Stay True To The Lord

Stay True to the Lord

(Based on a message preached at First Baptist Church, Glasgow, MO)

The background for today’s message comes from the Book of Acts, chapter 11, verses 19 through 26. Luke wrote these words under the Holy Spirit’s guidance about how things were beginning to change. Historically, these events happened sometime after Stephen’s martyrdom—we can read about this in Acts, chapter 9—and, perhaps, some of the believers mentioned in this part of the text had witnessed that very thing. Yet, even now as then, God was and is still in control and He is making something happen. Let’s read together:

Acts 11:19, “So then those who were scattered because of the persecution that occurred in connection with Stephen made their way to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except to Jews alone. 20 But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus. 21 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord. 22 The news about them reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas off to Antioch. 23 Then when he arrived and witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced and began to encourage them all with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord; 24 for he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And considerable numbers were brought to the Lord. 25 And he left for Tarsus to look for Saul; 26 and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And for an entire year they met with the church and taught considerable numbers; and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch (New American Standard Version).”

See how the Church was expanding, vv. 19-21

The believers in this passage were all relatively new in the faith. Remember that Jews had come from all over the known world on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2) and many of them stayed on to learn more about the new faith in Messiah Jesus. Now, though, things had changed.

The biggest change was that now, believers were being persecuted as a group, it seems. True, we read of Peter and John who spent a night in jail for healing the lame man (Acts 3-4), and in Acts 5 we read of all the apostles being thrown into prison for the night, but never a systematic, deliberate attempt to rid Jerusalem of believers in Jesus—until Stephen was martyred for his faith and testimony.

Now, Stephen and six other men were the first deacons, even though they aren’t called “deacons” in Acts 6 or 7. They were men who were called to help with a problem based on cultural differences. Acts 6 gives the story how the deacons were selected and what they did to help the Church in those early days. Stephen wasn’t only a good helper or servant—surely we would have read about it if that wasn’t the case—but he knew the Scriptures and the history of Israel, too.

Briefly, Acts 7 records his review of Israel’s’ history and how the people were rejecting God’s latest message. The people hearing him were so enraged they stoned him to death.

And they didn’t stop there.

Acts 8:3 speaks of Saul who was the leader of the “hit squad” to throw these believers into prison. Man, woman, it made no difference to him; he did his job well. Because of this persecution, some believers fled to Judea (outside of Jerusalem, apparently) and Samaria; and later, they went on towards Antioch.

I’ve sometimes wondered, why Antioch? For one thing, Antioch was nearly 300 miles away from Jerusalem, so there’s a factor of difference. Another thing is that Antioch was in another political division of the Roman Empire so the authorities in Jerusalem or Damascus had no authority over anyone in Antioch.

So all in all, as the disciples fled Jerusalem, they preached as they went. Remember that the Church was 100 per cent Jewish, either by those who were born Jewish or those who had converted to Judaism (they’re called proselytes). Some preached the Gospel only to Jews but others, as we see in the text, preached to everyone—Jew or Gentile! The Church was now changing in terms of who made it up: not just Jews, but Gentiles, now had the chance to hear the Gospel, and believe it.

There are still a couple of things that make me pause, or marvel at the people God uses. Except for Barnabas himself, we don’t know the names of any of these believers from Cyprus; we don’t know the names of any believers from Cyrene, except Simon—and we have to wonder, did he stay in Jerusalem after he carried the cross for Jesus?—and we don’t know the names of any who came to believe in Jesus. When you think of it, all these preachers or missionaries—they were just ordinary people. They weren’t apostles, prophets, deacons, you name it—we don’t even know what they did, or used to do, for a living. But we do know that because they shared the message of Jesus, the Church expanded from Jerusalem all the way to Antioch!