The C word
Acts 11:19-30
If you are keeping up with your reading you know that this scripture is an ongoing story about the growth and expansion of the church. Last weeks reading starts with A gentile Cornelius, a Roman centurion that is a God fearer. He has a visitor, an angel that tells him his faith and his good works have risen like an offering before God. He is to send for Peter who is about 25 miles away in Joppa.
Then the story jumps to Peter who has a vision where God tells him that there is no separation between clean and unclean. He uses images of all kinds of animals and when Peter resists. God tells him not to call something unclean that “He” – God has made clean.
Then suddenly men come and invite him to come to Caesarea where he meets Cornelius.
Keeping the review short, he preaches and Cornelius and family receive the Holy Spirit. Peter witnesses that God has saved a group of Gentiles.
That is a pretty radical step. That is something that is hard for him to accept. And when he gets back to Jerusalem, the rest of the apostles call him on the carpet for hanging out with gentiles. He defends himself and tells the story…
15"As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning.
In the beginning…it sounds like he is describing the day of Pentecost. I wonder if we could be talking about tungs of fire dancing over the heads of the household. The others back off their objections and recognize that EVEN gentiles can repent and have eternal life.
This leads us to today’s scripture.
Acts 11:19-30
Now 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. 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. The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.
News of this reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 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. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.
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.
During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 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.) The disciples, each according to his ability, decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea. This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.
The story starts with a flash back, it reminds us that the followers of the WAY have been scattered and headed out as far from Jerusalem as possible after Stephen was murdered.
The scripture mentions that se they went they were, “telling the message only to Jews.”
That sounds a little snobbish doesn’t it, to tell only the Jews?
In a way it is, the Jews were a people that tried to stay culturally pure. In the past God had given them instructions to not inner marry with other people. Jerusalem was a big time Jewish town. Hebrew was the chief language and if you spoke with an accent people quickly knew you were not a local.
There were always lots of out of towners and often people moved there from all over. For the most part Jews spoke Hebrew and they did not like being forced by the Greeks and later the Romans to use other languages. So they just learned enough to get by. We will not even talk abut what they really thought of the gentiles. Scum, not worth talking too…
When the followers of “The Way” went out to the foreign places who are they most likely to speak to? The people that spoke Hebrew…Jews.
Their other languages would be rusty and perhaps they held some prejudice or separation from the Gentiles. Perhaps they would be attempting to keep their purity because contact with gentiles made them unclean and therefore unacceptable to God.
Then the next line, “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.”
So some Jews are nice, right? They are willing to share the news about Jesus.
Well, it might be a little more than that, the men may be from Jerusalem initially but their home towns are cities outside of Israel, they are Jews that were raised up in Gentile areas with less Jewish/Hebrew contact their best language might be Greek or Syrian.
The walls of separation are lower than those that have been living in Israel all their lives.
Maybe their standards were lower. These men that lived in the pagan world understood the environment and the people.
These Diaspora Jews share the news of Jesus Christ with the Greeks…Jews and gentiles alike.
So the sharing of the Good news was sort of an accident right? They just happened to speak the language and be willing to share with gentiles because their standards were lower….
The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.
Humm, I don’t think so. It sounds like God has some kind of plan. It sounds like God has found a way to reach hard core orthodox Jews and reach out to the Diaspora Jews and even gentiles.
God has made a way to speak people’s language. He has equipped believers to share the good news.
• Do we hold a personal superiority over the people around us that we limit who we share our faith with?
• DO we share our faith at all?
• Are we hiding our afraid of persecution?
Then our story jumps back to Jerusalem, and there is news. They hear that over in Antioch, God’s hand is on the people and great numbers of people believe and turned to the Lord.
Ok, we are not talking about Jews here. Jews already believe in the Lord.
So we are talking about Non-Jews are responding to the message. And there is no “official” representative on site to guide the services and to teach the people….and they are still a little uncomfortable about Non-Jews being accepted by God.
Let’s talk a little about Antioch. It is not a hick town it is the third largest in the Roman Empire. It is about 18 miles from the seaport and it is named after the Emperor Antiochus. It was the capitol of Syria and a very powerful position in the Roman Empire. They say in that day there were 800 thousand people living in the area and the walled part of the city was larger than Rome itself. The city was known for pagan worship and prostitution. It sounds like New Orleans or some similar town today.
Wouldn’t the environment full of sinners make it hard to believe that the most Holy God would be involved there.
Come on, compare the two, Jerusalem with the temple and priest in constant service to God or Antioch. The place with temple prostitutes, drinking, pagan worship of all kinds. Why would God go there?
The leadership in Jerusalem gets the report that Gentiles are getting saved and they want to check it out. So they send Barnabas.
We met Barnabas some time back in acts when he introduced Saul to the Apostles. He is one of my favorites because of his neck name. He is known to be generous and filled with the spirit.
Do you wonder why, not of the apostles went to check this out for themselves?
It seems strange that they send an admittedly nice guy but he has nt real authority. Perhaps this was not a real important thing. Gentiles coming to believe, probably not. But Gentiles being accepted by God, is something bigger.
The way Luke stacks the stories tells us that the apostils understood that God had invited gentiles into the faith. So, I think that they are very interested in what is going on. I think they decide to send the best man for the job.
When they choose Joseph, Barnabas thy are sending a man from …. He speaks at least two languages, Hebrew and Greek, maybe more. He is from an area similar to Antioch. The apostles are all native of Israel, they speak Greek and Aramaic. They have never really traveled to foreign places.
Barnabas is much more qualified to go as a witness and teacher.
Barnabas, gets there and he sees God is working and he does what he is known for. He encourages these new believers to remain true to the Lord.
He went to make sure that what was happening was real and correct and true. When he finds that God is working he stays to work with the people. Part of his time there is used to preach and teach and the number of people just starts to explode.
We don’t know if he just can’t handle the growth or he realizes that he does not know how to organize the people and he takes off to get some help. He goes to Tarsus to find Saul and he takes him back to Antioch.
For a year Barnabas and Saul preach and teach the great numbers of people.
So let’s do a quick review, Jews running from persecution tell the good news about Jesus. Some start telling Gentiles, Suddenly people Jews and gentiles come to faith and Barnabas is dispatched to check it out. He helps in the evangelizing efforts and eventually goes for help. Saul comes and together the two men help the groups this church to mature in their faith.
Notice what appears to be happening here.
What is happening in Jerusalem?
-Nothing really new that we know of.
What is happening in Antioch? God’s hand is on the ministry happening there.
Where God works explosive things happen! The signs of his power have moved from where they had been and something new started.
The work of God has moved, not completely removed from Jerusalem just most active in Antioch, Outside of Israel.
Then we get this interesting statement: “The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.”
-That is a nice little aside, an interesting piece of trivia. I guess Luke is just filling in some of the details. But, I don’t really remember him just filling pages with trivia.
What is so important about the name Christians? It is descriptive of believers. I wonder if it was at first more of an insult than a complement. Isn’t that how some nicknames happen?
If you were a Jew this new faith did not make you something else. You were just a Jew that believed the messiah had come, today my would call them Messianic Jews. But what happens to a Greek, a gentile, when he comes to faith. The Jews did not want to accept you as a full Jew. You were changing from believing in Pagan Gods to One God.
You have to be called something don’t you? You need an identity. Whither it was a name decided internally or given by the community, The word Christian became the identity of believers in Jesus Christ.
Identity means that people notice something that let’s them categorize you. Tom is a white male, over weight, he has kids and a wife. Those are all categorizing identifications. We all fall into categories that people automatically size us up.
What can people see or know about you what will let you fall into the C category, that people would use the C word.
People used to use the N word for black people. In ancient Antioch people used the C word to describe believers in the Good news. He is a CHRISTIAN>>>
Can anyone tell that you are a Christian?
What do you do or say that sets you apart?
-What would a reporter notice about you that would make them think positively or negatively about you?
Would any one accuse you of being the C – word?
Will it take a time of persecution before we will share our faith with Christians or pagans?
Will you ever share your faith?
Are you a Christian?
All Glory be to God!
