The Lord is awe-inspiring, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Acts 13:1,
“In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers…”
It is at this church in Antioch where disciples were first called “Christians”, Acts 11:26. Barnabas was dispatched from Jerusalem when the believers there heard that “a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord” in Antioch. After arriving in Antioch Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Paul (still called Saul in the account in the book of Acts at this point.) After Barnabas and Paul returned to Antioch we are told they taught the believers there for a year. At the time they had also been sent from this church back up to Jerusalem to take a gift to help the believers there who were experiencing a famine. When Barnabas and Paul returned to Antioch they brought with them John Mark, the author of the gospel that bears his name.
As seen, there was a lot of activity taking place at Antioch and we read in Acts 13:1 that there were prophets and teachers within the fellowship there. God was on the move and it is from this fellowship we see Paul’s missionary enterprise being launched. As we see God active at Antioch we see the Holy Spirit raise up gifted people to perform the work that needed to be done. There was a need for prophets and teachers, so the Holy Spirit gifted certain ones to fill the need.
Within the early church and throughout the centuries of church history we see God gifting individuals to carry out work that needs to be done. In Ephesians 4:11-13 we read, “It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”
God gifts us all for participating in what he is doing in the church. “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good”, 1 Corinthians 12:7. With these gifts he expects us to serve one another. In 1 Peter 4:10 we read, “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.” It is in this that I find the presence of God very active in the church. He gifts us all and raises up certain ones for specific tasks. He did in the early church and he still does so to this day. I find it fascinating to see how the Lord manifests what he is doing by looking at how he gifts his people.
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your theme of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We’d love to hear from you!
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