The Original "Christians" (Part 2)
a commentary on Acts 11 (Interpretation)
Thank you, Lord, for this day. May it be used for your glory!
Good morning everyone and welcome back to Biblit!
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This week we saw the founding of one of the early church’s most impactful churches: the church of Antioch.
Let’s jump a little deeper into this chapter and find out why.
Gift of Repentance
Before we talk about Antioch, I want to focus on one thing that the Jews said. They said something very interesting after Peter explained his experience with Cornelius and the other gentiles.
They said:
“So then, God has given repentance resulting in life even to the Gentiles.” (Acts 11:18 CSB).
I think it is such an interesting phrase they chose. They didn’t say the gentiles were given the gift of salvation or grace, though it is implied. But they chose to use the word “repentance” as the gift.
It rings back to Jesus’s own words to the disciples in Luke’s other book:
“He also said to them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead the third day, and repentance for forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” (Luke 24:46-47 CSB).
These Jews knew that repentance was a gift that reveals the grace and forgiveness of sins through Christ alone that was being offered to the gentiles.
Antioch Church Established
What made Antioch so special?
It wasn’t the first church, Jerusalem takes the cake there. But the biggest difference in Antioch and Jerusalem has to do with the message Peter just learned.
That’s why this story flows so great together.
We just got through showing how difficult of a time the Jews in Jerusalem (Peter included) had in fully committing to the mission of Jesus: that the gospel is for ALL people.
However, the church of Antioch didn’t seem to have that issue at all. They embraced the message joyfully and established one of the most diverse churches of all time.
Why do I say that?
A little more background
First, here is a quick background on Antioch I didn’t cover yesterday. Antioch was the 3rd largest city in the Roman empire, right behind Rome and Alexandria.
Wild!
They had people from all over the earth, the farthest reaches, making them an extremely diverse city.
The church is established by nobodies
Next, do you recall from yesterday how the church started?
Remember, the Jews scattered from Jersulaem and preached the gospel elsewhere. But most still just preached to other Jews.
Except for a few people from Cyprus and Cyrene (an already diverse bunch).
These men preached to the Hellenists.
Now, I did a bit more research and misspoke last time.
There was a group of people called the Hellenistic Jews which are Jews of Greek descent. But these people in Acts 11 were not Jews at all. The term “Hellenist” here for our purposes means they were gentiles. In fact in the CSB version, they are called “Greeks.”
So an unnamed group of people took a bold approach to missions and started sharing the gospel with gentiles!
Radical! They didn’t need a vision like Peter or proof like the other Jews in Jerusalem. They were led by the Holy Spirit and did as Jesus commanded: shared the gospel with everyone!
And you know what, the term “Christian” was started because of this radical ministry.
Think about it, these people weren’t only Jews anymore. They weren’t all Greeks either because many were Jews converted to the Way. A new term had to be created to describe these people.
A term that no longer was defined by their culture or ethnicity. A term that only identified them by Jesus Christ.
Meeting people where they are
The second thing these missionaries did was meet the gentiles where they were.
Look at what they preached:
“But there were some of them, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks also, proclaiming the good news about the Lord Jesus.” (Acts 11:20 CSB).
They called Jesus, “Lord” instead of “Christ” which was often the word used to share the gospel with a Jew. To the Jews, the term “Christ” had a major significance to Israel’s savior.
The gentiles wouldn’t care about that at all.
These missionaries knew that and instead shared Jesus as Lord of all creation. A term that every culture could relate to.
The third thing that happened by God’s sovereignty is that Barnabas was the man chosen to be brought up to start the church.
Barnabas was a Greek man from Cyprus, making him extremely relatable.
He was coming to make disciples, not copy the Jewish church from Jerusalem into Antioch. He came to disciple people to follow Jesus, not the Jews.
Focused on the mission of Jesus
The last thing I want to point out is 2 occurrences where we see this church in Antioch have a clear picture of the mission for Christ.
The first is actually in Barnabas’s humility.
See, Barnabas was chosen to come start the church and establish disciples. But he knew of a man who was far better skilled in preaching and his knowledge of the Scriptures: Saul.
Barnabas could have stayed in Antioch alone, established a church, and taken the glory for himself.
But if we’ve learned anything about Barnabas so far, it’s that he doesn’t work like that.
He is humble, lays it down, and gets Saul to come help.
The last part is just how amazing this church was in helping their other brothers and sisters in need.
When the prophecy of the famine came, they did what they could to send aid to their fellow Christians in Jerusalem.