0413 A MOMENT OF HEAVEN ON EARTH

UNITY IN DIVERSITY (A MOMENT OF HEAVEN ON EARTH)

We have been talking about how the church grew, and how God’s will was made known to enlarge the circle by including God-fearers and Pharisees and Gentiles and Ethiopians. They were wealthy and connected, and they were poor and common servants, but they were one. One in heart and mind, sacrificing their time and money and energies for the common good. It was a moment of heaven on earth, even with the persecution and the challenges around them.

That’s when we come to the church at Antioch, a brief moment when the leadership of the church shaped its direction, and it is beautiful. The church had grown from twelve Galileans to an international Jewish body overnight, and now in less than a year, it had spread to much of the known world, just as Jesus had both predicted and commanded.

It brings us to a principle of principals. The principle is this: Whatever you want your church to become or grow into, model it in your up-front leadership. As the most evident example in American evangelical churches, if you are a church in a changing neighborhood and you want to reach the new group, you need to be ahead of the curve with who is on stage, who is speaking, what stories and people you use as illustrations, and so forth. 

To illustrate: Latinos are increasing in our community, and we want to show them Jesus. By all means, provide translation by one means or another. Have a food pantry, if that is needed for the socio-economic center. Have after school programs or other outreach events. But if you don’t have anyone up front, or on your leadership team, all of your efforts will feel like tokenism to the people you say you want to reach. You need to change your music and even your musicians, not just provide a translation of your own songs. You must be inside the culture, not just touching the fringes of it.

Having said that, take a look at the team of prophets in Antioch. See if it doesn’t feel like God wants the church to be a multi-cultural network of house churches. The five who are mentioned are these: “Among the prophets and teachers of the church at Antioch of Syria were Barnabas, Simeon (called “the black man”), Lucius (from Cyrene), Manaen (the childhood companion of King Herod Antipas), and Saul. One day as these men were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Appoint Barnabas and Saul for the special work to which I have called them.” So after more fasting and prayer, the men laid their hands on them and sent them on their way.”

Antioch is in Syria, and was founded by the Greeks as they conquered the region. It was a main center for Hellenistic Jews (remember them? Jews who spoke in Greek during the week, and whose culture resembled more secular ideals.)

Barnabas was sent from the apostles in Jerusalem to check on the Gentile outreach at Antioch. He was a Levite (of the priestly tribe of Levites) from Cyprus (an island in the Mediterranean Sea which is a mix of Syrian, Turkish and Greek culture) who lived in Jerusalem, and was a “good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith.”

Simeon (a Jewish name) has the Latin nickname of Niger (“the Black”). His name is Hebrew, so he is Jewish, and may have been from the strong Jewish presence in Ethiopia (remember the man from Ethiopia whom Philip introduced to Jesus, and how he was reading from Isaiah?). In any case, his skin was darker than most.

Lucius is a Latin name. As such, he was more likely than not a Gentile. He is from Cyrene in North Africa. Remember how a group from Cyrene had first come to preach the gospel to Gentiles in Antioch? (11:20) Perhaps he was part of that group.

Manaen is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Menahem, which means “comforter.” It says he was brought up with Herod the Tetrarch. Herod was a Roman governor who was nominally Jewish. He was the guy who put John the Baptist in prison and then to death. If he was brought up with him, it seems he had some sort of connection with government and wealth in his background.

Saul is a Jewish name, and, of course, Saul had been a Pharisee of Pharisees, being an active enemy of Jesus and a persecutor of Christians. He was from Tarsus, which was a city in western Turkey, but had lived in Jerusalem while studying under Gamaliel. After his conversion, Barnabas had introduced him to the church in Jerusalem, but there was some controversy among the believers in Jerusalem over his loyalty, based on his past behavior. So Barnabas had ushered him back to safety at home in Tarsus. But now Barnabas has gone to fetch Saul and have him join him in ministry to the Jews and Gentiles in Antioch.

Such a diverse group of prophets! I imagine that they traveled among the various house churches in Antioch, both Jewish and Gentile, and of various ethnicities. In any case, they stayed and taught there for a year.

So the stage is set for the next stage in this brief moment of heaven on earth. In the first place, the ideal moment is that the prophets and teachers were worshiping the Lord and fasting. (Did you say worshiping?) In the second place, they heard from the Lord while they were doing so. What’s not clear from the text here is whether Barnabas and Saul had already felt the call, and the church all knew what it was: to reach out and plant churches throughout the world. Or perhaps the call was just coming to everyone in that moment. Either way, it is clearly the leading of the Holy Spirit to bring them to this point.

May God grant his church today to rediscover evangelism, missions and multi-culturalism. Amen.