by Rev. A. M. Cattanach, M.A.
VII — A Year’s Ministry in Antioch
Our last study closed on a happy note, as Barnabas and Saul returned from Tarsus to take up the work at Antioch, which Barnabas had clearly esteemed Saul to be far more capable of performing for the Lord than he himself. So now we go on to consider the Divine Record of their sojourn in Antioch at that time, in the words of the inspired Evangelist: “And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people.” Acts xi, 26.
“A whole year.” Considering Saul’s previous experience in Damascus and Jerusalem, when preaching Christ, how sweet to think that now, at last, he had found, as it were, a haven, where, for the space of ‘one whole year’ he was to be left at peace, to fulfil his life work without let or hindrance, until, in the Divine Providence, he was constrained to move his sphere of activity. The door was opened for him by the Lord Himself, and Saul must surely have felt humble and thankful, to Him who is the Father of all mercies, for His gracious care and longsuffering, towards him, as he entered this great city, with its seething multitude, an ambassador for Christ, to bear His name among the Gentiles.
Although the Apostle does not dwell, in later years, upon this year in Antioch, perhaps the reason is not far to seek. To him, on looking back over all the trials and difficulties of the way, how pleasant this time in Antioch must have been: yet, just because it would appear, as far as we know, to have been free from any great trial or difficulty, there was not so much to report, not so much to glory in (of tribulations as he elsewhere describes them), and not so much to record of momentous happenings and momentous deliverances. For all that, the Lord was good and kind to him in Antioch, and surely Paul never forgot that. Not only in the storms, but even in the haven, how manifold are His mercies, how great His goodness, and how precious His gracious countenance!
Let us think of them, then, for a little, as they arrived back and were welcomed by this young Gentile church. How encouraging it must have been for the members of that church to see Barnabas back safe once more in their midst, and, above all, to see the young companion whom he had brought with him from Tarsus, to work together with them in the great field of ‘preaching the Gospel to every creature’! The Spirit records two points worthy of our attention:
1. ‘They assembled themselves with the church.’
2. ‘And taught much people.’
Firstly, they entered into the fellowship of the believers in Antioch: they were welcomed into their assembly as fellow citizens of Zion, as heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. They identified themselves with the believers and joined with them in public worship. This was a necessary basis to the justification of the year’s ministry in Antioch: they did not behave themselves unseemly, nor act as lords over God’s heritage.
Only after they had thus mingled with the believers in the communion of saints, do we go on to read concerning them, that they ‘taught much people.’ No doubt Saul was given the greater share of the work, as being the younger man and also the man whom Barnabas had specially marked out for the task. Yet here the Record speaks of them both, as teaching the church that was at Antioch. While it cannot be said that the word translated ‘taught’ conveys no thought of declaring the glad tidings in the sense of preaching the Gospel of free and sovereign grace (for that must of necessity be a component part of true teaching), yet the fact that it is used at all, in this passage, in connection with Saul’s Antioch ministry, seems to convey the impression that the evangelist, by the Spirit, intends us to concentrate on the teaching aspect of the Gospel ministry. The foundation had been laid in the message already declared in Antioch: Saul and Barnabas return to supplement this and build up upon it an assembly of believers, rooted and grounded in the faith of the Gospel. O how ably taught these blessed disciples must have been, when for their teachers in the faith, they had, for the space of one whole year, such as Saul and Barnabas! Who can fully estimate the value of that blessing! Surrounded as they were, on every hand, by a worldly atmosphere, in which their new-found faith might well have been for ever quenched, the Divine Spirit kept alive in them the flame of true repentance, love and new obedience, as their earthly teachers taught them concerning the deep things of God, and made known unto them the unsearchable riches of the fulness of their inheritance. He who had begun the good work was seeing to it that He would perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ.
How greatly blessed that congregation is, whose pastor seeks, like Saul and Barnabas, to declare the whole counsel of God, and so upbuild the church of the living God amongst them, as well as gather in the lost sheep upon the mountains of vanity. Together they may rejoice as those whose fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.
One final point is made in the verse — one precious fruit of this year’s ministry among the believers in Antioch: “And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.” The name, by which they were to be ever afterwards known, was first coined among the citizens of Antioch, the third city of the Roman Empire. It is a moot point whether it was given in serious or jocular mood; whether it was given to the disciples by the Jewish section or the Gentile section of the population. On the whole, the burden of probability lies in favour of the name having been given in ridicule, as a nickname, by the Gentiles. Whatever be the true facts of its origin, there can be no doubt but that the disciples accepted it joyfully, even if it was given in ridicule, and from that time forth the disciples of the blessed Saviour were designated Christians — followers of the Christ, God’s Holy Anointed One.
Is it too much to suggest that the very name by which they were to be henceforward known, throughout the Empire and thereafter the world over, was, in itself, a silent witness to the success of this one year’s ministry of Barnabas and Saul in Antioch, The Christ of God, the Promised One must surely have been the burden of that ministry throughout the year, and the fruit produced, by the gracious blessing of the Spirit upon the Word, was, that a church of Christ-like disciples arose in that once desolate and barren city. The saviour of the Anointed One was on them and, as in Jerusalem, so here in Antioch, men began to take notice of them, that they had been with Jesus and to recognise that this Jesus, whom they followed, was declared by Barnabas and Saul to be the Christ.
Would to God that the effect of preaching Christ faithfully and fearlessly, in the power of the Divine Spirit, might be the same today among men and women everywhere, privileged to hear the whole counsel of God — that others might take notice of them as disciples of the Christ, and that they themselves would thus show to others what it is to be worthy of that precious name, Christian. Alas, that it should be used so loosely now, to cover much that was never originally included in the name, and that so many, unworthy of it, should bear this precious name today!
Let us all, then, seek to be accounted worthy, by His grace, of such a name, and in His strength, to carry the sweet odour of that name, wherever we go, as the name of the Anointed of the Father, who came to seek and to save that which was lost. “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” Romans viii, 9.