By Michael Yong

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. (Acts 13:2-3)

Persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem (Acts 8:1). Surprisingly, the gospel continued to spread. For “those who were scattered went about preaching the word” (8:4). They came to Antioch. And a church was born (11:19-26).

Unexpectedly, the church at Antioch became a new mission base for the gospel. Jerusalem was the first.

At the Spirit’s initiative, the Antioch church sent out Barnabas and Saul. Three missionary journeys were undertaken with Paul as God’s chosen instrument (9:15). And the gospel reached many cities. Many Gentiles came to faith in Christ.

Acts 17:17-18 give us an idea of the kinds of peoples reached. For Paul “reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him.” Later on he was brought to the Areopagus, where he preached Jesus and the resurrection to “all the Athenians and the foreigners who… spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new” (17:21).

Paul varied his approach to reach different types of people, just as Jesus did in the Gospels. No cookie-cutter method to the gospel. One can compare the different ways he preached the same gospel to the Jews in the synagogues in Acts 17, to the Athenians also in Act 17, and to those in authority from Acts 24-26.

In this REACH, check out how the different SYFC ministries are remapping their approaches as they think, with new eyes, about the types of youths they are reaching. So that the one gospel may reach all.