Antioch

The Most Important Church of the New Testament

A few notes on why I think the church at Antioch is the most important church in the New Testament.  (See Acts 11:19-ff and Acts 13:1-3)

The church in Antioch (which is in modern day Syria) was not founded by apostles.  We see the beginnings of that in the ministries of Stephen and Philip.  They are not among the 12 apostles, but they have amazingly effective evangelistic ministry!

The Antioch church is “planted” by men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who began—crucially—sharing the Gospel with “Greeks,” that is, non-Jews.

Who were these men?  We don’t really know, but we have some strong clues.

In Romans 16:13, Paul asks the hearers of his letter to greet “Rufus and his mother.”  To get some perspective on who Rufus is, in Mark 15:21, when Simon is forced to carry the cross for an exhausted Jesus, the Gospel mentions he is the father of Rufus and Alexander.  Are they the same? Probably—Jerome, in his sort of Who’s Who of the Early Church, mentions these two as among the first missionaries/evangelists.  Of additional note for Antioch, Simon and his family are from Cyrene… where the men who preached the Gospel in Antioch came from.

Whether it was Rufus, who saw his dad carry the cross, who may well have seen the death of Jesus, who may have been among the Cyrenians who heard the Gospel at Pentecost…the lesson to learn is that anyone can share the Gospel, anyone can start a new ministry, anyone can start a new church.  You do not need a certificate, a training program, or a seminary degree.

But they are not done at Antioch!  When the apostles heard of what was going on, they sent Barnabas to check it out.  He was blown away and hurried to Tarsus to get the crazy new convert, Paul, who came and taught the church for a year.  And then, in a time of worship and fasting, the church heard from the Holy Spirit, that they should set apart Saul and Barnabas for a plan the Holy Spirit had, which was their missionary work!

Antioch was planted by regular guys who believed in Jesus.  The church grew in grace, listened to the Holy Spirit and sent Paul and Barnabas out to preach all over the place!  Antioch doesn’t have a letter from Paul in the New Testament, but the other churches that do get letters from him, come from his apostolic/evangelistic ministry that came from the Antioch Church.

Two statements from Luther seem to underscore this.  First, we have a priesthood of all believers.  Second, Christianity is one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.

It will be really important for some churches today to become Antioch churches! To be planted by whoever has the heart to do it, and to grow to listen to the Spirit, to go out and spread the Gospel.

Think about the churches that emerged from this: Colosse, churches in the Galatian region, Ephesus, Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens, Corinth, Crete, and many others we do not know about!