In this episode, Andy and Wes discuss the advance of the Gospel among Gentiles in Antioch and some aspects of their church life and ministry
Wes
Welcome to the Two Journeys Bible Study podcast. This podcast is just one of the many resources available to you for free from Two Journeys Ministry. If you’re interested in learning more, just head over to twojourneys.org. Now on to today’s episode. This is Episode 22 in our Acts Bible Study Podcast. This episode is entitled The First Gentile Church, where we’ll discuss Acts 11:19-30. I’m Wes Treadway and I’m here with Pastor Andy Davis.
Andy, what are we going to see in these verses that we’re looking at today?
Andy
Well, we’re going to see the beginning of one of the most significant local churches there’s ever been in church history, the church at Antioch. And this church at Antioch was predominantly a gentile church. And so, we saw in Acts 10 and then explained in Acts 11, the ministry of Peter to Cornelius and to his household extending the gospel to Gentiles. And since that time, the church has been overwhelmingly and predominantly gentile, not Jewish. There are Jewish believers in Christ in every generation, but gentile believers in Christ overwhelmingly predominate. And so, this church in Antioch is a healthy, powerful, fruitful church. We’ll see more in chapter 13, especially as they send off Barnabas and Paul/Saul for their first missionary trip. But right now, we’re going to see the very beginning of this church in Antioch, and it’s pretty exciting.
Wes
Well, let me go ahead and read Acts 11:19-30.
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, every one 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.
Andy, who does the account focus on in verse 19?
Andy
It says, those who have been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen. And so, we learned earlier after Stephen was martyred, it says all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. And so now this circles back to those people. So, these are the non-apostles, and this is a very significant verse in showing the, I don’t know how to say it, maybe lay involvement in missions. The fact that it wasn’t just the apostles that were preaching, but these were common people, men and women who are unnamed. We don’t know much about them, but they were active in spreading the gospel. They’re active in missions. And so that leads me to believe that a lot of the hidden history of the spread of the gospel that we’re going to learn about in heaven, that we’re going to celebrate in heaven will have been done by unnamed people, common people who are just going about their lives. They’re merchants, housewives, maybe soldiers getting dispatched to a certain area. Who knows? In this case, I would imagine these are Jewish believers in Christ that have been scattered, and they are following their callings perhaps. Or they are refugees in this case, they can’t live in the home they were in originally, and now they’re in a different place. At any rate, their top priority seems to be preaching the gospel, and they were effective. They were speaking the message, that said, only to Jews.
Wes
Andy, talk a little bit more about who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen mentioned in Acts 8:1, and what does that teach us about evangelism in the early church?
Andy
Yeah, so I think just knowing that yes, definitely the apostles were the ones that were called on to lead the church, but most of the work would be done by the people. And so, I think of this in terms of being a pastor. And I think of this in terms of Ephesians 4, where it says he gave some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to prepare God’s people for works of service. So, then God’s people, those are just the laypeople in the church, the normal members of the church. And so, these are non-apostles that have been scattered. And what we learn is that the overwhelming predominance of ministry, of the spreading, of the gospel being done by the church was done being done not by the leaders, but by the common people.
Wes
What does Luke tell us about the target of this outreach, because this is significant here as well.
Andy
Yeah, it says in verse 19, they were speaking the message only to Jews. And so, the church still hadn’t broken out of that pattern that Jesus himself established, in which he said, concerning the Syrophoenician woman’s demon-possessed daughter, I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. But that was just for his ministry, for his physical time on earth leading up to his crucifixion.
Once he rose from the dead, he clearly was sending them to the ends of the earth. He says that very plainly in Luke’s gospel, to the ends of the earth. They’re going in Luke 24, they’re going to go to the distant islands. And this is the very thing that Isaiah predicted and also all the way back in Genesis 12, that through Abraham’s offspring, all households and families and peoples on earth would be blessed. And so, I think the church still was sluggish to understand that. And so, they just stuck to what they knew. They went to the synagogues, they talked to the Jews, and they talked about Jesus as Messiah. So, it still hasn’t broken out, but here in this very chapter, here in this section that we’re studying today in this podcast, we see it starting to break out. Some of them are saying, yeah, no, we’re going to go to Greeks as well to Gentiles.
Wes
Well, and we begin to see this beginnings of this breaking out that you mentioned in the very next verse, how is verse 20 a radical step forward in the history of the church and how is it different from the cases of the Ethiopian eunuch and Cornelius?
Andy
Right? So, the Ethiopian eunuch seems to me to be maybe a proselyte to Judaism who finds out about Jesus in his quest for Judaism and his reading of Isaiah, the scroll of Isaiah, et cetera. Here these are people from Cyprus and Cyrene, it says, who went to Antioch and specifically went targeting Greeks. They’re targeting Gentiles and they’re bringing to them the good news of the Lord Jesus it says. The gospel of Jesus. So, they’re beginning specifically to target Gentiles, and we know the whole second half of the Book of Acts is going to focus predominantly on the apostle Paul. And he is the apostle to the Gentiles. But these are precursors to that. This is before Paul had clarified that calling, and so they are speaking to Greeks and sharing the good news of Christ.
Wes
How successful was the outreach that we’ve just been talking about that’s mentioned in verse 20, and what does verse 21 teach us about God’s sovereignty in salvation?
Andy
we know that nobody can come to faith in Christ unless God draws them.
Yeah, so verse 21 says, “A great number of people believed and turned to the Lord,” but before that it says the Lord’s hand was with them. And we know that nobody can come to faith in Christ unless God draws them. Jesus himself said that in John 6, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44). And so, there’s a powerful working of the hand of the Lord. This is one of those anthropomorphic images of God where it says the hand of God, or the hand of the Lord was with them. And so, what that means is his power. And God, through the Holy Spirit, all of God’s activities and actions in building the church are done through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. By the powerful working of the Holy Spirit, the preaching of the gospel was effective, and people were brought sovereignly brought to faith in Christ.
Wes
Now, why did the church in Jerusalem feel that they had the need to send Barnabas when they heard of what was going on?
Andy
Well, we see the same thing in Acts 8, as the Samaritans received the gospel, and they dispatched Peter and John. And they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. So, we saw that, and that was to create a sense of cohesive unity among Jews and Samaritans where there had been a historic divide and hostility between them. Well, we also know from Ephesians 2, there’s a barrier, a dividing wall of hostility between Jews and Gentiles and a great deal of discord between them. But that barrier, that dividing wall of hostility had been taken down through the body of Christ. So, the old covenant regulations such as circumcision and the dietary regulations, and the things that created a division between Jews and Gentiles were removed in the new covenant. The time had come for the gospel to spread among Gentiles. As we see that the step forward is understanding that this vast fields of Gentiles needed to be reached with the gospel.
Wes
Now, specifically when they hear about it, they send Barnabas. In what ways is Barnabas a good choice for the ministry and Antioch, and what does this account tell us about him?
Andy
Okay, so the apostles who are still leading the church in Jerusalem saw the need to confirm that the work was genuine and that there would be, as I just mentioned, cohesiveness in the body of Christ. Not many different versions of Christianity growing up, but one body of Christ with many local manifestations of it, the universal church and then the local churches. So that’s why they sent somebody, and they chose Barnabas. Now, Barnabas is an incredible man, and this chapter gives us a sense of his qualities, of his nature. Barnabas was not his real name. His real name was Joseph. He was a Levite from Cyprus. And so, it lines up also with the fact that the evangelists here had been men from Cyprus and Cyrene, and so he might’ve even known them, et cetera. So, he would be a good choice. And his name, his nickname means son of encouragement.
He was a great encourager and he’s going to do exactly that here in this ministry. He’s going to arrive, evaluate, and he’s going to encourage them, but he’s not a flatterer. He’s not going to give the encouragement for no reason. He’s going to evaluate it. So, they’re dispatching a wise man, a good man who is full of the Holy Spirit to see the nature of the work and to see what could be done about it. And if it was heretical or fraudulent to do what he could to either shut it down or to bring them to orthodox doctrine. But as it turned out, there was no need for that. Everything was in good order, but Barnabas was an excellent choice.
Wes
So, what was the nature of Barnabas’s ministry to the Gentile converts in Antioch? What grace of God did he witness there and what was his reaction to it?
Andy
Alright, so he is there to evaluate the work and to make certain that it’s healthy, that the doctrine is orthodox, to use the image that Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 3:10 of building a building. He said, “By the grace God gave me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and now others are building on it, but let him who builds be careful how they build.” So, there’s that sense of has the foundation been laid properly? As Paul says again in Corinthians, no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Christ. So, the finished work of Christ is the foundation. Barnabas is there to make certain that these evangelists have laid the foundation properly. Is the foundation based on the finished work of Christ, the blood shed by Christ on the cross and his bodily resurrection? And he saw that it was. That this was evidence of the grace of God that these individuals, the converts, let’s say, my sense is he probably questioned them, asked them questions about their spiritual experience, what they understood, and they showed a good knowledge of the gospel.
They showed a good knowledge of orthodox salvation doctrine, of justification by faith alone, forgiveness of sins by repentance and faith in Christ. And so, the evidence is there in the people, as Paul would say to the Corinthians, again, you are our letter of recommendation. You yourselves are, by the way that you were converted, in the way you’re living your life. And so the evidence of the grace of God that Barnabas saw in Antioch was in the people, the men and women who were brought to a genuine faith in Christ, the fact that they were giving good answers, orthodox answers, doctrinally, and that their lives were lined up with the pattern of Christianity, of basic holiness having turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God as it says in Thessalonians. So, we just saw evidence of the grace of God in their lives.
Wes
Now, if the doctrine of once saved, always saved is true, why do we have to be encouraged to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose as it says he encourages them here?
Andy
Yeah. Well, salvation comes to us in stages. Justification must be followed by sanctification. And sanctification is frequently depicted in the New Testament as an endurance race. “Let us run with endurance the race marked out before us” (Hebrews 12:1), the author of Hebrews tells us. Paul says that he does not run like a man running aimlessly. He beats his body and makes it his slave. He says he deals with himself very sharply so that he can run this race and win the prize. So, the idea is we’re not done being saved yet. And so, a lot of New Testament passages exhort us and encourage us and convict us and warn us so that we can stay the course and finish. Jesus himself gave us this sense of a journey. And that’s why this ministry is called Two Journeys, that there’s a journey to be traveled.
“I am the way and the truth in the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). And then in John 14:44 he says, “You know the way to the place where I’m going.” There’s a journey to be traveled. So, we don’t go and tell people who have recently prayed to receive Christ, “You’re there, the destination’s been reached.” No, you’ve got a race to run. So, he was glad at the beginning. He was glad at the fact that there was evidence of having been justified by faith, but he knew about the stony ground hearers who could initially receive the word with joy, but as soon as trouble or persecution came because of the word, they quickly fall away, fell away. And so, he would need to say, you need to persevere. There’s going to be persecution, you’re going to have trials, you’re going to have to battle sin. You’re going to have to be at this the rest of your lives. As Jesus himself said, “He who stands firm to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13). And so, he had to encourage them to remain steadfast and true to the Lord with all their hearts.
Wes
So, Barnabas was a good choice for this ministry. This ministry was to encourage and equip the saints, but also the fruit of this ministry led to a great many people being added to the Lord as it says at the end of verse 24. So, a powerful ministry that Barnabas has here. Why did Barnabas then have to look for Saul? What’s happening in verses 25 and 26?
Andy
This is vital for every local church. We will never be done while we are in this world needing a faithful ministry of the word of God.
Okay, well this is incredible. I checked the map right before we got started on the podcast to see exactly where Antioch was, and its way up in the northeast corner of the Mediterranean Sea. Well, just a little bit over from Antioch is Tarsus, and that’s where Saul/Paul was. And so, he knew that despite the beginning that this church in Antioch had made, they would need faithful teaching of the ministry of the word of God. This is vital for every local church. We will never be done while we are in this world needing a faithful ministry of the word of God. And so, he went and found a person who as it turned out, was the greatest teacher of Christian doctrine in the history of the Christian church. There is no greater. I mean, who would you rather have come teach your local church than the apostle Paul? Now what we have instead are his epistles. And that’s what he sent to the church at Rome in lieu of him being there personally. He wanted to come visit the church at Rome, but in lieu of that, he sent them a brief summary of his doctrine known as the Book of Romans. Alright, but this is the apostle Paul. This is his teaching ministry, and it really begins here formally. He’d already preached there in Damascus and got into persecution, immediately in hot water, had to be let down in a basket over the wall. And then he goes to the city of Jerusalem and is welcomed there and perhaps does some ministry there. Then it seems in Galatians he goes out the desert of Arabia. And has some time alone to fast perhaps and pray and really understand the doctrine of the gospel. And then he kind of is in isolation and perhaps seclusion or goes back to Tarsus. And now Barnabas is going to recruit him for the final phase of his life, which is this active ministry of teaching and evangelism. And so, it’s pretty exciting to go over and get him and bring him in.
Wes
What was the nature of their cooperative ministry in Antioch? How long did it last and what was the fruit of it?
Andy
Alright, and I don’t really know that I properly answered the question you asked before. If they are so secure, why do they need a teacher? And I think fundamentally we need to understand faith comes by hearing; faith is also sustained by hearing the word of God. And so, we need to have our faith fed all the time. And so, we don’t have to have somebody of the expert level of Paul, but we get his epistles, and we get his teaching. And by that, as he always says grace to you. And then at the end of his epistles, he always says, may God’s grace be with you. And so, it’s like the epistle itself is a ministry of grace given from God through Paul to the church. And so, he goes and gets him and brings him in and they teach. It says here for a whole year.
And so, there’s a thorough ministry of the word here. It’s not a light dealing with the church at Antioch here. And he’s going to do the same thing later in the Book of Acts as you see him for a year in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. And I believe in Corinth there. He’s just ministering for a good long time. So, he is a thorough, careful craftsmen in the ministry of the word, Saul is, and so is Barnabas. So, they work together. And it says that they taught great numbers of people. And that goes back to verse 24. A great number of people were brought to the Lord. So, verse 24, “A great number of people brought to the Lord,” and then they were taught, a great number of people were taught, the same group of people. And so, this is a huge ingathering and then discipling of this church, evangelism and discipleship.
Wes
Andy, what do you make of the fact that disciples were first called Christians in Antioch?
Andy
Well, that’s the normal title that we go by ever since then. And so often we’ve found in church history, titles that become normative later are insults initially. So, the Puritan Puritans was an insult. Methodist was an insult, Anabaptist was an insult. I don’t know that Christians was an insult, but it’s almost like it’s like a political party or something like that, oh you’re the followers of the Christ, the Messiah. But they were willing to have that name. They’re willing to be named by his name. The Christ of course relates to the Greek and sense of the anointed one, the Messiah of the Jewish religion. But this is the Greek version of that. But we are pleased to be identified by the name of the one anointed by God to be the Savior of the world.
Wes
What do verses 27-30 teach us about church life in the first century, including how the church in Jerusalem related to other churches?
Andy
Okay, so here we have an example of the gift of prophecy. So, this is a very important piece of information for me in understanding the New Testament gift of prophecy. So, what is prophecy? In the Old Testament prophets were individuals who stood in the presence of God and heard the word of God from God directly and then turned around and related that word to the people of God. They had a special closeness to God through holiness. And I think at one point Abraham was called a prophet when he lied about his wife, Sarah and her relationship to him, then God warned the king there. I think Abimelech was his name, warned him that he needed to go to Abraham, and he would pray for you because he is a prophet. Alright? So, the idea is he’s in close relationship with me, but especially later, after Moses, the office of prophet within the nation of Israel was the office of hearing the word of God and relating it to the people, thus says the Lord.
And so, the prophet would stand in God’s presence and hear from him the word of God. In the New Testament, we have the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and based on Joel 2, there’s a sense of a widespread prophetic gift. And we remember when Moses, the Spirit of the Lord came upon Moses and then it extended some other people. Moses said, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all of God’s people were prophets” (Numbers 11:29). And so then in the prophecy of Joel 2:28, it says the Holy Spirit will be poured out, “Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams,” a spreading of the gift of prophecy. And so, it is the ability to hear the word of God and to speak it to the people of God. Now, it’s very important to be able to identify the gift of prophecy and to identify prophets rightly.
Jesus gave a moral code: by their fruit you will recognize them. If they are corrupt people, they are false prophets, they’re wolves and sheep’s clothing. But also from Deuteronomy 18, we can evaluate based on their ability to predict the future. If they can predict the future and if what they say comes true, then the people can know that they are prophets. And so, while in Corinth we have the gift of tongues and the gift of prophecies, we have in local churches the gift of prophecy, I think it’s still reasonable to validate the gift by the ability to predict the future. I do not say that all prophecy predicts the future, but I do say that it is valid biblically to evaluate whether or not an individual man or woman because there are female prophets too. Whether a man or woman is a prophet by whether or not they have predicted the future. I don’t think they have to keep doing it even, but to just do it once to validate the gift. And here’s a pattern, Agabus a prophet, a New Testament prophet predicted that a famine would come on the entire Roman world, and it was fulfilled. You can’t predict that a famine will come on the world in 300 years because we can’t validate it. There has to be an independently verifiable prediction of the future to validate the gift of prophecy or the prophet, the prophetic office in the pattern of Deuteronomy 18. Now, I know what I’m saying is controversial. Some say since not all prophecy is prediction of the future, we shouldn’t require that prophets predict the future, but I’m not the one that thought of it. Deuteronomy 18 says, how can we know that the person’s a prophet? Answer: if what they said comes true, then you’ll know. Jesus did that very much. So, he made clear predictions about healings, go home and you’ll find that child is well, that kind of thing. So, he made predictions. He was validated as a prophet. So here this prophet Agabus, stood up, it says, and through the Spirit predicted this severe famine. And this happened during the reign of Claudius. That’s the validation of the prophetic gift.
Wes
Andy, how does this also what we see in verse 28, how does this also help prove the historicity of Luke’s account?
Andy
Well, I guess you could look it up. The Romans are great record keepers and historians. So, I don’t know if anybody’s done this. I think it’s knowable, but I didn’t do the research before our podcast today to see if there is independent verification in the annals of the Roman empire of a famine that happened during the reign of Claudius. My guess is famines happened a lot, and so there would be some kind of record of it. I don’t know that unbelievers would be convinced by it. But at any rate, this Luke is this kind of a historian. I mean, we’ve got a lot of connections with the Roman emperor, empire, sorry. And for example in Luke 2, the birth of Jesus, the birth account in Luke 2:1-20, we’re very familiar with that. A census was taken of the entire Roman world while Quirinius was governor of Syria, et cetera. That’s what Luke does. And so here we have the mention of the Roman emperor Claudius.
Wes
Practically speaking, there are needs that arise and the church seeks to meet them. How does the church address these practical needs and what final thoughts do you have for us today?
Andy
Right. So, first of all, why would God do this? Why would God forewarn the church? But I think it would be similar to the famine that happened during the time of Joseph – so they could lay up food ahead of time. Maybe there would be some bumper crops that would lead into it. And it’s like, we need to set some food aside. And so forewarned is forearmed as the old saying goes. And so first of all, they would take the information given about this famine and they would begin making preparations. The church would thrive, would be able to continue to survive and maybe even use it as a form of outreach. If they stockpiled food, they could maybe feed the hungry in ways that those that were not forewarned couldn’t do. And so, we see the church working together. And we see the disciples, it says each according to his ability. He who gathered much did not have too much, like in the days of the manna. And so those that were wealthy enough could provide help for the brothers living in Judea. And they sent their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul. So, see that cohesiveness again of Gentile churches, helping Jewish churches financially.
Wes
Andy, any final thoughts on this passage as we conclude today?
Andy
No, this is very exciting. It’s thrilling for me to see the spread of the gospel now and how significant this moment was for the future history of missions. And that is that the missions would predominantly be among the Greeks, among the non-Jews, the Gentiles.
Wes
Well, this has been Episode 22 in our Acts Bible study podcast. We want to invite you to join us next time for Episode 23 entitled, Peter Delivered from Prison, Herod Struck Down where we’ll discuss Acts 12:1-25. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys podcast. And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
Wes
Welcome to the Two Journeys Bible Study podcast. This podcast is just one of the many resources available to you for free from Two Journeys Ministry. If you’re interested in learning more, just head over to twojourneys.org. Now on to today’s episode. This is Episode 22 in our Acts Bible Study Podcast. This episode is entitled The First Gentile Church, where we’ll discuss Acts 11:19-30. I’m Wes Treadway and I’m here with Pastor Andy Davis.
Andy, what are we going to see in these verses that we’re looking at today?
Andy
Well, we’re going to see the beginning of one of the most significant local churches there’s ever been in church history, the church at Antioch. And this church at Antioch was predominantly a gentile church. And so, we saw in Acts 10 and then explained in Acts 11, the ministry of Peter to Cornelius and to his household extending the gospel to Gentiles. And since that time, the church has been overwhelmingly and predominantly gentile, not Jewish. There are Jewish believers in Christ in every generation, but gentile believers in Christ overwhelmingly predominate. And so, this church in Antioch is a healthy, powerful, fruitful church. We’ll see more in chapter 13, especially as they send off Barnabas and Paul/Saul for their first missionary trip. But right now, we’re going to see the very beginning of this church in Antioch, and it’s pretty exciting.
Wes
Well, let me go ahead and read Acts 11:19-30.
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, every one 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.
Andy, who does the account focus on in verse 19?
Andy
It says, those who have been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen. And so, we learned earlier after Stephen was martyred, it says all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. And so now this circles back to those people. So, these are the non-apostles, and this is a very significant verse in showing the, I don’t know how to say it, maybe lay involvement in missions. The fact that it wasn’t just the apostles that were preaching, but these were common people, men and women who are unnamed. We don’t know much about them, but they were active in spreading the gospel. They’re active in missions. And so that leads me to believe that a lot of the hidden history of the spread of the gospel that we’re going to learn about in heaven, that we’re going to celebrate in heaven will have been done by unnamed people, common people who are just going about their lives. They’re merchants, housewives, maybe soldiers getting dispatched to a certain area. Who knows? In this case, I would imagine these are Jewish believers in Christ that have been scattered, and they are following their callings perhaps. Or they are refugees in this case, they can’t live in the home they were in originally, and now they’re in a different place. At any rate, their top priority seems to be preaching the gospel, and they were effective. They were speaking the message, that said, only to Jews.
Wes
Andy, talk a little bit more about who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen mentioned in Acts 8:1, and what does that teach us about evangelism in the early church?
Andy
Yeah, so I think just knowing that yes, definitely the apostles were the ones that were called on to lead the church, but most of the work would be done by the people. And so, I think of this in terms of being a pastor. And I think of this in terms of Ephesians 4, where it says he gave some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to prepare God’s people for works of service. So, then God’s people, those are just the laypeople in the church, the normal members of the church. And so, these are non-apostles that have been scattered. And what we learn is that the overwhelming predominance of ministry, of the spreading, of the gospel being done by the church was done being done not by the leaders, but by the common people.
Wes
What does Luke tell us about the target of this outreach, because this is significant here as well.
Andy
Yeah, it says in verse 19, they were speaking the message only to Jews. And so, the church still hadn’t broken out of that pattern that Jesus himself established, in which he said, concerning the Syrophoenician woman’s demon-possessed daughter, I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. But that was just for his ministry, for his physical time on earth leading up to his crucifixion.
Once he rose from the dead, he clearly was sending them to the ends of the earth. He says that very plainly in Luke’s gospel, to the ends of the earth. They’re going in Luke 24, they’re going to go to the distant islands. And this is the very thing that Isaiah predicted and also all the way back in Genesis 12, that through Abraham’s offspring, all households and families and peoples on earth would be blessed. And so, I think the church still was sluggish to understand that. And so, they just stuck to what they knew. They went to the synagogues, they talked to the Jews, and they talked about Jesus as Messiah. So, it still hasn’t broken out, but here in this very chapter, here in this section that we’re studying today in this podcast, we see it starting to break out. Some of them are saying, yeah, no, we’re going to go to Greeks as well to Gentiles.
Wes
Well, and we begin to see this beginnings of this breaking out that you mentioned in the very next verse, how is verse 20 a radical step forward in the history of the church and how is it different from the cases of the Ethiopian eunuch and Cornelius?
Andy
Right? So, the Ethiopian eunuch seems to me to be maybe a proselyte to Judaism who finds out about Jesus in his quest for Judaism and his reading of Isaiah, the scroll of Isaiah, et cetera. Here these are people from Cyprus and Cyrene, it says, who went to Antioch and specifically went targeting Greeks. They’re targeting Gentiles and they’re bringing to them the good news of the Lord Jesus it says. The gospel of Jesus. So, they’re beginning specifically to target Gentiles, and we know the whole second half of the Book of Acts is going to focus predominantly on the apostle Paul. And he is the apostle to the Gentiles. But these are precursors to that. This is before Paul had clarified that calling, and so they are speaking to Greeks and sharing the good news of Christ.
Wes
How successful was the outreach that we’ve just been talking about that’s mentioned in verse 20, and what does verse 21 teach us about God’s sovereignty in salvation?
Andy
we know that nobody can come to faith in Christ unless God draws them.
Yeah, so verse 21 says, “A great number of people believed and turned to the Lord,” but before that it says the Lord’s hand was with them. And we know that nobody can come to faith in Christ unless God draws them. Jesus himself said that in John 6, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44). And so, there’s a powerful working of the hand of the Lord. This is one of those anthropomorphic images of God where it says the hand of God, or the hand of the Lord was with them. And so, what that means is his power. And God, through the Holy Spirit, all of God’s activities and actions in building the church are done through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. By the powerful working of the Holy Spirit, the preaching of the gospel was effective, and people were brought sovereignly brought to faith in Christ.
Wes
Now, why did the church in Jerusalem feel that they had the need to send Barnabas when they heard of what was going on?
Andy
Well, we see the same thing in Acts 8, as the Samaritans received the gospel, and they dispatched Peter and John. And they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. So, we saw that, and that was to create a sense of cohesive unity among Jews and Samaritans where there had been a historic divide and hostility between them. Well, we also know from Ephesians 2, there’s a barrier, a dividing wall of hostility between Jews and Gentiles and a great deal of discord between them. But that barrier, that dividing wall of hostility had been taken down through the body of Christ. So, the old covenant regulations such as circumcision and the dietary regulations, and the things that created a division between Jews and Gentiles were removed in the new covenant. The time had come for the gospel to spread among Gentiles. As we see that the step forward is understanding that this vast fields of Gentiles needed to be reached with the gospel.
Wes
Now, specifically when they hear about it, they send Barnabas. In what ways is Barnabas a good choice for the ministry and Antioch, and what does this account tell us about him?
Andy
Okay, so the apostles who are still leading the church in Jerusalem saw the need to confirm that the work was genuine and that there would be, as I just mentioned, cohesiveness in the body of Christ. Not many different versions of Christianity growing up, but one body of Christ with many local manifestations of it, the universal church and then the local churches. So that’s why they sent somebody, and they chose Barnabas. Now, Barnabas is an incredible man, and this chapter gives us a sense of his qualities, of his nature. Barnabas was not his real name. His real name was Joseph. He was a Levite from Cyprus. And so, it lines up also with the fact that the evangelists here had been men from Cyprus and Cyrene, and so he might’ve even known them, et cetera. So, he would be a good choice. And his name, his nickname means son of encouragement.
He was a great encourager and he’s going to do exactly that here in this ministry. He’s going to arrive, evaluate, and he’s going to encourage them, but he’s not a flatterer. He’s not going to give the encouragement for no reason. He’s going to evaluate it. So, they’re dispatching a wise man, a good man who is full of the Holy Spirit to see the nature of the work and to see what could be done about it. And if it was heretical or fraudulent to do what he could to either shut it down or to bring them to orthodox doctrine. But as it turned out, there was no need for that. Everything was in good order, but Barnabas was an excellent choice.
Wes
So, what was the nature of Barnabas’s ministry to the Gentile converts in Antioch? What grace of God did he witness there and what was his reaction to it?
Andy
Alright, so he is there to evaluate the work and to make certain that it’s healthy, that the doctrine is orthodox, to use the image that Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 3:10 of building a building. He said, “By the grace God gave me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and now others are building on it, but let him who builds be careful how they build.” So, there’s that sense of has the foundation been laid properly? As Paul says again in Corinthians, no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Christ. So, the finished work of Christ is the foundation. Barnabas is there to make certain that these evangelists have laid the foundation properly. Is the foundation based on the finished work of Christ, the blood shed by Christ on the cross and his bodily resurrection? And he saw that it was. That this was evidence of the grace of God that these individuals, the converts, let’s say, my sense is he probably questioned them, asked them questions about their spiritual experience, what they understood, and they showed a good knowledge of the gospel.
They showed a good knowledge of orthodox salvation doctrine, of justification by faith alone, forgiveness of sins by repentance and faith in Christ. And so, the evidence is there in the people, as Paul would say to the Corinthians, again, you are our letter of recommendation. You yourselves are, by the way that you were converted, in the way you’re living your life. And so the evidence of the grace of God that Barnabas saw in Antioch was in the people, the men and women who were brought to a genuine faith in Christ, the fact that they were giving good answers, orthodox answers, doctrinally, and that their lives were lined up with the pattern of Christianity, of basic holiness having turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God as it says in Thessalonians. So, we just saw evidence of the grace of God in their lives.
Wes
Now, if the doctrine of once saved, always saved is true, why do we have to be encouraged to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose as it says he encourages them here?
Andy
Yeah. Well, salvation comes to us in stages. Justification must be followed by sanctification. And sanctification is frequently depicted in the New Testament as an endurance race. “Let us run with endurance the race marked out before us” (Hebrews 12:1), the author of Hebrews tells us. Paul says that he does not run like a man running aimlessly. He beats his body and makes it his slave. He says he deals with himself very sharply so that he can run this race and win the prize. So, the idea is we’re not done being saved yet. And so, a lot of New Testament passages exhort us and encourage us and convict us and warn us so that we can stay the course and finish. Jesus himself gave us this sense of a journey. And that’s why this ministry is called Two Journeys, that there’s a journey to be traveled.
“I am the way and the truth in the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). And then in John 14:44 he says, “You know the way to the place where I’m going.” There’s a journey to be traveled. So, we don’t go and tell people who have recently prayed to receive Christ, “You’re there, the destination’s been reached.” No, you’ve got a race to run. So, he was glad at the beginning. He was glad at the fact that there was evidence of having been justified by faith, but he knew about the stony ground hearers who could initially receive the word with joy, but as soon as trouble or persecution came because of the word, they quickly fall away, fell away. And so, he would need to say, you need to persevere. There’s going to be persecution, you’re going to have trials, you’re going to have to battle sin. You’re going to have to be at this the rest of your lives. As Jesus himself said, “He who stands firm to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13). And so, he had to encourage them to remain steadfast and true to the Lord with all their hearts.
Wes
So, Barnabas was a good choice for this ministry. This ministry was to encourage and equip the saints, but also the fruit of this ministry led to a great many people being added to the Lord as it says at the end of verse 24. So, a powerful ministry that Barnabas has here. Why did Barnabas then have to look for Saul? What’s happening in verses 25 and 26?
Andy
This is vital for every local church. We will never be done while we are in this world needing a faithful ministry of the word of God.
Okay, well this is incredible. I checked the map right before we got started on the podcast to see exactly where Antioch was, and its way up in the northeast corner of the Mediterranean Sea. Well, just a little bit over from Antioch is Tarsus, and that’s where Saul/Paul was. And so, he knew that despite the beginning that this church in Antioch had made, they would need faithful teaching of the ministry of the word of God. This is vital for every local church. We will never be done while we are in this world needing a faithful ministry of the word of God. And so, he went and found a person who as it turned out, was the greatest teacher of Christian doctrine in the history of the Christian church. There is no greater. I mean, who would you rather have come teach your local church than the apostle Paul? Now what we have instead are his epistles. And that’s what he sent to the church at Rome in lieu of him being there personally. He wanted to come visit the church at Rome, but in lieu of that, he sent them a brief summary of his doctrine known as the Book of Romans. Alright, but this is the apostle Paul. This is his teaching ministry, and it really begins here formally. He’d already preached there in Damascus and got into persecution, immediately in hot water, had to be let down in a basket over the wall. And then he goes to the city of Jerusalem and is welcomed there and perhaps does some ministry there. Then it seems in Galatians he goes out the desert of Arabia. And has some time alone to fast perhaps and pray and really understand the doctrine of the gospel. And then he kind of is in isolation and perhaps seclusion or goes back to Tarsus. And now Barnabas is going to recruit him for the final phase of his life, which is this active ministry of teaching and evangelism. And so, it’s pretty exciting to go over and get him and bring him in.
Wes
What was the nature of their cooperative ministry in Antioch? How long did it last and what was the fruit of it?
Andy
Alright, and I don’t really know that I properly answered the question you asked before. If they are so secure, why do they need a teacher? And I think fundamentally we need to understand faith comes by hearing; faith is also sustained by hearing the word of God. And so, we need to have our faith fed all the time. And so, we don’t have to have somebody of the expert level of Paul, but we get his epistles, and we get his teaching. And by that, as he always says grace to you. And then at the end of his epistles, he always says, may God’s grace be with you. And so, it’s like the epistle itself is a ministry of grace given from God through Paul to the church. And so, he goes and gets him and brings him in and they teach. It says here for a whole year.
And so, there’s a thorough ministry of the word here. It’s not a light dealing with the church at Antioch here. And he’s going to do the same thing later in the Book of Acts as you see him for a year in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. And I believe in Corinth there. He’s just ministering for a good long time. So, he is a thorough, careful craftsmen in the ministry of the word, Saul is, and so is Barnabas. So, they work together. And it says that they taught great numbers of people. And that goes back to verse 24. A great number of people were brought to the Lord. So, verse 24, “A great number of people brought to the Lord,” and then they were taught, a great number of people were taught, the same group of people. And so, this is a huge ingathering and then discipling of this church, evangelism and discipleship.
Wes
Andy, what do you make of the fact that disciples were first called Christians in Antioch?
Andy
Well, that’s the normal title that we go by ever since then. And so often we’ve found in church history, titles that become normative later are insults initially. So, the Puritan Puritans was an insult. Methodist was an insult, Anabaptist was an insult. I don’t know that Christians was an insult, but it’s almost like it’s like a political party or something like that, oh you’re the followers of the Christ, the Messiah. But they were willing to have that name. They’re willing to be named by his name. The Christ of course relates to the Greek and sense of the anointed one, the Messiah of the Jewish religion. But this is the Greek version of that. But we are pleased to be identified by the name of the one anointed by God to be the Savior of the world.
Wes
What do verses 27-30 teach us about church life in the first century, including how the church in Jerusalem related to other churches?
Andy
Okay, so here we have an example of the gift of prophecy. So, this is a very important piece of information for me in understanding the New Testament gift of prophecy. So, what is prophecy? In the Old Testament prophets were individuals who stood in the presence of God and heard the word of God from God directly and then turned around and related that word to the people of God. They had a special closeness to God through holiness. And I think at one point Abraham was called a prophet when he lied about his wife, Sarah and her relationship to him, then God warned the king there. I think Abimelech was his name, warned him that he needed to go to Abraham, and he would pray for you because he is a prophet. Alright? So, the idea is he’s in close relationship with me, but especially later, after Moses, the office of prophet within the nation of Israel was the office of hearing the word of God and relating it to the people, thus says the Lord.
And so, the prophet would stand in God’s presence and hear from him the word of God. In the New Testament, we have the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and based on Joel 2, there’s a sense of a widespread prophetic gift. And we remember when Moses, the Spirit of the Lord came upon Moses and then it extended some other people. Moses said, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all of God’s people were prophets” (Numbers 11:29). And so then in the prophecy of Joel 2:28, it says the Holy Spirit will be poured out, “Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams,” a spreading of the gift of prophecy. And so, it is the ability to hear the word of God and to speak it to the people of God. Now, it’s very important to be able to identify the gift of prophecy and to identify prophets rightly.
Jesus gave a moral code: by their fruit you will recognize them. If they are corrupt people, they are false prophets, they’re wolves and sheep’s clothing. But also from Deuteronomy 18, we can evaluate based on their ability to predict the future. If they can predict the future and if what they say comes true, then the people can know that they are prophets. And so, while in Corinth we have the gift of tongues and the gift of prophecies, we have in local churches the gift of prophecy, I think it’s still reasonable to validate the gift by the ability to predict the future. I do not say that all prophecy predicts the future, but I do say that it is valid biblically to evaluate whether or not an individual man or woman because there are female prophets too. Whether a man or woman is a prophet by whether or not they have predicted the future. I don’t think they have to keep doing it even, but to just do it once to validate the gift. And here’s a pattern, Agabus a prophet, a New Testament prophet predicted that a famine would come on the entire Roman world, and it was fulfilled. You can’t predict that a famine will come on the world in 300 years because we can’t validate it. There has to be an independently verifiable prediction of the future to validate the gift of prophecy or the prophet, the prophetic office in the pattern of Deuteronomy 18. Now, I know what I’m saying is controversial. Some say since not all prophecy is prediction of the future, we shouldn’t require that prophets predict the future, but I’m not the one that thought of it. Deuteronomy 18 says, how can we know that the person’s a prophet? Answer: if what they said comes true, then you’ll know. Jesus did that very much. So, he made clear predictions about healings, go home and you’ll find that child is well, that kind of thing. So, he made predictions. He was validated as a prophet. So here this prophet Agabus, stood up, it says, and through the Spirit predicted this severe famine. And this happened during the reign of Claudius. That’s the validation of the prophetic gift.
Wes
Andy, how does this also what we see in verse 28, how does this also help prove the historicity of Luke’s account?
Andy
Well, I guess you could look it up. The Romans are great record keepers and historians. So, I don’t know if anybody’s done this. I think it’s knowable, but I didn’t do the research before our podcast today to see if there is independent verification in the annals of the Roman empire of a famine that happened during the reign of Claudius. My guess is famines happened a lot, and so there would be some kind of record of it. I don’t know that unbelievers would be convinced by it. But at any rate, this Luke is this kind of a historian. I mean, we’ve got a lot of connections with the Roman emperor, empire, sorry. And for example in Luke 2, the birth of Jesus, the birth account in Luke 2:1-20, we’re very familiar with that. A census was taken of the entire Roman world while Quirinius was governor of Syria, et cetera. That’s what Luke does. And so here we have the mention of the Roman emperor Claudius.
Wes
Practically speaking, there are needs that arise and the church seeks to meet them. How does the church address these practical needs and what final thoughts do you have for us today?
Andy
Right. So, first of all, why would God do this? Why would God forewarn the church? But I think it would be similar to the famine that happened during the time of Joseph – so they could lay up food ahead of time. Maybe there would be some bumper crops that would lead into it. And it’s like, we need to set some food aside. And so forewarned is forearmed as the old saying goes. And so first of all, they would take the information given about this famine and they would begin making preparations. The church would thrive, would be able to continue to survive and maybe even use it as a form of outreach. If they stockpiled food, they could maybe feed the hungry in ways that those that were not forewarned couldn’t do. And so, we see the church working together. And we see the disciples, it says each according to his ability. He who gathered much did not have too much, like in the days of the manna. And so those that were wealthy enough could provide help for the brothers living in Judea. And they sent their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul. So, see that cohesiveness again of Gentile churches, helping Jewish churches financially.
Wes
Andy, any final thoughts on this passage as we conclude today?
Andy
No, this is very exciting. It’s thrilling for me to see the spread of the gospel now and how significant this moment was for the future history of missions. And that is that the missions would predominantly be among the Greeks, among the non-Jews, the Gentiles.
Wes
Well, this has been Episode 22 in our Acts Bible study podcast. We want to invite you to join us next time for Episode 23 entitled, Peter Delivered from Prison, Herod Struck Down where we’ll discuss Acts 12:1-25. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys podcast. And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
