Acts 11:19-30

Okay, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is where every day you and I, we get together, we get into, we get into God's word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2022, we'll go all the way from the book of Acts to Philemon. It's so good to have you with me this morning. Let's go ahead and have some coffee. We'll pray and we'll get into God's word. Let's pray.
Oh Lord, we thank you for this day. You have opened our eyes. You have been gracious, giving us another morning. Your mercies are new. And so Father, we pray that as we sit at your feet this morning, as we learn from you, that you would build us up in our faith. Please let us walk in your ways this day. In Jesus' name, amen. Here we go. We are at Acts chapter 11 beginning at verse 19.
Now those who were scattered after the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to no one but the Jews only. But some of them were men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who, when they had come to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists, preaching the Lord Jesus.
And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord. Then news of these things came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch. When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad, and encouraged them that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord. For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and a great many people were added to the Lord.
Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Saul, And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people, and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. And in these days prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch. Then one of them, named Agabus, stood up and showed by the Holy Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened at the days of Claudius Caesar. Then the disciples, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea. This they did also and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul."
Well, we have two, or yeah, maybe two, maybe one different parts of the story here in Acts. We need to ask ourselves, A, what is this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do in response to these words? Right? So first, A, what in the world is this about? Well, Stephen is stoned, and so the people are spread out. There's a Christian diaspora that happens. Christians are dispersed throughout the area.
Some go to Antioch up in the north in Syria, possibly the third largest city at this time behind Rome and Alexandria and down in Egypt. And others of them go to Cyprus. This is a large island in the Mediterranean south of what's now Turkey. And then some of them also went, what was the third place here, to Phoenicia, right, to that Mediterranean area north of Israel.
And so they go to these areas, but when they're going, they're only speaking to the Jews. They're telling the good news of Jesus Christ, but only to the Jewish people they meet. But, here's where it kind of focuses in on, but some of them were men from Cyprus and Cyrene. So some of them were from that island nation and some of them, Cyrene is this city that's down in North Africa and it's east of Egypt.
And so they're the ones that are doing something odd. They go and they talk to the Hellenists in Antioch. They go and they talk to the Greek-speaking people in this large city. You know what happens? People believe. They preach the Lord Jesus Christ and people turn to Him. This was a huge pagan hub. There were two massive temples to different pagan deities there and people turned to follow Jesus Christ. because the hand of the Lord was with them. And so this, what happens after this, people down in Jerusalem, they hear about it, right? Their ears, whoa, hold on. Greek people up in Antioch are believing.
We got to know about this. So they send the son of encouragement. They send Barnabas up there. And Barnabas is up there and he's blown away. Whoa, this is happening. He's super excited about this and he encourages them. I love this, the wordplay here. Barnabas encourages them. The son of encouragement encourages them. He tells them with what purpose of heart they should keep doing this. And he's there to help them to go along the way.
And so as he does this, a great many people were added to him. Now notice on verse 24. I love this on verse 24 that it describes Barnabas for us. For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. Man, I wish that that was what people would think about me. What about you? Would they think, man, that's a good sister. She's filled with the Holy Spirit. She has so much faith. May we be the sons and daughters of encouragement as well. And so Barnabas realizes that it's not just him. He might be a great encourager, but maybe he's not gifted in the teaching.
And so he goes up on the south side of what's now Turkey, near right where it starts bending down into Palestinian type. Well, that kind of right on the Levant. He goes and he gets Saul from Tarsus. And he brings him to Antioch. It's not very far away, so he goes and he gets the teacher. He knows. He goes and he gets his friend Saul. And Saul comes and they assemble together. The word here is the synagogue. This is where we get our word synagogue from. They gather together the assembly, the church, and they're teaching them. Now, this is important to realize that it's not just some weird idea why I'm called to be a teacher, but this is what the church has always been about, teaching the good news of Jesus, opening up the scriptures and talking about it.
And so there's people who come to the Lord here, and the disciples, interestingly, in verse 26, and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. Why were they called Christians? Christianus? Why were they called this? They were called Christians because they couldn't stop talking about Christ.
They couldn't stop talking about the Messiah. They couldn't stop talking about the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the one who had come and lived and died and ascended up into heaven and now sits at the right hand of God Almighty and someday is going to come again to judge the living and the dead. They wouldn't stop speaking about Christ. They would keep going to all the Old Testament passages and say, see, look, look, here's the promises.
Here's the prophecies. Look, look, look, the Christ has come. And so they became to be called Christians. So every time we want to call ourselves Christians, we bear the mantle of Christ, our Messiah. That's how closely associated they were with the one whom they loved.
And so there's a prophet who comes up after this, a second story, a prophet comes up, Agabus, he comes up and he tells them about this famine that's going to happen in the land. He comes up and he tells them that hey there's going to be an empire wide famine. And indeed, this does happen under Emperor Claudius. In Egypt, this was a breadbasket of the time. They have this, the Nile overflows. It's a one in 100 year type flood. And in 45 AD, it just completely washes out the fields.
And so there's a lot less food that year and what often happens even today is there's both stockpiling and there's price gouging in response to it. And so the subsequent years what happens is that the rich aren't too affected by this because they're able to buy and stockpile and put away and they feel it some, but it's really the poor. especially in a place like Jerusalem, where the money has devalued. They can't buy enough grain. They can't buy enough food. And so Agabus tells them that this is about to happen, and Luke says, and this did happen during Claudius's reign. And so what does the church in Antioch, this mainly Greek-speaking church, do?
They send money to the brethren in Jerusalem. Did you notice that? In verse 29, then the disciples each according to his ability determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea. Each one of them figured out, right, the Lord loves a cheerful giver. And so they figure out from their own means how much they can give and they send it to their brethren. The dividing wall has started to come down.
The Greek speakers up in Antioch are calling the Christians in Judea their brethren, and they send it to the elders in Jerusalem. Now, I need to point this out just because it doesn't say they send it to Peter, the chief apostle. It doesn't say that they even send it to any of the apostles, but it's clear what's happening in Jerusalem by this time is the pattern that even Peter will recognize in one of his epistles, as well as Paul in his letters. They send it to the elders. They send it to the elders in the church by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. So the church in Antioch gives their money to Barnabas and Saul, and Barnabas and Saul then take that money to the church to care for them in Judea, in Jerusalem.
Well, what would you underline in your Bible? There's so much good stuff here. In my Bible, I have underlined verse 21, "...and the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord." I also have that underlined in verse 24, "...and a great many people were added to the Lord." And then I also have double underlined, "...to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea."
Don't know maybe you would underline something else go ahead and pull out your highlighter or your pencil your pen Underline what you would but what are we called to do? I? Think there's a whole bunch. We could be called to do from this passage spurred on by the Holy Spirit Are you so associated with Christ that people would see you and think that's a Christian? Do you speak of Christ? Do you live the ethic of Christ? Do you care for those who are in need? For your brothers and sisters in the faith? Do you give regularly to the care of the church? Do we love the Lord? Do we listen to His teaching? There's so much here.
Are we those who are, who could be said like Barnabas, that we're good, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith? Why don't we, as we think about those things, why don't we go ahead and pray. Father, we pray that we would be filled with the Holy Spirit and with faith. We pray that we would be sons and daughters of encouragement. We pray that we would be those who would lean into the apostles and the prophets with their teachings and that we would listen to your word for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. Lord, we pray that we would be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. We pray that when those good works come, we would do them. We pray that we would walk by faith. We pray that you would build your church. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, may the Lord bless you today. May you walk in the joy of Jesus Christ. May you be filled with the Holy Spirit and with faith. And I will see you tomorrow. Bye.