Episode 21
Antioch: Prototype of Kingdom Community
Episode Description:
In this compelling Deep Dive episode of Kingdom Reformation with Glenn Bleakney, we journey back to the ancient city of Antioch—the first place where believers were called Christians and a prototype for true Kingdom community. Discover how a diverse, divided city became the launchpad for a global Gospel movement that defied cultural, social, and political boundaries.
Drawing from Glenn Bleakney’s insightful article “An Apostolic Hub to the Nations,” we explore how the early Church in Antioch lived out radical unity under the Lordship of Jesus. Jews and Gentiles, rich and poor, slaves and free—gathered not just for worship, but for transformation. Learn how intentional discipleship, Spirit-led leadership, and sacrificial generosity birthed a missional community that reshaped the world.
🔥 What made Antioch so revolutionary?
🌍 How can we build multicultural Kingdom communities today?
⚔️ Why must we reject division and embrace our heavenly citizenship?
This episode is more than historical—it’s prophetic. As our modern world grows more fractured, the Church must rediscover the Antioch model: unity in Christ, empowered by the Spirit, sent to the nations. Revival and reformation begin here.
👉 Learn more and join the movement at KingdomReformation.org
Transcript
Welcome to the Kingdom Reformation Podcast with Glenn Blakeney.
Speaker A:Here the fire of revival ignites hearts and fuels a supernatural move of God throughout the nations of the earth.
Speaker A:Join us each week for prophetic insights, apostolic teaching, and powerful conversations that will equip you to live fully awakened in your Kingdom purpose.
Speaker A:This is more than a podcast, it's a movement.
Speaker A:Learn more about us by visiting kingdomreformation.org now let's dive into today's episode.
Speaker A:Hey, everyone, and welcome back to the Deep Dive.
Speaker A:You know, the show where we really get into some fascinating topics to pull out those surprising nuggets of knowledge.
Speaker A:So today we're taking a deep dive into, well, an incredible historical place, the ancient city of Antioch.
Speaker A:Our main source for this exploration is Glenn Blakeney's really insightful article, an Apostolic Hub to the Nations.
Speaker A:And our mission really is to see what we can pull out about community, unity, transformation, things from this ancient model that actually are still incredibly relevant today.
Speaker B:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker B:And Antioch, it's not just like some old city on a map.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:The article really frames it as a kind of divine prototype.
Speaker B:It was a place where, as Blakeney puts it, a Kingdom revolution began to stir something that just completely defied the norms, the expectations of that time.
Speaker A:And what's really stunning, like right from the get go, is that Fact from Acts 11.26.
Speaker A:In Antioch, the disciples were first called Christians.
Speaker A:Just think about that.
Speaker A:That name, Christian, it wasn't something they chose for themselves, was it?
Speaker B:No, not at all.
Speaker B:It was given to them by a quote, watching world people looking on, who just.
Speaker B:They couldn't figure out how else to label these people.
Speaker B:It really hints at something visibly different.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:A change so obvious it needed a whole new category.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And to really get how revolutionary that was, you have to understand the context of Antioch itself.
Speaker B:I mean, this was the third largest city in the entire Roman Empire.
Speaker B:Huge.
Speaker B:Located in ancient Syria, founded way back 300 BC by Seleucus I nicator.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:And it's located, I mean, it was key, right at the crossroads of these huge trade routes linking Europe, Asia, Africa, you name it.
Speaker B:So by the time of Jesus, it was massive, like over half a million people.
Speaker B:A real cosmopolitan hub.
Speaker A:But diverse didn't mean unified.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:That's a key point.
Speaker B:Oh, absolutely not.
Speaker A:Blakeney's article calls it a microcosm of the ancient world's tensions.
Speaker A:And get this, not just social divides, but actual literal, physical walls separating people by ethnicity, by class.
Speaker A:You had, like, different quarters for Jews, Greeks, Syrians, Romans, Africans.
Speaker B:Actual walls.
Speaker B:You Stayed in your section.
Speaker A:Yeah, the article really emphasizes you just didn't cross those lines.
Speaker A:Not without social consequences.
Speaker A:These weren't just, you know, invisible barriers.
Speaker A:They were backed up by law, by custom, social pressure, intermarriage.
Speaker A:Pretty rare, maybe even forbidden sometimes.
Speaker A:The whole city's layout kind of reinforced it all.
Speaker B:Definitely.
Speaker B:And then add the religious landscape on top of that social complexity.
Speaker B:It was bustling, to say the least.
Speaker B:You had Greek gods everywhere, temples all over.
Speaker B:Then there was the mandatory emperor worship if you wanted to participate in civic life.
Speaker A:Right, Caesar's Lord.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:Plus established Jewish synagogues and all sorts of Eastern mystery religions.
Speaker B:The real marketplace of beliefs.
Speaker B:And into that mix, Christianity arrives.
Speaker B:And the article stresses it wasn't just another option on the menu.
Speaker B:It was presented as something entirely different.
Speaker B:Not just another religion, but a kingdom that kind of transcended all those earthly categories.
Speaker B:A whole different loyalty.
Speaker A:Okay, so you have this deeply divided city, all these walls, literal and figurative.
Speaker A:How does this new message, this gospel, even get in?
Speaker A:Was it like a big, big planned mission by the apostles?
Speaker B:Well, that's what's fascinating.
Speaker B:The article calls it a radical occurrence.
Speaker B:It wasn't the big name apostles initially.
Speaker B:The gospel first got there through unnamed believers.
Speaker B:Just regular folks fleeing persecution back in Jerusalem.
Speaker B:Acts 11.20 talks about this.
Speaker A:Just ordinary disciples scattered by trouble, basically.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:And they just started sharing what they knew.
Speaker B:It sounds almost like this grassroots spiritual thing.
Speaker B:And here's where it gets really interesting.
Speaker B:The revolutionary shift.
Speaker B:Initially, okay, they did what you might expect.
Speaker B:They shared the message mostly with other Jews.
Speaker B:Shared language, shared background.
Speaker B:But then something totally new happens.
Speaker B:The article points this out from Acts 11.20.
Speaker B:Some men from Cyprus and Cyrene, so not from Judea.
Speaker B:They start preaching to the Greeks.
Speaker B:And not just God fearing Gentiles who might already be hanging around the synagogues.
Speaker B:No, they started talking to pagans.
Speaker B:People with zero background in Jewish faith or scripture.
Speaker A:Wow, that's a huge leap.
Speaker B:It was massive.
Speaker B:For the first time, the gospel was being intentionally shared across those really deep ethnic and cultural lines.
Speaker B:Radical inclusion, truly.
Speaker A:And the result of this, this radical.
Speaker B:Step, the Lord's hand was with them.
Speaker B:And a great number of people believed and turned to the lord.
Speaker B:That's Acts 11.21.
Speaker B:It wasn't just a few people, it was significant.
Speaker A:So this is where it gets really interesting.
Speaker A:That name Christian, it pops up because of this visible kind of disruptive unity.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:This community was so different, the locals had to invent a word for them.
Speaker B:Precisely.
Speaker B:Christianos.
Speaker B:It literally means something like belonging To Christ, or maybe of Christ's party just perfectly captures that shift in identity, that primary allegiance that was so obvious it just didn't fit any existing box.
Speaker B:A whole new tribe defined only by Christ.
Speaker A:So news of this, this weird mixed group gets back to Jerusalem.
Speaker A:What did the leaders there think?
Speaker B:Well, naturally they needed to check it out.
Speaker B:Acts 11.22 says they sent Barnabas.
Speaker B:Good old Barnabas, the son of encouragement.
Speaker B:And what he found there must have just blown him away.
Speaker B:The article mentions he saw the evidence of the grace of God, that Charis, that power at work.
Speaker A:And it wasn't just a feeling, right?
Speaker B:No, it was visible, tangible, a real social transformation happening.
Speaker B:He saw Jews and Gentiles actually eating together, worshiping together, things that just weren't done.
Speaker B:He saw slaves and free people treating each other as equals, rich and poor, sharing what they had.
Speaker B:It must have looked like, well, heaven on earth right there in Antioch.
Speaker B:The text says he was just glad.
Speaker A:And Barnabas seeing this, he makes a really smart strategic move, a crucial decision.
Speaker B:He recognized how real this was, the potential in Acts 11.25 says he immediately went off to Tarsus to find Saul.
Speaker A:Saul who becomes Paul, the former persecutor.
Speaker B:Right, but also the guy uniquely equipped for this kind of cross cultural work.
Speaker B:You know, his background as both a Pharisee and a Roman citizen.
Speaker B:Barnabas clearly saw.
Speaker B:Okay, this is complex.
Speaker B:We need Saul's specific gifts here.
Speaker B:It wasn't just bringing in help, it was bringing in the right help for this brand new situation that makes so much sense.
Speaker B:And it all points back to what Jesus said, right?
Speaker B:My kingdom is not of this world.
Speaker B:John 18.36.
Speaker B:He wasn't setting up another earthly power structure.
Speaker B:It was something totally different, coming from above, marked by righteousness, peace, joy, things that cut across human divisions.
Speaker A:And in Antioch, that kingdom started to become visible.
Speaker A:It challenged everything about how society was set up.
Speaker B:It really did.
Speaker B:It just dismantled those dividing walls, pulling people from every background into this new thing under his rule.
Speaker B:A living demo of God's kingdom.
Speaker A:Yeah, and the core of it wasn't just diversity for diversity's sake.
Speaker A:Lots of Roman cities were diverse.
Speaker A:What defined Antioch, as the article puts it, was devotion to Jesus as Lord.
Speaker A:That was their unifying principle.
Speaker A:Not culture, not ethnicity, not Roman citizenship.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:It was allegiance to Christ that redefined everything for them.
Speaker B:Their gatherings were like a living embodiment of what Paul would later Write in Galatians 3.28.
Speaker B:There is neither Jew nor gentile, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all One in Christ Jesus.
Speaker A:That wasn't just theology.
Speaker A:It was their actual social reality in Antioch.
Speaker A:Amazing.
Speaker B:And that phrase, all one in Christ Jesus, that's the fruit of being the Ecclesiastes, the called out ones under His Lordship.
Speaker B:People called out from their old identities into this new one.
Speaker A:And saying Jesus is Lord, that wasn't just a religious phrase back then, was it?
Speaker B:Oh, absolutely not.
Speaker B:It was intensely political, a direct challenge.
Speaker A:Because the standard line was Caesar is Lord.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:That was your civic duty, basically.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So declaring Jesus as Lord was like saying, my ultimate allegiance isn't to Rome, it's to a higher king.
Speaker B:It meant, as Philippians 3.20 says, their citizenship was in heaven.
Speaker B:That was radical, countercultural, even dangerous.
Speaker A:So back to those walls in Antioch, the real ones, the physical partitions, the ecclesia.
Speaker A:The Church just ignored them.
Speaker B:They refused to be defined by them.
Speaker B:It's like they actively defied the city's.
Speaker A:Social architecture while society was screaming, stay with your own kind.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:The Church deliberately gathered across those lines.
Speaker B:Jew, gentile, slave free, rich, poor, all together.
Speaker B:They weren't just, you know, individuals getting fire insurance for the afterlife.
Speaker B:They were being actively shaped into a new kind of community, a holy nation, a countercultural kingdom community, living under Jesus lordship in every part of life.
Speaker B:That's what made them so different and frankly, threatening to the status quo.
Speaker A:Because that kind of unity, people from totally different backgrounds treating each other like family, sharing things, honoring each other, it just undermined the whole Roman social order.
Speaker B:It was a quiet revolution happening in the relationships.
Speaker A:And it wasn't accidental.
Speaker A:It required real effort, real teaching.
Speaker A:The article calls Antioch a learning community.
Speaker A:Paul and Barnabas spent a whole year there just teaching and discipling.
Speaker A:Acts 11.26 Again, and not just casual talks.
Speaker B:The word is didathco.
Speaker A:You can imagine the challenges.
Speaker A:Jewish believers learning to fully accept Gentiles without the law.
Speaker A:Gentiles needing to grasp the whole biblical story.
Speaker A:Slaves and masters figuring out how to live as equals in Christ while still in that social structure.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:It required intense, intentional formation.
Speaker B:And the article points out this was also crucial for Paul's own development.
Speaker B:A training ground for apostolic maturity.
Speaker B:Learning to minister cross culturally.
Speaker A:And their leadership reflected this new reality too, right?
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:Acts 13 gives us this incredible list of leaders.
Speaker B:You've got Barnabas, a Levite from Cyprus.
Speaker B:Simeon, called Niger, probably meaning the black man, likely from Africa.
Speaker B:Lucius of Cyrene, also North Africa, Manan, who grew up in Herod's court.
Speaker B:So elite connections.
Speaker B:And Saul, the former Pharisee.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker A:Continents Classes, backgrounds, all represented, working together.
Speaker B:And it's while they are worshiping and fasting that the Holy Spirit speaks very directly.
Speaker B:Acts 13.2.
Speaker B:Set apart from me, Barnabas and Saul for the work that leads straight into the first missionary journey.
Speaker B:A community led by the Spirit, willing to send out its best people for the mission, trusting God over strategy.
Speaker A:And this unity wasn't just spiritual or structural.
Speaker A:It was practical, Generous.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah.
Speaker B:Generous community.
Speaker B:When the prophet Agabus predicts that big famine, what do the Antioch believers do immediately?
Speaker B:They take up a collection to help the believers down in Judea.
Speaker B:Acts 11 tells the story.
Speaker B:They send the gift with Barnabas and Saul.
Speaker A:That's pretty remarkable.
Speaker A:It shows they really saw themselves as one big family.
Speaker A:Right across geography, across old divides.
Speaker B:Definitely.
Speaker B:And their unity was practical.
Speaker B:They put their money where their mouth was.
Speaker B:Sacrificial giving.
Speaker B:Plus, it shows incredible trust in their leaders.
Speaker B:Sending this offering off with Paul and Barnabas.
Speaker B:A powerful testimony.
Speaker A:So let's try to summarize.
Speaker A:What were the key things, the core principles that made Antioch this prototype?
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:The article pulls out a few key things.
Speaker B:First.
Speaker B:First, kingdom identity over ethnic identity.
Speaker B:Who they were in Christ mattered more than where they came from.
Speaker B:That was primary.
Speaker B:Second, shared authority.
Speaker B:Leadership wasn't about social status.
Speaker B:It reflected the community's diversity based on spiritual gifts, real power sharing.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:Third, a prophetic culture.
Speaker B:They actually expected the Holy Spirit to lead.
Speaker B:They listened, discerned together.
Speaker B:It wasn't just human planning.
Speaker B:Fourth, intentional discipleship.
Speaker B:That whole year of teaching wasn't optional.
Speaker B:It was essential to build that multicultural foundation.
Speaker A:Makes sense.
Speaker B:Fifth, sacrificial generosity.
Speaker B:Giving wasn't an afterthought.
Speaker B:It flowed from transformed hearts.
Speaker B:And finally, a missional orientation.
Speaker B:They weren't navel gazing.
Speaker B:They were looking outward, sending their best away for the Gospel.
Speaker A:But it wasn't all smooth sailing.
Speaker A:There were challenges, conflicts.
Speaker B:Oh, definitely.
Speaker B:The big one mentioned is in Acts 15, these Judaizers come down from Judea.
Speaker B:They start insisting that the Gentile believers have to be circumcised, follow Jewish law to be really saved.
Speaker A:Which would have totally destroyed the Antioch model.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:It was a direct threat to their foundation.
Speaker B:Paul and Barnabas argued fiercely with them.
Speaker B:The states were huge.
Speaker A:But how the church handled it is key.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:They didn't just split apart.
Speaker B:No.
Speaker B:They sent Paul and Barnabas back to Jerusalem to get it resolved with the apostles and elders there.
Speaker B:And the Jerusalem council ultimately sided with the Antioch reality.
Speaker B:James leads the way, saying, gentiles don't need circumcision.
Speaker B:It validated the whole multicultural approach.
Speaker B:Huge moment.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:A vindication.
Speaker B:And that decision, combined with Antioch's missional heart, really launches the first missionary journey.
Speaker B:Antioch becomes the sending base.
Speaker B:Paul and Barnabas go out, and what do they do?
Speaker B:They basically replicate the Antioch model.
Speaker B:Preached to Jews first, then Gentiles, building.
Speaker A:Mixed communities, breaking down walls everywhere they went.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And when we return to Antioch, Acts 14 says they gathered the church and reported everything.
Speaker B:How God had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.
Speaker B:It created this amazing cycle of mission and discipleship.
Speaker B:Transformed communities.
Speaker B:Sending out missionaries to start new, transformed communities.
Speaker B:Multiplication.
Speaker A:Okay, so bringing this all to today.
Speaker A:The article makes this connection.
Speaker A:We are living again in days like Antioch.
Speaker A:I mean, look around.
Speaker A:Our cities are divided.
Speaker A:Culture pushes us into our own bubbles, our echo chambers.
Speaker A:We see ethnic tension, economic inequality, political hostility.
Speaker A:It feels very familiar, doesn't it?
Speaker B:It really does.
Speaker B:And that's where the challenge lies.
Speaker B:The article is clear.
Speaker B:The Church must not mirror the world's divisions.
Speaker B:We must manifest Heaven's design.
Speaker B:We need to become Antioch people again, unified not by politics or background, but by Jesus, gathering across all those lines, living under his lordship.
Speaker A:It's a call to be deliberately countercultural.
Speaker A:And that's the challenge for us right here, right now.
Speaker A:It means, as the article says, moving beyond our comfort zones, building real relationships across cultural lines, economic lines.
Speaker A:Submitting to leaders who don't look just like us, listening for the Holy Spirit, not just our own ideas, prioritizing the Kingdom's mission over our own preferences.
Speaker A:That's demanding.
Speaker B:It is demanding.
Speaker B:But this is where real revival comes from.
Speaker B:It's not just about goosebumps in a service.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:It's about whole communities being changed by the Gospel's power.
Speaker B:Antioch didn't happen easily.
Speaker B:It cost something.
Speaker B:It came through persecution, patient teaching, real commitment to Jesus as Lord.
Speaker B:If you want to see that kind of community today, we have to be willing to pay a similar price.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And the world is watching.
Speaker A:People are looking for something different, a better way to be human.
Speaker A:Together.
Speaker A:They're looking for hope amidst the division.
Speaker B:They are.
Speaker A:Well, this deep dive into Antioch, an apostolic hub to the nations, was brought to you by Awake nations with Glenn Blakeney.
Speaker A:And if this discussion stirred something in you, if you want to go deeper, I really encourage you to check out the Kingdom Reformation Leaders community.
Speaker A:You can find that@daythreformation.org yeah, it's a great resource.
Speaker B:And you could even consider inviting Glenn Blakeney, the author of the article we've been discussing, to speak at your church or event.
Speaker B:He's doing really important work in this area.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:So thanks everyone for joining us for this deep dive.
Speaker A:Until next time, keep exploring, keep asking questions and keep digging deeper.
Speaker C:Hey everyone, Glenn Blakeney here.
Speaker C:Are you passionate about revival and reformation?
Speaker C:Do you want to deepen your understanding of fivefold ministry and how to advance the Kingdom in every sphere of life, including the marketplace?
Speaker C:Well then, join the Kingdom Reformation Leaders Community.
Speaker C:Today we offer a free subscription to get you started, as well as a monthly plan that provides valuable content and insights for those seeking even more.
Speaker C:Our Leaders Plan includes all inclusive access to a wealth of resources focused on church leadership, apostolic movements, prophetic ministry, and much more.
Speaker C:You can engage in live sessions and discussions that explore how to effectively implement these principles in your life and community.
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