Center of Glorious Conflict

July 29

(Acts 15:30-35 NIV) “The men were sent off and went down to Antioch, where they gathered the church together and delivered the letter. {31} The people read it and were glad for its encouraging message. {32} Judas and Silas, who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the brothers. {33} After spending some time there, they were sent off by the brothers with the blessing of peace to return to those who had sent them. {35} But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, where they and many others taught and preached the word of the Lord.”

(Acts 11:19-30 NIV) "Now those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews. {20} Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. {21} The Lord's hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. {22} News of this reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. {23} When he arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. {24} He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord. {25} Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, {26} and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. {27} During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. {28} One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.) {29} The disciples, each according to his ability, decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea. {30} This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul."

(Galatians 2:11-16 NIV)  "When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. {12} Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. {13} The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. {14} When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? {15} "We who are Jews by birth and not 'Gentile sinners' {16} know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified."

Antioch was both a command center and an oasis for Paul and Barnabas. The church there was a hybrid, made up of both Jews and Gentiles. This was a great strength, but also led to Antioch being at the center of some glorious conflict in church history. They were a generous church, sending monetary aid to Judea in time of great need, and financing Paul and Barnabas on their missionary journeys. Antioch was central in the dispute that led to the Council of Jerusalem, where the church established the gospel’s freedom from Jewish law. Antioch was also the site of a great showdown between Peter and Paul over justification through faith alone, rather than by observing the law. Antioch, where believers were first called Christians, was on the cutting edge of church growth. This one local church changed the course of history. Will history say that about your church? -- Friar Tuck’s Word of the Day