“Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. ”
Acts 11:19
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JANUARY 27, 2025
The church in Antioch was born out of adversity. We see in the first few verses of our text that because the believers in Christ were violently persecuted, they fled their homes, jobs and families to build a new life elsewhere. And they fled far! They settled in Phoenicia, the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea, even as far north as Antioch in modern day Turkey.
Have you ever had to flee your home? Leave everything behind and only bring what essentials you could carry? Perhaps you have not had that experience, but this has been the experience of billions of men, women, and children. In 2024, there were a reported 37.9 million refugees worldwide, according to the UNHCR. Can you wrap your mind around that? 37.9 million people who know intimately what it is to leave home, family, language, and culture in hopes of finding nothing more than safety.
Let’s sit with this for a minute.
We often don’t realize how deeply our roots are entangled around our culture, our language, our traditions. We don’t realize it until we are removed from everything we know. When I was 8 years old, my family left Indiana and moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina where we lived for the next 12 years. That move marked the rest of my life. I felt like my family ties and cultural identity were severed and it hurt. But I learned to push my roots down into a new identity; nation-less, I grew in my identity as a member of God’s people, God’s language, God’s culture. I learned to root myself in God alone. It was excruciatingly painful, but within the pain was a gift.
These believers who fled to Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch gave up everything, but they had the Spirit of the living God within them. They left it all believing they had a greater home, a greater identity, a greater language.
Questions for reflection and discussion:
- Where are your roots growing?
- If you had to leave your home, your country, your family and friends what would be the hardest thing to lose?
Church Reading Plan: Genesis 28; Matthew 27