Acts 11: Antioch, a Local Church Open to the World

Introduction

What is the book of Acts for? Is it just one more historical account, a series of surprising events from long ago? Charlie Skrine, who preaches at All Souls Langham Place in the heart of London, says no. For him, Luke made very deliberate choices: this book "builds the Church." It shows what kind of Church we should be and helps us become it.

The book follows a journey, from Jerusalem to Rome, from the city where God's presence dwelt to the city where all roads lead, and so to the ends of the earth. Along the way there are stages: Jerusalem, Antioch, Ephesus, Rome. On this partnership Sunday, in the series No Favourites, the preacher stops at Antioch (Acts 11:19-30) to learn what kind of Church his congregation hopes to be.

He draws out three traits: a local church in global partnership, a Church of the Word and therefore a growing Church, and a growing Church and therefore a Church that looks outward. And he ends with a reminder: all of this is the Lord's work.

Outline of the Message

1. A Scattering Nobody Had Planned

The passage begins with persecution. Acts 11:19 takes us back to the same event as Acts 8:1: the death of Stephen, the first Christian killed for his faith.
For the preacher, this was a terrible event, but also a terrible miscalculation on the part of the opponents. They thought: let's kill Stephen, and these Christians will go quiet. Instead, the believers were scattered across Judea and Samaria, and they became evangelists everywhere they went.
By the power of God's Spirit, it went very well: a 700-year division between Jews and Samaritans was healed, and the Samaritans were brought back into the people of God (Acts 8 and 9).
Acts 11:19 adds a detail in passing: some went further, as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch. The Word is leaving Israel, but it is still being spoken "only to Jews."

2. Antioch, a City Open to the World

Then comes verse 20: men from Cyprus and Cyrene, having arrived in Antioch, also speak to the Greeks and tell them the good news of the Lord Jesus. Cyrene, the preacher points out, is in Africa, in present-day Libya.
This follows the logic of the previous weeks, after Peter and Cornelius: God has also given to the Gentiles repentance that leads to life (Acts 11:18). Now the good news is offered to the nations.
Antioch had a glorious history. It had been the capital of about a third of Alexander's vast empire, the part facing east. Under Rome, it remained the capital of the province of Syria and the third city of the Empire: cosmopolitan, wealthy, connected to the world. One commentary gives its population as 500,000. It was called "the queen of the East."
Everything starts there: "an unknown man from Africa and his friend from Cyprus, both nameless," who simply begin talking about Jesus to non-Jews. This movement explains why there are Christians in every part of the world today, and why Christianity is no longer centered on Western countries but on Africa, South America and Asia.
The preacher is wary of easy parallels, but he sees one with London: two cities that lost their empire and kept their ties to the world. In Antioch, you could talk about Jesus with someone from China, India, Persia or Rome without leaving your street. At All Souls, sixty-one languages are spoken.

3. Two Moments of Danger for Unity

When the Lord's hand is with them and many believe (verse 21), word has to reach Jerusalem, "a note sent to head office." In Acts this has already happened twice, with two possible reactions.
The good reaction, in Acts 8: "Sorry, we converted some Samaritans," and Jerusalem sends help. The bad one, in Acts 11:1-3: "Sorry, we converted some Gentiles," and Jerusalem is furious: you should not even have gone into their house. Peter settled the matter, but if you know a little about human nature, you hold your breath.
This time the reaction is good (verse 22): Jerusalem sends Barnabas, whose name means "son of encouragement" (Acts 4:36). It sends the best it has, asking: how can we help?
The second moment of danger comes in verses 27 and 28: Agabus announces through the Spirit a great famine over all the world. The natural reaction of the new believers: charity begins at home. We are refugees, the famine will be everywhere, you will manage in Jerusalem, we are praying for you.
The danger is real: more than 2,000 years of separation between the Jewish people and the nations. Even in Jerusalem, in Acts 6, a dispute had broken out over whether the Greek-speaking Jews were receiving the same help as the Hebrew-speaking ones.

4. A Local Church in Global Partnership

Verses 29 and 30: the disciples decide to send relief to the brothers in Judea, each according to his ability, by the hand of Barnabas and Saul. The preacher highlights the two key words: these Jewish believers, whom most of the new Christians in Antioch had never met, are not strangers. They are brothers and sisters.
He imagines the scene: Barnabas and Saul set off with heavy bags of money for a famine that has not happened yet. It was only a prophecy. A believer from Antioch, perhaps Simeon called Niger (Acts 13:1), could have added a note: "We may never meet, but we consider you our brothers and sisters."
"Jesus is real." Only the Holy Spirit could cross such divisions, which existed in every city of the Empire. The Gospel is able to unite humanity to the ends of the earth and to reverse the effects of Babel, of Cain and Abel and of the fall.
Even the smallest village church, deep in the English countryside, should read this text and ask how it can be a partner with the world. At All Souls, many people run businesses in Nigeria, Sri Lanka or Hong Kong, or have family in Canada, the United States, Ghana or Indonesia.
The church already has missionary partners and trips. But the preacher asks a question: what if all of that were, in a sense, just head office projects? He admits he does not know. He dreams aloud: each year, in the training program, one person sent and funded by a church in Lagos, trained in London, who would teach us to look more like Nigerian Christians. And in twenty years, when a new pastor is needed, it could be that young Nigerian.
Global partnership, he sums up, is a two-way question: what are our needs that our brothers and sisters elsewhere can meet, as Jerusalem sent Barnabas? And what are their needs that we can meet, as Antioch sent its relief? "We are actually very small," but we are part of a connected world, just as they are.

5. A Church of the Word, and So a Growing Church

Verse 23: when Barnabas arrives and sees the grace of God, he rejoices and urges everyone to remain true to the Lord with steadfast hearts. The preacher sees a positive spiral between what the Lord does, what Barnabas does and what keeps happening: evangelism leads to joy, and joy to encouragement.
What kind of encouragement? To persevere. Barnabas knows that these new Christians, in a pagan world, will need to know it will be hard. The Church exists only because Stephen was killed. They are not promised that becoming a Christian will make everything easier.
Verse 24: they need everything Barnabas is. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. He does not think he holds the solution: he trusts God for that, he prays, he hopes.
Success creates a new problem, "a good problem, a growth problem." Barnabas goes looking for help again: he leaves for Tarsus to find Saul, a journey of about seven days each way. Then two people have to be housed and fed, because strengthening Christians through the Word of God is essential. For a whole year, they teach a large crowd.
The result: it is in Antioch that the disciples are first called Christians (verse 26). The preacher thinks it was an insult: these people follow Christ, so let's call them "Christians." "Yes, that is what we are. We belong to Jesus."
He calls Antioch a "Church of the Word" because of Acts 12:24: "the word of God grew and multiplied." Every few chapters, Luke places a short summary in which, in turn, it is the Church or the Word that grows. For Luke, these verses about teaching are not a dull stretch between the preaching and the generosity. It all forms one whole.

6. Nobody Is Strong Enough Alone

The truth behind this text, says the preacher, is that we are not strong enough to live what these verses describe without help and without being strengthened: persevering, staying faithful, being devoted with all our hearts, talking about Jesus, serving, giving, loving people who are different from us.
This beautiful picture does not last long on "a poor spiritual diet." London, and the whole world thanks to the internet, offers a wonderful menu of churches: you can move from one to another and listen. But nothing replaces gathering, spending time together and strengthening one another. Neither does five minutes of daily meditation or an occasional Bible study.
He makes clear that everything he says applies to him too. He has known clergy, pastors and bishops, who had almost stopped going to church in the true sense: being with a group of believers who know them well, week after week, and who can encourage and correct them. They told him: "I'm fine, I lead services all the time." He has seen the damage, year after year: enthusiastic Christians who lose heart. Many pastors, once retired, say they will never go back to church.
That is why the church asks those who want to serve to be part of a life group, if their schedule allows. Not to fill the groups, but because nobody is strong enough without it. Jerusalem did not think Antioch would manage without help. Why would we think a new Christian, or someone who has served for ten years, will manage without a life group?
"There is no shortcut." The Antioch church of Acts 13 will be a praying, diverse, generous and sending church. None of that happens without the teaching of the Word in Acts 11, and without people to give it. If the church raises funds for its team, it is not to have more people in the offices, where you can barely find a desk or a chair. It is because one question keeps it awake at night: how can 1,400 people be formed as disciples in the way of Acts 11?

7. A Church That Looks Outward, and It Is All the Lord's Work

Verse 24 flows from verse 23, just as verses 20 and 21 flowed from the work done in Jerusalem: that is why those two men from Libya and Cyprus were able to talk about Jesus as soon as they arrived. And verses 29 and 30 flow from verse 26. When we talk about belonging, praying, serving and giving, it is not a call to help the pastor with his tasks. "The Church is never about me. It is always about us."
The preacher sees in his congregation a great desire to learn the Word: from where he stands, he senses that every word is listened to with care. But he wonders whether the church could be easily distracted. His first sermon at All Souls was on Martha and Mary: Martha was distracted by all the preparations (Luke 10:40).
At every stage of life there are choices: arriving in London, a new job, a promotion, a new house to repaint, a child, a family that needs you. He thinks that, faced with that choice, the church always chooses service and never stops, but does not always choose to be strengthened. Yet to keep serving, we must keep being strengthened.
Everyone will do it in their own way. He mentions life groups that go away together for a few days of vacation, and he jokes: he cannot think of anything worse than a stay at Center Parcs without children, but the idea is excellent. Others travel a lot and will not be able to come to the Wednesday Bible study, but they can write: I want to catch up on what I missed, I want to pray for the people in the group. Stay connected rather than saying: "No problem, I'll start in January."
The Church this book wants to build goes out the door, looks at the valley, in Antioch, in Rome or elsewhere in the world, and asks: how do we make disciples of Jesus there? The Church is not a parking lot for Christians waiting for Jesus to return, nor a retirement home where people wait for the next event.
It is more like Everest base camp, where you gain strength before climbing toward the summit, or a training camp, to be ready on the front line, where you live, in the midst of a world to serve and to reach. Go out the door, look at the valley, or even Regent Street, and think of those we can reach.
Verse 20 speaks of the good news of the Lord. Verse 21 says the Lord's hand was with them. In verse 23, these new Christians are the fruit of God's grace. In verse 24, Barnabas is full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, which brings more people to the Lord. In verse 28, it is the Spirit who announces the famine and gives the opportunity to show that they are one new family.
Among the church's four commitments (praying, belonging, serving, giving), prayer always comes first.
The preacher closes in prayer: he thanks the Father for the joy of the Jerusalem Christians' welcome of the Antioch church, for their love, their courage in persecution and their joy in helping believers they had never met, across an immense gap. He asks to be changed, forgiven where we do not resemble them, and to become people of faith, filled with the Holy Spirit, committed to being strengthened, taught and encouraged, so as to be such a Church in London.

Key Takeaways

The Gospel crossed the barrier between Jews and Gentiles through nameless believers driven out by persecution. God uses what people thought was an ending.
A local church, even a small one, is part of a global family: it receives and it gives, as Jerusalem sent Barnabas and as Antioch sent its relief.
Barnabas urges the new believers to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts, without promising them an easier life.
Nobody is strong enough to persevere without the Word of God and without others: there is no shortcut.
The Church is not a parking lot or a retirement home, but a base camp: we gain strength there to reach those outside.

Personal Application

When you choose between serving even more and being strengthened, which do you choose most often? What would help you keep both?
Is your spiritual diet nourishing enough to last, or is it limited to a few minutes of reading and sermons listened to in passing?
Are you part of a small group of believers who know you well enough to encourage and correct you, week after week?
Which brothers and sisters elsewhere in the world could you help, and what could you learn from them?
As you step out of your home this week, on your street, in your neighborhood or at work, who could you talk to about Jesus?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

Why were the disciples called Christians in Antioch?

According to Acts 11:26, it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians. Charlie Skrine thinks this nickname started as a mockery: these people followed Christ, so they were called "Christ's people." He embraces it as his own: yes, we belong to Jesus.

What does Barnabas do when he arrives in Antioch?

He sees the grace of God, rejoices, and urges all the believers to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts (Acts 11:23). Then he goes to find Saul in Tarsus, and the two of them teach the church for a whole year. For the preacher, this is the model of a Church nourished by the Word.

What does it mean to be a local church in global partnership?

Antioch is a small local church, but it knows it is bound to brothers and sisters it has never met. It receives help from Jerusalem, then in turn sends relief to the believers in Judea (Acts 11:29-30). Charlie Skrine sees in this a call for every church, even the smallest.