From Darkness to Light: The Ripple Effect of Discipleship in the Early Church

After several years of serving Jesus, Paul was arrested. After more than 2 years in custody, he was given the opportunity to present his case to King Agrippa. He told the king about his miraculous adventure, when he met Jesus face to face on the road from Jerusalem to Damascus. He told the king what Jesus had said to him on that occasion: 

"I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light..."

Before taking up this assignment Paul was healed through the ministry of Ananias. Soon thereafter he began to preach the good news as Jesus assigned him to do. Paul's encounter with Jesus left him with no doubt about what he had to do. On the other hand it took some persecution in Jerusalem for some of the disciples to spread out and also begin to preach in other places as Jesus had commissioned them to do. 

As the image below indicates Paul and the early disciples began to move out and preach the gospel so eyes were opened and many people turned from darkness to light.

It is important not to miss the fact that while Paul and the disciples went from place to place preaching and teaching, they also trained, mentored and discipled many lay people to open eyes and turn people from darkness to light. In Romans 16, Pauline letters, and other places some of their names are recorded. There were people like Dr. Luke who is the only gentile to write books that ended up in Scripture (Luke and Acts). There were people like Junia, a woman Apostle, who was a Jesus follower before Paul and, while working with him, was imprisoned in Rome. There were couples like Priscilla and Aquilla who not only hosted a church in their home but were instrumental in helping Apollos get his theology sorted out. In Acts 18:24 it says he was:

"a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures."

Despite Apollos's credentials as a scholar and a preacher, it was a lay couple who helped him understand more accurately who Jesus was and what He had come to do.