22 Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose some of their own men and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Judas (called Barsabbas) and Silas, men who were leaders among the believers. 23 With them they sent the following letter:
The apostles and elders, your brothers,
To the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia:
Greetings.
24 We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said. 25 So we all agreed to choose some men and send them to you with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul— 26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing. 28 It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: 29 You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.
Farewell.
30 So the men were sent off and went down to Antioch, where they gathered the church together and delivered the letter. 31 The people read it and were glad for its encouraging message. 32 Judas and Silas, who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the believers. 33 After spending some time there, they were sent off by the believers with the blessing of peace to return to those who had sent them. [34] [d] 35 But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, where they and many others taught and preached the word of the Lord.
-Acts 15:22-35
A healthy growing church sends people out into the world to share the Gospel. The church in Jerusalem decided to send two guys to go along with Paul and Barnabas to help out the Christians in Antioch.
Sometimes it’s super easy for a faith community to just focus on themselves, so much so, that they forget that there’s a world out there that still need to hear about Jesus. That’s true here in AYL and Harvesters as well. It’s important that we help our community grow in faith, but we also need to remember that there are still hundreds of students in our school who have no idea who Jesus is, or have an incredibly warped perspective on who Jesus is. We need to send people to go and tell them.
Do you have friends outside of your church or Harvesters or AYL that you want to share Jesus with? Are you actively doing so?
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