A Church God Uses

What kind of church does God use?  God uses a church where the gospel is clearly proclaimed!  In Acts 11 we learn about the church at Antioch.  Antioch was located 300 miles north of Jerusalem and was the third largest city in the Roman Empire, behind Rome and Alexandria, having more than 500,000 residents.  It was a center for commerce and a crossroads for travel and trade between Europe and the Orient.  This made the city a melting pot of various races, including the Romans, the local Syrians, and Jews, among others.  The city was also known for sexual immorality.  Five miles outside of town was the grove of Daphne, where worshipers of Artemis and Apollo pursued their religion of pleasure with temple prostitutes.

It is significant that when God picked a city that would become the center for missionary endeavor, He picked a cosmopolitan, morally corrupt city like Antioch. In this secular, pagan environment, common Christians began telling the simple gospel message that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners and that whoever believes in Him receives eternal life and forgiveness as God’s free gift.  The same gospel that is the power of God for salvation to the Jews proved to be the power of God for salvation to these pagan Gentiles as well.

In Acts 11:19 we read about the people scattered as a result of persecution were speaking the word only to the Jews.  But then in v. 20 we read, “But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus.”  But in telling the good news, they didn’t dodge the hard matters of sin and repentance, since we read that a large number who believed turned to the Lord.  This means that these former pagans gave up their idols, their sexual immorality, their lying, and their corrupt business practices when they put their trust in Jesus as Lord.  And, friends that is the kind of church God uses . . . a church where the gospel is proclaimed with all its power!  May we be that kind of church, a church that proclaims the Gospel in its fullness!!