The Antioch church (2)
“Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers: Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.” (Acts 13:1-3)
What is the cause of the decline of the Korean church? Pastor Pi Young Min said: ‘The Korean churches are concerned that the number of Christians has decreased more than many years ago. But the decrease in the number of Christians is probably a natural result. It is because the Christians live well, they have land, they have good education for their children, and they are satisfied, so they treat others indifferently. Because the Christians are at the forefront of this, it's only natural that the numbers of Christians decrease. The Christians should not be indifferent to community. Also they can't be satisfied with their own self-satisfaction that’ I'm fine now.’ Indifference and self-satisfaction cause the community of the church to cause to fall by evil. Awake, and look around. There are so many people who need our love’ (Internet).
We have already meditated on the three things based on Acts 11:19-30 under the heading “Antioch Church (1)”: (1) The Antioch church was the well-known church (v. 22). Since the Lord’s hand was with them, the church was known as the great number of people believed and turned to the Lord (v. 21). (2) The Antioch church was “Christians” church (v. 26). The Christians who follow Jesus … If we are true Christians, it will be okay. (3) The Antioch Church was the church doing the relief (v. 29).
I saw a pastor column in the Christian Herald (February 8, 2007). I read the article, ‘The Church of Growing Spirituality,’ written by our presbytery pastor. Introducing the recently published book, “Revolutionary Wealth,” by Alvin Toffler, Alvin Toffler said a future society is bigger and more valuable than invisible wealth. What do you think? So Toffler emphasizes ‘the intangible wealth.’ That means that in the future, money, securities, and land will not only be wealth, but invisible knowledge will form wealth as well. The pastor's question was then, ‘What is the invisible wealth to the church and Christians?’ That pastor says ‘spirituality.’ And he said that spirituality is accomplished by word of God and prayer. As I read this article, I thought about what spirituality our church should pursue. I was challenged to pursue ‘the desert spirituality.’ The basis for this challenge is the “the congregation in the wilderness” in Acts 7:38.
What is desert spirituality? In Henry Nowen's book, “The Way of Heart”, he summarized in three ways: “solitude,” “silence,” and “prayer.” It means to leave the world and go to the place of solitude. Its purpose is to meet with our Lord and to be with Him. In the meantime, we must find and fight our false ego (such as anger and greed). Solitude is a furnace of transformation. We must learn to be silent in the place of solitude. In fact, silence is the solitude of action. Why are we silent? It is to hear the voice of the Lord. Therefore, silence is not to speak the words, but to listen to God's voice. Nowen says solitude and silence are for prayer. Solitude is not being alone, but with God and silence is not speaking but listening to God. I think this is an invisible secret prayer of heart. In pursuit of this spirituality, our church will be able to become a true Christian church like Antioch (Acts 11:26). And the Christian church will earnestly praise, "Lord, I want to be a Christian In a my heart, in a my heart, Lord, I want to be a Christian In a my heart, In a my heart ….” (Hymn, “Lord, I Want to be a Christian”, v. 1). The church of such true Christians cannot but will be well known (v. 22). The reason is because the hand of the Lord is with them, and a large number who believe turn to the Lord (v. 21). In the meantime, true Christians give alms according to the Lord’s will to any races, cultures, and prejudices in love (v. 29). In other words, our church should be like the church of Antioch - the church that does relief, the “Christians” church, the well-known church. In particular, I pray that our church will be well-known as the churches with various workers like Antioch church (13:1). I earnestly pray that the Lord raise up the various Christ-centered workers who have dreams among the three ministries of our church. I would like to meditate on the Antioch church in three ways under the heading “Antioch Church (2)” focusing on Acts 13:1-3. May the Lord establish our church as the Antioch church.
First, there were various workers in Antioch church.
Look at Acts 13:1 – “Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers: Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.” There were “prophets and teachers” in the Antioch church: “Barnabas,” Simeon who was called Niger,” “Lucius of Cyrene,” “Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch” and “Saul.” It is interesting to see that in the Antioch church, people from different origins and educational backgrounds were doing the ministry together. Barnabas was a Levite from Cyrene, Saul was a rabbi educated from Tarsus, Simeon was a black man from North Africa, Lucius was from Cyrene, and Manaen was a political and aristocratic background with a high social status. This fact shows that although the Antioch church was a Gentile-oriented church, its core Word ministers were an international character (Yoo).
How amazing is this? The Antioch church, which didn’t discriminate against race (serve with Simeon who was called Niger) and the church that didn’t discriminate against the rich and poor (serve with Manaen, a high social status who was the younger brother of Herod), was a beautiful church in the eyes of the Lord. How beautiful is it that people of diverse backgrounds come together to serve the church, one body of the Lord? Isn't this what our church should pursue? The church that keeps unity in diversity is a beautiful church. Each member of Christ's body must be able to serve according to each other's ability in equality. The ideal of the church is to seek unity as a member of Jesus Christ among such diversity (Internet).
However, today’s church seems to be a “noble church” and discrimination seems to be commonplace. Today, the church is becoming the noble church where only successful people survive and tends to discriminate from one another and this is becoming common. This shows that the body of Christ, the church, is sick now (Internet). In the church, we are ignoring and discriminating each other. Environment, personality, difference between rich and poor, educational difference, job, etc. are still problems in the church. This is still guilty in violating the Lord's will by focusing on these external things rather than the fact that the church is a family of God in Jesus. The church needs various servants. Just as there are many members in the body, there must be various workers in the church with different gifts. And the church is beautiful when these diverse gifts of workers are united in Jesus Christ, faithfully keeping the unity of the church. I hope and pray that the work of serving the church together will continue to be established by various servants in our church as the Lord continues to rise His humble servants.
Second, the Antioch church was a church led by the Holy Spirit.
Look at Acts 13:2 – “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” What are the characteristics of the church led by the Holy Spirit? There are two ways to think based on verse 2:
(1) The church led by the Holy Spirit serves the Lord.
Acts 13:2 says, “While they were worshiping the Lord.” Here, the word “worshiping” can be interpreted in two ways (Park):
(a) This refers to personal spiritual fellowship with God. More specifically, it is talking about fasting, which is to reject physical pleasures and to receive the spiritual touch of God (Park). The fasting s of the five leaders of the Antioch church was more like a fasting prayer to find the Lord's wonderful will for the Antioch church rather than because of any special problems and persecution.
(b) The word “worshiping” can also mean corporate worship. In the Bible, the word “serving” is often interpreted to mean “worship.” For example, in 1 Thessalonians 1: 9, the Thessalonian church saints said that they abandoned idols and returned to God to live and serve the true God, where the word "serve" means ‘to worship’. The word serve also indicates that the five diverse workers of the Antioch church served in the church as prophets and teachers (Acts 13:1). When we see that Barnabas and Saul's ministry was evangelism, nurturing through word teaching, and doing the relief of the saints in Jerusalem (11:23-26, 29-30), serving in the Antioch church seems to include these things as well (Yoo).
(2) The church led by the Holy Spirit does what the Holy Spirit tells to do.
Eventually, the five leaders of the Antioch church learned the will of the Lord in fasting prayers. The will of the Lord was to set apart Barnabas and Saul. The Bible does not say clearly how they came to know the will of the Lord, whether they heard the voice of the Holy Spirit or not. According to Dr. Yoon-sun Park, ‘At this time some of the prophets of the Antioch church would have heard the voice of the Holy Spirit.’ What the Holy Spirit had commanded was “"Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them” (v. 2). Professor Yoo Sang-sup points out two things to note here (Yoo):
(a) The Holy Spirit raised two workers for Himself. For Himself means the Holy Spirit established Barnabas and Paul to testify the God's Word, the Word of Salvation, to make the people to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.
(b) The two men appointed by the Holy Spirit were Barnabas, the first of the five, and Saul, the last. This means that both Barnabas and Saul were called to serve the mission of the Holy Spirit, but the other three were indirectly involved in missionary work. In other words, the other three were the missionaries who send Barnabas and Saul to the mission fields and supported their mission with prayer and materially behind the scenes.
I hope and pray that our church will be led by the Holy Spirit. I pray that our church will become a church that serves the Lord and faithfully takes on the mission of preaching the gospel according to the will of the Lord.
Third and last, the Antioch church was a sending (mission) church.
Look at Acts 13:3 – “Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.” The Antioch church leaders ordained Barnabas and Saul, who seemed indispensable in the Antioch church in obedience to the Spirit's command. In some ways, these are the leaders who revived the Antioch church. Nevertheless, the Antioch church leaders sent them after they laid their hands on Barnabas and Saul. What's interesting here is that the word "send" means "released" rather than sent (Park). If so, the Antioch church released Barnabas and Saul who were indispensable, in obeying the will of the Holy Spirit and have appointed them as missionaries. This fact gives us two important lessons:
(1) This teaches us that missionary work is very important when we see the Antioch church released very important leaders of the Antioch church, Barnabas and Paul, as missionaries.
How difficult was this for the Antioch church to send the very important leaders of the church as missionaries. I am sure it wasn’t easy for the Antioch church to decide to send both Barnabas and Saul as missionaries. However, the Antioch church knew the importance of mission and was willing to obey the mission of the Lord.
(2) This teaches us that we should send the missionaries who are prepared.
When the Holy Spirit’s will was to send Barnabas and Saul as missionaries, both Barnabas and Saul were neither the beginnings of the faith or the beginners of the ministry sent to the mission field. The lesson this fact teaches us is that we must build up well-prepared mature workers and send them to missions. Professor Yoo Sang-sup says: ‘It is no coincidence that those who have been prepared to go to the mission field under the direction of the Holy Spirit are successful. This shows that it is not advisable to send unverified people to the mission field. … From now on, the churches should think more carefully about sending their mission to the mission field, not just as soon as they graduate from seminary and receive ordination. And the churches should refrain from sending people to missions who have not been tested for character, faith, or theology. Rather, only those who are best prepared under the sovereign guidance of the Holy Spirit should be sent’ (Yoo).
There were various workers in Antioch church. Also, the Antioch church was led by the Holy Spirit. The Antioch Church served the Lord by doing what the Holy Spirit told them to do. And the Antioch church was a sending church. In other words, the Antioch church was a missionary church. The Antioch church sent the prepared workers Barnabas and Paul as missionaries. I hope and pray that our church be like the Antioch church: the various workers of the church keep the unity of the church in the Lord, the church that serves the Lord under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and the mission church.