Friday: The Mark of the Cross upon the Church
WEEK 19
FRIDAY
THE MARK OF THE CROSS UPON THE CHURCH
1 Corinthians 2:1-2
We continue our study of the founding of the first Christian church at Antioch. We saw that it was founded by a lay group.
The second thing that went into the founding of that church was the fact that it was founded by people who suffered for their faith: “Now those who were scattered as a result of the trouble . . . ” (Acts 11:19). The persecution in Jerusalem had not shattered them; it only scattered them. Near the Ashram at Sat Tal in India, there is a tree with large pods, which when ripe explode with a crack like that of a pistol. A second later the falling of the seeds can be heard fifty feet away. The persecution explosion at Jerusalem landed the seeds of the kingdom at Antioch. The church at Antioch had the marks of the cross upon it—people who suffered for their faith founded it. If our faith is costing us nothing, it will be worth nothing. “As soon we cease to bleed we cease to bless.”* Cities were founded in the old days with the blood of the firstborn in the mortar of the foundation. This church was cemented, not by the blood of the firstborn, but by the very blood of the founders themselves. So the blood of the martyrs became the seed of the church.
The third thing that went into founding this church was an in international mind. “Among them were some people from Cyprus and Cyrene. They entered Antioch and began to proclaim the good news about the Lord Jesus also to Gentiles. The Lord’s power was with them” (Acts 11:20-21). Jews who came down from Jerusalem spoke the gospel to the Jews only, but the group from Cyprus and Cyrene also spoke to the Greeks. Their contacts with people in Cyprus and Cyrene made them realize these were people like themselves, with common needs.
This bringing of the international mind into the making of the church at Antioch was important; for when God wanted to get the church to send out Paul and Barnabas on their missions to the Gentiles, God found an international mind ready to be guided. God guides us within the framework of our conceptions. If they are narrow, God can give us only narrow guidance; if broad, then broad guidance. The outlook determines the outgo.
Our Lord, enlarge our hearts that we may have enlarged guidance and thus have enlarged spheres of living. For we want your best, your very all. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: My sympathies are as wide as humankind; therefore God can lead me to humanity.
* John Henry Jowett, A Passion for Souls (New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1905), 30.