The Divine Duet: Two Platforms for God's Mission

I like to search You Tube for some of my favorite missiologists to listen, learn, and be inspired. Some of the folks I look for are Chris Wright, Dick Brogden, and Alan Johnson. In the Spring of this year (2024) I was preparing to speak on Frontier Missions at a Bible college and I wanted to sharpen my focus and get my heart warmed again. I stumbeld across a video that was about 10 or 15 years old where Alan Johnson was preaching at a church in the US. He spends the lion's share of his time either on the field or teaching in academic settings, so I think videos like this are rare. But the message he brought stirred something powerful in my heart. He was teaching on the Acts 13 mandate, and the basis of his message was what we learn from the church at Antioch which applies to missions today. He brought one premise that truly caught my attention and I have shared it on numerous occasions since. He pointed out that the Antioch church was, in a way, a beginning of God's establishment of two platforms of missions ministry, one local and one global. Here's a quick overview of this idea.

When you study missiology, you quickly begin to realize that the church at Antioch was central to the ethos of New Testament Missions. Acts 13 tells us that it is the place which Paul and Barnabas were sent from on their first missionary journey. (Acts 13:1-3) But Alan pointed out something that I had never thought of before: this is not the first time we see Antioch mentioned. Earlier, in Acts 11, we find out several other foundational things about this church. Acts 11: 19-26 - "Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews. Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord's hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. News of this reached the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of peple were brought to the Lord. Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 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."

When we read this passage, we can see that the Antioch believers not only had a passion for Christ to be known in "regions beyond" their reach, they were effectively reaching their own community with the message of Jesus. The folks who came in from Cyprus and Cyrene had fled Jerusalem because of the persecution there, but they were "white hot" with the gospel message, and spread it not only to Jews but to the Greeks as well. There was such a great work for the Lord that it got the attention of the church leaders in Jerusalem. After they sent Barnabas, the impact only grew. Evidently Barnabas saw the need for Paul, the theologian/missionary to come on the scene and teach, which he did for a year. (Imagine Paul as your Bible class teacher!). The disciples were called Christians first here...possibly that was a derogatory term, but the point is that their faith was so evident in the community that they were first called "little Christs" in Antioch.

What's my point? This church serves as a lesson for us today. God established two platforms from which His message would go forth. (1) A local church where believers are fired up and "white hot" with the message of Jesus for their friends, neighbors, and community at large...and (2) Missionaries who are sent out to cross cultures to bring the message of Jesus to the world. Think of this...as Paul would return from his missionary journeys and share the breakthroughs he was having, especially among the Gentiles, it would only fan the flame of evanglical fervor in the folks of the local Antioch church. These two platforms worked beautifullly together to help establish the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is still God's method today - may the Lord help us today to have this same "Divine Duet" in our churches and personal lives.