SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/28/2018 10:55 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 “The Growth”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts
11:22-26
Message of the verses: “22 The news about them reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas off to Antioch. 23 Then when he arrived and witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced and began to encourage them all with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord; 24 for he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And considerable numbers were brought to the Lord. 25 And he left for Tarsus to look for Saul; 26 and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And for an entire year they met with the church and taught considerable numbers; and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.”
The salvation of the Ethiopian eunuch or the salvation of
Cornelius and his household did not prepare the Jerusalem believers for the
widespread Gentile conversions in Antioch.
However “the news about them reached the ears of the church at
Jerusalem” and after hearing that news the sent Barnabas off to Antioch, and as
we will see Barnabas was the right man to head off to Antioch as he would
encourage this brand new church. We can
see from these verses that the Holy Spirit was at work in the lives of the
Gentile church in a way that few thought possible or even dreamed would happen.
Now speaking of Barnabas we first meet him in the 4th
chapter when he sold some land and gave the proceeds to the Apostles in order
to help those in need in the new church that began in Jerusalem. Next in chapter nine we saw Barnabas
encourage those in the Jerusalem church to see Saul of Tarsus after he became a
believer, and thus Barnabas was known as the “son of encouragement.”
As mentioned Barnabas was the perfect choice to send to
these new believers in Antioch as it would not have been a good idea to send a
person who was rigidly legalistic, which probably had not been good for these
new believers. Barnabas was a Cypriot
Jew as seen in Acts 4:36-37. He would not be perceived as an outsider but as
one of them, and this was important for their growth in the Lord.
Once Barnabas arrived “Then when he arrived and witnessed
the grace of God, he rejoiced and began to encourage them all with resolute heart
to remain true to the Lord.” In the 3rd
chapter of John Jesus told Nicodemus “"8 The wind blows where it wishes
and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it
is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.’” This is exactly what happened to this new
church in Antioch, even though it could not be seen the Spirit of God was
working in the hearts and minds of people in Antioch.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Nazareth” (John 1:46).
Today’s Bible
question: “To whom did Paul refer as ‘My
own son in the faith,’?”
Answer in our next SD.
1/28/2018 11:19 PM
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