some men

Paul gets a lot of credit, and he deserves it. But today I’m struck by another group of anonymous people whose work Paul often gets credit for. I’m talking about the founders of the church at Antioch. Because Paul is so intimately associated with that church and labored there for more than a year at the start of his ministry, we often assume it was his church plant.

Here’s the story, from Acts 11:19-21: “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.”

There were a lot of evangelists that were scattered – most commentators believe God used the persecution to accomplish exactly that – but most went only to the Jews. But before the word of Peter’s visit to Cornelius and the official recognition of the Gentiles as part of the promise, these unknown people from Cyprus and Cyrene were planting the church in Antioch. And this wasn’t an ordinary church: later in Acts 11 we read that this is where the disciples were first call Christians. Something about this group was so closely associated with Jesus that their religion was given his name.

This is a valuable reminder of something scripture teaches with regularity, that most of God’s faithful servants will never be recognized. They’re folks who respond to God’s grace the only way they know how: by sharing it with others as part of the daily routines of their ordinary lives. 

Just like me.