Text: “The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch” (Acts 11:26).
Who is a Christian? How would you define a Christian? I would say that a Christian is a person who believes in and follows the teachings of Jesus Christ. A Christian is one who proclaims, follows, and lives according to the words written in red.
There are some other words in the New Testament used to indicate followers of Jesus. For example, in 1Timothy 4:12 we find these word “believers”. Paul had written this letter to Timothy to encourage him concerning his leadership role in the church at Ephesus.
Paul knew that Timothy would have a difficult time because there was much false teaching going on in Ephesus. Paul considered Timothy “…true son in the faith” (1 Timothy 1:2). Timothy was one of Paul’s converts.
Also, Timothy was a young man and being so, Paul said, to him, “Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in the word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12).
A “believer in the word” would be one who believes in and follows the teachings of Jesus Christ. In this case, Paul uses the word “believer” to indicate a follower of Jesus, hence a Christian.
In Acts 14:2 the followers of Jesus are called brethren. This Scripture says, “But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren.” Some versions of the Bible use the word “brothers”.
There were unbelieving Jews who were causing trouble for the believing Gentiles by preaching in opposition to the disciples. The jealously of the Jews was the basis for their bitter anti-Christian propaganda they were using to create questions in the minds of the brethren.
The followers of Jesus were called “disciples” as indicated in Acts 6:2. The many followers are referred to as disciples. “Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, ‘It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables’” (v. 2).
“The twelve” referred to here are the 11 original disciples and the newly chosen disciple whose name was Matthias. The function of the twelve disciples was to preach the word of God, but in addition to preaching the Word, there were other things that needed to be done.
Verse 2 uses the words “serve tables”. The disciples chose others to carry on programs such as the distribution of food. This same thing should go on in churches today. The preacher or minister’s job is to preach the “Word of God”. This is the greatest job in the world. This is greater than being President of the United States.
The preacher must not try to run all the functions of the church alone. The people who are responsible for carrying out the various functions of the church must be: filled with the Holy Spirit; full of wisdom; possess the highest degree of honesty, and give themselves constantly to prayer.
The followers of Jesus are also referred to as “saints” in The New Testament. Paul uses this in his first letter to the Corinthians. Paul says, “…to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints…” (1:2).
These are just a few different words used to refer to followers of and believers in the teachings of Jesus. It doesn’t make any difference which word is used to describe a follower of Jesus – bottom line is they are “called Christians”.
“The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch” (Acts 11:26). Let’s consider how these events all came together. What is the big deal about Antioch? Why did all this take place in Antioch?
Verse 19 talks about “…those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen….” Where did this scattering originate? What did Jesus say to them before ascending into heaven?
He said to the disciples, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about” (Acts 1:4). Jerusalem played a very important part in history. It was called the “royal city.”
Jerusalem was where the temple was erected. It was the city where our Lord was crucified, where He was buried, where the resurrection took place and the place of His ascension back to heaven.
This was the city chosen for the coming of the Holy Spirit which ushered in the beginning of the Christian Church. In 1 Kings 14:21 Jerusalem is referred to as “…the city which the LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put His name there.”
Jerusalem is called Zion over 100 times in the Old Testament. It is also referred to as “the city of David” in 2 Samuel 5:7 as well as in several other Scriptures. Psalm 46:4 calls Jerusalem “the city of God”.
Knowing these few facts gives us the feeling that Jerusalem was a very important city. If this is true, and it is, what happened to cause the people to be scattered?
After the Ascension the disciples followed Jesus’ instructions to return to Jerusalem and wait for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. At the time the disciples were baptized with the power of the Holy Spirit, “There were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5). In other words, there were many people in Jerusalem at this time.
After the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples, Peter stood up and began to preach this message: “Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).
“Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them” (Acts 2:41). The fellowship of believers was growing at a rapid rate, many miracles were taking place, and people were selling their possessions and giving to those who were in need.
Scripture tells us that “Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour and came upon a certain man lame from his mother’s womb” (Acts 3:1,2). Each day the man was carried to the gate of the temple to ask alms from those who were going to the temple to worship.
The lame man was laid in a place where many people would pass by and present the man with monetary offerings. This was common and acceptable because people believed to provide alms or money to the less fortunate was another means of worshiping and praising Almighty God.
Neither Peter nor John had money to give to the lame man, but they did have something more important than money for the lame man. Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk” (Acts 3:6). A miracle occurred. The man was no longer lame. “He leaped up. He stood and walked and entered the temple with them – walking, leaping, and praising God” (Acts 3:8).
As you can imagine, more people began to believe the message the disciples were preaching, souls were being saved in great numbers, and the fellowship of believers increased. As you know, there are two sides to a coin. In this case, we have positive people and we have negative people.
God was working through the disciples in mysterious ways. The Word was being preached. People were being healed of various health issues. We know that Satan is always working against the forces of God.
In this case, Peter and John were arrested because “They spoke to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead” (Acts 4:1,2).
When you and I try to witness for Jesus Satan will try to interfere by placing obstacles in our way. He will place negative thoughts in the mind of those to whom we are witnessing. He will try to twist our words so as to make them unbelievable or untrue. He will try to confuse us.
Peter and John were preaching the Word and Satan was placing negative thoughts and ideas in the minds of some of the people and official at the temple. Satan was trying to halt the movement of the believers.
God is more powerful than Satan which is evidenced by the results of Peter and John’s preaching. “Many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand” (Acts 4:4). This five thousand is the men, but it is conceivable the number could have been two to three times that number.
Satan tries his best to stop the Word from being heard and from spreading, but God has the upper hand. He is the Creator and there is no one greater or more powerful.
Stephen was one of the seven chosen or appointed to look after the daily distribution of necessities to the poor in the church. “Stephen was full of faith and power, and did great wonders and signs among the people” (Acts 6:8). Stephen was not one of the apostles, but nevertheless, he was a man of faith and power.
Although Stephen was a man of God, he did not make points with some of the Jews because of what he preached. Stephen debated with the Jews who were negative to his preaching and teaching and they could not disprove his words.
Therefore, these Jews hired informants to misrepresent Stephen’s words. In other words, these were hired false witnesses told to say Stephen was “speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God” (Acts 6:11).
The false witness were told to say, “This man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law; for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us” (Acts 6:13, 14).
The result of Stephen’s preaching and teaching led to him becoming a martyr, a sufferer for a cause, or a sacrificial victim. When Stephen had the vision of seeing the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right had of God, he spoke these words: “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God, the accusers could not bear to hear these words.
“They cast him out of the city and stoned him” (Acts 7:58). As the stones were cast upon him, Stephen called out to God with these words: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (Acts 7:59). The accusers did not want to hear the words Stephen was saying because their heart had turned cold and hard.
You and I have run into people today who treat us the same way. I haven’t heard of anyone being stoned lately for witnessing, but I do know there are people who do not want to hear what we have to say. There have been missionaries who have been silenced by death, but that was because certain people did not want to hear the truth.
Regardless of how we are treated or mistreated when we witness, we are still on the winning side. We are not the losers. We are not the victims. We are the victors and sometime later we will be rewarded for our efforts.
People may not accept what we say now, but God works in mysterious ways and somewhere down the road, the people who reject the Word may eventually see the light. Stephen’s death was a positive factor in the life of Paul who became the world’s greatest missionary.
After the death of Stephen many of the believers in Jerusalem were persecuted. The result of the persecution efforts in Jerusalem was people were scattered to other towns and cities.
The persecutors in Jerusalem thought they were gaining a victory, but in reality, the people who were scattered about took with them their belief and their religion. The efforts of the persecutors actually enlarged the number of believers and followers of Jesus.
Some of the people went to Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch. These people were preaching the “Good News” to the Jews only. Peter began preaching the Word to the Gentiles and this resulted in a large number of them becoming believers. Seeds were being planted and a harvest was about to begin.
“Then the news of these things came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch” (Acts 11:22). Antioch was the largest city in the Roman world just behind Rome and Alexandria.
Antioch was a very important center for commerce. There were some pagan religions present which promoted sexual immorality. The good thing about Antioch was the fact there were many Gentiles present who were receptive to the Word, believed what they heard from the disciples and accepted the Lord as their own personal Savior.
Barnabas saw that God was working in Antioch and this was a great opportunity to witness under the power of the Holy Spirit. Barnabas needed a helper and found that helper in the person of Paul who was in Tarsus at the time.
“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” (Acts 11:25, 26).
The question you might ask is “Why were they called Christians?” Think for just a moment. Antioch was like any other large city. There were people from other part of the world. A variety of languages could be heard throughout the city. Since Antioch was made up of people with various cultural backgrounds, there was no common cultural ground.
What did the people have in common? The only thing they had in common was Jesus Christ. This tells me that no matter what your background, where you grew up, your race, your education or lack of education, your job or occupation, your language or anything else can keep you from Jesus because Jesus crosses all barriers regardless of what those barriers may be.
In this room, we are all Christians. We are Christians because we believe the words in red, we have repented of our sins, we believe in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and we have accepted Him as our personal Lord and Savior.
Jerusalem was a famous city, but many would not believe what the disciples preached and did not want others to believe, so to fix the issue, persecution drove people away or scattered them to other parts of the world. Persecution did not silence the believers, but in reality scattered them and in the process, they spread the Word to other people causing a great increase in the number of believers. Under the grace of Almighty God and the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples and many others, Jesus Christ emerged as the common bond or adhesive holding these people together.
Since Christ was the common thread among the believers, the people were called “Christians”.
Amen.
