The Antioch church is the first congregation we find in the book of Acts that, as a body, recognizes the intentional nature of Christianity.  Before Antioch, Christians were moved from place to place by circumstance.  Some had been visitors in Jerusalem, encountered the Gospel, and returned home as planned bearing their new found faith.  Christianity arrives in Ethiopia because Ethiopia is where the traveler of Acts chapter 8 makes his home.  Sometimes the means by which the faith was spread was persecution.  Persecution drove believers out of Judea and into Samaria.  Persecution scattered the church, but could not stop the witness of the disciples.  They were sown like seeds, blown by the winds of enmity, and new congregations grew wherever they landed.

Sometimes the Holy Spirit took direct action, as with Philip on the Gaza Road or Peter at Joppa.  The story of Peter and Cornelius is remarkable for the obstinacy of Peter and his fellow believers about the extension of God’s grace to the gentiles.  Peter requires a thrice taught object lesson about God’s sovereignty and a divine summons followed by a demonstration of the Holy Spirit’s power like he had experienced himself on the day of Pentecost.  Even then, when recounting the event to the brothers in Jerusalem, he protests in effect, “What choice did I have?  God made me do it.”  Even then, it appears that Jews and gentiles do not come together to worship and serve as brothers and sisters…until Antioch.

Antioch is the first church begun because believers decide to go and start a church.  It is the first intentional congregation.

The stoning of Stephen began a time of persecution for the church, which, until that event appears to have been confined to Jerusalem.  The violence of Stephen’s death begets a wave of violence against the church.  Many of those who believe in Christ are forced to flee the city, and they take with them message of Good News.  Some return to Galilee.  Others find their way into Samaria.  At least one band of believers, proselytes of Judaism, so called Greek or Hellenistic Jews, who had come to know Jesus as Lord in the days after Pentecost, return to their homes in Cyprus and Cyrene.

From these Mediterranean islands, they cannot but turn their eyes to Antioch.  Antioch, in what is now southwestern Turkey, is the third largest city in the Roman Empire, behind only Alexandria in Egypt and Rome itself.  Antioch is famous for its wealth, sophistication and decadence.  Jonah was repulsed by the pagan inhabitants of Nineveh and resisted the call to call them to repentance, but these disciples of Cyprus and Cyrene are drawn to the lost of Antioch.  In contrast to the Jerusalem church’s reluctant acceptance of Cornelius and his household, they begin eagerly to preach to Jew and gentile alike, working to break down the ancient walls and to share the grace of God with all who will listen.  Here, a group of disciples comes to a city with a singular purpose, not to settle or find work, not just passing through or on the run.  They come to fulfill the great commission of Jesus – to make disciples.  They come to plant a church and open its doors to everyone.  Before long they will extend their intention make disciples into the Roman province of Asia and beyond Asia into Europe.  They are the first church to equip, commission and send their brothers to spread the Gospel.  The age of the accidental church has ended.  Antioch is the church on purpose.

At Antioch, the disciples are first called Christians.  Are they called this by the city officials or those who would make fun of them?  If so, it is a pleasant derision – “these people are in the business of Christ.”

I believe the disciples of Antioch are first called Christians, not by their enemies, but by God, who is pleased to see his church finally acting like the church.   The Greek for Christian, Christianoi (of Christ, or of the party of Christ), must be understood in relation to the verb “called.”  That verb, crematizo in the Greek, is used only nine times in the New Testament and only here translated “called.”  The other eight instances are either warnings from God, instructions from God or referring to the law of God.  In other words, crematizo, which has a first definition, “to transact business,” is used most often in Scripture with the alternative definitions of “to give a response to those consulting an oracle, to give a divine command or admonition, to teach from heaven; to be divinely commanded, admonished, or instructed; to be the mouthpiece of divine revelations.”

“The disciples are called (crematizo) Christians (Christianoi) first in Antioch,” Luke tells us in Acts 11:26.  Why should they not be called Christians?  These folks have ceased being merchants and tradesmen and slaves who just happen to have faith in Christ.  They are full time in the business of Jesus.  They may make tents or practice medicine to support themselves and their work, but their true business is Christ.  Like one of their leading spokesmen, Paul, they are resolved “to know nothing but Christ, and him crucified.”  At Antioch the disciples become intentionally the church.  They become “Christianoi” – Christians.

Today, the name is commonplace.  Rather than being called, we now call ourselves Christians.  Does the name fit?  Are you in the Christ business?  Are you in Christ’s business?  Do you do the work of the kingdom accidentally or are you, like the Christianoi of Antioch intentionally, full-time in the service of the King?