1. There's always a sequel
Stories never really stop. There is always a sequel in real life: every person's story is related to other people's stories and everyone leaves a legacy for good or bad, like the London Olympics have done and the Glasgow commonwealth games are going to do. At this point in his story of the early Church, his “Acts of Jesus part 2”, Luke sees a number of individual stories – apparently finished – but each has contributed to the Church getting to where it is today...
(i) Historically, Luke connects this event with the persecution that started at the death of Stephen: people have travelled as far as Cyprus and Antioch in Syria, telling their fellow Jews all about Jesus.
(ii) A fanatical young Pharisee called Saul of Tarsus has been stopped in his tracks, turned from hating the message of Jesus. to preaching it; and God's call on Saul’s life is to bring the Gospel to the gentiles (Acts 9. 15).
(iii) Peter has been to Caesarea, preached to, baptised, and shared fellowship and food with the Roman officer Cornelius and his household.... led by the Holy Spirit, to break down the old barriers of “clean” and “unclean” and welcome Gentiles into God's kingdom. As we learned last week, that was all so radical that Peter had to explain to the Apostles before they accepted that this must be from God.
2. From Moment of Vision to Movement for Mission
I wonder if news of that had begun to spread around the Christian groups... some of the believers who found themselves in Antioch, didn't wait for dreams or divine coincidences, they just went ahead and told “hellenists” (not meaning Greek speaking Jews but people from a Greek-influenced rather than a Jewish culture.
These stories come together – those of the believers who left Jerusalem; of Saul; of Peter and Cornelius – and it can't be business as usual! You can't hear from God, you can't learn the truth; you can't have an encounter with the Holy Spirit and experience supernatural guidance or power, then go back to “business as usual”. Yet there have been too, too many who have thought “what a wonderful testimony”; or “hat fine teaching” or “What miracles, what manifestations!” But it's business as usual.
In Antioch, the testimonies, the point of the stories, the miracles and the teaching, had become embedded in their lives. A moment of vision had become a movement in Mission. God speaks; he still speaks today directly as well as through the Bible. God still acts today. Isn't it just a wee bit cheeky to say to god, “I'll only do what you have told us all to do, if yo come and tell me direct!”We need to reflect on the things God has said and done, and act upon them, so moments of vision become movements in mission.
3. You can only sell ice-cream to so many Eskimos
The effect of this new strategy, telling gentiles the Good News, radicalised the Church in Antioch. For a start, loads of people became Christians. And that growth seemed to keep on going (see verses 21, 24, 26) Humanly speaking, the dynamic is simple. You can only sell ice-cream to so many Eskimos. Some will say “I'll try that stuff”... others will say “ice-cream? I don't see the point!” If you want to sell ice-cream and the Eskimos aren't buying, try selling it to someone else! Once you start speaking to those who have never heard the message, there are going to be people who are ready to respond. Factor in the God perspective: God had planned it that way. It's an impressive fact that the great teaching Paul gives about “predestination” is in the context of God's purpose for Israel... His purpose and plan and call is to every nation And God empowered it that way. This was the Holy Spirit at work. If God isn't saving the people you are desperately trying to reach with the Gospel, maybe he wants you to reach somebody else.
4. Grace is something you can see
News travels. The Apostles heard what was happening and sent Barnabas to Antioch. Barnabas was not one of the “twelve” but was recognised as a good guy. He was a Greek speaker, born in a Jewish home ion Cyprus. His official name was Joseph, but eh was called “Bar-nabiya) (son of prophecy) in Hebrew, or Son of encouragement (periklesis – comfort, exhortation, advocacy_...) in Greek. What he brought with him to Antioch was a reputation for responding to the prophetic word, walking alongside people, modelling the kind of discipleship that has arms and legs. He was the one who sold property on Cyprus to make money available for the poor (Acts 4. 36f). he knew that the grace of God was all about: he lived it: he was a guy in whose life God's Redemptive Activity in Christian Experience could be seen. So when he came to Antioch and the grace of God was visible, Barnabas recognised it. And Barnabas was ready to encourage, prophesy, and teach so that the pathways of grace could multiply in the Church in Antioch.. That is exactly what happened.
And as the work grew, Barnabas felt overwhelmed – so he left – not running away but to find Saul, the former Pharisee with a burning thing in his heart about the Gospel for the Gentiles. Together they built up the Church in Antioch for a year; and the crowd keeps getting larger. Finding Saul, bringing him into the team, was part of God's grace in Barnabas. But the team was more than just Barnabas and Saul (or Saul and Barnabas!) it was the whole Church in Antioch! A living body in Christ. God is a team: father, Son and Holy Spirit, distinct persons in perfect active unity and living relationship. Building a team was part of the grace of God in Barnabas' life. He lived God's grace; he looked fro God's grace and he led others to show God's grace.
Grace starts with being free and undeserved but it doesn't stop there. It is powerful, life-transforming, gracious, graceful, pleasing, thanks-inspiring. When God is at work, it is never “business as usual”. Grace can be seen, touched, experienced.
5. Ancient future faith
And this is how visible God's grace was. Luke says in verse 26: “The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.” These Hellenists, Greek-speaking, Greek thinking, former pagans, knew Jesus. as “ho Christos” the anointed One. That's the Greek word for “Ha Meshiach” – the Messiah. The idea came straight from the Jewish promises of the One who would bring God's Kingdom. But they didn't get called “Messiannoi” but “Christianoi.” because the referred to Jesus as “Christos,” and that is their natural everyday language: Greek. The big truths of the Gospel – including who Jesus. is as the “messiah”, the bringer of the Kingdom, are important, and are meant to go global, to impact every Christian in every nation. But they are also fully translatable: it is not only possible but necessary that these truths are rendered into the language of every nation. They understood Jesus as the Christ. And they couldn't keep quiet about it! We need to articulate Christian truth in the language of our people today. Who is Jesus.? What does his anointing mean? How do we tell our neighbours that he is the Messiah? And what does it take to get so obsessed with Jesus that we don't have to call ourselves Christians (or whatever!) but we are given some wonderful nick-name that defines what we are and brings glory to Jesus. Not “business as usual” but the whole of life redefined.
One last bit of the story. After a year, some prophets came down from Jerusalem, and there was a prophecy about famine and hardship. So these Gentile Christians, got their chequebooks out and sent Barnabas and Saul off back to Jerusalem with a substantial gift to support their brothers and sisters there. This new “fresh expression” of Church in Antioch, wasn't about to forget about their Jewish roots or their brothers and sisters in Jerusalem. This wasn't “business as usual.” This was the one, truly international Church, taking shape, and one part of it honouring and loving the other.
As time went on, the centre of gravity would move away from Jerusalem; sending – mission – was going to happen from Antioch rather than Jerusalem, and when the Gospel got to Rome it would spread from there through the empire... But in so doing, the Church would defend rather than losing its sense of unity.
So...
Jerusalem couldn't be the hub from which everything happened. That would be bureaucratic and stifling. When Neil Armstrong walked on the moon he said “That's one small step for a man; one giant step for mankind.” English... but Armstrong was American: Britain hadn't got the resources to put a man on the moon but the nation that Britain planted did. There are people we can't reach with the Gospel – but maybe some of the people we do reach, will be able to reach people we can’t reach.
The Church of Jesus Christ can never go back to “business as usual”... unless “business as usual” means being ready, in the power of the spirit, to go anywhere, do anything and tell anyone this wonderful life changing message of grace that can be seen.
© Gilmour Lilly November 2013
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