The church in Antioch was clearly a vibrant place, and was guided by prophets and teachers, a few of whom are named. During a time of worship and fasting the Holy Spirit told them to set Saul and Barnabas apart and to send them out, and the church obeyed. The Holy Spirit was directing the growth and expansion of the church.
The first place they visited was Cyprus. Now we must remember that the places they went to would have had no Christian contact before their arrival, so in the first instance they went to the synagogues.
In the places they went to they encountered both interest and opposition. Elymas,a Jewish sorcerer, supplied the opposition, and the proconsul the interest. Saul turned to Elymas and spoke clearly about his state, and afflicted him with blindness. The proconsul immediately believed. This is not the sort of evangelistic approach that we hear much of, but it was directed by the Holy Spirit.
No comments:
Post a Comment