Acts 11:19-21

Ordinary Christians are not news reporters. News reporters have a mission of spreading the news to the widest possible audience. Newspapers want circulation, and new shows want ratings. That does not mean they do not have an agenda, but it does mean they attempt to reach the widest possible audience. However, ordinary Christians are not in the news business. When they have good news, it is not business; it is personal. When we have personal good news, we share it first with family and then friends. There is nothing wrong with this, it is normal that our good relationships with our family and friends makes it possible to spread good news in this way.

When the Jewish Christians scattered in response to the persecution that broke out after the Jewish leaders killed Stephen, they took the good news of the gospel with them. Most of them shared the good news only among fellow Jews. However, in Antioch, some of them from Cyprus and Cyrene also shared the good news of Jesus Christ with gentiles. It was not systematic planning controlling the spread of the gospel. Those who did not share the gospel with gentiles and those who did were all Jews themselves. The Jewish Christians did not share the gospel with gentiles in any city other than Antioch.

We find the explanation for why this happened in the size and makeup of the population of Antioch. Antioch was the third largest city in the Roman Empire. It had a smaller percentage of Jewish population than the other cities where the persecuted Christians fled. The two groups of Jewish Christians that shared the gospel with gentiles came from cities that had gentile cultures. What we see is ordinary people sharing good news in an ordinary way. They shared with Greeks because they spoke Greek and had daily interactions with Greeks.

Missionaries share the gospel across cultures on purpose. However, Christians are most effective sharing the gospel with those close to them. Christians share the gospel; starting with family and friends.