Acts 11

Acts 11:1-30

The Acts of the Apostles Chapter 11:1-30 Acts 11:1-30 This chapter falls into two parts. The first eighteen verses are almost exclusively occupied with a recapitulation of the story told in chapter ten; the last twelve deal with the growth of the movement among the Gentiles. It is only necessary to note the first part of the chapter, as to its connection with what follows, in order to see how it prepares the way for that wider and most remarkable movement which commenced at Antioch.

The report reached Jerusalem that the Gentiles had received the Word of God, and the attitude of the apostles toward the news is indicated in the declaration that they “contended with” Peter, not for preaching the Word to the Gentiles, but for eating with them. In the previous chapter, at the twentieth verse, these words occur, “Arise, and get thee down, and go with them, nothing doubting: for I have sent them.” Such was the word of the Spirit to Peter on the housetop in Joppa. Again, In this eleventh chapter, at the twelfth verse, Peter says, “And the Spirit bade me go with them, making no distinction.” The verb “contended with them” is exactly the same as that translated in those two passages, “nothing doubting,” and “making no distinction.” The word doubting is an insufficient word. The Spirit of God commanded Peter to go with these men, without wavering, without discrimination, without making distinction. When he came to Jerusalem the brethren there did this very thing. They discriminated with him, debated with him, contended with him; and he told them that the Spirit had charged him to go with these men doing nothing of the kind.

It is quite evident that these men in Jerusalem were passing through the mental experience through which Peter had passed. It was perfectly natural that he should waver, that he should discriminate, as between Gentiles and Hebrews; but the Spirit had charged him to make no such distinction, to go without wavering or contention.

When he came to Jerusalem he found that the apostles, his brethren, were experiencing the same mental difficulty. They were making distinctions between themselves and the Gentiles. In a word, they were doing what the Spirit had charged Peter not to do. In order to help them, he told them the story of the experience through which he had passed, and by which he had been delivered from making such distinctions. He told the story of his visit to the house of Cornelius, told how before he had delivered the message he had intended to deliver, before he had fully declared to them all that which was in his heart, while he yet spoke, without his intervention, not by the laying on of hands, not even as the result of his interpretation, nor in answer to his intercession, the Holy Spirit fell on the men who listened. Having told his story to the brethren in Jerusalem, Peter said and the whole matter was summed up in his enquiry,- “Who was I, that I could withstand God?”

The wisdom and graciousness of the Jerusalem brethren were manifested in the fact that when he said this, they held their peace; their contending was over. They could not deny the evident activity of God Himself, by which the Spirit had been poured upon these Gentiles; and therefore they could no longer argue for difference or distinction or discrimination. They praised God that the Gentiles also were to receive like gifts with themselves.

All this prepared the apostles in Jerusalem for cooperation with the wider movement, and now therefore we may turn immediately to the last twelve verses of the chapter. This paragraph falls into four clearly marked sections. In verses nineteen to twenty-one (Acts 11:19-21) we have an account of the initiation of this new movement. In verses twenty-two to twenty-four (Acts 11:22-24) we see the confirmation of the movement by the apostles and the Church at Jerusalem. In verses twenty-five and twenty-six (Acts 11:25-26) is contained the story of the consolidation of the work. In verses twenty-seven to thirty Acts 11:27-30) we see the cooperation of the new with the old.

The story of continuity is in the nineteenth verse (Acts 11:19). The outstanding words to note are these: “scattered” through “tribulation.” That is the beginning of the new work. Surely God works in ways we never would have chosen. The next words that arrest the attention are these: they “travelled . . . speaking.” This passage is rich in words descriptive of the methods by which the early disciples witnessed. It contains no less than four Greek words, and every one of them is significant. This is the word for simple speech, the common harangue, or conversation of travelling people.

They travelled, speaking the Word, not preaching it in certain acceptations of that word, but talking it. Scattered through tribulation, these people passed through all the regions round about, travelling here, there, and everywhere; but they were careful to speak of this sacred thing of their life only to Jews. This method began when they martyred Stephen, and Hebrew opposition breaking out, believers were scattered by tribulation. If the saints are scattered, and if they are Spirit-filled, they do but scatter the seed of the Kingdom, which is the Word of God.

We come in the next verse to the new departure. Men of Cyprus and Cyrene, reaching Antioch, began to preach. Now another word is employed, the word that is stamped upon the page of these New Testament stories, the word euaggelizo, the declaration of the evangel, the definite proclamation of the Gospel. These men of Cyprus and Cyrene began to preach the Gospel to Greeks. That was the new beginning. This had not been done before.

Stephen had held disputation with Greek Jews, with the Hellenists in Jerusalem; but these men, reaching Antioch, having travelled there from Cyprus and Cyrene, talked, not to the Grecian Jews only, but to the Greeks. Antioch was wealthy and magnificent, and was described as one of the “eyes” of Asia, the third great city of the world at that time; Rome being first, and Alexandria second. Antioch was the residence of a Roman prefect and his court. It was also the place of a large Jewish colony. But it was supremely Greek. There was the grove of Daphne, and heathenism appeared in its most tempting and debasing form.

It was of such magnificence, that its main street ran for four miles through the length of the city. These men from Cyprus and Cyrene preached there to Greeks; not in an obscure village, but in this great city, which for strategical purposes in the economy of God at that moment was more central and available than either Alexandria or Rome, and was free from the limitation imposed upon thinking by Hebraism in Jerusalem.

The work in Antioch resulted from no immediate action of the apostles. These pioneers of the new missionary movement, these instruments chosen by the Spirit and sent to Antioch for the initiation of the larger fulfillment of the purpose of God, are unnamed. Speculation has been busy trying to name them. Surely such speculations miss the value of the fact that the names were not given. The teaching of the passage is that the Spirit of God ever moves out in new directions, apart from all officialism; a lesson which always needs to be borne in mind, forgetting which has often been our hindrance. Simple men of Cyprus and Cyrene, unnamed pioneers, travelling, found themselves in magnificent, voluptuous, and sinful Antioch; and they determined, without consultation with any one, to preach the Gospel not merely to the Jew, but to the Greek also. So began the new movement.

The next few verses tell the story of the confirmation of that movement by Jerusalem. The report that the Gospel had been preached to Gentiles reached the apostles. They had been prepared, by Peter’s experience, for this report; and so they immediately sent Barnabas. Mark the wisdom of the choice. He was not an apostle, though the intimate of the apostolic band. He was a man of Cyprus; and men of Cyprus and Cyrene had begun this work in Antioch. Yet one cannot read this story without feeling that their sending of Barnabas was that of doubt. They had hardly reached Peter’s understanding that no distinction was to be made.

But when Barnabas reached Antioch, he saw “the grace of God.” There can be no question that when he came into the midst of the company of believing Greeks in Antioch, into the fellowship of those who had been gathered about these men of Cyprus and Cyrene, he detected the supreme spiritual evidences of the divinity of their work in the tone and temper of the men in the midst of whom he found himself. A little later on in this book we shall come to an occasion when Paul came to Ephesus, and missed such marks, and said in astonishment to the men, “Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye believed?” Barnabas, on the other hand, coming to Antioch found the evidences of grace, a new tone and disposition, evidences of joy, light, and happiness; all that which characterized the presence of the Spirit, and the grace of God. He gave these disciples no apostolic and authoritative instruction; but he exhorted them. This is yet another word, which is akin to the word Paraclete. It may also indicate the reason why the apostles gave this man his name, Barnabas; for he was a son of comfort, a son of exhortation. “He exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord.”

Thus the work grew and developed. Barnabas is described, not in an official capacity, for he had none, but as to his character. He “was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.” We saw in the first few verses that this movement was entirely apart from officialism; now we see that there was to be no schism in the body of Christ. The new movement was not to continue in separation from Jerusalem. The independent beginning was part of a spiritual unity, and that unity was manifested and maintained. In this visit of Barnabas to Antioch we see the linking of Jerusalem with Antioch, in the underlying inspiration and enduement of the Spirit.

The work in Antioch commenced without Jerusalem; but Jerusalem and Antioch were united by the visit of Barnabas. Thus there was not merely the new departure in independence of Jerusalem; there was also the new sense of fellowship in interrelation with Jerusalem.

Next in order we have an arresting picture: that of Barnabas leaving Antioch, not for Jerusalem, but for Tarsus. Years before, he had helped Saul to escape from Jerusalem when the Hellenists were persecuting him; and he had sent him up the country, and across to Tarsus. Since then Saul had been in Tarsus, probably travelling round the district, and preaching in Cilicia, but no details of such work are given. Now Barnabas went to seek him. It has been said that he knew where to seek him. The word suggests rather that he did not.

Quite literally it says that he went to hunt him up. Saul had been waiting and preparing for greater work. Recognizing the fact that no ministry is complete in itself, that it must ever seek the cooperation of others; seeing in that centre of Antioch work that he could not do, Barnabas was heroic and Christly enough, to be obedient to the Spirit, and to seek for Saul.

There, for one year at least, Saul was the assistant of Barnabas. They gathered with the Church, teaching. Here we have another word, which means quite simply teaching. As we look back on this work, we are impressed by that little group of people gathered together. Antioch would pass and perish with the running of the centuries; but that new movement, the inclusion of the Greek within the work of the Spirit through the Church of Christ, was destined to spread through all the neighbourhood, and eventually to capture the whole world.

It was at Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians. Professor Lumby has pointed out that the word is hybrid. It is a Greek word with a Latin termination. In that I think is evidence of the fact that it was a name given to these men by Antioch. It was certainly not chosen by the Jew; for to him Christian would have meant a man of the Messiah; and he would object entirely to that description of those of the Nazarene sect. It was certainly not a name chosen by the Christians themselves, for they designated themselves “disciples,” “brethren,” “those of the Way.” It has been said that it was a nickname, and that it was given to them as a title of contempt.

That may be so. In any case, the giving of the name in Antioch reveals two things. It shows first that Antioch recognized the Church no longer as a sect or part of Hebraism, but as a new society, which could not be named by Hebraism, but must be known by a name of its own. I think also that Antioch named these people by what Antioch saw in them. They were the people of the Christ, Whomsoever He might have been. It was of the Christ they spoke, of the Christ they sang, for the Christ they lived.

In all this the free operation of the Spirit of God is again manifested. The man of the apostolic confidence, Barnabas, sought the man born out of due season, Saul. Barnabas acted evidently upon his own initiative, and yet in response to the indwelling and guiding Spirit of God. On that action the seal of the Divine blessing was set, and their year’s work was formative and preparatory to the larger movements of which the rest of this book is the chronicle.

In the last section, we see the enlarging cooperation. Agabus was a prophet. This is the first mention of a prophet in the New Testament economy, and the predictive element of the work was evidenced as this man foretold the coming of a great famine.

The impressive fact, however, in this last paragraph is that of its revelation of the sense of unity. These Greeks had heard and believed in the Gospel; and there were evidences of the grace of God, which evidences Barnabas had seen. Barnabas and Saul had been teaching and instructing them, and they had been growing in grace. When therefore Agabus foretold the coming of the famine, these Christian men at once recognized that the famine would bring distress to the brethren in Judea. Spontaneously they began to care for those brethren, not under the direction of the apostles, but out of that new life which has love at its heart. So important did they conceive the work of relief to be, that they set their two teachers apart for the carrying of their gifts to Jerusalem. This is a glorious and gracious revelation of the consciousness of oneness in the Spirit; obedience to prophecy, expressing itself in love; and love taking the practical form of definite help sent to those in Judea who would suffer most as the result of the coming famine.

The true notes of development are revealed in this study. First there is the note of continuity. Every movement is the outcome of an earlier one. Secondly, there is the note of an absolute freedom. Every movement is a new departure. Thirdly there is the note of an unbroken unity. Every movement is part of one great whole. Finally there is the note of a perpetual variety.

First, every movement is the outcome of an earlier one. Stephen’s martyrdom was Antioch’s opportunity. Through his martyrdom tribulation broke out, and the Christians were scattered, travelling everywhere, and coming at last to Antioch. In the economy of God we cannot see all the issues of the thing we suffer, or the thing we do to-day. When we imagine that we can, then we become restless. Or again, Peter’s vision became the Church’s eyesight. Or again, Saul’s apprehension on the way to Damascus was Antioch’s supply. Or again, Antioch’s spiritual blessing became Judaea’s material succour in the hour of famine. These things of God are all linked together.

But again, every movement is a new departure. Mark the freedom. Men of Cyprus and Cyrene preached to Greeks. That was a new movement. The sending of Barnabas by the apostles was a new official action. The rinding of Saul by Barnabas was an independent action. Some ecclesiastical courts to-day would have summoned Barnabas back to Jerusalem, to investigate. The collection for Judaea was spontaneous. The movement is always manifesting itself in a new way; linked to the preceding things but always independent.

Then again, every movement is part of one whole. Mark the unity of it. We cannot better express this than by citation of Paul’s words written to Ephesus: “One Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, Who is in all, and through all.” That apostolic word is stamped upon this paragraph. One Lord is preached, whether it be by the travellers who talk, or by men of Cyprus and Cyrene who preach, or by Barnabas who exhorts, or by Agabus who prophesies. One faith is exercised, whether it be the faith of the men who first heard and believed, or the constant faith of the men who believing, obeyed, and allowed the Spirit to lead and guide them independently of all prejudice. One baptism is shared, the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

One God is glorified. These are the great things of unity; and they are the things of unity for the Church to-day.

Finally there was a great variety of gifts; the apostolic gift, the evangelistic gift, the prophetic gift, and the pastoral gift. Paul enumerated these in that same passage in the Ephesian letter, “He gave some to be apostles, and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers.” They are seen at work here in this new departure and new movement. There was also a variety of methods. Four or five words describe the method by which the Word was preached.

In that paragraph we have the microcosmic revelation of true Christian work, and missionary development. Every new departure is a continuation of something which has gone before. No one can act in independence of Christ and His Church in work for Christ. No one man can win a soul. How many prayers, and long hours of patient teaching, and many other ministries, are needed to the making of one soul anew? How can we fulfill any Christian service that is not linked to the magnificent past?

I believe in the holy Catholic Church, and that every piece of work to-day is linked to the things that have gone before. But there must be freedom from the restraint of the past, freedom from the interferences of hoary and ancient traditions; for where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. There must also be absolute freedom. Every new departure is independent, in that it is under the impulse and inspiration of the Spirit, and is the test of the Church’s unity. The essential things of unity are not those of ecclesiastical management, or of human creeds. These are they.

One Lord to be preached; one faith to be exercised; one baptism, that of the Spirit, to be received; one God to be glorified. In proportion as we come to a recognition of these underlying things we shall be able to sing truthfully:

“We are not divided, All one body we, One in hope and doctrine, One in charity.” There are also varieties of gifts. The Spirit of God is still bestowing gifts. Men are still receiving gifts of the Spirit, for apostolic, pioneer work in distant lands; for prophetic declaration of God’s truth to their own age; for evangelistic calling of men to Christ; or for the patient teaching and training of the saints. The Spirit is with us yet, and the method of His operation is that of diversity, while He Himself is the unifying life of the Church.