Acts 11:19-30 | God Leads From New PlacesSample

We pick up on the storyline with the persecution that broke out against Jesus’ disciples in Jerusalem over a disciple named Stephen (Acts 8:1-3). The event had to be horrible, filled with fear and suffering. But God worked through the event to bring about good. Yes, God will bring good out of even the greatest of evils.

Jesus’ disciples scattered. Fleeing Jerusalem, they made their way into the surrounding region, as far as Antioch. This is where we pick up the storyline with Acts 11 today.

A bit on Antioch. There were several Antiochs in the ancient world. Not to be confused with Pisidian Antioch in Acts 13, this is the biggest of them, located in southeast Türkiye today. It’s only a hop, skip, and a jump from Tarsus—that’s Paul’s hometown. Just like there were multiple cities named Caesarea (after Caesar), and Alexandria (after Alexander the Great), there were several Antiochs too. The Antiochs were named after the house of Antiochus. The dynasty had 13 kings who bore the name, the worst being an egocentric dictator, Antiochus IV, who ruled in the second century BC and sought to bring the Jews by force into Greek ways. He forced the priests to set up an idol to Zeus in the temple and sacrifice pigs to it, forbade circumcision, burned scripture, and killed those who didn’t fall into line. You can read about what happened in the books of 1 and 2 Maccabees, which you’ll find in the Apocrypha. (He’s alluded to in Daniel, too.) He called himself Antiochus Epiphanes – that is, Antiochus, the Manifestation of God. His subjects called him by a different name: Antiochus Epimanes – that is, Antiochus the Madman.

So here we are, in Antioch, with some of Jesus’ disciples who fled from Jerusalem. And here, in Antioch, they start to share the good news. Being Jews, most spread the word only among the Jews, probably in the Jewish neighborhoods, shops, and synagogues where they found a new home. But Antioch was Gentile country. And some (no longer just apostles or deacons) share the good news of Jesus with their Gentile neighbors. And a great number of them turn to the Lord. The Jerusalem apostles get word of this and send Barnabas, who grabs Saul out of Tarsus, to build into it. Together they go to Antioch, and it becomes a new powerhouse center for Christianity. The disciples are even first called Christians here.

It's here, in this city far from Jerusalem that’s named after a madman who, like Saul, once tried to stamp out God’s people, that something extraordinary happened. The royal proclamation of salvation in King Jesus (or what Acts calls the gospel) goes out. Jews and Gentiles come in. Something new was happening, and we’ll see God come to lead from new places.

Read the story for yourself. Think about what’s starting to shift and what new thing is happening.