WWUTT 2628 The First Use of the Term Christian (Acts 11:25-30)

Saul is back. He is retrieved by Barnabas and brought to Antioch that they would share the gospel together. And it's there in Antioch that the disciples are called Christians for the first time, when we understand the text.

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Once again, it's Pastor Gabe.

Barnabas Retrieves Saul to Teach in Antioch

Thank you, Becky. In our study of Acts chapter 11, we're picking up where we left off with Barnabas sharing the gospel at Antioch. And he's decided he needs a little help, so he goes to Tarsus to retrieve Saul, whom we would also know as Paul.

Let me pick up in verse 22, and I'll read through verse 30. To start off, hear the word of the Lord. Now the news about them reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas off to Antioch, who, when he arrived and saw the grace of God, rejoiced and began to encourage them all with a purposeful heart to remain true to the Lord.

For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and a considerable crowd was brought to the Lord. And he left for Tarsus to search for Saul. And when he found him, he brought him to Antioch.

And it happened that for an entire year, they met with the church and taught a considerable crowd. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. Now in those days, some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch, and one of them named Agabus stood up and indicated by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine all over the world.

And this took place in the reign of Claudius. And as any of the disciples had means, each of them determined to send a contribution for the service of the brothers living in Judea. And this they did, sending it in charge of Barnabas and Saul to the elders.

And that there will be the conclusion of chapter 11. Now this is the third time that Barnabas is mentioned in the book of Acts. The first time comes up at the end of chapter 4. And it is said that Barnabas was a devout man.

He was a son of encouragement, which is what the name Barnabas means. Joseph was his given name at first, and then he was known by the apostles as Barnabas. So that was the name they gave him because of just what an encouraging man he was.

He was a Levite and a native of Cyprus. So here in this section of Acts chapter 11, when we see that the gospel is spreading in Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, the apostles send Barnabas to Antioch because that's his area.

That would be a place that he would be familiar with. He would know the disciples who were there and would be able to encourage them and continue to proclaim the gospel with confidence to those people there.

So Barnabas, if you will remember at the end of Acts 4, had sold a field that belonged to him and he brought the money, all of it, the entire proceed from the field, he gave it to the apostles and laid it at their feet.

And that became a generous contribution to the entire church. The next time we read of Barnabas was in chapter 9. And Acts 9 is most known for the conversion chapter of Saul into the apostle Paul. Now, he's not called Paul yet.

Remember, as I mentioned about this, Saul is his Hebrew name and Paul, his Greek name. So it's not that God renamed him, which is why even here in Acts chapter 11, he's still referred to as Saul. But as he's going to go to Gentiles, he's going to begin using his Greek name rather than his Hebrew name.

Since, as you remember, at his conversion in Acts chapter 9, God said that he was going to make him his servant to Gentiles as well as to Jews and before kings and so on. Now, after his conversion, he went to Jerusalem and the disciples there were pretty timid around him.

They probably thought this was a trick. Here he is proclaiming Christ and saying that Jesus is the son of God. But some of the Christians there would have been thinking, this is the guy who was rounding us up and throwing us in prison and approving of our being murdered.

And we're supposed to trust him now? This has got to be some sort of a trick. He's saying the name of Jesus, so we'll trust him and then he'll round us up and we'll be back to where we were before. But Barnabas comes and vouches for Paul and presents him before the apostles and then Paul is accepted.

And it is evidenced by Paul's testimony that he was appointed by Christ. And everything that he taught was exactly what the apostles taught, though the apostles didn't teach it to him. So it was known then to them that Paul had received this from the Lord.

And Paul talks about that in Galatians chapter 1. I did not receive this from any man, but it was taught to me from the Lord. So Barnabas was the guy that had brought Paul before the apostles and he was accepted by all of the disciples.

You see what kind of an encouraging guy Barnabas has been, living up to his name. So this is now the third time that we're reading about Barnabas. And again, because he was from Cyprus, as mentioned in Acts chapter 4, he was the perfect guy to send to this region as the disciples had heard the gospel was spreading there.

Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch. So that's where Barnabas has been sharing the gospel. And at some point, when we pick up today in verse 25, at some point Barnabas decided Saul would be great for this.

So in verse 25, he left. He left Antioch for Tarsus to search for Saul. Now, nothing in the text really tells us why. There's nothing that is explicitly explaining to us, you know, Saul just was the perfect guy for the job.

Or what was going on in Barnabas's head that he thought, I really need Saul's help and so I'm going to go find him. It could very well have been that Barnabas just knew Saul was a perfect guy for this.

This is where he can get more training in sharing the gospel and he would be a great ally in teaching the people here. So he goes to Tarsus, which wouldn't have been all that far. I mean, it would have taken a few days, but that was kind of that same general area.

Tarsus, by the way, was not Tarshish. Tarshish was where, if you recall, Jonah was fleeing to when he was trying to get away from what God was telling him to do. God had told him to go to Nineveh and preach the gospel.

Jonah instead boards a ship heading in the complete opposite direction. And he's bound for Tarshish, which is on the far west side of Europe, all the way out on the coast of like Spain. What is modern day Spain and Portugal?

So that's where that's where Jonah was heading. That's not the same place Paul was from. He was from Tarsus, not Tarshish. So Tarsus was in southern what's modern day Turkey. And it would have been just a little bit to the northwest of Cyprus.

Cyprus was an island in the Mediterranean Sea. Tarsus was a coastal city. So that port city there would have been bound for places like Cyprus. It wouldn't have been that difficult for Paul to get there.

So he was familiar with the area. That was where he was from. He was Saul of Tarsus. So Barnabas goes and gets him and brings him to Antioch that Saul would be with him and continue to minister with them there.

So when he found him, verse 26, he found him and brought him to Antioch. And it happened that for an entire year, they met with the church and taught a considerable crowd. So they are not just evangelizing, but they are preaching to the church.

And explaining to the church how the Christ is the fulfillment of the scriptures. When you think about scriptures being read in the church in those days, the New Testament wasn't complete, obviously, because we're reading the New Testament right here as Luke was still writing it.

As he is chronicling the adventures of everything that happened with the apostles and the disciples in the life of Peter and then the life of Paul to bring the gospel to the world. So since the New Testament is not completed yet, the scriptures that they would gather and read would be the Old Testament.

And the apostles would explain to the church how the Christ was the fulfillment of everything that had been said about him in the Old Testament. So that's what Saul, even at this point, and Barnabas would have been teaching to the people.

So for an entire year, they met with the church, taught a considerable crowd. They also did a lot of evangelism. And then the last sentence there in verse 26 says this, and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.

Now, this was intended to be an insult. They were mocking the Christians by calling them that. It wasn't some complimentary title. Oh, these people that follow Jesus Christ. So, OK, let's call them Christians.

No, they thought it was absurd that these people were worshiping a carpenter who had been crucified. And then they claimed that he rose again from the dead. Furthermore, that they believed him to be God.

So God comes down as a man and he's killed by the people that he made. This was ridiculous to them. The entire religion seemed absurd to them because, as is said to us in 1 Corinthians 1 18, the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.

But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. I just saw a really absurd quote the other day from atheist Sam Harris. You know, Sam Harris was one of those really famous atheists from the middle part of the early 2000s, along with guys like Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett and Christopher Hitchens.

Those four were called the four horsemen of the apocalypse, kind of jokingly referring to them. Anyway, Sam Hitchens is still out there doing his thing. Daniel Dennett and Christopher Hitchens have since passed away.

But Harris is still around. And he has this quote, I just saw it, where he says, it's strange that God made Shakespeare a better writer than himself. And Sam Harris is mocking the Bible in that way. But the fact of the matter is, I don't really think Shakespeare was that great a writer.

I think he was long winded. I think that his plots were convoluted. And sure, he had a gift of prose, but his words were not better than the Bible. The Bible is brilliant. And the more I study it, the more amazed I am by it.

Furthermore, Shakespeare's words don't lead anybody anywhere. Might be entertaining for a while, but that's about the extent of it. Whereas the words that we read in the Bible are the words of eternal life.

Why would a guy like Sam Harris look at the brilliance of the Bible? And by the way, there are plenty of people who study ancient works who aren't even believers, but will still say the Bible and the books that are in it are masterfully written.

They are fantastic pieces of writing, as a matter of fact. So it's absurd even that Harris would say that. But why would Harris look at the Bible and think that something like that is not that great a work, whereas Shakespeare is just this masterpiece?

Why would he think such a thing? Well, because, again, of what's said in 1 Corinthians 1 .18, the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing. They think it's absurd. They would think it's as absurd as these people in Antioch who were making fun of the Christians by calling them Christians.

But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. And when we hear an insult like Christian, when somebody calls us a Christian, or they might say, you worship zombie Jesus because he was dead and he came out of the tomb.

So you're worshiping a zombie, right? They would mock us for stuff like this. And what would our response be to that? Amen. Praise God. For as Peter says in 1 Peter 4 .16, If anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not put to shame, but is to glorify God in this name.

Right? I mean, they may want to insult you. You think that they're calling you names that insult you. But what should your response be? Praise be to God. You're going to insult me for that? I say, praise the Lord.

I will be a follower of Christ, no matter how absurd you may think it is. Because I know that in Christ Jesus, my sins are forgiven. I am reconciled to God. And I have the promise of eternal life. Life again after death, found only by faith in Jesus.

And that should cause us to rejoice. The apostles rejoiced when they were counted worthy to suffer for the name. And so we must rejoice also when people insult us and persecute us. As Jesus said in Matthew 5, Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.

So it's here in Acts 11. That's the first time in the Bible that we see the word Christian. Acts 26, we see it again. Where Agrippa says to Paul, Are you trying to persuade me to become a Christian? That's the only two mentions of the word Christian in Acts.

Chapters 11 and 26. And then the reference that I gave you a moment ago from 1 Peter 4, 16. If anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not put to shame, but is to glorify God in this name. So here we have the Christians first being called Christians there at Antioch.

Now, you might be familiar with an ancient comic, so to speak. Like a political cartoon. That is referred to as Alexa Minos Graffito. Do you know what this is? Have you heard this before? It's an ancient piece of art on a Roman wall.

On a wall in Rome. And it's etched into the wall. It was scratched into the wall. Likely dating around 280 -200 or earlier than that. And it depicts a man who is standing before a donkey-headed figure on a cross.

And the young man is raising his hand in adoration. And the caption to this cartoon. Etched into a wall, but it's thought of as being one of the earliest political cartoons that's ever been discovered.

It says, Alexa Minos worships his God. That's what it would be translated as. Alexa Minos subiti theon, which means Alex worships his God. If we shorten his name to Alex, he worships his God. And this is mocking the Christians.

Because, again, it's Jesus on the cross, but he has the head of a donkey. So they're making fun of Jesus, whom they worship. This was one of the earliest cartoons that has ever been found in any sort of ancient archaeological discovery.

And it's like the oldest political cartoon ever found is mocking a Christian who worships Jesus. But that gives you an idea, a little bit, of the kind of mockery that the Christians even would have been experiencing here in Antioch.

And why they were calling them Christians. To mock them for worshiping this Jesus whom you call the Christ. So that's where they first get called Christian. And that name, of course, is going to spread throughout the Roman Empire.

Because later on you have Agrippa that will say to Saul, are you trying to persuade me to be a Christian? Now, verse 27, as we kind of finish this up, going through verses 27 to 30. Now, in those days, some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.

And one of them named Agabus stood up and indicated by the spirit that there was going to be a great famine all over the world. And this took place in the reign of Claudius. Now, this isn't the only time we're going to read about Agabus.

Later on, he will have a prophecy as well concerning Paul and how Paul was going to be bound and imprisoned. When we get to that prophecy, we'll do a little bit of some apologetics there. Because that's a prophecy that's very famous, especially among charismatics.

Trying to say that Agabus made a prophetic utterance that actually didn't come true. But that isn't the case. Anyway, here he makes a prophecy. He says that God has given this prophecy. That there's going to be a great famine all over the world.

And all over the world here in this case would have been the Roman Empire. But even a little bit outside of that in the areas that would have been occupied by who were called the barbarians. Barbarians weren't like the cavemen of those days.

It was just a name that was used for those who were not Greek speakers. So the barbarians would have been affected by this famine as we had read before about the Ethiopian eunuch. And Ethiopia being that region of Africa that's south of Egypt.

That would have been affected by the famine as well. So this famine was going to be all over. And I mention just that part of the world because how much it would have affected like Far East Asia? We don't know.

I don't think that part of the world is necessarily in view here. But all over the world would have been the Roman Empire and then some of those outlying regions that have already been mentioned to us even in the book of Acts.

So Agabus makes this prophecy, makes this prediction. And this is talked about here at the end of Acts 11. Because it's going to show, it's going to demonstrate how Saul has now been accepted by all of the Christian believers even in Jerusalem.

Even the disciples and the apostles who are there. Because what is done is that the Christians take up an offering. Verse 29. As any of the disciples had means, each of them determined to send a contribution for the service of the brothers living in Judea.

That's where the persecution was heaviest. May have been a pretty significant focal point of the famine as well. But because of the persecution that was going on there, it would have been a lot harder for Christians in that area to be able to find food and continue to sustain themselves in the midst of this famine.

Hence why Christians in other parts of the world, especially those cities that are very well to do, like Antioch, by the way. Remember, this was the third largest city in the Roman Empire. So those who were pretty well to do would have taken up an offering to help those who didn't have as much.

Especially when you're considering that the apostles were still there in Jerusalem. And so this was taken up in service to them. So this they did, verse 30, sending it in charge of Barnabas and Saul to the elders.

Now this famine went on for some time because we have it mentioned in other places as well. This will come up again in Acts, where Paul goes back to Jerusalem to take an offering to them. So this famine really went on for quite a while.

And it's also mentioned in 1 Corinthians 16. Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also. On the very first day of each week, one of you is to set aside something, saving whatever he has prospered, so that no collections be made when I come.

And when I arrive, whomever you may approve, I will send them with letters to carry your gracious gift to Jerusalem. And if it is fitting for me to go also, they will go with me. So we see that things were still tough for people in Jerusalem, even at the time that Paul was writing that letter to the Corinthians to take up an offering for the saints that are there.

Now this could have also meant, though, this could also mean, as any of the disciples had means, each of them determined to send a contribution for the service of the brothers living in Judea. And this they did, sending it in charge of Barnabas and Saul to the elders.

This could have been something that happened later. It wasn't necessarily something that happened right here at this moment chronologically. Because now where we go after this is we go back to Peter, catch up with what's going on with Peter in Acts chapter 12.

And that's where we're going to pick up our study next time. But in the meantime, as we kind of finish this up, we are reminded that there are people who will hate us because of our faith. So it was the case with the apostles back then.

And it is definitely the case with us today. But we should not be discouraged. Instead, rejoice in God. Now, it can still break our hearts. It can certainly hurt when someone who is a friend or a family member would say something disparaging about us, that would mock us for the God that we worship.

Or maybe, you know, maybe even they probably call you MAGA or a Trump lover or something like that just because you're a follower of Jesus, which has never been the case with me. But regardless, that seems to be the association, the identity that everything gets tied into.

So they will find ways to mock us and make fun of us. And it can hurt when it comes from friends and family members. But we must continue to hold fast to Christ. And don't try to soften your faith or try to say something like, I'm not one of those Christians.

But rejoice. Rejoice that you are being persecuted for the name. And pray for them that the Lord would have mercy on them so that they would come to faith in Jesus and be saved. Just as we read about Stephen being persecuted and stoned to death.

Remember that as he was dying, he prayed that the Lord would not count this against them. And so may that be our prayer and our cry also for those who hate us for what it is that we believe. We don't hate them in return.

Instead, as said in Romans chapter 12, we would show kindness to them in return. And especially lifting up prayers on their behalf. That God would have mercy on them and they would come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we have read. And I pray, Lord, that our enthusiasm for the gospel continues to be great for us every day. That we wake up and rejoice in God because you sent your son to die for us, to rise again from the dead.

So that all who believe in him will be saved. And we know that message is good for anyone. Anyone can believe in Jesus and by faith be forgiven their sins and have eternal life. So may we share the gospel with others.

May our being made fun of for that not discourage us. But we have the life-saving message that has eternal salvation for those who will believe in it. Why would we want to keep that from anybody? Shouldn't we want everyone to believe it so that they would be saved?

So give us courage and boldness to share the gospel even in these days. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Persecution, Christian Identity, and Rejoicing in Suffering

You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study, When We Understand the Text.