Alan Lewis
Elon, North Carolina
September 2025
Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews.
20 Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. 21 The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.
22 News of this reached the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23 When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. 24 He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.
25 Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26 and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.
27 During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.)
29 The disciples, as each one was able, decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea. 30 This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul. (Acts 11:19-30 NIV)
What makes a good church? What are some signs of a strong church? Some people would not even know what to look for. An outsider may think that they are all the same, but that is not true.
If you have been in a lot of churches, you know that they are not all the same. Some are good. Some are bad. Some are healthy and some are not healthy. Some are dysfunctional. Some are imbalanced. They are great in some areas but terrible in other areas.
Today, we are going to look at an important church in the Bible. It is the Church of Antioch. It is one of the most famous churches in the NT and yet most Christians two thousand years later have never even heard of this church.
Two Important Churches
There were two really important churches in the early church. There was no conflict between them. They got along great.
One was the Church of Jerusalem. It was the first church on the planet. It was the mother church. It was an all Jewish church. It started on the day of Pentecost.
The second church was the Church of Antioch. It was the first Gentile church. In Acts 10, we see the first Gentile convert (Cornelius).
In Acts 11, we see the first Gentile church. It is the mother of all Gentile churches in the world today. All Gentile churches today go back to this church.
According to church tradition, Luke came from Antioch. Eusebius, the first church historian, said that Luke, who wrote the Book of Acts, came from Antioch[1]. Jerome called him “a physician of Antioch.”[2] He may have been a member of this church.
There is a sense in which Christianity began in this church. The term “Christian” was used for the first time in history in this church. It had never been used before.
Before there were Baptists, Methodist and Pentecostals, the earliest believers were called Christians. It is a term that emphasizes Christ. We are Christ believers. We are Christ followers. We are Christ worshippers.
The first time in history that name was used was in this Gentile church of Antioch. If you want to know what a Christian is, look at this church.
This was an amazing church. We are told that the hand of the Lord was with them. God was at work in this church. People heard about it three hundred miles away without social media.
The Church of Jerusalem heard what was going on in this church. We want God’ s hand on us. We want God’s hand on our church.
A Model Church
What does a good church look like? It was like the Church of Antioch. What was that church like? What was special about this church?
1) It was a church that believed in evangelism
A good church believes in evangelism and does evangelism. It shares the gospel. A good church is a soul winning church. It preaches the message that we are born sinners. We are under judgment, but God loves us and sent His Son to die for the sins of the world.
He died on a cross. He rose from the dead. He offers us a free plan of salvation. To get saved, all we have to do is to turn from our sins and accept His free gift of salvation by faith.
If you are in a church and never hear that message, you are in the wrong church. This church believed in evangelism. That was how the church began.
Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews.
20 Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. 21 The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. (Acts 11:19-21 NIV)
What does that passage say? Persecution took place. Persecution led to scattering. Some were scattered three hundred miles away from Jerusalem to Antioch. Scattering led to evangelism.
Persecution did not stop the gospel. It spread the gospel to Jews. They preached to people in other areas who had a Bible.
Then, something amazing happened. Some people from Cyprus and Cyrene in Antioch started proclaiming Jesus to full Gentiles. That led to the church of Antioch.
Seven things took place in these verses: persecution, scattering, Jewish evangelism, Gentile evangelism, a new church starts. The new church was the first Gentile church. It was a church born out of persecution.
It was much different from a Jewish church. It was multi-ethnic. The worship was different in Antioch. The leadership was different. It was multi-racial. The music was different.
Their diet was different. Their dress was different. The culture was different. It must have been a large church because it says that not just a few people believed but “a great number of people believed.”
What does this teach us? You don’t have to be an apostle to be used by God. You don’t have to be an apostle to do something great for God. Ordinary Christians can do it.
God does something brand new here. He starts the first Gentile church. That had never been done before. He used ordinary Christians to do it. He did not use the Twelve Apostles. They were in Jerusalem. He used ordinary lay Christians.
Who were these people who started the church? Who did the evangelism? We don’t know. They are unnamed. They weren’t famous. They were not apostles. They were not pastors. They were not church leaders.
They were ordinary Christians. Some of them were African. Some were from Cyrene. Cyrene is in North Africa. It is in modern-day Libya. Some Africans preached Christ in Antioch and helped start the first Gentile church. You might not have heard that in your gramma’s church.
This church was a missionary church. It was big on evangelism. It sent out missionaries. It was Paul’s home church. He was sent off on the mission field from this church.
2) It was a church that believed in discipleship
There are two extremes in the church today. Some churches are great at discipleship but don’t do much evangelism. They never talk about evangelism. They don’t have any evangelism programs at their church. We have started one at Lambs.
Other churches are great at evangelism but do not do much discipleship. I have been to some of those churches. I went to one church a long time ago that just preached the gospel.
Every Sunday, the sermon was on how to get saved. A different text was used but that was the topic. You never learned anything else. A good church, a balanced church does both. It does evangelism. It does discipleship. That is the mission of the church.
If you don’t do that, you just have a church for baby Christians. You never go deep in the Word. You never get the full counsel of God.
Why was discipleship needed here? Antioch was a city full of pagan temples. It was full of idolatry. It was an extremely immoral city. Ancient Antioch was like Corinth. It was known for its sexual immorality.
There was a temple there called the Temple of Daphne. There was ritual prostitution at the temple. Prostitution was actually part of pagan worship. These Gentiles were saved out of that wicked background.
They came out of raw paganism. They knew nothing. They didn’t know how many books of the Bible there were. They had never heard of Moses. They had never heard of the Ten Commandments. They needed to be discipled. God used two men to do the discipling: Barnabas and Saul.
It started with Barnabas. The Church of Jerusalem heard about what was happening in Antioch, so they sent Barnabas to check on them. He was sent on a mission by the church.
Barny was a good man. He was full of the Holy Spirit (Acts 11:24). He was also from Cyprus. He was the right man for the job. One of the ones who started the church was from Cyprus (Acts 11:20).
It is a three-hundred-mile trip from Jerusalem to Antioch. That would take a long time to get there without a car or an airplane. When he gets there, he witnessed what was going on and was glad. Luke says that he saw the grace of God. Then, he did two things.
First, he encouraged the believers.
Barnabas was a son of encouragement. He encouraged these baby Christians in Antioch. We need people who know how to encourage other believers.
He saw all of these baby Christians running around. They needed to be discipled. Baby Christians need help from mature believers on how to live the Christian life.
They need godly Christians to help teach them the Word, walk alongside them, encourage them and help them when they fall. He encouraged them. He exhorted them.
When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. (Acts 11:23 NIV).
He did not just celebrate their faith and give them a pat on the back. He exhorted them. He told them to continue in the faith. Why did he preach this message? Many make professions of faith for a while and then they give it up. They throw their faith away. They discard it.
Jesus said, “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed” (John 8:31 KJV)
Many people start to believe but do not continue. Paul taught that if you don’t continue, you can’t be saved. Paul says if you hold firmly to the Word, you are saved. Otherwise, you believed in vain.
Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. (I Corinthians 15:1-2 NIV)
Second, he got outside help.
Barnabas did not try to do everything himself. He knew when he needed help. There were all these new believers in Antioch who needed to be discipled, and he couldn’t do it all by himself, so he recruited someone to help him.
They needed a teacher. He didn’t go back to Jerusalem for help. That was too far away. That was three hundred miles away, so he thought of Saul. He was only one hundred miles away.
He had a first-rate Jewish education. He studied under the top teacher of the day. He also met the risen Christ at the road to Damascus. He went from persecutor to preacher.
He didn’t say, “This is my church. I don’t want anyone coming in and taking over. I want to be in charge.” He wasn’t territorial, jealous or suspicious. He was humble.
He did not say, “I am not getting Saul. He used to kill Christians.” Barnabas was a forgiving man.
Barnabas knew that Saul was the right man for the job. He had not seen him in about ten years, but he knew where to find him.
Tarsus was his hometown. It was a hundred miles away. He couldn’t call or text him, so he went there, knocked on his door, found him and offered him a job.
Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26 and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. (Acts 11:25-26 NIV)
Barnabas and Saul became leaders of the church. How would you like to have them on the pastoral staff of your church? William Barclay called Barnabas “the man with the biggest heart in the church”[3] Paul wrote most of the NT. They balanced each other out.
So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people (Acts 11:26 NIV)
3) It was a church that listened to God’s Spirit
Jesus said in the Book of Revelation, “Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” The Spirit is speaking today. He is speaking to churches. Are they listening?
The truth is that not all Christians are Spirit-filled Christians. Not all churches are Spirit-filled churches. Some churches are open to the voice of the Spirit, and some are not.
Some churches have the power of the Spirit in their church and some do not. Many reject many of the gifts of the Spirit. Other churches are open to the voice of the Spirit, and the Church of Antioch was one of them.
Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” (Acts 13:1-2 NIV)
Ephesians 4 mentions five ministry gifts: apostle, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. All five were in this church. This church heard the voice of the Spirit speaking to them.
They were open to the prophetic. There were prophets. They allowed prophets in the church. They allowed prophets from other churches to come in and share what God has revealed to them (Agabus).
27 During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. This happened during the reign of Claudius. (Acts 11:27-28 NIV)
Agabus traveled three hundred miles from Jerusalem to utter this prophecy. Agabus is mentioned twice in Acts, once in Acts 11 and once in Acts 21. He was a prophet. He was a traveling prophet.
He gave two prophecies. Both were prophecies of future events. First, he prophesied a future famine that would take place during the time of Claudius. Claudius reigned from 41-54 AD.
There were many famines during his reign. We don’t know which one he prophesied. Second, he also prophesied about Paul’s arrest. Both took place. This church was open to the prophetic, but they also had teachers.
4) It was a church that had compassion for those in need
Barnabas gave to the poor. In Acts 4, he sold some property and laid the money at the feet of the apostles to meet needs of poor Christians in Jerusalem. When leaders are compassionate, people in the church will want to be just like them.
Gentiles Christians give money to support poor Jewish Christians. That shows the complete unity of the church. There were Jewish churches and Gentile churches, and they were completely united. They supported each other.
“The church of Jerusalem had sent Barnabas to Antioch; now the church of Antioch sent Barnabas, with Saul, back to Jerusalem.”[4] They sent them back with an offering.
One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.)
29 The disciples, as each one was able, decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea. 30 This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul. (Acts 11:28-30 NIV)
People in this church lived in Antioch. Antioch was a huge city. It was a metropolis. It was the third largest city in the Roman Empire. It had a population of half a million.
It was also a wealthy city. Apparently, the people in the church had some money. They had compassion for people in need. Not every wealthy person is benevolent. This church cared about the poor, especially poor Christians.
How much did they give? They gave “as each one was able” (Acts 11:29 NIV). They did not all give the same amount. What is the lesson for us? We should have compassion for those in need.
A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. (Proverbs 11:25 NIV)
In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ (Acts 20:35 NIV)
And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. (Hebrews 13:16 NIV)
[1] Eusebius, Church History 3.4.7.
[2] https://ecclesiaepatres.blogspot.com/2013/10/st-jerome-on-st-luke.html
[3] William Barclay, The Acts of the Apostles, 2nd ed, p. 95.
[4] John Stott, The Spirit, the Church & the World, 206.
