Bible Verse of the Day Tuesday August 15th, 2023

Acts 11:26 and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So, for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.

Since the days of the early Church, the followers of Jesus were known to the world as Christians because they trusted Christ Jesus for their salvation. The Jewish religion had veered off God's original intent and began to trust more in their works and animal sacrifices. The idea of trusting in the blood sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross was that the animal blood sacrifices were a symbol of the blood of Christ that covered all sin. The people's faith before the first coming of Christ was in the truth of the Old Testament that a Messiah would come and wash away the world's sins. When Jesus came, the Jews did not recognize Him as the promised Messiah, but Jesus' followers saw the truth of the scriptures in that His bloodshed was the atonement for the world's sins. Those who trusted Christ for salvation had this classification to distinguish them from the rest of the world. We are told: "The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch" (The Verse of today. Acts 11:26).

Antioch was a city in Syria, and the people were notorious for their scorn and disdain. The label they ascribed to early Church believers was far from flattering. Instead, it was a belittling and disparaging label intended to disperse contempt in the small band of believers. After Steven's stoning in Jerusalem, (Acts 7:54-60) massive persecution broke out towards the Christians in Jerusalem and the surrounding areas. This persecution caused the early Christians to disperse to faraway lands to escape persecution, incarceration, and sometimes death. Many evacuees took flight to places like Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, but to begin with, they did not spread the gospel to the Gentiles, only to their Jewish brothers. At Antioch, the good news of the gospel of Christ Jesus started to spread rapidly, and certain Gentiles accepted Christ Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and God began to shower blessings down upon them.

It is my hope and prayer that this short history lesson will encourage us to get more involved in spreading the Gospel of Christ Jesus in our areas of influence. There is no more greater thing that one person can do for another than to introduce them to Jesus of Nazareth. During the time you are reading this short essay, there will have been many people dying around the world that do not know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. As descendants of those first Christian followers, we are responsible for telling the world of the only saving grace available: Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior.