Wednesday: The Gospel Goes to the Gentiles
Where was the first Gentile church established? What events caused the believers to go there? (Acts 11:19-21, Acts 11:26). What does that remind you of from Old Testament times? (See Daniel 2.)
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The persecution that broke out in Jerusalem after Stephen’s death caused a number of Jewish believers to flee three hundred miles north to Antioch. As capital of the Roman province of Syria, Antioch was second only to Rome and Alexandria in significance. Its population, estimated at five hundred thousand, was extremely cosmopolitan, making it an ideal location not only for a church with
large numbers of both Jews and Gentiles but as the starting base for the worldwide mission of the early church.
What occurred in Antioch that resulted in Barnabas’ visit to the city and his subsequent decision to invite Paul to join him in Antioch? What kind of picture is presented of the church there? (Acts 11:20-26).
Constructing a chronology of Paul’s life is difficult, but it appears that some five years passed between his post-conversion visit to Jerusalem (Acts 9:26-30) and the invitation by Barnabas to join him in Antioch. What was Paul doing all those years? It is hard to say for sure. But based on his comments in Galatians 1:21, he may have been preaching the gospel in the regions of Syria and Cilicia. Some have suggested that, perhaps, it was during this time that he was disinherited by his family (Phil. 3:8) and suffered a number of the hardships he describes in 2 Corinthians 11:23-28. The church in Antioch blossomed under the guidance of the Spirit. The description in Acts 13:1 indicates that the cosmopolitan nature of the city was soon reflected in the ethnic and cultural diversity of the church itself. (Barnabas was from Cyprus, Lucius from Cyrene, Paul from Cilicia, Simeon presumably from Africa, and consider all the Gentile converts, too.) The Spirit now sought to take the gospel to even more Gentiles by using Antioch as the base for more far-reaching missionary activities, beyond Syria and Judea.
| Read again Acts 11:19-26. What can we learn from the church at Antioch, a very culturally and ethnically diverse church, that could help churches today emulate the good that existed there? |
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I love this man Barnabas. He is seen here in this church at Antioch encouraging Christians to remain the christian faith. He was also the one who took Paul and brought him to the church when everybody else had nothing to do with him. The devil discourages Christians and we need more people like Barnabas to encourage them.
In fact, the other disciples thought Saul was using his "conversion" as a strategy to lure and get the disciples killed because he had earlier sought a decree from the king to carry on the task of killing the followers of Jesus Christ. And it is hard to believe that Saul could have that abrupt change to follow Jesus Christ since he was against those following Jesus Christ hence the disciples couldn't believe him until they had a "witnesses" - Barnabas.
Despite the fact that the devil attacks many Christians in the church,we have to take a lesson from Barnabas who preached without fearing persecutions from the devil through the Roman soldiers and brought many people to the LORD. Even Saul was brought to Antioch.
When my grandparents lived in NY they went to a church in Jackson Heights that was very cosmopolitan. We my siblings and I really liked it. I have never ever come across a chrch like it anywhere. Do they exist?
In fact this lesson for this morning is of great importance. My main line of interest is that, as The Gospel goes to the Gentiles, we too as Adventists MUST also send the Three Angels Messages across the globe especially the villages or rural areas. Let's also keep on doing our best by the help of God in the Master's Service. We have a lot learn in this episode of the Sabbath school lesson. May God bless us all!
Thanks
Sir LAI
Whether it is "the gentiles" half way around the world or "the gentiles" in our own town we need to look at the model Paul left behind. He didn't try to make them Jews. He introduced them to Jesus. That is our task also. We should be less concerned about making people "Adventist" than about introducing them to Christ. It is too easy for us to confuse our preferences and cultural norms with God's expectations. Even terms like "Three Angel's Messages" can create barriers.
The three angels message is not a mere message. Even the first angel's message has many breakdowns. So sending the angels messages will not bring nor create barriers. As Isaac said, we need to introduce them to Jesus Christ.
I wasn't implying that the content would create barriers, but the phrase is an example of Adventese--a foreign language to outsiders. Plus, some feel that we exist as a church because of, or to tell this particular six verses of scripture. I believe that is very misguided. We exist corporately to tell the Good News of what Christ did for us, and we exist individually to the what God has done for me--what a wonderful God he is. While this can (and should) involve the message of Revelation 14:6-12, it is not centered on it. There are 65 other books and thousands of other chapters that are part of God's revealed love for us.
The two things that strike me about Paul is one, despite how wrong he was while still Saul in persecuting the the Way, he was completely devoted to what he sincerely believed was God's cause. Christ stepped in Himself because He knew Saul's heart was right but his understanding was flawed. Christ knew that if it was revealed to Saul that the ceremonial Type of the Jewish Sanctuary had met Anti-Type, fulfillment in Christ, Paul would be just as devoted to teaching the Way. Secondly, Christ chose Saul to become Paul knowing that it would take someone truly devoted to the cause to be literally on the other end of the stick ( 2 Corinth 11:23-28 ). It reminds me of two things, first to be patient with those who are sincere but have different beliefs than I ( The HS can handle their conversion ) and secondly, life as a believer may be painful at times. I pray when those moments come God will grant me a small measure of Paul's courage and devotion.
May I add a third thing we could do well to remember...that our sincerity doesn't guarantee our 'correctness'. May WE be humble enough to entertain, always, the possibility we may be wrong.
I love this man Barnabas. He is seen here in this church at Antioch encouraging Christians to remain the christian faith. He was also the one who took Paul and brought him to the church when everybody else had nothing to do with him. The devil discourages Christians and we need more people like Barnabas to encourage them.
It is interesting how these verses of Acts 11:19-26 indicate how Jesus' followers preached only to Jews and how God blessed their efforts to win souls to Jesus. Apparently, Paul also joined them in just preaching to the Jews too. So when did Paul go off to preach to the gentiles? Did Paul go off from Antioch to preach to the gentiles?
So what lesson can we learn from this as SDA'S? Are we not gentiles even as SDA'S? So maybe we should first preach to SDA'S and then preach to non-SDA'S as a second outreach, right?
It isn't clear exactly when the transition occurred. First, Christ told the Disciples to start in Jerusalem, then Judea, then Samaria and ultimately the farthest points of the earth. So in one sense they were following those directions. However they were slow to spread out. First Philip reaches Samaritans and the Ethiopian Eunuch then Peter is sent to Cornelius. Saul's persecution scatters the believers. And in Acts 11:20 "some men" start reaching Gentiles in Antioch. When Saul was converted he was told he would be sent far to the Gentiles. I would not be surprised if Paul joined the men in Acts 11 when he got there. And in ch. 13 The Holy Spirit directly tells them to send Paul and Barnabas to the Gentiles.
Another aspect of this is that the early work for the Jews was to tell them about Jesus. To the extent that there are SDA's who don't know about Jesus (maybe stuck in works) we certainly have a similar role, but in general I would assume that the distinction between the early "followers of the way" and the Jews doesn't have a corresponding parallel in Adventism. What do we preach to SDAs?
I think the real parallel here is that we are too focused on "preaching to the choir" and preaching rules and not on "knowing nothing among you except Christ and Him crucified". Are we too "Adventist" like they were too Jewish?
As the story moves on to chapter 15, where the leaders wrestled with these questions we see them biased in their own directions, but still listening to the Holy Spirit and doing a complete about face in the light of that evidence. Are our leaders willing to lay aside their preconceived ideas and listen to the Holy Spirit? When a group is listening to the Holy Spirit you don't see half of them stuck on each side of a matter--the Holy Spirit doesn't cause division.
Jesus himself did not stick to just preaching to the Jews. Even in the multiplying of the bread and fish he first did it to a mostly Jewish crowd then the second recorded multiplying of fish and bread, it was to a mostly gentile crowd.
Hi Peter Villarreal,
Yes Paul went off from Antioch and preached to the Gentiles. He was crucified in Rome and he preached in Rome although he did most of his preaching while in prison or under house arrest. The most interesting thing I am also seeing here is that Jews were found in many places and it means they (Jews) had an important task of preaching to the world about the true living God. But as we are reading the scripture we will see that they were the ones who were hindering Gods work. Sometimes our knowledge of God can result in preventing other people to know more about God.
Please: I am Pete not Peter.