Acts #32 - Followers of Jesus

Acts 11:19-30 (NIV)

What do you think of when you hear the word “Christian?”

Today on Daily Read we start to really see the early church emerge as a people... as a family—a family that includes different ethnicities, cultures, social and economic stations, in different parts of the Roman world. But strangely, Luke tells us that the gospel was spreading out from Jerusalem at least in part because the believers were scattered after Stephen’s death. Surely they were afraid, yet the persecution they were experiencing led them not to disown their faith but to spread it. In the history of the church this has happened many times. On the flip side, in the times and places where the church is comfortable and powerful it tends to die.

As you listen to the passage, consider this. And consider your own experience with the church. Many of us have been doing church mostly online for a year now, but regardless of Sunday services, how do you feel about the church? How do you feel about being called a Christian?

----------REFLECT----------

1. What caught your attention in the passage?

2. When Barnabas arrived at Antioch, it says he “saw what the grace of God had done.” Where in your story, in your family or community, have you seen the grace of God at work?

3. Luke tells us that the followers of Jesus at Antioch were the first disciples who were called Christians. When you think of that word, what comes to mind? Is it a cultural identity? A religion? The Greek word Christianos simply means “follower of Christ.” How does your life or your faith community follow Christ? What might need to change to further live into this name?

----------GO DEEPER----------

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