In this study, we explore the amazing move of God in the City of Antioch, the first fully integrated church of Jew and Gentile in the history of the church. In this church, we see people serving according to their spiritual gift, and the result was amazing! May we go and do likewise.
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The Amazing Grace of God in Antioch
Acts 11:19-30
Last week we saw how the Lord brought Peter down from Joppa to Caesarea to preach the gospel to Cornelius and his household, and they were all converted and filled with the Spirit. When Peter is retelling this story to the Jews in Jerusalem in Luke 11, Luke ends in verse 18 by saying, “When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, “Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.”
Now, beginning Luke 11:19 we are going to see how the floodgates of grace are thrown open, not just for the Jews, but for the Gentiles. For the first time we are going to see an integrated church comprised of both Jews and Gentiles. The city is Antioch. No longer are we concentrating just on Jerusalem and Judea. Now we are going to see this gospel go to the remotest parts of the earth. Antioch in time is going to become the launching pad for missionary activity all over the world.
Let me give you a little background on the city of Antioch. It was situated 300 miles north of Jerusalem and was the 3rd largest city in the Roman Empire, coming in right behind Rome and Alexandria. There were no less than 16 different Antiochs in the ancient world, but this was by far the most influential. It was founded in 300 B.C. by one of Alexander the Great’s generals, naming it after his father, Antiochus. It became known as “Antioch the Beautiful” because of its fine buildings. By this time there was a long paved road of marble 4 miles long flanked by a double colonnade with trees and fountains all around. It was the only city in the ancient world which had its streets lighted at night. It was home to a large colony of Jews, as well as Orientals from Persia, India and China giving it its other nickname “The Queen of the East.” So, in this large cosmopolitan city you had Romans, Greeks, Orientals and Jews. It was also the center of the worship of the goddess Daphne. The priestesses in the temple were actually cult prostitutes reenacting the lovemaking between Apollo and Daphne. Suffice it to say that at Antioch there was much immorality and loose morals.
It was to this city that God brought His amazing grace in a powerful awakening.
This morning we are going to see 3 aspects of the Church in Antioch: its founding, its growth, and its fruit. Just as any plant goes through the stages of germination, then growth, and finally bearing fruit, so it is true of any Church that God plants.
1. The Founding of the Church: 11:19-21
- Who did God use in planting the church? Acts 11:19 picks up from Acts 8:4. Luke dropped the story for a time to flesh out the stories of Philip, Saul, and Cornelius, but now he is picking it right back up. Some spoke the word to Jews in Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch. Others spoke to Greek-speaking Gentiles. Notice that no one is even named by Luke! The identity of the people who were preaching doesn’t matter. What matters is that God used it to raise up a dynamic church. God has His unsung heroes all over the world that He is using to build His church. The world doesn’t know their names. In fact, often the Church doesn’t even know their names. But they are working and laboring in obscurity, quietly doing the will of God. People are being converted, and churches are being formed and there is no big name, or apostle, or Big Cheese taking the credit. God is doing the work through regular, ordinary people like you and me.
- What Was Their Message? 11:20. “The Lord Jesus.” That is always the message. The Greek is literally, “announcing the glad tidings – the Lord Jesus.” Jesus is the glad tidings. He is the gospel. He is the sum and substance of our message. This was the message of Peter, Peter, and Saul (2:36; 8:5; 8:35; 9:20). If you know Who Jesus is, and what He came to do, you know the gospel. Our preaching should not focus on our church, or morality, or social justice issues, or the specific sins of our day. Our primary aim should be to announce the good news about Jesus. Notice they were just “speaking” the word. We would call this “witnessing” today. This was just ordinary speech by ordinary people to the people they met. These are not the polished eloquent sermons of apostles and pastors. This is one neighbor speaking to another neighbor, or a guy speaking to a fellow employee at work.
- What Was The Result? 11:21, “a large number who believed turned to the Lord.” Why were so many being saved? 11:21. “The hand of the Lord was with them.” That’s the only explanation given. It wasn’t because the preaching was so mesmerizing, not because the preachers were so eloquent and dynamic and charismatic. It wasn’t because the hearer’s hearts were so soft, and pliable, and open and ready to receive the truth. The reason was because God’s hand was on these early witnesses. Luke is always very careful to explain that true conversion is a work of God, not of man. Acts 2:47, “And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” The Lord was the One doing the adding! Acts 5:31; 11:18; 13:48; 16:14. What is the only explanation for the hundreds of thousands who were saved in the Jesus Movement in the late 60’s and 70’s? The hand of the Lord was with them. Why have hundreds of thousands been saved in China over the last few decades? The hand of the Lord was with them. If we see a move of God here in in the future, it will only be because the hand of the Lord is with us.
Summary: The church was germinated in Antioch, because a bunch of nobody’s who dared to preach the Lord Jesus, and the hand of the Lord was with them. So, what did God use to birth this church? Preaching. 1Cor.1:21. It will be the same today. If you want to see God save people and churches get started, you’ve got to preach Jesus. God’s ordained means of salvation is not music or drama – it is preaching. The only way that someone can be saved through music or drama is if Jesus is preached through that music or drama. It’s not enough to live a godly life before the unsaved. We need to preach Jesus to them! St. Francis’ motto “Preach the gospel at all times; if necessary use words” is misleading. You can’t preach the gospel without words. What that means for us at The Bridge is that we need to be about proclaiming the gospel. We’ve been doing that in many different ways. I encourage you to pray for an opportunity to start a Discovery Bible Study with people you know. Share Jesus with your friends, family and workmates and fellow students.
2. The Growth of the Church: 11:22-28. Just as any plant which germinates begins to grow, so too any Church planted of the Lord will start to grow. So, what is necessary for the spiritual growth of a Church? Gifted Men. In this section, Luke introduces us to 3 men whom God used to help this brand new church to grow and flourish – Barnabas, Saul, and Agabus. Notice that God didn’t expect these new believers to grow and flourish in their faith all on their own. He sent them believers who had been walking with Jesus for many years and knew His Truth, to teach and exhort them. God’s normal way of bringing spiritual maturation is through the gifts of other mature believers. Eph.4:11. Isolating yourself from other believers is not a model for spiritual growth!
- Barnabus: (Gift of Exhortation) Barnabas’ name means “Son of Encouragement” (Acts 4:36), and he certainly lived up to his name. The basic idea of “exhortation” is encouragement. It is to urge others to do the will of God. It appears that in this Church, there were many new believers, but not many mature leaders. When the Jerusalem church heard of the work of God in Antioch, they sent them a seasoned and proven man of God who could help them to grow and get grounded in their faith – Barnabas. He was from Cyprus, the very island that these guys were from who preached the Lord Jesus in Antioch! In other words, he wasn’t an outsider, but one of their own. It would be easier for the preachers in Antioch to receive his ministry, because he was one of them. Barnabas was also not one of the Judaizers. If the Jerusalem church had sent them a Judaizer it could have killed the work in Antioch. Barnabas was a man who recognized the grace of God for what it was, and was able to encourage these new converts in their faith. The Judaizers would have imposed the Law of Moses on these Gentiles and insisted that they be circumcised.
- Why Was Barnabas Selected? Look at his character – Good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. These were the same character qualities the apostles looked for when appointing the 7 to care for the Grecian widows in Acts 6.
Further, Barnabas was a humble man. That is seen in the fact that he deliberately sought out Saul to help him in this work. That tells us a lot. It tells us he was a humble man who wasn’t seeking his own glory or the praise and approval of man. Barnabas could have been the Senior Pastor, The Head Honcho, calling all of the shots. He could have had all these new believers looking to him for spiritual nourishment, and become sort of an idol figure. However, he deliberately decided to find someone else to share the ministry with.
- How Did He Minister?
1) He confirmed that a genuine work of God was taking place in the city. When he saw it, he rejoiced and was glad.
2) He exhorted these young believers to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose. To Exhort means “to urge another to a course of action; to encourage.” Barnabas encouraged them all with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord. He exhorted them to remain faithful to the Lord, to persevere. Barnabas knew these new believers would have many trials, temptations, and sufferings. He was doing his best to prepare them for them, and to be resolutely committed, that come what may, they would remain true to the Lord.
- What Was The Result of His Exhorting Ministry? 11:24 – a great many people were added to the Lord. So, initially through the work of these unnamed preachers who were scattered by the persecution there were a great number who turned to the Lord. Now there is another great many people added to the Lord. Barnabas’ ministry has had a wonderful effect on the new church. They have determined that whatever comes, they will remain true to the Lord, and their zeal and passion has been effective in drawing in many other lost people to the Lord.
- Saul: (Gift of Teaching) Why would Barnabas seek out Saul to help in this ministry? Well, for starters, he realized that there were way too many people for him to be able to effectively minister to and shepherd. For another, he knew that Saul was the man that this church needed. Both Barnabas and Saul were diaspora Jews, having grown up outside of Palestine. Saul was fluent in the Greek language and culture. Furthermore, Saul was specifically called by God to bring the gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15), and had a rare gift of teaching, which is exactly what these new believers needed. Saul has been walking with Jesus for about 9 or 10 years at this point. Jesus has given him wonderful revelation, and he is bursting to share it. The Lord is going to use this time in Barnabas and Saul’s lives to prepare them for their mission in chapter 13. They are learning to minister together as a team, to submit to one another, and to teach the Word to a Gentile audience.
- How Did He Minister? He, together with Barnabas taught the church for a whole year. Perhaps there would be teaching sessions going on 6 or 7 days a week. Barnabas and Saul would alternate, or perhaps they taught together, one taking the lead, and the other filling in the gaps. Notice, that they were Initially, the gospel was preached. However, after a group of people had been born again, the emphasis switches from preaching to teaching & exhorting. Preaching in the NT is usually associated with proclaiming the message of salvation to lost people. However, once a person has embraced Christ and is saved, he now needs to be taught the whole counsel of God. Teaching and Exhorting are prime gifts that are needed by believers in order to grow in their salvation. Teaching generally comes first. You can’t apply truth until that truth has been explained to you. Teaching lays the foundation, and exhortation builds upon it. In teaching, the Word is analyzed, explained, and illustrated. Then the person with the gift of exhortation urges people to put into practice those truths they have been taught.
The apostle Paul mentioned both the gift of teaching and exhorting in Romans 12:6-8, and urges those who have any of those gifts to be diligent in the use of them. In 1 Tim.4:13 Paul urges Timothy to give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and to teaching. In other words, read the Scriptures, then explain them, then exhort the people to do them. Jesus told us in the Great Commission that the way we make disciples is to teach them to observe everything that He had commanded. And that is exactly what we find in the early church in Acts 2:42. They were continually devoted to the apostles’ teaching.
- What Was The Result of His Teaching Ministry? 11:26 “the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.” Notice that the disciples didn’t call themselves Christians, they were called Christians. These zealous disciples in Antioch caught the attention of the unbelieving city, and the people there nicknamed them Christians, similar to a follower of Herod being called a This tells me that as a result of Saul’s teaching ministry, these disciples identified themselves as followers of Jesus Christ. That’s who they were essentially. Saul taught them everything he knew of Jesus Christ. They soaked it in, and shared it with the unbelievers in Antioch, until these unbelievers said, since you guys can’t seem to talk of anything except Christ, we’re going to call you Christians, followers of the Christ.
What are followers of Jesus called in the New Testament?
Disciples: occurs 269 times in the NT. 239 times in the Gospels, and 30 times in Acts. Never occurs after Acts 21.
Brethren: occurs 290 times in the NT. Occurs in Gospels, Acts, Epistles, and Revelation.
Saints: occurs 61 times in the NT. Occurs in Acts, Epistles, and Revelation.
Christians: occurs 3 times in the NT. Here, Acts 26:28; 1Pet.4:16
Sinners: occurs 43 times in the NT. All but 1 refer to unregenerate people. Only time Paul uses the term of a regenerate person is of himself – 1Tim.1:15.
It seems ironic that the terms that are used the least are the ones we use the most (Christians, sinners). You are a disciple (learner), brother or sister (family), saint (holy one). That is your Biblical identity!
3. Agabus: (Gift of Prophecy) 11:27-28.
- How Did He Minister?
As part of a group of prophets. Don’t miss the plurality of these prophets. There was a group of prophets that were in Jerusalem. They came to Antioch, hoping to use their gift of prophecy to be a blessing to this new church in Antioch. Everywhere you look in the NT you see a team, a plurality of men & women ministering in teams. It’s always Elders, Deacons, Prophets. Paul always ministered as part of a church planting team. Even here, Barnabas doesn’t try to minister alone, but seeks out Saul to help him. There is an important principle here. A plurality ensures that there will be mutual accountability and submission among the leaders, which is imperative for a healthy church life.
With the Gift of Prophecy: He foretold by the Spirit of a great famine. Claudius Caesar reigned from 41–54 A.D. Josephus records a very severe famine in Judea during Claudius’ reign, in which many people died for lack of money to buy what little food was available. Notice this gift of prophecy had nothing to do with giving new revelation concerning doctrine or theology. Its purpose was to reveal something which was about to take place, so that church could make preparations to assist one another when times got really bad. Also notice that no one is recording Agabus’ prophecies word for word and making a book of the Bible out of them like Isaiah or Jeremiah. His prophecies are not intended to convey word for word Scripture-level authority. They are a specific word from God for a specific people at a specific time. That’s all. Don’t make the mistake of thinking the congregational NT prophecy is somehow inerrant like Scripture. No, it must be judged by the congregation.
- What Was The Result of His Ministry? The church took note, and took up a generous offering to help the poor brethren in Jerusalem where the famine would hit the hardest. Agabus’ prophetic ministry was an important gift to enable the Church to do the will of God at a particular point in time. It is still an important gift today!
- Fruit of the Church: 11:29-30. After a plant has germinated and grown to a considerable size, if it is healthy, will bear fruit. It is no different in the Church. What was the fruit that we see the church in Antioch bearing?
- Generous Giving:
How Much Did They Give? According to his ability. Those with more gave more. Those with less gave less. Notice there is no percentage that each one was compelled to meet. Tithing was an OT practice, given by God to take care of the Levites. It is not brought into the NT. Today, there is no percentage that believers are bound to give according to. But, if we look at giving that way, we have entirely missed the point. Giving is not a duty that we have to perform in order to be “good Christians.” It is a privilege that we get to do out of joy. The object shouldn’t be to meet a minimum standard. The object should be to see how much of our income we can give. The problem with tithing is that people think that as long as they give 10%, they can do whatever they want with the rest. No! Folks, 100% of your income is God’s, and we are His money managers. We should be asking Him what He wants us to do with His money.
Who Gave: Everyone. None were excluded, or excluded themselves. The same is true today. God’s will is for every child of God to be a generous giver.
Why Did They Give? To send relief to the brothers living in Judea. Paul lays out a spiritual principle in Rom.15:27, “if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they are indebted to minister to them also in material things.” The church in Jerusalem had ministered to them by sending Barnabas and Agabus and other prophets who strengthened them spiritually. It was only reasonable for them to reciprocate and bless them materially.
How Did They Send Their Gift? Entrusting it to Barnabas and Saul who delivered it to the Elders. They were wise about it. Barnabas and Saul had proven themselves to be men of integrity among them. They knew they could trust them to deliver it safely. Barnabas and Saul were wise enough to know that this gift needed to be entrusted to the Elders, who would dispense it with wisdom.
Application:
In this story we see God working mightily through His people. But also notice that these people were laboring according to the gifts God had given them. The Lord uses many people and many gifts in planting, growing, and bearing fruit in His Church: preaching, teaching, exhortation, and prophecy. I exhort you to be like these unnamed preachers, Barnabas, Saul, and Agabus. Identify your spiritual gift, and put it to use. Peter says in 1 Peter 4:10, “As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”
So, identify your spiritual gift(s). What are they?
How much of your time and energy are you utilizing in exercising your spiritual gifts?
Recently, I have been stepping back from the day to day operations of my window cleaning business. I prayed and asked the Lord how He wanted me to use my time and energy. I considered what my spiritual gift is and concluded it was teaching the Bible. So, I started a Youtube channel and have been making videos to teach the Bible, and to teach others how to study and teach the Bible to others.
I encourage you to do the same. Use your spiritual gifts for the benefit of others! Pour yourself out for the brethren! Find another person who needs your encouragement, your generosity, your instruction, your timely word, and invest in them. Let’s be busy about the Master’s business.
“Only 1 Life – Will Soon Be Past – Only what’s Done For Christ Will Last!”
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