First Christians church at Antioch and Barnabas’ mission (Acts 11:19-30) By Rev.Katherine Liu Bruce

First Christians church at Antioch and Barnabas’ mission (Acts 11:19-30)

By Rev.Katherine Liu Bruce 

Christian Arts Ministries: Biblical precepts & Gospel music

 

Scriptures reading Acts 11:19-30

¹⁹Now those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews.²⁰ Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus.²¹ The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.

²² News of this reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. ²³ When he arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. ²⁴He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord. ²⁵ Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.²⁷ During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. ²⁸ One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.) ²⁹ The disciples, each according to his ability, decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea.³⁰ This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.

 

Verse 19 Antioch on the Orontes River about three hundred miles from Jerusalem was the capital of the Roman province of Syria. It was the third largest city in the empire, with a population of about 500,000. It was one of the cosmopolitan centers of the world of that day and a center of commerce, Seleucia (sixteen miles away) being its seaport (13:4). Replacing Jerusalem as the number one Christian city, it was the center of the early missionary activity of the church (6:5;13:1;14:26;15:35;18:22). Verse 19 indicates how strong the Jewish believers were in keeping their traditions. They would not come near to Gentiles (10:28). This condition continued even after Peter’s preaching to Cornelius, an Italian. It surely restricted the Lord’s move in spreading His gospel according to God’s New Testament economy.

Verse 20 they must have been from among the Jewish believers in dispersion (1Pet.1:1) men of Cyprus and Cyrene.  This was a further step of the Lord’s move in spreading His gospel to the Gentiles after what happened in the house of Cornelius (ch.10) and before Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles, which beginning ch.13.

Verse 22 Barnabas. Was sent out from Jerusalem to visit the believers in other places; he was sent with authority from the apostles, not from the church, because the apostles were there in Jerusalem. Barnabas described by Luke as one who consoles or encourages (4:36). A good man who was full of the Holy Spirit (11:24), he played an important role in the early life of the church on four occasions (1) He convinced the apostles of the genuineness of Paul’s conversion (acts 9:27). (2) He represented the apostles at Antioch and recognized that the movement there was the work of God (11:22-24); (3) He and Paul were sent by the Spirit on the first missionary journey (13:2); and (4) He defended the work among Gentiles at the Jerusalem council (15:12,22,25).  Saul was saved by the Lord directly without any preaching channel (9:3-6) and was brought into identification with the Body of Christ through Ananias, a member of the Body of Christ (9:10-19). However, he was introduced to practical fellowship with the disciples in Jerusalem through Barnabas (9:26-28). Now Barnabas was sent form Jerusalem to go as far as Antioch to encourage the believers, and he went to Tarsus to bring Saul to Antioch (vv.25-26). This was a great step. It initiated Saul into the Lord’s move in spreading the gospel of His kingdom to the Gentiles world. (13:13).

Verse 23 grace of God. The grace that was seen by Barnabas must have been the Triune God received and enjoyed by the believers and expressed in their salvation, change in life, holy living and the gifts they exercised in their meetings, all of which could be seen by others. Be persistently faithful to the Lord, cleave to Him, and live in close fellowship with Him.

Verse 25 to look for Saul. Paul had been in Tarsus, his home city, and in Syria and Cilicia (Gal.1:21) about nine years since going there from Jerusalem (Acts 9:30).

 Verse 26 Christians. The word appears only here, in 26:28, and in 1 Pet.4:14. It means partisans or followers of Christ, “ Christ’s men” Christians, the disciples in Antioch were given such a nickname, a term of reproach, indicates that they must have borne a strong testimony for the Lord, a testimony that made them distinct and peculiar in the eyes of the unbelievers. 

Verse 28 A severe famine. Josephus reports that a famine occurred in about A.D.46. Claudius. A Caesar of the Roman Empire. In the fourth year of his reign. About A.D.44, there was a famine in Judea and the neighboring countries.

 Verse 29 disciples. This verse shows that the believers’ having all things in common (2:44-45;4:32), which was practiced at the time of Pentecost, had become a thing of the past at the time the matter here was mentioned, no more than ten years after Pentecost, long before Paul began his ministry to the Gentiles (13:2-4). This word indicates further that there was no uniformly prescribed way in the early days of the church concerning the believers’ giving of material things; rather, it was lift to each believer to give out of his own will and his own initiation. Prospered. The Greek word here means to progress favorably, or to go on smoothly; hence, it denotes to thrive smoothly, to prosper, in an enterprise, an occupation, or other activities. Prosperity is given by God, and it issues in surplus and abundance.

 Verse 30 This indicates that in the early days the finances of the church were under the management of the elders. Now Saul, through Barnabas, was brought into the service among the church.

Bibliography,

King James, The Holy Bible (KJV), Cleveland, OH: The world publishing company

Lee, Witness. The New Testament (R.V.) Anaheim, CA: Living Stream Ministry, 1985.

 Ryrie, Charles C. The Ryrie study Bible (NIV).Chicago, IL: The Moody Bible Institute, 1986.