Will you please turn to the book of Acts, Acts 11? We will read from verse 19 through verse 30.
They therefore that were scattered abroad upon the tribulation that arose about Stephen travelled as far as Phoenicia, and Cyprus, and Antioch, speaking the word to none save only to Jews.
But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who, when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus.
And the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number that believed turned unto the Lord.
And the report concerning them came to the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem: and they sent forth Barnabas as far as Antioch.
Who, when he was come, and had seen the grace of God, was glad; and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord:
For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith: and much people was added unto the Lord.
And he went forth to Tarsus to seek for Saul;
And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that even for a whole year they were gathered together with the church, and taught much people; and that the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.
Now in these days there came down prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch.
And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that there should be a great famine over all the world: which came to pass in the days of Claudius.
And the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren that dwelt in Judaea:
Which also they did, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.
Dear heavenly Father, our hearts do rejoice in Thy presence. We do praise and thank Thee for the privilege of remembering Thy Son at the table. Our hearts are touched by Thy love. We thank Thee for all that Thou hast done for us, and we thank Thee for Thy own self.
We thank Thee that we have this opportunity of coming together. We ask Thee that, by Thy Spirit, Thou wilt open Thy Word to us, so that it may not be just past history, but may become a treasured experience, that Thou mayest be glorified. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Last night we mentioned that our Lord Jesus came to this earth for one purpose. He came not only to seek and to save the lost, but He came to gather these saved ones together and make them one Body, one church.
I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
The way that our Lord Jesus builds His church is by building His churches in many localities all over this earth. When our Lord was on earth, He was preparing the material. But after He ascended upon high, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down upon the one hundred and twenty.
They were baptized in one Spirit into one Body. That is the beginning of the church on earth. The first church that was born and built was in Jerusalem.
We mentioned last night that, through the history of these churches, we may learn some very precious lessons. Even though every local assembly is unique, our Lord is a living God, and His Body is living. Therefore, you do not simply see copies all over this earth.
In every place, the work of the Lord is living and fresh. But there are certain fundamental elements that must be present in every assembly. Otherwise, you cannot consider it a church.
In the church in Jerusalem, we mentioned a few lessons. First, we find that the church in Jerusalem was not organized.
The one hundred and twenty believers in that upper room did not organize the church, because they knew that the church must be born of God. In sympathy with our Lord Jesus, they simply gave themselves to continued prayer.
It was through the prevailing prayer of these believers that a way was opened for the Holy Spirit to come down upon them and make them one Body, one church. So, brothers and sisters, the church is never organized by man. The church is born of God.
Then we find the second lesson. From the very beginning of the church, all the members of the Body were functioning.
On the day of Pentecost, not only Peter, but the other eleven stood with him. We find that all one hundred and twenty were speaking of the great things of God in different tongues to reach different people.
Everyone was functioning as a living member of the living Body of Christ. The great danger of Christianity is to depend upon one person to function for all. The normal functioning is where every member of the Body of Christ is livingly functioning.
Then we come to the third lesson. From the very day that the three thousand repented and believed in the Lord Jesus, they were immediately separated from the world.
All those who are saved not only have their sins forgiven; they also are saved and delivered from the world. The church is a new creation. Nothing of the world belongs to the church. Everything is of God; everything is new.
So, brothers and sisters, let us remember that the church is a holy thing. It is completely delivered from the world. It is to express Christ Himself.
Then we find the fourth lesson. As soon as the three thousand people were added to the church, they immediately began to manifest a church life, a Body life.
They devoted themselves to the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, to the breaking of bread, and to prayers. They began to live a corporate life.
They not only met in Solomon’s porch; they met at home. They loved one another. They cared for one another. A new way of life began to be expressed in their midst.
Then the fifth lesson: as long as we are in this flesh, you will find that there will be problems in the church. But all problems can be solved by prayer, by love, and by discipline.
Now, these are a few lessons that we mentioned last night. We hope that these are not merely things for us to consider. They are things that we need to bring to the Lord and ask Him to reveal His mind to us, that we may be what He wants us to be.
Now, the church in Jerusalem was just the beginning. You remember that our Lord Jesus told His disciples, “You shall be My witnesses, from Jerusalem, to Judaea, to Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
The will of God was not that there should be only a church in Jerusalem. This was just the beginning. He would have His churches in all Judaea, in Samaria, and even to the very end of the earth.
On the day of Pentecost, three thousand were added to the church. The Bible says that the Lord continually added to them daily. By Acts 4, the number of believers had come to five thousand. In Acts 5, many more men and women were added. In Acts 6, even many priests came to the Lord.
Probably, during that time, there were about twenty thousand believers in the church in Jerusalem. All these believers were one. They gathered together, praised the Lord together, broke bread from house to house, and loved one another. It was such a wonderful, beautiful picture.
The church had a glorious beginning, and this continued for perhaps seven or eight years. The believers were so happy together that they forgot the word of the Lord: from Jerusalem to Judaea, to Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
But they simply stayed in Jerusalem because they were so happy and had such a glorious time together. Finally, the Lord arranged persecution.
You remember that Stephen was the first martyr. After he was stoned to death, persecution began in Jerusalem. Saul became an agent of the enemy, going into the houses of Christians and trying to seize men and women and commit them to prison.
Because of the persecution, all the believers scattered. God used this means to enable them to fulfil His Word. When the believers scattered into all Judaea, Galilee, and Samaria, churches were raised up everywhere.
Then, in Acts 11, we find that because of the persecution that began with Stephen’s martyrdom, the people scattered beyond Galilee and beyond Samaria. Some of them went to Phoenicia, Cyprus, and even to Antioch.
On the day of Pentecost, Jews had come from all over the world to keep the feast. There were not only Hebrew Jews there. Hebrew Jews were those who remained in the promised land, but there were also many Hellenistic Jews—the Jews of the Dispersion—who lived in Gentile cities.
There were also Gentiles who had been converted to Judaism, the so-called proselytes. So, on the day of Pentecost, God gathered people from all over the world into Jerusalem.
Among the three thousand, later five thousand, and eventually twenty thousand, there were not only Hebrew Jews in the church in Jerusalem. The Hebrew Jews were the great majority, and the Hellenistic Jews were the minority. There were even people of Gentile origin, such as Cyrenians and Cyprians.
When the believers began to scatter, the Hellenistic Jews returned to their cities and spoke only to the Jews. But the proselytes—the Gentiles who had become Christian believers, including the Cyprians and Cyrenians—began to speak to the Greeks, the Gentiles, in the city of Antioch.
The hand of the Lord was with them, and many Gentiles turned to the Lord.
In the beginning, all the disciples of the Lord were Jews, mostly Hebrew Jews. At Pentecost, the church in Jerusalem included Hebrew Jews as the majority and Hellenistic Jews as the minority. Nevertheless, the church in Jerusalem was composed mainly of Jews.
When the Spirit of the Lord moved in the house of Cornelius and many Gentiles were saved, it was a shock and a surprise to the Jewish believers. They thought that salvation was confined to the Jews.
But the Holy Spirit came down in the house of Cornelius, and many Gentiles came to the Lord. The Body of Christ is composed of Jews and Gentiles. Out of the Jews and out of the Gentiles, God brought people together and made them one Body.
In the house of Cornelius, this was very limited. But in Antioch, the Spirit of God seemed to do a new thing. Many Gentiles came to the Lord.
How did these Gentiles come to the Lord? They came to the Lord through these unnamed believers. These unnamed Gentile believers carried the gospel to their own people, and the hand of the Lord was with them.
The beginning of the church in Antioch was very different from the beginning of the church in Jerusalem. The church in Jerusalem began with the apostles and with those who had followed the Lord for a long period. The apostles played a very important role in the church in Jerusalem.
But the church in Antioch began very differently. There was no apostle, only unnamed believers. When they moved back to their own country, they witnessed for the Lord, and God brought many into the church.
Brothers and sisters, the beginning of a church can come in two different ways. It can be through the preaching of the apostles. Paul and Barnabas went out and preached the gospel, people were saved, and churches were raised up in Asia and even in Europe.
But there is another way that the Holy Spirit uses: not through apostles, but through believers. As believers scatter to different places, they preach the gospel there, and the Lord raises up a church for His glory.
Let us remember that the Lord may do things very differently. It is not necessary that you must have an apostle to start a church, because the Lord can begin a church with believers.
Everyone who reads the book of Acts acknowledges that the church in Antioch was a new move of the Holy Spirit. Before that time, it seemed as if the work of God was centred in Jerusalem.
But now it seemed that the Holy Spirit was making a new move. It was as if He shifted the centre from Jerusalem to Antioch. Why? Because Jerusalem seemed too much bound by Jewish traditions.
The Lord began a new start without the bondage of Judaism. That is why we often say that if you want to see a typical church, look at Antioch, not at Jerusalem. Antioch was free from the bondage of Jewish tradition.
Who were the people in the church in Antioch? When the believers scattered from Jerusalem came to Antioch, they shared Christ with their fellow men, and many turned to the Lord.
When the news came to Jerusalem, they sent Barnabas to visit them. When Barnabas came and saw what the Lord had done, he rejoiced. He exhorted them to abide in the Lord—to continue on in the Lord.
First, they turned to the Lord. Then they were to abide in the Lord. Abiding is the secret of growth. After we turn to the Lord, how can we grow in the Lord? The secret is in abiding.
You remember our Lord Jesus in John 15. He says:
I am the true vine, and ye are the branches.
Abide in Me, and I in you.
He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit.
We who have turned to the Lord need to abide in Christ. To put it another way, abiding simply means to make your home in Christ. You live in Him. You continually have fellowship with Him. You pray to Him. You read His Word. You are in communication with Him. You listen to Him, obey Him, and follow Him.
That is abiding. If we only turn to the Lord but do not abide in Him, we will never grow. But if we learn to abide in Him, then we will grow up spiritually.
Many years ago, I asked some young people, “How do you abide in Christ?” These lovely young people told me that you abide in Christ by living in the will of God, or by praying to Him.
But what really makes us abide in Christ? You remember 1 John 2:27:
Ye have no need that any one teach you; but as His anointing teacheth you concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie, and even as it taught you, ye abide in Him.
Brothers and sisters, we all have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. If you do not have the Spirit of Christ, you are not His. Every believer has the Holy Spirit dwelling in him or in her.
He is the anointing. He is there to teach us. He is responsible to bring Christ to us and to bring us to Christ. He teaches us and conforms us to the image of Christ.
So, brothers and sisters, how do we abide in Christ? By listening to the anointing within you. When the Holy Spirit speaks and moves within you, sometimes it is a still, small voice. Sometimes it is a light within you. Sometimes it is constraining; sometimes it is restraining.
It is gentle. It is tender. The Holy Spirit moves upon you like an ointment being tenderly, softly, and delicately applied to you.
If you learn to listen to the voice of the Spirit within you, then you abide. That is the secret.
Unfortunately, today we find that our Christian walk is often entirely external. We need to be instructed from outside—what we can do and what we cannot do. We forget that we have a permanent Teacher residing within us.
If we would just learn to hear the Holy Spirit, we would know how to make our home in Christ. When we disobey Him, we become like a prodigal son; we wander away from our home.
These believers not only turned to Christ, but they abided in Christ. Barnabas exhorted them, and then he found that he alone was not sufficient. So he went to Tarsus and found Saul.
At that time Saul had been converted from a persecutor to a witness. Barnabas brought him to Antioch, and together they taught the disciples for a whole year.
These believers were also taught in the Word of God. Sometimes we may misunderstand what we sense within our spirit, so we need to be instructed in the Word of God. We need this balance, to check whether what we sense in our spirit is according to the Word.
In the church in Antioch were people who turned to the Lord, who made their home in the Lord, and who were taught in the Word of God. Brothers and sisters, is that not what the church ought to be? All those in the church should turn to the Lord, learn to abide in Him, and be taught in the Word of God.
What was the result? The disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.
In the beginning, when Jewish people turned to our Lord Jesus, the world considered them another sect of Judaism. In Judaism there were many sects: the Sadducees, the Pharisees, and the Essenes. Since the believers were Jews, people considered them another sect within Judaism.
They saw that these believers had a different way of life, and they said, “These people are people of the Way.” But the name Christian was not yet used.
Soon in Antioch, however, the believers were mostly Gentiles. The world could no longer say that this was merely a sect of Judaism. The world looked at these people and asked, “Who are they?”
We want to label people. If we cannot identify them, we feel insecure. I think this is a result of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We are not secure if we cannot label a people.
The world looked at these disciples in Antioch and called them Christians. Why did they call them Christians? Because when these people opened their mouths, it was Christ. When they were silent, it was still Christ. When they gathered together, they gathered in the name of Christ. When they sang, they sang to Christ.
They lived for Christ, and they lived out Christ. They were Christ-centred. They were Christ-occupied. Christ was everything to them. What a wonderful nickname.
It was the world that called them Christians. Now, are we worthy of that name?
The word Christian occurs only three times in the New Testament. The first occurrence is in Acts 11:26: “The disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.”
Why? Because they were a people totally occupied with Christ. Brothers and sisters, are we totally occupied with Christ? Is Christ our centre? Is Christ all and in all to us? This is what the church is. The church is the Body of Christ, the fullness of Him who filleth all in all.
The second time the word Christian is used is in Acts 26. You remember that Paul was before Agrippa, testifying. Festus said, “Paul, thou art mad.” Paul was given an opportunity to defend himself, but he was simply testifying of Christ.
Paul answered, “I am not mad; but speak forth words of truth and soberness.” Then Agrippa said:
With but little persuasion thou wouldest fain make me a Christian.
Paul replied:
I would to God, that whether with little or with much, not thou only, but also all that hear me this day, might become such as I am, except these bonds.
In that context, a Christian is someone who is obsessed with Christ. In the eyes of Festus, Paul was a man obsessed with Christ.
Brothers and sisters, this is a wonderful obsession. We should not be obsessed with anything else. But if we are obsessed with Christ, praise the Lord.
Unfortunately, we are often obsessed with many other things. How good it would be if, in the eyes of the world, we were people obsessed with Christ—not thinking of ourselves, but thinking only of the interests of Christ. That is a wonderful obsession.
The third place where the word Christian is mentioned is in 1 Peter 4:14, 16:
If ye are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are ye; because the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God resteth upon you.
But if a man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God in this name.
A Christian should bear the reproach of Christ. Hebrews tells us to go forth unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach. Moses chose the reproach of Christ rather than the riches of Egypt.
We should not suffer for evil or wickedness. But if we suffer as a Christian, we should glorify God. Brothers and sisters, a Christian is one who is ready to bear the reproach of Christ.
Another thing I would like to mention is the interrelationship between the church in Jerusalem and the church in Antioch.
When the news came to Jerusalem, they sent Barnabas to visit Antioch. Before what happened in the house of Cornelius, the Jewish believers thought that salvation belonged to the Jews only. But what the Spirit of God did in the house of Cornelius opened their eyes: God had granted repentance unto life to the Gentiles also.
Therefore, when they heard what had happened in Antioch, they were happy concerning the work of God there, and they sent Barnabas to visit.
They did not send Peter or James. Who was Barnabas? Barnabas was a Hellenistic Jew. He was a Levite, but he was born in Cyprus.
Instead of sending a Hebrew Jew to a Gentile city, where there might have been prejudice, they sent Barnabas. Even Peter, when he later visited Antioch, was still influenced by such prejudice.
Barnabas was a Cyprian, and therefore there was a sense of sympathy, not opposition. They sent Barnabas not to control the church in Antioch, not to make the church in Jerusalem the mother church and Antioch a daughter church.
If they had wanted to do that, they would have sent Peter or James. No, they sent Barnabas for fellowship, not for control.
Brothers and sisters, there should not only be fellowship among believers; there should be fellowship among churches. But it is not by administration. It is in the Spirit, because we are one church.
The church in Jerusalem sent Barnabas to show its fellowship with the church in Antioch. Then the church in Antioch also found a way to fellowship with the church in Jerusalem.
The Jewish believers were poor, while the Gentile believers were relatively well-to-do. So the church in Antioch, according to what they were able to do, sent help to the brethren in Judaea.
Fellowship is not one way; fellowship is two ways. Here you find the interrelationship between the churches that enriches the church of God.
In the church of Antioch, in Acts 13, there were five prophets and teachers. They were ministering to the Lord, and the Spirit of God said, “Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.”
Barnabas and Saul were sent out by the Holy Spirit for an apostolic work. Out of the church came apostles.
How were these apostles produced? You find that they were produced by first ministering in the local assembly. God called five prophets and teachers, and they ministered together unto the Lord and to the church in Antioch.
It was not one man’s ministry, nor was it every man’s ministry. Five prophets and teachers were ministering the Word of God.
This is different from Body ministry. Every member in the Body has a ministry, and we all need to function. But aside from this Body ministry, God does raise up people who minister the Word of God to the church.
God gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. These five were ministering the Word in the church in Antioch. They were faithful in the Word of God.
As they were ministering to the Lord, the Holy Spirit separated two of them for an apostolic work. Now, brothers and sisters, if a church is truly normal, it should produce God’s workers.
Today, after a revival meeting, some people—especially young people—may be revived and offer themselves to the Lord. They want to go out and preach the gospel. How are they to be equipped? Often they are sent to a seminary, and after several years they become workers.
That is the worldly way of producing Christian workers. But according to the Word of God, God’s workers are produced within the church. The church is a training ground for workers.
You minister according to the gift God has given you in the church, and your gift is developed in the church. Then one day the Holy Spirit says, “Set apart.” That is the way you find in Scripture.
They were sent out by the Holy Spirit, not sent out by the church. The church has no control over these people. The Holy Spirit guides them, but the church stands with them.
When they came back, they did not return merely to make an official report. They came back because they had roots in the local assembly.
They were not loners. How many of God’s servants today are loners, with no connection to any local assembly? But in Scripture, even though workers were sent out by the Holy Spirit, they had roots in the church.
They had people praying for them and standing with them. Brothers and sisters, is that not beautiful? This is what you find in the church in Antioch.
May the Lord have mercy upon us. Shall we pray?
Dear Lord, we do want to thank Thee that Thou didst not only raise up the church in Jerusalem, but Thou didst also raise up the church in Antioch.
There are many lessons that Thou desirest us to learn. Give us a humble spirit, that we may learn not only from the church in Jerusalem, but also from the church in Antioch.
May Thy glorious church be so completed. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.