The Church At Antioch
THE CHURCH AT ANTIOCH
ACTS 11:19-30
“Christian” was probably originally a nickname: these people were always telling others about Christ and saying that they belonged to him.
This is a short section, but packed with dynamite. It carries forward to the next crucial stage the widening expansion of the church’s outreach. At Antioch an unprecedented step was taken (11:20). Members of Stephen’s school, who had caught and preserved his spirit and who represented the wide sympathies of Hellenistic Judaism, began an evangelistic approach to rank outsiders. Cornelius had been a God-fearer (ie interested in the Jewish faith) before his conversion; the Greeks whom these men appealed to were completely untouched by Jewish influences. Yet they made a dramatic response to the proclamation of Jesus as Lord (11:21). Consider the significance of this title at this juncture (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:2-3).
The Jerusalem headquarters wanted to keep this movement under surveillance; and Barnabas was sent to Antioch, a city destined to become the springboard for the full-dress mission to the Gentile world (13:1).
It is not surprising that this city played such an important rôle in early Christianity. Situated near the coast of Syria, it was the capital of the Roman province. Its earlier history was shaped by Greek influences, yet it had received a great influx of Jewish population during the centuries of its life. It was thus the cosmopolitan center of the Syrian world, a meeting-place of east and west. Greek culture and Jewish faith met and intermingled in a busy commercial emporium, and provided just the right conditions for the rise and growth of a Hellenistic Christian church (11:24b).
11:27-30 provide an interlude, chiefly to explain how it was that the churches came to contribute to the relief of the poverty-afflicted mother church in Jerusalem. The famine in Judea is dated by Josephus between AD 44–48. The missionary apostles of Antioch are delegated to bring the gift to Jerusalem (11:30)—a visit probably to be equated with that of Galatians 2:1ff. if the letter to the Galatians is the first of the Pauline letters to be written.
Notes 11:19 picks up the reference in 8:4. The mention of Stephen’s name is important in showing a continuance of his posthumous influence. 11:20: “preaching Jesus as Lord” (so Romans 10:9). 11:21: “turned to the Lord”—a characteristic description of Gentile conversions (15:19; Galatians 4:9; 1 Thessalonians 1:9). 11:23: the gospel’s effect upon human lives was visible! 11:26: first mention of “Christians”—“partisans of Christ,” as pagans viewed them (26:28; 1 Peter 4:16).