Acts 11:19-30 - The First Christians

Following the persecution of Stephen, believers of Christ were scattered all over. Some made their way to Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch. Two kinds of believers emerged. One took the message only to the Jews, while the other, not so attached to Judaism, took the news to the Greeks as well.

The second group merely shared the Gospel as they went. They did not regard what they were doing as anything great or radical. All they did was to share Christ, the consuming passion of their hearts. So from Cyprus and Cyrene, these Jews took the Gospel to Antioch.

No apostle was involved. All the work accomplished at Antioch were done by average believers of Christ. The Gospel just came natural as an outflow of their love for Christ. Daily, the believers energized by the Holy Spirit, just shared Christ with the pagan. That resulted in a great harvest of souls. So verse 21 tells us, "And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord."

It tells us that when God's people, who are empowered by His Spirit, begin to love Christ and live for Him deeply, there's no telling of what Christ can do through them. There is simply no better way to express our gratitude and appreciation for all that he had done for us than to live wholeheartedly for Him.

Shortly, news of what took place at Antioch reached the church in Jerusalem. And they sent Barnabas, a Hellenistic Jew, to investigate.  We learned from Acts 4:36-37 that he was a pious and generous man. Barnabas was raised from the island of Cyprus and should have some contacts there. He was truly a perfect choice.

When Barnabas arrived at Antioch, what he saw were positive signs of what God was doing. Many of the people were new believers, but Barnabas saw their potential. He saw the grace of God working in their midst. So what he did was to simply encourage them to remain true to the Lord and to live wholeheartedly for Him . Through him many more were added to the church.

While Barnabas was a great worker, he also knew his limitations. He then went to Tarsus to seek Paul out. In Acts 9:30, we saw that Paul was sent there for safety.  With Pau,  Barnabas formed a great partnership with him. And for a whole year they  taught many and for the fist time, believers were known as Christians.

In the closing verses of Acts 11, we saw prophets coming to Antioch, probably to minister there. One of them by the name of Agabus, prophesied of a world-wide famine that actually came to pass in the reign of Claudius. The believers at Antioch,  of their own freewill, contributed whatever means they could to help the church in Judea. The contribution was sent through Barnabas and Paul.

Two things stand out in this passage:
Firstly, we are reminded that God does not need us to be great. All He needs is for us to be fervent and to live out our lives empowered by the Spirit. Evangelism would then be a natural outflow of a life fully in love with Jesus.

Secondly, we must surely be inspired by Barnabas. He saw the new converts from the eyes of Jesus. Instead of the rough and coarse lives of these new believers, he saw God's grace in their lives. He saw what God could make each of them out to be.

Everyone of us, no matter where our spiritual standing, is still a diamond in the rough. We need to yield and place ourselves into the Master's hand.  Remember that the goal in life is to attain Christlikeness.