"Greatest Church Ever!" September 23 Readings: Acts 13-14

 

Reading the Bible Chronologically in 2022

This year, instead of reading from Genesis to Revelation, we will read the Bible as the story flows, as it happened and was written. There are several plans out there and I have worked to combine them into a plan that lets the Bible tell its own story "as it happened." Remember, the Bible is inspired, but not in the order the books appear in our Bibles. The Old Testament is approximately 3/4 of the Bible, but I have divided it so that we will spend half the year in the OT, and half the year in the NT. 

Bible Readings: Acts 13-14   

Background:   

Acts 13-14 records Paul's first missionary journey. It is a true turning point in the life of the church. It begins in Antioch in a worship service when the Spirit called Barnabas and Saul to go out as missionaries. They did, traveling to the Galatian region.

A funny thing happened there. The process which began with Cornelius came to full fruition. Chased out of the synagogues and rejected there, they found a hearing among the Gentiles and many came to Christ. This brought to a head the growing problem in the church back in Jerusalem that was the key issue throughout Acts - just how Jewish was the church going to be?

The Council of Acts 15 would settle the issue, or at least, give a template for settling it, but Paul first answered his critics with guns blazing in a strongly worded book which we shall begin reading tomorrow, Galatians.

Several significant things happen here, among them is John Mark's cowardice, when he abandons the group and goes home. It leads to the split between Paul and Barnabas later in Acts 15, a sad moment. But in this journey we see Saul, eventually Paul, growing stronger as he ministers even through suffering to become the man God wants him to be.

Paul did not let opposition and suffering stop him from obeying God and proclaiming truth.

Daily Devotional:  Greatest Church Ever!

It is an inherently silly question, I suppose, but I will ask it anyway. What is the greatest church in the book of Acts? The best ever? Of course, the Jerusalem church saw the day of Pentecost and it remained faithful to God in spite of suffering and persecution. They had great fellowship and Spirit-empowered generosity. It was a great church in so many ways.

But there is another church that would deserve consideration in this debate. After the persecution under Saul of Tarsus dispersed Christians, a church formed in Antioch that had some qualities that were worth emulation.

First of all, it was a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic church. The Jerusalem church was pretty much entirely Jewish, but when you look at the list of leaders in Acts 13:1, you see racial, ethnic, and geographic diversity.

This diverse makeup led to their most important quality. They got hold of God's heart for the world. One day, while they were worshiping God together, the Spirit spoke to them and told them to send Barnabas and Saul on the first missionary journey. While the Jerusalem church was a great one in every way, there never seemed to be an urgency to extend the church outside of its Jewish or Israelite roots. But Antioch was the first missionary society!

The Great Commission did not tell us to seek to reach just our own people but to go into all the world. Perhaps, in their struggle and suffering (or possibly because the time was just not right), the Jerusalem church never really bought into that. In fact, some resisted when the gospel extended to the Samaritans first and later to the Gentiles. But Antioch realized the heart of God. The promise of Acts 1:8 was that the Spirit's power would bring the church not only to Jerusalem (which they did very well) and to Judea and Samaria (the ancient nation of Israel). It was Antioch through which that last part of the promise came to pass.

Too often today, we miss the Antioch heart - the desire to fellowship with those who are not like us and to carry the gospel to the world. We get comfortable with our kind of people - people who we like and who are like us. Yes, our neighbors need to be reached. Absolutely. But it can never stop there. God loves people whose skin color is different from ours, who dress differently, whose culture and heritage are different, and whose standard of living is different. God loves people who speak different languages, hail from different countries, and are loyal to different governments.

There is much about the church at Jerusalem that we ought to emulate. But the worldwide heart of the Antioch church is something we ought to passionately imitate as well.

Father, give me as a pastor and us as a church the passion in your heart to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the entire world; not only to those who are like us but also to those who are different in every way. 

 

Consider God's Word:

Do you allow opposition and hardship to stop you from doing what God has called you to do?
Do you have the Antioch heart, a heart for world missions and for all people, not just your own?