The martyrdom of Stephen (Acts 7) prompted a persecution of believers spearheaded by Saul who was “ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison” (Acts 8:3). If you lived then, you might have thought this was the end of the church. But God was at work; the scattered believers spread the gospel.
There was one problem though, they were sharing the good news only to Jews – people like themselves (Acts 11:19). Thankfully, some followers of Jesus came from the islands and shared the gospel with non-Jews. As a result, “a great number who believed turned to the Lord” because “the hand of the Lord was with them” (Acts 11:21). This news reached the Jerusalem church, and they sent Barnabas to follow up. I love what Acts 11:23 reports, “When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad.” Indeed, God was at work, and the evidence of his investment was a community of grace – transformed lives. This was where the tag “Christian” was first used to identify followers of Jesus. It was at this time also that Barnabas sought out Saul – the one who had ravaged the church – and brought him to disciple the new believers for a year.
God’s work is amazing! We can miss such works of grace when we become preoccupied by the “bad” stuff that happens and focus our energy on shielding ourselves from it. But God is at work even in the “bad” stuff because the gospel spreads and the church thrives. Paul honored the Thessalonian church, for example, by writing, “Your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing” (2 Thessalonians 1:3).
It is the grace of God that makes glad. It is a growing love that manifests God’s transforming work of grace. What sets the church apart from social organizations is gospel-centered relationships. What we can learn from the islander Christians of Acts 11 is that if you want to grow in love, it will happen by getting close to people who are not like you.
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