Some time ago I was having a conversation with a good friend who is interested in theological ideas. I asked him
, “Who was the leader of the church in Antioch, the home church of the Apostle Paul during his missionary journeys?”
He didn’t know, because there wasn’t one! In the inscrutable plan of God, Antioch, against all odds, “just happened!” Here’s how.
After Jesus’ resurrection, His 120 followers remaining from His earthly ministry were waiting together in Jerusalem, just as Jesus had instructed them, when God poured out His Holy Spirit on them for the first time on the Day of Pentecost. The accompanying signs and wonders, followed by Peter’s spontaneous sermon to the gathered crowd, caused some 3000 to believe on that first day, and the church in Jerusalem was born!
For a year these new believers, many who moved to Jerusalem from wherever they had been living before Pentecost, met together, both in large groups in the Temple to hear the Apostles teach, and from house to house to share with each other individually. Acts 2 ends with these two verses: “So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:46, 47).
As the new wine of the Word of God grows, it produces its own wineskin—the structure to contain it—and this fledgling church was exploding. Some structure had become necessary! Deacon’s were soon appointed to assist the Apostles in necessary church functions to coordinate a large, growing church. Everything was working beautifully as God’s perfect plan for His church was unfolding. We would say, God is right on schedule in fulfilling His plan for man to Reflect, Rule and Reproduce. “Go, God, go!”
Not so fast! There seems to have been a huge “fly in the ointment” of God’s perfect plan. One of the deacons appointed to assist the Apostles was a young man named Stephen, who eloquently addressed a crowd of antagonistic religious Jews with biblical truth. This crowd hated Jesus and His followers, and they promptly turned insanely violent and stoned Stephen to death.
One of their leaders was a Pharisee named Saul, who, after Stephan’s death, subsequently led a vicious persecution against the church in Jerusalem, scattering its members far and wide as they ran from possible capture and death, a la Stephen. This was after less than two years together as a church since Pentecost! It looks to any sane, reasonable observer as though God’s beautiful plan for man to finally be redeemed and empowered to rule has failed miserably.
However, keep in mind a passage of Scripture we have discussed before:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8,9).
Jesus expresses these same ideas several times in the Gospels by equating us to little children in our understanding of God’s ways, and He is in the process of teaching those ideas to us. The church persecution in Jerusalem is a classic example of this fact! It appears to us that God’s plan for man to rule over the earth, restored so beautifully at the cross, has now again been sidetracked. However, trusting little children simply believe “Daddy’s got it…,”—no matter how bad the circumstances may look—“…and I can’t wait to see what He’s going to do!”
Back in Jerusalem, it doesn’t look too promising! The 3000+, one-year-old Christian converts in the Jerusalem church, are running for their lives. Dozens of them settled in towns throughout Judea, Samaria and surrounding areas. The Bible tells us that some made it as far North as Antioch in Assyria, where they determined to start a new life..
And did they ever! As they naturally, spontaneously, and unconsciously (NSU) shared the story of Jesus—His life, death , and resurrection—and what had happened to them, wherever they went and with whomever they talked to in Antioch, their group began to grow, and they began to realize that they had become another church! This occurred with no “church planter,” “pastor” or anyone trying to “have a church.” Humanly speaking, it “just happened, NSU.”
Looking back, we can see that the church in Antioch “had begun” in about 32 AD when the fleeing, persecuted believers who arrived from Jerusalem settled there. Some ten years later, in 42 AD, Saul had already had his “road-to-Damascus conversion experience” (34 AD), and the Apostles who had remained in Jerusalem, had hunkered down, and survived the persecution there. They were now leading a functioning church again in Jerusalem.
At this time, 42 AD, the Apostles began to hear recurring rumors that something spiritual was shaking Antioch, some 300 miles North. They were not only not involved personally, but they knew absolutely nothing about it! “That can’t be,” they thought.
So, they sent Barnabus to Antioch to check it out, and, wonder of wonders, NSU, he discovered a thriving, growing, decade-old church there! He was shocked, and soon tracked down now-Christian Saul to join him in the Antioch experience—no single leader, all participating, walking in the light together, etc..
At this time, Saul was a relatively young, 10-year convert, who had, however, been tutored personally by Jesus in the wilderness! Barnabus went to get Saul (soon to be known as “Paul”) to join him in the Antioch church, and he did so. The rest is the history that changed the world! After Barnabus and Paul had been experiencing Antioch church life for some six years, the next step in God’s eternal purpose for mankind to rule over the earth takes place in Acts 13:1-3:
“Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away.“
Of the three leaders mentioned in these verses besides Paul and Barnabus, only Lucius is mentioned anywhere else in Scripture (once). In Romans 16:21 Paul includes him in a short list of friends that send greetings to the church in Rome. Yet these are the men God used to change the world!
From Antioch, Paul (and initially, Barnabus) was sent on missionary journeys that would ultimately spread the gospel over the whole world. The NSU church at Antioch remained Paul’s home base and where he returned for recharging and renewal during his whole life. MAN’S WISDOM tells us that it was only a fall-back, substitute for the first choice, the initial church in Jerusalem. MAN’S WISDOM tells us that Antioch was only a backward, inside-out, upside-down church, with nothing to recommend it. However, GOD’S WISDOM tells us that the backward, inside-out, upside-down church at Antioch was His perfect pick for the church that He would use to ultimately fulfill His purpose for mankind!
