The Gospel Spreads to Antioch
Acts 11:19-30
Before our youth come up to share their “Who is this Jesus?” Reader’s Theater, I wanted to make a little progress in the book of Acts. If you have your bible this morning, open up with me to Acts 11. We’ll look at verses 19 through verse 30…Acts 11:19-30.
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Early on in our series in Acts we said that Acts 1:8 provides a general outline for the book of Acts.
Let me put Acts 1:8 up on the screen again.
POWERPOINT
Acts 1:8 (ESV)
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Now we’ve looked at this verse several times. These are Jesus’ final words before his ascension. We could say they are His final words spoken while on earth. And final words are important aren’t they?
Jesus gave his disciples a mission; they were called to be witnesses. But they weren’t left alone to do the work. They were empowered by the Holy Spirit to do the work of witnessing. You and I must always remember that. It’s God’s work that we are involved in and it’s His power that accomplishes the work.
And notice the emphasis on geography in the verses. Acts 1:8 says that the witnessing will go on in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.
And as we’ve moved through Acts up to this point we’ve begun to see this verse fulfilled. We’ve begun to see the witnessing pulsing out from Jerusalem.
The geography associated with the church in the first six chapters of the book of Acts was essentially the geography of Jerusalem and the temple. The early church would meet in Solomon’s portico in the temple. The apostles would go up to pray there regularly. And the church grew exponentially in those early chapters of Acts. But after Stephen’s stoning in Acts 7, the geography associated with the church began to change.
It was Acts 8:1 that communicated this. Let me put Acts 8:1 up on the screen:
POWERPOINT
Acts 8:1
1 …And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
When we looked at Acts 8 we said that possibly five to ten thousand believers may have left Jerusalem and been scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria.[1]
And so we have this picture of God sowing the believers and the word out into the regions outside of Jerusalem and the gospel beginning to pulse out from Jerusalem. The geography of the burgeoning church is changing.
In Acts 8, Philip was scattered into Samaria and Samaritans came to know the Lord. Also in Acts 8 Philip also was scattered south along the road to Gaza, southwest of Jerusalem, and the Ethiopian Eunuch came to know the Lord also. In Acts 9 Saul was converted and he began to preach in Damascus, 135 miles to the northeast of Jerusalem. In Acts 10 the gospel moved up the coast of Israel from Joppa to Caesarea the seat of the Roman government of Judea and a Gentile Cornelius and his entire household were saved. This morning in our passage, scattered believers take the gospel 300 miles north of Jerusalem to the third largest city in the Roman Empire, Antioch.[2]
Here is the outline we’ll be following this morning. It is taken almost verbatim from John Stott.
Follow with me as we look at Roman numeral I…
I. The Antioch mission is initiated by unnamed witnesses (vs. 19-21)[3]
19 Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen (there we are reaching all the way back to Acts 8:1) traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. 20 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. 21 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.
Well let’s put a map up and see what Luke is telling us in verse 19. Notice verse 19 is all about geography.
POWERPOINT
19 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.
You can see Phoenicia on the map. It corresponds to modern day Lebanon.
You can see the island of Cyprus on the map, 75 mile boat trip from the mainland.[4]
And you can see Antioch on the map with its port city of Selucia.
Scattered believers traveled as far as these places speaking the word to no one excepct Jews.
Verse 20 But there were some of them (some of the scattered believers), men of Cyprus (again the island in the Mediterranean) and Cyrene (these came from the northern coast of Africa, modern day Libya[5], much further south than the map illustrates), who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus.
Now who were the Hellenists? Well the word communicates people who spoke Greek and who practiced Greek ways. But were they Jews or were they Gentiles? Because of the contrast between verse 19 “they spoke only to Jews” and verse 20 “they spoke to Hellinists also” it seems pretty clear that they were Gentiles, Greek speaking, Greek practicing Gentiles.[6]
And so some unnamed ‘witnesses’ innovate a bit with the gospel. Instead of going to the synagogues there in Antioch, they go directly to the Gentiles and what do they preach?
Look at the end of verse 20… they preach the Lord Jesus… they don’t preach the Christ, the Messiah, because the Gentiles weren’t expecting a Messiah. They preached the Lord Jesus.
And verse 21 tells us the hand of the Lord was with them…
More on that in a moment. Let’s break away from the text for just a few moments and paint a picture of this international, cosmopolitan city called Antioch which became the home for the first primarily Gentile church and the sending church for all of Paul’s missionary journeys.
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The city was founded by one of Alexander the Great’s generals, Seleucus Nicator, in 300 BC. The general named it Antioch after his father Antiochus. He named its port Seleucia, 15 miles to the west, after…. himself.[7]
The new city soon became the western terminus of the caravan routes over which goods were brought from Persia and elsewhere in Asia to the Mediterranean. Antioch’s strategic command of north-south and east-west roads across northwestern Syria greatly contributed to its growth and prosperity[8]
Over the years it became known as “Antioch the Beautiful” because of it’s fine buildings and by Luke’s day it was famous for its long paved boulevard, which ran from north to south and was flanked by a double colonnade with trees and fountains.[9]
Some of the popular gods of the city were Apollo (Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of light and the sun, truth and prophecy, healing, plague, music, poetry, and more.[10]), Artemis (Artemis was the goddess of the hunt, wild animals, wilderness, childbirth, virginity and protector of young girls, bringing and relieving disease in women; she often was depicted as a huntress carrying a bow and arrows), Zeus (he was the King of the Gods, who oversaw the universe), Tyche (the god who governed the fortune and prosperity of a city, its destiny) and a variation of Baal.[11]
So it was a city of rampant idolatry.
Here is a reconstruction of the way Antioch was laid out.
POWERPOINT
Antioch on the Orontes
You can see the Orontes river running through the city.
You can see the long paved boulevard running north to south.
You can see the Jewish community south of the city.
You can see the circus (an open air venue used for public events)[12] on the island that existed in the middle of the city.
And you can see the road leading down to Daphne, a place known for its cultic immorality…
Rampant idolatry
Rampant immorality…
Just the place for a powerful church!
I said that Antioch was the third largest city in the Roman empire.[13] It’s population –estimated to be 500,000[14] was extremely cosmopolitan, some 30,000 to 50,000 Jews, and even orientals from Persia, India and even China. Because of it’s oriental population it was called ‘Queen of the East’[15]
Well it was to this city that unnamed witnesses went and they began sharing with Gentiles and, verse 21 says 21 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.
The hand of the Lord was a common Old Testament metaphor for the presence and power of God.[16] It shows up over 30 times in the Old Testament. For example the hand of the Lord was on Elijah (1 Kings 18:46) and Elisha (2 Kings 3:15). And then in the first chapter of Luke it is used to describe the future powerful life of John the Baptist (Luke 1:66).
Luke has no other explanation for the success of these unnamed witnesses in Antioch other than the fact that God was with them and He was blessing their efforts.
By way of application one writer says this: “Church leaders often spend a great deal of time and effort searching for new strategies for doing effective outreach in their communities. Books, conferences, and seminars present a variety of models for reaching a neighborhood with the gospel. Luke reminds us here that it is not so much the strategy that is so important, but the work of God. In doing outreach, our greatest concern should be, “Is the hand of the Lord with us?”[17]
We do want the hand of the Lord to be on the ministry of KBC! How does that happen? “Show me Lord” I found myself asking. “Give me the steps Lord! Give me the 1, 2, 3s to having your hand on your ministry!” Then I realized I’m acting like Simon in Acts 8, who wanted to purchase the power of God.
Here’s where I ended up. Let’s pursue knowing Christ with all that we are! Let’s desire His fame in everything we do! Let’s allign ourselves with His heartbeat! And then trust Him.
That brings us to Roman numeral II on the outline…
II. The Antioch mission is endorsed by Barnabas (vs. 22-24)
22 The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23 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, 24 for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord.
The ‘mother church’ in Jerusalem heard that God was powerfully moving in Antioch so they sent Barnabas to look into it. It’s pretty clear that the leaders of the ‘mother church’ felt some oversight responsibility for what was going on so they sent “the man with the biggest heart in the church”[18] to Antioch.
Barnabas--the “man with the biggest heart in the church.” William Barclay describes him that way.
This is the third appearance of Barnabas in the book of Acts. He was introduced in Acts 4 as a dedicated follower who sold some land and gave the money to the church; you remember he was the foil for Ananias and Sapphira. I think his act of consecration moved him into the center of God’s purposes. We met Barnabas next in Acts 9 when he courageously introduced Saul, the former persecutor, to to the suspicious disciples in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem leadership wouldn’t open their arms to Saul; they were afraid of him. Listen to Acts 9:27 27 But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. Barnabas figuratively shoe-horned Saul into the fellowship of the church. And aren’t we glad!
And now Barnabas, the ‘man with the biggest heart in the church’ was sent to Antioch to see what God was doing there. He was the right guy for the job. Because inevitably these Gentiles probably didn’t do church right. They probably got some things wrong but Barnabas (whose name meant Son of Encouragement)[19] could see the good in what they did and help them along. He was full of faith and He knew that God was at work!
23 When he came and saw the grace of God… That’s a curious phrase isn’t it? How do you see the grace of God? Well you see the grace of God in conversions. You see the grace of God in fruit. You see the grace of God in changed lives. 23 When he came and saw the grace of God He was glad…he was filled with joy.
R.C. Sproul writes this, “When a minister hears about a church experiencing greater growth than his own, he might be tempted to criticize, to look for faults in that bigger (faster growing) church. His criticism in that case comes not from a genuine desire to edify and establish but from jealousy and envy. Almost all so-called constructive criticism is destructive criticism. There is such a thing as constructive criticism, but it is always bathed in a spirit of encouragement. That is what I love about Barnabas.”[20]
Continuing in verse 23…
…And he exhorted them (he encouraged them) all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose,24 for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord.
It seems that Luke is saying in verse 24 that Barnabas’ presence, the presence of a good man full of the Holy Spirit and full of faith, just kept the church growing…many people were added to the Lord.
The verb for “added” in verse 24 has been used several times up to this point in Acts.