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Reading Acts 11:19-30 where the gospel begins to spread to the Gentiles, and the Hellenists at Antioch are the first to call the disciples Christians. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
The word Christian is not very common in the Bible. It only appears twice in the book of Acts and once in one of Peter's letters. And it was meant to be a derogatory term. But we delight to wear this name when we understand the text.
You're listening to When We Understand the Text, committed to sound teaching of the word of God. For questions and comments, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com. And don't forget our website, www .tt .com.
Here's our host, Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of the book of Acts, picking up where we left off yesterday in chapter 11 and starting in verse 19. Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews.
But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.
The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.
And a great many people were added to the Lord. So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul. And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people.
And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians. Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch, and one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world.
This took place in the days of Claudius. So the disciples determined, everyone according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea. And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.
Now this particular section of Acts 11, where we got to toward the end where it talks about the famine that was going on in Jerusalem, this actually happens much later. It happens after some of the events that we would get to next in Acts chapter 12.
But Luke, in telling this story, in writing Acts, decided to focus on those events that were going on there in Antioch. So he kind of leaves the chronology a little bit to examine those things that happened there with the prophets and with Barnabas and with Saul as the message of the gospel continues to spread in this Gentile area.
And so he gets kind of broad in the telling of the influence upon Antioch. But then we come back into the chronology and the advancement of the gospel and spread of Christianity when we jump back into Acts chapter 12.
In the meantime here, chapter 11 verse 19, we see that those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch. Now, if you'll remember the speech of Stephen back in Acts chapter 7, and at the conclusion of his speech, he was stoned.
So Stephen became the first martyr of the church. And after that had happened, when the first Christian was killed for their faith and done so as publicly as Stephen's death, then the Christians became scattered.
Everyone was kind of in Jerusalem at that time or in Judea and the surrounding areas. But as soon as it was seen what had happened to Stephen and word spread about that, the Christians scattered. And this was considered kind of a dispersion, a diaspora is the word for it.
Just like there was a dispersion of Jews throughout the Roman Empire. So now we see a dispersion of Christians. Now, this was still all according to God's providential hand over all of this, because remember that in Acts chapter 1 verse 8, before Jesus ascended into heaven, he told his disciples that you will be my witnesses even to the ends of the earth.
Right now, they were still witnesses in Jerusalem, but had not yet even gone to the rest of Judea and into Samaria. We don't see the message of the gospel spread into Samaria until you get to Acts chapter 8.
And then, of course, with what we had read earlier this week regarding Peter's sermon at the home of I keep wanting to say Claudius, because that's that's what we had just been reading about here at Cornelius, Peter's sermon at the home of Cornelius.
This was showing that the gospel was now going to the Gentiles as well. So that's the fulfillment of to the ends of the earth. The spreading out of the Christians was so the gospel would spread out. And those Christians had even gone to Rome and had started a church there, though an apostle would not come to visit them and teach them until much later.
And of course, that would be the apostle Paul. This was the reason why he wrote his letter to the Romans was to say, my desire is to come to you. Rome was the capital city of the world. Paul wanted to make it there, because if you can get to the capital city of the world, you could get the gospel out to everywhere.
Everything would just spread out from Rome. So Paul wanted to come to the church that he might encourage them and the and the church would even encourage him. But he's got that opportunity to share the gospel in Rome.
But that church was started there by those Christians that were scattered to go back to Rome after that dispersion, after Stephen's death and the dispersion occurred. So you have Christians scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen.
They traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch. If you're unable to look at a map right now, I would recommend that you go look at a map later so that you get an idea of how the gospel was beginning to spread here.
The direction it was starting to go now, if you're listening to this program and you've got your Bible open and you're reading along with me as we do this together, I do get emails from some of you saying, hey, I'm I'm sitting right there at my kitchen counter and I've got my Bible open and I'm reading it with you as we go through the text.
That's wonderful. Well, you probably have some Bible maps in the back, right? Flip to the back, open up one of those maps and you'll get to see you'll get an idea about where these areas are. So in the Palestinian location is where you've got places like Jerusalem, Caesarea and Damascus.
And then as you go into Syria, that's where you're going to run into Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch. Now, Cyprus itself was an island in the northeastern corner of the Mediterranean Sea. It was just to the northwest of Jerusalem, the southwest of Tarsus, to the west of Antioch.
And there's two Antiochs. There is the Antioch that is in Syria. That's a little bit to the north or I'm sorry, a little bit to the south of what is modern day Turkey. But then there's another Antioch that's almost right smack in the middle of modern day Turkey.
That's Antioch in Pisidia. That's not the Antioch that we're talking about. The Antioch that is being mentioned here in Acts 11 is that city that's just on the northeastern corner of the Mediterranean Sea, right on the coast.
It was the third largest city in the Roman Empire after Rome and Alexandria. Only they were larger. Antioch was the capital of the Roman province of Syria. So this is a pretty big deal for the gospel to get to Antioch.
And notice as we go on here, Barnabas goes and gets Saul from Tarsus and brings him down to Antioch. Well, that wasn't too far. It was just kind of a hop, skip and a jump away from Tarsus. And Saul was perfectly equipped for exactly this kind of mission.
We'll talk about that a little bit more as we go on. So the the gospel is starting to make a bend around that northeastern side of the Mediterranean Sea and start heading into Asia Minor, where you're going to get into some of those major Greek cities.
Ephesus would be in there. You cross the sea to get over to like Corinth and Athens, and then you go even further west than that to get into Rome. So you're starting to see how the gospel is beginning to spread into Gentile areas.
That's what's being shown here, mentioning Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch. But it says that those who were scattered spoke the word to no one except Jews. Now you have to think here that that as we come to this section of Acts chapter 11, we've already talked about the stoning of Stephen.
And then there was the dispersion of Christians. And then you had the gospel going into Samaria. That was because of Philip. And then you've got the conversion of Saul, Acts chapter 9. Then you've got Saul in Jerusalem.
You got Peter and Cornelius and the Gentiles hearing the good news. And now you have Peter reporting to the church in chapter 11. That's immediately following the story that had happened at Cornelius's home.
And now you have the church getting to Antioch. We're kind of rewinding a little bit. So this section that we're reading today, Acts chapter 11, verses 19 through 30, this is jumping back into the action and even goes beyond the timeline or the chronology that we're currently following.
Just to talk about what had happened after the dispersion of those Christians following the death of Stephen. While we've seen some action of things that have been going on in Samaria and then following Peter to the house of Cornelius, there's also been some things going on with the spread of the gospel into Asia Minor.
And so that's what's being talked about here. So remember, we left Saul in Acts chapter 9, and we haven't read about him again since then. But then he comes back into the story here in the middle part of Acts chapter 11.
Because having gone back to Tarsus, Barnabas knows that Saul is there and he can help greatly with the ministry that needs to be done in spreading to these Gentile areas. So for the meantime, these Christians that have been scattered, these Jews who have become Christians, they speak to no one but Jews as they go to these Greek cities.
They're looking for the synagogues. They're looking for the Jewish communities and finding safety there. And so they're preaching the gospel to only Jews. But then when you get to verse 20. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also preaching the Lord Jesus.
Now previously, when we had read about the Hellenists in Acts chapter 6, we were reading about Jews who were Greek speakers. In this particular case, the Hellenists are not Jews, but they're actually Gentiles.
They're Greek speaking Gentiles. That's who's being described here as the Hellenists. And the hand of the Lord was with them and a great number of Hellenists who believe turn to the Lord. So again, we're still reading about here how the gospel had spread to the Gentiles.
We're reading the story in the book of Acts. We're reading about how the gospel made it to the world. Keep that in mind. So Luke is choosing to focus on action in this particular section that's going on in that northeastern area of the Mediterranean Sea as it starts to head into Asia Minor and get into some of those bigger Greek cities.
It's a big deal that the gospel has now made it to Antioch. Verse 22, the report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. Now remember Barnabas, who is talked about a lot here in this particular section, Barnabas was the cousin of John Mark, who was a guy that palled around with Peter a little bit later on and he penned the gospel of Mark.
John Mark is the author of the gospel of Mark. Barnabas is his cousin. So because they've heard now that the church is getting planted and beginning to grow in Antioch and some of those Gentile areas in that particular region, they trust Barnabas, this man, to go and continue to preach in that area.
Verse 23, when he saw the grace of God that had fallen upon these people in such a city as Antioch, he was glad and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.
And a great many people were added to the Lord. Notice what it says that Barnabas tells the people here. He says, remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose for Barnabas was a good man. You have to think about the way that the gospel was spreading in some of these Greek areas.
There were a lot of Greeks who loved philosophy. They love knowledge. They were looking for the best new idea. So upon hearing about this message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, some of them would have latched on to it just like they would have latched on to any philosophy.
There may have been some amount of syncretism that was going on here. So they still worshiped their Greek gods. But then there's also this Jesus that we're hearing about also. And Barnabas coming to this area to verify the spread of the gospel in the area since word had come back to Jerusalem and also to continue to preach the gospel to them.
He tells them to be steadfast in purpose. Don't let this be a passing fad. Don't let this be a thing where you're clinging on to some new philosophy or world religion. We're talking about salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, the forgiveness of sins, being able to escape the wrath of God and the judgment that is coming upon all mankind.
So Barnabas is telling them, remain steadfast, be steadfast in purpose, be intentional, deliberate about this, pursue the Lord God. And where it says remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, it means faithfulness to God means you're not sharing yourself with any of these other philosophies or worldly ideas or religions.
You're not messing around with any of that. Your faithfulness is to God and it is to him alone. Barnabas was full of the Holy Spirit and faith and a great many people were added to the Lord because of this witness, because of this preaching that he gave at Antioch.
So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, which again was just kind of a hop, skip and a jump away. And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch for a whole year. They met with the church and taught a great many people.
Now understand that the people that are getting preached to here at Antioch, they had not heard about Peter and the events that happened at Cornelius's house. That was a separate story, separate time, things that had been going on there.
The gospel is reaching this area for the very first time. The message of the Lord Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for sins and rose again from the grave. It has finally made it into these Gentile areas.
And for the first time there, these Gentiles are hearing about Christ and turning from sin and coming to believe. And Saul and Barnabas were there in Tarsus with this mission of the gospel for a whole year, according to verse 26.
And in Antioch, the disciples were first called Christians. This is the first time we see this word come up. The word Christians only appears three times in the entire New Testament, twice in the book of Acts and once in one of Peter's letters.
That's the only place we see the word Christian. The disciples did not call themselves Christians. They called themselves disciples or brothers. And they referred to Christianity as the faith or the way.
They did not call each other Christians. Now, there's nothing wrong with us calling ourselves Christians now. In fact, that's what we should call ourselves. It means Christ follower. We are followers and worshippers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But the way that these people in Antioch meant it, these Hellenists, when they referred to these little Jesus followers as Christians, that word itself meant little Christ's. That's what they were calling them.
So they were speaking it in a disparaging way. You're following this carpenter guy who was killed by the people that you're saying that he made. He was buried in a tomb. You're following this little carpenter guy and saying that he's God.
Or on the part of the Hellenists, they would have said, you're saying that he's a God. So they made fun of them by calling them Christians. You think about the Greeks, those from Antioch, the Hellenists.
When they pointed to their gods, what did their gods look like? They were usually pretty muscular, beautiful in form. They were these carved marble statues, some of them very large, some small, some life size, some bigger than life.
They would point to those statues and say, here's our gods. Look at how masterful and beautiful our gods are. Who's your God? He's some Jew that they hung on a cross. I mean, what great God is that? Well, my friends, we know by what is shared in the gospel, that is a beautiful God who has given his own son to die for our sins so that by faith in him, we would not perish in unrighteousness, but we would be cleansed of all unrighteousness.
This is the beautiful story of the gospel where the cross becomes the symbol of our defeat before God and the sacrifice that was necessary to pay for the penalty that we deserved. We look at the cross and we see beauty, but these Hellenists from Antioch looked at the cross and they thought it was absurd.
Of course, the apostle Paul talks about that with the Corinthians. He says that the message of the cross is foolishness for those who are perishing, but for those who are being saved, it is the power of God.
1 Corinthians 1 18. So this was a derogatory term that was used, which is why you don't see the Christians using it among themselves. But it is good for us to call ourselves Christians today that we may share in the sufferings of Christ and consider it worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.
Verse 27. Now, in these days, prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch, and one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world. This took place in the days of Claudius.
So the disciples determined everyone, according to his ability to send relief to the brothers living in Judea, and they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul. Now, of course, the famine in the days of Claudius has not yet occurred in the chronology of events that we've been reading overall as we've been going through the book of Acts.
So Luke is kind of looking into the future a little bit because this is an event that happens there at Antioch. So we still staying at Antioch and and the things that transpire there. But then we're going to return to the narrative action when we get to chapter 12.
And that's what we're going to come back to next week as we continue our study in the book of Acts. Romans 1 16. Paul says, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
It is such a privilege to have heard the gospel that we might repent of our sins and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. So live that out with your whole life. If the grace of God has been poured into your heart, demonstrate grace, show peace to others, love and kindness and patience that God has demonstrated to us.
Though we were sinners, God has shown his love to us in that he sent his son Jesus to die for us. Romans 5 8. So continue to live that out today and share the gospel with others that they may turn from sin and live our Lord Jesus.
We thank you for this word today and I pray that we would, with the disciples, not be ashamed to suffer of the name of Christ, but we delight to share in his sufferings for the gospel. Keep us steadfast in the faith as this instruction had come to the Christians at Antioch.
Remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose and make us full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. We pray this in Jesus name.
Amen. This has been When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt .com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast, or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.
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