Today we start by looking at what is in many ways a model church, the church in Antioch. They are an international group, committed to prayer and fasting, and became the first church to deliberately send out missionaries. Those missionaries were Barnabas & Saul, later called Paul the Apostle. We’ll also look at the first part of their first missionary journey.
Audio: Acts13.mp3
Notes: Acts13.pdf
This week we’ll look at two chapters in the book of Acts. Chapter 11 starts with a recap of the conversion of Cornelius the Roman centurian and then goes on to explain the beginnings of the church in Antioch. Chapter 12 begins with Herod Agrippa I harassing the church in Jerusalem and ends with his death in Caesarea.
In Acts 11 we see three types of subject matter that need to be communicated by God’s servants.
11:20 preaching euaggelízō to announce good news, “evangelize”. This is to unbelievers. They really just need to hear the gospel. Until they grasp that nothing else really matters very much.
11:23 encouraging parakaléō to call alongside, exhort, admonish Related to parakletos, a title used of both Jesus and the Holy Spirit. (See John 14:16, 15:26, 16:7 and 1 John 2:1) This is especially to new believers. They need to go beyond the gospel itself and hear about commitment to Christ, growth and perseverance – so that they don’t see trials and fall away. More mature believers also still need this from time to time because, let’s face it, we get discouraged and need motivation.
11:26 teaching didáskō (like “didactic”) to impart instruction, explain or expound a thing, instill doctrine. This is educating Christians about God and the Christian life, communicating all that God has revealed to us – from A to Z, Alpha to Omega, the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation, the Contents to the Maps. Teaching nourishes and matures a church. It is sorely needed in the church today. Many Christians are ignorant of the Scriptures and are therefore weak in their faith (Romans 10:17). We their pastors need to feed it to them.
This week Pastor Kent Haralson from Grace Church in Osceola, Wisconsin, joins us with a look at a wasted life. Solomon provides an example of someone who didn’t use the wisdom God gave him. In the end that led to incredible regret. You can listen to the message by clicking on the link below:
Audio: Ecclesiastes.com
Central Reflections 