Spreading The Good News to Everyone

We come to an amazing passage as we see followers of Jesus continue to grow and grow. This passage needs to be explained so that we can see how crucial this is to our history as Antioch is where they were first called “Christians”.

Read Acts 11:19-30

So we remember from a few devotions back, that Stephen had been persecuted and killed because of his firm belief in Jesus’ being Savior. Now we see that these followers of Jesus continue to be persecuted and scattered all over the place including Antioch. They found that they would try to share this message of Jesus first to the Jews that would listen. However, others were feeling compelled to share the message of Jesus to Gentiles (those that weren’t Jewish). So regardless, we have a sense that the gospel was preached and was starting to spread like wildfire to everyone. Now Jerusalem was the center of Jewish traditions and was considered the main hub for the church of followers of Jesus. So when they heard word that Christianity was spreading to places like Antioch (outside of Palestine area), they sent Barnabus, who is described as full of the Holy Spirit and faith, to check out what is happening up in Antioch. Barnabas saw the Holy Spirit working and God’s grace being given to the people as more and more people were coming to know God. Barnabus first was glad, he recognized God’s work rather than be suspicious and hinder God’s work, and he encouraged them to remain true to God with all their hearts. Then Barnabus went to find Saul (who would later be named Paul) to come with him to teach and help the church in Antioch.

We see that God has a plan to continue to spread His Good News to all and it will begin here with the church at Antioch. He begins with a light that continues to grow here for the Gentiles, and it will spread from here. The believers are known as Christians (followers of Christ) and are called to spread the wonderful news about Jesus’ love for others. It is clear that it isn’t just proclamation that is needed, we see from verses 27-30 that if they are calling themselves Christian, they absolutely have to live it out in their very lives by loving others especially those that are in need.

If you grew up in the church, you remember a little Sunday School song that asked us to hold up our finger and sing, “this little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine”. We want to let that shine against any opposition (we wouldn’t hide it under a bushel, we won’t let Satan blow it out). We also will share it with our neighbor and continue to share until Jesus comes. This light hopeful compels us and we continue to share this good news that started thousands of years ago with followers that were willing to live out what God has called them to and just couldn’t hold it back. Just think, if they didn’t live it out faithfully, would we be able to call ourselves Christian today?

Pray about the ways that you are called to continue to spread the Good News. Are you able to call yourself a Christian that proclaims the Good News and lives it out in your very life?