Acts Bible Study: Day 19
Today’s passage: Acts 11:19–30
Focus verse: The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. (Acts 11:26)
After Stephen’s martyrdom, Jesus’s followers travel to tell others about him—just as he told them to do. But, aside from Peter, they’ve only shared his good news with other Jews.
That’s about to change. Some of them go to Antioch and tell the Gentiles there about Jesus. God blesses their initiative and many people believe.
How amazing is that? First there’s Peter telling the Gentile Cornelius and his family about Jesus. Now there are Gentile believers in Antioch too.
The news of what’s happening in Antioch spreads fast. It soon makes its way to the church in Jerusalem. They dispatch Barnabas to check things out. When he arrives in Antioch, he sees all that God is doing.
This fills Barnabas with joy, and he encourages them to persevere in their faith. His name, by the way, means son of encouragement. It seems this is a well-deserved description of his character.
As a result of Barnabas’s work in Antioch, a great many more people believe in Jesus. Jesus’s church continues to grow, because of the dedicated work of his faithful followers.
Then Barnabas has an idea.
He goes to Tarsus to look for Saul. He finds his friend and brings him back to Antioch.
It could be that Barnabas wanted help to do all that needed doing in Antioch, and he knew Saul would be perfect for the job. Or it might be that he saw this as an opportunity to mentor Saul, teaching him through example.
Of course, it could be a combination of these two. Saul could contribute to the work of God in Antioch, as well as learn from Barnabas how to be a more effective minister.
Though this is the first time the two of them work together, it won’t be the last. And this is a good thing for the church of Jesus.
In writing about the church in Antioch, Luke slips in an interesting side note. In Antioch the disciples are first called Christians. Interestingly, the word Christian only appears a couple other times in the Bible.
Until now, the followers of Jesus were Jewish and identified with the Jewish faith, perhaps as a new sect of Judaism, like the Pharisees and Sadducees.
However, in Antioch, when Greeks begin following Jesus, this doesn’t fit into Judaism. The word Christian emerges. It means belonging to the party of Christ. That is, Jesus’s party.
Questions:
- Do you like or dislike the label Christian?
- If you identify with Jesus, what name do you use to describe your faith?
[Discover more about being a Christian in 1 Peter 4:16.]
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Read more about the book of Acts in Acts Bible Study: Discover How the Early Church Can Inform What We Do Today, available in e-book, paperback, and hardcover.
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