INNER RESURRECTION POWER

<p>INNER RESURRECTION POWER</p> <p>Continuing in the Book of Acts Chapter eleven we see in verse nineteen the great changes to the church in Jerusalem because of the persecution of the church. Acts 11:19 The believers who had been scattered during the persecution after Stephen’s death travelled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch of Syria. They preached the word of God, but only to Jews.  That time of persecution prompted an outreach of the Gospel from Jerusalem into the Roman Empire. When some of the Jewish and Gentile disciples travelled to Antioch and began sharing the message of Jesus with the people there the church in Jerusalem sent Barnabas, a Hellenist from Cyprus, to Antioch to investigate and provide support. Antioch was a prominent cosmopolitan city in the Roman Empire and a cultural melting pot with a diverse population - and Barnabas the bridge-builder helped in bringing unity between the Jewish Christians and the Gentile believers in Antioch and providing teaching and discipleship to the new converts. </p> <p>Barnabas knew he needed Paul to help establish and grow the church, because he knew that God had given the ministry of the Gospel for the Gentiles to Paul, so he took the journey of over five hundred Kilometres to Tarsus in Syria where Paul lived. They returned together to Antioch, where they spent a year together teaching and ministering to the growing congregation, and it was in Antioch that the followers of Jesus Christ were first referred to as "Christians". </p> <p>In Acts 11:27-30 we read that about this same time some prophets came to Antioch from Jerusalem, and one of them named Agabus stood up one day and, prompted by the Spirit, warned that a severe famine was about to devastate the entire country. So the disciples decided that each of them would send whatever they could to their poorer fellow Christians in Jerusalem to help out, and they sent Barnabas and Saul to deliver the collection to the leaders in Jerusalem. We now move on to Acts Chapter twelve.</p> <p>Acts 12:1 That's wh