Acts 11:25–26 (NKJV)
25Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Saul.
26And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the disciples “were first called Christians” in Antioch.
The church. Much more than a building. As a matter of fact, the building is not the church. The building is where a particular part of the church meets. It is important for the church to meet and to come together. Barnabas sought out Paul and brought and brought to Antioch. It is interesting that He did not meet with Christians at the church but met with the church. The believers are the church. The church, the body of Christ needs to meet regularly. The early church met more than once a week.
The church came together for fellowship. They came together to learn. They came together to worship. The early church knew they needed to be together. Today the church needs to come together. It is interesting that the church at Antioch was the first called Christians not by believers but by the unsaved world. They were followers of Christ. The lost world understood they belonged to Christ.
What does being a Christian mean? Very simply put it means belonging to and being a follower of Christ. (Did I state this enough)
Everyone who calls himself a Christian should be a true follower of Christ. Paul writes in Colossians 2:6 “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.”
It would be great to preach a prosperity Gospel where when one becomes a Christian every problem in life would disappear. It does not happen that way. Peter writes “For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps.” (1 Peter 2:21) Life was difficult for the Christian in the first century, it is difficult in the twenty-first century.
The bottom line for a Christian is understanding the way of Christ. We must know that Christ lives in the life the believer’. The follower of Christ is to walk in life as Christ walked. John wrote in 1 John 2:6, “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.”