BRUCE C WEARNE looks at the approach Paul and Barnabas took as they continued to visit cities across Asia Minor to encourage believers and evangelise among the Gentiles…
Then they travelled on through Pisidia, and on coming to Pamphylia they proclaimed the word in Perga. Then they proceeded down to Attalia; and from there they set sail for Antioch, where they had [initially] been commended to the grace of God for the work that had now been fulfilled. And after their arrival, they gathered the church together in order to submit their report on all that God had done with them, and how he had now opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. And they remained quite some with these [fellow] disciples. – Acts 14:24-28/transliteration by Bruce C Wearne
STOPOVER: The city of Perga, now in modern Turkey, was among those visited by Paul and Barnabas on their way back to Antioch. PICTURE: Saffron Blaze, via http://www.mackenzie.co/Wikimedia/CC BY-SA 3.0
IN A NUTSHELL
Paul and Barnabas retraced their steps back to Antioch.
There are many unBiblical ideas around about spreading the Gospel. At times it seems that evangelism, telling others about God’s salvation in Jesus Christ, is simply a mechanical process, something like a sausage machine. You put the meat in, grind away and out come all the sausages, all wrapped and neat and tidy at the other end. Evangelism in this view is a bit like a standard Big Mac burger. All over the world, apparently, or so McDonald’s tell us, it is possible to buy the same identical burger. And so it is with the assembly line idea of “making Christians”. But it is a silly idea and one we need to avoid.
The church in Antioch came about after Hellenistic believers from Jerusalem reached there in their flight from persecution. It seems likely that many of those who had to flee the persecution had come to faith as a result of the witness of those dispersed Jews who had been converted when God’s Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost.
And it is also possible that part of the reason Paul and Barnabas had been sent into Cilicia, Cyprus, Pisidia, and Pamphylia, was to pick up the trail of fleeing believers, encouraging them to hold the faith and maintain their hope. If so, Paul and Barnabas were also sent out by the church at Antioch to express the common bond with those Jews who already believed. As they did so, they had contact with an ever-increasing circle of new believers and other contacts, Jew and Gentile. And then they returned to Antioch to tell the church about their travels, what they had discovered and how God’s Spirit continued to be with them.
When these first missionaries made direct contact with Gentiles, they had to find a way to preach the Gospel outside the liturgy and teaching program of the synagogue. Luke has taken great care to tell us how Paul developed his Gentile teaching program. He did not, in the first place, begin with Abraham as he did when teaching in the synagogue. Outside that context, Paul taught Gentiles about God’s creation and their place in it. The God who had raised Jesus from the dead did so in order that men and women everywhere might fulfil their God-given tasks in His creation. This was liberation for any and all bowed under a yoke of idolatry.
OPEN BOOK – HINTS FROM THE SPIRIT OF HOLINESS: REPORTING BACK TO ANTIOCH
BRUCE C WEARNE looks at the approach Paul and Barnabas took as they continued to visit cities across Asia Minor to encourage believers and evangelise among the Gentiles…
Then they travelled on through Pisidia, and on coming to Pamphylia they proclaimed the word in Perga. Then they proceeded down to Attalia; and from there they set sail for Antioch, where they had [initially] been commended to the grace of God for the work that had now been fulfilled. And after their arrival, they gathered the church together in order to submit their report on all that God had done with them, and how he had now opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. And they remained quite some with these [fellow] disciples. – Acts 14:24-28/transliteration by Bruce C Wearne
STOPOVER: The city of Perga, now in modern Turkey, was among those visited by Paul and Barnabas on their way back to Antioch. PICTURE: Saffron Blaze, via http://www.mackenzie.co/Wikimedia/CC BY-SA 3.0
IN A NUTSHELL
Paul and Barnabas retraced their steps back to Antioch.
There are many unBiblical ideas around about spreading the Gospel. At times it seems that evangelism, telling others about God’s salvation in Jesus Christ, is simply a mechanical process, something like a sausage machine. You put the meat in, grind away and out come all the sausages, all wrapped and neat and tidy at the other end. Evangelism in this view is a bit like a standard Big Mac burger. All over the world, apparently, or so McDonald’s tell us, it is possible to buy the same identical burger. And so it is with the assembly line idea of “making Christians”. But it is a silly idea and one we need to avoid.
The church in Antioch came about after Hellenistic believers from Jerusalem reached there in their flight from persecution. It seems likely that many of those who had to flee the persecution had come to faith as a result of the witness of those dispersed Jews who had been converted when God’s Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost.
And it is also possible that part of the reason Paul and Barnabas had been sent into Cilicia, Cyprus, Pisidia, and Pamphylia, was to pick up the trail of fleeing believers, encouraging them to hold the faith and maintain their hope. If so, Paul and Barnabas were also sent out by the church at Antioch to express the common bond with those Jews who already believed. As they did so, they had contact with an ever-increasing circle of new believers and other contacts, Jew and Gentile. And then they returned to Antioch to tell the church about their travels, what they had discovered and how God’s Spirit continued to be with them.
When these first missionaries made direct contact with Gentiles, they had to find a way to preach the Gospel outside the liturgy and teaching program of the synagogue. Luke has taken great care to tell us how Paul developed his Gentile teaching program. He did not, in the first place, begin with Abraham as he did when teaching in the synagogue. Outside that context, Paul taught Gentiles about God’s creation and their place in it. The God who had raised Jesus from the dead did so in order that men and women everywhere might fulfil their God-given tasks in His creation. This was liberation for any and all bowed under a yoke of idolatry.
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