When the Christian faith began spreading among the gentiles in Antioch, a man named Barnabas was sent from Jerusalem to investigate. In this sermon, R.C. Sproul sets the scene of this historic moment, discussing the important roles that Barnabas and Saul played in the missionary outreach of the early church.

As we continue with our study of the Acts of the Apostles, we will be looking at Acts 11:19–30:

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 all 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 Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened in 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 also did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.

He who has ears to hear the Word of God, let them hear. Let us pray.

Indeed, our Father, even when we read texts that seem for us mere transitions from one event to another containing little, if any, drama within them, nevertheless, we realize that not a single desultory word has ever escaped from Your lips, and all that You have revealed from Your whole counsel is for our edification. So, this morning, as we see this bridge in time and space, grant to our understanding its significance for the whole history of Christendom. We ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

The History of Antioch

In this text, Luke directs his attention back to the martyrdom of Saint Stephen and reminds us that there was a great dispersion of Christians from Jerusalem. Wherever they went as they fled persecution from the city of Jerusalem, they took the gospel with them. He calls attention to what happened as these people migrated north through Galilee up into Phoenicia, out to the island of Cyprus, which is on the extreme eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, then up to Antioch, which was the capital city of Syria at the time. It was the Antioch on the Orontes River, about eighteen miles inland from the Mediterranean Sea.

I beg your indulgence for some background and history of this town of Antioch. It was founded and established in 300 BC by a man named Seleucus Nicator, who was the son of Antiochus. If you recall your history of Western civilization, one of the most phenomenal things that took place in the fourth century BC was the overwhelming conquest of Alexander the Great, whose empire spread all over the Mediterranean world.

What was so remarkable about Alexander was that he built his empire while he was a young man in his twenties. As he was on the brink of conquering the entire known world of his day, he became sick. He died suddenly at about age twenty-six. His empire was then divided among four of his generals, then further divided into two dynasties, the Seleucidan dynasty and the Ptolemaic dynasty, which stretched down into Egypt.

The Seleucids had a tremendous impact in the intertestamental period between the death of Alexander and the coming of Christ. The abomination of desolation predicted by the Old Testament prophets took place when the temple in Jerusalem was defiled by Antiochus Epiphanes, who was one of the descendants of the first Antiochus. Seleucid Nicator honored his father in AD 300 by building this city and naming it Antioch after his father.

Antioch quickly became an important commercial center because it was on the bridge from Africa to Asia and Europe along the Mediterranean coast. Not only that, but it was important as a religious center because there were several mystery religions and pagan religions found close by that practiced temple prostitution and the like. So, the city became known for its moral laxity, but also for its polyglot, cosmopolitan population.

In the year 64 BC, Antioch was conquered by the Roman general, Pompey, who was vying for popularity in Rome with Julius Caesar. In Shakespeare’s account of the assassination of Caesar, when Caesar is stabbed, he cries out, “Et tu, Brute (you also, Brutus?),” then dramatically falls at the base of the bust of general Pompey. It was that Pompey who conquered Antioch and assimilated it into the Roman empire.

A Center of Christian Expansion

By the time we get to the book of Acts, Antioch was the third largest city in the Greco-Roman world. Rome was the largest, Alexandria in Egypt the second largest, and the third largest was Antioch. At this point in history, it was larger than Athens.

When we think about ancient history, we usually do not tend to think of Antioch as having that kind of importance. Some of those in Rome looked upon it with disdain. The Roman satirist, Juvenal, said in one of his satires that the garbage of Antioch flows out the Orontes and empties finally into the Tiber. He did not have a high view of the importance of this city.

In our text, we see that just as Jerusalem was where the Christian church was established initially and became the mother church of Christianity for all times, even though it was basically just a Jewish settlement, so Antioch became the headquarters for the gentile expansion of the Christian faith. It became the headquarters for Paul on his future missionary journeys.

The import of Antioch was not just for the first-century A.D.; it carried forward for centuries to come. In the third century, it was at the Synod of Antioch that the heretic Sabellius was condemned. Then again, some people from Antioch had a negative influence on the church that made necessary the Council of Nicaea in the fourth century. There is a long history. From what is mentioned briefly in this text, the geographical center of the expansion of the church coming out of Antioch was of critical importance. So, let us keep that in mind.

God Grows the Church

Those Christians who fled persecution went into Antioch. First, the persecuted Christians only addressed the Jews who had already migrated there and had established their synagogues. Then some Jewish believers from Cyprus and Cyrene came to Antioch, spoke to the Greeks, and began to do missionary outreach to the gentile community. We read in verse 21, “And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and were added to the Lord.”

We see throughout the book of Acts that when God pours out His Spirit and when His hand is upon the work of the church, the church grows numerically. Hundreds—and at times thousands—are added to the community. Because of that, we tend to think that any time a church grows numerically, it must be irrefutable evidence that the hand of the Lord is upon it. But that is not necessarily so. We employ our human devices to attract members, build churches, and make megachurches out of them, which may or may not reflect the blessing of God. The best-attended worship service in biblical history took place at the base of Mount Sinai. While Moses was on the mountain talking to God, the people were assembled in great jubilation, joyous singing, and celebrating in their dancing around the golden calf. What attracted the great numbers on that occasion was not the truth of God, but idolatry. So, we must be careful.

On the other hand, sometimes we are tempted to say, “God doesn’t care about numbers.” Yes, He does. When God’s hand is on a work, it grows. Just because something grows does not mean God’s hand is on it. But when God puts His hand upon a missionary outreach and evangelistic enterprise of the church, growth happens. That is what happened in Antioch. The growth was so spectacular that word of it got back to Jerusalem.

As a result, the Christians and the leadership in Jerusalem delegated a man to become a representative of the church to investigate what was happening in Antioch. The man they selected for that task was Barnabas, who would have an important role with Paul on his missionary journeys.

The Son of Encouragement

In this text, we see the mission of Barnabas: “They sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and encouraged them all 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.” Barnabas’s name means “son of encouragement.”

What usually happens when a good work is going on and some authority is invited to come examine and evaluate it? The person comes and says: “You have a nice ministry going here, and I like this and that about it, but there are a few things I detect that need to be tweaked a bit. This isn’t quite right and that isn’t quite right.” Suddenly, you have a grocery list of nits and picks to correct all the things that you find wrong. Is that not basic to human nature?

In my family, there were some aunts who were sisters, and the younger of the two had more education than the elder one, was more sophisticated, and had married into a fairly affluent family. The elder sister was not schooled, not sophisticated, and married a man with a motorcycle who quit school after eighth grade. That was the way they were.

The elder sister greatly admired the younger one. Every time the elder one would make a purchase for her house or redecorate, such as getting some curtains or a new carpet, she would invite her sister over so that she could inspect the changes and improvements in the house.

It became a family joke that when the younger sister came over, she would look at what her older sister had done in her redecorating and say: “My goodness, why did you do that? That’s atrocious. Don’t you see that these things clash with one another?” She always had some criticism to make about what the poor older sister had done, and it would devastate her. Do you know someone like that? It seems as if they are everywhere.

We read earlier from the Decalogue about coveting. God sees coveting as such a dangerous and vicious thing—capable of destroying families, communities, and indeed worlds by way of inciting warfare—that He made it one of the top ten laws. What happens in coveting is that I become jealous of someone else’s possessions, stature in the community, or job. Because I am jealous, I begin to harbor ill will and envy in my heart against that person, and it can lead to vandalism, slander, and all kinds of terrible destruction.

But what is worse than anything about envy and covetousness is not the violence it does to our neighbor, but what it does to God. Here is what we read this morning: “What is required in the tenth commandment? The tenth commandment requires full contentment with our own condition, with a charitable frame of spirit toward our neighbor, and all that is his” (Westminster Shorter Catechism 80).

The fruit of the Spirit is not envy. When I see my neighbor prosper, I am to be glad. I am to rejoice for that person that they have received these benefits rather than express envy. A spirit of envy says to God: “God, what kind of a God are you that you would give that job to that person and not give it to me? Why would you give that possession to that person and not bestow it upon me?” I begin to think that God has short-changed me and that God owes me something that He should have given to me rather than my neighbor. How audacious and blasphemous that is. What an insult it is to the mercy and goodness of God, from whom every good and perfect gift we have comes. It shows what Paul was talking about in Romans 1: the most basic sins of all are the sins of idolatry and ingratitude.

But that was not the way Barnabas was. Barnabas went to Antioch and saw the work that had prospered, and he did not have a thing to do with causing it. He looked at what was happening and said, “This is fantastic.” He did not say, “This is wonderful, but . . .” and then give criticisms. Rather, his advice was, “Keep doing what you have been doing,” because he was the son of encouragement.

The Spirit of Courage

We all meet people who, if you come up with an idea, no matter how good the idea it is, have fifty reasons to tell you why it will not work. On one hand, we are called to do due diligence. Jesus told us to count the cost of any enterprise with which we are involved, and we would be foolish not to look at the obstacles that lie before us. But when I was young, I learned a truth that I still believe: “I can’t” never did anything. So, when we come up with a new idea or a new program, yes indeed, there may be serious obstacles in front of us, but that is when it is time to hear from a Barnabas: “Yes, it’s going to be tough. Every inch of ground that we gain is going to be costly, but here’s how we can do it. It’s worth it. Let’s make it happen.”

That was the kind of spirit that had to be present in the early church behind the missionary outreach to hostile territory. It was like the faithful spies in Israel when most of them came back talking about the giants, but two of them, Caleb and Joshua, said, “Yes, there are giants, but you should see the milk and the honey.” That was Barnabas.

When it says Barnabas was a good man, his goodness was a gift of the Holy Ghost. We, as Christians, always need to be encouraged. The thing that stops the outreach of the church more than anything else is that we are paralyzed by fear. We lack courage.

I have always said to my children and students that the one absolutely necessary ingredient that courage requires, the sine qua non for courage, is fear. To do something that you are not afraid to do does not require courage. Courage happens when we do what we are afraid to do.

Encouragement Changes Lives

I must tell you a personal story. When I graduated from seminary, we had been married for four years, and we had a baby. There were three years during which I did not have two pennies to rub together. I was sick and tired of going to school, and I said, “It’s time to get a job.”

I inquired to the general presbyter in Pittsburgh, and I said, “Are there any openings for clergy?” He said: “There is a yoked parish in the countryside with two small churches about twelve miles apart and about fifty or sixty members in each one. They do not have a pastor, and I think I could get you in there.”

I said, “Let’s do it.” Then the presbyter told me, “But I don’t think you should do it.” I asked, “Why not?” He answered, “Because I talked to your professor in seminary, and he thinks you ought to go to school. Before you do this job, I want you to go back and talk to your professor again.”

I went and talked to my professor, and he said, “You need to go on to school.” I said in response: “Okay. Where am I going?” He answered: “You’re going to Holland to do your doctoral work.” I said: “I can’t do that. I don’t know Dutch.”

Do you know what my professor said? He looked at me and said, “You can do it.” It changed our life. I booked passage that night. We sold everything we had and went out on that venture, not because I believed I could do it, but because somebody believed for me. That is what encouragement does. He would keep writing to me: “Be of good cheer. Hang in there. Don’t despair.” That was what Barnabas did for the people in Antioch.

Barnabas and Saul Teach the Christians

Barnabas envisioned a far broader ministry than what was happening in Antioch. He said: “This must go to the whole world, and I can’t do it alone. I need some help.” So, he thought about it: “Who is the best person I can find to go with me?”

Usually when someone does this, they look for an assistant. Not Barnabas. He looked for somebody more gifted than he was, more anointed than he, and with greater authority than he had. He thought, “If we’re going to tackle the world, I want Saul.”

Barnabas inquired of the people in Antioch, “Where’s Saul of Tarsus?” No one knew. They had not heard from him in years. They all knew the story of the Damascus road experience, but then he dropped out of sight: “The last we heard, he was in Tarsus.”

It says in the text that Barnabas began to search for Paul. The force of the Greek verb there is not, “Oh, I’m going to go look up Saul.” It means that Barnabas was carrying out the serious, arduous task of searching for a missing person. That is the force of the verb. Barnabas went, “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.”

Christian was a derisive term. People heard them talking about Christ and had no idea what that meant. They were not Jews. They did not know the background of the Messiah. They said: “What’s this Messiah talk? There’s a group of people looking for their Messiah, their Christ.” So, they called them “Christers” as a derogatory term, which the church was proud to embrace: “Yes, we’re Christians, because He has bought us with His blood.”

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.