by Fr Gabriel-Allan Boyd
Through the New Testament, we read a lot about the missionary team of Paul and Barnabas. But their beginning developed more organically. This Sunday’s Epistle Reading describes them as Barnabas and Saul.
In last week’s article we discovered the transformation story of how the Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus (the tormentor of Christians), became Paul (the follower of Jesus Christ). But, that was only the beginning of how he became Paul the Apostle. What happened directly after Saul saw the light? Was he instantaneously accepted by the Church? How did this man who had terrorized Christians become regarded by them as a faithful and trustworthy leader of the Church? We get further into that story with this Sunday’s Epistle Reading (Acts 11:19-30).
After news of Saul’s persecution and Stephen’s martyrdom had spread, the Apostles of the Church had scattered from Jerusalem. Some of them went north to Antioch (the third largest city in the Roman Empire), and had been preaching the Gospel there, concentrating their efforts only on the Jews. A few other Christians with them, however, had extended that mission to include evangelizing the pagan Greeks. The Lord had blessed their efforts, with many new Christians being added to their ranks. News of these marvelous events in Antioch found its way to the leaders of the Church in Jerusalem. But they were concerned about whether evangelizing Gentiles was a prudent thing to do, and so they sent Barnabas there to check things out.
Barnabas (whose name means, “Son of Encouragement”), was among the most trusted and respected Christian disciples in Jerusalem. When he got to Antioch, he was so impressed by the amount of God’s grace he saw in those pagan Greek converts to Christianity that he rejoiced and continually encouraged them to endure in their faithfulness—that whatever the cost, they should remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. Barnabas did all that he could to inspire the people with strength and confidence.
The way Barnabas is described (in verse 11:24) is, perhaps, the most virtuous way that any human being could be portrayed. Here’s how Saint Luke depicts Barnabas: “For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.” Those three characteristics named here about Barnabas are what we should each endeavor to have the priest say about us in our own funeral’s Eulogy someday.
1.) He was a good man—meaning, he was generous and tenderhearted, a man of proven character and high ethical standards. 2.) He was full of the Holy Spirit—he wasn’t driven by personal ambition & selfish desires, but rather, he was impelled by a powerful and irresistible energy to fill his life with God’s work. 3.) He was overflowing with faith—he had a settled confidence in the reliability of God’s will. He believed in God’s ability to transform, in faith, people who have a living encounter with the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ.
While the Church in Antioch continued to grow with a never-seen-before number of new Christians, it presented some distinctive challenges to the Church. The Church’s teaching ministry in Antioch had become far more than Barnabas could keep up with. By this time, the unbelievable rumor of the Pharisee terrorist’s conversion to Christ had reached Barnabas and been confirmed as truth, so he left Antioch to make the trip, 125 miles northwest, on a quest to find Saul of Tarsus (verse 11:25). After a search was made, Saul was found, and Barnabas brought him to Antioch (verse 11:26).
For a whole year, Barnabas and Saul partnered up to teach the people at Antioch. As a result, Luke points out that, “in Antioch, the disciples were, for the first time, called Christians” (verse 11:26b). But let’s not just let our eyes quickly glaze over that statement. Let’s take a moment to come to terms with just how significant this statement is to us. Why does Luke think it’s important to include that little detail here?
Previously, these followers of Jesus had been referred to in other ways, like “brethren” (Acts 1:16), “disciples” (Acts 6:1), “the Way” (Acts 9:2), “saints” (Acts 9:13), and “believers” (Acts 10:45). But now, Jesus’ followers are being referred to in a different way—as “Christians”—little Christs. Notice, originally, that word, “Christian” was actually an adjective, not a noun. We’ve learned from extra-biblical, pagan sources that it was actually the pagans at Antioch who first called Jesus’ followers, “Christians,” and they used it in a pejorative way, because Jesus’ followers were motivated by things that were foreign to the pagans in their city. Many of the Jews also picked up on this word, and used it to disparage Jesus’ followers. Since the word, “Christian,” occurs only twice more in the entire New Testament (Acts 26:28 & 1 Peter 4:16), we get the sense that the word “Christian” was used primarily by outsiders, as an insult, but not so much by the believers themselves. However, those faithful believers in Christ happily accepted this insult, “Christians,”—or “Little Christs,” because that was exactly what they were trying to be.
The term, “Christian,” was a description, intended to be an insult—describing the way Jesus’ followers were frequently talking about One whom they called “the Christ,” and the way they were constantly trying to be like Him, just as He had commanded them to do (Luke 6:40). Notice, this must have been Paul’s message to the Church, since these early days, as we see him write to the Church in 1 Corinthians 11:1, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” So, when Luke says that Jesus’ disciples were first called “Christians in Antioch, this is an important detail because he’s trying to give us a picture of the way these followers of Christ stood out to their pagan neighbors, and the kind of disruption they’d caused in the city, just like the Apostles disrupted things. As followers of Jesus, they were doing exactly what the Lord had commanded—and what Barnabas & Saul had led them to do by their own example. They became like Jesus. They loved their pagan neighbors in ways that seemed quite foreign to them. After all, why in the world would anyone love their enemies? But also, like Jesus, they entered into conversations with the people around them to introduce timeless truths to them, in stark contrast to their previously held pagan beliefs. Like Jesus, Christians in Antioch served to discombobulate the upside-down ways of their entire city. In fact, that became their whole way of life.
In the period that follows the events of chapter 11, the Church in Antioch was led by the Spirit to commission Barnabas and Saul to carry the message of the Gospel into the farther reaches of the Empire. They were “men who…risked their lives for the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ” (Acts 15:26). As their missionary journey continued, Luke began to designate another name to Saul. Suddenly in Acts 13:9, Saul is “also called, Paul.” From that point on, it feels like the Holy Spirit has given Paul an elevated role—a greater significance as a leader and Apostle in the Church…and Paul begins to be listed first. From the relationship of Paul and Barnabas we can draw an important lesson. Here were two godly men, highly respected by the Church everywhere they went, filled with the Spirit, enduring persecution together, offering the example of what it looks like when people are drawn into unity with Christ, and encouraging those people to follow their example. Thus, by God’s grace, they enjoyed an effective and blessed ministry.