Where Jesus' Followers First Became Christians

So church, again, we're reading from Acts chapter 11 from verse 19 all the way through to the end of the chapter, the church in Antioch. Now for 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. 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. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch.

But 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, for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul. And when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year, they met with the church and taught a great many people.

And in Antioch, the disciples were first called Christians. Now in these days, prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. And one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over the world. And this took place in the days of Claudius. So the disciples determined, everyone according to his ability, to send relief to their brothers living in Judea, and they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.

So far, our reading. Thank you, Jordan. Before I begin to open that passage of scripture up with you, it's good to see you having a collection for Crossroads. And if you want to know more, don't only talk to me. Merle has also been mentoring prisoners for quite a few years.

I just wanted to share with you one little story if I may. A friend of mine who's involved with Crossroads and who does the contact with prison chaplains, Alan Pointer, had an experience where he was visiting the correctional centre at Kempsey and he was speaking with the chaplain. He was about to leave and the chaplain said, we're actually about to have a chapel service. Why don't you stay for that? He said, okay, I'll do that. So Alan stayed for the chapel service.

After the service was over, the chaplain said to him, that man you were sitting next to, he's just had his fiftieth birthday but he spent thirty of his fifty years in jail for armed robbery. The story is that he was doing Crossroads lessons, committed his life to the Lord and it's just radically changed his life. He recently, not so long ago, rang his lawyer and said, there are two instances of armed holdup that I want you to own up to on my behalf because I'm responsible for them. And the lawyer said to him, what do you want to do that for? He said, well, I've become a Christian and I want to sort things out with God. His lawyer hung up on him.

He then asked the warden, he said, can I make a second phone call? He said, you go for it. He rang the local police and said, would you send someone around to take a statement from me? They took the statement and in due course it came up and he received an extra three months on top of what he had. It was only short because of the fact that he owned up to it.

The chaplain said to me, he said, how do you feel having to do another three months when you're about to be released? He said, I feel great. For the first time, I'm sleeping in peace. It just shows you what the gospel does in the lives of hardened criminals, or what the gospel can do. So it's a wonderful work and just one example of the results of that.

But let's go to Acts 11. I want to focus particularly on verse 26 and the last phrase of that where it says, and in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians. And we're going to look at that whole passage, but that's sort of our focus verse, that being called Christians for the first time in Antioch. Brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ have many ways in which we identify who we are. So to some people you're an auntie, but to others you're a sister, right? To your children you're a dad, especially on Father's Day, but to your wife you're a husband.

Sometimes we identify ourselves by the work that we do. So maybe you're a butcher or a baker or a candlestick maker. Sometimes we identify ourselves by our gender, you're female. Other times by our age, you're middle aged, also known as over the hill, right? But it's also very common, particularly in our Australian culture, to be identified by a nickname.

So very much in Aussie culture, if your name is Gary you become Gazza, and if your name is Warren, you become Waza. And in Australia, if you've got red hair, many dinky die Aussies will call you Bluey. I know, go figure. Well, the consensus is, congregation, that Christian was originally a nickname too, because we followers of Jesus had other names by which we referred to ourselves and which we identified with. Brethren, back in before Antioch, not even the word Christian, but just brothers and sisters. Older term brethren, which included the sisters, and believers, disciples. A number of times in the book of Acts we're called followers of the way. Here in Acts 10 though, we read that the disciples were called Christians for the first time in Antioch.

Most commentators suggest that they were called that by those who were against Christians and as a kind of a nickname. They said, it's these folks who are always talking about Jesus Christ. They're Christians. That name, congregation, stuck. And in fact, we here this morning, we wear that name with pride.

The reality is, brothers and sisters, that it overrides all the other ways in which we identify ourselves. So you're not just a wife, you are a Christian wife. Right? You're not just a lawyer, you're a Christian lawyer. And if you've got red hair, then you've got two nicknames, Bluey the Christian.

I want to show you this morning from this passage why it's appropriate that that nickname first cropped up in Antioch, and for three reasons this passage spells out to us why we are delighted this morning to be known by that name, that that is our identity. A bit of background. Antioch is 650 kilometres north of Jerusalem, was the world's most important city in the ancient world after Rome and Alexandria. And some amazing things have just happened in that pagan and Gentile city. There was a Jewish community and a synagogue in Antioch, and some believers who had fled the persecution in Jerusalem during Stephen's time had gone there and settled there, and they brought with them this good news of Jesus being the Saviour and Lord to the Jewish community in Antioch. But something even more amazing happened. Some newcomers had been spreading the news of Jesus also within the Greek community, or as our ESV Bible has it, the Hellenists.

And the response was amazing and wonderful. Luke tells us a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. When the mother church in Jerusalem then hears about this, they send Barnabas to go and check it out. And so Barnabas comes and he gives us the first reason why that name Christian stuck. It's because Barnabas saw in this church at Antioch the evidence of God's grace.

And Barnabas would have noticed that. Barnabas was an outstanding Jewish leader from Jerusalem. You meet him earlier already in chapter four. But he was a man who was familiar with nicknames, because Barnabas was his nickname. His real name was Joseph, but they called him Barnabas, which means son of encouragement. This man is spoken of in our text as a man, a good man, full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.

And this man with the nickname rejoices in the evidence of God's grace in this church. So ask yourself, how did Barnabas know that God's grace was at work in this church? By grace, we mean God's favour. Right? And what's the grace of God to do with the disciples of Jesus in Antioch being called Christians?

Well congregation, this grace is most obvious first of all in someone's life in conversion, like that man in the Kempsey Correction Centre that I mentioned. And so this was happening not just in the Jewish community, but also amongst the Gentiles, amongst the Greeks. So the outworking of God's grace is happening indiscriminately. And for the first time in the book of Acts, we have a church that includes not only Jews, but also Gentiles. This is not just an ethnic church for like minded people.

It's a church that embraces everybody, all kinds of people. So this morning in our text, we've got a kind of a double whammy here. It takes God's grace to convert someone. Only God can open a closed heart. We can't do that ourselves.

God has to do it. But conversion is not only through the grace of God. Faith in Jesus, not only takes God's grace to convert someone, it also takes God's grace to change their life. Again, think of that Kempsey inmate. Takes grace to overcome barriers. We don't naturally take to people who are different from us.

Here we have Jews and Gentiles together. All of these people together in one church. That's God's grace at work. Can you see why that would lead to the nickname Christians? These people, these disciples have a great desire to make Jesus known to others, but not just to their own in group of people, to all people.

These followers of Jesus, they talk about Jesus Christ in the synagogue to the Jews, but they also chat about Him while they're buying their tuna fillets in the fish market. Always, these people are promoting the cause of Jesus Christ indiscriminately to all people. To the outside world at Antioch, it seemed as if belonging to Christ was what defined them. And so this nickname was given and it stuck. Now it's possible, congregation, that people originally used that name in anger and resentment.

Stop always talking to me about Christ, you Christians. Or in mockery. And people still do that today, don't they? Are you a Christian? In a dismissive way. We as believers, we own that name with pride because we want everyone to know the gospel indiscriminately, regardless of your culture and background. This name Christian was owned by the church for many more reasons.

And when Barnabas visited Antioch, he would have seen other evidences of the grace of God. Just think about it a moment, congregation. Think again of this matter of people that are converted to Jesus actually changing. And sometimes the change is so huge, isn't it? Not only with that inmate in Kempsey, but maybe you've seen it in someone's life. Think of what happened a few chapters earlier in Acts.

There's this Saul of Tarsus. Remember him? What was he doing? Persecuting followers of the way. And God reaches him, touches his life on the road to Damascus, and he becomes a church planter.

This terrorist comes to know Christ, and he changes, and he writes the profoundest words on love ever written in 1 Corinthians 13. The point is that converted people become changed people. And I don't care whether they're Aussie people or South African people or Poms or Asians. Conversion to Jesus will change your life. But you see, that takes grace.

God's favour working itself in you and through you. Grace doesn't end just with our conversion. God keeps on working at us and changing us. As a matter of fact, the Bible tells us that the reason why God chose us originally from all eternity was so that we might be conformed to the image of His Son. In other words, what conversion means is that disciples of Jesus undergo ongoing change, a process by which they become more and more Christ-like.

Can you see how that makes the name Christian appropriate? All these little Christs in the church, followers of Jesus who are in the process of becoming Christ-like. Folks in Antioch would have noticed the changed lives of these converts. They saw the evidence and so did Barnabas. I want to leave you with this question, congregation, in the light of what I've just said.

Imagine for a moment that our faith was illegal here in Queensland, that you could actually go to jail for being a Christian. I wanna ask you, would there be enough evidence of God's grace changing you to actually get you convicted? Something we need to think about. The second theme in our text that also reinforces this nickname Christian. Barnabas was a pretty astute cookie and he could see that what the people at Antioch needed most was teaching.

You know, when Jesus gave the Great Commission in Matthew 28, He put a strong emphasis on teaching. The Great Commission reads, go make disciples of all nations, teaching them, teaching them to observe all I've commanded you. So the idea of the Christian faith is not just to make converts and then let them alone and let them loose, but the idea is to let them loose while you continue teaching them. So Barnabas sees all these new converts. Okay.

Some of them are Jewish and they know the Old Testament, but there's the Hellenists, the Greeks, the other Gentiles who are totally ignorant of all those things. It's all strange and new to them. Ignorant Christians, friends, don't cope well with the trials of life. Ignorant Christians are susceptible to the devil's lies. Barnabas believes strongly that new converts need to be taught and they need to be taught well.

Barnabas also knows a capable teacher who can do just that, and he's thinking of Saul of Tarsus, who he introduced to the Jerusalem church. And so he sets off to Tarsus, Saul's hometown, to get Saul. In any case, Tarsus is closer than going all the way back to Jerusalem. And so Barnabas brings back this man who knows what it's like to be a recent convert, although it's probably about three years since Paul's conversion on the Damascus Road. Saul is Jewish and he can relate to the Jews in the Antioch congregation, but he's also having a wonderful grasp of the breadth and depth of God's grace, so he can relate to the Hellenists and the Gentiles. And so Saul comes to Antioch and he and Barnabas stay there one whole year teaching and teaching and teaching.

We're not told how they went about it, but it was obviously a very concentrated time of intense teaching. This morning, you and I know, congregation, that the Christian faith puts a lot of emphasis on teaching. In Ephesians chapter four, pastor-teachers are spoken of as one of God's gifts to the church. It's also obvious in the New Testament that this book, the New Testament, was written largely to teach God's people. And let me add that what happens from the pulpit here Sunday after Sunday is that God is using the scriptures and the preacher to teach us.

I think today we tend to forget that. Recall some years ago there was an elder who took a worship service while I was taking some holidays, and when I returned a man volunteered to me what a great job Rob had done. And then he added, and wow, Rob had us out of there by quarter to ten. It was great.

Three quarters of an hour and it was over. It seems to me this man didn't attend worship to be taught. He came to fulfill a religious obligation and the sooner it was over the better. You know, I can remember as a kid there was a time when just the sermon alone would go for an hour and halfway through there would be a break and we'd sing a song. A vague, very vague recollections of experiencing that as a six and seven year old.

We don't do that anymore. People begin to look at their watches when I've gone twenty minutes. Doesn't bother me. I just ignore them. Although I must say, back in the days when you used to wind watches, remember the wind up watches, and if they looked at their watch and then shook it next to the ear, that would rattle me a little bit because I'd wonder, have I really gone too long, you know.

So brothers and sisters, the point is Barnabas and Saul concentrated on a ministry of teaching, and you can bet your boots they didn't limit themselves to fifteen minute homilies. I have a friend who says, you know, sermonettes are fine if you want to be a Christianette, but if you want to be a Christian, you need a decent sermon. The point is God wants an educated church. That's what Barnabas and Saul, later called Paul, were aiming at in Antioch. I've taken this second theme of our text about teaching because it's relevant for that nickname when you think about it.

Probably not in the thinking of the enemies of the church who gave them that nickname, but for Christians for whom the name means that we identify with Jesus Christ, we find our identity in Him. He was the teacher par excellence, and so the content of the church's teaching is Jesus Christ. It's ultimately Sunday by Sunday all about Him. But Christ is not only the content of our teaching, He's also the model for the teaching, isn't He? It squarely rests on what Jesus did as our teacher, what He was as our teacher.

He taught 12 men intensively for a period of three years. Over and over again, He taught the crowds about the kingdom of God. And so here in Antioch, we have a church that identifies with Christ so much so that they get that nickname, but it makes the nickname wonderfully appropriate. Christians. It's why the church in Antioch didn't reject that name, but they owned it.

It spelled out their identity as a community of people. Christ-like teaching was at the centre of their life. A church that is obedient to the Great Commission is a church that teaches. Today it raises the question whether we have a teachable spirit. Maybe you and I need to ask ourselves that this morning.

I know that traditionally Presbyterian and Reformed churches have had a very strong focus on teaching. The churches of the Reformation were faithful particularly in catechism teaching. Sadly that's declined over the years. In some places it's been dropped, and I grieve over that. Hey, the baptism of our children, what do we promise?

We promise to teach them and to have them instructed. Our teaching in this church centres on the most glorious truth in the universe. It's being drawn to our attention in the teaching Sunday after Sunday after Sunday. It holds up to our scrutiny again and again, the beauty of the glorious Son of God. But hey, if you'd rather stay home and watch the cricket, then maybe you don't deserve that name, that nickname that we own and by which we identify ourselves.

There's a third theme, congregation, in our text and a third reason why that nickname is so meaningful this morning, and that is that right in the middle of this intense time of instruction, the twelve months in which Barnabas and Paul were teaching them, a little incident took place. It's at the end of that reading that Jordan took for us this morning. At a certain point, a couple of extra teachers come from Jerusalem. They come to help out. And a couple of those people, those extras that come to help out, have a gift of prophecy.

And one of them by the name of Agabus gives a Spirit-led prediction about a famine. And Doctor Luke, in recording this story, tells us that that famine actually happened during the reign of Caesar Claudius. What are we gonna make out of that? I can imagine some of you when that bit was read, you thought to yourself, should we expect those kinds of predictions today? Well, I've been in some churches where prophecies were given during worship services, but I have to confess that they reminded me a little bit of the astrology guides in the newspapers in that they were very vague and very ambiguous, depending what you did with them. Agabus is very specific.

He's crystal clear about it. Now historically, congregation, we find those kinds of prophecies in history, right throughout history, but we do find they become increasingly less and less. So it seems to me we need to keep in mind the vulnerability of this early young church, God's special protection of a fledgling church in those crucial early years. And so He makes sure that Christianity is not obliterated in Antioch before it even gets started. And so God, by this special prophecy, shields the church from that ongoing time of hardship.

And God has in certain special circumstances done that again and again. But there's another reason why this is relevant. In this way, God also gives the church an opportunity to show its love. And that's what again makes this term Christian, this nickname, so very telling. The response to that prophecy is overwhelming generosity.

Generosity is shown in that they take up a collection for the church in Judea, and it's not only the rich, you are told, that gave. Luke specifically says each believer, each believer gave according to their ability. They all helped. There was generosity right across the board. The whole church in Antioch agreed together to help those living in Judea who were in need.

Maybe in Antioch they were better off, better able to ride out the famine. Maybe there was water for irrigation there that wasn't there in Judea. But the point is the church responded to that prophecy with amazing generosity, so much so they had to appoint two men, Barnabas and Paul, to take their gifts to Jerusalem. There's two things, congregation, I want to say about this generosity that are notable. First of all, that kind of generosity is counter-cultural, isn't it? What I mean is that it runs contrary to the accepted norms of our society.

We're living in a society, and we see it on social media and current affairs and all sorts of places these days, that the catch cry is you look after number one. What's mine is mine. My money belongs to me. It's mine, mine, mine. To be generous with what we have is evidence again of God's grace.

Secondly, this generous help that was offered to Judea was probably historic. Many see it as the first time in history when there was cross-cultural, cross-ethnic charity. If we do have to help people out, then we prefer to help people that are our own kind of people, right? In the ancient world particularly that was the case. It was unheard of to experience this kind of generosity across social barriers, but it becomes the hallmark of the Christian church.

Do a survey sometime. Check out worldwide charities. How many of them were begun by Christians? Originally Christian organisations, although they lost their faith somewhere along the line. Do you see again how fitting it is that Christians were first called by that nickname here in Antioch?

Do you understand, congregation, how our identity as Christians is important in the light of that? This grace of giving is evidence of God at work. And if it's based on God's generosity in giving us the wonderful gift of His Son, that's the greatest motivation you can have. God gave everything to us, His everything, His only Son, so that we might have life through Him.

In fact, there's again an element of Christ-likeness in this generosity, isn't there? Jesus Christ is both our motivation, but also our model for charity. He is our motivation in that generosity stems from our thankfulness for the gospel. We give because He gave so much to us. But He's also our model, wonderful model of compassion and generosity that we see over and over again in the Gospels. We're generous because He was generous.

He is generous. We are Christians. Some time ago, I read a book with the title, What Has Christianity Ever Done for Us? It's a question that atheists love asking. What's Christianity ever done for us?

All it's produced is wars. Wrong. This book shows how many ways, so many ways, our western society is deeply indebted to Christianity. And it points out our Christianity taught us to show our concern for our fellow man made in the image of God, regardless of his culture or his ethnicity. In Antioch, the enemies of the church laughed at us and they gave us a nickname to ridicule us.

That nickname stuck because it identifies us as people with Christ-like generosity, and often that generosity, friends, has even blessed the very people who mocked and ridiculed us. So again, when it comes to application, how do we as a congregation measure up? How do we as individuals measure up when it comes to Christian charity? From my experience of fifty years in the ministry in the Christian Reformed churches, I've come to the conclusion we do rather well. Of course there's always room for improvement, that's true, and I'm not sure how.

You do things, you'll have to think about that yourself. But generally, generally in Reformed churches, when we're shown a need, we respond the same way as the church did in Antioch. Sure, if we did a survey this morning, we'd find that many of us sitting here in church this morning support a child overseas. Maybe an orphan, maybe some other needy child who needs an education. We're faithful in giving to the needs of our local church. We've got a meeting coming up to respond to the finances.

I'm sure it'll be a good meeting. So many of us support other causes. Not so long ago I was hearing the other speaker from the Bible League. Support the Bible League. We support Crossroads Prison Ministry, Mission Aviation Fellowship, Leprosy Mission. I could go on and on and on.

There's so many causes. But hey, we're Christians, aren't we? We wanna be generous. We want to imitate the generosity of our Saviour. Let me lead you in prayer. Father, it's a marvellous passage we've been looking at this morning.

So many evidences of Your grace. Changed lives, conversions, good solid Christian teaching, wonderful generosity. Lord, these are still the marks of a church today that loves the Lord Jesus Christ. And Father God, we thank You that also here we can see those marks of a Christian church amongst us. We pray that You'll keep us faithful. Above all, Lord, keep us being enthusiastic about the gospel message, about the doing, the dying and the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because, Father, that's ultimately our motivation in all of those areas. Motivation for change, motivation for teaching, motivation for giving. Father, go with us into this new week and help us to live as Christians. We pray that in His precious name as we say together, Amen.