NAMELESS PIONEER
NAMELESS PIONEER (Acts 11:19-21)
In restrained sentences these few words tell of one of the greatest events in church history.
1. Now for the first time the gospel is deliberately preached to gentiles.
Philip preached to the Samaritans (half Jews). Then Peter accepted Cornelius: but it was Cornelius who took the initiative. It was not the Church who sought Cornelius; it was Cornelius who sought the Christian Church. Third in Antioch the Church did not go to the people who were Jews and half Jews nor wait to be approached by Gentiles seeking admission. Yes it preached gospel to the gentiles. Christianity was launched on its worldwide mission by nameless persons. We don’t know the names of the people who took the steps. All we know is that they came from Cyprus and Cyrene.
They go down to history as nameless
pioneers of Christ.
It has always been one of the tragedies of the Church the men have wished to be noticed and named when they did something worthwhile. What the Church has always needed, perhaps more than anything else, is the people who never care who gain the credit for it so long as the work is done. These men may not have written their names in men’s books of history: but they have written them forever in God’s book of Life. William Barclay