The Multi-Faceted Early Church

Acts 13:1-3; 14:8-18

The story of the Church in Acts has always captivated me. These stories of the early Christians’ making their ways in the world without the Christ who had lead and guided the apostles have always connected with me. It is the first book I remember studying in children’s Bible quizzing. I was always fascinated with all the journeys Paul took around the Mediterranean world and was amazed at how much he endured for the sake of the Gospel. Even though I grew up in a congregation that paid little to no attention to the Holy days of the Christian Church, outside of Easter and Christmas, I grew up with my mother. There are so many things I can thank my mother for, so much of my faith foundation for which I can thank her and I think my love and appreciation for the book of Acts, its stories, its characters and its importance in the place of the Church come from her. And it all boils down to the fact that my mother loves to bake. She especially loved to bake cakes. She bakes cakes for everything, even for every day. This is seen in the fact that I have a recipe passed down from her for “snack cakes,” every day cakes that can be put together and baked in less than 30 mins that, because of their ease to make can be baked on any day of the week for any reason, even if that reason was just that she was happy to see you after a long day at school. So, for as long as I can remember she has celebrated Pentecost by taking one of her snack cakes into her three year old Sunday school class, to celebrate the “birthday” of the Church. Because of my mother, I simply cannot remember not knowing that Pentecost marked the birth of the Church. And it there in a simple snack cake made for preschoolers began my deep affection for the book of Acts.

I would think that since I enjoy this book so much, have read it and studied in parts and as a whole more than once, that it would no longer hold any surprises for me. But time and time again, I find that I can come to passages I thought I knew well and find things I never thought I knew.

So, before I tell you everything that surprises me in this passage, look it over again. Begin with the first three verses. What in those verses stands out to you? What do you find interesting?

Our passage begins by listing off the teachers and prophets of the Church in Antioch. The list is full of Christians we don’t know; Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, Manaen, and Saul. What I notice is that these people are all from different places and have different backgrounds. Barnabas, was from Jerusalem, he has already made an appearance in the book of Acts several times and has apparently made his way to Antioch and is now a vital part of that church. Then there is Simeon, who is called Niger, which literally means “black.” This could lead us to believe that at the very least was darker in complexion than most of the people around him. The third person on this list is Lucius, who is from Cyrene, which was in Libya. Then we have Manaen who is a member of Herod’s court. And lastly we have Saul who was a Pharisee from Tarsus, who had once persecuted the Church but is now a vital member of the Church in Antioch.

 What an interesting and diverse group these Christians in Antioch must have been! You have established members of the greater Church as represented by Barnabas. Within this Church both Jews and Gentiles worship together as represented by people with Jewish background or names, such as Barnabas and Simeon, and these are listed alongside of people with names of Gentile origins such as Lucius and Manaen.

It is also interesting to note that this Church does not simply contain Jews and Gentiles from the city of Antioch, but this Church had people varying ethnicities and from various countries as represented by Simeon who is most not from Antioch and from a country farther away on the African continent, as well as Lucius who is noted to be from Cyrene in Libya. But the diversity seen in this Church goes even beyond even this, the passage also makes not of people of varying classes of society, as represented by Manaen, who is a member of the court of Herod, Barnabas, who was a Levite, and also Saul, who is known to have been a Pharisee, as well as a prominent Roman citizen. You can see just from this short list of its leaders the Church in Antioch, was doing its best to minster to and reach out to all the many and varying people who could be found in Antioch. Even before Saul and Barnabas are sent out on their first missionary journey to the far reaches of the Roman Empire to scatter the Empire with Christians far and wide in almost every corner the known world, the Church is already rife with complex diversity. The Church has always been and should always remain a place where people from every nation, from every background, can find a place where they loved, can come to know the Lord God and find rest in the presence of  Christ as found in the body of believers.

Among the leaders of this church is Paul, we all know Paul?  Well, except this is when he was still called Saul. At this point in Acts he has been converted but he has not changed his name. In fact, we don’t know exactly when he changes his name or even why. For many years I believed it was God who changed Saul’s name at the time of his conversion. But Saul goes into the conversion being called Saul, comes out of that whole experience still being called Saul and then continues to be called Saul even up until after he sets out on his missionary journeys. It is Saul and Barnabas who are called to go together. But later it is Paul and Barnabas doing the work of the Lord.

Part way through chapter 13 (in the section we skipped), his name suddenly changes. Saul and Barnabas are sent by the Church and the Holy Spirit in verse 3. They set sail for Cyprus and then suddenly, on the isle of Paphos it is Paul, who was once called Saul who is filled the Holy Spirit and speaks to the Elymas, the magician. Somewhere along the way he changed his name, or more probably, he as he traveled out into the Roman Empire, away from Jewish communities, he was known by his Greek name Paul, as opposed to his Jewish name Saul. It seems like Saul/Paul who is Jewish and also a Roman Citizen has two names. This would have been similar practices many immigrants in the US have today, who have an Anglicized name that they take on, along with their natural name.

I also had this idea in my head that the great Saul/Paul missionary of the Church went out almost immediately. But that also seems to not be true. This passage gives the impression that following his conversion, Saul settled down in Antioch and became an important part of the Church there. And then sometime later, the Holy Spirit prompted that church to raise him and Barnabas up and send them out to spread the good News of the Gospel across the known world.  And so they went.

Throughout chapter 13 we hear tell of all their many successes. It seemed everywhere they went Jews believed, Gentiles believe; people from all walks of life, from every kind of profession and from all corners of the cities, to which they traveled, trust in Jesus Christ and became believers.  

And then they come to Lystra, which seems to be their first entirely Gentile city. They preach there and heal a man who has faith and then everything goes pear shaped. The whole mission turns sideways when the people to whom they are speaking come to believe them to be gods instead of trying to lead them to believe in the One true God through Jesus Christ. They try to correct this misconception but fail, not matter what they do, the people want to make them gods and offer sacrifices to them.

Why would the Bible include such a discouraging story?

How discouraging. What can we learn from this story?

What does this passage have to say to us today?

Sometimes even the best of us fail. We can do all the right things. We can say all the right things. We can do things that worked for other people; that worked in different places; that have worked for us in the past. But sometimes people don’t get it. They don’t understand us. They misinterpret our message and come to think the church and its people are something they are not. There are so many ways the Church, its mission and the Gospel of Jesus Christ can be misunderstood, misinterpreted and ultimately rejected. I do not think we can live where we live today, be familiar with the world around us and not know this. We can do our best, we can say all the right things, we can present Jesus in the most faithful way we know how, but sometimes, more often than we would like what we do, what we say, it doesn’t work. We don’t see people coming to Christ; people are not getting to our God in the way we would like for them to know God.

This passage is here to let us know that sometimes this happens. But it also is here to tell us that we don’t give up when this happens. Paul and Barnabas did not give up their work that day. They did not pack it all up and go back to Antioch and say, we got to Lystra but they thought we were gods, so we got on the next ship home and came back. We can’t ever have that happening again! 

Now they leave Lystra and go on to a couple of other places before coming back and trying again, but they came back, they tried again and they did better next time.

The thing is if these great evangelists of the early Church who are known for bringing people all over the known world to Christ, can try and fail, that tells me that it just might happen to us once or twice. We go into our community; we share the love of Jesus in real and tangible ways. We have seen very little growth because of the work we have done. As far as we know, nobody we have met in the park, who has received a thanksgiving box, an Easter basket, a post-fire comfort care kit, or one of our teacher appreciation baked goods have come to know Jesus or have even started going to Church because of the ways we have reached into our community attempting to share the love of Jesus. I say as far as we know, because we don’t know what seeds we have planted and we don’t know what other Churches may have already or someday will benefit from the prevenient grace God has put into these people’s lives through us. Does this lack of visible positive response mean we give up? Should we stop? Do we decided that no one among the people we minister will ever come to Christ because of the ways we have been faithful to the call of the Gospel we have felt is calling us into the parks, into the schools, in to the family shelter, into the lives all those who receive the many and varied ways we reach into our neighborhood and our city with the love of Jesus. Do we pack it all up, take our preverbal ball and go home? The answer is no. Paul and Barnabas kept preaching, kept teaching, and kept healing, kept sharing the love of Jesus with the world around them and we, even when we “fail” should continue to do so as well.