The First Gentile Church

Published by Stanley Pouw in 2016 · 28 August 2016

We are now beginning to study Acts 11. God’s plan of evangelization began at Jerusalem and then it just spread. Now, the last part of evangelism was taking the gospel to the Gentiles. As we study Acts 11, the gospel has already been taken to Jews in Jerusalem and to Samaritans, and in Acts 10 it was taken to the first group of Gentiles in the house of Cornelius and Peter was the messenger. And Cornelius was wonderfully saved as was his household.

Now Peter must report to the Jews in Jerusalem, in Acts 11, what has happened. And he knows that this is not easy. It was difficult to allow Gentiles into the church and God had to give him a special vision to prepare his heart. The Jews in Jerusalem have had no such vision. They still had the typical prejudice to a separatist view of the Jews being superior.

He in Acts 11:1-17 recounts what had happened and I do not need to comment on that because they are a verbatim recitation of what we studied in Acts 10. Acts 11:1 says, “Now the apostles and brethren who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God.” It is interesting that apparently they had already heard what had happened and before Peter could defend himself they had already formed some preconceived notions.

Verse 2, “And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision," that's the name of a party of Jews who believed the only way to become a Christian was to become a Jew first. And in Acts 15:5 in the Church Council in Jerusalem they said that nobody could become a Christian until he had been circumcised. Verse 2 continues, "So the circumcision contended with him." They didn't believe Peter so they argued.

The legalists hassled him continually in these words, verse 3, “You went into uncircum-cised men and ate with them." Now that was totally taboo. You didn't have fellowship with uncircumcised people and eat with them, and least of all would you include them on an equal basis in the church. And Peter did both, so this group was just infuriated.

But Peter just recites the facts beginning with verse 5 till verse 15 where he described the vision from God where that sheet came down three times which said that there is no difference between Jews and non-Jews. And that six Jews accompanied him to the house of Cornelius. And that Cornelius also saw a vision where an angel told him to send men to Joppa to pick up Peter who would them tell how to be saved.

Cornelius had a ready heart, and so was his household. And Peter was the instrument to bring the good news they waited to hear. Verse 15-17, “And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us at the beginning. 16 Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, ‘John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit. 17 If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?” God promised it and God did it! What else can I say?

This is just a repetition of Acts 10. There is no place in Scripture where you have the same thing repeated twice in a row, one time after the other. After all that description of Cornelius' vision when Peter got to his house, Cornelius described the whole thing again, and the Holy Spirit put all that in there again. So this is repeated three times in these two chapters. When God repeats it three times, it is very important that we remember this.

Peter knew it was a spiritual test but he confronted it in this way. Peter didn't act alone, he took six people with him. Because he wanted the testimony of six others to confirm his own. The Jews knew well the Egyptian law which said that where there are seven witnesses the case is closed. And Roman law said that on any will there had to be seven seals. So Peter with six other guys go with him and that made seven and he was verifying that this thing in fact was true.

Verse 18, “When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.” This is one of the most shocking statements in Jewish history. Shocking for a Jew to make that admission. Gentiles can get saved. Why? Because until the Jews who were Christians made that statement they could never begin evangelizing the Gentiles.

So the whole thing with Cornelius and Peter finally comes back to Jerusalem and they make that great admission that was really the trigger that started the church to reach out to pagans, and you and I are the products. Peter through the Spirit convinced them of that because Peter had been convinced of that first by God.

Some historians tell us, that it took at least seven years from Pentecost to the founding of the church at Antioch. Then from here, the groundwork is done and they move out to evangelize the Gentiles. Why did it take so long? Number one, apostolic authority had to be established. The apostles were the ones who were the spokesmen for God and they were the ones who laid out the doctrine. They had no Bibles yet.

The second reason was because the right instruments had to be prepared. It took time to mature these people. Do you realize that when the church was formed everybody was a spiritual baby? It's tough enough to grow a group of spiritual babes, but can you imagine having a whole congregation all saved on the same day? So they needed some time for preparation.

And the third thing is that they all needed time for their prejudice to change. And so for these reasons the Spirit of God delayed and at least seven years went by before they began to move toward Antioch. God in His wonderful providence really has blessed His Word there. And as you teach the Word of God you become stronger, and your doctrine becomes firm and clear.

The same thing happened right here in this situation in this text. As a church, when the groundwork is laid, it begins to move out. And you know it's not something you have to generate. Amazingly the Spirit of God does it. Verse 19, “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.”

Now Phoenicia is on the coast of Palestine right along the Mediterranean Sea. There are two famous cities there: Tyre and Sidon. And from either of those port cities you could catch a ship and go west to the island of Cyprus. And that is what they did. But some of them just kept going north till you come to Antioch, the capital of Syria. And notice this: that they were preaching to Jews only. Why? Because they still believed that salvation was only for the Jews.

These were all scattered, and then the Cornelius incident happened, which means they hadn't heard of it. So they had no precedent for Gentile evangelism. Verse 20, “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.” They obviously have the gift of preaching and people got saved. And they did it in Antioch. So God works in many ways!

Antioch is 15 miles from the mouth of the Euphrates River, founded in about 300 B.C.

And it was made a free city under the Roman government in 64 A. D. It became the capital of Syria and it grew like crazy. It became the third largest city in the world at that time with at least 600,000 people. A network of Roman roads criss-crossed Antioch but even with all these good things, it was basically known as an evil city.

But God so many times creates the loveliest rose amidst the ugliest weeds, and so He planted the first Gentile church in Antioch. He wanted to reach a city with a lot of people and indeed He did. Notice that the founders of the church were two men of Cyprus and Cyrene. Nobody knows their names. Verse 21, “And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord.”

This was the birth of the first Gentile church. Well, the Jews in Jerusalem had to deal with the case of Cornelius, and they now have another one. Verse 22, “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.” Barnabas is a beloved character in the early church.

In Acts 9, when Saul got saved and came to Jerusalem he said, "Hey, I'm your friend now, I'm saved.” And they said, "Sure, get him out, he is a killer of Christians." But then Barnabas put his arm around Paul and he leads him in and says to the others, "I want you to meet him. He is a good guy, he has been changed by God.” Barnabas was a loving, righteous person. His name means Son of Encouragement.

But there was something else, Barnabas had the right spiritual gifts. He had the gift of exhortation and the gift of teaching. What else? They need to be led in evangelism. And he had the gift of preaching. He had the right gifts, spiritually but also physically. Do you know where he was from? Cyprus. He was from the same place where the guys who founded the church in Antioch were from. They know his gifts and they already love him. This is God providentially arranging everything.

Verse 23, “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.” Barnabas had the gift of exhortation! And the term “with purpose of heart,” means with a firm resolution. Your approach should be to exhort them to cling to the Lord. What concerns us the most is that they hold on to Christ, right? That their faith is real.

What does it mean with “continuing?” Barnabas meant: “take the Word, which you've heard, the Word, which is available, as taught by the Holy Spirit, and saturate yourself with all of it." And that brings results. Look at verse 24, “For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord.” The term ‘many people’, is ‘aglas ekinas’, which means a giant multitude. People there were really being saved.

Well the work got to be too much, it was overwhelming. Barnabas had to find the right guy to add. Verse 25 says, “Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Saul.” Yes, he chose the right man, a winner: Saul of Tarsus. Again God’s providence! Now in the meantime years had passed. Paul went all over Cilicia starting churches. And according to 2 Corinthians 11, he was being beaten up mercilessly and he suffered much.

Verse 26, “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.” Now watch what they did. Here we have a massive multitude of believers and they have to keep them clinging to the Lord. And they have to reach this big city that is pagan, vile and immoral.

It says that they focused on teaching for a whole year. At every level, in every way, teach the Word of God. Acts 13:1 says, “Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.”

They made teachers: Barnabas and Simeon, Lucius, Manaen, and so on. They taught men who became teachers of other men. That's what the church is about. The calling of every church, is to teach and make disciples, not to entertain the saints, not to placate the saints, and not to create recreation for the saints but to teach the saints.

So the church grew. First groundwork, then growth. There's one other thing needed, that is generosity. The church not only needs to be sound in doctrine, but they need to have love. The Spirit of love just is shown in verses 27 to 30. It says you have to know that the church wasn't just doctrinal, they were loving. There's always the need for that balance.

Verse 27, “And in these days prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch.” There were prophets in the New Testament. They were foundational like apostles Ephesians 2:20 tells us. And they spoke for God, and they preached as described in I Corinthians 14. But they also sometimes predicted the future for God. They have ceased as an office.

Verse 28, “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.” History says Claudius ruled from 41 to 54 and during the year 45 and 46 there were great famines in Israel. No crops came through, they all failed. These famines are recorded by Chassidus, Josephus, Yesevias and Cassius.

Verse 29, “Then the disciples, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea.” Here are Gentiles showing their love to those people who so long hated them. Every man gave according to the potential that he had. Do not be like many believers who just give their left-overs to God.

And verse 30 says, “This they also did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.” They not only sent money, they sent men, their best men. I hope we are generous enough to send money and men around the world. Isn’t that the righty thing we can offer to God? And may our church follow the pattern of the Antioch church and have the same kind of effect on the world, Amen? Let us pray.