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Acts 11:19-24  SPREADING THE GOSPEL TO GENTILES

Introduction:

	In the beginning of Christianity all Christians were of the Jewish people.  Philip was the first Christian to carry the gospel to a man of Gentile blood.  He carried the gospel to an Ethiopian eunuch.  However, even though the eunuch was of Gentile blood, he had joined the Jewish religion and had, therefore, come under the law of Moses.  The Apostle Peter was the first Christian to carry the gospel to people who were not only of Gentile blood, but had not joined the Jewish religion.  
	When the Jerusalem church first heard that Peter had gone into a Gentile home and had preached the gospel to Gentle people they were very much displeased.  However, when Peter explained that he had done so under direct orders from the Lord, the brethren of the Jerusalem church rejoiced that God had opened the door for Gentiles to be saved without coming under the law of Moses.  
	In our text today Luke tells about the spreading of the gospel into Gentile nations and to Gentile people.  

I.  The scattering of the Jewish Christians

	V. 19, “Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only.”  In the Great Commission the Lord instructed the church at Jerusalem to carry the gospel to all the world.  This meant that they were to carry the gospel to all lands, to all nations and to all people including Gentiles.  The Lord had repeated those instructions stating that they were to carry the gospel to every creature.  In Acts 1:8 He had said,  “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”  
	Yet in spite of these instructions from the Lord, the Jerusalem church had made no effort whatsoever to carry the gospel to other lands and most certainly not to any persons  but those of the Jewish people.  It was for this reason that the Lord had allowed Saul of Tarsus to bring such severe persecution upon the Jerusalem church and scatter them throughout all Judea, Samaria and Galilee so that they would spread the gospel to the people of those areas. 
	Under the persecution by Saul of Tarsus the about 10,000 Jewish Christians fled from Jerusalem .  They fled for their lives and for the lives of their families.  They scattered in all parts of Judea, Samaria and Galilee. 
 	Wherever they settled they started churches.  The churches which they started were at first made up only of the Christian Jewish families which had fled from Jerusalem.  
In earlier chapters we learned that there was at least one church outside of  Judea, Samaria and Galilee.  That church was in the city of Damascus, which was the capital city of the nation of Syria.  Saul of Tarsus was on the road to Damascus for the purpose of arresting Christians when he got saved.  Of course, when he got saved, he stopped persecuting Christians.  But by that time the Christians who had fled from Jerusalem had already settled and established churches in the places to which they had settled.      
	In verse 19 we are told that some of those who fled from Saul had traveled as far as Phenice before settling down.  Phenice is a city on the southern edge of the Island of Crete way out in the Mediterranean Sea.  This city was over a thousand miles away from the mainland from which they had traveled.  
	Also in verse 19 we are told that some of the Jewish Christians had settled on the Island of Cyprus.  Cyprus was also an island out in the Mediterranean, but not nearly so far out as Crete.  But this makes two islands out in the Mediterranean on which Christians had settle and where New Testament churches now existed.  Yet these churches had only Jewish Christians in their membership.  There were not Gentiles.  
	Verse 19 also informs us that some of the Jewish Christians settle in the city of Antioch which was on the mainland.  This was Antioch of Syria and was located about 150 miles north of Damascus where Saul of Tarsus was going when he got saved.  	
	Verse 19 also informs us that these new churches in Phenice, Antioch and on the Isle of Cyprus got busy preaching the gospel in those places.  But there was one huge problem.  They were preaching the gospel only to Jews who lived in those places.  They still were not carrying the gospel to Gentiles. 

II.  Antioch, the first church to preach to Gentiles

	V. 20, “And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus.”  Some of the Jewish Christians which moved to the city of Antioch had not fled from Jerusalem.  They came from the Isle of Cyprus and from the city of Cyrene in north Africa.  There those men had not been surrounded almost exclusively by Jewish people, as were the people of Jerusalem.  Rather they dwelt among Gentile.  They had dwelt almost exclusively among people who were of Greek nationality.  
	Luke does not say, but it appears that these men  were new converts.  In all probability they had been converted after the Christian Jews who fled from Saul had reached their area.  The reason I say this is that these from Cyprus and Cyrene immediately started preaching the gospel to the Grecian residents of Antioch.  If they had grown up in Jerusalem they would not have preached to Greeks.  They would have preached to Jews only.  But even though there were Jews they had lived among Greeks back in their home cities and they felt very comfortable dealing with Greeks.  So right away they began witnessing to the Grecian people and telling them about Jesus Christ, the Savior.  	 
   	V. 21, “And the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord.”  They preached the gospel to the Greeks and the Greeks gave them a good response.  The hand of the Lord was with them.  The Holy Spirit evidently convicted a lot of the Grecian people of their need of salvation.  The result was that a  goodly number of Grecian people at Antioch got saved and apparently joined the church there at Antioch.
	Apparently the Jewish Christians in the Antioch church were glad to see them get saved and to join the church.  Antioch was a great distance from Jerusalem and the members of the church at Antioch were not as prejudiced against Gentiles as were the members of the church at Jerusalem.  The Jerusalem church did not have a lot of Gentiles living around them but the members of the Antioch church lived right in the big middle of a lot of Grecian people.  So it did not bother them to have Gentiles in their membership as it would have the Jerusalem church.  
	This was a new turn in evangelism.  It was a new turn in seeking to carry out the Great Commission.  The Jerusalem church had sought only to carry the gospel to Jews.  Even the new churches which resulted from the scattering which took place under persecution by Saul of Tarsus were carrying the gospel only to Jews.  The Apostle Peter, as an individual, had carried the gospel to the household of Cornelius, but the church at Antioch was the first church made up of Jewish church members which carried the gospel to Gentiles.  This set a precedent and this precedent was within the will of God.  The church at Antioch set a precedent which all of the Lord’s churches would eventually follow.    

III.  The Jerusalem church sending help to the Antioch church

	V. 22, “Then tidings of these things came unto the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem: and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch.”  Perhaps you will remember that at the first the Jerusalem church had been very unhappy that the Apostle Peter had preached the gospel to the household of Cornelius at Caesarea.  But when the Apostle Peter explained that he was only following instructions from God when he preached to Cornelius, the Jerusalem church accepted this as the will of God and praised God for His amazing grace that He would save Gentiles.  
	One could suspect that upon hearing about Gentiles being in the church at Antioch, they might fall back into their old attitude and be very critical of the church at Antioch.  But not so.  Instead, the Jerusalem church sent help to the church at Antioch.  Just as they had sent the Apostle Peter and a few others to Samaria to help and strengthen the church which Philip had started in Samaria, even so now they sent Barnabas to Antioch to help  strengthen the church at Antioch.  
	The main objective of sending Barnabas to Antioch was to teach that church  the doctrines which the Lord Jesus had taught them while He was here on earth.  Barnabas would also seek to train the church at Antioch to carry out the Great Commission.  So this new effort of Jewish Christians seeking to reach the Gentiles with the gospel message had the approval and blessings of the church at Jerusalem.  They had not sent Barnabas to Antioch to stop their effort of preaching to Gentiles, but rather to assist them and strengthen them in doing the work of the Lord.    
	As it turned out, Barnabas was a very good man to send.  He helped the church at Antioch and strengthened them a great deal.  V. 23-24, “Who, when he came, 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 Ghost and of faith: and much people was added unto the Lord.”   

IV.  The importance of this Scripture to us today

	Many times when we read and study a passage of Scripture about something that took place nearly 2000 years ago it may at first seem not to have any bearing upon us and upon our church and upon our lives.  But this passage of Scripture which we have studied today is very valuable to us and to our church and to our personal lives.  
	For one thing it places great emphasis upon God’s desire to have the gospel message preached to all nations and to all nationalities.  It places special emphasis upon the Biblical teaching that the gospel message was never intended to be just for the Jews.  God had a special desire for the gospel message to be preached to Gentiles.  If God saved only Jews, the only true Christians in the world today would be those who either had Jewish blood or else those Gentiles who had first joined the Jewish faith before they became Christians.  This would mean that the  Christian churches in the world today are not really true churches because they would all be made up of members who were not true Christians.  
	It would also mean that if God had not intended for the Gentiles to have the gospel message, we who are here in this building this morning would all be in big trouble.  We are all Gentiles and if the gospel message were not for Gentiles that would mean that we would all be doomed.  We would all suffer eternally in the Lake of Fire and Brimstone.  It would mean that we would all have no chance whatsoever of going to heaven.  I am so very glad that God put this Scripture and other Scriptures which teach the same thing in the Bible to reassure us that God loves us and wants us all to be saved and to go to heaven.
	Furthermore, it would mean that all our kinfolk would likewise be doomed.  It would mean that the children and grandchildren of the people of our congregation would all be doomed to eternal torment and that not one of them could go to heaven.  
	It would mean that all -- or at least virtually all -- of the Christian churches in the world today are null and void and not true churches at all.  It would virtually wipe out true Christianity in the world today and brand it as false Christianity.  
	This Scripture also points out the great responsibility that we have today to carry the gospel message to those about us who are lost in sin.  What would have happened if no church had ever started preaching the gospel to Gentile people?  Even though Jesus died for all people and even though God desires for all people to be saved, if the gospel message had never been brought to us Gentile people, we would still be lost in our sin.  We would still be doomed to eternal torment.  We would still miss heaven.  We should rejoice that those early Christian churches woke up to their responsibility and started preaching the gospel to Gentiles.  Otherwise we and our children and our kin would have all remained unsaved and eternally lost in our sins.  
	This Scripture likewise points out our own great responsibility to carry the gospel message to those who are unsaved.  Let us be faithful to the task of preaching the gospel to those who attend our services.  May this church never fail to preach the gospel message to the unsaved.  
	Let us teach the gospel message to those who sit in the classrooms of our church.  May this church never fail to present the gospel message to all who sit in our classrooms.  
	Yet let us not limit the gospel message to only those who attend our church services or sit in our classes.  Let each one of us who are saved carry the gospel message to lost souls with whom we come in contact.  Let us reflect upon the question:  Where would we be if someone had not brought the gospel message to us?  Where would we spend our eternity?  Then let go on to consider the questions:  Where will other people be if we do not carry the gospel message to them?  Where will they spend their eternity?
	What I want all of us to really become aware of is that this is not just the responsibility of Bro. Davis.  It is not just the responsibility of the deacons.  It is not just the responsibility of the Sunday school teachers and other teachers of the church.  It is the responsibility of every Christian.  If you are saved, it is your responsibility.  What would you have done if someone had not brought the message to you?  Surely there is someone to whom you can carry the gospel message.  I strongly suspect that even right now you can think of someone to whom you can carry the gospel message.  
	Let me call upon you to do two things.  First of all, I call upon you to pray for that unsaved person.  I also call uoon you go to him and talk to him about Jesus.  If you need some help, you call me and I will be glad to help you.  
	But let us not neglect such an important responsibility as this.  There is no greater need in the world today than carrying the gospel message to the unsaved.