives and experiences of the giants of the Bible to answer these questions. And his conclusions are insightful and challenging both to immigrant and non-immigrant Christians alike.

Paul, Barnabas, Stephen and Apollos

These People, Who Have Turned the World Upside Down, Have Come Here Also:Christianity was Largely Spread by Immigrants

Within a matter of months after the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, His small band of feeble and clueless followers, peasants and unschooled men and women, who hailed from the villages and countryside of Galilee, had expanded into hundreds of thousands of people and spread to all the cities and towns of the Mediterranean region. Within thirty years of His ascension, the gospel had spread to the corners and crannies of the Roman Empire. This very rapid growth of the early church to the uttermost edges of the Roman Empire within a few decades, in the absence of radio, television, internet and all the speedy means of communication that we take for granted today, is the most remarkable revolution that the world has ever seen.

The people of Thessalonica were absolutely right in their assessment of the influence of the Christian men and women who had recently entered their city. With palpable frankness and equally severe apprehension, they told the judge of the city, before whom a number of Christians had been charged—“These [people] who have turned the world upside down have come here also” (Acts 17:6). They were totally correct. The few believers were literally causing a revolution and turning the values and beliefs of the whole of the Roman Empire upside down. How can we account for the phenomenal growth of early Christianity? What were the secrets of such an achievement by the early church?

We have a medical doctor to thank for his meticulous investigation and detailed account of the spread of early Christianity. His record in the Acts of the Apostles provides us the clues for identifying the reasons behind this rapid revolution. Dr Luke was not just an interested historian. In his own words, he “carefully investigated everything from the beginning” (Luke 1:3). More than that, Luke was also an eyewitness of some of the events that he records in the Acts of the Apostles.

The Greek word that was used for eyewitness testimony is the same word that the English one, “autopsy” comes from. It is therefore appropriate that Dr Luke should provide us the “autopsy” of the spread of Christianity. He was not just a historian who was writing while removed by distance and time from the actual events. Luke was actually part and parcel of the events that he records. And he writes like a doctor who was surgically dissecting a human body to find the causes and effect of a disease. We can therefore expect that what he tells us in his account in Acts will give us the exact picture of the reasons for the rapid spread of early Christianity.

The first few chapters of Acts of the Apostle tell us that the major reasons for the rapid growth of Christianity were the resurrection appearances of Jesus (Acts 1:3), the events of the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1–41) and the fellowship of the believers (Acts 2:42–47 & 4:32–37). Also crucial were the speeches and miracles of the anointed Peter (Acts 2–3) and the persecution of the early believers (Acts 4:1–22, 5:17–41 etc).

After His resurrection, Jesus appeared, not only to his apostles, but at one time to more than five hundred believers (1 Cor 15:6). These appearances no doubt confirmed in the minds and hearts of the first believers that the Lord Jesus had conquered death. This surely strengthened their resolve to fulfill the great commission to evangelize the world. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit gave the impetus to their witness. The earliest Christians indeed received power to be Christ’s witnesses when the Holy Spirit came upon them.

Since majority of the first believers were from the northern regions of Israel, especially from Galilee, the importance of fellowship and sharing of goods and property during the time while they were in Jerusalem was crucial for their sustenance. Those who were well-off among them were extremely generous and shared God’s love with many of these poor and homeless people who had come to believe in Jesus. This practical and effective fellowship sustained the new church. As they sat, united at the feet of the apostles, they reflected on what they had seen and heard in the few months of Jesus’ ministry.

Peter in particular had received a new sense of mission and courage inspired by the Holy Spirit. He became a new man with a passionate desire to show his love for His Lord whom he had betrayed but from whom he had received tremendous forgiveness. Peter led the new church with great zeal and power. His speeches and the miracles he performed confounded the understanding of the great theologians of his day. Luke records that these theologians “realized that [the believers] were unschooled, ordinary men” and were therefore astonished (Acts 4:13).

The religious leaders were so alarmed that they subjected these early Christians to harassment and intense persecution. This was perhaps out of envy for the success of these unprofessional and unaccredited preachers. It may also have been because of fear of a possibly violent reaction by the Roman government to the rapid revolution. Whatever the reason, the religious leaders unleashed severe persecution on the early church in an attempt to suppress its growth.

The harassment resulted in the illegal mob killing of one believer called Stephen. The death of this one man was enough to scare the many Christians who had congregated in the cozy fellowship of Jerusalem, into dispersing to other places and cities. Acts 8:1 tells us that a “great persecution broke out against the church” from that very day. Consequently, most of the members of this large congregation scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria.

The more profound result of Stephen’s death however was on a certain Jewish rabbi called Saul. Luke tells us, that Saul was present at the assassination of Stephen and gave his approval to that illegal act. This event goaded Saul into a deeply personal reflection of what religion was all about. His first reaction was to fight against God’s call on His life by threatening and harassing more believers. However, he couldn’t continue to react like that forever. A few weeks later, while he was on his way to Damascus in pursuit of more believers, Saul met the Lord Jesus. On that very day, he was transformed by Christ into a new creature, the old passing away to give way to the new.

The rest of the story, as it is often said, is history! With his profound zeal and massive Jewish rabbinic intellect and of course the power of the Holy Spirit upon him, Saul, now turned Paul, led this rapid spread of Christianity to the uttermost parts of the Roman Empire within the next three decades.

The above summary of the swift and powerful growth of early Christianity is the usual account that many give as the gist of the story of the Acts of the Apostles. Though true, this summary has however missed one major factor that Luke consistently refers to but whose actual significance has not been adequately emphasized. This missing but crucial ingredient is the phenomenon of immigration and the influence of Jewish Christian immigrants in the Diaspora.

Immigrants were necessary for the inauguration of the Church. We know this through the divine timing of the great events of Pentecost in Acts 2. One would have expected that after His resurrection and His several appearances to His disciples, Jesus would send them out to broadcast the good news. Jesus would have empowered them immediately with His Holy Spirit and send them out without delay. That was not what Jesus did however. Instead, Jesus specifically instructed His disciples not to go out on any mission yet, but to rather wait a little longer in Jerusalem.

During one of His resurrection appearances, He breathed His Spirit on them as a “down-payment” of what was going to happen (Jn 20:22). This was not the bona fide outpouring of the Spirit however. For, the Church had not yet been inaugurated. The disciples were hence commanded to remain still in Jerusalem and wait for a few more weeks before they could begin the mission. That main occasion, at which Jesus inaugurated His Church occurred five weeks after His resurrection, on the Day of Pentecost.

Why did Jesus ask His disciples to wait for those five weeks? Luke expertly explains the reason when he wrote in Acts 2:5–12

Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven . . . . they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language . . . residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia . . . visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism . . . we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” (Emphasis added).

The long list of aliens, visitors and strangers in Jerusalem basically means that the Day of Pentecost was also the day for immigrants. Simply put, Jesus asked His disciples to wait for five weeks because He wanted to inaugurate His Church on the day when immigrants had filled Jerusalem. His strategy required immigrants to be involved in the harvesting (Pentecost was the feast of harvesting). Immigrants were largely going to be the people who would spread the gospel. That is why Jesus chose that specific day to pour out His Holy Spirit upon the disciples. Until then, the disciples were strictly ordered to wait.

From Luke’s record in Acts 2, there were three categories of immigrants who heavily influenced the spread of the early church. We may call them the temporary and permanent immigrants and the dispersed emigrants.

The Temporary Immigrants

The first group of people that Luke regarded as essential to be present and witness the events of the Day of Pentecost were the visitors to Jerusalem. These were tourists and sojourners to that great city. Many of these people were gentiles. But majority were Jews. For some, they were in Jerusalem on business. The big Jewish festivals were very important profit making events. Also present were the foreign tourists, philosophers and professional magicians who traveled to and fro in the Roman Empire to spread their ideas. Jerusalem at Pentecost was a great opportunity for their trade.

For others, Pentecost was the time to come and see friends and family. It was a major social event for the reunification of relatives and kinsmen. They brought goods and news about their progress in education and training elsewhere in the Roman Empire. Others returned to Jerusalem at Pentecost for religious reasons. The Jewish law enjoined all men to appear before the Lord in the temple of Jerusalem on pilgrimage, thrice a year. These were specifically during the feasts of Passover, Tabernacles and Pentecost (Ex 23:17).

These pilgrims came to the holy land to worship and affirm their faith in Jehovah. Many of them tended to be affluent, middle class and well educated. In addition, some were very devout Jewish believers. They took God’s Word as seriously as they knew best and sought to worship Him with zeal and reverence. Coming to Jerusalem on pilgrimage, for these immigrants, was a very high point of their religious calendar. Jesus therefore wanted the disciples to wait for all these temporary immigrants to come to Jerusalem before He launched His church.

The Ethiopian Eunuch was a typical example of this category of immigrants who came to Jerusalem. We are not told whether he was there at the exact time that the extraordinary events occurred at Pentecost. His story in Acts 8 is however, an example of what God had started doing with visitors and pilgrims to Jerusalem at this time.

When he arrived in Jerusalem, the Eunuch must have at least heard about the miraculous work of Jesus and then by Peter and the rest of the apostles. He probably already knew of the prophecy about the coming Messiah, the servant of the Lord whose death would save Israel. Now, there were rumors and claims that this Messiah had come in the person of Jesus and more so, He had died a few weeks ago. His followers were now declaring that He is resurrected and still alive. On his way back from Jerusalem, the matter still bothered him. So he took his copy of the Scriptures and started reading to check the prophecy again.

Just then, God sent his servant Philip to the Ethiopian to preach the gospel for his redemption. Believing the word, the Ethiopian offered to be baptized there by the desert roadside. After his conversion, this most important foreign civil servant or minister went back to his country and no doubt influenced his countrymen to follow Christ.

We know this happened because the Church in Ethiopia was one of the most powerful churches in the second and third centuries, probably thanks to this temporary visitor to Jerusalem. There must have been many like this Eunuch. They came to Jerusalem as visitors, traders, tourists and pilgrims but went back to their countries as Christians. Imagine what happened when they went back after their visit to Jerusalem. That is one reason why Christianity spread that quickly.

The Dispersed Emigrants

A second group that was instrumental to the rapid spread of Christianity was made up of people who moved in the opposite direction to the first one. Many of them witnessed the ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus. Now experiencing severe harassment and persecution, these eyewitnesses dispersed to other towns and cities to spread th...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Introduction: Immigration and the Kingdom of God: Yesterday and Today
• Abraham: Father of Immigrants and Friend of God: Looking for the Heavenly City
• Joseph: You Intended to Harm Me but God Intended it for Good: Turning Your Bitter Experiences into Good
• Israel: Let My People Go So They Will Worship Me in the Desert: Experiencing God’s Power in Life’s Wilderness
• Samson: How Can You Be Tied Up and Subdued: Why Some Immigrants Fail
• Ruth: Your People Will Be My People: Integrating Successfully in a Foreign Land
• Jesus: The Word Became Flesh and Dwelt Among Us: God the Immigrant
• Paul, Barnabas, Stephen and Apollos: These People, Who Have Turned the World Upside Down, Have Come Here Also: Christianity was Largely Spread by Immigrants
• Final Thoughts: Immigration and the Future of Christianity in the West