The first part of this chapter
of Acts 11 has to do with Peter's visit to Cornelius, and we spent
quite a little bit of time on that last week. And here Peter
returns to Jerusalem and he reports about what he had seen and heard. And the interesting point about
this chapter is that Peter gets a little bit of blowback, a little
bit of trouble from some of the Jews that were in Jerusalem because
they were unhappy that the Gentiles were hearing the gospel. And
we've spoken about this a little bit in recent weeks, but it's
lovely to see that Peter stands up for the work of Christ and
the work of the Holy Spirit. And he acknowledges that this
work of grace was not restricted simply to the Jews. But as he
says there at the end of Acts chapter 11, I think around about
18, verse 18, he says, So Jews and Gentiles, as we saw last week
with Cornelius, were receiving the gospel, believing the gospel,
and trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. And now Luke, the writer
of the Acts, he leads us into a new section and he's speaking
here about the gospel as it went out from the Jerusalem at the
time of Stephen's persecution. So let's read from verse 19,
Acts chapter 11 and verse 19. Now they which were scattered
abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen, travelled
as far as Phoenix and Cyprus and Antioch, preaching the word
to none but unto the Jews only. So here we can see again that
it was just the Jews that were primarily the objects of the
preaching of these who travelled. However, there's a little change
going on here. So verse 20 says, And some of
them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when they were come to
Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, or the Gentiles, preaching the
Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was
with them, and a great number believed, and turned unto the
Lord. Then tidings of these things
came unto the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem, and they
sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch. who when he came, and had seen
the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with
purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. For he was a good
man, this is Barnabas, for he was a good man, and full of the
Holy Ghost, and of faith, and much people was added unto the
Lord. Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus
to seek Saul. And when he had found him, he
brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass that a whole
year they assembled themselves with the church and taught much
people. And the disciples were called
Christians first at Antioch. And in these days came prophets
from Jerusalem unto Antioch. And there stood up one of them,
named Agabus, and signified by the spirit that there should
be great dearth throughout all the world, which came to pass
in the days of Claudius Caesar. Then the disciples, every man
according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren
which dwelt in Judea, which also they did, and sent it to the
elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. Amen. May God bless to us this reading
from his word. So Luke is telling us a little
bit about how the gospel moved away from Jerusalem, and particularly
how it moves into the north here, because it's the north. And while
it went to the south, that reference to Cyrene there probably speaks
about the north coast of Africa. Rather, it's heading up towards
Asia, towards Turkey, towards Europe even, as we see Stephen
picking up the account here of what happened when these men
went away from Jerusalem during the time of Stephen's persecution
and ultimately his death. And one of the things that we
can notice immediately from this is that even when the enemies
of the gospel try to do harm to the gospel and try to do harm
to the church and to God's people, they are used in God's providence
to do good to the Lord's people and to the work of Christ. And in God's providence, he used
the persecution of the church in order to extend the sphere
and scope and reach of the gospel and to enlarge the glory of his
own name. As these believers travelled,
we discovered that they were just preaching to the Jews. Now, let's see if I can show
you something else here because I've got a little map and I'm
going to use this technology to its full if this has worked. And there you've got a little
map and you can see in the map, there's Jerusalem, there and
Judea, so that's the area where the Lord's ministry took place.
But then at the persecution, we discovered that the church
moved some of them to the south and went along the North African
coast through Egypt, others up into Cyprus. and to Phoenicia,
or Phoenus, as we read about it a little bit earlier, and
into Antioch. So these are the places where
the believers were going to at this time. And just for the sake
of comprehensiveness, there's a little place up here just to
the bottom of the A in Cilicia at the top there. where Tarsus
is and that's where Saul had been sent back at the time again
of the persecution of Saul in Jerusalem. He had been sent back
with the believers to Tarsus and that's where he was living. So we discover now that with
the believers being scattered, that
the gospel goes out to these other places. And suddenly, Gentiles
are being converted as well. Gentiles are being converted
because the Lord's people speak to their friends and to those
who speak Greek, and the message gets passed from person to person. And the Holy Spirit is involved
in opening the hearts of the Gentiles just as he had done
with Cornelius and Peter. And these converts speak to their
friends and the Gentiles begin to hear and believe the Gospel
in large numbers, in huge numbers. And back in Jerusalem, the church
leaders who were a little bit dubious, a little bit uncertain
about the Gentiles being converted and receiving the Holy Spirit,
as we might have read in the earlier part of Acts chapter
11 with regard to Peter and Cornelius, they wonder what's happening.
So they send this man called Barnabas. and they tell him,
go as far as Antioch and see what's happening. And I wonder
if perhaps when Barnabas was travelling that he travelled
up through Damascus on his way, that would be up through Syria,
Damascus is just up here, on the way to Antioch. And I wonder
if he perhaps travelled through Damascus, and when he was travelling
through Damascus, the people there said to him, do you know
what happened to Saul? Do you know what happened to
Saul of Tarsus? We haven't seen or heard of him
for quite a long time. And Barnabas, of course, he would
remember because he knew Saul back in Jerusalem. He would remember
that he had been sent to Tarsus and from Tarsus, that's where
he was now living. And so Barnabas went delegated
by the leaders of the church in Jerusalem to find out what
was happening in Antioch. And when he got there, he discovered
that Antioch was full of Christians. There were Christians gathering
and worshipping, they were praising God, they were meeting in churches,
and the gospel was having great effect in Antioch. The Holy Spirit
was converting many, many people. And Barnabas wondered, what am
I going to do? The church at Jerusalem wanted
to know what was happening in Antioch. And what's happening
in Antioch is that there are many, many believers, a great
number of believers. And I suspect that Barnabas thought,
will I go back to Jerusalem and tell the leaders of the church
what's happening? Or will I try and help these
new believers? He knew he couldn't simply turn
around and go away when all of these new believers were in Antioch
and needed his help. So he took the initiative. And I like this. I like this
so much about Barnabas. In fact, Barnabas, his name means
comforter or consolation or encouragement. And I think that he proved to
be a real encouragement to the people in Antioch. Because what
did he do? Rather than going back to Jerusalem
with his story, with his account as he had been asked to do, He
took the initiative and he headed for Tarsus. He knew where he
could get help in preaching the gospel. He knew where there was
a dependable man that he could rely upon to help the church
at Antioch. And in such a way, he was useful
for the preaching to the Gentiles, and he knew that Saul would be
useful also. And having gone to Tarsus, There,
met with Saul, he brought him back to Antioch, and we discover
that there together they preached and taught for a year in Antioch,
and the church grew there in leaps and bounds. And here Luke
tells us that believers were first called Christians in Antioch. Now, I think we've said this
before, that probably that was a nickname. It was probably meant
to mock the believers by those who didn't believe. But isn't
it a fine name for the Lord's people to carry? Isn't it a beautiful
name that the Lord's people are known as Christians? Christ's
people, Christ's ones, Christ's followers. And I think somewhere
out there this morning, we have a Christian who's listening to
us this morning. And it's a fine name. Christian is a follower of Christ. And Christ, as we know, means
Messiah or the Anointed One. And so Christians are God's anointed
people. Christians are Christ's anointed
ones. And that's a lovely name for
us to possess. If someone calls us a Christian,
it's not really a bad nickname when we think how beautiful that
name is. At the end of this little passage,
we're told that there was a famine coming into Judea and indeed
into all the world at this time. And this man called Agabus, we
meet him again later in Acts, but he was a prophet and he came
and told the brethren at Antioch that there was going to be great
need at Jerusalem and in Judea. And so we find that the church
made a collection, they gathered to help the church at Jerusalem
and Judea, perhaps as a way of saying thank you for sending
Barnabas and sending the other preachers and supporting the
work of preaching the gospel. And once again, it's lovely to
see how the Lord arranges these things to accomplish his will. It was persecution that had sent
the believers fleeing to Antioch and to Cyprus and to these other
towns. It was persecution that sent
Saul to Tarsus. And Barnabas, who knew and trusted
Saul, being sent to investigate what was happening, Saul and
Barnabas both become part of the Antioch church, and Paul,
as he is going to become in the coming chapters, shows himself
to be an able and a faithful teacher of the gospel. And so
God raises up his people, and God gathers his people, and God
provides for his people. And from now on we shall see
how God indeed has granted repentance unto life to the Gentiles, and
how that that word Gentile includes you and me, all who are not Jews,
and how we too, as we have been brought to trust in the Lord
Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, brought to trust on
that Lord who is alive, who is a living Saviour. So we too are
granted repentance unto life and to be able to trust in the
Son of God, to be able to be known as God's anointed ones,
a Christian, one who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for listening.